Christmas

Yesterday we decorated for Christmas and made pretzels and watched Nightmare Before Christmas. We center our family traditions around decorating, because we’re always off with other family on the 24th and 25th, so we don’t get a chance otherwise.

This morning I woke up and the house smelled like Christmas candles. I turned on the lights that run around our window, over the bookshelves, and around the tree. The tree sparkled. Goreshade, my betta, swirled in his bowl surrounded by fake holly and fake snow.

And I felt warm. I’m glad we have holidays at the beginning of winter. It gives me something to be happy about.

(Post about New York is coming, if it doesn’t take the rest of my natural life to upload the photos. Which it might.)

Photobucket

Photobucket

These are the last few in a series experiment with ISO, saturation, and contrast. They end up a bit fuzzy looking, but were the only way I could take photos in dim exhibits.

What I’m Playing

Video Games 2008-2009

  • Fable 2 **
  • Halo 3 ****
  • Gears of War 2 Horde Mode *****
  • Gears of War 2 ****
  • Gears of War ****
  • Portal *****
  • Digital Devil 2 *****
  • Halo ODST ***
  • Digital Devil ****
  • Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories *
  • Persona 4 *****
  • Persona 3 *****
  • Dragon Quest VIII ****
  • Final Fantasy X ****
  • Halo 2 ****
  • Halo ****
  • Lego Star Wars ***
  • Stranger’s Wrath *****
  • Kingdom Hearts ***
  • Kingdom Hearts 2 **
  • Fable ****

RPGs I’m Currently Playing

  • Mage
  • Iron Kingdoms
  • D&D 4E Dawn of Worlds Setting

RPGs 2008-2009

  • Zombie Apocalypse
  • Call of Cthulhu WoD Conversion
  • WoD Second Sight
  • Orpheus

Tu Publishing

For those who aren’t aware, children’s book editor Stacy Whitman is working on starting a small press to focus on multicultural fantasy and science fiction. There’s been a lot of awareness over the last year about this gap in the genre, and Stacy’s press, Tu Publishing, would be a good push toward closing it. Here’s Tu Publishing’s mission statement. I’m really excited about Stacy’s project, and hope she’s able to get it off the ground.

But a publishing company needs money to pay authors and do print runs and so forth. In that interest, Tu is raising money through Kickstarter, a website that allows projects to connect with donors who pledge. If the project reaches its goal, the money is donated, and if not it’s refunded to the donors. Tu Publishing is at 30% of its goal, and the deadline is December 14th.

Some of the awesome people on livejournal have started an auction, to which anyone can donate items. Anyone can then bid on those items, and if they win, the amount bid is pledged to Tu’s Kickstarter page in exchange for the donated item.

We’re working on getting together some stuff to donate to the cause. I’ll post again when we’re ready. In the meantime, if you can help, try to spread the word. Even if you can’t donate items or money, tell someone about the project. The more people know, the more likely Tu Publishing is to meet its goal.