My head is full of thoughts
I’m still not sure what I want to do with this blog. I changed the title to Signal to Noise, which I think fits better, but I’m still not entirely happy with it either. Until I think of something better, I guess. I also deleted the lolcats entry because I wasn’t happy with it, I’d rather talk about the phenomenon- either of lolcats, or the whole free web content to books phenomenon, as their own entries.
Dealing with writing styles has been a real bother. I think I know good writing when I see it, but good style is much harder to pin down. More often than not, I find myself writing in the styles of my favorite authors, or my favorite blogs. I know I like a direct, clean, get-to-the-point writing style, but beyond that I’m not really sure.
My rough drafts are peppered with a lot of “I think” and “I guess”, which I find vague and annoying, but when I take them out I think they sound a little too opinionated and strong. For instance, I disliked how strong the Japan entry came off as. It’s more of a reaction than anything to people who regard it solely as the land of anime and otaku, and ditto the people who regard it seriously as some kind of bizarro opposite world. The kind that go around with pseudo-japanese handles, only know about ten words in Japanese but use them constantly. (see I’m doing it again xd)
Unfortunately, there isn’t terribly much I can do about it. The only way I can truly find a style that suits me is to keep on writing. On the plus side, the more often I write, the less editing I need to do. It’s ironic that it sometimes the editing takes longer than the actual writing, but it’s taking less time these days, so I can’t really complain. (Note: guess how many times I edited this entry?? xd Also retro edits to old entries..)
Work has entered another slow period, furthering my thinking that the lab schedule is really kind of cyclical- the rats get the treatment, they’re sacrificed, the brains are sliced up onto slides, the slides are stained and finally I get them, and get the data (and take pictures to be used in presentations and etc). (I help with the cutting and the staining too, but that really doesn’t take that much time, only a couple hours a day.)
Some more stuff:
- It’s gotten really cold lately. It makes me want to make like a cat and curl up under a blanket. (Mrrrow. Did I mention I miss my cat xd)
- I made Italian Wedding Soup. I thought up a Kingdom of Loathing joke about making fake stats for it (eating it gives you 12 extra adventures per day) but then I realized no one would get it except for eric, who probably doesn’t read my blog anyway. Ah well.
- I started Christmas shopping. I think my silly sis will like her present :ppp Now if only everyone else was as easy to shop for. Especially parents, I can never think of what to get them.
- I discovered the NNMC base has a Post Office, which is great. I need one to keep the books turnover high- keep them coming and going. Particularly manga, which I have to buy (2nd hand) or trade to read, since I can’t borrow them from the library.
- I took the 46 bus line again on Monday. I’ve only been on it twice before and now I’m thinking I should ride it more often- Shoppers is cheaper than Safeway and has a wider selection (It’s a small Safeway) and there’s a gigantic Borders just 10 minutes up the line, too.
- I’m currently reading: Spikes (the neural encoding book I got from Alan), two books on AI theory, Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman, and most recently I was reading a really fascinating book about the guy who solved Poincare’s last theorem before someone(!) requested the book and it couldn’t be renewed and had to be returned T_T. (The others are awesome too, more on them later)
I still have a couple dreams to write, one short and abstract, one longer and more storylike. Also, I was working on a Deus Ex fanfiction (yes I know, super-obsessed fan xd) but I have a feeling it’ll take a little more time tossing it around my head before I have a strong idea of how to write it.
Lastly I’m thinking about joining and occasionally posting on Metafilter, but I haven’t decided yet.
Um, Brains?
