Jellyn's Collection of Curiosities

Rather than a list of resolutions, here is a list of 2008 goals.

In no particular order:

* Be able to recognize all 1945 Joyo kanji so I can read a manga in Japanese.
First step: Buy Remembering the Kanji by James Heisig because the library doesn't have it.

* Read books 1-6 of Harry Potter in Spanish. (As I can't find book 7 at the library)
First step: Borrow the Spanish Reader I found from the library.

* Read 250 books, at least 10% of which are nonfiction. Non-English books count double though.
First step: Start reading on Tuesday!

* Watch 12 movies in French without subtitles.
First step: Find a good movie in French to start with.

* Score 100 in the Clarion Submission game.
First step: Write a story.

* Be 1*0 pounds by December 31st. (Which means 5 pounds leeway for Christmas fudge. ;) )
First step: Find a class.

* Get a yellow belt in a martial art.
First step: Make some phone calls.

* Acquire tickets to Japan. (Note, not necessarily buy, and not necessarily for 2008.)
First step: ?????

* Make $100,000.
First step: Make $1,000 in non-wage income.

* Volunteer for an organization.
First step: See if Room to Read has anyone local to hook up with.

* Go to 3 cons.
First step: Pre-register for Readercon and Albacon.

* Learn shorthand.
First step: Pick up the library book on my floor and open it. :)

* Take a drawing class.
First step: Find a drawing class.

Edit: Fixed the categories for this post. And created a goals page.

Well, long-awaited by me if no one else.

Right after I read book 6 (Half-Blood Prince), I came up with this brilliant theory. I kept intending to write it up in a nice little literate essay. I never have. And I'm likely to not do it at all before book 7 comes out, since I'm extremely busy. That's what procrastination will buy you.

So, since it ties in to book 5 and movie 5 might have a hint of it, I thought I should quickly post before the movie came out!

So here it is in quick and dirty blog-form. Spoilers for books 5 and 6. Duh.

J's Grand Theory of Sirius and Tonks

Read the rest of this entry »

Stephen Colbert mentioned the Scooter Libby book, The Apprentice, again. So if you'd like to read my review of it. Then read my review of Scooter Libby's The Apprentice.

I saw the Oprah show on The Secret. The local libraries don't have the DVDs yet. But one of them did get in the book. So you can now read my review of Rhonda Byrnes' The Secret.

Epinions is doing a promotion this month with the potential to earn $100. So keep watching my sidebar for new reviews.

So I was on Epinions and for the first time I saw the graphic for a new sweepstakes. They're giving away money every weekday, and quite a lot of it. You have to write a review for a product that has no reviews. Submit that and it's one entry. So after poking around, I found no one had done the Naomi Novik books! Shokku. So, I did. You can read them here. Help me get that 5 cents apiece. And wish me luck on having my entries pulled for the cash prizes!

His Majesty's Dragon
Throne of Jade
Black Powder War

Panels Attended:

Science Fiction Writing for the Technologically and Scientifically Illiterate
Non-Traditional Fantasy Settings
How to Write About Something You Know Nothing About
We Are the Orcs!
Behind the Scenes
Is (As It Used To Be) the Short Story the Idea Cauldron for Novels?

Other Stuff Attended:

Peter David's Signing
Peter David's Presentation/Reading
Script-reading of "Guardians"
Screening of "Wolf Eyes"

Things Discovered:

There's a gaming room
There's anime being shown in the film room - though when I stopped by it was a Japanese movie of some sort, not animated.

More Hotel Free Stuff:

Nothing new, except they replaced some of the stuff we used/took. We forgot to empty the bathroom of stuff before they cleaned. And we check out tomorrow. Wah. :) Randomly, they left an extra bottle of lotion, yet took the only partially used bottle of shampoo.

Other Freebies:

Cookies!
Potato Chips! (someone needs to invent a half exclamation point. That didn't rate a full one.)
Tshirt (ha ha!)
Promotional bookmarks

Stuff Bought in Dealer's Room:

8 1$ used books - donations to go to the Star Toys Museum, if I've got the name right. In Maryland.
10 3$ used books, because if you bought 10 then it was only 2$ a book.
1 5$ used book

2 of those books are Dad's. The rest are mine. Because I am addicted.

Random Stuff:

Apparently there's chibi pageant girls running around the hotel. Dad said he saw some. I only saw the flyers on their table. That's just one event out of many going on here concurrently.

I saw a Wookiee. Life-size. I took a pic, but I don't expect it's a very good one.

Food Consumed:

Friday - A cheese sub from Subway. I even got adventurous and asked for honey mustard on 1/4 of it. I never did figure out which quarter it was on. So I guess I didn't dislike it. Next time I'll be even more adventurous and not have plain Italian bread. Also half a small bag of sour cream and onion potato chips. And ice cream at the ice cream social. I think that was it.

Saturday - Egg and cheese bagel from Dunkin' Donuts. Vegetable lo mein and white rice. 2 donuts. 1 cookie. Some potato chips.

Sleep Acquired:

Friday Night - Between 4 and 5 hours, I think
Saturday Evening - Roughly half hour nap

Once I get more of a chance to sit down and look up websites, I'll provide author and website links and things. Though surprisingly not too many websites have been mentioned, and I think only one by URL. The rest are sort of left up to you to Google.

Other Freebies I Discovered in the Bathroom:

Sewing Kit
Vanity Kit - q-tips, cotton balls, nail file
Oatmeal Soap

Things Bought in Dealer's Room:

2 Peter David books - The New Frontier one I wasn't sure I'd read. So it may end up being a duplicate, but if I get it signed, then it's worth more than the original one I had. So nyea! And the Sir Apropos of Nothing first book.

1 Peter David book - Dad bought Gods Above because it sounded interesting to him. It's one of the New Frontier books. The one after the one I bought, I think, so I don't think I've actually read it. Though I have it.

1 Dragon - Dad bought me a stuffed dragon. There was a whole selection to choose from, but he's the cutest! I promise to take a pic.

More later, most likely. The DR was only open 2 hours today and not everyone had finished setting up.

I'm at Albacon 11 right now.

Panels Attended So Far:

Creating Characters Outside the Mainstream
The Long and the Short of It
B Movies - Peter David was on this one.

Freebies in the Room:

Bottle of Poland Spring
Sleep CD
Earplugs
Linen spray to help you sleep
Sleep mask
The usual stuff in the bathroom, plus body talc that looks like a little salt shaker

Freebies in the Packet:

A DVD of the Battlestar Galactica Story So Far
A copy of the Magazine of F&SF - an issue I'd actually read!
A copy of an issue of the SFWA Bulletin - sweet!

Freebies at the Freebie Thing:

A different issue of the SFWA Bulletin - double sweet!
Bookmarks
Random book cover cards
The usual con and store flyers

Freebies Handed out by Authors:

A booklet with sample chapters from Peter Prellwitz
A metal book fobby thing.. I'm not even sure what it is from Elaine Isaak

Other Stuff:

I'm collecting business cards. I have some from artists especially, so I can see if their websites have cool stuff.

Food:

Ice cream social - free ice cream and toppings!
Water
Soda machine - looks like just Pepsi, Diet Pepsi and Sierra Mist, but.. free soda!
I also saw what looked like the remains of potato chips
Hopefully more food tomorrow!

I haven't taken a lot of pictures. It doesn't seem a very picture-taking kind of crowd. I'm going to try to take more.

If you have any particular questions, I'll try to answer them in the comments or the next installment.

So people know I've looked at Clarion in the past and keep almost doing it. The lack of stories was the major problem. (Only because I did my best to ignore the financial problem.) I've been doing better on the story front, though I wouldn't say I have anything new polished since the last submission deadline. So I had hopes for 2007.

Some of the authors/editors that were (are) going to be at 2007 are, well, at least names I've heard of! Cory Doctorow cowrote the quite good Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Science Fiction. And Mary Ann Mohanraj compiled the really cool Alternative Sexualities in Fantasy and SF List.

So that was really cool. And Clarion was my choice over Clarion West because it seemed more likely I'd get a scholarship of some sort. Plus, it's closer. And the original.

Clarion's moving though. To San Diego. I don't know what to make of that. How can you have Clarion and Clarion West when they're both west? Is Seattle at least more west than San Diego? I probably would've flown anyway, so I guess the cost won't be much different. It's just weird.

And creepy. The press release is dated September 11, 2006. Ominous much?

Now I've missed the chance to be the last class in the old location, like I managed to do when I rode Pirates of the Carribbean the last day before they closed it for a movie remodel.

I don't know much about San Diego. It's in California. Okay, so I guess that's about all I know. I wish it had been San Francisco. There's like, y'know, a bridge, and a Japantown. And, presumably, nuclear wessels.

Oh. San Diego Comic Con. Well. That's something. Not that I'm interested in comics, but it's heyuuuge, right? Probably some cool guests and a good dealer's room and things to do. It occurs during the workshop.

Wow. San Diego is crazy south. Near Tijuana. Now that would be a trip. Brush up on my Espanol and get me a passport.

It'd be just my luck if California fell into the ocean next summer.

So they're taking applications starting in January. That's a good target. Beats aiming for the final deadline. :P