Business as Usual

My inbox is back down to 140something, which is better than it was before I left. 1000something was too many, so I made cleaning things out a priority this weekend. Along with cleaning and orders.

Orders are out! All except 3 are mailed! Those 3 should go out tomorrow! My poor shiny car groaned under their weight when I drove them in this morning. Okay, maybe it didn't. I did.

I have many plots and plans. Delicious plans.

Art and Authoring

I did get some art time while away, but precious little. I hope to get right back into it, and in pursuit of that, have made some major studio rearrangement...

Home and Health

Studio deconstruction started this weekend. One full shelf unit was emptied and removed. My heatpress has been put in storage. The space remaining is SO much nicer and more open. And the shelf unit that was removed means I can move my filing cabinet to that space, which will transform my studio from narrow aisles squeezed between tall things completely crammed with stuff into an actual, factual ROOM. It meant throwing away (or giving away) much stuff that I have been holding onto without using for years and years and years: Paper types I haven't used in ten years. Pens that may or may not work but aren't archival. Life drawing sketches. More paper I no longer use. Chipped rulers. Dried paint tubes. More paper I don't use. Rag t-shirts that I don't need for cleaning off the heatpress anymore. Paper I paid a freaking fortune for that I just don't use. Shoe insoles that somehow got filed in with art supplies (don't ask!). More damned paper. Boxes I thought I'd re-use for shipping and never did. More paper... It's crazy. I would offer to mail it to someone, but it's almost all large format and freaking heavy. It probably wouldn't be worth mailing from Alaska.

I still have several more shelves to go through, and then I'll be setting up an easel and doing some painting. I will also be ordering some new art supplies once I've determined where my gaps are and what has sadly expired. I was gosh darned serious about doing my own artwork again, by gum.

In other news - if you are a pedestrian on a busy, shoulder-less street before sunrise wearing ALL BLACK, for gods sake, walk opposing traffic! And wear something reflective! A dark-dressed pedestrian scared the spit out of me as I was driving in this morning - I didn't see them until I was nearly on top of them. They were followed almost immediately by two moose, also wearing no reflective markings! Come on, you moose! Dress for visibility!

Planning

Oh, hmm. I sort of covered this category above. More specifically, I'm at work now, and may have to babysit tonight (I am a bad, bad aunt and do not want to at all - largely due to the alternatives, which include gourmet salmon dinner...), should work out, and have much, MUCH to do with many projects.

Also, I seem to have agreed to dance a bellydancing routine with Liz and Jennie. I am not sure how this happened, but I'm positive it had something to do with that bottle of wine...

Linking

Lots of people are posting this, although I'm not sure how many noticed it originally said resolutions for 2009... I edited mine and am sharing it because I felt it was particularly guffaw-worthy and pointed. Bad grammar aside.

We met this fellow, who seemed as contented as he looks distinguished, amid the ruins of the Temple of Hercules:





There's a great deal of material in Jordan, and I believe there's a good deal of money to be made, in a photo book with the title, Cats Amid the Ruins.

I stopped writing letters to Salon years ago because I was worn out by the trolling. This time Salon doesn't even offer a letter section. I'm thinking it's a good thing they didn't.

Back on March 22, 2004, they printed an article called "The confessions of a semi-successful author." It told the sob story of an author whose first sale drew a whopping $150,000 advance, only for her career to spiral downward from there (that is, if you consider awards and critical acclaim with $35,000 advances "spiraling").

Salon reprinted this same article on December 7, 2009.

I realize that it's a sobering look at publishing and all that, but we would have been better served as readers with an update on said miserable writer. Five and a half years is a long time. Things have changed even more dramatically since she whined the first time around, what with the market crash and all the tweeting of the Intertwats. (Her daughter, by the way, wins for wisdom. Her comment about making the NBA was true. I hope her mom truly took it to heart.) And -- GASP! -- she had to take a job! Has this changed her attitude and given her any perspective? That's the real follow-up. (Although, Charlie Simpson does a bang-up job of dissecting the original piece and explains what really happened. Thanks to Bel Wilson for the link.)

Reading the article again, it sent me back to Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet." Writing is a vocation, a potentially thankless calling, and expecting a fiction writing career to support one is unreasonable. Some talented -- and many completely untalented -- writers get hit by the comet, but a great many worthy writers don't. Too many stars have to align and it simply doesn't happen for all of us. I know many talented writers who have to do side jobs to stay financially afloat, or who, like me, have another, steadier career that's more lucrative to support the less lucrative one. I have less time to write but I can do so comfortably with a pension in my future.

In fact, I have two writing careers. I'm a well-paid, award-winning writer in my day job for one of the best-known and best-loved brands in the world. In my other writing career, I'm a talented smart ass who makes very little and hasn't won a Stoker. I'm not sure where the snobbery came in that says the less lucrative job with the iffy awards is somehow better, but I think I'm doing just fine.

I love writing fiction. And I'll keep writing, even if bitches don't give me a damned Stoker, a steady income or anything else. I do it because my love of words overflows my heart and the ideas hammer their way out of my skull. (Or they use dynamite. Usually in the middle of the night.) I'm truly fortunate to do it as well as I do.

And here I go back to doing it.

As if it wasnt bad enough that the city of SF is trying to "fine" the diocese 14 million dollars for changing the name of the holding company that owns the properties in the city... now we have this
http://www.bishoploriblog.org/
in case i copied the wrong bits, basically? the church is being held responsible for the supposed actions of a lawn maintenance man...... who also did lawn maintenance for the church.

so because he cut grass for the church, among many other clients, the church is somehow responsible for anything he did.....
oh yes, and the "victim" later recalled (after the lawsuit about the lawn guy) being abused by a priest in the parish.... that he never attended....

oh, and can he be cross examined? no, he died. the suit is being brought forward by his estate.

Today, we went up to the Amman Citadel at Jabal al-Qal'a. We shared a cab with one of the field school students, with whom Anne had a long conversation about Jesus. The cab driver knew considerably more English than they first thought, but held his peace.

The remnants of a cyclopean temple, believed to be dedicated to Hercules -- with whom the Ammonite Milcom is supposed to be associated -- stand on the acropolis. A man outside the Roman theater -- down to which, as late as the nineteenth century, there used to be an enormous monumental staircase -- told me once that Hercules killed a lion there once. I pointed out to Anne that it was not all that long ago that we'd have smelt the blood and fire of sacrifice there. Now it's a ruin, part of which was used to build the Abbasaid watch tower nearby.

Not far from the temple, behind the present museum, is the vast Umayyad complex. A Spanish team excavated much of it and rebuilt a dome over the monumental entranceway. The building was erroneously called by nineteenth century explorers the Tomb of Uriah, after Solomon's mother's father whom David treacherously had killed outside Amman. It's a beautiful structure, befitting a tomb. Of course, the masons had much more knowledge of arches than any Iron Age Israelite did.

And of course we visited the National Museum. It's always thrilling to me to see so many inscriptions related to our religion's past. Fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Deir Allah inscription which describes Balaam (of talking ass fame), the Balua stone with its frustratingly enigmatic pictures and eroded text . . . And of course all the other interesting artifacts, from the Ain Ghazal figurines and the Jericho plastered skulls to the brazenly pornographic Umayyad brazier and exquisite arabesqes.

As I told Anne, walking about examining ruins is one of my favorite things to do -- no doubt dating back to my parents taking my brother and I to castles as a child. I was amused when I got back to ACOR and saw that much of the report on the temple of Hercules was written by our co-P.I., Dr. Najjar.

Friends,
Went to dentist, not the one who died last week, another one,
and he immediately found three cavities but none that seem to
account for the headache in ear ,likely sinusitis then as I have
always tended to have. Good to have gone though in spite of
recent exam from Dr Ackerman since it seems, understandably
considering he was about to die, he missed some things...

Just a couple of photographs to share I guess ...
Here is one from yesterday, St Nicholas in Cohoes New York, in
which is blessing of icons painted by memers of a parish icon
painting class. ( Read more... )
and secondly a picture of a pond outside the library last
evening...and as always welcoming all your response
I am yours
+Seraphim
.

Amanda really didn't want to get up this morning. She said that her legs were too tired. After some yelling and spraying from a water bottle, I got her out of bed. She sat at the table while I put some cereal and a glass of milk in front of her.

I went into the kitchen to make my tea. Amanda said she wanted to go back to bed. I told her to eat her breakfast. Amanda said that her stomach hurt. I told her that it would feel better if she ate something. Amanda said she felt like she was "gonna barf". I told her that if she barfed, she could go back to bed.

*insert sound of child barfing*

It took her a while to stop. I had no idea her little tummy could hold so much. I used a bath towel to clean it up, and put it in the washing machine along with her jammies. She got a bath, clean jammies, and put back into bed.

She seems better now, and is awake and hungry, but she's not going to school today.

Have you ever been so exhausted in the morning that you were in physical pain? I feel like a train ran over me. If there is one thing that would make my life better, it's a nap...but this job if 40 hours a week, good luck with that. I can barely concentrate on anything much less the jobs that come in.

Ok guys. Here is the deal. I am 31 years old, never married, no kids,Catholic from birth, spent 7 years or so in high school/college doing the standard "Organized Religion is Silly!" bit, and then came back to the ONE TRUE CHURCH and even spent 2 years in the diocesan seminary after that, which I suppose was really an attempt to try to figure myself out more than anything else.

I have been out of the seminary for over three years now, have watched the day-to-day "practice" of my faith sort of slowly be reduced, although the actual "dogmas I believe" haven't changed: I am settled on what I believe about the world, and I am intellectually convinced that the Roman Catholic Church has the monopoly on objective truth and that's really not going to change. I direct the music at Mass every Sunday (so I attend), and I do my best to keep up on what's going on in the Church, at least on the internet, but the overwhelming majority of the real meaningful friends I spend my time with are all atheists and agnostics and I consider myself I pretty active member of their social crowd, although not in agreement about their worldviews. As I have sometimes said to new people I meet, my orthodoxy is pretty unquestionable, even if some of the ways I spend my time don't seem compatible with it.

And for the first time since I've left the seminary, I find myself rather unexpectedly dating a pretty orthodox, practicing Catholic woman who I really like and who is compelling me to do a little more with my faith. Who knew? All of a sudden, all the "let's really get involved with the Catholic Church" stuff is on the top of my head again and I'm suddenly finding myself attending bible studies and "Soup-with-sister"s, and praying before meals in a restaurant and going to the local adroration chapel at weird hours, all these things I used to do but haven't in a long time, stuff that's neither unfamiliar or unwelcome, and I feel like I'm sort of falling back into the Catholic Church for the second time....

The point, the question, is, there seems to be two ways you can go if you want to participate, want to join a community of active practicing Catholics: you can either be a right wing, "let's hold graphic photos of aborted fetuses along a public street" person, or you can be a communist who wants to get martyred in El Salvador. Either way, you're kind of a pain in everyone's ass and no one really wants to talk to you, and I don't really feel drawn to either extreme. I guess there's a third option, the "parent of children at the parish elementary school who volunteers at the fish fry," but having no kids of my own, that's sort of non-applicable. So what do I do? I'm too old for the "young adult" stuff, I guess, and I'm too young for the "people who clean the pews on monday mornings" crowd, too, and nonetheless, I am all of a sudden really feeling a pull to be "part of the community of the Catholic Church" and I just have no idea what that means anymore.

Anyone got any thoughts for me?

This is going to be one of those "last-minute" christmasses, I can tell.

I just registered for a January class called "Confuscius and Aristotle on Ethics."

Take what you will from that.

eta: also this is the course description for the other january class I'm taking, an English class on England in and after World War II.

This course will focus on a short but intense period in British literary culture, examining writers who addressed the experience of World War II in its immediate aftermath to raise questions about national belonging, nostalgia, religious faith, the growth of state institutions, and the spread of mass culture. We’ll read novels by Elizabeth Bowen, Graham Greene, and Evelyn Waugh, essays by T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Alan Sillitoe, and related critical and historical pieces.

You know, there are some days I think that the exclusion of the Inklings is deliberate...

Oh, wait, I think that all the time. STILL: GRAHAM GREENE!

http://www.shortpacked.com/d/20091207.html

... Because he's done one or two sermons on the subject in the past :D

I hath tweeted:

• 13:31 Down from over a thousand emails to 192. Woo! #
• 14:38 Sold out of Odd Fish Oolong and Kachina Chamomile! Ursula's tea sets are now unavailable. #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/photos/lefthand.asp

Photograph purportedly shows Barack and Michelle Obama saluting the U.S. flag with their left hands.

Hi everyone,

I'm new to this community and I suppose looking for a little guidance. I was raised Protestant (United Church of Canada) and have been very active in my church since childhood. In my early 20s I taught Sunday School and was involved in youth ministry. My faith is definitely important to me.

I am marrying a Catholic in June (yay!) and we are having a Catholic ceremony. Before I even met him (over 6 years ago), I attended mass on occasion with a couple of Catholic friends and I really loved it. I now go occasionally with him and his family, and we attend Christmas Eve mass together, etc. Truthfully, I do not feel much of a difference between my Protestant beliefs/experiences and Catholicism. My belief is that we are all Christians, and in both churches I feel that I am with the same God, I am with followers of Jesus, I am content and comfortable in both situations.

My future husband and I intend to raise our children Catholic, and I'm perfectly fine with that. We just finished our marriage prep program and it has got me thinking a lot about converting. We hope to have children quite soon and for some reason, I am bothered by the idea that my whole family will be confirmed Catholics and I'll be the odd person out. Even if I attend mass with everyone (which I would), and do all of the ordinary things...I can never fully participate and I envision a lingering feeling of always being an outsider. This bugs me.

I know this is a decision only I can come to, but I guess I just wanted to talk to someone about it. I don't feel like the conversion itself will do much to me spiritually; I already feel like my beliefs and my faith are strong. My conversion would really be more of a technicality and convenience for me, which I'm sure people would say are the wrong reasons to convert. However, it feels right to me that our family be all of the same faith - wouldn't it just make life easier?

Did any of you marry a Catholic and convert from your Protestant denomination? Do you think this issue is important, or should I let things be and go to mass and "be Catholic" without technically going through the conversion process?

And down go the Dallas Cowboys, for a season sweep.

Only a SuperBowl tastes sweeter than a victory over the hated Cowboys. Once again, as in the playoff game at Dallas two years ago, all the talking heads picked Dallas, and once again all the so-called experts were wrong. If anyone had told me yesterday that Tony Romo would complete 41 passes and Eli Manning would complete 11, I would have figured the game for a Dallas blowout... but if anything, the final score should have been more lopsided in favor of the G-Men. The last Cowboys TD was a gimme in garbage time, and earlier in the game our Steve Smith let a sure TD catch go skipping off his hands. The keys to the victory were a pair of amazing plays, a catch-and-run by Brandon Jacobs, and a punt return for a TD by Domenick Hixon. You'll see them on the highlight reels this evening.

Will the G-Men make the playoffs? Well, they have a chance now... but the road ahead still looks pretty damn rough, with the Iggles next week and the Vikings at season's end. But for this one week, at least, life is magical and full of joy.

Pretty amazing week in the NFL all round. Evil Little Bill and his P-men were upset as well, the Saints had a close call and an amazing win (has Dan Snyder fired that kicker yet?), and the Raiders knocked off the Steelers with Bruce Gradkowski doing his best Kenny Stabler imitation. Things are getting really interesting.

And Dallas faces the Chargers next week. Maybe I won't need to kill Pat after all.

(P.S. Flozell Adams is a thug, and may be the dirtiest player in the NFL).

When I announced that I had sold a short story, someone guessed the editor and the anthology correctly, so there is no point in keeping it secret longer.

Here is the tentative line-up

"Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine's Day," Tori Truslow
"Lucyna's Gaze," Gregory Frost
"Crow Voodoo," Georgina Bruce
"Lineage," Kenneth Schneyer
"Eyes of Carven Emerald," Shweta Narayan
"Hell Friend," Gemma Files
"Your Name is Eve," Michael M. Jones
"Dragons of America," Stacey Hirons
"The Gospel of Nachash," Marie Brennan
"Braiding the Ghosts," C.S.E. Cooney
"Murder in Metachronopolis," John C. Wright
"Fold," Tanith Lee
"Where Shadows Go at Low Midnight," John Grant


Jimmieny Christmas! I am going to be in a SECOND anthology with Tanith Lee! w00+! I am sure she is ashamed of being seen with me, as I am pleased with being seen with her.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/12/what-i-plan-to-do-this-week.html

Write.

Walk the dog. (Seen here being walked by me half an hour ago. I was not wearing special protective warm clothing. It was remarkable.)

Not go onto the internet except occasionally to email people things they are waiting for.

Sleep.

Posted via email from Neil's posterous

Friends,
Back from weekend visit to St.Nicholas church in Cohoes
New York just north of Albany. It is a beautiful church
with a sort of jewel box quality which Orthodox churches
can have sometimes have. Here is a picture from the
choir loft which gets the general view.( Read more... )
And here is are a couple of others in which I appear...
In the first the icon of St Nicholas on a stand in front left.
( Read more... )
It is remarkable about St Nicholas how,although really all
we know certainly about his life is that he was a bishop in
Myra in present day Turkey in the 4th century, the stories
about him spread and grew, centering on his practical help
to people and standing with them in need, with sailors helping
them clear the rigging in a storm, with unjustly accused people
standing with them in court, appearing with money for a poor
man needing it for his daughter...to be there beside the other
is already a miracle perhaps,as Simone Weil says people wait
for the freeing question addressed to the Fisher King in the
old Grail stories ..."what ails you uncle?" for a question out
of real care as to what it means to be the person we are...a
rare question and a freeing one... well in any case perhaps
this standing with the other is at the center of the continuing
spread of the stories of St Nicholas.
And after liturgy today and a wonderful festive meal there was
a perforance by the children of song and instrumental play
ranging from "Jesus Loves me" to Beethoven...and then a great
surprise! St Nicholas himself appeared! I was in awe of a man
who has been a bishop 1600 years longer than I and looking so
well, and he brought gifts for all the performers. Picture
at end of post.
So today these and as always I am yours welcoming all response,
+Seraphim
.
I am to St Nicholas's right. to his left Fr Alvian Smirensky,
and the rector Fr.Terenti Wasielewski.then Victoria Serbalik
parish president. Some children who sang and played.