Yesterday was a rather action packed day. the_child had basketball practice in the morning, so I hung at a nearby coffee house and worked on Sunspin. Evan Nichols happened by while I was there.
The work was almost entirely editing and revising the first 18,200 word chunk of Calamity of So Long a Life so I could get it into La Agente along with the synopsis and some supporting documents. Most unlike me to be grinding into revision and rewriting instead of powering through the draft, but this project is so large that small errors now could multiply into vasty deeps later. As some of them in fact will, but I’m trying to avoid the avoidable.
Home for some leftover Chinese for lunch. Had an astoundingly strange and funny conversation with the_child which set new standards for my experience of NSFW parent-teen discourse. She has given me permission to blog it, which I will do later today or possibly tomorrow morning.
Then we were off to pick up our friend H— and go to the Portland Classical Chinese Garden. H— wanted some headshots for a project of hers. the_child and I brought two of our cameras and went shutterbug crazy. Plus a real nice light snack in the teahouse there.
After that we walked downtown to see the new Tron in 3D. During the walk some conversational confusion resulted in the discovery that H— had gotten Tron and Thor mixed up. The movie was entertaining but not very good, in my opinion. I’ve since been thinking of it as “the new Tron bomb”.
H— and I dropped the_child off with her mother and then had Mexican at the Iron Horse, before I dropped her off. By the time I got home and sorted through my evening ablutions, email and whatnot, the day had more than flown the coop.
Sometimes the day runs away, sometimes it takes us with it. Today I’m off to the chocolate festival. Thanks to the amazing tranche of sleep last night, I may not get any writing time in. But since I’d decided to play today anyway, I’m okay with that.
What did you do yesterday? Any chocolate in your future today?
Fantasy in Films and Magazines — Art guru James Gurney on the top ten grossing films of 2010. All of them are arguably fantasy or SF. Now, if every one of the people who saw those films would just buy one more book besides Harry Potter and Twilight…
I blog so my kids can know me when I’m gone — After I got cancer, I realized I might not always be around for my children — but my writing will be Um, yes. This. (Thanks to my aunt.)
1/23/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (200 new words on Calamity of So Long a Life, along with extensive editing and some WRPA)
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
Hours slept: 8.25 hours (!, interrupted)
Weight: 252.4
Currently reading: One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde
‘Second sun’ on its way — Provocative headline, no? Here’s the equally provocative subhead: The Earth could find itself with a ‘second sun’ for a period of weeks later this year when one of the night sky’s most luminous stars explodes, scientists have claimed. What the story actually says is rad Carter, senior lecturer of physics at the University of southern Queensland in Australia, said the explosion could take place before the end of the year – or indeed at any point over the next million years. Sheesh.
Olbermann Departs, as Media Consolidate Further — It seems Olbermann is too extreme for US television. But Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity, now they are mainstream. What universe could that proposition be true in?
?otD: How much whiter is your shade of pale?
1/22/2011
Writing time yesterday: 2.5 hours (1,900 new words on Calamity of So Long a Life, along with extensive editing)
Body movement: 30 minutes on stationary bike
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (interrupted)
Weight: 252.6
Currently reading: Between books
In the Omaha airport. Once again, eccentric customer service at the airline counter. On the plus side, I’ve been bumped up to the front of the plane in one of the big chairs. A bit short on sleep last night, so my time in the air will be divided between napping and Sunspin.
Back home, ‘s class has a concert tonight. I’m having dinner with my parents, then going to hear her play cello, and I think piano.
And I’ll be quite pleased to escape the deep freeze here.
Then and now — x planes with a striking pair of photos of a wrecked WW II flying boat.
The Amazing Steam Engines Of The First Century — An online translation of an ancient text reveals some engineering marvels from antiquity. The question isn’t who invented or discovered something first. The question is who managed to do so in a way that the idea propagated.
1/21/2011
Writing time yesterday: 0.25 hours (barely touched Sunspin, the day ate my schedule)
Body movement: n/a (airport walking to come)
Hours slept: 5.5 hours (interrupted)
Weight: n/a (no scale here)
Currently reading: Dancing With Bears by Michael Swanwick
