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04.09.02 >1320
'We don't do mountains' : "On his shoulder he wore a patch which said ‘Mountain’, the emblem of the 10th Mountain Division, one of the first American units sent to this extremely mountainous country. So to make conversation, I inquired about his mountain-warfare training. ‘No sir, we don’t do that,’ Bud declared in a masticatory pause. ‘We don’t do mountains.’" Walking the campaign trail in parents' shoes : "In some ways, political dynasties are the closest this country gets to royalty – and at a time when the current president is the son of a former president, the trend seems more prominent than ever." Willing to die : "Hanadi is a committed suicide bomber. She is 16 and has decided to end her life in as damaging a way as she can for Israeli society. 'It is the only way to stop Israel,' she says. 'I am willing to die for the freedom of my people.'" How "hard sf" keeps the science in science fiction : "Without a strong scientific content, a science-fiction story fades into fantasy. To further confuse things, much of what you find in book stores, shelved as science fiction, is fantasy." Bein' a pretty avid sci-fi fan myself, I found this article to be quite interesting - and I must reluctantly concede that there's a lot of truth to Mr. Sheffield's argument. Often it's seemed like science fiction and fantasy have become two interchangable genres - and it doesn't help that often you'll find books from both mixed in the same section when you visit the bookstore. Conflict begins anew debate on end times : "'They're becoming more aware that there's a human side to Armageddon,' Miss Zimmerman said. 'For many Christians, I think the prophetic viewpoint is being tempered by a new level of compassion where the Middle East is concerned.'" Eschatology used to be my thing, and anything relevant to the struggle in the Middle East has always been of interest of me. Lately, though, I've had to struggle with what I know to be true about Israel's claim to that little parcel of land in Scripture and what I feel for the people caught between Israel's current drive for justice and the Islamic fundamentalists who refuse to give ground. 04.08.02 >2036
Hmmm - Mexico in December. That's about eight months away and already I'm revvin' to go. An online conversation with Wendy has led me to believe that we need a new definition for rant - us blogging folk tend to do it often, but we don't really mean to sound as angry as it seems. 04.05.02 >1807
The Web ain't really boring, is it? I haven't been keeping a close watch on this post as much as I've wanted to (mostly because I've forgotten to keep checking back), but the number of interesting links that people provided is pretty amazing. The Web, boring? Nahhh. Not by a long shot. >1708
I'm havin' way too much fun today ... Out of Context Quotes. This one's probly my favoritest: "Fruit juice does not give you the right to be evil." Replace fruit juice with coffee and you'd peg me on the spot. (Last minute addendum: since I only drink anything remotely related to coffee once in a great while, the resulting caffeine high can keep me up for who knows how long. So yeah, coffee and evil - or mischief - go hand in hand fer me. You've been warned. No more anything from Starbucks for the next month.) >1651
On predicting asteroid collisions: "Since the now-widely accepted theory of dinosaur extinction by asteroid was put forth in the early 1980s, researchers and politicians have spent time assessing the threat. The fascination has even permeated popular culture, through apocalyptic films such as 'Armageddon' and 'Deep Impact.'
The results of this interest, as well as improved science, should hardly send anyone scurrying into underground bunkers: The chance of significant collision, scientists stress, remains extremely remote. Yet as astronomers press on to find more of the galactic rubble that could be headed for Earth, it is clear that most asteroids remain unaccounted for." >1410
You would've thought that somebody who lived in a medium-sized city of 70,000+ would soon run out of places to go to, but nooo - when someone's bouncing back and forth across town trying to find one little thing, you'd be amazed at how long that'd take. In our case, it took three hours just to find this item - a makeup palette. I hate sprawl. No, wait, I hate makeup. No, on second thought ... argh! (And this is comin' from someone who now lives in San Francisco!) Murm picked me up early this morning at 8 o'clock (I wouldn't normally consider this early since I usually start my day at 6 am every day, but I don't have any classes on Fridays) before we made the hour-long journey to Livermore. On the way there we must've talked about everything and anything. Main topic on the 60 minute ride was how much we liked being single, and it wasn't until Murm brought it up that I actually realized how much I liked the freedom that came with bein' unattached (not that I've ever been attached to anyone, really, in the first place). Another thing, too, that I realized about myself - I don't think I'd care too much about trying to be impressed by anything materialistic from Mr. Right when he does come along; when I say this, I mean that I wouldn't care about receiving expensive gifts like jewelry or flowers or anything like that. I'd settle for a book, a cup of tea, an hour or two alone with him. In the meantime, however, until we find each other, I'm happy being Miss Unattached. 04.04.02 >2127
The wonders of bein' a student : Having a prof that actually makes class fun. My Contemporary Magazines prof, Don Menn, is one koo-el dude. Check this action out - the rest of the semester we'll be starting magazines. This includes everything from assembling a media kit for clients, figuring out the projected cost of the start-up, to producing a year-long editorial calendar. You hafta start somewhere, though, so yesterday we spent the last half of the class throwing out magazine ideas - next week we'll vote on those ideas to root out the good ones, form groups (this depends on which magazine idea you want to help develop), and then start working on the magazines. So, yeah - class yesterday. Don scribbled all the ideas on the board as they came at him, and some of them were pretty ... interesting. Someone suggested we start a Jerry Springer type mag (think tabloids in magazine form). "What should we call this thing?" Don asked. A pause, then someone at the back of the class said, "How about 'Trash'?" Others included Dot Bombers (a magazine on former dot-commers - "Who are they and where are they now?"), Beach Life ("Surf's up, dude!"), gambling, Reality (TV), and a "For Dummies" Series. The thing I'm wondering is where they'll find advertising for these mags. >2100
Thanks to Rich of Dead Yet Living who directed me to this site, y'all have something fun to play with. Drop a note to say hello, comment on a post, respond to the Random Topic, or make me laugh. (Nothing obscene, please.) Go to it! Oh, and please date and time yer comments, as this isn't a feature automatically included. (This is a toy still bein' developed.) 04.03.02 >2228
For you >2042
A short story I wrote a few weeks ago for my writing workshop is now up in the story section. I had to clean it up a bit, but I hope you enjoy it; a second draft will be posted as soon as I'm done revising it for class, though I'm not sure yet whether I'm going to turn this revised story or "The Bully" in. I've got a couple story ideas in mind right now that I'd like to flesh out before they lose their freshness. One's somethin' of a romance between a mage and his female apprentice. The other one is probly going to turn out weird - a greedy woman willfully lets her six-year-old son get lost in a haunted department store in order to collect a hefty insurance 04.02.02 >2015
The last couple posts are rather abstract descriptions of my visit to Pier 39 and further down the Embarcadero this past Saturday evening with twelve other people (all of whom were much noisier than me - I think that if I hadn't actually occupied a seat in my friend Chantelle's Suburban, they would've probly forgotten I was there - I guess I had a lot on my mind). I bought a few souvenirs - none of which are for myself - as we walked past Piers 40 and 41, and we visited the Wax Museum before heading out. (The Museum is very phony, btw - I don't think it was worth even the $7.50 group price they gave us.) On our way home, we stopped on Treasure Island to take a couple pics of the S.F. waterfront and the Bay Bridge - and yes, the real thing's definitely better 'n any silvery image caught on paper. And I think a story's due soon, if only to unclog my brain and help me sort out my thoughts. I hate it when this happens ... all that gray matter building up makes me feel like an egghead. |