Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.
I’d outlined Unknown Armies to the players, describing it as ‘surreal modern-day occult weirdness, sort of Twin Peaksish, or Pulp Fiction with spells’. They came up with the beautiful idea of playing resurrected Presidents. We were all big fans of The West Wing, which was probably the main inspiration. None of the players knew much about the Unknown Armies setting, which suited me perfectly.
While assembling our tubas before basketball band rehearsal, A, T, and I were discussing end-of-semester papers for our various classes. A said this to T after I remarked that my latest anthro paper was a result of BS--
"Mmm, I doubt it. She's so intelligent that even her BS would be logical."
<3 And A's the one that just got an interview for med school.
I was just diagnosed (seriously, yesterday) with PCOS and hypothyroidism. I'm taking synthroid for the hypothyroidism and metformin for the PCOS as well as a preventative measure for diabetes (which I do not have but am at risk for if I do not take my meds/care of myself).
I bought the PCOS Diet Book by Colette Harris for help in changing my dietary habits but I was wondering if there are any other books/websites that have recipes for people with PCOS. I've been looking into the GI diet because that's what seems to be the best option but I'm shit at planning meals and in order for me to stick with a diet, I need to do just that.
I'd really appreciate any help I can get, especially for websites.
Also... how does everyone find taking the metformin? My endo told me that if I ate foods that were too fatty (like some cheeses) I would have diarrhea (gross, I know... sorry) is that true? Can cheese never pass my lips again?
( cut for an illegal drug question )
Sorry for bombarding you all with questions I just want to get this under control and do it the right way.
Thank you!
I'm testing http://posterous.com out, as a way of posting to Blogger from my phone, using email. So this is a test posting...
I'm attaching the "mass market" paperback cover for Fragile Things, which will be released in the US in February. It shows someone who looks like me with jam, or dreams, or ideas, squidging out of a book and all over him.
I finished a short story - technically, I suppose, a novelette, as it's 10,000 words - that I've been working on for much of the year. For most of that time, even through to the end of the first draft, a couple of weeks ago, I was convinced it was never going to work, would be a stunted, crippled little thing that was doomed to disappoint me. I knew it was missing something. What that something was occurred to me last week, exhausted after a yoga session in Boston, as my mind blanked, and later I wrote two short paragraphs in my notebook. Those paragraphs percolated and began to breathe, and I put them in and the story shifted, subtly, around them. The second draft took wing, and I found I was clear enough in my mind about what the story was that taking out things that weren't part of the story and putting in things that were was now easy, and the more I did it the better the story got, and now I'm happier with it than I've been with anything I've written for well over a year. It's called "The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains..." and it is not exactly a happy story.
Right...
Dear Neil,
Patrick Rothfuss is making the world a better place in a very tangible way with his charity run Worldbuilders 2009. (http://www.patrickrothfuss.com/blog/2009/1
a fan of Wonderful People,
Gaetan Verhegge
Consider it plugged enthusiastically. I sent Patrick a signed copy of the incredibly beautiful STARDUST Advanced Reader's Copy when he did this last year, and it got to him a little late, so he has that along with many other amazing and beautiful books to give to people who donate. Check it out.
Hi Neil,
Consider it spread.
Hmm. Okay. I'll email this in, now. Not sure how I can do the blogger labels, though. Let's see if it works.
Posted via email from Neil's posterous
- 06:16 Jonny's Twitter advent calendar DAY 4: twitpic.com/s2g4p #
- 06:17 Jonny's Twitter advent calendar DAY 3: twitpic.com/rxjlu #
- 14:02 My work PC is 35 minutes into a hussy fit. Not amused. #
LiveJournal: The First Decade
Just in time for holiday shopping, we're thrilled to announce the release of our ten-year anniversary anthology. Published by Blurb.com, the book showcases a decade of extraordinary talent drawn from LiveJournal users around the world. This must-read compilation features stories, memes, photos, comics, editorials, graphic content, and more, including:
-
Excerpts from Oh No They Didn't (a/k/a
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif)
ohnotheydidnt), the largest community on LiveJournal, covering celebrity gossip, entertainment news, and pop culture - A look at post-Katrina New Orleans from the journal of Poppy Z. Brite
- Gripping narratives, including a poignant reverie on a blind date
- Photography that spans the globe, ranging from old-fashioned Polaroids to underwater photography
- Mouthwatering dishes from food_porn
What began as a late-night inspiration back in Brad Fitzpatrick's college dorm in 1999 has grown to encompass nearly 25 million users worldwide, with journals and communities covering every conceivable hobby, passion, and topic. To get your copy, please visit the Blurb Bookstore. For updates and entries from book contributors, please join lj_turns10.
Tweaks and enhancements
- You can now ban a user from all of your communities and journals at once. To access this feature, hover over the person's userpic and choose Ban user everywhere from the drop-down menu.
- Follow LiveJournal on Twitter!
Give a little to help a lot!
In honor of National AIDS Awareness month, we've added a new charitable vgift. For each red ribbon you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine (we'll cover credit card fees). You can read more about IAVI at lj_cares. While we're on the subject, we raised $740 from our November fundraiser for Love Without Boundaries, which supports emergency healthcare and adoption of Chinese orphans. We thank you for helping us help others.
Photos of the week
We're back with more incredible pictures from our super-talented LiveJournal photographers. Congratulations to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
ilya_gorokhov, who is the winner of our very first lj_photophile poll.
Curtains
Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay safe and snug out there!
b) It's Christmas. Bloody mail-order companies aren't coming back to me. Grrr.
c) Do you want a Christmas card this year? If so, mail me yer address at the name of my LJ at gmail.com! Even if you've already given me your address! Some people are getting Christmas cards anyway, but I'm going to be hunting for addresses in chat logs. People who have moved into new houses this year (yep - you, and over there... you) I definitely don't have your addresses and I'd like to send both of you cards.
d) I've been dicking about with my guitar, spurred on by my son, who can play three chords, which is more than I can. I think I've managed to tune four strings. This is significant progress.
The weather just got cold, and dog-walking tonight was less fun than it should have been; I wore gloves, and solitary crystalline flecks of snow spun into the light of my flashlight-beam and vanished again into the dark. I took Maddy and her friend Anna-Rose to violin tonight, and yesterday I carried the beautiful E. H. Shepard ink-drawing I got myself to celebrate the award in to the framers to be framed. I'm concerned that we should have insulated the beehives by now.
Dear Neil,
If you could choose a quote - either by you or another author - to be inscribed on the wall of a public library children's area, what would it be?
Thanks!
Lynn
I'm not sure I'd put a quote up, if it was me, and I had a library wall to deface. I think I'd just remind people of the power of stories, of why they exist in the first place. I'd put up the four words that anyone telling a story wants to hear. The ones that show that it's working, and that pages will be turned:
"...and then what happened?"
- 06:18 Jonny's virtual Twitter advent calender DAY 2: twitpic.com/rt0cy #
- 20:56 A brief (and late) Dragonmeet report: bit.ly/4O9hd7 #
I'm 25 and I was diagnosed with PCOS a couple years ago. I even had a cat scan that confirmed that yes, I have cysts on my ovaries.
Originally, my endocrinologist had me on metformin and Yasmin. The metformin never seemed to do anything at all -- and I was on a full dose for over a year (2000 mg?). Then one day my doctor said that new research came out that it was only really necessary for significantly overweight woman. I'm 5'3 and around 140 lbs, so I'm a little overweight but not significantly. So one day last summer, I simply stopped taking metformin, and I haven't gained any weight.
My main problems with PCOS seem to be acne and excess hair. I've been struggling with acne since middle school, and I always get it under control for a while (I've been on antibiotics for the past 11 years, have had blue light treatments, numerous facials...) and then I get a flair up again. Lately I've been thinking I need to seriously reevaluate my diet if I want to be rid of this. I'm vegetarian and am pretty conscientious about eating lots of fruit and veggies, but I do love coffee. Coffee with milk and sugar. I should add that I never have more than one cup a day, sometimes just a macchiato (espresso + little bit of steamed milk on top).
Is coffee very bad for women with PCOS? Who here still drinks coffee? What are the effects of drinking it for women with PCOS? Has going off it helped you?
Originally published at Figures of Text. Please leave any comments there.
One of the most successful games I’ve run recently was an Unknown Armies game called Dead Presidents. I left the players to come up with some campaign frameworks, and they decided to play reincarnated presidents with superpowers. I blame The West Wing. (The other suggested campaign, which I think is utter genius and really must run sometime, was about a unit of marines in Iraq who get zapped by a curse. By day, they appear normal. By night, they appear to be scary Jihadists to anyone who sees them.)
Dead Presidents went to some bizarre places. Here’s the transcript of a conversation between the bad guys, which the PCs managed to obtain with the typewriter used to write the Watergate story and some sorcery. On Thursday, I’ll recap the campaign and discuss why it worked so well.
- 07:04 Happy birthday @4pawsnexus. Hope the coming year is full of interesting things to sniff, chew and bark at. #
- 07:07 RT @muskrat_john: Congratulations EVERYONE who did NOT write a novel in November, thus successfully completing NoNoNoMo. #
- 07:10 Jonny's virtual Twitter advent calendar, DAY 1: twitpic.com/rolzo #
- 13:27 Thanks to @Bobbie42 and @JonnyHodgsonArt for the RTs! #
- 18:52 A few days ago I asked about Scriverner, a word processor for writers. Running through tutorial now. This might just be love at first sight. #
Names that contain 'special characters' are not necessarily 'invalid'. Please leave your small minded, English speaking only world. If you cannot acquire the necessary skills to actually implement a system that allows them, please change your error messages to say something more like 'I'm sorry, our software can't handle your name, can you please dumb it down a bit'.
Regards,
Sorcha Nic Amhalaí
P.S. Don't get me started on the 'required' post code field...
Maddy's friend Claire, at San Diego airport...
And here's Ivy McCloud (almost invisible, far right) and my goddaughters and their friend...
...
I was reading the book "Coraline". I finished then told my parents about it. I was wondering if this book has any religouiseness to it. I tried, but only found what you've writen so i'm hoping you can tell. Just curiose
I don't think so. Although I think people bring religious points of view to books, and read them from those perspectives.
You sounded good on NPR this morning, so good you need your own radio show.
If I sound good, it's because Maeve McGoran, my producer, and Barry Gordemer, the editor, did such a sterling job. Finding the time to make this, to do the interviews and put it all together, took months. I'd love to do more radio, for NPR or for Radio Four in the UK, but I think it will always be little one-off projects. But I loved doing it.
Here's one that contains a Graveyard Book spoiler:
Dear Mr. Gaiman:
How is Silas erasing Scarlett’s memory of events preceding justified in The Graveyard Book? When the reason given isn’t satisfactory, and is it?, doesn’t it become the Problem of Scarlett? You know what I mean. I've just about read the Problem of Susan from Fragile Things which was so brave of you to write or, rather, re-write.
I thought it was so god-like of Silas to do what he did at the same time so unnatural of him to. It meant a reasonably strong character like her couldn't stare reality in its face bravely and overcome it which is what fairy-tales are about, be it children's, YA's, or adult's.
Your Sandman fan,
Ahimaz.
Silas did what he did because he thought it was for the best. Whether it was the wisest thing he could have done, in the circumstances, remains to be seen.
Hi Neil,
I live in Naperville, IL, and I just heard about your appearance in February for the Naperville Reads program. No one around town seems to have a whole lot of information about the events so far though. I was wondering if you had more information about what you'll be doing here, and if any of the events will be open to the public? Thanks!
I don't know yet. When I get a schedule, I'll put it here, and at Where's Neil.
Hi,
Before I book flights I was wondering if you could let us know if you're doing a signing at the NZ talk, or if you plan on doing a signing elsewhere in Wellington that weekend? I'd hate to have to get back on the plane only to discover later that I'd missed out on a signing op at Arty Bees Books by mere hours...
And your Captcha anti-spam thing just asked me to write down "$2-mil manistee". I thought you should know.
Mike
I think there's a signing or two involved, but it'll be organised by the Festival (tickets to the main event at http://www.nzfestival.nzpost.co.nz/write
Hi, Neil! Are going to sign any books at UCLA on February 4th, 2010? If so,before or after the discussion? Or do can we buy signed books?
I don't believe there are signings at the UCSB or the UCLA talks. I know I've been asked to sign sheets to stick in books (or perhaps to presign books), so there will definitely be something available.
Hi Neil,
Don't know if anyone's pointed it out to you, but the postscript at the end of your article in The Writer's and Artist's Year Book has the films of Beowulf and Stardust being released in 1987!
Ooops!
Regards,
Mark
Yup. And the wonderful Chris Riddell is Paul Riddell in the text as well. Ah well. Mysterious goofs happen.
http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/va
And the tees are at:
http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/v
The Snow, Glass, Apples locket is at:
http://www.blackphoenixtradingpost.com/n
We still have a few sets of Sunbird left:
http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/su
I'm happy to plug them here. They'll make great gifts. The Sunbird scent is amazing, comes with a chapbook, and is almost gone. The proceeds from the scents and tee shirts go to the CBLDF. The proceeds from the lockets and medallion go to Alzheimer's Research.
- 13:12 Game Night Chapter Three is now up at EN World. Is Draag dead? Will anyone care? Read on... bit.ly/6dnWFh #
- 14:37 RT @jowyang: Stats: Women dominate men in social networking sites bit.ly/6P2LL2 the question is, why? // Except for Slashdot, course! #
- 17:43 Train delayed by 23 minutes. Retreated, frozen, to a Costa Coffee for a soya latte. #
- 18:55 I finally got the Britney spam! Was starting to feel left out. Even dogs (@doggaway) were getting it. #
- 18:56 RT @doggaway: Dear spammer, thanks for the thought and not sure if I speak for all dogs but Britney porn does nothing for me #
- 19:39 Train slowed, shuddered, groaned and died. Haven't moved for 20 mins. Driver reports "circuit failure". Man with lamp has walked past. :( #
- 19:56 Train now moving, perhaps thanks to the man with the lamp. Or perhaps not. Life rarely gives answers, especially where trains are involved. #
Last night I was leaving him with someone, and I said 'I love you' and he said '
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