Fast Fiction

I wasn’t planning on doing a top ten list or any resolutions.

But here’s a review of the great things that happened (or I made happen) in 2005:

• I saw a blue whale, the largest animal on earth.

• I saw thousands of common dolphins off of the Southern California Coast

• I saw a dozen Pacific Gray Whales

• I saw Elephant Seals in San Simeon (okay, I’ve seen those before, but they were very active this time)

• I went to three weddings (okay, one was a reception): Will & Susan, Laura & Frank and Laura & Terry

• I went to New York City, Morro Bay, Pittsburgh (x2), Hershey, Youngstown (x2), Catalina, Santa Barbara (x2) and San Francisco (x2)

• I visited three candy factories: Jelly Belly, Scharffen Berger & Harry London Chocolates

• I had Jury Duty at Los Angeles Superior Court. I served my one day where I was put on one panel and was dismissed when they got what they needed then dismissed at the end of the day when I didn’t make it on any other panels.

• I wrote my fifth novel (I’ve now written over 250,000 words of fiction in the past five years)

• I took over 10,000 photos, probably 5,000 of them of candy (but only about 500 of them were good)

• I started a new play based on my 2004 novel, An Alphabetical Order. It still needs work and a third act, but it’s the first new thing I’ve started in over five years, so it’s progress.

• I’ve been on the radio twice: Good Food and Radio Open Source and that has since been remixed: Universal Passion.

• I started a new blog and have reviewed over 250 candies.

• I moved FastFiction and am starting a subsite for my playwriting.

Next year I plan to travel more, Chicago for the All Candy Expo, a trip to New York City, a vacation or two, a visit to the family back east and of course more whalewatching trips. Another novel, finish the current play maybe write a non-fiction book about candy (well, you knew that was coming, right?). It’s an exciting time.

Today was the annual traning trip for the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium’s whale watch docent naturalist program.

I was worried that the trip would be canceled for bad weather, after all, we have huge swells hitting our coast from storms far out in the Pacific, but today was remarkably calm. Even though it was raining when I left the house, I called the landing to get confirmation that things were a go. And they were. It was still drizzly as we left on the Voyager but the water was glassy and the swells were rather tame.

Unlike a regular whale watching trip, this one was led by no less than a half-dozen naturalists including: Diana McIntyre, Bernardo Alps, Diane Alps, Alisa Schulman-Janiger and John Olguin. Though the whales eluded us (it’s still early in the season) we did find two pods of long-beaked common dolphins. The first was a large one with probably 800 individuals feeding on some herring (or some other small silvery fish) along with a large variety of gulls and pelicans with the occasional sea lion thrown in.

But you really just wanna see photos, right? Click for larger versions:

Rocky Point as seen from the boat.

Common Dolphin pod.

Long-beaked common dolphin.

Possibly the same long-beaked common dolphin.

Palos Verdes Peninsula as seen from Santa Monica Bay

A Brown Pelican in breeding plumage.

This was the tree on Christmas Eve. It looks rather different now as all the presents are either distributed or opened.

(Okay, I photoshopped that hat on her. There’s no way she’s sit there so accomodatingly with a real one. Click on the photo for larger lameness.)

I got lots of candy (shock!) and I’m thrilled with all of it. My father even sent me pounds and pounds (I’m not kidding) of various kinds of Wilbur which means I’ll be making candy very soon because there’s no way I’m eating three pounds of unsweetened baking chocolate. I also got a home photo studio setup for taking, so look forward to both fresh candy and copious photos of it all! My mother also gave The Man and me a wonderful gift this year as she adopted a dozen kids at a rescue mission and got Christmas gifts for all of them - what a wonderful way to spread the joy of the season around.

In other news the waves are still high here in Southern California and they’re calling for rain. Even if the skies are clear, the large swells may keep the boat at the dock so no whalewatching. My hopes are high for Friday though.

I passed my whalewatching naturalist test!

(None of you doubted me, did you?)

So, I get to go out on Monday for the training trip (out of Redondo Beach on the Voyager) and then on my first trip as a veteran whalewatch naturalist on Friday the 30th through Spirit Cruises at Ports ‘o Call.

You can now expect many photos of cetaceans and other sea-related things.

So The Man is on his way out to buy a Chistmas tree for us.

One problem.

I can’t find the decorations. I have two boxes, maybe you’ve seen them around? One is a plastic Rubbermaid bin with a piece of white fabric gaffer’s tape on it that says CHRISTMAS on it? There’s another file box, too that also has the word Christmas scrawled in black with as Sharpie marker? Anyone see those around the house?

It’s been three years since we’ve been home, so the last time we had a tree was before the kitchen remodel. I’ve looked everywhere they could be ... but the list of places I don’t think they are but could be is much longer. Sigh. Maybe we’re getting new ornaments this year.

UPDATE: I found one of them. The Rubbermaid tub. Apparently that “marking them” thing works much better if you do it on both ends ... or at least stack the tub so that the label is facing out.

Marine Biology Mystery Solved: Function of “Unicorn” Whale’s 8-foot Tooth Discovered

After hundreds of years of guessing, Harvard Medical School announced what they believe to be the purpose of the Narwhal’s tusk.

The Narwhal is a small toothed whale (member of the Odoncete suborder) that lives in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Males grow to be about 15 feet and weigh about 3,500 pounds and females slightly smaller at 13 feet and a slimmer 2,000 pounds. They are unique in the world of cetaceans in that they have a single tusk, which is a modified tooth grows in corkscrew fashion from their left jaw. Many are up to nine feet long, which means that they may be two thirds as long as their body. Unlike most Acrtic whales, the Narwhal does not migrate south but they do move around in larger groups within the Arctic Ocean from the shores to more open ocean as ice floes cover areas.

Nweeia has discovered that the narwhal’s tooth has hydrodynamic sensor capabilities. Ten million tiny nerve connections tunnel their way from the central nerve of the narwhal tusk to its outer surface. Though seemingly rigid and hard, the tusk is like a membrane with an extremely sensitive surface, capable of detecting changes in water temperature, pressure, and particle gradients. Because these whales can detect particle gradients in water, they are capable of discerning the salinity of the water, which could help them survive in their Arctic ice environment. It also allows the whales to detect water particles characteristic of the fish that constitute their diet. There is no comparison in nature and certainly none more unique in tooth form, expression, and functional adaptation.

This is a totally cool adaptation as far as I’m concerned. Much like a lizard or snake uses their tongue to taste the air, this discovery about the sensory sensitivity of the Narwhal’s tooth must makes their adaption to their habitat all the more admirable.

UPDATE: Amazingly detailed article from the NY Times now up!

I took off from work about 30 minutes early and headed over to Sabor y Cultura for my final session.

I had very little clue how I was goign to bring this thing to a close within 5,000 words, but I think part of the lesson of NaNoWriMo is giving up on those plans that one might have at the beginning of the month. I might have though that I was going to write a road trip, a dark comedy about a poor downtrodden fellow who never gets a break.

What I ended up writing is a novel that never quite gets there. I throw a lot of crap at Daniel and he seems to bear it well, but not as well as I thought he would (what do I know?). But that’s okay, it provides drama.

So, what was supposed to be a story of Daniel, who loses his family in a series of terrible tragedies that he seems unable to prevent or mitigate yet he maintains a sort of loose life affirming demeanor. He works as a sort of character/production assistant on a wee-hours-of-the-morning TV show. The morning that he loses his latest apartment in a house fire (and manages to save the landlady from certain death) he ends up getting the assignment that will promote him to the next level. He’s going to be the remote producer for a “road trip” where he is to pick up a family (brother from St. Louis and parents from South Carolina), document their trip and then return them to Pittsburgh for a reunion/re-enactment for a Christmas tree cutting.

What ends up happening is that Daniel hasn’t borne these tragedies as well as I thought he would. He’s much moodier than I’d thought he’d be, but luckily the cameraman I sent him on this trip with also happens to have gotten copious therapy for his traumas during the first Gulf war. He guides Daniel through accepting his inability to move past his inability to change anything. Blah, blah, blah. Anyway, so I abandoned the road trip when they got to St. Louis, had them turn around and come back. Happy ending.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
6:00 PM…....45,101….......0…....0
6:15 PM…....45,772….....671…...44.73
6:30 PM…....46,427….....655…...43.67
6:45 PM…....47,069….....642…...42.80
7:00 PM…....47,634….....565…...37.67
7:15 PM…....48,224….....590…...39.33
7:30 PM…....48,835….....611…...40.73
7:45 PM…....49,516….....681…...45.40
8:00 PM…....50,137….....621…...41.40
8:15 PM…....50,758….....621…...41.40
8:27 PM…....51,178….....420…...35.00

25 hours 29 minutes of writing
33.47 words per minute average
5,118 words per session
51,178 words total

Anyway, it’s all done. My worst novel to date.

Since it’s Sunday, I figured Sabor y Cultura was a good bet. Parking is always easier over there on Sundays because there’s no time limit. But I forgot about the Hollywood Christmas Parade. No parking on Hollywood Blvd. today. No matter, I found a spot in their parking lot instead of on the street.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
1:30 PM…....36,008….......0…....0
1:45 PM…....36,533….....525…...35.00
2:00 PM…....37,175….....642…...42.80
2:15 PM…....37,810….....635…...42.33
2:30 PM…....38,409….....599…...39.93
2:45 PM…....39,026….....617…...41.13
3:00 PM…....39,565….....539…...35.93
3:15 PM…....40,223….....658…...43.87
3:30 PM…....40,778….....555…...37.00
3:45 PM…....41,227….....449…...29.93
4:00 PM…....41,823….....596…...39.73
4:15 PM…....42,374….....551…...36.73
4:30 PM…....42,915….....541…...36.07
4:37 PM…....43,164….....249…...35.57

Session summary:
38.27 words per minute average
7,156 words today
3 hours and 7 minutes

To Date Summary:
21 hours 40 minutes of writing so far
33.15 words per minute average
6,836 words left
3.44 hours of writing left on pace

This date in History:
2004: 42,108
2003: 34,512
2002: 35,482
2001: 42,589

Happily there was no recurrance of food poisoning either, which means a normal length writing session. I still need another long session to finish up my 50K, possibly two to bring the story to a close. I don’t really want to talk about where I’m at with the actual story, but I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how my characters might score some crack for their drug addicted travelmate. Luckily they know as little on the subject as I do and the fumbling around produces thousands of words and a very, very, very long and wordy argument.

I was watching some documentary a year or so ago, I think it was about submarines. It was talking about hydrophones and sounds of the deep and mentioned this mysterious boing that no one could identify. They’d been hearing it on hydrophones all over the Pacific since they first started using them. They’d often suspected it was whales, but it’s really hard to prove such things.

Well, they finally figured it out. It’s minke whales. Probably male minke whales breeding. Making this boingy noise that reverberates across the whole ocean, to impress the lady whales, or at least tell them where they can find a good mate.

You can even hear the sound here and read more about it.

It’s a long weekend and it’s quite a nice feeling to have all the socializing and obligation out of the way and know that the rest of the weekend the tasks at hand are laundry and writing.

I set out for The Silverlake Coffee Company again, because it’s been serving me well. My nerve/muscle spasm problem with my left forearm seems to have dissipated, hopefully because I switched my mouse buttons on my laptop and of course I mouse lefty at work, too. I’m a little troubled by the ergonomics of The Silverlake Coffee Company because of the table height and I might revert to Sabor y Cultura again tomorrow.

I’m still behind targets, and at this point I think I’m going to have to take one evening next week to finish up, as I doubt I will even attempt a 14K day tomorrow. There’s no need for me to finish early this year, as I have no party to plan, just my journey to the homeland of NaNoWriMo, which will be on December 1st.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
12:45 PM…....29,714….......0…....0.00
01:00 PM…....30,246….....532…...35.47
01:15 PM…....30,758….....512…...34.13
01:30 PM…....31,316….....558…...37.20
01:45 PM…....31,875….....559…...37.27
02:00 PM…....32,366….....491…...32.73
02:15 PM…....32,910….....544…...36.27
02:30 PM…....33,106….....196…...13.07
02:45 PM….....break….......0…....0.00
03:00 PM…....33,780….....674…...44.93
03:15 PM…....34,284….....504…...33.60
03:30 PM…....34,935….....651…...43.40
03:45 PM…....35,407….....472…...31.47
04:00 PM…....36,008….....601…...40.07

Session Summary:
32.28 words per minute average
6,294 words today
3 hours and 15 minutes

To Date Summary:
18 hours and 35 minutes of writing so far
32.29 words per minute average
13,992 words left
7 hours and 15 minutes of writing left on pace

This Date in History:
2004: 35,175
2003: 34,512
2002: 35,482
2001: 40,388

The bulk of the text today took place in the past as I gave an account of how Daniel got the nickname Tragic at college. He leaves tomorrow for St. Louis. I really think he’s going to hit the road. Really.

I had a dream last night with George Clooney in it.

It’s not what you think (unless you have an imagination as strange as my dreams).

I was at work. Not the place I work now, someplace with a long rambling building that was very white and bright and had lots of cubicles.

I was visited by Mr. Clooney, who said he was filling in at the HR department and that he wanted to talk to me about my 401k plans and any rollovers I might make should I change companies. We talked a bit about the options and he decided that I was handling my portfolio well and was happy to hear that I was taking full advantage of the company benefits pacakge.

Then I asked him why he was working for the HR department, and he said it was something he liked to do every once in a while. Then he gave me his card, which looked like something he fished out of the trash and was for a tire store. But he took it back and wrote in his real contact info and said, “I go by the name Lori, just so you know.”

He handed the card back to me, which I put in a drawer and then thanked him.

The dream went on. But that was the most interesting part. If you could call it that.

Since yesterday was reasonably successful, I ran some errands this morning (including going to the mall to get some See’s for a candy swap with a great Candy Blog reader in Israel) and then stopped back over at The Silverlake Coffee Company.

Since it was round lunchtime, I ordered a Turkey and Cranberry sandwich with Swiss cheese and a cup of the organic coffee. They apologized profusely that they needed to make a new pot of the organic and it would be about four minutes. Oh no! Really fresh coffee! How could I aruge with that?

I got down to business. I intended to make two sessions today, but now I’m totally wiped and am in the middle of spot treating one of the upholstered chairs before Thanksgiving company, so today’s tally will have to suffice. I still have next weekend and the most important thing is that I barrelled through the twenties because I really don’t like them much.

At some point I’m going to have to make up for the 5K weekend days with an additional 10K day or something. I’ll figure it out later.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
01:00 PM…....24,663….......0…....0.00
01:15 PM…....25,108….....445…...29.67
01:30 PM…....25,483….....375…...25.00
01:45 PM…....26,109….....626…...41.73
02:00 PM…....26,622….....513…...34.20
02:15 PM…....27,208….....586…...39.07
02:30 PM…....27,700….....492…...32.80
02:45 PM…....28,408….....708…...47.20
03:00 PM…....28,944….....536…...35.73
03:15 PM…....29,493….....549…...36.60
03:22 PM…....29,714….....221…...14.73

Session summary:
35.57 words per minute average
5,051 words today
2 hours and 22 minutes

To Date Summary:
15 hours and 20 minutes of writing so far
32.30 words per minute average
20,286 words left
10 hours and 30 minutes of writing left on pace

This date in History:
2004: 16,855
2003: 28,857
2002: 30,672
2001: 21,030

I’m so close to getting the show on the road, literally. Maybe next weekend I can get my intrepid group to St. Louis. Or maybe get Hari arrested. Or maybe both.

I have to say that I’m proud of my writing pace this year. I’ve learned to enter my sessions with a full mind and at least a plan for what to do with the characters, some conflicts and unfolding the backstory. I was hoping to bring my novel in at 24 hours of writing time. But I should definitely be able to hit a 28 hour target.

I’m in a serious funk lately. I know it doesn’t have anything to do with anything in particular, but it probably doesn’t help the novel much.

However, in true “write anyway” fashion, I did get something accomplished today (besides my final wrimo radio interview). I might celebrate with a trip to See’s. Or maybe I’ll console myself with a trip to See’s.

Today I decided to steer clear of Sabor y Cultura, even though I don’t think they’re responsible for my upset tummy last week. Instead I stuck to my own neighborhood and gave The Silverlake Coffee Company another try after boycotting them for two years. I was pleased to see that there were happy writing campers there (the tables against the wall were coated with laptopped folks) so I found a little table tucked next to the milk & sugar station across from the espresso machine. They were playing music, but I didn’t mind, as it was The Who’s Tommy (the original band version, not the soundtrack to the Rock Opera or movie version).

I started with a cup of organic coffee and the much heralded Espresso Banana Smoothie, which was thankfully not too sweet. Then later I had a bagel & cream cheese and several ibuprofen and a fill up of coffee.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
12:08 PM…....19,642….......0…....0.00
12:15 PM…....19,789….....147…...21.00
12:30 PM…....20,231….....442…...29.47
12:45 PM…....20,753….....522…...34.80
01:00 PM…....21,315….....562…...37.47
01:15 PM…....21,686….....371…...24.73
01:30 PM…....22,283….....597…...39.80
01:45 PM…....22,660….....377…...25.13
02:00 PM…....23,015….....355…...23.67
02:15 PM…....23,543….....528…...35.20
02:30 PM…....24,151….....608…...40.53
02:45 PM…....24,663….....512…...34.13

Session summary:
31.78 words per minute average
5,021 words today
2 hours and 38 minutes

To Date Summary:
778 minutes of writing so far
31.70 words per minute average
25,337 words left
13.32 hours of writing left on pace

This date in History:
2004: 16,855
2003: 28,857
2002: 30,672
2001: 21,030

I feel like I should probably have continued writing today, but I’m not that far off-pace and maybe I can get another 6 or 7K tomorrow to get me back on track for the big push next weekend. I still get the feeling that the novel is supposed to be about 75K as I’m a few scant words from the midpoint and still not out of the city for the supposed road-trip that this novel is supposed to be about. But hey, maybe it’s not supposed to be about the road trip at all.

Today was another day of not much writing getting done. I’m way behind even my modest targets.

My intention was to go over to the Farmers Market for the afternoon, write either at the book store there or at the Farmers Market itself and then catch up with some other food bloggers at 5PM at La Loteria.

Well, things didn’t quite work out. My battery has been acting up, so I needed to plug in but couldn’t find a spot. And my tummy’s still a little unhappy from yesterday, so the smells were not helping.

I ditched the place and headed towards Rocktitlan on Fountain and Wilton in hopes that I could catch a few thousand words there and then head back to my early dinner thing. No such luck. They were closed, perhaps for good?

I then went all the way back to Silverlake and got some nice soothing eggs and toast and sat down to get productive. And I was. For about 45 minutes, until it was pointed out to me that The Coffee Table no longer offers electricity to its patrons. ALL of the outlets inside and on the back patio are inoperative (apparently as a choice, not bad wiring).

So, I packed up, went to Trader Joe’s to get some consolation candy and came home. Probably a good plan as the tummy is still unhappy but I’m sad I’m missing the blogger thing.

Here’s the specs for the current session:
time…...running tally….words…words/minute
2:30 AM…....15,632….......0…....0.00
2:45 AM…....15,955….....323…...21.53
3:00 AM…....16,485….....530…...35.33

This day in history:
2004: 11,862
2003: 14,069
2002: 16,340
2001:  9,371

Maybe I’ll try to write some more now.

I had high hopes of 6K or 7K today. Plenty of time, lots of thoughts as I’ve had all week to build up a whole session’s worth of writing.

Unfortunately, somwhere along the way I ingested some sort of powerful, um, food poison or something. So the session only lasted two hours or so. But productive ones.

Anyway, the novel is still stuck in Pittsburgh. But I did a lot to get things on the road and I think my MC might get this novel on the road. He leaves “on Saturday” and I know that the novel is on either Wednesday or Thursday.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
11:15 AM…...11,417….......0…....0.00
11:30 AM…...11,835….....418…...27.87
11:45 AM…...12,283….....448…...29.87
12:00 AM…...12,696….....413…...27.53
12:15 AM…...13,221….....525…...35.00
12:30 AM…...13,759….....538…...35.87
12:45 AM…...14,170….....411…...27.40
01:00 AM…...14,793….....623…...41.53
01:15 AM…...15,254….....461…...30.73
01:30 AM…...15,632….....378…...25.20

Session Summary:
31.22 words per minute
4,215 words in writing session
2 hours and 15 minutes

To Date Summary:
475 minutes of writing so far
32.91 words per minute average
34,368 words left
17.41 hours of writing left on pace

This day in history:
2004: 11,862
2003: 14,069
2002: 16,340
2001: 9,371