Sailbourne

It is the beginning of a new year, the beginning of a new decade (as some reckon it), and a shade over five months since I posted anything here.  I wasn’t going to make a New Year’s resolution (having been pretty dismal about such things over the years), but a couple of days into January, as I was working my way through the mountain of paid bills and other paper-based minutiae of life, I realized that the last time I had done such filing was the prior November.

Not November 2009, a little over a month before.  November 2008, thirteen months before.  And to be totally honest, it isn’t the first time such a thing has happened.  Not by a long shot.  Clearly, it was far past time for me to do something about this.

There are so many things that have drawn my interest and effort over the years, so many things I want to do and try.  But it is far past time for me to admit to myself that right now, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to even come close to doing everything I would like to do.  And there are things in life that I need to do which take time as well.

Since I don’t have a robotic duplicate I can send out into the world to do stuff for me, and since I don’t anticipate getting a TARDIS any time soon, this means I’m going to have to set priorities, make choices, and (most importantly) stick to them.  And so the first part of my New Year plan is to pay more attention to the basic work of taking care of myself and my family, and make sure that we have the resources, the energy, the good health, and the time to accomplish what really matters to each of us.

(Granted, in the case of the cats, that’s largely eating, sleeping, and chattering at the birds and critters outside the window, but if they’re not healthy, they’re not going to be able to enjoy even those things.  So the point stands, even if it does mean getting carted off to The Evil Doctor now and then.)

My biggest priority for this year, beyond keeping on top of the everyday work of caring for myself and my family, is supporting and promoting Ollin Productions — especially “Afterhell,” but also “Dicebag Theater” and at least one other big project which will hopefully go into production this year.  Continuing support of Dreams Landing, my jewelry crafting efforts as the House of Sailbourne, and maintaining the online sim games I’m a part of are also important things for me.  And I want to organize a renewal of vows and celebration of Joe’s and my 20th wedding anniversary.

I’m realizing that these things, plus the day job that allows everything else to happen, add up to a quite full plate.  There are some things I’m going to have to let go of, at least for a while.  The first one, which I’ve already started on, is to cut way back on my Facebook games and applications.  Facebook is a great tool for connecting with friends and family, and the applications and games available on it are fun, but stack up a few of them and it becomes an almost frightening time sink.  There are only a few Facebook games and applications I’ll be maintaining from now on, and as the year progresses, it may happen that I have to cut back on those.  I apologize to anyone who is inconvenienced by this; I know most of the FB games depend on having as many friends as possible also playing.

Another item that is going on the shelf, for a while at least, is the It Was 20 Years Ago Today podcast.  I’m not abandoning it, but the podcast will go on hiatus for a time.  Exactly how long, I don’t yet know.  It will be back though.

A final note.  I plan to update this blog regularly this year, at least once a week.  I plan to use it to keep on track with my efforts both to take care of myself and my family, and to keep on top of the many tasks that will be priorities in this coming year.  I might even use it just for fun now and then — I’m sure the memes won’t go away, even if I resist the urge to play them all!

My Life According To the Austin Lounge Lizards

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions. Pass it on to 15 people you like and include me (presuming I’m someone you like). You can’t use the artist I used. Try not to repeat a song title. It’s a lot harder than you think! Repost as ‘my life according to (artist name)’.

Pick Your Artist: Austin Lounge Lizards

Are you male or female:
Big Tex’s Girl

Describe yourself:
Forty Years Old and I’m Livin’ In My Mom’s Garage

How do you feel:
We’ve Been Through Some Crappy Times Before

Describe where you currently live:
A Hundred Miles of Dry

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
Dallas, Texas

Your favourite form of transportation:
Hey Little Minivan

Your best friend:
Grandpa’s Hologram

You and your best friends are:
Swingin’ From Your Crystal Chandeliers

What’s the weather like:
Ain’t Gonna Rain

Favourite time of day:
Mourning Edition

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
The Illusion Travels By Stock Car (Petty/Bunuel)

What is life to you:
Hillbillies in a Haunted House

Your relationship:
He’s Just a Friend

Your fear:
Pizza on the Ground

Thought for the day:
Life Is Hard, But Life Is Hardest When You’re Dumb

How I would like to die:
Paint Me On Velvet

My soul’s present condition:
Jesus Loves Me (But He Can’t Stand You)

My motto:
Do Not Go To Tennessee

(Tagging instructions included for the Facebook echo)

I was tagged so now … you’ve been tagged ! It works like this: you are supposed to write a note with the 3’s of YOU. At the end, choose people to be tagged. You have to tag me. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you — but not in a creepy stalker kind of way.

To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 3’s, tag at least 10 people (in the right hand corner of the app), then click publish.

Three names I go by:
1. Jamie
2. Neko-chan
3. Puddy

Three jobs I have had in my life.
1. Newspaper columnist
2. Motel housekeeper
3. Telephone solicitor (never again!)

Three Places I have lived
1. Crescent City, California
2. Rohnert Park, California
3. Beloit, Wisconsin

Three Favorite drinks
1. Mighty Leaf vanilla bean black tea
2. Mojito
3. Moose Drool Brown Ale

Three TV shows that I watch
1. Leverage
2. Burn Notice
3. Begin Japanology

Three Places I Have Been
1. Springfield, Mass.
2. Victoria, BC
3. Anaheim, CA

Three people who e-mail/IM/Facebook me regularly
1. Joe Medina
2. Alida Saxon
3. Penny Booher

Three of my favorite restaurants
1. Juan Colorado, Hillsboro, OR
2. Kabul, Mountain View, CA
3. Toshi, Aloha, OR

Three friends I think will respond
1. Jean Lawson
2. Penny Booher
3. Rey Stephens

Three things I’m looking forward to
1. A quiet weekend at home
2. The next session of any number of role-playing games
3. The end of summer heat

Three Places I would like to visit
1. Japan
2. the UK
3. Mexico

These have been stacking up, so a series of short posts to deal with them.  Tagging some folks in the Facebook echo.

This can be a quick one. Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose …

1. The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston
2. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby
4. (a slight cheat, perhaps, but …) Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Player’s Handbook, by E. Gary Gygax
5. All Creatures Great and Small, by James Herriot
6. The Gathering Storm, by Winston S. Churchill
7. Since Yesterday, by Frederick Lewis Allen
8. The Living Shadow, by Maxwell Grant (Walter B. Gibson)
9. The Tarot: the Origins, Meaning, and Uses of the Cards, by Alfred Douglas
10. The Portable Jung, by Carl G. Jung; edited by Joseph Campbell
11. The Norton Anthology of Poetry (second edition, shorter version)
12. All the President’s Men, by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
13. Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, by Alan Dean Foster
14. The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, by William L. Shirer
15. Justice at Nuremberg, by Robert E. Conot

Got this one because someone thinks I’m a literary geek.  As I go through the questions, I’m beginning to wonder about that, I’m afraid … I’m only tagging folks I think might want to see my answers.  No one’s on the hook here — this took me forever to answer, so I won’t subject anyone else to the time sink. The original also said not to bother with italics … so I’m not.

1. What author do you own the most books by?
Strangely, I’m going to say Terrance Dicks.  We have a ton of Doctor Who novelizations.  Not counting that, probably Harlan Ellison.

2. What book do you own the most copies of?
As far as I know we only have multiple copies of one book at the moment: Conservatives Without Conscience by John W. Dean.

3. Did it bother you that both those questions ended with prepositions?
Not in the least bit.  (Hearing Douglas Rain’s voice there.)

4. What fictional character are you secretly in love with?
At least three but none of them have been widely published as yet.

5. What book have you read the most times in your life?
Probably The Lord of the Rings.  With The Hot Zone a close second.

6. What was your favorite book when you were ten years old?
The Enormous Egg, by Oliver Butterworth.

7. What is the worst book you’ve read in the past year?
I haven’t read any books I’d consider genuinely bad in the past year, so I’ll take a pass on this question.

8. What is the best book you’ve read in the past year?
Don’t know if it’s the best, but Against All Enemies by Richard A. Clarke is probably the most important. And I definitely enjoyed reading it.

9. If you could force everyone you tagged to read one book, what would it be?
I wouldn’t want to force anyone (because who would enjoy the book then?) but I think if you read either The Wild Trees by Richard Preston or Shadow Divers by Robert Kurson, you would not be disappointed.

10. Who deserves to win the next Nobel Prize for Literature?
I have no freaking clue.  Honestly I don’t read much of the literature that gets one awarded a Nobel Prize.

11. What book would you most like to see made into a movie?
The Wild Trees, by Richard Preston — but only if done as a documentary, not fictionalized.

12. What book would you least like to see made into a movie?
The Prisoner: Shattered Visage, by Dean Motter & Mark Askwith. This story does just fine in its original form, and some “franchises” should just be left alone.

13. Describe your weirdest dream involving a writer, book, or literary character.
I’ve had a couple where the point of view shifted between myself playing an RPG and the actions of the characters in that game as it was being played. Pretty wild stuff.

14. What is the most lowbrow book you’ve read as an adult?
I have read a handful of Harlequin romance novels. For research. Seriously.

15. What is the most difficult book you’ve ever read?
The Seidensticker translation of The Tale of Genji. Still working my way through it.

16. What is the most obscure Shakespeare play you’ve seen?
The ones I’ve seen are considered the most well-known ones.

17. Do you prefer the French or the Russians?
I haven’t read enough of either to fairly judge.

18. Roth or Updike?
Don’t think I’ve read any of either.

19. David Sedaris or Dave Eggers?
I’ve had some Sedaris read to me, which I enjoyed a lot.

20. Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer?
Shakespeare all the way. (Not that I’ve read a lot of Milton or Chaucer.)

21. Austen or Eliot?
I’ve read “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” … oh, I bet you meant George Eliot.  Haven’t read either.

22. What is the biggest or most embarrassing gap in your reading?
See answers to questions 17 – 21, above.

23. What is your favorite novel?
I can’t decide the answer to this. I’ve tried. I just can’t.

24. Play?
The Zoo Story, by Edward Albee. Stumbled on it by chance in high school, didn’t understand it at all then, but was blown away anyway. After having seen it performed once, and having read it a few dozen more times, I think I’m finally beginning to get my head around it.

25. Poem?
I think there would have to be at least ten of these. So for today let’s say: Grass, by Carl Sandburg.

26. Essay?
You, Too Can Speak Gaelic, by Isaac Asimov. Everything I know about pronouncing long scientific names comes from there. First runner-up: The chapter about Hillsborough in Fever Pitch, by Nick Hornby.

27. Short story?
A Quantum of Solace, by Ian Fleming. A James Bond story in which Bond is nothing more than the listener of a tale related by someone else — this story makes some very insightful points about human relationships.

28. Work of nonfiction?
The Hot Zone, by Richard Preston.  It’s approaching LOTR for the book I’ve read the most times, and it still manages to scare the snot outta me.

29. Who is your favorite writer?
Joe Medina.

30. Who is the most overrated writer alive today?
J.K. Rowling.

31. What is your desert island book?
Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy.

32. And… what are you reading right now?
Thank You, Mr. Moto by John P. Marquand; The Secret Life of Houdini: the Making of America’s First Superhero, by William Kalush and Larry Sloman; Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II by John W. Dower; several RPG rulebooks

[Another meme, but no requirements to pass it on ... unless you want to buy in, so to speak.]

The first five people to respond to this post will get something made by me.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

• I make no guarantees that you will like what I make.
• What I create will be just for you.
• It’ll be done this year (2009).
• You have no clue what it’s going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something over the internet. It may be a mixed CD. It may be a poem. It may be a felt mouse or a triple-chocolate cake or a handful of origami wish-stars. Who knows? Not you, that’s for sure! [not me either]
• I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

Here’s the fine print:

In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note of your own and make 5 things for 5 others.

[This is going out on my personal blog as well as over Facebook so I will go by the timestamps of the comments I get.  Not that I think there's gonna be a mad rush or anything, but maybe I'll be proved wrong.]

1. Open your music library (iTunes, Winamp, Media Player, iPod, etc)
2. Put it on shuffle
3. Press play
4. For the first question, type the song that’s playing
5. When you go to a new question, press the next button
6. Don’t lie and try to pretend you’re cool…just type it in man!
7. Tag 10 people, and they have to do it too

Not tagging anyone else on this one, either.  So there.   Instead I would love to hear from anyone who thinks they can make sense of any of this.  Maybe it’s just my mood today, but I’m not seeing it.

Movie Title:
“Doctor Christian,” episode original airdate Feb. 6, 1938

Opening Credits:
“Under the Top”
(Elliot Goldenthal, Batman Forever score)

Waking Up:
Dowland: “After My Departure I Called to Mynde …”
(Sting, Songs From the Labyrinth)

First Day at School:
“I’m Looking Through You”
(The Beatles, Rubber Soul)

BFF Hang Out:
“Stones In My Passway”
(Robert Johnson, The Complete Recordings)

Falling in Love:
“Growing Up”
(Peter Gabriel, Up)

First Nemesis:
“Council of the Flocks”
(Renaissance of the Native American Flute)

Losing Virginity:
“Franklin In Medlab/Franklin Arrested/Minbari Attack/Sheridan’s Plan”
(Christopher Franke, Babylon 5: In the Beginning)

Fight Song:
“G’Kar’s Emotional Address/Franklin Is About to Leave/et.al.”
(Christopher Franke, Babylon 5: Objects at Rest)

Break Up:
“Music At the Inn”
(Dan Jones, Shadow of the Vampire soundtrack)

Prom:
“Ruby, Found At Last”
(ZBS Productions, Ruby: the Adventures of a Galactic Gumshoe)

Life:
“The Last Train”
(The Goon Show, season 5, episode 9, November 23 1954)

Mental Breakdown:
“Cartoon Cartoon”
(Cartoon Network promo, Cartoon Network’s Cartoon Medley)

Driving:
“La Vieja”
(Orchester Mariachi Del Sol, Fiesta Mexicana)

Flashback:
“7 Screaming Diz-Busters”
(Blue Oyster Cult, Workshop of the Telescopes)

Getting Back Together:
“Dodo/Lurker”
(Genesis, Abacab)

Wedding:
“White Lightning & Wine”
(Heart, Dreamboat Annie)

Birth of Child:
“Hamma Hama Hula”
(Jon Rauhouse, Steel Guitar Rodeo)

Mid-Life Crisis:
“Heaven Help Us All”
(Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed and Delivered)

Final Battle:
“Little Wing”
(Stevie Ray Vaughn, Greatest Hits — SRV)

Death Scene:
“Stealin’ Apples”
(Benny Goodman & His Orchestra)

Funeral Song:
“We Can Work It Out”
(Stevie Wonder, Signed, Sealed and Delivered)

Those You Left Behind:
“Smoke & Wine, et.al”
(Hank Williams III, Straight to Hell)

End Credits
“The Greatest Story Ever Told,” episode 68, original airdate May 9, 1948

For my Facebook friends, I’m not going to tag back anyone this time.  At the risk of painfully dating myself, you deserve a break today.

Five names you go by:
1. Jamie
2. Sailbourne
3. Ayeshalan
4. a feline word that seems to translate roughly to “hey you!”
5. Puddy

Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Badge
2. Wedding ring
3. battered black running shoes

Two things you want very badly at the moment:
1. To sleep
2. To feel loved

Three people who will probably fill this out:
Not tagging anyone this time, so I think I’m off the hook for that one.

Two things you did last night:
1. Ordered CD’s online
2. gave a foot massage

Two things you ate today:
1. Instant oatmeal
2. Lemon drops

Two people you last talked to on the phone:
1. Joe
2. a coworker

Three things you are going to do tomorrow:
1. buy groceries
2. try to start our taxes
3. grumble at stupid politicians on the TV

Three longest car rides:
1. San Jose to Portland, OR
2. Portland to Missoula, MT
3. Great Neck, NY to Spokane, WA (I was about five at the time)

Four favorite beverages:
1. Moose Drool Brown Ale
2. Coke Classic
3. any good Gewurztrauminer
4. Rose petal black tea with cream and sugar

Continuing the craziness that was 2008 …

May — The Thing

One of the true highlights of the year came on a warm Saturday afternoon in May.  It was the ninth annual UFO Festival at the McMenamins Hotel Oregon in McMinnville.  It was our third trip there to help the folks at Willamette Radio Workshop put on a live performance.  This year was extra special, as the main feature was an adaptation of John W. Campbell’s short story “Who Goes There?” titled (as several of the film adaptations of the same story were called) The Thing, written by Joe!

Mattie’s Room on the second floor of the Hotel Oregon was packed!  All the seats were taken, and several groups of people sat on the floor behind the seats, while more stood and listened.  For some forty-five minutes, the WRW cast, speaking Joe’s words, held all those people absolutely spellbound.  In between The Thing and a performance of “Flash Gordon,” Joe and I talked to people about WRW, and sold discs of WRW shows, Dry Smoke and Whispers, and of course, “Afterhell.”

Q3 — Medical Leave and Heavy Downtime

On the first of July, right about noon, I was struck with a pain in the lower abdomen.  It put me in the emergency room, and before the end of the month, into surgery for a full hysterectomy.  Joe has written a well-detailed and heartfelt account of this over in his blog, so I will keep the note here to a few bits and pieces that still stick out in my mind about the whole experience:

• I took a cab to the emergency room that first day.  Turns out the driver was an audiodrama enthusiast who gave me a copy of a disc he’d helped create, called “Yes, Virginia, There Is an Anti-Claus.”  Absolutely hilarious.  I’m still trying to locate him again.
• At the end of the visit to the emergency room, the doctor was preparing to write me a prescription for painkillers.  I distinctly remember telling him, “Let’s start small and go with the Vicodin.”
• In the near-frantic rush to get ready to go into the hospital, one of the most important things to me was going to buy a bathrobe.  I did manage to find a rather nice one.

After the surgery I spent the next seven weeks at home, healing and trying not to do too much too fast.  (Always a challenge for me, that last.)  I got to watch a bumper crop of 1980s TV on DVD — the entire first season of The Equalizer and most of the short-lived Stingray series.  It was a treat, really, since I missed both the first time around.  Also got to take in a lot more of the Democratic National Convention than I would have otherwise, and completely ignored the Olympics.  (Heck, I had to think for a minute as I was writing this where they were even held.)

By mid-September I was back at work, and things were looking a bit more normal, but the year wasn’t done with us yet.  I’ll finish it off in a few days.

Since I didn’t follow up on the 16 random things, I’m going to try this one.  It’s taking me a while to think of stuff; please do bear with me.

1. My hair is naturally curly, and also pretty thick.  This caused me problems when I was young, because I hated to brush my hair.  My mother had to cut mats out of it more than once.
2. I wrote my first story at the age of ten or eleven.  I gave the manuscript to my fifth-grade teacher and never saw it again.  (I moved to another city in the middle of that year, and she neglected to keep in touch with me.)
3. I have applied for and failed to get a job working at McDonald’s.  (Maybe I shouldn’t have gone to the interview carrying a copy of Arthur Koestler’s The Ghost in the Machine.)
4. I was born in Texas, but haven’t lived there since I was a few months old.
5. One of my worst-ever experiences as a writer was my one college creative writing class.
6. The only time I have traveled outside the continental USA was a trip to Victoria, BC in the summer of 2007.
7. As far as I’m concerned, the Star Wars prequels and A View to a Kill never happened.  I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of Star Trek made after “The Voyage Home” plus all the series made after the animated one.
8. I’m a fan of singer Chris De Burgh, but “The Lady In Red” (just about the only song of his that anyone in this country has ever heard of) is actually one of my least favorite songs.
9. I have had dogs, cats, hamsters and fish as pets; I really wanted a snake when I was little.
10. I have attended two different high schools and four different colleges; I have a diploma but no degrees.
11. I have created an alternate universe version of our world in the 1930s for the pulp adventure game I run.  Some of its history goes back thousands of years.
12. I’m left-handed but usually hold the pen the way a right-handed person does.
13. I love the smell of coffee but not the taste.  Despite the fact that I don’t drink it, I’m told I make quite good coffee.
14. My first paying job (aside from babysitting) was washing dishes for a motel diner.
15. My two main online identities — Sailbourne and Ayeshalan — are both names I created for RPG characters.
16. The first Doctor Who show I ever saw was “The Five Doctors” in the fall of 1984.  I actually understood that these five characters were the same character.
17. I’ve been to a live professional baseball game three times and a live rock concert once.
18. I was reading Agatha Christie when most kids my age were reading Nancy Drew.  I tried reading Nancy Drew a couple times but didn’t like it because there weren’t any murders.
19. I have two holes pierced in each earlobe and two tattoos.  I’d like to get one more tattoo, but no more piercings.
20. The one “domestic skill” I’m consistently good at is cooking.  I would like to master candy-making and mixology.
21. I learned how to write computer programs on a Commodore VIC-20 with a cassette tape drive.
22. I presently own three pairs of shoes.  I dislike buying shoes.
23. My Meyers-Briggs Type Inventory profile is INFP.
24. I have voted in six Presidential elections; always Democratic except in 2000.  Yeah, I voted for Nader.  It seemed like a good idea at the time …
25. The bulk of my ethnic hodgepodge is Northern Irish and Italian.  I do not lose my temper easily — but when I do, it can get really ugly.

Here’s the rules for my Facebook friends:
Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you.