CD cover!

Illustration by Beckett Gladney for our CD cover.
Please do not copy or use this image without permission of the artist, thanks.


Beckett sent us a copy of the cover illustration yesterday; Allison, Jodi and I love it! We asked Beckett to incorporate elements of our CD name, which was chosen to represent the geographical locations where the tracks were recorded: California (California sushi rolls, Ghiradelli chocolate) and the U.K. (High tea, and photos of the three of us on the table were taken at the convention). Other elements: hedgehog (Beckett's trademark :-), Allison's cat Nova, chocolate truffles, plum wine.

I printed out the image and have stuck it on my office message board for inspiration. It makes me hungry. :-) But it also brings back wonderful memories of our trips out to California and overseas as Urban Tapestry, the friends we made, spending time with old friends (but it never seemed long enough), the days and nights of fellowship and music.

If you're interested in seeing more of Beckett's work, do check out her Web site.

My sister Ruth came over last night and used my computer to create several black-and-white cartoons for our liner notes. I have such a cool sister. As Allison pointed out later in e-mail when I showed her and Jodi the illustrations, it seems so appropriate that this CD package will include work from both artists represented in our previous recording projects.

Buffy update: I'm on season 5, but sadly will have to do without my regular Buffy fix until we get a new VCR. Our current/ancient machine is giving up the ghost, and makes every episode look as if it is taking place in a somewhat spastic snowstorm. :-(

Survey: What was the last CD that you bought?

When? Why?

(This entry was written with ViaVoice, a voice recognition program, which sometimes has its own sense of humor. Please forgive any spelling or grammar quirks which Debbie has missed while editing. Thank you. )

June/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

busy

Annie and Sara shadows. Photo by Jeff.


Short Blathering today. I'm busy working on the liner notes, Market Watch, and my column for Writing World (due on Monday), all of which are taking me much longer, of course, than they would if I had full use of my arms. It's a challenge not to spend too much time on the keyboard; even with ViaVoice, I always end up using the mouse to some extent. I pushed my arms a little bit yesterday; they are a bit sore this morning. I am going to take more breaks today.

I was really touched yesterday by the response to my plea for help with the liner notes. Thank you so much, everyone! As I mentioned yesterday later in the afternoon, David Barker and my sister helped me with the text editing, which is basically finished...just need to work with the Illustrator layout now. Ruth is also coming over tonight to draw a cartoon or two for the liner notes, yay! I had been hoping to add some myself, but am still unable to draw. :-(

Before I end this Blathering, here are a few links for your amusement:

Selling nothing on eBay.

Tokidoki: for those who like to play with their Japanese food. (thanks, Ray!)

(This entry was written with ViaVoice, a voice recognition program, which sometimes has its own sense of humor. Please forgive any spelling or grammar quirks which Debbie has missed while editing. Thank you. )

June/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

volunteer needed!

Our friend Andy. He and Jeff went up north
away from the city lights recently to test out
Andy's new telescope. Photo by Jeff.


(1:10 pm update: Thank you so much to all of you who volunteered to help me with my liner notes dilemma! David Barker and my sister are helping me out.)

Congratulations to Bill and Brenda Sutton on the birth of their grandson!

I got a message from Amazon yesterday saying that my copy of the new Harry Potter book has been shipped, woohoo!

I am working on the liner notes for our new CD and am finding it more difficult than I expected trying to edit them through ViaVoice. If you have an hour or but possibly two to spare later today today or tonight, I'd love to hear from you! In exchange, I could offer you fame and glory (er, or rather a listing in our liner notes :-) and a copy of the CD when it's available (and my undying gratitude, of course!).

Professional proofreading, editing or writing skills are NOT necessary, only accurate and quick typing skills and attention to detail, and reliable access to e-mail. I've discovered that our lyrics are lengthy enough that I need to replace some carriage returns with slashes to conserve space. We have 13 songs.

for example:
"Just another night alone with my cat and my laptop
Maybe we'll go out to a movie, or maybe not
Maybe I'll just stand on my head and then see
what the evening brings
As I wait for Lord of the Rings."

needs to be changed to:
"Just another night alone with my cat and my laptop / Maybe we'll go out to a movie, or maybe not / Maybe I'll just stand on my head and then see / what the evening brings / As I wait for Lord of the Rings."

If you are interested, please let me know through e-mail (remove spaces) as soon as possible. If I have not replied by 4:00 p.m., you can assume you are off the hook. I will try to respond sooner, but it will depend on how many people reply (if any!) and how easily I can reply to them. I will be out until around 2 pm. I will post at the beginning of this entry when I have someone.

Thank you! (as Debbie crosses her fingers)

(This entry was written with ViaVoice, a voice recognition program, which sometimes has its own sense of humor. Please forgive any spelling or grammar quirks which Debbie has missed while editing. Thank you. )

June/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

tendinitis update

Ruth, Kaarel, Sara and Annie.


It has been nearly four months since my tendinitis began. Things seem to have been improving much more quickly in the past few weeks, which is encouraging.

Recent triumphs: I can...

- Hold a glass of water in my right hand.
- Usually turn pages in a novel without pain.
- Push buttons on a remote control or automatic teller machine without pain.
- Do up the fly of my jeans without pain (yay, I'm no longer restricted to wearing only items of clothing with elastic waistbands!).
- Write a very short note by hand without pain. Using a Wacom Artpad is still too tricky for me right now, however.

I continue to have a love-hate relationship with ViaVoice. On the one hand, I would rather have ViaVoice than not be able to write at all. On the other hand, I have found the software to be very buggy and customer service reluctant to admit there are any problems. Writing anything is a slow and laborious process, especially if it involves any kind of editing, cutting and pasting, and switching between applications. Keeping up with e-mail is impossible these days. I tried to plow through as many as I can every day, but more come in than I can handle.

I currently have over 700 e-mail messages in my in-box, not including the already filtered spam, and most of these are still unopened. :-( I rely heavily on the subject headers and the sender name to help me figure out which ones I need it to open first. Answering e-mail is still difficult since I have to keep switching between SpeakPad and Eudora if I want to include excerpts from the sender's e-mail to establish context.



Gaming on Friday night.


There is also the problem of privacy. Even with my office door closed, anyone sitting in the living room can hear everything I am dictating unless I talk quietly, in which case ViaVoice has more trouble understanding me. I have to save my files frequently, often several times a minute, since I have found that things can go wrong very quickly and unexpectedly.

If I have the contents of SpeakPad selected for a few seconds before transferring it to another application, for example, and the phone rings or I cough, ViaVoice replaces everything in the file with its interpretation of the new sound. Most times this is only a minor hassle (I have to manually access the undo command with the mouse or keyboard), but if I am dictating ahead of the ViaVoice processor, sometimes things screw up. I recently spent about 45 minutes laboriously editing three paragraphs, for example, and ViaVoice misinterpreted something I said at the end to mean "replace everything in this file with a nonsense word and then save the file".

I was not a happy camper.

On the positive side, things seem to be improving much more quickly during the past few weeks. I played about a minute of flute on the weekend with no ill side effects. In fact, IT FELT WONDERFUL TO BE MAKING MUSIC AGAIN. :-) I plan to play a little every day as long as there is no pain. I'm hoping to recover enough to play at least a little flute in open filk at Concertino, but I am being super-careful not to push it.

(This entry was written with ViaVoice, a voice recognition program, which sometimes has its own sense of humor. Please forgive any spelling or grammar quirks which Debbie has missed while editing. Thank you. )

June/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ

father's day

Me and my Dad.


The photo above was taken when I was almost two years old, when we lived with my grandparents on O'Connor Street in Toronto. We lived in the basement while my father worked on his Master's degree; I remember being taken to his graduation ceremony, seeing him walk across the stage in a black gown to accept his diploma.

My father is one of the most active "retired" people that I know: always looking for new experiences, learning new skills, asking questions. As I have mentioned earlier, I have a very cool Dad.

My father was the one who introduced me to one of my very first fantasy novels, a book called The Ship That Flew by Hilda Lewis. He was also a major influence when it came to my passion for reading. He used to take Jim, Ruth and me to the public library once a week; I remember looking forward to these visits as a special treat, and coming home with my arms loaded up with books.

Dad used to rent children's movies from the library as well as a film projector and portable screen. The neighborhood kids came by and sat on our living room floor to watch these movies; I remember feeling so proud that my dad had arranged these movie showings, that they were at my house.

Sara and Annie adore their grandpa. Sara gently teases my father about home movies she has been shown where my father is lying on the living room floor of my sister's house, baby Sara nestled in the crook of one arm, both of them fast asleep. Annie was delighted when Grandpa played a duet arrangement of "Puff the Magic Dragon" with her on the piano. Last time my father returned from his trip to Japan, half of his suitcase seemed to be stuffed with treats for his granddaughters.

Dad and I talk on the phone several times a week, sharing news and encouragement, and we exchange e-mail and digital photos. I also call him up for help with some Japanese food recipes (he's a better cook than I am by far!). I feel very lucky to have a father with whom I can have this kind of relationship.

To all you fathers out there, especially my own: HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!



Annie and Dad.


(This entry was written with ViaVoice, a voice recognition program, which sometimes has its own sense of humor. Please forgive any spelling or grammar quirks which Debbie has missed while editing. Thank you. )

June/2003 comments: Read | Post | LJ