| hey! I made a book trailer! |
[Nov. 28th, 2009|09:59 pm] |
It's for my friend's (Sharon Ashwood's) new book. Out from Penguin/Signet December 1. Her first one was Ravenous.
(phew! now the youtube site has updated and it's showing the correct image for the thumbnail.)
Too totally cool! I love my new Mac.
And the book, of course. But that's a given. She's a terrific writer. |
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| I'm a twit... |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|01:14 am] |
..terer. I'm 'catcardiff' on Twitter. Just joined today. Oh boy, another outlet I can fall behind in!
I was happy that someone hadn't already snagged the username I wanted, until I saw that someone else has the username "Katwithsword'. Damn, I want that one!
Hey, Lovely Lady (you know who you are!). I couldn't find you on twitter, but I know you follow the peripatetic Neil on it. Email me your username, please :)
As soon as I figure out how, I'll get my tweets (oh, such an expert already with the lingo) to feed into livejournal. Suggestions? |
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| Breakthrough! |
[Nov. 15th, 2009|10:35 pm] |
Sam was a bit skitty, but let me cut out the mat that's been developing in his right armpit. Such a change from 8 months ago, when I couldn't get near him with a pair of scissors.
And even though he's being Mr Freakizoid right now, he's still coming for pats and snuggles when I sit on the couch. Even when I'm in bed, sometimes. Sometimes a whole hour will go by before he remembers to flinch and run away! |
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| a good end to the weekend/start to the week |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|10:35 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  content | ] |
I just finished my third assignment (finally! watch out for assumptions when learning new programs), and am now making lentil/yam soup and artichoke heart soup, in preparation for the work week.
It's a good start :D |
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| Note to self |
[Oct. 24th, 2009|11:21 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | amused | ] |
Finish assignment B on Saturday, it said. And I did! Woot! On to the next note.
But not before taking a look at Google maps. I've never tried out the street view ap before. Wow, has our old house on Fillmore Cres ever changed. Look how big that tree is that Dad planted 40 years ago!
And hey, in another city, I can see my sister's car in her parking spot at the townhouse complex.
Weird. |
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| Title of the Week |
[Oct. 22nd, 2009|11:35 pm] |
The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle
by Monique Proulx, translated from the French, Le coeur est un muscle involontaire, 2003
It just hit me right in the, well, heart chakra, when I read it. |
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| oh yeah |
[Oct. 19th, 2009|09:37 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
And, how about this? 88% on my first "computing concepts" assignment. Hey, there IS still a brain in here, even if it does take a VERY VERY long time to wake up. |
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| word |
[Oct. 19th, 2009|09:30 pm] |
of the day. From dictionary.com, but still very cool:
fugacious: lasting but a short time
Reminds me of the beginning of an ode by Horace (the poet, not my cat):
Eheu, fugace, Postume, Postume...
Alas, time is fleeting, Postumus..
Kind of poignant, what with the falling leaves and all right now. And holy cow, how did it get to be the middle of October??
What a beautiful day it was today. Light shining through beautiful fall foliage on the trees, acorns and horse chestnuts underfoot. Lots of bright yellows, oranges and even some stunning red leaves. The weather must be changing; I don't remember fall being this beautiful when I first moved here (from Ontario, so autumn had a lot to live up to, but mostly it didn't, then.) |
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| synchronicity |
[Sep. 30th, 2009|10:16 pm] |
I just left a talk at UVic given by Starhawk, about community and empowerment, listening to nature and bringing the wild back into our lives. It concluded with a spiral dance, and for various reasons I left before the ritual. Part of me was thinking, I can't believe I'm passing up the opportunity to do a spiral dance with Starhawk" and wondering if I was making a big mistake. But the part of me that felt I really needed to leave was somehow certain that it was okay, that I was still connected to the dance.
On the way home, I passed a raccoon - not crossing as a dim shadow half a block in front of the car, which is how I usually see them, but highlighted near a streetlamp and sitting still, facing my way almost as though it was watching for my car. I consciously noticed it because it was just a bit out of the ordinary.
I'd been home only about half an hour when I heard this peculiar growling noise coming from one of the cats. I assumed Sam was trying to wrestle with Bella again, though the noise didn't sound like the growl she makes when he does that. When I went into the living room, I could see that both cats were trying to see past the vertical blinds (which I'd closed) into the parking lot. Parting the blinds, I saw the living room light flash in three sets of eyes - more raccoons, one of them just on the other side of the glass and two a couple of feet away.
Completely forgetting all about welcoming the wild back into my life, I rapped on the windows to scare them away. When they finally ran under the cover of the car port, I turned away from the windows and realized what I'd just done. Why did I do that? Instead of welcoming, I'd reacted in fear - of the dangers that raccoons pose to cats who get into fights with them, despite the fact that my two are indoor cats - and chased it away. Chagrined, I thought Okay, I'll do better next time.
But the more I thought about it, the more I thought that that wasn't the whole message. So I googled "raccoon spiritual meaning", and came up with this:
Raccoon
Cleverness, adaptation, leadership in groups, empowerment of others, and the masks we wear.
Raccoons, like many of the hidden urban wildlife, has adapted to living with humans. They know our habits and daily routines so that they can show up on garbage day and know when you put out the dog's dinner. Their cleverness and adaptation is why they're at home in our neighborhoods or mountain campsites. They remind us to try something again and again and again til it works.
They also show us the importance in working in groups. Often as one is lifting off the trash can lid they will leave a look out by the back door. They honor their guard by giving him dinner too. This seasoned leader is often the oldest and teaches the others all the tricks he's learned over the years so they too can find food for themselves. Raccoon reminds us the importance of teaching others to do for themselves. Empowerment of others allows each of us to feel needed in a group and valued.
Finally the most noticeable mark of the raccoon is their mask which is why they're often given the nick name of ‘little bandit'. Masks are a why for us to try on another persons shoes. This is why Halloween is so special with so many fun people we can pretend to be. But when Raccoon has appeared to you take a [close] look at what mask or type of person you may be pretending to be. Are you being more then you are to impress a person, friend, or boss? Raccoon will help show you when to use your cleverness and when to put the mask away.
from www.ravenmedium.com
Right. Community. Empowerment. Dropping our masks at the right time. Trying over and over until you succeed. And most importantly, not reacting from fear. Gotcha.
Okay. I am still connected to the dance. |
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| Aliqua |
[Aug. 15th, 2009|11:55 pm] |
Just got back from seeing these gals in concert. WAAAAY too much fun. They do music from all over - Ave Maria, Leonard Cohen, Metallica, Eastern European polkas. They don't seem to have much on Youtube yet, but I did find this. Go to 3:18 to hear them sing. Beautiful voices!
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| not a koosh ball |
[Aug. 15th, 2009|11:31 pm] |
No, in fact I think it's an extra from Spirited Away... |
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| Insomnia. Ai haz it. |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|01:03 am] |
Damn. However, it means I have a bit of a chance to catch up on reading some livejournal posts, and I found this on Suzette Haden Elgin's livejournal. She's a linguist and feminist sci fi writer (among other things); "Native Tongue", which I read in my late teens or early twenties, had a tremendous effect on the way I think.
------------------------
Writing science fiction; update... [Jul. 6th, 2009|08:46 am]
ozarque
I am now someone who has written a whole new science fiction short story, all the way from the beginning to the end, and that's a comfort; I was genuinely scared there, for a while, that I was never going to be able to do that again. I would have been very sad to have to add writing short stories to the long list of things that I can't do any more.
It didn't turn out to be the U.S. Corps of Linguists story I had intended to write, which was a surprise -- but it did turn out to be a story about the Brethandi -- my ETs that look like Terran cattle. And that makes it useful; it's a step toward the story I was trying to write. And for once I didn't have to struggle to think of a title; it's called "The Brethandi Next Door."
It's a horrendously rough draft, and it's not plotted nearly tightly enough. But the rough draft is always the hardest part for me, and now I can start revising and rewriting, which is the fun part.
Rejoicing out loud here. ROL.
-----------
And I'm rejoicing with her, and suddenly not feeling so alone. Plus, hey, the rough draft is the hardest part for her. I always thought that was supposed to be the easiest, then the hard work of polishing and fine tuning began. Maybe I'm not so weird after all! |
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| and another thing |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|12:50 am] |
I don't know if anyone else is following the Russian livejournal, but there are some gorgeous photos on today's post of the weekly digest they do in English. (sorry, it's late and I'm tired. I'll parse that sentence another time.)
Anyone interested in historical costuming should also check it out. I kept thinking, am I looking at photos from an SCA camping event? ;) |
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| Craig Cardiff |
[Jul. 7th, 2009|12:19 am] |
No relation. Well, as far as I know.
I heard him perform on the Vinyl Cafe, and it made me go look for more. I love "Smallest and Wingless" on his myspace page, and also "When People Go", which has quite a different sound. There's just something to his voice...
His myspace bio says he "sounds like any number of different people. damien rice, paul simon, ani difranco, barenaked ladies, counting crows, dave mathews, peter gabriel, elvis costello, ani lennox, cyndi lauper, suzanne vega, and others." I'd add Hawksley Workman to that list, too, though Cardiff's a little more folksy. Beautiful instrumentation.
I must remember to ask Kittypusspuss if she's heard of him. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 5th, 2009|09:10 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | happy | ] |
happy birthday, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) foxymuffins! Hope the coming year is fabulous, and brings you everything you're wishing for! Right away, too! |
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| plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose |
[Jun. 30th, 2009|10:53 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  bemused | ] |
Decades ago I watched hard-to-see, grainy, indistinct videos of Dr Who episodes that had been shot with a video camera pointed at a British TV screen (I'm not making this up), transferred from PAL into NTSC format and copied again at least once, because THAT'S ALL THERE WAS and we were grateful to see it. Don't even talk to me about the time we watched a THIRD generation camera-copy episode of Blake's 7. Thinking about it still makes my eyes water.
That was back before DVDs had been invented, when not everyone even had a VCR yet (we sure didn't), and there was no Internet (as such), so if you missed an episode of anything, it was gone. If you were lucky, you'd catch it in reruns. Not that it mattered in the case of Dr. Who, because it wasn't playing on Canadian airwaves at that time anyway.
So we gathered, we intrepid Whovians, in living rooms across Canada, feeding our addiction and, I'm sure, ruining our eyesight. There was a strong sense of belonging to a dedicated community willing to go the distance for our shared obsession. I'd have been so happy if I'd known then that someday I'd be able to rent really clear copies from the video store and even (gasp) one day buy it on DVD. Such clarity. Such freedom. Such luxury.
Tonight, I found myself on youtube, watching hard-to-see, jumpy, indistinct footage of the Britain's Got Talent Tour, captured for all the world to try to see on a cell phone held up by someone at the back of the concert hall. I squinted as Diversity leapt about on stage, blurry and often obscured by the glare from the set's pyrotechnics, and I thought, this seems oddly familiar.
It's making me feel nostalgic for the good ol' days. Maybe I should look for that Blake's 7 episode on DVD, and finally find out what was really happening on screen. But first, there's just one more thing I wanted to look up on youtube...
[Added later: haha, Blake's 7 is on youtube!] |
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