My failed attempts

I just finished reading "Einstein's Bridge" and the first 75% of the book was riveting. However, the last 25% of the book was disappointing. I'm fascinated with time traveling, but somehow I just felt a disconnect with the last quarter of the book. I'm not apathetic, but unhappy endings haunt me for days afterward. It's like drinking a quality wine and the taste lingers in your mouth unfurling layers of fruit and spices. Happy endings placate me and I don't sit around imagining other outcomes.

I started writing a horror novel last year. Unfortunately, I am only on page seventeen. Although I read and watch a lot of horror stories, I just can't seem to construct one. Some of the issues I am having are:

The First is creating suspense. This book came about from a nightmare that I had. I wanted to recreate the fear I had. I can’t seem to relay the suspense in my dream unto paper. My attempts just become anti-climatic and predictable.

The second is conversation. So far my novel reads more like a textbook since there is very little conversation among the characters. I just can't seem to make the characters engage in a normal unpretentious manner. How do you make your characters relay despair and grief?

And the third is what I like to refer to as dark matter... basically, how do I fill up the pages when the dead isn't chasing you? In "American Psycho", the author goes to great length to describe Bateman's personal hygiene rituals.

So basically, as more months go by, the plot is becoming less interesting. Unless I can overcome these roadblocks, I'll have to pack this away with my other unfinished stories.

Text Messages

I don't like sending text messages from my phone (nor do I like talking on the phone). I only do it when I have to get in touch with someone and I don't want to bother them by calling them up. They could be in a meeting or it could either be too early or too late to call.

At .20 cents a text message, this can be costly.

Today, I got my first spam text message from someone at email: conner@mcob.com. I was furious and reported it to FCC.

I then called Verizon Wireless and they told me I can actually block certain email address and domains from sending me text messages. So I went to Vtext.com and blocked all text messages sent from e-mail and web as I am fairly certain who ever it was used a web application to do mass text messaging. The spam was for Viagra! Those freakin' Jerks!!

In the news...

Khan: [quoting from Melville's Moby Dick] To the last, I will grapple with thee... from Hell's heart, I stab at thee! For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee!

Sadly, Ricardo Montalban Dead at 88

"God Particle"

My boyfriend and I go back and forth on The Big Bang Theory. I can accept the idea that the Universe started billions of years ago from a very hot, small state where it expanded and evolved into the Universe. There are machines that can accelerate particles to recreate the conditions seconds after the Big Bang.

What I can't seem to grasp is how the particles existed in the first place? What gave them mass ? How do they form stars? planets? people? This is where my faith comes in and I believe in a higher being. A co-worker mentioned to me that they can already reproduce this something out of nothing and I was a bit skeptical.

I did some research and came across the "Higgs Boson" nicknamed the "God Particle".

Then Peter Higgs of Edinburgh University suggested that space is filled with a heavy substance, now called the Higgs field, which gives particles their mass by dragging on them through a particle called the Higgs boson.

The worlds largest particle accelerator (LHC - situated underground between France and Switzerland) built by CERN could verify the existence of these "God Particles". Unfortunatly, on Sept 2008, operations had to be haulted. Operations will not start before July 2009. Apparently, if they can't prove that the Higgs hypothesized particle exists then physicist don’t have a viable theory of matter. British theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking doesn't believe they will find this particle.

..so maybe, just maybe..this is the work of a higher being.

Also, by squeezing as much matter in a small space as likely in the LHC, it is possible they can create an artificial black hole. There was an injunction against the launch of LHC by some scientists claiming that creating a black hole that can swallow the planet.

Where is hollywood when you need them - this idea of a pandora's box. This would make a fantastistic sci-fi movie. "Einstein's Bridge" is a book written by John Cramer back in 1997 about two physicist that travel back in time to sabotage a super collider from launching because the super collider attracted the attention of other maleficent intelligent life from other galaxies.

I like to imagine that it would be something like the Tower of Babel. Maybe if we get too close to the truth, something devine would come crashing down. My boyfriend on the other hand thinks I'm talking nonsense.

Chores

My nine year old started doing dishes last night for the first time. I showed her the basics of rinsing the dishes and proper placement of dishes, cups, utencils into the diswasher, in addition to wiping down countertops, stove and sweeping/mopping up the kitchen floor. Tonight, she did all this w/o my supervision and she performed the chore quite well. Kevin's mom had him cleaning toilets and washing dishes at very young age. I am thankful for this as toilet cleaning is my least favorite chore to do.

I'm really fortunate to have a partner who can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and scrub and puts the pan away. Not only does he not mind cooking and cleaning, he also does the laundry and takes out the trash w/o me ever asking. He even irons his own clothes. I have to give his mom all the credit. She raised her boys to not be preoccupied with status and power. A wife (or live-in girlfriend) was not an unpaid servant and he must share the work with her.

"According to a report released by the Council on Contemporary Families, men's contribution to housework has doubled over the past four decades."

The Ruins, Biscotti

I love the sci fi and horror genre of films. Terminiator 4 with Christian Bale, Star Trek, and Time Traveler's Wife are coming to the big screen in 2009. Pretty excited. In terms of horror flicks, I am not sure of what's coming out, but last night I watched a horror flick that left me tossing and turning all night - The Ruins.

It was one of a few horror movies I can say where the acting (grief and paranoia) was actually decent. Very little nudity scene which I appreciate. I was squirming throughout the whole movie not out of fear, but more for the gory and creepy scenes that were just too difficult to watch. It's not a slasher movie (Hills Have Eyes, Hostel) and there wasn't much suspense, but it creeped me out. I'd put it in the same category as The Descent.

On a different note... biscotti's are really hard to make. The first round, I over cooked it and it was too hard. The second round, I undercooked it and now its too soft. I'm throwing in the towel.