Thursday 6 November 2003

Pic of the day: Also nice as a pendant. I have considered passing it off as a pheromone detector, which blinks when in the same room as a sexy woman. Since it never blinks unless connected to a computer, this is a pretty safe bet. I love geek girls. ^.^

Memory stick / stuck

Today I bought a USB memory stick. I don't actually need it, but it is very cool. The original idea was that I would use it to transfer files between my various machines: My novel in progress, of course; downloaded goodies for my Sims; saved games; photographs. This should pretty much eliminate the need for a wireless home network, unless I plan to have several accounts at dark age of Camelot. And right now, DAoC is one of the last things on my mind.

One of the foremost things on my mind is of course my novel in progress. Like most of the more than 20 000 hopeful novelists (possibly the largest single creative force gathered since God rested on the seventh day...) I tend to obsess a little about my brainchild. (Actually, I don't think God is resting on his laurels; someone definitely seems to be scripting my life.) As the clock ticked its way toward midnight, and my arm was still hurting worse than any day in recent and not so recent memory, I had to admit bitter defeat: no new chapter today. I felt like weeping -- not that that would improve speech recognition! -- but resolved in my heart that tomorrow I will not touch the part of our office equipment that hurt my arm the most. By the time you read this, you should also be able to read chapter 9, if you so desire. (Novel is posted online here.)

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I have also been researching different types of romantic love (by which I mean to exclude love between parents and children, God and worshiper, real actual just friends and anything else with zero dating potential). There are still a lot of variants, and the different scientists cannot even agree on how to define them. Some operate with two different types, some with three, at least one with six and another with nine. Some of these types of mutually exclusive, such as "possessive" and " worshiping" (where you really really admire the person you love, not to be confused with actual religious worship... although they can certainly seem similar in some people!) Other types can be mixed or simply coexist. I guess I should have studied this before I started writing a romance novel...

As usual, blame all weirdness on the drunk, homesick Chinese exchange student who sits inside my PC and takes my dictation. Also called speech recognition software, more exactly "Dragon Naturally Speaking 7.0".