Frozen, a post I wrote back in October, was nominated as one of the best “Just Posts” of 2009 in the category of Political/Legal Social Justice related to Sexuality. The post is about a woman who was kept from the deathbed of her life partner (along with the couple’s children), and more broadly, about same sex marriage. It’s one of the more difficult things I’ve written, only because I wanted to write something that might actually speak to people who were against gay marriage, rather than just preaching to the choir. That means pulling back from many of the things I was tempted to say. Biting comments feel good, but don’t encourage dialogue. In the end I’m not sure it mattered, since I doubt anyone who was against same sex marriage made it to my blog to read it, but I’m pleased and honored that people who have read it found it worthwhile.

If you’d like to vote for it you can do so here:

Cold Spaghetti

or here:

Collecting Tokens

My post is “Frozen” (a certain lack of focus) by Meagan, in the 3rd category. There are lots of great posts over there, so it’s worth the trip even if you don’t feel like voting.

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?

Got my MFA degree! Finished (really finished) a novel! Spent an entire year married.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don’t remember what my resolutions were (or if I had any), but I’m happy with my progress on various goals. Next year I hope to find a publisher and get some illustration work.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

No, but a close friend did get pregnant, so, next year.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Matt’s Granddad died in the spring. I only met him a couple times but he seemed like a wonderful guy, and he had the most kicking wake I’ve ever been to. I mean, whole room singing joyfully for life celebration type a thing. It was sad but not depressing if that makes any sense.

5. What countries did you visit?

Didn’t get out of the country this year, but I did get to visit my parents in Oregon, and a couple good trips out to DC.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?

A publishing contract. Work that pays in money (free books and video games are nice but…). A house. I can dream, right?

7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

Er… I can’t think of any big dates. Sorry.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Finished novel revisions. Graduation.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I can’t think of anything I feel I failed hugely at. Probably biggest issue is setting too many goals at once, but I’m getting better at that.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Probably got a couple bad colds, as per usual, but nothing major.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

IPHONE. Love it. Also, related, “Things” app for iPhone. Productivity has soared. Or at least, you know, moved. Forward.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

My big brother took a risk and quit a job he hated, to do what he really wanted to do (coaching at the fencing club), with less money and less security. Related: Walt Dragonetti, this year’s Veteran WORLD champion in Men’s Epee. My friend Kim started Med School, my friend Amy started a new grad program and my sister-in-law went back to school AND started to learn Reiki. Oh, hell. All the people in my life are amazing.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

Repeat from last year: If I can’t say something nice, I’m definitely not going to type it on the internet.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Coffee and books.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Just living… I’m having a good time.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?

I’m on a Mother %#@& Boat!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

a) happier or sadder?

Happier!

b) thinner or fatter?

Probably about the same.

c) richer or poorer?

No idea.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Getting my name (and portfolio) out. Drawing.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Staying up till all hours and getting up far too late.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

With family in PA. Finally saw Christmas Vacation, which is apparently where 99% of Matt’s Christmas jokes come from. Oh who am I kidding, make it a round 100.

21. Did you fall in love in 2009?

Yup. Still. Always I think.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

I saw this “Mystery Diagnosis” program a couple times while in Chicago that seemed pretty interesting, though likely to cause acute paranoia.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate might be a strong word. Some fresh disappointment.

24. What was the best book you read?

Escaping the Endless Adolescence (though I’ve still got a little bit to go, since I’ve pretty much just been reading it between Borders trips). I’ll get around to buying it at some point. Anyway, I think it’s brilliant.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Jonathan Coulton. Awesome.

26. What did you want and get?

Time to focus on creative things.

27. What did you want and not get?

Nothing important.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Coraline.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Spent a leisurely day with Matt. I think we went to Chilli’s and Kim made me an awesome Coraline card. I turned 28.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Hmm… it would have been nice to have made more progress on the whole converting creative efforts into income front… but I think I’ll get there.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?

I spent most of the year trying to fit into the jeans that I fit into at the end of 2008, and finally succeeded about a month ago, since which time I’ve been trying to fend off the holiday spirits which are determined to make them shrink again. Otherwise I’ve been wearing all the same stuff I’ve been wearing since (or before) college, until I visited Oregon and Mom bought me a whole bunch of new clothes. Thanks Mom! I can finally throw out my dress pants that were once black but are now the color of pilled.

32. What kept you sane?

Error. Question is based on incorrect parameters.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

John Stewart.

34. What political issue stirred you the most?

Local issues and Energy. GAY RIGHTS.

35. Who did you miss?

Sheila. Both my thesis defense and reading were a tad bittersweet.

36. Who was the best new person you met?

Not sure. I’m antisocial.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.

I’m more capable than I think. A lousy job can make you completely miserable.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

I might be able to do this if I ever remembered song lyrics.

*images all created using iPhone app “SpawnLite”

The holidays are always hectic, and even though Thanksgiving is less than a week away, I’m not quite mentally there. Last year I did holidailies during December, and it was a lot of fun, but I’ve decided not to do it this year. I met some cool bloggers through it, but I can do that just as easily by visiting the site without contributing. Forcing myself to put out a post each day spread the quality a bit thin, and maybe more importantly, made me not want to blog for quite a while after, which sort of defeats the purpose of frequent posting.

I did hope to get my webcomic up and running (yes! I really have one… sort of) by December, but now that December is looming surprisingly close, that’s seeming less likely. I’m aiming for the beginning of the year instead, since that seems like a good starting point anyway.

And as long as we’re talking about signing up for more things than I’m really prepared to do, I’ve started writing for Technorati and Blogcritics. I thought I’d write two or three times a week, and then I thought maybe just once a week, and then I CAME TO MY SENSES and decided I’d write for them whenever I got a blog idea that fit better on one of those two sites than my own. I’m hoping to start doing book reviews for Blogcritics which I may or may not repost here depending on my whims at the time. Anyway, most posts so far have just been review-y media style articles (and a republished piece from this blog for blogcritics) but I did a satirical review of Tweetie and TweetDeck that you might enjoy if you use or understand twitter. If you aren’t familiar with twitter, it probably won’t make as much sense, but the tone might be entertaining anyway. Check it out, and if you hate it, you can throw virtual tomatoes at me on Facebook, which I won’t accept, because what

I haven’t forgotten about my novel or my other priorities. My novel is currently with readers, once I hear back from them I’ll start looking for publishing opportunities, with any luck in January. I’m also still plugging away at the overall website design, trying to get my portfolio updated so I can start sending out feelers for illustration work without hanging my head in shame for showing nothing but 5-year-old work (that’s art that’s 5 years old, not art by a 5-year-old). Wish me luck and energy.*Tomato photo by The Ewan. Other images by me.

Part of the reason for this is that it gave me a great excuse to dye my hair blue. For as long as I can remember, Halloween has been my favorite holiday, and that’s half because I love the spooky and half because I just love costumes. I take my costumes very seriously. When I ordered my yellow rain boots online, Amazon gave me this screen:

So it’s clear I’m not the only one who had the idea to dress as Coraline. But wigs are for the weak!

Anyway, I’ve dyed my hair blue before, and it did not go well. I followed online instructions rather than what was on the bottle, and ended up with crappy looking blue hair for about a day and a half… and seaweed green hair for another 6 months. In spite of past experience I ended up choosing the same dye (Raw Colors’ True Blue from Hot Topic) and this time I followed the instructions on the bottle.

It seems to have worked much better, but the dye gets everywhere.

I have a blue tub and a blue pillow case (inside out fortunately) and the only reason my face is no longer blue is because I scrubbed it off with Gojo. Note: when dying your hair, don’t bother using Vaseline on the outside of your ear, because they’re going to get dyed no matter how much you use. Put the Vaseline INSIDE your ears. This color seems to be fading to a dark teal color, and though I’m sure it will eventually get to that unlovely seaweed hue, I’m a bit more optimistic about the fading. We’ll see.*

Costumes are all about details, so I replayed the movie over and over to figure out what I needed. I was surprised at the lack of dragonfly barrettes (I found only a really crappy one, for $10 and decided it wasn’t worth it), so I thought I’d use the costume as an excuse to try my hand at some wire jewelry. Then I ran out of time.

Instead I dug through some of my old jewelry and found a dragonfly necklace from who knows when, and pinned it over a plain white barrette and called it close enough. I did manage to find a small purple messenger bag like the one Coraline carries when she’s outside. It’s not exactly the same color, and it’s got more to it then the one from the movie, but I liked it, and it looked like something Coraline would pick out if she had the option.

Of course the ultimate Coraline detail would be the spy-doll.

I don’t really sew, but this seemed like a good chance to try. I don’t think the doll appears at all in the book Coraline, but I’m all about costume details, and I thought the Coraline doll would add just the right bit of creepy.

I started off well enough, but once I stuffed it, the whole thing fell apart (not literally). The shape was completely wrong, and when I added in fabric paint it looked creepy… but in entirely the wrong ways. I also just didn’t leave enough time, so finally the night before Halloween I had to call the doll a fail. I left it on the table to dry, where it completely freaked out Matt when he got home from work, so, you know, I got SOME Halloween satisfaction from it.

This year was the first time I’ve been in town to celebrate Halloween with my friends in about five years. While I worked for the Vindicator, I ended up going to a student media conference every year and then last year, I was of course on our honeymoon. I wore my ceramic horns and Matt and I went reverse trick-or-treating on the train (we gave out candy) so that was lots of fun, but it’s not the full-costume Halloween I’ve missed. Overall I think Coraline was probably one of my more successful costumes, probably because it was extremely simple. It was also one of my more economical costumes since most of the elements were either something I could reuse, or things I already owned.

Plus, I still have blue hair, so OBVIOUSLY it’s a costume winner.

*The background in this photo comes from one of the tunnel scenes in Coraline. It is owned by whoever owns it (Henry Selick? Neil Gaiman? Not sure, but certainly not ME) and I have no idea whether it’s legal to use it in this context. If someone from Coraline land (no I don’t mean the OTHER world, I mean author, director, frothing lawyers etc.) wishes me to take it down, I will do so.

Since I don’t want to abandon my blog all week, this week I’ll be bringing you some of my favorite photos. Most of them are from the new digital camera I got this summer. For today, let’s look at some photos I took at a Renn Faire in August, which is where I went for my bachelorette party. Not sure it really counted as a bachelorette party since Matt, and several other guys were there, but whatever, I had fun.

The fun colors in this picture make me happy. Mostly I think that wearing faerie wings is a bit silly (though these faerie wings are pretty awesome), but as decorative items, I’m a big fan. Also impressed by the creative way they’re displayed in a spiderweb-net.

Not sure exactly why I love this one. It might be the sense of motion that I know is there, even if it’s not evident in the photo. This big green sea dragon thing is a kiddie ride at the faire. I’m also pleased at the expression on the man’s face.

Technically I think she’s selling aromatherapy oils, but this booth feels so much like an apothecary that I feel Shakespeare must be hanging out somewhere nearby.

I LOVE this picture. It’s got an exotic market feel, heightened by the fact that the girl is off center and, more importantly, didn’t look at me until after I snapped the photo.

This one, a photo of everyone leaving the park at the end of the day, seems to me to have a surreal feeling to it. I think it’s the combination of color, lighting, and dust.

Lastly, this image technically doesn’t have anything to do with Renaissance, it’s from one of the mini-gardens sprinkled throughout the faire. I like the look of the spiderwebs (even though I hate spiders) and rock, so I included it.

You can click on any of the images for a larger version. There are a ton more Renn Faire photos, but these are my favorites. I’ll have photos of something or other tomorrow. This is better than photos of my cats, right? Because I could just post photos of my cats until the novel is finished. They’re very cute? Leave your vote in comments…Scotland, or photos of my cats.

I remember a few years ago waiting in the check-out line behind a woman a few years older than me. Her toddler, no older than two, was reaching for one of the impulse items. Quite seriously the woman said, “That’s biscotti. BIS-COTT-EY. Can you say biscotti?” It made me giggle at the time, but I guess I can’t make too much fun when I’m the one choosing to shop at a store where there’s biscotti up front instead of Butterfingers.

Today I had another reminder when we stopped to look at a plastic wrapped package of veal brains. You know your grocery store is catering to yuppies when they sell veal brains.

Matt and I made fun of Heinens for a while until we got to the check-out line. Then we got into a discussion with the woman working the register about the benefits of bison meat versus ostrich meat.

I looked at the items in our cart. Organic broccoli, organic garlic, organic eggs, organic milk, organic whole wheat pasta. Ostrich fillets and pesto turkey sausage. I realized, we belong here. Like it or not, we really are yuppies.

I shouldn’t be ashamed of trying to eat healthy, of trying to keep chemicals out of my body. I’m not really. I am occasionally embarrassed though. And why?

I know that Obama’s presidency is supposed to shoo in a new era of cooperation and forgiveness, but every so often I find myself overcome with a wave of anger at the right wing media machine.

I know republicans claim that there’s a massive liberal media conspiracy. As an openly leftist liberal myself, I can’t claim objectivity, so even though I think it’s absurd to call the reporters on NPR biased, I’ll admit there might be some liberal bias in some media channels, so long as conservatives will admit the same on their side. And to me there is a huge difference between the supposed liberal bias and the blatent, Fox News b.s.

The “liberal meda” might have spent the last eight years attacking the bush administration (and no, obviously that was a bias and not the result of, I dunno, incompetence) but Fox News has spent the last eight years attacking ME.

How the HELL did they manage to turn energry conservation into something bad, into a sign of elitism? Since when is buying organic a bad thing? How dare they imply that anyone who is health conscious, or environmentally conscious, or socially conscious is a flighty, empty headed LIBERAL, with liberal suddenly carrying approximately all the positive qualities of a pinko-commie-Marxist in the 50s?

It’s not only that, not only the anti-liberal message we’ve been force fed for years. I am furious every time I think of Sarah Palin talking about how the “real America” is in small towns. The clear implication is that if you aren’t a Palin “type,” not a corn farmer, or a fake plummer or a… whatever else it is they do in small towns, you’re not a real American.

So fine. I like fruufy coffee drinks and I buy organic. I threatened to move to Canada when Bush got re-elected. I threatened again if Obama didn’t win, and I kind of meant it. I am a liberal and I can’t stand Sarah Palin. I may well be a yuppie. In spite of all that, I would like to make one thing perfectly clear.

I do not eat veal brains.

*Photos from Flickr users Jhritz and Kerryank. And me.

Last night, fencing for the first time in a month or so, I went to take a shower, and thought at first that I had some sort of rash on my chest. It was covered with bright red splotches, which I quickly realized were fencing bruises.

The only strange thing about these bruises is that I’d been away from fencing long enough to not immediately recognize them.

There are three different weapons in fencing: foil, sabre, epee. If you spent a semester fencing in college, chances are you were fencing foil.  Foil is generally considered the beginner’s weapon, not because it’s easier, but because it supposedly sets a good basis for the other two weapons without causing bad habits. As someone who fenced three years of foil before changing to epee, I can tell you the part about bad habits isn’t true, but that’s another post entirely.

Foil and epee are both point weapons, meaning the fencer scores by hitting his or her opponent with the point only. Because of this, the bruises you’ll find in foil and epee are similar, generally round splotches about the size of a thumb print. This can cause awkward remarks: I’ve heard stories where the parents of fencers are referred to child services, and I have a teammate who once had a random stranger stop her in the restroom to tell her, “Honey, he’s not worth it.”

In both weapons most bruises are on the upper chest and front arm (your dominant hand, right for most people). Because epees have thicker (and therefor stiffer) blades, and slightly larger tips, epee bruises are usually slightly bigger. Epee does have one kind of distinguishing mark that you don’t find as often in foil or sabre: a red scrape-like bruise, often on the inside of the elbow that sort of resembles a junkie’s track mark. This is because in epee, unlike in foil, the entire body is valid scoring area, and the inside of the elbow is a typical place where the point sticks. Obviously, it’s also an area with fairly sensitive skin, hence, bruising. This kind of mark usually has a central point where the impact was greatest, with a colorful aura around it, and a tail where the point dragged. It looks a bit like a comet.

Most people think of sabre as being more brutal than the other two, but bruises are less frequent. Marks that do occur in sabre tend to be more welts than bruises, as sabre is a blade weapon, where touches are scored by using the edge.  Legs are not valid scoring area, but leg welts are common because many sabre fencers practice in shorts.

Welts do occur in foil and epee, just not as often.  There is an attack known as a “flick” where the fencer makes a motion similar to casting a fishing line with an abrupt stop, only the line in question is a “36 long piece of metal.  In theory, the point continues traveling forward, scoring a touch. If done improperly, the entire blade can connect, which is far less likely to result in a point, but much more likely to seriously piss off your opponent. Some people consider this a bonus.

Flicking is more common in foil, and I’ve seen bruises all down foilists’ backs from lousy flicks.  Some people do flick in epee though it takes a great deal more strength, and is that much more painful when done incorrectly.  I’ve actually had welts accross the stomach from epee flicks, fun fun.  These marks usually have a double line where the skin actually wraps around the blade. In epee there is usually an obvious end point, because the epee tip is relatively heavy, but this is not necessarily the case with foils or sabres.

Fencing bruises really do come in a rainbow of colors, but that doesn’t necessarily make them pretty.  The most common colors are red, blue and greenish yellow.  Of course you also get some lovely purples. Bruises on the hand are sometimes a sort of sickly grey brown color.  The only color I’ve not noticed in fencing bruises is orange, but give it time.

This weekend I’ll be fencing a tournament, with a capital T, that is completely out of my league. It’s a national tournament, you must have achieved a certain ranking (measure of skill) to even enter, which I only have because I was good when I was in college and my ranking hasn’t expired completely yet. I’m not optimistic about my chances, but I’m going to do my best.  If I do poorly, I could end up going home after only a few short bouts. If I do well, it is within the realms of possibility that I could fence a first round of short bouts than maybe another two, or even three longer bouts. I’m hoping to get a whole lot of colorful bruises.

More bruises mean I fenced longer.

Matt started working at SecureState back in April, and a couple weeks ago, when they brought up the charity effort of the holiday season, he volunteered to be Santa. I haven’t spent much time in the science center but I always have fun there, it’s more of a children’s museum than a boring-type museum and I’m pretty immature so it all works out well.

Transforming Matt into Santa Claus took a desperate twenty minutes with various padding experiments. Matt’s got the sparkling blue eyes, the red cheeks, the glasses, but other than that there’s really not much resemblance. The biggest problem was that the pillow thing doesn’t work. We tried four different pillows and they all created a square belly. Even the feather pillow. We were afraid we would have to let him go as a skinny Santa, and that would have been awesome because he looked more like the Grinch than anything, but eventually we managed a somewhat natural lump of fat using a towel for the belly and a scarf as man-boobs. He looked ok from the side, and while sitting, but the silhouette from behind was very decidedly NOT jolly enough. We did the best we could, and the kids young enough to believe in Santa didn’t seem to notice. Anyway, the red beard peaking out from the white was a much bigger giveaway, so I guess the uneaven towel fat wasn’t that big a deal.

When we got there, the rest of the SecureState group were setting up for the event. The room had a bunch of freaky science-y equipment up on a stage, which we hoped the kids would ignore, but Matt and I agreed must be some kind of super energy weapon for the REALLY naughty kids.

Since I didn’t quite know what I should be doing, I wandered around for a while trying to keep out of the way. I had a plan if any of the kids asked me who I was supposed to be. I figured I’d tell them that I’m half-elf. The pointy ears are recessive. Duh.

I think the plan was for all the kids to come in with their families and sit down and be called up, table by table, to get their food, their quality time with Santa, and of course, their presents. (And no, they weren’t creepy disfigured smily-faced children, that’s just my way of protecting the innocent and such.) Of course it didn’t happen that way, but eventually everyone settled down, and Matt seemed to be doing a good job Santa-ing. I mostly stayed on the other side of the room because I figured it would be weird for the kids if I accidentally called Santa “babe” or you know, kissed him. I mean, the fake beard was a pretty good reminder, but just to be safe.

After the presents were handed out, they actually had LIVE ENTERTAINMENT. Ok, so it was a pre-teen dance team, but they were actually very good. I’m not sure all the kids enjoyed it, because, yeah eight year old boys love nothing more than ballet, right? Many of the kids were too young to sit still and watch dancing, but I saw at least one group of completely enthralled girls, and, hey, I was pretty impressed.

The older group had serious skills, and the kids in the younger group were surprisingly good for their size (guessing 7-11 year olds) and TOTAL hams. They were adorable. Also, at one point, their music broke down and while it was being fixed they improvised with Christmas carols. They actually sounded good. If you’ve ever heard, or been in a children’s choir, you realize how completely unlikely that is.

The day seemed to go well. The kids all looked very happy and even the parents and organizers were far less harried than you would expect in an activity involving just under a hundred children. We’d planned to leave before everyone else in typical Santa style, and enjoy the museum for a while, but since Matt was sweaty, overheated, and you know, still Santa, we decided we’d wait it out and then go to lunch instead. Once the kids left I got to take my turn sitting in Santa’s lap. I got a little freaked out when I saw the photo because I look even younger than I usually do: I look more like just another one of the kids sitting on Santa’s lap than an adult being a smartass. I’m 27, I swear.

Sometime last year on my old blog, I mentioned that I was excited because I was finally the top result for Meagan Call in google rankings. I joked that every time someone meant to type: “professional illustrator” or “fantasy writer” or “someone who would accept my millions of extra dollars that I don’t want” and ACCIDENTALLY typed in “Meagan Call” instead, they’d find me! And now, it looks like that has actually happened!

So, sole person who found my blog searching for Meagan Call but REALLY wants to hire a writer or illustrator or give someone a bunch of money (or, you know, any) I am SO your woman.

My other favorite search terms that lead to this blog: “David Mack Condo Watch” and “Dragon Mating Flight.” Yeah. The worst part is I can kinda see the second one but am totally clueless about the first.

So anyway, seriously, if you are the person who searched for me and found me, drop me a line, or show me some comment love, and let me know who you are! Are you the other Meagan Call who lives in Utah and actually kind of looks like me? (Do you have any idea how weird it is to find someone with your name, the same graduation year, in a photo wearing the same coat you once owned with your haircut, and the photo is too far away to actually make out whether it’s you or not even though you KNOW you’ve never been to Russia? NO, you do not.) Is it one of my friends, or my parents, or someone who was divinely inspired to type the name Meagan Call? A creepy stalker? Tell me!

On second thought, if you’re a creepy stalker, don’t tell me. Just stop.