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Jan. 3rd, 2007 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mschatelaineA year over, another one started. In a mood of contemplation, I'm going to hammer out some of what I think of the year just ended.
So, what have I done this year?
I finished my master's thesis
I organised a reading for the Glasgow SF Writers' Circle
I took part in two convention panels at Eastercon
I took a ride on a sailing ship to see wildlife
I moved house (yet again)
I visited Avebury
I went to several excellent concerts
I cooked some good food
I spent some good times with my friends
I went dancing
I kept my job and in the doing, made some positive contributions to the environment
Because this is a public forum, I don't comment much on my job. Keeping it is a big thing to me because I have recently spent a long time unemployed, and prior to that was in insecure contracting jobs. I will say that at times this year it has been very stressful and I have been on the receiving end of some shit, but also at times very rewarding, and I have held my .
The thesis has also been a big thing; I burned out and never finished my PhD and also burned out in the aftermath of finishing my first masters, so I had conceived a block on this one. Added to the stresses above, this meant that I finished the first draft on beta blockers. It has been accepted subject to some corrections, which are now done, and I hand it in for good and all on Monday.
The Eastercon stuff was a lot of fun, but also hard work in its way. I had never been on a discussion panel in front of an audience, and while I had done one reading previously, I had never organised one.
I've commented in past posts about moving house. It took up the vacation time that I was going to keep free to decompress from the thesis, and so I haven't had a rest this year. The single thing that I did that was a holiday activity was to go on a whale-watching trip out of Tobermory, which was absolutely gorgeous. The town is pretty, the boat was beautiful, the weather was fine, with enough of a swell to make it interesting, and I got talking to a pretty fellow-tourist. (No, I never got to talk to her again.)
Other romantic interludes have happened, such as have been lacking in the last three or four years.
This year has been a really poor one for reading new stuff; I haven't had my nose out of a book for any longer than usual, but the bulk of it has been re-reading. That said, here is the list of the new books that are gracing my shelves, in no particular order:
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Woken Furies, Richard Morgan
Agents of Light and Darkness, Nightingale's Lament, Hex and the City - Simon R Green
Ephemera - Neil Williamson
Living Next Door to the God of Love - Justina Robson
Keeping it Real - Justina Robson
City of Saints and Madmen - Jeff Vandermeer
The Etched City - KJ Bishop
9Tail Fox - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
The Water Room - Christopher Fowler
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque - Jeffrey Ford
Snake Agent - Liz Williams
Blood and Iron - Elizabeth Bear
The Clan Corporate - Charles Stross
Resolution - John Meaney
Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton
Eisenhorn - Dan Abnett
The Man from the Diogenes Club - Kim Newman
It happens, even to me, that on occasion an attractive woman likes me. It happens more often when I get myself out more and when I think better of myself. I don't go out 'on the pull', and when I meet someone I like and I think likes me, I look to go out together, get to know one another, that kind of thing. Which leads more often to gaining a friend rather than a girlfriend, but hey.
I met Ellie at Worldcon in 2005 and we clicked with one another. At the time, she was in the process of a messy break-up so when we started going out together it was as pals, someone to go to the pictures with. She was quite emphatic that it should be like that.
Time passed, we became much better friends, and after a party in the spring when we were making our way to her place through a massive snowfall, a snowball fight turned into a kiss. We were a couple for a few weeks over Easter and then, as I started to get wound up in my thesis, we fell apart.
I'd like to say that we were still friends, and the last time I spoke to her it was on good terms, but that was a while ago. I dare say that if you asked her, she would say that it's because I haven't called, but I stopped trying when I got no answer.
But I've met other women who have been good company, caught glances and smiles here and there, and in general had a better time of it than I have for the past few years.
So over Christmas and Hogmanay, I had a lot of fun at some good parties courtesy of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
psychochicken, Chris, Al and other motley crews.
I'm a happier man than I have been in perhaps ten years, I have good friends, a good job, a nice flat. Money's tight, but that is improving. Here's to my fortieth year.
So, what have I done this year?
I finished my master's thesis
I organised a reading for the Glasgow SF Writers' Circle
I took part in two convention panels at Eastercon
I took a ride on a sailing ship to see wildlife
I moved house (yet again)
I visited Avebury
I went to several excellent concerts
I cooked some good food
I spent some good times with my friends
I went dancing
I kept my job and in the doing, made some positive contributions to the environment
Because this is a public forum, I don't comment much on my job. Keeping it is a big thing to me because I have recently spent a long time unemployed, and prior to that was in insecure contracting jobs. I will say that at times this year it has been very stressful and I have been on the receiving end of some shit, but also at times very rewarding, and I have held my .
The thesis has also been a big thing; I burned out and never finished my PhD and also burned out in the aftermath of finishing my first masters, so I had conceived a block on this one. Added to the stresses above, this meant that I finished the first draft on beta blockers. It has been accepted subject to some corrections, which are now done, and I hand it in for good and all on Monday.
The Eastercon stuff was a lot of fun, but also hard work in its way. I had never been on a discussion panel in front of an audience, and while I had done one reading previously, I had never organised one.
I've commented in past posts about moving house. It took up the vacation time that I was going to keep free to decompress from the thesis, and so I haven't had a rest this year. The single thing that I did that was a holiday activity was to go on a whale-watching trip out of Tobermory, which was absolutely gorgeous. The town is pretty, the boat was beautiful, the weather was fine, with enough of a swell to make it interesting, and I got talking to a pretty fellow-tourist. (No, I never got to talk to her again.)
Other romantic interludes have happened, such as have been lacking in the last three or four years.
This year has been a really poor one for reading new stuff; I haven't had my nose out of a book for any longer than usual, but the bulk of it has been re-reading. That said, here is the list of the new books that are gracing my shelves, in no particular order:
The Lies of Locke Lamora - Scott Lynch
Woken Furies, Richard Morgan
Agents of Light and Darkness, Nightingale's Lament, Hex and the City - Simon R Green
Ephemera - Neil Williamson
Living Next Door to the God of Love - Justina Robson
Keeping it Real - Justina Robson
City of Saints and Madmen - Jeff Vandermeer
The Etched City - KJ Bishop
9Tail Fox - Jon Courtenay Grimwood
Pushing Ice - Alastair Reynolds
The Water Room - Christopher Fowler
Fragile Things - Neil Gaiman
Wintersmith - Terry Pratchett
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque - Jeffrey Ford
Snake Agent - Liz Williams
Blood and Iron - Elizabeth Bear
The Clan Corporate - Charles Stross
Resolution - John Meaney
Tooth and Claw - Jo Walton
Eisenhorn - Dan Abnett
The Man from the Diogenes Club - Kim Newman
It happens, even to me, that on occasion an attractive woman likes me. It happens more often when I get myself out more and when I think better of myself. I don't go out 'on the pull', and when I meet someone I like and I think likes me, I look to go out together, get to know one another, that kind of thing. Which leads more often to gaining a friend rather than a girlfriend, but hey.
I met Ellie at Worldcon in 2005 and we clicked with one another. At the time, she was in the process of a messy break-up so when we started going out together it was as pals, someone to go to the pictures with. She was quite emphatic that it should be like that.
Time passed, we became much better friends, and after a party in the spring when we were making our way to her place through a massive snowfall, a snowball fight turned into a kiss. We were a couple for a few weeks over Easter and then, as I started to get wound up in my thesis, we fell apart.
I'd like to say that we were still friends, and the last time I spoke to her it was on good terms, but that was a while ago. I dare say that if you asked her, she would say that it's because I haven't called, but I stopped trying when I got no answer.
But I've met other women who have been good company, caught glances and smiles here and there, and in general had a better time of it than I have for the past few years.
So over Christmas and Hogmanay, I had a lot of fun at some good parties courtesy of
psychochicken, Chris, Al and other motley crews. I'm a happier man than I have been in perhaps ten years, I have good friends, a good job, a nice flat. Money's tight, but that is improving. Here's to my fortieth year.
