Desiderata

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and the ignorant; they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons, they are vexations to the spirit. If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter; for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself. Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time. Exercise caution in your business affairs; for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many persons strive for high ideals; and everywhere life is full of heroism. Be yourself. Especially, do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labors and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

Reading

I'm still struggling through The Book Thief. Its written ok, and it can make your imagination fill in all the blanks, but I just can't care about the main character. I really don't care about a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany.

But I'm not even half-way through yet... I'll keep slogging along! I must finish reading a book!! If I put it down without finishing it I'll be bloody disappointed in myself!

I didn't finish reading Game of Thrones by George RR Martin, and I just watched the first season of the tv series just last week. Its an awesome story, and I'm glad I read at least some of it before watching the series. I think I might have to pick it up and finish it (even though I know what happens). I think it'll be worth it. I remember it was just so thick with characters and storylines that it was hard to follow if you put it down for a moment!

Hey yo.. I will try to stick to my guns and get back into this reading thing.. If I can't read how can I expect to write!!!

Shout Out

So, although I haven't been writing much in the past few years I have been doing other stuff.

Since I'm working as website admin for a company, I figured I'd try my hand at website build & design in my spare time.

I'm slooowly getting it together, while constantly battling all the distractions of life - especially laziness.

But anyway.. I've got a friend with a business who let me use him as a web design guinea pig, and after building his site from scratch and then redesigning it once I decided to redesign it again using a web design program. Made it easier to build coz these programs are made for dummies. I combat the guilt of cutting the corners by keeping in mind that I know I can write all the code from scratch... but really, is there any point in re-inventing the wheel? And also, just because you can build a wheel and build a car from the ground up it doesn't mean that its going to run well. These web programs mean any idiot can get on the web.. but unless they know what they're doing they're still idiots and they'll create an idiotic site.

Having said all that I'm sure I've just set myself up for a fall...hahaha..

Here's the site - www.adtdesignaspirations.co.uk

Writing is like web design. Any idiot can put a few words together to make a sentence, and can string a few sentences together to make a paragraph, then stitch paragraph on paragraph until they have a chapter, then repeat a dozen times. BUT - just because you can do that doesn't mean the book will be any good.

So I'm faced with wondering whether I'm any good.. at web design and writing...

Then I put the wondering aside and just get on with it because I'm having fun! ;-)

What Am I Reading?

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I'm not impressed.

I've only continued with it because my Mum recommended it, but its a struggle.

I'm not sure if that's because I've struggled to stay interested after the first chapter of any book for the past year or two.. but I'm not entirely interested in the story of a girl growing up during Nazi Germany anyway, even if it is narrated by death. Interesting concept, but I think its wasted.

I'm not even half-way through yet, so perhaps it'll get better and I'll change my mind.

But if it does I still won't be impressed that you have to read through a hundred dreary pages before the good stuff starts. The whole journey should be amazing otherwise its pointless!

These are the books I've tried to read in the past few years:

Game of Thrones - got about half way then put it down for too long and couldn't pick up the story again
Labyrinth - only got through the prologue, though I think it showed promise
Black Swan - I read about half of it, but wasn't really absorbing it
The God Delusion - only read a few chapters, but wasn't really in the mood for it
The Power of Now - same as above
The Mists of Avalon (I'm a bit ashamed of this one) - got about a third of the way through, and was enjoying it, but just wasn't in a reading mood

I have the attention span of..... oooh what's that over there?!

I'd say the last full book I read was The Pillars of the Earth (which is also a TV series). I really enjoyed that. I think the only reason I read it was because I was on holiday and was on a train for 7 hours from NY City to New Hampshire and it was the middle of winter so when we weren't skiing we were inside doing nothing (and I was with my folks.. we were staying with their 'friends' so you can imagine how bloody bored I was).

Hopefully 2012 will bring books back to me.

Listening to Lana Del Rey's album Born To Die.... love it!

Alphasmart 3000

I transferred all my writing off my dusty old Alphasmart the other day. I had six files of stuff, and some of it wasn't backed up anywhere else! So, I'm glad I downloaded it all ok and I've carefully saved it and backed it up so it doesn't dissolve back into the ether.. funny enough it was the first few chapters of my book 'Children of the Ether'.

I can't seem to turn the Alphasmart on now. It transferred files ok, but pressing the on/off button does nothing. I changed the batteries, but perhaps I need to plug it in. Shame I can't for the life of me find the damn adaptor!

Anyhoo.. I distracted myself with redesigning the site. Its probably still a bit bland, but at least its something.

Right, well, that's enough work for now. Don't want to strain a finger or anything.

Two in ten minutes

Wow, two posts in ten minutes.. I'm on a roll!

Just deleted hundreds of spam comments.. well, that's what I get for neglecting it for so long!

I might have a play around with the design tomorrow.. freshen things up a bit.

I'm trying to kick-start myself into putting writing at the top of the priority list. How I could have let it slip, I don't know, but hopefully I can salvage it.

I've got a new friend to help me along.. his name is Buddy. (But I will not make all my writing about a hamster! I am merely introducing him, tis all).

Time passes

Well I certainly have neglected my poor little ole blog.

I have no excuses.

Pure laziness.

And perhaps some wicked & wild distractions...

I'm not sure what my plan is yet... or whether I'll just stick to the no-plan plan. Perhaps I should plan to plan a plan.

All this planning is making me tired. I'll think about it later.