45 Comments on “Not Dead”

1. I’m OK. Just got another six-monthly clean checkup from the cancer doc, so I’m feeling kinda happy.

2. Just Ducky. Working like a dog (har! Har! I’m a vet tech. But seriously, a 9 hr “half day” to be followed by three 11 hr day shifts and they got me on Saturday too. . .). Just re-read The Android’s Dream for the third time and decided that my brother, father, and boss are getting some Scalzi reading material for Christmas. I am excited to read your latest.
   Xopher, YAY YOU!!!!

3. Doing OK; back to work from vacation today, but had a good and productive day without too much “digging out” from under tasks accumulated in my absence.

4. I’m going to Brazil in about a month (assuming all my paperwork comes back okay), so that’s pretty exciting.

5. Just finished 8 more pages of script for an unannounced comics project. Gotta do a short interview, respond to an editor and read an advance copy of something before I call it a day.

6. First day back at work after the summer break. Ditched my local school district and my chemistry assignment for the adjacent school district and an eighth grade English language arts reading assignment. Very tired now since I was unable to sleep till noon or later today. A good tired.

7. Watching rocks grow

8. I am deep into final preparations for Sasquan (the Worldcon in Spokane, if any of y’all missed it’s “local” name). This year I’m honored to serve as the host for the Masquerade, and I was asked to prepare something else for use in the Hugo Awards ceremony. Everything has to ship in about 12 days to get there on time.

   Oh, yes, and the rest of the time I’m doing that Science Thing in my day job.

   Thanks for asking, John!

9. My company is going to outsource our IT – which I’m part of — which means I will likely be unemployed soon.

   Just have to share this news somewhere that I’m not known beyond my internet alias

10. 8th day in a row working 10+ hours each. Good thing I like my job and boss. Miss hanging out with hubby and kitty.

    Xopher – Yay!! I go for my 4 month follow up MRI Thursday. I’ve been cancer clean for more than a year it still makes me nervous.

11. Finished an exam that I may not clear, but now that it’s over time to get back to trying to write some short plays and work on some cosplay costumes.. And reading, so much reading…
    Also had to rearrange my work schedule now that i know you will be in Cleveland on the 15th.. (too bad you’re probably going to have to leave soon after.. there’s a midnight showing of Galaxy Quest the same night!).

12. Really? Fiction, eh? What, you got a contract, or something?

13. Just designing software, which is my thing.

    Today I noticed that the client has asked for something that is impossible, in that they want us to do this thing, and also to never do that same thing, and prevent it from ever happening.

    …I can see the future. It is full of meetings.

14. Hanging out at home waiting for labor. Starting to have pre-labor, which is kinda exciting!

15. Yay for another cancer-free 6-month checkup, Xopher! I’m hoping for the same good news next month, which will be 2 1/2 years for me. Here’s to a lifetime of similar outcomes!

    Busy here, as usual. Work is frustrating and chaotic, pottery is therapeutic, just got back from feeding elder kid’s cats (also therapeutic) while she’s out of town on business.

    Glad you are getting productive things done, too, Mr. Scalzi. Hoping they involve more from the Lock-In world….

16. I’m working on the housework. Which is pretty much what I do every day. Just finished sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor, so I now get to noodle around the internets for about half an hour while the floor dries. Then I get to go and retrieve whichever of the bins have been emptied (probably general waste, the recycling gets done later) from the road verge. Yup, all glamour and excitement here…

17. Xopher, congrats on the 6 month checkup!!

18. I am doing great. The wife and I spent the weekend getting things organized for our soon to be baby daughter’s room. I rewarded myself by putting in my pre-order for End of All Things on Audible.

    @Xopher: Congratulations, that is great news.

19. Me? Ah… well I’m doing what I do best. Moving racks of parts from one place to another, and empty racks from a different place to the first place for 8 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Mind you, I didn’t know how to handle yesterday since it was only my second day off since July 5th. LOL.

20. Xopher, congrats on the clean bill of health, and Andrea, best wishes on your impending delivery! I hope it goes well for everybody!

21. Doing fine.
    Finally stayed to apply the finish to a writing slope from circa 1815 that’s been in my family for many years. After endless hours of sanding is nice to be seeing the final result.

22. Sweating.

    But yay Xopher!

23. Translating. 30 pages left. Then the edit and polish. Due Aug 22nd. May make deadline. Happy. Too hot in Seattle otherwise.

24. Trying to finish my current story that I’m working on. Unfortunately, I’m kinda bored of it at this point. This one is probably going to go in the “I’ll get to you later for the second draft” file.

    Other than that I’m reading the invisible man by Mr. Wells (having a blast). Not sure what I’ll be reading next though (I downloaded two of your books: agent and android. So most likely one of those but maybe one of the other zillion ones I have on my to read list)

    Anyway, thanks for asking. See you when your not writing that stuff your writing.

25. I just got reminded of the movie “Our Man Flint” and idly checked it up on IMDB. Here’s the synopsis:

    “The world’s weather seems to have changed dramatically with violent storms everywhere and long dormant volcanoes suddenly erupting. No one is sure what is happening or why but when American intelligence chief Cramden loses yet another team of agents, there appears to be only one man who can do the job: Derek Flint, former super spy, incredibly rich and the ultimate ladies man. Despite Cramden’s concerns, Flint is on the job and soon discovers that the Earth’s weather is under the control of a secret organization known as GALAXY whose scientists are looking to pacify the world and devote humankind to scientific pursuits.”

    So in short, the Republican party’s *entire position* on Climate change is from a 1966 Jim Coburn movie. Isn’t that something?

26. Oooh! And congratulations, Xopher! May you stay free until you have an unlikely accident involving an aircraft carrier and a merangue, many hundreds of years from now. I shall think of you soon when I’m working on another oncology animation.

27. Thanks for asking, old chap. Working, packing the house up, getting ready to move on Friday (all of 15 miles, which is still a major thing on the UK side of the pond) – and dealing with poxy daughters (of the chicken variety, that is).

    Good news, Xopher, hope it stays that way. And good luck, Andrea!

28. I think I have a simple explanation for ten dimensional space predicted by superstring theory, but I don’t have the math to prove it. any help here would be hot.

29. Strange sorta day. No customers at work, so no social interaction. Then the doc kicked the legs out from under part of my worldview, medically speaking. Apparently, at this point in my life my heart problem does not increase my chances of a stroke, and the blood clot in my hand is unlikely to be from said heart problem. Pessimism: denied!

    And now I sit in my lounge room contemplating these not unrelated facts: it’s -1c outside and the shed that houses my music gear is unheated. My non- social, relived and buoyant state of mind is perfect for practicing, but will it withstand cold-cramped fingers and a constant struggle to stay in tune? I suspect I won’t find out…

    tl;dr: Eh, you didn’t miss much. But thanks for asking.

30. Am doing fine

    *erickSantez *

31. Am just fine,trying to make this world be mine. This morning I got time to show again that my past was deem and I am struggling to make it bright.

    *erickSantez *

32. My life, in between writing novels, short fiction, poetry, and scientific/mathematical academic stuff, is very simple: if my wife Christine is happy, our son Andrew is happy, and our dog Pip is happy, I’m happy. Now the equation has been complicated by adopting a stray with a broken leg, to be a little twin planet to Pip, namely Pluto. I am about to spend $3,000+ to repair Pluto’s leg, probably a car or bicycle injury. This is complicated by Pluto being a reincarnation of Harry Houdini. Much work all along the perimeters of West Garden and East Garden, rehinging gates, installing chickenwire inside the chain-link where tiny gaps existed.
    .
    The YA Fantasy WARLOCKS & WARTHOGS is up to 12,700 words, through Chapter 24, but the handwritten original (Not all my writing is direct into Facebook or OpenOffice) is up through Chapter 34, wordcount unknown until my typing.
    .
    The very-hard SF novel Dog Tail Off Deneb, as of Sunday 2 August 2015 is 264 pages; 56,600 words, and, again, there are many handwritten pages yet to type.
    .
    Since Westercon went well, I am preparing for Worldcon, a presentation October to the Salk Institute (invited by one of the 8 people photographed in the Oval Office when Obama okayed the $1 Billion BRAIN initiative. And then papers to present at Epidemic 5, and at the Seville, Spain, conference on the Future of Education.
    .
    Deeper into the Book Proposal to Springer on QUANTUM COSMOLOGY, which I’ll co-edit, with famous contributors.
    .
    Looking for the right venue to peer-review publish my analysis of the four organic compounds that were detected for the first time on a comet, which were essentially the same (methyl isocyanate, acetone, propionaldehyde and acetamide) in The Human Metabolome Database (HMDB), which is a freely available electronic database containing detailed information about small molecule metabolites found in the human body.
    .
    .
    And watching the Trump Show on TV. Seth Meyers said (paraphrase) but it will all come crashing down as soon as he says a single thing that is not totally insane.

33. Meh. I’ve had better quarters. My doc has me doing the “watchful waiting” thing to see how some symptoms I’ve had since April behave. So, we don’t know *what* it is beyond “not cancer, not likely to immanently kill you.”

    That said, my kids are cute, and the weather’s nice. I got vicarious thrills from my wife telling me about the filming of a movie that she had an extra role in last week, and I’ve got a long-awaited vacation coming up on Friday.

    So, you know, okay.

34. I’m not dead … Yet. Five days ago I picked up a rapidly advancing virus of some kind which went from mild headache on day one to crippling fever on day two, headaches and slumber on day three, and has now moved from “throat inflammation” to “stabbing pains whenever I swallow”. I think I’m losing my voice to boot. When it reaches “chest-deep coughing” things are going to get *Really* unpleasant.

    If anyone has any folk remedies (other than chicken soup, which doesn’t seem to be having any effect) or possibly a spare trachea they aren’t using, I’m ready to try about anything.

35. Waiting to see how much rain, if any, we get from the remnants of Guillermo. DH threw out back, and went to living room to see if any of our couches and chairs were nicer to sleep on than the bed. Cats decided to host Fight Club around midnight. Stuffed one into now-vacant bedroom, where he proceeded to howl all. night. long. Cats may be turned into manapua shortly.

36. Xopher, congrats on the checkup!!
    I am working from home today on the CodeSmithing (day job) and I am starting the great purge with my shop elf (never give an elf a sock) this afternoon, so we can flee California in about a year. We are going to try to purge and packing one room a month.

37. Looking forward to Worldcon. Not especially looking forward to my pending 67th birthday (Yikes!) but I’d still rather be over the hill than under it.

    @Fletcher — try hot ginger tea with lemon and honey.

    @Xopher — excellent, may it continue!

38. @Fletcher: exactly what M.A. said. I take it whenever the Descending Crud (so-called because it, well, descends both upon you and in you) hits. It helps more than chicken soup. Occasionally, I add a nip of something alcoholic for medicinal purposes, usually cheap whisk(e)y. Feel better.

    @Xopher, we’ll retire to the Olde Fen Home and ogle hot young blonds together, yet. Mwah.

    One of the cats managed to evade being thrown out of the room last night. This was remedied at a titch before the crack of dawn when he demanded food. Which had been left for him in the kitchen, but out of sight is truly out of mind for him. (Inbreeding.)

39. just jen, Auntie Di, Colonel Snuggledorf, Andrea, Senchaii, Cally, Lurkertype, Mark H-B, Paul N, The Silversmith, M.A., Thanks! I go back in February and again next August, and then (assuming *knocks wood* all is well), I’m DONE.

    Icarus, I’m sorry to hear that. I got “near-shored” out of a job a while back. It sucks.

    Auntie Di, Best wishes and bright blessings if welcome. I know, I’m 90% sure I’m going to be fine every time, but it still stresses me out when I actually have to go.

    Andrea, Bright blessings if welcome!

    Colonel Snuggledorf, May it be so, may it be so, may it be so.

40. Xopher, may I add my congratulations and good wishes to the others?

    (Your news relates to some of mine: I was called back after the nice radiologist examined the films of the annual mammogram and said “Huh, this does not look right”, and spent a very bad 48 hours thinking of my maternal parent, diagnosed with Stage 3A at 48. The second set came back clear, but *bleep*.)

    fletcher, if your stomach will tolerate it, I’d add homemade tom yum to the list. I’m sorry you’re feeling so awful.

    Andrea, I wish you a productive, boringly normal labor and a robust child at the end of it!

    Hiding from the heat, playing with dimensioned drawings of the potential next home — “Stereo won’t work there; it’s a half wall by the stairs, no electrical. Damn it, whose good idea was moving? Oh, right, the budget’s” — and generally being lazy. I like it! Doesn’t happen often, so I’m enjoying myself.

41. Epiphyta, Thanks! And I’m so glad your scare turned out OK.

42. Xopher, congratulations!

    Fletcher, have you been to a doctor? That sounds like maybe-strep to me . . . wish I had a decent folk remedy to offer!

43. *visit relatives
    wash laundry
    repeat from *

    My summer seems to have vanished, somehow.

44. Thanks for asking, John!

    A new school starts in three(ish) weeks; I’m finalizing semester projects and the first month of lesson plans.

    My parents came for a visit; after they left I had an awful summer cold for a few days. Summer colds are the worst.

    I’m feeling better now and trying to stay cool.

45. I’m in Omaha, keeping the trains running. We have a new member of the family, she’s 12 weeks old, and I’m missing her.

    Babies rock.