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Thursday, January 7th, 2010


nelilly

1:00a
Telling Tales with Teeth by Stephanie C. Kincaid @ Everyday Weirdness

 “Daddy, I made a friend at school. Her name is Kelly.”
“That’s wonderful, sweetheart. I’m glad you’re getting to know people at your new school.”
“Kelly’s a vampire.”
...

See more of Telling Tales with Teeth by Stephanie C. Kincaid »


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makinglight
7:24a
We Await Silent Tristero’s Empire Nuku Nuku

A few lines from Wikipedia’s summary of the anime film TAMALA2010: A Punk Cat in Space:

The film is in a large part a cartoon cat version of Thomas Pynchon’s novel The Crying of Lot 49 […] It begins in Meguro City, Tokyo, Cat Earth, a world of corporations and commercialism, where a giant mechanical Colonel Sanders wanders through streets with an axe embedded in its head repeating an advertisement for meat over a loudspeaker.

(via Calamity Jon)

Also, looking over Pynchon’s page on Wikiquote has me determined to finally get around to reading Gravity’s Rainbow. Might need new glasses for Against the Day, though.

And hey, look:

“If America was a person, — and it sat down, — Lancaster town would be plunged into a Darkness unbreathable.” — Mason & Dixon (1997)

“If the U.S. was a person,” he later became fond of saying, “and it sat down, Columbus, Ohio would instantly be plunged into darkness” — Against the Day (2006)


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bpalmarketplace

[ lostillusions ]
1:34a
Farewell my lovelies...

Bad timing I'm sure but I've cut my collection down to just a few I really use. I've had some terrible luck lately in many aspects of my life and sadly haven't been able to keep up nearly as much as I used to with the BPAL community and I'm afraid that won't be changing for at least a little while :(

So beyond the sad news of having to part ways, at least for a little bit, I'm having a HUGE sale of the remainder of my collection...please take a look here: SUPER HUGE END OF COLLECTION SALE

Thanks in advance! ^_^

p.s. Finally got in the missing bottle of Proserpina from the BPTP circle...will be decanting and sending to those who were missing it.

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bpalmarketplace

[ enough_space ]
1:14a
More destashing!

Okay, so I have too much stuff I don't wear! This is a sad state of affairs. So my sale has been updated with things! Come take a look! As always, shipping is free and I always frimp, and I'll be going to the post office on Friday, so if you get in quickly you'll get your goodies quickly too.

On the chopping block: F5, Miller vs. Cali, Beaver Moon 2007, Tin Phoenix, Leo 2007, Flesh-Eating Reindeer, and a mess of cheap LE decants!

The sale is right here!

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makinglight
4:13a
The tastemakers of tomorrow

As further proof of Jim Henley’s boast that SF&F geek culture is the new mainstream, the NY Times has run an article about something bored role-playing gamers have been doing ever since the white box days: Packing dice together in odd configurations.

I look forward to the upcoming five-part series investigating the world of doodling on graph paper and quoting Monty Python.


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Wednesday, January 6th, 2010


cmpriest

8:56p
January 6, 2010

I’m still working like crazy, but still clinging to that New Year’s Resolution and writing every day. Sometimes it’s only a few hundred words, but I’m hanging in there. It’ll be a lot easier (and I’ll be a lot more prolific) when I’m out from under these Fort Freak edits. They are EPIC. And a little frightening. But they’re going to make for a huge improvement.

So! I think now’s the time to go ahead and debut the first word-metrics of the year, with regards to Hellbent — since that’s the only fiction project for which I’m composing new words at this time.* Ergo, voila. Here are this year’s stats on my second vampire adventure — this time with my sexy thief, her shady agent, a cigar box full of magical penis bones, a mentally ill former NASA engineer-turned-sorceress, and the continued fabulosity of a Cuban drag queen:

    Project: Hellbent
    Deadline: August 9, 2010
    New Words Written: 5421
    Present Total Word Count: 5421



    Darling duJour: “The busker leaned into the lyrics of ‘Yellow’ like each word was a hook he was extracting from his eyelids.”

    Things Accomplished in Fiction: Introduction; some recap from previous book; introduction of the weaselly but hilarious little agent; a rather alarming number of dick jokes.

    Things Accomplished in Real Life: Wrapped up a day-job project and received another one to replace it; did my usual run/exercise — at which I am seriously no good whatsoever, but I’m working on it; spent all afternoon plowing through “Remember the Rathole” on which I wrote one full new section and seriously amended two others; regretfully declined my fifth invitation to blurb a book this year - which is mostly notable because I don’t think I even got five requests last year (and usually I try to say “yes,” but I’m totally swamped right now); that’s pretty much it.

And because every time I start posting these stats again, a dozen people pipe up wanting to know where I got my word-stat bar — here you go. Get one of your very own, and tally away.

In other news, I suppose I shall leave you with a links round-up before taking a few minutes to just sit on the couch and drink cheap red wine for an hour or two because I BELIEVE I DESERVE IT. Ahem.


  • “Tanglefoot” reprint — Got word last night that Ann and Jeff VanderMeer are picking up my novelette “Tanglefoot” for their STEAMPUNK RELOADED anthology! I, for one, am tickled well beyond pink. I’m tickled … like … fuchsia or something. Excessively tickled, anyway. That’s for damn sure.

  • Chiarascuro reviews Boneshaker - As a matter of full disclosure, I used to review for these very fine folks. But I don’t read for them anymore, and I had no idea they were going to review Boneshaker, much less that they would like it.

  • Shiny Shelf also tackles Boneshaker - Poking it with a friendly stick.

  • See also, AdamChristopher.co.uk - Where Boneshaker is declared one of the site’s top “awesome and radical” titles of the year … right next to Stephen King, like I’m gonna complain about that.

  • This really did happen the other day - Though I wasn’t scared, just surprised. They shanghaied me in the midst of looking around for my missing husband; and frankly, I’m just not accustomed to being recognized, so it always throws me for a tiny loop when it happens. They were very cool, though!



* That’s not strictly true. I’ve written one new section for “Remember the Rathole,” (the Fort Freak contribution; and added about 2000 words here, there, and elsewhere in that manuscript. But I’m also removing a lot as I go, so it’s much harder to track.

[Crossposted to/from my website. If you'd like to comment, you can do so either here or there.]

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Thursday, January 7th, 2010


raaven

12:02a

15:03 URGENT: Support marriage equality by telling judge to televise Prop 8 trial. bit.ly/6cLxIm @credomobile @couragecampaign Please RT #

15:22 Clothing destroyed instead of donated: bit.ly/5Nmcht (link to NYTimes) (via @marahverse) #

15:32 Bottled honey shuts down California airport bit.ly/4qRrZm (via @BoingBoing) #morons #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

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Wednesday, January 6th, 2010


bpalmarketplace

[ passionera ]
5:07p
Bumping my Sales <3 LOWER PRICES!

BPAL Sales and Swaps

Shipping to US:
USD $5 (flat rate)
Shipping to Canada: USD $10 (flat rate)
Not shipping to other locations for the moment.
Sorry about the shipping... Canada Post sucks D=

Please spend at least USD $10 before shipping. I accept both CC and non-CC paypal. Please send the money within 24 hours.

I always add goodies to the packages, so please tell me if you have any allergies.

Swaps:
My wishlist is here: http://passionera.livejournal.com/9306.html 
I am currently very ISO Antique Lace, Good Omens (Wensleydale) and Stardust (Fairy Market, Lady Una, Tristran, Victoria, Yvaine) scents.

Prices Lowered! Harikata, The Masque, etc! )

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bpalmarketplace

[ sumeragiskank ]
7:53p
Updated sales

I have entirely way too much perfume, so I did an even bigger perfume box cut today and added some new things.

Updated sales post here

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netmouse

7:29p
Todd Lockwood, Melanie Delon, and Stephan Martiniere for Best Artist

I highlighted Todd Lockwood's work over the summer and as I review the Locus Directory of Cover Artists for 2009 I continue to find that his work this year holds its own compared to the work of other artists in the field. If you haven't seen it, I also encourage you to check out the detail of Todd Lockwood's Stormcaller from sketch to finish which Irene Gallo posted last year, with input from Lou Anders and Todd Lockwood.

Looking through the Locus directory I was also reminded that I really like Melanie Delon's cover of Libyrinth by Pearl North, as well as her covers of Alison Sinclair's Darkborn and Kirsten Imani Kasai' Ice Song. The covers that feature a single character and not much else are becoming more common these days and I think it might be easy to discount that work for lack of complexity, but to do so would be to overlook the question of how effective and provocative the artwork is. With so much focus on a single figure and face it is especially important to make those images strong and I think Delon does a great job with her portraits. I am unsurprised to find that her work has been featured for years in such collections as Spectrum (she had the Cover of Spectrum 16), Exotique, Exposé and Fantasy Art Now and she was selected to be one of the authors in Ballistic's masterwork series on how to do digital art.

Finally, I particularly admire the breadth of Stephan Martiniere's work this year. He has done a few of his now-familiar visionscapes (always framed with an interesting foreground piece), but he also did the quiet personal cover of Jo Walton's Lifelode for NESFA Press, and the stunning cover of Ian McDonald's Desolation Road for Pyr's reprint.

So far these are the artists I'm sure I'll be nominating for Best Professional Artist for this year's Hugo Award, and I commend them to your attention.



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sola

6:27p


I finally have a phone again; it's a miracle. The old one has been out of commission for eight months, so if I ever had your number, it's long gone now. Please to drop it in the screened comments. Mine is 347 217 4876, and i can even answer it now, though email/LJ remains the best way to get a hold of me unless i'm out.


It's a T-moblie G1, if you're curious; I join the decade mere months before it sails out. As it turns out, i don't like a physical keyboard as much as i used to. Ah, well.


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bpalmarketplace

[ lady_venn ]
3:49p
Sales/Swaps Bump!

Updated with new imps!


current music: Joe Hisaishi - Obake Yashiki! | Powered by Last.fm

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ellen_kushner

4:14p
Cycles: a New Year's Gift for You

WGBH (89.7 fm Boston & wgbh.org) is re-running the New Year's radio show I made:

Sound & Spirit for the week of Jan. 3, 2010: Cycles

As the calendar turns, many of us pause to reflect on the patterns that shape our year and our lives. Ellen Kushner examines the various passages in human life that mark significant changes, and how they are observed and celebrated in poetry, legend and music.

Listen to the program</strong>

(You can also hear it on demand any time by clicking through the alphabetical list of shows at the top of the page.)

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bpalmarketplace

[ khlela ]
1:05p
Sales Bump!

Lowered some prices Shipping and other details can be found in my whole sales post ~ HERE~

Thanks for looking!

- M -

Bottles - 5ml
Aelopile   (New, just sniffed) - $12.00
Berry Moon (New) - $16.00
Berry Moon (just under the label) - $12.00
CD: Melisande (approx. 2 decants left) - $5.50
Flower Moon (approx. 2 decants left) - $5.50
June Gloom (just under the label) - $12.00

The Coiled Serpant (New, just sniffed) - $15.00
The Deep Ones (a little over half full) - $5.00
Spooky: Resurrected (New, just sniffed) - $20.00

Imps/decants of LE/Discontinued/Unimpables/Aged
Cottonmouth - $3.50
CD: Doc Constantine - $3.50
Host of Air - $3.00
La Vague - $3.50
La Vague - $3.50
Lilith Victoria - $3.25
O (Aged, 2007) - $4.00
Snake OIl (March 2009) - $4.00
Splatter Comedy - $3.00
Splatter Comedy - $3.00
Splatter Comedy - $3.00
Tarot: Justice - $3.00
Tarot: Strength - $3.00
The Festival of Anuket - $3.00
Thirteen (March 2009) - $3.00
Thirteen (March 2009) - $3.00
Velvet Unicorn - $3.25


GC Imps/Decants $1.25 each
Ile De La Torture
Kitsune-Tsuki

TAL Decants - $4.00 each
Anthelion
Healing

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mrsobamafashion
6:52p
A Staple Suit

Image used with kind permission from Small Dog Electronics

I thought we could use a new post to tide us over until Mrs. O is back on the official first lady circuit in Washington. Though a bit after the fact, I recently received permission from a photographer to feature a photo of Mrs. O taken at a White House holiday reception on December 7. It's notable because it gives us another look at Mrs. O's Michael Kors gold lurex suit jacket and pencil skirt.

For those keeping count, Mrs. O has worn at least three of these Michael Kors suits, including the red silk shantung and yellow lacquered boucle versions shown below. It's interesting to see how different fabrics can take the same suit through various seasons.

Image by Rick Gershon / Getty Images

Photo by Mary Riley / Reuters


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bpal_feedback

[ enchanted_black ]
1:14p
Feedback for enchanted_black

LJ: [info]enchanted_black 
BPAL forum: neversatisfied
Ebay: witchypoo_13
Email (PayPal):  enchanted_black (at) yahoo (dot) com
Email (General): enchanted_black (at) yahoo (dot) com
Location: Williamsburg, VA
Transactions under cut )

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ratphooey

11:12a
OMGWTFBBQ!

OMGWTFBBQ the T-shirt!


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skzbrust

2:59a
Iorich – Spoilers

Place to discuss Your Itch.

Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.


nelilly

1:00a
Owl-Eyed by Lucas E Ahlsen @ Everyday Weirdness

It’s unnatural to discover a nocturnal creature in the cold sun. That’s exactly what I felt like when I saw an owl perched in an oak that January afternoon—a witness to the unnatural.
She stormed the ground, her talons open wid...

See more of Owl-Eyed by Lucas E Ahlsen »


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skzbrust

2:39a
TWoN Book 3 Chapter 5

p 392: “…every branch of trade in which the merchant can sell his goods for a price which replaces to him, with the ordinary profits of stock, the whole capital employed in preparing and sending them to market, can be carried on without a bounty.”

This is not the first time we’ve seen that phrase, “the ordinary profits of stock.”  But what, exactly, does it mean?  Smith appears to believe that, when money is productively invested, a certain amount of profit is natural and normal.  What determines this amount?  What is the percentage, and why?  For someone so precise in other things, this vagueness really stands out.  It goes back to his assertion, in Book 1, that the value of commodities comes from wages, rent, and profit.  In fact, that is how (most) of the value is divided after the sale, but it isn’t it’s source of the value.  There is no “ordinary profit of stock.”

Later, he makes another fundamental (thought perfectly understandable) error.  On page 397, speaking of corn (ie, grain), he says, “It regulates the money price of labour, which must always be such as to enable the labourer to purchase a quantity of corn sufficient to maintain him and his family either in the liberal, moderate, or scanty manner in which the advancing, stationary, or declining circumstances of the society oblige his employers to maintain him.”  And further down, “The money price of labour, and of everything that is the produce either of land or labour, must necessarily either rise or fall in proportion to the money price of corn.”

In other words, because grain is the staple food, it controls the price of labor, and the price of labor controls the value of commodities.  But even in his day, the cost or price of labor (wages), insofar as it was determined by the cost of necessaries the worker, was also determined by the price of wool, leather, furnishings, cotton, and all of the other things consumed by the worker.  Moreover, the value of a commodity is determined by the value of labor (measured in time), not the cost of labor.  Raising the value of basic necessities effectively lowers wages, but this does not change the value of those commodities (whether expressed in labor-time, money, or even grain).

Originally published at Words Words Words. Please leave any comments there.



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