Serdar Yegulalp's Blog, page 133
November 13, 2016
Tick Tick Tock Dept.
Can We Escape from Time? | by John Lanchester | The New York Review of Books
The new idea, time travel, is appealing because we know time better than we used to. We know, much better than our ancestors, the exact lineaments of what Kipling called the unforgiving minute. Our time is more universal and more precise than ever, and were more than ever aware of the fact; its no wonder that we dream so much and think so fervently of ways in which time might be bent, stretched, reversed, made less...
November 12, 2016
Motive Power Dept.
Ina conversation over on Reddit in /r/gamedev, someone asked the one question that is asked of most anyone in any creative field: How do you stay motivated? The best answer so far: You can't rely on motivation; rely on discipline instead.
November 10, 2016
No, No, NaNo Dept.
Forgot to mention this before, but sorry, not this time around, gang. No NaNoWriMo for me. I'm neck-deep inAlways Outnumbered, Never Outgunned, and am letting that stand as my current project. I still wish everyone out there who is taking the plunge this time around the very best of luck, though, including my fine friend Scott.
A quick note.
I have said very little about the election here, but not because I don't care about it. It's because I'm trying to stay focused. Focus is one of the few salves I have for uncertain times.
I also find I tend to lose political arguments very, very quickly, in big part because I am not very good at sustaining such discussions. The last thing I want to do is waste my energy in ways that will just leave everyone, especially me, all the more exhausted.
That said, the level of quietude you're seeing...
November 9, 2016
2016-11-09
I just want people to know blogging will resume in short order, and so will my writing work. It's been a busy couple of days, as you can imagine.
October 31, 2016
Mind: Your Own Business Dept.
The other night I woke up from a nightmare that was so prolonged and so vivid that it took me minutes on end to reassure myself I was still awake. Even walking outside and looking at the morning sky (see? you're back in the real world!) wasn't enough at first.
A lot of the nightmares I've had aren't in the vein of horror movies; they're more about irreversible social embarrassments or long-buried fears like missing a class. (Is there anyone here who doesn't have some kind of nightmare about s...
October 29, 2016
Which One's Pink? How About All Of Them? Dept.
This is in fact a post about Pink Floyd, sorta-kinda. But it's about using the band as a metaphor for discussing something else, so if you're looking for album review, this isn't it.
October 23, 2016
I Don't Know Much About Art, But I Know Who I Like Dept.
The other day my wife and I got to talking about artists we have personal misgivings about, and she mentioned that she can't listen to Led Zeppelin anymore because of Jimmy Page's creepy messings-around with underage girls. (For the record:yecch.)
When a living artist is surrounded in mystery, that allows people to project whatever qualities they want onto the person. Most of the time, though, they seem to be a kind of positive blank space: I don't know much about him, but his books are amazi...
October 18, 2016
The Most Professional Guys In The Room Dept.
Somewhere along the way — I don't know exactly where, between time and Timbuktu, I guess — I picked up the idea that "real" writers don't post moment-by-moment progress reports on their work. They just write the damn things and deliver them to their readers when they're done.
October 10, 2016
The WDTJSH Problem Dept.
In another forum, there was some discussion along the lines of, "What's the biggest problem you have as a writer?" I chimed in, and the answer I came up with seemed worth sharing:
The single biggest thing I have a problem with is the WDTJSH, or Why Dont They Just Shoot Him problem.
