a little bit crazy

Okay, so I confess that I spent more of yesterday playing around with Movable Type than I did writing. I did get it completely installed, have a test blog working, am laying the foundation for moving Blatherings over. Reid says he might be able to figure out a way to export all the Livejournal archives I worked on into a format acceptable to Movable Type, so I'm crossing my fingers very, very hard.

I figure it's also about time I revamped the layout a bit; I'm getting tired of the current format. Playing around with some new graphics for the revamp, too (see illustration at the top of page). I actually do have flannel pajamas with clouds on them like the one in the picture. :-) I've also started going through a Webmonkey tutorial on CSS.

I was inspired by checking out the nominees for the Second Annual Weblog Awards. Some of these blogs are sites I already check on a regular basis (like Cory's BoingBoing and Wil Wheaton's journal).

Anyway, I'm going to force myself to ignore Movable Type for most of today so I can get some solid writing done. Three articles to work on today, and 1200 words of my novel.

(pause while Debbie forces herself to close the browser window with the Movable Type user manual in it)

And no cascading style sheets, either.

(pause while Debbie forces herself to close the browser window with the Webmonkey tutorial)

One of the toughest part about working at home is self-discipline. Some days are easier than others...I'm inspired, have to force myself to get away from my computer in order to get proper exercise and meals. Other days (fortunately these are in the minority), distractions are the norm. And they're always almost-valid distractions, like housework that needs to be done, the call of the fridge, personal e-mail I've been needing to catch up on, prep that needs to be done for dinner that night, even working out at the gym. Again, all these ARE valid in the right context, but I'm also well aware of when I'm using them as an excuse.

I may be on the way back to my office after a washroom break, for example, when I notice the dust on the piano.

I'll just grab the duster and get rid of that, I think. It won't take a minute. A minute turns into several more, however, when I figure that I might as well dust the bookshelves in the living room while I'm at it. And the bedroom. And geez, look at that dust bunny! Gotta get out the vacuum cleaner and hoover that baby out of existence. And while I'm here, might as well get the sheets off the bed and do some laundry...

Ahem, you get the picture.

In general, however, I'm far more productive working at home on my own than I ever could be at the office. I know some people are the opposite. They prefer working with externally imposed deadlines than ones they set themselves.

Here are a few common personality traits in writers:

- You're somewhat of a loner. You can work for hours at a time without talking to a single soul, or feeling the need to talk to a single soul.

- When you come up with a fantastic story idea, your first impulse is to write it down rather than tell someone about it.

- You love people-watching.

- You prefer spending more time doing actual writing than you do talking about writing.

In addition, I think that anyone wanting to be a published writer has to have at least a tiny exhibitionist streak in them. Ditto for anyone who has an online journal. If we didn't, then we'd be keeping our journals private, away from the public eye, like any sane human being. :-) We wouldn't be sending our precious stories out to total strangers, exposing ourselves to (likely) rejection, ego-bruising criticism, and the cruel vagaries of Canada (or U.S.) Post.

We must be mad, at least a little. Hm...perhaps I should add that to my list of personality traits.

But enough about writing about writing; time for me to upload this thing so I can get back to more of my own. :-)

bedtime stories

(For those interested: My MovableType test blog.)

I've been coughing again, so didn't get much sleep on Saturday night (neither did Jeff :-(). As a result, instead of going to the McMichael Art Gallery yesterday we lazed about home, had a late breakfast, napped. I went back on codeine last night and slept in the pull-out in the living room so we could both be assured of a full night's sleep.

Yesterday I also downloaded and began installing Moveabletype. I'm using Greymatter right now...it's fine, but as my journal archive grows, I get more and more nervous about something screwing up. It generally takes 5-10 minutes to rebuild my files these days (something that happens anytime I make a change to the header, footer, or general layout). Warnings before and during rebuild warn me NOT to interrupt the process, or bad things could happen. This was okay when I had fewer files, but now I know the chances are higher that something could interrupt the process midway, like a power outage (at the cottage, for example, when I don't have high speed access so use a regular phone line). My other main pet peeve about Greymatter is that you can't delete files. You can close them so they don't appear, but you can never really delete them.

Anyway, I could tell that it was only a matter of time until Greymatter crashes Bigtime for me. So I began hunting around for other software.

As I mentioned a long while ago, I had considered switching to Livejournal. Bryan had set up a Livejournal on the Samurai server (where all my sites are now) and both he and Reid had planned to improve LiveJournal's code, working with the LiveJournal people. I started moving my archives over and experimenting with the software, and in the process found out exactly how buggy it was. It's fine for straightforward blogs and for those are basically happy with Livejournal as is, but is sadly lacking for those who want more customization capabilities, especially for those who lean toward a journal format rather than a blog. Both Bryan and Reid are short on time these days, so it doesn't look as any of the changes I had needed are going to happen. :-(

So I'm looking around again. My friend Josh suggested Moveabletype a while back, so I'm checking it out. Looks promising...free software (as with Greymatter, users can send in a donation if they want), nice interface, and (this is a biggie for me) it's actively supported. I find the fact that they charge a fee for certain types of extra services encouraging, because it means that the company has a better chance of surviving longterm. Though mainly geared toward blogs, I know it supports one entry/day journals because of Josh's Fireland page (which you should definitely check out if you haven't already).

(Trivia note: for those who are wondering about the picture of the guy that keeps appearing throughout My Life In A Nutshell, it's Josh. :-) He was one of the bright points of an otherwise disappointing corporate experience.)

Hey, plus Wil Wheaton (who played "Wesley" in Star Trek The Next Generation) has switched over to Moveabletype! :-D I feel badly about calling Wil obnoxious before (that's how he came across to me in The Weakest Link), by the way, because he does seem like an okay guy from his journal.

Anyway, I've installed Moveabletype. It's been a tad tricky, making sure I have all the right permissions and files in the right place. I've made headway, though, and have actually succeeded in making the administration interface work. I still seem to have a wrong path or two, though, so am working on that. I'm pretty excited so far; it has a much cleaner and intuitive interface than Livejournal, you can administer multiple blogs from a single admin panel (unlike Greymatter), you can postdate/predate entries (unlike Greymatter), you can assign categories which are useful in how you want to display the entries later (unlike Greymatter or Livejournal), give password access to different authors (like Greymatter), other useful features. I'll let you know how it goes.

If I end up liking Moveabletype enough, I'll be switching everything over...my journal, The Dandelion Report, my comics, my book blog.


In the evening, we went to my sister's for dinner, with blue jello as dessert. Our habit of late has been to stay long enough to put the girls to bed. Jeff read their bedtime stories to them, or at least one of the books. Annie chose Hop on Pop as her bedtime story (see photo at top), and chose to read the book to us. It was SO great to see her sitting there, proudly sounding out the words for us. She skipped a few of the pages with words she couldn't read yet.

Apparently Annie was highly envious a while back when Sara started getting into her Pixie Tricks and Secrets of Droon series, so Ruth showed her how she actually -could- read some of the words in simpler books. Annie was delighted, and has been excitedly practising her reading ever since...I think she's hoping to catch up to her sister.

It's wonderful to see how much my nieces love books, and how the bedtime story ritual has become such an essential part of their lives. I don't remember it being such a regular thing in my childhood, but I do remember Dad reading aloud from library books. Although Mom was pretty fluent in English, I don't think she was ever completely comfortable with reading it. I don't ever remember her reading aloud to us from books; instead, she would tell us stories from memory, stories she had heard herself as a child.

One of my favourite childhood memories is of my mother sitting on the side of my bed, stroking my forehead as she told me fairy tales from Japan...the peach boy, the old fisherman, the moon princess, others. Even now, I can still remember the darkness of my bedroom, the coolness of her hand on my forehead, the sound of her voice just before I fell asleep.

poll: bad movies

A lazy Saturday yesterday. Craig came over for lunch; he and I worked on our Secret Project (details will be provided at some future date, I promise). The project is fun, and I confess that one of the main reasons I'm involved is because it's fun just hanging out with Craig (see photo above).

Had a highly satisfying nap in the afternoon. While I was sleeping, Jeff was out grocery shopping so he could cook dinner. Geez, I sound like such a lazy sod here, don't I? If I could say that I had been eating bon-bons as well while he was slaving away, it would have completed the picture.

Anyway, he made the best sandwiches I've had in a long time (the only ones that come close are Parki's roasted red pepper and goat cheese sarnies, and the Cobb sandwiches from my mom-in-law's restaurant): tomatoes, hot roast beef, long grain mustard, melted blue cheese, roasted portabello mushroom, lettuce, all inside a crusty roll. Yummmm. He washed the dishes after dinner, too.

In the evening, Jeff played Quake and Castle Wolfenstein. I watched (or tried to watch) Conquest of Planet of the Apes. I assume it has to come fairly late in the Planet of the Apes series since it takes place on Earth. I've only seen the first Ape movie...I think it's probably too late the see the rest. Seems to me that this series is kind you have to see as each movie comes out to take any of the movies seriously at all; they come across more like camp now.

Anyway, I was appalled by how horrible it was (even worse than the Planet of Apes remake that came out last year). Really really bad. So bad that it's definitely a candidate for Bad Movie Night entertainment. From time to time, my friends get together and have Bad Movie Night, where they rent a movie, make popcorn, and spend the evening ripping apart a flick...great. I'm highly disappointed to have missed the last one, which was when they watched Battlefield Earth. It's not a movie I'd bother renting by myself (even the trailer made me want to run screaming from the theatre), but I'm really curious.

A Poll: What are the worst movies you've ever seen? Or what notoriously bad movie have you always wanted to see? Answer here.

News/Links:

Web site urges people to stay off 'Net and enjoy life. HAHAHAHA. :-) (Reuters)

This Flash movie by a dot-com casualty is becoming more popular: Laid-Off: A Nothing Production

Candian serial kisser nabbed! Who says nothing exciting ever happens in Canada, eh? (Reuters)

growing

Woke up this morning to find that the hyacinth plant I bought at the St. Lawrence Market last week had started blooming (see photo above). It's weird how such a little thing can make me so happy, but there you go. Jeff got a funny look on his face when I brought it home; he's familiar with my absymal record with houseplants. But it's still alive, ha ha!

Went out for lunch yesterday with some friends, and I found myself getting upset without realizing I was getting upset. Does that ever happen to any of you? The conversation had drifted to violent video games, and somehow that segued into ambulances and accidents and gruesome deaths.

I know part of it is a natural part of human nature. We fear death, so we're somewhat fascinated by it, though don't we don't like to admit it. It's the reason the media focuses so much on it...hearing about a violent murder draws in far more viewers than a feature about something happy and uplifting. Cars slow down on the highway if they see a police car or ambulance by the side of the road.

Events in my life, however, have changed my perspective somewhat. Whenever I hear about someone with cancer, I think of my mom, the suffering that she and my family went through, and I sympathise with the family. News about car accidents automatically make me think of my brother and his wife. I'm sure parents go through something similar whenever they hear about violent crimes involve young children (I experience outrage myself upon hearing these stories, and I'm just an aunt).

So when I hear jokes or excited speculation about car accidents or dead bodies or cancer, I am filled with a depth of anger and sadness I know is out of line. I've developed a bad (or good, depending how you look at it) tendency to be blunter than I should at times, especially recently, so try very hard to keep my mouth when this happens, at least until the clear voice of reason has stepped in.

Yes, I could have said something, asked that the topic be changed. But part of me is also aware of the fact that there are likely many things that I do or say that could be perceived as insensitive to others with different life experiences. I want to steer away from anything resembling the "political incorrectness" paranoia of the last decade, where everyone was afraid of saying anything that might possibly be interpreted as being even a TAD insensitive.

But it does help me understand (at least a little better) strongly opinionated older people who get angry about everything. Leaving aside the cliched cartoon of a wizened old man with a long beard, furiously waving around his walking cane and screaming and passersby, I can see how some of these seniors would make comments about the ignorance of youth, how "young people these days just don't understand", etc.

I can see the tendency in myself sometimes (and hey, I'm turning forty this year :-)) and I try to fight it. Someone makes an insensitive comment about car crashes and I automatically think, You wouldn't be saying that if you had lost someone you loved in a car accident. But then I tell myself, Geez, girl, lighten up. He's just joking around with friends..

I know I have a lot to learn. I'm glad I do...people who stop learning turn old and bitter (I've seen it happen).

And hey, just look at my hyacinth. Ten years ago, I wouldn't have any plant survive in my care more than a day or two.

Now it would be at LEAST a week. :-)

tokyo sushi

I almost got hit by a car yesterday. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been a life or death situation (which is likely why I didn't remember it again until just now), but it would have hurt.

I was walking home from working out at the gym, crossing a street on a green light, when a car failed to stop as it turned the corner. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, just like it does in the movies...it was pretty obvious that the driver didn't see me. From the split second or two when I looked up, it looked as if she was in la-la land, pretty distracted. Maybe she had just broken up with her boyfriend, or was wondering what was going to happen on the next episode of Temptation Island, or was worrying about a school assignment (she looked pretty young).

I ended up jumping back to avoid being hit. The driver didn't even slow down...she made a fast, wide corner at the intersection, as if she had panicked and forgotten how to use the brakes. Then she kept driving. Of course I was too stunned to take note of the license number. I don't even recall what the car looked like, what colour, anything. There wasn't anyone else around.

So I just walked home, my heart beating a little faster, with a lot of "if's" circling in my head. What if I hadn't been paying attention? What if she had panicked a little more, circled wider so that I couldn't jump out of the way? Ififif. I wasn't even thinking that I could have been killed or seriously hurt...I remember thinking what a pain it would be if I had had to be taken to the hospital because I was so looking forward to teaching my new Waiting For Frodo song to Allison and Jodi at practice that night, and we only had two practices left until Ad Astra.

Okay, so maybe my priorities were a tad skewed. :-)

In a way, brushes with reality like that are good for the soul. I think we all purposely seek them out from time to time, just to remind ourselves we're alive: situations with an element of risk, that challenge us. I tend to avoid the kind where I can get seriously hurt. :-)

Anyway, I did end up making it to Urban Tapestry practice last night. We're performing in some panels at Ad Astra next month, so I lugged my guitar and flute and music to Richmond Hill...it's always a joy travelling on the subway with my gear in rush hour, trying to squeeze my stuff into the smallest space possible, getting dirty looks from commuters who are getting poked by various pieces of musical gear. The trip to Allison's and Jodi's area usually takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour; last night was 45 minutes (sure seemed like a lot longer).

Jodi, Allison and I tried a new sushi place that Jodi had discovered called Tokyo Sushi. The main thing that stood out about this place (for me, anyway) was the fact that each booth had a button you were supposed to push whenever you wanted service. Bizarre. They must hate it when families with little kids come in. The food was pretty good, though.

And Allison and Jodi did learn Waiting For Frodo! It sounds great, and they were even able to learn the extra counterpoint part I threw in at the end. Allison's going to add some additional counterpoint during the chorus, and I'm going to figure out a third harmony. This'll be a lot of fun to perform. :-)

Jodi, by the way, is looking for contract work. She found out yesterday that the company she is working for is doing some budget cuts, and part of this involves cutting her hours considerably.

Anyway, if you or anyone you know have contract work for an excellent online marketing specialist, please contact Jodi.

Writing update

Got two rejections yesterday, one by e-mail and one by snailmail. I sent out one of the rejected queries to a very similar market right away, but need to revamp the other one before sending it out again.