Ryan Doyle's Blog

New Digs

Ryan — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:36:40 +0000

The Sing-Off: Season Two

Ryan — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 04:15:48 +0000

Some of you might remember me gushing about how awesome this show was last year. Well, this season is even better. Here are a few highlights:

Grace Kelly ~ The Whiffenpoofs of Yale

Cooler than Me ~ Groove for Thought

Everybody Wants to Rule the World ~ Street Corner Symphony

This Love ~ Committed

W00t!

Ryan — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 01:39:26 +0000

Thanks to everyone who helped me out this month by showing interest, giving me pep talks and actually reading it and giving me notes on this work in progress. I’d write some more here, but I think I have carpal tunnel despite the lovely gel pad Lauren got me. So here’s a picture of that monkey instead:

Music to write by

Ryan — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 16:45:23 +0000

When I’m getting tired of writingI reach for music. I find songs with lyrics distracting while I’m working, so we’re deep into an instrumental phase. The Nano forums are full of people talking about their favorite movie soundtracks, but I learned that these are typically emotionally charged. If you’re not writing something sad or action packed while the soundtrack insists that this is what’s happening, there’s a palpable strain. So I reached into my musical past and rediscovered a couple bands I’d almost forgotten about. I’ve been running on RJD2, John McLaughlin, Mogwai and Penguin Cafe Orchestra mostly, (and the pandora stations they create,) depending on the energy level I need.

Hope you enjoy the music. I’ve got to go work on the novel, these word don’t count towards my 50k.

NaNoWriMo Word Count with daily updates

Ryan — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 02:11:36 +0000

What I’m doing instead of writing

Ryan — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 07:11:59 +0000

I opened up my WordPress dashboard to put off working on my novel, and this gem caught my eye in the top posts section: Procrastination. Seems like a lot of people are drawn to the topic, since it hit the top five. At least its good to know that we’re not alone in doing what we shouldn’t be doing because we’re supposed to be doing something else. What helps even more is understanding why we procrastinate, and You Are Not So Smart has got us covered. Go check out the post and then get back to work.

Scrivener

Ryan — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:39:29 +0000

Monday marks the beginning of National Novel Writing Month and I’m gearing up. The good people at Literature and Latte have released a trial version of Scrivener that anyone can use for the month of November. I’m using the beta for Windows, so I’ll be saving and backing up like a mad man because a crash or two is likely and I don’t want that to be my excuse for quitting early. Anyone who reaches the goal of 50,000 words in 30 days gets a half priced version of the full program. It’s pretty cool, I’m using the cork board to outline right now.

Ben Folds and Nick Hornsby – Lonely Avenue

Ryan — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 01:59:09 +0000

Ben Folds and Nick Hornsby have formed an awesome and unexpected collaboration, with Hornsby writing the lyrics and Folds performing the music. It’s crazy fun and all over the map. Check it out.

NaNoWriMo

Ryan — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 01:43:23 +0000

Today I signed up for National Novel Writing Month. The goal: 50,000 words in 30 days. I’ve been dreaming/talking about writing a book since I was a teenager and if I don’t try it now I may never do it.

It’s not a good sign that I’m having difficulty writing a one hundred and fifty word post right now, but the focus on quantity over quality that is the heart of Nano circumvents the internal editor mechanism that keeps making me delete lines. Will this approach create a great novel? No, but it will produce a shitty first draft of one where there was nothing before. I’d rather have written a really shitty novel that I can improve than have spent another year daydreaming about writing a good one.

If you want to learn more about NaNoWriMo (and maybe even sign up) check out the website. If you want to follow my progress I’ll be posting wordcounts here in November.

8 bit 4 life

Ryan — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:05:41 +0000

People of my generation are in the unique position of experiencing the incredible evolution of technology in the last few decades while maintaining a perspective, albeit a fading one, of an era before the internet. Perhaps it’s because I’m male and its definitely because I was an impressionable age when it came out, but I mark the beginning of my awareness of technology with the NES. Nintendo was magical to my younger self and it still sets a standard. If you remember blowing into Nintendo cartridges, you remember a time before Facebook defined reality and Twitter shaped the lexicon, yet you’re probably on both. We are the first generation to swim the tubes of the internet and the last to live our formative years free of its influence.

I would love to hear your take on the ramifications of this, or even to refute my claims, but I don’t have the energy to develop my ramblings further tonight. Besides, it’s Music Monday, and NES has some awesome music, enjoy:

up up down down left right left right B A Select Start