lagilman: coffee or die (citron presse)
Occasionally I dip back into the time machine that is livejournal, and look at where I was a year ago, two years ago, whatever. It's useful, and occasionally surprising, and often...well, past-me often was very wise.

Like this bit, excerpted from 2/2013:

"We get no points, style or otherwise, for anger, and few of us are really witty enough to get points for bitterness, no matter what we want to believe. And fear, while it keeps you from being eaten, can also keep you from everything else."
lagilman: coffee or die (citron presse)
Note to self: sleeping until 7:30 does not make you a bad person, it makes you a tired person.

(especially since you did get up at 5am when there was a crash outside - reaching for Softwing as you went, yay reflexes- and then again at 6am to feed the cats, and fell asleep again with the light on)

You're awake now, and productive (even if not by your apparently insane levels) and there's nothing wrong with anything that can't be fixed by skills you already have. Even with an hour less in the day.



Also: your irritation with Certain People does not make you a bad person, it makes you a person who has little patience for mansplanning and a particular set of Privilege.

Your willingness to tear a strip of hide from those people may make you a bad person, at least from their POV. If so, you can live with that.
lagilman: coffee or die (almost-there dragon)
Dear Would-Be Novelists:

I love you, I love your enthusiasm and your energy and your joy in writing. I can overlook the small failures of POV and plot-logic because, hey, we all have pages like that. Nothing a little polish won't fix.

But, seriously? If you're going to try and write a mystery that involves cops? You really, really need to get at least a basic idea of investigative protocol. Like, y'knowm interview tactics, and evidence handling, and how many cases a cop in a large city might be handling at any given time, that sort of thing.

Research. Really. It's important.

Love,

Your Mentor

---------------

Long day not over yet, but progress has been made. Almost done with the client work -- tomorrow should do it. Part 1 of V2 is off to Madame Agent. Part 2 is almost done with revisions. We've almost decided on a title (how does The Weight of Stone grab folks?) Almost ready to start thinking about leaving for California next week. Almost, almost... Pls see icon.

Also:
Note to self: If you take the omeprazole, Life is Good. Please to be remembering that?
Note to self 2: Your body is actually quite smart. When it tells you it wants Chinese food, listen. Brain works better after ginger-orange chicken and fried rice.
lagilman: coffee or die (dandelion break)
Remember how eager you were to wash the dust of high school from your heels (and every other part of your body)? It was a good idea, oh my younger self. You needed that time away, to grow, to get over the various traumas, to let living-life center you and settle you and lighten you all at once. High school is meant to be survived, not relived.

And yet...

Drinks with Old Friends tonight, and it's amusing, oh past self, how very little has changed...and yet everything has changed. The faces and the voices are the same and yet We who were 16 and 17 no longer exist -- the frustrations and fears that drove us like spurs are burned away and in their place live calmer, more easily amused-by-life souls. It's good.

But the shots of Southern Comfort? Those were bad. Very, very bad. *kicks Patrick for ordering them*

EtA: I am informed that, after I left, two more rounds of shots were ordered. Another thing, oh my past self, we have learned: when to say "no mas."
lagilman: coffee or die (Default)
Take the book seriously. Not yourself.

(no real anecedote behind this, just a reminder my brain gave me this morning I figured I'd pass along to anyone who hadn't gotten there yet, or might have forgotten)

EtA: also, I hear rumors that FREE FALL got not-unkind things said about it in this month's Locus. Anyone got a copy?
lagilman: coffee or die (bigger boat)
"Cat, if you are not doing the paperwork, get off it!"
----------------------------
note to self: Next time, just give the Girl Scouts your money and leave without the cookies. It will end better.

*nom nom nom*


Also, please note icon. Send coffee.
lagilman: coffee or die (citron presse)
Note to self: yes, Manhattan is a wonderful city for walking. That does not mean you have to walk it all in one day. (to be fair, it was only about 30 blocks [a few-three miles, total], all on the UES. And I stopped for a lovely brunch [mmm, brioche french toast with creme fraiche] with family at La Boite en Bois. Yum. But now my knees ache, and I don't want to see my walking shoes for at least 24 hours).

On the work front, drafted the post for paranormalromanceblog.com, and got 750 new words on HARD MAGIC. Sometimes it's not so much about the slog as the surprise attack. Bonnie managed to get yelled at by two different authority figures about two different things in less than 12 hours. She's such an overachiever....
--------------
Hey, question for you folk out beyond the Swamp Yankee lands: how many of you have ever seen a black squirrel? We were discussing them today, and I was surprised to discover that they seem to be a regional variant. For my money, they're much cuter than the gray squirrels even though, yes, I know it's just a color mutation.

EtA: from comments, it seems like they're a northern variation, spotted as far south as DC but not in Texas, etc...

Also: geeking for about seven or eight of you out there: new Portishead album!
lagilman: coffee or die (bored now)
sushi and sake are just really nice things. really. a weekend with sushi and sake is a good weekend. although I'm still recovering from that wasabi-wow dumpling thing...

note to self: you have enough hobbies and interests. stop picking up new ones. even if they are shiny. especially if they require you going to chinatown and buying specialty cookware. although while you're down there you could pick up some dried goose, and some proper tea, and....

also? you should not refer to Uncle Sugar as "that great marrow-sucking wart on the collective American backside." at least, not in public. even if it does make your advisor laugh.

And thus ends the weekend

it's been threatening rain all day, but none has appeared. cranky-making. there is a glass of single malt waiting, and new reading material to dive into*. a nice rainstorm would be the perfect background noise. shall have to make do with the sound of Boomer snoring.





*"The 'Disloyal' Grape: The Agrarian Crisis of Late 14th Century Burgundy." Not exactly a Locus chart-topper, no....
lagilman: coffee or die (naptime)
note to self: The days of routinely going on 5 hours of sleep without problem are over. Pay up.

If anyone needs me, I'm going back to bed for another hour. Or three.
lagilman: coffee or die (brain.  hurts.)
Note to self: saying "I need to eat something that isn't coffee" around 1pm, when you've been up since 6am, is a warning sign. I repeat: A WARNING SIGN.

Second warning sign: the only thing not-coffee in the house is salad and a half-empty jar of peanut butter. Added a grocery store run to the to-do list today, so now at least there's red meat in the freezer, and pasta on the shelves.

Have written 3100 words today, progressed further in moving the office of Occasional Employment to the new locale, and been through a writers' group meeting. Feel like an old rag, well-wrung.

I also feel like I should be saying something witty, or insightful, or at very least useful in this space, but everything I know is such obviousness to me, I can't imagine why anyone would be interested. So tell me what it is you want from my brain. Open thread time!

And of possible interest to, well, me: ESPN has acquired both Cricinfo.com and Scrum.net. Oy. Must...resist...timesinks... (it's not that I love either sport madly; I just can't stand there being things out there that I haven't -- given the chance -- at least poked around in a little. No such thing as too broad a knowlege base)

/random sundriness.


retrievers #6

"Destroying something when you weren’t quite sure what it was – stupid. Especially when on a boat, on water, with no easy access away from any major explosion, implosion, or other kind of boom."
lagilman: coffee or die (caffeine)
Note to self: Never say "I'm bored" where the Universe can hear you.

Two things that were on the long-term horizon have just become sooner-than-that, and one thing that was short-term has become "can we do it now?"

I'm not complaining. Exactly.

And so you can't say I don't give y'all first crack... How to Write and Sell Your First Genre Novel – New York (Seminar on August 29, 6:30-9:30pm)

The title is misleading -- a lot more than the first sale will be covered. But go on, click and look!


EtA: and just so I don't go entirely feline-content free for too long; Boomer has a new collar. It's a pale olive green, and matches his eyes. It also means I can hang his updated rabies tag on it, and he can now go outside to play. Everyone's much happier now. I'd take pics but I left my camer Elsewhere and it has not yet returned to me...
lagilman: coffee or die (my job)
Busy and busy with a coating of busy on top of that, but popping in to get something out of my brain and into some sort of semi-coherence. Hopefully it will be of interest/use to someone other than myself, as well.

Speaking in [livejournal.com profile] moschus's LJ of Robin Williams' style of comedy, I said:

"It's not that he has no fear: rather than he embraces his fear and makes it his bitch."

Yes. Exactly. Creativity in Action. Not just writing, but life-creativity. The thing that takes us beyond rote and inertia and makes us interesting.

That's not to say that everything you do needs to be out of your comfort zone. Comfort zones are good, and healthy, and, well, comforting. And anyone who says there's something wrong with needing comfort has their own Issues and should deal with them before preaching to anyone else, 'k? We all love a comfort cuddle, or a comfort food, or a comfort blanky, because Life is Hard and Often Sucks, and comfort gives us shelter while we get back on our feet.

But here's the thing. Fear isn't the mind-killer. It's the ass-kicker. And that's both bad (if you go off into the corner and cringe) and good. Good, because whatever is animating that fear? Has your number. And anything that has your number like that is a force to be reckoned with -- and co-opted as soon as possible.

If you're not scared, you're not taking any risks. And if you're not taking any risks, what are you accomplishing?


ETA the ritual disclaimer: The thoughts expressed herein are the opinions and meanderings of the author, and mean exactly what they say; anything else is what you're reading into them. They are not meant to replace qualified medical or legal advice, nor should they be taken before operating heavy machinery. All lefts reserved, the government's already taken my rights.

Sunday

Jan. 14th, 2007 10:13 pm
lagilman: coffee or die (Default)
note to self: it's true, you never forget how to ice skate.

Except the backwards stuff.

also: Archie Moore's horseradish burger rocks hardcore. And just because a guy's family comes Latvia doesn't mean you're related. But it's probably worth following up. And if nothing else, you know he'll get your family's jokes.


Forgot to say that the contracts for Anna arrived yesterday.

Also, Go Pats!


/randomness

so noted

Jan. 3rd, 2007 05:24 pm
lagilman: coffee or die (naptime)
it is very difficult to

a) work

b) be cranky

when your cats insist that your rightful role in the universe is as their sleep-blankie...

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lagilman: coffee or die (Default)
Laura Anne Gilman

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