captions and Rand's new blog

Hey everyone, my friend Rand has a blog! If you're on LJ: JohnO's created an LJ feed already at rand_otm_feed. Holy toledo, John, that was fast!

Saw Hero again yesterday, this time with Parki. Liked it more the second time. I'm in love with Ziyi Zhang, though Daoming Chen is growing on me. I think I have to go see it for a third time to make sure.



Chris Conway and Jodi. Caption suggestions below!


Yesterday I asked people to suggest captions for the photo above. Here they are:

"God, she's gorgeous! Hope she doesn't ask about the jacket." (Tom Smith)

"Like I'm gonna let you kiss me....." (Amanda Snyder)

"This is what all the Cool British men are wearing now." (Tom Jeffers)

"Have you seen my trousers?" (Scott Snyder)

"Ok, what's funny? - have I got something on my face or something?" (Chris Conway)

"Yes Jodi, you have wonderful knees, now put your trousers back on and let's carry on with the journey..." (Chris Conway)

"Haha - fooled you with my cloak of invisibility!!" (Chris Conway)

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hero, pegasus awards

Chris Conway and Jodi. Any suggestions for a caption?


Went to see Hero yesterday with Mark Thompson and Jeff and found it visually breathtaking, with stunning landscapes and rich colours. I will likely see it again just for the visual feast. However, I have to admit that for me, the movie didn't have as much emotional resonance as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In Crouching Tiger, I cried for the characters. In Hero, I pitied them but found myself more fascinated by how their costumes blended gorgeously with their surroundings, their postures, the cinematography.

I was surprised and honoured to be informed recently that I've been nominated as Best Writer/Composer in the Pegasus Awards, one of the awards given out in the filking community. Urban Tapestry has also been nominated as Best Performer (and Jodi's "The Lady" has been nominated in the Best Song category!). I feel especially honoured when I look at the other nominated performers/songwriters in these categories.

I was hesitant about mentioning this in my Blatherings (reason to be discussed below), but wanted to acknowledge the honour as well as the hard work by Steve Macdonald, who has devoted an incredible amount of time and effort into supporting and promoting the Pegasus Awards. One recent change, for example, is the fact that people can now actually listen to MP3 excerpts and usually read the lyrics for ALL songs being nominated, not only helping to make the voting process more fair but also helping to share the music of these individuals with those who may have not heard of them, and promoting filk in general. Bravo, Steve!

Reason I was hesitant about mentioning my nomination on Blatherings: I'm worried that some loyal Blatherings readers or especially non-filk friends may think it a Good Thing to rush over to the online ballot and vote for me (and/or Urban Tapestry). PLEASE DON'T. Do read the rules, especially the rule that you -must- be a member of the filk community to nominate or vote.

Even if you can't or don't want to vote, however, I do still encourage you to go over to the 2004 Pegasus Awards nominee page and listen to some of the nominated songs and performers in the filk community in the current as well as past years of the Pegasus Awards. You'll find a wide variety of musical styles and a good sampling of filk music, new and "classic". Links are provided to all titles and performers, in case you'd like to hear an MP3 sample or find out more about a particular filker (thanks, Steve!).

And if you like what you hear, consider coming out to a filk gathering yourself. :-)

Related links:

Where can I find filk conventions?

Housefilk resource maintained by Andrea Dale.

The Dandelion Report: a filking resource I maintain, includes answers to questions like "What is filk?"

Pegasus Awards FAQ

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shadowtalk

Saw the doctor about the shadow in my periphery vision this afternoon, and it looks like it's going to be permanent. He says it's probably the result of my subclinical detached retina, which I was surprised to discover is still present...just sealed around the edges with a laser to keep it from spreading. He's not sure why I didn't see the shadow before.

As long as the blind spot doesn't spread, I'm sure I'll eventually tune it out; it's barely noticeable under most conditions. I asked the doctor about any special post-operative care, or anything I can do in the future to minimize the chances of making things worse. He told me not to get hit in the head. :-)

He also told me I was pretty lucky to have had this condition caught and treated so early. I agreed.

I also felt lucky about having the advantage of today's technology. From Scott Snyder's posting in Blatherchat: "Many years ago (20?) my Mother had detached retinas in both eyes. It was a much more difficult operation then... while they still used a laser, it took longer than an hour, and they still had to use some traditional surgery methods along with the laser part. Technology has come a LONG way. My mom recently went in to have her retinas patched up - apparently after 20 years you need a tune up - and said she was amazed at how simple the procedure had become."

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Ein Fall fur Barbie und Susan

Well, ugh. I left a message for the eye doctor guy about a slight shadow I've been noticing now in my periphery since the surgery, and he wants me to come back to the hospital tomorrow so he can have a look. More poking and prodding, oh joy. Eye's still pretty sore. Yesterday I found it difficult to read or even to watch tv by the evening, so I ended up lying in the dark listening to an audio novel from Audible.com.

Had lunch downtown with Allison today, which was fun (lots of catching up), and then we went browsing at Chapters. I bought Orson Scott Card's Shadow Puppets. My favourite OSC book is still Ender's Game, which I reread at least once a year.

Today's picture is one of my purchases at Rust Belt Books in Buffalo. Translation: "A Case For Barbie and Susan". Carolyn Keene is the pen name for the author of the Nancy Drew series. I wonder if Barbie's hair described "titian" like Nancy's, assuming she's the girl on the right? I do so hope that Ms. Keene didn't choose to name her blonde character Barbie.

I also now have a wonderful Rainer Maria Rilke collection of poetry (thank you, Rand!) in which each poem is presented in both German AND English, translations by Robert Bly. Not only will I have fun studying the German, but it will be interesting to see how Bly translates it into English.

I'm trying to learn the German verb dative case right now, and I think my brain is going to explode.

I wonder if laser surgery can fix that as well.

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laser surgery report

Took the photo above a few minutes ago. Apparently a man is holding a woman hostage in front of Union Station, Toronto's main train station, a few blocks from our place (we've been hearing a lot of sirens in the past half hour). What's most eerie about the scene is that normally this area is packed with people hurrying to work. I hope it all works out with no one getting hurt. :-(

(Added later in the morning: Here's the Toronto Star coverage of the event.)