Wah-friggin-who part 2

Yay! Time to do a happy dance! My story, weighing in at 4963 words, is finally completed! While it's only just within the word limit (that being 4000-6000 words), at least it's done.

Now it just needs to be checked out by Mum and my sister, and I am ready to enter it into the competition.

Oh happy day!

:-)

Wah-friggin-who

I'm up to 3943 words of my story. I HAVE to finish it tonight, so that it can be checked over by the "Powers that be" (read Mum and my sister there), before I take it on Monday.

And what is currently happening directly above me? A bloody storm! I've already had two brown-outs already in the past 10 minutes. My story is getting really good, and I really REALLY want to finish it tonight, but instead, it looks like, with the flash of lightening I just got through the window, that I won't be getting it done.

Damn!

Having just peeled myself off the ceiling after one rather close crack of lightening, I think I'm going offline for now.

I'm pretty sure I'll stop shaking soonish.....

Blog entry 2

I did a little questionnaire today that's supposed to tell me what kind of job I am best suited for. I thought, considering the results, that you might like to have a little read of what they said about me:

Personality Profile Results

This assessment provides a detailed snapshot of your personality type and working style. It's part of the more extensive Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale psychological assessment.

People with this temperament style can display quite contrasting behaviours. At times they will be outwardly competitive, vigorously defending and tenaciously holding to their position, particularly when challenged. At other times, however, when similar challenges are before them, they may withdraw (either physically or psychologically) from whatever is threatening them, not necessarily yielding to pressure but also not vocalising their opposition and, therefore, often appearing to others to be shy and reserved.

People with this temperament style take great pride in whatever they undertake, striving to develop expertise and often aspiring to prestigious positions. They are strong willed people who hold firmly to their own opinions without feeling the need to conform to the views of the majority. They are often able to argue their point of view with compelling conviction and will not change their views unless they are provided with irrefutable evidence.

Pressure builds rapidly for this style of person if they perceive that other people are interfering in their area of responsibility or criticising them unfairly. Their reaction to such stress is either to take a dominant stance, angrily and aggressively defending their point of view, or to merely "close off" from the offending person or situation, pursuing their intended course despite opposition, and more or less ignoring people who displease them. It is usually difficult, if not impossible, for others to predict which reaction this style of person will have. People around them can therefore find them very confusing and, as a result, may be wary of interacting with them.

They seek a work situation that has some status and prestige attached to it, where their work parameters are clearly defined and where they can be in charge of their own assignments, free from any form of external interference. They will expect to be thoroughly trained in whatever work they undertake, so that they can demonstrate competence and be free from adverse comments. They tend to find satisfaction in seeing "runs on the board" that provide them with a clear indication of their progress. Recognition of that progress, be it financial or in terms of status or other types of reward, is important to them. Their ideal work situation is one where direct management is not needed, where, for example, they can assess their own progress against previously established criteria.

People with this temperament style generally view their social life as their own business, choosing their activities in their own way and their own time, rather than being pressured into them by other people.

Summary and recommended professions

An individual with this temperament style is an absolutely independent person with strong opinions that do not often or easily tolerate contrary views. Often idealistic, their closed-minded approach makes it hard for them to work for others, except in a role where they have a say in the outcome or can come and go as they please. Alternatively, they like creative activities. Suitable roles would include:

Professional: Journalist; Hospital Administrator; Contract Designer
Skilled: Aide-de-Camp; Chef; Self-employed Consultant; Political Activist; Union Rep.

Strange how, in the listing of jobs that went with this Personality Profile Results, the very (VERY) first one was that of a writing job in South Australia.

Seems I am the perfect personality to be what I am - a writer. And no, dear sister, I am not going to take the job in South Australia - I don't have enough experience to get it yet, as one of the things it calls for a serious backlog of journalistic work, of which I have not a great deal. And as you know, I have plans that reach further than South Australia! :-)

Blog entry 1

Okay, this is a cut and paste job, but it is so well worded (and comes from a writer I actually thoroughly love reading), that I thought I would add it here:

The “Bcc:” Field is Your Friend

Published by John Scalzi at 1:32 pm

Since I’ve just received the third such e-mail in as many days, a happy, friendly, not-at-all passive-aggressive suggestion:

When you are sending out an e-mail to a large number of recipients, many of whom do not know each other, won’t you please please please PLEASE GODDAMNIT PLEASE put all those addresses into the “Bcc:” field rather than the “Cc:” field of your e-mail software? Here’s why:

1. Some people actually consider their e-mail addresses somewhat private and don’t want them broadcast to a bunch of people they don’t already know, and/or:

2. Might not want those e-mail address stored onto the computers of strangers who may or may not have viruses on their computers that harvest e-mail address for spamming purposes, and/or:

3. Might not want the inevitable flood of pointless e-mail that follows when someone on the “cc:” list decides to hit “reply all” rather than reply directly to the original e-mailer, up to and including the angry “Damn it will people please stop hitting the ‘reply all’ button!” e-mail sent 10 or 15 messages in, and (of course) sent “reply all.”

Since I have a very public e-mail, points one and two really don’t apply to me personally, but point three really does, which is why my general response to e-mails sent with a large “cc:” field filled with people I don’t know is to immediately mark the e-mail as spam, so I don’t have to see the followup messages. Whether the person who sent the original e-mail actually ever escapes from the spam trap is an interesting question.

Since I expect you don’t actually want to have your correspondence to me instantly ported to the spam hole, I ask again: When sending out e-mails to a large number of recipients, many of whom do not know each other, won’t you please use the “Bcc:” field? I would really appreciate it. Thanks.

--------------------

For those who are interested, the link to this blog can be found here:

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2008/12/05/the-bcc-field-is-your-friend/

I have to admit, he's got a point. It drives me nuts, when friends of mine do that to me. I don't want to see who else they've sent it to, and I sure as hell don't want the world knowing my email address! As it is, I've had to change my email address in the past because someone, through means such as email spam, made my life a living hell for about six months, and got me struck off the university email list by hijacking my student email address and using it to spam thousands of people every day until it could be sorted out. Thanks, but no thanks. I will keep my email address private from now on, and I'd appreciate it if my friends and family did the same.

Feel free to forward the link to John's blog entry, or even cut and paste the entry itself from his site (rather than mine, if you don't mind. That's why I included the link, afterall), and BCC it to all your friends and family, just so they know the proper etiquette.

Here endeth the sermon for this particular topic, anyway....

Rethinking the Ancestor comment :-)

In no particular order:

Okay, so perhaps I was a tad hasty with my British Ancestors remark of a blog-entry comment or so ago :-)

Perhaps I, rather than making certain Englishmen I know feel ANCIENT, should have made that comment to refer to the fact that I am of British descent myself (my grandfather being a Yorkshireman, to begin with), and that a lot of Australians as a whole do actually come from British Descent. Especially since the white settlement of this Great Southern Land only happened because our British ANCESTORS dumped all their bad'uns on us back in 1788 in three fleet-loads.

And if that wasn't bad enough, lol, when Australia was opened up to free settlement in the mid 1800s, they kept on coming! Mind you, if they hadn't, then my own British Ancestors (including a bunch from Berkshire, Ceramix!) would never have arrived on the sunny shores of Australia, and I wouldn't be here writing this blog about it! :-)

So, just perhaps, to reiterate, I should have said British COUSINS (that make you feel any younger now?), and left the Ancestors comment alone!

According to my sister, my point format in the previous blog entry was total crap. Yeah well - I'm verbose. Can I help it if point format isn't a high priority with me? :-)

There's more storms this week. The last two nights we've had late night thunder and lightening with a touch of heavy downpour, but so far nothing like the bad storms we had a couple of weeks back.

My dalmatian and his girl-friend, the staffy from next, still play-fight over his toys on a regular basis, as can be seen from this picture:

I'm still struggling to finish this story about Brisbane. At the moment, it still has very much the feel of a list of things that are going to happen, and I don't know what is frightening me more - my inability to reach the word count, or the fact that I am having trouble making the whole thing gel properly. Only time (of which I have very little at the moment) will tell, I guess.

I went for a little travel on Wednesday, down to Deception Bay, not too far from Redcliffe (all of which is still in the same shire I live in, only it's now called the Moreton Bay Regional Council), and was surprised to see, or rather, to be reminded of the fact, that I really do live in what is termed "Urban Regional". Up here, in my little neck of the wood, it's referred to as "Urban Country" though, and the wording is rather apt, considering that while from my front yard I can see the main road of my town, with all its rows of industrial buildings and the like, at the end of my street is a farm with cows and horses. Going on the bus down to D-Bay on Wednesday also reminded me of this, as we passed huge amounts of native bushland, interspersed with sheep and dairy farms. Having grown up in Brisbane for the better part of my life, to me this is such an unusual sight that I still get a kick out of it. I hope I never reach a point where it stops giving me the thrill it currently does. I have no wish to take anything for granted in my life.

Anyway, this story still awaits me, hanging as it is, like the proverbial stone about my neck!

"We're happy little vegemites, as bright as bright can be..."

I woke up this morning in SUCH a good mood. Not really sure why, but glad anyway :-)

Thanks, Ceramix, for answering my questions (and for managing to answer one I actually forgot to ask, that being when Season 7 of Spooks starts).

In answer to a few of yours though (or at least, to comment on a couple of things you said)

1. Given I don't actually drive, I get asked a hell of a lot WHY I watch Top Gear. It's because, as you said, you don't need to be a petrol-head to enjoy it. It makes me laugh, and it teaches me things (sad but true), and except for a couple of episodes that were played recently on foxtel (and were rather old) where Clarkson and Hammond are having a go at their "Colonial Cousins" this side of the pond, I thoroughly enjoy every episode I've seen. I've enjoyed the specials (the Polar Experience being one of my favourites), and probably my two favourite episodes of what I've seen here in Oz are where they attempt (for a second time) to turn cars aquatic, and only Clarkson's ute makes it to France across the English Channel, and the ep where Hammond almost succeeds in turning a car into a space rocket.

The major problem with our Cable TV providers is that we rarely get an entire season of something, more likely getting enough episodes to fill a gap left by another show (which explains why I am getting a mix of episodes of Inspector Lynley just now), and while SBS (one of our free-to-air channels) has started with a new (for us, anyway) season of Top Gear - having removed the crappy Aussie version from our TV screens - Foxtel is playing a different season.

However, the time slot that Foxtel is currently using for Top Gear is generally when Dr Who or Torchwood gets slotted to (though not always), so it will be interesting to see how long that lasts. Given especially that it was moved from its old slot of Saturday night at 7.30pm so that Robin Hood (season 1, mind!) could be shown instead!

2. VEGEMITE - Firstly (and damn this is embarrassing), Australia's favourite spread is, in fact, 85 years old this year, rather than 75. So obviously I'm not as good at maths as I should be. Yikes! Secondly, yes, indeedydo, it is made from brewers yeast, just like Marmite. Only thing is, you have to make sure you buy the one that says Made in Australia. There is, apparently, a Kiwi (New Zealand) version out there that tastes very very different to the original and the best. So be warned!

More later - things to do!

Weirdly allergic to editing.....

It's a strange old world sometimes. The last week or two, here in the Great Southern Land (but in the upper reaches of said country), it's been raining up a storm....or, well...showering cats and dogs? Umm, yeah. That thing that happens when there's lots and lots of wet dribbly stuff coming out of the sky (ok, so I am very much aware of just how wrong that sounds, thanks very much - no need to write in and let me know!) :-)

Either way, it's most certainly storm-season here in the Sunshine State (where, perhaps - just perhaps, mind - it has rained more in the last year that it has in England in the same time), and while we are again due for another week of thunderstorms and torrential downpours, I don't plan on talking about the ruddy weather for much more of this blog!

So, instead, I thought I might converse on other things - like sunrise and sunset times (God I'm boring at times, I know!). But it's something that interests me, especially since one of my dearest and closest friends buggered off to London for two years with his dad (lucky sod!).

He's been filling me in on English curiosities, such as the fact that the sun is still shining at 10.30pm in London (I'm guessing that's only in Summer though?), when it has well and truly set this side of the pond by 7pm at the latest in Summer in Queensland, and about 4pm in Winter. What I want to know, and perhaps Ceramix in Berkshire can help me out on this one, is "if the sun goes to bed at such a late time, and gets up around 3am (so my friend says), how the hell do you sleep?" Or is England full of people who only sleep six months of the year, and party the other six? :-) Just wondering, mind...

But apart from thinking odd thoughts about our cousins, the Poms (affectionate terminology only - no offense intended!), I've also been super busy with this story competition. What story competition? Didn't I mention it? Oh - Brisbane (the capital city of Queensland), despite being hit by bad storms, is having their "One Book, Many Brisbanes" competition again this year, and my sister suggested (somewhat forcibly) that I enter it. So I am.

I know why I tend to write short stories, though, and not medium-length ones! Medium-length ones are hard, that's why! I'm learning that my attention span is not very long at all, and I don't like being made to concentrate for long periods of time, even when it's for something I like doing! (if I were any younger, I'd chuck a tanty about now...)

However, I'm getting there. I will probably be a lot more there tonight when I stop writing in my blog and get back to the story-telling, but I'm getting there nevertheless. It's been a hard road for me, this particular time. So that my sister doesn't edit my story to mere point format (sorry, Sis, but I know you don't like all the fluffy descriptive stuff, scientist that you are), I've done it for her, so where I once had a story of about 2500 words (I need 4000-6000 though), I managed to edit it down to 744 words. AARRGGHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh well, but I've been busy since then, and added more story-line, bone structure, and general words (words are good!) to make it a bit more fleshed out. I've even got it up to 2624 words now, so I guess I'm about half way. And at least it's all planned out - just needs fleshing out. I'll get there. I have to - it's due in a week!

What else have I been up to? Moving copious amounts of ex-trees around in little piles all over my front yard, watching my back deck quickly disintegrate now that there's no branches overhanging it, enjoying the odd day of sunshine while absolutely hating the 30+ degrees Celsius temps. You know, usual stuff.

And because I haven't in ages, (and to keep my sister happy), I'll give all of that and more to you in point form :-)

1. I hate summer in Queensland, due to A) storms, B) intense heat, C) localised flooding in the Caboolture Shire means I can't get out of my ruddy house, even to buy my dog some food!

2. Been catching up on the Inspector Lynley Mysteries on Foxtel. It's a bit odd, because I've been getting both the first few early seasons (when he had the blue car) and also the more recent stuff (now he has the nice flash red car), and two different Helens are hard to deal with. And yeah I know - she got killed. God I hated that ep!

3. TOP GEAR IS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!! (don't even bother to ask what I think of the Aussie version - the ONLY one worth watching is the Pommie one).

4. Vegemite is officially 75 years old this year.
And.It.Tastes.Better.Than.Marmite.
(and I eat it with a spoon - yummmmmm)

5. last night the moon and two planets played smilie face all night in the sky. It made the news and Mum rang me to tell me all about it, so I went and had a look. When I get around to it (and if they are any good) I'll upload the pics I took of it.

6. Still waiting to hear who will replace our sexy tenth incarnation of the current inhabitant of the little blue box that makes wooosshhhing noises, and that I wish (desperately) would appear in my lounge room one of these days (or nights - either is fine by me!)

7. Also waiting patiently for news of when Series 3 of Robin Hood is to be broadcast (England, Australia - I don't care. Just some news!). It is going to be very very odd without Lady Marion, and now that Robin Hood has/is left/leaving......umm, pray tell, how do you have a show called Robin Hood without a character called Robin Hood?

8. Scarily (or maybe not), I recently found a 10 episode disc of DRAGNET among my DVD collection, right along with a mixed double disc of episodes from Peter Gunn and another similar cop show. I think the scary part is that I actually thoroughly enjoyed them! Or perhaps it's that I remember watching Dragnet on TV when I was supposed to be in bed :-) Yeah, that'd be it!

9. I haven't watched many monster-movies of late (Godzilla is more a winter thing, I think), preferring to stay in and watch the BBC classics that are being broadcast on a Thursday night. It started early this year with "North and South" (gotta love Richard Armitage), and went from there. Most recently we've had "Larkrise to Candleford" which I thoroughly enjoyed, and they've just started "Jane Eyre". Not sure how I feel about that one yet. I practically know that book backwards, it being one of my favs from when I was a kid right through to adulthood, and I am always on the lookout for versions of it and the other classics. But I think the problem I have is with the person put in charge of turning it from a novel into a 4 part tv series. The script-writer, perhaps. Either way, she's the same one who did "North & South" (previously mentioned above), and just like that one, she's cut swathes of the good stuff out. Fair 'nuff - it's her job - and she's doing the authors a favour, actually, because you HAVE to buy the book just to be able to fill in all the gaping holes she leaves - but damn it makes it hard to follow sometimes!

I mean, both are equally watchable, and lovely and all that (especially N & S with it's wonderfully haunting soundtrack), but I actually had to go and buy Elizabeth Gaskell's novel just to find out what was missing. Not that I minded. I've actually become a big fan of hers now. But while I thoroughly enjoyed watching Richard Armitage swan about in top-hat and tails (and a cravat! Can never forget that, or the scene towards the end when he finally took the bloody thing off!), I was well and truly aware that there were huge chunks of necessary bits removed. Okay, so maybe necessary to me. But I like to get the whole picture. Not the highly edited version. I LIKE the fluffy descriptive stuff :-)

And she's doing it again to "Jane Eyre". Sob. :(

No fair, no fair, no fair!