celeb_draug

Every time I try to add the link to the landing page for the Rose and Bay Awards, or link to the crowdfunding  community, I lose most of my previous post.

WTF!?!?!?!?

So these links are here, instead of where they should be.

Given that LJ is being so very very flaky for me right now, I won't try to do a poetry landing page tonight.

My friend shadesong (and others) have reminded me I should do a "um, so there are some awards that some of my stuff is eligible for..." post.

Hugo Awards (short story)

• DEMM Wizard in Crossed Genres

Who can nominate? Aussiecon and Anticipation members (Worldcon '09 and '10)
How does one nominate? Click here!

Rhysling Awards (short poem category)

• Chatter of a White Scaly-Gull in With Painted Words
  
• Under a Fey Moon in EMG Zine

Who can nominate? Members of the Science Fiction Poetry Association.
How does one nominate? Click here!


Rose and Bay Awards
This is a new award for crowdfunded fiction; there's five categories, I have crowdfunded material that fits into the fiction, poetry, and other category.

• My 2009 Flash Fiction Collection
  
• My poetry
• Fireborn
• Busking in Cyberland - essays/blog posts

Who can nominate? Anyone who reads or otherwise participates in crowd-funded projects. Which is basically everyone likely to hear about the award. How does one nominate? There are separate posts in crowdfunding for each category.
Who can Vote? Again, everybody, with the caveat that no one can vote for themselves. You get to vote in February; I'll doubtless provide a new link or links for you then.

Notes: 

1. Gee--I'd better make a landing page for the poetry now! That's been on my to-do list for quite a while.
2. Fireborn has already been nominated in the fiction category by red_trillium  -- THANKS!

I feel very honored that Fireborn was nominated.  I don't expect to win; there's some other great crowdfunded stories out there, but still, it's exciting!

Thank you to everyone who's been following my adventures (real and fictional) this year!

P.S.  Even if you don't want to nominate anything, I encourage you to check out the Rose and Bay nominations; I'll be nominating some cool projects and others have already started nominating.

ETA:  I just posted this whole thing, with links, and had most of it, including all the links vanish.  So I'm going to edit in the links after posting.  Sigh!

Hello All,

Libby and I have returned to Chicago, and the internets, after 10 days or so away from both. AWESOME! We cruised the Western Caribbean on a cruise ship. It was fun! We lounged, we ate, we walked, we snorkeled over a reef and a shipwreck (destroyed by white rice!), we did some cave exploring including rappels inside a cave and some ziplines out of one cave, through a ravine and into the mouth of another. We ate. We lounged. We read. It was glorious. New Years Eve party on a cruise ship! Standing outside at midnight on the 31st in 95 degree weather.

Boat was 120 feet off the waterline to the highest deck we could walk on, drawing only 25 feet of water.... floating apartment block.

Back now. Not going back to see what I missed in LJ.

Happy New Year all!

I was sitting in my car, knowing I needed to get inside the grocery store before they closed to buy milk, but they were interviewing this scientist about looking for life deep under the sea, and sending a robot sub deep under the arctic ice, looking for warm spots due to volcanic vents, and life in those warm spots. He and his associates on the boat wanted to find something creepy and weird, like a three-eyed tube worm. And they found nothing. Across days and time zones they searched. Nothing. Then they got caught in this huge ice flow, and had to--well, flow--along with it. With nothing better to do, they sent the sub down where they were, instead of where they had planned to be--and found life. Beautiful fluffy yellow stuff.

And while I'm listening to this matter-of-fact scientist give long, lyrical descriptions of these fields of fluffy yellow stuff, a car goes zooming down the street, very very fast. Like, he would be speeding even if he was on the expressway. "Whoah! Dude!" I think. Then a cop-car goes whizzing by after him. "Good!" I think, still following the NPR article with most of my brain. The scientist's employees on the boat, he says, are kind of mad at him, because they wanted to find something cool and creepy, like the afore-mentioned mythical three-eyed tube worm, and instead they find beautiful fluffy stuff.

And two more cop cars go by, lights and sirens blaring. And as I turn the car off so I can buy milk before the store closes, two more. I get out and grab the bag with the coupons, and the bag with the cloth bags, and another cop goes by. Then another one as I get to the entry of the store.

I'm glad I got off that road and into the parking lot when I did!

I wonder if tomorrow's news will tell me what that was all about? The chase, I mean. Not the fluffy stuff. The last thing I heard before turning the car off was that the scientists eventually concluded that the fluffy stuff may be the oldest form of microbes on the planet.

I hate it when ordinary emergencies interfere with both holiday plans and writing plans! But I don't have to write about it because My Angel did! Here.

I spent WAY too much time finding out that no store with the older-style filter and gasket that our boiler uses was open on Saturday, January 2.  Finally resorted to calling my Fixit-Friend, who happened to be in the restaurant across the street from the Menards I was at!  Got advice and parts, but it took WAY too long.  After taking too long on Dec 31 and Jan 1 to do various things connected with figuring out why it was leaking and what to do about it. 

But the nice repairman who didn't want to interrupt his family plans on New Years Day at least told me I could make a temporary cardboard gasket.  Currently, we're checking it regularly for leakage; we want to wait until a slightly warmer day to replace it, since replacing it means turning the heat off.

And right now I'm typing in a winter coat with fingerless gloves.  If I'm moving around the house, the temperature isn't bad, but for sitting still and typing, it's COLD.

The Rose and Bay awards have been founded to honor people participating in crowdfunded projects. This year, the categories are to be Fiction, Art, Poetry, Other, and Donor. They are being managed by ysabetwordsmith  and xjenavivex .  (They are each managing categories they didn't participate in in 2009.)

Anyone interested in any crowdfunded projects can nominate up to three projects per category.  That includes donators, artists, authors, and all readers/viewers.  So all of us are eligible to nominate our favorite crowdfunded projects or donors. 

The nominations are to be placed as comments in the appropriate post in the crowdfunding  community; I'm linking to the post for nominating crowdfunded fiction here.  Once there, you can check out the community to find the other posts, and other crowdfunded projects.

I'm really excited about this, and hoping it will lead to more people understanding what crowdfunding is.  I also hope it will help more people find crowdfunded projects that they can enjoy.

I expect the awards will evolve over time--for instance, I wonder if recorded music projects should have their own category.  I hope you will let us know (here, or on one of the posts in crowdfunding discussing the matter) what you as consumers of crowdfunded content would like to see in regards to these awards.

And I hope you'll consider making a few nominations!

So it was yet another long day at work. While I won't go into detail, I didn't get off work until 6. So I go get Tim (roadie for the night). I'm a do-er, and Tim's a planner. But the planner failed to tell me that our event we were going to was 3 hours away. So instead of tarting myself up, I change pants and shoes and we are on our way.
It was a full moon and it was so beautiful. On the way there I was Wind Turbines! They were so cool and very huge. They were scary huge! I was blown away. That made my evening. I even made a drawing on Tim's phone about how awesome it was.

It took us forever F-O-R-E-V-E-R!! to get there and we roll in just minutes before midnight. Champaign toast and shrimp cocktail. Chips and dip. They are on Eastern time so we lost an hour. I brought drinks, but we didn't drink much. Tim wanted Shmernof ice (sp?) but the Binney's express I went to didn't have it, so I got him sparkling Sake- pear flavored. It was... ok.

So on the way Tim was like "We should go to the Waffle House" and I said "I've never been to the Waffle House, we are so going" so after about an hour of dance watching, cake blowing (I was at the Barfleets Indycent NYE part in Indianapolis) we were like "Thanks, we're headed to the Waffle House". At the WH we each had the grand slam and started to fade. Tim drove us back to Chicago.

I made and executive decision that we were not going sledding, instead we were going to the movies. So I saw the wind turbines again and it was so cool. The were hUGE!!! We got some 5 hour energies and off we went.

It took us longer to get back, I fell asleep, we hit a rest stop and Tim took another 5 hour energy. We got back around 5 am and I am tired.
Now to get ready for Rob's korean event, then movies.
I'm so sleepy. but at least I get to wear jeans!

off to a new adventure.

ah I remember the word! WinderMills!!! That's what I was calling the Wind Turbines.

I was awakened very early, by my current schedule, to pay the oil delivery guy. 

And then, well, I was awake.  And yesterday's mail told me that my unemployment payment this week was partial, which probably means I've reached the end of the extended payments.  I'm hoping that the extra extension is in effect already, otherwise I don't know what I'll do for money when the small amount I've been able to keep set aside from my tax return this year is gone.  Anyone want to commission me for anything, now's your chance!!!

Being awake, and assuming that the unemployment office is closed until next year, I set to working on something that I can do, and got about 2000 words in on the Grandmother Marie story, bringing it nearly to 2900 words.  It's somewhere in the vicinity of half done now; I wanted to finish the first draft today, but eventually the fact that I hadn't gotten my 8 hours sleep set my eyelids drifting downward, and I returned to bed.  I've got to figure out a real title for that story!

Now my bath is running, I entered the SF Reader short story contest, and I'm packing stuff so I can draw icons as thank-yous for the donors who've supported me the most in cash and comments this year at the New Year's party at Lytheria. 

And then I dropped in to the creators' forums at Torn World and noticed there's banners to use for Torn World -- it's opening VERY soon now, in 2010.  But 2010 is now just hours away!  I'm not sure exactly when Ellen will declare it officially open, it could be as early as Midnight in whatever Alaska time zone Ellen lives in, but here's the site:  http://www.tornworld.net  Check it out!!!

There is already some public content on the site, and there will be more--fiction, poetry, and artwork.  And there will be significantly more content for subscribers, as well as a system of credits so you can vote with your cash to let us know which pieces you like best.  You will also be able to adopt characters, and to contact writers and artists to commission stories or artwork about them, if you don't want to write a story yourself--and your character will be able, in the stories, to interact with other characters in the Torn World.  I'm very excited to see how this will all work in practice!!!  There's a system to have stories approved as "canon", or officially part of the Torn World, which includes checking with the owners of any character in a story, so if you own a character, no one can marry them off (for instance) without your approval.

ellenmillion  has been working hard to get the site ready, and the other creators have been beta-testing things for months, so we're all excited to be welcoming new people there!

I forget that a lot of my friends live in the burbs where Sonics are a lot easier to go to. I don't live in the burbs so for me to want to go to a fast food chain that only exist in the burbs should be a sort of event.

Not to mention I have not ever been to AS&S. but anyway, if there isn't enough interest, then I will just go with some geeky city dwellers and have a day of it.

foo on you!

I'm tired. :(
I went to the Speakeasy last night after work at my local comic shop. I'm glad they fed me cause there was a lot of drinking going on. I tried a lot of whiskey and some labeled moonshine (Catdaddy) and some actual moonshine from Croatia. I had a good time and got home nearer to midnight then I would have liked. It's nice having activities that don't involve me learning expressways and worrying about being sober and such. I also found a whiskey that I will give to my dad before his birthday (he is headed to Vegas) which I think he will like. He said I was trying to kill him with the Old Fitzgerald (100 proof), but that was on recommends from the Binny's guy. I don't like bourbon.
I also tried this Japanese Yamazaki (me thinks), Johnny Walker Black and like 3 others. I didn't try the Jim Beam Bourbon. I don't like bourbon.

I also had a bit of wine as a chaser (yes I remember the fall out of last time) but I didn't have a whole lot so me getting up this morning is hard cause of lack of sleep, not hangover.

It seems that this weekend is filling up but oddly little plans for ny's day. But that's cool. It will work out in the end.

ok, people. Have a good safe day/night and start the year as you like. Having fun, while being responsible. blah blah blah.

Well, although they're extending the deadline, I got my Why I Write essay in on time for the original deadline. Feel free to check it out. There will be voting in February, so I'll doubtless post this link again then, so if you're busy with holidays now, you can also check it out later. Of course, I'd have submitted it before Christmas, but the site went down--thus the deadline extension. But still, it's something accomplished, and especially this close to the new year, it's good to have one more thing done.

I also got artwork done for a contest entry. I'm wishing I could share it with you, because I'm pleased with how it came out, which is especially pleasing to me since I started feeling very uninspired. It's cool how things like that sometimes just work.

And frustrating when they don't.

The story I sent to The Beast Within II got held by the editor for a second read, but he decided it didn't fit the anthology as well as other stories he had. Now I have to figure out where to send it next.  But it was good of the editor to let me know he held it for a second read--personal rejection letters are a treasure (though, of course, not as shiny a treasure as an acceptance).

I rewrote (and re-titled) another story yesterday, and over the past few days have been redoing research for another incomplete short story, which I want to submit to an anthology that closes soon. Time to reorganize my cork board!

And I got more mundane errands run today, buying fish food while it's 40% off, a brief grocery run, going to the bank, all dull but necessary.  Now off to submit to that contest!

One of the cats I'd been taming came back a few weeks ago, just before it got to be terribly col outside for a few days, and we brought her in, keeping her in the rear vestibule unless I was holding her or had her closed into one room. Well, while I was in Chicago over Christmas, my daughter's cat figured out he could push any of the pocket doors open to give her the freedom of the house.

And she likes to have me hold her and love her, and sometimes is perfectly willing to lay on me and purr or watch the cursor while I do things on the computer. But other times she wants to play too--need I say that her paws are not typing the things I want typed?

And My Angel reminds me we really don't need another cat.

Never mind how funny it is watching the half-grown kitten chasing and pouncing on the large intrepid male cat, tiring him out enough that he's not getting into much that he shouldn't.

Or that she purrs a lot for me and isn't making my allergies miserable.

The holidays are nearly over, but the main part of it is done. In retail land, things are starting to bleed into each other.
Sorry Alisha, I hope your family didn't beat you up too much.
Ungrateful ass family, My Aunt Judy asked for Oatmeal cookies for christmas. So I made them for her. I made 2 other types of cookies in quantity for them. What did they want, those damn oatmeal cookies.

I could cut their faces off. I made cookies for Thanksgiving, no one said they liked oatmeal.
So todays event will be with cookies. I may even complete them and add chocolate.

So, we all know that nothing in the song "Isn't it Ironic" is actually ironic (though the meeting the man of your dreams could be argued).

The question is...did she know that when she wrote it? If so, does that make the song _itself_ ironic? (and if so, does that make Morisette a genius?)

This question courtesy of a conversation with a warcraft guildmate of mine. Yay guild chat.