Avatar. ( Hmm. SPOILERS. )

Okay, let the flaming commence! (Pun intended.)

I finished knitting my very first scarf!!! Used a modification of this pattern: old shale stitch, simple enough that a beginner!Yoon could figure it out. Two photos behind the cut: one of the scarf on a chair, one of the lizard [1] modeling it for me (I guess). About six balls of Sugar 'n' Cream, colorway Country Stripes.

[1] For those new to the party, "lizard" is my four-year-old daughter's nickname. And no, I have no idea where the wavy hair comes from.

( My first scarf! Eeee! )

Anyway, I am sending this scarf to Korea as a birthday gift for my mom. I half-expect to get it back marked up with all my errors. (I dropped stitches in a couple places and increased to compensate, etc. I'm ad hoc like that.)

EEEEE!

Many thanks to oyceter for starting me on this crazy hobby and to everyone who's been giving me advice on knitting. EEEEE!

Do folks think there's going to be a CD of Dr. Horrible at any point? Does anyone know? I see that one can buy the episodes on iTunes, but I don't actually want the show so much as I want its music. It's got to be good for inducing some kind of writing, even if I don't know what. *g*

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Current reading: Sherwood Smith (sartorias) and David Trowbridge's Phoenix in Flight (I'm reading this slowly, savoring it, not least because I don't own #3 and #4 in the series, so I'm not in any hurry) and Brauer & Van Tuyll's Castles, Battles, and Bombs. I finished reading ch. 2 of the latter last night and it was thought-provokingly excellent. Ch. 3 is the one on the condottieri, and I almost finished that at the park with the lizard earlier today. Probably finish it tomorrow.

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I have the weirdest craving to take out my viola and resume practice. Which is folly, because it needs repairs and I have no idea where one goes around here to do that. That, and after something like 7 years out of practice, my form's going to have degraded horribly, and I can't afford lessons right now. I wish I'd stayed in practice...oh well. In the meantime, there's the keyboard and the recorder.

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( Webreadings: sf/f, Avatar, miscellany. )

What can I say; I'm a hopeless fangirl. Note to self, however: pencil does not photograph well.


( Image behind cut. The photo makes it look blurrier than it actually is. )

Avatar 3.17 "The Ember Island Players." BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ( Read more... )

P.S.
Me: "--my favorite show--"
Joe: "What? Angel?"
Me: "No, silly, Avatar! It's a better show than Angel--"
Joe: "Oh, I'm not denying that." (For those new to the party, my husband can't stand Angel. I made him watch all of it anyway, because I'm a bad, bad Yoon, and for a couple years Angel was my favorite TV show.)
Me: "It's been my favorite since, like, early on!"
Joe: "Somehow I missed that."
Me: "Well, now you know."

Also? TV SHOW IN WHICH EUROFANTASY IS NOT THE DEFAULT. THANK YOU. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. (Even if I still wish they'd gone with the Chinese elemental system.)

I liked this, but didn't love it, despite a fantastic opening. ( Spoilers. )

"Luminous" by Greg Egan (first story in the collection Dark Integers) may be the most freaking cool story I've read since Julian Todd's awesometastic "Mine the Primes" [full text of story]. It is a mathy story; I won't pretend that I have the background to appreciate it fully. (I don't think I even heard the term "category theory" until I was out of college, unless I saw it mentioned in Hersh & Davis's The Mathematical Experience--which I first read in high school--and simply forgot about it.)

"Luminous" questions the unchanging universality of math in a way that had me hooked--and more than willing to suspend disbelief. One of the characters starts thus:

"A mathematical theorem," she'd proclaimed, "only becomes true when a physical system tests it out: when the system's behavior depends in some way on the theorem being true or false." (17)

The characters follow this line of thought to its logical conclusion, and discover the possibility that parts of the universe exist in which mathematical truths are different. They then become engaged in a desperate quest to keep the other mathematics out of the hands of those who would abuse it. After all, if 1 = 2 (so to speak), all sorts of chicanery can follow.

I won't pretend that this story is about the characters; it's not, although the characters presented do have distinct personalities. This story is about the Cool Mathy Ideas, and it blew the top of my head off. (Figuratively!)

I'm going to get flamed for this, but was anyone else troubled by how, ( Read more... )

Current reading (among others--I have magpie!brain, as usual): Jurgen Brauer & Hubert Van Tuyll's Castles, Battles, and Bombs: How Economics Explains Military History. I'll be completely honest. I bought this book on the strength of the fact that it had a chapter on the condottieri! I haven't gotten to it yet, but I am eagerly awaiting it. one of my regrets is not taking Econ 101 while I was in college (okay, along with FIFTY GAZILLION other regrets, like also not taking music theory, or that course on electronic music, or more history courses...or...or...).

Meanwhile, I should watch what there is of Dr. Horrible sometime today. My sister: "If you liked the Buffy musical episode..." HAHAHAHAHAHA ZOMG YES I DID. But first, I have another ~100 words to write on igloo!fic today (~150 so far; the goal is ~250/day). Brio is being a complete pain. I think Tamalat needs to whap him over the head...and I'm still nowhere near the igloo.

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( Webreadings: writing, books, Avatar, miscellany. )

Accomplished this morning: ~300 words on igloo!fic for helen_keeble.

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Living with Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Individuals and Families by (take a deep breath) Michael W. Otto, Noreen A. Reilly-Harrington, Robert O. Knauz, Aude Henin, Jane N. Kogan, and Gary S. Sachs is a slim, down-to-earth workbook. It aims to provide a framework for psychosocial interventions to manage bipolar disorder. It's not so much a layperson's reference on bipolar disorder (for that I would tend to recommend Francis Mark Mondimore's Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families, which is less workbook-y but a longer book, and talks more in depth about things like medications). ( Chapter rundown. )

I found the (brief) chapter "Focusing on Life Goals" to be particularly illuminating, because I do sometimes beat myself up for not accomplishing as much with my life as I feel I ought to have been able to. I have to be realistic about what I can do, and accept that "realistic" for me may not measure up to what's "realistic" for other people.

For those who are new to this LJ: Hi! I'm bipolar II rapid-cycling, and yes, in ongoing treatment. If you have any (polite, reasonable) questions, feel free to ask; I just might answer.

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( Webreadings: sf/f, books, miscellany. )

Story sale: "The Bones of Giants," to F&SF. ALL THOSE DAYS OF HAUNTING THE SNAILBOX PAID OFF! Seriously, the local mailpeople must think I'm stalking them.

rachelmanija, this one's for you. You know exactly why. *g*

Meanwhile, I wonder if Joe will let me buy a reallyreallyreally cheap scanner with part of the proceeds? A reallyreallyreally cheap one? If anyone has recommendations for a scanner that works with Mac OS 10.4.11, I'm all ears.

Okay, now that I've eaten lunch (something I forgot to do entirely yesterday), I think I have an ending for "Architectural Constants." Whoo!

*falls over dead*

ETA: Thanks, all, for the kind words!

By request, here's the full paragraph in which Sanders explained why he accepted "The Shadow Postulates" at Helix in the first place:

Certainly I would not want to continue to publish a story against the author's wishes, especially a story like this one that never did make any sense and that I only accepted because I thought it might please those who admire your work, and also because (notorious bigot that I am) I was trying to get more work by non-Caucasian writers.

I don't believe I left anything substantive out.

nojojojo on boycotting F&SF if it continues to give Dave Truesdale a platform.

coffeeandink's addendum:

In response to a query, Gordon Van Gelder informed me that David Truesdale has one more column to write before the end of his contract. It doesn't sound like the contract is going to be renewed. This makes boycotting F&SF for Truesdale's presence irrelevant, although the general issues for sf/f described by nojojojo, among others, are still pressing.

ETA: Oh, Helix again: nojojojo on chromatic female writers who make no sense, and all their associates, and the implications of Sanders' words.

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One story out. Whee! And "Blue Ink" has been accepted by Clarkesworld Magazine. Meanwhile, I really need to kick "Architectural Constants" into shape...

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( Webreadings: writing, books, art, sci/tech, miscellany. )

From this newsgroup posting: basically, anyone who wishes to withdraw his, her, or its work from Helix has a limited time in which to do so. See text behind cut for details, or go to the link.
( Text behind cut for length. Permission has been granted for this to be reposted. )

By way of jenwrites, Scott Andrews (a fellow Viable Paradise alum) is launching a new market:

I've started a new online fantasy magazine called _Beneath Ceaseless
Skies_, specializing in literary adventure fantasy--character-driven
stories in secondary worlds. Our website is now online at
http://beneath-ceaseless-skies.com . Feel free to drop by and read
about the magazine, check out our submissions guidelines, browse our
online forums, or log onto the forums and post any comments or
suggestions you might have.

Please feel free to forward this URL around to anyone who know who might
be interested, or to post it on blogs or anywhere else. We're paying
SFWA pro rate, and we open for public submissions Aug. 1.

(Why don't I have a fantasy icon? I have a spaceship for an sf icon. Silly Yoon! Is anyone willing to make me a fantasy icon with a katana in it or something? Yeah, I know my ancestors will roll over in their graves. Unless some of my ancestors were Japanese, which I reckon is possible.)

ETA: For the curious, I've put up the story in question at my website: "The Shadow Postulates."

Helix has responded that they will, in fact, take down "Shadow Postulates" as I requested. This is the full text of my email requesting same:

Dear Editors:

I wish to petition to have my story "Shadow Postulates" (http://www.helixsf.com/archives/Jul07/fiction/Q1_lee_shadowpostulates.htm) removed from the archives of _Helix_. I fully understand that you may deny this request; indeed, the contract I signed clearly states that Helix has the non-exclusive right to "maintain the Work in its archives, for free reading by the public." However, thanks to a writer posting a rejection slip on LiveJournal that expressed negative views of Muslims using a pejorative, I feel uncomfortable continuing association with _Helix_.

Thank you for your consideration. Please let me know at your convenience.

Sincerely,
Yoon Ha Lee [requiescat@cityofveils.com]

Okay, it's not the most gracefully worded thing out there, but I don't aim to be a master prose stylist in business correspondence. :-D I mentioned the now-notorious rejection slip because I wanted the reason for my request to be clear. Who knows? Maybe it would have resulted in Change for the Better.

Sanders flounced off in a huff, stating that the story "never did make any sense" and that he only accepted it to "please those who admire your work"--what altruism!--"and also because (notorious bigot that I am) I was trying to get more work by non-Caucasian writers." If I were a writer currently submitting to Helix, I would kind of worry about that bit--all things considered, if a story really does suck, I'd rather have it rejected so I can fix it.

He then played psychic and claimed that I only asked for the story to be withdrawn "because, let's get real here, you feel the need to distance yourself from someone who is in disfavor with the kind of babbling PC waterheads whose good opinion is so important to you, and whom you seem to be trying to impress with this little grandstand play."

He closed with: "There was a suggestion I was going to make, but it is probably not physically practicable."

I'm actually totally okay with being told the story makes no sense; I'm fond of "Shadow Postulates" for my own reasons, but it is indeed a flawed story, albeit a flawed story that several readers have enjoyed, so it's not all to the bad.

In any case, there it stands. As for my literary career, small thing that it is, maybe it'll survive, maybe it won't. We'll see.

Meanwhile, if you are a fellow chromatic writer who writes stories that make no sense (and trust me, I have done this LOTS, and I have friends' comments and the rejection slips from F&SF--which I am, note, not posting--to prove it), try Helix! Send 'em in! There's a home for us now! (Well, y'all rather than "us," because I suspect anything I hypothetically sent to Helix would be deleted unread.)

I think I have an idea for a (completely optional) sequel to Paper Knives, even if helen_keeble is the only one who ever ends up seeing it. (Yes, Helen, it is directly your fault!)

*headdesk* C'mon, brain, couldn't you have come up with something on "Architectural Constants," the story I'm supposed to be working on? Especially since Paper Knives is still, at this stage, a rough draft that [heh, I almost typed "whom," as though the novel were a person--if it were one, it'd come beat me up, for sure] no publisher may ever touch. (I mean, I hope one will, eventually! But I know better than to bank on it.)

Right-o, back to bed with me. :-D

livelongnmarry [ETA: fixed LJ comm name, sorry!] ends at 12:01 a.m. July 15, (U.S.) Pacific time. I have three live offers (worldbuilding, short story critique, and Paper Knives!fic; see link for details). If there's any last-minute thing you'd like to see me offer so you can bid on it, speak now! I have been making good progress on the musical composition that got snapped up very rapidly, so am wondering if it's worth offering another one.

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As for the woe: the screw popped out of my glasses frame on the right, the lens shortly followed, and Joe attempted to fix the lot but lost the screw in the process. I suspect I'm going to have to get new frames. :-( I swear, I used to be able to go the lifetime of a particular prescription and the frames would be fine, and now with these newfangled lightweight things, they break down under a year. What gives?

My short story "Eating Hearts" (first appeared in F&SF) is up as at Podcastle as a podcast-story; visit the link for the (free!) mp3 download. It runs a bit over 9 minutes. Eeeee! Podcast story!