From full sleep to fighting zombies in 30 seconds or less:
Picture via FailBlog.
Month: March 2011
I HAVE THE POWER
By the power of Greyskull...
In other look-alike news, my brother-in-law pointed out another eerie similarity…
It just got personal
Sara overheard an immunologist at work talking about the link between pollution (specifically diesel particulate emissions) and allergies. This would partially explain why allergies are on the rise in the developed world, and specifically in cities and along highways. After a little research of my own, it seems that these types of pollutants stimulate our Immunoglobulin E (IgE) production, which in turn causes us to have a quicker biological response to allergens (an allergen “memory”). You can read more here.
So between this and the increase of allergies due to global warming, I am positively doomed.
I have to say, this makes me feel better about my work. Reducing dependence on foreign oil is a worthy crusade to begin with, but it’s sort of esoteric for me personally. Until now! Now it suddenly has a direct impact on my life.
In fact, I didn’t have allergies at all until I went to college. Since then, my allergies have been worse every year. And now, dealing with the kids’ eczema, which is essentially a hyper-sensitivity to allergens, I have to wonder if this has all somehow been caused by our polluting lifestyle. I always assumed it was just sort of destined, genetic-wise, but maybe that’s not true.
In any event, how about you get your pollution out of my nose?
Writing Year 2
This year:
Stories Written: 2
Number of [Submission-Ready] Words: 8,600
Number of Story Submissions: 39
Number of Rejections: 34
Number of Acceptances: 0
Total:
Stories Written: 9
Number of [Submission-Ready] Words: 52,800
Number of Story Submissions: 62
Number of Rejections: 57
Number of Acceptances: 0
Wow, I can’t believe it has been another year already! I thought I had time to catch up a little bit on the writing. I guess not!
Only 2 new stories this year?? On the surface, it’s sort of pathetic compared to last year. However, on further inspection, there are some good things and some bad things. One thing to note, I changed it from “Number of 1st Draft Words” to “Number of [Submission-Ready] Words”. I’m not keeping track of the length of first drafts anymore, because what’s the point? So this number will reflect the size of the first draft that I’m ready to send out (which may be draft 3 or so).
The bad is that I only wrote 2 stories (this does not count the work in progress, which is a little over half way done). Of course Oliver was born in April, but even considering that, my goal for the year was 4 or 5 new stories. Did not get it done! On the other hand, the good is that I actually managed to keep the stories in the mail, more or less. You would expect there to be more submissions with more inventory (a very little more inventory in this case), but at least I was keeping them in circulation, even if I wasn’t writing.
Overall, I would say I had more positive rejections, including an honorable mention from Writers of the Future. Still not as close as I’d like to be by the end of year 2, but making progress nonetheless. What can I say, life (and accordions) intervened.
My goal for next year is going to be 4 stories again. That goal is apparently not as easy as I originally thought! However, my main goal right now is not to miss a quarter of Writers of the Future. I’m hoping that will give me the extra motivation to get it done!
The way I figure it, writing stories is practice. The more you practice something, the better you get. If I practiced more, I’d get better faster. If I don’t, it will just take me longer, but I’ll get there eventually.
Onward and upward!
Shane Halbach 