Random Bits from Facebook
February 15:
About 15 years ago, when I was researching gnolls, I bought a copy of Lord Dunsany's "Book of Wonder" and immediately read, "How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon the Gnoles." Having read it, I got on with other things. I have recently dug the book out of my archives and read it cover to cover. It is more than a little disappointing. In general, I find Dunsany's stories turbid, badly structured, and depressing.
This morning, while describing the "Essential Dunsany Plot" to Dementia, I realized that I needed to write my own story on those bones, and did so. It came in at under 150 words, which should surprise no one who is familiar with my work. (It occurs to me that I now have an actual story I can read in under a minute for the Ren Faire this summer...)(Story: Addressed to the King)
February 18:
Life in my household:
There is a new octopus in our plush menagerie. He was ordered on the 13th, and arrived on the 15th, and he is bright red, so he is at least Valentine's Day adjacent. His arrival led to a bit of discussion of the other two plush octopuses in the pile, and we realized that all three turned up on or very near Valentine's Day.
We don't do much for Valentine's Day around here; by the time the day arrives, we have usually seen enough "Show your love by spending stupid amounts of money on ugly and meaningless jewelry!" ads that we just want it to be over.
But in this house, as of this year, and going forward, it's also Octopus Day. And we like that a lot.
February 19:
Dark Thoughts:
Losing a loved one to a progressive, incurable, debilitating illness is awful; there is no question about that. But the process does give the survivors a chance to front-load their grief. My mother-in-law apparently made no effort whatsoever to do this, and in fact put a significant amount of effort into denying the truth of the situation. She is now devastated, and we have no idea how to comfort her.
February 20:
I've gotten lazy. I have a three word battery that covers 14 common letters, including all the vowels, so I almost never guess before row four. Which is fine, except on days like yesterday when four letters are easy, and the fifth gives you five different valid choices.
February 20:
Wonderful Foolishness:
So we have been watching David Tenant play Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in 80 Days" and pretty much loving it. All week, BBC America has been talking about the "Season Finale", which struck us as odd, given that the story was going to end. Except... The show ends with our heroes drinking brandy and reading the newspaper about some giant sea creature that just MIGHT be a submarine...
(Verne's heroes are pretty much interchangeable, and Fogg, as played by Tenant, is really better than any of them. And his companions are great as well. So turning the series into Jules Vern adventures, even if the title makes no sense at all, is a very good thing.)
February 22:
More old photos. Best guess these are from WindyCon in 1997. First is Kevin actually playing Makoto, and then Dementia, adopted niece Jessi, and a girl from IMSA whose name I can't remember. Third picture is some other guy some of you may recognize.
Updated to add: Kevin, Jessi, Amanda, and Anne have all checked in. I REALLY wish I had managed to catch the latter two in these photos...)(Described photos, the missing name is "Dani.")
February 23:
Historical Fantasy:
I have been saying for years that I thought Gary Gygax invented the small "p" pegasus, meaning an entire species of winged horse. Today I learned I was VERY wrong.
Pliny the Elder (Book 8, Chapter 30, 77 AD) said:
"Æthiopia produces the lynx in abundance, and the sphinx, which has brown hair and two mammæ on the breast, as well as many monstrous kinds of a similar nature; horses with wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi..."
February 23:
Life in my household:
It turns out that author Devon Monk pronounces her first name Chicago style, which we find disturbing, but it led to the following bit of foolishness.
There is a county in England, and a street in Chicago, which have the same name. Except... It England, the name rhymes with "seven"; in Chicago, the name rhymes with "Siobhan."
February 26:
Life in my household:
Dementia doesn't really like to travel, but she loves luggage, and occasionally watches "packing porn" videos. This is relevant because she is going to Idaho in a few days for her father's funeral, and she is making herself crazy trying to be sure she can get through the entire trip smoothly on a single bag.
Watching her go through all of this, I am once again baffled that the TSA has not outright KILLED the air travel industry. I continue to be unsure that I could get through a TSA checkpoint without telling them what I thought of their rules, their agency, and their personal hygiene. It's just as well I'm not going.
It wasn't a difficult decision; my presence would roughly quadruple the cost of the trip, which is prohibitive. Quadruple, you ask? Two more round trip airline seats (my shoulders won't let me sit in a single seat; I barely fit 40 years ago when I was smaller and the seats were larger, and I didn't have serious shoulder pain issues), and three hotel nights, and a rental car (Dementia can sponge off of her relatives; the two of us, not so much). So quadruple, and that would make it cheaper (and much more pleasant) to drive. But mostly, too much money we don't have.
About 15 years ago, when I was researching gnolls, I bought a copy of Lord Dunsany's "Book of Wonder" and immediately read, "How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon the Gnoles." Having read it, I got on with other things. I have recently dug the book out of my archives and read it cover to cover. It is more than a little disappointing. In general, I find Dunsany's stories turbid, badly structured, and depressing.
This morning, while describing the "Essential Dunsany Plot" to Dementia, I realized that I needed to write my own story on those bones, and did so. It came in at under 150 words, which should surprise no one who is familiar with my work. (It occurs to me that I now have an actual story I can read in under a minute for the Ren Faire this summer...)(Story: Addressed to the King)
February 18:
Life in my household:
There is a new octopus in our plush menagerie. He was ordered on the 13th, and arrived on the 15th, and he is bright red, so he is at least Valentine's Day adjacent. His arrival led to a bit of discussion of the other two plush octopuses in the pile, and we realized that all three turned up on or very near Valentine's Day.
We don't do much for Valentine's Day around here; by the time the day arrives, we have usually seen enough "Show your love by spending stupid amounts of money on ugly and meaningless jewelry!" ads that we just want it to be over.
But in this house, as of this year, and going forward, it's also Octopus Day. And we like that a lot.
February 19:
Dark Thoughts:
Losing a loved one to a progressive, incurable, debilitating illness is awful; there is no question about that. But the process does give the survivors a chance to front-load their grief. My mother-in-law apparently made no effort whatsoever to do this, and in fact put a significant amount of effort into denying the truth of the situation. She is now devastated, and we have no idea how to comfort her.
February 20:
I've gotten lazy. I have a three word battery that covers 14 common letters, including all the vowels, so I almost never guess before row four. Which is fine, except on days like yesterday when four letters are easy, and the fifth gives you five different valid choices.
February 20:
Wonderful Foolishness:
So we have been watching David Tenant play Phileas Fogg in "Around the World in 80 Days" and pretty much loving it. All week, BBC America has been talking about the "Season Finale", which struck us as odd, given that the story was going to end. Except... The show ends with our heroes drinking brandy and reading the newspaper about some giant sea creature that just MIGHT be a submarine...
(Verne's heroes are pretty much interchangeable, and Fogg, as played by Tenant, is really better than any of them. And his companions are great as well. So turning the series into Jules Vern adventures, even if the title makes no sense at all, is a very good thing.)
February 22:
More old photos. Best guess these are from WindyCon in 1997. First is Kevin actually playing Makoto, and then Dementia, adopted niece Jessi, and a girl from IMSA whose name I can't remember. Third picture is some other guy some of you may recognize.
Updated to add: Kevin, Jessi, Amanda, and Anne have all checked in. I REALLY wish I had managed to catch the latter two in these photos...)(Described photos, the missing name is "Dani.")
February 23:
Historical Fantasy:
I have been saying for years that I thought Gary Gygax invented the small "p" pegasus, meaning an entire species of winged horse. Today I learned I was VERY wrong.
Pliny the Elder (Book 8, Chapter 30, 77 AD) said:
"Æthiopia produces the lynx in abundance, and the sphinx, which has brown hair and two mammæ on the breast, as well as many monstrous kinds of a similar nature; horses with wings, and armed with horns, which are called pegasi..."
February 23:
Life in my household:
It turns out that author Devon Monk pronounces her first name Chicago style, which we find disturbing, but it led to the following bit of foolishness.
There is a county in England, and a street in Chicago, which have the same name. Except... It England, the name rhymes with "seven"; in Chicago, the name rhymes with "Siobhan."
February 26:
Life in my household:
Dementia doesn't really like to travel, but she loves luggage, and occasionally watches "packing porn" videos. This is relevant because she is going to Idaho in a few days for her father's funeral, and she is making herself crazy trying to be sure she can get through the entire trip smoothly on a single bag.
Watching her go through all of this, I am once again baffled that the TSA has not outright KILLED the air travel industry. I continue to be unsure that I could get through a TSA checkpoint without telling them what I thought of their rules, their agency, and their personal hygiene. It's just as well I'm not going.
It wasn't a difficult decision; my presence would roughly quadruple the cost of the trip, which is prohibitive. Quadruple, you ask? Two more round trip airline seats (my shoulders won't let me sit in a single seat; I barely fit 40 years ago when I was smaller and the seats were larger, and I didn't have serious shoulder pain issues), and three hotel nights, and a rental car (Dementia can sponge off of her relatives; the two of us, not so much). So quadruple, and that would make it cheaper (and much more pleasant) to drive. But mostly, too much money we don't have.