Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
Roxanne - while good vibes are always welcomed, I'm quite fine. all it
means is that I've been exposed to it. It doesn't mean i have it. I'm
quite healthy. 

Squeaks - Well, I don't see the point in shopping at YOUR store
anymore. *grin*

Dan
(who is bummed that he forgot about the Comic museum thing tonight,
since his other plans got cancelled)
  

    
Neil,  I am so glad to hear that about Chris Ware. On the panel at the
Humanities, he was so excruciating to watch. He seemed so completely
horrified to be in front of an audience. I think that's the first time
I've ever wanted to give someone I don't know a hug. Good for him.
  

    
Maure: ack! You were at the Humanities fest too? I should have stood
on a chair, looking for Wellies, so's I could have met you then! ack!
As for Chris Ware seeming horrified, I wonder if he was having us on a
bit... It was incredibly entertaining, and I think he knew it too...
But it was definitely a nifty panel. Regardless of true or only seeming
terror on the part of Mr Ware.
  

    
I should have said stood on a chair and YELLED, looking for Wellies...
Which, granted, might have freaked some people out... But, ah well. 
  

    
Tara,  at the time I wasn't technically from the Well, and hadn't
checked it often enough to know that people from the Well were going.
So if you had yelled, perched on a chair, I most likely would have
watched you, but not said anything. I would have been very amused,
though. And I agree, the panel was very entertaining, but I can't
convince myself that anyone could purposely flush that particular shade
of magenta without the emotional impetus.
I'm very glad for him that he won.
  

    
Will - my wife went through the "exposed at some point, but no
symptoms" thing with TB about a year-and-a-half ago, and had to do the
INH regimen for 3? 6? months - biggest problem I remember was that she
couldn't drink, and she enjoys her wine.......

Apparently, it's pretty common, but I'll be sending good vibes your
way, just in case.  Sucks about the job effects, of course.........

Bill^2 - sorry to hear about the job; good vibes allocated and on the
way to you as well!

So, I'm moved into my new place, and it's starting to look like an
apartment.  It's just a studio, with a reasonably-sized kitchen with
full-size appliances and far too many cabinets for my needs, but it's
pretty nice.  I'm beginning to think I may never have to turn the heat
on - it only got into the 40s today, and I had to turn the fan on the
air conditioner on and bring in outsite air to cool the place down. 
I'm on the second floor (effectively - it's one of those buildings
where the first floor is half underground), so that probably has
something to do with it.

Got my cable/internet installed today, seems to be working well.  Been
experimenting with software firewalls, which weren't necessary with
the DSL connection at the old place, but are definitely needed with the
cable modem.  Because they're running a special package deal, I'm
getting far more channels on cable than any person could ever hope to
watch.

My cat seems to be enjoying the new place, especially the absence of
the dog.  She seems to have enough room to run around and get her
nuttiness out of her system, and the windowsills are easy for her to
get to, so she's happy.

Had to break down today and book flights to and from Detroit for
Christmas - I was planning to drive, but my car is still in the shop,
being repaired after the Deer Incident.  It should be ready in time,
but relatives offered to pick up the ticket, and I've decided that I
don't really want to spend two solid days on the road.  This means I'll
be left with my mom's mini-van for transportation while I'm there, but
I think I can deal with that if necessary :^)

Finally, after spending most of the week with WAY above average
temperatures here - we were in record-high territory for most of the
week, with a couple days in the mid-70s - it is currently snowing, with
a few inches expected by tomorrow.  I shall be venturing out tomorrow
in search of Christmas presents and a few odds-and-ends for the new
place - perhaps going shopping will make it feel like Christmas really
is only about 2 weeks away.
  

    
Bill--good vibes on the job thing.

Will--good vibes to you on the TB thing.  That sucks.  With some of
the variants of the disease around, I'm glad you're having it checked
out.

Rick--glad you're getting settled in.  Did you say "too many" cabinets
in your kitchen?  Where on earth do you live?  In Chicago, they think
the ones under your sink ought to be enough.  For everything.  I'm
waaaay envious.

Is anyone reading Caitlin Kiernan's journal?  The 3:00 a.m.
incontinent cat story was priceless.

Maure--Chris Ware was pretty embarrassed by, well, everything that
day, wasn't he?  I felt the same way about giving him a hug.  *Really*
pleased about this award--thanks, Neil for the update.

Mary (who has started The Last Hot Time and was amazed at how fast it
got it's hooks into her, and would like to know exactly why the hell
she's awake at this ungodly hour?) 
  

    
Ouwie. Ouwie. Ouwie. 

Playing several encores that end up lasting as long as your first 11
song set is NOT human. It's not, it's not, it's not. I had to sit down
after the third encore, and was up again at the end of the fourth - my
feet decided they couldn't take it anymore, and tried to swell out of
their shoes. 

So, fair warning: VNV Nation puts on a great show, but ouwie!

Oh, and Rick...
>>It's just a studio, with a reasonably-sized kitchen with
full-size appliances and far too many cabinets for my needs, but it's
pretty nice.  I'm beginning to think I may never have to turn the heat
on<<

If I didn't know better, I'd think you lived in my apartment complex. 
:-)

-Kelly

Oops - Mary slipped. 
>>Where on earth do you live?<<
Well, I live in Seattle, on the fifth floor of a six floor building -
2 thru 6 are apartments. It's a studio that everyone thinks is a 1bdrm
- around 800sqft. And yes, we have too many cabinets, too.  :-)
  

    
Oh wow....lots of posts to read!  So cool!

But right now, I need to ask Neil a question.  

What are Temps, Weerde and Villians?  According to my notes, they are
co-conceived books, but did you write stories in them?  Now for the
unimportant, fun part of the question....how did you get involved with
these books?

Ninave,
who is sending mental hugs to Bill and to Kelly.
  

    
Mary (and Kelly) - I'm living in a town called Chicopee, which is
right next-door to Springfield, MA.  Chicopee is most notable for being
the location of Westover AFB, home of a squadron of 12 C5A transport
planes, some of which are on active duty right now, flying Secret
Things to Secret Places.

These are the absolutely mammoth grey planes you see in war coverage,
on which the nose and tail open to let tanks and such drive in and out
each end.  If you're on the Mass Pike (I-90) around exits 5 and 6, you
see little signs warning of "Low Flying Planes".  Your mind thinks,"Oh,
like a little Cessna."  They should really say,"WARNING - THE BIGGEST
PLANE YOU HAVE EVER SEEN IS GOING TO FLY RIGHT OVER YOUR CAR MAKING AN
UNGODLY NOISE".  People would be much better prepared.

The cabinets are really rather embarrassing - the lease clearly states
that only ONE (1) person can occupy the apartment, and I'm at a loss
as to how one person could possibly have enough dishes, cookware, and
food to fill the available space.  Granted, I need some more dishes and
a decent saucepan (going to get today, along with a couple chairs,
dish towels, silverware organizer thingy, etc - I love Target) - my
only dishes right now are my matching set of four plates and bowls
featuring Warner Bros cartoon characters (Bugs, Porky Pig, Sylvester,
and Daffy, IIRC).  I'm not too proud to use them as my everyday dishes
(I bought them, after all), but the bowls are of the "Irritatingly
Shallow Soup Bowl" variety, and not very good for making oatmeal in the
morning.

In a continuation of yesterday's theme, there is now snow on the
ground, the temperature is right around freezing, and there is
absolutely no need to turn the heat on in this place.  I had heard that
the electric bills here are absurdly low, in part due to the fact that
the local power supply is mostly Hydro from a dam in the Connecticut
river, but this explains even more.
  

    
ninave - it's my favourite Python song too. I sing it wandering around
the house (along with "All bound for Morning town" or whatever that
Seekers song is called). My boi says I am crazy, but in a good way :).

re "The Price" - I agree and don't think it is horror. It makes me
very sad, but that is a totally different set of reactions.

umm - I don't know if it is relevant anymore but ...
*slowly puts up hand*
I _like_ romance. Assuming it is well written. Sometimes I just need
happy endings. Of course, not all romance does, but you tend to get
that glowy feeling anyway.

rick - your new apartment sounds cool. And believe me, too much
cupboard space is a _good thing_. Having recently (ish) moved out of a
place that was otherwise great, but the lack of storage space just
drove us completely bananas.
  

    
Jo said, "I don't know if it is relevant anymore but ..."

It's still relevant. I've had to drop out of any intelligent
conversation here, though, as I'm terribly sick and prone to babble.
Posted a lot of pics and stuff at my journal, instead.
  

    
Rick, I just have to say that your airplane admonition was the best
laugh I've had since Terry Pratchett ripped on the old
Oedipus/Sphinx-riddle thing in *Pyramids*.  Thanks.
Glad everything turned out pretty well, except for the annoyingly
shallow bowls.  To deeper ones.

Jo, I think everything's relevant here, and pretty much stays that
way, especially if a person says, you know, I remember this was said,
and I just wanted to comment, because this happened.  Which is why it's
so much fun here.

I've never read straight-up romance.  My mom likes Danielle Steele
movies, but I don't think she's read a book in a lot of years.  I like
my stories (movies or books) to have some romantic elements in them,
because life is full of that, really, but I don't like.... well.  You
know.  "Throbbing manhoods" and the like.
  

    
All--
Thanks for the warm fuzzy employment wishes. Being involuntarily
unemployed pretty much sucks, although it has allowed me to do such
things as give the lawn a long-needed last mowing, and work on homemade
Christmas giftees for friends and family. I'm not holding my breath on
being gainfully employed before the new year, though, and that may be
a tad too long for my sanity.

Rick --
I've had the same experience by Selfridge ANG base, where my Coastie
brother was housed for a couple of years. To describe them as big and
noisy is to say that the planet Jupiter was bigger than a duck, as
someone once said. :)

First snow of the year fell here last night as well, and I completely
missed it. Except, of course, for the half-melted but still readily
identifiable remains on my windshield this morning.

Bill^2, off to put stiffener on pies
  

    
Weird nonsequitor of the day:

Was watching the credits for the end of Oceans Eleven (the remake),
wondering what it said with "Introducing Julia Rob...something" ("huh,
introducing Julia Roberts? What did we miss? Why did that person stand
up? AGH!"), when I noticed a random name pop by on the screen: Leonard
Morganti.

I was so surprised to see that as a last name, I stopped speaking for
a moment.    :-)

(For those of you who missed the explanation long ago, my online nick
for, mm, a long time now, has been Loiosh.)
-Kelly
  

    
Will~Sorry you don't enjoy "throbbing manhoods"; I quite like them
myself. Not in Romance Novels, though... ; >
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>
  

    
kellyhills: jealousy!! My friend Joel Taleko introduced me to VNV
Nation when he put Forsaken (the one with words) on a mix cd for me,
and I fell utterly in love with it and forced Mary and many other
people to listen to it because it is the saddest song in the world not
sung by Muppets (FYI, the saddest song in the world sung by muppets is
a Tom Smith song where Tom sings as Kermit singing to the late Jim
Henson) and of course I missed them playing in Chicago... I haven't
heard lots of their oterh stuff, but I did order PTF.

Mary: I've been trying to call you for days to squeak about "Last Hot
Time." One questions, as you read it.... Have you read Emma Bull's
"Finder"?
  

    
JaNell: Aren't those misty just-cool nights dreamy?  Feel better!

Miss Mousey: That sign is hysterical.  It's all about context...

Rick: Congrats on your apartment.  Sending you housewarming beams. 
Cats on windowsills crack me up.  They sit there like they've never
figured out that they're not great big tigers sitting on tree limbs,
about to pounce on the unwary dinner-looking creature.  Fear me, you
puny mortals!  For I am the cat on the windowsill! <kitty yawn> 
ObDisney plug: You need to buy *Disney* dishes, to go with your WB
ones.

Re: Large, frightening planes.  I'd like to see those planes,
actually.  But anything like that always makes me remember the first
time I saw Harrier jets fly (the ones the Navy developed that take off
vertically, straight up).  They're an incredible thing .  I was at an
airshow and when it was time for the Harriers to start up, they
announced that anyone with sensitive ears should cover them up.  Hah. 
What they should have announced was: PLEASE COVER YOUR EARS BECAUSE THE
NOISE YOU ARE ABOUT TO HEAR WILL SOUND LIKE THE END OF THE WORLD, WILL
TANGIBLY VIBRATE YOUR STERNUM AND WILL REALIGN YOUR HEARTBEAT.  (And
the plane was maybe 500 yards away.  I can't begin to image being on an
aircraft carrier next to one of those.)  But it was an incredible
thing to see.

Interesting little tidbit from this weekend: We went to a
decorate-your-own-gingerbread man party this weekend at our close
friends' house.  (Fun!)  Mike's been a friend since college and he's a
genius lighting designer.  I mean, really genius.  He just *sees* it in
his head, like Mozart heard it.  He's just breaking into Hollywood,
now.  He did lighting for _The Grinch_ and _Miss Congeniality_ that we
knew about.  What I found out this weekend when we borrowed his copy of
_Dogma_ is that he did lighting for _Jay and Silent Bob's Adventure_,
too.  And he says that Kevin Smith is really nice, that he made it a
point to come around to see Mike and his team after they were done to
say thank you and tell them he liked it.

So yay! for the good guys in Hollywood.
  

    
Oops.  Having an odd flashback/crossed wire thing.  I think that's JAY
AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.  How embarrassing.  <ducks head, mumbles>
  

    
Pamela~ We're having a day like that today, only with a misty rain and
a temp that is just on the verge of changing the rain to snow... but
not quite there yet. I'm *supposed* to be in bed, but it's way too
boring, so I'm down in my office squishing sculpey for the puppets I'm
making for Rowan's Christmas gift. The one I'm working on now is a
stone idol. Sean, Ro's older brother, will be making some monsters...
it should be a lot of fun to play with them after.

And Yay! for the good guys everywhere.

Cats on windowsills~our little grey one, SilverChair, likes to perch
at the kitchen window - our windows start at only 22 inches off the
floor, mind you - and they have no real sills, so somehow she balances
on an inch or two for hours, staring at us cooking and eating without
her and doing other offensive crimes against felinity. At least that's
what she calls them. 
Our big tuxedo'd male, Tommy Tutone, lurks over her head on the deck
railing, and bares his teeth at us from time to time just to point out
how we live by his tolerance alone, but that that could change any
moment if he doesn't get some of that fish we're cooking...
  

    
Dern, forgot what I came here for.

Neil's blog mentions childhood comfort books: mine was "A Tree Grows
in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith. 
Now, it would be "Friday", Heinlein, or strangely, "Lolita", Nabokov.
That last one frightens me to analyze...
  

    
One of my favorite comfort books seems to cause people either to pity
me conspicuously, or to get extremely annoyed with me. I don't mind,
it's happened enough so that it's amusing now to try to predict the
particular person's reaction. But my list of comfort books is as
follows:

A Wrinkle in Time
Much Ado About Nothing
the Fountainhead
Neverwhere (not a childhood one, but a comfort one nonetheless)
Fahrenheit 451
the Oxford English Dictionary

These are books I read often, over and again, when I am stressed out
or sad. The Dictionary really doesn't count, I know, but it does seem
to calm me when I'm all in a tizzy.
  

    
Wow, now no laughing but my biggest comfort book is The Phantom of the
Opera by Gaston Leroux.  It caught my heart at an early age and I was
convinced that I was Little Lotte and that when I slept I heard the
Angel of Music.  What can i say?  There are many others but I need to
go check my bookshelf. 

To everyone, thank you so much for your nice comments on my website. 
You are good to me.  

Pamela:  rock. thanks for putting up those pictures!  

Linda:  Sorry this took so long, but a "swing" is an actor who is
hired to learn many roles at once and can go on for these roles at a
moment's notice.  It's kind of an all-purpose understudy.  They are
expected to be at the theatre during the show just in case of
accidents.  You'd be amazed at how often swings go on, too, at least on
Broadway.  

I have to admit, I started a Blog a while back: 
http://grumpyghost.blogspot.com/  There's no rhyme or reason to it, but
I find it kind of fun.  
  

    <scribbled by dfowlkes Tue 3 Jul 12 10:14>