gummi rats and chocolate

News/Updates/Links (12:44 pm EST) Hey, TheOneRing.net has asked if they can include my Waiting For Frodo cartoon as a feature in their monthly humour update. I said yes, of course. :-) Augh! They're thinking of turning 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' into a cartoon. (Salon) Hank Ketcham, creator of 'Dennis the Menace', died on Friday. Tad Williams has launched his Shadowmarch project. Tale of the Radioactive Boy Scout: a 15-year-old boy builds a nuclear reactor in his mother's toolshed.

Guest Blatherer: Andrea Dale


Once again, I am blathering from Debbie Ridpath Ohi's residence in downtown Toronto *wink*.


Yesterday Debbie and I met up with Allison and Jodi for the day. We ate lunch at the SF cafe, enjoying hot dogs, hamburgers and "wraps" (that's the healthy food). I felt like I was in "Ookla The Mok Land," surrounded by large action figures, movie screens and junk food .. .


In the cafe store ("A very dangerous place," I assure you) I found a new edition of Marion Zimmer Bradley's "Sword & Sorceress" short story collection and instantly had to have it. Jodi bought a hardcover book with a simulated claw mark scratched through the cover, with a vampire type face shining through (No I don't know what it was, but it certainly looked interesting . . .


We laughed, teased and cracked up our way through lunch and then left for Allison's. At Allison's I played a few of my new songs for them, continued to talk and also enjoyed some of the treats I had brought from Cincinnati. (I am sure that Debbie, Tasty Food Editor Extrodinaire will cover this later).


Of course, we were not full yet, so after a while we trundled off for dinner (do you see a trend here?) and found a really yummy Chinese restaurant where we mowed our way, uh ate, through dinner. Next to our table was a family eating dinner, with an adorable little girl in a pink outfit who constantly turned around and shared grins with us as we ate . . . She blew us kisses when she left (wearing a red jacket with a penguin on it.)





We headed back to the subway station, were Debbie and I parted ways with Allison and Jodi *sad sigh* *big hugs exchanged.* Debbie and I headed back home.


Later that night, after Debbie went to bed, I snuck onto her LOTR messsage board and assured her dedicated readership that I felt absoutely NO GUILT for holding up her Tolkien reading for the weekend. :-) Then I enjoyed about an hour of reading, and passed out for the night.


Today, I am trying convince Debbie & Jeff that they need to move to Cincinnati.


Today's Blatherpics:


- Allison admiring the food gifts from Andrea, especially a Shrek "gummy swamp rat" (or something similar). Andrea just pointed out that this was to be admired, not eaten!


- Andrea, Allison and Jodi at the SF cafe in Richmond Hill.


- Allison's cat Nova. I thought she looked kinda cute in this picture, but I have been informed by Allison that Nova actually looks very ticked off in this photo (ticked off at me, that is, for taking the photo).

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Sherman Dorn)

Do you read a daily newspaper (either paper or on-line)?

andrea visit

News/Updates/Links (10:03 am EST) (Tom Smith Online) Quake movie ceases production. (Salon) FBI ceases investigations of Kaycee hoax. (Canoe.ca) The 'Lord of the Rings' movie has its opening reworked. (CNN.com) Maori groups are claiming that Lego is infringing on their intellectual property rights. JOURNALS: Josh makes burritos.

I was taken aback yesterday when I checked out the Lord of the Rings feedback boards yesterday to find *66* posts in reply to my last chapter report. Snooping around, I discovered that TheOneRing.net has mentioned me again:



"Timekillers 4 5/31/01, 10:05 pm EST - Tehanu More things to enjoy while waiting for the movies to come out. These are both funny: Debbie's Waiting for Frodo comicstrip which accompanies her Blatherings webjournal. I thought I'd mention it again because so many people are enjoying her trip through reading LOTR for the FIRST time."



Many thanks to the folks at TheOneRing.net!


I find it highly amusing that the traffic on my LOTR site is higher now that I'm taking a short break during Andrea's visit. Also find it pretty cool...I love it when an online community reaches a point where it's pretty much self-sustaining. In some ways, the Tolkien fan community is very similar to the Inkspot community. Hope I get to meet some of them in person someday. :-)


Sent in my brief review/blurb of Moira's book about queries and proposals yesterday (which I *highly recommend*, by the way). So this means that, as of today,




I am officially on my sabbatical, woohoo!




I hereby declare that I am not taking on any new work-related projects until the fall (where "work" is defined as any project with a deadline or that's not completely frivolous/fun). If you notice me breaking this vow, feel free to yell at me. I mean it.


I'm having great fun with my Waiting for Frodo comic, and getting lots of suggestions from users about what could happen in the movie line-up.


After forcing Andrea to do a Guest Blathering yesterday, we went to Fune for dinner. Briefly considered going to a movie but ended up just chatting instead, and playing some music. Jeff hung out with us for a bit, then retreated to his home office to do play network Quake (his favourite Friday night activity these days). I'm trying to convince Andrea and Tom to move to Toronto.


Going to hang out with Allison and Jodi this afternoon. :-) Andrea will be posting tomorrow, I think.


Today's Blatherpic:

Andrea, last night. She played her cover of "Homecoming" for me. LOVED her version. :-)

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Andrea)

Have you ever lied about your age?

startup.com

News/Updates/Links (5:59 pm EST) Andrea just got here! :-) See her Guest Blathering below. Jodi is looking for a job. "Does your company need the sort of skills involved in the creation and promotion of a site like The Muse's Muse? If you're looking for a Marketing professional with a special emphasis on the web and six + years experience in that respect, I'm looking for you. And it doesn't matter where you're located around the world. The web is a wonderful thing." If you're interested, please contact her. Waiting For Frodo updated. (Globetechnology.com) Chapters and Indigo plan to combine their bookstore Web sites. Humour: (The Onion) "Dot-commers to receive unemployment benefits in form of stock options". Journals: Paul has a conversation with his 11-week-year-old son. Kate talks kitsch. Luisa loses words.

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Guest Blathering From Andrea

Oh my God, Debbie's office has a window!! (I guess it was hidden behind all of her "stuff" the last time I visited.)


As you may have guessed, I am now sitting in Debbie's revamped office, which is STILL incredibly organized (well, except for all of the books piled up sideways on the top of her bookshelves . . . )


I've been here for a total of five minutes, and Debbie has already asked, uh begged me, to do a "Blathering" :-) We've already planned out part of the weekend, with Debbie and I going out to dinner tonight, and tomorrow I'll spend the day with Debbie, Allison and Jodi, eating, talking, playing music and just messing around . . . Fun!!


I left my husband (Tom) and our four month old son, Nicholas sitting in the living room playing together. This weekend Tom and Nicholas can "Bond" *grin* Hopefully Nicholas doesn't wake Tom up for more than two feedings a night.


I'll sign-off for now . . . I want to go play Gwyneth Paltrow!

---

Did the usual Pickle Barrel/mall thing with Allison and Jodi last night; our evenings are tending to end a bit earlier these days.


When I got home, I called Jeff to find out what he was up to. On impulse, I decided to join Jeff and Scott M. for a visit to Sam's/HMV, and then to see Startup.com, where Parki joined us.


LOVED this documentary. I suspect only techies and those with direct experience with the dot-com craze will really appreciate this flick, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I was astounded at how much the documentary paralleled my own experience with a dot-com startup. Some of the dialogue could have been lifted directly from conversations and company meetings I had attended in Philly.

Liked one of the user comments posted on IMDB about the movie, and agree completely:



For all those people who think everyone involved in the internet revolution became an instant millionaire, see this movie and understand the reality of 98% of the internet companies that were started, and eventually, failed.



After the movie, we went to Fran's for shakes and hot chocolate (I had the hot chocolate :)). Somehow the conversation moved from discussion of the movie to an interesting conversation about rude slang terms. I think the topic came up when one of them used a particular phrase, and I asked him what it meant. They all looked at me as if I had just told them I was pregnant. They couldn't believe I had never heard of this slang term, claimed that it was commonly used. Commonly used where? I asked. Was there some guy manual about this sort of thing? No, they said that most women knew of the term, even if they didn't use it themselves.


I'm going to quiz some of my female friends to see if this is true.


Today's Blatherpics:


- Andrea while she was typing her Guest Blathering a few minutes ago.


- Took this photo when Jeff and I visited Chapters the other day because we both thought the concept was hilarious. It takes 24 one-hour lessons to learn how to use ICQ?! I'd say 15 minutes is more accurate. Out of curiosity, I checked Amazon to see what else people could learn in 24 hours. Some of the more amusing/scary titles include: "Sams Teach Yourself the Internet in 24 Hours", "Alpha Teach Yourself Management Skills in 24 Hours", "Macmillan Teach Yourself Latin in 24 Hours", "Macmillan Teach Yourself Investing in 24 Hours", "Sams Teach Yourself COBOL in 24 Hours".

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Chris Conway)

Will you answer no in the following poll?

my visit to the dentist

News/Updates/Links (10:03 am EST) - (Wired) Jedi an official religion in New Zealand? - (Dandelion Report) Filk Forte update from Allison: What songs have moved you emotionally and why?

Some of my friends have asked what my typical day is, now that I'm on sabbatical. I haven't really had a typical day at home yet, so I can't really answer that. We spent three weeks at the cottage, and right now I'm purging and reorganizing my home office. Going to the gym pretty much every day. Trying to spend more time outdoors. Doing more reading. Last night, Jeff and I decided to do something radical and just READ (no computers, no television, no movies). I'm reading Lord of the Rings and The Subtle Knife (by Philip Pullman).





I had a dentist's appointment yesterday. I used to hate going to the dentist. My childhood dentist was a large man with big hands and a gruff voice. He didn't use anaesthetic during fillings, and would quietly say, "shut up" if I started whimpering during treatment. He was supposedly very competent, however, and well-known in his field.





I love my current dentist; she's great! Although I still can't honestly say that I get excited about going to my dental appointments, I don't dread them anymore. Sometimes I even doze off during the treatment. They treat children as well as adults, and this is reflected in the decor...a giant toothbrush in the corner, cartoon stickers, toys in the waiting room, etc.





You have to feel sorry for dentists, in a way. Like lawyers, they have to endure a society-induced stigma even though their basic job is to help people. It must be somewhat worse for children's dentists; imagine having to treat a child who is genuinely scared of you, and knowing that you will have to cause them pain (even if it is for their own good). I don't know if I'd have the emotional stamina; I'm too much of a wimp. Good thing I'm not a dentist...my patients would all be reeling about in agony, their teeth falling out and plaque build-up so bad that they'd have to eat all their meals through a straw.


But enough about plaque.





Anyway, did I mention how much I'm looking forward to Andrea's visit? She arrives tomorrow, woohoo! :-) I'm hoping she'll be willing to do a Guest Blathering or two while she's here.




Today's Blatherpics:

These photos were taken yesterday when I went for my dental appointment. The staff were highly amused. :-)

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll:

Do you floss regularly?

intriguing mementoes

Woohoo, slept in until 6:30 this morning!


Update on my Lord of the Rings attempt: Hey, I've actually finished The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers! And I'm really enjoying it. I've also started a comic strip called Waiting For Frodo about a guy waiting in line for the Lord of the Rings movie in December. The comic strip will only run until December, obviously. :-)


The entire strip will take place in line, but I think it'll be fun figuring out stuff that can happen to him. If any of you have suggestions (even non-Tolkien people can contribute, though no killing off of the main character allowed! :-)), feel free to post them on the message board or e-mail me privately. Anyone who contributes will be listed in the credits.


Continuing to purge, and am coming across something interesting stuff (Jeff would call it junk, but I think I'd rather call it "intriguing mementoes of the past" :-)). The photo at the top of the page is an example. I used this template in one of my early summer jobs during school. "CIF 4649" was the project code, I believe, and I was teaching myself Fortran during slack hours as a computer operator at the Ministry of Labour about 20 years ago. That was my first office job, where I printed out elevator certificates (the ones saying that the elevator has passed certain guidelines).









The picture above is of my office as it is now. Wow, empty shelves!! The neatness is deceptive, however, since most of my office stuff is still lying all over the living room. I like the extra space, and being able to look out my office window. Too bad I can't just leave my junk out in the living room. >:-) I'll take another photo in a few days for comparison, once I've managed to get everything back in. The photo below is of my junk piled on our piano. There is also junk on and beneath the dining room table, just outside my office on the floor, on the coffee table, piled up in front of our television stand. Jeff has been very patient throughout.









I actually have managed to throw out a lot of stuff during this process. Papers, books (whimper of pain), old cassette tapes. Managed to compress three full boxes of tapes to less than one. Came across some gems which I refuse to throw out, like the first tape Allison ever gave me (she was Allison Drury back then) with recordings of the early filk songs she had written. Recordings of stuff we did when we were a foursome instead of a trio, and called "Northern Retreat" instead of "Urban Tapestry". I have resisted the urge to listen to these so far...I'll save them until after I've finished purging my office. I also came across a bunch of old filk tapes that I will likely donate to Interfilk.


You would be amused to compare Jeff's home office to mine. Jeff's is always clean, spare, with everything at right angles. The books are all lined up with straight spines. Most of the furniture is black.


My office is chaos in comparison, books and papers piled crookedly, a Patrick Stewart literacy poster taped on my door. Most of my furniture is white. I don't like bare walls, however, and I've done my best (too successfully, I think :)) in leaving as little bare wall space showing as possible, squeezing in as much colour as I can.


Jeff's office is a fair bit bigger than mine. He once offered to trade, but I said no. With the glass doors separating the office from the living room, I would have to keep my office tidy and organized since it would be in public view all the time. Ugh, no way. I've always preferred an office where I have the option of closing the door and shutting out the rest of the world if I want to. Decor and window view aren't nearly as important as the ability to have my own quiet space.


It's one of the requirements I asked for (but naively didn't insist on getting written into the deal docs) when I agreed to work in an office in Philly. It was a major culture shock to find myself plunked in the middle of a cubicle environment instead.









Every so often, I do miss the office I had on Mowat Avenue (Doug still uses it for his own business). But I'm enjoying the luxury of being able to work in my grubbies again, and being able to play my harp whenever I want. :-)


Today's Blatherpics:


- Data processing flowchart template (how many of you have ever used one of these?).


- My office right now.


- The piano right now.


- My cubicle at Xlibris.

Feel free to suggest a daily poll question.


Today's Poll: (Courtesy Amanda Snyder)

Are you a neat freak?