A Couple of Quick Follow-Ups

In regard to my last two blog posts, I have a couple of things to add or clarify.

1. On Crowdfunding: Although my post was really about being a contributor to crowdfunded projects, and not a creator, I will say that I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I am so in favor of crowdfunding as a means to launch creative projects, and so certain that I'll be launching my own crowdfunded project in the next few months, I'm already consciously kicking "it" forward.

2. On Character Creation: It was not my intention to imply that people who like hours spent creating the perfect character were in the wrong. I just think that it's also valid to want to do it a different way. Most current games cater to people who love detailed character creation, and I think it would likely be a mistake to launch a game without doing so. I am interested, however, in exploring ways to do both--provide for in-depth chargen, and also provide for both low-intensity (simple) chargen and no-intensity (pregen) chargen.

Green One, (3rd pair of socks, first green)  seemed like such an easy-going, cooperative pair of socks at first.  The cuff ribbing...the careful decrease to a narrower part of the ankle below...the successful eye-of-partridge heel flaps.  All was well, it seemed. 

Until the rejoin, at which point...the heel flaps weren't as stretchy (besides being 2 stitches narrower and the top of foot also being 2 stitches narrower.   I had to change gussets to help with that...and then try to adjust (with frequent try-ons.   First they'd be really tight, then (when I let off on the decreases) suddenly they'd be overly loose.  And the attempt to graft/Kitchener the toes shut...worst so far.   Each pair has been harder--this pair was impossible.    I was trying to do it flat, off the needles, using cooking twine to hold the stitches:

The idea was to stuff the end of the sock to make a rounded-nearly-flat work surface, and I'd be able to see what I was doing.   There's a separate piece of twine through each  needle's worth of stitches--6 front, 6 back.  (Tied up here to they couldn't come loose   I *still* could not see what I was doing.  The stitches "shrank" without the needles in them.   I had directions.  I had watched the video again.   I had directions in front of me; I understood the directions...but I could not see the stitches, or the results of what I was doing, except as a confusing mound.   The first rounds tried to crawl back down into the fabric...I undid them and started over.  Yes, I'd done things in the right order but they didn't look right.  I did them again.  And again.  By the second or third stitch, there was a mound of yarn...and time (more than an hour...considerably...) was passing.   Frustration built.  Laundry needed to be put out.  The other sock had barely started its toe decreases. 

I gave up and ran yarn through every stitch and pulled the toe together.  OK, it's a sock, it's not the best sock, but it's a sock. 

The second sock, I left on needles, except changing to a smaller size needle right before trying to graft the toe, thinking that might help.   No.  This time I gave up faster (family had come back from the city--the solitude in which to say things to the yarn, the needles, etc., and the lack of interruption was over) and purse-stringed that one, too.    It's annoying--I was able to do it with Red One and Blue One, both of whom have imperfect but definite grafted toes.    But here they are, Green One socks on feet, off the needles.  They're comfortable.  I can walk in them, in shoes or out.

               

The thicker heels do help with my wider-heeled walking shoes, but also (and understandably) push my foot forward in the shoe a little.   Although these fit better in some areas than previous pairs, they're still a bit big where I had to change the rate of decrease at the gussets.   Learned a lot, but it's still not the perfect pattern. 

On the very bright side, I now have three pairs of socks.

Tags: knitting, socks
Current Mood: accomplished

I’ve been quiet here as I’ve been slogging through the usual Seasonal Depression, but I did post two essays over at FetLife (TheFacebookforkinksters) that you may be curious about:  “Depression. Fucking. Depression.”, which deals with how depression affects my sex life, and “Ropeweasels,” which deals with the issue of me being tied up. (There’s also “Fireplay and Me,” an oddly poetic musing on setting women aflame, which I don’t think I linked here but maybe I did.)

In addition, my humor essay “So I’m Going To Become A Dom” may be my most popular essay ever, with 612 comments and 965 loves.  I guess it’s all about the specificity.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/214628.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

Tags: sex, sorry your essay is at another castle

We just watched the latest (I think) episode of Legend of Korra, “The Aftermath.” I’m continuing to really enjoy this show for a number of reasons.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD

Pacing: One of the things that bugged me was the love triangle between Korra, Mako, and Asami. It felt, not necessarily cliche, but easy. It’s an oft-repeated trope, one that could push characters into more cardboard, stereotypical roles and — if other shows are any example — drag out for far too long.

Instead, Asami’s character quickly developed more depth and conflict. The plot moved along, changing her role in the story. The conflict between Korra and Asami progressed through conflict into understanding and sympathy. I loved the quiet moment at the end where Korra tells Mako, “She’s going to need you.”

I’ve seen that pacing elsewhere, and I appreciate that the show doesn’t seem to get bogged down. There’s always a sense of movement.

Lin Beifong continues to be awesome. In many ways, I think she’s my favorite character. Partly because she’s an older woman kicking all sorts of ass. Partly because she, more than anyone else I’ve seen, seems to take full advantage of her bending abilities. The firebenders throw fire. Earthbenders throw rocks. Beifong, on the other hand, manipulates metal cables like Spider-Man, grows blades from her armor to punch through mechs, and seems to push the “What else can I do with this?” angle.

Complexity: The scene with Tahno’s character really jumped out at me. This is a character who’s introduced as a full-on asshole. He’s arrogant, he cheats, and you really wanted Korra to kick his butt in the tournament. Instead, the White Falls Wolfbats won … and thus became the targets of an Equalist attack.

In the next episode, you see Tahno without his powers, and he’s utterly broken. Korra feels for him. She knows what he lost and how close she came to losing her own bending. It was a fairly short scene, but that’s all it took.

The relationship between Tenzin and Lin Beifong is another interesting example. Their history, the contrast of their apparent discomfort with how well they work together in a crisis … I have no idea where that’s going, but I like the dynamic, and at this point I’m trusting the show not to go somewhere overly cliche with it.

While there are certainly characters who seem flat-out Evil, at least at first, I appreciate that things generally aren’t presented in a simplistic black-and-white way. Neither people nor power are simple, and this show respects that fact.

The Animation: This is a very pretty show, particularly in the way it portrays movement and the grace of the different benders. I get done watching, and other cartoons suddenly seem clunkier.

Trusting the Viewers: I was trying to figure out how to phrase this last bit, and “trust” is the closest I can come. I’ve never seen a single episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender, but it hasn’t stopped me from enjoying Korra. It doesn’t surprise me that they wanted a show that could welcome new viewers as well as old, but it struck me that there just isn’t a lot of exposition or hand-holding, period. There’s no talking down, no assuming that things will be too complicated or difficult to understand. Elements are explained as they become relevant to the story.

I know there are things I’m missing from Avatar, but I can catch up on my own, and I like that they don’t slow down the story to spoon-feed information.

In Conclusion: Okay, I get it. I’m officially a fan, and I have added Avatar: TLA to my list of things to catch up on (when I find the time).

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Tags: korra

Back in The Day, when I had infinite people reading me on LiveJournal, I’d post an entry and the comments exploded.  I’d hit “post,” and five minutes later I’d have fifteen comments.

Now, I make a big ol’ important post and sometimes I don’t get a comment for half an hour.  That used to unnerve me – is this a bad entry? Did I say something wrong? – until I realized what was happening.  English LiveJournal is slowly dying.

What used to happen was that the LJ friends page was like Twitter or Facebook now – so constant a stream of data that you just refreshed your friends’ page and wham, new entries.  Maybe you didn’t check it twenty times a day like I did, but the friends page was a ritual where my latest entry popped up in real time.  I was a part of the info-stream.

As LJ use has declined, though, the traffic patterns have changed for me.  People no longer read my blog as part of a daily pulse; it’s in their RSS feeds, or bookmarked separately, or they wait for me to post the interesting links to Twitter (since I don’t Tweet-spam every post).  I still get roughly the same number of comments, but as opposed to arriving in one explosive comment-dump, they now arrive scattered over the course of two days, like late passengers departing a red-eye connection.  I’m read at their convenience, not the convenience of LJ.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is a little weird.  Some days I post a SRS ENTRY and then wait until I get one comment just to ensure someone’s listening.  By the time I get out of the tub, I have like three comments, which used to be the sign of an entry falling on its face.  Now, I’m patient; the user feedback will arrive in due course.

If you write it, they will come.

Cross-posted from Ferrett's Real Blog.

This entry has also been posted at http://theferrett.dreamwidth.org/214409.html. You can comment here, or comment there; makes no never-mind by me.

Tags: blogginess, rage rage against the dying of the lj

I don't like to rant on the Internet.  I prefer the surgical strike.  Precise.  Cleansing.  But sometimes a lady just gets all pissed.

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So the Cartoon Art Museum has a new show up, a retrospective of the history of MAD.  Thanks to the generosity of many lenders and the hard work of the museum's tiny staff, the show includes Kurtzman cover roughs, classic Elder parodies, Jaffee Fold-Ins, Spy Vs. Spy strips by both Prohias and Kuper, one of the two covers ever drawn by Sergio Aragones, and work by present-day contributors like Keith Knight and Chris Baldwin.  Andrew, the curator of CAM and my main squeeze, says it's the best show he's ever curated, but he says that a lot.

I wrote the wall text for the show; I do that for CAM shows when the staff is swamped.  While I was at it, I also wrote up text for a set of extra labels, just fun facts: how many issues Sergio Aragones has appeared in, this funny thing Al Jaffee said, etc.  One of the common criticisms the museum gets on places like Yelp is that we don't provide enough context for the pieces, and I'd like to correct that by giving visitors a little bit of inside information.

Yesterday I noticed that Andrew hadn't included my little factoids in the show.  When I asked him about it, he confirmed that, no, the museum didn't print them.  Because it couldn't afford to.  The Cartoon Art Museum is on such a tight budget that it can't afford the cost of mounting a half-dozen extra labels on foamcore down at the copy shop.

This goes on all the time, of course.  CAM survives by cutting its operations down to the bare bones.  But that doesn't make each penny pinched any less painful.

So you can imagine my delight today when I learned that webcartoonist Scott Kurtz is busy trying to convince people not to donate to comics nonprofits.

To be fair, Kurtz's post isn't directed at the Cartoon Art Museum.  His primary target is the Hero Initiative, an organization that pays the medical costs of cartoonists who lack health care.  Many of the Hero Initiative's beneficiaries are older comic-book artists who, to put it bluntly, got screwed over by their publishers.  Kurtz is opposed to the donating to the Hero Initiative because...

Okay, I don't know.  I'm not sure if he even believes half the things he posts on the Internet.  I hate responding to him at all, because, when he dismissed giving to the Hero Initiative as "slacktivism" and sarcastically mocked the people who do so, it's likely that the only thought going through his head was, "Holy shit, some people who aren't me are getting attention!  And frankly, they're getting attention because they're better people than me!  To my blog!"  By acknowledging his little online asshole dance, I'm just giving him what he wants.  So I'm a sucker.  Sue me.

Kurtz doesn't like that a small online movement has started encouraging people who enjoyed the movie "The Avengers" to give to comics nonprofits--mainly the Hero Initiative, but also groups like the Cartoon Art Museum, MoCCA, the Cartoon Research Library, and the Pittsburgh ToonSeum--as a gesture of support for the artists who created the Avengers, because Marvel and Disney have been adamant in their refusal to do so.  This little movement isn't telling people not to see "The Avengers."  It's just saying, "Hey, the companies that made the movie aren't supporting the original writers and artists, so let's step up and support them ourselves."

Kurtz is mad about that.  Because I don't know.

I don't get the mindset that makes people write this stuff.  I just don't.  I mean, okay, sure, sometimes we all think things like, "Man, I hope the artists I admire die penniless and suffering, and no one reaches out to them in their moment of need."  But most of us, before we share this thought with the world, stop and think again, and we realize, wait, no, that's awful.  If there's one thing the Internet has taught me, I guess, it's that some people don't have that crucial second thought.

Comics nonprofits run on the thinnest of shoestrings.  They're not a popular target for grants or large donations.  They live or die on the generosity of individuals who love the art form, people who can't give a lot but somehow manage, together, to give enough.  Telling people not to give to these nonprofits--actually mocking people who do so--is rotten behavior.

Kurtz visited the Cartoon Art Museum a couple of years ago--in fact, at the same time the museum was putting up a show of work by artist Ed Hannigan, who has multiple sclerosis, to benefit the Hero Initiative.  Kurtz seemed to have a good time.  But maybe he was thinking what a shame it is that we get just enough help from fans to stay open, and hoping he could change that situation.

Or maybe he doesn't think about a blessed thing that pops into his head before he posts mean-spirited crap on the Internet.

Anyway.  Rant over.  And here's the Hero Initiative website again.

Cover art for my novelette "Faster Gun,"  (Working title: "John Henry Holliday is Sick of the These Time-Traveling Assholes") forthcoming on Tor.com this summer.

The artist is Richard Anderson.

Tags: john henry holliday
Current Mood: pleased
Voices in my head are singing: the sound of thunder and the hum of the refrigerator

Here's my schedule as Writer Guest of Honor of this weekend's BayCon. There's not a signing on the schedule, which means that I'll sign books whenever you catch me somewhere at the con, unless I'm running to get somewhere else.

I'm also doing a Magic: The Gathering draft, probably Avacyn Restored or something in the Innistrad block, Saturday night. See below for details.

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Last night as I was trying to go to sleep—I'm a slow-sleep insomniac, which means that it can sometimes take me upwards of an hour to power all the way down—I found myself wondering, in that half-place that only exists when you're caught between consciousness and Neverland, whether I'm so reluctant to sleep right now because I'm half-convinced that I'm in the middle of the longest, most detailed linear dream I've ever experienced. And that one day, I'm going to open my eyes and it will be December of 2008 all over again, when I was lonely and scared and had no idea what I was going to do about my future.

Anxiety and mild "my series is over, what do I do now" depression aside, I sometimes look at my life and I'm just staggered by the unlikeliness of it all. I had a book come out on Tuesday. Tomorrow, I'm leaving for Disneyland with my mother, my sister, and my best friend. I have cats that can be charitably called large, and uncharitably called props from a horror movie. I have a movie option. I'm reprinting my fourth album, because it's almost sold out. I have some of the most amazing, interesting, articulate friends and fans and readers in the world. I have an agent who, frankly, could not be more perfect for me if I had been allowed to design my own agent in a lab.

Even the little details are too good to be true. There's an immensely popular line of fashion dolls modeled on famous monsters; Fringe got renewed; Doctor Who is back on the air; the X-Men are awesome again; James Gunn has a video game about a chainsaw-wielding blonde cheerleader who fights zombies with high kicks and snark. Basically, it's like the universe has been rearranging itself to suit my deepest desires, and if not everything is perfect, that's because too much perfection is unbelievable. The world is trying to add veracity to my dream.

This is why I don't like to sleep very much.

I'm too afraid of waking up.

Tags: contemplation, dream a little dream, good things, gratitude
Current Mood: thoughtful
Voices in my head are singing: The Decemberists, "One Engine."

Unfortunately my cat got sick a couple of days ago and i had to spend the Dragon*Con savings to help him get better(that wasn't even enough to cover the bill!) So i will not be able to attend this year. :(

I have 2(two) tickets for sale for $80 each. I would like to sell them as a pair, but I don't mind selling them separately. As you know, there is a Dragon*Con transfer fee of $20 that you will have to pay yourself. I will ship the tickets and the transfer form the same day that someone buys them.

Paypal only please. E-mail me with any questions at Rachel.Spivey@gmail.com

Thank you
(and think positive thoughts about my kitteh!)

----Edit on Friday 25th----

The tickets have been purchased. Thanks a lot 

Kitteh update: Hes not doing very well and it doesnt look very good :(