Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson


November 20, 2008 - Too Busy

Cat with Artificial Flowers (Click to enlarge)

I wish I could be as relaxed as this cat,
reclining amidst artificial flowers

I woke up with a slight headache for the third or fourth time this week. If I had to guess, I'd say it's either related to stress or the weather, which has been gray and miserable.

So when I woke up this morning, I lay back down for what was supposed to be a half hour. It turned out to be an hour and a half. Even though I work second shift, I try to get up at a decent time in the morning, since there never seems to be enough time in the afternoon.

I have one regular afternoon assignment, which cuts my day in half, after which I usually take a nap. So I only get a few hours in the morning to do things like walk the dog, get in my daily exercise, get started on Musings, run errands.

In this case, if things had gone as planned, I would have watched the end of The Bridge on the River Kwai, which is the next Oscar-winning movie on my list. Since I didn't get to it, I'll have to write about it next week. Tomorrow I'll be too busy preparing for Philcon.

Now is a good time to remind you that, if you haven't already given me any feedback, and very few have, I'm looking for some thoughts on my two Philcon panels. Here again are the questions. Please e-mail your responses to me by midnight Friday.

Sat 2:00 PM in Plaza II (Two) (1 hour)
VIRTUAL WORLDS... IS CYBERSPACE THE FINAL FRONTIER?

[Panelists: Ef Deal (mod), Alyce Wilson, Bud Sparhawk, Tony Finan]

Online virtual realities like Second Life. Multi-Player gaming worlds like Warcraft. Social sites, blogs, and YouTube. Is the real world moving online? Or is your computer becoming your real world? And what's next!

  1. In which online communities do you participate? What about in the past?
  2. Name your favorite online communities and tell why.
  3. How would you characterize the differences between different online communities (i.e. Facebook versus LiveJournal, or an old-school MUSH versus World of Warcraft)?
  4. Has your involvement in online communities changed over the years? If so, how did it change and why?
  5. What do you get out of online communities?
  6. How would you characterize the social interaction in online communities?
  7. How is online interaction different from face-to-face interaction?
  8. What are the positives and negatives of online communities?
  9. Do you have any significant relationships now or in the past that started as online-only and expanded into face-to-face? If so, share something about it.
  10. Have any of your online communities met in person for face-to-face socializing? If so, how did that go? What was different about interacting in person?
  11. Where do you see online communities going in the future?


Sun 10:00 AM in Plaza III (Three) (1 hour)
WHOSE BRAIN DO WE LIKE TO PICK?

[Panelists: Victoria Janssen (mod), Andrew Breslin, Genevieve Iseult, Eldredge, Jim Reichert, Alyce Wilson]

What sources do authors mine for ideas?

  1. What sorts of things do you write?
  2. From what sources do you gain inspiration? Please be as specific as possible.
  3. Have your sources of inspiration changed over the years?
  4. Do you ever write without a clear idea in mind? If so, how does that process work?

Feel free to copy and paste these questions in your own blog, along with my e-mail address (alycewilson@lycos.com) so that people can send me their responses.

 

Moral:
Headaches are a sign you're doing too much.

Copyright 2008 by Alyce Wilson

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