October 24, 2009
My mother, the computer nerd
Last night, I spent about an hour and a half on the phone with my mom, helping her get rid of a particularly nasty bit of malware. There was swearing, dropped phones, and a lot of frustration on both ends, but after battling through several rounds of obnoxious pop-ups (Her: "Augh! PrOn everywhere!" Me: "Just close the windows, unless it's good prOn. In that case, save it to your desktop.") mom finally got some antivirus freeware installed, and nuked her very first virus all by herself.
I haven't been this proud of her since she first called to tell me she'd used Snopes to shut down an argument at work. Personally, I think she deserves a Nerd Merit Badge. I know I'm getting this one for myself.
October 22, 2009
Brilliant.
In light of the "sweat-lodge" tragedy:
Stealing religion ignored if it's Native
Hat tip to Delux-Vivens.
October 21, 2009
Oh hell yes.
86 year old WW2 vet says of gay marriage: "What do you think I fought for at Omaha Beach?"
October 19, 2009
The mammal population in our house has just risen 200%.
We have kiddens. Obligatory catblogging to follow.
October 17, 2009
Signal Boost: Project POORCRAFT
Hey, everybody: my buddy C. Spike Trotman is starting up a brand-new project and needs your help! It's called Project: POORCRAFT and it's going to be a guide to living frugally in urban and suburban areas, told in comics format. But don't take my word for it; head on over to Kickstarter and hear Spike tell you about it herself.
October 16, 2009
Tell it, Joey
Joey Manley, ladies and gentlemen.
I don't even consider myself a webcomicker. I'm a graphic novelist who publishes her betaware on the web.
Or used to. And hopes to do so again soon.
October 15, 2009
Well, here's a first.
Yes, you read that right. Heinrich Uhrmacher, a fictitious watchmaker who fictitiously died in 1685, just got un-fictitious junk mail from Google. Google's never written me before. Should I be jealous?
Why I love him
Me: Kayaking blah blah blah Ottawa Marsh blah blah blah juvenile bald eagles.
Him: You know you you can tell if they're juvenile?
Me: Yeah, they don't have their white heads and tails yet, and their undersides have all these white feathers, and...
Him: No, they're the ones making fart jokes.
October 14, 2009
Did you really think I'd forget to post about the giant steampunk puppets?
If you haven't seen these yet, go do so. I am so happy to know that there are still people in this world who're devoted to doing things like this: art that is both event and performance, storytelling and spectacle.
H/t to Haddayr for the links.
Mental war for superiority
I met Haddayr Copley-Woods at WisCon this year. She and I hit it off like nobody's business.
Her blogpost today reminded me why, all over again. 100% pure awesomeness.
October 13, 2009
October 4, 2009
Ottawa Marsh
This morning, I spent five hours kayaking in the Ottawa Marsh. Saw lots of Great Egrets, kingfishers, ducks of all sorts, and three juvenile bald eagles. Had no idea they have so much white on them when they're that age.
I hooked up with a group of like-minded folks I met on the Internets and was very glad to be along for the paddle. We put in at 126th and Old Allegan road and pretty much went from one end of the marsh to the other and back again. There wasn't very much open water, and I had a couple of times where I got hung up on sunken logs because my kayak was too long. Made it through with some creative paddling -- even went through one logjam backwards!
One of the highlights of the trip was maneuvering our way through some tight fits in a shallow maze of trees that looked like something out of a Brian Froud book. At one point we were flanked right and left by trees that had been toppled over into the water, their huge root systems still intact and forming a narrow passage between them Two ten-foot walls of dirt and exposed roots. And the best part was that the trees were still alive, though half-submerged. All the branches that were above water still had green leaves on them, turning autumn colors. There was also a tree that had tipped over -- but as it fell, its enormous root system folded on itself, forming an inverted-V of earth large enough to paddle through. Amazing.
I wasn't brave enough to risk any of my own electronics on the trip, but some of the other paddlers took some photos, so I'm hoping to post some of them soon.