Dalekboy

Just jotting this down between toddler wrangling and chopping wood. It's going to be messy and a bit long, because I don't have time to edit it.

Was looking on the Boxcutters Podcast website and saw a comment by someone who said, "And if all I seem to do is complain, it’s probably because I don’t really feel the need to say anything about the bits I enjoy, I just enjoy them."

Now who it was, what they complained about, and the subject of the conversation is unimportant. It's this line that really stuck out to me, because it seems to be such a common attitude.

I love what you do, and I figure you know that. I only complain when there's an issue.

This is a remarkably common mindset, and it's also a completely fucked one. I've been a part of various volunteer groups over the years, been friends with literally hundreds of people who have been a part of other volunteer groups, and let me tell you something - it's never easy. Those people who volunteer time for anything, be it a convention, a panel, a podcast, support phone lines, local fire brigades, animal rescue, local radio, volunteer tourist staff, helpers at festivals, emergency relief...

So let me say this very, very clearly -

Every complaint hurts, and no thank you is ever, ever taken for granted.

( Read more... )

It's starting to seem like every few years I'll have a panic about my car, only to find that no, the universe likes my car, and just wants to keep testing my love for it.

Last few weeks, I've been doing the running around just getting a couple of prices on fixing it up so it's legally drive-able in NSW. Got a quote in Canberra on fixing up the structural rust - the stuff I was really concerned about as being super expensive. It was a quarter what I'd imagined, and still half what I'd hoped for. Then I got a quote in Cooma, which was almost an eighth my original figure.

And that's kind of what I've suddenly discovered - if you want your old car fixed up at very reasonable prices, get it done in Cooma. The quotes for the upholstery and basic mechanical work are also really reasonable. My four weekends of Santa work, for three hours each of the days, will pay for most of it.

But the best thing? If I wanted to I could use the money we'd already budgeted for yearly basic car maintenance, and we'd still have over half of it left.

So my eventual goal of letting MaybeZoe tool around in my car in 20 years time is still on!

So been doing the Twitter thing, following famous people and friends I like, being followed by friends and the occasional stranger.

On Friday I put up a post that said, - Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Hate me because I will short-sheet your bed at the first opportunity. Got a couple of replies from friends and I thought to myself, here's a little bit of creativity I can inject into Twitter for myself.

I've realised I need that creative outlet, no matter how small. It's basically why I don't visit Facebook very often. I like some of the games and stuff, but it doesn't make me want to do more than play them. It sucks at my time but doesn't give me an outlet for the things I need an outlet for. That's not going to keep my interest very long, no matter how much some of my friends who use it mean to me, and how much I like playing Scrabble.

So I basically figured I'd try to do a new Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Hate me because... every day that I had net access ('cause I'll be damned if I'll pay SMS costs to Tweet). It's fairly light-on, but I figured I'd have fun coming up with stuff.

So yesterday I posted - Don't hate me because I'm beautiful. Hate me because that time you thought you'd misplaced your keys, I had deliberately hidden them. - I did it just before I started following Roger Ebert. Ebert retweeted three of his new followers, as he seems to do every day, I was one. ( Twitter weirdness follows... )

Way back in '91, (or was it '92?) I ran a convention and very deliberately insisted on a panel about being a parent and staying active in fandom. It had two two fan mums on it. Back at that point, I think I knew three people with kids that were still active fans. ( A little long, and a bit of swearing... )

In the last week or so I've been watching back some of the Ninth Doctor stories, and it hit me - I was enjoying the show a lot more than I have been over the last year or so. ( Major spoilers for Waters of Mars )

In the early 90's the media Natcon was going gangbusters (300-400+ attendees), the lit Natcon was dying with a slowly decreasing (around 200) and aging membership. With the success of a couple of joint media/lit Natcons, it was suggested that Australia's population was so small the two cons should be joined.

It would mean a bigger overall Natcon with a larger budget. Everyone would win. The media fans had no reason to do this. Their Natcon was doing fine. The only reason they did it was out of a sense of community. It would be good for fandom as a whole to have a single, bigger Natcon. ( Read more... )

I have two cents and I want to spend it.

While I kind of like daylight saving, realistically, I'm not tired to it and don't see any point to it in the modern world, beyond being part of an outdated tradition. ( Read more... )

Films and tv shows usually rely on suspension of disbelief.

To me, if one is going to maintain the suspension of disbelief, you have to obey all the ordinary everyday rules that people know and understand. One can believe an massive alien invasion with giant biomechanoid floating death cannons, so long as the world rules beyond that are consistent. But if a human character, in avoiding one of these cannons, jumps off a ten storey building without any sort of aid, or interruptions to their fall, and land unharmed and run off - that's the deal breaker. One knows that's not possible, and suddenly one is left questioning that moment, and by default, the rest of the film.

I mentioned in a post yesterday that I hate it in films and tv when medics use the defibrillator paddles on a woman to try and restart her heart, and they are using them through material - bras, tank tops, etc. - rather than on bare skin. It pulls me right out of the moment, because I know it's not right.

I also mentioned hating when people can just break passwords when they have no information on the person, which has become really common in shows. Any computer whizz can break any password, within a relatively short time.

Another one I hate is when someone who is driving spends time looking at the their passenger rather than paying attention to the road. Quick glances are fine, but when they're maintaining eye contact for whole big chunks of conversation it annoys me. If you regularly did it in real life there's no way you wouldn't crash.

king_espresso mentioned that he hates when people don't wear ear protection on board military helicopters, which is a great one. Well, except now I'll be looking for it and getting annoyed by it.

kaths brought up the way people type madly on computer keyboards to do things that the rest of us would do with a mouse. We're in the internet age, everyone uses computers, we know they don't work this way.

kaths also mentioned the way they can zoom in on a small section of a photo, blow up that section, sharpen/clean it up, and suddenly have a incredibly clear and detailed picture. It's the equivalent of being able to blow up my icon for this post to read all the book titles.

So what about you? What regularly used, unrealistic film and tv conceits pull you out of the moment?

So Thursday night I had problems with my clutch (oo-er!), then the fridge died yesterday - and today, the internet exploded!

Long story short, someone attacked a reviewer for giving their work a bad review, which prompted someone else to write a piece effectively saying that if your writing is for public consumption - grow a fucking backbone (my wording, not his) and learn to take criticism.

My take on this is that I like criticism. I haven't had anything published for a while, but that's because much as I tried to continue on post-stroke, it was just too hard and disheartening. But I think I"m getting my mojo back.

I think good negative criticism helps you find the flaws in your writing, and bad negative criticism is something to be ignored. I'm not talking about anyone in particular here, but bad critics are usually more concerned with how cleverly worded their put-downs are, than giving a balanced review.

But for me, the unforgivable sin in reviewing is to spoil the story for the reader. You don't give away plot twists, you certainly don't tell people how it ends - but some reviewers do just that.

When I am actually writing, I put up all the reviews I can find, positive and negative. For me personally, part of being a writer is to take the negative reviews and acknowledge them. They are valid opinions. I don't have to agree with them, but they are just as valid as my hatred of Van Helsing, and my love of Zoolander.

So, am I wrong to write comments about the reviews, or to mess about and play silly buggers? I don't know. Given that virtually no part of my life is hidden in this LJ, it would feel weird not to comment on the reviews.

So here are links to my comments and reviews for Of the Mermaid and Jupiter, Best Seller, and two lots for Sold Out.

I'd be interested in people's opinions. Have I crossed the line without realising?

A brief post for the many, many people who said we couldn't travel to remote places with Lex.

Post-Melbourne trip, my son, at 8 weeks, has seen more of the country than most of the people who offered me this advice, and we aren't home yet. Interestingly we have discovered travelling with him so far inland is no different than travelling with him from Canberra to Melbourne was.

10,000 years ago we all used to be nomads, yet somehow we managed.

And I have the Belwood!

A quick selection of pictures of places he's been, below the cut.( Read more... )