Life proceeds

[aadler]

Fanfic writing issues

My entry for the cya_ficathon continues to grow, and over the past few days I’ve begun to gather momentum. I’d planned out seventeen segments, divided into five parts (chapters), and I’ve finished Part 3 and done the first segment in Part 4. That leaves five segments remaining, and — with luck — I can complete those before the end of the weekend. That will allow me a full two weeks to work on this year’s Remix Redux. Crunching things, but it does appear that I’ll be able to pull it off.

Physical fitness issues

I had just resumed a program of daily exercise when I came down sick from exposure to my daughter. That stretched out long enough that it started to impinge on time remaining … because, once again, my unit is doing a scheduled physical fitness test, and I’ll have to hustle to come in below the maximum weight allowed for me. Concerned about the delay, I instituted another measure: made a substantial bowl of tuna salad, and any time I get hungry I’ll cut half a stalk of celery into dipping strips, and eat such tuna salad as I can dip up until the celery is gone. It was only meant as a stopgap measure, but I’ve lost nine pounds in ten days, so I think I’ll continue it now that I’m (finally) able to resume regular exercise.

Social-political issues

• Why is one black kid killed in Florida a month ago — by a “white Hispanic” — a national issue, while the half-dozen or so black kids killed every week by black criminals barely even makes local news?
• When President Obama confided (he thought privately) to Dmitri Medvedev that he would have more ‘flexibility’ after the next election, all I could think was: So what we’ve been seeing — the most radical expansion of federal power since the Civil War, the most radical social engineering ever in the United States — is how he behaves when he feels constrained?
• I don’t know all the facts surrounding the actions apparently perpetrated by SSG Bales in Afghanistan. If his actions were what they appear to be, it was indefensible. However, I note that the event is (understandably) being termed a massacre, while MAJ Nidal Hassan’s equally despicable massacre of fellow soldiers at Fort Hood has now been officially designated as ‘workplace violence’. I know I’m one of those dreaded right-wing extremists, but something about that strikes me as a little bit off.
• I am now officially registered as an Independent. That probably means I won’t be able to vote in state primaries, but it was my own effort to send a message: Business as usual (from either side) won’t cut it anymore.

Grammar/language peeve of the day

Prophecy/prophesy: I see this all the time in Buffyfic. ‘Prophecy’ is a noun, denoting something that predicts or foreshadows the future. ‘Prophesy’ is a verb: to make a prophetic utterance. They are two different words, with different (if very close) spellings and different (if related) meanings.

And that’s it for now.