Coffee Time Review gave Devil Falls five cups!
W00t! 
Archive for March, 2009
I love how some reporters discussed the most recent World Figure Skating Championship:
Asian skaters have elevated the skill level in women's skating. But the sport needs an American woman on the podium -- the next Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, Kwan. For the third straight world championships, there wasn't one -- prompting Kwan and Sasha Cohen to hint at comebacks. Rachael Flatt and Alissa Czisny finished fifth and 11th, which means the U.S. will have only two women in the Olympics instead of three.
Predictably, the rant concluded that the current Code of Points is flawed because American women didn't get any medal in Los Angeles. Obviously the reporter hasn't seen the U.S. ladies skate. With two falls in the short program, the U.S. champion Alissa Czisny couldn't medal anyway even under the old judging system (6.0 = perfect). Rachel Flatt wasn't polished enough. It's her first senior level world. She should be happy with her 5th place finish.
If an American skater is worthy of being on the podium -- great technique and artistry -- sure, she should get a medal. And she will get a medal even under the new system. But I've seen new American girls skate. They're subpar compared to Mao Asada, Kim Yuna, Miki Ando and Joannie Rochette.
It's whiny to complain about the judging system that's not going to go away, and it's racist to complain that it only lets Asians win, conveniently forgetting that the new silver medalist Rochette is Canadian and white. It's not like the Code of Points is a huge secret. Everyone knows what one must do to win. And it's not just doing a ton of jumps. If American girls aren't getting medals, it means they aren't very good. Frankly I thought Czisny's 11th finish was generous.
Anyone else seen the World? Any thoughts on the competition?
P.S. I'm sorry I've been MIA for so long. Will have more updates later.
Jennifer alerted me to WIP Wednesday, and I figured, why not?
All the King's Women's still unfinished. I'm working on the revision. It's taking so much more time than I expected. Probably because I was stooopid and gave myself less than one month to wrap up the revision (don't do this!).
The 1st draft came out strong, and it has all the plot elements, etc. I need. The thing I need to do now is focusing on smoothing things out, adding key elements such as body language, vocal cues, world-building details, etc. without boring readers. So sometimes it takes me days to go through a chapter and make all the changes on the hard copy, then implement them on my soft copy. When I do the latter, I go over my notes again and make sure they still make sense. (Sometimes I think of something even better than my original notes. )
Agent hasn't seen any of the drafts. I haven't sent her anything except my old synopsis. I want to make the manuscript as clean as possible before I send it to her, mostly because I feel very embarrassed when people read my early drafts. But another reason is that I don't want her to feel "burned out" from reading one too many drafts. I get fatigued when I read multiple versions of the same story. I noticed this when I was in a crit group, and this was one of the reasons why I told people I don't read 1st drafts. I'm assuming that other people feel the same way, and if I'm wrong to assume so, er...do let me know. LOL.
Happy Friday the 13th!
Last night I spoke with a friend of mine in the States. I haven't talked to her in ... forever, it seems. I wanted to tell her about the wedding over the phone and invite her. Other than my family, she's the only one from the States who I'd love to have at my wedding. Given the horrid economy in the States I'm not sure if she can come, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
And speaking of weddings -- I had no idea how time consuming and expensive it is to have one in the first place. I've been to three wedding venues, and you can't do a banquet for less than $150 / person. It's uber-fancy 4 to 5 course French or French-Japanese fusion cuisine, but holy cow. (BTW -- since this is Japan you get like two bites or so per course.) Of course you also have to pay for the thank-you-for-coming-to-my-wedding presents. Per one of my Japanese friends, you need to prepare three presents totaling $70-100 per person.
Mom is determined to buy ridiculously expensive and 100% impractical gifts for Hero Material's family. I told her it was completely unnecessary, and that it'd only make them uncomfortable. Mom of course insisted that's how you do things back home (meaning her native country), and I had to remind her that the wedding is in Japan, and Hero Material's family is 100% American. Hero Material is flabbergasted since he doesn't think it's necessary, so I'm going to have to contact her again and tell her to hold off on the gift buying spree.
I think the real reason for Mom wanting to give presents to everyone, including yours truly, is because she wants something back in return. The first thing she told me after I announced my engagement was:
Hero Material loves kids. I'm sure he wants two children. Preferably as soon as possible. You know, you guys aren't getting any younger.
BTW -- do you have any tips for wedding planning and dealing with an overzealous (and overly excited) mother?
I came across something that I think is important. Probably every person who reads this blog has at one point or another has lamented the sorry state of American public education. Well, now you can do something about it, and it won't cost you a cent. Tim Ferriss, the Four-Hour Workweek guy, is tweeting up a storm, and for every new follower he gets in the next two weeks, he and another anonymous donor will give a total of $3 to DonorsChoose.org, the money to go directly to underfunded US public school classrooms. You can read about the details here (it'll only take about five minutes -- really).
Given the insane bureaucratic muck that Katrina donations have gone through (much of the money is STILL being held up), my faith in the government to be able to do much of anything (non-military) has basically gone to zero. Worthwhile change in the future will most likely come from private efforts like this one. Checking in on Ferriss, he has already gotten close to 3,000 new followers, which means $9K - not too bad for 24 hours or so. Why not be one as well? Not only for the $3 that some needy classroom will get, but for the larger purpose of showing that this sort of charity can work, and encouraging similar efforts in the future.
If you're interested, click here to get more info on the Tweet to Beat.
