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u_southflorida
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hey everyone,
i was wondering if anyone had any tips/ideas for me to get health insurance at a reasonable price. i don't make much and i missed the sign up at my work, which they only do one time a year (november). i was looking at the student health insurance plans but i'm not sure if they're good or not. i just want to be able to go to the doctor if i feel sick, get my yearly gyn appointment, and any medicine, should i need it. thank you much for any help.
heather
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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thrifthorror
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So I went to Value Village today and, while in the toy section, I noticed this in their grabbags:
First: Why wuld someone put beer caps in a poin purse? And second: Why didn't the employees take them out before ptting it on display? D:
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Comments: Read 10 or Add Your Own.
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u_southflorida
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Hello, has anyone taken the Paralegal Certificate course at USF Continuing Education? Do you feel it was worth the money and did it help you get a job as a legal secretary/paralegal? I'm considering doing this in addition to my B.A's so I can get a job as a paralegal when I get to NY for law school. Advice?
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thrifthorror
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:D Hello! This is my first post in this lovely community and to start things off I have some (not-so) lovelies to show you all. (I apologize ahead of time for bad cameraphone pictures :( )
Here in Orlando, Florida we have a small chain of resale shops called Dechoes. They specialize in used & vintage clothing and various odd knick-knacks and sometimes interesting home furninishings. There's a post office right near the one closest to where I live and today after helping my mother mail off a package to her sister we decided to stop into Dechoes as sometimes they have cute cheap tshirts etc.
Instead of that I found these things...
EDIT: I recovered a photo I took (with a better camera) a few years ago of a (personally) just plain terrifying doll. It's tacked on at the end after the gnome with the broken arm.
( More under cut! )
( OHGODWHY D8 )
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Comments: Read 51 or Add Your Own.
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tampa
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Does anyone know of any bars in the area that attract a younger crowd?
Excluding downtown St. Petersburg and Ybor.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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u_southflorida
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Does anyone know of any bars in the area that attract a younger crowd?
Excluding downtown St. Petersburg and Ybor.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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greygirlbeast
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So, I suppose this will be my quick and dirty "con report" on ReaderCon 20. There are three photographs afterwards, but only three. I avoided cameras like the plague this year. Last year, I only avoided them like a bad cold. But Spooky took two, anyway. The third, I took on the way home yesterday.
Like last year, I generally enjoyed ReaderCon a great deal. It's that rarest of beasts (in my opinion): a convention that's actually good for writers. I was very heavily booked, but didn't really mind. I prefer not to have a lot of "downtime" at something like this. Anyway, I suppose I should mention what were, for me, the highlights, and do the overview, recap sort of thing. I should say, my great thanks to Geoffrey Goodwin (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) readingthedark), who very kindly helped Spooky keep track of me, and was generally good company.
Friday: We got to the con hotel, a Marriott in Burlington (Mass.), sometime between 2:30 p.m. and 2:45 p.m. And despite what their website promised, there were no PS3s in the rooms, rather like how last year they promised free internet that turned out not to be free. Sooner or later, someone has to call them on this shit. They speak lies that sucker in geeks, and create unrealistic expectations. Anyway, my first panel, at 4 p.m., was the reading for Ellen Datlow's forthcoming Lovecraft Unbound (Oct. '09). I read from "Houses Under the Sea," as was very pleased to meet, and hear, Michael Cisco. It's going to be a fine book, but then Ellen's always are. Next up, I had the solo presentation for A is for Alien, which was very well attended, and that's about the best you can ever ask for. Then I had a panel, "Reality and Dream in Fiction," which wasn't so bad, though I suspect the subject was rather too broad for an hour-long discussion. I spoke about my "dreamsickness" and my pathological inability to know that I'm dreaming while I'm dreaming. After the panel, I had another solo presentation, "You Never Can Tell What Goes on Down Below: Reading Dr. Seuss as Weird Fiction." It came off better than I'd expected, at least the first half hour. Thereafter, though I'd been asked to read the entirety of The Lorax, and had agreed to do so, the whole thing was hijacked by a number of annoying people in the audience who wanted to argue the political correctness and sociological implications of children's books that were neither "weird" nor authored by Dr. Seuss. Before that, though, it went rather well, and I also read from Lewis Carroll and James Reeves. No dinner on Friday night, because there wasn't time. I did have a short break, and then managed to see Greer Gilman's (nineweaving) wonderful reading from Cloud and Ashes (Small Beer Press), which opened with a genuinely amazing performance by Sonya (sovay), who exquisitely set the mood for Greer's prose with a ballad. And after the reading, there was the ReaderCon 20 Grand Ceremony, and the Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award, and then the annual "Meet the Pros(e)" thingy. I hid in a corner with Peter Straub, whom I'd not seen in ages. Getting to spend time with Peter (and his wife, Susie) was definitely one of the very best aspects of the con. And later still, because I lacked the good sense to go to bed, several of us retired to a vacant meeting room and talked until 2 a.m. or so (me, Spooky, Geoffrey, Michael Cisco, Sonya, Eric Van, and a few others whose names have been lost to me). I got to bed about 2:30 a.m., I think.
Saturday: The day started off with my signing, at noon in the dealers' room. Many books were scarred by my hand, some of which I'd not looked at in years. Then I had an hour free before the first of two rather unfortunate panels, starting with "Is Fiction Inherently Evil." The whole affair was predicated on a highly dubious pronouncement made by French ne'er-do-well Simone Weil, that (deep breath) fiction is inherently evil because it portrays good as dull, glamorizes the wicked, and fails to point out the supposed banality of evil. I sort of disqualified myself from the whole discussion right off, by noting that I don't actually recognize the division between good and evil in any traditional sense, and by asking if we were really supposed to see Grima Wormtongue as being more glamorous than Aragorn or Galadriel. I think Peter had the most cogent comments on the panel, though Michael Bishop and James Morrow added good bits, as well. And after that, I didn't even have to leave my chair, because the equally questionable "Is Darwinism Too Good for SF?" took place in the same salon. The premise was, simply, that it has been suggested that Darwinism has proven such a successful theory that it has left sf writers with very little room to wax fantastic. I started off by pointing out that all of biology is based on a single data point (Earth), and, therefore, no matter how well we might presently understand life on Earth, we may understand very little about life as a cosmic phenomenon. The panelists all had scientific credentials, and we quickly concluded that there was plenty of "wiggle room" in SF for nonDarwinian (not antiDarwinian) stories of evolution. My favorite moment was when Anil Menon was asked (by Stephen Popkes) if India has seen the sort of resistance to Darwinism we see in America, and he said no, there'd been no friction to speak of, no creationism in the school systems, and so forth. After the panel, we were corralled for a truly grand and delicious dinner at a nearby Szechuan restaurant. Too many dishes and tastes and flavours to even try to recount here. But we made it back in time for the "Kirk Poland Memorial Bad Prose Competition Tournament of Champions," which has forever etched the phrase "she cupped him where he was soft" into my brainmeats. Later, those of us who'd gathered late the night before reconvened and talked until sometime after two. Oh, we were interrupted by some very rude harpy of a woman wearing two cameras, who noted that we were, collectively, wearing a lot of black, and so felt compelled to ask, "Isn't goth getting old?" I almost smacked her with my cane. Geoffrey almost asked, "Like you?" But we were all somewhat too stunned and polite to do much of anything. That was Saturday.
Sunday: I had only a single bit of programming, so it was an easy day. After we checked out of the room, Spooky and I prowled about the dealers' room, where I was very good and bought only a single book. At 2 p.m., after saying my goodbyes to Peter and Susie, I had my reading. All of Chapter Four of The Red Tree was read, and my thanks to everyone who stuck around and missed part (or all?) of the closing ceremonies while I went so far over the one-hour time slot to get it all read. We left the hotel sometime about 4 p.m., and made it back to Providence just before five, I think. Before dinner.
Also, it was good to meet Chris and Meg, as I'd only met them previously in Second Life.
And yes, I will likely be back next year, and no, I will not be at Necon (I never said I would). And yes, I did wear masks almost the entire convention, and will likely do so next year. In fact, I may do so at all future public appearances. Friday's Cthulhu mask (and the Kambriel dress) was the most popular. Alas, there are no photos from Friday of that outfit (to my knowledge); some might turn up online somewhere. Oh, by the way, my masks were crafted by E. L. Downey; they were gifts to Spooky and me in May 2005. Also, my grateful thanks to everyone who took part in the recent eBay auctions that made it possible for me to attend the con.
And now, the photographs (behind the cut):
( ReaderCon 20 )
Okay. Yeah. That wasn't quick. Or even particularly dirty.
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Comments: Read 41 or Add Your Own.
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gobi
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Anybody have examples of swim lane flow charts that look better than this?
I'm using a Swimlane structure for an overview of Do's turn order, but I can't find many references that don't either look barebones or garish.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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assmonkeydiary
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We're getting new floors installed in the second floor of the house next week while we're on vacation, so we spent all day yesterday hauling stuff down to the first floor. It was pretty miserable work, but at least it forced me to do some organizing. I came away with three contractor bags worth of things I no longer need (if I ever did) and that's not even counting the mound of clothes that need to be evaluated for possible donation. I found the first chapter of the novel that I was writing during the 90s (probably all that survived those tumultuous times) and a ton of floppy disks which I'll have to scour just in case there's anything interested saved to them.
There's still a lot of work to do, but we definitely made a sizable dent. The biggest job remaining will be the deconstruction of three big Ikea wardrobes. (A lot of South Philly homes are essentially closetless.) I'm pretty convinced they won't survive the process, as they almost tore themselves apart while I was building them, but I'm willing to give it the old college try.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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gobi
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[This post is part of a series examining Archipelago 2 and what parts of that game might help solve some issues in Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple. Previously: Ritual Phrases]
Destiny Points
Archipelago: Destiny points are an end in your character's story that you will reach by the end of the game.You actually know how your story will end right from the start, so the rest of the session is about how those events come to pass. From the text, it sounds kind of like an in media res or "Coming up next, on Archipelago..." technique
Do: I've got something kind of like this in the current draft of Do.
A while back, I was trying to think of a way to reflect a pilgrim's adventures changing her a little bit at a time; growing into the adult she will become.
If you recall, the first word of your temple name is called your Banner and it represents how you get into trouble. The second word is your Avatar and it represents how you help people. At the end of each session, your little choices will culminate into one big change for your character: The Banner or the Avatar will change.
In other words, your character's experiences on each world will change how she helps people or how she gets into trouble. What that new word might be depends on what happened in the story. For example, let's say the following events occurred in the story.
Trouble: Pilgrim Liz the Little Bird is unconscious, probably something in the mysterious elixir she accepted from the spooky merchant.
Resolution: Pilgrim Daniel the Fluffy Curl uses his voluminous hair to lift Liz's body in the path of a lightning storm. The mystical powers of the storm flood her body with a powerful energy, resurrecting her!
New Trouble: The lightning and the elixir had an unexpected combined side effect. Pilgrim Liz the Little Bird is now a zombie with a thirst for living flesh. Yes, thirst. She prefers smoothies.
So those are the events that happen in the story. If in the course of the gameplay the player had chosen to keep more black stones than white stones, her character's Banner would change at the end of the session.
Pilgrim Liz the Little Bird becomes Pilgrim Liz the Zombie Bird. Instead of getting into trouble by being small, she now gets into trouble by being one of the living dead.
In Archipelago's destiny points, you know what will happen. In Do, you know you're going to change, but you don't quite know how. Is this is a specialized, dichotomous Destiny Point or something totally different?
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Comments: Read 1 or Add Your Own.
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shefell
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I read my FL page everyday. Maybe I'll have something work talking about myself.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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docbrite
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And when I got back, the city and my street and my house and everything were right here where I'd left them. This sounds like an obvious statement, laughable even, until the alternative has happened to you. I am glad to know I can travel. This trip was very much a baby step but still scary, and I'm not planning to go jetting off on a regular basis, but at least I know it's possible.
Ah, but I do love Chicago. Apart from the food, which I believe to be as good as anywhere in the country, I never seem to hear anyone talk about what a beautiful, welcoming, walkable, generally user-friendly city it is. Obviously that changes some in the winters, which I have not yet dared since Neil says I would need special clothing to avoid death or at least severe frostbite.
I want to extend a special thank-you to Elyse Marshall, Neil's publicist at Harper Collins, who took the incredibly generous step of arranging to stay with Chicagoland friends so I could have her room for the night. She looked very much like most of the publicists I've had over the past several years -- young, female, and gorgeous -- but, unlike the majority of them, I know she must be better than competent or Neil wouldn't have her. In addition to the hotel room, Elyse, you have given me a shot of new hope for the publishing industry.
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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greygirlbeast
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Home from ReaderCon. Cats have not murdered us. More later.
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beatonna
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This summer, I will be appearing at two events (but only one of them in person)
One:
As Shaenon has pointed out, "The Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco (www.cartoonart.org) is organizing "Monsters of Webcomics," a showcase of cutting-edge webcomics work." Some original art will be on display there for this show from August 8 - December 6, 2009. My original art is small and looks exactly the same on paper as it does when it is posted online, so prepare to have a reaction that is blasé. But then look at the amazing line up of talent they have otherwise and prepare to be amazed!
Two:
Vancouver! Are you going to be in Vancouver on August 23rd? So am I! Robin Bougie posted this one. Pretty cool, I haven't seen the west coast in a while, but I miss the mountains.
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Comments: Read 31 or Add Your Own.
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gobi
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[This post is part 1 of 4 in a series examining Archipelago 2 and what parts of that game might help solve some issues in Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple.]
Ritual Phrases
Archipelago: I like that there are ritual phrases that help create consistent scene-framing throughout the a session of Archipelago. I have a big list of tips and suggestions very similar to the "Important Techniques" section, but nothing really bringing them into play.
Do: If I apply ritual phrases to each of my tips, that might be that extra nudge needed to make sure players know that they're the referees for story style. For example, one of the tips is to conserve secondary characters. In other words, to not introduce a new secondary character when you could reasonably add more details to an existing character.
Let's say Luke Skywalker's father has not actually become present in the story. But we have this character named Darth Vader who we don't really know a whole lot about yet. You *could* keep the two as separate characters, but it makes a far more interesting story if you conserve characters and say that Darth Vader *is* Luke's father.
So what would the ritual phrase be to make that happen? I have no idea... It's a cool technique though. You can see the tips I've listed so far here under "Making Trouble" and "Telling Stories." Maybe you can think of some phrases?
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Comments: Read 9 or Add Your Own.
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gobi
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Remi pointed me to Archipelago 2 as a source of possible solutions to the creative exhaustion problem from the Dreamation playtests.
This is the sort of narrative, rules-light game that I was really into in college until I actually tried them out and realized just how much I needed structure in my play. I was skeptical about whether I'd find useful bits here, but only because I doubted whether I had the heart to potentially overhaul the whole game if the only solution was to make it more Norwegian.
Thankfully, I don't think that will be necessary. There are a lot of little gems to pluck from Archipelago without having to dye Do's hair blonde. ;)
There's a lot to talk about, so I will split these up into several blog posts to focus the comments on each subject:
Ritual Phrases
Destiny Points
Ownership (Tuesday)
Resolution (Wednesday)
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thinzazul
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So many factors during the day. It's hard to keep focused on the goal for long periods of time. I don't want to give up this time.
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Comments: Add Your Own.
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Saturday, July 11th, 2009
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docbrite
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HOME. I have now traveled outside Louisiana/Mississippi and returned successfully with no deaths and only two panic attacks. On the second leg of my return flight, despite my having requested all aisle seats, I got a middle seat next to a young man with extreme B.O. I could just about take it when he was still, but I almost passed out any time he moved an arm. Luckily he slept through most of the flight. I'd nearly forgotten all the reasons I so love to fly.
It was a fun trip, though, even if it had its moments of trauma, and it was a good baby step for me. Thanks so much to Neil, The Fabulous Lorraine, and publicist Elyse Marshall for making it happen.
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Comments: Read 2 or Add Your Own.
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thinzazul
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When I first woke up it was 277 till I had a slightly unhappy BM and got naked on the scale.
This was before I ate, I shudder to look now.
Ah well, dieting is the over consciousness of ones own decline and obsession with size.
Or some such. No use getting philiosophical about it...
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thrifthorror
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My sister and I went wedding dress shopping in some boutiques down in South Omaha today, and we stopped into the Thrift World. I've never posted on here before, so go easy on me. Some things weren't bizarre at all, but the thought of donating them just seemed odd to me.
( Cell phone pics under the cut )
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Comments: Read 6 or Add Your Own.
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docbrite
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Well, I did it. I flew 927 miles from home, only really freaked out once, had a truly lovely dinner with Neil (more details later, or see his journal), and am now at O'Hare waiting to please God fly home. Before coming to the airport today, I had time to conduct an important taste test: half an Italian beef sandwich each at Mr. Beef and Portillo's. I'm sorry, Chicagoans; I know you think it's fast food, but Portillo's is about a million times better.
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Comments: Read 5 or Add Your Own.
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metalweb
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The new site is up and running with icon and illustration galleries:
http://the-nibelungen.com/
Sum Legio will have prints and limited edition Nibelungen portfolios for sale later this month.
The current projected release date for the book is August/September 2009.
Currently listening to: BLACK SABBATH "Master Of Reality" (Warner Bros.)
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Comments: Read 4 or Add Your Own.
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metalweb
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Playthings of the Fox Domme
Currently listening to: AMON TOBIN "Supermodified" (Ninja Tune)
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Comments: Read 22 or Add Your Own.
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flamingjune07
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When I was a kid, I was a tomboy and my mom didn't teach me a damn thing about makeup or doing your hair and actually somewhat actively encouraged against it ("growing up too fast" and whatnot), and my friends -- mostly dorky boys, and then pothead boys, and then punk rock boys and a few goth girls, etc -- sure as hell never taught me any of that shit either. I feel like I can finally do makeup sort of okay now, but I only really know how to do a couple of things, and I don't know how to do hair at all. The only reason my hair ever looks halfway presentable is because I was blessed with genes that give me straight shiny hair naturally, and I know how to get a decent haircut once in a while. But when I try to do anything at all to it -- like I did just now, optimistically trying out this rolly brush thing and doing what I've seen hair stylists do to me a zillion times, every time I get a haircut, and give it a little bounce and slight curl at the end -- I end up sitting here on the verge of tears with a hairbrush somehow affixed to my head with a nest of hair around it. I am hoping that once my hair air-dries completely, the natural straight/softness of it will let me extract the brush without causing too much damage, but seriously, this is why "we" (me + myself) can never go to fancy places. Jesus. This is part of a whole array of reasons why at least some small part of me always feels like I'm in drag or something if I actually try to look "pretty," because I never knew anything about this shit anyway and I'm just faking it and hoping no one notices, and I still feel that way even with my curvy hips and fancy shampoo and favorite eyeliner (Urban Decay, "rockstar"). I mean, I don't want a corporate job ever really, but I also don't think I ever could even get one, because I just literally don't know how to look like that, and can't do it even if I try. Motherfucker. There really is a roll-brush stuck to the back of my head right now. And some small part of me seems to actually buy into the notion that girls who get brushes stuck to the backs of their heads aren't "real" girls. Ugh. I need some kind of break from life here.
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Comments: Read 27 or Add Your Own.
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tampa
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So, I will be going to New York City for the first time as an adult and would like any tips or idea that any of you guys would have for me. What to do, where to go, cheap fun? I will be traveling with a handicap person, so there will be no stair climbing, running, jumping and what not. Thank you for your ideas!!!!
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Comments: Read 13 or Add Your Own.
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beatonna
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Anne why are you writing books about how alcoholic losers ruin people's lives? Don't you see that romanticizing douchey behavior is the proper literary convention in this family! Honestly.
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Comments: Read 178 or Add Your Own.
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exhausted.
busy.
amused.
sweaty.
giggly.
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
exhausted.
grateful.