Fellow · Travelers

Holiday debuggery

We know there were a few kinks with the holiday promotion. We've been working very hard to get them ironed out. If you have a paid/permanent account, keep on sending those coupons. Here's an update:

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• If you tried to redeem a holiday coupon and had trouble using a gift certificate to cover the balance of an annual paid account, we identified the root problem. If this happened to you, you can now use your holiday coupon together with your gift certificate.
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Photos of the week

We're back with more dazzling pictures from around the world. Congrats to marlenemcc, who has been awarded a virtual blue ribbon as the winner of our fourth photo contest. We hope you'll click over to LJ_Photophile poll and tell us your picks in pics!

For more fantastic user content, we'll meet you under the cut. ( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for reading. Here's wishing you the very merriest of holidays. We'll see you next year!

Taken from Val. maripat posted her responses on her Blogger blog. If you want to play along, leave a link in the comments so I can see your answers.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper. Gift bags are for last-minute birthday presents. *grin*

2. Real tree or Artificial? REAL. My in-laws have an artificial one, though they usually do both. I love the smell of a real tree, though.

3. When do you put up the tree? Later than hoped for every year. It tends to depend on husband's work schedule (grading, final exams, etc.).

4. When do you take the tree down? Before it catches on fire. Generally, about a day before they stop accepting trees at the city compost/mulch division.

5. Do you like eggnog? Mmmmmmmm. Homemade is best, but I'll drink the stuff that comes from the store if that's all there is.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My stuffed purple monkey, Sweetie. Second favorite was the book, Robertson, Ugly, & Nohow -- maybe the first real book that was all mine. Both were gifts from my favorite great-aunt. Oh, and there was my first real bike -- a mauve girl's bike with coaster brakes and a banana seat; I finally learned to ride it without training wheels because my younger brother was riding his bike without.

7. Hardest person to buy for? I dunno. CG -- who is too old for most baby toys but can't use so many other things because they "contain small parts; not intended for children under 3." Very frustrating.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Anyone I happen to see the perfect gift for. Judging by the number of things I've found stashed around for T-Bug in the past 24 hours since I started wrapping, I'm going to have to say him.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? A couple of stripped-down versions (just the Holy Family). EDIT: And evidently a complete set that I had forgotten about but T-Bug found this morning. Go figure.

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail. Not necessarily in a timely fashion, though I'm hoping to get them off this year, anyway.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Can't think of anything particularly horrific.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? White Christmas

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Whenever I see something that grabs my attention.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Can't recall such an incident.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Filled Christmas candies. Oatmeal fudge bars. Kourabiedes. Pretty much anything that has more fat or sugar (or both) than I should be consuming.

16. Lights on the tree? The more, the merrier! Oh, colors? White. Multi-colored. Solid, blinking, or racing. They just have to be shiny.

17. Favorite Christmas song? "Silent Night" or "Joy to the World." I can never quite decide.

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? We have traveled before, but with the short break T-Bug gets from school, it's not worth the hassle.

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Well, I could, but they'd probably object because they have names already. All of which I know . . . Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid, Donder* and Blitzen. And that red-nosed pipsqueak. ;-)

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? You know, if you put an angel on top, that branch is sticking straight up her skirt. Think about that. We either do a star or no topper.

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? One on Christmas Eve, the rest in the morning. As the kids get older, I imagine there will be a push for doing them all after Midnight Mass. I remember when we convinced my mom that that was the way to go.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? People who are so stressed at not shopping that they forget how to drive, how to park, and how to be courteous to other people on the road.

23. Favorite ornament, theme, or color? I have a darling little Irish angel my mom gave me years ago.

24. Favorite for Christmas Dinner? We always do ham and potatoes (baked or mashed), creamed spinach, maybe some rolls. It's simple, it's filling, it's good.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? More time in the day? Focus? Patience? An e-mail saying I've made a sale to a pro market?

*Yes, Donder, not Donner. Donder and Blitzen are Thunder and Lightning. Donner is a lake in the Sierras (and the pass that goes alongside it), named for the party trapped there by a snowstorm.

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Happy holiday promotion!

We're delighted to tell you about our holiday coupons, which will help you share the love with your LiveJournal friends! If you have a Paid or Permanent account, you can send up to 10 LiveJournal Basic/Plus users a $10 coupon for an annual paid subscription now through January 15th, 2010. Recipients can upgrade for $9.95 (instead of $19.95) for one year by enrolling in our automatic payment plan or make a manual payment of $15 (instead of $25). Please note that these coupons are not transferable and cannot be used to renew existing paid accounts. If you're a Paid/Permanent user, you can send out your holiday coupons now!

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3. TMI, dude: We've added some fun FREE sponsored vgifts! You can send up to 50 TMI vgifts to mutual friends (btw, you cannot send free vgifts to communities). If you're a Paid/Permanent user and you want to view sponsored gifts, click Show sponsored gifts on your homepage or visit the sponsored gift page. These vgifts will only be available through Wednesday, December 23rd.

You can view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Until next time, stay snug!

I've seen a few things lately denigrating horses-and-castles fantasy, anything set in medieval or pseudo-Dark Ages. Of course, my new idea, Sundered Sword, needs a historical milieu.

The idea started with the line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. "[S]trange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government." Which got me thinking about Excalibur and wondering what would happen if two different people both got swords -- or part of the same sword.

I can't write about such a thing in a modern world or even post-Enlightenment. People don't believe in divine right to rule and haven't for centuries. That pretty much limits the sort of fantastical world I can create.

It won't be a strictly medieval world. I've been reading a lovely biography of a woman in early seventeenth-century Italy, and I'll be borrowing Renaissance and Baroque elements, probably including guns and cannon. But the absolutely critical point is at heart, people must believe in the right of kings (or queens) to rule, even if it has been generations since one has.

And that's my rationale for adding yet another horses-and-swords fantasy to the world.

(cross-posted to Random Walks toward Publishing)

When I was in graduate school, one of the professors on my thesis advisory committee told me he didn't think I was committed enough to graduate school and the work I was doing. At the time, I was flummoxed. I was there; I put in all-nighters at least once a week it seemed, and I was a go-to person for orienting people to the lab & procedures. Also, for having references handy or knowing where to find who had done something. How dare he say that I wasn't committed?

He held up one of his own students (one of my classmates) as an example of what a graduate student should be. "He's always thinking about new experiments, new things to try. When he's out running, he's thinking about the latest results. When he's eating, he comes up with new variables." And so on. All this managed to do was give me a resentment of a very nice guy who was always very helpful -- and who was *almost* as good a cook as I was. (He made very good chocolate soufflés, but he almost got an egg in his face when I was helping him at a party and he seemed surprised that I knew to crack eggs I was going to separate in a small dish in case the yolk broke. Okay, not really. I was just tempted to walk out of the kitchen. Let him crack his own eggs if he doesn't think I'm competent. Then we got into a discussion on the varied actions of copper bowls and cream of tartar for incorporation of air into the egg whites, and all was forgiven.)

I'm writing about this now because I finally get what the professor was saying.

Oh, I figured out long ago that I wasn't meant for a career in science, and the thought of running a lab and teaching and applying for grants is the stuff of nightmares. But I figured out he wasn't talking about commitment in terms of time and energy. He was talking about passion.

Like the way I say, "Oh, it's Monday -- there's a new Writing Excuses podcast to download and listen to!" Or the way I tear the wrapper off the new Locus, even if I only have time at the moment to look at the "People & Publishing." It's the way I hunt out new agent, editor, and author blogs to get different views on the industry -- and follow them on Twitter as well because I want to know what's going on. It's the way I keep trying to figure out how to get more time in my day so I can commit more of my ideas to screen, even though there are so many I will have to abandon because there is no time to do them all. It's in the way I watch TV and see how plot lines are being developed and themes crossed and events foreshadowed and think about what techniques I might want to use in my own work. It's being really happy with my plan for a book I've barely started -- and getting a brainstorm for a parallel plot that intensifies everything. It's that my entire life is saturated with writing and becoming better at this and writing and getting published . . . and writing.

It all comes back to the writing.

I have found my passion, and it's more than a commitment. On the other hand, getting a guy to say "commitment" was pretty impressive, without expecting a scientist to talk about "passion," too. ;-)