Last week, I got an e-mail from someone from the CBC show Spark asking about ficlets and wondering if I’d be willing to do an interview for the show. After freaking out in the airport for a couple minutes, I replied saying (very coolly, I’m sure) that you betcha, I’d love to. So, sitting in my hotel room in Miami last Thursday, I talked to the show’s host about ficlets and read one of my stories (the first one ever published on the site, called The End).\
Please, go check out the interview (ficlets is the first segment)and let me know what you think. It was my first real interview other than a job interview, and I was nervous as hell. Hopefully it doesn’t show too badly. The folks from the CBC were delightful to talk to, and it was a lot of fun to do the interview, nervous or not.\
In other ficlets-y news, since John Scalzi left us as ficlets’ blogger-in-residence, I’ve been filling in and doing my best to keep the seat warm. So, if I’m quiet here, I’m probably over there, talking about inspiration, writing and “stuff”.
When Silly Becomes a Series
I wrote this silly ficlet about how the lolcats take over the world, and it’s turned into a series! There are nine parts total. A lovely ficleteer in Australia and I have been trading parts. He took the original bit of silliness and basically turned it into The League of Extraordinary Librarians. There’s adventure, romance, violence and silliness (lots and lots of it, bordering on absurdity). A couple of the characters are (very) loosely based on real people. See if you can spot yourself (Howard, don’t freak out, the Howard in the story isn’t based on you).
I’d love to see some more branches off the original to see where people take it. It could be Kittehpendence Day where the last dregs of literate humanity fight back, or Dawn of the Kitteh, you know, kitteh zombies. The possibilities are endless.
(Oh, and there are more than 20,000 ficlets now. Yeah, I’m pretty amazed too.)
A Blast From the Past
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What you see above is an entire episode (lucky #13) of the public access show I was a part of back in Tucson. It was called Tech X and was nominally a computer call-in show. We took a few computer calls, but had much more fun screwing around with our friends and making fun of the callers, each other and saying extremely inappropriate stuff.\
I only did about twenty episodes. I watched a few on the plane today, and the first five or so are really painful to watch. By episode ten, though, when we moved to Saturday nights at 10 (opposite the local news and then SNL), we really picked up steam. We were actually funny for short stretches!\
I played Otto the HED and was basically a fat head floating behind the two “stars” of the show, Lee King and Hugh Mongous. Yeah… ummm… just watch it. Or don’t. You’re an extremely strong or masochistic human being if you can make it to the end.
These are totally interesting…
Five things you might not know about me, because they are false:
- I am a recreational furrie.
- I slept my way to the top. …. of Mount Everest.
- I don’t own a tv.
- I once killed a man in Reno just to watch him die.
- I’ve never read fanfiction for Scarecrow and Mrs King.
None of these are interesting, sorry.
Kevin wants me to do the “five things you may not know about me” meme.
- Except for a handful of must-haves, I don’t like owning DVDs or books. I am more of a “watch ’em/read ’em and rotate ’em” kind of gal.
- I started college in the Honors College with a major in Electrical Engineering. What the heck was I thinking?
- Even though we’ve lived in this house for over seven years (!!!), the master bedroom looks like the “before” on makeover show: temporary curtains, no pictures on the wall, clutter everywhere. We have a big bed with lots of pillows and no tv, so at least we are doing something right.
- Comfort entertainment:\
movie- Drive Me Crazy\
tv- Designed to Sell\
song- Jukebox Hero by Foreigner\
books- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Mammoth Hunters by Jean M Auel - Dream job: organizational professional. (Which is funny considering my bedroom, right?)
Social Networking Mashups
I’m speaking today at The Social Networking Conference about social networking mashups. I decided to turn it on its head a little bit and do an introduction on portable social networking instead, because what is it but a big ol’ mashup of identity, relationships and content?\
If you’re at the conference, I’ll see you at 1:30, and I’ve updated the slides a bit since I had to turn them in for the CD, so the presentation is a wee bit bigger and more complete than the one you got in your packet. I’ve uploaded the “final” version here, and you’re welcome to download it.\
Feedback is welcome. I certainly couldn’t cover everything, because I only have about 35 minutes to cover everything (and 36 slides). I don’t touch on the Data Portability working group, or several other relevant things, because there just isn’t time. It’s very much an introduction into why it makes sense for social networks to support “good things” like OpenID, Creative Commons, microformats, providing feeds for everything, etc. Hopefully, it will lead to more technical discussions and some good questions.\
Feedback is, of course, welcome!
Oy with the urine already!
I can’t get Brian to stop peeing in his underwear. Waaaaaaaaaaah.\
And Kevin’s hotel is RIGHT ON THE BEACH. Double waaaaaah. I should have gone. :(\
In super good news though, Kevin will be home for 14 hours this weekend, just in time for the Super Bowl. YAY!
Tagged by a Chipman
Well Steve got me, and well, since I’m awake and everyone else is in bed, why not? I like a meme as much as the next guy, so I’ll play along. Here are five things you probably don’t know about me, even if you’ve been reading this blog for almost eight years:
- I was a missionary for the LDS Church (yep, the Mormons). I was sent to the Spokane, Washington area, rode a bike for two months and then was sent to a very large area near Fairchild Air Force Base and then the fun started. In less than a month, I totaled a mission car, watched my companion sneak out of our apartment to go to Wal-Mart with a female friend of the family we lived with, blew out my ankle, and went home in a cast. It took me quite a while to get over my disappointment with the whole mission experience. It was “sold” as this great spiritual experience, but ended up feeling a lot like selling used cars to people who were pretty darned happy with their bikes.
- I was on a TV show. Yes, really. When I lived in Tucson, my friends and I started and ran a Saturday night tech call-in show that competed directly with SNL. It was called Tech X and I played “Otto the HED”, a floating head that sat behind the hosts and said really stupid things. Yes, there is video around somewhere, and I’ll try to post some… but won’t look too hard for it.
- I swear… a lot. Now, to some of you, this isn’t a surprise. To others, maybe it is. I don’t know why I do it, but I do. I’ve tried to stop, and hell, I may try again, but maybe not.
- I never finished college. You know number 1 up there? Well, after I got home, I recovered for a little while and then got what I thought was a summer job taking tech support calls for AOL at the call center in Tucson. I met so many cool interesting people and was having so much fun, I just never went back. I just kept learning and trying new things, and well, here I am.
- I hate bananas, hate them. No really, can’t stand how they feel, smell, or heaven forbid, taste. I always have and am not sure why. Just can’t stand ’em.\
There you go. You know who I’m going to tag? I’m gonna tag Jen. Sweetie, that means you gotta post five things that folks probably don’t know about you. Won’t that be fun?
My boys
I think I broke Kevin’s heart just a little when I told him that Brian was wearing size 5T pants.
I am a pretty, pretty princess
Tons of people, or like five, helped make my anniversary really special. (Thanks, everyone!) Should I tell the story in chronological order or by category? Hmm, I think ‘by category’ will illustrate how spoiled I truly was.\
The presents:
* Last fall I found a ring I wanted to mark the occasion (10 years, yo!). I was drawn to the sapphire stone because it represents loyalty and fidelity (except for Princess Diana, oops) and because the dark blue is so pretty. I was psyched when I found this and Kevin bought it for me:
* A couple of weeks ago, Kevin accidentally surprised me early with a second present. (I opened it thinking it was something I ordered). It was new digital photo frame, like the one we got my parents for Christmas. I was oooing and awwing over it so much, Kevin decided not to wait until Mother’s Day. YAY! The first picture I want uploaded:
The activities:
* Since we knew Kevin was going to be out of town on our anniversary, we scrapped our original plans and celebrated last Saturday. We went to The Cheesecake Factory and saw Juno. Woot. It was the perfect movie to see and an overall great night. (Spoiler alert: Ellen Page is the cutest thing ever. And Jennifer Garner made me cry.)
* My MIL called yesterday afternoon and offered to babysit the kids so I could go out. I whooped, “Hell, yea!” I saw 27 Dresses which was cute and perfect for the evening. (I’ve only been a bridesmaid/maid of honor six times. I feel like an underachiever now.) While I was out, my MIL and the kids cleaned up the toys in the tv room and did the dishes. Super woot!\
The deliveries:
* Shortly after breakfast I received two dozen long stemmed roses, perfectly arranged. They were beautiful and smelled so good. YAY! I love roses.
* A little later, the doorbell rang again. Max excitedly announced, “It’s another delivery!” It was a big brown box… for Kevin. Oh well, can’t win them all.
* But then! Late in the afternoon, I got an awesome gift basket from Kevin’s work peeps. Wheee. It contained pampering supplies and a gift certificate to a nail salon. I’ve never had a professional pedicure and I am really looking forward to it. (Thanks, Kevin’s work peeps!)\
The expressions of love:
* Kevin tells the world how he feels about me. Little old me. Aww, shucks.
* Kevin made me a heart. I think out of everything I received and did, this is my favorite. I can just imagine him in front of the laptop, making sure the heart looks right on the monitor; I love how his pinkies aren’t touching; and the expectant look on his face as he peers over the top of the heart at the camera. It makes my insides all squishy and my heart go pitter-pat. Thanks, hon. I love you.
