#WritersCoffeeClub (Sep) 1: Intro: Shameless Self Promotion.
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Next came the vignettes I've been working on for ~7 months. Those get me into the minds of various characters, and have helped me fill in various aspects of recent history. Many of them have led me to ask myself questions that looped back into the world-building, so it's been kind of iterative. 2/3
Along the way, I've also been making notes about things that I want to happen in the plot. Most of those have been in the first 5 chapters, though there are definitely some later ones. More recently, those vague plot notes have been coming together into an outline for the first 5 chapters. 3/3
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Along the way, I've also been making notes about things that I want to happen in the plot. Most of those have been in the first 5 chapters, though there are definitely some later ones. More recently, those vague plot notes have been coming together into an outline for the first 5 chapters. 3/3
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 23: Do you write under a pseudonym? Would you?
No. I suppose I might, if there were some good reason to do so, but I don't currently have one.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 23: Do you write under a pseudonym? Would you?
No. I suppose I might, if there were some good reason to do so, but I don't currently have one.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 24: What's the most challenging part of the writing process for you?
I haven't yet been through the whole writing process. So far, the most challenging part has been maintaining my motivation over such a long time, and especially after the election.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 24: What's the most challenging part of the writing process for you?
I haven't yet been through the whole writing process. So far, the most challenging part has been maintaining my motivation over such a long time, and especially after the election.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 25: How do you decide on character names?
A combination of sound/feel, meaning, and what was popular at the time the character was born.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 25: How do you decide on character names?
A combination of sound/feel, meaning, and what was popular at the time the character was born.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 26: What's the best feedback you've ever received on your writing?
Given that "best" doesn't always mean "most joyfully received", I think the best feedback I've gotten may well have been when my partner let me know that a couple of moments in vignettes, where I intended one character to be sincerely comforting another, _did not_ land the way I'd hoped, and actually made the efforts at comfort look really awkward and feigned. 1/2
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 26: What's the best feedback you've ever received on your writing?
Given that "best" doesn't always mean "most joyfully received", I think the best feedback I've gotten may well have been when my partner let me know that a couple of moments in vignettes, where I intended one character to be sincerely comforting another, _did not_ land the way I'd hoped, and actually made the efforts at comfort look really awkward and feigned. 1/2
I'm still trying to fix those situations, but I'm glad to at least know about the problem. 2/2
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I'm still trying to fix those situations, but I'm glad to at least know about the problem. 2/2
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: If Hollywood wanted to adapt one of your books but change almost everything, would you do it?
Fuck no.
If they want to change everything, then they don't want *my* book at all. They want their own thing. They can damned well do that without me.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 27: If Hollywood wanted to adapt one of your books but change almost everything, would you do it?
Fuck no.
If they want to change everything, then they don't want *my* book at all. They want their own thing. They can damned well do that without me.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 28: Do you try to give readers what they want or strive for originality? A balance?
Well, some readers say, truthfully, that they want to read things that are original...
Really, I don't see them as in opposition. I'm really just trying to write what I feel moved to, and I trust that there will be people out there who want to read that.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 28: Do you try to give readers what they want or strive for originality? A balance?
Well, some readers say, truthfully, that they want to read things that are original...
Really, I don't see them as in opposition. I'm really just trying to write what I feel moved to, and I trust that there will be people out there who want to read that.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: What did you edit out of your most recent book?
I gather this intends something bigger than a couple of words here and there, and is more along the lines of chapters, plotlines, or characters who had to be removed. So, I'm not yet at the point where I'm making big edits like that; all I've done is minor edits on vignettes.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 29: What did you edit out of your most recent book?
I gather this intends something bigger than a couple of words here and there, and is more along the lines of chapters, plotlines, or characters who had to be removed. So, I'm not yet at the point where I'm making big edits like that; all I've done is minor edits on vignettes.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: As of now, how many stories have you written? How many more do you have planned?
So far? Something like 0.01.
Taking the loosest possible interpretation of "planned"... 5 for sure (well, 4.99), and some of those might grow into more, and also I might get more ideas somewhere along the way.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 30: As of now, how many stories have you written? How many more do you have planned?
So far? Something like 0.01.
Taking the loosest possible interpretation of "planned"... 5 for sure (well, 4.99), and some of those might grow into more, and also I might get more ideas somewhere along the way.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: Does your work make you laugh when you read it back?
Only the funny bits.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 1: Does your work make you laugh when you read it back?
Only the funny bits.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: From all your work, who's your favourite character?
I don't really "do" single favorite things.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 2: From all your work, who's your favourite character?
I don't really "do" single favorite things.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: Do you agree with Tolstoy, who said, "The best stories come not from the conflict between good and evil, but from the conflict between good and good."
I've learned to be very wary of these quotes, but this one seems straightforward enough, regardless of context.
Anyway, I disagree with it regardless. 1/4
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 3: Do you agree with Tolstoy, who said, "The best stories come not from the conflict between good and evil, but from the conflict between good and good."
I've learned to be very wary of these quotes, but this one seems straightforward enough, regardless of context.
Anyway, I disagree with it regardless. 1/4
Sure, Casablanca had an element of good-vs-good (although it sure as hell also had good-vs-evil, and that was the underpinning of one of its most powerful and iconic scenes — the Marseillaise overcoming the Nazis' singing).
But how about some other timeless and highly-regarded tales?
No matter what you think of the rest of the series, Star Wars episodes 4 and 5 are epic and excellent, and they're both straightforward good-vs-evil stories. 2/4
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Sure, Casablanca had an element of good-vs-good (although it sure as hell also had good-vs-evil, and that was the underpinning of one of its most powerful and iconic scenes — the Marseillaise overcoming the Nazis' singing).
But how about some other timeless and highly-regarded tales?
No matter what you think of the rest of the series, Star Wars episodes 4 and 5 are epic and excellent, and they're both straightforward good-vs-evil stories. 2/4
The Lord of the Rings has some complexities and sub-conflicts on both the good and evil sides, but overall, it's another good-vs-evil tale.
How about the Iliad? It's difficult to identify a real "good" (or "evil") side there, but it'd be almost impossible to call it "good versus good". The Epic of Gilgamesh has stood the test of time even more than Homer's work, and it's not really good-vs-good, either. 3/4
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The Lord of the Rings has some complexities and sub-conflicts on both the good and evil sides, but overall, it's another good-vs-evil tale.
How about the Iliad? It's difficult to identify a real "good" (or "evil") side there, but it'd be almost impossible to call it "good versus good". The Epic of Gilgamesh has stood the test of time even more than Homer's work, and it's not really good-vs-good, either. 3/4
How about Shakespeare? A couple of his most highly-esteemed plays are Hamlet and Macbeth. Neither of those could remotely be considered good-vs-good.
Basically, Tolstoy sounds pretty full of shit there. I'm honestly curious what stories he had in mind. 4/4
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How about Shakespeare? A couple of his most highly-esteemed plays are Hamlet and Macbeth. Neither of those could remotely be considered good-vs-good.
Basically, Tolstoy sounds pretty full of shit there. I'm honestly curious what stories he had in mind. 4/4
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 4: Have you ever written anything you thought was terrible and saved it in the edit?
Not yet. I'm sure it'll happen at some point.
[Edit: Actually, after seeing many other, more experienced writers' responses to this question, I'm no longer sure it'll ever happen. It seems to be a rare thing!]
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 4: Have you ever written anything you thought was terrible and saved it in the edit?
Not yet. I'm sure it'll happen at some point.
[Edit: Actually, after seeing many other, more experienced writers' responses to this question, I'm no longer sure it'll ever happen. It seems to be a rare thing!]
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: Add one word to the name of a famous novel to completely change the meaning.
The Lord of the Onion Rings
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 5: Add one word to the name of a famous novel to completely change the meaning.
The Lord of the Onion Rings
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 6: Sentence fragments? Punchy? Cliché? Essential? Wrong? What's a sentence fragment?
Fine. Useful, oftentimes! But not a thing that should be overused.
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#WritersCoffeeClub Day 6: Sentence fragments? Punchy? Cliché? Essential? Wrong? What's a sentence fragment?
Fine. Useful, oftentimes! But not a thing that should be overused.
#WritersCoffeeClub Day 7: What do you think is the most critical element in storytelling?
Having a story? And telling it?
Gli ultimi otto messaggi ricevuti dalla Federazione
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@gam3 we are not
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@gilmae that's interesting! Elaborate. What happened in 1959?
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@bert_hubert @vitaut also it should be kept in mind that the ZX Spectrum was released before the IEEE-754 standard, and the standard itself was developed *because* the were a lot of incompatible and some honestly frankly horrid systems around, not just Sinclair's stuff.
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@quinn you do your professional writing on bbedit?
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Building a Multi-Channel Pipette for Parallel Experimentation
One major reason for the high cost of developing new drugs and other chemicals is the sheer number of experiments involved; designing a single new drug can require synthesizing and testing hundreds or thousands of chemicals, and a promising compound will go through many stages of testing. At this scale, simply performing sequential experiments is wasteful, and it’s better to run tens or hundreds of experiments in parallel. A multi-channel pipette makes this significantly simpler by collecting and dispensing liquid into many vessels at once, but they’re, unfortunately, expensive. [Triggy], however, wanted to run his own experiments, so he built his own 96-channel multi-pipette for a fiftieth of the professional price.
The dispensing mechanism is built around an eight-by-twelve grid of syringes, which are held in place by one plate and have their plungers mounted to another plate, which is actuated by four stepper motors. The whole syringe mechanism needed to move vertically to let a multi-well plate be placed under the tips, so the lower plate is mounted to a set of parallel levers and gears. When [Triggy] manually lifts the lever, it raises the syringes and lets him insert or remove the multi-well. An aluminium extrusion frame encloses the entire mechanism, and some heat-shrink tubing lets pipette tips fit on the syringes.
[Triggy] had no particularly good way to test the multi-pipette’s accuracy, but the tests he could run indicated no problems. As a demonstration, he 3D-printed two plates with parallel channels, then filled the channels with different concentrations of watercolors. When the multi-pipette picked up water from each channel plate and combined them in the multi-well, it produced a smooth color gradient between the different wells. Similarly, the multi-pipette could let someone test 96 small variations on a single experiment at once. [Triggy]’s final cost was about $300, compared to $18,000 for a professional machine, though it’s worth considering the other reason medical development is expensive: precision and certifications. This machine was designed for home experiments and would require extensive testing before relying on it for anything critical.
We’ve previously looked at the kind of miniaturization that made large-scale biology possible and some of the robots that automate that kind of lab work. Some are even homemade.
youtube.com/embed/2TTu-Lkz2Eo?…
Thanks to [Mark McClure] for the tip!
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@impermanen_ I think I lost 20% of my hearing just looking at the image. ;-)
Must have been pretty loud for whoever took the photo!
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Apache OpenOffice lists download information here, for everyone who is interested:
https://www.openoffice.org/stats/downloads.html
They say there have been about 390M downloads total. From the stats, I'm estimating somewhere in the low tens of thousands of downloads per day.
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@evan I used Word most recently on Friday, working on a proposal.
But on the other hand I used Jupyter -> LaTeX -> Emacs -> pdf on Tuesday, a publishing system that gave me much more pleasure. Not something that my colleagues will realistically repeat though.
