the cat ate it.

Hey Crafty Person! Wanna contribute to my Halloween craft book?

I'm on the final push toward completion and this means the final push toward gathering a great collection of guest artists, authors, photographers, and costume & makeup models. Time is tight, but it's not too late to lend a hand and get a contributor credit and a little free publicity in the process. Read on!

( ABOUT THE BOOK )

( WHAT'S INSIDE )

( GUEST AUTHOR PROMO OPPORTUNITY )

( GUEST ARTISTS )

( GUEST PHOTOS )

( GUEST VICTIMS... ER... MODELS )

( GUEST MUSICIANS )

( GUEST CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS )

( A CRAFTY WISH LIST )

( WHAT'S THE TIME FRAME? )

( CONTACT ME! )

Last August, when I did Blogathon '07, I picked the Electronic Frontier Foundation as my blogging charity. After I signed up I discovered one other blogathon participant geeky enough to pick the EFF as well: fuzzface00.

fuzzface00 has now thrown his hat into the ring for the LJ advisory board and I think he'd make a great candidate. So, if you've got a moment, go HERE, read his platform post, and if you like what's he's got to offer leave a short "I support this nomination" comment. Once he reaches 100 comments, he's on the ballot. He just posted this morning and is already over 2/3 there, so go help him through the home stretch!

I have created a Big Halloween Craft Book Announcement Blurb.

This is the last one, the final push, the do-or-die blurb before I hit the deadline. This time, I've set it post-dated at the top of my journal for all to read. Please take a look if you have a chance, and feel free to point others to it as well.

I will be posting the link to a few email groups I'm in, so apologies in advance if you see it more than once!

Some production notes:

1. I owe some people emails. I'll get to them soon, I promise. Today is another cleaning day, as it's Dave's Saturday so we can both plow through much work.

2. The cleaning is almost all done but there's no way the house will be even remotely tidy/presentable clean before the book's done. Because of that (and because of the state of the basement where I have to do at least some of the photos and makeup work), I don't feel comfortable putting up a general call on Craig's List for models/volunteers. I wish I could, but bringing strangers into this house is just too risky. (I had to mention that because I've been asked about Craig's List several times.)

3. I'm cool with going to other people's houses for photo shoots and having friends and acquaintances over is just fine.

4. AUTHORS: please note the Author Promo Opportunity section in the post! I would LOVE to include snippets from current releases as well as classics, especially if the snippet can tie into a chapter theme or a particular craft project in some way. Snippets from books that aren't yet released are welcome, so long as you've got permission from your publisher. :-)

5. This is IT. The final push. Wish me luck, take a look at the post, and please pass it along to anyone you think might be interested!

Ahhh, man all you people who have been to see Iron Man already, you're killing me.

See, I have been waiting for this movie for, gawd, since Chaplin or Restoration or no, definitely way before Wonder Boys, and all I can say is...

I HAVE DREAMED FOREVER OF THE DAY THAT ROBERT DOWNEY JR. WOULD BE MY SEXY SUPERHERO

Because, yes, he is my #1 sekrit movie star crush from waaay back (even Dave knows this), and dammit, I can't go see the film till tomorrow or maybe even TUESDAY and the wait is killing me.

::CRIES::

::WANTS::

::glares at the waaay too much work I have to do between now and then to reward myself with this godlike film::

::CRIES MOAR::

All right. Back to work.

Pity me.

We typically buy our rice in either 25 or 50 pound bags at Fubonn because it's much cheaper than buying small packages at Freddies, and because we like having rice on hand any time we need it.

Today's quarterly or thereabouts trip to Fubonn to get rice: prices per bag were at least a third higher than last time, and there's now a sign that says "Limit Five Bags per Customer."

Now, I know people are laughing at stories of frenzied Costco customers hoarding rice, but it's hard not to look at these price jumps and consider doing the same. If we'd been flush enough to buy more than one bag today it might have been tempting; it's not out of the realm of possibility that we won't be able to afford any bags six months from now.

On the way home, we stopped at Freddie's for "cheap gas." What "cheap gas" means to us is this: we've spent enough on groceries over the last month that our Fuel Rewards Point total is over 100. Translation: we get 10c off per gallon.

This puts the per gallon price for us at around $3.52. Which is, I realized after using the phrase "cheap gas" several times, about how much gas cost on San Juan Island during the height of tourist season two years ago.

So, how much is gas in Friday Harbor now? I remember a month or so ago I said to Dave that I bet it would get above four bucks by mid-tourist season 2008. Well, I was wrong.

Via Gas Buddy, a gallon of regular in Friday Harbor is now $4.13.

I cannot begin to describe how glad I am we got out of there when we did.

Happy 90th birthday, Dad, where ever you are.

I miss you.

Alas I don't have one of my own appropriate International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day icons in play for this post since I'm in free mode right now and those icons are on my "cannot use till you pay up!" list. But even so...

I have placed two very short snippets of longer works on my website for them what wants to read 'em.

First up is the opening to Planta Genesta: A Script in Three Acts, a novelette I wrote many many moons ago when I was a wee college student. It's about movies, time travel, demons, and the wars of the roses. Not necessarily in that order of importance.

For the second half of today's menu, I present a teensy taste of A Wake of Dreams, the fantasy novel/series/world/whathaveyou that won't leave me alone yet won't quite coalesce into a workable whole. (Yet.) This snippet introduces the reader to Kier Hwinn, a monk from a dying and misunderstood religion. His story begins with an acute crisis of faith and ends... well, let's just say his faith is restored, but not at all in a way he expected. Er, not that I've written that part yet, mind you...

Endnote: Last year's pixel stains (which include among other crunchy links my interview with Tim Powers from 3SF) can be found here.

For those of you on my FL celebrating tomorrow's first anniversary of International Pixel-stained Technopeasant Day, here's a graphic and two LJ icons from last year's event, which (in the spirit of the day) y'all are welcome to use freely:







I was hoping to post something cool and showy tomorrow but I may have run out of steam cleaning my basement. Hmmm. Perhaps if I eat more chocolate...

Yes, I know you're out of color ink, but if all I want is to print a text document in black ink, could you please explain to me why, when I go into your advanced settings and disable the color, you STILL WON'T PRINT? Oh wait. Let me guess. It's about making money on cartridge sales, isn't it? I thought so.

No love,

me

I am having a sucktastically bad day, work-wise (and hey, it's supposed to be my Sunday), but I ran across something that brought a bit truckload of cheer into the gloom:

BEST. GAME. EVER. Improv Everywhere turns a Little League game into a major sporting event. The whole event is made of 20 bazillion kinds of AWESOME and oh, those lucky kids!

Edit: I just read through the IMRPOV EVERYWHERE post a second time and watched the attached videos and dammit if those guys didn't make me cry. Seriously, go check it out, even if you don't like baseball (but especially if you do).

( ...and of course I have one... )

Australians get to do EVERYTHING first!!

gDay(tm) MATE(tm) from Google Australia.

No time for a KJ LJ icon just yet, but...

I'll be running the show tonight at the Penguin Pub and Eatery, 8117 SE 17th here in the beautiful WTF-is-that-rain-or-snow Rose City.

The official time frame is 9pm - 1am, but in truth, it's a little closer to 9:45pm - 1:30am or sometimes later if enough people just won't shut up. :-)

A word of warning: this is NOT a non-smoking bar, so friends who want to stop by but hate being in smoky rooms might want to wait till summer weather when we leave the doors open all evening.

So, hmmm... for my first official 'intro' song as a KJ, what should I sing?

I make SIX CDs of KJ interim music, I pick out a crapload of brilliant songs, and I forget to include THIS ONE!!

Ah well... maybe next week. ;-)

Friday:
1. Finish two more chapter drafts.
2. Burn 3 CDs of interim music for my KJ gig.
3. Make a Lowe's house & book shopping list.
4. Stop by the bar for a refresher on how to work the secondary CDs, how to change the TVs off of ESPN, and how to change the pitch of a song, if requested.
5. Try not to stay too late at the bar.
6. Head home and crash or work, depending on the hour.

Saturday:
7. Trip to Lowe's for household and book research purposes.
8. Work on two more chapter drafts.
9. Create a photo list for all current chapters and start taking the missing photos (if photo subjects are available).
10. Prep for KJ gig. (Search for clean, presentable clothes!)
11. Dinner out with friends.
12. KJ gig!
13. Go home extremely late and crash.

Sunday:
14. Sleep in.
15. Roll out of bed late, take hard-earned tip money across the street to the cafe to order espresso and scones, visit with the chef/owner, and see if she still wants a website (cross fingers).
16. Prep chapters and photos for uploading.
17. (Attempt to stay awake.)
18. Put in two hours of client web design work, minimum.
19. Continue chapter work until a large amount of it is ready to upload, then upload it.
20. OR ELSE.
21. Crash, again.

...what's it like?

Srsly. I just had to move my working files from Dave's computer via floppy disc to my old laptop so I could sit on the couch and work on my chapters, and despite the fact that I was only moving tiny WORD files, I RAN OUT OF ROOM ON THE FLOPPY DISC.

It is to cry.

So, I moved the most important files and saved the rest for later.

And now I must figure out how to get comfortable on the couch despite the fact that it has no cushions.

::glares at cat who is, despite all this, still cute::

I HAVE MY FIRST OFFICIAL KARAOKE GIG ON SATURDAY!

::does the bad Axl Rose impersonation happy dance::

::makes mental note to create a KJ LJ icon for future posts on this subject::

We loaded up all the scrap metal in the house and yard, including the very dead, rusted out barbecue and the stove that's sat on our porch for half a year with no takers from Freecycle, and today we hauled it out to Clackamas and to this crazyass scrap yard where they ask for ID and act all neurotic behind the counter and talk a mile a minute telling you where to drive your van and when you do, there's no one around to tell you where the hell you're supposed to dump your crap, but if you figure it out and then drive back onto the truck-sized scale after you're done and then go into the office filled with skittish people with bad 80s hair, they GIVE YOU THIRTY BUCKS FOR YOUR METAL SHIT.

I kid you not. THIRTY BUCKS.

I mean, if we were to go about this any other way, we'd have to PAY to have that old stove hauled off.

Now I truly understand why all the local office buildings are missing their air conditioner window units.

1. The neighborhood library doesn't have plugs for laptops, damn them!

2. We are killing our Direct TV as soon as we are able. Dave asks: where do we watch this next season of BSG on line? Someone out there must know... Oh. Also: next season of Dr. Who.

3. Dear everyone who gets to go to NorWesCon. I hate you all. Don't worry, I'll love you all again on Monday when I'm over my seething greenish-brown glob of jealousy. (Yes, my jealousy looks like the remnants of RadCon punch at 4am, why do you ask?)

4. Still hoping for answers to those casting call questions. (No, I'm not trying to get other people to help me write this fracking book, why do you ask?)

5. Saturday, I am having something done about this stupid chronic ear pain thing. It involves my naturopath sticking her fingers down my throat. With a little luck it will NOT involve me throwing up.

David Brin's been posting weekly diaries on a wide range of subjects over on Daily Kos. Last night, he put up this lovely tribute to Arthur C. Clarke.