newnumber6

Prisoners of Gravity to start off with again.

Writers' Workshops/Clarion - November 10, 1993
More advice for writers, this time on how to become a better writer and focusing on the various Writer's Workshops.

Part One: Damon Knight (on how Clarion is set up), Kate Wilhelm (on what Clarion/other writer workshops does for a writer, and the 'writer's apprenticeship' period), Kristine Katheryn-Rusch (on what Clarion instructors do to encourage), Connie Willis (on how critiquing other people's work is what makes you a better writer), Geoff Ryman (on the training your own editor),
Part Two: Connie Willis (on her approach to teaching writing, and the importance of plotting as a skill), Nina Kiriki Hoffman (Clarion graduate, reading a bit of a story she did at Clarion, and giving her reaction to turning it in), Kim Antieu (on why Clarion tends to lead to getting successfully published), James Alan Gardner (on advice he got at Clarion that didn't particularly work for him, a Frost quote about writing vs talking about the stories), Kate Wilhelm (on how there's multiple ways to write), story about Harlan Ellison being kicked out of a writing class, Harlan Ellison (on inspiring fear in his Clarion students, and how everyone thinks they can write),
Part Three: Harlan Ellison continued (breaking the spirit of dilettantism, and giving The Great Secret of Writing), William F. Wu (about how something Harlan Ellison said inspired him for the story he's best known for), Geoff Ryman (on what Clarion gives participants than what they did before), Connie Willis (on the Clarion Slump, and learning to write in very small bits when you have very limited time), general advice, More on Nina Kiriki Hoffman's story reading.

Games: November 3, 1993
SF Authors using games people play for story fodder.

Part One: Terry Pratchett (reading from Small Gods), Lynda Barry (on her comic character Marlys who creates her own games, and why kids like inventing their own games), Poul Anderson (on "The Immortal Game", a story about a chess game from the point of a chessman), John Brunner (on adapting a real chess game and disguising it as a novel), Greg Bear (on Anvil of Stars, in which he has characters introducing chess, a zero sum game, to a pacifist alien race),
Part Two: Kristine Kathryn-Rusch (on poker playing a big role in her DS9 novel The Big Game and how poker reflects how people think), David Brin (on why the 'Game of Life' is important in Glory Season), Nancy Kress (on her story Touchdown which involves a game centered around the ruined planet Earth), Iain M. Banks (on the importance of Play, and how we use games much like animals use play, just on a different level, and the growing importance of games to simplify the complexity of life, and designing the game of Azad in The Player of Games),
Part Three: Steven Barnes (on real role playing games vs Dream Park, and why he doesn't game), Sean Stewart (on Dreamquest, a LARP, and how the difference between fantasy novel writing), Pierre Savoie (RPgamer, on how reading Ringworld the novel improves the experience of Ringworld the RPG, and how RPG can give insights to a novel universe its based on), David Pringle (on editing novels/short stories for Games Workshop based on Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, etc, and one particular book set in Near Future Earth)

Awards: January 28, 1993
Awards and what they mean to the creators who get them.
Part One: Kristine Kathryn-Rusch (on how important different awards are to SF writers), list of dfifferent awards, Samuel R. Delany (on the impact of winning many Hugos and Nebula awards), Jerry pournelle (on the benefit of awards giving a good break), John Brunner (on how awards don't transform your career instantly, but improves your long-term sales), Sharyn McCrumb (on how publishers work and how awards alter your treatment, and how sometimes they can be meaningless based on who's giving the awards), Joe Haldeman (on how the Forever War winning the Hugo, Nebula, and Ditmar, affected him, and the political aspects to awards)
Part Two: Nancy Kress (on her first Nebula award having no visible effect on her), James Morrow (on Nebula winning having a big psychological impact and getting him on the map, and the role of politics in the Nebula), Lisa Tuttle (on declining the Nebula Award for 1981), Gibson (on winning the triple award for Neuromancer, and how the location of the Worldcon might have helped him win the Hugo)
Part Three: Story about Neil Gaiman winning a World Fantasy Award and them rewriting the rules so comics can't be nominated, Neil Gaiman (on the effect of his awards being mainly to terrify him), Dave Gibbons (on winning the special Hugo Award for Watchmen), Harlan Ellison (on how him winning awards pisses people off, his thoughts about his award winning short story, Jeffty is Five, his disdain for awards, awards being detrimental to the writer), PoG itself winning an Aurora Award.

That's the last of the PoGs posted to Youtube at the moment, so next week I probably won't be doing any more.
In PoG related news, I think Neil Gaiman may be cyberstalking me. Well, not really, but it's more fun to say it that way. It's just that last week, right after I posted about the PoG episodes I watched (including two with him in it), he posted on twitter a link to the same ep. About 2 hours after. That might just be a weird coincidence, but it's the second time something like that's happened with him where I post something fairly obscure involving him that's been around for a while, and he posts about it elsewhere within hours. (Of course, more likely either there's an intermediate step of sharing from people I know, or he's got a Google Alert out on himself. If the latter's true, Hi there!).

In other TV news, lets see... not really much to talk about, actually. SGU was a not bad episode, but (spoilers ahead, and more unanswered questions) ( Read more... )

And, finally had Thanskgiving, since family was working last week. And actually some was working this week too, so it was a bit of a small affair with lots of leftovers. Was good... turkey, roast potatoes, ham, carrots, greek rice, french stick bread, pretty awesome gravy, pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Was quite good, and ofcourse nice to see family that I haven't seen in a while.

Thought at first I might not be able to go, on account of thunderstorms around noonish. However, they cleared up, and so I shambled towards the Danforth looking for Gyros like zombies shamble towards human flesh.

The shambling was due to the slight mugginess in the air despite the recent thunderstorm. Not the most pleasant. Crowd looked a bit thinner than in recent years, but possibly also because of the storm.

Anyway, my hunger was sated, and it was delicious, although it could have been saucier. I'm talking about the gyro, of course, I assume the human flesh was about its usual level of sauce.

Also enjoyed some honey balls with cinammon. I should stress once again I am not talking about human flesh. Just to be safe.

Other news, well, there's not much else. Almost finished Romana I's tenure on Who. She's not bad, maybe a tiny bit grating in the first serial but got over it quickly. Have to see about II.

Not much new in TV yet here. Checked out the first episode of Defying Gravity, which was described everywhere as "Grey's Anatomy in Space". And.... well, that about sums it up, actually. But I liked early Grey's Anatomy. Science seems a bit wonky at times but at least it's not horrifically bad. It's watchable so far, that's all I can say, and as we're still in summer dead zone for TV, watchable's good enough to keep watching.

This week I got one book:

Runaways #11 (A little mixed, some nice character moments but the big events felt a little hollow)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the used bookstore, I picked up:

Weapons of Choice, by John Birmingham
The SAS Fighting Techniques Handbook (New and Revised), by Terry White
Sunstorm, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
All for 2 or 3 bucks each, in the 'we want to get rid of these' bin.

And speaking of Runaways, I've finished my complete issue by issue outline of my own first year of the title (assuming I took over immediately after the Secret Invasion crossover), and solicits through issue #24. Now starting on the outlines of those. :P Good thing I have no artistic ability whatsoever, or I'd probably be drawing it too.

Work was okay, but man was it hot today. Probably hottest work day I've had of the year. Yarg.

In other news... Uh oh. Heroes is screwed. I mean even more so. Yes, okay, it's gone to hell already and unrecoverable. Granted. But there are levels of everything. Bryan Fuller left again. Before the 4th Season has begun. Which mean the chance of redeeming qualities of 4th Season are about nil. Next I'm sure we'll be hearing they rehired Loeb. Can't blame Fuller for leaving the ongoing train-wreck though, especially when he can focus on his own work.

Oh, and those new brands of chips? The Baby-Back Ribs flavour does actually remarkably simulate the flavour of the last BBQ ribs I had, so thumbs up on that. But their "Greek" Flavour? Feta Cheese, Olive, and Oregano? I think it's just become my new favorite flavour. I'm addicted to those now. OMG. They're awesome. I say again OMG.

Damn, just heard that the local Tori Stafford case was solved and, well, it's the worst case scenario. Man. I was kinda hoping, since it was presumed that a woman led her away, that it was one of those freaky, "I want my own kid" situations, which is good in the sense that the kid may be treated okay or maybe even a ransom. But no. Some messed up people in the world.

Anyway, no comics today, but work was okay. Came on time and not too heavy, so I got out pretty early. A bit warm though, and hungry now.

Oh, and I am amused by small and immature things sometimes. At the local large chain grocery store, I was checking out the flyer to see if they had any good deals. One of the advertised special, was those little dried-soup-in-a-cup, selected varieties. Except, the sample picture of it proudly proclaimed C*CK FLAVOUR (no censoring, and of course, meaning chicken). Now, since there are presumably multiple varieties, somebody had to have said specifically, "Okay, for the sample pick, we're going to use this variety." It gave me a giggle, anyway.

And just a brief rant. Now, I generally don't agree with the Conservative Party (of Canada, which is still usually less conservative than the US one) on issues. But there's one thing that inspires my rage in them like nothing else - their ads. Specifically, their negative campaign ads. THERE'S NOT EVEN A $#!!ING ELECTION SCHEDULED. STOP PLAYING YOUR ADS SLAMMING THE LIBERAL LEADER REPEATEDLY. We get enough of that crap during an election. You might have had a fair point had you played them then, but now all I get when I see the ads is more hatred for you.

And while I'm on a rant, is it just me, or have the standards of Lucky Charms fallen in recent years? Before, the rainbow mushroom actually looked a little like a rainbow, like it does on the box. Now, it's just a rainbow shaped marshmallow with either random splatterings of cover, or with horizontal bands of color rather than arcs, so it doesn't really look like a rainbow at all. Is a little pride and craftsmanship in the field of mass-produced tiny consumer marshmallows too much to ask?

On to TV and other entertainment media. Since it's nearing the end of the season, I've been saving my thoughts on show episodes for my big 'end of year wrapup'. So I'll just talk about Renewals and Cancellations. Old news to most, but I haven't posted about it.
The good news: Dollhouse is renewed. A bit surprising, actually, but good on them. I hope, if nothing else, this will cause the kneejerk FOX-haters to reconsider their "I will never watch anything on FOX because they don't support good genre shows" (they follow the money, and approve more genre shows than most, and in some cases, like this, where the ratings do not support renewal, they STILL give it another shot? What more do you ask? Especially when you won't watch the shows they put out.). It has gotten a lot better since the first ep, although I don't think it'll ever be a favorite.

A couple other renewals of course, but nothing I personally care about all that much that wasn't already pretty well certain.

Now the bad news. In comics, Captain Britain and MI13 is coming to an end, which will bring my monthly list back down to 2 (it went up to three when New Mutants started. Runaways is the other one). That's sad, it was a pretty fun comic. How can you not like a comic with Dracula living on the moon and launching an assault on Britain using ships that shoot vampires?! Bah, people have no taste.
Also cancelled, officially although most of us knew it was coming, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Damnit. I say again, Damnit. Seriously, I would have traded Dollhouse for Sarah Connor in the cancellation stakes in a heartbeat. I also would have traded all those shows I don't watch that were bubbled and saved. Sorry, fans of those shows for my hypothetical callousness. Anyway, Dollhouse would likely have been the only theoretical 'if only one could be saved' situation might have existed. Dollhouse, I enjoyed, and would have liked to see where it went, but I really WANTED to see how SCC would have dealt with their cliffhanger, and of course more Cameron and all the issues there. But at the same time I can't entirely blame Fox, based on the ratings. Frankly, I'm surprised they got the back end of Season 2 pickup, and I'm thankful for that, because at least they ended strongly (albeit on a cliffhanger) than on the weak stretch of eps that made up mid-S2. And of course I won't hold the cancellation against Dollhouse. How could I?

Oh, and speaking (a ways back) of Runaways, I had a Runaways-related dream. All I could remember was a) We were running cross country, I think in something like the Steinbus instead of the much cooler Leapfrog.
b) Chase had a girlfriend who was rather cool but not really connected to the Runaways, and he broke up with her on the way and we left her behind.
c) Klara was running a three-card-monte style game (can't remember the specifics, but it was some sort of gambling-related 'cheat the unsuspecting') to help earn money, but was secretly thinking of leaving the group and not meeting at the rendezvous we'd set up.
d) The only actually Runaways to appear were Chase, Klara, and Molly, with the dream 'set' sometime in the future after the rest had been rotated out, I think. Which is odd because if I was going to rotate out, Klara would be an early choice.

I guess Runaways dreams will happen when you have Runaways plot-bunnies running through your thoughts regularly. Seriously, it's getting out of hand. In my idle times I've been noodling around a sort of 'what I'd do with if I took over the book after Whedon's run/the Secret Invasion crossover' (I ignored Moore's and beyond, not only because I'm not all that happy with it but because I need a specific break or I never get anywhere beyond updating my plans because of whatever happens in the book). I've got decently fleshed out 3 arcs with loose plans for something like 6 or 7 beyond that, creating subplots, new supporting characters/recurring and/or one-shot villains/initiative members, and long term character arcs for everybody. Bah. The world will never know the genius of MONOK (Mental Organism Now Opposed To Killing), an attempt by an AIM offshoot to recreate MODOK, thwarted when he converted to the Mormon faith and joined the Utah initiative! (The Runaways have to pass through Utah on their way back since when we left off they were still in New York). And that's only one of many ideas! Okay, it's silly, but I have fun with such things.

Far superior to your human Easter, Greek Easter was today, so I went over to my grandmother's house for food.

And it was yummy. There was, of course, lamb, the highlight of Greek Easter. So good. Some of it was so tender it was practically a liquid. But in a good way, not an icky way. Then there was greek rice, potatoes, greek salad (which is basically normal salad but with black olives and feta cheese), hot greek sausage, zelnic (or spanacopita if you want to call it that), bread, pepper, and for desert, brownie pie and cheesecake tarts. Yummy.

No Easter Bread, alas, or colored eggs, but my grandmother probably wanted to take it a little easy this year since even though her busted knee earlier this year has healed, it still is a bit sore when she walks on it too much.

Yesterday had Thanksgiving Dinner (a week late), and it was quite good. Turkey, stuffing, ham, carrots, corn, turnip, potatoes, gravy, bread and pumpkin pie. Mmmmm. And of course was nice to see the family again even if there was nobody there I hadn't seen in more than 2 weeks anyway.

Finished: Blindsight, by Peter Watts (reread)
Started: Consider Phlebas, by Iain M. Banks (reread)

Already read Blindsight, so no extended thoughts on it, but I do have a selected quote (not really spoilery at all) I liked behind the cut. Before that, I might as well mention that it rereads very well - Still has some of the same problems, but I think I'm actually more impressed with it after the second read. It's very bleak, from general outlook to view of human relations, but sometimes extra bleak is good. To me, at least. Anyway, quote: ( Read more... )

Finished: Armor, by John Steakley (reread)
Started: Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny (reread)

Armor's a reread, but it's been so long, and in fact I think the last time I read it was in the 90s, long before I had LJ. So I'll go a bit into my thoughts, and a teeny bit spoilery (general plot spoilery): In general, liked part, other parts only okay.
( Read more... ) Anyway, I probably won't go through the whole Amber series again, but I might read the first couple books of it.

In other bloggage:

Assorted questions I've been pondering lately:

1) If you _were_ the subject of the song "You're So Vain (You Probably Think This Song Is About You)", it wouldn't be vain to think so, right? I mean, it'd just be factual.

2) If every living thing on Earth, right down to bacteria and viruses, suddenly died (no radiation or anything, just call it sudden magic death syndrome), except for ONE human being and the bacteria that naturally live on and inside them, would they alone be able to spread enough to reseed the world with life (not human life, certainly, but enough bacteria that could survive long enough outside the body to breed and evolve and so on).

3) Do individual episodes of Deal or No Deal really need their own promo? I mean, it's a frakking game show! It just seems a lot of pointless busy work to have a promo for every episode that says, "On the next episode of Deal or No Deal... This guy/girl you've never seen before may or may not win lots of money!". I never see individualized promos for Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune.

4) Long Time No See? How did such a grammatically messed up sentence enter our commonly used phrases?!

5) Assume the kids of Harry Potter were forced to fight to the death, Battle Royale style. What would be the outcome? Who teams up with whom and who survives to the end? Assume it's circa Goblet of Fire, and only those people in Harry's year. Also, something magically inhibits magic. Is the outcome different if magic is allowed (except magic that might be used to escape the death-collars)? ( Read more... )

Finished watching The Girl From Tomorrow... I guess I did actually see it to the end, since there were elements I remembered, I'd just forgotten what it was. Still, I hadn't seen the beginning and it was worth a rewatch. Watching some Avatar now but probably won't get through the third season after all.

Since I was at my Grandmothers, I was able to watch Wolverine and the X-Men there instead of downloading it. If it was any other episode I might have done both (because occasional people talking and such can make it hard to follow), but, well, it's really not my type of episode and so not worth following up on anything I missed. Couple good moments though.

Went to the Taste of the Danforth festival today, even though it was raining... well, spitting, maybe. Still, that made the crowds not nearly as oppressive as they were in previous years, which is good for me but kind of a shame for the festival itself.

Still, I got my traditional gyro and enjoyed it mightily.

In other news, Hugo Awards have been announced. Stephen Moffat won one, for Blink (which was probably the best of the nominees). Best novel went to Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policeman's Union", which is probably the best scenario for me, because it also won the Nebula, and so when I read it to once again complete my goal of having every Hugo award winning novel read, I'll also take a step towards my goal of having every Nebula award winning novel read.

This week I got two books:

Captain Britain and MI13 #2 (a little too fast paced for me, but enjoyable and my Pick of the Week)
newuniversal: shockfront #2 (conversely, a little too slow, but enjoyable)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the comic store I saw the Heroes action figures, which apparently came out... was tempted to get either Hiro (with sword and super-hero messenger bag!) or Claire (with replacable wounded head and arm), but they were almost $20 each, and, well, on a budget. Maybe if they ever get cheaper. They also had Sylar and Mohinder, and maybe there were others behind those but I didn't see them.

Work was okay, and of course I did the long walk both to the comic store and home. Except, there was a little problem. On the way, I started to feel a little gassy, which, well, happens from time to time and is only a mild concern. Then, later, added to that, I began to feel a strong sense of... let's call it intenstinal urgency. This was not a good feeling, particularly when you're a) about 45 minutes walk from home, and b) in an area without anywhere convenient to duck into for a washroom (an area with homes, apartments, and long stretches of bridges). I managed to hold out across the bridges to get into a McDonalds. After I was done, I bought a double cheeseburger, of course, because, well, they really helped me out and when I use else someone's bathroom I feel guilty for some reason. Now, you might rightly think, "hey... given what sent you in there, perhaps eating McDonald's food was not the best idea there", but I think I know what happened. There was no logical reason for me to have those troubles that day, as I'd barely eaten anything. So, I think I scarfed down that double cheeseburger so fast it broke the speed of light on its way to my stomach, and thus travelled back in time, and caused a predestination paradox.

Edit: Oh, and I think I got a touch of sunburn on my shoulders/neck.

Just got back from Greek Easter. It was a slightly smaller gathering than was usual, so I wasn't expecting much, just some lamb potatoes and rice, but no, it was an awesome meal.

I had:
Roast lamb
Macedonian Sausage
Greek Sausage
Zelnic/Spanacopita with cheese/onion and ones with cheese/spinach
Greek Potatoes
Greek Rice
Greek Salad, with Feta (real goat feta, too) and olives
A hamburger
Liver soup (noodle soup with lemon in it and chunks of the lamb's liver)
Hard boiled Egg
Lemon Meringue Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Ice Cream

And plenty of leftovers. I think that means I ate of 4 different animals today (counting eggs as chicken-in-progress). So delicious.

It was also nice for family stuff, too, been a while since this many of us got together. Well, since Christmas perhaps.

This week I got three books:

Avengers: The Initiative #10 (Plot feels a bit hollow, but had one of the best moments of the week)
Serenity: Better Days #1 (Feels a little better than the first mini)
X-Factor #29 (My Pick of the Week, barely, generally good as always)

Full reviews as usual at my comic reviews site for anyone interested.

At the used bookstore I picked up: Singularity Sky, by Charles Stross, and Use of Weapons, by Iain M. Banks

Work wasn't too bad, a bit more than usual but came early, so it balanced out. Since I went to get comics, did the long walk. On my way into the Eaton Centre, there was a group of people offering Free Hugs. I didn't take them up on it, of course. You get what you pay for... the hugs were probably cheaply made with child labour, and are full of lead. Nosiree, don't want to risk that.

I had no such compunctions about accepting the free samples of soup on the other side of Eaton Centre. "Butternut Squash and Coconut Curry". Sounds... interesting. But hey, it was free.

Oh, and this meme has been going around, so I'll do it too I guess:
Everyone has things they blog about. Everyone has things they don't blog about. Challenge me out of my comfort zone by telling me something I don't blog about, but you'd like to hear about, and I'll write a post or comment about it.
Ask for anything: latest movie watched, last book read, political leanings, thoughts on yaoi, favorite type of underwear, graphic techniques, etc. Repost in your own journal so that we can all learn more about each other.