e_bourne

Wall -e

Sun, 06 Jul 2008 01:20:06 GMT

Yes, that's what we went to see. And we loved it. The most beautiful closing credits I've seen in a long time, I love Peter Gabriel anyway.

A side benefit is that it's further inspiring me to look at more yoga websites. Yeah. If you've seen the movie, you know why. We have 8 limbs Yoga just down the street. Walkable. Sound Yoga, which is a few blocks further off. West Seattle Yoga Center. Temple Yoga. And several more.

Soon, I must do more than look. I should investigate more deeply.

And, in the height of laziness, I've indulged in browsing the apple movie trailer site. I love doing that. It's such a guilty pleasure.

Dinner was pleasant.

I think I'll continue being lazy. Lazy is good. The download of the final Who-ishness has started. I expect it will be slow. Many leeches.

The Clarion West Party

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:27:49 GMT

As has been said by others, but bears repeating, if you can, donations are much appreciated for the the Clarion West Students, who were robbed on the Fourth. They lost laptops and some clothing. You can go here for information on where to go to help. It was outrageous.

That being said, I was glad that the students were able to over come their very bad day and make it to the party. They were doing a good job of turning their anger to positive writing force, and they seemed a remarkable and resilient group. We were happy to host them.

I was thrilled to see my friend maryrosenblum It was like picking up a piece of knitting without missing a stitch. We agreed we were both looking so much better than everyone else our age. :-) and rejoiced in how well our children are doing.

It was also wonderful to see scarlettina and her friend Joe, and to see ironymaiden and melkahb who we don't get to see enough off.

The party was smaller than last year's, due to the Fourth I expect, and closed down at midnight. Everything got eaten, except we still have a large bowl of chocolate. Which can never be a bad thing.

Today I want to see a movie.

The Dean's List

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 19:29:14 GMT

My vandal son, AKA Evil Spawn, got the letter from UNLV congratulating him for being placed on the Dean's List at UNLV as one of their Best and Brightest.

I am so proud and weepy I can hardly type. I went down to the Tombs, aka, his room, and we shared A Moment.

We'll have to celebrate by going to the X-Files Movie. P'raps scarlettina would like to come with, whenever that occurs, and the two of them can geek out as only two true fans can.

Overwhelmed by wonderfulness

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:39:56 GMT

I am currently overwhelmed by my husband's wonderfulness. I have a horrible, truly horrible, habit of letting my drugs run down until I have a day's worth left. Or less. Which might not be a big deal except that if I go more than 24 hours without, there is some statistical probability that I could die. I've never wanted to test it and see how likely it is, but I can never quite get my act together enough to get the damn prescription filled in a more timely fashion. (Drug stores will not refuse my prescription, even if I don't have it with me. Heh. No, it's kind of sad I'm so lame I've actually had to find this out).

And there it was, tonight, just when I thought, "Shit, I'm out of brain pills." A brand new bottle waiting for me.

My husband is the most wonderful man in the world.

Writing and weeping

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:46:44 GMT

OK, it's not really what it sounds like, or maybe it is.

I woke up last night, maybe about two am and realized I'd done something all wrong.

I killed the wrong person. Actually, I still have to kill him, but he isn't a person who matters except in terms of moving the plot along, and he had way too big a death scene. Just didn't deserve to die that well as well as giving away a plot point too soon.

No. I needed to kill someone who mattered. Too many people hadn't been hurt. Someone I cared about needed to feel pain.

So tonight I killed someone who mattered. I killed three people and wept my way through it. That's always good. If I care, I figure the reader will care. And it ups the stakes There are some very bad people here. They do bad things. And now I care. So hard and yet so good. I don't think I made it too over the top. I think there's only one place so far where thick strands of glistening intestines loop out anywhere. I'm trying to keep it down. Really I am.

And I'm looking at yoga classes. Yes, ironymaiden and melkahb are being inspirational. We'll see if I can get it off the looking up yoga classes near me. If I tried to do what they're doing, i think it would kill me.

Portland Center Stage

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:42:58 GMT

We're on Portland Center Stage's mailing list since I went to see The Pillow Man last year. Fantastic show. Blew my heart out. Now they send me their season, and once in a while, a comp ticket to entice me.

It's an amazing season. I predict trips to Portland to catch some of these. We've heard particularly good things about Storm Large. So her show looks intriguing. And wow, Frost Nixon! Even without Frank Langella. Wow.

I'm stoked.

The state of my universe

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 03:29:37 GMT

I continue to be angry at work. I have a meeting on Wednesday. We'll see what happens. Awesome neighbor is helpfully trying to hook me up with another job. It's really bad when I'm seriously writing a resume. We'll see what happens. Maybe something. Maybe nothing. I refuse to accept discontent in a place where I spend most of my time. Change or die.

After scratching the itch of a short story (I'm not a short story person, I dropped it as soon as a draft was written) I'm back at the next book. I snorted at breakfast Sunday when I realized that if I changed the opposing forces from people to goblin orcs, really, it could be a fantasy, even though everything in it is fact. It made me laugh. History is exotic!

Ravelry threatens to eat way too much time. Must... not... click... on ... link....

I have started rereading all the Patrick O'Brien novels again. In order. Oh I'm having such a good time!

And I'm reading Rushdie's The Enchantress of Florence. My personal feeling is that really, Chabon wants to grow up to be Rushdie. So beautiful. No wasted words. Really perfect without being overly florid and making me want to loosen my stays. As if I wear stays.

Really, really want to go and see Wall-E and Wanted. Am saving them for a really awful horrid day. I know I have one coming. There always is one.

And the Clarion Party is Friday, it will be so lovely to see Mary again. Oh, and have all those people over. Yay party!

Oh, and I've gotten more requests for partials, which is nice. And I've taken the advice of my beloved scarlettina

What a week

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 06:11:24 GMT

i've spent this week really hating working and trying hard not to just quit, which would be very bad. I like what I do (I actually got mentioned in the paper today, if you know where to look, which was cool). I am hating circumstances around what I do. If another job fell in my lap, I'd be ever so tempted to take it, which is a weird and strange place for me to be in.

Saw Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. Nuked the fridge has now entered my vocab. Yeah, you know what I'm talking about.

Every time I get another ms. request (which is a goodness) I have to struggle with the urge to suddenly rewrite everything. Is that common? Mark keeps slapping my wrist and says leave it. So I do. But the temptation! I want to move that word....there...and move chapters around...maybe do some other stuff. So hard to just leave it alone.

Unique Flower?

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 02:17:31 GMT

Post 3 things you've done in your lifetime that you don't think anybody else on your friends list has done. See if anybody else responds with "I've done that." If they have, you need to add another!(2.b., 2.c., etc...) Have your friends cut & paste this into their journal to see what unique things they've done in their life.

1. Been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church. No, the host does not leap magically away from me.
2. Saw the World Cup in Haiti in 1974. Pele didn't play, but he was there, to the cheers of the crowd.
3. Visited Jack Nicholson's house in Long Island. Scary man. Nice Arabian horses.

Ravelry

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:25:18 GMT

Astrid Bear told me I must join Ravelry. She was right. I am now addicted...must...read...all...groups...

They have a group devoted to archeoknitting. Yeah, I joined. A group devoted to knitting historically accurate Napoleonic garments, no, I did not but I admire their spunk. A group devoted to absinthe and knitting. One devoted to knitting on the London tube system. Single socks. That does tempt me. I could do single socks.

You must apply for an invitation, and once invited, you get to join the community. It is from awesome, if you're a knitter/crocheter type. I do not know how I lived without it. I do not know how I will get anything done with it to eat up time. So much to read and look at!

And, just because one should, I highly recommend Astrid's site Damselfy. She handpaints her own custom yarns and sells them. They are wonderful, and she will do custom colors and orders. Very nifty.

Aargh! Why must I work when there is so much cool stuff to do!

Today I hate Hewlett Packard

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:28:14 GMT

I can not get my printer to work. And let's face it, these things are smart like dirt, right? I'm a sophisticated female living in the 21st century. Why can't I get my under $200 printer to work.

I've reloaded the software 3 freaking times. From the original disc. I've gone to user help files. I've hunted down HP's help files. I can't even get it to show up as a printer option any more. I can find my neighbor's freakin' bluetooth printer for god's sake, but not my own sitting on the table next to me.

It used to work fine. Once. Then it ran out of ink and one of the cartridges was hinky. When that happens, they can cease to recognize they exist. I got new cartridges to feed it. It printed a test page, and nothing further.

I've spent hours on this. I hate my printer. It's a stupid piece of equipment. It should just work.

And they don't give you a lot of options. It's not like I have many choices here, buttons to push or options to select. No, it's supposed to be load 'n go.

Except it won't.

I'm going to go chew my arm off now.

Tales from the Food Court

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 21:28:53 GMT

The food Court at Columbia Tower is large and a multi-ethnic splendor. Because I am a creature of habit, I tend to favor the Indian place and a particular Chinese place. both are buffets and both charge by weight. I've gotten, not to know, but gotten on a smiling and "how are you today" conversational basis with the (different) women who run the cash registers at the respective locations.

Today I was late, as a result of walking way, way south to pick up my Tom Bihn bags (Yay!). Since I deserved a treat, I went Indian. The woman in front of me was blondish and spoke with an accent. My cashier and the blonde had the following exchange:

Cashier: Where are you from?

Blonde: Munich. What part of India are you from?

Cashier: I'm not from India. I'm from Turkey. Istanbul.

Blonde: Really? Did you know our soccer teams play this weekend?

Cashier: Really? That's $7.57.

Blonde: Did you just overcharge me?

Cashier: Germans eat a lot. We charge by the pound.

The blonde paid and walked off. the cashier took my container and we had our normal pleasant and inconsequential exchange. Mine, by the way, came to $4.03, she gave me $1.00 back which I put in the tip jar as usual. As far as I could, the blonde and I got about the same quantity

Fascinating.

For your writer's toolbox

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 21:37:39 GMT

I find these helpful.

Google Earth.I use it all the time at work, and it's not a toy. It's my work tool. As a writer, I use it too. Google sky is also awesome.

Calenders: OMG I love this so. It's a little tricky to work in BCE, but once you get the hang of it, a godsend.

For Mac users only:

I beg of you, don't do like Bill Gibson and stretch out miles of butcher paper to make a timeline. I felt a physical pain right...let me find it...HERE when he said that. But then, I make timelines for a living. Instead, map out your characters, their time frames and who's doing what to whom with this. There are other sorts for PCs, but the Mac one is better. If you have a PC, get them, they're twice as expensive, but they'll work and keep your organized and legible. Then print it out on butcher paper.

I used to write in Word. Why would I ever do that? I was a crazy person. ironymaiden turned me on to Scrivener, and I've never looked back. markbourne is jealous because it's mac only. It's very awesome. Most BBC scripts are turned out on Scrivener.

Need a name in micmac? And your Micmacs run into a bunch of Egyptians? Here you go.

I am a data junkie. If I could, I would pour the entire Internet though my brain and bliss out on the couch. Instead, I collect links. Many, many links.

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:52:46 GMT

Last night we went to the Grand Opening of the Inspiring Impressionism show at the Seattle Art Museum. We met up with our friend Joyce, and she and I went to see the show and listen to Mark's audio tour (which has been commented upon with favor by both the PI and the Times) and was the real reason for our being there. Mark went to listen to Chiyo's introductory lecture, where she said nice things about the tour also.

The audio tour does a great job of telling you things that the little tags do not. How young they were (like all museums, they show the photos of the artists as old men and women, and they are embedded icons in art history, so easy to forget they were rebellious punks), Berthe Morisot was 19 when she started painting at the Louvre, Monet got permission to paint at the Louvre, and thumbed his nose at them by setting up to paint out the window, not the paintings, and other such tidbits.

Props to Portland for the lovely Fragonard of "Boy with a Peep Show," he has such amazing eyes! And the poster painting is Fragonard's "The Reader."

Its a pretty good art history lesson, I like the earlier rooms better than the later for that. I have some quibbles with the exhibit, but then i am more knowledgeable than the casual visitor. As Mark pointed out, most people won't know or care about some of the things I do. There are only a few real masterpieces, but over all the quality is good to high with a few exceptionals, since the show is about development, it makes it ok. It was interesting for me to see the sketches and early works from their student days at the Louvre, not pieces you see very often.

I'm not personally fond of Renoir, but they have some fine examples. There's a stunning Cassat that's heading toward symbolism, which several of the minor impressionists started to do in their later years. Some nice Cezanne still lifes. The Monets glow. Seriously. No one then or now painted like he did.

It's a good show, and I will go again. There's a Morissot I'd like to draw.

I highly recommend the show, I expect to go at least one more time, and likely twice.

Out of work

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:06:29 GMT

but just for tomorrow.

It's enough to make me happy.

Last night we went to the Bill Gibson/Nancy Pearl "Virtual Lust" interview and post reception. Mark convinced me to go after a nasty work day. So glad I did. So nice to see some people I hadn't seen for awhile, particularly Gardner Dozois, who I love dearly, and other folks we should see more often but don't because we suck. All in town for the Locus Awards and the beginning of Clarion West's 25th year.

The panel was interesting. It got Mark and I talking about writing the future on the way home.

I think it's very hard to write the future now. I think it's particularly hard if you're over 35, less so if your under 28. My son, at 22, lives in a different world than I. His future is a different future. I'm not sure I can imagine it.

Bill suggested that if you wanted to try to spot the future, you look for cool. I don't think I can spot cool, but here is what I think, from watching my son, his friends and from what I do for a living.

The future probably won't have jobs as we know them.
It probably won't have transportation as we know it.
Some combination of Chinese and Spanish will become the lingua franca
We're already a third world country, just one that has income

China is already as the US was in the 1950's. Dubai is the new Japan.

The next new place? India. After that? Turkey or Iran, or maybe Brazil. After that? Look for where people are bleeding.

And that's what the magic 8 ball sez.

Too many trials

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:26:22 GMT

Currently and in next two weeks I have trials going on in:
Seattle
Minneapolis
Portland
Los Angeles
and a Focus Group in Seattle
A Mock Trial in Pittsburgh next weekend

Too much! Stop the madness!

I got nibbled

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:43:08 GMT

Which is as exciting to me as it sounds. One of the agents I queried wants to see chapters! I am intensely excited.

I realize a rejection is still the more likely order of the day, but after the three nice rejections on my query letters, I'm completely thrilled someone wants to see chapters!

I shall have to take several deep breaths, resist the urge to completely rewrite the book before I send it off (I dont' know why I get that impulsive urge every so often, thank goodness I have Mark to slap my wrists and say NO!) and then send it off when I am back in PDX.

Now I shall quit my laptop go to my Marriott (someday I'll have to use all these points I accumulate) and find some pizza and finish reading Ellen Klages "The Green Glass Sea." I love Ellen. And I love her book, too, which is a different thing. So nice when they can happen together. Highly recommended.

Echos from a Past Life

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:58:38 GMT

Austin's (AKA Evil Spawn) dad just emailed me this link. We used to live here, in Oregon City (the Other OC).

Everything you see, we did. All the wall paper, the garden, everything. We got the house for nothing, no really, nothing. It was a Veterans Admin repo. It was a mess. It's also haunted as all heck. Every owner who has lived knows about the ghosts. And the locked room. And the tunnel in the basement. And the scary weird room blasted in the basement with the candles on the stone shelves.

Seriously, the house was haunted. I have killer stories.

The CEO of Adiddas tried to buy our roof for his house in Lake Oswego (it was all hand molded tile, it matched his house, he needed it for his new guest house, we said no.) Our gutters were copper. We had a portico. A portico, for Pete's sake!

We put the house on the National Registry of Historic places. It has the first colored bathroom fixtures in the US. Pink downstairs, Yellow and Navy blue upstairs. The floors are Siberian oak. The marble fireplace was imported from a palace in Italy. The bathrooms are marble. The floors are steam heated. I could go on and on and on. I will never forget this house, I'm glad I owned it. I'm glad we sold it. It was something else, and hugely expensive to maintain.

We bought that stove. Best stove I've ever owned. The bedroom wallpaper was from the Metropolitain Museum of Art Collection. I've never found it since, for which Mark is thankful. I think it was, like, $100/roll. But boy, I still love it so.

It won a national award for "best small house design." Which still makes me laugh. It was small. But huge. The living room was 20' x 40' It was a frickin' ballroom.

OK OK, I'm over it, I swear.

Sosmething I never thought I'd say

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:46:58 GMT

RTD's Dr. Who episode last night completely rocked.

Scary Shiny Thing in Sky

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:57:38 GMT

A sunny day! So what did I do? I went to a movie. Huddled, in the dark, cool, air-conditioned dark like a true northwesterner.

OK, I also weeded the yard. That was sunny and productive.

Evil Spawn and I went to The Happening. Spawn is a HUGE M. Night Shyamalan fan. Oddly, his favorite is Signs, which I liked up until you got to the really incredible stupid aliens. My favorite is Unbreakable, which I thought rocked. He even liked The Village which I thought was such a totally predictable snorer, only mother-love kept me in the seat. Now you know what my son and I do together. Watch movies. And trailers. We're trailer addicts.

Overall, I liked The Happening. I think it's a pity Zooey Deschamps' notion of acting is to widen her brilliant blue eyes even wider, and part her lips, but fortunately she doesn't have a significant amount of screen time. I thought Mark Wahlberg, who I've developed a lot of respect for as an actor, did a really fine job as an average Joe science teacher trying to make sense out of things. Too bad he wasn't in War of the Worlds instead of Cruise. I found it sufficiently scary and horrifying, and yes, the premise does fall down a bit, but what Shyamalan does well, he does very well indeed. I believed how terrible it would be.

We saw the X-Files preview, which was extremely squeeish for Evil Spawn, who though Muldur was the incarnation of of truth on Earth, and Spawn swore he would wed Scully someday. Maybe that's why he likes smart girls. Wanted looked good to us too. I don't remember much of the other Previews. We watched a trailer at home for The Fall because we had both liked The Cell eons ago, and agreed we should do that movie sometime as well.

I encourage you to wander over to Polidori Chocolates for a really great explanation on natural (and unnatural) flavors. Did you know someone once killed himself by snacking on a bucket of apple seeds? Cross my heart, and it is germane.

Personally, I'm a vanilla freak. Mexican, Tahitian, Madagascar, Bourbon, Indonesian. I used to like to buy different kinds (when I could find them) and make plain cookies to taste test the flavors. They're all different, and I love them all.

Attack of the bucket head, or Alexander Nevsky

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 06:19:20 GMT

I don't care for classical music. I discovered that I love watching the Symphony. If you sit up close (it is pricey) you can watch the third violinists gossip when they aren't playing. The cellists sneer at one another (I have an inappropriate crush on Joshua Roman, the young super cellist genius, who looks like Napoleon Dynamite with a better haircut. Young enough to be my son. No, I don't want to think about what that says about me, thank you). Some conductors bounce, others are languid. Some musicians make faces. I saw one musician fall asleep and have to be nudged awake by her compatriot. It's a whole 'nother world.

So seeing Alexander Nevsky, with the Seattle Symphony performing the music live, was an ideal anniversary gift. It was fabulous, and if you're here in SEA, go for it! The music (Prokofiev) is really good, all I can say is awesome bells, man!

And Eisenstein is magnificent, as always. Alexander Nevsky is soooo handsome. The bucketheads (aka Germans) are sooooo evil (they throw babies on the fire! Bastards!)

The big battle is a little rough by modern standards, but hey, it's still a big battle and I loved it anyway. Big guys hacking at each other with swords and axes and spears. What's not to love? On ice no less? Disney couldn't have done it better.

Having seen "Mongol" (must see again, so good!) earlier, I was tickled pink that Nevsky opens with a curtsy to the Mongols attacking Russia, and the Swedes (Swedes? Really? What do I know about Russian history) but the Germans are the more immediate threat, and much more dastardly.

We have brave, fair maidens, funny bits, and it's really beautiful. I loved it all.

I will warn you, if you're a fan of Woody Allen, which Mark and I are, and have seen "Love and Death" many times, which Mark and I have, Alexander Nevsky has its dangers. There are moments where it's clear Allen just took a shopping basket through Eisenstein's masterpiece and said "I'll have one of those, and one of those, oh, and one of those." Which was great for him, makes it tough for me to watch in parts without snorting.

The music was fantastic (the bells! the chorus! the bells!). The movie was great. I even got choked up over the dead Russians. Handsome dead Russians. Highly recommended.

The wheat....the wheat...the wheat...

Winning is good.

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 15:26:45 GMT

Berkman verdict.

Beautiful night

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 05:52:54 GMT

it was such a beautiful night we ended up being invited over to our neighbor's deck, where we drank way too much wine and talked a full evening's worth of of shoes and ships and sealing wax, of cabbages and kings and why the sea is boiling hot and whether pigs have wings.

I have been sending out queries to agents. Most are still out there, languisihng. I've gotten a few polite "not interested." Which is fine. I have ego enough to spare for that.

Have yet to send out something to an editor (sorry scarlettina I know I'm wicked).

If anyone writerly is interested, I've become quite fond of this query site for finding agents and sending out queries. It's pretty nifty and if you are sending out queries, I invite you to check it out.

Anniversary

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 05:51:28 GMT

Today was our Anniversary. 13 years of marriage.

When I was young, I never thought I would be married. I couldn't imagine it. I thought I would live somewhere in Vermont, alone, on my cousin's land. I would paint and work somewhere in the small town our family had lived in since the 1600's.

I couldn't imagine marriage, and yet here I am, not just married but happily married. It is a daily wonder to me.

There seems to be an idea that it's the big things, the big romance, the big passion, that makes marriage. it has it's place. That's not what I think makes marriage work over the long time, not happily. And not most importantly.

What I think works is the beauty of how you change each other. The mystery of an other person there, still there, and willing to be there. The acceptance of the flaws and annoyances and not putting the toothpaste the right way up in the bathroom and not emptying out the dishwasher and really, it doesn't matter. Because at the end of the day and the beginning of the day, the other person is still there.

Maybe quiet, maybe on the computer or watching TV, but eventually there beside you. And you change each other (except for the toothpaste part, I'm never going to get that down). And that's really a beautiful thing.

You learn to practice things, or at least I do, like politeness (please bring the laundry downstairs, thanks so much for getting the coffee) because wow, someone just did some little thing for ME! How great is that? Why should I ever take that for granted? I'm so incredibly lucky.

And you practice forgiveness because we're none of us perfect and I can't count the number of times it seems that married people expect more from their partners than they do from their friends and I just don't understand that. It seems so unfair.

And every day we make each other who are we are going to become a little bit more, and that's such a mystery to me and so amazing.

So I'm here to say I'm one hell of a lucky woman and yay for the Anniversary.

girls go wild

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:07:11 GMT

I went with GFs to see Sex and the City. I never really watched the show, caught it a couple of times on TV, and it seemed entertaining.

Wow, I had no idea.

Star Trek for women. There were only two hetero guys in the audience (who clearly love their GFs A LOT) and a gay couple. Everyone else was female. And loud. They wore outfits and were photographed in them. I mean, outfits so they looked like the ladies in the show. The shrieked and applauded when the theme music came on. The shrieked and applauded when their favorite characters came on. They boo'ed when bad things happened to their beloved girls. They cheered when good things happened.

It was not a movie, it was a community event, and I was okay with that. Once it was clear what the social expectations were, i could yell "dick" when guys did bad things, and "dumb ass" when the girls did dumb things, with the best of them. Which made it all fun and fine,

Even the clothes got applause. And some outfits were truly hot. Some were not. And please, give those ladies a sandwich or two.

It was fun in a way that I'm not accustomed to having fun. So that's probably good for me.

Wow, the wind is blowing in through the house off Elliott Bay. Very cold in here. I thought it was June. I'm clearly wrong about that. It must be some other time of year. Darn cold and windy.