Things may be a little quiet around here over the next couple of weeks as I need to put in a pile of hours on paid work now because I’ll be on the road from the 22nd onwards.
Personal
Pride Photos
My Pride photos (including a couple from the “let’s dress up Cheryl” session on Friday night) are now online.
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Fashion Memage
Most memes I can resist, but one about clothes? Yep, I’m a sucker. And look what it came up with:
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Visitors
Things will be a little quiet for a couple of days. Normal service should be restored on Monday.
Not Under Water
Just in case anyone has been following the UK news, my particular corner of Darkest Somerset has not been flooded out. I’ve not seen anything in Liz Williams’ LJ yet, and she is in a much more low-lying area, but the worst of the flooding seems to have been south of her so I’m hoping she’s OK.
Update: Liz has checked in and is OK. She’s wisely fleeing the country for a week. Wish I could.
That Work Thing
I doubt that many of you will be interested in this, but I’ve just launched a major re-vamp of my energy economics business web site. It was, I’ll admit, entirely fortuitous that the re-launch happened on the same day that the UK had a major power outage, but sometimes luck is on your side.
I Iz Author
Although I’m not writing reviews these days, I still take a professional interest in the blurbs that publishers put in books. One thing they often do is run a bunch of quotes from reviewers on the first few pages so that anyone opening the book in a store can get an eyeful of just how well loved the author is. There’s a page like that at the front of the Seam Williams book, Saturn Returns, that I have just started reading. Some of the quotes just have a byline of a newspaper, as the publishers assume that no one will know the names of newspaper staff reviewers. But others are from fellow fiction writers and are of the form “X author of Y”. I was much amused, therefore, to see at the top of the page, “Cheryl Morgan, author of Emerald City.” So, I iz author, as a LOLcat might say. Must put that on my resume.
Status Report
Wow. For the first time since I got back to the UK I have woken up feeling moderately rested. So far today, no headache and no dizzy spells. If this continues I might actually be able to write.
Talking of which, profuse apologies to David Moles and Larry, both of whom I have made promises to about writing stuff. I haven’t forgotten, honest.
LinkedIn Craziness
If ever there was proof that LinkedIn is really a social networking system for people in full time jobs, this is it. I added a job of “freelance journalist” to my profile. I also noted that I was self-employed. LinkedIn then came back and told me that there were 12 other people who worked for that company on their system that I might like to connect with. (And interestingly one of them was David Levine.)
LinkedIn has managed to put me back in touch with various people that I’ve lost touch with from previous phases of my life, so it does have its uses. However, I think I’m going to take a look at Biznik. From what they say, they seem rather more in tune with the modern world.
Happy Dance
Got some really good news about one of my friends just now. I can’t share it because it was on an F-locked LJ post, but I did want to enthuse about it to the world.
Status Report
Well, the good news is that as of this end of this week I think the nightmare project will be at an end. The bad news is that after that I am going to be very short of paying work. (Nor do I expect to get paid for this job, but that’s the way life goes.) So if anyone happens to know of any writing gigs, or web site gigs, that might need help, I would be very grateful to hear from you.
As to future plans, I’m still intending to go to Finncon and Worldcon because I have paid for the travel and I can put aside money now for the hotels. All other convention attendance (and indeed anything else that costs money) is now canceled for the foreseeable future.
Getting Linked
Having got a day’s respite from the crazy project, I have spent a few hours playing with LinkedIn. I must say I’m not impressed. The interface is really clunky, and for something that purports to help people find clients it is oddly geared towards people in full-time employment. It seems far more like Facebook for people at work (i.e. keep up with old work colleagues as opposed to old college mates) rather than an actual business networking tool.
Anyway, I have made a start. I doubt that I’ll actually get any energy economics work with all that science fiction stuff in my profile, but I suspect that writing and web work is much more likely to come my way anyway. If you happen to be on LinkedIn, please feel free to add me to your network.
More Work Craziness
Back on crazy schedules here again. My guess is that I’m going to be urgently looking for paid work very soon, because this sort of thing just isn’t sustainable. If anyone knows of anyone who might need my services, please let me know.
Update: I will now not be going to the Bristol Comics Expo. I’m going to Finncon and Worldcon only because I have bought the plane tickets. All others conventions are now on hold.
To Life!
A little late due to my usual crazy schedule, L’Chaim. This one is especially for F, who – Goddess be praised – is OK now, and V, who I very much hope will be OK soon. Not to mention Terry, of course.
This is an 8:pm where ever you are event, so Americas (North and South) you still have time to fill your glasses.
Dodged a Bullet
I’ve just been trying to book my flight to Finncon. The SAS web site came back with a message saying that the card purchase had not been approved. So I called Amex. That would be $280 for a plane ticket? Yep. And what about the other charge for $28,000 to the same company?
I’ve canceled both charges and will try again when I get to the UK. Thank goodness for Amex. This is why I use them.
(Gosh – Zemanta just came up with e photo of Joe Haldeman from last year’s FinnCon.)
Packing
OK, some semblance of progress sent off to client, now I need to start packing. Chaos continues. I have this awful feeling that I’m going to end up forgetting something important.
All Very Quiet
Kevin has gone off to CostumeCon. I am stuck at home with a huge pile of work to do. This is not a good weekend.
Fly-By Posting
Still frantically busy here, though I do get some time off tomorrow as I have to go into San Francisco for a meeting. That’s 2 hours on BART in which I get to relax. Blogging will continue to be sporadic.
I do, however, have one important thing to say: GO SHARKS!!!
Quiet for a while
I’ve had a large project come in at work that has to be done before I head off to the UK next Monday. Consequently I won’t be at CostumeCon and blogging both here and at SFAW will be very light for a while.
Still Woozy
I spent much of yesterday asleep, for which many thanks to Kevin for doing all the driving while I snoozed. Today’s better, but my brain is clearly not working at full speed. Also I had a bunch of SFAW stuff come in that needed dealing with. Consequently I’m rather behind on what I had planned to do here. Your patience is appreciated.
Still, the good news is that my shopping mojo appears to still be in good working order: fabulous new jacket, reduced from $129 to $39. Sometimes I’m just good.