blamebrampton | crappy day

I'm in a world of pain today. I managed to wake up through the night with stabbing sensations in my lower back and have spent the day with sundry drugs, a hot water bottle, many pillows and other fruitless bids to fix it up. Am about to head over to the chemist in a bid for mega-strength drugs, which I will follow up with a hot bath if they don't do the trick (water restrictions are still tight here, so a bath is the last port of call).

It has all put me in mind of the experience of writing for HD Worldcup earlier this year, which is why I decided to spend what upright time I could manage editing my WC fic for posting here, at last.

In happier news, I had a box of Hello Panda biscuits from the Asian grocery aisle last night. I offered one to J, who said "No thanks, I don't eat panda."

In actual fact they were gooey chocolate inside a sweet biscuit, and quite tasty. And the panda theme reminded me of a moment at a tram stop in Melbourne. There were two little boys, about eight years old, yammering. "And we can go and see KungFu Panda!" the first one said, excitedly.

"Yeah!" replied the second. "But we'll need to get up for the early screening. Everyone will want to see it, lunchtime will be panda-monium!"

There was a long pause. The first boy shook his head. "That was awful. That was so awful, it was really good."

I like to think he has taken the first step towards a lifetime of bad pun appreciation.

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I am sure Panda-monium will caption many a review of that movie.

Ah, your poor back! I always lie on a hardwood floor when my back hurts: have you tried that?

I don't know why you're editing your fic which is already perfect as is. ;)

I like to think he has taken the first step towards a lifetime of bad pun appreciation.

Oh, man. *snickersnorts*

I'm so sorry about your back! :-( *massages*

I suspect you are right. The glee on the face of the little boy who came up with it was something to behold, though!

Yes, everything from stretching out to pillows under the knees. The combination of voltaren and linament is working somewhat now. I can only assume it is my body's revenge for all those marathon writing sessions.

And there were a number of speech tags I wanted to tweak, three extra lines in the Ginny section and a few terrible typos ;-) I'd not change it too much for fear of you sending me cross words!

It's so good to see the little ones go down those paths.

Ooh, massage is nice, thanks!

Say, what's the conventional wisdom about speech tags? Are we not supposed to use them?

Back pain = not good. :-(

*careful hug*

*sends healing balm to go with the bath*

The panda-monium made me crack up. *g*

Your poor thing! *hugs*

Panda-monium! Gotta love bad puns.

My theory is that they should be used wherever they are useful. If it's obvious from what is being said, or from the tone, then it's safe to leave them out, unless they can add something to the text.

So when your speech tags help to clarify who is speaking, or what is being meant by the speech, or even when they help with the rhythm of speech (everything from breaking up a long section of speech to keeping the rhythm of a passage), then use them.

And when you don't need them for any of that, leave them off!

Thanks so much! Another thing about writing that I didn't know.

My early writing was spiked with loads of "he exclaimed," "she uttered," etc. Now it's mainly "said," and I try to substitute a gesture when it makes sense. I usually don't have dialogue floating without a tag or a gesture, though: I know it can work, but for some reason it scares me.

I have to remember not to use it straight after the bath ... when I was young at at my grandparents' horse farm, I went down to the stables one day and took a jar of methyl salicylate, thinking it would help ease the aches from a fall earlier in the day. I had a long, hot soak, then climbed out and slathered a handful of goop onto my aching back.

Then hopped around the bathroom shrieking AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHH!!!!! until my hot male cousin was attempting to break down the door in the conviction I was being savaged by one of the house cats.

I wanted to have a little badge that said WINNER to give to both of those little boys. Maybe I should have some made up ...

I offered one to J, who said "No thanks, I don't eat panda."

*snorfles on coffee* good one! :D

i'm so sorry about your back sweetie. i wish i had a remedy for you to try. just take it easy. think porny h/d thoughts or something. :P

water restriction? wow. what's going on down there that requires a water restriction? *is intrigued*

Thanks. Since it's just a 'thing' rather than something brought on by any acute injury, it should resolve soon.

I was so impressed by those kids!

DROUGHT! Pretty much since I got here (it wasn't me.)

For the last ten years there has been significant drought across almost all of Australia, which came hard on the heels of a seven-year drought. At one point the dam that supplies Sydney was at under 30% capacity. So it was three minute showers all round, two days a week for garden watering, no car washing.

The dam is back up over 60% after the last six months of reasonably good rain, and the restrictions have been lifted a little, but we are still very careful with every drop, because who knows when the next decade-long drought will happen.

J believes he is HILARIOUS, sometimes he is ...

Be not afraid, AM! In a lot of your stories the voices are so strong that they can survive quite happily with no tags! But feel free to keep them if you like them, too. And I have to say that I use said more than anything else, we were smacked as baby journos and editors if we used anything else ...

oh wow! i'd known about draughts throughout australia over the years, but i didn't know it was THAT bad. 3 minute showers?? it takes me that long to get the water temperature to my liking! :D

Better than in Goulburn where they had level five water restrictions; we stopped in a cafe there, they had signs asking you to be very quick washing your hands in the loos.

isn't it amazing what we take advantage of? stuff we never consider as "draining of the supply" until we're forced to use less of it.

You have no idea how often I have smothered an "I told you so!" over the current fuel crisis ...

i willingly gave up having a car last year because i knew the prices would spike even more than they already were. something in my brain just said trust me jae. save yourself the headache and cash.

now i just giggle when i walk past gas stations. :D

Good choice!

Shitty - I'm sorry you're in so much pain.

And ha for the bad pun. I come from a family of horrible punners and it makes me happy to see such appreciation in one so young. He has a bright, bright future ahead of him! lol

I would mind less if there was an actual reason, but as far as I can tell, my body has just decided it would be amusing. I personally prefer bad puns ...

Feel better, hon. Not that I'm condoning or suggesting mixing alcohol with medicine, but I find when my lower back is excruciatingly sore, one drink (whatever floats your boat, I suppose) goes a long way to relax the muscles, which helps a fair bit. When all else fails, ibuprofen (not acetaminophen) does the trick ... or at least takes the edge off.

Ah, puns are terrible and wonderful all wrapped up in a neat little package. :D

1) *huge hugs* I hope you feel better very, very soon.

2) lol @ overheard convo.

That's a thing of beauty. I particularly love that he thought out a set up and everything. I love clever children.

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