The Cy, Ra, and Voron all had their 101 class with Potomac Paddle Sports. Cira is not enjoying the stuff yet, but this is the most boring part. I just hope she can hang through this to get to the good stuff. I think I need to just start taking them on runs like Angler's to Carderock or something. There would be swims, but at least they would be getting on the water for real and not just sitting in canal water working on hip snaps. 

Voron was there too. He still didn't get his roll but he is close. He has the hip snap down, which a lot of people don't get for a while. He simply needs to work on a few key points about positioning and the finish and he will have a very solid roll.

Rich came out and he and I worked on some fundamentals such as hip snaps, forward stroke, stern draw, and a couple bow rescues. Doing so really helped me with my forward stroke. It sounds funny, but the forward stroke is really the most important stroke if you think about it and people rarely consciously work on it. Doing so for an hour or so really has improved my stroke. Rich got some time in the boat and seems much more comfy going upside down, his hip snap is getting stronger, and he made great strides at the forward stroke, being able to keep the boat straight for longer than when we started. 

It was a nice day out for their first class. Not too hot, not too cold and all that. I can't wait to get all of them out in some moving water. 

Tags: cira, cyrus, kayaking, rich, voron

Four boats tied on car for tomorrows kayak training. Kids will be doing their 101 with PPS and I am going to work with Stitches Stoops on some things and perhaps work on my back deck roll. Anyway, I just realized that I am pretty damned good at tying boats to the car, considering I just attached four boats and paddles by myself. It is my hope that Ra and Rich make some progress. As far as Cy goes, I just can't wait until the little fucker gets pounded by a rapid because it is no fair that he has already mastered the pool C-to-C and even a handroll. 

Yesterday we did our first every-other-week-ly pool practice. Richie couldn't make it, but Voron was totally on time. I mostly worked with Voron, which was fine because it was really his first time seriously working on things. His hip snap rocked and once he gets his final position squared away he is going to have a killer roll. I could not figure out what he was doing wrong but I am certain once he is around a real instructor they will get him straight. 

I am so excited that the kids and two of my friends are giving this crap a shot. I LOVE it more than anything I have ever tried... well, almost more than anything. It makes me forget that there is a future beyond the next two or three rapids and injects pure presence into my being. This practiced presence seems to spill over into my off water life because I find myself paying more attention to the now all the time. This might not be that big of a deal to most people, but to those of us that are hyper focused on the future, being able to task the present is and sometimes even remember the past is somewhat of a big deal. 

Anyway, it's time slide off to dream land. See you there.  

Tags: kayaking, kids, rich, voron

Cover art for my novelette "Faster Gun,"  (Working title: "John Henry Holliday is Sick of the These Time-Traveling Assholes") forthcoming on Tor.com this summer.

The artist is Richard Anderson.

Tags: john henry holliday
Current Mood: pleased
Current Music: the sound of thunder and the hum of the refrigerator

Hey, listen up, true believers.

GAME OF THRONES won the Stan Lee Award for Best Television Program.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/scott-snyder-and-sara-pichelli-dominate-stan-lee-awards/

It's not a No-Prize, but it's pretty cool.

'Nuff said.

Tags: game of thrones, hbo
Current Location: still at home
Current Mood: geeky

Survived 16 hrs of travel, a week at the beach with a flaky net connection and four people trying to download and play Diablo 3, 30 hours in Richmond, an all-too-compressed few days in the DC area, work, and a fairly easy flight from National to Madison. Am now At Wiscon, more or less.

Been reading everything that goes by on DW/LJ, even though I've not been posting. Been recuperating. Starting to feel like a human being again. Not being At Work has been good for me, I think.

Will write more, later.

Original post at Dreamwidth | comments | Comment there or here

I'm working on "The Deeps of the Sky" tonight, and generating a regular festival of Words Word Don't Know:

luminesced, tropopause, sheeny, thicks, unnavigable, dartlike,

Meanwhile, I had a little argument with myself on twitter as to whether I should use some modestly bogus science to create a cool special effect. I went with it. ;-) Now I'm stopping because I have to figure out how the protagonist intervenes to stop the Bad Thing from happening, or how he mops up afterward...

Oh, I might have just done so. Woot!

Tags: deeps of the sky, progress notes
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Depeche Mode - Lilian (Album Version)

May 23, 2012 - The official LiveJournal Release 92 has been deployed. Here’s what you’ll find in this latest site update:

NEW

• Particularly long comment threads now collapse with the alert “...and [#] more comments.” Just click on that alert to see the rest of the comments. Here’s what this looks like:


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• Social Capital is now displayed for all communities on the profile page.


• You can now embed the Spotify player into your journal or community style.


• Personal userheads are now available for purchase. A personal userhead is of your own design and is unique to you, unavailable to anyone else. Purchase as many personal userheads as you like; each costs 5,000 LJ FunBux™, and is good for five years. Learn more.

BUGS, FIXED

• Scheduled entries should no longer return errors or double-post.


• Domain mapping should no longer force redirection to the LiveJournal login page.


• The format=light URL modifier works on entry pages again.


• Comment notification emails will send even if the entry has a poll.


• The "Music" section on the edit entries page will let you delete the entire text field.


• The help link next to “Do not add to friends pages and RSS” on the update page now links to the correct FAQ.


• The list of journals and communities added by default for new users has changed to news and lj_releases for non-Cyrillic users.


• Missing navigation items in the Classic journal style have re-appeared.


• Notifications about expiring add-ons will now have correct subject lines.


• The bold/italic/strikethrough buttons in the site default commenting scheme should no longer cause cursor positioning problems in Chrome.


• The Calendar feature will now update properly when you edit an entry and change its date.

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I don't know much about social media. I don't have a facebook or twitter account. But I've been told a few people have them, and that some of those people like to play social media games. I'm told the biggest social media game involves running a farm.

Surely, I thought, there must be something one could do on social media that would be more fun that growing turnips and feeding chickens. Like, say, scheming and plotting, murders and marriages, contesting for power.

HBO shared the feeling, and together we have granted the license for a social media game based on GAME OF THRONES to a great new start-up company called Disruptor Beam ((http://disruptorbeam.com/ )) Game development is already well under way.

Jon Radoff, CEO of Disruptor Beam, says:

"This will be the first Facebook game based on the TV series and books and, trust me, this game isn’t just going to be another Farmville! George RR Martin is working very closely with Disruptor Beam to ensure the game will deliver an authentic experience. I can tell you that it will not only be highly story and character-driven, but Game of Thrones Ascent will give you the chance to experience the world from your own perspective and with your own friends."

"Sounds fun, right!? Want to know more? Well, additional information about the game will be released in the coming months, including details about how to participate in a pre-release beta program. To follow its progress, be sure to “like” Game of Thrones Ascent on Facebook (http://facebook.com/gameofthronesascent) or follow on Twitter (https://twitter.com/#!/GoTAscent)."



I saw several early versions of the game demonstrated, and Jon and his designers took great pains to make sure the flavor of the novels is here. I saw alliance building, treachery, marriages, murders, and most of all the constant struggle to be the greatest house in Westeros.

So create a character, pick a liege lord to swear to, and start playing the game the way Tyrion would, because in this game you win or you die.

(No turnips will be involved).

Tags: game of thrones, videogame
Current Location: Santa Fe
Current Mood: amused

So the Avengers was awesome last night, but the fact that it cost 100 bucks to go see the damned thing is not (4 people movies and snack). And these things just keep getting more expensive. For instance, I am more than happy with a non 3D, non IMAX movie. Once I am watching something, my brain sort of takes me away and it doesn't much seem to matter if I am watching a black and white 13" TV or at an IMAX film. Okay, so exaggerate somewhat, but seriously I would be fine with waiting until the movie came out on Netflix and watch it on my TV for pretty much free.

Sure, I should ignore all that and just enjoy the movie and as C says, "...we can afford it...", but resources are limited and I can think of a lot of things I would rather spend 100 bucks on. For instance, we could just save that money and put it into a better and better entertainment system. Besides, I don't get the allure of going to the movies. Sure it is bigger and louder, but my TV has a better picture and is big enough. On top of that, I don't have to be on time, get the best seat in the house every time, can pause it to take a leak or walk to the fridge, and I don't have to drive home when the show is over. It is nice to get out of the house, but lets go canoeing, for a walk, to a museum, or some other shared experience in which we can interact and NOT spend 100 bucks.

I just wanted to gripe about that so I could get it out of my system. The next time we go to the movies I will try to NOT bring that up as part of my opinion on how awesome of a movie it was or not (Sure, pretty awesome, but not 100 bucks worth of awesome). We got out of the house together and the kids had a good time, so I guess that is worth 100 bucks, right? The movie was incredibly awesome:)

Tags: gripe, movies

Took the kids out to dinner at Outback and the movies in celebration of Ra's birth. I cannot believe she is already 14 and will be in high school next year. Dinner was nice and I am really happy with Outback for having properly sized and priced meals. We did figure out last night that not only was the 6 ounce steak meal big enough for us, but that we could actually split it if we got an appetizer to share. I love that the kids not only think about this stuff too, but not only because of the fact that it would save money and a person from eating way more than they should, but also because it saves resources.

The movie (Avengers) was great too and kept everyone totally interested. We got there way early, so we got our favorite seats. It is neat to see all the cool cartoon super heroes of the past up there as real people and with special effects that now look even more real than reality. I can only imagine how neat it is for someone who actually read/reads the comics. On a side note, Crystal was starting to explain a character to Cy, and he was all, "Yeah, I read the comic," which was super cool. I wish the kids still read comics like they did for a spell when Peter was visiting us.

Tags: kids, kids bday