sovay | Get those specs on me

Current Music: Lithics, "Specs"

Get those specs on me

I tried for the first time in my life to take a selfie with my phone. It is a flip phone. You can't see yourself when you're taking the picture.

I feel as though I have inadvertently reproduced the effect where a cat barges suddenly into frame.

My second effort came out looking more like a person.

What I could not get a picture of was the second necklace I am wearing, which

yhlee bought for me tonight. It is made of amethyst glass, freshwater pearls, and silver, wood, and bone beads; it is named something like the Nereid's Lavender and it was strung by

handful_ofdust. I feel I should write it a story.

All of my program items today went better than I had feared. The audience at my reading liked the two scenes I read from the work in progress which I am not talking about because I don't want to break it. The memorial panel on Le Guin could have gone for hours. The speculative poetry deathmatch was indeed kind of a trainwreck from my perspective, since writing timed two-minute poems to audience prompts—by hand—plays against all of my strengths, but it was a surprisingly fun trainwreck and at least I did not have to stop halfway through a word or a line. There were three sets of deathmatch prompts, in which each element was suggested by a different member of the audience. The first was "George Washington, geostationary orbit, dragons."

Nidhogg in Zero-G

However the cherry branches toward the sun
behind this glass where up is consensus
the lie at its roots
will always cut it down.

The second was "Drake (the musician), R'lyeh, can opener."

The aeons play at ducks and drakes with continents,
shift the sleepless sea that never dies.
Every book you read in this dreamed city
opens another can of worms.

The third was "scarecrow, used car lot, Lisa Frank stickers." My mechanical pencil broke at the start of this one, but I can't blame it for the fact that I couldn't make the origami image I wanted turn over in my mind fast enough—I had no idea what a Lisa Frank sticker looked like, so the moderator said, "Just think of unicorns," and I thought of Blade Runner (1982).

A man who can spin straw into a PhD
can send me home with a lemon
that unfolds into a unicorn.

And I successfully defended my position on Splash (1984) as regards the trope of "Born Sexy Yesterday," namely that the film doesn't qualify: Madison has to learn to navigate the human world as surely as the waters from Cape Cod to New York, but she is not naively, adorably, sexily childlike as she does it; she has experience, intelligence, and her alienness is a combination of plausible folklore and ways in which the human world is confusing. Sarcasm, raunchy jokes, gender coded by clothing, whether an episode of TV is meant to be upsetting or not. The panel not only agreed, an audience member tracked me down afterward at Meet the Pros(e) to compliment me on my impassioned argument and tell me I'd been the funniest person on the panel, which I was not expecting. I was not expecting to follow up on discussion from last night's Hollywood panel with a tenured professor of film, either. I gave her my Patreon link and am working on not feeling like an idiot. Meals have been haphazard, but the combination of hotel bar and green room has provided opportunity to catch at least a little of Torger Vedeler, Farah Rose Smith, and

rushthatspeaks. I spent the end of my evening observing the time-honored tradition of talking for hours with Michael Cisco.

I have an ARC of Forget the Sleepless Shores. It's beautiful. I have been showing it off to people. I have a late-night date with WBAI in August.

I am writing these things down to remember them, because they make me feel much less like I died out of my own life. I must figure out how to sleep.

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Aw, I'm glad it's going well, despite the lack of sleep. (May there be some soon! <3) I think you look like a person in both pics, although the second is definitely better.

I like your three deathmatch results, particularly the third for some reason. I hope the con weekend continues well!

I think you look like a person in both pics, although the second is definitely better.

Thank you! I am impressed all over again by photographers who could do decent self-portraits.

I like your three deathmatch results, particularly the third for some reason. I hope the con weekend continues well!

It has so far, actually! I have one panel left and I am trying not to jinx it. (I tell myself it will be the end of the convention and everyone will be punch-drunk; it'll be fine.)

The first picture reminds me of what people used to call the "Myspace angle". The second is much better.

I always thought the my space angle involved more cleavage.

The first one captures Sovay's gorgeous eyes better.

+1. I think the slantwise quality of picture #1 is more like the person I think I know from reading your DW.

(So glad others are recognizing your great qualities!)

+1. I think the slantwise quality of picture #1 is more like the person I think I know from reading your DW.

That's a really nice compliment. I squashed my initial impulse to respond, à la Sayers: all nerves and nose?

(So glad others are recognizing your great qualities!)

(Thank you!)

I was never actually on myspace, but blurry and slightly from above was what everyone told me the myspace selfie was supposed to look like. Both pictures have a cool person and a cool jacket, anyway!

I was never actually on myspace, but blurry and slightly from above was what everyone told me the myspace selfie was supposed to look like.

I am totally willing to believe it's an aesthetic, but I strongly suspect it was accidentally discovered.

Both pictures have a cool person and a cool jacket, anyway!

Thank you!

I really like my corduroy jacket.

The first one captures Sovay's gorgeous eyes better.

I stepped on Tiny Wittgenstein several times in order to respond to this comment.

Thank you.

You just send him my way. (It has long blown my mind that you walk through the world unaware of your visually appealing outer qualities, or at least incline to shuffle them under an entire deck of self-deflection cards. Which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do, but.)

The first picture reminds me of what people used to call the "Myspace angle". The second is much better.

Was the MySpace angle the initial result of incompetence? I did not think I had turned my face that steeply to the camera until I got a look at the picture.

(Thanks.)

Was the MySpace angle the initial result of incompetence?

It's possible! It was all pictures from an above angle taken by early 00s phone cameras, as far as I'm aware.

I love that second photo of you; are those con badges on your lapels? The necklace sounds gorgeous, as much to be tasted as seen and touched.

I'm glad that you're enjoying Readercon. Love the deathmatch poems (reading Nick Drake for the second, predictably!). I'd have liked to see the Le Guin panel - I'm about to read Tehanu for the first time.

Despite my best efforts, time isn't fast-forwarding to the release date of "Sleepless Shores". I'll just be here, scowling at the clock...

I love that second photo of you; are those con badges on your lapels?

Thank you! One is the sigil of NecronomiCon Providence 2017, which I got for being on programming last summer; the other is Radical Dreams' Black Lives Matter, which I have worn since the winter of 2016. I wear a safety pin in that lapel from the same time. On Friday, Steve Berman gave me a little pin in the shape of a rainbow file folder marked "Agenda," which I will put on my coat as soon as I figure out where it doesn't clash. I never put buttons on my backpack in high school or college, but apparently I wear pins.

The necklace sounds gorgeous, as much to be tasted as seen and touched.

I'll try to get a good picture of it! It is a long chain of rippling foam-colors and looks extraordinarily sealike for containing no blue or green.

I'm glad that you're enjoying Readercon. Love the deathmatch poems (reading Nick Drake for the second, predictably!).

I'm really glad you like them. It's still hard for me to see them as poems rather than composition exercises, but I think after a day I am proud that they came out as well as they did: I never write timed prompt poems. I still think it would have been nice if I wrote faster by hand.

I'd have liked to see the Le Guin panel - I'm about to read Tehanu for the first time.

I don't like Tehanu, but I think it was a necessary bridge to the later Earthsea material I do like. I know people who love it. I hope it treats you well.

Despite my best efforts, time isn't fast-forwarding to the release date of "Sleepless Shores". I'll just be here, scowling at the clock...

Oh! I forgot to link it! My collection has its first review on Goodreads! It's positive!

You look kind of catlike in both photos to me, maybe because T absolutely loves taking pictures of the tiny tyrant whose default expression when that happens is "Why are you pointing that thing at me?"

And I successfully defended my position on Splash (1984) as regards the trope of "Born Sexy Yesterday," namely that the film doesn't qualify: Madison has to learn to navigate the human world as surely as the waters from Cape Cod to New York, but she is not naively, adorably, sexily childlike as she does it; she has experience, intelligence, and her alienness is a combination of plausible folklore and ways in which the human world is confusing.

YESSSSSSSS. -- Did you ever read Animal Family by Randall Jarrell? I think you might like it if you haven't.

You look kind of catlike in both photos to me

Thank you!

Did you ever read Animal Family by Randall Jarrell? I think you might like it if you haven't.

I did—it was the first thing I ever read by Randall Jarrell—and it has a very good mermaid. I loved that book as a child.

I actually quite like that first picture. True, it's a little blurry, but then the second is blown out or close to it, and -- I dunno; it just feels more bland than the first one. I get more personality off the first, and if some of that personality feels a bit feline, well, that seems only fitting. :-)

I get more personality off the first, and if some of that personality feels a bit feline, well, that seems only fitting.

Thank you. [edit] I just got home and sat down on the bed to talk to

spatch, who has been sick, and Autolycus planted himself purring on my lap and would not let me move until he had had a chance to cover me with colony scent and fine black fur. So I think my affiliation is very clear.

Edited 2018-07-15 22:59 (UTC)

We are all terribly shocked to hear this. :-)

We are all terribly shocked to hear this.

"Your ~~winnings~~ cat, sir."

Agreed! I quite like the first one, including the slight "What is this thing pointing at me...?" effect. It looks equal parts feline and Doctor Who-ish, to me, and full of character.

It looks equal parts feline and Doctor Who-ish, to me, and full of character.

Thank you!

+1 to the Whovian tinge.

+1 to the Whovian tinge.

rushthatspeaks did once knit me a very long scarf.

I think you would have violent itching reactions to Lisa Frank anything, it being not a all your palette or your aesthetic and also full of dewy-eyed anthro-animal cuteness, but I like the photographs herein.

Child is over-stimulated by Lisa Frank. You know, the child that never stops moving. Ever.

Now you have banana yellow and fuschia kittens to show Autolycus and Hestia. I hope they rebuff the idea on principle.

It sounds like a lovely con. I like the catlike photo just as much as the humanform one, but then, I also take a lot of catlike photos.

Are you doing WBAI in person, or remotely? Inquiring potential hosts want to know. :)

It sounds like a lovely con.

It really was, and I had been braced for it not to be. I would prefer to have come home and slept rather than come home and had just as horrifying insomnia as before I left, but the weekend itself was really nice.

I like the catlike photo just as much as the humanform one, but then, I also take a lot of catlike photos.

Thank you.

Are you doing WBAI in person, or remotely? Inquiring potential hosts want to know.

In person. August 22nd into 23rd. Will you be in the city?

In person. August 22nd into 23rd. Will you be in the city?

I will! Do you already have where to stay?

I will!

Yay!

Do you already have where to stay?

It will be simplest if we can stay with my mother's cousins in Brooklyn, but if we can't, I will let you know.

If we can, of course, I would still like to plan to see you.

If we can, of course, I would still like to plan to see you.

I support this plan!

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