I have been asked to be a part of a writing project called "Chinese Whisperings". The first publication for Chinese Whisperings, "The Red Book," is set to publish later this year. I've been busy writing my contribution to this anthology and this is one of the reasons I've been somewhat absent and negligent here on Live Journal. My story for the anthology is in final editing now.
The
http://chinesewhisperings.com/2009/09/co
Each week for the ten weeks leading up to the publication of The Red Book, an excerpt will be put out from one of the stories. This excerpt will be put on the blog in three parts, one each on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday and Friday are comments from the author about his or her story or about writing in general. We are in the fourth week, so this week's story, "Discovery," is the fourth one in the book. My contribution is eighth, so the excerpts from mine will be in about a month.
So, if you are interested in checking this out, go ahead over to http://www.chinesewhisperings.com and click on the link for the blog. Leave a two-line comment and you're entered for that week's drawing for a special edition of the book (in electronic form).
Please feel free to share this information with anyone you believe would be interested.
As always, I thank you for your support in my writing efforts.
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on August 28, 2009 which was: "(A new Government research and development facility is built on a decomissioned prison site"
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
I know for some of my friends here, this is a duplicate, but I thought I would share the few pictures I have from the tornado here a couple weeks ago. You can view them here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=20
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on July 17, 2009 which was: "(your character) stops on the way home from work and purchases a unique musical instrument -- why today?"
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Well, despite the fact that I am one of the most positive and optimistic people I know, even I have to admit that this was a sad day. Yes, despite my best efforts to stave it off, the end has come. The world just seemed darker and colder when I woke up today because it was immediately thrust upon me that vacation was completely over except for the packing and the driving and the travel that I hate so very, very much.
( Cut for those who wish this post were over... )
Friday, July 3, 2009
Well, my friends, we're very nearly coming to the end of our wild and crazy vacation extravaganza. Depending on how you see the world, if you see the glass as half full or half empty, today was either the last day of the vacation or the next-to-last day. For me, the eternal optimist, today was clearly the next-to-last day of the vacation because we still have tomorrow and I refuse to notice that the wonderful glass of vacation is emptying quickly.
( Cut for those not accustomed to seeing me as an optimist )
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Well, before I go any further (typing the date may have already gone too far), I must shout out that I wish my wife, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
gingerpeaches , a very happy fifteenth anniversary. Thanks, Ginny, for saying "Yes", at least sort of, when I proposed to you all those years ago. Maybe it was more of a quasi-affirmative answer you gave. Okay, thanks for not running away screaming like you could have. I appreciate that you didn't.
( Cut for those who think there's more romantic crap here. )
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
For those keeping score at home, today's wake up time was 4:27 AM. Well, in reality, it was about 2:30 AM. That's because it was at 2:30 when our upstairs neighbors decided to use the hot tub or take a 2 hour hot shower or something. The pipes are, apparently, loose or old or poorly insulated because we could hear them creaking and popping.
( Cut for those who think the rest of this is about plumbing )
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Day Four of our vacation extravaganza started at about 4:45 AM for me. Sort of. I woke up at 4:45, but I stayed in bed and stared at the wall for two hours. So, to some degree I guess the day really didn't start until nearly 7:00. I'm really becoming a slacker.
( Cut for the disinterested )
Monday, June 29, 2009
This morning started at about 5:45 AM, because I'm just such a slacker, what with sleeping in so late these days.
Sleep -- I suck at it.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Ahhh…. Can you smell it? That, my friends, is the sweet smell of "Day One the Second," known to some folks of lesser understanding about how vacations work as "Day Two of Vacation."
Saturday, June 27, 2009
"Day one of vacation." To many, there are few sweeter words than these. "Sun", "fun", "relaxation", "enjoyment" – to some people, these words are often considered to be synonymous with the phrase "Day one of vacation".
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on June 19, 2009 which was: "(your character) closed his/her eyes, took a deep breath and jumped."
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
Now, had it not been for my need to get home and the heavy volume of traffic, I might have pulled into the lot to investigate the situation further and perhaps lodge a grassroots protest against such nonsense.
( Free Valet Parking? )
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 20, 2009 which was: "A dentist is stabbed while waiting in line at the movies."
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
- Mood:
tired
So, I've long held that despite being male, I am just one of the girls. Lacking any real evidence of this, though, I've been forced to use more anecdotal facts to try to persuade the non-believers among my various acquaintances that this is, in fact, true. However, it seems that my distaste for monster trucks, my lack of interest in barbecuing and the unnatural-to-some number of female friends I've had throughout my life (about 90% of my friends have been female over the years) is not really a confirmation of my membership in the Just-One-of-the-Girls Club of America .
Well, now I have proof.
As evidence that I am, in fact, just one of the girls, I present the Gender Analyzer for blogs. The Gender Analyzer is meant to help you, the reader of any given blog, to determine the gender of the author of a blog. I do not know the mechanism it uses, but I am assuming that a lot of science and psychology have gone into figuring out what words men use and what words women use when writing. And science, of course, cannot be argued with, especially when it is coupled with psychology.
The Theory
I, Lousy Writer 13, being male, am nonetheless just one of the girls
The Science
So, I have three blogs. Here are the results when I run them through the Gender Analyzer:
- This blog (http://lousywriter13.livejournal.com), when analyzed, has strong indicators that the author is, in fact, a woman (95% score).
- My pig sentences (http://mypigsentences.wordpress.com), when analyzed, comes up as being likely to have been written by a woman (60% score).
- When I expand all of the posts out to their entirety on my fiction blog (http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com), it comes up as being gender-neutral, but a slightly higher possibility of having been written by a woman (51% score).
- When I leave Thirteenth Dimension broken up by the more/cut tags, it comes up as being gender-neutral but possibly written by a male(57% score)
So, my blogs, when read in their entirety, appear to be written by a woman.
The Psychology
I suppose that I'm conflicted by this. At least sort of. I mean, I've always just been one of the girls and I have no problem with that at all... but at the same time, having some computer program give me cold, hard scientific evidence that I may not be a real man feels like it changes things. I mean, seriously – I do like the power tools and lawn equipment that "real men" like (assuming that real men are into rechargeable, battery-powered lawn mowers and weed-whackers) so where does this computer program get off calling me a woman?
So, now I'm left wondering if I should just officially change my penname on the blogosphere to "Roberta," which was the name all the women in my wife's all-female dorm at college called me, or if I just need to put some more cursing, fighting and pyrotechnics into my writing, just to prove that I am, in fact, a man.
I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that I can't argue with science and this is clearly science. I also know that anything found on the internet must be a true and accurate portrayal of the universe, so clearly that proves that I am, truly, just one of the girls.
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 20, 2009.
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 13, 2009.
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
This was written for the [Fiction] Friday prompt on March 6, 2009.
To read it, click here:http://thirteenthdimension.wordpress.com/2
As always, thank you for reading.
I saw this and I am... dumbfounded. I wonder if the original post in this thread is legitimate or not. But some of the answers are quite funny, even going so far as to provide mathematical equations for determining weight.
- Mood:
amused
