Tired of not being able to sift out my cello-based journal entries, I decided to make a category for it and start sorting through posts. Then I decided to do the same for books, and for music. Because, you know, I don’t have enough to do. (I appear to often mention books and music in the same post. I am sure you are absolutely shocked.)
Category Archives: Books
Giants Passing
Why do I not own a copy of Time Cat? Or the Westmark books?
Scratch Pad May 14
9:03:
I’m back at work, dee dee dee… every day is a bonus now.
I am very out of it this morning. I’m burning myself out working at home at night after working all day. I slept for an hour and a half in the middle of the day yesterday, and could have fallen asleep several other times as well. This morning I feel mildly ill and still out of it, and as if I could nod off any moment although I got about 6 hours of good sleep (less than I ought, more than I’ve been getting on average lately). Mind you, I was practically a somnambulist all of Sunday.
Weekend summary: Excellent evening out at the ADZO house on Saturday, with sushi and wine and four tired parents just relaxing. Very good. Earlier on Saturday: new shoes for Liam, tried to test drive a trike but he threw a fit because we passed toy cars first and he wanted to drive those instead. We’ll try again some other time. Bought lattice and supports for the backyard to give us a bit more privacy from the neighbours; the next thing is to plant climbing vines. Bought and assembled an excellent little composter, so now we don’t have to walk all the way across the yard to dump kitchen scraps. Liam enjoyed the assembly; he thought it was a playhouse. Pictures to follow someday. Played cello for half an hour in the afternoon; my strings were slack from the awful weather roller coaster we’ve been on. Sunday: groceries, then made omelettes and sausages for the weekly neighbour brunch, A Blessed Nap (best Mother’s Day gift I could have received, but the trio of roses was nice too), the in-laws coming over for dinner.
Remembered to sign my imprint specialist contract renewals and get them ready for mailing this morning. Yay me.
10:03:
I feel like I’m trudging through molasses today. Argh. Getting work done, though. Looks like others are slow getting moving today as well; some people are still straggling in, and there are empty desks around.
Gods, I feel like I could sleep for a week. Why don’t I have a cottage somewhere where I could go to do this? Water, trees, a breeze… Argh. Oh wait — that’s called a vacation.
10:08:
Aha! This project now has an official release name instead of a placeholder code name! Muah hah hah! [LATER: Ah, no; that’s yet another placeholder name. The official name is still being kept very, very secret. If there even is a confirmed official name. Heh. That makes three or four working titles I’ve seen the project listed under on various sales lists.)
11:35:
I am not, in fact, doing studio stuff after all today. All the more time to work. Also, lunch is a good thing, and as last I heard I was supposed to do studio stuff at noon, the consumption of comestibles instead is an attractive notion. I’ve been wobbly most of the morning, despite tea and granola bars and most of an egg/sausage/scone thing. Lunch is also A Good Thing because I missed my regular lunch out with friends on Friday.
11:43:
One of the reasons I enjoy Paul Tortelier’s recording of the Bach solo cello suites is because I can hear the fingers stopping the strings — there’s a small slapping sound as the finger hammers down. Live, in studio, no tampering. Real stuff. And I love listening to passionate classical music at a really, really loud volume on my headphones in an environment like this. It amuses me.
13:17:
Scott lent me games at lunch today! Yay!
13:47:
The demo and presentation over the weekend at the trade show went really well and got excellent feedback. Hurrah!
13:51:
I have just run into nine words all defined as “extremely large.”
13:55:
… and six defined as “extremely good”. *headdesk*
13:58:
… and now, seven words simply defined as “extremely.” If I do not laugh now, I will cry. Or throw something.
14:11:
So, why do ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’ mean the same thing, anyway? This is one of those things that has gnawed at me for decades.
14:16:
Yikes — just realised the gig is THIS SATURDAY. eep.
14:24:
I give up. The definition for ‘matronly’ completely misses the point.
14:40:
Cute things discovered on P’s trip to the trade show in San Francisco: Panda Z! We’ve spent the past few minutes cooing over the toy he got, and looking up the story and characters online. They have plushies.
14:56:
Wow – very sleepy here this aft. Hard to focus. It was like this on Friday too, but today there are people here to help keep me working. I’ve done more up till now today than I did on Friday, so I’m in better shape. Considering I’m in studio till one tomorrow, I’ll have another three and a half-ish hours in which to do work, so I should be done this by the end of tomorrow. Certainly polished by early Wednesday, and I may not even stay the whole day. Maybe till lunch only. Shan’t be coming at all on Thursday, mainly because I am booked elsewhere with the family. And I can’t see me in on Friday unless they discover something that desperately needs doing.
15:19:
…aaaaaand seven words defined as “completely.”
15:33:
This afternoon is creeping along. Not a bad thing, as I’ve been skiving and surfing, but also not great because going home seems a long way off, and I still have some work to do tonight. My left hip has been hurting me a bit more each day, and today it’s twinging badly as I sit.
15:56:
Woo! Only one hour left! Time is moving along faster than I thought. Or maybe I’m skiving more. (I’ve still done almost as much today as I did Thurs and Fri together, so ha.)
16:13:
Just ordered my two-volume Shorter Oxford to celebrate the end of my contract and the excellent work I have done in pulling this dictionary’s socks up. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than it was, immeasurably so. The Shorter Oxford should arrive on Friday. Also ordered the new Tori Amos CD and a manga that looks interesting (which I found out about, in reverse fashion, by seeing the Japanese video game advertised).
16:46:
And now that I’m leaving in 15 minutes I don’t have enough time to prepare for going directly to the studio tomorrow. Argh! (Well, I do, it’s just slightly tense now instead of relaxed.) I’ll get the references printed and cross-check it all at home tonight.
Scratch Pad May 9
9:15:
So: the pressure is now off, unless something drastic happens. I’ve got a good version of the dictionary without US/UK spelling issues (as far as possible in the game words), questionable game words removed and the same in definitions replaced; all levels balanced. Now it’s tweaking, looking at words to see if I’m happy with the progression, double and triple-checking everything. I sent both last night’s version (the one currently loaded) and ths morning’s version (all known errors fixed) to our ESRB rep this morning; I’m waiting for a reply concerning changes or issues, but that may take a while.
9:47:
It feels odd to be kind of making work for myself after focusing so hard for the past couple of weeks.
11:01:
Five minutes ago they handed me a DS and asked me to play, and I found a bug for them. Heh. (Or maybe I just confirmed it. Whichever — go me.)
11:30:
I’ve been staring at -ise and -ize suffixes for so long that I can no longer tell what’s right and what isn’t — they all look wrong to me.
13:39:
I spent my lunch hour browsing in the new Welch’s second-hand bookstore location, and came out with an armful of books. Then I bought a vanilla soda and half a dozen bagels. I’m going to miss this area. I am definitely going to make an effort to come out here at least once a month for lunch with the gang.
14:01:
Yup. I’m going to miss this. I won’t miss the loss of two and a half hours a day to commuting, though, and I’m looking forward to not missing Liam so much. And I miss working on my own stuff, too. I’ve been sitting in bed at night with my laptop reading through the Vivaldi story and Swan Sister on my breaks, and my interest in them is slowly being revived again. I just wish there were more places around where I live where I could go sit and drink tea and write, in order to get myself out of the house.
14:05:
Stewart’s Cream Soda is SO GOOD. It is positively addictive. I’m glad HRH picked this instead of the lime soda by accident for me two weeks ago, because it has allowed me to discover the wonderfulness of it. I usually find cream soda much too sweet, but this is very smooth. And did I mention addictive? This one is gone much too soon. (Checking the clock I see that it’s been forty-five minutes since I started it, but it feels sooner because now I have no vanilla soda, and I am lonely…)
14:11:
They’re progammed a sound into the game that’s a kitten’s meow, and it’s amusing but distracting. I think of Stella every time I hear it, or as HRH has dubbed her, “Darroch’s little monster”.
14:37:
There is a world of difference between misspelling something and mistyping it. Just thought I’d share that. (So I have lousy typing ability. I can’t be perfect.)
14:48:
Just came back from a brief ice cream break with Meallanmouse. I had a small cup of chocolate, but I should have had a small cup of soft-serve. We also picked up vanilla soda, from a different company. Not As Good. Still, it is vanilla soda.
15:29:
Heh — they’ve just asked me to do a sound test. They want to record fifty-odd definitions. Naturally this occurs forty-five minutes after I have eaten ice cream, so I am all gunked up.
15:50:
Not happening today anyway; no time in the studio. They’ve also asked me to be the on-site consultant regarding the pronunciation of the competition words at the Friday recording session, as t! is away that day.
15:51:
Working on this contract has also really sharpened my desire to read again, particularly theological and spiritual texts. It’s like the analytical and critical part of my brain was kicked back into life.
16:41:
Looks like this sound test will happen Monday — so voila, my contract has been somewhat extended, even if only by one day. This has to be officially confirmed, of course, but it seems logical to me.
Scratch Pad May 1
9:43:
I’ve just read that Boo has passed away! I’m sitting here in the office trying not to cry. He was a wonderful bunny, and gave Liam so much pleasure at the caregiver’s. He will be sadly, sadly missed.
9:44:
Beltane today. At least it’s sunny. I’m so sad about Boo that I’ve lost the cheerfulness I had earlier about the holiday.
11:40:
Life is playing Calvinball with my poor husband’s brain. Interviews, no interviews, job leads, more job leads… at least no one is pressing him for a decision nownownow, so he can explore all of them properly.
13:08:
Mmm. Every time I have the quesadillas at the Mexican restaurant here, they’re different in a totally delicious way. Today the onions were caramelized. Although for once, I couldn’t finish it, possibly because I didn’t have breakfast until 10ish. Had the pleasure of Scott’s company at lunch today too; very enjoyable indeed.
13:47:
Have I mentioned how appalled I am about the incorrect that/which usage?
13:49:
Somehow a bunch of the final level words were marked to be edited when most of them were OK. Hmm. Must have had my finger on the wrong button while I sorted things mechanically one day.
15:35:
DONE!
16:05:
And now we scramble to replace the words we’ve had to remove. Lots of copy/pasting, and math to see if we’re closing in on our target numbers. Friday is our deadline. It would have been easy if we hadn’t encountered that double setback.
16:54:
Enough. To public transport, and to continue reading Diana Wynne Jones’ The Pinhoe Egg (a Chrestomanci book! about Cat!).
Scratch Pad Apr 30
9:16:
The metro went out today while I was on it; it spent a lot of time sitting in stations, then at Lionel Groulx the power went out entirely, the cars going dark, the air flow ceasing. My first reaction: “I’ve read ‘Crisse, des zombies!’: I know what happens next, and I’m ready!” It went operational again within ten minutes, but altogether my metro trip in took forty minutes instead of twenty. And I still got into work only fifteen minutes late. I don’t understand public transport at all. Also, when it is sunny, the buses are more on schedule than if it is overcast, rainy, or snowing.
Reading The Earth Path on the commute now. I keep coming across things that make me peaceful, or wish I had time to write responses in my notebook. The main reaction is, why wasn’t this book available when I started writing the green witch book? Starhawk says things so much better than I do. (As to why I didn’t pick it up when it came out: I’d already done a pile of GW research, then I changed gears and wrote the Wicca book, then I had a baby. Never got around to it. It’s entirely possible I would have been tempted to give up if I had read it, because why bother?)
Slept horribly — didn’t fall asleep till after midnight, woke up at 5:30 and couldn’t relax enough to fall back asleep for the last hour before I had to get up. But when I did get up I saw that my new French door was up on my office, after much trial on the part of HRH due to power tools losing their charge and doorframes being badly bowed out of line. The cats are very upset, particularly Nixie.
9:53:
I want to edit MORE! Curse the contract which requires us to use as much of the original as possible! The colloquialisms and lack of that/which agreement are driving me around the bend!
10:53:
A (sends this definition to t!): “parapet: to be brave enough to state an opinion that might upset someone”
A: *beats dictionary*
A: *a lot*
t!: I thought parapet was a kitten with ESP.
A: [howls]
15:28:
“Prawns: large small edible seas creatures.” *headdesk*
15:41:
Ouch. Hello, brick wall. I’ve done an insane amount of work so far today, and I think I just died. Also, my back hurts.
16:43:
Yup. My brain is pudding.
What I Read This April
Betrayal by Grace, Lady Cavendish
Conspiracy by Grace, Lady Cavendish
Firebirds Rising ed. Sharyn November
The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason
Melusine by Sarah Monette
Mia Tells It Like It Is by Meg Cabot
Victoria and the Rogue by Meg Cabot
The Hours by Michael Cunnigham (reread)
Dead Man’s Ransom by Ellis Peters
Princesses by Flora Fraser
A Long Shadow by Charles Todd
Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Magic’s Child by Justine Larbalestier
The Earth Path by Starhawk
So You Want To Be A Wizard by Diane Duane
Wow. Busy month. But spending two to two and a half hours commuting every work day gives one lots of time for reading.