[Malin] I am such a slacker. I've finished four books in the last month and I haven't reviewed any of them. I finished "A Pale View of Hills" by Kazuo Ishiguro, "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman, "Mothers and Sons" by Colm Toibin, and "Self-Help" by Lorrie Moore. "The Magicians" was the best of the lot, but they were all enjoyable and I learned something from each.

So right now, for a change of pace, I'm reading Joe Posnanski's "The Machine," the story of the Big Red Machine (the 1975 Cincinnati Reds). I can confidently tell you it is great, because I was a Phillies fan in 1975 and they lost to the Reds in the playoffs approximately 1,290 consecutive times while I was a kid. The only Phillies game I actually remember attending from that era was a game against the Reds (regular season) which they won, and I was so excited. I hated Johnny Bench. I hated George Foster. I hated Sparky Anderson. I hated Pete Rose most of all (even when he came to play for Philly). And I love this book.

Tomorrow, we're heading up to Scary Cow's screening to see a friend's short film and cheer him on, but we'll see if I can't get some reviews up soon. Really been enjoying discussing books with people--"Un Lun Dun" and "The Magicians" specifically, but also some of my older favorites.

But I spent today finishing up edits on rikoshi's "Seventh Chakra," which is dang good, yo. So I'm doing a little bit of writing, a little editing, and I kinda feel like picking up a drawing pencil again... though I can't really top the commish Rolo and I got recently (yeah, you see the icon...).

Anyway, that's what's up wit da fox. How's you guys doin'?

I thought it'd be nice to listen to They Might Be Giants, so I cued up "Flood." I have fond memories of that album coming out. It's how I discovered them. A year or so later, the Tiny Toons Adventures crew did music videos for a couple of their songs: "Particle Man" and "Istanbul, Not Constantinople," which remain classics to this day (the songs, if not the videos).

At the beginning of this album, they sing the year it came out: 1990. Nearly twenty years ago. They might as well be singing, "OLD FOX IS OLD."

Yeesh.

Remember Tracy Jordan's meat sandwich from "30 Rock"? Well, um... http://consumerist.com/5342699/kfc-has-a-bacon-sandwich-that-uses-fried-chicken-as-bread

(It's also on Wonkette.)

(h/t mwinzi)

Disturbing night of dreams. In both I was a woman (not even a fox-woman). The first one was particularly odd, because it was the first dream I can remember where the dream was actively trying to keep me from waking up. I was filming a series of scenes in a subway. I remember there were four tracks but no center island, so to get to the cars in the middle, you had to go through the outer cars. And I would keep seeing glimpses of someone who looked like me in these other cars, or in other places in the station, but looking a little different: in different clothes, with shorter hair, etc. But then I would find myself with those same clothes, and at one point I had my hair cut. And then I'd be in those other cars or other places looking back and seeing myself as I'd been in the past. So it was one of those odd "I can see different times all mashed together" things.

I hate those. Being in them, I mean. I guess as a narrative it's kind of cool. But honestly I never thought of what it would be like to be IN one. So if you've never been in a time-compressed subway station where you could see your future and past all running past each other, then for your edification: it feels creepy and oppressive, like being trapped.

So I started talking to some of my co-stars and trying to figure out what was going on. They assured me that it was all normal, it was just part of the filming, and I should go on to the next scene. The more I protested, the more agitated they got. And then they went so far as to pull out a little kitten to make me feel better. I mean, come on. If you're having an argument with someone and they're losing and then suddenly they say, "Hey! Kitten!" in an attempt to distract you...don't you pretty much know something's wrong?

Plus, the kitten was not behaving cutely. It was hissing and scratching my hand. But I couldn't feel anything. And that was their mistake. (Ha! Dream-villains will always screw up like that, given the chance.) So I remember I was (for whatever reason) lying back on it as it was trying to claw at my back. And the guy in the room loomed warningly over me, saying, "It's not going to like that." (Like I couldn't figure that out.) And I said, "That doesn't matter because it's not...really...there!"

And with that, dramatically, I woke up. I was actually shaking all over and didn't want to go back to sleep right away because I was worried I would get trapped in the dream again.

But eventually, I did, and found myself in a more benign dream, though still worrisome, where Rolo's father (who was Rolo's dream-father, not his real father, and honestly it might not even have been Rolo, it was just "the guy I was with," and lest Rolo become jealous, let me reiterate that again, in this dream, I was a woman :P ) was choosing between two women and he had, for whatever reason, told me which one he was going to marry, but had asked me not to tell anyone. Including Rolo. Which I hadn't, but he figured it out pretty quickly when his father said he was going to make a Big Announcement and we should come along with him. Now, the two women were named Bambi (who looked kind of like Rachel Dratch from "30 Rock" in one of her "homeless woman" outfits) and Carrie, who was a more Catherine Zeta-Jones "successful businesswoman" type, and Rolo was muttering furiously to me, "He'd better have chosen Carrie, that's all I have to say." Because apparently Bambi had taken the kids (?) to the Old Spaghetti Factory, and Rolo did not like that. "How can you take children to a coffee house and spaghetti joint?" he said, incredulous. I wanted to ask him why he was 1920!Rolo ("spaghetti joint"?), but I was more concerned with the secret. As it turned out, his father did choose Carrie, and none of them tried to keep me in the dream by convincing me I wasn't dreaming. So I didn't have to lay on a kitten to wake up.

But man, I could really just use a good night of sleep.

There was a recent flap about Amazon deleting books from people's Kindles. Yeah, I'm not for that. But it got me to thinking: what if an author wanted to revise his/her books? Not like "George Lucas" revise, but correcting minor errors that bugged the hell out of him? And what if the reader had the choice as to whether to accept the revision or not?

Would that not be fairly cool?

It was raining this morning. o.O

(This is the Bay Area in August. That...doesn't happen.)

In a hopefully unrelated note, why is it that I feel hungrier on mornings when I don't work out?

I heard this on Garrison Keillor's Writer's Almanac the other day and really liked it:

A Friend’s Umbrella by Lawrence Raab

Ralph Waldo Emerson, toward the end
of his life, found the names
of familiar objects escaping him.
He wanted to say something about a window,
or a table, or a book on a table

But the word wasn’t there,
although other words could still suggest
the shape of what he meant.
Then someone, his wife perhaps,

would understand: “Yes, window! I’m sorry,
is there a draft?” He'd nod.
She'd rise. Once a friend dropped by
to visit, shook out his umbrella
in the hall, remarked upon the rain.

Later the word umbrella
vanished and became
the thing that strangers take away.

Paper, pen, table, book:
was it possible for a man to think
without them? To know
that he was thinking? We remember
that we forget, he’d written once,
before he started to forget.

Three times he was told
that Longfellow had died.

Without the past, the present
lay around him like the sea.
Or like a ship, becalmed,
upon the sea. He smiled

to think he was the captain then,
gazing off into whiteness,
waiting for the wind to rise.

“A Friend's Umbrella” by Lawrence Raab, from The History of Forgetting. © the Penguin Group, 2009.

How mathematically pure are you?

I am only 35% pure. Alas!

[Malin] We saw HP6 and enjoyed it quite a bit. I think the acting was really top-notch, better than in any of the other films, and I think I've discovered the secret to enjoying this movie. You have to look at it as part one of a trilogy (the last two being the two-part seventh book). Most of what goes on plot-wise that doesn't involve people snogging is prelude and setup for the last book, as opposed to the previous films, which were all fairly self-contained. So one of the more common complaints I've heard, that the climax isn't really a climactic climax, makes sense in this context. It's not. It's the inciting incident (film school talk) for the main story, which we'll get to see next year and the year after.

Rolo also commented that this could have been Draco's movie. I think he's right (he usually is), but I think we needed to see the relationships. It makes the characters more human and raises the stakes for the final battle.

The one thing I kind of regret is that they were unable to make Voldemort a presence the way JKR did in the book, even though he didn't appear in person at all. When he's mentioned, it's fairly off-handed, and we don't really see people living in terror of him (Slughorn excepted, but we didn't know him before, so we can't really tell). It would've been nice to see the Weasleys, say, being much more twitchy and paranoid; it would have been nice to see the scene with Snape/Narcissa/Bellatrix have a little more fear of the Dark Lord; it would have been nice to see Dumbledore imbue Harry with a bit more urgency.

The one plot quibble I have is actually from the book, so it's not a spoiler per se. But still, don't read on if you don't know the plot of the book.

( Plot spoiler )

Joyeux fete de Bastille! It's the French Independence Day, celebrated, like ours, on the anniversary of the symbolic toppling of a symbol of the repressive monarchy. If I told you that one of the anniversaries marked the date a bunch of middle-aged men sat around and signed a piece of paper, and the other marked the date of an angry mob toppling a prison, rioting, and setting fires, well, you probably wouldn't guess which was America and which was France based on today's stereotypes. How far we've come!

We are once again embarking on our traditional AIDS Walk San Francisco! It's Sunday, July 19th around 9:30 am in Golden Gate Park in SF. If you'd like to join us, drop us a line; if not, you can still help us out. We're walking as the Sofawolf Press team, and here's our webpage:

https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=302568&lis=0&kntae302568=AEEFB22847414E289B2B2C3571B54D90&supId=0&team=3447028&cj=Y

(ugly, ugly URL)

From there, you can donate to our team, or join the team if you want to walk with us. Even if all you can send us is good wishes, we appreciate that!

As of yesterday, I am the sole owner of the car I've been driving for the last few years. Hopefully it'll not take this as a sign to start falling to pieces. It loves me, right?

It was remarkably easy. The credit union that owns--owned--my loan has an office near my workplace, so over lunch I walked over, pulled out my checkbook, and said, "How much to close out the loan today?" The loan officer told me, I wrote him a check, and he said I'll be getting my title in the mail in 4-6 weeks.

Hopefully I'll have a good number of years left without a car payment. That'd be real nice.

Our neighbors on the left (as you face our house) sold their house a few weeks ago. They moved all their stuff out last weekend.

Our neighbors on the right are on vacation this week, I think. Haven't seen them since I got back Sunday, and their cars aren't in the driveway.

The roommates left for AC last night.

Rolo's in Colorado 'til Saturday.

I'm the only person in three houses on the street.

Which means that probably whatever you're imagining is going on is more fun than what actually is. :)

John Scalzi on the L.A. Times on "Don't Stop Believin'," which is one of our favorite Rock Band tracks now:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2009/06/29/somewhere-robert-christgaus-head-just-exploded/

For those disinclined to click through two links, here's the "whoa" paragraph from the L.A. Times story:

"Don't Stop Believin' " has become the top-selling digital download of a track not originally released in this century, selling 2,803,000 units since online single sales began to be tracked in 2003, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

David Eddings died last night.

I read the Belgariad on one summer break from high school, in between hot hours spent cleaning out our barn. I would often come back intending to take a half-hour break, look up, and find that two hours had gone by. When I got to the end of book four, which I thought was the last book in the series (come on, Tolkien only needed three), I was briefly puzzled by the fact that the story didn't appear to be over.

I still remember that series for the wonderful supporting characters. The story, the plot, even the world were fairly standard fantasy, but the characters crackled with life. Silk the thief, Polgara the sorceress, the others whose names have been lost to the twenty or so intervening years... they were alive and unique and wonderful, and I still keep echoes of them in my head when I write my own supporting characters.

Thanks, Mr. Eddings, for all of that. Safe travels.

Each year Malin and I participate in the San Francisco AIDS walk, one of the countries largest fund raising events for AIDS related causes.  We're planning on doing it again this year and we'd love to have some of our friends join us!  In these tough times I know it might be difficult to make a donations, but even if you can't donate please join us on the walk to show your support.  We'll be posting more information as the event gets closer, but if you're interested now drop us an e-mail and we'll start keeping a list.

-Rolo & Malin
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GENERAL INFORMATION
Q: WHERE/WHEN DOES AIDS WALK SAN FRANCISCO TAKE PLACE?
A: AIDS Walk San Francisco will take place on Sunday, July 19, 2009.  The AIDS Walk begins and ends in Golden Gate Park at Sharon Meadow.  Walkers should enter the venue at the intersection of Haight Street and Stanyan Boulevard to turn in their funds. Day-of-Event Map & Directions   

Q: HOW LONG IS AIDS WALK SAN FRANCISCO?
A: It is 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) and takes roughly 2-3 hours to complete.

Q: WHAT IS THE SCHEDULE OF EVENTS FOR THE DAY OF AIDS WALK SAN FRANCISCO?
A:
9 a.m. Sign-In opens in Mother's Meadow.  Walkers turn in donations, pick up fundraising awards, and receive their official 2009 AIDS Walk San Francisco walker button and AIDS Walk Guide.
9:30 a.m.  Aerobic Warm-Up
9:45 a.m.  Opening Ceremony in Sharon Meadow.  Live from the stage: community leaders, musical guests, and celebrity speakers
10:30 a.m. AIDS Walk begins!
12:30 p.m. Post-Walk concert and family entertainment in Sharon Meadow with live music and the announcement of the fundraising total for AIDS Walk San Francisco 2009!  The KidZone features a bounce house, face painting, and free carousel rides!

Why do sandwich places insist on putting mayonnaise on chicken salad and tuna salad sandwiches? Do they not understand that chicken and tuna salad are <i>made</i> of mayonnaise? :P It's like putting ketchup on pizza.

I mean, yeah, I don't really feel we need mayonnaise on anything, really, but I won't complain if it's on ham or turkey or something dry that, y'know, could use some mayo. Seriously, it's only a matter of time before they start putting butter on under the mayo. 

<Rolo>
Malin and I had talked about participating in the famous San Francisco Bay To Breakers 12K run for a couple of years, but this was the first year we were able to trick convince two of our friends, toob  & jakebe , that it'd be great fun!  So, on Sunday morning, May 17th, the four of us and 60,000+ of our closest friends descended upon San Francisco to partake in the 98 year old tradition.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the San Francisco Bay To Breakers run, it's both a world class 12K race (in which this years winner set a new world record), as well as a wild party that embraces all of San Francisco's outrageous, eclectic charm.  It's a four hour event that shuts down 7.46 miles of San Francisco with live music, costumes, nudity and ... running.  Folks that know me know that I enjoy a good party, but for this event the four of us decided to hang up our party shoes and instead wear our sneakers as we attempted to actually ... *cough* ... compete.  It was the first time any of us had participated in an 'official' race, and I'll admit I was pretty apprehensive.  At 8am sharp, under a shower of flying corn tortillas, we embarked on our first 12k run ...

Malin finished in 1:20:42.
Rolo finished in 1:13:14.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with Jakebe, Malin and Toob for not only taking the plunge and participating in their first physical challenging street race on one of the hottest days this year, but also in posting very respectable finishes!  After limping our way back to the hotel for a well deserved shower we found a local brew pub and sat down for some tasty burgers and beers, raising a toast to a race well run.  Although we're still debating the merits of running sans clothing, we're definitely planing on participating again next year.  You should too!
</Rolo>

Is there a new TV show out or something? There's like five consecutive entries on our friends list about "STAR TREK OMG AWESOME" ... weird, you'd think we'd have heard something about it.

I can't help but be amused at the fact that I will go out and walk 1-3 miles over my lunch break, yet when prepping lunch in the kitchen to take back to my cube 25 feet away, I will invariably overload myself and balance plates and stuff precariously so as not to have to make two trips.