Daily Adventures

I had the privilege of going to go see Jason Statham in Parker yesterday.

It was a real treat. I've been reading the Richard Stark Parker novels because of a recommendation from Carl. Richard Stark was a pen name for Donald Westlake, and got through the first three, so was completely unspoiled for the movie, which was based on the fourth book Flashfire. The movie-Parker is softer and more sympathetic than the book one, but I can see why that was so. Smart adapters. The early Stark novels went out of print pretty quickly, but the later ones, after Parker's 1990 Comeback were much more popular.

( No spoilers, just more thoughts about what appealed to me about Parker. )

Been home for a few days now, and finally recovered enough to try and think a bit. *laughs*

Was busy for a bit there, the second book got accepted by the publisher in only about 2 weeks after we submitted it. The feeling is starting to sink in that the first book wasn't entirely a fluke, and that we're actually able to write these things with vigor. It also struck me that I'm actually pretty good at this plotting thing and really figuring out the motivations and reasons underlying the things that happen in a book.

Also finding that I'm able to find my own voice given reasonable time and something to really concentrate on; however, it's not helping that the short story lady hasn't gotten back to us on the Valentine's Day short stories. *laughs*

( And I've been filling my time with movies, books, and plotting galore. )

I've been having an oddly hard time just concentrating lately. Some of it is because the allergy, dry eye, and simple eye infection stuff has come back, but equal in both eyes now, not just the right like last year.

Some of it is that yesterday I went to see Out in the Silence, at our church, with the documentary's creators right there to talk to us, along with a brand-new (2 week old) state-wide initiative to make sure that all the school districts in the state follow through with the new anti-bullying legislation that was passed in the Colorado State legislature this last year. All good things... but some of the real stories just floored me.

If you have a chance, see the movie. It's not unrelentingly depressing, there's funny spots and uplifting bits, too. It's up on Hulu, it's on their site. It's free for anyone to watch that wants to see it. But they like it when you also do the public screening thing, as the main point is to allow regular people a voice to stop the abuse.

( Cut for explicit badness that happened within 20 miles of my town. )

( And now just cut for length for flists. )

Spent most of the days when Jet was at camp working furiously on a follow up story to the novel darkprism_fics and I are getting published at the end of July. Torquere seemed interested in follow up shorts stories to keep the characters alive, and maybe progress to the next novel.

So by Wednesday I was utterly beat. I had a quick consultation gig that afternoon with Mimi, which was very calming as she had a list of online things she needed done, and we just marched through them in a quick checklist. I love that she uses me simply to Get Things Done she otherwise would not do. It's one of my real strengths, and delights both of us, as she wouldn't get them done without me, and I feel accomplished when it's finished.

( John then took me on a little adventure to Castle Rock on the way to picking Jet up in the morning. )

Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age by Clay Shirky

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Lovely, lovely concrete examples for how modern technology and social forces have changed how people perceive, use, and interact with modern-day media.

( Read more... )

I'm gradually recovering from the last couple of weeks. After doing the Albuquerque trip and the eight hour drive home, I had two days before I left on Wednesday for Pleasanton, CA, and the pleasant company of amberley and my usual social whirlwind with the Horde, plus a nice little Minicon at EndGame in Oakland.

The food was to die for, the hotel suite amberley put me up in was a lovely place, and the gaming was a blast. Of course, when I got home, I immediately got sick (ran a 100 degree temp yesterday and hurt so much all over that I was doubling up on ibuprofen just to feel human again) and am still in the throes of recovering from that, which is why the lack of updates and pictures and things the way I usually do travel logs, so this may be a bit more sparse than my usual adventure logs.

( Review of Let Me In, Mountain View, Santa Cruz, Minicon, and Home again to a 100 degree temp and an odd sort of flu. )

...and the living is eeeeeasy...

Though completely stuffed full of things to do and people to see and things to make and paintings to sell and consultations to fulfill. And it's good. I've also started The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler that sophiap recommended for me, and it's made for some really amazing workouts.

We're swimming nearly every day in the neighborhood pool, and the heat's been averaging in the low-90's, but today it was in the 70's and raining so hard it nearly put out the fireworks stand fireworks we were using at our neighbor's party. We also had a friend from Callahan's days (Johanna) show up at our doorstep and they're staying for the night before going to a family reunion.

( Read more... )

Just read Daniel H. Pink's Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us and I really liked it. Four out of five stars... and the missing one is just that they didn't go into quite the depth I wanted them to go into.

( Read more... )

The Labor Day Weekend was really nice, but I'm glad to get back into some of my routine.

The boys and I went into Boulder on Saturday to do the "end of summer" fair and the Farmer's Market where I got some gorgeous leeks, gold potatoes, and a whole 40 pound box of peaches. Oh, the peaches... Morton's Palisade peaches are amazing, and we've gone through most of that box.

Sunday was church and then we went to a little amusement park on the edge of Golden, it had an alpine slide, go-carts, and lots of little rides. We had a blast just wandering, seeing the shops when it rained a little, eating ice cream, and Jet and I pedaled a swan-shaped pedal-boat all over a small pond and miraculously didn't run ourselves aground.

John and I team prepped two slabs of spare ribs on Labor Day and I did the smoking while he and Jet did their own thing. I got a story I'd promised someone on Y-Gallery mostly done. It was another blocker for me as while I had some ideas of the characters, I didn't know particulars, but I also knew that the owners of the chars would have a harder time telling me about stuff if I didn't have a story to hang the feedback on. So I finally slogged through it on Tuesday and I'll probably post it later today.

In prep for it, and for ideas on Richi of the Misfit Toys, I read Gavin De Becker's Just 2 Seconds: Using Time and Space to Defeat Assassins. It was really, really good. Specific, detailed instruction on primary goals for protectors and exactly why and what data they used to back up their practices. The specifics of how their protection firm works were really, really good as well. The compendium of over 1400 assassination attempts was amazing as well, chilling through the successful ones, heartening through all the unsuccessful ones. The most amazing thing was that the total, combined time from the initiation by the attacker to the conclusion of all those 1400+ attacks added up to less than thirty minutes.

The appendix was really fun, too, including a philosophical bit by an ex-general about sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. Some lovely quotes in all of it, especially one mob hitman talking about being like an egg in a pan once he's in. Go in, hit the guy, get out, always keep moving because if you're ever still, you start to fry.

Lots of interesting stuff, and I have a new respect for protectors, and even more for De Becker and his associates and their attitude towards how to face and deal with violence or those that would deal it.