interesting things

While you folks are thinking about Worldcon

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And arguing about Hugo winners, I will continue with my lifelong quest to be behind the times by posting… San Diego Comic Con photos!

Most people see a person in costume and ask them to pose for the picture. Which they do. Me, I liked taking pictures of them while they were looking at their watches, impatiently waiting for a pal, or sitting in a corner for a rest. What I wanted most was a picture of a cosplayer eating one of those sandwiches out of the plastic clamshell, or maybe a hot dog, but it was not to be.

Candid!

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But here’s one picture that’s not candid:

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Yeah, that’s me posing beside a poster for the book

You can see pictures of my panel, my signing, and the people at the con by skimming through the set.

If you value your sanity

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do not watch this

Part of me hopes it’s fake.

Five things for a Friday

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1) For those who missed it, I posted the first chapter of Child of Fire on my site yesterday. You can read it here. If you like it, tell your friends. If you hate it, tell your enemies.

2) Woman getting married to fairground ride. According to the article, she says she has “objectum sexuality, a condition that makes sufferers attracted to inanimate objects.” I avert my gaze as I hurry past the obvious joke there.

3) “Nurse of the Year” in Connecticut, who gave injections and dispensed medical advice, not actually a nurse. Remember, all failures of private industry are individual cases, but all failures within a government program reflect badly on every government program.

4) Drug buyers call the cops on their own dealers. Not because they were ripped off or because the drugs were bad. It was because the dealers were setting up squirrel traps in the park where they operated, and taking the fresh meat home at the end of the day. The drug buyers didn’t like that and dropped the dime on them. Fun note: When I first moved to Seattle, I lived very, very close to that park. It’s a beautiful place. via matt-ruff

5) I’ve always had trouble remembering faces and recognizing people, but man, I have nothing on Ryan O’Neal.

Missed the Lego Panel yesterday…

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The line was long, long, long. They were giving away free stuff, and it was a Star Wars-oriented panel, so that’s not surprising.

I made it to today’s Brick Journal panel, though, so that worked out okay. I have a bunch of photos of new/about to be released sets, some pics of old-time sets that were never released, including a Napoleonic War set and Prohibition-era gangster set.

I also bought three new sets to bring back with me.

Still not reading my f-list. At this point, I’m going to log off, read a while until my friends catch up to me here, then bolt out of the convention for the rest of the day. Maybe I’ll even (*gasp*) get some writing done.

eta: So far I’ve seen two actor-type celebrities (outside booths where they sign pix for a fee: One was Adam Baldwin being very guy with a lot crowd of admirers and the other was Matthew Gray Gubler in a wheelchair (with a brace on his knee) having his picture taken with fans.

eta, part 2: While I was waiting for my friends, Amanda Palmer sat at my table to get a couple things done before she rushed off to another event. She was fangirled a couple times, and I took a picture of her and a fan with the fan’s camera.

7/19/09

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Buzz Aldrin, rapper.

This. Is. Awesome.

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Turn fast food take out into beautiful food!

seen via blackhanddpants

Changing the (pop) culture

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A Hollywood producer writes–undercover of anonymity–about sexism in her industry. It’s interesting stuff, but here’s one of the many money quotes:

I heard a male agent once say that if the heroine of a script didn’t face higher stakes, he couldn’t see how someone would emotionally invest in her. OK, so the character is never chased to the edge of a cliff or anything, but plenty of successful movies exist with mediocre stakes.

Was anyone ever truly emotionally invested in whether Owen Wilson got it together in “Wedding Crashers”? It could be argued that the stakes of our movie were at least as high as learning to act like a grown man when you are one, so what gives?

Women in Film — We’re Not There Yet (Don’t bother with the comments.)

Three visual items

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First:  Seattle pranksters/vandals have been altering billboards around town.  For instance:

Hee.  See more.

Second, Jonathan King, the director behind the hilarious and underrated BLACK SHEEP, has a new movie coming out.  Check out the trailer.

Third, a buddy dropped me an email pointing me toward these short romantic comedies.  The series is called Turbo Dates, and they’re terrifically funny.  Start with “Potion.”  Seriously.

Rather than

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Rather than struggle with Man Bites World for a moment, I’m going to post some links.

1) The 15 Creepiest Vintage Ads of all Time. Some of these have been circulating for a while, but there’s some all new, all disturbing images there.  Via eeknight.

2) Bamboo Bikes from Zambia.  Too cool.

3) Ten Ways to Take a Bad Author Photo.  Pretty funny.  I used my author photo on the front of my Facebook page.

4) The only part of the NY Times Book Review section I read religiously is the Crime Section, but there’s something about Marilyn Stasio’s style that annoys me to no end.

A question to consider

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I was idly reading through Jim Butcher’s message boards when I came across a statement I hadn’t heard before. He said that epic fantasy, as a genre, has very good legs. That is, compared to other genres, it continues to sell fairly well long after publication date.

True? Not? What do you think?