| #1348 |
[27 Aug 2011|12:06pm] |
I also may start tutoring Darian in Japanese once some time frees up. He said he would love that. It would be really cool... heaps of the kids (should note I use that term to refer to people up to at least 20) always say they're into Japanesey stuff, so I've wanted to target one of them to actually teach for a while now.
Also found out that Drew loves writing. He doesn't plan on pursuing it (he told me he wants to do Chemical Engineering at uni) but I was glad to find out that he does things other than play video games, haha.
I really want to see what kind of adults Darian and Drew grow into. It makes me a little sad that I probably won't be living here in the near future.
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| #1347 |
[27 Aug 2011|12:02pm] |
I think I'm going okay with juggling things at the moment. The only thing that has really slipped off my radar is foreign languages. I feel wired, all the time.
The only thing I want to try and add in (language aside) is actually reading through my literary journals, instead of just piling them up all over the place. So I think I'm going to say that I have to read a piece a week, and I might try to do that Wednesdays.
Then, submissions.
Now it's time to get to work.
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| #1346 |
[26 Aug 2011|12:06am] |
I will be getting up in seven hours, but don't know whether to go to bed or continue working while I'm on a roll.
I used to be a morning person. This seems to have changed recently. I imagine something to do with unhealthy caffeine consumption...
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| #1345: The Curious Incident |
[25 Aug 2011|05:03pm] |
Gordon was talking yesterday how often when someone is talking about 'you', it seems that they are talking about themselves. I just found an example of this in The Curious Incident. Okay so I'm not supposed to be reading right now but... whatever.
'It is like when you are upset and you hold the radio against your ear and you tune it halfway between two stations so that all you get is white noise and then you turn the volume right up so that this is all you can hear and then you know you are safe because you cannot hear anything else' (8).
... Yeah.
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| #1344 |
[25 Aug 2011|04:45pm] |
Think of buying dad the Atonement movie for father's day. Maybe a little self-serving. The book made me angry, but I think I usually come to like such books once I get over the indignancy.
Plus, James McAvoy. And I think dad likes Keira Knightly.
He's getting Gold Class tickets for his birthday. Decadent, I know, but what else can I get him?
I hope I get some time to look at The Curious Incident over the next week.
I have orange and poppyseed batter all over my jeans.
I have a lot more to say about If on a Winter's Night but think I should get back to work.
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| #1343: Andrew, Angela, Evernote |
[24 Aug 2011|11:21pm] |
I have started using Evernote (useful when I'm laying in bed not wanting to get up to turn the light on but want to write some stuff down on my iPhone) and am waiting to see if it lives up to its name. Is it just that it syncs across platforms well?
Whatever. I'm making use of it.
Andrew--today he made a little bit of a fool of himself, and everyone laughed at him, but the way he took it into stride was actually kinda adorable (I think I've adored every Andrew I've ever known, truth be told. He is a pretty amazing guy)--I often feel bad about being so self-conscious but don't know how to move past it. Maybe I just need to deal with my ego issues.
Angela: "You are not a stalker or a voyeur. You are a writer."
With that, I'm going to bed. I didn't get through my to-do list but... whatever. I'll live.
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| #1341: Bible verse |
[22 Aug 2011|01:45pm] |
"they are before the throne of God
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will
spread his tent over them.
Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the
throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear
from their eyes."
--Revelation 7:15-17
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| #1340: Bible verse |
[22 Aug 2011|01:22pm] |
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope--the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.
Titus 2:11-14
What a long sentence.
My work load will be increasing significantly in the coming weeks so I won't have much time for blurty/internet browsing in general :( I hope to still jump on whenever I have time, but may be a bit quiet every here and there until we hit November.
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| #1338 |
[21 Aug 2011|10:53pm] |
http://www.geekosystem.com/yard-sale-landscape-painting-monsters/
I've been trolling tumblr, showing Harlequin some funny pictures. One was a pick-up line: "Did Sauron forge your ass? Because it looks precious." Harlequin says he would have it on a shirt, and on the back write "Can I be the Lord of your Ring?"
I'm not sure whether that is rude or not.
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| #1336 |
[21 Aug 2011|04:03pm] |
"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes."
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| #1335: Hypertext and the Laws of Media |
[21 Aug 2011|01:26pm] |
[didn't give the last one a page number. Whoops]
The era of the garage-born computer messiah has passed (2522).
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| #1334: Hypertext and the Laws of Media |
[21 Aug 2011|11:38am] |
Staring down at our desktop, laptop, or palmtop machines--which we know will be obsolete long before we have paid for them--those of us within what Fred Pfeil calls the "baby-boom professional-managerial class" [not me] will always desire the next thing. Not for nothing have we updated Star Trek, our true space Oddysey, into a "Next Generation." We are the generation (and generators) of nextness.
[posted from my iPhone]
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| #1333: Crisis |
[21 Aug 2011|11:14am] |
I started playing Crisis yesterday instead of studying. And there's something a little word going on. I'm supposed to be infiltrating North Korean camps but in a stack of these camps there's posters and things not written in choson'gul (what North Koreans call the Korean script) but hanja (Chinese script, hanzi). The thing is, though, I'm pretty sure that North Koreans haven't used hanja for a veeeeery long time.
Chinese do. South Koreans do. Japanese do. Maybe there's some other people groups I don't know about who do. But not North Korea.
I foresee three possibilities.
1. I don't know as much about script as I think I do.
2. I'm not supposed to notice the inconsistency yet and I'm ruining the game a little. Multinational conspiracy!
3. The design team didn't do their research.
I think it's pretty safe to wipe out 2.
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| #1330: Writing |
[18 Aug 2011|05:53pm] |
I came across this article today (late. don't care):
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/feb/20/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction-part-one]
and wanted to share some of my favourite ones. Some are obvious, some I don't have a problem with, but whatever. Some are also pretty retarded. And people contradict each other. Whatever.
Elmore Leonard
Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose". This rule doesn't require an explanation.
[if you write well enough, your reader should be able to feel it in their gut when hell is breaking loose, ne?]
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters, which Steinbeck covered. In Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants", what do the "American and the girl with him" look like? "She had taken off her hat and put it on the table." That's the only reference to a physical description in the story.
[oh, loooove]
Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip. Think of what you skip reading a novel: thick paragraphs of prose you can see have too many words in them.
[sooo don't have any psychos killing cats?]
My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.
[love]
Margaret Atwood
Hold the reader's attention. (This is likely to work better if you can hold your own.)
[sounds like something I've heard Haruki Murakami say...]
Roddy Doyle
Do restrict your browsing to a few websites a day. Don't go near the online bookies – unless it's research.
[.... :( ....]
Helen Dunmore
Finish the day's writing when you still want to continue.
[sounds very ajatt]
Geoff Dyer
Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing nothing I will always choose the latter. It's only if I have an idea for two books that I choose one rather than the other. I always have to feel that I'm bunking off from something.
Do it every day. Make a habit of putting your observations into words and gradually this will become instinct. This is the most important rule of all and, naturally, I don't follow it.
[me too, Geoff. me too]
Richard Ford
Marry somebody you love and who thinks you being a writer's a good idea.
[I wonder if Harlequin thinks me being a writer is a good idea???]
Jonathan Franzer
It's doubtful that anyone with an internet connection at his workplace is writing good fiction.
[you guys really are pulling the big punches, hey]
Andrew Motion
Lock different characters/elements in a room and tell them to get on.
Remember there is no such thing as nonsense.
Will Self
Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceeding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in...
The edit.
You know that sickening feeling of inadequacy and over-exposure you feel when you look upon your own empurpled prose? Relax into the awareness that this ghastly sensation will never, ever leave you, no matter how successful and publicly lauded you become. It is intrinsic to the real business of writing and should be cherished.
Helen Simpson
The nearest I have to a rule is a Post-it on the wall in front of my desk saying "Faire et se taire" (Flaubert), which I translate for myself as "Shut up and get on with it."
Zadie Smith
Work on a computer that is disconnected from the internet.
[this keeps coming up, hey?]
Jeanette Winterson
Never stop when you are stuck. You may not be able to solve the problem, but turn aside and write something else. Do not stop altogether.
Take no notice of anyone you don't respect.
Chuck Wendig
[via: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2010/02/22/ten-rules-for-writing-fiction/]
The construction, “There is” is the poison that can kill a sentence. You can always find a better way of saying what you want to say without that two-word dose of verbicide.
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| #1329: Cybersalt |
[18 Aug 2011|04:08pm] |
God is not disillusioned with us. He never had any illusions to
begin with.
-- Luis Palau
Baking again! Over 100 cupcakes in my kitchen :)
When (if?) I have children, I won't have all-day cookie day. I don't even like cookies. It will be ALL DAY CUPCAKE DAY!
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