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So as Emma Dog and I were returning from a lovely walk along the ditch east of the Rio Grande Nature Center, about 5:45 this evening, I noticed she had stopped and was looking alertly through the fence that runs along the south side of the field. I followed her intent gaze, and there, not thirty feet away, I saw …  One of these guys. Plus, another one. … a pair of coyotes! Popularity: 12% [?] So, last week I started in studying taijiquan again, after a hiatus of years. I went back to Lotus Dragon Authentic Chinese Tai Chi, where I started studying almost exactly ten years ago with Sifu Dug Corpolongo (although the school was called something else back in 2002.) I felt it was time to go back, and it was. Sifu Dug’s a great guy, and his students and instructors are lovely people. Very congenial place – and I had forgotten just how excellent a teacher Dug is. And … nothing says thanks for taking me back as a starting over student like disrupting class and making a complete dork of myself. It was, at the very least, inadvertent. I didn’t fall through the mirror or make inappropriate jokes (or too many.) Tonight I wore some suave new sweatpants to class for the first time, since my cargo pants with suspenders, while excellent in their own right, did not a salubrious martial arts practice outfit make. Since I was planning on going somewhere immediately after class (SPOILER ALERT: I didn’t make it) I brought a bag with my street clothes rolled inside. Including of course my cargo pants (with suspenders.) Right before Laoshir (instructor) Ken started us on warm-ups I realized I still had my keys in my pocket – these sweats are so suave they actually have pockets. So I took them out and stuck ‘em in my moccasins, where I also stashed my wallet and asthma inhaler. After class, as the advanced class was starting, I bade everyone good night and went off to change in the bathroom. And I could not find my keys. Continue reading In which I screw up Popularity: 43% [?] Yes, it’s my favorite day of the year! And it’s here.  A Very TJ Christmas Merry Christmas Eve, everybody! And also Christmas. So my Wild-Caught Christmas Tree is all up and decorated and everything. You can see what TJ Cat thought of it (Emma Dog stayed dubious about it for rather longer. Squeak Kitty was like, “Whatever.”) To see the whole before-and-after saga, please visit my Flickr set on the subject. Continue reading Christmas Eve, 2011! Popularity: 18% [?] Christmas season, it’s hardly any secret, is my favorite time of the year. And Christmas Eve is my favorite day of all. And I’ve finished my shopping! And have most of the presents on hand. Now all I have to do is gift-wrap ‘em. Thanks to the kindness of my friends Dan and Ruth Blair, down Mexico way, I even have a package of my own! It comes wrapped in a festive blue sack, with a major golden ribbon. Impressive. Soon I’ll even have a tree to put it under – my very first wild-caught one. Thanks to Harriet Engle, whose answer to my Christmas tree dilemma I decided to follow, and Tom Sittler. So it all comes together. I even got in a bit of a Christmas-light cruise tonight. I hope to do many more – although it freaks me out a little bit how little time is left until actual Christmas. Well, I plan to make the most of it. Hope you do too. Socializing with my friends is a big part of the season’s joy for me. I have a fair amount of that lined up. And I hope to get in plenty more. While I don’t expect Christmas presents, I admit I much enjoy receiving as well as giving. Which applies to other things as well, which since this is a family-friendly blog (kinda, sorta) we’ll gloss right over…. So, anyway, should you feel inclined to get me something, you can find my Amazon Wish List here. And keep watching the skies, or at least this blog, for some hot dinosaur-related updates. The Big Rewrite of The Dinosaur Lords proceeds; I’m itching to get this done so I can start writing the next one! Have a wonderful holiday season, everybody! And as always – thanks for reading! Popularity: 24% [?] I am toying with the notion that my most important, and hardest, job as a writer (and perhaps in life as a whole) is getting out of my own way. Discuss, please. Here in the Comments, or on Facebook or Twitter. One way I try to accomplish getting out of my own way – which is working, though gradually, as like any habit it takes time to instill – is breaking down the necessities of a good, effective, pleasurable, and full life (to me, different aspects of the same thing) into Five Elements:
Yeah, I like numbered lists. And the number five appeals to me. Because it does. I consider these elements as actions I can take. They are, as I said, necessary for a full – therefore good – day. Continue reading The Five Elements of (My) Life Popularity: 28% [?] So my whole life I’ve spurned fake trees and insisted on getting real ones. And now I am … tempted by the Dark Side. Yes, I’m actually considering buying a fake tree. This year. Now, más s o menos. (Which as every schoolchild knows is Spanish for, for sufficiently large values of ‘now.’) And you can help me decide! (And there! I did what we’re supposed to do with a blog post: start off with the punchline. That oughta be good for boosting my site views into actual double digits!) Moving on … I’ve been thinking about making the switch for a while. All my life I got real trees. When I got them at all – after I was on my own I don’t remember getting a tree until I had a live-in partner. Much as I love Christmas, it just seemed … disproportionate. Then since things caved in on my head back in 2000 (since which, coincidentally, I’ve lived alone except for the four-legged family members) I’ve gone with not just real but live trees. Little ones, like a foot tall or so – usually Afghan pines. They’re pretty and smell nice. They’re also manageable. But they’re a tad pricey: little buggers run about $25. And each year I tell myself I’m gonna nurse them through the holidays (which to me last at least until January 6th … if not Super Bowl Sunday), and then plant ‘em somewhere on the property. And then each year, one way or another I reliably kill the poor things. Since I seem to’ve kind of established a pattern here, I’m kinda veering away from the little potted trees. I’m honestly not sure where I’d plant one, anyway; they’d overwhelm my front yard, and the places I’d put one (much less a young forest, if I actually, you know, succeeded more than once) are either occupied or would block too much sunlight during wintertime. Continue reading Victor’s Christmas tree dilemma Popularity: 39% [?] So yesterday sure went in the tank. Then again, any day you can walk away from is a good day. And I quite thankfully have. It started on less than four hours’ sleep and a trip to an 8 AM doctor’s appointment. To discover the doctor wasn’t in, but was off having knee surgery (understandable, granted.) And despite what the receptionists claimed, of course no one called me. I did get a new appointment, which for a miracle wasn’t in the early (to me) morning. But still: a waste, and left me tired and on my back foot all day. Out buying supplies at Wally World after a nap, my Dollar Store reading glasses, which made me look like Gordon Freeman, busted right across the nose-piece. At least these actually cost $1 – the last pair I got at a “dollar” store set me back $6, so adjust your BS meter on those “stupid customers asking the price at the dollar store” stories accordingly. Fortunately this was easily remedied: I went straightaway and found an $8 pair in a style I like better. Then again, the $1 pair, aside from causing me to look like a wannabe hipster – that may be one of the saddest phrases I’ve ever written – lasted like 3 weeks. So, not that bad a price. As I got ready to leave the Costco lot later I noticed the battery light was on in the car. Which is weird since I don’t recall seeing it before – even when the old battery was, you know, dying in July. Shrugged it off, and anyway it went out when I drove home. I came back out pretty promptly to take Emma Dog for a walk – didn’t want to decide I was too tired and snivel – and the car balked on starting. This time the low-battery light stayed on a spell. I suspected I might have trouble starting the car for the trip home. Correctly, as it happened. Continue reading Victor’s Bogus Automotive Adventure! Popularity: 25% [?] So, since my most recently recounted (and most triumphant!) adventure, I had a very busy week. Too busy to take time off and, you know, blog. But first: your too-long deferred fix of Emma Dog. Because we all know she’s really the draw here to the blog. I just need to face facts.  Emma looks absurdly happy about her heating pad (concealed under the fleece. Also the dog.) Every winter Emma has a problem with her right rear hip. It seems that cold causes it to hurt. Walking warms her up, but she often feels sore afterward. So I bought her a doggy-bed heating pad. And, now that she finally seems to be realizing that the unnatural hot spot on her sofa (pictured above) won’t actually disintegrate her, and to actually lie on it some, it seems to be doing her some good. Yay! (Also hit the above pic, or indeed here, for a Flickr album of shots of Emma on her couch, taken just a few minutes ago.) Otherwise I’ve been busy with the usual occupations (writing, walking aforesaid Emma) as well as socializing. Lots and lots of socializing. Thanksgiving my friends John Jos and Gail Gerstner-Miller kindly drove me up to Santa Fe and back (again!), along with their friend Lynn Kaczor, for a dinner at Steve and Jan Stirling’s house, along with Walter Jon Williams and his wife Kathy Hedges. (And, sorry, not linking to anybody’s web site or info this time, either. I am tired and need to get this post put to bed, and then me. Google is our friend.) It was delicious. Also fun. hard to beat the company. But last night at the very least gave it a run for its money. Saturday my dear friend Melinda Snodgrass threw herself a party for her 60th birthday, and good on her. (Some people, I am given to understand, object to others holding their own birthday parties. Screw those people.) John and Gail kindly hauled me along with them again. (Again!) And … it was swell. Among those attending were George R. R, Martin and his wife Parris, Ian Tregillis, Sage Walker and Hank Messinger, Rhea Golden, Pati Nagle and Chris Krohn, and Royce “Chip” Wideman. Patricia Rogers and Jayné Franck for English-style high tea, which was what this fandango technically was. (Nobody does dress-up like Pat. Although Jayné …. well, there were no flies on Jayné, either.) Plus this time we were joined by little-known Colorado SF author Connie Willis, along with her daughter Cordelia and her husband Courtney. Who are also swell. As were all the other people there, whose full names I never caught, and to whom I apologize for not listing them. Apologies as well to the friends who were there whom I am morally sure have slipped out of my head, and who are consequently plotting my demise for leaving them out. Melinda insisted on publicly blaming me again, this time. Some people…. And – wait. I just now saw I neglected to mention the last time. It was at the Wild Cards Cocktail Party (read all about it!) thrown last Saturday by Kay McCauley. Toasts were proposed, to Kay for her work on our behalf and for hosting the affair, and also to Melinda, for fighting the good fight against crushing odds until at last she sold the damn Wild Cards rights to Hollywood. Then Melinda took the floor to offer special thanks to two men. First she thanked George, without whom none of this would have happened. As obvious as it was just. Then she said she wanted to thank … me. And I naturally said, “What did I do this time?” I honestly had no idea. Until she mentioned that I was the one who gave George the Superworld role-playing game we all played so obsessively – mostly the campaign game-mastered by GRRM himself – from which the whole weird, wonderful, and long-lived Wild Cards project sprang. Which, while true, was kind of her to mention. So what did she blame me for yesterday at her party, in front of God, Cthulhu, and everybody? Telling her she ought to think about giving writing a try. Professionally, that is. And … yeah. Guilty as charged. Again. By the way, Melinda’s actual birthday is today, November 27th. In case you wanted to, you know, wish her a happy one. Yeah, I know it’s late. Deal. So I hope you all had as fine a Thanksgiving and subsequent weekend as I did. No finer group of friends exists than mine, though I am willing to acknowledge the possibility that equally fine sets exist. (And I would be remiss if I failed to mention I’ve also muchly enjoyed the extra time spent hanging with my best friend Joseph Reichert, who isn’t a part of the SF set and doesn’t much hang with them.) And yes, now I see Emma lying full-out on her heated fleece on the sofa. Yay! I was going to take a picture of that, because she looked cute, but I let my camera battery run down and it needs recharged. Ah, well! Be well, folks. Be happy. And as always – thanks for reading! Popularity: 25% [?] So last night I got to attend the exclusive “Cocktails with the Wild Cards Chic and Luminaries of the New Mexican League of Authors” party, hosted by our representative, SF and fantasy super-agent Kay McCauley, at the Hotel Santa Fe. (Which, it will surprise you to learn, is in Santa Fe.) And you know what? It was swell. Even if we did get totally thrown out of the hotel for being rowdy.  Gail Gerstner-Miller and That American Tolkien Guy at dinner afterwards. It does not suck to be me. But since you get to share in it after the fact, as beloved friends and fans, it doesn’t suck to be you, either. The guest list was appropriately stellar: George R. R, Martin and his wife Parris, Melinda M. Snodgrass, Ian Tregillis, James S. A. Corey and his lovely wives, Steven Gould and Laura Mixon, Kat and Daniel Abraham, Ty and Jayné Franck, Jayne’s brother-in-law Dan (I hope I got that right; had trouble hearing), Sage Walker and Hank Messinger, John Jos and Gail Gerstner-Miller, Rhea Golden and her friend Tyler, Pati Nagle and Chris Krohn, Jane Lindskold and Jim Moore. And, well, me. (I apologize for not linking to the above luminaries’s sites. I need to learn to lavish less time on these damn blog posts. Maybe then I’d, you know, write more of them.) Continue reading Victor’s Most Triumphant Wild Cards Adventure! Popularity: 100% [?] |
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