Cycling up...
Mar. 31st, 2006 08:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsI seem to be cycling up: yesterday, I wrote nearly 1500 words in my "Let's mess with Linia's head" story. Given the writer's guidelines I posted yesterday, I'm far from an ideal here (I'm still trying to figure out why Linia would be attracted to Ms. Oxenhollar, but that she is, is central to the plot) but at least I'm generating text.
There seem to be two kinds of writers: Gardeners and miners. Gardeners only write a little and rarely re-write: instead, they put a lot of effort into making sure their story is correct the first time. They plant their seeds and let it grow. I'm a miner: I write a lot and once it's down I have the raw material from which I can actually mine a decent story.
I also ripped out my old by-hand parser from narrator and replaced it with a proper SAX interface that allows me to do pullquotes
I've also been cooking again. I think cooking is essential to my mental health. We've been "out of food" this week: we overspent our grocery budget so Omaha has put her foot down and instructed me to eat what's in the house first before I buy anything new. Wednesday I made a fabulous risotto with sauted vegetables and shrimp, and I didn't have enough Aborio rice, but some Japanese short-grain, the kind used for sushi, made an excellent substitute. Thursday I made stir-fry out of some frozen vegetables and a pork chop on Basmati rice. I made the teriyaki sauce by hand. It's amazing how much measuring one can do with just a shot glass. (I'm not one to usually own a shot glass, as I don't like hard liquor, but this one has a Zocalo logo on it, and is exactly two tablespoons.) The girls ate the risotto but, other than the rice, passed on the stir-fry.
I think I've figured out my iPod-fu; at least I have a functioning iPod with gtkpod, and can buy music with sharpmusique. I've been using it to listen to JapenesePod101, a daily lesson in Japanese, complete with a Kanji-of-the-day, podcasts, and PDF copies of the dialogues in both Hirigana and Kanji. It's probably the best daily lesson I've found online yet. I've also been watching Anime again, making my way through two episodes of Kasimasi last night after Kouryou-chan was in bed. It's so... so... so... kawaiiii!.
And I'll say it again: Dream Theater's live albums totally, absolutely rock.
There seem to be two kinds of writers: Gardeners and miners. Gardeners only write a little and rarely re-write: instead, they put a lot of effort into making sure their story is correct the first time. They plant their seeds and let it grow. I'm a miner: I write a lot and once it's down I have the raw material from which I can actually mine a decent story.
I also ripped out my old by-hand parser from narrator and replaced it with a proper SAX interface that allows me to do pullquotes
Pullquotes are those things in magazines and websites that look like this.
, and with the proper SAX interface I can put any tags I want into the story and process them after the fact. I discovered funkload, a fabulous plug-in for pyunit that loading and committing arbitrary tests on blocks of code allows you load and commit arbitrary tests on URL targets. Not only does this let me test the functionality of narrator, but it provides a good tool for unit testing new components of the stuff I work on professionally.I've also been cooking again. I think cooking is essential to my mental health. We've been "out of food" this week: we overspent our grocery budget so Omaha has put her foot down and instructed me to eat what's in the house first before I buy anything new. Wednesday I made a fabulous risotto with sauted vegetables and shrimp, and I didn't have enough Aborio rice, but some Japanese short-grain, the kind used for sushi, made an excellent substitute. Thursday I made stir-fry out of some frozen vegetables and a pork chop on Basmati rice. I made the teriyaki sauce by hand. It's amazing how much measuring one can do with just a shot glass. (I'm not one to usually own a shot glass, as I don't like hard liquor, but this one has a Zocalo logo on it, and is exactly two tablespoons.) The girls ate the risotto but, other than the rice, passed on the stir-fry.
I think I've figured out my iPod-fu; at least I have a functioning iPod with gtkpod, and can buy music with sharpmusique. I've been using it to listen to JapenesePod101, a daily lesson in Japanese, complete with a Kanji-of-the-day, podcasts, and PDF copies of the dialogues in both Hirigana and Kanji. It's probably the best daily lesson I've found online yet. I've also been watching Anime again, making my way through two episodes of Kasimasi last night after Kouryou-chan was in bed. It's so... so... so... kawaiiii!.
And I'll say it again: Dream Theater's live albums totally, absolutely rock.
