Grade 5 / U.S. History

How many states made up the Confederate States of America that seceded from the Union?


( Answer behind the cut... )

The wonderful diminutive actress, who played the cranky Sophia on The Golden Girls, has died at the age of 84.

"Picture this: Sicily, 1925...."

Rest in peace, good lady...

Answer each question in exactly THREE words. It sounds easy, but it's harder than you think!

( Qs and As behind the cut.... )

Grade 2 / World Geography

In which island chain would you find the countries of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic?



( Answer behind the cut.... )

Received a CREEPY email via Cl@ssm@tes.com from a guy who went to HS with me for a couple of years.

All I really remember is that he was hit by a motorcyle the 1st week he moved to the neighborhood, so my best friend & I were asked to help him (because we were such goody-2-shoes) while he was in a wheelchair. If she still was in New Orleans, maybe it was 9th grade & so Jr. High. Anyway, he makes this big pronouncement about how he can't decide between the 2 of us since we're both so luscious. Eewww.

His email makes me think his cluelessness has not lessened.

There's a thread in the Trek Literature board of the TrekBBS called "What's Keeping The God Thing From Being Published?" and every time I read that subject line, I keep thinking the same answer to the question: "Common sense."

I'm this close (hold up thumb and forefinger close to each other) to posting that in the thread in question.....

(Seriously, there's no way to publish it at this point. So much legend has grown up around the book over the past 30+ years that there's no way the finished product can possibly be in any way satisfying. Conversely, the time to publish this pretty much passed with the changeover to the new millennium; not enough people now are really going to give a shit about Roddenberry's drunken ramblings on the subject of organized religion. It doesn't help that, as per this wonderful page put together by the good and noble steve_roby, there are about half a dozen incomplete versions of this thing by various potential collaborators....)

I've done this before, but what the hey........


visited 32 states (64%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or determine the next president

How to tell people they sound racist by Jay Smooth of Ill Doctrine.

Thanks to asim, popfiend, and kvaadk for the link.

xnamkrad has lost his battle with cancer.

I never met Frank, but we exchanged many an e-mail and he was hoping to get terri_osborne and I out to Ireland for P-Con, the convention he chaired, one of these years. Now he won't get to.

He was a good person, and he will be sorely missed. *raises glass of Guinness*

I'm bummed by Dr Who just now.... anyone know of any good Rose/Dr fic? Is anyone good writing in it?

( spoilery for Dark Knight )

Meanwhile, wow, Iron Man fandom has gone angsty in the past few weeks! Right after the movie, all the fic seemed to be snark and banter and fun, but now it's all darkness and angst and badwrongbadtwisted sex and Tony's beautiful manpain. Very well written, most of it, but the sudden shift is giving me whiplash. Is it because all the movie fangirls went out and read the comics? Practice to get into the proper mindset for the inevitable Dark Knight crossovers? Mind-control rays?

I have avoided most spoilers for SPN season 4, but I did pick at a couple of casting spoilers, and they're making me very squeeful. I'm not going to talk about them here, though. This journal is staying a spoiler-free zone for the duration of Hiatus Heck. But I really want it to be September already.

Grade 3 / Science

Is the outer surface of the human eyeball concave or convex?


( Answer behind the cut.... )

I have received excellent comments from all the beta readers, who both rock and roll, and incorporated many of them, and A Singular Destiny has been sent off to the editor, finally clocking in at about 88,000 words.

I am quite pleased with how it turned out. With luck, you will all feel the same come the new year.

And now, to bed.......................

Sure enough, as I was falling asleep, I thought of what the last bit should be. *laughs*

I'm gonna have some coffee, take a shower, and then write it. Then read the whole schmear....

I take lots of pictures of Aoki being cute, and Marcus really should get equal time. Conveniently, he was being cute lying on the floor of my office when I got up after finishing the first draft of ASD.

( Picture behind the cut.... )

At a hair under 88,000 words, I'm at the end of the first draft. It's off to assorted beta readers (girasole, as always, as well as the other folks involved in this whole mishegoss, including Dave Mack infinitydog, whom I'm following, and bill_leisner, Christopher Bennett, and Kirsten Beyer, who are also following up on what Dave's done), and I'll read it over myself tomorrow.

There's one scene-let I still have to write, and which I haven't solely by virtue of the fact that I haven't figured out what it needs to be yet. *sigh*

I've found with this book that I often figure out the next scene as I'm falling asleep. Let's hope that holds true one last time.....

The Boy and I just got back from seeing Dark Knight, which I was pretty damn entertainng and full of excellent performances.

( spoilers )

Having now watched all the major comic-book superhero flicks this summer -- Iron Man, The Hulk, Hellboy II and Dark Knight, I'm vaguely surprised that the most awesome female character that we got out of the whole bunch was Pepper Potts. She didn't spend most of the movie dithering about her love life, didn't exist mainly to provide motivation and angst for the men around her, the climax of the movie wasn't about rescuing her, the villain targeted her because she was a threat to him in her own right and not just because he was trying to get to the hero, and at the end, she was the one who actually killed the bad guy. Pepper, you go, girl! Kick some ass in those crazy high heels! (Why don't I have a Pepper icon? I should have a Pepper icon.)

Also -- trailers for Watchmen, the next Bond Movie, and the next Terminator movie!!!! I'm gonna keel over dead from overdose of awesome!

I'm right at 83,000 words. I still have to write the epilogue and two interstitial bits.

Taking a break to eat dinner and watch some West Wing on DVD.....

I'm in the midst of Chapter 20. As of this microsecond, I'm at 81,273 words. I will not sleep tonight until this fucking thing is done.

Then I spend tomorrow reading the thing to make sure it doesn't suck.....

This video has been around the net and back again, but it makes me laugh and weep with joy every time I watch it. Watch in in High Quality!