I have Automated Updates turned off on my xp pro Svce Pack 3 desktop. However, this does not stop Microsoft from hanging my computer up on startup: it assaults my computer with a popup that nags me about Automatic Updates being turned off and won't I please! click the balloon to resolve the issue -- which evokes a panel  demanding that I upgrade to ( Read more... )

It's 71K, about a third of the way through chapter 14, and ought to be done by the end of chapter 15. 16 if I can't resist more complications. So about 89% done in the first draft state. And since it's just gone July 21, I may be almost a whole week behind schedule ( Read more... )

So for the last week I've not posted a thing. My life has not been uneventful, I have not been in a coma, but I have been in and out and hyou know how that goes.

I went to Westercon with julesjones and had a wonderful time. It was like all the best parts of school. (I loved being a student -- going to classes, listening to lectures, trying on new ideas, ( Read more... )

The application fee for the Charles University medical program in Prague is $47: the tuition and fees are $14K/year ( Read more... )

"The Astronaut Farmer" is a dumb movie that pretends to be a lot more fun than it is.

On another front, I think I have yet a different way to structure Afterwar but it's going to take real scissors and paper to figure it out ( Read more... )

I have got so many copies of Afterwar floating around -- I can't keep track. I've never had it this bad, and it's happening in spite of the fact that I keep killing extra files ( Read more... )

Working on the synopsis for Afterwar requested by my writing group. Easier than other synopses because I know what they want to see in it, and why. But since they want it soo they can understand the kind of complicated time line and judge for themselves whether they think the book would do better with a different chapter order, it has to be very ( Read more... )

So here's the reason I was asking people about the shape of dinner. At least one of the editions of The Joy of Cooking says something about "in California, where they do everything their own way, the salad comes first." Another old cookbook says "It's becoming more common for people everywhere to serve the salad first, as they do in California ( Read more... )

So my writing group tells me that was and were are bad, not altogether, but need to be very sparely used. Afterwar has a lot of description and a lot of past progressive tense. So I'm trying to replace almost every incidence of was and were with other verb things.

But I want that past progressive.

I do think they're on to something, though ( Read more... )

I'm working really slowly on a total rewrite of chapter four of Afterwar. This is a chapter whose purpose is a little obscure, and the way it was originally written it was really hard to care about. But after getting the critique on the first three chapters I have an additional goal for every chapter: which is to establish and advance my man of ( Read more... )