(no subject)

You can rest easy, because I'm past all the rantness. (Rantness sounds as if it ought to be an island off the coast of Scotland.)

I wish I could rest easy, but I discovered that one of the reasons I've not sent off things that really ought to have been sent off is because my file system gently grew while I wasn't watching. By 'gently grew' think tropical greenery. Very lush, very uncontrollable. Maybe the word 'spawn' fits in there. Yes, it does. Yesterday my bookmarks, my computer files and my stray-scraps-of-paper files looked as if they had spawned millions of evil offspring. This is mostly the result of not getting my quiet time in January and February. I didn't realise how important that time was for sorting out my year.

You really don't want to see the mess I made. I should have just named it the Cthulhu system, rummaged for my (still-missing) manual of demonology and consigned it to perdition. Instead, I reacted so strongly to all sorts of hair triggers that I forgot that one reason I was over-reacting was that my files were out of control. I think I store some of my brain in those files and whenever I send out a search party to find the name of an agent or the details of pay I need to chase up, some of my brain goes missing in the morass.

I've already fixed the bookmarks. Today the computer files and some of the handwritten files will be dealt with. In the process I will write 500 words of useful text. This is the Gillian-equivalent of the amazing miracles that keep Cthulhu from devouring the world. Bit by bit I drag and copy and paste and type and sort and eventually I know what I'm doing.

When I finish I'll hae no excuse for delaying anything.

Those were famous last words. As of the last ten minutes I have a thesis to examine, a thingie to write and a proposal for more teaching float through the air. My prediction for my next two weeks is that it will be entirely free of boredom.

Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival

I bet you're wondering where the Australian Speculative Fiction Blog Carnival is? It was a rather large job this month and will make its grand entrance at chrisbarnes' place shortly. The bits I've seen suggest it's a particularly interesting set of links, too. Lots of understated drama and angst. I'm hoping the link to the "Where's Margo" cartoon appears, personally.