Check In- What Are You Doing?

Building and painting Warhammer minis, while writing banter between a 700 year old man and a potty-mouthed android who looks like a ten-year-old girl.

Wednesday morning, and it's about time to head out to work. Already looking forward to my week off next week - more specifically, not waking up early. (Interrupted an awesome dream, where I was browsing a used bookstore full of great F/SF books I'd never heard of. Woke up before I bought one.)

Nose is still itchy, but I got some Flonase the other day, and that seemed to help a bit. Also got some eyedrops, which I may have to resort to before work. We're supposed to get some rain by the end of the week, so that'll clear the air. I'll miss the warm weather, but I won't miss the pollen...

And away I go. Books need slingin', paychecks need earnin'...

Just finished printing out the front stuff and 6 parts of the historical (WIP1) Six more parts and I'll be ready for Draft 9.

Cindyt:

Wow!

How do you do that???

I wish I had time to sit and write twenty chapters in one sitting!

You must be independently wealthy...

I used to be too, but...lost my millions in bad real estate deals.

Now I have to work to pay my bills, like common folks.

Thinking about the next book in the series. I have piles of notes and lists of plot ideas. Yikes, what have I done?

finally back. my health's been bad lately, so I've been having to pick and choose where spend my energy. still writing a lot, but mostly short stories and flash fiction.

buzzed my hair today! I had it buzzed in university and had been missing it. I'm so happy right now.

Thursday, and the promised weather shift happened overnight. Looks gray out there and wet. So why is the danged house still so humid and hot?

Work looms, though hopefully it'll be another light day, and I shouldn't have to shop my way home.

Oh, and the second attempt at that second camp logo got approved, so that's done. I'm honestly surprised it didn't take one more tweaking. Just need to resize it, throw the white grid on (a fine "mesh" that doesn't show when the design is printed but which helps cut ink and keeps the silkscreen from stretching out so bad), and print the final, probably closer to screen burning time.

Still debating with myself over whether to indulge in a Paperwhite Kindle upgrade or whether I should save my danged money like a responsible adult.

I hate adulting, especially responsible adulting...

Trying to think of a good name for my blog. It will highlight my towns history and the texts I've written about Brandon Lee. Lol. And the novels I'm writing. Or maybe I need a blog for each. Hmmm

Cindyt said:

Trying to think of a good name for my blog. It will highlight my towns history and the texts I've written about Brandon Lee. Lol. And the novels I'm writing. Or maybe I need a blog for each. Hmmm

Click to expand...

Whether you need more than one depends on your goals. If you just want a place to natter about various things, go ahead and just have one blog. If you want to build a "brand" for public viewing and promoting, then you might specialize and focus.

It's later Thursday, and I'm munching on leftover turkey taco lunch. Still have some allergy Issues, but not quite as bad. Hopefully another day of showers will do the trick.

Work was light. There's a possibility of overtime, but it's the Saturday shift, which is really early start (and it's a weird shift all around - strange how each shift has a personality, but they do, and Saturday's universally acknowledged as weird. And not my kind of weird, just weird-weird.) Also OT potential for Monday and Tuesday, but that's technically my vacation week, even if the only thing I'm actually doing is going to a Rifftrax Live show. Meh... will decide tomorrow if any overtime's still available.

And away I drift.

Friday afternoon, and I'm sitting here adjusting to new glasses (minor prescription shift, just enough to make things a bit wobbly when I turn my head too fast) and waiting for a phone call that I hope not to get until after 4. See, my aunt went in for surgery today, and if all goes well it should be wrapping up around 4ish, so her husband is supposed to call and let us know. If he calls before then, something's probably gone wrong. If he calls after (or doesn't call at all)... toss-up between things being wrong and him just not remembering or bothering to call (he can be odd like that.) Either way, it's rather academic, as she doesn't want people visiting her at the hospital (though I expect my uncle to do so anyway - he has a way of not hearing things, or simply deciding that he'll just go ahead and do what he thinks needs doing.)

Anyway, work was light enough we got out way early - early enough I managed to get my new glasses and shop, leaving the store round about the time I'd normally be leaving work. And I got paid for it. (When they send us home, we get paid for the full shift.)

And I've finished my deli soup, so I'll probably poke around doing stuff that won't interfere with answering a telephone.

Learning something new about writing nearly every day.

Ducking through while indulging a retro music itch. Anyway, for the curious, we did finally hear that everything apparently went okay with my aunt's surgery, though (as one might expect) they were late getting to her.

Other than that, nothing really to report. Mostly wasted the day waiting for the call. Now I'm looking forward to not having to wake up early until the Wednesday after next. (This coming week's my "vacation," such as it is.) Been sleeping really scuzzy lately, which has made crawling out of bed for work extra difficult - will be nice to be able to just roll over and snooze.

Oh - and the new glasses seem to be working okay. Seems a little easier to read the screen.

Away I drift.

Keithy said:

Learning something new about writing nearly every day.

Click to expand...

And then wondering what to do about it.

Keithy said:

Learning something new about writing nearly every day.

Click to expand...

Keithy said:

And then wondering what to do about it.

Click to expand...

IIRC, I once read a short story with the following passage: wisdom is an empty bowl until it is filled with need. (Googled it, but can't find attribution )

So, when you have need, the vessels of knowledge you're accumulating in your mental cupboard will be useful. Until then, they need to be dusted on a regular basis. And someone will probably keep grabbing them to nuke soup in or something, so you won't be able to find the one you need when you need it - and does anyone know how to wash a flippin' knowledge vessel anymore before putting it away? Seriously, it's not rocket science! The sponge is right there, people!

I think I lost track of that one somewhere...

It's Saturday, and I got to sleep in. Weird dreams, though. Weather looks overcast, though it's humid again. Will probably end up mowing the lawn this afternoon. I also need to get some short stories going - picked out a couple anthology calls as goals/focus points. Even if I don't make the deadline, having a goal will (hopefully) get me moving on something.

Also wondering if my glasses are slightly crooked. The woman kept messing with them the other day, but it's not the temples, it's the nose pads. Or maybe I'm looking at them wrong.

Away I go.

Kind of realising that writing isn't just putting words on a page.

Keithy said:

Kind of realising that writing isn't just putting words on a page.

Click to expand...

The story of every writer's life... looks so easy when you go to the bookstore and all those words are obediently lined up in order.

Sunday afternoon, and I just can't seem to get anything going right. Took three tries to even get a shower in - someone was always running the water or using the bathroom. Still haven't mowed the lawn, though maybe this afternoon. (Want to wait until after the rodent trapper's done his daily rounds. Yes, we're having Issues again. Trapping worked last time, so we have our fingers crossed it'll work again.) Still need to do site work, and I want to get out to my shed to do some Apoxie stuff, though I really need to mow first to make that feasible 'cause the path's so overgrown, which again puts me back to waiting to be sure I can mow...

Ergh. Just one of those days that never seems to find its footing. I may just chalk it up to a second Saturday and go with the theme...

And now Amazon's got a token discount on Paperwhites going on. Damn it, I don't know how much longer I can avoid temptation. (It's not that I don't technically have the money, but whether I should be spending it when my old Kindle still functions. Though I've never regretted upgrading my Nook, and that still worked, though the new one works better... and I didn't spend as much as I thought I would on glasses, so I still technically have some tax return indulgence to play with... gah. I'm going to do it, aren't I? Dang it.)

On the plus side, my aunt's headed home from the hospital today. Called this morning and sounded much more coherent, so they must be easing off on the pain meds. Sounds like the surgery was a success, so fingers crossed she keeps heading in a good direction.

Away I stumble.

ETA - For the curious, I caved, though I did resist the lure of the "travel bundle," which came with a leather case and a special carrying bag. New Kindle should be here this week. Hopefully before Thursday, as I'm going to a movie Thursday evening and the Kindle makes a good pre-movie timekiller. (Though apparently we're also going to a movie tomorrow - school gets out this week, so we're trying to get to Wonder Woman before too many kids flood the matinee showings. Should be fun, I hope.) And I finally got the lawn mowed, though I'll probably feel it tomorrow - took maybe twenty pulls on the cord to get the thing started, and numerous applications of "instant start" fluid. Something ain't right, but if I bring it up I'll be yelled at again...

Eating dinner and relaxing after a very tough day at work. The ops manager is away for two weeks on his reserve duty so it's just me and the morning dispatcher running the show. Mondays are tough to begin with, but oh boy did we really get hit with just about everything we could have. What a ridiculous day. Somehow we got it all under control.

It's been slow going but I think my drivers (yes I am laying claim to them even though they're independent contractors) are finally realizing that hey, I'm not going anywhere for awhile so they're starting to work with me more directly. I think I'm up to half a dozen now who know me by name lol. I can't say that I blame them, there are still a couple I call 'hey' because I have to peek at their manifests to cheat and figure out who they are. XD When you've got over 20 names to learn and you only see a person for a couple minutes every day if that, it takes awhile.

I think it helps that I am actively trying to get to know everyone and I'm the only member of this dispatch team who doesn't yell at them when they mess up. Serves no purpose imo except to make the driver defensive and cause friction, when we need them working with us to resolve problems. Everyone makes some bonehead mistake once in awhile but as long as we can fix it and keep the customer happy, I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. We work with medications, not nuclear warheads. Unless a control goes missing, but that's a separate issue in itself. That's a Big Deal that rarely happens. But anyway.

I've been there about 3 months now, long enough to qualify for benefits as a Real Employee. I have to admit, as crappy as some days are I do enjoy what I'm doing, for the most part. My drivers are a very diverse group of people and by and large everyone gets along. Most of them come in with a smile every day, and sometimes they're downright silly. One of them had me dying laughing last week with his spot on impression of the other dispatcher, lol.

And, well, I have a confession. I've got a major crush on one of the drivers, which is very unusual for me. I just don't take interest in anyone all that often. But he's cute, and I hate to be so stereotypical about this but I love his accent, I could listen to him talk all day. Sadly I don't get much out of him most days, he's pretty quiet and he's one of the two drivers who does the longer afternoon runs. By the time he gets back to the warehouse it's late afternoon and he's probably pretty tired. For the record, he is one of the drivers who knows me by name now.

We just did contract renewals for every driver in the company and I had to really work to make sure he got his, which is a story in itself honestly. I think he appreciated the extra effort I put in on his behalf. I can't help but notice he's making more of an effort to keep his paperwork neater when he brings it in to me. It's a small thing but it makes a difference.

I'm not planning to make anything out of it, I'm just happy I get to see him almost every day. Besides, I have no idea if he's available or not anyway, and I would be very surprised if he was. At least no matter how bad the day goes I have something to look forward to in the afternoon.

Monday, and it's overcast and cooler again. We could use a little more rain, or so say my eyes and sinuses. (Poor Allegra's really having a hard time this year - I'm supplementing with Flonase and eye drops, though I have to be careful with Flonase.)

We did indeed get out to see Wonder Woman. Actually, we misread the schedule, and because we didn't want to sit around waiting for an hour, we just sprang for the pricier "RPX experience" showing, which is 3D on a larger, sharper screen. IMHO, the movie deserved it. Fully lived up to the hype. (Wish I could say the same for the previews... too many, too long, and too forgettable.) Small audience, but at least they watched the film and didn't babble or text clear through it. Guess that's the advantage to seeing the movie early, rather than later in the run when more people are just using it for babysitting or timekilling.

After the movie, we ate a late enough lunch that I called nuke-your-own-dinner night, meaning I'm off the hook for cooking.

Away I wander.

I am seconds away from getting into the car to drive up Cape York Peninsula. Should be fun! See y'all in July.

Helix - enjoy the trip!

Just swingin' by on an overcast Tuesday morning before heading out. My new glasses are still a little crooked; I think it's the nose pads, not the temples, which they kept fiddling with when they gave them to me. Hope I don't have to drive out to the repair place, but the glasses retailers seem very limited in what they can or will fix anymore. Even though I just got the blasted things on Friday...

Ergh...

Away I wander.

Brightdreamer:

My mother used to tell me that it was not my glasses that were crooked, but my head.

She also used to tell me lots of other things.

Well, I decided to take my novella of 24k words and increase it up to at least 60k words.

I am afraid of breaking it thereby, but if I get lucky, it will end up much better. Currently, it is a "simple, straightforward, honest story of identity, love, and sacrifice", as my query advertises. It takes place in ancient India, so I am trying to tempt a few agents who are looking for "non-western" locations.

Also trying to hawk my short story collection. I stood out on Main Street (wearing a Groucho mask as a disguise), and tried to convince people that my copies of the stories were actually newspapers, but that did not work. I did not sell a single one. So back to querying.

I find writing to be the easy part.

RLGreenleaf - If all else fails, you still have your novella version backed up, don't you? You can't break something that's already preserved - worst case scenario, expansion doesn't work and you revert to the shorter version. Good luck on the expansion plans!

And back again...

Didn't get out of the house fast enough to avoid having others tag along on various errands. Got the glasses adjusted, at least, and they seem straighter. Will see if they still dig into my nose or not, though I don't expect there's much else to be done; actually got the guy who adjusts things, with pliers and not just the little steam heater thing.

In theory, my new Paperwhite's on its way, but our post office has had delivery Issues lately... we'll see if I have to play games to get it or not. (And I may or may not get the new screen protector in August. I've had them say that before, then the thing showed up anyway. If it's really that far back-ordered, I'll cancel and just buy a screen protector locally.)

Off to attempt something useful. Wish me luck.

Brightdreamer:

Yes, definitely: I kept copies of the original novella.

As I think more about it, though, I am getiing lots of ideas for new additions.

But I need to go review some Indian history, to make sure it is historically accurate.

Any folks out there who are experts in that field?

Struggling. Just struggling.