Wow, I now have a topic of my own. My name is Eyal Teler (hence the ET), and I'm a net addict who happens to write as a hobby. My web pages are at www.et3d.com and www.eyalteler.com. They have different content, so why not visit them both? :) Domains are just so damn cheap these days.
| Yay! keep writing. Drop and give me twenty words.
Okay. I have to work on my space detective novel and since I alway procrastinate I'll do the nano month in December instead of November. Hope I can get 40 to 50 k done before the end of the year. (Re: laptops at BB, I think people stayed overnight in line.) |
| Yeah, I knew they'd be gone by 5am. I'd have stood there at 4am, and probably wouldn't have gotten one. :)
BTW, I wrote a little today. Yay. |
| I went to Best Buy on black Friday in the afternoon and they sold out all the 250 dollar laptops by like 5am. There were a lot but the store sold them at cost. I suppose it makes some very happy repeat customers. |
| Eyal,
The Martian Express is in the B.U. slush. I'm done, done, done with it! Thanks for crittting. I'm on to chapter two and other stuff now:) |
| The refrigerator repairman came today, and charged about $100+VAT for parts that would cost about $1 to make (and I'm being generous). But hey, it's cheaper than a new refrigerator (though not by that much). |
| Thank goodness you found it! |
| That's scary stuff, ET. Glad you found the cause of the fumes. |
| Jeez, ET, I'm glad you figured it out! Don't delay seeing your doctor, though. Please. This is voice of bitter experience typing. Sincerely. Go.
Terry |
| Just wanted to update you about my illness. I finally managed to solve it, once I discovered it wasn't a disease but poisoning.
The story starts like this: when I came back home from the US, about 2.5 months ago, I kept smalling something burning in my apartment. Kind of a plastic burning small. Wasn't too strong, and I had no idea where it was coming from. It took me a really long time (about a month, I guess) to discover that it came from my refrigerator, which seemed unusually hot, so I called support and was told that the heat is normal. I kind of put it out of my mind. I guess that my mind got used to a constant smell, and just ignored it. I live alone, so I didn't have other guinea pigs, and guests apparently didn't smell anything. I even asked my parents specifically about the smell when they were here, and they didn't smell anything. So it didn't really connect when I started having headaches and feeling awfully tired. Since a guy from work was sick for about a month, I just thought I caught something from him. When I went to see my doctor, she had no guess what I had, and the checkups didn't show anything out of normal parameters. Just a few days ago I noticed the smell again, and thought it might be a problem. I opened up the refrigerator's back, and saw that a spot of the back covering plastic had blackened on the inside. My apartment isn't that well ventilated, normally, and I guess I was closing things up more since it started becoming a little chilly at night. All these plastic vapours have been couped up pretty well inside. Not to mention that the refrigerator is not that far from my computer station, where I spend most of my day. So I opened up all the windows, and have kept them open for the past couple of days. The relief was almost immediate, even if not complete. Part of the problem is that the refrigerator is still emitting those noxious fumes. I'm going to look for a new one tomorrow. The other problem is that I've been breathing this stuff for over 2 months now, and I guess in pretty bad concentration for the past month, and my lungs still don't feel right. I hope that there's no lasting damage. I'll have to see a doctor and get some tests. But at least I'm feeling so much better, almost normal. I don't feel dead tired, and I can actually concentrate a little. One funny thing is that when I was sick I stayed a home a lot as a result, and everyone told me to just rest at home. Which of course just made things worse. But I guess it also helped me find the problem. Otherwise I'd still have been tired and having headaches, but not so much as to make me really try to find out what the problem is. |
| I was scared of it when I was a kid,
Hope you feel better soon! |
| Didn't I answer this? Must have imagined it.... I've been sick for the last week and my mind just isn't working.
Anyway, you're right. I'm really new to this Doctor Who thing. I saw a little of it in the past (had to buy, since it wasn't shown here), but never really liked it that much. Granted, I probably didn't watch the better parts. But I did like this new show. I'm thinking of buying the second season when it comes to DVD. |
| Isn't that where the Daleks are from? (I'm a relatively new fan, so I'm not much of an authority.) |
| Skaro cans? |
| Genuine Skaro cans! |
| Well, they were more or less recycled humans. I'm really not sure about the tin cans themselves. They may have been recycled, too, considering that Earth probably ran out of natural resources long before, but on the other hand, they might have been imported from other planets. |
| Does that mean they've been recycled? ;) |
| I'm not sure. Maybe it's a reference to the daleks, who became religious. Although that's more of a born-again tin can. |
| Yjat?
That. |
| So, if you've been watching Dr. Who-was that a born-again fire extinguisher yjat the Doctor used on the Slitheen? (Sp?) ;) |
| Just submitted a story. Last one was probably six months ago or more. And it's the same story (with very minor revisions). Which I guess shows how seriously I'm taking this writing thing.
I just haven't done much writing lately, and I guess even submitting something finished is not something I can easily do. Still, Gordon might be happy that he got something from me. Or maybe he's just given up on me. :) Lori, I forgot to answer. Yes, I did meet Frank Wu (again). And got his CD with the video, but unfortunately didn't get the t-shirt. Which I wanted, but I didn't stay long enough in one place to ask him for it. |
| And wow! those chicks! |
| Let's hope they stay that way.
And congrats on the black belt! When you were at Conestoga did you meet Frank Wu? |
| Thanks for the congrats.
As to the violence here, I guess it's bad, but thankfully it's distant enough from me that I don't feel it. My aunt who lives near the Lebanese border came to stay with my mother, but here in Jerusalem things are pretty quiet. |
| Belated congrats on the black belt. I was on vacation and I would have said sooner but my home puter is too slow so I'm rarely on it and now I'm back to work.
Hopefully the violence isn't as bad as it seems on the news. Be safe. |
| I'm back!
Had a lot of fun in the US and I'm terribly jetlagged now. Flight back was only a quarter full. I guess nobody wants to come to Israel these days. |
| Whoa! Congrats on the achievement! Are you sending out a mailing warning all editors? lol |
| congrats on the black belt! That is awesome!
Glad to hear you are doing well! B |
| Glad you're ok. Congratulations on the black belt! |
| Hi, guys. Thanks for the concern. It's really nice that you're thinking about me. Don't worry, all is well. I'm in the US now, at a karate seminar. Passed my black belt test day before yesterday. I've been a little busy lately and haven't checked the Rumour Mill. I'll be in Conestoga (since I'm in the US, I figured I might as well go to a con), so if any of you are planning to be there, let me know.
ET |
| Yeah, I hope all is well with you, ET. |
| Just dropped in to say hello... |
| Sorry to hear about Poochie...
{{{hugs}}}} B |
| Sorry, ET. |
| Me, too, David. Those darn little furry guys can really get into your heart. |
| I'm sorry to hear. |
| Poochie died. He had a decently long life, about 2.5 years, which is not bad for a Siberian hamster. I was surprised that he lasted this long because several months ago he had a health problem (which I can't describe due to lack of the English terms) and I thought he'd die. But he pulled through, with the help of my sister Inbar, who's a vet (though she also expected him to die). He lived a further 4 months, though he wasn't the same, and lately he got worse, and now he died.
It wasn't unexpected, but I'm still saddened. |
| My fiance is 5'3" and 100 pounds. So it's not that i don't like small things, but they have to be the right kind. |
| Sadly, it seems that I'll have to make the story end with "and then the sun went supernova" if I want to be correct. It's much harder to do anything with a standard nova. (And in fact, I'd guess that the original sentence refers to a supernova.) |
| I hate it when people give me lists of things I'm not supposed to write. This always sounds like a challenge. It's obviously stupid to pursue such subjects, as they indeed have less chance of getting accepted, but what can I say, I'm stupid. And I love cliches.
So I'm now thinking of a story that ends with "and then the sun went nova." Not that it's the only thing about it that's on the not-to-do list. :) The problem is, of course, to pull it off. |
| Yeah, maybe they should be called sub-hardcovers. But I guess only book readers will get that. :)
Frankly, I never read hardcovers because they're too big. Paperbacks are so much more comfortable to carry around, and I do most of my reading (and writing) on the bus, so I find small things (computers and books) more attractive. (Actually, this has nothing to do with the bus, as I like most things small anyway -- from women to PDAs to pets. Well, not too small. :) |
| Oh. I was just laughing at the word subnotebook computer.. Not mocking your owning one. =D
Desktop replacement is right. The thing i own is big enough to be a desktop and weighs as much as one. (sucks to carry it around. If i didn't use all the power, I'd rather have a "Subnotebook computer." I'm just stupid that way. And hope I offended no one! =David |
| subnotebook computer? HAhahahaha.
I have a desktop replacement laptop (it weighs 12.5 lbs) and it probably has more power than any other computer accessing these forums (including the server). |
| Thanks, Mark. I hate close calls. On the other hand, they're better than other rejections, so I shouldn't complain. |
| Sorry he didn't buy your story. Best of luck placing it elsewhere. |
| Famous last words: "there's a lot here that's very good. I look forward to seeing it elsewhere".
(No, they're not John Scalzi's last words, just the last words in the rejection mail he sent me.) Arrgghh. |
| Long time since I posted anything...
Anyway, I once checked out some registrars and free domain hosts, and registered a domain with Bravenet. I won't recommend Bravenet, really (if only for the amount of spam they send), but they do offer a lot of free services, and I tried their "web journal". I posted one message there, and not a very smart one. It said "New day, new site: I my continuing quest for the perfect registrar / free hosting service, I registered killramon.com with Bravenet." (Ramon is a guy from work. He once made plans -- imaginary, thankfully -- for killing all his friends in the most suitable manner.) Recently I had two comments posted there: ------------- Posted by david: Excellent journal, interesting topics and wonderful writing. (Free Backgammon Download) ------------- Posted by holder: I like your writing style. (play for real money backgammon) ------------- I just find it so funny. |
| If there's anything I hate is paying unexpected extra when I buy something. Problem is, I guess it's unavoidable when someone is doing you a favour and buying it.
I wanted to buy a subnotebook computer which is sold in the US. Since most online stores don't accept international credit cards, I found someone who'd buy it for me which I'll meet on my visit (which is in two weeks). The price said $1765 with free shipping. I sent the guy $1818 through PayPal since they say 2.9%+$0.30 fee. Turns out not only do I have to pay $155 tax (had I ordered myself I'd probably have bought at another shop when I saw this), but that PayPal's "cross border transaction" fee is 3.9%. So I end up paying close to $2000 for that laptop, which was more than I planned. Those extra $200+ could have gone to something better than tax and fees. |
| Bridget, I plan to be in Seattle again at the end of September (just in time for Serenity :). Judging by last time, the chance you see this message in time is slim, though. :)
Kaori, thanks! |
| ET, I like your RoS scene better than all of the movie.
Hope you enjoy your time in Seattle. Kaori I must not fear! |
| hey ET- I actually missed you being in Seattle! Arrgg!
I have been so very busy lately I had been remiss in checking rumor mill for about a month. Hope you enjoyed your trip! B |
| Up till last week, I had no idea that Clarion West is in Seattle, and up till yesterday I had no idea that Clarion is in East Lansing. I never really considered going to them, so haven't given thought to where they are.
Funnily enough, my trip to the US includes a karate seminar in East Lansing and a Microsoft conference in Seattle. Yesterday I just happened to pass the Archives Book Shop in East Lansing, and saw a sign saying "Clarion". Turned out there's a reading by Walter Jon Williams and Leslie What in the evening. Sadly I got there late, because the reading was at 7 and karate practice ended at 6:50, and I not only had to wait for the bus, but also didn't know exactly where to get off, so got off too late, and had to walk 15 extra minutes. So I missed Walter's reading completely, and only heard part of Leslie's. I did get to talk to them, though (more to Leslie; she's very nice), and see the Clarion scholarships being given. Next week I'm planning to go to Michael Swanwick's reading in Seattle. |
| I just moved from a wireless keyboard back to a wired one. I have a nice Microsoft wireless keyboard-mouse combination, but unfortunately occasionally the keyboard didn't want to detect all key presses. At rare times this made writing difficult if not impossible, and more often it ruined my gaming, which could be said to be a good thing, as that was one reason I stopped playing Unreal Tournament 2003. However, now that I'm playing City of Heroes, that could be a bit of a bother. So I got myself a new wired keyboard. Looks like the wireless one, except that it's white and grey instead of black. Which means it will look dirty sooner. :) Now back to Paragon City. |
| BTW, if you want to waste some really fun time being a superhero, try City of Heroes. It currently costs $30 including one month of play, which I think is worth it. From what I've played until now, I'd probably grow tired of it in a month, but it's really fun to build your superhero character and go around town kicking some butt.
Part of the fun is also finding a group. A few friends can go together online and kick butt together. Sadly, each has to have an account. I'm sharing mine with another guy from work. It's possible to create about 100 different characters and switch between them, so it's not a problem to share. |
| Not having been greatly received elsewhere, I decided to post my "alternate scene" of Vader's naming in Revenge of the Sith here. If you haven't see the movie, considered yourself warned that it might reveal a few things. I won't call these spoilers, really, considering that it's hard to spoil that movie.
"You have helped kill a Jedi," said Palpatine, "and so have become one of us. Now you must choose a name for yourself." Bits and pieces of the future registered on Anakin's prescient memory. Legions of soldiers laying waste in his name. _That must not happen,_ he told himself. The darkness of the force was all around him. Only a narrow path led to safety, and the safety of his beloved Padme. All around that, the abyss raged. A name came into his mind. "I will call myself Muad'Dib. Darth Anakin-Muad'Dib." Palpatine flinched, said: "What kind of a name is that for a Sith lord?" "I come from a desert planet, where huge worms deal drugs. Muad'dib is what we desert people call the desert mouse. It is a small but annoying creature, like I was when I was nine years old. It will remind me of where I come from and where I'll be headed, Master." "It is a stupid name, Anakin. A Sith lord is not a mouse. He is a lion, an eagle, a ruler of the land and sky. Perhaps, in your case, he is a vulture, for I see many people dead as a results of your actions, and you will feed on these deaths, and your strength will grow. You will take the name of Vader, for the vulture that you are." The abyss closed around Anakin's future. He could see images of stormtroopers killing all around him. It would happen if he chose the wrong name, he knew. "But Padme won't be one of the dead, right?" "Of course not, young Vader. Of course not." "Very well, Master." |
| Problem was understanding afterwards what I'd said. Too much background noise -- especially for the vampires and oxytocin entry. It did stir my memory enough to recall what I wanted and so understand in turn what I said.
BTW, it's pretty active around here. I leave the board for less than 3 days and I have a lot of catching up to do. |
| Pretty cool. If I tried that, I'd probably hit the wrong button and wind up phoning my story ideas into Pizza Hut!
Justin |
| New first for me: not having something to write with, I used my cell phone's recorder to record a couple of ideas for my stories. That happened on the bus. |
| Thanks to a dare at the group of Liz Holliday, I finished revising and submitted two stories over the past week or so, which I'm pretty happy about. It's nice to have two stories out again, compared to zero. Considering that one of the submissions was to Black Gate, I imagine I'll have at least one story out for a looong time. |
| Probably a leftover from the webmaster copying another page to use as a template. I did that once with Neverary when I was HTMLing on too little sleep. :)
Should be a quick fix to get it scrubbed off the page if you email them. Lon |
| Thanks, Lon. Didn't realise it was out. Just saw it and I'm baffled why there's "How to Write Great Serious Nonfiction and Get It Published" after the title. I certainly didn't put it there. |
| Eyal,
Really enjoyed your article in this month's Vision! The discussion of Tone especially made a lot of sense, and isn't something many writers think to be concerned with right at the beginning. Kudos, Lon |
| Grrr, the USB connection on the watch I got from Microsoft just broke. Whoever designed this watch obviously did it as a gimmick, and not for real use. Unfortunately since I lost my normal USB drive I've been using the watch. There's a cover to the USB port that is ill fitted, and takes some effort to close. I think that's what broke the plastic of the connector inside. I did manage to remove the broken piece, and the interface still works, so I can connect the cable, but I'm not going to cover that USB port again. |
| I got my ThinkPad X22 a few days ago. It's a nice machine, though unfortunately the seller misrepresented its condition. There's a green vertical line on the display when it's at some angles (probably a bad wire or connection), and though with the battery fully charged the computer claims 2.5 hours of use are expected (a new battery should last over 4), it actually starts complaining that it's critically low after less than an hour.
Since these things are not apparent at first glance (the green line doesn't always appear and the battery claims a decent time), I give the seller the benefit of the doubt, as I think he's not the owner and just a reseller (from the short communication we had). Still, it means that I have to buy a new battery and that I'll either have to live with that green line or pay IBM to fix it, which will probably be pretty costly. Though surprisingly IBM will not charge me anything to restore the machine to factory setting. The machine came with an unlicense XP installation and a restoration partition deleted, and IBM will restore the disk to the way it shipped, with Windows 2000 and the rest of the software. |
| Anyone who's read followed my Opera link should follow up on the Opera CEO's adventures. Start reading from the bottom of the page (assuming you've read the press release, which should be read first). |
| I put some content at eyalteler.com. If anyone has read my stories Possibilities and wants to find a little more info about it, you can go there and read. |
| And, yes, I didn't mean for the top message to be in bold blue. That's because I put it in square brackets and forgot that the board considers them as special. Arrgghh. |
| [Sorry, previous message had malformed HTML. I really did mean to preview, honestly. Here it is again.]
It's not every day that I read a press release which makes me laugh out loud. The people at Opera have shown before that they have a sense of humour, but this really is great. Check out the press release. Sadly, it seems that the challenge is over (I found about it just a bit too late), but Opera is still a pretty good web browser, so you can download it anyway. :) |
| I sometimes wonder about eBay. Why would anyone in their right mind pay $200+$20 shipping for an item that can be found online for $170+$13 shipping new? That's what happened at an auction I participated in. |
| Congrats, ET, I hope it's everything you dreamed of. I love my laptop. |
| Yay, I got myself a brand new used laptop! After the previous experience, I changed my address at eBay to be the US address to which I'll be sending the laptop (and in the process eBay warned me quite a bit about frodulent e-mail addresses and how I might get investigated and such). I won a US auction, and will pay around (a bit over, if you count shipping) $400 for an IBM ThinkPad X22 laptop. It's a different specced machine than the other one, and in different condition (the other just had the keyboard replaced; I'm sure this one has a bit of keyboard wear), but the other would have cost me more had I won it. All around I'm happy and excited right now. |
| Seeing this now, I also figure that's the reason the sniper failed. |
| Turned out I couldn't bid on it anyway, because I'm exempted by country. No luck! |
| #*&$! Can't trust eBay snipers, that's the lesson I've learned. Instead of staying up until an auction ends, I let a site do the bidding for me at the last moment -- and it didn't. I did get up a bit later to see if I have to bid on another item, and found out that the auction I wanted ended and with a price lower than I told the snipe site to use.
Now I'm staying up for another auction that ends soon, and hope to win that. I just hope I don't miss the end myself -- I've done that before. Of course, likely this one will go over my budget. (I'm looking to buy a laptop.) |
| :D
Heh, maybe I could blame Frank. :Þ |
| sending all the pages is a good idea. :)
(hey, you can always claim you threw those final pages off the Space needle - KD knows that can happen!) Bridget |
| BTW, I now don't have any submission out, which isn't good, but since I'm back to writing, that's not too bad. I might revise the story I got back a bit (there was a little change I wanted to make after I sent it -- and probably other that I've forgotten by now) and send it to Carina. Haven't sent her anything in a long while. And I'll try to send all the pages this time. |
| Gaah! That's worth the prime and select curses, too, IMO. |
| I got a quarter finalist notification from WotF by snail mail. Which was surprising, considering that I didn't send an SAE. I figured that it wasn't because I was semi-finalist and got a crit, because K.D. hadn't said in the group that she finished the crits, so I wondered why they sent the response that way.
I all became clear when I opened the envelope. The first page of my manuscript was there, and at the top was handwritten "This is well-written but the end is missing." You can imagine what I felt. Did I really forget to put all the pages in the envelope? This is just so arrgghh! I love being told by K.D. that my story is well written, but does that mean that if it was all there it could have gotten farther? This is worth a few choice curses. |
| You're welcome. If you'd like comments on the finished story, whatever you choose, feel free to ask. |
| I got a mail from Joe Mahoney about a CBC Radio call for submissions. Problem is, apart from the fact that I don't have a previously published flash story, that it's only open to Canadians. I wonder why I'm on that list. Hmmm, I think I'll go to his topic and ask. |
| Thanks, Justin and Melissa. Your answers were helpful, though I think I ended up more undecided. I'm leaning in a different direction than before, which I think is good for a challenge. |
| Thanks, Carol. Very suitable gyrations, these were. Or so I imagine.
May I ask you guys for some help? I have three quite different ideas for that story, plus alternate endings, and since I can submit only one story, I'd like to get some input as to which one I should choose. If you're willing to read them and comment, send me an e-mail to et -at- et3d.com. |
| Go ET, go ET, go! *suitable gyrations here* |
| I just about flipped (from joy) when I saw John Scalzi's announcement (at [New Markets]) about wanting submissions with the theme of SF cliches. Now this is something that should return me to writing. I have just the story, but it needs rewriting, and unfortunately, though I remember that I thought quite a bit about it, I can't find any notes. So I'll have to reconstruct the setting from memory, and start thinking about how to tell the story (since the original was one of my short-shorts which aren't really complete). Good thing I have until the end of October to finish it. |
| BTW, the really strange thing is that I didn't even get the eBay 'auction is about to end' notification for the item. I got them fine for the a similar item a few days earlier, which ended up $5 more (and on which I bid and lost). It's a conspiracy, I tell you. |
| Damn, I missed a friend's birthday by a couple of days. I could blame being sick on that, but it's happened a few times lately, and that's not good. I guess I'm getting a touch of Travis Tea's mother. Even worth, I'd forgotten to bid on eBay on the present I wanted for him -- and it ended up at a pretty low price, too. I'm very annoyed with myself. |
| Thanks. I slept about 12 hours this night, and I feel much better. I plan to sleep a few more in the afternoon, and I need to drink and eat. I also plan to work a little, but not too much. |
| Take care of yourself, dood. |
| Thanks, Justin and Melissa. My stomach is better now that there's no food in it. I haven't eaten since yesterday, just drank tea. Although I started running a bit of a fever, I did managed to get about 4 hours of sleep, and I'm generally feeling better. |
| Sorry to hear. Hope you feel better soon. |
| Hope you feel better soon, ET.
Justin |
| I've been on allergy pills for two weeks now. They're helping a little (that is, my nose, though red, is still attached to my face, and I can sleep at nights -- when I don't have a stomach virus, that is). |
| We're having an early allergy season here in Oregon. All the cherry trees have bloomed their little heads off and everyone you see is sneezing or coughing. Flu season is hanging on longer, too, so we're just a big mess in the Northwest.
--Jay Arr |
| I hate being sick. I had stomach aches and diarrhea throughout the night and couldn't sleep. A few minutes ago I vomited what must have been left (mostly fluid), and I actually feel a bit better now. Going for another cup of tea when I finish posting this. My stomach is still upset, but hopefully I'll have a slightly easier time from now on. I haven't vomitted in years, and I'm somewhat upset on breaking this long streak.
And apologies for being gross. Regarding writing, I haven't done much in a while. I have a couple of stories I need to finish revising, but I just don't feel like doing that. Instead I'm spending time trying to rewrite some of the code of Warzone 2100 (an old strategy game which went open source three months ago) to support DirectX 9. I guess not doing graphics programming at work is getting to me, so I have to do it somehow. Frankly, I managed to convince myself, and hopefully be able to convince the guys at work, that doing some graphics programming is a good thing now. I thought about starting it today, but I'm just feeling so lousy that I don't think I'll work today. Hopefully I'll be able to get some sleep during the day. |
| Damn this allergy season. It's around 4AM and I can't sleep because my nose keeps running (and I have to chase it around). I have to get up at 8AM...
Anyway, just to amuse myself, I've started [The Quoting Game] topic. |
| Interesting things you learn from Microsoft people. For example, one talk mentioned the structure of the work groups at the company. Each is headed by a Program Unit Manager (PUM) on the programming side. There's also a business head for each unit, but as the speaker said, they try not to use the acronym for that one (at least in the person's face). |
| Thanks, Mystery Guest. |
| Eyal, good luck with the flash to ASIM. Sometimes these things work out. I once had an idea, wrote a story around it, E-Mailed it and received an acceptance all in less than two hours.
I'm very envious. I always thought travel could be fun, but I just never got around to it. To go to lots of interesting places at someone else's expense must be fantastic. |