I can't actually complain about this -- obviously they need to limit the amount of free stuff they give away if they want to also sell stuff. And August had a very good run, with 2722 copies downloaded -- that's a nice chunk of extra readers for the magazine. Pleasing. :-)
Oh, before I forget my tidbit of other news, here's a fun way for the sf/word-geeks among you to spend your time -- working on the SF section of the OED. It sounds just like the process described in The Professor and the Madman....okay, well, severely updated and streamlined. But still. "This page is a pilot effort for the Oxford English Dictionary, in which the words associated with a special field of interest are collected so that knowledgable aficionados can help the OED find useful examples of these words. This, our first project, is science fiction literature." How can you resist that? It's worth visiting even if you don't plan to help, just to see their list of words with their notes on earliest known usage (for example, they're currently crediting LeGuin with 'ansible', in Rocannon's World -- that can't be the earliest, can it? Didn't Clarke use ansibles before that?? This is the sort of question that can drive a man mad...)
Gonna go make tea, and then alternate working on various and sundry projects, including (probably) my Hawthorne paper. More to come, my lovelies.
9:15. Still puttering, but puttering with a schedule now. Around 1ish I need to head into campus to pick up library books, meet with Paul re: conference, meet with the head of the department re: conference, possibly meet with Prof. Robin re: last piece (he missed workshop due to travel difficulties). Then I come home, read about Hawthorne, and hopefully draft at least the intro to my paper this evening. Sounds feasible, yes? And it frees me up to do some other stuff this morning -- both working on a book I'm making (by hand) and the SH POD book I'm editing (by computer). Plus laundry and dishes and such. It was nice having Kev around, but somehow laundry and dishes didn't get done while he was here. Will have to do better when he arrives again next week, since he'll be here for a fair bit longer then.
I spent a little while this morning on glass collage stuff. Someone expressed an interest in purchasing Rice. Yay! I ended up knocking $5 off the price for her because in all the convention travelling, the back of the frame was damaged. I just now used some glass-glue to attach the two pieces of glass together, and attach them both to the inside frame; hopefully that'll help keep the entire assemblage secure. She was also interested in commissioning a collage of One of the ways... -- funnily enough, I had one already done, that I just hadn't gotten around to adding to my pages. I'm not sure if it's a style she'll like -- if not, I'll hang onto it and do her another in a different style. I like it, though. :-) And it's a cool frame, though it does limit you to tabletop use; you can't hang it.
Okay -- call Kinko's and e-mail them my students' chapbook, with an order for 15 copies. I need to come up with a title for it; they rather flailed on that aspect. But the pieces are cool. :-) E-mail Robin and see if he wants to meet. Maybe putter a bit on the book. Check in later...
11:20. I finished one of my Xmas presents! Yay! Photos of it will appear after the holidays...
In other news, my cable modem is back! Oh frabjous day! Calloo, callay! Please imagine me chortling in my joy...
And in the last tidbit of news for a while (because I have just had lunch and must shortly dress and toddle off to campus), Strange Horizons is having a fabulous December Fundraiser. With cool prizes and everything. If you stop by the main site, you'll see a little graphic on the left, with our goal and a tiny red line at the bottom. Help us move the red line up? It looks so sad and pathetic down at the bottom like that...it wants to grow, and grow, and grow...
1:45. Gotta run, but first -- Jed made me take the Art Test -- I tried to resist, I did, truly...
 | If I were a work of art, I would be Pablo Picasso's Three Musicians. I am colourful and provoking, always looking to break out of the mould and to pioneer new ways of doing things. I have a jaunty outlook and although I am a bit weird, most people have some idea what I'm about. Which work of art would you be? The Art Test |