No Strings Attached

Posted By Kathleen David on November 18, 2013

We had fun at Astronomicon this weekend. Caroline made some new friends and had fun playing with kids her age. I moderated a 50 years of Doctor Who panel that went pretty well. Peter talked about different subjects and signed a lot of books. We got to spend some time with David Gerrold which is always fun. I met people who read my blog and others who know me as a puppeteer strangely enough. This was one of those conventions were everyone knew everyone else. It was also nice to see my brother-in-law Wally.

The drive back was a little more exciting than needed as we were trying to out run the storm system that dumped a lot of rain here. One of the bigger problems was fog in the valleys of the mountains. But we got home safely.

Didn’t get to bed until late so the brain is not firing on all cylinders. Coffee is not helping at this time.

Did see last night’s Once Upon a Time and I must say Wow! And I have to wait an extra week to see what is happening?!?!?!

The cats are Velcro cats today. They are sticking to my hips like they are attached.

I read an interesting article about the age of mass intelligence this morning thanks to someone posting it on facebook. I have probably a whole entry about this one so consider this a marker.

Probably the rest of the week is going to be Doctor Who related since on the 23rd they are showing the Day of the Doctor, which is the 50th anniversary of the first airing of Doctor Who. A show that is quite near and dear to my heart(s).

Yes, I am posting this in the afternoon. Kind of got distracted this morning. Yes, I had coffee. No it didn’t really help today. Yes, the three hour nap I took did. I feel a little more human.

Cats are still sticking close to me. I guess that they missed me.

I am grateful for getting home safely and that the Greyhound bus that seemed bound and determined to take us out didn’t. Seriously the driver was a mad man.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 14, 2013

Today is one of those milestone birthdays for my father.

I love him very much and I will be thinking a lot about him today.

My dad taught a lot by example. He made sure that I knew that being smart was something to be proud of and one had to use one’s intellect and not play dumb.

I was in awe from a young age at his ability to fix stuff around the house. My first lessons in carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work came from watching my father fix things and give me a running commentary on what he was doing if I asked.

I always wished I could draw as well as him. He is a bit of a doodler when the mood strikes. I still have some of the drawings that he did for me when I was a lot younger. He has worked in various art mediums including cloisonné. I still have the pins that he made me. He taught me that art is as important to science and at times is indistinguishable from each other.

I remember my father coming to my second grade class and talking about lasers. He brought in a new form of Helium Neon laser that was “small” enough to travel. Every time I play with a cat and a laser pointer, I think of him. I remember watching him tune an argon laser that was being fussy that they needed for an experience they were doing. He said that it has to be finessed not bullied into working.

My parents love each other very much. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last year. I would watch them hug and kiss and do nice things for each other just because they loved each other. They are my shining example of a marriage that worked and continues to work. They taught me so many things about marriage and partnership.

It was my dad who got me into Science Fiction and introduced me to the works of Heinlein, Asimov, and Bradbury among others. I had a passion for reading that he encouraged. My parents read in front of us. They taught us that reading was something that you could also do for fun and I have gotten a lot of pleasure from reading. It makes me proud that I have been able to keep that tradition going and Caroline is a voracious reader.

I learned how to be a good parent from watching my parents. At the time I didn’t know it and swore that I would allow my kids to do things my parents forbid and wouldn’t do other things they did to discipline me. Guess what, now that I am the parent, I am doing exactly what they did.

My father is a brilliant man with a renaissance drive. When he wants to know something about a subject or to master a new thing, he does it with verve and drive. He is a shining example to me and my brothers and sister and now his grandchildren.

A lot of who I am today I can trace back to my father and I am proud to be his daughter.

Love you Da.

I am grateful that my father is my father.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 12, 2013

Or Kath’s brain dump for the end of 2013

This year I didn’t do many art show. I didn’t submit at a couple that I usually show at. I think Dragon Con was basically it. So first goal for next year is to do a few more art shows than I did this year.

I have plenty of ideas for various things I can do. I am thinking about creating some new pieces that have been running around in my head for a while. I also am going to revisit the puppet aspect of things. I have not made a doll since last year. I am thinking of creating a marionette or two.

I am proud at how well Rumple turned out. I think that is my favorite puppet of this past year. Mr. Gold was fun to create too once I figured out how to make an Italian suit for a puppet. Next I think Thor and Loki in their Asgardian garb since I do love a challenge. Then maybe some more Avengers. I still want to make the Teddy Bear Nick Furry.

I didn’t perform at the puppetslam at DragonCon this year. I want to correct that next year but I need a good idea and time to build the idea.

I don’t consider this year a loss, more of a pause. I have used the time to clear some stuff out of my head and my craft storage.

Dragon Con forced me (OK really I forced me) to get back to being creative from a period of drought. It is not that I wasn’t thinking creatively, I just had no energy or drive to make something.

Caroline’s costume brought me out of the funk I was going back in. It gave me something to focus on and since then my mind has been thinking about things I could make and things I want to make.

I know the drought was caused by the events of this year. My energy was being used elsewhere for a good cause. Now we are no longer in serious crisis mode and almost back to normal, my brain seems more interested in creating again.

I am also thinking of putting some puppets either up on my site, Peter’s site or Esty for sale for the holidays. A little extra cash right now would be a good thing with the holidays rapidly approaching and all.

And who knows what will strike my fancy next. My brain is off at a gallop which is nice since we have been walking for a while. And more than half the battle is the doing of the idea rather than just thinking about it.

I am also really for real this week going to put together the puppet rod tutorial for next Tuesday.

I am grateful for finding water in the drought.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 11, 2013

Today is Veterans Day in the US. This is the day we thank our vets for serving their country and allowing us to continue to be the US. I want to thanks all the veterans that I know and probably some I don’t know as vets for their service and courage. Today would also be a good day to write your congressional representatives and senators and inform them that you would not be happy if they cut services and monies owed our Veterans. Let’s take care of them because they took care of our country.

I did get the coffee maker to make a pot of coffee. It just took a while to do so.

The coffee maker has developed some form of short in the electrical system that is causing it to shut down while grinding beans. I thought I had fixed it from when it did this a while a go but no it has not improved. I can’t say I haven’t gotten my money’s worth on this machine since I have been using it for almost 13 years.

Football was interesting this weekend both in professional and college. The Giants prove that they aren’t giving up. The Jags proved they could win a game. A number of teams hit the magic number that says they are out of the running for even a wild card spot and now get to play spoiler for other teams. In college I haven’t looked at the polls this morning but I am interested in the voting for this week considering how some of the games went down.

Thor: The Dark World make approximately 86 million this weekend. Adding that to the worldwide total, Marvel Studio has another hit on its hands. And those sorts of streaks (think PIXAR) tend to get critics looking for ways to bring down the studio a peg or two. The reviews for Thor were very mixed. And the amount of them that read like they were written before the reviewer even saw the film increased. I could have written a number of them based on the trailers. They would be incorrect but I could do it. I also find it interesting that there seems to be an even split between Too Little Loki and Too Much Loki reviews. I thought it was just right.

Caroline is coming back today after spending the weekend with her sister and we are looking forward to having her home. The Caroline sized hole in the house seemed bigger than usual this time. Her cat has been rather upset when we walk into the house and she realizes that Caroline is not there. I have a feeling that Caroline is going to have to deal with the Velcro Cat when she gets home.

Fandom is a funny thing. Fans love something with all their heart and somewhere along the line, they feel some ownership to that which they love. And with that ownership comes a nasty behavior of getting upset when the stories being told don’t go their way or something they had been assuming was going to happen, didn’t. Then they say that the creators don’t know what they are doing and why can’t they do what we said. Now if the creators do something that the fans have said that they wanted, the fans see it and turning around and say that the creators are pandering to the fans and they don’t get what the fans really meant. Darned if you do and darned if you don’t. I have seen creators blasted for giving fans exactly what they wanted. Sometimes it was by design (fans got it right) and sometimes it is to appease their fanbase. I think creators should ignore the vocal minority and go out and tell the stories that they want to tell. And if it is the same story as what the fans wanted, well go on the fans for being in sync with the creator.

No idea what I am going to talk about for Crafty Tuesday. Any suggestions?

Also do y’all have any convention questions? Would you, as a reader, be interested in tales from conventions I have attended?

Am I asking too many questions?

Well off to clean something up. Why do cats have to barf in inconvenient places?

I am grateful for input.

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Posted By Kathleen David on November 8, 2013

I remember watching Silence in the Library which is the first appearance of Rive Song. She tries to sort out where the Doctor is in his timeline and stops many a question with a single word “spoilers.”

I know people who avoid spoilers about things they watch and read like the plague. I know others who actively seek out the information and either share it or act rather smug that they are in the know. Then there are those in between these two extremes.

I saw Thor: The Dark World on Wednesday which is a day or so before the reviews started coming out in the US. I was glad that I went in ‘cold’. Except for the trailers I had managed to keep away from spoilers. And there were a couple of moments in the film that probably impacted me more because I didn’t know they were coming. When I did my review, I avoided spoiling these magical moments for others. I want them to be able to experience the movie the way I did.

The other day the cast and crew of Once Upon a Time were doing some location shooting. Fans have learned where they are and tend to find their way there to watch the shoots and meet the cast. While there they took photos of what they were seeing and posting them almost instantly on the Internet. Now they are far enough away that they can’t hear dialogue unless someone is really shouting. So all they have is the visuals.

A critical scene was being shot that brings a lot of things into play that the writers, cast, and crew have been bringing along. This is a pivotal point in the story arc for this half of the season. I have a feeling we won’t be seeing it until the latter half of December which means that this may have been the act break for this season which is usual a big thing. Well the photos give away one heck of a plot point on several levels including a twist that is rather clever. I wasn’t looking for them, I ran across them while looking for something else. Now I have been spoiled for probably one of the bigger OMG moments of the season. Since then a number of sites that just had them out there have put them behind cuts and make one have to work for them if one wants to see them.

I think what peeves me off is that this was done by FANS of the show. Fans who have no regard for all the hard work that has gone into getting to that point. They claim to love the cast and crew but have a funny way of showing it. I know that they probably don’t get why anyone might be a bit ticked off from their behavior so I am raging at the air here but I just wish people who think for a moment before spoiling it for others.

Peter works very hard to create some incredible WFT moments in his work. He lays the pipework for months and, sometimes, years to bring the reader to a point where the reveal takes their breath away. We (being Peter, Peter’s editor, and me) knew what was going to happen to Teresa’s baby in X-Factor probably a year to a year and a half before the issue came out. Peter was very careful about laying everything out. And it was a shocking moment that they managed to keep under wraps but it wasn’t easy. They had to make sure that those in the know knew to keep things out of the solicitations especially those for the following issues, which would be coming out before that issue of X-factor. His editor was vigilant and they caught a few things and reworded them. People come today to Peter at conventions and tell him how much that one issue shook them to the core and they didn’t see it coming.

One person and a scanner blew another thing that he had worked so hard to create. They put it up on the Internet and then worked on getting posted all over the place. He was not happy about that. All the work that had gone into creating that moment meant nothing. Since the issue was not out until the next day, the fans complained about what they were seeing which was two pages not the whole issue which was needed for those two pages to make total sense. It was taken out of context and the fans hated it. Fans that got the issue unspoiled thought he was brilliant.

I understand that the net will never be a spoiler free zone and there are ways to keep from stumbling over things you don’t want to see. I just wish people (fans) would just stop and think a moment before posting something out of context and destroying the journey for others.

I am grateful for those who think before posting.

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