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jeffsoesbe
02 December 2009 @ 07:06 am
this morning's earworm  
This song, especially the "I live among the creatures of the night" part. No idea why...

Did *every* 80's video involve shoulder pads, big hair, blatantly fake street scenes, blind alleys with reaching hands, and people in leotards and costumes dancing strangely? Because it sure seems like it.

And who knew Laura Branigan died in 2004 of a brain aneurysm? Not me.

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haikujaguar
02 December 2009 @ 09:56 am
Pick Your Scans for Sketchbooks #51-55!  
The next retrospective is almost done, which means it's time to choose your extra scans! I've identified 28 cool sketches, two of which I'll scan as freebies. Donations will get more work scanned, $2 each. If you donate because you want something in particular, please tell me what you want in the comments!

This particular retrospective is full of exciting stuff for fans of the World Tree RPG, as I was playtesting the game. There's also great stuff for furry fans. I note that Lisinthir makes his first appearance here, as do the Tsipia aliens. I was practicing my humans too, and they get markedly better. And finally, I changed avatar during this period, from lion to jaguar. It's a very exciting retrospective... so mark your favorites and let's get to it!

Poll #1493398 Choose Your Scans!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 7

First batch, mostly furry:

View Answers

Strange slinky griffins based on owls
2 (28.6%)

Tam-illee (foxlike) mother with baby and force-knife
2 (28.6%)

Cuddle ringtails in castle room with candles
1 (14.3%)

Pregnant ringtail with sword hugged by mate
1 (14.3%)

Half-inked Qethryn (cheetah) practicing sword, interesting background
1 (14.3%)

Grayscale marker portrait of Six, human woman, painterly quality
1 (14.3%)

Hugging centaur women in distress (you try drawing that...!)
1 (14.3%)

Hirianthial and Kiseh't talking (rare shot of both of them)
0 (0.0%)

Alternate Alysha's Fall cover, crying gems
0 (0.0%)

Micah (feline) pinning up her hair (interesting pose)
3 (42.9%)

Young woman in lace-paneled bodice with dragon pet
1 (14.3%)

Dancing dracospynx with fans! Nice pose.
2 (28.6%)

Ringtail couple (pregnant female and male) feeding chickens
2 (28.6%)

Hermaphroditic pixie hugging desert furries (family scene)
0 (0.0%)

Great portrait of stern Argent Star in kirin shape
0 (0.0%)

Second batch (mostly World Tree-related). Sybil was my raccoon-girl playtest character.

View Answers

Pretty Jokka anadi in the mountains, looking downslope
0 (0.0%)

Mage Asian human woman, cool costume/pose, lots of fwoosh
2 (28.6%)

Tsipia-alien women, very fashionably clothed
1 (14.3%)

Human women, great costumes (copper bodice), with fantasy arch
4 (57.1%)

Herethroy (bug-man), zi ri (dragon) and sleeth (cat)... in corsets (joke!)
1 (14.3%)

Sybil (raccoon) sleeping on hair with companions wondering how she does it
1 (14.3%)

Romantic Sybil walking with sleeth, lots of hair floating, very calm.
1 (14.3%)

Sybil talking with slugs (humor, very funny shot).
0 (0.0%)

Sybil on tree with artistic tree branches, very swirly.
1 (14.3%)

Sybil staring through her glass dagger (her glass dagger was neat).
0 (0.0%)

Sleeth (cat) playing with baby cani (dogs), work for the RPG book.
1 (14.3%)

Sleeth with sleeping baby cani (inked, final choice for RPG book)
1 (14.3%)

Action pose: Sybil learning staff from a flirty wolf guy
0 (0.0%)





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Current Music: Pet Shop Boys - Beautiful People
 
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j_cheney
02 December 2009 @ 08:56 am
AWOL  
I'm going to be working on the laptop downstairs for a few days at least, which means limited internet access, so you may not see me around much for a while.

So be excellent to each other...
 
 
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haikujaguar
02 December 2009 @ 07:34 am
Wednesday, with Strange Wind  
Today it is unsettled out, with a damp wind and yellow-gray sky... the cold front coming to put paid to this 80 degree weather for another couple of days.

Word of the Day
diapason, n. 1a : a burst of sound b : the entire range of musical tones : range or scope 2a : a tuning fork b : a standard of pitch
I want an excuse to use this word in a sentence, it's so cool.

Baby at 27 Months
...is slowly beginning to figure out pitch. She will softly sing along with people on the TV, and she hunts for the pitch on the long notes, trying to match what she's hearing to the sound she's making. When she sings without accompaniment, she has a much better understanding of pitch; "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" used to be chants, getting the rhythm right but not the melody but she's beginning to try to differentiate high and low notes, and know what order they go in. It's interesting to me that she understood rhythm patterns first, but then again, maybe it's all built on the earliest memories: my heartbeat first, then the nuances of sound (which were probably filtered a bit by my skin and womb).

There's a lot of music in our speech; thinking back now, I can remember her experimenting with tone patterns while talking, trying to duplicate some of the melodic threads she must be hearing in people who speak. Fascinating stuff.

Current Plans
Last night was a good one: over free decaf at Borders I started re-reading Godkin and decided on my approach for preparing it for hard-copy. I also got some sketching done; I've been remiss about scanning lately, I should do something about that. Anyway. My goal for today is to work on the 51-55 Retrospective and put together a list of sponsorable scans. Before the season gets too late, I should put up a wish list post too. My poor relatives...! I'm not big on Stuff, so I'm getting hard to shop for.

Elsewhere (Just One Today, with Commentary)
• Loneliness is Contagious/Causes Isolation. I think this is pretty important and have been thinking about it for a day, particularly in the context of how we like to talk about "cutting off" people who are "dragging us down." I understand that carrying lonely, annoying, spiky or poorly-socialized people is a burden, but it's always felt important to me to try. Here's science saying, "It is important, and we have a tendency not to."

But if loneliness really is like a disease, it's also one with a straightforward cure. Maybe not easy, but straightforward. Something to think about, next time a person annoys you by being sad at you for the hundredth time.


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squished_frog
01 December 2009 @ 11:43 pm
tweetily-deetily  

http://www.squishedfrog.com/mtblog/archives/2009/12/#002045

  • 11:33 Adventures with Mr. Brightside! When someone exclaims "Some days aren't worth getting out of bed," he says: "Do it to avoid bed sores." #
  • 14:12 I really just want to screw around with this spreadsheet all day. It's work, that doesn't feel like real work. weee! #
  • 14:29 Gamma Rays. They're just not glamour-ays. #
  • 16:05 The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund - @cbldf is hiring!... bit.ly/cbldfhire #
  • 16:45 this will please the 4 people who still check my blog... Blogmailr is going under, so no more auto posts from Twitter to SquishedFrog.com! #
  • 16:52 14 hours until de plane! Will the TSA accuse me of carrying dynamite this time? Perhaps a water bottle of nitroglycerin? #
  • 22:08 Life is not meant to be lived without dogs, especially when you spill something on the kitchen floor. Who's gonna eat this now? #

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rhinemouse
02 December 2009 @ 12:00 am
hahaHA!  
As of right now, my novel is 66,666 words long!

I probably should not find that quite so amusing, but I do.

12:38 AM update:
Today: 1,210 words.
Total: 66,907 words.
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jeffsoesbe
01 December 2009 @ 10:30 pm
tweets for the day  
(Posted here for reference. At twitter, I'm "yeff")

  • 23:29 doing some adding (to LJ/FB/LinkedIn) of cool people I met at Orycon #
  • 09:53 Installing vista sp2 on the new
    Work laptop. Why? Because I don't need the next hour and don't mind several restarts. Ah, Microsoft! #fb #
  • 10:09 Interesting. gmail seems to be uncommunicative even though I got mail with iphone about 30 minutes ago... #fb #
  • 12:37 Comics Curmudgeon, you make me laugh with your DFC-esque read of today's Dennis the Menace: joshreads.com/?p=5049 (end of post) #fb #
  • 15:20 @sandrawickham Of course you're cool for being at Orycon! (Also because you could crush me like a bug!) #
  • 15:56 The new work laptop has a pop-out keyboard light. And the long-life battery just arrived! It might be time to do The Final Switchover! #fb #
  • 17:06 I don't know how the iPhone farkle app sleeps at night, after cheating like that! #fb #
  • 19:10 Dear iPhone farkle app: have you no shame? (cheating like that - tsk tsk) #fb #
  • 19:22 I have buried iPhone farkle app with my awesome dice rolling! Take *that*!!! #fb #
  • 19:56 Tues (eve) puzzles: jumble = 0:25; nyt xword = 4:32. rippin!!! #fb #
  • 21:57 @gregvaneekhout Hellboy smokes wherever he DAMN WELL FEELS LIKE IT! Even IN CALIFORNIA! #
  • 21:59 @sandrawickham I am warned and you are added! And from your LJ, I remember that we were both at the Lou Anders coffee (a great session!) #
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jeffsoesbe
01 December 2009 @ 10:18 pm
tonight's earworm  
"The world is a vampire"

What's it from?

This. (embedded disabled on video)

Gotta say, it's kind-of-a-cool video with the washed-outness and blueness and muddy dirtness. And *that's* what Billy Corgan looks like with hair.
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ellen_datlow
01 December 2009 @ 11:49 pm
News and going out of town  
Some good news first: Poe and Lovecraft Unbound are both nominees for the Dark Scribe's Black Quill Award..Congrats to all my contributors and congrats to all the other nominees...

<a href="http://www.darkscribemagazine.com/3rd-annual-bqa-nominees/">The Third Annual Black Quill Awards </a>

Also, I'll be hosting and  Brian Evenson, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Michael Cisco, and Richard Bowes will be reading from Lovecraft Unbound at the Montauk Club in Brooklyn, Friday, January 15th. Books will be sold and there will be a tour afterward of this historic building....More details later.

I was going to be going to Maine Thursday for a long weekend, but instead because my dad fractured his hip Monday night and is having surgery tomorrow (Wed) morning, I'm flying down to Florida tomorrow for at least a week. Don't know how things will go as he's 93. I'll be online as time and interconnectivity allows.
 



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topayz4
01 December 2009 @ 07:59 pm
The Land of Mining  
Oy. They're planning on opening up at least two new Uranium mines in Colorado. On the plus side, the plans for the Gold mine up my favorite canyon got shut down. And the coal truck traffic past my house (which started this summer) has decreased after major mine layoffs.

Also, random fact: the uranium used in the first atomic bomb was processed in Durango.
 
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marshallpayne1
01 December 2009 @ 07:52 pm
Aoife's Kiss Issue 31  
Aoife's Kiss # 31 is now out with my fantasy story "Jimmy French-Fries." And I'm pleased to report that I'm sharing ToC with Jaime Lee Moyer ([info]stillnotbored) where her poem "Heroes" appears. You can check out the issue and order HERE
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jeffsoesbe
01 December 2009 @ 12:45 pm
lunchtime post of various and sundry things  
- The Comics Curmudgeon is an excellent site, and the Dysfunctional Family Circus-esque take on today's "Dennis the Menace" made me laugh out loud. If you're not reading Comics Curmudgeon, you should be.

- An exhibition on ancient Balkan civilizations in the Danube Valley has opened (New York Times article). Very interesting, and certainly massive story-juice.

- In the Guardian, Patrick Stewart talks about the domestic abuse of his childhood and its effect. Serious, troubling, interesting.

- The Writer's Digest Short Short Story Competition has extended its deadline. Gee, you think maybe, just maybe, people are getting the idea that money flows TO the writer? Yeah, they're giving out about $7500 in prizes but I'd think a big, rich outfit like Writer's Digest could forgo a $15 entry fee per story in order to get the publicity of the contest and even the rights to do an (hopefully well-selling) anthology of the winners? I dunno, maybe I'm wrong on this.

- Speaking of places to submit your stories that *don't* charge an entry fee, here's a bunch I've found recently now that I'm getting the submission engine ramped back up:

RetroSpec wants speculative shorts set in the 20s to 80s. [Alas, their word limit is 2K so I can't send them either "The Dybbuk's Moll" (too long) or "The Spirit Turk" (too far in past) or "The All-Questioning Eye" (waaay too far in the past).]

Aether Age Anthology wants stories set in a massive, detailed, shared world. I haven't read all the details but you can read the Writer's Guideline and see what you think.

Residential Aliens wants quality spec fic with a spiritual background. [I have a few of those that could work.]

Eveea (a Greek magazine) wants just science fiction stories, and is happy to take reprints. [info]dr_phil_physics has sold a couple things to them. Looks like fun!

Morrigan Books E-Zine likes dark fantasy and horror, up to 3K words, and has published many big names. Intriguing.

Futurismic wants stories that fit their guidelines and outlook, so give them a look over and see if something fits. Even if you're not submitting fiction, they have very interesting articles, and also have a giant list of "Fiction Online" and publish a regular post on "Free Fiction." Totally worth checking out and bookmarking, for all those reasons.
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dawtheminstrel
01 December 2009 @ 02:49 pm
Taos Toolbox  
The Taos Toolbox is open for applications for the 2010 session. I loved this workshop, and occasionally wonder about doing it again.

http://www.taostoolbox.com/
 
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ckastens
01 December 2009 @ 06:08 pm
Making the news...  
Looks like my picture is pasted all over the Brazilian technology news today:

Canal dos Games

Journal do Comercio

Baguete

We made a major announcement that we're moving into the Technological Park at PUCRS university and that we're hosting a Game Design post-graduate course in partnership with them. The news is moving a lot faster than I expected.

It's been a busy day!
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anachred
01 December 2009 @ 01:14 pm
(no subject)  


This picture? This is a tradition I have with myself...*

What it means today is
I finished NANO!

It wasn't so much of a battle this time, so I am not really having much of a finisher's high...in fact, that will have to wait till I finish the book. Which still could be quite distant..




StupidFunny Quote of Me in the Past, via tag-surfing today...
Things I have to do Monday other than writing (sadly, there will be no Poisson...) are Legion, but do not include being disenfranchised and critical of: Poets on critique forums, Young Adult/MG writers at NaNo, my own ability to walk away from demeaning situations, the course of the world, the sick state of humanity, or My Own Ability to Accrue Library Loans to Read and Return At Inopportune Times.
(10/11/08)



* I started it back when I was on Xanga with my school friends. I posted hero-pictures when I finished papers or sometimes exams. It just helps express my feelings. ^_^
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marshallpayne1
01 December 2009 @ 12:40 pm
Titles of the Gods--Egad!  
Lately I've been struck with how many titles of fantasy novels have the word God in them: Gods of War, Servant of a Dark God, etc. I've even catalogued a few of them HERE. If there's any word in the title of a book that would give me pause and not pick it up, this portentous G-word is it. However, many readers seem to like this, so here's my next fantasy novel project to make a fast buck…written under a pseudonym of course.

Coming soon…

So tired of not being allowed to sit at the Big Kids' table, Dudley skipped lunch and plotted his dark revenge on his PC. A plan to rule the world and do unto others as they had done unto him!

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lisamantchev
01 December 2009 @ 09:12 am
SYTYCD: finally compelled to post about Season 6  
Dear Kathryn and Legacy: I <3 You. My favorite routine of the season thus far:


And, of course, the Chicago routine... it was total B.S. that Ellenore and Ryan ended up in the bottom 3. (Longer video, not as high quality, sadly... dancing starts at the 45 second mark.)

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haikujaguar
01 December 2009 @ 12:10 pm
Spots the Space Marine: Platform Games  
Spots the Space Marine is a twice-weekly crowd-sponsored serial. Find out more and read prior episodes.

Claws. "So how exactly are we gonna do this?"

Spots squints at one of the bodies above them. "Flea, can you hold this crab in place?"

Flea. "****, that would mean poking my ****ing hand outside this thing."

Scythe. "Shut up and do it."

Spots, to Claws. "Just keep the shield up when I take mine down. It should last as long as we need even without me helping." She sets a timer on a grenade. When she looks up, Flea is grumbling but holding the body in place.

Spots. "All right, here goes nothing." She stands up, head above the shield, grabs the crab body and scrabbles on top of it, pushing through a narrow space between corpses.

Claws. "****! Spots—"

Spots. "I'm okay. It's all dead stuff up here."

Whiskers. "****, I had no idea you could do that."

Spots wedges herself between bodies until she can stand straight—more or less. She squeezes a hand up to place the grenade in between the corpses, then wiggles back down, steps off the crab she was using as platform and drops back into the bubble.

Spots. "Okay. Twenty seconds."

Hairball, eyeing her. "How'd you think of that?"

Flea. "**** that, how'd you shimmy like that in armor? Jesus!"

Claws starts laughing. "You ain't seen the ****in' half of it."

Fang, ignoring them. "...four... three... two... one!"

The shield flickers and dies as crab parts go flying. Through the broken mosaic of the explosion, Team Kitty can see the rest of the living crabs.

Whiskers. "Here they come!"

###


Hooray, back to writing after my unplanned "being sick" hiatus! Sometimes being short comes in handy....





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bogwitch64
01 December 2009 @ 09:32 am
No wonder I write  
Last night, after regaling the book club with yet another round of "listen to what my family has done now," someone responded with, "No wonder you write; you're family is full of characters. You make my life seem very boring."

I always assume everyone has an insane family like mine. We are a sitcom, complete with laugh track--because of course there are always witnesses to our bumbling--and if there are no witnesses to laugh at us at the time, we make no bones about telling the story to as many new listeners as we can. (See yesterday's post for proof of that!) It never occurs to me that there are families who don't have a cast of characters like mine. And while everyone has funny family stories that they tell over and over again, build upon over the years, the repertoire of my family stories (apparently) out-crazies most.

We've also had more than our fair share of tragedy. We live big. We die big. We laugh big and we suffer big. There is no in between for this clan. While reading David Sadaris' books, I laughed a lot, not because of how outrageous his stories are, but because of how often I was struck by a feeling of kinship.

So now I wonder--is this a writer thing? Do we all have insane families? Is it part and parcel of being what we are? Because I've heard some pretty funny, outrageous stories here among my writer friends that I suppose would seem pretty outrageous to the normals who don't have gay brother's and criminal attorney fathers and crazy old aunts obsessed with their own womanly bits and latino orderlies.

Do you have lots of crazy stories? Or are you, like my book club friends, boring in comparison?
 
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haikujaguar
01 December 2009 @ 08:34 am
Tuesday, with Cough  
Tonight is my night off! And... I have no idea what to do with it, being too sick still to work out. We'll see.

Word of the Day
upbraid, v. 1 : to criticize severely : find fault with 2 : to reproach severely : scold vehemently
From the back of the paper: "Scold" usually implies rebuking in irritation or ill temper, either justly or unjustly. "Upbraid" tends to suggest censuring on definite and usually justifiable grounds, while "berate" implies scolding that is prolonged and even abusive.

Baby at 27 Months
A long while ago we bought her a toy house for some Little People figures: a mommy (with bottle in one hand and towel over her shoulder), a daddy (with glasses and a button-down vest) and a little baby in a basket with a teddy bear.

Since then, the house has developed the following roommates:

Noah with beard and bird and his wife, with long gray braid.

A family of Tyrannosaurus Rexes: gigantic (christened "Daddy"), a much smaller one ("Mommy") and a teeny baby, who is usually jammed into Daddy Dinosaur's stumpy arms, because of course Daddy always carries baby.

Lightning McQueen the race car and at any particular time, one to four of his friends from the movie "Cars."

Several matchbox cars from the 70s and 80s.

As I type here, Mommy Dinosaur is upstairs in the living room looking out the window with the human baby and a rather appalling-looking black "Vette-Van", two triceratops are monopolizing the bathroom (one of them is sitting on the plastic toilet), Lightning McQueen appears to be using the telephone and Daddy and baby T-rex are outside playing on the lawn. I assure you, I had nothing to do with the arrangement of these actors. I can only wonder what my child is thinking when she places them (with a little "Rar" under her breath reserved for the movement of the dinosaurs from room to room).

God knows where Mommy and Daddy human have gone. Fled to the toy box in panic, no doubt.

Current Plans
Write Spots and work on the retrospective for Sketchbooks 51-55. Thinking I might have to buy that printer cartridge before Christmas, or there will be no Three Kings Day Sale... mph. Maybe tonight I'll take my print out of Flight of the Godkin Griffin with this $5 coupon to Borders and try to get some editing done over free coffee.

Elsewhere
• Heroic Heros! More fun with archetypes. "Magnificent Bastard," heh.
• 42 Essential 3rd Act Twists. This one's been going around, but it's still funny, so here it is!


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