CityLibrariesLearning RSS

The CityLibrariesLearning RSS activity is up, providing a bit of information about RSS and encouraging us to choose a reader and subscribe to a few feeds.

To the extent that I use RSS at home, I use an excellent Firefox add-on called NewsFox. Doing without at work felt like a bit of a hardship. Still, I elected to use My Yahoo! as my reader, to subscribe to the feeds of some of the blogs from our Learning 2.0 program.

The first thing that leapt out was that none of the blogs seemed to have RSS links or buttons anywhere on them (again, I'm used to Firefox displaying available RSS automatically in the URL bar). It took a disgracefully long time for me to realize that adding /feed/ to the blog's URL made it into that blog's feed URL. Then I thought I'd better take a moment to add a link to my own blog to spare other's the suffering (not that the audience is there, but, you know, that's not the point).

(Fellow confused Learning 2.0 people, can find help at Neal's Analog is Here blog.)

Still, minor frustrations aside, I did enjoy the exposure to other RSS readers, and I probably will keep using My Yahoo! for work-related feeds just for its convenience. The hard part is trying not to feel old simply because I still kind of prefer Usenet (a kind of social network popular during the Bronze Age)...

Rejection

One of my short stories was just rejected (specifically, the first submission of the first story I wrote after deciding to get my writing back on track).

Not the depressing experience it could have been. This rejection was in response to a rewrite request, and it was extremely kind and constructive, so a "good" rejection. Given that this was the first of my new attempts, I find the result heartening. Not as heartening as a sale, of course, but still not remotely soul-destroying.

Despite having a bit of a time shortage at the moment, I know I need to get more out there -- so I'll naturally send this one on to someone else as soon as possible, and get some new things out there as well. The goal becomes having enough out at one time that individual rejections don't... matter as much.

Head Slap

I did forget to spend some time doing a Web 2.0 related post for my library's Learning 2.0 program (though truthfully I don't think I'd have gotten to it anyway). But I've decided to abate my onus by mentioning a couple of almost relevant comments on LibSusan's Blog, one of them a typo-ridden double-posting for extra added idiocy.

Leisure

I decided to make this weekend all about leisure. Frankly, I needed the break. While I did (and do) have a very long list of things I ought to be doing, I have just spent two days twiddling my mental thumbs in whatever way delighted me. Reading (Something Fishy, The Lies of Locke Lamora, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Writing For Young Adults, and the terrifying introductory chapters of Italian Verbs For Dummies), a little writing in a carefree, non-achieving kind of way, a bit of old-fashioned idle net-surfing.

Non-productive in the most extreme way, if you don't count the it's-never-wasted aspect of reading. But I do feel better for it. (I'll pay next week, but that's future-me's problem.

And yes, this is a non-post, a bit of froth, a place holder. It's just been that kind of weekend...

Reading

I’ve just finished reading Something Fishy by P.G. Wodehouse. Not his full genius, but still funnier than most everything else. A Wodehouseian couple tangle romantically, unaware that they are participants in a decades-old tontine that will deliver $1000,000 to the last in their circle to get married… but even sillier than that makes it sound.

Next on the reading list… Nothing Serious by P.G. Wodehouse.

Yes, I’m a Wodehouse fan. Everyman’s Library has been releasing nice collector’s hardcovers of Wodehouse’s entire output, a couple each month, for years, and I own the lot. But I ration reading them to forestall the day when I run out of them.

Starting Afresh

Well, I've had a bit of a play with this blog, and I find I like it well enough that I'll keep it and slowly knock it into shape.

More than that, I'm going to collide a couple of different interests here that I'd previously kept separate.

First and foremost it's going to be a writing blog. I write when I can, fantasy or science fiction depending on my mood, short stories for the most part. I've had a few things published in the Australian science fiction magazine Aurealis and the Doctor Who anthology Short Trips: Transmissions.

For a long time there I just let my writing drift, not doing much about it, but recently, inexplicably seemed to find my second (or third, possibly fourth) wind. How that progresses I'll record here.

Now, I'm also a member of staff at a public library, working towards my library diploma, and currently participating in a Learning 2.0 program run by that library. The program aims to bring staff up to speed on Web 2.0 tools. There are activities to perform, little bits of fun playing around with the technologies, and part of that is keeping a related blog. I'll be doing that here as well.

Thirdly, it'll just be a plain old blog, with odd bits of ranting and reviewing and, who knows, photographs of pets.

First Post

This is only an introductory post to provide me with an anchor for testing and formatting so, just for now, look away...