Former Ramblings of an Insane, Lesbian, Book Writing Crip
From BBC News:
Rosa Parks set to ‘lie in honour’
The body of civil rights icon Rosa Parks is set to lie in honour in the US Capitol Rotunda – the first time that a woman has received the tribute.
The US Senate voted on Thursday to allow the move and Congress is set to approve the decision on Friday.
The text of the Senate resolution said that the honour should allow US citizens “to pay their last respects to this great American.”
From Slashdot:
Mars Swings Unusually Close to Earth
Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday October 28, @03:36AM
from the violating-personal-space dept.
amazon10x writes “Mars will come unusually close to the Earth on Saturday; the second time in 60,000 years. The last occurrence was in 2003. ‘This is the best we’re going to see Mars, so we should strike the iron while it is hot,’ said Kelly Beatty, executive editor of Sky & Telescope magazine. The Red Planet will be 43.1 million miles from Earth at 11:25pm [Eastern time].” Update by J : Starting a few hours after sunset, look fairly high in the eastern sky.
Damn. The threads are coming and St. George done slew all the dragons. Quick, Robin! To the genetics lab!
Just got in Joella’s new cape and patches. But I was thinking, put the main one on a hat, leave off the tab, and it might make an interesting writer’s hat.
Friend of mine sent me this. While it sounds interesting, it is not for me since I am neither hip nor trendy.
But they give permission to post elsewhere so, I am. I am assuming the number at the bottom is the ad number and somehow is used to contact the magazine. If not, then their editing department is still being set up since there are no other contact information.
Writing Job listed on Craigslist
DirtyBlog
Reply to: see below
Date: 2005-10-18, 6:35PM EDTA recently launched gay adult website is seeking a well-versed, witty, and gutter-mouthed wordsmith to write for their blog. This individual should be very ‘with the times’ regarding pop culture and highly knowledgeable with regards to nearly every aspect of gay porn, gay porn stars and gay porn sites. Tasks are to include regular updates of said blog and writing gay porn site reviews. Blog entries should contain site related news, social critiques, and pop culture updates with a humorous spin. Please have examples of your work or a personal, recently updated weblog available for viewing.
* Job location is Charlotte
* Compensation: Commensurate with amount of experience.
* Telecommuting is ok.
* no — Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
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In order to provide a motive for Sarah, I need a motive for Lea which means I need to define the ‘evil’ in my NaNoWriMo project. Earlier I was considering using the industrial evil invites and encourages the “I” while craftsmanship and faith promote the “we”. But that was getting rather complicated. As a background moral, it worked out well. But for this, it didn’t. So, the WIP remains a novel set in a medieval-type time period, although perhaps I will make it more of a Renaissance-like and introduce more art and music. Either way, they use swords and arrows vs guns. Although a cannon might be a good idea for the bad guys to use. And the good guys could use explosives of some sort.
As much as we writers have to concentrate on the Main Character (MC), we also have to concentrate on the antagonist, be it human, beast, or ideas. In this case, antagonist is more of a thing than a human or beast. This thing manifests itself in humans but it is the evil in control, not the person. Except for the few who really just like it that way. You know, the kind that think pouring gasoline on a cat and setting it on fire is a fun way to spend an afternoon. (as Book would say, “There’s a special hell for that”)
Anyway, I am polishing up the evil aspect, then will set up Lea, then will fix it so Sarah has a reason for this whole thing.
Maass, in his workbook, suggests that to make a character grow and be interesting, to first define one thing that would describe the protagonist (intelligent, funny, etc.), write a paragraph in which they do/act that way. Then, to stir the pot, list one thing that is the complete opposite and write a paragraph in which they do/act that way!
Sarah is…intelligent. She has a lot of book-learning in her head. For fun, she reads any book, even on the crop rotation practices in the Fulgar Plains during the last century. The opposite of intelligent is being unintelligent. Perhaps she makes bad common sense decisions? Or, because her education is all in the books, she can’t think of what to do in real life. Like, perhaps she has read a lot of books on wound healing, but when she sees one for the first time, she freaks and can’t think of what to do. Solid, reliable Sarah is now unable to have an answer.
At any rate, got some more freewriting fiction up for your perusal.
Are you ready for some NaNo???
I saw the countdown today and realized it is now less than 6 days until the fun begins. Ack!
I have asked myself several times today, as I went over some notes and finished up a short story, if I was ready. Well, yeah, sort of.
I still don’t know where the evil is coming from, what it’s source is. What I have now is too…blech. Contrived? Well used? I am considering dumping the industrial part and but what would I use instead?
Guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow? er, later today actually. I reckon I need to head to bed.
As a writer, I am all for scientific advancements for the simple reason that the concepts spurs ideas and therefore novels within the souls of writers.
But, even I have to back up and wonder just where this concept is going.
A space elevator is basically:
Now, one would think this is just a concept, right? Well, yeah, sort of. And it is a concept rapidly transforming into reality. A competition was held this past weekend, a kind of geek olympics I suppose, sponsored by the Spaceward Foundation. Wired News has an article explaining the competition and the results.
This idea isn’t entirely new. Wired News had an article about it back in January of ’03. Another article from December ’02 attributes science’s advancements as having started within the minds of writers. For example, Jules Verne wrote of traveling to the moon way back in 1865 (the same year the civil war ended). Space elevators appeared a bit later.
Russian theorist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky first envisioned a tower reaching up to orbital altitude in 1895. The space elevator concept reappeared in Arthur C. Clarke’s 1979 novel, The Fountains of Paradise.
Personally, I think the skies are crowded enough and dangerous enough horizontally without adding tiny vertical threads. The way we are going, we will soon need to use one of these elevators just to see the stars we are trying so hard to reach.
Rosie the Riveter may have been tough.
Amelia Earhart was most likely tougher.
But if you want to talk about REAL people living in the REAL world, then start with Rosa Parks. She is the example of how one person can make a difference. Her move (or rather, lack of a move) was the catalyst.
US civil rights icon Parks dies
Rosa Parks, the black woman whose 1955 protest action in Alabama marked the start of the modern US civil rights movement, has died at the age of 92.
Mrs Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white man on a bus prompted a mass black boycott of buses, organised by Baptist minister Martin Luther King Jr.
Arrgh!
Ever since I went wireless on the laptop I’ve had connection problems. Often the wireless card doohickey just sits there with all the buttons greyed out so I can’t connect. Other times it says it is connected but it is not.
Today, ICQ would connect but I couldn’t download mail or surf. Wee-erd.
So now I am at the desktop and it feels very odd. My arms are out of place, not literally for once, and the keyboard is all…different. For one it is new and this is the first time I have had to use it for more than simple things, not to actually touch-type with.
Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m going to uninstall/install the card now. Again. If I can find the CD that is.
I am getting diddlysqat writing work done.
zero
zilch
zip
nada
nil
null
naught
Besides that, I’m not getting much work completed.
Why? Ain’t got nary a clue. Well, maybe I do. Games, Lorna’s adventures, headaches and gumption. Probably in that order. And, to add further joy, I am coming down with a fall cold which ‘snot fun at all.
sniff. sneeze. pause-for-bit-as-sneeze-gets-hung.
The last time Lorna went up Nawth, she brought back some sort of flu like virus that quickly spread throughout her coworkers and me. This time, she is fine so I think this version of the DamnYankee flu is ‘racially’ designed to affect/effect only Southerners.
Don’t worry, I put up a cyber condom as I wrote this to prevent the spreading of my disease.
