Atop this mountain
crisp breezes encompass
a cloudless view...
swirls of wild, autumn leaves
take flight with my dream.

b_oki



Feel free to add your waka, tanka, or haiku.


.

OK, no matter how hectic life is I've still gotta start getting caught up here ... so here's the rest of that travelogue I started a few posts ago, covering my trip back on November 14. Lots of quickly thrown-together pics, here.

( More helmets and shoulder pads ... )

There were a flurry of phone calls between myself and my brother as SYTYCD ended tonight.

I usually don't like to say negative things about people putting themselves out there on reality TV (for obvious reasons), but Ryan? For real? The guy who had to show his bare chest even when it looked ridiculous to do so? The one who did the shittiest dance-for-your-lifes?

And his wife, who didn't even dance this week - it wouldn't have been fair for her to get left out when she wanted to dance and they wouldn't let her and it certainly wasn't fair for her to go straight through.

This week showed why America loves the cheesiness of Donny Osmond winning that other dance show that shall not be named. America loves them some cheese and melodramatic sentimentality.

Jim says people around me were looking at me like I was crazy when I was taking this...


::Edit:: Oh, and I rotated and flipped the image in Photoshop... :)

a quiet sort of guy.

OK kids, listen up because I'm only gonna say this once!

See that red hat on my icon? That is my LJ and DW Support hat, and I'm puttin' it on.

First, a quick explanation of how notifications work on DW and LJ. To use a metaphor: LiveJournal's notification system is a giant grocery store. You make cookies but need frosting and sprinkles (made comments/v-gifts/&c). You write out a list of what you want (your messaging preferences) and send someone off to the store (the notification creation). Once they are in line at the grocery store, you can not possibly change your mind. It just ain't gonna work.

What happened with the most recent code push is that there were suddenly WAY too many people at the store, and the lines got clogged. The store shut down the registers for a little while to get things sorted, and now people are going through the lines again, but it's taking a while because there are just SO many people.

In real terms: An event happens, like commenting, a v-gift, whatever. The system checks your preferences and creates the notification. From there, it gets sent to a queue, and from the queue, it is sent to your LJ/DW Inbox and your email. Something went wrong, and all the notifications are backed up. They're getting fired off to your email/LJ Inbox now (those are the same thing as far as the system is concerned). Any changes you made to your notification settings between when the notification was created and when it was fired can not apply to that notification.

That previous sentence? Is why some of you are getting notifs that you think you turned off. You did turn them off, for future notifs. The ones coming now are really from the past and so your settings don't apply.

Everything should be caught up by tomorrow. So. Chill out, relax and link your friends to this post when you see them bitching. I am leaving this entry unlocked on both sites. Feel free to ask questions. THIS IS THE ONLY TIME YOU CAN ASK ME SUPPORT QUESTIONS IN MY INTERNET HOUSE. Just sayin'.

Love and kisses,
Kat

PS: Dreamwidth is powered by DISCO.

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This entry was originally posted here on Dreamwidth.org and arrived here via the Dreamwidth crossposter. The number of comments on this entry at DW totals .

12 Sexy ads that will give you nightmares
(I vividly remember the first one)

12 unfortunately placed ads

This morning I discovered that my car leaks when it rains. Actually, Natasha discovered this when she dropped her backpack onto the floor of the car. There was at least half a gallon of water on the floor. It seems that somewhere water gets in when it rains. So, for now I am using my garage. Not a bad thing to have, I suppose, but it sits kinda far back on the property, which means a lot of driveway to shovel should I want to leave it there in the winter. Also, it has an automatic opener, but only one remote, so you can't leave the remote in the car, and I'm not about to go spend $35 on a second, at least not right now.

*sigh. I was there!

Crow


( Three more. )

This was a lot of fun, but also had its frustrations. Since I was new to Second Life, I'd signed up* earlier in the week in hopes of making sure that all would go well. It almost worked. Since I'd already visited the reading location, Lacamas Reading Hall, my arrival went off without a hitch—and would have anyway, thanks to the easy to use SLurl. However, at one point in my earlier explorations, I'd toggled one of the settings that allowed streaming music, and the readings (except, apparently, the first) could only be heard if streaming music was on. So, attempting to adjust the visible controls for streaming music wasn't working and the long suffering and extremely gracious individual who spent almost the entire time IMing me to help me troubleshoot. Unfortunately, it was only when we reached the correct settings that I realized my own complicity in the whole mess.

Still, I heard Cecil Castellucci's reading and the panel discussion that followed the readings. Much of the discussion involved, naturally enough, the use of Second Life, new media, and similarly technical topics, as settings for, or components of, various art/fiction/music projects.

Following the panel, someone thought to play some of the music in which various participants had been involved and a spontaneous dance party started. Thanks to Michele, whose generosity I much appreciate, I received a dance pattern that allowed me to join in. (In Second Life, it's all about patterns—I hope I'm using the correct technical term—so whether you want to wear a new outfit or learn a new action, you need a pattern object.) You can hear NF. Brett Cox' song, Nylon Seam, and read the story he wrote that incorporates the lyrics on the Interstitial Arts Annex.

I didn't think to take any pictures during the event, but here's a recent snapsot of the Lacamas Reading Hall. That's my avatar (who is not much changed from the standard avatar, as yet, and will almost certainly get some modifications) in her Interfictions 2 t-shirt. ( pic )

Now that I've got things running, I anticipate that I will be much better able to relax and enjoy Second Life events. Now, if I can only figure out where to get the perfect outfit.

* Second Life allows you to enter a first name of your choosing, but requires that you select your last name from a limited list, which changes periodically. I discovered that if you sign up through SL Name Watch, rather than directly through Second Life, you can find out ahead of time what last names are available and make your selection in a more thoughtful manner. So, now, in Second Life, I go by the name Pemala Galaxy (Pamela Galexy is out there somewhere, apparently).

Hel: by Susan Seddon Boulet

"Hel is the Norse Queen of the underworld, a mother goddess in her underworld guise; she rules over a fiery womb of regeneration. Her underworld, unlike the Christian hell, is simply an underworld, a place of renewal rather than a place of punishment and misery. When northern Shamans visit her realm, they put on a helkappe, a magical mask (sometimes called a helmet) that renders them invisible. Hel is an embodiment of the divine mystery, a challenge to look behind the mask of appearances to see things as they really are."

- from Susan Seddon Boulet: The Goddess Paintings, by Michael Babcock.



In my spare time when I'm not obsessing about the "seven deadly sins" and how they have either disappeared completely from my life or how others that aren't nearly as much fun have rudely landed in my lap; I'm accomplishing things. Ok, maybe not great things but I've been working out, getting a lot of reading done, and writing letters again. Which doesn't sound like much but it means a lot to the person reading the scribbling, since my Grandma doesn't have a computer to look over my insane online ramblings.

You're probably thinking "what does that have to do with the Norse Queen of the underworld?" Essentially this, my life is in the pattern of regeneration. The concept that every seven years each person sloughs off their cellular psyche and even the outer/epidermal layers to become something renewed and clean. I've been through the "trial by fire" test and definitely had a crisis of faith but luckily it didn't crush my concept of spirituality, so I'm ready for the starting over fresh part. Granted my troubled heart weighs a lot more than a feather and if it were tested by Anubis, I'd be bound for doom from the demon Ammit, the Destroyer; but I believe in moving forward and no matter how slow the process goes, I trust it's a good thing.


~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few more things on my mind:


There's a part of me that cynically tells myself that I'll never have sex again if I don't "shut up" with all of this self analysis and how I scare men away. In case you are wondering, the a$$hole part of my nature isn't completely sold on the idea that it's wrong to have most people fear you and leave you alone...but I'm just not ready to drive away all of the cool geeky guys who generally are too meek to talk to me. You know the type, the shy ones who will rip my panties off with their teeth if I give them half a chance at seducing me. Or is that me seducing them? Oh hell, you get the idea. I'm not even officially 100% "out there" or even looking to date anyone and I'm exhausted already. The idea of sex lurks in my mind but the concept of dating and all of the bullsh*t baggage that comes with it - sigh - not looking forward to it. That's not even bringing up uncomfortable matters like compatibility, sexual chemistry, and finding out if someone is disease free. Geesh, it's enough to make me go insane and become even more of a hermit, living out my existence through my computer and virtual dreams while simultaneously reading travel books, watching Netflix movies and feeding the cats who will eat my body when I die, alone in my apartment. Yeah, it's a scary thought and MERRY CHRISTMAS to you too.

So, two things have emerged from my re-re-re-editing with attempted trims of The Matter of Camelot. One, I'm barely getting any trimming done. One-third of the way through and I only cut it back by 1K, bringing it to 126,000 words. Some folks made suggestions that I split it, or add a significant piece and then split it.

But the other thing coming to light for me as I go back through the book for the first time in nearly two years is that I like this book. As in, really like it. This isn't inordinate pride talking; I don't often say that about my own writing. Usually I'm my own biggest critic. But I had fun writing it and especially after that two-year gap, I'm having fun reading through it again. Its unity of storyline and how everything hangs together, at least as far as I'm concerned, have held up well. So if it's to be a 120K+ novel, then that's what it'll be.

But those friends who commented about splitting it got me thinking seriously about something else: Splitting the Shenandoah books. Again.

Because, naturally, I'd been fretting about their word count too. The first book is a clean 100K and can likely be trimmed back a bit more. The second book is 140K and might come down to 125 with trimming, but that didn't bother me so much because most of it is the Civil War, which is perpetually popular. The third book, on the other hand, is already 127K with 69 book years left to go, and this was especially disturbing me.

Yet as I was drifting off to sleep last night my brain unfolded a plan to rearrange the novels and make it a four book series instead...which, actually, is closer to what I had in mind years ago. I imagined the generations ranging across four to six volumes once upon a time, but the story seems now to fit snugly in four.

There wouldn't be any expanding; I'm telling the stories I want to tell. They might simply be more digestible across four books rather than a trilogy.

(This may also have something to do with the fact that I'm currently reading John Jakes' Bicentennial / Kent Chronicles series.)

Part of me is also resisting this. I don't know why; likely it's because I'm afraid the first ones won't sell well enough to justify publishing the last ones. But considering a recent warning to me about most publishers having a 100K upper limit, the word counts could then become ideal: Shenandoah would be 90-100,000 words; Weary are the Hearts (the Civil War one) would come in at around 80,000; the new Book Three would likewise be around 80,000; and this would now mean that The Great Valley would be currently less than 60,000--and almost certainly would not top 100K by the time it's finished.

A four-book format would work out better thematically, too. Like so:

Shenandoah: Would stay the same as it is now, 1646 (the Native Americans) to 1797 (the end of the "Backcountry" and pioneer days).

Weary are the Hearts: 1815 (the early Southern abolitionist movements) to 1865 (the end of the Civil War).

The As Yet Unnamed Book Three: 1865 to 1906, Reconstruction through the early "New South".

The Great Valley: 1916 to 2010, covering everything from the resurrected KKK and the Great Depression to the Civil Rights movement and the modern fights against pollution and the struggle to rebirth the American Chestnut tree.

So now all that's probably left for me to do is just dive into the rearranging. I know myself well enough to know that my resistance will probably fade once I have a title I like for Book Three. :) I just hope that publishers of historical fiction like series as much as specfic publishers do!

So the shy one did show it's fuzzy tail, but that was it. Sat in the room with a plate of food but it didn't come out. Am sticking with the tough love thing and not feeding it unless it comes out. Hunger will win out.

Mama cat is weird. She wants to be pet but she's not so happy. I think she's upset that her kitten is out free and is competition for food. So much for motherly instincts and love. This should be interesting when they're all out and roaming.

The bold kitten let me pet it tonight. Tentatively. And licked much turkey baby food off my finger. And played with a fuzzy thing with me. It was cute. The black and white kitten let me touch it just a bit.

I've tricked out the cage. Bought them a bed that the 2 in the cage are using already. Very cute. Got them a water bottle so they don't spill water all over the nice new bed. Got them a real little litter box. Was using the boxes that hold cases of Fancy Feast that Petco leaves out for people to take. Learned this trick from the animal rescue group, it's what they use for their kitties. Don't want to be arsed going to Petco repeatedly for more boxes. I hung some toys from string from the top of the cage. Like mobiles.

Am glad we're making progress.

I haven't fallen completely in love yet. I was expecting to. I'm glad for it, the more attached I am the harder it'll be to give them up.

I do like just sitting there by the kitten's cage and looking at them. They are so gorgeous. Can't wait to take their pics this weekend.

...because i spotted my niece in this pic right away - she's performing with the Yale Glee Club at Grand Central Station.

Absolutely. American society (and I only cite America since I've only lived in America) is built around "baby culture" and "dating."

Let's look to reality TV for examples such as "Kate Plus Eight" the Duggar family, and now the "Octomom." Breeders are glorified (despite the fact in two of these three cases their progeny were partially engineered due to in vitro fertilization). Breeders are rewarded with baby showers, and those who marry with bridal showers.

What ritual, ceremonial, or cultural celebrations are there that are celebrated and practiced widely that glorify the individual?

And it's not just a case of breeders vs. non-breeders; even among some breeders there is a competition about who is more appropriate or justified to be a mother or father.

Look at what is going on now in the house and senate with health care. Why is it that certain methods of controlling reproduction are being questioned as valid or even moral. To paraphrase Margaret Sanger, "Motherhood should neither be accident or enslavement."

Frowned upon are the individuals who decide to not reproduce. One can look metaphorically at the double-stroller; that the parent is staking his/her claim to the territory and pushing aside any individual.

Granted, not all parents look at single folks with disdain, fear, animosity, or suspicion. I've been lucky in that my closest friends who are married, with children, or are in committed relationships treat me with respect and love. But the message that I receive from media outlets and politics is that society rewards those who marry and reproduce.

But am I the only one who finds it interesting that Santa and Mrs. Clause never had children??? Why hasn't anyone questioned Santa and his motivations for giving present to the world's children?

To the parents out there, I'd love to hear what you think about Mr. Clause and his "child-free" lifestyle.

this is not today but it looks like it.
no way i would have been trying to manage a camera *and* not breaking my butt on the ice and snow this morning. the last time i did was the time i slid down and bruised my butt *and* broke the favorite nailpolish camera that made this picture. it is 12 degrees and my hands won't get warm, even with the heat on. i don't leave it on while i am at work, because that seems wasteful. usually this little place warms quickly, but perhaps not when it is this frigid? no worries. i have my flannel duvet. and my furboots. all is well.

i am in a little artslump lately. and a pictureslump, too. coming up is my long lonely weekend at home, so i am planning to break out of it. i think it is partly because my focus was on writing all last month, and it still is, but not to such extremity. i am still writing on the novel, but am feeling less confident about it and also slightly blocked, not knowing where to go next. i couldn't give it to betsy to read yet. but i will eventually. getting closer. i decided to make a visual journal again next year. this year i didn't and i missed it. so i have been getting the book ready. it will be a weird one. and if nothing else, at least i will list the books read and films watched.

the world is really crazy lately, isn't it?