Well, yesterday's plans slightly changed. Instead of heading back home after the dry cleaners so I could do some bloggy stuff and comics sorting, we decided to take off for The Westchester, a mall in White Plains, to test out the GPS and get Robin some slippers at Clark's (alas, not the selection he'd been hoping to see). We had a ball at the mall, even though we had to pay for parking. It was kind of reverse slumming; the advertising isn't kidding about the marble and carpeted floors, commissioned sculptures and upscale stores. It has four levels including the food court, where I ate the absolute best food court sushi meal I've ever had, during which I glanced at the nearby Ben & Jerry's kiosk and happened to remember that I had a B&J birthday club card among the stuff I carry with me in my pocketbook that I usually don't even think about, so I dug it out and got a free ice cream cup (mint chocolate chip, yum)! Here are a couple photos I took, first of the seasonal hot-air balloon decorations suspended from the ceiling:
And here's the Santa area:
We walked way too much and I returned too exhausted to sit at the computer, but once I did I was delighted to see some nice e-greetings (for which I thank Kathy Pearlman, Tony Isabella and Valerie D'Orazio), good wishes in the comment section of that morning's post, and kind mentions by Laura, Bryan and Michael Netzer on their blogs. And wow, look at what Mike made for me!
Thanks to everyone for the smiles you brought me yesterday. Also special thanks to Fran and Jim at CNI, I had a blast at my IRC birthday party which ran pretty much all last evening, from about 8 to 11 PM. Maybe virtual parties are the best; less cleanup! I can't tell you how cool it is to hear your name (and birthday greetings) on the radio, and hear yourself being talked about by the hosts at the same time as they're chatting with you. And I got a line on some cool software, as the CNI gang is full of techies - I highly recommend the Firefox-compatible Chatzilla program for browser-based IRCing!
In keeping with the birthday theme, here are some presents I wanted to share with y'all, in the form of blog postings I've saved over the last few days:
• Neil Gaiman reminds us about one of the reasons we - at least I - blog: "You forget the things you were certain you would always remember, especially the tiny things, and all too often they're the things that matter." I'm currently preparing our annual Riggs Residence Roundup insert for our holiday cards, and my blog entries are invaluable for jogging my memory on things I want to relate to friends and relatives about what we've done this past year, as well as things on which I know I'm going to look back with great fondness and say, to paraphrase Lennon, "that was the life that was happening whilst I was busy making other plans."
• Apparently the Firedoglake folks, whom I no longer read since their dismissive hand-waving towards bloggers who dared question them about their use of blackface and the all-white Clinton blogger meeting in Harlem, are putting their feet in it again. Perhaps nothing good can come of a blog hiring a press secretary, it seemed to me when it happened that making a move like that was all but begging to be tripped up. Anyway, this latest flap has to do with an FDL blogger using rather rude epithets (the "C word" and the somewhat milder "W word") to describe radical reactionary female pundits that he didn't like, and - as seems to be standard at FDL, and tends to exacerbate the faux pas being discussed until it turns into an actual attitude problem - subsequently dismissing and even mocking criticism of same, along with his cobloggers. Lots of food for thought in reactions from Zuzu, Melissa, Piny and Lance. Update: Donna weighs in with her collection of commentary on this, and is kind enough to wish me a happy belated as well; thanks Donna!
• DC Comics' proposed Minx imprint, and all the startup money being used to launch it, has a lot of female bloggers talking about stuff I've mentioned previously, such as the apparent indifference to not only what genres girls and young women currently enjoy (such as fantasy) but how many of them want to read stuff done specifically by women (i.e., people who had conceivably experienced the same emotions and longings in their youth that these girls are going through now). As was made pretty clear in the Writing the Other panel I moderated at Heroes Con all those years ago, it's a lot easier for the Other to write (and draw) the Default than vice versa. Here are observations from Heidi and Colleen which name names, giving lots more suggestions for potential writers and artists than I gave a week ago. Just shows you how rusty I get once I'm no longer maintaining that Women Doing Comics list!
• Speaking of Colleen, she's starting to reprint "The Perils of Colleen" on her blog, about lessons she's learned in her professional comics career. Here's part one, about the need for due diligence on potential publishers.
• Andrea Rubenstein (aka tekanji) has been running a fascinating series on girl gamers, the Gaming Beauty Myth, at her blog Shrub.com. Here's part 1 (the intro), part 2 and part 3.
• Two weeks later, Valerie's still reeling from the reaction her "Goodbye To Comics" series has engendered.
• Tom Peyer has changed the name of his group blog from Superfrankenstein to Beer and Meat, and added a female blogger at long last, Lauren Walker. I'm terribly jealous.
• Gary's EBOG Productions presents Kosmo Kramer Kapers!, and Jenn is fed up with Gwen and her Harajuku fixation.
• Mark Evanier passes along ICQ Christmas greetings throughout the years. Alas, my ICQ keeps crashing now, but I haven't been on it in ages.
• Your obligatory Digby reading for this blogaround: Killing the bear, about the lizard-brained need for revenge that tends to doom us all.
• Teresa points out yet another reason why I dislike the culture of blog advertising - the way buying into it gives permission for whole new industries to spring up that pay writers to post on forums and other venues in an effort to artifically boost those sites' ad revenues. Oh what a tangled Web we weave when to blog ads we accede!
• Kieran notes, "The number of people who sincerely believe they do not have an accent is quite astonishing." Not to me. My brother Gene used to insist that people from NJ like us didn't have any discernable accent because we spoke "broadcast English," which opinion never held much with me (particularly when I majored in English and linguistics in college).
• Lastly, Newsarama's got some Manhunter #26 pages up online - three inked by our buddy Rod Ramos, then two inked by the regular guy, my beloved Robin (whose 45th birthday is this coming Wednesday, don't forget!).
Liberal Coalition blogaround coming later today, after I do a bit more catching up...
And here's the Santa area:
We walked way too much and I returned too exhausted to sit at the computer, but once I did I was delighted to see some nice e-greetings (for which I thank Kathy Pearlman, Tony Isabella and Valerie D'Orazio), good wishes in the comment section of that morning's post, and kind mentions by Laura, Bryan and Michael Netzer on their blogs. And wow, look at what Mike made for me!
Thanks to everyone for the smiles you brought me yesterday. Also special thanks to Fran and Jim at CNI, I had a blast at my IRC birthday party which ran pretty much all last evening, from about 8 to 11 PM. Maybe virtual parties are the best; less cleanup! I can't tell you how cool it is to hear your name (and birthday greetings) on the radio, and hear yourself being talked about by the hosts at the same time as they're chatting with you. And I got a line on some cool software, as the CNI gang is full of techies - I highly recommend the Firefox-compatible Chatzilla program for browser-based IRCing!
In keeping with the birthday theme, here are some presents I wanted to share with y'all, in the form of blog postings I've saved over the last few days:
• Neil Gaiman reminds us about one of the reasons we - at least I - blog: "You forget the things you were certain you would always remember, especially the tiny things, and all too often they're the things that matter." I'm currently preparing our annual Riggs Residence Roundup insert for our holiday cards, and my blog entries are invaluable for jogging my memory on things I want to relate to friends and relatives about what we've done this past year, as well as things on which I know I'm going to look back with great fondness and say, to paraphrase Lennon, "that was the life that was happening whilst I was busy making other plans."
• Apparently the Firedoglake folks, whom I no longer read since their dismissive hand-waving towards bloggers who dared question them about their use of blackface and the all-white Clinton blogger meeting in Harlem, are putting their feet in it again. Perhaps nothing good can come of a blog hiring a press secretary, it seemed to me when it happened that making a move like that was all but begging to be tripped up. Anyway, this latest flap has to do with an FDL blogger using rather rude epithets (the "C word" and the somewhat milder "W word") to describe radical reactionary female pundits that he didn't like, and - as seems to be standard at FDL, and tends to exacerbate the faux pas being discussed until it turns into an actual attitude problem - subsequently dismissing and even mocking criticism of same, along with his cobloggers. Lots of food for thought in reactions from Zuzu, Melissa, Piny and Lance. Update: Donna weighs in with her collection of commentary on this, and is kind enough to wish me a happy belated as well; thanks Donna!
• DC Comics' proposed Minx imprint, and all the startup money being used to launch it, has a lot of female bloggers talking about stuff I've mentioned previously, such as the apparent indifference to not only what genres girls and young women currently enjoy (such as fantasy) but how many of them want to read stuff done specifically by women (i.e., people who had conceivably experienced the same emotions and longings in their youth that these girls are going through now). As was made pretty clear in the Writing the Other panel I moderated at Heroes Con all those years ago, it's a lot easier for the Other to write (and draw) the Default than vice versa. Here are observations from Heidi and Colleen which name names, giving lots more suggestions for potential writers and artists than I gave a week ago. Just shows you how rusty I get once I'm no longer maintaining that Women Doing Comics list!
• Speaking of Colleen, she's starting to reprint "The Perils of Colleen" on her blog, about lessons she's learned in her professional comics career. Here's part one, about the need for due diligence on potential publishers.
• Andrea Rubenstein (aka tekanji) has been running a fascinating series on girl gamers, the Gaming Beauty Myth, at her blog Shrub.com. Here's part 1 (the intro), part 2 and part 3.
• Two weeks later, Valerie's still reeling from the reaction her "Goodbye To Comics" series has engendered.
• Tom Peyer has changed the name of his group blog from Superfrankenstein to Beer and Meat, and added a female blogger at long last, Lauren Walker. I'm terribly jealous.
• Gary's EBOG Productions presents Kosmo Kramer Kapers!, and Jenn is fed up with Gwen and her Harajuku fixation.
• Mark Evanier passes along ICQ Christmas greetings throughout the years. Alas, my ICQ keeps crashing now, but I haven't been on it in ages.
• Your obligatory Digby reading for this blogaround: Killing the bear, about the lizard-brained need for revenge that tends to doom us all.
• Teresa points out yet another reason why I dislike the culture of blog advertising - the way buying into it gives permission for whole new industries to spring up that pay writers to post on forums and other venues in an effort to artifically boost those sites' ad revenues. Oh what a tangled Web we weave when to blog ads we accede!
• Kieran notes, "The number of people who sincerely believe they do not have an accent is quite astonishing." Not to me. My brother Gene used to insist that people from NJ like us didn't have any discernable accent because we spoke "broadcast English," which opinion never held much with me (particularly when I majored in English and linguistics in college).
• Lastly, Newsarama's got some Manhunter #26 pages up online - three inked by our buddy Rod Ramos, then two inked by the regular guy, my beloved Robin (whose 45th birthday is this coming Wednesday, don't forget!).
Liberal Coalition blogaround coming later today, after I do a bit more catching up...
0 comments:
Post a Comment