As a continuation of last week's saying no, I am forcing myself to walk away from online debates more often. About once every month or two, someone somewhere manages to write up something really awful and I find myself wanting to get in there and defend what I believe to be truth, or at least common sense. It usually derails my day, and sometimes my week.
But I realized the other day that none of us can correct all the wrongheadedness on the internet. I can't even promise to never be wrongheaded myself. But I can write a decent novel, and my time is generally much better spent doing that.
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As for novels, I have started revision again--a brand new draft in a brand new Word document. Right now I'm not setting a deadline, but I'd like to be submitting to agents in the fall. Might need to speed up, though--this first page has had me deadlocked for hours.
Maybe I'm doing something right? At any rate, I loved what Heath Gibson has to say in the linked article. He talks about wanting to write a great story instead of just a good one. I am with him on every word of that.
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So... Lou and I, having run out of comedic movies to watch, have taken to renting and watching seasons of The Office (again, not clean, but funny...) Michael Scott is incredibly painful to watch, but the Jim/Dwight rivalry makes up for it in hilarity. When it comes to Jim and Pam, though, I keep finding myself wanting to yell "ONE OF YOU PLEASE ASK THE OTHER ONE OUT YOU'RE DRIVING ME CRAZY PRETENDING YOU DON'T LIKE EACH OTHER!!!" But I suppose it would have made bad television to start things out all happy for them.
What I really don't get about The Office is Angela. Seriously, I have lived my entire life around Christians. Almost all of my friends and even my coworkers have been Christians, and while I'm used to seeing horrible stereotypes from Hollywood that might bring to mind one or two religious people I've known, I can't think of anyone who she reminds me of.
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To my delight, we've had two nights this week when the clouds backed off and let the stars come out. I found Antares the first night and wanted to go out where I could look for Saturn and Vega but--well, I'm afraid of the dark. (I have a good imagination. There could be anything in those shadows!) Lou came out with me the next night, and if my calculations were correct, we found Vega over the house.
I still haven't found the Pleiades, but they're in Taurus, which appears to be only up during sunlight this time of year. Maybe in the fall.
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I'm in Victoria for a couple of days with my schola, so I'll stop writing now. For those of you who have any experience in graphic design or layout or text development or breaking the chain on email forwards, this made me laugh and laugh. Thanks to Travis for the link.
And if you find humor in Michael and Dwight and the others, there's always Bryan Allain's Exodus According to The Office (possibly blasphemous, but funny...)
Happy weekend!
In that case, you may perhaps enjoy the original The Office, as brought to British telly under the brilliant production, direction, and performance of Ricky Gervais. (He was the boss...) Caution: It ain't any less dirty than the American version, just in different directions.
ReplyDeleteI've heard the original British version is funny too. Maybe we'll have to check in on that after we've made it through the American seasons available; we're going through them pretty fast. :)
ReplyDeleteJenna, completely understand your feelings about online debates. I've pretty much come to the same position.
ReplyDeleteLately it's seemed that as soon as a good debate & discussion gets started, one or two strident voices come along & basically shut down the debate. And strangely it's those who claim to be tolerant & open-minded who show the least amount of tolerance & open-mindedness to the views of others.
Anyway, it's been easier, & I think more productive, to bow out of conversations or even not to start them. I just go & read a good book or article instead.
George, I totally agree on all counts. More, I feel like the perspectives are so polarized that it's hard to even find common points to debate from. When it's "Either you agree or you're evil," what do you do? Where do you even start?
ReplyDeleteI haven't got this figured out. And I can only fight so many battles. The internet is a big place, and it's hard enough to keep it relegated to a reasonable section of my life.
Haha. That was probably more of a rant than absolutely necessary. :) It's just a continuing frustration that has to be dealt with.
Ah well, it gives you more time to work on your novel. ;)
ReplyDeleteVery true! That's always something to be glad about. :)
ReplyDelete