Brand New Weeks

Monday, and far from the blues that everyone else will caution you of, I’ll say that sometimes it’s nice to start a brand new week. It’s like opening a new jar of peanut butter. And I don’t even like peanut butter all that much.

It’s going to be a busy week. I have quite a few people to meet in the next ten days or so and I’m afraid I’m going to have to procrastinate with a couple of them, unfortunately. That doesn’t happen very often. I’m not usually this much of a, uh, people person, in that sense. Still, after all the work last week, it’s nice to actually meet people again.

Speaking of work, today I intend to finish up with the second part of the current project. I look at the manuscript in three parts, and I’ve done about 70% of the third part and 90% of the second, so I’m hoping to complete the second in order to turn my attentions fully to the last. I have a sort of self-imposed deadline with regards to all of this, and I’m not sure if I’m on schedule, but I’m taking it one step at a time, really. It’s hard to tell, these things, and my predictions would be little more than wild guesses.

I have to balance all of this, of course, with (as I said) meeting up with people, and also with a number of chores. And meanwhile, I hope to ensure a certain degree of entertainment and enjoyment during these supposed holiday weeks, so I’m trying to make space for that too. It’s not a balancing act I’m confident of pulling off, but it’s not as if I’ve got much of a choice.

So it’s a brand new week! Sure, the world looks pretty sombre these days (well, it kind of always does, doesn’t it?) but that’s no excuse not to make the best of it. So, in the old and famous words, go out and get her.

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Technological Conveniences

I’m not a very traditional writer.

That is to say that I don’t like writing long hand on paper; I don’t use typewriters though I’d very much like my own; and I have a notebook but it sometimes just isn’t enough.

Sometimes, I still write long hand. But that’s very rare, and it usually ends up with me doing more writing than I probably should, given how I will most likely end up rewriting it several times. I’m just correction-prone. But my rare venture into pen-and-paper territory has more to do with the way I’ve learnt to work.

In general, I write in a bunch of fragments. I have these things in my head that I can use so I put them all down in roughly chronological order and it gives me an idea of where to go and what to do. I’m just that way. And usually I can find something to do to some part somewhere so I don’t spend a lot of time getting stuck very often. It’s a curious cross between the inspiration behind the work and the more mechanical side to it.

So, what I mean is, thank goodness for word processors. Because I don’t write linearly and correct massively as I go along, I can’t really use long hand (unless I do flash cards, which is probably more trouble than it’s worth), and I don’t do typewriters too.

I also have a lovely red Moleskine notebook. I’ve been using notebooks for a long time now. It’s a habit I picked up in secondary school, when I was a silly young boy who liked to plot silly young boy things. The planning was just the most wonderful part of it all back then. (It probably isn’t any longer.)

But sometimes, a notebook isn’t enough. Say I’m at some social function, or maybe I’m waiting at a traffic light for the green man to appear. Suddenly a line occurs to me, or something. An idea, perhaps. It’s just not really all that feasible to start retrieving my notebook and my stationery. Most of the time, I note these down in SMS form.

Besides these examples, I usually do up a to-do list for work on a Notepad file. It’s faster than writing it out, and changing it is a lot simpler. Also, my only link with the outside world while I work is technological. I communicate with people online and I keep myself in touch with the news on the computer. I’m not really one of those writers who sits down with impenetrable concentration and refuses to talk to anyone. I’d probably go insane.

And music. I’d be swapping a lot of CDs if my music wasn’t digital. And I more or less cannot work without music.

Technology is wonderful.

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55 parts; few dollars.

55 Parts

I’ve decided to take a different approach to work in what I hope is the final run-in for the first draft. I wrote down all the parts that I’ve yet to complete, totalling 55, and will be working to finish them up part by part. I’ve already crossed of one of them because it was just short of a few words and I did that just now. Well, here’s hoping that it really is the final stretch.

Money

Holidays should be about spending money. You shouldn’t have to worry too much about spending on this or that. Particularly not during the Great Singapore Sale. But I’m trying really hard to avoid overspending. Yesterday I was at the PC Show (Is it the PC Show? Or is it the IT Show? IT Fair?) and thought of buying a couple of things, mostly memory in the form of SD cards, flash drives and portable hard disks. I never got to it because I thought I had to be careful with my money even if reasonably sized SDHC cards and flash drives go for fifteen bucks these days.

Which is just as well because Steam put up offers for Morrowind and Oblivion, the first of which I’ve been meaning to get to and the latter I already own on disc but without the expansions/DLC, so it was all good.

Computing, Et Cetera

Speaking of the IT Show, I was actually looking at computers because my desktop probably has to be replaced like very soon, particularly since Office 2010 is starting to show up on systems, so now is probably as good a time as ever. I had been looking for a notebook thinking that I need one, but I don’t think so anymore, and I can’t find one that really attracts me anyway.

I was also looking for camera upgrades, as you know, and I was thinking of a smaller camera. I’m still fluctuating, though. I kind of think now that I’m leaning more towards getting my two-lens Nikon kit and maybe upgrading the body in the future. If I can find a respectable second-hand lens and bear to part with the money, that is. We’ll see. But since I’m a little short on funds, I guess my indecision is a good thing. And so is my change of plans with the notebook.

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Updates

Work

I’m kind of at the stage where I want to wrap things up, so every day I set my mind to completing this bit and that bit. I had a target word count in mind, an estimation of some sort, but it looks a little as if I might overrun that. I’m not very sure. I’m never very sure about these things, but I do that to give myself some remotely concrete destination to keep in my sights and also to figure out the scale of the project. It’s just the way that I work.

Like I said, though, I’m in the closing stages of the first draft. Things actually look very uncertain now in the sense that there are portions I still don’t know what to do with, but it’s all gathering some kind of momentum and it feels a tiny bit different these days. One of the important things is that I’m trying not to mess things around too much because this is roughly where I should say everything is where it should be. It sounds like it doesn’t make a lot of sense but that’s just the way it is until you have a go at it.

Yesterday, someone asked me what I think about my work so far. I’m not sure. I’m actually trying very hard not to think about it, in the sense that I think he means, because sometimes it just drives you crazy and you give up on it completely. At the same time, I thought about what the book’s actually about and was satisfied when I couldn’t really give some kind of definitive answer. While that’ll probably be a problem when I get to writing the pitch, for now it implies that I have no idea what I’m writing about; I have very bad summary skills; or it refuses to be reduced to some kind of summary, to some extent.

While the last possibility might not be the most likely, at least it’s there to begin with.

Miscellany

Ah yes, it will be time to choose my final year project soon. I’m kind of nervy. I have no idea what’s going to happen. I’m determined to make it a good experience, and in a way, I’m looking forward to it.

I kind of want to catch The Full Monty, but I don’t feel like going alone and I suspect this means I’ll be giving it a miss. From experience, anyway.

My book club moves into its second phase this week, but I get the feeling that if it’s going to die, this is pretty much where it will choose to die.

I’m beginning to think I want a small camera more than a large one, though I’m still considering.

Still have yet to put up my things, the whiteboard and the prints. Will get to it soon.

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The biggest milestone in a while.

So as expected, I crossed the barrier yesterday and reached the biggest milestone in a while. No, it’s not finished, far from it, but it’s nice to think that I’ve managed okay up until now.

I’m about two-thirds of the way through the whole thing. Of course, I don’t actually have a very clear idea of how much there is left, as usual, so that’s a really suspicious kind of estimation. I keep thinking that I actually have more than a third to finish, but I suspect I might complete it even before I get to the expected number. It’s the contradictory way that these things tend to turn out somehow.

I’m hoping nothing changes in the sense that I can keep up with the err good work. I’ve been going at what I think is a reasonable pace (I’m generally a slow worker), and I haven’t had a burnt-out episode yet. So I’ve been healthy, in that sense, and that will optimistically continue.

What I need to change, though is my method of working. I figure that with a third to go and given the way in which I write, this will probably be a good time to actually start completing the things that I’ve started. That is, I think I should start looking at all the stray bits that I’ve got and putting it together. It’s just the way that I work. I hope I’ve done enough to sustain any such efforts. If not, I’ll end up going back to putting bits and pieces together.

Meanwhile, my book club hasn’t officially kicked off yet, but people seem impatient. I suppose that’s a good sign. Hooray.

Now I’m going to take a break before getting to work again.

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Work works.

Work, Work, Work

I’m now approximately two thirds of the way into the first draft by estimation. Well, actually, I’m more like four sevenths of the way into it. This is about the time where I start to wonder whether all of this actually works. You see, if it doesn’t work, then this will all have been a very bad idea and I probably shouldn’t have started on it. If it works, then… well, great. I’ve not grown a lot better at identifying these things, unfortunately.

I will more or less only know by the end of it. That’s just the way I am. It is partly due to how I basically don’t have very clear ideas about where I’m headed about 80% of the way. It just evolves as I go along, and things can change fairly drastically before I’m done with it. So there’s no real way for me to get a feel for whether or not it’s going to be a success until it’s all done and sitting in front of me.

Meanwhile, the best thing I can do is just not to worry and to try to get it done, making it as good as I can in the process. Worrying really just incapacitates you and gets you nowhere. I’m already a slow writer to begin with, so I don’t really need anything debilitating.

Books Arrived

All of my books have arrived rather safely and they make me very happy. Slight damage here and there but that’s okay. A few of them have really surprised me because they’re prettier than I thought they’d be. I’ll get to wrapping them soon enough. Maybe tonight. Maybe tomorrow night. Just as soon as I pull myself away from work.

Movies, Orwell

I’ve been watching old videos and new, revisiting film favourites and trying to unearth new ones. I try to do that on a regular basis though I can’t say I’ve been very diligent. I’ve also tried to be diligent with my volume of Orwell’s essays. I’m going at about a couple a day, though that seems to mean that I might end up taking a very long time. Oh well, patience, as they always tried to tell me, is something of a virtue. I sure hope it is.

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Slow Man

Go Slowly

I’m beginning to realise that with my fairly tremendous list of things to do, I might have to step on the gas. This happens every time it’s the holidays. They aren’t actually big things involving a lot of investment, but you just don’t really know how to prioritise them. I’m getting it together slowly, I guess, but I better be full steam ahead soon if I hope to have any chance of clearing the holiday list.

Books

Books are one of those things. I have an idea of what to read, but then I do some writing, then I move a wardrobe, and then I watch a movie I had planned to watch, and it’s time for bed. It’s somewhat difficult to think that it’s the little things that are keeping me busy, but that’s the way it goes. I really do hope to finish at least a couple of novels and one large book by the end of the holidays. At least.

(Large books are those that are so gigantic I feel reluctant to start on them. They also tend to be the ones that are so huge that I don’t want to take them with me out of the house, when I do most of my reading.)

Wardrobe

So my dad shifted my gigantic wardrobe thing to my room with a bit of help from me. Though to be a bit more honest, it felt like a full day’s work. I’m just glad that we’ve shifted it over finally and won’t probably have to worry about doing that again. It involved a lot of tilting, dismantling, emptying, and pushing. (It’s basically too large to be moved about and too tall to fit readily under the doorways.)

And after that, I did a standard day’s worth of writing.

Book Club

Book clubs are just one of those things that sound easy and should probably be easy, but end up being altogether more tricky than most than you can foresee. I’m taking it a bit at a time, and starting with an experiment to figure out what actually needs to be taken care of and what doesn’t work. God bless the people who will be participating, especially if it doesn’t work out. (Significant chance of failure.)

I’m trying my best to figure out what has to be done and in what order. That’s less obvious that I thought it’d be. I’ve been looking at a couple of online book clubs hoping to figure out a few things, but it doesn’t get too much easier. Well, I don’t think I’ll wait much longer, and I’ll just dive in and hope for the best.

After I take a deep breath.

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Uncomfortably Happy

For the past two or three years, I’ve always believed that I could bring myself to write no matter the state I was in. Sure, the end-product tended to vary in terms of quality and subject matter and style, but I could always do it, even if I ended up deleting everything a bit later. Yesterday, I learnt that I’ve been wrong.

I had a very happy Wednesday, for reasons that are probably not at all interesting, but it was a happy day. On Thursday, I’d intended to do a bit of writing, only to discover that I couldn’t. I felt uncomfortably happy, and all I could really think of was the stuff from the day before. In a sense, that was very bad, and that was also very good. I can’t make up my mind about things these days.

Heartbreak? No problem. Stomach flu from hell? Bring it on. Even that backstabbing incident a while back? Piece of cake. And this? Hmm.

It’s just as well that we’re approaching the exams. I think it didn’t have everything to do with what took place on Wednesday, but has also to do with how I kind of need a break. I need to stop and live for a bit, and then bring back whatever I get to the writing, and that’s good timing because the impending exams will force some degree of adjustment that I’ll have to absorb as well.

I started work somewhere at the start of December. To think back now, that really wasn’t all that long ago, and I’ve done more than what I had originally planned to do, if memory serves. So, while there’s always the anxiety that I’ll not come up with the good when I return to work (if I return to work), the general feeling is more positive and more optimistic. I’ve done my share, and then some, and it’s probably a tiny little thing to be proud of right now. I could live with that.

Assorted other things: I want to print some T-shirts; I want to get a book club thing (that is, not actually a book club, but something resembling one, if that makes sense) going during the holidays; it took a while but I’m almost finishing up on all my Japan photos from two years ago; they’re building a lift at my block and the noise is fairly unwelcome, and I suspect this will make me do all of my revision in school.

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Wednesday Woes

So, Monday didn’t go all that well. It went very, very badly, in fact. Plus, my conked up printer is still conked up. (Though I sort of got it working again with a screwdriver.) Things look horrible.

I’ve managed to get back to work on my current project. I don’t want to say that my ability to work seems related to the way things are going around me, but I will anyway. It’s not exactly proven, but I’m keen to believe that history cannot be explained purely by coincidence. It goes well. I wish I could say the same about so much else, but it goes well.

Having spent much of my time on lab reports, papers, and projects, I now realise that I have quite a bit of catching up to do reading-wise. There are so many readings. I started yesterday. There’s plenty of work still to be done. I just don’t want to still be in debt by the time it gets to Week Thirteen.

My homework list seems reasonably stable. It really is the end of the semester, isn’t it? Few things get added and it’s just a matter of crossing things out now.

I have been reunited with my closest friend. We are doing Waiting For Godot next. Perhaps there is reason to believe that things will start looking up. Perhaps not.

I have added a couple of books to my (immediate) shopping list. This cannot be healthy for either my wallet or my shelf space. Maybe I should have a one-book-a-week policy. That means I’ll get 52 books in a year. With the way my shelf looks, that can’t be good, but I’m sure it’s less painful than the oh-I’ll-just-get-these-fifteen-books-for-this-month plan.

There are two pairs of glasses that I swap between every now and then. I realise that neither of them sits very well. One of them is too short and narrow, so it doesn’t hook onto my years properly. The other is big and heavy, and falls off my nose easily. I love them to death, though.

And just as all of these unexciting things are happening, “Researchers find a way to make drops on a surface move in just one direction.” [via PhysOrg]

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Oh look, a test.

Test

Literature. One of my last tests for the semester. I suspect that there’s one or two waiting on the other side of the week to ambush me, but for now, this is the last confirmed test of the semester. It is slightly frightening to think about it. I think I’ve said half a dozen times that it’s been a while since I last did any literature, so the prospect of it is actually far more intimidating than it ought to be.

No pressure, I keep saying to myself. If you think too much about it, you’ll just goof up. Which is perfectly logical, but you don’t always buy into the logical things. As with so much else in life.

After this, I am supposed to turn my attention to a project, and after that a couple of other odds and ends. It’s the tail end of the semester. Sure arrived a lot faster than any of us had expected. And I know we say that at the end of every semester, but it’s only because it’s true.

Poverty

Having spent slightly too much of late, I will have to restrict my spending for at least the next couple of weeks. There were  a couple of books that I wanted to get but thank goodness I don’t have all the space in the world and the cabinet where I store my queue of unread books is kind of full.

Documentary

Oh this looks nice. [via Amazon] I suppose Life is a bit of an obvious title, but it still sounds great. Planet Earth was disappointing in parts, somehow, so I hope this lives up to its billing. That said, I did just mention that I was out of cash, so I better put this out of my sight for now.

Two

I’ve drafted the first part of my current project. It means that I’m supposed to move onto the second part, except that I’m not entirely sure what to do, so I’m still figuring things out in my head. The first part is looking a little strange, very rough, but overall fairly interesting. I’m just not convinced that it’s interesting in any good way, but we’ll decide as we get on with things.

Right, onto the test. Fingers crossed. Godspeed, and all that. Wish me luck, because lit nerds are just lit nerds — nothing suggests that a lit nerd should do okay in a test.

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