Friday, January 26, 2007

Evil Evil Scrapers

I just thought I’d share my latest experience with Candy Blog content being “stolen.”

I found, purely by accident, that Candy Blog posts were being republished in their entirety on another blog called simply “World Food” (I’m not going to give you the URL). My posts were in there among other food blogger posts about things like fruit, recipes and personal food experiences. I counted three other victims of this scraper blog.

The amalgam blog had no contact info, no advertising, no real purpose as far as I could tell, expect perhaps to buoy the entire domain in some way with content that search engine bots would find.

I did a domain search and located the owner of the domain and sent an email. Surprise, it bounced.

So I did a search for who hosted the domain and sent an email to the host at the “abuse” email address listed on the lame-ass site. That bounced. So I sent another set of emails to all the other email addresses listed on the site (sales! support! tech! help!). No response, but at least no bounces.

I also contacted Feedburner, who burns the Candy Blog feed with their service (basically they take my single feed and convert it to just about all the common feed formats). They said they were unable to discretely block a single user even if we knew what IP they were from.

After no response I started doing some more digging and came across the excellent blog resource called PlagiarismToday.com. Jonathan just so happened to be writing about Feedburner feeds.

With some more digging and some assistance from him we tracked down the actual host (the host I contacted was actually a reseller of hosting plans) and I sent out some more emails. No response so with Jonathan’s help I also sent out official DMCA notices to the host via email and fax.

Lo and behold a few days later I got a brief email back from the host saying that they removed the domain from their servers.

I know some people say that I should be flattered that people are taking my content. But I don’t think I should be flattered. They’re not taking it becuase it’s good or they like it, they’re taking it because it fills up their site with content with lots of keywords that people search for. There are lots of sites that republish digests of my feed and I have no problem with that. But when they take the whole thing (including photos) with no link back to the site, claim they wrote it and are republishing it under a CC free-for-all license, I have a problem.

Now if I could just solve my hotlinking problem.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:05 am     Curious News

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Watery Word Choices

Last night at whalewatching class was a presentation on “Threats to Cetaceans.”

The big threats, as you can imagine are whaling, pollution and loss of habitat (because of climate change or loss of habitat).

But it got me to thinking about whaling.

Why do we call it whaling?

When you go out duck hunting, you don’t go ducking (well if you go with Dick Cheney you might want to).

Of course when you go out fish hunting we do call it fishing.

Why are the words for hunting things in the water like that?

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:47 am     Whale Watching

Saturday, December 30, 2006

Whale Watch Training 12/26/2006

image

POSTED BY Cybele AT 11:45 am    

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Tagged Meme: 5 Things

GreenLAGirl tagged me with this meme: 5 Things You Probably Don’t Know About Me.

As I’m not sure who reads FastFiction, I’ll just go with some obscure things:

1. My nickname in my family when I was a kid was Bill.

2. I rode a camel once, in Tunisia.

3. I haven’t ridden a horse since I was thrown when I was six.

4. I had only three wisdom teeth, not the usual four. All have been removed.

5. I didn’t learn to swim until I was 11 years old, but three years later I joined the high school swim team when I was a freshman.

I’m not tagging anyone.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:04 am     Curious News

Monday, December 04, 2006

Finally Rejected

Sometime late in 2003 I sent my rather successful collection of one act plays, The Parking Lot Plays, to “my publisher” for consideration.

Today, approximately three years later I got a reply:

On behalf of Doug, Jonathan, and myself, thank you again for submitting your work to Playscripts, Inc., and for your patience during our evaluation process.  We’ve completed our review of “The Parking Lot Plays,” and have concluded that the Playscripts catalogue would not be the best fit for this particular work. This decision is not a judgment on the quality of your work; rather, we regretfully find ourselves limited to a finite number of great new plays that we can most effectively publish and promote.

Even though we cannot publish your play, we genuinely appreciated the opportunity to consider your work, and thank you for sending it our way!

I want to reiterate how much we appreciate your patience during this admittedly lengthy review period.  We started Playscripts, Inc. just a few years ago, with the belief that a publisher should keep its doors open to a wide range of submissions.  The resulting influx of scripts led to much longer review periods than we or any playwright would have liked, but we remain committed to keeping the door open.

At first I was irritated that it was taking so long, especially since those writers who were already published by them were given “priority”, but then I thought it was pretty funny.

I admit that I am disappointed, mostly because I believe that they are ideal for the college market, which was what I was led to believe Playscripts was angling themselves for: modest staging requirements, flexible casting and interesting parts.

I kept hoping that they would pick them up so I didn’t post them on my new website as I had with The Redeemer. Now that I no longer have to worry about pulling them, I’m seriously considering self-publishing (via LuLu.com or something) or just some sort of Creative Commons license that allows folks to read them and distribute them all they want and they only have to pay a royalty if they produce them.

I’ve been so out of it in the theatre world for the past few years I have no idea of folks are already doing it. But it’s a goal for the New Year.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:19 am    

Saturday, December 02, 2006

How This Novel Was Different

This year I had no idea. I had confidence that I could craft something as the month went along. I’d never really done that before, I’ve always had rather fully-formed ideas in my head before I sit down to write.

In September I went to Oakland for a staff meeting for NaNoWriMo and in the car from the airport I asked Chris Baty what I should write this year, as I was pretty much stumped. He said, “I should be about candy.”

It sounded like a solid idea.

I came up with the idea for a character who liked all the candy. Really all I knew about her was that she had a normal, low-key job and she liked the kinds of candy that I don’t like, just so people wouldn’t think it was autobiographical.

I came up with an opening line: Natalie woke up with a lollipop stuck in her hair.

That was about it. I went into November with those two things and just went for it.

The plot was slow, not that there wasn’t stuff going on in the novel, none of it had much of an overarching point.

Then I found a groove and started crafting a story that could not only make a worthy novel (I felt) but in my super-human confidence, I’m convinced I’ve created a new genre: Confectionery Fiction.

The reason that I mention all this is that I’ve been writing these novels for six years now. Each novel is different, different styles, different genres and POVs, different plots and characters explored. But they were all stories that were already in me.

The Exchange (‘01) was an idea I’d been trying to figure out a format for earlier that year, but set it aside after about 16 pages of a screenplay. It wasn’t visual so I abandoned it, only to find that it was perfect to explore as a novel.

The Russian Watercolors (‘02) was a great idea I’d been mulling as a screenplay as well, and thought I was never going to get around the screenplay so I should at least write it in novel form. I diverged from my original plot rather early on, but was actually pleased with some of the things I created.

The Saint of Runaways (‘03) was a grand attempt at a feminist thesis sort of novel. It was a play idea I’d been toying with for about 10 years. I wanted to explore the life of an obscure saint that I’d decided was the basis of one of the Grimm’s fairy tales. It didn’t exactly do that, but I was glad I worked on it.

An Alphabetical Order (‘04) was the first novel I went into without a plot but a pretty strong idea of themes. I started with the title and the simple idea of a woman detained by airport security and held for 72 days because of some really contentious argument she gets into. I was so pleased that I was able to get so much out of such a scant idea that I adapted it into an unfinished play.

Heap (‘05) was based on another screenplay idea I’d failed to do anything with for almost ten years. It’s nothing like the movie it would have made and I consider it one of the worst things I’ve ever written.

This year was different because I wrote a novel that I didn’t know I had in me. All the others were there for years. It was really surprising to find ideas that hadn’t been “thought to death” and it gives me hope that I can keep doing this, that I will always have stories to tell if I just look.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:32 am     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 10

I did this last night, but I’m just logging it here now.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
7:30 PM…..47,544…......529…...35.27
7:45 PM…..48,114…......570…...38.00
8:00 PM…..48,714…......600…...40.00
8:15 PM…..49,296…......582…...38.80
8:30 PM…..49,732…......436…...29.07
8:45 PM…..50,227…......495…...33.00

35.69 words per minute average
3,212 words for session
1.50 hours

And that concluded this year’s novel. It’s the first time I didn’t actually bring it to a close.

The good news is that I intend to make something of this novel, so it’s not like I won’t have an ending for it eventually.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:42 pm    

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 9

I went candy shopping today. I’ve been participating in National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo) over on Candy Blog, which in addition to the novel writing, the photography assignments, the travel, the forum moderation, the day job and the family commitments, well, I’m a little drained when I sit down.

I needed a little candy recharge for the blog. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got lots of candy in the house, just nothing I feel like writing about at the moment. So off to Walgreen’s in Echo Park. At that point it seemed silly to drive all the way to Hollywood, especially since parking is usually problematic at Sabor y Cultura today because of the Holiday Parade. So I went to the Silverlake Coffee Company.

I sat next to the drink cooler, which people would open and close and it would blow cold air on the back of my neck. I plowed through though and wouldn’t leave until I got at least 6K.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
1:00 PM…..41,545…......712…...47.47
1:15 PM…..42,049…......504…...33.60
1:30 PM…..42,589…......540…...36.00
1:45 PM…..43,102…......513…...34.20
2:00 PM…..43,716…......614…...40.93
2:15 PM…..44,080…......364…...24.27
2:30 PM…..44,384…......304…...20.27
2:45 PM…..44,773…......389…...25.93
3:00 PM…..45,305…......532…...35.47
3:15 PM…..45,755…......450…...30.00
3:30 PM…..46,333…......578…...38.53
3:48 PM…..47,015…......682…...37.89

The plot is going along. The writing isn’t terribly inspired, but I covered a lot. Natalie recovered from her food poisoning. Gary decided to rally his sisters, who just so happen to have the perfect skills. Fiddy is a paralegal who will help with the legal parts of forming their own company. Rachel is a graphic designer who takes a stab at the wrapper designs and names for the new candy bar line. And eventually Nickie will come back and handle the wholesale accounts for the candy bars. Gary, who works by day as an adhesives technician for a feminine napkin factory will handle the production concerns.

Natalie is pleased as punch and tries to put the whole possible lawsuit behind her by offering to send all the wrappers back to Roger at the ABCandy factory. Gary, of course, thinks that just contacting him was a horrible idea legal-wise. We’ll see.

I need to start tying things up. I think I was planning that the candy would end up being manufactured by Roger in a sub-contracting deal, but I just don’t see that happening right now. I only have 3,000 words and about 10,000 more plot points. This is my usual position around this time of the month.

34.34 words per minute average
6,182 words for session
3 hours

And of course I’ve been forgetting “this day in history” this month:

2001: 42,589
2002: 35,482
2003: 34,512
2004: 35,175
2005: 36,008
2006: 47,015

Wow, I’m WAY ahead of where I have been historically. Which leaves me plenty of room to write another 10K to bring it to a close.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:21 pm     NaNoWriMo

Saturday, November 25, 2006

This Day in NaNoHistory

More mindless statistics.

Here’s where I’ve been historically on the 25th.

2001: 35,025
2002: 35,482
2003: 34,512
2004: 35,175
2005: 29,714
2006: 34,141

So this year isn’t as bad as last year, well, except that last year the 25th was a Friday, not a Saturday and I still had two more days in the weekend to write.

But otherwise things are remarkably consistent. I’m remarkably consistent.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:34 pm     NaNoWriMo

Novel Update: Writing Day 8

I’ll probably beat myself up tomorrow, but I just didn’t feel like writing today. I got a little laundry done and gave the dog a much needed bath and didn’t head out for writing until 2:30. I figured earlier this week it would only take 8K each day to get my word count.

It’s not that I can’t or haven’t had 8K or more days. But they’re very tiring, both creatively and bodily. The idea of having three back to back is especially draining. I can manage it on the weekend because I’ve had a full week to build up things in my mind, not just the big picture stuff, but patches of dialogue and images and all that. Though it rarely comes out like I have it in my head, it’s a pretty detailed map. (I just looked it up and found that I had a couple of 8K+ days in ‘04 ... what the hell was I doing?)

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
3:00 PM…..34,661…......520…...34.67
3:15 PM…..35,400…......739…...49.27
3:30 PM…..36,040…......640…...42.67
3:45 PM…..36,388…......348…...23.20
4:00 PM…..36,931…......543…...36.20
4:15 PM…..37,449…......518…...34.53
4:30 PM…..37,967…......518…...34.53
4:45 PM…..38,458…......491…...32.73
5:00 PM…..39,029…......571…...38.07
5:15 PM…..39,619…......590…...39.33
5:30 PM…..40,264…......645…...43.00
5:45 PM…..40,833…......569…...37.93

The good news story-wise is that my characters have stopped fooling around (well, they’re still fooling around, I’m just not devoting any text to it) and Natalie not only made another batch of Splodio bars, she sold half to a friend of Gary’s sister and the other half she’s put up for auction on eBay. At the end of my writing session she gets a rather disheartening voice mail from the guy at the candy factory explaining that he’s having her auction pulled because she’s misrepresenting her candy bars as the real thing. Legal papers will follow when I do the research to figure out what sort of papers she’d get.

Of course Natalie doesn’t take this well and is devastated. Well, that and it seems that her celebratory brunch with Gary has given her food poisoning. She never should have tried the Eggs Benedict. Writing about vomiting doesn’t make me feel so hot either.

34.32 words per minute average
6,692 words for session
3.25 hours

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:20 pm     NaNoWriMo

Friday, November 24, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 7

Sabor y Cultura - my usual Mexican Mocha with an extra shot and a plain croissant.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
1:30 PM…..26,456…......410…...27.33
1:45 PM…..26,860…......404…...26.93
2:00 PM…..27,490…......630…...42.00
2:15 PM…..27,875…......385…...25.67
2:30 PM…..28,496…......621…...41.40
2:45 PM…..28,955…......459…...30.60
3:00 PM…..29,549…......594…...39.60
3:15 PM…..29,968…......419…...27.93
3:30 PM…..30,474…......506…...33.73
3:45 PM…..31,053…......579…...38.60
4:00 PM…..31,564…......511…...34.07
4:15 PM…..32,399…......835…...55.67
4:30 PM…..32,923…......524…...34.93
4:45 PM…..33,545…......622…...41.47
5:00 PM…..34,141…......596…...39.73

35.98 words per minute average
8,095 words for session
3.75 hours

The content of the novel is mired in sex. While this seems to be good for the word count, and possibly the relationship between Natalie and Gary, I’d really like to get on to the rest of the plot.

My wordcount is almost back to normal. I did over 8,000 words today, which I’m hoping to do again on Saturday and Sunday (which will pretty much bring me up to 50K, but I fear that I won’t have the actual plot I’m hoping for ... there’s always that not-mentioned-yet asteroid careening towards Los Angeles that could come into play).

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:32 pm    

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 6

Today was a stealth writing day. I didn’t announce my writing session on the forums as I usually do. Not so much because I didn’t want company, I just didn’t know how long I would be there or if I would stay.

Back at Sabor y Cultura. It wasn’t that busy before 11 AM but I took my regular table, which was still there this week. Sometimes they move the tables around and I have to swap them out so I can have a larger one that’s a little lower than the others. When I’m sitting there for three hours straight an inch of height can make a difference in ergonomics.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
11:15 AM…..19,857…......562…...37.47
11:30 AM…..20,345…......488…...32.53
11:45 AM…..20,952…......607…...40.47
12:00 PM…..21,330…......378…...25.20
12:15 PM…..21,743…......413…...27.53
12:30 PM…..22,325…......582…...38.80
12:45 PM…..22,845…......520…...34.67
1:00 PM…...23,349…......504…...33.60
1:15 PM…...23,958…......609…...40.60
1:30 PM…...24,536…......578…...38.53
1:45 PM…...25,088…......552…...36.80
2:00 PM…...25,522…......434…...28.93
2:15 PM…...26,046…......524…...34.93

In the novel world I figured out some plot stuff during the week and had a pretty good sense of what to do today. I always feel better when I have at least the first three thousand words for the session worked out in my head.

I sped through some things in an effort to give myself more story, character development and plot for the rest of the month. Natalie finished the birthday gift for Gary and presented a full dozen on the home-made Splodio bars in the original package to him at his birthday dinner.

They went over great, not only did they win Gary’s full devotion, but his sisters are pretty impressed too. Just for giggles I tried my first sex scene (or start of it) today. Never done one of those before, but I’m a grown woman and it’s about time.

What’s more important is that I know where to go with the next 25K. Or at least I think I do. Tomorrow I’m angling for another 7K to get me close to my weekend goal.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 8:04 pm     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

A Brief Family Guy Interlude About Noveling

It’s NaNoWriMo HaWaDa (National Novel Writing Month Halfway Day)!

Here’s a little something to keep you typing:

Link to Google Video

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:58 pm     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 5

Back to Sabor y Cultura with TWO writing partners, Russ & Celia.

I managed to crank out some stuff, but I’m kind of stuck as I’m resisting the easy plot I’ve laid out and now my character has decided to chuck my plans for her candy recreation birthday present and give him a poster instead.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
3:30 PM…...16,781…......513…...34.20
3:45 PM…...17,171…......390…...26.00
4:00 PM…...17,222….......51…....3.40
4:15 PM…...17,390…......168…...11.20
4:30 PM…...17,802…......412…...27.47
4:45 PM…...18,169…......367…...24.47
5:00 PM…...18,391…......222…...14.80
5:15 PM…...18,946…......555…...37.00
5:30 PM…...19,295…......349…...23.27

22.42 words per minute average
3027 words for session
2.25 hours

I’d hoped for 6K today to bring me close to the halfway mark, but it’s probably better that I hang back until I’m able to figure out the direction here.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:15 pm    

Saturday, November 11, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 4

Ah, another afternoon out at Sabor y Cultura in Hollywood. Besides the initial 1,700 at the Staff Writing Session, I wonder if this novel will be written entirely there?

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
11:00 AM…...11,035…......672…...44.80
11:15 AM…...11,542…......507…...33.80
11:30 AM…...11,813…......271…...18.07
11:45 AM…...12,307…......494…...32.93
12:00 PM…...12,819…......512…...34.13
12:15 PM…...13,331…......512…...34.13
12:30 PM…...13,877…......546…...36.40
12:45 PM…...13,877…......BREAK
1:00 PM…....13,877…......BREAK
1:15 PM…....14,280…......403…...26.87
1:30 PM…....14,700…......420…...28.00
1:45 PM…....15,330…......630…...42.00
2:00 PM…....15,876…......546…...36.40
2:10 PM…....16,268…......392…...39.20

32.81 words per minute average
5,905 words for session
3.5 hours (including 30 minute break)

Today there wasn’t much plot, but many, many words.

Natalie was woken by her cell phone ringing and the head of production of the Altadena Bernardino Candy Company (ABCco) offering her some help in finding her Splodio stuff. He bids her to come down to the factory to see what he found.

She tours the factory, which never made Splodios, for a 5,000 word passage where she sees the entire production line of the popular ABCco product, Orange Paradise Balls (orange flavored coconut spheres covered in milk chocolate). I have no idea if that’s how such a thing would be manufactured or not, but it sounded good to me!

She left with a case of wrappers from all the old varieties of Splodios and has now resolved to make her own at home, thinking that the list of ingredients on the label should be the same as a recipe. (Little does she know.)

The further I get into this novel the more I wonder if it’s novel worthy material. I’m able to write it just fine and maybe I’m underselling it because it’s not been a particularly difficult novel to wrestle from my brain.

Tomorrow I’m back to Sabor y Cultura to try to get another 6K.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:54 pm     NaNoWriMo

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 3

Today was my first day of coffee house writing for the year. I went to one of my favorite spots, Sabor y Cultura in Hollywood. They have excellent Mexican Mocha, or at least they normally do. This time my mocha was too sweet and didn’t have enough espresso in it. I asked for a double shot, maybe I was missing one.

No matter, I pounded out the words.

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
11:30 AM…....4177…......135…....9.00
11:45 AM…....4616…......439…...29.27
12:00 PM…....5110…......494…...32.93
12:15 PM…....5525…......415…...27.67
12:30 PM…....6052…......527…...35.13
12:45 PM…....6513…......461…...30.73
1:00 PM….....7074…......561…...37.40
1:15 PM….....7500…......426…...28.40
1:30 PM….....8074…......574…...38.27
1:45 PM….....8652…......578…...38.53
2:00 PM….....9252…......600…...40.00
2:15 PM….....9761…......509…...33.93
2:30 PM…....10363…......602…...40.13

35.12 words per minute average
6,321 words for session
3 hours

The plot, as thin as it might be, is moving along.

My novel has invented a candy bar that was made back in the early eighties. At the moment it’s called the ‘Splodio (SPLOH-dee-oh) Bar and it was made by the Atlanticandy Company. It was a fluffy stawberry nougat with strawberry pop rocks in it covered in milk mockolate (fake chocolate coating). I’m thinking of changing the name to the Popperberry Bar ... or maybe the Splodio came in Popperberry flavor and possibly Mocha and Mint while I’m at it. I don’t think they were particularly good bars, but certainly original.

My main character, Natalie, is trying to track down a tee shirt, or something from the candy bar for her boyfriend’s birthday. Of course the Atlanticandy Company went out of business years ago, so she’s still tracking it down and eBay has been no help either. Yeah, I like throwing obstacles in her way. At some point I have to bring in the title of the novel, Limited Liability Chocolate, an LLC, but you know, details and all that.

The good news is that with 10K tallied in the novel so far, I’m already 20% of the way through the thing and feeling comfortable about the amount of plot I have left to cram into those other 40K.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 12:21 pm    

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Novel Update: Writing Day 2

Today I wrote at home. I rarely write at home, but The Man went down to Laguna to see his folks so I had the house to myself.

The problem with writing in the house is all the distractions. So made a little challenge for myself that I could go take photos of candy after I got to 4,000 words for the day (tomorrow I have to get 6,000 words to get back on track for the week).

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
1:00 PM…....2,468…......721…...48.07
1:15 PM…....2,890…......422…...28.13
1:30 PM…....3,241…......351…...23.40
1:45 PM…....3,590…......349…...23.27
2:00 PM…....4,042…......452…...30.13

I don’t really care for writing at the dining room table especially with my noisy neighbors, so next time I might try the seclusion of the back room.

The story is crap but I’ve found out that my novel is set in Los Angeles.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:04 pm     NaNoWriMo

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Out of the Gate

If nothing else, this year’s novel will be remarkable because of the way it started. I know in the past I’ve stayed up late and started at midnight before, but this was the first time I joined others to wait for the toll of midnight.

Chris Baty invited the NaNoWriMo staff over to the office to start the month off. I was already up in San Francisco, so I could hardly refuse the invite. (Besides, I had candy to get rid of!)

I really have very little clue about what I’m writing, and though it’s a little clearer now that I’ve started, I fully intended to toss out whatever meager words I logged that night.

Here’s the synopsis of what I did:

time…...running tally….words…words/minute
12:15 AM…....525…......525…...35.00
12:30 AM…....1,096….....571…...38.07
12:45 AM…....1,570….....474…...31.60
12:52 AM…....1,747….....177…...25.29

But I’m starting to think that I might keep what I have so far.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 5:00 am     NaNoWriMo

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

All Novel’s Eve

I don’t usually start my novel right at midnight. Oh, sure, I have in the past. But I usually toss those words out and start over. (Though I have to admit as a swimmer I never had a false start in all my meets.)

So tonight I have to start because I agreed to go to a midnight write.

Which means I have to know what I’m doing, at least enough for the first thousand words or so.

I’ve been thinking about characters and maybe an arc.

I was thinking if the novel is going to be focused on candy, it should have a character in it that loves every candy I detest.

I was also thinking there should be a quest ... that my main character has to be searching for something or trying to do something. You know, something. I haven’t figured out what it is. I haven’t decided anything past the first sentence and scene.

If that doesn’t work, I guess I can always start over!

POSTED BY Cybele AT 3:02 pm     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Creating Great Blogs

When I was pulling my FAQ for Candy Blog together, it seemed that some of my readers think that I’m a top blogger and I might have some authority on the subject.

Well, I’m not so sure about that, but I’ve certainly learned a lot through trial and error over the years, enough to share some of that with others. So here are a few of my thoughts in a series that I’ll post over the next week or so.

Stake out a Little Corner

The following are some technology basics that you should keep in mind when setting up your blog.

    1. Get a good URL - there’s nothing wrong with blogspot, typepad or livejournal, but pick something folks can remember and spell easily. Is it too late for that? Even if you don’t want to get your own hosting, you can get a domain name and point it. 2. Claim your blog at Technorati.com - they index blogs and you can add keywords to your blog so others can find you. You can also keep an eye on your blog and see who’s linking to you. Go see what they’re talking about and how it relates to what you’re talking about. There are other blogs that allow you to track your position in the whole scheme of things, such as blogshares.com and blogpulse.com. 3. Ping - your blogging software probably already does it, but make sure that you’re pinging all the networks so that people know you’ve got something new (I recommend pingomatic.com to catch those sites that your blog software may have missed). 4. Get listed - there are always big sites that aggregate huge link lists. For local Los Angeles bloggers it’s LA Blogs, for foodies it’s Kiplog ... just find where you belong. 5. Publish a feed. Even if it’s not the full post, at least folks will know that you’ve updated. Make it easy for readers to add your site updates to whatever they read with. Little chicklets help, but even a little sidebar space with text versions works well. If you choose to use a feed publisher like Feedburner, you’ll be able to track who’s reading you and what’s popular. 6. Use tags - keywords and tags help other people find your posts. Sign up with something like del.icio.us or digg - you add a little tag at the end of your posts and then other people who may never have seen your site might find you via the subject of your post. 7. Optimize your blog for search engines - this means permalinks so that other folks can link to specific posts and when someone searches for content, they go right to where you blog has what they want.

 

Tomorrow

Next week I’ll talk about Layout and Templates.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 2:02 pm     Curious News

Sunday, October 15, 2006

The Titling of a NaNovel

I haven’t decided what to write for NaNoWriMo this year. All I have is a topic. Candy. (It’s about time I wrote a candy novel.)

I thought the whole thing with starting with a title back in ‘04 worked pretty well (that was the year of An Alphabetical Order). I also thought I would work in a different genre this year, as I always do. I’m running out of new POVs, so this one might be 3rd Person Limited.

The current title is:

Limited Liability Chocolate, an LLC

But I’ve been thinking of other titles as well, since I’m going for the Comedy genre. (The LLC novel would be a satire, I believe, somehow involving corporations and chocolate, as the title would imply.)

A new title that I’m mulling over would go something like this:

A Novel That Has Lollipops in It

Of course that breaks my rule about having a title that alphabetically sorts high.

It’s a work in progress.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 4:24 pm     NaNoWriMo

Thursday, October 12, 2006

It’s not the battery

So last night I was sitting on the couch enjoying some Prik King from Rambutan Thai and watching the premiere of 30 Rock.

My laptop was on the dining room table, plugged in, but with the battery removed.

We’re watching TV and the damn thing made that loud pop again! The battery isn’t even in the same room, so it’s not the battery. Something’s seriously wrong with it. It still works, doesn’t feel unusually warm to the touch. But a loud pop is not a good sound.

I don’t know if it’s going to make it through this NaNoWriMo and the sad thing is that even my desktop computer isn’t working anymore (no strange sounds of that because I can’t even get it to boot). I’m in bad shape. Bad, bad shape.

(See previously Not a sound you want to hear from your computer.)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:44 am     Curious News

Thursday, October 05, 2006

Better Sleep Through Formatting

Every year as NaNoWriMo season begins, I get a little stressed. It gets easier and easier to be the ubermoderator for such a big community. But the one thing that I’ve noticed is a good indication of my stress levels is dreaming in October.

imageFor the past three years my dreams in October have had large portions formatted as forum posts.

Seriously. The dream bits are separate posts. Not specifically text, but somehow, in that dream-way, enclosed within forum code and forum frames. The dreams are not necessarily nanowrimo-related, but just formatted as topics and threads.

The dreams this year, of course, started on October 1st. Last night I had no forum dreams that I recall. Will this complacency blow up in my face? If I do not live, breathe and dream nanowrimo, will it still come together?

POSTED BY Cybele AT 10:58 am    

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Not the sound you want from your computer

Last night I was working on my laptop ... on my lap, in front of the TV. I can’t recall what I was working on, probably an email or the forums.

Suddenly the computer made a loud POP and I felt the expression of air on my legs. I picked the computer up by the corner of the keyboard and held it like a rat by its tail, fully expecting to burst into flames (it is a Dell, after all). I dare not put it down, lest it catch something else on fire so I held it out for The Man to yank the power cord. It shut off instantly and The Man followed me into the kitchen as I carried it by the corner. Twisting it around and seeing no indication of flames or even any unusual heat or smoke, I put it down on the floor. I felt the top, then the bottom then closed it and sniffed it. All perfectly normal.

We took out the battery, which also looked normal and didn’t feel hot at all.

After a few minutes of puzzlement, “You heard that pop, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yeah. Did it hurt?”

“No, not at all, just, you know, I thought it was gonna burst into flames, like they do on BoingBong.”

We set it down on the dining room table, sans battery and plugged it back in. It works just fine.

The battery wasn’t holding even the slightest charge for the past month or so, so it’s not like running it without the battery is any big deal.

You can be sure the first thing I did was copy ALL of my files off to the server.

Now I can’t decide if I should get a new battery (which Dell doesn’t even sell on their website any longer) or just spring for a new laptop. My Inspiron 2600 turns four this month. That’s 88 in dog years.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 9:24 am    

Friday, September 22, 2006

Your Superpower

I was reading Wil Wheaton earlier about meeting Larry Niven (author of Ringworld). It got me to thinking (which I commented there about) that I’ve always thought that the whole super powers thing is all wrong.

A really powerful superhero would have special powers like the power to make people laugh.

Think about the different in how much work it takes to hurt someone ... any old schmo can do it. It doesn’t even take a weapon or super powers. Sure, you can hurt someone MORE with more power, but really, how much hurtin’ does one person need?

Then think how rare and powerful laughter is.

Or the power to make someone feel good about themselves.

The power of pleasure.

The power of contentment.

The power of just seeing someone else’s side for a moment.

The sad thing is that most of these are not super powers, just rare powers. Undervalued powers.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:55 pm     Curious News

Saturday, August 19, 2006

Blessings in Disguise

So, today I decided to tackle the stains on the upholstery in the living room. We have a little carpet cleaner thingy that we got when we adopted Becky which works well for cleaning up all sorts of her messes. So I went to work with the noisy machine on her chair, to make it at least acceptable for company.

While I’m cleaning away, I glance over at the dog, who looks most unhappy about me taking over her chair and making it all fresh smelling. As I back up to examine my progress, I look down at her feet and see what she’s unhappy about. Three different piles of fresh vomit on the living room rug.

Being an optomistic person, I think that this is my lucky day! I can suck that sick right up! No worries about that leaving a stain.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 1:50 pm     Curious News

The Inventive Mind

When I was a kid I invented a few things.

One of them was noise cancelling technology. Okay, I never built a prototype or anything, but I made some pictures. This invention came in 9th grade after a science lab where we took long springs out into the hallway and created waveforms by having one student hold one end and wiggle it and another student hold the other end. Many of us quickly saw that you could cancel out your partners wave by creating an equal and opposite one.

I mulled it over and then told the teacher several days later that it would be possible to create a machine that would create equal and opposite sound waves to effectively dampen loud noises. These machines would be installed on cars, jackhammers and pile drivers.

My invention became noise cancelling headphones, of which I own a pair, and paid retail and received no royalties from Bose or Sony. I still think that masking the noise at the source is a better idea.

I didn’t get any extra credit for this. I don’t even think I got an A in the class.

imageLater in Advanced Bio in my senior year we studied bacteriophages, which are a kind of virus. They’re pretty cool, and the picture in our textbook showed that they looked like the Apollo Lunar Lander. A little module with some legs sticking off of it. The bacteriophage would land on a bacteria and then insert its genetic core and then take over the bacteria as an incubation unit until it would finally burst with new bacteriophages.

I suggested later in class that this could be used to fight diseases, since the bacteriophage was so specific to killing only bacteria (and not human cells) that we could just inject into people and let them keep us clean. It was pointed out that the bacteriophages are usually pretty targeted and not a broad-spectrum antibiotic like I hoped. Then I suggested that they could be used as a disinfectant, in tablet form for drinking water in places like Africa with chronic water contamination problems. But the teacher kind of moved on from there to the next class assignment. (Our textbook and the books in our library did not reveal to me the degree to which bacteriophages were being examined for these same purposes, so I can still say I got the idea in a vaccum. If nothing else, it might make a good basis for a SciFi movie.)

But here it is, 2006 and the FDA has actually approved the use of bacteriophages to fight listeria on lunchmeats.

Oh, my other invention was a low-sodium celery. My grandmother was on a low-sodium diet and couldn’t eat celery. So I came up with a way to use reverse osmosis to draw the excessive sodium out of the celery before market. I couldn’t guarantee that the taste would be the same though.

Of course I probably had some other wacky ideas which were not only no good, but probably so poorly conceived that I no longer remember them. Until they become practical and profitable, of course.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:46 am    

Friday, August 18, 2006

I Joined a Cult

imageI am loathe to follow fashion, but sometimes something that “everyone is doing” is just a good idea.

Last night I bought a bike.

Part of my hesitation about biking in LA is that I’m afraid of being hit by a car. But the new trendiness of biking, I think, is helping to increase awareness of bikers as part of the normal flow of traffic.

The other thing that’s kept me from buying a bike is that freakishly steep hill that I live on. So, as a compromise, I bought a starter bike. If it doesn’t work out, you might see a craigslist link posted here very soon. But if it does work out, you also might see a craigslist post here very soon as I upgrade!

Actually, if this one works out okay I’ll probably trick it out with some fenders (since I’ll be commuting), a pannier or saddlebags, a kickstand (because I don’t like leaning my bike on stuff) and maybe one of those tall flags (I can get it custom printed with the candy blog logo!).

POSTED BY Cybele AT 7:02 am     Curious News

Monday, August 14, 2006

Straight from the Source

A few weeks ago Sean Bonner posted about Google News and their screwy, secret and inconsistent policy for including blogs as new sources.

All of the Metblog sites should be added. Granted, not every post is news, but when it comes to big stories like Katrina, London Tube Bombings and Mumbia train bombings as well as the Pakistan Earthquakes and web censorship by the government in Saudi Arabia ... the sites are all over that stuff.

But the thing is that they’re not consistent (which you know is a pet peeve of mine), so I decided to see if I could get Candy Blog listed as a news source.

First try, I was turned down for the following reason:

“we currently only include sites with news articles that report on recent events.”

Okee dokee, I can understand that. But I started thinking about what I read there ... things like movie reviews and regurgitation of press releases and of course recipes. So why isn’t a candy review considered a recent event? My photos are original and many of the products are new ... why is that so different from a soft profile piece about an actor in a TV show? A fan site for Stargate SG-1 and Celebrity Babies are listed! Even the satirical Australian site called The Chaser gets in.

Second try, so I submitted again with an angle towards comparing my site to movie reviews and I got back:

“We don’t include sites that are written and maintained by individuals.”

So there you have it ... I guess since I’m taking my own photos, I’ve done myself in. If I’ve got no editor, I’m not worthy. I looked around a bit and only found one site run by an individual (Mongabay.com), but you know, I didn’t look at all 4,500 sources or anything.

Now, if you think differently, you’re free to tell them that you’d like to see me included on Google News. Of course you could also tell them to include the Metblogs sites too.

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:09 pm    

Saturday, August 12, 2006

Just the Vacation Facts

Total Miles: 1,866
Gallons of Gas Consumed: 38 (about $125.00)

Saturday
Drove from Los Angeles to Ukiah
Highest Temp: 117 - somewhere near Richmond, CA

Sunday
Hiked Founders Loop - Avenue of the Giants
Hiked Trinidad Head - Trinidad
Miles Hiked: 3
Dinner: Seascape (Trinidad)
Highest Temperature: 97 (Avenue of the Giants)

Monday
Hiked Fern Canyon
Hiked Founder’s Grove
Miles Hiked: 4
Dinner: Larrupin’ Cafe (Trinidad)
Highest Temperature:

Tuesday
Hiked Klamath River Overlook - Requa/Klamath
Hiked Yurok Village Loop/Hidden Beach - Klamath
Hiked Trinidad Beach - Trinidad
Miles Hiked: 4
Dinner: Abruzzi (Arcata)
Highest Temperature: 73

Wednesday
Drove from Trinidad to Olema
Highest Temp: 93 (Cotati)

Thursday
Pt. Reyes Lighthouse
Limantour Point Beach & Spit
Dinner: Olema Inn
Miles Hiked: 3
Highest Temp: 82

Friday
Hiked some other Fern Canyon at the Bird Center
Hiked Palomarin Bluff Trail
Bioluminescence Kayak Tour
Highest Temp: 78

Saturday
Drove to San Francisco via Highway 1
Walked to Ferry Terminal Building
Dinner: Rue St. Jacques (Nob Hill)
Highest Temp: 73

Sunday
Drove to Los Angeles
Highest Temp: 98 (Buttonwillow)

POSTED BY Cybele AT 6:52 am    

Page 2 of 17 pages  < 1 2 3 4 >  Last ›




 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT

CATEGORIES

CONTACT

  • .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

ARCHIVES

During November it's all about me writing a novel. Sometimes it's about whalewatching. You know, and then there's other stuff.