emchi.co.uk

Has anyone got a duster? I think I see a cobweb over in the corner.

Things have been uber quiet around here I’m afraid.  Well it’s not exactly as if anyone really reads this site so it’s hardly as if I’m missed.  You know I could be one of those people who’s body goes un-noticed for years.

Anyway, it’s been quiet because I’ve been lacking some creative ideas to write about.  My life seems to consist of:

• Get up
• Clean up after puppy
• Drive an hour to work
• Do work
• Drive an hour home from work
• Too tired to do anything else.

I’m reasonably sure, life in the country wasn’t how it’s turned out so far.

Anyway, I’m off to Kent for the weekend this weekend and I’m REALLY looking forward to four days off.  I’ve been sleeping badly and it’s making me seriously grumpy.  Hopefully some sea air will do me good.

In other news I’ve started a new writing course and I’ll be hoping to sort out a site just to keep all of my writing on.  With the concerted attempt to write on a more daily basis.

Right… best get back to it.

Why on earth have I moved from Movable Type (which I’ve been using for years), to the lovely Word Press, when I’ve hated it so much in the past? Ease of use.

Movable type is rigid and unflexible. Let’s not even get into the really illogical user interface in the control panel.  I fancied something simple to use that I could upgrade easily.  It took me a matter of minutes to set the site structure up, and modifying CSS / Widgets was so simple.  Plus the deisgn was a big winning factor.  I’ve wanted a site design like this for ages.

You’ll also notice on the right navigation I’ve included a new Amazon widget.  I read so much I thought it was only fair to share with you in more detail what I’m reading.  That and I’ve signed up for an affiliate account with Amazon.  I’m also a “vine voice”.  I’ll get to that in detail in another post.  Perhaps it’ll be one of the first posts on my new blog.

I’ve decided to split out everything relating to writing (yes I know technically this is writting) over to a new blog.  Why?  Well I really want to try and write more, and I thought a proper medium for it would be the best solution.  I’m thinking of it as my writers notebook.  I shall be working on polishing it up over the next few days and getting it up and running.  When it’s live, I’ll post a link so you can go and have a look.

Right, I’m going back to the pottering around I’m doing on my laptop this afternoon.

So I was pootling along the M4, on my way back from Wokingham, and I was stuck behind a security van which had a sign on the back of it that said:

“POLICE follow this van”

Now does that mean that police follow that van, or does it mean that police should follow that van.  I know it should have a comma after “POLICE” if they were inviting police to follow the van, but the capitalisation of the word “POLICE” made me think that it was an invitation.  I really couldn’t see any police following the van, I think that was an out right lie.

My mind works in funny ways, what can I say.

I’m setting up another blog on my other domain, for writing purposes.  I keep saying I’m going to do more writing so I really should get on with it and make an effort.  More details to follow when I’ve finished fiddling with the template.

Blogging is an interesting subject matter, and one that is topic du jour.  More to the point, the use of blog content to sell newspapers.  At the moment it seems to be the Daily Snail (Mail) who either steal content or defame people who have blogs.  So, NML, who has been defamed by those idiots over at the Daily Snail, has put out the word, that she wants to set the record straight, and so she should.  Shame on reporters who make things up, just to try and sell papers.  Papers that are worth nothing more than floor covering for puppies.  Anyway, below is the post that Natalie has published.  You can get to Natalie’s site by clicking on the link under the post.

I will admit this does feel a little like the bit in Hackers (yeah I know) where the word goes out to “Hack the Planet!”.  Blogs are a right for all those who have them.  Freedom of speech reigns in countries that permit it.  So we should all stand together united.

“Thursday, May 08, 2008

I was going to post something about the snow we had this morning… but I’m having *issues* with the photographs… so I’ll post it when I can get the photos down to a size that doesn’t make me look like a complete n00b. 

Instead, I’ll post about the Times Literary Festival which I’ve just been to.  WOW.  I’m going to back track a smidgen first.  I’m not overly awestruck by celebrities, they’re ok and all that but to most it’s a case of “yeah but what have you done?” You ponced around a bit for a few months acting.  It’s great for entertainment but you don’t bowl me over.  When it comes to Authors however, I’m in complete awe.  They’ve spent months writing, creating something out of nothing for thousands of people to enjoy.  Words, on a page, mean something.

So to be in a small gathering of people there to watch John Connolly and Mark Billingham talk about their craft and read excerpts from their books is pretty amazing.  So far to date I’ve met two authors, one, James Patterson, I found so utterly repellent I could no longer read his books for I found them to be as arrogant and pathetic as he was.  The other was a wonderful person, but I just don’t have the desire to read his books, (that was Iain M Banks). 

So I’ve finally met authors who I thought, were brilliant.  That said, I haven’t read anything by Mark Billingham, but having heard him read the first few pages from his latest book (which I bought but haven’t read yet… gimme a chance, I’m good but not that good, it was three hours ago), I thought how well the words were crafted that it made me re-think, and now I’ll go and read all his books.

John Connolly however was brilliant, I have his first book autographed, and personalised.  I wanted to ask more questions, but I couldn’t remember them until I got in the car, and now I’ve forgotten them again…. well when I remember I’ll post them up here.

Right, I have a mountain of books to read now, as I raided Waterstones in Bath yesterday (three for two dharling) and I went all cultural, (after all I was at a literary festival in Christ Church College Oxford), so I’ve got a book on Parallel Universes by Micho Kaku and a Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.

Just been reading shortlisted novels for the Amazon Breakthrough novel award (Amazon breakthrough novel website).  Quite interesting results, would recommend having a read if you’re interested.  Can definately see a few that stand a good chance of getting a litterary contract for a book.  Am I jealous? slightly, but I don’t think I could write anything as good as they have, even the ones that weren’t good were better than anything I had written (even if I rated them poorly and would buy them if they were on sale). 

Ho hum, I really should get my writing pen out and try to do some writing.  Perhaps I could be laughed at and ridiculed by people for writing an absolutely awful novel (this is me I’m talking about, not anyone else, I’m just suspecting anything I write would be utterly appaling).

Please excuse me, I’m on a bit of a science trip at the moment…

I’ve been sitting here musing the differences between scientists and spiritualists.  What I find amusing is that you have religious groups saying that God is the word, regardless of the religion.  They rely on the writings of a book, that can no longer possibly be perceived to be accurate (Chinese whispers anyone?), to tell them how to go about their life.  More often than not they do not deviate from this book, or let themselves open to alternative interpretations of what might actually be. 

Perhaps, this is why I do not believe in a religion.  I hate being told what to do.  I rebel, I can’t tell you why.  If you ask me then I’ll be more open to the thought of it.  Perhaps I don’t like the thought of there not being a possibility of something else, for there to be an explanation that has something of more substance than a “thing”, a “being” creating the earth.  It’s very much a case of “is that it?”

Perhaps I like the humbleness of scientists, I mean they are forever coming up with theories and laws and then disproving them and saying something different.  Maybe it’s the openness to different thoughts and changing ideas is what makes me smile.  That instead of settling for a book of words and a belief that makes you feel warm and cosy scientists don’t settle for just that, that they constantly question things and not settle on one answer as the right one.  

I’ve been reading blogs today… fun yeah I know, as mentioned earlier, I have no life to speak of.  Well I’ve been reading blogs and drooling all over Christian Louboutin shoes, it’s a feel good thing honest!

Anyway, I’ve been thinking for ages that I don’t really get to blog what I want to blog about because the anonymity isn’t there for me.  Lots of people who know me know I have this blog.  So my whole raison d’être of writing this thing has become somewhat deflated of late.  I write aimless crap about pointless things. 

Part of creating the blog with something like Movable Type was because I wanted the challenge of doing something, I wanted to know if I could  do it.  Guess what… I can.  Only there was nobody there to pat me on the back and say “well done, what are you going to do now?”.  I guess I feel as though I have nothing pushing me.  I don’t make goals to achieve things because being the only person who notices if you do something becomes very boring after a while.

I don’t really have much of a point to get to in this post, I just wanted to get something off my mind that’s kind of been on it for a while.  There are other things on my mind, but those, I certainly can’t blog about.  Which is rather annoying.  Perhaps I should think about  setting up another blog, only this time keeping it a bit more quiet.

I love a good conspiracy theory.  Can’t help myself.  You know the normal things like was there someone on the grassy knowl? Was it really the titanic that sank? So when I picked up a book by James Rollins last year I never expected that the book would mean I wanted to end up buying books that are filled full of Nazi conspiracy theories or dare I say it, ones about Quantum Mechanics (ok so point and fact that I haven’t book the one on Quantum Evolution, as that’s what it’s really about, mainly because I procrastinated for so long it’s now out of print! curse it!!).

Anyway, I’m currently reading a book about the Bell, which is rumoured to be a device developed under the Nazi’s that has inexplicable powers (I say this because nobody knows what’s happened to it, only that it did exist).  There’s tons of conspiracy theory in there, and lots of information about the various technologies that the Nazi’s were developing.  Before I carry on, I don’t condone the Nazi’s but as I said, I love a good conspiracy theory and I love science & technology.

I can’t tell you much about the book yet, but I guess I picked it up in the hope that it might give me some ideas about writing.  I have lots of little ideas in my head but they go nowhere, so I need a theme, a pique, something that will grab my head and a whole story will come flooding out of it.  Given that I loved John Twelve Hawks books, James Rollins latest books and various other books that are pseudo-sci-fi (i.e. they’ve got a bit of science fiction in there, but not enough to make it a bona fide sci-fi book).

I have to focus, I have a goal this year and that’s to write more.  I’m not really doing well so far, mainly because the move down here has been the only thing on my mind really.  However I’m going to try really hard to start thinking about writing again.  Picking up my writers notebook and making little meme’s to myself.  I’ve already started by attacking the word of the day on dictionary.com.  So perhaps I should challenge myself on here to write something each day.  Not that I often seek responses from people, but what are your thoughts?

Well I’m about two hours away from picking up the keys to the new house.  A minor disagreement over boxes and milk had me a little bit frazzled last night.

Today however I’m mulling over the amount of people visiting my blog.  I know why they’re here, they’re viewing the Widget code I created for Blogroll.  It seems someone at a University in the US has emailed the link to everyone at the college.  You know I really don’t mind that people are using the thing, but not one of the ungrateful students has dropped me a thanks for writing the code, I guess common decency and courtesy are non-existent to them.