Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    
dodge - Well, I'm glad you're enjoying the account from down here. I
feel like I'm just rambling on and on about stuff no one else would get
or care about.

Ooh, but I must say this: If you ever get an opportunity to pet a roo
without getting injured, you MUST do so. So soft, and those doe eyes
just get you every time!

tinymonster - No, I'm the 'favourite-stalker' formerly known as
'not-a-stalker'. Walker's either just the 'stalker' or the 'harmless
stalker'... unless Neil has changed his mind about either of us, which,
considering the 'frequent stalker miles' both Walker and I have
accumulated just to say hello and such, he may do one of these days...

DanW - Well, let us know what works... Hopefully others here can come
too. And if that date doesn't work out, we'll just have to reschedule
and have fun without them. :P

squeaks, who has enjoyed this trip beyond words, but misses home and
Boy even more than that.
  

    
Michelle -- Ahh, so there's a whole chronology of stalker-ism.  (Your
part of it rings a bell now.)  Is the title of
"<i>mostly</i>-harmless-stalker" still open?  ;)

BTW, is this the same Boy who used to be in Information Society?  (OK,
I remember SOME early postings.)
  

    
Squeaks - I'll pencil friday so i don't fill it with anything else,
otherwise it'll have to be late night drinks Sat or Sunday. Which one
of us is organizing general Wellie/thingie gatherings that weekend?
  

    
Same dancing ferret Patrick.

Christy -- that was what I told Maddy, when I beat her at Scrabble
(and it was not an easy victory). She'll probably settle down and read
dictionaries until she beats me, which will make me happy.

Trevor -- get Lisa to design and black-and-black Harlequin suit, and
you're on...

Maure -- say hi to Penn and Teller from me.

Tree -- I agree.

Mary -- who does Crazy Hair is now Harper's choice. 

..

Have to finish 1602 #4 today, then I have to start a new computer from
scratch -- just as I had this notebook as I wanted it, Dell sent a
repairman, who broke it....
  

    
Hey, (billbill)!  Good to see you represented on the Journal.  How
about you come here and visit us once in a while?  :)
  

    
Huh.  I was slipped, but not informed.  Must have had something to do
with using the spellcheck.

Hi, Neil!  Dell repairmen are starting to sound like dangerous
people....
  

    
Neil - Would you settle for black and charcoal-almost-black-ish-grey,
so as to at least be able to see the diamond pattern? This is complete
with hat and shoes as well, yes? 
  

    
Mousey - Harmless Stalker? Didn't know I had upgraded from "Most
Polite".
  

    
Neil -- I realize this isn't very useful advice, in hindsight, but when the
Dell repairman decided to replace your entire computer, you might have asked
him to let you keep the old hard disk and try it in the new machine.  
  
The slightly expensive, but most convenient, option is simply to keep two
identical laptops around and periodically synchronize the hard disks.  
If one goes blooie, you can switch its hard disk into the other one  (or,
if it's the hard disk that goes blooie, switch over to the hard disk in
the other one).
  

    
Or even get a Firewire drive (can Dells use Firewire?) and back up the
hard drive that way. You can get a 200gig firewire drive for less than
$400 now.
  

    
Hey, Mary, did your roommate Jeff end up getting into the permanent
chorus at the Lyric?  Just came across that post and was curious.
  

    
Huh? Who, me? Hey, yeah, I did used to post around here once upon a
time, didn't I?

Still lurking around corners, and reading daily. I think I scored
something like 70% on the purity test, which was actually a bit lower
than I would have guessed. 

Neil-- I feel your pain on reinstalling programs. Although WinXP seems
to be BETTER than Win98, et al, in terms of needing to be completely
wiped clean and started over, I've certainly noticed that my computer
is running a bit cleaner since I inadvertently zarked my system a
couple of weeks back. Still, that "lived-in" feel won't really
materialize for another month or so.

Just finished reading Matt Ruff's _Set this House in Order_ (go, buy
it. Now. Really.) and Robert Charles Wilson's _Chronoliths_, which was
an enjoyable read, if you're into paradoxical time travel stuff, which
I am.

That is all. For now.
  

    
Email from Jouni Koponen:

Umm... hello folks.

Been quite awhile, eh?

Just wanted to tell you that I'm still alive (even though the long and
cold and dark winter tends to drain all the energy away from you...) and
have recently even read... well, atleast browsed this topic.

Haven't done any new illustrations (actually I'm still doing slow progress
illustrating Maure's poem 'Amaranth by the Sea', but I'll tell you more
about it when it's finished...), but if there's newbies around, there's
some pictures (Neil-related and others) in my on-line picture garage in

http://www.geocities.com/jouniac/picts.html

Hope you like'em... oh, and remember to sign the guestbook y'hear!! ;-)

DanGuy -- Did I understand correctly? Another baby? Yay! Congrats!!

Neil -- Also browsed through FAQ's in NeilGaiman.com and I really really
really REALLY hope that your Scandinavian tour next autumn will happen
(keeping fingers and toes crossed)! :-)

Jouni (it's good to be back again)
  

    
> if you're into paradoxical time travel stuff, which I am.

Ooh!  Sounds right up my alley!

...

Slipped by... none other than Jouni!  Hello and welcome back!  :D
  

    
Dodge -- Wow, you did better than I did in my first six months of
Gaiman-ness.  I'd thought my 19-or-whatever per cent (too lazy to look
it up) was impressive.  Great "How I Became Obsessed" story, too!

Davey -- Thanks for the good wishes on the Choir cover!  I think I
need the discipline of knowing <i>somebody</i> out there knows I'm
doing this.  ;)

Still about a week behind on the Journal, though I've skimmed some of
the stuff I haven't read in detail yet.  Neil, glad your trip went well
and sounded cool, and I'm also glad this one involved a reading. 
(I'll bet you felt like YOU again.)  Still jealous of the people who
got to be there, but I guess I'll just have to wait my turn.

Time to finish my dinner and go to bed.  'Night, all.
  

    
Hey, Christie--(did I spell that right?  Sorry, in
grade-averaging-induced fog)  No, he did not.  They obviously lack
taste.

On the other hand, he was in the *supplemetary* chorus a few years
back, and would not have accepted a position there again. It means
being under contract for about 6 months out of the year, and while the
money's good, you can't take any other roles you might get offered. 
The importance of having certain roles on your resume cannot be
over-emphasized here.  Chorus with the Lyric doesn't hold a candle to
Rigoletto with Bob's Opera Hut and Tiki Bar at a certain point in your
career.  Since Jeff already has Lyric supplementary chorus on the res,
losing 6 months of potential jobs isn't really worth it.  *Permanent*
chorus, on the other hand, offers a year-round salary high enough *to
actually live on*, and enables one to do interesting things, like pay
bills, live under a roof, and eat at least once a day.  And not work a
day job.  Plus the union rocks.

Lyric may have known that he wouldn't take supplementary, and if they
didn't have permanent to offer, decided not to offer at all.  Or they
may have hated his audition.  Or him.  We have no idea.  I love
performing arts, don't you?  

He is, however, singing in NYC again this year with Pocket Opera
Company, with the New York New Music Ensemble.  Last year he was
mentioned favorably in the NYT (in a group with the rest of the cast,
but still.....), and this year he's playing the title role in a comedy
he's played before (it's called Golk, written by the director of Pocket
Opera), so I have my fingers crossed.

And he has one of my old jobs--part-time at a company that does job
interviews over the phone, so at least he has *some* work.  Things here
in Chicago being *really* bad right now in the job market, this is a
*good* thing.  Ooops, I mentioned the current &^*%-up state of the
economy, when I was supposed to be distracted by the war in Iraq. 
Sorry.

Mary, who should *never* be allowed near a keyboard when she's this
tired, as she doesn't know when to shut up.

P.S.  Neil--they're so spiky and......*French*, aren't they?
  

    
Good God, a post that long, and I still didn't say,

Jouni!!  Hi!  Good to see you!!

Bill!! Good to see you, too!  I've been meaning to say--next time you
are in town, I swear I'll get to go to lunch or something, now that I
no longer work insane hours.  Keep me posted.....
  

    
tinymonster - Yep, same boy. and I *think* the title is up for grabs.

trev - Uh, I thought you told me he said you were harmless. My mistake
if I remembered wrong. But I'd think I might have taken issue with
your being more polite than me (<-- lame attempt at sarcasm, which, by
the way, is not as easy as you'd think with jet lag factored in).

Dan - I have no idea what's going on that weekend, as Ms. Pammy and
Mr. Trevor have yet to give me any details of their plans for the
weekend. I'm pretty certain I've got the whole weekend open, but I'll
be dancing around their schedule.

bill^2 - 'Paradoxical time travel'... Is that anything like leaving
for home on 12 March at 3PM, and arriving on 12 March at 9:30AM?
Incidentally, 12 March v.2.0 was much better than the Beta version.

Ooh, and Tree, if you're reading - NO JULIA ROBERTS! (Can I have an
amen?)

Jouni!! <<<hugs>>> Well-come back. Hope to see you around more.

Back to catching up on missed posts and overdue bills (grrr)

squeaks, who really doesn't remember owing Mastercard that much...
  

    
For the deeply confused, my curse when I'm travelling is that every
flight long enough to show a movie will feature Julia Roberts.

I thought I was safe on one overseas flight because she hadn't
released a movie. But no, they had a Julia Roberts retrospective.

On one overseas trip I was subjected to 'Runaway Bride' three times.
Did I mention that I cannot sleep on planes?

It's a curse.

At least I know when she releases a film, I'm likely to be travelling.

Tree
AMEN, sister! Good to hear you arrived safe and sound and in the past.
;>
  

    
Happy Anniversary to Neil and Mary G.!!!!!  :D

Have a great day, you two.  :)
  

    
E-mail from Holley Nowell:

Got my copy of the comic book "Legend of the Green Flame" that Neil did.
The comic was good but the face of superman changed. In one he was very
realistic looking and in the next he was simplistic with those Orphan
Annie eyes. But, the most interesting part of the comic was the
commentary from Neil and others on how the comic book came about. How it
was originally requested back before he'd done Sandman and how it was
not accepted because the requirements had changed between when he was
given the assignment and when it was to be published. The story got
shelved - in a black hole somewhere. And finally many years later, Neil
thought it'd be a good idea again and NObody could find a copy. DC
didn't have it. Neil didn't. But then he found someone who'd made a copy
and given a friend a copy and the friend still had the story. I think
that's how it went. SO. Finally it got made. The various comments were
amusing. Oh, and the story was very good also.

Am awaiting a cd or dvd of Neverwhere series. Am working on getting the
book. Am awaiting some of the graphic novels for Sandman. Spent bucks on
EBay recently. Can you tell?

As for my real life. I work. I swim. I go home. If the weather is nice
this weekend and it looks to be shaping up for 74 degrees and no rain
spring weather, I will be going over to visit friends I haven't seen in
a while.

And that's my check in for this week. Have a great weekend everybody.
  

    
You too, Dodge!
  

    
I can't imagine why this would remind me of Peeps Jousting.

http://www.cheeseracing.org/
  

    


KATHY LI writes:



Behind behind, catching up.  Scored in the mid-20s on both purity tests.
Hopelessly compromised.

Hi, all.  Just wanted to say, it's a somewhat surreal experience to be
driving Jon Singer out to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, only half paying
attention as he makes phonecalls from the passenger seat, warning him when
the coverage might disappear as you head into farmland, and then perking up
to point out the ostrich ranch en passant, only to realize that Jon is
talking to Neil.

So, Neil.  What's wrong with the clip of The Device?  [I must warn you in
advance, I have never successfully fixed a clip.  And Waterman 52 clips often
involve rivets.]  The fix I figured out is for skipping on the upstroke (the
nib's too far forward on the feed).

Also, being an ad spokesperson for very VERY nice pens is something Mark
Twain once did: he used to let Conklin quote him in the ads saying he liked
their pens because they wouldn't roll off the desk.  My advice: only say yes
if Pelikan, Sailor, or Namiki call.  And if it's Sailor don't settle for
anything less than their new music nib. :-)

--Kathy

p.s. Introduced Singer to UNDERSTANDING COMICS.  *You* will have to explain
to Scott McCloud why I'll be giving him a teacup.
  

    
I wanted to make a crack about Wisconsin folks and their cheese, but
as the last picture on that cheese page features a bridge and an opera
house that look mighty familiar (hey, wasn't I there a few days ago?),
I can only say EEP!

Kathy, you now have me curious about teacups...

-squeaks, who will attempt to inflict 'Happy Tree Friends' on the
boy's family tonight... (insert evil laughter here)