The word of the week is inchoation.
Feb 10 - Generalities
This week I've been feeling… awkward.
Not in terms of tripping over things or being generally
klutzy, but rather in a personal and general sense.
Maybe it's just a midlife thing, or something else;
I'm not sure. In this new year, I've been consciously redirecting my
rather-busy-brain from ruminating about things over which I have no control and
to instead focus on the good things that I can direct my energies into.
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| Life's a beach ... |
Oddly, it's the small things that we tend to notice when we'
re not trying to constantly redraw the big picture of our life or re-examine it
through a microscope.
Do more and worry less; I think that's a good place to start
each day from.
Feb 11 - Writing Marathon
My writing bonanza continues this week!
Having three days off in a row is a wonderful thing for my
creative side. Today was the first of three consecutive days that I spent
writing, spending at least 8 to 10 hours a day editing my novel.
It's a fantastic feeling to fully immerse yourself into
one's own creative world and have nothing else on your mind all day long.
Chapter after chapter spent by as it was edited, helpfully input by my mom who
has volunteered her time as before to type my dictated words as I go along.
The method works wonderfully, freeing me to visualize what I
need to in my head and the word simply appear on a computer. Having someone
else as familiar as I am with my creative work is also hugely beneficial, as I
can bounce ideas off them and we can reach a better understanding together of
how the work can be improved.
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| Simplify. |
At the end of this week's session, we made it almost halfway
through the book in a solid pass - one of many, of course. My previous week saw
us create over 30 pages of notes to help improve the book on the next few
passes, as we look to tidy up plot threads and many other aspects of the novel
to make it a beautifully cohesive whole for the reader.
I'm very excited to continue the pushing this process each week this
spring until my third draft is complete!
Feb 12 - Comix?
This month I'm trying something new: digital comics.
There many popular digital comics applications and programs
out there, which can make it a little hard to choose. I ended up picking the
high-rated Comixology app, in the main because it has a fair few free comics on
a regular basis. Not to mention things going on sale for very low prices, which
I also like.
You'd think that I would've got into digital comics earlier,
but truth be told, I don't really read or collect comics. Sad to say, I speed
through when I read, generally not paying too much attention to all the
gorgeous artwork in order to read the story in the word bubbles.
That is to say, I read my comics like I read my books. Which
is admittedly a disservice to comics, as the whole point of the medium is the
visuals that will convey the story as well as the words.
All the same, comics are wonderful in that you can find unusual
stories that you wouldn't be able to find in the printed word alone. Such is the
case with one of my purchases: Robotech - Voltron, which is a crossover story
that is quite common in the comic book world. While I thought it had a less-than-promising start in the
first issue, and I'm concerned that the stories a little thin, it looks
like it's made by loving fans so I'm willing to follow it for a few issues to
see where it goes.
Feb 13 - Back to the normal
It was a tad difficult easing back into reality today.
Spending the last three days living inside the world of my
novel was very intense and rewarding. Climbing back out of that creative
cubbyhole was a little difficult, but I had things to do today that could be
put off any longer - boring things, to be sure, but still necessary for daily
life.
It's thrilling to imagine myself writing for living, as it
comes to me more naturally every time that I immerse myself in the art of the
written word. Being able to create every day and earn a living at the same time
would be a wonderful, almost unimaginably fantastic and financially fun thing
to do.
Small steps to get there though, I know. Part of what I do
now is researching the business side of things, getting my head around what
needs to be done to give my creative work the boost it needs to reach an
audience( or five! )around the world. As a famous inventor once said:
Right now in 2014, I'm sweating the hard work weekly to make
good things happen!
And on a related note, for your amusement: "Let It
Go" as sung by the cast of Star Trek First Contact - it's genius!
Feb 14 - Keyboard Lucky
After seven years, I've finally replaced my computer
keyboard.
Actually, that's not true; I purchased a new keyboard and
I'm still keeping the other one, which still works fine. Both are made by
Logitech and both are wireless, which is essential as I don't like wires which
restrict where I can sit in the room.
The problem is that my old keyboard, isn't backlit and it's
difficult to see in the dark - doubly so when half of the keys have had their
letters worn away.
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| It glows in the dark! |
The new keyboard is a Logitech K800 and it's stunning!
The keys are well-shaped, the backlighting is adjustable in its intensity and
it has enough additional features that it's almost as useful as my previous
keyboard. The battery life isn't as good though, as it uses a rechargeable
battery that lasts only about a day compared to my trusty old Logitech LX710, which
uses rechargeable AA's that last months.
All the same, it's wonderful to be
able to type and see exactly what's under my fingers again. Even though I use
DragonDictate to type longer entries of text, having a keyboard is still
essential to the operation of my computer and to being a writer in general. I
highly recommend the K800, when you can get on sale, as I did this week…
It definitely makes me happy!
Feb 15 - Twice Thankful
Today marks two middling milestones for me.
The first is my one year anniversary at Staples. It's an
important thing to me as I spent a year looking for a job before Staples
finally took a chance on me; it was very wearing, as I'm sure regular readers
of this blog noticed from my post during that difficult time. While my current
job is still stressful some days and doesn't do much to reduce my bills
overall, I've been very very fortunate when it comes to people I work with and
to have a job in general which are not all that available here in Victoria,
still.
The second milestone today was when this very blog logged
its 20,000th hit!
On average, this blog gets almost
10 hits a day, which is decent considering it's just written for personal
reasons and not commercial. Interestingly, if I'd decided way back in 2007 to
monetize my blog using Google AdSense, I'd have earned an astonishing $23.00 a
year - not really worth it, I think, to annoy people with ads.
I'm just happy that people are
reading it on a regular basis, usually a dozen or two people from trackable
sources a week, which is fine. It's up here to be read, by whoever wants to
read it, with whatever I've decided is important to share that week.
See you after another 20,000 hits!
Feb 16 -Beep Boop Drip?
There was an update from the Tricorder Project today!
For those of you don't know, there's a extremely talented
hardware enthusiast named Peter who back in 2012 decided to share with the
world his dream to build an actual working Tricorder device. Ever since then, he's made remarkable progress in bringing
his vision to life.
Currently, he's developed the Mark 5 Tricorder, which has an
abundance of sensors and is extremely configurable - meaning people can add their
own creations to his work. I think it's incredible to see how skillfully this extremely
skilled person has progressed in his project. It's inspiring and quite simply
the dazzles me with how much knowledge has been applied by one person to create
such an intricate technical device that will benefit many people around the
world.
I also know that I definitely want to purchase one if they ever
become available.
On a work note: it's been getting better lately, in that I'm
not feeling as stressed I have been previously, day-to-day. Prioritizing seems to
be the key as well is planning ahead, so keeping on top of things means I have
to be at 100% concentration all day long, which is rather wearing. However it
does mean that by the end of the day I'm not a frazzled all of tense muscles
waiting to crawl home at the end of my shift.
Unless the roof leaks at work during a heavy rainstorm.
Again.
That happened today, with strong winds driving rain in
sideways through a ventilation system that can't cope with that level of water.
Meaning a lot of it worked its way down and into the store, soaking things that
should not be exposed to water. Resulting in my getting home two hours later
than planned, a little tired and a lot hungry but strangely not stressed; these
sort of things don't really bother me anymore.
Which makes me smile, as I now tend to sweat the small
things and not the big, in life.
Not much to add here; apart from writing and working, it's been a slow week and since I don't have much of an active social circle around these parts, there's been nothing going on in that area. However, I should have a lot more to say in that department next week; stay tuned!
