I hate how SLOW the Internet is on this side of the apartment. In my bedroom? It's awesome. In the livingroom? AWFUL. And dammit, when I watch DVDs I want to be on a couch with a TV! I'm tired of sitting on my bed or on an uncomfortable chair to enjoy little things like Scrubs marathons.

>:(

I want a booster. >:(

Current Mood: annoyed

NASA has put out an alert that an asteroid just discovered this morning will enter our atmosphere early Tuesday. The asteroid is a few meters in length and will probably explode with about the force of once kiloton of TNT over northern Sudan. It's not expected to survive entry and impact the surface in any meaningful way (atmosphere ftw)

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news159.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/10/081006-asteroid-fireball.html

This is the first time there has actually been an alert for such an event ... NASA says one of these happens from time to time, but they'd not been able to predict it before.

today's job

The November 2008 Oregon Coast workshop will likely be rescheduled to March 2009, details to come. If you were interested in the Oregon Coast workshop but found November didn't work for you, and you're still interested, drop me a line. :)

http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca/20081006/gayer-than-two-gay-men-having-gay-sex/

http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca/?p=4140

Tonight, I’m going to Friction, which is normally for gay men only, but on Monday nights… they allows us vag-packing faghags to take a gander.

This? This should be fun!

A few folks have asked about signed copies of my book, "Saga: Visions of Iceland" to give as Christmas presents. I think that's a fine idea, of course, and of course I'm always happy to sign copies of my book. I don't maintain an inventory of the book here at home, and it can take weeks to turn around requests, and I realize that can be a hassle.

So, what I'm going to suggest is that folks interested in signed copies of the book let me know they're interested by this Saturday. It's my hope that if I put in an order for the books by then that I'll have signed books in hand in early November (by my birthday party at the beginning of that month, in fact, which may save the books a second trip through the mail.)

If you're interested, just comment here with a number of books, I'll eat the shipping for getting the books to me, so the books will be $64.95, +tax if applicable, plus whatever it costs me to ship the book to you. A small discount is available for folks wishing to purchase three or more books. Don't pay now, it's easier for me to keep track of once if I charge everyone when I actually ship the books out. Thanks!

Comments are screened.

. . .

(PS: The pre-ordered Christmas cards are in, it'll take me a few days to work through the counting, packing, making sure I have up to date addresses, and so forth, but they are coming.)

That thing I was working on? Wasn't the store (although I HAVE been working on it).



Spread the cause.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: busy

Finally up are the TBLF shirts. Babydolls go up tonight. I will offer tanks as well - but they will not have the back design.

Oh, goodness - I wonder if that URL works, too.

http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca/20081006/ds-not-for-kids-also-for-kids/

http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca/?p=4138

So I have a nintendo DS. Makes sense, I’ve been a Nintendo fangirl since I was about 8, and have never owned a non-Nintendo game system (save for a very short lived Sega Game Gear that chewed through batteries faster than my vibrator).

I’m rather intrigued by shopping for games these days. It seems like an odd combination of “games for grownups” and “games for wee kids”. It seems like less and less games for gamers are made for the DS. Is the DS not very gamer friendly?

Well, I guess it’s not really. I’ve played very little of my Zelda or Mario games on it, because they have stupid arbitrary save points. Since I bought my DS for use on transit (hello, portable game system!), I can’t really play them — I need to be able to stop and save at any given point (ie, when I get off the bus, not when I finish the third castle). Sure, I could just close the lid, but sometimes I ignore the DS for a week or two, and then the battery dies and my progress is lost.

Not amused, Nintendo.

But I’ve been looking at the “Grownup” games and I find myself intrigued and tempted to pick up a copy of Brain Age… or Big Brain Academy. Since when are game systems supposed to be educational? Huh.

The other thing I’ve noticed is the ridiculously verbose Nintendogs, along with a variety of other “very-young-kids” games that I have no interest in whatsoever. Seriously, how many Pokemon games does one game system need?

I found this list of best selling video games. For the DS, we have Nintendogs, Pokemon, Mario, Brain Age 1 & 2, Mario Kart, Animal Crossing, more Mario, Big Brain Academy, Zelda, more Mario. more Pokemon, more Mario…

I’m sensing a trend here.

I think I’ll just go pick up a copy of Tetris… and maybe be tempted by Brain Age on my way out the door. Oh crap. I think I might be their target audience… did I become a grownup when I wasn’t looking or something?

The Non-Dog Blog on California's Proposition 8.

Here's part two of the weekend's whackyness. Saturday, aka Scifi Con Day. It started with me waking up around 10am. Got dressed, called Amythest and got her motivated. Headed over, snagged her, snagged lunch and off to Addison we went.

Found the hotel fairly easily (same place as last year). Got checked in, ran into badcat42077 right off the bat. Whom Amythest hasn't seen in a long time. Chit chat a bit, then me and Amythest went to the first panel of the day, which was about teaching science experiments to kids. Fun choice, and it made for a happy teacher. After that we went and browsed the vendors. Bought a cephalodpod/pirate decorated trinket box and a small octopus pendant from one vendor, drooled over ALOT of books, ran into prodigal. We then went to another panel on ghost investigations, which was fun. Very personable speaker. Killed some time after, looked at the Friday night panels and cursed, ALOT. There was a Cthulhu Mythos panel Friday night. *whine* Note to self, next time, read all the damn panels, not just for the day you're assuming you want to go. Silly cultist, no biscuit. Went back to the vendors, ran back into badcat42077, and also found waterlily. Yay !!! Hung around with them for a bit, went to look at the Art Show. Bought a pair of prints, one for me (Cthulhu, shocking I know) and one for a upcoming friend's bday. Also found several artists who's stuff I wish I could have taken home. Including a very nice Cthulhu plaque, but the 'buy it now' price was a touch prohibitive. Oh well (I emailed the artist to see if I can purchase another one from him).

After escaping the art show without buying half of it, we hung out with waterlily, badcat42077 and some of their friends. Went to another panel about pirates in Scifi which wasn't that interesting, but it had some good amusements. Then me and Amythest bailed, and headed up to Lewisville to find food and meet up with techie_ and mustangkitty04.

Food was Souper Salad, which wasn't bad. Then over to Borders (yes, Borders #3 for the day). Wandered around there for a while, then techie_ showed up, along with mustangkitty04, her family, and lifeblender and luckyckljw. Yay for teacher discounts. I picked up a set of Munchkin Cthulhu cards, and a very cheap book on Egyptian mummies. Yay me. Then we hung out talking til about 10 or so, drove Amythest home, headed home myself and tried to get to bed kinda early. Didn't quite work, but I tried.

Next, on your local Vulpine channel...How Vulpine spent his Sunday...not quite as interesting as Saturday...

http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca/20081006/things-that-are-awesome-2/

http://lifetheuniverseanddonna.ca/?p=4135

- I weighed 130lbs yesterday. Then I ate dinner and hopped back up a few, but still. 130! I haven’t seen 130 in a while. This means that not only have I dropped the 10lbs that I gained when I moved to Cloverdale, but the other weight that I’ve been carrying around for the last five years or so are starting to leak off as well. I’m pleased.

I bought two pairs of jeans in March that made my ass look great. One of them no longer does a damn thing for my ass. The other pair… well, they’re not as bad, but they’re too loose and I keep having to pull them up. Normally I’d just wear a belt, but I forgot to put it on this morning. Huh. I evidently need new jeans.

- I’m going to get back into rock climbing. I was too hungover to climb, but I watched Nick boulder for a while yesterday and remembered how much I used to enjoy it. I think I want to re-take one of the beginner classes — I have a bad habit of forgetting skills if they’re left unused. I’m sure I’ll pick it up again pretty quickly, but just for safety’s sake… I think I’d rather have someone go over all the rules for belaying rather than depending on my slack-ass memory.

Also VERY happy to see that Cliffhanger has a new Vancouver spot, as I really didn’t like the old one — it was teeny tiny and always jam-packed. I used to go out to the Edge in North Van just so I wasn’t climbing three inches away from someone to my left, but the Edge was TOTALLY inconvenient to get to for a transit-monkey like me.

So! Anybody want to take the beginner course with me? Gets you a free week of climbing! I’d like to be going at least 2-3 times a week, it’s easy walking distance from Main St skytrain.

- The party on Saturday was awesome, I had such a great time. The hangover on Sunday was totally worth it. Turns out, we CAN cram a lot of people into our place. I think I want to do it again sometime around Christmas.

Highlights:
- I remembered that Lisa’s got training in dog grooming, and that Justice’s nails get a bit ridiculous due to her hatred for having her feet touched, making it a minimum two person job… so I prefer to take her to the groomers, but due to her dog-aggression, this makes it tricky as well. So, I end up letting them get pretty long. Sigh. Luckily, we walk on pavement a lot, which helps keep them shorter than they otherwise wood be.

- “I didn’t knock that bottle over because I’m drunk! I’m not drunk, really!” uh… hee.

- Staying up til 6am giggling & such with good friends before finally telling them to get the fuck out, I have to sleep now. Then almost immediately passing out for 6 hours.

- Painted Pony! For the marmot’s birthday, I gave her one of Carol Ann’s old My Little Ponies as a “Stand in” for taking her horseback riding, which we finally did in August. So, for my birthday, she re-painted it and returned it… as a stand-in to go see Amanda Palmer in December. Woo, Amanda Palmer! LOVE Amanda Palmer!

- From the “I think I might be a conceited snot” department, a friend brought some guy with her, who recognized me from okCupid… as someone he’d chatted with for a bit. Yeah… um … oh dear. I had NO idea who he was. Apparently we chatted about motorcycles… well, that doesn’t really narrow it down much… shit. The catch with sites like that is that any semi-attractive woman gets a LOT of responses on sites like that. Also, I pretty much stopped going to the site when I hooked up with Nick. And… well, quite frankly, I never really paid much attention to it even when I DID go more often — I just like the stupid tests. So, I got to look like a total conceited snot, but damnit who the hell remembers conversations with random strangers online from at LEAST six months ago?

- Cake! I got an excellent cake from Fratelli’s on Commercial. I had fun ordering it. “The inscription should be ‘Happy Birthday Nick & Donna’.” “Great, and your name is?” “Uh… Donna…”

Since it was also another friend’s birthday, I also bought a cupcake and had them write “And Fred” on it. I was amused.

- One of Nick’s friends bought him a bunch of Rock Band music credits. We now have “Still Alive” and “Skullcrusher Mountain”. So, so awesome. Could not convince him to purchase “Ever Fallen in Love” by the Buzzcocks. But I can sing that! Badly, but still!

- I enlisted Nick’s friend Richard to make a new pair of vambraces (ie, arm armor) for his birthday as a joint gift from both of us. They looked fabulous, I’m so pleased. Richard does lovely work, if you’re looking for something leathery… I strongly recommend giving him a call.

Patrick Stewart has been confirmed as playing the Meddling Monk in the upcoming season of Doctor Who, opposite David Tennant.

He said: “I have been a fan, actually yes, and I’m deeply dismayed that I was never asked to be in it. I think it’s a terrific series.” A source said: “Patrick and David are firm friends now, and want to work together again. They’ve got chemistry and that’s what Doctor Who is all about.

“Patrick’s role is still being finalised but the plan is for him to play a renegade Time Lord called the Meddling Monk, who was last seen in Doctor Who in the 1960s. The Doctor thought his entire race was wiped out and gets a huge surprise to find another member of his species.”

( Read more... )

Happy Spawning Day to sailormidori and dr_nebula. May you have a great and wonderful time :)

Ok folks, I am headed to the Texas State Fair next week. And as a primer, I've looked over the Bad List of Bad Food available at the fair.

Peruse, review and I promise to take photos or even possibly taste the foods that you choose! That's right folks, I am offering my stomach (sic) for your abuse!

Limitations and exclusions: I do not eat meat so your choice is severly limited. Because of this inconvenience, I will gladly ask a friend to taste and describe the texture and flavor. They, however are not as reliable.

“Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation.” - John McCain in a September 2008 article.

Krugman dissects McCain's healthcare proposal which looks to be bad ju-ju for anyone who depends on Medicare, or anyone who actually needs healthcare.

Well, it's Monday, and I'm back at the office at my nice multi-monitor desk. No clue where my boss or cohort are, probably working at the DC. Slow day at work so far, slow is good. Hopefully it will be a good week.

Still need to finish posting about the weekend, maybe I'll get that done tonight. Have to go by the library tonight and return a late book. Oops, need to start putting library book due dates into the PDA. Also need to go back to the store and get a few more things I didn't get yesterday, and drop off stuff for Mom. Wee.

That's about it for now, back to the shoggoths. *wave*

[mm]
We've got new stuff from TV On The Radio, Josh Radin, and Enigma this week. evolving_lines was kind enough to hook me up with a spare ACL program (and the attendant iTunes music card included therein). So, you may be seeing some of those in the coming weeks.

For this week's pick, I'm going with Vanished.

As always, discussion isn't required, but is certainly welcome.

1. Crystal Castles - Vanished (Dance)
2. Digitalis - Transform (Dub)
3. Enigma - Seven Lives (Electronic)
4. Joshua Radin - I'd Rather Be With You (Alternative)
5. TV On The Radio - Golden Age (Alternative)