Backstage at the Théâtre Illuminata

Mechanikal Pony, anyone?

2008-07-20T17:55:11Z

Dear Joss:

2008-07-20T00:20:00Z

Here's what you need to do:

Penny isn't dead. RADIATION FROM THAT CHUNK OF DEATH RAY (embedded in her stomach) turns HER into a kickass superhero! Then she and Doctor Horrible will have it out, thereby fixing her weak-ass, nonexisitent arc.

And then SHE can kick Captain Hammer's ass for being a whiny coward.

And then maybe I don't have to stomp on you with my boots of DOOM.

In lieu of content

2008-07-18T14:56:52Z

The headache I've had for two days? Went away when I cracked open a diet Pepsi Max.

Um. I might need rehab. Or detox. Nothing but celery juice for the next week!

(Or not.)

SYTYCD, Top 10

2008-07-17T21:03:23Z

Was it just me, or was last night made of *yawn*? Yeah, Katee and Will are the new power couple, but I didn't roll the DVR back to watch them again. Twitch and Comfort's hip-hop was fun (the first time I've seen her look like she's enjoying herself at all...) and Josh and Courtney rocked the popping number.

But still... nothing I liked enough to hunt up on YouTube. And that's sort of a bummer.

Oh, and the music for most of the numbers? BLARGH.

What a crazy-random happenstance!

2008-07-17T17:10:10Z

Who else has a PhD in Horrible? Hm? Better yet, who with mad PhotoShop skillz is going to whip up a download-and-printable version of that degree? *hee*

View Poll: #1225110

With My Freeze-Ray I Will

2008-07-15T18:57:59Z

Stop. The woooorld.

*MAD LOVE* Act One of Doctor Horrible is live here.

I am learning that first song to sing to random strangers at WorldCon.

"Here I go, mumbling..."

And now, in a total moment of WTF, Lis? I have the lyrics to the Freeze Ray song all typed out:

Lyrics by Joss Whedon, Jed Whedon, and Maurissa Tancharoen

Laundry day
See you there
Underthings tumbling
Wanna say
Love your hair
Here I go... mumbling

With my Freeze Ray I will stop the world
With my Freeze Ray I will find the time to
Find the words to

Tell you how
How you make
Make me feel
What's the phrase?
Like a fool
Kinda sick
Special needs
Anyways

With my Freeze Ray I will stop the pain
It's not a Death Ray or an Ice Beam
That's all Johnny Snow
I just think you need time to know

That I'm the guy to make it real
The feelings you don't dare to feel
I'll bend the world to our will
And we'll make time stand still...illllll.

That's the plan
Rule the world
You and me
Any day
Love your hair
(Penny: (spoken) What?)
(Billy: (spoken) No, I-I-I love th-the air. Huh.)
Anyway

With my Freeze Ray I will stop--

Sticky Tab

2008-07-13T23:18:26Z

Quite a lot of children's "classics" refer to little ones behaving badly as "heathens". One phrase that had also filtered into my brain was "hottentot."

Despite the novel manuscript having been through upteen-beta readers, no one flagged my use of that word as odd or inappropriate. But I've been reading through it for line edits, and I tripped over that word today and thought, "I bet five bucks that's a racial slur."

Sure enough, a quick Google search tells me the word refers to the Khoikhoi people and it's derived from the the Dutch colonists' word for "stutterer" or "stammerer." It also tells me that it's considered offensive by the Oxford Dictionary of South African English.

And so the word is taken out, and no, I don't want a cookie, but I did want to put a sticky tab on today, to remind myself that I'm thinking harder about word origins and that I'm questioning my choices.

In Good Company

2008-07-13T15:49:48Z

I heard first from oldcharliebrown via e-mail, and now clarkesworld reports on the magazine's Honorable Mentions in the Year's Best SF, 25th Annual Collection.

I am very pleased that "A Dance Across Embers" made the list.

How to take the sting out of rejection letters

2008-07-10T22:57:57Z

via sunilsebastian, The Bunneh Letter Opener

(Why yes, this is Spam the Flist day, didn't you know that?)

Another reason why I love my house

2008-07-10T21:32:16Z

Article posted today at Publishers Weekly about the Feiwel & Friends blog.

Just about everyone at Feiwel, from editorial assistant Allison Remcheck right up to Feiwel, and authors too, participates in the blog. Feiwel posted from the Bologna Book Fair. Garen Thomas wrote about why he wrote a biography of Barack Obama for young readers. Author Jordan Sonnenblick occasionally lets Dodger the chimp, star of his novel Dodger and Me, write for him. Marketing assistant Ksenia Winnicki wrote candidly about the fact that she was drawn to a particular book, for all the wrong reasons.

SYTYCD - Top 12

2008-07-10T20:03:29Z

Dance of the night: Katee and Joshua, doing Bollywood.

Over here with the addicts

2008-07-08T20:15:43Z

Passion

Passion is an intense emotion that compels feeling, enthusiasm, or desire for anything, and that often requires action. Get that? Requires action. It's very likely you submit to your deepest needs and live life with a flair few others achieve, but many envy. All 7 virtues are a part of you, but your passion runs deepest.
Passionate types: artists, writers, composers, athletes, and heroine addicts.
Your raw relative scores follow. 0% is low, and 100% is perfect, nearly impossible. Note that I pitted the virtues against each other, so in some way these are relative scores. It's impossible to score high on all of them, and a low score on one is just relatively low compared to the other virtues.

YOUR VIRTUES

30% Compassion
56% Intelligence
0% Humility
56% Honesty
50% Discipline
29% Courage
67% Passion

Take The Best Thing About You Test at HelloQuizzy

EV 14

2008-07-07T14:03:32Z

benpayne discusses some of the offerings of Elecric Velocipede 14 at lastshortstory:

Lisa Mantchev's Perfect Tense is another story that transcends its packaging. Ostensibly the story of a woman who goes back in time to warn her younger self not to make the same mistakes she did, the story then fills itself out and patches in the colours, leaving us with a kind of real-world version of an old trope. Nicely done.

lisamantchev @ 2008-07-06T18:48:00

2008-07-07T01:47:46Z

Is it some kind of omen to print out Teh Manuscript for line editing, only to immediately get a vicious papercut?

(Right in the soft spot between my thumb and first finger... ow ow ow.)

Excita-matastic

2008-07-05T16:32:13Z

I had to make my mom turn off the French toast to come see. She reminded me that she had to stop mid-pie crust to take me to my first theater audition when I was seven. *G*

Link HERE, in case you want to sign up for the e-mail alert to preorder... and you know you want to preorder! *hee*

The wrong-est thing seen today:

2008-07-04T00:22:09Z

Bacon chocolate chip cookies with maple cinnamon glaze.

AND NOW YOU GET A POLL!

View Poll: #1217411

SYTYCD - Top 14

2008-07-03T20:31:48Z

All those routines, and so many of them were "meh" level energy. We're really seeing who's going to be in the top 8...

For energy, choreography and leaving me grinning, the dance of the night was Chelsie and Matt doing the Kiss Kiss.

My kid has decided "the dancing show" is awful and she's Unhappy when it comes on. Thank goodness for DVR!

IRoSF reviews "The Stolen Word"

2008-07-02T03:01:19Z

Lois Tilton at IRoSF reviewed Fantasy Magazine, which includes “The Stolen Word.”

"Oh, oh! The naughtiness of you, now. Haven't you been warned time and again? You, with the dirty face. And you, with the ragged rip in yer smock. I'll trade ye to the Pins-n-Needles Man, I will.

And to make the threat more credible, Ol' Gran tells the tale of the first child she traded "for a pair of blue-ribboned bloomers and a bag of white sugar." But it was Pedlar Mam who had the worst of the bargain, as did everyone else who came into contact with the filthy little monster.

The Ransom of Red Chief as a Cautionary Tale. I can imagine that quite a few fairy tales might have begun in this way, in an effort to scare the children into good behavior. I wonder, however, if this tale might not have inspired them to emulate the little beggar, instead, as she clearly comes out ahead, despite her awfulness. By sealing the pedlar's bargain with the word, "Evermore," Mantchev inverts the "happily ever after" of the fairytale ending with the more ominous echoes of the raven's cry."

Denvention Schedule

2008-06-27T20:22:13Z

Short Fiction: On It's way out or a way to break into the market
Thursday, 10:00 am

SF as modern mythology
Friday, 11:30 am

Weird Tales Reception
Friday, 10:00 pm

I didn't ask for a reading or signing, but I will be findable at all times. ;)

The 9th Wedding Anniversary

2008-06-26T22:04:23Z

Traditional gift: Pottery or Willow
Modern: Leather (bam chicka wow wow)

Actual: Rose bushes for the garden, and the makings for frites and beignets.

There will be salad and fresh fruit, but both husband and child are far more excited about the dough rising in the kitchen and the ginormous bag of potatoes acquired this afternoon.

If I don't post tomorow, it's because I've gone into a carbohydrate coma. :)

SYTYCD, Top 16

2008-06-26T14:06:24Z

Hooray for the episode last night! There were at least four routines we backed up to watched again.

Tabitha and Napolean (who choreographed the "No Air" number") were back and made of win again!

Mark and Chelsie rocked it. Actual dance starts at about 2:40.

And, of course, my Josh and Katee in their Samba.

When you see this

2008-06-25T16:58:20Z

(via ecmyers )

When you see this post, quote from Doctor Who on your LJ.

From "The Unicorn and the Wasp":

Ah, smell that air: grass and lemonade. And a little bit of mint. Just a hint of mint. Must be the 1920s.

From "The Shakespeare Code":

Martha: So magic and stuff. That's a little bit Harry Potter.
The Doctor: Wait 'till you read Book 7. Oh, I cried.

Hello and Goodbye

2008-06-24T17:02:22Z

Trimming the flist again (people that haven't commented, or drifted away, or never friended me back) and this is a process that will continue as needed.

In case you missed the last notice, I see lots of new readers in the Romper Room: if you want me to add you back, I need to know who you are! Introduce yourself around the virtual campfire. Tell me why you're here/stalking/waiting to pounce!

After Yesterday's Post

2008-06-24T14:46:42Z

I'm pretty sure I need an icon that says: "Everything I know about surviving, post-apocalypse, I learned from Little House On The Prairie"

That is, of course, assume there aren't any zombies shambling about. Laura Ingalls might have kicked around a pig's bladder for a football, but I doubt she knew how to cripple the undead.

I have a lot of capable friends, it seems. I am reassured. Seems as though we have hunting, gathering, fish raising, smoking, preserving, gardening and knitting covered. There will be beer and wine and wenches (and probably a lot of singing and storytelling around a community fire.) Soapmaking and dishwashing. Shelter will be erected.

The following positions still open:

1) Candlemaker
2) Beekeeper
3) Blacksmith
4) Spiritual advisor
5) Spinners and weavers
6) Fortification expert (only the Friends Of Lisa May Enter!)
7) Other, to be explained in comments!

Planning out the Post-Apocalyptic Utopia

2008-06-23T23:05:41Z

Eventually, I figure I'll have all my friends and family living on this property in little dome houses. Most of our grass will be turned into vegetable gardens and we'll be raising fish in the creek. We still have a chicken coop. And I guess we'll round up small amounts of livestock and make our own cheese.

Personally, I'm interested in knowing if someone wants to head up the child care division early, as I will have line edits to do soon. *G*

So what are you going to be when everyone heads for my place? A butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker?