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Debbie Ridpath Ohi reads, writes and illustrates for young people.

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Every once in a while, Debbie shares new art, writing and resources; subscribe below. Browse the archives here.

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Entries in Life (75)

Tuesday
Oct252005

Feeding my nerdy soul in Vulcan, AB

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The pics on today's Blatherings were taken in Vulcan, Alberta. I enjoyed visiting this small agricultural community way more than I expected. The town certainly realized the marketing/tourist potential of its name, but I had been afraid of this manifesting itself in an overly slick Hollywood style.

As you can tell from the photos below, I needn't have worried. :-)

I did my part in contributing to the economy of Vulcan by buying the most wonderfully tacky piece of Star Trek merchandise I've ever seen, in the Vulcan tourist information shop. I plan to donate it to an Interfilk auction (Jeff will kill me if I keep it at home); I'll post details and a lurid photo in a future Blathering.

Many thanks to Cathy for indulging my geekgirl yearnings. I've very much enjoyed my visit, though it's going to be hard to say good-bye. I miss Cathy; it's hard not having her in Toronto anymore. But I also have huge admiration for her courage, deciding to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity despite the fact that it meant moving away from friends and family. One of the things I love about Cathy is that she likes to challenge herself, to purposefully step beyond her comfort zone.

Anyway, you can see more photos from Vulcan and the rest of my trip in my Flickr photoset; I'll upload other photos when I get back home.

Thanks to those who have been responding to my plea for guitar advice (on behalf of a cadet at West Point) in LJ. I'll be adding this info to the Dandelion FilkFAQ.

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Monday
Oct242005

Elk, Pride & Prejudice, and more mountains

Big-horned sheep


(Above: Big-horned sheep we saw by the side of the road on Mt. Norquay.)

Finished watching the mini-series "Pride and Prejudice" (the version with Colin Firth) last night with Cathy after another day of exploring the area. LOVED it. Now I'll have to read the book. I tried when I was in grade school but found it too dull; I suspect the whole unrequited love and relationship aspect will mean more to me now. :-)

One more day in Calgary! Today we're going to visit a town called "Vulcan" just because I'm a nerdgirl and can't help myself.

Anyway, here are a few more pics...

Banff Hotsprings, where we luxuriated in the hot water with a stunning view of the mountains (you can't see in the photo, but steam was rising from the water):

Banff Hotsprings


This mule deer was grazing about twenty feet away from the pool area:

Mule deer


One of the lookout points on top of Sulphur Mountain:

Sulphur Mountain


Cathy, Gary and I climbed up this hill to the Sulphur Mountain Cosmic Ray Station:

Sulphur Mountain


I'm sure Banff residents are used to elk wandering through their downtown, but I sure wasn't. :-)

Elk in Banff


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Thursday
Oct202005

Magic Tails and Serenity

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Woohoo, got my copy of MAGIC TAILS from the publisher this morning! Magic Tails is a collection of fantasy short stories from DAW for which Michelle West and I wrote a piece a while back. The collection is edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Janet Pack, and here's an excerpt from the back:

"Cats being magical creatures in their own right, it's not surprising that so many people who are captivated by fantastical tales and classic fables are also enamored of felines. And MAGIC TAILS is the perfect volume for anyone who likes to curl up with a good book and a companionable cat."

Heehee...ironic, since both Michelle and I are allergic to cats. :-) Anyway, our story is called "The Snow Queen."

Yes, I've been published before, but this is my first time in a short story collection! I'm pretty darned thrilled, I have to say.

Thanks so much to Michelle for the collab invite.

Book info, for those interested:

MAGIC TAILS
DAW Books, 2005
Editors: Martin H. Greenberg and Janet Pack
ISBN 0-7564-0288-3

Fairy Tails - table of contents


Had lunch with Luisa yesterday; it was really good to see her again; we haven't really had a chance to hang out since before I left for Germany. I had some Italian language questions for her. :-) Luisa has a great report from her Italy trip up on her blog, by the way.

Since I was seeing a movie downtown in the evening, I decided it wasn't worth me going back to North York, so I took my laptop and worked in a Starbucks. Most Starbucks outlets in Toronto offer Wi-Fi wireless hotspots now, so I took advantage of this to check my e-mail. Good thing, too, since I found out that the editor of an article I recently submitted wanted some last-minute changes before I left for Calgary, including a quote from an industry expert.

I Googled for an expert, tracked down his contact info, used MaxEmail to fax my request, got back the needed quote by e-mail. All from a Starbucks coffee shop at Bloor and Jarvis. I love technology. :-)

Saw Serenity again, this time with my friends Parki, Craig and Doug. Laura and Peter were in the theatre as well! Craig, Doug, Laura and Peter were all seeing the movie for the first time, and none of them had watched the series before (Peter had seen a few random episodes). Everyone enjoyed the movie, and I liked it just as much the second time around.

I don't usually buy novelizations of movies, but I'm going to buy the one of Serenity because it was written by a charming fellow we met at Boskone, Keith DeCandido. Keith has an LJ under the user name 'kradical' in which he recently answered some Serenity novelization questions.

Here's a photo of Jodi and Allison with Keith at Boskone:

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Have a great weekend, everyone! I'm off to Calgary.

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Monday
Sep262005

word on the street

Samurai seems to be having problems today, so I'm not able to receive any e-mail. Hopefully this will be fixed very soon, since I'm waiting to hear from three editors today before I leave for Germany tomorrow. :-(

Word on the Street


After seeing Ruth (and Ally, Kristen and DavidB!) at WOTS, Jeff & I went to his mom's condo to move the LAST OF OUR STUFF from her place. Yay! Now we just have one small storage locker's worth of stuff to finish moving.

Need to do lots of errandstuff and packingstuff today offline. When putting aside my passport for the trip, I was reminded again of how much I hate my passport picture, which makes me look like a victim from Night of the Living Dead. Why do driver's license and passport pics always look so horrible? Is there anyone out there who actually LIKES their photo id? I'm curious.

Also, does anyone have suggestions for a good message board hosting service that's not too expensive, easy to maintain, not easily spammable and with good customer support? I had to delete a bunch of UBB message boards because of the cost of hard disk space, will eventually delete all of them; unfortunately there doesn't seem to be an easy way to archive messages.

I'd like to move Blatherchat elsewhere. I'm looking for a hosting service already set up with message board software because I don't have the time to do it myself. I know MovableType comes with its own message board capability, but spammers have figured out how to use them. Or maybe I'll just stick to the LJ comments board and open it up to anonymous posting so people don't have to register for an account to post.

Anyway, suggestions are welcome!

You can find other handwritten Blatherings entries here.

ONE MORE DAY until I leave for Germany.

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Thursday
Sep152005

random ray

Handwritten journal entry




You can find other handwritten Blatherings entries here.

Aug/Sept 2005 comments:
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