confusion

Sorry for the short blathering, but am trying to catch up on work (I was away most of last week, remember?). Had to work during much of Confusion, unfortunately. 'Twas nice seeing folks I haven't seen in a while, but Jodi and I sure missed Allison. :(

My flute conked out in the middle of recording a track for a new Dorsai tape! Near the end of the convention, Callie (of Echoes Children fame) took a look at it and discovered that I was missing a screw. She did a temporary fix for me, and also let me borrow her flutes (including the bass flute!!! so cool! I want one!!).

And hey, Andrea's CD is out!!!!! I bought a copy, and also bought a copy of JoEllyn Davidoff's tape, Shift In Perception.

pegasus awards

For those interested, I recently interviewed Maya Bohnhoff of SYNTAX (West Coast group) for Inkspot. You can see her interview at http://www.inkspot.com/feature/bohnhoff.html.

Jodi has added comments to the OVFF Report.

Pegasus Awards

Also, I keep forget to mention...the Pegasus Award nomination ballots are online now, if anyone's interested. In recent years, there has been some kafuffle about the fact that not many people send in nomination ballots. Then some people complain how the resulting voting ballot isn't representative enough, etc. etc. My question to these people is: Did you send in a nomination ballot??

If you think the Pegasus Awards are a good idea, please do fill out a nomination ballot, which is now available in a variety of formats, and circulate these to other filkers. If you have a filking-related webpage and would like to help promote the Pegasus Awards, feel free to use a graphic button.

Officestuff

I'm sure you're all thrilled with my office updates. I know I am. We've had an alarm system put in, initial wiring done for our Internet access, hired a graphics design company to do an Inkspot logo, and we're meeting an accountant to finalize some papers to incorporate.

Too much stuff to do, too little time.

We've been spending many evening trying to get the new office ready. Took last night off, though. :-) Had dinner at Tiger Lily (noodle house on Queen Street) with Brian and Helen, went to see Being John Malkovich at the Paramount. Great movie!

moving into office!

Workworkwork. Spending most of today and the weekend moving into my new office. Fingers crossed!

Sadly, Mahir's home page ("THIS IS MY PERSONAL HOMEPAGE! I KISS YOU!!!!") is no more. And it turns out that Mahir didn't really have any personal connection with the page at all! Still, a number of fan clubs have sprung up all over the Internet...you can find a partial list at the URL where his "home page" used to be.

My Letter Of The Day:

Hi Debbie:

Just wanted to drop you a line. I have been reading Inklings for a few years. I am a new writer with about 12 publishing credits to my name. Over the past few months, I have had a great deal of rejection, and was ready to give up and go back to school and become a Webmaster. Also, I had followed up on a few of the market listings in Inklings, and again rejection for articles I submitted on spec. Literally, I was ready to give up on my writing this week, and go back to school.

Today, I got a call from a market you listed in the classifieds (I sent my resume and writing samples) and landed a five figure contract for a long term writing project. I just wanted to thank you for the Web site and helping writers make connections with editors and publishers.

Wow, five figures? I'd better start keeping a closer tab on those Markets Classifieds myself.... :-)

And here's a letter from Solomon Davidoff re: his cookbook project:

To Serve Fan: The Filkers/Fandom Cookbook Project

This cookbook is actually sorta serious, but if you want to include a story or a song, it can be done (if in recipe form). It's a general cookbook, so I'm looking for all sorts of recipes. It's also going to have some proceeds going to fannish charities/fundraisers, such as Interfilk. I will only accept recipes here, on: solocookbook@hotmail.com.

or sent to me at: Solomon Davidoff, 724 Sixth St. #4, Bowling Green, OH 43402. Deadline for the first cookbook (more if there is interest) is December 15th, 1999

If you send me a SASE, I an send you back some forms for filling out your recipes onto. I have 1000 of them, so that should be enough *grin*.

Each contributor will be able to purchase up to five cookbooks at $1 off (I'm planning on pricing the thing between $8 or $10), but let me know how many you want. I can order more, but it's cheaper to get them all at once.

Sorry I'm not giving away free books, but this is in part a fund-raiser. In fact, I'm entering it in a cookbook competition, and if we win, the charities involved win big! (I won't get a penny out of that, and it's seperate from the money from each book that will be going out).

Any questions? Send me e-mail or snail-mail at the eddress/address above.

PLEASE pass this info along!

-Solomon Davidoff

Speaking of cooking, I forgot to explain the current Blatherings photo. It was sent to me from my Dad, who is currently teaching in a school in Japan. Apparently students take turns serving meals at lunchtime to other students. Those are children from Grade One and Two in the photo. :-)

Had a meeting with our accountant yesterday, Christopher Luty, about incorporating Inkspot. He is very cool. He plays a mean guitar and also is a fan of Terry Pratchett Discworld series (he's going to lend me some). And he also promises to send in a photo to add to my Geeky School Photo Page.

toronto carpet factory

Gary has his OVFF Report up on his Expoundings page, and well as his BNL parody, Ten Years!

Short blather, it's Moving Day. Actually, we've been doing a lot of moving stuff lately, but today is the day we move My Computer. (!) Scott M. is helping us...he deserves a medal, that boy.

Moved piles of boxes of my office things yesterday. Kimberly and Les from the NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK next door came by to introduce themselves, and brought an officewarming gift...a book called Napping At Work. :-)

I bought a small African drum yesterday from Kiondo African Imports downstairs (they generally only sell to retail and collectors by appointment). It's very cool, with a tone that changes in pitch depending on how hard you squeeze it. So much for my vow not to learn any more instruments because I didn't want to carry anything else. :\ I may save it for use only at FKO, though, since I'm not sure how I'd be able to carry it on the plane. Or does anyone know of a place where I can order a drum case?

After work, Kyle from across the hall (CAMP CREATIONS) invited us to join some of our other neighbors for drinks at Shoeless Joe's downstairs, so we got to meet Glen from TRIANGLE IMPACT AGENCY, Waheed and Don from ENIGMA SOFTWARE, Andy and Dan from SIMMPLY MACS, Nick from CANADA CALL CENTRE, and Don from ??? (didn't say which company), Jim from ???. Almost everybody was from the second floor in our building...I get the feeling that people from our floor tend to hang out together more than other floors. Kyle's organizing a "Hall Crawl" in a couple of weeks, a social event for the second floor people. :-)

Great bunch of people, very welcoming. Glen already has a nickname for me..."Smiles". :-)

new office!!

Gary has his OVFF Report up on his Expoundings page, and well as his BNL parody, Ten Years!

Short blather, it's Moving Day. Actually, we've been doing a lot of moving stuff lately, but today is the day we move My Computer. (!) Scott M. is helping us...he deserves a medal, that boy.

Moved piles of boxes of my office things yesterday. Kimberly and Les from the NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK next door came by to introduce themselves, and brought an officewarming gift...a book called Napping At Work. :-)

I bought a small African drum yesterday from Kiondo African Imports downstairs (they generally only sell to retail and collectors by appointment). It's very cool, with a tone that changes in pitch depending on how hard you squeeze it. So much for my vow not to learn any more instruments because I didn't want to carry anything else. :\ I may save it for use only at FKO, though, since I'm not sure how I'd be able to carry it on the plane. Or does anyone know of a place where I can order a drum case?

After work, Kyle from across the hall (CAMP CREATIONS) invited us to join some of our other neighbors for drinks at Shoeless Joe's downstairs, so we got to meet Glen from TRIANGLE IMPACT AGENCY, Waheed and Don from ENIGMA SOFTWARE, Andy and Dan from SIMMPLY MACS, Nick from CANADA CALL CENTRE, and Don from ??? (didn't say which company), Jim from ???. Almost everybody was from the second floor in our building...I get the feeling that people from our floor tend to hang out together more than other floors. Kyle's organizing a "Hall Crawl" in a couple of weeks, a social event for the second floor people. :-)

Great bunch of people, very welcoming. Glen already has a nickname for me..."Smiles". :-)