Cory Doctorow: Proud to be a Blockhead

Under the above title was going to be a link to Doctorow’s post of that name, but I don’t think so. Not yet. The link I pasted turned into a wall of text, virtually unreadable. So, again, this post will be the ‘About Blogging’ … how often already this year have I tagged a post that way?

Because what happens usually when I click on a Share Button, the title of the article/post to be shared and its URL are copied and saved on a virtual clipboard. Then, when I click and copy on a place in my post of my choosing ... usually after I’ve introduced the article/post as I intended to do here … the article/post will paste into the position directly under the title and shove the intro to the bottom, or into a never-never land where it can never again be found. (Yes, that is a hint to myself to save a draft though I’m not sure if that’ll work.)

I can but give it all another go.

Lol, this is a straight-out quote that reverberates in my head … from one of my own fictions, and when I say or think those words, I always feel like I’m hovering over Tardi Mack (trucker and surfer starring in Mongrel [published] and Meld [still being edited]) saying it while he is giving x y or z problem another go.

Intro

I’m proud to be a blockhead the same as Doctorow. Quoting from Doctorow’s article … “the most laughably false statement about writing ever uttered is Samuel Johnson’s notorious “No man but a blockhead ever wrote but for money”: … Yep. I’m definitely a blockhead.

There’s so much in this article that resonates with me, that I relate to, the whole article is rich with quotes about ‘making art’, creative endeavors of all kinds, how badly musicians are paid, and that by Spotify that people tell me I ought to be ashamed of not using them in preference to Apple Music, for example. All of them guilty of the same practices?

Why it’s important to read and read lots, how writing is a way of thinking, a way of working stuff out. While Doctorow is afraid his luck will run out in relation to his writing career, I’m often afraid that the internet will fall over and how easy that will be when it does, with all the links in the chain from me here typing this to you opening WordPress or your mail service, and reading. And there’s much more.

So I thought you might as well read the original … https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/21/blockheads-r-us/

Cat Diary 24

Guess what? I’ve lived here for four months and 25 days and I discovered this morning that the table on the balcony is quite an interesting place to be …

Quite a high place compared to where I usually sit and a good new angle to watch the passing parade of people down on the podium, going wherever they are going.

Foods that I like, so far …

Kibbles, kibbles, kibbles

Salmon in spring water

Salmon in olive oil, and sometimes smoked

Smoked salmon skin

Barbecued chicken, yum, bring it on

But I do not not not like smoked sardines, raw egg yolk, and I hate raw chicken.

Sachets of cat food are not my favourites either. And I will definitely turn my nose up at catnip flavoured treats.

Spoilt, the old woman calls me.

Cat Diary 23

Look at what the old woman has got into the house. I don’t like it. If I look away will it be gone?

No such luck, my magic isn’t powerful enough

She put it on my floor!

Is it alive?

It doesn’t smell alive!

Look at it looking at me! No, I don’t like it! I’m going to sit under the couch for a while perhaps it’ll get bored and be when I come out.

See? Ignoring it did the trick!

A Christmas Story

This largely cheerful story was a perfect beginning to my otherwise ‘ordinary’ day, had me sniffling with a sudden emotional release.

When I wake up thinking … “76!!! How did that happen?” is going to be one of those days when the mystery of that hits me at every turn and I wonder about weird things I do, see and hear.

Why … do I dream of a kid with a Christmas tree ornament head? Why … have I got trouble thinking up socially-necessary empty praises for half-done work?

Why? Why do manufacturers make gingerbread house kits with over half a page of ingredients, most of them numbered.

Share your hardest why’s in the comments …

Why, when I try to reblog that Christmassy story, do both Jetpack and Godzilla the browser throw me off with ‘this is how to do it’ and don’t even try something so easy as copy and paste.

Lol, love that sentence. 37 words!

https://writingfromtheheartwithbrian.com/2024/12/16/santa-makes-a-pit-stop/?jetpack_skip_subscription_popup

Worked that time I hope, enjoy!

Lodestar 64, Ahni & Kes

Here’s about half a chapter’s worth … Ahni’s and Kes’s ongoing journey, which I’m taking into a fog of indecision, it feels like. I’m forging into new territory and I have an inkling that I should’ve perhaps forwarded a few other characters onto the scene before further progress by these two.

This is one problem with publishing while writing. Times like these I wonder whether Charles Dickens ever ran into similar troubles. He also published serially, chapters in a monthly magazine.