Update for Thursday, February 16, 2012

 
“…Writing is, in the end, that oddest of anomalies: an intimate letter to a stranger." – Pico Iyer

Which I thought was apt for a post-Valentine's Day edition of The Update, which deals with both love and loss, appropriately enough.  Because I'm fond of my readers, I included two (count 'em, two) items for The Helper.  And in The Wind-Up, a case of "malicious recycling" from the art world.

The Update

It took me much longer to complete the blocking on Chapter Seven of MGC than I first suspected it would.  I was so caught up with the idea of what it would become that I almost completely ignored the nuts and bolts of how to get it there.  I call that What Happens Between Syndrome.  It's all good now, but there were a few tense moments. 

I also received some comments on OSV, which I am busy revising.  Never fails...when I think that a passage is iffy, that's the one everyone wants to change.

And I put Knews Not News out of its misery.  Great fun, but really, not enough time to do it justice.  The Wind-Up is coming out of that, and I'm pretty happy with how it's turning out.  Comments on that or anything else are always welcome.

The Helper

I'm a sucker for Best Of lists, like this one from Time magazine, which lists the magazine's best web site choices for last year.  Like all such lists, some I use already, some I'm not interested in, but some I just said "Oooo."  Used immediately?  DuckDuckGo, a search engine that doesn't link your identity with your searches.  Slapped that sucker into Firefox as soon as I saw it and I am using it already.  Also, I'm putting together a track list for 8tracks on behalf of Turning Springs.  Lots of springpunk-y music.  Looking forward to that.

One thing that wasn't on Time's list and should have been?  The blog Brain Pickings.  Go there.  Again, "Oooo."

The Wind-Up

Remember the last time you wanted to clean something that you thought really needed it, and it ended up as something completely different than what you thought it was?  Click here for the Grand Bull Moose of mixed blessings.  Kind of like the plot of the first "Mr. Bean" movie (oh yes, I saw that and liked it), but with more competence and a much different disaster. 

Thanks for reading.  Talk to you next week.