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Chugging Along
Thursday, 19 April 2007 14:11Once More With Feeling
Spring Semester 2007 is mostly over except for the screaming. One more class for PHYS-1070 at 8am, just had the last lab class for PHYS-1800. Final exams on Monday and Tuesday, grades due Tuesday 1 May 2007.
Not sure that this is the cold which Mrs. Dr. Phil brought back from the ACRL conference in Baltimore. For one thing, Mrs. Dr. Phil's sinuses are messed up, too, so maybe we both have some new unpleasantness. (grin) But it is so far manageable with Sudafed -- as long as I don't run out and afoul of the absurd Federal regulations on just how many Criminal Sudafeds I am allowed to buy at one time.
It's not just the annoyance at not being able to go into a store and buy a 96-pack of Sudafed. But our Allendale grocery/pharmacy can't even keep the 48-packs in stock, so I have to buy two 24-packs, so all this regulation is ruining the economy of buying in quantity. Just because some idiots abuse the system, they've got the noose of the reins tightened too tight and it unnecessarily wastes my money.
And makes me cranky.
Once More Unto The Breach
I get a whole three-and-a-half days off before my Summer-I Session class starts -- and actually less than that since I will come in on Friday of the first week in May to copy the syllabus and have office hours, etc. Then it's on to 100-minute classes, rather than fifty. Not a problem. And the class is at 2pm so I shan't be getting up at oh-dark-hundred for a while after tomorrow. Yay! This semester has been very hard on my Circadians.
Once More Into The Fire
Uh-oh. I'm working on a new story -- the usual 29th century hard military SF universe for me -- and I've got a dilemma with one of my main characters. It slipped out that something nasty has happened in their background, and now I have to decide whether to include it in this new story or not. Might be gratuitous for gratuitous' sake if included, which is NOT my intent, and certainly gets us into an "R" rating, which might not make it suitable for a Writers of the Future contest entry. Or for some of the magazines either.
So I am going to write this up as a side-story, working title "Segue", and not worry about it for now. Either this is a product of my addled sinus stuffed head, or this character is pulling a fast one on me and I should chastise them for putting me in an awkward position. Funny how characters can have such control over you.
Over on Scalzi's Whatever, there's a posting about characters and their authors which I found very amusing and I related the following story about my own writing:
BTW - I yanked the first 15,000 words or so out of those opening chapters from sixteen years ago and reformulated them into a story, which I've sent out once to WOTF -- it got a Quarter-Finalist which is about what I expected. Huh, that was pre-Clarion. S'pose I have to relook at that story from my jaded, semi-pro post-Clarion point of view... The novel was titled "Command Decision" and the story "Command Prologue". I suppose I need a new title -- I've since found at least two hard military SF novels with female protags entitled "Command Decision". Jeesh -- are all of SF writers so obvious? (GRIN)
Dr. Phil
PS- after a good nap tonight I have to help supervise making a batch of Dr. Phil's extra special oatmeal cookies. The secret is making one's own brown sugar.
Spring Semester 2007 is mostly over except for the screaming. One more class for PHYS-1070 at 8am, just had the last lab class for PHYS-1800. Final exams on Monday and Tuesday, grades due Tuesday 1 May 2007.
Not sure that this is the cold which Mrs. Dr. Phil brought back from the ACRL conference in Baltimore. For one thing, Mrs. Dr. Phil's sinuses are messed up, too, so maybe we both have some new unpleasantness. (grin) But it is so far manageable with Sudafed -- as long as I don't run out and afoul of the absurd Federal regulations on just how many Criminal Sudafeds I am allowed to buy at one time.
It's not just the annoyance at not being able to go into a store and buy a 96-pack of Sudafed. But our Allendale grocery/pharmacy can't even keep the 48-packs in stock, so I have to buy two 24-packs, so all this regulation is ruining the economy of buying in quantity. Just because some idiots abuse the system, they've got the noose of the reins tightened too tight and it unnecessarily wastes my money.
And makes me cranky.
Once More Unto The Breach
I get a whole three-and-a-half days off before my Summer-I Session class starts -- and actually less than that since I will come in on Friday of the first week in May to copy the syllabus and have office hours, etc. Then it's on to 100-minute classes, rather than fifty. Not a problem. And the class is at 2pm so I shan't be getting up at oh-dark-hundred for a while after tomorrow. Yay! This semester has been very hard on my Circadians.
Once More Into The Fire
Uh-oh. I'm working on a new story -- the usual 29th century hard military SF universe for me -- and I've got a dilemma with one of my main characters. It slipped out that something nasty has happened in their background, and now I have to decide whether to include it in this new story or not. Might be gratuitous for gratuitous' sake if included, which is NOT my intent, and certainly gets us into an "R" rating, which might not make it suitable for a Writers of the Future contest entry. Or for some of the magazines either.
So I am going to write this up as a side-story, working title "Segue", and not worry about it for now. Either this is a product of my addled sinus stuffed head, or this character is pulling a fast one on me and I should chastise them for putting me in an awkward position. Funny how characters can have such control over you.
Over on Scalzi's Whatever, there's a posting about characters and their authors which I found very amusing and I related the following story about my own writing:
Dr. Phil | April 18, 2007 04:19 PM
On Monday 1 October 1990 I decided it was time to get more serious about writing fiction (as opposed to writing a dissertation in Applied Physics) and I bought one of those newfangled mouse-thingies, because I'd heard they were useful in editing, and a copy of Microsoft Word 4.0, because I figured it'd be robust enough to write a novel.
Came home, installed said mouse and said program and started writing. Just stream of consciousness, first person. Main character needed a name, so I decided on Sam. It was many pages later that I discovered, when Sam got out of space suit, that (a) Sam was female, (b) Sam was black and (c) Sam had a dual-major in Dance and Engineering from Selene University on the Moon. Huh. I have to say, I am none of those things, so you can imagine my surprise.
But these things happen. (grin)
Dr. Phil
BTW - I yanked the first 15,000 words or so out of those opening chapters from sixteen years ago and reformulated them into a story, which I've sent out once to WOTF -- it got a Quarter-Finalist which is about what I expected. Huh, that was pre-Clarion. S'pose I have to relook at that story from my jaded, semi-pro post-Clarion point of view... The novel was titled "Command Decision" and the story "Command Prologue". I suppose I need a new title -- I've since found at least two hard military SF novels with female protags entitled "Command Decision". Jeesh -- are all of SF writers so obvious? (GRIN)
Dr. Phil
PS- after a good nap tonight I have to help supervise making a batch of Dr. Phil's extra special oatmeal cookies. The secret is making one's own brown sugar.
