Monthly Archives: June 2014

Attention Span

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I joke with people that I have the attention span of a gnat with ADD. My superhero alter-ego is “Easily Distracted Man!” but he’s not much of a hero. He tends to lose the thread of the conversation when the villain is doing the monologue thing and stop paying attention. I do get distracted and I do lack focus.

Then I saw this video: Attention Span It dared me to watch the whole thing. It actually had quite the cynical take on attention span. Some interesting statements in there – particularly the one that said something like, “soon this dare will be over and you will win or lose and nobody will know buy you”.

I watched the entire thing. I didn’t believe there was no joke or that there wasn’t some kind of tag or lesson. I had a laser like focus… only for about three minutes, but it was there.

Why am I posting about my attention? This is a round about way of trying to not apologize for having such a large gap between posts. I’m fairly certain the standard apology for not posting is one of the most used posts by any writer or blogger ever. I had made a personal commitment to getting stuff posted here and then life got in the way. In the end, I really did have that laser like focus, it just wasn’t here. What that has done has given me even more desire to get creative. Hopefully the posts will pick up the pace over the next few weeks here.

Personal Correspondence

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You will be shocked, stunned and amazed to hear that I am of two minds on something. It happens so often these days I wonder if I’ve actually got some kind of split personality.

I was thinking this evening about personal letters and other correspondence that has traditionally been part of historian’s research into authors (and others). How will that sort of thing be handled for an author in this digital age? There won’t be a stack of e-mails sitting in a dusty box in the back corner of the attic. Well, the box might be there but the ability to get anything from it will be a different matter entirely.

How will this be handled? I don’t have a good answer for that. If you’ve got any thoughts or theories I’d be interested in hearing them.

What brought this up was a lengthy e-mail I had with two of the people closest to me in my life. It seems horribly narcissistic to think anybody beyond those two will every care at all about what I wrote “before” or “during” any period of my life but I couldn’t help the thought bursting forward. I spent a few hundred words discussing my thoughts on failure and how it changes things in somebody’s life. I have failed spectacularly in my life and learned quite a lot from it. I’m attempting to pass a certain amount of that wisdom along to others to help them avoid the “spectacular” portion of the failure. Regular fail should do just fine, hold the Epic thank you very much.

Here’s the part where I’m of two minds – do I share these words (edited) or do I keep them to myself?

Birthday

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As I sit here there are fingers reaching up from my neck and squeezing the back of my head. I’d lift my arm to rub my head and relieve the pressure but the stabbing pain in my shoulder only allows my arm to reach the halfway point before turning back. My feet are tingling because I’ve stressed my back to the point where I should walk away from this infernal machine and rest…

Or happy birthday to me.

I’m two years gone from the answer to life, the universe and everything and somehow feel as if the answers are truly getting further away. What’s coming closer though is an amazing person that my daughter is growing up to be. I’m uncertain how that’s happening, but I am so glad that it is. Also coming closer is a day when my lovely wife will be back on her feet (both of them) with her heart completely back in working order so we can keep wandering down the road of life together (and leave behind the crutches)!

I don’t celebrate much anymore, but I did really like the ice cream cake I shared with my family on Sunday (thanks Mom!). There should be more ice cream cake in the world, I think that would help. It was a small thing to have a mini celebration, but it was nice to mark the occasion. I’m glad we had that time together as a family.

Today was particularly excellent. The adjustment bureau took the day off and my travels were so smooth and quick I was way, way ahead of schedule. Work wrapped up early and I got home early. My lovely wife grilled some chicken for dinner and I am so happy she is working her way back to being able to handle the cooking – I like what she makes better than the pitiful handful of things I can work up.

So I’m a year older, a year further along but also a year happier than I’ve ever been despite all the bumps and potholes along the way. I am really looking forward to another wonderful year.

Balticon Follow Up

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The title here is a bit of a tease honestly. I don’t have enough of my thoughts pulled together to write anything even remotely coherent about the convention just now. I want to do the review justice. It was a short week back at work, but I suspect they crammed more into the schedule just to be certain they made up for Monday’s lost time. This has put the squeeze on my writing time.

Short version – it was a really good convention that once again flew past far more quickly than it should have. IF you’ve not been out to a local convention and you’re a fan, you’re missing out.

I normally hold off until the next WTS fanzine, but I think the number of weeks beyond the convention we’ll be at that point would lose some of the impact.

So – more to follow – starting with my first panel this year… the one where I was sitting next to Brandon Sanderson. Yes, that Brandon Sanderson.