I'll add to the chorus of WTFs, flea. Isn't BigBoss going to Harvard or something? And why couldn't he have thought this out four months ago? Bleh and bleh. I hope you get some concessions for being jerked around.

flea, that sucks.

I am at work, and not entirely sure I should be online, but it's 9:15, and I can already see that I'm going to run out of work to do.

Augh. Have horrible horrible sinus headache, probably smooving into an infection. Suspicious activity on my credit card, which I shall have to watch like a hawk. Another domain hacked for lord knows how long since I don't pay attention to it much.

Have so many messes to clean up. Want to drag myself to dark corner to die. Oh, the melodrama. Really must not be feeling well.

Have horrible horrible sinus headache, probably smooving into an infection.

When I get sinus headaches in August, it's usually a harbinger of hayfever in September.

I hope this isn't a harbinger of hayfever, Tom, because I have a pretty high threshold of pain and right now I'm barely functional.

ETA: Er, many Buffistas have it worse when it comes to headaches, so plz to forgive my emo.

I hope this isn't a harbinger of hayfever

Did you catch con plague, maybe?

Juliana, maybe Vortex and Aimee, and Steph would like to go and should.

Would LOVE to, but meeting for October 1 has just been set. Feh.

Did you catch con plague, maybe?

I only wish, because that wouldn't necessitate a doctor's visit and a prescription for antibiotics. For now, I'll just keep popping Benadryl and squinting at my monitor like a drunk with double vision.

Thanks, everyone!

x-posted from Great Write Way in order to get a larger pool of combat experts:

Help!

Two characters in my WIP are fighting. J has just tackled F, and they are rolling around on the ground. F draws a knife and slashes at J, scoring a minor cut or two, but then J disarms him, pins him down, and chokes him to death with his bare hands. Which sounded well and good, in a bloodthirsty way, until I tried to write it:

1. How does J disarm F? He's the younger and stronger of the two, so I think if he gets a good grip on F's knife hand, he can prevent him from doing any more damage, but how does he make him drop the knife? Should I have that happen before J knocks F down? I'd like the knife to be thrown/kicked somewhere where neither of them can reach it, because it's really important that J kills F with his bare hands--he's a soldier, so he's used to killing with musket and bayonet, and I want him shaken and shocked at himself in a way he wouldn't be if he'd used a bullet or a blade.

2. What is J going to see as F goes through his death throes? Will F turn red? Blue? How long will it take him to go limp and then to die?

Time is the opening decade of the 19th century, and J is a typical English redcoat--IOW if you want a musket fired and reloaded quickly or a line of infantry formed into square to meet a cavalry charge, he's your man, but he has no special training in martial arts or hand-to-hand combat and wasn't even the type who got in a lot of fights as a boy. So whatever he does has to be at least sorta-kinda plausible for acting on instinct.

Thanks!

Signed, Discovering that Fight Scenes are Much Tougher Than Sex Scenes, Probably Because I've Had Sex but Have Never Killed a Man With My Bare Hands