For the first time in a very long time, I hid my scissors today. I don't know why. Oh well. One of those days. I have no idea. But it occurred to me how long it's been since I did a long stream-of-consciousness type blah. I would like to but right now I can't think of anything to say.

*screams*

Life is, in general, good. Gaming is good, the house dynamics are good, I have not had a panic attack in about a year. Maybe I'll put henna in my hair.

1. Having even ONE vegetarian item going round on little trays would be AWFULLY swell. And having a few corn fritters set aside WITHOUT the crab topping would have been really great - if you don't believe me, ask the rabbi I was talking with.

2. Please train your staff that the correct answer to 'are any of the appetizers vegetarian?' is NOT

a) there will be sweets later

or

b) yes, we have salmon!

No love,
hungry Pisica who scarfed way too many pretzels

P.S. having the world's yummiest pumpkin pie in bite-sized pieces does not get you off the hook, but was appreciated.

Settling in nicely at CONvergence, thank you very much.

I've had many Big Worries weighing on me, recently. The main worry for today has thankfully now passed: I just got a call from England telling me my dad came through knee replacement surgery very well indeed.

My dad is an ex-Marine, and has possibly the highest pain tolerance of anyone I've ever known, so when he says it was painful, I'm assuming it was the kind of thing that would leave me a gibbering wreck, had I gone through it.

So, hey, if you're reading this, why not leave my Dad a "get well soon" message in the Comments section. After all, he is halfway responsible for my being here (life-wise and cartoon-wise, not CONvergence-wise, that is). I know it'd really cheer him up, getting get-wells from around the world. And it'd make my day, too!

Thanks a million! (And, it goes without saying, those of you fortunate enough to still have your dads around, go tell 'em how much they mean to you, even a fortnight after Fathers' Day).

****

Went out to dinner last night with cajones, chebutykin, princeofcairo, and mollpeartree. We hit a place downtown called "Ike's Food and Cocktails."

Much cool, fun food was consumed. Case in point: Lobster Corndogs.

I'd say more about the rest of the food, but after "Lobster Corndogs," what's left to say, really?

****

Speaking of cajones, here's the Guest of Honor badge he created for me.



Did I mention cajones rocks? Hard?

****

My pal alexbot3000 visited over the weekend. We dragged him and his wife, Kristen, to a Madison Mallards game, where Alex threw out the first pitch in front of a crowd of about 6,000, and the Mallards then proceeded to get spanked, 14-2.



Video of Alex's throw DOES exist. It WILL be posted! Bwa-ha-ha!

Nevertheless, a terrific time was had, and the Mallards are in the thick of the pennant race, still. If they win both games of their double-header tonight, or if they win one, and the Wisconsin (Wausau) Woodchucks lose, they'll be first-half champions, and gain entry to the Northwoods League playoffs later this summer. So I'm wearing my Mallards gear around CONvergence. I even briefly contemplated popping 60 miles south, down to Rochester tonight, to see the Honkers play the St. Cloud River Bats (the theory being, it's better to see some Northwoods baseball than none when your team's in the thick of the hunt).

But that would mean leaving CONvergence immediately after the opening ceremonies, and for goodness sakes, there are cabana parties to check out!

Cabana Parties: the Lobster Corndog of the convention scene.

Now...GO MALLARDS! And...GET WELL SOON, DAD!

Update - Dad's doing great, is now sleeping, and the Mallards are up 6-2 in the 5th inning of the first of a doubleheader...they've got the bases loaded, one out, and just scored two runs! Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster for international calling plans and internet radio...

and I really always try to do my best to be nice to the visitors and such. So it's always nice when they live friendly comments on the guest book or give me tips (which they rarely do at the moment). However, an American young lady wrote this in the guest book yesterday: Amazing, I enjoyed the tour. 5 flights from America and worth every minute. Our lovely young guide was so gracious.

:D

Nah I choose alcohol...

Today it is bucketing down in Dublin. Seems to me like we have a new seasonal pattern of a scorching May, a soaking wet July and a reasonable August. Which doesn't bode well for Maelstrom, two weeks from today. It's not blatting rain, nor drizzle, but a constant and inexorable downpour that's been going on all morning. The sky is that kind of gray that isn't ominous or threatening - It just is. Like the world has been swallowed into Limbo.

The office decided to have breakfast sandwiches, and I volunteered to go out to get them in the car. In the sandwich place (small greasy-spoon place here in Sandyford - very "mom & pop" unlike the chain stores around here. They do the best breakfast sandwiches) I got chatting with the guy behind the counter about the weather. And he said "On a day like today, everyone's looking for a little bit of Salvation."

And it occurred to me that that's pretty much what breakfast sandwiches taste like. Salvation between two slices of bread.

Hi, just joined and posting today because I got some blood tests back from my OB/GYN - I've had on and off periods of fatigue since September, missed a period and was having strange blood flow (for me) recently, and apparently the pattern of hair growth I was having was similar to PCOS. My testosterone levels are high and the hormone level in my ovaries is reversed from what it should be, which she said pretty much corresponds to her suspicions. I haven't been formally checked for cysts or anything yet, and she didn't seem too worried about it, but she's pretty much taking this as a diagnosis.

I'm not all that scared yet, probably because the worst symptoms haven't hit me. I don't mind taking birth control, I've always been hairy, I wasn't planning on having kids to begin with and don't mind adopting if I change my mind (I'm only 22)... This probably sounds shallow as hell, because the problems I'm reading about on here are a lot more severe, but my big worry right now is the weight. I know a lot of this can be controlled and helped by taking my excess weight off, even though that's going to be a lot harder now, but I've always had a problem with my weight mainly because I really LIKE food and I do the whole eating when I'm bored/anxious thing. And I know this isn't genetic in my family, and that the insulin issues that cause PCOS might be BECAUSE of weight gain rather than the CAUSE of weight gain. Basically I'm a good 75-85 pounds overweight already, a lot of which has ballooned in the last year or so, and even though I know the official relationship between the two hasn't been figured out yet I keep on feeling like I caused this. And that's what's depressing me more than the diagnosis.

If that whole rambling paragraph made any sense, has anyone else here had this problem? How did you deal with that, and the uncertainty of it? Do you think there's a good chance I helped cause this? How much harder has PCOS made it to lose weight, and what are your best tips for it? I'm planning on starting SparkPeople today, for one thing, because once it's a health issue I'm hoping that'll jumpstart the motivation I could never work up before.

My best friend, out of nowhere: Allison, I could write a book about you.
Me: ...how so?
Her: Just because you have such an animated personality.

I just graduated, and was at my underclassman friend's house (we met through choir), and we were talking about a couple of the trips the choir is planning on taking next year, and how jealous I was, and he said:
"Jeeze, Kaylee, why did you have to go and graduate? Why couldn't you have just failed a class and came back next year so you can go with us. Gosh. You're so selfish."

Hah. <333

My testosterone tests came in today. They were at 14.2, whatever that means. If I am even moderately informed, they should be sitting around 3 point-something.

The rest of my blood work came back normal. Even my glucose levels were 'pristine," even though they've never been alarming.
I was diagnosed "formally" with PCOS in 2007, even though I have shown symptoms, including facial hair since 2000, and weight gain since 2005.
Since 2007, I have been on Metformin, 1000 mg/twice a day. Besides a modest change in my period cramps, no real results.

Because my testosterone results came back so high, she's prescriped me 100mg a day of Novo-Spiroton.

Anyone have any advice, stories they'd like to share about the medication?
Most of the literature notes novo-spiroton has being used for congestive heart failure,etc.
Besides basic information about the drug, I do not know much.
Any advice, suggestions, etc are welcome.
Thx

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/morning-found-me-miles-away.html

Still in Brazil. Still with Miss Maddy. Still having a lovely time.

Bought lots of books in the Paraty Festival bookshop today -- and saw many beautiful Brazilian editions of my stuff I hadn't seen before.

My favourite article read on the plane, incidentally, was the wonderful The Magic Olympics -- with tricks explained! by Alex Stone, in Harpers, which you can read online at: http://harpers.org/archive/2008/07/0082095 (my second favourite was the Gopnik article on Chesterton in the New Yorker, but it's not online, and I think he missed the boat about Chesterton politically). [My mistake. The Harpers article is only readable for subscribers.]

Hi Neil,You wrote a lovely story, told by Abel (I believe) about crows sitting in judgment on their storytellers. Somewhere along the way, this story became fact in my head. I was wondering if there is any truth to the myth, or if it's just myth. Maybe you could pass the question on to the Birdchick?Thanks!MRM

The description of corvids sitting around one of their number, cawing back and forth, and then sometimes killing it and sometimes flying off is something I've run into in old bird literature (and more recently as well -- since Sandman 40 came out I've read an eyewitness account of it in the Smithsonian Magazine). As to why it happens, I don't think you'll find any bird people who claim to know.

I should mention that the collective noun for rooks is not a parliament (which is actually the collective noun for owls) or it wasn't until I wrote Sandman 40, anyway. Mostly it's a building or a clamour of rooks. Sometimes it's a storytelling of rooks, which sounds like something I might have made up anyway...

Does Neil have an official myspace page? If so what is the adress?

No, I don't. There's an unofficial one, or more than one out there. I keep meaning to set up official myspaces and facebooks, but really tend to feel that keeping this place under control is more than enough for one author, and it never happens.

Hi Neil--Not really a question for you, just comment. You mentioned Tom Stoppard in your blog today. They say you should never meet your heroes, but they never say how cool it is when some of your heroes meet each other and get along so well. You seem to get along well with just about everyone. What just makes me smile is that so many of them are heroes of mine (Dave McKean, Roger Zelazny, Tom Stoppard, Philip Pullman,... ).Good luck growing up to be Mr. Stoppard. You seem well on your way.Have fun!
Geoff

Actually, you should never meet your heroes if you want to keep them as heroes. They may wind up as friends or as disappointments or as pleasant surprises, but once you know them they immediately stop being heroes. (I've turned down several opportunities to meet Stephen Sondheim socially, because he's practically all I've got left. Even David Bowie, who I've never even met, has managed to transmute in my head most of the way from DAVID BOWIE ZOMG!!1!* to my friend Duncan's dad.)

But then, I'm not sure about heroes at the best of times. I wrote about it at http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2004/10/whatever-happened-to-sancho-panza.asp
and still feel pretty much the same way now.

The most remarkable thing about Tom Stoppard (leaving aside the whole him-being-a-genius thing) is he's twenty years older than me, and he has my hair!

This gives me hope.



.......

*correct !!1! punctuation assistance here by Maddy.

"...It's hard to breathe without you."

<3

I recently left a job at a day care centre, and there is this one 4 year old child who gives a lot of people trouble but he and I have a good understanding. When I was leaving on my last day he was at the gate.

Me: Bye [name] I'll miss you!
Him: Ok, have a nice day, don't play with my swords!!

And he said it in that sing songy way in which parents say "don't talk to strangers" or something, because we talk about how it's dangerous to play with swords. It was really really cute.

Today's Dork Tower is up...



Click here, there or anywhere to see it.

****

Minneapolis foodies!

What are the cool places to hit in the Twin Cities?

I'm gonna have to return to Matt's Bar for a Juicy Lucy at some point. And there was an amazing Indian restaurant in a strip mall close by the con (I've forgotten the name, but WOW, was it good - is it still around?).

What other special haunts are there in the Cities, food-wise?

****

Good news - I'll be bringing prototypes of two new games Out of the Box - "Ninja versus Ninja" (yaaaay!) and "LOL!"

"LOL!" is a party game I designed that I'm terrifically happy about. It will be released by Out of the Box in 2009, and the playtests have been a dream. Folks really seem to love it. It's been a far happier experience than when I designed the Whad'ya Know home game...

I'll most likely be playing some in the Autograph area, as Chewbacca signs, and I look sadly around for people to love me...

****

Guess what? ANOTHER!

Of COURSE cartoonists are gonna keep running lame, easy gags

.

..if Editors keep proclaiming them "Cartoons of the Week."

I got seven words right here for you, buddy!

****

There are 1,931 folks on LJ who have "Friended" this blog.

I'd like to do something for the person who becomes #2,000, but it doesn't seem as if there's any way to tell who that is...I don't see a way to sort friends by date added...

(Additionally, there are 5,261-ish folks on LJ alone who subscribe to the Dork Tower Syndicated Feed. So it'll be a while before we hit another milestone THERE...)

There is a digital camcorder hooked up to my PC right now.

Ordinarily I'd use it to flood Youtube with "artistic" footage of the grass growing, wasp/spider fights and really awful stop-motion animation of some of my old GI Joe posable action figures (NB: They are not "dolls"...) involving the everyday problems of having an impassive face and no ankle joints. But alas, such things are not possible at the moment.

This is because the camcorder in question is, to use the scientific term, absolutely fuckered. The hard disk that stores all the wildly exciting footage of watching the ferry to france leave the harbour at the speed of a slow jog is corrupt. Let this be another lesson on the dangers of not reading the manual.

It's a good 16 hours into the scan and it's found 32 fragments of video, with a further 4,000 pieces of text (which seems to consist of pages and pages of the symbol "ÿ" and nothing else). And it's not close to half way. The chances of  getting half of it (it being 2 trips to France and the Manx TT hundredth anniversary) intact and not translated into gibberish are pretty slim.

Also, today saw a surprise house inspection for some unknown reason. The house was a mess last night, it's not now. I'm pretty damn tired.

Bah. Here, this'll cheer you up.

Just sent the following reply to John, in answer to his question about last Monday's session, in which we finally finished the epic Horror on the Orient Express campaign:

Having spent some time thinking about it, I think the ending is completely appropriate and should be left as it is. While Victor's death at the hands of a megalomaniac who sucked out his soul and appropriated his body was personally unfortunate, it was in keeping with the general risks that heroes face when they enter a quest such as this.

And I think the same principle applies to Rafe and Drake.

We were engaged in a titanic struggle to determine not simply our fates, but the fate of the world, its history, and every man, woman and child residing upon it - even the poor ones, who Rafe would normally consider not to count.

We approached that struggle in the glorious tradition of British amateurism, eschewing consideration, logic and investigation in favour of action, intuition, and a willingness to kick down doors with little or no idea of what lay beyond - which admittedly turned out to be a slight mistake when Jones came face to face with a Balkan assassin and bit the big one. We felt that there was no problem, however big, however deadly, and however sanity destroying, that couldn't be solved by a liberal application of witty comebacks, stiff drinks, and the occasional act of petty, random violence.

The way we met our doom was thus entirely appropriate. The villain was despatched. The world was saved. But we were not. And when we realised this, at ten minutes past five in the afternoon with only fifty minutes until the ticking corruption within our bodies was set to consume us, we did not complain. We did not cry.

No.

We set forth with haste to the nearest drinking establishment and proceeded to make as big a dent in the last thirty-four pounds in the kitty as two men can make in a little over half an hour.

Disintegrating into a pool of goo in a random bar at an embarrassingly early time in the evening is obviously not how Rafe would have wanted to go. But I'd like to think that he faced his death in the manner he would have wished: a drink in one hand, and a barmaid in the other.

I'll miss Rafe. On my shortlist of favourite characters of all time, only Fat Gregor comes close. He started off bonkers and proceeded to go insane, but he was always very fun to play.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.

We've got Trail of Cthulhu and might perhaps give it a test drive.

Lots of stuff. How about you?

Poll #1215828 Have we been up to the same stuff?
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

Click on whichever of these you also did in the last three weeks

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2008/07/now-when-twilight-dims-sky-above.html

Maddy and I are now in Brazil. We got to the airport in Sao Paulo where the driver and Tom Stoppard were waiting, and then we drove down to Paraty. (At no point did I say to Tom Stoppard, "Funny old world innit? You wrote a film called Brazil, and now we're here." Tom Stoppard is, I discovered, who I want to be when I grow up. I did, however, tell him how much I liked his Waterstones story card.)

Anyway. All is good. We went off on a boat to an island and had a very late lunch, or a very early dinner, and after dinner I lay down on the roof of the boat as it chuntered back to Paraty and watched the sun set and slept under the stars, waking just before we docked.

I have a plan for Saturday -- I spoke to the Festival organisers and they seem happy with it. After the programme item (starts at 11:45, finishes around 1.00pm) I'll sign for whoever's there for as long as it takes. I figure this may take a while, but basically anyone there who wants a signature, whether they made it to the official event or had to content themselves with the big screen overflow or are just wandering around Paraty clutching an ancient Portuguese translation of Sandman. So if you were wondering whether or not it was worth your while making the trip to Paraty, yes, if you're here then, I'll sign your book.

Not a question, just a post on a glorious clockwork tower I thought you might enjoy.
http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2008/06/san-marco-clock-tower-venice.html

I was thinking the other day that it had been a while since I'd posted a link to cabinet of wonders - http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/ - as I've been enjoying the recent grand tour, so I took this as a reminder. (My favourite recent article was http://cabinet-of-wonders.blogspot.com/2008/06/languages-of-tone-and-rhythm.html)

dear neil,
did you know that people are selling the graveyard book on abesbooks.co.uk?? is that allowed??

i've entered the epitaph competion because well i just had too what with the desperation and the sweaty paws and whatnot! Even so it feels a little like cheating, and in the unlikely event of winning a copy, i do think i might miss out on the all hallows atmosphere!

just thought i'd do a little 'grassing' seeing as i was in the neighbourhood, the stink of spoilsports to me! they wouldnt allow that with that Potter boy so why Bod?!

davey

Well, the publishers didn't send out advance reading copies with the Harry Potter books -- they were extremely strict about shops violating the on-sale date, though, which is a slightly different thing. Here you have books that people have been sent or given that they are putting up for sale on eBay or Abebooks.

The covers of the ARCs all say "Not for sale" on them, but most of the copies for sale are being sold by booksellers who got them at Book Expo America, and many of those booksellers use the sale of the various advanced copies of books they got there as a way to fund their trip to Book Expo. Which is my way of saying I can't get mad about it.

I'm most disappointed when copies proudly proclaim themselves to never have been read. The reason for the advanced reading copies is so that people can read them. So I hope the people who buy them on eBay or elsewhere read them and tell people about them, and don't just put them away in the dark as collectibles.

Is "bugger me sideways with a coracle" a real expression, or did you make it up?

You mean the two things are mutually exclusive? Everything has to be made up first... I mean, take the following as an example:

Hey Neil,

I found the most interesting thing today. I received a book order today including Creating Circles & Ceremonies by Oberon and Morning Glory Zell-Ravenheart. It's a Pagan ritual book. Anyway, I was looking through the appendices and they had a section listing Pantheons of different cultures and religions. Guess what was included in the list? THE ENDLESS. I was shocked! Apparently, people have created very successful rituals using the archetypes of The Endless. I guess your characters have taken on a life of their own! Just thought you might be interested in knowing that little tidbit.

Sincerely,
Christina