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 |  Now my story begins in nineteen-dickety-two... |
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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 |
| I haven't gotten much reading done lately, because I've recently been using my lunch hour to take a walk. It's been working out pretty well, but I feel bad for not reading as much. For some reason, when I'm at home, I don't think about reading there. I need to change that. I also read when I'm donating plasma, but I only do that twice a week. And last week I had to cancel both my appointments because the car grandma gave us started leaking. It's been repaired and it wasn't too much money although, I would have preferred not having to pay for it all, but what are you're going to do? Benn didn't get hired at the plasma center. I honestly thought they would hire him. I still find it unbelievable. But, there numbers have been up at Benn's work, so it looks like it will survive a couple of months yet. Still, I'm trying to encourage him to look for another job and/or go back to school. He's always wanted to be a school teacher, but he feels like he's too old now. Or at least will be by the time he graduated. He's thinking about going to school for nursing. Problem is he's feeling depressed about the whole situation. I understand that. When I was working at my last job I was reduced to half time and was just waiting for them to lay me off. It depressed me so much I didn't work on my writing even though I now had a ton of free time to work on it. I continued to look for a job though. I want to do something to encourage him, but there's only so much I can do. The rest is up to him. That really sucks. Which I know he dealt with something similar when I was going through anxiety issues. The nurse at his work told him I had to deal with it on my own and there was nothing he could do to solve the problem. Reading all that makes it sound like a lot worse than it really is. Maybe depressed is the wrong word. Disheartened? Anyway, I got a decent sleep last night. I'm so much more bright eyed and bushy tailed than I usually am on a Sunday. But there's still this haze of boredom that hangs around here on a Sunday. I just want to go home. Usually by 4 I'm ready to start running around in circles until they let me out. But today, I think my co-worker is bringing in the kittens so I can pick which one I want. I think it's going to be the yellow one. Benn has a soft spot for yellow ones, I think. Our first cat was yellow, and I'll probably do an entry about him later. I brought my camera so I can take their pictures then Benn can see them before we decide. My co-worker wants them to spend another week with their mother before letting them go, just to be safe. Which I'm fine with. I don't want a kitten before it's ready. I know how my cats react to another cat, but I wonder if a kitten will be different. I haven't been very bloggy the last couple of weeks or so. I'm still looking at the ones in my favorites, but not saying very much if anything. I haven't made many entries myself. Well, I best be doing something else now... |
| Some things I thought I'd share as I make my way through Evil Editor's archives. You know, when I should be writing or working... http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_nuLnGSnu094/SMGSmeMsH0I/AAAAAAAADwM/TIdp6_pDaJM/s1600-... http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_nuLnGSnu094/SMSL7pCrTxI/AAAAAAAADzE/m_yEqEh8fD8/s1600-... |
| We were lucky enough to have a creative writing class when I was in high school. I don't know how long it lasted after I graduated, but it was nice to have a class with people who had similar interests. It was also nice to have a time set aside everyday to work on my writing and be encouraged to do it. Anyway, the main story I was working on was an early version of Strawberry Moon. There were times I was working on that story in high school where I came to a stopping point and didn't know where to go with it, so I would write fake endings that usually ended in a nuclear holocaust. My friend and I found these fake endings extremely hilarious. Here I am sixteen/seventeen years later and I don't know how to end some of the chapters for Moon. I don't remember having this problem for Chasing, but when I first wrote Chasing I didn't have it divided into chapters. I waited until it was all done before doing so. I don't remember having this problem for Apple either and that I did divide it into chapters before I was done with it... I think. The only reason I'm rather concerned about it at the moment is because I'm posting new chapters to the Fantasy board and I have a reviewer caught up and some more closing in. On the one hand, I probably shouldn't let that matter. On the other, it's a good way to keep me working on my writing. I've taken a small break from my query letter. I think I maybe ready to jump into that again. A part of me is eager to say that I've sent it out. Still I haven't even tried to get anything published. I don't want to rush myself, but I'm getting a little annoyed at myself for taking so long. The goal is to have the letter ready before the end of June. I think that's reasonable. Back to the chapter... I doubt a nuclear war is going to be reasonable solution this time too... |
| So, my cats were particularly intrigued by something outside the porch screen door. I go over there and there's a black and white cat. He lets me pet him, so I figure he must belong to someone. He does look familiar. There is a woman who lets her cats out on the porch while she smokes or sits out there with them. I think he must belong to her. I just went over to her apartment with him and he didn't answer. So, it looks like I have a guest for awhile. My cats are not happy about this. Raish keeps following him around and making little annoyed noises with a hiss here and there. Una went to hide. The poor little guy keeps wondering around and making pathetic little noises like he wants to go home.  The funny thing is, my co-worker is supposed to give me a kitten once it's six weeks old. And one of them is a black and white kitten. My new guest is definitely a cat. I guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow when I get up. |
| Okay, I think I've gotten to the point where I need feedback on my query letter. I'm thinking of sending it to Evil Editor or Query Shark, before putting together submission packets. The links are to the side if you want to check out their websites. Evil Editor is entertaining if nothing else. I think I'm obsessing over the query letter too much. Anyway, here is the link: "Invalid Item"  . |
| About three years ago when I took this job, I wasn't sure about working a second shift schedule. Really, I think it suits me. The big reason I didn't want to work second shift is because if people get together and do stuff it's in the evenings. But given that all my friends moved away or grew apart, it isn't an issue. I have to wonder what percentage of the population actually works 8-5, M-F. I'm thinking it can't be a huge chunk since there seem to more jobs where you have to work evenings and weekends. Yet, the world kinda caters to the 8-5ish crowd. I keep thinking that there have to be enough second shifters out there that could get together and hang out. But I think we just grew accustomed to fitting in with our friends and acquaintances that work first shift. There are benefits. I hated getting up at 6 in the morning. I hated getting woken up by an alarm clock more. Now, I only have to have an alarm set for Sunday mornings. There's something pleasant about getting off work when it's night time. More peaceful. With the second shift schedule and my weekend being Friday and Saturday I also get to avoid crowds and traffic for the most part. The sun hurts more when you've grown accustomed to the dark though. I almost hissed at the sun this morning when I went to work. I should have grabbed sunglasses, but didn't. I do like the sun, but was it always this bright? There are things that I miss about early morning, but not enough to experience it every day. I do miss thunderstorms which may seem like a surprising thing to say. We still get them, of course, but they often occur when I'm at work and I work in the basement. So usually I only get to experience the distant rumble or light flicker at the library. The smell of rain does tend to seep in, though. We did have a good storm or two Friday night. I enjoyed that. Where I used to work, the front of our building had huge windows and my desk was next to them. Seeing the storms from there was awesome. Although my co-workers would freak out on me being so close to the windows during a storm. So, I've become a night owl. Hoot. Not sure I could do a third shift though. |
| I just finished reading the book Thirteen Reasons Why. It's a young adult novel and deals with high school students. The plot is about a girl, Hannah, who kills herself and sends out tape recordings to the 13 people that helped push her to it. The story is told from person number eight, Clay. I won't go into too many details here. I already did a review on Goodreads, but I would recommend reading it. After posting my reviews on Goodreads, I'll check out what other people think about it. This is not always a good idea, because sometimes, if someone has a strong opinion that I disagree with, it can upset me. No big deal really. Especially if they can back up their arguments. But tonight, I read someone's review that really got to me. She gave the book only one star because the high school students drank alcohol and had sex. And she didn't believe most teenagers' lives were like that.  Now, I was never invited to parties and I never had a boyfriend in high school, but I'm not naive enough to believe my that my fellow classmates were sober and chaste. What's even more mind-boggling is the fact that the beer was only briefly mentioned and not glorified. The two 'sex' scenes were rape and therefore not erotic nor was it gratuitous. In fact, this reviewer had read all the Twilight books and rated them 3 stars. I haven't read Twilight, but I've read some making out excerpts thanks to chicochica  and those scenes were more graphic than what was in Thirteen Reasons. I'm willing to bet there was a lot of violence in the Twilight series too. It just angers me when someone picks something so tiny and not integral to the book as a whole to denounce the whole novel. That one reviewer just upset me so much I had to say something to someone. I almost sent her a comment. But I'm not a confrontational person, but I've noticed lately that my resistance to confrontation is fading. I don't know if it's because I'm older or what. I'm still shy and would prefer not to argue, but not like I once was. I wouldn't have changed her mind anyway. Now there were reviews that didn't understand why the girl had chosen to kill herself and therefore didn't like it so much. But I can live with that because we all have different experiences. I understood why Hannah did it. I don't think she should have, but I understand the mindset. Some people can't. In fact, yesterday, I was considering delving into that a bit as a blog entry. I suppose I could at a later date. Now I just want to beat sense into people... Screw all other magical items and powers. I want a big stick that once I whack someone with it, it allows them to see reason... Now that I think about it, isn't that what the Sword of Shannara kinda did? |
| So, does anybody want to write my query letter for me? ... anybody? Just to get me started? Writing's hard. Good thing it's a good pain... Back to the whips and chains *sigh* |
| Last August, I discovered a series (Hallowmere) in our collection and started to read it. Here's the entry I did about it: "Invalid Entry" Well, it turns out that it was about the same time Wizard's of the Coast {WotC) decided they would no longer publish items that didn't deal directly with their gaming products. I didn't learn about this until today. Book seven was supposed to have come out in March. I had to do some serious digging to find all this out. So the question would be, why can't the author just continue the series elsewhere? It's for the same reason I decided not to submit anything to WotC. Copyright belongs to them once they they decide to publish it. The back of the title page even says all characters belong to WotC. I've never seen that in any other fiction book I've read. Or if I have, it doesn't come up often. But once I read their submission guidelines and saw that, I knew I wouldn't be submitting anything to them. My question is, if WotC doesn't want to print it any longer, why don't they just relinquish the copyright then? The only reason I can think of is that they're just dicks or too lazy to do the paperwork involved. This also explains why went I to Gen Con last year I couldn't find the books we don't have to purchase. If I had known at the time, the poor booth workers at the WotC booth would have gotten a piece of my mind. For those of you that don't know, WotC is best known for Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. Damn. The church was right. Dungeons and Dragons is evil. Hallowmere was a fantastic series, and now I may not see the conclusion. There's always the chance it will be continued, but I'm not optimistic about it. I'm used to this happening with TV series, especially the cartoons I watched when I was little. This isn't fair. And don't bother pointing that life isn't fair. |
| Campus is a ghost town. Summer semester starts next week, but it won't get much better. Now is that blissful time of relaxing from a busy end of semester until the boredom sets in and we're forced to do crappy projects. Yesterday was Benn's birthday and B came up from Indy to spend the day with us. It was a nice day, but it went awfully fast. Benn had me call Craig on Friday to see if he wanted to come eat with us yesterday. I left him a message on his phone but we never heard back from him. Speaking of Craig, Benn had sent him several IMs, messages through the online game they play, and left him phone messages about changing the locks on the townhouse, informing him to come get his stuff. Well, Benn finally heard a reply a few days ago from Craig saying he tried to get into the townhouse to pick up a few things, but he couldn't get in. And picking up a few things? Not, getting the rest of his stuff, just some of it. Benn suspects if we didn't change the locks, one day we would have come home to find them putting more stuff the room, like we're a storage facility for them. Anyway, Benn sent him a message asking him when they'd like to get the rest of their stuff so we could be home, but Craig has yet to answer. Benn also suspects that Matt has been getting onto Craig's computer accounts and that may be why Craig hasn't answered. In the past Benn has been sending Craig IMs, but something about them will be off, so Benn asks if he's talking to Craig, and Matt will admit that it's him. Something definitely isn't right there. Anyway, Benn has an interview at the place we give plasma on Thursday. He already had a phone interview and Benn thinks that went really well. He's very optimistic about his chances at getting a job there. The starting pay is a little more than he's making now. But that's just starting. It could end up being more. In any case, it would still be better than where he's at now. So, I'm hoping it goes well on Thursday. I think that's enough for now. Have a good one!  |
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