photo archives

(click on any photo on this page to see a bigger version)

So I've decided it's about time to go through our zillion boxes of loose print photos and photo albums, and whittle them down to a number where they'll actually be useful. Digital photos are SO much easier to manage, mainly because they don't take up physical space, and I can catalog them through Cumulus so that I can find the ones I want easily.





I'm throwing out a LOT of print photos, mostly pictures that are close copies of ones I already have, or of events that I over-documented. I'm enjoying the process of going through all these photos, and try very hard to be ruthless when it comes to pitching the extra ones. I think we must have at least 50 photos of Sara in her high chair as an infant with food on her face, for example. :-)

Jeff's being very patient with me during the Great Photo Purge as I work my way through our piles of boxes, reminiscing over some of the photos way too long, laughing over some, crying over others. The photos of those no longer alive are especially dear to me.





I'll be posting some of my favourites on my Blatherings over the next while, partly because I know some of you will be interested, but also to as a way of forcing myself to start scanning these prints. :-)

Happy New Year's, everyone!






Links/Updates:

Post your New Year's Resolutions here.

Post your predictions for 2003 here.

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Today's Blatherpics:

Photos from my archives. Click on any of the above photos to see a larger image.

	Jeff and me on our honeymoon in Algonquin Park, eleven years ago. Photo by Gord Gibson.
	Bill Rintz and Dave Clement.
	Karen Linsley and Lloyd Landa.
	A surprise lingerie shower organized for me before my wedding, twelve years ago. Back row: Larkin, me, Ruth, Micki, Cathy. Front row: Michelle. Very cool to realize that I've seen every person in this picture within the past few weeks.

2002 summary

After I Blather tomorrow, I will have successfully posted a Blatherings entry for every day in 2002.

Overall, it's been a pretty good year for me. My first year of fulltime freelance writing, a year of finally tying up loose bureaucratic threads left from Inkspot, visits from Jeff Bohnhoff, Andrea and Dave Clement, my 40th birthday party and my virtual birthday party, jumped in an icy lake, I took up running (and went on my first organized run), visited the Synders in California courtesy the Conchord concom, wrote 50,000 words in thirty days, saw the Queen, visited Mark Osier in Syracuse, NY. Started summarizing my dot-com adventures: here and here.

Conventions I attended in 2002:
Ad Astra, FKO, Marcon (where I jammed with Richard Hatch from Battlestar Galactica! Thanks to Gary E. for the photo), Conchord (Urban Tapestry was the Guest of Honor), and OVFF.

Conventions I plan to attend in 2003:
Ad Astra* (Mar.21-12, Toronto), FilKONtario (Mar.28-30, Toronto), Concertino* (Jul.18-20, Massachusetts), Torcon* (Aug.28-Sept.1), OVFF (Oct.24-26 in Columbus OH, though I may end up going to Conclave (Oct.17-19, Lansing, MI) instead), Gathering of the Fellowship* (Dec.15-17, Toronto). Conventions marked with an asterisk (*) are events where Urban Tapestry be performing.

2003: big year for Urban Tapestry!
Next year, we're releasing our new CD, Sushi and High Tea, through Dodeka Records. It's also our tenth year anniversary! I think it will be very cool to celebrate this anniversary by releasing a new album. I'm also going to start working on a new Urban Tapestry songbook, but I'm not making any promises about when it'll be ready.

In general, I'm happier this year than I was last year, and MUCH happier than the year before. I'm going to do what I can to ensure that this trend continues. :-)

Links/Updates:

Post your New Year's Resolutions here. Anyone posting at least one serious resolution before the end of the 2002 gets a prize! I'll be mailing them out sometime in January. People qualifying so far: Ee Lyn Wong, Heather Munn, Susanna, Gea, Katy, Allison, Gary, Bill, Scott Snyder, Heather Borean, Lyanne, Silmarien, Sherman Dorn, The Magician, Cynthia Armistead, Meritmaat, Lissa, Gemini.

Still need addresses from:
Ee Lyn Wong, Susanna, Gea, Katy, Gary, Bill, Heather Borean, Gemini. Please do send them to me when you have a chance, thanks. I have addresses for some of you which I suspect are defunct.

Post your predictions for 2003 here.

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Today's Blatherpics:

My friend Reid, being Santa at his son's school. Apparently the Santa that was supposed to show up had to cancel at the last minute. See Reid's journal entry.

board game party

Spent much of yesterday at Reid's and Luisa's board game party. I had just as much fun wandering around the house to see what games people were playing as I did playing games myself. Between games, some opted to hang out in the kitchen or living room for a snack and to chat, or check out the other games going on.

This is my favourite kind of party, with the focus being on a particular kind of activity (games, filking, watergun fights, whatever) rather than just wandering around and chitchatting. I can have fun at the latter, of course, but tend to get restless and/or craving solitude after a couple hours unless it's a small group of people I really like.

Could be an age thing; I've noticed I tend to dislike the "mix and mingle in a crowded space" type of gathering more and more over the years, especially if it's a formal setting. But I've found that my tolerance for crowds has decreased in informal settings as well.



Conversations I hate/avoid at parties:

- The "so what do you do for a living" conversation with someone you know is only asking you for the sake of having something to talk about rather than any genuine interest. Yes, I know it's something to talk about. But for throwaway conversation topics, I'd rather opt to talk about something not as important to me.

- Politics

- Talking about my novel-writing with people who don't take children's writing seriously ("Oh you write novels for young people? You know, I've been thinking about writing a children's book myself, as practice for writing a REAL book, you know.")





Reid and Luisa always throw such great parties, at least from my "ideal party" perspective. Very laid-back, lots of pockets of interesting activities and conversation going on at any given time throughout the house. And always opportunities for a break for when I'm starting to feel the need for a brief respite from constant activity and conversation, especially later in the evening: I took a nap in an empty bedroom partway through the night, and also watched Lilo and Stitch in the living room with a few of the kids at another point in the evening.

Filk conventions are another example of my ideal party, except they last an entire weekend. :-) As in other crowded gatherings, however, I find that I do have to retreat to the relative peace and quiet of my hotel room from time to time during the weekend to avoid "con overload". When Urban Tapestry are guests at a convention, Allison, Jodi and I spell each other off, one of the advantages of being in a group.





But back to the board games party yesterday: games included (pardon my spelling): Ra, Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Citadels, Puerto Rico, Labyrinth, Tigris and Euphraites; I'm sure there were others as well. Jeff and I ended up leaving around 2:30 a.m.

Many thanks to Reid and Luisa for hosting the party! Here's Reid's journal entry about the party (with photos).





Links/News:

Post your New Year's Resolutions here.

Post your predictions for 2003 here.

Three years ago, people predicted that the "Y2K problem" wouldn't really be a problem.

Four years ago, I got a free t-shirt from Amazon.

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Today's Blatherpics:

From yesterday's board games party at Reid's and Luisa's. Reid took the photo with me in it.

nemesis

Parki, Jeff and I went to see Nemesis yesterday. I went in with pretty low expectations and sadly, my expectations were met. In my opinion, the movie didn't suck (Parki and Jeff disagree with me) and I'm glad I saw it, but I wouldn't want to see it again. It was like a mediocre two-hour Next Generation episode.

Until this year, my friends and I used to line up on opening day for every single Star Trek movie. This year I didn't, mainly because I didn't want to go through the disappointment yet again. I suppose I keep hoping for another Wrath of Khan, which is my favourite of the Trek movies.

Or maybe I'm expecting too much. How many ways can the crew of the Enterprise save the world, after all? The writers must start tearing their hair out trying to come up with original ideas, especially since they're not allowed to let the characters develop in any significant way.

Here's a Nemesis review (sort of) by my friend Reid.

Speaking of lacking in original ideas, we saw a poster for a live-action version of The Cat In The Hat, starring Mike Myers. AUGH!!!

Enjoyed a sushi dinner at Lily last night. Afterwards, Jeff went gaming at Vartan's again, and Andrew drove me home (thanks, Andrew!).

Links/News:

Post your New Year's Resolutions here.

Post your predictions for 2003 here.

One year ago, I opted to stay away from LOTR movie reviews on message boards, which caused a misunderstanding between Allison and me.

Four years ago, I was reading Business Plans For Dummies.

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Today's Blatherpics:

At Lily last night. From left to right: Andrew, Jeff, Jon, the chef, me, Parki, Mark. Andrew surprised us by paying for dinner! (thanks, Andrew!)

chicago

My dad treated us to a yummy lunch at Sorn Thai up near Yonge and Eglinton. Sara and Annie were playing Cathedral when we arrived, a game that Jeff and I got them for Christmas. Annie wanted to ride her scooter, also one of her gifts from us, but the sidewalks were too snowy. Apparently Annie asked Kaarel if he'd be willing to shovel all the sidewalks between their house and the restaurant, but he said no (it would be a LOT of shovelling :-)).

While Jeff was gaming yesterday, I decided to be antisocial the rest of the day and just hang out by myself. Took a nap, did some reading (Heir of Shadows by Anne Bishop), had a ham and swiss sandwich for dinner at Tim Horton's, checked out Boxing Day sales along Bloor Street for about ten minutes until I lost my tolerance for the crowds and fled for the relative quiet of a movie theatre instead.

I went to see Chicago at the Manulife Centre at Bay & Bloor. Wow, did I ever love this movie. It was much more of a traditional musical than I expected, and apparently is pretty faithful to the original Broadway version. I had figured that the whole cast had their voices dubbed, but found out later that they actually did their own singing...even Richard Gere.

And Lucy Liu has a cameo role, yay!





I asked for recommendations for other movies. Here's what Joey Shoji wrote:

Some movies not on your list I've either seen and recommend, or want to see:

- Bowling for Columbine. It's been out a while but I loved it for amusing and horrifying me. A documentary by Michael Moore, it does have some creepy sequences, maybe a few of graphic violence, and some hysterical moments. If I recall, there are also a few Canadians in this movie.

- Far From Heaven with Julianne Moore, Dennis Quaid and Dennis Haysbert. Haven't seen it yet, but it's directed by Todd Haynes who's made some bizarre independent films (Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, Poison, Safe) and a bigger budget letdown (Velvet Goldmine) I've liked.

- Talk to Her. The new Pedro Almodovar movie. This one's a drama where the characters include a ballerina in a coma and the male nurse who's infatuated with her, and a female bullfighter who's in a coma and the male writer who's in love with her. This just opened in the SF Bay Area and I'm anxious to see it.

- The Hours. I've read other novels by Michael Cunningham, but not the one made into this movie. Really like Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep, so I may see it despite the Nicole Kidman effect.

- Antwone Fisher. Denzel Washington as a director? Another based on a true story, but looks fairly sappy. I still want to see him, I mean the movie.

- Personal Velocity. It's got Parker Posey!

- Standing in the Shadows of Motown. I don't think this documentary got very wide distribution, but I enjoyed it for the history of the instrumentalists behind the vocalists on all those legendary Motown hits. Has some live performances I thought were great (Gerald Levert, Joan Osborne, Chaka Khan & Montell Jordan, Bootsy Collins) and one that was not good (Chaka Khan by herself). Highly recommend this one if it's still in your area.

Links/News:

In this Green Cine article, Peter Jackson explains why he made some of the changes he did in Two Towers.

China has closed more than 3,300 Internet cafes after a June fire killed 25 people in a Beijing cafe. "The crackdown adds to efforts by the communist government to control how Chinese use the Internet, even as it encourages the spread of online activity for business and education." Source: Wired

Pop-up ads get even more annoying. Source: Globe Technology.

One year ago, I got an Weta Digital Effects crew t-shirt in the mail.

Post your New Year's Resolutions here.

Post your predictions for 2003 here.

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Chris Conway and his pal, Carmen Miranda. Posted with permission.
	Another Chris/Carmen masterpiece. By the way, Chris's online single, "My Mind's Eye", recently hit No. 9 in the UKSounds Top 10.
	Me near Sorn Thai yesterday afternoon. I'm wearing a harp pin that Lissa and Phil gave me a while back.