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Lillian_Blaire

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I'm ALWAYS that one. Ugh. Not on purpose, though...

Been writing and editing for three days straight and now I'm starting to hate myself. And my WIP.
 

thereeness

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BD - HAH, how did you know? XD Yes, it's totally the one by Renni and King. I checked it out on goodreads and read some other reviews about it and was impressed enough to buy it. I'm hoping it'll help me with my troubles self-editing.

Tonight's writing is going to be the Festival of the Sea! Having never written a festival atmosphere before, I've gotta do some research before work on what kind of events and suchlike I want to happen. It's also taking place in the privateer/sea trade capital of the continent, so that means it's going to be even wilder XD. Hoping to have fun with it tonight. And I've got 2 new books in my bag to read, "Wild Beauty" by Ann McLemore and "The Glass Spare" by Lauren DeStefano. I also have a new blog post to draft up. So much work, not enough hours in the day.
 

Brightdreamer

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Wednesday evening, and kicking around for a bit whilst debating what to do with my time before bed. Should probably write, even if Toothless's keyboard is less than ergonomic.

I've also fallen way behind on site work... plus I have two new reviews to add, and a third likely soon.

Meh. I think I'll do some spitballing, then reading in bed. (Can't work on the project I want to work on right now anyway; need to transfer it from WriteWay Pro, which is on the currently-incapacitated big machine.)
 

DragonHeart

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Feeling pretty good this morning. I woke up almost on time and I feel mentally alert enough to make some progress on my Portuguese. I'm going to copy down at least one lessons' worth of notes first, then spend a full hour today on Duolingo and Tinycards. I've been so exhausted lately that I've barely been doing more than reviewing to keep my streak going, and because I promised myself a reward. If I keep up my study for 30 days straight, I'll buy my first real reference book to continue learning with.
 

DanielSTJ

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Feeling pretty good this morning. I woke up almost on time and I feel mentally alert enough to make some progress on my Portuguese. I'm going to copy down at least one lessons' worth of notes first, then spend a full hour today on Duolingo and Tinycards. I've been so exhausted lately that I've barely been doing more than reviewing to keep my streak going, and because I promised myself a reward. If I keep up my study for 30 days straight, I'll buy my first real reference book to continue learning with.


Oooooooo! I'm on Duolingo too for German learning. What language are you learning?

Day:

1) Woke up at 8 A.M.
2) Made strong tea.
3) Went on AW.

My next phase is some intensive reading followed, near the end of the day, by an acceptable amount of writing.
 

thereeness

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Drafted a blog post, finished a chapter, and read a book last night. Not a bad start to the work week, if I do say so myself. I was pleasantly surprised by the book I read, The Glass Spare by LaurenDeStefano, and am curious to see where the next book in the series goes. There were things I didn't like about it, but things that I did, so I think I'll keep it around. Hoping to jump in with both feet into the writing game tonight and am uuber excited to do so.
 

Brightdreamer

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Thursday, and I already wish it was Friday, so my graphics card would be here.

Ergh...

Slept weird again, so I'm still struggling to wake up completely. I'll probably have to shop after work, too - and i already anticipate another overloaded work day. So ornament progress looks unlikely.

Away i yawn...
 

DragonHeart

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@DanielSTJ Brazilian Portuguese. I am very, very rusty but I did learn German in high school. I plan to work on getting it back after I'm satisfied with my Portuguese.

Today went...surprisingly well, actually. No major problems and I got everything done early. I would have left early but Google told me traffic was backed up from an accident so I did some work in the warehouse to kill time. I'd rather work for half an hour and have a mostly normal commute home than leave early and sit in traffic for an hour. Depends on the day though, sometimes I am just done lol.

I also managed to do some Christmas shopping at work. Not something I would normally do but PAX badges went on sale and they sell fast so I did what I had to do. Got badges for myself, and also my brother, nephew and nephew's cousin (nephew-in-law, is that a thing?). They'll only go for a day so it wasn't too bad but ow, my wallet lol. That's what all the overtime is for...and badges for the day I bought for them sold out in less than an hour, so that's why I did it on the clock.

Now I'm home, fed, enjoying my evening coffee and relaxing.
 

Brightdreamer

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A dreary, dark Thursday evening follows a long day. At least the load numbers were closer to normal, though we still didn't finish. And, yes, I had to shop after work, but I got about five dinners' worth of items so I should be good for a while (unless we finish early tomorrow, in which case I might celebrate with the traditional Safeway chicken strip lunch.)

It's gonna be sandwich for dinner night, on account of the sibling being out for the evening at a class and the rest of us being lazy as all get-out. Tomorrow's breakfast for dinner, though. At least, it's supposed to be. We'll see if it happens...

Now I need to decide if I'm ambitious enough to post another book review (read another graphic novel on Hoopla last night), or if I'll say screw it and do it tomorrow.
 

altoid967

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Been up for a half hour. Sipping coffee that tastes like junk. Watching 30 mph winds scatter leaves all over the streets, wondering if the power will get knocked out today. Thinking about powering through the majority of the reading I need to do for classes, but can't seem to wake up.
 

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Wrote a bit last night. Finished another chapter with Desi and Than and Desi gets smacked over the head by how gorgeous Izzy is when she gets all dressed up. It was really kinda cute. Than made fun of her a bit because of it, haha. Tomorrow night begins festival night and 2-3 chapters of mounting personal tension instead of action tension. Usually I find writing scenes like those boring, but I'll see what I can come up with. Also finished the book I was reading and started another one that I'm having a really, really hard time pacing myself on. I'm a book dragon, if I get a new book, I eat/read it as fast as I can, and then I can't look at it for a month XD Weird, I know. Also, I have hit a milestone. For the first time, ever, in my writing career, I have filled an entire 3-subject notebook with my novel and now need another one. And I'm only halfway through. I also had to replace my backup pen, because my new(ish) one ran out of ink real fast, haha.

Thank gods I asked for pens for Christmas.
 

altoid967

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For the first time, ever, in my writing career, I have filled an entire 3-subject notebook with my novel and now need another one. And I'm only halfway through. I also had to replace my backup pen, because my new(ish) one ran out of ink real fast, haha.

Thank gods I asked for pens for Christmas.

I'm glad I'm not the last person on earth who still handwrites things in the beginning.
 

Brightdreamer

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Thereness - Interesting book dragon metaphor. I consider myself a book dragon more in the hoarding sense; I have a nice heap of story jewels in my lair. And I've been known to incinerate thieves... ;)

Altoid97 - *waves*

Friday, finally, and Amazon's package tracker claims I should have my new used graphics card by 8 PM... which, given our slipshod delivery, probably means Monday, tomorrow being Veterans Day.

Okay, nose, you can stop nosing now... Either the Mobius bug is trying for another round, or that danged co-worker who's been sniffling all month has successfully contaminated others.

Think I'll hit Flonase, then head out the door... maybe after an Airborne. Dunno if it actually helps, but it's psychological...

--

And it's Friday afternoon, slowly slipping towards evening.

Work was normal to light. We finished the load, at least, and got out a little early. Next week is probably going to suck, what with the holiday backlog compounding Monday's normal heavy load.

Got myself chicken strips for lunch. Yippy skippy.

No package yet, dang it. Not that I'm counting nanoseconds or anything...

--

And it's even later, and I'm back on the big machine.

It's been a long, frustrating journey, but the upshot (near as I can tell, knock on plywood):

1 - It turned out to be the monitor dying, not the graphics card, though the old graphics card was very dusty even after vacuuming, which I can't believe spoke well for its longevity.

2 - It's a pain in the tail to get Windows 7 to acknowledge the temporary monitor I'm using (a Viewsonic it insists is a "Generic" monitor.)

3 - The new graphics card, a used AMD Radeon 7000-series, so far kicks tail and was worth the 30-buck investment now that I've got it working. Didn't think I'd see a difference over the 6000-series I was using, but boy do I... (Wound up using it to adjust the resolution; Windows insisted that "Generic Monitor" was only capable of the basic 640-pixel resolution, and refused to accept downloaded drivers attempting to inform it otherwise.)

Still have some fine tuning to do on resolution and contrast issues - Word looks fine, but having slight blurring issues on text elsewhere, and it seems a bit intense brightness-wise - and I'll likely end up buying myself a new monitor anyway (looked like there was a sale at Office Hole when I was looking for cards they no longer carried), but for now, I'm happy.

Now I'll probably shut down, put the side panel back on, and head bedward. Computer issues are exhausting. Fingers crossed it still boots fine tomorrow...
 
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altoid967

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Brightdreamer- Computers are so damn finicky. I hope you are able to resolve your issues without popping any blood vessels.


And here I sit on yet another morning, trying to make the most of my time before work. Found a way to make the coffee palatable. I will never buy this brand again-- I don't care how cool the packaging looks. Next to me is a pile of notebooks wherein reside past writings and scribblings. It amazes me how long I've loved doing this sort of thing, and yet I never really gave myself the time of day. I hope that I can stay strong this time around. I would like to at least write one story beginning to end, because I never have. I can't wait until the semester is over. There are far too many things pulling at my attention.
 

thereeness

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altoid967 - I'm just really old fashioned XD Plus, it's easier for me to make mistakes when I use my good ol' notebooks. And it's much harder to lose a notebook than it is to lose a document if you don't forget to save.

BD - Heee, my cave is full of all the books I've devoured over the years and my ever-increasing appetite demands satiation. Villagers send me beautiful maidens, I send them back with a demand for books instead. It works out.

Also, pro tip: DO NOT read a book about self editing and then try to write. Oh my giddy gods, I didn't get a single. damn. thing. written because I was so caught up in critiquing every syllable I wrote. It took me finishing the rest of FOREST OF A THOUSAND LANTERNS (which was a FUCKING AWESOME book, btw) and about 3 hours for me to write a single page. And it turns out what I wrote wasn't viable anyway because my MC is waxing on about how she wants love when the previous chapter she's just like, "Love sucks and it only hurts me." so now I have to scrap everything I've written.

Ugh. Bad Ree, no cookie for me.
 

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Also, pro tip: DO NOT read a book about self editing and then try to write. Oh my giddy gods, I didn't get a single. damn. thing. written because I was so caught up in critiquing every syllable I wrote.

This was me after getting critiques after posting up my first 200 words in SYW. :tongue

I had to get up at 5:10am this morning to get my son to his Jr. Black-belt pre-test at 6. Ate, putzed around. Picked boy up. Felt a surge of fatherly pride to learn he did really well. Told him I was proud. Came home, made sure he ate, now back down in my man cave, er, work-space obsessively looking over this forum trying to gain skill and wisdom by osmosis (I obsess over forums, I love the medium). Now I'm posting here, one step closer to the magic fifty post threshold. :)
 

Brightdreamer

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altoid967 - Hang in there... you can finish at least one. (Careful, though - that first story is the gateway drug. Once you clear it, there's gonna be another story - just one more - behind it... and another...)

thereeness - You know, it wouldn't be such an issue if they'd issue library cards to fire-breathing reptilians, but oh, no - somehow it's a "safety hazard." Yeesh, gnaw on one obnoxious patron for yammering on their phone while you're reading... (Ironically, I work at a library. Well, a library shipping center. In theory, I could get all the reading material I want for free right from work. But it's not the same... plus I'm often an impulse reader, and I can't guarantee I'll have a slot open for reading in the time I have the book.)
And no writing is ever really wasted. You learned something writing that bit you're going to delete - learned about your character, at least. (It's actually not entirely contradictory for a character to feel ambivalent about love... might be hard to pull off without sounding that way, but people often tell others - and themselves - they hate something they secretly, deep down inside, crave, especially if they "know" they can't ever have it. It might well be in character to have Lovehater experience the odd twinge of maybe, wondering, possibly, would it be so bad... then insecurity or habit makes them reassert their "never again" denial.)

DougR. - Congrats to the offspring!

Saturday morning, and everything booted okay, though I may move the graphics card back to the other slot (I have two graphics cards slots on this motherboard; moved it when I thought maybe it was the slot that was going bad before determining it was the monitor.) I will be going out for a new monitor later today, though, so there go my plans to spend all day catching up on lost ornament construction time in my shed. This one's just a hair too intense for me, even with adjustments. I suspect at least Mom will "tag along," though... sigh.

Well, I got the room tidied at least, and even did a little bit of dusting. (Reading that Unf*ck Your Habitat cleaning book by Rachel Hoffman - it's very refreshing to read a book on organizing that not only acknowledges we aren't all Martha Stewart, but some of us aren't in complete control of our situations and must contend with uncooperative others with different cleaning standards and priorities. Far more practical approaches than simply expecting one to plop down a few thousand on the latest closet organizers or invent a time machine to create extra hours for all-day cleaning binges. Halfway through, and I'm already willing to recommend it to anyone who needs a little help getting on track.)
 

DragonHeart

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Saturday afternoon, and getting the jump on some holiday shopping.

I admit I'm in kind of a poor mood right now. Saw my father while out shopping with my mom. There's a reason I don't talk to him. Not that he talks to me either--in fact, he literally said two words to me in the entire conversation, and that was to say goodbye. Why should he care, he has a 'better' family now anyway. At least my mom doesn't give me a hard time about not wanting to have anything to do with him anymore. We're practically strangers who just happen to share blood and a lot of bad memories. Meh.

Hopefully by the time I'm finished my afternoon coffee I'll be in a bit better mood.
 

Brightdreamer

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Well, this is an experience...

Later the same Saturday, and after three trips (do. not. ask...) and a hopefully-temporary reversion to the old graphics card, I am now viewing AbsoluteWrite on a brand-new Samsung 27-inch monitor.

I figured, what the heck... splurge a little. It'll last through at least one computer, hopefully.

Later, I'm going to see if an adapter will let it work with the newer graphics card; for some weird-arse reason, the newer card doesn't have an HDMI slot (but something that looks just similar enough to fake one out - like a slightly larger USB but with only one angled corner instead of the two on an HDMI), but it does have one of those boxy DVI(?) things, and thanks to the connection-hoarding sibling, I now have an adapter for the RGA cable to DVI(?). Since this computer has two graphics slots, and since the monitor has a manual toggle from digital HDMI to analog connections, I may see if I can hook up both cards temporarily, put the RGA/adapter one on the new card, and keep the HDMI on the old card to see if it'll work.

This is still a bit bright... may try toying with the settings some more, but the toggle switch is weird. Still, I'm already liking the extra screen real estate. Will be nice for watching things on Amazon Prime, should I ever get the chance.

So, anyway, the multiple store trips and general aggravation have put the kibosh on many half-formed plans of how to spend my day. Might get some site work done after dinner, maybe, but the workshed ain't happenin'. I don't know what universal forces are offended at the notion of me having time to work on my ornaments, but they win today, again...
 

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Congrats on the new toy, BD (even though you had to suffer for it lol).

I am waiting for my nails to dry, and about to meet friends for dinner and drinks. Hey, I already served my sentence! :p
 

Brightdreamer

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FB - Ooh, this toy was worth the suffering. (So big... so sharp... so shiny... and hopefully it'll help me break the slouching-at-the-computer habit, being big enough to sit back from the screen.) Now I just have to figure out if I can get it to work with the newer graphics card, though I won't cry if I have to stick with the older one. (I've always tried to invest in good cards anyway.)

It's getting in that gray area where I should probably shut down and contemplate starting dinner.

But it's such a big, shiny, sharp monitor...

--

And it's later, and technically I'm seeing this on my new-used graphics card (the 7000-series.)

Right now... I'm not seeing a huge difference.

Might just keep them both connected for now.

I'm really dying to fire up Titan Quest... just to see how she runs. (May try one run on one card, one run on the other.) Otherwise, plans include site work and general loafing about.

... And, for the curious, the TQ test seemed to produce a winner. The older card with the new HDMI connection seemed a trifle smoother in gameplay. So I think I'll be disconnecting the second card (but keeping it around, Just In Case), so it doesn't hoover so much power.

Later, at least.

For now, I really need to do some catch-up on site stuff. Probably ought to spitball, too, but for a slack-off Saturday it's been rather trying and I'm drained.
 
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Oooooooo! I'm on Duolingo too for German learning. What language are you learning?

Day:

1) Woke up at 8 A.M.
2) Made strong tea.
3) Went on AW.

My next phase is some intensive reading followed, near the end of the day, by an acceptable amount of writing.

I was on Duolingo for a while too! I switched to LingoDeer just because I like the platform a teensy-tiny bit better for Japanese. German is on my bucket list for sure.

As for writing, I spent my morning researching agents and reading up on query-writing, until I felt like my brain was melting from working on spreadsheets all week. Really hoping to finish one last chapter of editing/rewrites tonight.:e2writer:
 

altoid967

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Good morning!

altoid967 - Hang in there... you can finish at least one. (Careful, though - that first story is the gateway drug. Once you clear it, there's gonna be another story - just one more - behind it... and another...)

Brightdreamer- Thanks for the encouragement. I do appreciate that. Congrats on your new baby!

Saw my father while out shopping with my mom. There's a reason I don't talk to him. Not that he talks to me either--in fact, he literally said two words to me in the entire conversation, and that was to say goodbye. Why should he care, he has a 'better' family now anyway.

DragonHeart- Humans are funny like that. Sometimes we break things and don't know how to fix them, or just plain don't try. I couldn't scroll by this without stopping to tell you that I can appreciate your hurt in this situation (or any other emotions it may bring). When I read your post it brought me back to when my parents first became divorced, my father got a new girlfriend, and suddenly just stopped bothering to pick my siblings and I up on weekends for visits. No call. Nothing. Hang in there. Focus on the people and things who bring positivity into your life.

My Sunday morning as it stands:
Coffee. Cornbread. AW Forums. Shortly, homework will ensue. Then work.

Lather, rinse, repeat.
 

thereeness

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BD - I know, right? It's not like I'm harming the books, which is what REALLY matters after all. Funny enough, I used to work in my small, hometown bookstore. I was an employee the night of the 7th HP book release soooo many years ago and you have noooo idea how badly I wanted to "Incendio" a patron or two. Cause sadly, humans are more squishy than crunchy and don't taste so good with ketchup XD

Well, I had mood all night long. I lost my badge, I almost couldn't get into the work building because the intercom was broken, didn't get my leave early time approved, and I'm stuck writing, of all things, romance. Now, I have nothing against romance. In fact, I like it very well (in theory). But writing it just....ugh. I just need a day where I can write at home with no interruptions. Writing at work is all well and good, and I love it, but not when it comes to the important scenes. So between my bad mood and my lack of enjoyment/experience writing romance, I didn't get a lot done. Hopefully a good night (day's) sleep will help with the attitude, but of course it's grocery shopping tonight so I can't even write the scenes at home before work. Blah. At least I got something down. And my characters are actually talking about their dating history. Like, calmly. Like adults. It's fantastic (I read way too much YA >.>)