The Cantina Staring Back At You From The Abyss

Many hugs for those not feeling well or having a rough time otherwise.

Happy birthday, greendragon!

JeanGenie said:

Do you have time to write during the day, or is it all outside work hours?

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Technically I have time during the day since I work but a few days a week. But I keep writing to my off-work days anyway. My work ethic and the absence of real opportunities to write prevent me from doing it at work.

Since writing for me is a hobby I tend to keep it for evenings, unless I have a "I must write this scene down, right now!"-moment but those are rare enough. It kinda feels like wasting daylight otherwise. Also, I like the feeling of writing when it's dark outside and I'm inside and warm, with a nice mug of tea and maybe some chocolates. Makes me happy.

E.F.B. said:

Speaking of cute baby animals, our family is officially thinking the puppy search will begin in approximately T-minus 1 week. Of course life could happen and plans could change again, but we just wanted to wait until it was a tad closer to spring for the sake of various outdoor puppy activities being a little less likely to cause us to freeze. But we seem to officially be on the annual temperature roller-coaster that, here in Virginia at least, signals the transition from winter to spring (I was able to go for a walk in short sleeves today, y'all!), so puppy could be imminent!

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Iiiih! You've entered count-down time! Best of luck!

Thanks for all the lovely natal anniversary wishes! I have spent most of my work day (since there's little work to do right now) setting up review requests and advertising spots for my new release...

Friendly Frog said:

Technically I have time during the day since I work but a few days a week. But I keep writing to my off-work days anyway. My work ethic and the absence of real opportunities to write prevent me from doing it at work.

Since writing for me is a hobby I tend to keep it for evenings, unless I have a "I must write this scene down, right now!"-moment but those are rare enough. It kinda feels like wasting daylight otherwise. Also, I like the feeling of writing when it's dark outside and I'm inside and warm, with a nice mug of tea and maybe some chocolates. Makes me happy.

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I don’t think I’ve had a lot of those moments either...very few in fact. I may write down a sentence, an idea, but not a whole scene suddenly falling into my head. I wonder if it happens to a lot of writers? I need to be in the zone to write, and when I’m not sitting down with my laptop in front of me, I’m not there.

Happy birthday GD!!!!

And get well all of you

happy birthday GD!

Folks I saw Black Panther last night. it. was. AMAZING.

Black Pantha! Yes, we had a blast!

Last week of feeding antibiotics to cat! Aggy, thanks again for the suggestion of fish, that was the thing that worked best.

I'm very happy to be soon be done with it, even though she's still sneezing and I am sort of wondering whether all the meds were for nothing. At least her airways aren't congested and I haven't seen blood anymore, so I suppose that ought to count for something.

JeanGenie said:

I don’t think I’ve had a lot of those moments either...very few in fact. I may write down a sentence, an idea, but not a whole scene suddenly falling into my head. I wonder if it happens to a lot of writers? I need to be in the zone to write, and when I’m not sitting down with my laptop in front of me, I’m not there.

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Writers come in all sizes and shapes so I guess there will be writers aplenty that can turn out whole scenes from brains directly to fingertips, as well as people like me who need to have worked out things well before sitting down to write. For me most of the story construction needs to happen before I get to the actual writing stage. If I haven't worked out before hand where I am going with a story the chances are very high I will never finish it.

@Frog: good luck with the antibiotics! It'd be nice if we could get pets to understand that we only try to heal them when we have to give them meds or put the "cone of shame" on them after surgery...

End of my first week on a low FODMAP diet. It's working -- i.e. my IBS symptoms aren't as bad. Fibromyalgia-or-whatever-it-is is under control, too, so much so that I've gone for a run this morning. Lovely winter sunshine! But I spend hours cooking or thinking about food. I'm recording everything in a spreadsheet. That's a hassle. I've ordered a notebook so that I can log all that stuff by hand, which should make it more enjoyable.

My GP has referred me to a dietician; waiting for an appointment (which could take a while).

Anyway, I'm struggling to write anything because I'm spending so much time reading about IBS, fodmaps and all that. I can't focus on anything else. I'm giving myself a few more days off to adjust, then after that, I'll kick myself in the butt and start writing "or else".

Glad kitties are getting their antibiotics down and IBS and Fibromyalgia is improving. *leaves out bucket of in case anyone needs them*


*is having a tired for no particular reason day* *wanders off to write.*

Y'oooooollll! I have reached a conclusion: Humans are WEIRD af!!

Nuh, uh ... well, sometimes. Actually I think we housed a whole bucket of crazy in this thread. No reason to be embarrassed.

EFB: Tough for me to do much writing when I'm tired.

Raindrop said:

@Frog: good luck with the antibiotics! It'd be nice if we could get pets to understand that we only try to heal them when we have to give them meds or put the "cone of shame" on them after surgery...

End of my first week on a low FODMAP diet. It's working -- i.e. my IBS symptoms aren't as bad. Fibromyalgia-or-whatever-it-is is under control, too, so much so that I've gone for a run this morning. Lovely winter sunshine! But I spend hours cooking or thinking about food. I'm recording everything in a spreadsheet. That's a hassle. I've ordered a notebook so that I can log all that stuff by hand, which should make it more enjoyable.

My GP has referred me to a dietician; waiting for an appointment (which could take a while).

Anyway, I'm struggling to write anything because I'm spending so much time reading about IBS, fodmaps and all that. I can't focus on anything else. I'm giving myself a few more days off to adjust, then after that, I'll kick myself in the butt and start writing "or else".

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I had to look up FODMAP because I hadn't heard of it yet. Awesome if it helps. Half the battle is finding something that makes you feel good. I will say I took a hard veer off my ketogenic diet to save money and regretted that almost immediately. My hip issues returned and I felt miserable. So back on the diet I go because it makes a big difference.

Ketogenic? Is that similar to the Atkins diet? I could probably do the FODMAP diet.

Atkins is high protein, low carb. Ketogenic is high fat, moderate protein, low carb. It helps with my autoimmune issue a great deal, so I'm all for it. Just need to quit falling off the wagon. I think this last time might be what I needed to realize how important it is to me.

Right - high fat. I read quickly and missed that. That's an unusual diet, but I understand that it's important for you.

Damoclian said:

Y'oooooollll! I have reached a conclusion: Humans are WEIRD af!!

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QFT

NathanBrazil said:

Ketogenic? Is that similar to the Atkins diet? I could probably do the FODMAP diet.

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The low-fodmap diet is only useful if you have IBS, so just make sure you ask your GP/dietician/rhumatologist first.

One thing that works for everyone (and that the low-FODMAP forces you to do in practice), is to get rid of *every* super-processed food. No ready-meals; no desserts; even some cereals are no-go because of the amount of high-FODMAPS in it. It's impressive, because I eat a lot less but I'm also a lot less hungry -- and I can put it down to this particular change.

Same with the keto diet. I eat so much less food once I'm adjusted and have so much more energy. I did some prepping this weekend so I could have stuff for the week and that's great.

Happy Monday, Cantina. The grr and panic of getting kids ready on a Monday morning is starting to fade, so I feel much better. Time to do all the worky things.

I did bring my little Bluetooth keyboard, so perhaps I can get some writey things done during lunch.

I now only eat a diet of smibbles and human tears coffee. I feel very outer godlike most days.

*grabs tentacles full of smibbles and returns to coffee hot-tub munching them*

No crumbs in my coffee hot tub!!

NathanBrazil said:

Nuh, uh ... well, sometimes. Actually I think we housed a whole bucket of crazy in this thread. No reason to be embarrassed.

EFB: Tough for me to do much writing when I'm tired.

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Depends on the kind of tired for me. Yesterday was more physical tired than mental tired, so I did fairly well.



Morning, Cantina. I've been working on In Dreams They Came, which is my original fantasy that wants to be a trilogy. I've come to accept that it's going to take for-ev-er to finish, so I've occasionally taken a break from it to work on other stuff. Last year I took about 5 months off from it to write my Snow White retelling, then I did Sisyphus, so ever since I finished Sisyphus I've been having to read/edit my way back through IDTC to remind myself where I was until I got back to where I can start adding words again. I got there while I was working on it last night, had a moment of *Gandalf voice* "I have no memory of this place" then pulled up my outline and I think I remember where I was going from there. I also noticed while reading my outline that there was a bit of characterization for my MC that I had intended to insert earlier but failed to do so, but I went back and managed to add it in in a way that I think came off naturally and gave a taste of the kind of relationship she has with her family while also helping her bond with another character. It was only a small edit, but I'm happy I caught it before moving forward.

Today, I don't *think* I have anywhere to go, and it's cloudy and rainy, so good mood weather for writing.

Oh, also, one of my favorite authors randomly friended me on Goodreads. This is after I sent her a friend request like...3 years ago? Better late than never I guess.

tjwriter said:

No crumbs in my coffee hot tub!!

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**insert non copyrighted image of Penfold from Danger Mouse exclaiming "Crumbs!"**

*quickly siphons smibble crumbs off surface of coffee tub*

Crumbs? What crumbs?

*Tries to insert image.* How'm I sposed to do that? I cain't edit that post. I dun tried.

Good morning cantina!

The wrecking of the church is still going on. I think they're breaking up the concrete foundation now.

And last night, a house burned down two blocks from me at 3 am. I read about it this morning. Yes, I slept through six fire trucks screaming through the neighborhood.

(Two years ago there was a very loud and destructive gas-line explosion a mile away that shook the house of my tenant and woke her and her dog up, but I slept through that one too.)

I've heard that people slept through the Northridge (California in 94) quake, but I'm a very light sleeper. If I think I heard something move in the next room, I'm suddenly wide awake.