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Into The Darkness //tools

I have made an account for writing, by the way. It has no internet connection (no shortcuts to my connections, anyway) and nothing much in Start menu*. There’s no desktop shortcuts either, only a few ones on Quick Launch panel. Those are:

  1. EverNote, where I keep my notes. Its skin resembles Media Player 9 and it looks ugly with anything but the blue XP theme, which I never ever used, but I kinda like how it works with tags. Anyway, I’m still to meet a PIM I really like. OmniOutliner looks promising, but I don’t have a Mac for now.
  2. A folder (directory) with my texts. BTW, this year’s projects’ subfolders names start with projects’ numbers for extra consistency. Petty stuff, but so is writing.
  3. Atlantis Word Processor. Its kerning is ugly and the latest version, 1.6.1.5, has troubles with Russian, but typewriter sounds are a killer feature.
  4. Foobar2000. One of the best-sounding player for Windows. They say it’s not the best, but I don’t have a hi-end hardware anyway, and I like the tagging/browsing/renaming features.
  5. Projects.xls. It holds a page with my weekly undertakings, so I can review it in the evening and write some tasks for the next day.
  6. XNote Stopwatch. I use it for timeboxing when I have to. The other times I simply make a playlist of the needed duration.
  7. dailybak.bat. That mama backs up all my projects. I don’t want to relogin to finish my daily session.

That’s it. It’s been about six weeks now, and I must admit it does work. Granted, sometimes I need to look something up on the net, so I have to make a note for myself, either on paper or in EverNote, and research later. But in my experience, the bulk of writing is actual typing or, at least, solitary pondering, and in this secluded account I really can write.

Later on further problems.
______

* I’ve moved all the shortcuts from “c:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs” to “c:\Documents and Settings\s\Start Menu\Programs”, which is the folder of my generic, non-writing account.

may24.07no comments (+1)

KR: The First Steps //projects

Here we go. Our little manga has already brought us three throphies in a single festival: an Art Prix by the jury, a prize by MS Entertainment, the biggest russian anime distributor, and another one, by the Wani Magazine and Range Murata himself.
Let’s hope I don’t get too intimidated by the high expectations. There’s quite a lot of writing to do ::)

may17.07no comments (+1)

Hail to the winners //music

I know why USSR and Yugoslavia split themselves in so many parts! Now the splinters can vote for each other on Eurovision all they like, having outnumbered the Western and Northern Europe countries.

I also know who won my heart. The 18th place in the final, The Ark, easily (and somewhat sadly) the only really interesting act in the whole show.

Not that I think glam-rock is the best music style. There ain’t no best music style, and I like a good glam, and those guys get it right. Especially with their last album, and their new keyboardist.

So I think it’s good they appeared on Eurovision this year. Maybe not that good for Sweden*, and it’s hardly done any good to the masses, but good for gals and guys like me.

Thank you Jesus!

___

* That depends on what Sweden wanted to achieve. If it was to help the world with a bit of good music, they succeeded no shit. Bless your big shiny heart Sweden!

may13.07no comments (+1)

Writing Goals 07-08 //growth, projects

For the record: I’ve done a fourth step of 30 Steps to Becoming a Writer, and set my goals for the year ahed (wich, incidentally, started yesterday, may 1st, 07).

Those goals are (in no particular order; they’re all musts):

  1. A script for the first part of the Kriegsmarine Romance.
    I might have to write some more if some ifs come True but part 1 is mandatory, come hell and high water.
  2. The first draft for the novel code-named D.A.
    That’s the one piece I want to write even if it’s the only thing I write. But since I want it to be good and since I never wrote any novels and since I’ve better keep it real, the first draft is more than enough for the year one, I guess.
  3. A Lyadoff & Anchutkin novel.
    Or maybe a novellete. Or a screenplay. Anyway, that’s a much lighter, humorous, pulpish one, which is why I wanna make it my trial balloon.
  4. 12 acceptable short stories.
    Acceptable by me, that is. One short story per month can be done, I guess. Even though the stories I did before were no more than 1500 words and took me a month or even more to produce. On the other hand, I wasn’t quite as persistent then as I occasionnaly am now.
  5. Some [moonligther’s] work like journalism, copywriting or screenwriting.
    No idea as to particulars. The merrier, the better. Money might help, too.

I might try the 5. in English: is there a better way to learn a language than to go and use it? Might even write a tentative story or two. As for the bulk of my fiction, I guess I’ve better stick to Russian yet. I know it, I feel it, I still got things to improve. A lot of them.

So, I don’t know why I write it all in English :) Maybe I just keep my Russian page for the showy stuff, and unmaterialized ambitions don’t show much. Especially here: russian authors have an unnerving ability to lose interest in their project even as people are willing to buy ‘em.

Good thing I’m a half-Jew, then.

may2.07no comments (+1)