On Earth Hour, belatedly...

Quoting Ross McKitrick's dissent:

Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous, reliable electricity. People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.

I don't want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in "nature" meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on.

Well said, I think.

Cheers...

If it was good enough for writeallthedays...

LJ friend and writer zia_narratora has created a new community—writeallthedays—intended to be a place where participants can:

1. Talk about writing progress.
2. Talk about writing successes, as well as what holds one back, about strengths and weaknesses, about ways to create better writing habits, and so on.
3. Ask (and presumably, answer) questions and look for (offer) advice.

The first post asked participants to introduce themselves. Herewith, for my own records, is my introduction:

Name: Alex

Describe yourself as a writer: Afflicted with "the itch." In my 20s, I spent a lot of time "wanting to write," and although a course at Manhattan's New School set me on the right path, I didn't manage to sell any of my writing until I realized that I could write better computer articles than the ones I was paying money to read. Actually writing stuff helped, too.

Before and after my time as a computer writer, I wrote (and continue to write) translations, which is a lot like writing because one has to find the words to precisely express ideas, but also a lot unlike writing because the ideas in question are somebody else's. I currently put bread on the table with translation, and there are times when work overshadows all other potential distractions, including "outside" writing (except LJ posts).

And when I said "affliction," and described it as "the itch," I wasn't kidding. Stringing words together is, for me, a compulsion. Translating helps scratch the itch. And since joining LiveJournal almost a dozen years ago, posting almost daily has also helped keep the demon majorly under control.

I keyboard, therefore I am.

What are you currently working on? Over a couple of years of participating in therealljidol, I've written a number of short pieces that contain the germs—a regular contagion—of a dozen longer pieces... But the question was what, right now, am I working on, yes? Hmmm...

Well, that's where my work sticks a wrench into the works. Right now, as it happens, I'm working on translating a long article on pediatric psychology. (Yes, that's how much translation scratches the itch. There are times when for me, translation is writing is translation, and often I don't have time for anything but work.)

On the other hand, the most recent thing I worked on—back in the November time frame—was an experiment in "just writing" to see what happens. And it's not as if I'm not interested in finding out what happens next, but I keep running smack into that last clause in the prevous paragraph. Or is it something else?

What are you hoping to get out of writeallthedays? What I'm hoping to get is off my butt and develop one or more of those ideas I mentioned. Nobody is getting any younger among the people that I know, least of all me.

What are some of your favorite things to read? Heh, heh. Don't go there, people. Sometimes I amaze myself with sounding like my grandson, for whom every bright bauble that comes into view becomes "favorite."

What do I like to read? Well, channeling the spirit of Elmore Leonard (a neat trick considering the fellow's still breathing): "I prefer it to be interesting."

Anything else? Yeah, but I'm going to go check with management before running off even more profusely at the mouth.

Cheers...