Other end of the scale - Millions of words
Wikipedia have a tally of the longest books, some commentary on the number of words.
War and Peace 560,000 words...
Quality not quantity. OK, So War & Peace has a pretty good rep.
How Many Words Does It Take To Make A Book?
Good question - I got curious as to some stats -
the article found on this site is fairly interesting and a good place to start.
150,000 Words!
Momentum is building
rapidly in the final act of my novel. I have written more this week than in the past three months. It has taken me time to get back into the flow, to live and breath the characters. Once my base draft is complete I will be able to work more haphazardly on the book in edit mode. As by its very nature the edit will require a print, and a read, and another read and so on which will naturally steep me in the book, its characters, their motivations, connections and the narrative.
When you are writing for the first time however you are on the bleeding edge of the story and need all that history in your head. Its taken me three months to reactivate that essence fully after a rather long hiatus (~approx three years). Now the words are just flowing out.
As of such I breached the 150,000 word mark today! My previous novel was 155,000 words to put it in some perspective. I'm not obsessed with the number of words but it is a fairly good yardstick; not so much to make it "long enough" rather to ensure its not
too long.
The last few chapters are on the horizon now and my intent is to finish it over the next week.
Based on the story matter and the
reasoning behind "Infinity Drive" as a working title and where the story has managed to go in the past six years I have decided to graduate the working title to a full title.
As for why, and for what "Infinity Drive"
means you'll just have to buy the book! :-)
Evil in a Pint Glass?
This photo, taken in 2000 at a pub in Caterbury, Kent (England) seems to capture
something in the mix of glass, light, and beer of the shot.
Who knows what it is?
Mysterious Photos 'R' Us :-)
The big picture (Evil in a Pint Glass?)
Researching for novel...
So I'm researching for a scene in my 2nd novel, working title of which is Infinity Drive, and I need some information on how long you would be unconscious for if you were starved of oxygen. A space ship has just been purposefully ruptured by, for lack of a better word Pirates. They did it on purpose to knock the crew of this ship out to get the upper hand. I'm trying to see how much of an edge this will give them. Seems only a few min... anyway...
...that's another story (pun intended)
I found this crazy article on the web about forced unconsciousness... Weird hey!
More Zaino'd Car Pics
I call this one; Car meets tree art.
More Zaino'd Car Pics
mmmm shiny!
More Zaino'd Car Pics
Guitar Action
I can't take full credit for this shot. I spotted it, provided the camera etc... but I couldn't be bothered to get up from my wine & seat ;-) So Jackie executed, and of course has a sterling eye herself. Anyways, net effect was this team effort shot of Joe on guitar the other evening at our
Sacto leaving party.
I love this shot! :-)
Sacramento Sunset
California we will miss your skies :-)
Taken out of our back garden last night.
Memories.... old wheels remembered
We know which one is prettier, faster... but it had down sides too. Here is my old 8 post Zaino treatment.
Maybe I'll get a pic in the day time of my new wheels tomorrow... shinier than the ones I posted below me thinks :-)
Pics of my new baby
I've never spent that long washing (x2), clay baring (x1), polishing (x3), shine enhancing/protecting (x2) and detailing a car in my life. Even my RX-8 never got the full on treatment*. But it was worth it and thank you
Mr. Zaino! Net effect is better than new, show car quality finish! :-) Yes I'm proud of my work, besides it gave me an active day.
Of course the move to Washington will mean the front gets ruined with a license plate...
Other notable product used;
303 Aerospace protectant for 'rubber'/plastic edges to windows and door seals, dash and various plastic bits exposed to UV regularly.
The shame: this didn't even include an interior leather clean and protect... oh well, I'm sure I can find and hour later in the week for that :)
*I realise that with my 8 I had spent several times polishing her, say twice, or even polishing every weekend (or so) for a few months. Turns out with Zaino at least that its just as effective to polish the heck out of her in 1-2 days then maybe a follow up but then just clean and shine enhance after that - getting it down to a mere hour. Then clay bar twice a year (thus full treatment). And drop a coat of polish on every month or two.
Pics of my new baby
One of our favorite vineyards
Our goodbyes have been said
I must admit a pang of loss as I drove away from my RX-8 for the last time.
The car is apparently going to be 'branded' and then be sent to auction... Some street racer will buy it and get a really good deal. If you are gonna thrash it to within an inch of its life [every day] and you are car savvy you might not care about the problem. If your not that much of an enthusiast then you have a problem. Of course there could be a serious problem lurking in there and I might just have done exactly the right thing.
Bye bye Mazda, Hello Audi
I bought a Mazda RX-8 back in April of 2006. It had 6,000 miles on the clock. Since then its been in the shop about 12 times due to a check engine light (CEL). The CEL can come on for 100+ reasons. Mine kept coming on for a rear-rotar misfire (its not a piston engine).
I developed a good rapport with Jim Philpot of Great Valley Mazda in Sacramento and he did all he could for me. Replacing spark plugs, flashing the cars ECU, new cables, running it through various machines. Nothing could identify the problem. The engine looked fine. But the CEL kept coming on. Under acceleration and "high load". something that in a 6 speed manual sports car you don't really expect.
To cut a long story short Mazda got involved and I am meeting them in 2 hrs to hand over the car, they are doing a "buy back". The RX-8 was very fun. You couldn't throw it around and abuse it like no other car I have ever driven on a regular basis. But it was just far to frustrating.
With our impending move to Seattle, worse weather, worse traffic, lots of options for wet and/or snow driving opportunities I was looking for an AWD. After test driving the Mazdaspeed 6 - would be a chore in heavy traffic with its heavy clutch, and only mediocre interior build quality, BMW's and Audi's I opted for an ex-loaner dealio on a 2006 A4 Quattro. It actually grips those corners almost as well as the RX-8 (in the dry) but in the wet it will be another story all together. Its also very comfortable with some nice low key luxury. And it is after all fun, maybe not quite the same fun as the 8 but fun all the same. The 8 was also a little more precise in steering and of course its acceleration and torque curve as on a different (rotary) planet.
And of course Marisa is comfortable driving it as well... perhaps a little too much so ;-)
All opinions stated are my own, etc. etc.
Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography
I've been reading quite allot recently... Prior to Frankl's masterpiece I finished Ben's auto bio. In fact Joe Vahle who lent it to me joined me for lunch on Wednesday where we celebrated Ben's birthday. I digress. It is a fascinating account of both early America but also of a man determined to better himself.
The first half is outstanding and a totally joy to read. This first part was written of letters to his son providing guidance and advice in the way to life a fruitful and productive life. The later part of the book was written many years later and isn't as griping but is where much of the interest in the early US is exposed.
Like Frankl's book it is also a quick read although not quite as much so as the aforementioned work.
Man's Search For Meaning
I have recently finished reading
this book by Viktor Frankl and I must say it is phenomenal. A personal account of life in the concentration camps and the perspective this gave Frankl, a psychotherapist on how we are humans think and feel was both inspiring and bred hope.
Its a very quick read and quite frankly I can't recommend it enough. He also goes on to expand on his theory of logotherapy, "meaning-therapy", responsibility and suffering as being as much a component of life and as creating and enjoying.
Camera "advice"
Do you want to get into digital SLR photography? Three friends have asked me this recently. Knowing I'm no pro, not an over-zealous amature they knew my advice would be both skewed but realistic from an every day "joe" perspective.
Nikon have been fighting back at Canon's dominance in the market with their latest value offerings. When looking at a comparison its hard. My father has a Nikon for example. His shots taken on their round last big trip to South America were stunning, in particular the dolphins dancing with the bow of the boat. However his 'normal' shots prior to our wedding seemed lacking color and richness of those taken with my 20D. I think he has a D100 Nikon, its a few years old of course. I'm sure he could fix these 'problems' in the camera settings.
Either way I love my Canon... especially with my new 50mm lens! When push comes to shove it might all be swings and roundabouts.
A friends fight with cystic fibrosis
A friend of mine has been dealing with cystic fibrosis his whole life, going through the trials and tribulations of the possibility and hope of operations that will help him. He has also started a blog to chronicle his experience.
These well written accounts are insightful, inspiring and interesting.
From our wedding
Marisa is propped up by the lads post ceremony :)
50mm Dip
I had lots of lovely Christmas presents this year but the king of the crop was a spanking new 50mm 1.4F Canon USM lens for my 20D.
I love this lens!
It has opened up a whole new world of photography for me! I thought portraiture was boring before. I've changed my mind :-)
Here is some olive oil and vinegar at Michelangelo's resturant in Sacramento. Everything is in camera - no postproduction work!
Keeping LinkedIN Useful
Hello & Happy New Year!
I love LinkedIN… its fun to see your network grow and get those inside connections. It reminds me of the “6 Degrees of Bacon’ game where you connect any actor to Kevin Bacon through only 6 degrees. Its amazing to see the connections you have just through 3 degrees on LinkedIN!
The Bad News
LinkedIN is getting ABUSED… you’ve probably noticed it as much as I have. With Intel going through all these changes it has it leaves many people looking for jobs. Many of those people are abusing the “work colleagues” section of LinkedIN to just ‘grow’ their network arbitrarily. Worse yet many recruiters are pretending to have worked at companies to just get connections…
The more this happens the less value there is in connections. The less value there is in LinkedIN and the less likely it will ever help you be successful. I want to use LinkedIN to find business contacts and if there are is no value in apparent connections because of arbitrary ones then its not going to be of any use, no one will care. LinkedIN will die. Keeping it alive is up to us as linkedinziens! The power of networking is clear, lets keep LinkedIN useful!
THE GOOD NEWS
You can keep it useful! But how? When you get an invitation to connect from someone you don’t know, don’t just ‘REJECT’ it… click on ‘REPORT ABUSE’. If we work together we can keep the LinkedIN community valuable to us all!
Happy Networking!
P.S. No I don’t work for LinkedIN, I’m just a concerned linkedinzien… :-)
This photo, taken in 2000 at a pub in Caterbury, Kent (England) seems to capture something in the mix of glass, light, and beer of the shot.
I call this one; Car meets tree art.
I can't take full credit for this shot. I spotted it, provided the camera etc... but I couldn't be bothered to get up from my wine & seat ;-) So Jackie executed, and of course has a sterling eye herself. Anyways, net effect was this team effort shot of Joe on guitar the other evening at our Sacto leaving party.
California we will miss your skies :-)
We know which one is prettier, faster... but it had down sides too. Here is my old 8 post Zaino treatment.
I've never spent that long washing (x2), clay baring (x1), polishing (x3), shine enhancing/protecting (x2) and detailing a car in my life. Even my RX-8 never got the full on treatment*. But it was worth it and thank you Mr. Zaino! Net effect is better than new, show car quality finish! :-) Yes I'm proud of my work, besides it gave me an active day.
Marisa is propped up by the lads post ceremony :)
I had lots of lovely Christmas presents this year but the king of the crop was a spanking new 50mm 1.4F Canon USM lens for my 20D.
