Five Things Make A Post (at wiscon)

1. Due to my Internet troubles some IAFAuctions did not go up on schedule!  Luckily one did.  Cris did a beautiful necklace for Prester John and I got to poke it for the first time yesterday.  It stood up to poking!  The other auction was JoSelle’s piece based on Black Feather, which is so awesome I can’t believe it.  It makes me feel so shivery inside to see these beautiful things that were inspired by some story I wrote.  I need to give JoSelle a big hug when I see her this weekend.  I’m in the midst of running around now, but I will have a blog badge for all the new auctions soon so that people can promote.  In the meantime, take note: Cris’s is the last Prester John piece going up for this auction, so if you want to get a bit of Valente’s magic as interpreted by amazing artists, you should bid on that or JoSelle’s Prester John piece (at $75 now!).  The Black Feather necklace is also the last chance to get something by JoSelle.

2. I finished redesigning my web design portfolio.  It’s a work in progress, as I may want to do something flashier with the header.  But it has all the information organized the way I want, and that was the main thing.  I need to add links to it, yes, but I am trying to decide how I will do so.  Go see in the meantime.

3. Did you know that my writing group the Black Beans has a website now?  You should go look at it and maybe keep an eye on the news section, because some big ass news is going up there soon.  (Not anything concerning me, mind, but something I am very excited about.)

4. I arrived in Madison a few hours ago and am very tired, and yet I’ll be up late tonight just as I will be up late every night. Ah well, tomorrow I can sleep in.

5. WisCon is finally here.  It will be over too soon.  Better savor every second!

Good News, Bad News, WisCon Week Edition

Good News: My new roommates moved in today.  They are a handsome young gay couple, and it’s a little like living in an episode of Torchwood wherein Owen, Tosh, and Gwen are always off somewhere else and I’m alone in the hub with Jack and Ianto.  Except the hub is just a coffee shop or something and the greatest threat is noisy neighbors.  Still!  Nice fellows.

Bad News: Due to… issues… the DSL was cut off today.  Right in the middle of working.  I was literally writing an IM then, poof, nothing.  It won’t be back on until tomorrow, and it comepletely cut into me getting my work done for today.  Which leads to…

Good News: I have picked up one, possibly two new clients!  The possible client looks very promising and they’d like me to manage a blog.  Beauty products!  Awesome.  The definite new client has me doing web maintenance, which is very simple for me to do.  I may be able to eat the rest of this month after all.  And for many months to come!  Plus, several folks have asked for updates to their sites or other single jobs, which I’m really grateful for.

Hopefully bad news won’t slow me down too much tomorrow, but it does make things a bit more stressful with one day to go before I leave for WisCon.  However, the apartment is clean, I only have one more image for IAFAuctions to shoot, and laundry is happening today so packing can happen tomorrow before I go downtown for KGB.

Still, I could have done without Bad News today.

More 1am stuff

I finally finished the last of my pieces for the IAFAuction plus one for the Tiptree auction at WisCon and something for myself.  Wanna see?  Nah, you don’t wanna see.  If you did, you’d click on the cut.

Continue reading »

Jill Sobule!! Here!

Okay, here’s the thing, I need to be careful about my spending right now and I need to prepare for WisCon.  But I found out last night that Jill Sobule is giving a concert at Joe’s Pub tomorrow night.  I love Jill down to my toes and would not pass up a chance to see her for anything.  So apparently I am on ramen for the rest of the week, I need to see her!

Does anyone want to join me?  Tickets are actually reasonable–$21 with the online booking fee–and I have a dinner reservation so we’ll actually have a seat.  It’s Jill Sobule!  She’s so awesome.  Come see.

Not-A-Meme

Now that a significant chunk of my friends have an eeepc, I am starting to feel like we’re in a gang. The small laptops are coming! They are taking over. I want a picture of everyone from Altered Fluid with one. I want us all lined up, eying Devin (who has a small laptop, but not a tiny one) with suspicion.

Anyway, this is not a meme, but it is some fun-ness. The challenge is to post pictures of your eeepc in all its glorious eeeness. Top points to shots of the eee in the wild, or somewhere fun, or doing something hilarious. Here’s mine:

I christened her “The Maidenhead” and Mary Robinette Kowal is going to make me a custom skin with art based on Cat Valente’s book as the base. Then she will be red and piratey.

What is my eeepc doing that is interesting? It’s helping me test out the “Set White Balance” function on my camera, which I just discovered today. Hooray. (Thanks for the tip, Mary.)

I showed you mine, now show me yours! I should tag people, just to make it more meme-y. I tag coffeeandink, Eugene, and Kris.

(p.s. also, we should make our eeepictures into icons, like I did!)

Today @ Fantasy

Jeremy Tolbert Asks: How Has The Internet Changed Fandom?

Today, we see almost weekly flare-ups and controversies in this thing called the blogosphere. New movements among writers appear almost as regularly, sometimes lingering (such as the Mundane SF manifesto). They burn bright, fast, and die down, it seems, just in time for the next major brouhaha. I think that’s the downside to this ease of communication. The Internet makes everything personal. Enemies are made quickly–but friends too. Perhaps not a unique trait of the medium, but a trait nonetheless.

I’d like to invite you to talk about the ways in which the internet has helped you connect with others and what communities you have formed or joined because of it.

Go comment!  Win $10.

Hell Week!

Probably not for the reasons you think. I’m still in the midst of a hellish job hunt and I have a million billion things to do before going to WisCon and this auction is eating my brain! However, once it’s over I will have pulled off something major and raised money for IAF, so yay. But still, omg!

Speaking of, my earrings went up and everyone reading this needs to go and bid on them. Also up, a freaking gorgeous piece by Elizabeth Genco:

Anyway, now I need to write some sort of ad for myself to advertise my abilities so I can post it places people are looking for freelancers and I have no idea how to even do that. (but first I need to learn to fucking spell.) And I need to get started on Timmi’s site!

Like I said, Hell Week.

So…

Yesterday was interesting, wasn’t it?

WisCon and POC - Spread the Word!

Here are the details we’ve worked out for the unofficial POC-only events @ WisCon:

Friday:

Meet & Greet

After the opening ceremonies (approx 8:30PM) there will be an informal gathering of POC so that we can meet each other, plan how we’re going to deal with certain aspects of the POC space during the con, and squee over the # of us all in one place. At around 8:50 we’re going to depart for somewhere other than the lobby–perhaps someone’s room, a corner of the bar, a restaurant, wherever we decide. So be sure to be in the lobby before then!

Saturday:

11:45 - 1:00 PM - Intra-POC Relationships & Coalition Building Kaffeeklatsch
one of the overflow rooms on the 6th floor.

Participants of this kaffeeklatsch will be limited. (I’ll let you guess what the limitations are.) In order to avoid certain unpleasantness, there will be folks at the con with sign-up lists for this event. You’ll be able to recognize them by the buttons they wear, which will say “People Against We-Sha-Sha“. If you want to be one of the people with a sign-up list, please let me know.

(The lunch time begins at 11:15, which gives people time to hop over to the cafe to get some food if there’s nothing in the con suite they can eat. But I believe this year they are making sure there are vegetarian and vegan options.)

Monday:

8:00 - 9:45AM - POC Breakfast & Con Roundup
Concourse Hotel Restaurant

Some have suggested we have a last get-together on the last day to go over our con experiences and sketch out a plan for how we’re going to deal with some of the POC-only spaces next year. I blocked out the entire early morning programming block so that people could drop in as they wake up, pop out to attend a panel, etc.

Also, now that the programming schedule is up, is anyone willing to take shifts (during one programming block, say) so we can have a POC-only lounge space?

Now that we have a day/time, is anyone able to print out a bunch of copies of the info flier so we can hand them out?

And last, I would like to have a reading with all POC participants (though the audience can be mixed, maybe?), maybe on Saturday. Is anyone interested in reading?

Spread the word, everyone! I want as many people to know about this before the con as possible, as it will facilitate getting people in the right place at the right time.

In which I am insane for about 4.5 minutes

When I was a wee one, I loved the New Kids On The Block for a minute.  I was such a dork, though, that I got into them just as everyone else was starting to realize they sucked.  But that’s okay ,because I could enjoy my love for Donnie, Danny, Joey, John and Jordon in peace.  I had all the tapes (well, not that first album, which I hear sucked), and I had two concert videos, and I had posters, but I did not have the dolls.  I had my limits.

And, of course, after a while I stopped thinking they were good and moved on to bigger and better things (Menudo!).  I remember laughing uproariously when the group came through Cincinnati as their career was on the last leg and finding out that they couldn’t even fill up a small club, whereas just a few years before the stadium tickets were sold out in 20 seconds or something.  Fame is fleeting, especially for packaged pop.

A few years ago I almost watched that VH1 reality show with the waning celebrities — The Surreal Life? — because Jordan Knight was on.  But I didn’t care enough to seek the show out and I didn’t have TiVo.  But right around then I heard rumors that some of the boys wanted to have a reunion.  I also heard (I don’t know how I hear these things) that all but John were interested.  He’d been too old for the group in the first place (originally Donnie’s little brother Mark, as in Marky Mark, as in Mark Whalberg, was supposed to be the 5th member, but he took a look at the songs and was like WTF no way, I am a hard ass!  And, as it turns out, he was.  So they recruited John.) and had settled into a normal life as an accountant or real estate agent or something.  He was now really too old for this foolishness.

But I guess they got to him.  Another VH1 show about reuniting bands decided to reunite NKOTB.  I remember hearing about that, too.  But it was a while ago.  It must have worked, or John must be feeling that mortgage crisis, because they reunioned, and now there’s an album maybe?  And also they’ll be on the Today show tomorrow.

How do I know all this?  Well, I was on a social bookmarking site and found a link to someone who has been counting down to this great moment.  When I saw the headline, I laughed, and then I thought “Hmm, nostalgia!  Maybe I should go down there and see them.  I missed out on NKOTB concerts back in the day.  And maybe they are still handsome!  And I always said I would marry Danny someday.  If Katie Holmes can do it, so can I!”

And then I saw the picture.

Nevermind.