When You're a Professional Pirate, You Don't Have To Wear A Suit
1 comments Posted by Amy at 5:35 p.m.Q: Why is pirating addictive?
A: Once you lose your first hand, you get hooked!
Q: Why do pirates always bury their treasure 18 inches below th' ground?
A: Because booty is only shin deep!
Q: Why does it take pirates so long t' learn t' read?
A: Because they spend years at C!
Arrr, happy International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
To be more precise, “Relocations to take advantage of economic opportunities, and the concomitant expansion of social connections, are breaking up that old gang of mine” but that’s harder to fit to a catchy tune.
The Wedding of the Year was awesome, because it was a celebration of the union of two lovely people of course, but also because it was a chance to see so many old friends who have scattered to all corners of the earth. We are running out of good reasons to get together, unless somebody converts to Judaism in time for a child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah.
The wedding was in Ottawa* and we took the time to see some sights** as well as a jaunt up to Montreal*** to see my sister, her husband, and their cute offspring.
Highlights of the trip:
- Having the sweetly sincere wedding officiant gush over the symbolism of the eagle that she’d seen flying overhead earlier, then her saying “Oh, how wonderful, there it is again!” as she pointed upwards to a turkey vulture. I’m sure it’s still very symbolic of something, though.
- The wedding cake being a three-tiered tray of Timbits. Genius!
- Seeing “Red Max” meet the man who privatized the Saskatchewan mining industry.
- A presentation at the War Museum on the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, explained by a guy wearing a Leafs jersey and a guy wearing a Canadiens jersey, watching the battle from a couch with comments like “Montcalm is leaving the high ground? What is he thinking?!?” When they started discussing the consequences of the battle, the camera moved back to reveal a third (Native) guy in a Canucks jersey (“Hey, when did you get here?” “I was here all the time, man.”) and, well, it was just really really funny and very Canadian.****
- Hearing that my niece and nephew are a 7 year old Jamaican and a “forty-twenty” year old Japanese, respectively. *****
- The expression on my love’s face when he finally got a plate of smoked meat poutine. It was everything he'd hoped for.
- Picking up a nasty wet sinus cold from somewhere. I apologise to anyone I involuntarily infected, since I was probably “shedding virus” (as the kids say) on Saturday and Sunday before I felt the symptoms.
- Forgetting to reserve a rental car on Labour Day weekend (like that wouldn’t be a high demand time) and having to do some unnecessary imposing-on-friends and expensive running about to procure one.
- Mosquitoes. I’d forgotten about mosquitoes, though the smell of Deep Woods Off actually made me get all nostalgic, if you can imagine. Proust can keep his lime-flower tea; I have my DEET.
* Outside Ottawa, technically, at a lovely riverside country inn.
** The Museum of Civilization, the War Museum (I only got through a part of it, but that was more than I thought I’d be able to handle), Byward Market, the Manx pub, the Brig, Darcy McGee's… um, I guess I shouldn’t list bars, should I?
*** Outside Montreal, technically.
**** And it included the Anglo guy telling the Francophone guy "It was a long time ago, man, just get over it!" and the Native guy commenting on the influx of British refugees following the American Revolution with "Just what we needed... more white guys."
***** This is not actually the case. Just thought I’d be clear.
The last post was awfully long, with the zombie pictures and everything, so here’s the overflow.
A while ago a group in an on-line community that I belong to (the Ankh-Morpork Knitters’ Guild on Ravelry) decided to create a group afghan for Terry Pratchett, the author of the books upon which the group is based who was recently diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s.* We finally got it done, and the lovely lady who volunteered to sew all the squares together and back it got a chance to present it to Mr. Pratchett in person. Here’s a more comprehensive picture of it; assuming (1,1) is the top left square my squares are at (9,3) (a hedgehog) and (9,9) (red and white striped stocking close-up). I am quietly proud.
And the last GenCon post was more about the zombies than it was about the steampunk, wasn’t it? Rest assured that the steampunkery was not neglected!** The dance on Saturday was a steampunk theme, and yours truly and cenobyte were in fact featured (in last years’ costumes) on Page 100 of the event guide, as part of the dance advert. Again, I am quietly proud. However, I am lacking pictorial evidence of our costumes this year, since my brain was starting to leak quietly out my ears by Saturday (so I didn’t take any of myself) and I cannot find anything with a quick Google. I started making my buckled overskirt at 11:00 PM the evening before we left*** and it turned out pretty well though I need some kind of butt-bow**** to cover the placket in the back and it can benefit from more trimmings as well as something other than a safety pin to hold it closed. I may wear it to the Handcar Regatta if we can go this year.
And here’s something not related to anything else, but it’s funny; an MST treatment of some really really REALLY bad fanfic. Like, almost “Eye of Argon” bad (which itself has been MSTed here). It’s a Sailor Moon + Daria crossover. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
And another thing... ChaCha is a new service that provides free answers to questions that you call or text in. It's people doing this; ChaCha has literally thousands of people (who get paid $0.20 per question) who do all the lookups for you and/or provide an opinion. If you've read The Diamond Age, you'll probably see this, as I did, as yet another example of Neal Stephenson's prescience... these people are prototype ractors. Technology provides the tools for people to interact with people, not the replacement. Interesting.
* Grammarians, I dare you to diagram that sentence!
** For example, we brainstormed some great ideas for a steampunk action movie, the tagline of which will be "I am vexed by these thrice-cursed marmosets on this thrice-cursed zeppelin!"
*** Why does inspiration always arrive when one doesn’t have the time to properly entertain it?
**** Yes, that’s the official tailoring term.
We're back from GenCon 2008, and I'm glad to be home in dry, cool(ish) weather.* We met up with Cenobyte, and QKv2.0, and Suz + Cheruby, and the Too Tall Guy, and Thunderhowl and Ferlak.** Here's a picture of most of them all together, too. R:tAG had to work through most of the con, but their game has gotten a lot of interest so yay!***
It was very fun. I bought some very pretty stuff, like a Shoggoth necklace complete with running victim:
And a Cthulhu necklace with a lovely piece of mother-of-pearl:
Pictures do not do them justice, especially with a cell-phone camera, but our real digital camera is on the fritz. They are handmade in silver by an artist from Quebec, and they're really lovely.
And we dressed up. Here is a photojournal of the Victorian Zombie experience:
BRAAAAAINS!
DRAAAAIIINS!
GRAAAAAINS!!!
LAAAAANES!
REFRAAAAAINS!
STAAAAAAINS!
TRAAAAAIIINS!
And probably my favouritest pic of them all:
The little girl in the stroller would not stop laughing and smiling at us. Even when we told her we would eat her brains, her smile got wider and wider, and as her parents wheeled her off we heard a high-pitched little "om nom nom!" receding into the distance. Epic zombie fail!
More GenCon pictures here, more zombie pictures here. Good times. I didn't take enough pictures at the Steampunk Ball, though. Phoo. And a small child vomited on my luggage on the airplane home. But apart from that, good times!
* Though Indianapolis was actually pretty dry and cool for the time of year. Not like last year, when walking outside was like being slapped with a hot sweaty sock.
** My one intentional pic of Thunderhowl turned out terrible, and I have none of The Mysterious Ferlak at all.
*** And yes, he is going up to Toronto in two days for another convention. No, I don't know how he does it.
R:tAG is feeling better, but everyone should still noodzh him into seeing a physiotherapist to find out what preventative measures he can take. And then noodzh him into actually taking those preventative measures.
So I didn’t want to really mention this at the time, because of perhaps over-thought privacy concerns and everything, but the “quite a lot of stuff” that I mentioned in my last post including entertaining the fabulous Neuba and James, seen here experiencing Bay Area prices* for the first time:
Despite R:tAG’s lack of mobility we got a reasonable amount of stuff done, showing our guests some of our favourite places and also turning them loose to fend for themselves (and walk for miles; sorry about that) when we had to work. So it was an excellent visit and it was wonderful to see them again!
If you like fantasy on the order of George R. R. Martin or Warhammer (low, gritty, muddy, cussin’, bad-things-happening-to-good-people fantasy, in other words) then may I recommend Joe Abercrombie? I’m halfway through the second book of his “The First Law” series, and I am enjoying it quite a bit.
I’m not going to complain about my ant problem for a good long while.
Those Twilight books seem to be the new big tweener thing (alas for feminism). I don’t have to read them, thanks to the marvelous Cleolinda. ETA: They seem to be a direct ripoff of the Anita Blake books, just minus all the sex. And plots not related to sex. And female characters who are easily differentiated from doormats. OK, I'll stop now. ETAA: Check these out. Haw!
I think I need these boots like I have never needed footwear before.
* This was the same restaurant wherein Cheruby managed to break a tooth on scrambled eggs; we had no dental misfortune during this meal.
