Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Monday, December 30, 2019
123019b
Two dozen lobsters broke out of their crate in Boston, Massachusetts today, and led marine police on an hour-long chase through city streets. Apparently, five of the crustaceans teamed up to steer, brake, accelerate, shift gears, and signal while operating a stolen lobster truck. The chase ended when the decapods crashed into the bay, and made a clean getaway.
Thursday, October 24, 2019
102419
If you live to 93
And you're a top-gun journalist
You can really rack them up
Exclusives, exposes, stunning breaks
Yeah, you can
But how much TV will you have time for?
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
100919c
cut down the trees
and pave the forests
squirrels gotta eat
just looking for a home
travel optional
Thursday, July 6, 2017
070617c
Hanging out in the Dallas megaburb where summer has arrived (as opposed to Alabama). Played D&D Adventure campaign, v. 7. 40 yrs since I played v1 in college. Had fun. Didn't kill anyone (assisted in eliminating murderers). Successfully cleared our names of false accusations & got gold. Flew.
Writing poems, reviewing poetry collections, re-reading The World of Tiers. Prostate surgery day after I get home.
Thursday, December 29, 2016
122916b
Giant Pumpkin Steals the Show
fake news began
with the printing press
the quill pen
writing
the cave man whose fish
got away
speech
the misleading gesture
we've come a long way, baby
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
weakly whirled gnus
Reading novels by Brunner & Farmer, both long dead, which I got from friends {one now dead) years ago & never got around to reading. Brunner dystopian (The Stone that Never Came Down); Farmer “far out” with alien gods, etc (I forget title). Celebrating Thanksg. with friends: spouse making turkey & pumpkin bread, regular bread, stuffing, more? She has the week off & appears to be in a baking mood. D2 came up on the train. I sold a poem to Asimov's but haven't been writing much. Caught up on filing, which I hate hate hate & hence put off, so v glad to catch up. Now I feel free, cos the job was looming over me!!!
Saturday, September 1, 2012
090112 - actual blog post
Some of this I've mentioned here before.
We did an unusual amount of traveling this year. In March we went to the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, in Orlando, partly because I was invited to participate in the poetry program. Then spouse's mother died unexpectedly and we went to Kansas. daughter1's best friend from high school decided to get married near San Francisco and d1 was in the wedding. We went, because we wouldn't have been able to visit with d1 this year otherwise. And because, given that reason for going, none of us had been to San Francisco (except me, for part of a day, when I was in high school). Then we went back to Kansas, because there was a memorial service for spouse's mother and because d2 was transferring from the University of Kansas to Tulane. So then we went to New Orleans, but just for a couple of days, to take d2 to college there. And right after that, Hurricane Isaac arrived, the school was closed for nearly a week, and d2 came home for an extended holiday weekend as a result. But all of these trips, not to mention paying for college, means that I haven't been buying science-fiction for myself lately (Except three used paperbacks at Borderlands bookstore, including Cenotaph Road by Bob Vardeman. It wasn't too bad, although I don't intend to buy the sequels. It made me wonder what happened to him, and it turns out he has written an incredible number of books, mostly outside the genre. So it's good to see that he was successful. But I digress.). I have been reading things that spouse bought over the past 30 years to see if I like them. At the moment I am reading Starmother by Sydney J. Van Scyoc. So far it's good. (Ammonite, Nicola Griffith, was last, & very good.)
Geology is keeping me busy, and for the first time in my life I am simultaneously working on seven different publications. Fortunately, none of them are single-author projects. During the past week I 1) turned over to my supervisor for review (and he is also the third author) a paper about sponge-microbial mounds in the subsurface Mississippian; 2) turned over to a different co-author the manuscript of a paper about an Eocene coral reef exposed at the surface in south Alabama; 3) turned over to a different co-author the manuscript of a paper about microcoprolites in the subsurface Jurassic of South Alabama; 4) did only a small amount of work on a trace fossil book; 5) did not work at all on another trace fossil manuscript for which it is not yet my turn (thank goodness); 6) Did not work at all on a very brief guidebook about Cambrian carbonates that I and yet another co-author need to write more or less de novo; and 7) slightly revised another guidebook that needed to be reprinted.
Item number one is actually my primary current project, which is almost finished. My secondary current project, helping describe an oil-field reservoir rock unit, is not at the “writing a report” stage.
I realized today that I don't communicate much with people at long distance anymore. For the most part, I limit it to twitter, and to weekly letters to my family. To think that HP Lovecraft and others of his generation had the time to write hundreds of long personal letters and yet also accomplished everything else they are known for. I suppose their inability to waste time watching television or doing things on the Internet might have something to do with it. They actually had to go somewhere, like to a bar or a billiard parlor or a race track, to waste time!
We did an unusual amount of traveling this year. In March we went to the International Conference on the Fantastic in the Arts, in Orlando, partly because I was invited to participate in the poetry program. Then spouse's mother died unexpectedly and we went to Kansas. daughter1's best friend from high school decided to get married near San Francisco and d1 was in the wedding. We went, because we wouldn't have been able to visit with d1 this year otherwise. And because, given that reason for going, none of us had been to San Francisco (except me, for part of a day, when I was in high school). Then we went back to Kansas, because there was a memorial service for spouse's mother and because d2 was transferring from the University of Kansas to Tulane. So then we went to New Orleans, but just for a couple of days, to take d2 to college there. And right after that, Hurricane Isaac arrived, the school was closed for nearly a week, and d2 came home for an extended holiday weekend as a result. But all of these trips, not to mention paying for college, means that I haven't been buying science-fiction for myself lately (Except three used paperbacks at Borderlands bookstore, including Cenotaph Road by Bob Vardeman. It wasn't too bad, although I don't intend to buy the sequels. It made me wonder what happened to him, and it turns out he has written an incredible number of books, mostly outside the genre. So it's good to see that he was successful. But I digress.). I have been reading things that spouse bought over the past 30 years to see if I like them. At the moment I am reading Starmother by Sydney J. Van Scyoc. So far it's good. (Ammonite, Nicola Griffith, was last, & very good.)
Geology is keeping me busy, and for the first time in my life I am simultaneously working on seven different publications. Fortunately, none of them are single-author projects. During the past week I 1) turned over to my supervisor for review (and he is also the third author) a paper about sponge-microbial mounds in the subsurface Mississippian; 2) turned over to a different co-author the manuscript of a paper about an Eocene coral reef exposed at the surface in south Alabama; 3) turned over to a different co-author the manuscript of a paper about microcoprolites in the subsurface Jurassic of South Alabama; 4) did only a small amount of work on a trace fossil book; 5) did not work at all on another trace fossil manuscript for which it is not yet my turn (thank goodness); 6) Did not work at all on a very brief guidebook about Cambrian carbonates that I and yet another co-author need to write more or less de novo; and 7) slightly revised another guidebook that needed to be reprinted.
Item number one is actually my primary current project, which is almost finished. My secondary current project, helping describe an oil-field reservoir rock unit, is not at the “writing a report” stage.
I realized today that I don't communicate much with people at long distance anymore. For the most part, I limit it to twitter, and to weekly letters to my family. To think that HP Lovecraft and others of his generation had the time to write hundreds of long personal letters and yet also accomplished everything else they are known for. I suppose their inability to waste time watching television or doing things on the Internet might have something to do with it. They actually had to go somewhere, like to a bar or a billiard parlor or a race track, to waste time!
Sunday, June 17, 2012
Maui kin so merry
After three weeks of devoting almost all my attention to getting my presentation ready for the microbial carbonates conference, and one week at the conference, I've been through yet another unpleasantly busy week. Actually, this is the only one that was really unpleasant. Thursday night, before we returned from the conference, the lift in my van suddenly decided it would no longer use its mighty powers to raise me up from street level to floor level. There is a hand crank, and what a joy it is to use! Everyone who has to use it, which of course never includes me, tells me so. Nevertheless, as all good things must come to an end, I called the repair shop on Monday. The repair shop in Tuscaloosa no longer exists, and that's a sad story [for another time, perhaps]. The one in Birmingham couldn't see me till Tuesday, so I spent Monday at home. Tuesday we drove an hour and then they were pretty efficient, only spending about an hour fixing the thing (even though the technicians were late to work that morning). Another hour in the car and then I was actually at work. The next morning the van's motor started behaving badly. My mechanic in town still is open, thank goodness, and knew right away what the problem was. An ignition coil or two later I was back in business, but it was nearly the end of the workday. So I only spent 2 ½ days at the office this past week, and of course spent a bunch of money on transportation.
One of the things I have been trying to do this week is review a book-length manuscript that I have been not getting around to for a couple of months. I thought I better get that done, not only because I should have done it awhile ago, but because I now have two other manuscripts, one I have to help write and one I have to finish writing. Within a couple of weeks I'll have another book length manuscript to revise. Fortunately, I love writing. Unfortunately, I don't love revising.
Daughter #2 is home; yesterday she attended a wedding. Tuesday we are driving to Kansas to visit family, attend a memorial for Spouse's mother, help daughter pack, and bring all of her stuff back to Alabama for the rest of the summer. So far they have gone shopping together and watched daytime TV (by which I mean reruns of evening shows during the day, not that stuff that was never intended to see the light of darkness) both of which activities I declined to participate in. This morning we are going to be enlightened, but I don't exactly remember the particular topic on which metaphoric photons will be shed.
I also wrote a couple of poems and sold part of one of them as a stand-alone poem. That part was funny and the rest wasn't entirely successful, so it's probably the least undesirable outcome that was likely. I think I will try to rework the other part in hopes of improving it.
Harvested and ate bell peppers and strawberries. The one tomato plant does not look good. Mowing is needed, and is supposed to be accomplished tomorrow. Zinnias and marigolds look better every day, along with ever increasing kinds of other flowers. By the way, the pepper plants were supposed to be hot peppers. They are not hot. They are even more remarkable. They are sweet peppers and actually grow in our garden and approach the expected size. We still have hot peppers preserved from last year, so we should be okay. I've been eating green radish seedpods. Many of my radish plants didn't really produce radishes, but some of them have produced seedpods. These are crunchy and taste a lot like radishes. I recommend them. The basil plants are small and probably need to be fertilized.
Spouse hasn't had time to keep up with the garden, because she has been preparing artwork for a show. The art is now in the show, which I hope to see later this month. She has been going to the gym about four times a week for approximately the last month. It's definitely doing her good, in several ways. But that's another thing taking away from gardening time. We have a new person mowing (starting tomorrow) and he might be willing to do other things as well, if he works out. That would help with the time situation.
One of the things I have been trying to do this week is review a book-length manuscript that I have been not getting around to for a couple of months. I thought I better get that done, not only because I should have done it awhile ago, but because I now have two other manuscripts, one I have to help write and one I have to finish writing. Within a couple of weeks I'll have another book length manuscript to revise. Fortunately, I love writing. Unfortunately, I don't love revising.
Daughter #2 is home; yesterday she attended a wedding. Tuesday we are driving to Kansas to visit family, attend a memorial for Spouse's mother, help daughter pack, and bring all of her stuff back to Alabama for the rest of the summer. So far they have gone shopping together and watched daytime TV (by which I mean reruns of evening shows during the day, not that stuff that was never intended to see the light of darkness) both of which activities I declined to participate in. This morning we are going to be enlightened, but I don't exactly remember the particular topic on which metaphoric photons will be shed.
I also wrote a couple of poems and sold part of one of them as a stand-alone poem. That part was funny and the rest wasn't entirely successful, so it's probably the least undesirable outcome that was likely. I think I will try to rework the other part in hopes of improving it.
Harvested and ate bell peppers and strawberries. The one tomato plant does not look good. Mowing is needed, and is supposed to be accomplished tomorrow. Zinnias and marigolds look better every day, along with ever increasing kinds of other flowers. By the way, the pepper plants were supposed to be hot peppers. They are not hot. They are even more remarkable. They are sweet peppers and actually grow in our garden and approach the expected size. We still have hot peppers preserved from last year, so we should be okay. I've been eating green radish seedpods. Many of my radish plants didn't really produce radishes, but some of them have produced seedpods. These are crunchy and taste a lot like radishes. I recommend them. The basil plants are small and probably need to be fertilized.
Spouse hasn't had time to keep up with the garden, because she has been preparing artwork for a show. The art is now in the show, which I hope to see later this month. She has been going to the gym about four times a week for approximately the last month. It's definitely doing her good, in several ways. But that's another thing taking away from gardening time. We have a new person mowing (starting tomorrow) and he might be willing to do other things as well, if he works out. That would help with the time situation.
Saturday, June 9, 2012
uver ni keew ehT
I have been away all week. Drove to Houston Sunday and drove back on Friday. The trip out there was relatively uneventful, if you don't count the hour-long traffic standstill in Lake Charles Louisiana. Lake Charles is home to the steepest bridge that isn't a drawbridge I have ever been over. Sunday the third, some fool in an SUV (perhaps an oxymoronic phrase) thought the quick way around an 18 wheeler was under it. They completely blocked one lane. I don't know why the police decided there should be no traffic in the other lane either. The only reason traffic moved at all was because people were leaving the highway, driving across the grassy verge, and up onto either the exit ramp or the frontage road, depending on exactly where they were. That option wasn't open to us, because we had to get across the river. On the way back, durned if the same bridge wasn't closed again, but this time to the eastbound traffic! This time the problem was roadwork. Funny thing was, even though it was around the middle of the day on Friday, no one was actually working on the road. At least they only had one lane closed. This meant that the remaining lane, instead of being at a complete standstill, was moving at a generous 5% of its normal speed. Then there was Baton Rouge. Two major traffic jams, perhaps caused by accidents. Heavy downpours, which at least were the fault of an irrational deity as opposed to irrational mortals. We didn't get home till about 9:30 p.m. on Friday.
In between, I was learning about microbial carbonates, which are limestones and related rocks whose formation was heavily influenced or even caused by the actions of microbes. This happens more often than you might think, to the point that the American Association of Petroleum Geologists thought it was a good idea to get 70 experts (plus me) together to think about it for a week. I found it enjoyable, tiring, and definitely instructive. I met a couple of my scientific heroes (one of them for the third time), met some other people I've known in the past, and made quite a few new acquaintances. No intent was made to fill up our evenings in anyway, which I'm sure many people appreciated. For a shy person like me there wasn't a whole lot to do in the evening, but the novels I brought with me lasted until I got back home. Where I found four new ones waiting. I did get some really good ideas about how to improve my project, the preliminary results of which I presented at the meeting. I also discovered, somewhat to my dismay, that it is not in fact too late to submit a manuscript for the book that is supposed to result from the meeting. Dismay, because I've only done (at most) half the work that manuscript would require.
Fortunately, in other aspects of my existence very little changed during the week. A couple of my submissions were rejected and I need to send them out again.
[Spouse] didn't get as much work done in the garden or on artwork as she had hoped to, but isn't that how life always is? The dragon that she has been working on and off on for at least a year is now painted. A week ago he wasn't. He is extremely cute! She did a lot of weeding, and it's never obvious how much of that has been accomplished. New things are blooming, a result of work she did earlier in the year. And much of the house is a lot cleaner than it was. Plus, she has been keeping up with her new exercise program!
I did not see the transit of Venus. I was in an urban megalopolis and did not have a computer with me. Oh, and the lift on my van quit working Thursday night. (Manual operation requires elbow grease!) So I am pretty much stuck at home until I can get it fixed. It is possible that can happen Monday. It will definitely require a trip to Birmingham, because the gentleman who used to fix things like that in Tuscaloosa no longer is able to do so. He has not been replaced.
In between, I was learning about microbial carbonates, which are limestones and related rocks whose formation was heavily influenced or even caused by the actions of microbes. This happens more often than you might think, to the point that the American Association of Petroleum Geologists thought it was a good idea to get 70 experts (plus me) together to think about it for a week. I found it enjoyable, tiring, and definitely instructive. I met a couple of my scientific heroes (one of them for the third time), met some other people I've known in the past, and made quite a few new acquaintances. No intent was made to fill up our evenings in anyway, which I'm sure many people appreciated. For a shy person like me there wasn't a whole lot to do in the evening, but the novels I brought with me lasted until I got back home. Where I found four new ones waiting. I did get some really good ideas about how to improve my project, the preliminary results of which I presented at the meeting. I also discovered, somewhat to my dismay, that it is not in fact too late to submit a manuscript for the book that is supposed to result from the meeting. Dismay, because I've only done (at most) half the work that manuscript would require.
Fortunately, in other aspects of my existence very little changed during the week. A couple of my submissions were rejected and I need to send them out again.
[Spouse] didn't get as much work done in the garden or on artwork as she had hoped to, but isn't that how life always is? The dragon that she has been working on and off on for at least a year is now painted. A week ago he wasn't. He is extremely cute! She did a lot of weeding, and it's never obvious how much of that has been accomplished. New things are blooming, a result of work she did earlier in the year. And much of the house is a lot cleaner than it was. Plus, she has been keeping up with her new exercise program!
I did not see the transit of Venus. I was in an urban megalopolis and did not have a computer with me. Oh, and the lift on my van quit working Thursday night. (Manual operation requires elbow grease!) So I am pretty much stuck at home until I can get it fixed. It is possible that can happen Monday. It will definitely require a trip to Birmingham, because the gentleman who used to fix things like that in Tuscaloosa no longer is able to do so. He has not been replaced.
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