%%USERNAME%%    %%ACCWORDS%% %%ONOFF%% |
 |  Now my story begins in nineteen-dickety-two... |
|
2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song If I get it all down on paper, it's no longer inside of me, Threatening the life it belongs to And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud And I know that you'll use them, however you want to -Breathe(2AM), Anna Nalick ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** For Daddy, the real world gets fainter and fainter every day. -Homer Simpson Homer, Please Don't Hammer 'Em ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only **
If we shadows have offended,/Think but this, and all is mended,/That you have but slumber'd here/While these visions did appear./And this weak and idle theme,/No more yielding but a dream... -William Shakespeare, A Midsummer's Night Dream |
| Well, I guess it's been so long since I did a blog entry, my reminder kicked in. I've thought about doing a number of entries since the last, but for various reasons I haven't. It's a bit late for me to get into anything much at the moment. But this month has really flown by. I think I do have my query letter ready. I've made some feeble attempts to get a synopsis done. It's been like pulling teeth to get me to write much of anything for awhile now. I just haven't felt like doing much of anything. Nothing sounds interesting. I think that may have started to change today. But like I said, I don't want to get into any 'deep' entry right now. |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** I need blood! Last night, I decided it was time to start training Lash to stay out of my food, because the nose thumps and saying "No." was not working on her. I remembered what I did to train the other two. I took a piece of my pork chop said 'Down' and pointed to the floor. She didn't jump down so I put her on the floor and repeated down and then gave her a piece of meat. That went fine. So I attempted it again, but Raish saw Lash getting something to eat and came over. So I held on to the piece of meat, and she snapped at it and my finger. It was a pretty good bit too. I had to wash it off and put pressure on it. Today, it still looks pretty deep. Anyway, I hadn't gotten all the blood off my hand and while I was waiting for the wound to clot, Lash started to lick the blood off my hand. I stopped that. I realize there's probably nothing wrong with it, but that's just a bit too creepy for me. So, now my little kitten has tasted human blood, possibly associating it with the taste of delicious pork. Both are probably pretty tasty to an animal by themselves, but together, it may just be some form of beastly ambrosia. Raish is always biting us, but he's never drawn blood. Or if he has, it's nothing like the bite I got last night. The funny thing is as soon as he bites us, he flinches, knowing he normally gets smacked for it. As long as he doesn't bite hard, I don't care, but he really bit my nose the other night. I suspect Raish's bites are to see if we're still alive. If we don't react, he'll know his time has come... No, cats are not to be trusted, but they're so cute and fuzzy. |
| I feel as if I should do an entry, but I'm not sure what to write about. I've been stalling in my other writing. The scene I was working on in Moon, I had problems figuring how it should play out, but I think I thought of something today. As for revising Apple and working on Chasing's query letter and synopsis, I haven't been able to focus on those. I sit down to work on it and I just can't get into it. I think the new query letter is about done though. I'm not sure if I want to post it here or not to get feedback. I don't know why that is. *** Raish and Una are becoming accustomed to the kittens. They still have issues, but it's gotten better. Raish tries to play with them, but since he's so much bigger than they are, I think he scares them. It also worries me he'll hurt them on accident. But so far, so good. *** My co-worker from Egypt got back from Egypt last week. But he was admitted to the hospital last night. I haven't seen him since he got back. They're still not sure what's wrong with him. He's diabetic and indulges in chocolate all the time. He's convinced that the medicine he takes for it, takes care of it. They're checking out his heart and testing him for things like swine flu since he was out of the country. Then I found out that someone I knew back in college on the fencing team died in 2007. I was sadden to hear that. Especially since I also knew his wife from the fencing team. I didn't know them very well, because they were new to the team when I was drifting away from it. I always liked them. That makes two people I knew from the fencing team who have died. It's just weird because we're all the same age and you just don't expect it. I know that's foolish, but true all the same. One died from asthma related things and the other from colon cancer. *** I was in a fine mood, until Brad came down here to visit. I was mad at him for awhile, but he had the audacity not to notice.  I pretty much got over it because it was a small thing, but every once in while, just seeing him annoys me. I think I may be focusing all my annoyances with the night shift onto him because he's their boss. I don't know. I'm thinking I may need some sort of vacation where I actually leave and go somewhere instead of just staying home. I have no idea where or how to get the money for it. I'm getting a strange desire to clean the townhouse top to bottom. No, something isn't right here at all... |
| Well, I submitted my first 200 words of Chasing to Evil Editor. What happens, is that someone continues the story(for humor purposes) and people then comment on what they think of your opening. I wasn't expecting the comments I got. In fact, I thought one or two people were being a bit too snarky about it. If you're interested you can view the post and comments here: https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=26791026&postID=6680686838137674451 It's funny, because a lot of what they didn't like are things people on this website told me to add. And after I revised, people tended to like it better. There's also the fact that people on this site read the whole prologue. A few comments on Evil Editor stated they didn't know where the chapter was going or what was at stake. Duh. It's only the first 200 words. I know what the point of the exercise is. I've heard you must hook the agent in the first 50, 100, 200 or 500 words. Depends on the source. Given there are so many different word counts for the hooking of an agent it makes me wonder how true it is. Only one person said they would continue to read. No one else bothered to comment on that. I don't think I'm so vague in the opening that it eliminates all the mystery of what's happening. I think what upsets me the most, is that I feel it's worth sending out now. I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying in the future I won't want to change a lot of it, but the comments make me sound like I just pulled the opening out of my ass with no thought behind it. It also doesn't help I've been moody for the last few days. I think it's PMS. I would have hoped that my anti-anxiety drug which is also an anti depressant would override PMS, but no. Anyway, I don't feel inclined to change the opening on what they said anyway. Maybe a few cosmetic changes. Someone said she didn't like the word 'faster' being used and I never liked it either. I just couldn't think of anything better, but I may renew my efforts. Hell, I may have changed it all ready. I printed out the whole novel and started to do another edit of it. I haven't made those changes on the computer file yet. I'm not sure what to think. I don't think I'm lying to myself by brushing most of their comments off. It just really didn't help the mood I sunk into this week. |
| I mentioned long ago that the university I work for is doing this big customer service training thing to help us stand out from other universities. In April, 'secret shoppers' were sent out to gauge how well the training did. The dean sent us an e-mail of the comments and overall performance of the library. I really hope the dean got a more detailed report, because the e-mail really didn't say much that was helpful. But because of ONE comment, he decided we all needed name tags. The one comment was from a person was too embarrassed to ask for the employees name. No other 'secret shopper' seemed to care. For some reason, I've always hated the concept of wearing a name tag at work. That's not exactly true. I didn't mind when I worked at Burger King one summer and I can't remember if I had to wear one at the nursing home, but I wouldn't have minded there either. The job I had before this one, we had them but weren't required to wear them. So, not sure what the point was. Here, my desk is behind the circulation counter and people can clearly see my name plate on my desk. I know, because a few patrons have taken the liberty of calling me by my name. I don't know what it is, but it pisses me off when they do. If I haven't introduced myself to you and gotten your name in return, don't use my name. I might be okay if they used my last name with Mrs. or Ms., but who does that anymore? My name is on my desk so you can tell the higher ups how bad or awesome I was. It's not giving you permission to act like we're acquaintances. The name tags will only encourage this kind of thing. But fine. No matter how irrational I get about it, I know it's a small thing and I all I can really do is suck it up and wear the damn thing. Eventually, people will just keep forgetting them and the higher ups will eventually not care. At least, that's been my experience in the work world. Well, I get to work today and find out this: Beginning in the near future, assistant deans and directors will receive lanyards, clip-on holders, and name tag holders for all of the personnel in their area, including student employees. Personnel may choose either a lanyard or clip-on. Which means, that are names go on little cards that we tuck into a plastic sleeve. How fuckin' tacky is that? I was expecting some sort of plastic with a magnet or pin. The librarians all ready have name tags and they're nice looking gold ones. The type of name tag that the dean described are ones you get at convention or conference. There's a reason for that, they're temporary. And they don't look professional. We are an academic library. We have a dress code. How in the hell does this kind of name tag add to that? I was just worrying that my work clothes are getting old and worn and that I should start replacing them soon. But doesn't seem like they care about us looking respectable. I don't see this saving money. These kind of name tags are easily damaged. I could make a better name tag than that. But I've also been informed that we can't make our own. We can't add 'flair' or anything else to them. Which is a shame. My co-workers and I had great visions of huge amounts of flair that we could put on a lanyard. If we're going to look tacky, might as well make it as obnoxious as possible. Even fast food employees get better name tags and those places have huge turnover rates. Everyone thinks that these tags are an horrendous idea, expect for the big wig who came up with the idea. It makes me want to beat my head against a wall. |
** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** |
| I'll probably have more kitten pictures posted in the future. I figured out what the issue was with the camera's focus. I didn't have any flash on, but facing direct sunlight, I wouldn't think you'd need it. But since I turned it on, my pictures are coming out better. The kittens have names! Benn liked the name Lash for the black and white one. Since that's the nickname for a demon in the Dresden Files, he thought the yellow kitten should have an angelic name. He picked something that started with a Y, but we're calling him Yuri for short. Don't get me started on the name Yuri. I could do an entire entry on that name. Una is still not a happy cat right now. She's started to come down stairs more and I've made it a special point to give her attention. And as long as it's just me and her in our bedroom, she acts like she used to. She cannot deny the chin scratching.  But the first night with the kittens, Una attacked one. At least, Benn thinks so. One of them yelped and we knew Una was stalking them, but when we checked them, there were no bites or scratches. So we put them in the bathroom that night and last. Raish batted at Lash last night, but I think he was trying to play with her and she yelped. So maybe one of them just overreacted to her being there. It gets stuffy in bathroom even with the fan on, so Benn thinks we should try leaving them out tonight. Una has kept her distance from them when she is downstairs. She got cornered in the hallway last night. Lash was on stairs, Yuri was in the kitchen, Raish was in front of her and Benn was behind her. She wanted to flee but had no where to go. She thumped her paw in front of Lash on the floor, but she didn't try to hurt her as far as I could tell. Then Una looks up at me and just gives me a normal meow. I moved Lash so she could run upstairs. Raish is confused, I think. He watches the kittens, but he's pretty much stopped hissing at them. Like I said earlier, I think he was trying to play with them. He seems more curious than anything. But Una will lash out at him too now. Then yesterday, Raish was going to get food, but Lash was out there eating. As he approaches she gets all Halloween catty on him and he backs away into the living room. He let this little bitty kitten chase him out! Poor little thing. I always thought Raish was the dominate one, but maybe not. Or maybe he just needs a few more days to figure everything out. I spent a lot of the weekend watching over the cats. When Mat and Craig moved out, Benn moved the litter box to their room. Lash has proven she can climb the stairs, but I don't know if Una will let her up there. Lash got about half-way up before Una came to the edge of the stairs and got all hissing. So, I've been periodically taking the kittens upstairs to use the box. Lash was so damn cute as she went upstairs. I end up watching the kittens play with each other. I always thought kittens were cute when they ran. I don't know what it is, but it's freakin' adorable to watch. Benn's been alone with them today, so I don't know what to expect when I get home. He was all worried about the kittens leaving their waste somewhere downstairs, but I doubt he's made sure they get to the litter box. I know they'll have to do it on their own, but if Una is barring their way I'm going to have to put a box downstairs. I know you're supposed to let the cats work out their own little system of how the household runs, but they all need to eat and use the litter box. I can't wait until they grow accustomed to each other. It feels longer than two days since we got them. Not that my entries are ever all that riveting, but I apologize for all the entries about cats. Honestly, I could go on and on about them. It's a good way to get me to start talking in person. In fact, I'm sure many people have wished they never brought the subject up. |
| Here are some pictures. It's hard to get a picture of kitten, because if they move suddenly and the photo is blurry. Then I think there's something wrong with the focus on my camera. Since I've never had an issue with it before, I'm thinking a setting got changed. Then when one kitten is sleeping on you, it's hard to move to get the camera when the other is doing something cute. Anyway, on with the pictures: ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This is obviously the black and white kitten. When I first went to pick them up, I petted her first. She then moved to my shoulder and stayed there for most of my visit with my co-workers. When I got home and settled for the afternoon, I put her in my lap and she fell asleep. And we both took a nap. She apparently finds me delicious. While I was saving and editing my pictures of them, she wouldn't stop trying to lick my fingers. I couldn't get her to eat her kitten food at first, but after I gave her some turkey and cheese she was wiling to eat the kitten food after that. She nearly took my fingers off when I fed her the turkey and cheese. I think she is fast becoming my cat. She's been hanging around me a lot after I got back home the second time. It's so much easier to use a laptop with a kitten than a cat. I'm thinking of calling her Lash. She's a character from the Dresden Files. But the finger biting and shoulder perching makes me think she should have some sort of pirate name. Ar. But I also thought about Audrey for the plant from Little Shop of Horrors. Yes, I know the plant's name was Audrey II, but I'm not going to bother with the two part. She has such sharp pointy teeth. They belong from some monster of the abyss not a cat. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** Yellow kitten doesn't have a name yet either. Benn said he wanted to name one. I'm inclined to let him name both since he apparently has issues with my naming. When I showed up to collect the kittens, one of the student assistants wanted to take him, but I told her Benn had his heart set on the yellow on. Or orange one. There was some debate on that at work.  But she didn't want the Black and white one. Poor little thing. Anyway, the yellow is the independent one of them. He immediately started eating when I showed him his food. And within in hour of bringing him home, he got himself into a vent. We have a small vent to hook a dryer up to if we were so inclined. It never occurred to me to block it. I used the trash can to block it after I got him out. But it didn't block it well enough because the black and white kitten went in there later. This time, I made sure the damn can was blocking in properly. My other two cats are not fond of the newcomers. Raish was down here for awhile, but he's gone upstairs. Both kittens got into Halloween cat positions when he was hissing at them. And I think once they scared him upstairs. Una's gone and hid and I can't find her. I figure she'll come out when she's ready. Raish is willing to let me pet him and hold him still, but Una doesn't want anything to do with me at the moment. She got used to Raish, she'll get used to these guys. Whatever we decide to name them. I think that's enough about cats for now... |
| Well, I couldn't wait and asked my co-worker if there was a way I could get the kittens tomorrow. She agreed. I figured it would be better if I could spend a weekend with them when they first arrive. Which means I'm going to have to go get some kitten supplies before I pick them up. I'm not sure how I'm going to feed them once they start on adult food. Right now, Raish and Una have separate bowls. I guess I'll have to find a uber big bowl or something. I just can't seem to bring myself to do anything productive right now. It's all the more irritating since my weekend starts in an hour and half. I've made progress on Moon lately. And I think I have a decent rewrite of my query letter for Chasing. I'm debating about putting it on WDC again before sending it to Evil Editor. I started a synopsis for Chasing because the first agency I want to try only wants a query letter and synopsis. The query letter was difficult enough. Blah. Who knows how much work I'll get done this weekend with too new little balls of fur running around.  |
| Since my co-worker only has two kittens, we will be taking them both. I shall be getting them on Sunday. Since being out on my own, I've never had kittens this young. Both Raish and Una were six months old when we got them. These new kittens should be about seven weeks old. I figured it would be better for the kittens to be together especially when having to learn to deal with two grown cats. I'm kinda worried about my cats killing the kittens. I've heard that can happen. But Benn will be home Monday so hopefully a day will be enough to override any murderous intentions. I'm hoping since the kittens will be kittens, the cats won't see them as big of a threat like they might a full grown cat. We'll see. Anyway, I thought I'd go ahead and talk about our yellow cat I mentioned before. He was actually Benn's cat. This was before we were married, but we lived together in house with two other friends. One of the friends got a gray kitten from her boyfriend at the time. I could do an entire entry on the wackiness of him. Anyway, he brought her this kitten in a box that was filled with fleas. Had I answered the door and saw that, there was no way I'd let him bring that in the house. It took us awhile to get rid of them. She named the cat Zoey. Something about her having a cat got to Benn so when his parent's farm cat had kittens, he wanted one. That was how we got Toku. His name comes from Legend of the Five Rings. It started out as a collectible card game, but than became a role-playing game as well. There was a character in the game that became a joke and his name was Toku. He added very little to your game, but was the leader of the Monkey clan. A very small, nearly non-existent clan in the game world. At any rate, our little yellow cat was dubbed Toku. Benn has suggested we call the new yellow kitten Toku Experienced. Which is a joke you probably only get if you've played the card game. I remember the first night we got him. I was just starting to work on a new short story for my creative writing class. It's the crappy story in my port called A Cold Winter Night. Or something like that. I was in the basement working on the computer and Toku comes down, sits beside me and starts meowing until I pick him up. Every time I set him down, he would do the same thing. It was very cute and smart of him since I fell in love with him because of it. When our lease came up, we all decided to move, but my one friend was coming with us and a different friend wanted in. So we found a house we liked and while we were discussing the new lease with the landlord, I asked about pets. The landlord just said, "Oh, we'll talk about it later." or "Well, there would have to be a pet deposit." But he never gave us a price. Well, we ended up signing the lease a few days later and when I asked about the pet thing, he said pets weren't allowed. Needless to say I was pissed, but we were poor college students, (Well, two of us were. The other two were just poor.) so, there was nothing we could do about it. Our friend's girlfriend's parents had tons of cats and were willing to take him. Our intent was to move out of the house when the lease came up in a year, and find a new place that would let us take Toku back. I remember the day her parents came and got him. I couldn't help but cry. He was such a sweet cat. There were a couple of times we went to her parents and saw him. They live about two hours away from us, so we couldn't just drop in and see him. But Toku seemed to have forgotten us. He had gotten huge and was allowed to go outside. So when the year was up, it seemed to cruel to take him away from his new home. At the time, a year didn't seen very long, but when the lease was up, it seemed like forever had passed. I don't know if Benn has always liked yellow cats, or if his fondness comes from having Toku. My throat still gets a little tight thinking about him. We hadn't had him for a year, but we had grown attached to him pretty quickly. I really hope he's still doing well there at her parents. It makes me happy to think of him coming and going as he pleases with other cats to keep him company. And her parents have a pretty sweet house.  |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
