17,882 words so far. I didn’t write at all over the break, but I’m doing better now.

However, I did finish another term paper as well as an associated presentation. So it wasn’t a complete waste.

I discovered that I get my basic ideas and lines when I walk, and then put it all together when I’m done. So apparently I just need to walk to get ideas flowing. The problem from there is just finding the time to write everything down.

I love things like this:

Police on Victoria’s west coast have taken 18 garden gnomes back to their station after finding them on the side of the road.

The gnomes were found around 5:30am AEDT, lined up at a pedestrian crossing on Pertobe Road in Warrnambool.

But I especially love that everyone involved seems to have a sense of humor.

“They are all happy, I have given them a cup of tea and they are minding their business at the moment,” he said.
…
“Well we’ve got the gnomes back here at the police station at the moment – unfortunately we were unable to fingerprint them,” he said.

(Story that first caught my attention years ago, here.)

This is both useful and interesting: The Box O’ Truth.

That’s the kind of hobby I’d like to have. But more importantly, it’s useful in debunking myths about things gun can and cannot do.

Now I want to either move into a brick house, or line the walls of my house with sand.

Using a rare and unbroken document trail, scholars have succeeded in tracing a 10-year old girl from her kidnap in Sierra Leone 249 years ago to her life on the plantation in the United States where she was taken, forced into slavery, and re-named Priscilla.

That’s amazing.

Although on am unrelated note, I was highly entertained by this sentence: “Mr Laurens, who later became famous as a leader in the American war of independence”

It’s 10:31.

I’ve finished my term paper and as much as I can do for its associated presentation.

We’ve had two people come into the lab so far, neither with questions.

It’s gonna be a long day.

14,092 is the last count. Ten chapters, plus parts of two chapters that appear later, but came to me earlier. Still geeky, and still science fiction elements.

Plus my term paper is mostly finished, with the basics of the presentation done.

I call that pretty productive.

Yeah, yeah. Just cuz I don’t program…

Here’s a surprise.

I’m pure nerd.
(more…)

And memer?

9862 words so far. That’s 9 chapters and a prelude, and no where near the end of the story.

Though I’ve been stymied for the past week, because I was writing 2464 words for this.

As someone who works with technology on a regular basis, I don’t trust it in the slightest. Thus, I always e-mail copies of my important documents to myself. (As mentioned previously) I’m currently working on a school paper on minorities and end-of-life care.

I was quite startled to see the ads that Google deemed relevant to my e-mail.

And I’m still a page and a half shy of the upper limit for the paper. Though I have to say that if they’re that good, I’ve had some other papers that could have used a thorough trimming.

I’m writing a paper about end of life care and minority groups, and I have a question about terminology.

Some papers use the term “African American” others (fewer) use “Black” and I am unsure which term to use. My preference is for “Black” simply because it’s shorter and sounds equivalent to “white” and “Hispanic” and “Asian” which are the other terms I am using. (I have other problems with Hispanic, primarily that I think it’s way to inclusive–how can you say that a Cuban immigrant is equivalent to a Mexican immigrant is equivalent to a Colombian immigrant. Then it’s not like Polish immigrants and German immigrants and Irish immigrants are anything alike either, so at least we’re consistently broad.)

So is there a preferred term? Is one term more or less offensive than another? (And just out of curiosity, why?)

Here’s a quiz.

It’s 4 in the morning. There is a fire truck stopped in the middle of the road, lights flashing. Two fully suited firemen are out of the truck. You drive up to the scene and:

A) Put your truck into reverse and go back from whence you came.
B) Ask one of the fire men what’s going on.
C) Say to hell with it and drive your truck right on through, despite the firemen yelling and waving at you, pausing only briefly when the downed power line slaps the front of your hood and windshield.

On a related note, a downed and arcing power line looks and sounds a LOT like fireworks, only really close to the ground.

On yet another related note, I love the fact that people don’t secure their wireless networks, so I can sit here and blog about sitting here with no power. (The entire street in front of my house is blocked off, so we can’t go anywhere unless we walk. In the rain.)

Happy Birthday to my Grandmother!

Okay, I’m not tired of birthdays as much as I am sick of being in the car.

My grandmother turns 88 this year, so I went to Baltimore with my parents to see her. It was a nice although short visit, and we took her out to dinner at G&M’s so I had a good time.

Feel free to mention how wonderful and young my grandmother looks for 88.

Michael’s niece turned 1 yesterday, so after returning from Baltimore I got in the car with Michael and we drove to Charleston. It was mostly family, and we got to spend some time with Michael’s sister and Maggie and Wilson before everyone arrived, so that was nice.

Maggie is absolutely adorable, as all 1 year olds should be.

Plus, I got some half-decent pictures on the way home from Baltimore.

And let me tell you, if you’re driving on I79, I69, or I70 through Maryland or West Virginia, be extra careful. I think I must have seen about 50 dead deer along the side of the road in two days. From personal experience, I can tell you that hitting a deer is no fun at all. Doing so on an interstate must be far, far worse.