(no subject)

For your latest surprise internet goodie. It's the last button (and its sound effect) that really makes this great:



(full Solstice Advent Calendar here)

a day and a half left

of NaNoCheaMo.

I have so far revised 27,545 words of Miledrop, and now I'm finding myself needing to make a map of where the good guys, bad guys, and the Major Plot Goodie are before I can write much further. I've written 1242 words of Surf, which I'd've gotten farther on if my head wasn't totally and completely stuck in Miledrop. This means that, by my count, my "score" for the month so far is 28,787 words. Which is really incredibly good, considering I've got two teething babies and I'm trying to get an entire (gigantic) building's server and network infrastructure, including a student computer lab, up and running before the end of January.

The total wordcount of Miledrop stands at just over 40k, and I've only killed off a couple of people so far -- makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

So. Not sure how much more words I'll get down before midnight tomorrow night, though I expect to have a very nice diagram of where all my characters are by then -- hard to quantify that in terms of equivalent wordcount, and also hard not to go overboard and turn it into an exercise in cat vacuuming, but necessary before more words can happen. I know I shouldn't be at all dissatisfied with my progress, but... well, I'd hoped to have at least some claim on 50k before the month was out.

Anyhow, that's where the writing thing stands. Now I have to go figure out how to clean my supposedly self-cleaning oven, which so nicely filled my house with smoke last night when I tried to get it to clean itself. )-:

(no subject)

I haven't said anything about it yet here, but this whole thing in Mumbai has been really distressing. I feel so sorry for that couple in the Chabad house -- it's great that the nanny was able to get their kid out, but still, how absolutely horrible. I wonder if they knew their kid was safe before they were killed. I can't even imagine. )-:

I sort of dread going in to work on Monday, because so many of the people in my department are from India and I can't help but be afraid that someone I know will have been more directly touched by this than the sort of general tragedy it is for me now. And while I hope that the friends and colleagues and loved ones of the people I know are all safe, it does not change the fact that there are a lot of people dead, and that someone somewhere loved those people and are now having to make sense of this senseless thing through a wall of grief.

I do not understand how it is that people can do these things to other people. Shouldn't we, humanity, be better than this?

Q&A: Why I Have A Fake Christmas Tree

Seeing as how it's now past Thanksgiving, we are attempting to clear space in the library so we can set up our holiday tree. Which will come out of a big ol' box in the basement, thank you very much.

Q: But why do you have a Christmas Tree at all, seeing as how you're a non-denominational polytheist?
A: Because they are pretty and sparkly and cheerful, and seem awfully pagan to me. Arguably it's the one thing about the holiday season I truly enjoy. Someone once told me the tradition predates Christianity and I can totally believe that, and whether or not it's actually true, I'm sticking with the tree. Sometimes I call it my Yule Tree and sometimes I call it my Solstice Tree and sometimes I slip and call it a Christmas Tree and I don't care. It's all good.

Q: Okay, so why a fake?
A: ( Now there's the story. )