scott & karin

Jeff and I went to Fune with Scott and Karin last night. It was Karin's first time trying sushi! She bravely tried everything and liked most of what she tried. The photo at the top was taken at Fune; the bottom photo is Karin trying out my harp.

NaNoWriMo report: 28,499 wds written, 21,501 to go. Doodle journal updated.

Poll: Do you like sushi?

Do you enjoy eating at Japanese restaurants? If so, what do you order most often? Have you ever eaten sushi? Did you like it? What are your favourite types of sushi?

Answer here

Some people ask me if I ate Japanese food a lot when I was a kid. Depends on how strict a definition you put on it. We mostly ate Western food since it was more convenient while I was growing up, but I remember a lot of Japanese-type rice served with meals.

We'd have sukiyaki every so often, which I loved...Mom would set up an electric cooking pan in the middle of the table, heat up some homemade sukiyaki sauce, then add vegetables, noodles, thinly sliced beef, cook it at the table. The food seemed to taste so much yummier when you saw it being cooked right in front of you. The only thing I wouldn't eat were the vermicelli noodles, which I called "worm noodles" because that's what they looked like.

Mom did make nori-make ever so often, and would use boiled spinach, dashi, pink fish powder, gourd strips, shiitake mushrooms, broiled eel, and cooked egg for the filling. I still remember the fragrance of the sushi rice as she stirred it after adding the rice vinegar. We kids had the job of fanning the rice while she stirred it (I think it keeps the rice from sticking together too much? or helps spread the rice vinegar?).

I wrote more about this memory and other favourite childhood Japanese foods last December ("Food Memories").





Links/News:

One year ago, Scott (yes, the same Scott in the photo today!) stood me up for our Harry Potter movie date, so I ended up seeing it alone. Allison saw Harry Potter twice in one day last year. I didn't go see it yesterday because Jeff said he'd see it with me this weekend.

Four years ago, I learned how to use the rowing machine.

waiting for harry

If any of you tried to reach one of the Electric Penguin sites/discussion boards but couldn't, it was because the Web server was down for a few hours this morning. Things should be okay now. Catching up on stuff now, short Blather today. NaNoWriMo updated: 26,296 wds written, 23,704 to go. Over halfway, woohoo!! I've turned my Livejournal into a Doodle Journal, for those interested. After NaNoWriMo's over, I'll be using this journal to post whenever I've updated any of my cartoons, as well as the occasional filk and writing related cartoons. For those not on Livejournal, don't worry -- I'll be posting my favourites in Blatherings. I just thought I'd take advantage of the RSS-like community-building feed that Livejournal offers. I notice that there's a bunch of syndicated sites that provide feeds to the Livejournal community (like Wil Wheaton's site, Dave Barry etc.), but that members have to "pay" in LJ points. Links/News: One year ago: the Unknown Guitarist played on our street. Two years ago: I bought an African drum. Four years ago: we saw Joe Black. Today's Blatherpic: Today's Waiting For Frodo strip.

art gallery visit

NaNoWriMo update: 24,261 words written, 25,739 to go. Woke up with a bit of a cold today, ugh. Hopefully I can get rid of it soon; I don't want to lose any valuable writing time! :-)

Yesterday was a draggy, molasses day. Have any of you had that kind of day? For some reason I was unmotivated to do much, was tired all day. I was probably coming down with the cold but didn't realize it yet. Anyway, churning out those 2,000 words was tough yesterday, as was my other work. And then I went to the gym despite the fact that I really REALLY didn't feel like it, but was motivated because Jeff's working on re-tiling part of our shower stall, so we have no shower at home right now.

By the time 5 pm rolled around, the last thing I wanted to do was go to the art gallery, but my friend Craig and I had already made plans to check out the Gauguin/Matisse show at the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario). Jeff couldn't come because he had to work. Hey, I just noticed that in that photo l just linked to, I'm wearing exactly the same thing I did yesterday.

Anyway, I found that by the time Craig picked me up, I was already perking up. Craig's so cool; I'm not sure if I've raved about him before. He's the editor at MapArt, which makes the best maps in the world. He's also incredibly creative, positive, adventurous, and passionate about life. I met Craig through the same group of close-knit university friends I've mentioned in earlier Blatherings.

But back to the art exhibit. I have to confess that I wasn't blown away by Gauguin or Matisse - just not my kind of thing; I liked some of the other artists in the gallery much better. I've never considered myself an art expert, and have also been turned off by over-analysis of works of art or literature. One sure way to turn me off any piece of literature in school, for example, was to make me have to study it. I find art the same way. If I don't like a piece of art (like a piece of canvas painted totally black or very abstract pieces), then I won't like it no matter HOW expensive it is or how much in-depth analysis you throw at my face.

On the other hand, I find something tremendously soul-satisfying about looking at a piece of art I really like. Not sure why, exactly. Take the painting I'm looking at in the cartoon at the top of today's Blatherings, for example. The painting is called Naiade and is by Henri Fantin-Latour, a 19th century French painter (see a larger version here). It was my favourite painting in the exhibit. I love the colours, the soft textures, the wonderfully peaceful but joyous feel of the whole piece.

For me, one of the tests is whether or not I'd be willing to hang the piece in my home. I can appreciate technique and innovative use of colours and etc. etc., but like my enjoyment of movies and books, ultimately the whole thing has to hang together in a satisfying way that doesn't leave me depressed or confused at the end.

After the AGO, Craig and I had dinner at a place on Baldwin called Caffe del Gaffe. Really good roasted vegetable pizza, yum (a whole other type of soul-satisfying :-)). And now I'm thinking I'd like to go back to the AGO sometime, on my own. Perhaps take my laptop and work on one of the benches, perhaps not take my laptop and just stare at the paintings I like for way too long.

Links/News:

One year ago, I found out I had misspelled "ice cream" all my life (thanks, Rand).

Four years ago, Jeff bought a webcam for my home office.

dvd joy & poll: movie(s) viewed most?

NaNoWriMo update: 22,206 words written, 27,794 to go. Can't believe I'm almost halfway done. The cartoon above is from my NaNoWriMo update page and is based on my current angst about whether or not I should take part of Friday off to see the new Harry Potter movie on opening day (I already have plans in the evening). I'm getting lots of useful advice in my Livejournal comments page. :-)

I picked up the Collectors' Edition of the Extended Fellowship Of The Ring DVD set yesterday. Yes, I know I already have the regular version DVD that was made available months ago. But this edition came with five CDs, 30 minutes' extra footage tacked on the version that was released in theatres, Argonath bookends, collector cards, and a fan magazine. Many thanks to Jeff for making this purchase an option for me; I was going to opt for the regular DVD package, but he encouraged me to get the collector's edition and said he'd pay for half. :-)

Jeff and I watched four of the special features last night and loved them all; they obviously put a lot more effort into putting together these special features than they did for the other DVD (though those were still pretty interesting). We also watched some of the scenes that were cut from the theatre version...augh! How could they have cut these scenes out?! Okay, maybe they didn't want a 3.5 hour movie, but still.

Really looking forward to checking out the rest of the special features and watching the full movie version.





WARNING WARNING DROOLY GIRLSTUFF BELOW WARNING WARNING

Sean Bean is even more gorgeous in interviews than he was as Boromir, if that's at all possible. Holy toledo. Major drool. I'll shut up now before I make even more of a fool of myself.

As for Sean Astin...I love that fact that the other actors all teased him about being so safety-oriented during the shooting. As I pointed out in one of my Waiting For Frodo comics, Aragorn and Boromir would be fun to date but in the end, I'd marry Sam.

Poll: In your entire life, which movie do you estimate that you've seen the most times?

Yes, seeing it on video, DVD, and television count. For me, the most-viewed movie is likely one of the following: Lord of the Rings, The Wizard of Oz, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, and Star Wars (the first one).

Answer here





Links/News:

Congrats to Bill and Brenda Sutton, who recently discovered they're about to become grandparents!

One year ago, I complained about the 25 minutes of trailers before the Harry Potter movie.

Two years ago, I got copies of my book!!! This entry includes a goofy photo of me with my brand-new book.





Today's Blatherpics:

Taken at OVFF.

	My friend Andrea.
	The Boogie Knights: David Keefer, John Scheeler, Sharon Palmer. Two members not in the photo because they weren't at OVFF: Heather Scheeler and Barbara Helfer. They've been together 20 years!
	My friend Rand.
	Three Weird Sisters (who won the Pegasus for Best Performer this year)

writing

NaNoWriMo update: 19,538 words written, 30,462 to go. Unbelieveably, it looks like I'm a tad ahead of schedule, woohoo!

I find that time takes on a whole new meaning as I'm working on my novel this month, and I start getting antsy if I'm away from my laptop for more than an hour or so. I did force myself to go to the gym yesterday, which was a good thing since I've been indulging in mini-chocolate bars pretty enthustiastically lately (thanks, Ruth and Kaarel!).

I'm also starting to have a mild panic attack about my trip to visit Mark Osier and Kathy Cogswell near Syracuse in about a week and a half. I had been counting on working on my laptop during the 6-7 hour train ride there and back, but just found out that Via Rail doesn't have power outlets in their regular class trains! Think it's about time to invest in a spare battery for my laptop; it'll come in handy when I go travelling in places where power outlets are not a sure thing, or at the cottage during power-outages.

Some days, the words seem stuck somewhere deep in my brain and it's agony wrench them out a few at a time. Even more agony to leave them as they are and not give into my almost-overwhelming urge to do the usual edit-to-death thing. Other days, the words pour out of me faster than I can type and my characters tell my story for me; those days are golden.

Overall, though, it's taking me less and less time each day to reach my quota, so I'm starting to have more time to work on my other columns and nonfiction. My story about NaNoWriMo for an Ohio newspaper is due Monday. Still haven't heard back from Chatelaine magazine, which I suppose is a good thing. Got paid for both my online community consulting gigs.

When I reach my daily wordcount quota today, I'm going to reward myself by buying the new Lord of the Rings DVD, yay! It's fascinating to me how my different online projects start to overlap in terms of who visits what project. I'm starting to get more e-mails saying things like, "Hey, I followed links from your NaNoWriMo cartoon page and found your LOTR Revisited page" and "I just noticed you're doing NaNoWriMo, too! Does this mean you're not going to be posting Waiting For Frodo as often?" :-D

Links/News:

YAY, the extended LOTR DVD comes out today! See my updated Waiting For Frodo.

Looks like the Brits turned out in droves at a Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets sneak peek.

With the help of sympathetic Web users, a New Yorker gets herself out of $20,000 in credit card bills. Source:
CNN.com. I'm amazed this woman managed to pull this off.

Love this 'Switch' parody of an American switching to Canada. :-D (from BoingBoing)

One year ago, I visited my niece Olivia and nephew Garrison in Windsor.

Three years ago, I moved into my Inkspot office!

Five years ago, I saw Wingfield Unbound.