Anna Frost's Blog, page 5
October 16, 2013
Last Reno Pictures
On day six the mosaic went in. The wall on the right was closed up.
Day seven brought the grout (in the previous pictures the tiles were only glued) and showertub bits.
Day eight: tiles got cleaned up, faint silvery paint went on the walls, the vanity and toilet went in.
Also on day eight, some work done to get the storage space ready:
Day nine was details day. The various holders, for toilet paper and towels, went up. The storage shelves got finished. The shower curtain rod was added and the bathroom door was put back in place.
It took a week before our guy came back, because he was on another job while the backsplash for our vanity dried at his house. I'll call this day ten, though it barely took an hour. The backsplash went in, and so did the mirror. All done!
For contrast, have another look at the "before" picture:
Much better, yes? The bathtub is finally comfortable, the mold is gone, the room feels much bigger, and there's more storage space than we know what to do with.
Day seven brought the grout (in the previous pictures the tiles were only glued) and showertub bits.
Day eight: tiles got cleaned up, faint silvery paint went on the walls, the vanity and toilet went in.
Also on day eight, some work done to get the storage space ready:
Day nine was details day. The various holders, for toilet paper and towels, went up. The storage shelves got finished. The shower curtain rod was added and the bathroom door was put back in place.
It took a week before our guy came back, because he was on another job while the backsplash for our vanity dried at his house. I'll call this day ten, though it barely took an hour. The backsplash went in, and so did the mirror. All done!
For contrast, have another look at the "before" picture:
Much better, yes? The bathtub is finally comfortable, the mold is gone, the room feels much bigger, and there's more storage space than we know what to do with.
October 1, 2013
Book Rec: Crowflight by Sunny Moraine
Description copied from Goodreads:"Turn is a member of the ancient Crow tribe, a Psychopomp in training—a guide of souls into the lands beyond death—with a bright future ahead of her, until she witnesses the suspicious loss of a soul between worlds. Accused of losing the soul herself, Turn is exiled to the Shadowlands beyond the Crow’s city, lands occupied by the mysterious and secretive Raven tribe, weavers of dark magic and suspected by Turn as playing a role in her exile.
But when Turn is saved from sickness and starvation by a Raven, everything she has always believed to be true is thrown into question. As she struggles to adapt to life among the people she once feared, terrible truths begin to emerge. There is a dark conspiracy behind her exile—a rising power that threatens to destroy everything that the Crows stand for, and even to upset the balance between life and death itself. And Turn may the only one who stands in its way . . ."
My thoughts:
Too many books fail to make me care about the characters so I was pretty happy to find myself invested in Turn's adventures. Around the 25% mark, I was seriously pissed off at the unfair things happening to her. I stayed hooked after that, waiting for her to have a chance to deal some fiery justice.
I also very much appreciated the original setting and world, built around a society given the responsibility to ferry souls to the afterlife. I do hope we'll see a little more of our world in the sequels. I want to know how it looks like to Turn's eyes and whether she's going to interact with it further.
Oh, and my favourite scene is the one with the tree in the bog. It was creepy in all the right ways.
September 29, 2013
More Reno Pictures
It only takes one day to take down everything, but it certainly takes longer to put everything back up. I hope somebody wants to see pictures, because here they are.
Day two's work mostly involved building and installing the frame for the bathrub. Ta da:
Day three was all about the invisible work: plumbing, electrics, ventilation. That last one required the youngest worker to climb up in the attic for a while. On the following picture, you can see the plumbing for the shower tub is ready to go.
Day four saw the former closet space properly walled up and plastered on both sides, like this:
Additionally, the walls around the bathtub went up and received a water-proofing coating (the black stuff).
Day five is when things started getting awesome: tiles! As you can see, we picked dark grey tiles for the floor and a pale grey tile for the bathtub walls. The wood piece is there as a placeholder for the mosaic.
There was no work done over the weekend, but things will resume Monday morning (that's currently 7 hours away). Another two or three days and everything should be done.
Day two's work mostly involved building and installing the frame for the bathrub. Ta da:
Day three was all about the invisible work: plumbing, electrics, ventilation. That last one required the youngest worker to climb up in the attic for a while. On the following picture, you can see the plumbing for the shower tub is ready to go.
Day four saw the former closet space properly walled up and plastered on both sides, like this:
Additionally, the walls around the bathtub went up and received a water-proofing coating (the black stuff).
Day five is when things started getting awesome: tiles! As you can see, we picked dark grey tiles for the floor and a pale grey tile for the bathtub walls. The wood piece is there as a placeholder for the mosaic.
There was no work done over the weekend, but things will resume Monday morning (that's currently 7 hours away). Another two or three days and everything should be done.
September 23, 2013
Who Loves Renos?
We're renovating our bathroom, for reasons ranging from "this small bathtub is hurting my back" to "oh my god mold is growing in the corner because ventilation is completely inadequate."
Let's do pictures! Here's the "before" shot.
By the end of Day One, also known as Demolition Day, the bathroom looks like this:
This is an improvement! Look how spacious it is now! We uncovered additional fuckups (on top of horribly poor ventilation) made by the original builders:
-They couldn't bother to move the plumbing an inch aside to accommodate the support beam running under the floor, so they raised up both the plumbing and bathtub.
-They installed the vanity first and cut/installed the floor tiles after, which would have made it impossible to replace the vanity by a smaller or floating one because there was no tiles on that part of the floor.
-They installed the pieces (notably the mirror & toilet) before painting the walls, which accounts for the white areas.
There will be more pictures as we start rebuilding. I like documenting projects like this. :)
Let's do pictures! Here's the "before" shot.
By the end of Day One, also known as Demolition Day, the bathroom looks like this:
This is an improvement! Look how spacious it is now! We uncovered additional fuckups (on top of horribly poor ventilation) made by the original builders:
-They couldn't bother to move the plumbing an inch aside to accommodate the support beam running under the floor, so they raised up both the plumbing and bathtub.
-They installed the vanity first and cut/installed the floor tiles after, which would have made it impossible to replace the vanity by a smaller or floating one because there was no tiles on that part of the floor.
-They installed the pieces (notably the mirror & toilet) before painting the walls, which accounts for the white areas.
There will be more pictures as we start rebuilding. I like documenting projects like this. :)
September 14, 2013
Mini Book Reviews
I've started reading the novel pile I brought back from Worldcon. Gogo mini-book reviews!
The Helix War by Edward Willett (2-book omnibus edition.)
"Marseguro, a water world far distant from Earth, is home to a small colony of both unmodified humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created by geneticist Victor Hansen from modified human DNA. For seventy years the Selkies and the unmodified landlings have dwelled together in peace, safe from pursuit by the current fanatical theocratic rulers of Earth. But everything changes when Earth discovers Marseguro."
My thoughts:
Hard sci-fi. Fast-moving plot that held my attention to the end. Sadly, nothing about the story, world, or characters stood out enough to make me love it.
The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon
"Imagine a place where all your nightmares become real. Think of dark urban streets where crime, debt and violence are not the only things to fear. Picture an estate that is a gateway to somewhere else, a realm where ghosts and monsters stir hungrily in the shadows. Welcome to the Concrete Grove."
My thoughts:
Horror/weird. DNF. 60 pages in, I realized I'm not going to like anything about this book. I find it gross. May work for people who actually like weird horror novels.
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
"Moon has spent his life hiding what he is — a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community."
My thoughts:
Fantasy. I like this. It feels like the world is so much bigger than what we get to see. The shifters' culture and biology is interesting and I like the MC enough to care what happens to him. I would read the sequel.
Still Life with Shapeshifter by Sharon Shinn
"For her entire life, Melanie Landon has hidden the fact that her halfsister Ann is a shapeshifter—determined to protect Ann from a world that simply wouldn’t understand.
After months of no contact, Melanie fears the worst when a man shows up on her doortstep saying he’s there about her sister. A freelance writer, Brody Westerbrook intends to include Ann in a book about the existence of shapeshifters. While Melanie is immediately drawn to the stranger, she knows revealing Ann’s secret isn’t an option."
My thoughts:
I was expecting this to be some kind of urban fantasy/paranormal romance, but it's not. It reads like a contemp because it's mostly about love and family. It just happens to have shapeshifters. At first I was bored by the main romance (I'm insanely hard to please when it comes to romance), but the sisterly bond at the center of the story kept me reading until the plot really took off. It's a little sad, but good.
The Helix War by Edward Willett (2-book omnibus edition.)
"Marseguro, a water world far distant from Earth, is home to a small colony of both unmodified humans and the Selkies, a water-dwelling race created by geneticist Victor Hansen from modified human DNA. For seventy years the Selkies and the unmodified landlings have dwelled together in peace, safe from pursuit by the current fanatical theocratic rulers of Earth. But everything changes when Earth discovers Marseguro."
My thoughts:
Hard sci-fi. Fast-moving plot that held my attention to the end. Sadly, nothing about the story, world, or characters stood out enough to make me love it.
The Concrete Grove by Gary McMahon
"Imagine a place where all your nightmares become real. Think of dark urban streets where crime, debt and violence are not the only things to fear. Picture an estate that is a gateway to somewhere else, a realm where ghosts and monsters stir hungrily in the shadows. Welcome to the Concrete Grove."
My thoughts:
Horror/weird. DNF. 60 pages in, I realized I'm not going to like anything about this book. I find it gross. May work for people who actually like weird horror novels.
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells
"Moon has spent his life hiding what he is — a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself... someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community."
My thoughts:
Fantasy. I like this. It feels like the world is so much bigger than what we get to see. The shifters' culture and biology is interesting and I like the MC enough to care what happens to him. I would read the sequel.
Still Life with Shapeshifter by Sharon Shinn
"For her entire life, Melanie Landon has hidden the fact that her halfsister Ann is a shapeshifter—determined to protect Ann from a world that simply wouldn’t understand.
After months of no contact, Melanie fears the worst when a man shows up on her doortstep saying he’s there about her sister. A freelance writer, Brody Westerbrook intends to include Ann in a book about the existence of shapeshifters. While Melanie is immediately drawn to the stranger, she knows revealing Ann’s secret isn’t an option."
My thoughts:
I was expecting this to be some kind of urban fantasy/paranormal romance, but it's not. It reads like a contemp because it's mostly about love and family. It just happens to have shapeshifters. At first I was bored by the main romance (I'm insanely hard to please when it comes to romance), but the sisterly bond at the center of the story kept me reading until the plot really took off. It's a little sad, but good.
September 5, 2013
Worldcon: A Brief Recap
Worldcon was great fun. I came home with a dozen free books, all from authors new to me, and my kindle now bears the signatures of both Robin Hobb and Lois McMaster Bujold. Squee!
I was not able to run into everybody I wanted to meet, but I did have a two minute conversation with someone I believe was the only other French-Canadian writer at Worldcon, Marie Bilodeau. Just like me, she writes SFF in English. I'm excited to know she exists.
When not lurking at Worldcon, I hung out with my friends and hosts, K and T. Among other things, they fed me a delicious cheese and spinach dip I would like to try making myself.
If you were to ask what was my favorite Worldcon moment, I'd have to say it is this picture of me, K and T on the Iron Throne:
Bow to me, mwahahahaha!
Unfortunately, I do not believe I'll go to Worldcon again in the near future. It's too expensive. I'm more likely to show up at Readercon instead because it's within driving distance.
I was not able to run into everybody I wanted to meet, but I did have a two minute conversation with someone I believe was the only other French-Canadian writer at Worldcon, Marie Bilodeau. Just like me, she writes SFF in English. I'm excited to know she exists.
When not lurking at Worldcon, I hung out with my friends and hosts, K and T. Among other things, they fed me a delicious cheese and spinach dip I would like to try making myself.
If you were to ask what was my favorite Worldcon moment, I'd have to say it is this picture of me, K and T on the Iron Throne:
Bow to me, mwahahahaha!
Unfortunately, I do not believe I'll go to Worldcon again in the near future. It's too expensive. I'm more likely to show up at Readercon instead because it's within driving distance.
August 27, 2013
Worldcon 2013
Tomorrow I'm flying to San Antonio to attend this year's Worldcon (also known as LoneStarCon). I'm not on any panel and I don't have anything like a fixed schedule. I will mostly be wandering about trying this new "talking to people" thing. I'm not sure how it works, but I'll try.
There's one panel of special interest to me: "Who's Working on Gay Issues and Themes in SF/F?" (Sunday 4 pm)
What does a writer pack for Worldcon? Clothes and basic necessities, of course, but also emergency food (chocolate, fruit snacks, granola bars), business cards, a kindle loaded with a few new books, and a notebook in case of sudden inspiration.
There's one panel of special interest to me: "Who's Working on Gay Issues and Themes in SF/F?" (Sunday 4 pm)
What does a writer pack for Worldcon? Clothes and basic necessities, of course, but also emergency food (chocolate, fruit snacks, granola bars), business cards, a kindle loaded with a few new books, and a notebook in case of sudden inspiration.
August 18, 2013
Goodreads Giveaway Results #4
1 copy
28 days
1155 sign ups
400 'to-read' additions (rounded)
This time I decided to run the giveaway for four weeks instead of two. Turns out that most people enter at the beginning and ending of the listing (when the giveaway is high on either the "recently listed" or "ending soon" lists) and nothing much happens in between. In the end, the numbers for this one are barely higher than the numbers I got for the third giveaway, which ran two weeks. An additional factor: when you pick an end date a month ahead, it's hard to pick the best one. Other books pushed mine out of the very top slots this time, which may have affected visibility.
28 days
1155 sign ups
400 'to-read' additions (rounded)
This time I decided to run the giveaway for four weeks instead of two. Turns out that most people enter at the beginning and ending of the listing (when the giveaway is high on either the "recently listed" or "ending soon" lists) and nothing much happens in between. In the end, the numbers for this one are barely higher than the numbers I got for the third giveaway, which ran two weeks. An additional factor: when you pick an end date a month ahead, it's hard to pick the best one. Other books pushed mine out of the very top slots this time, which may have affected visibility.
August 16, 2013
Another Goodreads Giveaway
Eek. I almost forgot to mention there's yet another giveaway for The Fox's Mask on Goodreads. Two days left.
Linky.
Next one will probably be in October. Gogo data collection!
Linky.
Next one will probably be in October. Gogo data collection!
August 12, 2013
Summer Season Anime Recs
1. Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories (watch here)
Each episode is only a few minutes long, featuring a single scary story. The animation style is a bit weird, but it's apparently meant to mimic flat-image theatre. I've watched the four first ones so far and I will certainly watch the rest. There's nothing gross shown; half the creepiness is having to imagine what happens after the climax.
2. Silver Spoon (watch here)
I started watching this because it's from the same mangaka who brought us Fullmetal Alchemist (BEST MANGA/ANIME EVER), but it's really really not the same genre. This show is about a city kid off to attend an agricultural school. He goes through such trauma as raising adorable piglets while knowing they'll be turned into bacon a few months later. I'm enjoying these glimpses into Japanese farm life.
3. Genshiken Nidaime (watch here)
This is a continuation of the excellent show Genshiken. It's about an anime/manga club in a Japanese university. In the old show it was mostly guys with a few girls, but in the new show it's mostly a girl club. They participate in fannish activities like making/selling doujinshi and cosplaying. The most interesting character, to me, is a crossdresser named Hato. Hato has a guy mode and a girl mode, so s/he might be bi-gender.
Each episode is only a few minutes long, featuring a single scary story. The animation style is a bit weird, but it's apparently meant to mimic flat-image theatre. I've watched the four first ones so far and I will certainly watch the rest. There's nothing gross shown; half the creepiness is having to imagine what happens after the climax.
2. Silver Spoon (watch here)
I started watching this because it's from the same mangaka who brought us Fullmetal Alchemist (BEST MANGA/ANIME EVER), but it's really really not the same genre. This show is about a city kid off to attend an agricultural school. He goes through such trauma as raising adorable piglets while knowing they'll be turned into bacon a few months later. I'm enjoying these glimpses into Japanese farm life.
3. Genshiken Nidaime (watch here)
This is a continuation of the excellent show Genshiken. It's about an anime/manga club in a Japanese university. In the old show it was mostly guys with a few girls, but in the new show it's mostly a girl club. They participate in fannish activities like making/selling doujinshi and cosplaying. The most interesting character, to me, is a crossdresser named Hato. Hato has a guy mode and a girl mode, so s/he might be bi-gender.
