January 2012
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What's in a year?
Welcome to Ren’s semi-coherent-yet-not-really-cohesive reflection on the year 2011.
Trips taken: 10.
Jan: BOS -> SFO
Feb: SFO -> ORD
April: SFO -> LAX
July: SFO -> LAX -> SAN
August: SFO -> BOS -> YHZ -> BOS
September: SFO -> LAX
October: SFO -> BOS -> YUL -> BOS
November: SFO -> LAX
December: SFO -> LAX -> BOS
New places:...
November 2011
7 posts
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Wyst gets a present.
Okay, so maybe I’ve been a little obsessed with drawing Macintoshes lately. (Maybe it’s because I’m working on a piece about Steve Jobs, and this is what I doodled when I wasn’t typing.)
For clarification, it’s not my birthday. (That’s next month.) That gleeful “You are my new best friend” face Wyst is making over his new computer, though? I...
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My first computer.
I keep on waffling between setting Kidspaced in the 80s and setting it in the present. (I go back to the 80s because it means I can attempt to get better at drawing Macintoshes.)
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"We were reading buddies"
This fourth grade classroom brought to you by Ren’s very-shoddy memory of elementary school. Wyst and Laynie brought to you by the letter A (for adorable).
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Call me back?
First Kidspaced drawing in a week or so that felt polished enough to post. Both sketches and drabbles do not always seem right to add to the blog, but this one came out pretty well.
(This story really is about 80 percent happy children, I swear. The sad and sweet times are just more fun to draw.)
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On being tactful
People who have spent even a fraction of an hour with me at a conference know—if there’s anything I despise more than crappy products, it’s talking about “women in technology.”
I don’t like standing out because of my gender. I don’t like standing out because I’m a minority. I like standing out because I’ve done something spectacular and people should pay attention to it.
But, because we are...
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Kidspaced excerpt, two and three.
Double the trouble, double the fun, since I’m A) going out to dinner tomorrow night and won’t have time to write, and B) this felt better as one chunk. No real place to split it into two, I’m afraid.
95 percent of this was written on an iPhone keyboard. Thus is the peril of getting into a groove on the bus, and refusing to move to a sensible option like a keyboard when you...
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Kidspaced excerpt, one.
I’ve been bad at the NaNoWriMo thing. I think it’s the daunting task of writing chapters in order. So, instead, I’m going to try writing scenes (from that book I’ve been trying to finish for the last few years). Oh, and draw something too, because I’m horribly, woefully out of practice.
Starting with conflict. Because who doesn’t like conflict?
After...
October 2011
1 post
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September 2011
4 posts
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The trouble with ghouls
Since we’re nearing October, and I just finished digging through 100GB worth of memories, it’s time for you all at Many Hats to be visited by… the FX daemon.
Long ago, when I was just a wee lass of fourteen, I attended a magical school, sorted into four houses, where people could go to become wizards learn the tricks of their trade.
My trade at the time happened to be...
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A long time ago, in a rink far away
I’m not good at sports.
I preface this post like that because it’s true: I’m just not sports material. To be good at a sport, you need dedication. You need practice. (You need to not hate running with all of your heart.)
I played a bunch of them in school—softball, volleyball, basketball, even badminton—and, y’know. I wasn’t terrible. But it was always something....
August 2011
2 posts
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Alternate Reality Policing
Today’s news, after adjustment by an Apple NDA censor:
[Redacted], Apple’s answer to the “online music locker” service, has just entered beta according to [Redacted]. [Redacted] will store users’ [Redacted] in iCloud, allowing anywhere/anytime access to [Redacted] from [Redacted].
[Redacted] is now available to [Redacted], and [Redacted] will receive [Redacted]...
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“I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be and I finally became that person. Or...”
– Cary Grant
July 2011
3 posts
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In which Ren attempts to transcribe and play Ben...
June 2011
1 post
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May 2011
4 posts
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April 2011
8 posts
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Mapmaking and Storytelling
While I do not go on all that many adventures now that I am a Californian once more (the state is too long! My car is tiny! Gas is $4+ a gallon!), I was quite the East Coast girl-about-town, once upon a time.
And now my iPhone will tell you all about it, in captioned dot-maps.
“Oh, so that’s where that $300 charge for international data came from. (That, and Dan Moren...
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Quick iPhone recording of one of my favorite Belle...
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And now, for something completely different. This...
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(Covered: The Raconteurs’ “Call it a...
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Back to Guster! This song (I Spy) is absurdly...
March 2011
5 posts
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This is an attempt to sing a story I wrote a few...
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I bought Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the...
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February 2011
2 posts
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One of the downsides of pretty much entirely...
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January 2011
2 posts
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The Year in Photos.
This year has been all sorts of bizarre. In a (mostly) good way. I initially was debating drawing a year-in-review comic—but then, when cleaning out my hard drive, I came across my Photo Booth folder.
I’ve joked before that Photo Booth is my secret picture diary, because I use it almost every day. Mostly for silly things. When I was drawing, I would use it constantly for reference, because...
December 2010
2 posts
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November 2010
5 posts
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Sketchbook Outtakes.
I am out of sketchbook paper. This is problematic, seeing as how all I’ve wanted to do this week is draw.
In searching for various small nooks and crannies within my old sketchbook upon which to scribble, I came across a bunch of drawings that—for whatever reason—never got posted on Manyhats the first time around. So, on this lovely sunny Sunday, here are some of those forgotten outtakes.
...
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October 2010
5 posts
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I got to play with iLife ‘11 this week, so...
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Rough (rough rough) version of a three-year old...