Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Editing Smediting


My reader will be aware that, for quite some time now, I've been working on a novel, The Beatle Man. That self-same reader will also be aware that, despite being finished in first draft, there remains much to do. Therein lies the problem. The editing/revision process is, without doubt, a bit of a struggle. Somehow, when you are first committing the plot to the keyboard, you are almost propelled to the end, downhill, eager. Now, there may be some people who get to the bottom of the hill and discover all that they have written is a work of instant, perfect creation. Not I.
There are a number of things to correct and, from where I'm standing, they're all uphill.

There is little doubt that the photopgraphy thing appeals because of it immediacy. Click, good, keep. Click, rubbish, delete. Compared to months of toil at night after work...

Truth is, there is nothing insurmountable in the work that remains. A little, light plot rework, some restructuring, moving a few bits about, and a few bits to be added to provide a gentle dusting of narrative exposition to replace some of the more clunky plotting.

Despite everything, I still believe in the story, which, I suppose, is the important thing. Which should get me there, eventually. Then I can start TE, which I'm really looking forward too. You never know, it might be perfect first time out the box (pmsl).

Website of the day:
Scott Stulberg's Photos - just a little bit good

Track of the day:
Tough choice tonight, the randomiser didn't have its best night, but I will have to go for 'Things Start to Unwind' by Andy White

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Saturday, October 21, 2006

Heat Sinking


It has never been clear to me why I write. I certainly can't remember why I started. I'm not really of a mind to work it out, doesn't seem to matter. Why I continue to attempt to write a probably a more pertinent question. Given that it competes for time with the myriad of other things I attempt to do, it would be easy to presume that it would drop off the bottom of the list. It is quite hard work after all. And its not like I'm the most obvious writer type, engineering degree and unnatural interest in formulae and spacecraft, culturally fairly limited.
I beginning to realise that its an energy thing. There is a quite a lot of creative energy kicking about that needs somewhere to go. Recently it has been more tech focussed, sometimes to goes into the camera but writing (and often just thinking about what to write ) always gives the energy somewhere to go. It's just a big heat sink.
I find that writing takes far more energy than anything else I try to do, which is probably why I keep going back to it. I suppose I must believe I can do it to a certain extent too. I'd hate to think that I was one of those deluded unfortunates that turn up on the X-Factor claiming to be the next big thing when they actually sound and look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.
I'm lucky enough to have had some encouragment from articles published and a group of friends who have kept me going. Especially DM, who has been a diamond. And Stuart, obviously, have to mention him or he'll moan.
Now I need to really get the energy focussed, I need to finish the edit of the BM.

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Thursday, October 19, 2006

Resurrected By (ahem) Popular Demand


To explain. I first started writing a novel, Orion's Belt, back in the early nineties.
I made it about 25,000 words in when life, circumstance, boredom caused me to stop.
If I read it now, I file it under 'not bad'. Truth is, its very unlikely to ever get finished, superceded as it was by the, now almost complete, BM (of which, more later no doubt) and TE (to start next year hopefully).

Here's the 1st chapter. I went off the beginning pretty quickly and would probably have changed it. It was clearly just a poor attempt to pastiche the start of H2G2, which isn't right, frankly.

Chapter 1 - The Return

High in the northern sky, straddled by the celestial equator; sandwiched between the constellations of Gemini and Taurus, lies the collection of stars, galaxies and nebulae known as Orion. The Hunter stands with his sword held high. His broad shoulders spread across the sky from the vast red supergiant of Betelgeuse, a mere 310 light years away, to the lesser known Bellatrix. An arm extends to grasp an impressive bow and, below, his body extends all the way down to Saiph and the very bright Rigel. Somewhere in between lie Alnitak, Alnilam and Mintaka; a row of three stars otherwise known as Orion’s belt.

His dogs Canis Major and Canis Minor stand ready at his side. Presumably, to chase the constellation Lepus, the hare, down the starry river Po that is Eridanus. Monoceros the Unicorn looks on proudly, unaffected by the intense glare from the greater of the two dogs. Its eye, Sirius, is the brightest eye in the sky and would scare away most other passing animals. Even Taurus the bull would shy away from its gaze had he not otherwise been preoccupied with the bow of Orion aimed squarely at its flanks.

Of all the objects and creatures in the sky; it is Orion’s belt that stands out more than anything else. This line of beacons in the sky is the first thing I see every time I look to the sky. The smooth continuity of the line disguising the fact the rightmost of the three stars, Mintaka, is twice as far from us as the others.

Orion is by far the most spectacular constellation in the sky. To the naked eye his outline is obvious on any cloudless night and the wondrous sights of M42 and the Horsehead Nebula have bewitched astronomers for centuries. I suppose it is therefore slightly surprising that a poll of the general populace would identify Orion as a make of Ford car other than one of the most beautiful sights in the galaxy. Ford executives, of course, would no doubt claim that their misconceived ‘Escort with a boot’ could hold its own in a beauty contest. I fear that says rather more about the executives that it does about the appearance of the car which does not do any sort of justice to its celestial namesake.

Until recently, I was as much part of the populace as anyone else on this. The discovery of Orion happened about only 18 months ago and undoubtedly played a part in me driving here tonight. I’m not implying any magical powers or astrological significance. I’ve got far too little imagination for anything like that. Only that ever since I resolved to look at the world with the same eyes that discovered Orion; nothing else has quite been the same.

Looking up at Orion now I’ve just noticed something that has unbelievably escaped my notice all these months. Orion, despite all his greatness and prowess as a hunter, appears not to have a head. His shoulders do rise to a point in the middle but it’s not exactly what you’d call a head. You might say that it’s quite a big detail to miss. In my defence I can only say the glory of his sword, bow and belt can easily blind the casual observer to the omission of such a necessary feature. There is certainly a big part of me that wishes I had noticed his lack of head a bit sooner. Perhaps then I would not have been quite so taken with the star gazing business and would therefore not have ended up here in the freezing cold. Vince would say that that was me looking for someone or something other than myself to blame. He does have an irritating knack of being cruelly right with these things. I know I can’t blame Orion, headless or not. If I try to be honest ( and there’s nothing better for that than a freezing cold cloudless Highland night ) I know there’s no one else to blame; if, indeed, there is any blame to be apportioned.

I cast my eyes around the sky and picked out many of the features I had learnt to recognise. The Great Bear of Ursa Major looked down on me; the Plough standing out among the group of stars. Cassiopeia, the proud queen and mother of Andromeda, her bright variables like a heartbeat; Hydra, the watersnake, swimming across the heavenly sea. The heavens told so many stories. Stories that I had recounted from this very spot.

Looking lower in the sky, the dark and portentous mountains on the other side of the Loch blocked the view of the sky. Seeing those mighty peaks reminded me of the of the reason for my return to this place and the happiness I had known here previously.

The peace that lay across the depths of the Loch Ness was just as I has remembered it. Even at night, the intense, unflappable calm was almost tangible. It was a calm that left my mind clear to try to appease the pain that I now felt very clearly in this silent location. Devoid of any outward stimulus, the brain left to concentrate on only the thoughts inside it.

The waters of the Loch looked as dark as space itself. In many ways we know far about the vast expanses of space than we do about the immense depths of Loch Ness. Some believe in a monster. I was never one of them. Lack of real scientific evidence had always blinded me of the real story of the monster. If the stars can be symbols of Gods, warriors and animals why then can’t this Loch be a symbol of a great monsters hidden somewhere in its darkness. I know who it was that made me start to think that way. Knowing that made my pain worsen. I needed an answer before my need for excuses and reason where none exists might cast me into the Loch.

I took my eyes away from the water and continued their slow progression downward until I stood staring at my feet. Below was the solid rock. The rock she had said could hold memories forever. Could they help me to remember ? I knew I had come to the right place. It seemed strange at the time to jump in the car and drive to Loch Ness. Something in my subconscious evidently knew what was the best thing to do even if my outward self would have found it difficult to make a cup of tea.

I had left at 6.30pm. I had made up my mind on my next course action within the first few miles. I don’t know why I hadn’t turned round then and got it all over with. Perhaps it was the rocks that drew me here; their strong granite magnetism pulling on whatever core I had left. Or maybe it was my memories that remain here that tugged me further north; away from the protective lights of the city and the civilisation that made me feel that all the world was mine. In the city I could survive on my own or so I thought. The further the orange glow of humanity was left behind the more my decision had changed. Stripped bare of the surroundings that made me feel part of something; the defence of a citadel full of distractions I realised quite how alone I was.

On the road I could see nothing but darkness in front of me. I wondered if this was in any way symbolic. I drove on in the hope of at least finding a chink of light. By the time I had reached Drumochter my previous decision had been completely forgotten; left behind in the false benevolence of concrete and sodium light.

When I arrived it was completely dark. It took a while to recognise enough of the landmarks to find the exact spot where I had stood before. The only place that might contain the memories that I could not see through the pain. I knew I could not leave here until I had made the right decision; no matter how long it took. I looked down at my feet for inspiration. The memories were not returning. I toyed with the idea of taking of my shoes in the hope that it would help the rock communicate with me. I decided against it. Maybe I was starting to take all this symbolism a bit to far; I had to stick to what I knew best. The answer was there; it just had to be found.

I looked back to the sky and began to see a glimmer of hope. My old friend Orion stood as proud as the day I had first picked out his figure in the myriad of stars. If I was going to find an answer it would be by going back to the very beginning. To the day when I first decided to cast my eyes to the stars; the day that led me to discover Orion’s Belt.

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Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Youthful Writings


A rather frightening 16 years ago, I got on a train on a rainy Sunday night to go back to Glasgow. I sat at a table and started to write. Probably the first time I had ever consciously decided to write anything. What emerged will certainly win no prizes but its probably not to be all that ashamed of either.

So, here it is:
A Typical Journey On Public Transport

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Sunday, October 08, 2006

Return to Harlaw


Went back up to Harlaw today in the Pentland Hills.
Not a great day for photography at all, windy, raining with only very brief moments of sunshine. Had some time to experiment with my new filters, mainly a circular polariser and and Cokin P grad filter. Not quite got to grips with it yet (as the sun went pretty quickly, but looks quite promising.
Not many great images because of the overall greyness, but this one of sheep I quite liked.


( click for hi-res version available on MorgueFile )

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Blogzones


Given the somewhat random subject matter herein, I thought I would introduce some simple categorisation so its easier to find content related to given subject areas. These are (so far):
  • Photography
  • Writing
  • Technology
  • Showcase - a personal celebration of things I like
  • Zeitgeist (everything else)

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Saturday, October 07, 2006

Spread a Lot of Happiness


Wrote this article a while back, it was published in Computer Headline magazine, thought it was worth a repost here.

Enterprise System Adoption and Scale Free Networks

It is now well established that the return on investment from an enterprise deployment is in no small way linked to the level of end-user adoption of the system itself. Change is never easy, and many implementations have been stalled because users did not adopt the new technology and processes necessary to make them work. New and increasingly complex applications promise great returns with their richness of function and interface. Unfortunately this can also leave the end users perceiving that, compared to the existing legacy systems, the new systems have more screens, more data to enter and generally make their job harder than it was before. This inevitably leads to resistance on the part of the users.

The traditional approaches to combating this resistance involve communications programmes that precede and ultimately integrate with the end-user training programme. A lot of money is often spent on conferences, user forums, newsletters and the like to ensure that the user understands and accepts the need for change and hopefully the benefits that the new system will provide. Do these approaches work? The desired ROI requires much more than the occasional convert or, at best, widespread apathy. If companies are going to achieve the excitement and support that they want from their end users, it is clear that some new thinking is required.

Now for the science. Recent scientific discoveries have shown that various complex systems have an underlying structure that is controlled by shared organising principles. These so-called Scale-Free Networks are made up of an uneven distribution of connections. Nodes of these networks do not have a random a pattern of connections; instead, some nodes act as hubs with many connections. It is the way that these hubs work that dramatically change the way such networks operate.

This research has shown that Scale-Free networks can be found in a variety of common situations. For example, the mechanics of the spread of a disease and the development of the Internet itself have been shown to obey the laws of Scale-Free networks. Further research has shown that similar rules apply to social networks and communities. It is clear that the end-user population of an enterprise system is a similar sort of social network and perhaps by understanding its characteristics, we can best influence the adoption of the system.

The keys to a Scale-Free network are the hubs. In the case of an epidemic, these would be the carriers - the few people who come into contact with many, many more, spreading the disease as they go. In relation to the Internet, the hubs are the search engines e.g. Google. We can easily see how the treatment of such hubs can have a dramatic effect on the whole network. Cure the disease carrier and the epidemic dies; bring down Google and much of the Internet becomes inaccessible.

In the case of end-user adoption in a large user community, the hubs are the key influencers in the organisation. These are the people that, by the natural force of their will or character, set the agenda for those around them. In any large group of people, there are always significant numbers waiting to find out what their opinion should be on a subject - and that opinion is, in many cases, set by a colleague or peer. These people are the hubs, the carriers and the ‘disease’ they can carry is opinion. The crucial point is that until this opinion is set, it is not yet determined if it will have a positive or negative effect on the network as a whole.

The science of Scale-Free Networks clearly shows that these individuals, the hubs, hold the key to the rapid diffusion of opinion or information. If they are detractors, then overall adoption will significantly decrease, if they are advocates then the reverse is true.

If you believe in the theory then this sets an intriguing and difficult organisational challenge. Traditional communication in an enterprise will usually follow a top-down, hierarchical flow manager to subordinate down the chain. Alternatively it could be a “tell one, tell all” strategy of mass communication. The theory says that neither of these will have the same positive effect as identifying those few individuals in the organisation to whom everyone else listens. These are not usually the managers, who can easily be eyed with suspicion, but the influencers.

The corollary of this is, of course, that most of the money you are spending on the communicating with everyone is being wasted on the majority who will only ever be influenced by the diffusion of opinion from the hub minority. Look around your office today and you probably know who they are, focus your attention on them; win them round, show them why the new system is of benefit to all and the rest will follow. They have to – it is science after all.

Further Reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-free_network

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Thursday, October 05, 2006

T-Shirt Empire


I was reminded recently of CafePress which led me to remember I set up a shop on there once. The idea was to have T-Shirts with eye charts on them that were actually sayings/slogans. Obviously, being me, I did one design (and some people got them for Xmas) and forgot about it.
I just logged back in tonight to found I had actually sold 2 and made $4! Goodness gracious, perhaps my career in fashion was curtailed too early.

While I'm on, some nice new Eurovision photo usage examples:
Website of the Day:
Some shameless self-promotion, my newly updated Times Tables Tutor
Track of the Day:
Has to be Henrietta by The Fratellis
( oh, hang on, as that was publishing the great randomiser put Junior Kickstart by The Go Team on, that might be a draw tonight )

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