Reading: The Outer Coast by Richard Batman
Music: Joni Mitchell
TV/Movie: presidential address
Link o' the Day: On Thud and Blunder

Still pretty cold here in Providence, but not as bad as it was last week. No more frozen pipes. That’s one new thing I’ve been dealing with this year--frozen pipes and heaters. In my old apartment of 18 years I never once had to know how to use the boiler. I never once worried about frozen pipes. Now I’m checking the boiler twice a day and getting concerned that the pipes don’t freeze overnight. It’s all been a learning experience and nothing has burst so far. (I should note, however, that our latest cold snap was a 20-year record breaker. I’ve heard that my old apartment has since suffered some frozen and burst pipes following my departure.)

I’ve been doing some writing, which is a good thing. Not enough editing yet, but I’m getting words down on (electronic) paper. I finished the second draft of the Loel Rapp book last night, and tonight hope to finish PRIVATE EYELASHES. Even with this freelance plan, I should have time to write.

I’m not going to get into any excrutiating commentary on the presidential address last night other than to wonder out loud how the American people can swallow the misleading statements, smoke and mirrors, and outright lies. John Kerry said it best when he observed that this administration is all about saying one thing, then doing the other. We have got get this idiot and his government out of office before he runs this country completely into the ground. (Rant-mode off)

Speaking of rants--I’m pretty sure I’ve gone on this rant before, but it’s cropping up again, so I’m going to bitch about it some more:

I’m a typesetter. I take people’s raw materials and turn them into books, magazines, order forms, catalogs, brochures, etc. It’s pretty good work and it pays fairly well, but there are days when I’m ready to pack it all in and become a goat herder when I see people submit materials to me... receive the completed job... then they resubmit new raw materials to me because they neglected to edit it the first time, or they forgot to include some other important data. then I have to go and do the whole thing over again. Okay, sure... the customer pays for the re-do. They don’t complain. The customer I’m thinking of in particular is a big jewelry company in Rhode Island, and they have a lot of money to burn... but it’s the gross wastefulness of my time and their money that really irks me.

Fine. Mistakes happen. I can deal with that. But I’m about to reset a catalog form for the fifth time from scratch because the customer couldn’t be bothered to give the correct information the first, second, third, or fourth time. What should have been a $200 job has now cost them well over a thousand.

Now is that any way to run a business?

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Today’s link goes to an interesting and useful essay by Poul Anderson on one of the greatest pitfalls of fiction writing--On Thud and Blunder--that is, poor research and lack of realism. (Quiz: How far can you ride a mounted horse in a single day? How heavy is a broadsword? How much force is required to split an armored man in half with said sword?)

Enjoy!