When it came to wearing-purple-day, I was completely foiled by my laziness. I read enough US media to have been aware of the deaths well ahead of the spirit day, but maybe I'm just a bad person cause when it comes to really really obvious things, I just can't work up the energy to go out and protest. Not even write a little bloggery. So I guess I didn't follow the threads enough. When people starting discussing how and why they'd be wearing purple, I though they were actually doing it right then and there. Silly me. I ended up thinking people talking about it yesterday had missed the actual occasion by a week. Some friends probably thought I did it on purpose (that wouldn't have been the first time).
As everybody knows, Clint McCance (no linkie, seems he deleted his facebook account. Brave man.) is so last week's news. I could say, hopefully he'll be history in a lot of contexts, like the school board. That particular aspect actually does have me nearly working up energy to protest a bit. I mean... how sick can belief in magic actually make you? (Björn Kjellström: kolla de riktiga humanisterna. Det är i kyrkan de bor.)
I won't say I hope Clintboy decides to kill himself from shame, because I'm just a better person than he is, but I will say I hope he's embarrassed enough to quit yipping in serious media like facebook. We'll just leave it at that.
In comparison, Marie Claire is a Burning Issue. One anorectic's crusade against fat people on tv, now what's not worth protesting there?
Occasionally I will make jokes about almost any group of people. Probably tasteless and possibly hurtful. I never mean for them to be denigrating. Like a lot of people, I probably fail. I rarely get excited over fat people either way and like most handicaps I usually find the things people write on the issue to be turning the blind eye to the issue or just plain dumb. Possibly the best blogger on the planet, Bloggess, pointed a re-tweet toward Jennsylvania's blurb on the fat-people-on-tv-thing, and guess what? It's so great I could sign it. So I guess you should read it.
So I didn't wear purple. In what parallel universe would I own anything purple to wear, anyway? Guess I'll have to proclaim: I find the idea that it would somehow be ok to harass anyone, kid or adult, for their sexual preferences so offensive and blatantly stupid, anyone actually embracing that view can just imagine I spit in their face.
The majority or the world's population still believing in magic, that's worth being upset over, even for me. That somebody can still claim to be my king, that's worth being upset over.
2010-10-28
2010-10-21
1500 words
The most important, A number one, motivator for a writer - at least for me - is readers. If my income depended on my writing unrelated to any readers, perhaps I would find motivation in that but we'll never find out since any economic incentive is pretty likely to be dependent on, yeah, that's right: readers.
So, with mixed feelings, today I'm saying goodbye to my constant bad conscience. Let me explain very briefly.
I haven't written much since around the time I turned 20, but about 2 years ago the desire to tell stories awoke in me again. I think it's a year ago but it may actually be slightly longer, that Sean and I spent a rather long time talking about writing on one of the company parties (a.k.a. "mingles").
Suddenly I realized I had stories I wanted to tell and once I realized that, I also realized that I loved telling stories. Actually, what I love is dominating other peoples' minds, but nevermind that.
When Sean and I were sitting there we agreed (I think) that we'd actually, finally, write stuff and we'd show each other and keep reading and supporting. I'm a bit hazy on what we actually said but this has not stopped me from considering my part of the deal as binding. So since that party, I've thought about what I was writing in my head every time I passed Sean at work, with a pang of bad conscience for not putting enough on paper to show.
Sean must have had at least some similar memories of the evening, cause he's the only follower this blog has.
I just said goodbye to Sean at work, since he's leaving for a new job. That sort of leaves me with less of an incentive to write. We can't have that. So I think I'll sign up for NaNoWriMo, which is shorthand for National Novel Writing Month, which is a campaign to encourage people to write. (I'm not very "national" where the campaign exists but I really couldn't care less) The aim is to help people get a novel written - you write at least 1500 words every day in November, and tweet your page count twice a day. Like so.
1500 words is less than you think, once you start rambling. It's also more than you think, once you start to apply standards and being selective. This, for instance, is too little, and probably not good enough.
Cheers Sean, good luck!
So, with mixed feelings, today I'm saying goodbye to my constant bad conscience. Let me explain very briefly.
I haven't written much since around the time I turned 20, but about 2 years ago the desire to tell stories awoke in me again. I think it's a year ago but it may actually be slightly longer, that Sean and I spent a rather long time talking about writing on one of the company parties (a.k.a. "mingles").
Suddenly I realized I had stories I wanted to tell and once I realized that, I also realized that I loved telling stories. Actually, what I love is dominating other peoples' minds, but nevermind that.
When Sean and I were sitting there we agreed (I think) that we'd actually, finally, write stuff and we'd show each other and keep reading and supporting. I'm a bit hazy on what we actually said but this has not stopped me from considering my part of the deal as binding. So since that party, I've thought about what I was writing in my head every time I passed Sean at work, with a pang of bad conscience for not putting enough on paper to show.
Sean must have had at least some similar memories of the evening, cause he's the only follower this blog has.
I just said goodbye to Sean at work, since he's leaving for a new job. That sort of leaves me with less of an incentive to write. We can't have that. So I think I'll sign up for NaNoWriMo, which is shorthand for National Novel Writing Month, which is a campaign to encourage people to write. (I'm not very "national" where the campaign exists but I really couldn't care less) The aim is to help people get a novel written - you write at least 1500 words every day in November, and tweet your page count twice a day. Like so.
1500 words is less than you think, once you start rambling. It's also more than you think, once you start to apply standards and being selective. This, for instance, is too little, and probably not good enough.
Cheers Sean, good luck!
2010-10-08
I present to you: The Future
In interweb parley, the future is often examplified with flying cars. It's like the litmus test for reality being the future or not. No flying cars, future not yet here.
I'd like to offer something that's very real and which exists right now and which is almost as cool as flying cars. Not quite, but almost. One of the recurring conversation jokes for years has been "e-something". E-exercize, just download it and get a workout without moving your butt. The E-stuff is even funny for people with very modest technology footprint, like my mom, who still finds the e-wine (USB wine tap) ad hilarious.
Almost like e-candy, a company that operates vending machines in the Stockholm metro has hooked their machines to the necessary networks, with the result that you can actually message the machine on the platform, from your phone, and get a drink or chocolate bar.
I'm sure similar things are happening all over. I read about the MIT coffee pot in the Hacker's dictionary and I don't think Stockholm is that exceptional. My point is simply this: Carrying a communication device in your pocket that lets you not only communicate with other people's similar devices but also to interact with various other devices around you to the point of making a purchase and getting a snack - that's the science fiction I grew up with. That means my future is here.
I stop to look at those machines almost every time I pass one. It's kinda distracting.
I'd like to offer something that's very real and which exists right now and which is almost as cool as flying cars. Not quite, but almost. One of the recurring conversation jokes for years has been "e-something". E-exercize, just download it and get a workout without moving your butt. The E-stuff is even funny for people with very modest technology footprint, like my mom, who still finds the e-wine (USB wine tap) ad hilarious.
I'm sure similar things are happening all over. I read about the MIT coffee pot in the Hacker's dictionary and I don't think Stockholm is that exceptional. My point is simply this: Carrying a communication device in your pocket that lets you not only communicate with other people's similar devices but also to interact with various other devices around you to the point of making a purchase and getting a snack - that's the science fiction I grew up with. That means my future is here.
I stop to look at those machines almost every time I pass one. It's kinda distracting.
2010-10-07
True pretenses
I'm incredibly disappointed I didn't think of the name True pretenses when I created this blog. On the other hand and then again, it would have been too bad there was already a book by that name so I would probably have been called a hack and been sued, so good thing I didn't think of it.
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