MOO MiniCards, Blood Ties and Seanan's CD

My MOO Minicards arrived while we were in California! I ordered them on February 19th and they landed in my mailbox around Wed. Mar. 7th (my sister was checking my mailbox up to then), which is nearly 2.5 weeks. During that time, I received an automated e-mail message saying that there had been a printing problem, and that my cards were being reprinted.



Though I was disappointed not to get the cards before I left for California, I'm glad there was some kind of quality check going on. Apparently some people are having problems with their MOO cards. When I was in California, Beckett showed me some of her cards which had a blank strip at the bottom despite her careful cropping. Mine turned out fine, though.

I was very pleased with the quality of my cards. Nice satiny finish, thick cardstock, and the colours turned out well. I chose 20 different illustrations, which meant 5 cards of each (100 total). The designs with bright colours and simple lines turned out the best, in my opinion.

This is what the back of each card looks like:





My only real beef is that I wish I could have chosen a higher-res version of my Flickr user icon (which was from a photo by illustrator/photographer Beckett Gladney). The low-res fuzziness is pretty obvious. Hopefully this will be a future MOO option!

Instead of using the cropping tool on MOO, I created a template and did my cropping first, storing my images in a separate Flickr set. That way I could take my time in choosing and cropping, then just load the set when I was ready and move the already-cropped images over (instead of having to do all my cropping in one session on the MOO site). For tips on how to get accurate cropping on your MOO MiniCards and image sizes, see this FAQ. I basically created a template that could be shrunk to a 692x1600 pixel image, making sure to account for about 2mm "bleed area" around the edges.

After you place an order, you can re-order the same set if you want. I'd like to re-order certain images but want to swap around other cards -- another advantage of doing my cropping offline; I just have to readjust my MOO Flickr set and then load the images I want without having to do any re-cropping.



I posted in Inkygirl, asking if anyone else was using their MOO Minicards for promotional purposes. Screenwriter Jurgen Wolff wrote: "I love moo cards too--have attached a scan of my set of minimoos, with one of the back as well. Only problem is they're too expensive to use for my guerrilla action--slipping into every writing-related book in every bookshop I come across... I am thinking of getting 2-sided business cards printed up with these kinds of designs/slogans, they're cheaper." The Web site URL mentioned below, by the way, doesn't go live until April:



All in all, I'm very happy with my MOO cards and plan to do another print run when my current cards are running low. If you see me in person, feel free to ask for one! Or let me know if you'd like to swap MOO cards by mail.

You can find out more about MOO MiniCards at MOO.com.



I remember when I first received the portable CD player on the right. It looked SO small (compared to a full-blown CD player) and slick at the time. At the Apple store in California, Jeff bought me one of the new iPod Shuffles. Holy cow, is it TINY. And it holds 1 GB of audio! My old CD player looks like a dinosaur in comparison.

And now I'm wondering what this iPod Shuffle will look like to my nieces when they're my age.

Links O' The Day

Tanya Huff's Blood Ties blog! For those that don't know, Blood Ties (based on Tanya's Blood books) is now airing on Lifetime at 10 pm ET/PT on Sundays.

Suicide squirrels driving utilities nuts: Thanks to Dave Weingart for the link.

A while back, I mentioned that I had recorded some flute for Seanan McGuire's new CD. Seanan is now taking pre-orders for Stars Fall Home. "Featuring fifteen tracks of pure goodness, with performances by artists from all around the world (represented countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Germany), this is truly going to be an album not to be missed." The CD will be released in late June. And do check out the very cool cartoon that Seanan drew of me on her Featured Artists page!





Livejournal comments

FKO concerts, kid conversations, and time machines

Above: For Illustration Friday. This week's topic: "Wired."

Only a couple of weeks until FilKONtario! It looks as if Urban Tapestry will be sharing a 40-minute children's round robin concert with Mary Ellen and Heather Borean (and possibly Judith Hayman?) at FilKONtario, tentatively scheduled for Sunday, March 25th at noon. I'm already working on a new kids' song for the event, possibly two. Kids of all ages, including the young at heart, are welcome!

Other FilKONtario news:



Dandelion Wine (Dave Clement and Tom Jeffers) has a concert at FKO after all, yay! Now that Tom has moved to Toronto, Dandelion Wine concerts are likely to be a rare animal, so don't miss out! You can hear samples of Dandelion Wine here.



Also, Urban Tapestry has been invited to perform with Playing Rapunzel in their concert! The mega-talented Mich Sampson has arranged "Sholem" for five voices and my flute. I'm SOOOOOOOOOOO excited; as I've already raved before, "Sholem" is one of my favourite songs. You can hear samples of Playing Rapunzel here.





One of the many highlights for both Jeff and me in California was getting to hang out a bit with the offspring of various friends. In the photos above, for example, JeffB's and Maya's youngest is telling Jeff a knock-knock joke. A. still has an irresistable toddler accent, and recently grasped the concept of the basic "orange" knock-knock joke:



A: Knock knock.

J: Who's there?

A: Banana.

J: Banana who?

A: Knock knock.

J: Who's there?

A: Banana.

J: Banana who?

A: Knock knock.

J: Who's there?

A: Orange.

J: Orange who?

A: Orange you glad I didn't say banana?

A. was so delighted, in fact, that she decided that the humour in this particular joke could be extended to other objects. Here is only one of many variations:

A: Knock knock.

J: Who's there?

A: Chair.

J: Chair who?

A: Aren't you glad I didn't say SHOE? (collapses in hysterical giggles)

Later on, A. was showing me her room. I was delighted to see that she had a large collection of books. She showed me one book of jokes, saying in a matter-of-fact voice: "These are funny, but not as funny as my knock-knock jokes."



A. and I had several fascinating conversations. She doesn't seem to be the shy type, and obviously enjoys interacting with adults. The first time I talked with A. was on the way home from the end-of-convention dinner. She sat in her car seat beside me in the darkness, and was obviously sizing me up.

Hoping to break the ice, I asked her how old she was.

A: "I'm four." After a pause, she confessed, "I used to be three."

A short while later, she volunteered (completely out of the blue): "Oswald is an octopus who walks on the land."

I loved this...no beating about the bush, no gradual maneuvering the conversation to the topic in which she was most interested. Nope, might as well just get straight to the punch.



"Are you a big kid?" A. suddenly asked me in the middle of one of our conversations.

"Yes, I am," I told her.

A. nodded wisely. "I thought so," she said.

Another highlight: Seeing Maya and her oldest daughter at the dining room table, sorting through their Magic decks and comparing cards.



My favourite hugs of the entire trip came from Casey, one of Paul's and Beckett's sons. Man, can that little guy HUG! It was fun to see Casey and Jeff bonding during the weekend:




The last time I saw Riley and Casey, Riley had just learned to crawl and Casey had just learned to sit up. Going to these conventions is sometimes like a time machine for me: clickety click and POOF! suddenly kids appear (who weren't there before) or are several years older.



It was great to meet our friends Mona's and William's two kids for the first time, for example:



William's father (who was also visiting from Toronto) as well as William's son:



Turns out that our friend Walter had William's dad as a professor while studying for his engineering degree. Small world, eh?

Have a great weekend, everyone.



Livejournal comments

Google tour and Google food!

Just got home...thanks so much to Walter for picking us up at the airport! I have a ton of e-mail and work to catch up on, but wanted to thank the Bohnhoff family and Andrew & Jenny for hosting us after the convention. Jeff and I felt incredibly spoiled, and it was also wonderful to be able to spend some time with friends we don't get to see all that often. More pics and details in an upcoming Blathering.



Above: Jenny and Andrew, who were married last September!




Speaking of Apple, we visited the company store with Jeff Bohnhoff, and I bought Logic Express 7 as well as a tutorial book on the software (Logic is one of JeffB's projects at Apple):



And while we're on the theme of technonerdboy friends, our pal William was kind enough to give us a tour of Google:



Jeff and I were both blown away. No interior photos allowed, sadly. This looks like a fun place to work, and I'm not just saying that because of the beach volleyball court, lap pools, massage rooms, tubs of coloured bounce-balls, whiteboards with plans for world domination, lava lamps, full-scale replica of SpaceShipOne, live projections of current search queries around the world, exercise bicycles, computerized toilets with heated seats, washers and dryers, video games (including classics like Asteroids), movies, showers with towels...



No, I'm saying this because of the FREE FOOD. :-) Holy toledo. There are apparently 11 Google cafeterias to choose from in Mountainview, and the food is all free to employees. Each employee is allowed to bring two guests per month. And the food is REALLY GOOD. I was floored by the presentation and quality of all the dishes, worthy of being served in an upscale gourmet restaurant. I had rabbit in couscous, tender lamb loin in some scrumptious sauce, grilled eel salad, other delicacies. If you're curious about what else is served at Google, check out this Google Food Photo Blog.

Hey, Google even has its own line of ice cream sandwiches:



Apparently Google worked with the ice cream sandwich company to produce a natural, locally sourced, trans-fat-free version of the treat.

Back to unpacking...


Livejournal comments

Consonance

We had a WONDERFUL time at Consonance. Many thanks to guests Kathy Mar, Gwen Knighton, Dave Rood, and the Bohnhoffs (who were all wonderful) as well as concom for making this convention just as enjoyable as I remember from my previous two visits years ago.

I'm not sure when/if I'll be able to post a full convention report, but you can see my photos in my Flickr account; I'll be gradually adding post-Consonance pics, and you can also see my Consonance photo set. Unfortunately most of my concert shots during the weekend didn't turn out well enough to post, but there were many others taking photos, so I'm sure some of these will turn up online if they haven't already.

Here are just a few of my photos from this past weekend:




Above: I was very happy to be able to hang out with my friend Beckett for several hours at a coffee shop; we rarely get to see each other anymore.



The Guests of Honour! The Bohnhoffs were the main reason for our trip; when I told Jeff (my Jeff) that Jeff & Maya were GoHs at Consonance, he suggested we attend...he had already met Jeff B. years ago when Jeff visited us in Toronto.

Anyway, their concert not only featured Alex, Maya and Jeff Bohnhoff, but also their eldest daughter! What an incredibly talented family.



I very much enjoyed hearing Margaret Davis and Kristoph Klover for the first time. I had e-mailed briefly with Kristoph to arrange recording for Seanan's CD and had gotten the impression from his e-mail that he was a fairly quiet and serious person.

(long pause)

I was VERY wrong. :-D



Another personal convention highlight for me was getting to spend more time with Joey Shoji. I've known Joey for years, but we rarely get time to hang out for more than a few minutes at a time. In addition to a couple of meals, we got to sample some of Joey's wines and single malt scotches. Well...JEFF sampled the scotch; scotch still tastes like jet fuel to me.

I am SO enjoying the lack of snow and ice here. I like the change of seasons and have no problem with the arrival of winter in Toronto, but it's always around this time of year that I start craving spring. We went for a walk with Jeff B. and his youngest daughter yesterday, and there were flowers blooming everywhere. Grass. And even squirrels...climbing up the palm trees (!).



Hope you're all having a wonderful week...



Livejournal comments

5 Reasons Why I Blog

Click on the image above for a bigger version. Will Write For Chocolate has been updated! Accompanying blog topic: Extended interview with screenwriter Jurgen Wolff, who has written episodes for Benson, Family Ties, The Love Boat, Relic Hunter and two ABC TV movies for the Olsen Twins.

Also, I've updated Inkygirl with a survey about weird book habits: What are yours? Unless it's an already battered-looking paperback, I tend to be WAY paranoid about creases, dog-eared pages, etc. I take off dust jackets to protect them. I only lend books to people I trust to take care of them. What about YOU?



I was recently tagged by Katharine Swan in a meme that's been going around writers' blogs where the challenge is to answer "Five Reasons Why I Blog." I don't tend to do memes, but I feel compelled to answer this one because the topic (why people blog) has always fascinated me, especially since my friend Erin posted this entry. So here's my answer:

1. Originally, I started my Blatherings for friends and family, especially to keep in touch with friends I don't tend to see too often because of geography. While this is still partly a reason I blog, it's no longer the main reason.



2. I blog because I'll forget things otherwise. There are times when I forget the name of a place or person I encountered years ago, and can look the info up in my archives. It's also fun for me to go through old posts about events I've enjoyed, sort of like flipping through an old photo album or scrapbook.

3. I blog because it improves my writing. Forcing oneself to write about something almost every day is a good exercise, I find. It has especially helped me in my nonfiction writing, and has also been good for self-discipline. I haven't had anything resembling writer's block in quite a few years.

4. I blog because it helps me get more work. While this wasn't a factor in the beginning and still is not the main reason I blog, I likely wouldn't be blogging as often as I do if it didn't have this added benefit. I've gotten both writing and illustration assignments because of Blatherings, Will Write For Chocolate, and Inkygirl.



I also make enough through Google Adsense to pay for my Publisher's Weekly subscription as well as memberships in various writers' organizations, and help cover my office expenses. I know the whole "blogging for money" is a thorny issue. Blatherings doesn't get as much traffic as Inkygirl, tho I do have ads in the lefthand column -- I figure every little bit helps. I don't let this influence what I write about.

For Inkygirl, I do blog in hopes of generating some Google Adsense income as well as the networking aspect (I've already met so many interesting writers as a result of starting that blog). I also use Inkygirl to challenge my comic creativity, coming up with several new comics a week. In a way, it's sort of my equivalent of Blatherings, but for my comics. Eventually I hope to publish a print collection of some of my comics, and it will help if I can tell potential publishers that I already have an established readership.

But back to the whole "blogging for money" controversy -- what's so evil and wrong about wanting to earn some income from my writing? I'm a WRITER, for pete's sake, and a freelancer at that. I write for enjoyment, and I write for money. If the two happen to overlap sometimes, then that just makes me happy.




5. And after ranting about how it's ok to blog for money, I have to confess -- even if blogging wasn't helping me in my work life, I'd still be blogging.

Blogging's fun. It's exciting to know that anyone can be reading what I write (and I'm careful in what I write about to make sure it's exciting and not terrifying). I love sitting down at the computer with a blank text screen in front of me and figuring out what I should write about that day. I love interacting with people who read my blogs, especially hearing about how something on my blogs has helped them personally or professionally. Those types of comments or e-mails always make my day.

I blog because I can't NOT blog.

I'm not going to tag anyone specifically -- feel free to post about this in your own blog if you'd like, and let me know!

The End of the Relationship

Links O' The Day

Japanese Fanta Commercial Collection : my favourite is Mr. Dragon. :-D (Thanks to Ray for the link)

Troops: This has been around for a while, but it's still funny. :-)(Thanks to Walter for the link)

800notes.com: Did you receive a call but the caller didn't leave a message and the Caller ID says "Unavailable"? Type the phone number and click "Get Details" to find out who uses it.



Livejournal comments