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On assuming people are more conservative than they actually are
I was going to try to put a poll into this post, but I wasn't able to come up with satisfactory questions. You will have to answer, in comments, the questions I should have asked.

I often feel like people think I don't want to hear them talk about sex (or similar topics), or else am somehow conservative enough that it would be a bad idea (this is as opposed to the people who find me merely creep; they are not who I am talking about). Maybe this is because, for example, I dress non-descriptly and never in all black, often try to be polite to people, don't talk about sex loudly on the subway, and cringe when people talk about their sex lives loudly in what I consider a public space.

The thing is, I tend to do exactly the same thing to everybody else. I treat people like they are absolute right-wing nuts until they demonstrate otherwise. Healthy or no, this shouldn't be surprising, since where I grew up most people were right-wing nuts. Now, there are people who I think I rightly consider twitching balls of dysfunction and sex-negativity, but for most people I have no basis for knowledge. So, the poll I would put here -- if I knew how to word it -- would be something like "Do you feel people treat you as more socially conservative than you actually are?"

"Conservative" is sort of an unhelpful word, though. For example, I once had a conversation with

faerieboots about composers, musicians, and music, where she asserted that these were overwhelmingly apolitical or maybe liberal (I don't think either of us had pop music in mind here, but I don't remember why not). I made some sort of face, and the conversation went something like this:

faerieboots: Okay, then, name one right-wing composer.
Me, spending zero time thinking this through: Wagner.

faerieboots, perplexed: Oh? And what sorts of conservative values does Wagner embody, then?
Me, again not thinking this through: Racism!

As it turns out, this is not universally considered a conservative value. Who knew?

I apologize (almost sincerely) for talking about Wagner and sex in the same post, but my point is that it's (unsurprisingly) hard to pin down all the reasons people have for avoiding talking to one another about certain topics. I also apologize (sincerely, this time) to each and every one of you who I have ever treated like a sex-negative angst-bunny who should not be conversationally poked with a ten-foot pole (I am having a bad metaphor day -- please send help!). I will probably do this again to you, and I'm sorry. But I realize it's unfair, and that it's easier for people to seem sane about sex if you stop treating them at the outset as if they were crazy.

Dinner with Infanterie Regiment von Donop
Saturday, I had the pleasure of enjoying the company of

telescope_merc and several members of Infanterie Regiment von Donop and eating Ethiopian cuisine.

It is rare that I can say I get giddy-ly excited about food, but this weekend I was absolutely delighted and tickled pink about dinner. The food was fantastic! It was the first time I ever ate food (outside of the SCA) with my hands. The cuisine ranged from sweet to spicy/hot. Lamb, lentils, chicken, and assorted grains, with these wonderful sour-doughy pancake type flat bread. Yummy, happy goodness about sums it up. Definitely appealed to my geeky chefy nature.

The company was equally phenominal. 5 gentlemen who can intellegently converse about anything and everything from firearms, cannons, uniform regulations, hand sewing buttons holes, to gaming miniatures, science, programming specs, and modern building construction.

By far one of the best dinners I've been to in a really long time... it doesnt get better than a group of history geeks and fantastic food. :D

Current Mood: Yummy, happy goodness

Club Choices?
Does anyone know whats going on with Club Choice (Union Sq.)?
Their was a post on their myspace saying they will be closed for about month?
Thanks in advance..

The awards post -- revisited . . .
The deadline for recommendations for Their Majesties' second polling is Wednesday, Oct. 15.

This is for the three peerages -- Chivalry, Laurel and Pelican -- and for the five High Orders of Merit -- Order of the Tygers' Combatant, Maunche, Silver Crescent, Sagittarius and Order of the Golden Rapier.

TRM are not planning on a third polling, so you need to get these in by Oct. 15.

Use the recommendation form on the EK website if at all possible. If not, please send it to TRM@eastkingdom.com and copy me at liamstliam@gmail.com. The web site is preferred.

Please read this part: You do *not* have to be a member of an order or have a specific award to recommend someone for that award.

Again: You do *not* have to be a member of an order or have a specific award to recommend someone for that award.

For all other awards, feel free to write at any time . . . but, the sooner they get them, the better the chance of the award happening.

For all awards, please give as much background as possible. Give the local group and list any events you think the person might be at.

Now, from the Liamverse, "How to Write Someone in for an Award"

*********

So, there’s someone you know in the SCA, and you think they’re really spiffy. Maybe they have been playing for a couple of years, and they don’t have an Award of Arms. Perhaps you’ve seen someone run events, hold and office and constantly do things at events for four or five years, yet they don’t have a Silver Crescent. Maybe there’s someone in your group who has been at it for a long time, is always there, is a great fighter or great artisan and you wonder why they are not a peer yet.

Some of this is my opinion, but here’s what you can do.

First of all, quietly ask around, not so much for the AoA, but more for the other awards. Ask people in the order. If the person is proteged, squired or apprenticed, you would want to ask their peer.

Check the East Kingdom Order of Precedence to make sure they don’t have the award. Really.

Get lots of information on them. Yes, you need to do it quietly, but spouses and friends will often help. Get everything you can to build your case that the person deserves the award. When you write the recommendation, be specific, be thorough and do not be flowery. Make your point as succinctly as possibly. Be sure to identify where the person is from and anywhere else they have been. Identify yourself to the Crown has best you can. Include their local group and what events they might be attending in the future.

The Order of Precedence and the information on specific awards are on the East Kingdom Website (www.eastkingdom.org). You will also find a form to submit award recommendations on the site. You must register to use the form.

In service,

Master Liam St, Liam
Major Domo to Their Majesties East

PS: You do *not* have to be a member of an order or have a specific award to recommend someone for that award.

Double Whammy
This morning we performed “The Nine Who Dared: Crisis in Little Rock” for our first audience. We only had minor bumps backstage and the students seemed engaged the whole time. Having this is the first show in our repertoire to be so close to home. It’s very hard to maintain my composure particularly during the interactive part of the performance. When we are called on to answer questions about the physical, life threatening, danger the Little Rock Nine faced, and the fear they felt, it is not that fear from the fear that most of us have experienced growing up at some point. Had the performance been 5 minutes longer I would have begun to cry on stage. We hugged a lot back stage after the show was over.

This afternoon I and another Artist-educator went to one of the schools to teach. We are there to help English teachers bring drama and theater techniques in to the classrooms. When we arrived, we learned that there was no way to divide the class today the way we hoped, so we had twice the number of students we were expecting, 30+ instead of 17.
We were teamed with teachers from the school of course. And the three of us spent a large amount of the time returning the class to focus. It took an unbelievably long time just to get the students to tell us their names one by one. It was struggle for some of the kids just to “keep it clean”. We started a simple exercise called “Rants” where students stand at the front of the room are given a topic and talk about it from a particular opinion: like, dislike, confusion, anger, whatever they choose. It should have taken about a minute per person. We didn’t get through the entire class because it took a few minutes to motivate students to do it, and the rants were often interrupted by outbursts form the rest of the class. The students did not seem to be used to maintaining self control at least in the environment of this class. And as my partner mentioned there appeared to be few penalties of substance.
When we did accomplish the work some great things happened. One of the students who was most resistant convinced she couldn’t talk about the topic she was given launched in to a rant without realizing it. Another one is consummate performer. He acts resistant to make sure he becomes the center of attention before launching in to his act to entertain, a class clown who feigns reluctance. There are several students with the confidence to be a strong influence for encouraging others to participate.
We’re going again tomorrow, to work with a different grade. We’re hoping the class size issue will be resolved if not tomorrow then by the time we return in two weeks. Having the smaller class will make it a lot easier to get to the work.
This is my third experience as an artist-educator and it promises to be the most challenging.

blackberry picking!
A couple of weeks ago, I went blackberry picking!

( Read more... )

Food poisoning alert.
My roomate got home and started vomiting. It looks like food poisoning, though he has not called a doctor. He had Eggs Benedict at Soundbites in Ball Sq for lunch. Anyone other cases of food poisoning there? We like the place, but obviously we'll stay away for a while.

Museum of Science
Anyone interested in going to Museum of Science in the upcoming future? We are members, and would be able to take a limited number of people for free. Events that have perked my interest are the National Chemistry Week Kick-off even Sat Oct 18th (1-5) and the Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns & Mermaids exhibit (opening Oct 25).

Current Mood: curious

Obama fundraiser at Grand on Tuesday (10/7)
Granted a tad, bit outside of Davis, but alas...

Grand is hosting a fundraiser for Barack Obama and you’re invited! The event will be held at Grand on the evening of Tuesday, October 7th from 6PM-8PM.

Please go here to sign up and feel free to spread the word.

http://my.barackobama.com/page/event/detail/gsh3cp

A suggested $25 donation is encouraged. Adult drinks and snacks will be provided.

Remember, every little bit counts and no matter where you stand, please remember to vote!

SCotUS Meme pt. 2
The first pass of this meme was mishandled, so let's be more fair.

As was demonstrated in an interview with Katie Couric, Sarah Palin is unable to name any Supreme Court Case that she disagreed with other than Roe v. Wade.

The Rules: Post info about ONE Supreme Court decision, modern or historic, to your lj that you disagree with, and that, in your opinion, is still unresolved. (Any decision, as long as it's not Roe v. Wade.) For those who see this on your f-list, take the meme to your OWN lj to spread the fun.

I choose the worst botch of eminent domain in recent memory:
Kelo v. City of New London

omg pictures yay
Our photographer has put up a slide show of the wedding pictures on his site. I love them!

www.danderby.com/caitrin&timothy/

A tiny stop/go symbol for starting and stopping the slide show is on the lower left. If you click the picture, the show will stop on the picture it's on, after which clicking the picture will make it advance.

Our printed proof book is on the way, as is a DVD with all of the pictures he took, plus B&W versions. Eee.

Current Mood: eee

Grumble
( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

Current Mood: sick and pissed off

Minutes from NEIL Con Com meeting, Oct 5, 2008
Game signup opening schedule, Intercon I t-shirts, Chad's honeymoon, and more... all behind the cut!

( Read more... )

Chapter Six in San Francisco yesterday...

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/10/chapter-six-in-san-francisco-yesterday.html

posted by Neil

Last night's reading is up at http://www.mousecircus.com/videotour.aspx?VideoID=6 .

It's Chapter Six, and was really fun to read.

Labels: free book but this time in installments and filmed

anyone wanna see liam finn tomorrow night?
is anyone interested in seeing liam finn at the paradise tomorrow night?

twitch124 and i have an extra ticket. it's $18.

I've got 700 images so far, and I'm expecting three more people to send me sets. Hopefully we'll be looking at an even 1000.

Everything looks really good so far, and amazingly enough I've only caught two duplicates. Who would have known that Kim Jong Ill and Colonel Sanders would be so popular?

The last few days have all been me setting up databases for my character ideas and other things like that. It's not exactly writing, but I guess it's something. My grandfather's out of the hospital again, though, so hopefully I'll be unstressed enough to write as normal for a while again.

I'm really looking forward to NaNoWriMo this year.

From uncertprin_sb
WETI a much more efficient strategy.

oddments
1. Cannot find Infusium shampoo that is anything other than For Dyed Hair. Mine is not dyed; therefore that shampoo does not apply. This is frustrating. I don't want to go to CVS because they promote fundy pharmacists, but I also don't want to drive all over fucking town for one bottle of shampoo. (Shut up. I know they're all basically the same thing but I am allowed to be a girl sometimes.)

2. The Salvation Army around here opens at 9:30, which is frustrating as hell when you find yourself driving past it at 8:30 with a cardboard box full of donations in the trunk and a rain-threatening sky. I would like to see the stuff I give them get used, not get soaked and thrown away.

3: It's the circle of recycling. I get stuff from thrift stores. I give stuff back to thrift stores. I then buy new stuff from the same thrift stores I donate to.

R. I want to hug Michael Franti. Except I might have problems letting go. I will settle for sending him a postcard.

17. Cashews and dark chocolate and bottled water are a good breakfast. They are, they are, I don't care what you say.

Δ. This yoga has to be doing something somewhere, because both the donation-box toting and the annual bringing-in of the Giant Sack Of Kibble seemed weirdly easy. Bleu suggests I may be.. solidifying? No, that's not it. Firming up. I don't know. I look the same, and when I poke at myself I feel the same. But I can lift stuff easier. That's awesome.

53: I need to wash the dog and I really don't want to. It'd be easier if I could cross-tie her out in the yard and hose her down like I did with Sadie, but that's not doable for a number of reasons.

And a meme, jacked from

ireth: ( under the cut. )

Current Music: The Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin'

Grrr. Don't you people realize I'm dyscalculic!
Whose brilliant idea was it to have one entry in the "Known Problems and Solutions" for both
bug number: 42549 and 42594? It took me 20 minutes to figure out why I repeated the name number twice for the entry.
*kicks self*
Somebody needs a "Math is Hard" icon.
ETA:
Also, I can't spell. Why would anyone who can't spell and has number issues ever want to become a technical writer? What was I thinking?

Current Mood: confused
Current Music: The Clancy Brothers "Irish Rover"

Sunday's Sinfest has something wonderful to say. And highly amusing.

Last Sunday's was also great.

Sarah Brightman - Ave Maria
I can't watch this video without thinking of Klimt's Danae.

shipbuilding

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/10/shipbuilding.html

posted by Neil

Remember when Euan Kerr came out to interview me and help with the beehives?

The interview is now up. There's an embeddable player that I'm going to try and embed here...

-- and you can read the article, find the player and see some photos of me in a bee-suit (and a really lovely bee photo) at
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/03/gaiman/

So the breakfast this morning in Oakland, talking to retailers, was a delight -- I wished afterwards it had been taped or filmed -- and the Booksmith Event was really fun and fine. Great acoustics and a lovely venue. (Kepler's had a giant white spider come down from the rafters to listen, during the Q&A, though.)

Hi Neil, I just got home from the reading in San Francisco this evening (afternoon?). I was the Jack who asked why you have a vendetta against people named Jack. I was being snide, but thanks for answering anyways, and I'm glad it got a laugh.

I realized during the Q&A that I had another, perhaps more substantive question to ask you, and even though I was tempted to jump up in my seat and blurt it out, I figured it would be more gentlemanly to wait and send it to you via e-mail, so here goes:

I remember you saying on your blog that there was an American version and a British version of The Graveyard Book. I imagine that it's much like the Harry Potter books, with certain Britishisms and cultural indicators switched around to be easier to understand for American audiences. Or is it the other way around? I guess the question is, did you write a "British" version of the book and make it "American," or vice versa? Are there dramatic differences between them? Is one closer to your own heart?

Thanks,
Jack Baur

Neither, really. I wrote a book, and said in the manuscript when I wanted words changed for the different sides of the Atlantic (for example: crib and cot, nappy and diaper) and when I wanted them the same (which was most of the time). There's a sentence about the naming of ghouls in the UK version and not in the US version (because the US editor thought it was obvious, and the UK editor didn't).

...

Lots of messages from people telling me they're having difficulty finding copies of The Graveyard Book, even in shops that have it for sale -- apparently some Barnes and Nobles and Borders (and some other bookshops) haven't put it on the New Arrivals shelves but have just shelved a few copies in the children's area, or somewhere else (eg."An FYI on the new book's availability in the chain stores. I checked at the Borders in downtown Scottsdale and they couldn't even find the four copies they supposedly had in stock. According to their info, The Graveyard Book is being shelved in the Mystery/Suspense Independent Reader section.") If any Borders or Barnes and Noble people can shed any light on this, I'd love to know more.

...

I came across this and thought you might be interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRYXNk-qZAs

erick

I am. Cannot wait to see it.

What is stopmotion animation? I'm promoting Coraline to my teacher friends and have no idea what this is. I'm sure it's related to animation but what is it?

Bests,
Patricia

It's animation where you make something and then move it a little between exposures to create the illusion of movement. There's an article about Coraline at http://news.toonzone.net/article.php?ID=26423 which may explain more. (And an interview with Henry Selick here.)

Liebe Neil,

I was looking around online and saw these two prints on a website from the wonderful Todd Klein, and was just going to ask about them....

http://kleinletters.com/BuyStuffTop.html

Are these posters actually signed by you and Alan, and are they both original prints? It almost seems like $20 for each is too good to be true.

They're originals and signed by us, yes. According to this excellent interview with Todd, he has about 100 of the Alan print left, and about 200 of mine...

......

This made me happy, and changed my mind about something...

Mr. Gaiman

I am writing you as a fan, something I must admit I rarely ever do as it feels a bit to me like I'm bothering you.

I do however feel the need to write you, to thank you for two things, the first is for your story telling. Not simply your writing of books, but your reading them as well. I love listening to a well told story, and you have an ability to keep my normally wandering mind enthralled for hours.

The second reason I write is because I watched Stardust the other night, and in the extras packaged with the DVD you spoke about feeling a bit guilty because something that was a simple idea in your head became the work of many many craftsmen.

Well sir, I write you to tell you, that you have absolutely no reason to feel even a slight hint of guilt. I am a carpenter, and while I have never had a chance to work on a movie based on one your books, I have worked others. I have built storefronts, carriages, castles, and Japanese bridges. I have made world war two bunkers, and the offices and layers every kind of hero, villain, or overworked office drone imaginable. And let me tell you, I would never want to do anything else.

If you weren't around to dream up flying pirate ships, people like me would be stuck building conservative and proper things, like little rectangles to hold books. Not that there is anything wrong with rectangles to hold books, but like every man who has ever been a 7 year old boy, I'd rather be building a flying pirate ship.

On behalf of carpenters everywhere you keep thinking 'em up, and we'll keep trying to build them.

..........
And on Monday I'm reading the first half of Chapter Seven in Los Angeles -- actually in Santa Monica. Details at http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2008/10/neil-gaiman-rea.html

Labels: completely abandons the idea of writing lots of labels and goes to bed instead, Graveyard Book tour