humanist of the year?

So, Toni, what does it mean to be Humanist of the Year? Once you and So-and-So return from your visit with JCO, you must tell!

You know, I am a horrible person. If JCO gets that award, then surely I should receive its opposite. The reason being, I have yet to read more than an essay or two by her. That’s right. You even gave me a collection by her (which I dutifully brought with me to Estonia), but I have not read from it yet. And the craziest thing is, I know I will love her. Or maybe that’s my reasoning – I just can’t add another fabulous writer to my reading repertoire. No room on my shelves and no time for getting lost in books… so sorry JCO. Maybe later this summer.

Cheers,

rae

Portland bound

Rae,

Angel enjoys walking on the leash, although she prefers keeping to one spot. Basking in direct sunlight and rubbing her back this way and that on the sun-warmed gravelly sidewalk appears to overrule actual walking. Sound a little Chauncey-like? I keep her leash and harness on a nail inside the coat closet by the front door. When I shake them, she comes running. She knows and shows, in dog-like fashion (Shh… We shan’t tell her this.) what’s up. She stands without moving—well, she manages a few flicks of her tail—while I snap the harness in place. Then we’re off to look for dragonflies or bask in the sunshine.

You have joined Second Life. Theory Masala. I like it! So how’s it going? I’m hesitant to add any new online pursuit to my list of social activities. It all requires so much time and keeps me away from the great outdoors and face-to-face relationships. Finding balance is sometimes difficult.

Speaking of time, I don’t have much of it left for puttering about the house and letter-writing—I’m off to Portland now. The AHA Conference is this weekend. I’m pleased to tell you that Joyce Carol Oates will receive the 2007 Humanist of the Year Award.

Catch up with you soon.

Yours truly,
Toni

P.S. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy making a feast out of hardboiled eggs?

first life

Toni,

That photo of Angel is too, too much! Congrats on adding just the right tough with the heart shape! So, what does she think of it? Does she struggle or complain? I tried it once with Chauncey (my gray cat that preceded Andre) when we lived in a frat neighborhood, but he just tried walking backwards to get out of it and ended up laying down, refusing to budge. He was a rather fat (though usually spritely) cat.

So, I finally did it. I finally joined Second Life. It’s been on my mental to-do list for months, but with UBB’s new website launch, new spring titles, and new web-related efforts (Unbridled Books is now on Flickr, YouTube, MySpace, and we have several blogs), I didn’t have time to explore Second Life. From everything I’ve heard about it, it’s quite addictive, but I need to know if it’s good for the press so I’m willing to risk it. I created a personal account just to get a feel for it, but I haven’t gone beyond selecting my name and downloading the client.

It took me 30 minutes to choose my name.  You can choose any first name you want, but last names must be selected from a list. A few were real last names (none of them my own), a few looked too weird to be names (but you never know), and a few were… well, a few were what I narrowed my options down to: Kidd, Writer, and Masala. Kidd, because of Chip Kidd. Writer… that’s obvious. And Masala because I love Tikka Masala and it just jumped out at me. I tend to go with theorist (lowercase) for my usernames, but that doesn’t make sense when paired with a last name, so I switched to Theory (after considering Fade). Theory Writer and Theory Kidd were both taken, so I am now Theory Masala. Yes, it’s a tasty theory! I hope I don’t come to hate it, since it can’t be changed.

These Warner/Maxwell letters are taking forever to read. I’ve now decided that it’s my secondary reading book, and I need to choose another book for primary reading. I have a few manuscripts to read, but it’s nearly impossible to make manuscripts primary reading selections because of the format. You remember how that was with FC2. I don’t need to make a decision immediately, since I have an article due on Monday that I haven’t started writing and Le Spouse’s brother has lent us his car while he’s away, which means we’ll be out and about this weekend.

I’ve been invited to join a book arts exhibition in September, so I have a few ideas I’ve been mulling over. I’ll share those soon…

Have a lovely weekend,

rae