The very wonderful and funny writer Bronwen Green recently did a blog post sharing her internet search history. It was so much fun to read that I decided to keep track of my own search history yesterday and see what I looked up.
This is a combination of work and play. Right now, my work includes: writing the Numenera Ninth World Guidebook, copyediting As Kinky As You Wanna’ Be, working on the mature topics in gaming questionnaire, and other stuffs.
Life includes: a recently adopted dog, planning a bunch of trips, doing some long overdue house stuff, playing games, etc.
- What are the scariest sounding names/words? — for naming scary places, natch
- How do plants attract predators – Numenera worldbuilding
- Psychedelic properties of mushrooms – see above*
- Bioluminescent mushrooms – yeah.
- The etymology of the following words: prostitute, crystal, circle, forge, furnace, induce, the letter j, ullage
- Teach dog not to pull on leash – we have a rescue. She has some extra energy and a need to hunt squirrels. and birds. and leaves.
- Octopus tights – because one must
- Lunar power tidal – because I needed to know how, exactly, a device could be lunar powered
- How to make chocolate cupcakes with pudding mix – do you really need an explanation on this one?
- Scientists create solid light – they did and it is awesome
- Destiny grimoire cards how the hell do I use? – i still don’t know exactly
- Finger vein technology — making a cypher or something
- Lightspeed Women Destroy Fantasy — I have an article in this issue and can’t remember when it comes out
- Bathroom decor — wow, there’s some ugly out there
- Octopus art prints — for the pretty-making
- How to properly capitalize Saran Wrap — for copyediting purposes
- Is Saran Wrap trademarked — also above
- Kink-friendly medical professionals — making sure my lists in the book are up to date
- bSafe — free personal safety app; it’s in the book, so I want to make sure it still exists
- Handcuff injuries and prevention — go with leather cuffs, is the right answer
- Who plays Henry on Party Down — love him, love that show, can’t remember his name ever
- When does Brooklyn 99 start — not soon enough, is the answer
- How to print on sheets — I want to make sheets with quotes on them
- Can you tell how long a person has been dead by the firmness of their skin? — dear government agencies. I write fiction. Don’t come and get me.
- Electrical impulses from our fingers — science vs. magic
- How to keep metal from rusting underwater — this is hard, it turns out
- World’s largest amphibian — it’s the Chinese salamander
- What is fake snow made from and can I make it at home? — seriously. the stupid ideas i get
- Treibbal away to me — I’ve been teaching the dog to “come bye”; next is “away to me”
- Wired Numenera — I heard a rumor that Numenera was in Wired and had to see for myself.
God, my life is insane. How do I get anything done? Also, how did I get anything done before Google?
What did you search for this week?
Kiss kiss bang bang, s.
*did you know that some mushrooms are called smuts?
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Pre-Google I have vague memories of checking out dozens of books from the library in order to do the research necessary for freelance projects. (Like a stack of books about Jupiter that was as tall as my waist.)
I haven’t completely abandoned library usage, of course, but the ‘net and Google has simplified everything.
For personal roleplaying campaigns, Google Image Search is ridiculously useful. For a Trail of Cthulhu campaign I’m currently running, I’m able to put together huge photo collages of historic imagery to establish place and mood in less than an hour that would have been basically impossible to achieve without weeks of dedicated research just 15 years ago.