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greygirlbeastLast night I got to sleep at the very decent hour of 3 ayem (though not so decent, I admit, as 2 ayem). And then, for no reason I have been able to discern, I awoke at 7 ayem, and couldn't get back to sleep. I finally gave up and got out of bed at 8:30 ayem. And then I set about doing something with the two and half hours until Spooky would get up. I rearranged and dusted a bookshelf. I downloaded Gimp, to replace Photoshop 7 (rendered useless by the OS X 10.6.3 upgrade). I doodled (monsters and dinosaurs). I dusted ( a little). I read. I chewed Rolaids. And the time passed like cold molasses.
And I am not awake.
I've made a list of everything I have to get done in September. I have to write and produce Sirenia Digest #58. I have to write my story for Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. I have to make a trip to NYC to meet with my editor, agent, and to visit with Peter Straub. All the paperwork for my passport renewal went away to Philadelphia yesterday, and I found the form a thoroughly harrowing experience. But at least it's done now, and that's part of my preparation for the trip to Portland, Oregon at the end of the month for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon. Oh, and since I'm Guest of Honor, I need to write a fifteen-minute keynote address. I also need to make some serious headway editing Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume One) for Subterranean Press. That's what I have to do in September.
And to do all that stuff, I have to be able to sleep.
---
As for yesterday, we didn't get up until noon thirty, as I've mentioned, and by the time I'd finished answering email, it was 3:30 p.m. The day Outside was so inviting, I said fuck it, and we drove down to Moonstone Beach. The surf was much rougher than usual for Moonstone, and the beach was covered with cobbles and pebbles fetched up by Hurricane Earl. We only found two pieces of beach glass, neither of which was worth keeping. We watched at least three species of gull: Herring gulls (Latrus argentatus), Great Black-backed gulls (L. marinus), and Ring-billed gulls (L. delawarensis). Spooky spotted a fourth and smaller species, but was unable to identify it. There were Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) and a few Piping plovers (Charadrius melodius). I found an old brick and considered bringing it home for my brick collection (yes, I have a brick collection, as impractical as that may sound, which I have been gathering since 1989). Instead, I gave it back to the sea.
A small and rather battered looking sailboat was anchored maybe a hundred yards off shore, in the choppy, shallow water. It rolled precariously. I watched through the binoculars, but could see no sign of anyone aboard, and thought briefly about calling the Coast Guard. There was a big three-wheeled bike lashed to the bow. The tide was advancing, and as it rose, the waves grew higher, some three or four feet high (I think six inches is probably average for Moonstone). The beach began to grow very misty.
As the sun was setting, we headed back to the van and drove to Narragansett for dinner at Iggy's. Now that the summer people have mostly gone back to Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts, it's possible to have a pleasant dinner at Iggy's. I had Manhattan-style clam chowder. We had half a dozen doughboys for desert, then drove back to Providence.
Last night, I went back to WoW. I've decided, no matter how fun it might be, I simply haven't the time or the money to take up another MMORPG, so I'm forgoing City of Heroes and Villains. I was starting to feel as though my alter-egos were devouring my prime ego. We did the very first quests leading up to the Cataclysm expansion, helping Vol'jin, leader of the Darkspear trolls, retake the Echo Isles from Zalazane. Gotta admit, the battle was pretty cool. A good bit of reading yesterday: Joshi's The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (very amused at Joshi's comments regarding Brian Lumley), Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, and Kristin Hersh's Rat Girl.
Here are photos from Moonstone:
Spooky searching for pretty things (view to the east).
Pebbles and seaweed.
The brick I did not bring home, but instead set up as a tiny monolith for the sea to reclaim (view to the south).
Fun with forced perspective.
The sun was very bright, even through the mist (view to the southwest).
The advancing tide, before the waves got tall.
All photographs Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan
And I am not awake.
I've made a list of everything I have to get done in September. I have to write and produce Sirenia Digest #58. I have to write my story for Jeff and Ann VanderMeer's The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. I have to make a trip to NYC to meet with my editor, agent, and to visit with Peter Straub. All the paperwork for my passport renewal went away to Philadelphia yesterday, and I found the form a thoroughly harrowing experience. But at least it's done now, and that's part of my preparation for the trip to Portland, Oregon at the end of the month for the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival and CthulhuCon. Oh, and since I'm Guest of Honor, I need to write a fifteen-minute keynote address. I also need to make some serious headway editing Two Worlds and In Between: The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume One) for Subterranean Press. That's what I have to do in September.
And to do all that stuff, I have to be able to sleep.
---
As for yesterday, we didn't get up until noon thirty, as I've mentioned, and by the time I'd finished answering email, it was 3:30 p.m. The day Outside was so inviting, I said fuck it, and we drove down to Moonstone Beach. The surf was much rougher than usual for Moonstone, and the beach was covered with cobbles and pebbles fetched up by Hurricane Earl. We only found two pieces of beach glass, neither of which was worth keeping. We watched at least three species of gull: Herring gulls (Latrus argentatus), Great Black-backed gulls (L. marinus), and Ring-billed gulls (L. delawarensis). Spooky spotted a fourth and smaller species, but was unable to identify it. There were Double-crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus) and a few Piping plovers (Charadrius melodius). I found an old brick and considered bringing it home for my brick collection (yes, I have a brick collection, as impractical as that may sound, which I have been gathering since 1989). Instead, I gave it back to the sea.
A small and rather battered looking sailboat was anchored maybe a hundred yards off shore, in the choppy, shallow water. It rolled precariously. I watched through the binoculars, but could see no sign of anyone aboard, and thought briefly about calling the Coast Guard. There was a big three-wheeled bike lashed to the bow. The tide was advancing, and as it rose, the waves grew higher, some three or four feet high (I think six inches is probably average for Moonstone). The beach began to grow very misty.
As the sun was setting, we headed back to the van and drove to Narragansett for dinner at Iggy's. Now that the summer people have mostly gone back to Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts, it's possible to have a pleasant dinner at Iggy's. I had Manhattan-style clam chowder. We had half a dozen doughboys for desert, then drove back to Providence.
Last night, I went back to WoW. I've decided, no matter how fun it might be, I simply haven't the time or the money to take up another MMORPG, so I'm forgoing City of Heroes and Villains. I was starting to feel as though my alter-egos were devouring my prime ego. We did the very first quests leading up to the Cataclysm expansion, helping Vol'jin, leader of the Darkspear trolls, retake the Echo Isles from Zalazane. Gotta admit, the battle was pretty cool. A good bit of reading yesterday: Joshi's The Rise and Fall of the Cthulhu Mythos (very amused at Joshi's comments regarding Brian Lumley), Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, and Kristin Hersh's Rat Girl.
Here are photos from Moonstone:
Spooky searching for pretty things (view to the east).
Pebbles and seaweed.
The brick I did not bring home, but instead set up as a tiny monolith for the sea to reclaim (view to the south).
Fun with forced perspective.
The sun was very bright, even through the mist (view to the southwest).
The advancing tide, before the waves got tall.
All photographs Copyright © 2010 by Caitlín R. Kiernan
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 05:52 pm (UTC)Those forced perspective shots are my favorite of this batch.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 06:05 pm (UTC)I concur.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 05:56 pm (UTC)What's a dough boy anyway?
oconeecountry.com/stumphouse This reminds me of you. or at least my idea of who you are. You may have heard of it or visited it since you lived in Athens at one point.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 06:04 pm (UTC)A confection peculiar to New England. Sort of like a beignet, though larger and without powdered sugar (usually, doughboys are coated in granulated sugar). Deep-fried dough, sweet and slightly salty. At Iggy's, a doughboy is about fist sized and flat.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 06:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 07:28 pm (UTC)The brick picture looks like something Hipgnosis would do for a Pink Floyd cover.
It does, actually.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 08:13 pm (UTC)It sounds like you have a lot on your plate this month. I hope you will get the sleep you need to accomplish it painlessly.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 09:10 pm (UTC)Yeah. Kind of freaked me out when I wrote it all down like that.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 08:51 pm (UTC)Sirenia is in my box, beckoning. I just haven't had the time yet! Excited to read it, especially having seen Vince's illustration.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 09:12 pm (UTC)Maybe you can ship some to Austin?!
Alas, they must be eaten while hot. Even after only half an hour, they become too tough and chewy.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 09:15 pm (UTC)It's the kind of game where unless you're in love with the genre, it's very hard to get people to abandon another MMO or RP community to participate in it. Thanks for taking a look anyway.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 09:38 pm (UTC)It's the kind of game where unless you're in love with the genre, it's very hard to get people to abandon another MMO or RP community to participate in it.
It's strange. On the one hand, I'm not a huge fan of the genre (superhero comics), but on the other, I was fascinated by the possibilities and enjoyed the gameplay (despite what I found to be very clumsy and counter-intuitive controls). In the end, a lot of my decision was based on the sheer amount of time I've devoted to WoW (almost 43 cumulative days on my main toon alone, over the course of almost two years). I really do wish I could spare the time (and expense) for both.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-09 05:39 am (UTC)I'm nearly done with my first copy of Sirenia, and now I'm wondering ... when will we be able to order back issues? It was a very dim thing to do to come in halfway through an alphabet.
Also -- I hope you manage some restful sleep soon. It sounds like you're going to need it. After 20+ years of dealing with insomnia, I think I've finally found the trick for mine. A friend and I started a newbie yoga class a month ago, and over the last week or so my boyfriend's noticed a pattern: when I practice at night a few hours before I go to bed, I actually sleep straight through until the alarm goes off (although it still takes a while for my brain to shut off in the first place). Here's hoping it's not just coincidence.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-09 06:19 am (UTC)it's a thing of myth and beauty when you've never been beyond the Midwest's cornfield wilds.
It's a thing of myth and beauty when it's only a few miles away.
I'm nearly done with my first copy of Sirenia, and now I'm wondering ... when will we be able to order back issues? It was a very dim thing to do to come in halfway through an alphabet.
Well...we were working on setting that up via the new Sirenia Digest website. But I fear my web guru may have baled. For the time being, contact Spooky at whatever email address your digest came from, and she cans set you up.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-09 04:54 pm (UTC)I love the brick shot. Now you need some mini ape-men to put around it, ala Space Odyssey.
Beauiful the shot of pebbles and seaweed.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-09 05:09 pm (UTC)I love the brick shot. Now you need some mini ape-men to put around it, ala Space Odyssey.
That's what Spooky and I were saying. Or maybe a tiny Cthulhu perched on top.