Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 58
October 19, 2012
I Apparently Got Rid of My Fish Icon
I guess it's been a long time since I've written about my fish obsession, because it seems that I've gotten rid of my jumping shark icon. You'll have to make do with cap. He's there to warn you I'm going to talk about something potentially very boring.
The last of my fish died last night.
I thought that "finfish" (cleverly named by Mason) was going to pull through, despite having contracted what seemed to be a touch of ich. But, some time just before dinner, I found him on the bottom of the aquarium. Dead as the proverbial doornail. Alas, poor fish, I knew him well. Gucci, gucci. He had a lovely burial at sea (aka the toliet), though we've all become rather hardhearted after the death of the much larger goldfish, that I'm afraid there weren't terribly many tears. Finfish was a white mountain minnow, and the final survival of this year's fish massacre. The other three were too large for burials at sea, so they're actually buried in the herb garden. I would feel like a loser fish mom, but, as you should guess from the lack of fish posts, my fish have survived for several years without any hiccups. They lived very long lives; we had Joe for something like seven years. Considering he was 12 cent feeder fish, I think he had a much better life with us than he might have elsewhere.
For whatever reason, this just seemed to be the time for everyone to go.
But, now I'm staring at two empty tanks. I actually spent some time several weeks ago redesigning the 30 gallon tank. We're thinking about making our herb garden into a Japanese meditation garden (hence all my photos on Pinarest,) so we've collected some interesting rocks from Shawn's brother Keven's north woods cabin. There's been a live plant in that tank for years, and so I restructred the tank to look more like a rock garden. I'm thinking about buying a bag full of white mountain minnows to flit around in the large tank like a giant bait ball.
Shawn wants some goldfish for the little tank. She's particularly fond of shubunkins, so that's what we'll get. Unlike me, Shawn actually finds certian types of fish "ugly." She disliked my female betta. She found her creepy. Also the gourami--the wavy bits freaked her out. So normal, happy goldfish it will be.
I wish I could get tetra, but I have such vivid memories of the fuzzy clump of white moldy tetra that I came home from WisCON one year to find, that I swore NEVER AGAIN. White mountain minnows are often called "the poor man's neon tetra" because they're super hearty.
Mason and I might head to the store at some point this weekend. Should be fun!
The last of my fish died last night.
I thought that "finfish" (cleverly named by Mason) was going to pull through, despite having contracted what seemed to be a touch of ich. But, some time just before dinner, I found him on the bottom of the aquarium. Dead as the proverbial doornail. Alas, poor fish, I knew him well. Gucci, gucci. He had a lovely burial at sea (aka the toliet), though we've all become rather hardhearted after the death of the much larger goldfish, that I'm afraid there weren't terribly many tears. Finfish was a white mountain minnow, and the final survival of this year's fish massacre. The other three were too large for burials at sea, so they're actually buried in the herb garden. I would feel like a loser fish mom, but, as you should guess from the lack of fish posts, my fish have survived for several years without any hiccups. They lived very long lives; we had Joe for something like seven years. Considering he was 12 cent feeder fish, I think he had a much better life with us than he might have elsewhere.
For whatever reason, this just seemed to be the time for everyone to go.
But, now I'm staring at two empty tanks. I actually spent some time several weeks ago redesigning the 30 gallon tank. We're thinking about making our herb garden into a Japanese meditation garden (hence all my photos on Pinarest,) so we've collected some interesting rocks from Shawn's brother Keven's north woods cabin. There's been a live plant in that tank for years, and so I restructred the tank to look more like a rock garden. I'm thinking about buying a bag full of white mountain minnows to flit around in the large tank like a giant bait ball.
Shawn wants some goldfish for the little tank. She's particularly fond of shubunkins, so that's what we'll get. Unlike me, Shawn actually finds certian types of fish "ugly." She disliked my female betta. She found her creepy. Also the gourami--the wavy bits freaked her out. So normal, happy goldfish it will be.
I wish I could get tetra, but I have such vivid memories of the fuzzy clump of white moldy tetra that I came home from WisCON one year to find, that I swore NEVER AGAIN. White mountain minnows are often called "the poor man's neon tetra" because they're super hearty.
Mason and I might head to the store at some point this weekend. Should be fun!
October 17, 2012
Need to Wallow
About a half hour ago, I got the news from my agent that my editor rejected my most recent military SF proposal. I'm headed back to the drawing board to try again, but I needed to take a moment to wallow a bit.
Wah!
The good news is that I'm not sure how much more of this I can stand. I say this is good news because it's time for me to think about other ways I can make money writing. My dear friend
naomikritzer
suggested that I consider serializing the sequel to Precint 13 with a tip jar, with the ultimate goal of turning whatever comes of that into an e-book. I've wanted to do this project since the proposals for that were rejected, and this might be a good way for me to get over the hump of feeling like the effort and time put into writing something as large as a novel is worth it. Also writing on the fly like this is one of the things I enjoy about fan fic writing. Perhaps people will feel free to comment and whatnot along the process and make the whole project fun and interactive. I'm going to look into setting up a tip jar (I already have a paypal account) and get started on that right away. I'm thinking of running that through this blog and possibly my under-used Tate Hallaway blog as well.
I don't know, but I have to do something.
Wish me luck.
Wah!
The good news is that I'm not sure how much more of this I can stand. I say this is good news because it's time for me to think about other ways I can make money writing. My dear friend
naomikritzer
suggested that I consider serializing the sequel to Precint 13 with a tip jar, with the ultimate goal of turning whatever comes of that into an e-book. I've wanted to do this project since the proposals for that were rejected, and this might be a good way for me to get over the hump of feeling like the effort and time put into writing something as large as a novel is worth it. Also writing on the fly like this is one of the things I enjoy about fan fic writing. Perhaps people will feel free to comment and whatnot along the process and make the whole project fun and interactive. I'm going to look into setting up a tip jar (I already have a paypal account) and get started on that right away. I'm thinking of running that through this blog and possibly my under-used Tate Hallaway blog as well.I don't know, but I have to do something.
Wish me luck.
October 15, 2012
I Did it AGAIN
Yes, that's right, I did it again. I killed yet another computer. Yes, I REALLY AM THAT AWESOME.
To be fair, the Toshiba that I insisted Shawn buy for me (I liked the way the keys clacked, okay? It sounded RIGHT) was a peice of crap from the start. A smarter person would have turned around and replaced it when it randomly started dumping memory. Me, I just figured out a work around which kept me going until the warranty at the store wore out. Luckily, on Sunday, when it stopped working entirely, I called the Toshiba help line directly and the nice lady there agreed after having me try several things that the machine was, in point of fact, kaput, and I would be granted the boon of returning it to the manufacturer for repair or replacement free of charge. I will have to pay for shipping, but frankly, that's nothing compared to the cost of a brand new laptop.
The other awesome thing is that, after "The Turkey Incident" my wiser-than-me friends turned me on to a year free with CrashPlan, which was very helpfully backing my entire system up every fifteen minutes. So I lost exactly no data --provided I can figure out how to retrieve it when the time comes. (But, I'm going assume that someone will help me figure that out, if nothing else, someone on a help desk somewhere.) In the meantime I don't think there's much I need to access, though I may try to figure out if I can download my supervillain romance thing to work on today.
The other good thing is that we have a spare laptop. It's much older and is superloaded with games, but, ta-dah!, it works in a pinch. If I were actually on deadline for something, I would feel pretty f*cking smug right now. As it is, all I can think is, oh, thank GOD all my fan fic is saved. *snort*
I think, in fact, I may go and see if I can retreive a single file from CrashPlan. I'll let you know how that goes for me!
To be fair, the Toshiba that I insisted Shawn buy for me (I liked the way the keys clacked, okay? It sounded RIGHT) was a peice of crap from the start. A smarter person would have turned around and replaced it when it randomly started dumping memory. Me, I just figured out a work around which kept me going until the warranty at the store wore out. Luckily, on Sunday, when it stopped working entirely, I called the Toshiba help line directly and the nice lady there agreed after having me try several things that the machine was, in point of fact, kaput, and I would be granted the boon of returning it to the manufacturer for repair or replacement free of charge. I will have to pay for shipping, but frankly, that's nothing compared to the cost of a brand new laptop.
The other awesome thing is that, after "The Turkey Incident" my wiser-than-me friends turned me on to a year free with CrashPlan, which was very helpfully backing my entire system up every fifteen minutes. So I lost exactly no data --provided I can figure out how to retrieve it when the time comes. (But, I'm going assume that someone will help me figure that out, if nothing else, someone on a help desk somewhere.) In the meantime I don't think there's much I need to access, though I may try to figure out if I can download my supervillain romance thing to work on today.
The other good thing is that we have a spare laptop. It's much older and is superloaded with games, but, ta-dah!, it works in a pinch. If I were actually on deadline for something, I would feel pretty f*cking smug right now. As it is, all I can think is, oh, thank GOD all my fan fic is saved. *snort*
I think, in fact, I may go and see if I can retreive a single file from CrashPlan. I'll let you know how that goes for me!
October 11, 2012
NaNoWriMo
Since I'm still an unemployed writer, I've decided to sign up for NaNoWriMo. I've decided to do this under my real name "lydamorehouse," so if you're also doing it and looking for a writing buddy, feel free to connect to me.
I've been told the best way to survive National Novel Writing Month (which, btw, starts in a matter of weeks, beginning in November,) is to do a lot of pre-plotting and outlining before the big event. The idea is that will keep you focused when you're trying to push words out. But, I have a much bigger problem: I'm not sure which project I want to focus on.
At Gaylaxicon, thanks in large part to Kyell's enthusiasm for it, I actually got an offer to publish my gay superhero story, which I read as a work in progress at WorldCON. Being the sort of person I am (*cough*writingwhore*cough*), the idea that there's a built in market for this novel/novella really appeals to me. Plus, the story is a great deal of fun. It would not be the sort of thing that I would find difficult to sit down and plow through for an entire month.
However, the editor who offered kept apologizing for the fact that almost no money would be available, and he encouraged me to try to sell that story elsewhere, should I finish it. At this point in my career, any offer works for me. However, it does put this project on a more even ground with something like writing the next Garnet Lacey and/or Precinct 13 story as an e-book.
I could potentially make some $$ if I self-published a sequel/continuation of one of my existing series as an e-book. Presumably there are fans out there who would want to buy an e-book release. My biggest worry/concern about doing a Tate Hallway e-book is that I'm not quite sure what my rights are in regards to those books. All of the Tate books are still in print, which means they belong to Penguin USA. Technically, my contracts stipulate that the publisher has right of first refusal on all sequels/next works of paranormal romance, but I have no idea if that extends to a project like this. I suppose I should ask my agent. She would know.
The other drawback is one I probably shouldn't admit to in public, but part of me still resists this business model: self-e-publishing. It still feels really labor intensive to me, and I remain unconvinced all that work upfront is worth the supposed eventual paycheck. One of the things I like about having a big, New York publisher is (the advance, but also) that I don't have to mess around with all the formatting details. Plus, I'd suddenly be responsible for the single most critical part of a book's success--the cover art. That, quite frankly, freaks me out. And, I'd need to be super-rigorous about typos. Anyone reading here or my frist-drafty fanfic KNOWS I have a problem with spelling and I have NEVER ACTUALLY mastered the use of the comma in the English language.
On top of those super-appealing options is a third one--all those other stories I said to myself, "damn, if I ever get time I'd like to work on those." The problem, of course, is that I've had time, and nothing has quite grabbed me, alas. But, this feels like the perfect time to take on something that's been a dream project. So, I don't know.
I need to decide soon. With NaNoWriMo approaching, I'm going to need to focus on those outlines. (Another plus in the Hallaway projects column is that all the potential novels is that they come with book proposals/outlines already written.)
I've been told the best way to survive National Novel Writing Month (which, btw, starts in a matter of weeks, beginning in November,) is to do a lot of pre-plotting and outlining before the big event. The idea is that will keep you focused when you're trying to push words out. But, I have a much bigger problem: I'm not sure which project I want to focus on.
At Gaylaxicon, thanks in large part to Kyell's enthusiasm for it, I actually got an offer to publish my gay superhero story, which I read as a work in progress at WorldCON. Being the sort of person I am (*cough*writingwhore*cough*), the idea that there's a built in market for this novel/novella really appeals to me. Plus, the story is a great deal of fun. It would not be the sort of thing that I would find difficult to sit down and plow through for an entire month.
However, the editor who offered kept apologizing for the fact that almost no money would be available, and he encouraged me to try to sell that story elsewhere, should I finish it. At this point in my career, any offer works for me. However, it does put this project on a more even ground with something like writing the next Garnet Lacey and/or Precinct 13 story as an e-book.
I could potentially make some $$ if I self-published a sequel/continuation of one of my existing series as an e-book. Presumably there are fans out there who would want to buy an e-book release. My biggest worry/concern about doing a Tate Hallway e-book is that I'm not quite sure what my rights are in regards to those books. All of the Tate books are still in print, which means they belong to Penguin USA. Technically, my contracts stipulate that the publisher has right of first refusal on all sequels/next works of paranormal romance, but I have no idea if that extends to a project like this. I suppose I should ask my agent. She would know.
The other drawback is one I probably shouldn't admit to in public, but part of me still resists this business model: self-e-publishing. It still feels really labor intensive to me, and I remain unconvinced all that work upfront is worth the supposed eventual paycheck. One of the things I like about having a big, New York publisher is (the advance, but also) that I don't have to mess around with all the formatting details. Plus, I'd suddenly be responsible for the single most critical part of a book's success--the cover art. That, quite frankly, freaks me out. And, I'd need to be super-rigorous about typos. Anyone reading here or my frist-drafty fanfic KNOWS I have a problem with spelling and I have NEVER ACTUALLY mastered the use of the comma in the English language.
On top of those super-appealing options is a third one--all those other stories I said to myself, "damn, if I ever get time I'd like to work on those." The problem, of course, is that I've had time, and nothing has quite grabbed me, alas. But, this feels like the perfect time to take on something that's been a dream project. So, I don't know.
I need to decide soon. With NaNoWriMo approaching, I'm going to need to focus on those outlines. (Another plus in the Hallaway projects column is that all the potential novels is that they come with book proposals/outlines already written.)
October 10, 2012
The Midnight Slash Panel: Kyell's Perspective
If you're curious about what the other half thought of our midnight slash panel, here is Kyell's charming take on it: http://www.goodreads.com/author_blog_posts/3118518-midnight-slash
October 9, 2012
No Condom Swag
This last weekend was Gaylaxicon, which I was quite honored to be one of the GoHs of this year. When I arrived and checked-in/registered, I thought that the con was likely off to a VERY BAD START when I discovered that there were NO condoms (or lube!) in the swag bag. I spent the next several hours complaining about this, btw. Loudly. Luckily, most people ignored me. Because, really, it turns out (as I actually knew from last time Gaylaxicon was in town) this was not THAT KIND of con. Gaylaxicon is all about content... or at least mostly... granted I probably said "penis" more at this con than I do at most, but when I did, believe you me, it was in the pursuit of higher knowledge/intellectualism.
There was a lot about the con I enjoyed tremendously. I got to be a squeeing fan grrl all over J. Michael Tatum, who is not only the voice actor who portrays Sebastian in the Anime "Black Butler" (among other roles--you may also know him from "Ouran Host Club",) but also ridiculously cute and funny all on his own and, it turned out, on the one panel I was on with him, he's REALLY SMART AND THOUGHTFUL, too. I know, right? How unfair! That's really all I remember of Friday night, ie embarrassing myself by babbling, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod, you're so coooooooooooooooool" to a complete stranger, and also saying something about as articulate in my Guest of Honor welcoming speech. I should also say that I had a previous interaction with Gary Russell on the Thursday night GoH dinner, in which I became convinced that he was constantly sneering at me (though particularly when I talked about Marvel Comics). Turns out, he was only British.
Saturday I had a really phenomenal panel about women writing M/M slash, which was something I came to the con wanting to talk about. I'm not sure we concluded anything about why queer women like to write boy on boy porn, but we did figure out that it's more complicated than you'd initally think. I also encouraged everyone to attend the midnight slash panel, and lured them all there by a promise that one of the other GoHs, Kyell Gold, would be reading his Wiley E. Coyote/Road Runner. I think I did a bunch of other awesome things and talked to a lot of other amazing people, but really that midnight reading will be forever seared into my head as probably one of the most awkward-embarrassing-fantastic nights of my life.
The midnight slash reading was really well attended. Which meant that getting started reading porn was REALLY DIFFICULT for me. I have been known, in fact, in the past, to employ a stunt reader. This time, since Kyell was telling me to be brave, I finally (probably after a half hour of dithering embarrassment) did. It worked out really well as what I read was kind of sweet/sexy foreplay ("Other Duties as Assigned") , his was a fairly explicit pay off, and then my second piece was kind of funny/sexy afterglow ("Too Many Captains Spoil the Plan"). So, hopefully the audience felt they got a full experience. I suspect folks must have because we were only scheduled to go for an hour, but we didn't leave the room until 2:00 am. It was incredible. Kyell's husband recorded his portion of the slash reading and if/when they post it anywhere, I will post a link here, too. Apparently, my facial expressions during some of it were kind of precious. (I was very nervous/excited and TOTALLY INVESTED in the story.)
Sunday was my busiest day and also kind of a blur, but I remember some more panels and more hanging out with all sorts of wonderful people.
Oh, and for the record, after this con, if anyone disses a furry in front of me, they're in for an earful. As my friend
naomikritzer
said to me, "F*ck the Geek Heirarchy," the furries I met this weekend were AWESOME. Also, they wear tails sometimes. GET OVER IT. In fact, I have agreed to attempt some Komamura slash for the folks at the slash reading who liked my Bleach fic. (Bleach has a furry character, a captain who is a wolf/fox demon.)
Then suddenly it was all over and I was back home and being asked to cook dinner and do the dishes.
There was a lot about the con I enjoyed tremendously. I got to be a squeeing fan grrl all over J. Michael Tatum, who is not only the voice actor who portrays Sebastian in the Anime "Black Butler" (among other roles--you may also know him from "Ouran Host Club",) but also ridiculously cute and funny all on his own and, it turned out, on the one panel I was on with him, he's REALLY SMART AND THOUGHTFUL, too. I know, right? How unfair! That's really all I remember of Friday night, ie embarrassing myself by babbling, "ohmygodohmygodohmygod, you're so coooooooooooooooool" to a complete stranger, and also saying something about as articulate in my Guest of Honor welcoming speech. I should also say that I had a previous interaction with Gary Russell on the Thursday night GoH dinner, in which I became convinced that he was constantly sneering at me (though particularly when I talked about Marvel Comics). Turns out, he was only British.
Saturday I had a really phenomenal panel about women writing M/M slash, which was something I came to the con wanting to talk about. I'm not sure we concluded anything about why queer women like to write boy on boy porn, but we did figure out that it's more complicated than you'd initally think. I also encouraged everyone to attend the midnight slash panel, and lured them all there by a promise that one of the other GoHs, Kyell Gold, would be reading his Wiley E. Coyote/Road Runner. I think I did a bunch of other awesome things and talked to a lot of other amazing people, but really that midnight reading will be forever seared into my head as probably one of the most awkward-embarrassing-fantastic nights of my life.
The midnight slash reading was really well attended. Which meant that getting started reading porn was REALLY DIFFICULT for me. I have been known, in fact, in the past, to employ a stunt reader. This time, since Kyell was telling me to be brave, I finally (probably after a half hour of dithering embarrassment) did. It worked out really well as what I read was kind of sweet/sexy foreplay ("Other Duties as Assigned") , his was a fairly explicit pay off, and then my second piece was kind of funny/sexy afterglow ("Too Many Captains Spoil the Plan"). So, hopefully the audience felt they got a full experience. I suspect folks must have because we were only scheduled to go for an hour, but we didn't leave the room until 2:00 am. It was incredible. Kyell's husband recorded his portion of the slash reading and if/when they post it anywhere, I will post a link here, too. Apparently, my facial expressions during some of it were kind of precious. (I was very nervous/excited and TOTALLY INVESTED in the story.)
Sunday was my busiest day and also kind of a blur, but I remember some more panels and more hanging out with all sorts of wonderful people.
Oh, and for the record, after this con, if anyone disses a furry in front of me, they're in for an earful. As my friend
naomikritzer
said to me, "F*ck the Geek Heirarchy," the furries I met this weekend were AWESOME. Also, they wear tails sometimes. GET OVER IT. In fact, I have agreed to attempt some Komamura slash for the folks at the slash reading who liked my Bleach fic. (Bleach has a furry character, a captain who is a wolf/fox demon.)Then suddenly it was all over and I was back home and being asked to cook dinner and do the dishes.
October 4, 2012
Mischief Managed
I'm going to be one of the guests at this year's Gaylaxicon, which, like, starts tomorrow. Should you be going, you can find me talking about/doing these things:
Friday 4:30 PM Terrace 2 Writing Straight (when you're not)
Friday 9:30 PM Terrace 4 Outer Alliance Podcast
Saturday 2:00 PM Terrace 2 GoH Spotlight: Lyda Morehouse
Saturday 5:00 PM Terrace 2 Remembering the Penis: Queer Women Writing M/M Slash
Saturday 11:00 PM Terrace 3 British TV Invasion
Saturday Midnight Terrace 4 Midnight Slash Reading / Open Mic
Sunday 9:30 AM Terrace 2 Women at Gaylaxicon: Where r u?
Sunday 11:00 AM Terrace 3 Writing Across Fandoms
Sunday 12:30 PM Terrace 2 Superheroes on the Big Screen
Sunday 2:00 PM Terrace 4 Romance Writing
Yes, I talked them into giving a midnight Slash Slam. I have been fretting over which of my 101 peices of fanfic/slash to read. I know, however, that Kyell Gold will be reading his Road Runner/Wiley E. Coyote. Tell me that doesn't sound awesome! I know this because Kyell is one of the people I hung out with at WorldCON this year in Chicago and we conspired to do this together. If I read the peice I'm thinking of... I may need stunt readers. You should come just so you can sit in the audience and help yell out the words too embarrassing for me to utter.
You know you want to.
Friday 4:30 PM Terrace 2 Writing Straight (when you're not)
Friday 9:30 PM Terrace 4 Outer Alliance Podcast
Saturday 2:00 PM Terrace 2 GoH Spotlight: Lyda Morehouse
Saturday 5:00 PM Terrace 2 Remembering the Penis: Queer Women Writing M/M Slash
Saturday 11:00 PM Terrace 3 British TV Invasion
Saturday Midnight Terrace 4 Midnight Slash Reading / Open Mic
Sunday 9:30 AM Terrace 2 Women at Gaylaxicon: Where r u?
Sunday 11:00 AM Terrace 3 Writing Across Fandoms
Sunday 12:30 PM Terrace 2 Superheroes on the Big Screen
Sunday 2:00 PM Terrace 4 Romance Writing
Yes, I talked them into giving a midnight Slash Slam. I have been fretting over which of my 101 peices of fanfic/slash to read. I know, however, that Kyell Gold will be reading his Road Runner/Wiley E. Coyote. Tell me that doesn't sound awesome! I know this because Kyell is one of the people I hung out with at WorldCON this year in Chicago and we conspired to do this together. If I read the peice I'm thinking of... I may need stunt readers. You should come just so you can sit in the audience and help yell out the words too embarrassing for me to utter.
You know you want to.
October 1, 2012
Weekend News
So, in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, they have this thing called Oktoberfest. It's kind of a big deal. This last Saturday was the kick-off, which is a THREE HOUR parade, which includes every highschool band in the area as well as the UW-L alumni band, floats, politicians, and... giant semi trucks. You know, the usual, except with more leiderhosen.
My family went down to visit my folks and to participate in the insanity. Though, I'm happy to say that the North Side, where I'm from and where I have always celebrated Oktoberfest (sorry, South Side, folks, the big fair grounds is NOT my scene,) was dry this year. They still had all the usual carnival rides and midway games, just minus the drunken stupidity. Mason fell instantly in love, and also blew through a ton of our cash. But, I got to relive the experience of the Tilt-a-Whirl, which... honestly, is still pretty awesome. Mason also got his face painted on Sunday:
He's also holding the giant inflatable swords that he won doing the Thor hammer slam thing, where you have to ring the bell. The folks at kuk sool should be proud because in order to mentally prepare himself, Mason did a ki-yop in the proscibed way (as though about to break a board.) It was very impressive.
For myself, I had an excellent visit with the folks, chatting about life, the universe and everything.
Monday, however, has been tough. I believe, later tonight, we will be having a discussion about Maslow's hierarchy of needs with Mason in terms of what money gets spent on fist. This, I'm afraid is the natural consequence of having a weekend of, "okay, sure, honey" on the fairgrounds.
My family went down to visit my folks and to participate in the insanity. Though, I'm happy to say that the North Side, where I'm from and where I have always celebrated Oktoberfest (sorry, South Side, folks, the big fair grounds is NOT my scene,) was dry this year. They still had all the usual carnival rides and midway games, just minus the drunken stupidity. Mason fell instantly in love, and also blew through a ton of our cash. But, I got to relive the experience of the Tilt-a-Whirl, which... honestly, is still pretty awesome. Mason also got his face painted on Sunday:
He's also holding the giant inflatable swords that he won doing the Thor hammer slam thing, where you have to ring the bell. The folks at kuk sool should be proud because in order to mentally prepare himself, Mason did a ki-yop in the proscibed way (as though about to break a board.) It was very impressive.
For myself, I had an excellent visit with the folks, chatting about life, the universe and everything.
Monday, however, has been tough. I believe, later tonight, we will be having a discussion about Maslow's hierarchy of needs with Mason in terms of what money gets spent on fist. This, I'm afraid is the natural consequence of having a weekend of, "okay, sure, honey" on the fairgrounds.
September 30, 2012
Sunday Fan Art
Today, I'll post my most recent fan art. Tomorrow, I'm planning on updating you all about my exciting trip to LaCrosse to visit the folks and relive my memories of Oktoberfest.
Here's Renji, and in a twist, his hair is down and his clothes are ON. I know, weird, right?
Here's Renji, and in a twist, his hair is down and his clothes are ON. I know, weird, right?
September 24, 2012
No Electronics, Kind of...
Mason decided that what he REALLY wanted to do this weekend was have two days electronic free. OMFG. How, as a responsible parent, was I supposed to say "no" to THAT? So, we agreed through gritted teeth. And, I have to say both Shawn and I decided the only way we could possibly survive this hell was if we were allowed a short time in the morning and again at night just to CHECK TO SEE IF THE INTERNET POSTED ANY NEW LOL CATS.
Because, seriously, a whole weekend away from Facebook? AO3? LJ? BOING-BOING? Was that even physically possible or would my head explode from lack of LOL CAT intervention.
Turns out, I survived. It was hard. I was forced to write fanfic BY HAND as well as draw in order get out some of my frustration. On the flip side, we actually got a surprising amount of work done around the house (I know, weird, right?) Luckily, Mason abandoned this insanity half-way through Sunday and he watched a streaming episode of his favorite show "MythBusters." I was allowed to surf. Shawn had to work, so I'm sure she frantically checked the New York Times, Gizmo and io9 during her breaks. Then, in a crazy continuation of this whole no electronics thing, Mason and I went for a walk in downtown St. Paul, and he read by the river.
Because, seriously, a whole weekend away from Facebook? AO3? LJ? BOING-BOING? Was that even physically possible or would my head explode from lack of LOL CAT intervention.
Turns out, I survived. It was hard. I was forced to write fanfic BY HAND as well as draw in order get out some of my frustration. On the flip side, we actually got a surprising amount of work done around the house (I know, weird, right?) Luckily, Mason abandoned this insanity half-way through Sunday and he watched a streaming episode of his favorite show "MythBusters." I was allowed to surf. Shawn had to work, so I'm sure she frantically checked the New York Times, Gizmo and io9 during her breaks. Then, in a crazy continuation of this whole no electronics thing, Mason and I went for a walk in downtown St. Paul, and he read by the river.
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