I have to start getting up earlier.
This is not because my Mum keeps saying so, nor because The Fiancee's mother keeps saying so, nor because both of them are up at 6:00 am to walk the dogs, practicing what they preach and making me feel guilty.
No, this is because I don't have time to read everything that I ought to, and still have time to do everything that I want to.
I've never managed to see how the average busy person can ever read the entirety of the paper before work, unless it's the Metro (and I'm not knocking that publication by any means, simply because it is free [a point I now actually want to discuss - so will come back to it] and easily digestible in the space of a 2 minute bus/metro ride to one's place of travaille.) Perhaps this is because I've never really had to spend longer than 20-30 minutes traveling to get to school/uni/etc except during bad traffic getting to a 9AM lecture at Warwick, when the road between campus and Leamington Spa was just one long queue that, if it hadn't been so cold out there, I would have decided to walk faster than.
The other possible option is that I am a product of the digital age, which means that (supposedly) I have no attention span, and can only concentrate on one thing for a fraction of a second, and a whole wodge of paper like a novel or a newspaper has to be digested in teeny tiny bites (or bytes) but I think it's fairly safe to say that this is bollocks.
I have actually come to the conclusion, that my inability to read an entire newspaper (assuming that these days I went out and bought one, instead of just looking at the BBC website) is because I don't get up early enough in the morning.
Neil Gaiman always seems to have loads of links to things like articles and newsworthy stuff and interviews, and I keep wondering how he finds them to post. I have decided it is because he too is part of the getting-up-earlier brigade, and must, like anyone who reads the newspaper, get up slightly earlier, just to find out what's going on in the world. And that is admirable.
So, - and this is not a New Year's resolution, because I don't make them (except for the one I made this year, which is to finaly pass my driving test, preferably before The Small Sibling does) - I intend to start getting up earlier in the morning. This should be made easier because The Fiancee is starting a new rotation at the hospital which means getting up at 7:00, and I have requested that I be kicked out of bed at the same time. It kind-of worked this morning, in that I got up, showered and out of bed (not necessarily in that order) by 8:00... only it's now 10:49 and I still haven't done any work. But I feel pretty well caught up on what's happening in the world: Detox diets don't work (surprise surprise) Kids are depressed (no sh1t, sherlock - but that's a rant for later) and Wedgewood have gone bust (shock horror!) I'm not entirely sure why people are having blood tests done at ASDA, but apparently it's happening, oh, and if you missed the Johnathan Creek special over Christmas, fear not.
On a more fun note - I'm very much liking the stuff they have over at Threadless.com, especially TypeTees. Apparently The Small Sibling got me this one for Christmas. It just hasn't arrived yet.
I am also wearing my lovely new gloveses today, which, what with the cold, and the fact that I am also huddling on the sofa, surrounded by piles of paper and wrapped in my snowman fleecy blanket, makes me feel like a very well-dressed bag-lady.
PS) 10 points to anyone who can get the titular reference.
Monday, 5 January 2009
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Sorting out the Pros from the Cons...
Having just read this article from the NY Times, I've been having a think.
For anyone who wants a quick precis (you lazy person) the article is putting forward the suggestion (albeit not entirely seriously) that too many people are writing nowadays more because they want to be a writer than because they actually enjoy writing. Consequently, publishers are suffering from what the article calls "snow blindness" - there is too much coming in for them to be able to cope and sort out the good books from the heaps and heaps of manuscripts in their slush-piles, and so this author is suggesting that the government offer salaries to this kind of writer to stop writing - much in the way that the EU subsidizes farmers to have set-asides.
The thing is though, I don't honestly think it's necessary. At least, not if the aim is to get rid of the people who just want to be the next JK or Dan Brown. The recession will probably do that for us. It's hard enough for writers-on-the-make in the best of times. Almost every writer that ever there was has had a day-job first, and when you're working hard all day to support yourself it takes a special kind of someone to sit down at the computer for another few hours every evening and tax their already overstretched brain just a bit further to write another thousand words of the novel. In a recession, those with jobs will be working just a bit harder and tightening the belts just a bit more, and it'll be just a bit harder to sit down at that computer every day. Those without will be even more stretched to make ends meet, and since we all know that writing isn't the most well paid of jobs, not at first at any rate, you would have to be an idiot (or more optimistic than really justified) to try and depend on that as your only means of income in difficult financial times.
In the end, if you don't love writing, you don't need any subsidy to force you out of the profession; the profession will do that for you. I've heard so many people say they've had great ideas for a book, or they'd love to write one someday but they just don't have the time, that if you gave me a pound for each one, I wouldn't have to write to support myself. Everyone, it is said, has at least one book in them, but not everyone has it in them to write it. You've got to need to put pen to paper, more than just wanting the money or the fame (because they will be a long time in coming) and it's only that which will keep you going through the bad times as well as the good. If you don't have it, well... you won't even get as far as someones slush pile.
For anyone who wants a quick precis (you lazy person) the article is putting forward the suggestion (albeit not entirely seriously) that too many people are writing nowadays more because they want to be a writer than because they actually enjoy writing. Consequently, publishers are suffering from what the article calls "snow blindness" - there is too much coming in for them to be able to cope and sort out the good books from the heaps and heaps of manuscripts in their slush-piles, and so this author is suggesting that the government offer salaries to this kind of writer to stop writing - much in the way that the EU subsidizes farmers to have set-asides.
The thing is though, I don't honestly think it's necessary. At least, not if the aim is to get rid of the people who just want to be the next JK or Dan Brown. The recession will probably do that for us. It's hard enough for writers-on-the-make in the best of times. Almost every writer that ever there was has had a day-job first, and when you're working hard all day to support yourself it takes a special kind of someone to sit down at the computer for another few hours every evening and tax their already overstretched brain just a bit further to write another thousand words of the novel. In a recession, those with jobs will be working just a bit harder and tightening the belts just a bit more, and it'll be just a bit harder to sit down at that computer every day. Those without will be even more stretched to make ends meet, and since we all know that writing isn't the most well paid of jobs, not at first at any rate, you would have to be an idiot (or more optimistic than really justified) to try and depend on that as your only means of income in difficult financial times.
In the end, if you don't love writing, you don't need any subsidy to force you out of the profession; the profession will do that for you. I've heard so many people say they've had great ideas for a book, or they'd love to write one someday but they just don't have the time, that if you gave me a pound for each one, I wouldn't have to write to support myself. Everyone, it is said, has at least one book in them, but not everyone has it in them to write it. You've got to need to put pen to paper, more than just wanting the money or the fame (because they will be a long time in coming) and it's only that which will keep you going through the bad times as well as the good. If you don't have it, well... you won't even get as far as someones slush pile.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
Contented
"This is a public service announcement
This is only a test"
- Greenday, Warning
It's always difficult to know what to put for the first post of a new blog - this is the post that will define the blog, it's functions, will provide justification for the whole endeavour, will set the tone for all the posts to come... maybe. There's certainly a tendency not to bother.
The rest of my website is almost finished, however, which is good news. The first chapter of Zombie Nation is getting there, and may actually be finished to deadline as well, which is also good news. The PhD on the other hand... but let's not dwell on it.
Instead, here's a warning for anyone on Facebook; Beware!
Actually, much as I may scoff (who, these days, ever downloads anything they don't know what it is?) but I got taken in by one of these not that long ago. When a virus is pretending to be from a friend that you trust, sometimes you'll just click the link without thinking. Best advice - it never hurts to just message your friend and check that what's been sent is legit.
And here's a fun thing for the day, and a great Christmas present idea for the Geek in your life.
This is only a test"
- Greenday, Warning
It's always difficult to know what to put for the first post of a new blog - this is the post that will define the blog, it's functions, will provide justification for the whole endeavour, will set the tone for all the posts to come... maybe. There's certainly a tendency not to bother.
The rest of my website is almost finished, however, which is good news. The first chapter of Zombie Nation is getting there, and may actually be finished to deadline as well, which is also good news. The PhD on the other hand... but let's not dwell on it.
Instead, here's a warning for anyone on Facebook; Beware!
Actually, much as I may scoff (who, these days, ever downloads anything they don't know what it is?) but I got taken in by one of these not that long ago. When a virus is pretending to be from a friend that you trust, sometimes you'll just click the link without thinking. Best advice - it never hurts to just message your friend and check that what's been sent is legit.
And here's a fun thing for the day, and a great Christmas present idea for the Geek in your life.
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