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The good morning, good night thread

Started by Ed, October 22, 2007, 03:49:05 AM

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Ed

Cool -- got a bit of a Johnny Cash feel to it :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Pharosian

Hi, everybody! So sorry to see so little activity here, but glad "the regulars" are still around. I haven't done much non-work writing aside from a flash piece here and there, but I hope to change that this year.

I've read some really good books, though. If anyone is interested in some exciting sci-fi stuff, check out Sara King. I've read Forging Zero and Fortune's Rising by her, and I thought they were terrific. On the mystery front, I've really enjoyed the books by Rachel Abbott, the British author of Only the Innocent, The Back Road, and Sleep Tight. For short stories, I was really impressed with the apocalyptic fiction found in The End is Nigh and The End is Now. In case you haven't checked these out yet, they're the first two of three anthologies. Nearly all the authors involved in the first anthology return in the second with new stories set in the same world/scenario they introduced in the first. For me, anthologies are often hit-or-miss affairs, with some stories I like and several I don't. But the ratio of good or excellent to "just okay" was really high in these, and I can't wait for the final volume to be published later this year so I can find out how the authors finish up their mini-series.

Hope everyone is doing well and staying warm!


marc_chagall


Ed

Nice to see you popping in, Pharo. Work is getting quieter for me, so I'm hoping to write more this year, too. Last year was a dead loss for my writing ambitions (more so than usual). Good luck to us both :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Ed

Hey Delph -- have you been watching the BBC version of Sky Art Portrait Artist of the Year? Have to say the standard of the work is shockingly bad in comparison. Couldn't believe it. Even my kids were saying how the hell did they get on telly with that?
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

marc_chagall

Ed, I'm going to have to have a look at that on i-player. At my art class on Thursday they were being generous and saying some of what the artists had to do was very difficult, but they were also saying half of the class would have made a better job of it. I think Sky were going for professional standard - they had to as the prizewinning portraits were going to be displayed in extremely prestigious venues - whereas the BBC were trying to tap into the enthusiastic amateurs audience who used to love watching Watercolour Challenge. Sounds like they've tried TOO hard to be amateur, and may have made a right clunker of a programme as a result. I definitely must make the effort to watch a bit of it.

Ed

Hmm, could be. I suppose my problem was I sat down expecting to see something as good as the Sky equivalent, so it was quite a shock to see such amateur work. One of the contestants used to be a police sketch artist and looked the part. I expected him to be good, and he talked the talk, but what he was saying didn't match up with what was on the canvas at the end of the tasks. When the judges were speaking it was like there was an elephant in the room nobody had spotted, though towards the end one of them slipped and very nearly said what they were thinking, I reckon.

It's a bit sad that people look stupid if their paintings look like a child did them, but that's how it is, and that's probably why most people don't persevere long enough to get good at it. Takes a bit of courage to put yourself out there, just as it does with writing. My first attempts at painting weren't any better. I can sketch fairly well, but can't get on with painting at all. Doesn't help being colour blind, either -- if you look through the school work my mother kept there are a few with purple skies and orange grass. Looks fine to me :idiot:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Pharosian

Don't know if any of you read Janice Hardy's blog. She's got some really good articles on writing craft in her archives. Rather than displaying archived articles by date, hers are listed in the sidebar by category. For the past few months, she's had a lot of guest posts and the focus seems to have shifted to self-publishing topics. If you're interested in those articles, they're fine, I suppose, but I like the writing craft articles.

Anyway, for the month of March, she's running a special series of articles on revising your manuscript. She'll have posts covering every aspect of revision. It sounds useful, and if you're interested in checking it out, you can find the details here: http://blog.janicehardy.com/2015/02/at-home-workshop-revise-your-novel-in.html

Ed

I'm annoyed at myself for wasting today. I spent all day hanging around bored, but not wanting to do anything. Reminded me of school holidays when I was a kid. I think the problem was I needed to relax, but couldn't do it knowing about all the things I should have been doing. That's the same reason why holidays away from home are the only way to go. Doesn't matter if you're only 40 miles down the road as long as you turn your phone off. Need to get out of the environment where all the niggley little distractions are that stop you relaxing!

Oh well -- better luck tomorrow. Happy Mothers Day to the mums :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Geoff_N

Had to post this here for some reason.
True story.
..
Overheard in one of Chester's Age Concern shops:
Woman comes in and asks man at the till, "Is Ed here?"
"Ed who?"
"Well, I think he's Edward Smith, but it could be Brown."
"How come you're not sure?"
"Dunno. Is either an Ed Smith or an Ed Brown here?"
"No one called Ed works here."
...
They looked at me wondering why I was grinning so much. Probably thinking I was called Ed.

Ed

A few years ago this guy called Brian started working for me who had a very thick Portsmouth accent, which is similar in a lot of ways to Cockney. I had a friend helping me at the time as well, and we were on site working when Brian wandered over and asked, "Where's Emma?" I said, "Emma who?" completely baffled, because there were no women on site and I knew nobody by that name. I called my friend over and asked him if anybody called Emma had made an appearance, he shook his head.

Brian became a little agitated. "Naa," he said, "Oye need Eemma!"

We both chorused, "Who the fuck is Emma?"

"Eemma! You know," he formed a loose fist and worked his forearm in an up and down movement. Seeing us both looking bemused while we searched our memory banks for a girl named Emma with a good wrist action, Brian stormed off. He rummaged around in a nearby toolbag and eventually pulled out a claw hammer. Brandishing it in one hand while pointing at it with the other he exclaimed, "This's n fackin eemma!"
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

marc_chagall


elay2433

Nice one, Delph.  :afro:

Quote"This's n fackin eemma!"
:grin:

Ed

Quote from: delph_ambi on March 20, 2015, 06:11:34 AM
Eclipse  :cheers:




We were shrouded in fog, so didn't get to see it. I was sure last time it got darker than it did this time as well. Turns out I was right. The farther north you were this time, the more complete it was. I've always wanted to see a total eclipse. I caught the tail end of something on tv that said about a total eclipse in the UK not happening for 75 years. The last one was in Cornwall 15 years ago -- wish I'd made the effort to go and see it.

You did well to catch the birds in the pic, Delph. Very atmospheric :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Ed

Any website/forum recommendations out there? I haven't got time to write anything at the moment, but it would be nice to have something to look at now and then, and this place is pretty dead at the moment. Can't get on with Twitter or Facebook -- too much blather for me.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]