April 29th 2004
Nothing says “Pagan Altar” quite like…
Wait for it…
An Anubis, Egyptian God of the Dead Plush Doll!
and for those interested in Eastern European mythology…
Baba Yaga, and her house, also in Plush!
(Thanks to Non-Fluffy Wicca for the link.)
April 28th 2004
An article that pretty much sums up how I feel about the NHL right now.
I used to watch a lot of hockey. It was my favourite sport — still is. But I used to sit down on Saturday nights with a cup of tea (or coke) and a quilt on my lap and watch the game. Less so when I reached Montreal, of course, since being a Leafs fan meant that I was rarely watching them play, but I still watched when I could.
Then, as the years went by, I watched less and less. I liked watching olympic hockey, junior hockey, but the NHL lost some of its charm for me. Big players on small ice surfaces, the game was slow, the invention of “trap”hockey made it difficult to watch.
Then, eventually I stopped altogether. I felt like the players didn’t care about the game any more, like big American franchises were buying up the talent, like hockey was losing touch with its heritage in a big way. It’s all about big money, advertising, flashiness now.
It’s the playoffs now. You know how I found this article? I went to the Yahoo games site out of pure curiosity to see how the Leafs are doing in their series. I get my updates from my father, and I think he’s disappointed to know that while he could talk hockey with me once, he can’t anymore because I just can’t be bothered keeping up.
I disagree with the article’s author on one count. I don’t think bringing a Stanley Cup back to Canada is going to help the game at all. I think the game can’t be helped until there are better restrictions on players attacking one another — before it gets to the level of what happened with Bertuzzi. I think it can’t be helped until we shake off the down-south US teams that diluted the market and made the game about selling product rather than enjoyment of sport.
I think the game can’t be helped until the game becomes small again, until the NHL realizes that it sold itself out and returns to what it used to be.
Maybe it’s not possible to do any of these things now. Maybe we’ve gone too far for the NHL ever to be what it was when I enjoyed watching it. It’ll be interesting to see where the game goes in the coming years.
Until then, I’m just as content watching a movie or reading a book on Saturday nights playoffs or no playoffs. I can’t say I don’t miss Hockey Night in Canada, but what’s on television now just isn’t what I’m missing.
April 27th 2004
The webpage will be up by Friday night. I keep telling myself that. There will be lots of delicious content on it, too. I just have to write it all.
I’m actually enjoying writing it all. It’s nice to be back in the groove of sitting down with the laptop and happily typing away. Soon I’ll be back to working on the fiction, but for the moment it’s enough to know that I’m working and enjoying myself. I can’t break through my blocks in giant explosions like some of my friends, but I can wear away at them slowly.
Two more sections, then I’m done the bare bones website I wanted up. There are still some features I want to write (like the explanation of my ten-dollar altar, which is finished, I just have to photograph it), and the costuming section I had planned is at present completely nonexistant, so I’ll have to work on that.
Actually, saying this is “bare bones” is a bit of an understatement, since there are no “coming soon!” links. I’ve made sure that there’s something in every section, and it’s not filler — it’s the stuff I wanted there. I say “bare bones” because mostly it’s not nearly all the stuff that I have in my head for those sections.
Hokay. Back to writing.
April 24th 2004
I hate ultra low-slung pants as much as the next person, but I’m not about to suggest that there be a $500 fine if I can see your underwear.
Every time I think the world can’t get any stupider, someone surprises me.
April 22nd 2004
I had a dream last night that Gordon Van Gelder, editor of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, had written me a nice letter accepting one of my stories, and rejecting another (but only because it was too long for the magazine, not because he didn’t like it.)
In the dream we had a few conversations. On the whole he was really enthused about my writing and said very nice things to me.
Now, I could take this all as a coincidence, seeing as I was talking with friends last night about Editorship of various magazines, and since I have been thinking about the rejection slips for a couple of my stories and when they’ll be coming back (none of them are at F&SF, though), and seeing as GVG himself is on the cover of Locus, which is sitting on my coffee table.
However, I choose instead to take it as a positive sign for how my writing will go today. (Note to creative-types: choosing things like this is very important.) After all, why dismiss a perfectly good dream if I can use it to my advantage in some way?
And I may just go out and buy myself some nice dip ink and paper as a present. To get those creative juices flowing.
April 21st 2004
So I’ve had a yen for some oatmeal raisin cookies for the past couple of days. Today I decided to give in and make some, since I’m going to a creativity wingding tonight and I can take them along.
(Aside: When did I become the type of person who, when she wants cookies, gets up and BAKES them?)
I’ve been tasting the cookie dough as I go along. Damn, but it’s a shame to turn dough this good into cookies! I mean, who knows what the cookies will be like, after all?
It’s one of the unanswerable questions of the universe, I guess. Why did God make cookie dough better than cookies? And since the dough is better, why do we continue baking the cookies?
April 20th 2004
I find out the universe has other plans for me.
Yesterday, I was going to get stuff done. I was keen. On Sunday night I was writing furiously, coding stuff for the website. I had a to-do list all ready for the morning….and then….
I had stomach flu that hit in the wee small hours of the morning. I slept all day Monday, too dizzy to sit up for more than a few minutes at a time.
This morning I woke up feeling great. The flu was gone, I was motivated again. I would work out this morning! Catch up on my work…
I had a migraine headache. The kind where there’s nothing to do but go somewhere you won’t have to think for a while. I got out of bed feeling better but not totally up to snuff at 5pm.
Two days of having my good intentions killed have made me feel like emphatically not doing anything tomorrow. How easily my good mood gets trampled.
April 18th 2004
Now, I don’t like to backtalk during films. I don’t like it when people are chattering away when I’m trying to watch a movie, so I’m kind enough to return the favour most of the time. But frankly, the trailers aren’t the movie and neither are the pre-trailer ads. So I will be talking over the ads when I feel like it, loudly. You’ll still have to get me angry enough to do it, but the movie I just went to made me angry enough to shout back in two (yes, two!) separate places.
I am really, really, really sick and tired of the guys over at respectcopyrights.org advertising to me at the front of movies.
I’m sick and tired of hearing how people downloading movies off the internet is hurting Joe Schmoe Stuntguy or Bob Jones Setpainter.
I paid to watch the movie. Get it? Paid. As in cash. You’re treating me like I’m some kind of pirate. I’m not. Don’t treat your customers like criminals. It’s bad for business.
You try telling me that movies are worth the money? They aren’t really. In fact, I pay a pretty high price to go and watch your advertising in front of a film that’s likely so bad that I’ll forget it the next day or I’ll wish I had. That’s why I don’t go to many movies. It’s not because I’m downloading pirated versions. It’s because the movies you’re trying to sell me suck and I’m not buying. Especially not at the price you want me to pay.
So I chatted away with the husband while the ads ran. I thought I’d be quiet during the trailers. And I was. Sorta. But then…then was the ad for I, Robot, starring Will Smith.
Now, I don’t like Will Smith movies. They’re just not my type of thing. But they’re all right in their way and the sight of a Will Smith trailer is not enough to make me yell. It’s only enough to make me roll my eyes. But this claptrap, after demonstrating that it is very lame and has horrid reminiscent-of-AI special effects, and after showing robots attacking humans, then tells you that it’s based on an Asimov book!
This movie was obviously made by people who can’t read. Otherwise, they would have read I, Robot and realized that their movie had absolutely nothing to do with it and changed the title.
So, in the quiet space between the end of that trailer and the beginning of the next, in sheer exasperation, I shouted “Read a book!”
Unfortunately, it didn’t make me feel any better. In fact, it just made me angrier.
I’m going to have to stop going to movies. They’re really just not worth it.
April 17th 2004
So the stylesheet is done. Or, well, as done as I can get it. I like the look of it, and I got some effects to work that I’m really pleased with. With the Husband’s help, I even worked around an internet explorer bug that was driving me nuts.
(I was tempted to give up and say “If you’re using IE it’s your ooooooown fault!”, but the Husband wouldn’t let me.)
Unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to drop a sidebar that’s the entire length of the right-content without being any longer or shorter. I’ve tried setting the height and min-height properties to 100%. It sounded like it should work but they don’t seem to. Why won’t my menu expand to be 100% of the content height? I want to know! I think it looks okay without me doing this but it’s frustrating the hell out of me that I can’t do it. It seems like such an intuitive thing for a page to do. Grr. This is one of those things that is easier with tables.
Anyhow, now I just have to write the stuff that goes in the webpage. Some of it is done already, but not enough to get a skeleton site up. I don’t want any “coming soon!” links in my page. I hate it when people do that. I’d rather have a little bit up in every section and put more up when I can.
I said elsewhere that I wanted a basic site up by the end of the month. That shouldn’t be a problem. Just a few more things to write…