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 |    Not for the faint of art. |
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Complex Numbers A complex number is expressed in the standard form a + bi, where a and b are real numbers and i is defined by i^2 = -1 (that is, i is the square root of -1). For example, 3 + 2i is a complex number. The bi term is often referred to as an imaginary number (though this may be misleading, as it is no more "imaginary" than the symbolic abstractions we know as the "real" numbers). Thus, every complex number has a real part, a, and an imaginary part, bi. Complex numbers are often represented on a graph known as the "complex plane," where the horizontal axis represents the infinity of real numbers, and the vertical axis represents the infinity of imaginary numbers. Thus, each complex number has a unique representation on the complex plane: some closer to real; others, more imaginary. If a = b, the number is equal parts real and imaginary. Very simple transformations applied to numbers in the complex plane can lead to fractal structures of enormous intricacy and astonishing beauty. ![Merit Badge in Quill Award
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| Ever watch a movie or show and something happens to break you out of suspension of disbelief? I'm sure it happens a lot. It used to bug me when you saw an explosion in space with an accompanying kaboom - when sound doesn't happen in a vacuum. I got over that, and started considering it no different from a soundtrack where the music isn't actually playing in the scene. Still bugs me when you see, say, a nuclear explosion from miles away, and the kaboom happens at the same time as the light, instead of lagging behind as sound does. I know why they do it, but it's still a violation of physics. Hell, they even do it with lightning and thunder. But the thing that never fails to annoy me is when there's a ghost. Everyone knows ghosts can walk through walls, right? I mean, usually, they don't have a choice in the matter. Ghost gets to a wall, strides right through without even thinking about it. But when you think about it, it doesn't make sense. Why is the wall transpirital (I just made that word up) but not the floor? I just said the ghost "walks." Why would a ghost have to walk, and even if there's a reason for that, what is the material difference (pun intended) between a wall and a floor? I don't know why this bugs me so much, but it does. Floors? Solid. Walls? Might as well be air. Usually you can even hear the spirit's footsteps. About the only time I've seen this done right was in old X-Men comics, where Kitty Pride / Shadowcat phased through every solid thing. But she wasn't a ghost; that was her mutant power. And yeah, I get that you have real actors playing the ghosts and there are limits to what you can do with SFX if your budget is small, but that just breaks suspension even more for me. Maybe there's a good, story-consistent reason for it. I don't know. If so, I'd feel better about it if they'd at least mention it. Or, you know, I could quit binge-watching Supernatural. ...nah. |
Today was National Drink Beer Day  , and I didn't drink any beer.It's more important to be a nonconformist than it is to stay malted. Not to worry - I'll make up for it tomorrow. |
| I learned a new word today! Zythology Never heard of it before, though I'm familiar with its sister, oenology. Turns out zythology is the study of beer. Dammit! I wish I'd known you could study beer back in college. Oh, wait, I did. I just didn't know what to call it. It's a nice word. It reminds me of another of my favorite words, syzygy. And it's kind of like mythology and theology. In other news, I finally got my Oktoberfest. The nearby taphouse doubled its fest selection with an offering from Great Lakes Brewing. Now that I've completed that quest, I'll need to find someplace with Pumking on tap. And I won't even need to study it first. |
| I hate ads. Now, I don't mean that the way most people do. Most people will say they hate ads, and then continue to watch TV. They put up with the ads anyway. A necessary - or at least convenient - evil. Other people deliberately watch the Big Trademarked Football Game in February just so they can see the really expensive ads when they come out. I can no more understand these humans than I can the ones who love camping in the cold. Mind you, I'm not ragging on them. To each their own and all that. I just don't understand. So I've never had cable TV. What few shows I used to watch, long ago before the internet, I could pick up with antennae and grumble my way through the ads. Star Trek: The Next Generation, for example. As for cable, I never could wrap my head around paying an assload of money every month for something I would rarely use, and, despite paying for it, still have to put up with commercials. But eventually even on-air commercials became too much for me to deal with, and I swore off TV entirely. Not that I didn't have a picture box; it's just that its sole purpose was to play VCRs and, later, DVDs. I filled my leisure time mostly with computer games - so don't think this is some screed against popular entertainment in general. Streaming has brought me back to TV. There's Netflix, of course, with a reasonable monthly fee - and the only ads I get are for other videos, which is fine; it's like previews before a movie. And Amazon offers shows that you can pay for, also without commercials. I'm still paying less than I would for cable. If they have a show, they usually release the episode the day after it airs on commercial TV, which is fine with me. But now, streaming services have been popping up all over, and usually, you can only get a show on one of them. This is getting to be a problem, as pretty soon it'll be too much like cable - too many choices, few of them worth it. So I have Netflix, and Amazon Prime (for which I get enough free shipping by itself to justify the annual fee), and CBS All Access. That last one is problematic. I got it for one reason and one reason only: Star Trek: Discovery. But there's another show I like called Salvation, which is also offered on CBS. Good writing, science fiction, and they have an actual scientist consulting on the science (astronomer Phil Plait, whose work I've been following for years). Anyway, the problem is this: In the middle of the show - not at the beginning or end, as some other streaming services do - they interrupt with an ad for another show, even though I'm paying the higher "ad-free" price. Even that wouldn't be so bad if the ad were for other science fiction shows. I mean, they know exactly what I watch on their site, and it's almost exclusively SF, so they could target their market. But no - the ads are for, if you've seen the movie Idiocracy, the equivalent of Ow! My Balls! - shows like Survivor and Big Brother. Shows, in short, that I have never, and will never, purposely watch. So - do I cancel my subscription, and miss out on Disco? Or put up with the Ow! My Balls! ads? I feel like they'll keep doing it if they can get away with it, and I don't want to encourage that sort of thing. But I really like Star Trek... Well, I'll tell you what - first time I see an ad for a home appliance, or cat food, or tampons, or anything like that, I'm out of there. Until then, I'll put up with it. |
| You know those credit/debit card readers they have at cash registers? Some models have an attached stylus that the customer is supposed to use to sign the pad to authorize the transaction. You're supposed to use the stylus because any other object, say an ink pen, fucks up the screen. Hell, pressing too hard with the stylus can fuck up the screen. One local store apparently had enough of idiots who can't/won't follow simple fucking instructions or be arsed to give a shit about anything, and removed all the styluses. Styli. Styla. Goddammit, I don't remember Latin. So in order to confuse the humans even more, they put little handwritten signs above the pads. Originally, these signs read: Please sign with finger pen is broken Now, I'll give them a pass on the punctuation thing. Ideally, a semicolon after "finger." I'd be okay with a period, too. At least they didn't use a comma splice. But the lack of punctuation is important for the point I'm trying to make. See, on each of these readers, the handwritten sign has been torn so that "broken" no longer exists. (So I'm guessing it was "broken." Maybe it was "missing." Or possibly "stolen." Doesn't matter.) This leaves us with: Please sign with finger pen is Which wouldn't be so bad if they'd maybe used a bigger space between the last two words. |
| When the British occupied India, many things caught them unprepared. To name but a few: the heat; Indians; lack of beer; and malaria. But the Brits are nothing if not inventive, so they figured out ways to deal with most of these issues. For example, malaria, which is a disease spread by mosquitoes: they realized that quinine makes an effective anti-malarial treatment. Quinine is the active ingredient in tonic water (that is, the "tonic" part), but the problem was that tonic water tastes remarkably like ass. So in order to make it more palatable, they invented the gin and tonic. Leave it to the Brits to add gin to something to make it taste better. Remarkably, the invention of the gin and tonic represents the one and only positive thing to result from mosquitoes. Since that has already been developed, though, it's not going away. Neither are mosquitoes. Or... are they? https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-45628905 Gene editing wipes out mosquitoes in the lab Researchers have used gene editing to completely eliminate populations of mosquitoes in the lab. The team tested their technique on the mosquito Anopheles gambiae, which transmits malaria. They altered part of a gene called doublesex, which determines whether an individual mosquito develops as a male or as a female. This allowed the Imperial College London scientists to block reproduction in the female mosquitoes. Now, normally, I'm against genocide. It's rude. But for mosquitoes, I'll make an exception. And yeah, I know, the risks, unintended consequences, etc. I've been reading science fiction most of my life, so I know that there might be some downsides. Take out a species, and we can't always predict what follows. Still, I'm pretty sure the ecosystem would adjust, eventually, to having no bloodsucking pests around. Well, other than politicians, anyway - still no way to eliminate them entirely. Or maybe something more catastrophic could occur. According to the gospel of science fiction, maybe the gene editing will take on a life of its own, eventually spreading to humanity. But you know what? We're all going to die eventually, anyway, and I promise you that the last words of the last human on earth will be "At... least... there... are... no... more... mosquitoes... croak." Worth it. In fact, about the only downside I can see would be if the cure gets out of control chaotically, attracting more dark matter to Earth, increasing its gravity such that it spirals into the sun. Millions of years later, flaming fusion cockroaches swarm from the solar orb and take over the galaxy. But hey, at least there won't be mosquitoes. |
| Let's do a little thought experiment. Say you like... I dunno... M&Ms. But for some reason, you like the red ones best. So you get a bag of M&Ms. What do you do? I know what I'd do. I'd eat the other colors first, and save the red ones for last, so I can finish with my favorites. I was doing this one day some years ago, back when I was more social, and a friend commented "You must really hate the red M&Ms." (It wasn't actually M&Ms. I don't think their flavor changes by color. I'm just using this as an example.) "Um... no, they're my favorite." She looked at me like I was a space alien. Well, to be fair, I get that a lot. Turns out she grew up with like 13 older brothers, and if she didn't grab her favorites first, they'd disappear, so she learned to take what she wanted fast. I, in contrast, had no siblings, so I had the luxury of saving the best for last. Now, the pessimist in me wants to say that by doing so, I'm just setting myself up for disappointment when all the variety is gone. In fact, the pessimist is the biggest part of me so of course that's where my mind goes. Or that I'd end up sharing them with my other friend who also had a lot of siblings, so he likes to mix Skittles in with the M&Ms because he's chaotic evil. So I'm just wondering what normal humans do, or if they ever even think about this sort of thing. |
| I guess Fall is officially here. Or Autumn. Never did figure out why there's two names for it, when the other seasons only get one each. A lot of people love this time of year. I am not one of them. Oh, it has its pleasures - Oktoberfest, leaf colors, and generally lower humidity among them - but the problem with autumn is that it's immediately followed by winter, and I despise winter in all its incarnations. I don't like the cold, though I am rather fond of the darkness. A lot of people I know love the cold, giving me yet another thing that I don't understand about humans. If I hear one more "I can always put on more clothes, but I can only take off so much when it gets hot," I might lose it at that human in particular. No amount of clothing can keep my hands and feet warm in the cold, and when those things are cold, I'm miserable. Gloves, socks, whatever - doesn't matter. Within seconds of venturing into the frigid air, I start to feel like an icicle. And yes, even someone who loves the indoors as much as I do has to venture out occasionally - and in the winter, occasionally is too often. About the only good thing about winter as far as I'm concerned is that I get to wear my leather trench coat without getting too many dirty looks. One strange thing, though: I'm a Birkenstock guy now. Have been ever since I visited Maui (which, I might add, I did in a February, the better to avoid the worst of that horrid month in Virginia). Birkenstocks are open-toed, cork-soled sandals. They're very comfortable once you break them in, and appeal to my basic (lazy) nature in that I don't have to tie shoelaces. I wore them almost exclusively on the cross-country trip I took last December, and I noticed something odd: despite their sockless nature, I survived temperatures in the single digits (F) while wearing them in Nevada. Best I can figure is it's not just the cold that gets me; it's the moisture, which is notably absent in the desert. Maybe I should move to Nevada. No... no. Too much temptation. Utah? Nah. Too little temptation. Thing is, I like Virginia - but mostly in the spring and summer. Might have to visit Maui again. |
| It's Oktoberfest season. Yes, I know it's not October yet. Don't blame me. Blame the Germans - they're the ones that start Oktoberfest in September. Every year, I look forward to this time because that is when all the Oktoberfest beer comes out. It's kind of the man version of pumpkin spice latte everything (though I'm sure someone, somewhere, has come up with a pumpkin spice latte beer). It's not my all-time favorite style, but since it's seasonal, I like to drink it when it's around. That pic of me in my bio? That's an Oktoberfest, from a visit to New York City a couple of years ago. But. I went to my favorite (read: closest and within stumbling distance) bar the other day, and the only fest they had was Sam Adams. Now, I'm not going to rag on Sam Adams - they've done a lot to promote craft beer in general, though they're big and corporate and their beer tends to be inoffensive and therefore uninteresting. We live in a golden age of beer, with over 6000 breweries in the US alone at the moment. Just about any style you can think of, and more, is represented somewhere in the world of craft beer. Moreover, in my local area, there's probably about a dozen breweries. So there's plenty of diversity in beer selection around here. And yet, the only fest this taphouse could come up with was Sam? Okay, so there's Alamo, the drafthouse/movie theater I mentioned a few entries ago. I got to the Wonka party early so I could have a couple of beers. I was hoping for an Oktoberfest. But no - I mean, they have a good selection, but dammit, it's nearly the end of September so where's my fest? So I spent my time drinking a nice stout and trying to use my phone to find out who around me has the holiday spirit. There's a BJ's in town now, and I looked at their menu and behold! An Oktoberfest. The accompanying text said, "lagered for up to three months." Okay, well, I like beer but I'm not an expert - I thought fests were supposed to lager for six months. Whatever. Their beer is okay for a chain, so perhaps I'll pay them a visit soon. But really, it shouldn't be this hard to find an Oktoberfest lager in September in a place with that many breweries around. Maybe if the taphouses weren't so fast to jump on board the whole "sour beer" fad, there would be more room for seasonal offerings. And yes, for the uninitiated, sour beers are actually a thing. I don't like them. I prefer my beer to taste different going down than it does coming back up. |
| When I decided to be lazy and order toilet paper online rather than schlep to the grocery store, I had no idea what I was in for. The bumwad appeared on time, though I had to wonder how long it was sitting on my front step advertising itself to the neighbors. See, it arrived in a box with the brand logo on it. The brand logo... and mascot. Leaving aside for a moment the perfectly reasonable question of why in the actual fuck does shitwipe have a mascot, said mascot is... ...a bear. A BEAR. A bear with soulless, fake-lash eyes that peer into the murky depths of your... soul (you thought I was going to write something else, didn't you?) Not only that, but she's leaning around a wall, or a doorway. Leering. Watching you use her product in the manner for which it was intended. Don't believe me? Here: https://cdn1.fishpond.co.nz/0176/014/358/907024384/original.jpeg I think my next order will be a bidet. |
| I'm just going to leave this here. https://www.boredpanda.com/dead-raccoon-memorial-shrine-mourning-deadraccoonto-t... |
| They promised us jetpacks and flying cars. What we got was airport security theater and collapsing infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Japan... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-hopes-flying-car-plans-will-make-vertical-tak... |
| I've been thinking about this story (warning: godsdamned autoplay video): https://www.cbsnews.com/news/santa-barbara-california-teen-rhami-zeini-finds-pur... A Santa Barbara, California, high school junior was driving home from school Wednesday when he noticed a black purse in the middle of the street. He rescued the purse from the roadway and was shocked by what he found inside: $10,000. Okay, cool. Good on the guy. Did the right thing, etc. Also lucky the cops were honest. Could have easily been like "Ma'am, we found your purse. Oh, the money? We didn't see any money. Someone must have lifted it. What's that? Where'd we get the shiny new rims on the police cruisers? Um, DUI fines. Nothing to worry about." Now, I'd like to think most of us would have done something similar. I don't know what the legal thing to do is; based on the founding legal principle of "finders keepers, losers weepers," it may very well be legal to keep the wad. But what's legal isn't always right and vice versa. Still, it got me thinking about thresholds. Let's say for the sake of argument that you're the type who would return the money. Pretty easy in this case, given that it was in a purse, and purses tend to also hold IDs. By the Ethical Principle of Least Resistance, you can feel good about your choice with very little effort. Okay. Now, very likely you've found a penny on the street (assuming you're in a country like the US that still uses pennies). Most of us don't even expend the minor effort it would take to bend over and pick the thing up. Besides, it's probably covered in germs, right? The penny stays. (For the record, I pick up pennies. And shut up about the "heads good luck tails bad luck" or vice-versa or whatever; that's nonsense. Money is always good luck.) But what if it's a nickel, a dime, a quarter? A dollar? A $20 bill? At what point do you stop saying "hey look, free money" and start looking for the owner? Hell, what are the chances you'd actually find the original owner? That's where ID comes in. What if it's a tiny wad of $1 bills clipped to an ID? Then do you return it? (I would - that might indicate it's a stripper.) At some point between "stack of 100 $100's with ID attached" and "stray penny," we say "fuck it," and the founding legal principle of "finders keepers, losers weepers" takes precedence. Looking at it from the loser's perspective (something I'm eminently qualified to do), if I lost $10k, I'd be upset, but I wouldn't expect its return. It'd be nice, sure, but I'd consider it's on me for dropping $10K on the street. Not that I'd ever expect to be in a position to do so, but I have, in fact, held that much cash in my hand before. Briefly. It's not as bulky as you'd think. Thinner than most paperbacks. Even thinner than my NaNoWriMo manuscripts, and worth a hell of a lot more. It's not a simple algorithm, either, not for an individual. Suppose you're in dire straits, just lost a job, buried in debt. Would you still do "the right thing?" About to be evicted or foreclosed upon? In which case "the right thing" starts to get a little murkier. What if you're simply in a bad mood, or - well, if I found that kind of cash lying around and the accompanying ID said "Richard Spencer," I'd probably keep it - though I expect I'd donate it to something left-wing just to piss off that Nazi ass. Except he'd never know about it, which might mute my satisfaction a bit. Anyway, just got me thinking about it. It's a hypothetical, like the trolley problem - not something you'd expect to encounter in day-to-day life. I will, however, continue to pick up pennies off the street. By the time I die, that'll make my estate about $1.23 richer. |
| Looks like humans have been brewing some type of beer for at least 13,000 years. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-45534133 Brewing beer was thought to go back 5,000 years, but the latest discovery may turn beer history on its head. "Head." You gotta love the British predilection for puns. This involved first germinating the grain to produce malt, then heating the mash and fermenting it with wild yeast, the study said. Well, that's certainly similar to the process used to make modern beer. You know, I've always wondered about certain early inventions, including beer - specifically, I've wondered how they came to be. I'm sure a lot of other people have, also, and some of them are vastly better equipped to investigate the question. Likely, there was a lot of serendipity involved; accidental discoveries are still a great driving force in invention today. Thing is, it's the yeast part that intrigues me. Anyone can grind grain, given grain and suitable tools. Adding it to water to soften it would follow logically. But the yeast - that would have been the happy accident. Yeast, as we know today, consume carbohydrates and release alcohol and carbon dioxide. We didn't know this, of course, until scientists started studying microorganisms. Before that, well, it might as well have been magic. So yeah, CO2 is yeast farts. And alcohol is yeast piss. And then there's the question of who decided to drink the stuff in the first place? From a position of ignorance, fermentation can be indistinguishable from food going bad. Maybe it was all a practical joke. "Hey, this porridge smells off. Let's feed it to the village simpleton and watch him puke everywhere." "Oh, great idea! I need a good laugh." Joke was on the pranksters, though, when the village simpleton suddenly acted all happy and stuff. You know what? I'm going to go with that. Necessity is the mother of invention, they say. I say that laziness is the milkman. And I like the idea of pranks being the midwife. The ancient booze was fermented but probably weaker than modern beer. Probably, but probably not weaker than Coors Light. Almost certainly tasted better, too. |
| The first movie I recall seeing in theaters was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It's possible my parents took me to other movies before that. I don't remember, and I never asked them. But that one stuck in my mind, mostly because of the tunnel scene - that sort of thing clamps onto you when you're five years old. It's entirely possible that my entire psychological complex has its roots in that one scene. I was pumped when Thor:Ragnarok paid it homage. Anyway, that never stopped Adult Me from liking the movie, after the usual teenage "that's kid stuff" crap. Even as a kid, I thought the moral lessons were a bit over the top, but there's enough depth to the movie as a whole for it to be worth revisiting. Plus, Gene Wilder was always awesome. So my local theater - an Alamo Drafthouse, which if you're lucky enough to be in one of their markets you know what I'm talking about - is having a Wonka screening this Friday, complete with a couple of the actors from the movie showing up for a Q&A afterwards (the former kid actors, of course - pretty sure all the adults have gone to the great chocolate factory in the sky). For the uninitiated, Alamo Drafthouse is just that - a drafthouse and a movie theater. It's adult-oriented (not in a tawdry way) and the theaters aren't usually stuffed with screaming kids, so watching something like, say, Incredibles 2 can be a pleasant experience. This particular screening allows kids 6 and up, which I find amusing because like I said, I was five when I first saw it in the theater. Of course I'm going. Wouldn't miss the opportunity to get completely drunk and then watch the tunnel scene. Oh, sure, I could do it at home; I have it on DVD. But there's something to be said for watching it in a room full of other fans, on a big screen. Now, let's get this out of the way: I never can bring up a movie that's been remade without someone commenting on the remake. I say Willy Wonka; they bring up Johnny Depp. I say Ghostbusters; they have to ask me if I liked Ghostbreasters . I mention the classic Total Recall, and someone has to mention the absolute crap remake of it. Point is, stop it. I get that they have to remake movies because money. Some of them are good. Some of them suck. But when I talk about Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, I do not want to hear about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If I wanted to talk about the remake, I'd talk about the remake. So if that means I have to bring it up to forestall discussion of it, so be it. |
| I think I'm becoming evil in my old age. Well, more evil, anyway. These past couple of days, I've been hearing about people who decided to ignore evacuation orders and stay in a hurricane zone. Now, I'm a gambling man. But it's one thing to risk a few bucks at the blackjack tables, and entirely another to stay in a place that has a good chance of being flooded and/or blown away on the wind. Not that I don't understand, at least to some extent. Someone tells me to leave my home, hell, I might even make the same choice. But then... then some of these people started asking for help. And that's where I draw the line. So I say: Fuck 'em. Now they've not only put their own lives at risk - their choice - but also those of emergency responders. And then I think, well, there are at least three situations I can see where it makes sense to have a bit of empathy for their plight. One story I saw before the hurricane hit was a mother who stayed with her three children. Why make the children suffer for their mother's choice? They didn't decide to be born unto an idiot. And emergency responders made their choices, too. Yeah, I know, the storm wasn't as bad as predictions indicated. But that could have gone either way, really. Like I said, a gamble. No sympathy for the stupid, here. But my lack of sympathy doesn't stop there. Today, a retail clerk asked me if I wanted to donate to some children's charity. I refused. Then she rang me up and proceeded to try to get me to sign one of those little "I donated" signs they hang up in retail establishments. "I didn't donate," I reminded her. "Oh, that's right," she replied, thus adding to the extortionist tactics in front of the other people in line. I tell myself it's because I donate to whom I choose, when I choose, and I'd rather pick organizations that have low overhead so the money goes to actual victims, not charity organizers. But honestly, children's charities are at the very bottom of my list, behind disaster relief, pet rescues, and casino owners. Partly because of the overhead, yeah, but partly because I just don't give a damn. I also turned off Amber Alerts on my phone because I simply don't care. I tell myself it's because I'm rarely in a position to do anything about it, and the notification is annoying, but I have weather alert sirens turned on in the damn thing because that could affect me. Now the only real question is: can I live with being ethically constipated - that is, utterly failing to give a shit? Maybe. We'll see. I do know I'm not actively seeking laxatives for it. |
| Ever since I first heard of NaNoWriMo, I've been conflicted. I don't generally jump on bandwagons. If something becomes popular, I view it with a certain amount of distrust. Yeah, I joined Facebook pretty early on, but I'm not active there anymore. And the first time I heard about Twitter, someone told me that some guy had rigged his office chair to tweet every time he farted. I swore then I would never be a Twat (or whatever they call people who go to Twitter), and nothing I've heard about Twitter since then has convinced me it's gotten any classier. And no, this isn't some hipster thing for me. I won't join that group, either. So I resisted NaNo for a while, but then "October Novel Prep Challenge" [13+] came along, and I changed my mind.Yeah, I promote the Prep a lot. No, I don't get paid to do it. Quite the opposite, in fact. So don't be thinking this is some sort of ad. Still, if one wishes to get one's thoughts together before tackling a novella in November (seriously, most published novels are longer than 50K words), it really does help. Point is, that activity gave me the motivation I needed to complete three works of fiction - and make a few attempts that went nowhere, but that's on me. Anyway, I'm trying to decide whether to attempt it this year. Of the three I've completed, two of them are crying out for sequels (or, really, continuations to make them 100,000 word novels), and I've got a couple of ideas for new ones, though none are very compelling to me. Of the three I've done, one's straight science fiction; one's contemporary fantasy; and the latest is, well, not a serious attempt at getting anything publishable done - it's science fiction erotica. Naturally, that's the one I most want to continue with, and it's the one least likely to get read. On the other hand, all three of those are in serious need of editing and expanding - while my first drafts tend to be more coherent than most, they're light-years away from perfect. So why start something new when I can't finish what I've already got going? So, I don't know. If I don't Prep, I won't NaNo, so I need to decide by the time Prep signups close on 10/3. |
| A couple of days ago, Happy Mom's Day 2024! asked about Nerd Camp. I actually turned my experience (only slightly hyperbolically) into my Comedy newsletter in June. So here it is in its entirety, for anyone who is sadly lacking in the reading-the-Comedy-newsletter department: "Nerd Camp" As I've alluded to before, I like to travel. I turned the experience into a month-long road trip, driving to the DC area first for a conference, and then through Indianapolis to say hi to PuppyTales, and Kansas City (the one in Missouri) to say hi to the beer there. After the week-long nerdsperience, I spent some time in Vegas to remind myself why I don't like to gamble. What I didn't do is record the experience on the travel blog I mentioned before (I keep the offsite blog because I like to incorporate pictures, something WDC doesn't let us do easily). I just wasn't feeling it. I should have, though. Not because I want to share everything with the world - I don't - but because if I don't write something down or keep a souvenir, I quickly forget most of it. Which brings me back to why I'm writing in this space again. I'm... not sure what I've been doing for six years, besides playing video games and occasionally traveling. I remember my cats died, and I adopted new ones. I think I had one successful NaNoWriMo in that time. Maybe two (I'll probably write more about NaNo later). Some other things happened that I mentioned two entries ago. So while I appreciate the audience - and make no mistake, I'm writing for an audience, else I'd be keeping this stuff on a file on my computer - I'm mostly doing this to help me remember. Because if I don't remember it, it might as well not have happened. Also, my memory being what it is, sometimes I encounter an old entry all fresh, and I remember that, sometimes, I can be pretty funny. But hey, looks aren't everything. |
| It's hard to avoid people talking about the impending doom of Hurricane Florence, so I might as well add my voice to the babble. No, I'm nowhere near the coast. Looks like the worst we'll get is a bunch of rain. Nothing new there; it's been raining more often than not all summer. I'm at a high spot and I have a sump pump and a backup generator. I also have a house surrounded by trees, though, so I might be boned anyway. Some good friends of mine live in Raleigh, NC. They're boned. I have a fondness for Virginia Beach and the Outer Banks. I'll miss them. It seems like a lot of the places I've been to have been hit by something. Maui got edged by a hurricane this year. Houston got famously waterlogged some time after I visited there. There's a great little pizza and beer place on St. Thomas that I still don't know if it survived their last hurricane or not. And California's going to get shaken up by the Big One any day now. (As an aside, I try to visit Merry Mumsy and her family in central California every year. Since she moved there some years ago, I've experienced more earthquakes here in Virginia than she has. It's just wrong.) Well, as long as Las Vegas is still- wait, what? The Colorado River is at historic low flows, and Lake Mead is dangerously dry? Well, fuck. I'd ship 'em some of our rain if I could. Let me tell you, if I ever hear another breath about "drought" around here, I'mma lose it at someone. Also, thanks for the comments and "likes" from yesterday. I'm glad someone's still around. Just to address a couple of things: Happy Mom's Day 2024!: I'm not published because I can't be arsed to get my shit together for publication, or write queries, or in any way attempt to promote myself. I don't know if that's a) fear of failure; b) fear of success; or c) laziness. Probably c), because I'm too lazy to be afraid of anything except work. Also, I don't feel comfortable promoting myself. If there's one thing I suck at - and actually, there are many - it's sales. Harlow Flick, Right Fielder: I prefer grapes after they've undergone fermentation. Legerdemain: Good to hear from you! |
| If I'd known I'd be here for 14 years, I don't think I would have created my account on September 11. And I didn't intend to. As I recall, I tried to sign up (at the suggestion of my friend Artemismad) earlier in September of 2004, but there were some technical issues - issues that resulted in that annoying "02" at the tail end of my username (there is no cathartes01, and never has been, as far as I know). It was only during a late night at my then-office that I got that straightened out, so I think I missed 9/10 by just an hour or so. This was 14 years ago, as I said, so my memory on the details is suspect. 14 years is a long time. I've been a moderator for 12 of those years, and been a regular editor of the Comedy and Fantasy newsletters for most of that time. And yes, I know I haven't entered a thing in this blog for over six years. Life has been... uninspiring, I suppose. Am I back to it, then? I don't know. I don't want to make statements I can't back up with deeds. Every night, just after midnight, I get the reminder to update my blog. That reminder has been there, taunting me, for so long that it's been as much a part of the background of my life as beer. More, actually; I don't drink beer every day. If anyone is still following along, let me catch you up on what's been going on since May 13, 2012:  I spent my 2014 birthday in hospital as a result of a heart attack. As you can see, I survived it. Several road trips happened. Some even before I quit writing here. I recorded some of them on my WordPress blog I'm officially divorced with very little interest in dating. Unfortunately, this also means I don't have any health insurance. I spent a month in Maui. Or "on" Maui. Still not sure how you're supposed to put it. No one says "on Manhattan." Nerd camp (just this past June). Still not published.There's probably more, but I have to save some details for future entries, right? |
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