jon_chaisson: (Default)
So yeah, it seems I've been avoiding an internet presence for the last few weeks. I didn't so much plan it as it just happened that way. Aside from my last few LJ posts and a few comments here and there on the Twitterverse, I've pretty much been internetting rather passively as of late.

You know what? I don't mind.

It's kind of interesting, really...there are days when I pop onto Twitter and read all the funny and/or interesting conversations I may have missed out on and feel like I'm late for the party, but at the same time--does it really matter? Yes, it's fun conversation, and it's always fun to be a part of it as it happens (and it always feels forced to add a silly comment well after the hilarity has passed), but it's just light conversation. Sometimes I feel like I'm missing out on being a part of something, but then I remember--this is how it felt before the internet, my friend. We didn't always have Instant Camaraderie in affordable value packs. So it's not worth fretting over. I'll pop in and say hi, make the occasional comment, share the occasional link, post the occasional blog entry, but it's not vital.


A lot of the internetting has actually been doing music research for Walk in Silence, but I've also been doing a lot of goofing off, on purpose--relaxing, playing around, letting my mind wander, just having fun. Getting it out of my system, calming my brain down, centering my chakra, whatever you want to call it. I'm almost always trying to focus on something, do something, think something almost every waking minute, and it's been ages since I've taken it easy (not including vacations of course). It's been awhile since I've had passive enjoyment.

That's not to say I've been lazy, of course. Emm and I have been going to the gym on a relatively normal schedule, and we do a LOT of walking on the weekends. In fact, we walked a whopping 7.47 miles today, probably enough for me to have walked off my quite large brunch at the Hawaiian restaurant on Clement. While I still have that nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I should be doing something creative or constructive, I remember that I'm usually sitting on my duff for eight hours a day at a job where I rarely have a second's mental peace. Getting out and seeing the city for a few hours is better than solitary confinement in front of a computer screen.

It's good to get out every once in a while. See the real world instead of just the virtual one.
jon_chaisson: (Default)
Been awhile since I've posted here...or anywhere, come to think of it. I've posted a few pictures at the Tumblr site, a comment here and there in the Twitbookverse, but not much at all here or at the writing LJ, or any poetry at the Dreamwidth site, really.

I could say I've been busy with Real Life, or Personal Things Came Up, or I Gave Up Writing and Became a Chartered Accountant, but that's not the case. To be honest, I did exactly what I said I'd be doing--unplugging from the internets for awhile. I chose not to post much if at all, chose to back away from a lot of internetty things that were wasting my time, and chose to spend that time a little more wisely. And to be even more honest, it was a VERY good choice. I'm feeling a little more grounded.

I'll continue with the honesty--I backed away from the creativity for awhile there, too. The temptation was great to get that word count in, to finish off that chapter revision, to write that poem, and so on...but I chose to ignore the temptation there as well. Instead I chose a simple goal: work on something every day. That's it--nothing specific, just get something done. As long as that happened and the day wasn't a total waste, I was happy.

And yes, I kept myself busy. I revised four chapters of A Division of Souls--including one mother of a completely rewritten scene that took a lot out of me; I bought a new camera (actually a refurbished model), a Samsung WB210 14 megapixel and have been taking many local pictures; I've been working on the Walk in Silence project and reading many books for research (I must give Green Apple Books, my local new-and-used book stores, BIG props for their Most Excellent Music Book section) and recently got a good chunk of word count done for it.

To the shock of some of you, I've even been ignoring a lot of new music lately. Not that I've decided to give up my Indie Cred and throw out my radio, of course...I've just been listening to a lot of 80s music lately, primarily to refamiliarize myself with it for the Walk in Silence project. Not that I'm ignoring it completely...I've been obsessing over the new Mutemath album for the past month, for starters. Just doing a lot of listening to older stuff, is all.

As for the self-imposed writing schedule I created at the start of the year? I'd like to think I followed it for the most part, aside from my self-exile of the last month or so. There were a number of deviations as life and projects allowed, and I'd planned and expected that from the outset. Ultimately, though, I think it was a success. I'll be reviewing it at the end of December, tweak what needs tweaking, and go from there.

So...now what?

I think it's time to return to the fold. Time to return to the writing schedule. The internet posting is probably going to look a little different...I have multiple sites to post at now, so you probably won't see me popping up on a daily basis. You'll probably see me here at this LJ the most, as I'll be providing links to my other sites, as well as updating the day-to-day stuff that happens in my life, but I'll be around elsewhere as well.

It's good to be back.

jon_chaisson: (Default)
Haven't posted lately due to being busy with all types of things...plus I've been trying not to be distracted by the internets as much as I have in the past. That's a work in progress, but I'm getting better. Now, what with football preseason (GO PATS!! :D ) already up and running, that's another distraction entirely...

So what's been up over the past week?

WRITING:
Gads...still slogging through that damn chapter in ADoS, and it's taking a lot longer than I want it to. It's not so much that I'm avoiding work, just that some of these new scenes and extended/revised scenes are a bit tough. I'm not giving up, though. I've invested lots of time in this trilogy, and I'll be damned if I give up now. Time to take off the gloves and give it what for. (What does that phrase mean, anyway?)

Also, ordered the new Writer's Market, which I skipped on last year due to not really needing it at the moment. Amusingly enough, it cost exactly the same at the Writer's Digest site as it did on Amazon. Still--I plan on using it this year, both for the above monstrosity as well as looking out for some smaller press and poetry stuff. 2010/2011 will be the years of submissions, damn it!

Note to self: Any more "damns" in this post and I'll get the MPAA on my butt. I'd better calm down. :p


LIFE:
Things are good. Feeling old and out of shape, but our weekly walks around the Presidio and Golden Gate Park have been helping, and it gives me more practice with my camera as well. Now if this Bay Area fog that's been permeating our area for the entire summer would finally KINDLY GO AWAY, I'll be even happier. Other than that, keeping busy and having fun when I can.


MUSIC:
Heard a preview of the new Interpol album and OH MAN is it good!! Very angular, and very similar to their first album, so I'm quite happy about that. Went ahead and pre-ordered the album straight from the band's site as soon as I finished listening. Nothing else too exciting to report, though...still following the new stuff that's coming out that I like, and there's a lot of it, but nothing amazing as of yet aside from the above. In a weird way it's reminding me of 1997--a lot of good stuff, but the REALLY good stuff should appear next year. We'll see.


BOOKS:
Recently read: Harmonic Feedback by Tara Kelly--typical YA story, but the lead's name is Drea and she's a musician. Very much like [livejournal.com profile] dollydelusion, and I couldn't help but picture her in the role. :p Also: Still reading [livejournal.com profile] kateelliott's Spirit Gate as my commuting book. Quite good, and I'm looking forward to reading the other two in the series! Currently reading: The Oishinbo manga series, which [livejournal.com profile] emmalyon and I are quite enjoying, and well worth checking out. There's only 7 or so volumes out so far, but I'm hoping there will be more. :)


...and that's it from JoncWorld. How's everything out in there?
jon_chaisson: (Default)
Well then. For those of you keeping score, I've managed to confuse at least three or four Gateway Support people enough to get it escalated to a higher level team, enough that they suggest I'll have to send it in to be fixed.

I've had PC issues before (like I said, I must be a wizard from the Dresden universe, as I have a knack for causing electronics to do weird things), and in the past I uusally had my techie big sis figure out the problem, but I think this is the first time where a PC had this big of a problem. Not sure what, and though I admit to some futzing with the system to get it to work, I never did it to a damaging degree.

So--tonight, after cleaning up a few last things on the PC, I'll be boxing it up and driving over the local UPS store to send it out to be fixed. It'll be gone for about two to three weeks. In the interim, I'll be using a laptop for writing and online stuff. And maybe actually using a non-PC cd player to listen to some of these CDs that are gathering dust on my desk.


That said...

Perhaps it's time to do a little experiment.

Maybe it's time I unplugged from the internet for awhile. Not cold turkey of course, as I can still access it with a laptop, but basically tone it down a bit. I've been trying to be good lately by not being distracted by emails and LJ and whatnot, especially when I should be writing, but this might help me even more. Besides, I keep griping about not having enough time to write, so perhaps this will open up more time for me.

Perhaps I could also look for a cheapo desk radio, one of those little dinky ones, that I could set up in Spare Oom to listen to instead of obsessing playing around with my mp3 collection. Y'know, listen to terrestrial radio, something I haven't done in ages. [Note: I should probably add that the only goofing around with my collection should be for researching discographies for my Walk in Silence project.]

And even more importantly, write out in the living room on the laptop so I'm not leaving [livejournal.com profile] emmalyon out there by her lonesome. ;)

So yeah...maybe a bit of tech unplugging might be in order, get myself removed from all the gadgetry that distracts me too much, and be spartan with that as well as with the programs I put on my PC from here on in. So if you don't see me posting on LJ/Facebook/etc. as much as I have lately, that's the reason.


More on this as it evolves...
jon_chaisson: (Default)
As promised...

in which Jonc goes on about life, liberty and the purfuit of happineff.* )

* Why yes, that was a joke from Cheers. Yes, I'm old. :p
jon_chaisson: (Default)
[A brief break from the musical decade overview posts...I will be finishing off with 2009 later today.]

Hoo. Weird decade, this. Lots of good, a good wallop of AWESOME, and a lot of GEH! to even it out. And a bit of sheer pissed-offery for seasoning. As I know I've posted most of this before, I'll just dispense with the highlights like [livejournal.com profile] maps_or_guitars did.


2000: Unceremoniously not-fired-but-talked-into-quitting from HMV after four years of working there. Ironically the US chains would close two years later due to bad business sense. Luckily found a job soon after at Yankee Candle, whose products would make my clothes stink for the next few years. Finished The Phoenix Effect around this time, I believe, and its rewrite A Division of Souls started. Met good friend and eventual jamming partner Bruce.

2001: Bruce and I the first people to test the new equipment when we moved to the newer and much larger YC warehouse. Start jamming with Bruce and Eric in jeb!. The continuation of roadtrips to Showcase Comics on a weekly basis, the start of roadtrips to Newbury Comics in Amherst on a weekly basis. Savings don't quite suffer, but much space taken up in the process. Freaked out by 9/11 terrorist attacks...and had the sinking feeling that the state of US politics was going to get uglier from here on in. ADoS finished. The start of going down to the Belfry almost every single night and writing for two hours.

2002: The Year Jon Bought WAY TOO MANY CDs. Great year for music, though. My department at work wins MVP of the Year for kicking ass during a major chain rollout. Probably the last year where working at YC was actually a lot of fun. The start of finally taking politics a little more seriously when I start having conversations with one of my managers about it. More writing done...The Persistence of Memories started and finished in exactly one year and a few hours' change.

2003: Kind of a blur...work frustration, not as many (but still too many) CDs bought. More jamming with jeb!, and started in on The Process of Belief soon after TPoM is done.

2004: Had a very strange dream about having a female vampire as a girlfriend, and Love Like Blood was born, which would go through various versions and finally get finished 3 years later. Cursed very loudly out the window of my car when NPR states that Kerry lost. [livejournal.com profile] head58 and [livejournal.com profile] lynxreign play matchmakers and introduce me to [livejournal.com profile] emmalyon, and the rest is history. :)

2005: The Year Jonc's Life Changes. Quit YC, moved down to NJ to be with Emm, Lynx and [livejournal.com profile] inochinoakari, went to WorldCon in Glasgow, got married, moved to San Francisco. And during all of this, made the insane choice of getting rid of most of my music collection that I'd amassed over the last two-plus decades. Successive temp jobs give me ample time to follow politics even more closely, and realize I'm more frustrated at GWB and his team than I thought I was. Work on TPoB falls by the wayside due to way too many life changes going on as well as frustration with the story. Plusses DEFINITELY outweigh the minuses this year, though.

2006: Start the year workin' for the Man at BofA, first as a temp in one department but switch to full-time by being Your Friendly Customer Service Rep in the CD/IRA area...where I come up with the mantra "'Yes' is NOT an account number." Bought an eMachine to replace the Dell that was slowly crapping out on me, and Belfry 3000 was born. Some writing done, but not nearly as much as I'd hoped. Finished LLB on New Year's Eve, and celebrated with a bottle of Vampire wine.

2007: Transitional year, I suppose. Started rewrite of LLB, and tried writing some other stuff, but didn't get too far. Finally made myself purchase Fluff online after jonesin' for it for a few years. Not a terribly exciting year, but ended on a good note when I got hired to my present position and ran away from the phones for good and avoided another year of working IRAs during tax season.

2008: Very interesting year, much more exciting/weird/frustrating than '07. Another dream, this one of me and one of my sisters visiting our parents' house years after everyone's moved out and meeting the new owner...and Can't Find My Way Home was born, and completed a full outline for it. Was working at home the day McCain named Palin as running mate and immediately felt it was more of a chessboard move than a political plan. Stared in wonder and excitement when Obama won. Got pissed off when Prop 8 lost. Looked forward to seeing what '09 would be like.

2009: Personal? Great year, things went well. Moved to a new apartment across town, competely on a whim. Work? Frustrating, but made peace with it. Music? Not bad, actually. Writing? Picked up The Process of Belief after posting the entire trilogy on an extremely friends-locked LJ, and feel right at home with it again. Political? Well...'09 was the Year of You Can't Make This Shit Up, and the year I really started to wonder just what the hell some of these people are thinking, if at all. Still, I refused to let the year/decade end on a sour note and promised myself that I wouldn't let the bastards keep me down. Ended the year by buying a Gateway when my eMachine started crapping out.


All in all...very strange decade. A lot of great, a lot of YAY!, a lot of anger, a lot of WTF?!??, and a lot of good ol' fashioned creativity. Although there was a lot in it that I wish had turned out differently (and most of that was world events), there were enough plusses in my life that kept it all sane and worth going. I'm looking forward to the next year and decade, no matter what it throws at us. And if I can be a part of it in some significant way, either by writing or other way, so much the better.
jon_chaisson: (Stan Brakhage)
[Yeah, I know...it's a bit late, but given how much his work inspired me, I felt I had to post. :) ]

I wasn't the biggest fan of those high school/college screwball comedies in the 80s, being that I was a bit too young or distracted to enjoy movies like Class, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Midnight Madness and so on. If anything, I only got to watch and enjoy them once they appeared on a friend's cable box on HBO or The Movie Channel. It wasn't until my family and I went to see Sixteen Candles that I really started paying attention to the genre, though. I didn't quite connect with the film, but it was fun to watch nonetheless.

That same year (1984) was about the time I also started seriously listening to music. I started buying more albums, started listening to and taping from the radio (not just straight ahead rock, but American Top 40 as well), and also enjoying the endless videos played on MTV. From this sudden immersion into music as well as its integration into a visual medium, I came up with the "video treatment" style of writing scenes, specifically for the Infamous War Novel, which I'd started that year.

Come 1985, my family and I went to see The Breakfast Club. By that time, though music and writing was still important, I was definitely growing into my teenage years, having brief relationships with some local girls, and also growing into who I'd eventually become. This movie was a real eye-opener for me at the time, it being such a spot-on story about growing up and trying to figure out who you are. It also grabbed me because of the music--it was in the forefront rather than in the background, used as part of the story rather than just a mood setting, as if a soundtrack for life rather than a movie. And of course, the Simple Minds theme song "Don't You (Forget About Me)" was one of my biggest personal favorites of the time. It was also about this time that some of my earliest non-IWN writing came about, partly inspired by these two Hughes movies and full of music references.

I didn't quite gel with Weird Science (also in 1985), but the year after that, he released what many consider his best Brat Pack movie, Ferris Bueller's Day Off. The 80s had grown out of its post-70s discomfort and become flashy and fun again, and this one was released during a great wave of pop music. Everything was right about this movie, from a great soundtrack to brilliant timing and humor to some of Hughes' best-known and remembered scenes and dialogue. That same year, he'd written and produced (but not directed) Pretty in Pink, another of my personal favorites in terms of use of story and music and dealing with nonconformity...and featuring one of my all-time favorite Hughes scenes ever:





In 1987, after finishing the IWN, I'd started writing a silly Hughes-esque screenplay called One Step Closer to You, a nerd-tries-to-win-popular-girl story heavily inspired by his movies. Many of the scenes had a song playing, either as background or as something to push the story. I came nowhere near the level of Hughes' work with it, but I really enjoyed writing it and it was a refreshing change from the moody stuff I was writing then. By that time I'd realized that though I was different, I could still fit in somehow.

Also that year, Hughes had written and produced Some Kind of Wonderful--a sort of "what if Pretty In Pink had ended differently" story, and yet another slice-of-life movie that hit home for me, this time showing that being different from everyone else was actually a good thing...and by that time, I was heavily into college radio, writing more moody and strange things, and figuring out who I was.

I'd say the last of the Hughes movies that really struck a chord with me at that point was 1988's She's Having a Baby--not so much in story, but in music. It had a great soundtrack and a well-written story which, though I wasn't there yet, made me think about what I was going to do once I got to post-college life. With its Alec Baldwin subplot, it also made me wonder just how people would change in the years to come.

I didn't watch too many of his post-80s work, though the first Home Alone, Dutch, and Maid in Manhattan were well-made and enjoyable. All told, his 80s work had the biggest impact on me, on my writing, my music tastes, and on my life. To this day I create soundtracks for my stories, and though I don't use the "video treatment" method anymore, the songs I choose complement the scenes I write. His deft use of humor, specifically used to laugh at the situation and not at the character, still impresses me. He was brilliant with his dialogue--quirky and smart, never dated, and always quotable.

He was definitely one of my biggest influences, and he will be missed. Thinking about it, most of his 80s work pretty much paralleled my life at the time, from uncomfortable adolescence to the thrill of nonconformity to the pains of growing up. All with a soundtrack.
jon_chaisson: (Default)
Morning all...another cold morning here in San Francisco...yeah, I know, 45 degrees isn't exactly cold in New England terms, so I can't complain too much, but when it's normally a good twenty degrees warmer on any given day, that's a cold morning! :p

Our sleeping in this weekend actually worked for the most part, unlike a few weekends ago when neither of us got much of a wink. We were both happy to get up closer to 7 or 8am rather than 5-ish. The only problem was last night at 3:30am when some obviously-drunk woman with some serious issues got in a catfight with some other person who, by the time the drunk woman shut up, was all the way up the other end of the block, ignoring her. Yeah, that was special...

Also: Christmas shopping nearly done for the most part! :) I just need to pick up a few things online and we're good. We tempted fate and went to the mall yesterday and it wasn't nearly as insane as I'd expected. We got some sweet deals at Kohl's and spent way much more money than we'd expected at Target, but at least we've got a good headstart on the holiday shopping. I think the fact we ordered everything online--and early at that--is the reason I keep getting this feeling we're forgetting to order something. :p

--------

[Writing]

Geh. Now I understand why Connie Willis went on about how frustrating writing a time travel novel is, when we saw her at WorldCon. Over the course of the last few weeks I've been questioning my sanity for wanting to come up with a storyline like this. Trying to come up with an interesting time-travel storyline while keeping logic in mind is one of the most mindbreaking, aggravating things I've ever done writingwise. It's a hell of a lot tougher than one thinks. But on the plus side, the outline is nearing its end--hopefully I'll get it finished by the end of the year--and with some tweaking and cleaning up, I think it will work.

In other news...I've been bad and not doing anything big with Love Like Blood lately. Well, not entirely bad...I've heard from many editors and agents that sending right at the end of the year isn't always the best of ideas, since most of them consider this their weeks off and, honestly, a good time to clean off the desk. So as much as it pains me, I'm going to wait until early-to-mid January to send it off. I should have sent it off earlier, but I won't go into that...still, I have a few places in mind that it will get sent to.

More writing news...it's still early in the game for the Eden Cycle website, but I need to get started on that as well. I'm up to Chapter 9 in the edit/once-over, partly to fix up a few things but also partly to refamiliarize myself with the story itself...that's going pretty well, and I'm still happy with most of it. What I need to be doing is coming up with some introductory passages and/or reference posts to start with, and take a weekend (or week) where I'm not doing much else and work on the layout of the site. I'd like the site to "officially" go live in January, with some sneak-peeks this month, so I'd better get cracking on this.

-------------

[Writing: Online]

As said in the past few weeks, because of all these projects I'm working on, I'm planning on backing away from LJ and other online things for a bit to get stuff done. I'm not going to completely disappear, and I will occasionally pop onto LJ to make a few comments, but for the most part I need to get more serious about my work here. So this will probably mean a few things--some quick flyby LJ posts during work hours, and long, drawn-out posts both here and at [livejournal.com profile] jonchaisson written on the weekend. I won't x-post to both, since most people who read this LJ read the other, and I won't subject you to twice the boringness. ;)

-------------

[The World We Live In...]

I need to back away from the Kos for awhile...maybe not cold turkey, but I've definitely been spending more time on it than I should. Sure, I like being on top of things political and whatnot, but it's eating into my writing time. In fact, now that the election season is over, I need to back away from the news for awhile. I'm getting all worked up again about everything, and I don't need that. I'll keep on top of things, of course, but not to such an extent as I have over the last few months.

-------------

[...and Life in General]

Yes, [livejournal.com profile] head58, I used those headers on purpose. My apologies ahead of time. :p

Seriously, folks...things are going well. Health is good, work is okay, I'm keeping busy...there's always room for improvement, of course, but I can't complain.

Next year I'm hoping to get more serious about health. I'm not exactly ailing badly, but I can stand to lose some weight and get more exercise, and cut out or down on a lot of bad things I've been eating/drinking lately. Kind of funny how the worst and toughest habits to break are the ones that affect the body... Anyhoo, I want to get more walking in, focus more on keeping good eating habits at work, and not being as lazy as I have.

Of course, this also includes mental health. I don't have many worries, but I need to rethink how my thought processes work. I'm thinking about my plans for 2008 that I posted back in January, and while my list may have been wishful thinking (let's admit, there was a lot in there), I'd like to think I got at least some of it done. That makes me happy that I got more done that I'd expected, but I need to do more. I have a bad habit of being passive, and while that's not exactly a bad thing, it can lead to a lot of frustration. I need to ramp up my determination to get things done.

In short...while I thought 2008 was a vast improvement over 2007, I'm hoping that 2009 becomes more of a banner year. We'll see....

-------------------

[Music]

You were warned: I'm most likely going to be doing a very large music post in the next few days/weeks as the year ends. I have a few ideas that I'm working with, including working on yet another end-of-year best-of list. This being another year ending in 8, there were a lot of good albums...although I'm surprising myself by realizing it didn't stand out nearly as much as 1988 and 1998 did. Then again, my connection with music isn't nearly as intense as it was over the last few decades (sad but true), so I wasn't as involved.

That said, though, there were some great albums that came out, and I'll be going over them in a later post. :)

------------------

Okay, time to make most of my day and get stuff done! How was your weekend? :)
jon_chaisson: (Tunage)
I stood stone-like at midnight, suspended in my masquerade
I combed my hair till it was just right and commanded the night brigade
I was open to pain and crossed by the rain and I walked on a crooked crutch
I strolled all alone through a fallout zone and come out with my soul untouched
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, but when they said, "Sit down," I stood up
Ooh... growin' up

The flag of piracy flew from my mast, my sails were set wing to wing
I had a jukebox graduate for first mate, she couldn't sail but she sure could sing
I pushed B-52 and bombed them with the blues with my gear set stubborn on standing
I broke all the rules, strafed my old high school, never once gave thought to landing
I hid in the clouded wrath of the crowd, but when they said, "Come down," I threw up
Ooh... growin' up

I took month-long vacations in the stratosphere, and you know it's really hard to hold your breath
I swear I lost everything I ever loved or feared, I was the cosmic kid in full costume dress
Well, my feet they finally took root in the earth, but I got me a nice little place in the stars
And I swear I found the key to the universe in the engine of an old parked car
I hid in the mother breast of the crowd, but when they said, "Pull down," I pulled up
Ooh... growin' up
Ooh... growin' up
jon_chaisson: (Default)
Okay, it's a good fifteen days before the end of the year, but I figured I'd follow [livejournal.com profile] queenoftheskies' lead and do one of those looking-back sort of things, and split it up between writing, work, life and (of course) music. I'll most likely do a more writing-centric post over at [livejournal.com profile] die_joncswerk later on today, but for now...

[Life]:
Well, 2007 was a bit of a so-so year. Nothing bad happened, but nothing life-alteringly exciting happened either. Well, except a few neat trips, but that's different. ;) I spent most of this year pretty much doing what I normally do...working, writing, music, etc...rinse, lather, repeat. Not that I'm complaining, though. I spent this year making money for us to save and really thinking about what I should be doing creatively (more on that in a future [livejournal.com profile] die_joncswerk post).

I will say I DEFINITELY enjoyed the trips [livejournal.com profile] emmalyon and I took this year. The Hearst Castle/Monterey/Carmel trip was definitely a big winner for me, as was the Hawaii trip. The day trips were fun as well (CA State Fair up in Sacramento, Taylor's in St Helena, and so on), but I have to say that the Hearst Castle and Hawaii ones were both special in that we were able to spend some quality time together...and both trips inspired me creatively, which is of course a bonus! ;)

[Writing]:
Okay, so I didn't become the freelance writer I'd planned on being. That kind of fell by the wayside, but I'm not going to whine about it...that won't help any. So, like my frustrations with work, I'm not going to whine about it anymore, until I have a valid reason.

I'm also kind of annoyed that I got so little done, writing-wise this year. Not that my well of ideas was dried up, but that I didn't get nearly as far with the LLB rewrite as I thought I would. There are twenty chapters in this book and I'm only starting on Chapter Five.

On the plus side...I do plan on having a much more productive year in 2008. LLB will be finished and hopefully on its way to a publisher or agent. I also plan on revisiting the trilogy in earnest, getting some serious rewriting/editing done, and quite possibly an ending as well. I also plan on starting a few other projects as well. My overall plan is to make sure I'm working on something every day, just as I did in the past.

[Work]:
I'm convinced that my now-ended job as a phone rep at the bank did have something to do with my lack of creativity--not to mention stress and sleeping problems. I've heard from many people that this was a job that is not worth staying at for a number of years (although I did have some coworkers that have been there for at least a decade...), and I can safely say I agree with them. Even at a job as mindless as this was, there was a lot--let me emphasize that: A LOT of frustration. As the Refreshments sang, 'Everybody knows that the world is full of stupid people.' Normally I give people the benefit of the doubt, but I certainly had my share of winners when I was there...*shakes head* This is both customers and banking center reps, people. Added to the fact that though this job was just as repetitious as any of my previous jobs, this one never seemed to improve with age--it was a very stagnant atmosphere. Then there was the soap opera near the end of my stay in which I'm still not entirely sure why a coworker I got along fine with decided to stop talking to me, but whatever. What's done is FINALLY done.

My new job starts tomorrow, and while I feel it's going to be a step up in a way, I have a feeling it's going to be a much less stressful job, one with a lot less frustration, and I'm already happy with the new people I've met so far--who, I should add, have already gone out of their way to welcome me in, and I really appreciate that.

[Music]:
...and so continues the trend in which I don't pay as much attention to new music as much as I did a few years back. Emm and I actually spent more time watching VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown than we did listening to our local alt.rock station, Live 105. I could have spent a little more time checking out new bands by listening to LaunchCast, Pandora, or even sampling some of the music blogs out there, but for one reason or another I didn't do it. The one plus was signing up for eMusic (damn you, [livejournal.com profile] head58!!!), which has definitely added to my mp3 collection with both new and old music.

At this point? I have no idea whether or not I'll be listening online to new stuff, or even caring at this point. I'm not going to actively shun it, but I'm not going to obsess over it like I did in the past. I'm keeping an open mind and open ears about it, though. Any suggestions for stuff are always welcome. :)

****************************

Aaaaaand that's pretty much 2007 for me in a nutshell. Not exactly mediocre, but not exactly life-altering either. But at least it was interesting!

When it gets closer to New Years Eve, I'll post my resolutions/plans/predictions/music lists/etc. Stay tuned!
jon_chaisson: (Mooch writing)
I've had a few writerly things going through my head as of late, and want to shamelessly post about them on the sadly-neglected-as-of-late [livejournal.com profile] die_joncswerk...nothing whiny, and nothing really specific about a story in particular...just thoughts about writing and the writing field and where my places is within it.

At the moment though, I have very little time to work on it, so perhaps this weekend I'll dust off the other LJ and post there. I'll post here as a warning, though. And again, for those of you newer flist peoples that had no idea I lead the life of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent have a second, writing-only LJ, let me know and I'll add you onto the friends list, as I do often lock the posts there to ensure copyright goodness. :)

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