Check In- What Are You Doing?

Super cool. I thought I had the day off. I was gonna give a guitar lesson, then go out and have coffee/tea/cake with my mum and my grandmas, then I was gonna write for a few hours, and later meet with a friend. Now my boss calls me and asks if I can come in today. Nooooo, f*ck it! I think, but of course what I say is, "Yes, of course."

I'll still have time to give that guitar lesson and to meet my friend later in the evening but I was so looking forward to going out with Mum and my grandmas and to writing.

Friday: partying hard.

Today, recovering, reading and writing.

Tomorrow: schoolwork.

May mix today and tomorrow together.

captaincrow - Bummer on the unexpected work day, though it's nice to be wanted...

DanielSTG - Mixing today and tomorrow? Nooo! Have you no experience with sci-fi? Is meddling in the timestream ever a good idea, ever in the history and future of ever? (I could've sworn I told you that next week, but did will you listen? Apparently not... yeesh, how many times must we go through this time loop?)

Saturday morning, and got the token room tidying done (the Xmas pile is interfering with more tidying, but we don't have our tree up yet so there's nowhere else for the stuff to go.) Now I'm loading pics from my cameras from last night's event. Glad we went, but it really was awfully cold.

Will try to get out to the shed to sand and prime later, probably after lunch. And tomorrow there's a shopping trip, but fortunately painting generally goes faster than sculpting, and I can do more in a day because it dries faster.

Away I drift.

@Brightdreamer: Lol! The time compendium has begun! It won't stooooooooooop!

I'm sorry if I'm falling behind, but what are you painting?

DanielSTJ said:

@Brightdreamer: Lol! The time compendium has begun! It won't stooooooooooop!

I'm sorry if I'm falling behind, but what are you painting?

Click to expand...

Those blasted holiday ornaments. If it works out the way I intend, painting should go fast (except for the stuff that needs extra layers - unavoidable in some colors.) But since when has anything gone as I intended?

Brightdreamer said:

captaincrow - Bummer on the unexpected work day, though it's nice to be wanted...

Click to expand...

True that. It also wasn't that bad after all--kitchen had my fav dish today and they put some of it aside especially for me. And I met a friend on the train whom I hadn't seen for half a year.

I went for a trek to the library. It took me about an hour and a half but I picked up some good books:

The Executioner's Song- Norman Mailer
Tropic of Cancer- Henry Miller
The Golden Notebook- Doris Lessing
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie- Muriel Sparks
Go Tell It on the Mountain- James Baldwin

Meh. Saturday afternoon, and a shopping trip that was supposed to be tomorrow wound up eating a couple hours of my planned sanding/priming time. (Why must it be a game? Why not just say "I want to go today", instead of hinting and sighing and all that junk? Ergh...) But I got lunch out of the deal, at least, and finally got comped for previous grocery trips (I usually end up doing the grocery shopping, and I'm supposed to get some of the bill back, but it doesn't always happen.)

I checked pics earlier; haven't had a chance to be thorough, or process any of them, but it looks like a good chunk off all three cameras came out. Still wish they'd had better souvenirs, though. Why does nobody do program booklets anymore? I would've paid five bucks or so for a little booklet about the lanterns and the Chinese acrobats and the artisans and a little behind-the-scenes trivia and such; would've made a nice souvenir, and they could've done a stamp thing for the children's activities or something. (Their actual souvenirs sucked, though the row of traditional artisans was awesome - didn't take pictures, of course, but great stuff, and appropriately priced - read: out of my range, but worth it. The rest was worse than the import junk I can find at any of those tacky little import shops in malls.)

So now I need to decide if I want to start a roast before going out to the workshed, or if I want to go out to the workshed and just do turkey taco for dinner. Decisions, decisions...

I just weighed myself. I'm doing so every month.

I've lost 5 pounds since last month. Yay!

Gotta trim down. Keepin' at 'er.

DanielSTJ - Five pounds in a month? Congrats! (Oh, little weight loss tip - there's a plan that's been floating around for decades on losing ten pounds of ugly fat. From experience, I can tell you not to try it... plus the doctors get real nasty when you tell them how you got your head lopped off to begin with.)

Saturday night, and I'm getting ready for a little random spitballing before bed.

Got all the ornaments sanded and started on priming. Stopped for the evening when one "jumped." (Easy repair, at least.) That's always a good sign that it's time to take a break... I hope to spend tomorrow out there, finishing off priming and starting the painting. Would be nice if it warmed up a little, though... 'tis chilly out there.

And I went through my photos, finally. My "throw enough stuff at a wall" theory paid off; got several decent shots.

Away I wander, hopefully to listen to some Xmas music while spitballing. (My little wireless transmitter thing for my bluetooth headphones may be dying, though; seems to be cutting out on the stereo randomly, and shifting the wire connector makes it crackle.)

--

Sunday morning, and I need to get my shower in and head out to the workshed; finish priming today, then I paint, which means I need to pick who gets which ornament.

Another chilly day, dang it... would it be wrong to get a few nights above freezing?

--

Lunch break Sunday. Primed and drying. After lunch and a little light sanding, I label who gets what (ideally) and start painting. Still slightly concerned about the weight, but it's a bit late for that...

Catching up on math homework. There's a test coming up. My mark isn't great in the class but it's in the C+ range.

I have to make sure I pass the course. It's my worst mark in college by far. Luckily, it's the only math course I have to take.

DanielSTJ - Good luck on the math studying!

Sunday evening, and I got the first body coat done on the ornaments (except for a straggler who is fighting me. Tomorrow I hope to finish the body coat and get started on the other main block of color. Will be interrupted by a store run, but if I push myself I stand a chance of getting the second color block double-coated tomorrow. Then it's a coat of sealer, details, another coat of sealer, probably a wash, one last coat of sealer, and glue the lame accessory bit on. And done, in theory... (Also gotta get the accessory bit done sometime in there...)

Fingers crossed I have enough sealer...

Now it's about time to start dinner (chicken strip and fry, the ol' reliable.)

It's been a few days since I checked in, but there's a reason for that.

I'm fricking stuck @.@

My Shakespeare/Bearskin crossover needs the last 3 acts entirely replotted (I write with 4 acts instead of 3) and I'm stuck on Act 3. Act 2 has a really good climax, Act 4 has an even better one, but trying to come up with mundane conflict is...ugh, not my thing. Plus, since I don't have the right notebooks, I can't start working on this thing, so I'm twitchy there. Yes, I am that persnickety, I have to have separate notebooks for everything. If I'm gonna write drabbles/snippets, I need a notebook for that. If I'm gonna draft blog posts, need a different notebook for that. I swear, my perfectionism/anxiety rears its head at the absolute worst times. Hopefully I'll figure something out at work, but it's my weekend and one week before my vacation, so whoo!

Also, I gave up reading CLASH OF KINGS. I was just so booooooooored XD. I don't care about Robb's Rebellion, all the posturing and politicking going on, and the only ladies I DO care about weren't enough to convince me to keep reading that brick. So, I gave it a shot, but I just don't think reading ASOIAF is in the cards for me. Oh well. Problem is, now I've got to find new books to sate my appetite, but that's going to have to wait until after payday.

thereeness - Are you sure you need a complete third act, if the second and fourth seem solid enough? Having structure plans like that help, but don't let them become shackles...

After dinner, and got the dishes done (though the sink will magically refill now that I've turned my back), so now I'm chilling and deciding what to do with the evening. Desperately far behind on site work, but I'm just not feelin' it right now. May just do some spitballing and/or reading. Got a shopping run tomorrow, which I'd rather do sooner than later, but we'll see what family says. (Really need time to work on my ornaments, but they don't give a crud. Eh, well... at least painting goes faster than sculpting. Usually. Damn well better...

12:57 PM.

Drinking a large steeped tea and in class. Also just wrote more than my daily quota and edited the same.

The day is lookin' sharp!

Monday afternoon, and I need to get out to the workshed. The morning got eaten by a shopping trip (again - and the sibling tagged along, just to make things more irritating).

I'm very disappointed in the Safeway Deli right now. What they had labeled as Baked Potato with Bacon soup... isn't. Too watery, underbaked potato, the "bacon" doesn't look or taste right... I think it's clam chowder or something, unless they really ruined the recipe. Inedible. Knew I should've gotten chicken strips instead...

Anyway, aside from shopping and a book review, I've accomplished nothing. Hopefully I'll get the body paint finished today on the ornaments, but I'm not holding my breath.

Away I drift. Hopefully trail mix doubles as lunch, 'cause the soup isn't happening. Yetch....

(ETA - I was right. It was clam chowder. Hope nobody with a seafood allergy tries to buy potato soup today... Also, Firefox updated itself after I specifically told it not to. It's messed up my bookmarks and everything, though so far my adblocker's still working. I may be switching to Chrome...)

--

And it's Monday evening. Did some painting, made dinner (turkey taco and "tater rounds," which are like tater tots but flatter - except for Mom who just wanted a turkey burger), did some more painting, and came in when I reached a stopping point. Ergh, some of those lousy colors just hate covering... but I'm about done on Stage 1, Color 1 of painting. Tomorrow I start Stage 1, Color 2. (I've determined there must be a Stage 1, Color 3, but that's going to be the same on all of 'em, so my frequent breaks to clean out and swap brushes won't be an issue.) Then the first sealant. If I get all day to work (ha!), I should be done with Color 2, and possibly Color 3, tomorrow - then I do any necessary touch-ups and get the seal on Wednesday after work. In my head, I want to be done by mid-week next week, which is still cutting things closer than I'd like but it's what I got. Would go faster if people didn't keep dragging me out on shopping trips... if only they had a car and a license - oh, wait, they do. Grumble, mutter, snarl...

Should spitball a bit, even though I'm not feelin' wordy right now. Then pick a new book to read.

Tuesday evening, just added veggies to the roast (yes, roast again - they had a BOGO sale...), and after dinner I need to get more ornament painting work done. My plans for Color 2 were delayed by - yes - another shopping trip. (Blame Walgreens as much as family - lousy prescription delays.) Also needed to retouch white before I laid down metallics, as metallic colors tend to not cover great. So, hopefully I'll deal with that tomorrow. It being a work day, it'll probably spill over onto Thursday. Which means I hope to have 'em sealed for detail work by Friday. Still hoping to have them done, or at least on the final glue set stage, by next Wednesday, in case I need to rethink my hangers (don't ask.)

Writing hasn't been happening. Reading hasn't been happening. Sitework hasn't been happening. Nothing's been happening but painting and store trips and more painting.

It'll be worth it when I'm done... I hope. If not, heck, I still get to inflict hand-crafted clutter on relatives, and that's what Xmas is all about.

Off I wander.

Started on my outline for a short story. I've thought about my writing plans and realized they weren't realistic. So, instead of long-spanning novels and ground-breaking epics, I'll be writing short stories and flash fiction. Certainly more comfortable now that I think about it

dragonmint - Good luck with the new direction!

Headin' off to bed momentarily. Work tomorrow and all that... fingers crossed it's a light day. I want to stop by a store on the way home to see if they have something I kinda want to use with the ornaments. (Yeah, I know - last minute, and a longshot. If they don't have what I want, no big deal, but it would save me a step.)

Feeling hopeful tonight for the first time in quite some time, so part of me still expects the rug to be yanked away and the viper pit to be waiting below.

Thursday night, taking a painting break - was going to do Color 3 and start on touch-ups, but just too tired, and if I mess up with black, I *really* set myself back.

Anyway, I've mostly been painting. When I haven't been working, or shopping, I've been painting. After work. After dinner. Paint, paint, painty paint... so much painting. But I'm done with the metallic stuff, I think, and I'm still on target for the first coat of sealer Friday night. If I get the weekend to work without store trips (ha), I might get the detail stuff done then - still deciding if I want to do glitter on that bit or not. Will have to check my glitter colors... and I still have to paint up the accessory bit. (I had hoped to replace it with something else, but apparently you can't just buy shooter marbles anymore, not even at toy stores. Dang it. So I have a dozen spheres I need to paint up once I get the ornaments to where I can shift them; I literally am out of space to work.)

Work's been a little light.

News has been greatly depressing.

Away I wander.

I made it through a little over halfway of Tropic of Cancer (Henry Miller) in one session of reading.

Quite good, I must say.

Oh, being a night owl.

I've been horrible at keeping up with this board. *Hides* But things are getting better, I've started my revisions and already I like them a lot. It also helps that my revisions are from a different genre (urban fantasy instead of high fantasy) and the perspective's different (first instead of third.) I forgot how poetical I can get XD Good thing, though, since my revisions are a Shakespeare/Bearskin crossover (Bearskin as in the Grimm's fairy tale, dunno if there's a book with a similar name.)

I'm gearing up for my trip to the Great Frozen North for Christmas. It requires much fortification, as the holidays are a...trying time for me. Namely to do with my mom's boyfriend, his 40-year-old son who has more drama than my 22-year-old sister and the fact that I'm basically in an isolated cabin in the woods for 7 days with no way to leave. Ah well, at least there's internet this year, although my mother monitors that like I'm still 16 or something. And the food's good, although the only home cooked meal mom'll make is for Christmas. But I'm hoping to get a crapton of writing done, if I don't get distracted by the fact that they have Dish TV, which I never get to watch, and I'm obsessed with HGTV XD.

Hope everyone's Christmas plans are on track and the stress hasn't gotten to you yet.

Second tea of the day is nearly done. Finished Tropic of Cancer and working on The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.

Class at 12:30. I woke up at 7:30. The day is still young!

It's Friday everybody! Chin up!

Friday morning, and its drizzly outside. Nice change from the frost, I suppose.

Dad's had a gut bug yesterday and all last night. We're a bit paranoid about it given his history of intestinal Issues (he's down a significant chunk of gut from two different surgeries, one of which the surgeon had been skeptical of him coming through), but it's probably just a bug - or maybe food poisoning. He has a way of not noticing expiration dates... Fingers crossed it clears up, though it goes on much longer he may need to go in for anti-nausea meds at least.

Also fingers crossed it's not contagious - can't afford to lose a day of work, not ten days to Xmas and ornaments still not done.

Got up a little earlier than usual because I have to leave a bit early; gotta drop the garbage at the bottom of the road, because no way in heck are we letting Dad do that today, especially not in the rain on top of his other Issues.

I miss writing. I miss reading. But it'll be worth it when I finish the ornaments. I hope...

I am in a do nothing mood. Going for lunch followed by walk.