Cleolinda everywhere

Some very sad real-world news in the previous entry. I endeavor to bring you escapism and raptors.

( Read more... )

So. Much of my online life takes place on Twitter these days because I am often accessing the internet while away from my computer, and it is near impossible to tap out an entry on a phone. This is because, as I have mentioned, Sam is now mostly (but not entirely) blind and deaf, and he requires more care (help getting outside, to the water bowl, back to his blanket-bed) these days. He's happy, but he needs a lot of attention--and now that Scout has gotten really jealous and can't understand why Sam keeps bumping into him and reads it as aggression, he's started snapping at Sam. It's only gotten bad this last week, once Sam stopped sleeping most of the day and got active again. In fact, he rambles around way more than he did when he could see. So theere's a lot of watching and refereeing and wrangling that goes on if all three dogs are in the same room, and we're still working out how to handle that. We're to the point where I'm going to have to crate Scout and Shelby for a few hours sometimes, let Sam ramble around, and then tuck Sam away in the bedroom and let the big dogs out. If they can all doze peacefully in the same room, that's great. If they can all chill on the deck in dogly harmony, awesome. But if they can't, I'm going to have to put one or the other up somewhere, because I'm unable to get anything done and I'm near the point of hysteria from trying to micromanage them for eight hours at a stretch. Even my mother said, "You cannot sacrifice your life to these dogs."

( But I can totally take pictures of them! Plus a few other things to mention )


Meanwhile, the two links of greatest interest:

@SmartBitches: Have a look: think it's Poe fiction plagiarism? http://is.gd/5iV31Q http://is.gd/l2qlAB http://is.gd/bk3BIM

@McDougallSophia: @cleolinda could you maybe link to Genre for Japan charity auction? Proceeds to BRC Tsunami appeal http://genreforjapan.wordpress.com/

As a follow-up on yesterday, since I don't think things are going to get any better--what I'm sad about is that my grandmother's mental and physical health took a steep downturn this past weekend. There are some other problems as well, emotional and/or financial; I've started having mild panic attacks again. And foresthouse--she's a longtimer around here, you may recognize her. She's one of my closest friends and my agent now as well. And she's going to have to have a really expensive trial surgery on both eyes--it was that or a double corneal transplant--at the end of the month, and I keep thinking, if I'd finished something to sell by now, we'd have money to pay for it. But I haven't. So we don't. So.

That said, I got 14 pages of a 25-page chapter cleaned up and revised today.

So... now that I've totally brought the room down...

...big casting news for three or four major movies in the linkspam: ( Read more... )

Apropos of nothing much, I'll tell you that I tried to watch the third Mummy movie last night, and I could not get fifteen minutes into it--because I can forgive a lot, and I can have a lot of fun with stuff that isn't actually good, but I just could not, not, not get behind Maria Bello replacing Rachel Weisz (who I love in the first movie). They just weren't even the same character--Rachel Weisz brought a kind of giddy can-do energy to Evie, whereas Maria Bello had this arch, coy, detached take on the whole thing (and how much of that is due to her wrestling with a fake accent, I don't know).

But I will give the movie this: the first time we hear Bello!Evie, she's reading aloud from a novel she's published (a thinly fictionalized version of her own adventures). Then a woman in the audience stands up and asks if she based the heroine on herself, and then we see Bello!Evie for the first time as she says, all but winking at the camera, "No, I can honestly say she is a completely different person." I laughed so hard.

Must Watch: First Trailer for Guy Ritchie's 'Sherlock Holmes'!

ETA: Early leak of the New Moon poster, it looks like. Although the watermark is cracking me up.

( Moar! )

I'm going to see Watchmen tomorrow afternoon (and at some point over the weekend, guest on a podcast), so you might not hear much from me over the next couple of days. Of course, as sure as I say that, I'll post five times. I'm just saying, either one is possible. (I never know what I'll be able to write until I sit down and try to do it. So I have no idea if I'll be able to put up something about Watchmen or not.) I'm finishing up a new Secret Life, but I'm also trying to space them out a bit. Honestly, I've just given up on the idea of getting any actual work done until Monday, but at least I know it, I guess.

I've also been feeling really tired lately--I mean, I know you already know that because I'm always talking about it, but I'm starting to think it's actually a mild bit of depression. You know, that chemical imbalance kind where you feel bad for no specific reason, not an event-related depression. We're getting into spring now, though, so I think it'll lift. I'm just not feeling so great at the moment, is all.

And right as I was putting on the finishing touches, the new Star Trek trailer came out. Enjoy.

( Linkspam )

Sick today. Not badly, just enough to feel dizzy and crummy and not make a lot of sense when I tried to talk to people. And it was only a little congestion at that--possibly I didn't notice it because (sorry, mild TMI) the crud was oozing down my throat, which was then sore, rather than staying in my head.

(Heather C.--thank you so much! The packing slip referred to two packages? The one today had books in it?)

(Also: omg.)

( Minispam about recent and not-so-recent deaths )

( Regular linkspam )

Re: LiveJournal: Here's the press release about the layoffs.

Back at the ranch, as it were, I got so sucked into this afternoon's rerun of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit when Sister Girl was over doing laundry this afternoon--it was one of those L&O specialties where they started off with one crime and midway through switched to another that they discovered in the course of investigating the first one, which was great and fantastic and all except that I kept screaming "BUT WHAT ABOUT BRIANNA????"

... maybe you had to be there.

Meanwhile, yesterday, I ran around doing housework (you know it's bad when I try to procrastinate by cleaning) until I ended up throwing up all over the bathroom. (Which then, of course, had to be... cleaned.) I have no idea what that was about, except that I'd had a heavy breakfast (well, you know: greasy fast-food biscuit) on a nervous stomach. And then I felt feverish and had chills all day (and a good bit of today as well), so maybe I'm legitimately sick, who knows.

I made Sister Girl take the rest of the Mountain Dews with her, though, so that temptation is at least removed. Also, I think the withdrawal headaches have eased up.

I'm also trying to remind myself that I may be in a hypomanic phase (what with the running around cleaning), so if I suddenly crash and don't feel magically energetic anymore, that's not a moral failing. It just means that if I feel good now, I need to make hay while the sun shines.

Apropos of nothing much, one more thing about Prince Caspian: ( Read more... )

Oh, by the way, I got an email newsletter/casting call from Universal Pictures, and when I tried to copypaste the info to pass it along, it turned out to be a series of image files. Huh. Therefore, I will present it to you as it was presented to me (click to enlarge): ( ARE YOU THE NEXT MCLOVIN????? )

Of course, I saw the name "Edward" and ran screaming, but there you are. (Oh, and the MySpace and Facebook links were clickable; at least you don't have to type those in. The latter demands to know whether you are THE NEXT MCLOVIN' OR MICHAEL CERA?!, which should give you an idea of what they're looking for.)

Speaking of Edward, mistress_gwen has started the comm sparklpires for lolfans. Enjoy.

( Catchup linkspam! )

Meme I saw a few people doing today: 10 Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't.

Of course, with this many of y'all around, someone here probably has.

(The key to filling out this meme: be really, really specific.)

( Man, my life was so much more interesting in college )

Re: yesterday's Scientology raids: laughingacademy dropped me a link to deathboy's London writeup, in which he saw "500 people rick-rolling [i.e., playing Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up." Don't ask me] the UK Scientology head office. It was at this point I saw the corners of the cops' mouths twitch into smiles as they realised it was ok: we were from the internets." Among the pictures included: I love the little sign that reads "DOWN WITH THIS SORT OF THING." Also: Metroblogging Los Angeles: Anonymous vs. Scientology IRL showdown in LA (I dig the "I'm too poor to believe in Scientology" sign. Also, the suparrrr-stealthy Scieno "ice" truck); the Anonymous Worldwide Raids and Shenanigans pool on Flickr; It's not lupus thetans.

( More linkspam )

So, here's what's new in the world of L'affaire Lexicon:

soleta_nf remembered Steve Vander Ark saying at Convention Alley 2004 that "his real reason for starting the lexicon was that he knew JKR would be publishing an encyclopedia someday, and he hoped that, by having already created one, he would be the person she approached to help her with it." Apparently this ambition goes back as far as 2000 as well. vorpal_blade at JF also recalled SVA saying at Prophecy 2007 that "Jo didn't know her world as well as the fans did and that they owned it now, not her," of which we also have video ("I'm going to teach you a spell: expelliepilogus!"). He's also on video comparing JKR to Umbridge. The reference on RDR Books' website to Hiroshima was removed, but not before it was screencapped. The book may have had a British publication date of tomorrow, November 5, but since I also read that the British publisher is cooperating with WB, it's unlikely that it'll go on sale tomorrow.

And then... Steve released a statement.

Meanwhile! Wearable Sculpture is now Wyrding Studios, Stardust illustrator Charles Vess needs your help proving that a statuette without "big muscles, big breasts or big guns" can sell, and we have a few reader requests:

foresthouse created a Flickr group for Neil Gaiman-inspired costumes and creations (which Neil himself mentioned on his blog).

unheardpublic: "Chipotle, the mexican fast food restaurant chain, hosted a 30 second commercial spot contest for universities around the nation and they just announced the 12 finalists. Well, I happen to be one of them. The rules are that the video with the most views on youtube wins, so if you could link my video in your spam, I would SO appreciate it (you have no idea how much more I will love you). Enjoy and thanks so much."

arielchan has one last sociology poll, if you could help her out.

Back at the ranch, ( an excellence of linkspam )

Seriously, it's a really, really good linkspam. A five-day backlog'll do that for you.