Category: Wasting Time

Saturday Brain Dump

Basically because I’m procrastinating, plus I couldn’t believe I came here today to find nothing on my site but reposted tweets, I needed some constructive filler.

I’m a big believer in Brian K. Vaughn’s view on writer’s block (“Writer’s block” is just another word for video games. If you want to be a writer, get writing, you lazy bastards.), but as a corollary, I believe that sometimes writer’s block is a way of telling you that there’s too much on your mind and that you need a core dump.

1
I’m not making excuses, but this has been a busy fall, between getting my academic feet wet again for the first time in a decade, family issues, and the physical/emotional perils of the writing life. I’m getting by, but at this point I feel like all I’m good for is waiting for the clock to run out on the rest of the year. It’s not necessarily a bad feeling, either.

2
I’ve been spending time deleting things, starting with crap I’m accumulating online, and finally perusing the crap taking up space on my hard drive. I freed up a few GB of space just this morning by deleting whole albums I don’t listen to anymore. There was just no reason for Neko Case’s entire catalog to be sitting on my hard drive for a year.

3
Still waiting to hear re: a bunch of October story submissions. Got one rejection back the other day and just haven’t had the time to figure out where to re-submit it.

4
Most of my reposted tweets lately have to do with this bastard of a story I’m writing. The story before it came out so easily, and with this one, I’m pulling teeth. Lesson learned: sometimes (some folks will say most times), you just have to construct a story.

5
I’m a long ways off from my goal of drafting a story a week. But my writing/editing output has never been more regular. I’d like to see more finished product for 2009.

That’s all for now, I think. Time to find something else to procrastinate over write.

Track This

I’ve taken one step backward from my trend toward low-tech/no-tech writing solutions. Although, I guess running portableapps off a USB stick, or storing stuff on Google Docs isn’t exactly low-tech. But I’ve been trying to decrease my computer dependance as much as is feasible. Because I just can’t carry around a laptop anymore, nor do I particularly have to.

I used to track my submissions in a small Moleskine cahir notebook. But, I’ve upgraded to Sonar now.

So far, so good!

This WILL Be Mine!

I so fucking want this…


Can you blame me…?

The TARDIS has two doors, which open inward as they do in the series. Inside, we see a printed backdrop to indicate the interior and the central control console. When it’s opened, an interior light shines down on the floor.

The doors snap firmly into place when opened. To close them, you pull the left door closed first, then push a button inset into the floor (nicely disguised on the brick-tile floor), which snaps the other door shut. The phone panel on the left door snaps open to reveal the old-time telephone.

When you lift the TARDIS, a button on the bottom triggers the dematerialization/takeoff sound, which is accompanied by flashing police light. The interior lights remain on (and can be seen through the frosted windows and the police box panels at the top) during motion. There are three dematerialization sounds, slow, fast and emergency takeoff.

Two materialization sounds can play when the TARDIS lands, triggered by the same button being pressed.

Shaking the TARDIS side to side triggers two “turbulent flight” sounds.

An interesting feature caught my eye on the bottom of the TARDIS: a small, rotating plastic divot. I wondered what it could be for (before reading the instructions). It fits a finger, which allows you to support the TARDIS with one finger while spinning the TARDIS by its top-mounted police light. You can rotate this thing pretty fast, and while you do so, it plays the spinning vortex sound effect.

via

Filed Under: “Can’t Make This Up”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.

Sort of reminds me of this 1980s TV “gem,” Masquerade