So much... there's so much to post about, and I don't manage to get any of it up anymore. Sigh. But I can cover some of the things I've been watching/reading.

First, though: Home again. So glad to be home. Seeing the boys and Phil and Lika & Bruce was wonderful, but nothing beats my own bed and a husband to snuggle with.

Okay.

Read the Hunger Games trilogy. I enjoyed it a great deal. I really think the third book might be my favorite. Collins' writing style really improves over the three novels. If you haven't read them, I recommend that you do. Very pleased to see that the additions to the movie were really aspects of things that become more clear in the later books. I thought it might be the case, but I'm glad to see that borne out--and yet, none of them are spoilers. Did I mention that I thought the movie was amazing? Because I did.

Saw MiB III yesterday. It was surprisingly good. It's actually my favorite of the three. Go see it. Emma Thompson is really great, Josh Brolin is astounding, and it handles the cast and the property well.

Saw Pirates last weekend. I enjoyed it, although it's not the best of Aardman's work. You need to have a working understanding of 19th-century British history and culture to get the most out of it. It's worth seeing if you do, though. Very cute.

Currently reading The Bloody White Baron, by James Palmer, aka JamesCat from RPGnet. I'm really enjoying it. I have a soft spot for biographies that are well written and well researched. Good work, James. Next up on the reading list: Captain Alatriste.

Monday will have me doing a session of SIFRP, starting with showing everyone the first episode of the show and then doing chargen. Need to review a bit before that happens, just to make sure I've got the process down. Already watched the pilot myself, but am nowhere near caught up with the show. That's okay, I've got a summer.

Watched an episode of the Borgias. And Downton Abbey. Amazing. Damn. See, now I've got Rome, the Tudors, AND the Borgias to watch. And Boardwalk Empire. And Sherlock. And Downton Abbey. Sigh. Thank god I'm not a Doctor Who fan.

I will continue to update as media presents itself. :)

I'm now the proud owner of an MA in English. Even though I don't have the paper yet, I have finished my coursework, been accepted for the PhD program, and start classes in the fall.

What this means primarily is that I am now no longer too slammed to update. Hooray!

So. Hmm.

1) OMG I MISS MY KIDS. I go to visit them on Thursday this week. Those visits are always hard, and I'm crashing on a friend's couch, so that's even harder, but I can't wait to see them. It'll be good. Studying really took a toll on my time this semester, so I haven't seen them in person since January, but it was so worth it. I can't wait to celebrate with my kiddos. :)

2) I kind of hate 1950s literature. I know I hate the American version; I might hate the British version less, it's hard to say, but I definitely hate that. Modernism is just not me. It makes me all ranty. Blargh. Glad it's done. Also, the selections for that class had entirely too much casual rape in them for me to be comfortable. Perhaps the 50s also had entirely too much casual rape in them for me to be comfortable. It's very hard to tell.

3) I finally finished my shrug for my wedding here a few weeks back. It's lovely, but it'll look better after I lose weight. I know this because it looks way better on Sarah than on me. Harumph.

4) I have been to see a doctor, a real family-practice, knows my family, will see more than once, doctor. I'm in the process of re-evaluating my meds for my blood pressure. I still have to go get a mammogram--argh. I got the bitter news that running, or even strenuous walking, is all kinds of stupid for my ankle with the plate and screws. Apparently stress fractures are a thing. So instead, I'm restricted to the elliptical, cycling, and swimming. Of these, swimming is both the one I want least and the best for me, so it's going on the twice-a-week list as soon as I get another pair of goggles, because a) the dog chewed up my last pair and b) OMG WATER ON MY FACE. Sigh.

4a) My insurance does not cover any treatments for autism or autism-related things, so actually getting diagnosed as aspie is right out, because that could impact headaches, etc. This is unfortunate, because my sensory issues are getting worse as I get older. The Avengers really sucked for me, and by the time I came out, I was in full-on crying twitching meltdown. I know the kids are going to want to see it when I go visit... I'll have to come up with a way to cope.

4b) I have not lost as much weight as I'd like. Then again, I've been somewhat forcibly sedentary as neither my part-time job, nor school, nor studying are things I can do while exercising. Dieting while trying to prep for and pass an MA exam is perhaps not the best plan ever. That's okay, though, as I will now have time to clean house and garden and go to the gym. Very pleased about this. Will walk a lot in Seattle as well.

5) Si is doing well, but he freaked me out the other day when he tweaked his back, as apparently long dogs are prone to do. Idgit didn't seem to be in pain but didn't want to move his back legs. He is all right, though. Idgit.

6) We do not have a garden in. This gets fixed in the next two weeks.

7) The kickstarter gets its own post coming up.

8) I have been to a dentist for the first time in years. I have "very good dental hygiene." My gums are healthy, except a bit around my remaining wisdom teeth, which keep them irritated and swollen on and off. I have four very small, shallow cavities which we're gonna slap some spackle (or whatever they do) on next week. I am having my bottom two wisdom teeth extracted next month. Apparently they just do it with a local, even if one hasn't come through the gums. At least the pain meds will be in force.

9) We have a housemate. His name is John. John is good with the doggies, has work, and is generally a nice sort of person, and his rent helps with the lack of stipend this summer. Resultingly, the boys will have a room of their own on the second floor this year. It will be far less basement-y and will have a closet which hopefully they'll use.

10) This summer, I start studying Latin again. I have no words for this. Hopefully it'll be interesting. I still won't be able to order dinner with it.

Perhaps my next post will be less random. We'll see. :)

So. We made funding, which is COMPLETELY awesome. We get to have a book, and a kit, and all that nifty stuff!

Now what?




Well, we'd encourage you not to let it drop off your radar just yet. At 6k (just less than $800 away) we'll be releasing a pdf-only update featuring rules for including ghosts in your ctd game. At 7.5k, we'll be releasing a fiction anthology based in the curse the darkness universe--and given the interest that's been shown by a number of potential writers, it'll be something really special.

We're really excited about the possibilities of these items coming to pass; we're working on getting our company website up and running, and we've got a lot of things in mind for the future. With your help to get us started off with a success under our belts, we can do great things.

This is the best rejection letter I've ever gotten:

Dear Ms. Lyons,

Thanks so much for submitting to Tor.com, and for your extreme
patience while we evaluated your story. Unfortunately, I'm afraid that
"Swan Song" isn't quite right for us. It's always hard to reject
something well-written and unique. I wish you the best of luck placing
it elsewhere.

Please send us more of your stories in the future, and we'll try our
best to have better response times.

Best,

Tor.com Submissions Staff

Yay! They kinda liked it, if not enough to actually publish it! I win!

I am pondering using Kickstarter later this year. Matt and I are starting a game company, you see, and as with any start-up, we need a bit of a funding boost to get our first book into print/published.

Our game company is called Play Attention Games, and one of the precepts behind our company is, frankly, paying attention. Being engaged, being aware, being part of what's going on in a conscious, deliberate, ethical way. It was very distressing, then, to read about what's going on in the blogosphere regarding Rachel Marone, an artist who tried to use Kickstarter and ended up having a bad experience.(Her blog entry is here, btw, so you can see her story.

Her story is generating all kinds of outrage, as it was intended. Kickstarter, to my knowledge, has not responded to it at this time, nor has any major news media reported it. It's all by the bloggers for the bloggers at this point. Only time will tell if there's any larger issue going on inside the company, or if they are really as unethically unsympathetic as they seem.

BUT.

I will be honest and say that something about this rings false to me. I am uncomfortable with the fact that we have only the artist's side of the story. I am uncomfortable with the fact that it all happened a year ago, and there's no record. I am uncomfortable that she has called a Kickstarter employee out about it by name, now, a year later, rather than trying to solve the issue at the time (and if she did, in fact, try to solve it then, why not show us that?). I am uncomfortable that said employee is now being harassed on her Twitter account. I am even more uncomfortable that the artist is okay with that, as per her tweet, copied here:

Rachel Marone ‏ @rachel_marone

Reply
Retweet
Favorite
· Open

@mattycurry I'm publicly calling out @Piztachio because she is the one who banned me for having a stalker. #Kickstarter should fire her.

Two emails from a community manager at a time when it seems Kickstarter comments were not limited to only backers is not worthy of a shitstorm on a community manager of a small company a year later. It's just not.

According to Insider, Kickstarter has issued an apology for the response Rachel received. I'm good with that; I think it was appropriate. I will not be fully pleased, however, until I see Ms. Murone apologizing for unleashing the internet on a woman she last talked with a year ago, without any evidence that she fully explained her situation or offered the evidence of her cyberstalker that she seemed to be willing to offer to the Internet at large.

Points: 33
Banked: -1

( Read more... )

Been really bad about recording points lately. I've been keeping track in my head, but I think we're going to have to get a little austerity going again here so that I don't feel guilty about writing things down. :)

Being off my pills for a few days really jacked up my weight. I've gained and lost something like five pounds in the last week, and I don't actually think I'm done yet. I bought potassium supplements because I started feeling unwell--seems to have fixed it. I'm back down to 225.8, which seems up a bit from where I was before all that, but I've still got a bit of puff around my ankles/fingers, so we'll see what next week looks like. If I watch my food, it should be better regardless.

( Read more... )

I am out of blood pressure pills. I'm not weighing myself again until I get a refill and a few days on them. Also, I was out of town traveling. I didn't go overboard with food and tried to keep to the plan, but I didn't even remotely count points.

Yesterday, though:

Points: 27
Banked: 4

So here I am, still in my jammies, sitting in my hotel room and listening to birds singing and kids playing down in the pool. I am in San Antonio, Texas, for the 2012 ASECS (American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies) conference. This is my first conference, and I have to say... I have found my people. Especially among the other grad students and young professors. I made some new friends last night at the graduate student caucus social (margaritas on the Riverwalk are expensive) and I made some professor acquaintances earlier that day at lunch. The professor who chaired the panel I was on seemed really pleased with my talk, during which I managed to look at the audience, not stumble more than average, and have a couple of asides to make it less "oh look I'm reading from a page." I also came in well within my allotted time, which makes me happy, as we had four people on the panel. Eek. I also got some questions at the end, which surprised me, but seemed to go well too.

Next year the ASECS convention is in Cleveland, which is just a happy bit of serendipity for me. I've already talked with someone about co-chairing a panel, which may or may not happen since it's a year out, but it'll be fun to do. I'm also looking at having people over for dinner, though I have not yet informed Matt about this. :) I will definitely be submitting/doing panel things, though. I am really enthused about... nearly everything, really. I am a rare bird here as an MA student -- if I'm not the only one, I'm close. Then again, I've been accepted for my PhD, so I'm on the path. I think my biggest takeaway is just how much reading and familiarizing myself with my field I have yet to do. There's SO MUCH I just don't know about the current state of criticism and research, not to mention so many books I haven't yet read. I am slightly embarrassed to be at this stage and be here, where I really am sort of the clueless ingenue (and those are not words I thought I'd ever be saying), but by putting myself out there now, I'm getting a far better idea of what I need to be working on.

I really wish Matt could have come with me, but I'm still having a good time and I'm excited to be here. It'll be good to see him tomorrow, though; I am by no means content to do without him for any extended period of time. :)

Points: 29
Banked: 2

Breakfast 4
mini wheats, soymilk, coffee

Lunch 4
soup, crackers

snack 4
crackers, cheese

Dinner 17
steak 3, pasta 5, pudding 3, soda 6