Via the ancmed mailing list, found a link to Hollow Lakedaimon, a blog that tries to analyze the mechanism of hoplite combat and promote a really close crowd-pressure model for the othismos phase in ancient Greek battles. Quite an interesting read to say the least.
November 16th, 2009
So. No werewolves have prowled since the day after Red Dirt. Nope. I have a major scene going on, but haven't had time to finish it. Two people are about to die. And it'll be shown live on a Web cam. Eventually. Well, there ya go.
I spent most of the weekend grading a monstrous stack of papers. Hopefully that load will be cut down beginning this week. On Saturday morning I was "trained" on how to use these electronic clickers. Basically, I can create an assignment or quiz and students answer via remote control. The computer grades them, and I just have to transfer the grades to the other program where we actually record our grades. What I like is that I can time the questions. This should keep the little buggers focused and cut down on some of the cheating. If you only have 10 seconds to choose the right answer, you're less likely to be able to look to see what other people are doing, right? We'll see.
I did try to do some Web site remodeling earlier today. The result? A message saying my site is temporarily unavailable. I had my domain forwarded to a Wordpress site, but Wordpress won't allow me to embed a PayPal button I need for a contest I'm planning. So I tried going with an older style site with frames that includes the Wordpress blog in the design. It worked on my computer. Needed some tweaking, especially in color matching, but it worked. I put it online and changed my forwarding and I have nothing.
Back to writing. Since we've talked about it at Conestoga and she's mentioned it a time or two, I guess it's not a "super secret project" any more. So, what I did with the little bit of writing time I had yesterday and today was work on a book I co-wrote with Carrie Jones. Her agent wants a few more changes, the biggest of which is to get it under 400 pages. Yes, it's that long. And it's shorter now than it originally was! Anyway, I have to say that I really enjoyed writing this book with Carrie and it's a lot of fun to be back in that world.
I spent most of the weekend grading a monstrous stack of papers. Hopefully that load will be cut down beginning this week. On Saturday morning I was "trained" on how to use these electronic clickers. Basically, I can create an assignment or quiz and students answer via remote control. The computer grades them, and I just have to transfer the grades to the other program where we actually record our grades. What I like is that I can time the questions. This should keep the little buggers focused and cut down on some of the cheating. If you only have 10 seconds to choose the right answer, you're less likely to be able to look to see what other people are doing, right? We'll see.
I did try to do some Web site remodeling earlier today. The result? A message saying my site is temporarily unavailable. I had my domain forwarded to a Wordpress site, but Wordpress won't allow me to embed a PayPal button I need for a contest I'm planning. So I tried going with an older style site with frames that includes the Wordpress blog in the design. It worked on my computer. Needed some tweaking, especially in color matching, but it worked. I put it online and changed my forwarding and I have nothing.
Back to writing. Since we've talked about it at Conestoga and she's mentioned it a time or two, I guess it's not a "super secret project" any more. So, what I did with the little bit of writing time I had yesterday and today was work on a book I co-wrote with Carrie Jones. Her agent wants a few more changes, the biggest of which is to get it under 400 pages. Yes, it's that long. And it's shorter now than it originally was! Anyway, I have to say that I really enjoyed writing this book with Carrie and it's a lot of fun to be back in that world.
Lace scarf is 25% done. Did most of that in 2 days. I'd like to get mine started before I go, at least.
Tomorrow, my ring order arrives and I can assemble some simple quick sale things and finish other pieces. It's been an interesting weekend of meeting a friend of richard's who's also in the art thing, and some cases of my getting cranky over this temp roomie thing. ( to his credit he has gotten his act together. I just like my space. Guests good. Extended stay ...no.)
We made a massive breakfast feast of waffles, fruit, bacon, eggs. ( he touched little of it!) and then a heap of chicken and spinach with rice and peanut sauce. ( nibbled at that.) Just when I think I"m a dietary disaster, we meet someone who subsists on peanuts, gatorade and candy, he won't touch vegetables, he's fussy about fruit. Dude! you feel like shit because you don't eat....
Anyway. His choice, not mine.
R and I had a verbal thing last night, but it cleared some things up. We both seem to agree that if I was to EVER get pregnant again, a job at that time would be stupid. Mostly because even if the first was just a nonviable from the word go ( cell div. mayhem) the second, I felt I was forever struggling to eat and rest enough and part of me just thinks maybe I am best off doing naught but eat and rest, right? ( no scientific evidence but I do recall being impossibly ravenous, constantly.)
Besides, cuts down on stress too. That HAS to help. So as much as I'd love to work, and for most I guess it can work, when you've seen two chances go by, you start to irrationally, or rationally hedge the odds in your favor, right?
( OF COURSE it shall be noted that should we manage this whole getting knocked up thing this time round, it'd be a spectacular disaster of logistics as hatching would be due round Dcon and the start of classes again. Since the universe has a warped sense of humor....)
Gotta start getting organized for the trip, too.
Oh.STARBUCKS BROUGHT BACK GINGERBREAD LATTES AND I AM SO HAPPY. OH. MY. HOW I MISSED THEM!
You just don't know, but it would have made halifax winter marginally less hideous for the existence of such wonder.
Ah, halifax winter: starts mid sept. snow till may. Fuck that. It's mid november here and we're still getting beautiful days that remind me of England and Holland and I miss mild winters so much.
We watched Torchwood today, subtitles in dutch. It went just too fast for me to read but what I did, I grasped about 1/3 to 1/2 of it and i'm feeling rather puffed up on that.
wickedly crashing tired now. Much to do this and next week.
Tomorrow, my ring order arrives and I can assemble some simple quick sale things and finish other pieces. It's been an interesting weekend of meeting a friend of richard's who's also in the art thing, and some cases of my getting cranky over this temp roomie thing. ( to his credit he has gotten his act together. I just like my space. Guests good. Extended stay ...no.)
We made a massive breakfast feast of waffles, fruit, bacon, eggs. ( he touched little of it!) and then a heap of chicken and spinach with rice and peanut sauce. ( nibbled at that.) Just when I think I"m a dietary disaster, we meet someone who subsists on peanuts, gatorade and candy, he won't touch vegetables, he's fussy about fruit. Dude! you feel like shit because you don't eat....
Anyway. His choice, not mine.
R and I had a verbal thing last night, but it cleared some things up. We both seem to agree that if I was to EVER get pregnant again, a job at that time would be stupid. Mostly because even if the first was just a nonviable from the word go ( cell div. mayhem) the second, I felt I was forever struggling to eat and rest enough and part of me just thinks maybe I am best off doing naught but eat and rest, right? ( no scientific evidence but I do recall being impossibly ravenous, constantly.)
Besides, cuts down on stress too. That HAS to help. So as much as I'd love to work, and for most I guess it can work, when you've seen two chances go by, you start to irrationally, or rationally hedge the odds in your favor, right?
( OF COURSE it shall be noted that should we manage this whole getting knocked up thing this time round, it'd be a spectacular disaster of logistics as hatching would be due round Dcon and the start of classes again. Since the universe has a warped sense of humor....)
Gotta start getting organized for the trip, too.
Oh.STARBUCKS BROUGHT BACK GINGERBREAD LATTES AND I AM SO HAPPY. OH. MY. HOW I MISSED THEM!
You just don't know, but it would have made halifax winter marginally less hideous for the existence of such wonder.
Ah, halifax winter: starts mid sept. snow till may. Fuck that. It's mid november here and we're still getting beautiful days that remind me of England and Holland and I miss mild winters so much.
We watched Torchwood today, subtitles in dutch. It went just too fast for me to read but what I did, I grasped about 1/3 to 1/2 of it and i'm feeling rather puffed up on that.
wickedly crashing tired now. Much to do this and next week.
When you forego watching a Looney Tunes marathon on Cartoon Network, and not pay attention to the Patriots/Colts game, in order to finish off a major chapter of the novel you're working on.
creativeReached 1193 words today over the course of a four hours (sidetracked by football and Holmes on Homes, of course), but Chapter 36 is DONE. I'm quite happy with this chapter--I feel it's some of the best work I've done in a long time. Sure, that isn't hard to believe, considering my last serious work was done quite some time ago, but still...I really like how this one worked out.
The next scene's going to be a tough one, though...I could have multi-POV in one chapter on this, or I could continue with the change of POV per chapter and draw out the ending LotR-style (sort of), but it's going to need a lot of POV nontheless. What happens next directly affects a goodly amount of characters of all tiers, and I don't want to leave anyone out, at least not in the first draft. Keep in mind, this isn't a post-climactic "this is what happened to everyone" ending--this whole passage is the climax of the novel and the trilogy itself, and this is what it all led up to, and it's not just affecting the main characters. And it's not just internal change, either.
This may take some time, but I'm hoping this will turn out great.
Also--still need to expand on Chapter 34. Major scene with D'kami/Saishourenzyoushu, and at five pages and only 1500-plus words, it seems a bit short. I may move it to post-Chapter 36, as I think it might flow a little better there...but we'll see.
Either way...I'm thinking right now, it's time for me to use the old standby for mapping out what I want to do--some scrap paper at work, frantically jotting down notes of where I want everything to go. May take a day or so, but I'm sure I can come up with something by then! Definitely looking forward to this...it'll be just like old times again... :)
The next scene's going to be a tough one, though...I could have multi-POV in one chapter on this, or I could continue with the change of POV per chapter and draw out the ending LotR-style (sort of), but it's going to need a lot of POV nontheless. What happens next directly affects a goodly amount of characters of all tiers, and I don't want to leave anyone out, at least not in the first draft. Keep in mind, this isn't a post-climactic "this is what happened to everyone" ending--this whole passage is the climax of the novel and the trilogy itself, and this is what it all led up to, and it's not just affecting the main characters. And it's not just internal change, either.
This may take some time, but I'm hoping this will turn out great.
Also--still need to expand on Chapter 34. Major scene with D'kami/Saishourenzyoushu, and at five pages and only 1500-plus words, it seems a bit short. I may move it to post-Chapter 36, as I think it might flow a little better there...but we'll see.
Either way...I'm thinking right now, it's time for me to use the old standby for mapping out what I want to do--some scrap paper at work, frantically jotting down notes of where I want everything to go. May take a day or so, but I'm sure I can come up with something by then! Definitely looking forward to this...it'll be just like old times again... :)
I have written 600 words on the synopsis. It would have been done, if I hadn't decided to extend the synopsis so that it covers A Shadow of Love, too. Maschosist? Me? Uh... Maybe a tiny bit. :) I still think it will be helpful. I have already discovered a couple of things that need to be expanded, and moved. Likely I'll discover more things later.
accomplishedOddly enough, I can't think of too much that changed or happened personally to me in 2003...for the most part, it was a continuation of 2002 in terms of my own goals and events. By then I'd just finished off The Persistence of Memories and was working on its revision/rewrite, as well as starting to write The Process of Belief. Work was...well, it was work. After a great year or so at YC, things started changing...our boss Mike (who was probably the best boss we had, IMO) left to go back to his first love, running a restaurant. A few people left and weren't replaced by new hires. And of course when Q4 came around, temps were scarce until it was nearly too late. Things were still okay, I still got along with a lot of friends...but I could tell things were slowly changing.
I'd say most of my music choices by this point were fueled by suggestions from CMJ and other magazines, continuing my insane amount of purchases at Newbury Comics, and listening to Yahoo's Launchcast. I did listen to a bit of radio (including WAMH, of course), but for the most part it was either Launchcast or hearing stuff being played at Newbury. I'd say that while there were a lot of great albums out in 2003, it felt more like a transitional year for me...not all the albums stuck or stayed with me, but there were a lot of GREAT singles. Hence the huge list of videos under the cut. ;)
( Out on the road today I saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac )
I'd say most of my music choices by this point were fueled by suggestions from CMJ and other magazines, continuing my insane amount of purchases at Newbury Comics, and listening to Yahoo's Launchcast. I did listen to a bit of radio (including WAMH, of course), but for the most part it was either Launchcast or hearing stuff being played at Newbury. I'd say that while there were a lot of great albums out in 2003, it felt more like a transitional year for me...not all the albums stuck or stayed with me, but there were a lot of GREAT singles. Hence the huge list of videos under the cut. ;)
( Out on the road today I saw a Black Flag sticker on a Cadillac )
nostalgicMoulinets, moulinets, pretty bloody moulinets....
November 15th, 2009
An interesting article about how perfectionism in music production might be killing what makes rock music good and unique.
Hat tip to![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
matociquala for pointing it out! :)
Hat tip to
matociquala for pointing it out! :)It's cool, but not cold - we've actually got the back door opened. Today, my day is on the computer:
- Morning pages
- Birka merchants spreadsheet
- Last Rites from 4 pm to 7 pm
- Cooking - quiche?
- Baking - cranberry muffins no apricots! I only had 3 dried apricots left. :D
- Cooking - chex mix
- fold and put away laundry
My life is so fascinating. :p
- Birka merchants spreadsheet
- Last Rites from 4 pm to 7 pm
- Cooking - quiche?
- Cooking - chex mix
- fold and put away laundry
My life is so fascinating. :p
amusedI just figured out why I am struggling so with Angel among demons. I have treated it like it is an old idea, but I should threat it as new. Which means drop it, revise Daughter of the Dark ( both parts), and then revise the outline to something synopsis like. Speaking of Synopsis, I am considering doing one for Daughter of the Dark, too. I know, I am a maschosist, but it has to be done sooner or later. Beside, it will help me in the long run I think.
November 14th, 2009
Tonight, I discovered a research gem. I stumbled upon the program Grow your own drugs. I learned a lot. Did you know, that hops are sedative? I didn't.
Did you know that figs can grow in England? I didn't.
Did you know that figs can grow in England? I didn't.
Dog walked, girl caffienated, r hung the orangey sheers, and he's putting up more art.
Some knitting done. Shortly, out to the post office and library.
A good mellow saturday.
Febreezed the guest room and opened a window. T'was getting a funk in there.
Some knitting done. Shortly, out to the post office and library.
A good mellow saturday.
Febreezed the guest room and opened a window. T'was getting a funk in there.
Once I let the realisation that no on eis perfect sink in I think that I'm more comfortable in my idea of what I would want from a partner.
Which is probably why I'm also happy being on my own for the time being! I'm too busy living my life being selfish and doing it my way to want to compromise any time soon. And, of course, I also haven't met anyone I'm willing to compromise for yet too.*
* All of the above is stated nonwithstanding the fact that Richard Armitage is the most perfect man in the world and I would very much like him for Christmas please...
cold
My latest Drawmo thingie! I copied him from a drawing I found on another blog because I couldn't not do something with that wicked grin. He's been a good lesson in handling both color and contrast--and hasn't done my libido much harm either. Maybe the next Luce I do will actually have depth now!
busyNovember 13th, 2009
Tuesday October 27, 2009 Woke up feeling better than before whatever I'd been sick with.
***To the food shelf at Minnehaha United Methodist Church.
Food set out for the taking included Vietnamese fish sauce with eggplant, and fish sauce with visible pieces of fish. Decided I wasn't adventurous enough for either.
***Out again. At Midtown Farmers Market, I used the last of the farmers market checks.
Across Lake Street to Savers thrift store, which didn't have what I wanted.
Bought a few groceries at Target and Cub.
***Public Release: 27-Oct-2009
CyberPsychology & Behavior
Smokers who crushed computer-simulated cigarettes as part of a psychosocial treatment program in a virtual reality environment had significantly reduced nicotine dependence and higher rates of tobacco abstinence than smokers participating in the same program who grasped a computer-simulated ball, according to a study described in the current issue of CyberPsychology and Behavior, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Contact: Vicki Cohn
vcohn@liebertpub.com
914-740-2156
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea
***To the food shelf at Minnehaha United Methodist Church.
Food set out for the taking included Vietnamese fish sauce with eggplant, and fish sauce with visible pieces of fish. Decided I wasn't adventurous enough for either.
***Out again. At Midtown Farmers Market, I used the last of the farmers market checks.
Across Lake Street to Savers thrift store, which didn't have what I wanted.
Bought a few groceries at Target and Cub.
***Public Release: 27-Oct-2009
CyberPsychology & Behavior
Smokers who crushed computer-simulated cigarettes as part of a psychosocial treatment program in a virtual reality environment had significantly reduced nicotine dependence and higher rates of tobacco abstinence than smokers participating in the same program who grasped a computer-simulated ball, according to a study described in the current issue of CyberPsychology and Behavior, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.
Contact: Vicki Cohn
vcohn@liebertpub.com
914-740-2156
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_relea
I believe I've posted this song before as an audio-only YT video from The La's, but just found this one. Still a song that stays with me, and one I wish I'd written. Always kinda reminds me of the end of the year, when some things in my life are ending and other things haven't yet started...sort of that winter stasis before something new that changes everything. If that makes sense. ;)
(And of course, I always highly recommend their one (self-titled) album to anyone...still one of my top ten of all time.)
Sera has this really big dopey grin when she's happy. Ok, she has this very big SNOUT and big mouth to boot.
Which has the effect of either scaring people half senseless as she lopes along all mouth agape and happy and oh, full of shiny teeth, or when she "smiles", and when she sits in the elevator looking somewhat dazed and confused.
She was doing the latter today, looking up at a girl with that big dim smile and the girl just could not stifle giggles. "Yeah," I said."She's friendly, but kind of dim some days" as Sera stares blankly at the girl, tongue lolling.
Way to go dog!
Which has the effect of either scaring people half senseless as she lopes along all mouth agape and happy and oh, full of shiny teeth, or when she "smiles", and when she sits in the elevator looking somewhat dazed and confused.
She was doing the latter today, looking up at a girl with that big dim smile and the girl just could not stifle giggles. "Yeah," I said."She's friendly, but kind of dim some days" as Sera stares blankly at the girl, tongue lolling.
Way to go dog!