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Friday, March 30, 2012

Just musing.

[Mostly written 15-March-2012.]

I have a really cool job.

I get to look up all sorts of weird things, neat things, things I probably never would have stumbled into on my own. There's also trying to figure out how to phrase something so the Web will like it, or understand -- or not give me really peculiar and/or unhelpful and/or frustrating answers.

Someone said to me once, "You get to read everything before it comes out!" and that threw me. I don't. I mean, not everything. If I worked on every book I read, I might not love reading quite so much.

No, scratch that. It'd be tiring. I could never work on as many books as I've read. Working on books involves a lot more than just reading.

I've been grateful, rereading a Patricia McKillip book, that I didn't work on it. I get to see all the pretty parts flow by. Fool's Run is a great book. I didn't know how to copy edit when I first read it years ago. Many years ago.

I know that... because I remember quoting it on newsgroups in the 90s. :)


But I love my job.

This week. :) When I get to the stage where I pull out my hair, that's another kettle of fish entirely. I don't think I'll be pulling out hair with this book... ETA: Famous last words, eh?


Sunday, March 11, 2012

Defining history...

Just watched Game Change. [Warning: Link has spoilers if you haven't seen it yet.]

It was riveting. Just as The Social Network was.

I suspect it'll have a similar impact; even though it's a movie, it -- like any movie -- is a work of fiction. I'm not slamming HBO's work. Far from it.

But even though when you see a movie you know it's not real, you've seen it. On some level, it becomes real for you. It's defined events whether you saw them or not.

This isn't like The King's Speech in that there's considerable decades from 2008. Putting the three together, Game Change, The Social Network, and The King's Speech... it's pretty safe to say that for many viewers, that is how those stories will be perceived.

I don't necessarily feel the same way for all three, though; only two have characters I really care about. I think Bertie and Lowe are marvelous people, and probably always will.

And that applies to the sympathetic figures of Game Change too: Steve Schmidt, Nicole Wallace, and yes, even Sarah Palin some of the time.

Game Change was brilliant. Wow.

ETA: When Nicole cries, I nearly cried myself. How shattering it must have been, to be a political operative, and to make that choice on Election Day.


Saturday, March 3, 2012

CRACK!

Last night, we were watching Bill Maher... and heard this awful noise, somewhere between an explosion and a gunshot.

The wind picked up in a big way.

And that's how we found out about the windstorm. It was a doozy. Outside the house -- which we couldn't see before 11pm, naturally -- two trees have fallen. Matchsticks is the word that comes to mind. I'm certain at least four fell within our hearing last night.

The storm's not gone, as the wind still rises every so often. I stayed up last night because it was too loud to sleep. Mind you, I wanted to be asleep.

No tornadoes here. Chainsaws, yes. A neighbor or two are buzzing away merrily.

[Maybe that's not how they see it, but when you've listened to the monthly tornado siren test, and heard it end quite gratefully, then chainsaws are not what you want to hear. Not when the winds were still loud past 7:30am!]

Okay, now I'm rambling. I'm considerably less awake than I'd prefer to be. :/

On the plus side, several times after midnight, I thought the winds had died down. Or stopped. They were considerably muffled from where I sit now. :)