So for anyone who's wondering what's been going on with me outside of the book reviews, it's been mostly dull punctuated with occasional fun social events - a couple of great birthdays, a late-night movie viewing, Pride, a trip out west.

Last night was jenjoou's birthday party. Which is always a wonderful event - not just because she is a wonderful hostess and has a beautiful apartment, but also because all her guests are geeks. It is so nice to go to a party and not have to pretend to be conventional, which is what we geeks wind up doing at most birthday parties.

(Then I have to remember what Montreal's sports teams are called, and that's never pretty.)

Other than that, it's been mostly work, cleaning, and heavy novel-editing - I think I tipped the balance toward 30 hours this week on the novel. I finished the mostly gruelling chunk of editing about fifteen minutes ago. Now it's just light edits through September, and sending it out in October.

Another miscellany, after a long absence.

Same-Sex Marriage Became Law in Canada 5 Years Ago Today

We should've listened to the religious right. Canada now resembles a Mad Max-esque wasteland, a landscape of broken shells of buildings, where horrific mutants scrounge for cans of food in the ruins of supermarkets.

In other words, it's not just Esquimalt anymore.

Oh, we saw the signs. As the zombies crept through the streets of Amsterdam, infecting the last survivors, we should have realized. When that meteor hit Brussels, we ought to have known. In the last days before we got it - just as Spain legalized and every Spanish citizen abruptly married a dog - we should have heeded the signs and turned back.

But we walked that path - the path that has made Sweden, the Netherlands, and Canada synonymous with living hell on the lips of every person in the world. Even when dogs and cats began living together, we didn't heed the warnings. Now it's too late for us.

Trip West

It was a good vacation, if rushed. The miracle of Facebook means that I'm in contact with many friends long-lost.

Also, I'm back on good terms with a friend I posted about some time ago. I meant to post about that - sorry to anyone who was still worried about me there. But I've been 300 posts behind on LJ forever, and I try to read my friends page before posting myself.

I saw him every afternoon. That was wonderful, and we patched things up, but it meant I was juggling mornings and evenings all week to see others, and I couldn't get to Vancouver. It was nice to see old friends. But now I'm very, very tired. I had very little sleep. However, I am still on BC time, so sleep before midnight is so far impossible.

Oryx and Crake: The Video Game

So someone posted a request for people to respond to a short marketing survey. She's developing a concept for an Oryx and Crake video game - I don't know if she really wants to produce it or not, but even as an idea it's interesting.

At first, I wondered how many Margaret Atwood fans are also video gamers, and then I realized that that's half my friends-list. The survey is here.

So what do you think? RPG? Racing game? First-Person Shooter? It better not be a side-scroller, because this has the side-scrollers-based-on-Canadian-fiction category tied up for the year:

Today is April 27, and it is snowing outside my window. Sadly, it's not going to last until Saturday, which is a pity. A white Beltane would be lovely.

I'm not going to be able to have my birthday on the actual day of it - I work that weekend, and can't get out of it. So I was thinking one week later, Saturday the 15th, and was wondering how that worked for my friends in town...?

I've been doing a fair bit of writing lately. I did a first outline of my novel re-write on paper, and now I'm doing a second, more detailed one. I'm more creative on paper.

I seem to have picked a bad day for my birthday party, as only four of my friends were able to make it in the end.

But there was good food and good conversation and nice gifts. I've actually got a certificate to get get some decent clothes thanks to the lovely em_fish, and another from montrealais for my first massage. scottevil was also there -- I haven't seen him much lately -- and maidenofirisa actually made it in spite of a very late work schedule, which made me happy.

After spending yesterday tidying, scrubbing, mopping, and shopping in the lead-up to the party, I don't think I want to do much of anything today except write. I want to be four-fifths through this edit by the end of the day.

So, is anyone in Montreal going to The Watchmen this week? I can do any evening, but I figure the line-ups will be horrendous on the first night.

So I got back to Montreal a few days ago. I was half-expecting to have to spend a night at the Toronto airport, which has been happening to people all week, but luckily we got out between snowstorms.

I wound up last night at Sky for their New Year's Madonna-themed drag show. I was happy, though not at all surprised to see link2lando there. The dancers were professional-caliber -- they really knew what they were doing, and they were the best I've seen on any local stage.

But y'know, you really know you're Scottish if the dancers are gorgeous men of astonishing talent, dressed only in thin undershirts and kilts slit up the side, and you're thinking, "What clan is that kilt?"

Otherwise, it's been very quiet. I've been working on my writing, reading, and cleaning house. I'm not back at work until Monday because the office is closed this week, so it's still a little like vacation for me.

( 2008 meme )

History

I have updated by historical website, although it's just a summary of the section. Really, it's the Cole's-Notes version of half a year of research.

I have to say that researching homosexuality between the fall of New France and Confederation was agonizing -- it's the least-studied period of Canadian history, generally, and I uncovered a lot of info that no one studying this area has looked at.

Social Life

It was a great New Year's -- spent it with montrealais and his boyf at the drag show at Club Mado. New Year's is really the only time of the year I go out clubbing, so I really enjoyed it.

Resolutions

My New Year's resolution is about time management. As I'm only working 20 hours a week, there's a lot more time to write than I've been using, and I think that if I treat my writing as a second job -- with times and schedules rather than just a minimum amount each day -- I'll be better able to use my free time.

Currently, the border between writing-time and play-time is so fuzzy that I feel guilty for relaxing or hanging out with friends or doing other things. If I'm more disciplined with my writing during the day -- treating it like any other job -- I'll be more able to do things like hanging out with friends and going out to clubs, etc.

So, yeah -- I'm on my seventh consecutive day of work today (today at my twice-a-year moonlighting job, after six days at my regular) but I shall be home in time for the Yule party this evening.

Nowadays I'm mostly writing poetry in my scant spare time, and I'm already working on my re-write even before I get the copies of my novels back -- there's a lot of structure here to work on, and a lot is going to be cut out and recycled into future works. I want a less epic novel, with a more manageable scale.

Here's the scariest clock in the world. Want to cross-reference deaths from AIDS, species extinction, oil extraction, and forest loss all on a single page? Now you can! Just a little something in case your day isn't depressing enough.

Just thought I'd pop in with a quick question about the where's-and-when's of anime night this week. Just let me know.

The Tori Amos concert was gorgeous yesterday -- that venue (Place des Arts) really brings out her music much better than the Bell Centre.

I'm still not very familiar with many of her newer songs, but I liked what I heard. There were very few old favourites, but at least we got "Crucify" ^_^

Thank you em_fish for inviting me. And it was nice to see link2lando again, too.

A Rainbow for Dumbledore

(title for em_fish's benefit)

I'm amused that the most common reaction to Rowling's outing of one of her best-loved fictional characters is "That was totally dropped in -- there was no clue."

I went back to Philosopher's Stone last night, and realized that the first time Harry reads about Dumbledore, on that collectible card, it says, "He enjoys knitting patterns..."

Yeah, if that ain't a giveaway, I don't know what is.