The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

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Man, I can't seem to write at all these days. I have some idea brewing in my head, go to write and... nothing. No notes, no prose, no dialogue, no good werdz. I'm debating if forcing it does me any good, as it's using the writer muscles and maybe pushing at my constricting comfort zone, but it might just increase my aversion by making it into a chore that requires more self-discipline than I have.

Does a story really need conflict?

I Have an idea that's been percolating a few weeks, but so far it's just a series of funny vignettes, presented in journal entries of the characters. The basic premise is that an interstellar transport ship is going from home to the far side of the galaxy, so they're stuck in hyperspace travel for a number of years with only a small crew to entertain each other. So as the time goes on the crew gets further and further from home the discipline gets slack and hilarity ensues. So my question is, would it still be a story if nothing really happens to cause conflict?
I feel like books get the short end of the stick when it comes to episodic storytelling like that. Online it might do well, like if you kept it as an actual blog, it would probably do even better as a series of vlog entries or a podcast. I suppose you might find a story of intrigue and conflict (no matter how minor) if you just write it and see what happens.

Could it be smibbles tunneling in the snow drifts? (What does a smibble look like, anyway?)
Do you, perchance, know what a tribble is? A smibble is a close cousin to those, but have ears more like those of bunnies.
 

Coddiwomple

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Do you, perchance, know what a tribble is? A smibble is a close cousin to those, but have ears more like those of bunnies.

Hmm. Any connection to that time the plot bunnies got frisky and broke into the tribble hutch? Maybe I don’t want to know...
 

Brightdreamer

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Tuesday morning, and have to go out to The Store later today, so I'm hoping to get a little site work in first; store trips kinda punch a hole right through the middle of the day.

Cold and clear out there again; the well house roof is frosty. (That's my gauge, as it's right out my window.)

Mom's new computer shipped yesterday, so hopefully it'll be here by the end of the week. Even got one with Windows 7 on it (pro, not home, but still the system she's used to, which should help.) The sibling is supposed to take one more crack at her old machine today to see if we can get any life out of the thing at all; there's stuff on the hard drive she wants, but I'm suspicious that the hard drive is the problem. It's been throwing blue screens intermittently for a few weeks, and now we can power it up and hear a motherboard fan whirling (we think it's the motherboard), but no handshake beep or anything.

Should decide on a departure time; pretty sure Mom will "tag along," so I have to find out when she wants to leave. Hopefully by 11; will give me some time in the afternoon before I have to start dinner to do Other Things.
 

Brightdreamer

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Tuesday afternoon, and the shopping trip indeed took longer than anticipated. (Mom's looking for a replacement cable that apparently doesn't exist.) But I got lunch out of the deal, and an essentially free ethernet splitter hub thingy (too lazy to look at the technical term - one cord goes in from the modem, multiple ones can come out) with some Office Hole card rewards I didn't know we had, and a few dinner options, so I may be able to avoid shopping after work tomorrow. May...

Otherwise, not much worth noting, except Mom's computer seems to be booting now after a dusting (haven't heard that confirmed, and it may be going through one of those freak-outs about crashing right now, but this is much further than it's gotten before.) She's still going to switch to the new tower, though; enough warnings have hinted that the next crashout will probably be it's for-real last. Plus it's already shipped, and it has more memory and a nicer graphics card.
 

E.F.B.

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Finally figured out how to get around the certificate issue so I can post. YOU CAN'T STOP ME, TECHNOLOGY!!! MWAHAHAHA!!!!


Now for serious talk.
This has not been my best day. First I woke up to a rejection from F&SF (It was the "It didn't grab me" response, with no other comments.) Honestly, I wasn't really expecting an acceptance on this story from them, especially not the first time I ever subbed to them, so not actually very bummed about that.


The real bad news is that my aunt called and said my uncle (my aunt and dad's brother) slipped while trying to get the news paper this morning, fell, and broke his femur. The hospital where they live is taking him into surgery and put a pin in it, but the healthcare system in that area SUCKS EGGS and my uncle has mental problems and anxiety that were caused by multiple surgeries he went through as a small child to fix his deformed ear that all turned out to be for nothing because it turned out he didn't even have any structures inside his ear for them to fix, so all they succeeded in was traumatizing a little boy. On top of all that, he's extremely overweight, as much of that side of the family is, so the idea of him going through surgery hasn't me a happy camper right now. Last I heard, around 6pm he was in the operating room. All prayers, crossed fingers, well wishes, good thoughts, etc. would be very appreciated right now and I'll update when I know more.
 
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Brightdreamer

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EFB - That does indeed sound like a not-great day. Hope the days ahead are at least less bad, if "good" is temporarily off the table.

Tuesday evening, and kinda a wash on productivity today, because I'm a lazy idiot and didn't get much done except reading before I had to start dinner. (Breakfast for dinner night, to celebrate a really good deal on eggs. Would've been fish, to celebrate the really good deal on sockeye, but they were out of stock at the time. Will have to check in later in the week - six bucks a pound for wild-caught sockeye, totally worth shopping after work for.)

So I really ought to get some site stuff done now that dinner is consumed and dishes are washed.

Work looms tomorrow, but I have stuff pretty much ready for that.

Guess I'll drift away
 

Coddiwomple

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Plot smeerps, not bunnies. Hence smibbles.

Oh, Internet. What did we do without you.

the healthcare system in that area SUCKS EGGS

E.F.B., I hope your uncle is okay. Surgery is stressful enough without substandard healthcare and pre-existing mental trauma.

Breakfast for dinner night, to celebrate a really good deal on eggs.

Aaaand now I'm up way too early, thinking about omelets. I don’t know if it’s the getting older thing, but lately it’s a rare day I'm not awake well before the alarm goes off.

So I'll sit here on this bar stool, coffee at my elbow, and watch a smibble bat a bottle cap across the floor.

Random ramblings. Bracing for the upcoming cold snap, and bracing for the return of the students to campus next week. Oh, I love the college students — but it’s soooo quiet during break and the shift back into term is abrupt. Zero to sixty.

I am looking forward to the class I'm taking for this term's installment of the never-ending bachelor's degree. Creative Writing Workshop I. I'm wondering how an actual class will compare to hanging out on AW. :)
 

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Ugh. A night of calf cramps due to lady-time. Joy.

We've got a predicted 15-20 inches of snow due to us Saturday/night. Fine by me. I have no external plans this weekend.

I'm still percolating my next novel. I've got three paragraphs of my synopsis done, just need to fill that out. Also have a basic idea for an opening scene. I haven't yet found the main character's personality, yet, so I'm working on that. I know he's a young male who had a magic brooch which now allows him to talk to animals, and he lives in 6th century Ireland, and works as a river fisherman. That's all I've got for now. I'm leaning toward making him a hopeless romantic dreamer.
 

Brightdreamer

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Coddiwomple - I've never been a morning person... ever. If anything I (sometimes) wake up earlier now than I did when I was a kid. ('Course, nights like last night, when my lousy brain just would not switch into sleep mode so I got maybe threeish hours of sleep in, tops, certainly don't help.)

greendragon - Ouchie, leg cramps... hate those. FWIW, my relatives have been having luck with that Theraworx foam they advertise on TV (the foam works better than the other stuff) staving off cramps, though I doubt the cause is the same; one of them's my uncle.
And I could see a character like that romanticizing the animals he talks to and wishing humans could be more like the (somewhat idealized) beasts, again FWIW.

Wednesday morning, work morning, and as mentioned I got very little sleep. When I did, I had weird dreams. Not even story-weird, just weird-weird. (At one point, a relative was obsessed with finding a blue pizza. WTF, brain?) Anyway, just killing a little time before I have to head in to work. So far as I know, I can come straight home, which is good because I'm within a few chapters of finishing a read and I'd like to get that done - a like bordering somewhere between seeing how it wraps up and getting it over with, unfortunately. On some levels, I can't help saying I'm disappointed.
 

E.F.B.

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Thank you all for the well-wishes. My uncle made it through the surgery last night and, last we checked in, he was in his hospital room resting and not in pain or scared, so that's pretty much the best outcome we could have hoped for. They do at least have a rehabilitation facility there that they'll move him to when they feel he's ready and start working on getting him back in shape to hopefully be able to go back home sooner rather than later.


I am currently trying to finish a book review I started yesterday. I would have liked to have finished it then but was too distracted due to all the things^ and I tend towards long reviews in which I share ALL teh thoughts. Almost done, though.

In funny news, you know the cats that I said run around in the woods out here? Earlier this morning da lab mix pup started growling and then jumped up and did her "bugle howl" (Baroooooo!) and scratched at the door. I didn't see anything going on and let her out and she ran to the fence and just stood there barking and over all going insane. I looked and looked and finally spotted that large orange cat I saw back in the fall, sitting there in the snow on top of a fallen log in the woods. It didn't even care that Meli was barking, it just sat there and stared her down. I finally had to call her back in because the cat wasn't moving and she wasn't going to stop barking until it did. Darned cat, stop mocking my dog! :p

Now if you'll excuse me, there's a squirrel raiding the bird feeder. *sets laptop down and yells "SQUIRREL!!!!"* *lets lab mix out* *watches squirrel and dog run as fast as their legs can carry them* Hehehe...
 
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zanzjan

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Random ramblings. Bracing for the upcoming cold snap, and bracing for the return of the students to campus next week. Oh, I love the college students — but it’s soooo quiet during break and the shift back into term is abrupt. Zero to sixty.

LALALALA Fingers in my ears CAN'T HEAR YOU.

Damn, they are coming back, aren't they?

I am looking forward to the class I'm taking for this term's installment of the never-ending bachelor's degree. Creative Writing Workshop I. I'm wondering how an actual class will compare to hanging out on AW. :)

Creative writing classes can be highly variable. But they'll probably talk about food less :)
 

Coddiwomple

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Damn, they are coming back, aren't they?

Ohhhh yes. Today there was the sound of printing syllabi ruffling the stale air of the faculty tower, and a few bewildered faces appeared in the doorway, looking for a department chair...

So it begins.
 

JJ Litke

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I’ve been getting emails all week from anxious students and condescending instructors. Semester start is fun.

By fun, I mean fucking hell.
 

MaeZe

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Ohhhh yes. Today there was the sound of printing syllabi ruffling the stale air of the faculty tower, and a few bewildered faces appeared in the doorway, looking for a department chair...

So it begins.
I tried to give you a rep for the wonderful imagery but the board security issue apparently won't let me.
 

Brightdreamer

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Kinda makes me glad I never had money for college...

Thursday morning, heading out to work soonish. Fingers crossed it's another light day. (Well, there will be light, presumably, once the sun clears the mountains - light as in a light work load. We were down two people yesterday, one of whom left at break, and I'm not holding my breath on a full crew today.)
 

Coddiwomple

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By fun, I mean fucking hell.

Heh. We had transfer orientation last week. There are basically no classes left by the time the poor transfers get their chance. Our bar for orientation success is set low, and hinges on the answers to two questions: Did anyone cry? Did anyone bring their parents?

We thought were in the clear, until the very end of the very last day... mom AND dad came back in after son has his complete schedule, and they were vibrating with offended entitlement. Actual quote: "This [perfectly appropriate, but not optimal] schedule is unacceptable. Someone should have told us months ago that all the classes would be sold out in December!"

I tried to give you a rep for the wonderful imagery but the board security issue apparently won't let me.

Aw, thanks! :Hug2:

Kinda makes me glad I never had money for college...

To be fair, I actually adore our students, and I love working with them. Kvetching is part of the fun.
 

JJ Litke

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Heh. We had transfer orientation last week. There are basically no classes left by the time the poor transfers get their chance. Our bar for orientation success is set low, and hinges on the answers to two questions: Did anyone cry? Did anyone bring their parents?

We thought were in the clear, until the very end of the very last day... mom AND dad came back in after son has his complete schedule, and they were vibrating with offended entitlement. Actual quote: "This [perfectly appropriate, but not optimal] schedule is unacceptable. Someone should have told us months ago that all the classes would be sold out in December!"

Wow! I’m lucky that I have rarely ever had to deal with parents. But oh my god, students often have the nerve to be surprised when classes fill. Sometimes even after I warned them.


To be fair, I actually adore our students, and I love working with them. Kvetching is part of the fun.

Definitely. :) Really I’m more likely to get angry about the faculty because they should know better. Know better about what? Exactly.
 

Brightdreamer

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Thursday afternoon, and I called it on someone being out today. But we had a low number and got out about fifteen minutes early; always a minor victory when I'm paid for the drive home. Or to the store, in my case.

Nothing much else to report. Mom's new computer arrived. It's smaller than her old one; maybe she'll be less prone to knocking it with her chair. The sibling plans to help her set it up tomorrow, hopefully while I'm at work so I don't have to hear about it. Already got most of what she wants off the old one transferred to an external drive; fingers crossed the rest goes smoothly.
 

E.F.B.

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Wasn't feeling great yesterday because hormones, so no new words didn't happen. I did decide on the next place to send Stone Dragon, though, so that's on the to-do list. I'm feeling better today and will also try to get new words done.

ION: Can we please put in a request for all winter storms this year to STOP happening on a Sunday? This weekend will be the third time this winter we've had a winter storm here and it's also the third time it's happening on a Sunday. For those of us who like going to church, but have a parent with major snow anxiety (now with intense never-ending anxiety about falling added on top ever since he fell and broke his shoulder back at the end of September) who refuses to go ANYWHERE if there's even a PARTIAL chance of snow at some point during the day, that's kind of annoying. :/
 

Brightdreamer

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EFB - In this day and age, one would almost expect virtual attendance to be possible, a livestream of the church service on YouTube (complete with pop-up ads for Bible covers, discount communion wafers, GoFundMe collection plates, and young pastors in your area who would love to pray for you. And, yes, I'm aware that I'm going to Hell.)

Friday morning, and killing time before heading off to work. If we get out early again, I may get myself lunch on the way home. That's about as exciting as my life gets these days.

Still working on re-establishing writing practice, and slowly getting a few words out that may not be story worthy, but at least aren't variations on me cursing at myself.

Away I wander...
 

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We do have a livestream of the service (no pop-up ads of any kind, though those would be good ones, LOL :p) which is all fine and dandy from a worship standpoint, but church is also one of the few places (okay, let's be honest...the ONLY place) I get in-person human interaction that goes deeper than "Hi, I'm fine how are you. Yes, I would like those groceries in a plastic bag." So, when we can't physically get there for long periods of time I start missing people, especially my fellow teachers and the kids in my first grade Sunday school class. I guess I've been a little more sensitive to having to stay home from it lately since we've missed quite a bit of church during the past few months when you combine the month we didn't go at all because of my dad's broken shoulder, the two weeks there wasn't any Sunday school so my dad decided we'd just stay home, and now two weeks in a row we haven't been able to go because of weather. So. Yeah. I haven't been appreciative of the snowy weather's bad timing.