"Here we go marching to Mars / On a rainbow bridge, it don't seem so far..."

Continuing my tradition of talking about events I've gone to days and weeks after the fact, here's what I did last week.

Science Cabaret

Last Friday was apparently Yuri's Night.  I had no idea Yuri's Night is a thing.  Definitely, worthy of a toast.  So, having had a hard day, I had two much-needed pints of Great Lakes Brewing Company's Edmund Fitzgerald Porter at the bar hosting the event, and went to the upper lounge to enjoy a presentation and slideshow from a member of Cornell's Department of Astronomy.

The most interesting parts of the presentation were the more mundane details, like how my phone has a more storage and a more powerful camera than the rovers that went up years ago, or just how ridiculously easy it is to shoot something to Mars and miss it.

When I complain about the cognitive disconnect of working in a place where people are beaming shit to and from Mars while there are spots on campus where I lose cell service, this is what I'm talking about.  Still though, the photos from the show, especially the ones from Mars, are pretty cool.

"Funny days in the park. Every day's the Fourth of July."

More pics from this year's Ithaca Festival at Stewart Park.  The weather was beautiful, so it was pretty crowded.  I didn't stay long and didn't really pay as much attention to individuals as I did the other day.  I visited the drum circle and saw a smattering of bands, but I spent most of my time watching the Ithaca Shakespeare Company's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.  I'm sure you'll be able to suss out those pics.

"People talking, people laughing. A man selling ice cream, singing Italian songs..."

The weather might've slowed the Ithaca Festival down a bit, but once the sun came out, so did most of the people.  The only things missing were some of the bands I'd seen on the Saturday part of the Ithaca Festival for years.  They either just aren't on the schedule or were playing on different days.  But still, I had my camera, and therefore, more potential story prompts.  More importantly, I ran into some cool folks!

"I am an artist. I LOVE a good party. So, truce. Commence au festival!"

Summer in Ithaca has officially started, with the Ithaca Festival Parade, after which will follow three days of some of the best people-watching a writer could ask for!  I realize how prickish that must sound, and I'll cop to saying/feeling that in a prickish manner when I experienced my first Ithaca Festival.  I'm not sure what changed, but I feel like it was something more than a mere moment of clarity. Anywho, the fact remains that every parade, I get a bunch of potential new story ideas, which is why my camera is my best friend this time of year...

"I'm on fire/ On the playground, love"

Last Tuesday, I attended the first of this year's Distinguished Visiting Writers Series at one of the local colleges, featuring author Jeffrey Eugenides.  He read an excerpt from his as-yet-untitled latest novel, which appeared in the June 7th New Yorker under the title "Extreme Solitude." If you've had a college love affair of any kind, there's a lot that's familiar about the story.

"All the little kids growing up in the skids are goin' 'Cleveland rocks! Cleveland Rocks!'"

Over the holiday weekend, I made a long overdue trip to see my family who live a mere 20 minutes down I-90 from the front door to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  Of course I've always been fond of my hometown.  Make all the jokes you want about it, but at least we're not Detroit.

Aside from ten years of stuff my folks have accumulated since I left, not a lot is different.  For instance, my old bedroom.  Some of the things tacked to the walls have been there for... Christ... 15 to 20 years.

"Everybody needs a little time away..." Part III

I took one final day yesterday to relax from the stresses of life, the dayjob, and my writing. I know what most writers say about needing to write every single day and the thing is, I agree 100%. It's just that I've come to the realization that I can't do it.  I should, and I should keep working toward that.  But if I treat writing like another job, then like any other job, I need a break.

Yesterday was the third and final day of the annual summer festival. Whereas Saturday was sunny and hot, almost to the point where I was worried about heat stroke, Sunday was gray, drizzling at times, and about 20 degrees cooler. I thought all I needed was a thicker polo shirt, but I was wrong. Still, some hot chocolate warmed me up enough to enjoy what I saw: People dancing to a circle of drummers, folks doing Yoga in the cold, and a local group of bagpipers which includes a sci-fi writer who is a frequent contributor to Analog as well as Asimov's Science Fiction and other places.



If nothing else, I've got a third day's worth of potential character sketches, here. 

Now, I'm getting slowly back on the wagon. I'm finally getting the first draft of my story for Rigor Amortis together, building it around the skeleton of an unrelated flash fiction I wrote about 6 or 8 months ago. I figure if Carol Emshwiller can include "Acceptance Speech" and "Report to the Men's Club" in the same collection, then I can make a story "the same, but different" than one I've previously written (not that I'm 1/10th of the writer she is, but still).

"Everybody needs a little time away..." Part II

It's actually taken a lot for me to realize just how much I needed a break from this year of hell at the dayjob, even after an extra-long long holiday weekend.  My writing suffered.  I'm not talking about how much I haven't been writing lately, but the fact that I was convinced that somehow I could get it done if I'd just whipped myself a little harder.  But I think I was, literally, beating a dead horse.

So, I went for another day of frolicking in the sun at the annual summer festival, the one time and place in the year when I don't mind running into coworkers.



And again, the best part is that this batch of photos is ripe with character ideas!  I've already begged off critique group tomorrow to go to the festival's last day.

"Everybody needs a little time away..."

As if my "wrojo" (i.e. "writing mojo" -- brought to you by Regan) wasn't low enough, there's been so much more to distract me this past week. There's been an upsurge in work in my dayjob capacity as the Special Projects Bitch. To unwind, I've been taking advantage of the nice weather conciding with my town's annual summer festival. But hey, sometimes you need some time off from writing and to recharge. And it's only recently that loafing is only a small part of recharging. The other part, at least for me, is being charged with something--in this case, the energy that drew me to live here in the first place.

Traditionally, the festival starts off with a Thursday night parade.



My favorite part of the parade was the Ithaca League of Women Rollers and their Chia Skate float!



The best part is, there's at least a half-dozen character ideas in just these photographs.

More to come, as I've just spent most of my Saturday. And I plan to spend some of my Sunday, as well.

Scenes From a Temporary February Thaw

Things I saw being out and about today.

Because I Can

"Out with the old, in with the new?" Nuh-uh!



3000 + Acer Aspire One = No fucking excuses!!

When You're Just Dying to Know

Went to see my folks during the Thanksgiving holiday, went tooling around my old haunts, and came across this.

Slack-jawed, I snapped this pic on my phone. I figured, "Just like this town to have come up with this sort of wrong." But, this wasn't some local yokel creation. Oh, no.

In fact, you can run one--"No medical experience required." (???)

Here's Looking at You, Kid

Halloween, 2008--the night I creeped out several coworkers, got props from group of guys in Guy Fawkes masks, and frightened at least one small child.

"Temptation, frustration, so bad it makes him cry."

I can never say no to this. I accept that now.

What Do You Say to a Mocha?

"Going down?"



Isn't it amusing that one can frequent a particular café so much that the baristas actually start calling your name out loud just like Norm on Cheers?

Today, I buy this replacement coffee tumbler to replace one I just lost. It's the exact same model, which causes one barista to remark, "That's so Don!" But hey, like Nick Nolte said in Another 48 Hours, unapologetic for buying the same make and model car that got destroyed in the original movie, "I get used to things."

This Way