| I may or may not be incommunicado for the next few days, or possibly a week. It all depends on if I can figure out how to FTP beyond the firewall at work, or if I can figure out the remote access function on my laptop whilst plugged in at the hotel. Animal Planet's residents are moving out for a week, while the flooring is installed. We'd try to live among it during this phase but, well, we need toilets on an annoyingly regular basis. In order to install the flooring, they need to de-install the toities. Unusual Fact #1 - Did you know they've got a statistic out there for the increase of newspaper sales due to a rise in the construction of multiple-bathroom households? Something like 37% or thereabouts. But, even though we've added another bathroom to our house, we still have the same amount of newspaper-reading residents. Sorry, AZ Republic. Also in today's news, some pimping is in order. Yesterday I mentioned Sarah's on-line journal. Today I must give a mention to om mani padme hum, by Jen. She'd just started up in April, so if you're like me and want to start at the beginning and get the *whole* story, there's only a few months of (highly entertaining) archives to go through. I wonder if all new (and perhaps veteran) OLJ-ists go through what I'm going through right now. I read all these delightful sites, and wonder how I ever thought any of my writing was worthy when compared with such genius. It seems everywhere I turn somebody's writing something profound, or hysterically funny, or thought provoking. Me? Well, to quote Calvin, "I can't see why anybody would find any of this stuff interesting." Now, to be fair, he meant it in the way that he lives it from day to day, and already knows all my thoughts and feelings and stuff, so it's old hat to him. And I've gotten some wonderful fan mail that has expressed interest and approval in my content. Yet I still doubt. Ah, well, it's human nature. I'm *not* going to turn into one of those journalists (ers? I've *got* to bottom out on a term) that constantly spews "I suck", or some derivation thereof, about my writing. Nosiree Bob. Unusual Fact #2 - Ever wonder where those sayings come from? "Nosiree Bob" - who the heck is Bob? And why do 2/3 of the population of the Earth feel the need to negate *him* when indicating disapproval? How about "It scared the living daylights outta me." What are living daylights, and how can they be scared out of someone? Oh, here's a good one - "Put your nose to the grindstone." Who the heck was the first person to think *that* would be a good idea? I ask you. And "It's raining cats and dogs". Really? I'd better get out my Super Special Reinforced Umbrella, then. There's probably a book out there somewhere that has the history behind all these things. Okay, back to the HIPFH(tm). Looks like by this time next week, or perhaps a few days beyond, we should be 98% done with things. Dear God, cross your fingers. In my next entry I hope to regale you with photographic evidence of our done-ness. The list of things to do is slowly dwindling. This weekend, we're moving out all the furniture and painting the entire interior. Then we hang out at the hotel pool while our tile and carpet is installed, also during which time the plumbing should be all hooked up, the air conditioner charged, the electricity connected, the skylights installed, the stucco sprayed, the shower constructed, (the i's crossed, the t's dotted...) and the debris removed. The new furniture is scheduled to be delivered on the 21st, and the moving-back-in process will commence. Halloween weekend should see me ensconced in my new bed and typing up new entries in my new bedroom. Will the change in scenery inspire new and greater feats of authoress-ship? We shall see. I'm feeling particularly uninspired(-ring) at the moment, so I hope something changes. Unusual Fact #3 - I just did a search on Excite for "writer's block". It came up with 1,030,000 results. I find it ironic that there are 1,030,000 written items about writer's block. And that's just on Excite. I have also found that none of the advice for overcoming writer's block works for me. "Just write anything." Well, if I could 'just write anything' it wouldn't be writer's block, now would it? I don't have any cure for writer's block other than time. Sooner or later the juices get flowing again. In the interim I try to avoid writing because it comes out like crap, and then I delete/erase/abandon it anyway, so why waste the time? Which brings me to a personal philosophy poll. For you writers out there (and you know who you are), do you keep everything you write, regardless of whether or not you deem it "good"? Do you keep tweaking and tweaking and TWEAKING a written piece, never feeling that it's quite done? Do you freely share what you write with others, and if so, do you wait until it's "done" (and we've already determined that's a non-existant stage) or do you share in mid-spiel? Do you alternate between Hemmingway-esque short, impactful sentences, and Auel-esque lines of incredibly verbose verbosity? Philosophy Sub-Poll - Once you put something in your on-line journal, is it then there forever, as immutable as history itself? Or do you allow yourself to go back and "edit" time? Have you ever posted anything that you were later embarrassed/ashamed/angry about? If so, did you leave it, or remove it? Enquiring minds want to know. |