It's Perfectly Fine To Sleep In a Chair From Monday to Saturday

[snurri]

ITEM THE FIRST: Alice Sola Kim is one of my favorite writers. She has a mind-bendy new story about obsession, euthanasia, and body-stealing over at Strange Horizons. Go read We Love Deena.

ITEM THE SECOND: The above is an example of a plug. On Friday I asked y'all to plug your work, and a few of you did. Not many, though, so I'm asking you again. Go to that post and tell me what you've got that we should all be picking up and/or waiting for with bated breath.

ITEM THE THIRD: Irony lives! After voting for the front-runner in Dr. L's poll (see sidebar), I am now reading two-count-'em-two books about vampires: Mr. Westerfeld's Peeps and Sergei Lukyanenko's Nightwatch. Two very different approaches, and I'm enjoying them both.

ITEM THE FOURTH: I miss the sun. It's me vs. February, and February is winning. Next year at this time I think I'm going to try to get out of this hemisphere. Maybe Argentina, maybe Kenya. Maybe I'm dreaming and I can't afford either. It's nice to think about, though.

Comments

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

If you do decide to go to Kenya, shoot me an email. I can hopefully provide some tips.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I definitely will do that. We'll see; the airfare alone may well defeat me.

Actually, I have one question right off the bat: when's the best time to go?

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

I was there from December to June, roughly. The rainy season was mostly a bust, but I got to see things green up in some parts of the country. I would go in the off-season, whatever that really is (I am not sure, as I was not there as a tourist), and after the rainy season in winter/spring, so that things will be really alive and hopping. Also, the migration goes one direction in April, so seeing that is pretty amazing, I hear. We missed it by a couple of days, unfortunately.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Cool. Rainy season = ? Winter for us?

[the-flea-king.livejournal.com]

I think so. Late winter, early spring.

[psamphire.livejournal.com]

Sunny over here too. Although, admittedly, it lacks the exoticism of Kenya or Argentina. (Not that I've been to Argentina, but I feel--deeply--that it should be exotic.)

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Definitely an option. I think travel, full stop, would be a nice break from the late-winter doldrums.

I'm still hoping I might get over there for book-release stuff, too. But so far there's been no word on anything of the sort.

[wheatland-press.livejournal.com]

You need more Vitamin D. As we all know, Vitamin D is found in foods that begin with the letter "D" such as Doughnuts and Danish Pastries and Dumplings.

If I can be of any further assistance, please do feel free to ask.

(Actually, in all seriousness, I have a happy light and it does help.)

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I've thought about getting one of those. Pricey, though, aren't they?

[wheatland-press.livejournal.com]

Well, you know...kinda. I got mine from this company:
http://www.sadelite.com/

I have the desk lamp they call "SADelite." It's $189.

But. I've had it for five years. I use it for my desk lamp. I write in my journal while sitting in front of it every morning. I have for years. I think it makes a big difference, especially in the winter.

The light is also part of a comprehensive strategy involving diet and exercise that I use to avoid taking anti-depressants. Anti-depressants, great though they may be for many people and were for me at times, absolutely wreck my creative impulses. So that's what's behind my Health Nuttiness.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've been doing the diet and exercise--more the exercise than the diet, to be honest, but I'm pretty aware of that stuff. The last week or so it's really been getting to me, though.

Maybe if I sell some foreign rights I can justify spending the cash :-)

[wheatland-press.livejournal.com]

There you go.

Exercise really is the key for me. If I don't get my walk or run or whatever in for a few days, I really miss those endolphins*.


*See "Postcards From the Edge"

[alicek.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Dave!

I completely agree with you about February, although I'm aware that however suckily I have it weather-wise, you've got it a thousand million times worse. Are you seriously thinking about going on that vacation next year? YOU SHOULD DO IT. There's a whole year to plan, and to do things that will get you some extra cash, like selling skanky outfits in Second Life, or opening a cocaine stand.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

No, THANK YOU. I love that story :-)

I am seriously thinking about it, although I probably seriously think about it every year at this time. As in, "February sucks. I should go somewhere far, far away next February. Like, for the whole stinkin' month." And then it doesn't happen.

However, COCAINE STAND!!! That is genius. Southern Hemisphere, here I come! (Well, either that or Maximum Security Penitentiary.)

[bondgwendabond.livejournal.com]

San Miguel's sunny and cheapish and lovely.

Or just come visit us -- we can't promise great weather, but there's dogs and hilarity.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

I've been wanting to do a Lexington-Raleigh run for a while (even though the drive between the two looks loooong). It'll happen one of these days, assuming I get my shit together :-)

[bondgwendabond.livejournal.com]

Yay! It's only eight hours. And you never know, given enough time, we could probably arrange for contingents to converge or coalesce.

[matthewsrotundo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I am so with you on the winter-weariness. Times like this, I wonder if the world will ever be warm again.

[snurri.livejournal.com]

Winter is best when it's fresh. After thirty or forty days it starts to stink.

[matthewsrotundo.livejournal.com]

For my money, winter's shelf-life is about a day and a half.