So, John Scalzi has this thing where he tweets his next band name. He's been doing it long enough that a website dedicated to his next band names has been created. It is best read with the random button on the site.

It's amusing, except that it is also a fantastic kick in the seat of creativity.

Seriously, here is a list of weird-ass titles just waiting for a story to be told about them.

While I've pondered most of my two-new-habits-a-month habits for a bit before committing to them, this one I'm not even going to think about it long. It's something I wished I had done with Hugh Genin on a regular basis: give him a phrase / book title, have him give me the one sentence summary of the book from the title, and write the book from his summary. I think that would be delightfully amusing and a lot of fun. Using Scalzi's list, I can skip the "think up a title" and see what plot comes to mind when I read the title.

Given the point of this is to be quick, to be creative without being critical, to write a story frequently without beating myself up about it (much like I do with the themed picture a day habit), the stories I write are going to be subject to the following limitations:

1. I have 20 minutes to write and post the story (which means really, 19 minutes tops to write and 1 minute to post).
2. The story has something to do with the title.
3. Write one every day for a month

I'm not sure if I'll "cheat" and look ahead to another random band title early, to think about the plot ahead of time before writing about it, or even skip over a band name (actually, I see two I'll skip over if I get them), but we'll see.

I figure I'll keep this post private until two things happen:

1. Scalzi notices the stories.
2. Someone wonders who is writing the stories.

Should be fun.

The rule now with Bella is, when she's awake and wants to walk, we walk. We walk as far for as long as she wants. If she tires, I carry her home, but we walk as long as she wants to move. One of the benefits, I guess, of knowing you have fewer than six months to live: people will help make your remaining time as nice as possible.

So, when Bella wanted to walk, we started walking. About 45 minutes into our walk, Bella was still going strong, much to my surprise I will admit. We were heading down the final stretch, the street leading to our block, when I heard a number of sirens. Having just passed the local Old Folks Home, I figured they were coming for someone who was either in trouble, or had just passed, and was somewhat sad for that person.

The trucks came flying up the corner, and, after honking at the idiot who flew through the intersection without stopping for the sirens and barely cleared the oncoming fire truck by less than 20 feet, went straight.

Continuing in my goal of reading a book a week, this week's book was Inkheart, by Cornelia Funke. I bought a number of young adult books a few years ago, including Inkheart and its sequels Inkspell and Inkdeath, because I'm a sucker for multi-book stories. Funke wrote the Thief Lord, which Mom gave me and I read a while ago - it's an okay a book, not a great one. I kinda forgot about that when I started reading Inkheart, by the same author. Funke is a German writer, which means when reading her books, the nuances and delights, the cadence and the rhythym of her words and the original writings are often lost in translation.

Inkheart is similar in that the odd writing cadence of the Thief Lord: it isn't quite right. Inkheart is, however, an enjoyable tale, internally consistent with enough twists and revelations to be interesting, but the cadence of the writing is a little off. I'm not sure if it's the translation or Funke's writing style.

Inkheart is the story of a bookbinder's daughter (Wait, bookbinders still exist? Wait more, there are people who love books even more than I do?), whose mother disappeared years before (nine to be exact), when her father accidentally read her into a book while reading a character out of said book. There's a (nominally) one-to-one correspondence / exchange of characters in this reading of characters, so when one being comes out of the book, another being needs to go into the story. This talent of being able to read characters out of a book is a talent that earned the bookbinder both the name Silvertongue and years on the run with his daughter to avoid the characters he brought from fantasy to life by his reading.

Inkheart was made into a movie three years ago. Having half-watched said movie and knowing nominally what the plot is (wow, was Brendan Fraser miscast as Mortimer Folchart, the bookbinder dad and one of two main characters in the story), I have to say I both zoomed through the book (I know that, know that, know that, too) and lingered in the book (oh, they removed that in the movie, that's unfortunate they removed this other, too). As is typical, the book is more enjoyable and makes more sense, while the movie is good for mindless entertainment.

Yeah, so, I enjoyed the book somewhat. I'll read the next two books, mostly because I have them. We'll see. I'm sorta blah on this book as far as writing styles and plot lines go. It's fine for 9 years old and above (it has an accurate recommended reading age, in terms of sensitive issues (death, violence, sex, adult themes, etc.), which is to say, the bad stuff is mostly hinted at and the story has a happy ending).

It's been a long time since I have been so amazingly attacked on the Internet, I had forgotten what it's like to be attacked by a troll. Today's troll, Ruth Riegelhaupt-Herzig ruthrh@gmail.com is brought to you today by Yahoo Groups and the Sunnyvale Cafe mailing list.

Recently, Sunnyvale passed a law requiring retailers charge 10 cents for every plastic bag used by consumers, with the intent to eventually phase out plastic bags in the city. This is a fantastic law, as plastic bags contribute to significant waste and have a bad environmental impact.

Well, Ruth thinks this is a horrible idea. It's so bad that she is going to choose to shop outside of Sunnyvale. How dare the city force her to save money and help the environment!

However, that's not the issue for Ruth. For Ruth, the problem is the recycle bins (which are 30+ gallons big) are too small

I am VERY frustrated that my garbage bin is at least 3 times the size of the recycling bins when one considers the wasted space in the middle of the bins. They toss everything together so why are we wasting this space? I'm sure those bins are also more expensive as well. How about getting us some big recycling bins (and recycling more items through our service, like, say Plastic Bags).

I have to throw recyclable items into garbage almost every week (when I don't take the trouble to bring them to a friend's house). Instead of focusing so much effort on this bag issue and making it more inconvenient for people to shop in Sunnyvale, how about we put a bit of energy into making recycling MORE convenient for Sunnyvale residents? Seriously...it's been bugging me for years how tiny our recycling is while Saratoga has huge recycling bins and tiny garbage bins and they seem to work just fine for the residents.

This rather tells me that Ruth produces a LOT of trash.

She is also very mis-informed. The bins keep paper and plastics/can recycling separate when they are dumped into the dumptruck. She didn't bother to check, but Tom set her straight:

The truck that stops at my house does not dump everything together, although it certainly looks that way when viewed from a distance. Papers from the green side dump into one section of the truck and containers from the blue side dump into a different section.

As for the bin size, I pay the extra "lazy fee" for the biggest trash bin so I don't have to drag it out to the curb every week. My recycle bin fills up faster than the huge trash bin (and it's almost always the container side that fills up first) but I don't think I would want it to get any bigger.

My original response was this, which went to her directly, even though I meant to send it to the whole group:

> How about getting us some big recycling bins (and recycling more
> items through our service, like, say Plastic Bags).

My recycling container is as big as my trash can.  My neighbor's 
recycling can is twice as big as his trash can (he opted for the 
smaller trash can).  Where in Sunnyvale are you that you have a 
different size?
this is a valid question, because I thought Sunnyvale had one
plan, not several different ones


> I have to throw recyclable items into garbage almost every week

How about reducing what you buy that requires recycling?

Do you drink sodas?  How about water or tea instead?

Do you eat packaged foods?  How about more vegetables instead? 
We live in a wonderful climate, you can even grow your own.  How
about fewer processed foods?  Do you have a family?  Cooking with
the whole family can be a great experience.
this is my excitement for gardening, and my attempt to share
it with her

We put out our garbage and recycling every 2-3 weeks, so I guess
overflowing recycling or trash weekly surprises me a bit.
which is true, we don't have much trash or recycling, and I 
would love to understand how other households operate such that 
they have more

> (when I don't take the trouble to bring them to a friend's house).

This is great!  I'm glad you put this much effort into recycling.
Many people don't.


> Instead of focusing so much effort on this bag issue and making
> it more inconvenient for people to shop in Sunnyvale,

Is it really that inconvenient to bring your own bag?  I've been
bringing my own bags for a decade now, and I don't find it difficult.
What part is problematic for you?  Remembering to bring them?  Store
them in your car.  Having them in the first place?  Use the plastic
bags you already have.  I'll happily bring over a couple of my extra
ones for you, or buy you new ones if used bothers you.

It really isn't that inconvenient.  That people would prefer to 
contribute to the destruction of their environment in such a small 
way, to the helping it with one very very tiny step in the (eventual) 
banning of plastic bags is somewhat puzzling to me.

Reduce first.  There's a reason reduce is first.  ;)

Kitt.

Well, my email in an attempt to be helpful resulted in a non-stop barrage of emails from Ruth. She clearly wanted to express her frustration with having to carry her own bags. I do so enjoy when people fill up my inbox with rants. So, here are my second, third, and fourth hate mails, courtesy of Ruth (recall, that, as with my first hate mail, I haven't actually read these - once someone starts non-stop emails, without your responding at all, you know they aren't going to be good, so meh, you can read them for me):

I actually do bring my own bags most of the time...by my own choice (as I've already said). I don't like the city government dictating what I should do when they're not making recycling easy as it is.

My car is full of equipment that I use for the community service work I do. I have limited space to carry bags. I do carry what I can but every so often I don't have enough or I forget to put them back in my car after unloading, etc. I just won't shop in a city that doesn't do its own part.

This is only one of MANY different issues I have with Sunnyvale. I also have an issue with the Neighborhood Preservations group who will fine folks because a neighbor (who isn't even a neighbor) complains about the condition of a property where NO accidents have occurred while on the sidewalk in front of the same home there have been THREE...count them...THREE accidents as a result of a sidewalk coming up due to an overgrown tree.

Is it your place to judge how much recycling I have? I'm in the midst of a major cleanup, I run several youth groups out of my home...plus you don't even know how many people are in my family vs. yours. Who are you to judge? Really?

We all have our own ways to contribute. Yours is apparently to berate.

Wow!!!!

I can't wait to move out of Sunnyvale and into Saratoga where they have their heads on straight.

btw...my business also provides a great deal to be recycled and I have no choice as to its packaging. One of the ways I reuse the paper bags which I will no longer get is to put out additional recycling. I guess those items will just need to go in the garbage now...since Sunnyvale has made THAT a better option for me in so many ways.

Wow! Really! You know absolutely nothing about me or my life and you feel it's your place to judge. Amazing!

and, again, you know NOTHING about me. I don't drink soda nor do I serve it to others. I'm also vegetarian (I can't even have animal broth or fat) so I cook everything from scratch. I can't even have anything with corn in it because my daughter is allergic, so pre-made foods are pretty much out for our combined food limitations.

You know NOTHING about me...and your assumptions just prove that.

BTW...most of my neighbors are also overflowing into paper bags, so my issue is not alone.

To Ruth, when you google for your name and read this, please know that Sunnyvale can't wait for you to move out either. If you are incapable of offering solutions to problems instead of just complaining, well, please just leave already.