Notes, Notings, and Common Refrains

1) Still struggling with writer's ... not "block" so much as ... I dunno, "malaise?" "doubt?" "Cranky-pants-ness?" So, to give myself some positive incentive, today I bought a bag of my favorite cookies (ginger snaps), and will only allow myself to have the treat if/when I've met that day's writing goal. Sometimes, when my brain is acting childish, it helps to give up and stop pretending to be a grown-up.

2) Speaking of writing: now that I have a modern machine with a much faster microprocessor, and a bit more memory, I'm thinking of getting Dragon Dictate (or Naturally Speaking, whatever it's called, now). Question for those reading this who may have experience with it: is it worth it? How steep is the learning curve? Is there a better alternative out there?

3) Today is the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere; yesterday, while drinking my first cup of coffee, I looked up to see one of the resident feral rabbits hopping through my back yard. Bunny, bunny, bunny, bunny! Yay!

4) Still getting used to "Whippersnapper." The most annoying thing is that when you first set it up, it requires you to choose a password -- and there is no way to bypass it; also, it automatically locks your computer and requires you to reenter your password every time it goes to sleep, which for me, is every time I take a bathroom or snack break ('cause these things take longer for me). I thought I'd set up my personal preferences to not lock it when it goes to sleep, but for some reason, it didn't take. Still, if I have to type my password several times a day, I'm not likely to forget it. But since I live alone, and this computer is a tower/desktop, if some stranger comes along and fiddles with my computer when my back is turned, I've got a bigger security problem than a password-- it means someone has picked the deadbolt lock on my front door.

One thing that does make more sense than older Windows systems: no more shut down menu. When you want to shut down the computer, just reach over and push the power button-- what a novel concept! Although, even then, Windows's default is to put the computer to sleep, rather than fully off -- as I have cats who walk across the keyboard, that doesn't work for me. That, I was able to change, but I still got the message on my log-in screen that "Windows will shut down in two days to finish installing important updates," so its still going by Sleep Mode as the default version of "off".

If "forty is the new thirty" I guess "Sleep is the new Off."

5) I was sure I had five things when I started, but by the time I got here I forgot the last point I wanted to make... then, I wandered off to YouTube and forgot to post this (what you're reading now is a "Restored draft"). While on YouTube, I watched a video listing facts about American TV icon Mister Rogers, then got nostalgic and went looking for clips... I found an entire half-hour episode that had a) one of my favorite characters (Robert Troll -- I was introduced to him, in childhood, before I knew about the nasty goat-eating troll) and b) it ended with my favorite song (It's You I Like). Would you be annoyed if I posted the video here?

It always kind of saddens me when I think about how Mister Rogers was never exported to other Anglophone countries, the way Sesame Street was...

l. My blanket poncho (birthday present) arrived. It's not as heavy-thick as I was expecting. But when I take it off, I notice that it had been keeping me warmer than I realized. My cat Trixie can't decide if it's the bestest thing ever, or perplexing, as it changes the feeling underfoot when she's trying to climb into my lap; OTOH, it's so fluffy!

2) Wherefore hast CBS.com not uploaded the latest new episode of Elementary? Without an antenna, I can't watch it broadcast through the air... but I still get all the commercials they would have shown me anyway, watching it online. If you've seen the episode, please to be leaving spoilers in comments...


3) Usually, I tend to stay away from things popular with large crowds of people, but recently, I've discovered the Vlogbrothers channel on YouTube. One half of the brother duo is John Green, who wrote The Fault in our Stars which has gotten positive reviews in my circles for a decent portrayal of a disabled main character, and treatment of living with illness (and which I have not yet read, but it's on my to-read list). The first time I watched one of their videos, the style struck me as off-putting and random (they tend to pop up in recommendations when you watched anything associated with geekery, such as Doctor Who clips or science videos). But, as with continued exposure to a new genre of music, I now find their style "catchy" in the same way music can be catchy. Yesterday, I left a comment on their most recent video and got 28 up votes in two hours.* Personally, I get more chuffed when someone votes up a comment I made than when they vote up a video. ... It's a sign that I'm contributing to the community dialog in a positive way. (Still got my pro-fun troll chops).

4) Daffodils are on the verge of blooming in my back yard -- the leaves are nearly full height already, and the buds won't be far behind. Friends! I've lived here going on seventeen years, and I'm still not used to the seasonal shifts down here. Daffodils are Easter's flowers! Not New Year's flowers! Ahhhhh! /o\ Full of Wrongness!!

5) I know I had a fifth thing... Ah -- now I remember:

Anyone catch the news, last week, that astronomers working with the Kepler telescope now estimate that there are roughly Seventeen Billion Earth-like planets in the Milky Way? And yesterday, on Science Friday, I heard one interviewed astronomer dude say that perhaps 6% of those are the right distance from their stars to harbor water-based life.

Suddenly, science fiction seems a lot less "out there" than it did when I was growing up....

(this makes me happy)




*what I said:
(quote)
As a lifelong user of wheelchairs, I have to agree that the fault is in our stairs (and also stares) -- my arch-nemesises (nemesi?)!

What is the plural of nemesis?

Also, guys! The Evening of Awesome was awesome (thanks for the clip of your dancing feet; I noticed you had your camera out on stage).
(end quote)

1) I am such a screw-up... And mostly, with myself. I kinda knew, in the back of my mind, that my wheelchair batteries were getting old, and I should probably get some new ones. But I kept putting it off. Then, as I was going to bed (closer to morning than is reasonable), I noticed that the battery charge indicator was ticking down at a ridiculous rate -- like as I watched, while just sitting there. And I thought it might be dangerous to try and force new charge into it -- like cause fire dangerous. And, of course, the wheelchair supply place is not open til Monday... So now, I'm sitting in my manual chair (kinda-sorta -- more like perched). And I'm "working" on about three hours sleep, with a migraine.

You remember when I posted Shakespeare's sonnet 44? Well, right now, these lines are going through my head:

"But ah! thought kills me that I am not thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone"

Only: forget "lengths of miles;" I'd be tickled just to leap myself to the bathroom, or to the kitchen, or back to bed, just by imagining myself there...

2) One reason I stayed awake ridiculously long was This video of Rowan Atkinson's "Invisible Drum Kit" Routine. Does anyone have more information about it than the person who posted it provided?

3) So: I've subscribed to the "Geek & Sundry" channel, on YouTube. Like a broadcast channel, there are some shows I like ("TableTop," "The Guild," "Sword and Laser") and others I'm "meh" on. Overall, I hope they get renewed for another season. But I also told myself I wouldn't post about it unless and until something triggered an idea for something to say.

Anyway, on Tuesday nights (8 pm PST), they stream live Google Hangout feeds -- and then, upload them in an archive version the next day. My favorite of these, by far, so far is "The Story Board" (First Tuesday of the month) -- which is a panel hosted by Patrick Rothfuss with three different fantasy/sci-fi authors each time -- talking about some aspect of writing, and story making. I don't know if I'd actually like any of these authors' works (this is one of the things that led me to realize that I haven't read any fiction that was written in the last 20 years), but it's still interesting to listen in on professionals talking about the nuts and bolts of their craft.

So... Last month's "Board" was Concerning Characters (Whole video is a little over an hour). And one of the panelists (Mary Robinette-Kowal) described a writing assignment she often gives in a college writing course she teaches:

Write about a classroom as seen by three different characters. Don't describe any character directly, but reveal who they are by the things they first notice when they enter the room. For example: a firefighter would likely notice whether the curtains are hanging too close to the radiator, and where the exits are; a janitor would notice the state of repair or disrepair of the light fixtures, and whether the trash had been taken out, a teacher would notice the assignments written on the board, etc.

And here's the idea triggered by that (which triggered this mention): That got me thinking about what I notice when I enter a room, thanks to the life I've lived -- the empty spaces in the room -- almost as a reflex, I make a snap judgement about whether I can maneuver my chair (or make my way with crutches) to where I need to go. This includes the "empty spaces" that are the widths of doorways, and the aisles between shelves at the library (and whether there are any step stools left in the middle of them, and so forth. But, judging by how many people leave step stools in the aisles of libraries, I don't think that particular detail would clue any TAB readers in to the fact that the P.O.V. character is a wheelchair user.

4) Let's memify #3! What's (one of) the first thing(s) you tend to notice, when you come into a new space?

5) The importance of hiring disabled actors to play disabled characters (on TV, especially) = more interesting stories. The actor who plays the chief medical examiner on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" walks with a single forearm crutch (think he was in an accident as a teen -- too low on spoons, atm, to Google it). For most of the time he's played the role, the writers kept him standing behind an examination table, so that, unless you knew his already knew his bio, you could get by thinking he's able-bodied. And then, toward the end of last season, he was thrust into the center of the A-Plot: A man was murdered in his house, and his wife was the prime suspect. So that his co-workers had to go into his private space, and photograph his wheelchair, crutches, etc. And of course, they talked amongst themselves about "What an inspiration he is, doing all he does, in spite of his physical challenges," and what sacrifices his wife makes to stay with him (one of the reasons people assumed she was having an affair). If the actor had been able-bodied, it would likely have stopped there. But because the actor at the read-through could say to the writers' faces: "This is drivel; here's what it's really like," the story got a lot more interesting/less cliched (Turns out: there was an affair in the history of the marriage, but he was the one that was unfaithful, because: Surprise! Disabled people are still sexual).

Anyway, since that episode aired, the character has been seen actually walking down the hall with his crutch... makes me think that the show's producers realized that: Hey! The audience can see a disabled person and not be freaked out/hate the show!

Anyway-the-second, in the most recent episode, the character actually got to use his crutch as a defensive weapon against a creepy sexual stalker who had barged into the morgue.

So that was cool (even though the franchise as a whole is still one of the most ableist out there).

1) (Better get to this before the week's over -- it's from all over my circles, by now):
It's International Book Week. The rules: Grab the closest book to you, turn to page 52, post the 5th sentence as your status. Don't mention the title. Copy the rules as part of your post.

I have several books equidistant from me, in several directions, none of which I am actively reading right now. I chose two books, each reaching in a different direction:

Book one:

This great end cannot be achieved by treaties alone.

Book the Second:

"Well, here we are," he said.

2) I got my first "dislike" on one of my YouTube videos, this week. I also got my first "Favorite Added." I'll try to be more chuffed about the second than I am disappointed by the first.

3) How will these book memes morph when everybody has moved on to e-readers? If you have, essentially, 100 books all occupying the same geographical space, how do you pick "the closest one"?

4) A bit ago, I mentioned The Jim Henson Hour to alryssa, because one of the kittens she's fostering reminds me of The Thought Lion. That sent me on a nostalgic romp through YouTube to find clips of the show...
The only clips I found were posted by someone who videotaped them off his television as they aired, and so the posted segments are complete with the commercials of the day (autumn, 1988). It's scary to think that I was already a college junior by then [fully adult] and yet everything looks so old and primitive. And yet, I remember watching that very first episode and being blown away by the Shiny!! Also, the humor in the Muppety first half struck me as being edgy and hip, but now, that, too, is clunky, and dusty, and slow. And yet, The Muppet Show which was set in an old vaudeville theater, still feels fresh and fast.

Moral: The more modern your style, the faster it ages (?).

5) Speaking of aging, last night, I watched a video about what exactly happens between the Moon and the Earth that causes the tides. And that put "We like the Moon, 'Cos it is close to us!!!" in my head... And someone mentioned in the comments that he remembered first seeing that back when he was in grade school...

Aaaaiiiii!!!

One: Thought which came to me, this evening --

What it means to be Human: to Ascribe Meaning to Everything Else (whether we get it right or not is immaterial).

Two: The English noun, "Sweet," has meant both 'an edible high in sugar' and 'a beloved person' for about an equal amount of time (since circa 1300, C.E.)... I think that's rather ... sweet.

Three: Dragon.

Four: Caught a YouTube video the other night, where some professor dude was explaining about dyscalculia by comparing it to dyslexia... And he said that dyslexia really had nothing to with how the eye scans across the page, but its just that children with it have trouble understanding the proper connection between sounds and letters.

I'm sorry, but (no, correction - not sorry) -- I make a very strong Vexation Face at anyone who discounts and/or tries to explain away reports of people's own experiences in their own words.

My philosophy teacher in college had dyslexia, and so, when we handed in a typed paper for grading, it had to be in a font with serifs. The way she explained it to us (paraphrased, if I recall correctly) was that the arrangement of serifs in relation to each other in a word gave her eyes something to focus on, so she could scan a line of text without the letters going in and out of focus.

That doesn't sound anything like an incomprehension of phonics to me -- especially since she could read handwriting just fine (or with much less trouble).

So naturally, I have my doubts about how he tells us to cure dyscalculia, too...

Five: And the opposite of vexation comes in the form of this post, from last month -- it makes me very, very happy: Choosing lessons.

ETA: Testing, testing.... Is LJ back enough to allow cross-posting ? (According to the tech wonders at DreamWidth, there needed to be some shifting of code to deal with the kerfuffle)

ETA #2: Apparently so, but there was a typo in my password...
One:

The trouble with the "Ugly Duckling" model of "Stick it through, it'll get better when you grow up" pep talks:

The ducks who abused the cygnet for being an ugly duckling would have abused the swan for being an ugly drake, if he'd stuck around: "Your neck's too long!" "Why don't you have a nice green back like the rest of us?!" etc.

Things got better for the title character, true. But not because he "grew out of" an "ugly" phase (he was never in an ugly phase). They got better because he escaped an abusive community and was found by another where he fit in.

Two:

There seems to be a common meme among Theists that atheists view the world with a cold and calculating eye, and thus, live in a world without beauty or wonder. To those theists, I would like to pose the following question:

Is a garden rose, cut and put into a bouquet, inherently more beautiful than a wild rose, growing spontaneously in the forest, simply by virtue that it was bred to be a gift?

Three:

I'm planning on making my next "Plato's Nightmare / Aesop's Dream" post on the Northern European Chaangeling tales (Trigger Warning: discussion of abuse and murder of disabled children). I found one such story on Google eBooks, about a troll-changeling. At first, I thought I'd copy and paste it into my blog, and then write up my thoughts on it.

...Every other story in the book converted to plain text to make this process easier -- except a ten-page span where this particular story appeared.

...It's things like that that lead people to the feeling that The Good People are watching us.

Four:

I miss my parents.

Five:

I forgot to get cocoa at my last shopping trip. A whole week without chocolaty goodness! Will I be able to make it?