More links and such...

First, if you're using Firefox, best to Get this update fairly soon. It's small, and possibly important: a fix for the first major exploit I've heard of so far. An article on the subject as well.

Here's some comments on the new robotic circumciser.

"Down... way down..."

I've been trying to sleep for about an hour now, and can't seem to succeed. So here I am, posting in the hideously early morning about strange, introspective things... bleh. By the way, can anyone tell me the movie my subject line quotes? Anyone?

One of my terribly bothersome thoughts concerns my writing, of course. The section of the satire (still nameless, naturally) I'm working on right now makes me feel like I'm raking mud, and I'm not happy with it at all. I've finally gotten over the crippling belief that I have to wait for inspiration so I can write. Several sections that I felt like crap during are quite nice when I look at them now. Hopefully these will turn out similarly, but there are certain problems with pacing that weren't present before. By the by, if you think you could discourse on such things as pacing in a fantasy satire, contact me if you dare.

The result of all this is - I'm once again wondering if I'm fit to be a writer. I'm feeling that I lack a certain real style to me prose that would make me worth reading. Now the proofreading comments Dr. Blythe (my creative writing teacher from last semester) made on my short story seem to throttle me into submission. I wonder if I can clear the threshold between ideas and writing. I'm absolutely certain the idea behind the story is interesting. I find I share interests with people, and I find the idea fascinating. But did I make a story that conveyed the interest? That's the question.

"I'm not really clear what this piece is for." That's how my professor opened his sort-of final comment on my story. There's all sorts of ways one can take that, and just now I'm taking it terribly. He also claims that "as a gothic musing in the fashion of Poe, it's pretty effective." This is more promising. (I hope terribly he doesn't mind me quoting him here.)

My work ethic has improved, though. I settle down at around the same time every day (around one thirty in the morning) and get around a thousand words (scrabbled together a thousand words, lately). That's a nice feeling, anyway. Of course, moreso than a short story that took a few hours to write, sending this off to be proofread will be stunningly, blindingly terrifying. Ick.

The other thing is strange and horrifyingly self-indulgent, I suppose. I just wonder if I shouldn't try to add to my roster of EKU friends a person with similar interests in literature et cetera. Certainly, Sehmket likes Oscar Wilde; Kelly and Theresa like Terry Pratchett. But I don't consistently associate with anyone that has my passionate hatred for misuse of possessive apostrophes in pluralizations. Well, I won't be able to now that Russdur will be unable to return. I feel as if I should trawl the English department (one wonders - does anyone else know that school subject titles aren't capitalized, unless you're talking about an English course [or any language course]?) for people to subjugate with my own peculiar brand of friendship. I wonder if Zana (is that the right spelling?) has moved yet? Heh. Dammit, I need someone to get my jokes!

If you know me personally and are offended by the previous paragraph, don't be.

Are you still? Well bugger, you're persistent. I never said I wanted to drop people, just find a few more. Now if I ever find an attractive English major adept at video games, you're on your own. Haha. Oh jeez.

It strikes me that I need to find a place to put all my dust jackets. They're in a large pile in my floor (along with most other things) and that can't be good for them.

For those who've done it, need to do it, or are just naturally empathetic, look out. I'm taking the UWR - that is, the University Writing Requirement - this coming Tuesday. Which means I get to drive all the way to Richmond (about two hours, if you're not familiar with the area) for a bloody high school essay. And I've no idea how long the thing will be. There's vague hopes of me seeing King Arthur afterwards, but we'll see what comes of that.

On a side note: I managed to fight off the urge to have one of my satire's characters recite Tennyson's Idylls of the King, but I'm apparently writing up What the Thunder Said as my climax. Bloody mythological symbolism. I also managed to reference a play I've never read. I'll be trying to fix that soon. The reference was this: I named a pair of short, magical brothers "Rafe" and "Robin." Anyone get it? Anyone? I also need to re-read a bit of Volpone, as I think I'm gonna have a scene with a mountebank.

Not much to say. I saw Spiderman 2 today. I'll probably talk about it tomorrow, when I'm not so tired.

I don't even remember where I read about this today... Some random journal or something. Anyway - I would hope everyone reading has heard of the infamous RealDoll by now. If you haven't, it's a ridiculously expensive "blow-up" doll. Quotes because you don't blow it up. It's supposed to be lifelike in lots of ways. Hell, Graham Norton dressed one up and picked up guys with it using a hidden speaker and microphone. And they've made an anime RealDoll. Fear it, and it's way too big boobs.

Also fear the Japanese ice cream flavors. Who wouldn't want a tub of "cherry blossom" ice cream? Or a quart of "horse" flavored ice cream, with "meaty chunks?"

We're having a blue moon this month. And here's an essay talking about real blue moons, wherein Krakatoa colors our lunar friend.

Link links links...

All right. This is stupid. Best Buy has decided to use all the info. they collect on their customers. Among other things, they mean to do something about "... customers who only buy during sales." What the hell? Isn't that what sales are for? To get people in there?

Conspiracy theorists: Go!

New homo erectus skull. Neato.

David R. Perry has put his book online under a Creative Commons license. Sounds interesting. It's called Dr. Lewis B. Turndevelt's Big Book of Forwards.

Shape-shifting robots are cool!

Here's an odd shoe. Walk like a Masai native today!

For those Google power-users out there, here's a list of undocumented search operators.

This is similar to the test I posted long ago (sorry for not digging up the link) that I spotted in the abebooks.com forums, but with amusing "advice" at the end. Are you a literature abuser? And how to prevent your child from becoming an English major.

Nothing much at all going on in Greg-land.

My parents are on vacation all this week, and I think we have a vague notion of doing some things. I want all of us go see Spiderman 2, so that should be soon. And it turns out that some crafts place within driving distance has some item from the court of Louis XIV just sitting around, so I think we're gonna try to go there. I'll take pictures, probably.

In books I've been going slowly. I finally finished a book of Lovecraft short stories that I started in my senior year of high school. (I'll be a senior in college come August, for any strangers out there.) The last story, called "The Shadow Out of Time" is the worst Lovecraft story I've ever read. It's everything that he ever did wrong. Most of it is an attempted illustration of his power over psychology. The ending is not only predictable (which can oftentimes be one of the author's strengths) but the item over which the narrator obsesses over is ultimately insignificant compared with everything else in the story. Not the story I would have ended a collection with, I tell you.

I'm also reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces in earnest now. It's fabulous, as I expected. I'm on a break from Quicksilver, but I still love it dearly. I'll get to it soon.

I'm reading less than the rest of break so far because I'm into a lot of video games again. I dabbled in a bit of Morrowind, as an earlier post already mentions. I've also taken up with Sonic Adventure 2: Battle once again. I cleared the two Emerald Hunt levels (Knuckles and Rouge) that had stymied me before, and shot through several levels on both story modes since. This was brought about by my (finally!) purchasing Sonic Mega Collection, which I adore. I played most of these games, and in fact have a bag containing many of the original cartridges in the room where I play (Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, and Sonic & Knuckles). Of course there's still Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga to play as well. So between games, writing, and reading I have a good deal to do.

I've also taken up walking again, as my knee (that troubled me for months on end with hideous pain and frequent blowouts) is doing much better. Today I even saw a skunk and her three to five babies cross fifteen yards in front of me. If I had the presence of mind my dad keeps about him, I would have (as he later suggested) tossed a rock at the mother and thieved one of the babies, as they were young enough to possibly tame. (If you don't know, my dad will chase after any animal. I've watched him run down cats, foxes, raccoons, and snakes - I've heard the stories of when I wasn't there too, featuring two faun deer among other things. He actually had a hold on one deer's hoof and let go to avoid hurting it.) There was also a very dead deer, providing food for many bugs. The remnants of its chest looked like a moving skin, really. Several buzzards were patroling the area as well. I had to cover my nose with my handkerchief the stench was so powerful.

I'm quite taken with how incredibly bright the moon is just now, and am sad that when it was absolutely full we had too much cloud cover here to see it properly. Last night I took a book out and read under the moonlight, just for fun.

I received the short story I mentioned earlier in the mail several days ago; Dr. Blythe (my creative writing teacher from last semester) printed the copy I emailed him, proofread it, and mailed the whole thing to me. That was terribly nice of him, as I offered to mail him a hard copy with a SASE. He had a few comments about the beginning, which sticks out from the story a bit and is rather confusing - I'm still deciding if I should clarify or leave it as is. Of course I know leaving it a bit confusing is risky, but I still think it works. I'll probably do a bit of both. SuperOpie also read it, and hopefully I'll see him in the coming week and we can discuss it. Also, we still have much of The Waste Land to cover (nudge nudge). My working title for the short story, by the by, is "Feet in the Grave." It's a bit too humorous for the thing, I think, but I'm always bad with titles. I still haven't named my satire, after all.

Here's a bit of a writing update before I go: I just got to page 139 of my satire. That's 39,706 words. Woo, and such. I read a week or so ago that theoretically, the average modern novel is somewhere around 60,000 words. So according to that, I'm half done. But I'm not really using that as a scale. But it's still a lot of work I've done. Still a lot to do, though.

In going through Penny Arcade's archives, I spied a comic that made me think of (Umbrella) Nate Miller. Animeboyz should especially enjoy this trip down memory lane.