Saturday, April 9, 2011
Friday, April 8, 2011
Testing, Testing...
This is amusingly weird, like something the Parallax Corporation would design, but is probably a digital art project of somebody's...
http://www.hypnoid.com/psytest2.html
Here's my result...
Always happy in a crowd, you love to converse, to relate, and above all to have fun. You tend to think in a more holistic manner than many others. Like a crow you are attracted to shiny objects, new ideas, playful exciting colors and the thrill of a new personal relationship. You love to talk or gossip. You are highly invested in the reality of day-to-day life. Practicality is far more important than issues of honor or allegiance. You are a creature of the here and now. You are a natural multi-tasker, often switching mid-thought from one duty to another. You have a flair for presenting your personality in your work, and are known as a great storyteller and natural actor. You are very skilled at taking in a barrage of information and distilling what is most important from it. Naturally charming, you are quick to win new friends. Over stimulation is a danger.
http://www.hypnoid.com/psytest2.html
Here's my result...
Always happy in a crowd, you love to converse, to relate, and above all to have fun. You tend to think in a more holistic manner than many others. Like a crow you are attracted to shiny objects, new ideas, playful exciting colors and the thrill of a new personal relationship. You love to talk or gossip. You are highly invested in the reality of day-to-day life. Practicality is far more important than issues of honor or allegiance. You are a creature of the here and now. You are a natural multi-tasker, often switching mid-thought from one duty to another. You have a flair for presenting your personality in your work, and are known as a great storyteller and natural actor. You are very skilled at taking in a barrage of information and distilling what is most important from it. Naturally charming, you are quick to win new friends. Over stimulation is a danger.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
The Sleeper Must Awaken
My brain is hard-wired to wake me up around 4:30. It kinda drives me bananas. I've never been one to sleep in (for me, "sleeping in" is perhaps sleeping in until about 8:00 -- although that's not happened since the 90s), have always been an earlybird, but still, it kinda bugs me -- I could be up really late, and my brain'll still have me up around 4:30. The ole' circadian rhythms are locked in with that. I've long since made use of that tendency by making that early morning time my prime writing time, so I've been productive in that time. I've always been like that, even as a kid -- I'd sneak downstairs and read or watch whatever was on television that early. One show I remembered was a trippy one called "Dr. Snuggles..."
I could never understand why this show was only on in the very early morning hours. My kid logic was confounded -- it was a cartoon, kids liked cartoons, it should be on during normal cartoon times. But it was only on in the early morning hours, so I'd usually watch it, while the rest of the house slept, while the whole neighborhood slept. I haven't thought about that in over 20 years, but I still remembered that theme song for it, and the style of animation.
I could never understand why this show was only on in the very early morning hours. My kid logic was confounded -- it was a cartoon, kids liked cartoons, it should be on during normal cartoon times. But it was only on in the early morning hours, so I'd usually watch it, while the rest of the house slept, while the whole neighborhood slept. I haven't thought about that in over 20 years, but I still remembered that theme song for it, and the style of animation.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Cutting Remarks
I'm peeved at the whole $5.8 trillion in budget cuts proposal of Paul Ryan's making (or whoever actually came up with it, likely crafted in some reactionary think tanks). While the balls of actually invoking such draconian cuts is laudable, the targets they're choosing are irritating, to put it politely. Privatizing Medicare and Medicaid while barely touching the defense budget ($78 billion skimmed from it over a 10-year period? That's ludicrous) while at the same time throwing more tax cut bones to the already-gorged rich and hyperrich? WTF? Crotch-kick the poor, the young, and the elderly for the sake of the top 1%? The truth is that an honest budgetary discussion must take place nationally, but that's the key thing: it must be an honest discussion. The defense budget has to come down, because it's massive, and the Right views it as sacrosanct. So many of the worst excesses of their "Big Government" bugaboo are buried deep within the defense budget, but it's a powerful and well-entrenched lobby, and so they go after Medicare and Medicaid, instead, because that's just poor, old, sick, and weak folks.
They say you can judge the health of a society not by how it treats its strongest citizens, but how it treats its weakest. The Ryan budget proposal is very revealing as to what the priorities of the Right are in this.
The frustrating thing is that the Democrats will likely cobble together a wussified "alternative" to the Ryan budget proposal that'll also overlook the gorilla in the room that is the Pentagon. The simple truth of it is that our defense budget is a runaway thing, operating far and away beyond anything that can possibly be construed as "national defense." Unless we're simply waving the white flag and are accommodating ourselves to a state of permanent military mobilization, keen to spend our way right over the cliff for War, Inc. We are not immune from history -- empires invariably end up doing exactly this: the homeland becomes destitute because the money is flowing outward, to the military.
There's a reason why coups occur in regimes where civil society boils away before the concentration of wealth and power -- it's because the only institution left standing by that time is the military. It becomes the only thing left, so why not take power? That's why standing armies are invariably inimical to liberty.
This reality is completely lost on the GOP, and the Democrats lack the stones to make a stand on this issue. A true budgetary compromise should take about half of our military budget (then we'll only be outspending the rest of the world combined by 8 times, instead of 16 times) and half of the entitlements spending, and reform the tax code to some kind of progressive standard.
The alternative is just a highly militarized, domestically impoverished, elite-controlled plutocracy, staggering around, with an increasingly unhealthy, ignorant, and destitute populace. Not a situation terribly conducive to democratic functioning, or economic well-being. Turning the US into a banana republic is simply not a step forward, and the Ryan proposal paves that way.
Whether the Democrats have the balls to actually offer an alternative to it is another matter. I'm not holding my breath.
Further reading...
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/86301/ryan-cbo-severe-medicare-medicaid-cuts
And a bit more that gets to the heart of what I'm grousing about, which is the mendaciously regressive tax cuts that are, at heart, the only thing near and dear to the GOP's hard heart...
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/86270/the-achilles-heel-the-path-prosperity
They say you can judge the health of a society not by how it treats its strongest citizens, but how it treats its weakest. The Ryan budget proposal is very revealing as to what the priorities of the Right are in this.
The frustrating thing is that the Democrats will likely cobble together a wussified "alternative" to the Ryan budget proposal that'll also overlook the gorilla in the room that is the Pentagon. The simple truth of it is that our defense budget is a runaway thing, operating far and away beyond anything that can possibly be construed as "national defense." Unless we're simply waving the white flag and are accommodating ourselves to a state of permanent military mobilization, keen to spend our way right over the cliff for War, Inc. We are not immune from history -- empires invariably end up doing exactly this: the homeland becomes destitute because the money is flowing outward, to the military.
There's a reason why coups occur in regimes where civil society boils away before the concentration of wealth and power -- it's because the only institution left standing by that time is the military. It becomes the only thing left, so why not take power? That's why standing armies are invariably inimical to liberty.
This reality is completely lost on the GOP, and the Democrats lack the stones to make a stand on this issue. A true budgetary compromise should take about half of our military budget (then we'll only be outspending the rest of the world combined by 8 times, instead of 16 times) and half of the entitlements spending, and reform the tax code to some kind of progressive standard.
The alternative is just a highly militarized, domestically impoverished, elite-controlled plutocracy, staggering around, with an increasingly unhealthy, ignorant, and destitute populace. Not a situation terribly conducive to democratic functioning, or economic well-being. Turning the US into a banana republic is simply not a step forward, and the Ryan proposal paves that way.
Whether the Democrats have the balls to actually offer an alternative to it is another matter. I'm not holding my breath.
Further reading...
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-cohn/86301/ryan-cbo-severe-medicare-medicaid-cuts
And a bit more that gets to the heart of what I'm grousing about, which is the mendaciously regressive tax cuts that are, at heart, the only thing near and dear to the GOP's hard heart...
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/86270/the-achilles-heel-the-path-prosperity
Sunshine
Beautiful day today, like proper Spring, instead of bogus Spring -- cool temperatures, lots of sunlight. Pretty.
6100 words.
6100 words.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Stormy Weathers
The big storm appeared to have moved through the city last night. I slept through most of it, only woke up briefly during one of the bouts of thunder. There's still a lot of wind blasting through the city.
4000 words.
4000 words.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Writing, Inc.
Haven't written in the past few days, just doing the business end of writing, which is my least-favorite part, which is why I have written tons of things and have only sold a few of them. I've accumulated lots of intellectual capital, and need to put that to work for me, get it out in the marketplace, where it'll do me some good. I'm great with people, am creative and prolific, but I'll never be a businessman. Know thyself? I do.
That's why I'm hoping to find the right agent to shepherd me through the publishing business. The writing good fiction part I have down; I just need that right agent to click with me and nail the business end of things, to find the right homes for the books I've written. I'll be happy to write the stuff, if they'll be happy to sell it for me.
The irony for me is that "salesperson" is something that is often thrown my way as something I could do -- not from anybody who knows me, but reading about my personality type, and so on. I am good at communicating enthusiasm, to be sure, but the notion of selling people on things is anathema to me. In my view, if somebody wants something, they want it; trying to talk them around to buying something makes me feel icky. I hate when I'm in a store and a salesperson hovers around, asking if I need any help, or if they try to steer me to pricier products, etc. The entire interaction unsettles me -- I feel sorry for the salesperson, trying to make their commission; I feel annoyed at them for interposing themselves in my world -- it's just not my thing.
There are plenty of people who are good at it, who excel at marketing and self-promotion, but I'm simply not one of them. Appreciate the work I do, appreciate me, or move on; I'm not going to try to sell you on my merits. I try to shelve that when I work on queries, but it's difficult. I've yet to write a truly exemplary query. I have seen plenty of bad queries, and mine are far better than those, but I don't write high-concept fiction. My fiction rewards the reader when they read it, versus being some killer concept at the front end that can wow somebody from curbside. I don't put a lot of stock in high concept, because it's a gimmick -- to me, it's like those SyFy movies-for-cable like "Megaroid Versus Land Squid" or whatever -- the kind of thing where you might go "Huh" and peek at as a guilty pleasure, but is so many intellectual empty calories. I have plenty of ideas, write stories that are packed with ideas, but they are not high-concept stories. No "Snakes On a Plane" stuff (that being an archetypal high-concept movie).
I focus on writing well, writing beautifully (even if I'm writing horrible things, I pay such attention to the language, you have no idea), having memorable, believable characters, and writing an airtight plot that is very carefully composed. There are always plenty of ideas in my stories, salted through out it. There are no land squids, however.
I don't think I could come up with a high-concept story idea if I tried. And it would feel false to me, unnatural. It would be the fictional equivalent of the salesperson hovering at your elbow, walking on the balls of their feet, grinning eagerly, trying to steer you to something you didn't want. Not my game at all.
Just the same, I've been trying to be dutiful about the business aspects of things. I can't use an "eat your broccoli" idiom for this, because I love vegetables. Except for beets. Okay, it's like eating beets for me. *shudder* But I'm doing it, because I have to.
That's why I'm hoping to find the right agent to shepherd me through the publishing business. The writing good fiction part I have down; I just need that right agent to click with me and nail the business end of things, to find the right homes for the books I've written. I'll be happy to write the stuff, if they'll be happy to sell it for me.
The irony for me is that "salesperson" is something that is often thrown my way as something I could do -- not from anybody who knows me, but reading about my personality type, and so on. I am good at communicating enthusiasm, to be sure, but the notion of selling people on things is anathema to me. In my view, if somebody wants something, they want it; trying to talk them around to buying something makes me feel icky. I hate when I'm in a store and a salesperson hovers around, asking if I need any help, or if they try to steer me to pricier products, etc. The entire interaction unsettles me -- I feel sorry for the salesperson, trying to make their commission; I feel annoyed at them for interposing themselves in my world -- it's just not my thing.
There are plenty of people who are good at it, who excel at marketing and self-promotion, but I'm simply not one of them. Appreciate the work I do, appreciate me, or move on; I'm not going to try to sell you on my merits. I try to shelve that when I work on queries, but it's difficult. I've yet to write a truly exemplary query. I have seen plenty of bad queries, and mine are far better than those, but I don't write high-concept fiction. My fiction rewards the reader when they read it, versus being some killer concept at the front end that can wow somebody from curbside. I don't put a lot of stock in high concept, because it's a gimmick -- to me, it's like those SyFy movies-for-cable like "Megaroid Versus Land Squid" or whatever -- the kind of thing where you might go "Huh" and peek at as a guilty pleasure, but is so many intellectual empty calories. I have plenty of ideas, write stories that are packed with ideas, but they are not high-concept stories. No "Snakes On a Plane" stuff (that being an archetypal high-concept movie).
I focus on writing well, writing beautifully (even if I'm writing horrible things, I pay such attention to the language, you have no idea), having memorable, believable characters, and writing an airtight plot that is very carefully composed. There are always plenty of ideas in my stories, salted through out it. There are no land squids, however.
I don't think I could come up with a high-concept story idea if I tried. And it would feel false to me, unnatural. It would be the fictional equivalent of the salesperson hovering at your elbow, walking on the balls of their feet, grinning eagerly, trying to steer you to something you didn't want. Not my game at all.
Just the same, I've been trying to be dutiful about the business aspects of things. I can't use an "eat your broccoli" idiom for this, because I love vegetables. Except for beets. Okay, it's like eating beets for me. *shudder* But I'm doing it, because I have to.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
To Hell With Poverty
Great tune by Gang of Four, and well-performed, here. Gotta love those bass grooves. Their sonic attack was always papercut-sharp, which lent a cold, crisp, taut-n-fraught trebly tone to their music that was nicely juxtaposed by the incredibly fat bass lines they would always throw in their music. And I always loved their brilliant use of feedback. Nobody's ever hit it like they did...
Friday, April 1, 2011
Rain Song
Cold rain today. Yick. I don't mind cold, I don't mind rain -- but cold rain is yicky.
Otherwise, a good day. Cleaned up around the apartment.
April is here. Oh, my! I turn 41 later this month. Wowzers. My 40th year came and went pretty quickly, have to say.
Speaking of going quickly, the boys are really growing fast. They're taller than ever.
B1 (9 years) is 4'8" and 77.0 lbs. B2 (5 years) is 3'9" 44.2 lbs. They're more prone to wrestling around the apartment, which is amusing to watch, especially lil' B2 dogpiling his big brother. I try to referee, ensure that nobody ends up hurt. B1 is very good to his little brother, who is just a little badger, truly -- charming to the end, but also feisty, a born competitor like me. B1 is very lucky he's the big brother, because B2 would've been a holy terror as a big brother -- all pranks and mischief and such -- but because B2 is the younger sibling, it kind of balances the scales a bit.
Otherwise, a good day. Cleaned up around the apartment.
April is here. Oh, my! I turn 41 later this month. Wowzers. My 40th year came and went pretty quickly, have to say.
Speaking of going quickly, the boys are really growing fast. They're taller than ever.
B1 (9 years) is 4'8" and 77.0 lbs. B2 (5 years) is 3'9" 44.2 lbs. They're more prone to wrestling around the apartment, which is amusing to watch, especially lil' B2 dogpiling his big brother. I try to referee, ensure that nobody ends up hurt. B1 is very good to his little brother, who is just a little badger, truly -- charming to the end, but also feisty, a born competitor like me. B1 is very lucky he's the big brother, because B2 would've been a holy terror as a big brother -- all pranks and mischief and such -- but because B2 is the younger sibling, it kind of balances the scales a bit.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Sunshine Superman
Lovely-sunny day. Still chilly, but overall, nice. I see that they're getting a wicked hard Nor'easter on the East Coast. Something for'em to whine about, no doubt. Snow more! I'd be great it they had another Nor'easter in time for Easter, then it could be the Easter Nor'easter.
I made toasted cheese for dinner. Nom!
I made toasted cheese for dinner. Nom!
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Monique, Monique...
Oooh, Monique gets booted from ANTM! This week's episode had Blondes v. Brunettes, and I think the brunettes shot a better group shot, and I think Monique got axed unfairly, just because she was average in the judging, versus being actually bad -- she was beautiful, but never took either exceptionally good or bad photographs. Her "Heathers" attitude will be missed, of course, and her departure has to be a big boon to Alexandria. Brittani did wonderfully again, but the previews make it appear that she may have a bit of a meltdown next episode.
 |
| Sorry to see Monique go. Well, not completely sorry.... |
Mercurial
First picture of Mercury sent from the Mercury Messenger. Look at all of those craters! The big one at the top center is 50 miles across!
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