The McCloud family works for Comic Book Resources, and part of what they do is travel around the country interviewing comic artists. Recently, they've started a series of "Winterviews" that are conducted by their 11-year old daughter Winter and almost totally recorded and edited by their 13-year old daughter Sky.
Back in October they interviewed Jeffrey Rowland, author of my two absolute most favourite webcomics Wigu and OverCompensating, and a general all-around cool guy. You can watch his Winterview here.
Last week the McCloud's released a new interview with R. Stevens, author of the Diesel Sweeties webcomic (which, while not my favorite, is one that I still enjoy from time to time). You can watch it here.
Neither of the Winterviews are awe-inspiring, but it's fun to see grown people trying to figure out how to react to being interviewed by a 11-year old girl. Also, it's well worth the look into the secretive world of self-employed webcomic artists-slash-t-shirt entrepeneurs (it still amazes me that some people make most of their living by selling stuff on the internet).
I don't know if the problem lies with my internet connection or with the server hosting the Winterviews, but when I try to watch one it doesn't always load properly, and even when it does it loads slowly. Be warned, but don't let that stop you from enjoying them!
PLUR!
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The Darkness
I think it's a caffeine addiction. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for it, but now I'm at a point where I simple can't go through a day without craving some kind of soda or at least a couple cups of tea. I don't know what I'm going to do when I'm in the States.
All is well.
PLUR!
All is well.
PLUR!
Thursday, November 23, 2006
Theiving the Sky (Stealing Someone's Thunder)
Today is Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is not technically celebrated in the UK, but there are so many Americans around most of the time, that Brits know to make a big deal about it anyway. At least, that's what I've seen.
Regardless, here's a quote from the inimitable Jeffrey Rowland about the holiday of Thanksgiving:
"Holy gosh, how did it get to be Thanksgiving already> For those who don't know, I am half-Cherokee and from rural Oklahoma and therefore consider Thanksgiving to be mostly insulting. I'm thankful for stuff everyday, I don't need a whitewashed version of The American Holocaust and a ritual sacrifice to remind me to be grateful. I'm grateful everytime I look in the mirror and realize I am basically symmetrical."
And I think that's something we should all be thankful for.
PLUR!
Regardless, here's a quote from the inimitable Jeffrey Rowland about the holiday of Thanksgiving:
"Holy gosh, how did it get to be Thanksgiving already> For those who don't know, I am half-Cherokee and from rural Oklahoma and therefore consider Thanksgiving to be mostly insulting. I'm thankful for stuff everyday, I don't need a whitewashed version of The American Holocaust and a ritual sacrifice to remind me to be grateful. I'm grateful everytime I look in the mirror and realize I am basically symmetrical."
And I think that's something we should all be thankful for.
PLUR!
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Drat!
Well, it turns out the District line is closed between Whitecastle and Earl's Court...and I needed to get to Earl's Court so I could transfer to the right train to get to Hammersmith and the Quaker meeting! I'm going to have to miss today...although I feel bad about it 'cause I missed last week, too (last week I stayed up 'til 4 in the morning talking with Aoife, and simply failed to wake up before noon). If I can find my mp3 player, though, I'm going to put a bunch of "sacred" music on it and go for a walk in the park. It's not quite the same, but maybe it'll still count, eh?
I've been thinking a lot about music recently. What it is, how it's ought to be, the themes and messages it should portray, and other things that go along with it. And frankly, the more I think about it the more I begin to think that nonlyrical music may be the best kind of music. You can create a full range of expression without being limited by the construction of spoken language. Of course, there are a lot of lyrical songs that are also really good, but they just seem to be so few and far between. Too often it just seems like the music of a song is just a vehicle to carry the lyrics, which more often than not simply seem to be little more than mediocre poetry.
Sorry, that's all. I promise. ( :
PLUR!
I've been thinking a lot about music recently. What it is, how it's ought to be, the themes and messages it should portray, and other things that go along with it. And frankly, the more I think about it the more I begin to think that nonlyrical music may be the best kind of music. You can create a full range of expression without being limited by the construction of spoken language. Of course, there are a lot of lyrical songs that are also really good, but they just seem to be so few and far between. Too often it just seems like the music of a song is just a vehicle to carry the lyrics, which more often than not simply seem to be little more than mediocre poetry.
Sorry, that's all. I promise. ( :
PLUR!
Through the Week
It is Sunday! That means only one thing: that last week is over!
Actually, that's untrue. It really means lots of things. What I said is just the most relevant at the moment.
This past week was most certainly interesting. I had a presentation for my BLC class that basically ended up with me standing in front of the class scribbling facts about the Redwall books on the whiteboard. In spite of that, my presentation was probably one of the better ones (although I think "fish and chips" wins the grand prize). I also had my first house visits this week. Since the group I'm working with for my internship focuses on childhood stammering, they do a lot of recording of kids talking - both kids who stammer and kids who don't. Since it's not always convenient for the kids and their parents to come into the lab and record, house visit arrangements are made for some of the kids, and I was assigned six to do. Last week I finished three of them. I would have taken out the remaining three this coming week, but I had to reschedule one of them because of a conflict that came up. So instead I'll have finished 5 of the 6 by the end of the week, and have one that's just going to chill 'til early in December. Word.
I was REALLY nervous about my first visit, but it went exceptionally well so I'm really glad for that. I got off at the wrong tube stop and got really lost for my second one, but with the child's mom directing me on the phone (business call?) I managed to find the right address. The third one was an interesting case. The child's mom had completely forgotten that I was coming, and so the whole thing was kind of rushed and cobbled together as though at the last minute. I had a good time at that one, though. The boy I was recording mentioned all sorts of fun stuff like how much he liked magnets, and I couldn't help but think of myself at that age. Man, I wonder what it would be like to be eight again?
This week I've got two more house visits, plus whatever else it is I'm supposed to be doing. Oh, it will probably be more annotating. Fortunately, not the same stuff I've been doing. I finished those, basically, and now Kelsey and I are doing orthographic transcriptions of the monologues. It turns out that when the original recordings were annotated, no one thought to do a "real" transcription along with the phonetic syllable and phonological word annotations! It's been a lot of fun so far. The last one I finished was all about this one kid's holiday to Disney World Paris. It sounded pretty cool.
That's all for now. Breakfast time, then I'm going to try to make it to meeting.
PLUR!
Actually, that's untrue. It really means lots of things. What I said is just the most relevant at the moment.
This past week was most certainly interesting. I had a presentation for my BLC class that basically ended up with me standing in front of the class scribbling facts about the Redwall books on the whiteboard. In spite of that, my presentation was probably one of the better ones (although I think "fish and chips" wins the grand prize). I also had my first house visits this week. Since the group I'm working with for my internship focuses on childhood stammering, they do a lot of recording of kids talking - both kids who stammer and kids who don't. Since it's not always convenient for the kids and their parents to come into the lab and record, house visit arrangements are made for some of the kids, and I was assigned six to do. Last week I finished three of them. I would have taken out the remaining three this coming week, but I had to reschedule one of them because of a conflict that came up. So instead I'll have finished 5 of the 6 by the end of the week, and have one that's just going to chill 'til early in December. Word.
I was REALLY nervous about my first visit, but it went exceptionally well so I'm really glad for that. I got off at the wrong tube stop and got really lost for my second one, but with the child's mom directing me on the phone (business call?) I managed to find the right address. The third one was an interesting case. The child's mom had completely forgotten that I was coming, and so the whole thing was kind of rushed and cobbled together as though at the last minute. I had a good time at that one, though. The boy I was recording mentioned all sorts of fun stuff like how much he liked magnets, and I couldn't help but think of myself at that age. Man, I wonder what it would be like to be eight again?
This week I've got two more house visits, plus whatever else it is I'm supposed to be doing. Oh, it will probably be more annotating. Fortunately, not the same stuff I've been doing. I finished those, basically, and now Kelsey and I are doing orthographic transcriptions of the monologues. It turns out that when the original recordings were annotated, no one thought to do a "real" transcription along with the phonetic syllable and phonological word annotations! It's been a lot of fun so far. The last one I finished was all about this one kid's holiday to Disney World Paris. It sounded pretty cool.
That's all for now. Breakfast time, then I'm going to try to make it to meeting.
PLUR!
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Phase II
Blogger just announced the release of their new version and is looking for beta testers. I may jump on that bandwagon, but I'm not planning to change just yet.
It's always fun to find out that just when you assumed you know where everyone's at, you find out someone you never would have expected is right out there with you. ( : Even in the midst of community there are strangers, and even in the midst of strangers there is community.
Meeting and LAUNDRY tomorrow. Presentation on Monday, and money on Tuesday. Gosh it'll be nice to have money for food again.
PLUR!
It's always fun to find out that just when you assumed you know where everyone's at, you find out someone you never would have expected is right out there with you. ( : Even in the midst of community there are strangers, and even in the midst of strangers there is community.
Meeting and LAUNDRY tomorrow. Presentation on Monday, and money on Tuesday. Gosh it'll be nice to have money for food again.
PLUR!
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
here it is (a red balloon)
Well, here ends another day where I've been right in the middle of everything, but gotten nex tto nothing accomplished. I have to say, before I met the internet I thought real-time was on the cutting edge of communications. Now there are times when I'm almost convinced it's not fast enough.
That's probably a bad thing, but I digress.
I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to live next semester when I get back to Guilford College. That's the $64,000 question for the day...
PLUR!
That's probably a bad thing, but I digress.
I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to live next semester when I get back to Guilford College. That's the $64,000 question for the day...
PLUR!
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Here I am again
Okie-doke. I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been quite busy the past couple weeks. It was a big transition getting into my internship, but I'm finally settled and establishing my new routine. I'm working three days a week (Wed-Fri) for the Speech Development group at UCL, a research group that does a lot of research work on causes and other things related to stuttering, especially in children. So far I haven't done anything terribly exciting at work (I've spent most of my time proofreading transcripts of interviews to make sure the syllabic and phonological word annotations are both accurate, although this past Friday I spent most of the day taking notes on published articles for a talk Pete will be giving this week), but I'm getting to know the local Subway pretty well. A sandwich with jalapeño peppers on it is a poor substitute for Mexican food, but at least it's got a bit of a kick to it. I miss proper chips and salsa, though. There's one other FIE intern working for the same group, but our schedules are different and we only work together about twice a week. Still, it's nice to have company my own age at work sometimes. The only other time I see much of college-aged kids is when I sit lectures (I've got about 12 pages of notes from speech science lectures, and that's just from the past two weeks!), and you can't exactly talk during class!
Last week I went to Parliament and had a verynice tourguide lead me around. I had to go throuugh all sorts of security before they'd even let me into the building (and apparently you can't even get in if you haven't made a prior appointment to do so. Thank goodness for field trips!), but our tour guide was a very nice man named Keith Cameron.
And that drove me absolutely mad. I know there's some politician or small-time celebrity out there named Keith Cameron, but I can't for the life of me remember who it is! It's someone current, I'm about 95% positive about that. The 5% of me that's not certain thinks that it's possible I've mixed up his name with Kirk Cameron, actor and internet evangelist. But if anyone knows anything about a Keith Cameron, please let me know.
Anyway, Keith Cameron was our tour guide, and he took us around Parliament and told us all sorts of neat things about it. All in all it was a pretty cool trip, but I would have preferred to be able to walk around on my own. In addition to the building's "functionality," there was a lot of interesting architecture and statues all over the place that I would have liked to have spent more time looking at.
This weekend (actually today, but since today is Sunday, celebrations started yesterdaay) is the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night. It's supposed to be a huge festival with lots of celebrating and fireworks and bonfires (hence the name ^_^), and I'm going to see if I can't sniff some out tonight. Some of us tried to last night, but a bunch of stuff came up, and the the mission was not a success. It's okay, though, 'cause I'm still pretty amazed that I'm even in London. I won't be too disappointed if I don't get a chance to experience every single little thing.
Apparently Guilford College budgeted for us to have a Thanksgiving meal, which was really thoughtful of them since the British don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Not celebrating Thanksgiving has some other implications, too, since it means there's no major holiday between Hallowe'en and Christmas! Literally the day after Hallowe'en, I started seeing Christmas ads up all over the place. The "holiday season" is kickin' it into high gear already over here...
I haven't listened to the radio much, but now I'm a little afraid to, because I'm afraid all I might hear will be non-stop Christmas music! I talked to mom last night, and she said that the Magic station is already doing that.
Seriously, how absurd is that? What possible point can there be to starting Christmas music almost two full months before Christmas actually happens? Sheesh...
Well, that's all for now. Now that I've got something resembling a schedule again, I'll try to update more regularly.
PLUR!
Last week I went to Parliament and had a verynice tourguide lead me around. I had to go throuugh all sorts of security before they'd even let me into the building (and apparently you can't even get in if you haven't made a prior appointment to do so. Thank goodness for field trips!), but our tour guide was a very nice man named Keith Cameron.
And that drove me absolutely mad. I know there's some politician or small-time celebrity out there named Keith Cameron, but I can't for the life of me remember who it is! It's someone current, I'm about 95% positive about that. The 5% of me that's not certain thinks that it's possible I've mixed up his name with Kirk Cameron, actor and internet evangelist. But if anyone knows anything about a Keith Cameron, please let me know.
Anyway, Keith Cameron was our tour guide, and he took us around Parliament and told us all sorts of neat things about it. All in all it was a pretty cool trip, but I would have preferred to be able to walk around on my own. In addition to the building's "functionality," there was a lot of interesting architecture and statues all over the place that I would have liked to have spent more time looking at.
This weekend (actually today, but since today is Sunday, celebrations started yesterdaay) is the celebration of Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night. It's supposed to be a huge festival with lots of celebrating and fireworks and bonfires (hence the name ^_^), and I'm going to see if I can't sniff some out tonight. Some of us tried to last night, but a bunch of stuff came up, and the the mission was not a success. It's okay, though, 'cause I'm still pretty amazed that I'm even in London. I won't be too disappointed if I don't get a chance to experience every single little thing.
Apparently Guilford College budgeted for us to have a Thanksgiving meal, which was really thoughtful of them since the British don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Not celebrating Thanksgiving has some other implications, too, since it means there's no major holiday between Hallowe'en and Christmas! Literally the day after Hallowe'en, I started seeing Christmas ads up all over the place. The "holiday season" is kickin' it into high gear already over here...
I haven't listened to the radio much, but now I'm a little afraid to, because I'm afraid all I might hear will be non-stop Christmas music! I talked to mom last night, and she said that the Magic station is already doing that.
Seriously, how absurd is that? What possible point can there be to starting Christmas music almost two full months before Christmas actually happens? Sheesh...
Well, that's all for now. Now that I've got something resembling a schedule again, I'll try to update more regularly.
PLUR!
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