Oh look, GoodReads just helpfully formatted my most recent review into a format just for copying and pasting into my blog. Seeing as how i'm a DAMN LAZY BLOGGER, who am i to turn down such quick and easy content? (should you care to read it ensuite, as it were, i am sade wolfkitten over there too..)
Bloodshot by Cherie Priest
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Priest's vampire books (somehow i read the second before this, the first) are like a big tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream: tasty, fun to polish off, not exactly *bad* for you but not your daily staff of life either. Not quite as engaging as the Eden Moore series, but less annoyingly twee than the steampunk stuff - which, i hasten to add, is entirely my own opinion. My taste for alternate histories seems not to extend into the past - call it a bias of linear time.
This is not one of those, very definitely contemporary, but a vampire/master thief main character might be just a wee bit too much of a Mary Sue for my tastes. Your mileage, as always, may vary significantly. And do note that however this may sound, i've read almost all of her books, and will continue to pick them up as i run across them.
View all my reviews
Oh look, i have a blog. Y i has u, blog? Blogging seems so five years ago. i've said before i'm too busy doing things to stop and write about them. When i'm not doing things, i am resting - sleeping, probably, and/or getting ready to do something else.
For a while i experimented with micro-blogging. i still like the concept. i do tweet a lot; i send out little random thoughts throughout the day. When i'm at the day job, this helps the time go by while i'm scrubbing cages and chattering mindlessly to the birds.
i tried collecting and re-posting them to LiveJournal for a time but it annoyed *me*; i can just imagine how my LJ friends felt about it. Incidentally, this seems to have coincided with dropping off of LJ, something i've not been able to get back to even tho i enjoyed the format. LiveJournal was my very personal internet home for years. Not now. Twitter is probably the closest thing to an online 'home' i have these days, but my profile page isn't considered a true blog.
The truth is, i don't see much need for a blog in my life. Yes i know, social media blah blah marketing blah personal branding blah blah quack. Maybe i could be Actualizing(tm) and Monetizing(tm) myself more Effectively(tm) if only i sat my *ss down and wrote something every few days! Yes, my decided lack of glowing financial success can surely be traced to this one bad habit.
WHATEVER.
A week or so ago, i finally figured out why i'm not writing anymore. 
Hold on to your hats, cause this one's a shocker: i'm happy. i think its been so long since i could really say this (probably not this century, sadly) that i'd forgotten the obvious: i only journal when things suck. i figured this out a long time ago, back when 'journals' still meant physical, paper notebooks, filled with reams of absolutely miniscule handwriting. (Oh yes. Any future biographer who wants to plumb the depths of my personal history will need a magnifying glass: most of my journals have four lines of tiny print squeezed on to every line of notebook paper. Have at *that*, psych geeks).
There are gaps in my personal history. Times when i didn't curl up in a corner somewhere, seeking escape through an mmm-okay maybe slightly manic noting down of what i was thinking/feeling/experiencing at the time. Unfortunately, this means all my best times have evaporated into thin air; 'memory' is something you put in computers, not something in my head. If i didn't write it down, it might as well not have happened.
This means my future self will look back at now and think, i wonder what i was doing that made me so content with my lot? i don't know if i can answer that directly. i can't say, Well, This. This is the thing, or things, that make life Good now. Well, except for this little guy: 
i did mention him here - holy crap, have i really not blogged YET THIS YEAR?! Anyway, his name is Marvin. He is, best as i can tell, a chihuahua-schipperke mix. Schipperkes are Belgian boat dogs and look like black Pomeranians, if you've never heard of them. He is the best thing to happen to me in a *lo-o-ong* time. My last dog was also technically Rasputin's dog, and he's been gone over eight years. i was thinking about maybe getting a dog again when this fellow managed to get lost/abandoned near the theater and wound up with me. Now i wonder why i waited so long - except that i was waiting for him, i suppose.
Besides the pupster, i've finally - *finally* - gotten to a point where i like being home again. i'm pretty sure there was a point back when i lived in Collinhood that this was true, but i can't remember when. Mid90s, at a guess. So yeah, this has been a long time coming, and its nice to have it back. i don't go out much anymore (and yes, there could be a story there too, but its not one i care to tell here). i do sometimes miss the Tremont scene that i was part of five years ago, but its not like its there and i left. It was An Era, its over, time to move on.
i've also got an acceptable balance going between jobs, theater, and personal projects. My day job is in a sort of warehouse of birds for a major pet-supply chain, and my boss there is *fabulous* - a theater friend who would make a great gay husband. He trusts my judgement and lets me pretty much supervise myself. This is so heavenly that it strongly outweighs the absolutely crummy pay. i have another part-time evening job working as a sort of 'test patient' for medical students to try out their exam skills on. Boss there is great too, as is the pay; the hours, well, not so much, but it balances things out.
i am a bit less involved with the theater than in years past, meaning i don't stage-manage anymore than one play a year. This way, once my work as a designer is done, i have nights to myself. Now, i am balanced lightly on the cusp of having just about enough time and money both, so that i can work on my own projects now and again.
Most recently, 
i've been making these Faerie Empress crowns: Just sold my first one on Etsy too, w00t! They are a lot of fun to make, and allow me to make use of my hoardcollection of leftover jewelry bits and sparkly things.
Along with working on projects, i've been continuing on with organizing - well, pretty much everything. i used to have things stashed all over the place, because i could never remember where i'd put things before. Now that i'm not managing a household, raising kids, and dealing with relationships, i've been able to start sorting and consolidating. Amazingly, this means i am now able to FIND an item when i need it =:o i'm even learning to clean up when i'm done, a skill its only taken me *mumble*fifty-odd*mumble* years to acquire.
So yes, add all these things up and you have (*gasp*) a Fairly Contented Wolfkitten. Fairly? That's unfair. Quite. But geez-a-pete, look how long i've been sitting here. i've got things to do! See ya round - sometime.
Dear diary:
i know, i know. Believe me. And really, its not you - its me. i do think about you. A lot. Pretty often anyway. But our lives are just so different right now. i promise i'll work on it, okay? i haven't forgotten you, honest. i've just been so busy. You know how it is.
Yeah, its like that. i look at the huge-ass blog entries Amanda Palmer posts, a lot more often than i have time to read them, and wonder, how the *eff* does she manage?! Then i remember - she has Assistants, and does not need to do her own grocery shopping nor scrub the floors. But still.. i wonder how *my* life got so busy. i know i was lazy when i was young, but srsly. i wonder that i ever had hours to sit in coffeehouses doing - what did i do in coffeehouses before teh internetz? i remember when i always had a workbag by my side, stitching little whatevers. But before that, how did i ever fill the hours i spent at Arabica? No clue.
There's no real possibility i can catch things up here since my last entry, so i won't even try. i can tell you that today (the day i wrote this, already over a week ago) i slept late, walked the pupster (o hai blog, i gots a puppyboy),
drank coffee, went to brunch w/Younger Daughter, did dishes, swept some floors (not all), cleaned the worst of the week's accumulated puppy mess, brought vending tubs in from the car, scrubbed the hallway rug, and straightened the Closet of Holding. Tonight i am going out to my regular weekly haunt, meeting my brother who is in from L.A., then maybe meeting grrlfriends at the punk bar. i think that's all.
Odds are i won't write anything here again until next year. i will be posting on my other blog in a bit; that seems the better place to talk about Solstice. Once again, i'll try to keep up with this better in the new year but - well, i'll try. i will be going to fulltime in the bird room within the next couple months: more work means more pay, which is good; but it will also mean even less time for things that Aren't Work. Hence teh promises, they shall not be made.
i hope this holiday season finds you well, content and surrounded by people you love and who love you. If you're reading this, count me among the latter. Merryhappy ChanaSolKwanzaMas, and i'll see you in *gasp* 2012.
i've been reading an article from the July issue of Wired on feedback loops, and at the end it brings up the concept of 'gamification' - that we are more likely to respond or react to something if we perceive it as a game. Therefore, people will happily report on their whereabouts to anyone who cares to check (including the NSA, presumably) if it means they can earn points, badges, and mayorships. 
Likewise, we'll be glad to furnish market researchers the data they crave on what we watch, read, listen to and even think about, for exactly the same nebulous 'rewards'.
Interesting stuff, if a little creepy in its implication. But what stood out right away for me is that - these rewards don't work on me. i do check in occaisionally on foursquare, but only to give a boost to a business i support. i don't read recommendations or 'follow' my friends activity - seriously, unless i was trying to track down someone, i can't imagine wasting time that way. i've also never had any interest in any of the online games offered thru social networks.
Because ultimately, i just don't give a shit about badges or points. And this got me thinking about my attitude towards games in the 'real' world. i won't say i don't like games or playing - but i only like certain *kinds* of games. Games with a strategy, that require puzzle/problem solving; yup, i dig those. 
But simple competition, accumulating points - *yawn*. Want to put me to sleep? Try to teach me a card game (as a good friend found to his consternation). If you really want to turn me off, put in a competitive edge, winners and losers. Play for money and i'll elect to watch paint dry instead.
All this makes me a 'bad customer' for games or apps that use simple game strategy as encouragement. And *that* makes me wonder what i'd be a good customer for - and who is already finding ways of modding my behaviour to suit their marketing demands. Will i know it when i see it? Or will i find myself blindly playing along because its 'fun'? Just some things to think of on a rainy Sunday night..
OK, you know how crazy my life usually is, right? Well i swear the past couple weeks have been twice as busy as *that*. Maybe three times. Younger daughter moved up from Kent, elder daughter & beau moved out of their Tremont apt, into my living room, then out of my living rm and into small house, and my parents moved out of small house of - 15? - yrs occupancy into 1 bdrm apt. All in August.
Then, i performed as a statue for the Tremont Arts & Cultural Fair 2 days in a row, ran merch for Morticia's Chair as a pirate wench immediately after the second day's gig ended.. had one of those sewing side jobs i get every so often.. attended my monthly mantra meditation group.. landed a job costuming NINE GAY MEN (well, one at least is straight but playing gay) for a show opening Oct 7th.. got backed into in a parking lot and filed an insurance claim for the first time in my life.. remembered too late why i don't go to Oktoberfest.. took a Zumba class but have been too busy to get back for another.. wrote and led an equinox meditation for a small group of friends.. met an actress friend for coffee, went to a few birthday parties, attended a cookout (at the home of Michael Symon's personal assistant - sounds swank but we was punkrok bitchez together way back when) as well as a couple dinner parties, one w just me & my girls.. went on a promo pub crawl to try & book the Chair some shows.. AND I'M PRETTY SURE I'M FORGETTING SOME THINGS. That's how i've been.
Here. Have a picture of the planters i'm making in the evenings.
Maybe i'll be around here a little more this fall; right now, just for today, i have a wi-fi connection right from my apartment so am not dependent on the hours of a coffeehouse (not that i don't love me some coffeehouses). Then again, i don't really see the pace letting up any anytime soon; i'm spending this sudden bonus of internet time catching up on a million things i've been meaning to get around to but could never remember to do when i'm out somewhere. Taking the time to sit and do nothng but write blog posts seems wasteful, somehow, which is why you haven't seen one in a while.
To that end, may i recommend you look me up on Tumblr? Praise them, they support SMS udates; so brief thoughts, cellphonecam snaps, and interesting articles other peole have written are winding up there these days. Some more personal interaction is happening on Google+, and virtually all my random thoughts get tweeted when the mood strikes. Where i'm *not* spending much time anymore is Facebook - new changes there always seem to be for the worse, but its getting so intrusive and clunky as to be unusable. Tumblr will reblog there, so i'll be maintaining some presence for the time being; but i'm no longer actively following much of anyone. But if you really want to talk to me, those are the places i can be found.
Dear diary:
i know, i know. Every time i say i've had a quiet couple of weeks, it turns out to be anything but, right? This at least *feels* like i've not had so much going on, maybe because in the first half of this summer, i had TOO much happening all at once. On the other hand, i'm not sure just now if i even posted an entry two weeks ago. Which, if true, would indicate things haven't slacked up much at all.
Well, assuming i *did* write about Starwood (i can't find a saved draft, but i kinda think i did)[ah and oh - its on my magickal blog] then all i've done since is attend my very first burlesque event ever - which will hopefully not be my last! - where i performed as a glasswalker for the first and probably only time this year (strike that; i'm working a circus-theme gallery show in October).. performed as a living statue at the Taste of Tremont festival.. saw one of my favorite hardcore bands from 'back in the day'.. tentatively booked myself to DJ a local gallery's benefit, and even more tentatively to offer a workshop/lecture there early next year.. spent a panicky few hours watching reports out of Norway, where someone very close to me Just Happened to be on vacation.. finally got around to checking out the cyber cafe that opened nearby, which is likely where this will post from.. never did make it back to see an actual run of Miracle at Naples, which i did sound design for and got *great* reviews.. got my jam on at a local rock club one evening, hanging out w the owner/pal from back in the same day.. See? Nothing much at all.
Knowing my life, this is what you call the lull before the storm. Or perhaps the storm is now, and that's why this is languishing half-written on a jump drive; August has begun with a crash and a boom and a bash - well, ok, technically the bash isn't til tomorrow ;-) The crash and boom parts are personal, but suffice to say its being one of Those pivotal weekends where everything is going to be different afterwards. MANY things. So much so in fact that i think i'm going to cut my losses and go with this, as lame an entry as it is; if i don't, it'll be half-past the full moon before i get back to it and i'd like to keep something up more regularly here.
So thank you all, you few who tune in; i'll be back around once i find where i've landed in the universe next door. Ta for now, lovies.
Hola, dearies. i am so way overdue for an update here that i don't even recall when i last wrote. i could cheat and look, but where's the fun in that? Anyway, i strongly suspect i haven't updated since the Fairie Festival, because it has been That Kind of Month. And a half.
Its been the kind of month (and a half) where i've been really, incredibly busy with Fun Stuff; and then because i've gone and booked up nearly every free moment, i've had a bunch of Not Fun Stuff insist on cropping up too. But let's do the fun first. 
As i mentioned, i was the the Fairie Festival at the beginning of May, for my twelfth year in a row. This is one of the Most Fun Things Evar, in my book. This was my first year performing as a statue (or - ? i moved around some, there) as opposed to gypsy magician-dancer-person which i used to do with Not Ex-Enough Husband. Statuing there worked Differently than it does on the street; but i expect to do it again next year now that i know that. i was barely home and unpacked from there before i turned around and went off to be a statue at the Hessler Road Street Fair which has been going on for decades and was always my traditional kick-off to summer when i was a Coventry street kid with glitter on her face - a long, *long* time ago.
After that, we did Pop-Up Pearl as the Cultural Freethinkers Social Hall. For which we had some Grand Freakin Plans, you bet; however, various factors got in the way of Grand Freakin Plans so instead we made paper-plate masks for the kiddies. Somewhere along about then i started work on costuming the Cleveland Shakespeare Festival, who are doing Othello and Love's Labor's Lost this summer, neither of which i am particularly familiar with. Then i was a statue again for the Gordon Square Arts District Day, which is where i live, yay! so that i was able to get dressed and glittered for the gig and then WALK there pulling my milk crate and ugly green crushed velvet bedspread and tip mushroom behind me on my trusty wagon.
Did i say tip mushroom? Why yes i did. i've been being an elven/faerie sort of statue lately, so i decded a mushroom was a better thing to hold my tip bucket than the column i made for when i'm all white and be-toga-ed. This mushrump is a little battered after all the rain it had to sit in at Spoutwood but i think some red duct tape will soon have it right as - er yeah, well then. Anyway this is the final shroom: And here's a picture of me (in my necktie jacket) with the shroom en situ at the Fairie Festival: 
.
But, sadly, then there have also been Not Fun Things. Like getting popped with expired plates or for making an illegal left turn (in a rush to check *one more thrift store* in search of elusive costume pieces; i was in such a rush i didn't even notice the No Left Turn sign), or having Not Ex Enough drop a multi-page scrawl in my tip bucket at Hessler. Or having a Falling Out with a formerly-best friend who can't seem to understand that i has a crazy life and if sie wants to see me, that needs to be accomodated and respected.. it hasn't been, so now i guess we're Not Friends Anymore.
But the most Not Fun of all has been visiting my elder daughter, the Lady Eclipse, in the hospital. For nearly TWO WEEKS NOW and we still don't know why, really. Tho it is probably MS. Whatever it is, it has laid her *low*; she's too weak to do much of anything, including stand up or write her name, and while the steroids have restored some ability to speak, her speech is still very, noticably, slowed. This is all kinds of scary and freaky to a point where i won't likely be saying much more about it here, but i expect this is going to be A Factor in our lives for quite some time to come.
Anyway, several of the Fun Things listed above deserve their very own paragraph or three or six. But its a quarter til two in the morning and there are birdies who expect me to come feed and water them and clean out their cages in a handful of hours so i am not going to write those paragraphs now. Which maybe means i won't write them ever and if so, that's the way life is speeding up. But i will try to get them written at some point Soon. Just be glad i managed to get this much done, cuz i am, okay? Okay. Next time, dovelies.
