Topic: Posts

… the fact that I spent most of yesterday doing something I had already done, only in a more complex/assbackwards way, or….

… the fact that it took me four hours and a good nights sleep to figure this out …

Ok, it’s clear to everyone, I’m sure that I’m a huge text geek, but also being a social scientist, I suppose I have to ask a question…

Now I’m not perfectly up on the “vi vs. emacs” history, but…

in the “bbedit vs. text-mate” debate, am I correct in assuming that bbedit is emacs and text-mate is vi?

I mean I know that TextMate (mac programs in general) more or less uses emacs key bindings, and there’s nothing mode-wise that’s quite like vi(m), but despite that….

anyone want to fight me on this ;)

…and then tycho fell of the face of the earth.

Well not really, but you’d think it.

There isn’t going to be a tealart piece this friday. These things happen. Free time has gone to knitting (I’m now on the “interminable neck hem” phase of the sweater), sleep (glorious sleep), and writing other things.

I’m not foreclosing the possibility of weekend updates though.

Have a good friday.

Welcome to part two of our Station Keeping _installment “Walking Away.” You can read part one here, and be sure to check out the rest of the series. We will return next week for our special “week long” finale starting Monday afternoon. We’re already getting started on our second series so if you want to participate now is the time. As always we welcome and encourage your feedback in the comments section or to tycho@tealart.com. Cheers, tycho

INT. ANOTHER ROUND, a booth in the far corner.

They both sip from their drinks leisurely. DAVID reclines and keeps a gentle hand on his bottle at all times, ELI sits up straight and only picks up his bottle occasionally.

ELI BANNER

So, have you heard anything?

DAVID CONRAD

Um? Anything? I'm not in your intelligence department, I am actually retired. I think I've done my bit--

ELI BANNER

People like you don't retire, the Navy wouldn't allow it. You have the only real social space on the station, you have to hear things.

DAVID CONRAD

We only don't retire when you don't want us to. From what I've seen you have a great staff, and that Sian is a great officer.

ELI BANNER

He is, you're right, but don't distract me. You should have my job now, and we both know it.

DAVID CONRAD

Weren't we decided that this is a shit assignment for you. You'd have been an admiral otherwise. Didn't Admiral Roth apologize for sending you out here.

ELI BANNER

You're here, how bad can it be? And besi--

DAVID CONRAD

Irrelevant argument. I'm not an officer any more, and it's an interesting place for Marc to practice, and for me to be retired.

ELI BANNER

--besides, this is the most high-profile post in the entire League. I'm surprised Roth didn't take it for himself.

DAVID CONRAD

He probably wanted to, but one of his cronies probably convinced him that it was better to wait out another thousand years in interstellar-transit. He probably thinks that that'll give him a better chance at the top...

ELI BANNER

He's been around that long? No wonder.

DAVID CONRAD

Really, I know.

DAVID takes a drink.

ELI BANNER

He'd be a fool not to realize that that's a bad move. By that time, he'll be a relic--

DAVID CONRAD

Already is. But at least someone who has his ear has our best interests at heart.

DAVID chuckles.

ELI BANNER

You? You did it?

DAVID CONRAD

I'd rather you have a chance at the top than Roth.

ELI BANNER

Bastard.

DAVID CONRAD

You're welcome. If you ever want to be an Admiral, though...

ELI BANNER

I hate you. For this, you better start working for me.

DAVID CONRAD

Not on your life. You really are the best person for this job. Better than I would be.

ELI BANNER

Wait, if you're still in, why not just do the job yourself. You could.

ELI finishes his drink.

DAVID CONRAD

Because it's yours, I've had my fun being in charge and... out front. I'm done with that. I promise you. You're right, the Navy won't really let me go completely, but if they listen to me when I talk, I'll take it. Out here, I'm in no danger of being called to lecture and teach constantly,

ELI BANNER

So I guess that leaves me--

DAVID CONRAD

--with a good bar and very capable backup. Speaking of the bar...

DAVID finishes the rest of his drink.

ELI BANNER

Leave you alone?

DAVID CONRAD

--don't try and conscript me. Again.

ELI BANNER

Ok... I guess.

(sly smile)

I'll keep you in the loop.

DAVID and ELI stand up.

DAVID CONRAD

Please don't.

ELI BANNER

I have to.

DAVID CONRAD

I won't read it.

ELI BANNER

Whatever, you will read it.

DAVID laughs knowing that ELI is probably right about this point. DAVID pulls ELI into a quick friendly hug.

DAVID CONRAD

I think you should get out now and get some sleep for your next shift--when ever you decide that is--or it'll be my turn to hate you.

ELI turns and leaves. DAVID watches and we

FADE OUT.

“Walking Away, Part 1” was written by `tycho garren <http://tychoish.com/tycho>`_ the creator of `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and `Station Keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_. He is a student and knitter by day and a science fiction writer by night, you can read his work elsewhere on `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and at `~/tychoish <http://tychoish.com>`_.

I have to admit that despite my previous blatherings about my text-file system, I--for the most part--have given up keeping track of my todo list in text files, or as blog posts on the other blog. My down-falling, was, I think, that I tried to organize what I was working on too much, rather than just let things flow, and ultimately tried to over-organize the lists, or the process, to the point that maintaining the list became too much of a chore in its own right. So I ditched it and went back to the paper notebook, and in an odd way, let my project planning guide my lists, in a frightfully disorganized, but ultimately useful mode.

Then I read a post on 43Folders, and remember something about file organization that the obsessive compulsive in me forgets: if you have good search tools, and you’re at least vaguely consistent, you can be as disorganized as you want, because you’ll still be able to find everything. Often faster if it’s all in one file.

This is opposed to the other school of thought on text file organization, which is, make lots of little text files and put each project/object/etc in it’s own file. The problem with this, from where I’m standing is that with every object/chunk that you add to the system, you have to decide weather or not the chunk “counts” as something desecrate or not.

So I’ve tenuously started a text file. I’m calling it, codex.txt. and I’m just adding to it as I need to take notes, and add items. URLs of things that I need to do, the beginnings of emails, snippets of emails that seem important, and so forth. The only tricks" I’m using are, line folding so that I can hide parts I’m not working on when I want to, as well as basic markdown formating so that I can produce html or PDF files should I need to.

The result? I like it. The lessons, in summary:

• Don’t over organize, it can get in your way.
• Work with your brain, not against it. Chances are, you’re pretty organized as it is, even if you don’t think you are. Don’t fight this, as it can make your life more difficult.
• Use good search tools to do your work for you. This includes spotlight in OS X (and similar technologies in other operating systems,) but mostly your text editors “find” or “search” options, as well as tools like grep, which should be available on all operating systems.

To be fair, it’s not this simple, because I’m not living in one, and only one text file, essays, stories, and other more isolated projects (like this article), get their own text file, and some larger projects, like Station Keeping, or my current fiction writing project, have a cluster of similarly named files. In GTD terms we’re talking about using a single big file for project planning, research, and collection, and then “working” in different files.

But that’s me.

I was completely and totally un-caffinated today. It was tragic, I’m sort of still a zombie.

I need to start looking for a new job, it also needs to be a little cooler outside, because it’s sort of depressing when going between the door and the car makes you a little heat sick. Current job leaves little emotional energy to get applications together…

My car is repaired. Apparently the positive battery connector was “bad,” which meant that I spent a day waiting for jump-starts when I wanted to go anywhere. Which sucked. New (to me) cars should work, damn it. Thank god it was so minor, but still.

My sweater (body) is done, and I have to say that I rather like the set in sleeve approach. I need to do it again, to cement it and what not, but I’m calling it a success. I have about half of the collar left to go, and then a collar hem, and then sleeves. But but my queue for sleeves is somewhat long so we’ll avoid talking about that overly much.

In writing related news, I wrote 73 words on the final remaining part of this season of station keeping, which given that this part is pretty short, is probably a good start. Also, I did some more pricing and math in my head with regards to the Editorial Project (I wanted to figure out a way to produce a semi-regular SF anthology using POD technology and what not, and it doesn’t look like is going to be viable in the way that I thought it would be; I’m still going to do it, but I’m going to do it differently.)

Anyway, I hope you’re well, and we’ll be in touch, I promise!

So I know there are LaTeX screenplay classes but I’d like to know if it would be possible to to take the output of scripts I write in TextMate with screenwriting bundle, and put them into LaTeX. Also, would it be possible, then, with the LaTeX to have continued and other niftiness that the “prince” implementation doesn’t have?

I think the answer to my question is “yes” but I need to find a way to script this properly, I think a number of properly placed RegExp find and replaces could do the trick, and I think one could make that work with a TextMate macro, and a couple of snippets… But ruby or perl would be more efficient, I think, unfortunately I"m inept.

Just a thought…

Cheers, tycho

Welcome to Station Keeeping, I have for you, a script I’m calling “Walking Away,” which I’m presenting in two parts, so come back on thursday for the conclusion of this installment. I’m excited to see what you think of this format, I quite enjoyed it, and I hope you do too. The finale will start monday afternoon. Stay tuned! Cheers, tycho

“Walking Away, Part 1” was written by, `tycho <http://tychoish.com/tycho>`_, the creator of `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and `Station Keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_. He is a student and knitter by day and a science fiction writer by night, you can read his work elsewhere on `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and at `~/tychoish <http://tychoish.com>`_.

(that’s of course the voice over from Joss Whedon’s production company.)

I guess I don’t have a great deal of news to report, but I feel like I need to get a blog entry out, so here I am. I finished the body of the sweater today (save the neck) that I’ve been working on for weeks and weeks. I’m used a new shoulder shaping method, and I think that it is on the whole a success, although I think there are a number of very finer points in this sweater that didn’t work out perfectly. This isn’t a bad thing, and there’s a reason that I don’t sell my finished products. I am of course too lazy to go back and fix it, and since its shetland yarn, I’m not sure that that would be a great idea. I will try and get pictures of it up at some point, I might wait until there is a neck/collar.

In other news, I had what is in retrospect a fairly surreal day, and I have better hopes that tomorrow won’t be so frickin weird. I did get some good things done. Like I wrote some emails that had been nagging at me, and I made a phone call that has been on my list(s) for far too long, and I changed the font on TealArt, and fixed some of the errors in the way the site renders (and I’m much more pleased with the way the site looks as a result). I was also able to pull together a post for TealArt this morning which is a good thing indeed.

One of the things I’m avoiding by writing this, is getting the first part of the station keeping post that I have planned for tomorrow ready, but frankly I don’t trust myself.

Anyway, bed beckons, and I hope you’re well. I’ll be in touch.

Cheers, tycho

Hello friends!

I hope you had a good a productive weekend. This message will be brief (sorry!). As you can see, perhaps the biggest news for TealArt is the new design. The template is completely home grown, and I’m quite pleased with the result. I have to imagine that a good percentage of our readership is via RSS, so in a sense it doesn’t matter much, but I do think that the old design was, ahem difficult to read and squished. I hope this addresses that problem. One person pointed out that our look is very “web 1.0” and I think that’s completely true and I embrace that. We’re just a text based weblog and there’s not a lot between you and the text. As there should be.

My other concern, and Chris’ predictable comment, is that the font is atypical and hard to read. This monospaced font (“monaco,” or courier if you don’t have it). Is the font that I live in, and so maybe I’m used to it. In any case we’re talking about how to make it a little more livable for you all, and if you have any recommendations, I’m going to be making a few tweaks over the next week or so. On my list already is:

• A template for static pages (ie. our profiles, that our outside of the loop) like our profiles.
• Narrow the comment entry field so that it doesn’t spill over.
• Make an adjustment to the category pages so that they display a complete, rather than a partial list of entries in a given category.

Anything else to add to this list is of course welcome. And if you have an idea about how to use a cool font that isn’t Verdana, Times, or Georgia, I’d love to hear it.

In terms of TealArt content for the rest of the week:

There’s going to be another two-part Station Keeping story. This is the penultimate installment, and it’s a little bit different: it’s a script. I’ve always been intrigued by scripts and I quite like writing them, but I have until now, not had a very good way of getting a script into any sort of format, particularly one readable on a website. But there’s an amazing screen writing bundle for TextMate, which is the ideal writing environment for me at the moment. I had a great deal of fun with this installment, and I’ll talk a little bit more about it in the intro tomorrow, but I’d really like to know what you all think: I’m considering doing large portions (all) of Season 3 as a script, and would really like to know how it plays.

I also have an essay on writing and productivity for you on wednesday, and there’ll be something fun on Friday.

In terms of me, I’m adjusting to life back here. Classes start next week, and while it’s good to have classes to go to, they weren’t the classes that I had hoped for, and at least some part of me is saying “but I just graduated!” All of these things are true, but these classes are pretty exciting, and on the whole I think a good thing. I have scores of things to do between now and then, but I’m pretty excited about a lot of the stuff that I’ve been up to.

One of those things (and I promise that this is the last thing), is this new novella that I’m working on. Being more of a longer-form guy, I haven’t really had a chance to spend a lot of time with a fiction project in years (save station keeping, and the project from whence it grew), and it’s great to be working on something. I’d probably be pretty pleased no matter how it was turning out, fiction writing is one of those things that I just need to do, but having said that, it’s turning out really well. I feel pretty good about my process and the product. I’m done with the first chapter, for now, and I’m starting to mull over the second chapter which I hope to have a serious dent in by this time next week. It’s not TealArt, per se, but its exciting, so that’s good enough for me.

Anyway, I’ve rambled for long enough, I think it’s time to get ready for the day in earnest. Have a good week, and I’ll see you tomorrow for a new Station Keeping.

Cheers, tycho