I am really scratchin my head about what happened to my Facebook account. It was either a hacker, or something the team deemed wrong. But I've just re read the conditions (of course I read them when I joined too). I can't seem to see what was wrong. I mean I didn't actually promote my work or did I? what counts as promotion then?
I can't remember for sure but I am pretty certain I never mentioned my jewelery was for sale not even in the gallery. Maybe I slipped once or twice but to be banned for that? I only post links to my dA page or Etsy shop. Maybe that's already too much?

Wouldn't it be so much easier to actually send me a message to tell me how to proceed instead of cutting me off completely? Then they wouldn't have to read thousand of mails from distraught customers. I've already written four emails and I am sure others do too!

I guess that if I have to rejoin I will then make a "fan page" as they call it. But even after reading up on this many times I still can't see the difference between a private page, a ...page (whatever the third one is called I still can't find anything about that anywhere), and a fan page? All the celebrities I was following use their private page to say the same they say on their fan pages. So where's the difference? How complicated does it get?

And if I decide to do that can I still talk about work on my page? And show my sketches? Grrr!

Yeah, I'd buy it if a murder took place there. Hell yeah if I didn't have to pay. And no, I wouldn't think twice if I was warned it was haunted. Sheesh, for me, that'd be a plus. Might bother T and the cat a bit though. :-) But me, I say bring on the ghosties, the ghoulies, and the things that go bump in the night!

(And before anyone thinks I'm being totally facetious, I DO believe in ghosts, I've seen ghosts, and my childhood best friend's house was indeed haunted. Suicide in the dining room. The chandelier she hanged herself from was still there too. She liked to show up as a glowy blue during sleepovers. But she never did anything other than look spooky and scare eight-year-olds.)

If you have a minute, please take the time to answer the question I pose at the end of this post. Many thanks in advance.

I am still pissed about Facebook. While I usually accept a site's rules, I don't want to abide stupid rules, I have my reasons why I don't use my real name online and it shouldn't be a condition for joining a site. But I really need the networking.
Sure it is fun, and makes it easy to keep in touch with everyone. But I also need it for work. I've met many people there who could one day be interested in my services, I've met lots of fellow illustrators who gave me good feedback on my work. Etc...

And most of all I am pretty sure that this was the best place to promote my jewelery. I mean I have no idea how many people read this blog since LJ has no stat function. I look at my own behaviour and notice that while I browse all my friends post I don't have the time to read them all in detail.
On Facebook, I always read everyone's status updates daily and every other day I looked at their photos and links. It doesn't take long and I like to know who's doing what.

So the question is: I have this feeling that while people do read this blog, my facebook page was a better way to show my pieces? Also I have this feeling that those of you who bought something from me rather saw the pieces on facebook, more than here?

I mean I won't stop blogging, I love it and I also do it for myself, but no one can always read all of the journal entries. If the issue that led FB to disable my page was really that I didn't give my real name (that's just a wild guess since they never gave me a reason) I may have to create a private page and a "fan page" or commercial page as they call it too. Everyone who knows me from forums or deviantArt knows me under the nickname of Dragonlady (CH, stands for Switzerland) it would be silly to use my real name also for this reason.

But it could also have been a hacker. Now that would be annoying since I should then change my password on a lot of other accounts, I was using a pass that I use elsewhere too. :(

Anyway I'd be curious to have your feedback on this, if you can spare a minute. Cheers!

Folks, thank you so much for the expressions of support for my friend. In addition to being completely gobsmacked, she was also worried that she was being ungrateful to their efforts, so knowing that other people felt as she did about it made a world of difference.

One of her smarter friends went over today to help unrearrange and get things back to where they were. And tonight the instigator is going over for her well-deserved Come-to-Jesus talk.

Should be fun.

OK, this one is really the last TJ review this year. No more reviews until er... next month when I see Alice Cooper again ;)

Funny how I had the same room as last year when I went to see Jools Holland, must be my lucky room (number 18). It's really just your basic room : a bed and no windows, but the point is not to stay in, so I headed to the venue at the time when doors were opening. I'd rather wait inside the venue anyway. This is a strange little festival, very exclusive and "posh". It is sponsored by a guy who makes cigars... can you imagine who must have been really happy about that? (Tom loves cigars) Not me in any case, cigar smoke can make me very sick, and I was a bit worried when half of the audience strode in sporting all kinds of cigars :(

Opening band was Tower of Power, but as the director of the festival said, this isn't really an opening act, this is a legendary band, they are just as big as Tom. They even worked together on occasions. I think they were a bit disspointed at first, for half of their set the audience was sitting. The singer asked us to get up and dance, but it took two attempts to get people to stand! I was motioning that I'd love to but certainly not if I was the only one! Thankfully by the end of the set there was a line of us dancing in the front. You know me I love to dance, I wasn't going to be told twice.

That was a nice "warm up", more like fiery hot, and apparently Tom liked that. The festival president introduced Tom by saying that he (Tom) had been watching us and couldn't wait to perform for such a motivated audience. According to the president, Tom even commented that it reminded him of Vegas! See? That's just what I thought too last year. It is similar in the set up. There are tables everywhere and it's a small venue (about 1'500- 2'000 at the most), at the front there is a zone of perhaps 5 meters where people can (and usually do) mass up at the begining of the concert, to dance.

And indeed, Tom had just done the first two songs and the photographers had gone and you had people getting up and walking to the stage already. I don't know how I could be that lucky but I walked right up to Tom and stood myself literally at his feet. I'm not always that cheeky, but this was such a big dream of mine! What an incredible feeling to be so close and watching him sing "Thunderball"! You are literally blown away by the sheer power!

 

( The rest of the review and photos behind the cut )

I'm so slow reading this year!

18. The Monster of Florence, Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi

America isn't the only place with serial killers. But for some reason, the story of the Monster of Florence didn't make it over here until a U.S. writer ended up involved. I'd heard about this story a year or two ago when I saw it on Dateline. Honestly, the judicial system there makes ours look stellar.

Couples on what we would consider lovers' lanes are murdered. The men are shot, the women mutilated. This goes on for decades with no clue as to who the culprit is. Journalist Mario Spezi gets the first case to report on by accident and continues to write about the case with every attack. He's considered an expert. Douglas Preston and his family move temporarily to Florence so he can research a novel. When he meets with Spezi in the course of that research, he discovers that the home he's rented is basically on the site of one of the murders. Preston becomes as obsessed with the case as Spezi, the two of them discovering evidence that disputes what the police have. When a new inspector takes over the case, both Spezi and Preston are arrested. (Not a spoiler--you find this out right away.) An excellent book and a scary one as well.

19. Dopplegangster, Laura Resnick (freelance)

Esther Diamond is an actress. With the play she's starring in closed, she needs to find work. As the case with many NY actresses, she falls back on waitressing. She's done this before, even though the restaurant is a known mob hangout and her new suitor is a cop, who is very unhappy with where she's working. Naturally, weird things start happening. She waits on a customer, then sees him outside acting as if he hasn't eaten yet. Not long after, he claims he's seen his double and that he'll die. This is, of course, the first in a string of mobsters seeing their doubles. With the help of Max the wizard and her cop, Esther tries to figure out what's going on. Fun. (pub date: Jan 2010)

20. Alien Hand Syndrome, Alan Bellows

A LibraryThing win. Stories of strange and unusual things, from medical to natural disasters to weird disasters (molasses flooding Boston) to you name it. I felt that it was a bit heavy on military weirdness, but that's a personal bias. It was strange. In a good way.

21. Sapphire Sirens, John Zakour (freelance)

A new Zachary Nixon Johnson novel is always a happy thing. In this latest installment, Zach is taken to the undersea kingdom of Lantis to discover who killed their queen. Loved it. (pub date: Dec 2009)

22. Tragedy at Two, Ann Purser (freelance)

Lois Meade's daughter's boyfriend Rob is found badly beaten on the side of the road. When he dies, Lois knows she must figure out who's killed him. Local suspicion falls on the band of Gypsies who stay at a farmer's every year. Lois, one of the few who doesn't automatically believe they're the culprits, looks beyond the Gypsies.

This one really brought home how badly Gypsies are still looked at and treated and stereotyped. I won't get on my soapbox about that here. It's really nothing new to me--I follow news about the Rom--but it's another to see it in fiction, thought the author was by no means condoning it--quite the opposite. (pub date: Dec 2009)

23. Sexy as Hell, Susan Johnson (freelance)

I'll state right away that I hate romance novels. I wouldn't have read this had it not been a freelance project. But if you like them, there's a lot of sex in this one. Not much else, but a lot of sex. (pub date: Jan 2010)

24. Haunted and Bewitched Ireland, edited by Bob Curran

Stories of ghosts, wizards, and witches in Ireland. Some of them I'd heard before, especially in the witch category, such as Bridget Cleary and Biddy Early. It's an absolutely beautiful book--the photos are simply amazing.

To produce the desired drugged-out effect for his role in Ferris Bueller's Day Off as the drug addict in the police station, Charlie Sheen stayed awake for more than 48 hours before the scene was shot.

My sister brought my royal niece to visit me this weekend, and they came to faire with us yesterday. I loved getting the chance to see them. Anastasia is a little more grown-up every time, and it just blows my mind. I was scheduled to dance today as well, but I switched days with another dancer so I could stay home and spend time with my family today. Which turned out to be a better call than I expected. During the first show on Saturday, I was performing an arabesque and suddenly felt my hip pop in a painful and somewhat frightening way. I finished the day, dancing only the very easiest dances with the troupe, but today I know I did something. Dancing is right out; walking is accomplished with effort. My husband thinks I've strained a tendon in my hip, and has ordered me to take it very easy for the next few days. I'm not sure I know how to do that!

I ran into the programming director for ConCarolinas at faire yesterday, and we started talking about media guests for the upcoming event in 2010. She had a couple of great names on the line, but my suggestion, James Marsters, is too expensive. Maybe if I held a bake sale.....

Maybe I should post some art in between reviews or you'll think I am not working at all ;) I am but on projects I cannot yet show.

So here's a doodle:



Usually I post doodles and sketches on my facebook page so I don't clutter the blog too much. But someone thought it might be fun to "disable" my page out of the blue :(  I doubt that is very legal but what can I do. Until they deign to answer my emails I am stuck with more "antique" means of networking :(

Tomorrow I am going to.... er I know it's getting boring. But I am going to see Tom Jones again! Hey it had been 14 years since I last saw him live! I don't even know how I could wait that long (well yes I do he never comes to Switzerland and I can't always follow everyone). It's going to be bitter sweet knowing it is the last time in a long time again. But I will have so many great memories to add to all the others!

When shooting the V For Vendetta fight in Victoria Station, the stunt-men literally moved in slow motion on set whilst David Leitch (Hugo Weaving's stunt double) moved in real time - thus making it seem as if he was moving much faster then the Fingermen.

Yesterday I had a lovely birthday. Lots of wonderful greetings and wishes from friends close and far, and my parents sent me a gorgeous arrangement of flowers:



Later on a student arrived with a huge stuffed bear and a note. Apparently there's a new thing at school - whenever someone has a birthday, they get to have the Birthday Bear!



I don't keep the Bear - he stays with me until the next staff member has a birthday, at which time he will go to that person. Isn't he cute?

Then I got home and checked the mail, to find my very first royalty check! Whoo hoo!

My son gave me a copy of Watchmen, and my husband gave me a fabulous ring from Steampunk Jewelry - similar to this, but with a tiny silver skull & crossbones on it. I wore it to work today, and even though nobody really understood it, they agreed that my dearly beloved knew me well. *grin*

*****

Today we welcomed a new regular to the Magical Words blog - fantasy author A J Hartley will be posting on the first Friday of every month, and he started today. Go take a look! And late today, I got some fantastic news - my dear friend davidbcoe has sold a new series to Tor!! It's a fantasy mystery, set in 17th century Boston. He says it's "Harry Dresden meets Samuel Adams." When I know more (like when you can run out and buy it!!), I'll definitely be sharing. In the meantime, please lift a glass to my friend!

Here is my review of last Tuesday in Zurich. I had to come down the cloud a little and edit this properly, before posting it on the web.

On Tuesday my mum and I, set off for Zurich in the afternoon, it's approximatively 2 hours by train. Nice ride especially at this season when all the trees are on fire with golden and red colours. On my way there I already had "Sugar Daddy" – the opening song of the current set list – playing in my head. Apparently my mind was already there!

We were maybe among the 15 first people to arrive in the hall, after all why not wait inside and already get a feeling of the place? We had a nice chat, and Nathalie and I gave my mum a few hints of what was to come. I am happy to say that my mum seems to have enjoyed herself, she is not a regular concert goer and the sounds are often too loud for her, but I lent her a pair of the special earplugs I always wear and she discovered a new world. We told her to look out for Tom in the back as the band played the intro to "Sugar Daddy".

The first songs were, as it does, warming the crowd up and getting the moods up, and then a first climax with "Delilah". Certainly not the same kind of response this got in Cardiff, but I doubt that such a thing would happen anywhere else. When the whole hall stood up and danced! Even so, some people were standing, some just waving. I tried not to fly away already. Not only do I love the song, but it was my grandmother's big, big favourite, I remember the immense joy she had when she got to see this live with me, and I think of her very much while the song plays, I have to make up for her absence then. She's been gone for three years now.

After "Delilah", Tom started the usual chat but then ad-libbed into something that had me howling with laughter. He mentioned how this song was a big hit and how it had also been done by Peter Alexander, "in German!" (if you are a fan, you can just hear Tom's voice saying this, can't you?). I am a HUGE Peter Alexander fan. All of my childhood I drove my parents nuts wanting to watch his movies (they are very cheesy musicals, but I adore that!). It was too funny to heat Tom reminisce of the "competition". Then he concluded saying that while Peter is now retired, Tom is far from doing that! Mind you Peter is quite a bit older.

After "I'm Never Gonna Fall In Love Again" Tom sometimes mentions he first sang this at 26, then goes on to say it's quite different to sing it at 46, etc? He went up to 66.... and concluded "Well I am 69 now that's an easy number for me to remember..." and after a pause "...that was a joke in case you didn't get it".
Oh boy, my ribs are still hurting from that one. It's really the way he delivers these, priceless. Naughty Tom!

I must say that Tom was in super vocal shape last night! He floored us more than once with perfect notes. Had to pick my jaw up on the floor a few times. We had good seats, near the middle on the 8th row, and the sound was crystal clear there. At times Tom's voice just lifted you up and made magic.

There were a few cock ups here and there. Like Tom "arriving" too soon on the vocals on "Burning Down The House". They have changed things around and it's now Janet who sings this song with Tom, it works even better like that, there is a nice chemistry between them.
 
There were other occasions where Tom was laughing so hard he could not sing some words, I wonder what the inside joke was there? Also when dancing back and forth during "Pussycat" Pete kind of pretends to be in the way – "you shall not pass"* – and there is a funny little "collision" Tom seemed to find this very funny too.

During "She's a Lady", as it often happens, some people started to stand up and dance in the aisles and move up to the stage. I looked at Natou on my right and my mum on my left, but none was too keen. You know me, I simply couldn't resist and ran up to the barrier. I had about the same spot as in Cardiff, on the left hand side of the stage. And lots of space to dance. The last part of the set list is irresistible, and many joined the party, once again all generations mingled, what a wonderful thing this is!

The joint reverence at the end didn't seem to end, everyone seemed keen to stay on more, but they had to go. Then Gary looked around to throw his drumsticks in the crowd and flung one my way, that was neat! I usually only get "goodies" at Alice Cooper concerts, ha, ha!

Wow, I wonder if this feeling of happiness will last until Sunday, I am more than over the moon, I am all the way up on Jupiter! All ready for the last concert, then I am in for a major withdrawal time.

 

* sorry, a little "Lord of the Rings" reference

The '80s have returned. And it was not good. Someone was actually wearing a Members Only-style gold/bronze lame (add accent, though lame works well too) with a matching headband. But not a normal headband, oh no. It was one of the ones that goes across the forehead. I was terrified. But then I saw a mounted cop on an extremely beautiful black horse. And everything was better.

The language spoken by Leeloo in The Fifth Element was invented by director Luc Besson and further refined by Milla Jovovich. By the end of filming they were able to have full conversations in this language.

This morning I felt like it was going to be a day of serious suckage. No special reason for feeling that way - probably a combination of the time change, the overcast sky and the fact that it was Monday. The day was pretty ordinary. But when I got home, I found a package from my wonderful editor, containing The Dame and Boneshaker! When my husband came home, he told me he'd received a 3 1/2% raise. And then I sat down to check email, only to see one from my terrific agent, telling me I have a royalty check on the way!

I swear, I'm going to buy a lottery ticket right now.

Yay, Halloween! Past years have been a bit of a let down, but this one was a keeper. We had a great crowd at the Penguin, and sang to the wee hours.

As for our costumes....





I took a TON of pictures at the Penguin, and put them into a gallery on our Vox Populi Facebook page. You can check them out here:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album.php?aid=339833&id=291592525472&ref=mf

(Since it's a Fan Page, it's viewable to everyone.... but hey, why not fan us?)

I forgot to mention that we only got SIX trick-or-treaters this year. SIX!!! And five were before dinner! What's up with that? When I was a kid, if Halloween was on a Saturday, we were out all day and a good part of the night. With a break for dinner of course. Not that we ate much of it. But then I saw that Pat Robertson believes demons live in Halloween candy. That must be the reason.

I'm sad. One department had a whole zombie thing going. It wasn't mine. The Alice in Wonderland (complete with rabbit hole) was pretty awesome as well. So was Mario Brothers. And the group going as the art in our lobby (truly terrifying). There was also the Bunny Suicides, complete with blender and bunny parts. I didn't know bunny insides were made of styrofoam peanuts though. And that dept dressed as bunnies. The one with the "Derek Jeter blows" T-shirt amused me to no end.

Nobody went as swine flu! Aaugh! I could have done it! So annoyed. But here is evil me, with a coworker who was good enough to take a pic (she was a feather duster). (Hey, podling, this is my imaginary friend/coworker--she does exist!)

The house used to film the movie Poltergeist is located in Simi Valley, California. The family who owned it when the movie was filmed still live there today. They are braver than I would be. Or maybe they just never watched the movie.

If you happened to miss it, we interviewed writer and editor Danielle Ackley-McPhail on Magical Words last Friday. Danielle is, among other things, the editor of the wonderful Bad Ass Faeries anthologies!

As usual, we had not a single trick-or-treater last night. We live out in the country, so we've never had anyone come to the house. It was also raining. We did, however, play our game last night. I worried that I might fall asleep again, since I'd spent the day dancing at faire. Instead I managed to stay awake and have a great time. Yes, beatrizwench, I will eventually be journalling it so that you, too, can join the Beetle in laughing at my complete lack of decent die rolls.

NaNo began today, so off I go to slap some words on paper (metaphorically speaking, of course.)

Ta, y'all.

Hope you all had fun celebrating. I meant to post yesterday, then got a bit busy. And on the afternoon I went, to celebrate with crazylouiiiise  and supertantine  was fun.

We had pumpkin soup with ham, and a bright green vanilla custard, yummmy! I brought some cookies and truffles:






Today, I tried to catch up on work, been sawing and filing brass again, and skteching stuff for a book project.

Here.

So for Saturday's ballet class, Lois waited 'til we were all stretched at the barre and warmed up a bit, then we all turned to the right and went to second position, waiting for Lois' musical choice of the day for the barre position warm-ups...

In honor of Halloween, what came blaring for the speakers was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.

Several of us couldn't stop laughing throughout the entire barre sequence, as Lois exhorted us on the big bass organ notes "Bigger! SWELL with the MUSIC!"

You probably had to have been there, but it really was pretty funny.