And Too Much Eggo Will Kill Your Diet

Is it egotistical to post this?



But seriously, I think this happens too often to writers.

Shop Talk

Brian K. Vaughan, comic book writing hero and one of the principal writers for Lost, talks about making art. Lots of good, common sense stuff for anyone trying to make any kind of art--writing or drawing or music or whatever. Some nice moments:

"You can take all the classes in the world and read every book on the craft out there, but at the end of the day, writing is sorta like dieting. There are plenty of stupid fads out there and charlatans promising quick fixes, but if you want to lose weight, you have to exercise more and eat less. Period. Every writer has 10,000 pages of shit in them, and the only way your writing is going to be any good at all is to work hard and hit 10,001.

(And this isn't just some tired cliche, I believe that's a provable mathematical equation. I started writing five pages a day, every single day, when I began my senior year of high school. That means I hit 10,001 roughly a year after I graduated NYU, which was exactly when I pitched Y: THE LAST MAN to Vertigo. It took a lot of lousy writing to get there, but I'm glad I stuck with it. And don't worry, if you were busy actually having a life in high school and college, it's never too late to begin your march towards 10,001. Most writers don't do their best work until they're in their thirties and forties, anyway. Still, the clock is ticking, so maybe you old-timers should consider writing seven pages a day?)"

I love that he says most writers don't do their best work until their in their thirties and forties. I feel like so much of today's culture is focused on who the next young, big thing is that we forget about people who have been working hard all along.

"And that's the maddening thing about comics. It's not like becoming a dentist, where everyone attends the same amount of courses and takes the same kinds of tests to get where they want to be. No two people ever break into our medium in the same way."

Sometimes I wish I were a dentist because of this. But it's how the writing game goes.

"And trust me, breaking in is not half as hard as STAYING in. For every comic that came out with my name on it, there were a dozen pitches that never saw the light of day."

Even well-respected writers have their failure days. Don't give up hope!

Being sick might kill you! Who knew?

This card could, and perhaps should, have been made specifically for me. I am one of the chronic cold sufferers. My mother has been berating me about it for years, blaming my failure to sleep as much as I should and inability to regularly take those really expensive multivitamins she buys for me with her hard earned money, gosh darnit! I don't deny that she's right, but I have little to no control over how much sleep I get (I am an overly committed lady) and I've never established a regimen that involves shoving a pill in my mouth everyday. That's just the beginning of it. I could probably be more vigilant about washing my hands, especially living in New York City where everyone touches things other dirty people touch constantly.

I know I ought to enact some personal reform, but it's been tough to motivate. The colds I get are rarely that bad, even the one I have now is more of an annoyance than a plague. But just the other day I finally found my reason to listen to my mother.

WORK-SICKDAYS
Long sick leave for colds signals poor health later-study
LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Employees off sick for long periods -- even for common conditions like flu -- are far more likely to die before their co-workers who do not take such leave, researchers said on Friday.
The study of government workers included people who were healthy to start with and suggested extended sick leave for minor ailments as well as more major ones could point to serious health problems down the road.
"It is not just down to serious medical conditions but it seems this relationship is seen across a wide range of common health problems," said Jenny Head, a statistician at University College London who led the study.
"This appears to be a good early marker for people going on to develop more long-term serious illnesses."
The results could help doctors and employers identify people at higher risk of serious illness early on and long before they have symptoms, Head added.
The report in the British Medical Journal looked at sickness records of 6,478 British civil servants between 1985 and 1988 and then followed up which men and women died through 2004.
People who were off sick more than seven days were more likely to die, they found. People who took one or more long absence in three years were 66 percent more likely to die, Head said in a telephone interview.
"We also saw that relationship in people who were in good health at the beginning of the study," she added.
While it would make sense that people off for surgery or circulatory problems would face increased odds of dying early, the findings extended to people who had called in sick for minor complaints such as coughs and colds and flu.

That's right. Apparently I'm due to die earlier because of all these colds I get. (Like any good math student I know the difference between causation and correlation, but in this case, correlation is enough for me.) Which makes me think maybe this is the right time to grow up and start taking my mama's advice. So if you're a fellow chronic cougher/sneezer/owner of a runny nose, then I invite you to join me in this quest for fewer colds. Wash those hands, take your vitamins, and for the love of mom try to get some more rest.

Although that being said, I don't actually call out sick that often. I tend to just come to work with the illness, much to the dismay of my colleagues. Maybe that'll save me! Working through the cold, makes you stronger, right? I'll go with that for now. I can always sleep when I'm dead, which may come sooner rather than later!

Oh what the heck, I'll just try to take my vitamins.

Vive La France

Ah Bastille Day, the great French celebration of liberty and decapitation. Take this day as an opportunity to emulate the French a little more in your everyday life. It's insufficient just have 6 croissants and double espresso for breakfast. Better option? Be like their President.

That's right. Be like this guy. This guy is Nicolas Sarkozy and he is the President of France. He got elected by running a conservative campaign promising to strengthen the economy and always support George W. "Smarty Pants" Bush. He's at best vaguely anti-immigrant and worst a borderline Nazi. What's better, he got the notorious French community of strike-happy workers to elect him even though he argued that they all needed to work harder. That's impressive powers of persuasion, which makes sense given his track record with women.

Take a look at Cecilia. This is his second wife. The one he was married too when he got elected. There were rumors of affairs on either end, but she was his wife, at times throughout his political career had even been referred to as a chief aid, so she's probably at least a little smart. And on top of that, she's a former model. I mean, seriously people look at this woman. And Nicolas? Well, he ain't quite so pretty to look at. When you go beyond the glamour shot he's rocking earlier in the post you see he's kinda dorky looking, particularly standing next to her.

So who does he romance and marry after splitting from Cecilia?

Yup. Another former model. This time a younger and arguably prettier one. Carla Bruni. Now Bruni is a Ms. Sarkozy and she tours the world being totally gorgeous all the time. She's also recently recorded an album of music. So she's a talented former model... at least a reasonably talented one.


So there you go. That's your lesson for the day. Vive La France. Marry a model. Then marry another model. And drink a lot of wine.

Or if nothing else, go for the french fries at lunch.