the_andy

Writing up how I feel like crap usually works me out of it, at least a bit. Maybe some day I'll unlock the posts I've been making of what a wreck I've been with Ed's medical problems. But probably not for a while.

Also, the post I made when he was deathly ill 6 years ago still stands as one of the most heartfelt things I've ever written and everything else seems shallow and banal compared to it and not worthy of sharing.

So, this morning I took Ed to see his usual vet. The end result is that while we're not sure what exactly caused Ed's bleeding, it appears to have been local to his nose and probably the result of an eroded blood vessel or something like that. Aside from leaving him (and our carpet) a bloody mess there is no long term effect.

I'm calling tomorrow to see if the ultrasounds from the ER have arrived so the regular vet can evaluate the mass in Ed's chest that the ER thinks is probably fat. And I need to call the ER and let them know now that the regular vet is available I won't be taking Ed in for a follow up. I appreciate they want to make sure he's doing ok, but if they have questions they can check with Dr Joe.

Thank you for following along for another exciting adventure of the medical mystery cat.

Authorized the ER vet to run more te$ts to figure out what the hell is up. However, if his blood cell count remains ok (indicating he isn't still bleeding in ways we can't see, like he's swallowing it or something) we can take him home tonight. Also, turns out our old vet isn't 100% retired yet and will be in the clinic Thursday or Friday and we have been informed they will make time for Ed whenever we can bring him in. The only down side to him coming home is that I'm worried he'll start bleeding again and we won't see for hours. Maybe wrdnrd and I can work in shifts.

( Things I was going to do at WisCon but didn't )

5/30 - Monday
Diversity in Superhero comics, (the second panel I was a member of)
The panel went really well, though we all pretty much had the same thoughts. Unfortunately I had to leave 10 minutes before the end as wrdnrd received news Ed had been taken to the animal ER when our catsitter found him bleeding from the nose.

( Read more... )

Following along with the meme wrdnrd has inadvertently created.

Name: Andy. Or The Andy. Or The Andy(tm), if you want to flatter me. ErrantPedant is more of a descriptor than a name, stick with Andy.

Unless I've started a trend after the past few years I'll be the only guy with nice blue hair at the con, so I should be easy to identify.

Hugs/touching: it's cool if I know you. Otherwise, you gotta explain who the hell you are before touching me. Also, no surprise touching, even for friends: I will punch you in the throat.

I am on panels for the first time ever and will be nervous as fuck before them. 1) please don't bug me ahead of time 2) please forgive me for acting like an ass due to nerves.

Places I am guaranteed to be: my panels, karaoke (I don't sing, just drink), vid party, dead cow party. Other than that, whichever party has the best booze or most of my roommates.

Roommates: I hang with wrdnrd, raanve, & littlebutfierce and will probably be found within 5 feet of one of them.

Other interests. Drinking, video games, drinking, anime/manga, drinking.

Questions, comments, requests for sexy pics of me in my new racing leathers?

I'm so glad it wasn't a week end, I would have done nothing but make Tumblr posts about the 25th anniversary of the Legend of Zelda. I feel horribly flippant spending so much time on it as is, but the series has been such a constant part of my life I'd actually feel a little disrespectful not doing anything. Yeah, it's just a video game series, but this is the only fandom I'm really emotionally connected to.

Starting at the tail end of 2008 I began keeping track of what I read, which has been interesting. Keeping a list encourages me to read more, as I have an average to maintain, and I've also been trying to vary what I read more than I might if left on auto-pilot. Here's some of the stuff this last year that's worth commenting on.

Karl Schroeder's Virga books (Sun of Suns, Queen of Candesce, Pirate Sun, The Sunless Countries) - steampunky swashbuckling airships in a hollow artificial planet. Nice fast fun reads; the ones involving Venera being ruthless and kicking ass are the best. I guess the science works, but I just care about zero gravity airships.

Georgette Heyer, These Old Shades - I think this was on my list after Ellen Kushner mentioned it at WisCon 32(?). You need Georgian romance? I got your Georgian romance right here! Girls disguised as boys, lost heirs, scoundrels with hearts of gold, and a romantic pairing that was obvious from the beginning because that's how these things work.

Naoki Urasawa , Pluto - a retelling/expansion of one of Osamu Tezuka's most popular Astro Boy/Mighty Atom stories. Not much to add to all the critical acclaim this received, but it's a pretty good manga.

Alexandre Dumas, Georges - often described as a proto Count of Monte Cristo, this is one of the few times Dumas wrote about race and racism. While dated & problematic in some ways it's an enjoyable revenge story and I can imagine Dumas had some people in mind when he came up with the idea of a mixed race hero returning home to kick some ass.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Beautiful Struggle - Coates memoir about growing up with his brother in Baltimore is equal parts hip hop, Black Nationalism, and Dungeons & Dragons. Bits reminded me of school in San Diego; the rhythms and rituals of city public schools were recognizably of the same genus that I knew, if not the same species.

Nnedi Okorafor, Who Fears Death - Not sure I can say anything that hasn't already been said about this. I think this could be a hard read for some people (not sure if it would have been for me, I had already heard mention of everything that could have been upsetting ahead of time). Great book.

Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle - a dark, sad, interesting book about sisters, murder, and small town hatreds. I wish it were longer, but suspect it's exactly as long as it needs to be.

Total read in 2010: 34. Comics/manga series are counted as 1 work.
Best month: Feb with 6 books (some fast paced reads and a novella)

But then we rewatched Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and I'm pretty sure that was it. Come on, picture it:

Perry is Wallace: gay man, cruel humor, the only competent person in the story, but Perry has less drinking and more pants. The drinking and pants are the only thing I'd change about KKBB.

Harry is Scott: the lovable loser who has screwed up everything he tried to do before, straightens himself out fighting for the woman's affection. He's better than Scott because he's amusing and likable while he's being a loser, while Scott's flaws often make him so unlikable we don't care about him.

Harmony as Ramona: the crush object who's too good for the loser. This doesn't work quite as well, but we have to post to DW with the tortured analogues we have, not those we wish for.

The murder mystery also helps improve the story in that the driving plot doesn't require us to like the characters as much. If you don't like Scott you don't care about his love life, while if you don't like Harry you could still want to see the mystery solved. It's also advantageous that the whole thing isn't about Harry and Harmony getting together, that all happens around the rest of it, so it gets done with a couple of broad strokes. The heavy focus on the relationship in SP means that there are a lot more places it can go wrong.

Finally, it was shorter and written as one piece. SP suffers from unevenness and bloat because of it's length and being written over 6 years. I think a shorter, more tightly plotted graphic novel would have benefited the plot more.

I may still get around to poking at Scott Pilgrim with a pointed stick and calling out what did and didn't work, but until then just imagine a world where Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer were 20-something roommates in Toronto.

and mailed those boxes of books I posted about getting rid of months ago. Sorry for the delays.

I haven't had much to say about WisCon, largely because so many other people said what I was feeling, but with much more eloquence. (Short answer: I am 110% in favor of the revoking of Moon's GoH status). But one thing that came up in some of the fallout that really stuck with me was people on or associated with the ConCom complaining that we expected them to respond in "Internet Time."

Well, yeah.

Cause you're on the fucking internet.

I'm sorry, but the con has a decent web presence. Most, if not all, of the convention's communication occurs online. It is not unreasonable for people to expect a response in “internet time” (which I am reading as anything less than a week). It's not 1986, you can't to take your sweet time typing a response for your mimeographed newsletter that will be mailed out in 6 weeks. Furthermore, if your audience is online you have to be able to respond immediately, otherwise we're going to flip out and rumors will spread. Is this reasonable: maybe not. Is it absolutely going to happen: yes.

In a perfect world I wanted to see a response in less than 24 hours – not a resolution, not a fix, just a response. Something along the lines of “we hear your concerns, we need to call a meeting, blah, blah, more info in 3-7 days.” Yes, that's sterile and non-committal PR boilerplate, but we didn't need an immediate answer so much as needed to know you had heard us. It was the silence and rumor that was ticking us (or at least me) off. Everything I knew was from locked friends posts, not from any official source.

I don't really want to delve too deep into the con's organizational structure, but skimming the list of positions I was struck by the fact that there is no head Communications or PR person. There is no one authorized to even say “we hear you and will get back to you.” Everything is focused around the actual deliverables of running the con: this event, this piece of printed matter. There is no one to step up if something blows up. And that seems to be what is needed to avoid this crap in the future. Someone who is authorized to talk and can respond immediately to say “we hear you, we're on it, we'll tell you more soon.”

Part of the reason I'm so harsh about this is because it isn't that hard. It's not hard at all. I have a full time job, a volunteer job, several hobbies, and a distracting video game addiction, and I could still fill the basic role needed here. It doesn't need to be a big deal, just come up with a couple of basic templated responses (this assumes you're actually going to follow through on the whole listening and getting back to us part. If you're just going to throw out canned phrases to placate us until everything blows over, well, I've used up my allotment of profanity for the evening, so check back tomorrow) and authorize someone(s) to fire them off as necessary. THEN you can have your meeting, figure out what to do, and let everyone know in a reasonable time frame.

PS And while I'm giving out free tirades of advice, allow me to remind you of wrdnrd's PR post.