Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 68

From Twitter 09-23-2010

08:31:06: RT @kaysea14: Koch-Backed Groups Helped Kill Law Designed To Prevent Voter Suppression Plot Hatched By Koch-Backed Groups. http://twurl. ...
08:33:32: RT @kaysea14: The GOP's bad idea - http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/09/the_gops_bad_idea.html
13:54:02: Extra-highly-productive writing days often followed by day of "Huh? Whazzat?" from writer-brain.

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One Woman's Renovation...

...is another woman's pot lid rack.   One of my friends has, from time to time, had renovations going on at her house.   A huge one is just finishing up.  Every time this happens, I look at my house, ponder the cost (not just money--time, mess, chaos) and--unless something falls through the floor--slap a coat of paint on a room (or scrub a wall) and leave it alone.   This is why her house is so much better looking than our house, but we're both happy with our individual strategies.  

From Twitter 09-22-2010

06:51:13: Writing early...need to get words done very early today so multitudinous other chores also get done before choir. Includes learning music.
07:50:17: Thought it would be sheer drudgery, but a plotbomb has resulted in rapid expansion. #amwriting
08:24:01: RT @NASA: A spectacular new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image reveals the heart of the Lagoon Nebula. Good stuff! http://cot.ag/aMud2l
09:58:32: RT @NASA: Beautiful shot of a remote & steaming Russian volcano, from NASA's Earth...

From Twitter 09-21-2010

00:14:08: Sir Terry Pratchett made himself a sword: http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vv2x3p Image at http://tinyurl.com/2dahryo (scroll down page.)
14:32:51: RT @TanyaHuff: Nothing sadder than a Starbucks after the perky teen summer staff has left behind the cranky under-employed 20 somethings.
14:36:26: R- building arbor over plank walkway that now crosses from driveway to garden (there's a ditch.) Plan is for pretty stuff to grow over it.
14:38:16: Given that soil depth is maybe 8 inches, in a...

From Twitter 09-20-2010

08:19:14: RT @robinmckinley: RT @Joannechocolat RT @cjredwine blog post I nvr dreamed I'd write Rape survivor speaks on censoring SPEAK http://tin ...
09:11:47: 1200 words so far...Monday's being a good workday. #amwriting. No plot bombs, but steady progress. Who knows what when kind of stuff.
09:13:17: Although, as a whole, ms. is considerably out of order--following POV strands means temporal continuity is shot until re-organized. #writing
09:50:22: Transferring image files from desktop...

Amateur Photography: Storage

Digital photography....how I love thee.   Quick results, no 36 frame limit per roll (or card), no wait for developing, ease of editing one's own work in the computer.

But oh, how the amount of computer storage dedicated to image files explodes.   If someone runs amok with digital camera(s) trying to document every living thing (and some nonliving, like fossils and skeletons)  on 80 acres in all seasons...that's a lot of images.  And though we started with a little point-and-shoot that...

Musical Relations and Signs

I grew up hearing both Mexican music (from a powerful station over the border) and conjunto ( a Tex-Mex musical form now mostly supplanted by Tejana, very much influenced by German and Czech music, especially polkas.)   Some Saturdays I was allowed to spend the night with my grandmother, who lived across a vacant lot from a VFW hall where they held dances on Saturday nights.   Nobody had air conditioning, then, so I would peer out the window, across the lot, and into the tall windows of the V...

From Twitter 09-18-2010

11:14:31: Note to self: Do not change name of important character's spouse in the next chapter.
14:35:50: So far: 2000+ words, a futile trip to the city in which none of planned stops worked out, and now--planting shallots & wildflowers.
15:13:12: The shallots we bought don't look like the shallots in the "how to grow" articles I looked at online. But they're in the ground now.
15:14:43: And a 4 pm temp below 90F feels like paradise. Next: go over music again. Then more on book. Need to be...

From Twitter 09-17-2010

08:20:21: RT @robinmckinley: Intrstng list *NOT* spoiled by calling BEST RT @PublishersWkly: Daily Beast list 10 Smart YA Books 4 after #HungerGam ...
08:54:24: RT @patinagle: Scalzi: Writing - find the time or don't http://whatever.scalzi.com/2010/09/16/writing-find-the-time-or-dont/
08:56:37: RT @NASA: Update on the Ozone Hole from NASA's Aura satellite: it's getting close to its annual maximum now. http://go.usa.gov/x07
08:58:22: Figured out who the other traitor is, in Book III. Family...

Children in Disasters

A message from Change.org today mentioned pending legislation that's supposed to provide new guidelines to ensure that children in a major disaster are given the support and care they need.  Katrina was the impetus for these proposals, since children affected by Katrina did not get what they needed--food or water or shelter for days, appropriate pediatric care, counseling, family-centered shelter, a swift return to school, for weeks to months.

What concerns me about the...