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My subconscious is like an overeager cuisinart...
...combining all the wrong things.

For instance, yesterday I played Kingdom Hearts and read what turned out to be shoujo manga.

As a result, last night I dreamed that I was dating Jack Skellington.

And it seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do.

-H

Current Mood: um, what?

Thursday: Made it, but flat-out tired . . .
1. Please welcome: lissa510, mare_in_flames, sileas_1, woodwindy.

Introduce yourselves around if you would like.

2. Needless to say, it's been raining in the North Country. Not too bad, but things are wet. I do not know what it's like at the Northern Region War Camp site, which is maybe an hour north. It's is supposed to be good for the weekend.

3. I am feeling rather craptastic, but part of that might have been because I forgot to eat today. I have recently had two chicken sausages, a banana, a little toast and a croissant, and I am eating a peach. There are chicken legs in yellow curry sauce, largely because when I tried to use the knife to get the plastic off the red curry sauce, I lopped off the top and wore part of it. Done with the peach. Now drinking Green Mountain Red Raspberry.

4. Last call on two excellent Great Big Sea tickets for July 12 in Toronto before I put them up on a ticket site. Molson Center: Section 102, Row M, seats 9 and 10. $140 for the pair, which is less than I paid for them.

5. OK, then.

theresat and

l3arcelona -- and the Kona -- are two hours away! Yay!1. And the trip to Bhakail yields four more friends, including one from Nova Scotia.

6. If you are going to Northern Region War Camp, please say hello and grab my camera and take a picture of me.

Wedding - Hotel Rooms
If you are coming to our wedding and you haven't yet reserved a room, you need to do so today. (

citabria talks about that and a few other things here.)

( In case you've lost the information... )

Current Mood: anxious

Important Wedding Heads-up!!!!!
First: the hotel block closes today!!!!

They just sent me a list of who has reserved rooms, and some people who I'd have expected to reserve a room have not shown up on it. So, please, even if you're *thinking* of reserving a room for the wedding, DO IT NOW! You can always cancel, but you can't always get the low wedding block rate.

Second: We still have some unaccounted-for invitees. I haven't called everyone unaccounted for yet, but because of the hotel block issue time is of the essence. So: if you think we would have invited you to the wedding but didn't get an invitation, please do two things: make a hotel reservation (if you need one) just in case, and email me! There are some folks who are still unaccounted for but who I don't have email addresses and phone numbers for, so getting in touch with you might be a problem!

Thank you in advance.

Scientology Protest in Connecticut July 12th, 2008

$**SCIENTOLOGY PROTEST**$

City: NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT
Meet-up Location: ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE "CHURCH"
Meet-up Time: 11AM
Protest Location: 909 WHALLEY AVE. NEW HAVEN, CT
Protest Time: 11AM
URL with more information: CTANONYMOUS.ORG or http://forums.enturbulation.org/140-usa-east-coast/new-haven-ct-19073/
Notes: MAKE SURE TO BRING ALONG AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. MASKS [V for Vendetta masks, available on Amazon.com] ARE SUGGESTED FOR PRIVACY. REACH OUT TO AS MANY LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS, NEWS OUTLETS AND COMMUNITIES AS POSSIBLE TO GET THE WORD OUT. TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN SUCCESSFUL.

The church of Scientology [basically a money making scheme] has for some time now ruined lives, separated families and run many people into debt with their persistent mind games. This is not an attack on the people who have gotten sucked into their cult.. This is a protest against the so called churches ridiculous and cruel practices.

Warning: weird brain!
I clearly think that 'to meeting' should be a verb. But it is not clear if this is just because 'meetinging' is fun to say/type.

Also, I'm eating peanuts with a spoon. Because I'm hungry, and because I don't want to cover my fingers with peanut dust & honey, while trying to work. But spoon peanuts!

Finally, it makes me _much_ too happy to have been able to find homes for packing peanuts & bubblewrap last night, 'cause I hate throwing them away. Mmm. Freecycle.

EW's "New Classics" Movie Meme
For their 1000th issue last week, Entertainment Weekly put together a collection of big lists of "New Classics" (most impactful movies, tv shows, books, music, etc. from the last 25 years). As

new_man pointed out, BIG LISTS are blog game candy, so here is a game based on their top hundred new classic films. Go through their list and BOLD the ones you have seen and underline the ones you own on video or DVD. Make notes if you like and feel free to razz me about never having seen Movie X.

( My List )

Current Music: Antsy Pants - Vampire

Hearing the Declaration
As Nomi has already pointed out, tomorrow she and I plan to continue our tradition of going to the Old State House in Boston to hear the Declaration of Independence read from the balcony.

If anyone wishes to join us, let me know, either here or by email or phone.

[snfc] No Movie this Weekend
The Boston Sunday Night Film Club will be taking this weekend off in observance of Independence Day! See you next Sunday!

In response to the proposed US remake of Spaced (about which neither he, nor Jessica Hynes, nor Edgar Wright were consulted) Simon Pegg started playing with the idea of a short, viral Spaced one-off that would be distrubuted around the web. Since "McSpaced" has been canned by the network, Pegg decided there's no need for his one-off (sadness), so he released his draft of the script (happiness!). It's tres cute. =:)

Hey b0st0n, don't blow your thumbs off tomorrow...
Because we want you to go to THUDfest on Saturday!

It's basically all kinds of Industrial music and dancing and hot chicks in huge boots.

( To keep it simple, I'll put the details behind this here cut... )

Scanning slides
Can anyone recommend somewhere to get 35mm slides scanned to a digital format?

Thanks!

International Free Hugs and PIRATE HIGH TEA PARTY
This shall be a fun filled weekend!

International Free Hugs Day
Saturday, July 5th, 1pm - till whenever
Harvard Square
This day is set apart from any other Free Hugs day because it is one of the International Free Hugs days, meaning people will be giving Free Hugs all over the world on the same day!
We will meet at 1pm in front of the Harvard Square pit red line T-stop as usual, and hug in that general area. If you're late, just come find us. Bring signs!
Facebook event here

PIRATE HIGH TEA PARTY on the Swan Boats/in the Public Gardens
Sunday, July 6, 1:00pm - till whenever
Boston Public Gardens
Arlington Street
As promised to you by

boston_teaparty!

( Details here! )

Facebook event here

How Does My Garden Grow?
With exuberant slowness, that's how.

I glossed over the early parts of gardening in my journal here - we built raised beds, we put vegetables in, we waited. I wasn't expecting much; this was our first year in this house, with this yard, and working with the beds. I didn't know how well the technique would work, I didn't know for sure whether we'd get enough sun or water, I didn't know if the soil mix we used would really work, so I did my best not to get my hopes up.

But one by one, tiny seedlings poked their heads up and unfurled little green leaves, and the larger seedlings we bought survived the transplanting and started growing. And now, a month later, we have reached my least favorite part of gardening: hurry up and wait.

Early in the gardening season, there's so much to do. Building and digging and planting and watering and planning give me some way to be involved almost every day. And later in the season I'll be busy as can be trying to pick all the tomatoes and find ways to use them. Right now, though, there's not much to do but watch.

Things are growing, that's clear. The pole beans have outgrown the trellis, and are climbing up the porch fence now. There are tiny blossoms on them, and big clusters of flowers on the bush beans. I've counted almost a dozen green tomatoes between the four plants, ranging in size from marbles to golf balls. The leeks are still tiny, but striving; the eggplants have put out blossoms, and the yellow squash and zucchini both have finger-sized squash that will hopefully be big enough to pick and eat by next week. And last night, peeking between the leaves and vines, I saw the world's tiniest cucumber - barely bigger than my pinky nail - on one of the vines in the first bed.

And there's nothing I can do. I don't even need to water the garden, thanks to the rain we've been getting every day. Just check the plants every day, watch, and wait impatiently for the first fresh garden vegetables. A month from now I'll be living on stuffed tomatoes and cucumber salad and grilled zucchini, and a month or so after that I'll be begging friends and neighbors to take the excess. But right now, I'm having a hard time patiently looking forward....

Current Mood: impatient

Robert's Rules of Writing #72: Graph It
[Rule quoted from Robert's Rules of Writing: 101 Unconventional Lessons Every Writer Needs to Know by Robert Masello (Writer's Digest Books, 2005). See my original post for the rules of this discussion.]

It turns out that I'm very glad I waited this long to discuss Robert's Rule #72, simply because I now have a better understanding of grids and the geometry of a page.

With this rule, Masello discusses the look of prose on a page. He points out that if you are trying to read a long block of prose, such a paragraph that doesn't seem to come to an end, you're more likely to have trouble absorbing everything in the paragraph. (All right, he doesn't say that exactly, but it's what I infer from what he does say.) Masello suggests looking at your longer paragraphs and breaking them up into more digestible chunks.

I have to say, nowhere do I find this piece of advice more relevant or useful than for those of us who write prose intended for the Internet. Even though a long chunk of unbroken prose in a book might make me pause, I still find myself eventually able to get through it all. But that's usually because by the time I encounter that chunk of prose, I've already made a commitment to read the book and I'm already through quite a bit of it.

On the Internet, I find that I'm inundated with articles and blog posts, and that far too many of them include longish paragraphs that force me to evaluate how much I'm actually inclined (or able) to read the whole thing. I'm far more likely to read something if it's either short or broken up into smaller pieces. Not only is it less intimidating at first glance, but it usually implies that the writer has thought through the piece before composing it, and has done their best to make it easier to read.

Which brings me to the geometry of a page. Even though I've been reading my whole life (or at least since I was two), and I've been working in publishing for a while, I still had difficulty grasping how vital the look of a page is for the reading experience. Now that I've taken the course Publication Design and Print Production Strategies, I have a much better understanding of how to design a grid to make a page look welcoming. And, of course, the more welcoming the page, the more likely someone will choose to read the text contained therein.

I only wish I had had more time to do that here.

Copyright © Michael A. Burstein

The Willa's Hat Project
I don't know how many crafty people read my LiveJournal; craftworks are more

gnomi's department. But I wanted to alert people who are into craftwork of a good cause.

My friend

saxikath has started The Willa's Hats Projects, in honor of three-year-old Willa Fischer, who died of cancer on June 25. She was the daughter of a friend of

saxikath's mom, and

saxikath had originally considered giving Willa a hat last Christmas. (As happens with many cancer patients, the treatments caused Willa's hair to fall out.) But Willa already had been given lots of hats by her classmates in a show of support, so she didn't really need another hat.

And that's when

saxikath came up with the idea of donating hats to the hospital for all the other children who are being treated for cancer. And thus, the Willa's Hat Project was born.

So that's the story. If you feel like contributing to a good cause, make a hat, and send it to the address in the above link. Or contribute materials for others to use in making hats.

saxikath will send all the hats along to the Colorado Children's Hospital cancer unit, and with luck, your hats will bring smiles to the faces of children who are fighting for their lives.

(I'm very proud to know

saxikath.)

Red Sox Yankees game - July 26
Seems there is a charity that could win out here. Buy raffle tickets to win a ticket to the game. More details here.

DISCLAIMER: I am only connect to this in the fact that I saw it on "My Yahoo" news this a.m. I don't work for any charities but I do know the cost of a ticket to one of these games. Just thought I'd pass the info along for anyone interested.

Current Music: Destroyer - Mercy (We had the right)

Going to the Dogs! Of Course!
Many of us who grew up in New York City remember Leona Helmsley, the real estate magnate who appeared in advertisements for her hotel chain and was eventually found guilty of income tax evasion. The testimony from a former employee during her trial that she had once said, "Only the little people pay taxes" earned her the enmity of many New Yorkers. She also earned a nickname that referred to her alleged meanness.

When she died last year, it was reported that she left a large amount of her estate to her dog. Just yesterday, the New York Times reported that she also left her entire charitable trust, possibly $8 billion, to be used for the care and welfare of dogs (cf. Helmsley Left Dogs Billions in Her Will). This of course leads to the question of how best to use the money to help dogs.

I was amused to see in today's Times that reporter Ralph Blumenthal had decided to ask the ones most affected by this news to comment – the dogs themselves (cf. Legacy of $8 Billion? For Us? Dogs Take the News in Stride). He got some very good quotes, too:

“I’d have a lovely green field and a fountain and a big place for me to sit and watch,” Froggy said of Ms. Helmsley’s largess....

Also, “more no-kill shelters would be nice,” Billy told her owner, Laura Hughes, a casting director....

Johnny hadn’t read the Helmsley article in The New York Times — “He’s kind of a Daily News kind of dog,” Mr. Rand said.

But he said Johnny would know just what to do with the Helmsley billions.

“He’d keep about $500,000 for medical care and give away the rest,” Mr. Rand said. “He’s that kind of dog.”

Go read the article. You'll be particularly amused by Oliver, the dog who used to work for Hans Blix.

Open on July 4th?
Is it just me, or are more stores declaring that they're going to be open this Independence Day (U.S.) than ever before?

I seem to recall that almost all retail establishments have tended to be closed for the Fourth. In fact, Nomi and I made a special call to our local supermarket, Stop & Shop, to ask if they would be open on Friday so we could plan accordingly, and it turns out they will be.

And it's not just them. Our local Trader Joe's has a big sign up saying they will be open. The New England Comics chain, where I purchase my weekly comics, is going to be open and is having a sale on the Fourth. And I just passed the Borders in Copley Square, and they too have a sign saying they will be open on the Fourth.

It costs money to keep a store open on the Fourth. Even if your employees are salaried, to make them work on the Fourth usually involves paying some kind of overtime, doesn't it? So the only reason I can see for these stores to stay open on the Fourth is if sales are down so much this summer that they're desperately hoping to recoup their losses on a day when most Americans are free to go shopping.

I wonder if this is just another harbinger of the economy.

Just to welcome the new moderator...

jedi... this is for you!

Council Reminder: 7/6
Council this month is will occur on Monday, July 7that MIT Room 4-163 at 7:15 pm.

Please note that there is NO AUGUST COUNCIL due to Pennsic.

I am also seeking the opinion of the populace and officers as to whether we should hold Council on 9/1 (Labor Day) or on 9/8.

Eleanor

------
Please consult the MIT website for directions:
http://whereis.mit.edu/

Carolingian Great Council is the “business” meeting of the group. Officers of the Barony present information about goings on in the Barony. The general populace is welcome, and may make announcements or comments during the meeting as well (or just listen). Business of the Barony (expenditures, event planning, etc.) are often discussed at Council. Unofficial votes and commentary often serve to inform the Seneschale in making decisions. Official votes of the officers infrequently occur regarding decisions of high import, such as selection of a new Baron and Baroness or Seneschal(e). These occurrences shall be well publicized in advance.

Introductions, A Rant
I'm in the middle of the latest Hartwell&Cramer Years Best SF (13). It's not as depressing so far as 12 was, so maybe we're trending back up. Or maybe it's a statistical blip.

But that's not what I'm here to talk about this time. This time, I'm ranting not about the stories, but about the introductions to them. Every story is preceded by an editorial intro, almost always of the same form: a long paragraph of bio- and bibliographic information about the author, then a short paragraph describing the story. Sadly, the story description almost always contains serious spoilers for the story to follow. I have had to get into the habit of assiduously ignoring that page on the first read-through, only going back to it after I've finished reading. This is an annoying disruption to my reading flow.

I know there are people who *like* this kind of spoilage. Are they actually a majority? Why not make *them* flip forward to get their spoilers? They are already well used to doing so for novels.

I doubt that the authors like having this done to their stories. At best, it seriously colors the reader's experience. At worst, the summary is sometimes flat-out *wrong*.

It seems to me that these summaries often say far more about the editor than they do about the story in question. For example, I just read a story by Ken MacLeod, "Who's Afraid of Wolf 359?" (spoilers follow)( Read more... )

Sometimes, the Architect wins
Continuing on from the previous thought...

It really is rather strange, being a nearly one-man shop. In particular, being *both* the CEO/Product Manager and the Architect/programmer requires a strange sort of schizophrenia to do well, because of the enormous tensions between those roles. The Product Manager wants "now", and the Architect wants "good". And the CFO (also in there for the time being) insists on "cheap". As any decent programmer knows, you don't get all three, at least at any given moment. So there are these loud arguments playing out in my head pretty much every day, which mostly show up as lost sleep.

I've been tending to let the Product Manager win for the moment, on the grounds that I need to figure out exactly *what* I'm building here before I spend a lot of time making the code beautiful. (Indeed, both sides engaged in a detente last week, agreeing that I need to stop worrying so much about scalability for a while. If I can get people going, "y'know, this is pretty cool", *then* I need to pause and figure out the fine details of how to scale it up correctly. But first I've gotta get the ideas straight.) So the Architect has spent a bunch of time steaming over the fact that there's a good deal of code here that I wouldn't be willing to show as a coding sample.

That said, there are reasons for the code-then-refactor discipline, and I just hit one: getting this thing really talking to *both* Facebook and Jabber requires a lot of code cleanup. This morning, the Architect put his foot down and declared that it's time to take a couple of days out for a massive refactor; the CEO is sulking, but agreed that, if it's the only way to get the features he wants, he'll live.

After the first day of refactoring, it's quite suddenly looking like something I'm willing to have on my resume again. The enormous and ornate CreateConversation() method that had been living up at the API tier has been shoved down into the system core, and all the cruft has been broken out into properly-decoupled listeners, each in the right basket. Having gotten the structural changes done through that, I expect to be able to clean up the rest of it tomorrow; after that, getting the rest of the initial Jabber functionality in should be easy.

It's not final yet, of course -- it's all still in-process, so there are still big changes to come when we do scale it up and make it internally cross-process and API-based. But the Architect part of my brain is feeling happy for the first time in weeks, so the CEO can suck it up for a while in the interest of peace in the company...

alternative to Coinstar?
I have a big ol' change jar that's finally full, and it's time to deposit it. I don't, however, relish the thought of wrapping all that coinage by hand and buying the wraps, nor do I want to lose 8% or whatever to one of those CoinStar machines. Is there a bank around town that has free coin counting machines that you didn't have to have an account to use? Or somewhere else I could go?

edit: last night I ended up going to a coinstar machine and I clicked amazon gift card, but then the machine got jammed, and it gave us a cash voucher. grrr. oh well thanks for the suggestions - the change is gone now anyways, all $67 of it.

rain...
with all this rain, who is having a drought?