ALAS!

No love from Strange Horizons, who, admittedly, almost never actually use the word alas. (They liked the prose but didn't get hooked on the story or character. Understandable, as this is at least partly an experimental piece,a nd the plot is, well, deeply familiar to anyone who reads a lot of folk tales and/or listens to folk songs. But I thought there was character enough.) But that story needs to go out to F&SF next; We'll see if I have my usual luck there (Which is to get past JJA and get read and rejected by GVG himself.)

________________________

Last day of classes. That means:
- Bowler (Medieval history) gave us about half a class worth's of real notes and the other half, or even slightly more, was all rambling about Christmas and/or Santa Claus and/or how bad a movie was Pretty Woman. (He said if you ahve to watch a bad movie, watch a Santa movie instead of that, every time. I didn't get the chance to ask him if that included even Santa Claus Versus the Martians, which is probably one of the films evil cinemaphobes are forced to watch at over and over in Hell.)

- Biology was a film of a lecture given by someone who's a BIG name in reconciling environment and commerce. Not ont he exam, so the class was half size.

- English cancelled entirely, so I have a big gap (6 1/2 hours) between classes. Which is currently planned to be split between math studying (Gasp! horrors - see below on how very very hard that'll be) and going to McNally and shopping, where the big issue will be not buying stuff for me. I have two Christmas lists (I can't buy much more for mom on mky own; I want to go out at least once with Jeff at my side at least for stocking stuffers, because shopping with him for mom is usually a highlight) and some educated guesses; but most non-family people I won't be shopping for until after Christmas anyhow; which is good, as by then my bank account may actually have a slowly rising balance (Until I splurge on gifts for others).

BUT

- I have a math quiz so can't skip the 7:00 PM class. OTOH, the subject is geometry, and there's not much new (yet) from what you learn in, like, junior high (I noticed that it does get into non-euclidean geometry and trig, eventually, so it at least reaches high school levels in next term.)

Tomorrow I start trying to do my two big aspirations for the December holiday:

1 - Barrel through the Serpent Prince draft (I did scene-by-scene on Monday and some real writing Tuesday) then push right on through to the new draft for Soldier of the Road. I intend to start putting progress notes up again until school restarts; on days you don't see one, harrass me.

2 - As mom would remind me I should have done, get various cards and packages out to various and sundry gentlepeople.

And, not a monthly plan, but just a tomorrow plan, hang out with forodwaith, but whether afternoon or evening is up in the air.

ALAS!

No love from Strange Horizons, who, admittedly, almost never actually use the word alas. (They liked the prose but didn't get hooked on the story or character. Understandable, as this is at least partly an experimental piece,a nd the plot is, well, deeply familiar to anyone who reads a lot of folk tales and/or listens to folk songs. But I thought there was character enough.) But that story needs to go out to F&SF next; We'll see if I have my usual luck there (Which is to get past JJA and get read and rejected by GVG himself.)

________________________

Last day of classes. That means:
- Bowler (Medieval history) gave us about half a class worth's of real notes and the other half, or even slightly more, was all rambling about Christmas and/or Santa Claus and/or how bad a movie was Pretty Woman. (He said if you ahve to watch a bad movie, watch a Santa movie instead of that, every time. I didn't get the chance to ask him if that included even Santa Claus Versus the Martians, which is probably one of the films evil cinemaphobes are forced to watch at over and over in Hell.)

- Biology was a film of a lecture given by someone who's a BIG name in reconciling environment and commerce. Not ont he exam, so the class was half size.

- English cancelled entirely, so I have a big gap (6 1/2 hours) between classes. Which is currently planned to be split between math studying (Gasp! horrors - see below on how very very hard that'll be) and going to McNally and shopping, where the big issue will be not buying stuff for me. I have two Christmas lists (I can't buy much more for mom on mky own; I want to go out at least once with Jeff at my side at least for stocking stuffers, because shopping with him for mom is usually a highlight) and some educated guesses; but most non-family people I won't be shopping for until after Christmas anyhow; which is good, as by then my bank account may actually have a slowly rising balance (Until I splurge on gifts for others).

BUT

- I have a math quiz so can't skip the 7:00 PM class. OTOH, the subject is geometry, and there's not much new (yet) from what you learn in, like, junior high (I noticed that it does get into non-euclidean geometry and trig, eventually, so it at least reaches high school levels in next term.)

Tomorrow I start trying to do my two big aspirations for the December holiday:

1 - Barrel through the Serpent Prince draft (I did scene-by-scene on Monday and some real writing Tuesday) then push right on through to the new draft for Soldier of the Road. I intend to start putting progress notes up again until school restarts; on days you don't see one, harrass me.

2 - As mom would remind me I should have done, get various cards and packages out to various and sundry gentlepeople.

And, not a monthly plan, but just a tomorrow plan, hang out with forodwaith, but whether afternoon or evening is up in the air.

Shopping and Faceplant

ON the way back from Christmas shopping I got off the (66) bus a stop too early for the exchange to the (60) university bus. (The Corner of Grant and Pembina, for those of you who know the city> For the rest of you, don't worry; busy streets, sharp corner, FLAT open field.) Oh, well, I think. No real harm; it means a block to the corner then half a blockt o the bus stop. No harm done. Except that I'm about halfway to the corner when I see the university bus coming. So I start running along the littne narrow path trodden in the snow throught he empty field between me and the bus, which cuts off a sharop corner thatw ould ahve guaranteed I missed it. Unfortunately, small narrow paths trodden in the snow are decidedly uneven, and i had heavy books and ehavy backpack. About 2/3 of the way there, and looking like it's probable I make the bus if i just keep running....

I miss a step. Complete faceplant. Snow-on-the-glasses-and-up-the-nose faceplant. (And a bit in the book bag. Sorry, mom, and, um, others... I shed as much of it as possible, but even so.) Wet from head to toe. Whee.

And the bus driver totally doesn't see me.

Fortunately, I had lots of time before class (down to 8 minutes now) and it was the tail end of rush hour, where the traffic has eased off a lot but the buses are still on a 10-minute or less schedule.

_____

So, it seems McNally Robinson has *partly* dropped prices to account for the fact that the exchange rate is much closer right now than the standard book price difference between the US and Canada. They've dropped it, specifically, where the publisher has co-operated and not overcharged the stupid Canadians (Publishers: Get with it. The exchange right now is not such that a $7.50 paperback should be sold to Canadians as $11. This is what is known in technical terms as a swindle, and you just lost sales for it). Virtually no SF/F publisher seems to have done this (Grrr), but thankfully, it *did* happen for one of my important Christmas-gifty things. Still, most of my shopping was in the remainders, or the Canucks who are harder to get across the border. I picked up several other tempting things, and put them back with the thought that mom and i were talking about doing a cross border trip to pick up Jeff at least, even if only for a couple of hours. Even Grand Forks has a Barnes and Noble. They're no McNally, but then, until the US levels off prices a bit more, that may be a positive remark. Alas.

That said, I'll have to look over the prizes, but I think I might be done dealing with the non-collaborative shopping for mom. And I did get myself Camerata Nova's Christmas CD.

Oh, and the cover for E. Bear's Carnival is nicer in person than it was seeing it online.

(On the other hand, they have the Small Beer Hardcover of "the Privilege of the Sword" and *NOT* the cruddy-cover version of the big-press TPB in stock *right now*. Hint, hint.)

Shopping and Faceplant

ON the way back from Christmas shopping I got off the (66) bus a stop too early for the exchange to the (60) university bus. (The Corner of Grant and Pembina, for those of you who know the city> For the rest of you, don't worry; busy streets, sharp corner, FLAT open field.) Oh, well, I think. No real harm; it means a block to the corner then half a blockt o the bus stop. No harm done. Except that I'm about halfway to the corner when I see the university bus coming. So I start running along the littne narrow path trodden in the snow throught he empty field between me and the bus, which cuts off a sharop corner thatw ould ahve guaranteed I missed it. Unfortunately, small narrow paths trodden in the snow are decidedly uneven, and i had heavy books and ehavy backpack. About 2/3 of the way there, and looking like it's probable I make the bus if i just keep running....

I miss a step. Complete faceplant. Snow-on-the-glasses-and-up-the-nose faceplant. (And a bit in the book bag. Sorry, mom, and, um, others... I shed as much of it as possible, but even so.) Wet from head to toe. Whee.

And the bus driver totally doesn't see me.

Fortunately, I had lots of time before class (down to 8 minutes now) and it was the tail end of rush hour, where the traffic has eased off a lot but the buses are still on a 10-minute or less schedule.

_____

So, it seems McNally Robinson has *partly* dropped prices to account for the fact that the exchange rate is much closer right now than the standard book price difference between the US and Canada. They've dropped it, specifically, where the publisher has co-operated and not overcharged the stupid Canadians (Publishers: Get with it. The exchange right now is not such that a $7.50 paperback should be sold to Canadians as $11. This is what is known in technical terms as a swindle, and you just lost sales for it). Virtually no SF/F publisher seems to have done this (Grrr), but thankfully, it *did* happen for one of my important Christmas-gifty things. Still, most of my shopping was in the remainders, or the Canucks who are harder to get across the border. I picked up several other tempting things, and put them back with the thought that mom and i were talking about doing a cross border trip to pick up Jeff at least, even if only for a couple of hours. Even Grand Forks has a Barnes and Noble. They're no McNally, but then, until the US levels off prices a bit more, that may be a positive remark. Alas.

That said, I'll have to look over the prizes, but I think I might be done dealing with the non-collaborative shopping for mom. And I did get myself Camerata Nova's Christmas CD.

Oh, and the cover for E. Bear's Carnival is nicer in person than it was seeing it online.

(On the other hand, they have the Small Beer Hardcover of "the Privilege of the Sword" and *NOT* the cruddy-cover version of the big-press TPB in stock *right now*. Hint, hint.)