V-4. Brawny route, all deadpoints, across a roof and up over the edge. It took about five tries but I did it. And I can do it again. Also a V-3 (one-move balance problem) and a bunch of other fun things.

Here's the thing about dynos. If you jump for the next hold, knowing you either stick it or fall, you are not just hoping you will win out over gravity; you are spitting in gravity's eye. It is more than a leap of faith, trusting that your strength, power and heart will take you to the next hold. It is also an act of hubris, and of denial.

When you dyno, you're a housecat hissing at a black bear.

Ads have started showing up on this lj, ads where I am not accustomed to seeing them.

This does not make me happy. I'll be changing my home page first, and we'll see what happens later.

So once upon a time they took away the Hockey Night in Canada theme, which was, as the man says, A Part of My Heritage.

However, the upside to this was that the CBC is having the Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge, which is I guess like American Idol for hockey themes. And high school friend lonicus, who is by day seriously up-and-coming composer for orchestra, film, game soundtrack, and stage Kevin Lau, has put in an entry.

Take a listen, and if the spirit moves you, give it a rating.

This ends this official pimping announcement.

(Yes, all my friends are awesome.)

4. The north-west transept of Canterbury Cathedral.
So called because it is the place where Thomas à Becket (St Thomas of Canterbury) was murdered (1170).

c1531 T. BENOLTE Visit. Kent (1923) I. 3 The lorde ffynyeckes..lyes buryede at the marter dome of Saynt Thomas in the said churche. 1631 J. WEEVER Anc. Funerall Monuments 228 Here lies interred in the Martyrdome an Archbishop. 1726 J. DART Hist. Canterbury Cathedral 60 In the North-Cross or Martyrdom, where are the Tombs of the Archbishops. 1855 A. P. STANLEY Hist. Memorials Canterbury II. 65 The transept in which the knights found themselves is the same as that which..is still known by its ancient name of ‘The Martyrdom’. 1974 H. WADDAMS Canterbury Cathedral 9 The Chapel leading out of the Martyrdom is reserved for private prayer. 1995 C. WILSON in P. Collinson et al. Hist. Canterbury Cathedral x. 488 Warham's tomb in the Martyrdom is the largest of the Cathedral's medieval monuments.

---

gads, I love this stuff.

Stevie Wonder's behind Obama? My jaded detachment is softening...

We’re so used to American style hand and rod video puppetry, like the Muppets, that it’s easy to forget that there are whole other traditions out there. Check this out and brace yourself for awesome.

Kevin Kaos pointed this out. He’s got a nice breakdown on his blog about what must have gone into making a video like this.

Comments? -- Link

I see that apparently some Republicans are concerned that Tropical Storm / Hurricane Gustav could "swamp" (according to the Mike Allen who is not time_shark) the Republican convention in St. Paul and even interfere with President Bush's opening speech. Boy howdy, but if I were a Rich Liberal Media Publisher Type right now I'd pay real cash money just to print the headline

GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS REPUBLICAN CONVENTION

Oooh, or maybe--considering what Jerry Falwell and other great and sundry televangelistas said about Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans--I might be equally pleased with

HURRICANE GUSTAV THREATENS REPUBLICAN CONVENTION
WITH RETRIBUTION FOR ITS SINS

And this is why it's just as well that I write historical and speculative fiction rather than current events. Maybe I'll turn these assignments over to "S. Fox" of Vivarium Press.

Went for a long-ish walk with Sadie down to DUMBO today. The light was bright and clean and thick, and it was a perfect high 70's. I had a fancy ice cream sandwich (eh) and discovered another great used bookstore (oh no? Or huzzah?). Speaking of bookstores, so I think I've got a job at one? Um? Oh fuck it, hell yes.

Love,
Meghan

I have already forgotten most of my last-night lesson.  Hrm.  I know that we did work on getting the inside hind leg to do a it more work in the shoulder-in, and on using my inside leg as more of a driving aid in same, and that was good: we've been better at nailing the angle, lately, and I think the bend, but have been showing some tendency to stall out behind the leg, so: timely.

And we worked on removing from the list of options "hide out a little behind the vertical."  T. doesn't mind having the horse a little deep if it's deliberate, to an end, and from the wither, but he thinks Tucker's been getting just a little too comfortable there (and that it's a little too easy for him, given his conformation).  So, he stressed, we do not do this right from the get-go every time (heh--someone has caught on to my habit of overreacting to criticism...) but when the horse is basically going well, it's time to start upping the ante a bit on push from behind and stretch out with the nose.  We started with a series of squared-off turns--not quite the turn on the haunches square exercise, but very similar (a little more keeping the positioning and forward through the turn)--with transitions back onto the circle as needed to reestablish the springiness of the trot.  Then we just--went.  On the circle, forward hands and looser elbows and body back and lots of go, but still holding the balance with the half-halt and slow post, holding the bend and lifting Tucker's ribcage off the inside leg.  "How does that feel?" T. asked at one point and I said, "Weird!"  Getting everything coordinated is not my strongest suit.  But I could feel the lift and the stretch in the trot and the change in trajectory, so I think I begin to understand the goal, even if we'll need to Work On That.

(And funny moment from the Tuesday ride.  I forgot to change back to our dressage bit until I went to bridle Tucker, so we ended up standing there in the aisle with me to his left, reins looped around his neck, while I changed out the bit.  Did he try to take advantage of the pause?  Did he try to depart for the hay bale nearby?  Nnno.  He kept swinging his head around and--very politely, but insistently--trying to put his mouth on the bit.  He was going, "Mom.  Mom?  I think you forgot something.  Didn't you want to go ride?  The bit--it goes in my mouth.  And then you put that piece up over my ears...are you listening?  Helloooooooo.")

I ended up skipping the barn tonight and heading back up to Pelham.  I'm a little worried about getting caught up in Cape Cod traffic when I go out tomorrow, but Pelham's open later on Thursdays than Fridays (though I was brutally efficient--back to my usual shopping mode!) and it seemed silly to go on with a group of trial saddles that clearly weren't going to work.  So with the help of one of the tack shop employees (seriously, I have yet to meet one there who doesn't seem helpful and knowledgeable), I have, uh, traded up a bit.  I had a moment and went, "Damnit, if I want a nice saddle, I might as well try nice saddles."

The goal was something with a really nice balance, a 17 or 17.5 seat, and a tree just a hair wider than the KN and Roosli I'd took on Monday.  I went ahead and took the Black Country Vinci monoflap that I'd drooled over last visit; I'm not sure how the gussets will work on Tucker, but I figured I might as well get it out of my system.  And I took a Jaguar XKC that's just flat-out gorgeous.  And!  The sleeper of the bunch--I don't think it was there on Monday, though maybe it was out on trial--another Black Country, model unknown but traditional design, that's actually right in the middle of the price range I was hoping to spend and felt every bit as good on the plastic horse as either of the others or T.'s Roosli did on my horse.  So that's my grand hope, but we'll see.  If these don't work, I'd like to try another KN Symphonie (proper seat size, hair wider tree) and I said in a Berney Bros. saddle today that was pretty darn nice.  I'm also on the wait list for the shop's other used Roosli, currently out on trial.  It's an 18", which is probably too big, but it's got a medium-wide tree so I could at least get a sense for how that sits on my horse.

Ride tomorrow, ride Saturday (and hack at least part of the time, bugs permitting), etc.  I need to pow-wow with L. and J.; I'd like to cash in my last chore money and add a jump lesson this week before King Oak, but I'm not sure what the schedule looks like.

Onward.

All of the stories in the inbox have been read and processed! If you submitted a story to Clarkesworld Magazine and have not heard back from us, please email me at clarkesfiction@gmail.com.

There were a few near misses and one acceptance in this latest batch of slush. Look for "The Cog in God's Wheel" by Peter Hagelslag sometime in early 2009.


We will reopen for submissions on September 20th.

100 GH Icons
4 Carly; 1 Carly/Jax; 13 Claudia; 2 Jax; 20 Jason; 4 Jason/Liz; 7 Johnny; 6 Liz; 7 Lucky; 7 Lulu; 2 Lulu/Johnny; 1 Lulu/Lucky; 4 Maxie; 3 Nadine; 5 Nikolas; 5 Patrick; 3 Sam; 5 Spinelli; 1 Spinelli/Maxie



HERE @ solargod.

Was browsing around at surlalunefairytales.com, the Fairy Tale site, and found these great illustrations by Walter Crane for the classic, Beauty and the Beast. 
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/beautybeast/cranebeauty1.html

Today, I trucked it down to Leeds and had lunch with stephanieburgis at Little Tokyo. It's funny how long you can be acquainted with someone online who is, literally, just a handful of miles away in the grander scheme of things, yet never bother to actually meet in person. Realizing the silliness inherent in this, we finally arranged something. And it was positively lovely. I'm so glad that there are enough writers in and around North Yorkshire to give one a sense of community. Granted, it's nothing in comparison to certain pockets and cliques in the States that I'd almost give my right arm to be part of - but then, no, I shouldn't short-change us so. It's just a different kind of networking!

I found lifegivingsword's anniversary/birthday gift. I hope he'll like it.

ETA: The cover of the upcoming Crawlspace anthology (in which my "Liberty," which previously appeared on Behind the Wainscot, will be included) was unveiled in April. Like an idiot, I missed the post. Sharp! By which I mean the cover.

In other speculative broadcasting news purveyed by journalists who spent more time in school doing word puzzles than attending classes, commentators are wondering...

MCCAIN / COCAINE ... COINCIDENCE?

MCCAIN / INSANE ... COINCIDENCE?

MCCAIN / SICK BRAIN ... COINCIDENCE?

FOX NEWS / POX SPEWS ... COINCIDENCE?


Stay tuned for the top feature on our next broadcast!

This Live Journal entry was sponsored by the little box on your tax form that asks if you want to donate $1 to the presidential campaign fund.

http://travisheermann.com/blog/

Travis Heermann approached me at WorldCon and asked if he could interview me for his blog. I figured he was pulling my leg but I figured, what the heck, why not?

So we exchanged emails and I've answered some fun questions and the interview will be up sooner or later. In the meantime, he has other interviews up: one every Monday. Current interview is John Scalzi. Go read. Enjoy!

http://amongamidwhile.blogspot.com/2008/08/blog-post.html

In the comments here, Judi pointed me towards this Tender Morsels review at Reading Rants:

What I have described here barely scratches the surface of the captivating, complex world Aussie author Lanagan has created. Pushing the boundaries of YA literature, this dark, violent fairy tale, containing elements of everything from The Color Purple to the Grimm Brothers’ Bearskin, is rife with themes of memory, identity, lost childhood, family and what it means to grow up. You will need to digest these Tender Morsels for yourself to discover the magnetic power of her dense, gorgeous prose. Deeply imaginative and beautifully written, this is easily one of the best books of 2008.

Userpics.
[1-16]Jensen Ackles

Preview:

Download!

I present thee with icons from The Dark Knight. Most are of the Joker.

There's so many TDK icons out there, its hard not to just be making the same things over and over...so I was trying to take a different spin with some of these. Hope you like them! And please comment & credit if you use. Thank you~ ^^

For credit: [Icon by <*lj user="majesticjac">]
Remove the star and put the above in the comment section when uploading the icon to your userpics.

Teasers:


( For the rest, proceed with the srs cut! )
x-posted to a couple icon communities.

Mike Allen / time_shark sent me an e-mail today to let me know he was accepting my SF poem "Last Gift From the Eldest" for Mythic Delirium. Woot! I think this is also my first sale of a rhyming poem in ages.

In other news, I sadly didn't write any speculative poetry today while proctoring a math assessment for our last freshman orientation of the summer (and possibly ever) today. I say "sadly" because in the past couple of years I've managed to sell nearly every poem I've ever written during those assessments. Maybe something about constantly surveying a group of incoming freshman clicking away at keyboards and scribbling their figuring with pencils on scrap paper activates the spec-poetry inspirational side of my brain?

(Come to think of it, one poem actually was about awaiting the end of an important test . . . )

The reason I wound up not writing any poetry was that I was editing Shenandoah. This seems to be an upward trend lately.

Letters to Myself: Film Break

[10] Pilot
[13] The Wild Brunch
[8] Poison Ivy
[19] Bad News Blair



You know you love me, X O X O Gossip Girl +

Am feeling somewhat better today, though work is proceeding slowly, as my brain is high-grade mush.

I should mention that just after we get back from Hawaii, I'll be the Guest of Honor along with squirrel_monkey at Saloncon in Somerset, NJ, so if you're in the general New Jersey area and want to come see me in a corset, high ye steampunky self hence to salonconvention and get your tickets. I must stress that you do not need to be in costume to attend the con.

I made a very long sentence all by myself in Russian last night, with two clauses and everything. I'd forgotten how much puzzle-solving pleasure I take in learning new languages, and while I'd never say Russian was easy, I'm grateful to have the cushion of ancient Greek to soften the blow of a case system and verb aspect. (Whatever, bitchez, I got yer aorist right here, and Russian verbs are delightfully formulaic compared to that fuck-off huge verb chart I had to memorize back in the day. Ah! Memories! Good times, eh ladyvivien? sovay? burkean? Solidarity, mates. Can we have a classicist gang sign?)

The other day I caught myself thinking: I'm so glad I know Greek! I can't imagine how hard it would be to learn an inflected language from a dead stop, when you don't even know what a case system is, and have never heard of a declension! And a new alphabet, too? That's inhuman! Oh, wait...I guess that's Greek.

I've been very good about my daily lessons, and it's a fascinating process. I learned Greek and Latin concurrently, so the brainiac powers necessary were developed at the same time. Whereas now, the neural pathways have already been blazed, and it's fun to slot new words into familiar Tetris-like shapes in my memory. Accusative, check. Perfective aspect, check. Memorize, rinse, repeat. It helps that so much is immediately applicable from Greek to Russian, hell, some of the declensions are even the same. Some of the words are the same. And having listened passively to so much spoken Russian over the past two years, I can mimic pretty well and I recognize a lot of words just from how often I hear them. It's such a joy to learn something you know you are completely capable of, that you have the terminology and history to do without grotesque pain. I had all these tools lying around and it's awesome to finally use them.

The hardest thing has easily been pronunciation--English most often, though not always, places the emphasis on the first syllable, where Russian favors the last or the middle. (Man, the middle-syllable emphasis kills me.) Even if I know where the emphasis is, it's often difficult to reproduce it. I say "I can't make my mouth do that" a lot. And while the rolled r's and back-of-the-throat kh's are easy with Athena at my back, some of the consonant combinations are brutal on my tongue, and it's such a slushy language that I often just get everything jumbled up in my mouth and end up with nothing but mush. So many soft sounds, sh and zh and ts...like talking with a mouthful of snow.

I have a long way to go, but it's been awhile since I had this much fun, and felt like...hey, I'm a pretty smart girl. Look what I can do. I'm kind of proud of myself. Plus I have the world' best incentive: the look justbeast gets on his face when I say something in Russian is utterly priceless. And one day I will get to read dimkin, who I hear is truly something else.

Tonight I'm teaching myself songs! I have a fantastic musical memory, and secretly love singing above all things save writing, so I can hardly wait to get home.

A final note: the online Russian systems available are atrocious. They have the nasty habit of asking you to use verbs in a sentence and assign pronouns without ever translating the words for you, so I have to have Babelfish up in an adjacent tab while I work, because telling me what the words mean would ruin the purity of raw, uncensored, XXX conjugation. I have yet to find one that serves my needs, except for one, which sadly only has one module up, and is thus useless shortly after learning to tell Ivan where you work. (At the People's Munitions Factory with my proletariat brothers, Comrade.) I'm using a combination of Rosetta Stone, my own lesson plans, and justbeast.

justbeast sold separately.