Well, I'm starting to feel more confident about my writing (less confident, though, because I have this uncontrollable urge to start every blog post with "Well," or "So"). I do seem to be getting inspiration from all kinds of sources. Perhaps because I've been reading so prolifically lately, or maybe because I've been bored at work a lot.
That completely random story I posted here came from having a song stuck in my head. A recent character sketch came from a trip to Arlington National Cemetery. A pet project of mine got a bit of attention just because yesterday.
I still need to improve the writing itself (and will always need to, since there is no perfect writer), but when inspiration comes regularly it begins to lift the greatest hurdle for me, which is consistently spending time with the notepad or the keyboard.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Life
Wheels churn (or spin uselessly, with some things) and life goes on...
Visited the old homestead over Easter weekend. The puppy was excited to be out in the open air and have a huge yard to run in. It felt good for me to be outside a bit, too. It was great to see family and old friends. I got a chance to dig into my old kids' books as well, and made progress on my recent quest to archive all the books I've read. I realize I'll never get to 100% because of textbooks, research projects, trips to the library, and forgotten give-aways...but I'm trying to nail it down as tightly as possible. I'm at an estimate of 850 and counting.
I'm going to be the proud owner of a new Desktop soon. I'm tired of being reliant on my girlfriend's old, busted-up laptop. Tax refund = new machine. I also fully intend to recover the info on the old hard drive one of these days, but the most important things are backed up.
The job goes OK. Not exciting, and some days nothing happens while other days I'm going crazy to get things done. Not much in between. Still, it pays and isn't onerous. My 1-year contract expires in September. Will I stay on? Doubt it, but who knows. Will I go back to the temp agency? Maybe. Will I seek something else entirely? Probably. Editing jobs sound good, but so do a half-dozen other things. I think I want a private sector or non-profit job next, for comparison. I guess more school is in the cards in 3 or 4 years.
Then there's the stupid stuff. Gotta set up an appointment to switch auto insurance to MD, get the car inspected and registered here, get the new liscense...sigh. I found an insurance agent and DMV info, but haven't managed to get the appointment or paperwork yet. I need to find a dentist, and probably a regular doctor as well. Not like I'm in a real hurry for those. I also have to call my Canadian lawyer again and try to avoid getting the crap sued out of me for a car accident that happened when I was 17. RIDICULOUS! Why does everyone hafta be out to screw everyone else so they can get some money? It's little colorful paper that doesn't buy much of anything anymore anyway. Anywho...
Visited the old homestead over Easter weekend. The puppy was excited to be out in the open air and have a huge yard to run in. It felt good for me to be outside a bit, too. It was great to see family and old friends. I got a chance to dig into my old kids' books as well, and made progress on my recent quest to archive all the books I've read. I realize I'll never get to 100% because of textbooks, research projects, trips to the library, and forgotten give-aways...but I'm trying to nail it down as tightly as possible. I'm at an estimate of 850 and counting.
I'm going to be the proud owner of a new Desktop soon. I'm tired of being reliant on my girlfriend's old, busted-up laptop. Tax refund = new machine. I also fully intend to recover the info on the old hard drive one of these days, but the most important things are backed up.
The job goes OK. Not exciting, and some days nothing happens while other days I'm going crazy to get things done. Not much in between. Still, it pays and isn't onerous. My 1-year contract expires in September. Will I stay on? Doubt it, but who knows. Will I go back to the temp agency? Maybe. Will I seek something else entirely? Probably. Editing jobs sound good, but so do a half-dozen other things. I think I want a private sector or non-profit job next, for comparison. I guess more school is in the cards in 3 or 4 years.
Then there's the stupid stuff. Gotta set up an appointment to switch auto insurance to MD, get the car inspected and registered here, get the new liscense...sigh. I found an insurance agent and DMV info, but haven't managed to get the appointment or paperwork yet. I need to find a dentist, and probably a regular doctor as well. Not like I'm in a real hurry for those. I also have to call my Canadian lawyer again and try to avoid getting the crap sued out of me for a car accident that happened when I was 17. RIDICULOUS! Why does everyone hafta be out to screw everyone else so they can get some money? It's little colorful paper that doesn't buy much of anything anymore anyway. Anywho...
Friday, March 21, 2008
It has come to my attention...
...that the lack of an intro to my previous post left whatever poor sods stumble across this blog without a clue as to what was going on. Well, in a way that was intended, but in another it was assumed that those reading it would pick up on the gist of it.
It was my own work, and the little blurb was inspired by my having Seal's "Kiss From a Rose" stuck in my head. The goofy artist and song titles started piling up, and from there I decided to build a context for them just to get the wackiness on paper (or rather, in electrons). The commentary on the music industry was secondary-I wasn't looking for a way to attack it, but one came up and so I took full advantage.
I intend to use this blog on occasion to jot down wacky ideas like that...and who knows, maybe some of the characters will be featured. I don't know if that last entry will be a starting point for more or just an exercise.
It was my own work, and the little blurb was inspired by my having Seal's "Kiss From a Rose" stuck in my head. The goofy artist and song titles started piling up, and from there I decided to build a context for them just to get the wackiness on paper (or rather, in electrons). The commentary on the music industry was secondary-I wasn't looking for a way to attack it, but one came up and so I took full advantage.
I intend to use this blog on occasion to jot down wacky ideas like that...and who knows, maybe some of the characters will be featured. I don't know if that last entry will be a starting point for more or just an exercise.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Romantic action (preposition) flower
It was a busy day at Rhipauff Records. Three hundred demo tapes had arrived in the past week. Two hundred ninety-eight of them had been immediately burned, but the remaining two would take hours to review. About a dozen half-nude girls with guitars, violins, harmonicas, and in one case a comb covered in wax paper nervously waited in the lobby. Most of these had exchanged various deeds of lesser repute for promises of time in the recording studio, and each one's patron was heatedly arguing for why his charge's talentless keening would make the most money. The only actual musician within eleven miles was the houseless girl in the alley. You couldn't call her homeless, since she lived permanently behind the trash bin abutting the studio. She too was half-nude, but only because her possessions consisted entirely of a half-eaten sandwich, half a pair of shoes, half a blanket, a one-legged set of mens' trousers, a midriff shirt, a half-dollar, and a whole drum set. She spent most of her time playing a much-improved version of the In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida drum solo. A significant portion of Rhipauff's man-hours were devoted to hiding her from anyone who might recognize talent while assuring her that she was on the waiting list for Studio A.
The most critical decision of the day was which Single to produce from the list of carbon copy artist's they'd assembled this month. The closest they'd come was concluding that Manatee's "Humped by a Daisy" was right out. There was still a close battle raging among Sea Lion's "Violated by a Tulip," Walrus's "Tonsil-Hockey with Queen Anne's Lace," and Beluga's "Lovemaking of the Snapdragon." They were determined to ride the coattails of Sea Mammal's number one hit, "Affectionate Gesture from a Flowering Plant."
Amid all this commotion, Slick Phalanges was hunting the path to the top. The company's profit margin was higher than it had ever been, and ol' SP knew he could take all the credit with the right moves. It wasn't he who had taped Alley Girl's drumming and laid the track in sync with all the songs on Rhipauff's last several records, but only he knew who did. It had often been said of the real person responsible that he would forget his head if it weren't screwed on. Well, SP had tested that theory. Unsurprisingly, he learned that the head had never been screwed on at all, but rather attached by some elasticy stuff, some gooey stuff, and some chalky stuff. The real knowledge gained from his experiment had been which of those substances was easiest to cut with a dull bread knife.
The most critical decision of the day was which Single to produce from the list of carbon copy artist's they'd assembled this month. The closest they'd come was concluding that Manatee's "Humped by a Daisy" was right out. There was still a close battle raging among Sea Lion's "Violated by a Tulip," Walrus's "Tonsil-Hockey with Queen Anne's Lace," and Beluga's "Lovemaking of the Snapdragon." They were determined to ride the coattails of Sea Mammal's number one hit, "Affectionate Gesture from a Flowering Plant."
Amid all this commotion, Slick Phalanges was hunting the path to the top. The company's profit margin was higher than it had ever been, and ol' SP knew he could take all the credit with the right moves. It wasn't he who had taped Alley Girl's drumming and laid the track in sync with all the songs on Rhipauff's last several records, but only he knew who did. It had often been said of the real person responsible that he would forget his head if it weren't screwed on. Well, SP had tested that theory. Unsurprisingly, he learned that the head had never been screwed on at all, but rather attached by some elasticy stuff, some gooey stuff, and some chalky stuff. The real knowledge gained from his experiment had been which of those substances was easiest to cut with a dull bread knife.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Long time coming
There was a definite blogging drought in blogging from me. It wasn't for lack of desire to blog, or for lack of topics...well, at first it was for lack of topics. Then it was for business taking care of general life stuff, then it was the Holidays, then it was sports blogging (I'm pittbaster @ CBSSports.com). After that it was a new puppy, and work, and then it was a broken computer.
I hope to be back with a vengeance now. I had a list of the last 100 books I read all prepared, with recommendations and such, but I have lost (I'm optimistic about recovering it, I think my broken computer is fixable given time) the fancy spreadsheet that had it all laid out and my memory isn't good enough to remember all 100 in order. I suppose it's good news that I had backups of pretty much everything else important.
I hope to be back with a vengeance now. I had a list of the last 100 books I read all prepared, with recommendations and such, but I have lost (I'm optimistic about recovering it, I think my broken computer is fixable given time) the fancy spreadsheet that had it all laid out and my memory isn't good enough to remember all 100 in order. I suppose it's good news that I had backups of pretty much everything else important.
Democratic Primary Mess
I was bored here at work, so I looked at some election coverage and did some math to try to figure the whole mess out. Every way I can see it going favors Obama, but only by a very narrow margin. I made three scenarios, erring on the pessimistic side for the Obama camp, and in only one of them did he get the target number of delegates. 35 delegates went to Edwards and can't be reclaimed, and in my mock-ups it was close enough that that mattered. A lot of this was based on guesswork of who will win by how much where, but I think I made reasonable guesses.
For all scenarios, I awarded states yet to vote the following way (very rough guesses based on region/demographic/type of election):
Scenario 1:
So far -
After all elections, before remaining Superdelegates -
After Superdelegates -
So, seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan would not necessarily remove the problem of no candidate hitting the target number for a majority. There could easily be a contested race at the convention anyway.
Scenario 2: Florida and Michigan revote, and are seated at the convention. In this revote, I assumed that Clinton would win both states, Florida 55% and Michigan 60%. Under that assumption, Obama still picked up more delegates from these states and closed the gap percentage-wise.
After all elections, before remianing Superdelegates -
After Superdelegates -
So even in the revote situation, unless things change in those states, it may be that neither candidate can get to the "finish line."
Scenario 3: Florida and Michigan are not seated at all. This is certainly not a desirable situation, but I included it in case they can't figure something out. I read somewhere that since Florida's Governor is a Republican he flat-out refuses to use money from the State to fund another election. The Michigan folks say that it violates their State Constitution to revote a primary, but that they could do a caucus. What a mess...
After all elections, before remaining Superdelegates -
After Superdelegates
So, believe it or not, if my guesses on the States yet to vote are close to correct, the only way a candidate would get a majority is for Michigan and Florida to be denied seats.
In Summary: Unless Clinton surprises and wins some states Obama should, or really cleans up in the states she should win, Obama's lead should hold up, but only barely. I think my estimates were on the optimistic side if one is a Clinton supporter, as well. The biggest hole I can punch in my own argument (apart from the obvious fact that I don't really know how states will vote) is that there may be reason to believe that the Superdelegates would not continue to support Clinton at the same rate if Obama had the 50-100 delegate lead I'm projecting efore they cast their votes. It seems like the talking heads who are saying that no one can reach the finish line without Michigan or Florida are ignoring the fact that the target number gets higher when those states are counted.
For all scenarios, I awarded states yet to vote the following way (very rough guesses based on region/demographic/type of election):
Obama - North Carolina (55%), Indiana (60%), Oregon (55%), South Dakota (51%), Montana (50% [8-8 in delegates])
Clinton - Pennsylvania (60%), West Virginia (60%), Mississippi (51%), Kentucky (60%), Puerto Rico (60%), Guam (50% [2-2 in delegates])
I gave Clinton every state I thought she could win, except Montana which I have no idea about. I also awarded remaining Superdelegates at the same percentage as those already committed. One of the territories has 2.5 delegates as yet unawarded, I gave those to Clinton (making an even split for that election).
Scenario 1:
Florida and Michigan are seated as-is (I gave Obama the 40% of "uncommitted" delegates). This would push the number of delegates to 4361 and thus the target number to 2180.
So far -
Obama 1500 pledged, 205 super, 1705 total
Clinton 1393.5 pledged, 244 super, 1637.5 total
After all elections, before remaining Superdelegates -
Obama 1992
Clinton 1949.5
After Superdelegates -
Obama 2147
Clinton 2143
So, seating the delegates from Florida and Michigan would not necessarily remove the problem of no candidate hitting the target number for a majority. There could easily be a contested race at the convention anyway.
Scenario 2: Florida and Michigan revote, and are seated at the convention. In this revote, I assumed that Clinton would win both states, Florida 55% and Michigan 60%. Under that assumption, Obama still picked up more delegates from these states and closed the gap percentage-wise.
After all elections, before remianing Superdelegates -
Obama 2013
Clinton 1967
After Superdelegates -
Obama 2168
Clinton 2158
So even in the revote situation, unless things change in those states, it may be that neither candidate can get to the "finish line."
Scenario 3: Florida and Michigan are not seated at all. This is certainly not a desirable situation, but I included it in case they can't figure something out. I read somewhere that since Florida's Governor is a Republican he flat-out refuses to use money from the State to fund another election. The Michigan folks say that it violates their State Constitution to revote a primary, but that they could do a caucus. What a mess...
After all elections, before remaining Superdelegates -
Obama 1879
Clinton 1788
After Superdelegates
Obama 2034
Clinton 1979
So, believe it or not, if my guesses on the States yet to vote are close to correct, the only way a candidate would get a majority is for Michigan and Florida to be denied seats.
In Summary: Unless Clinton surprises and wins some states Obama should, or really cleans up in the states she should win, Obama's lead should hold up, but only barely. I think my estimates were on the optimistic side if one is a Clinton supporter, as well. The biggest hole I can punch in my own argument (apart from the obvious fact that I don't really know how states will vote) is that there may be reason to believe that the Superdelegates would not continue to support Clinton at the same rate if Obama had the 50-100 delegate lead I'm projecting efore they cast their votes. It seems like the talking heads who are saying that no one can reach the finish line without Michigan or Florida are ignoring the fact that the target number gets higher when those states are counted.
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