The Last 3 months with Sunny!
Hmm according to my LJ I haven't actually posted a report since May 17th (wince).
I've mentally written so many, this time I thought I'd actually try and capture it on the screen.
For the love of my flist I'll talk by category, under each cut.
Career stuff
I've done some copy edits as an online intern for a small publishing house. Since two of those projects were novel length, I'm now seeking out (paid) copy edit work. The editor for whom I am interning, offered to give my name to a free lance project she can't take on. My interpretation of that is I must be doing a decent job! Thanks to all those who have beta'd for me in the past, as your red lines means I now know what to look for! (Prepositions at the end of sentences be damned).
Browncoat Stuff
Since I last posted, I helped promote Toronto's Can't Stop the Serenity at Anime North (Canada's largest con focused on Anime), by flyering various comic book stores and other flyer friendly locations, online presence and with the Toronto Nerd Mafia (see below for more details).
Our event was June 18. The committee met at 10 am for a fortifying coffee and snack, as we'd learnt over the six years we've done it that lunch was not going to happen for us. We were at a new location this year who are very geek friendly. We had an hour and a half to set up. There was some last minute scrambling to get this year’s greeting from Joss, but our crew managed it with only minimal panic.
Attendance was down a little from last year, but our auction rocked out. The most expensive bid was for a 10 piece set of Russian stacking dolls painted like the crew and ship. They were an awesome bit of fancrafting and padded our coffers with over $300!
There was the traditional Shindig post screening and, strangely enough the restaurant had enough tables, waiters, and kitchen staff to feed the close to 90 people who wanted to dine. This makes it the first fully serviced Shindig we've had despite always warning the restaurant about impending business. (There was one place where they didn't have enough glasses for the crowd!)
So fun was had, money was raised, and chaos was hidden from the attendees. Success!
We are hosting a Doctor Horrible screening in September so I’ll let you know how that goes. (I’ve already snagged nifty items for door prizes/auction items!)
Technical Difficulties
My first world addictions were highlighted in the months of June and July. The first item was when I was watching a PVR recording and all the sound on my TV stopped working. Pretty pretty pictures. All the channels. No noise. While I played with remotes, unplugged and replugged the T.V. and tested to see if other PVR recordings had sound (hey I was gathering data) and nope, silent running all the way.
My TV is almost 11 years old and was purchased from a department store. I called and they were able to get me in touch with an independent contractor they use for repairs since, funny enough, after a decade there was no warranty coverage. His recommendation was, given the fact that parts for televisions over 6 years old were difficult to get and that the first visit would be over $100 to diagnose the problem, a new TV might be in my future. (A few weeks had passed at this point and I was watching Doctor Who streaming.) A friend offered me his television (I have kind kind friends). He and his brother brought it over and we discovered that lo and behold it was the cable box not the TV and, given a swift kick to the restart button the cable box restarted with no fuss. A bit of a head desk moment but yay for functioning tech.
And then my laptop decided to go on strike.
After doing the reboot, the wait twenty minutes to reboot, the checking the cables and battery dance. Three times. I checked my receipt and the all inclusive warranty was up in February. Since this was June, I called one of my techie friends. He was able to test the cable and battery. Both were working, but my computer wasn't accepting power. He tried to open up the laptop as there was no warranty to void, but the Toshiba layout confounded him. He was able to extract, and copy, my hard drive. This fact did calm me down. That and he let me use his computer to find the local cyber cafes.
Another friend was able to loan me a netbook and a third, whose day job was fixing computers, offered to have a look see. (I love my friends) The only down side was the third friend lives in a different city and wouldn't be in town for a couple of weeks. The net book was a first gen netbook and after a few days decided against working. Suddenly. The good news was I was saving everything to various email accounts so no work was lost. The sad news was how lost I felt without ongoing internet access. Luckily I did find a few reasonably priced cyber cafes and my city's Fringe Festival was on in the interim. I volunteered at that and saw 16 plays, for free!
To shorten a long story, he was able to fix it. He's still not sure why it went on strike but as it has come back fully functional and with new virus protection, I'm just a very happy happy camper.
*hugs tech tightly*
UPDATE - something is preventing my laptop from linking my browser to the internet (despite connection) and won’t open word. Grr Arg & a headdesk I’m currently writing this at a cyber café.
Nerd Mafia
This is a group of people who create nerdish content, be it knitted Cthulhus, comedy shows, podcasts, or amateur burlesque acts. The goal's cross promotion as fans of one person's nerdishness might be fans of the others. It's also to provide an introduction so that photographers might meet actors who could model for them. Podcasters might find interesting people as guests. It also allows those holding events to be aware of what else is scheduled in the city so to avoid unnecessary conflicts.
While it started as a twitter list, there are now monthly pub nights were we can meet off-line and talk up what we're promoting, in a casual environment. It has also linked me to many more social events *grin*
Book Launch & Readings
The fabulous Lesley Livingston lives in Toronto, goes to cons, and had her second book launch of THIS year in June. It’s the start of a new YA series and not only did she throw a mean party with a great reading (authors who are actors do give the best readings) it’s also a great book. I devoured it within 24 hours of its purchase. (Course this was during laptop difficulties so that helped)
Then in July Lesley was part of a reading series I attend so I got to listen to her again and more importantly I got to hear how she first met Hugh Jackman, in his Wolverine costume, on the set of the first X-Men movie. That story was well worth a beer!
There’s more, much more. There’s all the theatre I’ve seen (Fringe and otherwise), there’s other fun things I’ve been up to, including a drunken fruit salad, movies I’ve seen and details of my birthday week. But I do want to get SOMETHING posted so those items will have to wait.
I do read LJ regularly, and I promise to try to post on a slightly more regular basis. Hope someone is out there reading!
Sunny
I've mentally written so many, this time I thought I'd actually try and capture it on the screen.
For the love of my flist I'll talk by category, under each cut.
Career stuff
I've done some copy edits as an online intern for a small publishing house. Since two of those projects were novel length, I'm now seeking out (paid) copy edit work. The editor for whom I am interning, offered to give my name to a free lance project she can't take on. My interpretation of that is I must be doing a decent job! Thanks to all those who have beta'd for me in the past, as your red lines means I now know what to look for! (Prepositions at the end of sentences be damned).
Browncoat Stuff
Since I last posted, I helped promote Toronto's Can't Stop the Serenity at Anime North (Canada's largest con focused on Anime), by flyering various comic book stores and other flyer friendly locations, online presence and with the Toronto Nerd Mafia (see below for more details).
Our event was June 18. The committee met at 10 am for a fortifying coffee and snack, as we'd learnt over the six years we've done it that lunch was not going to happen for us. We were at a new location this year who are very geek friendly. We had an hour and a half to set up. There was some last minute scrambling to get this year’s greeting from Joss, but our crew managed it with only minimal panic.
Attendance was down a little from last year, but our auction rocked out. The most expensive bid was for a 10 piece set of Russian stacking dolls painted like the crew and ship. They were an awesome bit of fancrafting and padded our coffers with over $300!
There was the traditional Shindig post screening and, strangely enough the restaurant had enough tables, waiters, and kitchen staff to feed the close to 90 people who wanted to dine. This makes it the first fully serviced Shindig we've had despite always warning the restaurant about impending business. (There was one place where they didn't have enough glasses for the crowd!)
So fun was had, money was raised, and chaos was hidden from the attendees. Success!
We are hosting a Doctor Horrible screening in September so I’ll let you know how that goes. (I’ve already snagged nifty items for door prizes/auction items!)
Technical Difficulties
My first world addictions were highlighted in the months of June and July. The first item was when I was watching a PVR recording and all the sound on my TV stopped working. Pretty pretty pictures. All the channels. No noise. While I played with remotes, unplugged and replugged the T.V. and tested to see if other PVR recordings had sound (hey I was gathering data) and nope, silent running all the way.
My TV is almost 11 years old and was purchased from a department store. I called and they were able to get me in touch with an independent contractor they use for repairs since, funny enough, after a decade there was no warranty coverage. His recommendation was, given the fact that parts for televisions over 6 years old were difficult to get and that the first visit would be over $100 to diagnose the problem, a new TV might be in my future. (A few weeks had passed at this point and I was watching Doctor Who streaming.) A friend offered me his television (I have kind kind friends). He and his brother brought it over and we discovered that lo and behold it was the cable box not the TV and, given a swift kick to the restart button the cable box restarted with no fuss. A bit of a head desk moment but yay for functioning tech.
And then my laptop decided to go on strike.
After doing the reboot, the wait twenty minutes to reboot, the checking the cables and battery dance. Three times. I checked my receipt and the all inclusive warranty was up in February. Since this was June, I called one of my techie friends. He was able to test the cable and battery. Both were working, but my computer wasn't accepting power. He tried to open up the laptop as there was no warranty to void, but the Toshiba layout confounded him. He was able to extract, and copy, my hard drive. This fact did calm me down. That and he let me use his computer to find the local cyber cafes.
Another friend was able to loan me a netbook and a third, whose day job was fixing computers, offered to have a look see. (I love my friends) The only down side was the third friend lives in a different city and wouldn't be in town for a couple of weeks. The net book was a first gen netbook and after a few days decided against working. Suddenly. The good news was I was saving everything to various email accounts so no work was lost. The sad news was how lost I felt without ongoing internet access. Luckily I did find a few reasonably priced cyber cafes and my city's Fringe Festival was on in the interim. I volunteered at that and saw 16 plays, for free!
To shorten a long story, he was able to fix it. He's still not sure why it went on strike but as it has come back fully functional and with new virus protection, I'm just a very happy happy camper.
*hugs tech tightly*
UPDATE - something is preventing my laptop from linking my browser to the internet (despite connection) and won’t open word. Grr Arg & a headdesk I’m currently writing this at a cyber café.
Nerd Mafia
This is a group of people who create nerdish content, be it knitted Cthulhus, comedy shows, podcasts, or amateur burlesque acts. The goal's cross promotion as fans of one person's nerdishness might be fans of the others. It's also to provide an introduction so that photographers might meet actors who could model for them. Podcasters might find interesting people as guests. It also allows those holding events to be aware of what else is scheduled in the city so to avoid unnecessary conflicts.
While it started as a twitter list, there are now monthly pub nights were we can meet off-line and talk up what we're promoting, in a casual environment. It has also linked me to many more social events *grin*
Book Launch & Readings
The fabulous Lesley Livingston lives in Toronto, goes to cons, and had her second book launch of THIS year in June. It’s the start of a new YA series and not only did she throw a mean party with a great reading (authors who are actors do give the best readings) it’s also a great book. I devoured it within 24 hours of its purchase. (Course this was during laptop difficulties so that helped)
Then in July Lesley was part of a reading series I attend so I got to listen to her again and more importantly I got to hear how she first met Hugh Jackman, in his Wolverine costume, on the set of the first X-Men movie. That story was well worth a beer!
There’s more, much more. There’s all the theatre I’ve seen (Fringe and otherwise), there’s other fun things I’ve been up to, including a drunken fruit salad, movies I’ve seen and details of my birthday week. But I do want to get SOMETHING posted so those items will have to wait.
I do read LJ regularly, and I promise to try to post on a slightly more regular basis. Hope someone is out there reading!
Sunny