board breaking with style

February 3, 2012 5 Comments

Last November, after soccer season was over (*sigh*), my husband and I were desperately looking around for a way to channel our 7yo son’s boundless energy. Since it’d probably qualify as cruel and unusual punishment to hook him up to a treadmill and power the house with it, he and his dad enrolled in the local taekwondo studio (um, sorry, dojang) down the road.

He LOVES it. And, so, rather bemusedly, we have become a taekwondo family, with husband and son rushing off to the dojang two evenings a week, and Sir I. practicing kibons and showing off punches and kicks and strikes almost all the time.

We found this amazing video of the Korean National Taekwondo demo team. Apparently they travel around the world, breaking boards and showing off spectacular spinning kicks. While I wonder how useful some of these would be in an actual fighting situation, I admire the skill and athleticism on display here.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

7 things about me

February 1, 2012 11 Comments

I received a Versatile Blogger Award from several members of my WANA class: Julie Kenner, Cindy Bell, and Liv Rancourt. Thanks, gals! You’re sweet!

So, according to the rules, I need to post this cute little icon (happily grabs), link to the person(s) who nominated me (done! see above), tell people seven things about myself (see below) and pass on the award to 5/7/14 other people (er…how about three?).

Seven things about me:

1. I’m bilingual. I speak English and Urdu–the language of Pakistan, the country where I grew up. Hands up if you’d heard of the language before reading this post.

2. My husband and I got engaged in Hong Kong. We spent a month there and I loved it. Would love to go back there someday and take the kids.

3. Currently, I have a 2-liter bottle full of soil and grass seeds on the window sill, and steelwool rusting in a small bowl of water on the kitchen counter. These are otherwise known as the “What is a Biosphere?” and “Why is Mars Red?” experiments. Why yes, I am a homeschooling mom! Why do you ask?

4. Apparently, when I was a wee little tot, I had a pet lamb (Rabia had a little lamb, little lamb… no, it doesn’t quite roll off the tongue, does it?). I used to ride it, and it would butt me affectionately in the tummy. It was scared of my mom’s high heels and would run and hide if it heard her coming. It would also eat clothes off the line. But the little lamb grew into a great big sheep and it was given away (or turned into dinner, I suppose).

Or so they say.

I have no recollection of such a pet, and I still wonder, to this day, if it is not a hoax perpetrated upon my gullible younger self.

5. Speaking of perpetrating hoaxes: When I was a preteen, I convinced my 5-years-younger brother that we were all a family of witches who’d been sent to earth to study humans. However, since he was born without magic, we’d have to leave him behind when we returned to Witch Land.

He was most upset.

Oh, I was a horrible sister. I’m better now.

6. I have this weird squicked-out can’t-look-away fascination with giant squids. And titanic battles between sperm whales and giant squids in the black depths of the ocean.

7. I take my tea the British way– black tea with two spoonfuls of sugar and a splash of milk. And biscuits to dunk into the tea are mandatory (I use Ritz crackers, since I can’t find any of the brands I grew up with here in the US, boo).

I pass along this award to:

Filed Under: blogging, linktopia, personal

book cover monday

January 30, 2012 4 Comments

I confess: I am quite fond of book covers with plain white backgrounds, depicting a black-costumed assassin or mage in all his cloak-swirling and weapon-flourishing glory.

Like the cover of Brent Weeks’ The Way of Shadows

I like the swirly purple smoke/magic/gauze, too

Or Trudi Canavan’s The Magician’s Apprentice

David Dalglish’s Shadowdance trilogy

The contrast of white background and dark figure, and the swirl of a vibrant color, makes these covers visually striking. The Way of Shadows, for instance, really stood out from the rest of the books when I first saw it on the bookstore shelf.

This cover is different from the rest, but I couldn’t help but share it. Again, there’s the black and white contrast, coupled with a clever and imaginative concept. And great execution.

What styles of cover do you particularly like? Or dislike?

Check out my cover artist posts:

Filed Under: cover art

prezi!

January 27, 2012 10 Comments

I discovered this while I was going through some old files. David got into Prezi, and it looked so lovely and non-linear I had to try my hand at one, too. Here’s the one I made for Quartz (sadly enough, my books are the only thing I’m qualified to make presentations about) more than a year ago. This was a lot more fun than writing a query.

Quartz on Prezi

Filed Under: quartz

spider silk: the logistics of luxury

January 25, 2012 11 Comments

The world’s largest spider silk garment is on display for the first time at the Victoria & Albert museum. Spider silk is one of those ultra-exotic luxuries that crops up from time to time in fantasies, often imbued with magical powers. A spider silk cape, one can imagine, might come with Spidey powers: keen senses, near-invisibility, the ability to leap from building to building. It’s so easy to throw spider silk into the economy of one’s fantasy world, along with heart-sized rubies and mollusk-made purple dye.

However, this article shows that some things are too rare and too labor-intensive to be more than one-time novelties:

To create the cape, British art historian Simon Peers and his American business partner Nicholas Godley spent five years collecting and harnessing over 1 million spiders in special “silking” contraptions to extract their threads, 24 critters at a time.

…

On average, 23,000 spiders yield roughly 1 ounce of silk, making the process intensely laborious and time-consuming. It’s not hyperbole then to claim that the textiles are among the world’s most rare and precious objects—liquid gold, if you will.

Unless, of course, you have a high-tech world where they’ve figured out how to manufacture artificial spider silk.

Or they have really really big arachnids.

*pause*

“Spider hunter” on that world might be an um… interesting job!

I would love to touch spider silk cloth, though. Just to see how it feels.

What about you? What rare or one-of-kind item would you like to see in person or hold in your hand for a few minutes?

Filed Under: science and technology, worldbuilding

avatar the last airbender: ba sing se

January 23, 2012 Leave a Comment

Notes on the last half of Book 2:

Appa: Taking Appa away from Aang was an awesomely evil, horribly wonderful little twist. Think about it. Appa is Aang’s link to his past, the only one who has survived from his life a hundred years ago. No wonder Aang was so unhinged when he was stolen.

Dai Li: Oooh, things are not quite right in Ba Sing Se. Aang and co. just destroyed the giant drill from tunneling through the outer walls,  but no one inside cares. They’re not allowed to talk about the war, you see. And even though Aang has important information about the Day of Black Sun, he isn’t allowed to talk to the King. Smiling, blank-eyed bureaucracy stymies them at every turn. Turns out the Dai Li and their head are more concerned about keeping their power and hold over the king and city than the threat from the Fire Nation. Bad for Aang, bad for Ba Sing Se.

Zuko: Oh, Zuko, Zuko. And here I thought you were starting to come around. You grew reconciled to serving tea. You even smiled when your uncle got his own tea shop. You kept your cool when Jet tried to provoke you into revealing your fire-bending (unlike that last time, with the thugs in that earthbender village, remember?). You freed the Avatar’s bison, and dropped your Blue Spirit mask into the lake. You even went on a date! And did something nice for someone else.

And then Azula came.

Oh, I knew why you had it to make the wrong choice. Because you needed to get what you’ve always wanted–fame, acceptance, your father’s approval, a return home as a hero–and see how hollow and tinny it all was. You needed to go home and give it all up.

But still. Bad choice. Bad bad choice.

Azula: Still awesome, in the way Pratchett’s elves are terrific. She understands people and power and oh, she uses that knowledge like a sharp knife.

Still, can we say… foreshadowing?

Azula: "It's terrible when you can't trust the people who are closest to you." Foreshadowing, anyone??

Mai: I didn’t like Mai at first, but she’s grown on me. And can I just say that I don’t think she fears Azula at all? You won’t catch her going into a chute full of muddy gunk or fight over a performing bear if she doesn’t want to. Mai does. not. care. And, nyah. Azula can’t make her.

Three words: Toph. discovers. metalbending. I love LOVE watching the characters learn and discover new ways of using their bending. It adds a dynamism to the worldbuilding.

K, that was more than three words.

The Finale: This is my favorite finale of all three seasons, just for sheer on-the-edge-of-your-seat uncertainty. Is Iroh’s and Katara’s trust in Zuko misplaced? Will Aang give up Katara to achieve the true potential of the Avatar state? Will they defeat Azula and the Dai Li? It’s the lowest point of the plot arc–the last stronghold of the Earth Kingdom falls through treachery, Aang is badly wounded, and his friends barely escape with him at the end. But there is–always–still hope. And another season. :D

edited to add links to previous Avatar the Last Airbender posts:

Filed Under: TV & film
image

Via Skymania

VISTA's image of the Helix Nebula. Credit: ESO/VISTA/J. Emerson

flashback to the 80s: thundercats!

January 19, 2012 12 Comments

I took my youngers (5yo and 3yo) through a whirlwind tour of the icons of my childhood, courtesy of YouTube. Now, my children are pretty TV-deprived compared to your average American–we get absolutely no reception in Small Town, Vermont; we’re too cheap to pay for cable; and I’m getting crankier about commercials and silly shows in my old age. So, when I bombarded them with a stream of 80s cartoon imagery–from Inspector Gadget to Duck Tales to Silver Hawks–they pretty much sat there in stunned silence. Even my pink-loving Miss M. was like O.o???!! at Jem and the Holograms–and I don’t blame her (oh the hair, the hair! The-the makeup…. and the clothes *shudder*).

However, they did love the opening theme of Thundercats. And I can see why. The simple striking imagery, the uncluttered background, the clear character distinctions (no doubts as to who’s the Leader Dude and what type of cat he’s supposed to be!) and that darn catchy tune (a real mindworm, that), Thundercats has aged pretty well. The classic still looks better than the updated version.

And besides, it has Cheetara in it. Wouldn’t you want to be able to run so fast that you’re a blur, turn flips high in the air, whirl your staff around, and strike a cool pose? Without having a hair of your spotted style out of place?

I can do without that eye makeup, but color me jealous over her abilities

Other 80s children, which cartoons do you look back at fondly?

Filed Under: TV & film

was a zombie, then a hermit, now restored to normal

January 17, 2012 2 Comments

I was single-mom-ing it last week while my husband was out of town on business. Actually,  “single mom” is a bit of an understatement, since I was also single cook, single driver, single dishwasher, single taker-out-of-trash… you get my drift. My kids are great and helpful, I emptied my week of complicated scheduling, and picked easy and still-fairly-nutritious dinners to make BUT by Friday I was pretty much shambling around like the Living Dead. Doesn’t help that I sleep poorly while my husband’s away (it’s like I’m used to sharing a bed or something). It’s hard being on call all week long. You never go off duty.

By the time my husband–exhausted from his trip–got home on Saturday, my introversion was raging in full force. This takes the form of retreating into a room–any room with a door!–with the same music looping over and over again (Gaelic Storm and Loreena McKennit this time around) and losing myself in a world in my head. I also ignore any and all social media/RSS feed/news/anything that requires me to make decisions, but after a day or two of getting time to myself, I’m ready to face the world again.

So hello, world. How are you?

Filed Under: personal

The Cardinal Rules of Good Behavior

January 11, 2012 2 Comments

according to Miss M. (5yo) at lunch today:

  1. Don’t kick.
  2. Don’t punch.
  3. Never throw toys at people.
  4. And never ever EVER mess up your bed before a showing!

Methinks we’ve been in this house-on-market stage of life far too long.

Filed Under: kids at play, personal
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