I wrote about 1100 lines, about 10,000 words, of my epic poem, tentatively
called "Existence and Uniqueness". (Three books plus a section of a fourth,
out of what I expect will be either ten or twelve books.) Although some parts
are not so bad, in places it may be some of the worst poetry I've
ever written. (Not so much bad writing as merely much closer to prose
than poetry: some parts could well be long prose narratives pretending to be
poetry. There is no meter; I've almost never been able to write in meter.
I'm trying to keep it iambic where possible, but I haven't done anything
metri causa.)
Most of it seems like good storytelling to me. It helps to have a
meaningful story that you care about. The lapses there have to do with
trying to talk about inner states and thoughts rather than showing what
happened or recounting conversations -- the old "show, don't tell"
advice.
"Show, don't tell" is not good advice. It's just good advice for people
who aren't skilled fiction or narrative writers, while they're writing
fiction or narratives. If you're really good at using a particular
form, you can tell and it will still work fine.
Remember the Maine!
I went to two parties in Berkeley, and didn't go to one party in Berkeley.
"Thera-Band(R) and associated colors are trademarks of the Hygenic
Corporation. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. (C) The
Hygenic Corporation, 1998. All rights reserved. Made in USA.
Patent Pending."
They've really got all their bases covered, haven't they? This is on
a package containing an exercise ball
which you squeeze to develop hand and arm strength. It's the latest
instance of the idea that
colors
can be trademarks, which
courts seem to believe. (That thread on
the Crackmonkey list was the first time I'd heard of the concept, but then
I went down to my local office supply store and looked at the back of a
pack of Post-It(R) notes. Sure enough.)
One of the most exciting things about the first party in Berkeley was
getting to argue about the Monty Hall problem for half an hour with
Daniel Ellsberg, "a great hero of the American people".
I also met a doctor who's working on scientific studies of alternative
medicine, and is planning a randomized, controlled, double-blind study
of moxibustion for breech babies. There was
a
previous study which found positive results but didn't use any kind
of placebo for the control group. So this new study will include a
sham moxibustion treatment to see whether the effect could be due to a
placebo effect.
At the second party, I met a woman who managed to complete the inductive
proof of the formula for the sum of the first n integers in her head.
I've never seen anybody do that before; I kept offering her paper and
pen, and she kept on refusing, saying that she could figure it out. So
she did.
I also went swimming at that party for the first time in a couple of years.
It felt great, but I think I overdid it a little.
"You're a happening geek!"
(My sister Rebecca)
"Only people who
have something to hide should be worried," [about a legislative
proposal to keep complete archives for seven years of all voice and e-mail
traffic in the U.K. to allow retroactive searches] said a spokesperson at the
Department of Trade and Industry.
I thought that was just a parody, and actual government officials didn't
really say things like that.
Everybody has something to hide.
