Caffeinated Donuts

Doctor Robert Bohannon, molecular scientist, as developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods. Each pastry has the caffeine of two cups of coffee.

This may be the greatest scientific discovery. Ever. This is why I love science. I love Doctor Bohannon. Someone give him some more grant money.

My god. We live in a glorious age!

(via Gizmodo)

Jet Blue & Nice TSAs

There is something about traveling with JetBlue that just changes my entire mood. First, my cabbie made fantastic time to JFK. Yes, I left the house at 5:45am but in New York you never know. Sometimes it just takes forever. He was also cheerful and friendly. Maybe it was just that he was just starting his shift. But somehow I think it was weird JetBlue Good JuJu.

I had gotten my boarding pass online at home but I was still checking one bag, so I expected at least some line and waiting. When I walked it, it was of course buzzing and crowded with holiday travelers... and some obvious add frustration because of storms in Denver and such. But the lines seemed to be moving quickly. I just wasn't sure what line to get into. Normally just finding someone to tell you where you need to go is a pain. Not at Jet Frackin' Blue. Not only is each counter staffed, but there are at least a dozen folks standing at the line entrances to help. A dozen! At least!

So one quickly directs me where to go to check my bag and I have to wait maybe 8 seconds before I'm at the counter. My bag is tagged and checked in under 3o seconds. I have been in the airport for under two minutes and my bag has been checked.

So off to security. This has been mildly problematic for me in the past because I share a name with someone on the Do Not Fly list. But that always gets hung up at check-in, so I figure I'm in the clear. Nope. See, I'm an idiot. Well, and idiot in NYC who uses his ID for 3 things: buying booze, occasionally to show when making credit card purchases, and getting on planes (oh, and the very rare getting into certain buildings). I don't drive with it because I live in NYC. I also somehow missed that it expired last March.

The TSA at the start of the security line catches it, gives me an apologetic sigh (Lady, no need to apologize... I'm the one who let it lapse and never noticed) and marks up my boarding pass with 4 large S's and some scribbles. The advantage of this is that I get to by pass the rest of the line (Yay!). It was short and moving quickly anyway. I go straight to the x-ray machine, go through and then get put into a glass box. It felt a bit like I was in a 50's tv gameshow sound proof booth and John Tuturro was about to out me as a cheat. In in a minute a very pleasant TSA agent led me to a table while a junior (and obviously a bit nervous) agent grabbed my stuff from the conveyor belt. They led me to a table and the senior agent went through my stuff and cleaned my laptop with a cloth on a stick (okay, maybe he was checking for explosives), while the agent McShakey-hands wanded me. But they were very nice and clear with their instructions and what they were doing. It also felt thorough. Short on some sort of plastic weapon attached to my yam sack (sorry, that is my current favorite euphemism) or inserted... well, where on 'inserts' things, I'd have a darn hard time getting anything through.

And it was quick. Maybe 4 minutes.

The food court was a bit swarmed, but Dunkin' Donuts had set up an extra coffee booth (medium only) at the back of their kiosk. So my waiting time to buy a coffee was under a minute. I then spent way to much on a thing of salted mix nuts. I've been craving nuts lately. I think I've recently cut my meat intake way down in a quest to eat healthier and I may be lacking proteins. Neither here nor there, really, just that it explains why I spent $6.49 on 9oz. of nuts. (They are tasty, though. Even the brazil nuts which I usually find dry and dusty.)

Anywhozits, the best think about flying with JetBlue before I've never even got on the plane? Free wi-fi. Free. Because they know the cost is negligible. And it makes me happy with my extreme lack of sleep over the last two days. (It occurs to me that sending the words "TSA," "security," and "explosives" might trigger something if sent through their system. Mmmmm. Let's see what happens.....)

NaNoWriMo - the hard slog, great rewards

Well, I crossed the big 100,000 word line early this morning.

crazy Man, it has been hard. Not hard as in hard to get out the words. I've had little problem actually writing this time. But it wasn't the same magical joy as last year. Maybe I am already a bit jaded. But I think it is actually that the structure was so less set this time... and became a muddled mess. My transitions are all over the place. At times I do crazy event slipping into event. At times I do huge time jumps. I'll have 5,000 words covering 5 minutes of scene, followed by 500 words in which the main character has three jobs, dates and breaks up with a woman and witness a murder.

It is going to be an editing nightmare. It will probably end up being an entire rewrite. That is a bit disheartening. But there is a lot of good stuff scattered through out all of the pages. And I have finally put all of the disparate files together.

I now have 36 or so hours to wrap it up. I am very close... and not. This book needs a long ass prologue. It wouldn't if it were better written. Ah, well. No work today, so it is all writing and then a movie.

Astounding Covers

While researching the ol' novel to night (this morning?), I found a full collection of scanned covers from the sci-fi magazine Astounding... from 1930 to 2005. At some point when I am not dead tired, I am going to have to look at them all. But here's a taste.

Writing, Insomnia, Random bits

I've been writing, on and off, all night. I haven't been talking about the book much, I know. It's... a very different experience. Last book was a cathartic joy. This is... haunting. The world surround Joseph O'Clock is a twisted and dark place. The comedy I was shooting for is still there, but it darts around in the shadows. It is a scary book. Not frights, but there is a beast underneath the books skin that wiggles and squirms, itching to break through.

Allen NoLastTime from Four Borders had it easy. But that was in part because his book was about rebirth and over coming loss. Or at least accepting it (or defying it). Joseph's path... Man, I don't know what I, Emelphin and Quill (full name Qilzhqtylrophffffftcough) are doing to bore Joseph.

The first moment I realized that the book had delved into something I didn't quite understand was when Samantha attacks Stephan in the school yard. I knew the scene was coming, knew it was coming from the moment I conceive of the story. But her ferociousness surprised me. The way she scattered the colored chalk at her feet and was upon Stephan's back, her teeth sinking into his shoulder. Joseph's panic, his sweaty hands, the box slipping to the concrete. Bobby flailing at Samantha, desperate to protect his on friend. The screams from the students and the yells from the teachers as Joseph finally gets the box and press the buttons to all three children. Their bodies convulsing as the electric shock surged through their bodies.

And I never expect Samantha to get back up and turn on Joseph, blood on her lips... and the standoff that followed.

And it has gotten darker since then.

This has always been my problem with the whole Judeo-Christian "God has a plan/God works in mysterious ways" thing. Either you have a benevolent God or you have one that functions on such a different level that "benevolent" has no meaning. But the God in the Book of Job accepts Satan's plan to torture Job... just to prove a point. It is not a test of Job. It is a pissing contest.

Perhaps that's what this whole series is: Why SixSider thinks God is an ass.

Anyway, I didn't intend to write about all of that. I meant to mention somethings that have bothered me with elections coming on Tuesday.

- The election ads have gone insane. I don't even get the Republican ones. The Dems ads all seem to be just listing Bush's campaign promises from 2004. Not listing things he didn't do... just listing them. And then there are the mass of apologies this year. Alan Hevesi's "I was stupid" ads over the last few days are particularly entertaining.

- The whole "What do we call Hilary Clinton?" question is interesting. I know I refer to her has Hilary, which I realise is wrong. But we always refer to First Ladies by their first names. I don't know how we break ourselves from that.

- Obama. I'm torn. There is no one out there I would rather vote for in 2008, but I have no idea how he'd react to a national campaign. I have no idea how he'd actually run the country. He is farther left than the his image actually is. I'd hate to see him have to bend center for the Presidency... and I really don't think Senator Clinton is electable.

- I haven't been looking to closely, but why has gas prices dropped so much over the last ten months? What changed? The conspiracy theorist in me wants to know.

- Cheney is going hunting during the election. 'Nuff said.

- Oh, John Kerry. You would have thought the word "Us" would be a uniting word. Not a word that ends up destroying any career you may have had left. Of course, he did leave "Us" out and that was his problem.

- Haggard. First, whenever I quickly see the head lines, I see "Haggar admits to buying meth, getting gay massage," and I picture that funny little viking. But beyond that, is he going to blame it on booze too? Or being molested? I'm not saying these folks weren't victims, but take some damn responsibility!

- And what is it with the 11th hour outing of Republicans? What the hell happened? Foley, Haggard, Mark Hyman (a maybe), Charlie Crist (another maybe). I loved Crist's response to the a gay-marriage question: "“Marriage is a relationship like my mother and father had, like I had before I got divorced.” Apparently the 50-year old bachlor was married for a very short time in 1979. Man, if all of the closeted Republicans came out they might find they'd have a whole new power base.

- George Allen should be given a tv show. We'd be just like Borat. Send him to Bangkok and Bombay and Sierra Leon. Call it "Delirious George."

- Hussein's conviction. Actually, I have nothingto say on the subject. I'm just glad that Trial of the Century is over. I'm sure the next one wis only a few years off.

48 Hour Film Challenge - The Script Arrives

I wake at 3:30am. Nerves, I guess. Always affects my sleep. So check the ol' email to see if there is any news. Ah, the script! Also news that the crew is arriving at 6am. I expected that.

So I print out the script. Now, I don't know if Bill just has confidence in me, or if he really liked my "monologue," or feels that since it's my house I should get a decent part. But I got some meat on my part. A little sci-fi/horror. Also, when you all see it, remember that I didn't write it. Not because it isn't good. I love it. But it could be considered analogous to my relationship to this house in ways that some might think odd. I got all of that out in last years novel.

It also has a fair amount of special effects. Not sure how Bill's going to do it, but I trust him. Don't really have much choice. Now I'm all atwitter.

Note: I'm a bit confused about the difference between the National Film Challenge and the 48 Hour Film Challenge. They are related to each other, maybe the same, I don't know. This is more of a 72 hour challenge. Whatever. Same dif.

Another note: You'll notice I've added labels to my posts. I'm not sure why. I just decided to do it. If anyone knows what that gets me, please leave me a note. I think I may be going a little crazy with them.

A night of little sleep

A bit of the old insomnia last night. No reason really. I started with some emails and then a bit of forum posting. Then a bit of pre-NaNoWriMo-pipe-flushing writing, which led to going to those forums to ask a random question. And then I started checking out Lulu.com, which is basically a print-on-demand vanity press. Very very simple (except that you have to do all the formatting and it is a bit pricey... but there is no up front cost). So I got all wrapped up in that for a while. Made a cover, which was an interesting experience. See, my old copy of Adobe Illustrator doesn't work on my new mac. So I used the draw program in NeoOffice, a free open source MS Office type program. Worked out okay for what I was doing, just not very smooth. Again, I was just playing around.

Then I started to read about online worlds. You know, World of Warcraft, EVE, Second Life. I really appreciate these "games," I just can't play them. Way way to much time to devote to them, with little dramatic story. (I will write about my feeling on them in more detail later this week.) But I do love to read about what is going on in them.

I tried to write some sketches for next weeks podcast and failed. The theme is "Home" and I am just not getting a good idea. Blah. I am starting a sketch writing class on Wednesday at The Magnet. We'll see. I'm not a big fan of most writing classes. Too much "all ideas are god ideas" crap. Blah

Then I slept for a bit but woke up after 3 hours for no reason. So I blog-surfed for a while. And then I updated my links on this blog since they had all been flushed when I switched over to the Blogger 2.0 beta. Then I decided i didn't have enough links, so I searched for blogs by improvisors I like. Okay, right now it's mainly just folks who have taught me. (Improvisors are a bit of ass-kissers.) Then I played with some of the features in the Blogger 2.o and after an hour ended up basically were I started. (Changed my sub-title to better suit my current state of mind... that "from the edge" thing was pretty lame.)

Then I looked at sinks.

Now it is 8:30am and I have practice class at 12:30. I could sleep for another hour or two, but I know that won't happen. So I shall wrap this up, take a shower, do some laundry, go out for breakfast and the NYTimes and see how much coffee I can drink.

(Oh, I never said how Thursdays class went. Good. Still hard, I'm not actually over the hump, but I do really feel like I'm peaking of the top. I made some lame moves... or at least incomplete ones, but I also made some that I was proud of. And I'm not thinking about it as much. Looking forward to practice in 4 hours. Hopefully we'll have more people.)

Propped Up

I read that people used to have shorter beds because they would sleep propped up. This fasinated me. I thought that if I could get this trend to catch on, I could start a line of short beds for people in studio apartments. So I've been trying it out.

Not with much success.

28 Days Later

97,494 words.
29 Chapters.
256 pages in Time Roman, 12 point, 1.5 spaced.
349 pages in Courier.

Deaths: More than I thought there would be, but less than there could.
Sex scenes: Almost 1.
My favorite charcter: Dave
My favorite scene: I really like the last one. It's sweet.
Most surprising scene to me: Allen and Dave after Thanksgiving.
Words I think I over use: turned, spun, nodded, bit, and slightly.
Why do I use them: The first two are dramatic. The last three are some moments.
Hardest scene to write, intellectually: The shopping cart race or The Met. Toss up.
Hardest scene to write, emotionally: Easy, Chapter 16. The whole thing.

Lost hours of sleep: Eh. Who cares?

The last chapter took long than I thought it would. When I thought I only had five pages left, it turned into 10. Maybe I didn't want to give it up. But I also wanted them to resolve things. Allen and Dave had some things to work though. Still do.

It's not high art, but I think it's fun. A good yarn, as they say.

Now, of course, I can't sleep.

But that's okay. You wanna know why?

Because I wrote a novel and I like it.

Too many threads

Okay, I'll admit it. I have become a full fledged internet addict.

I suppose that was obvious when I started a blog. But I sat down this morning and tried to quickly hit all my big sites and such before getting in at least a page on the novel. I'm sure everyone has this realization at some point.

I hit Google News for my USA Today version of the news. I hit Fark. I hit AICN. I hit Gizmodo. I hit my forums. There NaNo, there's good ol' B.net to see if I've been blacklisted again. There's the Lost forum. I hit 3 sepeate NYC art job listing sites. I have to view my hotmail account and my gmail account (both of which usually have me off to other sites.). I hit here and a few friend's blogs. I hit Friendster. I hit Nerve.

Yeah.

I was quite pleased with the 100 Words on Love Project I initiated on the Nerve Blogs. I will say MollyO. impressed me the most.

I really need more time. I am honestly at the edge of how many 'new' things I can juggle. I wish it weren't so. But I need things to settle before I dive any deeper. But there are so many cool things/people out there.

But I have hit the 2nd Week slump in NaNo. Not a slump but a grind. Writing about Burning Man drained me and now I have Las Vegas. I've been telling myself that it will get easier again when we get back to Brooklyn, but a tiny shred of doubt has slipped in. I have moved beyond the REVEAL and I realize that I can't just be 'witty' anymore. I have to be 'smart.' 'Smart' is so much harder than 'witty.'

Sigh.

NaNo count: 33,344