Fan Expo 2008 (part 1)

Jeff and I were married exactly 17 years ago today! We're going out for a nice dinner tonight. :-)



Fun and busy weekend. I've been spending most of my time at Fan Expo 2008 at the Metro Convention Centre.

Our friend John Kalisz (pictured above, with Jeff) stayed at our place last night; he's one of the featured artists this year. I briefly manned his table for him yesterday; many passersby mistook me for John and I had to gently correct them.



Fan Expo is very different from the much smaller fun-run conventions I usually attend. For one thing, the guests don't tend to charge $30-60 an autograph or for a photo op at fan-run conventions.

I'll talk more about my first experience at Fan Expo soon (positive and negative), but I'm taking off in a few minutes to go back to the convention.



Looking forward to hearing Q&A sessions with Brent Spiner as well as Sean Astin this afternoon. You can see some of the photos I've been taking in my Flickr set.

Hope you're all having a great weekend!




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Avenue Q

Went to see Avenue Q last night with Jodi, Allison and John. LovedLOVED it! I kept hearing the tunes in my head all the way home, and plan to buy the album on iTunes.




Many thanks to Lyanne Quirt for telling me about Avenue Q years ago, and for Katy Droëge for playing us samples when we were at her place in Germany. For those not familiar with Avenue Q, it's a musical that won several Tony Awards a while back, including the award for Best Musical.

As we were filing into the Elgin, I ran into Craig, Jen and Angela, who were also seeing the show. I was happy to finally introduce Craig to the other members of Urban Tapestry since I've mentioned them many times over the years I've known him (and vice versa).

Here is a sample clip of a London performance of "It Sucks To Be Me," one of the songs from the musical.



This is definitely NOT a show for kids. Also not for adults who are uncomfortable with strong language or...er...graphic scenes involving Muppets. In certain contexts, I wouldn't been crazy about these elements either but any discomfort I might have had was subsumed in the overall warm fuzzies (not only literally) of the show.

As I said before, I *loved* this show.

Avenue Q adeptly addresses sensitive issues like racism and homophobia, using humor and puppets to get past our usual defenses to force each of us to take a honest look at ourselves. Here's a soundclip (with video stills) of 'Everyone's A Little Bit Racist.'



Jodi, Allison and I even got teary-eyed during some songs. Yes, PUPPETS MADE US CRY.

Anyway, I would SO go back and see this again.

Site O' The Day

FoodSongs.net: Woohoo, a whole website about FOOD SONGS!

Photos above were taken on my iPhone. The iPhone camera sucks at taking pics in dim lighting but hey, I'm still excited about having a camera in my phone.



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Groundhogs are giant mutant squirrels

A couple of days ago, Jeff peered out his home office window and saw the groundhog nibbling on our deck plants. I ran down with my camera and only got one photo, and had to take the photo through the window screen.

He looks smaller in the photo above than I remember. Or maybe there's more than one groundhog feasting on our outdoor natural salad bar.

Gnomedude has suggested a spray mixture of hot oil plants like chili peppers, but warns that I'd need to keep re-applying. Or we could go with structural deterrents like mesh fencing or screen.



Peter Alway pointed out the following:

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mamalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Tamiasciurus
Species: Hudsonicus
Common Name: Red Squirrel, Pine Squirrel, Chickaree

Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mamalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Sciuridae
Genus: Marmota
Species: Monax
Common Name: Woodchuck, Groundhog

Peter says that taxonomically, Marmota Monax is, indeed, a giant mutant squirrel. :-)



Phillip2637 writes: "I used to work near Sheppard Ave., just east of where it crosses the Don Valley Parkway. Sometimes at lunch I'd walk across the bridge to Fairview Mall, visit some stores -- often a fruit and vegetable place -- and then walk back to work. In nice weather there was often a pair of groundhogs, sitting together as if they were an old couple, on one of the cement supports at the edge of the DVP. I enjoyed watching them just taking in all the activity, so I'd throw pieces of apple down to them or whatever I had.

Then there was the day that I couldn't get home because they'd eaten the entire overpass...but, hey, they were cute.

:-)"






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Full Circle

Had fun at Reid's and Luisa's place yesterday; it was a gathering in honour of a visit from Andrew and Jenny. Andrew's been a friend since our university days, and he now works on the iPhone development team at Apple.

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of iPhone bonding and geektalk during the evening. Thanks to Craig for taking the photo below:



In the photo below, Luisa is playing (or rather, she's just lost :-) a two-player game of iPhone Vector Pong with Jeff.

I still remember the original game of Pong, and how impressed I was back then. It seemed only appropriate that I'd be playing again over 30 years later, but on an 3G iPhone instead of my family's Radio Shack TRS-80.



A survey question: What was the very first computer game YOU ever played?

I never had a group of close friends until I got to university. Back in grade and high school I was somewhat of a loner, with only a few good friendships like my friend Cathy.



At the University of Toronto, I was delighted to find people as geeknerdy as me. I ended up marrying one, and some of us still hang out. Luisa remains one of my closest friends.



Our circle has grown with friends of friends as well as the members of the next generation. Some of the kids even play D&D together, just like our old group used to.




I feel pretty lucky to have a group of friends like this, whose bond continues to hold us together through some of us having kids, marriages and divorces, life crises. We may not see each other as often but whenever we get together, the comfort and caring are still there.



Thanks so much to Luisa and Reid for giving some of us the opportunity to get together again!



Working today; I have a Writer's Digest article due tomorrow. It's always a challenge trying to research and write a year summary of the publishing industry when the year still has four months to go (article is published in December in a special annual issue), so I generally end up writing most of it just before the deadline and crossing my fingers that nothing HUGE happens in the industry before the end of the year. :-)

Hope you're all having a great weekend!



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Nerd Ninja Doll, squirrels and my new iPhone purse

Happy birthday to Erin today!

I recently commissioned Ryan Couldrey to make me a Nerd Ninja Doll. Ryan will create a custom-made Ninja Doll for super-reasonable prices ($15 and up, depending on complexity), and offers FREE shipping within North America.

I'm trying to figure out what a Filker Ninja Doll would look like so I can commission another one. Hm...the possibility of custom-made Ninja Dolls are endless. Book Geek Ninja! Chocolaholic Ninja! Evil Squirrel Ninja! Geeky Rock Star Ninja! iPhone Addict Ninja! Hobbit Ninja! But how to -choose-?!?



Above: a gift from my friend Justin. :-) Heh...I'll have to wear this when I drink tea from my matching mug (a gift from Heather B.). Thanks, Justin!

Thanks so much for your comments and suggestions re: our groundhog problem. I'll respond to them individually soon!

Meanwhile, the local squirrels are becoming more lax in their undercover operations. This morning we found one of their spies napping on a telephone pole behind our house:



He scrambled for a quick escape as soon as he saw me. I hope he gets reamed out by his superiors.



I'm working on a new design for my iPhone bag. The old one was ok, but I thought I'd add a shoulder strap so I had the option of wearing it outside without taking anything else, as well as adding some extra pockets.



I used one of the buttons from my mom's collection as a fastener, plus I have an extra elastic that can loop around the whole thing for extra security.

Here's one of the pockets I added, made for carrying cards and perhaps a bit of cash:



I added a hole near the top so I can listen to audiobooks or music while the iPhone is still bundled up:



I only recently found out from Jeff that the white headphones that came with my iPhone includes a tiny microphone that also acts as a answer/hang up function (so I can answer/talk on the phone without taking it out of my purse) and pause/start for the iPod functionality (ditto for listening to audio books and music while I walk).

If I'm listening to music when a call comes in, the music quickly fades and I hear the ringtone instead. Clicking the microphone button once picks up the call. After I end the call, the music resumes. How cool is that?

Here's what my bag looks like in use:



I forgot to turn around the shoulder strap so the rough edge of the strap doesn't show; the strap is attached to the purse with swivel hooks and can be detached when I want to carry the purse/wallet in another bag.

It's still not THE perfect iPhone bag/purse, but I'm getting closer. :-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!



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