'Sup? Peeps, why you gotta be like that?
Music: When We Stand Together by Nickelback
Hey, what's up? Not much here. Writing-wise, I mean.
It's been a slow start to the year, after the extra week of vacation for the little one, I got into a bit of writing, finishing off a chapter of revision and starting on the next 3, which are effectively a block. But then the medical and snow days, and looming tax deadline, have sidelined me again.
Yep, I'm back to physio, one last attempt to fix up my foot. The strat seems to be toning the legs to improve fine control, with the hope that that takes force off the ball foot. Well, we'll see if it works. We also had an impromptu and unnecessary snow day. It was made more frustrating by the fact that the schools didn't close when we had sheet ice covering the ground everywhere--I mean, to the point where you'd slide off the sidewalk if it tilted into the street a little--but a bit of snow and they close. Anyway, they were wise enough to only close for one day.
And then there's taxes. Made worse, of course, because of my procrastination. Each year I wonder why I don't do my taxes in May. Or October. But no, I wait until the last week of January every year. So atm, my taxes are still unfinished and I've got five days left.
But that's not enough, not for the first month of the new year.
So today, we had a couple knock on our door complaining that our back fence--that we had problems installing last summer after a complaint by a different neighbour--was encroaching on their property, that was their parents and they want to prep for sale. Essentially, the woman was insisting that our fence was 3 feet too far into their property, despite the fact that our new fence is inside the boundaries of where the old fence was. And, of course, despite the fact that there is no way you can be that precise with a 1:1250 scale map that wasn't even made from an actual survey. Note that with a 1:1250, a millimeter error on drawing or measuring from the map, translates into a 1.25 meter error on the ground. That's almost 4 feet! And this lady was arguing with us over the space of less than 3 feet! Yet she is the second person, including the first neighbour, the somehow fails to understand this simply concept.
You see, our property was developed in 1932, before the UK gov started doing any kind of official property surveys. So the 'land deeds' are not actually land deeds, they're simply crude maps drawn up by the original developer. I know this because I've check with a surveyor, and I've check on www.landregistry.gov.uk. No land claim has been filed, meaning there is no official survey, and no official agreement, past or present, between neighbours regarding the boundaries. That means that the current structures define the property as legally as any survey. And when we moved in, the most obvious boundary-defining structure was a wire mesh fence surrounding the property.
The fence, however, was in such disrepair on the back corner that our daughter and her friends could sneak through into the neighbours yard. So we decided, finally, to repair it last summer. It seems that a wiremesh fence is not a problem, but everyone suddenly freaks when that turns into a wooden fence. Even if they're getting more land than they originally had.
I guess everyone has a bad neighbour, and perhaps we were lucky meeting two good neighbours to either side. Perhaps it's just karma that we've gotten two bad, paranoid, and imo not too bright, neighbours in the back. Even more so because both brought up lawyers almost immediately in the discussion. The first guy we argued with for 2 weeks and eventually gave in simply to get the fence built, as the builders were waiting. Now that the fence is up though, we'll be calling the second neighbour's bluff before we take the fence down. In fact, I understand from the surveyor we talked to, that such legal proceedings can cost upward of £10,000, so we offered to move the fence to where they want it, if they give us £5000.
Today ended with us showing them the property, explaining the situation that happened with the other neighbour and how our new fence related to the position of the old, even showing them, as remnants of the old fence are still there, and suggesting that, if they don't believe us, they should contact their own surveyor and check the land registry site. It was clear that the man believed us that we had intended no funny business and have acted legally and morally. The woman, who's parents lived their until recently, seemed particularly stubborn and didn't appear interested in listening to reason. Still, I'd be surprised if anything legal comes of this. It's just annoying.
PROs: As a writer, there are always pros to this kind of thing. The pro here is the ability to witness different people functioning in a fairly standard confrontational environment, to witness the full possibilities of emotions and then to be able to apply these to my characters for greater verisimilitude. Life experiences may not always be enjoyable, but they are always learning opportunities.
Insight and longevity.
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Welcome to the New Year
'Sup? It's a new year, brah!
Music: Ghost of Navigators by Iron Maiden
Once more around the sun my friends. So much has changed in our last lap, yet so much remains the same and it's up to us to decide which we accept and which we choose to change.
As always, I have many ideas, but one thing that we all hopefully gain with age is better self-awareness.
Some lucky souls seem born with such knowledge and their character has a singularity of focus and action the allows them to accomplish great things. Others, like myself, find we are constant conflicted. Sometimes this is between action and thought, sometimes between intent and consequence, and sometimes it's between desire and duty.
My conflict has almost always fallen in the last category. I even wrote a very brief poem regarding this while studying for my doctorate. Since you asked so nicely, sure I'll share it with you. Originally, it was called Tightrope but I decided to change the title to duhka, a sanskrit word for a Budhist concept of internal conflict. Anyway, here's the poem:
High on a tight-rope.
How did I get here?
Continuously balancing,
desires on one hand,
expectation on the other.
When I fall to the abyss below,
tripped by insecurity,
is there a net?
Well, I've never claimed to be a poet.
So, what does this have to do with anything? Well, I suffer from that condition of too many ideas and not enough energy. Every year my internal analysis brings me closer to understanding how I might manage this with the limited resources and network that I have.
For example, recently, I've altered my work schedule so that I write at the library instead of at home. This gives me shorter, but more focussed time writing. The result is that I can give myself permission to work on other things with the rest of my time, whereas previously I might have attempted to write at home and then got lost surfing the web or cleaning the house, not writing anything until 5:00 then feel bad and try some more to write while accomplishing nothing on any front.
Furthermore, last year I attempted to set up two projects per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Usually writing in the morning, and something else, differing each day, later. You can guess how successful that was. So now I'm being more modest. I have my morning writing in the library and one project per week that I work on in the afternoons. This could be a website, researching the next story, or another of my copious projects. I have a feeling this will work much better.
Incidentally, while I'm not going to go into all my other projects here, I will say that, in some way, they will all come together in my novels. That's it. That's your only teaser.
Well, this is a bit of a heavy post for the first one of the year, so let's lighten things up a little.
One of my other goals this year is to increase my online network--followers, audience, readers, etc. One way will be to update and reorganize my websites somewhat *watch for some new shops and products! as well as the new version of Stellar Garden*, but that alone won't do anything. "Build it and they will come" simply doesn't work for the web. I mean, searching the net is like visiting a city that has one block with billions of houses all on top of each other. I also tried crowd-funding, but that suffers from the same problem as a blog. If no one knows you're there, they can't fund you. So, what to do?
Contests!
Music: Ghost of Navigators by Iron Maiden
Once more around the sun my friends. So much has changed in our last lap, yet so much remains the same and it's up to us to decide which we accept and which we choose to change.
As always, I have many ideas, but one thing that we all hopefully gain with age is better self-awareness.
Some lucky souls seem born with such knowledge and their character has a singularity of focus and action the allows them to accomplish great things. Others, like myself, find we are constant conflicted. Sometimes this is between action and thought, sometimes between intent and consequence, and sometimes it's between desire and duty.
My conflict has almost always fallen in the last category. I even wrote a very brief poem regarding this while studying for my doctorate. Since you asked so nicely, sure I'll share it with you. Originally, it was called Tightrope but I decided to change the title to duhka, a sanskrit word for a Budhist concept of internal conflict. Anyway, here's the poem:
High on a tight-rope.
How did I get here?
Continuously balancing,
desires on one hand,
expectation on the other.
When I fall to the abyss below,
tripped by insecurity,
is there a net?
Well, I've never claimed to be a poet.
So, what does this have to do with anything? Well, I suffer from that condition of too many ideas and not enough energy. Every year my internal analysis brings me closer to understanding how I might manage this with the limited resources and network that I have.
For example, recently, I've altered my work schedule so that I write at the library instead of at home. This gives me shorter, but more focussed time writing. The result is that I can give myself permission to work on other things with the rest of my time, whereas previously I might have attempted to write at home and then got lost surfing the web or cleaning the house, not writing anything until 5:00 then feel bad and try some more to write while accomplishing nothing on any front.
Furthermore, last year I attempted to set up two projects per day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Usually writing in the morning, and something else, differing each day, later. You can guess how successful that was. So now I'm being more modest. I have my morning writing in the library and one project per week that I work on in the afternoons. This could be a website, researching the next story, or another of my copious projects. I have a feeling this will work much better.
Incidentally, while I'm not going to go into all my other projects here, I will say that, in some way, they will all come together in my novels. That's it. That's your only teaser.
Well, this is a bit of a heavy post for the first one of the year, so let's lighten things up a little.
One of my other goals this year is to increase my online network--followers, audience, readers, etc. One way will be to update and reorganize my websites somewhat *watch for some new shops and products! as well as the new version of Stellar Garden*, but that alone won't do anything. "Build it and they will come" simply doesn't work for the web. I mean, searching the net is like visiting a city that has one block with billions of houses all on top of each other. I also tried crowd-funding, but that suffers from the same problem as a blog. If no one knows you're there, they can't fund you. So, what to do?
Contests!
Yes, dear friends, contests. "Bribe them and they will come" tends to work better. I will use facebook and twitter to advertise one contest per month--a give-way open to everyone who follows this blog. The prizes will include such wonders as 1-3 Utility Fog Press books, mugs, laptop skins, pictures, T-shirts, all of my own creation. Well, except the other stories in the anthologies, of course. I will be officially announcing the contest details at the end of the month on my twitter feed and on facebook. And I look forward to seein' yo' faces here (thanks Phil!)
Insight and longevity!
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