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Something for Thursday (Friday edition)

Whoops. Sorry, folks. Here’s some very famous Rachmaninov, the Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra on a Theme of Paganini. (The work’s most famous section, the 18th Variation, comes at the 15:28 mark, for those curious.)


The Paganini tune that forms the backbone of this work has inspired a lot of composers over the last 150+ years. We played a fascinating different set of variations on the same theme in the concert band when I was in college…but few settings beat Rachmaninov’s.

Anyway, enjoy and have a fine weekend! Maybe I’ll even have some — gasp! — new content at some point!

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A writing update, an apology for a lack of nifty content, and a cool photo!

In order, the things mentioned in the title to this post:

1. A Writing Update.

Starting about halfway through September, I entered a protracted slump, wherein I had a terrible time figuring out what was supposed to happen in GhostCop (not the actual title). So severe was this slump that I actually failed to write a single word for 10 of the last 14 days of that month, including the entire final week. It was a disaster, which put me really far behind where I wanted to be; I was hoping to have the draft of this novel done by the time November rolled around, so I could so into NaNoWriMo with a totally new project (actually, an old one: I’m returning to work on Lighthouse Boy).

The malaise continued into October (partly abetted by my vacation last week). But during that stretch, I started to see glimmers of a possible resolution to my story’s difficulties, and now, I seem to be back on track. Eight of the last nine days I’ve managed to write over 1000 words, the last two days I’ve written over 2000 words, and even that one “off” day saw 700 words, which is acceptable. Will I get the draft done by NaNoWriMo? I…don’t know. I do know that this book is going to be significantly shorter than Princesses In SPACE!!! or Lighthouse Boy, but I’m really not sure how long it will be in the end. But I have more than two weeks left this month, and if I can keep cranking, who knows…maybe I can at least get to the point where I can finish it in the first part of NaNoWriMo. We shall see.

It’s tough, though, when the mojo goes away.

2. An Apology for a Lack of Nifty Content.

Yeah…sorry about that. I’m hoping to get more good stuff done here, by way of writing posts beforehand and scheduling them. But I’ve been really pushing forward on GhostCop, so I can make no promises. I’m going to try to have something up here on a regular basis, even if it’s not of “penetrating essay” quality.

3. A Cool Photo!

This is amazing. I saw this on Twitter today, via a user named Usman Masood. The photo:

Mr. Masood’s caption was very clever:

This is a ship-shipping ship, shipping shipping ships.

How awesome is that!

Thanks for stopping by, and stay classy, San Diego!

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Don’t taunt the football gods.

The Houston Texans are supposed to be one of the best teams in the NFL this year, but they’ve had some hiccups, including some very erratic play by Matt Schaub, their starting quarterback. Going into yesterday’s game, Schaub had thrown a “pick-6” — an interception that was returned by the other team for a touchdown — in three consecutive games. And yesterday, the visiting St. Louis Rams jumped out to a lead, so when Schaub got hurt and the backup QB had to come in, the fans in Houston cheered.

The football gods took notice of this.

That backup quarterback promptly came in and…threw a pick-6.

Taunt not the football gods! For they are a spiteful bunch.

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Sunday Burst of THE WORST THING EVER

Oddities and Awesome abound. So does jaw-dropping awfulness, like this.


Yeah…sorry, folks, but it is, by a wide margin, the single weirdest thing I saw online all week.

(In all seriousness, the “group” Ylvis is actually a comedy duo, and this song was meant as a simple silly parody thing, but then it went “viral”. Here’s an article about the phenomenon — it’s really not unlike how, for a time, Steve Martin was completely overshadowed by his own “King Tut”.)

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Sentential Links

Linkage….

:: I’m wondering what others do to get inspired and keep themselves from getting distracted? It is definitely something I am still trying to do. (I try to incorporate distraction into my routine, inasmuch as I even have a routine. I should probably get a routine. Hmmmm….This is a brand new blog, by the way. I met this fellow on Instagram. Check him out!)

:: So reading fantasy novels is perhaps a second best to being able to distract myself with my own stories, but at least it lets me go to sleep without focusing on the ugly stuff happening in the world.

:: I suppose I don’t have a great emotional attachment to it. If I found a much better one I might give this one up. Maybe. A thing doesn’t have to be very good or very special to make one happy.

:: All female Doctor Who companions have been held under intense scrutiny since the show returned in 2005, and while the narrative of critique often starts out with “let’s look at how the showrunner/scriptwriters have screwed up in portraying female characters” somehow it often seems to come down to burying those female characters under criticism and complaints while the Doctor and male companions get away largely unscathed.

:: If I’m a curmudgeon about Gravity, it’s because it turned out not to be the movie I wanted to see. I wanted an Apollo 13 about a problem the space industry is seriously worried about right now. I want a movie of Downbelow Station and The Forever War and The Stars My Destination. I want a movie about living and working in space that’s actually about living and working in space. If I squint real hard, I can turn Gravity into that movie. But it’s not, quite, and that made me just a little bit sad.

:: Getting upset, brooding and/or feeling despair over things you cannot possible change prevent you from changing what you can, and moving forward, and enjoying your writing life. So: let it go. Accept that there will always be things about Publishing that you can’t change, and that will stop them from depressing you and getting between you and the page. (Oh, so, so hard! Letting go the frustration of my currently unending sea of rejection is the hardest of things for me to do. I read an article a few weeks ago about self-publishing in which the writer indicated that “You won’t get rich doing this”, which…well hey, I’m not rich now, so what of that? But then he said, “You can’t even live off it, really.” And then he named the figure that he makes per month…and it’s more than I’m making now, by a comfortable margin. Hmmmmm….)

:: Why conjure an illusion when you can spend a quarter on a cheap prank? “And I would’ve gotten away with it if it weren’t for you meddling kids and your dumb Asgardian God of Thunder!”

:: My wife was baking muffins and was out of baking soda and wanted to know what she could use instead. I have no idea, and in fact, have confused baking soda with baking powder. I do know, once upon a time, I used one instead of the other in making pancakes, took one bite of the bitter batter concoction and threw them out.

More next week!

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The official site of Kelly Sedinger: Reader, writer, photographer, and dreamer

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