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30 Sep 2008: What a treat!
I have been treated to the most adorable present today! Look at this which arrived from the wife of one of our authors.
Continue reading "What a treat!" »
posted on September 30, 2008 04:47 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
30 Sep 2008: I don't like it
As I write this, Wikipedia is down. I don't like that. It unsettles me. It's like I'm suddenly less knowledgeable. Planet Earth's IQ has dropped... hopefully momentarily. Click on the thumbnail for the upsetting notice.
posted on September 30, 2008 03:37 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
30 Sep 2008: Bringing more to the party than bootees
Here's something to look at: something more sobering than bootees, for sure. Think the world is in a bad way at the moment? Check out the brains of one possible VP of the world's largest superpower. Imagine what insight and brilliance she could bring to the party.
Continue reading "Bringing more to the party than bootees" »
posted on September 30, 2008 09:04 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
30 Sep 2008: Cover comparison
While looking for a cover photo for that last post I realised that The Weather Makers must have been redesigned for the UK market. On the left is the US edition and on the right the UK. I've got to say, if I'm going to read about climate change I want a book with a bit of gravitas, but one that also looks like it will have some elegance to its prose so that it won't feel like a textbook. For me, the US cover looks more impressive, though the colours seem ugly to me and the little ice cube on fire is tacky. Whereas the UK design lacks authority despite being more attractive (I only bought it because I couldn't find anything better at the time). I suppose they went for the jumbly font to give it a kind of homemade, recycling feel, but it's not really about recycling; it's about environmental catastrophe. I like the clean design (see post below) the best - elegant and authoritative, though something more environmental than a glass of water might have been good. I wonder where in the world it was published looking like that.
posted on September 30, 2008 08:42 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
30 Sep 2008: Daily Info-Nugget
Actually today's (lengthy) Info-Nugget comes not from Bill Bryson, like previous days, but from Tim Flannery, an Australian expert on fossils, mammals and climate. I'm just finishing off his book The Weather Makers, having read most of it earlier in the year. The bit that caught my eye was when Flannery was telling the story of how CFCs damaged the ozone layer. Things could easily have been so much worse if the world had chosen to use something called BFCs instead.
Continue reading "Daily Info-Nugget" »
posted on September 30, 2008 07:41 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
29 Sep 2008: Public money for public problems
I was talking to a friend today about that increasingly infamous $700bn bail-out in the US. He couldn't see why the money would be given to the banks rather than applied directly to the problems the financial crisis was causing in the economy as a whole. It is after all public money. So if it becomes difficult for ordinary people to get a mortgage or a college loan in the US, why not use the bail-out money to make those loans. That way you're buying good debt instead of bad. Let the speculators collapse but step in when the knock-on effect spreads beyond Wall Street. Of course some would argue the problem is too serious to let that happen. But this little article in the Guardian undermines the idea of the bail-out further because it reviews forty-two other banking sector failures and shows that buying up toxic assets with public money has no track record as a solution. Good job then that the deal has so far been voted down.
posted on September 29, 2008 08:48 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
29 Sep 2008: Bootees
Phew, that was close. This week includes both my due date and my own birthday, and finally - finally - I have started to find pictures of babies cute. I've always been ok with the cuteness of other mammalian infants. Kittens - check. Baby leopards - check. But human babies - er, not doing anything for me. Not enough fur, for a start. Thankfully I found a knitting pattern which featured these bootees popped on a chubby pair of baby legs that I actually found cute and quite nibblesome, so I made them, quick.
posted on September 29, 2008 10:06 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
29 Sep 2008: Daily Info-Nugget
Abstracted from Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.
The deepest hole ever dug was in Russia, on the Kola Peninsula, near the border with Finland. It was 12,262 metres deep, which is about a thousandth of the way to the centre of the Earth. At the bottom, the temperature was 180C, much hotter than expected. It was also very wet down there, another surprise. Despite its depth, it reached only a third of the way through the crust. If someone ever did manage to drill a hole to the centre of the Earth, it has been calculated that it would take about 45 minutes for anything dropped into it to reach the bottom.
posted on September 29, 2008 05:00 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
28 Sep 2008: Sino-Selenic Aspirations
I'm not a big fan of the moronic chest-pounding and one-upmanship that goes on between nations. It's used by manipulative politicians to disguise all sorts of unpleasant activities and to wrap them in the flag. But if it results in a space race, instead of an arms race, I'm perhaps a little less disgusted. China seem to be working pretty hard on their space programme. They've got a space station under construction. But if they actually do what they're claiming and put a crew of Chinese astronauts on the moon sometime in the next ten years I can't help thinking it will focus a lot of attention on space exploration once again. And unlike wars in the Middle East and bail-outs of predatory financial institutions, space exploration is a waste of money I can really approve of. Firstly, it's good old-fashioned Keynesian employment. It might be made-up work, but it's made-up work developing new technologies and pioneering new forms of engineering. Plus it doesn't (if done right) involve killing anyone. And it's an endeavour that's uniquely modern. When we're looking around for signs of human progress, coordinating missions to other celestial bodies fits nicely. So well done China; let's hope the world notices what you're up to and gets competitive. To the stars!
posted on September 28, 2008 08:29 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
26 Sep 2008: Spine Wits
Lots more cleverness here.
posted on September 26, 2008 11:30 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
26 Sep 2008: The Archaeology of Storytelling
I find it sort of strange and sort of interesting that some events take place in stories because they took place in previous stories and have become sort of weird convention. It's even stranger when these events don't happen naturally in real life. For instance, I've lost count of the number of times someone on TV has magnified a grainy photograph a few hundred times and then 'enhanced' it to reveal an important clue. That might have worked before most of us had either digital cameras or much experience of computers, but surely no one is fooled now. We don't really think that even the most powerful computer can take the three dots on a photo that represent a shiny brass button and reveal a reflection which shows the number plate of the killer's car, do we?
Continue reading "The Archaeology of Storytelling" »
posted on September 26, 2008 09:21 AM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
26 Sep 2008: Daily Info-Nugget
Snippets paraphrased from Bill Bryson's Short History of Everything.
Edible fish are in short supply in most parts of the globe. In the 1970s, the commercial fishermen of Australia (as well as a few New Zealanders) were pleased to discover a species of fish called an 'orange roughy' living in what they'd assumed were more or less barren waters. Roughies were delicious and the fishermen set to, hauling in 40,000 tonnes a year. Unfortunately, once marine biologists got involved, they discovered the reason roughies were able to live in such nutrient-poor seas: they mature very slowly. Many of the fish being caught in the Seventies would have hatched when Queen Victoria was still on the throne. Some might be 150 years old. And it's possible that many of them would spawn only once during that long lifetime. Each fish caught could take decades to replace. Unfortunately by the time these details were discovered a good proportion of the roughy population had already been eaten. Oops. (That's my editorial 'oops', not BB's. He's subtler than that.)
posted on September 26, 2008 05:00 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
25 Sep 2008: Daily Info-Nugget
I've been dipping into Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything - Special Illustrated Edition (Amazon link) and finding that time just zips by. I bought it ages ago, but didn't have very high expectations for it because I generally like to have complex ideas explained to me by experts in those fields, not by humorous travel writers, but BB has done a very capable job. I've spotted one or two facts that are very slightly awry, but by and large it's packed with tidbits that I'd love to commit to memory. I thought it might be fun to share a few, so I'll post one each day until I get bored with the idea.
Today's: There are three problems with blowing up any big rocks that might be on a collision course with Earth. 1) We probably wouldn't spot them until they started to heat up in our atmosphere, which would give us less than a second to mount a space mission. 2) Blowing them up probably wouldn't work. 3) When NASA reorganised its archives a little while back it threw away the plans for the Saturn 5 rocket which is the only device humans have ever invented that could send a team even as far as the moon.
posted on September 25, 2008 10:36 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
25 Sep 2008: Affinity stats
You know me, internet - I don't like to go on [sarcastic/wry emoticon]. But I wanted to share that The Affinity Bridge continues to do very well!
Continue reading "Affinity stats" »
posted on September 25, 2008 09:23 AM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
25 Sep 2008: Before the bail-out, the recap
It's badly drawn and there's lots of swearing, but I found this little summary of the sub-prime crisis either illuminating or funny or depressing-but-funny. I can't decide which. So let's settle on 'good'
posted on September 25, 2008 08:18 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
24 Sep 2008: Wall St Woes
Here's a fun perspective:
"If the US doesn't bail out its own financial sector (by borrowing money it doesn't have) then the only people with enough money [to do so] are foreign sovereign funds and large investors. And they will bail it out for cents on the dollar at fire sale prices. The end result would be that New York is, definitively, no longer the world's financial center. Odds on favourite to be the new one? Dubai. London doesn't want the job (they want to be middlemen). Tokyo can't quite do it. Shanghai isn't ready. But Dubai is raring to go."
posted on September 24, 2008 12:01 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
24 Sep 2008: Old fashioned internet service
Anyone know of a good internet bookstore that ships books quickly? I mean as a matter of course and not as a premium service. I order quite a lot of weird titles, so maybe that's my problem, but by the time they arrive I'm nowhere near as fired up as when I order them. I used to love the late Nineties service where you could click on a book at lunchtime and get it in the post the next morning. It would be great if that was somehow possible in 2008 without paying extra for it. Any suggestions?
Continue reading "Old fashioned internet service" »
posted on September 24, 2008 07:35 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
23 Sep 2008: BT: part 2
Following on from my previous post, below (Mum, look away now. There will be some swearing below the
cut):
Continue reading "BT: part 2" »
posted on September 23, 2008 01:11 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
23 Sep 2008: Eeep
There's something in my chimney.
(updated)
posted on September 23, 2008 08:03 AM | link | Comments (9) | Leave a comment
23 Sep 2008: Especially for John D.
Here's a bigger image of the cover of the sequel to The Affinity Bridge, scheduled for paperback publication around this time next year! (And since we've had such a great response to our exclusive slip case edition with specially minted coin, you may well be lucky enough to get another special edition, around July. Watch this space...)
posted on September 23, 2008 07:26 AM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
22 Sep 2008: Stupid BT
Proof, were it needed, that BT are both stupid and incompetent.
Continue reading "Stupid BT" »
posted on September 22, 2008 01:14 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
22 Sep 2008: Reflections on that last post
So I read through the post below once I'd published it. A big question raised itself: what makes a bestseller?
Continue reading "Reflections on that last post" »
posted on September 22, 2008 10:39 AM | link | Comments (9) | Leave a comment
22 Sep 2008: Affinity Bridges are Go!
Sometimes I'm not sure whether it was a blessing or a curse that the first book we ever published turned out to be a total, runaway bestseller. Ach, what am I saying. Of course it was a blessing - without it we wouldn't be here. But it did make me think 'Ha, this publishing lark is great! Hellooo easy street!' and so on. Turns out that it's a wee bit trickier than our original experiences would have had us believe. But heck - at least when we're doing well we know that we deserve it! And for the first time since Adept, I have that runaway bestseller feeling again - with The Affinity Bridge.
Continue reading "Affinity Bridges are Go!" »
posted on September 22, 2008 09:15 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
22 Sep 2008: No baby
Bah. I was so sure he was going to come this weekend. Anyway, here are some late pregnancy observations I have made.
posted on September 22, 2008 07:34 AM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment
20 Sep 2008: Star Simpson
Continue reading "Star Simpson" »
posted on September 20, 2008 12:06 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
20 Sep 2008: The going rate
Here's a little snippet from the news for you:
"During the last five years of his tenure as CEO of now-bankrupt Lehman Brothers, Richard Fuld's total take was $354 million."
Continue reading "The going rate" »
posted on September 20, 2008 09:54 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
19 Sep 2008: Blair on the Daily Show
Meh. Slightly disappointing. Still, here it is.
posted on September 19, 2008 01:49 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
19 Sep 2008: I know, it's cats, not publishing
But this is the internet, people. What do you expect?
This had me almost choking with laughter on my tasty sunflower seed snack. It is entitled "Ninja cat comes closer without moving!"
posted on September 19, 2008 12:41 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
18 Sep 2008: NaNoWriMo
This is such an enjoyable story! Well worth a read.
posted on September 18, 2008 11:38 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
18 Sep 2008: If there's one thing I want you to learn today it is this
That ellipses have only three dots. Like this...Not like this.......................
Got it? Three dots (plus whatever following piece of punctuation is required, which can include a full stop).
How many dots?
There may be a test on this, later.
posted on September 18, 2008 10:55 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
18 Sep 2008: Good and bad things
About Microsoft's Office 2007 suite, that is. Today's focus: Word 2007.
Continue reading "Good and bad things" »
posted on September 18, 2008 09:10 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
17 Sep 2008: Eggplant Parmigiano
Is what we're having for dinner on Saturday. There's an Italian restaurant in Georgia, USA, which has a wall covered in photos of babies whose mothers ate this dish then went into labour within 48 hours.
Bring it on. Auberginey goodness.
posted on September 17, 2008 05:38 PM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
17 Sep 2008: Go on, Jon
Just seen this: Tony Blair is going to appear on The Daily Show. That is very good news, because Jon Stewart (a big Snowbooks hero) has this astonishing gift for being quite charming then making a few sharp, incisive questions that expose people for what they really are - all the time being extremely funny. I can't wait to see this.
posted on September 17, 2008 04:17 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
16 Sep 2008: Handy
If I get put in prison I think it's pretty likely it will be because of a misunderstanding. I spend a fair amount of time looking up extremely suspicious things on the internet. Characters in stories I've written need to convincingly shoot people, blow things up, steal valuables, conceal their identities and confound the authorities. If someone ever asked me why I was so interested in firearms or lockpicks or police procedure I hope they'd believe the answer. And I think perhaps it's affecting the way I look at goods and services. Check out this handy set of tools from gear vendor Gerber. Just the thing to carry in the car. It all folds away into a neat briefcase. Ideal if you, um, break down and then, um, need to build something... See the fact is, all I can think is how it would be the ideal kit for disposing of bodies late at night. I think the next book I write should be about a group of pacifist kittens.
posted on September 16, 2008 10:45 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
16 Sep 2008: Bravery
This evening I am going to take the brave step of attempting to have a bath. If I haven't posted again here by this time tomorrow, can someone come round with a set of pulleys, an anvil and a good strong rope?
posted on September 16, 2008 05:54 PM | link | Comments (8) | Leave a comment
16 Sep 2008: Angels and Demons versus Clockwork Progress
I seem to recall there's a cultural pendulum that swings between rationality and a sort of gothic romanticism. On the one hand you have the slightly dull but worthy view of humans as logical plodders and on the other the idea that progress comes from moments of divine inspiration. I know which is more fun, but what I've never liked about the inspiration model is that it always seems to fall for the idea that 'there's a fine line between genius and madness', that you have to be a troubled borderline schizophrenic to have a really groundbreaking idea. Right at this moment, I'd say the rationalist view is in the ascendant. It's my preferred mode, so I'm happy about that. But one area in which it falls down is via a sort of intellectual Protestant work ethic: the sense that effort equates to output and that putting in the hours is the best way to make progress. I'm not disagreeing with that as a general principle, but one needs to be aware of the exceptions. How many of the things you do each day could be automated if someone took the time and trouble to work out how? Slogging away at dull tasks takes commitment and stamina, but that doesn't mean it's always the right approach. Sometimes it's OK to take a short-cut. In fact, sometimes it's better all round.
Continue reading "Angels and Demons versus Clockwork Progress" »
posted on September 16, 2008 10:54 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
15 Sep 2008: Spoilers
Marketing an experience is always a tricky thing. If it's something you can't get anywhere else - say an amazing theme park ride - it's difficult to explain to people what they're missing until they experience it for themselves. But if it's something more accessible, like a movie or a book, you can release snippets or summaries of it and let people work out for themselves whether they're interested. The only trouble with that is that you can find yourself giving away more and more of the plot and the experience in order to stimulate people's appetite. I've read back-cover blurbs which gave away plot twists occurring in the last fifth of a book and most of us have seen movie trailers which contain all the good bits of the movie.
posted on September 15, 2008 10:26 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
13 Sep 2008: Scott Free
So, Scott Pack (over at Me and My Big Mouth) has a gratis Sony Reader courtesy of a digital ad agency. It'll be interesting to see what he makes of it. I tend to think of Scott as equal parts quirky Amish versus up-to-the-minute trend-tracker. I seem to recall him saying he didn't watch TV (although he makes some horrible exceptions), but he's not averse to iPods (being a zealous music fan), computers and gaming paraphernalia. And he's a very prodigious reader. So I can't really predict which way he'll jump with the Sony whatsit.
Continue reading "Scott Free" »
posted on September 13, 2008 10:30 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
11 Sep 2008: Meta-advice
I've had a difficult history with advice. I used to take too much of it. The downside with that is that you're no longer making decisions based on your own understanding of what's best, so once you've done whatever you were advised to do, you have to go back and ask what's next. It's unsatisfactory. And that applies to writing as well. There's a risk that after you make the changes, as instructed, you then have to go back and ask whether you've done it right. It's no longer about your judgement. It's the difference between a bricklayer and an architect (and, apologies to bricklayers everywhere, in this scenario it's good to be the architect).
Continue reading "Meta-advice" »
posted on September 11, 2008 10:10 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
10 Sep 2008: LHC rap
Rob pointed me at this. It is very excellent and tells you all about the shenanigans at CERN.
And, as ever on YouTube, the comments are both mystifying and often amusing. For instance:
"omfg calm down take some chill pills dude its not gonna make a black hole"
posted on September 10, 2008 12:13 PM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
10 Sep 2008: Passion
The fruits of passion
'Passion' is a thing you're meant to have, and display in copious quantities, if you want to get a job - along with 'ambition', 'drive', being a 'self-starter' and all sorts of other qualities that have boiled themselves down to cliche through over-use. You know my view: working for other people is always an exercise in wearing a mask, and the degree to which you display management qualities is a measure of your skills as an actor.
The passion I'm interested in, though, is the emotion I've felt since co-founding and running Snowbooks. Let's take a look at that.
posted on September 10, 2008 10:28 AM | link | Comments (5) | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2008: I like this
From the notes to a manuscript of a new book we'll be publishing some time next year:
"It is advisable to get clearance from your doctor if you have any doubts about your medical condition or your medication prior to training.
Such clearance is even more advisable, in fact paramount, for anybody who does not intend to do any exercise."
Quite right.
posted on September 9, 2008 03:19 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2008: Quick question
Why do people sometimes address emails to me thus: "Dear Emma Barnes,". It seems so odd. Ms or Mrs Barnes will do if we've never met; Emma or Em if we know each other. It's often older people who do it - did it used to be a convention? It always strikes me as strange.
posted on September 9, 2008 10:33 AM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2008: Letting the side down
This blog has incisive wit, interesting links, publishing ad political insight... and then I let the side down by posting nice videos of lions. Sorry - but it is lovely. And it may have made my eyes leak just a little.
posted on September 9, 2008 09:47 AM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2008: Is it wrong?
To really, really want to start a Snowbooks online magazine with only days to go before having a baby - just because you've found the perfect Wordpress theme template?
posted on September 9, 2008 07:45 AM | link | Comments (6) | Leave a comment
09 Sep 2008: Terrorists: can we trust them?
For terrorism to be effective, it has to scare a lot of people. Terrorism must cause people to quake in their boots and threaten to vote differently otherwise it's shoddy and poor quality. Thus making fun of terrorism is a good thing. Our momentary amusement reduces our terror levels and makes us less likely to do what the terrorists want. (That said, it's still a good idea to also have a few police looking into the problem - laughter, though a powerful medicine, is rubbish at detective work).
Continue reading "Terrorists: can we trust them?" »
posted on September 9, 2008 07:01 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
08 Sep 2008: Tradeoffs
Here's a little harmlessly offensive fun. What else could have been done with the money spent on the Iraq war? My favourites so far: Trap Osama in Afghanistan with a giant wall of $100 bills, Buy a stealth bomber for each panda, Buy Ohio State - Michigan tickets until the sun becomes a red giant and One laptop per child, grown-up, sheep, pig, and cow . But there are lots more suggestions here.
posted on September 8, 2008 06:55 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
08 Sep 2008: Also
It's the new moon on Monday. Anyone believe in the old wives' tale of birthrates being higher at a new moon?
(A further also: The double irony of following Rob's last two posts on the dumbing down of science and the damage wrought by HSS with my own two posts on old wives' tales and my baby is not lost on me.)
posted on September 8, 2008 04:03 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
08 Sep 2008: A small (large) update
Currently I am 36 weeks pregnant, 37 on Thursday. My midwife (independent, with 25 years experience, who knows what she's doing) said on Friday that he is already over 8lb.
That, I imagine, has the potential to smart.
(It'll be interesting to see the comments, if any, to this post. Over the last 8 or so months, people have been dividing themselves neatly into the reassuring - for instance, 'Weight doesn't matter, it's the head circumference that counts' - to those who seem almost gleeful about my possible discomfort and pain, and/or are keen to relive their own experiences. I don't mind which type you are, since everyone's different: comments, kind or less so, have very little bearing on what I'll experience myself - so comment away!)
posted on September 8, 2008 02:19 PM | link | Comments (7) | Leave a comment
08 Sep 2008: Better off
Do you ever wonder, in your bleaker moments, whether the world would be better off without you? Well, I don't mean to depress you, but the answer is 'yes'. It would. Without all of us. I've been reading The World Without Us, which is sort of the book precursor to that History Channel show I mentioned a while back.
Continue reading "Better off" »
posted on September 8, 2008 01:35 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
08 Sep 2008: Dumbed downwardly
I knew it! OK, I know I start a lot of blog posts like that, but this time I almost, practically did know it.
When I was a teenager, and dinosaurs stalked the land, I used to lay on my front, on the living room carpet, a foot or two from the TV screen and watch Horizon, especially loving programmes devoted to quarks, black holes, the big bang or the nature of the fundamental forces. I didn't understand all (or probably much) of it, but I got just enough sense out of the explanations (and Radiophonic sound cues) to realise it was all extremely cool.
Continue reading "Dumbed downwardly" »
posted on September 8, 2008 10:33 AM | link | Comments (3) | Leave a comment
06 Sep 2008: Wheeee! I mean, Affinity Bridge reviewed in the Guardian
Ooh, it's a good 'un. 'Mann is leading the charge' says Eric Brown, the kind reviewer, who thinks that it's 'An engaging melodrama that rattles along at a breakneck pace.'
Well it is! So you should buy it now!
posted on September 6, 2008 10:49 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment
05 Sep 2008: My Economic Confusion
11 months ago the pound reversed its long trend and begin to slightly weaken against the dollar. Six weeks ago it fell off a cliff. It's gone from $2.00 to $1.76 in that time. What's wrong with the UK economy that isn't more wrong with America's? Surely they're sinking faster than we are. Anyone able to explain it for me?
posted on September 5, 2008 05:05 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
05 Sep 2008: Consider Language
It's a strange thing, language. On the one hand I find myself wanting to understand all its rules and struggling to enjoy the sort of prose which talks about 'less mistakes' or 'if I was to make a mistake'. So much so that I found myself writing a text message the other day and looking for the semi-colon key; nothing else would quite do. On the other hand, those of us who write or work with books for a living often forget that language is old and books are new, so the written word cannot possibly be at the heart of language in the way the spoken word is.
Continue reading "Consider Language" »
posted on September 5, 2008 09:38 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
03 Sep 2008: A fruity week
Apropos of nothing, since Sunday I have eaten 4 oranges, 6 apples, 1 pineapple, 2 punnets of blueberries, 6 bananas and 12 vine tomatoes. I have also eaten 6 fruity soleros. I doubt that they count. And a bag of prunes. And I'm still feeling like I want some more fruit.
Just thought you should know. Don't ask why.
posted on September 3, 2008 06:43 PM | link | Comments (1) | Leave a comment
03 Sep 2008: RNC Arrests
Continue reading "RNC Arrests" »
posted on September 3, 2008 02:33 PM | link | Comments (10) | Leave a comment
02 Sep 2008: I should have kept some
Blimey charlie: The Affinity Bridge slipcase is a collector's item already! This chap has his marked up at £59.99. Remember, you can get yours for just £30.
Ps: can you imagine how cool my job is? I get to do what I want all day, design lovely, lovely covers, mint my own currency, go for a walk or a sleep when I fancy it... I'm proper charmed, me.
posted on September 2, 2008 08:55 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
02 Sep 2008: More ranting about data warehouses
Below the cut because it's too boring for normal consumption.
Continue reading "More ranting about data warehouses" »
posted on September 2, 2008 10:48 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
02 Sep 2008: Archaic
When my son says to me, in six years time, 'Mummy, tell me about data warehouses,' I shall settle down in the sofa next to him, adopt a far-away gaze, and launch into a story that would vie with any other piece of barely-comprehendable nostalgia. And he will gasp with wonderment and say 'but surely you didn't have to wait more than five minutes for a report to run? And why was defining a set of report parameters so clunky? And why, why did every keystroke hang the computer for minutes at a time?' And I'll say to him, 'Son, in those dark days you had to shoulder all sorts of unspeakable burdens to get access to perfectly straightforward data. Consider yourself blessed that you live in the post-Data Warehouse age.' And he will look relieved, and go off to jack in to his super-cool 3D virtual game pod.
Our distributor has just 'upgraded' to Cognos 8. To get access to this and the comedically ancient system that is Vista I pay £40 a month. Can I have my money, and my data, back, please?
posted on September 2, 2008 09:36 AM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
02 Sep 2008: Blimey
I was on the phone yesterday evening to Rob, about half six, and went to lie down on my bed whilst I spoke to him. Next thing I knew it was 1am. And then I didn't get up until 8am today!
If you want anything doing by me, ask today because I have so much energy and am more rested than I think I'm going to be for the next 15 years. Quick, ask me!
posted on September 2, 2008 08:39 AM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
01 Sep 2008: Thanks
Just thought I should credit the author of the free snowflakes that now appear on the blog's sidebar. I modified them a bit, but they came from here. Ta. I can't help noticing he also designs vector-based zombies.
posted on September 1, 2008 05:26 PM | link | Comments (2) | Leave a comment
01 Sep 2008: DeLorean Hankering
I will of course admit I don't need one. They're probably not even practical. Or reliable. Though I'm not too bad with a spanner and a... whatever those other dealiebobs are called. It's just that someone is selling one on eBay. If only it was £18 instead of £18,000. You can convert them to run on garbage, you know.
posted on September 1, 2008 05:13 PM | link | Comments (0) | Leave a comment
01 Sep 2008: Plotting and Scheming [updated]
"Mrs Murdoch, yesss?"
I've been a bit wrapped up in other things lately and I haven't even been trying to entertain the baying horde of SnowBlog fans out there in InternetLand. Sorry about that. I've decided to see whether I can write screenplays and naturally, to ease myself in gently, I thought I'd create a TV series. Initially I broke my own rule and truncated the planning process before I knew exactly where everything was going because I wanted to get some scenes written and I thought I could learn more about my characters by letting them interact. I'm not unhappy with the results, but I realise I am unhappy not knowing what happens next. Especially in a screenplay, there's not room to have too many standalone scenes or character moments which don't also advance the overall story - which you can't do unless it's already mapped out. So I'm back to planning again and while it's not fun it feels a lot more comfortable. Like eating your vegetables before you tuck into the ice cream. Not instant gratification, but probably what you'd wish you'd done all along if you don't do it. Anyway, while that's taking up my time I might write fewer blog posts. Perhaps I can offset that with bribes. I've got a few duplicate DVDs in my collection and I thought I might rehome them. First, is a copy of the fabulous and strange Dark City. Let me know why I should send it to you and the best suggestion wins.
Continue reading "Plotting and Scheming [updated]" »
posted on September 1, 2008 10:50 AM | link | Comments (4) | Leave a comment