Demo Camp

This sounds really cool.  Demo Camp.  A place where you can demonstrate your cool new stuff.  

See below.

Demo Camp

Truly Amazing: The Shanghai Restoration Project

Just listen.

This is amazing.  Most things aren't.  This is.

Binary

I have a binary mindset.  Either it's left or right, in or out, black or white.  While I am able to see the grey area and am appreciative of it I have this instantaneous ability to come to a decision.  It's easy for me.  But it's hard on other people.  If I like something I really like it.  Otherwise I'm just indifferent to it, not caring if it lives or dies.  The opposite of love isn't hate.  It's indifference.  And when you're indifferent toward people, especially women, and you're handsome, prepare to be hated.

Two Wives

I have a problem.  I think I love two women.  One is pragmatic yet demanding, requiring a lot of attention and yet more reliable in her tangible benefit to me.

The other is more romantic, looks much finer on my arm, is more mercurial, but her prospects for the future are more unsure, she will require a higher investment, and yet I am sure that it would be wrong for me in a universal sense to leave her alone.  I could short change her but as for most things in this world you get back what you put out.  Woe is me for I am a man of standards.

Alas, I am in a devastating situation.  One I need and want.  The other I want and need.  In somethings we have a choice.  In fate we do not.  I will have to pursue both.  But my fear is that there will be none of me left for myself or for anyone else.

Life kills us with a bounty of blessings.  She is too kind and yet beautifully cruel at the same time.

Genius Is Not In the Writing. It's in the Editing.

A couple days ago I read something in an interview Madeline Buston, an agent who works with Lee Child, an author that I really enjoy.  If you haven't read his stuff you should.  It's always well crafted, detailed, and has great pace and solid action and his characters are somehow very believable.  It's funny.  The more I read his stuff and stuff from guys who I just can't believe are so great, i.e. Norman Mailer, John Steinbeck, these just genius level guys the more inadequate I feel, yet I feel driven to outperform them.


Nonetheless, I continue to write, continuing to perfect my brand of storytelling.  My goal is to perfect the telling of a story in a fast paced yet substantive way.  Madeline Buston had what I found to be at the time a great point, a great guideline for writing.  She basically said that every story should be written in a five page arc with a mini-drama at the end of every five pages.  Well, I seized on the point, looking to get my stories to move along like the adventure novels they should be.  I'm finding however that it is more difficult than I anticipated.  It really causes you, if you want to write suspense, adventure, and thrillers, to dispense with the flowery language and get down to the bone, clearly separating what is dispensable from what is not.  


A piece that I worked on tonight had a part in it that had eleven pages between the last action and the present one.  I sat and edited until I got it down to 7.5, cutting and cutting and cutting.  In the writing, I give myself all the liberties I want.  But in the editing, each word has a cost, each word slows down the action.  


I must admit that the action moves a lot faster now and I am forced to make things happen if I want to keep pieces of the story.  It's forcing me to ask the hard questions that must be asked of any really good action story, namely, what is this scene for?  What is the purpose?  What is happening?  And is it dispensable?  If there are no good answers to any of those questions it must go.


The writing is the easy part.  It's on credit.  The editing is when the bill must be paid.

Rest, Relaxation, and Work ... on a Monday!?!?

Today was the first day back from a holiday weekend at work.  Except I ended up working from home.   Last night for some strange reason I couldn't get to sleep.  I ended up falling asleep at six am this morning.  My alarm clock sounded for seven.  Rather than go to work at 8 completely exhausted and nod off repeatedly at work, ruining my reputation and being completely unproductive I decided to call in sick.  I told my boss.  She told me it was fine.  And I told her that I'd work from home.  


Turns out that, by being pragmatic, sleeping until noon, then waking up and giving my work a solid focused couple of hours that I got as much or maybe more done in the shorter amount of time than by going into the office.  Sure I have a little more work to do ... but I'm always a bit ambitious when it comes to my work goals.  I could get it done but why push it.  I'm currently where I need to be in terms of scheduling and I'm genuinely pleased with my progress.  I'm sure my boss will be too as I should be well ahead of schedule by EOD tomorrow.  


It just goes to show that rethinking orthodox rules may be very smart.  Why keep the same stale mindsets when it is productivity and not hours logged that count?  Why spend eight hours an hour and twenty minutes from your house (forty minutes each way) when you can do the same amount of work in five hours?  It's awesome.


Now what else to do today?


1.  Edit four sections in my book.  It's necessary.


2.  Put in for my vacation time.


3.  Clean my kitchen


Right now it's my break time.  So I'm about to watch some type of program then I'm going to write.  So that'll bring me right up until eight o'clock.  Eight I'll edit.  Nine-thirty I'll clean.  Then eleven I'll read.  That should do it.  Okay.   Later.

Steve Jobs Videos I Feel Compelled to Share

Steve Jobs Video 1:


It's an interview of him when he was at NeXT.


Check it out.


Steve Jobs at NeXT

Steve Jobs Video 2:

Steve Jobs at All Things Digital - 2011