Procrastinators united?
Friday, 22 October 2004 06:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keaalu I know, I know, I’m like a bus, no diary entries for months then three come along at once. *shrug* I suppose I’m just in my “yay talky” mood for a while – just watch, after this week I’ll probably go back to silent mode. Anyway.
I’ve been thinking about my job, while I was sat there in the library working on a practice calculation paper (“…You expect me to do mental arithmetic??!! *dies*…”) and I’ve decided that all things involved I’m rather enjoying working for the NHS. :) For a while, when I was shuttled away in the dispensary, I felt like I was back at the Co-op, or Sainsbury’s, just another tablet counter, and I was dreading the fact it was going to be like that for the next few years… but the past few weeks have gone in a blur, and I’m having fun for once. “Fun?” you ask. “At work, in a hospital? You must be joking!” But there it is. Getting up to start work at 8am to follow drug rounds for my audit project was a bit of a pain in the arse, but doing my audit was fun, AND it got me out onto the wards a bit.
This week I’ve been doing some more clinical visits – following pharmacists around and watching what they do on the wards, checking patient notes (and looking at icky photos of infected wounds :P) and drug charts and whatnot. I met one of my old schoolfriends while I was out on the wards, today, too, which is just kickass – I’ve not seen her in about five years, although we didn’t get much time to catch up aside from swapping brief notes about where we studied (as she’s a nurse, not a patient :P ) and agreeing that no matter where you go to study, the Suffolk air always draws you back… :P
Being on the wards also impressed me with just how cool a word “phlebotomist” is. “Just a pint? That’s an armful!” *bounce*
And I discovered the Hospital library has a subscription to “Nature” magazine, which is also kickass. I must admit a lot of the science goes flying straight over my head – no wonder it’s £10 a magazine, some of the papers are cutting edge science – but some of them inspire me for stories, although I’m usually of the “hey that’s cool, I’ll remember that and use it in a story somewhere” (then forget it the second I leave the library) camp.
Lurking in Medicines Information is a good thing. I’ve been able to find out quite a few little goodies to help my fiction, lurking in there – especially since I’m such a chronic nitpicker, and if I’m not sure about something I’ll niggle at it for days until it looks halfway right. F’rinstance, in “Dependence” the antagonists (is that the posh word for “bad guys”? I just don’t like the term “bad guy” :P) poison half the people attending an international conference by putting the cardiac drug digoxin in the rolls that the delegates have for lunch. My problem was I didn’t know HOW MUCH they would have needed to put in – probably utterly unimportant to Joe Public, I know, but my fear is always that someone that knows more about a certain subject will say to me “hey, that wouldn’t work, you’re writing rubbish” and I’d have to rewrite it to satisfy my perfectionism. And I didn’t want the toxic dose to need to be something like a gram, because it’d probably taste revolting and so no-one would eat the rolls and get poisoned. Thankfully, the acute toxic dose is in the milligram range, so my plot can still work. Yay.
And today I also found out how similar the dog and human genome is, so I can actually put that into a fic (“Contagion”) rather than just use the “Well, when you consider we’re 50% similar to bananas…” line, as that displeased me – we may be 50% similar but that means we’re 50% DISsimilar, and if it’s comparable for dogs (I didn’t think it would be, but I wasn’t sure) then that’s a hell of a lot for a little retrovirus to rewrite. But we’re probably about 95% similar, which is a lot better for me. :) So Teal can still be dogified.
I’ve been thinking about just how mean I am to my cast (although it’s more of a “borrowed cast” in this case, since I’m writing fan-fiction) and it’s getting dire. In one I try kill off half the cast with nasty alien viri, in another I try to poison them, in another I abandon half of them in the middle of an alien galaxy, and in one I kill off a certain character with a re-engineered version of Ebola.
…
…I’ve come to the conclusion I’m just morbid. Although I’m reassured that I’ve managed to drag my mind out of the gutter and stopped trying to write bad rather pornographic versions of 1960s wobbly British sci-fi. (Although it amused me no end for a while :) ) Now I’m just trying to kill all the cast in various ways. :P
Yay for “Captain Scarlet”. Yay for NEW SERIES thereof. *skips* I know it’s a utterly outlandish little dream of mine (aside from the fact I have perpetual doubts about the standard of my writing abilities, I think the subject matter is a little too adult for the target audience (I mean, “Dependence” (if I can whisper a spoiler or two) revolves around a rather sinister plan involving the illegal narcotics industry, and one officer gets rather more involved than he’d have liked), although god only knows how many adults (like I pretend to be) love it too) but I’d love to be able to at least pitch a couple of my ideas to the creators – I grew up on a diet of Gerry Anderson TV productions, and I’d like to put back a little of what I got out, yaknow? ;)
Mind you, I’m still a bit scared that the new series will be all “ugh what have they DONE? *sob*” like a lot of “remakes” have been. It’s had good reviews, sure, but… I’m still a bit… you know. Excited and worried at the same time.
I have talked FAR too much already. I think it’s my caffeine withdrawal speaking to me. I’ll have my nice cuppa and a Kinder Bueno, and I’ll shut up.
Still… Yay, Captain Scarlet! (Or rather, yay, Captain Blue. ;) Although I still think he should have been Swedish.)
(PS never ever tell me procrastination is a good thing. :P It eats my time like you wouldn’t believe)
I’ve been thinking about my job, while I was sat there in the library working on a practice calculation paper (“…You expect me to do mental arithmetic??!! *dies*…”) and I’ve decided that all things involved I’m rather enjoying working for the NHS. :) For a while, when I was shuttled away in the dispensary, I felt like I was back at the Co-op, or Sainsbury’s, just another tablet counter, and I was dreading the fact it was going to be like that for the next few years… but the past few weeks have gone in a blur, and I’m having fun for once. “Fun?” you ask. “At work, in a hospital? You must be joking!” But there it is. Getting up to start work at 8am to follow drug rounds for my audit project was a bit of a pain in the arse, but doing my audit was fun, AND it got me out onto the wards a bit.
This week I’ve been doing some more clinical visits – following pharmacists around and watching what they do on the wards, checking patient notes (and looking at icky photos of infected wounds :P) and drug charts and whatnot. I met one of my old schoolfriends while I was out on the wards, today, too, which is just kickass – I’ve not seen her in about five years, although we didn’t get much time to catch up aside from swapping brief notes about where we studied (as she’s a nurse, not a patient :P ) and agreeing that no matter where you go to study, the Suffolk air always draws you back… :P
Being on the wards also impressed me with just how cool a word “phlebotomist” is. “Just a pint? That’s an armful!” *bounce*
And I discovered the Hospital library has a subscription to “Nature” magazine, which is also kickass. I must admit a lot of the science goes flying straight over my head – no wonder it’s £10 a magazine, some of the papers are cutting edge science – but some of them inspire me for stories, although I’m usually of the “hey that’s cool, I’ll remember that and use it in a story somewhere” (then forget it the second I leave the library) camp.
Lurking in Medicines Information is a good thing. I’ve been able to find out quite a few little goodies to help my fiction, lurking in there – especially since I’m such a chronic nitpicker, and if I’m not sure about something I’ll niggle at it for days until it looks halfway right. F’rinstance, in “Dependence” the antagonists (is that the posh word for “bad guys”? I just don’t like the term “bad guy” :P) poison half the people attending an international conference by putting the cardiac drug digoxin in the rolls that the delegates have for lunch. My problem was I didn’t know HOW MUCH they would have needed to put in – probably utterly unimportant to Joe Public, I know, but my fear is always that someone that knows more about a certain subject will say to me “hey, that wouldn’t work, you’re writing rubbish” and I’d have to rewrite it to satisfy my perfectionism. And I didn’t want the toxic dose to need to be something like a gram, because it’d probably taste revolting and so no-one would eat the rolls and get poisoned. Thankfully, the acute toxic dose is in the milligram range, so my plot can still work. Yay.
And today I also found out how similar the dog and human genome is, so I can actually put that into a fic (“Contagion”) rather than just use the “Well, when you consider we’re 50% similar to bananas…” line, as that displeased me – we may be 50% similar but that means we’re 50% DISsimilar, and if it’s comparable for dogs (I didn’t think it would be, but I wasn’t sure) then that’s a hell of a lot for a little retrovirus to rewrite. But we’re probably about 95% similar, which is a lot better for me. :) So Teal can still be dogified.
I’ve been thinking about just how mean I am to my cast (although it’s more of a “borrowed cast” in this case, since I’m writing fan-fiction) and it’s getting dire. In one I try kill off half the cast with nasty alien viri, in another I try to poison them, in another I abandon half of them in the middle of an alien galaxy, and in one I kill off a certain character with a re-engineered version of Ebola.
…
…I’ve come to the conclusion I’m just morbid. Although I’m reassured that I’ve managed to drag my mind out of the gutter and stopped trying to write bad rather pornographic versions of 1960s wobbly British sci-fi. (Although it amused me no end for a while :) ) Now I’m just trying to kill all the cast in various ways. :P
Yay for “Captain Scarlet”. Yay for NEW SERIES thereof. *skips* I know it’s a utterly outlandish little dream of mine (aside from the fact I have perpetual doubts about the standard of my writing abilities, I think the subject matter is a little too adult for the target audience (I mean, “Dependence” (if I can whisper a spoiler or two) revolves around a rather sinister plan involving the illegal narcotics industry, and one officer gets rather more involved than he’d have liked), although god only knows how many adults (like I pretend to be) love it too) but I’d love to be able to at least pitch a couple of my ideas to the creators – I grew up on a diet of Gerry Anderson TV productions, and I’d like to put back a little of what I got out, yaknow? ;)
Mind you, I’m still a bit scared that the new series will be all “ugh what have they DONE? *sob*” like a lot of “remakes” have been. It’s had good reviews, sure, but… I’m still a bit… you know. Excited and worried at the same time.
I have talked FAR too much already. I think it’s my caffeine withdrawal speaking to me. I’ll have my nice cuppa and a Kinder Bueno, and I’ll shut up.
Still… Yay, Captain Scarlet! (Or rather, yay, Captain Blue. ;) Although I still think he should have been Swedish.)
(PS never ever tell me procrastination is a good thing. :P It eats my time like you wouldn’t believe)
