Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Speeches
We're happily settled in at our new apartment in St Anthony. I'm working at the downtown Target, and enjoying it quite a bit. We've gotten a car, which allows us some flexibility to find friends in the area. Meetup.com and its Speculative Fiction group at http://scifiwriting.meetup.com/2/ have provided some opportunities for social life.
Four speeches are now scheduled: one in Duluth on Oct 25, one for the Autism Society on Nov 12th, one for Fairview Community Center on Nov 19th, and one at Peace Church in Eagan on March 14th. The last is particularly significant, because the organizer has specifically told me:
"Please feel free to add this engagement to your web site as we will
welcome the general public and have room for up to 500 people in our
sanctuary!"
So, if you'd like to see us speak but you've never happened to be part of any of the groups we've spoken for, March 14th is your chance. It's open to anyone who wants to come. The speech will begin at 2 pm, and will go on until about 4 pm once you include the time that will be devoted to questions and book signings. Peace Church is at the following address:
2180 Glory Drive
Eagan, MN 55122
Hope that gives you enough time to make room in your schedule!
Note: If you do come, be sure to have $5.00 ready to pay the entry fee.
Four speeches are now scheduled: one in Duluth on Oct 25, one for the Autism Society on Nov 12th, one for Fairview Community Center on Nov 19th, and one at Peace Church in Eagan on March 14th. The last is particularly significant, because the organizer has specifically told me:
"Please feel free to add this engagement to your web site as we will
welcome the general public and have room for up to 500 people in our
sanctuary!"
So, if you'd like to see us speak but you've never happened to be part of any of the groups we've spoken for, March 14th is your chance. It's open to anyone who wants to come. The speech will begin at 2 pm, and will go on until about 4 pm once you include the time that will be devoted to questions and book signings. Peace Church is at the following address:
2180 Glory Drive
Eagan, MN 55122
Hope that gives you enough time to make room in your schedule!
Note: If you do come, be sure to have $5.00 ready to pay the entry fee.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
An ad on MySpace...
...since when is Naruto a graphic designer?
And a web designer, and a fashion designer? I mean, Naruto? I'm speechless here. The spiky yellow hair, the forehead protector, the fox whiskers (or something on the cheeks, anyway, too small to tell)... are they just trying to attract fangirls' attention? It isn't even an anime-related ad.
Screw this. I'm going to bed.
And a web designer, and a fashion designer? I mean, Naruto? I'm speechless here. The spiky yellow hair, the forehead protector, the fox whiskers (or something on the cheeks, anyway, too small to tell)... are they just trying to attract fangirls' attention? It isn't even an anime-related ad.
Screw this. I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Moving
John and I are moving yet again-- this time into the city of St. Anthony, Minnesota.
Like Richfield, where we live now, St. Anthony is on the outskirts of Minneapolis... but it is closer to John's workplace, and on better bus lines. We'll save on gas, and may even be able to go without driving for long periods of time.
For a while, I'll probably have to take an hour-long bus ride to my current workplace (the Bloomington Target)... but eventually I hope to be transferred to the Northeast Target or the downtown Target, both of which are much closer.
Our new apartment will be ready for move-in around July 11th. I really hope this will be more long-term than our previous apartments. It's a lovely place.
Like Richfield, where we live now, St. Anthony is on the outskirts of Minneapolis... but it is closer to John's workplace, and on better bus lines. We'll save on gas, and may even be able to go without driving for long periods of time.
For a while, I'll probably have to take an hour-long bus ride to my current workplace (the Bloomington Target)... but eventually I hope to be transferred to the Northeast Target or the downtown Target, both of which are much closer.
Our new apartment will be ready for move-in around July 11th. I really hope this will be more long-term than our previous apartments. It's a lovely place.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
Happy Namesday to me
May 18th is the feast day of Saint Eric, and therefore the closest thing to a namesday that I have, since there is no Saint Erika.
I was never very interested in St. Eric himself; I just liked it when my parents made me a cake for my namesday when I was a kid. Austrian heritage is good. You can get a personal cake two days of the year.
I've always liked my name, though it always has annoyed me when people spell it wrong. It's very strange, but I actually get "Erika" misspelled more often than "Hammerschmidt." I guess it's just that when people don't know how to spell "Hammerschmidt," they ask, but when they don't know how to spell "Erika," they guess. There are three common spellings of "Erika." There are no common spellings of "Hammerschmidt," since it's not a common name at all.
Another strange thing: when I studied in Mexico and Spain, nobody ever misspelled my name. This is strange because the usual misspelling I get around here is a replacement of the "K" with a "C," which is exactly what one would expect in a Spanish-speaking country, seeing that the Spanish language barely ever uses the letter "K" in any word, and always uses a "C" instead. But they didn't actually make that mistake, ever. I guess it's the same issue as with "Hammerschmidt"... the name "Erika" was so unfamiliar to them that they always asked when they didn't know how to spell it.
And it turns out neither "Erika" nor "Hammerschmidt" is really that bad, relatively speaking. When I decided to marry John Ricker, I thought about taking his name, since it seemed like an easier name to spell and pronounce than "Hammerschmidt." But after knowing him a while, I started to notice that "Ricker" actually got misspelled and mispronounced way, way more often than "Hammerschmidt." Seriously. I've seen him get called Richter, Riker, Stricker, Bicker... I've never figured out what is the deal with that.
So I kept "Hammerschmidt." "Erika Ricker" would sound silly anyway.
Anyway, in honor of my namesday, here is a song from the poetry page on my website:
Oh, beautiful for E and R,
for I and K and A,
Oh, beautiful for all of these,
Especially the K!
I'm Erika, I'm Erika,
God shed his grace on me,
But not on those who write my name
And spell it with a C!
I was never very interested in St. Eric himself; I just liked it when my parents made me a cake for my namesday when I was a kid. Austrian heritage is good. You can get a personal cake two days of the year.
I've always liked my name, though it always has annoyed me when people spell it wrong. It's very strange, but I actually get "Erika" misspelled more often than "Hammerschmidt." I guess it's just that when people don't know how to spell "Hammerschmidt," they ask, but when they don't know how to spell "Erika," they guess. There are three common spellings of "Erika." There are no common spellings of "Hammerschmidt," since it's not a common name at all.
Another strange thing: when I studied in Mexico and Spain, nobody ever misspelled my name. This is strange because the usual misspelling I get around here is a replacement of the "K" with a "C," which is exactly what one would expect in a Spanish-speaking country, seeing that the Spanish language barely ever uses the letter "K" in any word, and always uses a "C" instead. But they didn't actually make that mistake, ever. I guess it's the same issue as with "Hammerschmidt"... the name "Erika" was so unfamiliar to them that they always asked when they didn't know how to spell it.
And it turns out neither "Erika" nor "Hammerschmidt" is really that bad, relatively speaking. When I decided to marry John Ricker, I thought about taking his name, since it seemed like an easier name to spell and pronounce than "Hammerschmidt." But after knowing him a while, I started to notice that "Ricker" actually got misspelled and mispronounced way, way more often than "Hammerschmidt." Seriously. I've seen him get called Richter, Riker, Stricker, Bicker... I've never figured out what is the deal with that.
So I kept "Hammerschmidt." "Erika Ricker" would sound silly anyway.
Anyway, in honor of my namesday, here is a song from the poetry page on my website:
Oh, beautiful for E and R,
for I and K and A,
Oh, beautiful for all of these,
Especially the K!
I'm Erika, I'm Erika,
God shed his grace on me,
But not on those who write my name
And spell it with a C!
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
New book is out!
I've been dead to the blogosphere for a while, because many things have been happening... but one of them is that the new edition of my book has come out from AAPC! This means you can buy it from their site, and you do not have to buy one of the secondhand older editions that are being sold exorbitantly on Amazon. (Man, the laws of supply and demand can do some crazy things.)
I mean, you still can buy it there, if you think having a first or second edition is a good investment in case I get so famous that my early books become collectors' items. But personally, I doubt my early editions will ever get up to $70 again. (Plus, I'm pretty sure that if you buy off that Amazon listing, you will not know whether you are getting the first or second of my early editions. It says "second edition," but probably some of the people who put their books up for sale there did not know if they had a second or first edition, since the two look exactly alike and the only way to tell the difference is the presence of one new chapter in the second edition.)
Anyway, this latest edition from AAPC is very different from the two editions printed by my old publisher. The first of my old publisher's editions was 121 pages, the second was 123. AAPC's edition is 198 pages. I've added several new chapters: some about things that happened since the first printing, like my semesters abroad, my job and my marriage; some about earlier things I hadn't gone into before, like the series of semi-boyfriends I had in junior high school; and some about ideas and insights regarding the autism spectrum, like how extreme honesty in autistics is mistaken for pathological lying, and whether the Sally-Anne test really works.
Anyway, feel free to go check it out, and have a great Spring.
I mean, you still can buy it there, if you think having a first or second edition is a good investment in case I get so famous that my early books become collectors' items. But personally, I doubt my early editions will ever get up to $70 again. (Plus, I'm pretty sure that if you buy off that Amazon listing, you will not know whether you are getting the first or second of my early editions. It says "second edition," but probably some of the people who put their books up for sale there did not know if they had a second or first edition, since the two look exactly alike and the only way to tell the difference is the presence of one new chapter in the second edition.)
Anyway, this latest edition from AAPC is very different from the two editions printed by my old publisher. The first of my old publisher's editions was 121 pages, the second was 123. AAPC's edition is 198 pages. I've added several new chapters: some about things that happened since the first printing, like my semesters abroad, my job and my marriage; some about earlier things I hadn't gone into before, like the series of semi-boyfriends I had in junior high school; and some about ideas and insights regarding the autism spectrum, like how extreme honesty in autistics is mistaken for pathological lying, and whether the Sally-Anne test really works.
Anyway, feel free to go check it out, and have a great Spring.
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Random link of the week
The Rice Ball Page is a delightful combination of broken English and hideous web design. I highly recommend it. And yes, it even has some useful information about rice balls, though that's not the main attraction.
In other news, my comic Abby and Norma got a bit of an overhaul a while back. I think it looks quite nice now.
In other news, my comic Abby and Norma got a bit of an overhaul a while back. I think it looks quite nice now.
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
double pterodactyls
"Higgledy Piggledy, My Black Hen" isn't really a Higgledy Piggledy-- but shouldn't it be? Here's my attempt to make it one.
Higgledy piggledy,
Gallus domesticus,
Feathered in ebony
blackness intense,
Hastens to ovulate
(Oft decatuply) for
Aristocratically
Pedigreed gents.
Higgledy piggledy,
Gallus domesticus,
Feathered in ebony
blackness intense,
Hastens to ovulate
(Oft decatuply) for
Aristocratically
Pedigreed gents.
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