katster's closet

committing parody

2008-08-21T16:33:38Z

So there’s a bit in my head that’s echoing around, to the rough sounds of the Antony funeral speech in Julius Caesar, that goes something like this:

“But McCain is against abortion
And McCain is an honorable man…”

Maybe if I find Copious Free Time, I’ll write the whole thing out.

Also — is ‘My Fellow Americans’ an acceptable substitute for ‘Friends, Romans, Countrymen”? Discuss amongst yourself…

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

books! Wonderful books!

2008-08-17T07:11:06Z

The collection of Worldcon books

I finally got around to unpacking the 38 lb duffle and decided to take this picture. This is the collection of books I had signed at Worldcon (or otherwise was collected around that period). Technically, I got my copy of Plague War before Worldcon, but my original plans were to get it and have Jeff Carlson sign it at Worldcon — luckily, Jeff was doing a signing at the Roseville Barnes and Noble the Saturday before Worldcon. Also, the Feghoot book was a lovely parting gift for attempting to compete at Win Tom Whitmore’s Books, and is not signed, although it comes from this worldcon. There are also two unpictured books as they were not in the bag in question, but I’ve listed them below.

No, I did not have an ounce of fun in Denver. I resent the implication that I might have had fun. ;)

Vertical books, from left to right:
Halting State, Charles Stross
Identity Theft, Robert J. Sawyer
The Postman, David Brin
The Forever War, Joe Haldeman
Rocket Science, Jay Lake
You Arent’ Fooling Anyone…, John Scalzi
Escapement, Jay Lake
Iterations, Robert J. Sawyer
Ha’penny, Jo Walton
Rollback, Robert J. Sawyer
Curious Notions, Harry Turtledove
Homeward Bound, Harry Turtledove
Old Man’s War, John Scalzi
Ruled Britannia, Harry Turtledove
Writers of the Future 23, Various (signed by Jeff Carlson, as one of his short stories is in the book)
Plague War, Jeff Carlson

Horizontal stack, bottom to top
Denvention 3 souvenir book, signed by many writers
The Life Eaters, David Brin/Scott Hampton (only signed by Brin, though)
Girl Genius, Vol. 3, Phil and Kaja Foglio
Girl Genius, Vol. 1, Phil and Kaja Foglio
Evolution, Stephen Baxter
Darwin’s Radio, Greg Bear
Eifelheim, Michael Flynn
The Accidental Time Machine, Joe Haldeman
The Collected Feghoot, Grendel Briarton (not signed)

Not pictured:
Making Book, Teresa Nielson Hayden
Henry Potty and the Pet Rock, Valerie E. Frankel

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Forward into the light.

2008-08-14T21:22:32Z

So, there I was, poking around LJ, when I found that shadesong had pointed at this entry of haikujaguar’s. (She apparently does them every month, if you’re feeling inclined to watch that journal.) Feeling somewhat like the universe wanted to say something to me, I posted a response that read:

I think I’ll be daring enough. The use will probably be a combination of one and four in your list, because I think I’m approaching a cusp.

And today I got my response. It read:

So there’s this Cell you’ve been in for a while, and it’s a comfortable Cell but as you’ve noticed it’s a little too small for you and… it would be nice to see the sun a while. The kicker is that you went into the Cell because it was safe. At the time, anyway. Now it’s just boring and you figure, “That thing that drove me in here is probably long gone.”

So you pop out of the Cell and right there, staring you in the face is a Murderer: that thing, that person, that situation that was trying to beat you down, smother the growth in you, steal some of the stuff that made life worthwhile.

“WTHBBQ!” you think, “YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO BE GONE BY NOW.”

Now, I want you to consider the absurdity of this situation. You’ve been safe in here for quite a while, waiting for this Murderer to move on, and you were pretty sure he’d get just as bored as you were after all this time, and yet… he’s still out here. Except you’ve been indoors and he’s been skulking outside and he’s a little underfed and a lot bedraggled and he needs a bath and he looks less scary and more like a scarecrow…

So you say: “BOO!”

And the Murderer goes “!!!” and runs off.

Maybe the Murderer was dangerous back then. But… I think you’re bigger than him now. :)

I have a few ideas, obviously, as to what this might mean. I’d love to hear from friends, though, as to their thoughts, as those often offer clarity to my otherwise jumbled head. (That and my friends are just plain awesome at offering interesting thoughts to ponder.)

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Writer's Block: Six-Word Story

2008-08-14T20:04:28Z

Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” He is believed to have called it his greatest literary work ever. Can you write a story in six words?

Submitted by femspectre

View other answers

After all this, I'm still here.

*shrug* It works, right?

back in the california republic…

2008-08-13T08:47:24Z

Just letting all two and one quarter of my adoring fans that my enemies have failed once again in bringing down my plane and I am back in Sactown.

More to be said about both inbound and outbound reading material when it comes up, and … I’m half-pondering an essay that seems to want to be titled ‘Why I hate being a neofan”. It’s nothing more than a couple stray thoughts at the moment, and I think I’m going to hold until I can rework a piece I wrote for my eAPA fanzine on Core and Big Tent Fandom and write “Belgium” for johnnyeponymous.

I also owe you all a worldcon report.

And I have to work this week. My life sucks.

But that’s about it. I yet live!

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

what a week…

2008-08-13T02:57:24Z

Me waiting for my flight at DIA.

I’ll have more commentary (and some pictures!) later this week. In the meantime, I think I just had the best week of my life. Thanks to my gracious host mrfnord and his folks for having me.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

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2008-08-07T22:27:03Z

Sitting on the steps of the Colorado capitol building, enjoying the day.

wish you were here…

2008-08-07T18:44:55Z

At Worldcon, and having a blast. I’ve done some filking, hung around in consuite, went to a panel, trolled the dealer’s room, partied with folks who want to have a Worldcon in a bleak post-nuclear wasteland and have already spent too much money. And it’s only Thursday.

(But that’s okay!)

Also, I nearly took John Scalzi out with my backpack in the reg line. The best part is? When I did that, I didn’t realize it was Scalzi. (Imagine my surprise when the nice dude behind me who’s been cool about the backpack thing walks up to the reg table (while I’ve got my badge and am waiting for the goodie bag) and says “I’m John Scalzi.”)

Yeah. I’m having a blast. Wish you all were here.

Anyway, there are other things I ought to be doing other than hanging out on the computer, so I’m going to do them. See you all later!

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Worldcon bound!

2008-08-06T05:53:09Z

If all goes according to plan, this should post while I’m standing at the baggage area in DIA waiting for my bags to be offloaded from the plane, if not moving outward into the greater Denver area.

Which means that I can now add Colorado to the list of states I have been in briefly, not counting entire visits spent inside an airport. (If that were the case, I would add Kentucky, Georgia, and Massachusetts to this list.)

visited 16 states (32%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

Tomorrow is Worldcon. Woohoo.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

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2008-08-06T05:28:00Z

On the ground in Denver

every plane has a tale…

2008-08-06T02:31:51Z

I’m flying to Denver tonight.

Of course, this story’s been about twenty-eight years in the making. It starts with a two year old in Redding. This was back in the bad old days before airline deregulation, which meant that a couple airlines actually found it profitable to run jets into Redding.

Now, my dad worked at the airport, so I practically grew up there, conning travelers into buying me candy from the vending machines as soon as I could talk. And because I was always there, the airport employees adopted me and gave me free run of the place.

Maybe I was destined to work with computers, because a story that’s often told about me is that I once brought an airline’s computer down when I was barely two. I had found the keyboard open and decided to smash around on the keyboard, much like a two year old does. My mother tried to get me away from it, but the airline employees dissuaded her, saying they had locked the computer and I couldn’t do anything to hurt it.

And so they let me be until a customer came, and they found their computer unresponsive. It took a reboot to get things running again. Nobody was quite sure how I’d done it, but it had happened, just as if I had decided to show them just what I could do. I like to think it was because I was destined to work with the things for a living.

Of course, you might ask what this has to do with the flight tonight, although I’m sure the more shrewd of you has guessed.

The airline all those many years ago is the one I’m flying to Denver tonight — Frontier Airlines.

You bet I’m amused.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

dangerously cute

2008-08-04T20:15:44Z

The nice people at the county remind us that it’s time to get Stormycat her rabies shot and license again. They sent us a postcard. It contained the following vitals:

Name: Stormy
Sex: F
Color: Calico
Breed: Pitbull

I guess that’s dangerously cute for you.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

caution: contains water and smiles

2008-07-25T18:56:53Z

So, in the process of cleaning up my room, I found my old Nalgene bottle I used to carry around when I was in grad school. I’ve been trying to drink more water, so I’ve gotten back in the habit of carrying it to work:

But this has its problems. If you’re not familiar with Nalgene bottles, they have a wide mouth. This is great for filling it, but not so great for drinking from it. Also, the only way to attach it to a bag is to weave the cap through a strap. Both of these are problems, so I went to REI yesterday to fix it.

The attachment problem is simple: I now have a carabiner on the cap loop to attach it to a bag. (Okay, technically, it’s a carabiner keychain. It’s even stamped “Not for climbing” on the side. But the REI guy and I both figured that a real carabiner would have been overkill for the situation.)

But the coup is the little piece I bought to fit in the mouth of the Nalgene bottle and make it easier to drink from. It covers most of the mouth, and it looks like this:

Yes. It always gives me a bit of a smile when I open the water bottle.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

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2008-07-23T22:15:57Z

As seen in the wild:
The party in Hell has been cancelled due to the fire.

Worldcon planning

2008-07-14T19:12:21Z

I’m about to enter the pay period just prior to Worldcon. That means that I’m about three weeks out. I think it’ll be three weeks tomorrow that I get on a plane and leave for Denver. That means I need to figure out what has to be done in those three weeks.

I need to get my ribbon order into the ribbon printers. I know Worldcon isn’t as ribbon-happy as Baycon (there are very few places that are as ribbon-happy as Baycon, and I have the badge to prove it), but does anybody out there care to give me an estimate of just how ribbon-happy Worldcon can be?
I need to find and pack books that I might want to get signed while I’m in Denver. This will require a long perusal of the attendance and a trip to the storage shed. It’s cheaper to mail than to take the box on the plane with me — I’m already going to have trouble keeping myself to one bag to avoid the $25 charge for the second. The book box needs to be mailed no later than Monday August 4th, and probably should be mailed the Thursday or Friday prior. Also, doublecheck with Mal that the address you have is correct.
I need to check with ceemage about what plans are being made that may require my technical expertise.
I also need to put together an issue for the August eAPA mailing. This is mandatory for two reasons — one, I skipped July, which means I’m falling dangerously close to failing to meet minac, and two, I’m trying to make plans to meet those members whom are going to Denver. I should probably start on that sometime this week so the end of the month doesn’t creep up on me. Again.
The weekend prior (Aug 2nd and 3rd) I need to make sure that most everything is packed. I need to doublecheck this on Monday. Tuesday is going to be a whirlwind of a day, as I’m working a full eight hours and catching a flight to Denver, and there will not be time for last minute packing such as I’m famous for. If I’m packing on Monday, it’s a problem.
Hopefully the preliminary schedule will be up soon so I can go over it. It’s probably a good idea to walk into this at least having a vague idea what might be coming up.
Anything else? I know I’m missing something, but I’m not sure what that might be. Any help from those who have attended prior Worldcons?

It is going to be an interesting three weeks.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

at least the dog is happy

2008-07-14T07:45:22Z

I spent most of the weekend mucking out my room. That is, I’ve been in there cleaning it up from the disaster-area state that it was in and moving things around.

It’s not completely done. There’s a lot of things in boxes, and I’ve got a lot of sorting ahead. But my carpet has been revealed as a completely depressing shade of red and you can actually walk from the door all the way to the bed.

I’m not used to this!

So you can imagine my surprise when I’m curled up on the bed relaxing after having worked rather hard on the room, re-reading John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War and munching on some black licorice I bought at the store earlier when, suddenly, there’s a snuffling and the dog appears at the side of the bed, looking longingly at my treats and giving me the sad puppydog eyes.

I moved over to let her get on the bed, and shared a few of my treats (I know; I’m so cruel) and she’s been on the bed since, staying put even as I fetched the camera and took the shot.

Such are the perils of clean rooms, I tell you.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Here we go again…

2008-07-09T23:10:24Z

It’s like living in a smoker these days in Sacramento, between the heat and the smoke. Last week was absolutely gorgeous. Mild temps and the smoke cleared out. But a heat wave is building in, and the smoke’s pooling in the valley again. In the last hour or so, the smoke’s really descended. I stepped outside about 3:30 and took this shot. (The intersection in the picture is Watt and Folsom, if you know Sacramento.)

Keep in mind, the camera cuts through some of the haze. Even sitting here, in my cube at work, the office building that’s approximately 75 yards away is starting to get fuzzy through the haze.

I have a forty-five minute commute ahead of me in a car without air conditioning. Wish me and my poor suffering lungs well.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

“What is true about you is what is true”

2008-07-08T19:14:29Z

I don’t know how long ago I stumbled upon Real Life Preacher. I know it was back before we even knew his name, back when his blog was on Salon, but it doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that there was a guy, who claimed to be a real life preacher, and he was saying some incredibly moving and profound things. As somebody who came out of a fundamentalist Christian background and was wrestling with what her faith entailed, Preacher was a light in the darkness. He said things that were profound, things that helped me come to terms with my past and given me ideas. For that I can’t think him enough.

He’s hit another one out of the park with his most recent blog entry: Spam & Grey Poupon. He starts off telling the story of the time he put Grey Poupon on spam and his love of cake icing and his determined fascination with getting just the right bag of Goldfish crackers, and manages to take those things and fasten them together to make a profound point.

Go read it. It’s beautiful.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Worse Air

2008-06-27T19:07:41Z

You know how I was speculating how bad it was in Redding in my last post?

My friend Linda Raven Moore lives up Weaverville way. For those of you not in the know, Weaverville’s in the mountains west of Redding. It’s the county seat of Trinity County, which is the most rural county in the state. A large chunk of Trinity County is the Trinity Alps Wilderness, a stretch of land that has been left to be natural — there aren’t even roads through it. (All firefighting in the Wilderness has to be done by hand tools, that’s how strict they are about it.)

Needless to say, Trinity County is on fire at the moment. This is about what it looked like a day or so ago:

picture courtesy Linda Raven Moore

Linda’s got more pictures at her blog entries on the subject: Smoky Weaverville and Smoky Ride. They’re worth the time to look at all her pictures.

Actually, Linda’s blogs are worth the time in general. She’s got four of them: Raven’s Roads, her travel blog, Raven’s Rides, her motorcycle blog, Raven’s RV, about life in a motor home, and Raven’s Range, the general catchall blog. She’s a good writer, and a master of the photoessay. Check it out!

(In comments, my friend David says that things are clearing out a bit. It’s more smoky in Sacramento today. I’m staying in as much as possible.)

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Bad Air.

2008-06-27T02:53:57Z

It’s ugly out there. This is a picture I just took about fifteen minutes ago, as the sun was going down here in Antelope, which is roughly twenty miles northeast of Sacramento proper. (I’m near Roseville, for those familiar with Sactown geography.)

The air’s been nasty all day. Every night, we hope it’ll get better as it clears enough to see stars in the sky. But the daytimes are just nasty. I had to take my mom into Roseville this afternoon, and our car doesn’t have air conditioning. My lungs are still feeling it. Every time I step out into the murky, ugly air, it starts to hurt to breathe. And I’m not in any sensitive group.

I’m in Sacramento. I can only imagine how bad it is in my old stomping grounds up in Redding, where there’s fires burning all around. I have vague memories of 1987, and stepping outside to see a blood red sun hanging in the air. My dad still has pictures somewhere.

Never expected I’d be snapping my own in Sactown, though.

A thousand fires. My lovely state is burning. And more dry lightning predicted.

And it’s only June.

That’s the scariest part.

(More sunset pictures on Flicker here.)

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

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2008-06-10T23:59:49Z

Seen on licence plate frame: "Dead People Don't Hate America"
Political statement or something else?

Denver bound, w00t.

2008-06-07T00:54:49Z

So the folks at work finally got back to me about whether I can take a few days off for vacation to go to Worldcon. The answer is yes. Flights are as follows:

Depart:	Tuesday, 05 August 08	Frontier Airlines
08:12 PM	Sacramento , CA , US (SMF)	Non-Stop / F9 0224
Arrive:	Tuesday, 05 August 08	Cabin: Economy / Airbus A319
11:25 PM	Denver , CO , US (DEN)	Seat(s): 17C

Depart:	Tuesday, 12 August 08	Frontier Airlines
09:35 PM	Denver , CO , US (DEN)	Non-Stop / F9 0221
Arrive:	Tuesday, 12 August 08	Cabin: Economy / Airbus A319
11:00 PM	Sacramento , CA , US (SMF)	Seat(s): 22C

And with the addition of Colorado, the only Western state I will not have been in is New Mexico. (I haven’t been to Texas, but Texas isn’t exactly what I call west.)

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Web 2.0 strikes again.

2008-06-05T20:20:44Z

Okay, two things.

First of all, I’ve been playing with playing with Plurk recently. If you’d like to join the service, you can join it through my invite link. It’s kinda like twitter, but it’s got the cool invite feed.

The other thing I’ve been meaning to ask is which of the social networking sites are y’all on, and what usernames are you using on them? I’m generally either katster or retstak, and I’m almost always registered under my email: katster AT retstak DOT org. (A few have my gmail address: retstak AT gmail DOT com) Generally, any site which lets me set an avatar gets my standard kat logo pictured to the left. (The exception is my AIM and yahoo names — both kjatster — which were picked before retstak became my common alt.nick.)

So let me know which sites y’all are on, if any.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

All the worry for nothing…

2008-05-28T23:01:11Z

Copied directly from my unofficial transcript:

Spring 2008

Program : American River College
Plan : Accounting Major

ACCT 103 Intermed Accounting I 4.00 4.00 A 16.000
CISA 315 Electronic Spreadsheets 2.00 2.00 A 8.000
Course Topic(s): EXCEL 2007

TERM GPA : 4.000 TERM TOTALS : 6.00 6.00 24.000

CUM GPA : 4.000 CUM TOTALS : 41.50 41.50 166.000

Good Standing

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.

Back to life, back to reality…

2008-05-27T06:10:28Z

From a rift in the space-time continuum somewhere near the Hyatt Santa Clara, katster emerges from the pocket dimension she has been inhabiting for the last three days.

Tim Powers, our Writer Guest of Honor, was the one that coined the “pocket dimension” idea as he summed up his thoughts on the weekends at closing ceremonies. It’s wonderful, I love it, and I’m going to steal it.

The short of it: Baycon was a blast. I ended up with 64 ribbons, a gopher/gofer ribbon, a Reno Worldcon sticker, a Seattle Worldcon button, and a copy of Orange Soda, the 2008 Baycon fanzine in an hour, which I hope will appear on efanzines.com real soon now. I also have some swag from the dealer’s room, and a silver dollar from 1978 that was given to me in change, and an entire run of the whole official newsletter along with one of the two fake newsletters distributed during con.

I managed to hit all four guests of honor with my “Press Button. Receive Baycon.” ribbon, a feat I was particularly proud of. The gofers went on strike, sorta. (Okay, not really, but I got to make a protest sign that read “Doors Don’t Just Watch Themselves” and I think I’m going to print “Gofer Local #42″ ribbons next year.) I went through all five hundred of the ribbons I printed and ran out at about 2 PM on Sunday. (Okay, I still had some of the Top Sekret Ribbon I printed with gridlore and kevin_standlee in mind, but I wasn’t giving that one to just anybody.)

The hotel staff had a competition to see which employee could collect the most ribbons.

I managed to lose something during con, too. This year’s particular case of the concrud seems to have found its way directly to my vocal cords, which means, I have next to no voice. Good thing I don’t talk much at work.

I’d say more, but I promised Chris Garcia I’d write up my thoughts (or the crimes of Belgium) for his fanzine, and I have to produce AuGH #8 before Sunday, and I have to work.

But I’ve already bought my membership to Baycon 2009, and am counting the days until we’re at it again.

Originally published at retstak.org. You can comment here or there.