Put today in a blender and hit shrapay

I had such good intentions for today. I had a brainwave last night driving home to start writing in the morning before getting into the car to come to work. I was going to try it today.

And I've never been an advocate of shooting animals just because they piss you off on some level. (No hunting for food/sport is not the same thing provided you eat what you kill.) The animal I want to shoot is a black female cat that is currently in heat. And Mustard has forgotten he's an enuch.

Mustard darted out last night and never did return. I finally found him and said black cat in courting ritual and left them to it. He'll come in whenever. I went to bed.

Wake up this morning. No Mustard. The temperature is in the 30s. I'm worried, so I get dressed and start hunting him with a flashlight. This is about 5:30 a.m. He comes out of hiding about 6 a.m., after I have started the car to warm it. I go to get him to put his ass back inside. Black cat shows up. Mustard tries to take my left thumb off. The only thing that probably saved me from having to get stitches is that I was wearing gloves. Still I've got a hunk missing out of the thumb--small in area but apparantly deep since the blood has leaked through the two band-aids I have on top of each other--and matching scratches down my forearm.

Course it also proves I shouldn't live alone. These minor wounds (though they hurt like a sonofabitch before the Tylenol kicked in) had me going dizzy with ringing ears, signs of blacking out. I had to go lay down on my bed, since I didn't want to hit the kitchen floor. Get back up and try to doctor myself then lay back down. I was okay after the second lay down. Still it's not like Mustard severed an artry and I lost copious amounts of blood.

It was 6:30 a.m. befoe I left home for work and I had to stop and buy gas and get some cash out, so I got here about 15 minutes late. I have no idea if I'm going to be able to get Mustard in tonight when I get home. I can't shoot the black cat, no gun. But on the bright side at least they are keeping to the woods in the back of my property and not the road in front of my property. I can cross Mustard getting run over off my worry list for today.

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The BookWorm

WIGGI!!!!! Court is now in session!

Supernatural Law, explanation. I have loved Wolff & Byrd ever since I picked up a compilation book of strips way back at Northwestern in the 90s (which apparantly doesn't even exist on Batton Lash's book order page *blink*).

And now they've come to the web. *Sigh*

I still have to get the rest of the books, though. Add that to my comics related shopping list.

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The BookWorm

Moses in the Ice Chest

Quicky that is writing related. Today's the three-month anniversery of Katrina hitting. Tommy, a New Orleans fire fighter, called in WWL 870 this morning. He and the rest of the fire fighters listened to WWL for people calling in to report they were trapped. 22 guys took their personal boats and preformed 1500 rescues. They didn't take the news crews with them, so most people don't know they were out there.

The youngest person they rescued was a baby 8 DAYS old, floated to the boat in what Tommy called "one of them Rubbermaid things like an ice chest."

IF I ever write on Katrina--and it's a big if since I tear up still with stories like that--even in a round-about way, I'm going to use that as a title.

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The BookWorm

It's Monday and I'm being bad

So I haven't written anything this morning *raspberry* I'm getting back into the swing of work and fiction after spending Thursday through Sunday on homework--namely the ENGL-575 paper. It's done. The Pilgrim's Progress presentation is started, but I need to find one more source to quote in it.

So that leaves me with:

ENGL-611 Bunyan Presentation = 4 pages = 800 words
ENGL-575 precis = 1.5 pages = 300 words
ENGL-575 Final project presentation = 2 pages = 400 words
ENGL-611 Major paper = 10 pages = 2000 words
ENGL-575 Final draft = 20 pages = 4000 words

Actually I think I have to do a recount on number of words. I was basing it on the Courier 12pt formula of 250 per page, but I had 4036 in the ENGL-575 Revision and only have 14 pages (one is the works cited). Okay, I did some testing and with Times New Roman and solid text double-spaced (I didn't skip spaces for titles or paragraphs) I got 400 words on a page. So everything just doubled. Ouch.

So what's up with Revolver and Mezzine's Mind? Or is Blogger having issues? Or am I the only one who can't access them?

Currently in Zy's novel: yakky scene. Also need some reason for D'pa to have trusted Gumbino over Stual. Oh well, can't worry about it now, the stupid mail is here. *Sigh* Maybe something will have clicked by lunch.


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The BookWorm

Made some changes

Well, the experiment with the Report Card appears to be working, so I went ahead and expanded it for the full time and word amount I'm hoping will go into Zy's novel. Wrote 812 words today so far and that has me finishing the novel on July 7, 2007. Considering that I want to finish on October 10, 2006, I guess it is better than the "NEVER" I was getting before. Though I don't know why "Tomorrow's goal" doesn't put you back on track for finishing in the amount of time you say you want to. I'm guessing it's because it was built for NaNo.

I get to leave early today, and help my sister hang sheetrock. Tomorrow is Turkey Day at Chad's mother's. My parents are going to Kai's in Texas--at least what I was told last night. Krista can't wait for them to get out of her room finishing hair. So Happy Thanksgiving everybody if I don't see you tomorrow.

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The BookWorm

Ouch!

Zokutou's Writing Report Card is handy at yelling at you, all automated. I set it up to try it out and then had some insanity this weekend, all school related that lasted until yesterday. So I opened up what I had set up earlier. I missed six days, have to do 500 words to be on schedule for today, and at this rate I'll never finish.

OUCH!

The purse situation, I sorta have a messanger bag. Well it's a briefcase like bag. Sharp should remember how much I brought to Upward Bound in high school. It's just gotten worse. Zy's novel is expanded out of a 1 1/2 inch binder, SLU classes have about 5 assigned books between them and another 1 1/2 inch binder, then there's the books for fiction research and the books for paper research, and 4 miscellaneous folders I don't work on until Fridays for rewards but if I don't keep them in the bag everyday I won't have them. Consolidating the money stuff to the organizer let me leave the black bag behind. BUT I leave the organizer behind. *Sigh*

I'm using the purse I got free from Coldwater Creek when I bought my suits. Carrying three bags and a coat to class is even worse now. The next step is probably one of those suitcases on wheels. Or maybe I woldn't have to drag as much paper and books if I get a laptop.

Anyways I'll have to take some pictures when I get home. I don't think my describing it does it justice. Time to crank out 500 words and make the report card happy.

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The BookWorm

If I could just wear jeans everyday, I wouldn't have this problem

6am, leaving home and I realize I don't have my organizer which has my life in it. Driver's License, debit cards, checkbooks, student id, my life. The last place I remember seeing it, packing up my bags leaving class last night. So 6:30 had me back on campus. Not in the classroom, the janitor didn't have it. The police didn't have it. Woke Chad up to check my school email. Nobody emailed me about it. Found my professor's door. No Friday office hours. Had to wait until 7:45 when the English department finally opened. No, they didn't have it, could only get my professor's answering machine at home. Go home to wait for the professor to call and start emailing my classmates. 8:30am it's turned into the department. It's 9am but I get it back, safe and sound, and finally make it my job by 10am.

I'm rather proud of myself. Only had mild hysterics after seeing the "no Friday office hours" sign and I did it before anybody else showed up on that floor. I'm going to have to start carrying a purse just so I will stop leaving that damned thing places, and I'm not looking forward to that. But not it's starting to happen about once a month.

Now to explain the title. In my college years, I kept everything condensced to a man's wallet, which went in my back pocket. Checkbooks kept at home under lock and key. Anything bulkier in the booksack. If I didn't need the booksack, wallet in pocket. Purse is an anchor to a feminist. I never lost the damn wallet. Unfortunately, in the working world I'm in, they limit your jeans to Fridays. Dress slacks usually don't have pockets, and if they do there's usually only room for one key. I had to get a purse. I resisted. I finally broke into using an organizer that has pockets for cards and money and a calculator as well as more paper than I can possibly need (I wonder if the executive types they are designed for actually take that many notes). I keep leaving it places. I usually stick it in my black bag with all my writing essentials, but I don't take that everywhere I go. It needs to be permanently tied to my body, which means a ... purse.

I will not have hysterics at work.

Bleauh, kill time with research today. I don't feel like dealing with any characters.

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The BookWorm

Is it believable?

Oh ack! Yes, that's the best way to describe it, ack!

Xeryl, Xeryl, Xeryl. I'm working on understanding Xeryl, the romantic subplot lead, deboniare bad boy, reluctant partner, in the pool of victims, and keeping a secret. He's smart, witty, ready and has made hard choice to succeed in what he has set out to do. He plans, he thinks things through, he doesn't express losing his temper. He's a great foil for the impulsive Zy who doesn't trust him or his motives, but can't help falling for him. Playing at purse-er and pursue-ee, this romantic sub-plot is supposed to last through the series.

Must remember to update the Discipline Under Fire links.

Anyways, the problem that has made work grind to screeching halt and is making me looking longingly at my homework: chasing Zy endangers his secret and Xeryl is too smart to endanger his secret.

How realistic is it for him to say "screw the secret," the thing that has ruled his life for at least the past decade? How realistic is it to portray a character in a mystery as being torn between the secret and wanting Zy? I can probably work with; it definately adds to Xeryl, but is it drifting into melodrama, sleazy, formulaic romance? (That stuff published by Harlequin is not what I want to write.)

I think I will go work on homework. If Xeryl will stop jumping up and down and my head begging for attention.

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The BookWorm

Background work

Total words yesterday = 880
Total words spent on Mealte yesterday and today = 1164
Total words I can show = 0

Need to finish the Murderer's back ground work and Xeryl's background work. Need to get the book on Aliens and Alien Societies. Need to give these three some sort of base language to work from.

I suppose I out to explain that one. It was advice from the new naming characters book I got, basing your new race/species on a real language. I'm honest with myself, I'm no Tolkien and even he riffed off what he knew of Old English, Old Norse, etc. The problem is I'm doing so much work at the paying job and I don't bring my reference materials with me.

I'm beginning to wonder if biology doesn't play a factor here. Maybe I should look at my schedule on a monthly basis two weeks of energizied creativity, one week of PMS-ick best used on editing, and one final week you don't feel like doing anything at all? Or is it just me with changing my diet and restarting birth control and the lack of sleep I seem to constantly operate under? I know I'm going to go home and again not feel like doing anything and there's so much to do.

Okay I'm going for Diet Dr. Pepper and then cracking on Xeryl if the mail hasn't gotten here yet.

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The BookWorm

Progress is slow

Of course that was the reason why I saved the office cleaning for last. I shoved everything into boxes (I think there is seven or eight of them) and shoved the boxes to the outside of my desk. Nothing is allowed to cross the desk unless it's filed. Items to keep are scanned and then thrown away. Some just get thrown away.

I didn't get a chance to chip away at the boxes last night. I finally got to the library for research into my homework assignments and an after class chat with my professor over revising my paper. I need a thesis, which is a verdict I'm not disagreeing with. My initial view was what detective genre rules are broken, but the story isn't a detective story per se, but a mystery about a detective's past and how he reconstructs his view of himself. All that aside, When We Were Orphans is a damn fine read, which it would have to be to make me so utterly frustrated with the main character. Yes, that frustration was on the surface on my first draft according to my professor. Though maybe not a bad thing, I tend to write better nonfiction when I'm in a tiff about the subject.

I did reach over 400 words on Zy's novel this morning. Unfortunately, it is all background stuff. I don't mind the break because it is character blanks that need to be filled. But I also don't want to spoil anything so I can't post it. And looking at my daily word count list, I'm stuck with it because I didn't bring my school work today. *Sigh*

Oh and I forgot to tell you I finally got a haircut. I've gone from waist-length straight hair to shoulder-length straight hair. Donated a foot all the way around to Locks for Love. I think my preferrred length is about mid-back, but I had too many split ends to try to keep it longer. Neck doesn't hurt since either. LOL That's a lot of weight. But it'll grow back.

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The BookWorm

The number one reason to get a dishwasher...

... is I always wash the clothes I'm wearing while washing the dishes.

I've been slacking in the writing department this weekend and last, trying to get my house up to a point where I can forget about it for another six months. I'm on the last room now--my office. I'm tweaking my computer setup for easy of use, bought a TV stand that I'm going to turn into a rolling storage unit. I would have made a bigger impact except I had to stop and cook for lunch. And cooking means get a couple of meals so I have food during the week.

I'm trying a new eating regieme to add more fruits and veggies to my diet. Fit for Life. Granted I think some of their science is a little wonky (the stomach makes acid and akaline juices?), but I've been following the nothing but fruit and juice for breakfast and saving the carbs and meat for noon and later, and I haven't been getting that mid-afternoon slump. And when I was doing Shape Up Louisiana, they wanted you to have four to five servings of fruits and veggies a day. 16 ounces of juice and an apple or a bannana is five. The real test is what my blood sugar says Dec. 20th and if I drop any clothes sizes between now and then.

Time to get back to work.

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The BookWorm

Yeah you get the writing blahs

I think it's just another symptom of PMS. Or trying to get advised for the Spring 2006 semester stress. Or maybe I'm still stuck in left brain editing mode?

Yesterday I was stuck on Xeryl since the info I wanted to compile is on my home computer. His character work also didn't offer up any clues to his culture or species like Mylte's did. Damn bastard is hiding from me still. Unless something clicks, I'll shoulder through other characters and through the rest of the novel without getting anything more out of him.

This morning I remembered to pack my CD with most of my Zy's novel on it. I had four points written down about Xeryl, three of which I don't think hold true anymore. I found a few more in some handwritten notes, but I haven't gone searching deeply through that. I think my next step is to seperate the handwritten notes (started back in 1994) out and scan them so that there is a back up of this stuff somewhere else.

Yesterday, from Xeryl I moved to outlining duties. I got stuck because the last updated timeline is on the home computer. And I thought I had packed better that morning.

There is a copy of the timeline on the CD but I don't know if it was the updated one. Hey I forgot to check my emails. Okay I checked. I guess if there is a different copy of the timeline it must be on the last CD I made when I deleted stuff off the work computer. Which must be at home.

Yesterday I switched gears and edited for a while because nothing was happening with composing. Finished it this morning. Lots of blue marks. Word at work marks my changes in blue. But to have this much blue already means I've taken the critique to heart and moved on. Though I did have a few moments of pang over the implausible police behavior. I think I worked it out. Peterson and Hilden are intelligent, and fresh out of training. Blood must be protected for forensics. And since I knew it's part of the crime scene, they should know it's a crime scene too. I'm tweaked it to show their discovery process.

Strix is another issue. They're a coule of swell kids: the vampire who becomes a superhero and the woman who becomes his lover, wife, mother of his child, and a ghost. This is the story of how they met, fell in love, and gave birth to a superhero that their daughter will eventually inherit while solving some pesky murders. This should be a breeze to write and every time I work on it, I freeze up. Haven't figured that one yet.

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The BookWorm

How did that happen?

Fixed this blog comments. I'm not sure how it got messed up to begin with.

My maternal grandmother is in the hospital. Broken wrist and apparantly having seizures of a sort. Could be caused by blockages in her arteries, but we don't know yet.

So I may put up the blithey, work related crap that I wrote yesterday or I may not. Depends on the situation.

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The BookWorm

In Defense of NaNoWriMo

http://www.websnark.com/archives/2005/11/what_good_is_na.html#comments

Not that NaNo really needs defending in my eyes. No, I'm not participating this year. Once again, November is a horrible time of year for me to even toy with the idea. Though I am trying to work on the 250 a day every day.

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The BookWorm

26 Things I Hate to do... er... my chore list

November 2 I started on the chore list on my ride home. I didn't think it was going to get that big, but everything that needs doing to make my house hospitable for company kept popping into my head. The scary? They're twenty-six big concepts like "Living Room." Do you realize how much that covers?

Found two new blogs: The Movie Watcher's Diary, reviews of movies available on DVD, and Revolver, a detective novel in progress.

Looks like I'm going to have to watch the DVD version of Episode III for the deleted extra scenes. How can you leave out the birth of the Rebellion? ARGH! Some people might get snarky with James Patterson hiring ghost writers or collaborators, but at least the man is honest with himself and his works. He says he's the idea man, and usually edits what is written by other people. The best stuff in the Star Wars universe was "Episode V--Empire Strikes Back" and the Timothy Zahn novels (all five of them). What do they have in common? Lucas relinquished control. "Radioland Murders" is a hysterical quirky little comedy with a lot of famous faces. Story by George Lucas and screenplay and directed by someone else. Get the idea? I keep concentrating on Obi-wan and Bail Organa because their stories at least make sense and don't make you want to bang your head against their motivations and cornball dialouge.

But Padme, oh how the mighty have fallen. Maybe I could have bought the whole dying of a broken heart if the love scenes had been well, love scenes (a problem stemming from Episode II). But I think it would have been much stronger for this woman who at 14 was ruling a planet, then became one of the youngest Senators elected, apparantly had some say so with the birth of the Rebellion (that was left out of the theatrical release), to go out with a bigger bang. Agree to separate her children because Anakin would be after her and would give the Empreror potential students to the Dark Side. Or heck, have the Emperor kill her just to cement the story he tells Darth Vader. But for a woman so strong to go out like a pansy, yuck. Luke and Leia must have ended up with their grandmother's spine. Or maybe for Leia's Bail Organa's spine. Cause Anakin sure didn't have much of one either. :p

Well, I didn't intend for this post to become a Star Wars rant. I also didn't pack any of my reward work for this Friday. I think it's buried on my desk at home. Going back to the chore list, I managed to cross off six items. The biggest one being my book cataloguing. Now all the nonfiction is in BookCAT and the spines have labels with the Dewey Decimel number and the books are shelved accordingly. I still have to put in the fiction but I'm holding off until the rest of the house is done.

So I'm back on working on background stuff for Zy's novel since that is all I have with me.

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The BookWorm

Happy Halloween!

I ran out of sewing time so I went as a RenFaire playtron.

Playtron = a patron who gets into the spirit of a renaissance festival by dressing up. Costumes have varying degrees of accuracy.



Play spot the anachronisms!

That's the new leather bodice that got mentioned in the Garb Closet. And all I have to say is I'm glad I didn't get wet in that shirt.

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The BookWorm