Word Of The Day. A New Word To Some

Imbibe (IM-bib): To drink; to take in; absorb

Word Of The Day. A New Word To Some

Halcyon (HAL-see-un): Peaceful; carefree; serene

How Long Does It Take to Get From Earth to Mars?

7 months! Woah! Up, up and away! NASA sends an unmaned rocket to Mars due to arrive there in March 2006 and circle Mars for 4 years thereafter. Now that is utterly amazing to me. CNN

Word Of The Day. A New Word To Some

Surreptitious (SUR-ep-tish-us): Made, done, or acting in secret

Taller Paperbacks for Baby Boomers' Eyes

Interesting stuff...

Quote (The New York Times 8/12/05):

"Faced with declining sales, two of the biggest publishers of mass-market titles, the Penguin Group and Simon & Schuster, have begun issuing new paperbacks by some of their most popular authors in a bigger size that allows larger type and more space between lines.

"We've been losing the foundation of our customer base because their eyesight is getting worse, and the books are getting harder and harder to read," said Jack Romanos, the chief executive of Simon & Schuster, whose Pocket Books division introduced the mass-market paperback format in the United States in 1939."

"For publishers, the main advantage of the new book is that it is the same width as a traditional mass-market paperback, which allows it to fit in the wire racks at airports, grocery stores and drugstores. Those outlets are among the biggest sellers of the romances, westerns, mysteries and thrillers that make up the bulk of paperbacks sold. Publishers have also raised the cover price of the new books to $9.99, $2 to $3 more than the traditional paperback but still less than the $14 cover price of the digest-size books, known as trade paperbacks, that are now the primary format for nonfiction books and literary novels."

Boy, I sure hope by the time I finish my book people can actually afford it.

Word Of The Day. A New Word To Some

Exculpate (EKS-kull-pate): To clear from charges of guilt; vindicate

Love Comes in All Forms. Bonnie & Clyde?

Wife guns down guard and frees inmate husband. There's no logic in what Jennifer Hyatte did yesterday other than possibly in her mind love conquers all. George Hyatte was serving a 35 year sentence. I'm quite sure he was the mastermind behind this escape and some how he has such a hold on Mrs. Hyatte she would do just about anything for him. Even kill on command.

They met while she was a nurse in the correctional facility where he was incarcerated. I'm no psyhcologist, but I think Mrs. Hyatte was probably vulnerable and Mr. Hyatte capitalized on that. Who is to say he didn't plot his escape long ago while he was courting (can I say that old fashion term?) her. Is the love one sided? She loves him, but is he purposefully faking his love for her just to get what he desires most? Freedom. I feel these are valid questions.

One of the sad parts in all this is that an unprotected guard has lost his life. I think the mindset of the guards where that Mr. Hyatte was likely to try and run on foot given his past attempts to escape, but they didn't count on someone from the outside to help break him free. I'm sure they will be caught. Let's just pray that no one else has to die while they're on the loose. MSNBC News

***

I was planning on going for a morning run. I don't feel up to it. I'm in a writing mode so I'm going to run with that while I still have scenes in my head which I need to get on paper. I only have a couple days left off from work so I'm making full use of this time off to boost productivity of my book. My goal is to come to completion by or before year end. It is difficult to come home after a long day at work to sit down and write 500 to 800 words a day. On a really bad day I'm glad to put out 100 words.

C yah...

Space Shuttle Landing

Well...I'm up early with thoughts of doing some writing. In the mean time I thought I would do a blog.

After two attempts to land the Shuttle Discovery, NASA will try landing at Edwards air force base in California. It costs half a billion dollars every time the shuttle flies and they can't figure out how to land in cloudy weather. Can you believe one of the purposes of flying to the space station was to drop off 15 tons of supplies and off-load 13 tons of trash. I could think of a few better ways to spend half a billion dollars to benefit mankind and performing a rubbish run ain't it. Any way I hope and pray they all come back home safe today. NASA

Interesting Bits: During re-entry Discovery's nose and it's wings could heat up to as much as 3000 deg. F (1650 Celsius). Any pe-existing damage to the armor of the shuttle could potentially cause superheated air to penetrate any exposed areas. Thus acting like a blowtorch.

Grand Opening Of My Blogger

Welcome to my Blogger. Let's see how far we can take this. I'm hoping for some communication on this site (or the very least some brain dumping). I will be blogging on just about anything I think worth blogging about. Don't be suprised if I start babbling about the subject of writing. That being said I would like to thank again and give a plug to R. Barri Flowers for sending me an autographed copy one of his recent novels titled Persuasive Evidence I happened to stumble on his website where he held a contest. I participated and won his book as second prize winner. Yeh! Ok..let's get bloggin'.

I look forward to this blog. And I welcome your comments or thoughts.