The early bird can have the stupid worm

I've been up for about 45 minutes now. At about 6 am I'm going to walk out the door so I can make the thirty minute drive and then navigate the obstacle course. I am not a morning person, which is an incredible understatement. Kind of analogous to ...forget it, it's too early for my brain to think of analogies. Suffice it to say that I am so tired of being sleepy all the time. And if they start asking me questions in the morning meeting, I pray I can give more than a blank stare.

Anyway, thank you God for this day. Help me wake up. Help me be thankful for a job that pays the bills and keeps everybody fed, clothed, and housed.

That is all.

Dragon Song

It's pretty cool how having children can bring you full circle on things. I was putting my oldest to bed the other night and he asked me for a 'made up story'. So I made up a story about me and him and a dragon that took us for a ride over the trees. After the story he asked me to sing him a song. Sometimes I sing the song, "Now the day is over, Night is drawing nigh" (not sure of the title), but on this particular night I asked him what song he wanted me to sing.

He said, "A dragon song."

Well, I know only one dragon song. (I know it because of all of my mama's 45s that I used to play when I was little.) Really it's the only dragon song I'm aware of and, in my opinion, the only one worth knowing.

I could only remember the first verse and the chorus, which I kept on repeating. But you should have seen him smile.

After I told him goodnight, I got online and decided to check youtube to see if I could find Peter, Paul, and Mary singing the song. I found them, of course. And something I'd almost forgotten.

There was a cartoon made of the song back in the seventies. I remember really digging that cartoon. Watching it again, I remembered how I identified with Jackie Draper (who was turned into Jackie Paper in the cartoon), how he wanted to talk but couldn't. And how he was afraid of a lot of things. Then I got to reading the comments about the cartoon and some insightful person had posted a diagnosis for Jackie.


Autism.

That gave me something to think about. Anyway, me and the boys watched all three parts of it on youtube during supper tonight. There's a lot of good learning cartoons on television nowadays; Dora, Franklin, Arthur. But (again my opinion), they pale in comparison to this one, twenty-five minute, cartoon.

Here it is at google video, which is better quality than the youtube posting. It really is a great little show. And a great song.

By the way, I know there's a lot of speculation that the song is full of symbolic drug references. The writers claim it is not, but is instead about growing up and leaving childhood and innocence behind. I choose to believe them. I also choose to believe that you don't have to completely grow up. Actually, I know it for a fact, since there were three little boys at the supper table tonight; two were watching a cartoon for the first time...

...while the other was relearning the Dragon Song.

Best Rejection so far

Most of you know that I write with the hopes of being published. For my short stories I usually get the typical form letter rejection.

The last form rejection I got looked like this:

We are honored that you have given us the opportunity to consider your work. Though we are unable to use your submission entitled "..........." at this time, we encourage you to keep writing and to submit again.

That's a nice, to the point, form rejection.

At the end of last year I got this form rejection, but with a note added which said NB (not bad) and suggested other publications:

Immense time pressures necessitate this reversion to a standardised reply, for which the submission devouring destroying analysing equipment apologises (and for the purple prose, as well…;-). In short: this is not for us, but – you never know – it might be for someone else.

NB: this is a nice piece of literary fantasy, but it's not really suitable for us. Much more one for markets such as On Spec, Strange Horizons or TQR, I think.

That was from Interzone, which is European, hence the alternate spellings.

My latest, and best rejection came this week:

I am saying no to this, but I look forward to seeing more from you. I am passing along the slush reader's feedback in the hope that it is useful to you:

This was a well-written story that began intriguingly enough for me to keep reading. Unfortunately, some of the character relationships strike me as unimaginative, contrived, and/or underdeveloped--which is a shame, because I wanted to like these characters, and better understand why they liked each other. Ultimately, the ending is disappointingly pat (and decidedly nonfantastical), which is the main reason why I gave it a pass.

This is the best because it came from the editor, to which it was routed by the slush reader. Also, I got some feedback I can use.

When I get more time I'm going to write something new.

First and Ten

I am not a sports fan (Except for six-year-olds and Soccer!), but here is something that I always wondered about that I found the answer to today.




The first and ten line, how do they do it?
The following is pasted from the source that explained it to me: (Don't have a byline or whatnot, but who needs credit for something they probably stole anyway.)

First introduced in 1998, the virtual yellow line also known as the
"First and Ten" line, is a computer-generated tool to help television
viewers distinguish how many yards a team needs to go to get a first
down. While it may seem like a simple detail, the "First and Ten" line
system is vastly sophisticated, requiring eight computers, three sets of
special encoders and abundant wiring, dedicated to generating the
virtual first down line in video format.

Here's how it works:

* Each field-side camera must have a very sensitive encoder
attached to it that reads the camera's angle, tilt and zoom and sends
that information to the system.

* The system uses a complex 3-D model of the field so that it
knows where each yard line is. By integrating the tilt, pan and zoom
information with the 3-D model, the system can calculate where the line
should go.

* Then the system uses color palettes to identify objects on the
field, like players and referees, to recognize whether it is looking at
the field or something else. This way, only the field gets painted - not
the football or the players.

Pretty darn impressive.

Soccer: the motion picture.

Here is my boy, bringing it in. After that some mayhem, confusion, and just plain old fun. Six-year-olds and sports, it just don't get no better than that.

Soccer!

I've got some video footage that will go up once Youtube finishes processing it. In the meantime here are some pictures of the most fierce soccer players on the planet:

Defense!

The heat of battle.

9/11

The History Channel has a special on right now. Footage of the towers falling. It still makes me furious and ties my stomach in knots.

Europe - the final countdown!

In honor of the ol' Hadron Collider firing up tomorrow and setting the coming apocalypse in motion, I give you this.

Paradise by John Prine

Stayed home today cause I'm sick. I was talking about music at work yesterday and John Prine came up. So here's an old song that shows all that is awesome about Prine.

Steve Earle just wishes he was this good.

Meddling scientists.

Check this out.

So four years after this 'experiment', the world could come to a cataclysmic end? That would make it what? 2012?

And probably on December 21st too.

Dang meddling scientists!

Happy Birthday!

Today is my beloved's birthday. She is my best friend and the most amazing person I am honored to know. Happy birthday sweet girl!

One reason why I will not vote for Obama

Abortion is murder.

I'm stealing this one from Will

After last night's convention, I can only say that Will appears to be 100% right about Sarah Palin.

She is indeed the female Chuck Norris.