I've set up a page of pictures from my trip to Dayton for Jasper's Reading/Q&A/Signing for the American hardback edition of LIAGB.

The first few pics were taken by me during the talk. The two of my friend Phil and I with Jasper were taken by Mari, and the last pic is one of my dodo with the smaller one I gave Jasper, sitting on my couch before I left home.

BTW, he and Mari had seen the Fforum recently, because he asked after my mother (after her car's encounter with a deer) and was muttering (good naturedly) about monkey ears while Mari was taking the pictures.

Oh, you want the URL? It's here:

[www.geocities.com]

He looks in better shape than he did in DC! And I detect no simian attributes whetever (he said loyally).



- - -
I am very interested in the Universe. I am specialising in the Universe and everything surrounding it. - E. L. Wisty

great pics Magda!

Lovely pics, Jasper looks good and so do you (wish my hair would grow that long...) Well impressed with the colour of Jasper's shirt.
How many dodos do you think he has now ?

Total agreement with Skiffle from over here. Plock from Dido!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Well, I banked on the likelyhood that even if he has a number of dodo's, he probably didn't have a homemade version 1.2. And I figured a small one would travel better, and be easier to find a spot for than a large one.

He doesn't appear to have had any appearances scheduled between the DC gigs and the one last night, so hopefully he had some time to play tourist and/or shed any remaining jet-lag.



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Magda,

Your pics are great!! Glad you had a chance to meet him. Aren't he and Mari absolutely delightful? I thoroughly enjoyed meeting them. Hope you got past your shyness and actually spoke :) And by the way, your bookstore had pretty decent lighting. I'd rather have a full bank of fluorescent lighting than the canned halogens combined with some incandescent and fluorescent. If you have just one color temp of lighting, it's much easier for your camera to compensate. Not to mention easier to compensate manually if you have to do it in Photoshop!

Ooh, I'm really quite jealous.

And the dodos are SOOO cute!!

Thanks dante!

TO ALL:

By brushing out the glowing red eyes, I've managed to add 2 or 3 more pictures of Jasper with his eyes actually *open*.

They've been added to the same page, here:

[www.geocities.com]

If I had more free time, I'd consider offering to do dodos on a commission/mail order basis, but for most folks here the shipping would probably be outrageous. Certainly on the customs forms I'd have to be sure to put 'plush toy animal' rather than 'stuffed dodo', which could cause any amount of confusion.

You know, it's just occurred to me....my brother turned down a job with MicroSoft because he didn't want to work for the evil empire. And now I have a badge stating that I work for Goliath Corp. Isn't life ironic?

consider it

please.....

:-)



---
Sylvester says.... *plock*




actually he says peep, cheep, chirrup, squalk,muttermuttergrumblegrumble, oh and now he falls off his pirch whish is followed by a sheepish peek round to see if anyone was looking and a quick scramble back up

Magda,

Your pictures are terrific. I love the dodo's!

I've just returned from hearing Jasper give a book talk and he mentioned the dodo you gave him. He said it rather quickly but I'm pretty sure he said he'd named it Alan. He also spoke very highly of the Forum folks. It's really amazing to hear him speak.

Hi Magda,

Great pictures, and I LOVE your Dodos - in all seriousness, I would be HAPPY to pay you to make me one - of course shipping too! FYI, I'm in U.S. (Ohio) so let me know if you're "game" to try it. Or, did you use a particular pattern as a basis? (Or you may just be that clever, because I can't sew unless somebody tells me how!)

Take care!

Kathy
KG614

I did, in fact, use a pattern which can be purchased online. Details are in the thread titled "signing in Chicago last night...".

If you make one yourself, the two bits of advice I have are:
1. If the vinyl sticks to your sewing machine foot making it hard to sew, you can put masking tape over the part you're sewing, and then rip it off afterwards.
2. Clip curves well, and trim the excess seam allowance around the tip of the beak to make it easier to turn. Use a knitting needle to push out the beak tip.



--------------
"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Excellent, thank you. Sorry for the duplicate question!

Kathy

No problem at all. The woman who made and sells the pattern was very nice, even though I was a slightly troublesome (though polite) customer. The package stalled in the mail, and when my deadline (the Halloween party I was going to as Thursday Next) loomed close, she sent another kit out priority mail, which ended up arriving the same day as the first, and had me send one back. Since she was so nice about the whole thing, I'm happy to send a little business her way. She has lots of other cute animal patterns too.

I wonder if she'll have a rush on dodo patterns and kits as a result of Jasper's tour?

Naturally, for a V1.2 you simply don't bother to make or attach the wings, whereas for a 1.7 or later you would. Hmmm.....am now contemplating finding pink fur and making a longer necked and legged V2.9.1.....

I'm deffinitely interesteed

something todo while I'm off work

I'm very tempted to get that pattern myself. Just think... dodos for all my family!

Well, think about it - they can't think I'm any crazier than they already do...



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

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

I would get the pattern, but I don't have a sewing machine... and haven't sewed at all since school! Recipe for disaster, I suspect.

i'm useless at sewing...

I'd love a dodo though, i wonder if Hamleys would have one...

it would look great next to my bear disguised as a purple bunny.