Posts published in “Uncategorized”

Rough Draft of The Clockwork Time Machine

Published July 13, 2011 by centaur

I just completed a rough draft of my fourth novel! My first steampunk work, JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE, clocks in at 90,000 words of completed story! [caption id="attachment_1128" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="The Title Page and Draft History of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE"]

[/caption] Here's another excerpt for those who like a tease ...

With Patrick’s blunderblast slung over her shoulder, Jeremiah whizzed through the streets on her autocycle, discharging its cylinder flat out, its teakettle scream and clanking frame adding another layer of mist and noise to the steam and bustle of Boston. Her legs were tensed, her knees bent against the pedals, half to jump the cycle over curbs, and half to keep the juddering vibration from the cobblestones of Beacon Hill from rattling her tailbone clean off. She squealed to a stop before the Moffat’s, pulled the cylinder and tossed it to a street urchin. “Top me off?” she asked, hopping off onto the sidewalk with a whirl and pulling her bag out of its basket in one smooth motion. “Yes, ma’am,” the boy said, taking the cycle. His eyes lighted on her vest, her denims—and on the big brass buttons on her lapels, a steering wheel, sword and airsail overlaid with a stylized V. “Are you an Expeditionary?” Jeremiah smiled. “Yes,” she said, ruffing his cap so that tufts of blond hair showed. “Maybe one day you’ll become one too. Polish the brasslite a bit and there’s a second shilling in it for you. Quick now; I won’t be long.”

I've got some cleaning to do and a whole 'nother draft before the beta readers can see it, but still ... on to LIQUID FIRE! -the Centaur

Try to eat less than a million bananas a year

Published July 13, 2011 by centaur

Why? Bananas are naturally slightly radioactive. While it's unlikely your body could retain all that radioactive potassium in those bananas, if it did you'd absorb enough radiation to cause an increased cancer risk:

There are disputes about those figures, of course, but at ~105 calories a banana, you're getting roughly 143 times your daily allotment of 2000 calories, so probably you should cut back anyway. -the Centaur P.S. One BED (Banana Equivalent Dose) is 0.1 microsieverts of radiation. XKCD claims that 100 millisieverts of radiation is the lowest dose linked to increased cancer risk. Take that with a grain of salt ... but do the math.

The Spammers Are Getting Snarky

Published July 8, 2011 by centaur

They've tried flattery, they've tried clever links ... now they're trying humiliation:

The following time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one. I mean, I do know it was my option to read, but I really thought youd have something fascinating to say. All I hear is a bunch of whining about one thing that you would fix in case you werent too busy in search of attention.

Too bad this comment was posted on an image ATTACHMENT. :-P So there was no whining to comment on. Even if I follow the comment back to the article, it was about the importance of not whining when things go bad and moving on with your life. Tracing back the link revealed that no, there was no real person behind this: there was an apparently fake blog that was actually an invitation to some kind of ad network. Apparently they keyword matched the text of my article with the comment in an attempt to get some attention. So: nice try, but bad spammer, no backlink. -the Centaur In more detail, my methodology: my moderation software asked me about this comment. The comment was not obviously related to an article and was badly written, so I drilled through to the referenced post and found it was an attachment. It's entirely possible that someone clicked on the parent article, which did reference whining, then clicked on an attachment in an attempt to post an irritated comment. But the person's email address was for an ad network, the linked-to-blog seemed to have unrelated articles, and on my second visit to the blog the ad network tried to take over my whole screen (yay Google Chrome for saving me!). People don't generally have email addresses that are the same as spam networks, so I classified the comment as spam. It was a new kind of spam, so I'm posting about it. UPDATE: Ooo, ooo, I forgot the best part of the methodology: do a search for a long phrase in the spam to see how often it appears on the internet. You can't do too long - the spammer may be using software that introduces slight word variations - but if it's long enough to be unique and it still shows up everywhere, you're virtually guaranteed the comment is spam. I don't care how repetitive a commenter is, nobody is going to write "The following time I read a blog, I hope that it doesnt disappoint me as much as this one" on "About 847,000" pages, according to Google.

Oh, God Bless You!

Published July 5, 2011 by centaur

The Display tab of Mac OS X's Universal Access dialog

I've been having a problem with my old MacBook Pro where the screen's bleached out ... at first I thought it was my ASUS monitor, but the problem is also happening on the MacBook's screen itself, so it's got to be a problem with the laptop. The problem came to a head when I tried going from the MacBook Air to the Pro to print out the reading script for BLOOD ROCK and I could barely read it onscreen ... and noticed the problem in several other programs I'd just used. I was frustrated, but I at last realized it was a MacBook problem and did what I always tell other people to do ... looked it up on the Google. From forums.macrumors.com:

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=398461 macbook screen bleached out???? i was comparing it to my new imac 24 2.8 GHZ, well actually the MB is newer, got the imac 3 weeks ago, macbook this morning, i found out that the screen on the macbook is bleached out, i know its not supposed to be equal to that of the imac, but the colors are bleached!!!!! and the brightness is lower than usual, the ones in the store are brighter! In another thread, somebody said to go to System Preferences---> Universal Access, then adjust the slider to enhance the color.

Ah, yes. That be it. Thanks, online poster guy! And I notice that the offending feature has keyboard shortcuts:

Very easy to hit these, I wager, if you're using an old-school Microsoft Natural Keyboard with your MacBook Pro and keep forgetting whether the Alt key or Windows key maps to Command (it's the Windows key, in the opposite place of what's on the MacBook keyboard). -the Centaur

BLOOD ROCK Radio: Preparing the Reading

Published July 5, 2011 by centaur

I thought it might be useful to see the script a bit closer to completion. The script-style "SPEAKER: Dialogue goes here" style is my idea, and the color coding is an idea suggested by my wife (I'd been thinking of it but it was her suggestion that prompted me to actually do it). I also time it, and put time notes in the script when producing the sound bed - the list of music tracks that goes with the dialogue. Previously the time notes were scribbled notes on a printout, but I've got a little more time now so I'm doing it right. Oh, and I've eliminated the Seven Dirty Words - trickier than it sounds as you can't easily do a search and replace. I prefer to practice at least three times - once to get timing, once with the soundbed, and once for polish. If time permits, I do these on the three evenings prior to appearing on Ann Arbor's show just before going to bed, as there's some evidence that sleep improves memory consolidation (e.g., here, here and here). But having a nice relaxed holiday afternoon to practice counts too. See you all tomorrow at 7:20AM on Ann Arbor's Unbedtime Stories. -the Centaur Pictured: a screenshot of the reading script. Crossposted from the Dakota Frost blog.

BLOOD ROCK Radio, Redux

Published July 4, 2011 by centaur

a page from the reading of blood rock, pre-seven-dirty-words cleanup

Hey there, Cinnamon and Dakota fans ... I'll be reading from the revised-for-print version of BLOOD ROCK on Ann Arbor's Unbedtime Stories on KFJC 89.7 FM for the whole month of July. Interestingly, this is the SECOND time I've made the early morning trip to Foothill College to read from BLOOD ROCK ... the first time was two and a half years ago and marked the first time I appeared on Ann Arbor's program. The text has changed slightly, but the story remains the same. I hope you enjoy! -the Centaur Pictured: my reading copy of BLOOD ROCK, prior to search-and-replace of the Seven Dirty Words. Crossposted at the Dakota Frost blog.

The Fading Sounds of Passing Time

Published July 3, 2011 by centaur

a charger for a camera, whining at high pitch

"I'm not aging; time is passing." I believe thinking in terms of of "aging" makes you grow old by prompting you to make bad choices. There are people far older than me with far greater physical limitations who are at the same time more physically fit, more well adjusted, and more active. I also know people far younger than me who're well on their way to their first heart attacks. But, there are realities to the passage of time. For example, I've already been diagnosed with overwork once, and have felt myself come close to burnout twice before, yet I have no desire to stressing my way into my first heart attack. Apparently I'm not quite as good as tolerating the amount of stress I used to put on my body during finals week at Georgia Tech. So this has prompted me to learn to chill out more and relax, just like about fifteen years ago the sight of my relatives felled by heart attacks prompted me to improve my diet and exercise. You can't necessarily prevent a heart attack, but you can stop doing the things that make them more likely. But beyond that, there are still realities. Sometimes they're obvious - arthritis in the knee, a bone plate in the arm, the loss of hair. Sometimes, however, they surprise you. Pictured above is a charger for my wife's digital camera. I came in from church today and heard a high pitched whine. It took me a few moments to localize it to the charger. (Or perhaps a component has failed in the light sensor next to it, but since that hasn't whined before and it seems to be working I'll exclude it. OR I could use the scientific method and unplug it and see if the whine stops. Ok, it does. Strong evidence it is the source of the whine. SO ANYWAY...) But then something peculiar happened. I turned my head and the noise went away. After a few minutes experimentation, I'd confirmed it: I can only perceive the whine in my left ear. If I plug my left ear and press my right ear to the device, I can pick up a very, very slight whine, but nothing like I can hear with my left. So: upper range hearing loss - also known as ski slope loss - localized to my right ear. I had my hearing extensively tested about a decade ago, and I know I already had very mild hearing loss (well within the normal adult range) and left-right asymmetry. But I don't think it was quite this dramatic, which probably means that it's worsened a tad. A visible - no wait, audible - sign of *gasp* aging. Not all of the passage of time is bad: my vision has essentially been improving in the last few years. Even though I've got a touch of presbyopia and my eyes can't tolerate contacts as well, my myopia has slowly been fading, which counteracts the above. But it's interesting to see it demonstrated so dramatically. -the Centaur

Closing in on a first draft …

Published July 1, 2011 by centaur

Some strange device I saw at the Maker Faire

I'm getting close to a first draft of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE. First book in a new series, and I'm having a blast writing steampunk. I've also written a story with the same characters, "Steampunk Fairy Chick", that I've submitted to an upcoming anthology. Very exciting! -the Centaur Pictured: a strange machine I saw at the Bay Area Maker Faire that looks vaguely steampunky, vaguely time-machiney.

So you’re going to be a stem cell donor …

Published June 30, 2011 by centaur

anthony at mervyn's after receiving unrelated good news

... or, actually, I'm going to be a stem cell donor. Only 1 in 20,000 actually match, so this is pretty lucky. If all goes well with the physical and blood tests, I'll be helping out someone who's got few remaining options. Good things do happen. -the Centaur P.S. No grief, only 1 in 20,000 match. So check out Be The Match dot org and consider getting your cheek swabbed. Somewhere out there someone may be depending on you - so no pressure.

text-align:centaur

Published April 8, 2011 by centaur

some lorem ipsum text, aligned as a centaur

BWAHAHA! Too funny: someone wrote code to align text automatically in the shape of a centaur. Hee hee ... I'd be rolling on the floor laughing but it's hard with four legs. Now can we get that into HTML5? -the Centaur Pictured: a screenshot of some lorem ipsum text fed through text-align:centaur.

Plotting from the bottom up

Published April 8, 2011 by centaur

Recently I was asked about how I plot books:

I was wondering if you could help me out a bit. I've always wanted to create my own comicbook from my own design and mind but I always, I mean ALWAYS have problems coming up with and sticking with a good plot. I can make the basis of the story, the characters, the world and different terms and creatures but I can never stick with a plot or make a good one that I know will drive the story. Could you give me any advice on these things or some pointers on how to make a really great story I could draw out? I'm so close to it blossoming I can taste it!

Great question! I'm not sure I'm the best person in the world to answer it - my first pointer to anyone on plot would be Ayn Rand's The Art of Fiction - yes, I know, it's Ayn Rand, but if you're one of those idiots who can't see past your unjustified distaste for her political philosophy, well, then you deserve to miss out on her opinions in other areas which might prove of more value to you despite your disagreements - but I do think about plot quite a bit, so I'll give it a go. A lot of what I do is simply write cool scenes I enjoy ... and then think hard about who's the protagonist and what's their major conflict. Once you know, for example, the protagonist is a magic tattoo artist, that suggests she's going to be in conflict over some tattoo related thing - like someone skinning people who have tattoos. Once you know the conflict, then you can design the climax - well, your tattoo artist will eventually have to meet the evil skinning person, who will want to make her a victim. That basic strategy - write stuff that's fun, figure out who the protagonist really is, find what conflict they're embroiled in, design the final conflict, then work backwards from there - has worked very well for me. Why take this approach, rather than, say, starting with some theme and working back from there. Start with an abstract goal? Yuk! That might work for nonfiction but in fiction it's a recipe for heartless exercises in craft - and craft can't sell a story. The instant someone notices you're telling a story on skill alone, you're done. There are prominent authors I can't read anymore because I realized they had some point they were driving to and were using all of their craft to get me there ... even though there was no reason to go there in the first place. That might work in a movie with a lot of explosions, but it's not going to sustain a 300 page book. So. I need concrete events, realized situations with full-bodied characters where interesting things are happening. In short, I need to be entertained - in my writing most of all. That's why I start with "cool scenes" - I write to entertain myself first, so I have to write what I enjoy writing. But I want others to enjoy it too - someone once said the hallmark of a great writer is that they take what they find interesting and make it interesting to other people. To do that, to make my stories interesting to people not invested in my characters, I need to create a strong conflict that will engage. And to do so, I listen to the story. Whether the story features a tattoo artist accosted by a werewolf deep in the Lovecraftian underbelly of Atlanta - or that same tattoo artist and her adopted weretiger daughter out school shopping in the sun - those first key scenes of the story, those first inspirations, will tell you what belongs in the story. If the story begins with Dakota school shopping with Cinnamon, then some part of the story must hinge on Cinnamon and Dakota in a school - or that scene's got to go. If the story features a magic tattoo artist investigating magic graffiti, then some part of the story must hinge on our tattoo artist confronting the graffiti artist. And for the story to really be interesting, something important must be at stake - generally, life has to be on the line in the kind of melodramatic action adventures I write, but it can be more subtle if you're writing something more subtle. One famous way of looking at this idea is Chekov's Gun - "If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don't put it there." Ayn Rand's take on this is similar: you should decide on your theme (what your story is about), then your plot-theme (what type of events realize your theme), then your conflict (what is being fought over in the plot) then the plot itself (the actual sequence of events) which will then dictate the characters, scenes and settings in your story. I believe in the same causal structure, but prefer the opposite order. I let my subconscious play scenes out I find entertaining, and then let the characters and the situations tell me who they are, what conflicts they encounter, and what themes I should explore. You have to find your own way of doing things, of course; every writer is unique, and it's your unique story and vision that matter. Whatever you have to do - outline or no outline, start from the beginning or write backwards for the end - just do it. Just write, and eventually it will all sort itself out. -the Centaur

If this doesn’t blow your mind…

Published April 8, 2011 by centaur

Just heard some comments by Salman Khan of the Khan Academy (wikipedia) - over two thousand free educational videos on almost any conceivable topic, and a growing library of self-paced exercises. One finding of their class profiles is that people who start as "slow" learners may end up a the top of the class if they're allowed to learn at their own pace, but required to master their materials before moving on. God bless him, it's the future of learning. -Anthony

I don’t read patents

Published April 5, 2011 by centaur

big red stop button for a robot, i think from bosch

A friend recently overheard someone taking trash about how big companies were kowtowing to them because of a patent they had - and the friend asked me about it. Without knowing anything about the patent, it certainly does sound plausible someone would cut deals over an awarded patent - once a patent is awarded it's hard to get rid of. But I couldn't be of more help to them, because I couldn't read the patent. As a working engineer (and, briefly, former IP lead for an AI company) I've had to adopt a strict policy to not read patents. The reason is simple - if you as an engineer look at a patent and decide that it doesn't apply to you, and a court later decides that you're wrong, the act of looking at the patent will be considered to be evidence of willful patent infringement and will result in treble damages. In case you're wondering, this isn't just me - most IP guys will tell you, if you are an engineer do NOT look at patents prior to doing your work - do what you need to do, apply for patent protection for what you're doing that you think is new, useful and non-obvious, and let the lawyers sort out the rest - if it ever comes up, which usually it won't. Not everyone agrees and it really applies less to indie developers and open source projects than it does to people working at big companies with deep pockets likely to get sued. Unfortunately I work at a big company with deep pockets likely to get sued, so I don't look at patents. Don't send them to me, don't tell me about them, and if, God forbid, you think I or someone I know is violating a patent you hold, I'll find the number of our legal counsel, and they'll assign someone to evaluate the claim who specializes in that kind of thing. Hate the damn things. -the Centaur Pictured: a big red stop button for a robot, I think from one at Bosch.

What Is Consciousness?

Published April 3, 2011 by centaur

what information is beautiful thinks i think about consciousness

infographic on consciousness as functionalism

The ever wonderful chaps at Information is Beautiful have put up a beautiful animated infographic of many of the major theories of consciousness. Click on the graphic to the right to see them all ... I'm essentially a functionalist but try to keep an open mind. OK, I can state it more forcefully than that: I believe, and believe I can point to evidence for, that consciousness performs many important functions, and I want to know what they all are, how they work together, and how they relate to the other functions of the brain. If we do build up a solid picture of that, however, it won't surprise me too much if we find interesting phenomena left over that require us rethinking everything we've done up to that point. -the Centaur UPDATE: Ooo, there's even more to the graphic than I thought ... you can click on the brains and get it to produce a composite graphic of what "your" theory of consciousness is.

Some Days You Just Wanna Curl Up In A Ball

Published March 30, 2011 by centaur

This isn't a Woe Is Me post about all the crap that's been happening to me recently. That's so last week, literally. This is about depression. I have sporadic bouts of depression, probably just like most other people, nothing serious enough to call clinical. What really strikes me about it is how disconnected mood is from reality. In a large number of ways, things are Much Better Now than they were Just A While Ago. I've delivered my work to my old team (closure), I've moved to a new team doing something fun (robotics), I'm healing up from my illness (wellness), my wife's returned from her trip (companionship), and I have a book coming out (success). But nothing is perfect, and there are little setbacks that happen all the time. Sporadic depression, I find, isn't brought on by nothing, the way clinical depression extends over long periods for no good reason; it gets triggered by one of those little setbacks. When I was down with tonsillitis right before several major deadlines, things like a smashed toe made me upset and angry, and things like work challenges made me frustrated and worn out. Now that things are evened out, you'd think I'd have more resilience. Instead, I found myself having a Surprisingly Shitty Day. Even though I felt better, I was making progress on all my work tasks, at least partially resolved my setbacks, and even made progress on writing and drawing, the depression never let up. Now, I had a setback, as I said, and there are things that would make this situation better. But what interests me is that some of these feelings I felt today - "I wish I was doing something else" and "I'm so tired" and "I can't take it anymore" - I thought were attributable to my previous less-than-ideal situation: working on what I didn't want to work on, under deadline pressure, while sick. I know that's not the case now. I'm working on what I do want to work on. The next deadlines are weeks away and I have no competing pressures. And I'm feeling physically better. Even the setback passed out of my mind. So why am I feeling the same way? I suspect because those feelings are a habit of mind. A response to a challenging situation I've picked up that has become free floating. There are challenges inherent in everything you do, no matter how fun it is - and any bad habits of mind don't care how closely aligned your current work is with your goals, your desires, your attitudes. Your bad attitudes and thoughts are just sitting there, waiting to spring, starting the tapeloop spiral into depression. So what am I gonna do about it? Recognize it, blog it, and move on. I've had many, many cycles of mild maniac / depression in my life, and I didn't start to get better until I recognized it, stopped wallowing it, and moved on. My formerly quick temper had the same solution: notice it's happening, turn the alarm off, and deal with the situation, sometimes cathartically, usually not. That worked so well my wife hasn't ever seen me really lose my temper in eight years of our relationship. If the solution to dealing with anger is not to get angry, is the solution to dealing with depression just not to let yourself get down? To pull out of the situation, relax, do something fun, and tackle it again with your energies renewed? Let's see. Time to kick back, throw on some Who, and chill. -the Centaur

lenora sitting as if she's gonna watch some of the teevee

It’s … radiation

Published March 29, 2011 by centaur

Over at Information is Beautiful they've got a chart detailing the levels of radiation at the Fukushima nuclear disaster compared with other things, like the radiation at Chernobyl (bad) and the radiation for eating a banana (not so much). As XKCD tried to put into perspective earlier, the radiation at the plant is a real threat to the heroic workers trying to shut it down ... but for the rest of us, not so much. Sorry, folks. Radiation is just not as dangerous as you've been told in the movies and the media - we simply try to keep exposure low because the effects are random. And even if you do get a fatal dose, it won't give you superpowers. -the Centaur

Jeremiah Willstone Is On The Air

Published March 23, 2011 by centaur

Somehow, after only 4 hours of sleep (AGAIN after trying hard to crash early and failing to take care of myself) and heavy rains on the way to Foothills College, I managed to stumble in to Ann Arbor's studio at KFJC at seven after ten and still made my reading time ten minutes later. I come on the air at about 25 minutes in to the audio archive, reading from JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE:

http://www.kfjc.org/broadcast_archives/archives/1103230653h_ann_arbor.mp3 Lightning gouged a chunk of the wainscoting an inch from Jeremiah Willstone’s head and she hurled herself back, bumping down the stairs on her tailcoat, firing both Kathodenstrahls again and again until the doorpanels were blasted into sparks and splinters. Her shoulders hit the landing hard enough to rattle her teeth, but Jeremiah didn’t lose her grip: she just kept both guns trained on the cracked door, watching foxfire shimmer off its hinges and knobs. The crackling green tracers crept around the frame, and with horror she realized the door was reinforced with iron bands. She’d intended to blast the thing apart and deny her enemy cover, but had just created more arrowholes for him-or-her to shoot from. As the foxfire dissipated, the crackling continued, and her eyes flicked aside to see sparks escaping the broken glass of her left Kathodenstrahl’s vacuum tubes. Its thermionics were shot, and she tossed it aside with a curse and checked the charge canister on her remaining gun. The little brass bead was hovering between three and four notches. Briefly she thought of swapping canisters, but a slight creak upstairs refocused her attention. No. You only need three shots. Keep them pinned, wait for reinforcements.

Get it now, before it disappears from the archive a couple of weeks from now. -the Centaur

Posts With Images Hanging Right Now

Published March 22, 2011 by centaur

They seem to do fine on the main page, but they hang on detail view. Will debug this weekend, just letting people know if you drill down on a link and nothing shows up.

Reading Jeremiah Willstone on Wednesday

Published March 22, 2011 by centaur

I am reading from JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE at 7:20am Wednesday morning on Ann Arbor's radio program Unbedtime Stories. A teaser:

Lightning gouged a chunk of the wainscoting an inch from Jeremiah Willstone’s head and she hurled herself back, bumping down the stairs on her tailcoat, firing both Kathodenstrahls again and again until the doorpanels were blasted into sparks and splinters. Her shoulders hit the landing hard enough to rattle her teeth, but Jeremiah didn’t lose her grip: she just kept both guns trained on the cracked door, watching foxfire shimmer off its hinges and knobs. The crackling green tracers crept around the frame, and with horror she realized the door was reinforced with iron bands. She’d intended to blast the thing apart and deny her enemy cover, but had just created more arrowholes for him-or-her to shoot from. As the foxfire dissipated, the crackling continued, and her eyes flicked aside to see sparks escaping the broken glass of her left Kathodenstrahl’s vacuum tubes. Its thermionics were shot, and she tossed it aside with a curse and checked the charge canister on her remaining gun. The little brass bead was hovering between three and four notches. Briefly she thought of swapping canisters, but a slight creak upstairs refocused her attention. No. You only need three shots. Keep them pinned, wait for reinforcements.

-the Centaur

Take Care Of Yourself Before It’s Too Late

Published March 21, 2011 by centaur

Gabby naps, with the sabretooth skull in the background.

I can't even begin to tell you all that I've gone through recently: sleep deprivation, tonsillitis, tinnitus, internal injuries, a trip to the emergency room (unrelated), and near disasters at work. I've started another blog entry to explain what's been going on, but even that had to be put on hold by other disasters.

The quick point I want to pass on is that I work hard sometimes. I used to describe as working two jobs: by day, my work at the Search Engine That Starts With A G, and by night, the author of the Dakota Frost series. Both could take 40 hours a week or more, meaning normally almsot every nonworking minute ends up on writing.

Recently, that's become like four jobs: my old project at the Search Engine, a brand new project at the Search Engine, both with hard and conflicting deadlines, a scientific paper for my new project, also with a hard deadline, and my fiction writing, also with deadlines. Each one could be a full time job. Aaa.

Recently, this came to a head: I'd finished my scientific paper, had a breather on the writing, yet still knew I was going to have to work hard, nights and weekends, just on my two work projects. So I decided one night I needed to take a break, to chill out, to go to bed early and catch up on sleep. To recharge my batteries.

Too late.

That night, when I got home, planning to crash out early, one of my cats urinated all over our curtains, then tracked it through our house, necessitating a 3:45AM cleaning job (cats will urinate after each other unless it is completely cleaned up), just before a Monday at work. The next night I was kept up by a sore throat, was worn out Tuesday, and was diagnosed with tonsillitis on Wednesday. The throat pain caused sleep deprivation, the coughing fits caused hemorrhoids (yuk!), the nasal congestion caused tinnitus and hearing loss in one ear, and all of this indirectly caused my trip to the emergency room (more on that later). This went on for days, then for over a week. And all of this just before a huge presentation at work, which we figured out we needed to cancel much too late to cancel - so I had to keep working, even though I could barely keep working. I couldn't really code in my exhaustion, and when I did readings for my other project - and I did work on my other project, because its deadlines wouldn't stop either - the textbooks actually blurred when I sat down to read them.

It was almost two weeks later, a day after the presentation, when I finally crashed, for essentially 36 hours straight.

So my point, and I do have one, is that you should take care of yourself. Now. While you're still feeling good about yourself. Because if you wait to take care of yourself until you're all worn out ... it may be too late.

-the Centaur