Christopher East

I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday!  Our Labor Day weekend was enhanced by a houseguest:  Tim Pratt stopped down for a writing retreat, giving us a chance to host someone in our recently retooled guest room/office.  Between socializing meals, there was a healthy writing vibe in the house… well, more from Tim and Jenn than from me, although I did manage to feed off of their energy to get some blogging and Futurismic done.

I have also gone so far as to pull Subnetworks off the shelf long enough to examine a few pages, and managed early forays into research and organization for the second draft — just getting a few things straight in my head about the world of the book, gradually edging myself back into the headspace to work on the novel — which is kind of a scary prospect.  Producing raw wordage is one thing, but revising is the really hard work.  Wish me luck!

This year my M.O. for vacation time has consisted of scheduling it out piecemeal into various four-day “staycation” weekends that give me a chance to get away from the office and recharge my batteries — in the company of my favorite person and my two favorite cats, of course!  Since home is my favorite place to be, I’m perfectly happy to spend my vacations this way — and the fact that it’s both cheaper and lazier is a nice bonus!

This weekend held particular significance, though:  Thursday represented the four-year mark since Jenn and I met at Worldcon in Anaheim.  It’s been an exciting and wonderful four years so far, full of change and adventure for both of us.  We rang in the occasion with a spectacular dinner at our favorite restaurant here in the Valley, Café Carolina.  Jenn’s post describes the meal perfectly, so I won’t try to elaborate, except to show you the dessert:

We filled our Friday and Saturday with food and fun as well.  One highlight was an outing to Dark Delicacies in Burbank, a horror bookshop where Amelia Beamer was signing her new novel.  There we met up with friends and made some new ones, then stopped over at Porto’s for a pile of pastries.

It wouldn’t be a four-day weekend without TV, movies, and games, of course.  I’m catching up on season five of Rescue Me (about halfway through so far); I always seem to forget how good this show is when I’m not watching it.  I find elements of it problematic, but there’s something refreshing about how unapologetic and gutsy it is, and the ensemble cast is consistently amazing.  (I think Steven Pasquale in particular is a brilliant comic actor, and his story arc this year has been filled with entertaining surprises.)  We also instant-streamed the weird Belgian animated film A Town Called Panic, a wonderfully strange, frantic movie I found a little too stream of conscious for a full review — suffice it to say, it’s the best weird Belgian stop-motion animation you’ve ever seen.  And on Saturday night we enjoyed some World of Warcraft instancing with friends, where I got to heal my first heroics with my neglected resto druid.  (If you don’t know what that means, don’t worry about it…)

The weekend wrapped up with Jenn’s birthday, and I made my first solo batch of chocolate chip cookies — a personal baking milestone.  Not only that, but they look and taste like cookies.  Holy shit!

It was nice to shut down and relax for a while, but it’s Monday again and time to resume some responsibility.  Back to work, to editing, to blogging and bill-paying…and soon, to writing, as I’ve decided September will ring in draft two of Subnetworks (or, more likely, draft 1.5, the last pre-critique version).

For now I’ll leave you with our anniversary photo — I do believe we are as happy as we look in this picture, so it’s a great way to remember a great weekend!

Strategy successfully implemented:  my first non-Futurismic month in a while turned out to be a boon to productivity.  I was on pace to shatter last month’s word count total, but unfortunately my momentum was derailed by the Great Oslo Health Saga.  Even so, I edged out last month by about 100 words for a total of 8,900 new words on the novel.  I’m about six chapters away from wrapping this sucker up!

On top of that I set a record for blog posts in one month with 23, and completed five new tunes, including these two.  Not a bad haul for a month’s work!

Today we took Oslo back into the vet.  We had some concern — although entirely healthy in every other way, Ozzy’s digestive system has been a bit upset.  He was not happy to be back in that cat-carrier, but now he’s home again, the belly staples have been removed, and he has a (mostly) clean bill of health.  We do, however, have some medicine to give him over the next several days to help his digestive system get back to normal.

At any rate, because of this I’m unfortunately going to be staying home from WisCon — to keep an eye on the cats and give Ozzy his pills.  I’m bummed to be missing it, but both Jenn and I will feel better if someone stays behind, and it makes more sense for it to be me, as she’s got commitments at the con that I don’t.  (Speaking of which:  go see her reading!)

For me, it’s OzzyCon 2010 here in Tarzana!  So if anyone out there is feeling all last-minute about going to WisCon, let me know — maybe I can transfer my membership?

Wow, a crazy few days for our felines — especially Oslo.   I’ll give you the short version since most readers here probably follow Jenn’s blog:  earlier this week Oslo threw up a few hairbands.  We took him to the emergency room late on Wednesday night and X-rays revealed that at some point he’d developed a habit of swallowing tiny foreign objects.  Hairbands seemed to his favorite, but those weren’t the only inadvisable between-meal snacks he’d been ingesting.

So far he’s recovering quite well, and we’ve got him back home, where he’s resting comfortably.  Here he is chilling on the cat tower after a dose of pain medicine:

Of course, our senstitive older cat Cairo reacted weirdly to the whole situation.  His plaintive cries the night of the surgery, which translated for us to “Where’s my brother?,” gave way to a general freak-out when Oslo returned, smelling like a hospital. Cairo hid for hours and we don’t think he was eating or drinking.  Then this morning he threw up, then totally lost his balance…his legs went out from under him and he couldn’t walk.  A scary moment, but he rebounded quickly.  We got him checked out just to be safe and he looks good now, is eating and behaving normally again.  He’s even coming to terms with his brother’s shaved belly and odd scent.  Here’s Cairo after his traumatic vet visit:

All in all, its been an exhausting, stressful, expensive few days.  Hopefully both our boys are on the mend now!

Yesterday Jenn and I made a day trip down to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park with our friends Samantha and Chris, who were visiting from out of town.  This is my second trip to the park and I had just as much fun as the first time — it’s a great, huge place with tons of exhibits.  Put on your walking shoes if you go, though!  After several months that were considerably “more homebody” than usual, my body wasn’t sure to do with all that fresh air and exercise!

Some choice photos courtesy of Jenn:

This meerkat is on lookout duty while his buddies forage below.

Late in the day, the petting zoo animals crashed out in the shade...

Unlike most zoos I've been too, the elephants here have some space to roam.

An animal park visit is incomplete without a trip to the lorikeet feeding zone. They told us the birds weren't hungry, but they freaking mauled us in pursuit of nectar. Lies!

I thought about upgrading to a tanking pet, but thought Cairo and Oslo might object.

Our final stop as the park was closing, we spotted this lemur in commando mode, creeping stealthily at the edge of the water.

Another fun trip, and we had a great time catching up with friends and seeing all the exhibits.  Check out the park if you’re ever in the neighborhood!

This will probably be old news to most of you, but if you missed it or don’t know my girlfriend Jenn:

Behold the awesome that is my girlfriend Jenn! A two-book deal from Candlewick Press!!!

I would venture to say that nobody knows better than me how hard she worked for this (well, except for her, of course!) — so let me just say this is much, much deserved.  Congratulations, sweetie!

Random news and notes for a random Tuesday:

• Finished off season seven of MI-5 over the weekend.  It was definitely not as strong as season six, but I thought it was solid; the first few episodes were top-notch, and although there were some kind of obvious moments, the final two episodes were pretty compelling.  Bring on the next season!
• I finally got my bass fixed, only to get it home and find out my cable is shot, so I can’t plug it into my amp or computer.  Something to deal with next weekend…I’m looking forward to experimenting with real instruments in GarageBand.
• Speaking of which, the second album has been on the verge of completion for awhile, but I’ve been a bit stalled on the music lately.  My goal is to finish up the Futurismic slushpile soon, so I can start writing in the mornings, then working on tunes during my lunchbreak…at least until we reopen to submissions.  (Too many activities, too little time!)
• We started watching the original The Prisoner over the weekend, which we have on Blu-ray.  I’d only seen the pilot once, several years ago…I was shocked at how weird the show is.  So far I’m loving it; looking forward to the rest of the series.
• Hockey playoffs are underway, and my nerves are frayed — after the past couple seasons, I’d forgotten what it was like to actually care about who wins playoff games.  Hopefully one of these nights the Kings and Sabres can both win on the same day!
• Jenn and I are both planning to go to Wiscon this year.  Hope to see some of you there!

Finally, I didn’t post at the time, but Jenn did — earlier this month was Oslo’s first birthday.  Happy birthday, Ozzie!  Here he is, celebrating in true cat fashion…asleep.

A few random thoughts for a random Friday morning:

• I can’t tell if this itch I’m feeling to write a short story is A) me trying to get away from the novel or B) me wishing I could just finish something already!  (My guess:  a little of both.)
• Enver Gjokaj in Previously on Point Dume — ’nuff said!
• If SUVs got 100 mpg, ate pollution, and resurrected Firefly, I would still hate them.  Because people who drive them would still cut me off on the expressway at least five times a day, block my view, and destroy at least six street-parking spaces at work.
• My average response time for Futurismic subs has gone from about 15 days per story to about 25 days per story in the past month.  I’m falling behind…might be time for a vacation!
• My belated thoughts on the NHL trade deadline:   kind of a yawner this year.  I’m glad the Kings brought in some forward depth, but the coach has messed up the line chemistry, and the team is spiraling.  And…holy moly, the Sabres actually made some deals!  Nice to see Vanek and Pominville heating up lately.

That’s all I got for now.  Have a great weekend!

Like many folks these days, I’ve been trying to be frugal and over the past few months have been denying myself the usual,  occasional splurge purchase –  books, DVDs, and games being the most common offenders.  But I couldn’t hold out forever, and a couple of weekends ago, on another errand entirely, I broke down and bought myself a present.

Jenn and I went to Fry’s Electronics in Woodland Hills to buy a little adapter for our computers.  I took one step inside and my jaw dropped.  Fry’s is a ridiculous dream world of consumer electronics, tech toys, software, discs and gadgets.  I believe actually said “I want to see everything!” or something similarly childlike, because Jenn was laughing at me.  Your average Best Buy is a meager substitute…wow, Fry’s FTW!

Anyway, I tried to exercise my usual restraint, but I just couldn’t do it, and ended up buying a GarageBand Jam Pack to flesh out my loop library.  My first two “second wave” TV theme songs are included below — the first is an homage to my favorite Whose Line improv artist, and the second is my first “spinoff” theme.  (Thanks, Mike!)

Enjoy!  (Oh, and by the way…FRY’S!)

The Colin Mochrie Comedy Hour

Ulysses Jones