strange radiation: the pool of radiance archive
Adventures with an unreliable narrator.
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Mar 31 06: field report: oxford
We are in England. We arrived last night, after an uneventful flight (watched Prime and Breakfast on Pluto and Goodnight and Good Luck). England is green and pleasant and even intermittently sunny. During our postlunch stroll, we poked about Christ Church Cathedral, which is small but interesting (resting place of St. Frideswide, stations of the cross done as multiscreen video installation, nicely gothy memento mori, etc.). Following that, Robin got us past the gates at the otherwise-not-open-to-nonstudents Christ Church College. We walked around the quadrangle, with its lawn so lush it seems like a carpet of moss; we poked our noses into the dining hall, which doubles as the dining hall for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies. Our real target, though, was the library, which is a whole ‘nother layer of inaccessible, but we got into anyway because Peter and Robin know half the library staff. The eighteenth-century library at Christ Church is spectacular, with huge and ornate gilt-and-plaster ornaments high on salmon-colored walls. The books in the collection are grouped by donor (rather than oh, say, by title or by subject) and are shelved pretty much just as they were when the library was completed—the building was intended to have room for the collection to expand, but took sixty-plus years to complete, and was at capacity from its first day of official use. It’s not open to browsers; unless you’re a pre-screened researcher, you’ll only get inside in conjunction with a special event of some sort. So this was cool.
While there, we got to see a document that was being prepared for restoration: a copy of Johann Remmelin’s Catoptrum Microcosmicum, dated 1619. The poor thing looked like it had been forgotten for a while in a cabinet under somebody’s bathroom sink, but once you got past the first page or three, you reached the good bits, which were astonishing. CM is an early anatomy text, with ‘flap book’ style illustrations. The engraved plates have different layers attached to them in places, sometimes twenty-five sheets deep: faced with a human torso, you could fold back the skin, the muscles, the organs, etc. Well, one could fold them back. We could only watch the librarian do the folding, but I’m not sure I could blame her.
These guys know how to show a geek a good time.
The boys are all presently napping; after that, probably tea. There is a bag of damn-tasty Thai sweet chil(l)i flavo(u)red chips—sorry, crisps—in the kitchen with my name on it. The wedding is tomorrow, and all is well. Wedding-finery photo will be provided anon.
Mar 27 06: dispersal
I did a quick reread of “Slow” today, and then sent it off to Gordon Van Gelder at F&SF.
In rereading it? I am well pleased with that story. I can’t believe I sat on it for so long, and for what? There are two more stories I imagine I might tell about the characters in it, and for a long time I thought I should write those first. But I don’t know when I’m getting to those. Right now they’re less stories in my head than snapshots, and until they accrete something like a plot then I’m not gonna try forcing the issue. I may have finally learned that lesson. Someday, though.
Good luck, kiddo.
Mar 26 06: tie me up! tie me down!
Next weekend we’ll be in England watching our dear friends Peter and Robin get hitched. They’ve been together for 20 years, and so the opportunity to see them make honest gentlemen of one another, with all the legal honors and rights and responsibilities associated therewith, will be a real pleasure. (They insist on not calling it a ‘wedding.’ They are, in their words, being ‘conjugated.’ I can’t decide whether this sounds very dirty indeed, or just seriously geeky. I like it either way.)
At any event, preparations for the trip have begun. The suits have gone to the cleaners; I had to break down and admit that I was no longer 29 and ask the nice Korean lady could she please let the waist out an inch. Today the beard got its every-three days trim, and while I was at it I spent some time sharpening up its edges. (Beards are like one of those low-growing ground cover plants, thyme maybe, or vinca. Given the chance, they creep out of their assigned beds and begin to take over.) And then I got to go shopping for neckties.
It’s a good thing I don’t have one of those jobs that makes you dress up all the time, because I would turn into a shameless dandy. Instead, I am an unemployed writer-editor-Mac tech-game designer guy, with a minor in a capella singing, so shirts with buttons were about as dressed-up as I ever had to get. To compensate, once or twice a year I go someplace like Charles Tyrwhitt and buy a snazz new tie. Then I call up my friends and demand that we go someplace schmancy for drinks. Today they were having a big crazy sale so I got two! Two ties! One is all purple and blue and stripy (the tag says “lilac funky stripe”) and will be good for a spring wedding, I think. The other is this seriously red number, without color variance but subtly textured. I will look rather sinister and bad-ass in it. Sinister and bad-ass is great, but not what I’d want for a wedding, so that one will stay home.
It is a good thing to play dress-up every now and then—and what better excuse than the wedding of two worthy folks? None, I think. This will be fun.
note to self
Gosh, look, it’s two in the morning, again. Okay, new thing to remember: approach the ‘edit this page’ button on any Wikipedia entry with extreme caution. Even if—perhaps especially if—the entry desperately needs editing.
Mar 20 06: testing
If you can read this, then my upgrade to MT3.2 has gone as planned. (crosses fingers)
EDITED: If you blog using Movable Type, and then crosspost to LiveJournal via MTLJPost, note that there’s a new version—v1.9.2. The documentation is here, but is a little b0rked, and the links to download the files have to be ferreted out of the page’s code. Here’s the .zip archive; here’s the .tar archive.
Mar 17 06: boxes (idiot; blue; emptyish)
The SciFi Channel began broadcasting the new Doctor Who episodes tonight. I’ve seen a few of them already, but they’re much more fun when viewed from one’s couch, via an actual television screen, rather than from a hard wooden desk chair, via the computer monitor.
They’ve done a great job with the revamp of the theme music, haven’t they? Makes me feel like I’m eleven years old, all over again, and it’s well past midnight on a Sunday and I have to go to school tomorrow, and I don’t care, because the stories! It’s all so damn cool.
This week was not so great. The grand plans of springing into productivity could have gone better, but the extra sleep was nice, so that was good. I got a few things done, though. Plus I cleaned the bathroom. I only do that for love. Next week, though. Next week good.
Mar 13 06: still point
Well, okay. Thus endeth the career, I think.
Today was the last day of my job with the Corporate Behemoth, because they closed our business group. Time now for a new plan. Here’s what I’m thinking: I’ve got a bunch of things to do between now and the end of summer. I’m supposed to compete at the Gay Games in Chicago; Paul’s 40th is happening and we’re going to do a get-out-of-town thing; I’m trying to get a novel written; we’re going to England for a wedding; my cousin is getting married; I have family coming to visit; there are some cool performance opportunities; that sort of thing. Starting a new job would inevitably make it harder to keep up with these. However, I have leads on plenty of freelance work for the summer—and those would be plenty flexible. So I’m going to freelance for now, and look for a permanent position, preferably out of the educational-publishing field, in late August or early September. How’s that?
In the short-term: Paul is going to be out of town this week. I’m going to (a) clean the apartment; (b) excavate my desk, which has gotten ugly again; (c) get some exercise; and (d) write. I’d love to be completely done with Optimistic Story ere long.
The silence in the apartment is kinda deafening. I wonder if this is going to work?
Mar 7 06: the last word is still “sea.”
Okay, I’ve just finished v2.0 of Optimistic Story. Its title is still “Albedo.” The new version—now with extra plot!—weighs in at 9,000 words as the SFWA counts. I think it’s a better story for all the agonies, but at two in the morning it’s hard to be sure.
If I can still bear to look at it when I wake up in, gosh, five hours or so, I’ll start firing it off at my brave and selfless volunteers. But I wanted to say something now, just for formality’s sake.
UPDATED: Nope, can’t do it. I don’t trust my 2AM brain enough to send it out without another re-read, and I’m off to Brooklyn for an all-afternoon rehearsal (w/ Mark Morris! Sugoi desu.). It’ll go out tonight.
Mar 3 06: (octopus)
Here’s a little something to brighten your days: the complete Fruity Oaty Bars ad from Serenity.
Come on, sing it with me! Sing it with me over and over until your coworkers can’t get it out of their heads!Fruity Oaty Bars!
Make a man out of a mouse!
Fruity Oaty Bars!
Make you bust out of your blouse!
Eat ‘em all the time!
Let them blow your mind! Pow!
<<Wo hen diu lian - wo meiyou chi Fruity Oaty Bar!>>
Fruity Oaty Bars!
Fruity Oaty Bars!
Note the blue sun at the beginning! Ay yah! They’re everywhere!
Mar 2 06: infodump
- I am alive, thank you. It was touch-and-go there for a while, but it’s true. Was there a day last month on which both Paul and I were healthy at the same time? I think not. Adios, February. You sucked.
- I have nearly managed to bolt an actual plot to the charred hull of “Albedo.” I think she will fly much more true once it’s installed. We’ll see, I guess. Those of you who were so foolish as to beta-read the v1.0 draft will receive copies of the v2.0 draft, which you may read or ignore as you please. This will serve as your only warning. (Anybody else who feels like giving it a whirl is also welcome, of course.)
- Once I get “Albedo” out of my system, I’m moving directly on to the novel, which currently lives under the name of Mojo City. MC suffers from no shortage whatsoever of plot, so that’s a relief at least. Given the magnitude of the undertaking, my excitement for it is kind of bewildering, but I’ll take it.
- Big_girl has agreed to talk to me about la regla lucumí and her Abuela, persuant to the book. I am hugely excited about this.
- I have less than two weeks left of the job. Barely over one week, actually. (Although: if you’re going to close down a division, why on Earth do you choose to make people’s last day on the job a Monday? It just seems so perverse…) At any rate, I’ve started to put together something approximating a plan. I think I’m going to freelance for the summer—I’ve got offers of ‘all the freelance work I can handle,’ huzzah—and then search for a staff position in earnest starting late August. This way I can take time off for the Gay Games (Chicago in July), a clan-reunion beach trip (later July), a brief retreat for Paul’s 40th (early August), and suchlike.. I figure doing so would be much tougher if I were starting a new gig. The new job will be in a different field. I am done with educational publishing. No, really. I mean it this time.
- Of course, the plan may get changed radically if, for instance, we get evicted this summer. We just received our copy of a document our landlords have filed with the city. Apparently they’d like to kick out the tenants so they may do a gut renovation of our building; when the reno is finished, it will have been transformed into a set of high-priced condominiums. Eviction would certainly be inconvenient. On the other hand, if we’re reading the relevant laws correctly (more on that in a few days), we are automatically awarded a cash bonus should this come to pass. A potentially big one. So.
- Boskone was fun. Met many people I had only known via the net; drank some mind-bending hooch; sat in on much writerly discussion. It also reminded me that I have a bunch of stories—well, okay, three or four—just sitting around, waiting to be sent out into the Big World. Must attend to them.
- We are going to a genuine legally meaningful gay wedding in Oxford, UK on April 1. We will be there to represent the Americas as we toast the recognition of a twenty-year relationship between two utterly delightful gentlemen. Can’t wait.
- The prolonged illness (as detailed in #1, q.v.) prevented any sort of exercise. I am now deeply out of shape, and my shoulder has gotten all cranky again. It hurts to open doors and wash my hands again. Grrr.
- That is all. Stay tuned for further utterly fascinating bulletins.