Part three of my dare: I AM PRETTY SURE THAT NINJAPOPES ARE UNSTOPPABLE. Yes, I was challenged to capture this terrifying visage, and yet I did not flinch! Much. Okay, I flinched the whole time I was drawing this since the SHEER FORCE OF LOLCAPS was so overwhelming.

mrfantastico has the strength of 765 CHUCK NORRIS-ES. (Norrisi?) HE TRAVELS EVERYWHERE ON ULTRA-POWERFUL WHEELS THAT CAN RUN OVER PEDESTRIANS IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE. HE HAS A MACE-LIKE TAIL THAT CAN CUT A BITCH. BEWARE THE NINJAPOPE.

BEWARE.

It's not entirely clear what ninjapopes actually look like in the wild. However, the sheer awesome of a Ninjapope Josh is just TOO FUCKING PHENOMENAL for ordinary cameras, so this artist's rendition will have to suffice for now.

THE DARE PART 3: mrfantastico WILL PROBABLY DEMOLISH WHATEVER LOOKS DEMOLISHABLE


More to come!

Big Brown again.

Well, I watched it.  Swore I wouldn't.  Tried, actually, not to be home, but post time was later than I thought, and this is one of my failings: I have to know.  I'd rather watch, whatever happens, than wait for the reports.

And no taking that away from him: helluva race.  Helluva horse.  I'm not sure he's beating much of anything?  But he's got a lovely big stride (but I like Gayego's action at least as much) and runs like a professional.

On to Belmont, then.  Hope those feet hold up.

I've been quiet on LJ and on the IAF Salon thread because I'm depressed again, for seemingly no reason. Whether this is going to be a little down spiral that goes away in a few days or a full-blown clinical episode that lasts for a few weeks or months, the coming days will tell. I'm not very happy with my brain at the moment. It has chosen the busiest time of the year for me to break. I've got a short story collection due, an autumn line of jewelry to plan, WisCon to attend and ReaderCon to prepare for, novels to plan and a bunch of articles and interviews I want to start pitching and writing, because I need the money and the experience. So, of course, now would be the time that I become low-energy, dejected, anxious, quick-tempered and about as dysfunctional as an...well, I don't know what.

ETA: LOL I forgot to complete that sentence. By the way, I just found out that my suspicions that the anti-depressant I'm taking has adversely effected my short-term memory were well founded. Woo-fucking-hoo.

Way to go, brain.

Sometimes my hatred of this disease exceeds my ability to find words, even obscene ones. Really it does.

Also fun: My Web site seems to have a glitch. I'll try to get that fixed as soon as possible, and I'm sorry to anyone going over there from the IAF auctions who can't really check it out because pages aren't loading. Not sure what's up with that.

Since the goal of interventions is to teach you to be positive while everything around you and inside of you is falling to pieces (sometimes it's about as effective as holding an umbrella up in a hurricane, but whatever), let's focus on the positive now. A little while ago, one of the cats caught a bird and ate up everything, leaving only the hard skull behind. With the help of erzebet, whose knowledge of caring for bones is encyclopedic, I salvaged the skull and am in the process of treating it now. If all goes well and nature or my own clumsiness don't interfere, I will be creating a single piece of beaded bone art to be sold with my autumn jewelry line (provided, of course, that I can also learn the skills I need between now and then for the fall line to even be done the way I want it to be done, and that I can scrape together the money to get the materials I want for it).

As someone who has spent most of her life thinking she would only ever be able to create art with words, this is very exciting. I like being able to have more than one skill at my disposal. It makes the world much more interesting.

So take that, depression. :p

Three hours. That’s how long Melissa and I spent at Babies R Us. We were putting together a gift registry, and lost track of time. It’s kind of an overwhelming experience, going in there as new parents. We had a pretty clear idea of all the stuff we’d need when the baby arrives, but when we got to the store, we realized there were about 4.5 million other things that we hadn’t even thought about, as well as 3.5 million things that we wanted on the grounds of cuteness. These are exact figures that I calculated on the drive home.

By the time we had completed our circuit of the store, our scanning gun was smoking, filled to capacity with things the baby will a.) grow out of in a manner of weeks; and b.) vomit on. But damn it, they were cute! Nothing but little monkeys and frogs and elephants and dinosaurs and—thanks to Johnny Depp—pirates. You know, the sort of stuff I wish I had right now.

( And now I’m going to geek out on gaming for a moment… )

My husband and I are driving from Western Minnesota, and driving through the cities, to Wiscon. Wanted to offer a ride since we have one extra seat. We have two dogs, a big one and a small one. I can sit in back, thus getting any dog smell. We are leaving this Wednesday morning. Thus I am expecting that no one will want to ride with us, but I wanted to post on here just in case anyone needs a ride and is flexible and loves fuzzy puppies. Oh, and it'll be a cheap ride, because we have a Jetta TDI and get 50+ MPG

:-)

I'm not creepy, pretty cool, and this is my third wiscon. Lemme know if you want the spot!

...like staring into a scan of your own eyeball. Only because I love my sight so much, I was able stare into a disgusting red and green map of the inside of my poor, stretched ocular orb.

The good news - nothing much wrong!

The bad news - except that part where the inside of your eyeballs might rip off. But there's not a huge chance, just, you know, a chance!

...great?

Other good news - new frames! Now I have peripheral vision! (My old glasses were apparently teeny!)

Chicken and egg.  It's easy to get a horse going forward in balance when you're sitting well.  And it's easy to sit well on a horse that's going forward in balance.  But I seem to be spectacularly good at trying for both and managing neither.

The answer of the day seemed to be, "Go outside."  Our work in the indoor mostly sucked goats.  There was some nice walk work, some decent stuff at the canter, but--we were fighting each other.  A lot.  I'd gone in determined to hold my position come hell or high water, and ended up handsy and tense.  Tucker was not amused.  Can't say I blame him one bit.  (My lunch today also consisted of pure trash--and this after kimatyza fed me such a nice breakfast!--so I wasn't feeling exactly my most athletic.)

But then we went into the outdoor, and our work out there?  Brilliant.  Light and uphill and forward, swinging along, few corrections even needed, and those that were called for were delivered deftly, tactfully, and taken cheerfully and well.

Part of me feels like this is cheating.  I should be able to produce this kind of work--and this sense of joy--indoors.  And I suspect I'm not as accurate without the letters to keep me honest (though learning to ride the quality of gait that Tucker was offering today will give me plenty to think about, so).  But y'know.  Part of me also says that this stuff is hard enough without not taking full advantage of what gifts present themselves.

So.  It's supposed to be wet tonight and tomorrow, but footing permitting I think we'll try one step further and go school some dressage out in the XC warm up area after I finish chores tomorrow AM, maybe trot the trails after.  (Otherwise, we'll be stuck in the indoor, and I think it's maybe time for a no-stirrups session.)  Gotta ride Danny the Wonder Horse tomorrow, too, and H. was kind enough to loan me her meter wheel, so I'll be measuring out the track and some other spaces out back to at least get some sense of what exactly we're doing on conditioning days.

Onward.

So as you folks know, I was dared to do a whole bunch of things. One of the "dares" was to do a self portrait. I decided to make a pop-art/cel-shaded/manga-style doodle of me! Here you go:

THE DARE PART 2: ARTISTIC LIBERTIES WITH MY OWN LIKENESS


Thanks for the idea, komejo! I know you are no stranger to tall artistic Germanic giantess redheads who grew up in the middle of nowhere and have obscure interests and wear large boots, so I figured I'd do this one because it was fun. :)

I have a favorite photo of myself in a Zeke-like wig. I worked off that photo for this but took some liberties with it - the original was kind of a difficult pose to transcribe exactly. Also, as you saw in my previous post, my hair isn't actually pink. :P

I continue! More to come!

Say, is anyone else who resides in central Illinois, particularly the Champaign-Urbana area, attending this year? I'd hate to miss the opportunity to meet Wiscon folk from my current location because I didn't know to look for them.

-j00j, temporarily not a Chicagoan.

Okay. In my previous post, I asked you good people to dare me to do stuff. I couldn't do it all, so I picked a few that could be easily done on the Internet. I'm going to get to as many as I can today!

I don't know if this really counts, but most of you wanted to see me put on a little halter top and eat produce and photograph it.

So here.

THE DARE PART 1: PRODUCE AND ANGER


I abase myself before you, Livejournal. Also I cut my hair too short in back. Sigh.

More to come!

The Fix On-Line posted their review of Talebones #36 with many kind words about my "Rock House."  The opening line of the review is really cool: 

"'Rock House' by James Van Pelt, a story that might send shivers down even Poe’s spine, takes on a life of its own and invites the reader into an eerie, cave-like dwelling where old friends reunite to reminisce about books, life, and lost opportunities."

Also, I'd like to point out that two of my stories from last year were picked up for inclusion in Year's Best anthologies and are still eligible for Nebula consideration.  Both can be read on line.  "Of Late I Dreamt of Venus," which originally appeared in Visual Journeys and will soon be available in Gardner Dozois's Year's Best Science Fiction, 25th edition, will lose its eligibility at the end of the month.  It's four votes shy of making the preliminary ballot.  If you are a SFWA member, and read and liked the story, please consider adding to its nomination total.  It falls into the novelette category.

"How Music Begins," which was in the Sept. '07 Asimov's, and then picked up for the David Hartwell's Year's Best Science Fiction, 13th edition, is also a few votes short of making the preliminary ballot.  The link is a private one for SFWA members only, but I will be happy to e-mail the story to anyone who would like to read it.  Once again, if you are an eligible voter, please consider adding it to your nomination list.  It is in the short story category.

Despite the continuous fuss about how the Nebulas work (rolling eligibility, award relevance for readers, etc.), I very much like the fact that an award voted on by the SFWA members exist.  I encourage SFWA members to nominate whenever they see a story they think is noteworthy.  The whole nomination process is only a couple of mouse clicks away!  You can recommend a work that no one has nominated before at this link, or add a nomination to a previously nominated work by going to the Current Nebula Awards Report and clicking on the title of the work you would like to recognize.

Snarked from the Analog discussion board.

Is anyone going to Milwaukee Monday morning, who could give my spouse a ride? He needs to catch a plane to Uganda. Is it bad that I'd rather not miss all the Monday programming at WisCon than kiss him good-bye at the airport...?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO moonlightalice!

I'd razz her for being another year older but she's half a decade younger (AT LEAST) than most of us including myself, so, yeah. Happy Birthday! Where would we be without your sweetly sarcastic commentary on everything? Nowhere, that's where! Treat yourself well, and when next I see you, there will be hugs and entertainment to amuse the birthday girl, m'kay?



Due to general hangings out with friends both last night and today, I've no time to watch BSG until late, late tonight, tomorrow at the earliest. I've promised to watch with feiran and ecmyers, which is really more fun anyway, so I'm going to do that and it will then depend on us three coordinating schedules.

I think this means I need to just stay off the internets because even looking at cut-tags on entries that talk about last night make me want to either watch or just spoil myself and see what people thought. I'm going to opt with staying off the internets. Ciao, people.

My word, you people have an insatiable appetite for biscuits. Six kilos of snacks!

( If you asked for something, click on this cut to find out if I got it for you! )

Another week has flown past. I was there. I lived through it.

You'd think I'd remember.

or, almost. Bless Jodi. And beating back my obsessive tweaking on this query.

Does anyone have a late membership to sell? I have an unexpected visitor coming Con weekend.

heyfoureyes at livejournal dot com, thanks.