I’m finally back from holidays and since there’s almost no one in the office here I thought I’d write a little mixed entry, while quant is busy compiling a patched 2.6.17 kernel (but quant as an odd overheating problem that I will describe in another entry, so I have to compile it by steps).
Work is somewhat slow, as the people I need to contact are still on holiday. In the mean time, I’m reading an interesting paper on some GPLed software for Single Nucleotide Polymorphism analysis, written in Perl and R. I have some test data so I’ll soon give it a try (after reading the paper, published in BMC Bioinformatics earlier this year). It may be what I need to perform some comparison analysis between different kinds of tumor samples.
On a different matter, the summer has been quite productive for S.T.E.A.L., as I’ve been writing quite a lot, and I set an internal deadline for completion (31st October), while text revision will take me more time before putting up the finished work. I’ll be uploading a new snapshot soon.
I also have some photos from my week-long cultural trip in Toscana and Umbria, I’ll put them online as soon as I scan them (I had to use a single-use camera).
That’s right, I’m going on holiday from today until August 28th. As I don’t have a proper internet connection there, my entries will be few and far in between (not that I’ve been very active recently, I’ve been busy putting the house in order). I’ll be staying in Loano, in Liguria, for about 17 days, and I’ll spend the rest traveling around central Italy (Arezzo, Perugia, Assisi, Todi, Gubbio, Siena).
As “parting gift” I uploaded a new snapshot of S.T.E.A.L., which includes Too’s fantastic art. Take a look, I hope you appreciate it. As usual, comments are welcome!
I’ve been writing a lot in the past weekend. The fact that I have some definitive art gave me the impulse after many months of inactivity. Being totally dissatisfied with the state of chapter 4 (the latest I’m writing), I completely reorganized it, moving one section to the top and rearranging the behavior of some characters (like Satsuki, who was a little too hysterical) and cut off part of a flashback. And finally I’m getting to one of the most action-packed parts of the novel.
The snapshot on the links page is terribly outdated, I’m afraid. I’m waiting for the rest of the art from Too to put it up, but if I don’t get any by next week I’ll put it up anyway, so that the (few) people that read this page will be able to appreciate the changes.
I’ve been thinking of making a web page about S.T.E.A.L. to promote the project better. The downside is that I can’t put images of the characters or the like around, because of course they exist only through Too’s art and my description. If anyone comes up with a good design suggesions, please say it in a comment.
Finally I get to blog about S.T.E.A.L. after so many months! That’s because finally I have illustrations for the novel after all these years! As I said on my previous post on the matter, I had been in talks with two artists at the time. One simply disappeared after a while (and then I read on her deviantart page that drawing is not a priority… it would have been nicer if she had told me at least), while the other took a good deal of time (around seven months). But now, thanks to the incredible drawing skill of Too, I have the first set of seven pictures I commissioned (out of nine)!
Read More »
