I just finished writing Year of the Dog ! It had a massive plot hole that I had to fix which turned out to be more work than I expected. Here’s a snippet: “Hey, Auntie Nell.” He wrapped his arms around her, bussing her on the cheek and breathing in pikake flowers and shortbread cookies. And suddenly he was nine years old again, and her solid presence had made his chaotic world stable once more. “What are you doing here?” He usually took her to dinner on Wednesday nights, but today was Tuesday. The edges of her smile faltered a little before brightening right back up again. “What, I can’t visit my nephew?” She angled around him to enter his home. “Is this your new house? Looks lovely.” Which was a blatant lie, because the fixer-upper was barely livable, much less acceptable to a neat-freak like his aunt. She also left four matching pink and purple floral suitcases on the stoop behind her. Only then did Ashwin notice the cab driver standing slightly to the side of the walkway. “Can ...
Captain's Log, Stardate 07.22.2008
Captain Caffeine told me an interesting story he heardon the radio (update: it was in the paper), I think. You know all those fires here in Northern California? Luckily, they weren’t near us and we didn’t need to be evacuated.
However, they (somebody) interviewed some people who had been evacuated, asking them what they took and why.
The answers were very interesting. For example, one guy had like 900 bottles of wine (read: really good, expensive, and probably old) in his wine cellar. He said he’d been torn between wines with monetary value and sentimental value. Originally, he took two $1500 bottles (yes, you read that right—one thousand, five hundred smackeroos) but he put one back to choose a wine with more sentimental value.
This got me and the Captain thinking about what we’d take. A fire evacuation is more forgiving than, say, a tornado evacuation, because you have more time to load up the car.
We’d take:
--Our computers
Although I have to say, I have Mozy.com as my backup system, so that gives me peace of mind to know my writing and business stuff is saved offsite. Plus it’s free and I can schedule it to backup everyday at a certain time.
(If you use this link to sign up for Mozy’s free backup service, you and I both get an extra 256MB free. Click on the Mozy Home 2 GB free on the bottom of the page.)
--Our financial information, which is in a lockbox, and some other valuables in our fireproof safe
--Camping gear
--Our earthquake emergency kit (it’s actually a hard plastic garbage bin filled with essentials)
And then Captain said he’d take his espresso maker. Yes, he values it that highly. And the burr grinder, too.
I’d take my knitting needles and a bit of yarn because NO WAY am I going to be stuck somewhere without something to knit.
I’d also make sure I had all my ebooks on my PDA so I’d have lots to read.
What about you? What would you take?
Captain Caffeine told me an interesting story he heard
However, they (somebody) interviewed some people who had been evacuated, asking them what they took and why.
The answers were very interesting. For example, one guy had like 900 bottles of wine (read: really good, expensive, and probably old) in his wine cellar. He said he’d been torn between wines with monetary value and sentimental value. Originally, he took two $1500 bottles (yes, you read that right—one thousand, five hundred smackeroos) but he put one back to choose a wine with more sentimental value.
This got me and the Captain thinking about what we’d take. A fire evacuation is more forgiving than, say, a tornado evacuation, because you have more time to load up the car.
We’d take:
--Our computers
Although I have to say, I have Mozy.com as my backup system, so that gives me peace of mind to know my writing and business stuff is saved offsite. Plus it’s free and I can schedule it to backup everyday at a certain time.
(If you use this link to sign up for Mozy’s free backup service, you and I both get an extra 256MB free. Click on the Mozy Home 2 GB free on the bottom of the page.)
--Our financial information, which is in a lockbox, and some other valuables in our fireproof safe
--Camping gear
--Our earthquake emergency kit (it’s actually a hard plastic garbage bin filled with essentials)
And then Captain said he’d take his espresso maker. Yes, he values it that highly. And the burr grinder, too.
I’d take my knitting needles and a bit of yarn because NO WAY am I going to be stuck somewhere without something to knit.
I’d also make sure I had all my ebooks on my PDA so I’d have lots to read.
What about you? What would you take?
Comments
jchoppes[at]hotmail[dot]com
It's amazing, when you think about it, how much we can do without, how much is really replaceable.