I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but most of you who read this will have seen me mention it elsewhere, anyway. I've been working on an audio version of Jo Walton's Barrayaran Tam Lin play. Well, it's finally done, and now has its own web site: http://www.tamlinplay.net/

It's an MP3 file, free to download and share. The run time is about 55 minutes, and the better-quality version is 53 MB, while a slightly worse-quality one is 27 MB.

It features music composed by Davey Arthur. (My permission to use his music specifies that I should mention him in any publicity I do; I guess this qualifies.)

I'm quite proud of it, and I encourage everyone to download it and let me know what you think.

It's time for my annual post listing the books I read last year. Total number is up a bit from last year, because I count plays, and I had a number of those since I've been doing recording for http://librivox.org/ . I also read a bunch of new comics each week; I don't list those, or graphic novel collections, just because I don't. And I have subscriptions to The Bridge World, the ACBL Bridge Bulletin, and Asimov's Science Fiction.

( longish, so have a cut. )

Someone on Making Light mentioned a site called LibriVox. It's a sort of Project Gutenberg for audiobooks: people record public-domain texts and release their recordings also into the public domain. I've just finished recording the part of Richard Planagenet (Richard III's father; people who've played Kingmaker will remember "Richard of York") in Shakespeare's Henry VI trilogy, and had a glorious time chewing the scenery in his death scene. Just more fun than anyone ought to be allowed to have.

(I've also been recording the part of Lord Henry Wotton in a dramatic reading of The Picture of Dorian Gray, which is likewise great fun; Lord Henry gets to say all sorts of wonderful Oscar Wilde epigrams.)

Just back from a week in St. Louis playing bridge with my birth father. (There must be something to genetics: not only do we both play duplicate bridge [and nobody in my adoptive family does], we even both like weak notrumps.)

We did pretty well overall. In five days of play (taking one off for some sightseeing, as I've never been to St. Louis before) we won 26 masterpoints, 21 gold and 5 red.

(If you don't play bridge that won't mean much to you -- don't worry about it, just know it's a fair number to get all at once.)

The lightning and the thunder and the pouring rain!

I have just discovered that Wikipedia has a page listing all posts tagged with the category, "Fictional Squid".

You need to put a smaller replica of that fountain in the reflection visible in the helmet -- bonus points if you can get another angle on the same one, but even just a smaller, mirror-reflected version of the one you've got would do. If you're going to do a joke, sweat the details. This is just sloppy.

They said it'd be hot and humid. It was hot and humid. I dealt with the heat and humidity.

They didn't say there'd be snow.

( A couple of pictures, behind this cut )

(Not the best day for lounging beside the pool.)

As I type this we're about to have our last night in Berkeley before we return to Houston. We've had five full days here, plus partial days on either end (counting the morning and mid-day tomorrow). I managed to get in re-visits to most of the things I really liked in the Bay Area, and of course there was the celebration.

Tuesday: We got in to Oakland. Our checked bags were to get in a couple of hours later. (This is why we try not to check bags, but we had extra stuff this time.) Katie's family had got in earlier, so we went to Berkeley to see them. I finally got to meet Katie's brother -- this year was the first time in our 13-year relationship that I'd even talked to him, let alone met him; but now I got to verify he was a real person.

Wednesday: Got the programs made, and picked up the xkcd cartoon I had blown up and mounted as a surprise for Katie. Managed to get it out of the copy shop door and into the car without Katie noticing; then we met with randy_smith2 to go over the ceremony. Visited the good people and cats of Comic Relief. Had dinner with my birth mother Peg and her husband at Breads of India (Peg [who is a spice wimp] said "This is hotter than I like but it's so delicious I don't care") and then went with her to games night at Endgame. Katie named her as the Matron of Honor and we gave her a copy of Dominion as a gift; we took the opportunity to take the shrinkwrap off.

Thursday: Katie visited one of her advisors during the day; I delivered some welcome bags to hotels. My mother had a bunch of the people attending over for a dinner at her house. Wine was drunk, superb food was eaten, pleasant conversation was had.

Friday: The rehearsal, expertly managed by Randy; then the rehearsal dinner, featuring more wine, great food, and pleasant conversation.

Saturday: The big day. We were glad we'd had the rehearsals; but most everything went quite smoothly -- even my 6- and 3-year-old niece and nephew (flower girl and ringbearer), after a bit of wrangling. The redwoods stood magnificently, the overcast clouds cleared up just in time, the trio we'd engaged from the UC Berkeley music department played very nicely. Things were read: a passage from Ecclesiastes; some quotes from Jonathan Carroll's Sleeping in Flame; Shakespeare's Sonnet 116; a poem that Neil Gaiman wrote for some friends' wedding. We added a little something to the traditional vows: in among "for richer and for poorer" and "in sickness and in health", "in brightest day, in blackest night". Randy got us back for this, by adding a little something to his parting benediction in between the rehearsal and the ceremony -- I don't remember the exact words, it was something like "...go forth in love, and may those who worship evil's might beware your power." Everyone at the reception said what a good job he did on the ceremony.

Then of course the reception, with more excellent food and wine. (My dad, who lives in the Napa Valley, provided the wine. Thank you, Dad.) We were persuaded that the reception needed some music, and I was able to engage a string quartet at somewhat short notice. (Thank you again, UCB Music Department contact list.) It really did enhance the atmosphere. Toasts were had; nobody said anything terribly embarassing. We had two people via webcam and/or cell phone: Katie's main advisor (who had left Cal for a position in Austin), and Mike Chary, whom we really wanted but in the end couldn't make it. I'd never met Katie's advisor before either, and it was interesting to at last find out what he looked like. He said some things I recognized as true. Mike of course told the story of how, 13 years ago, he hit me with a 2000-mile-long clue bat. ("...and for my next trick, I will get two people I've never met, 2000 miles away, to fall in love, and a mere decade later marry!")

We had provided some sets of "Apples to Apples" and some decks of cards, but they turned out to be quite unnecessary.

Sunday: Was cold and gray all day. We really lucked out that the weather on Saturday was typical late-summer weather, and not this winter overcast. We had a brunch with many of our guests, then relaxed in our room. Later on we went to see _Capitalism: A Love Story_, which Katie's brother had helped work on. In between we had Zachary's pizza, which meant a bit of rushing about but (for me at least) was worth it.

Let me not finish this without acknowledging the incredible efforts of my mother and sister, who put together welcome bags for the out-of-town guests, and made silk-and-crystal bouquets and boutonnieres, and knit a shawl that was the perfect accessory for Katie's dress, and in general just outdid themselves in every way to make our event a success.

So: Five days of big fun, and now I finally get to wear the pretty shiny ring I had made a few months back.

From womzilla:

Don't take too long to think about it. List 15 books you've read that will always stick with you -- the first 15 you can recall in 15 minutes.

Okay, let's see...

( I fear my list isn't nearly as highbrow as Kevin's )