The Y Logs

Yzabel / August 28, 2005

Taming the Inner Editor

Or, better, getting rid of it for a time, because the beast has been plaguing me for quite some time now. I simply didn’t have a name to give to it yet.As I was reading No Plot? No Problem!, I realized that often, I have a serious problem with my “inner editor”—this little voice that pushes me to take every text back again and again, even though it’s not finished, and polish it until it is “perfect”. Which in theory would be nice and useful, if only working this way didn’t mean taking my sweet, sweet time to finish something. Of course, it can never be perfect enough to my eyes, right?Oddly enough, I never have any problems with it when it comes to technical writing. Technical writing flows fast. Technical writing knows by itself where it’s supposed to head to. However, fiction is a whole other matter, and while I’m supposed to write well in both “genres”, it’d be really great if I could for once leave the Editor behind, and fully focus on writing. I can always edit later on, when it’s finished. Starting to do it while I’m still writing is just like shooting my own foot, preventing me from going further.Read More

Yzabel / August 26, 2005

So You Know Me Better Than I Do?

Today’s entry is going to be a somewhat bitter reflexion, since I’m getting more and more tired of arguing about these things.Why is it that people keep on telling me that I’m too young to decide to remain childfree, but not too young to decide to take on the commitment of bringing up a child for 18 years? Why is it that they’re so sure that if I don’t have a child now, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life? What gives them the right to speak in my name—and, come to think of it, is this attitude so natural to human beings, or am I just unlucky? Do we all have this tendency, about any matter and opinion that is?People seem to forget that I’m 26, not 16, with a professional life and a couple life as well since the past 5 years—not a kid barely out of her teens who doesn’t even know what to expect from life. Come to think of it, I’ve never had any desire to bring a child to this world. I’ve never even played like little girls did. When my parents offered me a carriage and doll for Christmas, I tossed the doll aside and played with the carriage’s wheels for hours on end. When “Santa Claus” came to our school, I cried because I couldn’t have a small car like the boys, and was stuck with ridiculous pink plastic pearls. The mock vacuum-cleaner? I turned it into a spaceship. The Barbie dolls? They became Lara Croft before Lara Croft ever existed. Anyone claiming that “every little girl already dreams of being a mother” should keep me out of this statement.Read More

Yzabel / August 25, 2005

Trackbacks Unveiled

Since I changed the graphic theme on this blog, I realized that I’ve added a little something to it that could maybe look confusing at first.See this little link under posts, where it says “trackback”? That’s it. So what’s a trackback, one might ask?Most people who use blogs already know what a permanent link (commonly called “permalink”) is: the direct link to a post. For instance, for this very entry I’m writing now, the permalink will be “https://ylogs.com/index.php/archives/trackbacks-unveiled” (easily available by simply clicking on the title of the post). Thanks to permalinks, it becomes easy to refer to entries from other blogs, and not direct your visitors to some front page with instructions of “scroll down to August 12th, the third article, made at 9:15” (which is, evidently, not convenient, especially knowing that blogs are very dynamic pages).Trackbacks act in the exact same way, with a notable difference: it allows a blogger to notify you that they’ve published an entry about a particular post of yours.Read More

Yzabel / August 25, 2005

The Y Logs In The”100 Blogs in 100 Days”Project

I can proudly mention it: as a part of his 100 blogs in 100 days project, Duncan at The Blog Herald decided that my little corner of the web was worth a shot, and posted a nice little entry about it. To anyone reading these words and coming from there, thanks for paying a vist. I do hope that you’ll find here a few things that will get your interest.Once again, I’d really encourage anyone remotely interested in discovering new blogs to head there and pay a visit to the blogs who are and will be featured. Duncan sure isn’t here to pick the first random blogs passing his way, and so far the ones he’s linked to have all proved to be interesting.100blogs, blogging

Yzabel / August 24, 2005

Fredric Brown

The first time I ever read one of his works, I was in junior high and the book was called Martians, Go Home—where little green men out of the imagination of a failed author appear on Earth, driving everyone crazy by their silly attitude. Weird? Yes, weird, like many of Brown’s stories, from the knee-slapping funny ones to the disturbingly somber atmosphere instillated in the others. Weird, but so pleasant to read.At the time, I probably was a little too young to really appreciate this book. Fast-forward to high-school, when I picked one of his collections of short stories. At the very moment I was putting the book down, I realized that I liked this author, and that what I preferred above all were his endings. Each time I finished reading one of his short stories, I had one of these “I should’ve known it’d end like this!” jolts. They’re surprising, somewhat amusing, somewhat bittersweet, somewhat even more than that.It’s not only about science-fiction (he wrote in the mystery genre, too).. It’s about his writing as a whole, about his way of taking everyday people and situations, wondering “what if?…”, and firing off the pen and paper (today we’d probably say “the laptop”) to give them a much unexpected turn. Granted, not all of his works are of even quality, and the fact that he wrote in two different genres (science-fiction and mystery) may make it a little hard to fully dive into either of them, if one is a “categorizing reader”, that is.For whoever wants to search around, there are plenty of websites describing his life and works more in depth. However, I’m going to primary link to a few of his short stories. They’re indeed very short, not necessarily his most known ones, yet they’re already a good way to familiarize oneself with what is to be expected from his other works.authors, books, stories, science-fiction

Yzabel / August 23, 2005

WordPress.com

It was almost a given that I’d write about this soon, given how much I like using WordPress and am convinced that it’s really one of the best free blogging platforms available out there at the moment. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to test it myself as of yet (it’s not live yet, and on invite only at the moment). Not a problem, though, I already know enough to realize that whether I can test it or not, it’s going to be great.So what’s the fuss about WordPress.com? All that simply, it’s a system very similar to TypePad, in that it will host a blog for you in exchange for a payment (how much will this be, I don’t know yet; Typepad is 4.95$/month for the basic membership, if this can be a tool for comparison). The difference, evidently, is that said blog will be powered by WordPress and not Movable Type. The user doesn’t have to worry about renting webspace, tinkering with databases, going through the whole installation, and the likes. Sign up, create a blog, pick a theme, start blogging: that’s all there is to it. It’s not really a complicated process, is it?For more information, you can head at Lorelle’s blog at WordPress.com, where she posts about what you can and can’t do with this “new” installation. Sure, it won’t be free like, say, Blog*Spot. However, it’s also way better, and depending on the pricing and what one’s ready to invest, it can be a very valuable choice. Time will tell (soon, I hope) how this venture is going to turn out.Y Tags: wordpress

Yzabel / August 22, 2005

New Theme

As you, faithful readers, can tell from the new layout here, I didn’t have too much time today to peruse more in depth the woes of the writer or the Secret Art of Blogging. My apologies for this. It’s past 10 pm, and I very much doubt that I’ll still have the energy to write a long, meaningful post before bedtime.With this said… Did I grow tired already of my former layout? Not exactly. I simply had this urge to tinker more deeply with a completely different kind of theme, this time in three columns (and not purple!), as it had been a while I was considering one. I did test it on a… test blog, yes, and with three browsers (namely FireFox 1.06, IE 6 and Netscape 7.0). However, if you were to notice any problems with it, please let me know. I’ll feel obliged to learn more by breaking the theme into pieces again and trying to fix the problem.Y Tags: theme | wordpress

Yzabel / August 21, 2005

Et In Arcadia Nos – Part 3

[Part 3 out of 4. Read Part 1 and Part 2.]“Welcome to your new quarters, Lieutenant Vell’An. You and your men are now consigned here.”The sliding transparent door slammed shut between the two Rims, locking itself in the same split second. The tall officier turned in a quick movement, for Vall’Eran to meet him with a confident smile.”What the…” said Vell’An in a cold voice. “Open the door. This is an order!— Sorry, Lieutenant. Before you ask, if you decide to attempt anything, I’ll have to release this. You know, of course, that your bodies aren’t protected with nano-bots.”He flashed the small sealed vial marked with the red etiquette, in a move that he hoped looked threatening enough, and saw the surprise and anger in the officer’s grey eyes. Of course, the man had seen the laboratories, as well as the carefully aligned and shielded containers for the virus he was supposed to bring back to Ewell, once its development would be finished.”This is an act of treason. The Ministry will be informed!— We should reach Shigari Archipelago in about six hours”, Vall’Eran said. A certain feeling of satisfaction rose in him upon seeing the surprise on the Lieutenant’s face. “If I were you, I’d make sure to take a seat. It’s the first time we’re moving this flyland. There could be… accidents.— You’re completely mad! It’s not meant to—— Nano-tech can be put to many uses, you know. Not only to harm and destroy.”Read More

Yzabel / August 20, 2005

Orion’s Arm: A Science-Fiction World in the Making

Sisyphean posted an annoucement about this at Writers Blog Alliance, and after taking a peek at the webpage, I thought it’s a pretty interesting project, worth being advertised a little more.

Without further ado, let me thus introduce you to Orion’s Arm, a collaborative project aiming at creating a science-fiction universe, complete from breeds to timeline, while following currently accepted science matters.

Our goal is to create a dramatic far-future universe that is internally consistent and abides as much as possible with the accepted facts and theories in the physical, biological, and social sciences. Thus matter cannot travel faster than light, matter and energy are conserved, no evolved humanoid aliens have been discovered, future ultratech social issues are likely to be very different to those of today, and so on. We embrace speculative ideas like drexlerian assemblers, mind uploads, posthuman intelligences, femtotech, magnetic monopoles, wormholes, as it is proposed that future sciences, technologies, and developments will make these possible. And we attempt a logical explanation for even the most fantastic-seeming elements in OA. We aim to paint a future that is plausible at every level, from the scientific to the social to the psychological.

While this may seem too scientific to one’s liking, for an author who’d like to write science-fiction, this approach can turn to be a very valuable one. Indeed, science-fiction is not just “something easy to write: you can invent anything”. Let’s not forget the word science in it, and that when creating our own little pocket universes, basing them off real scientific theories is a necessity, in order to make them more believable to our readers. I’m really not a scientific type, but grabbing a magazine here and there has taught me a few invaluable things to add in my stories.

It’s all about credibility—and seeing such a world being created is anyway a fascinating enough process in itself to at least take a few minutes and have a look at it.

Yzabel / August 20, 2005

Radio Blog: New Playlist

This one’s been up for more than one month. Time to change the playlist again.I’m in a bit of a nostalgic mood these days, as some of the songs may betray it.Read More