I have been a very poor blogger/journaller of late. I wish that I could say it was because I was spending all my time working on my writing projects, but that would not be entirely true. I was going gangbusters for a while this fall, but then I fell off the wagon a bit and have been much more erratic ever since.

Part of this is because work has been a big energy drain of late (but this is not a whining-about-work post), and part of it is because my extracurricular activities have been taking over my life, but mostly it's because I've been choosing to flop when I get home rather than to work, so it's really entirely my own fault.

I also have been terribly lax in the staying in touch with friends department -- I owe several phone calls to folks I haven't talked to in ages. For shame!

Anyway, consider this an announcement of my continued existence. Still Not Dead!

Tags: real life, whining
Current Mood: awake

So today I have learned (or re-learned -- really, I knew this already, but let myself forget) that one should never ever try to use the easy one-step idiot-proof solution for anything. How did I learn this, you ask?

Well, having finally given up on Bell's Internet service after many many years (fairplaythings has a concise summary of the story, if you're really curious), I signed up with Rogers, and was delighted when they said the installation guy would be here today -- not 24 hours after I placed the order. And the installation went just fine, and he left me with two CDs -- the official documentation for my new router, and Roger's Quick! Easy! Set-up CD. 

What I needed to do was password-protect our new wireless connection. I couldn't initially figure out the documentation, so I thought "well, let's try this quick and easy CD, which he said would do it". Of course, the quick and easy CD only works with Windows (my shiny new laptop is a Mac), and the modem is in the front room, so I had to haul the old (ginormous) Windows computer out of the study and into the front room and plug it in to the modem. And I waited patiently while the sluggardly machine booted up, and then installed the Quick! Easy! software, and then obediently followed all of the steps. 

And realized a short while later, that although the software had insisted that I had been successful, it had in fact done NOTHING. Gah.

Of course, by this time I'd returned the dino-puter to the study, confident that the Quick! Easy! software had done what it was supposed to do. 

So I plugged in the Mac, took another look at the documentation, and within five minutes had succeeded in getting everything properly set up (It was just a matter of recognizing the right terminology, as it turns out). 

So, moral of the story: Just do it yourself. It's pretty much always easier in the long run.
 

Tags: real life
Current Mood: accomplished

 Inspired by Abi on Making Light, I decided to photoblog my commute to work. It then rained for two weeks straight.

But this week, I finally managed to do it. So here, for your enjoyment, is my commute to and from work, on a chilly October day. 

(Forgive the picture quality; I had to borrow a small enough camera to fit in my pocket, and I'm not used to it)

Tags: cycling, real life
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Sarah Slean -- Madeleine (I Want to be Brave)

Way overdue, and probably a bit incomplete, but better late than never, right?
( Cut to save your friends page 'cause it's a long list )
( The rest of the list so far )

Tags: books
Current Mood: lethargic
Current Music: Stan Rogers -- Canol Road

As you may or may not be aware, the DC Universe (that would be in the DC comic books, for those non-comic people in the audience) is currently in the middle of an Event called Blackest Night.

It turns out there aren't just Green Lanterns any more. Instead, there's a complete rainbow of Lanterns, each powered by a different "emotion". 

So there are Red Lanterns powered by rage, and an Orange Lantern powered by... envy, I think? And the Yellow Lanterns, a.k.a. the Sinestro Corps, are powered by fear. Or rather, by their ability to instill fear in others. It's not completely clear to me how it's supposed to work, really. There are good rainbow lantern colours too. The Blue "Hope" Lanterns apparently super-charge Green Lanterns' rings (Green Lanterns are powered by Will, by the way). And yes, there are Indigo and Violet lanterns too.

In the current Blackest Night storyline, it turns out there are Black Lanterns as well. And the Black Lanterns are all people who've been raised by the dead. Mostly superheroes who've been killed off recently in other Event Comics. And they've been killing off a number of other heroes just so that they can turn them into Black Lanterns and give them nifty costumes.

As soon as I heard about this storyline, it was obvious to me how it was going to turn out. After many dramatic and heroic battles, the multitude of rainbow-coloured lanterns will come together and fuse their rings' powers into one beam of white light. Because white is made up of all of the colours of light. They'll probably have to trick the bad-guy lantern colours into participating somehow. Or they'll decide the black lanterns are a bigger threat, or something. 

And while I'm at it, I'm going to go on record predicting that if the White Lantern Light has a humanoid form, it'll be female, and she won't have any clothes. She'll be all glowy white light so you won't be able to tell if she's naked or not, though. 

Anyway. I wrote a little theme song for the inevitable White Lantern Corps.

And now I'm going to share it with you.

There's music, too, but I'll spare you that part for now. 

The White Lantern Theme Song

All of the Lanterns of the rainbow
Working together in harmonyyyyy
When we unite, we shine the white light
And bring peace ever closer for you and meeeeee...

It needs another couple of verses, really. Anybody want to contribute?

Tags: comics, music
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: In my head!

Have you ever really thought about the lyrics to the Lobster Quadrille?

That poor snail is being talked into a rather nasty death.

Current Mood: exanimate

As I was getting dressed this morning, I was listening to the weather forecast. I often do this so I can decide if it's sensible to bike in to work or not. Another sunny, hot day, the forecaster tells me. There's a bit of fog lingering , but it'll burn off soon enough. Slight chance of showers later in the day, but unlikely.

So of course I hop on my bike. It's a little grey and hazy out, but it's still early, and I figure it's just the fog that's still hanging around.

Turns out, I was wrong.

Within about five minutes, it started to rain. Just a sprinkle at first, but soon enough a full-scale downpour. I have a perfectly nice rain jacket for biking in the rain, but, since it was supposed to be sunny, I didn't bother to bring it. The more fool I.

My ride into work was punctuated by muttered swear words directed at the perfidy of weather forecasters.

Tags: cycling, rage rage rage
Current Mood: discontent

 Today I realized that it has been a terribly long time since I have been waterskiing. And that it uses different muscles from most of my other sporty activities. 

My body remembers how to do it (with some prompting), but my arms are going to be sore tomorrow.

Current Mood: drained

This is just to announce that the most excellent fairplaythings worked up his courage to enter the Masquerade last night (at Worldcon). He was Alan Scott, the Original (Golden Age) Green Lantern, complete with lantern. He did a great job, and was recognized as Best Reconstruction in the Novice category. I am super-proud of him. He got spontaneous applause from the audience when he was actually on stage, instead of just after the presentation like everyone else. It was awesome. 

The rest of the Masquerade was truly awesome as well. There are some very talented, very dedicated costume makers out there. Wow. I have a bunch of pictures, which I shall upload to flickr when I have more time. It was a great show. 

Also, I am having a wonderful time here. I have been to many fascinating panels and talks. I have met Nalo Hopkinson, Elizabeth Bear, and Elisabeth Vonarburg. I have only babbled nervously a little bit. I actually told Elisabeth V about my Master's thesis a little bit. She was really nice, and actually seemed interested. She was very patient with my French, too, especially since I seemed to lose my entire French vocabulary, accent, and syntax as soon as I got excited/nervous/jittery. I swear I speak better French than that. At least most of the time. 

Amusingly, at the Masquerade, I ended up sitting next to a couple of guys from Ottawa, who told me about the Ottawa Science Fiction Society. Which I should have guessed existed, but did not know. Anyway, we had a nice chat, and it was very pleasant. I've already forgotten their names. I want to say Murray and James, bit I don't think that's quite right. I suck. Hi anyway!!!

Am now trying to decide which 11 o'clock panel or thing I want to do. Tour of the art show? Vonarburg reading in French? Can't decide. Too many interesting things to do!

Tags: sf, travel
Current Location: Canada, Montreal
Current Mood: happy

So this weekend fairplaythings  and I are at the World Science Fiction Convention in Montreal. I'm actually typing this from the exhibition hall.

It is a strange, interesting place. There are an awful lot of people here, most of whom I would probably like, and yet I am overcome with my standard crippling social phobias. Sigh. I think my goal for the weekend needs to be to start conversations with, oh, one or two people. 

The panels we've been to so far have mostly been really good. There was an excellent "conversation" last night between Paul Krugman and Charles Stross, which was really fun to listen to. I also went to a panel on the issue of genocide with Connie Willis and Nalo Hopkinson and a couple of fans (whose names, alas, I have forgotten), which got into some very interesting discussions.

I may evolve a theory on the nature of questions at convention panels by the end of this, though.

I am looking forward with great eagerness to the Masquerade tomorrow night. fairplaythings 

Current Location: Canada, Montreal
Current Mood: indescribable