![\"deadlineclock\"](\"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/deadlineclock.jpg\" "\\"deadlineclock\\"")
<\/a>1)\u00a0 My job.<\/strong> It’s a part-time job, so I can’t blame it for taking up too<\/em> much time, but it does take up time.\u00a0 So I must blame it.<\/p>\n2)\u00a0 Fatigue.<\/strong> This is also job related.\u00a0 When I have to work at 9 AM, that means I am pretty much tired throughout the day.\u00a0 Which isn’t a problem for doing most things.\u00a0 But I think a lot while I’m composing; it’s a very mind-intensive activity; it takes a lot of focus for me.\u00a0 And when I’m fatigued, music has a way of lulling me off to the land of pleasant dreams, especially the incredibly fantastic music I compose.\u00a0 So it is extremely difficult to compose while fatigued.\u00a0 I did try taking some caffeine tablets, but alas, no effect.\u00a0 I must have high caffeine tolerance.\u00a0 I could feel it make my heart beat faster, but nothing else.\u00a0 Of course, caffeine really isn’t supposed to be used to counter sleep-deprivation, so maybe it has nothing to with tolerance.\u00a0 But that’s what some people seem to use it for and they swear by it.\u00a0 It doesn’t help me though.<\/p>\n 3)\u00a0 Not being able to stay up all night.<\/strong> Again, job related.\u00a0 Since I have to be at work at certain hours, I am not free to simply stay up as late as I want composing and then just sleep until I am not tired anymore.\u00a0 (Not that this problem doesn\u2019t plague most people.)\u00a0 I sometimes seem to think more actively at night, perhaps because there are fewer distractions; the TVs and radios are off, no one\u2019s on the phone and no one calls, etc.\u00a0 But I can\u2019t use the time to my advantage if I need to get some sleep in before going to work.<\/p>\n 4)\u00a0 Perfectionism.<\/strong> Or pickiness.\u00a0 I spent 2.5 hours a few nights ago composing and orchestrating 4 bars.\u00a0 I think that’s the longest 4 bars ever took me.\u00a0 But I’m very pleased with the result.\u00a0 Though I suppose I could fiddle around and tweak orchestration for many many hours, it always eventually has to come to a point in which I am pleased enough and must move on.<\/p>\n 5)\u00a0 Other stuff.<\/strong> For example, on Tuesday, I had to spend time tidying the house for guests.\u00a0 Chores are evil and must be blamed.<\/p>\n That said, I must say I’m extremely pleased with the progress I’ve been making with my latest piece so far.\u00a0 I went to bed yesterday with the melodies I composed annoyingly humming through my mind uncontrollably.<\/p>\n A big disadvantage of giving myself a deadline has emerged: I get angry.<\/strong> And stressed.\u00a0 And a bit depressed.\u00a0 And what fun is that?\u00a0 I blame all the other stuff I must<\/em> do, like go to work, which just makes going to work that much more painful and annoying.\u00a0 So I\u2019m very much considering throwing away the deadline and just composing as often as I can.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to be angry by having goals and then not reaching them due to things like having to go to work that I can do little about.\u00a0 Or I could just blame my undisciplined self for not being more disciplined and getting more done when I do have chances, but that won\u2019t make me any happier either.<\/p>\n FEDERATIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n Mazer in Prison<\/strong> by Orson Scott Card:\u00a0 4 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 I actually read this in another book before, so I skipped reading it again, but I almost always enjoy Orson Scott Card.\u00a0 Very good story from the Ender’s Game universe.<\/p>\n Carthago Delenda Est<\/strong> by Genevieve Valentine:\u00a0 2 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Though the premise was very interesting, the author didn’t seem to do much with it.\u00a0 It was more of an idea story, as nothing much really happened.\u00a0 A world was presented, some unimportant things took place, and that was it.<\/p>\n Life-Suspension<\/strong> by L. E. Modesitt:\u00a0 0 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Interesting characters with interesting dynamics.\u00a0 But nothing very interesting happened.\u00a0 And there were these battle scenes that were too cryptic for me with all their pilot-in-battle speak.<\/p>\n Terra-Exulta<\/strong> by S. L. Gilbow:\u00a0 3.5 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Not really a story, but a very fun fictional letter.\u00a0 I enjoyed it.<\/p>\n Aftermaths<\/strong> by Lois McMaster Bujold:\u00a0 1.5 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Again, an interesting premise, but an uninteresting story.<\/p>\n Someone is Stealing the Great Throne Rooms of the Galaxy<\/strong> by Harry Turtledove:\u00a0 2 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Had it’s funny moments, but most of it’s humor was just stale and annoying, as if the author just wrote the story off the top of his head, writing down every stupid joke he thought of.\u00a0 Didn’t really work for me.<\/p>\n Prisons<\/strong> by Kevin J. Anderson and Doug Beason:\u00a0 3.5 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Started off a bit confusing, but once the story started rolling, it was actually quite good.<\/p>\n Different Day<\/strong> by K. Tempest Bradford:\u00a0 0 stars<\/strong>.\u00a0 Yikes.\u00a0 While I like the idea of not portraying an alien race as a clich\u00e9d \u201cmonoculture\u201d (as we humans certainly aren\u2019t), this not-really-a-story didn\u2019t really do much with it.\u00a0 It\u2019s just a three page ramble.<\/p>\n And that’s all for today, methinks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was hoping to compose 5 minutes of music a week, starting last Tuesday, but unfortunately I was only able to compose 2 minutes and 46 seconds by this past Sunday.\u00a0 So I fail!\u00a0 Shocking, no? I blame a few things: 1)\u00a0 My job. It’s a part-time job, so I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[38,23],"tags":[137,138,30],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7gI4B-84","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":501,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500\/revisions\/501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wizardwalk.com\/newblather\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>Since I don’t have much time for composing, I have even less time to read, but in what short moments I can spare, I’ve been reading a collection of science fiction short stories in a book called Federations<\/a>