Below are the most recent 7 friends' journal entries.

Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
malice_a	10:53p	what. (Comment on this)
grrm	3:06p	Wildlings at Gencon Gamers attending last weekend's GenCon in Indianapolis found a surprise waiting for them at the Dark Sword Miniatures booth -- a half dozen new figures in the "George R.R. Martin Masterworks" range, being rolled out for the first time as special convention pre-release. The talented Jeff Grace sculpted these new additions to the Dark Sword range, six wildings from beyond the Wall, to face off against the Night's Watch figures featured in the first wave. Two are spearwives, the women warriors of the far north, but don't look for ludicrous chainmail bikinis on these gals. Fur and leather are a lot more practical in the wild. The wildlings were a special GenCon run, available for purchase only at the convention, but Dark Sword expects to make them available for mail-order in another month or two, as soon as the rest of "wave 1.5" is ready. Gencon attendees also got a glimpse at prototypes of some of the other figures in the iopeline, including a court lady, two gold cloak guardsmen, and a stunning 54mm sculpt of Daenerys and her newborn dragons, fresh from the fires of Khal Drogo's funeral pyre, all from Tom Meier. Watch this space for pictures for those figures, when they are available. We'll also have pictures of the winning entries in the painting contest. My friends at Dark Sword tell me that some of them were truly spectacular. I look forward to seeing them. Current Mood: happy (26 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, August 18th, 2008
hartsox	11:46p	inflatable tanks?!?!?!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ghost_Army I had never heard of this before and it is all crazy like something out of catch 22: the Ghost Army was an "1,100-man unit... given a unique mission within the Army to impersonate other U.S. Army units in order to fool the enemy. From a few weeks after D-Day, when they landed in France, until the end of the war, they put on a traveling road show, using inflatable tanks, sound trucks, phony radio transmissions and even playacting. They staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions, often operating very close to the front lines." and Ellsworth Kelly was in it. weird. (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
grrm	5:46p	Brett the Jet That shout you all heard last week was me, reacting to the news that Brett Favre had been traded to the Jets. Yes, he's old. Yes, he can drive you crazy with that now-I'm-retired, now-I'm-not stuff. But he's still Brett Favre. This year should be a lot more exciting in the AFC East. Could this be the year I get my Subway Superbowl? Well, probably not. But a boy can dream. (I am sorry to lose Chad Pennington. Chad's taken a lot of crap from fair-weather fans, but he was a smart, tough, gutsy guy who played his heart out, and when healthy, one of the best quarterbacks in the league. All those injuries took their toll, sad to say, but I will always cherish the memory of his first year, and that 41-0 playoff win over the Colts. I hated to see him go to the Dolphins, he's too dangerous a competitor to have in the division, but I will always wish him well... at least when he's not playing the Jets). Current Mood: excited Current Music: When You're a Jet, You're a Jet All the Way (57 Comments |Comment on this)
grrm	5:23p	Home Again, Again Back from Denvention, and this time I get to stay home for a while. Worldcon is always one of the highlights of my year. (I am still sorry I missed Japan last summer). This one had some problems, admittedly. We were scattered over seven different hotels spread out across most of downtown Denver, we had to share the cavernous convention center with several other conventions, the con was way too early (worldcons should be held on Labor Day weekend, the traditional date, not the first weekend of bloody August), and the party hotel (the Sheraton) really sucked. Even so, I had a great time. Hey, it was worldcon. There are good worldcons and not-so-good worldcons, but the worst worldcon is still great. For me, the highlight of the weekend was getting to go up and accept Michael Chabon's Hugo for THE YIDDISH POLICEMAN'S UNION. A great book, and a great honor, and the comments Michael made in the acceptance speech he sent me were very gracious. Calling him afterward to tell him that he'd won was also great. He really did not expect it; his surprise and delight were palpable, even across a couple of thousand miles. Melbourne won the right to host the 2010 worldcon (not unexpectedly, since they had no competition), so for all my Australian readers who have been emailing me to come visit Down Under, please circle the dates on your calendars. The Aussies always give great con. Visit the Aussiecon IV website and sign up now; memberships will never be cheaper than they are today. We had a great time -- and a good crowd -- at the Wild Cards panel as well. At my reading, I read the first third of "The Mystery Knight," my new Dunk & Egg novella, and that seemed to go over well. Did the usual round of power breakfasts, editorial lunches, and publisher dinners, had lots of good meetings on lots of projects... and, of course, there were the parties. As usual, the Brotherhood Without Banners threw the best parties at the cons. My thanks to Stego, Mr & Mrs X, Kate, Queen Julie the First, Yags, Skylark, Daj, Vanessa, and the rest of the crew, and my congratulations to the new Knights of the Tomato Pie. And a shout out to Pod and Lodey, who were missed. Only one more trip this year (Calgary, for the World Fantasy Convention), so for all you folks who are worried that I'm having too much fun, relax. My assistant Ty is getting the grindstone back up to speed, and I am about to press my nose to it once more. Current Mood: drained (39 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
auraxcore	11:37p	I said, "that boy's handsome" and a little bit of me wanted to be beautiful still alive, barely i guess? spent the wee hours of friday morning in excruciating pain, like the worst i've ever felt. hardly able to move and praying for a quick death and all that. finally toughed it out long enough to drive myself to the emergency room. thought it was my appendix since i had all of the symptoms but nine hours and three different types of intravenous narcotics later it was concluded that i had kidney stones. so, great. at least i didn't have to have surgery. i now have ridiculous bruises on my arms from the IV and multiple attempts at placing it and also a prescription for percoset. oh, and a headcold. thank you, hospital, for making me sicker upon leaving than i was upon arriving. we're playing two shows this week, both with from the depths. i'm really looking forward to seeing brian and steve!!! again and it will be amazing to hang out with them both. i don't think i'll have enough time to take steve!!! on a tea date in reciprocation the lovely one he took me on when we were in north carolina but i'm sure i'll think of something sweet. so as not to make my weekend a complete waste, i cleaned and organized my shoebox of a kitchen today. i need to get new cookware. i kind of don't want to buy a set but it will probably be cheaper than shopping around for individual pieces. i also want to get rid of my knife block and get a good set of kitchen knives. probably something expensive. oh and i also hung up the tibetan prayer flags that emily sent me recently. they look awesome! i'm excited that she's only eight or so hours away from me now, instead of the 12+ it's been for the last, oh, three or four years. i am predicting lots of ikea and weekend getaways. there are people that i miss, there are things i want to be doing and there are places that i want to be that aren't here. what is it about summer that creates such discontent? Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: can't slow down (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
hartsox	11:09p	tiny puppy tonight when I got home there was a tiny puppy rooting around in the garbage. so I brought it inside and tater was mad and ran outside, and I tried to call the number on its tag but it went to a voicemail service. but luckily, just as I was leaving frantic messages on the voicemails of everyone I know who has a dog, and scouring lost dog internet sites, the tiny puppy wanted to go outside. so we went outside because I was worried that it wanted to pee all over my house. then it chased tater around again and just as I was interrogating the neighborhood security guy about if he had talked to anyone who lost a puppy (he hadn't), I heard somebody whistle and then this guy came up on a bike and it was his puppy! he was really happy that he found his puppy and I was really happy that I didn't have to adopt a puppy because I couldn't bear to leave it at a shelter, and tater was really happy because there was no longer a puppy snortling around and eating all of her food. so, sorry about the frantic vmails. the puppy is solved. (7 Comments |Comment on this)