I wrote 1500 words this morning, and I want that to be Enough. I want to live in a universe where that *is* Enough. Sadly, that will not get two books written by April 15th, which is really when they both need to be done by. Even if I wrote 1500 words Every Single Day, it wouldn’t be enough. It has to be 2500 words a day, five days a week, plus a couple weeks there where I get in 3K daily. And that doesn’t count the two proposals that need doing by April 15th, too. To get those in I really need to do 3K a day, 5 days a week.

Which really is not an insurmountable amount of writing. But *God*, I really do wish 1500 a day would do it.

Oh well. Whinging time over. Back on my head.

(x-posted from the essential kit)

My last post had a malformed tag that rendered half of the list invisible. It's fixed now.

Thanks to joreth for the catch!

This pre-arranged taxi to bring us to the gym thing is simultaneously the best and worst idea I’ve implemented lately.

The alarm caught me deep in the midst of REM sleep this morning. There is *no way* I would have gotten up if there wasn’t a taxi already on its way. Ted apparently thought, “What the hell is that noise? Why are people talking?” when it went off, so it doesn’t seem likely he’d have gotten up either. But we both did, and I swam (marginally faster than yesterday and Monday) and Ted worked out. So yay us. And after tomorrow we get 3 days off, I said pathetically. :) Though on Friday we’re theoretically getting up at the same time to go into Dublin to go to Ikea first thing in the morning when it opens. Ted questions the necessity of this action (the first thing when it opens part). He may have a point.

As it gets closer to Christmas and my self-allotted one mad batch of candy making I have been wanting to just GO AHEAD AND MAKE AND EAT IT OM NOM NOM…but I realized today that we got back from America and basically went cold turkey on sweets 11 days ago, and it’s my observation that days 1-3 and 10-12 are the hardest for that, so that’s almost certainly part of the ZOMG WANT GOODIES I’m suffering. *snivel* But hopefully this awareness will make it easier to stay good, rather than saying “oh to hell with it, Christmas is next week anyway”. :)

miles to Minas Tirith: 105.2
ytd km swum: 47
ytd wordcount: 263,800

(x-posted from the essential kit)

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

This is an alternative version (though not much changed) of a recipe I found by “Mudflower” over on Recipezaar. I change a few methods here and there to make the preparation easier, and often make a one and a half times sized recipe, which just fills our ten quart pot (so you’ll want a reasonably large one even when making the regular amount).  The soup that results is really damn good — spicy, for sure, but with a lot of flavor surrounding that heat, lots of nicely developed corn flavor.

You can look at the original recipe if you like at the link above, but I’m going to supply my take on it here, embellished by the experience of making it several times.  Takes between 1 and 2 hours to get to the result, depending on how slow you are (I tend to be a bit slow). Enjoy!

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Elaborate on your default icon.
It's Gir dancing! Insane war robot on the inside - bouncy happy doggie on the outside. It's so appropriate that it's almost upsetting to think about. :-)


2. What's your current relationship status?
Complex and possibly dynamic? To oversimplify, I am a node of the intimate network known as the Amorphous Squiggle. I'm happily married to femetal and still delightfully surprised to find that I'm dating joreth. zensidhe is my "hetero life-mate", and I hit on redheadlass at every opportunity.


3. Ever have a near-death experience?
I've had a few - a frightened cop shaking while pointing a gun at me, or the stage lighting rig that fell directly onto me, only to be stopped cold a foot above my head by a misplaced ladder. But here's a story I don't think I've ever told anyone: The closest I ever came to feeling like I was about to die was when I was I was a kid. It was summer vacation, and my friend David and I were walking across a bridge on our way to or from somewhere. Being less-than-brilliant, we decided to walk balanced on the railing, so that on one side was a trivial 2 foot drop to the bridge itself, while on the other side was a much longer drop onto sharp rocks and the river bed below. (In my mind's eye it was a 300 ft drop onto sharp rocks, spikes, and piranha, but I suspect that my recollection might be a bit exaggerated.)

David was right behind me, and at one point he started to lose his balance, and grabbed me to steady himself, in doing so nearly throwing me off the bridge. I did the whole pinwheeling arms thing and for a brief moment was sure that I was about to die. I think I was mad at David for the rest of the day.


4. Name an obvious quality you have.
Mass.


5. What's the name of the song that's stuck in your head right now?
"White Wine In The Sun", by Tim Minchin. Watch it here!


6. Name a celebrity you would marry.
There aren't any celebrities that I'd be interested in marrying, though there are quite a few I'd like to sleep with! I'm not generally impressed by celebrity, and despite being deliriously happy in my own marriage my support for marriage as an institution is waning.


7. Who will cut and paste this first?
Don't know.


8. Has anyone ever said you look like a celebrity?
I've been told that when I smile I look like Tim Curry.


9. Do you wear a watch? What kind?
I wear a Timex Ironman Triathlon. It's durable and functional.


10. Do you have anything pierced?
No.


11. Do you have any tattoos?
Yup. I have the Extropy symbol on my right upper arm. It's one of my userpics. It basically symbolizes ever-expanding vitality, knowledge, technology, and human capability.


12. Do you like pain?
No, though joreth makes inflicting pain such a rewarding experience that I'm starting to develop a taste for it...


13. Do you like to shop?
No, but I like to have things and give things, so it's kind of a necessity.


14. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
I have no clue, but it was within the past week. Probably a beverage at a convenience store.


15. What was the last thing you paid for with your credit/debit card?
Something naughty for joreth.


16. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone?
Not sure about the timing. It was either femetal or one of my users.


17. What is on your desktop background?
Dual monitors: One is a pic of me, joreth, and femetal, taken at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. The other is the Irken Empire Christmas banner from the Invader Zim episode "The Most Horrible Christmas Ever". When I'm at work, the Invader Zim wallpaper is substituted for a photo of femetal standing in line for Terminator Salvation: The Ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain.


18. What is the background on your cell phone?
A close up face shot I took of the 1:1 scale T-800 endoskeleton in the Terminator store at Universal Studios.


19. Do you like redheads?
Oh, most definitely!


20. Do you know any twins?
Not currently, but some friends of the family had twins when I was a kid.


21. Do you have any weird relatives?
No, but my relatives do. ;-) This is a silly question. I mean, aren't relatives weird by definition?


22. What was the last movie you watched?
We watched the super-duper-mega-extended version of Watchmen on Sunday. Over 3.5 hrs, and well worth it!


23. What was the last book you read?
I just started reading Terminator and Philosophy yesterday morning.

I should’ve been at work by now, but I was talking with Mom and a fat mistle thrush came to sit in the tree outside our window for a while. :)

(x-posted from the essential kit)

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

I tend to leave my Tuesdays and Thursdays blank on Deadly Fredly; it doesn’t look like I have it in me to post daily, at least not yet. Need to get those creaky-tired muscles operational again, and need to leave time for stuff that isn’t blogging. You know, the stuff that gets me paid.  As such you’ll see me occasionally fill these days with really short posts-of-the-moment, while the Monday/Wednesday/Friday stuff gets some greater length and forethought.

Today I push two things at you that deserve your money, and which may well work as excellent, cheap, last minute gifts.

I’ll likely return to these subjects again in later posts, but for now, I’m focusing solely on putting them out there and getting your eyeballs on ‘em.

Jennifer Rodgers’ Etsy Store: Jennifer is one of my favorite people and a very talented artist. When it turned out that we wanted to go for color in the Dresden Files RPG instead of our original notions of a black and white book, Jennifer’s the first artist I thought of, and with good reason: she has an incredible eye for color, and her art trends towards the twisted, supernatural, and dark. All good things in my book, and she did not disappoint with the DF work.  Her Etsy store features gift cards and the occasional print or other art object. Anyway: Give her your dollars, stat, via her store!

Josh Roby’s Rooksbridge: Josh has designed some great games that bang around in the “indie” scene — Full Light, Full Steam and Sons of Liberty to name two.  But so what? He has clearly missed, and now hopefully found, his calling as a fiction writer. Rooksbridge is his venture into this, publishing a series of interlinked but free-standing short stories set in a fantasy world that’s a lot of dirt and politics and a little bit of magic. Sort of like an episodic fantasy TV show in text form. Really solid stuff. I’m still reading through the stories, but I was taken with the free-in-PDF story Dirty Work and I think you will be, too. (I’m less taken with the audio versions of the fiction so far but there’s a lot that goes into whether or not that presentation will click for an individual. For my taset I’d rather Josh focus on the text alone.) The rest of the Rooksbridge stories can be bought cheaply, which makes them perfect stocking stuffers in an age when stockings can be virtual and your friends and family are scattered all over creation. Take a few minutes to become part of the Rooksbridge audience — if not as a holiday present to you or family and friends, then as a present to Josh for the work he’s doing here. It’s worth noting (and perhaps legally mandated) that I mention that I got my hands on the Rooksbridge stories for free via Josh, but there’s no way in hell I’d be talking about them if they hadn’t punched my buttons.

Hey, internet, I'm pretty busy today. So here's a photo.



Photo by Rae Winters. Taken, after being inspired by a video-game, Saturday night after the street fair. Hundreds of photos were taken. There will be more posted later.

For now, I've got lots of sketching to do and e-mails to write. Will catch up with comments and such tomorrow. :)

I had no idea posting about the temperature of my house would provide such a platform for discussion. O.O

Although we went to bed at a very sensible hour last night, the alarm clock this morning was quite a rude awakening. I’m quite sure that had I not arranged for a taxi already, we wouldn’t have gotten up. But I had, and we did, and this driver didn’t take us on the longest route possible and the trip cost €2 less than yesterday’s. I have engaged this fellow for tomorrow morning’s trip to the gym as well. So there. That’ll teach the other guy to be a bastard.

Today turned out to be more full of errands than expected, so I didn’t write my whole chapter. Bad Kit. I got about 1400 words, though, and tomorrow should be errandless so I will put the auld nose to the grindstone and make up for what I didn’t get done today. Also, I keep thinking today is Wednesday, probably because Friday and Saturday we’ll be in Dublin (to go to Ikea on Friday, ai, and to go to Breic’s SEVENTH birthday party on Saturday! Wow!) so I’m only looking at a 4-day work week, which must mean Friday is coming up faster than it is, so today must be Wednesday. Only it’s Tuesday, and that’s confusing.

I…am going to dig the tree out of the closet now, and make some effort toward setting it up. And after that I may wrap a present or two, or at least find the wrapping paper.

Ted is making enchiladas for dinner. They smell sooooooo good, and I am sooooo hungry! :)

miles to Minas Tirith: 103.5
ytd km swum: 46
ytd wordcount: 260,800

(x-posted from the essential kit)

I realize it's last minute, and I wasn't planning on posting any kind of wish list at all this year, but since I've been specifically requested to do so here's what I want (or at least where to find it).

1) Last year I made this LJ post requesting that, in lieu of getting me something, people make a donation to Charity: Water. That request stands. On the scale of doing the most good for the most people per dollar spent, I still have yet to find a charitable organization the beats them. A new game for the Wii vs helping our fellow humans obtain a basic necessity of life for decades to come? No comparison.

2) However, if you're gonna buy me sumptin', I have an Amazon wishlist that, while not exhaustive, is up to date.

3) I also have Think Geek wishlist for my more propeller-headed desires.

4) Beyond that (or really, above that), the thing I want most is time spent with friends and loved ones. Seriously. (Preferably naked. ;-) )

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

[1h 2m 5s] Fred and Chris catch up on the last three months, including the impending release of the Dresden Files RPG at Origins 2010 and Chris’s impotent rage about not getting to order Jeni’s Ice Creams for delivery. Then on to talk about how they won’t be picking up on last episode’s cliffhanger and instead focusing talking about VSCA’s approach to publishing with Diaspora (the good and the bad) and Games Workshop’s surprising attitude towards its fans.

MP3 download: http://media.libsyn.com/media/thatshowweroll/Thats_How_We_Roll_S2E6_-_Catchin.mp3

Episode Post: http://thatshowweroll.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=560092

Disclaimer: I know many people already do what I'm about to discuss and that's totally cool and I'm not judging. This is more about goals I set for myself that I am starting to slack on. I should also add that when I set these goals, I always said I was going to 'try' to do them so that I wouldn't beat myself up if I didn't uphold them.

Before having a child, I had many grand ideas of how I would raise him/her/them. It's very easy to set these goals when you don't actually have said child. As noted in a previous entry, the first thing to go was my philosophy on 'leashing' my child. I did cave and buy an adorable little puppy backpack leash and Lilian is very happy to be able to take walks around our neighborhood and I"m very happy to have a means to not let her run into the street.

Now a second goal has crumbled. While I recognize that there are tons of fast food choices out there, I wanted to try to keep her away from the evil triumvirate of McDonald's, Burger King, and Wendy's. I don't know what logic made me choose those three as the ones to avoid, since there are so many other ones out there that are just as unhealthy, but that was where I drew my line in the sand. She's had Chick Fil A, which I suppose I justified by everything being cooked in peanut oil, and she's had Subway, but that has been it. And yes, I am fully aware of the hypocrisy of my justification thank you very much. Actually now that I think about it, the reason I probably chose those three to pick on is because when I was growing up that was all we had fast food wise. And every weekend when I'd stay with my dad, we'd eat at one of those at least twice in as many days. Though, to be honest, it was probably more like every meal except for our hard rolls with butter or donut breakfasts. Anyway. I was very early developer in the female areas (boobs in 2nd/3rd grade and period in 4th) and I've always blamed that on the fast food. Sure genetics had a part in it, but that much fast food and growth hormone had to contribute so that's why I feed Lilian organic meats and dairy and have declared McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's as evil. For her. Because I do love me some Wendy's, I'm not going to lie.

Our normal schedule is breakfast whenever she gets up, lunch around 12 and then nap around 1:30. Therefore, I scheduled a doctor's appointment for 11 (earliest I could get in), thinking we might be a little late for our normal lunch time, but probably wouldn't be too bad. I get to the doctor's and am not brought back to the examining room until a bit after 12. Meanwhile, she's making the hungry sign for the past 30 minutes and Teddy Grahams and dried fruit don't seem to be cutting it. We leave the doctor's office probably around 12:55 and it takes about 20 minutes to get home. As I'm pulling out, I notice a Wendy's. I think to myself - if she eats in the car then when we get home we'll still be pretty much on nap schedule at the very least. So I do it. I take the plunge and get her nuggets from Wendy's. And I get the fries as the side dish because it's easier to eat in the car than the fruit. Then when we got home I gave her some of my frosty.



Do I feel horribly guilty? No, of course not. But I am somewhat amused by how certain goals and philosophies have more trouble standing up to parenting than I thought. And it's not like I'm going to give her fast food every week or even enough for it to be an issue. Though she does need to put on some weight....

For those of you who might be interested in hearing me speak, I'm giving a free webinar tomorrow, 11 am Eastern. Pre-registration is required.

Cloud Computing: Reshaping the IT Landscape

Edit: There's now an archived replay.

I will never be Irish. I will never accept the idea that, as an Irish cabbie recently said to us, one keeps one’s house not so much *warm* as ‘not cold’. (This guy has a Lithuanian girlfriend. Only upon visiting her family in Lithuania did he understand why she kept turning the heat up in Ireland. “Of course,” he said, “their houses are insulated for it, too.”) A house is not sufficiently warm unless I can spread butter on a piece of bread without tearing the bread. I have not, and probably never will, get used to the idea that on a fine day I still need to wear layers *inside* the house even if *outside* I can comfortably wear shorts and a tank top.

I have adapted far enough that I’ll turn the heat off in the rooms I’m not using, except for the kitchen, because the goddamned kitchen ought not double as an ice box. I have adapted in so far as that I wear slippers or fuzzy socks, and sweaters or other layers, which I never did in Alaska except upon going OUTDOORS, which is the natural and reasonable place to wear layers. I’ve learned to close the door of the room I’m in to capture the heat. And I have also learned that a space heater in the frelling kitchen actually warms it up (unlike the radiator, which makes it slightly less cold), and so a space heater it is. That’s as far as I adapt. :)

I posted a bunch of pictures from Alaska and Seattle, she said, making a wrenching transition from one topic to the next. Most of them are probably completely meaningless to everyone but the people in them, and there’s a certain sameyness to them because a significant percentage feature me in the sweater my Mom made for me, so even different days sort of look the same. Still, they’re here, if anybody wants to peruse them.

I called last night for a taxi to pick us up this morning, and one did. And took us by the most circuitous route possible to the gym, which pissed us off to no end. I need to call our regular cabbie and see if he works that early/can give me a number for somebody who’s not an asshole. Anyway, we did go to the gym, and I swam the slowest 1K of my adult life, but I swam, and Ted gymmed, and we are pleased with ourselves. Well. I’m pleased with myself, anyway. :)

And I wrote a chapter today. I have approximately 32 working days before this book is due. Assuming nothing goes wrong, I will just squeak in to having it finished on time. Let us hope nothing goes wrong. Let us hope, in fact, that I have an unexpectedly stellar week and write a lot more than is necessary. But let us be realistic, too, and admit that that ain’t gonna happen until after the new year.

Speaking of which, how can next year possibly be 2010? That’s just *bizarre*.

miles to Minas Tirith: 99.1
ytd km swum: 45ish?
ytd wordcount: 259,400

(x-posted from the essential kit)

This past weekend, Rae Winters and I set up at a small street fair in Collingswood, NJ. It was part of the town's monthly "2nd Saturday" event. Although it wasn't terribly successful due to bitter cold, it was a lovely day and we can't wait to give it another shot during the warmer seasons.



Considering the cold weather, the highlight of the day was being located next to a cafe with a HOT CHOCOLATE BAR. I had gingerbread hot chocolate and it was amazing. We loved the town's atmosphere and can't wait to visit again. We were told that the 2nd Saturdays are wildly successful and fun in the spring and summer! Oh yes! We will be back! I won't lie though. We didn't last very long. If I didn't see you and you came out to say hello, I apologize. We packed up and left once fingers and toes lost all feeling. Not kidding! A big thank you to those of you we did see though! The company was very welcome!

Afterward, we got gigantic burritos, played some Wii Silent Hill, watched Drag Me to Hell and ended up doing an unplanned experimental photo shoot. I don't know why, but we always do our best work together when it's late and we're exhausted. Bathrooms are usually involved. It makes no sense. I'll post some of those when I have them! :)

Now, THAT was an excellent weekend. What have you been up to?
_________________________________________

As always, my cards and mirrors shown in the photos are available at my Etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/JenniferRodgersArt

A selection of Rae's photo prints and cards are available on Etsy as well:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RaeWinters

Originally published at Deadly Fredly. You can comment here or there.

I’m a loud guy. This is mostly true in person, but completely true online.  I talk about what I like a lot, and at volume.  This blog is a part of that, but so’s Twitter and elsewhere.  I do my best not to push my way into faces that aren’t looking to hear me run my yap, but those who do will find themselves hit with a big wall of text.

Looking at this from a completely mercenary perspective, being loud in this fashion is very much about establishing a presence and a “brand of me”.  In the Internet Age, silence is equivalent to invisibility.  You might be out there producing great things and doing interesting stuff, but if you aren’t talking about it, and if other people aren’t talking about it, it may as well not be happening. Audience is king.

But beyond the whole “I’m loud so I’m seen” thing, I’m also loud in service of the things I like and love.  I’m loud so those things are seen, too.

Read the rest of this entry »

I finally had the time and the right state of mind to sit down with the family and watch Up mon BluRay. I'd seen it in the theaters when it came out and it is definitely the most moving story Pixar has done to date in my opinion; I'd been moved to tears multiple times when I first saw it and I knew it was going to get me again when I watched it the second time at home. And yes, it did.

The most impressive thing, and the skill that really sets Pixar above and beyond any other storytelling group today to me, is the way they are able to really beautifully tell a story within a matter of moments with not a single bit of dialog. There's a montage near the beginning that tells the entire life of the old man in a matter of a few minutes that communicates love, the way life makes you make decisions, the way people deal with great emotional setbacks, how they hang on to their dreams and finally with the greatest losses in life. I'm honestly starting to tear up again just thinking through it to write this.

These are visual storytellers at the absolute top of the art. I know they'll never read this entry, but thank you Pixar - thank you for reminding me what story telling really can be and how much heart can be put into just a few minutes of celluloid.

A Sunday afternoon two weeks before Christmas is probably not the ideal time to post this, but it will no doubt come up again and since we were just talking about it I thought I’d post.

Ted was considering doing a pre-P-Con dinner on the Thursday evening before P-Con, which would be the 4th of March, 2010. We had vague thoughts of maybe finding an extended-stay sort of apartment in Dublin that would have a reasonably decent kitchen, and holding a dinner there (rather than attempting to take over someone’s kitchen).

Would anybody be interested? Probably if we did that, with the apartment, we’d need a few euro cover charge or something to help offset the cost of the apartment, but on the other hand, if Brits were coming in early for it, we could probably also manage to get a place that would settle several people for the night, thus also offsetting the cost of an extra night in Dublin…

(x-posted from the essential kit)

I believe that Lucy may feel it’s dinner time:

I’d best go cater to her whim. :)

(x-posted from the essential kit)

My email box this morning contained two things: a notification from Romance Junkies that THE QUEEN’S BASTARD had received their blue ribbon award for one of the best books reviewers had read recently (the review, which is very nice, is here), and a positively glowing fanmail from someone who picked up WINTER MOON and had enjoyed “Banshee Cries” enormously.

That’s certainly a nice way to start the day. :) In celebration, I shall give you a sneak peak at the cover for DEMON HUNTS, book five of the Walker Papers, coming in June 2010, and currently my Favorite Cover EVAR. :)

( biggish picture behind the cut )
(x-posted from the essential kit)