Pros and writing and the world and living forever...

[byslantedlight]

New icon! *g* (Thank you moth2fic!)

Also - hurrah, cos I've been writing Pros again, which I've not felt like for ages. My theory is that using your brain is like exercise - it begets more using your brain/exercise... *g* So now that I'm feeling all useful and purposeful with my seasonal-second-job, I get to write Pros too! Hurrah! Of course it all ends at around 3pm today, when I have to go home and do seasonal-second-job for the whole weekend, but... in the meantime - There's over 14,000 words of hurrah! (Okay, some I'd written before, but they've been languishing, and now they're not.) Also, have huge-enormous idea for an older-lads novel-y thing which I really want to write, so that's on the cards now too... Oh, and WWII story... WWII story is still there, turning gently over and over in the background... Maybe with newly found want-to-write-now-ness I'll write all three! Hmmn... by the end of the year, what d'you reckon to that as a goal...? And it's kind of nice, cos even if no one else wants to read them, I still want to write them... *vbg*

Right - the lads, to celebrate!


Woke up heavy-eyed from one of those really real dreams where I was working, just as staff, in a small and friendly chemist's (wtf?), but had plans to start my own business (wtf?), and so was going to hire an employee (just... what?). So - I'd advertised, and had an interviewee coming, but realised that actually the idea I'd had for my new business was pretty rubbish and un-doable, so I had ask the girl to wait (she had big curly auburn red hair, and some sort of velvet-y hat and was very nice) which she was very patient about, but this happened over and over and I felt bad cos she was a really nice person and I didn't want to let her down. So I decided I'd employ her and figure out what I was doing later. Except that - just before I woke up - I had the brilliant idea that what I really needed to do for my self-employed business was be a writer. Which meant I had to figure out some way to employ the girl to help me be able to write. And then I woke up. On the bright side, although they'd not been there in my dream, in the time it took me to stand up, gather my towel and get into the shower, I had major points of the plots of two Pros stories in my head and gathering speed...

But weird!

Then it turned out the BBC had changed its mind about the weather again, and decided that it wasn't going to to rain after all, so I decided I'd cycle to work as originally planned (I hardly ever drive all the way these days). Except then I realised that I was hugely late, and feeling ve-e-ery sleepy, and decided that maybe I would drive after all, which meant going the other way to work, and... what was lying in wait, but a police van with a speed camera poking out the back window... *headdesk* It was just inside the 30mph zone (but well after the sign and the big flashy-thing that warns you you're doing mroe than 30mph) so if I was going over then it'll be me bang-to-rights, but when I saw it and checked my speed I was on 32, and I had slowed down for the flashy-sign, so I'm crossing my fingers... Depends how mean they're feeling, I reckon... I've never had a fine over here before - and this is a really bad month for it, cos Little Car desperately needs new shoes new front tyres... Ah well, hey-ho and c'est la vie and all that, right? That'll teach me to be lazy and not cycle, cos if I had I would've gone the other way...

In other rambley-expense-form-completion-type-procrastinating - apparently scientists have figured out how to tell if we'll live to be over 100 years old - and they seem to think we not only have not-being-predisposed-to-particular-diseases genes, but also a specific predisposed-to-longevity one... Oooh, the science-fiction-y implications of it all! Of course you've got to know your own genetic code to work out your centenarianism, but for just $429 - presumably US rather than Aus, or Singaporean, or Canadian, or... - this information can be ours! (Ooh, although that might not be such a good idea actually - and cost £700 over here!)!

Hmmn... would you want to know how long you were likely to live? Or at least, whether you were genetically disposed to living to be over 100? Cos if you aren't, then the opposite would be true - you're almost certainly going to die before you're 100... I wonder if they can narrow it down any further... Which we probably know anyway, but... would you be waiting for it then, just cos you knew? Hmmn...

Ooh, or apparently we might be able to have ovarian transplants and live longer as a result...

Finally they're admitting that women may have actually known how to use a sword, having found the burial of what's probably a female Roman gladiator. It has always bugged me that if archaeologists found weaponry in what seemed to be a female's grave, they interpreted it as "her husband put it there to guard her in the afterlife" or something along those lines - it was an offering from her menfolk... If it's found in a male grave, it's of course assumed that it was his and proves he was a professional warrior, but women can't possibly have known how to use a sword or a spear or an atlatl... they're women! Despite the fact that there are historical accounts of Native Alaskan women having hunted, for example - no, that was an anomaly... if they bother to acknowledge the acounts at all. Nothing to do with the (generally) male narrators rarely paying any attention to the females wandering around, or putting other interpretations on their actions etc, eh? *headdesk*

In other rambling...

How cool are these pics of sea angels and a wee sea devil taken by Natalia Chervyankova? The sea angel goes on to eat the wee sea devil, mind - it's what they feed on... beware of the pretty things... or maybe it's the two horns on the head that are a giveaway!

And now there are just nine minutes before hometime, yeay!

Comments

[londonronnie.livejournal.com]

And it's kind of nice, cos even if no one else wants to read them, I still want to write them... *vbg*

Me! Me! I want to read them!!

Three lovely long Pros stories to look forward to - what a wonderful thought!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Your icon! The looks on their little faces! *hugs lads*

*g*

And hee... trouble is I can't write them now over the weekend when I want to... Why am I always so backwards like that? When I have all the time in the world - nothing... *headdesk*

[snailbones.livejournal.com]

And it's kind of nice, cos even if no one else wants to read them, I still want to write them...

Oi! Me too, me too! ::bounces at the merest whiff::

Hell's bells luv, I hope you didn't get caught by the speed camera. ::crosses fingers::

Despite the fact that there are historical accounts of Native Alaskan women having hunted, for example...

LOL - well, if blokes were the same then as they are now, I'd think most women were out there getting the supper. come to think of it, I wouldn't mind a spear when I'm doing battle in Tesco. *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh I dunno, it's just as often blokes I'd like to use a spear on at the supermarket, even *sniffs haughtily* Waitrose... (shush, it's the closest one... and when they cock up they do do a good apology - my pear juice was fizzy when I tried to drink it, so I took it back and not only did they give me another bottle, but because they refund as well I got my breakfast bagels, milk and about half my packet of ice-creams for free! Wheeee! *g*)

[constant-muse.livejournal.com]

The WWII fic - oh, yes pleeeease!

Interesting about your vivid dream *and* rush of creative imagination. If your explanation for it is 'exercise of the brain', mine (and I've often encountered this, although without such spectacular results fic-ideas-wise) is that forcing the brain to concentrate for hours on hard, fairly boring work, like exam revision, makes the imagination force its way out when it finally gets a chance, like when you stop working and go to sleep.

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh I know, my WWII fic has been languishing for years now, and it's so there in my head - and the books are there on my shelf, I just need to match up all the details and get on with it... And I want to, cos I can so see where it goes and how it gets there too... I will write it this year! Oooh, a write-y goal! *g*

I think my brain is being exercised more than just bored at the moment, cos it's playing with candidates and examiners and sometimes odd-bits-of-knowledge, and all that - but yeah, even so... I'm concentrating hard enough on that stuff, that all the other stuff (jobs etc, I guess!) is popping up in dreams instead of general-worrying-at-it-all-the-time and the fun stuff is wanting to find wee cracks to force itself through too... It's a much better state of affairs, anyway! *g*

Write on!

[heliophile-oxon.livejournal.com]

It seems that we (well people generally) have always had immense difficulty in not interpreting what we see through the filter of our own assumptions/prejudices/experience ... I suppose it's easiest to see in texts that are at least slightly outside our own cultural context, such as anthropological texts from a couple of generations ago, or writing about animal behaviour from a similar period - but it still goes on all the bloody time of course, doesn't it! Attenborough generally does better, but half the nature documentaries you see are full of the insane use of terms like "flirting" and being "faithful" or "unfaithful" etc. ::headdesk::

Oh and I WANT TO READ IT. I mean them. All of them. That WWII tale is soooo tantalising .... you know I've been looking forward to it, damn it! *g* So yes! Hurrah that you are writing Pros! Write write write, come on!!!!!

Re: Write on!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Good point even about terms like "flirting" etc... It's so maddening, and I suppose I notice it myself when it's applied to a group I'm part of, and less so at other times. It's such a human thing, but I can't believe we haven't advanced since people began pointing that sort of thing out - why shouldn't there be exceptions to anything in a culture, history is full of them, and yet we still go oooh, noooo, couldn't be! *headdesk*

And hee! Actually I do feel a bit that I've inadvertantly challenged myself now, so... *g*

[moth2fic.livejournal.com]

Well if you'd cycled you wouldn't exactly have been breaking the speed limit anyway!! *g*

It's so easily done and I always yell 'cameras' to whoever is driving and they get annoyed and say they knew but really, they don't always notice and it's better to be safe...

Your dream is probably a textbook case of your mind sroting things out in your sleep and moving towards being writer-y again. I can assure you that we will all read whatever you choose to write!!

And the sea angels are indeed cool unless you are prey!

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Well, I did notice this one when it popped up, but of course in most cases by the time anyone notices them they've already got you on camera, so... There are static ones (film loaded or not) that I know very well indeed, but when they stick a van camera somewhere sneaky and unexpected when there are already two warnings on that patch... Ooh, maybe it wasn't really for speed at all! Maybe it was some CI5-type sting operation, and they were watching for other things! *g*

And hee for the dream - it was a very sort-y out dream, but it did have some very odd things in it. A chemist of all places! Equivalent of my medical-research-y but basically humdrum job? Who knows! The write-y bit was fun, though, especially waking up not particularly feeling write-y, but immediately being write-y! *g*

[kiwisue.livejournal.com]

It has always bugged me that if archaeologists found weaponry in what seemed to be a female's grave, they interpreted it as "her husband put it there to guard her in the afterlife" or something along those lines

I must admit, I'm a little ??? about the "female gladiator" bit, though. All they seem to have decided is that she was big and muscular, and had a very decent coffin. Are they trying to pique interest? After more funding or something? Or have I missed details.

I'm somewhat unsteadily balanced between the excesses of the 80's (if you've ever seen Angus McBride's illustration of Aethelflaed on horseback, hewing down Vikings, you'll know the sort of thing I mean) and the po-faced conservatism that refuses to admit to anything that hasn't been documented to the precise date and place, despite plenty of actual examples across time and cultures.

Anyway. Pros! I'm so happy for you. And us *g*

[byslantedlight.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm sure they are hyping it up the other way (I want to see the actual research too, including the reasons for defining her as female), but it's just so annoying that it's never hyped in the opposite direction - here's a man who was very delicately-boned and is buried with a set of kitchen utensils... you just know he'd've been the first masterchef on record if they'd found that!

The whole balance thing is one reason I found it really interesting to do my MA in the USA - there's a very different archaeological approach there to the UK, and I actually sit rather in the middle of them. Arch students in the US are taught to be so "processual" that they can't see beyond the end of their rulers, and you get papers that are nothing more than a catalogue of numbers with just as boring conclusions drawn - and yet also sticking to the old paradigms without questioning them. Then I came home to the excesses of some of the telly-archaeology over here, and eeep!(Generalising on both sides, obviously!)

It's that po-faced conservatism you talk about that annoys me most though, because it's generally linked to all the bad-old-things that I keep hoping were impacted just a little bit by the movements of the 70s/80s etc... but we just seem to have slid back into the hole... Gabriella Cilimi on Never Mind the Buzzcocks with Germaine Greer just about made me want to cry...

Exaggeration's one crime, but at least it admits that things exist - closing your mind from them completely... gargh!