House of Jorob

Nano today

7,855, Day 5.

Lost almost all of the lunch hour writing time. Kept being hauled away from the lunch table, and couldn't develop any rhythm.

Gonna have to pick up the missing on the next day or so's worth of work. <sigh>

NaNo! NaNo! NaNo!

National Novel Writing Month tally through Day 4, today: November 4.

Word count: 6,478.

NaNoWriMo Under Way!!

National Novel Writing Month started yesterday, November 1.

Which means somewhat shorter posts this month.

1,667 words per day, going elsewhere.

Today is Day Two.

I've got 3,300 words down.

Wheeeee!

It really, really won't end on December 21, 2012?

The approaching planet of Nibiru.

The end of the Mayan calendar.

Polar Shift Theory.

Planetary Alignment.

The Solar Storm.

Finally.

A succinct rebuttal to the end-of-the-world fear-mongering.

It's here: http://www.astrosociety.org/2012/ab2009-32.pdf

This is the work of David Morrison, Senior Scientist for NASA's Astrobiology Institute.

He's compiled a top-ten list of questions and answers in the pdf.

There's more--the top twenty--on his website: http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/intro/nibiru-and-doomsday-2012-questions-and-answer

Enjoy the movie this coming November 13.

Even play with the website.

Just remember what's behind it.

And behind even the non-movie-tied sites that have sprung up around 2012 like a forest of mushrooms.

The power of viral marketing.

Forever Tweet

Old Tweets never die.

They just get archived.

And are now searchable.

Forever and ever.

Details are here. This is Twitter's take.

Over here is the official Google announcement.

Flu

Flu.

Funny thing, flu.

H1N1 scared hell out of a lot of people last spring.

Media reported death counts with enthusiasm.

"900 people killed by Swine Flu!"

For the season.

While plain old flu kills up to 500,000 people worldwide in a single year.

Quarter million deaths is considered on the low end of normal for flu season.

Interestingly enough, the CDC has decided to track H1N1 like the do with plain ol garden-variety flu.

Seems there was a problem with the numbers.

As in, they weren't accurate from Day One.

Progress.

What upsets me most about those 250K old-fashioned flu fatalities is a lot of them could be prevented by the now-dead having taken a flu shot when the opportunity was there.

H1N1's got this little trick, where it seems to go after healthy kids more often than healthy adults.

But the vaccines are here, finally.

I'm a little creeped out that the nasal spray-mist vaccine is using live virus--its genetically modified to minimize the symptoms of the illness, but still.

Still.

Still, it's a relatively mild bug--seems that the biggest harm is that it leaves the victim wide open for secondary infections.

Like wild flaming pnemonia.

Lung-ripping bronchitis.

That sort of thing.

So, against that backdrop, we have here in the Philadelphia region the first seasonal round of colds showing up in the office.

Get on a train, half the people are sniffling.

The guy two seats in front sneezes, the rest of the car gets....weird.

Folks start looking around for new seats.

On the outside of the train.

Guy in the office was out a couple weeks ago.

For about a week.

"He's really sick," went the rumor mill.

"Heard it's pnemonia."

Etc.

So when the guy comes back in the office by Friday of that week...

Either it was a mild case of pneumonia or.....

You guessed it.

Two weeks later, he's out again.

Flu.

I'd mandate the damn flu shots, if I could.

Obama and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee

Those crazy Norwegians.

I can imagine a couple of Nobel committee members sitting around a coffee klatch right after the nominations closed in February:

"So, Agot, what do you think? Where will we have the most impact?"

"Well, Thorbjoern....for maximum effect, we should really consider the American president. He's only been in office, what, a couple weeks? That means he'll not have reached his first anniversary when we announce."

"Hmmmm."

"Oh c'mon! Where's your sense of adventure? Of cryptic wtf? Remember the Kissinger-Le Duc thing? That confused hell out of everyone!"

"Yes, but--"

"And the triple play? On middle east peace?"

"Before my time, thank you ."

"That's exactly my point! Besides, who says we can't give an award based on potential good yet to be done? The man's a walking nuclear disarmament treaty, after all."

"But we might do some damage--the man's going to be under fire for something he had nothing to do with!"

"It will just make him stronger."

"And a million-four richer."

"So? Some charity or other will get that. Look at it as a donation to the American economic recovery."

"It'll have to be unanimous."

"Well, then. Let's get to work--we've only got eight months!"

NaNoWriMo: The Forums are Open!

I'm so excited.

The forums have been stripped and reopened on the NaNo web site.

This means the start of National Novel Writing Month is less than one month away.

The Forums are the bulletin boards supporting the NaNo authors, and once a year they are purged.

Wiped.

The good stuff--plot leads, character development, that sort of thing--is archived and reposted a couple weeks from now, but the Forums themselves are dumped because they're job is to support the current crop of novelist nutcases.

All 100,000 of em.

That is a lot of nutcases.

Nano makes ends meet--web servers cost money, and so do staff people supporting administrative activity--with voluntary contributions from their participants. And some grants, which in this climate are not exactly falling out of the trees.

If you decide to participate in this year's fun, maybe find a couple bucks to send their way.

World of Warcraft: Deldodin's Blog

Whelps Have No Physics.

I hate whelps.

Scrawny little wanna-be dragonites.

No visible means of support.

I can't see how those wings hold them up.

I mean, really.

Nothing better to do than hang around casters.

Messing with an honest day's pocket-dipping.

Belch a fireball, no kick.

Everything has a kick.

Guns:

Pull the trigger,

Gun goes off,

Bullet comes out,

There's a kick.

Crossbows:

Thumb the release,

Bolt flies out,

There's a kick.

Whelps?

Nothing.

Belch.

Flameball.

Reptilian flutterby keeps on flying into your face.

Kick should have snapped its neck.

.....

Sorry.

Got lost there in the snapped neck thing.

Author's note: Deldodin is a gnome, a rogue living in the realm of SteamWheedle Cartel.
I've decided to post his more coherent writings.
When I find one.

50 and Grooving

50.

Half a freakin century.

And dammit, I made it.

Took every single shot life threw, and still standing.

Got knocked back a couple of steps, sure.

Some of those shots hurt.

Coupla goals for the next half century:

1) Finish five books in the next six years.

Writing them.

Reading them is different--see the reading list I've got running on the side of the blog.

I'll worry about actually publishing one or two of them after I write the damn thing.

NaNoWriMo is a part of this.

So are all the sidenotes and pieces I've been working on lately.

2) Get my voice-over work going.

Wandering through a large forest on this one.

Every pro I've talked to tells me I need a demo disk.

Engineering time.

That's like, $4,000.

If I had a spare $4,000, I wouldn't be looking to develop my voice-over work.

But still.

It's a goal.

The mic loves my voice. Does things to it that other people like--without engineering.

Because when I broadcast at the Show every year, complete strangers find me to tell me how much they like listening.

And all I'm doing is announcing the next round of lectures or demonstrations.

Can't sing worth a damn.

But give me a script and a mic, and I can influence people.

Bonus Goal: Write up the other goals I have.

Next post.