Ray's House of Love Vol III

Maryn · Jan 2, 2017

Tree is down. Evil Mr. Maryn had a long nap, then had all this energy. I felt honor-bound to help. However, the couch is still in its weird place, because this might be the time to pull up the carpet. I hope my knees are good for it.

Maryn, whose knees are two decades older than her face

oneblindmouse · Jan 3, 2017

Belated Christmas and New Year wishes to everyone!

Oh boy, do I need the hot tub! I've been inundated in family (which is lovely), but having to provide three meals a day and cater to vegetarians, and seafood allergies, and the elderly, and some just frigging picky people, and two (gorgeous adorable heart-melting twin) granddaughters who have to eat at weird times....... is anything but lovely. I'm feeling exhausted, both physically and mentally, with zero imagination about the next meal, and the need to be pampered. It's been a complicated year, and I need to chill and get back to my writing, which is FINALLY happening!!! Whether I ever get published is a totally different kettle of fish!

Maryn · Jan 3, 2017

You just ease right into the tub. Try not to dunk Komnena. Russ will be along eventually with fresh towels, which I hear he's warming on a radiator at my request. (I don't miss much about my living situation of long ago, but a radiator-heated towel was wonderful.) Oh, and we have wine and sparkling juices. Is the New Age music okay? I have it on a loop. (I just checked. I don't even have 24 hours of it yet. Loser.)

In fact, pet peeves of the privileged: my car came with a few months of Sirius satellite radio. The New Age station repeats so often! I haven't noted the artist and title of anything new in a long while. When it's discontinued, I'll be able to let it go.

Maryn, spoiled but still smelling okay for the time being

Russ Mars · Jan 3, 2017

I don't have a radiator to warm the towels, but I took a nap on them, so they're pretty warm. Ignore the drool spots.

Maryn · Jan 3, 2017

Good enough. I ain't fussy.

Russ Mars · Jan 3, 2017

The main consumer of my time lately is learning Scrivener...a Christmas present from Pandora. Has anyone else tried it?

Lillian_Blaire · Jan 3, 2017

Russ Mars said:
The main consumer of my time lately is learning Scrivener...a Christmas present from Pandora. Has anyone else tried it?

YES! I love it. It takes some time but once you get it, you'll never go back. It's awesome.

- - - Updated - - -

Lots of great tutorials on YouTube--they really helped.

Russ Mars · Jan 3, 2017

My usual way is to jump right into things, but this time I'm going through the tutorial step by step, beginning to end. I'm almost done with that, but my short term memory's not so good these days so it's going to take a minute.

I've also got a nice collection of tutorial PDFs and videos, and I'll just keep going over everything until it sinks into my thick old skull.

So far, I love it! The more I learn, the more impressed I am.

Komnena · Jan 4, 2017

What is Scrivener?

oneblindmouse · Jan 4, 2017

Ditto to Kemmena.

WriteMinded · Jan 4, 2017

oneblindmouse said:
Belated Christmas and New Year wishes to everyone!

Oh boy, do I need the hot tub! I've been inundated in family (which is lovely), but having to provide three meals a day and cater to vegetarians, and seafood allergies, and the elderly, and some just frigging picky people, and two (gorgeous adorable heart-melting twin) granddaughters who have to eat at weird times....... is anything but lovely. I'm feeling exhausted, both physically and mentally, with zero imagination about the next meal, and the need to be pampered. It's been a complicated year, and I need to chill and get back to my writing, which is FINALLY happening!!! Whether I ever get published is a totally different kettle of fish!

Pizza. It's my answer to everything.

Except the writing, of course.

Russ Mars said:
The main consumer of my time lately is learning Scrivener...a Christmas present from Pandora. Has anyone else tried it?

I bought it a year and a half ago, because I got it for a song. (Or maybe it was $20. Nobody pays me to sing.)I've opened it twice. I think I like my writing apps less complicated.

Komnena said:
What is Scrivener?

A complicated writing application, loved my many.

Russ Mars · Jan 4, 2017

Komnena said:
What is Scrivener?

It's loaded with features to organize long writing projects, be they non-fiction or fiction (even screenplays for those so inclined). I've used a similar program for years, Liquid Story Binder, but I'm now convinced Scrivener is better—for me. I first heard of it years ago, but I was reminded of it because of advertising they run on AW.

You can find out about it and download the app for a free trial here: Literature and Latte

It lists for $40, but often there are promotions selling it for $20, and that's what we paid. Again, for me, it is well worth it.

But still I wonder how brainwashed we are to think we need anything more than pen and paper. I mean, c'mon, Shakespeare didn't have MSWord, and it's my understanding he wouldn't even use a typewriter. :e2writer:

Maryn · Jan 4, 2017

I'm back from my writing group. Someone please hit me on the head with a skillet. It'll pain me less.

I mean, I'm a grouch. I know it, you all know it, and it's no secret in my writing group. But it irks me no end to see someone I've carefully instructed on format, then on a geographic part of the country she's never visited, butcher both without mercy and receive praise from everyone else in the group for a great script sure to place if not win.

Her failure to observe standard format allowed her to cheat, too, cramming far more dialogue on the page than proper format allows. And she spelled the city of Nogales No Gallos.

If she wins, I will have to be lobotomized.

Maryn, rolling her eyes

WriteMinded · Jan 5, 2017

Maryn said:
I'm back from my writing group. Someone please hit me on the head with a skillet. It'll pain me less.

I mean, I'm a grouch. I know it, you all know it, and it's no secret in my writing group. But it irks me no end to see someone I've carefully instructed on format, then on a geographic part of the country she's never visited, butcher both without mercy and receive praise from everyone else in the group for a great script sure to place if not win.

Her failure to observe standard format allowed her to cheat, too, cramming far more dialogue on the page than proper format allows. And she spelled the city of Nogales No Gallos.

If she wins, I will have to be lobotomized.

Maryn, rolling her eyes

Yep. Looking for my frying pan right now, but I think you should take it to your next writing group meet and spread the pain around. This, however, absolutely made my day: "And she spelled the city of Nogales No Gallos." :ROFL:

Maryn · Jan 5, 2017

Well, something came out of it, then.

Maryn, such an optimist

Russ Mars · Jan 12, 2017

Maryn said:
And she spelled the city of Nogales No Gallos.

If she wins, I will have to be lobotomized.

Maryn, rolling her eyes

And we're surprised by the presidential election results?

Maryn · Jan 12, 2017

Your new avatar is both awesome and deeply disturbing, Russ. I'm not sure it would be safe to accept a towel from you when I step from the hot tub.

I guess I was mainly steamed because this woman asked for help and I spent a good bit of time writing her a script in perfect format and making the script sort of about that format. I was the main character, lecturing about format on a stage where other things were also happening, which allowed me to add action lines at the proper indentation and using the proper verb tense, sound effects, entrances and exits of other characters, a wryly or two, a quotation within dialogue. Really, it had everything she might need to write a play that looks fully professional. My sample ran three or four pages, I forget. I gave it to her in both print and digital form.

What she presented? Character name flush left at the margin. Tab at one inch, all dialogue left aligned to the tab and extended fully to the right margin. All action lines flush left and extending fully to the right margin. So the contest requiring the play to be no longer than two pages would probably have run three and a half or so, properly formatted, and she knew it. Cheating is not cool.

Maryn, who seems to have wound herself up again

Russ Mars · Jan 12, 2017

Want me to take her out for you?

Oh, my avatar is a screenshot from some horror movie I was watching.

Komnena · Jan 13, 2017

HAPPY fRIDAY 13!

Maryn · Jan 13, 2017

I was born on a Friday the 13th.

Suddenly a lot of things make sense now, huh?

My critique group is discussing attending a Ghostlight Project protest on January 19th, in which people active in theatre and writers in general reinforce the stand that theatre is a safe haven which is inclusive, protective, and compassionate, in opposition of the new administration's values. The discussion now is whether we will brave the traffic and parking hassles of the equity theatre downtown, drive to a local college, or stroll to the high school my kids attended, all of them hosting a Ghostlight gathering.

I'm leaning toward downtown, myself. Season tickets, and likely to get more media attention for being a professional theatre.

Maryn, shy activist

Komnena · Jan 17, 2017

Since I was born the day before Halloween I'll not say anything about your birthday, Maryn.
Went to the doctor yesterday and got the good news that I was down ten and a half pounds. The pulses in my ankles are strong so the walking seems to be keeping the diabetes in remission.

Maryn · Jan 17, 2017

I do so enjoy hearing good health news. As my in-person and online friends age, you get not-so-good news more than you'd like.

Plus I envy your weight loss. I'm doing a lot right, but just enough wrong to be static for a lot of years. We joke that if we went to the movies seven nights a week instead of watching TV, I'd get there, since we never buy anything at the concessions stand.

Mr. Maryn says I'm being a big baby about driving downtown at rush hour, so he'll drive. (Whew!) I'm now debating making a protest sign, which would be my first ever. Mostly I don't attend such events, just concur with their views.

Mr. Maryn has been doing a big of genealogy research and while I don't have a lot of interest in it, the research can pull you in. The other day I discovered a relative who gave birth to a forebear, lost her husband, and eventually married a man 38 years her junior. Neither was rich or owned land, both were already citizens, and they lived simply in a rented house until her death. Whatever story is behind that union is lost to history, damn it.

Maryn, who enjoys inventing reasons

oneblindmouse · Jan 19, 2017

Maryn said:
I was born on a Friday the 13th.

Suddenly a lot of things make sense now, huh?

LOL

Maryn · Jan 20, 2017

Good morning, everyone. I went to that political activism meeting and it was not my thing at all. Oh, well.

But in further genealogical digging when I should have been doing other things, I found that a forebear married a wrestler when they were in their very early 20s--and that he was still a professional wrestler when he was 39. This is so unlike everyone else in the family tree that it cracks me up. That branch of the family has a lot of machinists, day laborers, linemen, and electricians. I have to wonder how they reacted to their daughter's announcement that she was marrying a wrestler.

Maryn, not dressed for wrestling just now

Russ Mars · Jan 20, 2017

Maryn said:
That branch of the family has a lot of machinists, day laborers, linemen, and electricians. I have to wonder how they reacted to their daughter's announcement that she was marrying a wrestler.

I'd bet more wrestlers come from a blue-collar, working-class background, than any other. I mean, how many doctors and attorneys become wrestlers?

Ray's House of Love Vol III

Baaa!

The new me

Baaa!

Interesting little planet you've got here.

Baaa!

Interesting little planet you've got here.

Procrastinator Extraordinaire

Interesting little planet you've got here.

In Honor of Peter Tomich,USS Utah

The new me

Derailed

Interesting little planet you've got here.

Baaa!

Derailed

Baaa!

Interesting little planet you've got here.

Baaa!

Interesting little planet you've got here.

In Honor of Peter Tomich,USS Utah

Baaa!

In Honor of Peter Tomich,USS Utah

Baaa!

The new me

Baaa!

Interesting little planet you've got here.