Snow
Down where I'm from in Maryland, we don't have snow all that often. When we do, it's often a quick flurry barely worthy of the name, and a few flakes will shut down schools, the federal government,and many businesses. Also, in Maryland, the winter daytime temperature rarely dips below freezing, and even nighttime temperatures rarely hit the teens. That being said, Chicago weather is a source of continual bewilderment to me. First of all, there are not four seasons here. There are two. Winter, and August. At home we have this lovely long gradual transition from one season to another. Spring starts around mid-March and gradually warms up from mid-50's/low 60's to lovely 80's by June. It stays hot (beastly so sometimes) through August. Around mid-September, we start the slow decline into winter temperatures; true "cold" is achieved around mid-November and sticks around till March, repeat ad infinitum. Out here, it's either below 40, or over 80. I'm boggled. I truly am.
But I was talking about snow. I like snow. I hate driving in it (although I LOVE my SUV's 4-wheel drive for this purpose), but I just love watching it. There's just something incredible about waking up the morning after a snowstorm and looking out your window to a world coated in white. I think of it kind of like a vast sheet of velvet with a deep, rich pile being thrown over the world. I love snow. It's incredibly beautiful while it stays pristine. (Once it's been tramped on and mixed with mud and slush and asphalt grit and oil and god knows what else, it's not nearly as pretty. But to me, that's not snow. that's a mess. Totally separate idea.)
We've not had a snowstorm here as of yet (and hopefully it'll hold off!) but we've had flurries, and they've created some truly amazing mental images. There's nothing quite like the sight of dry, powdery snow scudding across asphalt. Picture it. It's dark out. The light is provided by streetlamps and headlights. Ghostly swirls and eddies chase each other across the dark pavement, arching and breaking like ocean waves. There's a certain surreal quality to it that you just don't see when snow falls on grass or other vegetation.
When I flew home last week for Thanksgiving, I looked out the window (I was seated right at the front edge of the wing) and saw something really cool. You know how planes have those bright blue-white flashy lights on the leading edge of the wing? Well, it was flurrying in Baltimore (hardly worthy of the name really) and the light was flashing. Between the speed of the airplane, the fineness of the snowflakes, and the flashing light, the overwhelming impression was of quicksilver sparks, flaring and dying to the rhythm of the light flashes. (I am enough of a geek that I looked at it and said "Hey neat, motes of Essence!")
The third snow sighting I'm going to ramble about was last night. I was cruising home from work. There wasn't enough to make water-speckles on my windshield, nor enough to make driving difficult, but there was a very fine, misty snow falling. I could only barely see it swirling in my headlights and if I looked at the pool of light under a streetlamp, I could see it there. It wasn't even falling so much as floating and drifting. It was really neat to watch.
OK. Weather rambles done with, how about some other updates? It's 11:25 pm my time and my final NaNo word count is 8252. I could have done better, but I look at it this way. Last time I barely broke 2000. So I've done four times better this year. I know where I went wrong, too; I didn't do enough planning. I went off on a wild hair with a barely-formed concept and no real idea of where I was going. I should know by now that this leads to a decent first chapter, and bloody fuck-all thereafter. But I think I might be able to do something with the story eventually. For now I'm going to focus on Wyrdborn, which I've not done near enough with.
I've been playing a bit of Magna Carta. Still a decent game, probably won't make my top 10, but there you go. The loading screens annoy me incredibly. Has anyone figured out how the flying fuck Combo Mode works? I count myself reasonably good at games like this, and for the life of me I cannot make sense of it. Fucking hell.
I ran an Exalted oneshot last night. I felt horribly unprepared and my antagonists were not as well done as they should have been. That's all right. Learning experience! I'm re-running the same oneshot for a different crowd on Saturday, so I'll see how that turns out. It was pretty excellent, though. Seven Dragon-Bloods face off with one Solar Circle sorcerer, one Fire Aspect twinked out Melee whore, and a couple of extras. At the end of the first round, one of the Dragon-Bloods, the Fire Aspect, the sorcerer, and one of the extras are dead - but Rain of Doom has begun, and everybody dies. It was pretty hilarious from a certain perspective, and I'd like to run more games of differing types before I start my chron.
Time for sleep now.
But I was talking about snow. I like snow. I hate driving in it (although I LOVE my SUV's 4-wheel drive for this purpose), but I just love watching it. There's just something incredible about waking up the morning after a snowstorm and looking out your window to a world coated in white. I think of it kind of like a vast sheet of velvet with a deep, rich pile being thrown over the world. I love snow. It's incredibly beautiful while it stays pristine. (Once it's been tramped on and mixed with mud and slush and asphalt grit and oil and god knows what else, it's not nearly as pretty. But to me, that's not snow. that's a mess. Totally separate idea.)
We've not had a snowstorm here as of yet (and hopefully it'll hold off!) but we've had flurries, and they've created some truly amazing mental images. There's nothing quite like the sight of dry, powdery snow scudding across asphalt. Picture it. It's dark out. The light is provided by streetlamps and headlights. Ghostly swirls and eddies chase each other across the dark pavement, arching and breaking like ocean waves. There's a certain surreal quality to it that you just don't see when snow falls on grass or other vegetation.
When I flew home last week for Thanksgiving, I looked out the window (I was seated right at the front edge of the wing) and saw something really cool. You know how planes have those bright blue-white flashy lights on the leading edge of the wing? Well, it was flurrying in Baltimore (hardly worthy of the name really) and the light was flashing. Between the speed of the airplane, the fineness of the snowflakes, and the flashing light, the overwhelming impression was of quicksilver sparks, flaring and dying to the rhythm of the light flashes. (I am enough of a geek that I looked at it and said "Hey neat, motes of Essence!")
The third snow sighting I'm going to ramble about was last night. I was cruising home from work. There wasn't enough to make water-speckles on my windshield, nor enough to make driving difficult, but there was a very fine, misty snow falling. I could only barely see it swirling in my headlights and if I looked at the pool of light under a streetlamp, I could see it there. It wasn't even falling so much as floating and drifting. It was really neat to watch.
OK. Weather rambles done with, how about some other updates? It's 11:25 pm my time and my final NaNo word count is 8252. I could have done better, but I look at it this way. Last time I barely broke 2000. So I've done four times better this year. I know where I went wrong, too; I didn't do enough planning. I went off on a wild hair with a barely-formed concept and no real idea of where I was going. I should know by now that this leads to a decent first chapter, and bloody fuck-all thereafter. But I think I might be able to do something with the story eventually. For now I'm going to focus on Wyrdborn, which I've not done near enough with.
I've been playing a bit of Magna Carta. Still a decent game, probably won't make my top 10, but there you go. The loading screens annoy me incredibly. Has anyone figured out how the flying fuck Combo Mode works? I count myself reasonably good at games like this, and for the life of me I cannot make sense of it. Fucking hell.
I ran an Exalted oneshot last night. I felt horribly unprepared and my antagonists were not as well done as they should have been. That's all right. Learning experience! I'm re-running the same oneshot for a different crowd on Saturday, so I'll see how that turns out. It was pretty excellent, though. Seven Dragon-Bloods face off with one Solar Circle sorcerer, one Fire Aspect twinked out Melee whore, and a couple of extras. At the end of the first round, one of the Dragon-Bloods, the Fire Aspect, the sorcerer, and one of the extras are dead - but Rain of Doom has begun, and everybody dies. It was pretty hilarious from a certain perspective, and I'd like to run more games of differing types before I start my chron.
Time for sleep now.