April the 10th: What a day...
Woke up this morning (late since I was up way too late) and found out that the President of Poland died in a plane crash along with a lot of other upper military/civilian officials (which begs the question, why were they all in the same plane? I know we have protocol in the US for which successors can even be in the same room, worst come to worse). Yet I've heard almost NO ONE talking about it. It was on my Google news homepage, on Yahoo most of the day, but other than that the only place I've seen it talked about is on dA and that's only because I follow some Polish artists. And my god, I'm so sorry for them. I can't imagine anything like that happening, the sheer scale of it makes it hard to believe (although I don't believe that Russia is behind it and they are clearly scrambling to do this as professionally as possible to allay any fears). Still, rest in peace and may Poland make it through this tough time.
Much more petty but I found out today that Tamora Pierce, my favorite author of all time, is coming to SC again after her last trip in January was canceled because of bad weather. Sweet! And then I realized, it's right in the middle of Animazement. FFFFFFFFFFFFFF, !QAZ. Second year in a row that something has come up during AZ that I'll have to skip, because AZ is the one weekend of the year I get to show off everything I can sew and one of the few times a year I see some of my friends. So yeah, and it looks like she isn't going in October like the website originally said so again, no chance to see any of the authors I like. It's like, to use a tvtropes style expression, there is a Southern Ghetto where the rest of the country just doesn't think about the South. True there isn't a ton of super important stuff still around here (no high-profile cities, no wonders of the world, Texas doesn't count here and Florida is just Florida) and unless there's a hurricane (or the recent string of tornado) or some South Carolina politician does something stupid/inflammatory again (no seriously, it's always the SC politicians) we never make the news.
Heck, reading a book right now that is set in a small Southern Town (Beautiful Creatures) and, while the plot is a nice twist on the standard urban fantasy romance you usually come across, it relies so much on not old stereotypes but old references that don't hold water as well these days. Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird and oh dear powers that be, you did NOT just invoke the civil war again did you? !QAZ Why is is ALWAYS the civil war?!? The Revolutionary War took place down here mind you, heck, I've got one of those battlegrounds back home (hence why one of the main streets is called "Battleground," kinda funny considering an equally large street is called "Friendly," think that one is because of the Quakers). It's just so, bah, annoying to see how everyone uses the same ideas, no one seems to truly try and see the South for how strange it is (except for a few webcomics that are set around SCAD done by the artists that go there, but that's in GA so a bit far from me). Looked up the authors to see if either had lived in the South, one I can't tell but the other lived in/near DC (which she describes as having "one foot in the South" which is accurate) with relatives from NC, okay, and then hey, she sounds an awful lot like the female love interest-aw crap. I don't like author avatars as main characters in stories (side characters/background ones? Sure, that's more amusing than anything else) because it seems rather lazy to simply twist yourself until you fit into the neat storyworld. Guh, will finish the book since it's an interesting read, but if I ever get a report up it will have some very nitpicky parts.
Not much else to say today, cited almost everything for The Counterculture and did a bit more sewing on Erika's dress. Now I really need a giant zipper and then I can stick in the velcro and frog and be done with that! Still need the bag and hat though, but those should be easy. And figure out what I'm going to do about the eyelets after all, make it up as I go along I suppose. And on that note, signing off, shower and then more sewing tonight.
Much more petty but I found out today that Tamora Pierce, my favorite author of all time, is coming to SC again after her last trip in January was canceled because of bad weather. Sweet! And then I realized, it's right in the middle of Animazement. FFFFFFFFFFFFFF, !QAZ. Second year in a row that something has come up during AZ that I'll have to skip, because AZ is the one weekend of the year I get to show off everything I can sew and one of the few times a year I see some of my friends. So yeah, and it looks like she isn't going in October like the website originally said so again, no chance to see any of the authors I like. It's like, to use a tvtropes style expression, there is a Southern Ghetto where the rest of the country just doesn't think about the South. True there isn't a ton of super important stuff still around here (no high-profile cities, no wonders of the world, Texas doesn't count here and Florida is just Florida) and unless there's a hurricane (or the recent string of tornado) or some South Carolina politician does something stupid/inflammatory again (no seriously, it's always the SC politicians) we never make the news.
Heck, reading a book right now that is set in a small Southern Town (Beautiful Creatures) and, while the plot is a nice twist on the standard urban fantasy romance you usually come across, it relies so much on not old stereotypes but old references that don't hold water as well these days. Gone With the Wind, To Kill a Mockingbird and oh dear powers that be, you did NOT just invoke the civil war again did you? !QAZ Why is is ALWAYS the civil war?!? The Revolutionary War took place down here mind you, heck, I've got one of those battlegrounds back home (hence why one of the main streets is called "Battleground," kinda funny considering an equally large street is called "Friendly," think that one is because of the Quakers). It's just so, bah, annoying to see how everyone uses the same ideas, no one seems to truly try and see the South for how strange it is (except for a few webcomics that are set around SCAD done by the artists that go there, but that's in GA so a bit far from me). Looked up the authors to see if either had lived in the South, one I can't tell but the other lived in/near DC (which she describes as having "one foot in the South" which is accurate) with relatives from NC, okay, and then hey, she sounds an awful lot like the female love interest-aw crap. I don't like author avatars as main characters in stories (side characters/background ones? Sure, that's more amusing than anything else) because it seems rather lazy to simply twist yourself until you fit into the neat storyworld. Guh, will finish the book since it's an interesting read, but if I ever get a report up it will have some very nitpicky parts.
Not much else to say today, cited almost everything for The Counterculture and did a bit more sewing on Erika's dress. Now I really need a giant zipper and then I can stick in the velcro and frog and be done with that! Still need the bag and hat though, but those should be easy. And figure out what I'm going to do about the eyelets after all, make it up as I go along I suppose. And on that note, signing off, shower and then more sewing tonight.