Resistance Is Futile

Could. Not. Resist.

That is too cute. Plus, it’s got theatre background.

Thursday 13 #41 ~ I Can Has 13

Well, I was going to do the list of 13 books I was glad I hadn’t written today, but I got sidetracked by a book I wish I had written (except then it would REALLY give me nightmares, rather than just majorly creeping me out and making me a little jumpy around mirrors) and so didn’t get online at all last night. So that one will have to wait for next week, and we have a picture-heave TT this week instead.

(ETA: The book in question is Tanya Huff’s Smoke And Mirrors. Strangely, I like the other two in the series – Smoke and Shadows and Smoke and Ashes better. Then again, maybe it’s not strange. Those two don’t give me nightmares.)

~*~

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Favorite (and not before posted on here) LOLcats

1.

2.

WIP: Work In Pictures

Just a quick post today, with pictures of my current WIPs, the Lotus Blossom Tank and the Hot Cocoa Socks.

Lotus Blossom is nearing the home stretch. I have finished the knitting in the round, and and the front. I’m now knitting the back, and then will move on to the sleeves, and be done! (Well, done after any finishing work.)

The Hot Cocoa Socks are around 3/4 done (for the pair). The second sock is almost to the end of the first half of the heel, and I’m looking forward to being done with them. I like the yarn, and I like the knit, and I love the needles, but these have been in my WIP basket for far too long.

And now, with no further ado, the pictures!

(Wait. That’s not a tank. That’s a cat.)

(Eep! No worries. The tank is unharmed.)

Etiquette and Perspective

Not enough of us Americans know our flag etiquette. Have you noticed?

(For those who don’t know, you’re supposed to stand when the flag passes, and remove your hat. It’s a show of respect. At the Memorial Day parade yesterday, I stood. My parents were already standing. And one guy across the street stood. It was a crowded street. I should not have been able to count the number of people standing, should not really have been able to see the street through all the people. Instead, I could easily see over their heads.)

And I was reminded of the point of the day on the way home from the parade. Someone on the radio said that we really shouldn’t wish people a “Happy Memorial Day.” He said that what that translated to was essentially “Happy Military Funeral Day.”

It sure puts things in perspective.

Post-Birthday

Well, George and Steven gave me a good birthday present yesterday. (Though they didn’t provide the tickets. Ah well.) I highly enjoyed Indy 4, even though I’d had reservations about it, after what happened to Star Wars. But, it was very nicely done, and the cast was awesome.

~*~

Friday Fiver 5.23.08: Throw your love around

1. Last laugh? “Laugh” opposed to “giggle”? Probably during the movie last night. There were funny parts.

2. What do you love? (What, not who. Okay.) Yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Hot tea. Yarn. Books. (I’ll stop now.)

3. Gold or silver? Silver.

4. Who do you hold hands with? He’s not home yet. Give me a month.

5. Friday fill-in: There’s no time to for us…. (A song again, as usual. Queen, this time.)

~*~

Happy Memorial Day to all my friends in the States! (I don’t think anyone but us celebrates it.) I may or may not be posting on Monday, as it’s a holiday. I’m going to try to do some of this:

Thursday 13 #40 ~ Cake and Eat It

Before we begin the TT, I have to announce the winners of my Birthday Blog Bash contest! There were three categories, so three winners. Can I get a drumroll, please…

• Knitting: Lorraine
• Writing: Jess
• Reading: sprite

Yay! Congratulations, winners, and please either leave prize choices in the comments on send them to me by e-mail. (I will be sending e-mails off as soon as I’m done posting this.) Everyone, please stop by and congratulate them!

Now for the TT. There were lots of great choices – how could I pick? Well, pick I did. I’m going to make a list of my favorite birthday cakes. Some were mine, some were not, and some I have only seen pictures of. They’re still awesome. However, keep an eye out for some of the other great ideas to pop up later… one in particular (13 books I’m glad I didn’t write) has been on my mind since I read the suggestion (and I would be doing that one today except it doesn’t go with the birthday theme).

~*~

Thursday Thirteen: 13 Favorite Birthday Cakes

1. the traditional doll cake (doll upper half, cake lower half, dress made out of frosting)

2. a fish tank cake we made for my niece (no pictures on this computer, sorry)

3. a 3-D lamb cake (not officially a birthday cake mold, but we used it as one)

4. this book cake:

5. a castle-shaped bundt cake – awesome shape, but hard to cut and harder to clean the pan!

6. or a forest shaped bundt cake – ditto the castle, though ever so slightly easier to clean

7. I think I had a panda-bear cake when I was little. I probably thought it was cool at the time. Now, I’m not so sure I’d want to cut something shaped like a cute animal. (This goes for the lamb cake above, but that one wasn’t my cake, so I didn’t have to cut it.)

8. this neat pond cake, with a hedgehog and a snail along the outside:

9. Star Wars cakes. There are many variations, and they’re all fun.

10. a D&D diorama cake. This was made for one of our gaming friends, and our little miniatures were arranged in combat with a dragon or something on top. It was pretty cool, though I only saw pictures.

11. a cake made out of cardboard that said gaming friend (above) hid in and jumped out of for kicks to surprise my BIL-once-removed (as in my BIL’s brother). It was tres amusing. Not very tasty, though.

12. this cake (it has a Tiffany’s bag. Who could resist it?):

13. and the last mention for favorite cakes may seem boring, but it’s really my favorite: yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Period. It may not look like much but it’s oh so yummy.

~*~

Happy Thursday!

Socks, Socks, Socks

Three socks in the subject line, three mentions of socks here. But first, a reminder: today is the last day (and not even a full day left) to enter your name in the 2nd Annual Birthday Blog Bash!

Sock Mention #1

This is the current socky-WIP. It is the Hot Cocoa socks (pictures to come when I remember to take them). The pattern is the Yarn Harlot’s Earl Grey, and I started them a long time ago. They are a present for my dad, and were due three months ago. And they’re still not finished. I have hopes that they will be done under a month from now, prior to Sock Mention #3.

Sock Mention #2

This pair of socks was started nearly a whole year ago. It got put on hold to knit the above mentioned HC socks, with the hope that I would be done quickly. I wasn’t.

The socks in question are the Mangotini socks, and I have no new pictures of them. Have an old picture, instead.

Sock Mention #3

Is the Summer of Socks 2008. Which is fast approaching. Last summer, I knit three socks. Not three pairs. Three socks. Two were Monkey socks, which were finished and get worn. They are fun. The third sock was one of the Mangotini socks, and it’s still not been worn as the second sock is about half done.

Will I be starting a new sock for SOS’08? Or will I be finishing up last year’s sock? No idea. But one way or the other, I will be knitting socks.

Dreamland

(Just a quick reminder to leave me a suggestion on my birthday blog contest post for a list of thirteen things you’d like to see, and I’ll enter your name for my contests!)

~*~

So, for today’s reading update we have an older book, but one that perhaps makes more sense now than it did when it was written. The book is 1981’s DREAM PARK by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. Wiki has some information on the book here.

Essentially, what this book does, is foreshadow LARPing. (Only way cooler, with hologram swords and enemies that are both played by actors and created by holograms. Also with neat effects for magic spells.) If you are a gamer, and you read this book, you will wonder what it would be like to play there. Guaranteed. Who wouldn’t want a chance to try that? To become your character for a few days in a socially-acceptable (or mostly acceptable) Game?

Until there’s a murder, anyway. Then things get tricky.

Now, there were two disappointments for me. One, was no fault of the authors. The jacket blurb makes it sound like the murder is inside the Game, and that when your character gets killed, the player gets killed too. (What actually happens when a character dies, if the clerics are unable to revive the character, a ghost appears to lead the player to an exit where he can watch the rest of the Game on a viewscreen.) This would make a really cool motivation to stay alive in the Game, and it’s what I thought I was getting into. Instead, however, there is a murder outside of the Game itself, and the main character is a security chief who goes into the Game in order to solve the murder. (A very good plot, just not what I thought I was getting.)

The second disappointment was in the ultimate conclusion. I like the way the plot resolved, there were just issues with the character resolution – that I can’t go into without spoilers, and I won’t do that – which didn’t sit right with me. It’s possible that this is a product of the era in which it was written, or the fact that it was written by men (which sometimes seems to make a difference) but it just wasn’t concluded the way I would have done it.

Anyway. It’s a highly amusing story, and I do recommend that anyone who plays role-playing games read it. If you can find it…

Contested

Wow.

Just – wow.

Announce a contest, have a friend or two post it on their sites, and watch your blog hits skyrocket. Who knew? Thursday had 130 views, and Friday had 119. And Saturday, a day of the week that normally sees numbers in the teens, had 62 views. Yikes!

(Public service reminder: if you haven’t entered the contest yet, you have until Wednesday – the 21st – around 5 Pacific Time to enter. The winner will be announced at the beginning of my post on Thursday, along with the Thursday Thirteen from the comments that I feel is best suited to a birthday post.

~*~

This weekend has been hot. Ah, and lovely! It’s almost as if it’s summer here. Very, very nice. It does make doing anything outside a little bit difficult, but it’s still a nice change from cold. Summer nearing also means it’s closer to the time I’ll get to meet up with the guy I mentioned that Lorraine wants to know more about. (He’s overseas right now, but coming home in a month. Hence the complication.)

Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying weather as nice as I am!

Pimp Your Friends

So, to remind everyone, leave a comment on yesterday’s post to be entered in my birthday blog bash contest.

And, to honor a request from one of my friends, today is dedicated as

Pimp AJ Menden Day!

She’s a friend of mine whose website is here, and whose debut novel (Phenomenal Girl 5) is going to be released this fall by the folks at SHOMI. This is really exciting for me, folks. I guess it makes me feel like more of a writer myself, being able to say, “I knew her when…”

But it is also super exciting because I did know her when she was still aspiring to publication, before she’d gotten that acceptance letter, and I knew she was one of the ones with a good chance at making it. I was also privileged enough to be able to give her feedback on this book… granted, I’ve only read the last chapter, but still! I helped! (Okay, maybe not much. Work with me here.)

There is a blurb on her site for the book itself, and some character info, and an excerpt. All I will say is that I love her writing style, and the idea for the novel, and I’m really excited. I’ll do a proper Pimping of this book once it’s hit the shelves, and I’ll be in line to buy it as soon as I’m able. Go AJ!