My heartfelt thanks, Mike. I think I may have done too much today, though. I'm going to get to bed early and get some more rest. My Cardio doc says he wants to run a few more tests before going the ablation route. I have a good strong heartbeat, but when all my endocrines and various levels (especially potassium) get out of whack, I'm susceptible to A-Fib. He see no need for a pacemaker.
~Tom
You are so right, max. I spent two hours this morning sitting on the floor and meditating. As near as I can tell, this whole thing started when I lost my left kidney. All sorts of functions began to go haywire. Fortunately, I have a very good Cardiologist and Nephrologist - They're both in the same clinic at the base hospital and exchange data on me all the time. Loss of my gall bladder didn't help, either.
~Tom
Many thanks from me to everyone. I'll start in on my backlog of reviewing in the morning. Still resting now.
~Tom
As soon as I recover just a little more from my bout with Atrial fibrillation, I'll get back to reviewing. This was a particularly nasty one in that they had to knock me out and zap me to get me back into sinuous rhythm, like they had to do 10 years ago. It sounds complicated, but it wasn't. I was surprised to learn that quite a few people slip into this and back out without knowing it at all. Left the base hospital yesterday evening so I am taking a day or two off to rest.
~Tom
On each thread, there is a 'subscribe' link at the top-right. And, when you create a thread, there is a checkbox that asks if you want to be notified when someone replies. This is what is supposed to trigger the emails, but I haven't been getting any for the last two days.
~Tom
Is anyone else missing notification emails for forum threads? I haven't received any for a couple of days now. Story postings are fine, just the forum posts.
~Tom
Thank you, Vern. I looked all over the place to find that process. I expected to find it in the drop-down that had the entries of "View, Edit, and Delete". That would have made it much simpler, I think.
~Tom
I have tried everything I can think of to make chapters inactive, but only managed to get one published that I didn't want to publish.
How do I inactivate a chapter?
~Tom
I wouldn't worry about it at all, JP. At the moment, I have five huge books (>30 chapters) I am editing (and have not published yet) and lots of little short stories percolating in my brain. It's when your work begins to suffer because of all the diversification that you have to worry. If you continue to get good reviews, don't worry.
~Tom
Nope. I get alerts when one of my connections posts a chapter, but not for any of the forums (fora?). So, this isn't the only one that fails. I think I remember Sol saying that the emails situation was quirky, so maybe he's aware of it.
Booksie is having problems with their email servers also, but in their case, you get the notification that Author X updated (blank) and gives you no link to follow. So far, no response from their tech support.
Maybe it will start working again magically.
~Tom
Wouldn't terraponics farms be near most major cities now? Distribution from afar is failing, so why not have them spring up around urban areas?
A popular, if irreverent, slogan used in some action/adventure books is: Kill them all and let God sort them out". The same mental attitude might be true of your protesters. Some might bear slogans to the effect that if God wanted us to go looking for Him, we wouldn't have to build machines to do it with.
Some more:
"A spaceship buys a lot of food."
"Where no one should ever go!"
"Stop the sinning - send married couples."
Reese's quirk makes him seem more human to me. So he likes his reflection. So what? A lot of fighter jocks and hotshot pilots feel that way. They need to feel that way, or they won't be aggressive in the air. That makes them aggressive - and vain - on the ground.
NOTE: email alerts are still not forthcoming.
~Tom
I watched Fast and Furious 6 today. It is nothing but wall to wall green-screen crashing and racing cars. Hardly any plot development at all. I remember asking my self if these people ever sleep, or just talk, or worry about their waistlines after eating junk food. Tension is one thing, but after too much of it, you start ho-humming and change the channel.
~Tom
Ah. Good idea. A lot of the nutrients would be made with nitrates. Nitrates in the 24th century may be getting in short supply due to decreased shipping. Right now (21st century), the US imports around 50% of the nitrates used on our crops. It can only get worse, not better as most of it comes from Chile, which is a long path for them to take through slush-covered oceans. A nice news story about them becoming scarce.
EDIT: no notification email for this thread again.
~Tom
Most plants replicate themselves using seeds or spores. Those would be simple to preserve as they are dormant until the right conditions are met. Don't meet the conditions, and they stay dormant.
But, are we overthinking this by a bit? If you delve too deeply into the why's and wherefore's, then this will be a huge novel. Insert one or two paragraphs giving general details, then post the chapter. If readers want more detail, then you can add it. Otherwise, they might get bored.
~Tom
Terraponics is a great word, Karen! Deck diagram will be changed.
The only thing I can think of that might not like growing in water (and nutrients) is vegetables that grow under the surface (potatoes, yams) and legumes (peanuts). I can research that if you wish.
~Tom
That is a very impressive place, Karen. If you turn some of those transparent panels into photovoltaic cells, then you have both light and power for your Hydroponics. But, now that I think of it, my dictionary defines 'hydroponics' as "the process of growing plants in sand, gravel, or liquid, with added nutrients but without soil". Maybe another term needs to be coined.
~Tom
Crop rotation would be an absolute necessity given the relative sizes of the hydroponic beds.
~Tom
News reports all along would be a great idea. In fact, you might consider putting one at the beginning of every chapter as sort of a preface to the chapter. It wouldn't necessarily have to relate to what is going on in the chapter with the crew, but would serve as a conduit to what's happening on Earth.
You could probably fudge a little and mention that solar panels in the 24th century are much more efficient than the ones we have now. One square yard just to power a trickle charger for a 12-volt battery? Please.
I don't know if you've ever seen the Sean Connery movie Outland. There is a long scene where he fights a bad guy across the face of a large solar panel array. They go sparking and zapping across it. So, think that scene (if you've seen the movie) and project those solar panels to the sides and roof of your hydroponics buildings.
Over 88 degrees here today and my A/C went out two days ago. Sweltering and had to shut down all but one of my computers because of hi-temp alarms.
~Tom
Yes, the crew should be very interested in what is taking their leader away from them at what they think is a critical time. "What could be so important that she be pulled away from this?" and "Why Jean? I think that Xxxxx is more qualified than she is."
Another news story. The roof over a hydroponic farm in Xxxxxx has collapsed due to heavy snow atop it. So many bushels of this and tons of that were destroyed by the cold before they could be salvaged. This led to a march by protesters demanding a share from other Hydroponic farms. Etc, etc.
~Tom
Great idea. Just the sort of short, to the point, news release that a ship at sea would get. I doubt that fax paper would be wasted on full newspapers anyway, so just a sort of "daily brief" would be what she might get at breakfast, or put under her door during the night.
~Tom
I got this notification also. I'll post in the other two when I need to.
~Tom
Me. I missed 7 posts in the thread.
~Tom
I missed seven posts here so far.
You might go ahead and start threads on those two chapters and when we fell the need, we can post in them - especially if a post here relates to something in 2 or 3 (or vice-versa).
~Tom
For some reason, I am not getting notifications, despite having subscribed to this thread. maybe they'll start soon.
~Tom
Karen:
How about moving the storm further towards the beginning? It can continue to build up until hitting a peak. As Delana is running her Yoga routine, she's sent off balance when the ship gets slapped with a large wave and rolls (or pitches). THis way, you can have her doing exercises and bring the storm into focus also.
~Tom
