Question meme, round two

the_red_shoes asks:

1) What is your favourite physics equation? (if you have one)

The Schrödinger Equation is just so pretty. And useful!

2) What was the first short story you ever finished about?

I honestly can't tell you; I was dictating stories before I could write them down myself. (mormor1, if you remember, feel free to break radio silence in the comments.) I didn't have a problem with finishing stuff until I was in my mid-teens and standards kicked in with a vengeance. When I was 15 and 16, I was starting a lot of stories and not finishing any. I got that somewhat fixed up when I was 17: got into my current pattern of starting a lot of stories and finishing several.

The first short story I felt had serious potential was my Asimov Award winner, "In the Gardens and the Graves," which was about memory wiping.

3) What is the best thing about going back home?

I think it's all the things I didn't know would be good. I had a whole list of things that would be wonderful about moving home, and they were, but I missed more than half of the things that make my life here wonderful. I just didn't know it was all here to be found. On the other side of things, I was pretty clear on what the drawbacks would be, and they haven't proven themselves more extensive than I realized. So it's only the good stuff where I had no idea what was waiting for me. Ask the people who knew me when I was in California, and they can vouch for the fact that I was not neglecting the mosquitoes and the way you have to sweep and wash the floor every five seconds in the winter because of all the salt and gravel on the streets.

4) Have you ever written any poetry?

Yes. I have written poetry deliberately and with serious intent, and that tends to go badly. I have also written poetry spontaneously and with goofy intent, and that goes a very different kind of badly. I have been on the wagon for limericking for the better part of nine years now and intend to stay limerick-free from here on out, because once I start I can't stop, and I really need my brain not to use that rhythm for everything it does.

5) What is your favourite thing to cook?

The part of my brain that answers questions without thinking about them volunteered, "Spanish rice!" And I do like cooking Spanish rice...garlic and paprika and saffron and white wine, oh so good...and so I thought it through and figured that I can make Spanish rice tonight, and I got markgritter to agree to grill the andouille we have in the freezer, and we have the stuff for salads. So that's dinner tonight. So thanks, Moi.

Question meme, round three

scottjames demonstrates his continued existence by asking:

1. What have you learned today?

That I should keep a better eye on when I bought andouille, uff da. (I found this out the good way, by noticing the date on it.) Also that our local library doesn't have very many hockey books -- where am I, Alabama? What is this?

2. What did you learn yesterday?

That the difference between "I opened my mouth and my mother's words came out" and "my mother opened her mouth and my words came out" is not that large. Also that a lot of Westerners are really bad at writing about Chinese mythology/folk religion, but that if the muddled Western thing I was reading is correct, there is a Chinese goddess known as "Birth-Registry Goddess."

3. How's your p's and grand-p's?

Oh, fine, thanks. The grands are coming up for a visit a week from today, and they and the folks have all sorts of ideas for fun things to be done on that visit (some with my vertiginous self and some without). The folks I will see tomorrow.

4. What's up?

Sneakiness. Sneakiness is up. The stock market is down, but sneakiness is up.

My patience with people who cannot pronounce "nuclear": not up.

5. When I get back around to fiction, what should I read next (and why)? [I'm currently reading Guinness: The 250-Year Quest for the Perfect Pint and various cooking magazines, by way of explanation.]

Well, if you're reading about Guinness now, you should ease back into fiction with Tim Powers's The Drawing of the Dark, if you haven't before. (If you have, we can iterate this question until we come upon a recommendation you haven't read.)