Also, I got your card in the mail today,

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rivendellrose
subject: mail stuff! mood: | |
Your package arrived in the mail yesterday, Also, I got your card in the mail today, | |
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booktards [make_meabird]
subject: Betrayed | |
![]() Betrayed P.C. Cast & Kristin Cast YA fiction; fantasy 310 pages ![]() Betrayed, the second installment in the bestselling House of Night series, is dark and sexy, and as thrilling as it is utterly shocking. Fledgling vampyre Zoey Redbird has managed to settle in at the House of Night. She’s come to terms with the vast powers the vampyre goddess, Nyx, has given her, and is getting a handle on being the new Leader of the Dark Daughters, the school’s most elite group. Best of all, Zoey’s made some new friends and she finally feels like she belongs--like she really fits in. She actually has a boyfriend…or two. And despite the best efforts of her mother and step-loser John to humiliate her publically during parent visitation, she’s earned the respect of her professors and High Priestess, Neferet. Then the unthinkable happens: human teenagers are being killed, and all the evidence points to the House of Night, straining human-vamp tensions in Tulsa to a breaking point. While danger stalks the humans from Zoey’s old life, she finds herself drawn into an intoxicating forbidden flirtation that threatens to distract her from the growing crisis. Then, when she needs her new friends the most, death strikes the House of Night. Too late, Zoey begins to realize that the very powers that make her so unique might also threaten those she loves, and she must find the courage to face a betrayal that could break her heart, her soul, and jeopardize the very fabric of her world. I am officially addicted to this series! It is a different take on vampires and I really am enjoying it! I actually love that it takes place in a school setting and the twist at the end of the book makes me excited to read the rest of the books in this series! I can't wait to see what others think of this series so far. Books read this year: 48/50. | |
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officialgaiman
subject: Xmas Roundup With Some Good Links and a photo of an author in it | |
posted by Neil
How the hell did it get to be December the 18th? Ohhh. All the links I meant to post. Arghh.For a start, I want to repost this little true thing I wrote, from last year's Independent: it's about being an eight year old Jewish kid who really wanted a Christmas tree... http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entert
I wanted to tell you that you can still get the signed prints of "Before You Read This" I did with Todd Klein -- it's a poem I wrote that Todd lettered -- at Todd's website (along with Todd's other unique signed prints -- collaborations with Alex Ross, Alan Moore and J.H. Williams). http://kleinletters.com/Blog/?p=6525. (If you're hesitating, order: they're really cheap, and the second printing will be gone soon.) Also, for signed things and rare stuff, you can Do Good while last minute shopping by heading over to the CBLDF shop website. Here's the page with stuff related to me on it.) I just got my author's copies of "A Hundred Words To Talk of Death", the poem I wrote that Jim Lee illustrated and Todd Klein lettered. (Someone wrote to me on Twitter pointing out that it is two syllables short, and unable to figure out why. I will leave that as a problem for you to solve.) It's beautiful -- the same size and quality as the print of "The Day The Saucers Came". It's glorious. (Thinks: I can take a photo to show people.) I didn't used to think of Jim Lee as a glorious and subtle pencil artist, but he really is, and this is wonderful. (You can order them from here, and read about Kitty's adventures in shipping them out over at http://kittysneverwear.blogspot.com/, with bonus pictures right now of my Very Late Guy Fawkes Part of last month.) ![]() Here is a photo of an author who needs a shave holding a print of "One Hundred Words" poem. Kitty herself is heading off on tour with Lady Gaga early next year, and Maddy is going to see them in Chicago (where, about eight years ago, I first met Kitty, on the road with Tori) (Who will be interviewed tonight on ABC -- Tori that is, not Kitty or Maddy). Amanda and I have been having something that isn't quite an argument about Lady Gaga for a few weeks. We have really rubbish arguments, because they normally resolve into the discovery that we weren't arguing at all, just saying the same thing from two different points of view. Amanda posted a ukulele video-song-blog she'd written late last night from her Boston flat when she was probably meant to be practising her New Year's Eve Tchaikovsky, and I discovered that our latest argument wasn't an argument and we were talking about the same things again. It's art. You make it. I don't think I will ever write songs and post them on YouTube instead of blogging. I'm in awe of someone who can. It's a good song, too, not just a funny and wise end-of-an-argument, even if she has to stop and scroll down at the last verse. Also, she said "aluminium". | |
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schmi
subject: Question on condo listings in Seattle | |
I'm half-pondering buying a condo and have been scouting around my neighborhood for condos for sale, especially because I heard that interest rates are as low as 4% these days if you know where to look. I found these further down the street from me in the same building block. I am leaning towards the top two because of the lower prices even though the bottom two have a "view": $179,000: http://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/30 $185,000: http://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/30 $220,000: http://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/30 $225,000: http://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/30 Could those of you knowledgeable about real estate - especially condos in Seattle - give the listings a looksee and give me your opinions? Things I am mostly firm about: 1. Living on Capitol Hill (good location, walkable, all my friends live here etc.). These are the *only* ones I found on all of Capitol Hill that are somewhat affordable, have decent square footage (614 sq. ft., same as my current apartment) and have parking spots. 2. Buying something that has good resale value (these ones seem to have the following on their side: location, swimming pool, rec room, parking) 3. Buying what I can afford. I cannot really afford the downpayment on anything much higher than $200,000 and would like to keep my costs below that. I also do not want my monthly payments to be significantly more than my current rent and want to put down 20% as far as possible. 4. Needs to have at least one parking spot, which these do 5. Not getting something that needs a lot of fixing up Things I have concerns about: 1. Why are four people in this building wanting to sell? Problems with HOA/condition of the building/upcoming expenses etc.? 2. Are the HOA dues fair? They are almost $300/month, including property taxes 3. Is now a good time to buy? I keep hearing this but I'm not sure. I feel like Seattle is one place where condo prices kinda hold, but I don't want to end up making a rash decision because of limited knowledge. Thanks in advance! | |
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booktards [inkwell_bkstr]
subject: The Best Comics I Read In 2009 | |
Puh-leeze do not mistake this for one of those scientifically produced, computer algorithm-culled, 'Best Of 2009' lists that you see in comics curious magazines like Newsweek and Wizard. This is purely the product of one seriously scatterbrained blogger who has been obsessing over funnybooks for far too long, yet still feels woefully behind in his reading. (Hell, truth be told, most of these books came out pre-2009!) The only criteria for inclusion in this list was this: Out of every comic I curled up with, huddled over, and ate my favorite meals with in the past twelve months, which ones do I still think of most?( Read more... ) | |
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camwyn
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Well, I'm goin' to the Pit. Went to Toys R Us yesterday to see about Star Wars Legos for my nephew. He's not five yet, alas, and the only Legos with Star Wars stuff that were anywhere near a safe age range for him and his three year old (come next year) sister were tiny sets that were all but unrecognizable. Bought him a remote controlled R2 D2 instead, and his sister an Ahsoka Tano and R6-D3 Galactic Heroes set (you do not get to say 'Star Wars is for boys!' where someone will hear it and tell me about it, thank you). And me, well, I bought me two Transformers, cos they were there. One was Ravage. Not a problem, he was one of the brighter spots of the second movie up until Bumblebee pulled him apart. The other was Blazemaster, an Autobot helicopter with a gold paint job, supposedly for a TV news station- but his name and his description made him sound more like he should've been a fire control chopper instead: "Many of the other Autobots think Blazemaster is a little bit haywire. He likes to hover over Decepticon assault squads... [some bit I don't remember here] ... waiting until they notice him before he drops his payload of corrosive gel on their heads. The sight of Decepticons fleeing in terror, their armor smoking as it melts away, is what he lives for." Dude. It's an Autobot who poops on his enemies' heads. It's a giant robot pigeon. And I bought it anyway. 'm goin' to the Pit. | |
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ma_coeur_noir
subject: December 18th | |
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shoukinkasegi
subject: Innit already, though? | |
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shoukinkasegi
subject: Thursday tunes. mood: | |
Pleasantly surprised that Kings of Convenience put out something new this year. Used to listen to them a lot 4, 5 years ago, then I shifted focus to harder stuff. Man they're good. Still good. Their latest album is a straightup listen, no skips, and I even snagged the back catalog and it's been steady playing. Feels like I've traveled back to 2005. | |
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ma_coeur_noir
subject: AaaaahhhhhrrrggghhhhhahaaaaaaaHAHAHAHAHAHA. mood: Distracted&Overwhelmed! music: see above. | |
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ma_coeur_noir
subject: December 17th | |
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officialgaiman
subject: Late night mystery post... | |
posted by Neil
Hullo everyone. I took a week off from Blogging, then didn't have a second during the whirlwind of the last few days.As a result of which I have dozens of open tabs and dozens of letters to the FAQ line that I've marked as things I should answer. I'm not going to try and do them all now (Maddy told me that I'm taking her to school at 6:30 am, as she's got her first period of Driver's Ed). But there are a few things I should say before I sleep... The first one is to congratulate Henry Selick and all the Coraline team (and Laika, and Focus) on the wonderful way they are being recognised by Awards. Yesterday, for example, we learned that Coraline is nominated for a Golden Globe award. There's a great website at http://awards.filminfocus.com/#/coraline/a I went to Atlanta. It was foggy and thunderstormy and I signed for 1,050 people. (Here's the Atlanta paper blog on the event. And Little Shop of Stories said Thank You so very nicely.) I went to Winnipeg. It was cold outside and I signed for 869 people. Here's the Winnipeg Newspaper article. Just behind me, in the grey shirt, is the wonderful Elyse Marshall, publicist from HarperChildren's, who looked after me on the Graveyard Book Tour and who can now run a huge signing in her sleep, which is great, because it means I don't have to worry about any details or disasters. I just do my job and sign and meet everyone. (How bad can it get? Well, there was the time Terry Pratchett and I were signing in, er, I think it was Leeds, when the people who worked at the shop saw all the people who had turned up for the signing and got scared enough that they locked themselves in the staff room at the back, leaving Terry and me to climb onto tables and shout at people until they formed some kind of a line. The staff didn't come out again until the people had all gone.) Strangest moment in Winnipeg was getting back to the hotel room at 1:30 am to notice that, beside my bed, a framed photo of my children had mysteriously appeared. I assumed that this was a cool thing the hotel had done. Elyse, on the other hand, was convinced it was the action of a crazed stalker, and insisted I deadbolt and security chain my hotel room, and was enormously relieved, a few hours later, when she knocked on my door and I removed the chain and was obviously still alive. Before we left the hotel I took the photo out of the frame and left a thank-you note in its place. Flew back to Minneapolis. I stopped off at DreamHaven on the way back from the airport this afternoon, and signed more stock for Greg (http://neilgaiman.net/). Theoretically enough to see him through Xmas. Several people wrote asking me to express my outrage at HarperCollins joining several other publishers in delaying the release of books on the Kindle or e-book format to some months after the hardback comes out, as detailed at http://www.engadget.com/2009/12/11/harpe And, for those of you who want to learn exactly how an author should not respond to an Amazon One-Star review, we present an author named Candace Sams, who begins by pretending she's not the author, just someone defending a good book, then, when outed as the author, claims she's part of a noble group standing up against an evil one-star reviewer, and then informs everyone on the Amazon Comments thread that she's reported them all to the FBI. The Amazon Thread is here. Teresa Nielsen Hayden comments on it at Making Light, here. (Via Cleolinda's twitter.) And yes, it's a horrible car crash, and I post it here not because it's funny in an Oh God Make It Stop kind of way, but because, if any of you are ever tempted to respond to bad reviews or internet trolls etc, it's a salutary reminder of why some things are better written in anger and deleted in the morning. (Also, if you're an American Games company, don't sue a British blogger in the Australian courts for a bad review.) Oops. I have started blogging. I will stop now, and sleep for a little while. ... Before I go: Sky has a website for the Ten Minute Tales series, which includes Statuesque, my film starring Bill Nighy (which goes out in the UK on Christmas Day) : http://sky1.sky.com/10-minute-tales. I wish I could have been at the screening in London on Sunday, more so when I saw my old friend Paterson Joseph stars in one of the films. | |
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uw [tisoi]
subject: Selling textbooks | |
I seem to remember a (local?) site where I can advertise textbooks I have for sale, but my memory fails me (finals, I tell you..). Does anyone know? And yes, I plan on making use of craigslist as well. Thanks. | |
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shoukinkasegi
subject: Is. | |
Tempted to journ a snowclone of this nearly Falling Down entry (work rant tag apt) from late last year, http://shoukinkasegi.livejournal.com/20 | |
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curiouser_and
subject: from twitter: | |
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schmi
subject: Surgery tomorrow! | |
So tomorrow is the big day that I get my wisdom teeth extracted, after years of being nagged at by several dentists. I'm only getting out two on the right side to save money and to allow me to chew solids on the left. I'm taking Thursday and Friday off sick to recover and hopefully I'll be right as rain by Monday morning. I'm going to hit the grocery store after work today to stock up on semi-solid foods that I can eat during recovery. I'll try my best to convince them that I don't need sedation and to make do with local anaesthetic, so I don't have to deal with any unpleasant after-effects. Hopefully I have some arnica at home that I can take pre-surgery to help with any potential nausea and inflammation. I think I'm in good enough health that I should recover quite well, in time for Christmas next week. And I guess I'm such a veteran of surgeries that I'm not very much apprehensive about any aspect of it. :P I *would* love to have visitors to come see me though, so if any of you want to drop by and fuss over me, I'd greatly appreciate it! It's always nice to have friends around when you're not feeling 100%. :) I will be home for most of Thursday through Sunday. Edit: Anyone else who has gotten this done, do share your experiences. :) ( List of stuff I think I can eat post-surgery. ) | |
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schmi
subject: Save save save!? | |
I got an "exclusive offer" from this furniture store that I have made purchases at in the past that said: Spend $100, Get $10 Spend $150, get $15 Spend $200, get $20 and my thinking went: BUT If I don't spend $100, I save $100 If I don't spend $150, I save $150 If I don't spend $200, I save $200 Somehow I don't think I'm the right kind of customer for this type of advertising. :P | |
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ma_coeur_noir
subject: December 16th | |
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ma_coeur_noir
subject: December 15th | |
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wonderfungus
subject: Thailand: Bangkok, Day 2 | |
Day 2: Jet lag didn't allow us to sleep in too late, so we woke up early to start our day of sight-seeing. Thomas and Rainer had already been to Bangkok a number of times, so they weren't as thrilled with visiting the major tourist traps as I was. We started at the Buddhist temple, Wat Pho, with an enormous gold reclining Buddha statue. It's so large you can't get it in one entire picture. ![]() When I entered the temple, I heard this strange tinkling noise the entire time I was walking around the Buddha. Turns out on the other side of this behemoth, there was a row of 100 iron kettles that people were dropping coins into. It ended up being a very meditative experience for me, so I'm really glad I did it and donated some money to the temple. ![]() ![]() (Thomas dropping coins) The grounds of Wat Pho were quite large. Besides the large Buddha, there were several other smaller temples, a massage school and a children's school along with monks quarters and colorful spires and statues all around the area. ![]() ![]() ![]() Afterwards, we got scammed into this bunk tour to see the "Lucky Buddha". We were on our way to visit the King's palace and this extremely nice and helpful Thai man instructed us that the Palace was closed for a few hours due to a monk's ceremony, so we should instead go on this tour to see some other places. He said it would only cost 40 bht which equals like $1.50, so we were like whatevs, but once we got in the tuk tuk we al felt uneasy and made the driver drop us off. We didn't know where we were, but we found some street food, explored this electronics district and took a cab to the King's Palace. The Palace was unbelievably gorgeous. They were charging 350 baht to enter and you absolutely had to wear pants. Luckily Thomas knew that and we packed pants to change into before we entered. Attached to the palace is a really exquisite temple that hosts the Emerald Buddha. Here are some photos of the Palance and Temple. I had to take pics of the details in the walls to show how intricate they were. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() After that we headed to Kao San Road which is famous for it's fake IDs, cheap shopping and back-packer atmosphere. I had to admit, once I arrived I was terribly disappointed. It looked like Disneyland and was filled with tourists. The vendors all sold the same stuff and everything was marked up super expensive. ![]() We walked around, found some dinner on the street and got a great foot massage. That ends Day 2! | |
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schmi
subject: Last night... | |
Had a good time hanging out with | |
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camwyn
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For some reason I got a $25 gift card from DonorsChoose.org recently. I'm not sure why, and I'm not sure who sent it to me, but... thank you. It's been pointed at a music education program for kids on a military base in a high-poverty area of Texas. I've done Red Cross work down there- for the southeast Texas floods back in 2002, and for a while during the aftermath of Katrina- so even though for the most part Texas and I go together about as well as milk and orange juice, it seemed like a good choice. Reminds me, though, I should come up with a similar card for my mom and my sister for Christmas. Mom's teaching at the university level and my sister's teaching in a Catholic high school I think they'd find the organization appropriate, too. | |
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rivendellrose
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Thank you, (Mine are definitely going to be arriving late this year, as I keep forgetting to actually buy postage. *Sigh* I swear, some year I'll get this right...) Also, we watched Labyrinth tonight. ♥ I'd almost forgotten how much I love that movie. | |
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rivendellrose
subject: a question for my lovely friends | |
Dear LJ Hive Mind: Does anybody here has experience buying wigs online and could direct me toward a vendor that a) will not expect me to pay more than I paid for my last computer, or b) send me a wig that turns out to be even crappier than the $26 cheapass thing that I bought last Halloween? Also, something with reliable color choice would be very much appreciated. Yes, I understand this is a bit like asking for a miracle. It's for a costume, but I am compulsive and have spent a lot of money on this costume already, so am likely to be willing to spend a moderate sum for this. Because, frankly, I'm insane. Suggestions welcome. ♥ | |
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shoukinkasegi
subject: And so it came to pass. | |
Rediscovery! Never thought I'd say this, but: To my Aunt Olive, thank you for the jumper you gave me for winter season some, what's it, five years ago? Thank you. It's been cold all day in here and while I hadn't held out for this bit of luck finding this ancient warmer, well there we have it. I've noted in my riding journal (an actual writing pad recycled from some dated paper and weatherproofed with a black all-proof skin, sewn together with quilting thread) riding directions to her new place in the city since just past summer, but haven't the chance due to crazy hectic things. Maybe now I'll see her wearing this argyle. | |
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