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Saturday, November 7th, 2009
motris	3:37a	Instructionless part deux? Following a weird round without instructions, we are now 3.5 hours late at even starting the team finals as the instructions are late and not printed - the oral English descriptions are neither perfectly fair for all teams nor perfectly clear. We do have over two dozen puzzle types that might show up, and a slight idea what will occur during the team rounds (4 individual head to head matches will occur with 3 versus 4, winner versus 2, winner versus 1) but that will take two hours and be tiring before the individual playoffs start which will also take two hours and be tiring. I'm at least 6th individually, so I only have 2 heats to get through although a huge time advantage to overcome in the finals if I make it. (Comment on this)
cynthialord	6:15a	Overheard near the toy deparment at TJ Maxx word card by Samantha Kid:  I want that. Mom:  You want everything. Kid:  Of course I do. I'm a KID!     :-) Current Mood: good point (Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
motris	11:55p	Friday Puzzle #22 - Color Puzzle Sampler 2 So I'm not sure what day it actually is, except I have a feeling I have 3 minutes to post, to hit Friday in the west coast. These three combined puzzles were first written as part of a birthday hunt for Wei-Hwa last summer; there is a solution "word" but it is not a further instruction so when you have it you are done. If Four Winds/Nurikabe are not instantly familiar, use Google. (This jpg is the best image format I can do while on the road from the files I have - an updated form may be here next week.) (Comment on this)
Saturday, November 7th, 2009
sinfest_mod [ meddler_inc ]	12:11a	A Household Word (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 6th, 2009
tablesaw	4:17p	What I'm Reading. Follow Friday Here's the plan: every Friday, let's recommend some people and/or communities to follow on Dreamwidth. That's it. No complicated rules, no "pass this on to 7.328 friends or your cat will die". Just introduce us to some new things to read. flourish is reading pop-culture-studies books for National Blog Post Month. Her blog's pretty awesome otherwise too. Let's Play My current read is the entire Quest for Glory series by Bobbin Threadbare. There are lots of Sierra games that I've always wanted to learn more about, and this series is a lot of fun to read about. Pictures My dad has a Flickr account (dedalus1947_flickr_feed), recently featuring children in costumes and Dia de los Muertos festivities. Fandom When the intensity of whedonland subsides, I like to dip into tvpassiton Puzzles A little while ago, I refound my Nikoli books of Slitherlink and Nurikabe, and I've been solving them on my commute. I think I'm only a few puzzles away from completing the Slitherlink book. I also have the Naughty Crosswords for bathroom solving. Print For a while, working on the Nikoli books, I wasn't reading as much. I'm back in trying to finish This Small City Will Be a Mexican Paradise by Michael J. González. It examines Mexican Angeleños' relationship with the state of Mexico and the "Indians" who were already living in the area. This journal has moved to Dreamwidth. Entry originally posted at http://tablesaw.dreamwidth.org/428827.html. Comment(s) Current Music: Jeopardy
jayisgames	9:00p	Super Sloth Bomber http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/11/super_sloth_bomber.php Platform: Flash — The hams are on the loose! The cutlery is on the march! AND THE GIANT TURTLES ARE STORMING THE BEACH! No time to ask questions, every able-bodied sloth needs to load up his hot-air balloon with unsafe amounts of explosives and strike back! Super Sloth Bomber, from Megadev, is a short but relentlessly cheery, fasted-paced game of bombs and reflexes. Tagged as: action, arcade, browser, flash, free, game, macwinlinux, megadev, rating-g, reflex (Comment on this)
jayisgames	6:15p	Elementals: The Magic Key http://jayisgames.com/archives/2009/11/elementals_the_magic_key.php Platform: Download (Windows) — Elementals: The Magic Key is a hidden object adventure hybrid that not only gets the item finding sessions right, it also delivers a wonderfully complete battle system that plays out like a turn-based strategy game. Tagged as: adventure, affiliate, demo, download, game, hiddenobject, hybrid, playrixentertainment, puzzle, rating-g, windows (Comment on this)
sarazarr	4:22p	San Francisco & Pacifica Events I am returning to the motherland next week, and having my very first ever Pacifica event. Pacifica! Where it all happened. My high school experience, that is. It is also the place of Deanna Lambert's high school experience, as told in Story of a Girl. If it is too traumatic for you to actually go to Pacifica, come see me in San Francisco, at the Books, Inc./Not Your Mother's Book Club Fall Book Bash, with colleagues Barry Lyga, LK Madigan, Andrew Smith, and Allen Zadoff. Details for both below: Thursday, November 12 @ 7 p.m. Pacifica Public Library - Sharp Park - 104 Hilton Way - Pacifica, CA ____ Friday, November 13 @ 7 p.m. Books, Inc. Opera Plaza - 601 Van Ness - San Francisco I'm also doing a private book club event, and a couple of school visits. Hope to see you there, somewhere, in the fog. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
dlgarfinkle	1:59p	Friday Five 1. Am I the only one happy that leggings are back in style? It was the only '80s fashion that looked okay on me. It beats bare midriffs and shoulder pads, right? 2. The CA budget cuts have devastated my kids' schools, with 37 kids in my fourth-grader's class, the entire budget wiped out for my daughter's Academic Decathlon group, etc. But there's a silver lining: The middle school can no longer afford MyAccess.com, alias Satan, the computer program that graded essays by giving the most points for wordiness and multi-syllabic words. 3. Cool Guy, the goldfish my son "won" over a year ago, now has a goldfish playmate named Shrimp Shman. I'm such a pushover. 4. I loved the blindside on Survivor last night. Deep dark secret: Russell is kind of growing on me in a way. 5. A test to see if you're still reading this (though you may have skimmed to the end): Today's my birthday. (34 Comments |Comment on this)
motris	1:41p	WPC - day 2 We'll do this in fake stream-of-consciousness at the time style even though this was written well after the events. 8:00 - wake up after a tiny bit of sleep in a stupor, likely from being interrupted during a dream. I manage a shower and a trip down to breakfast and see the latest standings with all of day 1 posted - 2nd place, 89 behind Ulrich and 95 ahead of 3rd, right where I don't mind being if I can't be in 1st. I had made some more errors on papers, including my favorite of writing 8*(1-7) = 48 in the puzzle as I was giving the clear product to get a common largest number. Just tired I guess. It was an amusing loss of some 17 points but not too costly. My battleships were clean which was my worry given placement and time bonuses. A bowl of ChocoChamps and some yogurt later and we are ready for round 1. 9:45 - Screen Test 2 - a bit delayed start, but the standard quick puzzle round which covers a lot of observational puzzles. However, the new twist this year, which I found really brilliant, is that the test organizers had a clicker-type technology to log competitors' answers. This system was actually used in other rounds where you logged your finished time which digitally time stamps your set of puzzles (a brilliant change that would affect proctoring elsewhere, add second-level data at other competitions, etc.) and allowed the organizers to post a list of finishers during the round to know your competition's results (for better or worse). The system was also used for attendance before rounds started - again a nice touch. They gave live results after each 5 of the 15 puzzles here. I got a 3/4/4 split which left me unhappy to be one behind the pace at the first break but back where I wanted to be at the end, in 2nd in the round with 6 gained on Ulrich. My one criticism - having failed to log an answer in a puzzle after knowing I could not change a button press later - is that the "disappearing digits" was not as clear a time indicator as a progress bar or actual clock. 10:25 - Now thirty minutes behind schedule due to delays in changing the lighting in the testing room after the screen test, we come to the round I was waiting for - Tapa (a painting/path/minesweeper type puzzle). Its my newfound specialty. Its a 35 minute round with 2 "standard", 2 hex, a tapa distiller with 4 puzzles that must extract clues from a single grid to form four valid answers while spending all clues, and a TAPA LOGIC which is basically a super-large Tapa with encrypted numbers. I blaze through the TAPA LOGIC, get a good number of reasonable solutions to the Distiller but decide to come back to finish it off, whip through the hex, and the standard, clean up the distiller, check that all cells in all grids are marked filled or empty as the common error is to miss the whole chain constraint with a single unshaded square, and tap my clicker to be finished. 1st with 11+ minutes on the clock - should be worth 20+48 bonus on the 200. Ulrich finishes second with 6 or so minutes left so I figure I got 19 more points back given his placement and time bonuses. Still, my best round to this point where everything clicked. 11:10 - Matchmaker - this round had 7 grids and 8 puzzle instructions all based around grid/number puzzles such that, in principle, any of the puzzles could work on any of the grids. But, some puzzles have particular constraints (like islands not having unlike numbers touching) or other reasons why they aren't valid. Our goal is to find the 6/7 grids that can be solved by 6/8 of the puzzle instructions. It seemed a high variance round where the order you searched things might pay off quickly or slowly. It was also an hour long and a likely source of huge time bonuses and large losses if mistakes were made. (This is not, at this point, a sign of impending doom since I just crushed the Tapa round. Just mentioning.) I start with the Islands and show all 7 fail for it, then do the masyu and see 2 of the 6 work for it and after 3 minutes I'm already getting somewhere. I go through and try the Kuromasu next, which is a good choice, as it is also easily provable, since I've solved tons of these with Nikoli, that there are none of those. So I think I now have 7 grids and 6 puzzle types. The tetro minesweeper is the next type to go (you can see some of these I wrote in a recent GAMES PuzzleCraft). All but one are provably false. The last feels close to a solution, but does not yield for a long long time. I jump off of it, thinking I now have 7 grids and 5 puzzle types which is a problem. I focus on grids and prove 2 isn't anything but maybe Hamle. I spend 5 minutes solving it as a Hamle, get all but 1 number placed, and see the contradiction. Worried I'm making errors, I solve it again and find the same contradiction. So 2 is not a Hamle, I guess, but I still don't have 6 puzzles types even if I'm down to 6 grids now. 5 more minutes and Tetro Minesweeper is indeed the grid I felt it was which is encouraging but I wish I had that 15 minutes ago. I fill some top heavy number place puzzles for awhile - getting two of them working, then realize I should just force the remaining types to any grid instead of oversolving the types I have left. The pill sum comes fast, then I decide the 7 which isn't the hamle is likely the top heavy number place I still have written there. I try 4 as a hamle, get it, then check the rest of my work. I spot my fatal error (or so I think) by correcting a 122 pill sum entry to a 132 where it is obvious what I meant from what cells are actually touching but wrote too fast - broke "the speed limit" I guess - and had a problem. I have 16+ minutes on the clock, but the best finishers took only 30 minutes of the hour. I figure I've lost 50-75 points to Ulrich who finished around ~5th but should still be comfortably in second overall. 12:30 - Four by Four for the Four After a great morning, I figure I should change our team's original plan where I'd knock off black and white and instead do the Half-Life which starts with a Tapa and then transfers info to a corral, which transfers into a japanese sum, which transfers into an islands. The tapa and corral go really fast, and then the roadblock comes which is the japanese sum. I get a lot of the grid in, fit the extra info from the corral, and then get Roger who has finished the minesweeper to help on the sum and he is as good checking my thinking as doing the solving and we get it done together. The islands is trivial afterwards, particularly with a clear transfer of data. As I finish, the Mr. Universe and black and white are done and being checked and after a full round of checks we turn in first. 13:00 - So, a good morning and off to lunch. We decide to try one of the many other restaurants/food services at the hotel and go for Doner which is incredible. Much like my favorite non-Pinocchio's Pizza option in Harvard Square whose name I am forgetting, but now closer to its source. We talk briefly about the upcoming instructionless round (thinking maybe 3 new types, 2 of each type) and the OAPC puzzles. We also played some Tichu. 14:00 - Instructionless - the "Guess What I'm Thinking" round. I thought this round could be interesting - I enjoy the Nikoli magazines section where I start with no clue what an experimental puzzle is doing and then figure out what to do by looking at some of the puzzles and solutions and making sense of it. The issue I have is that the typical "example" is a tiny grid with a lot of subtle things going on that needs the text to work. I typically break in with a larger, deeper puzzle and then wipe the memory of the physical solution to be able to solve it. Here, two of the six examples (puzzles 4 and 6) seemed obvious from the small instructions. The other 4 fit into some general genres but were pretty much WTF?!? I came up with thoroughly consistent rules like "if the 1-4 gappy skyscrapery-puzzle is not giving a skyscraper clue, the clue is telling the distance of the 2 and 4 from each other." This sounds crazy, but it is fully consistent with the example and solves the grid (maybe 2-6 choices, but whatever). Its likely not what was going on, but without "guessing" exactly what the designer is thinking, its intractable to find the global maximum of thought space. No one feels really confident after the round and it was a bit exhausting to get 2 in 3 minutes and then in 22 more get no perfect clue sets on any of the others. Still, have to refocus for the OAPC round. 14:35 - OAPC 10 - I'd been eyeing this round for awhile as I tend to do well on many of these puzzle types. It was the longest round, at 130 minutes, and the highest valued, at 750 points. I get going ok, with the sigma snakes done in about 8 minutes, and get the first 2 of the next part before I hit quicksand for the first time. I jump between the two but don't get the answers. I move on. Polygraph is next. I get almost all of the first but one corner that trips me up for an unknown reason, so skip to 2,3,4 and get all of those and then come back to the first and clean it up. I go forward and intuit the slash packs well too. Then I start to hit some curious weaknesses. On my first pass, I could do none of the 4 tripod sudoku. Sudoku problems? I move on. I reach the four squares and somehow manage to break it early, not realize, and then try to tweak for a long long time. 20 minutes I bet, then I move on without an answer. +- 1 is a quick breeze, and so are the first 3 magic fences, but after spending 10 minutes with another almost solution of the 4th that I felt was good until checking, found the mistake, fixed, checked and found another mistake, I abandoned it. With 20 minutes left, I had to choose between the kakuro and returning to where I'd banked time but not finished like the four squares. I go back to the four squares. In 10 minutes I do clean it up, and then knock off two tripods before time ends. I never look at the kakuro! This would anger me as it seemed an easy type given how well I'd done the kakuro on day 1; the scores were high to boot. So, a good round without errors and with better puzzle choices and I get those 4 with what I basically have for all but 4 puzzles. As is, I'm down 224 or so points (before errors) from full marks. 16:45 - minutes after leaving the room frustrated at not doing well enough in the OAPC round to catch up to Ulrich, I catch a brief glimpse at the scores just posted. Hmm. Why is my tapa score 175 (an error on the second hex)? Second hmm. Why is my matchmaker score 250 (an error on one of the 6 puzzles). The first cost me 25 (puzzle)+20(place)+33(time)=78 points (39% of round value) I figure. The second cost me 65 (puzzle) + likely 1 or 0 place + 48 time = 113 points (36% of round value) I figure. No papers to see why I'm suddenly sick to my stomach but, yeah, ugh. I'm now in 6th and miles back of where I felt I would be. I try my best at these tournaments to act like the travel and fatigue from work and other things aren't bothering me but it is clear the jet-laggy Thomas of today is not just making errors on puzzles but making errors in checking as well as points are slipping away. I now routinely check puzzles in a "quick" way after finishing, looking at the most likely ways I have an error and circling clues I've spent to confirm all constraints are met. Still, in some situations the adrenaline of finishing a round might make me declare finished before I spot what will ruin my score or worse, incorrectly confirm a constraint is met when a trivial fix is there if I find it. Still, the low feeling after these massive point losses that happen to me at each and every championship (I feel a photo gallery of my favorites will be here after the tournament) is often too much to bear. If not for a rejudging in Brazil, I would never have qualified in the top 3 after two days at these European events (+10 hours this time around). I'm steaming through the coffee break and head to the last individual round - Upgrade - with a goal to survive and maybe pull a miracle with a finish. 17:10 - The round involves placing dice on a 3x3 skyscraper to make a 5x5 skyscraper using sides and top faces to "upgrade" the smaller version. An interesting concept certainly. Three each of two chirally opposite but otherwise standard dice (with a "dead" 6 side that cannot be shown in a solution) are awaiting us. I suffer through the easy one for awhile but learn how to solve it/notate after 10 minutes. The second is much quicker, now knowing the type, at 4 minutes. The last 16 minutes are spent trying a lot of things that could work on the much less constrained and much much harder to try logic third grid. I don't get a solution. Afterwards, I tell Nick (who has been advised by Husnu that I might need "consoling" when I see my papers from the morning rounds) that I never ever EVER EEEEEVVVEERRR!!!! want to see them. 18:00 - WPF - a team round to end things. I just want the day to be done still. Fortunately, Wei-Hwa is solid at manipulative puzzles and this one, a box puzzle with hinge-y blocks like the four winds variant I saw in Brazil, is solvable as we talk through the steps. We finish about 3rd, and leave the room to go to the lobby and play some Tichu. I eventually get the papers I never ever want to see (thanks Nick). Somehow, having a straight flush bomb waiting and two different people trying for tichu can let me handle a simple tapa error where I'd marked a blank in place of a full in a clear isolated side. If I'd seen (or not circled incorrectly) the 2 constraint filled, I would have trivially fixed the error. My check - of filled cells - can't account for complete idiocy. In the other round, in my Hamle, I did not write a single of the digits that transferred. Given the grid to grid writing, I'd tried some checking and circled the digits I moved. Somehow the 2 got circled in the upper-left and wasn't written two spots to the right. Again, two "obvious" and fixable mistakes. I might have just copied the grid from my scrap paper wrong - its hard to know. Its hard to come to this kind of competition, knowing how well I can solve in my time-zone in online competitions in various disciplines, to then perform so much worse than I could and to make so many "speed-limit breaking" violations that lead to lost points. Epic fail! 19:40 - Dinner brings more food (50%+ of desserts given my mental state) and a discussion of the puzzle spectrum (STDs are apparently the opposite of Sudoku) and the Sudoku spectrum in particular with Roger and others, in part framed about what "variants" should be allowed at a WSC. I rate different kinds of variants as being close or far from the sudoku end of the puzzle spectrum, touched closest by Latin Square puzzles which should not be confused by three constraint puzzles like Sudoku even though many (skyscrapers, easy as, kenken, etc. are common). Anyway, Roger believes just classics should be at a WSC - he doesn't even allow 6x6 or 8x8 or 12x12 in his world - maybe relays, certainly not diagonals, etc. His opinion is wrong, but he is a sit-out noncompetitor in WSC matters despite some fast solving times. Nick mentions the next WSC will go "back to basics" and I say what does that mean and apparently it means lots of classics which means my interest will be low. I pull out the Turk's sudoku magazine to practice before the competition and before I get started we decide to just go to the testing room. On the way I spot a cool Yurekli variation that achieves an unknown regions that builds together jigsaw bits with unclear borders to form a jigsaw sudoku. Basically, a 6x6 sudoku with 12 three-cell regions with 6 pairs needing to be made considering numbers, geometry, etc. Really cool and I can't wait to try it. Much more fun than any classic. 20:20 - I want to get to the test room for the evening's sudoku cup and get 5-10 puzzles practice with the conceptis classics beforehand to relearn their feel when I'm pulled out to do another team photo - the 20 minute session the night before was without our guests so we needed to do it again. The photographer again acts like he's photographing a head of state or at least something for a book cover but honestly 30 shots in 4 poses aren't needed. I lose my cool a bit with the whole process much as I would after all the Prague videography a couple years ago. 20:30 - 2 practice sudoku and then a round of 6 to do to qualify. I finish in around 14 minutes, but as I warned others, I'd check for a long time. 4.5 minutes it seems (I timed). 3 full passes. I still eventually turn in for first (and clean). The top 8 again make the finals like last night's Karala cup and so I'm 1st against 8th (Frederique Rogeaux of France) in a single puzzle and run through it, check quickly, turn in simultaneous to the other first finisher at another table and am in the semis. Jan Novotny is my next opponent, the Czech champion and a talented sudoku-ist who similary was dealt a cruel Slovakian punishment in April. The large grid format of the playoffs is unfriendly with my scanning, as is all the flash photography going on. I bifurcate unluckily, but used a perfect spot so the right answer falls immediately from the other as well. Onto the finals, or so I think. A big controversy arises as seems to be the case in every sudoku tournament I'm in, half the time because of format. My prospective co-finalist, Salih Alan of Turkey, has turned in his paper with 80 cells filled, and a tiny tiny tiny note in the 81st cell. It was certainly written earlier in the solve process as an either-or choice, but it is the only thing in the otherwise empty space so it would technically be a correct number if you were searching for a number there instead of looking at the face of a solution for the big numbers that are what he means everywhere else. Lots of team captains are consulted on the result, and when Byron Calver of Canada finally finishes he is shown the paper and agrees to let Salih move on even though there is a case for an incorrect grid being turned in 5 or so minutes earlier. The final breaks in several ways for me, and I spot some naked singles I normally suffer at to fill the 7th column as a quick break-in. After some slower progress and being seemingly stuck with 25 numbers to go, I again bifurcate to finish first. Looking at the puzzle later, I simply had not propagated a 3rd 7 into a column after I'd filled the second and couldn't see it for the size of the grid. I'll need to practice not only on whiteboards for the future but on 6x6 or 7x7 inch grids since organizers vary sudoku sizes so often. Can we agree on 3-4 inches (7.5-10 cm) square? So a long and dispiriting day ended with one piece of hardware to bring home. I'm certainly still in the playoffs tomorrow, as is the team, but with a round to go I'm in 4th and probably falling below a magic cutoff at 6 when the OAPC comes in. There are 12 going in, with the bottom 6 playing in a choose your poison format like Belarus last year. The top 2 in that round face 3rd-6th in the same format, with the winners there joining Ulrich and whoever winds up in 2nd in the Final Four for the trophy. Without my "big" errors I'd be in that 2nd spot - probably without just the Matchmaker one certainly - but with both of them I'll likely be around one of the bubbles at 6th or 7th. The good part of this might be that having seen my sudoku speed, I doubt anyone else will choose this kind of type (if it occurs) for a round with me. If I don't choose them either, they'll remain if I get to face Ulrich. If I can find my tired adrenaline style like in Goa (or even the 1st of my playoffs in Belarus) I could have a shot. If I find my tired muddle-headed style like in the second Belarussian playoff round where I couldn't even do a kakuro, I won't. Ulrich is certainly the favorite and will have a head-start. A team playoff with unknown rules awaits as well as the US in second tries to catch up to a 1st place German team with a solid Ulrich and a similarly solid Philipp Weiss currently at 1/2 with one round to be reported. I've typed enough. Now to post. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
larbalestier	8:27p	NaNo Tip no. 6: Emergency Unstucking Techniques http://justinelarbalestier.com/blog/2009/11/06/nano-tip-no-6-emergency-unstucking-techniques/ http://justinelarbalestier.com/?p=6687 One of the most frequent complaints I’m hearing from those down the NaNoWriMo word mines is that they keep getting stuck. As it happens I have already written a post on how to get unstuck. It is rather lengthy, however, so here’s a quick and dirty version of what you should do when you get stuck: Dance. That’s right, get up from the computer, turn whatever music you like up loud, and shake it! Dance! Dance! Dance! Do it till you’re sweating. Then dance some more. Run around the block. For some of us dancing is just not our thing. But we can run. Or shoots some hoops. Or some other physical activity away from the computer. Read newspapers. This is where Karen Healey gets many of her ideas. Whenever she gets stuck she goes to her fave newspapers and starts reading. Obscure and weird articles are best. Send someone in with a gun. Raymond Chandler’s favourite I’m-stuck solution. He was also fond of knocking his characters unconscious. Many writers like to blow stuff up. Cassandra Clare likes to have characters who fancy each other discover that THEY’RE ACTUALLY BROTHER AND SISTER. The point being: throw complications at your characters. Make ‘em suffer! See how they react. To sum up: to get unstuck you need to either take a break and do something that uses your whole body, or you need to throw something new at your characters. Or both. I’m sure my gentle readers will have been more suggestions to unstuckify you. Good luck! (Comment on this)
doocery	8:22p	Halloween 2009 http://www.dooce.com/2009/11/06/halloween-2009 Halloween was a total blur, mainly because we spent the week leading up to it trying to iron out the bugs of the community website, and as usual I waited until the last minute to buy candy and the only thing left at the grocery store was really expensive dark chocolate that makes little kids throw up. Great. So now not only are we the reclusive Internet people who run some sort of online website, have you heard? That house where that little shit of a dog escaped the house one time and chased that woman who was jogging along, minding her own business, and caught up with her and grabbed the bottom of her pants with her fangs? HELLO HEART ATTACK. AND LAW SUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN. Some people have heard it's porn we do. Some people think we're Satanists and drink the blood of aborted hummingbirds. HA! IF THEY ONLY KNEW! They'd be so thoroughly disappointed and would probably remove my name from the prayer list. Now we're the house that gives out crap candy. Except one kid dressed up as a hippie saw the bowl and was all DUDE! I LOVE DARK CHOCOLATE! That's a boy beyond his years. I bet he's a good listener and routinely hugs his mother. Leta went over to her cousins' house and trick-or-treated with all of my sister's kids, and they say that she got fatigued after about an hour and started dragging her feet going I'M SO TIRED. SO TIIIIIIIRED. So my niece said, fine, let's go home, and then Leta realized that going home meant an end to the waterfall of candy, so she'd say, okay, JUST MORE HOUSE. ONE. MORE. And that exact dialogue continued for twenty more houses. And I was all, really? That happened? How surprising. And then this morning when she refused to get dressed and I threatened to take away all that Halloween candy? Apparently I was treating her "like she was zero years old." I didn't see that one coming. We stayed home with Marlo to hand out candy and troubleshoot the website. Meaning I made it all the way to 8:30 PM, and while I slept Jon sat beside me in bed with his laptop straightening out code. 8:30, y'all! Can I get a very awkward high-five and a HOLLA! That was the latest I had stayed up in MONTHS. SOMEONE STOP ME! Next thing you know I'm going to be spiking my Metamucil with blackberry schnapps! Next week, the dogs in costumes! Coco is still exhausted from all the brain power it took to remain still for a photograph. by dooce in Daily, Leta, Marlo, Parenthood © Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published by Heather B. Armstrong for dooce.com as Halloween 2009. This post cannot be republished without express written permission. (Comment on this)
rubrick	10:22a	Spot on A charming and funny song and video about Trader Joe's. If you ever shop there, watch this. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
ericberlinblog	5:34p	They play baseball in Korea, too http://ericberlin.com/?p=3192 But over there, some aspects of the game are a little different. (Comment on this)
doocery	4:31p	In the meantime http://www.dooce.com/daily-photo/2009/11/06/meantime I'm working on a huge Halloween post that should take me most of the day to put together (in between feeding and cuddling Marlo), but here's the sunset from last night. Had to share it. click image above to see the photo on dooce.com by dooce in Daily Photo © Armstrong Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Originally published by Heather B. Armstrong for dooce.com as In the meantime. This post cannot be republished without express written permission. (Comment on this)
dilbert_blog	1:00a	The Cat's on the Roof http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/the_cats_on_the_roof/ http://dilbert.com/blog/entry/376/ I saw in the news today that The United States is going to withdraw most of its military forces from Afghanistan. Okay, the news didn't say that in so many words. But they did say, "The cat is on the roof," which means the same thing. Allow me to explain "The cat is on the roof" to those of you who are unfamiliar with the joke. It goes like this: Bob goes on vacation. He asks his moron brother to take care of his cat. After a few days on vacation, Bob calls to say hi. The moron brother blurts out "Your cat is dead." Bob is beside himself with grief. And he chastises his moron brother for breaking the news to him in such an abrupt manner. The moron brother asks how he could have done it better. Bob explains "Well, for example, you could have told me the cat was on the roof. The next time we talked, you could say the Fire Department is trying to get him down. The next time, you could say the cat fell during the rescue and was in the veterinarian hospital. The next time I called, you could say the cat succumbed to his injuries and passed away. That way I would be prepared for the bad news." The moron brother says he understands. Then he adds, "Oh, by the way. Mom is on the roof." With that in mind, I saw in the news that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is warning Karzai to clean up the corruption in the Afghan government or else Great Britain will withdraw its forces. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gEBlJJibsvBmFQK5iQvBXDIIJRQAD9BQ3BQG0 That's the "cat is on the roof," as clear as I have ever seen it. Obviously Afghanistan isn't going to get rid of corruption. That gives Great Britain an honorable reason for withdrawing, which I assume they have already decided to do. Once that happens, Obama will be forced by public opinion to do the same, leaving behind some terrorist-hunting forces only. (Comment on this)
hornbookfeed	11:12a	If Jim Carrey says it's Christmas now, who are we to argue? http://www.hbook.com/blog/2009/11/if-jim-carrey-says-its-christmas-now.html While we've already given you our choice of the best holiday-themed books of the season, Deborah Stevenson and her elves at BCCB offer a handy handout of more than three hundred recent titles suitable for gift-giving. Deborah and I both learned our trade from Zena Sutherland and Betsy Hearne, so you know she has excellent taste. Too. (Comment on this)
indexedrss	3:58p	Piranhas, chainsaws, wolves, knives, whatnot. http://thisisindexed.com/2009/11/piranhas-chainsaws-wolves-knives-whatnot/ http://thisisindexed.com/?p=12374 (Comment on this)
wilwheaton	6:43a	on the hunting down of ideas http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2009/11/on-the-hunting-down-of-ideas.html I've been struggling lately to turn a lot of ideas I have into actual stories. I kind of feel like my writing mojo has taken a temporary leave of absence, and the harder I look for it, the harder it is to find. It has been incredibly frustrating. This morning, in Warren Ellis' BAD SIGNAL e-mail, he said: At least half of all writing involves just sitting and staring into space. Letting your brain out to hunt down ideas, bringing them back all warm and bloody between its teeth. This is something that I knew to be true, but had temporarily forgotten. As writers, it's vital that we meet our deadlines, of course, but we also have to build time into our work schedule to read books, take walks, visit doctor whisky, play with our dogs, and do the other things that may not look or feel like work, but are integral to our creative process. Thanks for the reminder, Warren, I needed to hear that. (Comment on this)
jonowrimo [ stephwooten ]	9:25a	"Official call on JoNoWriMo for Buddies" Good morning, everyone! brian_ohio and I will be here writing today--starting now, so if you'd like to join us just comment below. Don't forget the next check in is next Wednesday (the 11th). Good luck and have a great day. :-) Current Mood: chipper (29 Comments |Comment on this)
kmessner	7:33a	Friday Five 1. I've not been much of a blogger lately because I have been revising SUGAR ON SNOW, my Fall 2010 middle grade novel with Walker Books. And revising and revising and revising, pretty much into the wee hours of every morning for a few weeks.  But last night right around midnight, I sent SUGAR ON SNOW back to my editor.  I love that about email - you don't have to wait until someone is awake and at work.  And so now, I am stretching and looking around, remembering that I have another book I'm drafting.   And a blog.  It's nice to see you all. 2. I'm finally reading GRACELING by Kristin Cashore.  Now I see what all the fuss has been about.  3. Tomorrow, I'll be in Rochester for the Rochester Children's Book Festival.  I LOVE this festival & hope to see you there if you're in the area. The full list of authors participating is here, and it includes many favorites and friends - yay! 4. THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. got a Gold Star Award from TeensReadToo this week.  This means a lot to me, as I love this review site for kids. Thank you!! 5. I really only had four, and I have to go finish getting ready for school now. Have a great weekend & I hope to see some of you in Rochester tomorrow! (13 Comments |Comment on this)
jbknowles	6:15a	five good things on a friday 1. Today I am taking the boy to the Museum of Science in Boston. He knows this. What he doesn't know is that there is a Harry Potter special exhibit and we have tickets!! I can't wait to see the look on his face! :-) 2. I finished my draft of my work-in-progress yesterday!!!! FINALLY. Now to print it out and start back at the beginning for another pass before I share it with my writing buds. I'm getting closer... SOOO hoping I meet my jonowrimo goal. 3. I saw an old friend yesterday and it was so nice to reconnect. 4. My son now consistently gets up on his own in the morning, gets dressed, makes his own breakfast, and brushes his teeth without being asked. It is quite remarkable. 5. We're reading Harriet The Spy together. I forgot how truly nasty Harriet starts out. But I do love the Janie and the explosives chapter. We were both laughing out loud. I'm very afraid of that Janie. Have a great weekend, everyone! :-) p.s. Oh, and I forgot one more great thing! slayground named JUMPING OFF SWINGS a Best Book of October! Yay! (12 Comments |Comment on this)
jonowrimo [ kaz_mahoney ]	11:02a	Updating my third goal I haven't been doing very well with my JoNo goals lately, and although I feel pathetic blaming things like illness and Other Life Stuff... um... that's what I'm going to do. ;P But I'm back into things now. However, due to certain changes of priority, I have actually amended my third and final goal - I still think I can achieve it, although I'm setting a pretty big one: 1) Read through the entire ms of TIW; I haven't read it for almost a year. Make notes for things I'd like to change now that I'm a better writer, then I can see if any of my thoughts match up to my editorial notes (when I get them). Done! 2) Read through my 4-page synopsis for the sequel, TWQ. See what I still like about it, or if there's a different direction I could go in. Done! 3) Write (up to 12K) short story due for inclusion in a YA paranormal anthology. Changing this to: Revise BEAUTIFUL GHOSTS (60K YA on-spec novel) so I can send it to my agent for feedback. So I have just over 3 weeks to revise this manuscript... I hope everyone else is getting on well! Current Mood: busy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
cynthialord	4:53a	Copyediting   My copyedits came! I have to admit that I don't like doing copyedits on the computer using track changes. When I'm reading a manuscript carefully, I don't usually read it on the computer screen. But-- THERE'S NO CRYING IN COPYEDITING!!! So I'm trying to make it work for me. However, it is with true sadness that I must send the following--   Dear Hyphens and Commas, It is with my deep regret that I must confirm that your employment with us in TOUCH BLUE is terminated with immediate effect. This is due to your position having to be made redundant, and in no way reflects your performance in your job, which has been entirely satisfactory to this point. The changing grammar world, the attempt to be more “green” and save pages, and the Scholastic style sheet have all contributed to our need for a slimmer punctuation work force. You have been important members of our team, keeping ideas apart or pulling them together, and I will truly miss you. If I can supply references to other authors, please do not hesitate to ask. I also will gladly re-employ you should circumstances and new manuscripts allow. Thank you for you work and your response to this difficult situation. I wish you all the best for the future. Yours very truly, Cynthia Lord, author   Current Mood: nerdy (17 Comments |Comment on this)
pennyarcaderss	12:00a	Comic: A Truly Fascinating Phenomenon http://feeds.penny-arcade.com/~r/pa-mainsite/~3/ONSwXKyBKR8/ New Comic: A Truly Fascinating Phenomenon (1 Comment |Comment on this)

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