The TurboNerd

(h/t hughcasey)

Whatcha want for Christmas? I need some clothes, and I'm hoping for a couple of specific DVDs. But the thing I want most is for my sister and BIL to have more time, both to enjoy with their lovely kids and just to Not Collapse From Exhaustion.

This morning, calendula_witch and I walked my 60-minute loop. It's about 3.0 miles of suburban walking, along residential streets in the general neighborhood of Nuevo Rancho Lake. Up til this point post-operatively, my longest walk had been about 25 minutes to cover roughly a one mile subsegment of this loop. We made the entire loop in slightly less than 65 minutes in the frosty morning air, though I was staggering by the time we got back to the house, and went down hard for a (mercifully brief) nap.

This is huge for me. To reclaim my fitness, even nominally, is so important. Last year it took me months to get anywhere. With abdominal surgery, the wound healing was so much bigger an issue than the chest wall punctures I am now recovering from, so that's certainly a big factor. However, I also have to credit my extensive and constant walking and biking programs over the past 18 months with readying me for this recovery process.

I owned that hour, in the same way pre-op me owned that hour. (Well, almost so, certainly close enough.) There's still a million things wrong, recovery progresses apace, but damn it, my body can move.

I am terribly pleased.

By request from garyomaha, a new caption contest! Usual rules apply. I'll collect captions in comments here (at both jlake.com and jaylake.livejournal.com) until I get bored with it, then build a voting poll, once I'm far enough off opiates to stitch that pseudocode together. Please try to limit the length of your entries or they may become truncated in the poll code.

Prize will be two of my books to the winner (depending on availability), plus, as always, bragging rights. Have fun!

The photo in question:



© 2009 M. Lake, all rights reserved.

Your Saturday moment of zen.



Roadside art outside of Taos, NM. © 2006, 2009 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

I knew there was something I forgot to post yesterday. We are now in the holy days of Zappadan, the on-blog festival which begins Dec. 4, the anniversary of Frank Zappa's death (also known as BummerNacht) and ends on his Birthday (Day Zero), Dec. 21. You can go to his official web site, of course, follow both @Zappadan and the #zappadan hashtag on Twitter, and oh my are there a lot of videos.

I know we've done this before, but it's been awhile. What are some of your favorite Zappa works? I'm getting a new appreciation of Joe's Garage, and I've loved Apostrophe from the moment I first heard it. Zoot Allures, Weasels Ripped My Flesh, "Cosmic Debris", "Call Any Vegetable", "Dancin' Fool", "Who Are the Brain Police?", "I'm the Slime", "Peaches en Regalia"....

In my best, most reasonable expectations, I want to grow up to be Pete Seeger. In my darkest, deepest secret places, I want to grow up to be Frank Zappa.

Went music shopping today. Actually I *didn’t* buy that song, what’s in the title of this post, but it’s what’s running through my head, so there you go.

Each days gets better–jaylake feels better, has more energy, does more stuff. And today I set out driving by myself, with written directions that were nearly flawless, except for the no-left-turn part that sent me across a BRIDGE. Which, coming from the Bay Area, that’s a big deal, involving twenty miles and a toll; here it was–okay, some annoyance, with the alternating no-left-turn, no-turns-at-all nonsense, but one quick illegal U-turn and I was back on track a few minutes later.

One thing we did do was lose the master to-do list. I have no earthly idea where it is. We’ve torn this place apart…it’s gone. So we re-created it, mostly, probably, I hope, I think…and I did a number of things on it….but, I’m wondering if it’ll turn up, or if it’s just gone. Weird. I mean, there’s ten thousand other random pieces of paper around here. But that was the Master List of Organizational Memory for People On Drugs and Sleep Deprivation. Gah.

After I got back from errands (and lost-getting, and music-shopping), e_bourne came by for a nice visit, and then I drove her to the airport–so, two outings in one day for me! Gosh, I feel almost like a normal person. Weird.

And so to bed… More adventures tomorrow!

Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.

Here's what I twittered about today:

• 08:32 The reason for the Titanian season bit.ly/5SsJIG (via @waybis) #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

Sweet! Check it out! You can download all of the songs from Horrible Turn, that wacky fan-made musical Dr Horrible prequel for free here! http://www.horribleturn.com/songs/

I heartily recommend this course of action!

Aw, crap.

Liam Clancy has passed away at the age of 74.

The Wikipedia entry lists him as an Irish folk singer, which is kinda like saying Tullamore Dew is a beverage. The original Clancy Bros. were one and all marvelous, but oh my god Liam's voice, and his easy and wondrous chemistry with Tommy Makem. He was funny and dramatic and romantic and silly and sad and he's gone now and the world is less green.

What are some of your favorite Liam Clancy performance? His cover, with Tommy, of "The Dutchman" is so very beautiful, as well as their version of "Peter Kagan and the Wind". I also love his versions of "The Minstrel Boy" and "Whiskey, You're the Devil" and "The Croppy Boy" so very much. If you have links to any performances, please do post 'em here. Here's a page to start with -- click "View All" under "Most Played Songs" for a much longer list.

Farewell, Mr. Clancy. Thank you so much for all the music and stories, and the joy of being alive, and may you be in Heaven half an hour before the Devil knows you're dead.

(h/t admnaismith)

BBC preview for End of Time...don't watch if you don't want to know.

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I found this new, unread title in my writing room, the first of a 3-book series. No, I didn't buy it, 'cause I rarely read high fantasy. I have my beloved Hobbits, and that's about it for the present.

All I can figure is that someone left this copy of The Eyes of God by John Marco on my signing table at a convention back in '03. It happens. I would have made an effort at the time to find the owner, but the convention is long over and hopefully he or she won't mind it going to another fan of high fantasy.

I never got around to reading it; I just don't have the time.

But perhaps one of you would enjoy giving this favorably reviewed epic a more appreciative home? Books are meant to be read!

Yes, you may get it for a friend!




Just leave a comment! You have until Sunday!

Well, let's see. My mental acuity has returned sufficiently for me to track complex conversations over extended time periods, specifically between one medication cycle and the next. Just today I've begun experimenting with extending (slightly) the time between medication intake, which is the first step in weaning myself off the opiates. I'm starting to be pretty seriously bored, also a good sign. My walking range is beginning to extend now, walking a mile in 25 minutes this morning without ever stopping to breathe. And I can play Sudoku again, which has long been a sort of mental marker for my state of stress and ability to focus.

On the down side, I still can't read worth a damn. Even tracking a decently long article on the Web is tough. I continue to have no interest in picking up books. This is only my second attempt at a blog post since leaving the hospital last Sunday, as even that much narrative awareness is only available to me in fits and starts.

Over the next week or three I'll try to document my hospital experience. We're definitely in the anticlimax right now, that trough between surgery and the pathology report. Next Monday morning, calendula_witch and I go in to see the thoracic surgery team, then the oncologist. We'll have the last stitches on the drain port taken out, followed by a discussion of the chemo path. shelly_rae will be in town Monday midday, and the three of us will spend some time sorting through what it all means.

Right now, I don't know. And I won't even have a glimpse until then. All the grief and terror is still out there. It's just waiting for another turn of the wheel, for the business of the moment to come spilling out like blood on sand.

This has been a tough road, in all the obvious ways and in more than a few non obvious ones as well. I don't suppose it will get any easier, though eventually losing the 'busted ribs' sensation from the chest incision will be helpful. Details to come, as I understand or can recall them. For now, suffice to say my hospital experience was good to excellent, the food wasn't bad, and friends and family really came through.

I swear I'm getting back on this horse. One stirrup at a time. There's just a freaky lot of stirrups here.

I'll leave you with a thought. Not so long ago, the single overriding sensory impression of hospitals, at least in my experience, was the smell. Nothing has an odor quite like the damp, disinfected, bandage reek of a hospital. Lately, though, the quality of the cleansers has improved. Or perhaps my nose has been stunned with age. Because now my single overriding sensory impression of hospitals is the beeping. Literally two or three dozen different alarms which beep in the nurses' stations in the halls outside the rooms. Different volumes, keys, pitches, tempii. It's a symphony for one-note sonics, written large across my waking dreams and sleeping thoughts.

That noise will follow me all my life, I suspect. When the time comes, please don't wire my coffin for it, ok?

Meanwhile, I leave you with ( this cheerful image of me eating in the hospital. )

So far I've come...

Somebody asked me a question the other day that made me ponder quite a bit (as excellent questions do). "What was the best thing anybody ever told you in the writing business?"

I'm definitely spoiled for choices, after all. I've been having conversations for lo, these many years, and I've probably forgotten more than half of them.

But I've settled on one simple phrase that brought me up short at a time when I could have gotten overconfident, and made me want to be a better writer. I think it's one of the most underused expressions in a conversation about writing, simply because it is so risky for the person delivering it to an aspiring storyteller.

And the phrase was: "You're not ready."

Let me explain how this came to be.

In the wee early days of my professional writing career, I had sold two books and I was starting to feel that I had the potential for making a go of this writing thing. I was a member of a large Dallas writers organization, but with 30 writers involved (many of them already professionals), getting individual attention for critique was difficult at best.

Someone suggested I join a sub-group, one that was headed by prominent local SF writer Patricia Anthony. Patricia was already someone who had encouraged me at group, and I felt that I got on well with her. Add to that, I was very impressed with what she was doing in her own work. So it sounded perfect.

When I approached her about it, she very kindly looked me in the eye and said, "I don't think you're ready for my group."

I was, momentarily, appalled, devastated, and stunned. I'd already sold two books; what did she mean I wasn't ready? And a million things came to my mind to say, from the angry to the defensive.

I swallowed every one of them.

Instead, I nodded and I said, "Then I'll keep working." And she smiled, patted me on the shoulder, and said, "Of course you will."

A year later, after I'd read something at the large group, she came to me and handed me a sheet of paper with the information about the meetings. "Now you're ready," she said. "If you still want to join."

I did, and it was a fantastic experience -- difficult at times, always challenging, but wonderfully invigorating as well. When I went to the first meeting, I saw what she meant. The people in that group were writing at an aggressively high level, and pushing each other to be better. If I'd come in when I'd asked, I'd have been bulldozed. I'd have felt completely out of place, outgunned and outclassed. I'd have made it a battleground instead of a friendly competition.

Eventually, the group broke up, people went their own ways, life happened. But I think that in that one, gentle, kind but uncompromising statement, Patricia Anthony made me realize that being published wasn't an entitlement, and it wasn't a guarantee. It was only one step in a long, long road with a thousand destinations -- a road that I'm thankful I'm still walking.

So thanks for telling me the truth, Patricia.

I will always strive to do the same for those who come to me.

-- Rachel

Your Friday moment of zen.



A fungus from the Yerba Canyon hike at Taos Ski Valley. © 2006, 2009 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Frost on the Genre car, frost on the Witchmobile...probably the first frost the Witchmobile has ever seen. :/

You may have been aware that there's a new take on Alice this Sunday night on SyFy. You may not have been aware that there's The Hero of Time, a new fan movie based on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, that will be available for online viewing or free download on Dec. 14.

There's also a very cool teaser making the rounds for Buck Rogers.

There's a silent film of The Call of Cthulhu (trailer here).

And leave us not forget the other two recent fan film opi, Horrible Turn and The Hunt For Gollum.

Any cool fan vid we should know about? Really good AMVs (anime music videos) count.

ETA: And, not too long after I posted this we got RtRNRi30S(aR-EbB).

ETA2: Re: release of The Hero of Time -- I cannot brain, I have the dumb. It's Dec. 14. Fixed.

Now this looks interesting. It's a pilot for a sci-fi series about a group of thieves and con men in the future.

SLINGERS from Mike Sizemore on Vimeo.

Moviewatchers also need an apology

From http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4PRN/is_2009_Nov_23/ai_n42276134/

While the hit film 2012 chills and horrifies filmgoers worldwide, its apocalyptic premise is completely false, according to author Bob Waxman in his new book 2012: The Ultimate Meaning, to be published by Paragon House and released on December 21, 2009 - exactly 3 years before the infamous date (http://www.2012theultimatemeaning.com/).

And Waxman is so concerned he has retained the international public relations firm TransMedia Group (http://www.transmediagroup.com/) to tell the true story behind the end of the Mayan Calendar.

"Waxman believes Hollywood owes ancient Mayans an apology as they were not predicting anything of the kind depicted in the film," said TransMedia's founder Tom Madden, a former No. 2 ranked executive at NBC, where he was involved in promoting blockbuster miniseries and films on television.

"Our publicity will underscore that the date of 2012 was to mark the beginning of a new time-cycle which the Mayans were predicting as an era of heightened awareness and unitary consciousness," he said.

Madden has assigned the PR firm's top book publicist Kim Morgan to set the record straight. Waxman, whose expertise and scholarship is in Ancient Spiritual Wisdom, explains why Mayans believed that the year 2012 marks the process of a transition from one World Age to the next.

This underground house of ours continues to amaze me. It was 18 degrees outside at six o'clock this morning when we got up. But inside our house -- despite the fact that we have no heat source in here at all at night -- it was 64 degrees. And when we turned on our electric space heater, it went up to 66 degrees in only twenty minutes.

All summer long, heat is stored in the earth and stone around our house and in its concrete walls; then when winter comes, that heat is released into our house. Because we had almost no real heat this past summer -- we had a plague of thunderstorms and gloom, day after day and night after night -- I wondered if it would be colder in here this winter than it usually is. But it hasn't turned out that way. The first day that we had to turn on the space heater didn't come along until October 23rd. And well into late November, I was able to open the house to the outdoors -- which means opening the front door and all the screened windows on the front porch -- for a few hours around noon almost every day.

I had always said that it would never get below 59 degrees in here, no matter how cold it got outside. Last year, in the January ice storm when we had a five-day power outage, I found out that that wasn't true. Ordinarily in the wintertime our lights are on all day long and late into the evening in all the rooms; ordinarily we use our oven -- which has electric ignition -- often for cooking. Ordinarily we have two tiny space heaters that we run in the bathroom and the room where our computers are when those rooms are in use. Ordinarily the thirty gallons of hot water in our water heater are giving off heat around the clock.

Our little generator -- the one we've now replaced with a much larger unit -- wasn't powerful enough to do all of that; it wasn't powerful enough to run the oven or the hot water heater at all. And it not only was 55 degrees in here every morning, it never got warmer than 56 degrees inside, even with the big space heater running. Still, there was nothing ordinary about that ice storm, with its three consecutive days and nights of nonstop sleet. It seems to me that for this house to have maintained 55/56 degrees through all that was pretty amazing.

And of course it works the other way round as well. The earth and stone and concrete walls store the winter's cold as well, and then release it into the house. We don't need our air conditioning until months after people living above ground have had to turn theirs on.

I can enthusiastically recommend living underground. Not that there aren't adjustments you have to make; there are. But an underground house is a marvelous device.

First of several posts today. Yesterday, M. Spaff Sumsion of The Funny Music Project e-mailed around with some new lyrics which he hoped we could take advantage of with all possible speed. Steve Goodie and I signed up. I contributed a few jokes and one vocal line (you'll probably be able to figure out which one), and Steve's wife Barbara Dorris contributed excellent lead vocals, and we've got a new FuMP.

.

The winner of the leather craft book drawing is..... interactiveleaf!!

Make sure to comment on the previous post if you want a chance for those gourmet chocolates!!

I'll have a new book drawing on Saturday. See you then!

Oh man it’s cold today.

We went for our usual two walks (people recovering from surgery Must Walk) and OMG, they were torture. Compounded by the most ridiculous fact that I most ridiculously forgot to bring a jacket. Yes, I meant to; yes, I understand that it’s December and it’s Oregon and etc etc; I just forgot. I walked out of the Witchnest at 6am on the morning of the 22nd and forgot to bring a jacket. So sue me.

Apparently didn’t bring a scarf or a hat either. But I did bring gloves!

Anyway. Today was a good day. Not a lot happened, in a dramatic-stories sort of way. kenscholes came down for lunch, which was delightful. jaylake slept less, deliberately; the meds are hitting him less hard, I think. His swelling around the incision site is bothering him more, which I think is a measure of progress, meaning the nerves are re-knitting–because it looks no worse, it is healing nicely. We finished the Lord of the Rings movies, and I made a bit more progress proofreading Pinion (though I have a ways to go, and it’s already late!). More later this evening, I hope. And even more pleasingly, we’ve had a series of long and intellectual conversations about everything–which is what we usually do, and which has been a little thin on the ground lately, for obvious reasons.

______________

Sunday when jaylake came home from the hospital, kylecassidy and circle23 came by and took some photos. jaylake posted this one this morning, as his Zen photo.

And then the whole set.

I live in interesting times.

Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.

As previously mentioned, kylecassidy and circle23 came by Sunday night, November 29th, shortly after my discharge from the hospital for the thoracic surgery. kylecassidy has an ongoing project of shooting writers in their writing spaces, which had been the original idea even before this round of cancer treatments had been scheduled. Once I knew I'd be sidelined from the surgery, I encouraged them to come anyway, with the notion of documenting some of the physical reality of my cancer experience, both the love and the pain.

calendula_witch and shelly_rae were here at Nuevo Rancho Lake that evening, taking care of me with help from jkoke. the_child was present as well. kylecassidy and circle23 showed up, bustled about with some equipment, then began shooting me as I lay on (and in) my bed, showing my surgery scars and talking about my experiences a bit. I'm pretty sure the Dilaudid did most of the talking, frankly.

The pictures range from striking to heart-rending. Some are difficult to look at, due to the fresh scarring; others show the love in my life with startling clarity. I think they tell the story more than my words do, so ( without further ado - and bear in mind the graphic nature of some of these images: )

Images © 2009 Kyle Cassidy. All rights reserved. Reproduced here with permission.

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

LiveJournal: The First Decade

Just in time for holiday shopping, we're thrilled to announce the release of our ten-year anniversary anthology. Published by Blurb.com, the book showcases a decade of extraordinary talent drawn from LiveJournal users around the world. This must-read compilation features stories, memes, photos, comics, editorials, graphic content, and more, including:

1. Excerpts from Oh No They Didn't (a/k/a ohnotheydidnt), the largest community on LiveJournal, covering celebrity gossip, entertainment news, and pop culture
2. A look at post-Katrina New Orleans from the journal of Poppy Z. Brite
3. Gripping narratives, including a poignant reverie on a blind date
4. Photography that spans the globe, ranging from old-fashioned Polaroids to underwater photography
5. Mouthwatering dishes from food_porn

What began as a late-night inspiration back in Brad Fitzpatrick's college dorm in 1999 has grown to encompass nearly 25 million users worldwide, with journals and communities covering every conceivable hobby, passion, and topic. To get your copy, please visit the Blurb Bookstore. For updates and entries from book contributors, please join lj_turns10.

Tweaks and enhancements

• You can now ban a user from all of your communities and journals at once. To access this feature, hover over the person's userpic and choose Ban user everywhere from the drop-down menu.
• Follow LiveJournal on Twitter!

Give a little to help a lot!

In honor of National AIDS Awareness month, we've added a new charitable vgift. For each red ribbon you purchase for $2.99, we'll donate 100 percent of gross proceeds to IAVI.org (the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative) to support the development and global distribution of an affordable HIV vaccine (we'll cover credit card fees). You can read more about IAVI at lj_cares. While we're on the subject, we raised $740 from our November fundraiser for Love Without Boundaries, which supports emergency healthcare and adoption of Chinese orphans. We thank you for helping us help others.

Photos of the week

We're back with more incredible pictures from our super-talented LiveJournal photographers. Congratulations to ilya_gorokhov, who is the winner of our very first lj_photophile poll.

We hope you'll continue to post, vote, and comment! A gentle request: Please post only one photo at a time and limit size to 350x350 (so images display properly on friends pages). And now, without further ado, get ready to cast your ballot and view more awesome user content after the jump!

( Read more... )

Curtains

Thanks, again, for joining us. Stay safe and snug out there!

Rich Morris, the artist behind the Ten Doctors Fan comic, has been working on a new project. The Stalker of Norfolk. The story involves the Third Doctor and a new Companion in Elizabeathan England. It's been a fun (if heavily historical) story so far, but today's page, with a most amusing cameo, made it offically the most awesome story he's done so far.

Yeah, the state senate of New York voted down the gay marriage bill yesterday. Delaying the inevitable, perpetuating discrimination and inflicting religious beliefs on people by law. But at least one good thing came out of it.

I found about State Senator Diane Savino, who gave an amazing speech when she voted for the bill:

I giveth not the slightest defecation regarding L'Affaire de Tiger. (Several l'affaires, apparently. Or lays affaire. Or somethin'.) However, I am amused and annoyed at a news item today.

Before I tell you, understand that, around the corner from my place, there is a gas station which has a sticker on every pump, asking you to "Please Prepay In Advance".

huskiebear has noted the sign that says "Fresh Jerky".

Well, today we are informed that Tiger Woods' wife Elin is renegotiating her prenup.

[pinches bridge of nose]

Look, lady (and her spokesperson, and the various lawyers, and Jay Busbee, the guy who wrote the article). It's a prenuptial agreement. That means it's nailed down before the wedding, which was five years ago. Changing the terms now may be called any of several things, but I seriously don't think "prenuptial" is among them.

I dunno, though. Maybe I'm so isolated from these things that people renegotiate prenups all the time. I'm not a lawyer... just a relatively literate person.

Of course, the biggest crime is that this shit is all over the news media rather than the escalation in Afghanistan (there's a bumper sticker you may have seen, which says, "It is impossible to simultaneously prevent and prepare for war"), the continued gutting of the health care bill, the still-hideous unemployment numbers, the impending running-out of unemployment benefits, the lack of H1N1 vaccine... noooooo, the breaking news is Tiger fuckin' Woods. (The FuMP will have something to say about that tomorrow, by the way.)

Thoughts?

I crawl ever further out from under the Dilaudid-induced haze here as the days go by. Still rocking the painkillers pretty hard, with all the attendant emotional and mental weirdness (which will be documented as my head clears even more). Thought I'd start with what I've come to call "the ninja moment" as my initial attempt to talk about being in the hospital.

The first night out of surgery, Wednesday the 25th, I was in ICU. I have little memory of that now, though I expect I can extract some if I work at it, and discuss everything with shelly_rae (who was there overnight), calendula_witch and so forth. After that, they had me in a bed in the cardiac ward, where I remained on epidural medication until Saturday night, the 28th. At that point my drain had been removed, and the epidural shut off, though not extracted, and I'd switched to oral pain management via Dilaudid pills.

I woke up around 11 pm with no idea where I was, or who I was. Classic soap opera amnesia. I noticed someone sleeping on a banquette near the foot of my bed (shelly_rae, of course, but I didn't realize it right then), and I could hear people outside in the hall. Also, a light was on behind a curtain to my right.

I spent several minutes trying to figure out what this could mean. Was I in a hospital? (The epidural tubes were kind of a giveaway.) Why? Who was this person sleeping near me? I decided I was being held prisoner, and that I would have to find a way out of the room, quickly and quietly. I also decided I had to pee something awful.

Very carefully I slipped out of the hospital bed. Mind you, until that night this had been a two-person operation due to the Foley catheter, chest tube, epidural and IV lines. At this point, I only had the epidural, which is (annoyingly) mid-back, so I managed to slither over the bedrail and onto my feet with a minimum of fuss. The epidural stand was clumsy and heavy to move, but I managed to slink into the bathroom — the lit space behind the curtain — without attracting undue attention.

At that point I urinated about 1/2 liter into the little jug thoughtfully provided there. (I couldn't remember who I was or what I was doing there, but apparently I could remember to pee in the jug.) I'm here to tell you that a person evacuating 500 ml of urine makes a lot of noise for a long time, not the least bit stealthy. My mighty ninja powers did not extend to silencing Niagara. shelly_rae woke up at that and quite reasonably asked what I was doing.

The sound of her voice brought me back to myself, and I was left with a steaming jug in one hand while I trying to explain my big plan to escape from durance vile under her watch. She laughed, and steered me back to my bed.

I'd experience several episodes of confusion (or frankly, drug-addlement), but this was the most structured and elaborate. By the time I got back to bed, I was laughing at myself. Weird stuff, that post-operative environment. More to come, when brainspace and mental acuity allow.

While most of us weren't looking, the world of research shifted mightily. When I was a grad student, research meant hours prowling the stacks in the library. At U.C. Davis, the library had a section with what seemed like seven-foot ceilings, poor lighting and narrow aisles between shelves crowded with hard to read book titles. You wanted to take a penlight with you to scan book bindings for the call numbers. That part of the library smelled of old paper and dust.

I loved it.

You could become pale, cave like and sickly doing a research paper. I would cart pounds of information to my study carrol, read, write, sort note cards and swim in the info (much of it irrelevant to what I was researching but fascinating nonetheless).

Today research is mostly done at computers. Students cruise databases or use Google to find resources. A major component of the teacher's job is to show kids how to evaluate the authority of web sites. Note cards are gone--it's a cut-and-paste world--as are the endless hours agonizing over how to format a bibliography (http://citationmachine.net/ or http://www.easybib.com/ solve the problem).

I don't think the old way of doing research papers was better than the modern technique, but it's certainly different.

Yesterday I introduced a research project to our sophomores. I'm not interested in them writing a paper yet. I only want them to develop skills in finding resources. The project is to complete a short, annotated bibliography that would be relevant for research on a question the kids come up with. My challenge yesterday was to help them with their questions. The purpose of the question is to help them to narrow their topics. A kid might want to do a paper on Babe Ruth, for example, but that's too broad, so what do they want to know about Babe Ruth? Questions might be, "How was Babe Ruth seen by his fans?" or "What impact did Babe Ruth have on baseball?" etc.

Some students have tough times coming up with good questions, though. In two classes, five kids came up with "Will the world end in 2012?" So I had to explain that the question isn't researchable, at least not in a recognizably academic way. A better question might be, "Why do people believe the world will end in 2012?" although I don't like that one much either. I also had a fair number of faith based questions, like "Does God exist?" Most of these kind of questions don't start out legitimately because the students aren't really interested in finding an answer as much as they are planning on "proving" a previously held conviction. Then I get into weird conversations about why the Bible is not a legitimate or authoritative source for a paper that is trying to answer the research question on God. Brrr!

The other problem I have is that the Internet is full of unsorted stuff. A student who wants to research the question of "Who killed J.F.K." for example, has to wade through a gazillion trash sites to find serious information to answer the question. Students don't like to do that, and they don't want to do it. For many kids, research means typing in one search string--"Who killed J.F.K.?"--and then, if they need four sources, to cite the first four that Google throws at them. They don't feel any better about it that I won't let them cite encyclopedias as sources.

I'm taking my regular level 10th graders to the library today to start their research. I know how it is going to go. Teaching research is important and noble, but I've already taken a couple of pain killers for the headache I know I'll have in about an hour.

Your Thursday moment of zen.



Jay Lake and Shannon Page, photographed November 29th, 2009 by Kyle Cassidy as part of a series on Jay's cancer experience. © 2009 Kyle Cassidy. All rights reserved, reproduced with permission.

jaylake: Can you believe it says "for rectal use only" on the box of suppositories?
calendula_witch: Well, "suppository" is a big word. Maybe people needed it spelled out.
jaylake: But come on! It's a box of suppositories!
calendula_witch: Of course, "rectal" is kind of a big word too. The warning should say, "Stick this in your butt, not your mouth."
jaylake: "Don't eat it."
calendula_witch: [sips her wine, tries to remove unfortunate images from brain]
jaylake: "This medicine tastes like shit. Oh wait..."
calendula_witch: [grimaces, tries to concentrates on reading her flist and answering long overdue email, is sorry she even responded in the first place because she really does know better]
jaylake: Okay, cover me, I'm going in.
calendula_witch: [gives up, posts about it]

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

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Congratulations to zianuray! You won the drawing for the Dover book, and I've PM'd you on the next step so I can send it out.

The rest of you -- check the previous entry on the leather sewing book. The drawing is tomorrow!

Remember that if you can't use it, someone you know might love it as a gift!

I've gone quite mad today and have a NEW, new, newer drawing with a prize that should appeal to just about everyone.

Of course you know this is just a sneaky way for me to work in some shameless book-pimping.

For those new to The Vampire Files I have the first chapter from the very first book up on the website.


And if you'd like to buy a signed copy of the 3 books-in-one omnibus they are available on my website
along with some of my out-of-print titles.


Longtime readers are cordially invited to corrupt alllllll their vamp-lovin' friends by hooking them on the series.

What's the NEW, new-newer prize I've got to celebrate the new webpage?


It is a box of Whitman's Soho Artist Inspired Chocolates!!!!!



Who wants a box of 12 yummy gourmet chocolates from Jack Fleming's ghostwriter?

I thought so---then leave a comment, dag nab it! You have until Saturday!

**EDIT Thu Dec 3 23:24:15 UTC 2009 **

Hey Everyone, we are about to run the last alter job that we need to on our database servers. This will effect userpics / scrapbook / vgift images for the next few hours. Have no fear, your images aren't lost, there is just a really intensive process running on the servers which store the information for mogilefs. Thank you for your understanding and all the LJ love...

Hey LJers,

I just wanted to let you all know that we are going to be performing some mogilefs maintenance over the next few days. We will be upgrading our current version to latest stable as well as changing some db config information to better handle the amount of files we are currently hosting. This shouldn't cause a big impact on site stability, but you may see some minor delays with userpic / scrapbook images appearing or other requests associated with our mogilefs. We would love to not have that happen, but unfortunately with some of the steps we need to take we have to cause a delay with images. I figured this was a better solution than taking down all of LiveJournal because well lets face it, we all need our daily LJ fix ;)

Thanks,

Funny how when things are really hard, one can hold it all together and carry on. It’s when it eases up that there’s finally room to…well, not hold it all together.

jaylake  is doing better every day–less pain, more lucidity, longer times awake and functioning. I mean, he’s far from well, of course; but improving steadily.

So last night I sort of hit the wall…sorry to not post, but you wouldn’t have wanted to hear about it. :-/

Probably once I catch up on more of my sleep, this will get easier. But that will take a while. I got really short. Chronically short.

Well, onward! Trying some yoga now.

Originally published at Shannon Page: Author. You can comment here or there.

Your Wednesday moment of zen.



WWII veteran and author Colonel James Megellas. © 2009 Joseph E. Lake, Jr.



This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Who here is going to SMOFcon in Austin this weekend?

It's snowing in Mesquite! I hear the snow is heavier a little further north of here, but overall it's such a rare occurrence here in North Texas. Especially this early into winter, the cold usually doesn't get bad until January.

Snowing heavily in Plano this morning! Simon was still asleap when I left for work. When I saw the snow, I ran back in the house and said "Simon, it's snowing."

2 seconds later, there was a small boy at the front door admireing the snow.

Life is good.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

On this date in 1914. Or on November 2. Or February 12. Sources differ. (Thanks for noticing the discrepancy, skunktaur.)

Who are some of your favorite supporting actors? The people who lift a film to the next level -- people who certainly can star, and sometimes do, but more often have the roles that actually make the film interesting. (My purest example is the animated movie, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which was chugging along pretty well until, halfway through, the Joker [voiced by Mark Hamill] showed up, and the movie just rocketed into the stratosphere.) I love Walston, Burgess Meredith, Patrick Warburton, Peter Jurasik, Maggie Smith, Minnie Driver, John Lithgow, Christopher Lloyd, Kathy Bates, Lily Tomlin....

ETA: Just when is Ray Walston's birthday, anyhow...?

Well, I just posted on Clairvoyant Wank about Twicon's plans for it's 2010 shows. They are planning two shows, one in Las Vegas and one in Toronto, and behind the scenes it doesn;t look good for either.

The Toronto show has the problem of having to compete directly with a Creation Event that's happening a month later. Twicon doesn't have any guests line up yet, but their pricing plan is more expensive than Creation and Creation already has a lineup of six guests including all of the guys from the New Moon wolf pack. Creation's Gold package gets you all the autographs, and runs almost a hundred bucks cheaper than Twicon's equivalent.

The Vegas show may not be any better, it seems the hotel they are using, Planet Hollywood, is currently defaulting on it's debt. Harrah's wants to buy it, but wheteher that will happen is still up in the air.

Still, in this economic climate, when lots of startup cons ended up failing to happen last year, I keep thinking Twicon just does not have a viable plan for their con, especially when other shows are getting the same guests at more reasonable prices. Their PR plan seems highly dependent on building interest over the next six months, but I think the bad press the con recived inside the fandom is likely to come back and hurt them.

Here's what I twittered about today:

• 22:09 The Bush League Factor takes on the Allen Americans logo.
  
  bit.ly/6SV9JL #

Automatically shipped by LoudTwitter

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I decided not to wait until Wednesday to get another book drawing started. For those tuning in late, go back to the previous entry.

Here's a shiny new drawing for a taste-specific book on sewing leather. It's a classic in the How-To genre and even has plans on how to build something called a "stitching pony" for those who are really serious about making their own gear! It acts like a third hand, holding the piece in place so you can sew two-handed.

Details of book on Amazon.

I'm sure I picked it up with the idea of improving my costuming skills. Knowing how to sew leather is a handy thing for cosplay fans.

I don't do much hand-sewing now if I can help it, but maybe you or a costuming/cowboy pal in need of a cool gift would like to leave a comment and get into the drawing pool!




Tomorrow I'll announce the winner of the Dover book.

And YES, you may enter BOTH drawings! You have until Thursday to leave a comment!

I've got a LOT of stuff to clear out, so keep checking back this week.

Oh. Hm. I should use these drawings to promote my books.

Okay.

Go to a store and buy my books.

Tell your friends to buy my books.

Or go to my webstore and buy my *signed* books.

There. Pimping duty done for the day. Now help me clear out my writing room!!!!

Loneliness, like a bad cold, can spread among groups of people, new research finds.
While a runny nose might spread through handshakes, people likely catch the loneliness bug through negative interactions. A lonely person will be less trusting of others, essentially "making a mountain out of a molehill," said study researcher John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago. An odd look or phrasing by a friend that wouldn't even be noticed by a chipper person could be seen as an affront to the lonely, triggering a cycle of negative interactions that cause people to lose friends.

The upshot: A lonely person is likely to lose touch with another person, who in turn gets cut off from others, and both end up on the fringes of a social group.

"A lonely person who anticipates others are going to act negatively toward them finds evidence in their environment for that, partly because they anticipate it and partly because they elicit it," Cacioppo told LiveScience.

The finding, published in the December issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, suggests that loneliness is not a character trait, as in "that person is such a loner," but more of a state such as hunger, which evolved as a cue to motivate our ancestors to go find food.

"We're fundamentally a social species so we need others with whom we can cooperate and work," Cacioppo said. As such, loneliness may have been a cue to look out for anyone who might ostracize you, he added.

Counting friends

The results come from a study of more than 5,000 individuals who took part in the Framingham Heart Study between 1991 and 2001. Every two to four years, subjects completed questionnaires that measured depression and loneliness, gave their medical history and underwent a physical examination.

For instance, participants indicated how often during the previous week they had experienced a particular feeling, including loneliness, with four possible answers: 0–1 days, 1-2 days, 3-4 days and 5-7 days.

Participants also indicated friends and relatives, many of whom also took part in the study.

From this information, the researchers pieced together social networks showing connections between each individual and the average number of lonely days for the participant and that person's links.

Loneliness spreads

They found loneliness is catchy with three degrees of separation. So a person's loneliness depended not just on his friend's loneliness but also on his friend's friend and his friend's friend's friend. Participants were 52 percent more likely to be lonely if a person to whom they were directly connected (one degree of separation) was lonely. For two degrees of separation, the number drops to 25 percent and 15 percent for three degrees.

The number of family members had no effect on loneliness scores.

Over time, lonely individuals become lonelier and transmit such feelings to others before severing ties. "People with few friends are more likely to become lonelier over time, which then makes it less likely that they will attract or try to form new social ties," they write. Such friendless individuals ended up on the outskirts of their social networks.

Loneliness has been linked with various mental and physical illnesses, including depression. And so the findings could have practical implications. "Society may benefit by aggressively targeting the people in the periphery to help repair their social networks and to create a protective barrier against loneliness that can keep the whole network from unraveling," Cacioppo said.

Source: LiveScience

Turns out that humans are genetically inclined to help one another. Which certainly works for me. If our freakin' government isn't gonna do it, it's up to us.

• This weekend is the eighth Acorn Music & Verse filk in Ann Arbor, run by shadowriderhope. It's not gonna go as long as usual, I suspect, because Christine Lavin is performing a charity concert for MCREST. (She'll be joined by the Mistletones.) Even if you can't make it out there, MCREST can always use help.
• One of my own local food banks is Food Gatherers.
• National food bank finder sites include Feeding America and strength.org.
• kshandra informs us that britgeekgrrl and her husband dancingshaman could really use some help. See, dancingshaman has opted not to continue chemo, and he hasn't got long left, and they need $1400 for his cremation. Her PayPal addy is johanna_mead at yahoo dot com. If you can't donate financially, there's a group for those who can give time and energy.
• On a somewhat brighter note, there's a satirical effort to pass a law in California outlawing divorce. Because Prop 8 doesn't go far enough, y'see. Check out RescueMarriage.org.

Any other good causes we should know about? Link 'em up.

ETA: idancewithlife informs us in comments that Alex did pass away. Condolences and gentle songs to britgeekgrrl and their family. They did get sufficient donations to cover the cost of cremation, and thanks to everyone who kicked in.

Your Tuesday moment of zen.



Walking in the hospital, last Thursday. © 2009 M. Lake, all rights reserved.

As calendula_witch continues to so ably document, most recently here, I am at home recovering, I seem to be able to handle a small amont of Twitter, but blogging and email are bot very tough for me right now under the influence of opiates. But as I am up in the middle of the night with the dosage transition itchies, I thought I'd send my love out to the Intarwebs on this week of uncharacteristic post-surgical silence.

Y'all have been wonderful.

Mr. President, we cannot afford this war. (Link to Daily Kos page with video and a link to a transcript.)