Summary: Aurealis, 2009
Aurealis is a long-established Australian magazine. I saw just two issues, #41 and #42, in 2009, though the copyright pages said 2008. (This is an ongoing, if rather trivial, issue with Aurealis. I assume the issues may be prepared well in advance of their actual printing.) The editor is Stuart Mayne.
There were a bit more than 75,000 words of fiction in the two issues. 3 novelettes and 12 short stories.
I thought it was quite a good year overall for the magazine. From #41 I particularly liked RJ Astruc's "A Hat Full of Leaves", a Zeem story in which the djinn is commandeered, sort of, by a colourful witch named Trinket, to resolve the issues caused by the appearance of a wild sort of creature in the park she uses for her rituals. Alos, "Aleph, Mem, Tav", by Miranda Siemienowicz, in which a Queen, unhappy with her arranged marriage, magically creates a sort of demon, who offers a form of escape. From #42, "for want of a jesusman", by Jason Fischer, very strange dark stuff about a violent man who finds a calling, in a weird way, to hunt "witches" -- what drives the interest of the story is the strange world they inhabit, apparently tenuously connected to something like our world. I also liked "Muleskinner Blues", by Brendan Duffy, again mostly for its world, a wild and busy amalgam of AI run amok, people retreating to virtual reality, and fractally replicating suburbs. Other nice work came from Lucy Sussex, Geoffrey Maloney, Sue Isle, and Helen Patrice.
8 of 15 were by women (53%), and 5 of 15 were SF (33%).
Aurealis is a long-established Australian magazine. I saw just two issues, #41 and #42, in 2009, though the copyright pages said 2008. (This is an ongoing, if rather trivial, issue with Aurealis. I assume the issues may be prepared well in advance of their actual printing.) The editor is Stuart Mayne.
There were a bit more than 75,000 words of fiction in the two issues. 3 novelettes and 12 short stories.
I thought it was quite a good year overall for the magazine. From #41 I particularly liked RJ Astruc's "A Hat Full of Leaves", a Zeem story in which the djinn is commandeered, sort of, by a colourful witch named Trinket, to resolve the issues caused by the appearance of a wild sort of creature in the park she uses for her rituals. Alos, "Aleph, Mem, Tav", by Miranda Siemienowicz, in which a Queen, unhappy with her arranged marriage, magically creates a sort of demon, who offers a form of escape. From #42, "for want of a jesusman", by Jason Fischer, very strange dark stuff about a violent man who finds a calling, in a weird way, to hunt "witches" -- what drives the interest of the story is the strange world they inhabit, apparently tenuously connected to something like our world. I also liked "Muleskinner Blues", by Brendan Duffy, again mostly for its world, a wild and busy amalgam of AI run amok, people retreating to virtual reality, and fractally replicating suburbs. Other nice work came from Lucy Sussex, Geoffrey Maloney, Sue Isle, and Helen Patrice.
8 of 15 were by women (53%), and 5 of 15 were SF (33%).
Our ISP has recovered from this morning's power outage. Web and email are up but it may take a while before all the email is delivered.
...to assist me with my balls. had to remove all jewelry for the surgery. got the rings back in, but the balls require both hands to get snapped in, and linda's been unable.
:(
:(
OMG! They closed my office early due to the weather. I wouldn't even qualify the snow that's coming down right now as "flurries"!
- Mood:
amused
It's been a momentous 12 months here at LiveJournal. We crossed a capital T at Ten years young. And, like most precocious pubescents, we celebrated turning double digits by publishing our first book! Needless to say, we've experienced some major changes, both inside and out. Before we recap, we'd like to thank you for bearing with us as we've struggled through ungainly growth spurts, identity pangs, and, yes, the occasional blemish. We hope you'll continue to stand by us: We're gaining wisdom with maturity.
Stuff you liked
- Back in February, we placed a call for entries for our ten-year anniversary anthology in
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
lj_turns10. In December (less than a year later!), we officially announced the publication of Live Journal: The First Decade. Featuring an inspired collection of writing, photographs, and artwork from the pages of LiveJournal history, the book has been selected by Blurb.com as a top staff pick! We are proud to have played host to so much talent over the years, and we thank our contributors for sharing their extraordinary work. - We all love quirky surprises, but not when it comes to managing our account settings. This year we streamlined settings into one central account management area. No more pouring through FAQs to figure out how to control privacy settings, modify notifications, adjust mobile settings, or update contact information!
- Being users ourselves, we realize our own mothers couldn't find us on LiveJournal based on our usernames and userpics alone (*heaves heavy sigh of relief*). But since there are times when we actually want to be found, we created a search tool--Find Your Friends--to help locate people by email address (it's in the Friends drop-down menu).
- Spam counter-attack: The war against vicious malware and spambots reigns eternal, but we've been making serious inroads to ensure your online security. We've established new protocols, such as requiring email address validations. We've grown more savvy about ferreting out suspicious behavior. We've added features, like whitelisting, to help you protect your communities. Our valiant (i.e., overworked) spam avengers (a/k/a the LiveJournal ops team) are standing on red alert so you can sleep safely at night.
- After an intensive beta, we launched My Guests at the end of the year, which lets you see who's been hanging around your journal. A number of you have even discovered secret admirers (not all of whom are creepy)!
- Last, but by no means least, we want to thank our volunteers for providing invaluable support and feedback. Their Herculean efforts enable us to answer your questions more efficiently, identify spammers, reduce abuse, and deliver better features (through tireless testing). On behalf of the staff and the larger LiveJournal community, we are truly grateful for their diligence, intelligence, loyalty, and passion.
You got your fix
- We recently debugged a number of the oustanding issues with the rich text editor so your entries look great regardless of whether you know html. You can read more about text editors here.
- In response to user demand, we brought back international voice posting. For more info on voice posting, read here.
- At long last, we revived TxtLJ with Verizon. For more info on TxtLJ, check out the FAQ.
Paid features you enjoyed
- In December, we introduced My Stats, which provides detailed data on who's been viewing your entries as well as statistics on commenting, RSS requests, friending history, and more. Despite a few early glitches, the response has been extremely favorable.
- This year, we launched and improved Notes (i.e., the feature formerly known as Alias), which lets you add private comments on friends and commenters (it's in the Profile drop-down menu). This way you won't be caught red-faced when you strain to remember details about that wonderful LiveJournal friend who sent you a birthday vGift. For more info, read the FAQ.
- When we first announced View friends pages by date, we thought it would be a quiet, minor enhancement. The rave reaction floored us, which made us all very happy. We gave it a fine tuning in February of 2009, so it's even better!
- How embarrassing! It appears pingbacks have gone back to the shop for service. We’ll keep you posted.
We didn't know just much you liked pingbacks until it went in for service. It's back and, judging by your irritation when it wasn't available, this is good news. FYI, pingbacks send instant notifications (via screened comments) whenever someone links to one of your entries on LiveJournal. For more info, read this entry inpaidmembers or check out the FAQ.
Mixed reviews
- The search is still on. Some of you have reported getting more comprehensive results for keyword searches using the new Yandex search engine and like the ability to search within content categories (like entries or comments). Others have not been satisfied with the relevancy of search results. Please be patient. We're still tweaking this product.
- This past December, we wanted to try out a new holiday promotion. Given the crap economy, we decided to offer our Paid/Permanent users a stack of $10 coupons to send to Basic/Plus users for paid account upgrades. We hoped you would like it. And some of you did, but many were disappointed that we didn't offer Give More as well. We want to thank you so much for letting us know. Your input will help us plan better in the future. Just FYI, Paid/Permanent users can continue to send out coupons through January 15th. Coupons can be redeemed through January 31, 2010.
- We were pretty excited about Your Journal Your Money, which allows Paid/Permanent users to earn extra cash by displaying Google ads to Basic/Plus and logged out users. A number of you tried it. Some of you really like it. Others, not so much. (Just FYI, Paid/Permanent users who do not participate in this program will not view ads on journals. Participants will see ads on their own journal, but won't see them on other journals unless they specifically opt in.) For additional details, visit here.
- We relaunched m.livejournal.com, our mobile app. While it offers a nicer UI and enhanced functionality, some of you think we can do better on load times. Like most of us, it's a work in progress. You can customize your mobile settings here. For more info, please read the FAQ.
Missing Inaction
- We shudder to bring up the neon purple elephant squatting on our heads, but, yes, we didn't give you those a la carte userpics. We've been making radical improvements to our backend in order to support them. But no excuses. We know you want them. We cringe every time you mention them. We're sorry we dropped the ball on this, and we promise to do our best to get them to you in 2010.
Stumbling points
- Back in early August, we experienced outages related to a series of DDoS attacks. We are proud to report that we were down a total of one hour over the course of a few days. We thank our heroic ops guys for getting us up sooner and more consistently than any of our less fortunate social networking friends. We apologize for leaving you temporarily stranded.
- A couple of months back, we offered a free, unrestricted vGift, which induced a snowflake cookie avalanche. This resulted in backed up/delayed notifications, which, in turn, led us to reboot systems, rendering scrapbooks unavailable. It took a while to shovel free. Apologies for the inconvenience. We learned a valuable lesson that should keep us calamity-free in the future (fingers crossed while knocking on wood).
- That darn Best Buy ad. First off, we're sorry about the audio auto-play (we got it turned off as quickly as possible). While it's true that we'll continue to show this type of ad to accounts that normally see them (never to Paid/Permanent accounts), we'll make sure the sound defaults to off moving forward. We promise to do our very best to keep ads to a minimum on LiveJournal, while keeping a roof over Frank's head.
Full steam ahead!
As we plunge headfirst into the next decade, we want to take a moment to look back and thank all of our employees, both past and present, who have worked so hard to create our unique and magical universe. We couldn't have made it this far without you: Your contributions brighten our path everyday. We also want to extend our heartfelt appreciation to each and every one of you. Whether you've been around for ten days or ten years, your humor, intelligence, talent, and creativity are what makes this the most vibrant global community on the Internet (the best place on the Web, in our humble opinion). Here's hoping that 2010 will be the greatest year yet! We thank you for joining us as we embark upon another glorious decade of LiveJournal history!
Judging by the emails I receive, there are a lot of aspiring writers among my readership.
I wanted to make mention of a couple of summer writing programs that might be of interest to you.
First, the legendary Clarion workshop, which began with Damon Knight in Clarion College, Pennsylvania, and is now in scenic San Diego. An intensive six-week writer's boot camp that will make you, break you, maybe change your life. I will be one of the instructors at this year's Clarion, along with Delia Sherman, Dale Bailey, Samuel R. Delany, Jeff Vandermeer, and Anne Vandermeer. For more details, check out
http://clarion.ucsd.edu/
Applications for Clarion are being accepted now, and will close on March 1... so if you've ever wanted to have me read and critique your work, and learn the secret handshake and the diagonal relationship, speak now or hold your peace until the next time I do a workshop (which probably won't be for a few more years).
[[ I do NOT read unpublished manuscripts that are mailed or emailed to me, so don't even think that. I do my teaching and critiquing only with a workshop context. And sorry, no, I won't be your mentor.]]
Clarion has been helping to turn out professional SF and fantasy writers since the 60s. Maybe you're the next one. You'll never know unless you apply. But be warned, only a few are chosen. Admissions are extremely competitive, with only one of five applicants getting in.
For writers who are already published, but are looking to take the next step in their careers, there is the Taos Toolbox, founded and run by my friend Walter Jon Williams and held right here in scenic New Mexico.
http://www.taostoolbox.com
Walter Jon's pitches his Toolbox as more of a "graduate study" program, for writers with a bit more experience. Graduates of Clarion, Clarion West, and Odyssey, neopros with a few sales under their belts, even journeymen looking to improve. I am not connected with the Toolbox, but I did a guest lecture there a few years ago, and it struck me as a great program. This year Nancy Kress will be assisting WJW with the teaching, and Carrie Vaughn (of Kitty and Wild Cards fame) will be giving a guest lecture. And when you're not writing, reading, critiquing, or listening to lectures, hey, you'll be in Taos.
Clarion Workshop and the Taos Toolbox. If you want to write, check 'em out.
I wanted to make mention of a couple of summer writing programs that might be of interest to you.
First, the legendary Clarion workshop, which began with Damon Knight in Clarion College, Pennsylvania, and is now in scenic San Diego. An intensive six-week writer's boot camp that will make you, break you, maybe change your life. I will be one of the instructors at this year's Clarion, along with Delia Sherman, Dale Bailey, Samuel R. Delany, Jeff Vandermeer, and Anne Vandermeer. For more details, check out
http://clarion.ucsd.edu/
Applications for Clarion are being accepted now, and will close on March 1... so if you've ever wanted to have me read and critique your work, and learn the secret handshake and the diagonal relationship, speak now or hold your peace until the next time I do a workshop (which probably won't be for a few more years).
[[ I do NOT read unpublished manuscripts that are mailed or emailed to me, so don't even think that. I do my teaching and critiquing only with a workshop context. And sorry, no, I won't be your mentor.]]
Clarion has been helping to turn out professional SF and fantasy writers since the 60s. Maybe you're the next one. You'll never know unless you apply. But be warned, only a few are chosen. Admissions are extremely competitive, with only one of five applicants getting in.
For writers who are already published, but are looking to take the next step in their careers, there is the Taos Toolbox, founded and run by my friend Walter Jon Williams and held right here in scenic New Mexico.
http://www.taostoolbox.com
Walter Jon's pitches his Toolbox as more of a "graduate study" program, for writers with a bit more experience. Graduates of Clarion, Clarion West, and Odyssey, neopros with a few sales under their belts, even journeymen looking to improve. I am not connected with the Toolbox, but I did a guest lecture there a few years ago, and it struck me as a great program. This year Nancy Kress will be assisting WJW with the teaching, and Carrie Vaughn (of Kitty and Wild Cards fame) will be giving a guest lecture. And when you're not writing, reading, critiquing, or listening to lectures, hey, you'll be in Taos.
Clarion Workshop and the Taos Toolbox. If you want to write, check 'em out.
- Mood:
optimistic
So I have a blog ...Warren has a blog ...and yes, now Shawna has a blog.
As many of my good friends and colleagues will attest, my overall attitude towards this giant digital community has basically been the equivalent of sticking my fingers in my ears and chanting, "Lalala, I can't hear you! " I've recently discovered that this won't work anymore. Even if I stay off the interwebs and keep my nose clean and my typing fingers innocent of slander and ridicule, I still end up in trouble, so I give up. Here is my neck--please direct me to the nearest guillotine.
Anyway, the first thing I wanted to address today is the tempest in a teapot that has been stirred up by the announcement of Realms of Fantasy's Women in Fantasy issue. Doug Cohen, the general editor, announced the issue earlier this week, and apparently a mini-firestorm immediately erupted on the basis of whether or not it's sexist that such an issue even exist. I decided to ignore that, as usual, since I thought it was silly. But then some more serious charges arose around Doug's choice of language in his announcement, and I can't ignore the issue or the internet any longer.
My kids have, over the years, discovered the hard way that irony, sarcasm, humor and even affection just don't travel well digitally. If you text someone a message saying U suck, the recipient has no way of knowing that you meant it affectionately, or as a joke, or utterly sincerely.
So, Doug is a guy. I don't really know how old he is, but from my lofty perspective (which is how I choose to refer to my age), the answer is "not very." He's a hard-working, fantasy loving, football watching kid who is just now beginning to realize that there are certain things you just can't say on the internet (or in real life). Much like my kids, he's now finding out the hard way that what sounds good in your head sounds awful on the internet. I know he's not a sexist pig, and using the terms a) "girl writers only" and b) "ladies" was not intended in any way other than a) as a joke, and b) as a young male person's ignorance of how much we women hate to be referred to as ladies. I also know that this ignorance is a sign that, yes, we still have far to go in the battle against sexist language and the underlying, unaware sexist attitudes, but we also need to just chill a little bit.
What gives me the right to stand (or more accurately, sit) here and say this? Well, I started working in SFF field when in 1978 when the proportion of men to women was 90/10. I was the first woman to edit a major SF magazine, and the first woman to win a Hugo for doing so. I edited the first women-in-science-fiction anthology, A Space of Her Own back in 1983. Since then the balance of men to women has shifted somewhat, but not as much as I'd like to see, especially in the SF venue. In fantasy the numbers are more even (I don't have any statistics to hand, but I'm basing this on my own perception after many years in the field), but still tilted towards the male. I think the idea of a Women in Fantasy issue Realms is perfectly legitimate and I honestly think that objecting to it on the basis of sexism is just silly. Objecting to Doug's choice of language in announcing it is legitimate, but he has apologized and is slowly but clearly learning his lesson is just what you can and cannot say on line. I too apologize to anyone who was offended by his words,but I do not apologize for fact of the issue's very existence.
So now that I've got a blog (god, I can't believe I'm doing this!), I will post more often on topics related to the magazine and probably, as I get more comfortable with being in the crosshairs, other stuff as well, For now, though, I've got to get back to work!
ETA: I've been reliably informed, and have even looked it up myself, that my Space of Her Own anthology was predated by about five years by Pamela Sargeant's groundbreaking Women of Wonder. Apologies and deep bows to Pamela!
ETAA (edited to also add!): I have further been informed that my feminist street cred is not nearly as old as I thought it was. Ellen has also reminded me about Virginia Kidd's Millennial Women, 1973 and several others that followed with Ursula LeGuin as co-editor, along with the name of Cele Goldsmith who edited Amazing stories and Fantastic while I was still in training pants. As I said to Ellen, it hasn't taken me long to learn how to be a blogger--like most bloggers I prefer to rely on my faulty memories and deeply held opinions.
Anyway, the first thing I wanted to address today is the tempest in a teapot that has been stirred up by the announcement of Realms of Fantasy's Women in Fantasy issue. Doug Cohen, the general editor, announced the issue earlier this week, and apparently a mini-firestorm immediately erupted on the basis of whether or not it's sexist that such an issue even exist. I decided to ignore that, as usual, since I thought it was silly. But then some more serious charges arose around Doug's choice of language in his announcement, and I can't ignore the issue or the internet any longer.
My kids have, over the years, discovered the hard way that irony, sarcasm, humor and even affection just don't travel well digitally. If you text someone a message saying U suck, the recipient has no way of knowing that you meant it affectionately, or as a joke, or utterly sincerely.
So, Doug is a guy. I don't really know how old he is, but from my lofty perspective (which is how I choose to refer to my age), the answer is "not very." He's a hard-working, fantasy loving, football watching kid who is just now beginning to realize that there are certain things you just can't say on the internet (or in real life). Much like my kids, he's now finding out the hard way that what sounds good in your head sounds awful on the internet. I know he's not a sexist pig, and using the terms a) "girl writers only" and b) "ladies" was not intended in any way other than a) as a joke, and b) as a young male person's ignorance of how much we women hate to be referred to as ladies. I also know that this ignorance is a sign that, yes, we still have far to go in the battle against sexist language and the underlying, unaware sexist attitudes, but we also need to just chill a little bit.
What gives me the right to stand (or more accurately, sit) here and say this? Well, I started working in SFF field when in 1978 when the proportion of men to women was 90/10. I was the first woman to edit a major SF magazine, and the first woman to win a Hugo for doing so. I edited the first women-in-science-fiction anthology, A Space of Her Own back in 1983. Since then the balance of men to women has shifted somewhat, but not as much as I'd like to see, especially in the SF venue. In fantasy the numbers are more even (I don't have any statistics to hand, but I'm basing this on my own perception after many years in the field), but still tilted towards the male. I think the idea of a Women in Fantasy issue Realms is perfectly legitimate and I honestly think that objecting to it on the basis of sexism is just silly. Objecting to Doug's choice of language in announcing it is legitimate, but he has apologized and is slowly but clearly learning his lesson is just what you can and cannot say on line. I too apologize to anyone who was offended by his words,but I do not apologize for fact of the issue's very existence.
So now that I've got a blog (god, I can't believe I'm doing this!), I will post more often on topics related to the magazine and probably, as I get more comfortable with being in the crosshairs, other stuff as well, For now, though, I've got to get back to work!
ETA: I've been reliably informed, and have even looked it up myself, that my Space of Her Own anthology was predated by about five years by Pamela Sargeant's groundbreaking Women of Wonder. Apologies and deep bows to Pamela!
ETAA (edited to also add!): I have further been informed that my feminist street cred is not nearly as old as I thought it was. Ellen has also reminded me about Virginia Kidd's Millennial Women, 1973 and several others that followed with Ursula LeGuin as co-editor, along with the name of Cele Goldsmith who edited Amazing stories and Fantastic while I was still in training pants. As I said to Ellen, it hasn't taken me long to learn how to be a blogger--like most bloggers I prefer to rely on my faulty memories and deeply held opinions.
It’s rare that I let my blog go 3 weeks without updating, but all of my bloggy updatey energies have been going into the 365 project. I decided early on that I needed to spend most of January on acquiring projects. This is the cycle that I’m settling into–I spend time hustling for my freelance, and once I have a good group of projects lined up, then my extra time gets put into projects like blogging and writing.
So what’s on the horizon? A newly reinvigorated Roundbottom project, with new avenues for storytelling being explored. I’m reading a lot about browser-based social games, to give you a hint. Also, a redesign of this site–I have a ton of new design ideas that I want to explore and experiment with, and my own site is the best one to try that on I think.
So, again, sorry for the radio silence. I’ll try to find some time a few times a week to update things around here so you don’t think I’m dead. Unless you’re my student loan or credit card companies. I would prefer it if you think I’m dead.
Originally published at JeremiahTolbert.com. You can comment here or there.
other than the burst of energy that generated yesterday's post, i slept most of the day. ate some toast, took percacet. had some broth late at night. discovered that 1 pill is inadequate.
got a very sweet email from a long lost friend, nothing from a recently lost one.
managed to read a chapter of the red tree, but i dont think my brain is together enough for vast landscapes of text.
just discovered that the PT im supposed to go to doesnt take my insurance. we have to figure something else out.
today i'm out of bed and in lindas chair, at least for now. cream of wheat for breakfast, lots of ginger ale, a tiny bit of coffee. saltines.
i do not know yet how my tattoo survived the surgery. wont until i'm allowed to pull off the dressing.
yesterday, i woke up in the recovery room fairly abruptly. took me a bit to get my lips working. a nurse saw me awake, came over, asked if i needed anything.
"Dancing girls," I managed to croak. "I was sure I ordered dancing girls."
she laughed. "they never show up when they're supposed to. sorry."
"dancing boys?" i asked.
she shrugged. "that would be nice, but no."
"ok. how about a cup of ice, then?"
---
turns out that even tho the surgery place and the associated PT is literally walking distance from my house, the only pt i'm ALLOWED to see is a 15-20 min drive away. the joy of hmos. i'm sure there are in-network poviders very close by, but i'm only allowed to go to the specific one assigned by the insurance co to my primary care physician. this is free market choice? last time i went to the hmo assigned pt, they did nothing. applied heat and electrical stim to my neck. half the time the stim macine didn't work - one of them only worked on half the pads, and they'd always forget to put in good batteries. i never even saw the therapist, just his receptionist, who, in his absence, just took the $40 per session co-pay and stuck everyone on heat and stim, no matter their problem. hopefully this has changed in the intervening years; otherwise i'm fucked.
dont have the energy to write a "we dont need health insurance reform, we need the insurance cos to die" post, but consider it #included here.
---
edit:
turns out that
1. the surgeon is not allowed to get me into PT - only my PCP is allowed.
2. i have to contact the PCP and request this.
3. the PCP is not allowed to send me to PT until...
4. we call the surgeon and get him to contact her and provide her with some paperwork.
got a very sweet email from a long lost friend, nothing from a recently lost one.
managed to read a chapter of the red tree, but i dont think my brain is together enough for vast landscapes of text.
just discovered that the PT im supposed to go to doesnt take my insurance. we have to figure something else out.
today i'm out of bed and in lindas chair, at least for now. cream of wheat for breakfast, lots of ginger ale, a tiny bit of coffee. saltines.
i do not know yet how my tattoo survived the surgery. wont until i'm allowed to pull off the dressing.
yesterday, i woke up in the recovery room fairly abruptly. took me a bit to get my lips working. a nurse saw me awake, came over, asked if i needed anything.
"Dancing girls," I managed to croak. "I was sure I ordered dancing girls."
she laughed. "they never show up when they're supposed to. sorry."
"dancing boys?" i asked.
she shrugged. "that would be nice, but no."
"ok. how about a cup of ice, then?"
---
turns out that even tho the surgery place and the associated PT is literally walking distance from my house, the only pt i'm ALLOWED to see is a 15-20 min drive away. the joy of hmos. i'm sure there are in-network poviders very close by, but i'm only allowed to go to the specific one assigned by the insurance co to my primary care physician. this is free market choice? last time i went to the hmo assigned pt, they did nothing. applied heat and electrical stim to my neck. half the time the stim macine didn't work - one of them only worked on half the pads, and they'd always forget to put in good batteries. i never even saw the therapist, just his receptionist, who, in his absence, just took the $40 per session co-pay and stuck everyone on heat and stim, no matter their problem. hopefully this has changed in the intervening years; otherwise i'm fucked.
dont have the energy to write a "we dont need health insurance reform, we need the insurance cos to die" post, but consider it #included here.
---
edit:
turns out that
1. the surgeon is not allowed to get me into PT - only my PCP is allowed.
2. i have to contact the PCP and request this.
3. the PCP is not allowed to send me to PT until...
4. we call the surgeon and get him to contact her and provide her with some paperwork.
Sunday Valerie and I began our year at the gym (as reported elseblog) with legwork and wetwork. Yay, us!
On Monday we did legwork in the early a.m., and then I went off to the Day Job. I came home, and then we went off to Pilates. We did a bit of supermarketing after that, then home to dinner. After dinner I had time to do some writing. Yay, me.
But by Monday evening, it was pretty clear that I had come down with a winter cold. Yuck.
Tuesday morning I contacted the Day Job and told them not to expect me. I fed the dogs and then got back in bed and slept. And slept. Then I got up, and slept some more. No gym for me. No wordage either. Valerie went to the gym though. Yay, her.
Wednesday I was feeling better, but didn't want to push it. So again, no gym, but by early evening I was feeling clear headed and committed reasonable wordage. Yay, me.
Today is Thursday. The dogs had me up at about 4 a.m. I got a bit of sleep after that, and then Valerie and I got up and headed to the gym a bit after 6 a.m. for legwork. I did a half mile or so on a treadmill and then an elliptical opened up and I put in a couple miles on that. Then home to get cleaned up. Today is my "late" day given my new work schedule, so I had time to commit a bit of wordage before going to the office. Not enough though, so I'll do more later. But still, I'm pleased. Now I'm at work, and in a bit I have to go downtown for a meeting with the city agency that provides our monies. Oh boy, that will be fun. But I'm pleased with myself. I'm feeling much better today, and the gym felt good, and I've gotten some writing in. Color me productive.
On Monday we did legwork in the early a.m., and then I went off to the Day Job. I came home, and then we went off to Pilates. We did a bit of supermarketing after that, then home to dinner. After dinner I had time to do some writing. Yay, me.
But by Monday evening, it was pretty clear that I had come down with a winter cold. Yuck.
Tuesday morning I contacted the Day Job and told them not to expect me. I fed the dogs and then got back in bed and slept. And slept. Then I got up, and slept some more. No gym for me. No wordage either. Valerie went to the gym though. Yay, her.
Wednesday I was feeling better, but didn't want to push it. So again, no gym, but by early evening I was feeling clear headed and committed reasonable wordage. Yay, me.
Today is Thursday. The dogs had me up at about 4 a.m. I got a bit of sleep after that, and then Valerie and I got up and headed to the gym a bit after 6 a.m. for legwork. I did a half mile or so on a treadmill and then an elliptical opened up and I put in a couple miles on that. Then home to get cleaned up. Today is my "late" day given my new work schedule, so I had time to commit a bit of wordage before going to the office. Not enough though, so I'll do more later. But still, I'm pleased. Now I'm at work, and in a bit I have to go downtown for a meeting with the city agency that provides our monies. Oh boy, that will be fun. But I'm pleased with myself. I'm feeling much better today, and the gym felt good, and I've gotten some writing in. Color me productive.
- Mood:
pleased
Amused by all the Armageddon-esque weather hubbub here. We're expecting less than one inch of snow accumulation in the metro area. And there's talk about crowds at grocery stores stockpiling supplies. Less than one inch wouldn't even qualify as a "storm" up north. Silly Southerners.
'Course, having said that, if we have any accumulation, I probably won't be able to make it into work. As I discovered a few years back, this state's lack of snow-clearing equipment—plows and salt trucks and all—makes the roads essentially impassable with any of the white stuff on it.
'Course, having said that, if we have any accumulation, I probably won't be able to make it into work. As I discovered a few years back, this state's lack of snow-clearing equipment—plows and salt trucks and all—makes the roads essentially impassable with any of the white stuff on it.
- Mood:
(Talking about the battle cries in AVATAR, in sff.net . . . )
I suppose battle cries crop up in most cultures, but an army advancing silently would have its own variety of scariness.
In Basic Training when we were thrusting at dummies with our bayonetted rifles, we were allowed to scream either "Kill!" or "Lollipop!" I was not the only one who chose the latter.
We didn't have battle cries in Vietnam. Kind of silly in dense jungle. "Hey! I'm over here!"
Plot wasn't very important in AVATAR. Just big metaphors grinding against one another. Nice emotional magnetism between Jake Sully and Neyteri, but not much as "story" even there. In terms of character, you can condemn it for using cliches or appreciate the skillful use of archetypes. Same difference; it's just that kind of movie. It's going to last for decades for its breathless cinematic beauty, like _Fantasia_ and _The Wizard of Oz_. The plot is just a scaffold.
I wonder what will happen to the plot, the love story, if Ridley Scott does do _The Forever War_. He may choose a safer route, big machines and blood and explosions. The curse of the Pacific Rim.
A footnote to the cremation scene. Back in the seventies I wrote an Analog story that had a person's body, on a space ship, reverently recycled through the food chain. Ben said bushwah -- the total biomass needed to keep a hundred people alive would be so large that the mass of a human body wouldn't be significant. Chuck him out the airlock.
Went to the VA hospital yesterday for tubes being pulled and sucked and other yucky stuff. I now have three tubes going out and one going in. Back this afternoon for less gooey business.
Joe
I suppose battle cries crop up in most cultures, but an army advancing silently would have its own variety of scariness.
In Basic Training when we were thrusting at dummies with our bayonetted rifles, we were allowed to scream either "Kill!" or "Lollipop!" I was not the only one who chose the latter.
We didn't have battle cries in Vietnam. Kind of silly in dense jungle. "Hey! I'm over here!"
Plot wasn't very important in AVATAR. Just big metaphors grinding against one another. Nice emotional magnetism between Jake Sully and Neyteri, but not much as "story" even there. In terms of character, you can condemn it for using cliches or appreciate the skillful use of archetypes. Same difference; it's just that kind of movie. It's going to last for decades for its breathless cinematic beauty, like _Fantasia_ and _The Wizard of Oz_. The plot is just a scaffold.
I wonder what will happen to the plot, the love story, if Ridley Scott does do _The Forever War_. He may choose a safer route, big machines and blood and explosions. The curse of the Pacific Rim.
A footnote to the cremation scene. Back in the seventies I wrote an Analog story that had a person's body, on a space ship, reverently recycled through the food chain. Ben said bushwah -- the total biomass needed to keep a hundred people alive would be so large that the mass of a human body wouldn't be significant. Chuck him out the airlock.
Went to the VA hospital yesterday for tubes being pulled and sucked and other yucky stuff. I now have three tubes going out and one going in. Back this afternoon for less gooey business.
Joe
Today marks the official release of All About Us #6: The Chic Shall Inherit the Earth
Lissa Mansfield has come a long way since transferring to Spencer Academy two years ago. She's made a great group of friends in Gillian, Carly, Mac, and Shani. She's strengthened and grown her relationship with God. She's even gotten over the Callum McCloud "incident" from her first semester. Now, she's ready to graduate and take on college life!
Or is she? With her parents' relationship still on the rocks and the girls about to separate as they head to different colleges, Lissa is faced with some of her biggest challenges yet in her last term at Spencer. Will Lissa put her faith in God to carry her through these difficult times?
Other books in the series....
Book 1: It's All About Us
Book 2: The Fruit of My Lipstick
Book 3: Be Strong & Curvaceous
Book 4: Who Made You a Princess?
Book 5: Tidings of Great Boys
"Adina does a good job realistically portraying characters who are not only growing up, but doing so with religion as a huge constant in their lives. Rarely, if ever, are the characters preachy, and Lissa and Gillian are fine role models for any religion.” --Romantic Times BookReviews
"I only wish Shelley Adina's All About Us series had been around in my day. I recommend it for any young adult who wants to escape to another world and find that they are not alone in their feelings and experiences." American Idol finalist, Contemporary Christian artist, and author Mandisa
Normally, I don’t repeat announcements here if I’ve mentioned them on Twitter or Facebook. This one deserves an exception. Seanan McGuire was kind enough to e-mail me last night, and — after the prerequisite taunting — informs me that The Mermaid’s Madness [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] is #1 on the Locus Bestseller list! It’s Snoopy-dance time!
#
So lately, I’ve been thinking about killing characters. Not the redshirts who die to remind us how dangerous the story is. Not the villains who meet their just deserts in the final chapter. I’m talking the central heroes.
I’ve read and watched many a story that killed off the good guys. I’ve seen it done well, and I’ve seen it done badly. Boromir’s death in Lord of the Rings is marvelous. He dies protecting the hobbits and earning redemption. Well done, Tolkien.
Contrast this to Harry Potter. I felt some of the deaths in the series worked, but after a while it felt like a publicity stunt. “Book six comes out soon. Let’s start the betting pool on who she’s going to kill off this time!” “Whoops, we’ve ‘accidentally’ leaked rumors that Snufflepuff the Privy Elf is going to off Snape!”
Joss Whedon is another one who’s known for killing off characters. Sometimes, he does it to great effect. Other times, it feels like he offs a character not because the story necessarily required it, but to show the audience that he’s willing to do it. (The second death in Serenity struck me that way.)
So … when do you kill off a beloved character? How do you do it well? The easy answer is that you do what’s right for the story, but what does that mean?
Among other things, it meant I couldn’t kill Jig off in the goblin series. (I’m assuming that’s not much of a spoiler.) The goblin books were light fantasy, on the fun, feel-good side. I cheated a few times, and I killed off secondary characters, but to kill Jig would have been wrong for the kind of story I was trying to tell.
But what about more serious stories? I’ve been struggling with this for a few weeks now, and here are some of the considerations I’ve come up with.
- Is it realistic for all of the heroes to survive this adventure? (I.e., would not killing someone destroy the suspension of disbelief?)
- Choices and actions in a story have consequences. Is death the appropriate consequence for the character’s actions in this story?
- Am I wimping out if I don’t kill someone? (Am I letting them all live because I like them too much to do what’s necessary?)
- Will this death make the story better?
That last one is hard. Does better mean more emotionally powerful? More memorable? More engaging? More marketable (losing readers who want the fluffier stories, but gaining readers who appreciate the gritty)?
And when is it effective to cheat? Theoretically speaking, imagine an author who killed off a character at the end of a trilogy, but deliberately planted hints that the character might not truly be dead after all. A better ending, or a cowardly cheat?
I don’t have answers for this stuff, which is why I wanted to open it up for discussion. What deaths in books and films have worked for you, and why? What didn’t work? When, as an author or a reader, does it feel right?
Obviously, there may be some spoilers in the comments.
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
This morning in Link Salad, I posted a link to a piece on the Freakonomics blog on the ROI of cancer spending. It's a serious question, and such cost-benefit analysis, along with risk-reward analysis, is a critical element of social policy. As ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
ericjamesstone has quite rightly said to me in a slightly different context, you don't make law (or policy) based on individual cases.
But in my individual case, this cost-benefit analysis directly impacts my short- and long-term mortality risks.
Without digging into the details (though I do have all the paperwork filed here), my Excellent Cancer Adventures of 2008 cost about $100,000 all told. I paid about $6,000 of this, the rest of the cost was borne by my insurance carrier. Most of this was surgery and hospitalization costs, along with some fairly spendy tests and a bunch of psychotherapy.
My New Adventures in Cancer, commencing in May of 2009, cost about $50,000 in that year. The spending pattern was similar to 2008's, mostly surgery and hospitalization, with tests and head shrinkage. i don't have the tally yet, but I believe I've paid about $5,000 out of pocket this past year.
Chemotherapy, primarily due to drug costs, will run about $180,000, I believe. Throw in another $20,000 for a couple of CT scans and whatnot along the way, and by the midyear mark, another $200,000 will have been spent on me. About $6,000 or more of that will be out of my pocket. (And no, I don't make that much money. Cancer is expensive, even with good insurance.)
Tally it up, and by next July we will see a total of $350,000 having been spent keeping me alive over a two-year span, with $17,000 of that coming out of my pocket. The balance of $333,000 is borne by the insurance carrier, and thus somewhat less directly by my employer, their investors, and society in general. All of which is, incidentally, considerably more than has been expended on me in my entire life put together prior to the onset of cancer.
What is my life worth to you?
For example, if you're a conservative who believes the current healthcare finance system is "the best there is", and that the current healthcare reform effort will ruin American medicine, then you believe that the $1,000,000 lifetime limit my insurance carrier places on my benefits is appropriate. At my current burn rate, in three or four more years I'll run out of benefits, and you believe it's ok for me to crawl off and die.
Obviously it's not that clear cut. For one thing, the hoped-for, and reasonably expected, result of chemo is that future treatments will not be necessary. This is not a given. For another, if I were out from under the insurance umbrella due to lifetime limits or unemployment, there are programs for the uninsured. But my standard of care would drop precipitously, and I would literally be bankrupted by the personal financial responsibilities.the_child would have a much poorer childhood, and a much more difficult time getting a college education and a strong start in life, for example. And even then, society is still paying most of my bills, just via different mechanisms than a private insurance carrier.
Obviously, the benefit to me personally of continued life and health is incalculably high. But I'm only bearing about 5% of the costs. And I'm damned lucky I'm well-paid enough to even manage that much. What is the cost worth to you? To society at large? Because there's a wall at the other end of this tunnel, not a light, and someday soon I'll smash into it at the speed of mortality if I'm only a little bit unlucky.
What would your politics be in my position? What would you think of the conservative opposition to reform if you were me? There are some problems the free market will never solve, and I'm living in the heart of one of them.
Meanwhile, chemo starts tomorrow.calendula_witch arrives today. shelly_rae has been taking good care of me. I'm scared spitless, but I'm going to live. Literally and figuratively.
ericjamesstone has quite rightly said to me in a slightly different context, you don't make law (or policy) based on individual cases.But in my individual case, this cost-benefit analysis directly impacts my short- and long-term mortality risks.
Without digging into the details (though I do have all the paperwork filed here), my Excellent Cancer Adventures of 2008 cost about $100,000 all told. I paid about $6,000 of this, the rest of the cost was borne by my insurance carrier. Most of this was surgery and hospitalization costs, along with some fairly spendy tests and a bunch of psychotherapy.
My New Adventures in Cancer, commencing in May of 2009, cost about $50,000 in that year. The spending pattern was similar to 2008's, mostly surgery and hospitalization, with tests and head shrinkage. i don't have the tally yet, but I believe I've paid about $5,000 out of pocket this past year.
Chemotherapy, primarily due to drug costs, will run about $180,000, I believe. Throw in another $20,000 for a couple of CT scans and whatnot along the way, and by the midyear mark, another $200,000 will have been spent on me. About $6,000 or more of that will be out of my pocket. (And no, I don't make that much money. Cancer is expensive, even with good insurance.)
Tally it up, and by next July we will see a total of $350,000 having been spent keeping me alive over a two-year span, with $17,000 of that coming out of my pocket. The balance of $333,000 is borne by the insurance carrier, and thus somewhat less directly by my employer, their investors, and society in general. All of which is, incidentally, considerably more than has been expended on me in my entire life put together prior to the onset of cancer.
What is my life worth to you?
For example, if you're a conservative who believes the current healthcare finance system is "the best there is", and that the current healthcare reform effort will ruin American medicine, then you believe that the $1,000,000 lifetime limit my insurance carrier places on my benefits is appropriate. At my current burn rate, in three or four more years I'll run out of benefits, and you believe it's ok for me to crawl off and die.
Obviously it's not that clear cut. For one thing, the hoped-for, and reasonably expected, result of chemo is that future treatments will not be necessary. This is not a given. For another, if I were out from under the insurance umbrella due to lifetime limits or unemployment, there are programs for the uninsured. But my standard of care would drop precipitously, and I would literally be bankrupted by the personal financial responsibilities.
the_child would have a much poorer childhood, and a much more difficult time getting a college education and a strong start in life, for example. And even then, society is still paying most of my bills, just via different mechanisms than a private insurance carrier.Obviously, the benefit to me personally of continued life and health is incalculably high. But I'm only bearing about 5% of the costs. And I'm damned lucky I'm well-paid enough to even manage that much. What is the cost worth to you? To society at large? Because there's a wall at the other end of this tunnel, not a light, and someday soon I'll smash into it at the speed of mortality if I'm only a little bit unlucky.
What would your politics be in my position? What would you think of the conservative opposition to reform if you were me? There are some problems the free market will never solve, and I'm living in the heart of one of them.
Meanwhile, chemo starts tomorrow.
calendula_witch arrives today. shelly_rae has been taking good care of me. I'm scared spitless, but I'm going to live. Literally and figuratively.Your Thursday moment of zen.
Sunset, eastern Washington State. Note crepuscular rays. © 2006, 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Sunset, eastern Washington State. Note crepuscular rays. © 2006, 2010 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Don't miss the announcement of JayCon X [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — My 10th annual 37th birthday party, plus my end-of-chemo celebration, next July.
Something weird this way comes — Rick Klaw with a piece on the New Weird, in which I am briefly mentioned.
A reader reacts to The New Weird — Including comments on my Dark Towns story, "The Lizard of Ooze."
The new issue of Locus has a very interesting and thoughtful Paul Witcover review of my recent novel, Madness of Flowers — Review isn't on the site, unfortunately. Must see the dead tree edition.
Interzone 226 is out, with my story "Human Error"
Beware of Science Fiction — Christian fundamentalist views of our field. My favorite: Heinlein was a nudist and practiced "polyandry." Um... (Via @pyr_books.)
A Bad Attitude — Cancer blogger Amy on the perils of positive thinking. And Freakonomics on the ROI of cancer spending. Now here's a touchy subject.
Jonah Goldberg reveals George Lucas is either prescient or has a time machine — Criticizing the political messaging of Avatar, the prominent conservative said, "There are dozens of movies that have taken shots at Bush, starting with 'Star Wars' movies." Star Wars: 1977. George W. Bush: 2001. Ahem. (Note:ericjamesstone objected seriously to my characterization of this on Twitter yesterday, when I edited the Goldberg quote for length.)
?otD: Why me? There must be a thousand other guys.
1/7/2009
Body movement: 30 minute ride on stationary bike
Hours slept: 6.0
This morning's weigh-in: 230.6
Currently reading: (between books)
Something weird this way comes — Rick Klaw with a piece on the New Weird, in which I am briefly mentioned.
A reader reacts to The New Weird — Including comments on my Dark Towns story, "The Lizard of Ooze."
The new issue of Locus has a very interesting and thoughtful Paul Witcover review of my recent novel, Madness of Flowers — Review isn't on the site, unfortunately. Must see the dead tree edition.
Interzone 226 is out, with my story "Human Error"
Beware of Science Fiction — Christian fundamentalist views of our field. My favorite: Heinlein was a nudist and practiced "polyandry." Um... (Via @pyr_books.)
A Bad Attitude — Cancer blogger Amy on the perils of positive thinking. And Freakonomics on the ROI of cancer spending. Now here's a touchy subject.
Jonah Goldberg reveals George Lucas is either prescient or has a time machine — Criticizing the political messaging of Avatar, the prominent conservative said, "There are dozens of movies that have taken shots at Bush, starting with 'Star Wars' movies." Star Wars: 1977. George W. Bush: 2001. Ahem. (Note:
ericjamesstone objected seriously to my characterization of this on Twitter yesterday, when I edited the Goldberg quote for length.)?otD: Why me? There must be a thousand other guys.
1/7/2009
Body movement: 30 minute ride on stationary bike
Hours slept: 6.0
This morning's weigh-in: 230.6
Currently reading: (between books)
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