I'm busier than a one-legged man fighting a bobcat in a telephone booth. So not a lot and a number from Jay Lake.
Tobias Buckell has a sit down with his intern. Some good advice to all us newbie writers. Gods, am I still a newbie?
Writing in the time of people being short of time. Which is something I've thought about, so it's interesting to see someone come to similar conclusions. Although there is the alternate argument, some people read to slow down. They want the long letter because the adore its time expanding effect. (Grokked from Absolute Write)
Some more Kurt Vonnegut. Because can't we all do with more Kurt Vonnegut?
Do you need an agent? Like the article says, maybe, maybe not. But probably maybe. (Grokked from Absolute Write)
More bad news for sweetened drinks. Although we should point out, this is just one study. However that study shows a fairly significant correlation between sweetened (and diet) drinks and depression. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
"Anesthesia Awareness", one of those interesting things about modern medicine that the public's perception of what is happening isn't really what is going on (there's also a lot on consciousness and what that means). There are many types of anesthesia and people are put under different ways. Sometimes in surgery they will need to have you respond in some fashion, so while you may be "under" you're still able to respond. Some anesthesia simply decouples your hypothalamus from forming long term memories (or at least those that are easily recalled). You're still able to respond, you may be able to consciously move (but things like walking are out of the question). MY A&P professor recounts having to put in a chest tube on a patient where at the end the patient shook his hand and thanked him for not making it painful. However, as he says, during the procedure (and if you don't know what it takes to put in a chest tube, well, my advice is to stay ignorant) the patient was screaming bloody murder and he (the doc) finished the procedure drenched in sweat. The difference is the patient had been fully "awake" but unable to form memories. So while they were in great pain during not only could they not remember the pain, they couldn't remember the sensation of "I'm in pain." I'm pretty sure during my first surgery for my broken fibula I wasn't fully gone. While I don't remember the surgery itself, I do remember them wheeling me out of the surgery room and the nurse asking me if I was in pain and wanted morphine (the answer was "yes, please") That memory is only of being on the gurney, hearing the doors open and the voice of the nurse. I'm told my eyes were open but I have no visual memory. Actually I don't have a visual memory until the next day as I was about to leave (although I also remember talking with my wife during the overnight). When they removed the pins and plates, during the preoperative interview I informed the anesthesiologist of that memory. The only thing I remember after going into the surgery room is waking up in post-op and having my O2 monitor go off when I slept. This is why it's good to talk with your healthcare people, be forthright and honest with them. If you don't say anything, they'll follow normal procedures. If they know how you differ, they can compensate. (Grokked from Jay Lake)
If you wish to think of humans as collections of electrons, protons and neutrons with their limited forms of arrangement and through extrapolation come to the conclusion that their is no free will because we're all working through possibilities that have been selected by the atomic, chemical, and biological laws, than I think you're missing that those possibilities are for all intents and purposes infinite (after all, infinity is a number, just one more than what we can reasonably hold in our heads) and isn't that close enough to free will that there would be no real difference between them? It's like the problem of an object approaching another object by halfing the distance every second. It never will arrive at the second object, but just come really, really close. Well, what is the effective distance starting one foot out and running for 24 hours and what is the difference between that and the two objects touching one another?
Tweet of my heart: @KameronHurley: Sometimes the Internet reminds me too much of high school. Took me a long time to not give a shit what people think. Learned skill.
Alligator Quotient: If I were only up to my armpits in them, that might qualify as a vacation.
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