Good Things and Annoying Things

Good Thing #1: Much to my surprise, a nice delivery man appeared yesterday with my new baby in hand. The box is very, very small. I am now hurriedly finishing playing Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls so I can get the old clunker off my desk (and strip it of everything I can sell on eBay), and the lovely new piece of industrial sculpture (that doubles as a very nice computer) on my desk and working. It really is a pretty thing, and it even came with Tiger (that's Mac OS 10.4) which only just came out. Yay! I am a Mac Person again!

Annoying Thing #1: Upon inspecting the receipt from the courier much later, I discovered that there should have been two boxes, not one. The other one, presumably, would have my keyboard in it. I had simply assumed that it shipped later for some reason. Obviously, I should have looked at the thing I was signing more closely. So now I'm hoping they either showed up today and left it with Mum (I left a note on the door telling them to go next door if no one was home), or that they'll still show up. I'll have to check with Mum (I just got home from Value Village in Nanaimo). Otherwise, I'll have to look up the phone number of the Victoria office online (it's not on the receipt), and call them. I really, really hate having to call people. Especially about things I shouldn't have to be calling them about in the first place. Urgh.

Annoying Thing #2 (because I want to save something good for last): Sue and I ventured up to Nanaimo to go to Value Village (and also a couple dollar stores and the Sally Ann). I was in search of pants and a belt. I did find a good belt (though the one I really liked was too short). I tried on many, many pairs of pants. I even ventured up into the size 14s (at my plumpest, a 12 is usually big enough). Nothing fit! Some were too tight in the thighs, but fit elsewhere. Some didn't go over my butt. Some did go over my butt, and even did up, but there's no way I'd be able to sit down. The ones that actually did fit (all two pairs) were at least two inches too short. Is there no one . . .

Annoying Thing #3: Somehow between previewing and correcting this post, I managed to chop off the rest of the paragraph above, plus a big, long bit about all the books I got (which was Good Thing #2). Rather than re-type everything, for I am too sleepy, I'll just plug in the titles and authors. You can try to figure out why I chose the books I did, if you feel like it.

Good Thing #2: Books.

Fiction:

• The Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones.
  
• The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson.
  
• The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster.

Non-fiction:

• Writing the Novel: From Plot to Print by Lawrence Block.
  
• Search for a Living Fossil: The Story of the Coelacanth by Eleanor Clymer.
  
• The Beak of the Finch by Jonathan Weiner.
  
• Words from the Land: Encounters with Natural History Writing edited by Stephen Trimble.
  
• My Life in 'Toons by Joe Barbera.
  
• Information Graphics: Innovative Solutions in Contemporary Design by Peter Wildbur and Michael Burke.

Magazines:

• Nature, 13 April 2000.

Argh, Part 394 (or so)

I really, really was going to start posting part 3 of Fey: Drawing Borders today. I intended to finish off the cover (all I needed to do was plop the art into a file and add the logo and text). I did not count on my [insert rude adjective here] computer. After restarting multiple times (including 3 just trying to make the file smaller so the logo would be the right size) I gave up.

So, instead of the cover for part 3, featuring Jack in the Old Country (and, naturally, the Old Days), you get page one of the first Fey short I wrote, Meddlesome Spirits ("Fleeing Arcadia" was the second one I did).

I kind of meant to revise this one, but I'm not sure now if I will. On the one hand, I probably could make it a better story, but on the other, I'm rather fond of it as it is, awkward bits included. I haven't decided what I'll do yet. I'll probably have a look at the notes I made when I was first thinking of revising it (mostly extending the lead-in, actually). I may add some pages, but will probably leave the rest as-is. We'll see. I will keep trying to get that stupid cover for part 3 done, too.

"Argh!" I say.

Avast! More Birthday Ideas!

First, there's puppets. Marionettes, especially, though the Manhattan Toy Company makes some gorgeous dragon hand puppets.

And pretty much anything from this store: PirateMod. I especially like these skirts and these pants (especially the shorter ones), but all the t-shirts are cool, too (the girl-shaped ones, that is). I'm probably a size large these days.

Two 3s are 33

Crap! I managed to close Netscape after finishing this post once already (except for the last few links). So here it goes again (probably a lot shorter).

Right. So I'm going to be 33 in a little over two weeks. I thought I'd make a list, in case anyone wanted to get me anything (but leaving off the expensive stuff, 'cause probably no one's going to get me a PSP). Here are a few things (not in any order, really):

• cool Peter Beagle stuff previousy mentioned (pretty please?)
  
• here's my Amazon.ca wishlist--many odd things, big range of prices, things in no particular order
  
• the usual bookstore gift certificates (good bookstores on the Island: Bolen, Munro's, Haunted Bookshop, Tanner's; good bookstores online: Powell's, Bookcloseouts)
  
• other sorts of gift certificates, like video/electronics shops (Roger's, EB Games, Futureshop, Blockbuster) art supplies (Island Blue or ArtWorld), etc.
  
• magazine subscriptions--things I've been reading lately) or would be if I could find them) include Discover, Scientific American, New Scientist, Wired, Skeptic, Skeptical Inquirer, Locus, Free Inquiry, and I saw an intriguing-but-pricey one called Mac Design at Bolen Books the other week (it looks like something that would be very, very useful in my upcoming graphic design adventures)

And I'd better stop now, because it was while looking up magazine web pages that I screwed up this post last time. 33 here I come . . .

Which Science Fiction Writer I Am

I am: James Tiptree, Jr. (Alice B. Sheldon) In the 1970s she was perhaps the most memorable, and one of the most popular, short story writers. Her real life was as fantastic as her fiction.

Which science fiction writer are you?

(Via Making Light, where there's an interesting discussion about this very test.)

Computer Woes

If you ever decide to buy a computer online, make sure you phone your bank and have them pre-authorize the transaction on your credit card. I didn't think to do that. Naturally, my card was declined (which would have been very nice, if it was someone other than me trying to use my card). So I phoned the bank, explained things, got transferred to the authorization department and was told by the nice young man that the transaction should go through now. Perhaps I should have been worried that he said "should." Next day, I got another email from Apple saying my card is still being declined. So I phone again (this time I go directly to the authorization department, since I got their number last time). The woman who helped me seemed rather more informed than the young man the last time, and after some rummaging in my file determined that said young man had only noted that I'd phoned to check my balance or something. He did nothing about authorizing the transaction. Now, after much irritation and me thinking that online computer shopping may not be so convenient after all, the transaction should go through (and yes, I am aware I said "should"). If it doesn't work this time, I'm cancelling the stupid thing and going to Compusmart to see if they can bung some more memory in a machine and sell it to me in person. Sheesh!

Beagle's Unicorns

Hey, could somebody please get me this for my birthday? (Yeah, I know it's coming out in June, which makes it a little late for my birthday, but I don't care. I'll wait. Peter Beagle reading The Last Unicorn, plus a signed, limited hardcover of the brand-new sequel!! Pretty please? With sugar on? And a cherry?

Fey Part 2 Concludes

Yep. I just posted page 44, which brings us to the end of part 2. It also brings me to the end of pages-already-drawn, because I have slowly but surely managed to lose the 8-week lead I gained when I subjected you all to "Fleeing Arcadia" between parts 1 and 2. I might have to pull a stunt like that again--I've still got the 8-page "Meddling Spirits," but it really needs to be re-written and expanded. I might do that next, instead of moving on to part 3 (or at the same time as)--part 3 is only in the rough outline stage at the moment, and I'm not sure I'll be ready to draw it soon enough (except the cover, which recycles one of the first drawings I ever did of Jack, and which is half done now).

There's still an awful long way to go on this story, and an awful lot of things banging around in my head that need to happen. I so wish I could create this thing faster. I need to get it done so I can go on to the next project (also a Fey story, but shorter), and the next one . . . Being less sleepy would help. Having better time management would help. The second I can work on, but the first I just have to hope will improve with more exercise and less caffeine.

And speaking of exercise, I've decided to ask my doctor to inject cortisone (or whatever it was she mentioned) into the ganglion on my right wrist, which will--hopefully--collapse it. I can't bend my wrist all the way, which makes doing pushups awkward and quickly painful. It doesn't hurt so much I can't do pushups, but I don't want to damage myself any more than I already have.

More Fey

Er. I fixed a few more things, and now page 43 is up. And as of today, I've finished with part 2 (though there's still one more page to come for those of you who are reading it). I'm going to try to get the cover for part 3 done today--at least the non-computer parts. Right now I'm going to eat something, because I seem to have forgotten lunch.

Fey at Home

I finally started moving things from my old Geocities site to my very own domain. There's not much there yet, so don't get too excited. Fey's got it's own subdomain, here, but right now it just looks like the Geocities site. Next task is to stick redirects up at the old site, then get some nice graphics going so fey.whiteravenarts.com actually looks like it contains a comic you might want to read. After that I'll move the rest of my junk off Geocities. The good news is, though, that I'm now in no danger of running out of webspace, and it's possible to read everything in one sitting without running out of bandwidth. Now, I'm off to finish up this week's page.

Edit: Erm, yes. I fixed the file name/file path errors in "Fleeing Arcadia," so if anyone was trying to look at it, it actually works now. And if you happen to encounter any dead links, missing pictures, or other screw-ups, pleasepleaseplease let me know so I can fix them.

The Atheist

This article is worth clicking on for the graphic alone. It made me laugh, and then chortle. And chuckle. I think I'll make it my new desktop wallpaper. Also, it's a good interview of Richard Dawkins:

It's said that the only rational stance is agnosticism because you can neither prove nor disprove the existence of the supernatural creator. I find that a weak position. It is true that you can't disprove anything but you can put a probability value on it. There's an infinite number of things that you can't disprove: unicorns, werewolves, and teapots in orbit around Mars. But we don't pay any heed to them unless there is some positive reason to think that they do exist.

"Teapots in orbit around Mars." Heh. I usually use the example "invisible pink elephants dancing on my front lawn," but I like Martian teapots better. (Oh yeah, it's worth sitting through the ad to get the whole article.)

And the fact that my life is finite, and that it's the only life I've got, makes me all the more eager to get up each morning and set about the business of understanding more about the world into which I am so privileged to have been born.

(Link via Bookslut.)

NSCAD Admissions Essay

I have always wanted to create books. Since I first learned that pencils make marks on paper, since I first discovered the alphabet, I have been making stories with pictures and words. When I first started university, I was going to study creative writing and visual art, but I soon learned that I needed to know more about what "story" is before I could feel comfortable creating my own stories, my own books.

By studying archaeology, I discovered the stories of who we humans are as a species, the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and our many distinct cultures. I learned how to pass on the stories archaeologists tell about the past in pictures -– in drawings and photographs -– as well as in words both academic and popular.

From there I went further into the depths of "story" when I chose to do graduate studies in folklore. I learned not only what stories are told, but what those stories might mean to the people who tell them. And those stories, too, are passed on by means other than words. They are passed on in gestures, in the pictures painted on the sides of blanket boxes, in the names and shapes of boats, and the way particular foods are prepared.

Only then did I feel ready to tell my own stories. I returned to the city of my birth to study writing, bringing with me all the things I'd learned about storytelling in school and from moving from place to place all my life. Victoria –- Halifax -– Virginia Beach -– Toronto -– Ottawa -– Beaver Creek -– Calgary -– Resolute Bay -– St John's. Through stories I sought to find an answer to that question everyone asks: "So where are you from?"

I have improved my ability to tell stories with words, but now I need to go back to my beginnings, to where I made my stories -- my little books of folded paper -- with words and pictures together. And I want to discover new ways of telling stories, of communicating. Can I tell a story with a sculpture? Can a single image be a book? What other ways can I put text and images together? Is there a way to make a story out of an advertisement for someone else's product?

It's time for me to close the circle and make books again, books I always imagined I would make, and books of kinds I never knew existed -- or could exist. That is why I'm applying to NSCAD. I think it's the right place -- it feels like the right place -- to find that last piece of "story."

Oh Yeah

I have a student number! Hee hee.

Holy Crap! Or, I Did It, I Did It, I Did It!

Here's something from today's mail (the actual physical, comes-in-an-envelope kind):

Dear M. Nicole Silvester:

I am pleased to inform you of your acceptance to the Foundation Program of NSCAD University for the semester that begins Fall 2005.

There's more, of course, but it's all details about how to accept the offer of admission, and how much of a deposit to pay and all that. But holy crap! I got accepted. Now I need to celebrate. I think I'll go order my Mac. (And then start listing my worldly goods on eBay to pay for it.) Holy crap!

Of course, now I just have to figure how I'm going to get me and my essential effects to Halifax, find a place to live (that allows cats--Darwin can stay with Sue, but Bast doesn't play well with others of her species) (oh, and does anyone want a pet rabbit?), and pay my tuition. I plan to keep my About job as long as I can manage it, so that should take care of most of the day-to-day expenses. I guess it's time for a trip to studentawards.com to see what free money I might qualify for.

Aaah! (Did I say "holy crap!" often enough?)

Writing: White Foxes Back on Track (I Hope)

Suddenly faced with a rainy Saturday and nothing planned but to start playing Shivers 2: Harvest of Souls and watch an episode of MythBusters I taped last night (and not liking to play games or watch tv before evening), I decided to get back to some of my own writing. My REAL writing. A few weeks ago, I'd written what I thought was probably a chapter of White Foxes, Full Moon longhand in my notebook. A little while later I started typing it into Word, but didn't get very far. So today I've finished the second draft of chapter 16, and I'm about to sart chapter 17 (I have a little handwritten, but then it'll be all new from there). Yay! (Dance of happiness, etc.)

Word count, chapter 16: 2021
Word count, total so far: 43, 979

The total so far doesn't count a final chapter I wrote, but which will likely change by the time I catch up to it. Counting that, White Foxes, Full Moon is 46, 751 words so far. Now to take the dog out, and then venture into the murky past of one shapechanger named Watcher (of which past even he knows very little, though I suspect I'm about to make him remember a lot more).

The Answer is 42

Well, it's page 42 of Fey, anyway. And look, it's not the middle of the night yet!

A Bit of Bunk

I was boogieing around the living room a moment ago, trying to decide on the layout for this week's page of Fey, flourishing my notebook about, when a folded piece of lined paper fell out and fluttered to the ground. I picked it up to stuff it back into the notebook, but of course I had to read it to see where in the notebook it should be stuffed. On one side are some notes for "Great Skerry" (a Cobbleshore/Vinland/Friesland story I've written but not yet revised), and on the other side I found this converstation between the two main characters of my novel-that-only-exists-in-my-brain (and a few notes), Bunk (Wakelyne and Fawkes are magicians and debunkers of seances in Victorian London):

Fawkes: We need something to make us different. Exciting.

Wakelyne: Oh? What do you suggest?

Fawkes: We could do a show with wild animals. Tigers, maybe.

Wakelyne: Are you insane? No one is going to pay to be menaced by giant cats. And what would we feed them?

Fawkes: Well, what if we did a show with jokes? People like to laugh.

Wakelyne: Jokes?

Fawkes: A part of the act.

Wakelyne: I'm not good at telling jokes.

Fawkes: That's fine. I'll talk, you could just make faces. You're good at that.

Wakelyne: Hrumph. I still think the mechanical pig is the better idea.

Well, it made me laugh. And the best part is, I have no memory of writing it. I love when that happens. (Oh, and ten points if you can spot the references to two other magician teams.)

The Annual Visit to the Doctor

So once a year I go to my Doctor for a physical, because she won't renew my Triphasil prescription if I don't. Actually, I had a bunch of other things to ask her, and Mum made me make a list so I wouldn't forget anything important.

Item 1: Repetetive stress injury. I told her about my wrist/hand getting sore when I write a lot, which I've always figured was tendonitis. I showed her the lumpy bit on my right wrist and she said "Oh, you've got a ganglion." It's something that can be treated if I want, or not, since it doesn't bother me except when the tendonitis (which is, indeed, what I have) flares up. Otherwise, she said I must be as ergonomic as possible, and switch to keyboarding instead of handwriting as much as possible, since it doesn't bother be nearly as much. So my writing notebook must now be only for notes, and all my stories must be composed on the word processor. I've never noticed much difference between the things I write on the computer and the things I write longhand (except longhand gets edited as I type it onto the computer). It's annoying, but not a big deal.

Item 2: Excessive daytime sleepiness. Yes, that's a medical term--EDS for short. I've got it bigtime, and it's starting to affect my ability to get things done. I had assorted bloodtests done last year, which came back normal. This time, I suggested a sleep disorder. My doctor didn't think it very likely; it's usually obese people who snore who get sleeping disorders, she said. I have read quite a bit about sleep and the lack thereof, since I've been sleepy for a long time (though it's only been this bad for a few months--gradually getting worse since I last saw my doctor), and there certainly are sleep disorders that are usually only found in obese snorers, but there are others that have nothing to do with breathing. Like narcolepsy. Anyway, more blood was drawn for more tests, and my doctor said to avoid caffeine after noon (I'd been avoiding it after 8pm, and since I turn out the lights at midnight, I thought that was a pretty good margin). Also, she prescribed a minimum of an hour of exercise 3 or 4 times a week. I'm too sedentary. I knew I needed to exercise more, but I didn't think it would help the sleepiness much (and you try exercising when you feel like you're going to fall asleep standing up). Anyway, I shall be a good girl and do as she says and see if it helps. If I don't notice a difference in a month or two, I'm go to go against character and make another doctor's appointment, and ask her if maybe she could send me to the sleep laboratory at the Jubilee Hospital. If nothing else, it would rule out sleeping disorders.

Serenity

Go watch this (if you're on a Windows machine, you'll need to download and install iTunes, but it's free and cool, and the Serenity trailer's worth it, so just go do it). (Link via Making Light.)

Latest Reading: Comics

Here's what little (compared to my usual rate of consumption) I've been reading lately:

24. The Demon Ororon volume 1 by Hakase Mizuki. I got this in an eBay lot. The story is that a half-angel who doesn't know her father was an archangel helps a demon and they (sort of) fall in love. All hell breaks loose, naturally. This isn't a must-read for me, but I do rather like it, so it'll go somewhere on the "to read once I've read all the important stuff" list. The art is mostly stylish and appealing, but sometimes awkward. And for some reason, I kept thinking the main character was really a boy that the editors had turned into a girl to make the story more socially acceptable. I'm not sure why. She was wearing a skirt in one scene, so changing things would have meant a lot of trouble (which means I'm probably wrong). Probably it's just becuase the character was so androgynous. But anyway . . .
    
25. The Demon Ororon volume 2 by Hakase Mizuki. The series in only four volumes, as far as I can tell, which makes it more likely that I'll finish it than if it were fifty-seven volumes (or even fifteen).
    
26. Suki volume 1 by CLAMP. The sheer cuteness and innocence of the main character sometimes threw me, but I like this series very much. CLAMP has managed to very skillfully reveal only a little of the backstory at a time, continually making each character more and more intriguing. The art is standard CLAMP: well-done, and full of pretty girls, elegant women and beautiful men. This is one for the "important stuff" list.
    
27. Suki volume 2 by CLAMP. The middle volume of three, and the tale only becomes more mysterious and intriguing.
    
28. Hikaru no Go volume 1 by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata. I got this as a freebie (long story). It's one of the few stories I really enjoy when I borrow Selena's Shonen Jump every month, and I liked this first volume even more, as I could see how the story developed (I've only read later installments in SJ). The art is polished, with lots of blacks and whites (not so many greys).
    
29. InuYasha volume 21 by Rumiko Takahashi. Yay! More InuYasha.
    
30. The Vision of Escaflowne volume 1 by Katsu Aki. Another eBay book, from the same lot as the ones above. This book really didn't grab me at all. I think I would probably like the anime, but the manga simply felt too shallow. I didn't know the characters enough, or learn enough about them over the course of the volume, to care at all what happened to them or their homelands. That's what I get for trying another manga-based-on-an-anime. I thought this one might be okay, though, because it's supposed to be much fleshed out (and I liked the volumes of the manga-fleshed-out-from-the-anime Neon Genesis Evangelion that I got from the library). Oh well. Into the pile of stuff to sell on eBay it goes.
    
31. Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma. I got this from the library, to try on a whim. It's more like a series of comic strips (only vertical instead of horizontal) than a standard manga or comic book (though a few sections are the more usual manga layout). It's amusing and charming, but not something I need to own. I'll get more volumes from the library, though, assuming our library ever gets them in.
    

So now I've got the first volume of Fruits Basket to try, the second of Hellsing, the fifth of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, some assorted other odd volumes, and a whole pile of Lone Wolf and Cub to tackle. Some are recent purchases, and some are eBay scores from ages ago that I haven't got to yet. I have yet to find more French comics in translation at a decent price. Back to eBay, I guess. But first I have to sell more stuff. (Speaking of which, anyone in the market for 1/6 scale martial arts wear? I've got a set of hakama and gi listed on eBay.)

Well, I Was on Time

Until various stupid things happened. But here is page 41 of Fey (and page 40 now has the proper page number). Now I must go to bed, because tomorrow is Official Yard Work Day. At least Mum is making chicken and potato salad for us all to feast on after. I'm gonna need it. Ooh, and strawberries for dessert. Mmm.

Free Comic Book Day Approacheth!

Holy crap! I didn't realize it was coming up so soon. Free Comic Book Day 2005 is in just two weeks! I counted at least ten books I wanna get my hands on, plus a handful of others that might be cool, too. My favourite's gotta be Bone Sharps, Cowboys, and Thunder Lizards: A Tale of Edwin Drinker Cope, Othniel Charles Marsh, and the Gilded Age of Paleontology (just so happens I'm reading a book on this topic right now, called The Gilded Dinosaur). Yay! Free comics!

(Maybe this year I'll get around to reviewing all the books I get.)

Latest Reading: Fiction and Non

While I haven't been reading that much fiction lately, I have been reading a fair bit of non-fiction (you'll notice a certain . . . trend in my non-fiction reading). I guess I'm just in the mood for non-fiction. I haven't even been reading much in the short story book I have from the library, and I've already had to renew it once (and it's really good, just not what I feel like reading right now). This whole non-fiction dominance thing has been going on for quite a while. Eventually, though, I'll probably want to read nothing but novels. Or maybe short stories. (Or poetry, but that's fairly unlikely.)

Fiction:

9. An Antic Disposition by Alan Gordon. Gordon returns to Shakespeare in the latest jester mystery. This time, something's rotten in the state of Denmark. I'm quite addicted to these books. They're well written, literate, and fun (which isn't to say they aren't also serious). Oh yeah, and sharp, witty, and a bunch of other stuff. Just the idea of a secret society of jesters working behind the scenes to influence world politics appeals to me.
   
10. The Shadow in the North by Philip Pullman. I wasn't going to buy any books at the remaindered book sale in the mall the other day. I didn't even know there was a sale until I walked out of WalMart with my bag containing a bright orange chew-stick for rabbits, a package of GameBoy game cartridge cases, and something else I no longer recall. They have these sales every now and then. Usually I end up buying something, but I was resisting gallantly, until I found a copy of The Shadow in the North. It's the second book in Pullman's YA mystery series (though, really, the YA designation is only somebody's idea of good marketing; these are all-ages books and grown-ups will enjoy them, too). I loved the first one (blogged not too far back). I will read the others. (Oh, and thanks, Mr Pullman. You made me cry. Twice. Not many books can do that anymore.)
    

Non-Fiction:

12. Dinosaur Lives by John R. Horner (with Edwin Dobb). I was watching Daily Planet (pretty much my only regular TV these days, besides InuYasha and the new Dr Who--I watch it instead of the news every weekday). There was a very, very cool story about finding soft tissue in T. rex bones. Soft tissue! It was flexible, once they'd removed the rock (blood vessels, they think). So they interviewed Jack Horner, whose former graduate student had extracted the tissue. Afterwards I thought, "I think I have one of his books." So I started to read it. And it's very good. It combines narrative about excavating dinosaur bones in Montana with explanations of what some of the things they discovered mean. There's a lot of stuff about discovering eggs and the possibilities of dinosaur parenting. I enjoyed this one so much it sparked off a dinosaur-reading streak (these reading streaks happen from time to time, when I get caught up in excitement about some topic or other and proceed to read every book I own on it).
    
13. Tyrannosaurus Sue by Steve Fiffer. Horner's book had briefly mentioned the discovery of the world's largest T. rex and the subsequent legal circus, so I decided to go on to this book next (I got it from the discount section at Chapter's in Nanaimo). While the book has a very journalistic style that I found tiresome in large doses, there was so much interesting stuff in here that I enjoyed it anyway. Fiffer supplemented his investigative tale of the events surrounding Sue with historical detail about dinosaur collection and the development on palaeontology in the US.
    
14. The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World or, How to Build a Dinousaur by Rob DeSalle and David Lindley. I heard about this book on Caitlín Kiernan's blog; she recommended it. It's a book for a popular audience, which shows in the writing style. The authors take the whole dinosaur-reconstruction thing and go through it step-by-step, from finding sources of DNA to finding a suitable place to keep the finished dinosuars, and point out how the movies got it wrong. Then they explain how it could have been done, maybe, if our technology was better and the scientists were really, really lucky. Maybe. There were some things about those movies that always bugged me, and now I know I wasn't wrong. Plus I know a bunch of other things I didn't know before.
    
15. Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions by Charles Gallenkamp. Something Jack Horner mentioned in his book (above) was the Gobi Desert and the amazing fossils it has turned up (including lots of dinosuar eggs and an Oviraptor incubating a nest). I remembered I found this book at a dollar store in Nanaimo. Part biography, part travelogue, part history of science, this book describes Roy Chapman Andrews and his explorations--especially the ones in the Gobi Desert--in the 20s and 30s. Some people say Chapman was the model for Indiana Jones, though George Lucas says not (and remember Chapman was a palaeontologist and Indy was an archaeologist--and if you don't know the difference, go find out right now) (annoyingly, the book I'm reading now--also on the early days of dinosaur digging--was categorized as "social science/archaeology" by its publisher) (aargh!). Anyway. Adventure, romance, international politics, bandits, unexplained and suspicious deaths, and very cool science.
    

See, I'm making up for not taking palaeontology in university. I wanted to, but at U of C all the palaeontology courses were upper-level bio courses, and I'd made the mistake of not taking any sciences (aside from phys anth). Even though I had the highest score on the Biology 12 exam in my school (or maybe in the school disctrict or province; they never actually made that clear--but I don't think it was quite high enough to be highest in the province). They should have had a palaeontology for non-biologists, like they have "rocks for jocks" and "stars for . . ." er, I can't remember. Astronomy for non-astronomy students. Poetry for non-English majors. Etc.

I Am . . .

A Bright: info here.

Comic Life 1.0

Okay, now I have to get my Mac asap.

New Fey

It's that time of the week again. Page 40 is up.

Imperialism

Imperialism can be defined as a system for obtaining other people's Cool Stuff for less than you ought to pay for it.

(from Making Light)

Cross Your Fingers

Or do whatever it is you do to attmpt to influence the workings of the universe.

Friday I mailed off my application and admissions essay (and application fee) to the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. Yesterday I mailed my portfolio and arranged for transcripts from UofC, MUN and UVic. (Cost of one official transcript from UVic: $8. Cost of one official transcript from UofC: $4. Cost of one official transcript from MUN: $0.) Now I wait.

Sue seems to think I'll get in for sure, but I'm afraid I don't share her confidence. I look at the stuff I've done and see all the things wrong with it. Plus, I realized--after I mailed my portfolio--that I never did say anywhere that both the portfolio and the sketchbook were hand-bound by me. I suppose they might be able to figure it out (I did include photographs of one of my hand-bound books in the portfolio), but still. I meant to write it somewhere. And I worry that maybe I didn't put my name clearly enough on each piece (it says in the brochure to label everything clearly with your name), and that I maybe didn't put enough information on the labels. Not getting accepted won't kill me, but waiting to find out might.

Also, I've just emailed some preliminary bits of book proposal to a prospective non-fiction agent. I'm less nervous about that. It's a book I'll write anyway, eventually.

Fey on Time

Page 39. Yep. Going to go read now.

Fey: Only A Little Late

Page 38 is now up, late because I got behind and then went to Victoria to buy art supplies (and, I hoped at the time, a computer, but the usually-helpful staff at CompuSmart all seemed to be either busy or uninterested in making a sale, plus there weren't any Mac mini boxes among the boxes of iMacs and eMacs and Power Books and big ol' G5s so I didn't feel motivated enough to attempt to attract anyone's attention).

So today's page features Robin (slightly pissed, in more ways than one), Jack, and three "snooty bastards" (aka Gannon's lackeys). (I still don't really know quite who Gannon is, except that he is Somebody Important in Faery politics. I also have no idea what he looks like.)

Lackey number three looks like he might be taking on a somewhat larger role, and may at some point cease to be a lackey (none of this is really evident on the page, it's just things I realized as I was drawig yesterday.) He also seems to be Pier's younger brother (Pier's the odd black-coated elf from a few pages back), and is apparently named Sabre. (Their father is a Royal Weaponsmaster or some such grandiose thing, who thought naming his sons after swords was a good idea--Pier is short for Rapier, in case you hadn't guessed. They have a half-sister, I think, also named after a sword. She's called Katana, and her mother is a Japanese kitsune princess, or something.) Of course, these are all random thoughts and could very well change by the time I get to a point in the story where such things could be revealed. One thing is certain, though: Sabre is snooty (but not, technically speaking, a bastard), and he doesn't get along with his big brother very well.

Right, enough of things that may never be.

Friends of Lulu Annual Lulu Awards!

I don't suppose anyone out there who reads Fey is also a member of Friends of Lulu? 'Cause if they were, they could nominate me for the Kim Yale Award for the best new female talent. (Yeah, okay, very unlikely, but you never know.)

Fey Friday, Again

Yup, it's that time of the week. Time for a new page of Fey: page 37. Be warned: I used the word "snooty." Twice.

What!? Mid-Week Fey?

Yeah, well, I finally finished the cover for part two (only . . . about 14 pages late . . .). It's not perfect, but I think it turned out better than part one's cover. Quite a bit better, actually.

Recent Distractions (Reading and Playing)

Non-Fiction:
I think I'm becoming a non-fiction junkie. There are so many interesting things to learn about (my goal since childhood has been to learn everything--unattainable, perhaps, but I'll always have something to strive for).

9. Alpha and Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe by Charles Seife. So continues my quest to better understand the universe I live in. I've read about many of the topics covered in this book before, but reading about them again made them clearer--helped, no doubt, by Seife's clear prose and ability to explain complicated stuff like quantum mechanics. I'm not sure I quite believe that scientists know exactly how the universe will end, but this book did go a long way towards convincing me that they've got a pretty good idea (or maybe, some pretty good ideas).
   
10. Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky. Yup, a book about fish. But, like the best "creative non-fiction" (in quotes because it's one of those things that have to be defined more by what they are not than by what they are--for my attempt, go here). Erm, where was I? Like the best creative non-fiction, this book uses its topic as a centrepoint, a focus, around which to look at other things. Kurlansky covers a lot of history--both European and North American--the politics of environmentalism, biology, and assorted other things, all as they relate to the lowly cod (mmm . . . tasty fried fish). The result is a very readable, interesting book, and it made me . . . there should be a word that means "homesick" but for someplace that isn't technically "home." It made me want to go back to Newfoundland. or the east coast, at least.
    
11. Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. I reviewed this one for work. It's very good. I was expecting something rather wishy-washy and nice, I suppose (I might have had even lower expectations if I'd noticed the publisher before I read it--not that they publish bad books, but they do publish New Age). Anyway, it was beautifully written and actually quite helpful.
    

Now it's on to a huge book on codes, another marionette book (oops, nope, turns out someone else wants it, so I have to take it back to the library today), something on Celtic Archaeology . . .

Fiction:

And now for some more YA fiction, because grown-up books are making me tired.

7. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman. This books is sooo good. I first saw it at Chapters (aka The Evil Empire) weeks and weeks ago, along with two others in the same series. I finally picked it up at a small discount at my niece's school's book fair. It's one of the few really well-done YA mysteries I've encountered. Usually mystery novels aimed at teens are either too obvious or too simplistic (or, sometimes both). Or too improbable. This one is sophisticated enough that most adults would enjoy it, but not too intricate for younger readers. And it has lots of adventure. Pullman's having fun with the Victorian mystery genre. I will absolutley be getting the rest of this series.
   
8. Grim Tuesday by Garth Nix. Nix is always a good bet. I don't like this series quite as much as the Sabriel books, but they're still good. There's a seriously whimsical, slightly twisted imagination at work in these books, which is just exactly what I needed when I sat down to read.
   

Now I have to get back to that Hindenberg novel. It's quite good, but requires more concentration than I've had lately.

Sequential Art:

As usual, I've read more comics than anything else. No French books this time, though. (I did get another Schuiten/Peeters Cities of the Fantastic volume off eBay, but it's part 2, so I have to get part 1 before I read it.)

20. Girl Genius: Agatha Heterodyne and the Airship City (volume 2) by Phil and Kaja Foglio. This time, Girl Genius is in full colour, which looks nice, but means the book cost something like twice as much as book one. Not that I'm really complaining. This is a fun story (with airships!) done in a cartoony, high-energy art style that I find really appealing. The main character is volatile, but likeable, and won't let anyone push her around. If you have any interest in steampunk, you really oughtta read this book.
    
21. Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow volume 2 (aka Cardcaptor Sakura volume 8) by CLAMP.
    
22. xxxHolic volume 4 by CLAMP.
    
23. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle volume 4 by CLAMP.
    

All CLAMP, all the time! OK, not really, but I do seem to read an awful lot of their work. Also, read, but not actually a "book": Swamp Thing #2. This time around, they're trying to bring Swampy back to his horror orgins. It's pretty good so far (but keep in mind I have an awful lot of campy old Swamp Thing comics, and I love them all). Plus, it's got John Constantine in (which reminds me, I need to read more Hellblazer).

Games:

I'm still trying to play through all my pc games before I make The Switch. I've got a disconcertingly large stack to get through still, but I'm making a good effort.

5. The Cameron Files: Secret at Loch Ness (pc). The graphics are pretty dated, but the game came out in 2001, so you can't really hold that against it. I really had a good time playing this. Even the timed sequences (bane of true adventure gamers) were all right, once I realized there were going to be some. I rarely felt at a loss about what I was supposed to be doing, and the puzzles were logical (illogical puzzles are my personal bane). If anything, the puzzles were maybe too easy, and the end was rather anticlimactic. Still, a good game, and well worth the money (especially considering I got both Cameron Files games in one box for $12.99--or maybe it was $19.99).
   
6. The Cameron Files: Pharaoh's Curse (aka The Cameron Files 2) (pc). The graphics were better than the first game, though still not fabulous. There was more humour and slightly harder puzzles. Otherwise, the second Cameron Files was much like the first: a solid game, though not the best game ever. I liked wandering around an empty museum taking stuff and picking locks and looking for clues (it's one of the reasons Shivers appealed to me, too). And a certain Dr. Jones was staying in your (or rather, your character, Alan P.Cameron's) hotel just before you got there, and he seems to have left his hat and whip behind in the museum storeroom.
   
7. Dark Fall: The Journal (pc). Where whole development companies can fail miserably to produce a decent adventure game, one inspired person can create something pretty amazing. The graphics were a bit uneven--on the simplistic side in places, intricate in others--but always gorgeous, and once I got into this game, I hardly noticed the uneveness. You get to explore an abandoned train station and hotel, trying to figure out what happened to the people who disappeared there. There might be something evil lurking nearby, and you're the only one who can stop it. While there's not any danger of you actually dying (except maybe at the end), this is one truly spooky, creepy, eerie game. I loved it. Too bad the sequel isn't likely to be available for Macintosh. I'd pay full price right now.
   

I'm now trying to get Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill working properly. It used to work brilliantly, before I got a new video card and mouse. Now the audio skips and the mouse control is annoyingly jumpy. Argh! Updating DirectX and video drivers didn't help (also didn't help me get Broken Sword: Sleeping Dragon working, which is the game I most want to play next, and I don't know if it's affected the tendency of Jekyll and Hyde to freeze up as soon as the intro sequence is over--we'll see). If I can't get them to work, it'll be back to the pile for something else (LotR, perhaps).

Fey: Now With Fewer Crashes

Page 36, and I finally get to use that headline! I worked out a way to avoid freezing up Photoshop by immediately flattening and saving each new layer. It means I can't keep a bunch of layers open, which means I lose flexibility, and have to make absolutely sure I'm done everything I needed to do with each layer, but it also means (this time, anyway) only having to reboot once. Woo hoo!

Maybe Sooner Than I Thought

I happened to flip through the latest London Drugs "Computer Savings Guide" (aka "flyer"), and whaddayaknow, there's a whole page of Macintoshes, including the Mini. Nothing says they have limited quantities, or that you have to preorder--though nothing says they actually have them in stock, either. But there's hope. Of course, there isn't a London Drugs in Duncan, so it's either Victoria or Nanaimo. Hmmm . . . wonder when I can get there . . .

Edit: Looks like CompuSmart is shipping them within 3 days, while the Apple Canada store still says 3-4 weeks. Interesting.

Fey page 35

Right here.

One Box to Rule Them All

Today's mail brought my free (except for the $4 shipping, that is) Lord of the Rings DVD trilogy slipcase. As I'd hoped, the slipcases of the individual sets fit inside the One Slipcase. Hwah ha! Now I rule the world (or at least my DVDs will be protected from dust).

Haunted . . .

Thing which is haunting me #1: robin's eggs. I was at the grocery store yesterday, eyeing the candy in the bulk food section, when I spotted robin's eggs. I couldn't remember what sort of candy they actually are, but they were such gorgeous colours that I couldn't resist buying a few to put with whatever I decide to do for the kids (that is, my sister's kids) for Easter. Of course, when I got home, I had to try one. I had some vague notion that they were maybe candy-covered chocolate. Actually, they are candy-covered-chocolate-covered malt balls (you know, like Whoppers). I bit one in half and looked at the crispy inside. Hmmm, I thought. I can't eat this. (Malt = barley, plus the crunchy bit is probably mostly wheat flour = poison to Celiac sufferers like me.) So what did I do? Did I spit it out? Hell, no. I ate it. And then I ate the half that was still in my hand. Very, very bad. But if I only eat one, ever, I'll be fine. And it was sooo good! Now I am haunted by the malty deliciousness of something I'm not allowed to eat. (Maybe, I thought, if I only ate one a week, it'd be okay. And probably it would, but that's a very, very bad habit to pick up.) Sigh.

Thing which is haunting me #2 (still): marionettes. I was working on my cloth doll marionette yesterday after supper. There I sat, cross-legged on the bed (where I often work, despite the bedroom being the darkest room in my house), stuffing the little black cotton arms and legs that I'd sewed up the day before, and the weirdest thing happened. I was working on the legs--they were done up to the knees and I was putting stuffing in the thighs--when I looked down at what I'd done so far. Imagine two little shapely legs, bent neatly at the knee where they lay across my lower leg (remember, I am cross-legged, so the working surface of my lap is made up of bits of my own bent legs). Two little legs bent at the knee, feet turned slightly inward at the ankle, exactly as if there was a little artificial person sitting in my lap (except, of course, the legs weren't attached to anything yet). Every time I looked at the legs as a whole (rather than just the immediate part I was working on) they looked exactly like they might start to move on their own. It was very peculiar. I've made cloth dolls before, but they never seemed about to move on their own. (I'm not saying I thought they actually would, only that they looked as if they could.) Maybe it's just that I was taken to see Coppelia at a very young age, and that first impression of toys coming to life has stayed with me ever since. Or maybe it's that in every puppet book I read, it's emphasized that marionettes are not dolls. They are actors. I can kind of see where that comes from now. I only hope this little fabric person retains that much character when it's finished. Oh, and it (possibly she, but more likely androgynous) has a name now. Iris. After the Greek goddess of the rainbow. It will make sense, I hope, when it's done.

I was surfing around eBay (bad idea, really, but fun), and decided to look at marionettes. There are some really gorgeous ones, like knights in real metal armour (Italian, I think), and the ones by Czech Marionettes. I really could imagine these as actors rather than dolls or toys. And then there were the ones that looked like cheap toys, and probably wouldn't come to life no matter how carefully you twitched their strings. Or maybe I'm just imagining things. A skilled puppeteer could probably make just about anything seem alive.

And speaking of which, my bedtime reading last night was a short (40-page) biography of Jim Henson written for kids. One of the things that struck me was how the human co-stars of the Muppet Show quickly began to see their Muppet coworkers as individuals, and how they found it disappointing that they couldn't go out for coffee with them after the show. Even the puppeteers who played the Muppets tended to think of them as real characters. Perhaps it's much the same as how writers think of their characters. They're not "real" in the sense that they're a part of the "real world," but they are somehow their own people who have pasts and opinions.

Anyway, time to get back to stuffing and sewing.

Need More French Comics (Recent Reading)

I've only been working my way slowly through some fiction and non-fiction (a novel about the Hindenburg and a science book about the beginning and end of the universe), but I have read lots of words&pictures. And some puppet books (I had to work puppets in there somehow).

Non-Fiction:

8. Marionettes by Edith Flack Ackley. Puppets! This is another book mostly meant for kids and people working with kids, but it also has good basic information, plus patterns for making cloth doll marionettes. I've temporarily set aside my paper mache marionette project and now have a sewn-but-not-yet-stuffed cloth one. It's black cotton and will have hair of this wonderful hand-spun, hand-dyed, multicoloured wool I bought at a craft fair last year. I don't know what the rest of it will look like, but I'm thinking of getting a round compact mirror and using it for a mask.

Sequential Art:

15. Morgana Volume 1: Heaven's Gate by Alberti and Enoch. I kept looking at this book every time I went into the local comic shop. The cover art is truly gorgeous (and so, as it turns out, is the interior art). Finally, I decided to buy it. This is what I was referring to in the title of this blogpost--it's translated from French. Now, I haven't read a lot of French comics, but every one I have read has been pretty amazing. The art is just beautiful and the writing seems to tend to the weird-but-really-good. Morgana is a sort of science-fantasy with occasional Arthurian echoes. It's short, but damn do I want to read more. Alas, I'll have to order it online, probably, as this was the only volume Collector's Choice had, and more than likely the only one they'll ever have. I'm rather suprised they had it at all. They tend to only get in stuff that will sell quickly, which is why it's a good place to find the latest InuYasha but not a good place to look for the latest Girl Genius. So yeah, I'll be looking for more of this, and more French comics in general. In fact, I may attempt to dust off and upgrade my highschool French, and have a go at reading some in its original language.
    
16. Cardcaptor Sakura: Master of the Clow volume 1 (aka Cardcaptor Sakura volume 7) by CLAMP. I've been waiting for the local shop to get this in for months. I actually asked them to order it for me, but I guess they forgot (I don't have a file there, so maybe I'm not a priority). So at last I get to find out what happens next (well, I have seen the entire Card Captors anime series, but it was pretty heavily edited and changed around when it was brought to North American television, so it's almost like getting a new story).
    
17. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle volume 3 by CLAMP. I am quite enjoying this alternate-universe-Cardcaptors (sort of) story. It's pretty girly at times, but I'm old enough that being girly isn't the horror it used to be (no, I was definitely not a girly girl--"girly-girl" was the highest of insults when I was young thing--I was a tree-climbing, snake-handling tomboy, though I've never wanted to be an actual boy).
    
18. Eerie Queerie! volume 2 by Shuri Shiozu. I had to go to the comic shop in Nanaimo to find this. I suspect Duncan isn't really a gay-friendly town, though they did have copies of Fake (a title I haven't read yet) at the local shop. I still think they should have kept the Japanese title (Ghost!), but for some reason, I really like this series.
    
19. Until the Full Moon by Sanami Matoh. Another one I had to get in Nanaimo (for possibly the same reason). I'd really been looking forward to it (that whole werewolf obsession, maybe), so I was a bit disappointed. It's not bad, and I probably will read volume 2, but it seemed pretty shallow. It was much more like the standard romance novel, plotwise, than I'd thought it would be (you know: main character is madly attracted to love interest, but also detests him, various things happen--possibly including a rescue--and in the end they fall in love and live happily ever after). (Er, yes, I have read a few romance novels, because I don't want to be accused of berating a genre I've never read. It's possible that there are good genre romance novels out there . . . I guess.) Anyway, the "boy who turns into a girl during the full moon" thing doesn't really seem to be used as well as it could have, or hardly at all, really. And the two characters admit right from the beginning that they're mad for each other. There just seems to be a series of trivial things coming between them. I'd rather have seen Marlo's gender confusion explored in greater depth than have him get kidnapped and wait around to be rescued (and that story was resolved way too easily, in my opinion; I mean, why not explore the idea of two non-blood-related people raised as siblings, who fall in love?). I guess the point I'm trying to make (and using too many words to do it) is that this book had a lot of potential that was wasted in favour of fairly trivial episodes. But still, I did like it enough to read the next book. I don't know if I'd bother if it was going to be more than two volumes, though.

Once I actually get my NSCAD application and portfolio done and sent off, I may actually have more time for reading (er . . . maybe when I get as far ahead on Fey as I'd like to be). I really don't enjoy having only minimal reading time. Sometimes I think I could actually live without writing as long as I could still read lots. Of course, if I hadn't bought a Gameboy and got hooked on The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, I'd have a little more time. It's probably a very good thing I'm only a casual gamer, and not a total game geek.

And something totally unrelated to anything: I wish the folks who designed the standard qwerty keyboard hadn't put "o" and "0" so close together. It confuses the spellchecker when I make a typ0. Heh.

Not More Books!

Yes, more books! I found out Thursday that today was the annual Times Colonist (that's the Victoria newspaper) booksale, proceeds going to support literacy programs. So this morning (not very early) Sue, Mum, and I set out for downtown Victoria, and spent a couple of hours looking at books. Alas, no comics, though I almost bought The Encyclopedia of Superheroes (think that's what it was called), becuase it had all kinds of obscure old heroes I'd never heard of. I kind of wish I had bought it. Oh well, I found plenty of other things.

Fiction:

• The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman. Hillerman's mysteries are addictive. I saw quite a few of them (mostly copies of The Thief of Time, oddly enough), but this was the only one I was sure I hadn't read. My goal is to get them all, read them in chronological order, then trade them in at the used book store.
  
• The Gray Wolf and Other Fantasy Stories by George Macdonald. Wonderful, magical, fairy-tale-like stories. And it even matches my copy of The Light Princess.
  
• The Fox Woman by Kij Johnson. Shapechangers. Fox shapechangers. I've been wanting to read this for ages.
  
• Inez by Carlos Fuentes. I'm not sure why I got this one. It has a nice cover and it sounded good. Do I need any more reason?

Non-Fiction:

• The Amateur Magician's Handbook by Henry Hay. I don't know if I'll ever actually learn to do any of these tricks (I still haven't managed to juggle, after all), but it'll be useful if (no, not if, when) I get around to writing my Victorian magic ghost-busting psychic-debunking novel Bunk. I'll need to at least know the theory for that. Plus, I think I'll need to go to Vegas and watch a bunch of magic shows. Anyone wanna go? It's for research, of course.
  
• A Guide to the Prehistoric and Roman Monuments in England and Wales by Jacqetta Hawkes. I seem to be getting quite a collection of books like this--guides to the prehistory of England. I'm really going to have to actually go there one day. (Hey, I need to do some research in Aberfoyle and Skye . . .)
  
• The Science of Jurassic Park and The Lost World, or, How to Build a Dinosaur by Rob DeSalle and David Lindley. Caitlín Kiernan mentioned this one in her blog, saying it was a good one to consult "for more on Crichton's bad science." Heh. So of course I had to buy it.
  
• A Rum Affair: The True Story of a Botanical Fraud by Karl Sabbagh. Here's another one with a nice cover that sounded good. Scientific hoaxes are always fun.
  
• Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World by Mark Kurlansky. This one was recommended as a good example of creative non-fiction in a workshop I took in my last year of the most recent degree (the BFA). It's been on my to-read list for quite a while. Ugly fish, but quite yummy. If you're ever in Newfoundland, see if you can't find someplace to eat cod cheeks (you could have cod tongues--not actually the tongue, but the meat from under the chin--which is more popular with locals, but I liked cheeks better). Mmmm. Now I'm hungry.
  
• Dinosaur Plots and Other Intrigues in Natural History by Leonard Krishtalka. Dinosaurs, palaeontology, conflicts and hoaxes in science. Looks very good.
  
• Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science by Martin Gardner. I suspect there's a new(er) edition of this out, but it was only $2, so I can't complain. I have something else of Gardner's (can't remember what, and I too lazy to go look at the shelf). It was good, I do remember that, and this one's also a favourite topic of mine.
  
• Sir Henry Morgan: Pirate and Pioneer by Rosita Forbes. I like reading about pirates. This book's pretty old and so could be rather outdated, but it's got endpaper maps. Endpaper maps are cool.
  
• The Pirates by Douglas Botting and the editors of Time-Life Books. Yeah, it's a Time-Life book, part of the "Seafarers" series, But it has pictures of the different kinds of ships pirates used (showing rigging and sails and how many masts) and pictures of piratey weapons, and portraits of different pirates. Time-Life books can be surprisingly useful, sometimes.
  
• The Codebreakers: The Story of Secret Writing by David Kahn. I think this may be the fattest book I own that isn't a dictionary. It's 1164 pages (including the notes and index). That's not why I bought it, though. I'm not that sort of a freak. I got it because secret codes are cool. I have a secret decoder wheel on my keychain (it's the simplest code of all, but it's still cool). Hee hee.

I think I am giddy from the smell of books. Now I just have to find the time to read them all, plus all the other ones I already own. It is time for a book purge, though, as painful as it will be. I have a lot of fiction I'll be weeding out. The non-fiction will be harder, because how can I know for sure I won't need it again? I have a lot of somewhat obscure books. Not obscure enough that I can sell them on eBay for pots of money, but enough that finding them again could be awkward, especially if I need them in a hurry. So I shall have to be careful. And just to show that I am actually reading, and not just acquiring volumes in a bibliophiliac frenzy, my very next post will be about my recent reading. Or puppets, but probably reading.

Alas, I found not a single puppet book at the sale.

Fey page 34

Done, done, done. And with somewhat less hassle than usual.

You may have noticed the overall greyer look of the last couple of pages. That's due to the new scanner, which is much better than the old one (even though I'm still scanning at the same resolution)--it picks up the translucency of the drafting vellum I've been drawing on, so the pages look grey (even though I put a blank white sheet behind them). One more good reason to switch to bristol (which I should have been using all along) once this batch of paper runs out (don't want to waste it, and it comes already in the right size).

This is Cool (and Something Not So)

I was reading through my regular blogs this afternoon, and to my surprise found Anagram for Ink (which, in case you haven't a clue, you are reading right now) linked on The Johnny Bacardi Show sidebar. That's pretty cool. (It's in the "full-and-semi Comics Bloggers" section, waaay down near the bottom.) And, while there, I discovered the link to this story. A Firefly comic could be good, or it could be not good. I'll have to wait and see. And the movie's out in September! Yay. (Now if only I could get Fey linked in the Johnny Bacardi "Creators/Webcomics" section . . . ) (After it's moved to the new server and domain, preferably, as Geocities won't take much traffic.)

In not-so-cool news, I went to work on the annotated bibliography of fairy books I've been doing to lead up to a book proposal (ie. I'm gonna write one), and discovered I deleted it last week when I was madly deleting things to make enough room on the hard drive for Photoshop to consent to open. Crap! Fortunately, it won't be too hard to reconstruct, as I copied and pasted some of it from my thesis bibliography and from The Faery Bibliography, but I had added some recent books and written at least something for each book (much in need of editing, but still something). I was going to start typing/revising the summaries of the different book ideas I have, but when I discovered I'd deleted the bibliography, I suddenly felt very, very tired. Maybe I'll have a nap first. Bleah.

Puppets, Again

Here's a great quote I found:

Part of the fascination of puppetry lies in its betrayal of reason: lifeless objects are made to act in a lifelike way.

It's from "Last Supper: The Lively Art of Puppetry" by Jill Boettger (Geist 53 (Summer 2004): 54-61).

Back in Business

As much as I can be, anyway. I went along when Sue took Ryan home, and we made a stop at EB Games and Futureshop in Langford. I am now the proud owner of this monitor. It's the cheapest model they had, but it's nicer than my old one, plus they had one in an opened box (probably either a display model or a customer return) that was $20 cheaper. Yay! I can play games again. And do work. Of course. Lots of serious work. And, it's not that horrible putty colour computers always used to be. It's black and silver, and so won't look out of place when I get the Mac. Not that matching colours is a big consideration when buying computer equipment, but it is nice to have something that isn't "computer colour." So I've started playing The Cameron Files: Secret at Loch Ness, which is pretty good so far (all 1/2 hour I've played). But I just remembered I told Selena I'd play Nancy Drew: Secrets Can Kill first, so I can pass it on to her, so I'd better start that one next time I play.

Also, I decided a while ago to buy a Gameboy Advance SP. I had been thinking about it for a while. I tend to think about things like that for a while, considering carefully, but when I make a decision, I want to act on it right away. Anyway, I decided that there were enough action/adventure and adventure/rpg (and even a few straight adventure) games available for it that I would actually play it, so it wouldn't be a waste of money. Plus, they have a long-lasting rechargeable battery, so when the power goes out (which it does fairly often up here), I won't have to wander around wondering what I should do. With three hours of laptop battery and ten + hours of Gameboy battery, I won't have to strain my eyes trying to read by candlelight, which is what I usually do when the power goes out. Anyway, I've been looking on eBay for a week or two, and discovered that used Gameboys sell for nearly as much as new ones, even with the Nintendo DS being out now (that's the next generation handheld) (it's really expensive) (so is Sony's very cool PSP handheld--it's like a mini PS2, almost). Used Gameboys at EB Games aren't all that cheap, either, but they are guaranteed, so I saved about $20, and didn't have to pay eBay shipping. I also picked up a couple of games: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars (adventure) and The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (rpg). I've played the second Broken Sword on PC, and it was very good. I've got the third one now, but I think I need to install a different version of DirectX to get it to work. Either that, or I'll be sneaking downstairs to play it on Sue's machine. Anyway, Shadow of the Templars was the first one, so I'm really looking forward to it. And the Zelda games have always looked like lots of fun, though I've never felt quite like buying a GameCube in order to play them. So there you go. I am big-time game-girl now, but I must not get too distracted by Gameboy (or the PS2 game I just got on eBay) until all my PC games are finished.

Blah, blah, blah, games, games, games. I'm sure you're all very bored now. Next time I will endeavour to write about something halfway interesting.

Recent Games

I've been (or was, until my monitor went snap crackle pop) playing through all these adventure games I'd amassed. I want to finish them all (or as many of them as I can get to work) before I switch over to a Mac. Just for fun, here are the games I've played most recently:

1. The Longest Journey (pc). I'd been wanting to play this for ages and ages. It's one of those adventure games that gamers who usually don't bother with adventure games were playing and raving about. And it was good. There was a little too much walking across essentially empty screens, and a few times I couldn't figure out where to get the tools to solve a problem I could see how to solve (if that makes any sense), but basically this was a very good game. A little old now, maybe, but still good. I think there's supposed to be a sequel in the works, but with my luck it'll never make it to Mac.
   
2. The New Adventures of the Time Machine (pc). Now this game, on the other hand, was not so good. It was a good idea, and some of design was nice, but the gameplay was mostly pretty awful. There were some good puzzles, but way too much walking through some really ugly environments (poor graphics partly due to the age of the game, to be fair). The designers tried to make this an action-adventure, but the controls were too sluggish and the camera too bad to make any of the action elements anything but an annoying (and sometimes maddening) task to get through. Imagine walking into a room where you're immediately shot at (and you can't not go into the room, or else you won't get any farther along in the game), but you can't actually see the guy shooting at you, and if you walk to where you can see him, you'll soon be dead, because you can't move and shoot at the same time. That actually happened. More than once. This could have been a much better game if they'd either left out the action elements, or else made the controls better--either an auto lock-on or else the ability to move and shoot at the same time would have helped immensely. I'm a stubborn old lady, though, and I kept at it until I was done (consulting a walkthrough for hints on how to actually fight the bad guys when I couldn't see them). Why? you may ask (especially if you heard me exclaim "I HATE this game" many times over during an evening's play session). Like I said, I'm stubborn. And there were some good puzzles. Plus, it was oddly satisfying to finish the game. I may not have liked it much while I was playing it, but I liked having played it. Once it was over.
   
3. Shivers (pc). This is a really old game. It won't run under WinXP, I don't think, since it's DOS-based. But damn, is it good. It's like a lot of older adventure games, in that the graphics are what's sometimes referred to as a "slide show"--there's no 3D movement, just zooming along from one view to the next (there is animation joining the screens, like you see the hallway zooming by as you click your way down it). The museum setting was the perfect excuse for lots of bizarre puzzles, and it meant there was mostly not too far to go from room to room, so it wasn't a big deal that you'd have to keep going back to places you'd already been. The only quibbles I had is that the animation of the evil spirits you have to trap was really cartoony and stood out (in a bad way) from the lovely museum rooms and artifacts and live-action ghost sequences (not very many of those), and that a few of the puzzles were really hard. There were only two I finally gave up on and went looking for the solution online--one was a move-coloured-pieces-back-to-where-they-should-be puzzle that I probably could have solved if I'd had more patience, and the other was that solitare game you play on a Chinese chequers board (or on a fox & geese board, should you have one of those). That one where you have to clear the board of pieces by jumping them and end up with the last piece in the centre. I've played that for hours offline and never been able to get closer than two pieces left on opposite sides of the centre position. I gave it a good shot, but after an hour or so, I decided I'd better just look up the solution so I could continue hunting down evil spirits. I just discovered that there was a Shivers 2--probably only for pc, but I may grab it on eBay anyway, since I probably won't have a Mac for a while yet.
   
4. Atlantis: The Lost Tales (pc). I thought I was going to have to sell this game without playing it, because when I first tried it a year or two ago, it wouldn't work on my machine (or on my old machine, which I still had kicking around). I guess the video card I installed since then was compatible, because it worked when I decided to give it one more try. The game itself has some lovely graphics and decent puzzles, though sometimes the puzzles seemed rather tacked on. The story was pretty good--the Queen of Atlantis is missing and her consort seems to be trying to take over and turn it into a Kingdom, and you have to escape the city (or navigate secretly through it) to find the Queen and stop her consort from taking over. There were a few sort-of action elements that really didn't work that well. Trying to flee the bad guys with an interface made for peacefully clicking through slideshow-style screens doesn't work very well. Nor does shooting a boar with a arrow that points diagonally across your bow and can only be aimed in a very general way. The character graphics were pretty basic, and everybody had some irritating repetitive mannerism that made them look like they all had some kind of degenerative muscle disease. Anyway, it wasn't as good as The Longest Journey, but it was way, way better than The New Adventures of the Time Machine. Even though the ending was rather disappointing (**spoilers** you rescue the Queen, but she later gets killed; you stop the consort and his evil weapon, but then Atlantis is destroyed by a volcanic eruption and sinking into the sea--you know the story; you do get to escape with the fisherman's cute red-headed daughter, though).
   

I still have a fair pile to get through, and that's not counting the Playstation games (but I'll leave those until the pc games are done, since I'll still have a PS2 after I get my Mac).

Recent Reading (and some not so)

I kept meaning to get around to writing about what I'm reading for weeks, and kept not doing it, too. So finally I am, as I procrastinate away my Saturday (I should be drawing, or writing).

Non-Fiction:

3. A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel. The may have taken the place previously occupied by Into the Looking Glass Wood (same author) on my desert island reading list. Depending on the size of the bookshelves on my hypothetical desert island, I might take them both. There is simply so much to think about in this book, that I'm going to have to read it over and over. It's comfort reading for a reader, a nice thick book that says "You are not alone" and then shows you hundreds and hundreds of years of readers, and the way readers use reading, and the way reading is done. I'd read anything Manguel wrote or edited, but currently this is my favourite (mind you, I haven't read a lot of his stuff yet).
   
4. Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight by Pat Shipman. This is another example of my favourite kind of science book. Or one of my favourite kinds. It explores the development of the various ideas about the evolution of bird flight, carefully describing the possibilities in a way that is not too technical for the non-palaeontologist, but has enough meat and details that the reader can begin to evaluate the evidence for themselves. Shipman presents both (or more) sides of each issue fairly. I'd often find myself agreeing with the first idea presented, and then having to re-evaluate when the next one was described. And the writing is well done, pleasant to read, and only technical where it needs to be (but not overly simplistic anywhere). If you're into birds or dinosuars or the history of life, read this. It's not cutting edge, being a few years old (late 90s, if I remember right), but it's still good science. Plus archaeopteryx fossils are probably the most beautiful fossils ever found (though I'm also partial to ichthyosaur fossils).
   
5. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 edited by Steven Pinker. This was one of my purchases from Bolen Books, made with my assorted Christmas gift certificates. I chose it because I thought it would have a nice range of different kinds of science writing, and it certainly had. Not only that, but the writing in all of the essays was absolutely top-notch. I found myself thoroughly enjoying essays on topics I wouldn't normally seek out. There was one essay I had already read--the one on multiple universes that was published in Scientific American (I think; maybe it was Discover). It was interesting to see it without all the sidebars and visual aids the magazine adds in, and I had forgotten a lot of the details, anyway. This was definitely a good choice, and I'll probably be looking for previous editions.
   
6. Explore Fairy Traditions by Jeremy Harte. I'm supposed to review this book. The author sent it to me, all the way from England, and it's taken me unforgivably long to get to reading it, even though it's on one of my favourite topics. It's a well written, intelligent exploration of different aspects of fairy traditions in the British Isles, and the meaning of the stories for the people who tell them. I kept thinking how useful it would have been when writing my Master's thesis. If you want a good general book on fairy lore to start with, this would be a good choice. You'd probably have to order it from the publisher though (their website is here: http://www.hoap.co.uk/), or maybe from a UK bookseller.
   
7. Making and Playing Marionettes by James McMahon. Puppets! Not long after I first mentioned my growing puppet obsession, I logged on to the library website and requested a few books. This is one of them. It's really meant for teachers wanting to get their students into puppetry, but it assumes the students are capable and relatively mature--that they could do basic carpentry and sewing and work togther in a team in a professional manner--so it's a decent book for interested adults, too. Most importantly, it has diagrams and plans for the basic form and stringing of marionettes, which is exactly what I was looking for. There will be notes and sketches made from this one.
   

Fiction:

2. A Scientific Romance by Ronald Wright. This is one of the books I got at the recent books sale at the Duncan Mall (which has approximately five stores, plus WalMart at one end and Staples at the other). I thought it sounded kind of neat. It ended up to be one of the best novels I've read in a while. It's not easy to write long stretches of a novel with only a single character, and no one for them to interact with, without losing the reader's interest. Wright pulls it off though--at least half of the book has only the main character all by himself, and much of the rest is so closely focussed on his viewpoint (being in first person), that we only see interactions through him. But it works. It's a beautiful book, and I am going to be searching out more by this author. Plus, everyone I know should read it. I think you'd all get something out of it. (Well, maybe not everyone I know, but most of you.)
   
3. The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I found this thing at Superstore of all places. Mostly they have overpriced cookbooks and overpriced books about God. And an odd selection of other stuff. This is one of those books that feels magical without having anything particularly fantastic actually happen. It's a story about books and love and writing and families, and I thoroughly adored it. It has a Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Probably almost everyone I know should read this one, too.
   
4. Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. This is so short, it maybe shouldn't count, but it is over 100 pages. So there. I hadn't read Pinocchio since I was a kid (thanks to my parents, or some gift-giving relative, I had a copy of the originial--though translated, of course--and not one of those "retold for children" horrors). This isn't the copy I had back then, but I think it might be the same translation, and it has lovely, super-detailed illustrations by Roberto Innocenti. I love his cityscape panoramas, especially. I decided to read this because of my recent puppet obsession. I'd forgotten how moralistic the story is, but it has enough beautiful writing and clever comments to make it a good read nonetheless.
   
5. The Mammoth Book of Werewolves edited by Stephen Jones. If you've read this blog much, you'll know I have a weakness for werewolves and other shapechangers. I thought, for some reason, that the Mammoth Books of . . . were best-of volumes, rather than ordinary themed anthologies. Turns out they're a mix of reprinted and new material, and pretty much as mediocre overall as other themed anthos. Which isn't to say it was a waste of time. Most of the stories were all right, and a few were very good. Plus there was a long Manly Wade Wellman story that I hadn't read, so it was worth reading for that alone.
   
6. Awful End by Philip Ardagh. I'm not sure when this was published (don't have it to hand), so I don't know if it belongs in the "jumping on the Lemony Snicket bandwagon" category, but it looks like it from the cover, and it feels like it when reading. It's not a bad read. The writing is good, and some of the characters are pretty fun, but overall, I think it just tries too hard. Mind you, I'm not remotely the intended audience, but for me, a lot of the wordplay (things along the lines of "He took the seat across from her. 'Don't steal that!' she shrieked, so he put it back and sat down." That's not the actual words, but you get the idea) was so over-the-top that it detracted from the actual story, which was otherwise fun. Basically, I got jarred out of the story so much I ended up not being particularly interested in what happened to any of the characters. Perhaps young boys would like it for the sillyness alone, but I can't imagine more sophisticated kids getting into it. But what do I know?
   

Sequential Art:

11. Rurouni Kenshin volume 1 by Nabuhiro Watsuki. I really liked the anime made from this series, so I thought I'd try the manga, and it's just as good (maybe better in some ways). The series in general (manga and anime) is a fun mix of serious more-or-less historical (early Meiji) action and rather slapstick humour, and mixes more and less realistic art styles.
    
12. Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle volume 2 by CLAMP.
    
13. Wish volume 2 by CLAMP.
    
14. Ranma 1/2 volume 5 by Rumiko Takahashi.
    

Looks like it's all manga this time, and only one new series. I haven't been comsuming comics at quite the insane rate I was, but I've been trying to finish off some of the stuff I've already got on the shelves before buying more. Actually, I've been trying to do that for books in general, though I've been less sucessful with fiction and non-fiction thanks to Value Village, thrift shops, book sales, and the remainder section of Chapters (good thing the nearest Chapters stores are in Nanaimo and Victoria). I have to say, though, I've picked up some really cool books.

I've also been having one of my periodic magazine cravings, and have been continuing to work my way through back issues of Geist (only one left, and then I have to decide whether or not to subscribe again). I've also been reading Scientific American and Discover, as well as the usual anime and gaming magazines (I've not been picking up any PC gaming mags, though, since I don't intend to have a PC for very much longer, and there are no Mac gaming mags).

More Thought

After more consideration, I think I'm going to stick with my original MacMini plan, and just go buy a monitor at Staples. They have a decent 17" for around $150. And that way, I can keep playing my games (I hadn't even had a chance to install some of them) until the Mac is shipping more quickly than "3-4 weeks." Still, if anyone knows of a used Mac with decent specs, let me know.

Fey page 33: About Bloody Time

Right, so here it is. This morning, after blazing through scanning, reassembling and cleaning up the edges of today's page, I was thinking of calling this blog entry "Fey, Now With Fewer Crashes." Aside from the laptop shutting itself off in protest in the middle of scanning the second section (it does that some times, when it thinks whatever I've asked it to is using too much memory, or something), everything behanved perfectly, though it did get slower the farther I went. Oh, I thought, I should have switched to this machine ages ago (remember, my desktop machine is currently without a functioning monitor). That was before Photoshop kept shutting down for no particular reason (the usual "illegal action" error that never seems to bear any connection to what you've been trying to do). I finally managed to finish the last thrid of the text by typing the text for a single bubble, flattening the layer and saving before going on to the next bubble.

I'm looking at used iMacs on eBay. I figure if I'm going to need a new monitor (not yet determined, but I haven't found a place in town that actually fixes monitors; plenty fix computers, just not the part you see what you're doing with), I might as well get a machine with a monitor already attached. Plus I love the look of the old G4 iMacs (they're the ones with the half-spherical base and the monitor on a steel arm coming out the top). Not that I would turn down a G5 of any description, if I could get one. Or a G4 PowerMac with a separate monitor, as long as it had one. Even used Macs aren't cheap. At least ones with sufficient power. On the off chance someone I know happens across a used Mac, I'd like the following:

• at least a G4 processor
  
• at least a 1 GHz processor (though I'd go for 800 MHz is it was cheap enough)
  
• at least 512 MB of RAM (again, 256 would be okay if cheap)
  
• at least a 40 GB hard drive (more is better)
  
• a 3D video card with at least 32 MB (64 is better)

Pop! Goes the Monitor (and Crackle, Too)

So I was playing Tomb Raider III, finally, and just getting back into it, when I hear this sort of "pop"--kind of like a lightbulb makes when it goes, only quieter. Then my monitor starts making these funny crackly sort of noises, then it powers down like it does when I've left it on too long, or turned off the computer without turning off the monitor. Oh, greeat.

Pluging the monitor into the original monitor port (instead of the one on the 3D card) makes no difference. Same crackle, same powering down. So it's not that the somewhat aged second-hand 3D card went wonky, it's the monitor itself. (To make sure, I'll see if Sue will let me plug her machine into it tomorrow). Crap. Crap. Crap. Now I need a new monitor.

Well, okay, maybe I can get this one fixed. But that "pop" was kind of ominous (though I know pretty much nothing about monitors, so maybe it's only a minor thing). Oh how I'd love to buy an Apple flat screen to go with the new Mac (whenever it is I get that), but they start at approximately twice the price of the Mac Mini (it is a 20" flat panel, but still . . .). Crap. I wonder if Sneakers fixes monitors, or if I need to take it to a special monitor place.

Lucky for me, I have my important work stuff on my laptop (thought it's not exactly a reliable machine, either). Crap, again.

Fey page 32

Here is is: page 32. Bad day for computers, today. First my laptop decided to shut itself off while I was trying to answer an eBay question, then there was the usual struggle to keep the desktop from freezing up while Photoshopping today's page of Fey. Sigh.

You Know You're From British Columbia When...

You Know You're From British Columbia When...

You know the provincial flower You consider that if it has no snow, it is not a real mountain. You can taste the difference between Starbucks, Blendz, and Tim Horton's. You know how to pronounce Squamish, Osoyoos & Nanaimo. You can tell the difference between Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean and Thai food. In winter, you go to work in the dark and come home in the dark - while only working eight-hour days. You have no concept of humidity without precipitation. You know that Dawson Creek is a town, not a TV show. You can point to at least two ski mountains, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover. You notice "the mountain is out" when it is a pretty day and you can actually see it. You put on your shorts when the temperature gets above 5, but still wear your hiking boots and parka. You switch to your sandals when it gets about 10, but keep the socks on. You recognize the background shots in your favourite movies & TV shows. You buy new sunglasses every year, because you can't find the old ones after such a long time. You use a down comforter in the summer. The local hero is a pot-smoking snowboarder The local wine doesn't taste like malt vinegar Your $400,000 Vancouver home is 5 hours from downtown You can throw a rock and hit three Starbucks locations You've been to a deforestation protest If a cop pulls you over, just offer them some of your hash It's November, it's raining, but you're still wearing birkenstocks You go broke just paying rent. You don't own a heavy winter coat You can't figure out why Manitoba is considered part of Western Canada. You wouldn't be caught dead on Vancouver Island or Vancouver without your umbrella and plastic shoes. You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from British Columbia.

Get Your Own "You Know You're From" Meme Here



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I Am Not Scary

You Are Not Scary

Everyone loves you. Isn't that sweet?

How scary are you?

No Longer Late

With page 31 now posted, I'm no longer behind on pages-to-post (well, except for the cover to part 2, maybe). I am, however, still behind and falling farther on pages-to-draw. Oh well. I'll catch up eventually.

Fey: Better Late?

I finally got the machine to work long enough to finish page 30. With luck, I'll be able to finish page 31, too, and post it on time (which is to say, tomorrow).

Beta Reading

So I finished my NSCAD admissions essay. I'm pretty happy with it. I went for a somewhat more creative angle rather than a strict "here's why I want to go to your school and why I think you should let me in approach." I hope that doesn't count against me. So anyone want to beta read it for me?

Crust

The day we broke
up I couldn't get out
of my mind the food
stuck in the corners
of your mouth.
All I could see
was that bit of orange.
And, Christ, I thought
as you tried to convince
me to go back,
Couldn't he at least wipe
his face?

Word Obsession

And speaking of words that catch my imagination, sometimes I get obsessed with a particular word. For some reason it sticks in my brain and won't go away. It fascinates me, and soon I have to do something about it--make a story or a poem, read a book about it, say it so many times I get sick of it. Right now the word is "puppet." Why? I have no idea. I think it may have started with an episode of InuYasha that involved demon puppetry, and the phrase stuck. Or maybe it wasn't that at all. I've always been fascinated by puppets. My grandfather used to have an old suitcase full of hand puppets, and a rack of marionettes hanging in the basement, many of which he'd made himself. I was especially enamoured of the skeleton marionette. I still am. That's one cool puppet. And kind of creepy, too, which is even better. I think Granddad might still have a few of those puppets, but I don't know if the skeleton is among them. Perhaps I should ask.

The weird thing about word obsession is that, if it's a good word, I don't even want to make it go away. "Puppet," I think to myself. "How cool. Puppetry. Puppets." Just say it out loud. That repetition of "p" sounds is fascinating, isn't it? Or maybe I'm just weird. I wonder if there's a good online tutorial on puppet-making. I could make a marionette to photograph for my NSCAD portfolio (I'm supposed to be devoting this week to getting that done). That way I could exorcise the puppet obsession and not feel like I was wasting time. Then again, "puppet" is such a fun word to have stuck in your head. Or in mine, anyway.

Fun With Words

I was flipping through my mostly-neglected journal, looking for the notes I made for my NSCAD admissions essay, when I found some lists of words I'd made. They almost sound like poetry.

eldritch dirigibles, poulpe-shaped
sundry savants dancing
tenebrous tentacular antennae
cetaceans
bioluminescent sleepy steam calliope
aerodynamic piezoelectric
antediluvian aeronaut

Invisible Library

The Invisible Library is a collection of books that only appear in other books. Within the library's catalog you will find imaginary books, pseudobiblia, artifictions, fabled tomes, libris phantastica, and all manner of books unwritten, unread, unpublished, and unfound.

I love this. It makes me want to go through all my books and find more things for them to add. I know there are some in Charles deLint that they don't have listed.

Cool Stuff

I'm sitting at the dining room table, wasting time because I really don't feel much up to working (Darwin's going to be fine, but I'm still pretty frazzled). Blog reading leads me to this site: I Want One Of Those (via Diane Duane's Out of Ambit). Some of the truly cool stuff you can buy there: the Binary Watch, the Write Light, the USB Swiss Army Knife, Emergency Cufflinks, the Death Clock, the Pet Doorbell, and many other strange and wonderful things. I can't take it all in.

Of Hellhounds and Fey

I suppose it was inevitable. One of our neighbours' dogs, Daisy the evil bitch dog, charged Darwin on our way back from the mailbox and took a chunk out of his left hip. So Darwin's at the vet getting stitches (for which the neighbours will be paying), and I'm completely frazzled. I'm not even going to try to get the new page of Fey up (I'm having enough trouble with basic spelling; don't want to fight with Photoshop and cranky computers). I'll try to get it up tomorrow. In the meantime, I'll be having a long, hot bath and a cup of tea before I have to go pick up Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome dog.