this week

well, i had grand plans for this week and only managed to live up to part of them:

1. i thought i was going to get some interesting posts up. i have 4 or 5 in the queue and have yet to round them out. i'm aiming now for the weekend.
2. i added a few tweaks to the site — next/previous by author now sits in the right menu and the dropdown for 'last visit' now includes posts that have been commented on. i think this completes most of the programming i wanted to get done for the site now — emails are working all around now (i think). so next up is actually going into design mode and really sharpening everything up. the site still feels a bit too haphazard to me.
3. i've been very very focused on my writing this week. not in actually writing, but in digesting articles, other books and ideas. it has been a strange transformation for me, one that i am feeling quite good about.

i like my first book, maybe more now that ever. a lot of that has to do with the edits that have been made in the last 3 months or so — layout, tenses, organization — a lot of nit-picking that overall makes it a stronger, better piece. and in becoming more serious about getting this book done, published, out into the world, i have gotten more focused on these housekeeping bits that i have tried to ignore for a long time.

the main thing this week, though, has not even been about editing. its been about research — actively digging into the genre where my book sits and building a strong case about where my book sits in regard to others that have been previously published. it has been an excellent exercise, one that has made me more confident about the quality of the work and my ability to defend it in a more objective sense.

i was especially pleased when i joined the 21st century on wednesday and managed to track down a critical essay from a journal. i can't remember the last time i did research that didn't involve google. this involved the library and some questioning — and it turns out i could have done it through the library website, from home. but i wasn't aware that the future had already arrived. so dorky, but entirely satisfying. and as a bonus, i found, from the same issue, 2 essays on 'infinite jest.'

4. ive been compressing more video all week long. man, running a machine 24/7 to squeeze crap into other formats is tiresome. the up side there is that 5 dvds are done, with 5 more close. that leaves, surprisingly, another 3 to make. but, progress moves ever on.

5. i sent out almost 1000 pictures to scancafe this week. i think this covers about 40% of my pictures plus more of my family's. i bet i have to make another 2 or 3 orders with them. but hey, in less than a year from now, i should have almost every single picture i own professionally scanned. so that's nice. it's weird how excited getting these scans back makes me. it does make me realize how much of my life has become paperless — moreso when i realize how much i use the library now vesus buying books. i might even be able to sell some books one day.

so, yes, i've been busy in ways that appeal to not many people other than me. such is life; i can't be constantly photographed with models and celebrities, running over paparazzi's feet, losing custody of my children and getting engaged to crummy people right out of rehab.