Perfectly Put

Coming about

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:56:00 +0000

I'm not doing such a great job of actually charting my writing life on here, but that's about to change, as my writing life is revving up to high speed — things I've been working on for a while are starting to bear fruit. I was made redundant in February and am now quite excited by the possibilities that are opening up. So, in brief (-ish):

I've applied for and gained a place at Aber Uni to do my PhD in Creative Writing, something I've wanted to do for a long, long time. It's not funded but I'm still hoping to find some, and hey, every student comes out debt-raddled, so why not me?

I've scored a contract to write a how-to surfing book for Need2Know, who so far are a totally brilliant company.

I've been messed about, upset and now despair of every government body/office that is supposed to offer help to those who need it, and indeed have paid a ton of National Insurance for it. (Hey, it can't all be positive!)

I've moved back to Wales - I miss my friends and the opportunities in Cornwall, but it was well past time and I just love being home.

I have applied for a part time job at an amazing place and am crossing everything that I get it - working by the water, learning to sail, loads of opps to create and build on to make a difference.

I got a little something published on Matador.com, an excellent travel website. (Incidentally, the five years no holiday will become eight…no chance of a trip!) (Update - I got on the front page! And $25…I thought it was a free thing.)

I learned to play poker.

More to come on all, except maybe the poker. This blog will probably become a guide to life as a postgrad student, which hopefully people will find useful.

Axegrinder

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 09:34:00 +0000

It’s the subs who catch the malignant tuna

What do magazines do without their subs? Miss howlers like these - funny as. I wish I'd kept a list of the ones I've come across that are specific to surfing, but I'd not have had the time.

QI - which interesting dead person are you?

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:18:00 +0000

I am Mary Kingsley, Victorian explorer and writer. Sounds about right. Some of these things are crap, but this one's good.

blogging dying?

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:50:00 +0000

Anything but blogging!

I've definitely been writing less on my personal blogs, and it is partly because I'm loving Twitter and getting deep into feeds on GoogleReader, but I certainly don't think blogging's dying. It's just evolving. On many of my favourite blogs, posts are shorter, more immediate, and provide little more than a jumping-off point. As people's readers become stuffed with feeds and their follow count rises and more commercial interests muscle in, there's just less room for updates and fully-formed opinion on absolutely everything.

How many tabs do you have open right now?

And then we get on to the subject of concentration span and how long one web page will hold anyone's interest these days…

Hmm and this one says it even better. I do feel that my ramblings on what a great surf I had are now no longer relevant to anyone, and I update and post much more frequently on the professional blogs I maintain. So often, in fact, that I often have to pretend I am one of my other colleagues so I don't look like a total geek. And to make them look good.

brain droppings

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 17:23:00 +0000

Gosh, where have I been? Head down on SurfGirl, mostly, and dreaming up a fantasical magical fantasy novel.

Seren's new catalogue popped through my door, and I want…all of it. But especially the Mabinogion retellings. Another idea that I never quite followed through on. Literally cannot wait for the Niall Griffiths one! (I am determined to make it to his Ty Newydd workshop.)

Death of the iBook is also making life difficult. I dream of a backlit keyboard and unibody, 13 inches and 250GB of Apple goodness…

The Surfing Tribe

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Mon, 18 May 2009 14:34:00 +0000

I did some work on The Surfing Tribe, which is out now. It's turned out amazing. It's such an epic bit of work, so many facts and figures, stories collated, never-seen photos sourced. It caused untold amounts of heartache, rows and headaches, but now it's here, I'm proud to have had a (small) hand in it.

More info here >>

(Signed copies available… I know this all sounds like just a plug but not really, I'm just impressed with how it came out.)

Headline Analyzer

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:28:00 +0000

"What is the Headline Analyzer?

This free tool will analyze your headline to determine the Emotional Marketing Value (EMV) score."

Cool huh? I must be a pretty poor copywriter, because I'm not getting very high scores! And I'll admit, I was actually looking for a headline generator. When your editor has decided that a good title for an article about Europe would be, er, 'Europe' and you have to think something up at the last minute, boy would a headline generator be useful. I'll keep looking…otherwise I might have to use my brain, and it's not co-operating today.

Oh this is fun too - word association. I had it passing after 105. (Why do my threads always turn to filth after about 20? Hmm.)

language conforms

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:54:00 +0000

Language is conformist in the profoundest sense; even objective reality yields to its pressure. The so-called factual is brought to dissolution, because it is shaped and constrained by the limits of language. Under its reductive force, we forget that we don’t need symbols to be present to meaning. The reality of pre-linguistic social practices is screened from us by more than the practical, empirical limitations of access to time past. Primal existence has been ruled irrelevant, and indigenous life-ways are everywhere under siege, because of civilization’s pervasive over-valuation of the symbolic.

–John Zerzan: Too Marvelous for Words
(Language Briefly Revisited)

Something to get further into...a thousand concepts to wrestle...

Brits and the weather

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:20:00 +0000

‘the sun’s shinning’

One of my all-time pet HATES. Shineing is better…no, I’d also chop hands off for that.

Shinning, though? Rustles up images of skinny, pale, overshaved shiny (‘shinny’?) calves, stacked up in the sky, desperate to get their fix of shinny-ness… (‘shinne’?)

Apologies for randomness…it must be Friday afternoon…

Another Reason I Need An iPhone

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 23:10:00 +0000

I'm just dying for want of an iPhone, especially now I use Twitter loads for fun and work. Now you can get 15 million books in your pocket courtesy of Google Book Search optimised (using OCR) for the small screen. Bliss. Want. £30 per month? Hmm…

Edit your face

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:30:00 +0000

lol

In a nutshell

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 09:45:00 +0000

These are the things that drive me mad every single day…wish I could send Grammar Girl to all the offenders!

You're Versus Your
"You're" means "you are." "Your" is the possessive form of "you."

It's Versus Its
"It's " means "it is" or "it has." "Its" is the possessive form of "it."

They're Versus Their Versus There
"They're" means "they are." "Their" is the possessive form of "they," and "there" is usually a place.

TextEdit goes creepy

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 16:20:00 +0000

I was messing about trying to make Friday afternoon more creative by turning uninspiring copy pink…and lo and behold, there's a web on the colour slider in TextEdit's Colors palette.

Cute! I love Hallowe'en.

(Though I don't remember Software Update asking me anything about TextEdit?)

Update: I am dull and did not think…it means web safe colours! Oops…

mad mac

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:20:00 +0000

New MacBooks! There's just nothing like popping the lid on a well-designed piece of kit to ease you into a creative frame of mind…if I'm creating something beautiful (I hope), I want to use something beautiful.

'Just put your fingers on the crisp keys and you’ll feel pure typing bliss.' It might sound like bullshit…but I just know it's not.

'The amazing new trackpad doubles as a button — just press down anywhere and consider it clicked. No separate button means there’s 39 percent more room for your fingers to move on the silky glass surface. Now that Multi-Touch gestures have come to MacBook, all the function is in your fingers.' SideTrack has been my best buddy for a long time…this generates paroxysms of delight.

All just in time for Christmas lists!

Jobacle

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 09:21:00 +0000

I saw this article on the web and though, well, seriously though - is anyone surprised that lots of people waste lots of time at work? I have met some absolute masters at it, and I have to admit that having my own head down from nine to five, no stopping, is nigh on impossible…

So I wrote about it, and then thought, why not share this one? So I fired it over to Jobacle, which is the best job website I've ever come across – actually useful, funny and irreverant, it does a great job of helping you through your working life. Anyway, they published it!

Also check out True Office Confessions for a laugh (but careful, all that whinging might be contagious).

Freedom to write

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 13:09:00 +0000

And here's an answer to the internet addiction…turn it off for as long as you need! Freedom is a (Mac only) way to disconnect yourself, and only a restart or some UNIX fiddling will get you back online before the time you specified.

A bit scary?
A good idea.

Funny how these things turn up!

The internet - creativity tool?

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:18:00 +0000

The internet saves a writers countless frustrating trips to the library (I say frustrating because I have always, apart from at Uni, lived in areas which need serving by a moblie library as well as cute, tiny, badly stocked physical libraries). But are writers addicted to endless net research? Accorting to the test, I'm not, but really, I'm not so sure.

More important to me is the question of whether the net saps or promotes my creativity - reading is always good, but the net, naturally, isn't quite the same as a good book (and I don't want it to be).

I suppose it depends on which websites I'm reading, but generally, yes…as well as being a perfect procrastination tool.

With the summer one-magazine-a-week madness over, I'll have more time for both creativity and procrastination. Hurrah, and fire up GoogleReader!

Clean text, please.

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:08:00 +0000

Love:
TextSoap
Find and Replace – I love that it'll find 'space space' (Who still does that? Did you love your typewriter very much? Please, don't!) and replace with one space.
Tiny, tiny screwdrivers that allow me to fit RAM and rebuild iPods. iGeek.
TextEdit. No fuss.
Leopard - Kat loves her cats.

Hate:
Your and you're mix up. If you mean you are, it's you're. It ain't hard.
Micockisoft Word. Especially the .wps fiasco, which makes people think Macs are to blame.
How expensive InDesign is.
Applications demanding attention. I fired you up so you could load your lumbering ass in the background while I get on with something else. Don't switch me.

New opportunities

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:14:00 +0000

I have taken on the role of Secretary of the new Cornwall Surfer Girls club (and Treasurer - which is a laugh!) as well as working on PR and sponsorship for Surfstock. While I don't get paid for either (well, not directly), both are going to earn me lots of contacts and opportunities, and be a lot of fun!

While both will showcase my writing, they are also taking a lot (a LOT) of time to do…leaving my more creative writing to take a back seat. This situation will be rectified once the madness of summer has calmed down a bit! I miss my morning ritual of walking the dog, yoga then an hour's writing, but I love the excitement, possibilities and cool new people appearing!

Almost a room of one's own

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:14:00 +0000

Utterly strange and utterly wonderful, this art/craft/technology/commentary 'Body Technology Interfaces - Laptop interface for privacy, warmth, and concentration in public spaces' from Sternlab is, I reckon, just what I need when trying to work in my busy office or shut out my elephanting housemates. If it was lined with something that blocks wi-fi, I reckon it would be the perfect procrastination killer.

Play to your strengths

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:45:00 +0000

I read Get Rich Slowly (oh, I sure am) and found this part of an interview with Tim Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week, quite inspiring. Not to say I'll stop working on the things I'm not so good at, but neither do I see any point in trying to be, say the best in the world at networking, when I'm shy!

J.D.
One of my favorite tips in your book — I have it heavily underscored in red ink — is “emphasize your strengths, not your weaknesses”. Explain this concept. Why is it so important?

Tim
It’s very simple. If you try and fix all of your weaknesses, you will be — at best — mediocre at most things you’re inherently poor at. This is inborn talent or weakness. Progress is incremental when you attempt to fix all the chinks in the armor.

Focus on leveraging and amplifying your strengths, which allows you to multiply your results. Fix any fatal weaknesses to extent that they prevent you from reaching your goals, but perfection isn’t the path to your objectives; finding ways to cater to your strengths is.

12 Reasons I Hate The Phone

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:12:00 +0000

Many freelancing advice sites/blogs/forums give you advice along the 'Be bold!' line. And that's great - they gee me up to tackle things I would otherwise put off, and give me courage to pitch to people I am in awe of.

But I am quite shy, and I hate the phone. I really, really hate the phone. I've always struggled with this, and I think I always will.

At least it's good to know I'm in good company. Very good.

Here are some of the reasons I hate calling people (for business and 'pleasure'):

Everyone in the office/room can hear what I'm saying.
I hate the sound of my own voice (I think I sound posh - I'm not posh) and I often get an odd echo in my head of what I've just said. (This may be some sort of mental disorder, I don't know!)
I always feel like I'm interrupting something.
These are not always people who are keen to talk to me in the first place, either that or they don't know/trust me/care.
I can't see if you're loving or hating what I'm saying. No visual clues at all.
If wherever I am gets suddenly noisy, I lose words. That sounds unprofessional. (Currently, there are people with airhorns shouting outside in the street. Tourist town!)
Taped phone conversations are painful to transcribe - hissy and faint. I hate all the tape, batteries, leads gunk. Give me my iPod, iTalk and a couple of comfy chairs any time.
I'm bad at talking to strangers anyway, let alone faceless ones. It's just harder to connect.
I'm always wanting something or putting you on the spot. It seems rude. I'd rather meet in person and buy you a coffee, or better still, a fat chocolate muffin.
I can't do my obsessive-compulsive checking for sense and meaning (the sub in me) when I'm talking. I'm not what you'd call lucid.
I take a long time to reason things out, research and think about solutions and answers. I never piped up in Uni seminars because I could so see both sides and all the grey areas in between. Doesn't mean I don't have an opinion, I'm just not good at spitting it out after having had about three seconds to formulate it.
I can't show you anything, like the file I'm working on, the image I'm talking about or what I mean when I say 'drag it over to…' (I'm unpaid tech support for a few people!).

I could probably go on for about five more.

And some reasons I hate being called:

People who do the Anonymous Call thing. Let me know who you are. I have to pick up in case it's Mum on Skype (she can't or doesn't know how to change that) but I hate it.
I'm usually being interrupted.
If you leave a message, I have to pay (and navigate the Orange answerphone menu) to listen to it. Dammit, you wanted to talk to me, why do I have to pay for it? (Yeah, I'm cheap!)
I can't help trying to multi-task, especially when it's a 'just a chat' call. I can't do them. Just can't.
I feel put on the spot.

So for the moment I'm not going to worry about my fear of the phone. If and when it's necessary, (my NHS consultant's secretary, I am thinking of you) I will pick up the phone and give them hell. And often, I put the phone down and think, well, what a lovely person. (Not that secretary, mind you.) But email, IM, Skype videocalls, hell, a good old-fashioned letter - I'd rather be able to let the recipient decide when and where to deal with it.

If I end up having to revise this reasoning…I'll let you know.

Creativity

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:57:00 +0000

I've been querying like mad, but I've hardly written anything! I have some great ideas, but I'm worrying more about pitching them than actually getting on and writing them. If they're that good, I gotta write them anyway.

So I love this: 8 ways to recreate childhood creativity

I think this is what Julia Cameron would term 'filling the well'. I especially like the napping and eating points - I am good at those.

Less business, more writing, more creating.

2008 Inkthinker Query Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 14:53:00 +0000

I might be mad, but I've signed up for the above. Basically, it means I will try to send out ten queries a month. I think I can manage that; I've just applied for two via Guru.com. I think it'll help me keep a record of what I've done, plus it's really interesting to see how other people fare, especially in the rejections area!

one down…

noreply@blogger.com (surfergrl) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 16:30:00 +0000

Go me, just sent off an application to blog for a surfing blog site for girls. US based so I'm not sure they'll be keen but hey, I can try. Conflict of interests? They might think so, so I won't worry if I don't hear back. I did wonder if keeping three surfing blogs might be too much ;-) but frankly, I can talk/write about surfing all day! And it would have a different slant and let me focus on different things than either my work or personal one. So fingers crossed (and this post saved to Drafts for the moment!).

So this is Pitch 2. I have forgotten what goal I set myself, but I'm sure it's more than one pitch a month, so back to trawling I go.

I have also joined the amazing Creative Paw, which I hope will go far (beyond the US). It joins animal welfare charities with creative types who can inform and persuade for them (for free). I so hope someone wants me to help!