chris t

One of my most favorite bands right now is SF-based 20 Minute Loop, who I've listened to constantly and haven't yet been able to catch in person. They're headlining Bottom of the Hill tomorrow, and after reading their myspace I found out it's their last! show! ever!

Which is as they say 'a real mixed blessing'.

also i'm playing dragon age and it's a very long video game

DNA Lounge update, wherein there are some photos.

Today was Friday the 13th! Oooohh!
Nothing really unlucky happened to me. I didn't think it would. I'm not superstitious about these things.

The Metreon has an event tomorrow for the launch of Tony Hawk RIDE. I can't make it, though.

There was an Anime FX meeting tonight, but I missed it.

This weekend is the finale for the San Francisco Film Society's Animation Festival. I'm going to miss out on Musashi: Dream of the Last Samurai.

if [ `gconftool-2 -g /desktop/gnome/background/draw_background` == true ]; then gconftool-2 -s --type bool /desktop/gnome/background/draw_background False ; else gconftool-2 -s --type bool /desktop/gnome/background/draw_background True ; fi

I made that up and put it in a metacity hotkey. Now I can hotkey toggle the desktop image. I made the background color under the image black. Sometimes I'll be working on the middle screen with a movie playing on the left screen that I'm half paying attention to, and I want to watch some part of it (no time for the whole thing!) on the middle screen, sans distractions. If it's very dark, say like some popular vampire love story, then even the desktop background can be like headlights shining on me from the side screens, drowning out the visuals. Now I can get rid of it temporarily. I like how it fades in and out, too. It feels pro. I used to just turn off the side monitors, but that felt lame.

( Sometimes old muse is still the best muse... )

love her.

I'm reading Brian's macroeconomics textbook from college (thanks Brian). Here's an example illustrating the notion of substitute goods that I found pretty striking.

Apparently in the early 90s the Federal Aviation Commission was considering a new regulation requiring parents on airplanes to buy separate seats for their infants and strap them into safety seats. This would reduce infant fatalities in the event of plane crashes. They ended up not passing this regulation. Why? Because they concluded that the significant increase in the cost of air travel for passengers with infants would result in more such passengers driving instead of flying (we're talking about domestic travel apparently), and there are way more fatalities period from highway travel than air travel. So although this regulation would have reduced the number of babies dying in plane crashes, it would have increased the number of babies dying in travel accidents more broadly.

I like this example because it reminds us to keep looking for costs and benefits to weigh even when we've found one particular cost or benefit that seems really significant. There might be overriding factors somewhere else.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/very-sekrit-passphrase.html

There were 38 independent bookshops around the land who had Graveyard Book parties. The people at Harpers somehow got it down to 11, and they sent them to me to judge the winner. The winner gets me for a signing in December. I watched the 11 videos/descriptions/ photos. I watched them again. I watched them yet again, this time with Lorraine, my assistant, watching too and saying helpful things like, "They are all so good. Whoo. Don't know how you'll make a decision. Look at that! They're line dancing to Monster Mash! And that Death is on stilts, isn't he. Is that a horse? A horse in a store? These are amazing." The fourth time, Woodsman Hans wandered in from the deep woods (where he is making a pond) and watched them too.Here is Doug Jones and some strange man it said.
Hi Neil,

I am a long-time fan, and have even met you backstage at a Tori show (though that was many years ago!). I am writing to ask a bit of a favor.

About 10 years ago, I appeared on 20/20 with Tori, speaking about sexual violence. Since then, I've stayed close with Tori whose been a mentor of the best kind. I also started a nonprofit, Pandora's Project, that provides support, information, and resources to rape and sexual abuse survivors and their supporters. We operate Pandora's Aquarium, an online support group with more than 20,000 registered members.

Recently, I was named a 2009 L'Oreal Woman of Worth for my volunteer work with Pandora's. I was chosen for this honor from more than 2,500 applicants.

Now, one of the ten 2009 Honorees will be selected as the national honoree through a public online vote. Her cause will get an additional $25,000, and a lot of media exposure. This is the first time L'Oreal has recognized a sexual violence organization, and becoming the national honoree would allow me to shine a spotlight on this issue that affects so many women and women.

Voting is easy - people just need to go to the url below, enter their email address in the box on the right, and click the "submit vote" button. Each email address is allowed one vote, and voting ends November 24.

http://www.womenofworth.com/Honorees/Honoree2009Detail.aspx?nomid=5657c940-425b-47a2-879d-ed3c2d82b56f

I am wondering if you might be willing to send people to this voting link via your (infinitely popular) twitter or blog. I understand if it's not something you can do, but my experience running a small-budget nonprofit tells me it's always wise to ask!

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Shannon Lambert

I'll plug it happily.

Your correspondent asks "Will you be reading the original version where the wolf actually is killed, and not the 'oh my goodness our kids can't hear about death' version in which they bring him to the zoo?"

I fear she's in error; in the original version, written by Prokofiev, Peter snares the wolf, then convinces the hunters NOT to kill it, but to take it to the zoo.

I've been researching, and that's what I found out too. Wikipedia has a list of changes made in various versions of the story (Disney, for example, had the wolf not eat the duck). But the wolf was always taken to the zoo...

Via tweets from AX, kixies, and eeveil, AX2010's new website is up. But the SOLID GOLD in it all is the letter from new SPJA CEO Michael Lattanzio.

http://www.anime-expo.org/2009/11/11/message-from-the-chief-executive-officer/

Just... read that.

"Strategize our future course."

"Reengineering how we market our brand."

"People who are team-oriented, professional, and fun-loving individuals."

"A transformation that is yet to procure."

"Revolutionize our past into the infinite opportunity that awaits us."

Yes, the SPJA's CEO is business-speak trained and buzzword compliant. Also, isn't it "taken the reins" rather than "taken the reigns", sort of like controlling a horse?

Conclusion: Anime Expo is doomed.

PS: The Redunancy Office for Redunancy on All Things Redundant would like to remind Mr. Lattanzio that the overlap between "Membership" and "Attendees" should technically be complete. Since if I remember correctly, attendance gave you membership into the SPJA anyway. Attendees & Staff would be a nicer split. -_-

Picked up Phantasy Star 0 for the DS today.

I nearly forgot, but the San Franciso Film Society's Animation Festival starts tonight.

I worked outside a bit today, so I let my computer upgrade from Ubuntu 9.04 - the Jaunty Jackalope to Ubuntu 9.10 - the Karmic Koala. It took about 2 hours or so and only asked a few questions at the end. I happened to walk in just as the first question popped-up. Good timing makes an animator smile. On reboot it froze at some BIOS stuff. It's done that a few times, and it seems it does it after upgrades especially. I don't know why. It's just when it's doing the memory test. It doesn't finish echoing the word "memory" at the start and hangs. A couple of hard reboots and it got through all of that, and I won't see that problem again for a long time. I think it's the hardware, but who knows? I don't know how exactly Ubuntu could be troubling anything at that low level period in the bootup. I also almost never reboot. It's been months since my last one. Maybe I'd see it often if I was shutting down all the time.

Anyway, things work great. I'm not as happy with the Hershey's Kiss coloring to highlighted text and titlebars, but I can have the old orange color back with a few clicks. Firefox has gotten better in a few small but happy-making ways. Flash videos for quite awhile now have been pausing at regular intervals, somewhere between every 5 and 10 seconds, and locking up all of Firefox for about 3-5 seconds straight. Even just having a non-playing Flash video on Hulu, YouTube, etc, on a page somewhere else would cause all of Firefox to do this. This has stopped. Flash plays great now, finally. I can enjoy online videos again until the next goofy Flash bug rears its ugly head.

The one small glitch so far was not being able to click on anything in a Flash video. There's a workaround I found online, which was a line to add to the npviewer.bin conf file - just exporting a value to a variable. That's it. So far it works great. No real issues, and all of my settings are fine.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/radio-books-violin-lessons-also-haircut.html

Went in to KNOW radio station in ST Paul today and recorded an introduction to the NPR MORNING EDITION "Open Mike" piece I've been recording on audiobooks, and heard the edit. Asked them to see if they could find a bit more time in the piece for Audible founder Don Katz, who did an amazing interview and was pared down to about a sentence in the current edit. It'll go out in the next ten days, and as soon as I know when it goes out I'll put it up here. I talk to David Sedaris, Martin Jarvis, Don Katz and veteran audio producer/director Rick Harris in it.
Hi Neil,

I just read about your event in January, where in you will be narrating Peter and the Wolf. My husband and I are over joyed by this. We will hopefully be bringing our three girls up to see the performance. We did have one question though. Will you be reading the original version where the wolf actually is killed, and not the "oh my goodness our kids can't hear about death" version in which they bring him to the zoo? We are both, obviously, really hopeful that being you, and not afraid to scare children (thank you for that btw) will be speaking the true to the story version in which Peter shoots the wolf and then his dead body is paraded through the town as a trophy.

Thanks for your time,
~Cecily

PS- Do you know if there will be tickets for the event or the reception afterwards? It will be a long drive, and it would be nice to be prepared for either staking out seats all day or having tickets in hand. (We could not find any reservation information on the website)

I'd forgotten - or never knew - that there was an alternative version. The script I was sent is the Zoo version. I'll investigate...

And no, I do not know about tickets. I will find out.

Dear Neil,

Your Web Goblin offered to post photos of Coraline pumpkins, and when they were told this, my 8 and 11-year old daughters decided to make some. Here they are, along with 2 emoticon pumpkins and a turnip.

http://www.steampunkfamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/IMG_01521-300x225.jpg

I used them to illustrate a ghost story: http://www.steampunkfamily.com/2009/10/philomenas-fright/

Three of the four of us were Coraline characters for Halloween. (The 11-year old went her own way as Susan Sto-Helit.)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/37435081@N03/4077708519/sizes/l/in/set-72157622616148613/

The Other Mother is the scariest thing I've ever been for Halloween. All the children (even the 4-year olds!) knew who I was, and I elicited much nervous laughter when I offered to sew buttons in their eyes.

Thank you for being VERY SCARY INDEED

I love how many families were Coraline families, this year.

If, like me, anybody else was intrigued by your mention of Kenneth Grahame's other works and wants to read them with a minimum of searching, they'll be happy to know both 'The Golden Age' and 'Dream Days' are available for free on the always invaluable Project Gutenberg:

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/291
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/270

Thanks for mentioning them in the first place; I'm always interested in children's lit of that time that has managed to slip through my net.

- B. Bolander

What a good idea. Two very beautiful, gently funny books by the author of The Wind in the Willows. I really enjoyed them, but stylistically they are, well, out of fashion, and will not be everybody's cup of Edwardian tea. Here's a passage that describes the illustration I put up yesterday, as small children steal through the house on a midnight expedition to obtain biscuits (ie cookies, if you are American):

The Blue Room had in prehistoric times been added to by taking in a superfluous passage, and so not only had the advantage of two doors, but enabled us to get to the head of the stairs without passing the chamber wherein our dragon-aunt lay couched. It was rarely occupied, except when a casual uncle came down for the night. We entered in noiseless file, the room being plunged in darkness, except for a bright strip of moonlight on the floor, across which we must pass for our exit. On this our leading lady chose to pause, seizing the opportunity to study the hang of her new dressing-gown. Greatly satisfied thereat, she proceeded, after the feminine fashion, to peacock and to pose, pacing a minuet down the moonlit patch with an imaginary partner. This was too much for Edward's histrionic instincts, and after a moment's pause he drew his single-stick, and with flourishes meet for the occasion, strode onto the stage. A struggle ensued on approved lines, at the end of which Selina was stabbed slowly and with unction, and her corpse borne from the chamber by the ruthless cavalier. The rest of us rushed after in a clump, with capers and gesticulations of delight; the special charm of the performance lying in the necessity for its being carried out with the dumbest of dumb shows.

Once out on the dark landing, the noise of the storm without told us that we had exaggerated the necessity for silence; so, grasping the tails of each other's nightgowns even as Alpine climbers rope themselves together in perilous places, we fared stoutly down the staircase-moraine, and across the grim glacier of the hall, to where a faint glimmer from the half-open door of the drawing-room beckoned to us like friendly hostel-lights. Entering, we found that our thriftless seniors had left the sound red heart of a fire, easily coaxed into a cheerful blaze; and biscuits—a plateful—smiled at us in an encouraging sort of way, together with the halves of a lemon, already once squeezed but still suckable. The biscuits were righteously shared, the lemon segments passed from mouth to mouth; and as we squatted round the fire, its genial warmth consoling our unclad limbs, we realised that so many nocturnal perils had not been braved in vain.

"It's a funny thing," said Edward, as we chatted, "how I hate this room in the daytime. It always means having your face washed, and your hair brushed, and talking silly company talk. But to-night it's really quite jolly. Looks different, somehow."

"I never can make out," I said, "what people come here to tea for. They can have their own tea at home if they like,—they're not poor people,—with jam and things, and drink out of their saucer, and suck their fingers and enjoy themselves; but they come here from a long way off, and sit up straight with their feet off the bars of their chairs, and have one cup, and talk the same sort of stuff every time."

Selina sniffed disdainfully. "You don't know anything about it," she said. "In society you have to call on each other. It's the proper thing to do."

"Pooh! YOU'RE not in society," said Edward, politely; "and, what's more, you never will be."

"Yes, I shall, some day," retorted Selina; "but I shan't ask you to come and see me, so there!"

"Wouldn't come if you did," growled Edward.

EDIT@08:16 UTC/GMT. Wow. That was ugly. I expected it to go for 30 minutes and have maybe 1 minute of broken connectivity. Instead it lasted over 4 hours and we had 10 minutes of downtime directly related to the load balancer upgrades and then another 5-10 minutes of downtime when our primary Pingback database server crashed and the secondary couldn't take over; which could have been indirectly caused by the network upgrade missing a self-VIP.

Anyways, we're up, we're working, the load balancers are barely breaking a sweat right now and I need some food and a shot of whiskey. I don't even *like* whiskey!!

Thanks mhwest and dnewhall for helping out!

---

On Saturday the 14th at 4AM UTC/GMT we will be upgrading the operating system of our network load balancers to a newer version, one that will allow us to use both CPUs! Nifty, because multiprocessing is nice.

Since we have 2 load balancers, the plan is to upgrade 1 at a time, and there really should be very little impact to our website. Hopefully you won't notice a thing and I'll get to go back to the hotel and watch some wonderful late night infomercials.

We've got a lot of exciting projects coming up for 2010 and we're hoping that we'll be able to deliver them all to you, that you will find it useful/cool/lovely and then you will use the site even more. Behind-the-scenes work like this will give us the capacity to handle the anticipated traffic, so expect a few more maintenance windows especially in the beginning of next year as we've got some neat ideas to improve performance around here! We had the recent 30-45 minute outage yesterday due to one of our logging databases filling up disk space -- not so great design coupled with my human error in handling the initial problem -- and it looks like we're going to finally have some resources to eliminate stuff like that. I can't wait!

As usual, I will be updating status.livejournal.org before and after, just in case you are not able to reach our main website during the work.

http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2009/11/murder-re-enacted.html

The Graveyard Book just won a literary award, which never gets old, and this one came with a medal, and also with a cheque. I thought, Hm. I have to get myself something with the cheque and I have to do it immediately, otherwise it will simply vanish into the day to day bank account of life, and I will never look at anything and go "Ah, that is the thing I got with my Graveyard Book Award."

Dear Posterity



And at the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

Lest we forget.

lol @ all of this. This is absolutely amazing and I may have done some horrible things.


rofl.




I have two accounts so there was much fun to be had.





( FOR FUN CLICK HERE )

D&D 3.5/Pathfinder game tonight.
Continuing the Legacy of Fire module, exploring the ruins of the temple in the desert.
Party was a Sorceror, a Paladin, a Cleric, a Druid and a Scout.
We escaped the table of fangs and the giant snake. Found a secret door hidden behind a mystic al illusion to make it look like a wall. Inside were two wooden gynosphinx statues. They animated when we entered and attacked. We got hurt but defeated them. Checked further in and found a hidden lab. Turned out to be the workshop of a pesh mage. There was a full suit of dragonscale armor as well as a darkwood shield and a bronzewood sword. There was also a rust monster, which attacked us right away to get our metal stuff. We killed it with fire.

to be continued...
---

Phantasy Star 0 releases tomorrow.

The navies of North Korea and South Korea exchanged fire again.

Dethklok plays San Jose on November 21st.
Dir En Grey plays San Francisco November 23rd.