Camilla: You, sir, should unmask.
Stranger: Indeed?
Cassilda: Indeed, it's time. We all have laid aside disguise but you.
Stranger: I wear no mask.
Camilla: (Terrified, aside to Cassilda.) No mask? No mask!

The King in Yellow (Act II, Scene ii)

Regnat non regitur qui nihil nisi quod vult facit

My executive producer and my co-writer spent the last week in Westport, Connecticut conducting a series of tours designed to show off our pilot project.

Results were mixed, though generally positive.

We discovered some unanticipated issues with the attention span of passengers watching on-board video versus just looking out the window.

So, as we seem to do every month, we completely changed what it is we do and how it is we do it.

( Wherein our author whinges mightily )

I think I'll buy a kilt and a barn full of rum.

For all the words of encouragement and well-wishes and most of all the prayers, thank you.

I start Monday.

Full medical/dental/vision/401k. Good pay. Bonus program.

In a room with three other writers. Ground-up company that has enormous financial backing, impatient customers, and enough backed-up work to keep us in kippers through June.

Thank you.

Deo gratias.

I have been unemployed now since All Saints Day, November 1. My state unemployment claim has been denied, so as of this moment I have officially zero income.

OK, that's not quite true. I've been doing some odd publishing and layout contracts, but this is not going to pay the mortgage. Or the wedding.

So I've been going to Tulley's every morning, just to keep a steady routine. They've got a conference room with a great view of the Tacoma streets that I'm using as my own private looking for work office.

I've also been doing a lot of work on Cruenti Dei. I seriously underestimated the amount of work these maps would be. I've got two more difficult ones to do, and then a handful of easy ones, similar to the sample posted.

Come hell or high water, the rule book is going to the printers on Saturday.

For your pleasure, some links to make your day shine.

Lovecraft computer games

Adopt a penguin

Steampunk Dalek

The Castaigne Collection

... and therefore I believe the President and Vice President of the United States must be impeached.

This Saturday, Freighthouse Square is hosting Tacoma's first annual literary convention: Tacoma Word!

We'll be there all day, representing Sardarthion Press and Pilgrimage House. You won't be able to miss us: the table will be half Lovecraftian horror and half Catholic spirituality - the darkness and the light, together again.

I'll be signing copies of both The King in Yellow and Three Black Ravens, so come on down!

... and therefore I believe the President and Vice President of the United States must be impeached.

(Whatever is said in Latin sounds profound)

Two people have now asked me about the use of Latin on my journal.

Since that's a sizable percentage of the readership (possibly half), I thought I'd better address it. Here several reasons. Take your pick.

• I'm a mediævalist. I like old things.
• I'm a Roman Catholic. It's our language, even if we don't use it much.
• I love the sound and elegance of the language.
• Did I mention I like old things?
• I am, in fact, a pretentious git.

Is there anything finer on a blustery day than a cup of tea and a good book?

It has been a trying week. On Thursday, I gave a presentation to the Pierce Deanery Principals for which I had been preparing nearly a month. It was just a bit stressful, as Principals are taught in Principal school the fine art of the stony, blank expression.

Only one of them actually engaged, and I later discovered that he wasn't a Principal at all. He was, in fact, assistant superintendent of Catholic schools for the archdiocese. I can't venture an opinion on the Principals, but this fellow was convinced.

To relieve a bit of pent-up stress, I took Friday off and worked on Cruenti Dei. This is not nearly so decadent as it sounds, as I'm only actually paid for 30 hours a week, and I'd passed that mark on Wednesday evening.

The (final) rules draft for Cruenti Dei is done. Now I'm waiting for some illustrations and working on the maps. Stat sheets are next. I'm most emphatically not looking forward to doing those. I'm also studying up on the Little Ice Age. Tremble!

After receiving several earnest inquiries from people (chiefly my relatives) about wedding registries and such, I've added a Paypal button on the right hand side of this journal. There's really nothing we need, of course, but this gives those who wish to give us a gift an opportunity to do so.

(Parenthetically, it also makes it slightly more unlikely that we'll end up with nine mis-matched candlesticks.)

Wedding planning and preparation continues apace. Many details were sorted out last Saturday, and I'm extremely grateful to those who attended. I actually feel like this is going to come off, now. Invites are at the printer, and the various committees have set down to their work. My list, finally, looks manageable.

Yesterday I attended an LMI class at the chancery in Seattle. More on this program and my ongoing formation soon. But not today. The classes are, by and large, utterly fascinating. Reminds me, I need to get some homework done.

In the evening, Francine and I had dinner with Fr. Bryan at Paddy Coyne's downtown. It's the closest thing Tacoma has to a proper pub, since E-9 lost its soul.

I can't go to Paddy Coynes without being reminded of Droyne, for reasons obvious perhaps to several old Traveller hands here.

Somehow, I missed reading Gaiman's "A Study in Emerald" until just yesterday. Ah, what a fool I've been.

Quote of the day: "The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: instead of altering their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views, which can be very uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that need altering." (Doctor Who - who can tell me the episode?)

First, your meme of the day, courtesy of literary_equine :


Am-I-Dumb.com - Intelligence Test

That's 24 out of 25 correct. I wonder which question I got wrong?

We'll move on now to the geeky Church news portion of today's entertainment. Never mind Catholic / Orthodox rapprochement (a thousand years of schism can't be wrong!), it seems the Russians are upset with Constantinople (that's Istanbul, for you young Turks out there). I blame Estonia. If they'd only converted to Unitarianism, none of this would have happened.

And as I've long suspected, the Pope really is crazy like a fox. I won't bore you with his other chess moves (they're mostly liturgical), but for those who thought this would be a transitional Papacy, Benedict is increasingly making Pope John Paul II look like he was the transition.

And when did BBC stop capitalizing God?

On a more personal note, my schedule has really screwed up my praying of the Hours. I'm trying to fix that, but it's been a struggle.

Meanwhile, wedding plans are the chaos that wedding plans apparently always are. Still, we've finally got another planning session put together, so that's a good thing.

My plans for continued employment with Catholic schools in Tacoma is collapsing like a startled soufflé.

Plan A is proving a difficult sell - a month I've been on-and-off working on a presentation to the Principals and Pastors, and it only started coming together yesterday in any meaningful way. Trouble is, the plan only makes financial sense if you assume that the goal is to (eventually) open several more schools. It's rather difficult to get these folks to that view, when their paradigm is built on "can we afford to stay open for another year?"

The demographics support twelve or more schools where we currently have seven, but I don't think I can get them to look that far ahead.

Plan B is increasingly looking unlikely. The Archdiocese just hasn't budgeted for the position I'd fill.

Plan C involves sending out résumés. This, I started yesterday. Looks like Frank Russell is looking for a FrameMaker guru. Why not?

Oh, and my laptop finally died. There went my savings account.

Cruenti Dei continues to stumble on towards the starting line. I'm very pleased with amphigori's illustrations. I still haven't seen anything from badhairs , which doesn't surprise me given his life situation, nor from starkad67 , which is quite worrying.

I'm still trying to get up to speed on Campaign Cartographer 2 - I'm was hoping to have these maps done pretty quickly, but it's proving more difficult than I thought. I may have to go with hand-drawn maps. Not my first choice, but I'm trying to work to deadline, here.

I did get the Preview PDF put together, complete with a couple of illustrations and a silly little sketch map. amphigori's Wenemet sketch makes the whole thing worth downloading, though for the final masterpiece, you'll have to purchase the rulebook when it's available.

Speaking of which, the rulebook is pretty much done, except for the tables and the illustration inserts. So that's something.

Did I mention I've been really busy?

I've also not been sleeping very well for the last few weeks, something that I seem to share with a number of people on my friendslist. I suspect that R'lyeh may be poking its wee head above the waves. I've also been having quite the surreal nightmares. Interestingly, I've not been to Carcosa in a while.

TTFN!

As of orientation day yesterday, Visitation is at 172 registered students, with four additional students pending contracts and another handful in-process but unregistered. Both Pre-Kindergarten classrooms are full. Full! Laudate Dominum!

This is a tremendous success, achieved in only two years, and I'm pretty darn pleased about it. I recognize that this was not all my doing - nowhere near it in fact. This was the result of the hard work and prayer of an entire school community. My job was simply to mold parents into evangelists for the school and keep them on message. Ora et labora indeed.

And now, I'm taking a short holiday. I've four days off for the Memorial day weekend, and I intend to take it.

Just working like crazy. Doing what I did for Visitation Catholic School for Holy Rosary School.

And what exactly have I done for VCS? Well, our PK-8 June 1 2006 enrollment number was 118; for June 1 2007 it was 141. Right now we're at 152, which is just five shy of where we ended last year, and we still have the prime August recruiting season to go.

As of this morning, our Pre-K at Visitation is full at 18 students, and our satellite Pre-K at St. Ann stands at three students. Now, you might think three isn't such a hot number, but most Pre-K and K registrations typically happen in August. This time last year, our main Pre-K stood at five, and we ended the year there with fourteen, plus nine at St. Ann.

Did I mention our Pre-K at Visitation is full?

I think what I'm trying to say here is woo hoo!

In lieu of actual content, here are some news links to keep you amused.

The shame of 'Hello Kitty'

Reincarnation in China now requires a license

The Cardinal who said kaddish for his mother

Sardarthion Press gets a makeover

Enjoy!

(... and therefore I believe the President and Vice President of the United States must be impeached.)

The madness that is the second-to-last week of school, with its graduations and field day gyrations, has given way to the collapsing soufflé that is the last week of school.

I'm feeling much better about life in general, and the stress level has noticeably dropped. It hasn't quite dropped to the Summer Holiday level, but it's hovering right near the Now, What I Was Supposed to be Doing? level.

Some time in the next month, I rather suspect it will be at the Sangrias on the Patio level, a state of affairs to which I look forward with no little anticipation.

The weekend was gardening in the rain, followed by gardening in the sunshine. The fig has been joined by an olive. In between, there were Irish (sic) pubs and gawdawful fish and chips at a place that should probably stick with pizza.

I don't think I mentioned it earlier, but I built fully half of Piazza della Pistachio on Memorial Day, just so we would have some place to put the grill.

Today is my last day of staying late at work.

Due to bugetary issues, my employment contract with Visitation Catholic School has not been renewed.

We're trying to sort out whether my last day is end of June or end of August.

This was, bar none, the most challenging and personally satisfying job I've had, and I will miss it greatly.

If anybody's looking for a writer, layout person, designer, or really whatever, let me know.

Today was a crazy busy day at the school. Not only did we have our Friday all-school Mass this morning, we also awarded honors certificates after Mass, held tryouts for the school talent show mid-day, and had a student-council assembly in the afternoon.

I'm pooped.

Tomorrow evening is our gala school auction, our major fund-raiser for the year. Our more casual "family" auction, held last Friday, raised almost 40% more than last year. This is utterly fabulous, and I can only hope and pray that tomorrow will bring more of the same.

It's a sad fact of life that Catholic schools need to raise money. The tuition we charge doesn't begin to cover our costs. Since most of our students are from working-class families, they're strained paying what we charge now. Over a third of our families have some sort of financial aid.

We don't get money from the State or the Feds or the Archdiocese, except in the form of grants, which are unpredictable at the best of times.

Our teachers are paid about 90% of the public school standards, although I know of at least two who have waived that and voluntarily taken lower pay. And all of them spend their own money on materials for their classroom.

So I guess what I'm saying is, please pray (or send good vibes or whatever you're comfortable with) for the success of our auction tomorrow.

Thanks.

Well, "Klara" is out the door again, this time to Glimmer Train.

As I told someone recently, she's got more rejections than the Titanic has ice cubes. Now that I've got an agent telling me she does not suck ostrich eggs through straws, I'm a little more enthused about sending her out again.

I did a couple of minor edits that I think strengthen the villain Svejk a little and give a little more atmosphere to the Clock interior. We shall see.

Last night Francine and I had the perfect Geek Date™. After fish and chips at a new place on St. Helens, we talked writing and gardening at Doyle's, and finished the evening next door at King's Books* for an execrable poetry reading and to browse. I know Patrick, the owner, and we chatted a bit about writing and the latest news.

Francine today is off to get one of the kittens to the vet for a checkup and to schedule a spaying. Then she's heading to Kent to hang out with some knitting buddies.

I, on the other hand, am going to All Saints in Puyallup to our Junior High's last basketball game of the season. They're (miraculously) 4-2 right now, and I feel like I should see one of their games.

Afterwards, I will find a lovely café and write.

Now for the shower.

---

* The sign is yellow. I am not making this up.

A week ago today I was running a fever, every organ in my body ached, and I was loopy to the point of delerium.

So I stayed home from work. In the middle of the dreaded Catholic Schools Week.

Since then I've worked most every day, including our open house on Super Bowl Sunday®. I haven't managed to shake the plague, so I'm working from home today. So far, I've actually done quite a bit. There's something wonderful about working in one's jammies.

Plus, I'll eat an actual lunch. Crazy.

Catholic Schools Week is over for another year.

Now, perhaps, I can have a life again for a bit. And kick this cold.

More when coherent, but our open house today was splendidly well attended.

I came to work yesterday, though once again there was no school due to ice on the ground. Growing up in Chicago, where an overnight foot of snow wasn't enough to close my high school, I am consistently amazed at how little winter is required to shut down western Washington.

There was no heat in the building. By noon, I was shivering so hard that it was difficult to work with Adobe InDesign - the mouse was just shaking all over the place. My Principal, the only other person working in the building, took me to lunch. We didn't get back until about 4:00PM. Fortunately, I'd e-mailed the advertisement to the newspaper before we left.

This morning, it snowed again. Initially, we were going to open two hours late. I got the cancellation call when I was already on my way to work. Today, though it was just me and the janitor, at least the building was heated. I updated the web site and worked on some more details for Catholic Schools Week - I'm assuming that we won't get another Ice Age between now and then.

The bus slid all over the road on the way here, so I stuck it out until midafternoon in hopes that it would get a little warmer. This strategy was only marginally successful. Home now, and desperately trying to warm up. Hmmm. Perhaps some tea...

In one bit of spectacularly good news, Senator Barack Obama has formed a Presidential Exploratory Committee. This can only be good for the state and level of discourse in this country. It's 1968 all over again (hopefully sans assassination this time).

So I spent the morning waiting for the guy from ADT to come and upgrade our house alarm system. This he did, though it took rather over two hours, during which time he set off the REALLY OBNOXIOUSLY FRICKIN' LOUD alarm system, in various configurations, for five or ten minutes at a time.

I have a crazy splitting horrible headache.

The original plan was to head into work at this point. I'm going to give it a go, though I'm still fairly ill (and did I mention the headache?) but only because we're at the end stage of this stupid annual report that I'm supposed to get to the printer tomorrow. I'm only missing two bits of data, but attempts by e-mail to procure them have thus far failed.

Looks like I need to go in and rattle some cages. Huzzah.

But at least the alarm works, and I know how it works.

I called in sick today because my body is in PAIN. I mean, my toes hurt.

Today be o' courrrse Interrrnational Talk Like a Pirrrate Day, and a bottle of rum!

Me? I'm prrreparrrin' a rrreporrrt ferrr th' school commission and then rrrunnin' o'errr t' th' vessel t' adrrrop anchorrr at th' arrrrrrival o' local Russian deliverrry swashbucklerrr Andrrrei (cash only, please), and a bottle of rum!

Pirrrate Trrranslatorrr

It's the first day of school. We had no less than three priests at our opening ceremony this morning, something I'm told hasn't happened in thirty years.

For Victoria, tomorrow is the first day of school. She'll be in the castle for the first time. Her hair will be red.

My son Tristan, the graduate, was on the front page of The News Tribune yesterday. They spelled his name wrong, but there was a very cool photo on the print edition.

Today is the feast of Saint Maximilian Mary Kolbe. I was reminded that, had my daughter Victoria made the mistake of being born a boy, his name would have been Maximilian Josef.

In other meanderings, I was pall-bearer at my grandmother's funeral. It turns out that the woman I knew as Florence Janowski had been born Slavomira Sufleta. Apparently her first grade teacher couldn't pronounce "Slavomira" and decided that she "looked like a Florence". So there you go. I could probably say something profound about the names we wear, masks, and identity, but frankly I'm not capable of such higher brain functions just at the momement.

I worked most of Saturday flogging the school, and we gave out over 500 helium balloons with brochures attached. Several were let loose into the air by the children (and adults) holding them, so I'm hoping that somewhere in south Tacoma, a brochure from our school has literally fallen from the heavens on to someone who needs the information. I've got 13 callbacks set for this afternoon.

My laptop is currently winging its way to Cuppertino for repairs, so several projects for work and pleasure (Hârn, anyone?) are on hold for the moment.

It's almost 1:30 - I should find some lunch...

I'm looking for some local Tacoma-area folks with strong backs and a pickup truck to help me move some school desks from St. Ann Parish to Visitation Catholic School on Friday, August 4th.

The total distance between the two is less than three miles. This should only be for a couple of hours.

Thanks!

Quite a busy weekend, best evidenced by the fact that I'm only writing about it on the following Thursday.

Friday evening jaynefury and I saw the latest X-Men opus. It was, as the saying goes, not horrible. It did make me want to see the other two, which I had been avoiding. Thus, the past two nights have involved the DVD player, a comfy chair, and mutations galore. What impressed me most about the films, I think, is that the third is very neatly a complete inversion of the first.*

On Saturday we headed up to Seattle's FolkLife festival with Victoria, gaelfarce, pi_radical, and singing_barista and her James sans LJ. Before we left, I checked three different weather services, and each gave completely different forecasts. Hot? Cool? Raining? Sunny? They all said something different.

Odd thing was, they were all correct in turns. I took off and put on my jacket and sweater so many times, I could feel myself burning calories in the effort to maintain a constant body temperature and surface moisture.

So. Drumming, dancing, eating, and watching folks prance around with bells, sticks and waving hankies. Good times.

Sunday after church was some major Hârnination. A combination of transporting a large rock, various peoples prosecuting a Kaldoric civil war, and the odd insane Sheriff proved a nearly lethal trifecta for the players. I'll try harder next time.

Monday was a day of errands oft neglected, though we had a nice dinner with singing_barista and her James.

Meanwhile, at work we continue moving towards the hectic end of the year, preparing for next year, and dealing with a new pastor (a swell guy, but not yet arrived) and a new principal (not yet hired). No stress there. Huzzah!


- - - - -
* Islands on opposite coasts, curing mutants vs. mutating everyone else, and lots of other things I can't quite remember just now.

Here's why:

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_052406WABtripmoneyEL.1bc6a5df.html (may require free registration)

I'd love to get a copy of the video, which apparently was the first story on the news tonight.

Because, yes, I work here!