Jay Lake: Writer

[writing] A grand weekend at the Oregon coast

As reported here by , and I enjoyed a grand weekend at the Oregon coast in good company. David hosted a workshop that included himself, , , , Mr. , Corie C., and of course, us.

The suspects, photo by C. Amberdine.

This work by C. Amberdine is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I managed to finish the current round of edits on the Sekrit Projekt, plus critique a rather excellent story by , while produced 7,000 words on Our Lady of the Islands. Others various wrote, revised, plotted or knitted.

Also, I cooked. The menu was:

Friday evening

Appetizers of fruit, chips and salsa
Cheese course of Pierre Robert, St. Agur and Sottocenere al Tartuffo
Chicken and pork in insanely simple marinade [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Thai rice
Green salad
German chocolate cake

Saturday morning

French toast with real maple syrup
Pepper bacon
Fruit
Cereal

Saturday lunch

Sandwiches
Chips
Ginger chocolate chip cookies [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

Saturday evening

Momos [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]
Roasted cauliflower
Steamed broccoli
Green salad

Sunday morning
French toast with real maple syrup
Pepper bacon
Fruit
Cereal

Sunday lunch

Sandwiches
Chips
Leftover smorgasbord

And yes, I did manage to nick a vein in my left index finger while slicing bread Friday evening.

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Posted: 5:54 am Mon September 21 2009 | Comments(2) |

[photos] Your Monday moment of zen

Your Monday moment of zen.

Photographed by me in Amarillo, TX.

© 2006, 2009 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags:

Posted: 5:38 am Mon September 21 2009 | Comments(3) |

[links] Link salad pops back onto the radar

Don’t forget to vote in the Flash Fiction Open contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] — Poll will be closed a bit later today, so be sure to vote early and often!

Google Working to Revise Digital Books Settlement — Hmm. Dare I see this as a ray of hope in the Google Books Settlement mess?

Model seaplane — Even looking at this picture probably violates OHSA standards. Heh.

Scanning Dead Salmon in fMRI Machine Highlights Risk of Red Herrings — To maintain the rigor of the protocol (and perhaps because it was hilarious), the salmon, just like a human test subject, “was asked to determine what emotion the individual in the photo must have been experiencing.”

Blueprint for quantum electric motor — Engineering on the atomic scale. Man…

Moon is coldest known place in the solar system — Huh. Who knew? Surely it’s colder in the Kuiper belt… (Via @glynmoody.)

How to read articles about health — Dissecting science journalism.

Massachusetts to require flu vaccines? — Bad Astronomy Blog on the tension between personal choice and public cost.

He may have said, “[w]e need segregated buses,” but that doesn’t mean he’s a racist. — The Edge of the American West on alleged racism in conservative discourse.

?otD: Saturday or Shatterday?

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9/21/2009
Body movement: n/a (up late last night)
Hours slept: 5.5
This morning’s weigh-in: 232.4
Currently reading: The Real Wizard of Oz by Rebecca Loncraine

Tags: contest, Cool, Funny, healthcare, Links, Personal, Photos, Politics, Polls, Publishing, Science

Posted: 5:18 am Mon September 21 2009 | Comments(0) |

[personal|food] Friday updatery

Speaking of food, last night we made lamb steaks. Brushed them heavily with olive oil, then rubbed on salt, black pepper, oregano, garlic salt and dry mustard. Let them sit for a few hours before searing in a pan with light olive oil, garlic cut fine and jalapenos cut fine, then pan-fried on medium heat. Sauteed mushrooms and steamed green beans for side, plus some garlic bread. And habanero jelly as a side to the lamb. Mmmm.

Working the Day Jobbe today. and will be shopping for goodies for this weekend’s retreat. I’ll be putting tonight’s marinade together at some point, and then we’ll all light out for the territories around 2 pm. Expect continued light blogging through Sunday evening.

Tags: Calendula, Conventions, Food, Personal, work

Posted: 5:25 am Fri September 18 2009 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Friday moment of zen

Your Friday moment of zen.

Photo taken in New Hampshire, Fall, 2009 by Ruthanne Reid. © 2009, all rights reserved. Reproduced with permission.

Tags: nature, New England, Photos, zen

Posted: 5:16 am Fri September 18 2009 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad wakes up in a new day, promptly scratches the finish

Don’t forget to vote in the Flash Fiction Open contest: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ]

How Many Copies? — Andrew Wheeler dissects some rumored Kindle sales numbers.

GBS: Fairness Hearing Procedures — Scrivener’s Error on some nuts and bolts procedural issues regarding the Google Books Settlements trial process.

Dover Books: 1945 — A New York bookstore of yore. I find this photo very inviting.

We Are Culture — Cheryl Morgan on science fiction as culture in the Islamic world.

So has anyone really been ‘Islamified’ against their will? — The insanity of British conservatism. Some remarkable parallels to USAnia here. (Via @zootcadillac.)

Time Magazine: the liberal bias of facts — How Time magazine reports the thoroughly documented conservative lies about 9-12 crowd size as if it were a competing set of valid opinions. Your liberal media, hard at work.

Teen birth rates highest in most religious states — Mmmm, family values.

summarizes the 912 Tea Party Metro “scandal” — Once again, conservatives have bludgeoned irony to death and dropped its weighted corpse into a swimming pool full of flat Budweiser. You realize you guys just look like bigger and bigger idiots? Complaining that you had to use the private enterprise transportation system (cabs) because the underfunded public option (metro) which you oppose any support for was underresourced.

?otD: Is Friday really one of the Happy Days?

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9/18/2009
Body movement: n/a (up late)
Hours slept: 6.5
This morning’s weigh-in: 232.4
Currently reading: The Real Wizard of Oz by Rebecca Loncraine

Tags: Books, contest, Culture, Links, Personal, Politics, Polls, Publishing, Religion, stories

Posted: 5:11 am Fri September 18 2009 | Comments(1) |

[writing] Sekrit projekt progress

For reasons already discussed, very busy today, so I only put an hour into the sekrit projekt. Still, here’s some wip…

After Pai-mei had departed, Forbes belted on an old brocade robe and went in search of a highball. The woman was positively dangerous in her allure. The place smelled like her for hours after.

He was content with that.

The tiny kitchen contained no food to speak of, only bar supplies such as lemons and cherries. Forbes would have to find something to eat on the way home — oh, goodness was he tired of Chinese food. Why this country couldn’t manage a decent steakhouse was beyond him. Americans around every corner for the past thirty years, and still it was eggplant pizza and dubious fried foods.

Though he tried not to dwell on such things, Forbes had to admit that he felt guilty for having made love with his informant. Not guilty enough to quit, admittedly, but guilty enough to wish he could be a little smarter about it. She was so damned hard to turn down. A man had to be made of sterner flesh than his to resist that sparkling smile, those pneumatic breasts and that taut belly.

Tags: Rockfeller, wip, Writing

Posted: 4:43 pm Thu September 17 2009 | Comments(0) |

[personal] Miscellaneous updatery

A few notes of potential interest:

The voting poll for the Flash Fiction Open contest [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ] will close Sunday night or Monday.

This is part because I will be mostly or fully off the grid from Friday afternoon through Sunday evening. and I are going to a writing retreat on the coast with a cast of 2/3-dozen. (She’ll be here tonight. Yay!) and are our hosts, and we’re taking with us in the Genre car.

Likewise, due to prep for the weekend, no writing got done yesterday. As I am camp cook at the retreat, likely no writing will get done tomorrow. I do plan to make up for these deficiencies over the weekend.

In the mean time, amuse yourself with this photoset of the Scholes babies. And of course, expect light to non-existent blogging through most of the weekend.

Tags: Calendula, Contests, Conventions, Oregon, Personal, Polls, stories

Posted: 3:09 pm Thu September 17 2009 | Comments(0) |

[calendula] She’s on her way here

Well, is leaving the Witchnest this morning — about now, in fact — to make the drive to Oregon. She’ll be here for about ten days, during which time we’ll make ‘s coast writing retreat (along with the lovely and talented , who’s currently visiting as well), do a bunch of homebody/couple stuff, and hit Foolscap. I can’t wait to see her.

Yay!

Tags: Calendula, California, Conventions, Oregon, Personal

Posted: 5:50 am Thu September 17 2009 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Your Thursday moment of zen

Your Thursday moment of zen.

Photographed by me in Portland, OR.

© 2006, 2009 by Joseph E. Lake, Jr.

This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: flowers, Photos, Portland, zen

Posted: 5:37 am Thu September 17 2009 | Comments(0) |