Okay, this is more non-content content, but I promise to have more content-filled content later this week, when I’ll discuss my final full-day in London.

Meanwhile: here’s some more of the empty calories of the blog-world: a meme.

Rules: It’s harder than it looks believe me! Your mind goes blank!!

Copy to your own note, erase my answers, enter yours, and tag some people. Use the first letter of your name to answer each of the following questions. They have to be real… nothing made up! If the person before you had the same first initial, you must use different answers. You cannot use any word twice and you can’t use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Have Fun!!

1. What is your name: Ian
2. A four letter word: ibex
3. A boy’s name: Ivan
4. A girl’s name: Ivonne
5. An occupation: Iceberg Collector (someone must go out and get a fresh one occasionally… right?)
6. A colour: ivory
7. Something you wear: insoles
8. THIS QUESTION HAS GONE AWOL!
9. A food: ice cream
10. Something found in the kitchen: icing
11. A place: Iwerddon (Welsh for “Ireland”, so two points there, which makes up for no #8)
12. A reason for being late: I was accosted by an iguana
13. Something you shout: Inconceivable! [cf. this movie here]
14. A movie title: In Cold Blood
15. Something you drink: Iced Tea (Long Island variety)
16. A musical group: Iggy and the Stooges (because there was no fucking way I was going to mention Iron Bloody Maiden… which I just did… arse)
17. An animal: impala
18. A street name: Imperial Street (both here in Burnaby and also one in Greater London)
19. A type of car: Isuzu (which is hardly exciting)
20. A Title of a Song: “It’s a Kind of Magic” (one of the lowest low points for Freddie and the boys; they can’t all be winners, eh?)

Tags: 20 Answers Begining with, Ian Alexander Martin, It's a Kind of Magic, meme, silly Canadian man

And, for those of you not checking the Humdrumming Blog on a regular basis, out now is the ‘Short List’ of those individuals and / or works which are the top five voted for (or six, if there’s a tie) by members of the British Fantasy Society and attendees of the 2007 and 2008 FantasyCons. You can read the complete list right here.

Humdrumming titles have made the short-list in two categories:

• Best Novella: All Your Gods Are Dead, Gary M^cMahon
• Best Anthology: The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, Ian Alexander Martin (as editor)

The competition in both categories is considerable, and very much worthy of your regard. We are chuffed to be considered alongside them for these two awards.

Should you wish to examine these two titles for yourself, move your little clicky pointer and select the cover of the book you are intrigued by through the images below.

All Your Gods Are Dead Gary McMahon	The 1st Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories

The awards are announced on Saturday, the 20^th of September, 2008, at the Britannia Hotel, Nottingham, UK. Everyone at Humdrumming wishes the best of luck to all those nominated in every category.

Tags: 9781905532407, 9781905532483, All Your Gods Are Dead, Anthology, BFS, British Fantasy Society, FantasyCon, Gary McMahon, Humdrumming, Ian Alexander Martin, novella, The First Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories

So first, the good news.

Jennifer: she’s got a gig with the South Delta demonstration gardenwaaaaay down in South Tswassen. The result is that she’s reasonably well paid to play in teh garden and talk to people about compost, water-wise gardening, vegetable growing for self-sustainability, and all that great stuff she’s perfectly able to do but hasn’t since she got laid-off from the GVRD garden about six or seven years ago. Hurrah!It’s a bit of a drive there — about 90 minutes each way, and through the Deas Island tunnell/traffic snarl — but it’s closer than the Chilliwack campus of UCFV that she drives to twice weekly in the Autumn. The new job involves week-end hours, but she can keep the two principle teaching gigs she has (UCFV for the Autumn semester, and Capilano College for Autumn and Winter semesters), so that’s a substancial win for her, and by extension, us. YAY!

ME: as much as I’ve moved on to bigger and better things with Humdrumming in the past three years or so, I hadn’t dropped the acting fully so that I could do paid work in movies/tv/commecrcials. I had infomed my agent — twice — that ‘extra’ work was not desired by me (too much time, too little money, too much sadness, too much damage to the career if one’s known to be a “meat puppet” instead of an actor), yet she called with a ‘background’ gig anyway, and was I available that evening (it was already 6:45 pm). I told her she needed to start actually reading my e-mails, thanked her, said goodbye, and ended the call. About ninety minutes later I got an e-mail from an on-line actor’s data-base saying they understood I no longer had a talent agent, so would I like to be part of their self-represented/models categories? To date, there is no word of confirmation from her that our contractural agreement has ended. I suppose that sort of correspondence is ‘too icky’ or she ‘doesn’t have the time for that’. What a shame. At least, I hope she feels some.

Anyway, to cut to the chase: I just called the on-screen actor’s union (UBCP/ACTRA) and requested that my full membership in the union be placed in a ‘withdrawn’ status so that I can re-activate it once I can either affored to have delusions of being an actor, or someone is daft enough to want me to wander about a set for them. I haven’t enquired, but presumably the on-stage actors’ association (Canadian Actor’s Equity Accociation) would prevent me from acting in a theatre until I’d re-activated my status with the on-screen union, due to reciprical agreements.

The dream of being an actor / director / designer / wanker is now truly dead.

Bring on the Publishing Dancing Girls! Let the Port flow with abandon, as I proceed to fail at my third chosen vocation! First photography (photographer, photofinishing, retail person, assistent store manager, store owner), then performance arts (actor, singer, dancer, production centre employee, director, designer, reviewer, features writer), and now: BOOK PUBLISHING (typesetter, editor, web-monkey, pre-press preperation, some marketing, some sales)!!

Nurse, check the plasma stocks; I forsee much wounding.

Tags: ACTRA, another dream goes up in smoke, anything else I can do badly please let me know, CAEA, Equity, Hollywood North, Ian Alexander Martin, UBCP, why bother