Lakeshore

[photos] Your Saturday moment of zen

2009-07-11T19:32:16Z

Your Saturday moment of zen.

Lizard, photographed in Mendocino County, CA.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[personal] What is brain?

2009-07-11T19:17:48Z

Well, all the deep-REM napping caught up with me last night. Still pretty down with this cold, and I got a grand total of 2 hours of sleep. Then got up at 5 am to drive three hours back to Portland. Today is a total loss, with respect to any form of productivity more important than lying on the couch and re-reading the same paragraphs over and over.

Endurance and other tasks to resume tomorrow (hopefully). Off to Omaha Monday, assuming I'm any kind of better. For now, allowing myself to flatline.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad, largely creative edition

2009-07-11T19:12:24Z

Scale tip — ~~Art~~ writing guru James Gurney on telling details.

Barbie heals space martians, and cures interspecies racism! — Um, yah. (Thanks to mikigal.)

A field guide to reproductive health — Art madness.

Welcome to Lunarville — Ah, me. Missed opportunities.

Robot land-steamers to consume all life on Earth as fuel

?otD: Virus or bacteria?

7/11/2009
Body movement: n/a (overslept due to ongoing chest cold)
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house)
Currently reading: Cetaganda by Lois McMaster Bujold

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 26

2009-07-11T04:03:41Z

Still have the cold, which deducted a 2 hour nap from my afternoon. Managed 1,700 new words nonetheless. Should have time to wrap my weekly quota tomorrow. Tired of being sick.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad says TGIF

2009-07-10T13:01:47Z

tor.com on Steampunk Tales — In which I have a story.

How to tell a riveting story — (Thanks to goulo.)

Toy ray guns of the world

Portable DNA Purifier for Poor Countries — A new handheld device isolates DNA from human fluid without the use of electrical power. Like Bill Gibson said, you have "to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to crudeness".

Hemingway as failed KGB spy? — Weird.

A Housing Market Built on Mud Takes Off, and Then Goes Thud — Ironic, sad and darkly funny story about housing in West Africa.

The invisible hand of god — Pace Adam Smith. (Snurched from Scrivener's Error.)

Hannity again crops Obama's comments abroad in order to smear him — Your Liberal Media, hard at work bending the truth for the GOP. And conservatives wonder why the rest of us see you as crazy and deceitful. Hannity isn't some fringe figure, he's a major spokesperson for your philosophy with an audience of millions.

?otD: What would Heinlein have titled a sequel to Friday?

7/10/2009
Body movement: n/a (overslept due to ongoing chest cold)
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house)
Currently reading: The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 26

2009-07-10T03:50:00Z

Even amidst it all, I managed 1,300 words today (to my amazement). Might make goal this week after all. Too tired to sort out a WIP.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[personal] Siiiick

2009-07-10T03:48:37Z

I've had some things to say about cancer, about health insurance, about Endurance, but this chest cold is running me ragged and having me sleep 11 hours a day. Regular blogging service will resume as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, calendula_witch finished a book. Go give her some love.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad definitely has a chest cold

2009-07-09T12:56:00Z

The "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks — The name says it all. (Thanks to corwynofamber.)

10 weird uses for vodka — (Thanks to garyomaha.)

First Drug Shown to Extend Life Span in Mammals

LRO won't convince the Apollo deniers — Apollo denial is just as mentally fractured as Intelligent Design, supply side economics or vaccination denial — batshit faith-based thinking pretending to a rational basis. It just doesn't have the same massive policy implications, and nobody dies from it.

?otD: Why do we call it a 'cold' when it makes us hot?

7/9/2009
Body movement: n/a (overslept due to ongoing chest cold)
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house)
Currently reading: n/a (Just finished The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (re-read))

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 25

2009-07-09T02:38:12Z

4,900 words today, across two hours, to 100,500 words on the manuscript. Right now I think this is going to come up considerably shorter than earlier estimates. Maybe 120,000 or so. I'm a bit surprised. Possibly Fred has learned to write to length, or possibly I'll have to insert stuff on rewrite. That's fine. Every book is different. But my last few have been dreadfully overlength, and I've kind of gotten used to very fat drafts.

Go figure.

Meanwhile, wip!

"You presume." Mother Iron's voice was hard, but it carried no threat within the words.

"I only guess. But you have hung on, carried on the prayers of engineers and existing within the echoing places of this undercity. Carried on into the currents of time without ever recovering your proper place in the depths."

"Vanity is for men." Her objection carried its own weakness embedded in the tone and power of the words.

"Vanity is for all things that carry self behind their eyes. Gods are vain, men are vain, cats are vain. But this is not vanity." I pitched my voice for her, ignoring the Factor's increasingly sardonic smile. "This is opportunity."

Originally published at jlake.com.

[personal] Bleh

2009-07-08T13:07:01Z

Proof that life goes on despite high drama and low...I seem to be coming down with a chest cold. I spent much of yesterday being vaguely stupid and inefficient, while my voice croaked. Also exhausted. Tumbled into bed early last night, overslept by two hours, missed my exercise, and have that raw feeling in my throat today. Grr.

Too much to do, too little time.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad overslept edition

2009-07-08T13:03:59Z

Coffee 'may reverse Alzheimer's' — Guess I need to take up a new habit. (Thanks to danjite.)

Vintage ads for women's fragrances — Uh huh.

Donnie's Deusie: 1924 — Mmm. Duesenberg. Mmm.

Best to only ever fight wars you already won. — The Edge of the American West on conservatives, Obama and library cards. Also William Ayers. Funny stuff.

?otD: What time did you wake up?

7/8/2009
Body movement: n/a (overslept due to incipient chest cold)
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house)
Currently reading: The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (re-read)

Originally published at jlake.com.

[art] My new avatar

2009-07-08T02:23:12Z

I think it is teh awesome! Artwork by Mari Kurisato.

Avatar © 2009 Mari Kurisato.
Original photo © 2009 B. Lake.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 24

2009-07-08T02:16:35Z

3,700 new words on Endurance today, in 90 minutes of writing time.

As usual, a WIP:

"He is not being your god." Chowdry leaned forward and tapped some ash off the end of an incense stick. "He is belonging to all of us, and to this city. You do not see the roots, but they are there. Setting into stone so that he will never be removed except by great force."

"I know about roots, Chowdy." My right fingers trailed on his left arm a moment. "Endurance's roots and my own are in a sun-drenched rice paddy back in Bhopura. Selistan's sun is our sun. And now I will call upon the god for the sake of my memory and his own. If he ignores me, well, I can hardly be worse off than I am now. If he heeds my call, then I will have once more raised a great ally."

"You cannot be summoning gods like they were clowns for a children's party."

"No. But I can speak to Endurance as if I were still standing between his legs over a dozen summers ago."

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad yawns into another Tuesday

2009-07-07T12:58:21Z

An interesting review of Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ]

A "dumb copy editor" story from George Lakoff — Don't get me wrong. Copy editors are my friends, both figuratively and literally. But this is hilarious.

The Astronomer's Dream — A short animated film.

The blue and the green — Awesome color spiral illusion... (Thanks to willyumtx.)

Fixing airport security

Blinded Man Regains Sight With Tooth For Eye — Um... (Thanks to tetar.)

A Pound of Cure — The federal government is about to spend big on health-care IT. Too bad the medical industry has a vested interest in inefficiency. I find the viewpoint of this article overly cynical, but some interesting stuff here nonetheless.

Arizona is 6000 years old? — Pssst. Hey. Conservative America. Listen up. Religion doesn't have to make you stupid.

What The Right Means When They Say "America"

?otD: How many roads must a man walk down? Show your work.

7/7/2009
Body movement: 40 minute beach walk, 10 minutes of stretching and meditation
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house)
Currently reading: The Warrior's Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (re-read)

Originally published at jlake.com.

[photos] An unfortunate event at Points North

2009-07-07T02:48:49Z

calendula_witch's brother, with the bee stinger carefully pulled from his hand. He was stung while playing darts, dropped the dart, tried reflexively to catch it, and stabbed himself in the hand several times during the resulting mayhem.

She sure knows how to show me a good time.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[photos] Me in 1996

2009-07-07T02:46:05Z

Photo by lillypond, dredged up by Dad.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 23

2009-07-07T02:41:14Z

4,400 words in two hours today over three sessions. I lost 1,100 words mid-session due to a series of errors, or it would have been a 5,500 word day. Grr. And writing the same scenes twice in a row is really not my favorite thing to do. Book's at 91,900 words now.

Some WIP for youse guys.

She looked at me for a long, slow moment. Even in those human eyes, her regard was a smoldering light that should have burned my skin from my flesh and my flesh from my bones. Then: "What of it?"

This was my moment, my time to reach for the entire prize. "If I tell you all, will you lend your titanic might to stand against the agents of destruction here, before they can move on?"

The priestess reached a hand for me. In that instant, I saw not a woman's palm but something huge, the size of countries, with a map of all our lives graven upon it. I quailed to be struck down then and there with no more purpose to my life than what I'd brought to this meeting with the god.

But her fingers rested on my arm. A deep spark passed through me, finding its way to the earth at my feet. Everything was warm, then hot, then screaming pain, then normal once more.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[cancer] Getting narrower

2009-07-06T13:01:27Z

My world's starting to get narrower as I approach chemo. I remember this exact same effect taking place in the context of last year's surgery. The prescribing consult will be on 7/27, with various things to happen thereafter, such as installing the port in my chest and scheduling the infusions.

My sense as I go through various activities runs along the lines of well, this is the last time I'll do this for a while. Also, my underlying fear of dying from this whole experience has kicked back up. (Not like the mortality statistics are exactly uplifting at the moment anyway.) So sometimes I find myself thinking well, I may never do this again.

It's not that my fundamental optimism has faded, nor my energy and drive. This is like a layer of fear lacquered over that. The Fear, perhaps, spread micron thin and contaminating everything. A reaction to the increasing inevitability of this process. I'm still a bit abstracted from my core emotions, and spending the past two weeks with calendula_witch has helped a lot. We'll see what flows next. It ain't easy.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad goes to work from the beach

2009-07-06T12:52:43Z

bravado111 with a photo spread on Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ] — Heh.

Flags of forgotten countries — Dark Roasted Blend with one for the vexillologists among you. Actually, I remember most of these countries.

Igniting Fusion — Mmm, warm.

Centauri Dreams with a roundup — I draw your attention to the subsection entitled "Superluminal Radio Waves and their Uses", in turn referring to this article. Paging Sam L. Tannaity to the office. I'm just a poor little low-rent SF writer with a liberal arts degree, so maybe it's just me, but I'm really struggling with this one. Comments from the better informed?

?otD: How long is Long Beach?

7/6/2009
Body movement: n/a (will beach walk later)
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (no scale at beach house)
Currently reading: n/a (just finished P.S. Your Cat is Dead by James Kirkwood)

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 20-22

2009-07-06T04:15:00Z

Days 20 and 21 were lost to our grand adventures in Points North. Day 22 today yielded only a disappointed 2,100 words in an hour of effort. However, under my new weekly rubric, that makes 21,600 words for the week, well in excess of my 17,500 word target. I'm now at 87,500 words. Given that chemo shouldn't start before early August, I'm confident of getting this draft wrapped before cancer eats my brain.

In the mean time, a bit of WIP:

"I know more now than I would have had we fled a week ago." Mother Argai's voice was a growl. "That was part of what Mother Vajpai made as an excuse. For my own part, I agree with you." She spat into the darkness. "We have given up too much to gain too little. Including, likely, the lives of Mother Vajpai and Samma, thanks to your little raid just now."

The words, But I saved you, at least, died on my lips. I could imagine the political pressures back in Kalimpura that drove Mother Vajpai to join this expedition. And I could just as easily imagine the woman's political thinking that drove her to stay to her own torture and probable death, for the sake of what she saw as the best chance to get the information about Surali's true intentions back to Kalimpura.

"You are all fools," I said, growling myself. "This could have been handled better."

Originally published at jlake.com.

[calendula] A grand weekend at Points North

2009-07-06T04:08:50Z

calendula_witch ably describes our weekend at Points North amongst her family and the fields of her youth. A marvelous time was had by all, albeit somewhat intense. I took a number of photos, but have just discovered I have the wrong card reader with me tonight, so they will remain inaccessible a while longer.

My day consisted of starting in Mendocino County, CA, being driven down to SFO by calendula_witch, flying to PDX, being met by the_child and tillyjane in the Genre car, dropping tillyjane off at her place, then driving to Pacific County, WA to my parents' beach house. So, erm, 5+ hours in the car and 3+ hours in airport and airplanes. Whew.

Beach house for a week (working the Day Jobbe from here as well as forging ahead on Endurance), then Omaha, then back to San Francisco and calendula_witch on the 17th.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[calendula|cancer] Points North, and the weekend

2009-07-03T17:15:37Z

calendula_witch and I are heading for Points North in a few minutes. This is where I get to meet the family. I have promised not to wear my underpants on my head this time. I will be partially or fully offline through Sunday night, so further updates will be irregular at best. Writing time may also be at a premium, but as I've already met the week's goal, that should be cause for only minimal alarm.

In other news, my mom is fine. ER visit was a false alarm.

In other other news, the inside of my head is a complicated, scary place cancer-wise, with the chemo train now building up a head of steam at the platform. When I understand myself a little better, I'll talk about the emotional process, as I do. For now I'm happy to love and be loved and have a distracting, still-healthy weekend.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[links] Link salad heads for Points North

2009-07-03T16:53:36Z

maryrobinette is liking of the Green [ Powell's | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Borders ].

newroticgirl liked Green maybe a bit too much

Moving the goalposts — My last Tor.com guest blog post from the recent run.

Carnivorous Clock eats bugs, begins doomsday countdown — Brings a whole new meaning to the idea of a "mainspring". (Thanks to lillypond.)

The danger of safety — Road, rail and air crash comparisons.

?otD: Where is Mendocino County again?

7/3/2009
Body movement: 60 minute urban walk (Buena Vista Park and back)
This morning's weigh-in: n/a (forgot to get on the scale before I showered and ate)
Currently reading: P.S. Your Cat is Dead by James Kirkwood

Originally published at jlake.com.

[cancer] And so it goes

2009-07-03T00:08:52Z

More news today from my oncologist. Unless something crops up to contraindicate, we're committing to chemo. This is based on the MRI results, and her further discussions with my cancer surgeon about my case.

I have some followups in San Francisco the week of 7/20, including further imaging studies of the various sites, and a full chest imaging to evaluate the lung spot and see if there are more lung spots.

I meet with my Portland oncologist on 7/27 to formally prescribe the chemotherapy. On 7/29 I have the chemotherapy orientation class. Sometime thereafter (as yet unscheduled) I will have the port put in — I'll be a Harkonnen! — then commence a six month course, with a break at midpoint for evaluation through further imaging studies.

So sometime in early August I'll be entering the magical land of chemo. This makes WorldCon very iffy, though we'll look at scheduling issues. I'm not going to delay treatment just for the sake of a Con trip, but if it all fits together, that can be my hurrah. I am probably good for all commitments before then. On the plus side, I can probably get the first draft of Endurance wrapped before the killjuice starts melting my brain.

In other news, my mom is in the ER in Portland tonight with a blood clotting issue which is not particularly serious now but needs to be addressed before it becomes serious. I, of course, am in San Francisco, and my sister is at the Washington coast.

Never rains but it pours around here.

Originally published at jlake.com.

[writing] Endurance progriss riport, day 19

2009-07-02T22:08:08Z

5,400 words in 2.25 hours today, to 85,400 words. I've made my week's goal, having reached 19,500 words since Monday. This will make my weekend with calendula_witch and her family more relaxed, because I won't be feeling pressured about writing.

Well, less pressured.

A WIP for today...

"It's not my Interim Council," I said automatically. "Did Surali march with them?"

"She is having difficulty with her hands."

I glanced over at Mother Argai, suspecting her of uncharacteristic humor, but her expression was bland. "Well, there is some glimmer of hope here."

"The troubles have not improved her dispostion."

"I should think not." I looked back out over the city. "We need to move. I want to find out what is happening on Lyme Street, and I have business with the Interim Council in any case. Are you prepared to go Below and work our way through that particular labyrinth?"

"You always did have a fondness for tunnels."

I took that for a yes, and led her back down to the street, and through the alleys until we could find a hatch that would carry us both into the stygian depths of this city's permanent, stone-walled night.

Originally published at jlake.com.