33 Comments on “In Decatur”

1. So far so good after partying with the AARP crowd at the Michael McDonald concert….You never feel more young at 48 when you go to a Boomer concert….

2. Eh, it beats Monday. So far, that’s about all it’s got going for it.

3. Working on the last bits of my portfolio to apply to the Teacher’s Education Program, shaking my head over the wankering by local Republicans on the hot VP candidate and how thy are afraid of Obama cause if he gets shot it will be Race War and they will lose all their guns.

4. Reading book reviews to figure out the mechanics of how to do one myself, eating chocolate birthday cake (husbie used TWO tubs of frosting! whee!), hyping myself up to work on a story, and enjoying the cool weather. All in all, a pretty damn good Saturday.

5. Whoa… I can’t really think of anything better than sharing a Saturday morning with Cherie Priest.

6. Wandering around the Internet. Took a break a while ago to read the first few chapters of Zoe’s Tale.

   (It’s not sucking up if it’s true, is it?)

7. Sitting (duck?) on the gulf coast of Texas, watching Gustav spinning towards us, looking at all the net-weather nerds trying to project the future track…

8. My Saturday has been great. I went to the Decatur Book Festival to see John Scalzi, Cherie Priest, Tobias Buckell and Kevin J. Anderson on a panel. Then get some books signed.

   While the panel was very entertaining, the highlight was John doing an interpretive dance at the beginning. You think I’m kidding, but I’m not…

9. Mike @ 8

   Did he also sing the aria? I always love that part.

10. I’m going to pick succulent, eyeball-sized blackberries. Do you have a wealth of blackberries in Ohio? (I’ve never been.)

11. The interpretive dance was quite entertaining. Though, I have to say, it wasn’t quite clear what John was interpreting. Maybe I don’t want to know.

12. Procrastinating yardwork while webgrazing. Also contemplating whether the beauty contestant pick for neocon VIP was really in order to average out McFugly and get usable photos.

13. I’m writing the paper for my qualifying exams. It needs to be in the neighborhood of 10 pages by Tuesday, it’s currently one page.

    Kill me now?

    At least then I wouldn’t have to finish the damn thing.

14. Writing and plotting the death of my teenager for not doing her chores.

15. The good news: I got my bike back from the shop.

    The Bad news: The stupid little slackers failed to replace the broken spoke which was the main reason I took it in, and I didn’t discover this small issue until I rode it back home.

16. Minding the bookstore on a sleepy Saturday. I think all the customers went to the State Fair this weekend…sigh.

    The biggest excitement today was all the sirens,
    seemingly clustering about a block away and NOT
    GOING AWAY. Lack of doppler effect brought
    everyone out onto the sidewalk to peer through
    the trees. We all came to the conclusion the
    First Responders must be conducting a drill at
    the school.

    Either that or some kids were trying to burn down
    the school before the 2nd week of schooling.
    Lauretta

17. Working. As usual. Coding like a fiend, and praying that some crappy VMWare CentOS servers and crappy Wasabi virtual drives will stop crashing and stay up long enough that I can get sign-off on my bits and take the rest of the weekend off.

    Love what I do. Not so keen on the hours.

    Jerry (Needs The Vacation) H.

18. Fun panel, with an unexpected but welcome focus on blogs and on the marketplace. Good stuff.

19. I too went to the panel at Decatur Book Festival and enjoyed it. Thanks again for signing John.

    I believe you have discovered the cardinal rule of living in Atlanta, “a car is a must”. Everything is spread out in this city and MARTA doesn’t really go anywhere you want to go, with the possible exception of the airport.

    Take a cab to the Vortex bar in Midtown after the Con and snarf down some truly excellent burgers! Be sure to peruse all of the “interesting” photographs on the walls.

20. Just finished reading Zoe’s Tale, which made for a pleasant day so far. I may jump into a Team Fortress game later this evening.

21. Since you wanted to know–horrible and painful. But at least I’m not in New Orleans and Texas, where two of my siblings are (mandatory evacuations).

22. While surfing today, I found a poll for voting for your favorite blog about writing and for writers. http://www.writingwhitepapers.com/blog/2008/08/28/nominate/#comment-60337

    I nominated the Whatever. A blog needs at least two nominations to be considered. More, of course, are better. Hint, hint.

23. All *y’all* were great!

    ;-)

24. I had elderberry pie today.

25. @22 Fiona –duly seconded.

26. Waiting for a hurricane….

27. Dang … I meant to drive over to Decatur this morning and see the panel. My evil plan was to secure a signature on my copy of OMW whilst innocently inquiring as to the winner of the hate mail contest.

    Oh, but the snooze was an oh, so sweet temptation.

    Regards,
    Rhino

    P.S. You are safe as I’m not attending DragonCon this year.

28. WVU won and Michigan lost.

    What more could a West Virginian ask for on a beautiful football Saturday?

    Plus, we grilled out and had dinner on the deck, to better enjoy the drunks.

29. @ 25 Adelheid, thanks so much.

    More votes would be great, folks.

30. shoulder getting better, thanks.

31. Gamed some, worked some, rode the bike over to the gym and worked out. Overdid it on the caffeine and couldn’t sleep, which is why this is being written at 1:30 am Sunday morning. Missed out on meeting you at Books & Co – we moved from Dayton in February, out to the Tri-Cities, Washington. Did you ever read “The Nymphos of Rocky Flats” by Mario Acevedo? I’m working somewhere similar, doing radioactive and hazardous waste cleanup at a former weapons facility, except without the nymphomaniac vampires.

32. Watch out, John.

    If you’ve written out any notes for future novels set in the OMW-iverse (or even just notes of random backstory), KJ Anderson will orchestrate your death so he can write godawful continuations of it.

    And as much as I enjoy his Captain Nemo book, I could never describe it in any way other than “there’s a reason Jules Verne’s grave is a gaping pit constantly spewing earth heavenwards.”

33. Thanks for a loverly panel on Saturday John, sent you some pics to share just a little while ago.

    Jeez John, wish I’d know your hotel was off the beaten path, could have told you how to get there on MARTA and saved you the cab fare. Especially since the courthouse you were in on Decatur Square was on top of the train station.

    Mathias @19 – oh, yea of little faith…you can get most places on MARTA, you just have to pay attention and plan a little better than just riding around in a car. I have not owned a car in Atlanta for over 7 years now and I get around just fine about 95% of the time. Keep cab fare and gas money for friends for the few places I can’t get to.

    Hope to see you back in Atlanta sometime soon!

    Wendy