they must need bears

[13:11] matociquala: what's a word for when something is absolutely covered in something else?
[13:11] hawkwing_lb: coated?
[13:11] matociquala: I'm thinking of a wet street when the rain is coming down so hard the water in the street is all interlocking ripples.
[13:12] hawkwing_lb: there should be a word for that.
[13:12] hawkwing_lb: but if there is, I don't think I know it.

[21:56] matociquala: Dear Herr Professor Egon Schroeder, please do not resort to B-movie dialogue.
[21:56] matociquala: Love, Bear
[21:57] stillsostrange: P.S. Don't cross the streams
[21:58] matociquala: Heee
[21:58] stillsostrange: P.P.S. If someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes.
[21:59] stillsostrange: I want a short story
[21:59] matociquala: P.P.P.S. Have a plan.
[21:59] matociquala: Better than "Grab him."
[21:59] cristalia: heeee
[21:59] katallen: ::resigns to the earworming::
[21:59] cristalia: someone blog that?  *g*
[21:59] stillsostrange: Where is a short story that will love me?
[21:59] katallen: under the couch cushions
[21:59] matociquala: Well, it's my story. I guess it should be me.
[22:00] stillnotbored: your story is with the end of my novel
[22:00] stillnotbored: somewhere in the South of France
[22:01] cristalia: ooh.
[22:01] cristalia: we could chase it in Minis.
[22:01] cristalia: through twisty highways.
[22:01] stillnotbored: and policemen in funny hats could blow whistles

[23:07] matociquala: Dear Danny Elfman, please tell me what my novel is about?
[23:08] cristalia: the goddamn Batman
[23:08] matociquala: I knew that bit.
[23:08] matociquala: Well, Tristen.
[23:08] matociquala: Who is sort of like the goddamn Batman
[23:08] matociquala: Only processing his wangst better
[23:08] cristalia: hee
[23:12] matociquala: You ever notice that you never hear the phrase, "Too much Batman, not enough roller derby?"
[23:12] tanaise: is this proof he'd be the perfect boyfriend?
[23:13] matociquala: Or that he's the antiboyfriend
[23:13] tanaise: or both
[23:15] cristalia: Batman is composed of 99.9% roller derby.
[23:15] cristalia: The rest is water.

---

In related news, I have an extension on Chill until September 15. All official like.

*commence catlike ignoring*

Besides, I have all this other, important work to do.

[11:40] matociquala: I'm not getting my promised rain
[11:40] matociquala: just gray and sleepies
[11:41] cristalia: Yeah, I just woke up ten minutes ago.
[11:41] cristalia: Thanks to a telemarketer.  :p
[11:41] matociquala: booo
[11:41] cristalia: Well no, good, because I have to go to work in 40.  *g*
[11:41] cristalia: But it is very sleep-inducing out there.
[11:41] matociquala: hee
[11:42] cristalia: I suspect the meatpuppet slapped the alarm and went "clearly it is still night" and rolled over.
[11:42] matociquala: Now it says rain tonight
[11:42] matociquala: Hee
[11:42] matociquala: Yeah
[11:42] matociquala: I did get up and run
[11:42] matociquala: I am virtupus
[11:42] cristalia: woo virtupitude!
[11:43] matociquala: I need more tea.
[11:43] matociquala: brb
[11:43] beatriceeagle: Leah, that word is breaking my brain.
[11:43] cristalia: It's the state of being virtupus.
[11:43] cristalia: Which is clearly different from virtuous, so it can't be virtue.  *g*
[11:43] beatriceeagle: XD
[11:44] beatriceeagle: Well, I haven't been at all virtupus, but I did go to school today.  That must count for something.
[11:45] matociquala: virtupitude is like pulchritude.
[11:46] matociquala: only more virtupus.
[11:46] matociquala: I'm not entirely certain how virtupitude differs from virtue, but they are different.
[11:46] matociquala: virtupitude does not have the religious connotations.
[11:46] beatriceeagle: Okay...pulchritudinous may be my new favorite word.
[11:46] cristalia: I think virtupitude is more practically applied.
[11:46] matociquala: yes
[11:47] matociquala: Like, faith is a virtue, getting off your ass and doing the dishes is a virtupitude
[11:47] cristalia: yes.
[11:47] tanaise: it's goodness for the sake of goodness, not for godliness.
[11:47] matociquala: Yes!
[11:47] matociquala: Or goodness because it has other positive results.
[11:48] matociquala: like running is virtupus because it makes you strong and quick.
[11:48] tanaise: well, I see the second
[11:48] tanaise: goodness as being widely defined.
[11:48] beatriceeagle: Virtue is for virtue's sake.  Virtupitude is for something else's sake?
[11:48] matociquala: Yes.
[11:49] matociquala: Virtupitude has an immediate positive result.
[11:49] matociquala: It's practical.
[11:49] cristalia: Virtupitudes are tangibles.
[11:49] cristalia: Virtue's an intangible.
[11:49] tanaise: well, it's not always immediate, as in working out.
[11:49] tanaise: but it's not karma (necessarily), and it's not the next life. 
[11:50] matociquala: And good for children and pets and houseplants and other growing things.
[11:50] tanaise: clean dishes will just get dirty again, but for now and for a bit longer, they will be clean.
[11:50] matociquala: Aha!
[11:50] matociquala: Virtupitude is negentropy.
[11:50] cristalia: yes!
[11:50] beatriceeagle: Hee.
[11:58] matociquala: Alternately, virtupitude is the state of having done the dumb things you gotta do.
[11:59] tanaise: well, the only reason you have to do them is to defeat Chaos and Entropy
[11:59] matociquala: Well yes
[11:59] matociquala: but it is the state of touching the puppethead.

Progress notes for 26 March 2008

Logging yesterday's wordcount today! (I didn't get this done until about 1 am, what with one thing and another, and then I went to bed.)

Chill:

New words: 2514
Microsoft wordcount: 45077
Manuscript wordcount: 53000 (Chapter breaks, how I love you for inflating the hell out of my apparent wordcount.)
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: The P.C. decided I wasn't being enough fun, and went to go get stoned about halfway through the afternoon. I had great fun watching her make out with her catnip-filled zucchini, or whatever that thing is supposed to be. She's lost all her glitterballs under things again, which is usually my cue to sweep, but right now, I am deathmarching. (And you should see the state of my sink. Uck. Gross.)
Reason for stopping: Quota, chapter, tired.





Darling du jour: ruptured bulkheads frozen in twisted alloy petals like balloons captured at the moment of bursting
Tyop du jour: I'm sure I'll find one when I revise
Jury-rigging: Oh, my god. Did I actually just write lit up with a startled smile? I'd cut my hands off in penance, but I need them to climb. Nevermind, highlight it and fix it later, press on, press on.
There's always one more quirk in the character:  Tristen requests that, in future, he be allowed to skip all scenes relating to dead children. I have informed him that he needs to check his contract, and also that he knew the job when he signed up.

They never believe you'll follow through.

Today's words Word don't know:  viewports, karst (but it offers to correct it to "karsts"), cofarming, rebraided, jowled, cowled (I laugh at the coincidence), neurochemicals,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: metronomic, tilapia
Sustenance: Dirty rice from the freezer. Freezer food: the resource that makes possible a proper literary deathmarch. Well, that and cookies.
Mean Things: ghosts from the haunted past

Other writing-related work: none
Exercise: crunches. There was climbing, too, wherein I actually finished every route I tried, including two 5.7s (with a certain amount of flailing and dogging on the rope, but I think both climbs were reproducible, which is exciting, because so far my technique for anything harder than a 5.6 has been to flounder at it until I either get too tired, or, luck out and find some way up that I can never seem to find twice.) after which my forearms and triceps hurt so much I just did a 5.5 and two 5.6s on the slab. Also, I did some sun salutations to stretch out. Need to do more yoga. Maybe Saturday.

Good meatpuppet. Brave meatpuppet. You did good.

(Please note, use of "meatpuppet" here is highly ironic. I am all too aware of the fact that the body knows all sorts of stuff it doesn't tell the brain, and that the entire brain has all kinds of information it never tells the neocortex, and that the neocortex itself does tons of work it doesn't bother telling that little patch of the left brain that calls itself I and puts on airs. It's a little bit like the Reagan administration: we just give the big guy plausible deniability by never letting him find out anything that might disturb his afternoon nap and jelly bean snack.)

Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: In addition to "Yellow Submarine," I am learning "Breakdown." Which of course is in A minor, because it seems that if I like a song, it will inevitably be in A minor. I know more songs in A minor than anybody needs. But it is also the key that best suits my (limited, untrained, breathy-chick) voice.
Mail: nomail

Progress notes for 25 March 2008

I despair of this book. It has no plot, no character arcs, and not even a ghost of thematic resonance. I think part of the problem is that I have no idea what its argument is, and so I am just writing stuff and hoping my right brain knows what the fuck it's doing, because it's sure as hell not telling the left brain.

I just keep reminding myself, I didn't know what One-Eyed Jack & The Suicide King was about until the third draft, and that came out okay.

Oh book, what are you about?

Sigh.

Stupid book. Why can't you be more like your brother?


Chill:

New words: 2362
Microsoft wordcount: 42563
Manuscript wordcount: 50,000 
Deadline: May 1
Mammalian assistance: Mostly, these days, I work with a cat curled up against my thigh. Or draped over it. This suits us both, mostly. Except when I want to work on the desktop, and she pitches a fit. 
Reason for stopping: 13 hours is enough work for one day






Darling du jour: The mammoth was still screaming.
Tyop du jour: gradonflies
Jury-rigging: What the hell am I doing with this mammoth? Oh, look, a cobra!

Today's words Word don't know:  bioweapon, handsfuls, vambrace, debriding, coatsleeve, planetside, terraforming,
Words I'm Surprised Word Do Know: cambric
Sustenance: English muffins, nachos, lots of water
Other writing-related work: read Will's SU story.

Exercise: Climbing yesterday. Burned out on two 5.7s (One of which I have done before, but hey) and sent three 5.6s.
Miles to Lothlorien: 245.2
Guitar practice: cursory, but we made the attempt
Mail: I hear a rumor that the ARCs for Ink & Steel are out, though I have not yet seen one myself.

2001: Scientists think there is just a one in 20 chance that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) will collapse in the next 200 years.

2008: Satellite images show the runaway disintegration of a 220-square-mile chunk in western Antarctica.

Were we using that for anything? Well, sorta.

---

[12:30] tanaise: Did you see that Prince Caspian is coming out soon?
[12:30] stillsostrange: I did!
[12:30] tanaise: (my second least favorite of the books, of course,)
[12:30] stillsostrange: I love PC
[12:31] stillsostrange: Not as much as Dawn Treader, but enough
[12:31] matociquala: Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair are my true loves.
[12:31] matociquala: I actually no longer have Dawn Treader
[12:31] matociquala: I had the box set and I read that one until it fell apart.
[12:32] stillsostrange: They should get Tilda to be the lady in the Green Kirtle too
[12:32] matociquala: mmmmmmmmmm
[12:32] matociquala: Yes.
[12:32] matociquala: I am ALL ABOUT Reepicheep.
[12:33] stillsostrange: He is the best mouse
[12:33] matociquala: (Sweet! Sweet!)
[12:33] tanaise: Maybe they'll get Rizzo to play him.
[12:33] matociquala: heeee
[12:33] stillsostrange: the words "gay and martial mouse" aren't written often enough
[12:33] matociquala: Rizzo needs the work.
[12:33] matociquala: LOL
[12:33] tanaise: Amanda, whose fault is it, then?
[12:33] matociquala: Okay, so blogging this.

---

Here, have some pictures of a blue-eyed tobiano Gypsy Vanner stallion who looks remarkably like Whiskey. (Yes, the website design is terrible, but the ponies are pretty.) Hmm. Need movie deal, so I can afford a horse property, so I can have a pair of ponies.

[14:46] matociquala: we forgive the Christians many trespasses for the annual influx of jelly beans
[14:46] matociquala: especially the licorice ones
[14:47] cristalia: We forgive them for the paid day off right in the heart of essay-deadline season.  *g*
[14:47] matociquala: Hee
[14:48] matociquala: Good Friday isn't a formal holiday in the US
[14:48] cristalia: It's a stat here.  Everything closes.
[14:48] matociquala: *nod*
[14:48] cristalia: Alas, the Monday is optional and they're making me go to school.
[14:48] matociquala: Alas.
[14:48] matociquala: other people's holidays are nice
[14:49] matociquala: You get a day off without obligations
[14:51] cristalia: Yes.
[14:51] cristalia: Although the closing the grocery stores is less fun.
[14:51] matociquala: yes
[14:52] matociquala: mostly grocery stores do not close here
[14:52] matociquala: Or just in the afternoons on major holidays
[14:52] matociquala: because we are a soulless capitalist society that worships only convenience and the greenback dollar.
[14:52] matociquala: But we do get mail on Saturdays.

[15:51] cristalia: I really need the good Thai restaurant to deliver.
[15:51] cristalia: I have the beginnings of a cold in my ears.
[15:51] cristalia: I require tom kha.
[15:52] matociquala: tom kha cures all
[15:53] cristalia: O Green Mango, why do you forsake me?
[15:54] chrisbillett: Oh, Thai. Yes.
[15:59] stillnotbored: gah...I need more aspirin and sudafed
[15:59] stillnotbored: brb
[16:00] stillnotbored: *tries not to die loudly*
[16:01] stillnotbored: I think Bea gave me her internet flu
[16:02] matociquala: She was blaming Chaz's fictional flu as patient zero
[16:02] matociquala: so your flu isn't real
[16:02] stillnotbored: I'll inform my sinus cavities they are fictional
[16:02] chrisbillett: You have fictioned it!
[16:03] cristalia: *yells THE END at sinuses*
[16:03] stillnotbored: thank you
[16:04] matociquala: *sinuses produce beas*
[16:04] stillnotbored: that should do it
[16:04] matociquala: er, bears
[16:04] cristalia: *bears eat neighbours*
[16:04] matociquala: and bring back tom kha
[16:04] matociquala: everybody happy
[16:04] chrisbillett: Epilogue: Sinuses holiday in the south of France