/karen/

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Saturday, 02 February, 2008

Sorry there's so many of these; as you can probably gather, I'm quite behind.

Writing (and writing-related)

• How to survive writing a graphic novel (via Endicott Redux)—in comic form. (Guan and Fish must read!) Lesson 6 is my favourite:

  No matter if he may be bugging the living **** out of you, always listen to him, whatever he says. You may, in the end, have to murder him, but first listen, and write, and write, and listen. Ultimately, you're lucky that he's around.

  “Him” meaning your graphic novel.
• Bec blogs about The Big Read
• Diana Wynne Jones has written a sequel to Howl's Moving Castle and Castle in the Air
• You think I'm a nutty Gaimanite; look what lengths this guy went to get Neil Gaiman to help him propose to his girlfriend!
• “Greatest stories never told: Ten famous writers reveal their works that never made it into print” (via Endicott Studio): Some snippets from Lucien's library revealed. I love the opening paragraph of this article:

  “Heard melodies are sweet,” observed Keats in his “Ode on a Grecian Urn”, “but those unheard are sweeter”—a dubious proposition for the music lover, but a potent image for the creative artist. The works that exist in artists' heads are beautiful, perfect things—no wonder their creators despair when the works refuse to emerge, beautiful and perfect, and they contemplate the compromised, spavined, half-cocked, half-baked monstrosity before them on the easel, the stave or the computer screen.

  So true. (And this would go on the group blog of the website I want to build if it had been built yet.)
• Dreaming Methods (via Endicott Studio): Wow. It's a site devoted to creative projects that incorporate narrative, graphics, sound, flash animation, etc. together into the one thing. I know I should spend more time looking at it but now is not the time. Nevertheless, Guan/Bec/Kathleen/Fish: this is a must.
• In the Fatosphere, Big Is In, or at Least Accepted: There are a growing number of bloggers out there who are resisting conventional thinking obesity: “Ultimately, these bloggers argue, being skinny may have far more to do with the luck of the genetic draw than with lifestyle choices.”
• An Interface of One's Own: Good software for writers (the author raves on about Scrivener and makes me feel decidedly un-trendy for not owning a Mac): “And come on, ye writers, do you want to be a little Word drip writing 603 words in Palatino with regulation margins? Or do you want to be a Creator?” (Umm ...)
• Rise of the inadequates: One study claims that 70% of the workforce feel like impostors. It's interesting how clever people often feel like they're not ...
• Time Management for Creative People—Free E-book: Interesting stuff here I must read again and think over. If you're not a structured person, however, I'm not sure how this will help you. But he does have a good point: prioritise the important but not urgent. People have been telling me that for ages ...
• Robin McKinley has a blog: And she reminds of Karen: they both hated The Lord of the Rings, they both love Buffy, they are both passionate and highly opinionated ... okay, they differed on Sweeney Todd and Robin is not a Christian but anyway ... I'm not sure what I thought Robin would be like but it's certainly interesting finding out about her (she is one of my favourite authors and I own almost everything she's written). I wrote her a fan comment which I hope wasn't too gushy (I told her how I owned three copies of Beauty which I know is quite ridiculous but it's my favourite book of hers ... I own three copies of Neil Gaiman's Coraline too [one in hardcover, one in paperback and one in audio]) and I asked her not to make it public because I didn't want anyone else to read it. But she wanted to say thank you so she not only came over to my blog but found the contact me section and sent me a message! Squee!!! As her readership grows, I'm sure she won't have time to do that anymore.

Movies

• NY Times review of Sweeney Todd (plus other bits and pieces in Sondheim Dismembers ‘Sweeney’): I'm looking forward to seeing this. Neil said it supplanted Edward Scissorhands as his favourite Burton film. Interestingly, Robin McKinley totally hated it. Same with Salon.com.

Music (and music-related)

• Magnatune allows you to give three free copies to your friends!: What a great thing for a music subscription service, and what a way to increase your customer base!
• Tori Amos/RAINN Benefit Calendar: I find myself wanting to buy this for people like Karen and Bec 'cause it's TORI AMOS. Must repress impulse to buy people presents they might not necessarily appreciate ...
• Bernard Zuel on Joanna Newsom: For some reason, I just really like this article on Newsom. It's a good introduction to her work, I think.
• CBS to Make Internet Music Unit More Like Radio: Seems like they have plans to make Last.FM (the social networking site for music lovers!) more friendly to users, with a subscription-based service and free streaming.
• They're Playing My Song. Time to Work Out.: How music affects how you exercise:

  The playlist fixation has a scientific basis: Studies have shown that listening to music during exercise can improve results, both in terms of being a motivator (people exercise longer and more vigorously to music) and as a distraction from negatives like fatigue.

  Maybe this will help motivate me to exercise more; I can see music making exercise more palatable to me.
• You show me your iPod, I'll show you mine (via Duncan): Judging people by their playlists because you are what you listen to.

Technology

• Bots on The Ground (via Luke): A fascinating article in the The Washington Post about how humans relate to robots—this time in the war zone—and what the future of human-robot relationships might look like.
• Mobiles linked to insomnia: Apparently talking on your mobile before you go to sleep results in trouble sleeping. Not sure how scientifically rigorous this study is but it's interesting.
• The Afterlife of Cellphones: Ever wondered what happens to old mobiles? Apparently they're quite useful for all sorts of things.
• To Drive or Not to Drive: That Was Never the Question: The writer of this article reflects on 40 years of driving and make a good point: “[W]e are completely committed to an unsustainable technology.” The car is a “dinosaur technology”, and yet we are so passionately committed to it.
• Anti-slacking software at work: Man! This is so Big Brother!
• How to Lose Your Job on Your Own Time: An article about the same subject matter as the last item (monitoring employees at work) but with more subtlety and a bit about privacy: “The day may come when nothing that is said online will be treated as embarrassing because we will have become accustomed to everyone disclosing everything.”
• Web Playgrounds of the Very Young: Social networking sites for toddlers. Yep, they're making them for all sorts of ages now.
• Save face with a pet project: How print-on-demand stuff can help you share your obsession with your pet with the world. (Stuff the pet, says I; why not make cool calendars for your friends with funky photos of you and them? If I used calendars, I would totally be into this. Maybe I could make mugs and tote bags and T-shirts instead ... Okay, maybe not.)
• Intimate Shopping: Should every know what you bought online? Not just about the Beacon debacle with Facebook either; it's about privacy and personal rights and what information about yourself is actually yours.
• On Facebook, Scholars Link Up With Data: We're being analysed without us knowing! Apparently Facebook gives social scientists access to data sets previously undreamt of.
• Putting Your Best Cyberface Forward: Making a good impression online:

  Now that first impressions are often made in cyberspace, not face-to-face, people are not only strategizing about how to virtually convey who they are, but also grappling with how to craft an e-version of themselves that appeals to multiple audiences—co-workers, fraternity brothers, Mom and Dad.

  I must say, I don't think too much about this. But perhaps I should. I hate it when people get the wrong impression of who I am—particularly if they're only reading my blog intermittently and they're forming all sorts of judgements about me based on that intermittent reading. I guess one of the reasons why I have this blog is because it's one of the few spaces in my life where I can be myself and be known as myself. I'm trying to be careful to do that without hurting others or making them uncomfortable. But I am unapologetic about who I am. (I am apologetic about my sinfulness but not about who I am.) Even so, you can never really know me as I am from just this blog. So perhaps my desire to be understood is futile ...

Craft

• Bell curve skirt: One day I'll knit this! Looks like a good winter skirt.
• Flickr group of crafts inspired by Miyazaki (via Kathleen): Lots of Totoros and Kodamas there!

Relationships and other miscellany

• Sunflower on how to socialise: Good advice here. I think I've learned to do similar things which is why people think I'm “friendly” and “not socially awkward at all” (WRONG! I still feel socially awkward! And I still am on occasion.) I found it interesting that being sociable is something you can learn—you can pick it up—whereas loving being around people all the time is something you probably couldn't (maybe that's just becoming an extrovert ...)
• Death and the modern family is grief's new frontier (via Gordo): An extract of an article by Elizabeth Marquardt. She wrote a book I'd like to read sometime—Between Two Worlds: The Inner Lives Of Children Of Divorce. I think she'll say similar things to Judith Wallerstein who also wrote the introduction to her book. Her reflections about how divorce affects relationships and grieving is very interesting:

  Some stepchildren and step-parents become deeply attached, some are virtually strangers, many fall somewhere in between. Even when they are close, the deep ambiguity of the relationship can make losing a step-parent to death or divorce a profoundly lonely experience for the child. A friend told me about a colleague who recently nursed her beloved stepmother, a woman she had grown up with, during a long illness. Even as she mourned her stepmother's death, the woman was hurt by the lack of support she had received from many friends and co-workers, who had wondered why she would go out of her way to provide such care to someone who was “only” a stepmother.

  Her story was all too familiar to me. When I was 13, my beloved stepfather took his own life. From the time I was three until they separated when I was nine, he had been my in-the-home father. My immense grief was made all the more lonely and isolating because almost no one around me recognised that I had lost anyone of importance.

  When I worked in Wollongong, I was told I could not get compassionate leave for my stepmother's mother's funeral. I was not close to my stepmother's mother in any way but still I found it interesting that I couldn't get compassionate leave to go as my relationship to her was still family, close or not.
• Do it for mom: Why divorce is bad for the environment. Do you think this will give people a disincentive to divorce?
• Fruitless folly: Other environmentalists are so passionate about the environment—and so passionate in their belief that humans are the problem—that they are voluntarily sterilizing themselves for the good of the planet. Makes me glad of the created order of Genesis 1: God first, humans second, the rest of creation third.
• How looks can kill: An article in Salon.com about body dysmorphic disorder (i.e. people obsessed with their appearance). But things aren't that simple: culture is still a relevant factor:

  Since the beginning of time, parents have worried about kids' role models. Can bad ones be destructive? Neuroscience is saying yes. So perhaps it's time to see our obsession with “perfect” features as being as toxic as secondhand smoke or exposure to pesticides, as likely to cause mental problems as war is to cause post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers. Kids deserve better. They need to learn from parents and authority figures that self-esteem isn't dependent upon a cookie-cutter imitation of the celebrity du jour. The best medicine is preventive medicine. And the best single preventive for BDD [body dysmorphic disorder] is the simple lesson that beauty comes in all sizes, shapes and personalities.

• The letter E is purple: The gift of synesthesia and how wonderful it is to be different. (Must remember this every time I feel like I ought to conform and act like the rest of society.)
• The Early Bird Gets the Bad Grade: Teenagers are wired differently to adults and function better upon rising later. A couple of schools have pushed back their bell times and started classes later. They saw a rise in academic achievement as a result. There are some good suggestions at the end of that article for education reform—simple things that might make life a little easier. I am so in favour of this one: “[W]hy not make sure there's built-in time for doing homework? That way, children could get their work done at school where professionals can help them, freeing them to spend time with their families when they do get home.”
• Sleepless in America: America's addiction to and reliance on caffeine, and why God's gift of rest is important: “So here's a question for you: How are you doing at resting? It may say more than you realize about how you are doing in trusting God.”
• High society (via the corkboard at work): The dangers of consuming too much caffeine. Part of me wants to say “I told you so!”.
• Nil by stove: Why an increasing number of people are choosing to just eat out all the time instead of cooking. Wow, we are such a first world country; other places wouldn't even dream of doing that. It's interesting how attitudes towards the skill of cooking are changing: there are still some sectors that regard your lack of culinary competence as a character flaw (some women would refuse to date a man who doesn't know how to cook), and yet, if the trend increases, soon they won't bat an eyelid. Did everyone know how to cook back in the 16th century? Is the individual ability to cook a modern phenomenon—perhaps fuelled by people like Jamie Oliver?
• Everything you know about absinthe is wrong: A fascinating article about this legendary drink (a goth drink, even). I don't even drink and I found it interesting.
• Happy marriage, healthy wife: An unhappy marriage is bad for a woman's stress levels. But Salon.com's broadsheet blogger is cautious about saying outright that marriage is A Good Thing.
• Put Buyers First? What a Concept: Amazon.com's track record in customer service. Absolutely amazing! And it pays off for them economically. Imagine if all businesses were like this. Of course we'd gush and tell all our friends instead of whining about the idiots in the Tax Office who answer the phone or Telstra's incompetence. Of course we'd keep coming back to use their services ...
• Where Boys Were Kings, a Shift Toward Baby Girls: (My interest in this topic is pretty obvious, being an Asian girl.) South Korea has started reversing the trend and is starting to value their girls. It's because there are greater opportunities for girls these days which means they can go out and work and earn enough to support their parents (which is what they used to value boys for). But the economic boom means that parents are less likely to need to be supported in their old age. Also, girls are more likely to keep in touch with their parents because they are naturally more relational than boys. I hope the trend spreads; it's still horribly disturbing that

  In China in 2005, the ratio was 120 boys born for every 100 girls, according to the United Nations Population Fund. Vietnam reported a ratio of 110 boys to 100 girls last year. And although India recorded about 108 boys for every 100 girls in 2001, when the last census was taken, experts say the gap is sure to have widened by now.

• Trust me, I've just tidied up the back (via Sarah): I like the concept of this—trying to bridge the gap between the generations by getting children to cut adults' hair.
• Busting out: One woman's experience of finally going to a proper bra shop to get fitted. It made me giggle because I only did that for the first time last year. And then stopped hating bras for being so uncomfortable because, for the first time in my life, I had comfortable ones.
• The Illustrated Guide to Free Hugs (via Bec): You can download the e-Book for free. It's about different kinds of hugs but it's also the story of the man behind the Free Hugs thing and how it turned into a worldwide phenomenon.

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