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April 29, 2005
Not so gnomic now
For some time now, I’ve been fond of the word ‘gnomic’. I had very romantic imaginings of what this word meant. I believed it meant dense, almost zen-like levels of meaning, myriad layers of such wonderful meaning that all possible interpretations could never be revealed, not even to the most penetrating of minds.
That’s all rubbish. What it actually means is “pertaining to or being like a gnome.” Cock.
The definition does seem to depend on the dictionary, but even so. I’m very disappointed.
Posted by Oliver at 05:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Samizdat meetings
We’ve had two submission meetings of our collaborative editing magazine and they’ve gone far better than I thought they would. So far, attendees have all been friends of friends, so we’re quite close in terms of age (my age) and nationality (Irish, but we do have one Chinese). But now we’ve established something of a workable routine we’re going to advertise our existence and hopefully draw in authors and photographers of all ages and backgrounds.
The quality of entries has also been much higher than I expected. Not from me, though. I drew something up in short order for the second meeting, which I really regret doing. It wasn’t ready for release, and I noticed after distributing it that I’d missed a superfluous word. And therefore felt like a rank amateur. For the record, my entry is here, with the mistake intact, and the state of unreadiness rigorously maintained.
Posted by Oliver at 05:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 27, 2005
Stuff I don't need to solve problems I don't have
I’m not allowed buy myself a new phone until 2007. I’m not great at the whole self-discipline thing but this is a a good rule that’s served me well in the past. I’m just slightly afraid that I may have plumped for a new phone a few months too early. Actually, really the problem is that I want one of these. Basically the phone I have now, only with much more storage space, better battery life, and shinier. I like shiny.
Sigh. Stupid gadget lust! I’m still getting myself a Palm Tungsten X if they ever materialise. I’d probably buy a Tapwave Zodiac 2 either if they’d only sell them to people outside four specific countries. Look! I have money! You have shiny toy! Reliable international delivery methods have been proven to exist! Is it just that you don’t like Irish people?
Hmf. Any day now Nintendo will < INTERNET RUMOUR> release Palm software for the DS < /INTERNET RUMOUR> and then they’ll get my money. Again.
Posted by Oliver at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 26, 2005
When trapped, don't ring me
I turned on my phone this morning to get a text saying I had two new messages! somebody was ringing me in the middle of the night! Exciting! But the first one was one my girlfriend left on Saturday that they clearly thought I didn’t need until today, and the other was a very strange recording of lots of crackly sounds and running water and doors closing. I couldn’t be bothered listening to it for longer than a minute. I hope it wasn’t from somebody trapped in a basement somewhere.
Posted by Oliver at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 21, 2005
A happy 30th
The weekend before last myself and herself took off for a friend’s belated 30th birthday celebration in Kilkenny. This did invite some anxiety, given that it was a best friend of my girlfriend’s, and all her other best friends would be there at the same time. Not to mention a bunch of other people she’s very fond of. And me. I was slightly concerned I would be sat in a circle and Judged. You shouldn’t Judge others, you know. Jesus said so.
Instead, I had a great time. It turned out that most of us had booked into the same B&B, lending something of a boarding school to the whole experience. We got to compare rooms too, something I’ve never played before. We got a slightly raw deal, but not as bad as some of the others!
There was the occasional moment when the boyfriends in attendance clumped together for protection, but they passed quickly. Looking back a fortnight later there’s mainly a sensation of being pleasantly full, drunk, and tired from laughing so much.
Three randomly chosen images:
- The breakfast room of the B&B having a collection of religious iconography (of all traditions), complete with framed American newspaper articles talking up the proprietor’s shopping skills
- Displaying a newfound willingness to spend other people’s money, arguing for leaving a 10% tip for our waiters, given that there were so many of us and how great the food was and how important it is to tip good service. I hate people like me
- Herself and one of her many best friends miming being very good friends while in the pub, drawing very startled glances from some guys passing by
That was the first of an upcoming legion of 30th birthdays. Expect me to grow less smug and more nervous as my own approaches.
Posted by Oliver at 04:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Mournfulness
A couple of nights ago, my iBook gracefully slid off my bed onto the floor. It landed fairly gently onto the carpet, so I was a bit lazy about picking it up - it was such a slight fall I just assumed it would be fine. But now, when I turn it on, there’s only a gray screen. It seems to start up properly behind the scenes and you can turn it off normally. It’s just the connection to the screen that seems to be buggered. Hopefully it won’t be too pricey to fix, but all the same: ouch.
On the other hand, I could now spend my evenings running around outside playing ball. I shall give that some serious thought.
Posted by Oliver at 01:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 15, 2005
So much to tell!
But no time to tell it in. Instead, I’m home to collapse before hauling my weary self to a dinner party.
While I’m gone, why not have a look at one of the many things I’ve been doing instead of blogging: Honky (I was only peripherally involved, beyond building the website from mock-ups and the occasional brain-storming session).
Warning— geek query: If anybody could tell me why Safari on OS X moves the mouse-over images around slightly on the menu, I’d be very, very interested. It would save my hand from the repeated slappings I’m administering to my computer.
Posted by Oliver at 05:59 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 07, 2005
Deadline addict
What have I been doing this past week?! Well, I’ll tell you. The Admiral (he of the Lough Gill extravaganza) and myself have had a notion bouncing around for the past year now: samizdat.ie (I didn’t pick the name! I didn’t!). It’s a new magazine/workshop. It’s mostly the Admiral’s baby, but it’s been fun helping out.
As that page says, the first meeting is tonight. I’m quite nervous about it. More than I thought I would be, in fact. I was quite heavily involved in very similar stuff at college, thought there the focus was on the weekly meetings, and the annual magazine we put out with the best stuff was almost a way to justify the pittance we were given by the college to pay for tea and biscuits.
I was quite regularly asked to submit bits and pieces of writing at college, and I’d be happy to oblige. Looking back, a part of me thinks What was I doing? What about quality control? How much shite am I willing to pump out?! And maybe I did submit a lot of stuff before it was technically finished. But those ideas and inspirations, while precious, shouldn’t be an end in themselves. I just wasn’t good enough to do them justice, and knowing this was paralysing: I could never capture the perfect expression for them.
Which is why I was so lucky to be made meet a deadline so often. Being made to write the ideas out frees you of paralysis, even if the expression is poor. Ideas generate ideas; you’ll never run out of them. Being forced to move on forces you past ideas, makes you practice writing, and makes you improve.
And that’s why I’m doing the whole thing all over again. Being made do it is apparently what I need, since doing it for the love of it isn’t enough. I hate letting my friends down.
I wonder if the Admiral knows this? And is using it for his own nefarious ends?
I hope so. Friends, eh?
PS: I wrote this for tonight.
Posted by Oliver at 12:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack