THE PRETTY DEMANDS THERE BE FIC!
New Albion takes the post-movie status quo and gives it an interesting, unexpected twist to the mythos. Very intriguing.
A Pie Full of Pandemic takes the story and ratchets up the surrealism inherent in a movie where medieval knights are a train trip away from punkalypse cannibals, turning the canon into the slow, British end-of-the-world you might find in Children Of Man or Shaun Of The Dead. As you might've gathered, it's a bit hard to describe, but the whip-smart writing more than justifies delving into it.
- Mood:
amused
Trying to leverage the backs of the rivets off? Yeah, that didn't work. Lip Service uses freakishly strong rivets or something. No, the fabric tore a bit, so I just opted for simplicity and cut around the rivets with an x-acto blade. I have some ideas for disguising the resulting holes, and will post photos when I'm done.
So instead, have a photo from when I took a break earlier:
Posted via LiveJournal.app.
sales of electronic books topped their paper-based cousins for the first time this past Christmas day, according to Amazon.comFull story.
My bed seemed vast and the room unbearably cold. I felt bereft. Burying my face into the pillow, trying to imagine it's the curve between your shoulder and neck, and failing, I have to admit to myself the truth.
The truth is that night by the river when we toasted each other with champagne I know in my heart that you're not meant for me.
Why: In this entry, I failed to include a single song from the current millennium. (The latest was from 1993. Santa needs to bring me a short-term memory.) I'll rectify that by talking up a stellar carol by Seattle's beloved sons, Harvey Danger. "Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes)" is a Seattle-soaked tune, name-checking local institutions Bartell Drugs and Half-Price Books. It's narrated by a glum ticket-taker at a Guild 45th-style independent movie house. Everyone he sees has nothing better to do than attend a second-run movie on Christmas. There's no happy ending here; working on Christmas really does suck. But the song itself is magical, because when you hear it, you are almost certainly not working on Christmas. And that's why it's the happiest song of the season.
Impact: In the wreckage of grunge, Seattle music needed a savior. Harvey Danger got anointed by college radio in the late '90s, charting toe-tapping delights like "Flagpole Sitta", "Private Helicopter", and "Sad Sweetheart of the Rodeo". It being college radio, their national success barely survived an undergraduate tour, and the band flickered out in 2001. But in 2004, Harvey Danger released this Christmas song on an EP of the same name, catching a large new crowd of fans for the release of their best album, Little by Little..., which they gave away for free. Despite this album's success, it didn't lead to longevity for the band's second coming, and they folded the tent for good earlier this year.
Personal Connection: If it's possible to watch a rock band grow up, then that is what I've done with Harvey Danger. When I met guitarist Jeff Lin, he was a magazine editor who left Wizards of the Coast to become a spiky-haired rock star. During the hiatus, Jeff decided to become a spiky-haired muck-a-muck at my company's most frequent client, Microsoft. I'm sure being a rock star has its perks, but sometimes, you have to work.
Other Contenders: "Chiron Beta Prime", Jonathan Coulton's cheery holiday missive from a robot-run prison planet; Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg's Christmas present for the ages, the Saturday Night Live song "Dick in a Box"; TIm Minchin's Santa-mental masterpiece, "White Wine in the Sun"; Bill Nighy's everything-that's-wrong-with-Christmas Christmas song from the movie Love, Actually, "Christmas Is All Around".
GOP opponent claims front-runner Mark Kirk is gay in attack adFull story.
[...]
"You've got Mark Kirk, who's been so strong on his homosexuals so long that the solid rumor is that he himself is a homosexual," Roeser said on the program, adding, "Who, in Christ's name, needs to get themselves identified as a freak in the sexual department?" They named other Illinois Republicans they suspect are gay.
Oh, GOP crazy people. If you ever lose your crazy you'll be so less entertaining.
So! Short story: Went to my mom's for Christmas.
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Interviews
- The Agony Column interviews Jeffrey Ford (podcast).
- The World SF News Blog interviews Richard Calder.
- Rachel Caine on The sky is always falling. Or not.
- Matt Staggs on A Grim Future for America’s Bookstore Chains?
- Matt Forbeck on Finding an Agent.
- SciFi Scanner on The Best SciFi Scanner Interviews of 2009.
- Jeff VanderMeer on Paying It Forward, Paying it Back, Using Your Leverage.
- Brenda Clough on Ways to Trash Your Writing Career: An Intermittent Series.
- Editorial Ass on Author Question: What Does It Mean That I'm in My Second Printing?
- Justine Larbalestier on I’m Not Your Target Audience (Yes, You Are).
- Janice Hardy on Keep Your Day Job, Right?
- Damien G. Walter on Science Fiction is not about science.
The Many Deaths of the Black Company by Glen CookI have a Lip Service jacket that I love the lines of, except that the single oversized hook & eye fastener is about half an inch too high on the front of the jacket. That half an inch is a small, but crucial, difference in terms of how flattering the jacket could look.
Unfortunately, that oversized hook & eye is pretty much riveted on. On the inside of the jacket, each part of the fastener is secured by two flat metal disks that go through the fabric and into other flat metal disks on the front. Is there any way I can remove these without ripping holes in the jacket? Or should I accept that this particular fastener cannot be moved, and I just need to sew two sets of my own oversized hook & eye fasteners in a row below the original one?
- Location:The Library, working from home
- Music:The Golden Afternoon from Alice In Wonderland, stuck in my head
So this is Xmas. Currently we are at ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
murasaki_1966's parents place up at Lake Macquarie, where we have brought the rain with us from Canberra.
Apart from the nephews (more later) this holiday season has been immersed in rain punctuated by staccato bursts of coughing, limiting both our mobility and our sociability. Our recovery seems timed to coincide with our return to work, hopefully we'll have enough energy for NYE.
It's been an appalling year for many of us, so many losses, so I'm trying to face the new year with renewed, but not entirely justified, hope.
And speaking of hope - the nephews! Named independently, yet confusingly, Lucas and Luke.
Lucas is my brother's son, five years old and resident in Yorkshire, necessitating a flying trip from my brother to bring him over for Xmas and back to the UK in time for the start of the school year.
He is, of course, absolutely gorgeous. And he took to me immediately, subjecting me to the various indignities of being spat on by a penguin or mauled by a magpie, instruments of torment we had unwittingly provided him with under the guise of Xmas presents.
We will see him again in the new year, just before he returns. And then it will be another two years or so. This may necessitate some letter writing in the interim.
Nephew deux, aka Luke, is still at the larvael stage, at 18 weeks of age. So his impromptu carrolling was, let us say, disappointing. As was his tolerance to brandy. At least he bonded well with our present to him, a dragon named Bartholomew. Unfortunately we had to make do with a stuffed toy version, but I'm hoping that advances in bioengineering will allow us to present him with a working version nce he is of age.
Apart from the nephews, our time has been spent reading. We have been working our way through the Bryant and May mysteries, I've just finished The Seventy Seven Clocks and, for a change of pace, am now wading through the post-modern quagmire of House of Leaves.
And now, murasaki_1966 is cross stitching and the world is filled with the sound of cicadas.
But I wanted this to be something a little more, basically, I'll take pictures of what I've accomplished and post them here! Wish me luck!
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- ( Read more... )Wish me luck!!
....What the fuck, LJ, what the fuck.
- Location:Élise's appartment, hu hu hu
- Mood:
determined - Music:Reba's on tv
I saw Sherlock Holmes last night, and was thoroughly delighted with it. In fact, I would like to see a movie just like that, but with more paranormal/supernatural plot points. And vampires. Because really, a not-very-historically-accurate Victorian-esque action film with pretty costumes, quippy dialog, and vampires? That would pretty much be my perfect movie.
So my random but important question: where on earth can I find shoelaces made from black lace or ribbon? I need actual shoelaces with the rigid plastic tips, because the brand new lace-up Victorian-esque boots I found at the thrift store yesterday (they're not by Fluevog, but they look like the baby sister of the Babycake/Lambchop/Lover family) are not capable of being laced up with a regular length of ribbon or lace. (No speedhooks, and the holes for laces are far too narrow to smush the end of ribbon through.) No, I need actual shoelaces, but I want fancy ones. Yes, I already looked at Hot Topic, and while the idea of I ♥ Vampires laces is entertaining ... um, no.
- Location:The Library, working from home
Thanks!
- Mood:
curious
"Sure, they're +8 to hit ... but they're minus 2d12 to damage!"
This is another rejected idea from my work on the D&D Player's Strategy Guide ... and another one I might find an alternative use for. The BIGGEST problem with this doodle is that the statement and the look on the dragonborn's face don't synch up. Phrased this way, the dragonborn should look disappointed and doubtful that this item has any value. To match the grin on his face, it should say "Sure they're -2d12 to damage ... but they're +8 to HIT!" ... and, indeed, -2d12 is probably overdoing it.
Anyway, I LIKED the full sketch version I submitted. But it didn't make the cut for the final project. You could see that as bad news ... but I prefer to think not that there was anything wrong with this gag, but that it made way for something even BETTER.
Guess you'll have to wait until May to find out what.
In the meanwhile, this comic will go back into the vaults until I find a good home for it.
The story of our basement continues to qualify as ‘nightmare’. First, we had the seemingly instantaneous melt-off late last December, which resulted in another wet floor. So we moved stuff around, yelled at the waterproofing company, had them do some more work, and crossed our fingers. Being a bit wiser, this time, we did not put the carpet back down or the shelves back up – we were waiting for the floor to prove itself.
It turns out that was very good thinking. In June, we were hit with another massive downpour (6 inches in 5 hours). Only a little seepage through the floor (honestly, we were kinda happy about that, considering what was coming down outside). But then the sewer backed up through the floor drain. When that happened, we grabbed everything we could and made a mad dash for the upstairs.
We have almost completely recovered now. New carpet still needs to go down, but the drywall is fixed and the stairs have been replaced. We lost a few things (the carpet, most of my boy scout memorabilia, and a cube from the bookshelf, chiefly), but the insurance covered most of the cleanup and repairs. We even made some opportunistic improvements to the stairs when they were rebuilt – taking out part of the separating wall and opening them up to the basement. Need to paint the new drywall and finally get started on building the bar and closet at one end, but it should look pretty good once we get it all redone.
Of course, we’re in the waiting phase again, hoping for a sign that the water troubles are over.
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Page Summary
- seriousfic : My Yuletide [+0]
- phoenixsinger : [+0]
- cupcake_goth : (yes, more posts) Well, that didn't work [+2]
- mysticalforest : It happened—and sooner than expected [+0]
- leejean : [+0]
- selinker : the most beautiful Christmas song of the decade: Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas (Sometimes) [+1]
- mysticalforest : Because if you're a Republican you're an asshole? [+1]
- mysticalforest : Oh, hai! [+1]
- charlesatan : December 29, 2009 Links and Plugs [+0]
- sarahswan325 : Crazy... WHO ME?!?! [+0]
- cupcake_goth : [sewing] Since the LJ hivemind was so helpful with my last question ... [+11]
- charlesatan : [+0]
- jack_ryder : Xmas musings [+1]
- leonardpart6 : Upular. [+1]
- kurotoshi : PROJECT GIBSON [+4]
- cupcake_goth : Working from home, and a seemingly random, but important, question [+25]
- piobaireachd : [+0]
- mythic_shendra : Blogs [+0]
- doodlestan : Accuracy Isn't Everything [+0]
- wampameat : 2009 In Review - Part Two: The Basement [+0]