44,000 subscribers

Hey, Inklings now has over 44,000 subscribers, woohoo! Thanks to those of you who have been taking my flyers to sf and writers' conventions. If you're willing to take at least 50 flyers to an upcoming convention or literary event, please let me know, thanks! I'll need at least a month's warning. Um, in case any of you don't know what I do for a living...I maintain a website called Inkspot which is a resource for writers. I also publish a free electronic newsletter called Inklings, an offshoot publication of Inkspot. I get my income from advertising, and also have several other income-generating Inkspot-related plans in the works for next year. I have about ten part-time employees with whom I keep in contact via email, ICQ, and MOOs; they live all over the place, including South Africa, the UK, Canada, and the U.S. I've only met one of them (Chris Donner, a friend of Rand's, one of my assistant editors). Looks like I might be meeting another one early next year, when Fox (my other assistant editor, met him through Talis Kimberley) comes to visit.

Totally other topic...BUREAUCRACY and paperwork. Yuk. I've been trying to get info on how to apply for an online merchant VISA account for a while now...it's been SO FRUSTRATING trying to get solid information, argh. I abandoned my online attempts because very few Canadian banks have that info online. And I spent about two hours on the phone and in various lines at banks trying to get hold of the right people and applications. Came up empty-handed (I finally abandoned my attempts out of frustration and time constraints). AAAUUUGGGGGHHHH.

The bright side of today is that Jeff is coming home from his business trip in Vancouver (I haven't seen the guy in four days).

poetry journal interview

Augh! Only 24 days 'til Christmas!

Talked to my dad yesterday. He's finished all his Christmas shopping and is nearly done his Christmas cards. I haven't done either, argh. I can't believe it's already December! Where did all the time go?

Check out my Amateur Poetry Journal interview.

Officemusic: Great Ladies of Jazz.

furbee

o what's the deal about this Furbee craze? I only know about it from Allison, who says it's all the rage with kids these days. I don't watch much television, which is probably why I'm one of the only people on the continent that was ignorant of this year's toy fad.

Jeff and I visited with our neighbour down the hall last night, and he had one. I wasn't too impressed at first...I found it pretty ugly, to tell you the truth. And it's recorded little voice was annoying. But I did find it fascinating how it reacted to certain stimuli, saying something from its seat in the corner without any provocation, and how it finally fell asleep after a while. Fortunately they are too expensive and unavailable right now for me to even consider. And Sara is a bit too young to want one yet; I'm sure Sara will latch onto next year's fad. :)

Officemusic: Dr. Demento's 20th Anniversary Collection.

starting point award

Conducted an interesting experiment this past week. Heard about Starting Point's "Hot Site" award and decided to go after it to see if I could do it. Scooped the HTML to beg users to vote for me, posted it on my main page. After a few days, got word from Starting Point that Inkspot will be featured as a "Hot Site" for tomorrow (either I have a huge loyal user base, or it's not a very popular award :-)). The wording of the letter made it clear, tho, that I'm expected to promote Starting Point in return:

Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 14:44:19 -0600

From: Starting Point (webmaster@stpt.com)

Subject: *** CONGRATULATIONS FROM Starting Point ***



Congratulations! http://www.inkspot.com has been voted by
Starting Point users to be a "Hot Site". Your site is scheduled
to be featured on 12/4/98 as a Starting Point refer "Hot Site" (
http://www.stpt.com/cgi-bin/refer/refer.cgi ).



After you submitted your site to us, our users viewed your site
and voted for you in our New section. The votes have been
tallied and you are now a Starting Point "Hot Site"!


We ask that you display your Starting Point "Hot Site" badge on
your site and in your own promotional materials. Badge
downloading and linking instructions are available at
http://www.stpt.com/awards/hotsite.html. Please email me at
awards@stpt.com to let me know that you picked up your award.



Previous "Hot Site" winners credit Starting Point as one of their
main sources of increased traffic. So again, congratulations!-and
thank you for submitting to Starting Point.




Good Luck,


Starting Point - Webmaster


Starting Point, L.L.C.

Everything You Need To Work The Web. Everyday.


Went out with Allison and Jodi last night. Dinner at the Pickle Barrel as usual, then back to Allison's. Watched the Star Wars trailer (kindly sent to us by A Friend)...very very cool! I can't wait until this movie comes out. Have to say, too, that Ewan McGregor (sp?) looks darned cute. This movie had better be good, judging from the fever pitch of anticipation already in the air five months before its release!

I've been looking for an easy-to-access chat environment for my business meetings. ICQ is too unreliable, MOOkti is fun but difficult for some people to get used to. So I'm trying out the same environment that Jodi uses for her Muse's Muse songwriting chats. I've set up one of the "free" chatrooms for my own test use
and would appreciate it if some of you could help me test it out if you have the chance. If you have a java-enabled browser, check out:

Debbie's Test Chatroom

Please send feedback (positive and negative) to wow@inkspot.com. Thanks!

Had to cancel this afternoon's babysitting :-(...way too much work.

Going to hear the Rheostatics tonight with David at some clubby place on Queen Street.

Officemusic: Adrian Belew, DESIRE OF THE RHINO KING.

rheostatics

Went to see the Rheostatics at the Reverb with David on Thursday night.
We met on the corner of Queen and McCaul. I was there first, and was a bit creeped out by a couple of overly-friendly men passing by. After one asked me if I wanted to go somewhere for a beer (!), I decided to wait inside the corner magazine store instead and let David find me. We had dinner at a place called Chicago's, then window-shopped along Queen St. W. until we were allowed into Reverb. The warm-up band didn't start playing until 10:30 pm, and was called Ratwurst, two guys with big hair and dark glasses and thick Cockney accents. David said it was a bad sign when a band had to hang up a banner with their group name on it.

Their songs were all 3-note melodies and insipid lyrics. They were so incredibly bad that they were good. :-) Partway through their set, it was obvious that Ratwurst was a goofy Spinal Tap type of band. I bought one of their CDs ($6) and got it autographed. :-)
Anyway, the Rheostatics were pretty good, tho David said they were better last time. I had never seen the Rheostatics live before...cute guys, some great songs. I started to fade around 1:30 a.m., tho, so David & I left.

Went to Jeff's company Christmas party last night. It was at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) in a special reception area, and the theme was swing music. They had even hired professional swing dancers to give lessons on the dance floor, though it was a bit intimidating (but fun) to watch them. Swing's all the rage now, isn't it? Interesting how the past comes back to haunt us from time to time, almost as if we've run out of original ideas and have to dig up old ones. I've noticed that trend in the movies as well, all the remakes of old versions as well as turning old TV favourites into movies.

So how many of you are planning to see STAR TREK: THE INSURRECTION on opening day this Friday? Jeff and I (and some other friends of ours) have made it a ritual to try to see Star Trek/Star Wars movies on opening day. We're all taking time off work on Friday to stand in line for hours, something we usually hate doing.