Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in AngiePen's LiveJournal:

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Monday, May 12th, 2008
10:23 am	Update I suppose I should let folks know how things are going, especially since I surfaced on Friday when I did my column. Sometimes life just backs up a truck and dumps a whole load of crap on you. The usual crap is bad enough -- I've been on a low for a while and haven't done much of anything. But after nine months of slow improvement, my bad knee (my souvenir of the Vegas retreat back in August) took a sudden downturn, bad enough to finally get me to drag my butt (with gimpy leg attached) to the doctor. It seems I have arthritis in my right knee. The doctor figures it's been building up for a while, and that one awful day standing and standing and standing just pushed it over some sort of threshold. I'm still hoping she was wrong and something else will turn up; I went for X-rays before leaving, and there was a vague hope that the bones would look fine and it'd be something else. I went to the doctor almost a week ago, though, and I have to assume that if that'd been the case, they'd have called me by now to let me know that my kneecap was fine but some major tendon was hanging by a thread two cells thick, or whatever. That hasn't happened, so.... ( Read more... ) (36 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 9th, 2008
10:35 am	Column on Worldbuilding I had a new column go up on Romancing the Blog this morning, this time on worldbuilding. I've been heavily into science fiction and fantasy since I was small and this has always been one of my favorite topics. :) Head on over and let me know what you think. Building Your Own World (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008
9:46 pm	Religion, Constitution and Race ...all rolled into one really appalling issue. :/ Eric Zorn, with the Chicago Tribune, blogs about how Rob Sherman, a well known atheist activist, was testifying (against Gov. Rod Blagojevich's proposed million dollar grant to the Pilgrim Baptist Church) before the Illinois legislature, when he had the following exchange with Rep. Monique Davis: Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy -- it’s tragic -- when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school. I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know? I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous-- Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am? ( Read more... ) (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, March 29th, 2008
7:52 pm	Slashy Oscars -- Too Good to Last We were all so happy to see it come back, but I should've known the "Yay!" wouldn't last. Some people are probably going to be angry with me for this, but I frankly don't care. Someone has decided to be very helpful to people who want to nominate for the Slashy Oscars and is collecting links to people's pimp posts, fic lists, journals with eligible fic, whatever. As someone who spent far too much time and got way too grumpy putting together nominations for the MOME Awards last year, I can affirm that having a bunch of links and info all in one place is a major help. So of course this person is getting grief for all her efforts to be helpful. ( Read more... ) (40 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, March 23rd, 2008
11:55 pm	Slashy Oscars The slashy_oscars has been picked up by some new people and is going on again, which is awesome. They're taking nominations through 11 April, so go over and check out the categories and nominate some folks. Especially if you've run across any really great newbie writers, or people who hardly get any comments but should, I always love finding that sort of thing. And just because I really appreciate when other people do it, I'll link to my 2007 Fic Round-Up Post, which has titles, links, word counts and director's writer's commentary for all the stories I posted in 2007. Angie (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008
12:50 am	They Really Do Work, Though Throughout my twenties and most of my thirties, I worked a convention called BayCon, up in San Jose. I was a gofer in '82, the first year the convention was held, then general staff (doing whatever needed doing on the fly) in '83. There was no convention in '84 because we were changing dates, and then in '85 I ran Operations, with a number of other departments, including Gofers, under the Ops umbrella. I'd never done this before, mind you, but I thought I could and some other people thought I could, so I dove right in. A guy named Chris agreed to run Gofers, and I said I'd help him out at the convention. Ops and Gofers (and Security and Tech and Logistics) were all in the same room, so I figured that wouldn't be a problem. It turned out I was very wrong. ( Read more... ) (13 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, March 10th, 2008
3:07 am	New Column I just posted a new column on Romancing the Blog. This time I'm talking about the lack of any indication in romances, particularly erotic romances, of just what the sex-to-story ratio is. It makes it tough to know just what you're going to get when you spend your money; just because you like explicit sex doesn't mean you want the books you read to be 80+ percent sex scenes. It's not about limiting what's published or complaining that there's not enough of "my" kind of book out there, but rather about giving readers the info they need to find the books they'll like. Come read, and tell me what you think. Angie (10 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 7th, 2008
12:16 am	Anyone Else Not Getting Comment Notifications...? [sigh] Angie (18 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, March 5th, 2008
5:24 pm	Really Neat Paper Sculpture Eric Joisel sculpts in paper -- it's sort of origami to the Nth power. He's got some Lord of the Rings characters here, but basically it's just a great site to browse around in. Check it out, and browse around his site. :D Angie (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 11th, 2008
12:28 am	History Comics beatonna did a series of twenty history comics based on prompts from her readers. Check them out -- they're fun. :D Angie (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
8:58 am	I'm Mean to My Husband's Cat I made it clear as soon as Jim and I got married that I wasn't going to get out of her way, that she was going to be getting out of my way. I never stepped over her or around her; if I was coming in her direction, it was her job to move. If she was right in my way, I'd put one foot down next to her and then slowly drag the other foot through where she was sitting or lying. She moved or got shoved. She's not dumb; she picked up on it pretty quickly, and soon was zipping out of my way whenever I came in her direction. Awww, poor kitty. Right. It's also been quite a few years since I've kicked or stepped on her; I honestly don't remember the last time that happened, despite the fact that there are times when my attention is distracted, or when it's dark, or when I'm carrying something (like a load of laundry) and I can't see where I'm putting my feet. The cat knows to get out of my way, so I don't have to worry that when I can't see where I'm going, I might kick or step on her. My husband has trained the cat to expect that he'll always get out of her way. Or better yet, if she plants herself in his path, he might pause and give her a pet or a scritch. That's great, except when he doesn't see her, and he steps on or kicks her a lot more often than I do, probably once a year or so. Usually it's not a big deal -- they both yell, she gets offended, he fusses over her and all is well. Jim stepped on Whimsy night before last, and she's still limping. He's leaving for Germany today and he probably won't enjoy his trip nearly as much as he would have because he's going to be worried about her the whole time. She'll be fine -- she can walk on the leg he stepped on, and can put weight on it and all. It's just a matter of hanging in there until it heals. But she is hurt and he did it and he feels awful about it. Maybe if he'd been a little meaner to his cat over the last dozen years, he wouldn't have to worry now. [sigh] Do your cats a favor and be mean to them. Make them get out of your way, for their own good. [sigh] Angie (31 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, February 2nd, 2008
11:39 pm	Quirks Meme OK, I guess I'm quirky enough that this is legit. [duck] Tagged by illuminated_sin. A. List seven habits/quirks/facts about yourself. B. Tag seven people to do the same. C. Do not tag the person who tagged you. 1. I once worked at the same company with a guy who was my mother's ex-husband's ex-wife's ex-husband. 2. I lose weight on cruises. If we could afford one of those 90-day round-the-world cruises, I'd come home looking really good. :) 3. I don't go out very much. I'm not agoraphobic, I'm just happy staying home. My husband and I went to a comedy show tonight, and it's the first time I've been out the front door since I came home from visiting Mom at Christmas. 4. My hair was a bright yellow-blonde when I was a little girl, and my mom has the pictures to prove it. By the time I was in school, though, it'd darkened quite a lot and now I just call it "brown," although I called myself "blonde" until I was in my late twenties or so and everyone thought I was weird. 5. I have a horrible memory for individual data items and memorizing things is a horror for me; I was twelve before I realized I hadn't had to look up a multiplication fact for a while, and I still sometimes forget my own phone number. (Come on! How often do you call yourself??) 6. I do not and have never owned a cell phone, nor do I particularly want one. I don't want to be that connected to everyone else. Tagging anyone who feels like doing it. :) Angie (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, February 1st, 2008
1:59 am	My LJ Anniversary Four years ago, on 1 Feb 2004, I created this journal, yay! I've always forgotten in previous years but I just happened to be looking at my profile yesterday and noticed the creation date, so this time I can actually, like, post about it. [grin] To sort of celebrate the anniversary, I want to reprise a meme I did a few years back that a bunch of us had fun with. Leave me a comment with the name of any two characters I'm familiar with and I'll write you a one-line fic with them, for variable values of "one." Last time I did this, all the values of one varied pretty far on the high side :) and a bunch of the fic scraps I posted to the meme I eventually developed into entire stories, so that was pretty cool. Come play! And anyone who wants to do this too, feel free to grab! Angie, setting out cake and drinks in her four-year-old journal (54 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 31st, 2008
2:27 pm	Cross Any Bridges Lately? Despite the collapse last year of a bridge in Minneapolis, there are still thousands of bridges in the US which are on "delayed inspection schedules" or which have just plain missed their appointments. This includes bridges which are considered fracture critical, which means that (like the Minneapolis bridge) if one load-bearing part fails, the whole thing will fall. Check out the MSNBC article on the subject. The main problem, unsurprisingly, appears to be money. As my husband commented, spend billions to fight "terrorist" boogeymen but be damned if they'll worry about bridges that actually collapse and kill. From the article: Bridge safety leaped to the top of the agenda of federal highway administrator J. Richard Capka in August, when 13 people died in the collapse of a bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. But even before the disaster, it would have been a personal concern if Capka had examined the bridges on the shortest drive from his home in suburban Virginia to his office in Washington, D.C. On the day the Minneapolis bridge fell, three of those bridges were overdue for their safety inspections. I wonder if Mr. Capka would get off his butt and do something about this if he ended up in a river one morning on his way to work? I wonder, too, whether any of the congressfolks who need to vote some money for this to be done cross any delayed-inspection bridges on their way to work? Angie (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 27th, 2008
7:05 pm	Poll About Sex and Fanfic and Readership This question came up in the comments to a writing meme I did. fiesty_red and I were wondering how many writers add or have ever added sex to a fic when they didn't really want to, just because they thought that's what readers wanted or that they'd lose readers if they didn't write sex. It's an interesting question so I decided to collect some data. Note: the poll is only concerned with fanfics where there could be sex. That is, fics where there's a pairing (or trio or whatever) or a romance or something, and at least a potential for sex, even if it's not shown or mentioned. Fics which are further (non-sexual or erotic) adventures or new episodes or otherwise not at all concerned with sex or romance don't count. ( Read more... ) (94 Comments |Comment on this)
2:52 pm	Writing Meme Gacked from doylebaby. Ideas. Where the hell do they come from? Can you make those little devils show up? Depends. I get bazillions of ideas, but developing them into stories can be another thing entirely. An "idea" doesn't make a story, although it can be the seed for one. Figuring out how to develop the idea, poke it and twist it and maybe combine it with another idea or three, is the hard part for me, on a pre-writing level. Although sometimes something just appears in my brain suddenly and I can sit down and bang something out. I love those. :) Ideas can come from anywhere -- TV or movies, pictures, sayings, warnings. Sometimes I'll dream something that can be developed into a story. Fic challenges and prompts. Writers' guidelines -- sometimes seeing what someone (whether it's someone describing their "squicks" or a magazine describing its requirements) doesn't want can get me thinking. :D Sometimes I'll just get a sexy or funny image in my head and I have to figure out how to work it into a story. Wild horse-bunnies. When a story just gets pulled right out of you. Do you get them? Occasionally. Not often enough. :P Writer's block. Have you been scourged? ( Read more... ) (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
4:11 am	Bid For Me! [Shameless Whoring] Head over here to the Sweet Charity site and bid on me! I'm still cheap! :D I'm offering the following: One fic, minimum of 3000 words, of LOTRiPS and/or other actorslash, overage as the story requires. Major characters in romance/sex can be any actor from my LJ profile; others negotiable, feel free to ask, and supporting characters can be anyone. A piece of original fiction is fine too. All my stories have plot; I don't do pwips. No songfics, sorry. No femslash, although I can write het or gen if you like. I'm pretty open to genre -- I've done everything from humor and crack to dark non-con, romance, adventure, etc. with a deadline of 29 February 2008. The homepage is here, where you can sign up for an account, and/or poke around and see what's going on. The charity this time around is the Writers Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund, which helps people who are being financially hit by the strike and don't get other support. NO money will be going to the Writers Guild directly; this is strictly to help out the folks who are out of work. Bidding goes through 11:59pm on 26 January. Head over and bid so I can write you a story! [/Shameless Whoring] Angie (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 18th, 2008
7:07 am	Tutorial: Posting and Linking Last spring, someone in one of the fic coms where I hang out asked how to write and post a story. I wrote up a tutorial thingy on how to do it, explaining some HTML and links and cuts, some formatting, etc. I've linked back to it a few times now and I'm getting tired of hunting for it every time :P so I'm going to post it here. If anyone else wants to link to it, that's cool, but it's mainly here for me to point to whenever the question comes up with a new writer. :) ============= Hi and welcome! The mechanics of posting are a lot easier (and shorter) to talk about than actual writing help. If you'd like to talk about the writing itself, let me know and we can get into it (probably in e-mail) but for now I'm going to assume you want to know about posting stories to LJ. :) ( Read more... ) (28 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 17th, 2008
4:16 am	Cassie Edwards and Plagiarism For anyone who might be wondering what all the fuss is about with the Cassie Edwards plagiarism thing going around, Gennita Low (a romance writer who's a roofer in her day job) wrote up a great summary in the form of a play, complete with chorus. :D It's funny and kinda snarky (towards just about everyone) and a great read, and she explains who everyone is up at the top. Check it out. :D In summary: Bad plagiarist! No cookie! Angie, eating Cassie Edwards's cookie (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 16th, 2008
7:45 am	Fandom Charity -- Writer's Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund Sweet Charity, which has an LJ community as well at sweetcharityho, is a charitable organization within fandom which raises money by auction for various charities. SC is doing a special auction this month to support the people affected by the Writer's Guild strike. The Writer's Guild Foundation Industry Support Fund supports those affected by the writer's strike who otherwise would not be able to receive help, which sounds pretty cool to me. Funds raised will not go into Writer's Guild coffers, nor support the strike itself, but rather will help alleviate some of the finacial hardship for the people in the trenches. The way Sweet Charity works is that fans offer themselves as "Charity Hos" and post goods or services to be auctioned off. Auction divisions include Cloth Merchants, Fiction, Food and Drink, Graphics, Jewelry, Miscellaneous, and Videos. "Cloth Merchants" includes things like knit and crochet as well as sewn items, and "Misc." includes things like beta services, podfic recording, and items like books. Check out the auction list and see if anything strikes your fancy. (I'm offering a LOTRiPS/Actorslash (or original if you like) story, minimum 3000 words.) If you have something to offer, go sign up. :) They're taking sign-ups and auction entries through 17 January, at 10:59 GMT. It'd be great to get a bunch more Rings-oriented auction items. The auction itself runs from 18 January through 26 January, basically from midnight to midnight, GMT. Angie (2 Comments |Comment on this)