Comments on: Today

By: sdn

sdn — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 03:09:57 +0000

listen, when it comes to school most of us are lazy and disorganized. i could not have cared less about, say, the fertile crescent or making a diorama out of gum or whatever.

underachievers unite!

By: Terry Weyna

Terry Weyna — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 20:04:09 +0000

I don’t see how one can be lazy or disorganized and still manage to put together multiple books in a single year — or a single lifetime. So you’ve at least overcome those childhood issues, right?

By: Susan Loyal

Susan Loyal — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 18:21:04 +0000

I can’t square the amount you accomplish in a single year with the descriptors “lazy” and “doesn’t apply himself.” If you can edit six anthologies on top of a day job and being a dad and husband by being “lazy”, you’d be truly frightening in “energetic” mode. I’m forced to assume that (tip of the hat to T. E. Lawrence) it was just your manner.

By: Faren

Faren — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 14:32:56 +0000

Gee, are my own self-deprecating winter mopes making their way to summery Oz? (Well yeah, I did send you that email….)

You’re a fine, dedicated multi-tasker and I hope the gloom will vanish ASAP!

By: Garth Nix

Garth Nix — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 11:46:15 +0000

Your school reports just mean you were bored with school — which is normal. If they’d offered anything interesting I’m sure you would have applied yourself and been anything but lazy, as is the case with your literary work.

I also bet many of your teachers would envy your family life, be greatly impressed by your body of work, and be really jealous that you are a friend and colleague of so many famous writers around the world.

So quit this self-loathing crap and get back to your desk, Mr Strahan. Show some application, for heaven’s sake! Anything under a dozen anthologies in 2007 will be considered lazy!

P.S. There’s still got to be something better and more original than “Universe”

By: Chris Lawson

Chris Lawson — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 07:46:17 +0000

Jonathan, I would have thought that instead of self-loathing, you could have scrolled down to your entry of 31 January and said, “Well that’ll show those know-nothin’ teachers!”

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 04:26:51 +0000

sdn: i think what struck me was the consistency of a bunch of comments, which weren’t necessarily wrong. i’m not sure how you turn lazy and doesn’t apply himself to your advantage…

ellen: thanks.

By: Ellen Datlow

Ellen Datlow — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:08:58 +0000

Jonathan,
I don’t have much to say about your report cards ;-) (I always got F’s in handwriting –in elementary school, when we were graded on it) but I think you’re a lovely person for having coffee with your mom every day. Good on you!! You are a wonderful person –for that alone, not to mention other things :-)

By: sdn

sdn — Tue, 06 Feb 2007 01:05:17 +0000

can you turn any of these to your advantage? i mean, my teachers’ saying reads all the time and does not interact with her classmates doesn’t strike me as a bad thing …

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:47:31 +0000

i guess. mine all say the same thing over and over, and this morning (at least), it kind of got to me.

By: sdn

sdn — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:34:11 +0000

i once joked to my boss that every single “performance review” in my entire life — starting with nursery school — says the same thing. it’s good to be consistent, i guess.