people-watching

[Updated 4:38 pm] Received a nice e-mail about Inkspot today from Kimn Swenson Gollnick of The Write Place:




I never made the time to write to you when Inkspot was online, and I owe you an apology. I just discovered the horrible news that Inkspot is gone. I've been a long, long, long-time fan and subscriber to your e-newsletter, and I'm stunned. I†missed the final issue and just discovered it as I spent a few minutes going through my in-box.



Finding out Inkspot is gone is like saying the White House was shut down. Seriously. I never thought it would be gone, given the exceptional quality it offered to writers everywhere, at every level of skill. I'm sorry to see it go.



Interestingly enough, I've got a copy of your Online Markets book, and have enjoyed going through it looking for new markets. Congratulations on a well-organized book. You did a wonderful job.



I'll keep my eyes out for your byline, on the Internet and in the bookstores. May God bless you as you have been a blessing to so many others!



---

Today's entry is part of a collaboration project for On Display. This month's topic is "people-watching".


It is Saturday. Jeff and I are sitting on a cement wall separating Harbourfront Centre (or "Center", for you Americans) from the lake. We have spent the past hour wandering along the lakeshore, munching roasted corn on the cob and hot dogs, watching the sailboats out on the water. On the stage, a Latin band has launched into a perky salsa. The more enthusiastic members of the audience are up on their feet dancing, shuffling in small steps, trying not to bump each other.


Just a few feet away, a tourist sightseeing boat is anchored by the dock, festooned with balloons and well-dressed 30-40ish-looking party-goers. Jeff and I have decided to figure out what kind of party it is; it's our people-watching goal today. We like to do this sort of thing every once in a while, especially at restaurants. As I get back more into my fiction-writing, I find myself slipping into people-watching mode more and more often.


"People-watching" is a different sort of activity than merely "watching people". It requires greater concentration and analytical skills, plus a great deal of creativity (especially if your subjects aren't really doing anything interesting :-)).





Take the tourist boat, for example. A corporate party, perhaps? Too well-dressed for a casual get-together of friends but, hm, there's also a lot of hugging and air-kissing going on. One woman seems to be doing most of the hugging and kissing; she must be the guest of honour. But wait! People aren't giving their presents to her, they're putting them on a table on the boat. Maybe she's the party organizer.


A wedding, perhaps? No...presents are too small. And besides (big clue), there doesn't seem to be a groom. By now, Jeff and I are aware of the Latin band's perky salsa becoming an annoyingly loud and monotonous salsa. We are tempted to leave, but want to figure out the un-wedding party first. Besides, three young girls in skin-tight clothing are now dancing on the dock, showing hip-hop and Latin moves off to each other and appreciative passing boats. They are actually pretty good.


Aha...new development in the un-wedding party. A few people have come running up to the boat, and their arrival causes a flurry of excitement among those already present. Jeff theorizes it's a surprise party, and these are lookouts with news of the impending arrival of the guest of honour. I notice someone carrying a bunch of balloons with the number "30" on them.


A creepy-looking guy has wandered up to watch the dancing girls on the dock. They stop dancing, pick up their bags, and wander off to find another performance venue.





Finally, the birthday girl arrives. Accompanied by a man (husband?) and younger girl (sister?), she stops in shock as everyone on the boat waves at her, grinning and yelling. Someone hands her the bunch of balloons, and she is escorted onto the boat. More hugging and air-kissing. Yay, Jeff and I can finally leave! Good thing...the salsa band is REALLY starting to get on my nerves.


Updates/News:


Andrea's t-shirt captions are up at Zen Cappucino. To Clif, Paul, Chris, Dave, and Steve Simmons...I will have my revenge someday. :-)


New Waiting For Frodo strip online.


Today's Blatherpics:


- Statue of Glenn Gould that Jeff and I encountered on our walk. I resisted a terrible urge to sit on the bench and make moony-eyes at him.


- Line-up of rickshaws in front of Planet Hollywood on Front Street.


- Satisfying culmination of our people-watching session.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Amanda Snyder)

Do you like surprise parties?

wasaga beach

(Update 2:52 pm) I've booked my flight to Ohio for October, yay! I'll be spending a few days with Andrea and Tom and Nicholas before and after OVFF. For some cute pics of Nicholas, by the way, see this link. Still not sure if Jodi and Allison will be able to attend OVFF. :-( I've reconfigured Greymatter so that you can now add comments to individual strips in my comics, Waiting for Frodo and My Life In A Nutshell. And I've also added a Notify List for my Blatherings, since it's highly likely that my schedule is going to be more erratic for the rest of the year.


I'll be sprinkling pics from our Wasaga Beach trip through my Blatherings over the next while. For now, here are some of my personal highlights from the trip:


- Sleeping with Sara one night. Sara had an elaborate before-bed ritual involving the careful arrangement of approximately half a dozen stuffed animals, dolls, her Dad's t-shirt, and a strip of cloth, all around her sleeping space on the bed. After she falls asleep, her animals are all knocked everywhere, but that's okay (as long as you don't make the mistake of accidentally rolling over onto one of them, as Jeff did one night).


- Sleeping with Annie one night. Annie is very cuddly. Her only before-bed ritual seemed to be reaching out in the darkness and gently patting my cheek before falling asleep, as if to reassure herself that I was still there. During the night she shifts position in her sleep until her body is perpendicular to my own, with her head rammed up against my ribcage and me pushed to the very edge of my side of the bed. I gently move her back onto her side of the bed, but inevitably she is drawn back to the perpendicular sleeping position, as if by magnetic attraction.





- The car ride to Wasaga Beach with Sara (she asked if she could ride up with us; Annie and Ruth went in the other car). Sara taught me the Alligator Song. She was also highly vigilant about seatbelts. When Jeff started driving without fully buckling in yet, Sara immediately began yelling, "UNCLE JEFF! YOU STARTED DRIVING WITHOUT YOUR SEATBELT! YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ALWAYS PUT ON YOUR SEATBELT BEFORE YOU START THE CAR! MOMMY TOLD ME!!! PROMISE ME YOU'LL NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!!!" He promised. :-)


- Watching Sara and Annie on the beach, and in the water. There is nothing like the pure, unbridled joy of kids. They haven't yet learned to be cautious about enjoying life too much (just in case something goes wrong, you know).


- Being in the pool with Annie and having her ask suddenly, completely out of the blue, "Is this the real world?"





- Collecting shells and bones on the beach with Sara and Annie. Sara had come across several bleached bits of bone she called "dinosaur bones" (they looked like chicken and cow bones). Ordinarily, I would have walked across the sand without paying much attention to what was in it. Kneeling with my nieces, however, I was startled to discover thousands of tiny, perfectly-formed shells...some of the mussel-type, others conch-type with colourful whorls.


Other news...:


My friend Andrea was inspired by one of the watergun party photos so much she decided to hold a t-shirt caption contest" for a "Commando Debbie t-shirt". :-D She's still accepting captions for this photo.


I'm hooked on Riven! I blame my friend Josh.


I've revamped my Links and Projects page and cleaned up the navigation bar at the top of this page.


And finally, Jeff and I are spending the next few days (starting Wednesday) at Wasaga with Luisa and Reid, so I'll be offline during that time.


Today's Blatherpics:


- Sara beachcombing at Wasaga. (click on the photo to see a larger version)


- Jeff with Sara and Annie on the last morning.


- Jeff, Sara, and Annie on the beach.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Amanda Foubister)

Would you want an Olympics in your home town/city?

R.I.P. Inkspot :-(

Upon investigating a sharp increase in my spam recently, it turned out that my inkspot e-mail addresses appeared to be functioning again, or at least the redirects to ohi@electricpenguin.com were working. Curious about why someone at Xlibris had finally cleared the logfiles (once the hard drive filled up soon after Xlibris laid off all Inkspot staff, all Inkspot e-mail began bouncing), I went over to the Inkspot main page. Had they sold Inkspot to someone else?


To my surprise, I found that inkspot.com was now redirected to the main Xlibris site instead. All files had been deleted, including the farewells from Inkspot staff.


Inkspot is now truly offline for good. :-(


Even though I knew this would happen eventually, I still felt as if someone had just kicked me in the stomach. I suppose that as long as the site was still online, even though it was basically dead, I could delude myself into thinking that there was an infinitesmal chance that it might eventually be revived somehow, someday, even if I wasn't involved.


Ah well.


Forgive the downer Blathering today (feel free to refer to Parki's Anti-Blathering creation from yesterday instead :-), or check out my new Waiting For Frodo or My Life In A Nutshell strips). I'll be in a better mood tomorrow, I promise.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Were you ever an Inkspot user or on my Inklings subscriber list?

Anti-Blathering

Just came back from the Olympic Bid Announcement party. As you probably already know by now, Toronto lost. Even though this was the all-round prediction before the bid, I felt compelled to check out the party anyway, just for the people-watching opportunities. Plus I can never resist an opportunity to attend a gathering in which Torontonians are so openly united in cheering for something.





A ton of media were milling about, interviewing and filming, as well as being perched on various vantage points along Front Street. There were free pancakes, but I opted out of standing in the mega-line to wander around instead. Volunteers were handing out free flags, lemonade, Olympics bid fridge magnets. Bands and dance groups entertained the crowd, which was growing increasingly restless as the bid announcement time approached. Many in the crowd had gone out of their way to declare their support, painting their faces, draping Canadian flags around their shoulders, wearing Toronto Olympic bid t-shirts and caps. I wore my Solitudes cap and Waiting For Frodo t-shirt. Someone complimented me on my t-shirt. :-)





Everyone's hopes were raised, of course, when it was announced that the bid would go into a second round. Only to be dashed a short time later when it was announced that Beijing had won the bid. The crowd's spirit quickly deflated after that, though most seemed to want to wait around for a few minutes as if they were half-hoping that the IOC would change its mind. Ex-Mayor Crombie tried leading the crowd in another rendition of "Expect the World" as people started to drift away.


Up to recently, I was somewhat neutral about the Toronto Olympic bid. I just didn't want Beijing to get the Olympics because I have real problems with their handling (past and present) of human rights issues. Despite my earlier ho-hum attitude, however, I couldn't help but get excited along with the rest of the crowd, cheering and frantically waving my flag on cue. It was fun. :-)


But just imagine the party we would have had had Toronto won....





If you missed yesterday's late-posted Blathering, do check it out for updated photos of Lissa's and Phil's new baby. My Wasaga Beach trip report will be postponed until later this week.


Some friends of mine, Parki and Neil, recently complained about how consistently cheery and perky my Blatherings are. One even challenged me to write an Anti-Blathering entry, just to see if I could do it. I actually did consider this, but abandoned the attempt early on. Fact is, it's just not in me right now, especially not since I moved home from Philadelphia. I'm happier now than I have been in a long time (unemployed, but happy :-)).


One of these friends (Parki) decided to go ahead and create an Anti-Blathering anyway. I'm going to include the link here, but first be warned that if you're easily offended or if you don't know me that well (and will therefore not get the irony), you should probably not click on the link.


Here's the link.


I've been in contact with my lawyers, of course, and will file as many lawsuits as I can possibly squeeze in (and having very nearly filed another lawsuit in recent months, I am dying to exercise my newfound legalese knowledge) before Jeff and I leave on our hiking trip.


That is, as soon as my stomach stops hurting from laughing. ;-)

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Did you (or do you plan to) read the "Anti-Blathering" mentioned above despite the dire warnings?

REAL Alexander pics

Jeff and I just got back from our visit to Wasaga Beach with Ruth, Sara and Annie...report and pics tomorrow! I'll also be wandering down with my digital camera to Front Street (3 minute walk away) tomorrow morning to check out Toronto's 2008 Olympic Bid Announcement Street Party. Everyone I know in Toronto predicts that Beijing will get the Olympics in 2008. If they're right (and I suspect they are), the festivities will be winding down VERY fast...but hey, they're offering free pancakes. :-)









Many thanks to Phil for sending me these photos of Alexander so I can replace the rather feeble ones from the last Blathering.









For those interested in discussing babystuff and parentingstuff, by the way, I have set up a Babytalk discussion forum for those interested. I know some of you are already members of private lists, but this forum is open to anyone who may be interested. Even though I'm not a parent and have no interest in becoming a parent, I do confess that I actually am interested in what's going on in babyland (I know there are quite a few new parents out there).

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Have you ever been in the labour room watching a baby being born? (yes, giving birth to one does count)