grahambinns.com

There are far too many of these these days. I don't know whether it's the fact that I'm working that's done it - as I think I've said before working from home and tracking your own time tends to make you that little bit more honest, which means I don't really want to waste my time writing blog posts when there's work to be done (although to be fair when I'm working I'm so busy as to not be thinking too much about blogging at all, which is a very pleasant change).

Working on Launchpad, and for Canonical in general, is an entirely new experience. Working with a team of people who are spread across the globe, from home, managing your own time and doing really cool stuff at the same time... It doesn't come much better. Add onto that the fact that the team with which your working is crammed full of seriously smart people who really care about their work and as far as I'm concerned you can just about stick it at the top of every job list you can find.

It's hard to switch off, sometimes. I'm spending eight or nine hours a day in front of my PC and then, coming downstairs at night, often find myself picking up my laptop and picking up where I left of with whatever Bazaar branch I happen to have been working on. The only reason I didn't do it tonight was that I was feeling particularly frazzled (and yet the temptation is still there).

Not that this is a bad thing. I used to think that it was. Back when I was working at the Mob the last thing I'd want to be doing is picking up work when I get home. But with Launchpad I want to keep working because I want to squeeze every drop of good code out of my day that I can.

Which only leaves writing, of course. Originally, when I was offered the position with Canonical, I thought that I would write in the mornings, either by getting up early and writing before work or by writing from, say, nine to ten in the morning and working until seven. Instead, I've found that I'm doing the most writing between six and eight in the evening, and though that isn't my ideal - I'd be much happier if I could actually get out of bed in the morning and do the writing when I'm at my freshest but that's a whole different problem - I've been making good progress.

When I started working on novel-the-second I told myself that needed to start small. "Don't try too hard," I told myself, mindful of the lessons of NaNoWriMo back in '05, where I nearly burned myself out after a couple of days and ended up writing a 50,000 word lump with which I'm still not happy. "Don't try to run before you can walk."

So I settled down with the book in which I'm writing the book and told myself that if I wrote five pages a day to start with I'd be well on the way soon enough. I usually fit 100-150 words on a page, so to start with, considering I haven't written a huge amount recently, I figured that ~500 words a day was pretty good going. To keep myself honest and to try and make sure I didn't slack I decided to use the Jerry Seinfeld productivity method, which basically involves a ridiculously large wall chart (nicked from Sarah's stock of it's-the-start-of-a-new-year-let's-give-things-away wall charts, which she's accumulated from the various teacher-related organisations of which she's a member), a felt-tip pen and a cross on the chart for every day that I actually write something. So far it's working. I've missed a few days (I started by writing FAIL in for those days bug gave up when I realised that just leaving them empty carried more weight of guilt), and I'm not happy about it, but the crosses are mounting up, which can only be a good thing.

And now, after a week of 500-odd word days, I'm starting to itch for more. Instead of giving myself five pages to write, I want to write ten. I want to keep writing until my wrist cramps up and my ideas run out and then I want to rest for a while and come back to it as soon as I can. I haven't felt this good about writing in a long time, and it's a beautiful feeling.

And you know what? If I were working for the Mob I don't reckon I'd be getting this much done. 

I started a new job today with a really cool company (of which I may speak more if I can find out what company policy is on such matters). I am very tired and slightly frazzled for various reasons, and have written bugger all, which isn't so good

I did, however, discover what happens if you don't read instructions properly and put your ssh client into a nasty recursive loop. For them as don't know, wikipedia will explain all .

Of course, anyone who knows much about it will tell you that a big load average is nothing to be proud of. I'm certainly not. 

Well hello!

What do you mean 'who the hell are you?' It's me!

Um... yeah. Been away a while haven't I? Not quite a month, but it's getting on for being that long. Oh well, we can but press on, can we not?

Consider this an apology, then, for my extended absence from the blogosphere. It was mostly, in fact entirely, due to the pressures of work. I was working on a project that somehow managed to have me working until one o'clock most mornings, as well as most weekends too, and somewhat unsurprisingly I found that rather sapping in terms of both energy and time to blog and, even more importantly, write. But that's no longer a problem, for once again I have moved jobs, though I'm not going to say more here for the sake of keeping such things off a public blog.

With a little luck and a bit of common sense, the move should mean that I can return to my writing schedule, which I've sadly neglected since the end of April. In terms of what to get done I'm going to start working on the novel edits again last week. I can't remember where I'm up to on those, so I'm going to have to start over, which will probably mean that I'll spot some more problems.

I'm going to start small, I think. I've got out of the practice of writing 1,500 - 2,000 words a day, so I'm going to start small and may use of my Writer's Block to get me back up to my old productiveness. Watch this space.

At least I'm not dead, which I'm sure you'll agree is a good thing.

"Aha!" I hear you all cry, "An update at last!"

Well, yes. And yes, I'm going to stick my usual excuse in, which is "Busy, very busy." Also, I've developed a stinker of a head cold, which has left my sinuses filled with something not unakin to that white, fish-smelling glue that they give you to use in Primary school; the stuff that boys have endless fun making fake skin with in order to peel it off in front of some unsuspecting compatriot, usually female, always squeamish, just for fun. I'm in the happy position of having a new, full-time, salaried job. And as my day jobs all seem to go, this one has gone down the route of being hellishly busy. A deadline is looming at the end of the week and I'm having to work quite a lot of overtime to get the thing done, so once again there isn't much time for writing or editing. But that doesn't mean I'm not doing any.

I've edited the embarassingly explicit story and I'm quite happy with it. I'm probably going to give it another pass and maybe put some stuff in that I think is missing. I realised, thinking about it last night whilst trying to sleep, that although I know what's special about the main character, I've made a point of not saying it specifically in the story, wanting to let the story let the reader know in its own time. Unfortunately, I've found myself wondering if it's not a little too vague; there's a chance, I think, that people might come to completely the wrong conclusion and, if they do, that means they're not going to get the point of the story which largely... well, misses the point.

Yesterday, in a mini-splurge in Borders, I bought myself the Writer's Block (along with a couple of Python books, because writer I may be but geek I've always been; Python is my new favourite language), which I've wanted ever since I first saw it. My plan, once I've got some time, is to try and do a little work triggered by it each day, as a way of keeping my hand in the writing game and to keep my mind active. I might even post some of the stuff here for the sake of keeping you all amused when I haven't got anything better to say.

Of course, all this working and not writing (and, by extension, not posting) means that I've missed several key events during the last few days. England lost the ODI series to Sri Lanka, which I'd expected, and on the same day lost one of their greatest ever fast bowlers, Fiery Fred Trueman. Oh, and t'other England dropped out of the World Cup, though I couldn't really give two stuffs about that.

Lessee, what else did I want to comment on at the time? The anniversary of the London bombings is coming up; I'm waiting to see whether the new workplace will be any more affected than the old by it (I didn't write about it at the time because I was working there, but the Mob staff seemed disturbingly uncaring about the whole thing). If not I'll probably go into the town centre to observe the silence; it would mean more that way, somehow.

I spent this evening working with one eye on RealPlayer, which was showing NASA TV. I watched last year's launch of STS-114 and it sent chills up my spine. STS-121 was no different; I had goosebumps in places I didn't know geese could bump as Discovery roared into the sky. I'm going to have to go to the Cape some day, just to see a launch for myself (though they'll probably have retired the shuttles by the time I get there; maybe I'll go when they launch the next moonshot (pause for irony...). Oh, and PayPal cancelled my LibSyn subscription without asking me, so I'll have to set it up again if I decide to carry on podcasting. Thanks for that, PayPal people.

Anyroad. Back to work. As Fred would have said, I'll sithee.

A brief lull in the busyness that seems to be my lot at the moment, brought on by having just got home and additionally by waiting to see what Sarah would like to eat for tea (Lamb Kare Lomen or a green salad being the two main options), finds me sitting at the computer with thumbs-a-twiddle. So here's a blog post for you, dear reader. It'll keep us both amused for a few minutes anyway.

I don't get much free time anymore (he says, at once bemoaning how busy he is and being glad for the fact that it's earning him money). I can't blame anyone else for it, unfortunately; On one hand I'm still working on Das Projekt, which should have been finished by now but which for various reasons into which we shall not delve has not. That's mostly happening in the evenings now because during the daytime I have a new full-time position with a web development company in Kendal. On top of that, and thanks in no small part to the good-naturedness of my new employer, I'm doing a week's contract work with the Mob, the irony of which I'll leave you to ruminate on for yourselves.

All of which means, of course, that there's little time for honest-to-goodness, pen-to-paper writing work. I toy with things here and there, but I haven't had a chance for a couple of hours worth of sit-down-and-scribble for far too long. Perhaps, when I've finally done with Das Projekt, I'll give myself the chance to write. Or - better idea - I'll sit in Caffé Nero tomorrow (I'm going to be in Lancaster early) and do some writing then.

I've been toying with the idea of podcasting some of my short fiction. I have an alarmingly small collection of short stories, mainly because most of my work for the last six months has been novel-focussed, and the ones that I've got are in need of some serious polishing, but given the glut of ideas that I've been having recently I've been wondering whether I should try to find markets for them once they're written and edited, or whether I should essentially publish them myself.

I guess there's a shyness there that I don't want to admit to: it would be far easier to read my stories out to a possible audience of zero than to send them to markets who would, in my own head at the very least, tell me that the audience for my stories is definitely zero.

To which the only answer is: if you don't try, you'll never get.