So Sippin' Smooth

I found this bottle of Sippin' Whiskey in Kentucky.

End of S.H.

Stephen Hero is one of the most influential books of my life, and it's not even complete. I feel exactly how Stephen feels. Only Letters to a Young Poet has driven my artistic sense as far. (And that's next on my re-reading list.)

Manuscripts

I've begun reading Stephen Hero again, this time taking extra-special notice of the way in which it was transcribed from manuscript to print. Because it was an unfinished text, Joyce left all kinds of cross-outs and extra notes on its pages, and the publisher did its best to represent these things with some limited indicators ([ crossed out text ], « inserted text », *misc. footnotes), and it got me thinking about typing my notebooks again.

Around 2006, I began to put my notebooks in a simple text format that was little more than typing page markers and content. By summer 2007 I had given up on this, opting instead to scan the notebooks in their entirety. This provided me with a nice reference when the real notebook was not nearby, but it was still lacking certain special faculties that make computer documents invaluable: searching for text.

Since my recent experiments with XML and XSLT, my appreciation of markup has increased a little. In theory, I could put the entirety of my notebooks in markup, then write a program to search for them, including specific things like all instances of "Equinox" written in blue ink, all crossed-out passages containing cursive, or looking for all text placed written landscape-style on the page. This would be invaluable, and even more so as an interface to bring up search results in terms of the page where the items were found—I could display a scan of the page!

This is a very attractive proposition and I'd like to explore it a little further. I've begun looking online at documents that describe such systems, usually in conjunction with ancient manuscripts. Keep an eye on the bookmarks in the blog's sidebar (or just look here) if you're interested, too.

A Letter to Madame

I wrote it in French originally, so it probably sounds clumsy to the English ear: my letter regarding the decision to leave school.

When good scripts go bad

I used to have a script running that uploaded a feed automatically to ITO, but it broke somehow. I also updated the feed less and less because I grew accustomed to the ease-of-use of blogging at JFO. I'll shortly upload the old stuff as retro posts.

The Good

It has been too long. But I am still writing, and I couldn't be happier with the way EM2 is now going. Those in the know will be seeing more and more of it.

Cable

It's a weird one.

Site Update

You may notice the site changing visually over the next few days. Don't be alarmed. It may even look better now.

EEMM22

I'm 22 years old.

EM2 is getting a slow start; it's up to 1350 words now. I'll write more when I can. It feels quite different from EM1; even the dialogue is snappier. I'm also happy to announce plans to tie in an old character, one who might be my most beloved of all time.

I got my hands on the classic Tezuka manga Phoenix. So far, just the first two volumes (Dawn and Future). I'm not really a manga guy at all, but thanks to the musical efforts of the group System 7, whose latest album was inspired by Phoenix, I discovered a compelling science fiction plot intertwined with an interesting twist on history. I've also ordered the CD version of that album (I bought the MP3 version a few weeks ago) along with a vinyl single containing remixes of one of the album's songs.

Speaking of music, I've been collecting Underworld's Riverrun 12-inch remix vinyls. They're all pretty good, but even better, in the middle of my collecting spree (ordering two at a time to be shipped from the UK), Underworld opened its digital store, which happens to have those very singles in CD quality. I am quite excited about this; I can only hope we'll get more stuff, soon!

I finally picked up a book that has haunted me since I first understood that I liked sci-fi: Eon. It has stared at me from just about every book store and library shelf I can remember. I was actually looking for Poul Anderson's Harvest of Stars, just because, but it wasn't in the store. Eon is interesting, but also provides a reminder of why I prefer "softer" sci-fi: the characters are single-mindedly obsessed with their damned science and math. Most of them are enjoyable in spite of this, but the main female character, Patricia, gets on my nerves. She's either 100% certain or 100% uncertain of herself. I'm probably only 1/5 of the way through it, so things may change. Even if they don't, I have the feeling I won't regret buying the book. On a side note, the book was written during the Cold War (albeit near the end), and the nuclear holocaust scenario that may or may not come true in the story makes me smile a little. I'm glad the Cold War looks rather silly to us now, because it sure didn't seem that way to Bear when he wrote Eon.

My man Emmett pointed out the Forever War books. I've been in a "war sci-fi" rut lately, having gone through Starship Troopers (both the book and the film) and having picked up another copy of John Steakley's Armor (an excellent book, by the way). Maybe I'm just trying to find inspiration for the militaristic aspects of EM2. Oops, did I let that slip out?

Card vs. Rowling: Blowing One's Load

Take a light-hearted read. While I agree with much of what Card says, I don't hold Card much higher in my esteem. At least he's a better writer, and to my knowledge hasn't had a legal explosion. Thanks to my man A "Loch" Huxley.

He has arrived.

Earth Mother I is more or less finished, ending with more than 20,000 words. I've been taking notes like a good little boy and hope to start EM II soon. In case you missed it, here's part I.

Him

It's done. I've finally gotten a surge of strength, and Earth Mother I is complete. 19,300 words is roughly novella-length! There's a lot to patch together before the public can take a peek, but it's the best thing I've ever written. I feel great!

Holding the Moth

Things are happening. I haven't yet finished part one of Earth Mother; I will, soon enough. Aside from that, I've had several material gains since the last update:

• The Rice Boy printed comic book (quite excellent!).
• The Oblivion With Bells gatefold vinyl, complete with larger, better art all over that place.
• Rusuden's Warm Human Antennae, which I have reviewed on the music page. There may be some other new things for you there.

Musical Pens

Some happy, some sad. Some good, some more good. In the happy and good department, we have a new site section, the Music page. It has two track-by-track album reviews and a handful of nice little links; I plan on expanding it to provide comprehensive thoughts and sources for all the music I listen to. I'm not sure what the "guides" section is for, but time may tell. The playlists will be entertaining, as well. I already have a few lined up; I simply have to find a good format for the playlist pages.

In the sad and good department, I wrote what I find a marvelously expressive sketch war tonight. It was born out of a brainstorm I've had raging inside me for some time; speaking in futility to my parents about my motivations, or lack thereof, brought this sketch to the surface. I find it sad and a little scary, but there is a lesson to be learned, and there may yet be beauty in't.

White Pages

This week is the beginning of my final phase for Earth Mother .I.. With any luck, Part .I. will be finished soon. I've already begun writing notes for Part .II.; where my "outline" for its plot was perhaps twenty words in length at the time I threw down the entire Earth Mother idea, I have given a nice little synopsis of the events leading up to Part .II., and some of the events that will be included.

My handwriting how somehow gotten even smaller; I suspect that this is because I have misplaced my pen and now use a mechanical pencil to write in my notebook. I'm writing fifteen or sixteen characters per inch, which is probably smaller than an eight-point computer font (size twelve is something like ten characters per inch, while size ten is twelve per inch). The notebook itself has exceeded its sixtieth page; with the generally small handwriting of the past half-year, I am satisfied that Notebook Three packs more punch in every page.

A new sketch war awaits typing. I am unsure if I should post it, as it was the first after a long period of silence, and it makes little sense (in a bad way), but tomorrow will tell.

Speaking of the fine art of writing by hand, I was delighted to find something new in the local Barnes and Noble. For the past few months, this store has not stocked my preferred kind of Moleskine, the pocket-sized, unruled (plain) notebook. After a fairly thorough inspection of other book stores in my area, I have found that no one has it on display. Is the plain notebook that unpopular? Or are they burning all stock off before the coming of the new Softskines? Either way, I couldn't get a new notebook for the eventual succession of Number Three. So I looked around the store a little more, and to my surprise I found a series of small, softcover notebooks that is very much like a long-gone favorite of mine, the Moleskine Volant. The Volant softcover pocket notebook was my first kind of Moleskine, and really the first kind of notebook that I used for writing and ideas, rather than for the purpose of a journal or diary. It was an important milestone in my life. Well, the Volant has been off the market for two or three years now, and I wished I had snatched a few more up when they were still in stores. But the stuff I found from Nava is just as good: a set of twelve 80-page notebooks, one supposedly for each month in a year, in close approximation to the Volant style. That's 960 pages! I probably won't burn through 80 pages in a month, but the notebooks are simply numbered (one dot per month), not named (January, February, etc.). The paper is of high quality, and $25 (at least, that's what I paid at Barnes and Noble) for 960 pages is better than I expected for something of this type--the Volants vere about $6 for three books of 64 pages. Anyway, if you are interested, keep an eye out for Nava Design's "One Year of White Pages" notebook set.

The latest EM-dash

Earth Mother continues its domination of my soul. I'm more than 15,000 words in, and I still have quite a bit to write before Part I is over. Still, over the Christmas holiday, I wrote a good bit, and I'm very happy with the way things flow nowadays. risa comes tomorrow!