A Busy September 30th

September 30, 2008

Today, for the Shorts, was a busy day. I shall begin with the least exciting and move up.

I just got back from presenting the school website at our school board meeting. People there said I did a good job on the presentation – I haven’t a clue, myself. 🙂 I’ve been working on the website, in earnest, for a year now. I’ve very proud of it – it’s standards compliant and handicapped accessible. The new teacher web pages which we can do through FirstClass (our e-mail program) are also standards compliant, which thrills me. And the teachers are making really nice pages. (I showed mine (boring) and 3 other teacher’s pages (not boring) to the board.)

Mom and Dad flew out to California today for a month in Santa Rosa. They volunteer for the Westar Institute from time to time – this time for a month. The fall meeting will be in a few week’s time and mom & dad help out with the preparation there and in a few other areas. And they also get to enjoy the fabulous restaurants in the area. I think the only complaint they have is that the condo they stay in doesn’t have a comfy chair. (We should dispatch the Spanish Inquisition, perhaps?)

And the most important thing to happen today to the Short family… My little sister bought a house! Yay! Today, she and Rachel closed on their house purchase. They now own a mortgage! And a house to go with it! I’m really excited for them. And I’ll be flying out mid-October to help them with unpacking, cleaning the old joint, setting up electronics, and just about anything else they want me to do. Amy thinks there might even still be some autumn foliage for me to gawp at then. Yay!

Speaking of autumn, it appears to have arrived today. Yay! My two walnut trees in the back have some distinctly yellow leaves. We have a nice blustery wind bringing us some cooler weather, too. Autumn is my favorite season, so it’s nice to see it start up in earnest.

Anyhoo, I’m sleepy and going to head off to read a bit before bed. Busy days make me tired. 🙂

A non-partisan message in support of religious tolerance

September 29, 2008

A meme I thoroughly support. (Ugh, there are times when I’m not proud to be an Ohioan. This is definitely one of those times.)

While it hasn’t been reported widely in the national news, an act of domestic terrorism was committed in the United States on Friday. A “chemical irritant” was sprayed through the window of a mosque in Dayton, Ohio, into the area where children and infants were being taken care of while their parents prayed. The story is here.

Right now, there are no suspects, so it is impossible to know the motivation for this vile and cowardly act. However, it may be significant that an organization called the Clarion Fund distributed an anti-Muslim documentary throughout swing states in the past two weeks. Ohio was one of the states where the disc was inserted as an advertisement in many newspapers.

Many Americans who happen to be Muslims are feeling very much under attack at the moment. The near total silence of the national media on this incident is not helping. If you were an American Muslim, wouldn’t you feel that this country doesn’t care about terrorism if it is against your people?

If you support the right of everyone to peacefully worship as they believe, whether or not they believe as you do, please post this in your journal:

*<*div align=”center”*>**<*a href=”http://tinyurl.com/3gag6m“*>**<*img src=”http://www.the-principle.net/images/freedom-of-religion.gif“*>**<*/a*>**<*/div*>*

Copy the code above and remove all the asterisks to link to the image.

Writer’s Block: R.E.A.D. in America Day

September 27, 2008

OK, so I couldn’t resist this meme…

I have been inhaling books of late. Since I rediscovered Lois McMaster Bujold for the first time (I’ll explain later) I have been eating up her books. Since the 2nd of September, in fact, I have finished one book every five days. (Yes, I do keep a record of what I read, why do you ask?) Alas, I now have only 2 more books to read in her Miles Vorkosigan saga (not including the pre-pre-prequel, Falling Free, which I’m sure I’ll buy soonish and read). If you like science fiction and haven’t checked out Lois’ books, I suggest you try Shards of Honor or, if it goes too slow for you, The Warrior’s Apprentice. These will definitely books which I will reread. My favorite is always the one I’ve just finished. (That would be Komarr today.) I’ve also started one of her fantasy novels, Paladin of Souls. It’s my purse book, so it takes a bit longer to read than my bedtime books. (I have suffered a lot of insomnia of late thanks to Lois – many’s the time I’ll be reading well past midnight.)

I was a voracious reader when I was a kid. I was often reading books in advance of my age group. I often shunned TV or other entertainment for reading. But then I discovered TV shows that worked for me (The Tomorrow People being the first). So as I moved into my teen years, I wasn’t reading as much as I had been. I was still buying lots of books, but just not getting them read. I still have Troll Book Club books which I’ve not read (though those are dwindling now as I finally get to reading them). I bought those when I was in elementary school! I joined the Science Fiction Book Club when I was a teenager and bought many books, few of which I ever read (again, until lately). As the number of books which I read dropped, so did my speed for reading.

When I started college, however, Virgin came out with The New Adventures of Doctor Who (NAs). I was able to recapture some of the fervor which I’d had as a child while reading the NAs. I remember waiting months at a time for books to arrive from the UK (ah, 1-800-TREKKER, you were my savior) and then I’d have a glut of 4 or 5 books to read, which I’d inhale. However, the NAs were about the only books I was reading, other than textbooks for college.

When Virgin lost their license, I tried reading the BBC published books, but I just didn’t care for them as much. Indeed, I stopped buying them after awhile and there are still several in my collection which I’ve yet to read. Apart from the Harry Potter series, Discworld series, and Murder, She Wrote series (hey, I *like* Murder, She Wrote), I still wasn’t reading a whole lot. However, I was still buying books.

In 2001, just before summer began, I made a pact with myself. I swore that I wouldn’t buy a new book until I’d read 10 that I already owned. A local bookstore going out of business over Memorial Day weekend, however, put me behind by 30 books. Still, from June 4, 2001, I’ve been recording the name (and date) of each book I’ve finished reading. January of 2006, I made a few goals for myself including read for 30 minutes every day. Although I haven’t kept up with all of those goals, I think the 30 minutes read thing has become something of a habit.

Building my library has certainly helped with that reading goal. Sitting here in my comfy chair and reading while listening to music is lovely. Especially when one of the kitties comes to visit. (My lap, alas, is currently bereft of kitty.) Indeed, I’ve been able to, since 2006, read more than 50 books in a year. I’ve already crossed the 50 book mark this year and will, if I keep up my current rate, be in the 70s.

So, you may be wondering how I could rediscover Lois McMaster Bujold for the first time? When I was in high school (a junior, I believe) my creative writing teacher held a workshop for aspiring writers. She brought in a published author, Lois McMaster Bujold, to lead the workshop. I remember being impressed with the workshop, though I hate to say it – I’ve forgotten pretty much everything she said. Still, a few months later, the Science Fiction Book Club had a book containing her first two novels for sale. I bought it, of course. And as with far too many books I bought in those days, it sat around unread.

This summer I was making good progress through my already owned books. Soon after I finished H Beam Piper’s two Fuzzy books, I picked up “Test of Honor” – the two book compilation (Shards and Warriors). While reading Shards of Honor I was thinking “this is a nice standard science fiction novel.” I was disappointed to discover that the second book wouldn’t follow up on Cordelia and Aral (the leads in the first book) but rather their son Miles. But I read The Warrior’s Apprentice anyhoo. And damn, but I loved it. Miles Vorkosigan, son of Cordelia Naismith and Lord (Count) Aral Vorkosigan is a wonderful character and I’ve been enjoying reading about his exploits. Lois has a wonderful sense of humor which winds throughout her books. And her characters are very enjoyable (whether Miles is there or not). So I’ve been eating up her books ever since. And it feels much like it used to when I was a kid and I read continuously.

I love reading. 🙂

Happy Equinox!

September 22, 2008

Yay, it’s autumn! My favorite season. And we’ve got lovely weather this week (albeit a smidge warm during the early evening). And some of the trees have started their color change.

I’m feeling pretty good of late. I seem to have a handle on my college courses. I’m enjoying my classes at school. I got to go to some science workshops on Saturday where I learned some stuff, thought of several lab ideas, and won a doorprize. Free science, free food, and free prizes – those make me happy. (OK, so the doorprize was something for an elementary science teacher, but it was still cool winning it.)

The kids had a day off today while we teachers had inservice. So I got to have Panera for lunch. Yum! I’m pretty warn out from the inservice (meetings always wear me out more than a full day of working – I have NEVER figured that out), so I think I’ll head for bed early. And read. 🙂

Ah, it’s so lovely to sleep with open windows. And soon I’ll need the comforter when I sleep with open windows. Yay! Let’s hear it for autumn!

Arrrr! Pirate Bounty!

September 19, 2008

Thanks t’ payin’ fer college classes wi’ me credit card, I now be havin’ $100 worth o’ Amazon.com vouchers. They gave extra reward points fer college payments, so I got nearly twice as many points as I would be havin’ gotten. Hmmm, wonder what I ortin’ ta buy wi’ me treasure?

(Translation thanks to http://www.syddware.com/cgi-bin/pirate.pl)

I Don’t Like Ike

September 15, 2008

Thankfully, I don’t live in an area that hurricanes visit. However, Ike sent some of its wind our way yesterday which has, apparently, made quite a mess of the country roads and caused power outages in places. So at 5:40am or so, our superintendent called to say we were on a two hour delay while they waited for enough light to assess the transportation issue. Within the hour, we received our second call – school is closed due to impassible roads and students & staff without power. (Most of the schools in the area are as well.) I’m grateful that I didn’t have any trees down and the power only fluctuated but never went off completely.

After the wind was done, we got a bit of rain too. But the rest of the day is supposed to be just cloudy. And the weather for the rest of the week looks perfect – sunny & in the lower 70s (°F). Mom and dad are heading to the Lake today – hopefully the nearly dead tree either survived the wind storm or fell towards the lake rather than on their cottage. They’ve promised to call if it’s the latter so I can share the burden of the worry & frustration.

So, Trina, what are you going to do with your unexpected day off? Work on college stuff, actually. And clean my kitchen. So my goal is to be productive today. Wish me luck on that! 🙂

Obsession

September 13, 2008

I’m a collector. When I get interested in something, I have a tendency to collect stuff regarding that thing, usually to obsession. I got to thinking about it recently when I was talking in SMAS about my Sylvester McCoy photo collection. I was ruminating that I now had so many photos, it was hard to find one for sale that I didn’t already own. I thought “I’ll bet they’d be surprised to see the size of the binders I’ve got all my photos in.” Then I decided I’d do a LJ post about it – and some of my other obsessions.

My photograph collection originated as a “scrapbook” collection (long before “scrapbooking” was a verb). And it’s all Helen Hayes’ fault. See, I was reading one of Grandma A’s Reader’s Digress when I saw some article (or maybe ad) with a lovely photo of Helen Hayes. I asked Grandma if I could cut out the photo and she said I could. I still have that picture from the mag – it’s part of a collage I made several years ago (late 80s) that hangs in my den. Although some of my tastes have changed and are not reflected in this collage (which actually had a couple of different permutations until it settled on its current one), I like it just as much when I finished it. And there’s enough stuff on it that I still like (like Helen Hayes).

Click the image for a larger version of the collage. How many people/shows/etc can you recognize?

Moving from scrapbooks to photos happened because of two important things: Jerry Ohlinger’s Movie Memorabilia store and Whomobilia. Both were mail order companies (Whomobilia in the UK) that I’d receive catalogs from. Jerry was first – I bought several black & white and color 8x10s from him. Movie stars and TV stars and occasional movie posters. (My giant, and I MEAN giant, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory poster came from there. Three times the size of a standard marquis poster, IIRC.) I was actually a movie poster & photo collector then. (Mom & dad started the fire with movie posters with a Willy Wonka marquis as a Christmas present when I was young & impressionable.) In 1995, I went to my first Doctor Who convention (Visions ’95) and managed to start properly on my Sylvester McCoy photo collection. And then came eBay. Gah, eBay, you are EVIL!

Sylvester McCoy & Doctor Who photo collections.

The Doctor Who binder is half photos and half scrapbook with magazine cut-outs. The two Sylv folders (Color and B&W) are just photos of varying size.

Just look how thick that binder is.
A binder next to a roll of duct tape, just to illustrate how thick it is.

Sylv & the other photos in my life.
I also have a binder of non-Sylvester McCoy photos which includes most of the Jerry Ohlinger photos as well as other convention guests from conventions.

So, now I have a substantial photo collection which rivals my earlier scrapbook collection of TV guide & other magazine cut-outs.

I used to have a substantial video tape collection, but I have upgraded to DVD. According to DVD Profiler, I have 434 DVD titles currently. The number of actual discs is considerably more. And I’m doing a good job at getting ’em all watched (and rewatched – which is why DVDs are brilliant). Just about any time DeepDiscount.com has one of their 20% off sales, I spent at least $100 on DVDs in my wishlist. I go to theatrical movies now with the mindset “should I buy this on DVD or not?” (My summer theatricals are all “yes.” Now I just have to wait for the DVDs to come out.)

(For photos of the DVD, CD, book, and toy collections, check out the gallery I put up on my website.)

I used to be an album collector, but only of a few groups/musicians (Neil Innes-related things most likely). However, when CDs came around, I switched to ’em with little effort. I now have a goodly CD collection which I have converted (mostly) to MP3s. I have nearly 10,000 MP3s (over 40GB) in my collection, and only a few are download purchases (and I have no illegal MP3s in my collection – anymore.) CDs which I don’t have MP3’d are Doctor Who audio adventures which don’t include Sylvester McCoy (with a few non-Sylv ones I’ve ripped).

I don’t remember if I posted photos of my finished library (if I did, I didn’t tag it properly). But as you can guess from other posts about books, I’m obsessed with them too. (Current obsession, Lois McMaster Bujold books.) Back when the New Adventures of Doctor Who first came out, I was thrilled when 1-800-Trekker started their Pen of the Month Club. For a substantial fee, you’d get a 1-800-Trekker pen and 1 (and later 2) free books! I think the last of the 1-800-Trekker pens (which was living in the bathroom at mom & dad’s cottage) dribbled out its last bit of ink and they are no more. However, I still have all of the New Adventures and Missing Adventures that I got from ’em! I made an important break-through in obsession control when I was collecting the BBC 8th Doctor Adventures. I found I wasn’t enjoying them AT ALL. So I (and this is profound, folks) STOPPED BUYING THEM. Wow. That was an epiphany for me. There are still a few sitting there which I’ve not read, but I probably will someday. (I stopped right before Lawrence Miles’ Interference two-parter. I’d hated everything else he’d written (yes, hated) and I refused to give him any more of my money, cheap bastard that I am.)

But it’s not just Doctor Who books in my collection. I have thousands of books. Well, OK, only 1300+ books according to LibraryThing. (I do own more than that, but some of ’em don’t auto-detect in LT or in Book Collector and I didn’t want to bother adding them manually.) Thanks to the lovely shelves that dad & I put up, I have nice homes for my books. And a wonderful place to sit & read ’em.

Other obsessions of mine include toys and stuffed animals. I still buy toys and stuffed animals (though usually the animals are souvenirs to places, like zoos or similar). I love physics toys most of all and have quite a few of mine over at the school for use as demos in physics class (with duplicates here in case they get broken there). I’d’ve taken a photo of the animals sitting behind my sofa, but the kitties have messed ’em up and I didn’t feel like putting ’em back yet.

In a previous post, I wrote about my webcomics obsession and showed photographic evidence of that. (Indeed, my collection of webcomics-related swag has increased since that post.)

So, yeah, obsession. Got that. In spades. And hearts and diamonds and even clubs. (Oh, did I mention all of the packs of playing cards I’ve got? Jennie Breeden of Devil’s Panties now has Men in Kilts playing cards which I should get…)

Kitty Picspam

September 5, 2008

It’s been awhile since I posted (wow, it’s the 5th and this will be my first post of the month) and a further while since I posted some kitty pix. Turns out I’ve got some very talented kitties. Linus can now leap tall buildings in a single bound. Well, he can get onto the fridge – still not seen how. I figure from one counter or the other. And he jumps down to the floor from it. Knocking magnets off. And Lucy’s my little laundry helper. She always loves laundry day and has taken to helping me fold clothes and stuff. Oh, and GIP! Ain’t they cute? 🙂

(Sorry the first two are a little out of focus. Was in a hurry to snap the pictures before he jumped off and my phone camera doesn’t like me to hurry.)