Progress on "A Far Sun"

It was back at the end of April that I last talked about it. I was discussing how I was changing it to appeal more to a young audience, and I am happy to report my progress since that date.

I finished reading aloud to my wife up to the end where I'd chopped off the last 55K words. I got to that point a few weeks ago, and since then have starting writing, again. It took me some time to think through a few things, but eventually I figured out what I wanted to tell and where I wanted to go. So now, I'm off and running again. As I write this I'm into chapter 51 and just over 161K words. That puts me 20K words past where I made the chop, and that feels really good.

Something I've noticed is that by reading the story it's helped me write it. Now I know how to put things together better, and I don't have to make as many impromptu edits later. I still have to go back and go over my rough draft copy, but that comes together pretty quickly.

Also, I've reached the end of the second act. From this point forward my heroes will be on the offensive, and the action has ratcheted up considerably. Just within the past two chapters people have even died, and that proved to have just the impetus I needed to springboard the story through to the end.

As an aside, I've been saying I know exactly what's going to happen, even though I don't know exactly what's going to happen. I don't know, not in detail, but in terms of the major events left to occur, I know what they all are. I just don't know when these things are going to happen, or exactly what will precipitate them when the time comes. That's the fun of it--not knowing exactly what will be around the corner. I'm probably all wrong about this, but I'd like to think it makes the story more exciting, as there is some sort of 'element of surprise' evident in my prose when I twist it this way and that. Or maybe not.

I had a lot of good stuff in the part I cut out. A few good characters and some pretty good interactions. But none of that will survive into the story, now. It's too bad, but it just doesn't fit. There may be one character (or two) that I reintroduce, but other than that, I think I have all the characters I need to carry this thing through to the end.

I'm really excited, because when I read these last five chapters between Friday evening and this evening, I got a very big thumb's up from my very literate wife. She still thinks the story is really good, and even though I know she's biased, it gives me a lot of encouragement. Enough to blast out the final 40K words and call this thing done. That's 11 to 12 chapters, which means I don't have a lot of time to mess around.

A tale of two keyboards

It was the best of keyboards; it was the worst of keyboards ...

All right, that's not accurate. I saw this article extolling the virtues of the IBM Model M keyboard, vintage 1984. It made me think of my own "vintage" and downright indestructible keyboard, but mine was made by NEC, and I bought it new with an 386Sx, 16 Mhz NEC computer back in 1991. Yeah, it came with Windows 3.0, which I quickly upgraded to Windows 3.1. The computer is long gone, but the keyboard (nearly identical in appearance to the Model M, but not quite as heavy or with the same distinctive clicking sound) is still on my desktop, and still going strong 18 years later.

In the article the guy takes his keyboard apart, but I wouldn't have the guts to do that to mine. I'd be afraid I'd break it, and then where would I be? I probably do need to dust it out, but otherwise it's still fine. Yeah, I do like to brag about it, because I've used it a lot, and it has yet to have a single failure of any kind.

So there.

Interesting rant about Mono

I have just recently made the "jump" to Ubuntu (a Linux distribution for PCs of all sizes). First of all, it's great, and for most users, it does nearly everything you might want. That's right, for all but a few that must use Microsoft applications like Office, or that must use programs like Quicken, it has everything you need to be productive. This is especially true if all you do is surf the web, email, and maybe write a term paper or two. For these it has Firefox, Thunderbird, and Open Office. All three are very good, and I use them all. (And all are included in the Ubuntu distro download.)

Mono is a development framework based on Microsoft .NET, and has sparked a rather rabid religious war on the Linux forums. Everyone has an opinion, it seems, and folks on both sides are calling for the death and expulsion of anyone who disagrees with them. Well, maybe not literal death, but certainly expulsion. Yes, like the war between religion and atheism, Mono advocates are the atheists to the Linux "purists." The spawn of Satan that must be eliminated at all costs.

So, when I read this post discussing why Mono really isn't evil, I thought of religious wars.

My opinion of Mono is that it's arguably based on the standards that Microsoft sought when they published .NET. Steve Ballmer's idiotic comments aside (because he really is a huge, smelly asshole), if MS didn't want Mono around, they could have/should have taken steps to prohibit its development. Such as not having made the .NET CLR architecture a standard. *sigh*

Nothing will get the Linux homos more riled than something with the taint of Microsoft. Not even calling them homos will do that (and I'm smiling when I say that, fellas). Java ain't as great as everyone says it is, and there needs to be an alternative. If Mono provides the ability to develop quality software for distros like Ubuntu, then as a user I'm all for it. Shoot, being technical means I might also do some Linux/KBE development myself. Could be fun.

The final firing of Carrie Prejean

Despite the fact I can't quite pronounce her last name, overall I really don't care what happens to her. But the news is: she's been fired as Miss California. Yeah, poor girl. She was asked a controversial question, and answered it to the best of her abilities. Whatever one thinks of the quality of her "abilities" to answer questions, one comment she's made recently has my attention:

"Three weeks ago I was asked a politically charged question with a hidden personal agenda," Prejean said. "I was given a question asking for my opinion and I stated my personal belief. Immediately after the pageant, judge no. 8 began a cultural firestorm in the media ... he was trying to be self-promoting and hateful.

"On April 19 on that stage, I exercised my freedom of speech," Prejean continued, fighting back tears. "And I was punished for doing so. This should not happen in America."

Was she "punished," or was she taken to task for her beliefs? She spoke them out loud, and so therefore invited criticism, whether she wanted it or not. If I stood up and said vapid blonds from California should be shot at dawn, I would expect to be criticized for that position, because not everyone will accept it. The same goes for those who have an opinion on gay marriage. If you're against it, some will be critical of you. If you're for it, others will criticize you for that opinion. If she can't handle the pressure of defending her views, I would suggest she's not very well prepared to be Miss California, or to spout her fundamentalist views in public, either. Something about heat and kitchens comes to mind.

Poor girl. Punished for her innocent viewpoint? Since she wasn't fired for that, I doubt that's the case. As to whether this should happen in America ... well, there are a lot of things going on in America these days--even in regards to free speech--that have my panties in a bunch. Carrie Prejean needs to get in line.

And the irony that her presence in the pageant wasn't also "self-promoting"? She may have not been acting "hateful" to Perez Hilton, but I know a few gay folks who would ascribe her attitude as hateful to them. My irony meter isn't broken, but it's pegged. (I had an extra-industrial-strength model installed when GWB got elected. Even then he broke it several times. But, that's another story for another time.)

Prejean's mother, Francine, came out in defense of her daughter, telling the blog MomLogic.com that the beauty queen is "being persecuted for speaking her opinion" about gay marriage. Prejean also told Christian radio host Dr. James Dobson that Satan tried to tempt her with a question about gay marriage at the Miss USA pageant.

My only question, re: Satan and his Temptations (a really old pop-music group), is did he succeed? It would seem so, since she's now out and free to go for the really juicy XXX photos. She'll make a frigging fortune.

Fun times.

Summer 2009 "Gadget Love" Review

This year's review is chock-full of cool, interesting stuff. It's going to be quite a challenge just to remember everything I've acquired since last year's review, but since I have some very interesting stuff to review, I'll just get right to it:

1. Acer Aspire One AOD150 Netbook. This is my latest new toy. For $329 from Amazon.com this 10" diagonal screen netbook (think: mini-laptop) is a pretty nice little machine. It comes with 1 GB memory and 160 GB hard drive. It also came with Windows XP SP3, but as we'll discuss, below, that isn't relevant for me. I tried out several other netbooks, including the ASUS eeePC 1000 HA (which had been my odds-on prior choice). This device has by far the very best keyboard of the dozen or so I tried. It's a little bit cramped and some of the navigation keys are oddly placed, but overall I like it a lot. Except I hitting the Fn key instead of the Ctrl key. Drat!
   
2. Ubuntu 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope." Free download from Ubuntu.com. Unless you have to have Microsoft Office (I have a friend who definitely needs it) or you are running some funky application only available for the Windows platform, this GUI OS is (and has) everything you need. Firefox, Open Office, media software, etc. It installs in under 1/2 hour. Boots faster than XP, and did I mention you don't need to worry about anti-virus software? I can mount all my USB portable drives, and I've even set it up for automated on-line backup, although it's not from Carbonite.
   
3. Unison file synchronization utility. Not as flexible as I'd like it to be, but it seems to work. You can't delete a "profile" or even change it once you've set it up.
4. AmaroK media player. It's no MediaMonkey, but it plays files from Jamendo and Magnatune (two of my favorite on-line sites). Of course, so will MediaMonkey, and its library organization capabilities are el fabuloso. I had to locate and install the right media codecs, which was initially a pain, but once I got them installed it simply works.
5. Garmin Nuvi 260W GPS. Very nice. Touch screen, and it actually speaks the street and highway names as you go. It's got features I haven't even used. I bought it last fall for about $200, and it's worth every penny. Amazon.com has them right now for $160.
6. Logitech V450 Nano and V470 mouses. The V450 has a teeny-tiny wireless dongle that probably won't get broken off, at least not easily. I now have two of these (one for my at-home desktop, and one for my new netbook). The V470 is the Bluetooth version of the same mouse. I use it on my work laptop, and of course it has no dongle.
7. Jabra A320s USB Bluetooth adapter. I use it with my Jabra BT620s stereo headphones. Works well, though I don't use it that often. The right earpiece will control the media player, as well.
8. Samsung USB portable DVD/CD writer. Works so far. I needed it for my netbook to install Ubuntu. I haven't tried it for burning, but I have no reason to think it won't work.
9. Jungledisk on-line backup. I am paranoid of losing stuff, so I signed up for this service to make sure my netbook documents are regularly backed up. It's relatively cheap, but so far I haven't done much with it.
10. Hitachi SATA 1 TB hard drive. I bought this for about $100 from Newegg.com. I replaced the hard drive in my home desktop (it was a measly 160 GB). Works like a charm, even though it seemed to run very hot when I had it in the portable drive dock (that I regularly use for my 500 GB backup hard drive).
11. I had been using the eSATA connection for the "external" hard drive (the drive dock is like a hard drive toaster--the drive just sticks up on end), but that connection isn't removable like USB, and I couldn't boot my computer without the drive attached. Overall, not worth it for the extra speed. Not that it was even all that much faster. I get about 20 MB/sec with the USB connection.
    

This list isn't as long as last year's, but given the oodles of software on the netbook that I haven't tried, yet, I may have another review for those things.

OK, here are some more stats for the Acer D150: Wired and wireless networking. 1.3 MP web cam, microphone (I have not tried either one of these). It has 3 USB 2.0 ports, and a 6-cell LiIon battery that lasts up to 8 hours. 2.95 lbs fully loaded. I prefer the external mouse, but the metal touch pad isn't too bad. Speakers sound pretty good. They seem to be under the front of the base. The palm rest area (below the keyboard) seems to get a tad warm, but I'm somewhat used to that. The case is shiny black, but the bezel around the keyboard is brushed aluminum. Cool, and it doesn't show fingerprints.

Lastly, this post was composed on it. Tight, but workable.

They say California is the granola state

And this article proves it. Wow. Looking at this article and all the pretty graphs and charts makes me want to:
A) laugh,
B) cry,
C) puke,
D) all of the above.

If you selected D, then you got it right. Of course it's California that's supremely fucked itself. Arnold, can you say
hasta la vista"? You should, and get as far away as you can from this meltdown of nuclear proportions.

The only question at this point is: Why didn't I buy a BMW with my home equity? If we're all going down the tubes, at least I could have driven there in style. What's another zero to a bankruptcy? (Sheesh!)

Hang on folks, this party isn't over yet.