271,000 words and I'd bet money I have about 9,000 words of denouement to write, which means 280,000 pages--four novels' worth.
This is a big story, a lot bigger than it looked like when I started. And it's going to have to be split into smaller books. I can do that once the thing is done.
Started September 12, 2016, finished--well, let's say "April XX, 2020". But let's face it: this is not a novel, but a saga, four novels' worth. Maybe even an "epic". I'm not sure where the dividing lines are.
Three years and seven months to write four books. That's not too shabby, actually.
* * *
Boy, is it ever Monday!
...got the parts I ordered for the Jeep in March. The IAC valve fit, the MAP sensor did not. I'll take the latter back, I guess.
Garage couldn't squeeze me in today so I'll be doing that on Wednesday instead. That's fine.
While talking to the guy, though, he was asking me about the symptoms, and when I told him that it even did it in neutral, his face fell. Yes, a sticking lockup solenoid in the transmission would be a nice fix for a garage, but I've eliminated that already. Heh.
Anyway we'll see if I can get through tomorrow without having to reset the computer. It'd be nice if the Jeep was misbehaving when I dropped it off on Wednesday.
* * *
NEGATIVE $40 PER BARREL? The price of canadian oil futures have dropped so far that people are being paid to take the stuff.
Well--since everyone got corona'ed and demand for oil is way the hell down, yet corporations are still producing it like it's going out of style--I have to ask why it's still $2 a gallon in the Fungal Vale? Why isn't like, "Come here and buy a slurpee and get five free gallons of gas!"
Economics sometimes get really weird.
This explains how the price of oil can be negative yet still not result in free gasoline. The slurpee thing, that was a little joke.
* * *
I get it now. General Relativity is analog, and quantum mechanics is digital.
The thing is, gravity is an emergent property of curved space-time. The article even says so: "General relativity introduces the notion that time is relative and that gravity itself exists because of a curved space-time." There's no need to quantize that; I'd wager, in fact, that it cannot be quantized.
Let's face it: time is a dimension like space is. Is space quantized? The smallest useful dimension is the Planck length, but that doesn't mean that space is quantized at that level. Time--being a dimension like space--is also not quantized. Since gravity is just how an object moves through a four-dimensional space-time manifold, and that manifold itself cannot be quantized, it means that gravity cannot be quantized, either.
Stop trying. Accept that gravity is not actually a force mediated by a particle, not like electromagnetism or the strong force, and you'll be a long way towards understanding how the universe actually works.
* * *
Fake news, again. The media used distorted pictures to tell a specific tale, rather than report the actual news.
Because the national media wants to destroy the economy to win an election, they immediately began attacking Jacksonville and its mayor for reopening beaches.And then--sing along, folks!--they wonder why nobody listens to them any longer.
They were so determined to pressure Jacksonville to shut its beaches (despite New York City not closing its own parks) they began running fake news pictures of the beaches, trying to show they were dangerously clogged with people.
But to accomplish this, they resorted to trickery. They used telephoto lenses, usually used in sports in order to make things far away seem closer, to contract together people who were in fact separated by a dozen yards of distance.
* * *
Larry Correia's wife can't get a biopsy because "nonessential procedures" have been banned in Utah. In other words, in Utah, if you need some surgery but the condition you need it for is not "life-threatening", you're screwed.
Apparently, in NYC, all other causes of death have stopped. Cancer, heart disease, any cause of death that doesn't involve actual violence--none of those have killed anyone in NYC for weeks. It's all been COVID-19.
What a peculiar disease it is, that ends all other forms of death but kills in their stead!
* * *
Bloomberg spent a billion dollars on his failed campaign for President. His money; he can spend it as he chooses. Doesn't mean I don't get to laugh at it.
* * *
Illinois is trying to use the COVID-19 panic to get some federal bailout money for their pension disasters.
* * *
I agree--New York City can go eat a bucket of dicks. Of course it's heavily left-leaning, and you can't be a leftist without being a hypocrite.
The same people saying that protests are non-essential are the same people who said it would violate the Constitution to quarantine people from the New York City area to the New York City area.They're all such assholes.
Andrew Cuomo, hero of the fascist lockdown lobby, threatened to provoke a Constitutional crisis if Trump sought to limit New Yorkers' holy right to export the plague to other states.
Why is it the Ruling Class is busy demanding lockdowns for others while accepting no restrictions at all for themselves?
I guess the question answers itself: Because that's the entire point of the Ruling Class.
* * *
I don't know why anyone takes Maher seriously. Probably the same reason they took "Daily Show" seriously.
* * *
We always live in the worst times ever. Crime is lower today than it was in the 1970s. Except for the big cities, of course.
* * *
Getting sick of things on YouTube like the CDC videos that I tell it I don't want to see every damed time I go to their page. And the "At Home, *Withme" (asterisk substituted for the octothorpe because LJ treats it like a tag). NO, SHUT UP. I don't know who you are, and I don't care. I have no interest in you or your videos. GO AWAY.
My wife is sick of "We're all in this together!" because that, too, is complete and utter bullshit.
* * *
Back is hurting again. It was not hurting yesterday, strangely enough. I was out working under the truck, then mowing the grass, no problem.
I think I need to ask for a new chair at work.
* * *
Anyway, AV is nearing its conclusion, and I can't go out to eat or anything to celebrate. *sigh* My wife and I are getting wicket cravings for sushi, too. Argh etc.
* * *
But! Monday is done. Got that going for us!