Sunday, 01 July 2001

Happy Canada Day! (Imagine little Canadian flag images around the text; I was too lazy to track any down.)

Karina and Genevieve (the two Canadian members of the Clarion 2001 class) and Susan and Thomas (who have been designated "Honorary Canadians" (sorry, that's "Honourary Canadians") for the purpose) organized a "Clearly Canadian BBQ."

It was great. Burgers were eaten. Canadian beer and Canadian whiskey was drunk (but not by anyone under the legal drinking age in Michigan). Little Canadian flags were waved.

Various versions of a Clarion Rant were drafted, based on this Canada rant from a Molson ad. Rants began "I am a Clarionite. I am not a blank or a blank."

If you ever run into Karina at a convention, do not fail to get her to do her impression of Rick introducing himself. Note the sideways posture, the squinched up face, the tone of voice. Most impressive. If you can't find Karina, go ahead and meet Rick, but be aware that the real thing is a pale imitation of the impression Karina does.

After the Canadian BBQ we watched some videos ("Deathrace 2000" and "Dark Star"). Much alcohol was consumed there, too (but not by anyone under the legal drinking age in their home state or province).

I read through my story, did some line edits, tweeked the language here and there, took out a few bits where I had put equivalent text earlier in the story so that it didn't need to be covered again. Then I printed it out. Final length was 6400 words. I'll turn it in tomorrow.

After two fairly hot days, it turned deliciously cool overnight. It is all I can do to refrain from mocking the poor misguided souls with air conditioners. (One side effect of installing an air conditioner is that you can't open your window any more.) Actually, to be perfectly honest, it is more than I can do to refrain from mocking them, but I'm doing my best to hold it to a minimum.

Status update after week 4:

Note that the count of stories critiqued is the number I've done critiques for, and therefore excludes the stories written by me. Everyone else will have critiqued a roughly similar number, depending on whether they are more or less prolific than me.