My Day’s Been Oddly Surreal, So Here’s a Nice Picture of My Kid and the Dog
Posted on April 7, 2011 Posted by John Scalzi 59 Comments
I could tell you why it’s been surreal, but I promise you that you simply wouldn’t believe me. So enjoy the pretty picture instead, okay?
Clocks melting and hanging in the trees outside again?
Sudden urge to write a massive 4 book fantasy trilogy?
I’d believe you.
I hope it was nice, fun surreal and not the other kind.
Good Surreal? Or Bad Surreal?
I’m having a “Fire bad. Tree pretty.” kind of day myself.
I had a runaway cow run through my neighborhood night before last. That kind of surreal?
“I was imagining the most bizarre things befalling you.”
“Did they include a six-hundred-pound ice bear and a pirate poet?”
“No…”
“Then they weren’t the most bizarre after all.”
…why, yes, I’ve been reading a lot of Bujold recently, why do you ask?
Try us…
Oh John. Such a tease.
Okay, was it giraffes in the bathtub this time?
Amish duck porn?
The most important thing to remember in those kinds of circumstances, John, is this: When the bear comes up to take a pea, you shoot him in the ice hole…
Men in bowlers carrying bumpers floating across the sky?
Ceci n’est pas une blogpost?
We wouldn’t believe you? By now, your loyal followers will believe nearly anything.
I’m going to go with the movie. Moving forward. Maybe even casting. Maybe even a cameo for John!
Jesus freqs?
Scalzi got up before his Amish neighbors this morning.
“… we have normality, I repeat we have normality.” She turned her microphone off-then turned it back on, with a slight smile and continued: “Anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem.”
We KNOW your boots are full of vaseline (bacon-flavored). They always are. You just forgot.
I echo #4’s question. Good or bad surreal?
Quintin Tarentino called you again about directing ‘Old Man’s War?” I told him to stop bugging you.
On the other hand, its pictures like that that make me smile and be genuinely glad for another human being that their life is going well.
and to round up the surreal possibilities, while watching the Colbert Report the other night with James Franco and Stephen arguing about who was the greatest Tolkien fan, I thought “Man, I think the perfect dinner party would involve talking books with STephen Colbert and John Scalzi.” Let me know if you want me to make a reservation.
You know that probably would be a good time
They look friendly enough, though the dog may be very slightly surreal.
So who filled the bath with brightly coloured ladders?
I might not believe you, but I’m sure the story would be related in a very entertaining fashion.
Of course, I often have black helicopters hovering outside my office window as well. Yes, I really do.
You found out you’re actually Canadian?
Q: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: A fish.
Hey, there were people who believed the Night Dragon thing. Can’t be worse than that.
Say hi to Athena for me, and tell her how grateful I am that she is such a good sport about gettin’ her pitcher took. I love seeing what she and Daisy are up to.
But maybe the clue is in the photo. Are Athena and Daisy messing with you? Athena is barking, maybe, while Daisy is asking you for the keys to the car?
A relapse of your ocelot lycanthropy?
That’s an adorable picture!
I love that they’re both smiling.
Daisy has totally mastered the “smile for the camera” thing, hasn’t she?
And wow! when did Athena start to look like a young lady???
Athena is growing up to look like her beautiful mother. That’s a really super picture of her.
I think aliens contacted him to do some corporate consulting for them. So now he’s thinking of making Agent to the Stars the first of a trilogy.
No, you weren’t making it that up. They said you would say that.
Just make sure, when you mail the cheese to them, that you put the stamps on upside down. Because there could be consequences and nobody would believe it if you told them that happened.
You were bailing out this guy?
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/05/state/n151449D39.DTL
“oddly surreal”
As opposed to normally surreal, I assume.
20 questions time. was your surreal day bigger than a house?
He’s having a surreal day because of his movie option. It doesn’t have anything to do with the writing/publishing of books, because Scalzi simply isn’t writing 100,000 word books anymore. The only way a new book deal would be surreal is if he’d just signed a new trilogy deal with TOR. But that would mean that he have to write the three books, which means years of writing, rewriting, tweaking the governing laws of his new universe, and time away from Whatever. Time away from us . . . his loyal whateverers.
No, it’s about the movie option. He’s been a film critic since his early 20s. He still works freelance critiquing films. The movie option is straightforward: here’s some money. Now sit back with you popcorn and watch YOUR movie. A surreal experience for a movie columnist.
M Night Shyamalan called about directing Old Man’s War?
Did a police box materialize on your property and a guy in a bow tie and fez step out of it?
Y’know what they say:
“Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath.
At night, the ice weasels come.”
What a cute dog, and an even cuter little girl = D
Oddly surreal? As versus, say, normally surreal?
Did Tim Burton show up at your house with a Llama? ;-) Lovely picture!
I swear Daisy looks like she is just about to say something….
Wait, is that it?!?!
“M Night Shyamalan called about directing Old Man’s War?”
Fun game to play – how would the ending change if Shyamalan wrote OMW?
“I see green people…”
That pic shows how much Athena looks like Krissy. And how much Daisy looks like you!
What kind of camera do you use? And, have you had any training or formal study in photography? Some of your shots are excellent.
Am I the only one who looked at the picture, read the caption, then looked back at the picture to make sure John hadn’t photoshopped it somehow? Like changing Athena’s and the dog’s eyes or something?
We had a dead lamb show up on the doorstep this morning. The dog swears he doesn’t know what happened, though he brought it up to the front porch to show.
So yeah, surreal (whoops, pressed post too quickly).
Any day you find yourself heading for New York is surreal.
Two oddly surreal days in a row? Doesn’t that make one of them evenly surreal?
Does it have anything to do with TSWOTNDBOTDC?
You don’t understand, folks. John woke up two hours late, because his alarm clock was melted. And when his lovely wife descended the staircase, she was visible from all angles at once, which left him quite dizzy.
Once he got outside, there was a sailboat in his yard, which would have been odd even if he lived on, like, a lake. Then he walked under a tree and nearly got clobbered by a falling potato.
Leave the poor guy alone.
@Xopher #57: I like your explanation and will therefore believe in it. That is exactly what happened.
Yes, that really is a nice picture. In fact, I think it might be my favourite picture of any you’ve ever posted on the blog.