Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: A Critical Review

First, I don't think I've done something like this for the blog before. I usually just blather happily and heartily recommend the experience: book or movie. Or heartily don't recommend the experience. But I'm inspired to take it a little deeper this time, especially since as a publishing phenomena one should study Rowling.

Second, I do like the series but I'm not obessed with the series. I have other obsessions *wink*. Seriously, I have no desire to write fanfiction of it, don't want to marry any of the characters--Alan Rickman and Gary Oldman not withstanding--it's just plain fun.

Third, there will be spoilers. If you really hate them, check out this op-ed on the state of American comics instead: http://www.tcj.com/269/e_own1.html.

Initial observations: I finished the book in one day, before my typical bedtime. Read it faster than I have wrote this blog, actually. It is a much leaner book as other critics have said. Rowling has complained about "Goblet" needing editing, but I found "Pheonix" needed it more. I got lost in the big climatic battle between Dumbledore's Army and the Death Eaters which results in Siris's death. Those scenes should have been the clearest.

I also cheated by listening on the fandom's yelling. Whatever evils the fundamentals lay at Harry Potter's feet, having bad mannered fans isn't one of them. I didn't see any flame wars, though the hate mail might be directed right at Rowling. Course, I also stopped looking after a while. If the fans aren't behaving now... *shrug*. So I knew what the book was going to end with, just not how we got there.

Since the book was tighter, it's climax built steadily into one punch, followed by a second one: the murder of Dumbledore by Snape and Snape's defection to the Death Eaters. Granted some readers are making the two events one and the same, but I separate them because of Harry and Snape's interaction.

Now focusing on what we know. Rowling often uses a first chapter to show things in the enemy's camp while the rest of the book is from Harry's POV. In "Goblet of Fire," we saw Voldemort, Wormtail and Voldemort's pet snake kill a Muggle. I don't have a copy of "Order of the Pheonix" to check. In "Prince" we follow Draco's mother and aunt to Snape's house. Draco's mother and Snape go under the Unbreakable Vow with the sole purpose of Snape helping or doing whatever Voldemort has ordered of Draco, whichever came first to keep Draco alive. You get the feeling that Draco is being set up for a suicide run, especially the way his mother is carrying on.

We also learn that Snape has accounted himself to Voldemort and Voldemort is using him as a double agent. Well that's what Dumbledore is using him for, so the real question becomes which side is Snape truly on? A question compounded by the fact that Dumbledore refuses to say why he believes Snape's repenting after Voldemort's fall was genuine. He refuses to tell Harry and the other members of the Order of the Pheonix and fellow teachers like McGongall.

At that chapter, readers are not told what task Draco has been given. His mother and aunt are convinced it will be the death of him. There's no guarantee that Snape will succeed, but it would be closer to a fair fight. And after taking the Unbreakable Vow, if Snape doesn't fulfill his end, the spell will kill him. So why take it? Possibly Snape does like Draco, as much as he can like anyone. Equally possible is it gives Draco's aunt--who really doesn't trust Snape as a Death Eater and thinks he's tricking Voldemort--a damn he's gonna do it tale for the rest of the Death Eaters.

From there, Harry's story unfolds: the school work, the romances, the Quidditch, lessons with Dumbledore exploring Voldemort's past, and Harry's obsession with what Draco is plotting. Harry finds a potions textbook that had notes written in it from someone calling himself the Half-Blood Prince. The altered spells earn him wows from the new Potions master, but alarm Hermoine. She thinks its A) cheating and B) something's wrong with anyone hiding behind titles and creating increasingly nasty jinxes and hexes. She has a point, after all Tom Riddle did the same to become Lord Voldemort. Levicorpus is rather harmless, Harry accidently uses it to pull Ron up into the air by one leg. Lupin says that hex was a popular one while his generation was in school, and in "Pheonix" the readers and Harry saw Snape's memory of being jerked around like that by James Potter, Siris Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew with Lily as a witness. Sectumsempra almost killed Draco, saved by Snape, and unnerves Harry enough to stop trusting the book.

Slughorn, the new Potions professor, taught Lily Evans, Harry's mother, and was constantly amazed by her talents. Snape finally gets the Defense Against the Dark Arts post, which Harry discovers was cursed since Dumbledore refused to give it to Voldemort years ago. The curse still holds by the end of "Prince" as well.

No one really believes Harry's theory that Draco is a Death Eater, even when events look bad. A cursed necklace injures a student and Ron is poisoned by a bottle of mead intended for someone else. Harry overhears an argument between Draco and Snape. Snape keeps insisting that Draco let him help, but Draco refuses saying Snape wants all the glory.

Dumbledore refuses to explain his faith in Snape to Harry numerous times. Hagrid reports overhearing an argument between Snape and Dumbledore. Hagrid didn't know what about, but heard Snape saying Dumbledore takes too much for granted and maybe he doesn't want to do it any more. Dumbledore said to Snape he had agreed to do it and that was all ther was to it. Also Dumbledore said something about Snape making investigations in his house, in Slytherin. The almost last straw for Harry is Professor Trelawney's drunken revelation that Snape overheard the prophecy about Voldemort and the one who would defeat him given to Dumbledore. Harry concludes correctly that Snape told Voldemort what he had overheard of the prophecy and pretty much set-up his parents to be murdered. As if Harry needs another reason to hate Snape.

But Dumbledore's affirmation of Snape needs a closer study. ADD QUOTE HERE

It was the stressing that Lily had a chance to walk away but love wouldn't let her that got my attention. For a while I thought that we were getting a new version of the attack on Harry. Reviewing the "Prisoner of Akazban" showed that I was in error. It's not shown on the movie very well, but when the Dementors make Harry relive his memory of the attack, he recalls his mother's pleas with Voldemort.

Now why would Lily, a Muggle born witch, the very thing Voldemort hates as much as he hates what he is--a wizard from a witch and a Muggle--be given a chance to walk away from interfering in Voldemort killing Harry? James, a pure blooded wizard wasn't given that opportunity.


To help with my analysis: http://blogs.salon.com/0001092/stories/2003/06/24/harryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenixChapter28.html

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/harrypotter5/section11.rhtml

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/harrypotter5/section10.rhtml



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The BookWorm

Can't please them all

Well either it's very slow net time right now or everybody hates the comment feature I switched to.

Not much to report on this homefront. Classes start next Monday. Mustard tried to slice off my finger yesterday and it still hurts. Hard to type too without a middle finger.

The bike riding while typing hasn't resulted in any attrocities to the documents. I haven't managed to get a steady schedule going yet. Working on thirty minutes a day, but something usually comes up. And it always does. If I could haul my butt out of bed while it's still dark outside, I'd have more time. But I'd also be more sleep deprived. *Sigh* I have to find time somewhere.

Resource Guide work will be reaching a stopping point very soon. And I have to give a presentation on it for the workshop. Yeah, okay. I guess this means I have to stop referring to it as the "bloody Resource Guide." But honestly, what am I supposed to say? "Hi, I wrote this. Please read it and use it in your classrooms. Thank you." That's not going to last an hour!

So I have some free time at work. And a new short story idea to use it on. Let me get some work work done.

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The BookWorm

Getting in school

SLU has a streamlined process, made better by strategic planning.

Northwestern--where I earned my bachaelor's--moved all needed departments into the basketball collasieum and then you had to spend the day going around it trying to get everything straight.

Southeastern used to do that. According to our office's student workers, Southern still does that. Don't have a report for LSU. Southeastern had bought a closed elementary school adjacent to their property in Hammond. A little remodeling and Admissions, Financial Aid, Controller's, Human Resources, Textbook Rentals, and some Athletics and classes moved in. So when it's time for registration, you go argue with Financial Aid if you need to or go straight to the Controllers. The Campus Police for parking decals and Student I.D.s set up in a couple of classrooms to handle the rush, and then move back to their offices where only emergencies need to find them. Very efficient.

Now if I could only remember to bring my vehicle registration with me so I don't have to go back to the car. :p

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The BookWorm

Horror Doesn't Scare Me

I speaking of the genre here, which makes me wonder if maybe I'm lacking something that makes me effective writer of it.

I just finished up two books by James Herbert "Haunted" and "Ghosts of Sleath." Both are about David Ash, a repressed psychic who is incredible at exposing supernatural frauds but is woefully unprepared for the real deal. The bio blurb called Herbert "Britian's Stephen King." I enjoyed the books, quick, easy reads with a good build up to solid POWS at the end. I'm going to try to watch the movie based on Haunted soon. (I'm prepared, I already found out it has nothing to do with the book and "The Others" actually made a better film of the same theme.)

But I realized after reading these books and after my coworkers talked about horror movies that gave them nightmares, I don't get nightmares from the genre. I don't like the gore fests that the 80s spawned with teen slashers. I'm not completely freaked by Stephen King. Lovecraft can give me the crawlies, but it depends on his word choices. Poe I do get crawlies all over my skin from, but no nightmares.

So looking at what I have written that qualifies as horror: "The Bloody Hand", "Dreams of the Dead", "Elizabeth's Oak", and "Night Storm"--what is missing from the scary equation? Night Storm is a vampire but he wants to be a superhero, so it's a different genre. "The Bloody Hand" was based on a nightmare but the dread factor seems flat.

Herbert and King can make you dread what's coming up. Herbert was very good at that in "Ghosts of Sleath."

Maybe it just goes back to I don't get the everlasting scare out of it.

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The BookWorm

Making changes

Well I just discovered that Haloscan has been purging back comments. It's a problem that doesn't exist with Alt. BM Site, so I'm guessing it must have something to do with the Javascript for blogging. So I activated the built-in comment feature.

Yes, I have gone through and moved what Haloscan comments I still had. I don't forsee any problems with non-Blogger people posting comments. Now I just need to tweak the look a little. If I can.

Okay, I got it tweaked. I think it looks better this way. And hopefully nothing is going to go poof again. Now on to what I meant to talk about today.

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The BookWorm

Bike experiment a sucess

Well, I rode for around thirty minutes while typing on the resource guide. My legs started to burn, but family stuff conspired to keep me from writing any longer.

But other than having to remember what the Ctrl commands are, I did pretty well.

In other news, trying to finish up all the library books and not check out any more. Have to read for classes.

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The BookWorm

Less than a month to go

School starts August 22. Resource Guide needs to be finished by the first of September.

So the weekend really started the get off your butt and get things finished drive.

Got the duct-tape dummy finished (See the Garb Closet) and got my exercise bike set up where I can type and pedal at the same time. I'll have to get a photo of that. Scary thing, the stationary bike takes up less room than the big black office chair I had. Got fabric bought for the Granaile garb (see the Garb Closet).

Tonight I have to put in some serious time on writing and dishes. Always the dishes. I'm buying a dishwasher after student aid allotments are made.

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The BookWorm

Cleaning out a trashed notebook

The spine of the notebook is bent into two different directions, impossible to turn pages and impossible to straighten. So here's the notes I want to keep.

BMFM Songs
Running Blind - Days of the New (?)
Smile Empty Soul
"Love of a Lifetime" - Firehouse
"Feeling Too Damn Good" - Nickleback

Column Ideas
Building a Pirate Crew
Time Traveling - what the heck did I mean by that RenFaire Experience?
Ageism - wrote that one

Subjects for Useless Knowledge
1) Are we having fun? - what did I mean?

Need for Zy's Novel Evolutionary details on:
Mylte
Xeryl
Murdock
Qauts

Writing Tutorials
1) Need more Editing Lessons topics
A) Consult Write Faster, Self-Editing, No More Rejections
2)Grammar Guide
A) Start going through parts of speech
3) Writing Tutorials
A) No shortage there I think but go with No More Rejections

Image Exercise

Green of the trees is always more vivid against storm clouds. It's something I noticed as a child--since Louisiana horizons always provide a green horizon and a rolling black ceiling, especially on a summer afternoon. I never understood why the painters we would watch on PBS always painted mountains when the pregnant lull before the percepitation punctuated with graceful lightening strikes was so more dramatic. The oppression of the air only broken by throbbing thunder. The brief plunge of...

New opening for "Lights"

She han't said yes to getting killed tonight.

WT: Finishing What You Start

Use the quote from the screen writing for Dummies. (Trying really hard not to laugh at this topic since I have so much uncompeleted.)

Jason and Sal
"Run" by Snow Patrol (have revised this idea to be a music video, someday)

Books I Want
Will in the World by Stephen Greenblatt

Comic Goodness to buy
Exploitation Now
It's Roomies
CRFH
Gaming Guardians
Fans

Interesting names
Willis Williams

End of the notebook. Thanks for dropping in.

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The BookWorm

Interesting perdictament

Needed: 1 archival CD copy of everything that is on Alt. Biker Mice Site right now since things are getting a minor upheavel July 31st. So if the minor upheavel doesn't go over well, I have the old style to go back to.

Problem: No Internet access at home.

Solution: Get it at work.

Problem: No way to get the files off the web control panel.

Solution: They actually gave us WS_FTP, which I didn't find until after I started this blog. *Crossing fingers.*

Problem: FTP program works. I cannot fit the info onto the CD. Which doesn't make any sense because I can at home with the Nero CD burning program. This is the third CD I've lost because the data screwed it up.

Solution: Borrow the C drive until I can get files downloaded and zipped and then on a CD.

Problem: Now the FTP program went kuput. Looks like I got most of what I told it to get. So all I'm missing is a section of From Mars and the FanFic and FanArt sections.

Solution: Try again. After some lawsuits.

Okay. After throwing away the 5th CD for getting errors in the writing (maybe I bought a bad batch, or at least an incompatible batch), I switched CDs and finally got it to save. SUCCESS!

However, I'm not deleting anything until I see if it works at home.

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The BookWorm

Best laid plans of...

So which am I, mouse or man? (Man as a stand in for humanity, of course.) This isn't a whine, at least I'm trying to keep myself from flinging full body into the self-starring drama a whine perpetrates. I want to focus my brain instead of jumping willy-nilly. Besides, whining always makes you feel worse about a situation.

The situation: Last night, I pulled most of my various office piles back into the office for later sorting and then settled to find what I considered worthy to mail out. The great-everything-goes mail out has to be delayed due to lack of funds for postage, but I would have everything ready by payday.

I listed ten stories (8 short stories, 1 script, and one the idea for Night Storm). Only two of the ten are ready to mail--as in I can't conceive of changing the story at all. As for the rest, some have been worked on and the rest need something badly.

More often than not, the true story is found in the editing. I know this, and I'm okay with it. What concerns me is the rewrites of material from the last decade. Am I doing it to the detriment of writing anything new? Not to even mention the 18 things on the writing burner. Gah, it's no wonder I've felt guilty about the little down time at the paying job that has been spenting reading.

And I'm not trying to buy into the busy drug. Most likely, I'm reading too much into this. Easiest solution is to dive into the story folder and find something that seizes my fancy, start working on it slow and steady, while working projects off my list.

I'm always preaching about finishing what you started and not let yourself get distracted by the muse. Am I just trying to justify a distraction? Does it really matter with an itching need to write instead of editing? And not writing nonfiction like the resource guide.

I'm off to find an idea I can percolate. Next will be doing my mailing homework. I need 40 potential markets for the types of stories I write and know them well. I like the idea in Page After Page to dedicate a day of the week for marketing endeavors. Marketing Monday then.

Having reviewed Page After Page, I've probably wasted my time worrying about it. Concentrate on the writing, not on the publishing. But it's also a matter of being fresh and true and growing as a writer. Which I won't do unless I get some new material.

Regardless, I will be concentrating more on fiction.

P.S. Does Night Storm really work as a superhero name?

P.S.S. To Jazz and any other Brits that stumble upon this blog: We Are Not Afraid.

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The BookWorm

Fast update

Website down till August or September.

Home internet down till next paycheck--August or September at latest.

Furniture in home office moved and I'm almost back to be able to work there again.

Yes, I'm happy and fine, just a little crunched at jobs right now.

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The BookWorm

Crazy days

I guess T is having a good time. She hasn't said any differently in her livejournal. I'm guessing Red and Jazzy are both really busy.

And I'm actually typing this entry from home. Miracle of miracles. Foxy, I'm downloading the program now. I skipped exercising to come home and mop up sheetrock residue.

Let's see, I'm skipping over the paying job insanity. I don't want to think about that. Saturday was Chad and gang work on roof over the fire hearth while I worked on the Resource Guide in the office. Even though I was in air conditioning, I still got over heated and sick.

Sunday was house chores and sewing day. We went to Kenn and Amy's again this time armed with my speghetti. If you're looking for a whole wheat noodle, use Brallia's. So I have the first half of the dummy done, and need to stuff her and mount her.

Monday was USA Independence Day in more than one way. Mom cooked and me and Chad tore out a wall in my house. My house was built in 1919 as a four room Acadian cottage with a front and back porch and a dogtrot to the detatched kitchen. It was actually my great-great-grandparents' retirement home. Over the years, two more rooms were added to the back (making the kitchen and my infamous back bedroom), and the rooms in the middle where partioned with sheetrock and paneling walls.

Me and my mother were of the opinion that the wall creating a hall between the kitchen and living room needed to go. When I moved in August 2000, we were out-voted. Now I own it and use the tiny room space as an office. And suffered with lack of space issues. No longer. :D

Really with the furniture I have, I'll be using the same amount of floor space. But without the wall I don't feel trapped and the cold air from the window unit has a chance to reach the rest of the house. I'm cramped right now because I can't move the furniture around till this weekend. I will probably start unpacking shelves tonight. Course I have online stuff to do too. *Sigh* Never ends.

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The BookWorm

Exhaustion

I don't know why this sleepiness hasn't left me yet. Anyways, since I forgot my exercise gear, I'm going home tonight and crashing.

I will need to work on the Resource Guide while at work, I suppose. Ugh, it's going to be a caffine dependent day.

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The BookWorm

Building a mystery

I didn't have a chance to get online last night. I was too tired and tried to work regardless. Mondays and Fridays, I'm always late because of my doctor's appointments and spending time in the library next door. *Innocent look* What?

I did get three laps done yesterday. No official step-age because I left the pedometer at home. Oops, it's probably a little over 6000.

And I've been researching on building my garden labyrinth. I need to remember to copy my survey map to use for garden layouts. Anywho, the intial idea was to use the Labyrinth as a sacred space as described in Walking a Sacred Path by Dr. Lauren Artress. I walked one three or four Yuletides back, and it moved me prfoundly.

When Chad and I walked Rosedown's gardens, we stumbled into the rose garden. INSERT PHOTO HERE I liked the seclusion, wanted to grow roses, generally a win-win.

Well I'm researching roses now, and appearantly they like lots of sun. Where in the yard I was considering putting it is surrounded by tall trees and I don't think it gets enough. *Pout*

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The BookWorm

Posting picturesfan pics to you

Appearantly I can again, but it will have to wait till I can get home for testing. That's where all the pics are.

Nope, still no pics. I'm not sure why.

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The BookWorm

This is annoying

I'm going to have to put my regularly visited sites URLs on the blog. My work profile isn't working, and I got logged into a temporary account. None of my favorites are here. I've found most of the comics but I'm missing some stuff.

*Sigh* My discipline flew out the window. I had pity on Chad and got him off the Faire site, but I didn't get home until 9:30pm. No writing time. He was apologetic once he found out, and I tried to explain the circle train of logic I had yesterday. I don't know if he understood it any better than I do.

I had a creative brainwave dealing with the hypertext novel, Night Storm: Forget the Sun. It hasn't been online in forever because I was unhappy with parts of it and needed to add more to it. Now I'm think of no longer making it hypertext but branching off into a new art form. Once I get the mail out sent ing July, then I'll start working on this idea.

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The BookWorm

What Am I Worth?

"The Law of Money: When you undervalue what you do, the world will undervalue who you are." From The Courage to Be Rich by Suze Orman.

I've been letting my mind fallow for a while, but it's time to start working at night when I think will be my only time for writing work.

The other inspiration is reading a professional seamstress's site and what it took her to create a home business. (See the Garb Closet for the sewing stuff that led me to that site.) Another side effect of my cold feet, fear of success, inertia, or whatever it is that keeps me stuck where I am. I do not take enough pride in my writing. I am doing what I did when I first graduated, happy to take any piddling amount above minimum wage despite it not being enough money to live on or what my skills are worth. It's what I felt they were worth. Part of me still feels that way. I'm charging $25 an hour on the job I don't know when I'll get paid for and that's the bottom of the technical writer's pay scale.

So it's time to make a change here too.

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The BookWorm

Anybody know how to discipline a cat?

Actually, I just need to stop him from jumping over heads. He didn't clear his back paw this morning, and I got a lovely surface scratch down my cheek.

I'm going to try for three laps today when I go walking. And I'm going to have to do something with the weekend schedule. I need one day of rest--as far as exercising goes--but I never make it out to the track on Saturday or Sunday.

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The BookWorm

Mondays are hard

Especially after a weekend of not getting to bed until after midnight. Friday night was a movie night at home. Saturday we went to the social and ended up at Kenn and Amy's for a sewing party. Sunday I did laundry, worked a couple of hours on the resource guide, and updated the Garb Closet.

Not that anyone cares about the sewing projects but me. And I have to get the photo hosting fixed with this paycheck.

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The BookWorm

Walking is Working

Not on the weight loss yet, but my muse is starting to wake up. I thought about a story on my laps yesterday.

The only problem is that it is an old story, maybe a decade old. And I still couldn't get it away from sounding like a D&D/Willion/dimension travelers from Earth pointless derivative. *Sigh*

A group of kids end up in a fantasy world where magic works and technology is nil. Typical. Have to go on a quest to find the Key. Typical. The Key controls portals between dimensions, had shut them off when it was created, but now strange creatures are returning. The heroes fell through one of these tears too. The only way to get home is with the Key. Typical. A race called the Kablancs are the Willow refence and the other character I thought up was a half-elf ranger.

I'm better off sticking to outer space.

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The BookWorm

Batman Begins

If you enjoy your Batman the way he should be--dark, brooding, and intense--this is the movie you have been waiting for. My only nitpick is they should have used the Elfman signature score. It still screams Batman, second only to the old Adam West TV show theme.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the Adam West camp. And he really is a sweetheart of a horndog. But the movies should have never went there. Though I have revoked the death sentence on Joel Shaumaker because of "Pirates of the Carribean."

And I don't think all Superheroes should be "dark and brooding" as if that was some preresquite for being a superhero that appeals to adults or gets the good stories. Superman should be a boy scout if just to counter Batman's methods. Cause when you scratch the surface off you find that they are both men unwilling to see anyone die. One of Kingdom Come's many points.

On the other token, I think the Fantastic Four out to be more outspoken about mutant rights, since they're so willing to be buddy-buddy with the X-Men as long as they're not seen doing it. Course I have no idea what the current Marvel universe is doing, flipped through one cominc and apparantly some towns are becoming mutant havens.

From the trailers: "Serenity" from Joss Whedon--Mr. "Buffy and Angel" as well as a few other dozen screenwriting credits--looks stupendous. "The Skeleton Key" looks like it will be a decent horror flick, but I don't think they'll get the practice of Voodoo right. "Dukes of Hazzard" does look like a lot of fun, though Bo and Luke weren't as stupid as the movie is probably going to make them and Jessica Simpson should have died her hair. Though I was fascinated by the movie poster. The General Lee was clean. Even the tires were clean. They reflected the title off the hood. It's still jarring.

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The BookWorm

Feels like forever

Okay I know it hasn't been, but time is always so full. Hope this isn't a sign I'm addicted to the busy drug.

Walking Progress: June 9 = 2293 steps, June 10 = 2525 steps, June 11 = missed, June 12 = went plantation walking and didn't keep track, June 13 = 4197 steps in 2 laps!

I'm counting all the steps from when I get out of the car till I get back in it, minus a few as a change clothes. Unfortunately, today is a bust. The soap packed in my gym bag (for when I need to shower after swimming; I know it's after July 1st I just didn't want to unpack it) came open and covered my toiletries bag. Luckily, it was in a separate compartment of the gym bag, but I didn't get a chance to clean anything last night.

Started a financial diary of sorts. I get these really good plans or take really good notes, and then lose them. So far the diary is acting like an unpublishable blog. I'm good with keeping blogs, but there are limits of what I will make available online. It's forcing me to writing down what I want and how I want to get there, which cements it or shows the flaws of the plan.

Plantation walking: Chad and I visited Audubon State Park for the Oakley Plantation House and Rosedown Plantation for the gardens. Oakley is the best example of the Creole architecture we're thinking of redoing my house in. I'll add pictures as soon as I get the hosting stuff worked out. Chad's enthuastic about the matching landscape--meaning formal gardens and kitchen garden and slave quarters. I put my foot down about the slave quarters. Not if he wants a castle folly. And no to his idea of turning the place into a bed and breakfast and house people in the slave quarter look-alikes. I like bed and breakfasts, but running one? To his credit he recognizied I don't have the personality traits for it, as well as coupled with my cornerstone belief that my house is sanctuary from everything else in the world. And he really wants a castle.

The gardens I can agree more with. There's something to the self-sufficiency argument as well as fresh produce. And formal layout can be visually stimulating. And it all can work well with Feng Shui concept of outdoor rooms and changing vistas. The problem? I know I don't have anytime to devote to a garden (my current green thumb projects are planted in the yard with a healthy watering and a hearty "good luck"), and I known what Chad's Faire Site gardens look like and he's there to take care of them. There's no money for landscaping service and I don't know how I feel about dumping gravel to make paths in the yard. I doubt that worries the St. Augustine much, we dumped gravel on top of that grass for my driveway and it still grew through it.

My ambelivence is getting better about what to do in the creek ravine. Which means I'm actually considering the options and not just having my stomach tie up in knots at the thought of doing anything. Funny, I get that feeling more about the landscaping than the thought of jacking up the house and making it two stories.

One more note before I have to get back to work. I think the 600mg of calcium is working to relieve PMS. I need to get some other feedback on my mood swings, and the exercise may have some part of it, but I really think I haven't been as snarly this week.

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The BookWorm

3 years?

Heather Sellers says it takes three years for her to fully ingrain a new habit as part of her life. I hope it doesn't take that long for me.

Day 2 went much better. I found my biking shorts, which ended the chafing and ride up issue. If those lycra shorts ever die I'm in serious trouble. Apparantly all biking clothes for us common riders is now made of cotton cause it breathes. I guess I'll just have to shop where Lance Armstrong does. 2069 steps; I don't know where the extra hundred came from since I actually stepped off the track more my first day. They went to all the trouble of putting in the complete work out stations and I had to see what the piles of non-maintained wood was.

I'm also on a reading spurt. Yes, I had a library splurge looking for resource guide sources. The Mothman Prophecies I picked up because I knew about the Mothman phenomena from my research in Bigfoot and Nessie, and remembered the Richard Gere movie coming out in 2001. Haven't seen the movie, and it always struck me as weird for Hollywood to decide to do a movie on a giant winged thing that terrorizied a town in West Virginia in the 1960s. There was a lot of UFO of the regular variety--strange lights doing strange things--going on in the same local, but Keel was one of the few investigators to put it together. Fascinating read, but I'm still lost as to why a movie?

Currently working through the Female Stress Syndrome Survival Guide. I'm going to buy copies of the book for Christmas presents. Things that I always knew were out-of-sync and horrible way to treat people--my damn temper tantrums for example--are stressed induced, not a sign of mental incompetence. There was episodes where crazy seemed to be the only solution. Yes, I'm going to be taking Dr. Georgia Witkin's stress management advice. Apparantly, my get off my butt exercise decision is a step in the right direction for that. I'm already sleeping better.

I've got about two or three chapters in the Survival Guide left, so I started the 9 steps to Financial Freedom by Suze Orman. I've read her column and another book, and she doesn't try to confuse you with all the options. And she recognizes the psychological power people give money. I know I do. I stress when I don't have any, go on buying binges, get more stressed, raised and the oldest so I always knew there never was enough money and there never will be enough. You get tired of living that way. And since it looks like I will be the primary breadwinner for a long time--with or without a mate--I have to fix me and my attitudes.

At lunch I should finish the "World View of the Renaissance" without turning it into a theological lecture. Fascinating stuff too, once you get past Tillyard's prose, but I don't want to overwhelm them.

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The BookWorm

First day of walking

Did one lap yesterday which equaled 1960 steps. I'm working up to the 10,000 steps a day. I need to go around the North Oak Park track 6 times to get that and then some. I also found out that the pool is closed for renovations until June 30th.

Daily writing took a hit since I was exhausted and crawled into bed by 8pm. Not really surprised by the exhaustion since I stayed up till 11pm reading The Mothman Prophecies Monday night. Very little about the Mothman and I still don't understand how they made a Hollywood movie out of it, but I am intrigued by his theories on the UFO phenomena and how it correlates to legends and myths from ages long ago. Intrigued enough to go find some more books by John Keel.

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The BookWorm

Weekends and Dealing with Rejection

I finished the sample Resource Guide Saturday. And I think it looks pretty damn good for only being 1/4th of the final product. There's 21 sections of the Resource Guide--not counting the Table of Contents. As of Saturday, I've finished 5 sections (the text not the questions, vocabulary puzzles, and potential activities), and started on 4 more. That does leave 12 sections I haven't done anything for, barely even researched. It's coming along nicely though. As of Saturday (Sunday I took a break), I'm owed $1937.50. I'm only charging $25 an hour, which is the low end of technical writer's pay and I fully expect to be getting paid on this long after the founders of RLHC have retired and moved onto something else. Especially when I have to edit content for different Faires of different time periods.

On the negative side, it's teeth grinding to realize I have to wait for this money I have earned because RLHC can't pay me right now. What makes it so teeth grinding is I'm overdrawn and hanging on till payday. When I do get this money I have to be smart with it. Reminder: go read both Suze Orman book and actually follow the advice! I can feel my resistance starting already.

Page After Page clued me into resistance. It's a great word to sum up all the negativity facing a new change. You don't want to change even when you know you should. It's a matter of recognizing it for what it is, fear.

I have a huge resistance to exercise. But nearly killing myself at the lake yesterday was scarier than the resistance. Wheezing cause you're out of breath and swimming do not mix. I think I've finally figured out a way to get back to the walking routine I had in college, timewise, and maybe combined with some swimming in a pool where I can get out if having the breathing problem again. The only drawback I see is Mustard will probably hate me because he won't get to go outside.

I will have to start that on Tuesday though. I just made a list of what I need to pack. Of course I had this brainwave during the morning commute. And I have a doctor's appointment. I'm afraid after I get done there, and go home to change, it will be dark by the time I get to the park, when it closes.

Rejection and resistance wreck havoc on my writing life too. I'm a writer, I have no problem with that. I've been a writer since I was eleven-years-old. But that has always been tied with the correllation of getting the byline somewhere. The recognition. The ability to thrust some paper in my condenscending relatives' faces and say "I'm the Coates that counted for something!" What, you didn't think revenge played a part?

Heather Sellers points out in a chapter of Page After Page that publication doesn't matter. You should pull your self-worth as a writer from your daily writing life, and look at publishing as a bonus perk. A "yeah I have readers" moment. A hobby because putting your butt in the chair and writing everyday is really what matters. She's right, and I'm not going into my struggles with the daily writing now.

This is about my submission process, or rather how I send out a peice, it's rejected, and I crumble and don't want to send out anymore. Even the rejected one to the next on its list. Yes, I know this is horrible and bad and hurting me from growing as a writer. How will I learn what is wrong with my writing if I never let it out of my sight? I know all this, and find ways to fill my time so I don't do magazine research, or even paste a label on the bloody envelope and take it to the post office.

Along with her advice of treating publication as a thrill, Sellers gives her strategy: two big submissions sendouts a year. Everything that's good goes out for an average of seventeen drafts. When a peice trickles back, she finds there's two reactions to it. The peice has cured and she sees what's wrong with it. Or she doesn't and back out it goes. She says her rule is: "No rejected work spends the night in my house. (This rule works wellin dating as well as creative writing.)" (page 201) She's concentrating on the smart things in writing life: writing everyday and submitting.

So I'm going to try it her way. A summer submission fest and a winter. July 15th everything that's remotely sellable goes out. January 15th will be the winter date.

Now to concentrate on writing time and fiscal responsibility.

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The BookWorm

My head hurts

Possibly because I feel like my brain has been pulled out through my eyesockets. I have spent the entire morning searching for pictures for the resource guide. I was trucking along on it last night, so much so that when I looked at a clock it was 10pm. I could have sworn I only spent an hour at it last night. But the computer's clock is accurate.

I don't even remember what I was searching for. I just started grabbing everything in the time period, especially if it wasn't nobility.

In other news, we got the check scanners working at the paying job. Due to fears that my blog might be grounds for dismissal, I won't say what I think of the things. Just be sure to stop me when I bring a battle axe to work. Trust me, I'll thank you for taking it away later.

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The BookWorm

Where Was I?

Finished the "Crime and Punishment" section of the Resource Guide. Except for an extra bibliography recommended by Fritze (no idea if I'm spelling his name right) to add, I'm finished with the material that is reusable from 2004.

I want to rewrite the "A Pirate's Life For Me" section and add another privateer, but I don't think I have time for that before the Miss. Teacher's Conference Chad wants to hand something Resource Guide-ish out at. It's next week.

I'm going to concentrate on format issues and adding graphics first. Once that's done, I'll go back to working on the various sections of text I have left. Point is I want something that is ready to go by tonight, even if we end up adding to it.

I found a note in my car notebook that I was worried about focusing. That's true, I think I have lost some of the drive that kept me focused on one project till it was finished. But having gone through the office, it's more an organizational issue. I need to finish updating the files. I'm close, but not through yet.

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The BookWorm

It's not procrastination

Most of the time I use cleaning as a procrastination device. However when the state of office makes me want to scream like a banshee and rip everything to shreds because I can't find anything, it's time to clean and correct the feng shui.

And Chad helped me realize what I can get done in the house without spending scads of money, which was my biggest unhappy hang-up. I hate parts of my house--usually what the family did and I had no say over--but I was in a rut of think why spend the time or money when I'm planning on a massive rebuilding project that would require not keeping those changes? Chad helped me figure out what we can do and can do on a temporary, removable basis, like new storage for the back bedroom.

I didn't get much writing done this weekend. So this week will be me knuckling down to a steady schedule. Especially now that I've found where I had filed projects. *sheepish look*

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The BookWorm

That was unexpected

I considered "The Blue Man" on my way to work. I really wasn't happy with the emotions of the character that would become Zy later. Then boom the answer came. Make her a babysitter. Add these four sentences.

I'm a lot happier with the story now.

I'd add more but I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, and it's starting to crash on myself again.

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The BookWorm

FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only 2 months behind schedule, but the rough draft is done. 140 pages. Now the really fun part. The edit of 140 pages.

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The BookWorm

CSI and Tarantino

I don't follow the show--even though I would like to--but made a special effort to get Chad and watch the season finale because Tarantino wrote and directed. Overall, I was pleased. Some Tarantino elements were jarring, like the music choices and Grisham's Trigger speech at the beginning, but I thought overall he kept his style inside the CSI style. He didn't turn the show into something it's not. Tarantino may be overly gory and violent, but I don't think people give him enough credit for his storytelling abilities.

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The BookWorm

Heard from Red

Glad you're still alive. My email hasn't changed from the last one I sent you, I'm still at Gmail. You can leave a comment here too.

And the critic circle finally opened at Forward Motion, just in time for everybody to be fed up with the process and disappear. Like I need something else to be in charge of.

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The BookWorm

Vacation from RenFaire

I decided that it had to go. Well, I had decided a long time ago but finally had to do it. If I go back, it'll be as street cast not management.

And it wasn't internal politics or anything. I'm just burnt out and frustrated by how much of my life it takes up. It should be part of my life, not my entire life.

Stress levels have gone down hugely already. I am waiting for my replacement to be picked before announcing to the group.

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The BookWorm

Finding the Groove

May 13, 2005

I think finding my groove is going to be a long time coming.

There's more to say and I should say more, but the philosophy in Page After Page makes me stop. "We each have the same amount of time. We make time for what is most important. So either change how you spend your time or accept it and stop complaining." I'm paraphrasing, putting it into my terms. That's a good sign that I've learned the lesson.

My friend Dave called me a workaholic last night. It's true, and you have to add, perfectionist and stubborn to that summation too. I can't let anything go, I'm not happy when it's not my way, and I'm not happy with being on this self-sacrificing trip.

But some part of me must like Kindra the Martyr, otherwise I wouldn't keep putting myself into these scenerios.

May 16, 2005

Survived the weekend. Didn't think that would happen.

Cast Call on Saturday was a success. And me and Chad made it to my coworker's party for her daughter just returned from Iraq. And then we made it to Jaime's house.

Sunday we made it to the meeting and I made a decision. I'm still in the process of getting everything worked out from that, and shouldn't make an announcement here until that's done. Not that I think any of the parties involved read my blog.

I also think I'm going to have to break down and put spine labels on my books. I'm using the Dewey Decimal system and it's become obvious the benefits of why libraries use those labels. I just hate the idea of sticking them on my books.

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The BookWorm

Feeling better

I switched to the Claritin-D formula. I can breath through my nose again, occasionally having to blow it, which is an improvement. I can still feel it up in my head and I'm still talking like Foghorn Leghorn. Can't have everything.

In other news, I think I should go home and clean tonight. Everything in my office is threatening to topple unless it's dealt with. And I can't really sit and work until that looming pile of dread aimed at my head is dealt with. Oppressive, bad for chi.

Also I have to find my stuff to take pictures with for London. Question is will I remember while I have my boyfriend in the house to work the camera?

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The BookWorm

Spring Semester over

People burst into spontanous applause...
the dolphins disappeared...
and my desk caved in from all the stuff on it.

Okay the first two happened with Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and third has happened as of when I left for work this morning and it won't happen--knock on fake wood.

Everything got turned in. All I have left to do is find all the library books--on my aforementioned desk--and turn them in. I'll get back to you when I'm not under cold medication and hopefully I'll make more sense.

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The BookWorm

Crazy Saturday

Over my head in final assignments. Should be able to return to regularly scheduled programming after Wednesday.

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The BookWorm

To the point

I'm in a depressed mood to whine, but I really need to be channeling my energies in another direction. Like finding my desk and working on the homework assignment due next week.

I was rearended yesterday. 7am, I was almost at my building when I stopped at an intersection, following the rules of the yield sign. The guy behind me thought I had gone. The bumpers actually worked. I have never been in an accident where there wasn't total damage to my vehicle. But my whiplash was jarred most unfairly. Took yesterday off, went to doctor. Back bumper is a little out of place on the passanger side and needs new paint. Could be just a fix or a replace.

There at least I have a chair back now. Still working on the desk.

Fans is over. Not that anyone reading this blog but me cares. *Sigh* Time to buy the complete set on CD-ROM so I never lose them.

I was going to spiral into a really depressed triade against people who don't read my work. Not worth the emotional involvement at this point. It doesn't matter how well my fanworks do. Not when I have the grades of two classes on the line for the next couple of weeks. I pissed my way through school for my undergraduate degree. I don't want to make the same mistake with my Master's. Plus I may get paid for the Resource Guide.

Back to cleaning.

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The BookWorm

Quick one for today

Got up to Elizabeth I taking the throne on the resource guide Tuesday night in class. A milestone in terms of completetion. I took yesterday off, went to bed at 7pm and slept like a log. Feel much better this morning. Left the house on time and ended up with enough before work time to finish blogging. Now for breakfast.

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The BookWorm

Weekly Update

Just so you know I ain't dead or something. :)

Last posted on last Wednesday. Got to go home and work on projects--once my mother stopped talking and let me leave her house. She captured me twice. Situation equals stress bad for me. I think I have an online witness to just how bad off I was that night. I finished the bottle of cheap blackberry merlot and it didn't have enough alcohol. This coming from the girl who is always the designated driver.

I decided Mom needs to go back to work. I know she's not able, but I need to come home and deal with my shit. I don't have the time, energy, or patience to deal with my mother's too. I don't have the bladder control either. That night I didn't even have a chance to unlock the door and pee before she was yaking my ears off. I love my mother, but I can't keep doing this.

I should tell her. Problem is that would have to be a conversation that I would have to start. I don't get a chance to start; I don't get a chance to talk. And Chad says I shouldn't be so paranoid about blabbing. It's all fear of turning into my mother.

Thursday night, I wanted to see the Commissioner of Insurance--my boss boss--on the evening news. I was hoping Mom would be gone for Memphis. No such luck, so I resigned myself. By the time the story came on the news and Mom did leave, I had a raging hunger headache and was in no mood to deal with any projects. Chad, Joe, and I went out to dinner.

Friday day went well. Friday night was a different story. It was supposed to be my night off regardless. Chad wnated to discuss RHLC business with the others. Everyone else had a great day at a school demonstrating and reconstructing Renaissance history for the students. Me and Amy had to work, and we had to wait till Amy got there to eat. So I'm getting hungrier and grumpier and sleepier but wired on caffine. I couldn't work because I didn't have a computer, and everyone was making me more irritable. I took myself away for a nap, and laid down for five minutes when Amy showed up.

Now Chad promised me I could get liquored up back on Thursday night and after this week I wanted it bad. But I refuse to drive when I drink, so that's why the wait till we go out with Kenn and Amy on Friday night. Stephanie and Joe are coming too, and they're riding with Kenn and Amy. That was the last straw; I was snarly bitch queen.

Analyzing it now, the cause was 80% biological (PMS, low blood sugar, not enough sleep, dehydration, too much caffine and stress), 10% being fed something I didn't want (Chad and I had already gone to Adobe during the week), and 10% feeling dumped upon. It was supposed to be a working dinner and Chad had already upset me by not saying I was getting paid for the resource guide. In the mood I was in implying heavily wasn't cutting it. (Payment is currently under discussion, pending other issues.) Stephanie should not have been there at all. They were always real quick to dump my ass before I started dating Chad. Stephanie has nothing to do with RHLC either. Not to mention that fact that she was getting on my nerves. But so was everyone else. I had a small strawberry margarita. I should have had more.

Saturday--I cleaned and wrote. It worked whatever it was out of my system. Got the living room, halls, and bathroom clean--my bedroom was done earlier. I wrote two pages on the script, the Crusades and the Magna Carta for the resource guide, worked on Alt. BM Site, and my homework internet site assignment. Then I helped stuff envelopes after the gang got back from the Social--after apologizing. Unnecessary, except for me.

Sunday--I cleaned most of the kitch, just have the floor left. I got fed up with Alt. BM Site update and watched the Cheap Detective. I figured out how to fix the author pages but I think the navigation fixes has to wait or else the update will be another month late.

Monday--I'm watching how much caffine I drink and trying to drink more water. The alarm went off this morning and I spent five minutes listening to "Funkytown" wondering why it was playing. The morning went downhill from there. I ended up leaving my cash for lunch as home. Monday's at work always suck. I hoped class would go better that night. I doubted I would get time to type this blog I've written.

Tuesday--Didn't get a chance to type the blog on Monday. (Started on Tuesday and finished on Thursday.) Class went fine, I answered my own Dreamweaver question and got up to Henry VII in the history section. I was still sleepy and my hair is too heavy for my head. Maybe I'll try a bun instead of a ponytail.

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The BookWorm

This is supposed to be nose to the grindstone work time

From the tone of the title, you should be able to tell that ain't happening. *Sigh* And I had such high hopes.

*Sigh* There's no point in complaining. Just know that I'm listening to Gregorian chant to soothe my nerves.

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The BookWorm

Booyah!

I finally got the JavaScript coding for a selfupdating copyright notice running! It's not up yet, because I haven't updated, but I'll have to add it when I do. I had to get it for class so there was the grade incintive to get it done.

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The BookWorm

Expanding shopping list

Need to remember: call for sceptic tank, buy sodas, buy ...

Can't remember what else I needed to buy. Damn. I need two things at Wal-Mart. This is why I wanted to write it down in the car where I remembered it. But all the paper was in the back seat. Now I remember!

Buy claritin
Clean litter box
Do laundry
Work at home

I got the external links for the hypertext transfer project finished last night at class. Rather than dealing with taking them out, I think I'll just add an explanation to the disclaimer for why they're there when I move the story into the Library.

Buy padded envelopes

Don't you love how a shopping list expands?

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The BookWorm

Computer update night

Got Dreamweaver 4 up and running. I have been using it at school and like it, other than the floating panes. Hopefully, I can find a way to anchor those.

And I loaded up the camera software and the EasyShare Dock. So hopefully, if all goes well, I should have pictures up for things I have been promising pictures to, very soon.

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The BookWorm

World War 3 Averted

The guy from Demco was early, Estelle late, so Dustin and I worked it out. Yeah, they're lying about who knows what, but that's between them, their conscious, and their deity. All the poles are going on Estelle's land and in the front, near the road that's all tied up in right-a-ways anyways, and it doesn't cross my property anywhere unslightly or unsafely.

Moral of the story: if you don't try to hook and crook, you get electricity a week earlier.

Reading: Blitzed through Mirror, Mirror the week before the electricity crisis. Lucretia Borgia made a great Wicked Stepmother/Queen. The drawves were a little surreal but they were supposed to be.

Ended up spending the weekend with Chad, and there was a picnic for RHLC demonstrators Saturday. I learned something that's not for public knowledge yet, but it did influence a decision that disappointed Chad. No, we didn't break up. But when I can explain what happened it will make a lot more sense.

Also during the picnic meeting, we came up with the idea of creating a Renaissance themed murder mystery party either to use as a fundraiser or as maybe another Faire event. Course I was pegged as the writer to create this. Luckily, I don't have to show anything until possibly after summer.

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The BookWorm

I owemy father an apology

He finally stood up for me. Meeting with Demco at 3pm. I'll let you know how it goes later.

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The BookWorm

Did better yesterday

I may have stumbled onto dealing with my mother's conversations. It's either jumping in with "I have homework" before she gets rolling or throwing her off balance with lots of swearing.

Let me try going back for a little while.

Saturday, me, Chad, and Mom drove up to Natchitoches for Krista's soriority's Family and Alumnae Day. That was a bust, but visiting Krista was nice.

Sunday: house cleaning I already went over. Dad did yard work and found a Demco--our electric company--flag on Estelle's land south of my house.

To explain, my grandmother sold me 2.77 acres and the house from the larger tract of land. So she still owns the land south and north of my land, with the exception of my parents' acre. Right after the selling stuff was starting to get rolling, somebody decided Dustin needed to move next door on the south portion. Dustin is my cousin, his father and my father are brothers. Estelle has supported them her entire life.

You can't chose who you're realted to, or at least take some small comfort that in the karmic scheme of things, your soul wanted these trials and tribulations. I'm sorry to say I'm related to the worse white trash in three parishes on both sides of the family.

I can't really blame Dustin too much. He is mentally handicapped, and nature and nurture fucked him over. *Sigh* I was going to try to keep this clean, but there's no way around it. He did managed to buy a trailer, pissed away the loan money for the septic tank, there was a lawsuit over that, and long story short, he is moving his half-sister in--same mother different fathers so she's not family--to pay to get the utilities hooked up. And Estelle's been forking out the money because Dustin is married--another mistake--and they can't seem to find a place to live marriedly together at. You're free to puke now.

Long story really short, we don't approve of their lifestyles, their freeloading, Estelle bending over backwards to make sure their little world is perfect, and we don't want them next door.

The other essential fact of the story. Pumpkin Center Road is covered by two electric companies. The Demco line ends at my pole. Entergy provides electricity to everyone south of me. I'm the property owner, and neither Estelle nor Dustin nor Demco have contacted me about running electric lines across my land.

Back to Sunday: I tell my parents I need to be contacted by somebody about the right-a-ways because from the where the flag is set up, if they put a pole there the line would run across where I park my car and the corner of my house. I expected Demco to find out who the owner of the land was and contact me and we would work things out.

Monday: my parents are wakened--Dad works night now--by a slew of Demco trucks across my backyard. The pole was put up barely on Estelle's land, and they we're ready to string the wire. Dad tells them there is no right-a-way and they stop the job and leave. Doesn't matter that everyone supervising this job was letting them roll the work truck over my septic line. Doesn't matter that I wasn't contacted at all, until my mother called me at work to tell me what was going on.

Estelle takes all the blame, saying "Kindra's so hard to get a hold of." When Mom reported that I saw red. She never tried. All she gave a damn was getting those no-good, freeloading, sons-of-bitches set up in a trailer so we could look at them all day long without any regards to what plans I have for my own land. Without any regards for our feelings in the matter, but that's been going on ever since my uncle married their mother. I have an answering machine, a cell phone, and I sit at a job with a direct line to me, as well as having parents who are home all day with all of these numbers! I'm listed in the phone book!

Like I said I saw red, and declared that no way was any powerlines going over my property, and if Demco put them up I was sueing. The property in question is adjucent to Pumpkin Center Road and if they have to have electricity, they can get it from the road; I don't care how many poles they have to buy. That's not my problem.

Monday and Tuesday I had classes and couldn't deal with anything. But Tuesday Estelle brough Demco back out and they put a new red flag next to the clothes lines. Which is northwest of my house, but not very far. Yes this would get the powerline out of the way, except for two tiny details. They above mentioned, that line is not crossing my property since they are too good to come and talk to me. And Mom helped me measure last night. The flag is on my property. I don't need another pole for power.

So I've been calling Demco trying to speak with a field engineer. I've been nice with my messages so far. Tomorrrow's message will threaten lawsuit. Hopefully that will get me a call back. I did try to deal with it in office but only the field engineers know what I'm talking about. So I got home early and Mom and I walked the lines so she would know where they are, and I cussed about the situation, and told her I had homework. We went out to eat and I got back in time to do it.

Now did I work on homework? I cleaned out files and watched Apollo 13 with Jim and Marilyn Lovell's commentary. So I better work on it now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

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The BookWorm

Tally Day

Well strictly on numbers, I flunk. I assigned myself 258 tasks and only completed 36. But in the process I discovered that I need to count projects and tasks differently.

Has it helped me keep track of everything that needs doing? Writing and homework-wise, yes. The only non-writing project listed in the Garb Closet and even that involves writing. It's also a vain hope that I'll actually get to it, but that's beside the point.

Has it helped with stress? Not really. I'm beginning to think nothing will but cleaning. Or writing. When I am focused on one task to the exclusion of everything else. The current house/family/my rights stress doesn't help either. And that stress has nothing to do with my mother, father, sisters, or Chad. Just so you know.

Am I going to keep it up? For now it's the best To Do List I have. We'll see over the summer when I'm not in classes just how useful it is.

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The BookWorm

Tomorrow is Tally Day

I said I was going to give myself a full month trial on the Daily Writing Schedule and that means I have to work today.

Not that I ever stop working. If I'm not working, I'm driving and I'm starting to hate that pattern. Why I have to be in love with the part of the country that doesn't comprehend mass transit? I'm too in love with it to move, so I have to get more discliplined in finding a job in Hammond and writing so I can working at home. Same old song and dance, I know. Put up or shut up.

Note: Cheery mood I'm in, maybe the rest of the entries will explain that.

Yesterday, I focused on the physical. Cleaning out the chaos of my mind by dealing with the chaos of my house. Very feng shui, but I do practice it. Though lately I've been forgetting the principles. And you may not agree with the metaphysics, but clutter is bad for you no matter what your creed is. And I have too much clutter.

Bedroom and living room sorted, but not fully cleaned. I haven't unearthed my vaccum cleaner yet. You can walk through the kitchen now. And the cat no longer has piles of paperwork to threaten. I do feel slightly better, even though I'm no where close to finished.

Extended-family conflict is rearing its ugly head. I don't really want to go into it now, but I don't think they've realized just how badly they have pissed me off.

Red Lioness new funnies! Boy, I need the funnies. Read her comic The Three R's.

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The BookWorm

Need a new backbone

The pain in my shoulder is due to my back being out of whack. Chad immediately put the blame on my bags during the trip--specifically my black work bag. My response is "bite me" that bag is no heavier then than it is on any other day of the week.

Course my back will always be screwed up thanks to two cases of whiplash. So I'd like a replacement, and while you're at it, add something that will let me take charge of any situation dealing with my mother.

Though at least this was one of her shorter conversations. I think 'cause I kept falling asleep. I was in bed reading when she got back from trip, and something went wrong with Dad's computer. I had to fix it--or at least shut it up--and Mom wanted to tell me about the trip. Course I'm going to be drooping; I have to get up at 4am to get out of the house by 6. Why can't I take control of the situation?

Uplifting news: My kitchen is starting to look better, instead of made up of hand-me-down appliances. I just bought a countertop grill and a new microwave. Now I just have to save up for a fabo set of pots and pans, semi-pro grade.

Side note: I hae to stop buying DVDs for a while. Yeah, they're putting a lot of stuff I want at cheaper than reasonable prices, but I don't have time to watch them. But the Apollo 13 anniversery version is a great deal. You get Theater and IMAX versions, commentary from Ron Howard and Tom Hanks, commentary/interview with Jim and Marilyn Lovell, and a bunch of the technical stuff of what happened during history and how did they film it. Wal-Mart's price $13.05.

Reading: Finished Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maguire last night. It is a rewriting of Cinderella set in the Netherlands in 1637-ish in the middle of the tulip mania. I had plowed through his Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West earlier in the year, checked out through the library. Yes, that Wicked Witch of the West. So I went and bought everything he has written in that vein. Now I'm working on Lost, about a woman working on a novel about a woman haunted by the ghost of Jack the Ripper and ends up in a haunted house. Is it the ghost of her great-great-grandfather who, family legend claims, was Charles Dickens's childhood inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge or something worse? The last book he's done is Mirror, Mirror, Snow White with the Borgias.

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The BookWorm

Talks with my mother

She ambushes me, she doesn't stop, and I can't get in a word edge-wise. Of course my guilty gene is whacking me over the head because you never spend anytime with your mother and this is a side effect from not going to work. Then the guilty gene whacks me over the head for getting nothing accomplished because it's rude to try to do something else. Besides if I even manage to get out "Mom, I have to..." she starts a new subject.

Chad cooked me supper and I brought the work to his house last night. He can be a sweetheart when he tries. :) And today she's supposed to go to Natchez to visit my great-aunt Brenda with no time of return. So I'll have some freedom. But I had to schedule a doctor's appointment at 5pm, so I still don't know how much I'll get accomplished. *Sigh*

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The BookWorm

So much for that bright idea

Two nights in a row. *Sigh* I know Mom has been going stir-crazy all day long since she can't go to work yet, but I NEED to work on homework.

So I decided screw it, my work's not getting done anyway. I'll take her to the movies. The one she wants to see isn't playing in Hammond anymore. It is playing in Baton Rouge but we'd have to go to the 10pm feature. Ain't happen when I got to work tomorrow. *Bangs head on desk*

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The BookWorm

Working at night?

I had every intention for working for a couple of hours last night on homework--that stuff that needs the home computer--while the cat ran outside. Then leave at sunset with cat locked in house, have supper with Chad, go home and go to bed.

Mom wanted to talk and it completely derailed those plans. I didn't get the cat in at sunset. I finally got to leave at 8pm after giving up on said cat. Supper and got home by 10pm. Finally find the damn cat and get him in.

So I'm dragging this morning and my back which started hurting yesterday is even worse. Right on my shoulder blades, behind my neck, and it feels like muscles owies.

Hopefully I get work done tonight.

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The BookWorm

Back from Orlando

Bay Area Renaissance Festival: They have a really nice show. I suppose I need to be more elaborate than that, but I haven't downloaded the pics yet. I will do so and expand this post.

Still suffering from driving to Orlando and back lag. At least this is spring break and I can go straight home and work on homework there. It's bad when you can't work on the top three things on the Daily Writing Sechedule because you need the programs on the home computer.

And Mustard has separation issues. This is the first time I had gotten a large feeder so no one would have to check on him. I got home about 10pm last night and discovered he had peed in the clothes basket and my vinyl portable closet. The only thing in the basket was a washcloth Chad had used. So I guess he was mad at both of us. So I will be playing with my kitty tonight as well as doing homework. Or at least try.

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The BookWorm

Can't think of a title today

Went to the March salon at Vianne's last night. They had Bev Marshall, a local writer, speaking. This one actually let out at 9:00pm instead of midnight like the last one we went to, and it let me glop more writing culture. She's also connected with SLU, so it's networking.

Job Search: Speaking of SLU, they don't want to give me an interview. So I'll be reapply to that same job and a new one that has opened up.

Bay Area Ren. Festival: Leaving tomorrow at 6am. We're going to be staying at a time share in Orlando. I don't want to have to drive 14 hours. Okay that's my last whine about that. We need a vacation, even if it's a working one. :p At least I have money to spend.

Financial Aid: Came in last night. Going to buy my new digital camera tonight. No longer will no camera keep me from working on the Garb Closet. Time probably will though.

Classwork: It's very hard to edit a story when you want to do the work on Dreamweaver that at this moment is only available at SLU's lab. It's even harder when the fonts have messed up for a big chunk in the middle and replaced the quotation marks with garbage.

Daily Writing Schedule: Back to work on it.

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The BookWorm

Details

Depending on blogs to tell if a friend is still alive--only Bek passes that. I know Jazzie's alive; she answers email. Slowly, but there are nights I'm not on the computer either--most nights actually. Slow time at work keeps me on the Internet there. So do I feel like an idiot for keeping with something that's too much trouble for the ones who talked me into keeping a blog in the first place?

Blame the commute home; it always makes me introspective.

Truth is I feel suckered. Hello I love writing and hate disappointing a reader and have a high need to bitch/debate/converse. Hand the pyro a lighter, why don'tcha?

So I'm kvetching, something else I'm good at. Now that I'm a blogger I doubt I can give it up. And I really don't mind it so much, even if most people not into it feel like it voyerism. So I guess I don't feel all that suckered. But the mystery crit circle at Forward Motion? Oh yeah, I've got some deep resentment getting saddled with that.

But for the blog, I'm going to try to list some more current events. Yes, I do have some. :p

Bay Area Renaissance Festival: No, I don't know why they gave themselves the acronym "BARF" but they put on a pretty nice show. We're going this weekend if we can get everything together. I get to see my Tampa-transplanted friends Neobergeron
and Ladybug.

The downside, Chad's eye condition had a major flare up. Without going into medical details, he has no vision in one eye and there's nothing you can do except let it heal for 6 to 8 weeks. So there is no way he can help me drive to Tampa. And I'm supposed to make all the travel arrangements with everything else I have to do.

Classwork: All A's on every assignment. Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think is a must read for everyone running a website. Project to complete: Hypertext Transfer, Individual Hypertext, Final Project, Research Paper, and take-home Final. Bear in mind these are for two classes.

Reading: Pleasure reading/personal research reading not the research I have to do for the above project. Just finished Modus Operendi in the Howdunit series. I really need to collect that whole set. They're geared for mystery writers and I need the details in them. Currently working on Zen and the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury to get my muse inspired again.

Daily Writing Schedule: Need to stop putting so much on it. And I need to start working on it.

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The BookWorm

Something was wrong with Blogger

Couldn't get it to update at all yesterday. Now it seems to be working.

Must remember that April 4th is when I decide if the daily writing schedule things has worked.

Also spent most of yeserday reading a reveiwing FF.net stories. And then the person I thought I had ticked off with the infamous email (two posts down if you have no clue) got back from the Phillipines and left 3 reviews in one day. *Shrug* Well at least I feel better having done my part. Found a couple of good on going ones in the TMNT section as well.

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The BookWorm

Wednesday *oh brother*

Yesterday I had my appointment with my advisor. He confirmed what I had anticipated, they don't have anything I can take suring the summer term. I got set up for the fall and went on to work.

Once I reached work, my coworkers told me my mother had called. And since my family never calls me at work, it's serious. Called mom. She had gotten in a car wreck coming home from work that morning. Turned around and went home. Stayed less than 15 minutes at work, must be a record.

I got the whole story when I got home. Not that Mom really remembers much. She remembers hitting the wake-up groves on the side of the Interstate and then she started spinning. She ended up in a gully, where the trees actually stopped her from going into the water. A nice young man helped her out having see the whole thing, and you couldn't see the car from the road.

What we think is that she may have dozed behind the wheel, overcompensated when she hit the bumps, and on the slick from all night rain road went into a spin. There was a lot of other crap that went on contected with the incident that I really don't feel like getting into.

Most important thing is Mom is fine, probably just whiplash is all she's going to suffer from. The car could possibly be totaled, but we don't know for sure yet.

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The BookWorm

Did I Say Something Wrong?

Now that the homework assignment that's due today is finally finished, I can think about this. Quiet frankly, I don't know what to think, so I'm just blabbing to get it out of my head.

I posted "TMNT: Bloodlines" to FF.net. My motivation: cross advertising and to draw some of the TMNT crowd to the crossover and see what they think about it. "Bloodlines" did pretty well, 30 reviews for 17 chapters.

I'm not in it for the praise. I love writing and knowing that other people loved it or hated it is just a perk to writing. The reviews were positive and I started reading and reviewing those who had read and reviewed me. I try to play it forward. Granted, life intervened and I haven't been able to finish that list.

I got through a couple of stories and asked in one review what fan series she was basing her story off of. She emailed me back with the website to find it. I thanked her for it, asked about the awards I had seen mentioned about a few stories, and said I didn't want to immerse myself in the fandom. It's true; I don't have the time to be as involved as I am with BMFM. But I intend to do my part with those online with FF.net. I didn't get a response.

I started putting "TMNT: The Ronin" up, and went from 30 reviews from 12 different people to 8 reviews from 3. It's not about the numbers. But the most prolific reveiwer for "the Ronin" noticed to lack of attention in one of her reviews. I'm just confused. And I can't help wondering if I phrased my not wanting to get involved badly so they're not bothering with my stories anymore?

On the other hand, I'll probably feel better once I offer a few more reviews to people who deserve them.

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The BookWorm

What a way to start the weekend

Here's the way I got to start the weekend.

Just left work, joining the long line of cars on 3rd Street. A Buildings and Grounds Maintenance worker is driving the manlift back to their building which behind me. I'm thinking about the long night I'm going to put in on the homework assignment that's due on Monday.

Next thing I know, the green truck in front of me has slammed on his brakes. I have to jerk my wheel and end up hitting the curb to keep from rear ending him. Front left tire punctured and flat in 5 seconds.

Pull over into Claiborne's building parking lot. The guy in truck is very helpful but I still suspect he started his Friday back in the office. The fact that he slammed on brakes 10 feet away from the car in front of him didn't improve my opinion any. The funny thing is I bought my car from Enterprise Rent-a-Car. Great deal, but they forgot to give me a jack and lug wrench. The last time I had a flat it was at home where my Dad has at least 3 different kinds of jacks.

Helpful guy in green truck's lug wrench doesn't fit my lugs. "Do you have roadside assistance?" What Enterprise gave me along with the car expired back in October. I had just bought a new travel savings membership that included roadside assistance, but it's paper work is sitting in my bedroom where I had been looking over it.

Okay, fine call parents. Nobody's home. Then Chad calls, they're heading to Texas for a RenFaire that I couldn't go to because of above mentioned homework and had just reached Baton Rouge. Great! Detour so you can buy me a lug wrench! I sit down with my "How to Write Animation" book to wait.

Meanwhile, the maintenance guy who was driving the manlift and his partner drove by and saw I was still stuck. They had jack and lug wrench that fit. Got me all changed out and the guy in the Channel 6 newsvan aired up my spare and helped with the heavy lifting. My car is so low to the ground you have to lift it to get a bottle jack under it.

I was finally on the road at 5pm. I get off at 4pm. Call my parents and leave a calmer message on their answering machine. First stop was at the first auto parts store, and if I can't fit the jack I bought under the car, I'm going to have to take it back. Also got lug wrench. The stopped at Tire Kingdom to get tire fixed and oil changed.

Got to catch up on local news and read about half of "How to Write for Animation." Got home, grabbed my SLU library books that were due back, and drove out to the library. Missed my Interstate exit and had to drive 3 more miles before the next exit so I could turn around. Drop books at library, got a Whopper and was devouring that and getting on I-12 to get back home when Dad decided to call my cell phone and check on me.

Got home for keeps about 8:45pm. Had a glass of wine and watched the TMNT episode I just read the script for and went to bed without touching homework.

So guess what I get to spend all day doing today?

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The BookWorm

Friday at last

I got my typing test scores in the mail, even though I had alread found out I made a 51 wpm. So now I just have to wait for the Alumni Center to decide to interview me.

And it's Chad's birthday and he's leaving town. Going to see Excalibur Faire. I've got too much to do, homework and writing wise to justify going. Hell, I'm even going to have to skip the free Better Than Ezra concert tonight because of this assignment. But I still don't think he understood why I was upset with him for not asking me to go. I'll admit it's not one of my finer logical moments, but don't decide for me even if you already know what my answer has to be.

That's all I have for now. Caio.

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The BookWorm

Good news

They extended the job application period. Get to call back later today and hopefully I'm the best qualified and get my interview. It all depends on my typing scores. They have to be above 40. Have to be.

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The BookWorm

Making Time Part Three

I've had 3 days on my new writing schedule; how much have I accomplished?

Not as much as I had planned for, but my observation that I'm "stupidly oppomistic" over what I can accomplish was corraberated.

But it's all good. The point of creating the Daily Writing Schedule was not to cram my day full, but to have a list so I can see what is due for classes and other deadlines and write accordingly. And some things are on the list just to remind me to do the on a daily basis--like submissions to Alt. Biker Mice Site.

So I'm going to stick with it for the end of the month. That's a better trial length anyway. I already feel less stress about it. Though I do need to add textbook reading to it.

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The BookWorm

Catch up

It has been over a week since my last post. I feel like a Catholic at the confessional. (Nothing derogatory meant toward Catholics by that statement.) It's been a whirlwind week. I'm not even going to try to break it down by day. I've been tracking topics to cover instead. Compulsively, writer-ly of me I know. I just can't help myself. I should, it would save energy to direct it into the projects that need it, but like I said: I can't help myself.

Birthday
February 26 is the day I graced the world. (If a gal can't be egotistical about her birthday, there is no joy in life.) So this year Chad took me out to the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Aquarium of the Americas, and we had lunch at Copeland's Cheesecake Bistro. And he was pleasantly surprised by the art that had been added to the museum (it has been at least a decade since he had last gone). Scary for me driving over the Twinspan going home, but much shorter than the Causeway. But I-55 doesn't bother me and it's built over swamps.

New job opportunity
It's at Southeastern which would give me a 15 minute commute in the morning. I had to scramble and take a typing test Monday because that was the only thing lacking. Human Resources got my application and said check back with them on Wednesday after the typing scores post, but if the deadline for the position isn't extended I won't be in consideration.

And I'm over-qualified for it. But how they know that without knowing me?

School
Classes are fine, got A's in both. And they finally sent me the first part of my financial aid--on March 1st. My coworkers keep waiting for school to send me to the loony bin (or further into the loony bin). But classes have never been a problem for me.

Fate hitting me in the head
I have an opportunity in my writing career that I'm afraid of jinxing too much if I actually talk about it here. But it made me go buy the book How to Write for Animation by Jeffrey Scott. To show you how to put together a cartoon script, he pulls apart one of his "Mobster From Dimension X" written for the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series. I just bought the first volume of that series on DVD and that episode is one of the bonus episodes included on the DVD. I can take a hint okay?

Mustard needs a screen porch
My cat retaliates on me when he goes without outside time. But when he has outside time, he wants to be with me. I want a screen porch with a cat door so I don't have to worry about him.

Being in love with words doesn't do any good if there's no time to read
Went overboard checking books out again. I have to start learning to restrain myself when I go in. Check two out not ten. :p

Bought a label writer
Yeah finally! And got it working. No more wasting labels sending them through the regular printer. Haven't figured out all the details of the program yet, and still have to print up labels for the next stops on the submission

TV on the porch
Chad calls them my appliance gremlins. This week a TV is sitting on top of my washing machine. An old TV with built-in antennas and too heavy for me to pick up so I can USE my washing machine.

I suppose I should be glad my parents don't wake me up when they drop stuff off. I suppose I have no say-so in the matter since they stored my extra stuff while I was away at college. But I'm irked that it showed up Tuesday morning and here it is Friday and I have no explanation as to why it is there! And what's wrong with ASKING me before dumping something on me?

I guess it does matter. Damn, this is not going to be a fun fight. I still have shit that never left my front porch from the last garage sale. I could decorate before they have the one this month, and tell them it has to be put back in this condition. *Sigh* Like I have time to do that.

Creating logos
Finally got my ideas--it's one of my assignments for class--and found tutorials to help me build them in Paint Shop Pro. *Happy Dance*

The Garb Closet
It's been forever and a day, but I'm going to do some kind of sewing this weekend. Probably Sunday.

Updates
Yeah, Updates have been delayed. This will probably be my catch-up weekend.

Clothes shopping
Now that I have money, I went and bought some new clothes for interviews. Even if I don't get this one, I will be applying for the next opening Southeastern has.

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The BookWorm

Making Time Part Two

Well I think it's going to work, I just started a day early. Yeah, I put a list down for yesterday after I spent most of the day plotting out my idea.

I don't know where I get this Superwoman tendency from, dissatisfaction with life? At least my writing life.

Fun way to kill two hours of the work day. *Sarcasm* For some silly reason, I buried my organizer on my desk last night. It wouldn't be bad except that I have moved my life into it--money, credit cards, driver's license. ANd I didn't realize I hadn't grabbed it until I pulled into the parking lot at work. Out of sight, out of mind.

I turn around and go get it after telling a coworker what I had done and borrowing $1 for breakfast. Luckily, all the traffic is moving in the opposite direction. I found it on my desk buried under what I had worked on last night.

I've been leaving behind that organizer a lot lately. What does that mean? I want to be more free?

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The BookWorm

Making Time Part One

Yes, I have the same 24 hours that everyone else has, but I have never been good at the scheduling of that time. And I do hate myself for shrugging during lunch time and saying "I don't know what to do" and playing a computer game instead. Even if I got to Level 11 on Typer Shark.

Maybe it's more of an identification problem. So that's what I speant most of today doing: identifying the projects I need to do and breaking them into daily milestones. That's right, daily milestones. I'm going to try to work a little on everything every day and can easily see what needs to be done at home and what I can work on at work.

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The BookWorm

Decisions

And speed reading time. I have two books due back at the library Saturday and I haven't finished them yet.

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The BookWorm

Crazy weekend

In hindsight, still crazy.

Saturday: Had a RenFaire cast social in New Orleans. Marcie wanted to do a movie night. Chad had the brillant idea to combine them both on Saturday. Give Joe a ride down to New Orleans and he runs late arguring with his girlfriend. Left the social about 3pm, New Orleans traffic is abysmal and Joe has the bright idea to take the Causeway.

My fear of bridges--that only really kicks in now when I'm driving--kicks in when it's too late to get off the damn feat of modern engineering. I swear when my car went across the draw bridge section the wind lifted it up.

By the time we finally got home, Marcie had been waiting for an hour. Nothing goes wrong the entire time she's there. Small miracle. She goes home and Chad wants to watch "Mystery Men." We end up crawling into bed at midnight.

Sunday: 5:30am We're awakened by a crash on the road in front of my house. I figured somebody wrapped themselves around a tree. Two trucks were parked, one in my driveway, the other across the street; and a cop car is there in minutes.

I get jeans and slippers on before Chad and go out to see if they need any help. In the yard, I see the car that is smashed up is a Jeep that the camilla bush blocked view of from the window. Then I hear gallopping and nickering in the backyard.

Now we have had cows break loose and come visit. I remember one night Mom brought us home and it looked like a cattle drive across the yards. A horse is a new experience. Pretty grey horse, scared, the lights keeping it away from the road and the undergrowth keeping it out of the roads. Back inside for sports bra and hiking boots.

A girl from the ambulance, a volunteer fire fighter, two sheriff deputies, Chad and me finally manage to corner the poor horse. Turns out the Jeep was one of my mom's friends and she hit and killed the red horse. Apparantly the pair of them have been hanging out by the river, and my cousins who live back there were playing the Finders Keepers game but couldn't grab them. Luckily mom's friend Nancy only got scratched up and probably has whiplash now. My cousins still have the white horse and we're hoping to get it away from them. They can't take care of their dogs, much less a horse.

Nope still a crazy weekend in hindsight.

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The BookWorm

President's Day, and completed projects

The Ad Analysis is finished. I was panicked that I wouldn't finish it and that I would underwrite the assignment. Got seven pages of text and needed at least six full pages.

Now I'm waiting for the trolley so I can go check out the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. My other worry proved true, I have the wrong MLA book for the assignments. Luckily, it's at the State Library and I can check it out. But are the trolleys running today? If not, I got to go up to the office and find my keys.

Checked with the security guards and they say the trolleys are running today. I wish it wouldn't get caught up at lunch time. The trolley is a fleet of three buses designed like trolleys that run around downtown. Supposed to be fourteen minutes between them, but since it just got here now, it's more like seventeen plus. I'm not complaining; there's never any parking at the State Library.

Now that the Ad Analysis is done, I need to see what the next assignments are. I also need to create a writing schedule so I don't get overwhelmed by the major projects in both classes and the script.

Crazy weekend: do I really want to go into that again? Yeah, eventually. Just not right now. I need to read for class tonight.

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The BookWorm

Busy, busy, busy

Yesterday, I was the only batcher, which made me too busy to blog. And after work, I went out and spent too much money on DVDs. *Sigh* My fiscal responsibility sucks. I just hope the tax return comes today.

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The BookWorm

Lunch time dilemnia

Frozen dinner portions are too small. Why did I have a frozen dinner for lunch? No cash till tomorrow. :p

I just don't know what I should be doing. *Sigh* If I was at home, I'd have too much to do.

Better read the Mystery Lover's Book of Quotations since it's due back to the Library Saturday.

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The BookWorm

Busy? Only according to some

Life is full right now, and I'm only trying to do everything I want and have to do. (Paying job and household chores fall under have to. I tried giving them to Mustard but he doesn't want to cooperate.)

I'm trying to make a concentrated effort (and boy does it take a lot of concentration!) to blog about the upbeat things in my life. They do exist, but I spend too much time and energy focusing on the bad and down. Save the wallowing for the naps (more advice from Page After Page) and the fiction.

Valentine's Day wrap-up. Yesterday was the day for lovers. Chad had already given me my present, a little cat Cupid pin, which I wore all day. Then once I got done with class, he took me out to Adobe. And the evening went great. I didn't have any fits like I did last Saturday to spoil the night out. *Sigh* Though I think that was a good deal of left-over PMS, and low frustration point because he wasn't comprehending why a movie he had seen (and I don't think he was that impressed with) meant such a big deal to me.

He'll like his Valentine's Day present, once payday gets here and I can buy it. :p

Course, going out meant I got home too late to work on script, but I think I needed a day away from it. I got a few lines done this morning before I had to go. If I would actually break down the food into lunch-size portions, it probably would shave off a few more minutes of getting ready time. I'm not stressing about it. I need the formating book and it's not going to be here until the end of the week, hopefully. On order.

Still have reading for tonight's class to catch up on. Better get started on that while doing these lawsuits.

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The BookWorm

Back at work

And ready to run away screaming. I love this place. Really I do.

Page After Page picked a good time to come into my life. I need to hear a lot of messages in it. Writing is the thing, not publishing. Why do you waste so much energy complaining about something you have an option of not doing (i.e. writing)? If you can't find time to write, maybe you're not a writer. I'm rereading the book already, and will probably do the exercises in Discipline Under Fire.

Probably not today though. I have homework. :p

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The BookWorm

Been a busy weekend

Buried Mervin on Friday. Saturday worked on script, and then Chad took me to Phantom of the Opera the movie, FINALLY. It was worth the wait. I think they missed an opportunity to make Erik as hideous as he is in the novel, but it wasn't my call to make. They added the mirror room back, that was cool.

Sunday working on the script so more. And homework in between. It's not quite never ending, this script, but sometimes it feels like it.

Back to work tomorrow. Imagine my joy. :p

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The BookWorm

Still in recovery

Finally got to the doctor today. Luckily, it was nothing serious just a cold and I seem to be on the upswing. I got worried when hacked my throat to bleeding one night. And the coughing all night is no fun. I got a prescription for a cough medicine with a sedative. Hopefully this will be it. Apparantly pneumonia is going around too.

So I have a few hours free. Already cooked lunch and dinner. Time to crack on the script.

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The BookWorm

Cherry flavored Theraflu

Well I was tired of tea, ate all the chicken noodle soup. But this stuff is nasty. Supposed to last eight hours so I'm dealing with it. I need to get through a night without hacking my lungs out. Scarily enough, I think I'm getting better. I can taste things again.

It's going to be a ten-year class reunion at Mervin's funeral. Everyone I have talked to has been hit the same way. It's just not Mervin. Second guessing doesn't do any good.

I should work on the script, but I can't. I'm not going to push myself. I'm going to go watch something.

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The BookWorm

Why?

Student Found Dead in Chemistry Lab

I knew him. We were good friends during middle school and high school. We drifted apart going to different universities. I never would have thought it would come to this. He's the reason I started writing Legend of Zelda stories. He started me into fanfiction, though neither of us knew at the time that's what it was.

I miss him. I will miss him even more now.

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The BookWorm

Working while sick

I agree with Heather Sellers. She's the one who wrote my new book "Page After Page." Don't work while you're sick. Don't force yourself to write. Go wallow in feeling bad and let your body recooperate. Stop feeling guilty about resting.

I didn't push myself and got 29 script pages done, all the way through Chapter Two. I don't know how I'm supposed to go to work tomorrow feeling like this. And I really don't know how bad I've got it since I've been taking Claritin. Stopping that tomorrow and see what my sinus do.

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The BookWorm

The day is looking up

It didn't start off so well. Chad wrecked his car and made me late for work, and Rick Ungar rejected my script. Yeah, that's what all the synopsis hell was about, trying to send off "Crash Landing." Now Rick Ungar did tell me what the proper channels are, but it's not worthy. It's basically a rewrite of "Rock & Ride." A better rewrite, but that's just my ego talking. That and there's no air in space!

Moving right along. As Chad's working to console me, it pops into my head that "Reunions" is original enough with some tweaking. Turning into a script is tweaking too, so no biggy there. I should be afraid at this point, because when my muse says "no biggy" it usually means lots of work. But this could be MY CHANCE. Marathon writing weekend coming on; I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh and I took the Pirate Name Test:

My pirate name is:

Iron Anne Vane

A pirate's life isn't easy; it takes a tough person. That's okay with you, though, since you a tough person. You tend to blend into the background occaisionally, but that's okay, because it's much easier to sneak up on people and disembowel them that way. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Don't worry, I'm not switching from Capt. Kate anytime soon.

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The BookWorm

Totally floored

Took the day off yesterday, because I was sick and my body demanded rest. Feel much better today, but came into work and found out that a co-worker's child has gone missing and they fear that an Internet predetor is responsible. Here's the story.

Got a new book "Page After Page." Hopefully I'll get to start it's exercises today. I also need to rework my writing schedule. I planned on having most of the tutorials done before February, but I didn't realize it was going to take the whole month to do one set of edits.

Synopsis hell. I'm almost done. Do I really think I have a chance? Not really. Most I'm hoping for is a shot at second season.

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The BookWorm

Synopsis Hell

I managed to finish the query letter yesterday. Now I have to put the entire script into a synopsis. It won't be that bad, really. I just have to think I'm summing it for telling on the blog, that's all.

But it does have to wait until I have finished reading my homework assignment.

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The BookWorm