Your Tuesday moment of zen.



Flower in the garden at Viejo Rancho Lake, 2006. © 2006, 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

The current photo series is from my 'favorites' file, hence the dates jumping about



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Copyediting Process: Questioning What You Know — More on the copy editing process, from editor Gabrielle Harbowy. Also this: Editorial Ego.

Roman-era shipwrecks found in deep waters off Greece

Measuring the Universe — A nice video on how we measure things. (Via threeoutside.)

The Zombie Network: Beware 'Free Public WiFi' — Finally got around to looking this up.

Report: In 10 States, Guns Kill More People Than Cars Do — Because, yeah… never mind. I'm too tired to be snarky about this. (Via danjite.)

?otd: Isn't it nice to sleep where you live?

---

5/29/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Con time)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.0 (fitful, plus airplane napping)
Weight: 244.0 (!!)
Currently reading: Shattering the Ley by Benjamin Tate

Lynn Flewelling's CASKET OF SOULS is out today!

How much do I love the Nightrunner series? I'll tell you: despite having already read it (an early friend-sneak), I've ordered a PAPER copy, so I can keep the collection intact.

Seriously; fun stuff. Start here, or start with the first book in the series, it's all good. But you'll want them all before you're done...

Awesome:

Perverted sex dream about playing with a giant horse-cock shaped sex toy.*

Awkward:

Whole thing takes place on your mom's bed.

Alarming:

Your mom has been dead for a number of years.

At least:

She wasn't still IN the bed.

. . .

Not cool, subconscious. Not cool.

* Shut up. Don't you judge. It's not like I actually HAVE one.

Fuckers are expensive.

X-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment count:

So, Lapis over on LJ has found a beautiful but starving-thin kitty. Being a decent person, she has brought her inside and is feeding her, but she's already overloaded with fosters, can't afford the vetting or the room, and this girl really needs extra loving attention.

She's so thin that Lapis is aware -- as am I -- that she must be kept from the pound, or she will be put down. (As I am only too aware from my personal life, the triage enforced by limited resources is cruelest to those most in need.) We've got about a week to find her a foster home or a forever home within 4-5 hours of Dallas (or within 4-5 hours of someone willing to drive her further), and I really think we can do it.

She's a complete darling, not feral but apparently someone's unwanted house pet. She's rail-thin, terribly sweet, and is eating and using the litter box normally. She doesn't appear unhealthy in any other way, but will need veterinary attention for a little while, to give her a checkup or two and get her vaccinated if nothing else.







From the post:

Normally I would foster a cat like this until she was both healthy and adopted, but my hands are too full at this time. I just don't have the capacity, and my vet bills are already stretched to the max with my own cats, and the other most recent foster. I'm asking for help to get this cat to either a forever home or a foster who is able to give her the time she needs to regain strength and body mass before going into the adoption network. Please help her! She is clearly not a feral, but a lost or dumped housecat. I will be calling the local shelters for lost cats in the morning because the holiday weekend will be over. She is equally torn between desires of food and wanting cuddles. Case in point, she fell asleep in my arms tonight. I have about a week before I have to take her to the pound, where I doubt she'll be given recovery time before getting a needle.

I am feeding her graduated amounts so she does not get sick, and already see a difference. So far she has not exhibited gorge behaviors. She is more vocal, and you can feel her stomach and intestines now. (How horrible that she is that starved to have virtually no muscle mass!) It took about 20 hours, but she started using the litter box. Tomorrow I will buy her some kitten chow, which will help supplement her.

So far she has not exhibited any obvious bad habits. She has pretty copper-yellow eyes, a strong voice which she seldom uses, and a beautiful silver-blue tabby coat with hints of peach. Once healthy, she would be a stunning cat, and sweetly dispositioned. I have no idea how she handles other cats since I'm not exposing her to mine since she hasn't been to a vet yet, but so far she perks up when she hears them calling at the door but does not growl or get tense.

If anyone has the interest in offering her a forever home or fostering her until she gets adopted, *please* let me know. I cannot do more, since I don't have the space. But if you know anyone who can give a nice cat a second chance, pass on the information. I am willing to drive up to 4-5 hours (which is a good radius centered on Dallas) to see that she gets help.

She is really beautiful, even as pitiful as she is. Can anyone take her in for a while longer, while a forever home is found? Or can anyone take her, period? Because someone out there needs this pretty girl as much as she needs them, and I would like to help them find each other. I would like this to be a rats-to-riches story. Let's make it happen.

Can I get signal boosts?

If you have questions or need more information, head over and read the rest of the story. I'll be forwarding comments over to her, so if you have questions, it's probably best to ask 'em there, but I'll try to make sure that everything gets where it needs to go!

X-posted from Dreamwidth. Comment count:

We got in late last night from Balticon, which was most excellent. I sold a metric butt-ton of copies of the Precinct books -- not just the newly released Goblin Precinct, but also lotsa copies of Dragon Precinct and Unicorn Precinct. In particular, the Eternal Launch went phenomenally well, with lots of people showing up to look at all the spiffy new books from Dark Quest. Wrenn also had a great time doing tech and seeing people.

The launch party really was a highlight -- we had five-minute readings by the various authors, we had music by Jonah Knight and SJ Tucker, as well as some lovely harp music, and a ton of food that got consumed quite rapidly. (Seriously, it was like the con was populated by vultures....) Kudos to party organizer Danielle Ackley-McPhail and all the folks who brought food (including me and Wrenn....).

In addition, I had a great time hanging out with various podcasting/audio drama folks, including getting to meet more of the voices behind HG World, including M. Sieiro Garcia, Laura Nicole, Bryan Lincoln, and Veronica Giguere, and getting to hang with them, as well as the HGW people I already knew -- Jay Smith (and his lovely wife Pam) and the Stokes/Rinas family -- was a treat and a half. I also had tremendous fun with fellow Dark Quest folks Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Mike McPhail, Christine Norris, Bernie Mojzes, James Daniel Ross (and his lovely wife Jennifer), KT Pinto, Patrick Thomas, C.J. Henderson, Jess Novasteras (and her nifty husband Jamie), and Elektra Hammond (and her nifty husband Michael), as well as any others I might have missed. Plus there was the World family, Zan, Renee & Day, Monica V., Myke, Ron & Robin, Ian & Joy, Mary S., the Kraus family, and others I know I've forgotten who should forgive a tired writer for not remembering.

And, most of all, we had a great time with our roommates, Neal Levin & Tina Randleman, who remain made of awesomesauce.

The panels were good, too, ranging from a rather ridiculous late-night panel on animals in SF/F (which the panelists, including me, were all wondering what we were doing on it), to the latest in a stellar series of Eye of Argon readings, to a great dynamic voice acting demo, to a really strong talk on editing anthologies. Plus I got to read from Leverage: The Zoo Job and do some networking.

The convention and the hotel did their best to spoil the weekend with assorted fuckups. The only ones that really affected me were 1) the room not being ready when Tina & Neal arrived, so they gave us a room that was ready, which was sufficiently far from the main part of the hotel as to almost be in the next county, and 2) programming putting the author signings by the dealer room, which makes sense on the face of it, but any autographings that occurred during hours when the dealer room was closed were disasters, because there was absolutely no foot traffic to that table if the dealer room was shut. Bad planning, guys.

Now I'm off to do the TNG Rewatch, as we kick off the fifth season, then it's Leverage, Leverage, Leverage......

My subconscious, that is.  Yesterday I had quite a pleasant time with hamburgers and board games, but my dreams were where the action was at. 

Well, one of them.  My first dream consisted of being stuck for hours in a mazelike parking garage where I could not get a clean cell phone signal nor find the ride that should have been waiting for me.  There was more to it than that, but the details are lost. 

The second dream... at first, in the second dream, I thought I was in college again, in a dormitory hall, with a weird selection of people.  Then I realized they were weird because they did not all belong to the same time -- one of them was fiddling with an old-fashioned radio set, and everyone was afraid.  Except me.

We were dead, and awaiting judgement in the underworld, and news had already gotten out that our judge was a sadistic renegade who had been given freedom to travel anywhere in heaven and hell and do as he pleased to deserving souls, a power that evidently could not now be denied him as he skipped through the afterlife rending and torturing in gruesome, poetically appropriate ways.

When we saw him, he was dressed as a clown.

And I... still wasn't afraid.  He taunted us, I taunted him back.  He assaulted my roommate, I interposed and shoved him away.  Everyone kind of stopped and stared, clown included.

Then I told him that he might have been sent here to judge us.... but I was sent here to judge him.  And I raised my hand to commence an almighty smackdown, fueled by righteous fury.

And I noticed he was smiling.

No.  Okay, I was wrong.  That wasn't hit.  He and I stepped aside, both confused, to try to work it out.  He knew, at least, why he couldn't touch me -- I had died not totally sinless, but close enough that there was no karmically appropriate punishment for me... unless I incurred it opposing him.  Trying to kick the shit out of him would count in a way that trying to pull him off his victims didn't, and he freely admitted that he'd really like to see me slip.  He didn't know what my purpose was, either, but there was one and it freaked him out.  

Then I realized.  I wasn't his judge... I was tasked with finding his judge among his victims.  Only when found would the judge be empowered, and when I picked (rightly or wrongly), I would lose my protection.  So, we chased one another through time, emerging at various points of history among the dead or the soon-to-be-dead (lots of groups with heatedly arguing politicians or soldiers mustering for battle -- lots of defendants at trials), him trying to dodge me and have a little fun, me trying to determine which of the people he wanted to butcher was in fact the fate-or-God-appointed, karmically appropriate being to understand his crimes and levy out his punishment.

It was like being thrust into a nightmare... and then given power over it.

I woke up before there was any resolution to the matter.

This entry was originally posted at http://matt-doyle.dreamwidth.org/796210.html. Comment wherever you feel most comfortable commenting.

Title: Crown of Thorns
Rating: PG13
Fandom: You’ll know.

It’s a balance, but not a balance of terror – the only one who’s terrified is you. Without the Prize – or if there were a better one, thus rendering it a mere, inadequate, prize – the Barons would go back to fighting each other on the battlefield instead of on the Court.

Thousands of lives hang on the balance every time you question your mirror, and the approaching years fill you with a dread that has nothing to do with vanity.

You grow an orchard next to your rooms, every apple a well-meaning sin.

You are not, actually, as objectively beautiful as the legends will suggest.

.finis.

Big news A) of course is that my book, War Paint: Tattoo Culture & the Armed Forces is out and you should buy a copy -- you can order it at your local brick and mortar store or get it from Amazon.

Big news B) is that the Amanda Palmer Kickstarter will likely hit $1,000,000 sometime today. So far 61 people have chosen the Bed Song Book which Neil & I are doing together. This is significant in that the books are $1,000 a pop. I'm kind of thunderstruck by this and, of course, there's significant pressure to make it the bast looking art book on the planet.

I'm still finishing up a few more photos for the Bed Song book, so if you're in Philly, especially West Philly and still want to be in on it, drop me a line.

Big news C) is that I shot a video for Ego Likeness last week and saw a rough cut of it last night and it looks very, very nice.

Big news D) is Roller Derby related. If you haven't already, please "like" the Facebook page. It's the best way to keep up with what's happening with the Roller Derby Portraits project and also, it'll be a lot easier to convince a publisher to take on the book if it's got 5,000 facebook fans already.

Big news E) is a top sekret projekt with S.J. Tucker which some of you might know about -- Shadowcaptain is in charge of leaking rumors about that -- you'll have to track him down on the Interwebs and stalk his feeds, but if you're interested in what SJ and I might be doing, you should enjoy the treasure hunt.

Big news F) is that I'll be at the Amanda Palmer Kickstarter Party in NYC this Thursday. Say "hi" if you see me.

I think that's it. Be well everybody. Do something special today.

Add me: [LiveJournal] [Facebook] [Twitter] [Google+] [Tumblr]