Lots of things. I use those Composition Books you can get to take notes at during conventions, etc. Normally I'll go through a page or four for a full convention. For the last World Fantasy I think I filled eight pages. I'll keep track of ideas, take notes of things I want to remember, people I want to remember, things I promised I do, expenses, stuff like that. I decided to bring a new book to VP, which is good. We still have three lectures or collegiums to do tomorrow and I'm already at 50 pages (and that doesn't include the writing assignments).
For our one writing assignment we had to help fill a whole in the "Steam Velocipede" magazine. Our groups assignment included "if we use zeppelins they better be damn good ones because they're are already 15 stories with zeppelins in them." Implied that we shouldn't use them. I took it as a "just what can you come up with as zeppelins that'll rock our socks off."
How's this? Using whale carcasses as zeppelins? Shave down the ribcage and other bones for lightness and sew the tanned whale-skin over the frame and inflate with gas. Add steering mechanisms to the pectoral flippers and tale as an aileron you've got a pretty interesting zeppelin, I think.
I had shaved down the whales ribs myself to make the Bag-of-Bones lighter. I didn't have the expertise to scrape and then sew the dried skin back together and make it gastight and light enough to achieve positive buoyancy. The skinners had made excellent work of it though, as they had all the others. When they had finished reassembling the pieces it looked like the humpback whale we had killed a week ago, only with a smaller tail. One more ranking higher and I would have rated the blue-whale Bag-o-Bones. After this excursion to the Spanish Philippines , I should rate moving up to either the sperm-whale or even the dirigibles.
Patrick, or gearsman had begun to install the lifting and steerage mechanism on the bags-of-bones. Once outfitted it would carry myself and Hoyle into battle. Patrick had crawled out of the stomach of the beast, a modern Jonah. He grabbed another brass gear set and went back in.
How's that for pumping me full of carbonated sugar water (I've gained width this week, can't wait to use the wii again) and making me stay up late?
So, if you see this appear in other stories coming up, you know where it got started. Frickin' whale zeppelins. Whale zeppelins with lasers! (not really). So, hopefully I'll start normal blogging on Monday (or something like that). Hope you're all having fun. I have no idea what's happening in the real world, so it'll be interesting catching up.
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