tasllyn

Welcome to the Dollhouse - I hope you stay awhile...

2009-05-10T00:31:53Z

Felt like throwing my voice into the Dollhouse debate.

Here's my take on it.

This entry was originally posted at http://magycmyste.dreamwidth.org/266155.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Writing critique groups?

2009-02-18T20:23:57Z

http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/main/2009/02/critique-groups.html

I'm curious whether anyone here would be interested in being in an official online critique group for writers. I know several of us don't have time to write much. And I also know that a fair amount of us read each others' work here anyway. But I'm wondering if it could be beneficial to have a group meeting once a month or so to group together and focus on one or two pieces of work in real time.

Ideas on how it might work:

Online chat room a la chatzy? I know we've had a general one for talechasing before
forum?
Possible MO: Two sign-up lists (one to critique, one to be critiqued), one or two ms to be emailed to everyone on the critiquers' list, to be discussed at the meeting.
Other ideas?

If there is interest, here's some other things we might want to consider:

What is the minimum/maximum number of people that we could do an effective critique with?
How often would we want to meet?
How many works would we want to discuss per meeting?
Approximately how long should each work be?
How do we accomodate time zones?
Other considerations?

This is totally theoretical right now. I'm just trying to consider if it's realistic to simulate a face-to-face, regularly meeting critique group online, and what we would want from it if it is.

tasllyn @ 2008-08-05T06:54:00

2008-08-05T11:54:47Z

Sherrilyn Kenyon - Acheron

This is the description that came in my Borders ad e-mail. I like the idea of incorporating mythology. By the end of the blurb, I wasn't too sure, though...

simpleology again

2008-04-19T03:51:23Z

well, another simpleology course found through Randy Indermanson's Advanced Fiction Writing blog.

I'm evaluating a multi-media course on blogging from the folks at Simpleology. For a while, they're letting you snag it for free if you post about it on your blog.

It covers:

The best blogging techniques.
How to get traffic to your blog.
How to turn your blog into money.

I'll let you know what I think once I've had a chance to check it out. Meanwhile, go grab yours while it's still free.

It's free. couldn't hurt, right?

The Future of IJ!!!

2008-04-18T21:15:35Z

Squeaky is planning to change hosting and must decide between two services. Please put your voice into the poll to help make the decision!

Poll

Like a moth to the fire I am drawn to the bookstore...

2007-09-26T02:18:14Z

Well, Vidya is very, very happy at the moment. (And Vidya is going to stop talking in third person before she slaps herself in the face.)

I went to Half-Price Books today. Not the one I usually end up going to because it's next to Fry's. The nice one on Lamar that's not as big as the the main one in Dallas, but is still pretty nice and big, and has an entire room devoted to rare and collectable books. The first thing that took my breath away - an advanced reading copy, hardcover, of A Game of Thrones - not sure if it was signed or not, as it was behind glass, but a lot of the books in this section were signed. The downside is - it was $500. I thin one of the weird things for me is that that book was responsible for my being in the store that day - I was looking for the books following A game of Thrones and The Phoenix Guards.

Other finds:
Several Anne Rice - 1st eds or signed - didn't really look too haard at these
Tigana - 1st edition and signed - $200
The entire Fionavar Tapestry - 1st edition and signed if I remember correctly - also $200 (probably a good thing it was sold as a set - I don't have the last two which would have made that purchase very tempting.)
Two 1st edition Lord of the Rings in boxsets - one hardcover and one paperback. Justin found these first and wouldn't let me look at the prices. I think he was scared I would damage the books somehow.
1st edition leatherbound Pern Collection that had very pretty pictures and silver edging and a bookmark. I've gotten tired of the Pern series, but I did like those stories, and I'd probably have gotten it for the pictures. You know, if it hadn't been $100. Or $200. I can't remember which right now.

There were a lot of other beautiful books there, including artbooks, graphic novels, and some other books I really wouldn't have expected. If I get a job, I get the feeling that a nice chunk of my "celebration" money will be spent in that room.

Books I did Get

George R.R. Martin - A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords (They didn't have a copy of A Feast of Crows)
Steven Brust - Five Hundred Years After(Pretty much all they had of the Khaavren Romances except for the Phoenix Guards)
Steven Brust - The Sun, The Moon and the Stars (I had to separate this out. This is part of the Fairy Tales Series. I have two other books from this series, Snow White, Rose Red by Patricia C. Wrede, and White as Snow by....Tanith Lee. Snow White, Rose Red was the book that bridged fairy tales/mythogoly with comtemporary fantasy for me, introducing me to Patricia C. Wrede and the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. So finding a book from this series that was written by one of the authors I happened to be looking for - yeah, there was no way I was passing this one up.)
Ursula Le Guin - The Earthsea Trilogy (I've been meaning to read this since the movie came out. I remember being a little nitpicky about the movie, but still enjoying it, and I've heard the books are much bettter - well, they usually are. So when I found this as a boxed set, I really couldn't resist.)
Jennifer Roberson - Lady of the Forest. (Ok, this book was my true guilty pleasure of the night since I already have this book. However, the copy I got tonight was 1st edition, hardcover with the dust jacket, and signed by the author And a hell of a lot less expensive than the rare books room - I'm not sure why they didn't put it in there except maybe Jennifer Roberson isn't as popular an author? I don't know, really. I've only read this one book by her, and I loved it - I might be a little biased because it's a Robin Hood retelling, and I have a soft spot for that legend. I haven't really been tempted to pick up her other ones, though, and I've heard a couple of peaple say that they're not that good. ::shrugs:: Anyway, I'll have to see what Half-Price Books will give me fror my old copy.
And now, on to LibraryThing to catalogue my new purchases!!!!

Book Review: Thee Phoenix Guards by Stephen Brust

2007-09-19T17:00:26Z

I just finished this yesterday, and mainly my main review is: What are the other books in the Khaavren Romances, and how soon can I get them? (Don't want to go to Amazon right now, and I may see if I can get Justin to take me to Half-Price Books tomorrow when I'm practicing driving.

I'm not going into a full review (I burned my hand on my tea this morning, and typing does not make me happy at the moment), but I'm not sure most of the people reading this will need it, so here are the basics - It took me a little while to get into the book, mainly because of the writing style, and the fact that I haven't read anything in that style since high school. I think. Anyway, it took a little bit to get used to is again, but once I did, it was easy reading. I loved it! I will say nothing of the plot, setting, or characterization, because I didn't have any problems with it.

I think my favorite parts of this book were the two "About the Author" sections. Especially having Paarfi Roundwood(?) talking about Stephen Brust. ^_^

Career meme swiped from selenite

2007-09-14T17:10:54Z

Go to careercruising.com, put in username nycareers, password landmark, take the career matchmaker quiz, post the top results.

Top Results

<tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

1. Costume Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

2. Set Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

3. Anthropologist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

4. Website Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

5. Historian </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

6. Special Effects Technician </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

7. Desktop Publisher </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

8. Industrial Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

9. Animator </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

10. Cartoonist / Comic Illustrator </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

11. Actor </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

12. Criminologist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

13. Dental Assistant </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

14. Fashion Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

15. Child and Youth Worker </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

16. Multimedia Developer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

17. Podiatrist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

18. Director of Photography </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

19. Activist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

20. Nanny </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

21. Artist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

22. Graphic Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

23. Computer Animator </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

24. Comedian </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

25. Critic </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

26. Writer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

27. Musician </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

28. Print Journalist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

29. Public Policy Analyst </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

30. Communications Specialist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

31. Interior Designer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

32. Translator </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

33. Medical Illustrator </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

34. Composer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

35. Dispatcher </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

36. Lobbyist </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

37. Technical Writer </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

38. Craftsperson </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

39. Potter </td> </tr><tr><td width="20" height="25" align="right">

40. Political Aide

Ok, I realize I'm posting a lot today, but this bugged me:

2007-09-12T22:08:30Z

This is from an article in my Domestic Violence textbook:

"Only the rich and the poor were effected, and the rich only minimally."

Effected? Someone, please correct me if this is actually right. It's happened before that changes have been made to the English language without my realizing it before. But it really bugs me to see mistakes like this in any textbook, let alone a grad school level textbook. These are the books we're supposed to be learning from! I realize people make mistakes (God knows how many typos I overlook when I write) but I expect articles like this to have been edited several times, and you would think that at least one of those times, spelling and grammar errors would have been pointed out. I'm actually not sure whether I'm mad at this more for spelling or grammar. Spelling's normally my thing, but I think this one is more of a grammar-know-the-definition-of-the-word-before-you-use-it kind of thing.

for the writers

2007-09-12T18:07:53Z

well, I'm in the middle of my IP class, and we're still discussing copyright, so I decided to take a look at the website for the US Copyright Office, out of pure curiosity.

I don't remember if any of us are actually ready to register our works with the USCO (I don't consider myself ready until I've got at least a first draft if not a closer to final draft, and maybe more), but at the moment, they're beta-testing their online registration, and at least for the beta test, they're offering reduced pricing for online registration and submission ($35 instead of $45). Not sure if they'll keep the reduced pricing once the system is fully ready and online or not. I hope they do. But just in case anyone was up to it, I thought you might want to know. ^_^

http://www.copyright.gov/eco/beta-announce.html

I have my MPRE scores downloaded.

2007-09-12T15:05:13Z

What are they, you ask?

I don't know. My brain keeps screaming - NOT YET!!! NOT YET!!!

can't remember if I mentioned back in August that I've never felt so nervous about taking a standardized test before. Well, I can also say that I've never felt as nervous about actually looking at my test scores before, either.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another birthday!!!

2007-09-11T19:52:27Z

Rainbow Graphics

birthday wishes!

2007-09-10T18:07:58Z

Myspace Comments

Rest in Peace

2007-09-08T16:26:36Z

Madeleine L'Engle, author of A wrinkle in Time

http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?news=274750&GT1=7701

Improved Captchas - article stolen from selenite

2007-09-05T18:28:12Z

"Defective Yeti has invented a major improvement in CAPTCHA technology. Instead of reading the characters in an image to prove you're not a bot, you have to prove a little bit more . . . ."

This should be implemented everywhere.

swiped from wispywillow

2007-09-02T04:58:54Z

We are all beautiful but how and why? (VERY detailed, beautiful pictures)

Beauty by thoughts.Your beauty is found through the mind. Either you convince people you look beautiful on the outside/inside or thats how the worlds opinion is even though you might not agree. Opinion about you doesnt vary with the different people, but the ones most honest and pure see through the lies and have there honest opinion about your inner and outer beauty. Whats your opinion in the matter? Its your one that matters the most.

Your beauty is through judgment. As if your goddess. You will know when you meet the right person, because your goddess speaks to you. Because they will find you beautiful on the outside as well as the inside.
Take this quiz!

Quizilla |
Join

| Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

stolen from selenite

2007-08-29T21:31:07Z

57%

Mingle² - Dating Site

The Land of No Sleep

2007-08-23T08:55:41Z

well, it's nearly 4 in the morning, and my head's decided thta it can't sleep. so I'm going to attempt to write instead. So let's see if something creative comes out of this or if I just keep staring at my laptop screen so long that my head decides to listen to my body saying that it wants to rest.

I didn't even take a nap today, so I don't know why I'm not tired. Maybe that green tea I drank was a lot stronger than I thought it was...

Because it was there...

2007-08-21T22:53:48Z

I AM
64%
OPTIMUS PRIME Take the Transformers Quiz

Here is your birthday song, it isn't very long...

2007-08-20T16:02:50Z

Happy birthday, gridlockjoe!!!!!

Yep, I copied you... ^________________^

Movie Review: Dhoom II - Back in Action

2007-08-19T06:32:09Z

I never thought I'd review a Bollywood movie, but I just finished watching one with my parents, and I'm in the mood, so what the hell?

Honestly, I'm kind of surprised about how many Bollywood movies I actually like, considering how many years I spent avoiding them like the plague. So,

Reason for watching: Veena and Chander gave it to my parents to watch a couple of weeks ago, and left it for another week so I could watch it. And the cover looked kind of cool. And watching Bollywood movies is something my parents and I can actually do together without much arguments or complaints of boredom. My dad even turned on the surround sound.

Summary can be found here, if wanted.

Music and Dance: First of all, if you can't stand pointless song and dance, never watch a Bollywood movie. Seriously, in every one, there's always at least one song, sometimes more that has NO POINT except to be there, and make the actors and actresses look sexy. And I don't mean, "Why are they singing instead of talking" kind of pointless that is the basis for most musicals. I mean the-plot-just-stopped-for-a-few-minutes-so-if-you-don't-feel-like-watching-now-might-be-a-good-time-to-go-get-a-snack-from-the-kitchen kind of pointless. In my opinion, every song that I can think of was the latter. But it was good music, and music I liked. I think there was actually only one song that annoyed me a little, and that one made me laugh, so it's forgiven. The dancing was comparable the the dancing from an 80's Janet Jackson music video, so you can decide off of that. Personally, I lilke 80's music videos.

Plot: Not half bad. Not the greatest. It's an action flick - two cops chasing a thief, and women and romance are involved. The thief's side was a bit of a cross between James Bond and Mission:Impossible, and the cops' side made me think of True Lies. All of which are movies I like (well, I do like all the James Bond movies I've seen. I still prefer Pierce Brosnan, though.)

Setting: This was kind of all over the place, really. We had a train, Mumbai (i think) and Rio de Janeiro. That's all I really remember. I was pretty confused a lot of he time about where they were. Apparently, my parents weren't as confused, though, so that might just be me.

Characterization: Ah, yes, the big one. I think there were some pretty good, albeit stock, characters all around. We have two cops, one to be badass, and the other for comic relief. We have two, maybe three women (I'm still not sure whether the girl who played Shonali also played Monali, considering Shonali completely disappeared after the first half of the movie, and is never mentioned again once her sister is introduced. If she did play both parts, she did a pretty good job with the change of personality). And I'm not counting tthe pregnant wife of the badass cop, because she was only there for the first five or ten minutes of the movie, and was never mentioned again. I think her only role was to explain why her husband never actually hit on any of the other women he was working with. He's married, and he's decent enough not to cheat on her. That's about it. The other women are the sexy cop and her sister, who in my opinion is the lovable ditz, although that was probably because she didn't understand a word of Hindi. In a Hindi movie. Everyone else spoke English from time to time, but she spoke English the whole time. And none of it was really very deep. And of course, the heroine, or villainess of the movie, depending on whose side you want to take, played by Miss Universe herself, Aishwara Rai, is the devilishly beautiful thief who's being forced to work for the cops. Honestly, her acting wasn't half bad.

In my opinion, the star of this movie was the thief, "Mr. A" played by Hrithik Roshan. I loved this character. He's a typical badass, the "perfect" thief who can't be caught. He always wears a disguise, has high-tech gadgets, and his signature mark is the letter "A." And he can cook. Fucking gourmet meals. He's a food connoisseur and and artist - his robberies are art.

All in all, I enjoyed this movie a lot. It was cheesy, yes. That's something I expect from Bollywood movies. But it didn't feel cheesy, except the comic relief cop. But I liked the action, and I enjoyed the story (and watching Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai dance in pretty revealing outfits). And I'm working on downloading the soundtrack (if I can find a working copy), which is of course the most important part of any Bollywood film. And I've never seen Dhoom, so I don't know how this works as a sequel.

Birthdays!

2007-08-19T04:19:32Z

Happy birthday, wispywillow!!!!!

Hope you had lots of fun and all the dessert you can eat. Unless you don't like dessert. Then, you'll have to pick something else.

Not much of a gift, since this is for everyone, but I found pretty pictures! Good article, too, but more importantly, pretty pictures!

A little mini-rant

2007-08-17T18:13:14Z

I am pissed off.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but one of my "jobs" over vacation is to call about 80 law firms, asking for contact information so that Assault and Flattery can ask them for money later in the year. I really hate making these kinds of phone calls, but technically, I am part of the business team, and I promised Matt that I'd do it. I even got an extension from him since I was studying for the MPRE all last week.

Anyway, the past few days, I'd been making about 3-4 calls a day. I have a LONG way to go. So today, finally, I get myself together, and start rolling out one phone call after another. Got about 5 phone calls done in about a half hour and was still ready to go for some more (normally, by that point, I'm sick of it and need a break. And then forget about it until after 5, when the offices are all closed anyway). Firefox was being a bit squidgy, so I decided it was probably time for it to be restarted again. And so I did. As the last firefox window closed down, guess what happened?

ERROR: THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH IS COMING TO EAT ALL OF YOUR BABIES!!!

(I don't have babies.)
(Shut up. I mean your data.)
(You shut up. Wait--my data? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Ok, not all my data. Just everything I'd entered into the Excel sheet this morning. (This was stupidity on my part. I'd forgotten to save, and apparently I hadn't been working long enough to auto-recover. Some of these firms are supposed to call me back, but I can't remember which ones. And I get the feeling it would seem very unprofessional to try to call them back again to figure out which ones are supposed to be calling me back and get the infomation again from the ones that aren't calling me back. I got the info for one firm back already, because I remembered the name, and the rest of the info was actually on their website. I remember the name of one of the other contacts, but I can't remember anything else for her, including which firm she works for!!!! GAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!

EDIT:
Ok, actually, apparently I was able to autorecover my work. I just tried opening Excel instead of opening the document directly, like I did last time. The only thing missing is some of the info that I got off of the website last time anyway. Well, that's a relief. My morning wasn't wasted.

I'm going to go wash my hair now, so I can think clearly again. (I believe the oiliness of my hair is directly proportional to the amount of smoke in my brain. It WILL be clean!)

For those of you who know how to work with CSS

2007-08-16T04:43:59Z

can you take a look at my writing journal and tell me why the side bar is stretching across the length of the entry? Or even better, how to fix it?

::sigh::

2007-08-14T01:22:44Z

There is no such thing as a vacation.