Friday, November 30, 2007

Rose on the Other Side

So one of the Christmas presents I bought with Dad's gift money is a soundtrack of Doctor Who scores, specifically Nine and Ten with Rose. Since I've been listening to it non-stop for the commute four days now, I've been having fun Doctor Who thoughts.

As the "Doomsday" track played for the upteenth time, my muse popped up with the following observation. "Rose is working for airship world's Torchwood, maybe even running it like Capt. Jack. But for the world to have a Torchwood, they have to have a Doctor to inspire its creation. But it wouldn't be our Doctor, the one Rose fell in love with, and wouldn't have had a relationship with her because Rose didn't exist on that world. Oh the possibilities!"

I wish I knew a Doctor Who fanficer to give it to, since I probably won't do anything with it. A dozen probably already have used the idea; I'm slow with seeing these things. Hell, might even be an official spin-off book dealing with the idea as far as I know. (If there is, tell me, I REALLY want to read it now.)

That was yesterday around lunch. After lunch, I came across a news article that Doctor Who wants to get Tom Cruise and some other celebs into the blockbuster episodes that will air in 2009, David Tennent's last. I kept reading while reeling from that to find out that Billie Piper will be reprising her role as Rose soon. And today I found this article catching up with Billie Piper taking a break on the set of Doctor Who.

Damn, will they use that? Two copies of David Tennent breaking a dimensional barrier?

*Head 'splodes*

If I'm having a psychic connection with someone in production, why won't it answer my Titanic question? (How the hell is the Doctor going to get the TARDIS off the ship or the ship out of the TARDIS? I'm not exactly sure which is the proper way to phrase the idea.) I want to know for Christmas--not the middle of summer! Stupid Sci-Fi Channel delay.

And make the Agatha Christie episode! I love the Dickens one and the Shakespeare one. Maybe her two week disappearance for a story start? And put Torchwood on DVD. I can't work it into my schedule when it shows on BBC America. And I want more Capt. Jack sexyness.

So to sum up, a YouTube fanvid "Doctor Who - The Other Side - Scissor Sisters."



Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Holiday Roundup

Now that it's been a whole week, I can finally talk about the trip. I promise the next vacation I have I will not have a massive paper that I must do and will be able to blog more regularly. Or at least when things happen so I don't have to depend on my fuzzy brain.

Mom and I left Wednesday morning November 21st. The drive wasn't that bad despite not leaving as early as I wanted to, the day before Thanksgiving, and a 55-mile stretch of I-10 closed due to an exploded gas well. (No snarky comments about how my stupid state puts Interstate highway systems over or very close still-working gas and oil wells. I made enough of them until I'm sick of the topic and it's all fixed now.) We found a Paulito's an Italian grill and pizzeria that has the absolute best chicken Caesar salad on the planet. I could eat it every single day.

Atticus and I invented a new game now dubbed Up-Down. We were dancing during Hairspray's credits (and Christopher Walken can sing and it's not scary). Neither one of us could do the twist--me the carpet, Atticus is only 16-months-old--so I showed him how to do the squat to music. Then Thursday morning Elmo covered up and down on Sesame Street, and when Atticus would squat, the grown-ups chorused "up down." Now he says "up" squatting down and "down" coming up. Unfortunately, we never got it on camera.

Pictures I am proud of getting will go here as soon as I get them off my camera.

However the baby caught the crud and passed it to me. Mom blames the forty-degree weather that hit. There was frozen rain where we were in Austin and snow just west of the city. But we didn't get to leave until Monday morning because the nasty rain and cold was heading to Louisiana.

It worked out well. I kept Atticus and they got to shop. I got to go to Best Buy, Ikea, and Half-Price Books (I would seriously consider opening a franchise in Louisiana if I had the capital.) and got the stuff on my list and then some.

Books: all the South Beach Diet stuff, couple of medieval Britain reference books, the Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr first edition in hardback, a book on Celtic mythology, and a couple of historical mystery anthologies that had been on my list for a while.

Ikea: replacement lamp that I forgot to find lightbulbs to fit it in the store (HINT: if buying lamps at Ikea turn around and find the lightbulbs to fit. Found the lamp on clearance and luckily Mom had the bulbs to fit it at home since they didn't work for something else), spotlight lamp for the computer desk with green spotlight bulbs that had very confusing labeling, present for Kay depend on if I see her at Christmas or closer to her birthday, and another set of Benno shelves. I love those shelves, no deeper than a DVD case and much taller than any selves I can get locally so it matches better with the entertainment center, and I can fit more of them into the space I have available. I think after this purchase I will be buying more for free shelves instead of replacing what I'm currently using to hold the DVD collection.

Best Buy: Dad gave us Christmas gift money early, I actually went to their Black Friday sale, and got a TOMTOM! WOOT! Course, I haven't had time yet to set it up and use it yet. I'm hoping this weekend. Also bought Hot Fuzz (hyseterical) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit on DVD, Van Halen 2 disk collection, Harry Potter 3 Soundtrack and Doctor Who soundtrack (more about this one later) on CD.

Beyond that, I kept Atticus occupied and my crud at home while Mom and Kai had fun in the stores. Atticus also totally got into the live-action How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Either he's fascinated with Jim Carrey in green make-up or Cindy Lou reminds him of his big sister, Lauren.

Got home safely and plunged into finishing school work for the semester. I haven't even really started unpacking yet. Need to do that tonight.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

What's My Name Again?

Damn big honking Elizabeth cross-dressing, warrior women paper finished. Not due until Friday at 10pm. They are getting it tonight.

Frost paper looks miniscule in comparison, but it hangs together nicely once I reread it. Presentation and it's due tonight.

Have left to do: 4 - 6 page paper final for Queen Elizabeth and final test of some sort for Frost. Both due next Wednesday.

Thursday and Friday will be recovery time. I should be able to crank out paper on Saturday. Once I figure out my thesis for it. Till then my brain is FRIED!

UPDATE: Frost final changed to the presentation, so that class is finished! Now I just have to find out if I have to show up to the class on Monday night and write that paper.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Home from Texas

Yeap, I'm back. I will report on the trip and other stuff when I don't have a looming deadline hanging over my head. Play with baby or write paper, which would you chose?

Also need to think about this and answer: http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/2007/11/nanowrimo-day-25-on-goals.html

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

New focus for accountability

Noting that this summer, fall, and now moving into winter has been big into self-reflection and trying to make positive changes in my life.
  • Started using GTD
  • Ended a stalled relationship
  • Losing weight weight through healthy eating and exercise
  • Figuring out my financial screw-ups and stopping doing them
  • Finishing school work and thus obtaining my Masters
I think that covers the list.

This isn't a woe-I'm-so-busy post. Most of the self-improvement has been spiraling out-of-control in a good way. But writing has been inconsistent. Just stating a fact. Some ideas on how to improve that I have already started to have. Changing writing habits is inspired by traffic woes more than anything else (brain not off until after the drive). Writing and eating supper in Baton Rouge while waiting for traffic to clear makes sense.

Then there's another vote for the Writing Tutorials to return. Which validates writing them in the first place, though honestly, I don't see how I have the time or energy to bring them back.

That train of thought jumped tracks to what about the grand plans for the writing life blog? Writing life barren equals lack of material. So how come other stuff isn't barren?

Leading to accountability.

The seed had already been planted by a Half of Me post recognizing the power of the nameless Internet mass has for keeping you to your goals. I'm doing better with watching weight knowing I have to report it. Exercise not so good on accountability and neither is money. So I need a way of accounting for them better than what I have now.

And then I started thinking about writing accountability.

The writing tutorials were a type of accountability as I worked on a story to prepare the next topic. I lost my way with them when I had finished the story and had a horrible time with sleep deprivation. And then I had the thought: could I do it again?

I over plan everything, which usually ends up meaning I can't stick to the plan, eventually, despite intentions. The fear I have of this is I'll get caught up in accountability and won't do what I need to account. Valid concern, I think. But here's my plans for accounting better on various topics.

Weight and exercise I need to post every day I do them, and the post should concentrate on health concerns.

Budget accounting should be a once-a-week post each Friday, the day I'm supposed to update Quicken and make sure everything is shinny. However, I don't think posting all the nickels and dimes is a good idea. So I will list the accounts in red or black type depending on its state, along with other financial news.

Writing accountability should use metrics and the word count graphs and writing life/tutorial posts.

It's a plan. The true test will come when I'm exhausted, have too much at home to do, but still need to write.

Just like tonight :P

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Why I hate deadlines

A topic I'm fascinated with, a wealth of images and stuff to read about it, and working on it most of the day...

And I still don't have a blasted thing to say on the topic.

The closest I have gotten to is: warrior women or modern interpretations of cross-dressing. "Warrior women" match the images I have concentrated on, and "modern interpretations of cross-dressing" seem to lean only the queer or feminist theory camps. And while I'm as fascinated with asking questions on just how homosexually subversive is "As You Like It" and tying the Armada attack to a rape of Queen Elizabeth, I don't know what to do with the information. Or how to tie it all back to Spenser. I got scolded for my last paper that didn't use the texts, the grade only saved by me apparently finding an interesting interpretation of heterosexuality in the 1998 Elizabeth movie.

So I have to go back through and reread everything I have found.

Maybe there is something to the rape of England motif. The Faeire Queen was written at first in 1590 and then revised in 1596 featuring Britomart, a fictional woman ancestress of Queen Elizabeth who dons armor and becomes the knight of Chastity before finding her true love and thus beginning a long line of royalty culminating in Elizabeth. With me so far? One of her adventures--specifically in the part we read for class--features her rescue of a damsel in distress whose plight has some symbolism of a type of rape (trying to magic love out of someone by cutting their heart out doesn't sound consensual to me). Anyways all that was written after Tilbury, which has been mythologized into Elizabeth as warrior queen protecting her honor.

So now to go reread the stuff specifically on Britomart, and come up with a way to present for tomorrow night even if I don't get the whole paper done. I'd rather have the paper done before the trip though.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Sugar hangover

I think I have a sugar hangover today. I feel like shit and want to stay in bed until the world ends. Unfortunately, I have made it to work instead.

I don't remember what I ate yesterday, except I think I was using sugar and caffeine to get me through that damn paper, which I find out I don't have to turn in until after Thanksgiving. Still, cross-dressing presentation and paper comes before editing. But not today. Today brain not on.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Robert Frost long paper

Progress Bar from Writertopia

I think I need to tweak the number formula again for Times New Roman. But it's finished. I have no idea if what I wrote finishing it is even English, but I made the page count.

Now he's talking like the final will be questions, probably essay. okay. So that leaves the Elizabethan cross-dressing paper to write and the Queen Elizabeth final which is a paper.

Not worry about those until tomorrow. Brain hurts now. Will go to class, will turn it, will get out way too early, will eat supper, and go take a shower at the gym because damnit I deserve it!

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Might enjoy this movie

Ye Old Times

I'd like to know if the director or writers has any Renaissance Faire experience. There's nothing like hands-on research. It's like reading Sharyn McCrumb's Bimbos of the Death Sun. If you're a geek that has done cons, you recognize the truth in the novel.

But even if it's Hollywood balderdash, if it's funny, I'll still go see it.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

fans4writers.com

Because good TV depends on the writers

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Can I go back to bed now?

For a three-day weekend, I feel the only thing I accomplished was screwing up my sleep schedule. It could be PMS fatigue though. Or it could be the diet cream soda I thought was decaffeinated really isn't. Add a foggy day and having to drive into work before the sun is really up, my bed is calling me right now.

I did learn that my mother and my shopping habits are completely incompatible. I make a list and may browse the store once I'm in it, but I try to stick to the list and not overspend. I do not select a store just to browse for ideas because another store I need isn't open yet. My mother views shopping/browsing as entertainment. Two hours and my lower back that got out of whack by Sunday was killing me and I was annoyed, especially since I had no money to spend and she never lingered on the stuff I want to look at.

And she wants me to go with Kai for the after Thanksgiving sales. I'm now thinking the only way I'm doing that is if I get promised a bookstore for a few hours.

Besides that excursion and fighting with a paper that does not want to get wrote, I got the house work on the schedule done but very little else. Though I think I know what one of the problems is. The get-budget-worked-out project was broken into smaller steps, but those steps are still too big for me to get a grasp on them. So I shove the whole damn thing aside for three days, but still worry about it. Nope, not what I'm supposed to do. So tonight in between paper fights, I'll break them down into smaller steps.

Professor said no. :p So now I need to go email the next ball rolling.

Vox Populi: Reasons to Quit: want to keep an eye on this thread.

And I finally got the South Beach Diet out of the library. I want an eating plan menu where I don't have to really plan what I'm going to eat for the next few months, and the companion book I checked out is the South Beach Diet 30-minute Recipes, which is about all the time I have to cook right now regardless.

I'm tired of planning what to cook and then trying to find freezer space for it and basically not cooking a lot of what I have bought because it takes too long to cook. I'm tired of juggling through all my cookbooks to find creative dishes that I want to eat and won't screw up my blood sugar and weight loss, and then ending up having to juggled through five cookbooks for all the recipes I'm using. It has become an exercise in too much think and I need a break to put the brain on other things.

Another idea I ran across to combat this type of fatigue is to only cook out of one cookbook until you've cooked all the recipes rather than buying a bunch of new cookbooks. And while I think this is a good idea and one worth doing once I don't have school pressure over my head, too many of my cookbooks are too specialized or just the typical catering-the-obesity-issue for me to use until after I've lost the weight. For example, how long do you think I could exist on Star War themed snack food? (It was a gift.) Or if I don't know what the ingredient in the Greek cookbook is, how can I cook it? Less think please.

South Beach Diet has sample meal plans and recipes for them. No think, just buy groceries and cook.

That's all I've got for this update in this blog.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Friday, November 09, 2007

Why Do I Plan Anything?

So I can be disappointed. :p

While I'm not one to willfully destroy someone else's property, I think I understand the whole toss-his-shit-into-the-yard scenario better. Only my motivation isn't anger. We aren't living together any more and it's in my way and he's putting off dealing with it. It's supposed to happen tomorrow now. Sheesh, you'd think he would know I'm not going to do anything that would land me in jail and if I was tempted my weak moment would be when in all that horrible non-resolution mess. To put another way, when I want a straight answer, that's when I feel like beating the shit out of someone and everyone.

Got the emails done, the thesis plea just now. I think I was concise and nice, but not grovelingly. I'm not against begging as a tactic, I just like to save it.

So the crossroads are such: a) he says "no" and we find another solution or b) he says "yes" and proceeds to send my stories through copy-edit hell according to rules I can't find in my MLA Handbook (and no they haven't published a new edition since the one I own). Which may give him something else to look at beside the fact that I am a genre writer and I will not be writing the pretentious bullshit that is usually the results of MFAs. Oh well, have to wait for the ball to come down in order to run with it.

In other weirdness, while doing Google image search on Elizabethan cross dressing not only did random pics come up from Eric Burn's proposal to Wednesday White from Websnark but also the Ideal BookWorm from this blog. I had Moderate Safe Search on because I was at work, but still? I figured mine because I have been talking about that topic for the paper, but I don't remember anything about cross dressing in the proposal.

Weekend plans are tentative: I need to get the prescription filled and since the doctor changed the amount again, I better talk to them in person about it. :p I also have been trying to get two specific books out of the library for two weeks now. Need to get that off my list. And the money stuff. But it's a long weekend! I just have to go to school on Monday. But in all likelihood that doesn't help me since the money people I would need to talk to will be at home too. *headdesk*

And finish up the Frost paper. Any projects beyond that, I need to consult the lists. But that agenda is already feeling ready to roll. So I'm off to bed.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Star Trek: Time Warp

You know I just had to. :D

Starbuck, Legends Never Die

Because it is a great display of the sheer awesomeness of Starbuck. And I love the "March of Cambreadth."

Random update

Yeap, I'm procrastinating. I will get to all the fun stuff I have to do but right this second I'm taking some me time.

In three months, I managed to completely derail the budget. I'm not surprised because this is what I always do. Now I have proof in black, white, and red. I have options (I won't end up starving and on the street), but I'm going to wait until I get home to further break apart my numbers. Plus I think I did some math wrong somewhere or set up the categories wrong or set up the spreadsheet wrong; and I'd rather spread everything out on the desk at home and make it match. Though from a glance, I had not budgeted in an emergency which of course happened. I know I'm being anal-retentive and all accountancy but if it comes down to me having to borrow money for hopefully the last time for consumer debt, low-balling it on a guess keeps me in the screwed-up-finances column.

On the other hand, maybe going back for an accounting bachelor's makes sense. :p

Kai is hosting Thanksgiving this year, so I will be out of town for at least a week. Course, this also means I should go find Atticus's Christmas gift. I'm the book-aunt and my mother has toys and movies covered. But I was thinking of waiting until his second birthday in July before getting him first readers (the nearly indestructible books you first give kids that they can chew on), so this Christmas would probably be adding to the classic to keep pile (which will get added to regardless, though I do need to get a list from Kai so I don't duplicate myself).

Now I'm worried that I'm not encouraging Atticus or giving him the thrill of having his first book that he can hold as opposed to Mommy has to read it. Parents, any thoughts?

Tonight is cleaning out the house of Chad's stuff night, provided they get through Baton Rouge. That based on my own traffic experiences is getting worse. I want a Tomtom now.

Things that must happen today: emailing one professor with my Elizabeth source for the long paper, emailing the other professor about the thesis issue (see Thesis Quest Part 1), and then shoving it all aside for Piper world-building which has been woefully neglected since I started getting my back fixed. Much like the Iron Experiment. This week has been insane, but Saturday I'm getting back into the workout groove. I have to decrease the amount of weight I've been working with though to keep the shoulder that is starting to get better from messing up again.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Thursday, November 08, 2007

Thesis Quest Part 1

So Wednesday seventh of November, I got to see my adviser and shocked him with the news that I had finished my curriculum... almost. I still need the Intermediate Fiction Workshop, which probably won't be offered again until Fall 2008 and when it is offered it will be in the middle of the day since it is a dual undergrad and grad course. Why the little darlings can't take a night class is a question I wisely avoid asking.

The light in the tunnel is taking the class as an independent study and starting on my thesis hours next semester. But I need the director of Creative Writing to sign off on that idea or come up with a better one.

"And why didn't you start this process back in September?"
"Nobody told me this was going to be complicated."

Thursday eighth of November (more missing office time), I go see the director of Creative Writing. Next semester no good for him; he's running a writing conference. The fiction writer professors are in short supply (i.e. the department needs to hire another one), so that leaves the professor I'm taking the Robert Frost class under who possibly doesn't like me and will probably say no to the whole plan since he would also need to be my thesis adviser. He was/is in Atlanta at a conference, so I have to email him. But if he says no, I can sign up for another writing course and will substitute it in for the class and beg somebody else to be my thesis adviser.

"This wouldn't be a problem if you were doing a poetry thesis. We've got poets on top of poets around here."
"Just the problem of I'm not a poet."
"Right. The eggheads should have hired another fiction writer. You guys are the ones suffering. But they wanted the film guy. Nice guy, nothing against him, but Communication teaches the film classes. He doesn't have anything to do."
"And I'm not doing a film for a thesis."

So now I'm at the point of having to come up with a nice business-like email to ask for something. And I hate having to ask people for things, especially when I feel they don't like me. I know I have to grit my teeth and just do it, but I'd rather bury myself in a house project going "la-la-la-can't-hear-you!"

Technically, I don't even have a thesis yet and the procrastination has already started.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/

Friday, November 02, 2007

YES, YES, EXACTLY

The Atlantic.com: Goodbye to All That READ IT!

This is why if Obama doesn't win the nomination I will write his name in. At least I will be able to say with a clear conscious next year, I voted to end the Boomer stupidity.

And Obama if you do get in, give McCain the Pentagon to clean up. And put Ron Paul in the Cabinet or make him Vice-President or the power to run the lobbyists out of Washington.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

There is a new renaissance festival in Louisiana! Check out the Acadiana Medieval Faire at: http://www.acadianafaire.org/