Category Archives: Cogging for Kibble

Meer, Meer, Meer

I just spent half an hour moaning for various reasons at Ceri, who gave me pats and made me laugh. She also gave me the thumbs-up for my interview when I asked her to read it, having reached the unrewarding poking-at-it-with-a-sharp-stick stage where I couldn’t see if it was making sense or not. So now it’s off to the editor of the e-zine.

And Ceri just logged back in on her way out to lunch (which I am missing, meer meer meer) to send me over to this LOLcatz poetry thread over at Making Light. Do not miss the Pride & Prejudice summary, or the Iliad, or the text-based Inferno (and the sequel).

Friday

I’m currently polishing the interview to send it out by noon. I have been industrious this morning – the dishwasher has been loaded and turned on, I’ve done a load of laundry, and I finished cleaning out the mp3 doubles on my hard drive. It’s lunch out day, and there are a couple of milestones among the lunch crowd to celebrate as well as books and CDs to pass along/back. But my system’s been collywobbly for the past two days; I’m still not better this morning and I can’t think of a single lunch spot in that area that would be kind to me. It’s been a hard week in a variety of ways, starting with the headaches and anxiety attacks on Monday (the latter making a comeback after a long absence and rooted, I think, in the fact that for the first time in months, I am free to sit down and write fiction again, but have no idea which project of the five in progress to focus on) and not exactly going downhill from there, but certainly not getting any better. At least I’ve had decent sleep the past two nights, which is a refreshing change.

Construction has hit not only my neighbourhood, but every single main artery I take to various places.

I forgot to say “white rabbits” this morning.

And one month till the annual chamber orchestra Canada Day concert!

It Never Gets Any Easier

Today I’m working on a set of interview questions, and as always when I do something like this I’m staring at the screen and wondering what on earth to say in response to questions I’ve answered elsewhere, or how to encapsulate huge philosophical rambles in a paragraph or two. And to my amusement I just found this in an online horoscope today:

You may feel as if you are right, but explaining your point of view can be quite a challenge. It’s not that you are an ineffective communicator; it’s just that your feelings are outside the normal sphere of language. There just aren’t any words to describe the subtlety of your emotions. Talking about them can actually alter your mood and change the direction of your day. Act on what you know now, but don’t try to justify yourself until after the Full Moon tomorrow night.

The deadline is Friday, which is after the full moon. How convenient.

Interviews make me fret, because they represent a very narrow and static slice of an author’s philosophy. I’m never sure when I sound grounded and confident, and when I sound mildly delusional or out of touch.

LATER: There, four pages of first draft: all questions except one answered (one of those only in point form, but the outline is there) and the missing question is one that needs research in the form of going back to one of my books and checking to see what I said the first time so as not to completely repeat myself. Now, off to see a movie with HRH.

Scratch Pad May 16

09:12:
Last Day! (Unless something else pops up yet again.) Pleasant surprise to open my file and realise that I am in fact more than half done, I am two-thirds done my final task. Go me! (I knew I was deliberately fudging the math, but not that much. I was so brain-dead yesterday it wasn’t funny.)

10:00:
And five words defined as “a stupid person”, with one “a stupid and foolish person” thrown in for a bit of variety.

10:02:
Oh, look. I have the riff from Till My Head Falls Off going through my head. Time for YouTube! (Except they won’t have the correct version, which is to say the Random Colour version. Only the original. I’ll have to settle.)

10:32:
Yuck. Well, that doesn’t work at all. Warped recording, and our arrangement is better.

11:39:
Today’s musical surprise in the cafe was another laid-back jazz group, this one a quarter with a violin, two guitars, and a stand-up bass.

12:35:
Okay, no idea what’s going on with my recording that was supposed to happen at noon; the sound guy isn’t in at all, and no one else who should know has any idea about it. I’m going for lunch.

13:49:
Back for my last lunch with Meallanmouse. Very sad. And less than a thousand words to go on the final pass!

14:36:
Done. No, really, really done. Now I’ll check the competition definitions, and then I’m very done.

14:56:
… or I’ll double-check some of the stuff playtesting and QA is bringing back on the previous version of the dictionary, just to make sure it’s all been handled. Plus I’ll deal with the last US/UK spelling issues.

16:44:
I feel awful, leaving like this. It’s as if I’m leaving something undone, or for someone else to handle. Except I’m not, really; I’ve done what I can, and I’m thrilled to the heavens with how much better the dictionary is than when I walked in six and a half weeks ago. There will still be mistakes; I’m not so arrogant as to declare that it is perfect. But I’ve caught all I can in the allotted time. Maybe if I assume I’m coming in on Friday, that will make me feel better.

Scratch Pad May 15

14:24:
I was in the studio today from 9 till 1 invigilating the actor’s recording of the last 400 words we needed. I am now mostly wiped out; the studio takes so much out of you. Or maybe it’s listening closely to someone trying to pronounce thousands of syllables correctly. Humans are lazy; we often don’t bother to pronounce words correctly because we know our listeners will fill the rest in and make the leap of comprehension. We can’t get away with that in an instructive recording, so there was a lot of splitting hairs. And beyond that, it was nice to be able to explain what a word is when someone says “What the heck does that mean?”, and to have people look at you and say “You must be the smartest person in the whole world.” It’s said in fun as a joke, of course, but it’s good to hear this as a fun compliment instead of the similar nasty cracks suffered during childhood. (Yeah, and I’m getting paid for being smart, too, all you people who used to tease me. Also working on something tremendously cool in an industry that would cause your jaw to drop, bullies. So there.) Had a short lunch with t! when I got back, now trying to settle back into regular work, but everything feels like it’s buzzing.

There was green crayon on my sheets this morning, where Liam helpfully coloured the papers I was cross-checking before I left for work. No one seemed to mind.

I should have given into my idle thought at lunch to bring a Coke up with me. God, I’m wiped.

Looks like my sound test/placeholder recording happens tomorrow around noon. They, er, forgot yesterday. (That happens; everyone is kind of dazed these days.)

14:58:

Eyes keep crossing. Body keeps trying to zone out and fall asleep. Of course, I had another night of five hours of broken sleep, so that plus the studio probably has something to do with it. Someone shoot me if I am not in bed by nine tonight. Preferably with warm milk with a touch of vanilla in it, and cats. Or maybe a glass of wine instead. (Instead of the milk, not the cats.)

14:59:

Oh, honestly — I want to go shoe shopping again. What is WITH this? What I really need are socks — my beautiful black trouser socks with the Pooh applique on the side have developed an embarrassing hole in the right toe.

15:31:

Where did half an hour just go? Oh, lord.

15:34:

Okay, so why am I suddenly unable to stop thinking about my Vivaldi novel?

15:30:
Be afraid: the group mind and collective consciousness is dredging up rare things that Ann and I discussed yesterday. Ook.

16:19:

Hmm. Possibly another in-house recommendation, this time to edit a 20K script down by 2K. No way to estimate how long that will take unless I see the thing. We’re thinking two work weeks. Can’t verify, as the script is currently in Japanese. (Er, yes, that would make it a challenge.) They have my contact info and my rates; it may happen a month from now. we’ll see.

Scratch Pad May 14

9:03:

I’m back at work, dee dee dee… every day is a bonus now.

I am very out of it this morning. I’m burning myself out working at home at night after working all day. I slept for an hour and a half in the middle of the day yesterday, and could have fallen asleep several other times as well. This morning I feel mildly ill and still out of it, and as if I could nod off any moment although I got about 6 hours of good sleep (less than I ought, more than I’ve been getting on average lately). Mind you, I was practically a somnambulist all of Sunday.

Weekend summary: Excellent evening out at the ADZO house on Saturday, with sushi and wine and four tired parents just relaxing. Very good. Earlier on Saturday: new shoes for Liam, tried to test drive a trike but he threw a fit because we passed toy cars first and he wanted to drive those instead. We’ll try again some other time. Bought lattice and supports for the backyard to give us a bit more privacy from the neighbours; the next thing is to plant climbing vines. Bought and assembled an excellent little composter, so now we don’t have to walk all the way across the yard to dump kitchen scraps. Liam enjoyed the assembly; he thought it was a playhouse. Pictures to follow someday. Played cello for half an hour in the afternoon; my strings were slack from the awful weather roller coaster we’ve been on. Sunday: groceries, then made omelettes and sausages for the weekly neighbour brunch, A Blessed Nap (best Mother’s Day gift I could have received, but the trio of roses was nice too), the in-laws coming over for dinner.

Remembered to sign my imprint specialist contract renewals and get them ready for mailing this morning. Yay me.

10:03:

I feel like I’m trudging through molasses today. Argh. Getting work done, though. Looks like others are slow getting moving today as well; some people are still straggling in, and there are empty desks around.

Gods, I feel like I could sleep for a week. Why don’t I have a cottage somewhere where I could go to do this? Water, trees, a breeze… Argh. Oh wait — that’s called a vacation.

10:08:

Aha! This project now has an official release name instead of a placeholder code name! Muah hah hah! [LATER: Ah, no; that’s yet another placeholder name. The official name is still being kept very, very secret. If there even is a confirmed official name. Heh. That makes three or four working titles I’ve seen the project listed under on various sales lists.)

11:35:

I am not, in fact, doing studio stuff after all today. All the more time to work. Also, lunch is a good thing, and as last I heard I was supposed to do studio stuff at noon, the consumption of comestibles instead is an attractive notion. I’ve been wobbly most of the morning, despite tea and granola bars and most of an egg/sausage/scone thing. Lunch is also A Good Thing because I missed my regular lunch out with friends on Friday.

11:43:

One of the reasons I enjoy Paul Tortelier’s recording of the Bach solo cello suites is because I can hear the fingers stopping the strings — there’s a small slapping sound as the finger hammers down. Live, in studio, no tampering. Real stuff. And I love listening to passionate classical music at a really, really loud volume on my headphones in an environment like this. It amuses me.

13:17:

Scott lent me games at lunch today! Yay!

13:47:

The demo and presentation over the weekend at the trade show went really well and got excellent feedback. Hurrah!

13:51:

I have just run into nine words all defined as “extremely large.”

13:55:

… and six defined as “extremely good”. *headdesk*

13:58:

… and now, seven words simply defined as “extremely.” If I do not laugh now, I will cry. Or throw something.

14:11:

So, why do ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’ mean the same thing, anyway? This is one of those things that has gnawed at me for decades.

14:16:

Yikes — just realised the gig is THIS SATURDAY. eep.

14:24:

I give up. The definition for ‘matronly’ completely misses the point.

14:40:

Cute things discovered on P’s trip to the trade show in San Francisco: Panda Z! We’ve spent the past few minutes cooing over the toy he got, and looking up the story and characters online. They have plushies.

14:56:

Wow – very sleepy here this aft. Hard to focus. It was like this on Friday too, but today there are people here to help keep me working. I’ve done more up till now today than I did on Friday, so I’m in better shape. Considering I’m in studio till one tomorrow, I’ll have another three and a half-ish hours in which to do work, so I should be done this by the end of tomorrow. Certainly polished by early Wednesday, and I may not even stay the whole day. Maybe till lunch only. Shan’t be coming at all on Thursday, mainly because I am booked elsewhere with the family. And I can’t see me in on Friday unless they discover something that desperately needs doing.

15:19:

…aaaaaand seven words defined as “completely.”

15:33:

This afternoon is creeping along. Not a bad thing, as I’ve been skiving and surfing, but also not great because going home seems a long way off, and I still have some work to do tonight. My left hip has been hurting me a bit more each day, and today it’s twinging badly as I sit.

15:56:

Woo! Only one hour left! Time is moving along faster than I thought. Or maybe I’m skiving more. (I’ve still done almost as much today as I did Thurs and Fri together, so ha.)

16:13:

Just ordered my two-volume Shorter Oxford to celebrate the end of my contract and the excellent work I have done in pulling this dictionary’s socks up. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than it was, immeasurably so. The Shorter Oxford should arrive on Friday. Also ordered the new Tori Amos CD and a manga that looks interesting (which I found out about, in reverse fashion, by seeing the Japanese video game advertised).

16:46:

And now that I’m leaving in 15 minutes I don’t have enough time to prepare for going directly to the studio tomorrow. Argh! (Well, I do, it’s just slightly tense now instead of relaxed.) I’ll get the references printed and cross-check it all at home tonight.

Scratch Pad May 11

13:16:

The metro was delayed at an early station this morning; I got into work at 9:15 and didn’t even get to sit down before being told that the recording session I was consulting on was beginning right now somewhere else, not on-site. So I was escorted there by a cheerful guy whose name I didn’t catch, got there for 9:30, and four hours later I am free once more. Starving, because I was planning on grabbing breakfast here, and I dropped my satchel with my Thermos of tea in it before I hurried off, so I had nothing with me.

Regretfully, our recording session was told to go with US pronunciation, which saddens me because I have spent so much time making this dictionary as neutral as possible as regards spelling and region-specific words. Pretty much everyone agrees that it would have been ideal to have NA and UK specific versions of the product, but we have to make compromises.

Also, this morning I was sad to discover that playing the DS on the metro makes me very motion sick. Argh. And before that, I discovered that when Liam ran off with my watch last night I hadn’t paid attention to where he put it, and so this morning I couldn’t find it at all before I left.

Our room is currently empty except for four other people, because it’s the project party today. I’m going to be able to concentrate really well.

13:48:

No use; I’m past my hunger now. I got a big panini sandwich from the downstairs cafe, but I could only eat half of it. Sigh. The heavy hard crust is hurting my chapped lips, too, and they put mayo on it instead of dijon mustard. Alas.

14:17:

Wow, do I ever want to be home. And it would be so easy to go, too, with everyone gone. Except I have a pile of work to do. So much for concentrating well.

14:20:

Heh. The guys who stayed to work are currenlty playing Guitar Hero. Hey, what can I say; it’s a summer Friday with no one around. I think we’re all in that kind of headspace.

14:46:

I have absolutely zero focus. This is a bad thing.

15:23:

If lexicography is the activity or job of writing dictionaries, how does one define the editing of a dictionary?

15:24:

I’m sorry, the brain you require is not available at the moment. Please call again. (I am beginning to see the usefulness of handhelds. I couldn’t research or read like this either; I’d retain nothing. But I could play.)

16:16:

Just came back from a quick hello to Darroch and Ann on their way out. I can tell that I’m out of it; I was wandering conversation-wise with little awareness of what I was saying. If this were to occur regularly it would be a bad habit.

16:39:

Illusive allusion. Heh. Wordplay resulting from proximity in the dbase.

Yes, I am tired. Ironically, I’m beginning to settle into a rhythm.

On the way home:

Me: So the guy taking me to the recording session asked me what my French accent was.
HRH: Did you tell him “enunciation”?
Me: *dies*

(My escort thought I was francophone like him, and we were conversing in French, which is what makes this all the more amusing.)