JanerBlog

My Husband is the Awesomest

2010-03-06T06:45:25Z

So Paul is a darn good designer, and recently, he's had a couple of really major coups. Some of them are still in the pipe, but here are a couple I can tell you about. First, a while back, Thomas Dolby had an open contest on his blog to design the tee-shirt logo for a one-shot concert he was giving in London. Paul won, and you can see the logo being used in the concert here and here and here. And secondly, Paul's a regular visitor to Warren Ellis' Whitechapel Message Board, where each week, Warren posts a new "Remake/Remodel" challenge, where artists and designers take a crack at re-imagining old, forgotten (and usually public-domain) characters. Paul usually does at least one design a week if not more, and his submissions are usually really well received. Fast forward to this week, when Warren gave the following challenge:

You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for a comic called SUPERMAN. It is issue 1 of this book. You have been told that Superman is a man who dresses predominantly in a shade of blue, and wears a red S symbol. You know nothing else about the character. The cover must include a logo and the text THE COMPLETE STORY OF THE DARING EXPLOITS OF THE ONE AND ONLY SUPERMAN. And that's it. It's up to you what kind of company you're at. What kind of comics you make. How you translate that description of Superman. What era you're in. Who you are, even. Go nuts with it. You have one week. Go.

The story's received quite a bit of press in the last couple of days, and guess whose image is getting shown far and wide? Yup. He is my husband. He is full of awesome.

I should have linked to this sooner, but --

2010-02-28T22:10:10Z

-- Kudos to Pam Noles for this post, responding to an interview with Kevin O'Neill. I realize the possible hypocrisy of me criticizing Kevin O'Neill in this instance, given that my last story also contains a racist doll, but at least I don't deny that when the automaton was created it definitely had racist overtones, regardless of how many other ways it was used or how else it contributed to scientific discovery. It also bears mentioning that in her earlier essays, Pam never said "Don't use the Golliwog." What she did say is this:

As I've said before, writing is research, empathy and effort; anything in the world is on deck as potential source material. But if you're going to take on something as culturally loaded as blackface or minstrelsy, a footnote needs to be included - you've got to have your A-Game on. Like dealing with a select few other extremely thorny topics, this is not something one should go into without awareness. If you are a current day person choosing to toy with this construct, going into it with scant knowledge of or ignoring the big picture, is so unwise. If you choose to work with this trope willfully blind and you screw it up, you deserve whatever level of invective comes your way. You must proceed with awareness.

And this is why I love Pam's big beautiful brain so much. I know I've linked to it before, but it's worth the redundancy: go read her full series of essays on the Golliwog in the Black Dossier.

Yet more skiing

2010-02-28T21:54:06Z

Spent about three hours out skiing today. The weather was very warm for skiing, nearly 40F, and if we'd had to break trail we'd never have been able to move. Good thing for us that the trails were so well tamped down from constant use, and the track was a delight to use. Last night was a similar story; I rounded up a few friends and we went to Kleinstuck nature preserve, which was icy as a luge track. We only got in two laps because it was misting light rain. Sadly, it was so overcast that we didn't see the full moon, and probably won't see it tonight, either. Still, it was a lot of fun, and I got to put my new headlamp to good use.

Olympic commercials

2010-02-28T21:51:17Z

Is it just me, or is it very disturbing yet somehow oddly fitting that a telecom company is using a song widely acknowledged to be an ode to heroin addiction as bed music for its commercials?

Kayak Navy

2010-02-27T03:20:30Z

I think I've started something. In the last three weeks I've convinced three other people to buy kayaks. We're gonna have a flotilla, come spring. Went down to the kayak shop today so that J could put his boat on layaway and Paul could sit in a bunch of other boats to find one that fits him. He found one that he liked a lot -- ironically, the same one he test-drove a few months ago. When the weather warms up he's going to see if he can borrow it again for another test drive. When I walked in, the owner of the shop was telling Paul about two creek trips that I had already plotted out with Google maps, and said they were both really fun runs. I'm currently pricing out dry-tops and wetsuits so that I can get out as early as the end of March. C'monnnnn, spring. Skiing tomorrow, maybe twice -- but I so cannot wait for paddling.

Guilty pleasures

2010-02-27T03:07:32Z

I have a guilty-pleasure confession: I love chicken wings. Love them. I love the tactile pleasure of getting every last bit of meat off the bones, and as such, I rarely eat them in public (I have the exact same problem with rib tips, my preferred form of barbecue) because I am such an embarrassing, gnawing carnivore. It's a bit like that scene in Splash, where Madison eats the lobster (sorry, no clip -- The Youtubes have failed me). So I tend to eat my wings at home. Which brings me to the problem. There is something in chicken wings that drives our pets completely insane. They will not leave us alone when we eat them. The cats swarm, leaping into laps. The dog shoves her snout directly into the bowl. We cook meat all the time, and nothing has ever produced a reaction like this -- all other meals are ignored as though they don't exist (okay, except for our older cat, who loves yogurt). So I literally have to throw all the animals out of the room and shut all the doors to eat my wings, unless I want sauce-sticky fingers covered in pet hair from shooing them away. And as soon as I carry the bones to the garbage, they're on top of me again. The wings are sizzling now -- off to start the kitty-viction.

Recipe for venison chili

2010-02-21T15:57:38Z

Soak three cups of kidney beans overnight. Go to basement and find two quarts of jealously guarded, organic, home-grown, home-canned tomato sauce. Wash crock pot. Add beans and soak-water. Dump in both quarts of tomato sauce. Fill jars half full with water to remove every last molecule of sauce. Slosh around, prepare to add rinse-water to crockpot. Notice with horror that there is a crack running the entire length of one jar. Pause to consider. Both jars still had seal. Haul out colander. Think about trying to save beans. Rinse beans. Realize there's no way to get the beans all the way clean. Consider boiling beans. Think about tiny shards of broken glass. Chuck beans. Wash crockpot thoroughly. Return to basement, find two more quarts of jealously guarded, organic, home-grown, home-canned tomato sauce. Carefully inspect jars. Thump seal on both. Return to kitchen. Dump in both quarts of tomato sauce. Fill jars half full with water to remove every last molecule of sauce. Slosh around, prepare to add rinse-water to crockpot. Notice with horror that there are multiple small cracks, previously invisible, around the bottom of one jar. Invent new swear words. Dump sauce down drain. Wash crockpot again, this time with bleach and boiling water, just to be sure. Send up a prayer of thanks that this little kitchen nightmare constitutes only an inconvenience, and not a financial disaster. Remember times when losing so much food would have meant cadging dinner from friends. Remember thousands of other families who would go hungry, or make different choices based on fewer options. Return to basement. Stare mournfully at four empty slots on shelf. Count remaining jars, heave sigh of dejection. Select two more quarts of jealously guarded, organic, home-grown, home-canned tomato sauce. Carefully inspect jars. Thump seal on both. Return to kitchen. Find black turtle beans that do not require pre-soaking. Rinse, add to crockpot. Obsessively check quart jars. Thump seals again. Dump in both quarts of sauce. Add rinse-water. Sigh with relief when both jars are sound. Fry pound of ground venison until dark brown and add to pot. Scavenge fridge. Chop and add celery, onion, garlic, sweet corn, green bell peppers. Add cumin and chili powder to taste, along with fresh-ground black pepper and healthy dollop of Rooster sauce. Cook in crockpot for five hours. Makes five quarts; serve with side of gratitude.

Watching the Olympics, part 2

2010-02-17T05:40:21Z

Me: Yay women's speed skating! Announcers: Oh noes! The ice machines are broken! The speed skating track is ruined! Delays! Spare machines brought in from Calgary! Paul: This is Canada. They had to go all the way from Vancouver to Calgary to find a zamboni? Me: They should've started with the neighbors' garage. Paul: Or Home Depot. Cryin' out loud. ETA: Actually, the better punchline would've suggested Canadian Tire. Our USA is showing.

Kalamazoo Peace House

2010-02-16T02:42:21Z

Speaking of overdue blogging, here's a report that ran back in December about Kalamazoo's Peace House, a place where I occasionally volunteer (though nowhere near enough; I have to get to work on fixing that...) and whose caregivers are friends of mine. These folks are the absolute real deal, and it's a blessing and a privilege to have them in my life.

Beyond Victoriana

2010-02-14T06:22:45Z

Man, I am so behind on my blogging; the more posts I write tonight, the more posts I remember I've intended to write for a long time. This one is probably the most overdue: The Beyond Victoriana Project. This series is so incredibly amazing and I am so, so happy that Ay-Leen is writing and sponsoring them. It's a fantastic resource, and shows the vast, beautiful, fantastic possibilities that the steampunk genre can encompass -- but only if we stretch the fandom to allow room for more than just the basic Brit-centric faux-Victoriana, and be welcoming while we do it. Here's an index. Go read! It'll crack your imagination wide open.

More amazingness from Bossymarmalade

2010-02-14T06:15:13Z

Here's another amazing essay from BossyMarmalade. It's part of the fifth Asian Women's Blog Carnival -- and since I was a big doof and somehow missed the third and fourth installments, I'm going to be checking all three out over the next couple of days. If you haven't read these before, please, please go and read them. They're powerful, important stuff.

Ski ski ski

2010-02-14T04:55:11Z

Had a too-brief skiing expedition this morning, hoping to get some more in tomorrow. Also currently recruiting for nightskiing on the full-moon weekend of the 27th-28th, provided the snow sticks around. If you're in the area, and interested, drop me a line.

Smile!

2010-02-14T04:48:13Z

Raina Telgemeier has a brand-new graphic novel out this week, called Smile! Raina and her husband Dave Roman are such wonderfully awesome people, and Paul and I owe them both for our Avatar: The Last Airbender obsession. Further proof of their awesomeness is found in this awesome trailer they made for the book: Go! Buy! You will not be disappointed.

Watching the olympics

2010-02-14T04:43:59Z

and discovering that one of the new kittens likes to watch speed skating. For serious. She keeps tracking them as they run off the edge of the screen. We'll try to get video of it, but as soon as we haul out the camera she gets all shy.

On the Superbowl Ads

2010-02-09T17:48:44Z

Didn't watch them myself -- and after reading some commentaries, am very glad I didn't -- but I really liked this post from Cat Valente, and this followup from Jim Hines.