Howard Hughes Battles the Pink Robots (Pt. 1)

[greygirlbeast]

It is raining, a very fine spring rain.

Reports of my untimely demise have been greatly exaggerated. However, the same may not be said of Hindrance (née Victoria Regina, aka Crackbaby), my seven-year-old iBook. The last few days she's been fading fast — literally — as her screen gave up the LCD ghost (so to speak). Between iBook anxiety and being unable to find the beginning of The Dinosaurs of Mars, I've been in something of a tizzy. So, Friday afternoon I spoke with my accountant. I have one of those now, ever since She Who Will Not Be Named played havoc with my finances. Informed that yes, I could afford to spend some of the proceeds from the Forced March on a new computer (especially since I'm cutting back on boy whores), yesterday evening Spooky and I made the trip to the Apple Store at Lenox Mall, and now I have a most marvelous machine, my third Apple since July 1993, a 17-inch iMac desktop, whom I have yet to name. Of course, most of today will be spent not-writing, transferring data from Hindrance and getting the new machine just the way I need it to be so I can write tomorrow. And she has not yet been named. This is the computer that should last me until approximately 2013, provided that I last that long myself.

I've just turned up the following PW review of my contribution to Thrillers 2:

EDITED BY ROBERT MORRISH. Cemetery Dance, $40 (230p) ISBN 978-1-58767-122-7 (JUNE)

Caitlin R. Kiernan’s blend of deft characterization and eldritch atmosphere are displayed in two excellent tales of cosmic dread: "The Daughter of the Four of Pentacles" is a prelude to Daughter of Hounds which raises some unsettling questions about our circumscribed position in the universe, while "Houses Under the Sea" handles its Lovecraftian roots with a poignant sensitivity that intensifies its impact. Thrillers 2's effective mix of styles and themes offers a sampler of the best that modern horror offers.

A good Kid Night on Friday. We watched the perfectly ridiculous (nigh unto laughable) William Girdler 1978 adaptation of Graham Masterson's The Manitou, followed by Koji Hashimoto and Sakyo Komatsu's Sayônara, Jûpetâ (1984), as surreal and inexplicable a bit of space opera as Japan has ever produced, complete with toy space ships, hippie ecoterroists, a dolphin, and a Godzilla cameo. Boy howdy.

I'm thinking about adding a monthly podcast to Sirenia Digest. Does this sound like a good idea? Very likely, I shall.

Okay, the platypus says it's time to get back to work. This afternoon, I am in no mood to argue with a platypus what cracks such a damn mean whip...

Comments

[ladyeuthanasia.livejournal.com]

Isn't The Manitou a hoot?

Incidentally, forgot to tell you that Amazon.fr did in fact carry copies of Daughter of Hounds, one of which I have and am very, very happy to have. I'll probably have the current daemon in my head sated in another 10 days, at this current clip. When that's finished, I shall pick up DoH forthwith.

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Isn't The Manitou a hoot?

Oh, at least.

I shall pick up DoH forthwith.

Cool. Thank you!

[tactileson.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the new iMac! I'm still running my old G3 21 inch iMac, which is thankfully holding up well. Most people didn't like the look of those with the "lamp" style bases and tilting arm, but it's actually come in handy. Heavy as hell though. Oh, and a podcast would be totally cool.

[scarletboi.livejournal.com]

Now that you have a mac running Tiger, you should take a look at Scrivener. It's a cheap and wonderful program for writers. I've been making use of its screenplay mode for writing comic stuff. I have absolutely no qualms about giving him 35 dollars for the continued use of this great little program.

Also, I shouldn't mention this, but you know that iMac will play World of Warcraft, don't you?

[greygirlbeast.livejournal.com]

Now that you have a mac running Tiger, you should take a look at Scrivener.

I shall check it out.

but you know that iMac will play World of Warcraft, don't you?

I'm not really interested in WoW, but I was going to give D&D Online a try...only I'd have to install Windows XP, which I don't have, and never mind that running Windows on a Mac is just...oogy.

[scarletboi.livejournal.com]

D&D Online is fairly horrible, really. It has no PvP because "the spirit of Dungeons and Dragons is teamwork and cooperation," and it's developers have two major issues I've seen... One, they're more interested in their other project, the forthcoming Lord of the Rings MMO, and two, they've acted as if they CREATED the Eberron setting (which predates the game) and take credit for other people's work in their interviews. I'm not particularly fond of the Stormreach/Eberron setting, but that just rubs me the wrong way.

Besides, our Powermac can't run Windows, and my Windows machine died a horrible flaming death. I'm still trying to get my data off of it so I can get back to work on the Salmagundi design. Blah. So WoW is our MMO of choice.

[stsisyphus.livejournal.com]

Well, my desktop was going to welcome your new addition (and bid farewell to Hindrance), but I've realized that I still haven't named the damn thing even after three years. This makes no sense, I've named my iPod (Euterpe), my cell phone (Yazata), my flash drive (Vitriol), my monitor & keyboard at work (Polyphemus & Briareus; I can't recall the tower's name), even my stapler, hole punch, and phone (Dr00g, Gatling, and Rancor). But I've never named this damn thing. Bugger all.

[setsuled.livejournal.com]

as surreal and inexplicable a bit of space opera as Japan has ever produced, complete with toy space ships, hippie ecoterroists, a dolphin, and a Godzilla cameo. Boy howdy.

If you like that, you may love this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzy1RNJBUo4).