Inkwell: Authors and Artists

    


Jouni Koponen writes:




HO HO HO!!

I realize I'm bit early, but since I happened to have some spare time NOW
and I'll be away for two weeks after this friday...

there's slightly Lovecraftian Christmas card -scribble in
http://www.geocities.com/jouniac/picts.html

Go see it.

IÄ IÄ! MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! SANTA FHTAGN!

Jouni(lurking in the shadows)
  

    
I can't believe this... I'm one sentence from the end of my delurk
post of the ages and the cat lost my post... and now I'm late for work
and I have to go... she will be punished.

Suffice to say, HI! and I MISS YOU ALL! I'll be back more regularly in
the coming year.

Oh, and there was a lot of rambling about 12:01 showings not really
starting until 12:15, and how they did that to Gollum, but it's okay,
and then how my friend wants a big black flappy to ride to work (and
I"m so about to hurt the kitten!) and geez I swore over half the
theatre was male, but then Orlando Bloom's on screen and it's all
"EEEEEE" from 3/4 of the crowd... then again, it is SF... and how you
shouldn't close a late shift, watch a midnight showing of a 3.5 hour
production that doesn't start until 12:15, and then get up 3 hours
later to start the early shift... unless you're a total geek like me.
:)

hugses from the mousey who was jabbed in the gut with a light saber
last night (it's okay, it wasn't on).

-squeaks
  

    
Welcome back!
  

    
Welcome back, Jouni!  I'm scared of Santa now.  Have a good trip! 
(Where're you going?)

Welcome back, Michelle!  I'm scared of lightsabers now.

Yay for RotK!  I'm not seeing it until Friday night, so no spoilers,
please!
  

    
A couple of slightly late comments:

Holley -- He said he "was given" this particular one, but I don't know
by whom; could have been anyone from a random fan to his French
publisher.

Packing with a cat in the house sounds like a pain.  When is the move,
again?  I'll be so happy for you when you're all settled -- with
spiffy upgraded computer to boot (up)!

Dan -- Yay Linda!  Is she still doing bead jewelry?  If you see her
again, please tell her hi back!

Wow, please keep us posted on your friend's situation.  Rocky
marriages are bad enough without immigration problems into the mix! 
Are they from Brazil or Portugual?  (Just curious.)  Good for friends
like you to be there for her.
  

    
And Neil -- I'm sorry your friend is in the hospital.  He's in my
prayers.  

(He sounds like quite an accomplished guy!)
  

    
Jouni, "lurking" takes on a whole new meeting looking at your work...
That one's a hoot! The DreamHaven folks like it, too. (I sent a note to
Greg and he printed it out for the sales desk.)

Christy, yes, I think you should take the stairs. (Do you have any
idea how many out-of-town friends have cited the healthful
cardiovascular effects of shoveling to me this past week? Smart-alecks,
the lot of you.)
  So, are you going to tell us anything about the spiffy new laptop
you've obviously bonded with in record time? I'm just geeky enough to
want to know all the gory details.

Holley: yep, cats are like that. Most of them loathe change and will
do anything their twisted little brains can imagine to disrupt
disruption. Good luck with the move.

Dan: Erk. Um, boring is OK, sometimes, really it is. Good luck to you
and your friend.

Squeaks: hugses backatcha! Don't kill the kitten now, she'll be much
more, er, "fun" later. And I'm not going to see RotK for another couple
of weeks, but big black flappies as personal transport has a definite
appeal walking through the slush.
  

    
Oops: "whole new _meaning_" (I wonder what my fingers were thinking?)
  

    
...am taking a rare few minutes in a busy month to sit down and get my
monthly Well fee's worth, while waiting for TREE to arrive at LAX!!! 
Unfortunately, it appears that her LAX karma has struck again, because
her plane's getting in an hour and a half late. 
(However, I checked ahead on her flight status online, so I'm waiting
in the comfort of my newly Cmas/Yuley home.)  California Thingie/Wellie
mayhem to ensue this weekend.  Posts to follow.

Erynn: Congrats on the plays!  How utterly fun to see your work on
stage.

Holley: Good luck with moving.  Holiday moves are rough.

Davey: Welcome back, chica!  Don't drown in snow.  A couple days ago I
found myself imagining your cute li'l Vespa trying gamely to dash
through snowdrifts, and then quitting in a sniff because it's
*Italian*, baby.  (Will call soon.  Have been a bit gerbilish myself,
lately.  Apparently, not having work I get paid to do only means that I
work even harder on other things.)

Michelle: Ack!  You *did* get dragged to the midnight showing!  I'm
ever so proud, and now we're both hung over together today.  We got
home at 3:30 a.m., after 13 hours of Trilogy in Hollywood.  Gah... news
camera crews in the lobby *all day long*.  However, we were much
comforted by the lovely company of Adriana and Dave.  Can't wait to see
you Saturday!  Give us a call at home or cell to keep us posted on
your ETA.

Dan: Now I'm imagining your friend as the cute little Portugese chick
in _Love Actually_.  Best of luck to her.  Being on the wrong side of
the INS is very scary.  Particularly in the wake of the Patriot Act.

Actually, everything is a bit scary in the wake of the Patriot Act.

The mayor of London is my most recent political hero.

Running off to the airport!

*hugs to all*

-P
  

    



Jouni Koponen writes:




Thanks all.

tinymonster -- Scared of Santa... well you should be. I mean think about the
lyrics in 'Santa Claus is coming to town'... all the horror is just hidden
behind the cheerfull tune...

We (meaning me, my wife and our son) will go north to my parents for
Christmas.

davey -- Well, thank Greg and other DreamHaven folks for me. :-)

Jouni
  

    



Holley Nowell writes:


January 10th is the weekend I move. 40 days and counting. I'm on vacation the
next two weeks to get ready and will probably take a few days after that
weekend to get things in enough order to live there.

Ah. Snow. We're somewhere in the 60s degrees. And are hoping for at least a
few days of freeze before spring. It gets rid of the mosquitoes and plethora
of other buggies so we don't have so many come spring.

I hope Cleo settles down once we move. I really don't want to remove her
claws. It sounds like a painful thing to do. And expensive. And requires a
large amount of care to keep bandages on and protect her front paws while
they heal.
  

    
Tree's coming for a visit!?  Woo-hoo!  Too bad it's on the other
coast, but I hope all you folks have fun together!  Please tell her hi
from the rest of us.  And yes, we'd love to see rehash posts!

I definitely could have told Neil that calendars repeat.  I knew a
lady who kept a set of nine, or maybe it was eleven, calendars that she
just kept reusing without a hitch.

And last year, I found and bought a long-overdue Thompson Twins
calendar from 1985.  Worked perfectly for 2002!

And Davey, since you asked:

It's a Dell Latitude D600 with a 1700MHz Pentium M processor and about
half a meg of RAM.  I'm still waiting for the floppy drive, but I have
a CD drive.  Not going to bother putting in the wireless adapter yet,
because I now have a company Earthlink account I can use from home
instead of that expensive T-Mobile link.  I've got a nice docking
station to use at work (with headphone jack that is easy to reach and
WORKS), but the notebook itself has a good-sized screen in its own
right.  Good sound with readily accessible volume and mute buttons on
the unit.

And it's fast enough to use as my main work computer, able to be taken
home with me to use there, and it DOESN'T CRASH EVERY FEW MINUTES!!!! 
WHOOOOOOO!!!!!

Stuff like that is important.
  

    
Oh yeah, meant to say, since I'm taking tomorrow off and may not be on
this weekend:

Happy Hannukah!!!!!


And a happy birthday today to my brother Benja-Man, even though he
probably never lurks here.
  

    
Back when my sister had a subscription to Dyn-O-Mite they published a
perpetual calendar with the 28 different years in it.

Pretty simple really...
  

    
The temptation to start singing "Oh Christmas Tree..." lurks ever just
beneath the surface today. *grin*

Tree is here!  Safely arrived, picked up and absconded with back to
our house.  Today was low-key--just the two of us, sleeping in,
visiting the Huntington museum and gardens (First Edition Milton in the
library), a special William Morris exhibition in the gallery (complete
with WM stained glass window installation), and roses, camellias and
the Japanese gardens.  Then off for Thai dinner and retail therapy in
Old Town Pasadena.

We were particularly fond of the pop-up Kama Sutra book.  It had pull
tabs.  Which we pulled, of course.  *smirk*

Also, I skimmed _The Fermata_ for the first time, when Tree pointed it
out in the bookstore, and experienced a certain "je ne sais quoi"
about the idea of Neil doing the screenplay.  Not really because it
hasn't any real ending.  But it doesn't.

And Pam has a new favorite imported phrase--"dead nummy"--and is now
instructed in the proper pronunciation of "arsebiscuits."  (Only the
Irish pronounce the "r".)

Tomorrow: Disneyland!  Including the _Nightmare Before Cmas_ version
of the Haunted Mansion.
  

    
Thanks all for the good thoughts concerning my friend. Actually, her
cousin...who I met in Brazil, and has become a rather major figure in
my life story that I will share with anyone who buys me a beer, is the
one I think of when I watch Love, Actually.

On the lighter side, Adriana rocks. We know that, but finding a
special christmas EP in my mailbox from The Endless just confirms that.

You Rock Adriana!

And I didn't do the midnight showing of RotK, but I saw it Wed night
and promise not to spoilerize anyone here.

off to the RotK forums!
  

    
YAY!  You got it!  Zippity.
  

    
Realizing I must have read one of the specs of my laptop incorrectly. 
I think I meant half a GIG.

Pam --
> (Only the Irish pronounce the "r".)

Well, then THAT'S the proper pronunciation.  ;)

Saw RotK.  Liked it.  During the day leading up to it, watched the
Special Edition DVDs for the first two movies.  Liked that too.
  

    
Okay, so I'm starting to be mostly sane again...

Today was my last day at the record store (hopefully ever, as I quit).
and there was much rejoicing, including from my coworkers who admitted
that the only reason they weren't happy for me was because they were
jealous they couldn't do it to. So I'm feeling even better about it. I
go to 4 days a week at the comic shop startin next year (literally, Jan
1).

Went to LA to meet up with Pammikins and MissTree and others from the
newsgroup (whew, almost wrote newsgrope, and not even tuesday yet!).
Was subjected to the Endless X-mas EP, and then had it stuck in my head
this morning... which, while cute and funny and wonderful, is not nice
to a sleep-deprived mousey in the morning when she can't even
pronounce 'hippopatamus', let alone picture what one would look like
w/out confusing some sort of imagery from Tolkien ... any way, it was
not a pretty picture this morning - though it amused my co-workers
mightily. Yay Adriana!

Kitten was not massacred, but we have started a battle of wills over
the use of the keyboard. I'm trying to arrange a sort of a sign up
sheet so that she can use it while I'm out, but, in true kitty fashion,
she insists that the keyboard only interests her while I'm using the
computer... I anticipate many casualties on both sides...

Um, oh yeah: Happy holidays for those that celebrate them!

And Davey, if I forget to drop you an email before I go to bed
tonight, drop me a line to remind me I needed to ask you something.
(hurrah for vagueries!)

Okay, sleepy. And a long day of insanity tomorrow as I run errands
like a mad thing and then prepare for the trip to Minnesota for family
visits over the holidays.

love and squeakage to all,
squeaks & thing e
  

    
Heh heh heh.  My plan to subject everyone to inane sonic drivel
WORKED!  WAAAA HAHAHAHAH!! (...and I'm sorry I missed you, Michelle,
but I have to be a hermit for a little whiles).  
  

    
There are endless carols
(http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1222christmas-carols22-ON.html)...
and then there are Endless carols.  Do they really have hippopotami in
them?

Congrats, Michelle, on getting all your employment needs gathered into
one place.  :)

Merry Christmas and safe travels to all!

-Christy
  

    

Congrats, Squeaks. Always glad to see people escape jobs from hell.
  

    
Dunno if you could call it the job *from* Hell... as most of us who
worked there decided that working there was some sort of imprisonment
IN Hell.

Oh, and Tree, if you're still listening, the boy is singing 'countless
armadilLOS' at me. 

Adriana - <hugs> I understand... but really, it's just like you were
there. Well, sort of. At any rate, it's good that if Tree couldn't
squeak, at least you were there to do it for her. :D 

As for employment in general, it should be interesting to see how long
I'm at the comic shop before I turn into one of the geeks I can still
make fun of. ;P

And I'm off. Off to colder climes (Minnesota, where boy has family).
I'll hopefully be able to check online for y'all before too long, but
in case I can't, warm wintery hugs to everyone, and happy holidays and
all that jazz. Don't go insane from too much nog in your eggs and may
you all be able to carry your presents home without injuring your backs
from such a glorious haul!

squeaks, who is rather for interesting well-wishes this year
  

    
Just typing in a chime to wish everyone who celebrates it a Merry
Xmas.

Hugs from a land with snow in it,

squeaks
  

    
Happyhappy Merrymerry to all!

It's not a special holiday for us, since I'm Jewish and Chip's an
agnostic, but we had our usual fun quiet day together and went to
friends' for dinner as we have the last several years. They like to
cook "theme" dinners; last night's was Alsatian, all cheese tart and
choucroute and chicken in Reisling and such (and a Gewurtztraminer
sorbet on the dessert table with the cakes), with good wines, in
excellent company. Whee. I hope everyone reading this had as fine a
day.

Finally seeing RotK tomorrow; we've been waiting to go with an
out-of-town friend who's in for the weekend. I've heard enough about it
already that I feel I know most of what to watch for, although I don't
know that that's really A Good Thing. Oh well.

I've decided I'm making a trip to Minneapolis in late April, and going
to DemiCon. It's been way too long since the last Mpls visit anyway;
and I heard there's going to be a Flash Girls reunion concert (and Folk
UnderGround) at DemiCon, which several of my Mpls friends drive down
to every year, so we're working on some plans and I'm going. This Time
For Sure.

Pam, the Vespa's been mostly huddled under its cover, although I've
gone out and cranked it over and let it run a while to keep the engine
happy. I do wish a few of the recently-warmer days would be not-rainy,
though--I'd much rather put my helmet and windproof on and actually
ride around; that would keep _me_ happy. When I went down the kitchen
steps to the bus stop day-before-yesterday I patted it on the
instrument panel (through the cover; it was raining again) and told it
you said hi.
  There's a pop-up Kama Sutra with pull-tabs? The copy we've had for
years and years (don't tell me you're surprised) doesn't have
pull-tabs. Must go check out newer editions.

(Realizing belatedly that I wasn't paying enough attention to Tree's
blog and she's in Boston _today_ but I'm committed otherwise all day
and can't possibly catch up. Dangit. Sorry!)

Christy, your Dell sounds like a nice machine, especially the
not-crashing-every-few-minutes part. You be careful if a Dell repairman
tries to "help" you with it, though, hm?

Squeaks: note sent. (Vaguaries indeed.) Yay for other! places with
snow on them.
  "Kitten was not massacred..." but of course now I've been
contemplating a squirming kitten trying desperately to type out a plea
for rescue as Herod drags it away from the keyboard, with an
eyelash-color brush in his other hand.
  Yay for giving up jobs that make you unhappy! We could start a pool
on your slide into geekdom. Four days/week, eh? OK, I'll give it six
weeks until you catch yourself doing or saying something and realize
"AAHHH! I'm one of THEM!"