Eleanor of Discovery Trails writes the following:

Dear Friends,

I am so sorry, everyone. The Discovery Trails program did not make it onto Pepsi’s February List. I was sure we would be on the list because I was one of the first 100 to apply, but it is clear we are not at www.refresheverything.com. I have resubmitted. But this time, I will wait until March 1 to see if we are there before I ask anyone to vote.

This is really disappointing because fundraising is really not working very well this year!

Meanwhile, there are a lot of classy programs on the Pepsi list. Do vote!

Thanks for all your help. Will you please let your friends and contacts know of this glitch? Thanks.

Eleanor

Remember when Fraction and I did the program with the kids at the Kansas School for the Blind? These are the same folks:

PLEASE VOTE FOR the DISCOVERY TRAILS PROGRAM

Your vote is worth $50,000 to us!

The Discovery Trails Program is part of the Pepsi Refresh Project.

We could win $50,000 in February if all our friends and all YOUR friends vote for us every day in February.

Here’s what to do:

•  Every day in February, go to http://www.refresheverything.com

•  Find the “Arts and Culture” voting option

•  Look for “Discovery Trails” in the list of programs

• VOTE FOR DISCOVERY TRAILS to receive $50,000

•  Do this every single day in February.

If you have more than one computer, you can cast a vote from each computer each day.

You can visit the website before Feb 1^st and click on a button on the right hand side “alert me when voting begins.”

This is a national competition.  There are 1000 competitors!  We need every vote we can get to have a chance at that $50,000.

PLEASE VOTE EARLY AND OFTEN!!

Thanks so very much!

Hiya.  I’m doing 5-day residency at Warren Ellis’s Whitechapel forum starting today.  So of course today’s crazy-busy and I’m not going to really be able to sit down and properly answer questions until this evening.  But still.

And hey–Emma Vieceli is doing one too!

Links to both threads are here.

Two Sif-related items this morning!

1) Ryan tweeted a little teaser image here; and

2) The first Sif-related interview is up.  It’s at Newsarama, right here.

Here’s an excerpt:

Nrama: I have but one simple question for you as a writer: What makes you dig Sif?

DeConnick: I think it’s the same thing explains my fondness for women-of-vengeance movies and the Japanese pinky violence films of the 1970s.  I think… I mean, I’m a five foot tall short-tempered woman of Sicilian heritage and when someone or something pisses me off—which happens, I’m somewhat ashamed to admit, on a regular basis—it’s neither socially nor ethically acceptable for me to pick up a baseball bat and crack heads.  But boy… I entertain the notion about once a day.  So there’s that fantasy element to Sif.

And then—stepping away from my own character defects for a moment—there’s the age-old mythic appeal of the Hero.

Nrama: And of course: What is it that compels us mortals to partake in the epic tales of Asgard?

DeConnick: What makes us read fiction at all?  What’s the appeal of parable or fable?  It’s the same thing that made me a nut for Greek mythology when I was a kid—these over-sized tales push our power-fantasy buttons, sure, but they also help us order our understanding of each other and our world.

I mean, we’re getting into Joseph Campbell stuff here, but this is marrow, you know?  I think imagination and myth are as hard-wired into us as our appetites for sustenance and love.

I’m looking for a long 6 drawer dresser in a dark wood for HL and Tallulah’s room. It needs to be at least 16 inches deep in order to accommodate a changing pad.

I prefer a dark wood (but not black) and a modern aesthetic.

Leading contenders so far: http://delicious.com/kellysue/dresser

Any help/links appreciated.

Spider-Man by Ryan Stegman

Interior artist for Sif announced today–Ryan Stegman!  [That's his Spider-Man up top.] I am absolutely delighted. Go see why:

Stegman’s blog
Stegman’s twitter stream
Ryan Stegman on deviantART
Comic Art Gallery of Ryan Stegman

hastily photoshopped picture of KellySue & Fraction’s l’il Shell Head., originally uploaded by steverogers.

Only I didn’t. Instead I dreamt (dreamed?) that Fraction and I, Henry and our friend Eleanor were on a river cruise through some unnamed European city. We’d forgotten to reserve a cabin and weren’t sure where or how we were going to sleep when we were called to meet the boat’s Captain.

Because I was an Olympic silver-medalist in “Costumed 100 Meter Freestyle (Open Water),” they were providing us with a free room. Of course, if I would participate in an exhibition swim later in the day, they’d be appreciative.

Luckily, I’d packed my Iron Man costume.

I put these lists together in a feeble attempt to communicate “my style” to Ariana when she was setting up this blog. I post them now because, uh, it’s the new year and I’m kind of dying to make lists but I don’t have the time or mental energy to craft new ones.

Nothing that follows should be considered exhaustive and I reserve the right to change my mind about anything at any moment.

Color Combinations:
Lipstick red and Robin’s Egg blue
pink and lime green
pink and tiffany blue
orange and red

Random Items:
zebra stripes
leopard prints
purses and shoes
poppies
black damask
Lois Lane
stupid-high heels
the smell of parsnips
the smell of fresh tomatoes
the word “tomato”
Modesty Blaise
baking
pretty cupcakes
Marchesa Luisa Casati
dark chocolate
navy blue stripes
Mediterranean festivals
Andy Warhol’s handwriting
Joan Didion
Anne Lamott
John Irving
Mary McCarthy’s The Company She Keeps
JD Salinger’s Nine Stories
patterns and textures
big hair, big hats
Ann-Margret
Shaun White
clean sheets
manners
crime scene photography
the history of burlesque
the suffragettes
the Women’s Movement
Anna Magnani
Marcello Mastroianni
Giulietta Masina
Dean Martin
Steve McQueen
Robert Conrad
mens suits, cut slim
Meiko Kaji
Japanese “pinky violence” films
Domino magazine (RIP)

Movies:
Lady Snowblood
Female Prisoner #701 Scorpion
All That Jazz
Amelie
The Princess Bride
The World According to Garp
The Royal Tenenbaums
Unbearable Lightness of Being
Secretary
Unbreakable
Robocop
The Iron Giant
Real Genius

Designers:
Kate Spade
Jonathan Adler
Alexander McQueen
Vera Wang
John Galliano

Artists:
Taiyo Matsumoto
the whole collection of rococo artists
John Singer Sargent
Evaline Ness
Rachel Stuart-Haas
Ashley G & Drew

Music:
Queen
AC/DC
Meiko Kaji
Mike Doughty
Soul Coughing
Johnny Cash
Lyle Lovett
FUNNY FACE soundtrack
TANK GIRL soundtrack
Helen Reddy
Tori Amos
Puffy AmiYumi
Jacques Brel
Gwen Stefani
anything I might have listened to on a swim team bus in 1978

There’s been so much going on in the last few months with the move and the pregnancy and work and holidays and, well, everything, that I’m feeling a bit more stressed at year’s end than I’d like. Not that I ever favor stress, but I love New Year’s! It’s the closest thing to that back-to-school feeling that I get as a grown up. Fresh start! New calendars! New attitude! New resolutions! New lists! New! New! New! New! New!

This is usually the time of year (Fraction calls it the ghost week) when we get to clean our offices, put gifts away, archive files and generally take time out for the reflection and accounting we don’t allow ourselves during the rest of the year.

The way this week is going so far? It ain’t gonna happen.

…Which makes it kind of a bummer that I just noticed this list of prompts in a mailer from David Allen & Co.

COMPLETING AND REMEMBERING 2009

Review the list of all completed projects
What was your biggest triumph in 2009?
What was the smartest decision you made in 2009?
What one word best sums up and describes your 2009 experience?
What was the greatest lesson you learned in 2009?
What was the most loving service you performed in 2009?
What is your biggest piece of unfinished business in 2009?
What are you most happy about completing in 2009?
Who were the three people that had the greatest impact on your life in 2009?
What was the biggest risk you took in 2009?
What was the biggest surprise in 2009?
What important relationship improved the most in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have received in 2009?
What compliment would you liked to have given in 2009?
What else do you need to do or say to be complete with 2009?

CREATING THE NEW YEAR

What would you like to be your biggest triumph in 2010?
What advice would you like to give yourself in 2010?
What is the major effort you are planning to improve your financial results in 2010?
What would you be most happy about completing in 2010?
What major indulgence are you willing to experience in 2010?
What would you most like to change about yourself in 2010?
What are you looking forward to learning in 2010?
What do you think your biggest risk will be in 2010?
What about your work, are you most committed to changing and improving in 2010?
What is one as yet undeveloped talent you are willing to explore in 2010?
What brings you the most joy and how are you going to do or have more of that in 2010?
Who or what, other than yourself, are you most committed to loving and serving in 2010?
What one word would you like to have as your theme in 2010

I realize I’m a giant nerd for liking things like this, but–NEWSFLASH!–I’m kind of a giant nerd. Anyway, maybe one of you will get some use out of it. Or maybe I’ll get back to it in January. Of 2011.