Heartfelt thanks, friends, and Dust Poets

Will Write For Chocolate was updated on Wednesday.

Between new illustration projects, new writing projects (I'm an official blogTO contributor now and my first post should appear tomorrow), and trying to get my rewrite finished for proofreaders (thanks, proofreaders!), things have gotten busier these days.

THANK YOU so much to those of you who have sponsored me for Relay For Life so far. My goal was to raise $500. Thus far, over $1100 in pledges have come in. I am deeply touched (weepy, to be honest) by how many people have put in pledges. Not just friends and family, but also people I don't know that well or not at all. Thank you so much; it means a great deal to me.

To those who missed my earlier Blathering: If you would like to sponsor me for the Relay For Life on June 22nd, you can pledge online.

Speaking of friends:



Above: Dave Weingart is in town from New York for business; Jodi and I had dinner with him at the Frog & Firkin at Yonge & Sheppard. Dave continues to verify the rumour that he is checking out condo prices in Toronto, yay.



Above: My friend Craig, at the newly revamped Royal Ontario Museum. You can see my pics on Flickr or better yet, check out Jeff's pics.

Lots of interesting angles, and I liked the juxtaposition of the old and new architecture:



Looking forward to hearing the Dust Poets in Orangeville tonight with Sue Postero, Tom Jeffers and Dave Clement!




Livejournal comments

Friends, MOO cards, PBA filk documentary

Jeff, Ray and I had a wonderful time at Doors Open yesterday; I'll post some pics soon. Meanwhile, here are some photos and links I've been wanting to post on Blatherings:



Above: Jeff took this photo of Parki and me at Weber's. We were coming back from the cottage, and he was setting out on the first leg of his cross-country motorcycle trip.



Below: a postcard from Austra, sent to Urban Tapestry from our friends Ju and Anke. Juliane Honisch, by the way, has a book contract with a German publisher!



Below: I've been having fun handing out my MOO cards, and will need to re-order a new batch soon. Here are two improvised MOO containers. On the left: A "Little i" mint container (Jeff removed the mirror inside to make room for the cards). On the right: An Umbra container I bought for a few bucks in a Black's photography store.



Below: Jeff, Ray and I had brunch at Le Petit Dejeuner in Toronto yesterday, and I found myself sitting beside this gorgeous lily.



Allison and Jodi are coming over for a recording session. We're hoping to record "Hey, J.K." plus some of our other newer songs.

Links O' The Day

PBA's documentary on filk music: A video filmed at GAfilk earlier this year in Atlanta. Apparently this video's been online for a while but I missed seeing it because I'm always so behind in my blog-reading. Thanks to Walter for the link!

5 Most Outrageous Inventions Ever: thanks to Jim Bowlin for this link.

How To Calculate Your Age By Chocolate: thanks to Andrea Dale for this link.

The most interesting and amazing houses from the world, from Amazing. Some of these are TRULY bizarre! :-)

Where to find recorded samples of filk online: Filk FAQ has been updated. Reminder to filkers: to make sure your reply can be easily accessed in the FAQ, please post on the FAQ page, not in LJ, thanks!




Livejournal comments

Looking for Norm Brown

In eighth grade, a boy named Norm Brown gave me my first kiss.

It was Valentine's Day, and even though Norm gave every other girl a peck on the cheek as well, I know that MY kiss was extra-special! I've mentioned my secret childhood crush before, and often wondered whatever happened to that charming young lad.

I mentioned Norm to my British friends, Mich, Marilisa and Simon, and the diagram above is Marilisa's helpful suggestion about where Norm Brown is today.

The discussion got me thinking, though...surely I'll be able to track down Norm Brown online! A Google search for his name, however, was disheartening: 1,330,000 results. BUT WAIT! I looked more closely at the first page of results, and found the following:

Twitter, for those not familiar with the site, is a free service where users can post updates about where they are and what they're doing. I eagerly checked out this Norm Brown's Twitter page, of course. Here are some excerpts:

Calculating the trajectory of Comet Brown (2007 B10) which appears to be about to destroy the earth in May 2007.

Refusing to return Sting's frantic phone messages begging me to accompany The Police on reunion tour.

Finding the cure to cancer.

Polishing off my 9th symphony during breaks from writing my thesis on the finer bits of the Relativity Theory that Einstein got wrong.

Trying to point out three critical design flaws in ITER, but they just won't listen.

Raised Einstein from the dead to tell him of the flaws, but forgot his brain's in a jar elsewhere. Still, good photo op & puppetry practice.

Feeding the world.

Got another fat royalty cheque from the mathematicians for the use of my invention, the "norm".

Ceremonial first pitch at Yankee stadium. Manager so impressed I pitched the rest of the game too. I didn't know no-hitters were so easy.

Building an antigravity ray in order to deflect Comet Brown (2007 B10). Where to find a large enough diamond crystal?

Stringing this ethernet cable to the top of Everest was inconvenient, but satellite just doesn't meet my bandwidth needs.

Dalai Lama called me with a spiritual crisis (again). Was able to sort him out, and he went away at one with everything.

Taught myself how to play theremin last night.

Oh shoot! Lost that cancer cure. Kicking myself for wasting a good 20 minutes this morning!

Had phone conference with Greg Beeman about my upcoming guest spot in Heroes. Looking forward to seeing my old chum, Masi Oka!

FInished going through list of composers' unfinished symphonies and completed them over breakfast. Schubert's 8th = esp good.

Knitting myself a cardigan.

Put off answering phone call from Jamie Oliver saying he wants to use my lasagne recipe. I wish he'd do his own work.

At performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet, I went on stage and revived cast using my CPR training so a happy ending was enjoyed by all.

Had spare time at end of woodworking class, so made a cello. Felt a bit silly but luckily have sold it to Yo-Yo Ma.

Theremin concert went well last night. Called up Yo-Yo Ma as a special surprise guest for the encore. Cello sounded awesome.

Maggie Gyllenhaal called to thank me for the cardigan. Says she loved my script and is totally on board for my emu documentary. Score!

Was contacted by JJ Abrams about playing Captain Kirk in the upcoming Star Trek reboot. I told him I was flattered, but no...

Brushing up on my Icelandic - my preaspirated voiceless stops are getting way rusty.

Must remember *not* to interfere with historical events, no matter how tempted; nor to take advantage of them, either.

Set Stallman straight on a few points. There are only dozens now, but eventually the GPL will save billions of uploaded lives.

Transposing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor (K. 491) into F# minor.

In thanks for a homemade cardigan, Yo-Yo Ma gave me a free cello lesson last night. Ran thru a Minsky cello duet by end of lesson. Fun!

Glad Laura took my suggestion and went white tie for Liz; wish I'd had time to pop in on the do myself and keep an eye on George for her.

Just got back from conferring with the US Congress about changing the electoral college system, glad they went with my suggestions this time.

Just got first preliminary royalty check back from when I ghost-wrote Harry Potter 7 - that sure was a day well spent!

I'm advising Al Gore about living green. I myself live off the grid 100% and grow my own food.

Antigravity solved - comet deflected - humanity saved - and that clogged eavestrough is cleaned out now too!

Finshed quantum holographic memory USB key prototype. Only 52 petabytes though. Was hoping for closer to 2 exabytes. Maybe next week.

The England cricket team now begging me to play for them. Still not sure I can help them *and* be Canadian captain in the Rugby World Cup.

Tired of this physical body. Downloaded my consciousness to the net. (That should also help my "correct all of Wikipedia" schedule)



Without a doubt, this must be THE Norm Brown I've been looking for! He's as much of an inspiration now as he was back then, and I'm enjoying reading about his current exploits. If you're curious, you can read about him, too:

http://twitter.com/normbrown

Livejournal comments

I'm glad I'm not a giraffe

Above: A gorgeous bowl made by my multi-talented friend Luisa. She took pottery classes a while back, and continues to experiment with different types of pottery.



On the weekend, our nieces came for a sleepover. During the visit, we went through some of Jeff's old childhood memorabilia, provided by his mom. The picture above is an excerpt from his "About Me" book. For the record, I'm glad Jeff isn't a giraffe, too.



Here, Jeff holds up an old school photo. My nieces could hardly believe this was Jeff. From my perspective, however, the photo seems pretty close to how I remember Jeff when I first met him. I can see the difference between then and now, of course, but the "essence of Jeff" remains the same.

We also went through some of his old report cards. I was pretty surprised by the teacher's comment at the bottom of Jeff's Grade 1 report card: "Jeff is a very bright, courteous, well-mannered boy. However, he has some very persistent nervous mannerisms, such as talking continually, blinking and rolling his eyes, and sticking his tongue into his cheek. He seems to be ashamed to cry. These problems appear to be deeply rooted."



Dear lord. I'm not a parent, but I can't help but feel this sort of comment is more appropriate to a parent-teacher interview than a written report. And what's the deal with the "these problems appear to be deeply rooted" remark? How can ANYTHING be "deeply rooted" in someone who is only in first grade? And geez, many kids (and adults) I know are embarrassed about crying in public. Ok, I'll stop ranting now.

I like Beckett's comment in Flickr:

"Heh. Sounds like every single Kindergarten boy that I know (and I know quite a few right now...). Tell Jeff if he were in my guys' classes now they would think he was really cool and want to be his friend...
Oh wait, they already think he's way cool."





Livejournal comments

Spechelle Michelle

Thanks to my friends John and Kristen for inviting me over for dinner yesterday, and to Tom and Michelle for hosting the dinner. The four of us have known each other for many years. John, Tom, Michelle and I met back at the University of Toronto (I dated both Tom and John), and I met Kristen shortly after when she and John got together. The four are neighbours now, babysitting each other's kids, inviting each other for dinner. My contact with them has sometimes been sporadic but we always manage to get together at least several times a year.

Because of Facebook, my contact with John and Kristen has markedly increased. Most recently, John started The Michelle Sagara West Fan Club (anyone on Facebook can join) on the site; Michelle only found out about it recently. Heh.



I recently posted a musical tribute called "Spechelle Michelle" to my friend Michelle on the group page but since Michelle isn't on Facebook yet, John and Kristen invited me over for dinner (a.k.a. MSWFC Theme Song Launch Party, where MSWFC = Michelle Sagara West Fan Club) so I could see Michelle's reaction in person when she heard the song:



And then:




Heh. Highly satisfying.

By the way: Joey Shoji, if you're reading this, look out. Michelle knows you're on Facebook now. :-)

For those wanting to find out about Michelle's books, please do check out her Web site. You can also get a peek into her writing life in her Livejournal, "Musings of a Reality-based Curmudgeon in the Making."

re: the Spechelle Michelle song. Until I get more of a handle on how MP3 downloads will affect my .Mac traffic fees, I'm just posting the URL on Facebook for now. I've just discovered that I can post MP3s on .Mac as podcasts. How cool is that?




Anyway, many thanks to John and Kristen for cooking, and Michelle and Tom for hosting. It was a lovely dinner, and it was fun to catch up. I enjoyed getting to know Tom's and Michelle's eldest son better, for example, and was shocked to discover that he's suddenly TALLER THAN ME. When the heck did this happen? I clearly remember when he barely reached my knee, toddling around and reaching for anything looking electronic.

Holy toledo, I'm old. :-D

Also really enjoyed talking books with Kristen. Kristen is the only person I know who has hit the max permitted number of books borrowed at one time from the Toronto Public Library (50!). Like me, she always has many reads on the go, depending on where she is in the house. :-) Bookaholics should visit her blog, Read Or Die.



A survey: Do you tend to read one book at a time or several? What are you reading right now?

Below: John's creative arrangement of vegetables for his son.





Livejournal comments