Thursday, May 26
Let's see:
I'm in Canada. Again. Looking for a job. Again. In general I'm happy about that, and the bits that are icky aren't anyone's fault and don't bear repeating.
What I will bitch about is Dvorak. See, I have bad wrists. Not terrible, but I get regular flare-ups, and ergonomic keyboards and such have only helped a little. The glory blaze of Finishing The Novel caused another bad spell. And now I'm in Canada and between projects and I have loads of spare time and everyone keeps saying Dvorak is the only way short of surgery to deal with carpal tunnel, and I thought, fuck it. No time like the present, right?
It's day three.
I am in hell.
For those who don't know, Dvorak is an alternate keyboard layout, much more natural than Qwerty (which was developed to slow typists down so they didn't jam the typewriter). So switching means relearning how to type.
I've gone from typing 65 words per minute to 15.
I CAN TYPE FASTER THAN THIS WITH ONE HAND TIED. No. Really. Hunt-and-peck would be faster. I LIVE on this fucking machine. This is *crippling*. Right now, if I was offered the choice between loosing the power of speech and this, I wouldn't even hesitate. It'd be "Tell my family I love them and pass the tongue snips."
*pounds head on keyboard*
They say it gets better soon. I hope they're right. Otherwise I'm gonna loose a lot of expensive electronics when I finally crack.
I'm in Canada. Again. Looking for a job. Again. In general I'm happy about that, and the bits that are icky aren't anyone's fault and don't bear repeating.
What I will bitch about is Dvorak. See, I have bad wrists. Not terrible, but I get regular flare-ups, and ergonomic keyboards and such have only helped a little. The glory blaze of Finishing The Novel caused another bad spell. And now I'm in Canada and between projects and I have loads of spare time and everyone keeps saying Dvorak is the only way short of surgery to deal with carpal tunnel, and I thought, fuck it. No time like the present, right?
It's day three.
I am in hell.
For those who don't know, Dvorak is an alternate keyboard layout, much more natural than Qwerty (which was developed to slow typists down so they didn't jam the typewriter). So switching means relearning how to type.
I've gone from typing 65 words per minute to 15.
I CAN TYPE FASTER THAN THIS WITH ONE HAND TIED. No. Really. Hunt-and-peck would be faster. I LIVE on this fucking machine. This is *crippling*. Right now, if I was offered the choice between loosing the power of speech and this, I wouldn't even hesitate. It'd be "Tell my family I love them and pass the tongue snips."
*pounds head on keyboard*
They say it gets better soon. I hope they're right. Otherwise I'm gonna loose a lot of expensive electronics when I finally crack.
Sunday, May 15
Nicked from Gord:
... okay, that's pretty accurate.
Did I say real postage soon? Let me redefine "soon"....
You Are 40% Normal (Somewhat Normal) |
 While some of your behavior is quite normal... Other things you do are downright strange You've got a little of your freak going on But you mostly keep your weirdness to yourself |
... okay, that's pretty accurate.
Did I say real postage soon? Let me redefine "soon"....
Sunday, May 08
A meme I nicked from Gord.
Actually pretty accurate, as long as we're not tracking interpersonal skills. Those, I pretty much suck at.
Real postage soon, I promise.
| Your brain: 160% interpersonal, 40% visual, 120% verbal, and 80% mathematical! |
| Congratulations on being 400% smart! Actually, on my test, everyone is. The above score breaks down what kind of thinking you most enjoy doing. A score above 100% means you use that kind of thinking more than average, and a score below 100% means you use it less. It says nothing about how good you are at any one, just how interested you are in each, relatively. A substantial difference in scores between two people means, conclusively, that they are different kinds of thinkers. Matching Summary: Each of us has different tastes. Still, I offer the following advice, which I think is obvious:
|
 |
My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender:
|
| Link: The 4-Variable IQ Test written by chriscoyne on Ok Cupid |
Actually pretty accurate, as long as we're not tracking interpersonal skills. Those, I pretty much suck at.
Real postage soon, I promise.
Sunday, May 01
Appealling to people's better natures time.
Some of you know Holly Lisle's writing already. I do; I've always enjoyed it. She's a good writer with a good sense of humor and that ability to make me laugh, cry, and fight with a character that so few possess.
She's also the creator of Forward Motion, the main writing community I hang out at. She's written a lot of articles about writing; some of the best information I have - particularly on the business end of things - came from Holly. She put a lot of time into "paying it forward" for young writers, and I'm infinitely grateful to her.
Unfortunately it's not a good time out there for young writers or old ones, and Holly, like a lot of people, is struggling to get by. Basically whether or not she'll get a contract for her next book - and, by extension, whether or not she'll be able to keep writing as herself or abandon her name and backlist and start from scratch - depends on presales of her current book.
Yup. Not sales. Presales.
Nope, I don't think it's fair either.
This is the first chapter of that book. Holly describes it as "romantic intrigue"; I think it looks like a hell of a lot of fun, personally, and great stuff for a mystery fan like me. Read it. If you think you'd buy it, do yourself and Holly a favor and put in a preorder at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. Or your local bookstore. Whatever.
Who knows? It might help.
Some of you know Holly Lisle's writing already. I do; I've always enjoyed it. She's a good writer with a good sense of humor and that ability to make me laugh, cry, and fight with a character that so few possess.
She's also the creator of Forward Motion, the main writing community I hang out at. She's written a lot of articles about writing; some of the best information I have - particularly on the business end of things - came from Holly. She put a lot of time into "paying it forward" for young writers, and I'm infinitely grateful to her.
Unfortunately it's not a good time out there for young writers or old ones, and Holly, like a lot of people, is struggling to get by. Basically whether or not she'll get a contract for her next book - and, by extension, whether or not she'll be able to keep writing as herself or abandon her name and backlist and start from scratch - depends on presales of her current book.
Yup. Not sales. Presales.
Nope, I don't think it's fair either.
This is the first chapter of that book. Holly describes it as "romantic intrigue"; I think it looks like a hell of a lot of fun, personally, and great stuff for a mystery fan like me. Read it. If you think you'd buy it, do yourself and Holly a favor and put in a preorder at Amazon.com or Barnes & Noble. Or your local bookstore. Whatever.
Who knows? It might help.
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