Round 21 is done and dusted and we still don't have a champion... though there are only two possible winners now, Oliver Turvey and Jaime Alguersuari, who after 21 races are only separated by three points.

http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/weekly/~3/418420805/historical_archives_a

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It Is Your Taske To Place The Symbols In The Correct Order.And Your Response?______________(Answers...

A meme I had lying around for some time... courtesy of telperion1.

* Comment on this post.
* I will give you a letter.
* Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.

Finrod: possibly my favourite Elf; certainly high on the list. Haven’t written him (yet) though, possibly because the ultimate characterisation (imho) has already been done by bellatrys.
Faramir: I’m in a small minority here, I know, but he’s a character who does very little for me; he’s never really caught my interest, and the movies only reinforced that. I occasionally end up ‘having to’ write him (so far only in the draft chapters of the Dark AU though) and it’s always a struggle to write him at all.
Fangorn: What’s not to like about the Ents? Okay, they’re slow to talk, and slow to make up their minds, but they don’t half kick butt once they get going (*g*)...
Fíriel:
1) one of my favourite Tolkien poems (and there’s a nuzgul hiding in there somewhere, but I haven’t been able to tease it out into the open yet).
2) Arvedui’s wife. I’ll probably end up writing her at some point (though, looking at how full the bunny hutch is, not any time soon), since there’s an Aranarth plotbunny that’s been nagging at me for a while.

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Woman, look again as twelve years of age! At last, FACIAL CORSETS for LADIES make slender and comely the Woman's Face, pushing up and accentuating...

Still out in the Phoenix AZ area for another day. Been having a good time. Haven't taken much time to post, though I will. I have however spent quite a bit of time captioning my pictures from our trip to the Verde Canyon Railroad. It was about 2 hours north of Phoenix in Clarksdale AZ.

It is an awesome ride. My dad and his wife were more than generous and sprang for first class tickets to the trip. It's about a 4 hour round trip over about 20 miles of track. the ride was just awesome, the scenery was amazing and very much worth it. The pictures will never do it justice.

I'll be posting more about the trip in general and probably about the train ride, but for now here is the flickr set

I just watched the surviving episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan and the lone one from The Celestial Toymaker.  Which means I've finally seen serials with Steven, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, and the Meddling Monk.  Now I kinda want to see the Monk again.  Was he really the Whoniverse's first Time Lord other than the Doctor?

We watched Office Space for Geek Night last night.  It was great.  While my own place of work in nowhere near that bad, I can see shadows of Initech in many places and many people I've encountered in my life.

Spent most of the day washing things.  Took my quilt and a new thermal blanket to the laundromat along with my usual laundry.  Which was expensive to wash, but needed to be done.  And I washed my silk robe. 

Y'know, that silk robe was probably the smartest $50 I ever spent.  I bought it about five years ago, when I was still a broke college student, but I needed a new robe and I'd seen that one at a store in the mall that was all oriental stuff, and it was soft and huge and silk, and reversable to boot, so I saved my money for it.  'Cause I swear, most women's robes stop way too high up, or are made of stuff that's too heavy or too light, or are frumpy housecoats, or are all of them together.  This thing covers all of me, almost down to my ankles, and it's a heavy twilled silk which is comfortable in all seasons, and which packs very small, and is washable, and has dragons embroidered on it.  And unknown Korean characters, which for all I know say, "Stupid Americans will buy anything," but I don't care.  For the sheer usefulness of it, for the fact that I wear it every single day, and that it remains gorgeous, it was totally worth the money.

And, um, I have a bit of a question about ( a slightly embarressing hair problem. )

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/10/music-music-music.html

I forgot to tell you:

According to Claudia Gonson, of the Magnetic Fields, if you go to Magnetic Fields gig on this current tour, and tell them I sent you, they will give you a Magnetic Fields badge (or similar tchachtka) for nothing, thus saving you a dollar.

So go to see the Magnetic Fields. http://www.houseoftomorrow.com for details... Then go and see them. My favourite live band in the universe.

Also, I watched Ella Edmondson perform this evening, and she's astonishing. She's going to be a star. That's not even a confident prediction, it's just what's going to happen. Go and check her out at http://www.myspace.com/ellaedmondson and http://www.ellaedmondson.net/.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/10/apology-italy.html

I'm meant to be in Italy at the Autonnonero Festival this weekend (http://www.autunnonero.com/), and, with horrible regret, I've cancelled that part of the journey. I'm just too tired, post-China and (especially) after the Graveyard Book Tour. It took more out of me than I was expecting. Next time I do a mega-reading a night in eight cities I will schedule a day off in there somewhere, for a start.

I'm really sorry -- to the fans in Italy, and to the festival. It's horribly unprofessional. If I could do it I would. I'll try to put a visit to Italy at the top of my list of things to do, or, if they'll have me, come back to the festival next year. But not this weekend. I'll be back in the USA, walking my dog or, probably, fast asleep.

http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/weekly/~3/418134800/infomercial_makes_leap_to

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Onion Radio News - with Doyle Redland

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Come evening, leave the Boots to the field work. TRI-CORNERED SHOES are the Fancy Shoes from the shores of far-away France. Viewable from three...

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/10/from-darkest-cornwall.html

Got to Cornwall about 4:30 am (I slept for an hour or so in the car, then read a script). Dropped off by car and driver at hotel. Glad to see someone up and about to check me in. Take my bags to front desk, tip driver handsomely. Driver drives away. Night-porter slowly establishes that I'm not actually staying in that hotel, but another several miles away, and that driver was a bit overenthusiastic in dropping me off at hotel. Also that you can't get a taxi in rural Cornwall at five in the morning so I am stuck there. I sit in the lobby and write Batman. Somehow, in my jet-lagged state, this all seems quite normal.

My cellphones do not work in this town, and they are out of charge to boot.

After three quarters of an hour the night porter turns up and takes me to a hotel room, magicked into existence just for me, and everything is suddenly wonderful. I sleep for six hours, have a long bath and then go down to see my friends who are having a joint 50th birthday.

I eat the best Cornish pasty I've ever had for breakfast, and wash it down with cider (the alcoholic sort that doesn't taste even faintly alcoholic, so be wary) and listen to the seagulls and am happy. Also run into several old friends, which is good.

Am now in the hotel office, as my room doesn't quite reach the internet.

...

I mentioned the Andre Norton case on this blog some time ago. The case is now resolved -- see Scrivener's Error. Can I point all of you who read this who are writers -- or who know writers -- or who may one day be a writer -- at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2006/10/important-and-pass-it-on.html.

I heard from Marcus at Blackwells that they're down to the last 60 seats for the Hallowe'en reading event...

Friday 31st October, 6.30pm
The Old Theatre, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE

Blackwell Charing Cross Road are very pleased to announce an exclusive London event with Neil Gaiman, to celebrate the launch of his fantastic new novel, The Graveyard Book.

Join us on the 31st October, Halloween, for a talk and signing at the Old Theatre, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, WC2A 2AE, starting at 6.30pm. As it's Halloween, dressing up is welcome (but not compulsory). There will be a prize for the best costume, as decided by us, and the winner will also get a chance to pose next to Neil for a photo. Make sure to wear something that lets you fit into a theatre seat, and is comfortable enough to deal with a long signing queue

Tickets are priced at £8 and £6 (concessions), and will entitle you to £2 off either edition of the book on the night. Tickets can be obtained by visiting Blackwell, 100 Charing Cross Road, London WC2H 0JG, or by phone on 020 7292 5100 for posting to your address. We expect the phone lines to be very busy for the first couple of days, so do please bear with us!

Here's an interview from the LA Weekly, backstage in Santa Monica, and here is Pink is the New Blog at the same event (with added Blueberry Girl).

...

Lots of people have written in to ask about the Bela Fleck recording of the Danse Macabre that he did for The Graveyard Book.

(It was the musical piece that preceded Bill Hader's lovely "Vincent Price", for those of you who were at any of the readings.) It's on the audio book of The Graveyard Book --the one you'd buy at iTunes or on CD.

Some people asked about the cellist playing with him; others wanted to know if it would be available as a separate download. According to Mr Fleck:

The cellist is Ben Sollee, a great young player from Louisville.

There are no plans to do anything else with it at my end, because it's Bela's music and he recorded it, and if anyone's going to put it up for download or something I think it ought to be him, not me. Bela Fleck's website is http://www.belafleck.com/. (I love this blog. I sigh that it would be lovely to have a Danse Macabre on banjo, and the best banjo player in the known universe reads it, writes in to ask if I'd be interested, and then records it and it's even better than it was my head when I suggested it. I mean, honestly, how cool is that?)

Here's the magical audio widget, for any of you who would like to hear some of it...



...

Dear Mr.Gaiman:

I'd like to inform you that apparently you have killed (not only perhaps Amanda Palmer but also) the third installment of Phonogram:
http://gillen.cream.org/wordpress_html/?p=1652

But no bad news should be given without a good one. The Coraline movie official site is up!:
http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/coraline/

Best,
- Sam


Life has no obligation to be likely, does it? Or even convincing.

I like the Coraline website though. And am wondering what's going to happen over at http://www.theothercoraline.com/

...

And finally, a reminder from Anne K.G. Murphy:

In most states, the deadline to register to vote by mail has just
passed (see http://www.eac.gov/voter/docs/state-reg-deadlines.xls/attachment_download/file)
but it's yet to come in Alabama, California, Connecticut, Delaware,
Idaho* (mail-in today!), Iowa*, Kansas, Maine*, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Minnesota*, Nebraska, Nevada (mail-in has passed but
you can still walk in and register), New Hampshire*, New Jersey, New
York (today!), North Carolina (mail-in today or at one-stop stations
until Nov 1), Oklahoma (mail-in today!), Oregon, South Dakota, Utah
(walk-in), Vermont, Washington (walk-in), West Virginia, Wisconsin*,
and Guam.

*in starred states you can also register on election day, if you miss
the mail-in deadline, which is also true for Montana and Wyoming,
whose mail-in deadline has passed. North Dakota does not have voter
registration, according to that reference, so I guess North Dakotans
just walk in and vote.

Please consider helping the votor registration effort with such a post
on your blog.

thanks!

--Anne

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"Would you be caught with a Button that does not attract the Eye?"The Seamstrys that has need of a greater means of...

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Departing To The Ends Of The Earth.</i>Small expedition ship The Petula Rosa has departed from the Shores of Rhode Island this...

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Thus Far For Archaic Fraternity No Meetings In Smoke Filled Chambers To Plot Conspiracies Moſt Un-Thinkable Against Their Own...

Right - off to Donington in about an hour... Let's see if any bugger actually wants to win this championship!

http://feeds.theonion.com/~r/theonion/weekly/~3/417450219/historical_archives_to_be_1

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By the most skilled Crafts-men have been created Carved Wooden HEADS of remark able quality and bilaterally symmetrical appearance and known to...