I'm currently in the process of getting a new website designed (early in the process but still). I'm pretty sure that the new site will be WordPress based and that pretty much means converting the blog to WordPress as well. After some poking around the internet the less than exciting news seemed to be that one can only import blogger content to WordPress if your blog template is new blogger based.
Phooey. So, I have finally had to give up my claw hold on my classic template and convert and this is the result. I'm sure there will be tweaking etc in it's future but it's about as close as I can get to the old blog for now. Hopefully the white posts backgrounds are easier on the eyes anyway. So welcome to the new (for now) look Crossed Wires! Short may it reign and let me know if there are any issues you find!
Showing posts with label tech-o-drama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech-o-drama. Show all posts
February 12, 2011
March 21, 2010
Still marooned
Still without home adsl. Apparently it's meant to be fixed tomorrow. At this point I'm sceptical but fingers crossed. On Thursday I got sick of trying to keep up with everything online via the iPhone (not to mention was getting concerned about my data allowance for the month) so I decided to go buy a prepaid mobile wireless internet modem. Have to say, so far it works pretty well. Pity that we get so severely ripped off for mobile data in this country. But it will come in handy for travels within Australia in the future plus I guess is tax deductible, so not a complete loss.
In other news I have given myself a week to ponder my plot and the best the girls can come up with is "it's mostly right but we don't know much more than that" so I'm going to just keep writing while I'm waiting for my revision letter (eeek!) and see what happens. (The joys of pantsing!) In the meantime the muse has wanted to watch Gossip Girl and Bones and read J.D. Robb. No idea what that combination is likely to produce in the brain but should be interesting.
Yesterday was the first ballet of the year - The Silver Rose - which was interesting but not the world's best music I have to admit. The costumes were gorgeous (all art nouveau inspired) and the dancing was fab but the music was just a bit meh which spoils some of the drama. And it's a very "operatic" (as Terry Pratchett would say) plot. Given it's inspired by Der Rosenkavalier this makes sense but the plot doesn't, really. Never big on the "man dresses as woman and another man falls for him instantly" plot. Still, well worth a look if you're ballet inclined and in Australia.
In other news I have given myself a week to ponder my plot and the best the girls can come up with is "it's mostly right but we don't know much more than that" so I'm going to just keep writing while I'm waiting for my revision letter (eeek!) and see what happens. (The joys of pantsing!) In the meantime the muse has wanted to watch Gossip Girl and Bones and read J.D. Robb. No idea what that combination is likely to produce in the brain but should be interesting.
Yesterday was the first ballet of the year - The Silver Rose - which was interesting but not the world's best music I have to admit. The costumes were gorgeous (all art nouveau inspired) and the dancing was fab but the music was just a bit meh which spoils some of the drama. And it's a very "operatic" (as Terry Pratchett would say) plot. Given it's inspired by Der Rosenkavalier this makes sense but the plot doesn't, really. Never big on the "man dresses as woman and another man falls for him instantly" plot. Still, well worth a look if you're ballet inclined and in Australia.
March 13, 2010
Marooned
Thanks to the gods of communications who decreed that fixing my landline = breaking my adsl I am without Internet at home and can only get online via the iPhone (have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?)
So I'll be tweeting a bit and checking emails but otherwise scarce as things like blogging are tricky on teeny screen. Plus I can't update my template on the phone so here's the latest wordcount....45k!!! Yay that is hopefully over half way of first draft page count! Aiming to get to 50k by tomorrow night which should be doable given have less ways to procrastinate with no Internet on the computer!
More when I'm back in the land of the wired.
So I'll be tweeting a bit and checking emails but otherwise scarce as things like blogging are tricky on teeny screen. Plus I can't update my template on the phone so here's the latest wordcount....45k!!! Yay that is hopefully over half way of first draft page count! Aiming to get to 50k by tomorrow night which should be doable given have less ways to procrastinate with no Internet on the computer!
More when I'm back in the land of the wired.
October 11, 2009
Argh
For some reason blogger ate the first version of my "The Sound and the Process" post after saying it was published. And now that I've republished it, it doesn't seem to want to let me set the time to before the audiobook post or alter the audiobook post's time to after the soundtrack post. So the start of the audiobook post now doesn't make sense. Methinks blogger is throwing a tanty but thought I'd post this as an explanation!
Stupid technology.
PS Fixed by deleting and re-posting them. So now this post kind of doesn't make sense but I'm leaving it in case anyone else ever has a similar issue.
Stupid technology.
PS Fixed by deleting and re-posting them. So now this post kind of doesn't make sense but I'm leaving it in case anyone else ever has a similar issue.
August 23, 2009
Grrr. And possibly argh.
I have returned from my travels, which were lovely and relaxing. However have also returned with a touch of a cold. Hopefully it won't be much more than a touch as I have been downing echinacea and various vitamins all through the conference and travelling in an attempt to avoid exactly this.
Any way, being slightly coldish, I decided that a lazy Sunday might be in order but that I also needed some groceries. So toddled off to the shopping centre to achieve groceries. Given said shopping centre has several electronics type stores, I decided to look into acquiring a new cheapass TV to replace my currently on its last legs dvd playing bedroom TV. Turns out this is not so simple. The net effect of all this plasma and LCD craze in TVs seems to be that TVs are more now expensive, even the little ones. And I don't want to pay "you-want-how-much" for a TV just to play dvds in my bedroom. But I eventually found a cheap smallish CRT TV at Dick Smith and carted it home. Then there was a suitable pause while I did the "I think I need to sit down now as I am sick and just did a bit too much" thing on the couch. Then I had the cunning plan to set up the new TV so I could maybe have a really lazy Sunday afternoon reading and watching DVDs and napping in bed.
So I lug the thing into the bedroom, disconnect and lug the old one out, connect the new one up, apply power and um, nothing happened. Zip. Good old electrickery does not seem to do much for this TV at all. (I will add as a side bar that the darn thing has no buttons on the TV, you have to use the remote!!!) Not even a little standby light anywhere. I'm half wondering if the battery for the remote is dead (and of course it's some fancy little round lithium thing so hardly have one on hand) but the lack of any sort of standby light is leaning me towards "this is an ex-TV". And the power point is working cos the old TV worked fine and the DVD works fine.So now it looks like I have to lug it back to the store. Where words will be had if they don't produce another one tout suite.
Only I really can't be fagged doing that today so I think for now I shall just apply my head to the desk and then lie on the couch instead.
Any way, being slightly coldish, I decided that a lazy Sunday might be in order but that I also needed some groceries. So toddled off to the shopping centre to achieve groceries. Given said shopping centre has several electronics type stores, I decided to look into acquiring a new cheapass TV to replace my currently on its last legs dvd playing bedroom TV. Turns out this is not so simple. The net effect of all this plasma and LCD craze in TVs seems to be that TVs are more now expensive, even the little ones. And I don't want to pay "you-want-how-much" for a TV just to play dvds in my bedroom. But I eventually found a cheap smallish CRT TV at Dick Smith and carted it home. Then there was a suitable pause while I did the "I think I need to sit down now as I am sick and just did a bit too much" thing on the couch. Then I had the cunning plan to set up the new TV so I could maybe have a really lazy Sunday afternoon reading and watching DVDs and napping in bed.
So I lug the thing into the bedroom, disconnect and lug the old one out, connect the new one up, apply power and um, nothing happened. Zip. Good old electrickery does not seem to do much for this TV at all. (I will add as a side bar that the darn thing has no buttons on the TV, you have to use the remote!!!) Not even a little standby light anywhere. I'm half wondering if the battery for the remote is dead (and of course it's some fancy little round lithium thing so hardly have one on hand) but the lack of any sort of standby light is leaning me towards "this is an ex-TV". And the power point is working cos the old TV worked fine and the DVD works fine.So now it looks like I have to lug it back to the store. Where words will be had if they don't produce another one tout suite.
Only I really can't be fagged doing that today so I think for now I shall just apply my head to the desk and then lie on the couch instead.
September 30, 2008
RSS SOS
Like most of us who hang out a bit on the internet, I read blogs (possibly too many blogs but that's another post altogether).
I don't use any sort of blog aggregator (basically, I cannot be bothered learning how to use one and setting it up etc etc). However I do love my RSS feeds and have the very low tech solution of when a blog I read regularly has a feed, I save the link to the feed in a folder in my bookmarks menu. So when I open the bookmarks menu and there are new posts it says something like:
Blogs I like (3) to let me know there are 3 new posts to the feeds. Open up the folder and each blog name has the number of new posts next to it if it has any ie:
Blog A (1) Simple. Who needs an aggregator, right?
Except, er, lately my RSS feeds seem to be toying with the laws of mathmatics. I've noticed a couple of times that when I've read all the blogs with new posts, the folder will still insist that there are Blogs I like (1) even though none of the blogs have any new posts. Which I figured was just an occasional glitch in the browser clearing the feed or something. Until I came home to day to discover that apparently my RSS has gone for broke and invented some entirely new system of mathematics altogether.
I opened the bookmarks menu to see "Blogs I like (23)". Hmmm, thinks I, that seems like a lot of posts for one day (I don't have heaps of blogs in this folder and those I do, I often read during breakfast as lots of them are written by people who live in places where it is daytime while I sleep and post then). So I go in and see something like.
Blog A (1)
Blog B (1)
Blog C (5)
Blogs E - N, say had 11 between them. So that adds up to 18, not 23. I thought maybe Blog C was being weird so opened it up to read it and clear the RSS count. The Blogs I like figure dropped to 17 (which you will note is not what 23 - 5 equals). Worse still, Blog C still said Blog C (5). So I click on Blog C again to see if it will clear. Blogs I like total becomes 15 (17 - 5 equals 12 last time I checked). Blog C still insists it has 5 posts. So I read a couple more of the blogs and the Blogs I like number dropped to 10. Which was then less than the total of what the individual blogs said. The math, they no like it. I know how they feel. As someone who often works with numbers in the day job, I can relate to the "math, I no like it" vibe. But that doesn't change the fact that 1 + 1 = 2. Something appears to be rotten in the state of RSS (or maybe rotten in the state of Safari). As I type, Blog C is still insisting it has five new articles despite being opened several times, all the other blogs say they have none and the Blogs I like insists that 2 is the correct count. Maybe it's using the same math that the financial systems has been relying on. Oy.
I think all this adds up to it's time to have some dinner and a glass of wine while we put the browser in the naughty corner and threaten it with remedial arithmetic. Maybe it's time to work out that whole aggregator thing after all....
I don't use any sort of blog aggregator (basically, I cannot be bothered learning how to use one and setting it up etc etc). However I do love my RSS feeds and have the very low tech solution of when a blog I read regularly has a feed, I save the link to the feed in a folder in my bookmarks menu. So when I open the bookmarks menu and there are new posts it says something like:
Blogs I like (3) to let me know there are 3 new posts to the feeds. Open up the folder and each blog name has the number of new posts next to it if it has any ie:
Blog A (1) Simple. Who needs an aggregator, right?
Except, er, lately my RSS feeds seem to be toying with the laws of mathmatics. I've noticed a couple of times that when I've read all the blogs with new posts, the folder will still insist that there are Blogs I like (1) even though none of the blogs have any new posts. Which I figured was just an occasional glitch in the browser clearing the feed or something. Until I came home to day to discover that apparently my RSS has gone for broke and invented some entirely new system of mathematics altogether.
I opened the bookmarks menu to see "Blogs I like (23)". Hmmm, thinks I, that seems like a lot of posts for one day (I don't have heaps of blogs in this folder and those I do, I often read during breakfast as lots of them are written by people who live in places where it is daytime while I sleep and post then). So I go in and see something like.
Blog A (1)
Blog B (1)
Blog C (5)
Blogs E - N, say had 11 between them. So that adds up to 18, not 23. I thought maybe Blog C was being weird so opened it up to read it and clear the RSS count. The Blogs I like figure dropped to 17 (which you will note is not what 23 - 5 equals). Worse still, Blog C still said Blog C (5). So I click on Blog C again to see if it will clear. Blogs I like total becomes 15 (17 - 5 equals 12 last time I checked). Blog C still insists it has 5 posts. So I read a couple more of the blogs and the Blogs I like number dropped to 10. Which was then less than the total of what the individual blogs said. The math, they no like it. I know how they feel. As someone who often works with numbers in the day job, I can relate to the "math, I no like it" vibe. But that doesn't change the fact that 1 + 1 = 2. Something appears to be rotten in the state of RSS (or maybe rotten in the state of Safari). As I type, Blog C is still insisting it has five new articles despite being opened several times, all the other blogs say they have none and the Blogs I like insists that 2 is the correct count. Maybe it's using the same math that the financial systems has been relying on. Oy.
I think all this adds up to it's time to have some dinner and a glass of wine while we put the browser in the naughty corner and threaten it with remedial arithmetic. Maybe it's time to work out that whole aggregator thing after all....
August 16, 2008
Mel's tip of the day
If you happen to buy a new computer and import your stuff across and use Curio, then remember to save all your projects with all the assets embedded before you copy them across...otherwise you might just have a heart attack the first time you open a project and half the images are missing.
Just sayin'. Not that I just spent half an hour or so rectifying said oversight or anything. Phew. The thought of losing all my collages gives me shivers. The girls like their pretty pictures and they are time intensive to create!
Just sayin'. Not that I just spent half an hour or so rectifying said oversight or anything. Phew. The thought of losing all my collages gives me shivers. The girls like their pretty pictures and they are time intensive to create!
February 16, 2008
Critical mass
Things have improved a bit. My monitor came back all fixed yesterday (though with no notice from the service people that it was on it's way and no explanation of what the issue was), so I am happily back in the land of mac with my iTunes and Scrivener and Curio and all mac goodness. Plus nice big screen again. Laptop screens are just too dang small.
I got a reasonable amount of writing down yesterday, still mostly reworking my first chapter. I don't usually rework this much before moving on but I have changed the concept of the book and need to get the tone and feel of it right before I move on. But yesterday I got to a draft that I felt comfortable giving to some folks for comments and it would seem the world works and one of them helped me out somewhat with the still elusive hero and what the two of them should be butting heads about at this point (which means I've just started another rewrite but this will be the last one). So I'm about to proceed to new scenes where things will start moving and hopefully wackiness of a good spooky paranormal kind will ensue. Hopefully the pages will start to progress forwards again. I can feel story piling up in my head which is hard to explain but is usally a Good Sign.
I also found out that Steven Brust, writer of the excellent Taltos novels amongst other things, has written a Firefly novel which you can download for free (squee of frabjous joy) so now I am reading that. Shiny.
My Torchwood dvds also arrived. Mmmm Captain Jack (of the non pirate variety). Though weirdly, the second dvd player in the bedroom has decided it does not like the format. It's happily played other US and UK dvds so no idea why. Luckily number one dvd likes it just fine.
Tonight I'm off to teppenyaki with the girls. Luckily our restaurant is not one where the chefs feel the need to fling food at the patrons. Given the way the week has been, it would likely mean I'd end up with teriyaki down my cleavage or something : )
I got a reasonable amount of writing down yesterday, still mostly reworking my first chapter. I don't usually rework this much before moving on but I have changed the concept of the book and need to get the tone and feel of it right before I move on. But yesterday I got to a draft that I felt comfortable giving to some folks for comments and it would seem the world works and one of them helped me out somewhat with the still elusive hero and what the two of them should be butting heads about at this point (which means I've just started another rewrite but this will be the last one). So I'm about to proceed to new scenes where things will start moving and hopefully wackiness of a good spooky paranormal kind will ensue. Hopefully the pages will start to progress forwards again. I can feel story piling up in my head which is hard to explain but is usally a Good Sign.
I also found out that Steven Brust, writer of the excellent Taltos novels amongst other things, has written a Firefly novel which you can download for free (squee of frabjous joy) so now I am reading that. Shiny.
My Torchwood dvds also arrived. Mmmm Captain Jack (of the non pirate variety). Though weirdly, the second dvd player in the bedroom has decided it does not like the format. It's happily played other US and UK dvds so no idea why. Luckily number one dvd likes it just fine.
Tonight I'm off to teppenyaki with the girls. Luckily our restaurant is not one where the chefs feel the need to fling food at the patrons. Given the way the week has been, it would likely mean I'd end up with teriyaki down my cleavage or something : )
February 23, 2007
Zokutou, where are you?
Anyone know what the deal is with Zokutou? I need my word count meter, darn it. Call me a virgo but I like seeing the little bar zoom along.
Or anyone know another pretty progress bar site? Pout.
A couple of mac toys: Think (which will blank out all apps but one, allowing you to concentrate on that one app) and Scrivener (a writing tool that looks kind of cool though I'm only just starting to play).
That's about it for me. It's hot. Off to write and keep writing the list of the approximately forty billion places I need to change my email address with due to imminent ISP change.
Or anyone know another pretty progress bar site? Pout.
A couple of mac toys: Think (which will blank out all apps but one, allowing you to concentrate on that one app) and Scrivener (a writing tool that looks kind of cool though I'm only just starting to play).
That's about it for me. It's hot. Off to write and keep writing the list of the approximately forty billion places I need to change my email address with due to imminent ISP change.
November 07, 2006
Luck be a lady
Well, it's Melbourne Cup day today. Which is a public holiday in Melbourne and yippee! Cup Day tends to come in two flavours, given its timing in late Spring. Stinking hot or chilly and wet. Today, because I am going to a bbq, it is so far chilly not yet wet. Maybe it will fine up a bit. But before the bbq there are choc cinnamon muffins to make to take with me, a walk and some writing to be done. My revision is slow so far, mainly because the first part of the book is the biggest chunk of pure rewrite but am starting to come to grips with this new twist on the story. Hopefully the rest will come quicker.
In other news....Chris Isaak is still hot (but you knew that already, I'm sure) and his show was a blast. That voice. Sigh. But the only one of his cds that I can't get to play on my mac so I can put it on my iPod is, of course, the one with the song I want for the book soundtrack...and it's not on the aussie iTunes store either. Grumble. So hot but unappreciated by iTunes in this country apparently. It's on the US store. But not having a US credit card, that doesn't help me. And me singing the song doesn't have the same impact : ) The VT's PC doesn't like her copy either so I think it must be one of those copy protected things...it came out about the time they were doing that. Dumb record companies. I'm all for protecting copyright, hey I'm a writer, but I should be able to listen to a cd I have bought on my computer and my iPod.
And now off to make muffins...may your horse run the fastest!
In other news....Chris Isaak is still hot (but you knew that already, I'm sure) and his show was a blast. That voice. Sigh. But the only one of his cds that I can't get to play on my mac so I can put it on my iPod is, of course, the one with the song I want for the book soundtrack...and it's not on the aussie iTunes store either. Grumble. So hot but unappreciated by iTunes in this country apparently. It's on the US store. But not having a US credit card, that doesn't help me. And me singing the song doesn't have the same impact : ) The VT's PC doesn't like her copy either so I think it must be one of those copy protected things...it came out about the time they were doing that. Dumb record companies. I'm all for protecting copyright, hey I'm a writer, but I should be able to listen to a cd I have bought on my computer and my iPod.
And now off to make muffins...may your horse run the fastest!
April 18, 2006
Stuffing around
Well Keri called her post Stuff or Stuffed, so I will continue her theme. Cos stuffing around is what I have been doing today instead of writing.
I have done the laundry, I have taken the folks' mac mini to the mac doctor (get well soon little mac mini), I have done my grocery shopping and I have surfed the net, eaten an easter egg and read InStyle. Then, just as I was thinking about maybe doing some actual writing, I made a fatal error, I decided to check out Library Thing, something I have been resisting for a while. To quote Pretty Woman, 'big mistake - HUGE'. lol
Talk about your perfectly designed to be a time sink for virgos-who-love-books site. 2 hours and over two hundred books already entered (which worries me because I haven't gotten terribly far in the collection) and a life membership purchased and I'm loving it. I've always worried about the book collection in terms of how do I prove what I had if my house burnt down? Well, this is the answer. I mean, books are my main extravagance in terms of what I spend my money on, so it makes sense to keep a record. It's not like I have millions of books, but I'm guessing I have well over a thousand. At a conservative replacement cost of $20 AUD for the paperbacks and maybe $45 for the hardbacks, that's a lot of spondoolas if someone torched the place. (I'm just doing the math now and yikes, I think I've freaked myself out - of course, they didn't all cost that when I bought them, once upon a time paperbacks were a reasonable price in this country, and some were second hand and some are gifts and the collection has been building since I was 10 or so but still!!!)
Note to the universe, no-one is to torch my house, please. At least now, I'll have a record. And I guess I'll have to limit myself to entering a shelf at a time or something.
Enough with the guilt. Off to write. For the first time ever I've gone over my data allowance on my internet for the month so I'm stuck with snail speed for the next two days. Grumble.
I have done the laundry, I have taken the folks' mac mini to the mac doctor (get well soon little mac mini), I have done my grocery shopping and I have surfed the net, eaten an easter egg and read InStyle. Then, just as I was thinking about maybe doing some actual writing, I made a fatal error, I decided to check out Library Thing, something I have been resisting for a while. To quote Pretty Woman, 'big mistake - HUGE'. lol
Talk about your perfectly designed to be a time sink for virgos-who-love-books site. 2 hours and over two hundred books already entered (which worries me because I haven't gotten terribly far in the collection) and a life membership purchased and I'm loving it. I've always worried about the book collection in terms of how do I prove what I had if my house burnt down? Well, this is the answer. I mean, books are my main extravagance in terms of what I spend my money on, so it makes sense to keep a record. It's not like I have millions of books, but I'm guessing I have well over a thousand. At a conservative replacement cost of $20 AUD for the paperbacks and maybe $45 for the hardbacks, that's a lot of spondoolas if someone torched the place. (I'm just doing the math now and yikes, I think I've freaked myself out - of course, they didn't all cost that when I bought them, once upon a time paperbacks were a reasonable price in this country, and some were second hand and some are gifts and the collection has been building since I was 10 or so but still!!!)
Note to the universe, no-one is to torch my house, please. At least now, I'll have a record. And I guess I'll have to limit myself to entering a shelf at a time or something.
Enough with the guilt. Off to write. For the first time ever I've gone over my data allowance on my internet for the month so I'm stuck with snail speed for the next two days. Grumble.
April 16, 2006
Happy Easter
Not such an original blog title but sincerely meant. I hope you have all partaken of the buns of hot cross goodness and received mucho chocolato from the bunny. Plus hanging out with whoever makes you happy.
I've been down at my folks and have only been back a few hours, which means I am still enduring the orange cat's 'you've been away' ritual. Which mostly consists of him stomping around shouting at me. I figure I know what he means - they are more than usually indignant yowls about how I left HIM behind and he was stuck inside and only that Jo and Dave pair came to see him and feed him. Though he also goes outside and shouts as well. I've never figured out whether that bit is "watch out world, the boss is back" or more along the lines of "free at last, free at last, thank god in heaven I'm free at last" but it's pretty funny.
I'll be forgiven by the time he gets dinner.
So home was good, hot cross buns were eaten, pink champagne (Hardy's something or other reserve - very nice) was drunk and I was taught a valuable lesson in remembering to check what you've set iTunes to when you burn a disc lol aka if it was data last time you need to change in back to audio before burning audio discs - sorry Mum.
I managed to write a few pages as well so that's good. And Mum made lamb roast for lunch. Yum. Yum. Yum.
So now I'm having toast, made with Dad's homemade light rye, for dinner. Dad is the son of a baker and makes very good bread and muffins. My Pa died when I was only three so I don't really remember him - a few vague memories of a short, smiling man always causing mischief (and even then I don't know how much of that is from home movies, photos and stories rather than my own memories) - so in a way, eating bread made by Dad feels like a connection. And a reminder of who I can blame for my own love of bread and baked goodies.
The lulus are coming tomorrow for critting so I'd better get cracking and print something out. And do some writing before I attempt to excavate the surface of my kitchen table which is currently covered in RWA stuff.
I had a massage last Thursday, something I always promise myself I will do more often and then invariably delay. It was fabulous. I want to make a concerted effort to keep the stress levels down because stress = bad sleep = cranky = less writing. So resolution number one to have more massages.
Resolution number two is to keep the stress down in other ways as well (this is the bit where you can stop reading if new age stuff bores you or makes you go "rubbish"). : ) To that end I've also bought a couple of mediation cds - another thing that interests me and I always say "must learn more about". These are by Brain Sync (someone on a writers list mentioned them - so thanks Karen!) and are meant to contain the frequencies to evoke the correct sorts of brain waves for various activities (ie Theta for meditation, delta for sleep and other sorts of ones (go read the link if you want the details) for other activities.
I've read a bit about this stuff over the years - the fact that expert meditators put themselves into theta states which is meant to be a very good thing so I figured what the heck. I got a meditation one, a concentration one (I'm hoping good for work and writing in those can't think times - it worked well last night letting me write 3 pages longhand in half an hour in the living room while the folks watched TV. That's faster than usual plus I don't usually write well with my folks in the room) and a sleep one. I don't know if the frequency thing actually works or not but I've drifted off twice now to the sound sleep one and it's very relaxing. And the meditation one is good too. I'll keep you posted on what I think.
And now I'm really going to write!
I've been down at my folks and have only been back a few hours, which means I am still enduring the orange cat's 'you've been away' ritual. Which mostly consists of him stomping around shouting at me. I figure I know what he means - they are more than usually indignant yowls about how I left HIM behind and he was stuck inside and only that Jo and Dave pair came to see him and feed him. Though he also goes outside and shouts as well. I've never figured out whether that bit is "watch out world, the boss is back" or more along the lines of "free at last, free at last, thank god in heaven I'm free at last" but it's pretty funny.
I'll be forgiven by the time he gets dinner.
So home was good, hot cross buns were eaten, pink champagne (Hardy's something or other reserve - very nice) was drunk and I was taught a valuable lesson in remembering to check what you've set iTunes to when you burn a disc lol aka if it was data last time you need to change in back to audio before burning audio discs - sorry Mum.
I managed to write a few pages as well so that's good. And Mum made lamb roast for lunch. Yum. Yum. Yum.
So now I'm having toast, made with Dad's homemade light rye, for dinner. Dad is the son of a baker and makes very good bread and muffins. My Pa died when I was only three so I don't really remember him - a few vague memories of a short, smiling man always causing mischief (and even then I don't know how much of that is from home movies, photos and stories rather than my own memories) - so in a way, eating bread made by Dad feels like a connection. And a reminder of who I can blame for my own love of bread and baked goodies.
The lulus are coming tomorrow for critting so I'd better get cracking and print something out. And do some writing before I attempt to excavate the surface of my kitchen table which is currently covered in RWA stuff.
I had a massage last Thursday, something I always promise myself I will do more often and then invariably delay. It was fabulous. I want to make a concerted effort to keep the stress levels down because stress = bad sleep = cranky = less writing. So resolution number one to have more massages.
Resolution number two is to keep the stress down in other ways as well (this is the bit where you can stop reading if new age stuff bores you or makes you go "rubbish"). : ) To that end I've also bought a couple of mediation cds - another thing that interests me and I always say "must learn more about". These are by Brain Sync (someone on a writers list mentioned them - so thanks Karen!) and are meant to contain the frequencies to evoke the correct sorts of brain waves for various activities (ie Theta for meditation, delta for sleep and other sorts of ones (go read the link if you want the details) for other activities.
I've read a bit about this stuff over the years - the fact that expert meditators put themselves into theta states which is meant to be a very good thing so I figured what the heck. I got a meditation one, a concentration one (I'm hoping good for work and writing in those can't think times - it worked well last night letting me write 3 pages longhand in half an hour in the living room while the folks watched TV. That's faster than usual plus I don't usually write well with my folks in the room) and a sleep one. I don't know if the frequency thing actually works or not but I've drifted off twice now to the sound sleep one and it's very relaxing. And the meditation one is good too. I'll keep you posted on what I think.
And now I'm really going to write!
March 19, 2006
Technology Part 2. Or “if it’s not broken, don’t FIX it”.
Ah technology. The thing that supposedly makes our lives easier. HAH.
Not only am I composing this on Word for later posting because blogger is down but the saga of digital TV continues.
I duly travelled to the local mall to buy a longer RF cable. Check. Along with a few other things and the groceries. Colour me organised and feeling virtuous.
Get home. Read set top box manual (well, read the one measly diagram that shows how to connect your VCR). Follow diagram with much bending and twisting and prodding of cables through teeny holes in entertainment unit. Switch on VCR. Back to blue screen of death. Sigh.
Check TV. Still working. Check diagram. Have done what it said to do. Jiggle cables, perform short appeasement dance to the technology gods and try again.
Blue screen of death.
Say “BUGGER” several times. Loudly. Scaring cat in process. Create voodoo doll of instructional manual designers and commence with the pin poking. Childish fit over, sit down and google the darn thing. Find another diagram.
A-ha. There’s a whole ‘nother connection needed to hook up VCR for analogue signal. Sigh loudly. Apply more pins with more vigour.
Find original VCR cable, pray it’s long enough and with more bending, twisting and prodding, complete second connection. Turn on VCR again. Hallelujah. It works.
But hang on, that was all too easy. Relatively speaking. Flick through channels on VCR. Note that some of them are notably fuzzier than they were before. Recommence swearing and go back to google. Find Australian government website on digital TV. Apparently this is common. The digital program signal can interfere with the analogue. Either retune VCR or connect digitally. Only hitch being if we connect digitally we can’t tape something and watch something else (which is the main purpose of my VCR thanks to the annoying programmers of Australian TV who insist on scheduling good shows on different channels at the same time).
Sigh, sigh, sigh. Ignore little voice saying “you know, all this time you could have been WRITING”.
Thought of retuning VCR with new TV, new set top box and approximately 3 million remote controls making head hurt. Pause to eat chocolate and vent in blog. Blogger down.
SIGH. GRUMBLE. MUTTER. SIGH.
Decide two crappy extra channels not worth all this hassle. Plan B. Return things to how they were.
Set top box about to go back in cupboard until there is enough benefit to digital TV to make all this worthwhile. Hopefully by that time I’ll be able to afford the sort of set top box arrangement that records programs. I’m sure that will be simple. NOT.
Excuse me, I have to go find more voodoo dolls and pins.
Not only am I composing this on Word for later posting because blogger is down but the saga of digital TV continues.
I duly travelled to the local mall to buy a longer RF cable. Check. Along with a few other things and the groceries. Colour me organised and feeling virtuous.
Get home. Read set top box manual (well, read the one measly diagram that shows how to connect your VCR). Follow diagram with much bending and twisting and prodding of cables through teeny holes in entertainment unit. Switch on VCR. Back to blue screen of death. Sigh.
Check TV. Still working. Check diagram. Have done what it said to do. Jiggle cables, perform short appeasement dance to the technology gods and try again.
Blue screen of death.
Say “BUGGER” several times. Loudly. Scaring cat in process. Create voodoo doll of instructional manual designers and commence with the pin poking. Childish fit over, sit down and google the darn thing. Find another diagram.
A-ha. There’s a whole ‘nother connection needed to hook up VCR for analogue signal. Sigh loudly. Apply more pins with more vigour.
Find original VCR cable, pray it’s long enough and with more bending, twisting and prodding, complete second connection. Turn on VCR again. Hallelujah. It works.
But hang on, that was all too easy. Relatively speaking. Flick through channels on VCR. Note that some of them are notably fuzzier than they were before. Recommence swearing and go back to google. Find Australian government website on digital TV. Apparently this is common. The digital program signal can interfere with the analogue. Either retune VCR or connect digitally. Only hitch being if we connect digitally we can’t tape something and watch something else (which is the main purpose of my VCR thanks to the annoying programmers of Australian TV who insist on scheduling good shows on different channels at the same time).
Sigh, sigh, sigh. Ignore little voice saying “you know, all this time you could have been WRITING”.
Thought of retuning VCR with new TV, new set top box and approximately 3 million remote controls making head hurt. Pause to eat chocolate and vent in blog. Blogger down.
SIGH. GRUMBLE. MUTTER. SIGH.
Decide two crappy extra channels not worth all this hassle. Plan B. Return things to how they were.
Set top box about to go back in cupboard until there is enough benefit to digital TV to make all this worthwhile. Hopefully by that time I’ll be able to afford the sort of set top box arrangement that records programs. I’m sure that will be simple. NOT.
Excuse me, I have to go find more voodoo dolls and pins.
March 18, 2006
Tutus and technology
I went to the ballet today.
My mum and I subscribe to the Australian Ballet and go five times or so a year. Kind of a gals day out thing, she comes down from the country we have lunch, eat cake and watch the dancing. It used to be me, mum and my sil until my brother decided to get a job in another state. Now it's me, mum and gwen, one of mum's friends.
Between the three of us there is much in-depth artistic appreciation, particularly of the cute male dancers ; ) (come back Angel, come back) and giggling at the commentary provided by various oldies who sit behind us at the matinee which generally covers topics such as "this ballet is too long", "what ralph said to mavis's george at bowls", "things were better in our day" and on one particularly classic occasion "you can see her stockings" in scandalised tones (not sure how long it'd been since that guy had been to the ballet).
Today we saw Gathering a program of two works developed jointly with the Bangarra Dance Theatre. The Australian Ballet is a fantastic company and I've seen them perform works choreographed by Bangarra's choreographer before but to see the two companies together, combining the traditions of classical ballet and aboriginal dance was fascinating. There's a completely different physicality to the two but a lot in common. And the abilities of the dancers are amazing. Some of the things they can do with their bodies are just wrong : ) Believe me, I do pilates and ballet dancers do pilates and I can see glimpses of pilates moves in certain things but they do for hours things that make us mere mortals groan and collapse if we have to do 'em for a few seconds.
My muse loves the ballet. Even in some of the traditional, older ballets which we've seen before and which, to be honest, can sometimes be high on the prancing and low on the story, there's always at least one moment where some simple combination of steps or the lift of an arm or the tilt of a head says something that catches your heart. Those are the moments I go for, apart from the general love of dance, the ones that seem to speak directly to the storyteller in me and say something important about emotion or life. The ones that make the girls sigh in satisfaction.
The other thing I love is the use of colours and design. Theatrical design intrigues me. I'd love to have that kind of brain that could say hmmm, if I drape this fabric and light this pale blue and have a shadow here, suddenly a whole scene is evoked. A lesson for writers in setting with touches. Setting is not my forte. I love writers who can do it beautifully like Barbara Samuel but I also don't notice if there's not much setting at all if the characters grab me. Still I'd love to learn that trick of bringing something to life with a line.
So that was most of my day. Up early to do the usual weekend chores, then lunch (with a special guest appearance from my uncle over from Tasmania for the Comm Games) , then the ballet. Then I came home and decided to finally set up my digital TV properly.
A bit of background here. My TV was old and I was thinking it was going to die sometime this year in the back of my mind. My folks bought a pretty big digital TV sometime last year and it worked well. Then Mum decided it was too deep and looked messy (I don't know why, strange are the ways of mothers). So when I went home for Christmas, they'd acquired a new flatscreen TV which is even bigger than their old one, but thinner so Mum is happy. To cut a long story short, they made me a deal I couldn't refuse on their old TV, despite the fact it's really too big for my lounge room (Mum insists it looks better at my place). So shortly after Christmas I had a new TV, along with the set top box you need to get digital TV here. Only problem was they didn't remember the set top box remote and technology being technology, you can't install the set top box without the remote (great design idea - not).
So the virgo twin and I set up the TV non digitally after a bit of cursing on my part. Of course after I'd called her to say "come help" she arrived and two seconds later I realised what I'd hooked up wrong and hey presto it all worked. Maybe she moonlights as a TV technician. The set top box remote was duly delivered a couple of weeks later but I never quite got round to hooking it up. Hello, my name is Mel and I'm a procrastinator... well, actually it was more the thought of more technology hassles. I can follow an instruction book as well as the next person (hey, I can even put Ikea furniture together) but the instruction books for tvs, vcrs and dvds always seem to leave out some basic bit of info.
But tonight was the night. I thought "this looks pretty easy", so I changed the batteries in the remote and set to unhooking the old set up and reconnecting stuff via the set top box. Nothing but a big blank blue screen.
Hmmm.
I jiggled cables, rechecked diagrams and nothing. Cue grumbling.
I rechecked the connections at the back of the TV. Ah. Wrong SCART port thingy used. So I switched it over. Still the big blank blue screen of "ha ha you suck at technology you pathetic mortal".
Cue virgo stubborness. More jiggling. More in vain button pressing.
Grumbling increases to muttered cursing.
Pause to feed the cats who are doing some grumbling of their own about service levels around here.
Go back to jiggling cables. Aha. There's a tiny weeny switch on the bottom of the SCART connector where you would notice it only if you're:
a) insanely flukey enough to find it by sheer dumb luck; or
b) the type of person who thoroughly inspects all the pieces before assembly - I'm a virgo but I'm not that anal, again great design idea - NOT.
Flick switch. Now we have black screen of death "bad signal". But the menu is working so I manage to reset the darn thing and five minutes later it's all tuned in (that bit of the design works fine, so I guess one out of three is better than none).
Digital TV we have lift off. Tthough seriously, it's not much to get excited about - yes the picture is clearer - but given there's maybe 2 or 3 extra channels on the free to air stuff that's about it as far as benefits go until the analogue signal is shut off sometime next decade). Or until I get rich enough to succumb to Hugh's blandishments to get Foxtel.
As an added bonus the DVD still works.
Feeling clever, I turn my attention to the VCR, always a fun thing to play with and retune. Only to find the cable is not long enough to reach from the VCR to the set top box on top of the TV. Sigh. One trip to KMart or somewhere coming up tomorrow for a longer cable.
To sum up, no writing done, ballet two thumbs up, technology two steps forward, one point five and bit back. Typical.
My mum and I subscribe to the Australian Ballet and go five times or so a year. Kind of a gals day out thing, she comes down from the country we have lunch, eat cake and watch the dancing. It used to be me, mum and my sil until my brother decided to get a job in another state. Now it's me, mum and gwen, one of mum's friends.
Between the three of us there is much in-depth artistic appreciation, particularly of the cute male dancers ; ) (come back Angel, come back) and giggling at the commentary provided by various oldies who sit behind us at the matinee which generally covers topics such as "this ballet is too long", "what ralph said to mavis's george at bowls", "things were better in our day" and on one particularly classic occasion "you can see her stockings" in scandalised tones (not sure how long it'd been since that guy had been to the ballet).
Today we saw Gathering a program of two works developed jointly with the Bangarra Dance Theatre. The Australian Ballet is a fantastic company and I've seen them perform works choreographed by Bangarra's choreographer before but to see the two companies together, combining the traditions of classical ballet and aboriginal dance was fascinating. There's a completely different physicality to the two but a lot in common. And the abilities of the dancers are amazing. Some of the things they can do with their bodies are just wrong : ) Believe me, I do pilates and ballet dancers do pilates and I can see glimpses of pilates moves in certain things but they do for hours things that make us mere mortals groan and collapse if we have to do 'em for a few seconds.
My muse loves the ballet. Even in some of the traditional, older ballets which we've seen before and which, to be honest, can sometimes be high on the prancing and low on the story, there's always at least one moment where some simple combination of steps or the lift of an arm or the tilt of a head says something that catches your heart. Those are the moments I go for, apart from the general love of dance, the ones that seem to speak directly to the storyteller in me and say something important about emotion or life. The ones that make the girls sigh in satisfaction.
The other thing I love is the use of colours and design. Theatrical design intrigues me. I'd love to have that kind of brain that could say hmmm, if I drape this fabric and light this pale blue and have a shadow here, suddenly a whole scene is evoked. A lesson for writers in setting with touches. Setting is not my forte. I love writers who can do it beautifully like Barbara Samuel but I also don't notice if there's not much setting at all if the characters grab me. Still I'd love to learn that trick of bringing something to life with a line.
So that was most of my day. Up early to do the usual weekend chores, then lunch (with a special guest appearance from my uncle over from Tasmania for the Comm Games) , then the ballet. Then I came home and decided to finally set up my digital TV properly.
A bit of background here. My TV was old and I was thinking it was going to die sometime this year in the back of my mind. My folks bought a pretty big digital TV sometime last year and it worked well. Then Mum decided it was too deep and looked messy (I don't know why, strange are the ways of mothers). So when I went home for Christmas, they'd acquired a new flatscreen TV which is even bigger than their old one, but thinner so Mum is happy. To cut a long story short, they made me a deal I couldn't refuse on their old TV, despite the fact it's really too big for my lounge room (Mum insists it looks better at my place). So shortly after Christmas I had a new TV, along with the set top box you need to get digital TV here. Only problem was they didn't remember the set top box remote and technology being technology, you can't install the set top box without the remote (great design idea - not).
So the virgo twin and I set up the TV non digitally after a bit of cursing on my part. Of course after I'd called her to say "come help" she arrived and two seconds later I realised what I'd hooked up wrong and hey presto it all worked. Maybe she moonlights as a TV technician. The set top box remote was duly delivered a couple of weeks later but I never quite got round to hooking it up. Hello, my name is Mel and I'm a procrastinator... well, actually it was more the thought of more technology hassles. I can follow an instruction book as well as the next person (hey, I can even put Ikea furniture together) but the instruction books for tvs, vcrs and dvds always seem to leave out some basic bit of info.
But tonight was the night. I thought "this looks pretty easy", so I changed the batteries in the remote and set to unhooking the old set up and reconnecting stuff via the set top box. Nothing but a big blank blue screen.
Hmmm.
I jiggled cables, rechecked diagrams and nothing. Cue grumbling.
I rechecked the connections at the back of the TV. Ah. Wrong SCART port thingy used. So I switched it over. Still the big blank blue screen of "ha ha you suck at technology you pathetic mortal".
Cue virgo stubborness. More jiggling. More in vain button pressing.
Grumbling increases to muttered cursing.
Pause to feed the cats who are doing some grumbling of their own about service levels around here.
Go back to jiggling cables. Aha. There's a tiny weeny switch on the bottom of the SCART connector where you would notice it only if you're:
a) insanely flukey enough to find it by sheer dumb luck; or
b) the type of person who thoroughly inspects all the pieces before assembly - I'm a virgo but I'm not that anal, again great design idea - NOT.
Flick switch. Now we have black screen of death "bad signal". But the menu is working so I manage to reset the darn thing and five minutes later it's all tuned in (that bit of the design works fine, so I guess one out of three is better than none).
Digital TV we have lift off. Tthough seriously, it's not much to get excited about - yes the picture is clearer - but given there's maybe 2 or 3 extra channels on the free to air stuff that's about it as far as benefits go until the analogue signal is shut off sometime next decade). Or until I get rich enough to succumb to Hugh's blandishments to get Foxtel.
As an added bonus the DVD still works.
Feeling clever, I turn my attention to the VCR, always a fun thing to play with and retune. Only to find the cable is not long enough to reach from the VCR to the set top box on top of the TV. Sigh. One trip to KMart or somewhere coming up tomorrow for a longer cable.
To sum up, no writing done, ballet two thumbs up, technology two steps forward, one point five and bit back. Typical.
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