Even though I didn't do any writing today, I did get a lot of research done. I looked up EMP weapons, then spent a lively hour and a half arguing with my husband over whether I could trust the congressional reports on the subject. We found out that e-bombs are nuclear bombs designed to create a huge electrical surge in the atmosphere. They would send metal bars sparking and fry all transistors, transformers, and computer chips in sight. Imagine cooking a fork, some aluminum foil, and your cell phone in the microwave oven on HIGH. Now imagine that going on EVERYWHERE. The congressional report said that one or two big Russian e-bombs could knock out pretty much everything electronic in the United States. My husband felt sure they'd need four or five at least. No problem. They have a few thousand.
At any rate, we agreed that the first thing to go in an e-bomb attack would be the internet. It is the most fragile, vulnerable part of the infrastructure.
"Dang," I said, "No more blog! It would be completely wiped out! I should be making hard copies of my blog entries."
My husband laughed, "In case of nuclear war, you're really going to want your blog."
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Monday, August 4, 2008
Fashion Statement
When I was in high school I wouldn't be caught dead in bell bottoms, unless it was, like, 70's day and we were supposed to look freaky weird.
They must have been back in style for a while because I found a pair on clearance at Wal-Mart. Granted I didn't know what they were until I got them home and tried them on. Oh well, I thought, those tacky things go right into the charity box.
But instead I hung them up in my closet and one day when the laundry was overdue I had nothing else to wear. I put them on and hoped no one would notice.
They were surprisingly comfortable in the Las Vegas heat. I got some nice air circulation around my calves, almost like wearing capri pants. Now I wear them now and then, so long as I'm not going anywhere that I care very much what people think of me.
And let me tell you what was really freaky weird. I went to a musical revue a few months ago and they had an 80's segment. Staring at those costumes, I realized- I used to wear stuff like that! My friends used to wear stuff like that! I've still got my cowgirl skirt in my closet, even though it is too small for me now - like my daughter is going to want to be caught dead in it!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Half-Way There!
Sometime around midnight last night I wrote the 25,000th word of Earthcrosser. That means I'm about half-way done with my first draft! If all goes well, I'll be needing test readers in the month of September.
One thing I love about writing science fiction is that I don't have to make everything up. The real world is full of cool stuff I can use. Take, for example, the exciting discovery I made during today's early morning writing session. The characters were hiking around outside after sunset, and I wanted to know what the sky would look like on June 27, 2087. So I went to the Sky View Cafe.
I typed in the seventy-nine years in the future date and discovered that Mars and Jupiter will be in conjunction, passing spectacularly close to each other just two nights later. I never would have thought of that on my own, but it is perfect! It illustrates some astronomy concepts which happen to be important to the plot, it might be symbolic (we writers love that kind of thing), and it provides a nice concrete detail about the night sky which I can bask in for a descriptive sentence or two.
One thing I love about writing science fiction is that I don't have to make everything up. The real world is full of cool stuff I can use. Take, for example, the exciting discovery I made during today's early morning writing session. The characters were hiking around outside after sunset, and I wanted to know what the sky would look like on June 27, 2087. So I went to the Sky View Cafe.
I typed in the seventy-nine years in the future date and discovered that Mars and Jupiter will be in conjunction, passing spectacularly close to each other just two nights later. I never would have thought of that on my own, but it is perfect! It illustrates some astronomy concepts which happen to be important to the plot, it might be symbolic (we writers love that kind of thing), and it provides a nice concrete detail about the night sky which I can bask in for a descriptive sentence or two.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Garden Math
The instructions on the back of the corn seed package say, and I quote, "Plant seeds six inches apart. When seedlings are three inches tall, thin to ten inches apart."
Um . . .
Yeah.
I know this wouldn't bother most people, but I'm the sort who sketches my garden on a piece of graph paper and gets out the measuring tape on planting day. As much as I enjoy doing the impossible, I think I'm going to have to either plant seeds five inches apart, or settle for twelve inch spacing between my cornstalks.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
On A Roll
Finally! I finally got in the zone again. I sat down and wrote 1,000 words in an hour. It was a great morning!
But now I have to go vote and get a new pair of glasses for my three-year-old, who finally, after ten weeks, broke his new glasses beyond repair. My insurance only pays for one pair every other year, so now I am free! Free to shop around and go anywhere that sells eyeglasses! Free! Free! I have to pay out of pocket, but I get to pick who gets paid! Long live capitalism!
But now I have to go vote and get a new pair of glasses for my three-year-old, who finally, after ten weeks, broke his new glasses beyond repair. My insurance only pays for one pair every other year, so now I am free! Free to shop around and go anywhere that sells eyeglasses! Free! Free! I have to pay out of pocket, but I get to pick who gets paid! Long live capitalism!
Monday, July 28, 2008
The Last Hurdle
Next month we will begin our fifth year at Nevada State College. That means it is (fanfare please) time for my husband to apply for tenure.
This is the final obstacle in the career of a college professor. We've jumped through many hoops already. Undergraduate school, graduate school, qualifying exams, dissertation, post-doctoral work, landing a tenure-track position, and now last of all, we have to convince the college that they want to keep him forever.
I don't see why that should be so hard. I want to keep him forever. And I don't even need a several hundred page report detailing all the things my husband has done for me over the past four or five years, submitted to an outside committee for review.
Unfortunately, the school does need such a report. It is going to be a long, hard year. I was getting scared at first, but then I realized that God has always prepared us for these hurdles and obstacles. He knows what is coming up in our lives, and has already put the pieces in place. I am grateful to know that God lives and that he can communicate with us through prayer, and I am grateful for all the times he has shown us what to do in the past. I have perfect confidence that he will carry us through this time as well, no matter what the outcome.
This is the final obstacle in the career of a college professor. We've jumped through many hoops already. Undergraduate school, graduate school, qualifying exams, dissertation, post-doctoral work, landing a tenure-track position, and now last of all, we have to convince the college that they want to keep him forever.
I don't see why that should be so hard. I want to keep him forever. And I don't even need a several hundred page report detailing all the things my husband has done for me over the past four or five years, submitted to an outside committee for review.
Unfortunately, the school does need such a report. It is going to be a long, hard year. I was getting scared at first, but then I realized that God has always prepared us for these hurdles and obstacles. He knows what is coming up in our lives, and has already put the pieces in place. I am grateful to know that God lives and that he can communicate with us through prayer, and I am grateful for all the times he has shown us what to do in the past. I have perfect confidence that he will carry us through this time as well, no matter what the outcome.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Patch
At our last visit to the ophthalmologist (only one misspelling that time!) - which I can only hope was actually covered by our insurance - I found out that my three-year-old's eyes are not crossing as much as they used to. That's great news! The glasses are working.
When the nurse asked me to cover my child's left eye he read everything off the chart, both near and far. But then, when I covered his right eye he shook his head and pulled my hand away. When I finally got him to sit still and look at the eye chart, he couldn't tell a ducky from a birthday cake. The nurse asked him what he saw on the projection screen across the room and he said, "Fire!" I guess because of the light.
The ophthalmologist had a student ophthalmologist with her that day. She explained to him (not to me) that my son had (insert unpronounceable term as hard to spell as ophthalmologist) which simply means that his eyes had been crossing to compensate for the difficulty of focusing, and in order to avoid seeing double, his brain learned to ignore the left eye. The solution: an eye patch over the stronger eye, worn two hours a day, while the child does some activity involving vision, like television, computer games, puzzles, or books.
My first thought was, "That's not so bad." I am sorry to admit my second thought was, "There goes my writing time."
I already told you how much my son hated me covering his right eye with my hand. The patch was even worse. It was a clever little contraption that attached to his glasses instead of sticking on his face. He quickly learned how to pull it down just enough to peek over it so that it looked like he was wearing it even when it wasn't doing him any good. If I tried to read to him or do puzzles, he would hop up and run away, fling his glasses off in some hard-to-find location, and then come back. I decided to work him up to the full two hours instead of asking him to do it all on the first day.
It was uncanny doing puzzles with him the first time he wore his patch. Using both eyes, he could always get the pieces in the right place every time. With his left eye, he fumbled around and usually aimed the pieces about half and inch to the left. But now, at the end of the second week, he will wear his patch for about thirty minutes before he tries to dispose of it when I'm not looking, and he will point directly to pictures on command instead of off to the left of them. It seems to be working.
I'm supposed to go back to the ophthalmologist in two weeks. If I can get my referral extended. Hopefully she'll confirm my suspicions that my son's left eye is on the way to recovery, and she won't do anything that requires any pre-authorization I haven't got.
When the nurse asked me to cover my child's left eye he read everything off the chart, both near and far. But then, when I covered his right eye he shook his head and pulled my hand away. When I finally got him to sit still and look at the eye chart, he couldn't tell a ducky from a birthday cake. The nurse asked him what he saw on the projection screen across the room and he said, "Fire!" I guess because of the light.
The ophthalmologist had a student ophthalmologist with her that day. She explained to him (not to me) that my son had (insert unpronounceable term as hard to spell as ophthalmologist) which simply means that his eyes had been crossing to compensate for the difficulty of focusing, and in order to avoid seeing double, his brain learned to ignore the left eye. The solution: an eye patch over the stronger eye, worn two hours a day, while the child does some activity involving vision, like television, computer games, puzzles, or books.
My first thought was, "That's not so bad." I am sorry to admit my second thought was, "There goes my writing time."
I already told you how much my son hated me covering his right eye with my hand. The patch was even worse. It was a clever little contraption that attached to his glasses instead of sticking on his face. He quickly learned how to pull it down just enough to peek over it so that it looked like he was wearing it even when it wasn't doing him any good. If I tried to read to him or do puzzles, he would hop up and run away, fling his glasses off in some hard-to-find location, and then come back. I decided to work him up to the full two hours instead of asking him to do it all on the first day.
It was uncanny doing puzzles with him the first time he wore his patch. Using both eyes, he could always get the pieces in the right place every time. With his left eye, he fumbled around and usually aimed the pieces about half and inch to the left. But now, at the end of the second week, he will wear his patch for about thirty minutes before he tries to dispose of it when I'm not looking, and he will point directly to pictures on command instead of off to the left of them. It seems to be working.
I'm supposed to go back to the ophthalmologist in two weeks. If I can get my referral extended. Hopefully she'll confirm my suspicions that my son's left eye is on the way to recovery, and she won't do anything that requires any pre-authorization I haven't got.
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