Author: Jon

Its not even Thanksgiving

I say this every year, but I didn’t think I could, in good conscience, let this complaint go by.  There is Christmas stuff everywhere.  I see Christmas commercials on TV.  My beloved Caribou Coffee has their employees decked out in red, and they have their yuletide napkins out.

It’s bad enough that the day after Thanksgiving is the official start of the holiday shopping season.  But by the time December 25th rolls around, I want to shoot anyone who mentions the word ‘Christmas’.

Do you think our new Senator, Jim Webb, would care?  As I promised, I’m going to write to him as soon as Nano is over.  He’s an old school Navy guy.  He probably is opposed to the excessive commercialization of Christmas, right?

Google is changing the world

Today at work, and I don’t even remember how it came up, we were talking about a movie that one of my coworkers saw.  It’s about some guys who use a time machine to go back and hunt dinosaurs.  One of them accidentally kills a butterfly, and this has profound effects on the time in the future that they then return to.  He couldn’t remember the name of the movie.

So I type “dinosaur butterfly movie” into my handy little Firefox Google search bar.  The second hit takes me to a page that currently isn’t coming up (Although Google has a cache) that gives the plot of the movie, “A Sound of Thunder”, based on a Ray Bradbury story.  The page came up this afternoon when I first looked for it, though. What did we do before Google?  I don’t even know.  But I’ve gotten used to this instant location of whatever I need using only a vague idea of what it is to find it.

For reference, the first Yahoo result that refers to the movie is the fourth, and it’s for a Boston Globe review trashing the movie.  MSN returns as the first hit the Wikipedia page for the Bradbury story, which references the movie.  But I don’t use their searches, because they suck.  Although Yahoo hasn’t killed Flickr yet.  I do give them credit for that.

199.6

199.6 was my weight today, in pounds (That’s 90.5 kg, for those of you who use that crazy system), after the gym, with shoes on.  Today is the first day since I don’t even know when that I was under 200 pounds fully clothed.  I suspect it may have more to do with two weeks off from the gym and losing muscle rather than losing fat, but I choose not to dwell on that.

Genetic eating habits

I always thought I was weird because, no matter what, I want lunch at 11:30.  People always yell at me at work because I want lunch early (partly that may be because I get in at 7-730, and many of them get in after 10).  But I found out yesterday that my sister is exactly the same way.  Even if I eat breakfast at 8, a snack at 9, and another snack at 10, I’m still hungry.  And it’s not that I eat bad snacks, because my sister is the same way, and she’s a health nut.  So while I may sometimes eat bad snacks, that is not the root of my problem. It’s comforting to know that it’s not me being weird, it’s something genetic.  I don’t get hungry like that in the afternoon and evening.  It’s just the morning.  I wonder if that’s related to the fact that I’m more of a morning person, and generally more productive in the morning.  It probably is.

Combining a few of my favorite things

Treehugger: What Can Robots Learn From Rats?

The project seeks to create the “Inspirat”, a prototype climbing robot. Yes, in case you were wondering, the name does come from “inspiration” and “rat”.

Come on, tell me you can’t get excited about a project that combines robots, saving the world, and awesome moving rat x-rays.  You have no choice.  if you don’t think this is cool, then there’s just something wrong with you.

Apparently some scientists are more or less making movies of rats climbing things, except the movies are series of x-rays.  They hope to use the rat climbing technique to make robots that can climb.  Treehugger is interested because “a robot capable of performing inspection or maintenance activities in previously unreachable locations could extend the lifespan of buildings and structures, perhaps even enable new green construction materials to be developed.”  That seems like an awfully optimistic outlook to me, but they’re the treehuggers, and I’m just a complainer.

It’s funny – you occasionally see these experiments where we take some natural organism that’s really good at something, and try and mimic the technique it uses with a machine.  This seems like common sense to me.  A few hundred thousand years of evolution probably got a few things right – we might try at least starting with all that prior knowledge.

PS3 craziness

The building I work in has a Target beneath it.  I walked past the Target this morning on my way to Caribou Coffee to get my daily large dark roast.  On an unrelated note, Caribou makes much better coffee than Starbucks.  There are probably two dozen people camped out in the parking lot, waiting for a Playstation 3.  There were two tents set up yesterday morning at 10AM.

It’s mind boggling to see how crazy people are for this thing.  Preorders are going on eBay for $5000 or more.  I’ll bet Sony wishes they could get a piece of that, because I hear they’re going to lose $200-300 per unit when they sell them for $600.

I wish I had the extra cash lying around to be able to pay an extra $4000 just to not have to wait until Sony manufacturing meets the demand.  I mean, by January, these should be in every store, right?  I’m trying to think what it would be worth $4000 to me to not have to wait a few months for.  I can’t think of anything.

Meanwhile, the Nintendo Wii sounds more my speed.  They’re supposed to be focusing on gameplay rather than graphics.  And it costs $250.  Maybe I’ll sell my Gamecube that I never play and buy a Wii.  Or maybe I’ll try playing the Wii before I buy it.  That’s probably a good idea.

Anyway, my advice to you – don’t buy a PS3.  Sony makes a habit of deciding that you are a criminal, and must use their proprietary everything, all the time.  Sony would be happy if you had to wear special Sony glasses to see the world.  I would love a Sony EReader if it were made by any other company, but as it is, I won’t buy one.  Sony doesn’t deserve your money.

I realize this won’t influence anyone’s decision, but I’m saying it anyway.

Harvey Manning, 1925-2006

Harvey Manning, 1925-2006: Author of hiking guides ‘was a force of nature’

Helen Cherullo, publisher of The Mountaineers Books, recalled getting an early e-mail from him. It started, in all caps, “WHY I AM PISSED OFF … .”

I’m not a hiker, although I do enjoy a bit of hiking on occasion.  One of Harvey Manning’s daughters is one of my Nano mentees.  From this article, he sounds like a cool guy.  One of the early environmentalists, he did a lot to protect the woods he loved to walk in.

Most of Manning’s writings were done on a typewriter, and always on recycled paper — usually with something else printed on the back, Cherullo said.

That’s great, the idea of sending a manuscript to your publisher, typed up on the back of your grocery list or a note to your family.  I imagine many publishers would flip out, but I guess his was a little more tolerant.

A Nano complaint

I’d never realized it before, but one of the great advantages of writing online is the ability to hyperlink.  If I have a word or concept that some people might not be familiar with, instead of explaining at length what I mean, I can just throw in a link to Wikipedia or something that explains the topic for me, and continue to write.

I’m finding that not being able to do that while I’m writing for Nano is becoming increasingly annoying.  For example, I’m writing about a software company.  There’s a good chance that someone might make a joke about l33+ speak, and I’m going to have to explain it.  Good for the word count, bad for the story flow.

Anyway, it’s a small complaint.  Someday, all our books will be interactive, and you’ll be able to add hyperlinks to your novel.  Until then, I remain slightly annoyed.

Good try, DC

D.C. Moves to Become Pioneer In Forcing ‘Green’ Construction – washingtonpost.com

The era of “green buildings” would include devices such as low-flow shower heads and recycled materials and would require designing passageways that encourage walking, choosing drought-tolerant plants and improving air quality by reducing the need for artificial heating and cooling.

I’m very much on board with getting companies to build greener.  And this not only promotes recycling, but health, too, with better air quality and getting people to walk.  My one problem here is that they’re forcing companies to do it.  I’d rather see them give incentives first, and if not enough companies do it, then think about legislating it.  For example, if you give tax breaks for meeting some or all of these standards, something to offset the increased cost, then you’ll likely get more support from the business community.

As it is, they’re kind of salty because they think it will raise costs by 11%, instead of the 2-4% that supporters claim.  But DC is pioneering this sort of program in a large city.  Maybe the next city to try it will go a different route.

Nano update

I should really be getting to bed, since I woke up at five this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep (Then made the mistake, without thinking, of complaining about not sleeping to the guy in the office with a two week old baby in the house).  But I just crossed the 30,000 word mark three days ahead of schedule, and I can’t quite bring myself to go to bed.  I don’t have much more time to write tonight, as anything after midnight counts as tomorrow, but I suppose that doesn’t really matter.  All the words count towards the total.

The story is going well.  I have a lot more characters in this novel than I have in previous novels, and I’m often surprised at which ones are taking central roles.  Some of the ones I thought would be important have stepped back so that others could get more time in front of the camera.  That’s one of the cool things about writing like this.  Stuff just happens.

Anyway, I have to get back to writing about the meeting between my disgruntled blogger and the wife of the executive.  He just broke the news to her this morning that her husband is cheating on her, and now they’re having dinner in the lobby of the hotel where she’s staying.