47 Comments on “Not Dead”

1. Finished work at my day job in preparation for tiny tiny baby to arrive. Also planning a writing cram session in preparation of seriously not getting any writing done for some time.

2. Productive. Deployed some new equipment: monitors, laptops and docks. After work, I’m going shopping for pants. The excitement never ends!

3. Birthday. Took the day off. Wound up sick. Home in bed right now.
   Any tidbits about the new book to make a birthday boy on death’s door feel better?

4. My theory: Some of us WERE dropped onto the planet by aliens. I know this to be true because my body obviously is on a 28 hour cycle. I am always shocked to see how late it’s gotten, and it always seems to be more or less 4 hours later than I think it should be. Seems reasonable, then – I mean the alien dump theory..

5. I lost track of time today, too, though it was due to getting engrossed in a vexing account reconciliation conundrum as opposed to something fun like a novel. But on the bright side, I untangled it at last, and the final steps required to book the correction will take me about ten minutes tomorrow morning. Hope your time was similarly successful and productive!

6. Well shoot. Now I’ll have to cancel the memorial service. Again.

   Joking aside, I’ve been enjoying the continued unseasonable cool spell we’ve been having and hoping that Summer just gives it up completely as a bad job and steps aside for an early Autumn.

7. I put up one of those magnetic screen doors almost all by myself (husband came home before I finished completely and since I had been working in the full sun on an 85 degree day, I was happy to finish with assistance), then took a swim in a somewhat chilly but still refreshing river and ate a steak and mushroom pot pie with fresh tomatoes for dinner. Oh and there was a martini.

8. Long day, my Dad passed away on 8/20/96. Thinking back…

9. Very average until I arrived home and saw a flurry of activity on the surrounding streets — big trucks, cars detouring, people walking along as though they were heading for a street festival. But it’s not a block party. Some guy robbed a Cricket store and has been holed up in a house on the next block (3 doors or so from our back yard). There’s a SWAT team periodically firing tear gas grenades at him (we know this from the news, though we can hear them being fired). This is not super-unusual for our neighborhood. We get gunshots quite often. There have been 70 shooting deaths in our small southern city — something like 20 more than this time last year.

10. I fell into my computer monitor and I can’t get out.
    I am writing a MVC4 application and have spent the day beating on ajax and jquery dialog boxes.

    Doesn’t that sound fun

11. Writing a novel!

12. Happy birthday, Robert.

    It was going well until I saw that Groklaw has closed.

13. Fantastic! Monday is over. Tuesday is nearly done as well.

14. *Insert comment about disappointment over not being able to FINALLY raise my Undead Scalzi here*

    Meh, today I continued to study for math Master’s qualification exams.

15. It was an odd mix of shitty and pretty cool. Shitty: up at 4:00 am to go to work, and I’m trying to kick a mild but annoying cold. Pretty cool: I learned a new skill at work, and I just got back from the library with, among other things, Michael Chabon’s newest novel. Shitty: I couldn’t figure out what to eat for lunch so I had a Deep-fried Sampler. Pretty cool: We joined a local produce co-op thing. Shitty: I haven’t done any writing yet today. Pretty cool: I’m about to get some writing done. On balance? Not a bad day, I suppose!

16. Same thing I do every day, John, try to take over the world!

17. I’m still alive too. We have something in common.

18. Woken up at 5 AM by cat vomiting on bed. What an exciting start to the day!

19. Happy birthday, Robert. Feel better soon!

    My day has been good. Got work done. I recently joined Ingress, which is in fact Foursquare with space noises, but is also a good way to get out and walking around the neighborhood. So that’s been fun. I hit a whole bunch of portals today and got my 10k daily steps in while I was at it. Feedin’ two birds with one hand, gamification-style.

20. I didn’t realize until seeing the dates on these comments that today is my wedding anniversary (which we’ll celebrate on the weekend). August is going by kind of quickly. Come to think of it, it’s also my kitten’s birthday… though I suppose at a year old he’s no longer a kitten. Sigh.

21. So-so. Our new security system triggered while we were out and summoned the cops.Our fault; we forgot to close an interior door, which we never used to do with the old system. Live and learn.

    On the other hand, I had chopped liver for dinner.

22. Not bad. Got a haircut. Turned 50. Happy Birthday to Roberts Junker and Plant.

23. Zora – would you care to trade your vomiting cat for one who leaves you a pile of cold, partially chewed mouse guts strategically placed right where your bare foot will land on it as you perambulate half-asleep toward the coffee-maker? Cuz if so, I can make you a deal.

24. getting ready for a mega cross-country trip, eating some bratwurst, going to play some risk: legacy! you know!

25. My day off coincided with my wife being off so we did married people on a date things, and no writing got done today. It was wonderful, but I still feel guilty not getting my word number hit.

26. Well, I gave baths to three small kittens, in order to get the fleas off of them. They all now smell like Dawn, or they will until their mother licks them clean. Their mother was offended that we didn’t give her a bath, too. It’s okay, Mittens, you get a bath this weekend, when we bathe your child-cats again. Now I get to write a paper on at-risk behavior in children. I’m beginning to think a degree in education is pointless….

27. After two weeks being a slug, got back to weight lifting. Had to drop back almost to my warmup weight (235 lbs squats) but hey, I’m back at it! Dinner is roast chicken, chicken wings (Costco) and tomato mozzarella with basil and vinegar. Yum!

28. My day was adequate.
    I didn’t stub my toe, step on hot coals, be the kind of shithead who asks that a feculent remark get lovingly malleted, step on broken glass or decide which should I do of go shoe shopping or glue little pieces of rubber onto where my shoe soles are worn out.

29. Dear Colonel Snuggledorf — my cat Twit also specializes in leaving puddles of vomit in the hall and doorways, puddles sure to provide interesting surprises to anyone padding from bedroom to bathroom in the dark. Hence I have no need for the services of your mouse-gut-dropping cat. But … thank you for the kind offer.

30. Oh! I forget something. I have a dwarf reliance peach tree that has been bearing for about four years. The peaches started vanishing from the top of it (fucking squirrels) so I have actually had a great day because I have about 20# of peaches, none of which will ripen on the tree and have the juice dripping down my chin when I bite into that tree ripened peach.
    –
    Nothing is better than being two feet tall and finding a peach tree with low hanging juicy peaches and having the peach juice drip down your chin on each chomp.

31. Wasn’t watching where I was going, tripped and fell.

32. I was in Russia (OH), donating platelets at the blood drive.

33. Not bad, considering how it began. Actually did a couple of errands.

34. My day was okay, pretty normal, and then it turned WONDERFUL. I got home from work and my signed copy of “The Thrilling Adventure Hour” graphic novel had arrived in the mail. It’s SO PRETTY. Also, it makes me happy. So YAY!

    @Gulliver – I totally read “Pinky” where you wrote “John” AND I heard it in Maurice LeMarche’s voice in my head. Made me laugh (it also made me miss Animaniacs).

35. Not dead either! Given all the people who have ever lived, a surprising number of not dead ones have commented today! As for my day, I lost track of time due to what-if.xkcd.com and fuckyeahfluiddynamics.tumblr.com

36. The day was pretty boring, but the evening was fun; my brother and sister-in-law, who live in Utah, were passing through Atlanta en route to or from somewhere or other, so my husband, middle daughter and I all drove over to Atlanta to my sister’s house, where our other sister and her husband and daughter joined us for dinner. The four of us seldom get together, and even more seldom when, as my brother put it, “nobody’s dead.”

37. I finished and submitted the first draft of a big, difficult project today, so that’s pretty good. But I took my beloved to the airport early, so missing her is not good. So, today’s a mixed bag.

    Are you willing to elaborate on what goes into a background document? (Or even what that means?) And is it something you prepare before writing, or something you do afterward? I know zip about novel writing.

38. Not dead either but heard Elmore Leonard passed away today. Sad.
    Dave

39. Yesterday I killed the 3rd of 3 new laptops – 4 dead/dud laptops in 11 days is more than my fair share.

    Also now 6 days past the delivery deadline on the screenplay. And the supermarket had run out of ice-cream, indian tonic water, peaches, ice and lemons, so no pick-me-up to get me through another round of installation and restoration.

    Just straight gin.

40. I would give john another 20-25 years until he is old enough where we justifiably need a ‘not dead’ post regularly.

41. No worries, I was actually doing the very same thing today.

42. Er, yesterday.

    The internet is a confusing place sometimes.

43. Read Redshirts two days ago due to Hugos. Cried laughing for 50 pages. Owe husband actual Star Trek novel to read aloud. Husband liked that Weinstein got writers block at the end. Subtext of all the codas was that any good professional writer can make you care about people even without hackneyed plot devices.

44. Had a productive and busy day at work, then went home for my regular Supreme Commander gaming night via the magic of the InterTubes with my best friend, my brother-in-law, and my son. After we broke for the evening I jumped back into Mass Effect 3 to play through the “Citadel” DLC.

45. This seemed at least somewhat appropriate…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=wURUin2j8FU

    Completely unproductive day, here.

46. Having a hell of a time working.

    Boing Boing delivered this article to me while I was time-wasting, about a YA fantasy novel that got scrapped because its LDS publishers freaked out on one of the authors for wanting to acknowledge his same-sex partner in his bio: http://boingboing.net/2013/08/21/god-gave-you-a-penis-for-a-r.html

    Know anybody who might be interested in picking up the rights to a YA fantasy that’s got buzz?

47. FTSandy 1:02 am
    >…background document? (Or even what that means?) And is it something you prepare before writing, or something you do afterward? I know zip about novel writing.
    Me neither/to (not sure which, maybe both).
    Yeah, a few month ago I learned that their is something called an “uncorrected proof” (up) when I got a book I’d ordered. After I googled* up I emailed the seller and they suggested I recycle it and gave me a refund.
    And does anybody know where my recipe card for crispy crumb crust is. Argh, grrh, I may have to skip cobbler and just make peach pies, peach jam and peach butter.
    SDT
    *http://news.sky.com/story/1129847/google-outage-internet-traffic-plunges-40-percent