Will Draw For Food! at The Charlotte Gore Blog

Off Topic stuff about Computers. You won't be interested.

I need a second blog. My life isn’t just politics and blogging. Well, it’s not much more than that, but I do try. I seem to be going through a bit of an arty phase.

Two or three weeks ago the boss at my company decides we need to be able to make iPhone applications. Sure, I tell him – I can do that. “I’m going to need a Mac though.” It’s a hard life.

So a Macbook duly arrived and… well over the last few weeks I’ve almost completely moved from Windows to Apple. I just find I can work faster and having everything just work nicely is… a pleasant surprise. I find that I like Macs, after all. That was unexpected. Still, working from a Laptop is impossibly claustrophobic for me, so I very quickly got a keyboard and a mouse so that I could plug it into a normal monitor and pretend I had a real computer. Then… then it got worse. I got a monitor at home, too (my PC is plugged into a television) and a graphics tablet (a medium Wacom Bamboo which is all manner of incredible). This is like proper computing again. I’m currently sat at a desk instead of my usual big comfy chair. I’ve sacrified a bit of comfort for… well the ability to actually do things on a computer. I realise now I’ve been far too restricted by not really being able to see details or control the computer properly.

I’d been finding doing certain things a lot easier, then. The graphics tablet, especially, is a thing of extreme joy for me. I’m not a trained graphic designer or anything like that. I don’t even consider myself to be a designer, or an artist. I just like mucking around. Over the last two days, I’ve really been mucking around with some hardcore experimentation… (clicky for bigger)

These are concept designs for a couple of other blogs. The steampunk thing will never see the light of day beyond this website here, but there’s hope for “Technically Awesome” I think. Somewhere for this sort of post to go, basically, so I’m not inadvertently polluting the consciousness of people who come here looking for libertarianism or something to do with the Lib Dems. Although, hey, let’s try making it relevant: I do sometimes wish I could settle down and concentrate on one particular thing – say design, or programming, or music, or writing or politics or whatever. I mean, there’s so much to do and so little time, and I want it all. Maybe that’s why I’m a libertarian – I just don’t want to be boxed in to one particular role, one particular life path? I want to be free to experiment, to change my mind, to discover my own limits.

I think you’re supposed to get over this at some point, but no sign of it happening just yet. Anyway, my time is for sale, if you’re curious.

10 Responses to 'Will Draw For Food!'

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jd said...

28 May 09 at 12:39 am

“I think you’re supposed to get over this at some point, but no sign of it”

Well I’m 35 and haven’t got over it. Indeed I seem to still be hoovering up new interests. To be pegged down in one thing would seem tedious frankly.

Charlotte Gore said...

28 May 09 at 12:41 am

It does tend to limit your potential future earnings though :S

Martin said...

28 May 09 at 2:17 am

Both those names are better than the new website of a friend of mine, entitled *sigh” “Technolorgy”.

jd said...

28 May 09 at 5:55 am

Charlotte – it does, but I tend to think that the future’s too unpredictable. It’s undoubtedly a balancing act, but, for me, better to experience a spread of things and enjoy the journey, than get pegged down in something one finds restrictive, purely on the basis of ‘it’ll be worth it as I’ll earn more now and do x, y, z in the long term”.

But then I have been influenced by personal experience, including seeing friends die ridiculously young, and I have the sort of personality that loses the love of a subject easily when forced to pursue it on a daily basis as a job.

DavidNcl said...

28 May 09 at 8:03 am

That’s not a graphics tablet… this is a graphics tablet : cintique on youtube

Stu said...

28 May 09 at 10:21 am

It’s funny how the audience begins to dictate the nature of the blog, isn’t it. I have the same problem of wanting to write about some stuff (like iPhone development, web design etc) but not wanting to annoy the people who are already reading my blog for the kind of thing I normally write (which is a mixed bag at the best of times, but not normally too techy).

And that’s without being the most influential blogger in the Lib Dem blogosphere. I imagine it’s much harder for those who are

Jennie said...

28 May 09 at 11:05 am

Stuart: I write whatever comes into my head and bugger what the audience thinks.

I have found that over five-six years of doing it that your regular readership get annoyed if you start off new blogs in other places, and you are better off just using tags and categories properly and letting people decide for themselves what they want to read. Most people read because they like YOU and want to know what you think about stuff, even if that means hearing about stuff they have no knowledge of. Over-specialisation in blogs leads to ghettoisation of the blogosphere. Whereas the reason I have recruited people to the Lib Dems via my blog is that my blog is not just read by politics nerds, but by Doctor Who fans, Top Gear fans, Star Trek fans, feminist mums, dog owners, etc. etc.

Cross pollination is great

Having said all that, Charlotte: if you DO start another blog somewhere else, let me know, although bear in mind that my feed reader DOES limit me to 2000 feeds, so don’t do it too often