The Commodore's Logbook

Where's Uncle Kevin?

2008-07-04T02:35:11Z

So my uncle seems to be missing. He was supposed to meet us at the train station this morning so we could go to lunch and go visit his brother who's in hospice. But he didn't turn up, and still hasn't. It would be easy enough to believe he forgot, but he called me this morning to let me know that he missed his first train and would have to take the next one. So clearly he didn't forget. And of course he doesn't have a cell phone, but as evidenced by his calling me, he must have my number with him.

We've left messages on his home phone (he never answers, and he doesn't have a cell) and we even drove down to see his brother, but no luck. We went back to the train station a few times to see if he'd turn up - thinking that he had perhaps fallen asleep on the train earlier - but again, nothing.

Knowing Kevin there's some good explanation, but it's still odd that he hasn't gotten in touch. At this point we're not sure what else to do. Of course, my dad and I have been marathoning Without a Trace lately, which doesn't exactly help the anxiety issue. Will update here when we know what's going on.

ETA: Kevin's fine! He phoned me this morning and we figured out what happened. Apparently he missed his stop and when he tried to call me, forgot to use my area code, and thus couldn't get through. He was in good spirits about the whole thing, and we're just happy he's okay. Whew!

Fifty Book Challenge - Reading List 2008

2008-07-01T03:35:35Z

Seems like every January folks are talking about the 50bookchallenge, so this past January I decided I'd give it a shot. I knew I'd be starting law school in the fall, though, which meant an almost certain curtailing of my free reading time. Thus, I opted to read my fifty books in six months instead of twelve, and today is the last day of that six-month window. While I must admit to ending up a bit short, I did manage to finish 45 of the 50 books total I set out to read. Given what has happened in the past six months, I'm pretty proud. I plan on finishing the remaining five in the next week or two; I'm partway through at least three novels at the moment, so it should be pretty easy.

Since I'm mainly posting this for my own future reference, I'm going to include the set of ground rules I laid out for myself:

1. No re-reads. That is, no counting a book if I've read it before. Mainly because it would be too easy to cheat and skip pages. This was a pain in the ass, since I did partially re-read a couple of books, but it also forced me to get through some books I might not have otherwise read.
2. No comic books. It felt too much like cheating, and would have messed up my page average. But I read a ton anyway.
3. Audiobooks totally count - as long as they aren't abridged!
4. Fanfic doesn't count. Even the really long stuff. This made me sad. I read tons anyway.

Fiction:
1) The Clan of the Cave Bear, Jean M. Auel, 395 pages, 1/03/08
2) The Valley of Horses, Jean M. Auel, 544 pages, 1/07/08
3) Out of the Silent Planet, C.S. Lewis, 160 pages, 1/11/08
4) The Lady and the Unicorn, Tracy Chevalier, 245 pages, 1/13/08
5) The Mammoth Hunters, Jean M. Auel, 723 pages, 1/23/08
6) The Plains of Passage, Jean M. Auel, 865 pages, 2/3/08
7) Without Reserve, Abigail Reynolds, 202 pages, 2/4/08
8) Micro-Fiction, edited by Jerome Stern, 129 pages, 2/4/08
9) The Shelters of Stone, Jean M. Auel, 883 pages, 2/19/08
10) Three by Heinlein, Robert A. Heinlein, 426, 3/3/08
11) Just So Stores, Rudyard Kipling, 166 pages, 3/6/08
12) Descent of Man, T. Coraghessan Boyle, 219 pages, 3/8/08
13) The Haunted House, Charles Dickens, 126 pages, 3/11/08
14) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, H. S. Thompson, 204 pages, 3/12/08
15) The Confession of F. Darcy, Mary Street, 263 pages, 3/21/08
16) Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy, Sara Angelini, 333 pages, 3/26/08
17) The Time Machine, H.G. Wells, 135 pages, 3/26/08
18) The Good Body, Eve Ensler, 112 pages, 3/27/08 (audiobook)
19) Earth Is Room Enough, Isaac Asimov, 208 pages, 3/31/08
20) Stranger Than Fiction, Chuck Palahniuk, 233 pages, 4/8/08 (audiobook)
21) The Darcy's Give a Ball, Elizabeth Newark, 156 pages, 4/13/08
22) Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict, Laurie Rigler, 293 pages, 4/19/08
23) The Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd, 301 pages, 4/23/08
24) Indiana Jones and the Dinosaur Eggs, Max McCoy, 291 pages, 4/25/08
25) The Serial, Cyra McFadden, 111 pages, 4/2909
26) 2001: A Space Odyssey, Arthur C. Clark, 320 pages, 5/6/08
27) Star Wars: The Truce at Bakura, Kathy Tyers, 311 pages, 5/7/08
28) Star Wars: Tatooine Ghost, Troy Denning, 456 pages, 5/13/08
29) Austenland, Shannon Hale, 194 pages, 5/16/08
30) Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, Steve Perry, 340 pages, 5/23/08
31) In a Sunburned Country, Bill Bryson, 304 pages, 5/31/08
32) Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone, M. McCoy, 293 pgs, 6/1/08
33) Indiana Jones and the Hollow Earth, Max McCoy, 325 pages, 6/11/08
34) A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson, 274 pages, 6/13/08 (audiobook)
35) Iron Man, Peter David, 309 pages, 6/17/08
36) Indiana Jones and the Genesis Deluge, R. MacGregor, 293 pgs, 6/25/08
37) Prey, Michael Crichton, 364 pages, 6/27/08

Non-Fiction:
1) Your First Year of Law School, J. Spizman, 203 pgs, 1/23/08
2) Animal Rights: The Inhumane Crusade, D. T. Oliver, 133 pgs, 1/30/2008
3) First Year Law Student, S. Marietti and T. Rice, 250 pages, 3/5/08
4) Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain, 307 pages, 3/17/08
5) One L, Scott Turow, 287 pages, 3/19/08
6) No Touch Monkey, Ayun Halliday, 272 pages, 4/6/08
7) Don't Panic, Neil Gaiman, 181 pages, 4/10/08
8) A Wolf at the Table, Augusten Burroughs, 242 pages, 5/13/08

My average (as of 45 books - fiction: 37, non-fiction: 8) was a hair less than 302 pages each, with the longest being 883 pages (f#8) and the shortest being 129 pages (f#8). Hopefully I can up that a bit, though. Some of them certainly felt endless.

Now off to read! Or just sleep.

Get Your Move On: A Gym Mix

2008-06-30T02:31:34Z

It is really, really boring to use the elliptical every day at the gym. If it weren't for three televisions and a fat stack of novels, I would never make it through a workout. So when scififreak told me she was trying to exercise regularly, I thought I'd share some of the music that helps keep me moving; this mix is fifteen of my favorites. Oh, and because the music videos are so much a part of my experience, I've linked to them as well.

o1. Duffy – Mercy

o2. Daft Punk – Around the World

o3. Madonna ft. Justin Timberlake – 4 Minutes

o4. Groove Coverage – Poison

o5. Joey Negro – Make a Move On Me

o6. Olav Basoski – Waterman

o7. Wiley – Wearing My Rolex

o8. LCD Soundsystem – Tribulations

o9. Girls Aloud – Somethin' Kinda Oooh

1o. Finger Eleven – Paralyzer

11. Beatfreakz – Superfreak

12. T-Funk ft. Katie Underwood – Be Together

13. DHT ft. Edmee – Listen to Your Heart

14. Hound Dogs – I Like Girls

15. Freemasons – Rain Down Love

Get Your Move On
zip: 15 songs + covers

Of My (First) Big Gay Wedding and Strawberries

2008-06-29T03:43:56Z

Today I attended my first gay wedding, thanks to California striking down the discriminatory marriage ban and instituting new gender-neutral marriage licenses. It was for Jeffrey and Yuki of Aanraku Stained Glass Studio, where I do my glassworking. Technically they're already married in Massachusetts, but they decided that it would be appropriate to also be married in California, where they actually live. Can't say I disagree with them!

The ceremony itself was in the studio, but the amusing part is that my father was the officiator. Not the first marriage he's performed, either; that one was at least twenty years ago, for a mixed-religious-background heterosexual couple. My father also happens to be an atheist, but that's not much of a problem for the Universal Life Church.

The vows were, quite literally, "Do you? (to Jeffrey) Do you? (to Yuki) Do it together, you're married." Anyone get the Alice's Restaurant reference? Shortest wedding I'll ever go to, I suspect. Then everyone milled around and ate the potluck offerings. Overall I call it a success! I look forward to going to many more of these in the future.

On a totally unrelated note, I ate a strawberry today! In fact, I ate nine! This is only (kinda) noteworthy when I note that it's been since October 28th (day before the onset of my mysterious rash) that I've been able to, well, eat strawberries. One of my most favoritest of favorite foods. Today's triumph came after finally getting the results of my allergy blood-test decoded on Friday. It was glorious, glorious!. No sign of rash reoccurrence, either.

Hrum. Now to finish the art for the mix I hope to post tomorrow.

Of Drunks, Cops, and Sexually Frustrated Superheroes

2008-06-23T03:32:32Z

Attempted to do my civic duty last night by calling 911 to report a drunk driver. I learned a few things in doing so: 1) it will take you a surprisingly long time to get through, even at midnight, 2) even though they have signs up telling you to call them if you see drunk driving, the dispatcher will act surprised when you do, and 3) even if the drunk nearly swerves you off the road and it's pitch black out you should still get make and model of his car, along with a physical description and a license plate number. Guess I know for next time, right? But hey, I tried. And the driver was really drunk.

Proof that you read too many superhero comics? Writing up a whole spotlight on slutty superheroes, aka Superheroes Who Get Laid All the Time. (Wow, I never realized Batman was such a manslut.) Unimpeachable proof that you really, really read too many superhero comics? Writing another on sexually-frustrated superheroes, aka Superheroes Who Can't Have Sex. Poor Ben Grimm, he really did get the suckiest superpower of the four of them. Like x 9,000.

Right now, this is how I feel about the internet:

Hrum. If this post is going to devolve into randomness, let me also throw this in, which I got from mbaokea an age ago and keep meaning to include somewhere. It's the Stargate: Atlantis intro re-done in House style. I kinda wish they'd make this the official intro.

Oh shit - this is way to addictive; I feel like I'm in the matrix! So voyeristic!

But now to go back to lazing in bed reading She-Hulk and rehydrating myself with ~~extra-olive martinis~~ soda water.

Stained Glass, Project I: Peacock

2008-06-20T05:36:27Z

When we started realizing that mom wasn't going to be coming home from the hospital for a while, I started having trouble working on my quilting. It was too much a joint project – or rather, I had too many memories of the two of us in it, like picking out the fabric and talking about patterns and classes. As she got worse I just couldn't work with fabric, didn't have the heart to sit and dwell on it all. So I opted to start working on another hobby I've been looking to acquire, one that my father has been into for a few years: stained glass. When mom passed away I found it as an outlet for my sorrow, something I could lose myself in and forget for a little while how my life was changing. As of today I'm just about finished with my first project; I thought I'd share a bit with the flisties. And, because I thought it might be fun, I have included a little step-by-step for those curious.

Here's the wallpaper piece that I stated with:

Here's the end result! (Erm, with terrible, terrible lighting and a garage door background.)

First you have to have an image, which in my case was the wallpaper above. It's from Bradbury and Bradbury, who do reproduction wallpapers from various periods. This one is their Peacock Briar Frieze from the Arts and Crafts period. Why I picked this one I can't really say, except that the company uses this image for their postcard/business card and I've sorta loved it since I first laid eyes on it. Peacocks are horribly cliché in stained glass, but oh well. I then gave the image to Yuki at Aanraku Stained Glass Studio (aka "the studio") who made it into a black and white pattern in Adobe Illustrator. Once that was done, we printed two copies out to the size I wanted the panel to be. One of them was glued to my reinforced workboard while the second was glued to cardstock. Then I killed my fingers dead cutting the whole thing out with nasty uncomfortable specialty scissors and pined the pieces to the glued down pattern.

Then the real work begins! Next I cut out and ground the glass to the right shape, based on the pattern pieces I had previous cut out and glued to my glass selection. This part involves lots of bloodshed. No, really. You get really inured to it – "Oh, I gashed my finger again and am bleeding everywhere. Oh well. *mops up blood pooling on glass* Band-Aid? Naw." It doesn't hurt when it happens, just later. You know, when you're squeezing lemons and the like. This process goes on eternally. And then a while more. And just when you think you're done, you break some pieces.

Oh, right, and more cutting out glass. I didn't like the blue that's in the peacock's neck below, so I cannibalized it for the centers of the feather eyes. I also didn't like the purple that I was using for feather eyes themselves, so I ended up redoing those. You can see the beginning of my discard pile on the bottom left. The bits that look blank (no pins) are done; the ones that look like they have no glass are actually just clear glass. People kept thinking I'd forgotten to do them! There are a couple of pieces with little cryptic notes on them where I either over-ground or found a dark spot flaw in the glass, etcetera. Those all had to be re-done. Oh yeah, and I didn't like the glass I used here for the legs, either.

Further along and the beginning of the next step, foiling. The foiled pieces are the ones that look edged with copper, mostly on the left side of the panel. I was still having issues with the purple in the feather eyes; I ended up having to go to another glass studio to find the right color. That's why those look, well, unfinished. Argh how I hated those damned feather eyes. They were a pain in the ass to cut and grind. I'd replaced the neck and the legs by this picture.

More foiling progress! And the feather eyes are finally right! I still haven't done the actual eye of the peacock, though. He's still got a thumbtack in there to remind me.

Almost done foiling – mainly just pieces I'd messed up and had to re-foil to go – and the fused eye of the peacock finally in. From this angle he looks like he's rolling it, but looks neat from the proper angle. I really hated it at first, but it grew on me. Notice my totally disgustingly dirty (yet tasty!) Jelly Beans down at the bottom. I normally hate the things, but one gets the munchies and the only other options were chocolate. My stuffed platypus looks on helpfully, too.

And horray, the whole bloody thing foiled. Picture is commemoration of my excitement, since it doesn't really show anything new.

Soldering has begun! The silver lines are the one's I've done. This was my favorite part. Took me about a day for each side, and another day total to fix the flubs. The glass cutting part took nearly two months.

More soldering, and a better picture of the peacock's eye. It looks black, but it's actually a dark blue.

Shit, you mean I have to do the back, too? Yup. The colors of the panel look funky back here. Well, that's why they call it the back, right?

Eye! Backlit. I really don't like how the panel looks with heavy backlighting, but you can see the eye's color better. This was taken pre-polishing (that's why it's dirty!) but post patinaing.

Washing the panel. Boring. I didn't get any pictures of the patinaing, but essentially all that happened was I applied a chemical to turn the silver lines black. It also turned my fingers into disgusting, chapped scaly-things. Next time wear gloves? Check.

Done! No frame yet, but I'm going to get Steve at the studio to do that sometime next week. I had to fix a few broken pieces and deal with minor cleanup issues, then polish. But that went pretty quick. Finishing, I should note, is not as satisfying as you think. With this kind of project, it's all about the process. Okay, that might be a lie, I think the best part is picking out the pattern. So what to do but start the next one? Next week I begin again! Only going for 215ish pieces this time, though.

Oh, right, and the finished piece again, just 'cause. The colors really do look much better in person!

I manipulated the original working pattern a bit, but I think the final count was 418 pieces. Not including all of the ones I had to re-do, did wrong, or broke!

I really need to find a good "fandom" pattern to do eventually. Something Star Warzy, perhaps. Suggestions?

Erp, also hope I didn't squish anyone's flist.

Community Addict Seeks Help

2008-06-18T20:20:48Z

So, my LJ addicted friends, let me puzzle you this. I'm sure there's an easy answer, but I am clearly too daft to find it. I'm on ~~an obscene number of~~ several communities, but for some reason not all of them are bolded on my profile. That is, they show up like this:

I don't think I did anything different when adding them, or knowingly change any of my seetings. Any ideas? There seems to be no difference in the way they show up on my flist, but it rather annoys my aesthetic sense. This has been bothering me for a while, too, sadly. Pweese?

Comic Book YouTube Nerdom

2008-06-18T05:12:56Z

These started out as Mac vs. PC parodies - as Marvel vs. DC - and seem to have devolved into something completely nerdiliciously awesome. While all of them are available here, the following are my favorites. I won't say you have to be up on the comics and comic movies to get these, but it will certainly help.

Also? These really, really shouldn't be as funny as they are. Because similar stuff found on YouTube usually just isn't.

Batman vs. Hulk:

After Hours Part 1 - the Daredevil bit is the best.

Batman vs. Iron Man:

And another....

I know I have enough comic book fan flisties to enjoy these - out of the woodwork, ya'll!

Iron Man, Don't Talk to the Police!

2008-06-14T05:47:10Z

Ended up seeing Iron Man again today with Greg. I can't explain it, but this movie just fills me with glee. I didn't really even expect to like it much more than the average Marvel flick. And yet I would happily go again tomorrow. And possible the day after that. I really can't pin down what about it I enjoy so much, either. Hrum. Will need to go buy the soundtrack tomorrow, methinks. I eagerly await the DVD release.

Went to the Tech Museum of Innovation on Thursday. It was just as I remembered - pretty terrible. Designed for low-IQ kids and horribly outdated. This is most easily demonstrated by the "modern cell phone" they had displayed next to a semi-cell from WWII; I took a look at it and realized I hadn't seen it's like in at least three or four years. I was later particularly appalled by the American education system when, standing in the gift shop, I overheard a girl of at least fifteen years asking the clerk (with a palpable air of wonder) if the giant-and-obviously-fake diamond-shaped-object was a real diamond. It was clearly marked $6.00. Ugh. But hey, since the IMAX was broken, we only had to pay $4 each to get in to the "museum."

So my father and I, as we watch our nightly Law and Order/CSI/Without a Trace/etcetera, have one constant critique. If you get arrested, folks, ASK FOR A LAWYER. If you can't afford one, one will be appointed to you by the court of law. You know, a little something called your Miranda Rights. I don't care if you are a lawyer - ask for one anyway! Even if you are astoundingly innocent and it's all a big misunderstanding, ask for a lawyer and shut the hell up. Of course, most of these shows would be boring if people took that advice. I get it. But for those of us who live in the real world, please have a watch 'n listen to James Duane's lecture "Don't Talk to the Police." It could save your ass one day.

For the sake of the author I will not link to the story, but I have found the perfect example of why everyone should have and use a beta-reader: She felt her back fall against the back of the backseat.... This is the kind of thing that can be overlooked on a thousandth read-through, I understand that, but nevertheless it should not be in a completed, posted fic. Just no.

Okay, I had some point to make with this post beyond what I've gotten down. But my eyes are starting to creep shut. Sleeeepy. So that's it.

Star Wars Shame

2008-06-12T22:46:57Z

Really, there's not much of the Star Wars fandom I'm ashamed of, but apparently there are some things. For this one, I blame Disney.

It's just painful; I had to watch it in chunks. The concept - okay, perhaps hilarious. Execution? Ugh. If it had been done by fans I think I'd have loved it. Again, blame Disney.

Of Horse Shows and Hand Grenades

2008-06-12T05:09:03Z

I realized I had forgotten to mention here that I would be gone for a few days on account of horse shows in Sacramento. Friday was BreyerWest, which went as predictably badly as possible. Not to say that the show wasn't fun, or that I didn't enjoy it (I did!), but as both saklani2 and I expected, we did very poorly showing-horses-wise. Two NAN cards (aka 1st or 2nd place) each - an average show generally nets us each twenty or so, for some perspective. I'm pretty sure the two were mostly flukes, to boot. The award models were, with two exceptions, extremely ugly, so I wasn't exactly weeping into my cornflakes.

Did have a ball chatting up with my nameless (because I can't remember how she prefers to be referred to when dealing with the model horse stuff, erp) compatriot of the plastic equine and fandom funtimes. I always feel like I'm doing something elicit when I delve into discussions of fandom things at horse shows. And she's willing to beta the horrible, nasty fic I have muddling around in my brain... if I can ever mange to get it written out!

Saturday was the show that saklani2 was officially holding, the Stone Sacramento Summer Live. I'm still bitter that they didn't take our name suggestion, Stone Summer Shindig; Firefly references make everything better. With the exception of the early hour we had to be up, the show itself went really well. I judged the Mini division, which was fun and much less stressful than the last time I judged a division on my own. I wish the showing in some of the classes had been better - lots of models with really terrible flaws, or showers unclear on breed assignment - but I still had an Overall lineup I was happy with. Everyone seemed to have a good time and things ran smoothly (and not into the wee hours, thankfully) and no complaints from my favorite non-attendee (yet) - so I call it a success. The hotel has been giving us problems, so we spent Sunday driving around looking at other options in the area; I need to make some phone calls tomorrow and get some price quotes. Exciting stuff, hotel arrangements. Or not.

Met up with witchcrow01 today for coffee and cruising around North Beach. We mostly walked back and forth between our cars so we could feed the meters ($0.25 gets you ten minutes - wtf?) but we popped into a few other little shops and shot the shit. Was great to see her again - it's been an age. Lordy, has it been since graduation? No, it can't have been that long, can it? Anyway, it felt great to touch base with her and catch up on all the little things going on.

To wolfen_dancer - I feel so guilty about not getting back to you. I didn't even get your message until it was too late, but I hope you have a great time in Russia! As soon as you're back, I promise we'll get together. Sorry I couldn't get my act in gear before you had to head out of the country!

Also? I lied, there are no hand grenades in this post. But how about a crazy amazing heron that eats bunny rabbits?

San Diego ComicCon Passes Reminder

2008-06-04T05:29:49Z

If you haven't purchased your tickets yet for ComicCon, make sure to go do so now. fangirljen just informed me that they are SOLD OUT of 4-Day passes, and they will not be selling passes at the door. You can still get day passes, however.

Pass the message along to anyone you might know who's planning on coming - get 'em before they're entirely sold out!

More information available here.

Shit and shinola that was fast. Of course now I'm going to be paranoid that somehow, even though it has been confirmed, my Staff-status will be revoked moments after the one days are sold out. Teeth-gnashing, commence!

Need to update the rooming layout again, but have been a bit preoccupied this last week. Hopefully tomorrow. Changes will be made according to comments - if you're still on the "Unconfirmed" list please drop me a line either way!

News of the Hour Odds and Ends

2008-05-28T05:30:51Z

Most odd fetishes are old hat to those of us who troll WTF communities (I'm looking at you, zhukora1), but these ones... strike even my jaded self as rather peculiar.

Woman "Married" to Berlin wall for 29 Years - the best part comes near the end of the story, with the line: "She is said to have shifted her affections to a nearby garden fence." If you're particularly curious, the gal has a website up here.

Next up, a mecaphile (mecasexual?) - aka a dude who has sex with cars. That part I'm less odded-out by than the fact that he sees himself in loving relationships with these inanimate objects. In this case he's apparently bimecasexual, as he has sex with both a guy and a girl car. Or, more specifically, with their tailpipes. Ouch? Eww.

And now for something entirely different, the discovery of the WolverFrog, the hairy frog with "bone breaking claws of doom." I prefer to link to this LJ thread because, truly, it brings the appropriate lulz to the party.

If you need to cleanse your mind from the "eww" of this post, I invite you to check out a video of awesome old folks "ghostin' the whip" - clearly people with a sense of humor.

More Trains, Less Interest

2008-05-27T04:40:41Z

The return trip on the train is proving to be somewhat less entertaining than the trip out. Unlike when I boarded the first time, where there were rows and rows of open seats that only began to fill when I hit the next station, I nearly had to elbow people to get the seat next to a nearly comatose Berkeley student on this trip. When a Chinese family disembarked a few stations (perhaps 45 minutes) down the line I was able to hastily snatch up half of a set of table-seats, the other half of which filled seconds later.

The guy across from me, shockingly normal given the odd assortment on this train, asked me with no hope whatsoever in his voice if we got wireless internet. Alas, the train does not yet have internet, but it did at least have some place to plug in my laptop. I see this as progress.

There's a woman sitting a few rows from me across the isle who appears to believe she is much cooler and more traveled than anyone else on the train, possibly save her traveling companion. She looks up often to cast a disdainful glance on someone returning from the dining car or eyeing for soon-to-be-empty seats. You've seen her like a thousand times, especially if you've ever traveled to a foreign tropical locale of moderate young tourist appeal. Middle-class college girls who think that the there's a dress-code for world sightseeing: dangly silver earrings, a hemp bracelet around one wrist or possibly an ankle, strappy sandals (preferably Birkenstock), bright flowy peasant skirt and dirty, dark-colored tank top, hair a few inches past the ear (preferably slightly greasy), and some sort of tribal or native necklace. I'm sure if I got closer she'd stink of marijuana and patchouli oil. I wouldn't mind her so much if she didn't eye me and my laptop with disdain, taking careful and copious notes in her small, faux-rustic natural paper (unlined!) travel journal. I note with amusement here that, before I changed seats, I could see that she was most certainly not writing about the train journey, and in fact did not seem to be writing about the sights in California at all. Now's she obliviously talking about the culture, politics, and poverty in India with tones of awe and (dare I say?) admiration from the seat behind an obviously-immigrant Indian family. I am so happy to have never been this person.

There is a pair of middle-aged gay lawyers behind me, talking about how all of their friends are "finally able to settle down and getting married." All of the couples they have mentioned have been, going by the fairly gender-specific names they mentioned, same-sex. They were delightfully, neigh infectiously, excited about the weddings.

Someone has an Xbox controller out on their table. Just the controller, nothing else. They're playing cards, so it seems in no way involved any form of odd exchange. They have bags, so it could be otherwise stowed away. There are no functioning XBoxes on the train, I'd bet money. Odd.

We ran along next to the BART train for a minute; it was almost like we were racing. It won.

A middle-aged man at a table behind me is teaching two young blondes how to play cards, though I missed what game. Probably poker. I heard them introducing themselves - the girls being friends and the man a stranger – when they were already a hand or three in. I'm sorry I missed how the interaction began. All, however, seem to be enjoying themselves, despite their differences.

The guy sharing the table with me just seems to have nodded off from abject boredom. We shared a brief conversation about our respective reasons for being on the Amtrak (he had a seven hour bus ride with, as he described them, "former and future prison occupants") and our mutual lack of cellphone chargers. He was puppy-dog cute in that disheveled college-sophomore way.

The moral of this story: don't take the train home on a holiday.

Now that I'm home and have checked my flist, I have discovered this most nerdy of quilts.

Written Yesturday, On Amtrak

2008-05-26T16:41:26Z

It's 9:24am and the people on the train sitting next to me are eating their lunch already. Just so you don't think that perhaps they've been on the train for hours and thus are understandably hungry, let me quickly add that they just got on. And unpacked their lunch. Even their salmon sandwiches are better, however, than the Russian toddler a few seats up, who insists on screaming, in Russian, about god only knows what while slamming the table trays up and down. The lady across from them just got up and left. Smart lady. One whiff of diaper and I'm following her, even if it means ending up in a train car with the pimp.

On the positive, however, I've been given a tour of the East Bay's homeless population. Not exactly rare, I was nonetheless granted the privilege of seeing them in their native habitat – and from the relative safety of a fast-moving locomotive.

Great, now the kid is speaking French. He speaks one language per year of his life. I can't believe I'm jealous of a toddler. I bet he speaks English, too. Shite, one and a half languages per year.

We just went though a bit of tunnel which looked stunningly, eerily, like something found in a Disney ride. And on the other side is a marsh. If I see dinosaurs popping out of the water, I will not be surprised.

Somewhere between Berkeley and Oakland we passed a small shed with a stencil of George Bush. Some lesser artist had come by and added a scrawled "I'm a Natze" in a speech bubble next to his mouth. If you're going to call the man a Nazi, at least learn how to spell it. Otherwise you just look like a git.

The dad in the group of armchair intellectuals next to us just pointed out an abandoned lot to his children and declared, "Look, it looks like they do some farming in that field. Probably hay." Dude, it is an abandoned lot, with mattresses and various bit of garbage in it; it's not even in an agricultural area. Get a clue. Some time later we just passed a bailer at work in a field of alfalfa. You'd think they just saw a unicorn, the level of shock and awe they're expressing.

Train rides can be exciting. But most of the time it's really just boring.

Of Ghetto Lightsabers and the Picard Song

2008-05-25T06:41:43Z

For reasons unknown to me, I felt compelled to take a small chunk of time from my day today to build this lightsaber. I have dubbed my results the Ghetto 'Saber. It is a work in progress, but it shall never be, shall we say, qual-eh-tay. For starters, it needs some Tool-Dip for that grip, stat. And a power button.

And because I just found it, I share with you all a flash animation someone made to pair with the infamous Picard Song. Yes, the one that gets stuck in your head for months at a time and compels you to do all sorts of lewd and lecherous acts. The video is, fittingly, quite as strange as the song.

This post is proof that some people have too much free time on their hands. Even when they're busy.

2008 ComicCon Rooming Charts

2008-05-24T05:29:41Z

Just like last year, a bit later than I’d wanted but done – final(ish) ComicCon hotel plans. There were a lot of last-minute changes (additions, subtractions, etc.) but here's the tentative rooming chart. If you’re involved, please look this over!

Based on the information available to me here, I have made up a rooming chart. It is not final - some people might be changing their attendance days, I may have forgotten someone, and there might be other conflicts. So stay tuned for updates, but first please look over each day carefully.

I did my best to room people with similar folks, and this year it went together pretty easily. If you have any other concerns, please feel free to voice them to me. Comments are screened so I’m the only one who will see replies.

Wednesday Night Room 1: Sleeper Agents commodoremarie saklani2 scififreak wymsie Room 2: Rogues adafrog Amy Jody Room 3: Seamsters silkstarkiss silkstarkiss's friend witchcrow01 wolfen_dancer Room 4: Boy Friendly dragoniching dragoniching's friend doblegager witchcrow01's friend Room 5: The Melting Pot sabrinab imnotsatan solarwind Room 6: Privateers zhukora1 zhukora1's father	Thursday Night Room 1: Sleeper Agents commodoremarie saklani2 scififreak wymsie Room 2: Rogues adafrog Tamara Amy Jody Room 3: Seamsters silkstarkiss silkstarkiss's friend witchcrow01 wolfen_dancer Room 4: Boy Friendly dragoniching dragoniching's friend doblegager witchcrow01's friend Room 5: The Melting Pot sabrinab imnotsatan solarwind Room 6: Privateers zhukora1 zhukora1's father	Friday Night Room 1: Sleeper Agents commodoremarie saklani2 scififreak wymsie Room 2: Rogues adafrog Tamara Amy Jody Room 3: Seamsters silkstarkiss silkstarkiss's friend witchcrow01 wolfen_dancer Room 4: Boy Friendly dragoniching dragoniching's friend doblegager witchcrow01's friend Room 5: The Melting Pot sabrinab imnotsatan readiness solarwind Room 6: Privateers zhukora1 zhukora1's father
Saturday Night Room 1: Sleeper Agents commodoremarie saklani2 scififreak wymsie Room 2: Rogues adafrog Tamara Amy Jody Room 3: Seamsters silkstarkiss silkstarkiss's friend witchcrow01 wolfen_dancer Room 4: Boy Friendly dragoniching dragoniching's friend doblegager witchcrow01's friend Room 5: The Melting Pot sabrinab imnotsatan readiness solarwind Room 6: Privateers zhukora1 zhukora1's father	Sunday Night Room 1: Sleeper Agents adafrog commodoremarie saklani2 wymsie Room 2: Escapees doblegager solarwind Tamara Room 3: Seamsters silkstarkiss silkstarkiss's friend witchcrow01 witchcrow01's friend	Attendees adafrog commodoremarie dragoniching dragoniching's friend doblegager imnotsatan readiness sabrinab saklani2 scififreak silkstarkiss solarwind witchcrow01 wolfen_dancer wymsie zhukora1 zhukora1's father Amy Jody Tamara

If I have your information wrong or missing, it's not a problem, but let me know as soon as possible. I suspect I have the Sunday night info wrong for a bunch of you.

Unconfirmed people, please check in with me? I just need to know if you're still planning on rooming with us so I can play around more with the assignments if you're not. When I hear back from everyone I can start letting folks know the final cost.

4th Annual ComicCon Slashers Dinner

2008-05-23T01:55:58Z

Where: San Diego's Comfort Inn Gaslamp
When: Friday, July 25th – 7:30pm
That's right, it is time again for me to pimp the ComicCon Slashers Dinner. Come join us for an evening of fun and friendly company for the fourth year running! Just in case you're unsure, yes, we do mean slashers of the "homoerotic fanfiction" sort. This year we've taken the plunge and rented out our own meeting space to hold a buffet - no more not hearing your neighbors! - in the heart of the Gaslamp. In addition to the usual tasty food and great conversation, we'll be almost like our own little mini-convention, complete with custom badges, door-prizes, a swap-table, raffles, and more! A great way to meet new people and have a great time.

Full Details and Registration Information Here
Because of the format of this year's gathering, advance registration is necessary. We had around 30 folks last year, and we hope to make it an even bigger and better event this year!

The State of Nothing-In-Particular

2008-05-18T02:41:50Z

I think some of the best moments of my life have been spent lounging casually in unmemorable hotel rooms in unimportant cities, mostly for unimportant reasons. Being forced by circumstance - a night here before driving home tomorrow, in this case - to just relax. There are always a few things I could be working on, but most of them would require having things at hand. Things which were, not accidentally, left at home. Thus, as I have before and will do again, I am indulging in glorious nothing-in-particular.

In this instance that happens to be alternating between reading a wonderfully sappy bit of fic, writing this entry, and going slightly nutty listening to saklani2's mother play a computer game which at constant, short intervals emits sounds most closely resembling the screech of a rusty swingset. I feel as if I have wondered into the Silent Hill movie trailer, only without the element of horror. Which ought to indicate that there is no similarity whatsoever, but I can't think of any other reason I might listen to the music of a rusty swingset.

The air conditioning is turned up full-blast, so the room is, necessarily, just barely cool. Feeling that I have sufficiently sweat today, I am basking. The way the curtain billows up looks uncannily like absolutely any woman's midriff in a Regency waistline - which is to say, pregnant. Eventually there will be dinner, but as of yet no plans have been made. I am content to wait until someone else is hungry. Ah yes, someone else has proclaimed a desire to dig up grub, and thus I must finish this and depart.

Equal Rights for Californians (and Tauntauns)

2008-05-16T00:45:26Z

Yay California! - California upholds gay marriage!

All I can really say is: Finally! Seriously, some of the arguments for the original ban are ludicrous. For example: marriage is for having children, therefore same-sex marriage shouldn't be allowed because gay people can't have kids. Well, by that logic, sterile people, old people, people with genetic problems that make having children risky/unwise, and people who wish to adopt shouldn't be able to marry. And that's not even considering people who just plain don't want kids. The fact that the ban was ever put in place to begin with is such a crock of sh*t. Ding, dong, the witch is dead and all that.

And on the topic of marriage, I've decided that a Star Wars themed wedding (like this one) is way cooler than a RenFaire wedding. Though the person dressed as Darth Vader should have been the bride's father, not the priest - that should have been Obi-Wan. And the ring-bearer and flower-girl should have been Jawas. But that's just my take. Also? Needs more tauntaun.

Heading off tomorrow for a weekend horse show. It is already 96 degrees out, and I'm not far from the coast. The horse show is 1) semi-outside so no chance of AC and 2) in the Central Valley. I'm going to melt.

Of Yosemite, Libraries, and Continuations

2008-05-03T16:15:36Z

Dad got a spur-of-the-moment invite to Yosemite, so we're starting the drive out shortly. Should be back at a reasonable time tomorrow, since I want to catch some of Maker Faire. Won't have email tonight, but should be back on and reasonably caught up by Sunday night.

I think once I tally everyone who's in some start of negotiations with me right now about rooming for ComicCon we'll be full. If you've emailed me/commented and I haven't gotten back to you yet, don't worry, I'm including you. I'll email everyone on the list early next week.

Recently having rediscovered the wonders of the library (hey, they have fiction! OMG novel concept, no pun intended), I received an email this morning from said establishment. It was a "Courtesy Pre-Overdue Notice." Pre-Overdue? A bit presumptuous, I think, given the books aren't due until Monday. Apparently "Due Date Approaching" is excessively polite. Or is it simply that the computer recalls my shaky childhood grasp on return dates?

A Borders $5-Off coupon arrived in my email yesterday, so I happily hunted down the recently-released Pride and Prejudice continuation The Pemberley Chronicles: A Companion Volume to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice: Book 1 (certainly one of the more unwieldy titles, ugh). The brick of a thing has raised a few issues with me already, and I haven't even started actually reading it. The first being that the cover endorsement is attributed to a woman who wrote another Austen continuation I've never heard of and is entirely unlisted on Amazon. The second is the existence of a list of the author's "Other Works" - of which I have also heard of a grand total of none. And there are like eight of them. I find this rather peculiar. There is some possibility that they were only published in Australia, which I'm looking into. Or that information is listed in the yet-unread-by-me Introduction. We shall see.

Now time to run off. Hopefully the weather will be nice and nothing urgent will need tending to when I'm gone.

Mom's Memorial

2008-04-29T06:00:15Z

Yesterday was the memorial/commemoration for my mother, which we held at our home in place of a traditional funeral. All the local relatives chipped in to organize, putting very little in the hands of my father and I save cleaning the house and being present ourselves. We had the cantor (who had been the hospital chaplain and had visited my mother many times as her cancer progressed) come and lead a few traditional Jewish funeral rights, which gave the whole thing a necessary air of officialness.

As much as I was geared up for it to be a nearly impossible three hours, I was pleasantly pleased to find it instead to truly be a celebration of my mother's life. In addition to so many of our family members and friends, a large group of her work associates - bosses, co-workers, and her staff alike - came out and paid their respects. My mom kept her personal and private life separate for many reasons, but she loved her job and talked about her co-workers often, so it was wonderful to finally put faces to the names that I've been hearing about for years. There are still two big hurdles, one being cleaning our her office, but that's going to be coming up soon; I feel much more prepared for it now than I did even a week ago. The second, scattering her ashes, I'm not really ready to think about.

On a semi-comical note, there were so many gifted bouquets of flowers that we ran out of vases and had to start putting flowers into anything in the kitchen even vaguely vase-shaped. I was not privy to this crisis, however, so the first indication I had of it was when I saw the blender full of flowers by the front door. There was also a mixing-bowl full in the hallway, and other similar situations peppered throughout the house. It is nice to have the house full of flowers right now, and it made the event seem more cheering than somber.

Of Allergies, Dinners, and Prints

2008-04-25T05:17:34Z

I've been meaning to get back to posting, but I keep stalling. There are mental blocks on strangest things right now, but I'm trying to work through them. Mostly I've been trying to keep busy, with mixed success. I've managed to remain behind in just about everything, including all social obligations, yet never really be around to right that particular wrong. Once I'm through Sunday, though, I think things will start getting better. Hopefully I will be able to move forward at least a few steps.

But this post is not about mom. I need some space from that right now. Let's see....

Had an allergy appointment today, namely to get tested to see what (if anything) I'm allergic to. Managed to completely forget about it and spent a good hour berating myself as a result. I'm still seriously disappointed with myself and trying to figure out how I fraked that up. Took weeks and weeks to get the damned thing, and I'd like to know if I can eat strawberries again. Argh. Must call tomorrow to see how many more weeks or months I will have to wait to get another. Hopefully I won't be paying a $50 co-pay then, but unfortunatley unless I can get them to squeeze me in before May that may be inevitable.

Have spent a good chunk of the last two days trying to work out ComicCon rooming arrangements and the Slashers' Dinner stuff. The dinner part is proving to be a huge pain in the ass, mainly because I can't seem to find a place in San Diego's Gaslamp that will host a 25-30 person buffet for less than $40 a head. And I really don't think people want to pay $40 each. I'm hoping to get it down to under $30; previously I had hoped to get it down to $20-25, but it is looking increasingly unlikely. The best rate I've found so far was $33 each at the Hilton. Seriously, how can it be that the Hilton is the most reasonably priced?! Ooh, now I just remembered that the Comfort Inn has meeting space and will bring in catering - I hope it works! Will call and harass them tomorrow if they haven't emailed or called me by noon.

And as I mentioned it before, I've been working on the ComicCon rooming arrangements. If you haven't let me know of your interest in staying, now's the time, as things are starting to fill up. Looks like we've got about 23 folks so far - space for a few more, especially since not all of 'em are full-timers, but we're looking like in another few weeks it'll be closed - and this is a good thing, since it means we all get the best (lowest) rate.

To end on a good note, I finally had some thrift-store luck the other day. I popped in to the Burlingame Goodwill on a whim and happened to spy a really nice (and professionally framed!) David Lance Goines poster. My dad was rather thrilled when I told him it was only $10.99. Probably destined to go down in history as my greatest thrift achievement.

Mom's Obituary

2008-04-19T04:16:09Z

Posting this here for those of you who knew my mother, be you from my blog or having found this through other means. It will be going in this Sunday's edition of the San Francisco Chronicle; I'll edit to add the link to the official online version when available. A huge thank you to dear family friend Jim Forbes of Forbes On Tech for posting his own version, which I used as the bones and starting point of my own.

Dr. Judy Elizabeth Sobieski, 59

Judy Elizabeth Sobieski of San Mateo, California, passed away on Tuesday, April 1, 2008 surrounded by her loved ones. She was diagnosed with cancer less than eight weeks before her death, but was courageous and hopeful throughout. It was her second battle with cancer, the first having come nearly forty years previously when she was 22. The origin of her cancer remains unknown.

Judy was born October 17, 1948, to Dr. George and Kay Gara of San Francisco. She graduated from Lowell High School before going on to attain her B.S. in Nursing from the University of California, San Francisco. She worked as an RN for many years before returning to school to attain her doctorate in Psychology from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology. She worked for Kaiser Permanente in Redwood City for the next 14 years. For the past five years she had been manager of the Eating Disorder Intensive Outpatient Program for the Northern California Kaisers.

Judy will be remembered for her countless helping acts and uncommon generosity. She loved her work and her patients, and was proud of their accomplishments. Her mainstay was her loved ones and she always put her family first. She will be missed by those who knew and loved her.

Judy is survived by her husband of 33 years, Dr. André Sobieski; daughter Marie Elizabeth Sobieski, who will be starting law school at Santa Clara University in the fall; brother Dr. George (Andrea) Gara of San Francisco; sister Gale (Richard) Mendes of Las Vegas; brother Phillip Gara (Karen Jolliffe) of San Francisco; and her cousins, nieces, nephews, and other loving friends and family members.

Commemoration will be held privately. Charitable donations can be made in Judy's name to the American Cancer Society.

It's not perfect, but I've never had to write an obituary before. I'm sure there's a typo or two I've missed, but so be it. I hope it's a long time before I have to write another one of these. I really wish I hadn't had cause to write this one in the first place.

My Mom is Gone

2008-04-02T06:55:57Z

This is no April's Fool's Day joke; I could never be so cruel. I'll have more to post soon, but for right now we're just trying to hold together.

Today, at 7:00pm, my mom, my mommy, my mumsie-wumsie, my rock, died after a short and horrific battle with cancer. I've known this has been coming since the diagnosis, but yesterday I thought I would have a few days, a few weeks, maybe even a few months left with her. But now she's gone, and I just don't know how life can go on without her, I miss her so much and I'm so scared. I can't stop crying and it's barely even sunk in. The last thing she said to me, this morning while valiantly holding out waiting for us before they intubated her, was that she loved me. I love her so much, so much. She was always there for me, her love never wavered, and my life can never be the same without her. My beautiful, wonderful, loving, giving, generous, patient, confident, fun, caring, considerate, and everything I just can't put into words, mother.

Mommy, I love you and I miss you. Not a day can go by when I won't be thinking about you. I love you so much.