Which is when I managed to lock my keys in the car. While it was still running. Because I'm just that awesome.
You know, the folks whose hands are funny colors.
What modern colors would serve as accurate period colors for Arthurian/11th Century Britain and Brittany?
From my research so far, I'm quite amused to find that all the colors we used in Dance's quilt may actually be pretty good period tones. They wouldn't have had a print, but they might have embroidered it to look that elaborately floral.
( So it ain't necessarily dull at all - it might be screaming contrasts )
Now I'm going to cite someone on my flist has has an excellent color eye.
For instance, "Sheplova Mushroom" from Peace Fleece.
She noted:
"Isn't Peace Fleece fabulous? I've been ordering from them for ten or twelve years, and I've never been disappointed--the colors are even richer in person than they look on the computer."
Which looks pretty darned yummy to me.
http://www.peacefleece.com/sheplova.h
They also have felting and spinning supplies and hand-painted knitting needles and little felt animals made by a Russian lady who *really* needs the money.
The entire purpose of their company was to bring together craft people and sheepherders from different countries otherwise in conflict, and create links that will lead to peace. The money from Baghdad Blue yarn for instance, goes to support a farm where Palestinian and Israeli raise sheep together. It is also that same amazing indigotin / woad blue that I gave pix of recently.
In the meantime, have some truly astonishing tiny knitting.
I'm not knitting anything out of the ordinary, honest! Here is extraordinary, or possibly certifiable: http://www.bugknits.com/
How can I not have known this, when I was there? How can nobody have told me? Why wasn't it in the guidebook? Why, why, why?
I can haz Tim Robbins for my backing singer, plz?
I didn't love it all; I don't get the more weirdly eccentric noisemakers, though they clearly love each other. (Like I stopped listening to Tom Waits, whom I adored, when he seemed to do nothing but rant through megaphones: not my thing.) Also, I thought Suzanne Vega's song was dull, and didn't stretch her. But! There was plenty to send an eerie chill down my spine, which is the most I ever ask of music. And God, I do love being sung to. 'Specially with drums. I shoulda bin a percussionist, perhaps.
I want the CD now.
What, to you, is writing?
Sound off!
Plus, can we drop the Johan Santana should've pitched the 9th...who cares...Mets took 2 out of 3 from the Phils and are in first place. That's all that really matters.
- Mood:
annoyed
I've also allowed myself to get entangled in another debate with MM over on Ran's board....I'm an idiot.
As stated, I worked through the trouble last night in that chapter, now on to the next one. I also thought of another issue that I need to straighten out at the end of the book. But I'll wait until I get there to worry too much about that.
- Mood:
okay
And then didn't sleep, bugger it, so was late up this morning; and have nevertheless written a page of the novel and done some necessary admin and other stuff.
Two prompts to go elsewhere: I know I've mentioned it before, but Wonderlands is a new fantasy community site, well worth your time and attention; and
m'friend'n'colleague Daniel Fox has a book coming out from Del Rey in January; he also now has an LJ. Go ye, and make friends with
While you all rush off to do that, I'm going to sit here and write lots. I am coffee'd to the gills; there is no alternative. And then this evening Gail and I are going to the Sage, for a Rogue's Gallery of pirate ballads, sea songs and shanties. And yes, I know everyone else says "chanteys" these days, but I grew up with shanties and shanties they shall remain, in this tiny iconoclastic head-in-the-mud corner of ancient England.
Also, the sun is shining. Why am I indoors?
Oh, yes. *types*
Cinema Spec: Tales of Hollywood and Fantasy is a planned paperback anthology of speculative flash fiction and poetry about movies, television, and Hollywood. Pieces about national cinemas of other countries ("Bollywood," etc.) are welcome, as are present and future/imaginary extrapolations of moving-picture technology (YouTube, holograms, etc.), but the stories and poems must relate to moving pictures in some form and must contain an element of science fiction, fantasy, or supernatural horror. If it's not speculative, I'm not interested.
Payment rates are as follows:
New fiction: 3 cents per word (rounded to the nearest 100 words) for stories to 1000 words, $5 minimum and $30 maximum. Flat rate of $30 for stories 1100 words to 2000 words.
Fiction reprints: 1 cent per word (rounded to the nearest hundred words), $3 minimum and $20 maximum.
New poetry: flat rate of $5.
Poetry reprints: flat rate of $3.
The maximum word count for fiction is 2000 words and the maximum line count for poetry is 49 lines.
Of course, you'll read the complete guidelines for more details on submission formats and other important info:
http://www.ravenelectrick.com/cinemaspec.h
The Cinema Spec guidelines page isn't "hooked up" at Raven Electrick yet, but there will be a link in the news section by the end of the week. The submissions e-mail address won't go live until Tuesday, August 5, 2008, which is the day the anthology opens to submissions. Feel free to ask questions at the query address listed at the bottom of the Cinema Spec guidelines page.
I hope to see your subs!
Edit: 1:43am: I can be such a wuss, I jammed through it. I don't know if I'm happy with it and will look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow. I wound up adding 300 words from draft 3a to draft 4a.
Tomorrow is facing up to be a busy day.
- Mood:
sleepy
Q. Can I post fan fiction?
A. Definitely not. Short stories set in Westeros or using characters from "A Song of Ice and Fire" are not to be posted here (and if you've written one, don't even _mention_ the fact). GRRM doesn't approve of fan fiction, so we honor his wishes on the board concerning this. Taking this a step further, individuals who are aware of fan fiction elsewhere should not point users of the forum to it. This includes linking to fan fiction in your personal profiles, or linking to a site that links in turn to fan fiction. Failure to observe these rules will lead to a warning at minimum.
If that's the case for the message board endorsed by George, why would others think that it's okay.
I also wonder if newer fans find us old skool, ezboard fans annoying?
Carrying the banner for my King George for 9 years this December!
- Mood:
annoyed
grumble.
I wonder if I could go work somewhere else for a few years, or if the problems would just end up being the same.
My boss thinks that I should go and watch my operators work to make sure they don't make mistakes. My feeling is that would guarantee more mistakes.
He also thinks they're stupid, and that just pisses me off just royally.
After my anniversary I'm going to start working on him to lay me off.
Okay, let's admit 'um - what are your main procrastination methods?
Sound off!
Why do I do these things? Whywhywhy???? Twice a month during term-time! (Because only my friend James and I can be bothered - er - aren't afraid of SS - er- have the relevant skills (who am I trying to kid?????) - er -)
Really it's because they're a smashing buncha kids and they deserve more than an hour's boredom on a unday either a)sitting on a hard pew in Church or b)helping the younger children, which are their current choices.
Mind, as far as the rest ofthe Congregation know, we could be sacrificing chickens and are simply very, very good at getting bloodstains out of the carpet.
There's one good thing about this, though: James is keen to have staff meetings at the local real ale pub. I can live with that. Cheers!
I was actually very content with my little rat couple, but a few days ago it occurred to me that if one of them died, the other would be completely alone. So today, I got a third one, a little black and white male.
Let me first say this: He's soooo tiny! And cute! XD He's very, very young, just 6-8 weeks, and it really shows. The other two are around twelve weeks now, and he's less than half their size! So. Adorable.
Since they're still all youngsters, I figured it would be okay to just stick 'em in the cage together and hope for the best. I cleaned out the cage just before I put him in, and used a lot of cage deoderiser, to make it smell less of the current occupants. After I saw what a difference in size there was, I was kind of hesitant, so I put him in with Jack first. Aside from chasing him out of the hut (actually, not so much chasing as following, really), Jack ignored him. So then I put Tem in.
( Rattie cliffhanger! And a bunch of pics )
1) I still haven't come down from my Wimbledon high yet. What made it great, for me, was not that Nadal won (although I did want him to win!), but that, despite the pressure of Federer's comeback, Nadal simply refused to lose, and in doing so forced Federer to choose not to win. It was the best piece of sport I've ever seen, a story I could not stop reading until the end.
Still trying to get P. to understand it, too. To him, it was a great match, entertaining enough for a Sunday evening. For me, it was no sleep before and no sleep afterwards, a compelling narrative, an illuminating, confirming, nearly-religious experience. I think, with sport, either you have the faith that it means something, in which case it can be a metaphor for everything, or you don't have the faith, in which case it is just a waste of time.
Going to buy the DVD, anyway.
2) Stephenie Meyer's Breaking Dawn is out in 9 days. The first chapter was included in an Eclipse Special Edition, but you cannot read it online, as all the places that originally posted it seem to have been served with DMCA notices. Now, I appreciate that an author wants sales. Needs sales. Deserves them for all of her hard work. But this seems to me just a little heavy-handed, an attempt to get people to splash out more money on top of what has already been spent. The first chapter is out there; why not let the internets spread the word and hype it a little more? What's the harm?
If people were posting the second chapter, I could understand it.
I already have Eclipse (in hardback, too) and I am not going to buy it again. I wish I had the strength not to buy Breaking Dawn, but I can't resist the story.
3) I wonder if Henry James read any William Blake?
Thel's Motto:
Does the Eagle know what is in the pit?
Or wilt thou go ask the Mole:
Can Wisdom be put in a silver rod?
Or Love in a golden bowl?
Might be an interesting connection between that and The Golden Bowl. There must be a reason why James chose that Golden Bowl, and I'd love to know it. I wonder if there might be some nearly-lost folk meaning to it, an old story with meanings that we no longer know popularly?
4) Moving neatly on to Robert Graves...I wonder if the White Goddess is really just an elaborate self-justification? Because today I have the Furies, the anxiety, that empty feeling which must somehow be chased away, and I've been thinking about my family, about the particular woman in that family who had two men vying for her affections, and I can't see any poetic meaning in that situation. Which is a lie. I just want to see it. Because Graves never talks, when he mentions particular instances of that relationship, of the effects of that mythological urge on the real people who are fulfilling it, or who must suffer the consequences. Which makes he think he was either very lucky, or very guilty indeed.
5) I am not fundamentally a rational creature. My brain works on lurid flashes of inspiration and ideas that might be either right or wrong. But there is some element of rationality that stops me fully believing or committing to such things. Bah.
- Mood:
anxious
