Dear Bookstore:

I like the fact that you're across the street. I like the fact that you have a zillion books. I want to give you money. So would it kill you to actually stock a few books I want to read?

I'm perfectly willing to understand that people aren't automatically going to have everything. But you didn't have Pride and Prejudice and Zombies when I wanted it. You didn't have the latest Laurell K. Hamilton the third day after it was officially released, leaving my wife bookless. And today, I actively wanted to purchase Crumb's version of the Book of Genesis, a book by a long-standing comics figure that's been written up in most major magazines (including Newsweek and Entertainment Weekly), and no. You were out. Again.

Yes, you can order it for me, I know. But I'm trying to do you guys a favor. I can get it at 10% off with your special order process and then come back and get it, or I can get this latest bestseller 43% off from Amazon and have it delivered to my door. (Admittedly, Amazon is out right now, but the principle still applies.) I mean, I'm actively taking a hit on my own price to try to prop up a local business - can you do your duty and have what I desire? I'm not asking for totally weird stuff.

Trust me. When you had China Mieville's latest book (shelved, strangely, in fiction and not science fiction), I did purchase it. Allow me to recompense you. Let us both profit. Just get the goddamned inventory in, okay?

Love,
T.F.

USA Today picked up Cat and Dmitri's tale of woe and triumph.

Good job, all you fellow outraged people who called and wrote and retweeted!

Glory be to God for double-paned windows.

Know the Difference Between a Cold and H1N1 Flu Symptoms

( Large table below the link. )

Hey everyone!

Please send me your mailing address so I can update my Christmas card list.

Even if you've sent it to me before, please take the time to send it again so that I can ensure that my list is up to date.

Thanks!

Another thank you post for jaguargrin!

I should have posted this earlier, buuuuuut, I'm dumb.
So! Without further delay...

( Pictures of Zo and Lacuna under the cut! )

Life's decent. There's some crazy at-home stuff going on, and more health stuff, but I'm coping.
I'm still unbelievably smitten with my significant other at this time, so that may or may not be rose-tinting everything *shifty eyes* ...


I just finished writing a paper, but have 4 more to do... thankfully, 2 of them already have massively in-depth skeletons. As in, so massively huge that I might need to take stuff OUT when I write the paper so that I stay within the wordcount.
I'll be preparing for Fantasy Alive as soon as this entry is finished... yaaay! Moo-goat gets to beat things with stick!

Gogo speedpost!

Oh, also... layout change!

This is so sad looking.

Two drawings to post today!! :)

( And here they are! )

Ta Da!

Oh yeah, been randomly hwang4-ing in the LISA computer conference (Albert went to the Sun Solaris Summit on Tuesday and realized we could just waltz right in... so that's what I was playing hooky for yesterday, and now I'm sitting in some presentation on cloud computing by some guy from Berkeley.)

It's really, really weird, in many ways.

Stuff, things. Two exams next week and I'm only desultorily studying for them... heh.

Sorry my camera doesn't do well without the flash :(

( Pics back here )

Okay so not to long ago I decided I wanted to try the Freya padded plunge bra and I got it in a 32E which I thoght should fit, however once I got it the band seemed fine, but the cups, were way too small, so I obviously now need a 32F in that particular bra.
My question is, do the other freya bras run small too, or is it just that style? Should I stick to 32E when ordering other styles, or go up to a 32F?
I've tried to find a clear answer to that question but I haven't been able to.
Thanks!

We went out and walked in that wind last night. It is in nights like that, and in gazing up at the moon, and in the surge of storms, that I feel that sense of magic. Holding out my arms, eyes closed, that rush of wind feels like it runs through me and I am part of it.

And that, to me, is the wellspring of much of my belief. I believe that magic is our attuning with the world. My beliefs are as much related to quantum mechanics as they are to faith, because we keep learning, through science, things like observation changing the result of experimentation.

I believe that the forces of the universe that are beyond both macrocosmic and microcosmic can be accessed, and the way the human mind does so is by a sense of deity. Essentially, I think humans create godhood and, like the changes through observation, belief becomes a focus for the universal forces. I think of the forces in general as goddess/creator because it's an effective way for me to relate to them. I think the sheer power of belief can swirl some of that force into something more manifest, but it's like standing in Lake Erie and swirling your arm around to create a tiny whirlpool: you've affected the water right in front of you and made it do what you want, but the rest of the lake is too large for that effect to impact. And as soon as you stop concentrating that energy on the water before you it slips quickly back into common form of lake.

Some people go through life completely ignoring the force of the universe. Some people think of it as Capital G God and react to it passively in the form of praying to that force. It can impact the energy just like observation can impact an experiment, but the attitude is generally that the force is external.

Witches reach into the water and swirl those whirlpools up. Shaping deity from the force of the universe is creating a vortex in that water. Doing magic is reaching into that power.

Sometimes I can't focus the energy to manipulate it. But when I do, there is a moment when I can hear the pulse of the universe.

Sometimes, like last night, I don't have to manipulate it. I can just let it wash over me. That is blessing.

Watching Psycho on Netflix, I can see why Anthony Perkins had next to no career after it.

Thing is, everyone remembers Psycho for, well, the Psycho. The shower scene, the crazy killer, the OMG BLOOD. But watching it now, as someone would have in the 1950s, there's really no sense of menace about Norman Bates; we've already seen at least three people (the cop, the car salesman, the rowdy Texan who gives the money) who were crazier.

Norman's a strange little guy, but strangely charming. He wouldn't be out of place in a modern Indie film - the quirky habits of his taxidermy, his nervous stammer, his misplaced kindness, his lonely hotel. Actually, with a slight twist, he could be a likeable character in The Office. He's not a crazy guy for a lot of his performance, which is why the twist works - he's a nice guy, a hint of crazy, and then STABBITY STAB.

Which left poor Anthony Perkins in a horrible casting place. The studios wanted to cast him as an evil villain, but really he has little innate menace. Even when he's angry, he's strangely meek - which works for this film, but no other. And of course, after he became Hollywood's most famous killer, he couldn't be a leading man. So there he was, caught between extremes.

I feel bad for him. He was a good actor. He deserved a better career. But his breakout role placed him straight in the Kobayashi Maru.

I finally finished R's baby quilt, in time for her second winter at least! Here's a photo:




It's called Rebecca's Road. The path travels crazily all through the quilt, just like our paths in life. And in one place the path gets reversed, signifying that sometimes we make mistakes, but if we keep moving forward they will straighten themselves out. Her mother told me that I will have to tell her the story of the quilt when she is older. For now, it's lots of bright colors and fun things to find: mermaids and soccerballs and kittens and cowboys.

And the reason that got finished was because I had taken up making the altar cloth for yuki_onna and justbeast's wedding, and I felt too guilty to finish it without finishing the baby quilt first. Spurred on by deadlines, I also finished the altar cloth:



The fabrics were ones that Cat and I purchased before she went to Maine. She said she wanted me to teach her to quilt. Since she doesn't sew at all, I wanted to start with basic piecing; she wanted to start with abstract Russian iconography. We were making some progress, but then the move happened and the fabrics stayed here and since she already loved them were perfect to make into the altar cloth (with design help from bec76; thanks, love).

Now I am into contract crunch season, so no quilting for a while. Le sigh.