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Posts tagged as “We Call It Living”

Back on Track, Redux

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Back from vacation, back at work, but got a chunk of writing done this lunchtime. Back on track:

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If my calculations are correct, I am roughly one day ahead at this point (that is, I'm essentially starting today where I want to finish today). So my mountain of words is still over the top of the line:

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No time for an excerpt; back to work. But tonight, here's shooting for one more day ahead!

-the Centaur

Friendstop

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Saturday: day off in the City, seeing the Golden Gate, Tiburon and Union Square with good friends. Totally worth it.

Today: back to it, +800 words and counting.

-the Centaur

Me and my dumb mouth

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Axually, it's Dakota's dumb mouth at issue here, and while I'd love to include an extract ... ssh, SPOLIERS! But the point being, the day after Thanksgiving, I'm back on track for National Novel Writing Month. And this includes an evening hanging out with my friends at the wonderful Nola restaurant I'm so fond of. No pictures of that (phone battery gave out) but I do have a followup picture from my solo excursion to Cocola Cafe in Santana Row, where I finished out today's Nano:

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I've done Nano enough times that I probably could have skipped today and even tomorrow if I wanted, just to hang out with my friends who are in town (staying at another friend's house). But this "vacation" isn't really a vacation for me: it's a writecation. Writing really is like a second job now: if I want to be a writer, certain things have to get done. In this case, it's Nano, and sending off acceptances and rejections for DOORWAYS TO EXTRA TIME:

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You'll note a little asymmetry there: my coeditor, who's done this before, is way ahead of me contacting people about their stories. And those are just the acceptances. Argh. And then I've got to respond to Trish's comments on my own story, which, while I was proud of it before, now looks like it will need a lot of work. Sigh. This is why I like working with editors, I tell myself, they make my stories better. Sob. At least Nano is on track:

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Of course, the second half of the story is a complete salsa, and I don't know where it's going, but there's a building, and it's on fire, and it's a spectral fire, that only starts once a year, and there's William Blake's spirit guide riding a tiger, and oh yeah Cinnamon wears a Santa hat, then threatens to punch him in the gut if she meets him in a dark alley. So yeah, I'm having fun, even if I briefly hit a little plateau there while recuperating from all that turkey.

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Now, more mountain to climb! Onward!

-the Centaur

Thanksgiving: Mission Accomplished

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Once again, I have successfully written NOTHING on Thanksgiving Day, spending it instead with friends!

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Mission accomplished. What am I thankful for? My great friends that I've known for a quarter century.

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The wonderful food we all prepared (mostly) by hand on a holiday that's not yet commercialized.

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Preparing my first nearly perfect pound cake in a few years (more on that later). Not to mention living in a land where we can all not just eat, but have dessert! Most of all, being far enough ahead in Nano to just hang out and spend time with friends without worrying about keeping myself caught up.

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As Fonzie would say, "Ayyy, little buddy."

I don't know how much more time I'll have this weekend to hang out with my friends; if it wasn't for Nano I'd be spending all my time sending out acceptances and rejections on DOORWAYS TO EXTRA TIME. But I do have to eat, so I'll be having at least one and possibly two more nice meals with my friends. And I hope several long phone calls with my wife (away on business).

More things to give thanks for. The gifts, they don't stop coming.

So, thanks, God, for everything.

-the Centaur

God’s Marines Wield Strange Weapons

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At last, back on track for National Novel Writer's Month. I like the graph: I like seeing how the week of a software release has taken a neat chunk out of my progress, and how a few days on vacation gets things back on track again. This reminds me to continue taking of the week of Thanksgiving every year if I want to get new novels done.

The title comes from a scene I've just written, in which Dakota Frost is baited into a battle with a wand-wielding priest. Soon Dakota realizes they were set up --- and figures out how to de-escalate:

The priest cried out, striking me with the back of his free hand.

I winced … then turned the other cheek.

The priest stared, drawing back his hand again. I reached up and put my thumbs through the straps of my backpack. Then I turned my head even further, exposing the cheek, eyes glaring at him sidelong in silent accusation. The priest frowned, then lowered his hand.

“Dakota Frost,” I said, extending mine. “Best magical tattooist in the Southeast.”

The priest stared at my hand dumbly, then realized he had a free one.

“Father Aidan Cosgrave, SJ.”

“A Jesuit,” I said. “Interesting to find a Jesuit wielding a wand.”

“God’s Marines,” Cosgrave said, “often find themselves wielding strange weapons.”

I'm over the halfway point of Nano now, with 6 or so free days on vacation to try to really get a head. Onward!

-the Centaur

rejection

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I have sent my first rejection letter to another author.

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Not quite sure how to feel about that.

-the Centaur

Just add a dimension

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At long last, the project I've been working on at the Search Engine That Starts With A G is live. The Google Shopping 3D experience has been launched to the world. From the blogpost:

Explore products in 360-degree detail on Google Shopping Having trouble imagining what a toy actually looks like from the online picture? Now, when searching for a subset of toys on Google Shopping, you can see 360-degree photos of the products. These interactive images bring the in-store feeling of holding and touching a product to your online browsing. Look for the “3D” swivel icon on the product image to see a toy in 360-degree view, on HTML5 enabled browsers. We’ve also put together a Holiday Toy Collection featuring this enhanced imagery—explore the collection on this site. 360-degree imagery is coming for other types of products soon.

Depending on how you count, we've been working on this project for six months, a year, a year and a half, or two years. We've been in launch crunch proper for six months or so, but planning for the launch began a year ago after the launch of the Galaxy Nexus in glorious 3D WebGL (and yes, it did take us the whole year to get this far, and it was really tight down near the end).

The technology demonstrations that led to that launch and made this launch possible began six months before that, and the actual team that was working on them started just over two years ago - and, honestly, it feels like we've been in crunches and sprints for the entire time. Christmas 2012 seemed both far away and far too soon a year ago. It was barely possible.

But we made it.

I don't share much about the innards of The Search Engine That Starts With A G, especially on a project like this, so I'm going to draw to a close with this thought: I work on a wonderful team filled with fantastic people, geniuses and innovators and hard workers all, and each and every one of them were really critical to making this possible (and I mean that. We had NO slack).

I'd be proud to go into [software] battle with you wonderful guys and gals, any time, any where.

-the Centaur

Pictured: the 3D (well, really 360-degree spinner) of the Lego Jabba palace. Article title shamelessly stolen from Asimov. Final quote thieved from Patton.

Postscript: You know, I said "geniuses and innovators and hard workers all" but it occurred to me afterward that most of what these geniuses achieved is not at all obvious. The greatest things we did in this project are completely invisible; you would only notice them if we had failed. Despite seeming to be very simple - a few links, a 3D icon, a rotating swivel - this project actually was the most technically rigorous one I've ever worked on, including both my PhD and the search engine startup I worked on. So when I said these guys are geniuses, I really mean that - they delivered perfection so great it becomes almost invisible.

Now that’s what I’m talking about…

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Yesterday was nearly a wash - worn out after three long consecutive work days pushing software in preparation for a release, and then out late on date night with my wife - dinner at Aqui's (yum) and movie Tron 3 (AKA Wreck it Ralph, you're not fooling me, Disney). Totally. Worth. It., of course, but still ... less than 300 words done for the day.

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But today? Up early to take my wife to the airport, had breakfast at Crepevine, and got almost triple that before even 9:30AM!

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And now, I'm in for my second writing session, before even 10AM. This is what makes Nano work.

Excelsior!

-the Centaur

Pictured: Crepevine as seen from the upper window of Cafe Romanza, my wife at Aqui's, and progress.

UPDATE: Writing Session 2 done, I am now officially caught up for the day:

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And, despite the last week's slippages, I'm still ahead overall for Nano:

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Plus there are at least one and maybe two or three more writing sessions today.

Hyperion!

Back on Track

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I don't see catfood on your todo list there, mister.

No, but I am back on track for National Novel Writing Month, even though today was consumed almost completely by a software release that just ... wouldn't ... die. I'm actually planning a postmortem on a tiny little patch that ended up becoming a complete new release of our software that exposed interactions everywhere from our unit test framework to software we're launching next year. That made me late for the monthly Writing Allies meeting - normally I chunk out a piece of time to write over dinner before I get there, even if we all are having too much fun talking about writing to actually write. But when I got home, even after a lot of cat wrangling, I did manage to sit down with the laptop (or, from time to time, follow cats around with the laptop):

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Back on track for the day: 18179 words, or 16219 added. Still a day ahead. Woohoo! An excerpt:

Doug stared with interest at the footage from Ron and Sunny’s cameras, then at the pictures I’d taken of the graffiti with my cell phone. He asked if we had more, and I was embarrassed to admit that we’d hightailed it before fully finishing our location scouting.

“S’alright,” he said, reviewing the tape one more time. “Most interesting.”

“Well,” Sunny demanded. “What is it?”

“Definitely magic,” Doug said. “But I’m guessing you knew that.”

“Well—” Sunny began.

“C’mon,” Ron said. “There’s a demonstration of magic on the tape—”

“I was there,” Sunny reminded him. “And I do believe in magic. It’s just—”

“A projectia,” I said suddenly. “A caster’s will magically projected as a form.”

“Precisely,” Jinx said. “Like your tattoos, but free-floating. They can be as insubstantial and transparent as, well, ghosts, or as solid and opaque as physical objects. Your old boss, Christopher Valentine, used them to create his famous doppelganger illusion.”

Congratulations, Nano writer! Now back to work.

-the Centaur