Games

When I’m feeling run down and sleepy, ready for bed, but need to wake up and work for a little while, I play this game.

I go to bed.

Fifteen minutes later I’m wired, wide awake, and ready for the day. It works every time, provided that time is night time.

6 Weeks

I read somewhere that stress can be turned to excitement and vice versa largely through mental activity. The claim seems a little excessive, but the cost of trying it is low. Changing my internal monologue from ‘This is going to be rough’ to ‘This is going to be exciting’ is a low-cost activity, and if it works, even a little, good.

Of course I’m not really expecting this to do a whole lot by itself, but I compare it to drinking more water. If you need water, just drink more water (provided you can, yadda yadda). There’s low cost.

Anyway, I’ve got 6 weeks before things get crazy again. 6 weeks. I’m really going to try to knock out my Kindle Vella project and make some progress on the research. With luck I can get the first done and out my door, and if I can finish the FPGA work and segue into the physical detector, the latter will have made big gains.

6 weeks.

This is going to be exciting.

Editting/Cutting for Length

Some cuts from LotR obviously had to be made for the movies. Tom Bombadil is the one people mention, and it’s obviously. He and Goldberry just wouldn’t translate, and the mystery of them would be lost. Those two characters wouldn’t work in film.

But another area that should be cut is the ride from Minas Tirith to the Morannon. That just wouldn’t work in a movie as long as it is in a book, because movies need a bit more focus. That long sequence of exploration and travel is world building. It’s development. It’s character. It’s way too long, and should be cut down to two or three short cuts, like in the movies. If you want more of that, the books are the place for it.

P Jackson did that right.

Recession

The trump of doom will be Uber or Lyft. These are huge companies, worked into the fabric of life for many people, and neither has ever made an annual profit. They’ve been kept alive solely by the self-interested altruism of investors and cheap debt.

When Uber or Lyft tank, the recession is upon us.