Ex-"Weta Guy" looking for Facebook app testers

Shane McEwan (pictured on the right, above) is developing Facebook apps and is looking for testers!

Shane, as some of you already know, used to work at Weta Digital, and we "met" when I was working on my very first webcomic, Waiting For Frodo. Since then, I always clapped whenever Shane's name came up in the Lord Of The Rings movie credits. :-)



Wow. It's hard to believe that it's been SIX YEARS since all that LOTR frenzy. Jeff and I have been thinking about watching all three movies again, ideally the extended versions and all on the same day. It would be quite the time and eyeball investment, and part of me wonders if we'd really be able to enjoy the third movie after sitting for so long. Still, the idea is tempting.



Shane and I have kept in touch since he left Weta, and more so lately because of Facebook. I hope to meet Shane and his wife in person someday! But speaking of Facebook, Shane's apps thus far are:

Zazz! (mostly of interest to Australians)

reCAPTCHA: "Helping the World One Word at a Time...By entering the words in the box, you are also helping to digitize texts that were written before the computer age. The words that you see were taken directly from old texts that are being scanned and stored in digital format in order to preserve them and make them more accessible to the world. Since some of the words in these texts are difficult for computers to process, we are using the results of your efforts to help decipher them."

Life's Experiences: Shane's newest app, and he's looking for feedback/testers. Basically, you answer "yes" or "no" to a bunch of questions re: life experiences and find out how many you share with other people. You can add your own questions, too. Answers are kept private; just the aggregate data is shared.

If you're on Facebook, Shane would greatly appreciate you adding the Life Experiences app and testing it out; you can always remove it later. Please post any feedback and suggestions on his discussion board for that app.

Shane and I might be collaborating on a new Facebook app, by the way, which sounds REALLY fun and the kind of app that I'd want to add even if Shane wasn't involved. More info early next year, I hope!

Link O' The Day

Chocolate typography! (Thanks to Ray for the link)

Video O' The Day

Check out this video: Pay The Writer, featuring Harlan Ellison (warning: lots of strong language).

Thanks to Patricia Storms of Booklust for posting this in her blog recently. Read her great entry about it.

This is especially a problem in the arts, as she points out, not just writing. I often get this kind of request from strangers (e.g. "It won't take you long to write/draw this -- so I want you to do it for free"); I'm ticked off when it happens but mostly just saddened by the reality that a lot of people tend to undervalue creative efforts.

I'm lucky in that my friends aren't like this -- but then again, they wouldn't be my friends if they were. And when they do ask, I know that they're always aware of how much they're asking from me and are fine if I say no. Which I do a lot (saying no, that is) -- that took me years to learn.

And no, this mini-rant is not because of anything that's happened to me recently so if you think this rant is about you, you're probably wrong.

:-)



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My new Sumo bean bag chairs!

I've been in search of a reading chair for my basement office since we moved in. Up to now, I've been using Jeff's old office chair which was ok but not my Dream Chair. Thanks to my friend Ray for pointing me to Sumolounge.com, where I bought a beanbag chair ("Omni") and a beanbag ottoman ("Otto").



I chose it because not because of the sultry women in their demo videos and stills ("What's YOUR favourite position?"), but because of:

- The affordable cost ($129 for the chair, $75 for the ottoman) and the configurability aspect.

- The chair is light enough for me to easily throw around and shape yet solid enough to provide a support for sitting and snoozing.

- It was available in red! Also comes in eight other colours.

- Fabric is rip-proof nylon and easy to clean.

What I couldn't tell from the pictures online, of course, was how comfortable it would be.



So of course I had to put my new Sumo chair through rigorous testing (see photos on this page) and can say without a doubt that I needn't have worried.

All I need is a microwave and a mini-fridge, and I'll never have to leave my basement office ever again.





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Comixtalk, NanoWrimo, and Head-smashed-in (trip report part 2)

Check out Comixtalk; I did the header graphic for this month's issue. In case you're not familiar with this zine, Comixtalk is a comics blog with tons of great webcomic news, articles, interviews and other comic-related info. For you writers out there, it's also a paying market.

Plus NaNoWriMo has started, which means my comics should start appearing today. They hadn't updated the comics area when I checked just now, but hopefully soon!



Enjoyed trick-or-treating with my nieces yesterday, though there seemed to fewer trick-or-treaters out than usual. What about the rest of you? Same as last year? Less? More? I'm curious. Anyway, I was highly amused by the toothbrush that ended up in the candy somehow, imprinted with the name and phone number of a local dentist. Brilliant marketing strategy. :-)

I also noticed that the Halloween candy I never did like as a kid is still in use:



But back to my Alberta visit...



After 20 degrees Celsius weather in Toronto, I went to Calgary and woke up to -5 deg. temperatures the first morning! Cathy had to scrape ice and snow off her car before we set off. I was glad I brought my winter gear.



Ever since reading Parki's trip report from his cross-Canada motorcycle adventure, I've wanted to see Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump near Fort Macleod, Alberta (mainly because of the name, I guiltily confess). Cathy read that Blathering and asked me if I wanted to go see it.

The buffalo jump was used for thousands of years by the aboriginal plains people to kill buffalo by driving them off the 10 metre high cliff. The somewhat gruesome name, however, comes from a legend that a young Blackfoot wanted to watch the buffalo jumping off the cliff from below but got accidentally crushed by them instead.

Anyway, we had a wonderful walk outdoors plus the museum was fascinating, with lots of interesting exhibits and info.



The scenery on our drives and walks was stunning. Toronto has no mountains, and I spent most of the trip ooo-ing and aaah-ing over the incredible landscape. Right now I'm using the photo at the top of this Blathering and the one below as my desktop pictures:



Because of the mountain landscapes, I opted to use my Canon 17-85 lens as my walkaround but switched to the Sigma 30/1.4 in the evenings. All the Alberta scenery shots in this Blathering were taken with the Canon lens. The candy shots and the photo of Cathy at the bottom were taken with my Sigma.

We even saw some elk by the side of the road:



More tomorrow.

Links O' The Day

The Super-est: Cartoon "war." I was SO love to participate in something like this.

Got a Spare Head Lying Around? Put it to Good Use! (The Great Detachable-Head Website Showdown!)



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10 Things I Love About My Friend Cathy

Back from Alberta. The Air Canada flight there and back was pretty painless. Both flights had entertainment centres built into the back of each seat, where you could choose from a range of movies, tv shows, documentaries, games and audio channels. I was delighted by Once, a 2006 Irish movie that apparently got rave reviews at Sundance. It had romance, songwriting, and Irish accents...three of my favourite movie elements. The male lead, Glen Hansard, looked vaguely familiar to me and when I got home I found out why: he played one of the guitarists in The Commitments.



It was wonderful to see my friend Cathy again. As I've mentioned before, outside of family, Cathy's known me longer than anyone. I'll be posting more about my trip in upcoming Blatherings, but for now I'd like to post:

10 Things I Love About My Friend Cathy

Her laughter. She finds joy in so many things, which is one of the many reasons I love traveling with her.

She's an adventurous eater, willing to try almost anything.

Her imaginary rabbit, Buster. Ok, so maybe he's a real rabbit (a hare, actually) who supposedly frequents her backyard. But I never saw him during my visit despite my eager searching, so I've decided that Cathy's made him up. Like Harvey, except Buster is cuter and lives in Calgary.

Her love of colour. I envy her red couch and armchair, a wonderful splash of vibrant colour in her living room. I want to transport the armchair (the couch wouldn't fit) into my home office.



She's brave. When her company offered her a position out in the Calgary office, she decided to take it even though she didn't know many people out there. Her attitude: "It'll be an adventure!"

Her dancing. She's taken all kinds of dancing lessons (I hoped to get a merengue lesson during my visit but we ran out of time) and has participated in public historic dancing exhibits at Old Fort York in Toronto.

When she did move to Calgary, she had fun exploring the culture (I think she always had a little bit of cowgirl in her soul whether she knew it or not). Cowboy boots and hats, country music, horseback riding, the Calgary Stampede...she's embraced it all.

Her love of all things Jane Austen. Not surprisingly, she's a member of the Jane Austen Society. On my last visit, she got me hooked on the A&E version of Pride & Prejudice.

She's a great cook. On my first evening, she made coq au vin. On her BIRTHDAY. Yes, I felt guilty but I still enjoyed dinner, which was delicious!



Her love of travel. She's been to so many places and always seems to be planning another trip. She's going on an African safari with another friend next year. She's also not afraid of traveling alone. Which brings me to the next thing I love about her...

She's independent. She has no problems seeing things or doing things by herself.

She's a good friend. Not only a great listener but also confides, and we've taken turns supporting each other. Balanced friendships are a rare animal, in my experience, because it takes an enormous amount of trust for both people to confide equally, and I value Cathy's friendship all that more as a result.

There are so many more things I love about Cathy, but I have to unpack and catch up with work. :-) More about my Alberta trip later this week.





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Balticon, rejection and cake

A couple of days ago, I announced that Urban Tapestry has been invited to Balticon as Musical Guests of Honor next year. I've since discovered that Connie Willis will be the Author Guest of Honor at the convention, yay! Winner of nine Hugo Awards and six Nebula Awards, her works include Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing Of The Dog.

I've met Connie before; when the members of Urban Tapestry were guests at Ad Astra back in 2001, where she was also one of the official guests. You can read about our concert and meeting Connie Willis here. Wonderful lady, and I look forward to seeing her again.

Also, some more info about Balticon and Baltimore: Approx. 2000-3000 people attend the convention. Past Author Guests of Honor have included Neil Gaiman, Steven Barnes, Robert Sawyer, Phil Foglio, Robert Jordan, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, and Philip Jose Farmer. The more I research this convention, the more excited I get. Tons of writing-related programming, too!

Baltimore Trivia (sort of)

In prep for visiting Baltimore for the first time, I've started researching the city. Of course I had to start with FOOD-RELATED facts. Here's my Baltimore trivia of the day: Lady Baltimore Cake was a cake created by a fictional character in Lady Baltimore (1906) by Owen Wister, who apparently liked a cake given to him by a young woman so much that he decided to put it in his novel.

Another story says that cake originated in a tea room in Charleston (not Baltimore). According to Foodreference.com, Lady Baltimore Cake is a moist three-layer white cake made with egg whites, filled with dried fruits and nuts, and covered with a fluffy white frosting. The Lord Baltimore Cake is similar, but uses only the egg yolks. There are other variations at the bottom of this page from 'Who Cooked That Up?'

And that's probably WAY more info than you ever wanted to know about Lady Baltimore Cake. :-)

Writers and Rejection

Thanks to those who posted or sent me private e-mails re: my recent book rejection, and those who posted anecdotes about famous writers who got rejected. I've expanded my Writers and Rejection page as well as adding cartoons. Here are just a few of my new listings:

Shannon Hale's The Goose Girl (one of my favourite books ever) was rejected many times and she revised it dozens of times (cutting 200+ pages in all) before it finally got published by Bloomsbury. A woman in my critique group shared a writers' conference anecdote where Hale was a presenter at a conference session. Apparently she walked into the session with a laminated roll under one arm, then unfurled a roll of rejection letters that went out of the room and into the hallway.

Jasper Fforde received 76 rejection letters from publishers before his first novel, The Eyre Affair, was published by Hodder & Stoughton in 2001. (Thanks to Shane McEwan) Note from Debbie: Dear lord. As much as I admire Fforde's determination, I really REALLY hope my book isn't rejected 76 times before it's accepted...


Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time (another all-time favourite) was rejected by 26 publishers before being accepted by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It ended up winning the John Newbery Medal as the best children's book of 1963 and is now in its 69th printing. (Thanks to Mark Bernstein)

Ray Bradbury has had about a thousand rejections over his 30 year career according to a B&N interview, and says he is still getting rejected.

Excerpt from a rejection letter to Ursula K. Le Guin: "The book is so endlessly complicated by details of reference and information, the interim legends become so much of a nuisance despite their relevance, that the very action of the story seems to be to become hopelessly bogged down and the book, eventually, unreadable. The whole is so dry and airless, so lacking in pace, that whatever drama and excitement the novel might have had is entirely dissipated by what does seem, a great deal of the time, to be extraneous material. My thanks nonetheless for having thought of us. The manuscript of The Left Hand of Darkness is returned herewith." (Thanks to Susanna, who points out that the novel won both the Hugo Award and the Nebula Award.)

Some of my favourite rejection quotes:

Jane Yolen: "A writer never gets used to rejections. But if enough manuscripts are out there, each small rejection is less important. Less important? Well, each one hurts less."

Kate Braverman: "Writing is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating."

Isaac Asimov re: rejection: "I personally kick and scream, and there's no reason you shouldn't if it makes you feel better. However, once you're quite done with the kicking and screaming [segue into practical advice on revising, resubmitting, etc]..." (Thanks to Steve Brinich)




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