Mutant Tomatoes, New Arrivals, & Web Wanderings

While picking tomatoes today we came across this very strange little pair. Close examination of the photo to the left will reveal what appears to be a pair of tomato siamese twins in the upper left corner. Scientists have yet to confirm what may have led to this genetic manipulation or if extra terrestrials may have been involved in this truly bizarre occurrence.

Three of the (alongwithsevenotherbooks) (see previous post) arrived today...yay! They were:

1. Folk of the Fringe by Orson Scott Card
2. Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
3. A Clash of Kings by George R.R. Martin

And now, some Web Wanderings!:

First, on a serious note, Carl has written a truly touching memorial on a wonderful and inspiring person, photographer, and friend of his who passed away a year ago. She was Jenn See from Following My Fish. His post is full of absolutely amazing photographs that were taken by her. They truly took my breath away. My favorite was the third down (Antique mirror in window). Simple picture, but something just amazing about it. It captivated me as I'm sure Jennifer did to so many people. Other favorites were the set of pictures that go from Flower in Sunlight to A Rock on a Table. Follow the links in Carl's post. They'll take you to wonderful places.

Charles Vess has wonderful news for us Stardust fans. He has pictures of the brand new Stardust hardcover illustrated book with an "addition 50 pages of material" along with pictures of The Stardust Visual Companion. AND it looks like both will be out next week! Which means that I will be VERY broke next week seeing as Interworld and M is for Magic also come out next week. But what has two thumbs and loves Neil Gaiman and will be very happy next week? This guy!

This one definitely gets the blue ribbon for funniest thing of the week. Scott has posted the shortest, funniest video in the world on his In the What? blog. If I were not so lazy, I'd just post the video here, but just click the link and go see it on his blog. I agree with him and suggest watching it about 5 times for maximum effect. It's only 4 seconds long.

On Stephanie's blog, I found my new calling in life...UC Riverside is looking for a new curator for the world's largest library of science fiction, fantasy, and horror books. The library houses first editions of Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein among others. There is also talk about the first ever doctoral program in science fiction studies!!! How cool is that?! Read more about it on Stephanie's blog.

And finally, Darla D. posted a link to this really cool little portfolio of photos of books arranged in very clever ways. Check it out. I loved them!

A Quick Post Of Links

Lisa Snellings-Clark is about to re-open the gallery via eBay for the Summer Solstice sale. In preparation, there are goodies up already. Red poppets, more Little Pink Poppets that are amazing (I own one and you should too), and get ready for this.....Blue Poppets!! I'm so excited about Blue Poppets. Blue is my favorite color and I really have always wanted a blue poppet. See, it doesn't take much to make me happy...really...not much at all... There are also stuffed poppets being made and you can see them on this post of her blog.

Megan (yes, my Megan) is fairly new to the blogging community, so I'm sending you all her way. She's written a review for the new Jeff Buckley album. Yes, even though he has passed there are still new Jeff Buckley albums. This one sounds great and if you're a fan, I recommend checking out her review. I'll be picking this one up.

And finally, Scott has a great new book blog named Booky Ooky and he's reviewed a set of books that look incredible. I need to get these. They are the Griffin and Sabine & Morning Star Trilogies. Check out his review for an excellent description of the series and for a fun blog to read.

It's Web Wanderings Time!

I've accrued enough cool things on the web over the past 2 days that it's time to share. Here we go:

1. In Orson Scott Card's latest review column, he mentioned a new dictionary that is available. It's called Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction. Yeah, it's cool. It's a whole dictionary dedicated to words that have been invented thanks to science fiction books, movies, etc. Orson Scott Card is credited with braintape, vid, and -verse. I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of this. It's a geek thing.

2. Lisa Snellings-Clark has a couple of cool things up on eBay which may be gone by the time I post this. But go check anyway. Just back from Balticon, she decided to post 30 little red poppets and 10 little pinks. I got a little pink last night and I'm so excited about it!! Little pinks are $40 and are 4 inches tall. She's holding a bunny. So excited about that one. As of right before this post, there were 15 little reds left and 3 little pinks, so get over there fast!

3. On the PoppetPlanet forums, there are some great pictures of the PoppetPlanet launch party in the Spare Parts section. Check them out!

4. Quixotical's latest post led me to find some incredible handmade journals/notebooks. They're made by her friend Stormfilled. Her website has quite a few for sale and she has one up on eBay right now. I highly recommend supporting her! I love supporting these wonderful independent artist types who make such wonderful products.

5. Carl posted a great interview with Colleen Gleason on his blog today about her new book, Rises the Night. He's also doing a giveaway for the 3rd book in the series, The Bleeding Dusk, which won't be out until February of 2008. If you take a picture of yourself between June 5th - June 10th buying a copy of Rises the Night, you will be entered into a drawing to win an ARC of The Bleeding Dusk. What a great contest! Great interview as always there from Carl!

6. Dark Orpheus wrote a post on Vesak Day. I had never heard of Vesak Day, but apparently it's today! It's the day when Buddhists around the world honor the Buddha's birthday. His parent's are "going vegetarian in honor of the Buddha's birthday," so he posted a link to a website where you can vote for the world's sexiest vegetarian celebrity. I was surprised by the number of celebrity vegetarians! There's so many of them.

I think that's all I've got for now.

Phew!! And A Couple Of Web Wanderings

I'm officially calling this the "Get Shit Done Day". Because that's exactly what I've done all day. And I'm officially exhausted. I started the day with a shower, and I think that's where I'm about to end it.

I've had a lot of "other stuff" that's been needing to get done, so I decided to work on that today. Here's the list:

1. Pay the credit card bill: The bill has been staring at me every day and my lazy ass keeps saying, "I'll do it later". So I finally just did it. Done!

2. Apply for jobs: I posted my resume on hotjobs.com and on monster.com today. I also applied for a program counselor position at West Jefferson Hospital's Behavioral Center. I actually fit the eligiblity for that one! And lo and behold I got a job today!! Not a real job, but it's something. River Oaks (the hospital I've been interning at) called and asked if I would be interested in being a weekend counselor/social services PRN person on the child and adolescent unit. So I said sure! It's only 4 days a month, but it's fine by me. It's a little extra money and I get to work with the kids still. I loved it over there, so now I'm not gone completely. I work Saturday and Sunday every other weekend starting June 9th. Still looking for a real job though. Now I have to break it to the family that I PCA for that I won't be working with them anymore after 5 or 6 years :(

3. Walked 6 city blocks twice: Not really what the thing I crossed of my list was, but an accomplishment nonetheless. I had to drop off all of my internship time sheets to my professor at school in downtown New Orleans, but first I had to pick some stuff up from him that he signed and make copies of everything. So rather than going to Kinkos and paying for copies, I walked to my mom's office which is also in downtown New Orleans about 6 blocks away from school, right across from the Superdome. After making my copies, I walked back to school and up the three flights of stairs to drop the copies off to my professor. Now I think I'm really done with everything school related and nothing is holding me back from graduating. At least I hope so!

4. Got a haircut! Boy did I need one. I always hate the way my hair looks the first day I get a haircut, but it's growing on me...I guess literally...what a lame joke...OK

5. Put together a bookshelf: Put together bookshelf #2 of 3. This one was a pain for some reason. It took me forever to put this thing together, but I managed. I put my school books on it and all of my magazines and journals. It's the "academic shelf". I'll put the last one together tomorrow. I think that one's going to hold the cd's and dvd's.

As for the rest of the afternoon. I may still try to go to the gym even though I've probably burned about 1000 calories today and my arms are already sore from putting the bookshelf together. I'd like to wash the windows in my car. I'm going to try to finish Fablehaven...and of course...HEROES!

I also wanted to point everyone to two very cool links:

1. Bookfool started a new blog and it's the coolest thing EVER! It's a poppet photo blog entitled Poppet's Magnificent Traveling Adventures.

2. Endicott Studio has announced the publication of a new collection of fairy tales by a wonderful set of authors due out next year called The Cinderella Game. Can't wait for this one!

Some Fun Web Wanderings

First off...how cool is this! Friends of English Magic had a link to a sneak peek at a music track from Stardust. It sounds great! Can't wait for this soundtrack.

Carl has a wonderful review of Tarantino and Rodriguez's new movie Grindhouse. Can't wait to see this one! Looks like your typical Tarantino (that's a good thing).

In Neil Gaiman's absence from his blog, the web elf has posted an MP3 version of Neil's short story How To Talk To Girls At Parties read by Neil himself.

Charles Vess will be giving a presentation on May 2nd in New York for The Society of Illustrators on the art of the fantastic. How I wish I could go. If you live in New York or if you'll be there, someone has to report to me on this one ;)

Bookfool's Wahoo Wednesdays. It's a great thing. Every Wednesday, she takes the time to write a post about little things in life that have made her happy. They always brighten my day and I hope that others can enjoy them as well!

Enjoy!

Feeling Good on a Friday and Web Wanderings

So in yesterday's post, I vented about sexual abuse because of a patient at the hospital right now. Well, this morning, I'm looking through the paper and see that the guy who did this to my patient was arrested on 3 counts of child sexual abuse! I was so happy to see that this man will be behind bars, but still wish I could take all of that pain away from my patient. For some things, there is no true justice, but at least this is something.

So that was a good thing and so was going to the gym. I finally made it back. But come to think of it, it really wasn't that long since I've been....just 2 days. I like to be hard on myself about things though.

On to web wanderings!

Quixotical has posted a wonderful review of Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. This book has been waiting patiently on my shelf to be read. It's being neglected by challenges, though in hindsight it would have fit perfectly into the fantasy challenge. Quixotical has been posting these wonderful little pictures of poppets with books for the fantasy challenge and I hope that the pictures continue throughout.

Up next is my favorite Friday Favorites of Carl V.'s yet. It's focus is Charles Vess, that wonderful, magical artist. Vess has done work on Gaiman's Sandman and Stardust, Clarke's The Ladies of Grace Aldieu, many comics and graphic novels, and the list just goes on and on. I like Carl's comparison, he's very much today's Arthur Rackham. Like Rackham, Vess is able to perfectly capture magic at it's purest in every painting or drawing he does. Thanks to Carl, I discovered that Vess has a comprehensive artbook coming out in August that I'm totally psyched about!

The Friends of English Magic blog has a wonderful interview with Jane Goldman all about the Stardust movie. It silenced many of my fears but confirmed one of them. Some fears are silenced because she said that everything we as fans loved about the book, the whole feeling of the book, is still there. What made me upset is that she said Yvaine had to be introduced really early in the movie unlike the book. I'm scared that this confirms that no time is spent setting up who Tristran is and where he comes from. Please be in there! She also mentions a "making of Stardust" book that will be released around the time of the movie as well as a visual companion book. Boy am I going to be poor come August!

Finally, their are two new editions to the blogroll. The first is Bookfoolery and Babble. This blog is fantastic! The author takes amazing photographs which are all over her blog and she has great taste in books and offers wonderful reviews. I enjoy her blog very much and hope that others can as well. The second addition is Colleen Gleason's blog. Colleen is an author who wrote The Rest Falls Away, a book that has had so many rave reviews and one that I must get around to reading. In fact, she's giving away 15 copies in a raffle of sorts through her blog. She touches on all sorts of subjects on her blog and her posts are always fun to read.

Web Wanderings and Fun Finds

Plenty of fun stuff on the web today. I'll go down the blog list. In this post, Neil Gaiman talks about an upcoming issue (April 2007) of Fantasy and Science Fiction that is somewhat of a tribute to Gene Wolfe. He wrote an article about Gene Wolfe as did two other authors and there is something (maybe a short story) called Memorare by Gene himself. In the same issue, Charles DeLint does book reviews. I used to subscribe to Fantasy and Science Fiction a couple of years ago and I'm not really sure why I didn't renew. I think I just may have to once again.

Next up is the second entry in Literacy Chic's Lenten Meals series. In this entry she gives a delicious recipe for Shrimp or Crawfish jambalaya. I know her from living here in New Orleans, so I can assure you that this is a great, authentic recipe. I highly recommend that you try this one out for a taste of real New Orleans cooking, and use Louisiana crawfish if you can find them (much better than Chinese crawfish. We had boiled crawfish for dinner tonight and they were deeeelicious.

Lisa Snellings-Clark writes about an interview she did for Fantasy Magazine which I'm looking forward to. She also talks about Poppet Planet and mentions that the gallery will be open again around St. Patrick's Day. Can't wait to see the poppets for that (assuming she makes them). Neil Gaiman has also changed the Magnificent Oracular Journal to hold a Lisa Snellings-Clark poppet.
In Carl's Friday Favorites, he introduces us to an artist by the name of Raymond Swanland. His images are breathtaking and he has the ability to capture so much life in his paintings. I especially like the second one down by the name of The Golden Hills of Westria. Great stuff!

Subterranean Press offers their edition of I Sing the Body Electric by Ray Bradbury which looks wonderful. But unfortunately at $150 for the cheaper version, I will not be buying this one. If you have the money, I'm sure it's worth it though. It's numbered and signed by Bradbury himself.

Finally (in web wanderings at least) in his latest Uncle Orson Reviews Everything column, Orson Scott Card reviews a new documentary called Done the Impossible: The Fans Tale Firefly and Serenity. It is a DVD that captures the huge underground fan base for Firefly, in my opinion, one of the best shows ever on tv that was unfortunately canceled after only 12 episodes to make way for reality shows. This DVD looks great and I can't wait to check it out.

Enter the fun finds. While not as numerous as the web wanderings, still great stuff.

I got in my car today and caught the tail end of an ad on XM Radio for some new show with Orson Scott Card! I knew there was a reason I loved XM so much, they love my favorite author! I'm not entirely sure what it is though, and their website and a Google search did nothing for me. Anyone know about this? What I do know is that he will apparently have a show on Sonic Theater, XM channel 163. I just discovered this channel today after hearing the ad. It's so great! It's like audio books 24/7 and every night they play sci-fi stuff. How cool. Alot of these are the great old time sci-fi radio shows. Can't wait to see what Orson Scott Card is doing with this channel.

Finally, I decided to make a stop by best buy tonight and picked up a couple of goodies. The first is the soundtrack for Children of Men, and what I've listened to so far is great and just as haunting as the movie. I've been wanting this since I saw the movie. The music was great. Glad I finally bought it. I also picked up The Prestige on DVD. I haven't seen this yet, but I'm sure I'll love it. First of all, it has something to do with magic. Anything related to fantasy in some way is ok by me. Second, the actors are great. Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, David Bowie, and the smoking hot and still talented Scarlett Johansen. Can't wait to see this. I'm sure my review will be posted later tonight.