Harry Connolly's Blog, page 198

Thank you, everyone

I'd like to thank everyone for giving their input on the title. It's appreciated.

Randomness for 3/25

1) This makes a school bus trip seem like a delight. Actually, I'd probably homeschool.

2) Guys who pay women to play video games with them.

3) Alien vs. Pooh.

4) And, as an antidote to those of you who were annoyed by the critique of police procedure in CASTLE: A show that get's the procedure right. FYI, I don't post these links to harsh peoples' buzz on their favorite shows; there's a lot to learn here for writers and readers.

5) What happens when a critic really hates a movie.

6)

What does this title suggest to you?

If you saw this:

A KEY, AN EGG, AN UNFORTUNATE REMARK

as a book's title, what inferences would you draw about the content of the novel?

As I write this

This book has a better sales ranking than mine.

I try to be useful

In my continuing attempts to be useful to people, here are three things I'm glad I know.

1) If you feel the urge to sneeze but need to hold it back (because, say, your beloved spouse is sleeping right there in the room with you), tickle the roof of your mouth with your tongue. It won't prevent every sneeze, and sometimes it will only delay it, but it works.

2) If you are sick of having the whole roll of aluminum foil pop out of the box when you pull on it, check the sides of the box. There ...

Randomness for 3/23

1) Zombie attack flow chart.

2) "… Bloggers aren't real writers…"

3) The Strange Sad Death of Alan MacDonald.

4) How to take surreptitious photos on the planet Belvedere.

5) The lonely life of a super-hero.

6) Casting call for Pirates of the Caribbean 4: No fake boobs.

7) A review of the police procedure on Castle.

The world is full of story-fodder

I was going to drop this into the latest random link compilation, but it's too cool to be buried there. Check out this news report on a story from more than fifty years ago in Scotland.

Yes, hundreds of children hunting vampires in a graveyard after dark–a vampire "with iron teeth" no less.

The story ideas that little news piece prompts are undeniable. The two simplest ideas would be to tell it from the POV of one of the children, if only for the chance to write about kids high on...

They did it

The Senate health care reform package just passed the house with 219 votes, three over the 216 they needed.

Finally! It's not the reform I would have chosen, and it's not perfect. Hell, it'll never be perfect. What it can do, though, is save thousands of American lives every year, and prevent hundreds of thousands of medical bankruptcies.

Tomorrow, I will be happy and at peace. Tuesday, I'll contact my representative and senators about cap and trade. Or Medicare part E (for...

Taxes done and turned in

I e-filed for the first time this year. I've been on computers for over 15 years, but I'm still nervous about sending such and important document over the internet. I'm still paying by check, though; there's no way I'm turning over part of my taxes to a frigging credit card company.

Last year I used Turbo Tax for the first time, and I accepted its advice that I would not need to pay estimated taxes this year.

On this last return, we had to pay a $105 penalty. Looks like we'll be getting ...

Tonight

According to Washington Post, the House will vote on health care reform tonight at 6pm PST. Please please please get this right, Democrats. It's not a perfect bill, but the status quo is killing us.