Hysteresis Monkey

Duck And Cover

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:17:53 GMT

See, the crap that's been going on around here is the reason I'm afraid to express myself openly on the Internets.

Parsing

Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:11:23 GMT

A logician is used to arranging delimiters as befits the order they represent. Likewise a software engineer. Quote marks enclose the quoted text. A comma separates the quote-mark-enclosed quoted text from other elements of the statement.

So I, when composing in written English, have great difficulty tucking a comma just inside the ending quote mark.

prayer

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:18:33 GMT

O, Fate, please tell me it was part of Your plan to leave me fallow so long. I faithfully await my return to Your service. O, and could You stop being such a Bitch? Seriously.

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:04:18 GMT

For the first time in months, my slush count is greater than zero. Am celebrating with a cup of good tea.

Food for Thought

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 18:26:44 GMT

Every writer, every once in a while, must stop, take a good look around, and ask him- or herself, "Why am I in the kitchen?"

Writing Skiffy Right Now

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 20:06:09 GMT

You can't write plausible near-future sci-fi any more. The writing and publishing process are so slow, and the pace of technology so fast, that any idea a writer can come up with is more likely to be old news than futurism by the time it sees print.

Of course, while I was typing that, I'll bet a new technology development occurred which will change all that.

Oh, crap! That means I'd better go find it, and learn how to use it!

Oh, crap! By the time I do that, it'll have been replaced! I'd better intuit its most likely third- or fourth-generation successor, guess how it will work, and start practicing with that now in hopes that during the first few instants after it becomes feasible, I'm already an expert at it.

Oh, crap! That'll put me behind the curve, won't it? I'd better figure out what will be the next thing after the fifth-generation successor becomes passe, and use that, before it exists, to figure out what will follow it.

Aaiigh! It took me too long to type that!

Fedfic

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:43:52 GMT

Randall Munroe, the author of xkcd, apparently sick of financial news, put up a goofy short story on his blog. An excerpt:

"Bernanke, trying not to slip in the patches of blood on the floor, struggled with Greenspan. The older man moved like a snake that moved like a former Fed Chairman who moved like a ninja. At last, Bernanke got a solid grip on Greenspan’s collar and hurled him through the fourth wall, knocking you to the ground."

I'm still wheezing. $%#& hilarious.

Can't wait for the novel.

Writhings is not a word

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:22:26 GMT

No document can contain the tortured writhings of a human soul. Writers are all trying desperately to do that, but what of it? Can any of them succeed? Does the degree to which they succeed determine their level of skill? Even if one could encode it, could anyone receive it?

Every day

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 16:18:11 GMT

The one thing that gives me the most hope right now is that I am actually in compliance with Yog's first imperative: Write Every Day. I do. I write every day. Every morning I start a new datestamped scratch document in Google Docs, and periodically throughout the day, through whatever browser is handy, I squeeze my head out onto the page. And stuff comes out. Reams and reams of stuff.

It's the screaming poetry of madness, mostly. So I'm not sure what to do with it.

Sometimes I post bits of it here or on Salt Trick.

Other than that, nobody but me reads it.

But I write every day.

Je me suis ouverte

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:44:06 GMT

Delerium Archives are different stuff than recent Delerium. I like 'em both, but they're for different things.

...and oh by the way she's naked.

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:05:03 GMT

If I recall correctly, Edgar Rice Burroughs made it explicitly clear when introducing Dejah Thoris that she didn't wear any clothing.

How racy is that?

Approval process

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 18:17:48 GMT

I've been looking over my recent posts both here and on Salt Trick, and I think they've been kind of incoherent lately. I'm not sure why. Maybe I need to enforce a fermentation period between composing and posting.

Half-Lebanese Former Opera Singer Covers Eurythmics

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 15:57:23 GMT

MIKA did a cover of Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" last year sometime. It played as we drove in to work today. It's been bouncing around in my head all morning, knocking loose visions.

I want to stick it into the head of another creative person and see what happens, see if that person gets the same effect I do.

It's in iTunes, I think. I'd just plunk down the few bucks to gift it to my friends, but the mechanisms that iTunes requires the giftee to work with are way too awkward. The experience I want to deliver is that the giftee finds it in his or her inbox, clicks on it, and hears the song. But, no, iTunes needs the giftee to have an account, and sign in, and listen using an authorized program or device, blah blah blah... Not the same. And it's not a technical problem, it's a legal one. Engineering as dictated by lawyers. Can we go back to engineers doing the engineering and lawyers doing the lawyering? That worked better.

Anyway. MIKA. Generally I dislike covers. Generally I dislike live versions. This is both. I give it a free pass. Love them 'lectric guitars.

Memory overflow

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 17:40:52 GMT

Readeroverwriterloaderconnerboobercoverleader^Hshdcfh

Unexpected error. Please try again later.

It's Good To Have Buds

Thu, 17 Jul 2008 18:51:55 GMT

'Cause buds'll kick you in the ass when you need it.
I hear, O buds, and I obey.

A new story, just over a thousand words. Written just now. In Google Docs. Just to prove to myself that I could. Inspired by the disturbing speck of dark stuff embedded in the lid of the disposable tea cup I'm drinking from.

Yet another in a long line of my stories where nothing happens, but I don't care.

Next: Revise. Submit. Repeat.

I think I'll try Lady Churchill's with this one.

monkey pause

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 19:55:20 GMT

I haven't written anything new since Flutter By. I can't remember how many months ago that was.

My slush count is currently zero.

If this turns out to have been a momentary pause, while I took stock and found my voice, then no worries.

But if it lasts, it is very very bad.

I had some dreams, they were clouds in my coffee...

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:22:05 GMT

Via matociquala (who may have no idea who the hell I am, and for that I apologize;* eventually I go fanboy on everybody.):

"If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now,even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you."

<confession>You know, I'm really only doing this because I have this deep tiny fear in my heart that everyone has forgotten me, and because right beside it there's a deep tiny hope that they haven't.</confession>

BTW, I remember you. Yeah, you.

* FYI, my real name's on my profile. I have daydreams: BAD GUY: "Isn't that right, Hysteresis Monkey? Ha ha! Never thought I'd connect you with your anonymous blog, did you?" ME: "Dude, my real name's right on my LJ profile. Right there. No, click on that one. Yeah. See? You're such a nimrod."

C'mon, everybody's doing it.

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 18:53:44 GMT

Paranoid

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:21:53 GMT

Today, I finished Little Brother.

I keep worrying about having it in my possession. I don't want to be caught with subversive literature.

Intimidated

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:17:04 GMT

When I read others' work, I should keep in mind where they were in their careers, and where I am in my career, and not despair.

This morning, I finished Dust.

Talk

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:32:34 GMT

I want to be a fan of podcasting. I do. It's so popular. And I want to try it myself. All the geeks are doing it. Plus, I think maybe it'll be the magical grail where suddenly I shine in glory (I'm told by people who wouldn't know that I'd be good at voice acting, and until I'm actually evaluated by someone who would know, I can comfortably let myself believe it to be true). But even though I now own a bona fide iPod, I haven't developed a podcast listening routine.

Maybe this is a sign that podcasting isn't really all that; i.e. if it were truly compelling I would have found a way. But more likely it's a symptom of this period of my life. All my routines have collapsed, and I haven't built new ones. I don't even sync my Palm Pilot any more (friends will recognize this as a Major Departure for me). I'm lucky I still run through the checklist that includes combing my hair and taking my meds. So the would-have-found-a-way argument doesn't hold, because I'd also like to remember what day it is, and I haven't found a way to do that, either.

See, that last sentence, does it read right? If I were reading it aloud, I'd make you understand exactly what it means.

When I speak (if I'm using material I know) people hang on my every word. No, really. It's weird. I'll be at lunch with a huge group of people, and somebody will accidentally trigger me on one of my spiels, and suddenly halfway through I'll notice that everybody at the table has gone silent and is staring at me. The first time it happened, I thought, "oh, shit, I'm talking too loud," and stopped. But instead of relievedly turning back to their conversations, they waited for me to continue. As if they wanted to hear what I had to say.

It's happened several times now.

Yeah, I should try podcasting.

I gotta remember to sync the pod tonight.

ZOMG I read your blog...

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:18:18 GMT

If you're a writer, even if just (just!) a blogger, everybody who reads your stuff, when they meet you, will already feel that they know you. This is supposed to be the case. In becoming a writer, you accepted it implicitly. When you write something, and someone else reads it, you have voluntarily offered the contents of your soul to them.

(And if you haven't put your soul into what you write, why the fuck would I bother to read it?)

Count Down

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 14:38:47 GMT

As of Saturday my slush count is down to one. It was the first outing for this story, though, and I'm willing to boomerang it out to the next market sans revision, so I'll be back up to two pretty quick. But two is still low.

I think what I've been calling "slush count" in my head is similar to the "Race" number yeffyeff's been talking about. I found the Dean Wesley Smith post he was referring to. My slush count's been even lower than the "people who didn't make it" category in that post. Eek. But I've been at it less than a year, so it's not too late to change my ways.

Dear Curators,

Tue, 27 May 2008 20:38:32 GMT

I just had the urge to write in my personal journal about blogging. That's weird. Writing a blog is sending a note to your readers. Writing in a private journal is sending a note to... your future self? Unknown future readers? Posterity?

Yeah, let's get honest here, dude.

Okay, when I write in my journal, sometimes I picture my audience as "whoever reads this later." That could mean relatives when they're dealing with all the crap I left behind when I died. It could mean curators deciding what to include in my museum exhibit. It could be far future scholars trying to capture insight into the nature of my genius.

(Come on, can you tell me your subconscious never does that?)

So, is a private journal just a blog sent to the future? Or, rather, is a blog a private journal sent to the present? Is the phenomenon of blogging an acknowledgment that the flow of history has accelerated, and that the curators of our exhibits are doing their review now?

Viable Paradise

Tue, 20 May 2008 16:17:19 GMT

I posted this to Salt Trick, I should post it here as well.

topayz4's index of VP-related info is up, here. And it pulls together a bunch of VP people's blogs and such.

VP sure was an eye-opener for me. I'd rave about its virtues, but I figure that'll have more weight after I get published.

My current slush count is only two. I gotta get crackin'.