Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Wireless at home

There is now wireless at my home.
I know, what's taken me so long?
Pretty much it has all been a bit of an "it will interfere with my writing" issue. Of course, I'm hoping once the novelty of a 'new toy', as it were, wears off, I will be back to my productive self.
Of course that doesn't mean I'm giving up on my trips to the library, nor am I giving up the internet access on my phone. I'm simply backing up what I already have with some that I can use at any time I need to. Whether writing this blog classifies as a need as opposed to an "I have the internet now so I'm going to use it" thing is all up to you really.

Sorry for the boring blog. I'll write a bigger, better one next time

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Halloween: Why I Won’t Be Leaving My Lights On

All Hallow’s Eve. It means something different to everyone.
To some, it’s the night when the veil between this world and the next is at its thinnest.
In America, it’s Halloween: the night where stranger danger is put on hiatus and children can ask strangers for sugary treats. And now, thanks to television, it’s making an appearance in Australia.
It never used to be widely celebrated here. It was only a few years ago in Ballarat that I started to notice trick-or-treaters showing up at my door, asking for treats, simply because it’s Halloween and it’s done like that on American TV shows.
Last year, 2 weeks before Halloween, they showed up at my door, thinking that it was the day/ early night of Halloween. I sent them away empty handed. Then, the same kids showed up at my door, dressed in regular clothes and not in costume, on the night before Halloween doing their trick-or-treating then because they weren’t going to be in Ballarat the night of Halloween. Again I sent them away empty handed.
In America, they have customs on Halloween night to let kids know what houses will participate in Halloween and what ones will not. People can prepare for it if they wish to, or ignore it as most of us choose to. Due to its newness as a ‘holiday’ in Australia, the cultural norms of America have not been adapted yet, like a light left on outside to let people know that it is okay to knock.
Halloween, as it is celebrated with all its gory, plastic tokenism in America, is still in its infancy in Australia, especially in Ballarat. We can choose not to leave out lights on out front and not participate in the Halloween ritual of giving out cheap lollies if we want because it is not a part of our culture yet. Parents are wary of letting their kids go up to people they don’t know to ask for lollies.
I know that this year I will again be turning people away that show up on my doorstep on Halloween night simply because I can’t be bothered taking part of it for the sake of a few kids that don’t even bother to dress up in a costume.

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Fighting to Write

Here’s what I taught myself yesterday. Fighting with a sword while you’re a faery is a lot harder than I thought it would be. Every time I twisted my core, I left my back vulnerable, which if I were a faery it would mean that I’d be de-winged. Also my “swords” were really long, narrow, flimsy pieces of plastic poster framers that I’ve had for several years ago. Also I don’t have wings.
I know I’m not a faery warrior, but the central character of (what will possibly be) my next book is one so I need to know how to fight like a faery as there is a bit of a battle scene at some point. Try talking about a warrior without there being a fight scene.
Before my process so far is explained, let me assure you that I know nothing about fighting with weapons outside of that which I see on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and not one of those people had wings).
Anyways, my first step to working out how to write fight scenes was to hit the net. I looked up article upon article on how to write fight/ action sequences. Most of them were aimed towards people that would write the martial arts type scenes. I tend to think of Zaphne as being a bit of a scrappy, get a kick in where you can until you survive long enough to reach for a blade kind of warrior. One was really helpful though.
It pointed out that in order to really understand how a fight would happen, it helps to act it out and then make notes after about what worked and what didn’t.
So, yesterday afternoon I pulled out my faux swords, wiped the dust from them and took up my fighting stance after I put on some music to make me move a bit faster. I fought against invisible minions for several minutes, all the time aware of the placement of tables and overhead light fixtures that make up my reality. Each time I moved I had to be aware of where my wings would have been if I had been wearing some and also how often I would probably end up cutting my own arms/head/leg off if I were using real blades. I Everything I did was slow, calculated whereas in a battle scene it would be more fast paced as one would not stop to take notes on which swipe would have cut the tip of an invisible wing.
I hope that it makes my fight scenes stronger, but I think I’ll keep on doing it, more so because I need to work out other fight related things.
Also I need wings.

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Welcome to the twisted ramblings of my mind

You’re not like the rest...
I’m going to go into this blog post without a really really clear idea on what I’m going to write about. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. I do not know what will feature in this post. Probably a lot of song lyrics that are playing on my computer as I type this.
Wow, okay, so that was almost a thought.

Spinning all around
That’s sort of where I’m at. I have a lot of thoughts, a lot to get done this week but when I look at my to do list all I can think is snore.
I’d rather live out on the street than in this haunted memory.
Realised that I can’t type as fast as I think...
Ferris Wheel Go Round, got work to do. Hey did you see that article in the news over the weekend about a Ferris Wheel getting hit by a plane. Really, you couldn’t see a big thing going round? No answer?
Launch plans are in the making. We love Australia Post for their fast service that I didn’t have to pay extra for. Everything I sent out at 4pm last Thursday has already been reveived.
I thought it was supposed to be blue skies today

When she was 22, her future looked bright – gotta change that song
Yeah, I remember being 22. Back then I wasn’t jaded. I was actually a little optimistic.
Pretty much, you know your limits, pretty much
I wish I knew my limits sometimes. Really sort of wish. But life is for reaching them and then going past them at high speed.
Just like that ass that sped past my place in his car. Where’s the highway patrol cars when that’s going on? Nowhere to be seen on the street.

(Boys in town – Natalie Gauci; Funhouse – P!nk; 22 – Lily Allen; Politics in Space – kate Milled Keidke)

Don't need to be a guy to make a desk

I made myself a desk the other day. Okay, so “made” might be too heavy a word for what I actually did. I mean, I brought it from Officeworks, carried it to my car from the store, carried it from my car to the lounge where I was setting it up and then I put it together according to the picture diagrams on the page.
Okay so it fell to pieces the day after because the shelf wasn’t in properly but at least I put it together. The fault of the falling shelf however does not lie with me but with the people who put the package together for giving me a faulty rail that the shelf cannot slide on. Oh well, you live you learn.
I found it funny that I was offered help to carry it out to the car by the checkout operator. I was quick to point out that if I couldn’t carry it to the car I wouldn’t be able to carry it when I got home. The whole walking to the car with a heavy, awkward rectangle box full of wood pieces took a while, a lot shorter than me getting it from the car to my home (I’d worked out how to carry it by then).
Then when I stopped at the petrol station to get air for my tyres, I had one of the attendants offer me help to do it, which I openly accepted because I was unsure about tyre pressure and all that (it had been a while since I put air in my tyres). I thought about it afterwards. I accepted the help because I was ignorant of how to do something instead of being an arrogant feminist believing that I can do anything a guy can. I mean, the attendant had offered the person before me and that was a guy my dad’s age.
I’ve never believed that you need to be a certain gender to accomplish tasks. My general response to being told something is a guy’s/ girl’s job is to ask if they’re doing it with their genitals. I lived in a share house where when work needed to be done like cutting down a vine that was threatening to destroy a gutter or defrosting a freezer, we had to wait for one of the girl’s boyfriends to come over to do it. In the case of the vine, I ended up cutting it down myself, from buying the saw and cutting it down. I ended up with scratches all over my hands (next time, wear gloves) but it was down.
As a child I didn’t have brothers to do all the stuff like carting wood in with the wheelbarrow for the fire, or even for cutting the wood. My sister and I were expected to do it once our father had shown us how. I was taught how to change a tyre (admittingly I prefer getting roadside assist to do that so I know with their electrical tools that it’s firmly attached) and how to fill the oil in my older car.
Living alone as an adult, I have put together shelves, moved furniture and all sorts of things. I’ve used high heels as hammers when I needed them, and brought several sets of screwdrivers when I couldn’t find my old ones. When I need help with something I’ll ask for it, but I don’t expect a knight on a white horse to come to my rescue simply because I’m a female in distress.