Author Archives: Autumn

Chamber of Secrets response

Quickie review of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

1. Geez, I’m glad I don’t go to Hogwarts. Big snakes. Screaming roots. Willow trees that think playing Whack the Student is a jolly time.

2. I so wish I went to Hogwarts! Or at least lived in that world.

Good film – well-paced, good acting, good dialogue, fabulous new set designs. If asked to compare it to the first in the series, I’d say apples and oranges. The first one established the world and characters. This one plunged right in and didn’t really explain anything, expecting you to have read the books, or at least have seen the first film. I like that. Why waste time re-introducing places and people?

I will see it again. Not, however, at the Paramount, although since the copy of the film we were watching snapped (right before the exciting bits) we got vouchers for a complimentary movie ticket, so it’s sort of like we saw it for free; thirteen-fifty is just too pricey. I did it for The Chamber of Secrets on opening night, and I’ll do it for The Two Towers premiere, but that’s all. Any subsequent viewings will be done elsewhere.

Tomorrow, we paint the bedroom. Updates as events warrant.

The Spectacle Quandary

Good news, good news, and bad news.

Good news: I am no longer near-sighted in my left eye! Woo-hoo!

Good news: I have a new prescription that will ease the fatigue I get working with paper, print, and computer screens! Woo-hoo!

Bad news: I need new glasses.

Yes, I could just replace the lenses in my current frames, and I intend to do it. However, I want another pair as well, since I’ve developed a bad habit of taking off my glasses and leaving them next to the computer, which does me no good at all if I’m out watching a movie or something. Today, I discovered that I had evidently blocked the horror that was shopping for new frames two and a half years ago out of my memory. I have a vision: thin black wire-rim frames in a narrow rectangular shape. Does anyone make something even remotely close to this vision? Yes. Sort of. But never, it seems, in a size that fits me. I’m small, okay? I wear small sizes. I know damn well the rest of the world is big, so something labelled average actually translates as too big in my world. I hate, hate, hate shopping for frames. It’s as bad as shopping for new bras. I went to four different shops in two different malls, and nowhere did I see frames that leaped out at me and said, I’m perfect!. Or even, I’d be bearable if I wasn’t a size 10.

Frames are so expensive! Dear gods! A hundred dollars for the lenses, at least one-fifty for the frames — ouch! I refused to even try on any frame that was priced at over $170. That’s sheer insanity. Even so, I have to wait for my next EI cheque to arrive, and then hope that when I go back to the first Lenscrafters I went to, they still have the frames I hated least of all, in a size that can be adjusted down to fit me. (And yes, I even tried the children’s section. Poor kids all have to choose from round and round-ish frames. Round looks horrible on me.)

I need to wear these for any precision work that will be undertaken for any period of time, the optometrist says. Which for me means pretty much everything except making tea or eating. Writing, working, reading, TV or movie watching, sewing. I just need to get into the habit of putting them on in the morning, and remembering to take them off again at night (which, yes, I’ve been forgetting to do, growing so accustomed to wearing them for computer work as I have been, which results in putting my cheek on the pillow and jamming the frames into the side of my nose). Both eyes, I was informed, are astigmatic, so glasses are just an easier solution than contacts, especially since I technically don’t need to have some sort of vision correction on full-time. Yeah, right; live my life for two days and then tell me that my everyday activities aren’t “precision activities”.

Meh

Bad, bad sleep last night. On the other hand, there’s only one more sleep until we see The Chamber of Secrets on Friday night.

Good rehearsal, though. Take that, Handel. And the conductor finally suggested that the celli play every second note of those pesky sixteenth-note legato runs in the Mendelssohn.

Got an e-mail from Ceri this morning talking about her NaNo project, which alas, like me, is on hold til tomorrow, since both of us work today. She said that tomorrow she would “write like the dickens”, which I found highly amusing in the NaNo context. I can just imagine a Victorian editor saying, “Quantity, Charles, not quality! Accidental quality is acceptable.”

Renewed

Yesterday, quite simply, sucked.

Oh, the day was horrid. Evil was afoot in my life. Things went from bad to worse.

I did not blog, I did not write; I did not practice. I did, however, buy funky new shoes.

I shall not depress you all, however, with gloomy details. Instead, rejoice, for today was a wondrous day!

Highlights include an hour and a half of brilliant cello, where I spiked that irritating Handel quite nicely, thank you very much; a terrific wrap sandwich made with thick slices of ham roast and Monterey Jack cheese, toasted under the broiler; leaps and bounds of progress on freelance work; and a satisfying few thousand words added to my novel count.

A rest is as good as a change. Voila. I am renewed.

And I have new funky shoes. Go me!

Lest We Forget

Ceri and I took in the Remembrance Day ceremonies this morning at Place du Canada, and I saw a schoolgirl pass out in front of us. I am quite ashamed to say that the first thing that ran through my head was, “Would my NaNo protagonist pass out at a Remembrance Day ceremony?” The second thing, of course, was, “Is she okay?” Looked like her teacher had it all under control, and I know the last thing I would have wanted if I were fourteen was to have a bunch of strangers crowding around me. It was well-handled.

I was stunned by the reports of anti-war graffiti on the cenotaph, though. It had been cleaned off by the time we arrived, but I saw some on the park benches nearby. Defacing public property on the day the country commemorates the senseless deaths of our citizens in unwanted battle – great way make a point, whoever you were, and to encourage us to admire your skulking ways and your whiny protest. No, war isn’t the solution. I agree with you there. But attacking the spirits of hundreds of veterans who risked ther lives in confrontations beyond what most of us can envision – that’s low. Your ways do not justify your means.

Sorry. Rant over. Stuff like this just sets my teeth on edge. You honour your forebears for the courage to stick to their beliefs, whether you agree with them or not.

NaNo 2002: Day 11

My lead in the Montreal NaNo Word Count Derby has been threatened.

I should explain something. I write as fast as I read, so when I sit down for a couple of hours to write, yes, my word total goes up rather quickly. I’m not steamrolling forward with the intent of finishing first; I’m just writing, and enjoying myself. This isn’t about having the highest word count, not by a long shot. I type fast, I think fast (at least, when I’m on my own – put me in a RPG situation and I’ll wait for someone else to initiate action), and I work at home, so I can fit novel-writing in with less trouble than most people.

When Ceri, with whom I lunched and attended the Place du Canada Remembrance Day ceremonies, informed me that (a) I was universally and cheerfully hated by the other Montreal NaNos at the coffee meet yesterday (which I missed, as I was writing!), I laughed. When she then told me that someone had passed me in the Word Count Derby, I was all prepared to groan dramatically and shake my fist at my agreeable rival Emily (nothing personal, Emily, you know that, right?). However, I was stunned when she told me that, no, it was someone who had been somewhere between seventh and tenth on the list who had skyrocketed up all of a sudden.

Well.

See, I was fine about this word count thing up until the point where Tal mentioned that he’d love it if the first Montreal NaNo to hit 50K was someone he knew.

This, coupled with Ceri’s news… well, let’s just say that all of a sudden, it’s personal.

So I’m off to write. I should be preparing for a class that I’m teaching tonight, but I can wing it.

Maybe I should corral my cats and them start writing from the end of the novel, so we can meet in the middle. Heck, next year, I should just let them write their own novel.

On Cats and Computers

Calloo, callay! I have a new monitor! Yes, hard on the heels of discussing the eventuality of my father purchasing a new computer, I visited a friend last night, mentioned the need to have a new eye exam and how monitors were bothering my vision, and walked away with a new monitor. (He had two. And he says he was planning to buy another one this week anyway.)

Ceri thinks that I’ve drafted my cats to write my novel while I sleep (little does she know that sleep is a rare luxury in my life these days). MLG posted this URL in a comment, and I just had to share it with you:

PawSense, the software utility that catproofs your computer.

From the web page:

When cats walk or climb on your keyboard, they can enter random commands and data, damage your files, and even crash your computer. This can happen whether you are near the computer or have suddenly been called away from it.

PawSense is a software utility that helps protect your computer from cats. It quickly detects and blocks cat typing, and also helps train your cat to stay off the computer keyboard.

Every time your computer boots up, PawSense will automatically start up in the background to watch over your computer system. Even while you use your other software, PawSense constantly monitors keyboard activity. PawSense analyzes keypress timings and combinations to distinguish cat typing from human typing. PawSense normally recognizes a cat on the keyboard within one or two pawsteps.

In my experience, one or two pawsteps have already done damage that will take at least one to three minutes to undo.

The most priceless bit was the warning screen they’ve developed, which announces CAT-LIKE TYPING DETECTED, locks down the system, and requires authorization to un-lock it so you can keep typing.

Yep. Good thing these people developed this software instead of, oh, I don’t know, using a keyboard shelf under their desk or something. Yes, indeedy. Where would we be without them? Overrun by illegible cat novels, that’s where.