Yesterday's News
Sep. 27th, 2006 08:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
roadrunnertwiceUnplanned fringe benefit of writing my major projects in plain text and keeping them in an SVN repository: I can work on them from multiple computers at once with no real penalty. Fuckin' sweet.
Yeah, context, right. The (radiant? sardonic?) Crow doesn't have a case yet, and until then, I'm a little loath to take it out on the town. Which is kind of irritating, since I enjoy typing in cafés around the neighborhood. However, I happen to have been wrangling my Cheaters files using tools that were designed to let several dozen people work on the same files at once, and which have built-in allowances to handle conflicting changes and out-of-sync versions. So I get the ability to keep writing on the Albatross without worrying about keeping track of what I took with me, and I get it for free.
Not that I actually wrote anything yesterday afternoon. I'm kind of neck-deep in The Element of Fire. Hot damn is it good. I've been warned by people in the know that, partway through your first novel (maybe earlier, maybe later), you lose the ability to read fiction for pleasure, and won't get it back for a year or three. It's one of those situations where your brain is recompiling itself, and one of the symptoms is hyper-awareness of what other writers are doing craftwise coupled with an obnoxious predilection for backseat driving. I think I may be starting to get that; ask me again in three months. If that's what's going on, though, this is exactly the novel I need to be reading right now, because it's like riding behind James Bond: all hazards to navigation are being met with proper action and massive flair. If you're not reading it yet, climb on, man.
Bits and chunks:
Yeah, context, right. The (radiant? sardonic?) Crow doesn't have a case yet, and until then, I'm a little loath to take it out on the town. Which is kind of irritating, since I enjoy typing in cafés around the neighborhood. However, I happen to have been wrangling my Cheaters files using tools that were designed to let several dozen people work on the same files at once, and which have built-in allowances to handle conflicting changes and out-of-sync versions. So I get the ability to keep writing on the Albatross without worrying about keeping track of what I took with me, and I get it for free.
Not that I actually wrote anything yesterday afternoon. I'm kind of neck-deep in The Element of Fire. Hot damn is it good. I've been warned by people in the know that, partway through your first novel (maybe earlier, maybe later), you lose the ability to read fiction for pleasure, and won't get it back for a year or three. It's one of those situations where your brain is recompiling itself, and one of the symptoms is hyper-awareness of what other writers are doing craftwise coupled with an obnoxious predilection for backseat driving. I think I may be starting to get that; ask me again in three months. If that's what's going on, though, this is exactly the novel I need to be reading right now, because it's like riding behind James Bond: all hazards to navigation are being met with proper action and massive flair. If you're not reading it yet, climb on, man.
Bits and chunks:
- I started listening to a podcast with chapters in iTunes 7, and I wanted to skip ahead past a lame section. So I inflated the window back up, and was like, "What? Where the hell did the chapter menu go?" And then I was like, "OH. It went somewhere sensible." Well played, guys.
- Blah blah scrolling trackpad luv. ♥ ♥ ♥
- Sunday's show at the Triple Rock was fantastic, as expected. It was great to see Shane and Cynthia again, as always, and it was super great to have a bunch of other people I like show up unexpectedly. Hurray! And man, the music was fantastic. The Mathematicians were as good as Shane claimed they were, and Fort Wilson Riot is my new favorite MPLS band. Watch for that next album, those two songs from it are killer. That bit where Amy pulls out the trumpet and plays that falling lick over and over, switching off between that and pounding this Ben Foldsian piano rhythm with her left hand, while everyone rocks out behind her—it feels like the world is about to end and you have five hours left to party. It's a really good song.
- GAWD, why the hell is everyone all on about this stupid iPhone business? No one wants to listen to music on their damn phone! When listening to music drains your battery so you can't be in contact with people, you are getting punished for listening to music. No one wants to be punished for listening to music. And yet, Engadget and whoever just can't bring themselves to shut up about it. So I will shut up for them. Shutting up now.