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The Snowflake Process for Writing a Novel is an interesting approach. I may need to dust off my word processor (and of all things Excel) and see how it goes.

I’m not a huge fan of the goofy frame driven layout (what is this — 1998 people). But, I love the concept behind A Picture’s Worth. Most certainly worth a look or two.

For the longest time, I haven’t come across any music that seemed very interesting to me. And, the truth is that I don’t really go out looking for it too much anymore. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere.

I just saw the video for Girl Anachronism by The Dresden Dolls. Wow! There’s this tense kind of urgency to the music. It just builds and builds with a kind of seething undercurrent of anger to it. This is the sound of frustrated longing. Maybe it’s my mood, but I find it incredibly appealing. I want to check it out again tomorrow to see if I have the same reaction.

Drop me a comment if you know of anybody who has this same kind of sound going on. It sounds really fresh and interesting to me.

I know I use the word “Actually” way too frequently in my writing. I’ve actually used the thing 105 times as of Google’s last index of my site. It’s a lazy habit.

Occasionally I notice it and I cringe. I almost never bother to fix it though (I abuse “though” or “although” too (oh, and excessive parentheticals)). It’s good to be reminded, and Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) provides just such a reminder.

Here’s a trailer for a (non-existant) Batman and Superman movie. From the same guy who did that Batman versus Predator movie.

Some of it looks a little raw, but it’s still tremendously well done. The casting is crazy good. The story… Well, it’s hard to tell. I’d certainly see it though.

Things that will freak you right the hell out #457:
I’m just sitting there playing around on the internet with the TV going in the background. There may have been a little dozing off. Late night and early morning — you know how it goes.

All of a sudden, I smell smoke. Evil, burning plastic and metal horribly noxious smelling smoke. So now I’m wandering around my place sniffing to try to figure out if there’s an electrical fire or something going on in my walls. I’m a little light headed now as I type this — do you see how I put my site above my personal safety? I’m sick like that.

I think I have myself convinced it’s coming from outside. There’s an oil refinery or something down the road, and I’m wondering if they vented noxious gunk or something. But, that means I can’t open my windows to clear the air out. I’m stuck and still only barely convinced that my place isn’t on fire right now.

I’ll let you know how it goes — assuming I don’t burst into flames in my sleep tonight.

Update: Right after I made my entry, I went outside, and I didn’t smell anything there. I smelled it really bad in my living room though, so I decided it would be better to be safe than sorry. The first time I ever called 911.

The firetruck got here, and they didn’t smell anything, and when they invited me back up into my place, I couldn’t smell anything either. I feel like a complete fool now. I guess no fire is better than a fire. I hope I wasn’t pulling them away from something important though for my nervous nellying.

I’m very, very hungry right now. I MUST stop playing TextTwist while I still have strength to get to food.

Aaron Kraten has an interesting style of art. It’s sort of like a cross between illustration and assemblage. I like it.

Boy, I just can’t imagine my old alma mater asking me to pose nude for “official” photos when I was a freshman. I can’t believe that I would have gone along with it, but to judge by how many did, maybe I would have. I don’t know.

I find this story fascinating. I’d love to see these photos. Not just because I’m interested in seeing naked people — although sure, there is that. After a while that has to just disappear and then you’re left with a sociological view of such a bizarre ritual.

I thought I had a fairly decent, laymen’s gross understanding of String Theory. Boy, was I ever wrong. I’m just ever so confused after reading The Myth of the Beginning of Time, a Scientific American article from a few months ago.

I don’t even understand what problem they’re trying to solve. It seems reasonably obvious to me that a universe that grew out of a single occurrence would have homogeneous properties associated with it. I don’t understand why certain areas of the universe would need to be able to communicate with other areas to tell them how to behave.

Maybe it’s just that I don’t know the underlying maths, or maybe the model (or my understanding of the model) is too crude.

Anyway, it’s an interesting read if you’re interested in that kind of stuff.