Eseme's Den

February's reading:
Issues of Smithsonian : 1
Issues of Scientific American : 2 (I had a backlog)
Issues of Mother Earth News : 1 (I read most of this one, though there are some articles or letters to the editor which are not of interest)

And Finally A Book!
Pale Demon by Kim Harrison
A witch, a pixie, an elf, and a vampire go on a road trip. Yes, it is as interesting as it sounds!

I was a bit worried about picking up this hardcover, but a friend gave me a gift certificate for rescuing her cats so I decided to risk it. The last book in the series went in directions I was not really happy with (specifically in terms of Rachel's love life). If that plotline had continued, I would probably have continued to read the series, but not buy hardcovers. This book goes in other directions entirely, which I find odd but the author appears to be working to retcon previous behavior by this potential love interest so I'm thinking that she changed her mind mid-series and I am willing to see where this ends up. I really liked the forced road trip format - the series needed a change of pace, and this works well. I'm rather concerned that everyone in urban fantasy seems to feel the need to have their characters die or very nearly die in order to keep escalating the plots. I'm not wild about that, and I think there are other ways to challenge a character as opposed to just continually escalating the danger level and degree of injury.


Add that to January:
Issues of Smithsonian : 2 (I read all of this magazine, and love it - I am hoping to subscribe this year)
Issues of Scientific American : 2 (not cover to cover, I do skip some articles outside my areas of interest)

The Armory is an actual Army Reserve Armory (there is a tank up the road) but is mostly used as a building with a large hall that gets rented out for events. Such as the model train and dollhouse show I went to over the weekend.

((For the one doll person reading this, I managed to find a 1/6 table amid all the 1/12 stuff, as well as a few 1/12 things that work at both scales))

Nearly all of yesterday was taken up with playing Arkham Horror. We started sometime between 1:00 and 1:30, and I had to bow out at 10:20 due to needing to work today.

There is a new event listed on the sign outside the Armory. I glanced over as a drove past on the way home today.

The sign:

THE ANCIENT ONES
OUTDOOR SPORT AND GUN SHOW


Me:
Ack! Cthulhu with guns!!

It is a good thing that I will be cat-sitting on the other side of town this weekend. Oh yes.

Lyn Thorne Alder (author of Addergoole) is going to be livewriting this weekend.

She will take prompts, and write what you want. She'll also be raising money for Drake, her cat who was recently diagnosed with diabetes. Donations will get you more words written on your prompt, and will let you watch as she writes in Google Docs.

Both Saturday (8:00 PM - midnight Eastern) and Sunday (2:00-6:00 PM Eastern), so there will be lots of writing!

For more info, go here: http://aldersprig.livejournal.com/138275.html

Help out Drake! He's a good kitty, though he does try to eat visitors...

I'm a bit behind the ball, but work has been somewhat chaotic lately. I've just learned that Brian Jacques, the author of the many books in the Redwall epic, died over the weekend.

I read several of the books in fifth or sixth grade, and stopped reading them because I could not work out the timeline. But I loved the animals, the squirrel archers up in the trees, the brave mice, and the amazing food! I later learned that the feasts were so impressive because the stories were written for children at a school for the blind, and that Brian Jacques worked hard to provide non-visual imagery as well as visual.

News stories here:
New York Times Obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/09/arts/09jacques.html?_r=2

http://www.examiner.com/speculative-fiction-in-national/brian-jacques-author-of-the-redwall-series-passes-away

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-12380763

The Official Site:
http://www.redwall.org/

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Jacques

Edited to add the New York Times obit

It was actually nice again today. The temperature topped out around 38 and I was able to go on a walk again. I even remembered my poles this time, and I was very glad I did. The path was quite icy in spots, and all of those spots were on hills. The flat bits were all snow, which I can get some traction on.

So, 2.15 more miles on to Rivendell! I have gone 53.95 miles, and am still in the woods, heading for the Buckleberry Ferry. But Pippin has realized we are too far south! Will we make it?

And in other good news, there will be board games and food tomorrow. Yay!

You should give blood, if you can and are eligible to do so.

Donations go down in the winter, probably because people do not want to leave their homes in the cold and the dark.

And it is very cold, and very dark here. But it is very much worth it.

Also, you meet cool people at the cookie table.

This is mostly for my own reference - I want a place to gather some of this stuff. I may find a better way to do this in emails to myself, so I should stop cluttering up friends lists soon.

( Money, Craft, Business, Steampunk, and the great genre TV debate )

I have a car, as opposed to a snowbank.

It only took 50-55 minutes of shoveling and brushing.

Who needs a Wii Fit when you have lots of snow plus wind?

So tired.

So, after wandering the beach, I headed back to my hotel.

( The party itself, plus a Halloween costume! )

I have been working on a post about this trip for a while. And then it turned out to be HUGE! So I am breaking it up, but even the chunks are long. But it was a fun trip, and I hope a fun read. With photos.

( Book Signing Party at the Beach )

More in a couple of days!