I need to cut my fingernails -- they're long and pretty at the moment (very rare), which means that they're getting in the way of my typing. Normally, I have excellent typing form: high wrists, curved fingers -- a legacy of a decade of piano practice with a teacher who would balance pennies on the backs of my hands and make me start the piece over if I dropped them. He also made sure that my fingernails were trimmed all the way down, which is how I got in the habit of biting my nails -- just easier to keep them constantly at the optimal level. So when I do decide to grow my nails out some, I'm not very good at keeping them trimmed low with clippers and emery boards and all that other girly stuff. But I'll try to find some time to do that today.
Kevin was sick, and so I caught his illness on top of my lingering one. That's my theory, anyway, and my excuse for being a lazy slob the last several days. I did do some work on...Friday, was it? Some day last week. But most of yesterday I spent reading Prophecy and napping. Enterprise was pretty good, though. The whiny Translator chick was particularly whiny, but at least she was aware of it, and there appears to be hope that she'll be less whiny in the future.
This morning I've been catching up on commenting on student poems; about ten more to go and I'll be all caught up. Yay! I'm behind in lots of things at the moment -- luckily, just a little behind in lots of things, which I think is better than being lots behind in one. It gives me more opportunities to feel satisfied as I finish the tasks and check them off my list, anyway. A whole bunch of story critiques to do this afternoon, along with some theory reading, and a brief analysis of what's going on in a rather disturbing incest memoir, The Kiss. I'm not quite sure what I'm supposed to write about, but I'll call Jenn and she'll tell me. :-) I like having smart friends.
I did get some rather annoying e-mail this morning; a note from a conference person (this pop culture conference in Rhode Island) saying that they'd lost my abstract for months, which was why they hadn't gotten back to me, but that they would like me to present, if I can make it out there in three weeks. Argh. I can't, as it turns out. Very irritating. I mean, vaguely gratifying that they did accept my abstract, but mostly irritating.
On the plus side, Marcy is going to take the revised version of "Wild Roses" for Ripe Fruit. I do think I like the original better personally -- it reads a little cleaner, and I think it's the version that I'll put on this site after the story's in print. But I don't *dislike* the version she'll be taking, so that's okay. I'll just put a note on the story on-site saying, "A version of this appeared...etc." That seems very literary, doesn't it? :-)
Okie, back to work. Go read Strange Horizons, munchkins. This week, we have a fabulous article by Bryan Clair, on steganography. Just listen to the first paragraph: "This may seem to be an ordinary beginning to an ordinary article. It is not. There's a secret message hidden here, in this very paragraph. It's not in view, and its source is modern. But the art of hiding messages is an ancient one, known as steganography." Hee hee. How cool is that? Were you one of those kids who liked to try to figure out the secret codes in pirate stories? I was! Did you know that the Elvish stuff in The Hobbit is a simple substitution cipher? Lisette and I used to send messages back and forth in Elvish in high school -- how geeky is that? I love this stuff...Bryan always does such cool articles for us.
We also have a great witch story by Sarah Prineas, "Water, Green River, Daybreak", a "Gothic Romance" poem by Dave Whippman, and a review of Steve Brust's Issola, the ninth Vlad Taltos book. (I really liked the first few I read in this series but somehow never went back to finish them; I really ought to. He's a good writer.) Oh, and there's a new music gallery, on The National Space Society CD -- music to inspire future star-geeks. :-)