| Gryphon Precinct progress.... |
[May. 18th, 2013|01:19 am]
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| [ | mood |
| |  tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Walk on Water" by Marc Cohn | ] |
I have now plotted out Gryphon Precinct. I need to write a short story, finish editing a novel, and probably do some revisions on The Project That Cannot Be Named (Yet) before I can actually start writing it, but I now know the plot, and it's gonna be great, if I do say so myself.
Okay, that's a bit immodest, but -- well, things are gonna get shaken up a bit. There were already two changes to the status quo in Goblin Precinct, one as part of the plot, and one at the very end of the novel, and there's a lot more shakeups to come -- along with the usual mysteries, intrigue, magick, politicking, and character stuff. We'll learn some stuff about Danthres, too.
Enough teasing. Back to the grind............ |
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snurched from  mac_arthur_park |
[May. 18th, 2013|01:02 am]
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| [ | mood |
| | tired | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Velvet Green" by Jethro Tull | ] |
Some stuff about me from A to Z:
A - Age: 44.
B - Bed size: Double, though I try to get a King when I'm in a hotel.
C - Chore you hate: Cleaning the litterbox, which is why that's Wrenn's job. ;)
D – Domestic Animals names: Scooter (dog), Jezebelle, Rhiannon, Sterling (cats).
E - Essential start to your day item(s): Coffee!
F - Favorite color: Red.
G - Gold or Silver: Silver.
H - Height: 5'8"
I - Instruments you play(ed): Recorder, various bits o' percussion.
J - Job title: Writer/Editor.
K - Kisses or hugs: Yes, though if I had to choose, I'd go with hugs.
L - Living arrangements: A three-bedroom apartment in the Bronx occupied by self, girlfriend, roommate, and the animals named in D.
M - Mood: Generally happy.
N - Nicknames: KRAD, Bongo Boy.
O - Overnight hospital stays other than birth: None, thankfully.
P - Pet Peeves: People who don't think shit through (which, sadly, is most people). People who use "between" to refer to more than two things (which, sadly, is also most people).
Q - Quote from a movie: "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go." Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark.
R - Right or left handed: Right.
S - Siblings: Biologically, I'm an only child. However, Laura Anne Gilman is my sister by another mister.
T - Time you wake up: 6-8 hours after I go to sleep, whenever that is.
U - Underwear: Briefs.
V - Vegetable you dislike: Brussels sprouts, eggplant, broccoli, cauliflower.
W - Ways you run late: Almost invariably due to the screwups of other people. I'm compulsively on time.
X - X-rays you've had: Plenty of dental ones, and my ankle once when I sprained it as a kid.
Y - Yummy food you make: Fried chicken, broiled lamb chops, tomato sauce (from scratch), pork braised in milk, "kitchen sink" casserole, chicken soup, some other stuff.
Z - Zoo favorite: Tigers! |
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| 'Gatsby' was Great |
[May. 17th, 2013|11:19 pm]
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Am just back from seeing Gatsby (2D) with Elma, who is a long-term fan of the book. Both of us have seen all previous extant versions. We thought it was excellent. The use of the modern score was surprisingly low-key and unobtrusive. The adaptation was faithful to the book, and the framing device was a good one to justify retaining Nick's narration. Excellent performances: Elma was very impressed with DiCaprio, whom she hasn't liked in anything else, and thought he reminded her of Alan Ladd, who was a good Jay in the Hays Code-bowdlerised 1949 version. It's far superior to the 1974 adaptation, which tried to be too 'tasteful' and 'classic adaptation', treating it as if it were tepid Jane Austen, not jazz-age. |
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| Loc on Interstellar Ramjet Scoop April (Bill Wright, ed.) |
[May. 17th, 2013|03:26 pm]
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Dear Bill:
Many thanks for the April Interstellar Ramjet Scoop. Always a pleasure to see, and a challenge to comment on. Challenge accepted, and let’s see what’s inside.
The newest Star Trek movie comes out here today, I believe, and I think we will be avoiding the initial rush. The reviews range from good to great, but we can be patient. I have liked all of Trek’s incarnations, but probably liked The Next Generation the best. The various movies were good fun, too, and will extend the life of the whole franchise beyond 50 years, which is amazing. As good as the movies have been, there are efforts to come up with a new Star Trek series.
We are finally getting a little heat here as temperatures have risen above 20C…wish one of those days was today. The summer will come, hopefully before the autumn.
Just saw who’s running for DUFF…you are! And so is Clare McDonald-Sims. I thought Clare was living in Florida these days? Two excellent candidates, wish you could both go. The FAAn Awards have been handed out…when it came to Letterhack, I finished a very distant second. However, I am on the ballot for this year’s Aurora Awards, and I am hopeful I might yet pull out a pointy trophy.
How was Conflux 9? I am sure Nalo Hopkinson was a great guest, and a sweet lady to boot. Haven’t seen her a round here in some tome, but that’s because she now teaches in California, I believe.
It took long enough, but the Hugo Award are now votable. Wish I had a final ballot vote this time around, but that will be saved for London, like most other things.
Time to fold it up and fire it off. Very shortly, I will finally be having my cataract operation, and I will also be having an interview for a job in advertising. This job hunting is ridiculous, and I hope a new job will put an end to it. Otherwise, I may have to make some very hard decisions. Take care, good luck with DUFF, and see you with the next issue.
Yours, Lloyd Penney. |
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| the Yankees at the 25% mark of the season on the Pinstriped Bible |
[May. 17th, 2013|08:45 am]
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| [ | mood |
| |  awake | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "The Cool, Cool River" by Paul Simon | ] |
The Yanks have played 40 games, which puts them at the one-quarter mark of the season. They're in first place -- but is that predictive of anything? On the Pinstriped Bible, I look back at where the Yanks were after 40 games going back to 2007 to try to find out.
An excerpt:
I was originally just gonna stick with the Joe Girardi era, but I just love the snapshot of the AL East on the 18th of May 2007. Technically, the Yankees were in third place, but really all four non-Boston teams were knotted. The O's were 19-23, the Yanks were 18-22, and the Rays and Jays were 18-23, all of them either 10 or 10.5 games behind the Red Sox, who were 28-12, a horse-choking .700 winning percentage at the 25% mark.
Obviously, that wasn't sustainable, but it's pretty cool to have four teams all that close to each other (I'm wondering if that might happen later this season in the AL East). Eventually, it settled into the usual 1998-2007 pattern: the Yanks and Sox on top, the Jays in the middle, the O's and Rays on the bottom. |
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| Hip to be Square |
[May. 17th, 2013|06:28 pm]
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I'm back in Onomichi, where else, cooling down and soaking up the laid-back atmosphere. Tomorrow's my tanjoubi (birthday) and I'll be treating myself to the best mikan (tangerine) and vanilla icecream on the planet, the ice cream they sell at the top of the hill at Senkoji Park because, well, it's at the top of Senkoji Park and that's the best place to buy ice cream of any description as far as I'm concerned.
On my travels I've seen more and more idiosyncratic Japanese cars, the sort of family containers which resemble more and more rounded cubes or boxes on wheels. I'm amused to see the names of these cars reflecting their design ethos -- the Honda Box, for example or the Nissan Cube. |
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| KO not OK (Stra Trek Into Darkness review) |
[May. 16th, 2013|06:40 am]
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Yesterday I went to the cinema for the second time in a fortnight (you can tell it's Summer Blockbuster Season, can't you?) This time it was Star Trek Into Darkness - no colon, apparently the title is meant to be a statement, belied by the truly annoying amount of pseudo-camera-flare that cut across all the important scenes (it was bad enough in 2D, I understand that it's worse in 3D).
( Cut for Spoilers (possibly)Collapse )
Four out of five stars. I have decided that I am fed up of watching guys using guns or fists or big machines to solve problems, and of the forthcoming action movies advertised the only one that seems to promise any intelligent problem-solving is Now You See Me. Looking forward to that.
NB. Originally posted at Dreamwith, not crossposted due to LJ fail. |
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| Back online |
[May. 16th, 2013|06:02 pm]
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We've just brought User Cluster #9 back online, and the errors being caused by the maintenance should stop occurring. Notifications are sending again, but may be delayed as there is a backlog of notifications waiting to be sent. If you are still encountering any errors, please open a Support request so we can investigate the issue. |
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