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November 28, 2005
Can You Spot the Home of Author Boy?
One of the houses in this admittedly blurry image is my place. I found it while playing with Google Earth just now. I started off just looking for Perth, which took some finding, but when I did find it, and started zooming in, all of this other detail about Perth and the metro area popped up. All of which was interesting in itself, and I idly wondered if I could find my own house. It looked like a tough challenge, until I noticed certain major roads leading to this very part of suburbia, and from there it was just a matter of remembering driving directions to find my way to my own home. I'm astonished that I can do this, I must say.
I shouldn't be: during the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I was reading the blog of Kathryn Cramer. Kathryn is a sf book editor who, on the side, discovered she could use Google Earth and Google Maps to examine aerial images of pre- and post-flood New Orleans, and was able to identify individual houses, what condition they were in, and so forth--and plenty of people from that city, worried about what was happening to their homes, wrote in and asked her to have a look. More recently, Kathryn has been using these services and others to round up useful data about earthquake-affected Pakistan for relief agencies and, of course, people who've been evacuated or otherwise affected by the earthquakes. It is truly amazing that a person armed with a computer, an Internet link, and one or two free bits of software, can make such an extraordinary difference in the lives of people on the other side of the world.
* * *
In the quest to figure out what the hell is going on with my headaches, my mother proposed the wacky idea of giving up cheese for a month, to see if that might be a factor. I've already tried giving up caffeine, chocolate, and various other things on a trial basis, so I now find myself a week into the no-cheese challenge.
And, up until last night, I had no headaches. None. Five full days of pain-free bliss. This came as a major relief, but also the kind of thing where you don't think your luck can possibly hold, and you start sweating on when the streak might end, and that in turn becomes a source of worry and stress. It's always fun in my head! Tonight, the headache is back, but so far seems to be quite a weakling.
None of this proves anything. Coincidence is not correlation. I'm planning on going a full month, and then some, until Christmas, to give the trial a fair go. Meanwhile, ads on telly for cheeseburgers are already driving me bats.
* * *
And Author Boy has been busy, too, taking advantage of the pain-free bliss of last week to get a big chunk of scribble done, with the current total weighing in at almost 56,000 words. Today's effort was mainly to do with rewriting a key chapter, in which Our Synthetic Hero finds himself lured into very deep trouble--and in the process "gets lucky" for the first time in his brief and confusing existence. The matter is complicated a lot by the fact that he's been persuaded to overlook a profoundly serious breach of the ship's Standing Orders, and then finds himself wracked with guilt to a disturbing degree. Has he gone over to the dark side? Has he begun to lose his mind? Difficult to say. I can say things aren't going to get any better any time soon.
Posted by adrian at November 28, 2005 08:50 PM
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Comments
Google Earth is way cool. A stalker would need to already know your actual address to be able to zero in on your house using Google Earth, so GE won't increase our stalkability in any discernable way I can see.
Cheeze? Who knows? With all the monosodiumdiglutamenaphenolamate crap in processed foods, who knows which chemical could be the actual culprit. Regardless, relief is relief, and I wish you luck in your continuing efforts, old bean.
And phwoar on 56K words! I've been stalled myself, but I think I'll be getting back at it soon.
PS -- wish me luck, I'm going to be on TV in less than 48 hours. *faints*
Posted by: Charlie at December 7, 2005 03:12 AM
Cheese eh? That'd be a nasty thing to have to give up.
Just the other day I was reading the ingredients on the side of a packet of Cheezels and found that they're actually made of corn and rice but also contain (coated in I assume) "powdered cheese" (as well as the usual salt, "flavour enhancers" and colourings, etc.). Hmm, I'd never realised there was such a thing as powdered cheese before, though I guess there used to be powdered eggs during the war and stuff (not that I've ever seen any) so anything's possible I suppose. I must cross-check Cheezels ingredients against those of Twisties asap!
Posted by: David S. at December 1, 2005 02:26 PM
veggie cheese is good! there is some kind of almond cheese that i've not yet tried.
Posted by: river selkie at December 1, 2005 12:18 AM
now that satellite business is a scary thing, my friend. imagine the way stalkers et al. can get to us now.
Posted by: river selkie at November 30, 2005 12:12 AM
Hmmm. Can you get lactose- or rennet-free cheese (depending upon which active ingredient you're trying to avoid)? I think you can; certain ultra-orthodox Jews of my acquaintance have to get special hyperkosher cheese for some obscure Biblical reason. They might have a website, who knows?
On the downside, it probably tastes like liquidised cardboard.
Posted by: pastamasta at November 29, 2005 09:35 PM
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