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You are viewing the most recent 20 entries August 18th, 2009: Hooray! I sold another pic on Redbubble! I sold Edinburgh Dinosaur - as two (two!) greetings cards.  *commits autobackpattery*     Current Mood:  pleasedAugust 10th, 2009: Photobucket are ASSES Really. I've been getting unexplained error messages the last couple of days about difficulty uploading images. Then today I got told that the last seven images on my "I walk to the worldcon" album couldn't be uploaded because the album had exceeded 1GB. No other explanation given. I googled, and found that somewhere on the Internet was the answer (though not on the Photobucket site): my entire account has hit 1GB, which means I either upgrade to PhotobucketPro and get an extra 4GB for as long as I keep paying for Pro, or I stop using this account. (From the discussion thread, deleting old photos does nothing useful.) Hitting Photobucket's free storage limits is irritating, but reasonable enough - I knew they must have them, I just didn't know what they were or how far I'd filled them. But Photobucket's failure to clearly signal that I was getting close to the size limits is annoying, and their lack of explanatory text on site is just idiotic. So. Sorry, and all: I will post no more photos today because I want to decide what to do with Photobucket. If you want to see what I did upload for 9th August, most of them are here under my Montreal album. Current Mood: annoyedAugust 9th, 2009: At the Worldcon: Day Three In order to do Saturday justice, I would have to spend at least an hour writing it up. I do not intend to do that, because I plan to be dressed and out of the house well before eight, and while this morning I was the first of the three fans sharing it into the bathroom for a shower, that still doesn't leave me enough time to write up Saturday from my notes. (And I don't plan to take my laptop to the con, thankyouverymuchforasking.) The panels I made it to were "Bluff Your Way in SFnal Linguistics", "Death, Illness, and Disability", "Writing the Other" - at which RaceFail09 got discussed, and I made my most incoherent and inaudible contribution to discussion (which still burns me...), a panel on "Lost" which I sat through half an hour of eating lunch with ide_cyan, listening to the sentences and not understanding a word, "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity Is Finally Over", "Aunts in Spaceships", a buffet dinner at the Maharaj restaurant, "What Our Things Say About Us", and finally "Brewing and Distilling In Extreme Situations".Five out of seven of those panels were both intellectually stretching and fun - this is what I go to conventions for! To have a good time by thinking! - and the other two were fine. ("Aunts in Spaceships" was not intellectually stretching, which as an intellectually stretching aunt made me sad, but on the other hand it gave me lots of ideas about "Writing Gender" this afternoon.) I took notes. Sketchy notes, but I hope to be able to write them up Tuesday. Hm. Maybe. ... *worried hopeful* So I'll post the photos of costumes, and see what else I have time for... ( Costumes! ) Current Mood: accomplished: On Day Three, I walked to the Worldcon Breakfast here makes me want to overuse OMGdelicious quite a lot. Nevertheless today is my morning for an Eggspectations breakfast if I can possibly get out of the house before 8am, because Gingerbread Manor does not start breakfast till 8:30 and there are two panels I would like to get to by 9am: promoting SF to women and How Not To Be A Jerk Online. Obviously I cannot go to both, but one or the other.... On Saturday morning, after walnut waffles with maple syrup, I walked to the Worldcon.... ( image-heavy post under cut ) Current Mood: awakeAugust 8th, 2009: On Day Two, I walked to the Worldcon After fruit salad with the cutest little baby grapes, a cheese omelette that was to die for, a toasted bagel with blue stilton, and a banana, oh and excellent coffee, I walked to the Worldcon. (I took a slightly circuitous route and went in by the other door, because I wanted to add an update to one of yesterday's post and the price of doing that was to buy a coffee in Cafe Momos, where they have a computer free for use of customers). I hadn't had an espresso-based coffee in a week. I found I hadn't missed it. ( image heavy post under cut ) Current Mood: awakeAugust 6th, 2009: Montreal, Day Two Well, I was going to write about eating the most delicious cheese-and-tomato buckwheat crepe for my tea, with freshly-squeezed orange juice, and strolling around St Louis Park looking at the houses that look on to it, and down a pedestrianised street of restaurants and buskers and fountains and giant pink fish art swimming across walls, with a North American-sized scoop of Reeses peanut-butter-and-chocolate icecream, but it's nearly breakfast time, I'm not going to be late, so I guess you will just have to imagine it. There are pics on Photobucket: Around Montreal: Aug 5     Current Mood: awake: Worldcon, Day Minus One The Worldcon opens today (Thursday) but on Monday through Wednesday, people were doing move-in work (registration opened Tuesday). I'd planned to spend half of Wednesday volunteering, and did spend five hours, with a long lunchbreak in the middle (picked up the restaurant guide, which is written and researched by Jo Walton, with a photo of a spacesuited tourist on the Moon with a bowl of poutine, Poutine is SCARY  and found a beautiful and unexpected cafe on Notre-Dame, where they did me a vegetarian sandwich and coffee). - And because those hours were pre-con, each hour counts as two, so I have already earned my volunteer's t-shirt. What I volunteered at wasn't what I expected: I got sent to Docking, where I was issued a terribly butch luminous yellow "vest" and helped dealers get their stuff out of their vehicles, onto big trolleys, and over to the dealer's floor. 80 dealers were supposed to show yesterday: only about 10 did, so we spent a lot of time sitting around in the docking bay talking about stuff. (Healthcare came up - when I signed up to volunteer, the coordinator told me I had the coolest accent, and I did talk about the NHS - but so did the welfare state, back exercises - my back is in pretty good shape after all the lifting I was doing, thanks to the exercises one of the other docking-crew volunteers showed me - and past cons in the UK and the US and the alcohol laws and fannish culture thereof. Apparently Baltimore has had officially alcohol-free cons for years and years, since local youths discovered there was PARTY going on and used to gatecrash in order to drink: I told Susan, the fan who was telling me about this, that I could not imagine a British con going alcohol-free no matter who was trying to gatecrash - but then again, in the UK, a teenager who wants to drink would hardly need to gatecrash a convention to be able to get drunk...) One odd thing got said, in the course of the conversation, by one of the docking crew during the long conversations we were having: about how you "couldn't help some people" because "we're not a homogenous society". And I fell silent - as did a couple of others - because I needed to think and because it had just occurred to me that everyone here at Docking station was white. (Indeed, preponderantly, the fans at the con are white, which made a notable difference from the fans and the Montrealers: but all the Docking volunteers were. Me included, of course.) And I thought that, in my experience of US online culture at least, I had never heard the phrase "We're not a homogeneous society" used except as coded racism. Especially not when it's being used about people - kids - for whom there is, in the opinion of the speaker, no point expending resources on, because "culturally" they just aren't worth it - "they go to jail as a rite of passage". So. I don't know. I didn't get into a fight about it there and then. But it made me uncomfortable. I prefer to get into that kind of fight online, actually, where you can easily cite statistics, resources, and if necessary cartoons and essays to make your point: and where the conversation can stop after one or two link-heavy exchanges (or of course go on to light a fire to burn down fandom). But: it made me uncomfortable. I didn't know how to argue about it. I wish I did. Because "race" didn't get mentioned, except (as I thought) in USian code - everyone there aside from one Canadian and myself was USian. Just: a lot of code. How do you fight code? Waiting for a train  (And I noticed Patrick Nielsen Hayden is on a panel about not being an asshole online. Heh.) ( image-heavy post under cut ) Current Mood: awake: On Day Minus One, I walked to the Worldcon On Wednesday morning, once I'd had breakfast (freshly-made pancakes with blueberries and blueberry sauce, garlic bread with blue stilton, fruit salad, excellent coffee, omgdelicious) I walked to the Worldcon. I'd picked this place because it sounded nice (and it is) and because it was acceptable walking distance (20 minutes) from the Palais de Congres. I took photos walking there on Wednesday morning... ( Very image heavy post inside cut ) Current Mood: pleasedAugust 5th, 2009: Montreal, Day One: Worldcon, Day Minus Two Yesterday I woke at 3am, slept fitfully till the sun got up about 6am, and then desultorily got dressed, it having occurred to me (breakfast at 8:30 am) I could walk down to the Palais de Congres between 7-ish and 8:30. There will be a lot of images in this anecdote, and there are even more in the Montreal album on Photobucket. ( image-heavy post ) Current Mood: awakeJuly 19th, 2009June 9th, 2009: Copracat asked Fred copracat asked fred questions (you can too):1. Were you Yes, on the whole. It did not wrap it up too nicely: it was raw and bloody and embarrassing in places. Awful things happened to the wrong people. It was satisfying to me as a writer, in a way that too nice a way of ending it would not be. (Structurally, one of the peculiarly neat things about it is that every single character who is named in the opening credits leaves the 4077th by a different method of transport - none of them go together, but also none of them leave in the same way.) 2. Best onions for caramelised onion/onion relish? The ones you have in the house, because it's way too meta to use the ones you don't have. Whatever. Really. I like onions. 3. You never post about the Edinburgh festivals in July/August; I wondered if you object to them or if you just don't care? I have no objection to them, really. It's just... I've lived here all my life, well, 90% of it. Every year in August, the city goes slightly insane. Back once a long time ago - twenty years - it used to be entirely possible for anyone, during the Festival, to just spontaneously go look something up and go - tickets would be dirt cheap, concessions were half price (so a show that charged £5 to get in fullprice would be £2.50 if you were under 16, or a student, or unemployed, or a pensioner) and you could take a chance on something that sounded interesting because what did you risk? Nowadays tickets cost £10 and upwards, concessions mean getting £1 off, and anything good is fully booked unless you queue up well in advance. I still go to see something or other most years - last year I went to see RiK in Wyrd Sisters - but it's not something I plan out any more. I do take photographs - you can see some of them from last year - but I don't tend to write about it much, or often, not because I approve or disapprove, but mostly because... I rarely see anything I care about enough to make it the subject of a post, I guess. (Update: No, it's not even that - the Festival(s) in August are just there. Like Arthur's Seat: too big to ignore, but I don't generally write about it much.) 4. Tea Cosy: Yes or No? If you make tea in a pot, yes. If you make tea in a mug, no. 5. Tell me something you've learned from photography. That I can share what I see in other ways that by writing about it, and that sharing is almost as satisfying as writing it out.        Current Mood: artisticJune 7th, 2009: Sunday, and the updating of Redbubble I took a whole bunch of photos yesterday, some of which are now on Redbubble, tagged Stirling or Aberdour. Three I'm particularly pleased with, one of which I added as an update to my post yesterday, and two here: ( circles and light ) ( Terraced gardens ) Current Mood: pleasedFebruary 15th, 2009October 28th, 2008: Am *sizzling* Some toerag on Bebo downloaded a pic from my photoblog and uploaded it to their webpage on bebo. They did not comment on the post on which it appeared or ask my permission: they just bloody well took it, and I found out because it had been recommended to the toerag by some other toerag who did link to it. I wouldn't have minded giving permission at all if they'd asked. I wouldn't have minded as much if they'd left a comment on the blog post when they took it - if this had been a confused kind of social interaction. But, as the toerag had just treated my photograph as a kind of natural resource for grazing on, I was annoyed, but figured that Bebo would take it down for me - I clicked on the "Report Abuse" button for the photo... and discovered that Bebo is not interested in handling copyright violations. My two options (once I'd dismissed "Wanted to flag it/it's cool") were to tell Bebo it had "sexually explicit imagery" or "Depicts violence". Neither of which were true. No explanation anywhere on the FAQ or the Help pages of what you do if someone just took your copyrighted material and used it on their Bebo page. Now I'm sizzling. So I wrote Bebo a basic "This photo is mine, I did not give my permission for you to use it, take it down" message ...and sent it to them under both headings. So I wrote an e-mail to the support team expanding on the copyright violation notice, and adding a suggestion that they provide a means of reporting copyright violation. The Bebo page was a collection of photo albums all depicting scenes from Portobello, a part of Edinburgh where I've recently been taking quite a lot of photos. I doubt I'm the only person whose photo was nicked for it. And I'm still irritated with the silly person who never thought to ask, because if they'd asked, I'd have said yes. Maybe once Bebo remove the photo I'll point that out to the idiot. Current Mood: angryOctober 26th, 2008: Dragons and Redbubble      Redbubble is celebrating their 100,000th anniversary (100 000 pieces sold and shipped!) by offering all buyers free shipping for the next week... and all sellers twice the money they normally receive. The coupon code to receive the free shipping offer is 100000masterpieces – you just enter this during the checkout process to receive the free shipping offer. Click on this red button to go directly to my Redbubble profile - but the free shipping applies whoever you buy from, until one minute to midnight on Thursday 30th October.  Special offer: one thing I can do on Redbubble is put together 13 photos into an illustrated calendar - cover and 12 months. (I've only done one so far: Strange Sky.) If you'd like a calendar from Redbubble made up of photos from this blog, or any of my photos on Redbubble, post below with your request - let me know what photos you'd like, even what months you want which photo to go with. If you include a contact e-mail (can be in the e-mail field of your comment) at which I can reach you, I'll put the calendar together and let you know I've done it before 30th October. Bear in mind the photos have got to be of a given size to be included: if Redbubble only offers them for sale as cards, they won't go on a calendar. You then order it via Redbubble, and pay no shipping. (I don't control the price of the calendar. Sorry.) Current Mood: hopefulOctober 25th, 2008: Barack Obama and photographs On the one hand, this series of photos of Obama from October 2006, when he was running to be Senator of Illinois, through 2007 till the present day, makes me think of the power of the camera to transform perception. Nothing I actually know about Obama has changed: yet I feel different about him, irrational though I know this to be. On the other hand, I do not think that any series of photos taken could change my feelings about John McCain. Not even one of McCain cleaning up his own chocolate sprinkles off an ice-cream counter... Current Mood: impressed despite myselfAugust 3rd, 2008: Naarmamo 2008: Day 1 and Day 2 naarmamo: Days 1-3 here.( August 1: Light from a mirror ) ( August 2: Hunter in the grass ) Current Mood: accomplishedJuly 12th, 2008: Stone Knives and Bearskins Today I made my first sale on Redbubble! (A card with a reflective picture on it.) I made 29p! ( Other than that, not a good two-three days ) Saw Forbidden Kingdom on Thursday night with Ajay. It was fun. Current Mood: grumpyJune 22nd, 2008: A Week in the Life of Yonmei, Volume 7 (Sunday) It's a meme. These are the rules. As it's the last day I decided to make it 11 photos instead of 8. I'm a rebel. ( Free Shop ) ( Space Warps ) ( Gold Graffiti ) ( Buffet King ) ( Jordan Valley ) ( Long Shadow ) ( Rain Road ) ( Polski Sklep ) ( Road Block ) ( Queen Victoria ) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Current Mood: accomplished: A Week in the Life of Yonmei, Volume 6 (Saturday) It's a meme. These are the rules. But yesterday I cheated and took way more than 8 new photos and could not winnow them down to 8, so, well. ( Torchwood Coffee ) ( Honey Sale ) ( Grassmarket Cows ) ( Blue Box ) ( Victoria Street ) ( Christmas Shop ) ( Demi John ) ( Forest Tips ) ( Wall Eye ) ( Giant Door ) ( Hanover Street ) ( Good Grief ) ( Street Mirror ) ( Reflecting Row ) ( Victoria Park ) Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Current Mood: accomplished |
