I often feel quite guilty (like today), writing about terrible things like murder and slavery and virulent pre-Civil-War racism and having such a ripping good time, chortling to myself as Ben January and E.A. Poe trade wisecracks - solemn horribleness of subject matter deserves a more sober attitude. If I were spiritually more developed I'd have one.

Incidentally (on the subject of not being spiritually developed AT ALL), I have an essay about the 9th Doctor Who - the season in which the show was re-booted - in the upcoming collection, Chicks Unravel Time, edited by Deborah Stanish and soon to be out through Amazon. (If I were more spiritually developed I'd remember the publisher off the top of my head, too...) Stanish and her co-editor (Myers?) collected, I am told, a woman writer, artist, fan, or whatever for every season of the show: according to the ad I saw, Diana Gabaldon (whoo-hoo!) contributed her thoughts on one of my favorite Companions, the wonderful Jamie McCrimmon (still, I believe, the longest-running Companion). (Well, with one thing and another, they ALL run a LOT....)

I've recently realized that the lovely Cupcake isn't so much a tuxedo cat: with her little white gloves on her front feet, she has short white stockings on her back feet, with sketchy, trailing lines of white higher up the legs, giving the effect of a garter-belt. Thus, it isn't a tuxedo she's wearing but a French Maid outfit. No wonder Gus follows her around the house.

Today is my grandma's 80th birthday. We're having a big party for her on Sunday--where by "we" I actually mean my folks are doing all the work--but today is the official date. I don't mostly put birthdays on here because I don't want it to seem like a statement if I miss one. But 80, 80 is a big, round number. Eighty is a thing.

Grandma is my last grandparent standing. I mean, I have Grandpa Lyzenga, but I married into him when I was full grown rather than having memories of walking with him when I was tiny; and as much as I will sometimes introduce Aunt Ellen and Uncle Phil as my Lingen grandparents, and as much as they are doing their darnedest, they are in fact a really really special great-aunt and -uncle, which is its own thing and not to be denigrated.

But Grandma has enough personality for four grandparents all by herself. (So, I know firsthand or hear quite vividly, did each of my other grandparents in their own ways. Lack of personality: not an issue in this family.) Grandma is an Energizer bunny. I wrote in her birthday card that she embodies the adage about blooming where one is planted, and I really think that's true. She does well with new people and new situations. She just dusts herself off and tries again, whatever she needs to try again, and I have never once heard of a situation she couldn't eventually make that work in. Never once. Her persistence inspires me. I hope it lasts long past 80.

Today was a day of bad news for the household. Not for me personally, but for family across the states. I therefore confess to having done, oh, nothing that I planned to do today. The long weekend will help sort things, I'm sure.

The Creativity Flow will return on Monday. Yep, I'm going to post Monday, holiday or not.

Have a good weekend! :)

I named a character once in The Bone Palace, an offhand reference that didn't warrant an entry in the dramatis personae but is still in print. Now I find myself needing to write more about that character and a) not liking his name much anymore, and b) finding it a bit too similar to someone else who shows up quite often. How many of you would be wildly irritated if I changed someone's name between books? (I doubt most people even remember that he was ever mentioned, but somewhere out there is the reader who will.)

I’ve said, in my previous post, that ASD children are afraid to make mistakes; they’re afraid to be wrong. They speak of the things that interest them because, in some ways, they feel secure in their knowledge - secure enough to talk. If they become comfortable enough about speaking - even if it is about their current obsession - they then develop confidence in the act of conversing, and since conversation itself is now familiar, it becomes a second comfort-zone from which they can then begin to tackle topics which are not as relevant to them.

I think this is true, on a vastly smaller scale, of anyone. Hold that point for a moment.

Two days ago, I wrote about communication, and this post, although it’s in theory about my son at age seven, ties in with comments made on that post, which was about two adults who were both working toward a goal of mutual understanding - when words alone were not enough of a bridge. The right words for me, in that post, were not the words that worked for my husband. He wanted to understand what I was saying, but the first several times, it didn’t happen.

I felt that I understood my son as well as - or better than - a raft of experts could. I lived with him. I observed him daily. But I’m also myself, and I come at things from the paradigm of my interests. Even the things I observe are coloured by me.

My son had a successful, if trying, grade one year. His teacher was a godsend. More. I can’t emphasize how much of a difference she made to my six year old. She had him for five and a half hours a day for ten months of the year - and everything she did during that time laid foundations for all of his school life thereafter. In my universe, she would be paid more than most CEOs. Sorry, that was a digression.

( Grade Two and the educational aid )

Originally published at makeshiftDaisy.. You can comment here or there.

Previously I have mentioned, casually, somewhere, around the way, that I should write a post about why I generally (99.9%) of the time prefer male singers. It’s got a lot to do with masculinity and general aggression and testosterone, and yes, things that confirm regardless of everything else, my ovaries are way over on the straight-lady Scale O’ Kinsey.

Seriously? Around 3 minutes in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7k_0vlNIKQ&feature=plcp

There’s my explanation on why I prefer male singers right there, even semi fuzzy (embiggen for added flavour). Picture, meet your thousand words.

 

I went off to a work conference the first three days of this week, and I'm really low energy by now.

It was hard to leave, I'd just planted my garden on Sunday, and Reggie got into a major tussle with a porcupine that afternoon. Without exaggeration I can say we lost count of the quills we pulled from his face. I'm guessing somewhere between 30 and 50? Including quills from the roof of his mouth, his gum line, under his tongue, and all up the right side of his face almost to his eye. I kinda wonder what the porcupine looked like? Was it bald after this incident?? Reggie was down-right stoic during the process. He let us pull quills from inside his mouth without snapping, snarling, and I swear once he'd calmed down from the initial incident he was careful about holding his head still so we could try and grab those little suckers with the pliers.

Neil is a competent, caring, careful guy. He's totally able to keep an eye on Reggie, water my seedlings, and take care of the house while I'm gone. I still really really hated leaving him with all that to watch over!

But I did knit a sock and a half while I was gone! Sadly for you, I have no pictures (yet) It's Plymouth Happy Feet yarn in a lovely orangey-brown. I worked ribbed cuffs with little faux cables every 4th row. They're easy enough I can knit under the table, but pretty enough I can focus on the plane.

But sadly I didn't finish the pair, so now they're in the unfinished sock pile. That pile is up to 4 pairs! My wrought iron socks, some stripy socks for a design*, and those sad wallflower socks - the ones from my LAST conference knitting where I ran out of both colors of yarn just before the toe of the second sock...

And we're Fenway bound**! We going to see a baseball game this weekend with my parents. I'm very excited, and have been planning my car and baseball knitting. Sadly no socks are included...

*probably out this fall at this point

**This time of year I'm always crazy busy. I loose track of entire weeks in May.

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This post is originally from BeckyinVT. Feel free to comment and follow here or there.

Random quote of the day:

 

“The heart has its reasons, which reason does not know.”

—Blaise Pascal, Pensées

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in this random quote of the day do not necessarily reflect the views of the poster, her immediate family, Siegfried and Roy, Leonard Maltin, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. They do, however, sometimes reflect the views of the Cottingley Fairies.

Mirrored from Better Than Dead.

So, really quick update to say…Head on over the THRONE OF GLASS Facebook page RIGHT NOW, because they just revealed the UK cover!

Confession: when I saw this cover yesterday, I burst into tears. (Erm, the good kind.)

And then I just stared at my screen and grinned like a crazy person for about 45 minutes afterward.

And then I launched into an epic dance party that included songs like “Dirt Off Your Shoulder,” “Don’t Stop Me Now,” and “Let Me Clear My Throat” (Just to give you a sense of how I was in Absolute Spazz Mode.).

This cover… Oh, how do I even begin to describe how much I love this cover? I want to marry it. I want to have its babies. I want to pull a Sound of Music and belt out my love for it on a mountaintop.

I also want to steal her clothes and wear them 24/7. And steal those swords. And the dagger. And the gauntlets/wrist-guards! And her fabulous hair (THE HAIR!!!).

This cover just embodies SO much of how I imagine Celaena to look/feel (and on a side note, I ADORE the fact that she’s barefoot).

I know I probs shouldn’t be gushing like this about my own cover, but… I love this cover with every fiber of my being. I’m in the middle of moving back to Los Angeles (don’t think I’ve mentioned that yet), but as soon as I’m settled in my new house, I’m going to get a giant poster made out of this cover and hang it up in my new home office. And then I’m going to cuddle it. (When I told Sooz that I wanted to do that, her reply was: “I wouldn’t try that. I bet she’d cut your face off.” Which…yep, pretty much sums up Celaena and how badass this cover is.).

And, really quick, I’d just like to give a giant THANK YOU to both the UK and the US teams at Bloomsbury. I feel extraordinarily blessed to work with such wonderful, brilliant, and kickass people. (Seriously…how did I get so lucky?!) Thank you for making this journey so incredible that I have to keep pinching myself.

So….what do you guys think? I hope you love the cover as much as I do!

AND, be sure to check out three things:

1) The TOG FB page is hosting a giveaway for some awesome TOG-inspired jewelry AND an advanced copy of the book (...and I think they're also doing some giveaways for UK galleys (proofs), too)!

2) Ever wondered how the hell to pronounce all those names in TOG? Well, head on over to this page on my website (it’s a pronunciation guide!). If I missed any names, or if you have any questions about them, let me know! I’ll be adding to the list as the series goes on. :)

3) Head on over to Pub Crawl today, for a schedule of where I (and the other PC girls) will be during BEA!!!


And…just because this song always makes me think of Celaena/TOG (and because I think Celaena would probably rock out to this if she lived in our world):

We just watched the latest (I think) episode of Legend of Korra, “The Aftermath.” I’m continuing to really enjoy this show for a number of reasons.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Pacing: One of the things that bugged me was the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. It felt, not necessarily cliche, but easy. It’s an oft-repeated trope, one that could push characters into more cardboard, stereotypical roles and — if other shows are any example — drag out for far too long.

Instead, Asami’s character quickly developed more depth and conflict. The plot moved along, changing her role in the story. The conflict between Korra and Asami progressed through conflict into understanding and sympathy. I loved the quiet moment at the end where Korra tells Mako, “She’s going to need you.”

I’ve seen that pacing elsewhere, and I appreciate that the show doesn’t seem to get bogged down. There’s always a sense of movement.

Lin Beifong continues to be awesome. In many ways, I think she’s my favorite character. Partly because she’s an older woman kicking all sorts of ass. Partly because she, more than anyone else I’ve seen, seems to take full advantage of her bending abilities. The firebenders throw fire. Earthbenders throw rocks. Beifong, on the other hand, manipulates metal cables like Spider-Man, grows blades from her armor to punch through mechs, and seems to push the “What else can I do with this?” angle.

Complexity: The scene with Tahno’s character really jumped out at me. This is a character who’s introduced as a full-on asshole. He’s arrogant, he cheats, and you really wanted Korra to kick his butt in the tournament. Instead, the White Falls Wolfbats won … and thus became the targets of an Equalist attack.

In the next episode, you see Tahno without his powers, and he’s utterly broken. Korra feels for him. She knows what he lost and how close she came to losing her own bending. It was a fairly short scene, but that’s all it took.

The relationship between Tenzin and Lin Beifong is another interesting example. Their history, the contrast of their apparent discomfort with how well they work together in a crisis … I have no idea where that’s going, but I like the dynamic, and at this point I’m trusting the show not to go somewhere overly cliche with it.

While there are certainly characters who seem flat-out Evil, at least at first, I appreciate that things generally aren’t presented in a simplistic black-and-white way. Neither people nor power are simple, and this show respects that fact.

The Animation: This is a very pretty show, particularly in the way it portrays movement and the grace of the different benders. I get done watching, and other cartoons suddenly seem clunkier.

Trusting the Viewers: I was trying to figure out how to phrase this last bit, and “trust” is the closest I can come. I’ve never seen a single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Korra. It doesn’t surprise me that they wanted a show that could welcome new viewers as well as old, but it struck me that there just isn’t a lot of exposition or hand-holding, period. There’s no talking down, no assuming that things will be too complicated or difficult to understand. Elements are explained as they become relevant to the story.

I know there are things I’m missing from Avatar, but I can catch up on my own, and I like that they don’t slow down the story to spoon-feed information.

In Conclusion: Okay, I get it. I’m officially a fan, and I have added Avatar: TLA to my list of things to catch up on (when I find the time).

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.