gypsygirl

So the new housemates have two dogs. Their own is a beagle, a little less than a year old. He's a sweet little guy. The other dog they're fostering for the landlady, whose daughter wanted a largish dog, but they don't have room for it where they're living on campus. She's a husky mix, and she's very sweet with people, and gets along with most dogs, but wouldn't you know it, the one dog she hated on sight was my poor Lucy! (we think it's a dominant females thing)

Finished another two books recently. One for Iambik called Getting Sassy by D. C. Brod. It's for their new Crime collection, which they're supposed to be releasing any day now. It was lots of fun to read. It's a sort of mix of crime, thriller and comedy. The other book I just finished was a critical edition of Mansfield Park for Ignatius Press. It's the full text of MP plus an additional ten or twelve sections of modern criticisms, and some contemporary opinions that Jane Austen collected of the novel.

Up next I'm starting a children's series for Iambik called The Chronicles of Valonia by Katie Paterson. They're Arthurian legend, which I've been partial to since I took a lit class in college that covered everything from Mallory's Mort D'Arthur through Marion Zimmer Bradley's Mists of Avalon. Ignatius has given me a book called Poor Banished Children by Fiorella de Maria. I'm about a quarter of the way through my pre-read of it, but it promises to be very interesting. It's set in the sixteenth century, and begins with a shipwreck off the coasts of Cornwall. The only survivor found is a young woman dressed as a boy. She's taken in, gravely ill, by the local gentry and is found to speak Latin. She asks for a priest (dangerous, because this is after the dissolution of the monasteries) to give her final confession, starting from her early childhood. Still working on Sense and Sensibility for LV, though it fell a little by the wayside while I finished the last two, as I had definite deadlines for them. My next LV book will be The Big Time by Fritz Leiber, which I'm doing for the 5th Annual SFFAudio Challenge.

Went to CA for Christmas to see the family. Got to see my sister-in-law and older nephew for the first time in a couple of years. They've been at work the last couple of times I've been by. I decided to drive, as renting a car for the week ended up being about the same price as a flight, and this way I'd have more independence. The day itself was quite nice, though my brother wasn't able to join us, as he was called away to work. So I drove up to Palmdale to pick up my sister-in-law and my younger nephew (older nephew was going to his girlfriend's... first time for any sort of major celebration!!), as my sister-in-law doesn't drive on freeways. We also had my mother's housemate's son and his family. He and his wife had their second baby four days earlier, so we weren't sure if they were all going to get to come.

Got to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader while I was in CA. I was both pleased and disappointed. Most of the elements of the book are included in the film (e.g. all the islands they visit), but they're out of order. And the whole main plot of the film (green mist, seven swords), is entirely new. I enjoyed the film for its own merits, but it's not a particularly good adaptation, in my opinion.

Working on a new project for Ignatius Press... a critical edition of Mansfield Park; the full text of MP, some contemporary opinions that Austen herself collected, and various criticisms. For Iambik I'm doing a book called Getting Sassy for their Crime collection. It's about a woman trying to get the money to keep her mother in a nice assisted living facility who resorts to kidnapping a thoroughbred racehorse's goat companion (the title character, Sassy). Also still working on Sense and Sensibility for LV, though since both of these projects are due quite soon, it's not getting as much attention as otherwise.

I had been planning on stage managing Barefoot in the Park starting next month at the Civ, but I just heard that the original director has stepped down, and I don't know if the new guy will want me or if he has someone else in mind. I don't really mind either way. If I do it, I get a bit of extra cash, if I don't, and I get a role in My Fair Lady, which comes right after it, I wouldn't end up doing two shows in a row.

I entered knitting in the HOT Fair again this year (my second entry). Once again we were limited to one item per category, so I entered the Twist & Shout in the knitted garment category, and the twelve-pointed ball, which turned out really cute, in the knitted accessory category. I originally meant to put a jingle bell or some other noise-maker in the centre, but didn't think about it when I went to buy the stuffing, so it'll have to go in the next one (I bought three skeins of the same yarn in different colours).

After I finished the ball, I started the Elizabeth of York pattern from Alice Starmore's Tudor Roses book. I haven't gotten very far though. It's on hold while I work on my Hallowe'en costume for this year's Masquerade Ball at the theatre. This year I've decided to go as Susan Sto Helit (Death's granddaughter from the Discworld books); specifically Susan as depicted in Hogfather. To that end, I'm making a long, full skirt and a fitted vest (both black); I found a white shirt with a plain, stand-up collar at Goodwill, and some "Mary Poppins" shoes at Sears or Penneys (can't remember which I was in). I need to find a white wig that I can paint a black stripe on and style into a bun and I'm going to borrow a poker from a friend who has a fireplace. I'm pretty excited about this year's costume.

Rehearsals for Noises Off are coming along well. We have close to a completed set now, which makes things much easier. We're re-using part of the Best Little Whorehouse set, but the stairs had been taken down, so the three doors downstairs were having to do double and triple duty (there are meant to be four openings downstairs and four upstairs).

Haven't been able to do as much recording as usual. Had a cold a two or three weeks ago and now my allergies have started acting up. I was having to stop every other sentence or so, during my recording session yesterday, to clear my throat or rub my itching nose. I hate allergies.

It turns out that the director from Little Shop will not be directing Noises Off! after all. Add to that, the new director has decided to do the show in dialect (British dialect, that is), and I ended up getting cast as the female lead!! This is a first for me. I will be following such greats as Patricia Routledge, Patti LuPone and Carol Burnett in the role of Dotty Otley. I know about half the cast, and they're all really good actors, but I've never heard them do an English accent. First read-through is tomorrow. Really looking forward to it.

Just finished my first audiobook for a new publishing company called Iambik. The book was No Lease on Life by Lynne Tillman. All I had when I made my decision was what you can find on the amazon page, the first few pages and the publisher's summary. It did sound interesting, so I went for it, though it would have been nice to have the whole book to glance through beforehand.

Still working on Sense and Sensibility for LibriVox. I'm about a third of the way through. And I'm about halfway through Edith Stein and Companions: On the Way to Auschwitz for Ignatius. I intend to get a fair bit more done on it today, as I have the day off.

I'm a bit more than halfway through my next knitting project (Celestine Sox). It's a twelve-pointed ball. You start with a single point and then, on each successive one, you pick up stitches on the adjoining points, so there's no seaming! Yay! The amount of seaming involved is why I've not done anymore stuffed toys since Toby. It's also a single skein project, which makes my pocketbook happy.

I've rearranged almost all the furniture in my loft and my poor dog doesn't know what to do with it. She's figured out where her bed is, at least.

I'd been thinking about doing this for a few weeks now. I have new housemates, and the one directly below my "office" (it's an attic loft, spaces are designated by furniture arrangements) has been running the bathroom extractor much more than the previous one. The roof vent for the extractor is right above the office, which means that when it's running, I can't record. So I'd been thinking of moving the office to the space catty-corner from where it had been, which just happened to be the "bedroom"; unfortunately, it couldn't be a straight swap, because there's a column in the office corner that makes that space smaller than the rest of the corners, so I had to move three corners... bedroom to "dining room/spare bedroom"; spare bedroom to office, dining room to open space in the middle of the loft, office to bedroom.

While I was going to be moving stuff around, I figured I'd try to make myself a better recording booth. Several months ago I built a frame for a booth out of 1" PVC pipe. It looked ok just by itself, but when I covered it with soundproofing blankets it got a bit saggy. It ended up being a glorified dog house for Lucy. Then I had another idea. Pegboard sheets (I can get 2' x 4' sheets at the hardware store) covered with acoustic foam tiles, attached in pairs with binder rings (which I had been using to hold up the blankets in the first booth). The tiles came at the end of last week, and I finished attaching them to the pegboards Friday afternoon. I used adhesive spray, but I think I'm going to have to go back with a hot glue gun, because a few have already come loose. I'll need to test it first, though, to make sure it won't melt the foam.

I started off with eight pegboards, which made a 4' square. On the floor inside I laid four interlocking rubber mats (like you see in children's playrooms), but once I had the four panel pairs up around it, and the mic inside, I found it a bit cramped, so I added the final two mats (which I'd been saving for blocking knitting projects) to make a 4' x 6' little room, and hung two of the sound-blocking blankets across the spaces between the pegboards.

I'm quite chuffed. I need to get a small table, and a second monitor to go with the secondary keyboard and mouse I already have, so I'll be able to leave the laptop outside the booth, but still be able to read off the screen, and control it from inside. And maybe a little stool instead of the chair.

I do so dislike having to play "takesies backsies" at baby showers, but I just didn't manage to finish the sweater. I'd be further along if I hadn't noticed a mistake two nights ago and frogged back to fix it. Still, baby isn't due till July, so hopefully I'll have it finished before then. And the shower was a fun way to finish a work day, even if all the men did congregate in one corner as if the rest of us had cooties (you'd think they'd have outgrown that by now!).

I've decided on Sense and Sensibility for my next LibriVox project. I'll do Anne's House of Dreams after that. I do wish Anne of Windy Poplars were out of copyright. It's one of my favourites in the series. Darn you, Lucy Maud Montgomery! You should have written faster!

Now that Gypsy is over, I've been able to get some serious recording done. Tonight I finished the last two sections of a biography of Padre Pio for Ignatius Press, and the last two chapters of What Katy Did, which I'm doing for LibriVox. Now I have to decide on a new LV project. I'm wavering between Sense and Sensibility and Anne of Green Gables.

Now I'm off to knit. I hope to get the body of the little sweater finished tonight. Then just have to do the sleeves by Thursday!

I've finished the little dress from the Dale book, and it turned out soooo cute!! I'm really pleased with it. I bought some little pewter clasps online to use as buttons.

The shower is next Saturday, so it's pretty good timing.

I've started the next project. I was originally going to do one of the sweaters as a cardigan and the other as a pullover (the pattern has instructions for both), but before I started I read through the cardigan pattern and saw that it's knitted in the round and then steeked. I've never done steeking before, and while I do want to try it, I figured a gift item wasn't the best test piece, so I'm going to do two pullovers instead and save steeking for another day.

I'd be twice as far along, only I realized a couple of rows below this that I'd mis-read the pattern and was starting the rows in the colour-work graph at the wrong place (I'd started the first one in the right place, but then was going to the far right at the beginning of each new row, instead of back to the same starting place), so I frogged it and started over. Much better now. The one thing I don't like about this pattern so far, is that there are a couple of rows that involve three colours of yarn. It's orders of magnitude tanglier than just two.

At LV I recently finished The Sky Is Falling by Lester del Rey, another sci-fi story. My next project is What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge. I'd wanted to do it a couple of years ago, but someone else started a solo version before I could get to it, so I put it off and did What Katy Did at School instead. The other project has since been completed, so I feel like I can do mine without stepping on anyone's toes.

Recently watched the new-ish version of Sense and Sensibility (I think it was part of that Austen series they showed on Masterpiece a year or so ago, but I missed it then). I really liked it. Well enough to buy a copy for my library. None of the others in the series impressed me that much, and I will keep faithful to the earlier versions I already own (P&P w/ Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, Persuasion w/ Ciaran Hinds and Amanda Root). Not to say I no longer like the Emma Thompson version of S&S, though.

We're doing Gypsy at the WCT. I tried out for one of the stripper roles, but got cast as Miss Cratchitt, the secretary in the New York scene. Should be fun... I'm onstage for two scenes at the end of act 1, and the rest of the time I'll be able to read, play cards, relax back stage. Reminds me of Christmas Carol.

Note from Hugh:
Dear LibriVox supporters, friends, volunteers:

Two weeks ago we sent out a request for donations towards a $20,000 fundraising campaign. We outlined why on this post (with a number of questions answered in the comments thread). You responded with generosity, and we can now close down our campaign.

So:

Thank you!

We got to our target so quickly it warms our hearts. Not only did people donate, but this campaign also allowed many many people to express their appreciation for all the hard and wonderful work done by LibriVox volunteers.

We won’t have to talk about money again for a few years. Instead, we’ll get back to working hard to fulfill our mission, which is:

To make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the internet.

So: Thank you again.

For those curious:

Campaign Details:

We raised $23,000 from 433 donors, in 13 days, averaging $1,769 in donations from 33 people every day. We had a couple of big donors, who gave a few thousand dollars each, and many more smaller donations which all add up to: everything we asked for. Thank you again.

LibriVox Details:

This money will help support our efforts, which so far have resulted in the following:
* 3773: Total number of projects
* 3227: Number of completed projects
* 470: Number of completed non-English projects
* 31: Total number of languages
* 28: Number of languages with a completed work
* 1498: Number of completed solo projects
* 3549: Number of readers
* 3347: ...who have completed something

Total recorded time: 66472509 seconds, or 2 years, 38 days, 20 hours, 57 minutes, and 37 seconds. Total of 66978 sections.

Have I said thank you? Well: thank you again! Oh, and a very special thank-you to our friends and supporters at the Internet Archive, especially Jacques and Brewster, who managed the donations for us so that we didn't have to worry about setting up paypal accounts and all the rest.

And now, back to making free, public domain audiobooks.

All the best,

Hugh McGuire.

So thanks so much to everyone who contributed!

For the first time in its 4.5 year history, LibriVox is asking its supporters for money.

Chances are, if you're reading this message on my blog, you've heard and possibly enjoyed some of my LibriVox recordings, Pride and Prejudice, or Anne of Green Gables, or perhaps the Scarlet Pimpernel.

I'd ask that you consider supporting LibriVox in this donation drive to allow us readers to continue providing you with audiobooks. Every little bit helps!

Here's Hugh's message:

Dearest LibriVox listeners, volunteers, & supporters:

For four-and-a-half years, LibriVox volunteers have been making audiobooks for the world to enjoy, and giving them away for free. We've made thousands of free audiobooks that have been downloaded by millions of people; our site gets 400,000 visitors every month. To date, all our costs have been borne by a few individuals, with some generous donations from partners. However, these costs have become too big.

See below to FIND OUT HOW TO DONATE (Or, keep reading!).

LibriVox needs your help.

We're asking for donations for the following:

• to cover hosting costs for our website, including: the site you are reading now; the forum; the wiki; the catalog; but NOT including the audio files which are hosted by Archive.org
• to redesign the site and improve its accessibility
• to make the LibriVox catalog easier for listeners to use
• to make the management software easier for admins to use

Your donation will support the work of our volunteers.

Our fundraising goal is $20,000. After we reach it, we'll shut down our fundraising campaign. And we hope we can make it another 4.5 years without having to bother you again!

HOW TO DONATE:

1. Visit the Internet Archive donation page (the Internet Archive, a registered US charity and friend of LibriVox, is managing our fundraising campaign)
2. Select a donation method (Justgive.org, Paypal, or Check)
3. Be sure to write: "Donation for LibriVox" along with your donation (otherwise we won't get the donation!)
4. Don't forget to write: "Donation for LibriVox" along with your donation!