There are many things I wish to talk about today. None of them are likely to be of interest to anyone besides me. They're the sorts of drivel I used to put into e-mail and bore my friends with.

It's good to have a blog.

For instance, I was going to blog about my stats program. (Why does this blog get a thousand "unique" visitors a month? Who are those people? And why double that many in June? Was the world just really, really bored in June? And why has that bit of primitive writing, Melodramatic License, abruptly become popular?)

I never came up with a pseud, you know. Sometimes I'm uneasily aware that if I was too stoopid to use a pseud for my writing, I should have chosen one for the politiblog. But then it all starts feeling complicated in my head and I don't want to think about it any more. 4,000 people a month shouldn't be reading what I say. Don't you people have lives? Or good sense?

In addition, I've been giving considerable thought to revising my older stories to clean up some of the more offensive writing errors I made, back when I knew even less than I know now. Things like overuse of euphemisms, poor formatting, general clunkiness, etc. Actually, I've thought of doing this many times, but then I get bored and do something else.

And I was going to mention that I decided not to post the MYSA-AS rant until I have a chance to check my memory of each series against the books themselves. It's more amusing (for me) to just write the rant and post it, but Certain People on-line have a tendency to spit on me and knock me off the swings when I do that. Every time I post some half-considered, casual opinion about something, at least one of them kicks me in the head. I'm starting to feel Them gathering in mobs and searching the ground for rocks, even as we speak.

I hate Those People, but since I just made them up, I don't feel there's much bad karma in it. (I suppose They live in my psyche or something, so maybe I shouldn't actually hate them, since that's a bit self-defeating, but They started it.)

I could talk about drawing. Worked on hands some more, with limited success. I didn't do much, though. I think I'm feeling guilty because I blew off one of the class assignments. (In fact, I know I am.) Shoes are boring. Also I'm a little uneasy about that still life. Really should have put a backdrop on it.

I did do some reading last night, though, in one of my, "how to draw" books. (Actually, it's how to draw a graphic novel. Turns out that what I was looking for, which was information on how you take a pencil sketch and "ink" it so that it lasts, was difficult to find. This book is the only one I found that discussed it and it offered an entire chapter on the subject.) It was very interesting. Much of the terminology still mystifies me and there's a fair amount of stuff I'll never need, but it's all fascinating.

For instance, all the books insist that you need a tilted drawing or drafting table. Thanks to the R.C., I actually possess a full-sized drafting table, so I'm good to go there. (The "drawing" books say you need the table. The "sketching" books say grab a pencil and some paper and be prepared to work anywhere. Apparently a "drawer" is a more fragile being than a "sketcher." I assume I'll be working just any old how when I sketch, and then pulling out my Professhunal Tools when I go to ink things in...assuming I ever produce anything worth inking.) (If I do, one thing I can guarantee, it won't be a human figure with hands.)

As I understand it, some people start with pencil and then "finish" a drawing by turning it into pen-and-ink. Others just work in pen-and-ink. I rather suspect I'd fall into the first category. I can't imagine doing a first draft in pen-and-ink. I can barely bring myself to apply the pencil to the paper hard enough to make a definitive mark.

Professionals can erase pen! On their drawings! There's a kind of electric eraser you can buy that has an Erasing Pen attachment! Not having even gotten to the point where I've purchased any ink, I find myself entirely unable to justify buying a new power tool for erasing it, but still. Sounds amazingly cool.

Like light tables. I haven't drawn anything so enticing or interesting that I'd want to trace it, but if I should draw something I liked, I'd need a light table, right? You can make one, too, but that would involve Playing With Electrics and I don't picture the R.C. allowing me to do that. I wonder if they're expensive to buy?

I think we've answered an important question, okay? I do like a new hobby for the fun of learning something new, but mostly I like a new hobby because it opens New Shopping Vistas.

The aforementioned book also has a chapter on collaborating with people when producing a finished work. Reading it made me remember a time, so long ago, when a very sweet friend tried to help me past a writer's block by working with me to write a hugely long and very silly XF work, entirely in IMs. (From time to time, it occurs to me that my oft-discussed work ethic has always been a weak force. At least, since I started writing. Before that, I was consistently a 50-60 hour-a-week employee.) It now occurs to me (nearly a decade later...but I've always been slow) that maybe I should have just collaborated with her or someone else to produce An Actual Story.

I have a certain, limited amount of work I could do. I should probably get to some of it. I was going to talk about last night's Whole Foods Adventure. Looks like that will have to wait for another entry.