Monday, January 31, 2005

Struggling with a Query Letter

You'd think that someone who spends at least fifty percent of her day wrestling words wouldn't have such problems with these things. I can write; I'm a good writer.

I'm writing the blurb for my website. Look at it like that. Maybe that will help.

Okay, I think I got a short description now. *Deep breath* Now for the bulk.

I think it's easier to write the story.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Friday, January 28, 2005

Not the flu

Apparantly, I shook off whatever it was. Last night I even cooked. I tried a beef vegetable stew out of my Greek cookbook. I think I got it a little too lemony, it called for the juice of two lemons and I over compensated with the bottled lemon juice.

I got woefully off track with the tutorials deadlines. I underestimated the time it would take to edit the story. School is going fine. I do need to get started on the projects that will be due next month. I'd rather not procrastinate.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Feel like singing like Donkey

His "All Alone" song at least. I'm so complusive with my entries, and nobody else is. Red has really poofed. *Sigh*

I feel crappy and Chad thinks it might be beginning of flu. Don't want the flu, however having actual sick time off at least it would spare me the commute. I was an hour and half late due to something on the Amite River Bridge.

Well my brain went to "Let Us Give Thanks" and I didn't try to fight it. Not after just finishing all those edits for "The Hyrueliana."

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, January 24, 2005

Tumultuous Weekend

Okay, I'm being melodramatic. But it feels like tons happened in two days. Another day spent at my parents' working on the floor. Next weekend we should be ready to finish one room, and then move the next room's furniture into it.

Priced my next electronic purchases--other than a new phone. The label writer at Office Depot is around $160, and the Kodak digital camera is about $200.

I realized I could be working on the Garb Closet by making the pattern and mock-ups, but then found out I have to buy a yardstick. *Sigh*

Got a major chunk of the Hyrueliana editing done, over 800 words on Saturday. Sunday wasn't as good since I was working on homework. You can read it in Discipline Under Fire.

And Chad had a brillant brainstorm. As you may know, I bought my house which was built by my great-great-grandparents in 1919 as their retirement cottage. It had a detached kitchen at that time and my grandmother still remembers it. A lean-to made of pine added the two back rooms to the original cypress house that now house another bedroom and the kitchen. The indoor plumbing was added in the 1950s (my father remembers this), then aluminin siding. (ADD PHOTO HERE)

The plumbing is substandard, the sheetrock that makes up most of the insane partitions inside is rotting, in short it needs work. I always wanted to restore the original four rooms, and put the modern stuff into a modern, but decorative matching in a modern addition. I studied floorplans for ages, and finally settled on one but wasn't too thrilled with what it would do to the existing landscape. (INSERT PICTURE HERE)

Well, Chad's brilliant suggestion was to jack up the original, add a little to it to match the front porch span, and put the modern in a brick downstairs, French Creole plantation style. It's not Tara, it only exists in Louisiana, and the house is already an Acadian cottage. Best sample: The Oakley Plantation Picture 1, Picture 2, and Picture 3. It has three stories and I'm not going to do the shade on the galleries. More samples: Destrechan Plantation, Homeplace Plantation House, Laura Plantation, St. Emma Plantation, Riverlake, Parlange Plantation House, and a page explaining French Creole Architecture.

I won't be using the Doric columns on the bottom, probably just brick. But I think this is what the house wants and I want an upgrade that will blend both seemlessly.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Haven't Been Fair

I haven't been fair to Discipline Under Fire. I didn't want to post the writing tutorials, but I can post the editing I'm doing in conjunction with them.

I've been fighting depression over it, not sure what the cause is. I know what I need to write, know I need to write, feel the desire to write until I actually pull out the paper. And then it shrivels up and I feel exhausted. I managed to get through it last night and wrote a little before bed.

It usually hits in times of upheaval, when I haven't ment my quotas, and I've been rejected. I guess it's lasting this long because I've been under the double whammy of all three at once.

I need to invest in a label writer. I end up wasting label sheets that go through my printer for one or two labels. I think I like this one, LabelWriter330. I should be able to get it from Office Depot or Office Max. Next I need to invest in a good digital camera, a digital pen, and a laptop, but a label printer I need now for submission.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

No kabooms

Part of me is relieved, part of me is chagrined for wasting so much energy on worse case scenerio, part of me is "she still didn't do her job." *Shrug* Moving right along....

Technical writing class will be spent learning and creating a professional grade product. I haven't decided what to do. On the one hand, I know what the paying job needs manual wise, but why should I waste my time when the supervisor won't adopt it? (The same way she makes us all proofread her forms/directions/letters to the public/policies and then doesn't change a damn thing we suggest. Needless to say, I don't try very hard on them and the rest of my coworker's go "Kindra's the English major." I guess this is a bitch about my supervisor week.)

On the other hand, Chad needs stuff written for the School Days. He's competent, but overwhelmed and the written material suffers. Though he and Rick finally hired a secertary to share between them, one who volunteered last season and I couldn't get it through his thick skull that anybody with a script could screen the stupid calls from the teachers. What's the forecast? Can I still buy tickets? What will you do if it rains? I need to change my order. ect.

Well, I'll hold off and see what Monday's class brings. Maybe that will help me pick between the two.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Ungodly-early in the morning

Here's hoping that once I get some money to start sewing projects interest in the Garb Closet will pick up.

Why am I here so ungodly-early in the morning? Today's the first day of university classes for this semester. I asked my supervisor for a time change via email last Tuesday (the 11th) when she got back to work. I finally asked near the end of the day whether she got the email or not. "I'm thinking about it," was her answer.

Now call me stupid, but I have to leave at 4pm to even have a prayer of making it to a 5pm class at SLU on time. I offered to come in at 7:30am instead of 8am. Now before anyone gets confused, four of my coworkers are already on this schedule. Another one got her time changed till 8:30am - 5pm to accommodate a morning class, and hasn't gotten it changed back for over a year.

So I wait all week; my supervisor tells me nothing. Thursday the 8:30am coworker tells me what form I should fill out. My supervisor didn't even do that. Friday still no comment from my surpervisor. So I send her an email after she left, stating that I'm assuming everything is approved and I'll be at work at 7:30am.

Actually I got here at 6:50am. I over-anticipated the amount of traffic, and this was after burning fifteen minutes getting breakfast and lunch. And I'm probably going to hear holy hell about this all day today.

Don't care really. Actually did care, but I'm on the moral high ground here. She didn't do her job, period.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, January 13, 2005

Done It Again

The Garb Closet

I'm such a sucker for documentation.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Taking a break

Looking at rewriting the Fifth deleted section in The Hyrueliana, which is the entire climax. Not ready for that yet so I'm taking a break.

Chad wants to go to Gulf Wars in March. I want to, but I think I'm going to have to go into a sewing and dieting frenzy. I don't have enough garb that I fit in to wear. And especially not for Pennsic. *Whimper*

There is stuff I'm getting inspired by. A Festive Attyre showed me a new technique with lacing that might work better than everything I have used. Plus I like the Flemish and Italian peasant dresses. The noble gowns are fabulous, but I have so much repair work to do to my "Shakespeare in Love" dress. It might be more worthwhile to just start over on a new noble gown, BUT I'm lacking the budget for it. And I need a smashing doublet for Capt. Kate so everyone will stop calling her the Alcatraz pirate. (Here's a back view.) The stripes are actually blue. It doesn't look that bad for my first sewn doublet, really. Anyways, I need a long-sleeved doublet and I would like it in red to match the hiked up skirt.

Damn, there's no way around it. I'm going to have to start sewing.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Monday, January 10, 2005

Slow days

After the mad rush of HTML coding, it feels strange to descend to just writing again. It moves so much slower.

Found a problem on chassie5.html; must remember to fix. Also forgot to list the new tortures on the Updates page. *Sigh*

I got the first deleted section of Hyrueliana rewrote. There's five deleted sections in all. It is a lot considering that I accomplished it while working.

School is having issues with the financial aid because my application is late. I'm in, but the aid might not be here till February. I swear it's all a conspiracy to see which place can make me explode into a criminal first. Arson forensics would put me in jail. Arson forensics would put me in jail.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Writing didn't happen

But I did accomplish the Alt. BM Site update. Load off my mind. And hopefully the FTP will hurry up so I can go enjoy what is left of this day.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Writing updates

I got back "Father's Love" rejected. Day before New Year's Eve. Great way to start off the new year.

I haven't sent it or "The Rose" out to the next mags on the list. I will before the end of next week.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Twitching while waiting

I've never been good at waiting. Patience is a virtue I've never waited for. Emailed the English Grad coordinator, Financial Aid, and Chad--and no responses from any of them. The first two I can understand; they're busy. The last one *sigh* maybe he just didn't feel it was worth replying over. Sheesh all I wanted was verification that what I'm doing is right in SLU's online system.

Good stuff, he agreed to going to Lafayette to see the Bilge Pumps and his mother if I have anything to say about it. I had to take a sledgehammer to his skull "Am I not good enough to meet your mother? Are you ashamed of me?" I don't care about approval of any sort; I just want to know what the woman looks like! He wants to go with my family to celebrate Krista's 21st B-day, if my parents can ever get that timing straightened out. He wants to go to the art museum that I want to go to. He's going to help me with house and yard remodeling stuff. It's not all bad and the yelling is more due to my PMS than anything else.

I'm on a role with writing the tutorials. Even though I didn't get online and send out the second one last night. I was exhausted, and went to bed early. Have to get online tonight and work more on the Alt BM Site update too.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Not ignoring this really

I've been struggling to meet 500 words a day so I can stay ahead of what I have due on deadlines. It's all been in writing tutorials, which is why nothing has been posted in Discipline. Been averaging just shy of 300.

Also at home I've been working like crazy to get up the past 2 updates of Alt BM Site as a special January update. Along with a surprise that has been eating up the largest chunk of time. It's almost finished though.

That's all there is for now.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

Sunday, January 02, 2005

Busy weekend

And this was my only computer day. I was also way busy with the Alt BM Site update until I hit a snag and had to come scrambling online to look for an answer. I think I know what I'm doing now.

Writing deadlines. I am ahead as of now.Plan to stay that way. But now I need to go to bed so I can start the transition to waking up at 4:30 instead 5 am.

Read Free!
The BookWorm