you may have seen this on the BBC

I just wanted to say, ad hominem argument.

• 17:25 Wait 2 rush, rush 2 wait is army lingo. Same 4 flat. Wait 4 keys,rushes 2 get them; wait 4 id,rushes 2 get quotation; Now, bank loan wait... #

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This is part of our front lawn, with the very first snow this year. It was the second time these deer came to visit, and Denny took photos:    --   Это часть газона перед нашим домом, с первым снегом на ёнм. Эти олени приходили уже несколько раз с наступлением зимы, и вот Денни сделал фотки. 
    
 

( More photos, haiga, video, etc. )

those knobbly bits on the pointy bits on the architecture (do they have a name?) look like sprouts on the stem, ahem, a-ha - they look like Brussel sprouts.

a lot of it in the town centre is reconstructed/ reimagined medieval rebuilt in the nineteenth century, so it's really a bit Disney of itself, but nonetheless impressively pointy for it. (and there's a lot of real medieval stuff underneath and around the corner)

Glüwein; Jenever (origin of gin); Beer

mmm

vegetarianisch? not so much. De Bron (with sprouts) was welcome. And a wonderful pad thai jay at De Steopa.

tiny ala Oxford, everything's walkable, including the outskirts - city gate, windmills, a more Beaux-arts architecture, and ultimately the neighouring Damme, a mere 5km away along the canal.

Bruges is visited by the English a lot. Every second person we overheard was a Brit.

suffered language confusion - had to be reminded by Tam that in a Breton pancake house, my 'Goeten avend' might have been inappropriate

language fun. Detecting germanic roots of words in English, with altered vowels as if a dialect, which we are in those words, e.g. 'Wandelpad' for footpath, gives me joy. (although sadly a riff on the Vandals as having been wanderers then 'wandals' comes to naught on wikiing later (yes, but not same root).)

and the archer's guild, with their very pointy tower, much like an arrow at the sky, and echt old, is, get this, the St Sebastien's Archer's Guild. Of course. But still.

• 20:20 "Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you."
  Carax in 'La sombra del viento' #

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The SFPA has announced its Dwarf Stars nominations:
http://www.sfpoetry.com/dwarfstars09.html

2009 Dwarf Stars Award Nominees

Dark Flow - Francis W. Alexander - Scifaikuest, August 2008, Online
untitled - "the will-o-the-wisp..." - Francis W. Alexander - Abyss & Apex, Issue 28, 2008
Return of the Zombie Teen Angst - Mike Allen - Asimov's SF, Oct/Nov 2008
untitled - "time machine rust" - Megan Arkenberg - Scifaikuest, Aug 2008, Print
The Ghoul - Megan Arkenberg - Scifaikuest, Nov 2008, Print
the leaf whisperer - Elizabeth Barrette - Doorways Magazine #5, 2008
untitled - "stars against the night..." - Bruce Boston - SARM, 2008
Three Things - Lisa M. Bradley - Talebones, Winter 2008
Godmother - Anna Marie Catoir - Goblin Fruit, Spring 2008
untitled - "I felt your presence" - Margaret Chula - Ribbons, Winter 2008
Special ears - Toi Dericotte - Prairie Schooner, Fall 2008
Evolution - Peg Duthie - SciFi Fan 2, April 2008
untitled - "time lapse" - Margarita Engle - Scifaikuest, August 2008, Online
Songs were washing up - Francesca Forrest - Cabinet des Fees - Scheherzade's Bequest, Issue 6, Sept 2008
Mistress (1) - Todd Fredson - Blackbird 7.2, Fall 2008
untitled - "shot of whiskey" - Joshua Gage - www.spacewesterns.com, 2008
untitled - "stars invisible" - Joshua Gage - Mindflights, November 2008
The Tongue-Cut Sparrow's Song for the Woodsman's Wife - Jeannine Hall Gailey - Poemeleon, Summer 2008
The Lure of an Older Woman - Toni J. Gardner - Amaze: The Cinquain Journal, 6.2, 2008
untitled - "quantum mechanics" - James Gianforti - Star*Line, July/August 31.4, 2008
untitled - "trying to imitate" - Sanford Goldstein - Simply Haiku, Winter 2008
Study/Violet - Leonard Gonatarek - Prick of the Spindle, Vol 2.3, Sept 2008
untitled - "full moon" - John Grey - Scifaikuest, November 2008, Print
untitled - "sailor's ear" - M. Kei - The Sailor's Ear, Bolts of Silk, 1- February 2008
untitled - "the dead rise" - M. Kei - Slow Motion: The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack, 2008
untitled - "moonless world" - Patricia Kelly - SciFi Fan 2, April 2008
untitled - "just as I" - Mariko Kitakubo (tr Amelia Fielden) - Cicada Forest, Kadokawa Gakugei Shupan Ltd, 2008
untitled - "lest we stray" - Mariko Kitakubo (tr Amelia Fielden) - Cicada Forest, Kadokawa Gakugei Shupan Ltd, 2008
untitled - "in spite of your absence..." - Deborah P Kolodji - SARM, 2008
Fireflies - Geoffrey A. Landis - Asimov's SF, June 2008
untitled - "thin alpine air" - paul m - Acorn, Fall 2008
untitled - "winter plum branches" - paul m - Mariposa #19, Autumn/Winter 2008
Werepenguin - Joanne Merriam - Strange Horizons, 10-March-2008
untitled - "falling stars" - Claudia Coutu Radmore - Eucalypt, Issue 5, 2008
"There, where the universe begins" - Terrie Leigh Relf - Astropoetica 6.2, Spring 2008
untitled - "one foot on Mars" - Karen A. Romanko - Scifaikuest, Feb 2008, print
untitled - "on the footpath" - Linda Papanicolaou - Ribbons, Autumn 2008
untitled - "in the mouth" - Ann K. Schwader - Scifaikuest, November 2008, print
Sunset, Monument Valley, Utah - J.E. Stanley - Scifaikuest, November 2008, print
untitled - "dark moon" - Maria Steyn - Simply Haiku, Spring 2008
untitled - "from outer space" - George Swede - Ribbons, Winter 2008
untitled - "strange voices" - Dietmar Tauchner - Frogpond XXI, Number 1, 2008
Refugee - Paul Kareem Tayyer - Pearl #39, Fall/Winter 2008
untitled - "closer to the moongate" - Linda Jeannette Ward - Hummingbird, September 2008
untitled - "wet sand" - Michael Dylan Welch - Scifaikuest, August 2008, online
In the Beginning or the End - N.C. Whitehead - Scifaikuest, May 2008, print
2062 - Stephen M. Wilson - Star*Line, March/April 2008
The Ghost of Walter Benjamin Walks at Midnight - Charles Wright - Fiddlehead, Summer 2008
Goodbye Billy Goat Gruff - Jane Yolen - Asimov's SF, Oct/Nov 2008
untitled - "we all met..." - Lee Clarke Zumpe - Scifaikuest, May 2008 print

"Books are mirrors: you only see in them what you already have inside you."

Carax, La sombra del viento

When I travel, I enjoy sampling the local food. So, when Wendy and I drove through Santa Maria on the way North yesterday, we stopped at Pappy's Diner. From the outside, Pappy's looked like it might have really, really good food or really bad food. The sheer number of cars in the parking lot was reassuring.

My BBQ Tri-Tip sandwich from locally grown beef was great.

The place was packed with Air Force from Vandenberg, cowboys, and construction workers. They also featured "poquitos" as an optional side. These Santa Maria area-grown beans, much smaller than pinto beans, were baked into a thick yumminess.

our car parked
in the BBQ grill's spot...
last sip of coffee

Back on the road, the rain picked up between San Luis Obispo and Salinas. It was steady but light as we pulled into Pacific Grove's Deer Haven Inn. By the time we made it downtown for the Friday Night Lights Party where all the stores were open late, offered discounts, and musicians played Christmas music on every corner, it had stopped raining.

There's a little Italian restaurant in Pacific Grove, where last year we had the most amazing cioppino. We talked about it on the entire drive, even when ordering at Pappy's Diner. So, of course, we ended up there again, enjoying a grilled artichoke from nearby Castroville as an appetizer.

Then, they served the cioppino, but instead the large bowls of fish-based broth brimming with clams, prawns, calamari, scallops, and fresh fish we remembered, they served us long plates, suitable for an ear and a half of corn, with sampler pieces of seafood lined up in a thick marinara sauce. They gave us a large spoon and a seafood fork as eating utensils, the spoon almost wider than the plate.

surprise shopping
we exclaim over the mustache
tea cup

I can't believe I'm actually going to Greece. I can't believe I'm actually leaving the country and going to freaking Europe. I never thought I'd be doing that any time soon. I'm really excited and I'm glad I can spend it with Mr. Vaos :)

It's already been announced all over the place, but in case you missed it, the Science Fiction Poetry Association now has a message board.

http://www.sfpoetry.com/forum/index.php

I want to thank SFPA VP ravenelectrick and our Web master hieran for making this board a reality.

I also want to thank three very brave souls - tithenai, mtentchoff, and dichroic for stepping forward to be our moderators.

Thank you, thank you, thank you from a very happy SFPA Prez.

wow... it's been a long time since i have written on this interface, instead of cutting and pasting or tweeting.

halted sophie's world at kant. needed a break from my second go at the history of philosophy.

started La sombra del viento and was mesmerised by it. imagine, a book on books. how interesting it is for a nerd like me.

will return to sophie after the interesting pause.

There's something therapeutic about baking. I've been behind on several projects and in the middle of trying to get them all done, I decided to do something about some over-ripe bananas that never made it into my breakfast cereal.

stress beaten
out with the mixer...
banana bread

Years ago I thought it was cool every time my phone beeped with a haiku from Tinywords. This, for the most part, pre-dated texting for all but nerds and techophiles.

When my phone beeped this morning with a one-liner haiku from la_tisana, it made my morning.

Now there are twitter zines, perfectly-sized for haiku.

I've been trying to avoid tweeting...I need to find some time to be away from my laptop! But despite my good intentions, I am the featured poet on a twitter-zine this week:

http://twitter.com/7x20

It turns out, my haiku won the Haiku International Association recent contest: http://akitahaiku.wordpress.com/ Now, can you believe that? :) HIA is the largest international haiku association, with hundreds of members in Japan as well as other foreign countries. Their bilingual English/ Japanese web site contains valuable haiku-related material, including commentaries of some prominent haijin, bios, contest results with commentaries, etc. The President of the HIA is Dr. Akita Arima (I showed one of his books I have in my library). -- Вот только что узнала, что моё хайку стало победителем в последнем конкурсе Международная Ассоциация Хайку (Япония). Оказывается, об этом было сообщено 28 ноября на симпозиуме, посвящённом 20-летию этой организации : http://akitahaiku.wordpress.com/ . До сих пор не верится :) Это самая большая международная организация хайку в мире, с сотнями членов в Японии и в других странах. Президент Ассоциации -- профессор Акита Арима (я показывала одну из его книг, которые есть в моей библиотеке). На двуязычном сайте организации (японский - английский) много крайне полезных материалов, особенно анализов хайку, сделанных известнейшими хайдзинами, их биографий, материалов всех конкурсов, и пр.

... ... ... ... ... ...

Below, there is a haiga with my haiku and a tradinional Japanese laquer box of unbelievable beauty (found this photo on a Japanese web site, no author's listed): -- Вот моё хайку на русском; и хайга с этим хайку, с бесподобной красоты традиционной японской лакированной шкатулкой (фото нашла в Интернете, без автора, на японском сайте):

поздняя осень лунный свет законсервирован в стеклянной банке

поздняя осень ... лунный свет заготовлен впрок в стеклянной банке

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( UPDATE )
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Google Free translator

I found out through a link on Greg Schwartz's blog, that the wonderful little haiku journal called Wisteria is going on hiatus. Editor Tony A. Thompson cites other life priorities that he needs to attend to, and I wish him and his family well. He hopes to return to publishing in a year or so. I hope it works out for them.

I only published one haiku there, a haiku I wrote after the 2007 family vacation to Yellowstone and Montana.

big sky country
my horse races
the milky way

- Deborah P Kolodji
Wisteria, Fall 2008

Meanwhile, two online haiku publications went online December 1st:

Tales of the Gean, a relatively new haiku webzine. I have yet to submit there, but have put it on my "to-do" list.

The Heron's Nest, which contains a haiku by me, and one by my friend ankh_hpl here, among many others.

Yesterday, I received a copy of Mariposa 21, the membership journal of the Haiku Poets of Northern California edited by Ebba Story and Susan Antolin. It also contains a Kolodji haiku along with work by Fay Aoyagi, Ernest J. Berry, Yvonne Cabalona, Stanford M. Forester, Patrick Gallagher, Gary Gay, Carolyn Hall, Patricia Machmiller, Lenard D. Moore, paul m, Tom Painting, Billie Wilson and many more.

Finally, I received word that I am going to have a haiku in the Lilliput Review's Basho Challenge Chapbook, which will be available some time next year. I didn't win the contest, but am happy to be in the chapbook.