Zubeneschamali

Hey......so....it's been a while. Thought I'd try and get myself going again with the following questions snagged from fireheart13 and alexisjane:

1. Do you like blue cheese? NO. Gross.

2. Have you ever smoked? No.

3. Do you own a gun? No.

4. What is your favourite flavour? Butterscotch and/or caramel.

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Still going...also, I'm writing like mad to get my Get Your Words Out goal accomplished this year. I've already signed up for a more ambitious goal next year. *headdesk* But that means there'll be lots of new fic over at zuben_fic soon!

( Six geese a-laying... )

I'm going to finish this even if it takes me till Twelfth Night, damn it. Till then, for those of you who celebrate, Merry Christmas!

( Eight maids a-milking... )

I know the 12 days of Christmas aren't till later, and I missed the start of the month for an advent-calendar-type thing, BUT I saw this on meh-guh's tumblr and thought it sounded cool (slightly modified). Not sure I can pull off one per day, but let's give this a shot:

( Twelve drummers drumming... )

So dugindeep picked out five icons for me to talk about a while ago, and I finally got to it!

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I consider myself tagged by raeschae and hereby declare you, the reader, tagged if you wish to be.

Using only song names from ONE ARTIST, answer these questions. You can't use the band I used (no matter how tempted you may be...LOL). Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think! Repost as "my life according to (band name)." Tag your music loving friends.

My Life According to They Might Be Giants:

Are you a male or female: She's Actual Size
Describe yourself: Mammal
How do you feel: Brain Problem Situation
Describe where you currently live: We Live in a Dump
If you could go anywhere, where would you go: Bed Bed Bed
Your favorite form of transportation: Boat of Car
Your best friend is: My Evil Twin
Your fear: Withered Hope
What is the best advice you have to give: Careful What You Pack
Thought for the Day: I Can't Hide From My Mind
How would you like to die: Hope That I Get Old Before I Die

So I've been working on an academic article about using tag clouds (or content clouds, more properly speaking) to analyze other kinds of texts besides web pages: like, how do newspaper articles from different regions compare in terms of their coverage of a particular issue? 

And then I thought--wouldn't this be a neat thing to do to a fic?  It's a good way to see if you're overusing any words you shouldn't be, but it's also a fascinating insight into the structure of your story.

You can run a huge amount of text through TagCrowd at once:  I cut and pasted 140,000 words in and it didn't have a problem.  Here's some of my results (with possible spoilers):

From NUMB3RS fic:
( The Fugitive )

( Reverberations )

And from SPN fic:

( Devil's Arcade )

( Final Straw )

So I guess if I had to identify an overused filler word, it would be "around" or "away" or "going".  Sheesh.  I also appear to be obsessed with eyes and voices and other body parts, but you can't really blame me given the material I'm working with, can you?

Any other observations?   Want to make your own and post a link?  The stories I used are all over 25K words, but I'm sure smaller ones would work, too.

[Error: unknown template qotd]For some reason I get asked this question fairly often...wonder why? *eyeroll*

Zubeneschamali (ZOO-ben-es-sha-MAH-lee) is the second-brightest star in the constellation Libra.  It means "northern claw" in Arabic because for Arab astronomers, it was part of the constellation Scorpius.  (Zubenelgenubi is its sister star; its meaning in Arabic is an exercise left to the reader.)  In the Northern Hemisphere, you can see it in the summer low on the southern horizon; it's relatively bright, even in urban areas.

I think it was during the summer before my senior year of high school when I came across the name three times within a few weeks: in an astronomy day camp I was volunteering at, in James Michener's Space, and I can't remember the third time.  But the name stuck with me because it was so unusual and because at that point in time, I wanted to be an astronomer.  A couple of years later in college, this thing called the Internet got my attention, and when I needed a username for various listservs and such, I figured it was distinctive, memorable, and would remain relevant for a long time.  I was right.  :)

Of course, I stll need to sound it out in my head pretty much every time I type it.