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December 5th, 2009
11:28 pm - NaNoWriMo
Well, NaNoWriMo has once again kicked my ass. I seem to have more ideas for stories than I know what to do with. Below you'll see portions of three stories I started. And I'm here making a deal with you, Noble Reader.
I'll let you guys decide which one I should finish/elaborate on. I'll take opinions for a week (optimistically hoping that anyone will voice an opinion at all), and then I'll expand the most popular one to 50,000 words, in accordance with the Novel Writing ideal.
So let me know!
Okay, I'm not going to do it all in November, but I do want to get in the habit of writing every day, and lord knows, I seem to have some ideas...
Cheers, and thanks for your input!!
Jim
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11:10 pm - Vampire
( Vampire )
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December 2nd, 2009
10:48 am - Experiment
Do not use the internet, or any other reference, and see if you can answer the following questions. In the case where you don't have an exact number, a ballpark estimate will do.
1 - How many people died as a direct result of the Chernobyl accident?
2 - How many people died as an indirect result of the Chernobyl accident (developing cancer due to exposure, e.g.)?
I'll post the actual answers tomorrow.
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09:23 am - Fun with translation
A friend of mine posted a recent blog entry in German, and, while I understood some of it, I thought I'd just run it through the babelfish translator to make sure I was interpreting it correctly. This is what it spit out:
"I have completely badly Treffenblues - and as one cuts oneself to length best? One collects information together! : -) I times the meanings out of your discussion stones picked. I believe bissel on sowas. Whether your stone fits you, or simply only a memory to a mad weekend is, must it out find!"
... Well, thanks, babelfish. That helps in no way whatsoever.
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November 24th, 2009
09:21 pm - Films for People Who Love Films
I don't generally recommend documentaries, but the film "Dog Soldiers" is a truly incisive look at the modern Scottish army, and well worth a look.
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11:25 am - FWIW
For what it's worth, I'm two years sober as of Nov 23.
Whee!
:)
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November 1st, 2009
12:34 pm - NaNoWriMo
It's November 1, which means it's officially National Novel Writing Month! Get on board!
It doesn't have to be polished, and it doesn't have to be finished. You just need to write 50,000 words in the month of November on exactly one story. Get in the habit of writing daily!
Check out the official website here: NANOWRIMO.ORG
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October 28th, 2009
12:28 am - Cereus
Sent Cereus a present, just to see if anyone is still out there. Also sent a letter to Ynari.
Cheers!
-- Bezheron --
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October 18th, 2009
11:36 pm - PVP Timeline of DEATH
If you don't play World of Warcraft, this isn't going to mean anything to you.
( And here's how Bezherin died... )
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October 12th, 2009
01:48 am - A Gripe, and an Observation, and a Recommendation
A Gripe:
This regards my recent trip to and from Mississippi. This is more of a personal bitching, so let's put it behind a cut. You may read it if you like.
( Is this worth it? )
An Observation:
Barack Obama has been widely decried in the media for "not deserving the Nobel Peace Prize", and not doing enough to have earned it; this has been particularly prevalent in America, which is just embarrassing. I submit that maybe Americans don't understand WHY he was chosen for the award, to wit:
"for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."
It may be that they're comparing him to George W. Bush. It may be that they compared him to everyone else who was eligible for the prize. The fact is, he IS deserving of the prize, for the one and only reason that matters: the people GRANTING it believe that he is. It's just possible that Americans critical of his award are not clear on why it was granted; maybe they just misunderstand what it's granted for?
A Recommendation:
In completely unrelated news, GO SEE DAVID SEDARIS LIVE. This was the high point of our trip, and, man, that's the best money I've ever spent. I'll happily join any of you, at any venue, to listen to that guy. Funny, painful, beautiful stuff. From completely fictional bits to his notably amazingly soul-baring-ly honest autobiographical tales, he was made of Chuck Norris* from beginning to end.
I'm going to do a "highlights reel" of the David Sedaris lecture, but the comfy bed is calling. Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
Jim
* "Win" is made of Chuck Norris.
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October 5th, 2009
10:08 pm - Kung Fu Fighting
I'm now taking Taekwon-Do again. For the first time in twenty-five years. I'm a little embarrassed that I've been alive long enough to have not done something for that long.
Exacerbated by the fact that the "junior belts" instructor is a fifteen year old girl who comes up to my elbow when she's on her tiptoes, and can STILL kick my butt...
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October 1st, 2009
12:40 am - Best Prayer
"...and as we remember, please let them forget, oh Lord... so they can be little again. Amen."
Red Dawn is way more awesome than you remember.
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September 24th, 2009
09:22 pm - Electrically Safe
One of the things that's hammered into us in the Navy is that water and electricity do not mix well. Given that our power plant generated quite a lot of electricity, and all of it was underwater, we were constantly vigilant for any source of water that might negatively impact our power grid, our equipment, and our personnel. Being electrically safe was paramount.
We have large servers at my new job. These servers are critical to our business, and cost many thousands of dollars. Because they must be cooled constantly, they have dedicated Air Conditioning units. These units are not well maintained, and sometimes leak a little.
To combat this, a trashcan was, at some point, set up to catch these droplets of water.
( and now... )
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September 22nd, 2009
01:27 am - Military Vignette
Petty Officer Trace: "Roger, Echo One, we are holding position until we see the helo. Over and out."
{Birrin looks askance at the Petty Officer}
Petty Officer Trace: "What?"
Chief Petty Officer Birrin: "Over and out?"
Petty Officer Trace: "What? What?"
Chief Petty Officer Birrin: " 'Over' means 'I am done talking, and you may go ahead and speak.' 'Out' means 'I am no longer listening.' What you just communicated was 'You may continue speaking, but I am an asshole who will not be listening to you.' You ever say 'Over and out' again where I can hear you, and I'll have to kill myself due to the embarrassment of being associated with you, and I can't do that, because I am too pretty to die. Are we clear, shipmate?"
Petty Officer Trace: "Aye, Chief."
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September 11th, 2009
02:15 pm - Dinner
Beef Stroganoff Recipe
Ingredients
* 6 Tbsp butter
* 1 pound of top sirloin or tenderloin, cut thin into 1-inch wide by 2 1/2-inch long strips
* 1/3 cup chopped shallots (can substitute onions)
* 1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
* Salt to taste
* Pepper to taste
* 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
* 1/2 teaspoon of dry tarragon or 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh tarragon
* 1 cup of sour cream at room temperature
1 Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Increase the heat to high/med-high and add the strips of beef. You want to cook the beef quickly, browning on each side, so the temp needs to be high enough to brown the beef, but not so high as to burn the butter. You may need to work in batches. While cooking the beef, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. When both sides are browned, remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.
2 In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the shallots. Cook the shallots for a minute or two, allowing them to soak up any meat drippings. Remove the shallots to the same bowl as the meat and set aside.
3 In the same pan, melt another 3 Tbsp of butter. Increase heat to medium high and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes. While cooking, sprinkle the nutmeg and the tarragon on the mushrooms.
4 Reduce the heat to low and add the sour cream to the mushrooms. Mix in the sour cream thoroughly. Do not let it come to a simmer or boil or the sour cream will curdle. Stir in the beef and shallots. Add salt and pepper to taste.
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September 8th, 2009
02:10 pm - Where the Wild Thi... oh, who the hell cares?
People are starting to get pretty amped about Spike Jonze's adaptation of "Where the Wild Things Are." I'm supposed to love this story (and I only have vaguely annoyed memories of the book), and I'm clearly deficient because I'm not looking forward to a two-hour adaptation of what I remember as a very short, unsatisfying, under-detailed tale wherein nothing much happens. In fact, in this week's New York Times interview with the director, the interviewer was surprised by "the lack of any clear conflict or resolution" in the movie.
Then I found out why I remember it that way:
The entire book is only ten sentences long.
Bah. Humbug.
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September 2nd, 2009
10:02 pm - Mathematical Preparation for Physical Chemistry
I made a GREAT find today at the Book Dispensery: a 1928 textbook called "Mathematical Preparation for Physical Chemistry," by Farrington Daniels, University of Wisconson. It's 308 pages (plus two pages of log tables), including an entire chapter on the use of a sliderule. I have one around here somewhere that I'll have to break out to see if Farrington Daniels can teach me how to use it. It's an incredibly dense book, covering all of what would now be College Algebra, Calculus 1, 2, and 3, and Differential Equations.
There are lots of neat little things about it. Apparently, it was owned by one "Sister Saint Mary, G.N.S.H." I'm still working out what that acronym means, but it looks like "Grey Nuns of the Sacred Heart" is a likely candidate. :)
It contains some interesting conventions. In discussing linear equations, for example, it uses
Kx + K'y + K'' = 0
instead of
Ax + By + C = 0
I'm wondering if this gets confusing later on in the notation for derivatives, but I haven't read that far yet. It also includes the answers to the odd-numbered problems, published right beside the problems themselves, while most modern textbooks include these answers in the back of the book. I find this interesting, and wonder if they STILL had to tell their students "You have to show all of your work!" :)
What's also interesting, to me at least, was this line from the preface: "The work is based on a one-semester course of three hours, given to sophomores in preparation for physical chemistry." It's a LOT of material, by modern standards, to cover in one semester! Of course, it does point out that it skimps on "rigor of proof" for "mathematical derivations", but it still speaks strongly to me about the differences between the expectations of college sophomores then and now.
Neat stuff!
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August 31st, 2009
02:19 pm - America has ceased to be good.
If America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.
-- Ronald Reagan
RADDATZ: Two-third of Americans say it’s not worth fighting.
CHENEY: So?
-- ABC News Broadcast
Sometimes I despair when I compare the America of my youth to the America of today.
First of all, we have no enemy. Well, we sort of have an enemy, if you count all terrorists, everywhere. Or, possibly, terror itself. The word "terrorist" has stopped meaning anything to me. I vaguely translate "terrorist" as "foreign person who attacks Americans but doesn't really represent a particular nation's government". I remember the Russians as a genuine, clearly defined foe. All Russians hated all Americans, and nobody else really mattered.
Also, the "war on drugs" was in full swing in the 80s. This is a fight I could participate in. "Just say no!" I got the green t-shirt, I swallowed the kool-aid, and I've managed to avoid being hooked on drugs (alcohol and cigarettes notwithstanding, and I've even kicked these habits). Today we're fighting a "war on terror", which I cannot participate in in any meaningful way. "Just don't be afraid!" is not only really hard to actively do, it seems very much as if we're constantly told to "Be afraid!"
The fitness craze really peaked in the 80s. This led to people being labeled as "fitness-freaks". So now we're a nation who will do ANYTHING to lose weight... except eat sensibly and work out. You can get your stomach stapled, there are weight-loss supplements that let you burn fat while you sleep, and apparently there's this whole thing where, if you just don't eat bread, you'll end up looking like a model. I had heard that the guy who invented that diet had died obese and suffering from heart-disease, but wikipedia says it was just some mean ice that killed him.
We played with toy guns. I can't IMAGINE a child having a toy gun today. We had toy guns that looked like Uzis (Uzis were the BEST), and made a not-at-all realistic "repeated clicking" noise when you pulled the trigger, to simulate a burst of gunfire. Childhood friends were mown down hundreds of times. In later life, I did not turn to a life of crime, I am VERY safety-conscious with real guns, and I don't own any real guns of my own. It's just much harder to play G.I. Joe when you are using a stick instead of a gun.
Oh, and speaking of, what the hell happened to G.I. Joe?? Shipwreck and Snake-Eyes and Scarlett? The new animated series(es) and the new movie miss something by their very format. We would rush home every day from school to watch the next segment of the "Mass Device" storyline. Snake-Eyes sacrificed himself to save the Joes, silently saying goodbye to Scarlett through the safety glass.
We didn't have car seats, and we all rode on bikes that didn't have fancy crap like "gears" and "handbrakes". You braked by pedalling backwards, and the most fun you could have with a bike was to see how far you could skid with the brakes jammed on. I don't remember anyone I knew owning a bicycle helmet.
It's possible that I'm simplifying the world, because in the eighties I was still growing up; the part of the world that I understood was actually probably a lot simpler. But somewhere along the way, our identity as Americans has gotten completely removed. We have just turned into a bitchy, complaining, obese country who refuses to take personal responsibility for ANYTHING.
Why have we become a people who hopes to magically make money by investing with a guy who -- no one feels suspiciously -- consistently makes money, even when everyone else in the market is losing theirs? Are we really just collectively stupid? Our generation is the least likely to have savings in the bank; is the best thing for us really to have a brand-new car? Is there anyone besides Paul Dini and Bruce Timm who can make a cartoon television show that doesn't just completely suck?
They're re-making Red Dawn... with the Chinese army as the bad guys. They were on OUR SIDE in the original movie. Why the hell would China invade America? Rambo stopped killing commies and started killing... oh, who even knows? Or cares?
Oh, and that Cheney quote up there? I credited the quote to ABC News for a reason: they edited his remarks, to further polarize the country, as if we needed it. He's a criminal mastermind whose response to the investigation of his involvement with torture was along the lines of, "I'll cooperate if I feel like it," but ABC News really overstepped their ethical bounds in this case, no?
The American Dream has always been that a man or woman can work hard, and they will be rewarded. More and more, I feel like the harder we work, the more we're punished for it; we exist in a society where our government and the media conspire to tell us what to think. Is there any chance today that a dirt-poor Illinois farmboy could really teach himself the law and grow up to be president? (Okay, that one's not really from my youth, but still...).
What the hell happened to us?
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