short story cheque!

The flight home from Marcon was (thankfully) uneventful, and my guitar survived yet another trip in the hands of Air Canada's baggage handlers.

When I got home, I found a contract and cheque for the DAW anthology short story I co-wrote with Michelle Sagara West. Woohoo, my first sf/fantasy fiction sale! The story will appear in Fairy Tails, published by DAW in 2004. My very first fiction sale was a short story called "The Harmonica Man" that I sold to a magazine called Hobnob. I was so thrilled with my payment of US$10 (which is like $1000 in Canadian funds, of course) that I kept the cheque instead of cashing it. :-) I've made sales since but that first one will always be my favourite.

Anyway, it was nice to find the cheque waiting for me in the mail instead of more bureaucratic hassles from the Canadian government, though I'm sure more of the latter still lurks in the wings. I went out to celebrate by having dim sum at King's Garden, my favourite Chinese restaurant in Toronto. I ordered hot and sour soup, shrimp dumplings, and sticky rice in lotus leaves. Yummmm.

Speaking of food, don't forget to fill out my food survey. You know you want to.





I'll be including Marcon highlights as Blatherphoto blurbs over the next while. Be warned that Marcon was mostly a social con for me; I didn't attend much of the programming. Jodi and I were more in the mood to just listen to others perform, or hang out and chat with friends. I think we only performed two songs in open filk during the weekend (Library Boy and I Am Stardust). Playing I Am Stardust was much more difficult than I thought; my hands started shaking as soon as we launched into it. I hope Lloyd forgives me, wherever he is.

If you're interested in a real Marcon report, I'm sure others will start popping up in rec.music.filk and other online venues.

Today is Lyanne Quirt's birthday...happy birthday, Lyanne!

And those of you in relationships, or those wanting to avoid the same, might want to check out Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About. (Thanks to Andrew for the link!)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	One of the vendors in the Marcon dealers' room on the last day of the convention using a direct marketing technique.
	Jodi, Andrea and Rand at the hotel coffee shop, displaying the purchases they had just made in the dealers' room. Jodi: a Spiderman comic. Andrea: a Talis Kimberley album (Archetype Cafe, I think). Rand: Carla Ulbrich's and Joe Giacoio's newest CD. My own purchase: paperback version of Neil Gaiman's American Gods.
	Daniel and Melissa Glasser.

clones

So I finally saw Attack of the Clones. My full review (which is not pretty) is after the next Blatherphoto. There are spoilers in it, so only read that far if you've already seen the movie.

Attack of the Clones

I went in with pretty low expectations, so probably didn't dislike this as much as other people. Didn't love it, either.

What bugged me most about the movie was the wooden acting of Natalie Portman and Hayden Christensen. Okay, I know the Star Wars series isn't famous for its fine acting. But at least the earlier movies (before The Phantom Menace, that is) had a certain level of emotional honesty; you couldn't help but care about the characters. Luke Skywalker was naive and bumbling, but you found yourself rooting for him anyway. Leia's and Han's characters each had a strong enough personality to convey a fairly convincing love-hate romantic relationship.

It probably didn't help that Portman and Christensen had such a wooden dialogue to work with.

"When we're together, I'm in pain," he tells her in what is supposed to be a romantic scene by the fireplace in her summer getaway. In the movie theatre, I felt like yelling, "YEAH, ME TOO!"

I am a sucker for true love and romance. In books (no, I'm not talking Harlequin), music, movies. I'll be captivated by the sappiest television commercial if it has a moment or two of believable romance. One of my favourite commercials starts off with a woman bending over to give a casual kiss to her husband or boyfriend as he sits at a table. She smiles, he smiles back. The kiss itself is in slow-motion, but the shot is done so well that I can't help but feel a little heart-skip and sigh at the moment their lips meet. I think the commercial was for ham steaks or something equally as inspirational.

You can all stop gagging now. My point is that I'm one of the easiest people for movie directors to emotionally manipulate. Attack of the Clones, however, left me apathetic about the characters. Or rather, irritated.

There was utterly no spark of chemistry between Portman and Christensen, and no explanation about why her character would fall so heavily for such a whiny, immature Jedi-wannabe. If either of them had show more emotional depth, it would have helped. In Spiderman, there was no clear explanation (in the movie, not the comic) why Peter Parker fell so heavily for MJ, but Tobey MaGuire did such a great job at conveying the whole "teenage yearning angst" that I found myself believing it anyway.

Christensen's character shows some faint glimmerings of pre-Darth Vader bad guy darkness, but he has such a long way to go that I can't imagine how the third movie is going to get his character to the point where you could believe he becomes Darth Vader. I think the only way they could pull it off would be if they found another actor. Does anyone know if this is the case for the third movie?

The special effects and the scenery were spectacular, of course. I felt like I was in a highly polished and live-action Myst game, with one breathtakingly impressive computer-generated scene following another. For me, however, believeable and sympathetic characters are the most important.

Stuff I did like:

- Jedi arena fighting.

- Natalie Portman's costumes. To keep myself interested in her character appearances, I was more curious about seeing what new outfit she was going to wear in the next scene. I had no idea that galactic Senators had such extensive wardrobes.

- Seeing Yoda with a light saber! Woohoo!! Jeff can attest (with some embarrassment, I'm sure) that I actually did yell "WOOHOO!" during that scene in the movie.

Would I see this movie again? Nope, especially not at current ticket prices. It cost $27 for two tickets (!). Jeff used the automated machine at the Paramount to buy our tickets. When the total came up on the screen and said "OK?" he paused so long in shock (thinking, "No, definitely NOT OK!") that his session expired and he had to swipe his card again.

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Today's Blatherpics:

...were taken by Jeff during our walk/run late yesterday afternoon. I wanted to run, and Jeff wanted to get some fresh air, so we decided to combine our efforts. He walked super-fast, and I ran more slowly than usual; I said earlier that I ran at about the same speed as Jeff's walking, but I was either mistaken or I've sped up a bit over the past couple of months.

horse radish

Jeff and I went to his mom's place out near Orangeville for dinner to celebrate JBR's birthday; the whole Ridpath clan was there except for Brittany, who was with her father yesterday. Pork chops and ribs with asparagus and roasted potatoes for dinner, apple pie and birthday ice cream cake for dessert, with slices of cheddar available for those who wanted it with their pie.

I had never come across the cheddar and apple pie combo until I hooked up with Jeff's family. Initially I thought it was pretty weird, but found it wasn't so bad. I still prefer my pie sans cheddar, however. :-) Anyone else out there have interesting food combination traditions?

On our last visit to the cottage, I had dinner with Jeff and his parents; Jeff had barbecued some steaks. He looked at me aghast when I offered him some horse radish. "HORSE RADISH? With STEAK?" he said, staring at me as if I had just asked if he'd be interested in renting Notting Hill.





It made me wonder how many other dining combo quirks I have which would probably horrify culinary purists. Not that I plan to change any of my quirks, but I'd be highly interested in hearing if anyone else shares any of these preferences. :-) Anyway, here's a list of some of mine:

-- I like ketchup with my Kraft dinner.

-- I mix wasabi with my soy sauce at sushi restaurants.

-- I like blue cheese and/or horse radish with steak.

-- I like maple syrup on pretty much anything (fruit, ice cream, etc.).

-- I like a raw egg and soy sauce mixed with freshly-cooked Japanese rice (or at least I did before the whole salmonella scare).

-- I like ketchup with my scrambled eggs. I purposely didn't list this right after my ketchup and Kraft dinner quirk to keep you from thinking I have a ketchup fixation.

-- I like butter and pepper in my mushroom soup. This is a habit I picked up in university, when Sue Wong and I would get our lunch or dinner from the food vending machines near Robarts Library. Sue used to buy the pre-heated mushroom soup and add a dollop of butter meant for rolls, add pepper. I thought that was gross until I tried it, then got hooked.

Hm. I could go on way too long on this topic (or face it, any food-related topic), so I'd better stop now.

Speaking of food, we never did get out to the Krispy Kreme outlet this past weekend. The quest continues. Here's a recent Toronto Star article about Krispy Kreme vs Timothy Hortons.





Not sure what I'm going to do today (I had forgotten it was the long weekend). Jeff has to work, but I think I'm going to take at least part of the day off to do something frivolous. Cathy and I are going to the ballet tonight to see the Erik Bruhn competition. Hey, and she taped the last X-Files episode for me, yay!!

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Today's Blatherpics:

	JBR blowing out the candles on his birthday cake last night with the assistance of grandchildren Garrison and Olivia.
	My sister-in-law, Debbie Ridpath.
	My sister-in-law Larkin and her fiancé, Rick.

private space

Bill Sutton has written a moving tribute to Bruce Pelz in his Another QuarterNote Heard From column as well as an excellent comment on filking in general, for those interested.

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Did a 4.3 mile run/walk this morning, out to Coronation Park and back. Lots more tourists out in the area despite the relatively early hour; it'll be interested to see how crowded my route gets when the weather warms up.

In case any of you didn't know, Jeff and I live right in the heart of Toronto's biggest tourist area. I can step out my front door and see the CN tower, Roy Thompson Hall (home of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra), the Skydome, and the Royal Alexandra theatre. Tourists are always stopping in front of our building and taking pictures. When the World Science Fiction Convention rolls into Toronto next fall, I suspect I'll be one of the closest residents (if not THE closest) to the main function space; the Metro Convention Centre is about a 3-minute walk away.

But before any of you get it in your heads to come crash at my place :-), be warned that Jeff and I don't tend to have a lot of houseguests during the year as a policy. Partly because we don't have a guest room, so a guest has to sleep on the pull-out couch in the middle of the living room (which means very little privacy space for the guest as well as Jeff and me).

But the main reason is because Jeff and I have had a somewhat stressful/hectic few years, and have become much more conscious about keeping free weekend time to spend together, and also just keeping time free. Even before then, we've never been the public "hey, anyone who's in the Toronto area should come visit! There's always crash space available" sort, which has probably caused hurt feelings in the past, I'm sure. We do have houseguests, of course, but they tend to be people that both of us know.

I'm also sensitive to the fact that Jeff is not a filker. He's met most of my closest filk friends and liked them all, but I'm also always aware that he would probably feel somewhat overwhelmed by a typical intense filk weekend. Likely the same way I'd feel somewhat overwhelmed by a typical intense computer techtalk weekend, I'm sure. :-)

I'd be interested in how many other filk-types out there whose partners/spouses AREN'T filkers (or similarly, when partners have strong interests and activities outside of couple activities). Personally, I think it's good for couples to not always be joined at the hip; as much as I love Jeff, I think both of us would go nuts if we felt we had to do everything together. Please post your comments in Blatherchat, thanks.





Still haven't seen the new Star Wars movie, but did see Spider-man again last night with Ruth. :-)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Spring flowers in the Music Garden.
	Coronation Park sign.
	Another sign in Coronation Park. "Individual trees in this park were planted in 1937 to commemorate each unit of the Canadian Expeditionary Force: 1914-1918. Also the Veterans of the Fenian Raids 1866, the Veterans of the Northwest Rebellion 1885, and the Veterans of the Boer War 1898-1902."

'cuz he's a guy

So I've been ordering groceries online on a regular basis now for several months. I still get some fresh produce from St. Lawrence Market and other local groceries, but I find it simplifies my life to be able to order core (and often heavy) items online for delivery.

The Grocery Gateway guys continue to be astonishingly friendly (and not bad-looking at all). And the guy who delivered my groceries this past week looked exactly the same as the Grocery Gateway Guy on all the GG trucks and the Web site. And he talked exactly as I imagined the GGG would talk as well. It was all I could do to restrain myself from offering him a homemade cookie and a cup of coffee; the only thing that prevented me was the fact that I didn't have any homemade cookies, and I suck at making coffee.

Pleasant/good customer service is so rare these days that when I do come across it, I am fascinated and curious. What is it about these Grocery Gateway delivery guys? Do they all have to take some kind of GGG course? Even the ex-drug addict Grocery Gateway guy was remarkably courteous and friendly.

I almost asked this week's GGG this very question, but decided not to because he might take it as an insult. I'm not sure how I'd react if someone asked me out of the blue, "So tell me, why are you so friendly all the time?"



Jeff and I went to Parki's last night. Jeff went to use Parki's basement workshop for a project, and I went to sit in Parki's living room chair (which, as I've mentioned before, is the most comfortable chair in the entire world) to read a book. I only got through two pages of Margaret Atwood's The Blind Assassin before I felt compelled to move to Parki's living room couch with a blanket and pillow, and then I fell asleep for a few hours.

Apparently I slept through Jeff and Parki sawing a hole in the kitchen ceiling, which explains the odd nature of my dreams during my nap.

Speaking of guys and guystuff, Urban Tapestry plans to perform "'Cuz He's A Guy" at Relay For Life (running event to raise funds for cancer research) on June 7th as part of our 45-minute set. We'd like to update the "guy" lyrics, and invite suggestions. We're going to change the Jays reference to a Leafs reference, for example.

If you're familiar with the song (or even if you're not), feel free to check out the lyrics and suggest new "guy" lines, which are the ones in parentheses. They'll be spoken, not sung, so exact scansion's not important; the phrase just has to be short enough to fit into that space of music. We can't guarantee we'll use all suggestions at the June 7th gig, but I'll be compiling all of them for future possible use whenever we perform the song.

Thanks in advance for your help!

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Today's Blatherpics:

	The Grocery Gateway guy.
	Jeff and Parki working in Parki's basement workshop.