Gillian Polack's Blog, page 129
January 18, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-01-19T17:29:00
I was going to dress up as a Jewish pirate tonight and take myself and my treasure chest and my viking duck (for why should a Jewish pirate have a parrot?) and celebrate the launch of Donna Hanson's new book. My outfit is all waiting and ready, but me, I'm sending my apologies with a friend. The culprit: bushfire smoke.
If today had been as hot as yesterday, everyone would have been indoors with aircon and the smoke wouldn't be an issue, but right now outside it's less than half the temperature of yesterday and windows will be joyously open. And even indoors, today, the smoke is affecting me. Also, last night was not good (as expected) so I and my pirate outfit must await another chance to celebrate Donna's writing.
I'm deeply disappointed about this, but it can't be helped. I'm going to bed for a little and then I shall spend a quiet evening doing quiet things and wishing myself with my friends at the party. I hate it that I'm Cinderella, but allergies cannot be helped, especially when they manifest themselves so very clearly.
If today had been as hot as yesterday, everyone would have been indoors with aircon and the smoke wouldn't be an issue, but right now outside it's less than half the temperature of yesterday and windows will be joyously open. And even indoors, today, the smoke is affecting me. Also, last night was not good (as expected) so I and my pirate outfit must await another chance to celebrate Donna's writing.
I'm deeply disappointed about this, but it can't be helped. I'm going to bed for a little and then I shall spend a quiet evening doing quiet things and wishing myself with my friends at the party. I hate it that I'm Cinderella, but allergies cannot be helped, especially when they manifest themselves so very clearly.
January 17, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-01-18T16:09:00
I'm taking a day off. We have heat (42 degrees worth) and smoke (I worry for friends and can't go outside - not a good combo) and I have work, but nothing that can't wait. I have eaten a slab of watermelon and will have more later, after dinner. I have made a pizza base and got all sorts fo toppings ready. I've made my friends some alcoholic iced punch, to help us forget the heat. By the time we're through all this and a movie, the weather will have shifted and I'll (maybe) feel like working again.
February's our hot month, which is why I and my East Coast Australian friends are complaining. We don't want a hot month if this is a comfortable one!
My reading for late evening, is Tran-Nhut's La Poudre Noire de Maitre Hou*, which Aliette Bodard kindly posted me. It's historical mystery, which is just light enough for a late night. Not that I actually want a late night, but I do tend to have them when the weather is hot - things have to cool down enough to make sleeping possible.
*forgive lack of accents. I am a bit on the heat-exhausted side and I haven't yet installed a French spellcheck on my browser. If anyone knows a good add-on, I'd love to know, for the last one I installed was pretty bad.
February's our hot month, which is why I and my East Coast Australian friends are complaining. We don't want a hot month if this is a comfortable one!
My reading for late evening, is Tran-Nhut's La Poudre Noire de Maitre Hou*, which Aliette Bodard kindly posted me. It's historical mystery, which is just light enough for a late night. Not that I actually want a late night, but I do tend to have them when the weather is hot - things have to cool down enough to make sleeping possible.
*forgive lack of accents. I am a bit on the heat-exhausted side and I haven't yet installed a French spellcheck on my browser. If anyone knows a good add-on, I'd love to know, for the last one I installed was pretty bad.
January 16, 2013
belated posting
This is from yesterday - all my passwords are awry because I am terrible at remembering passwords and, of course, I need to link things up again when I change them due to the computer change. It's on my to-do list. In them meantime, here is the post that didn't appear:
I'm still making not much sense. My theory is that tomorrow and Friday will be hot again. Also, that I overworked. Also, that setting up a new system is tangling my brain. I am taking refuge in a very small glass of very fine muscat. Also, in slowly getting things to the stage where I can ask for help (lists of glitches!) and then, the system fixed, get back to work (and, speaking of work, why doesn't this sentence?).
I'm definitely paying for having braved the Great Outdoors today, but it was worth it. Well, almost worth it. I don't really enjoy it when I can only breathe using a tiny bit of my lungs, but I do enjoy it when I can act like a normal person.
Tomorrow afternoon I'm tempted to drink more of that iced tea with slices of lemon, tonic water and strawberry liqueur. I'm positive it's good for my breathing: reduces muscles spasms, expands the lungs and gets me so very relaxed I don't really mind.
Except for the breathing and the aches, I'm doing rather well, actually. I've only got two more programs to download and test and then I'll have a full list few things I can't do but ought to be able to. Also, I'll be able to do most things. This means that tomorrow afternoon, I should be able to get back to work (with breaks for trouble shooting as I get advice from my technowhiz friend).
If you're really lucky, my posts will become interesting again around then... I'll post a pince nez picture to indicate this wonderful progress (also to keep Chaz happy, for I rather suspect he wants to take those glasses to Mars), but the picture may only appear on LJ. We'll see.
My computer life is getting frabjously complicated, isn't it? (and for my next trick, I download another essential program.)
I'm still making not much sense. My theory is that tomorrow and Friday will be hot again. Also, that I overworked. Also, that setting up a new system is tangling my brain. I am taking refuge in a very small glass of very fine muscat. Also, in slowly getting things to the stage where I can ask for help (lists of glitches!) and then, the system fixed, get back to work (and, speaking of work, why doesn't this sentence?).
I'm definitely paying for having braved the Great Outdoors today, but it was worth it. Well, almost worth it. I don't really enjoy it when I can only breathe using a tiny bit of my lungs, but I do enjoy it when I can act like a normal person.
Tomorrow afternoon I'm tempted to drink more of that iced tea with slices of lemon, tonic water and strawberry liqueur. I'm positive it's good for my breathing: reduces muscles spasms, expands the lungs and gets me so very relaxed I don't really mind.
Except for the breathing and the aches, I'm doing rather well, actually. I've only got two more programs to download and test and then I'll have a full list few things I can't do but ought to be able to. Also, I'll be able to do most things. This means that tomorrow afternoon, I should be able to get back to work (with breaks for trouble shooting as I get advice from my technowhiz friend).
If you're really lucky, my posts will become interesting again around then... I'll post a pince nez picture to indicate this wonderful progress (also to keep Chaz happy, for I rather suspect he wants to take those glasses to Mars), but the picture may only appear on LJ. We'll see.
My computer life is getting frabjously complicated, isn't it? (and for my next trick, I download another essential program.)
On watching a film (finally)
I have seen The Hobbit! I don't feel up to a proper critique (and besides, everyone else has given them) so here are some random comments.
Richard Armitage is an amazing actor, with or without good lines and with or without dwarf makeup.
Jackson and his people believe in a world without food production and also in a world with remarkably strange geology. They have travellers' stew, even when it's made by creatures too simple to wear clothes (trolls with pots!) or dwarves who keep mislaying their luggage. If ever I meet Jackson, I'm going to ask him if I may make him a stew while he watches... Or maybe while a team of geologists watch the movie and enlighten us as to how Jackson's Middle Earth was formed.
I misheard Gollum as saying "elfishes" and now I can't get the thought of fishy elves out of my mind: Elrond with fins and scales. Maybe this needs to be Part IV of The Hobbit ("There and Back Again - the Seaside Holiday"). I also want Part IV to include eagles, measuring their personal response to moths and their messages. I see those eagles as discontented, sarcastic and wildly amusing. They would have Australian accents. Not just Australian accents. Sydney accents. Coogee is their beach of choice.
Speaking of accents, why did the dwarf-who-was-once-a-NZ-Norse-god lose his accent more often than the dwarf-who-was-once-a-vampire?
There was enough Tolkien in The Hobbit so that it's a nice homage. It's not Tolkien, however. It lacks the groundedness. The sort of awareness of people's private worlds that can have Sam Gamgee know the exact step that will take him out of the familiar and into the unknown is absent from Jackson's film. In its place is much derring-do and Indiana Jones style sequential adventure. I enjoyed it, but I strongly feel that it should be renamed "Raiders of the Lost Hobbit."
Richard Armitage is an amazing actor, with or without good lines and with or without dwarf makeup.
Jackson and his people believe in a world without food production and also in a world with remarkably strange geology. They have travellers' stew, even when it's made by creatures too simple to wear clothes (trolls with pots!) or dwarves who keep mislaying their luggage. If ever I meet Jackson, I'm going to ask him if I may make him a stew while he watches... Or maybe while a team of geologists watch the movie and enlighten us as to how Jackson's Middle Earth was formed.
I misheard Gollum as saying "elfishes" and now I can't get the thought of fishy elves out of my mind: Elrond with fins and scales. Maybe this needs to be Part IV of The Hobbit ("There and Back Again - the Seaside Holiday"). I also want Part IV to include eagles, measuring their personal response to moths and their messages. I see those eagles as discontented, sarcastic and wildly amusing. They would have Australian accents. Not just Australian accents. Sydney accents. Coogee is their beach of choice.
Speaking of accents, why did the dwarf-who-was-once-a-NZ-Norse-god lose his accent more often than the dwarf-who-was-once-a-vampire?
There was enough Tolkien in The Hobbit so that it's a nice homage. It's not Tolkien, however. It lacks the groundedness. The sort of awareness of people's private worlds that can have Sam Gamgee know the exact step that will take him out of the familiar and into the unknown is absent from Jackson's film. In its place is much derring-do and Indiana Jones style sequential adventure. I enjoyed it, but I strongly feel that it should be renamed "Raiders of the Lost Hobbit."
gillpolack @ 2013-01-16T19:19:00
I spent most of last night catching up with all my various deadlines. Just as well I did, for I and a friend have been sorting my computer almost n on-stop since 10.30 am. Actually, he left a couple of hours ago, but has promised to return to help with glitches. I'm making a list of glitches. The biggest is that the careful backups of my emails and bookmarks are not at all accessible using my super-duper modern programs. And my fax refuses to answer the phone. And I can't actually send emails, which is probably just as well, as I have no email addresses to send to.
I've spent the last hour getting back my access to websites and sorting out more glitches.
I've also been outside today, four times and am paying for it (the smoke isn't as bad as it was, so it could be worse). I can't think straight and am at the stage where I hurt too much to lie down. Since my computer can't think straight, I shall leave sorting it until tomorrow afternoon.
I shall have a late dinner and spend a couple of hours falling asleep in front of the television and see if that helps. I don't actually want dinner, which is not a good sign. Anyhow, I finished all the work I had to do for the first half of January. This means I have no looming deadlines. This means that if I'm going to be much of a mess, now is the time to be it.
Overall, I rather like the new machine. It'll take me time to get used to all the new systems. All my files transferred over sweetly, however, and both my netbook and desktop are finally speaking the same language so the world is not at an end. Mind you, I still have a half dozen programs to install. Ask me how apocalyptic things feel when I'm finished...
I've spent the last hour getting back my access to websites and sorting out more glitches.
I've also been outside today, four times and am paying for it (the smoke isn't as bad as it was, so it could be worse). I can't think straight and am at the stage where I hurt too much to lie down. Since my computer can't think straight, I shall leave sorting it until tomorrow afternoon.
I shall have a late dinner and spend a couple of hours falling asleep in front of the television and see if that helps. I don't actually want dinner, which is not a good sign. Anyhow, I finished all the work I had to do for the first half of January. This means I have no looming deadlines. This means that if I'm going to be much of a mess, now is the time to be it.
Overall, I rather like the new machine. It'll take me time to get used to all the new systems. All my files transferred over sweetly, however, and both my netbook and desktop are finally speaking the same language so the world is not at an end. Mind you, I still have a half dozen programs to install. Ask me how apocalyptic things feel when I'm finished...
January 14, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-01-15T11:29:00
I am now the proud owner of Victorian spectacles and a very educational card game from 1902, thanks to a friend. We send each other parcels from time to time, and hers this time was pretty amazing. The glasses are actually pince nez (two sets!) and for long vision (I tested them, of course). I have no idea where she got them from, but they're in an original case and just exceptionally amazing. I need to take a look at Victorian pictures, for I suspect one holds one's head differently when one reads to the way one does with spectacles with arms, to keep pince nez on.
The rest of my day is pretty much business as usual. I have a list and am working my way through it, bit by bit.
Update on hurting aspect: still aches. Still can't go outdoors. Naomi is giving me a library trip tonight though and I am seeing The Hobbit, finally, on Thursday, thanks to Elizabeth. It's daft, for both the library and the cinema are a short walk away, but if I can't walk short distances in this air, then I can't walk short distances in this air.
The rest of my day is pretty much business as usual. I have a list and am working my way through it, bit by bit.
Update on hurting aspect: still aches. Still can't go outdoors. Naomi is giving me a library trip tonight though and I am seeing The Hobbit, finally, on Thursday, thanks to Elizabeth. It's daft, for both the library and the cinema are a short walk away, but if I can't walk short distances in this air, then I can't walk short distances in this air.
January 13, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-01-14T11:35:00
I'm back in the universe of lists. I'm still confined indoors. The RFS listing tells me the fires aren't out, even though the air is much clearer. Also, my body tells me that we still have smoke. The rain yesterday helped, but it did not, alas clear the fires*. The smoke is hardly visible today, you see. Last night was, however, a rather bad night. Today I am most of Disney's dwarves, but especially Grumpy and Doc and Sleepy and Sneezy.
Anyhow, back to my lists. I have a long list today and the deadlines are all tonight. I have to sort out my computer problems, you see, and I can't let my editors down, so I have to get everything to them (and onto the Aurealis judging spreadsheet and to various other places) before I swap computers. The changeover may be wondrously smooth, but I need to act as if it won't be. Wednesday is the big day for all this and I'm in countdown mode.
When I'm through this list and my back email, I'll be a lot less grumpy, for suddenly there will be more clear space. I will also be able to work on projects of choice for a little. I love it that I'm getting the publications I need to be competitive on the job market (or more competitive) but it does restrict the time I can spend on my big projects.
If I'm clever, either three or four things can disappear from my list before lunchtime. En avant!
*For those who feel a burning need to tell me how relatively good I have it, being well away from the fires proper this time round as I am, I don't need to be told that people in the regions the fire actually burning have it worse: I know this already.
Anyhow, back to my lists. I have a long list today and the deadlines are all tonight. I have to sort out my computer problems, you see, and I can't let my editors down, so I have to get everything to them (and onto the Aurealis judging spreadsheet and to various other places) before I swap computers. The changeover may be wondrously smooth, but I need to act as if it won't be. Wednesday is the big day for all this and I'm in countdown mode.
When I'm through this list and my back email, I'll be a lot less grumpy, for suddenly there will be more clear space. I will also be able to work on projects of choice for a little. I love it that I'm getting the publications I need to be competitive on the job market (or more competitive) but it does restrict the time I can spend on my big projects.
If I'm clever, either three or four things can disappear from my list before lunchtime. En avant!
*For those who feel a burning need to tell me how relatively good I have it, being well away from the fires proper this time round as I am, I don't need to be told that people in the regions the fire actually burning have it worse: I know this already.
January 12, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-01-13T14:49:00
My very last BiblioBuffet article is up here: http://bibliobuffet.bookballoon.com/bookish-dreaming/1885-thoughts-010613 (and all the earlier articles have new permalinks, since they'll be accessible through Bookballoon from here on). I could wail and gnash my teeth, or I could warn you taht this is not the end of me writing essays about books. Or I could do both...
gillpolack @ 2013-01-13T12:57:00
Today is so much about editing that I'm beginning to doubt almost everything to do with language.
Yesterday was revisions, rather than edits, which was easier. No, not easier, just less like walking on quicksand.
Five pieces are being/have been/will be edited today. One is for Australia, one for Canada, one for the US, one for the UK and one does not yet have a home. When they reach tables of contents, then I'll talk about them a bit more, maybe. Or maybe I'll be busy editing something else by then.
Two of the pieces are fiction and the other three non-fiction. One contains Medievalism, the others, sadly, not.
Two are done and back with the editors. I guess I'd better stop turning text into numbers and finish the others. I want to cross them off my rather daunting piece of butcher's paper (stuck to the back of the front door. The butcher's paper contains everything that must be done this January and looking wistfully at it doesn't reduce the number of tasks. It shoudl, you know. I should be able to demolish talks through sheer mindpower.
In other news, today is cooler and so the fires are being got under control rather than getting worse. There's still much smoke in the air, however, and I am still confined indoors.
Yesterday was revisions, rather than edits, which was easier. No, not easier, just less like walking on quicksand.
Five pieces are being/have been/will be edited today. One is for Australia, one for Canada, one for the US, one for the UK and one does not yet have a home. When they reach tables of contents, then I'll talk about them a bit more, maybe. Or maybe I'll be busy editing something else by then.
Two of the pieces are fiction and the other three non-fiction. One contains Medievalism, the others, sadly, not.
Two are done and back with the editors. I guess I'd better stop turning text into numbers and finish the others. I want to cross them off my rather daunting piece of butcher's paper (stuck to the back of the front door. The butcher's paper contains everything that must be done this January and looking wistfully at it doesn't reduce the number of tasks. It shoudl, you know. I should be able to demolish talks through sheer mindpower.
In other news, today is cooler and so the fires are being got under control rather than getting worse. There's still much smoke in the air, however, and I am still confined indoors.
January 10, 2013
gillpolack @ 2013-01-11T17:51:00
Today I'm unwell enough to spend most of the time on my bed, feeling the warmth and wondering when things will improve. The Grump has to lead up to actual unwellness, I guess.
Anyhow, I've written a bit more of my much-delayed essay and I will definitely be finished the first draft when the coolness happens tonight (for even on a really bad day, when I am nothing but a ball of hurt and cannot even do gentle exercise, things improve about 10 pm) and I've made big inroads into other must-do reading. On a good day I do 12-14 hours work, and on a really bad day I do 3-4. Today I shall manage about 6, I suspect. Enough to keep everything above water.
My work today has some odd side effects. The reading was from a wide variety of writers and their fiction fitted into everything I've been reading recently (including the 50+ novels and not-yet-counted short stories for Aurealis and I had a thud of realisation.
I don't think there is as much pressure as there used to be for writers who are easy to publish (who are Names or who work within the saleable confines of genre) to improve their game. Six writers (a full half dozen) on my "read stories by them for these writers are going to turn into something really interesting" have now dropped off that list and are now on my "Read only when I need fluff and brainless entertainment" list. What they have in common is that they all find it easy to get published by medium to large publishers.
I suspect this may be part and parcel of the recent lessening of risk-taking by the larger publishers. We get fewer tale types and we get less pressure to push and push and improve the telling of tales.
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have some cool writing tricks for my students. Analytic reading is very handy for this kind of thing. These writers didn't get published because they can't write, after all. They're all good at what they do. It's just that they've dropped from writers of great potential to getting Cs from teachers "A clear pass, but can do much better. Try a bit harder next term."
I need universities to start advertising more jobs. I need to take all the stuff I'm learning and teach it in much greater depth than I can in short courses. I need to shake writers up early in their careers so that they know that the burden for writing is upon them and that they're the ones who lose if they accept the dicta of cautious editors and do not learn about their own writing and grow with it.
The longer I read, the more I suspect that professionalism in writing starts the very first moment on hears or dreams of story - it should not wait until one's sixth book is published. And growing in one's profession is a very important aspect of professionalism.
I merged from bed because I've run out of reading. I'll just grab my last volumes for today (today is short stories, for my attention span is suited to them) and stop ranting.
Anyhow, I've written a bit more of my much-delayed essay and I will definitely be finished the first draft when the coolness happens tonight (for even on a really bad day, when I am nothing but a ball of hurt and cannot even do gentle exercise, things improve about 10 pm) and I've made big inroads into other must-do reading. On a good day I do 12-14 hours work, and on a really bad day I do 3-4. Today I shall manage about 6, I suspect. Enough to keep everything above water.
My work today has some odd side effects. The reading was from a wide variety of writers and their fiction fitted into everything I've been reading recently (including the 50+ novels and not-yet-counted short stories for Aurealis and I had a thud of realisation.
I don't think there is as much pressure as there used to be for writers who are easy to publish (who are Names or who work within the saleable confines of genre) to improve their game. Six writers (a full half dozen) on my "read stories by them for these writers are going to turn into something really interesting" have now dropped off that list and are now on my "Read only when I need fluff and brainless entertainment" list. What they have in common is that they all find it easy to get published by medium to large publishers.
I suspect this may be part and parcel of the recent lessening of risk-taking by the larger publishers. We get fewer tale types and we get less pressure to push and push and improve the telling of tales.
That's the bad news. The good news is that I have some cool writing tricks for my students. Analytic reading is very handy for this kind of thing. These writers didn't get published because they can't write, after all. They're all good at what they do. It's just that they've dropped from writers of great potential to getting Cs from teachers "A clear pass, but can do much better. Try a bit harder next term."
I need universities to start advertising more jobs. I need to take all the stuff I'm learning and teach it in much greater depth than I can in short courses. I need to shake writers up early in their careers so that they know that the burden for writing is upon them and that they're the ones who lose if they accept the dicta of cautious editors and do not learn about their own writing and grow with it.
The longer I read, the more I suspect that professionalism in writing starts the very first moment on hears or dreams of story - it should not wait until one's sixth book is published. And growing in one's profession is a very important aspect of professionalism.
I merged from bed because I've run out of reading. I'll just grab my last volumes for today (today is short stories, for my attention span is suited to them) and stop ranting.
