September 2, 2010
August 31, 2010
August 30, 2010
One Silverbean for sale, going cheap
Sadly, after five years into my early-adoption Biodiesel experiment, it's become next-to-impossible to find a regular supply of fuel. There's only one gas station on this side of the state that sells B20 and it's a half-hour out of the way, the local recycled-grease co-op is only open about once every three weeks and you can only get 10 gallons at a time, Wacker Oil has stopped selling B100, I suspect that the "B20" Meijer is selling me is closer to B5, and unless I want to put in a tank here and pay for deliveries from Crystal Flash (which is moot, as I have no room for such a thing), I'm running out of options. Running it on straight petrodiesel makes it a pretty filthy car to drive, and I'm ready to trade up for a Honda Fit or something similar. Recommendations welcome.
Anybody want to buy a 2001 VW Golf TDI? 156K, lots of scratches but runs great, rebuilt engine, cold A/C, ~40mpg hwy if you drive it right. Asking $3500 if I fix the grocery-cart dent on the left front panel, $3250 as is. Runs on any blend of bio and petro-diesel. Lovely car, and I wouldn't give it up if I could get fuel for it.
August 26, 2010
Art Supply WIN
When I teach workshops, I always warn my attendees to not get overly attached to specific art supplies, to just use what's at hand. Getting hung up on not having your special pencil only causes one more block between you and producing actual work.
In this, however, I am a bit of a hypocrite, because I'm really picky about some of my art supplies. Some things I don't care about all that much, like which fine line pens I use, but there are several other art supplies that I insist on using, after years and years of trial and error. These things I order by the boxload, so that if a manufacturer stops making the item I love, I'll have time to find a suitable replacement before I run out of supplies.
Which brings us to today's find: A large supply of the out-of-manufacture Staedtler Integrity 9505, which I found by the literal dozens on ebay. Free shipping means I bought 16 of them. Man, I love that pencil. Beautiful grip, nice weight, perfect eraser, no lead wobble. I am a happy camper.
So, readers. What're your must-have art supplies? Writing supplies? Coding supplies?
August 17, 2010
And since I was just beating my linguistic high horse...
... I find this post from Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte, also about language use and sensitivity in writing, to be a useful counterpoint.
August 10, 2010
I do not think that word means what you think it means.
Start here:
When Writers Fail To Understand How Words Work
and then go here:
Because writing a book for fun and profit is totally just like what happened at Bataan
and then here:
Patalim
and finally end up here:
Your Broken Project is Not a War Crime
I've had a post about this -- not this situation specifically, but others like it -- brewing for a long time. I've used the word "deathmarch" before, in flippant context. After reading these essays, though, I'm going to stop doing so, for the reasons that Bill (whump) outlines in his post. It trivializes other peoples' pain, it erases and disregards history, and most of all, trying to defend the use of such a word in such a context makes you look like a jackass.
The argument I have always seen against dropping the use of such words always boils down to "But I'm a word nerd, and I think I should be able to use any word I want. Not using that word cuts a hole in my lexicon, and demonizes it, besides. Also, I like that word."
That's not word-nerdery. That's laziness. That's favoring metaphor over precision, generality over specificity. A real word-nerd would keep searching until they came up with a more correct, more fitting descriptor. If the situation you're involved in actually resembles a death-march? Then by all means, go ahead and use that word. If not? Head back to the well and drop the bucket. Surely you can come up with something better than that.
The other thing I don't get is how people can say something like that, and when called on it (with politeness, gentleness and sincerity, I might add), to issue a half-assed "Sorry you found it offensive" and then keep using the term. This is not someone else being too sensitive. This is you being too insensitive, especially after someone stuck their neck out to point out your mistake -- to educate you.
Case in point: When a kid with Downs hears someone use the r-word in casual conversation and says "I know that when you use that word you're talking about me," with hurt in his voice, what kind of person says "Hey, I'm sorry you were offended. But r--ed is just such a satisfying word to use!" Full disclosure: I actually used that defense once, on that same word. And then my friend told me how her brother -- yes, that kid -- felt. And then I stopped using it, because I was ashamed of myself for privileging my own word-nerdery over someone else's feelings. I found a different word. It wasn't hard, it was beneficial: looking for better words makes me a better writer.
If there's one good thing that came out of the horrible A:TLA Racebending debacle, it's that it led me to discover that I'm an absolute sucker for specificity, in both visual detail and in language. I don't want generalities. I want specifics. I want to be a more rigorous writer, one who more closely examines my word-choices, my settings, my historical details -- and if I make a mistake, and get called on it, (which I will, of course) I hope to God I can listen and learn and grow from it, rather than alienating -- and further hurting -- someone who took time and courage out of their day to be polite to me and educate me when I was off-base.
That education is a gift -- a token of esteem towards you, the writer, for the hurting party feels you've got the capacity to learn, despite the fact that you just hurt them -- and it comes free of charge to you, but not to them. Speaking up takes bravery, costs energy, and frequently earns an unwanted backlash.
So thank you, miir, littlebutfierce, whump, ephemere, ktempest and megwrites. I'm sorry that all of you had to write what you did, but thank you for taking the effort and time to do so.
August 5, 2010
Trip Report Day Four: Hurricane Ridge
We went sea kayaking at Freshwater Bay in the morning -- I don't have any photos of the trip, because I didn't want to risk the camera to my clumsiness. The trip was great, and we saw all sorts of wildlife we'd never seen before -- pigeon guillemots, rhinoceros auklets, and a mother harbor seal carrying her pup on her back. The seals followed our boats in quiet curiosity, disappearing backwards into the water whenever we noticed them.
The kayak-tour company (which we recommend wholeheartedly) shared a building with a winery, so at the end of the trip we got to sample some nice local wines, and wound up getting a bottle to share later.
Afterwards, we drove up to Hurricane Ridge and did some hiking, which is where these photos are from.
August 3, 2010
What it's really like to work at a music store
Seriously, I laughed so hard at this that I nearly peed myself.
July 29, 2010
Closer to home
Man, the Kalamazoo River oil spill is just heartbreaking. Nearly a million gallons of crude, dumped right in my back yard, gives me new respect for the horror the Gulf Coast's been going through. Terrible pictures of oil-slicked Canada geese and muskrats are everywhere, and the beautiful river I'd been hoping to kayak tonight is ruined all over again.
Poor Kalamazoo River. It's been the dumping grounds for all sorts of heinous shit for as long as western settlers have been here. Things were finally looking up -- after years and years of Superfund cleanup and local efforts, the river was clean enough to sport and play in, again. Festivals, like Kanoe the Kazoo, sprang up in an effort to lure residents, long taught to avoid the smelly watershed, back to the rejuvenated river. And now it's all gone, those years of effort will have to start all over again, thanks to one company's negligence.
The summer-long Kalamazoo Water Festival -- sponsored by the watershed council -- couldn't be more timely. Maybe the last few events of the year will be turned into volunteer cleanup parties. God knows we'll need it.
I confess that I'm kind of scared to volunteer, myself, though this is kind of thing is right up my alley. But something's got to be done, and we can't count on the folks who made this mess to clean it up.
July 22, 2010
Guess What I Have
Seriously, the whole package is so gorgeous, from the hand-stamped wax-sealed stacks pass to the bookplates to the Spinoza patch to the adorable Luther sketch (Dylan, how is your hand still capable of gripping a pen so soon after your release party?!) to the gorgeous original watercolor of Ariana which is so getting framed and going up on my studio wall next to the last page of Speed's Finder:Talisman. I am thrilled. Best hundred bucks I've spent in a long time.
Congratulations, Dylan, for giving flight to your fancy, and in such stellar style. May there be many more.
July 21, 2010
And people wonder why I love my job
Biggs|Gilmore wins Advertising Age's Best Small Agency (76-150).
Biggs is a fantastic place to work, and I love it. Nice to see other people catching on to how awesome the company is.
OMG YAY
Nickelodeon announces a new ANIMATED Last Airbender series!
ETA: More info in this interview!
**KERMIT ARMS**
July 19, 2010
Trip Report Day 2: Forts Worden and Flagler
On the second day of our trip we got up early, had a nice breakfast with Dave and Brenda, and then drove and ferried our way out to Port Townsend for an Orca Tour. Alas, there was a gale warning, and so the tour didn't go -- so we decided to hike out to nearby Fort Worden, which has been turned into a nature preserve, and also has a really super Marine Science Center, which I wholeheartedly recommend to any fellow visitors who are big nature nerds like me.
Our next stop was nearby Fort Flagler, on Marrowstone Island, a short and beautiful drive away.
Trip Report Day 1: Seattle and Lady Washington
It's going to be too hard to write a complete trip report -- we just saw too much amazing stuff. I kept a diary during the trip, but even copying parts out here would take hours. So rather than spend more time annotating my vacation than I actually spent on the vacation, I'm going to post some thumbnails from each day, with commentary. Enjoy!
Oh, and one more thing worth mentioning: The week after we visited, the crew of the Lady Washington helped make a young pirate captain's wish come true. How awesome is that?
July 18, 2010
And we're back!
Paul and I returned on early Wednesday morning from a beautiful wonderful awe-filled trip to Seattle and Olympic National Park. I'd have liked to've had a post up sooner, but between all the catching up required during the return to real life and processing through the three gigs of pictures I took, I haven't had a chance to sit down and blog yet.
But! Tonight we had another lovely night of kayaking; we explored Hogset and Gourdneck lakes tonight and found the noodly little passages that connect them to all the other lakes in the area. We ran out of time with the sunset fast approaching, but that just means we'll have more adventures soon. We also found a huge stand of delectable blackberry bushes, their fruit hanging low and enticing all the way down to the water, with the last berries submerged. Each fruit was the size of the top joint on your thumb, and since they were growning on state land, we each helped ourselves to a lovely purple-stainy handful.
More soon...
July 2, 2010
A voice for Neli
The next time somebody has the audacity to claim that we're "post-racial" now as a society, point them to this heartbreaking story about a young black man with autism who was arrested for sitting on the grass, and imprisoned and roughed up for eleven days.
July 1, 2010
SCHAAAAAAAAAAAADENFREUDE
Rotten Tomatoes on the Avatar: The Last Airbender movie. Paul would like to point out that Marmaduke is currently scored twice as high, at a still-abysmal 10% fresh.
Also, These other articles are worth reading.
June 28, 2010
NERD NERD NERD NERD
So Thomas Dolby has a recording studio. In a lifeboat. Powered by... wait for it ... wind power. And best of all? It's named after one of the ships in the Patrick O'Brian Aubrey-Maturin series. If this studio were any nerdier, it'd probably implode under its own critical nerd mass.
And I'm saying that with the deepest fellow nerd-respect. Because if I had a bojillion dollars, I'd do the exact same thing.