05.01.08
Posted in Life, the Universe, and Everything at 2:50 pm by Ally Blue
My laptop, that is. He’s been with me nearly five years, every one of my published stories and books were written on him, and now he’s dead.
**sniffles**
So, now I have a new laptop on the way. Refurbished MacBook, 13.3″, white (because there weren’t any black refurbished ones), with Leopard installed. Oswald couldn’t run Leopard because he had the wrong chip, so I suppose this one will be better. But I loved Oswald. I miss him.
Ummm… I’m not a freak for loving my laptop in an entirely inappropriate way, right? Right???
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04.26.08
Posted in ponderings at 4:28 pm by Ally Blue
[/gratuitous-yet-appropriate-if-you-squint Radiohead lyric]
I’ve been thinking lately about unlikable characters. Or, well, not really unlikable characters as such, more like characters doing things that make you uncomfortable, or angry.
An example. Suppose Joe Hero is at work, and some of his coworkers are saying very ugly things about another coworker who isn’t there. Joe knows and likes the person being ridiculed (though they are not close friends), but is afraid to stick up for the person. Not for any big important reason, but just because he’s afraid of being made a target himself. So he joins in the ridicule a bit, just to make himself seem part of the group.
Hardly an admirable reaction, but a very human one. But this one incident does not fully define him. It is only one part of Joe Hero the Person. Maybe he volunteers at Meals On Wheels, or plays banjo at the nursing home every Saturday. Does his weakness in not sticking up for his coworker cancel out all his good deeds? Does it make him unworthy of love, or unworthy of our attention as readers?
I know we all want to love our fictional heroes, but isn’t there such a thing as too perfect? In order for a character to ring true, don’t they need to be as human as the rest of us? Don’t they need bad habits and distasteful personality traits? For me, they do. And I’m not talking about nail-biting or chewing with your mouth open here. I’m talking about the very real flaws we all have, if we’re honest about it.
So. What are you willing to forgive in the name of realism? Or do you like your heroes, well, heroic rather than average? I don’t think there’s any right or wrong answer to that question, btw; I think different people are going to see the issue differently, which is what makes life vivid and beautiful rather than dull. I’m just wondering what others think, so please share!
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04.01.08
Posted in contests & other such at 6:30 pm by Ally Blue
And now that today’s gratuitous Radiohead lyric usage is over, I have NEWS. My faery fantasy Fireflies is up for March Cover of the Month at author Erin Aislinn’s website! Yay!
Here’s how it works. Every month, she puts up four different book covers to compete as cover of the month. Each cover is featured for one week, then they all duke it out the next month for Cover of the Month title. Voting for the March Cover of the Month started today and runs through the end of April. When you vote in the competition, you are entered to win an ebook copy of the book whose cover wins that month. Soooo, if everyone goes and votes for Fireflies and it wins the March Cover of the Month title, one extremely lucky voter will win a copy of that book.
Easy, right? OF COURSE it is! So go vote for ME!
[/shameless self-promotion]
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03.28.08
Posted in Rant at 11:27 pm by Ally Blue
I am the only person in the whole world who can’t manage to embed a fucking YouTube video >_<
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03.27.08
Posted in random weirdness at 7:38 pm by Ally Blue
LOLOLOLOL!!!!
**falls over laughing**
God, I love spam 
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03.26.08
Posted in random weirdness at 7:34 pm by Ally Blue
What if your eyelids were transparent? Your eyeballs wouldn’t dry out, but you’d look like a damn freak and you’d never EVER get to sleep O_O
[/plot bunny attack]
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03.23.08
Posted in Life, the Universe, and Everything at 10:50 pm by Ally Blue
I wasn’t yesterday, after my “run”, so I decided I needed to work harder today. Oh boy. Bad idea. Everything HURTS now, dammit! On the up side, I trimmed 3 minutes 21 seconds off my time from yesterday, on the same loop. Time today = 44 min. 11 sec, pace = 13:38/mile. Yay for being a whole minute per mile faster today!
Hopefully by Tuesday, when I might have a chance for another run, my muscles and joints will no longer be screaming at me. One can only hope…
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03.22.08
Posted in Life, the Universe, and Everything at 7:23 pm by Ally Blue
Today I went out running for the first time in weeks. I kind of sucked. I was sloooooow, and I couldn’t run more than a minute or two at at time unless it was downhill. BUT, at least I did it. Three and a quarter miles of running some and walking a lot. Go me!
Time: 47 min. 32 sec. Pace: roughly 14.5 min. per mile.
Oy. It can only get better…
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03.20.08
Posted in Squee at 7:54 pm by Ally Blue
It is now…
**counts on fingers**
…57 days until the girl-child and I go to see Radiohead in Charlotte. SQUEE!! We’re on the damn lawn (thanks scalpers! you all suck diseased donkey balls!), but still. Major, major squee. This will be my third time seeing them, my daughter’s second.
New songs I am looking forward to hearing:
House of Cards
Bangers & Mash
Down Is The New UP
Reckoner
Faust Arp
all of them, really…
Older songs I really really hope they’ll play:
- Street Spirit
- I Am A Wicked Child (never heard this live, and DAMN I want to O_O)
- Airbag (please, guys! please please please!)
- Talk Show Host (again, PLEASE!!)
- Idioteque. This is a no brainer as they always play it
- Fog
- Like Spinning Plates
- How To Disappear Completely
- Creep. I will not apologize! I love the singalong aspect, I love hearing thousands and thousands of people all singing the same thing at the same time, and I REALLY love the inevitable person declaring “you are special, Thom!” at the critical spot
I am so stoked about going to this show! I love the atmosphere at a Radiohead show, the way you feel so connected to everyone around you. Plus it’s great mother-daughter bonding 
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03.16.08
Posted in Life, the Universe, and Everything at 2:53 pm by Ally Blue
Or at least that’s the idea. Heh 
Those who know me know I’m one of those on-again, off-again runners. I like the way running makes me feel. It relaxes me, energizes me, helps me focus. Sometimes I come up with some pretty awesome solutions to thorny book-related problems while running.
BUT… (and didn’t you just know there was a Big But coming *g*)
… I am easily swayed from the straight & narrow path. I get out of the running habit, and whammo, I’m a slug. Ick.
This time it was the flu. A solid week of 103 fever, hurting all over and hacking my lungs up. After that came a sinus infection, and just to put the diet chocolate sauce on the low-fat sundae of my recent weeks, I got a bladder infection. Argh!
Today is the first day in THREE FUCKING WEEKS I’ve had enough energy and been pain-free enough to exercize. And boy, do I have a lot of work to do to get my saggy carcass in shape again. I want to be able to run five miles like I used to before the last time I slacked off, and not feel like I’m going to die, and I want to be able to do it by mid-summer. Y’all have to kick my ass so I’ll be good and do it!
Many thanks in advance
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