( Halloween pics behind the cut )



Hope you all had fun, too. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Holy crap! I was just at Chapters in Pointe-Claire today with Tallis and I spotted a poster for upcoming author appearances. Check out this line-up for a single evening:

Date: Wednesday, November 4th
Time: 7pm
Authors: SCOTT WESTERFELD, HOLLY BLACK, and CASSANDRA CLARE

- Scott Westerfeld is a genre-spanning YA sensation with several best-selling series to his credit, including PEEPS, UGLIES, MIDNIGHTERS, and the new YA steampunk novel LEVIATHAN.

- Holly Black is the author of hugely popular SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES, as well as TITHE, IRONSIDE, and VALIANT.

- Cassandra Clare is the author of the IMMORTAL INSTRUMENTS urban fantasy series (CITY OF GLASS, CITY OF ASHES, and CITY OF BONES)

I think I'll try to take Devon to meet Holly Black, and me to meet everybody. Anyone else thinking of going?

Tallis loves this video and she dances and laughs while she watches it. Earlier today, she ran off in the middle of the song and retrieved the number four from her wooden number puzzle. She held the number up over her head and turned herself around, singing, "Oooooh-uh-oh! Counting to four!"

*toddler's father dies from sudden cuteness attack*

(You know what? I think I prefer this version of the song, too.)

For comic fans who have been living under a rock today:

Disney acquires Marvel Entertainment.

No. I'm not kidding.

And from SuperheroHype:

John Lasseter met with Marvel last week about a possible team-up between Marvel and Pixar and got "pretty excited, pretty fast."

Here's a handy guide to exercising privilege over a marginalized group, whether you're a person of privilege yourself or a even a member of a different marginalized group. It's Derailing for Dummies, a simple, step-by-step guide to derailing awkward conversations by dismissing and trivializing your opposition's perspective and experience.

I wish I could say I didn't have to wince at several of these.

Animator Nina Paley has released all the source files and Flash assets for her terrific feature film "Sita Sings the Blues"! Download and play around!

Woo hoo! Thanks to an early Christmas present from Bev, I'll be getting a one-day pass to Worldcon on Saturday. I had wanted to attend, but couldn't realistically justify the expense, especially after recent computer repairs and new glasses, and with school fees for Devon coming up next month. This is a real treat! And anyway, how often does Worldcon arrive in your home town? This is my best chance for attending one. Awesome! Now I need to finally have a look at their schedule.....

THANKS, BEV!!!

Maybe you saw pasley 's post earlier today with the lyrics to a song that Devon improvised this afternoon. As I mentioned in the comments, earlier in the day I had been messing around on the guitar and I stumbled upon a chord progression that I liked. At the time, I thought that I should write some lyrics to go with it. When I saw Devon's lyrics, it suddenly struck me that the verses would exactly fit what I had been playing. I played what I had for Devon, and we messed around with it a bit more. After she went to bed, I kept working on it. I was having problems with the last and longer verse until I realized it was actually a bridge and a verse. Everything fell together quickly after that.

I'm sure that it will undergo more adjustments, but

Back in my day, this was the cutting edge of graphic action-adventure video games.



In fact, it may have been the only graphic action-adventure video game around. It's Adventure, a game cartridge for the Atari 2600, and in 1979-80 it sold a million copies.

Yes, your avatar is the green square. The yellow arrow is your sword. I think the other yellow thing is a golden chalice, the object of your quest which you must at all costs be returned to its rightful place in the yellow castle. I'm tempted to say that this is the reductio ad absurdum of Scott McCloud's argument for reader identification through iconic representation, although I have to admit that this game was sort of exciting and addictive back in '79. At least until Pitfall came along. Now it's just lame.

And now you too can relive the excitement of that bygone age. Click on game reset to start playing.

More on Adventure here.

We're taking off to do some cottaging in Val-des-Bois and won't be back til next Friday. Try not to break the internet while we're away.

Harper Collins has put the first 100 pages of Scott McCloud's massive  Zot! The Complete Black and White Collection: 1987-1991 online as a free sample.

I'm feeling lazy tonight, so here's some of the jacket description:

Zachary T. Paleozogt lives in "the far-flung future of 1965," a utopian Earth of world peace, robot butlers, and flying cars. Jenny Weaver lives in an imperfect world of disappointment and broken promises—the Earth we live in. Stepping across the portals to each other's worlds, Zot and Jenny's lives will never be the same again.

This is a terrifically sweet book, and as eclectic and fun as the sample stories are, the very best stuff awaits in the book itself. In the last dozen or so issues, Zot! is trapped on our Earth, and the quiet sensitive stories of teenage relationships that follow are some of the best comics to come out of the period. Highly recommended.

No, the kid isn't singing this. He's lip-syncing to a vocal track by an a cappella group called Moosebutter. But still.

Here's the link. Looks like i wasn't signed in when I submitted it, so it's credited to "unregistered". I posted a slight correction in the comments.

I just submitted my first guitar tab to an online site. It's still in the queue waiting for approval, but hopefully they'll post it in a couple of days.

I wanted to learn the Tom Waits song "Ol' 55" from his 1973 debut album, Closing Time. (The song was covered a year later by the Eagles and more recently by Sarah McLachlen.) I tried all of the usual guitar tab sites to find the chords, but man. . . not much luck. Oh, I found chords for the song all right. There are several versions that turn up on all the sites, but they were all disappointing in one way or another. The one in A# was just ... wrong. Very wrong. The one in F# sounded like it was probably in the right key, but it was both incomplete and full of finger-twisting sharps and barre chords. There's one in C that was obviously tabbed with the Eagles version in mind, as it requires a much higher voice than mine to accompany it. (I also found it a little awkward to play.) And so on. There were others, but you get the picture.

It's a very simple-sounding song. Seriously, it shouldn't be that hard. It bugged me enough that I sat down to work it out for myself, and I'm pleased with how well it came out. (I'm sure it's got its own wonky parts, too. But hey, they're my wonks.)

( So here's the tab: )

Thanks to one and all who came out last night. (I think there were about sixteen of us at the peak.) I had a great time, though I'm such a cheap drunk that two beers now does me in. We ended up making a pretty early evening of it.  Pasley and I left around 10:30, soon after the band took to the stage with that unforgettable celtic classic "Ricky Don't Lose that Number." Looks like we missed kino_kid  and her s.o. by about 5 minutes, though. Sorry about that!

I celebrated my 40th turn around the sun on Tuesday. Woo! If you don't already know, we'll be at Hurley's tomorrow (Friday) night to celebrate and you're welcome to join in.

The reservation is somewhere upstairs for 7:00pm. Pasley and I will likely be there closer to 7:30, but they wouldn't take any reservations for after 7:00. As long as someone is there to hold the tables by around 7:00 they said that would be fine.

Come join us to quaff some beers and have some food!

(The following post is a joint production of Jeff and Pasley.  Go team!)



Devon’s birthday week is over and we are tired, but very happy. We meant to post a happy 7th birthday note here on her birthday itself, but the week has been so jam packed with preparations that it slipped our minds.  (And, after all, it’s not like Devon is regularly reading our posts . .  yet!)


So, here’s what’s been happening here at birthday central:

( Read more... )



Happy 7th Birthday, darling Devon.  We love you so much.

It turns out that after WWII the US executed Japanese soldiers for using waterboarding on American POWs. Follow this link for the details.