Alex Beecroft's LJ

Yesterday before the game, I felt the sudden urge to browse youtube for videos of Steve Finnan, and I was surprised how little there was about him! Most of what I found was bad slideshows and videos of Steven Gerrard (yeah, you read that right), but I found three videos that are quite awesome:

» "Don't get caught ball-watching!" (ad for the Irish national team)
» another ad for the Irish national team
» Finns' stunning goal in the Euro qualifier against Cyprus

Does anyone have other Finns videos?

In other news, maybe I'll go to FC Augsburg's season finale this afternoon! :D They need to reach at least a draw to stay in the second league, and it's going to be damn exciting and possibly even nerve-racking. My dad will be at the stadium at about 12:30 to see if there are still any tickets left. *bites nails*

Right. Now I need to take a shower and then continue writing fic.

For tehta: As you like to interprete Medieval pictures as Tolkien illustrations, here is a page full of Russian LotR illustrations that are mostly Medieval-style.

30 AnnaSophia Robb
26 Shyann McClure
04 Jodelle Ferland
06 Fashion ( + 3 Graphics)
05 Costumes
05 Castles
08 300
04 Disney Robin Hood
07 Heroes Cast Graphics
07 A Song of Ice and Fire graphics

Comments are appreciated and credit is requested. Same as every other post ever, really.



Warning: Excessively Dial-up Hostile beyond!

(all i want is everything)

The first discworld novel by Terry Pratchett.

Let me first explain that I have a huge gap in my fiction reading experience, and I am trying as many different types of novels as I can, ones that have been relatively recently published, even if it doesn't look they would be my preferred reading.

There were parts of this I really enjoyed. The story is just so full of interesting ideas. I loved the perpetually-reappearing, indestructible 'Luggage' and the portrayal of the two main characters. The book is just brimming with ideas that could almost each carry a novel.

It was very fast-paced, so I didn't have much time to become bored.

Will I be reading the next volume...

Hmmm... maybe, maybe not.

This isn't really my style of novel.

When I read SFF, I want to believe, for that moment, that the world described could actually be real. I want the author to take their own worldbuilding seriously. Pratchett does not do that. He takes the Mickey out on his world, his characters, himself and his readers. The text is full of smart-arsey one-liners. Heck, some are even funny, but to me, it makes the book feel like told by a stand-up comedian. OK, that's a style. He does it well. I'm not sure I enjoy too much of that. Just me, methinks.

I realise I am starting to sound like I don't enjoy anything. That's not quite true. I did finish this book in one day. If I hadn't enjoyed it at all, I wouldn't have finished it. And I *did* say that I'm trying out many different (sub)genres.

Title: Dust
Characters: Jack
Disclaimer: not mine.
Spoilers for 1x05 Small Worlds.

The air is hot and sultry and rank with the stench of shit and piss and the blood of terrified animals slaughtered to grace the tables of the officer's mess. Offal and waste are washed into the muddy river, coating the buffalo cooling themselves in its waters with a sickly paste of sediment and death.

I am so tired of eating the flesh of goats.

We leave by train tomorrow. My squad, though they don't know it, is being sent to recover an alien artifact halfway to Kandahar. They think it's a holy relic.  With luck they'll all be sober.

We take a moment from May's natural glories to wonder why The New York Times has recently become a time portal to the year 1997.

I'm half-expecting an article on "that swing craze" any day now.

~W

Yesterday I listed out all our WIP's for RD and then listed the ones we definitely wouldn't pursue.

Then I go to write today and turn out 1000 words on a story in the "not being written" category. Um. Oops?

It's okay if that ends up being the next story, I just would like to stay on one thing long enough to finish. :)

I read a genderbendery story that had so much wtf going on in it that the gender bending was the more normal part about it. I think there was incest too. (The fact that I say I "think" there was incest should indicate the amount of wtf I mean.) I kind of liked it.

And I read Jet Myckle's Heaven, which was pretty awesome! I hadn't read it sooner because I worry about heartbreaking monogamy issues when musicians/celebrities are involved in stories, but it wasn't like that at all. It was very pretty. And also, sexy.

hello...
I am new to gimp and never used it before...can somebody please tell me HOW to make icons??????
PLEASE....
thanks for your time!

Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. People have fought and died for the right to speak freely, and I think sometimes we take that for granted. I know I do. We get angry at the idea of someone censoring what we have to say, trying to tell us what opinions we can and can't hold. On the flip side of that, most of us will agree to the social responsibilities put on us, that there are some topics and opinions we shouldn't share too freely. I don't think there are many of us that would hand an Anita Blake novel to an eight-year-old, for example, because in our society, the sex and violence in those books aren't considered appropriate for children.

So what happens when you get someone who won't filter themselves in polite society? Is trying to filter someone else in that case considered censorship or is it just being socially responsible? When does the filter stop protecting people and become more harmful than helpful?

( Pre-censored for your reading pleasure! Click here to lift the censors... )

man, sometimes I forget how *fantastic* the soundtracks for the LotR movies are. Well played, Howard Shore. Well played indeed.

1704 words on Seven for a Secret tonight. We have found the plot, and it is progressing. I'm still not sure exactly how it plays out, but Sebastien is the Scarlet Pimpernel.

17,000 / 30,000 (56.7%)

If there weren't this damned convention mucking up my week, I could have this done by next Monday.

*falls over in front of the television*

Saving Horses, one Thoroughbred at a time

The line that killed me: "On occasion, Condurso-Lane said, a pair of horses standing in the field together will appear to nudge one another, then dart off together in a straight line, as if reliving their past."

*sniffle*
-----------------------

In other news, I fled the computer to have a Day Out, which included the Superheroes costume exhibit at the Met (interesting but not, IMO, amazingly well-done unless, like me, you adore certain designers and can have fun mocking academic copy-writers), kamikazi shoe-shopping, post-theater dissection of the current staging of Macbeth over a carafe of wine and damn good Italian food, and one of the top ten phrases you never want to hear a tourist in Times Square say: "is that a real gun, Maureen?"

(it wasn't)

[also? I should not be allowed anywhere near Times Square/the Theater District on Wedesday afternoons or Saturdays. The urge to kill is nigh overwhelming. Farking tourists, learn how to walk!]

EtA: best street theater sight: a guy waving a variety of bumper stickers on a theme of "Cheney/Satan in 2008: The worst possible President"

Tomorrow, back to work. For now -- falling over and making like a sleeping thing.

I'm in the middle of the "query wars" as arcaedia has dubbed the process. Because of this, I find myself surfing agent blogs on a fairly regular basis. During the last week or so, I've run across a couple of post snippets that have lifted my spirits and renewed my optimism. I hope they'll do the same for you...

Rachelle Gardner wrote this in a post likening the search for an agent to American Idol:
"So, this is what it's like when you're vying for a spot on an agent's roster, or a publisher's list. Just because you get a rejection letter doesn't mean you're not a good and talented writer. In fact, for every person I say "yes" to, there are probably a dozen more whose work is really good but for various reasons, I'm not able to say yes. I can only represent a limited number of people. Publishers can only put out a certain number of books. We are all saying "no" to perfectly talented writers and perfectly good projects at various times."

raleva31 posted this near the end of her entry today:
"Also, I find myself rejecting things that I might have requested a year ago when I had fewer queries and more time to read. (Which is why it's a GREAT idea to include some new young agents in your agent search!) Now I'm looking for pretty specific things in a query letter and I've HAD to get more selective in requesting submissions. Why? I have more clients now, and I have a lot of reading to do for them as a first priority. Also, I'm just getting MORE queries than ever before. I wish I could add a note to all the queries that I think show promise, to say, "This really does look good, but I just can't request it. I'm sure someone else will jump on it!" But that takes time and it sometimes turns into an extra dialogue with the author. I hope every time I hit Send for a form response letter that the author realizes that this is a numbers game, an odds game, and it isn't personal. If I had infinite amounts of time, I would probably request about 10% of the manuscripts pitched to me in query letters. As it is... well, it isn't even close to 10%. "

In addition to comments like these, many blogging agents offer advice on the query process. Kristen Nelson has recently embarked on a series of posts designed to help write that fiendish little query letter. I found an earlier post of hers invaluable in crafting mine.

Keep your eye open for agents who blog. Whether they're a good fit for your career or not, they dispense a lot of information about the publishing industry.

The second batch of "Longitude" screencaps with comments. Tons of interesting information, costume details and, hey, who would have guessed it, even more cute red-haired kids (though not as cute as wee William) and dashing officers in uniform!

This batch is a resource for: children, children clothes, ships, decks, life aboard, punishments, clocks, clocks, clocks and then some more clocks, royal navy uniforms second half of the 18th century, jamaica, clerics, everyday life, various workshops, fashion, admiralty, board of longitude, george III. and more. If there's a picture you'd like to see in a higher resolution, please yell.

We left our heroes musing the importance of maritime chronometres; now let's move forward a acouple of years...

( THIS WAY FOR YE OLDE LONGITUDE SCREENCAPS - image heavy, dial-up users beware... )

Phew. That's all so far. Again, I can really recommend the movie. The switches between the 1930s/40s and the 18th centuries are done with great skill, and while I haven't made any screencaps of the "modern" scenes with Jeremy Irons, I can assure you that they fit in perfectly. "Longitude" is a "must have", and those of us who write historical fiction set in the AOS will find that we can profit a lot from this movie. Fixing a hole in the hull with a sail was certainly something I'd never thought of myself!

Only one new sketch today, but I like it. Geez, these take me forever.

Anyway, now I begin scanning for the Retrospective, which I hope to have up by Tuesday. I definitely got enough money to scan all the good stuff from Sketchbook 18...!

I have 70 icons from The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian at my icon journal.

Teasers:

You can find the rest here. It's a members only community, but the post will be public for a few weeks. If you like my graphics, feel free to join. :)