I had put this note at the end, but it's a long post and I think the note stands better at the beginning: One thing being surrounded by writery types all weekend did was make me think about my intended audience for this post. And I decided it's me, several years from now when I can't remember what this weekend was like--hence the amount of detail here. If other people enjoy reading it, I'm happy about that too! (Also, I hope to post soon about the experience of being on panels for the first time and what it showed me about myself. I'd thought I would do that this afternoon after I finished this post, but this one took longer than I expected.)

I've promised myself that once I finish writing this I can re-read what I wrote about last year's 4th Street, but not until then. So, since I have some time and feel well-rested enough to be able to string multiple sentences together, here's a pale shadow of what 4th Street was like for me:

It started Thursday night, when there was a play-reading and pre-con work party, only the work had already been done so it was just the play-reading. Close to 50 people showed up at the convention hotel, most armed with the same version of A Midsummer Night's Dream. (Did you know it's possible to print out the whole play, legibly, on only nine sheets of paper?) skylarker gave me a ride there and back, which I appreciated. papersky had come up with a plan for how to distribute roles to any number of people between twenty-some and fifty-some, splitting large roles and combining small ones to make the number of parts come out right. I played Demetrios for the first three acts, and enjoyed it. It occurred to me afterward that it was the sort of thing I would often, in the past, have skipped and then would have felt I'd missed out on, and it was nice to notice that that didn't need to be the case.

Friday morning I worked, but I left promptly at noon to rush home, pack, and bike to the hotel. ( Then I had a Detour. ) My planned 8.3 mile ride had turned into 12.8 miles, and I missed Opening Ceremony, but I was there in time to check in to the hotel, take a quick shower, and make it to the first panel! And all told it was a pretty ride, and my legs were up to it--I just would have allowed more time for it if I'd known.

And I was glad, because I was particularly interested in attending that panel: "How to Sound Smart on Panels." (Steven Brust moderating, Teresa Nielsen Hayden, Debbie Notkin, Jon Singer, Elise Matthesen.) I took lots of notes at this panel, because I was going to be on two panels myself for the first time ever and wanted tips! ( Notes from the panel )

( Another panel, supper, panel, snack, evening )

( Saturday morning )

Then I got to be on my first panel ever! "Fantasy and the Family," moderated by Beth Meacham, with Kelly Barnhill, Marissa Lingen, Debbie Notkin, and Kit Gordon. And me! From the program: "Talk about families as represented and misrepresented in fantasy. And just what do we mean by family, anyway?" So we talked about different types of families, and why so many authors choose to have their characters be orphans, and what are some fictional families that have some verisimilitude. And I learned that it's worthwhile to take notes even when I'm on the panel in question, because Kelly said something I wanted to talk with her about afterward, only afterward I couldn't remember what it had been.

( Apres moi, le deluge... oui? )

( Sunday, and I get to be on a panel again! )

Monday after the convention there's a tradition of going for a sushi lunch at Sakura in St. Paul. I didn't know about it last year in time, but this year I did, and had taken the day off partly to sleep in and partly to be free for sushi. carbonel gave me, Jo, and Eric a ride there. I had a roll named after a hockey player (at least I assume Adam Hall is a hockey player?) and it was delicious! And the conversations were good, it was a little like what I'd been wanting out of the consuite. Then there was a mass migration to the Pumphouse Creamery, which has Bailey's-flavored ice cream. :-)

All told I'm very glad I went again this year. I got to talk to lots of people I like, and while there were others I would have been happy to get a chance to spend time with, I'm inclined to think it's a good thing that there were even more people there that I'd have wanted to talk to than that there was time for. Among the people I was happy to talk to for at least a little bit were seabream, txanne, kitryan, pameladean, arkuat, mmerriam, careswen, cloudscudding, mrissa, skylarker... (the problem with listing names is that one is nearly certain to omit a name and possibly make someone sad. If I forgot to mention your name, I apologize! I'm quite likely happy to have talked to you too!) And people I hadn't met before but very much enjoyed included papersky, jonsinger, and porphyrin. And then there were the people like suzimoses, brooksmoses and braddr whom I just didn't get much time with, but I was happy to see joeboo_k while I was awake enough to know who I was talking to (unlike last year).

This entry was originally posted at http://aedifica.dreamwidth.org/620428.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

As usual, I'm putting these behind a cut for now and I'll remove the cut later once it's off your friends page (i.e. when I make the next book post). But this time I'm leaving out the usual commentary on each book in favor of brief notes on just a few of them, because OMG it's been a long time since my last book post and if I try to do commentary on each one I'll never post books again.

( Here we go... )

This entry was originally posted at http://aedifica.dreamwidth.org/616970.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I'm trying to find a picture of a particular actress. This is made far more difficult by the fact that I don't know which one. She's white, at least occasionally blonde, and has appeared in major pictures within the last ten years or so. I was thinking it might have been Angelina Jolie, but after looking at her pictures on IMDB I don't think so anymore.

Would you please suggest names of some actresses that might fit these criteria? Any help will be appreciated!

(Why I'm searching: I recently read Jo Walton's (papersky's) The King's Peace, The Prize in the Game, and The King's Name. When one of the characters in Prize was introduced, I immediately got a mental image of a particular actress, and ever since that character has had that face for me. That's really unusual for me, and I want to know who it is! By the way, I really liked those books.)

Edit: I think my mental image may be a blend of mostly Angelina Jolie (as here) with some Uma Thurman (as here and here). But with real eyebrows. Thank you all for helping!

This entry was originally posted at http://aedifica.dreamwidth.org/611333.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

I'm going to try having all comments at Dreamwidth. If nobody talks to me anymore, I may shift back to having them both places, but I'll give this a shot and hope you'll still comment when you have a comment to give.

So, in the interests of making it easy for you to talk to me, here's how a LiveJournal user can comment on a Dreamwidth entry using OpenID.

You already have an OpenID by virtue of having a LiveJournal account. To use it,
1. Click the link at the bottom of the LiveJournal post to go to the Dreamwidth post.
2. Looks a lot like LJ, doesn't it? Click to leave a comment.
3. In the "From" area, choose OpenID.
4. In the "Identity URL" field, put yourusername.livejournal.com For example, if I were doing this I'd put aedifica.livejournal.com .
4a. That "login?" box can be checked or not, it doesn't affect your ability to leave a comment. It's asking if you want to log in to Dreamwidth with your OpenID.
5. After you type in your comment, click Post and it will take you to LiveJournal to check that you're really that LJ user. If you're already logged in to LJ, you'll just have to click yes or no; if you're not logged in to LJ yet, you'll get a login screen and then you get to click yes or no.

If that doesn't make sense or you're running into difficulties but do want to comment, you can send me a private message through LJ and I'll try to help.

This entry was originally posted at http://aedifica.dreamwidth.org/610651.html. Please comment there using OpenID.

Lo these many years ago when I worked at a small bookstore in central Iowa, we carried blank books made partially from recycled bicycles. The binding was often used bicycle cable, they were held shut by bands of rubber from old inner tubes, etc. They struck me as a neat thing, but I had no use for a blank book and never bought one. Now I'm thinking I'd like to get one, but I can't find them online (my searches bring up bike repair manuals for the most part). Have you ever seen such a thing for sale? Where?

ETA: adalger found some! Thanks, adalger!

Last Thursday, April 30th, was Dining Out for Life, when various local restaurants each donate a percentage of their day's profits to a group that helps people living with AIDS. I emailed a few of my friends asking who wanted to go, but most didn't reply. Mom did, though, and I enjoy her company (or I wouldn't have invited her in the first place), so she and I went to the Birchwood Cafe for supper and had an absolutely delicious meal! The Birchwood Cafe is one of those places with a fairly simple menu but takes care to use good ingredients, so it all comes out delicious. I had an avocado BLT, which I decided was really a BLT-MAO (either bacon lettuce tomato mayonnaise avocado onion, or bacon lettuce tomato my ass off, as you like--it was just that good), and strawberry shortcake for dessert. I've already forgotten what Mom had, but it was just as tasty, she said. I think I want to go back there for my birthday later this month.

Friday morning I met up with many other morris dancers and others, and danced the sun up! I want to do a slightly longer post about that, with pictures. For now I'll just say it was glorious, not least because of the people I got to see whom I see but rarely--among the non-dancers, jenett, theferret, rillaspins (albeit briefly), and Rhea and Brianna whose user names I know but can't remember and am too tired to look up. And Mom came too! I'm glad she agreed to come; I thought she'd enjoy it, and she did! I only danced one dance, the Abram Circle Dance which is the one we do as the sun rises each year on May Day. Then I stood around, chatted, watched others dancing, took pictures, and sang the songs we only sing on May Day.

Saturday was the car stuff mentioned in a previous post, but it was also the day I installed my new bike saddle and took it for a test ride. I'm in love! It's a Selle Respiro Moderate, MUCH more comfortable than the (men's) seat that came with the bike. And even better, it's got snazzy features like a seatcover that's supposed to pick up less heat from sunlight (says it stays up to 25° Celsius cooler than a normal bike seat) and a vent that blows air on my crotch while I'm riding. I can't say I've been able to feel the air through my jeans, but it's still kinda fun to know it's there. And I haven't once gotten numb since I started using this saddle! I biked around 9.5 miles on my test ride that day, up and down along the Mississippi River.

Sunday I spent the afternoon with belmikey after not having seen him in far too long, then we picked up malefica_v and I gave them both supper. Then belmikey went his merry way and malefica_v and I went to the Leonard Cohen concert! I'm really, really glad I got to see him in concert. He's still going strong, and sang almost all of my favorite of his songs, and displayed his sense of humor from time to time (remember he's the one who wrote the line "you told me you preferred handsome men--but for me you would make an exception"). All told it was an excellent day spent in good company.

Oh, and Sunday afternoon one of my neighbors was having a native plant sale, only he wasn't charging his neighbors anything. So I now have three strawberry plants, two ferns, and a mullein plant. I hope they live!

Tuesday I had much faster average speeds on my way to and from work--usually my average is about 10mph on my commute, but Monday it was close to 12mph each way. Wow! I'm getting faster. :-) I think it's partly me getting stronger, partly having the seat at a good height for efficient pedalling, and perhaps partly having a better seat. (Side note: my pants that I was starting to outgrow are fitting well again. This is nice: it makes laundry easier because I'm not having to all the time wash the one pair that fit, and also my pants are just much more comfortable this way.) Also Tuesday I went running again at lunch--it went well, I got tired but it felt like the right kind of tired--and got two showers after my run, one deliberate one at the gym and one supplied by Nature on my way back to my office. :-)

Monday and today were mostly unremarkable, but I will note that I had a very good salad at lunch today. I bought lunch for a change (I had already eaten up my leftovers from Sunday and hadn't cooked anything new) and got a salad, which is odd for me. I know some people start wanting salads in the spring, but I usually don't, and *especially* not pre-made salads like this one was. But for some reason that's what I wanted, and it did turn out to be really tasty. It had mixed greens, not your plain old iceberg, and barley (who has barley on hand???) and grape tomatoes and a big chunk of salmon, with pesto caesar dressing. Yum.

Tonight after work I biked over to the bike shop to pick up my free water bottle (free for participating in the do.cycle program and completing my first 50 miles of biking after joining the program). At the same time I bought a water bottle cage for it, of course, and also bought a tool with various sizes of allen wrenches that are used on bikes. I'd discovered when changing bike seats that my allen wrenches are in inches and I needed a 6mm one! The 7/32" one worked OK, but now I have a proper one. And when I get a little kit put together to carry around on my bike in case of bike emergencies, I can put the tool in the kit. But I must say, the bike shop people are very casual about this whole do.cycle thing. They're supposed to be tracking my mileage from my bike's cyclo-computer odometer when I come in for this stuff, but they've just waved their hands at me each time and said "Nah, I trust you." Well. Works for me, I guess.

By the time I got home tonight, I'd biked about 17.5 miles--not bad! 4.5 miles to work in the morning, and 13 miles from work to the bike shop and home again, with some meandering through unknown neighborhoods on the way because I tried taking a path I hadn't used before.

Now off to bed. I have laundry in the dryer so I'll have clean clothes in the morning. Ahh for having our own washer and dryer!

I am definitely buying a new bike seat ASAP. I biked the whole way in this morning (it was fun and it did great things for my mood*) and important parts of me have been numb ever since. My bike shop is out of the saddle that would have been my first choice (and it looks like the other local bike shops are too), but they have another (cheaper!) one that I think will work fine. I'll go pick that up tonight. I'm happy I can afford it right now!

* I woke up from a dream in which I was really angry. The anger stayed with me after I woke, despite the fact that I knew it wasn't caused by anything in my waking life; seems like good proof that emotions are chemical, if I needed proof. I biked the whole way this morning instead of part way specifically because I hoped it would help clear out the remaining anger, and it did.

This cold is strange. Yesterday I had the whole thing, runny nose, slight headache, occasional sneezes, etc, and sat on the couch most of the day reading. I didn't medicate myself at all until just before bed, when I put on some Vicks lotion and did the thing you shoot up your nose to clear congestion. (Some over the counter medicine, I think Afrin?) The Vicks lotion was fun, my chest was pleasantly burny from then til I fell asleep. I went to bed a little earlier than usual, but not as early as I'd planned to; I think I got about nine hours of sleep. This morning I'm a touch tired but no runny nose, just a touch of sore throat and a very occasional sneeze or cough, and perhaps a very slight headache. Maybe this is a superfast cold and I'll be all better by tonight! That'd be cool. :-)

Does anybody local have a power adapter for a Mac G3 Powerbook I could borrow just long enough to test whether a laptop is functional?

I have a Pismo I rescued (it was going to be recycled). I've been replacing one thing and another to get it working again, and I'm ready to see whether it works. Frustratingly, this afternoon I discovered the power cord was packed separately from the computer itself when I moved, and the battery is out of charge so I can't even try turning the computer on to test it. If it works I'll probably eventually buy another power cord if I still can't find the one I had, but I don't want to spend the money if the laptop still won't work.

ETA: mhaithaca commented that it should be the same power adapter as any previous PowerBook G3, the pre-G4 iBook models, and probably also such earlier models as the PowerBook 1400 and 5300.

Double ETA: deaterrae has one I can use to test it. Hooray!

Just before my last period I bought a menstrual cup. They've been around for over a century (and seem to have improved greatly over the years!) but haven't gotten much press, probably because of the taboos on discussing anything relating to menstruation. (Back in the 1960s there was an advertising campaign by one company that made them, but they were hampered by the fact that the ads couldn't actually say what they were talking about!) A menstrual cup fits in the vagina a bit like a tampon would, but because it's a cup (made of medical-grade silicone, or there's one made out of latex) it doesn't soak up the vagina's natural moisture along with the blood, so there's less risk of TSS and (IMHO) it's far more comfortable.

Mine is a Moon Cup (not to be confused with the Mooncup made in the U.K.). I've got the smaller size, which is almost too big for me, but there are other brands that make other sizes. There's an excellent chart to help figure out what's likely to be the best cup for a given person. Two brands are available for sale here in town (at co-ops and the like) and there are other brands available online.

I'm extremely pleased with it. It took me a little bit to get used to putting it in and taking it out, and I ended up cutting off the stem entirely* because it was poking me, but I got used to it quickly. Using it is miles better than using tampons and even better than using pads, which I'd been doing until now (I use reusable cloth pads, which I like much better than disposable pads--if you're curious, ask me and I'll tell you all the reasons why). After I got the stem the right length I could barely tell I had the cup in, and my flow is light enough I only had to empty the cup twice a day, so I could do it in the privacy of my own bathroom.

The cup I bought cost around $32 at the co-op, which is part of why it took me a while to get around to buying one. However, they last for years, so it averages out to a very small cost per cycle. (I've never heard of a cup wearing out. The only reasons I've heard of for having to replace a cup are: dropped it in the toilet and flushed it, dog used it for a chew toy, woman gave birth or body changed over time and had to switch from one size cup to another size.)

If you're interested in learning more, there's an LJ community full of helpful information: menstrual_cups. I've seen the community members patiently answer the same newbie questions over and over, and they use tagging to group posts so one can research more easily in past entries. One of the helpful things I found was a discussion of different ways to fold the cup for insertion--the way that's in all the cups' instructions is actually not the favorite of most women who use cups.

* I cut the stem off in stages, to make sure I wasn't cutting off too much. First I took off 1/4 of its length, tried it out for a day, then I cut off another 1/4, etc. I'm glad I had the whole stem at first while I was still getting used to removal, though.

Yesterday for a while I had "South Australia" running through my head, and then it began to have the lyrics of "Barrett's Privateers." So (while I wait for some virus scans to finish) here you may have the whole thing. "Barrett's Privateers" is by Stan Rogers, "South Australia" is traditional (as far as I know), and the mixture is all mine.

( Barrett's Australia )

Y'know, I think I'm glad we dance the original South Australia. This version has far too many verses!

They really did it! They promised to make the software freely available if one of a number of things happened. One item on the list was "average price of a gallon of gas in the Twin Cities drops to $2.79 a gallon." So, today is free software day.

( The press release )

I just got this warning emailed to me, I checked it on Snopes, and it's true.

Pirate's Gold brand milk chocolate coins, sold in Canadian Costco stores, are imported from China and contain melamine, the same chemical that's been in the news lately for killing several babies in China.

I asked my dad, a nutritionist, what the deal is with melamine. He said it's a type of plastic (it's in formica, some whiteboards, and it's the "mel" in Melmac). Unfortunately, the most common test for the amount of protein in an item reads melamine as protein, so unscrupulous souls are adding it to milk to make the milk seem to have more protein. The human body knows damn well it's not protein, though, and protests.

elisem is having a birthday sale (as in, it's her birthday and she's having a sale, not that she's selling birthdays). She makes lots of neat jewelry. Go see!

Hat!

I got a package in the mail today! Remember when I posted about Trika asking for my address, and I thought I might know what it was about but I wasn't sure? She sent me this super-cool hat! You can't quite make out the whole logo in this picture, but it says "Certified Geek Grrrl" on the front, and "Microsoft Certified" on the back. W00t! I emailed her to say thanks, and I sent her a link to this picture so she could see the hat being enjoyed. I'm thinking I'll wear it to work on Friday.

*****

In also-techy news, this morning I discovered I seem to be superstitious about the number 404. I already knew it was a number I noticed (someone I know has office number 404, which I think is cool), but this morning I glanced at my odometer and noticed I was at mile 404 for this tank of gas and had a brief moment of apprehension that something was going to happen to my car because of it.

Oh, goodness.

I really don't know where to begin. I had a very, very good time at the 4th Street Fantasy convention this weekend. I expected it would be good. When I looked around at the first panel and realized that I wanted to get to know every single person in the room I knew it would be good. And when I found myself staying up til 5am talking even though I'm a sleep-needing creature, I knew just how good it was. I met lots of lovely people (many of whom are now on my friends list), but for the most part I won't mention them by name because I know I'd leave out at least one person I would want to acknowledge. (So if you're reading this, and we talked during the weekend, please assume you're one of them--and if I haven't found your LJ, please leave a comment and let me know who you are.)

A bit of background on the convention: Fourth Street Fantasy was a convention held in the 90s, and it ended just around the time I might have started coming if I had heard of it. This year lydy decided to bring it back, and got others who also remembered it fondly to help her. The other bit of background: if you're familiar with conventions, you are probably used to the idea that there will be programming (panels and movies and such). Fourth Street's programming is such that only one thing is scheduled to happen at any given time, so that everyone attends mostly the same panels. This is, as they pointed out, very good conversation fodder.

I think I'll let this be a somewhat disjointed post, both because I'm still pretty sleepy and because if I wait until I have time to make it a good, polished piece, I'll have forgotten anything I wanted to say. But I think there are still good bits--in particular, I realized several of the things I like about conventions AND had an insight on my relationship with my sister. (And I think I got all the typos out, but if you see something that just doesn't seem to make sense, feel free to point it out. Unlike most of my posts, this one has been written over more than a 24-hour period and has suffered from less sleep and more caffeine than usual.)

( Some of the good parts from my point of view )

( Quick timeline of con for me )

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with this program and I don't have any other information on it.

The U's Reuse Program is a very neat thing I just found out about. There's this warehouse full of stuff, from bookcases to chairs to computers to old cash registers to teapots to I don't know what all. I even saw one lonely ramen packet sitting there on the shelf!

From an email they sent out today:
Bike Sale - Our bike sale continues this week, but the price drops to $23.33 per bike, plus tax! We still have many decent models, as well as a few high-end bikes that need a little work. Beat the high cost of gas this summer with pedal power!

I checked out the bikes (the warehouse is open to university departments on Tues and Weds). Most of them looked rideable, though you might want a tuneup. Others were missing seats, wheels, or both. Adding a seat and a wheel would still probably run you a lot less than buying a new bike, though. So if gas prices are getting you thinking about other kinds of transportation, check it out!

Thing is, this place is only open to the public on Thursdays, from 8a-3p. Follow the link above for directions and a little more information.

(Cross-posting to twin_cities.)

I ran the Madison Quarter Marathon this morning! It was 6.55 miles, or around 10.5 kilometers. kpurple and earnan came to Madison with me on Friday night. We're staying at Dad's place; he's in Thailand right now but we have keys and permission. Yesterday we went to the Health Expo to pick up my race packet, then browsed State Street and had dinner at Mekong, which has very good pad thai.

This morning Katie and Mark dropped me off near the Capitol where the starting line was. I got there shortly after the full marathoners left and about ten minutes before the half marathoners were set to start. I was glad of that, because watching them get ready and take off gave me a better idea of what I was going to need to do--the website hadn't given me any idea at all, it just told me where to show up. (It did also tell me about one nifty thing, though: I got to wear my sweats before the race to keep warm, then put them in a bag with my race number on it and drop it off at a truck that carried all our sweats to the finish line. Very nice!)

I had my race number pinned to my shirt and a timing chip attached to my shoe, I was somewhat warmed up and I had done my stretching. I joined the crowd of runners waiting behind the starting line... and we were off!

( Race report, with pictures! )

Consider: The first computer my family had (that I was around for, anyway) was a Commodore 64, so named because it had, I believe, 64 MB of RAM*. It didn't have a CD drive, it didn't even have a floppy drive until later, it had a cassette tape drive.

I'm sitting on my couch with my laptop computer (laptop computer! switch gears for a moment and listen to that phrase with your 1985 ears), posting on the internet, with no cables connecting to my computer except the power cable, and that one's optional. See? I just unplugged it. Computing with no wires!

Seriously, the future is here, and has been for a while now. No flying cars yet, but wheee! (And Pay By Touch at the local grocery store. How cool is that, that you can pay for groceries using a fingerprint?? Unfortunately the pay-by-touch company went out of business, but it was sweet while it lasted.)

*****

Yes, if you couldn't guess by the above, I bought a wireless router tonight so I can get wireless access at home. Wheee!


* I have been corrected. It was 64 KB!