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 |  My first WDC blog, cruelly abandoned but not forgotten... |
| I'm not as prolific as I should be when it comes to writing, so I'm blogging to try to encourage and motivate myself to write more. Sometimes I'll be ranting and sometimes I'll be pondering... and sometimes I'll just write the first thing that comes into my head to satisfy the demands of the 'Update your blog' email! If you like what I write or have anything to say, I appreciate all comments. |
| It's weird how, even when someone reads a similar amount to you, their reading habits can be completely different from your own. I know people who will have two or three books on the go at once — either multiple novels, or one novel, one biography and one collections of short stories etc. I can't do this. Once I've started reading a book, I have to read the whole thing, and only then can I move on to the next book. I'm currently reading Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace, which I started about two months ago (possibly even longer). It took me quite a while to get into it (as anyone who has read it will testify, the rich language and extraordinarily long sentences take some getting used to!) but over the past couple of weeks I've nailed a huge chunk of it, so I think I must finally be getting into my stride with it now. I'm just past the 600-page mark (out of almost 1,000 pages) so hopefully I'll have finished it within a month. It will be strange to finish it, though — as it has taken me so long to read it, it's become such a part of my life that I can't really imagine coming out the other side. My handbag will certainly feel a lot lighter when I'm not lugging this mighty tome around anymore! I have a queue of books waiting to be read next. I already had a "to read" pile and in the past month I've been lent two more books to add to it, so I am going to have to start devouring them once I have completed my current mission. I wonder whether I would get as much enjoyment out of the books I read if I had more than one on the go at once, and I can't help thinking that I really wouldn't. I like to immerse myself in a book and really get inside the story, and I don't think I could do that if I was reading something else concurrently. Each to their own, I suppose. I may not be the speediest reader, but I certainly get a lot out of the experience and I wouldn't change that for anything. |
| I watched a TV show this evening about how to get more sleep. I've been so tired recently and I never feel well rested. Evidently one of the things I should NOT be doing is stimulating my eyes and brain by using the computer right before I try to go to sleep. Oops. The thing is, I'm so busy at work lately that I don't really get time to go online during the day, and then there hardly ever seems to be time in the evenings either. I think I've really noticed it this week because I was deprived of internet access all weekend, and the weekends are when I usually have a chance to catch up with things. I shall endeavour to take some time to write a proper blog tomorrow. Wish me luck  |
Well, 'twas not to be. I went to stay with my mother for the weekend and her internet connection was down, so my quest for a blue month has failed  In fairness, this is through no fault of my own, so I'm not going to get down about it. I'll carry on regardless and try to get a couple of double-blog days in to make up for it... |
| I know swine flu is a very serious matter, and I don't mean to belittle it or cause any offence or disrespect, but I'm getting tired of hearing about it. The British press is having a field day, sensationalising the whole thing, and it's very tiresome. It is important that people take precautions to remain healthy, but I can't help thinking that if the media continues to go on about it people will just get sick of it. Sorry to moan; I'm very tired after a long week and the last swine flu-based headline I saw just tipped me over the age a little bit! |
| A couple of days ago I bemoaned the fact that my Bio Block was deleted because it contained the word "drunk", and various people shared their own experiences of having ratings changed because of censored words. It reminded me of something that happened a few months ago at work. Our magazine relaunched its website and we had new features including blogs and forums. Like many sites, users can register and then comment on items that they read. We do have an online editor who moderates the site, but there are also certain words (the usual — expletives, racist/prejudiced terms etc) that will be censored automatically. It didn't take long for us to realise that automated word-blocking has its disadvantages. Within a week of the site going live, one of the users put a comment in a forum. Unfortunately, this particular user's first name was Dick — imagine how he must have felt to see his name appear as D***. It's one thing to get into trouble for using certain language, but to be told your own name is offensive is taking it a bit far! |
| Today is an example of why it's hard for me to have a blue month. I've been at work all day, obviously, and I didn't get home till 8pm on account of the two-hour commute. Then I had to clean the kitchen because we have a fairly strict cleaning rota in our house and I can't complain about other people not doing their share if I don't do my own. But the kitchen was in a hideous state so it took me quite a while. At 10pm there was a TV show I wanted to watch and I chatted to my flatmate for a while. Then I had to go online and transfer money for bills to my flatmate's account. And here I am, it's 11.59pm and I should really be asleep by now. But seeing as I was online anyway I thought I may as well stick to my blue month plan and write a blog entry. I just don't feel that I've had any free time today. I like being able to get onto WDC, read blogs and statics and feel like I'm participating in this community in some way. And there are various other areas of my life that also need attention. But sometimes it feels like all I do is work and then housework and I barely have five minutes for anything else. Maybe it would be easier if I had an iPhone or something so I could get online all the time. I know a fair few people who have iPhones and absolutely love them. But I just cannot stand touch-screen things. I'm generally not a technophobe but the phenomenon of touch-screen technology is something I can seriously do without. So I don't see myself getting an iPhone any time soon. Anyway. Apologies for an abrupt and essentially pointless blog. Hopefully I'll be back to actually saying something of interest fairly soon! |
| I understand and appreciate why WDC has a ratings system to ensure that users only view age-appropriate content, but some of the details of this policy demonstrate ideas with which I’m not entirely comfortable. Back in January I wrote a story for a contest about an elderly woman visiting her husband in a hospice. During the course of the story the characters have a glass of champagne, and they laugh over a memory of a time when the wife once got a bit tipsy. In a review of this story, someone advised me to change the rating from E to 13+ because of the reference to alcohol. I changed the rating immediately; it hadn’t occurred to me that this would be a problem until it was pointed out, and I certainly didn’t want to offend anyone or break WDC rules. But the whole thing did strike me as being a bit odd. I understand why we wouldn’t want kids reading stories about people going out and getting mind-numbingly drunk, but there’s a big difference between that sort of thing and a story that features an elderly couple having a glass of champagne. I’m not saying we shouldn’t protect young people from certain things, but I remain unconvinced that any and all references to alcohol should be treated in the same way. The celebration or glorification of drugs and alcohol in the arts, be it literature, film, music or some other medium, ought to be avoided — and if not avoided then at least restricted so that children are not exposed to it. But I take issue with the idea that mentioning alcohol in any way renders something unsuitable for younger readers. There seems to be a very strong inclination nowadays, particularly in the US (apparently more so than here in the UK, at least), to protect children from hearing about or witnessing “adult” things. But I’m not sure this is the right way to go. Do we really believe that if we don’t mention alcohol in front of kids, they won’t grow up to drink it? Of course children shouldn’t be exposed to anything that actually glorifies drinking alcohol, but I think pretending it doesn’t exist is counterproductive at best. By trying to shield kids and teenagers from certain things, all we do is heighten the taboo element of those things — and that is exactly what makes them exciting and attractive to many young people. I’m not saying WDC’s rules are wrong, and I fully intend to abide by them — I just think it’s a shame that the prevailing attitude is to hide things from young people rather than letting them learn for themselves. The reason I’ve been compelled to write this blog entry now is because something has happened that has really quite upset me: I received an automated email from WDC this morning advising me that my Bio Block has been deleted. My Bio Block began with a Ray Bradbury quote — “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you” — and the email pointed out that “drunk” is not an E-rated word and Bio Blocks must be E-rated. It took me a while to write that Bio Block. I searched long and hard for a quote that summed up my feelings on writing, and I really love the one I found. So I’m both annoyed and saddened to discover that I’m not allowed to use it. I understand that the word “drunk” is not E-rated, but I would have thought that given the context of its use this would not be a problem. This is a prime example of how a blanket ban on any words that might be connected to “adult” themes does not make sense. Just one more thing: my Bio Block has been censored because of a quote from Ray Bradbury, the man who wrote Fahrenheit 451. How’s that for irony?  |
| I got a really terrible review the other day. It was for one of my poems — I don't write a lot of poetry but I participated in a contest in January where I had to write a different poem every day for a week, following various forms (most of which I'd never previously heard of!) The poem that received the terrible review last week is probably the one of which I'm most proud. It didn't win a prize in the contest, nor was it the highest rated, but it's my favourite. I'm not going to say which one it is because now that it's had a terrible review I don't really feel like I want to direct people to it! The thing about this review was, it wasn't attacking my writing in any way. It wasn't saying the poem was bad — it's just that the review itself was awful. It simply said "this is a pretty good poem" and rated it three stars. Now, I don't do as much reviewing here on WDC as I feel I should. I would love to be able to devote more time to reading and reviewing other people's work, as I find it extremely enjoyable and also think it is one of the best ways to improve my own writing. When I review someone's work, I strive to go through it in detail, trying to work out exactly why I do or do not like certain aspects of it. I try to be as honest and encouraging as I can, regardless of whether I think the writing is amazing or mediocre. I feel the whole point of reviewing is to support other writers and help them try to improve their work, so I try to say things that convey these points. So being told I'd written a "pretty good poem" was really a massive let down for me. And then to only gain three stars! I emailed the reviewer saying, "thanks for taking the time to read and review this poem..." and asked whether there were any specific suggestions for improvement, seeing as they gave a three-star rating. The response I got was: "I guess details, I like poems that make me think long after I've finished reading them." Er..... OK. That doesn't really help at all. So I'm just chalking this one up to experience. I don't know why people bother rating and reviewing if they have no interest in actually constructing a real review, but I guess it takes all sorts. On a happier note, in the past week I've also had five of the best reviews I've ever received. Positive, encouraging and full of useful suggestions for how I can make improvements to my work — now that's what I call a worthwhile review. So I'd like to publicly say a huge thanks to raynstorm for giving me a great deal to think about and work on. This is one of the reasons I joined WDC in the first place and it's wonderful to know there are some people who take reviewing seriously and do a good job of it |
| I recently bought a pocket atlas. I realised that since moving house I no longer had an atlas, and I love being able to look at maps and learn interesting facts about the world, so I bought a little one that I keep by my bed and peruse from time to time. Yesterday I learned something from the atlas that I didn't know about China. It is the third-largest country in the world, and yet the whole vast country operates on one time zone. It is so big that, geographically, it spans what should be five time zones. But it operates on one. So when it's 11am in the westernmost part of China, it's also 11am in the easternmost part of China — more than 3,000 miles away. This bothers me. The whole point of having time zones, and the reason that various places adopt seasonal daylight savings, is because we operate within daylight hours. So how does this work in China? Say you get up for work at 7am, and kids go to school at 8am — surely in some parts of China people are having to get out of bed and start their day in what is technically the middle of the night?! If this massive country is using just one time zone, then the 'normal' hours of daylight in one area would be completely different from another. This seems crazy to me. Are people in some parts China getting up in complete darkness, with the sun not rising until noon, and then going to bed before the sun has set? Or, alternatively, do work and school times vary throughout the country in order to fit in with hours of daylight? For example, perhaps in some places businesses and schools don't open till 11am because the sun rises at 9.30, or something. But if this were the case, wouldn't it just be easier to have different time zones? I am frazzling my brain just thinking about this. I've tried to do some research on the internet about how having just one time zone in a country of more than three million square miles can possibly work, but I'm drawing a blank. If anyone knows or can find out anything about this, do please let me know....I think I might actually be losing some sleep over this! |
| I had to go to the post office this morning to pick up a package that I had to sign for. The post office is about a 15 minute walk from my house so I was expecting this entire task to take a maximum of about 40 minutes. So imagine my horror when, about five minutes into my journey, I encountered a massive (and I cannot stress enough just how MASSIVE I mean) group of children, ranging from about three years old to about ten years old, all in various costumes. There were at least 200 of them. And various adults, obviously, holding hands and fixing wings and antennae and whatever else these kids had adorning them. I kept walking and tried to squeeze myself through the mass, but every corner I turned there were more and more of them. It was utterly bizarre and somewhat terrifying. It ended up taking me half an hour to get to the post office and then I returned by a very strange route in order to avoid the infant army on my way home. I ran upstairs to tell Lucy, my flatmate, about this craziness, and she didn't seem shocked at all. "Oh, that's the children's parade, they have that every Mayday weekend in Brighton." Maybe if I live here longer I'll get used to it. But it was certainly the weirdest trip to the post office I've ever had. |
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I want to take a long trip so badly. Oh man, I want to hear how the trip went - please! And if you have pictures, I think I might have to squeal a little. 
