Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    

I am well now, thank you.  Two weeks ago I was roadkill, however.  %^)
  

    
Hullo.  I couldn't resist dropping in to say:

Ohmigod, we're buying a house!!!

Well, we've picked one, anyway.  Now the banks and everybody have to
do their thing, so we'll see what happens.  Prayers to your favorite
entities would be appreciated.

     *

Tree: You spent three weeks in China?  How cool!  When?  What for?

DanW: Well, that makes sense.  It's impossible to *read* Martha
without processing issues of sex, love and self-esteem.

Neil: If it's any consolation, I struggled with issues of self-esteem
after reading the Martha poem, too.

Jinx:  I'm glad your mom's surgery went well.  Yelling is definitely a
good sign.

Sending mental reinforcements to everyone battling germs.

Michaela: I like your apostraphes.  They're very creative and random,
and that makes me happy. : )

YOUNI!!!  Welcome back!  I'm so glad you finally got to see LOTR!  And
I loved the Tolkein quote.  It's so true.  I used to see the Finnish
newspapers and magazines, when I was in Norway.  And it looked like the
most incomprehensible language in the world to me.  ALL those letters
in one word!
  

    

Pamela - congratulations!!  We want details.  And good luck with the 
processing...
  

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

    
Grgh. I managed to dodge the cold everyone else seemed to get, but due
to an unusual set of circumstances that triggered several bad asthma
attacks, I ended up in bed nearly a week fending off bronchitis brought
on by asthma. I suppose the plus side of that has been being hit
upside the head with the urge to write; I've been collecting the ideas
and building on them slowly, and plan to spend Feb doing nothing but
writing, 8 hours a day. Should be interesting to see what I come up
with. 

Anyhow, just briefly dancing by to check in and say hello,... I've to
go find something meaningful to do with this afternoon, like lay in a
pile of pillows and enjoy the sun.  :-)

-Kelly
  

    
Want to lose five pounds in a hurry? Do a two-day belly dance workshop
when it's 95F with a bazillion percent humidity and no
air-conditioning. But there was live drumming. [swoon] There is nothing
like dancing to live drumming.

Neil--Fortunately thingies are very sympathetic about my tea needs.
Jinxie keeps it in the cupboard for me, Rocky has been converted and
Kari (whose seatbelt you signed at Book Soup) even did an emergency run
to a supermarket in Las Vegas before I expired (hell, I'd been
awake/flying/driving for 36 hours and I NEEDED TEA!)

I'm astonished that the link you sent me sells Bushells. I won't drink
the stuff myself, but I thought that would be too obscure.

The spreading thinly rule applies equally to Vegemite. It's not like
peanut butter, folks. Moderation is the key.

Dan--yes, we may all be criminals down here, but I deny utterly that
iocaine powder comes from Australia! You can trust me... ;>

Pam--Congratulations on the new abode! I expect pictures on the blog!

I was in China about six months before the events in Tiananmen Square
on, would you believe, school camp. Melbourne, Australia was becoming a
sister city to Nanjing and they wanted to send some student
ambassadors over. It was eye-opening for a 16 year old me, that is for
sure.

Tree
A shadow of her former self.
  

    
Hello, been a long time and there's lots to be thankful for.

Tree - Congrats! You've got to post pictures and provide me with some
inspiration.  

Jinxy - Happy to hear your Mom is doing fine. Get well vibes going
your way... 

Pamela - Congrats!  Buying a home is a very emotional event, I spend
most of my time being an armchair psychologist rather than a real
estate agent. The really tough part is the time between the acceptance
of your offer for the property and the execution of the contract. I
can't stress the importance of having a real estate attorney who is
completely focused on serving your best interests.  

Neil - Congrats! Biting Dog Press just informed us that SNOW, GLASS
APPLES illustrated by George Walker will be out soon.  [Does a happly
little dance..] So along with Coraline there are two new things to look
forward to this year. 

Jouni - Those archives are wonderful, and here is another excellent
Tolkien website, but be careful, you can literally spend *hours*
pouring over the material: http://www.glyphweb.com/arda/

Rocky who was informed that she had sold $7M worth of property in her
first year!  
  

    
Pamela -- good luck on the house. Not to mention the dishwasher. Many
people have reported issues of self-esteem after reading the Martha
poem. ("I was half way through that poem," they tell me, "when I
realised I was a much better person than I had previously believed.") 


Tree -- It's hard with vegemite and marmite to explain to people that
less is more. But it is.


Rocky -- yes. I think they have about 50 copies of Murder Mysteries
left at this point as well.

There seem to be a lot of things coming out this year. A WALKING TOUR
OF THE SHAMBLES by me and Gene Wolfe comes out in May, to accompany
World Horror Con. And I have to write lots of short fiction, some of
which will see print...
  

    

Given the comments of late, I'm wondering whether I absolutely should read
Martha's book RIGHT NOW, or if I absolutely should not until some time in
the future...
  

    
madman - you should read it RIGHT NOW... (this is reminding me of a
post to afn-g - I don't remember what it was for now, but "It was
better than Cats. I'll <read> it again and again.")

DanW - I think *everyone* would be impressed if they all could recite
the Martha poem without the twitch of a smile, or even much of a
snicker. Took my friend James and I at least a dozen takes before we
got through it once without exploding into cackles, and we were taking
turns on the verses!

Michaela - Aren't warranties great?

Jinx - Muppets are the best medicine for everything.

Neil - I'm glad it went to a Duran Duran fan, but I'm still floored
that they paid so much for it. Then again (tallying how much I've spent
on things with your name on them)... okay, I'll shut up then. And yay
for Maddy - I'm always impressed that people can not only read music
(which I can do mostly), but also *play* it on an instrument that they
have to mechanically maneuver somehow...

Kelly - I want a day to just sit amidst fluffery and watch the world
go by. It could even be a cold day and I'd be happy with it. :)

Pamela - Yay for house-buying!

Tree - Considering it was cold enough to snow *inside* my workplace
today, I have empathy only for your sore muscles just now. Otherwise,
it sounds like you had so much fun!

Rocky - Thanks for the link to the Tolkien site. :)

And in other news, after not doing any modeling in months and months,
I have a shoot this weekend, with a seemingly very cool photographer.
Now to schedule someone else for my shift at work so that I can
actually go to the shoot...

squeaks, who meant to go to bed early tonight, but doesn't see it
happening any time soon.
  

    
I believe that less is more with Marmite and Vegemite.  Therefore I'm having
none: the peak dining experience.
  

    
E-mail from Jouni:

Neil -- Thanks. gotta inform my 'dealer'...

Pam -- Hi there gal! Congrats about the house! You know, they say that
finnish is one of the most difficult languages in the world... and I speak
(and even write) it fluently! I must be very intelligent ;-)

Jouni
  

    
Hi, y'all!

Um.  I have so much to say that I can't think of anything.  So, um. 
Hi Jouni!

Dan--what a fabulous way to learn music!  I learned the traditional
way, and hence cannot improvise.  At all.  I am so jealous of your
having the opportunity to go pro.  I was never anywhere near that good.
 And I wanted it so bad!

I actually came on to post this link:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/cassieclaire/ 

I hope it works.  It's a link to the diaries of the Lord of the Rings
characters.  I don't believe I have laughed this hard this year (unless
it was at one of Mike's posts).  Start at the bottom with Aragorn's &
scroll up.  Warning:  You must have a sense of humor to view this site!

Neil--Go get him.  And Yay! that you have so much stuff coming out
this year.  It's a good thing.

Jinx--hope your mom is well soon!  Happy thoughts her way!

Rocky--my God, woman!  What will you do your second year?!  Congrats!

Pam--Congratulations!  Brigid & Patrick bless your house!

Um, more later, as I thinks of thingses!

Mary (reading Elizabeth Peters "Deeds of the Disturber", having just
finished Peter S. Beagle's "A Fine & Private Place"--God, what a
depressing book!)
  

    
*pokes head in cautiously* Does the Mob accept new members, or will I
receive funny electronic looks at my bold intrusion? *smiles winningly*
  

    
Pamela -- Woohoo! Congratulations! Believe me, home ownership is the
most fulfilling frustrating experience you'll ever have.

FBZ -- I believe the answer to your question is, "yes." The way I've
got it figured, anybody bold enough to pipe up will fit in quite
nicely.

Michelle -- Glad I'm not the only one who remembers that SNL skit.
That and Happy Fun Ball are my all-time favorites. A close third goes
to the pain reliever "commercial" that featured a guy taking it after
getting speared by a javelin.
  

    
Bill^2- Felt like I had to after hitting the link Mary posted. Okay,
so there's a lot of LOTR parody coming out, but this has to be one of
the funniest, simply because it addresses that perennial question:
"Just how DO they all get along in that nearly womanless world?" in
such hilarious fashion. 
  

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

    
Thank you, Dan! 
Wow, I've been reading the last few days' posts (cripes, y'all are
prolific!) and have been simply itching to jump into the conversation.
I, too, was a Suzuki violin child!! At about 3 years old, was handed
the tissue box/ruler and stick, and rather promptly moved on to one of
those terribly cute, eensy little violins that sound like tuned nails
on a chalkboard. I still don't know how my parents could stand
listening to it, especially since they had three childers learning
stringed instruments at once- my big sis and I on violin, and my little
brother on cello. Dan, you're right- one of the biggest problems with
Suzuki is that you don't learn to read music. When I switched
instruments at 10 and started playing harp, i nearly drove my teacher
insane with my reluctance to learn to read the little black dots.
Developed a bad habit of correcting my mistakes mid-song, too. But I
finally learned, and I can sightread pretty darn well now, at least on
harp. Violin's another matter, particularly since I haven't kept it up
very well. I occasionally pull it out to run through some reels and
wince at my terrible intonation.
I noticed the adult lamentations of "no musical ability." Hey now,
it's never too late to learn! My late father, gods bless him, took up
viola at age 45. He wasn't too bad, but I would suggest that adult
learners try something other than unfretted stringed instruments.
Harp's actually a good one for adults; it's less expensive than a piano
(tho not much, admittedly), you can tune it with the help of an
electronic tuner, and harps _never_ sound bad (unless a clumsy moron
_knocks it over_. Grrrr.) And harpists/ers are a very friendly lot,
extremely supportive, all that.

Tara- you posted about an aversion to grits! O, how can you not like
hominy!! It's delicious stuff! Add some butter, cheddar cheese and
salt, and you've got one of my favorite comfort foods. Maybe it's just
because I grew up in Virginia. I like scrapple too. 

Abbess- are you in the US? I swear I've seen Milka bars in stores
here. Target, weirdly enough. But it could've just been a misplaced
memory of the candy rack at a commisary on a military base.

Hmm. I suppose I should end this frightfully long post by explaining
just _why_ I've been itching to join the Mob. A boyfriend (now ex)
picked up the Sandman series and passed it on to me, and now I can't
believe I'd never run into it before. Of course, Sandman (and the Death
comics, and Black Orchid) turned me to Neverwhere turned me to
American Gods, and I'm still working on everything else, since I'm a
moneyless grad student and I of course want to *buy* copies of
everything so I can force the uninitiated to experience them. Oky, that
about covers it, horribly sorry for the long post!
  

    
Yipes. I just realized how VERY long my last post was. Won't do that
again. <:-/
  

    
please do it again, (ancillafelium).  I like reading long posts!

To answer your question, I am in the US, and might even have seen Milka
(purple wrapper, German chocolate) in stores, and certainly have seen them
in plenty of duty free shops and plenty of stores in my travels in Europe,
but haven't seen this particular honey flavor since getting it on a plane
and saying "yum"!  They come in all kinds of flavors, they're simple milk
chocolate candy bars with a layer of yummy filling in between.
  

    
That actually sounds like the variety of Milka my older sister is fond
of. I'll try and remember to ask her if she's seen them anywhere. My
personal favorites among the German chocolates are the Ritter Sports,
particularly the marzipan, and of course, Kinder Eggs. I really want
more Kinder Eggs...haven't had any to play with since I went on
European tour with my college choir.
  

    
(Do you have any idea what the deductibles on earthquake insurance in
California look like?)

Thanks for all the well-wishes for our house, everyone!  We meet with
the loan officer (who's currently on her honeymoon) on Saturday, so we
should be pretty sure of things by next week.  Don't forget to cross
things for low interest rates!!!

Hi, Annie!  Welcome aboard.  We only bark madly, we don't bite.

Tree--That's a serious 1-2 punch: To go there at 16.  And then to
watch Tianenmen Square shortly thereafter.

Rocky: Nice to hear from you.  CONGRATS!  Wow.  And our realtor is
terrific: straight-up, funny and a fighter.  I'd recommend her to
anyone.

Neil: It's always good to have more good stuff to look forward to this
year.  When I can buy anything again.
  

    
P.S., Annie: Mmmmmm.  Marzipan...  
  

    
Welcome to the Mob, Annie!

Pamela, earthquake insurance in California is pretty weird.  I don't 
remember enough about it to speak with authority, though, so here's the 
link to the California Earthquake Authority:

http://www.earthquakeauthority.com/index.html#top
  

    
Jinx--I know this know this is late (and I've probably already said it
a bazillion times in other forums) but YAY for the news about your
mum. Did you give her a (gentle!) hug for me?

Rocky--You say that as if you were surprised. You're a goddess, woman!
Of COURSE you would do that well in your first year! And you're going
to knock them sideways this year!

Mary--My LotR geek friend nearly wet himself at that livejournal link.
He's starting to be afraid of you people...

FBZ--Welcome and you can keep the grits. Tried them once and that was
enough. Even with cheese. Here in Aus, we have both Milka (not
particularly fond of it) and I have a toybox almost entirely composed
of the toys you find in Kinder Surprises. PLAY! ;>

Pam--If you think that was bad, I was only in New York in July... I'm
beginning to think I'm bad luck. :(

However, it did open my eyes to the reality of world events. Suddenly
they were not abstract things I saw on the telly, they were very real
and they were in places I knew and loved. Just one of the many benefits
of travel.

Speaking of which, I've updated my website (ladymisstree.com) with my
trip to the US last year and a bunch of other stuff. Including a misty
photo of the NY skyline that I'm very grateful to have.

General call for assistance... Does anyone know anything about Adobe
Atmosphere? Or can you point me in the direction of where I can find
info? A workmate is presenting something about virtual environments
tomorrow and is looking for some help. Any help appreciated.

Tree
Who may find herself in Dallas and London sometime in the next four
weeks. Eeeep.