Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Ninave~ Don't feel bad, I had no idea what the movie was, either...

Actually, I'm only using some of Ro's baby curls to cast a broach for
his Grandma Harriet, who's an artist and likes unusual stuff. She has a
lot of vintage jewelry, too. I'm coating the curl with Precious Metal
Clay (www.pmclay.com), and when I fire it in the kiln, the hair will be
burned off leaving only the shape of the curl, with individual hairs
detailed. Topic # 11, Jewelry, has some PMC posting on it.

One time Harriet gave us a brooch that was given to her that had a
living person's hair in it. It *was* creepy. We let every witch,
shaman, and such we knew look at it, and every one said "Get rid of it"
or, "hold it under running water outside your house and *then* get rid
of it". Weird.

Organic forms fascinate me, and I like to use them whenever I can in
my jewelry. 

Kelly~Wish I could have seen Lucy Lawless do the Rizzo part on
Broadway. *sigh*
  

    

The topic 11 that JaNell refers to is in the Crafts conference, g crafts,
just so you all don't go looking for it here in inkwell!

Also, re:  Wellians.  Most of us refer to ourselves as WELLperns.
  

    
Sorry 'bout the confusion on the Topic.
Just still giddy because my father-in-law & his brother decided that
part of the post-Thanksgiving activities would include installing my
wall oven, which has been perfectly functional (the electricians did
their bit months & months ago) but sitting on a table up against the
cabinet...
It's starting to look like a kitchen in there!
  

    
"Oh, it's beginning to look a lot like kitchen,
All around the room..."
  

    
Elise -- obviously a book I must read then. When next I read...

Dan -- well, I've said this before, but mostly attempts to register as
me on public systems are failures. When I tried my 20 free hours of
AOL, I found every version of my name that I could think of was taken.
I can't get me as a compuserve screen name, or as a yahoo ID... I
figure some people do it as a tribute or as a fan thing, and some do it
for whatever reasons.  (A guy I knew from conventions in the UK told
me once about giving a guy hitchhiking a lift, and when they got
chatting, the guy told him he was a comics writer named Neil Gaiman,
and the driving gentleman was so amused by this he just spent the whole
ride asking about how you write comics and so on. This must have been
ten years ago...  And yes, I asked, and no he didn't look like me.)

Michelle -- I am very grateful to Holly, as she never forgets to
remind me.

JaNell -- sorry you've not heard of Wossnames. You should read GOOD
OMENS and A GAME OF YOU, both books with lots of wossnames in.  

I think Terry Pratchett and I both stole the word from a) Alan Coren,
b) Richmal Crompton, c) elderly female relations.

Will -- I enjoyed The Afterlife Diet, but it's not major Pinkwater.
(The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death is.)

JaNell -- nope. Never spellcheck the journal. Never spellcheck here
either. I just type it. Luckily, people are too well-mannered ever to
complain.

ninave -- Holly asked if anyone had noticed her post. I forwarded her
all the e-mails, and showed her to here. When she got to your post she
crowed triumphantly.
  

    
Mary,   it's too bad I didn't check here more often. My sister and I
went to the Humanities festival. It would've been fun to meet you.

Angelina,  the impersonation thing is awful. I hope everything is
worked out now. 

Michelle,  would you let me know when the book gets to you? I get
worried around Xmas time because the Chicago area's history of mail
delivery isn't the best - it seems that a lot of stuff is discovered in
a warehouse somewhere years after it was supposed to be received.

Walker,  if you're lurking somewhere, I found a pair of black Converse
with flames, if you're still looking for shoes. They go up to size 12.
I forgot what size you need, though. I don't know whether or not you
like Chucks, but these were pretty neat looking.

JaNell,  I too have had to babysit machines. Ours was a dishwasher,
though, when I lived in Queens. The landlord wouldn't come fix it ever,
so we had to pile up bath towels underneath it to soak up the soapy
water. It was completely ridiculous, but it was just one of a long list
of reasons why I should never have moved in there. 

re: Amelie,  I have a date to see it tonight. The City of Lost
Children is one of my favorite films, so I have high expectations for
anything Jeunet does. Everyone I've spoken to about the film raves
about it. 
  

    
Oh! Cool!  Wellpern, then.  Er....why WellPern? (And why do I think I
ought to already know this?)

Neil - Thanks for telling me that!  :D  What Holly did is something I
would do....which is why my mother calls me a terror, but she sort of
smiles when she does it.

I finished the first draft of a book today, but I'm all depressed. 
It's not that it's awful, or anything....I dunno.  Post pardum (I know
I'm miss-spelling this, sorry) depression? (Does that even make sense?)

Precious metal clay?  That sounds so cool!

A craft area?  There's a craft area?
<Ninave disappears in a puff of smoke>
  

    
I went by the convention hotel tonight-it felt so weird and empty.
Luckily it didn't seem that there were any lost people from out of town
wondering where the con was, so I suppose that the word got out in
time.

Maybe I'll get brave and fire up that Christmas present, or just go
upstairs and work on the tile mosaic on the bathroom floor. 

Ninave~yes, post partum depression is the closest to psychotic a
person can get without actually being carted off to the loony bin.
Although sometimes, that can happen, too. Or you can wish someone
would, just to get some relief from it...
  

    
Well, I bought things today, which officially ends my four year streak
of boycotting buying the day after Thanksgiving. We meant to go buy
CDs, but got distracted. In The Bon Marche (a department store roughly
on scale with Nordstrom). Ooops.

See, I had good intentions. I've been losing weight, so things aren't
fitting, especially my tops - I almost always buy elastic waists, so
that's not been a big deal. But my tops look horrible on me. The only
ones that fit well are the short sleeved ones, and in case you've not
noticed, it's winter and it's cold. So, yes, I ended up buying three
long sleeved, very nice, tops.

And a dress.

A real, fancy, ballgown sort of dres.

Mars found it. He made me try it on. He made me find out how much it
was, and he boggled with me when we found out it was 60% off. 

http://www.redplanetsw.com/personal/loiosh/Photos/112301/newwdress_side.jpg
http://www.redplanetsw.com/personal/loiosh/Photos/112301/newdress_front.jpg

He even promises to take me somewhere where I can wear it. 
:-)
-Kelly
  

    
Hope everyone had a happy Harvest day, Thanksgiving Day, or just Happy
day. My Turkey turned out splendid. Nice and juicy and brown. Everyone
was surprised. 
JaNell- I have to babysit my heater if that makes any sense. I live in
an old apartment and my landlord (who is also my boss) is a cheapskate
and won't remodel anything. It looks like The God of space
heaters...only it's gas. It makes weird popping sounds sometimes and
makes me very nervous. 
Squeaks- I don't miss working retail at all. I was a cashier at Target
during the Christmas season once....Never Again. I still deal with
people a lot waiting tables. But it's better because instead of being
trapped at a cash register, I can conveniently run away. or
"accidentally" spill water on rude people. 'Tis the season:) Hehe. Hope
you get through it.  
Neil- Holly is cool. And silly. Say, she should join us here!
Angelina- That's horrible. I hope it all gets straightened out. 
  

    
JaNell, re: wossname- Or "Midsummer Night's Dream."  That's *my*
favorite instance of it, I think.... "Nar.  Issa wossname.  You know. 
Thingie.  A play.  They're pretendin' things."  God, I laughed me arse
off the first time I read that.

Ah.  Right.  Harmless old men.  Was that in *ToT*, Mary?  Musta missed
it.

Oh, and Neil, I've got two questions for you, one of which I was just
reminded of by the above; a) is the script for "A Midsummer Night's
Dream" (that'd be yours, and not Shakespeare's I'm curious about.  I
have Shakespeare's) available in print anywhere?  I'm really
interested.  And b) you've said that you sort of modeled *Stardust*
after very specific sorts of fairy tale books that were written a
hundred years ago... can you recommend a few?
And thanks, but already finished *Afterlife Diet*.  Not bad, on the
whole.  Now if I could just find my Pinkwater omnibus with *Avocado* in
it...
  

    
Neil - Having a name that is common as dirt, I don't even try to use
my name in any online context. 
Having people trying to impersonate you, for fun or for serious...
that's just something I have a hard time getting my head around. I
mean... why? I had someone try to convince me that they were "Emma/Baby
Spice" once, and it was so ridiculous and asinine it wasn't even fun
to pretend to play along. They were typing with a cockney accent, for
crying out loud....
Maybe as an actor I should have some kind of insight into why people
would put your name on and try to walk around in your identity for a
while... but I don't. 

Well, the Barking Mad Poker crowd just departed. I got virtually
cleaned out, since we continue to opt for imaginary money in the pot.
There are vague rumblings of poker pics getting put up on a Barking Mad
Poker Website, but that'll depend on the Might of the Mouse, who is
more of a shutterbug than I am and seems to have more drive in that
area.
For some reason, I keep getting pictures of her chewing... 
  

    

But a great time was had by all, and I regret my insistance in not playing
for real money. There were too many of us this time to try to type confusing
WELL posts, though.
  

    
Erynn~The last place we lived had a heater so old that it had to be
turned off at night, and when we left, for fear of fire (the repairman
said, "It *will* catch fire, soon, just make sure you're awake when it
happens")... and the spot it was in was too small for something modern
(they not only no longer made it, they no longer made parts!); a
central heating unit was installed once we moved.

Will~I've read "Good Omens", and therefore must have seen "wossname",
assigned it "Null word, probable meaning of (what's its name)" and
moved on...
  

    
Wellpern, yes. (pern = person, I believe. Yes, castle?)  Also WELLbean,
which I got from somebody else but cannot recall from whom.

Other WELL jargon of which I am aware (and possibly fond): gopod, lawn
chair, plate o' shrimp, and so on. Also, calling an on-line tarbaby
altercation a thrash. (Gotta be a WELL jargon topic or conf someplace,
yes?)

Oh, and g crazy. Or g away. G being go, which is/was the picospan (peek o'
spam) command for going to another conference.

Dunno how widely used these are, but they were part of what got stuck in
my head however many years ago it was that I joined the WELL. It seems
like only yesterday, but I guess it was longer ago than that: it was in
the days of mandel and casey and some other folks, and I think I remember
getting a message about upgrading to or from a sequent or solaris or
something. Wossname. Thingie.

(And every time I type or read Thingie I am reminded that a guy in
StippleApa named Steve Perry used to do a zine called Fiendish
Thingie....)

Also, for the record, Holly rocks utterly.
  

    
I often like to think of myself as a thingie at heart, but in truth I
am at best an occasional lurker there.  If thingie could be considered
a state of mind, I am there.  However, I am happy with being Barking
Mad.  :)

As far as people trying to impersonate me/wreck many areas of my life
go...things are remaining calm.  But it doesn't stop me from being
paranoid.  I can't wait until this all blows over.

JaNell-About the heater...How Lovely!  That's like when the cash
register at Skyline was giving me electric shocks everytime I touched a
metal bit of it (and a whole lot of it was, indeed, metal.)  I was
told to avoid the metal parts.  I'm sure that it was weird for the
people eating there to see the girl at the register flinch every time
it opened, and remove money like it was about to bit her...

Neil--Are you sure you aren't making a habit of dressing up as someone
else, hitchiking, and then impersonating yourself?  Not even once?

Angelina.
  

    
Angelina~that so sucks, the impersonation thing. 
<laughing>
I have a little worry about that myself, having managed to travel all
the way to Madison from Knoxville, and back, without losing anything
physical (except my Violent Femmes CD, which I left in the rental car),
only to lose my wallet in a thirty minute slot later in the week after
I got back home.
Luckily, my ID and credit card were zipped into my coat pocket, so I
still have them. It's the three social security cards, the minister's
license, and the $80 I'm peeved about...
  

    
Hi!

Ooh...I really ought to reread my posts before sending them.  I didn't
just have a baby, not have I had one....um, I was just trying to use a
phrase to describe how let down and sad I felt last night over my
finished draft of the book I'm writing.  Last book, everything was a
victory, this one...I don't know.  I'm starting to cheer up about it
now.  And since, from what Janell describes, it's a really awful(post
partum)  thing, I apologize if the analogy comes off a bit
disrespectful...

Rick:  I didn't mean to get all braggy about the turkey thing. I store
up all these neat things in my head (Well, I think they're neat) but
never tell anyone because I figure I'll put them to sleep. 
Unfortunately you gave me an opening....  :D Poor man.

Kelly - Purty dress!  Ah, I really like it!  And you look very nice in
it....I hope you get to wear it some where nice, soon!  I sewed a
coupel of really too fancy dresses for myself, and I can say there's
only about 50 things sadder than a party dress that's never been worn. 


Angelina:  Personally, my theory is that when Neil wants to go
incognito he wears a white tee short, blue colored blue jeans and a
tweed blazer.  ;)  (sorry...I couldn't pass that line up.)

Thank you so much, Lioness, for the translations!  I'll try and keep
them in mind so I don't come off looking like a newbie.

I'm chewing my nails right now because my mum is reading my draft. 
Before you say "How sweet!"  I would like to say that she's really,
really good.  She's read a ton of stuff, so she knows things.  I think
that the reason why I'm so warped (beside the stuffed shark I had as a
toddler...there are pictures of my sleeping with my head in it's
mouth.) is because I'd go ask my mother what she was reading, and she'd
read to me bits of Star Trek novels, James Bond, Bradbury, McCaffrey,
Asimov....whatever, until I got bored and wandered away. 

Sorry about all the writing stuff.  It's all that's on my mind lately.

Ninave
  

    
Well, turkey-related festivities were mostly okay this year. Only got
into one heated yelling (he calls it 'debating') match with my
grandfather, and shared heavy sighs with my now-old-enough-cousins at
my grandmother's need for 'seating arrangements' (giggles, with rolled
eyes). Then 5 minutes on the road saw me with a flat tire. Took me an
hour to change the flat in the dark (tires are heavy!), as so many
people stood around or drove past very slowly, to gawk (this would
include the CHP who I tried to flag down for assistance). Finally, as I
was finishing putting away tools in the trunk, some stoner kid on a
bicycle saw me and asked if I needed help. (sigh) But I survived it!

high school daze - I've changed so much for the better since high
school that I could probably go on one of those talk shows where they
feature the geeks from school as these succesful adults who laugh at
the former popular-kids. High school sucked!

WELLperns - Can't see/say it without imagining dragons and looking
overhead for thread.

Maure - book's here. In retrospect, I should have had you send it to
the folks' house, as it was a bit bent to fit in my box, but it has
arrived, and is only bent, not creased. Yay! (and Neil, I'm
'not-stalking' again?)

switched identities - LOL! Anyone who wants to take on my life will
have to take on my history and would sorely regret it. 'sides, they'd
also have to know my real name, and only a handful of people do.

Kelly - PRETTY! 

Retail Hell Day wasn't so bad (there just isn't enough room in the
store for it to be that insane), but I imagine it will be just as bad
today and I think after 2 days in a row of working in a sardine tin,
I'll be ready for another trip to New Orleans. :)

Oh, and another plug for the crafts conferences on the WELL. I only
lurk there periodically, but I'm stunned at the talent and creativity
that some people have!

Barking Mad Poker was fun! Kurt seemed concerned that some of you
might hate him now. I said that maybe being 'wary' of him was a better
term and that seemed okay with him. Suppose I should have warned you
lot about him, but I wasn't even sure he'd show. He can take some
getting used to, but he really is harmless. :) Next time, we definitely
need to find a night Martha can join in on.

Eep! This is a long post with very little content. Sorry.

squeaks, who would like to leave her imaginary sex life out of the
next round of poker..
  

    
Ninave: This is why I wear party dresses to work when they look at me
sadly and say "you never wear us anywhere."  And my boss doesn't mind
as long as I wear a suit when we're trying to impress the sponsors and
the dress doesn't get in the way of the cell cultures.

As to poker...  People on the left coast are having all the fun. 
Anyone near Boston want to do something on the other coast, just to
balance things out?
  

    
Squeaks - No hating allowed in my house.. just not an option. If the
group keeps growing, though, we may need two tables. One for the
serious poker fiends, and one for the "we want to play like morons"
set. 
He's quite welcome to return, of course.
But if we don't talk about your imaginary sex life over poker,
Michelle... does that mean we have to discuss your real sex life?

Martha ... I'd like to talk to you before planning the next night of
BMP... either that or we're just going to find out were you live and
show up with a pack of cards and a tub of Red Vines. (Dear God, no
matter how much you eat, it's still FULL!)
  

    
I had a nightmare last night that was so disturbing that I sat bolt
upright in bed.
The only relevance it has here is that, other than myself, there was
only Mike (briefly), Alan Moore, and Neil in it.

How I can have a nightmare involving someone whom I've not only never
met, but never seen a picture of (Alan Moore) is beyond me...

OK, googled, saw a pic, yep. it was him. How weird. 
Huh.

And Maure~I opened it. I turned it on. I've started a new story.
  

    
Ack.  Mention of dreams reminded me that Harlan was hitting on me in a
dream last night.  Didn't Neil say here that people who have that
dream end up having him appear?  Now I'm scared.
  

    

Speaking of WELL terms, if you are using picospan, you can type "!gloss" for
a glossary of terms. A lot of these I don't see used anymore, though maybe
it's just in corners of the WELL I don't read. Gopod was a <jrc> typo ages
ago and a good way to annoy the people who don't like it. <eg>.
I'm personally fond of S!MT!!OE!!! which means "Sets! My Teeth!! On
Edge!!!".

Michelle- next time we'll use Dan's imaginary sex life, how's that?
  

    
Thanks all - if nothing else, that dress and I are going clubbing
together.  :-)

Angelina - our front doorknob shocks us. I've gotten in the habit of
either touching my bracelet or ring against it first, or grabbing it
with gloved or otherwise protected hands. And my car shocks Mars,
constantly. (It doesn't bite me, so I find it really funny,...)

Trying to decide how sick to feel,... think I'm going to go sing along
to Phantom and lay on the couch and drift,...
-Kelly