I don’t know either. It’s a slow day and I’m a sucker for infographics.
http://bridepop.com/everything-else/true-cost-of-average-wedding/
Archive for the ‘Melange’ Category
I will grudgingly admit that today is holiday, but if I’m going to celebrate some unnecessary Saint’s day I’d prefer to do St. Patties…again, but before. This other holiday people celebrate is a damn stupid thing, but comes with an interesting roman background. Romantic stuff, eh? Where can I buy a Valentine’s Day card with a picture of the Lupercal Cave on it… Guess I’ll have to stick to my usual 2/14 decoration.
Does this mean I’m getting some article reviewers and wordpress designers on staff soon?
When…did this happen? I knew about the handful of recent Lego computer games, which have gone a loooong way since the old (and pretty terrible) lego computer game I had, but an MMO? That could be…interesting and the trailer is amazing.
Someone sent me these: mash-ups of Star Wars and 80s Television Show Intros.
What is more absurd, that pirates still exist or that we ever thought they were gone? Gone are the days of Letters of Marquis (sadly?). Instead pirate defense have become a study in non-lethal creativity.
Also of interest is the linked article: 2.5 trillion dollar commodities scam. I miss the days where commodity trading meant coming home with a barrel of something…
I recently found out that my readership was slightly larger than I expected, that is, there are apparently more than two people who occasionally stop by Servusamanu. That is unfortunate because I don’t usually put more than a few minutes aside for articles in any given week. I’ve obviously been remiss toward my silent audience…
Hopefully I can rectify that now that the new year is upon us. Unfortunately, I’m beginning the year without much of a running start. I’m sitting here very much at a loss of what I could or should write about. I am tempted to write a review of Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol, but I really prefer to review things that I like. A scathing diatribe on its numerous inanities would no doubt flow easily, but does it really do me any credit?
I also watched Blood Diamond last week. It was suggested to me and it was not a terrible suggestion, but I found it too to be a bit lacking. The setting, Sierra Leone, was gorgeous and filmography was crisp and moving, but the story was half-rate and the dialog fairly insipid. Blood Diamond is a period piece and a heart-strings work. It wants to be a documentary half the time and does not make any rebellious choices with the characters or the plot that might make it more than a glorified history special. I enjoyed myself watching it, but I’m not going to throw words away on a story that you could probably manage to piece together from the title a short game of 34 questions.
This calendar turning holiday of ours suggests I should write about resolutions or something along those lines. Phooey! My goals didn’t change because I tossed away my “pictures of Arizona calendar’ and put up my ‘pictures of really tall mountains’ one. I’m still trying to teach myself french and have had some success. I’m hardly fluent, but I can understand the news a bit and I’m fairly good at reading. My web design hobby is going along perfectly well. I’ve got a few jobs and a few more on the way. Eventually I’m going to remake this website and robertdrake.net, but I haven’t even started so what’s there to say?
Work is proceeding as it always does, that is from 9-5 in a week day format. I’ve yet to make any substantial push for Linux in the community, but I have nearly virtualized the entire server room. The Gods of Good and Proper Networking should be smiling on me. I am currently considering some classes above and beyond work and so far that looks to be coming together. It all seems very far away and distant at the moment.
I have some mind that I might travel to Chicago for a baseball game sometime in the early summer and Louisiana in March. Both visits depend on how generous my tax return turns out to be. I always have eight restaurants left in New Paltz that I want to visit. I’ve left the expensive ones for last…
That’s everything, yes, all my projects and goals? Oh, writing? Do I even do that anymore? Yes, I suppose I do. I finished my last novel, Lonetracker, just before Christmas. I’ve got it chilling on ice for a few weeks. I want to give it a last read through before I try to publish the thing. It’s not good enough, but it’s not The Lost Symbol either. My big problem is the length. It comes in a nice word count: 110,000 words, but in manuscript format it’s almost 600 pages. That’s a good 200 pages longer than a 110k word novel should be. It’s all the dialog and I don’t feel too bad about it, but the overall length is well beyond what a publisher would normally consider for a first time novelist. The hope is that I could pull them in with the first few chapters and they’ll take the necessary risks beyond that, but I’d prefer to play the odds and at least have overall length on my side. I’m sure I can cut out some more…
I have another story planned for this year. It is a huge departure from the science-fiction adventure of Lonetracker. The new story is meant to pull together novels like A Moveable Feast, Tropic of Cancer, or On The Road and spatter it with the intertextuality of anything by Eco and the simple, haunting musings of something from Camus. Under no circumstance will thousands of words be italicized, will the character’s speak in blocks of wikipedia text, or will the character’s come to absurd conclusions after a few seconds of deep thought. (I’m looking at you Lost Symbol). This new story, untitled as of yet, has been bouncing around since at least the middle of 2007. I’ve written the first chapter twice already, neither attempt succeeding at anything interesting. Luckily, I’ve got a motley crew of character’s already have assembled so there’s plenty of the work right there.
Anything else I might write about? Well, I cooked bread today. Honey graham granola wheat. It goes well with raspberry preserves, but no one really cares I’m sure. I guess that just leaves the Seahawks game….
the Seahawks are trash. Why would I even say a word more?
Happy Tuesday: it’s a map of cheese…in England.
I kind of want some Isle of Wight Blue.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1924722
Greatness
