So that's where I've been going wrong all these years
This morning, when I sat myself down at my desk and turned on the computer, I made sure that my wireless broadband modem was switched off at the wall. It doesn't have its own on/off switch, so the only way to stop it working is to unplug it.
My computer moaned that it couldn't connect to the wireless network in that annoying way that Windows does - popping up a stupid little balloon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen saying 'wireless network is not connected', instead of 'wireless network is now connected.' I reckon some microserf is probably very proud of the economy of his code there, changing only one letter to completely alter the meaning of the message. That and the way the desktop fades from colour to black and white when you click the 'turn off computer' button are two of my biggest irritations with Mr Gates' latest beast. What is the point of it? How much computing power is unnecessarily wasted in fading out those colours?
But that's not the point I'm trying to make. Generally speaking, Windows XP does its job, and it came free with the computer, so I can't complain. Don't distract me.
I switched off the internet this morning, and didn't turn it back on again until after lunch. In the intervening hours I managed to hammer out the remaining plots for Benfro books three and four (well, almost all of book four, there's still the problem of introducing the hippo), and then, as an intellectual exercise, I wrote the opening scene for book three.
This is possibly a mistake. Tomorrow will tell whether I have embarked on 'the writing of the book,' which I wasn't going to do until someone started to show interest in the first two, or if I'm merely playing around. Still, it was a refreshing change and a chance to get myself back into character. I'm quite pleased with the result, even if it is a little shy of 1500 words. I probably typed another 3500 in plot notes and random thoughts, so all in all it was a pretty productive day.
Oh, and I wrote a six hundred word article for the Alfa Romeo Owner's Club magazine too. What a busy little bee I've been.
I think tomorrow I'll keep the internet switched off until the evening.
My computer moaned that it couldn't connect to the wireless network in that annoying way that Windows does - popping up a stupid little balloon in the bottom right hand corner of the screen saying 'wireless network is not connected', instead of 'wireless network is now connected.' I reckon some microserf is probably very proud of the economy of his code there, changing only one letter to completely alter the meaning of the message. That and the way the desktop fades from colour to black and white when you click the 'turn off computer' button are two of my biggest irritations with Mr Gates' latest beast. What is the point of it? How much computing power is unnecessarily wasted in fading out those colours?
But that's not the point I'm trying to make. Generally speaking, Windows XP does its job, and it came free with the computer, so I can't complain. Don't distract me.
I switched off the internet this morning, and didn't turn it back on again until after lunch. In the intervening hours I managed to hammer out the remaining plots for Benfro books three and four (well, almost all of book four, there's still the problem of introducing the hippo), and then, as an intellectual exercise, I wrote the opening scene for book three.
This is possibly a mistake. Tomorrow will tell whether I have embarked on 'the writing of the book,' which I wasn't going to do until someone started to show interest in the first two, or if I'm merely playing around. Still, it was a refreshing change and a chance to get myself back into character. I'm quite pleased with the result, even if it is a little shy of 1500 words. I probably typed another 3500 in plot notes and random thoughts, so all in all it was a pretty productive day.
Oh, and I wrote a six hundred word article for the Alfa Romeo Owner's Club magazine too. What a busy little bee I've been.
I think tomorrow I'll keep the internet switched off until the evening.
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