The WAL

I’ve mentioned podcasts a couple of times before, but this time I’m only going to write about one specific one:  Playing for Keeps by Mur Lafferty.  If at any point in your life you’ve read/seen a superhero comic book, cartoon, or movie,  this podcast is a lot of fun.  I’m not going to write a review or tell you all of the reasons you should check it out.  I am going to say that I’m really enjoying it.  Mur is a great writer and seems to be having a good time with this podcast novel - half the battle whenever you’re doing audio.  I don’t use the word fan very easily,  but I’m definitely a fan of Mur’s and I listen to her writing podcast, too - I Should Be Writing which, yes, I mentioned last post.

And maybe I should be writing, but I’ve more than hit today’s word count so I’m relaxing and enjoying the quiet.  And, just in case you’re curious:

The words are still flowing, but another big story I want to write is starting to pound in the back of my brain.  Fortunately, it requires some research, but it is making me start plotting.  That’s not so bad, but the story after that is tickling my imagination.  And I do have a couple of shorter pieces on the go that need some TLC, too.  Focusing on one thing at a time has always been a problem for me, and not just in writing.

Been a little while. Life in the real world has been busy. Birthday parties, school stuff, work stuff, house stuff, vet stuff. You name it, it’s gone on. I’m actually in a more or less great mood lately that could only be improved by the women in my life letting me finish a sentence once in a while. Yes, I’ve had it explained to me that this is how women carry on conversations - interrupt when you’ve got something to say before things move on and what you have to say is no longer relevant. Someone else involved in the conversation will do the same thing to you. This is how things work.

What I’ve tried to explain to the women explaining this to me is that men don’t work like that. We’re a little more linear and having a thought interrupted is irritating. Besides, if you wait for me to get to the end of the sentence, you might be able to respond to what I’m actually saying instead of what you think I’m saying. Sometimes there’s a difference (and I may get grouchy when your response doesn’t respond to what I’m trying to say). Even when there isn’t, please show me the respect of allowing me to speak and listening to what I actually say. I understand that it’s not natural for you to have a conversation that way, but remember that I do it for you even if I sometimes miss the first couple of words because I’m watching TV. (Okay, I’ll admit that there are times I miss the whole sentence, and I know that’s frustrating to women, but I’ll hold still for a repeat.)

When I’m working day shift, I get to drop my kids off at school during the week.  (Nights I get to pick them up, which is better.)  One morning early this week, I witnessed an incident of parking lot rage.  Really.

Father A had stopped his car to let his young son out and into the school.  Said son instead wanted Daddy to take him in, so the father turned off the car and got out, leaving his car perpendicular to the actual orientation of other parked cars.  Stupid, but people can still get by, so who really cares, right?  Well, Father B comes along and is offended by the misparked vehicle, parks his pick up in the normal orientation, lets his kids out, and waits for Father A to return.  I came out the front door of the school in time to witness the following exchange.

Father B:  Can’t park like a normal person, eh?
Father A:  My son wanted me to take him in instead of dropping him off, so I did.  Why do you have to be so rude?
Father B:  Why can’t you learn how to park your damn car?
Father A:  Why don’t you mind your own fucking business?  People can still get by.
Me:  What a wonderful example you’re both setting for all of our kids.

Okay, yes that was stupid.  I could have found myself in a fight with both of the morons.  Fortunately, they both just looked at me for a second, turned their engines on, and drove away.  Idiots.  Potential capital offenses for stupidty aside, so many people seem to have forgotten that kids learn by what they see parents do.  And we wonder why the world seems full of rude kids with no respect for anything.  A myth of over-representation, I think, but what else do you hear about?

That’s right.  Deep into the double digits, and nearly finished Chapter Three.  I’ve got most of the major plot points sketched out for the whole story and a solid idea of exactly where I’m going for the next couple of chapters.  It mostly sucks, but the point is to get the story out.  It can be polished into readability later.

A couple of days late, but oh well.  And I’m not going to rant about anything today.  Instead, I’m going to share something cool.

One of my recent discoveries on the internet is a site called GalaxyZoo.  The Universe is a big place - far bigger than we can actually see at this point - and there are a lot of galaxies in it.  A lot of galaxies.  As it says on the front page:  “Welcome to GalaxyZoo , the project which harnesses the power of the internet - and your brain - to classify a million galaxies.”  Far more than a million, actually.

The way it basically works is you look at an image of a galaxy and classify it a Spiral Galaxy (clockwise, anti-clockwise, or edge on/unclear), an Elliptical galaxy, Star/Don’t Know, or Mergers.  Most images take a second or so to figure out, some you have to look at a little more closely.  It’s a quick and easy way to contribute to research on Galaxy formation and evolution.  And it’s kind of fun.  You can sometimes run through fity galaxies in a couple of minutes.  Some of the pictures have never been seen by human eyes before and while most of them aren’t all that clear, the ones that are can be truly spectacular.