Scarlett Letters

The kitties: Well, Zeke has settled in very well. I am the preferred furniture, and Sophie is the preferred chaser-chasee. I think they're still negotiating territorial issues a little bit. The bed still seems to be under negotiation. Zeke still insists on sleeping RIGHT IN MY FACE, which leaves Sophie to the end of the bed or the crook of my knees. I prefer the latter, at least until MY FACE stops being optimal for Zeke. I'm trying to break him of this habit, but apparently he's aware that MY FACE is the primary communication vehicle (the hands being a close second) (and weirdly, MY FACE seems to be the best place to nurse upon, specifically my lip, my eyebrow, or the tip of my nose), and he wants to be where the action is.

Company: I've had lots of company lately. Last weekend was the first pre-holiday crafternoon, which filled the house with knitting, drawing, quilting, and jewelry-making companions. And on Election Night, I had several fine friends in to watch the returns. Sophie and Zeke both got lots of attention, and my house is tidier than it's been in a while. Also, the carpet's been vacuumed, which hadn't happened since before I went to Europe and was desperately needed. So things in the house generally are good. Having company like that is nice.

Side effects of living alone: One trend that I'm not so happy about is that occasionally--just occasionally, not always--after friends leave, I have a tiny, fleeting moment of panic, wondering if everything is where I left it. Because, of course, when you live alone (not counting the cats), things don't move unless you yourself move them. If they move by themselves, it's because the cats moved them, or someone not yourself moved them--and then it gets weird. I dislike this knee-jerk reaction though. Like I said, it happens rarely. I think it happens mostly when it's been a big group in the house and I'm tired. I don't want age and solitude to make me more peculiar than I naturally am already. I'm hoping that self awareness will prevent this creeping peculiarity to stop its slow slither into my habits.

Road trip: This weekend--in just a couple of hours, in fact--I hit the road for Portland. The cat sitter will be coming in to feed, cuddle, and entertain the cats, check the mail and so forth. I'm looking forward to getting out of Dodge for a bit. A change of scenery is always a good thing, and seeing my Down South Posse always makes me happy. We've got some cool stuff in the hopper for the next three days. Should be a good weekend.

Flying time: While I was in Europe, I did a little early holiday shopping. When I arrived back in the states, suddenly it was mid-October, everyone was preparing for Halloween, and the stationery and drug stores already had their Christmas ornaments for sale. Now that it's nearly mid-November, I'm having a hard time adjusting to the fact that it's nearly holiday time, and that I need to finish the holiday shopping I started in Paris. (Did you see that? I was in Paris! I need to finish processing the pictures and to post them. But there are hundreds, and almost all of them need to be cleaned up in Photoshop first. ::sigh::)

Europe pictures: As I mentioned parenthetically above, I've been slowly processing my Europe pictures. Why all the post-production? Because it turns out that I didn't clean my lens very well, and nearly all of the shots have spots that must be removed. I'm too much of a perfectionist not to clean them up, and too harsh a judge of my own work to let anything be seen until they're absolutely as perfect as I can make them. I have a lot of work yet to do. My goal is to have the best of them uploaded to Flickr by the end of the year. We'll see how I do.

I've been out and about with the camera a bit lately, and fairly pleased with some of the results. Both last weekend and this weekend, I took mini-trips with friends to take pictures.

Last weekend, I spent some time with CS at the Volunteer Park Conservatory and the Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery (Seattle's Civil War-era cemetery), the former a favorite destination of mine, the latter one I'd never been to before. The weather was stellar for walking and shooting, and I got some lovely photographs that day, several of which I'm quite proud. We ended the day with a fine meal at Matador in Ballard--excellent company and delicious food.

Yesterday, I was off with a gang of the usual suspects, CS, and his 8-year-old daughter S to walk on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. For those of you not local to Seattle, the viaduct is an elevated, double-decker roadway that runs along Seattle's western waterfront. It was damaged during the 2001 Nisqually Earthquake and, since then, the city has debated endlessly about its fate. The decision was finally made to dismantle it for safety reasons, and to replace it with an underground tunnel. I'll not debate the merits of this decision here, but simply say that the loss of the viaduct will adversely affect Seattle's traffic patterns. It will also deprive us of some of the most wonderful views of downtown, West Seattle, and the Olympic Mountain Range available in the region. Yesterday, the city opened the viaduct to pedestrians for the first and only time in a sort of farewell celebration. It was a typical Pacific Northwestern autumn day, though perhaps darker and wetter than we've had in a while--the rain was a fine, constant shower, the clouds low and dark gray--thwarting hopes for clear photographs of views from the top. I'm sure that photographers more gifted and skilled than I got lovely, moody images nevertheless. The pictures I took are not art by any stretch, but they are my souvenirs of a roadway I have used regularly during my time in Seattle and which I will miss. (Note: The last five photographs in the set were not taken yesterday but during past drives.) ironymaiden took some wonderful pictures, and e_bourne took some nice shots with her iPhone. CS took a couple of striking images, too.

I'm going to miss the viaduct. I know that a lot of people consider it an eyesore and a wall between downtown and the waterfront but, as I said above, the views from the upper deck were wonderful. I always loved coming home after a long trip and looking down the city's canyons as I passed by, seeing skyscrapers from a good ten stories up in a way not possible anywhere else. Seeing sunsets from the viaduct was marvelous as well. And having used the viaduct as a primary route to the homes of e_bourne and markbourne, and ladyjestocost and bedii regularly, I've developed a fondness for it because of my associations with them, some of my longest, dearest friends locally. Lastly, the viaduct is one of the things that distinguishes Seattle from many other cities. As we walked, varina8 remarked that the last time she returned from a trip, she felt as though the city was becoming a generic urban area, losing its character slowly as a result of gentrification and the loss of historic, distinctive architecture. As I consider how the Capitol Hill neighborhood has changed over my years here, I see her point, even though a great many historic structures have been registered and will be saved from the axe. This particular loss I feel somewhat more keenly than for any one particular building because its looming presence is one of the defining features of the waterfront and because I've used it so regularly. I suspect, based on the turn-out yesterday, the number of people who took souvenir chunks of viaduct rubble, and the farewell grafitti, that I'm not the only one who feels that way. The city posted a farewell banner on the viaduct for yesterday's event. I couldn't have said it any better myself.

ETA: Pictures and video of the start of demolition. It actually hurts me to watch the walls being destroyed. ::sigh:: And here's a video of how the southern bypass will look during the demolition of that first mile of road. Pretty cool. And you can get a sense of what the views of town are like from the viaduct. With thanks to e_bourne for the links.


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Things I want to post about:
-- Last weekend's photo excursion
-- The book I'm nearly finished with (when I'm finished with it)
-- The interview/dinner I enjoyed with some of the women from Weight Watchers last weekend
-- The coming dismantling and replacement of the Alaskan Way Viaduct
-- Other stuff I'm sure I've forgotten

Note to self:
-- Make an icon for posts about photography

It's a little dark, despite my attempts at adjusting it. And they're obnoxious birds, but no one can deny how handsome they are.

Photography: I've signed contracts for short stories and articles in the past, but yesterday was the first time I've ever signed a contract for a photo--for National Geographic! One of their designers apparently sniffs around on Flickr for source material. They found one of my Africa photos--no, none of the pretty wildlife pictures but, rather, the shot of the interior of my tent. They're going to use it for one of their educational programs. It's not glamorous and it's not sexy, but it's a sale to a venue I love and admire. It feels like coming full circle after spending time, as a kid, with my hobbyist photographer father reading NatGeo on the living room couch. I'll take it!

The hand: The hand heals apace. It appears to be stuck in a mild, semi-permanent Vulcan salute, with the pinkie and ring finger slightly separated from the middle and pointer fingers. I'm working to remedy this situation whenever the hand isn't in the splint. I should be getting to the doctor in a few days to get another x-ray to see how it's healing. I miss being two-handed: I hate the discomfort I feel when I drive, I hate the waste of using paper plates and plastic cups because I can't wash dishes, I actually miss housecleaning. And so I double-dose on the calcium and hope for health.

Book, publishing, and gaming: One of my recent freelance projects was editing The KOBOLD Guide to Game Design, Vol III: Tools & Techniques for Open Design and Kobold Quarterly. The book is on sale as a PDF now, and will be available in hard copy in a couple of weeks. If you have any interest in roleplaying games or designing same, you ought to check out this book as well as its predecessors (volume 1, volume 2). It includes essays by some of the major names in game design (including our own the_monkey_king whose work features prominently in the book, as well as folks like Ed Greenwood and Monte Cook), and nuts-and-bolts advice about game design. Pretty spiffy, if I do say so myself.

Foolscap's Twitter presence: Some of you may know that I'm on the con committee for Foolscap, a local convention that takes place every September. There's been a lot going on behind the scenes. I've been one of a group posting to our Twitter streams (@flatstuff, the fun one, and @foolscapcon, the informative one). There's been some great stuff on @flatstuff lately, including announcements of local genre readings, interesting articles from a wide selection of sources, live tweeting from other conventions and so on. Give it a look-see.

ETA: Zoo penny smashing: I've just heard that Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Tacoma has three new penny machines. It's time for a day trip. Anybody wanna go to the zoo in the next couple of weeks?

I've posted three images on Zazzle, three note card designs. While the price for one card looks high (and I don't set the prices, so I can't change them), when purchased in packs of ten, a discount is applied. Also, through Thursday, Zazzle is having a sale. They're taking off 10.4% off of orders when you use the code TAXDAYZAZZLE. So here are links to the three items I've posted so far:

Fiery Red Poppy Note Cards
Burnt Blossom Note Cards
Blue Skies Note Cards

I may post more later today, and if I do, I'll post more links here. Hey, here's a poll!

[Poll #1550733]

Our own beloved the_monkey_king is this week's Seattle Post-Intelligencer Geek of the Week. "Go play," he says, "and pursue a strategy of joy." Congratulations!

And my, what a fine portrait the article sports, don't you think? :-)

So I haven't been feeling like journaling much lately. Not sure what that's been about, but I feel like maybe I ought to try to get back on the horse. I've been so busy between job hunting, making jewelry, writing and doing fun stuff that the fact that I haven't recorded any of it is just weird. I'll recap the highlights briefly, and maybe I'll become a regular here again. As I look back at my calendar, I realize that more time has gone by than I realized. Looks like I haven't really posted much of substance for nearly two weeks. Hm.

Okay, here's a summary of the good stuff.

( Sunday in the Park with George )

( Frost/Nixon )

( Star Trek )

( Birding, with pictures )

Yesterday, e_bourne, markbourne, and jackwilliambell descended upon my place for Sunday morning writing. My accomplishment was doing a final line edit on a story, printing it and prepping it to go into the mail. After a good morning's work, Jack and I hopped on his bike to go get lunch at Pike Place Brewery and to poke around the market a bit. Lovely, lovely day.

And that pretty much brings us up to date. There are some other things going on that I'll talk more about when they're ready to be discussed. The short version is I'm being creative, the job hunt continues, and my wonderful friends provide constant sustenance. These days, for a number of reasons, I am hyper-aware of my blessings. I could not be more grateful.

Movie critic A.O. Scott sends memos to Hollywood to try to spork it out of its collective stupor. Funny and true.

An examination of President Obama as college professor in context of the Supreme Court nominations to come.

Maureen Dowd on the Republican party's floundering and the Professor in Chief.

Yeah, I'm a whore for The New York Times. You can take the girl out of New York...

In other news, the West Seattle Blog is running a photograph I took of the Alaskan Way viaduct in context of the nightmare that will be traffic today here in town. (For the out-of-towners: Today is Opening Day for boaters. In this town surrounded by water and filled with draw bridges, there will be long waits in favor of marine traffic.) I think it's a pretty boring shot, but out of all the West Seattle photographs I recently took, that's the one they wanted to use. I'm not complaining.

This week, This American Life featured Dan Savage and Joss Whedon. Did you hear it? Doesn't look like it's been archived online yet, but watch the site; should be coming soon.

Wizards of the Coast and Hasbro respond to McCain staffer Michael Goldfarb's condescending remarks about D&D players. The military loves this game and, by the way, so do many of the PhDs I know. Take that, jerkface! (Thanks for the tip, mysticalforest. Go WotC!)

I'm assembling a portfolio of photographs to submit to stock photography houses. I'm really doing it, starting tonight. How'd I get the get-up-and-go to do this? oldmangrumpus, who has worked for stock photography houses for the last 15 years or so, stopped by tonight to pick up something that I promised him, and he gave me a primer on what's required and where to look and how to recognize what I have that might and might not work. So while I'm job hunting, I think I'm going to take out my lovely, expensive camera and actually do something with it. This, my friends, could be the start of something cool. We'll see.

Will blog about the DNC a little later. Missed a lot of it today, though I didn't miss Obama.

And cats know this better than all of us:

( Evidence beneath the cut )

"Sun Day." And it's Sunday, get it? ::nudge nudge:: I'm so clever.