Saturday, December 20, 2008

I am blogging from my new laptop.

That is all. More to follow when I stop squeeing.

James

Monday, December 08, 2008

Spot the missing info...

So, another writing exercise from knife fight, this time.

Real Characters

Pick ten people you see throughout the day or week and write a one-sentence description for each of them. Spin off a fictional character based on what they suggest to you. Tell us something of who they are, not just what they look like.

(exercise from PoeWar, http://www.poewar.com/fifteen-craft-exercises-for-writers/)

------
The intern leaned forward, playfully flirtatious, still getting the job done.

Clothes, attitude, everything was casual, until you saw the eyes.

Alone, chain-smoking, facing but never watching the endless T.V.

Hurrying out of a meeting, cell phone attached, arguing with the ex.

Calm and collected, skilled and confident - every inch the role model.

A ready smile and a joke to hand, good humour turned bitter when the company downsized.

One look, and you knew all those people who had mastered self-deception were amateurs by comparison.

Violence roiling under the surface, kept in check with daily hard labour.

Regimented, sterile, some people just look like they were born in a lab coat.

Eyes, crinkled and laughing, make an ordinary face beautiful.
---------

So, exercise for the reader: what haven't I told you?

James

Labels: geekery, I think too much

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

"ZOMG, Teh markets r asplode"

Title citation.

So, there's a global financial meltdown and all kinds of jazz. The banks can't extend credit, and huge stuff-generating industries, like the Big Three are suddenly teetering on the brink, as people cut big purchases, and the house of cards collapses.

There are places, I'm quite certain, where this would get me lynched, but: I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing. In the short term? Yes, horrible. I am deeply suspicious of the various government and corporate bailout plans and responses to the global financial crisis: My cynicism suspects they are not intended to mitigate the disaster at all, just to allow the priviledged few* to cut their losses before things really go south.

I think we're going to see another huge depression. And that's the "yes, horrible" from above - industries will collapse or violently restructure, and a lot of folks will get dumped ass-first below the poverty line. But I also think our lifestyle in north america is not sustainable without ongoing cultural and economic and literal violence committed against the rest of the world. And the rest of the world is getting fed up with our bullshit.

James

* For those keeping score at home, I'm in those ranks.

Labels: I think too much, Stuff and Things

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

If I get rid of two, it's OK to buy one, right?

So, it's been a long time since I've bought a new computer. Like, a long, long time. My last new computer was a laptop with a 300Ghz Pentium II processor, and that was damn sexy at the time. The computer I have right now is a third? fourth? gen hand-me-down that started it's life as someone else's hot-shit gaming box. I'm not honestly sure what the specs on it are, I'd have to look. And, well, I can't.

Because, you see, it's dying. It's been dying for a long time, but doing it slowly enough that I haven't quite been motivated to replace it. But certain things (like video, or java, or the properties dialogue, or the calendar, or starting Outlook) will lock up the box. And every time I need to reboot it, it takes longer, and more tries before it actually boots all the way. Every once in a while, I speculate that I'm the subject of a psychology experiment.

And we have a computer upstairs, that is a one-generation-younger gaming box than mine, which Raven originally got so she could play The Sims. (Yes, that means the newer of my computers is 8-ish years old. Why?) It's only real purpose these days is to run InDesign for publishing and printing BSP stuff.

But neither of those reasons are sufficient to themselves to overcome my laziness, or it would have happened at least a couple years ago.

However, I recently inherited (and, for a change, I mean that literally) a ancient record player and boxes of 78's from the 40's and 50's, and I've been wracking my head trying to figure out where the heck I can put it. And it occured to me, that if I got rid of the computer desk downstairs, it could easily go there.

But I can't just consolidate into the upstairs computer, because it sits on the same desk as Raven's computer, which means I'd be competing for screen time with both her and Kalen, and that's a fight I'm destined to lose.

So, laptop time. If I pick up a nice, high-end beastie with wireless, a big screen and lots of drive space, it can replace both of my aging, power-sucking desktops, and I'm not tied to any one place in the house any more. I can blog by the fire, or publish at the table, or write in the comfy chair. Or hey, I could even read my forums in the hobby room, listening to 78s on my vintage record player.

I like the sound of that. I think I'll buy me a shiny new laptop. After all, it's been 11 years since the last time I did that.

James

Labels: geekery, Stuff and Things

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Snippets of fiction

Emily Care Boss, over on knife fight*, is hosting/organizing a series of writing exercises, about one a week or so. This week's was called "chastity", and we were restricted to write a short (200-250 word) piece of descriptive prose without adverbs, adjectives, with no dialogue. Wow, hard. I'm not sure I succeeded (I can spot some adjectives, and I may have gone overboard on the prepositions), but here is the resulting snippet of fiction from me. Let me know what you think.

---------
He stared out the window, and knew it would be soon. The sun sank behind the buildings, and the street grew dim. The smoke from her cigarette irritated his eyes, so he glared until she stubbed it out and walked away. Nothing was said; it didn’t have to be. But that was her way ever since they killed her man.

The street was empty now, even the horses had been brought in. They’d been left before, but that stopped after… He shook his head. No good thinking like that.

Cleaning the barrel, he checked the sky and sighed. No moon tonight, and the gas was gone. Last night they rolled barrels into the street, filled them with trash and gasoline, and it helped. Things would be harder tonight; you can’t shoot what you can’t see.

Noise from below told him that the others were back. He hoped they’d brought everything. Last week Jory forgot gauze, and it could have cost lives. They got lucky, but still. He sighed again. No sense getting mad at Jory – he was in the graveyard now. She came back, set down her load and snapped a cigarette from the pack living in her rolled up sleeve. Glancing at him, she swore, and put it back.

People settled at windows and behind sandbags. Hammering came from downstairs as they barricaded the door. Tension filled the air, and he wondered if he’d see the sunrise.
He eased his gun between the boards of the window and waited. They came.

---------

James

*It's a closed-member forum, so you probably won't be able to see what I'm talking about. It's just a signpost.

Labels: geekery, publishing

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Redolent is a lovely word

Pungent smells, sharp smells, the air heavy with spices... Smells once foreign to the western nose, strange and exotic like cinnamon and tumeric, mixed with smells so familiar and ancient that they're tied to deep traditions in our culture: clove, mustard.

These are the kinds of smells that the word redolent was created to describe, and our house is redolent with layered spices.

I really, really wish that it was because of baking or cooking, and not because Connor got into the spices while I was elsewhere.

Because then there would be the implication of tasty food, instead of the reality of a (possibly indelible) bright yellow stain on the linoleum and counter.

James

Labels: Cooking isn't complicated, living with autism

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

November 11

All our kids were silent for the moment of silence this year; that's a first. Kalen actually seemed to understand some of what was going on, and participated in the conversation about what it all means, which was also good. Usually, she fidgets and flees as soon as she can manage it.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

— Lt.-Col. John McCrae

Labels: I think too much