Relevant Knowledge was the culprit!

I don't know where I picked up the stupid data-mining program, but it was on my list to deal with later since it wasn't affecting anything, just giving me annoying pop-ups at odd times.

So I made a new profile and still couldn't see any websites with Firefox. I finally found the instructions on how to run it in safe mode and walla! websites again! Pulled up my old profile, ran in safe mode, and huzzah! websites again! So one of the add-ons is the culprit.

So I see my list and find an add-on for Relevant Knowledge!!! Okay this bitch must die now.

There are various instructions on how to do this by hand and be sure it is gone. While still operating under Windows XP, I had no problems running Revo Uninstaller, so to be sure it will run on Windows 7, I downloaded the 30-day free trial for the Pro version. Zap and Relevant Knowledge is all gone. Firefox works out of safe mode and I am a happy camper again. I have a spare profile should I need it, and now I'm updated to Firefox 4.0 and I have to get used to the new layout.

Next on the list: finish the Triangulation entry and start laundry.

Read Free!
The BookWorm

One thing after another

I think March is going to go down as the month I'd rather forget as soon as possible.

Commuting fun, budget fun, updating programs at the paying job fun, trying to finish the story for a deadline fun; I get home and Firefox can only come up with 500 Internal Server Errors for EVERY website I try to go to. Move over the IE and the websites are fine.

So far the only consistant solution I have found is to create a new Firefox profile because the one I have been using has probably gotten corrupted. Guess who's ready to crawl into bed the minute she gets home and doesn't want to deal with it.

I'm heading to bed now. I think I can drop writing from my morning chores at home because I have an hour and a half before I'm on the clock at the paying job with the 5:15am leave time and it fit in there nicely this morning. However I am a zombie by the time I get home.

And if there is anything else that can cause the 500 Internal Server Error in Firefox besides a corrupted profile let me know so I can try it as well. This weekend, probably.

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The BookWorm

Not a happy camper

The commute has stopped being a pass through Purgatory and has now moved into Hell.

I went looking for current images, but there doesn't seem to be any. Usually, I would provide my own but it's a trade off between driving and photography, so probably won't happen. Geaux Wider has an interactive map showing where the issues are. I take the I-12 corridor since it is the most direct route between my house and the paying job.

Yesterday, it took me two hours to reach the paying job and the day never recovered after that. Plus dodging out of the way when a semi decided to cross the yellow line into my lane once I was past the construction zone mess and should have been free and clear. Today it took an hour. I'm used to the evening commute taking that long but the morning commute has always been lighter and finished around 45 minutes, provided there are no accidents. So clearly now everyone is getting up with me to beat the awful construction traffic and they are slowing down to watch the work.

I finally got a schedule that works for me and now I have to adjust it AGAIN. And during daylight savings time when it is nearly impossible to go to sleep because it's not dark enough outside! Annoyed doesn't come close to describing it.

Options: I don't have many. If I leave later to avoid the traffic snarls, that means I need to change what time I start the paying job and when I leave the paying job. I'm saving that headache for shifting to a 4-10s schedule. (A day without driving! Setting a leaving hour late enough to miss the crappy evening commute!)

After filing the above under "not likely to happen unless the state government shift to open for four days a week in an effort to save money," I'm left with leaving home earlier. Right now, I'm aiming between 5:45am and 6am. So if I move it up by thirty minutes, that means leaving between 5:15am and 5:30am.

*GLARES at the daily schedule*

Doing that without changing my wake-up or bedtimes effectively wipes out my entire reason for getting up so goddamn early in the morning: doing the frakking chores while I still have energy to do them.

Shifting everything up so I don't have to remove anything from the schedule, I need to wake-up at 3:09am and goto bed at 7pm.

*headdesk* Great I already have no social life and no television show watching time because I turn into a pumpkin at 8pm. IT ISN'T EVEN DARK YET AT 7 P.M.!!!!!!!!!!!!

I asked about going to 4-10s. Won't fly, our division is too short-staffed right now. *headdesk*

No money for a housekeeper. And no time for chores. Clearly I need a TARDIS for my commute. That would solve everything. And apparently would stop attracting other vehicles to my front grill. I took the surface streets to avoid most of the snarled-up Interstate and a dude started driving his bicycle straight at me! And he wasn't wearing a helmet! He dodged because I had the right away and collusion was avoided but STILL. The last thing I need right now is a wreck.

So yeah, I'm looking for a slightly used TARDIS. Hyper-active Time Lord doesn't have to be included but of course I wouldn't send him away either.

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The BookWorm

How to Help Japan

The Daily Dish: How to Help Japan: this post reminded me of a worthy organization that I nearly never think about, Doctors Without Borders.

And I just heard in this morning's news that Japan bumped their continuing crisis up the international crisis scale from a 4 to a 5. I didn't even know there was an international crisis scale but it only goes up to 7.

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The BookWorm

Murphy is a rat bastard

Yesterday started off deceptively well. Got enough sleep, got up nearly on time, worked on Mealte's language, balanced the checkbook, and left the house mostly on time. The worse thing I was considering was the possibility of raiding my savings for a fill-up before the next paycheck, but the budget was holding steady and I would have savings available to do that rather than go into red.

Then my engine noise changed and it sounded like I was dragging something just as I started across the I-12 bridge over the Amite River. My first thought was I had picked up something in the construction zone. The battery dashboard light turned on and I got off at the next exit.

Everything looked normal under the hood. But I found a dangling belt under the car, no bigger than the cord to the computer mouse, but frayed and broken and had descended from the engine. No real surprise because I was told exactly what Rizzo needed back in December and belts were on the list, but I was putting it off until the money looked better. I called into work and left a message, then back tracked to the mechanics in Denham Springs.

The good news: while waiting on my car, I finally reached creating adjective and adverbs. They were able to replace my serpentine belt and its tension pulley because most of it was missing (and probably what i heard dragging under the car on the Interstate).

The bad news: paying for the repair has put me in the red by at least $157.

So I crossed my fingers that I can borrow the difference until my next paycheck to avoid overdraft fees, at lunch, dealt with the monthly aggravation and went to work. Where the computer decided not to log me in. It's been a to-and-fro job for the new guy in I.T. because he didn't know and didn't ask me about the special issues with my computer. :p

I finally was able to work at 3:00. I ended up not leaving until 4:30 to finish the biggest batch. Dad loaned me the money, and I got to work on time today. And two of my coworker's computer come up with the same issue I had yesterday.

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The BookWorm

Ash Wednesday

The day started off so well, ran a bit late, but no biggie, until I got to work.

*HEADDESK*

I'm not getting into details to spare the guilty. But of us who are here and sloughing through correcting MIA coworker's mistakes are all really thankful it is a short week.

Now I have to get back to creating names in Atsejhk.

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The BookWorm

Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hail Zulu! Hail Rex! Happy Mardi Gras!






http://www.freesparkle.com

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The BookWorm

Automatic Timer and Me

Due to my ability to sleep through noise, I put a lamp on an automatic timer to turn on to reinforce wake-up time. This morning, it went off first and I don't know how it managed that. This is the second timer I've tried and now it's off-sync with the other clocks too. The first timer wouldn't always turn on when it was supposed to as well as getting out-of-sync.

Is it because the outlet is upside down? Whatever the reason, it worked in my favor this morning. I got through my whole morning scheduled routine!

I wish I could say the same thing about the weekend. I finally got home after 8pm (didn't leave work until 6pm, nasty weather, ate supper, nasty traffic) and what greets me at the door besides Mustard?

[Pic of kitchen ceiling and floor]

Water from the sink to the fridge following the gap in the ceiling. It reminded me of a water balloon fight without the plastic bits. My roof leak has expanded. The back bedroom got wetter than normal too. The buckets I have set up where halfway full and a splash zone of nearly a foot and half surrounded them.

Aside from the fact that I have no money for a roof, I don't want to put a roof on to tear it off when I rebuild the back half of the house. But I can't keep letting water in.

Tarp time? My fear is like with all the sealant we've put on the roof the water will still get past the barrier. *HEADDESK* I don't even know if the blue tarp people are still in business. Is there such a thing as a temporary roof?

Saturday was spent watching the kitchen leak (which didn't leak again), making pretty graphics, and budget number crunching because my income tax refund came in sooner than I had anticipated. Sad to say my splurge was to buy WinZip. Sunday I finally got to the Triangulation entry story. I think I have the transition now, but I still need to clean it up and make sure I make all the points I need to. This morning I finally got back to language creation. Hopefully I can work during lunch, but so far the day has been swamped.

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The BookWorm

Jumping For Heroes: Band of Brothers

The cast of HBO's Band Of Brothers are reuniting for a star studded joint event later this year in aid of the Richard Winters Leadership Project, an organization run by Tim Gray Media.

Our mission is to raise funds required to erect a monument in Normandy in honour of the late Major Winters who passed away in January of this year. The project needs $100K to complete the work.

Since I had asked if there was any way to donate to the memorial, I figured I better share this info. So far Neal McDonough isn't on the list of jumpees, but you can donate to the Richard Winters Leadership Project or sponsor a parachute for one of the stars.

And despite my money issues, I am sending this cause something when I get my income tax return. But not a parachute. :D

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The BookWorm

Where Did the Weekend Go?

Belated Happy Valentine’s Day! Or if you watched Bones last night: Happy St. Valentine's Day Massacre! and pass a tommy gun over here. :D

All the plans I had for last weekend vanished under graph paper. It was an avoidance tactic, but I figured I had earned it. Thursday the 10th, I drove past an Acadian-style house with four rooms across the front and tried to see how that would work with my house remodel—it didn’t.

[IMAGE OF NOTEBOOK SKETCH] Oops, forgot to scan that sketch once I finally got the scanner working last night. Trust me, it was making a rectangle out of my house that could only be navigated in a circle.

When I got home, I Googled “two-story Acadian house plans” and found Authentic Historical Designs LLC. Unlike a lot of house plans for sell which just look like the same house with different colors, there people based their designs on existing houses.

I was inspired. I will give credit to the two-story remodel to my ex, who first brought it up as a solution to add more square-footage to my house. But these house plans showed me how it could actually work. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday making outlines on graph paper. Why graph paper instead of house design software I’ll get to later.

Stairs gave me fits since I don’t want to cut the floor of the original house. Upstairs bathroom gave me more fits because I couldn’t use the sharing one design I liked with the stairs. At one point on Saturday, I was seriously wondering why I hadn’t gone to school to be an architect because straight lines on graph paper I can do and if I had I would know if these ideas would work. :p

Which as of right now, I don’t. IF I build/add on this addition, I would have to turn all this over to a licensed architect and have official blueprints made. DIY Diva: The Evolution of a House Plan details what they went through. But as far as giving me everything I need and lust after in a house, I don’t think I did too badly for an amateur. And the footprint fits in my yard!



Let’s start with the second-floor, which is part of the house I live in now. I open the closed-up door between my current bedroom and the front porch again and the current living room becomes a bedroom too. The current bathroom and current office are both removed to become sitting/dressing rooms/something for the bedrooms. The current kitchen and back bedroom (which are made out of a pine lean-to to the cypress house) are demolished completely for the up-to-code new bathroom, stairs, and library.

I didn’t want people walking through the bathrooms to get to their bedroom; feels like bad Feng Shui and even if it isn’t, it makes me uncomfortable. One of the house plans had this ingenious set up between two bedrooms, and the only changes I had to make is to move the doors and add a way out through the sink chambers.

The back room was built to house the staircase, and then I realized that all that wallspace could be floor-to-ceiling shelves that my books wouldn’t have to share with a TV and DVDs, beds, or computer desks. This is where a professional needs to put in the windows so they won’t hurt my books.

Stairs: I don’t do well visualizing 3D space, so I want a pro to go over the math on these especially.



Now for the totally new first floor! A matching porch is a feature in Acadian-style plantation homes, so I incorporated it. The front door opens into the Great Room, which will probably be where the TV ends up. To the south side of the house, there is the hall connecting the first floor bathroom with two more bedrooms. The bedroom facing the front will be my computer office. The one closer to the kitchen will become an exercise and craft room, but both should be able to accommodate extra guests.

The great room and hall lead to a larger kitchen with room enough for a dining table. From there to use up space created around the staircase, I put in a storage room for the house, a mudroom corridor to the garage, and a laundry room. The first floor ends with an attached garage and a store room accessible through it.

Making it prettier to look at: Last time I got on a plan the remodel kick, I tried using Google SketchUp but never could get the hang of it. Then I moved to another freeware program and couldn't put a roof on. On a whim, I bought HGTV’s Home Design & Remodeling Suite.

Oh where to start with how much I hate this program. HGTV should be ashamed to have their name on it. Impossibly hard to figure out how to use the tools, never could make it understand that the house sits on pilings (all I was trying to do was build a virtual model on the current house to plan a bathroom remodel), and never could get the roof to look right. Then printing out a plan with the measurements, what came out could only be read by microscope and I couldn’t change it!

NEVER BUY THIS PROGRAM!!!!!!!

So I’m looking for a new home design program, but this time I’m searching the reviews first before buying. The names that keep coming up with high ratings are Chief Architect Home Design Suite 10 and Punch! Home & Landscape Design. Chief Architect Home Design Suite 10 offers a 30-day free trial of their Pro version, so I’m leaning towards them. If I can learn the trial version easily, they may have my business.

Playing with Chief Architect Home Design Suite Pro: The tools are easy to figure out and they have tons of tutorial videos on their website. But the two issues I had off the bat I can't find the solution to.

1. The mouse pointer becomes target lines on the grid where you draw the floor plan. -- I'm sure this is a matter of turning something off, but I couldn't find it and coupled with issue two, it messed up my ability to draw a rectangle properly.
2. I couldn't read the temporary measurements. -- If I zoomed in close enough to read it so I could see if the wall was long enough, I no longer had enough room to draw the rest of the house.

Mostly, I think I was too tired to deal with it by turning features off and nobody else has claimed it as a problem in their Help sections (probably because it is so simple to turn it off :p).

But what I did find cruising through their Help section was instructions on how to import a scanned sketch and use it to trace the program's version with the bells and whistles. So that's probably what I'll try to do this weekend, though not to the exclusion of everything else.

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The BookWorm

Sur-reality

I need to keep track of the spending I’m doing for working at home. The new computer I had to buy regardless, but not the headset. Nor the Ethernet to USB filter that I needed so the Internet won’t shut off if Windows isn’t on. Yeah, I don’t get it either. New phone and second phone line are still potential buys at this point, but I’m waiting for a position to open up first. That’s where I am now. I passed the interview and the computer runs their software, so now I wait until something becomes available.

A whole day to just get house stuff straight would be awesome, but it’s not going to happen. Maybe tonight I can catch up on chores and budget work.

Under surreal moments, I talked to Sallie Mae Friday. Very helpful customer service rep after I told her what I make a month answered, “You’re barely above the poverty line. You’d have to make $4000 a month to afford these loans.” According to their paperwork, a monthly amount representing 150% of the poverty guideline is $1353.75 for a family of 1. So by barely, we mean a hundred dollars after taxes.

It’s one thing to be living under the press of “how to pay, don’t have enough, I’m so bad with money.” So to have a total stranger look at my gross pay, subtract taxes, and say “no you don’t make enough money” takes some getting used to. I feel like the bully has stopped hitting me and ran away.

Don’t get the wrong idea; I don’t have my money under control yet. But at the same time, there is not enough money. I’m not crazy for resenting p.f. bloggers with two-income households. I’m not crazy when someone says ‘be frugal, cut spending” for crying “what’s left to cut?”

Surreal alert indeed: I’ve been five days wrapping my head around this concept (minus two days for the weekend where I buried myself in the house plans to ignore it).

Now I think I’m at a place mentally to make plans and follow those plans. Helpful advice from a Dave Ramsey critic: “keep putting money in the emergency fund because $1000 is not enough to keep most emergencies at bay. Make it automatic and don’t touch it.”

This is a sore spot for my budgeting; I always spend what I put in savings. So I need to make it automatic and not at the credit union, but easy enough to set up. ING Direct has good reviews and easy set up of automatic transfers.

Second point: I need to budget bi-weekly. Monthly setup defeats my motivation and I go into my avoidance routine. When I get paid if when I can pay the bills, ‘nuff said.

Third point: Prioritize the bills. I don’t plan my spending ahead of time and give money to whoever is yelling at me the loudest despite needing it somewhere else first.

Fourth point: Do my tax paperwork. I have everything, I just need to start it.

Fifth point: Find a third job. *Snort* I’m waiting for the second one but I need more income now. I have been considering finding articles to write for Helium and Associated Content. This needs to move out of the maybe column to “do it now!”

Sixth point: Stop skipping budget time. If it takes explaining to Mom that you have to leave for 6pm, so be it.

Seventh point: Eat out once a month only. Before yelling at me that I shouldn’t at all, I known once a month I am late leaving Baton Rouge and have to eat dinner before reaching home. This is different from running late and didn’t cook breakfast so drive through fast food for it.

More advice to keep in mind:
The Digerati Life: How to Make a Budget in 10 Easy Steps
The Digerati Life: The Dave Ramsey Budget: Budgeting Tips for Successful Savers.

This explains a lot

Take Back Your Attention

What I find truly scary is how oblivious we are to the creep of distractions. I got more writing done yesterday because I was away from a computer than I did all four days I was off last week.

The average for what fits on a handwritten page is 250 words. I can change my 500 words a day goal to 2 handwritten pages and still count when I type. Because I'm not writing with the status quo at all. And there's nothing wrong with the thinking the story up process (yesterday's outpouring is proof of that), so the problem is keep my attention span off the "ooh, pretties" on the computer long enough to get it done. :p

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The BookWorm

Baby It's COLD Outside!

But luckily not wet and causing icy conditions. Cold we can deal with. I dealt with it by realizing I need a hat today and don't have one.

Wednesday, I had a group interview over the phone and computer, a first for me. Now the applied for position was filled, but we were given the opportunity to finish the interview process and then be first in line for the next position that opens up and fits our qualifications. We all went through with the interview process.

Yesterday, I got the notice that I passed the interview and they would be sending their OS CD to test if my computer can run it. After that point, I wait for a position.

Also thanks to the class I had yesterday, my brain got shocked out of the rut and I have most of a scene to type up for the Triangulation entry. My purse notebook shocked the people sitting at my table. The amount of pages written in my purse notebook had them asking "Are you sure you haven't written a novel instead of a short story?"

Plans for this weekend: load the car with computer stuff to donate, pay bills, shop for essentials, clean house, and update websites.

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The BookWorm

When It Rains, It Pours; But I Was Given an Umbrella

Monday was typical, except for the mail increase from missing Thursday and Friday. Then I got an email from Holly Lisle over shenanigans done in the Rebel Tales name. I have kept quiet because Rebel Tales wasn't open to the public, but this is the market I sent "Covenant of the Restless" to.

Concerned and angry on Holly's behalf, but not alarmed since I figured the heads in charge were taking care of the situation. Then after lunch, I get an email from the application I had left open. The one from the job I thought had been filled on Sunday since I couldn't find my application again. It was reminder to go finish the test.

Before I left work for the day, thirty minutes late because of the mail load, I got another email about Rebel Tales and how it has closed shop. I'm less heartbroken than flabbergasted, and it's more on a personal note. Seriously, I get this after the weekend I just had?

So I rush home to see what the news was on the application. I figured I would try it in IE8 and if it didn't work, I would grab Dad's laptop and go back to IE7 to finish the damn thing. It worked in IE8 (I have no idea what they did, but I'm SO glad they did it) and I finished the application (I think). I have no idea what my scores are, but if I don't get the job now it's not because of technical issues but something personal.

...

Why the hell do I find that comforting?!

Things are looking better personally. I have to find a new market for my story, and I don't know if I'll get the job, but it's Tuesday. :)

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The BookWorm

Depressing Turn of Events

As some of the readers knows, I'm trying to find a second job that I can do from home. I was looking before my previous computer died back in November and had stumbled across virtual call center, i.e. answering the phone like a call center only from the comfort of your own home. Which beats the hell out of the alternative I did back in 2003, work at a call center full time because they didn't offer any part-time work plus my full-time job with the state with all my benefits.

I bought the new computer specifically to handle this, using specs that are in common for most companies.

Only to find I can't use it to finish the application process.

The first company kept screwing up when they wanted to test that the new PC would work. The web-based program would just fail. So I moved on and found a great one, all the wanted to hire was part-time. Got to the fifth section of the application process and it refused to run. After contact their customer support, that web-based program only runs in IE6 or IE7. Windows 7, which I upgraded to with the new computer, only runs IE8.

*HEADDESK*

You'd think it be as easy as uninstalling 8 and using 7 for a while, but nope. Windows 7 will not run IE7. You have to set up a dual boot on your computer to run XP or a Windows Virtual PC to run XP Mode. The second made more complicated because Microsoft doesn't think Windows 7 Home Premium users "deserve" Windows Virtual PC.

To avoid that mess because the clock was ticking on my unfinished application, I finally got my dad's XP laptop with his admin password so I could install IE7 on it (because he updated to IE8 when it became available). Only to find that the job has been filled and now they only have bilingual positions that I don't qualify for.

I cried. Like a baby. I also screamed a couple of times and kicked the wall (my walls are cypress beadboard otherwise I'd probably have to detail how I had to get myself out of sheet rock).

I know my situation isn't as dire as other people out there. I have my primary job and Mom is feeding me. But I can't keep up with my bills unless I increase my income, much less replace the washing machine that is breaking down, the roof that is leaking, put up new walls and sink in the bathroom, get out of debt, etc.

Yeah, so that's where I am right now. Trying not to burst into tears thinking about it. And original fiction isn't cutting it as a distraction. I keep looking at what I have done today before the job went away and can only think "if this doesn't sell...." Not a happy place to create from. So don't tell on me, but I'm taking the rest of the day off with fanfiction and computer games.

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The BookWorm

"Being Human" fun

Jeffrey Bee has a fan-comic based on the British version of Being Human called We Are Monsters.

So far I'm tied between Slasher and Role Play as my all-time favorites.

Check them out!

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The BookWorm

Strange Weekend

I ended up with a four-day weekend because I had an open revolt staged by my body: fatigue that I have never felt before coupled with sinuses acting like a cold or a sore throat was oncoming. I stayed home and dosed myself with Vitamin C and liquids. I thought I would go to the paying job Friday until I slept through all my alarms.

Saturday I got volunteered to help Mom and my sister reorganize the closed-in garage room so Mom can have room to go through the store inventory and decide what to do with it. The only issue I have is there was no clear plan for the boxes of items to donate. Me and sister voted for hauling them away right then, but neither of us knew where to take them. Those boxes ended up right back where they started so Mom can double check them. *rolls eyes*

I ended up with an old steel filing cabinet and a mirror cabinet thingy Mom is positive I can work into my house somewhere because I always need storage.

I am dubious of that claim.

The filing cabinet was a bitch to get inside, but it fit perfectly into the space I have had pegged for my eventual paper pantry. I moved the paper I had been storing in the not-made-anymore Sterlite Ultra drawers and consolidated so much of the spread out storage, I freed up one of the small bookshelves under the leg of my L-shaped desk. I took off that extension since it was broken, and rearranged the shelving. The I had to take the telephone jack apart to shift it so the shelves would fit. Then shuffled the books around.

All this after giving Mom four hours of heavy lifting. I told her that I wasn't moving jack-shit for the next six months. Though, I will break that if the opportunity comes to get my mother's furniture off my front porch so I can use it again.

Shuffling the office and the books made me crave for the built-ins I want to do but still not sure about. One reason for the indecision is money for lumber. Two goes back to how much am I going to change the house footprint when I remodel? If I add a room to be an office, why should I line cypress walls with shelving?

Sunday was a recuperation day by straightening the story folders. Which while needed to be done, took my focus from writing for the umpteenth day in a row. All I can do is hope my subconscious has been plugging away at whatever the problem is, because I have to finish the story while I still have time to edit. :p

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The BookWorm

Blah week?

That time of the month and fatigue is hitting hard. I'm getting up on time, but find that I don't want to do anything but go back to bed. *headdesk*

Over the weekend, all I accomplished was figuring out that most of the careful instructions I had made in setting up virtual hosts for website work under XP doesn't work under Windows 7. I finally managed to get the Library's sandbox working before running out of weekend.

Part of the problem, I wanted to set the development area so it was portable originally. Very few people do this, and then it turned out I have no where else to really build. :p So in take two, I'm moving everything to the C drive, which is what most online directions tell you to do regardless. :p

Now to get through the day with my eyelids propped open.

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The BookWorm

This makes me realize I haven't traveled as much as I would like

visited 16 states (32%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

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The BookWorm

And because I needed to share a laugh

Five Science Fiction Shows Turned Into Children's Books

My favorite:



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The BookWorm

Friday, It Is Friday Right?

I thought I was doing pretty well nipping the failure panic over Convergys in the bud last night. And then their site is broken and I couldn't apply. *headdeak* Currently waiting for them to respond to the message I sent about the issue. It could be an IE thing on my end, but ugh. Just ugh.

This weekend I'm going back through the list and find the next company to apply to. I also want to catch up on fiction words and do the website updating stuff I have written down to do. I moved website stuff to the weekend rather than trying to dedicate an hour everyday to it. That didn't work at all last year.

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The BookWorm

Day of silent screaming

Scary how good I am at that now. It's not a skill class I want to be proficient in, mind you, but practice makes perfect.

Bedtime Helper worked, but by the time I finished setting it and the parental controls up, it was time for bed. So because I had to stop at the hospital and check on my grandfather.

Don't with the condolences. Just don't. It's a long story that I don't want to share, but I won't miss him. This is not my usual stoicism at play either. I don't want him to suffer, but beyond that nothing. It killed an hour that I would have had for housework, so I didn't get to finish the list last night.

Today's schedule went much better, got up mostly on time, got things done around the house, some writing, left on time. Then at the paying job, it all went to crappy-ville on four flat tires. Hence the silent screaming at the top of my lungs and listening to Metallica to calm down. No, that isn't a typo.

Second job: I thought I had posted on these plans already. I found a reliable list of companies who offer virtual call center jobs, i.e. working from home. Convergys is on the list, but my old computer failed their tests and then it had the spectacularly long meltdown of trying to get it fixed. So I bought the new computer according to their specs so I could reapply. Because I need a reliable second income, but I don't think I can physically work two full-time jobs again. So the plan is to find a part-time virtual call center job that I can work at nights, weekends, and holidays until debt is paid off and I can replace the roof and remodel my house.

So TONIGHT, provided nothing else goes bonkers, I'm reapplying to Convergys.

Update: The old coot (which is the PG version of what I call my grandfather) checked himself out this morning against doctor's orders. *forehead smack*

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The BookWorm

Bad Habits Resurfacing

Commute was hell in the morning and by the time I got home, playing games won out over the stuff I need to do. Then I stayed up way too late playing those games thanks to the extra stress caffeine I ingested. :P Woke up late this morning.

It's fairly obvious to me that this won't do. Not for the goals I have for 2011. So the first thing I did was start looking for a program that I can use to block access to the games until I have finished my chores, and conversely turn everything off at bedtime.

First thing I found is Windows 7 has some robust parental controls How to Configure Parental Controls in Windows 7. No kids use my computer, so I tend to gloss over things like that in the control panel. I'm sure it's useless for web-savvy teenagers, but I just need something to make me stop and think NOT to do it. Or at least be a hassle to change it so I can play.

The next program to install is Bedtime Help Pushes You Towards an Earlier Bed Time. The only thing that may be an issue is I usually don't shut down at night, but put the computer to sleep so the programs should be running again in the morning. *Snort* That should show me to go research more thoroughly. There are different options like Hibernate on the Bedtime Help Home Page.

While I'm on an improve Windows 7 kick, Change the Windows 7 Shut Down Button. I accidentally shut down this morning when I meant to hit sleep and it's only the fifth time I've done that. :p

Technically, this stuff falls under the clean office weekly chore I have to do today. Chores to catch up on:

• Vacuum
• Dishes
• Budget
• Put out garbage
• Clean living room and bedroom
• Apply to Convergys. -- Yes, I have managed to procrastinate too long on this. *Shakes head* Time to woman up.

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The BookWorm

I officially declare this week to be a wash

Or a wipeout. I'm not sure which is worse.

I screwed up my sleep schedule and that has screwed up getting anything done in the morning because I'm waking up with just enough time to get dressed and go to work. Night has been a rebellious la-la-la-I'm-ignoring-my-responsibilities and then going to bed too late.

Good news: this fallow week has jogged stuff loose for the Triangulation entry story. No narration yet, but a clearer sense of what the characters are doing and how they go about it. I already had a good grasp on the why. It will be a 5000-word exercise in maintaining an alien POV that is still sympathetic to the readers, but that will still be a fun ride.

I'm also taking a mini-holiday this weekend. Spening the night with friends in Lafayette, coming back on Saturday. I'd like to do something Sunday with my nephew, but I haven't made any promises since it depends on money and weather. have a great weekend, everybody!

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The BookWorm

Lost USB drive

Well, now I'm glad I didn't get any writing done at work yesterday because the USB drive I would have put it on is officially missing. *Sigh*

I had it at work and I thought when I couldn't find it that I must have left it at work. Nope. So it's either in the car somewhere, Mustard knocked it off the desk at home, or it got kicked somewhere really hidden when I kicked my purse in a fit a pique last night. The pocket I kept it in was open when I did and lots of stuff went flying out. I searched the kitchen this morning but didn't find it, so I'm thinking home office now. Since it wasn't on my desk where I expected it to be this morning, Mustard probably knocked it off thinking it was a great game or something.

Not losing data is the most important thing, but I still feel out of sorts, even though I downloaded the home computer files to a spare USB drive. What do I work on now feeling, even though I know perfectly well what to do. :p

Oh well, time to shake it off.

P.M. Update: Found it in a box of old computer stuff in the kitchen where it must have bounced when I kicked the purse. Good thing too, because I was about to accuse Mustard of having eaten it.

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The BookWorm

The Cape

Store Clerk: "You're a superhero; what they call you?"
Vince: "The Cape."
Store Clerk: Pauses. "You work on that."

If you missed the two-hour premier last night, NBC is showing The Cape again tonight 8pm Central before the regular Monday night hour long shows start next week. And as I checked on Internet Movie Database for spelling, it looks like SyFy Channel is airing episodes too.

Even taking into account I can listen to Keith David (voice of Goliath from Gargoyles) recite the phone book, I really enjoyed the beginning and it looks like it's going to be a decent series. The two-hours establishes the origin story of how Vince Faraday turns himself in the Cape, bringing the comic book character he read with his son to life. What I liked hopefully without spoilers:

Deadman was an acrobat and Bruce Wayne trained under an illusionist and escape artist, but these aspects of their origins don't get played up. The Cape brings this to the forefront as the way for a superhero to have the edge over bad guys, and for a way a Joe Blow police officer can master this stuff without being a ninja in a former life. Though they did drop hints about Vince's military background before his marriage and presumably joining the police force, so he may still have a leg up on Joe Blow police officer.

The white-out effect in comics and cartoons when a character wears a mask has always bugged me. (I have a TMNT poster I defaced trying to fix that as proof.) So I really liked that Chess uses creepy contact lenses to achieve the white-out effect in live-action. I still haven't figured out what the mark in the lens is supposed to be. It's too irregular for a cat-eye slit. I'm guessing it's the silhouette of a chess piece.

Summer Glau's character Orwell--an expose blogger--fills in the sidekick/partner role and updates the superhero mythos for the computer age. But judging by the toys we see her and Chess use, I'm guessing she will have ties to the villain. If it's not the revenge for wrongs done archetype, I think it will be a Spoiler background for her.

Building a BatCave on a budget was a hoot, as well as Vince's attempt to build a Zogger. He has established it far from his allies, so I hope he remembers that as he improves his Zogger.

And let's give the creators a hand for tying in real life concerns: the privatization of prison systems and military operations. The Cape starts in with the privatization of the police force and the second hour centers around stopping the company ARC from doing the same to the prison system of Palm City. But I thought it was handled without preaching.

Since they went there already, I'm curious if they will work in copycat media. The Cape is a comic book character first that Vince read with his son. He copies the outfit and adopts the name as a way to have a relationship with his son (and how long before his wife finds out that her traumatized son hasn't made a new imaginary friend?). I can't help wondering what the creator of the comic book would say about that in their universe? I'm crossing my fingers that it won't be up to me to explore it in a fanfic.

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The BookWorm

Friday

My baby sister is coming in for a visit, my nephew will just die (his words) if he doesn't get to play Monopoly again, I still have a long list of computer-Internet stuff to do, and I've fallen behind on writing.

Busy weekend for me.

Add to that, Mom is getting twitchy that I haven't announced that I have a second work-from-home job yet. Given that I couldn't apply until Wednesday and then I needed to get the updates, back-ups, and missing programs squared away; I think she's jumping the gun a bit.

Computer plans in no particular order:

• Set up Thunderbird for all the email accounts I have all over the place. -- I haven't used it before, but I wasn't happy with how Outlook Express handled the email from the websites so much so that I quit checking them.
• Clean out bookmarks and Xmarks -- Simply I have put this off too long
• Make sure Quicken will talk to my bank again or at least accept downloaded files.
• Check that I have everything for Convergys and reapply
• Expanded the restored files from Mozy.com and archive
• Make sure home server works
• Plan out website updates.

Writing: I have a few paragraphs jotted down, but haven't been making my typing time a priority. I also haven't figured out what to write for the Triangulation submission. I should concentrate on that in between computer issues and lawsuits while at the paying job. :p

Yeah, that was a load od not fun earlier this week. For half of last year, we've been working on the lawsuit data entry thinking it would go away in January. Turns out the bill signed says we quit doing them January 1, 2012! So in turn we have to get bitchy with the program builders. Because if we have to use what they cobbled together to get us functional without some improvement, we're all going to go bald pulling our hair out.

That's pretty much it on my end. Later, gators.

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The BookWorm

I'M FINALLY BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Working home Internet again! Now I still have to get all my updates and reinstall programs I use before bedtime. But I'm back! *Snoopy dance*

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The BookWorm

I really hate to start a new year this way

I still have no Internet at home. And I'm so ready to reach out and strangle someone over it. It's supposed to be on by Thursday according to the last customer support person I talked to. What kills me is that I was not told what to do when I called Monday morning!

Now I need to go do something else that will calm my blood pressure down.

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The BookWorm

READ IT!

It's the Muppet Doctor Who Special, With Our Very Special Guest Star, Matt Smith! This story combines everything we love about Doctor Who with the insanity of the Muppet Show.

Can't recommend it enough; I'm still giggling. :D READ IT!

I have computer!

The nice shiny Dell Inspiron 570 showed up yesterday and installed easily. But I still don't have home Internet because I have to pay the phone bill. *headdesk* Next paycheck I swear.

So far the only complaint I have is the same one I had while trying to order it: not enough USB ports. It comes with six, but two are gone right out of the box if you want to use a keyboard and mouse. I added a USB hub with four more and now have three unplugged peripherals for the one remaining port. :p So when I stop in Target to pick up my contacts after work, I'll have to see if they carry reasonably-priced USB hubs.

I have to reinstall my programs and get used to Windows 7. So far all I've really done is played a few hands of Spider Solitaire and decided I really don't like how it keeps informing of an illegal move with a pop-up box. I need to find a way to shut that off.

I hope everybody has a great Christmas/Yule holiday and hopefully I'll get to check in again before Dec. 28th.

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The BookWorm

2011 Goals

Two days on schedule is too soon to say it has sunk in. Since I promptly broke my track record today, I think I've proved that point. Still I got fifteen minutes of writing in yesterday morning for the first time in weeks. So something is working.

Fun exercise: After so badly missing the mark on 365,000 fiction words written in 2010 and then seeing a remark on how you don't write well until you have written over a million words, I got curious over what my lifetime total is. So I made a spreadsheet of all the totals I could easily get. 85 finished stories, but I was able to get totals on all but five for a grand total of 1,067,144 words. Best year was 2009 in which I wrote my second longest novel, finished what I wrote the year before for NaNo, and two short stories sprinkled in. I didn't finish any fiction in 2007, but a look at DUF shows I was busy with writing and the Educator's Guide. But most obvious is that 365,000 words was a huge jump that I wasn't ready for. My yearly average computes to be 46,398 words. Oh and I discovered that I had made this great detail sheet to record things like date I finished and word counts when I finished a story and stopped using it a decade ago. Oops.

I'm supposed to be working on my goals for 2011. So now I'm wondering why I'm trying so hard to distract myself from the making the vague concrete? Well, my monkey brain hates when I want to change things for the better. The biggest change I want to implement is to use SMART technique so instead of wondering what I meant by "get serious about paying off debt," I have a plan.

What do I want to accomplish in 2011?

• Show progress on paying off debt load
• Take health seriously
• Write 182,500 fictional words
• Submit enough stories to get rid of the anxiety over it.
• Remodel house.

Lovely and vague, that's where my brain goes first. Now to bread each of those with SMART so I have action steps to take.

Show progress on paying off debt load

• Specific: Follow budget every month
• Measurable: Update Quicken every day
• Action-oriented: Find a part-time job to increase income.
  • Bring all bills current by Jan. 28, 2011
  • Put the budgeted amount into savings out of the first check every month. If there is overdrawn issues to pay for, it comes out of what should be saved.
• Realistic: Pay off what I owe Mom, Dad, and Republic Finance using the debt snowball method by Dec. 31, 2011.
• Trackable/Time-based: Update my NetWorthIQ badge and show the progress
• Save $1000 emergency fund by March 25, 2011.

Take health seriously

• Specific: Follow Primal guidelines on food and exercise
• Measurable: Weigh every morning
  • Take body measurements once-a-week
• Action-oriented: Exercise every day. Use outside play with Atticus
• Realistic: Lose 4 pounds by next check-up with Dr. Miller
• Trackable/Time-based: Keep a food diary and measurements at FitDay.com
  • Fill out the workout log book every day I exercise and show progress at Joe's Goals

Write 182,500 fictional words between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2011

• Specific: Write at least 500 words every day
• Measurable: Post the weekly total every Saturday at DUF using the Writertopia progress bar
  • Keep track of daily progress with a marathon spreadsheet
• Action-oriented: Finish Stellar Gift of Death by March 20, 2011
  • Finish a 5000-word short story for Triangulation submission by March 31, 2011
  • Finish steampunk mystery
  • Finish another story in the Piper of Shadows universe
  • Finish the "Blue Man on the Porch"
• Realistic: Finish four original stories before any fanfiction
• Trackable/Time-based: Each story has a marathon tracker of its own, and metrics are posted daily at DUF

Submit enough stories to get rid of the anxiety over it

• Specific: Submit to six markets by Dec. 31, 2011
• Measurable: Find a tracking method that I can update without fuss.
• Action-oriented: Look for 12 markets
• Realistic: Send out at least one story in February, April, June, August, October, and December
  • Have conversations with the Fear Monger; it helps
• Trackable/Time-based: Honestly note the anxiety over each submission on tracking method

Remodel house (Good Lord and Lady, can I get any more amorphous that that?)

• Specific:Replace roof and exterior walls of back half of house to have a level ceiling.
  • Demolish sheet-rock walls in bathroom and rebuild one between hall and bathroom with a pocket door. Put new sink in a new spot. Repair floor. Buy cabinets and shelves for storage. Move hot water heater to another location.
  • Enlarge kitchen to add more storage and eating area
  • Enlarge back bedroom or add more rooms to separate functions: exercise, sewing, storage, guest room
  • Build an office desk from cabinets to function as a built-in
  • LaGrange Consulting audit to make house energy efficient and switch over to cenralized AC and heat

Excuse me for a moment.

HOLY FUCKING HELL! There is no way to do ANY of that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I need a new roof. The current roof is probably over twenty years old and we've tried every sealant product to stop the leaks to no avail. But what happens is I replace the roof and then reconfigure the back half of the house next year? New roof again? I haven't even figured out how I want to do the extensions! And I want a profession to go over those plans once I decided! Can I put the roof over and just not demo? ARGH!!!!!!

Okay, I think I'm better now. Remodeling is a project this is so not ready for prime time. Consider it tabled until after I have paid off Republic Finance.

Now I made this list pretty for the sidebar. Eight days before the end of the year to practice these goals.

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The BookWorm

Finally Friday

This week has been crazy with the blahs and keeping appointments and trying to be motivated. As a result, I haven't seen the rest of my family since Monday night. So despite feeling like death warmed over, I finished getting my glasses fixed at Target and bought Atticus a soccer ball for Christmas and got through traffic with enough time to see them. Bowed out of going to my grandmother's Christmas party, and was fixing my supper when Atticus hit me with his second most important news (first was when was it okay to go to my house and play again). "I got a soccer ball!"

Dad ruined my train of thought that we have a psychic in the family. "Grammie (my mother) bought it for him yesterday."

I shooed Atticus out of the room so he could show me his new Hot Wheels car. "I was buying the soccer ball for his Christmas."

"Well, it was the last one Wal-Mart had."

"I BOUGHT the soccer ball tonight for his Christmas present." Kai, my sister and Atticus' mother, walks in and I repeated it. "I just bought the soccer ball tonight when I got my glasses fixed. I told you that's what I was getting."

"I didn't buy it." And she fled back to the living room.

Mom came bustling into the kitchen the next time Atticus was out of earshot to defend her purchase (and yes, she was there when I said I was going to buy one) and offered to exchange it for me. "He wants a football too. And it was the last one Wal-Mart had."

After sending her off to the party with confirmations that I could go back to Target just fine on my own, I turned to Dad. "The reason I went with soccer is because I sucked tossing the football back in P.E. class. And who takes Atticus outside to play? ME!"

He laughed. "You can still kick the soccer ball."

"It's going to be the cake plate year all over again." And he laughed harder.

The cake plate year is legendary in my family. Mom decided to make a list of all the stuff she really, really wanted and needed, tired of our guessing at items and not getting it right. Me and Krista dutifully ignored the list, but Kai followed it. Item number one was a fancy glass cake plate with a cover and a stand so you can display the dessert on it. And the day after Kai had bought a really nice one and told me about finding it, in bustles Mom showing off the cake plate she had just found for herself. Kai good-naturedly took her cake plate back and went for item number two on the list, which Mom promptly bought for herself before Christmas too.

I think Dad felt sorry for me last night (it has been a stressful week so I'm fairly certain my expression showed it), because we worked out a payment plan and ordered a new computer for me with a USB headset microphone. So now all I have to buy is a new phone because the one I have doesn't have a mute button and a new modem because mine is still dead Jim, and I'll be ready to apply for Convergys virtual call center job again! Looks like that'll probably happen in January. *crossing fingers*

I was invited to an outing to see Tron this weekend, but I don't think it'll happen. I couldn't focus on bill paying last night and woke up too late to do it this morning, so I have to do it as soon as I get home tonight. If I get home tonight, I had planned on stopping at an AT&T store for a new modem and Barnes & Noble for the book portion of Atticus' Christmas (and the above episode is why I claimed books as my province when he was born), but now I have to go back to Target for the third time this week!

And now that I think about it, the budget I'm tweaking for 2011 (using Quicken's process that I find quick but clunky) needs to be tweaked again because I didn't make sure the computer payment is added to the monthly bills.

It's not the number break down that I find clunky but the report of monthly spending versus the budget. Using gasoline for the example, according the Quicken's report I have spent $121 on it month to date, okay. The next column is the amount allotted under the budget, which it says is $98. Third column is the difference between the first two. What I can't figure out is where $98 came from when the monthly allotment is supposed to $191. I think that Quicken takes the total monthly amount divides it by how many days are in the month and then multiplies it by how many days have passed. At least, when I do that it comes very close to what the report tells me. Problem is the way I'm used to looking at a budget is subtracting what I have spent from the total monthly allotment until there's no more to spend. For example, I can take $70 out of this paycheck for gasoline until I get paid again. It's a theory I understand not that I've been very good at following it, but I'm buckling down on it in 2011. Honest!

What I would like to do is change the report to show that math instead of what it shows. I have no idea if I can do that, so I've got a research project for today while I'm working on lawsuits. *rolls eyes*

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The BookWorm

Trying to catch up

Wednesday and Thursday I have all day training classes. I'm trying to stay on top of email and other updates, but you may not hear from me again until Monday.

In sorta related news, I found a good deal on a Dell desktop. Too bad I don't think the money is going to work out. *head desk*

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The BookWorm

Weekends

The most writing I got done this weekend was while I was waiting at the garage for my car's brakes to be repaired and an oil change. I knew that my sister and nephew moving in with my parents would change my schedule, but I underestimated it. My parents can't keep up with an active four-year-old, my sister thinks he should be inside unless a grown-up is in the yard with him, so it has fallen on me to make sure he actually gets to play outdoors. And then he wants to come home with me and watch movies and play board games. Family comes first, but I need to find a way so I'm not being taken advantage of.

Otherwise, a rather uneventful weekend. I finally got Quicken straightened out (with the minor issue of not being able to import the export file I saved at work), and then spent my entire paycheck on car repairs. And that wasn't everything that Rizzo needs right now.

Computer is still dead, but I'm going to try to resuscitate the modem and see if I can get a wireless signal out of it. If I'm not totally brain dead by the time I get home.

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The BookWorm

Craig Ferguson explains Doctor Who

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The BookWorm

More motherboard research

Selecting a New Motherboard
How to Buy a Motherboard

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The BookWorm

Cyber Monday's weather is ironic

It's a drizzly mess today, perfect for staying inside and shopping online. Too bad I had to come to work. The trade off is I have Internet access here.

Parents got home Wednesday night about 11:30 with sister and nephew in tow. I sacrificed writing time to spend time with Atticus since my parents and his mother need to have frank discussions and I never get to see the kid. Frank discussions have yet to take place. *headdesk*

On the computer front: Dad doesn't know if he has any spare motherboards or not and could really care less compared to what he'd rather do (reading the two weeks of newspapers that piled up and football watching). The spare DSL modem that he's not sure works or not needs a power cord that neither one of us has in the correct voltage. *headdesk* Sunday, I asked for his laptop so I could get access to Quicken once again and figure out how to spend my December paychecks. That's STILL not done because after visiting the extendeds Atticus wanted to play board games with Aunt Kindra and we watched the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie plus three Biker Mice From Mars episodes. By then it was both our bedtimes. *headdesk*

Since I got work so insanely early, I thought shopping for motherboards would be a good idea. Apparently, I need more education because I don't recognize any of the terminology and I left the manuals for what I already had at home. I just bought RAM last year; I'd like to continue using it but can't remember the specifics. *headdesk*

So this is what kind of Monday it's shaping up to be.

Oh this looks really helpful: Computer Shopper's Complete Guide to Buying a Motherboard. Actually, I'd rather be on a current pizza commercial with this. In the commercial, the mom rattles off what she wants in a pizza and the choices shrink. I want to upgrade the motherboard to 2.8 GHz processor that's still able to run the old parts I'm keeping. I don't know why that isn't a check box for those requirements. ;)

Time for me to get to work on the paying job.

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The BookWorm

I'm nearly convinced I have a busted capacitor

There is something underneath the slightly off-kilter capacitor and if it's not a trick of the light, there is a slight bulge on it.

Craptastic.

The good news: My RAM, fans, hard disks, DVD burner, audio card, ethernet card, modem card, monitor, and printers are all decent and should be able to move to a new machine.

Not so good news: CD burner gets cranky, USB ports are 1.0 (I think), and the graphics card is original with the computer. The monitor needs a new cable, but I have figured out how to tweak it to fix the color issue. The tower may or may not be salvageable thanks to the switch issue I've been having for years. Dad's supposed to be getting new cases though, so that maybe a free fix.

Bad news: buying a motherboard and a DSL modem at the same time.

So I'm probably offline until next Monday with only some borrowed computer time to check in. Biggest aggravation: my brain finally kicked into gear yesterday and I have things to upload to the Library. That's something I really don't want to do at work.

Hopefully this is an uneventful Wednesday before Thanksgiving, even though we are a woman down in the office. Hopefully everyone who is traveling to or through Baton Rouge will do it EARLY so I can get home at a decent time tonight. As opposed to 6:30 last night, after leaving work at 4:30, to cover a distance of 45 miles.

If I don't get to contact blog readers again, have a Happy Turkey Day! For non-U.S. readers, have a happy un-Holiday!

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The BookWorm

Something fun

Via Mez.

Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here.

Instructions:
• Copy this list.
• Bold those books you’ve read in their entirety.
• Italicize the ones you started but didn’t finish or read only an excerpt.
• Tag other book nerds.

I have read:

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings – JRR Tolkien
3. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
4. Harry Potter series – JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
6. The Bible
7. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
8. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
9. His Dark Materials – Philip Pullman
10. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
11. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
17. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
19. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch – George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
22. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
23. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
24. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
25. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
26. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
27. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
28. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
29. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
30. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
31. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
32. Chronicles of Narnia – CS Lewis
33. Emma -Jane Austen
34. Persuasion – Jane Austen
35. The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
36. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
37. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
38. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
39. Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
40. Animal Farm – George Orwell
41. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
42. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
43. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
44. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
45. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
46. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
47. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
48. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
49. Atonement – Ian McEwan
50. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
51. Dune – Frank Herbert
52. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
53. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
54. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
55. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
56. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
57. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
58. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
59. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
60. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
61. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
62. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
63. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
64. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
65. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
66. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
67. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
68. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
69. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
70. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
71. Dracula – Bram Stoker
72. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
73. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
74. Ulysses – James Joyce
75. The Inferno – Dante
76. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
77. Germinal – Emile Zola
78. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
79. Possession – AS Byatt
80. Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
81. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
82. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
83. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
84. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
85. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
86. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
87. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
88. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
89. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
90. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
91. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
92. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
93. Watership Down – Richard Adams
94. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
95. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
96. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
97. Hamlet – William Shakespeare
98. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
99. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

That's how I got the list. Because I have MAJOR ISSUES counting an entire series as one book to read, I present the new and improved BBC list:

1. Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
2. The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring – JRR Tolkien
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – JRR Tolkien
4. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King – JRR Tolkien
5. Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
6. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone – JK Rowling
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets – JK Rowling
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – JK Rowling
9. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – JK Rowling
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix – JK Rowling
11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – JK Rowling
12. Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows – JK Rowling
13. To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
14. The Bible
15. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
16. Nineteen Eighty Four – George Orwell
17. His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass – Philip Pullman
18. His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife – Philip Pullman
19. His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass – Philip Pullman
20. Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
21. Little Women – Louisa M Alcott
22. Tess of the D’Urbervilles – Thomas Hardy
23. Catch 22 – Joseph Heller
24. Complete Works of Shakespeare
25. Rebecca – Daphne Du Maurier
26. The Hobbit – JRR Tolkien
27. Birdsong – Sebastian Faulk
28. Catcher in the Rye – JD Salinger
29. The Time Traveler’s Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
30. Middlemarch – George Eliot
31. Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
32. The Great Gatsby – F Scott Fitzgerald
33. War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy
34. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
35. Brideshead Revisited – Evelyn Waugh
36. Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky
37. Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
38. Alice in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
39. The Wind in the Willows – Kenneth Grahame
40. Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy
41. David Copperfield – Charles Dickens
42. Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe – CS Lewis
43. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian – CS Lewis
44. Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – CS Lewis
45. Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair – CS Lewis
46. Chronicles of Narnia: A Horse and His Boy – CS Lewis
47. Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician's Nephew – CS Lewis
48. Chronicles of Narnia: The Final Battle – CS Lewis
49. Emma -Jane Austen
50. Persuasion – Jane Austen
51. The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
52. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin – Louis De Bernieres
53. Memoirs of a Geisha – Arthur Golden
54. Winnie the Pooh – A.A. Milne
55. Animal Farm – George Orwell
56. The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
57. One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
58. A Prayer for Owen Meaney – John Irving
59. The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
60. Anne of Green Gables – LM Montgomery
61. Far From The Madding Crowd – Thomas Hardy
62. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
63. Lord of the Flies – William Golding
64. Atonement – Ian McEwan
65. Life of Pi – Yann Martel
66. Dune – Frank Herbert
67. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibbons
68. Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
69. A Suitable Boy – Vikram Seth
70. The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
71. A Tale Of Two Cities – Charles Dickens
72. Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
73. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time – Mark Haddon
74. Love In The Time Of Cholera – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
75. Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck
76. Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
77. The Secret History – Donna Tartt
78. The Lovely Bones – Alice Sebold
79. Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas
80. On The Road – Jack Kerouac
81. Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy
82. Bridget Jones’s Diary – Helen Fielding
83. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
84. Moby Dick – Herman Melville
85. Oliver Twist – Charles Dickens
86. Dracula – Bram Stoker
87. The Secret Garden – Frances Hodgson Burnett
88. Notes From A Small Island – Bill Bryson
89. Ulysses – James Joyce
90. The Inferno – Dante
91. Swallows and Amazons – Arthur Ransome
92. Germinal – Emile Zola
93. Vanity Fair – William Makepeace Thackeray
94. Possession – AS Byatt
95. Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
96. Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
97. The Color Purple – Alice Walker
98. The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
99. Madame Bovary – Gustave Flaubert
100. A Fine Balance – Rohinton Mistry
101. Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
102. The Five People You Meet In Heaven – Mitch Albom
103. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
104. The Faraway Tree Collection – Enid Blyton
105. Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
106. The Little Prince – Antoine De Saint-Exupery
107. The Wasp Factory – Iain Banks
108. Watership Down – Richard Adams
109. A Confederacy of Dunces – John Kennedy Toole
110. A Town Like Alice – Nevil Shute
111. The Three Musketeers – Alexandre Dumas
112. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Roald Dahl
113. Les Miserables – Victor Hugo

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The BookWorm

I Don't Think I'm Addicted

But three days with only an over-sized paperweight on the desk has reached irritating status.

DSL Modem is probably dead and I had to reinstall everything to be functional once again. Well, last week the computer developed a will-not-stay-on problem. I thought it was the temperature acting up again, but it still cut off despite having the case open and a desk fan blowing into it. I was already having issues with the switch on the power supply, maybe the power supply has gone kaput.

Saturday a friend suggests another possibility: a capacitor has gone bad on the motherboard. So I'm looking at images of those and I'm not sure if that has happened or not. Ugh!

Thursday, I submitted "Covenant of the Restless," but I couldn't get into the mood to work on anything with the computer in pieces. It really doesn't matter, but at the same time irritates so much I don't want to be in the same room with it. *Shrug* That's going to make for an interesting holiday this week.

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This is troubling

My computer decided being closed off from the Internet isn't enough fun, and has started shutting itself off and on. I found out on Tuesday morning. I had temperature related shut offs a few months ago, but it hadn't been a problem since I rearranged the computer components. But I also had the AC on then. So I downloaded a program I thought could help me track what the internal temps actually are and see if that is the problem or if my power supply has gone to crazyville without the rest of the computer.

Last night, it wouldn't even stay on long enough for me to transfer the files and try the program out. Even with me opening the case and aiming a desktop fan into it. I'm not having high hopes for the drop in ambient temperature to help either.

If it's willing to cooperate tonight, I think I can get into the BIOS setup and at least turn on an alarm to find out if it is the temperatures doing it.

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What Will It Take For a Win?

Getting to the internet failed again Friday night. A real doozy: computer says everything is connected fine, but none of the programs can update or go anywhere. So I called tech support for the DSL Saturday after my company left. Exhausted everything they could do, problem still unresolved, so they recommended I call in the for-pay tech support.

Sunday after I try shutting off the firewall and virus protection and still can't pull up a website, I call in and charge a one-time issue to my phone bill. First call's final solution: it must be an embedded virus so do a clean install of Windows XP. Second call to make sure I did the clean install properly after I had backed up everything I could to the external hard drive (the program folders kept having fits). Third call was because I still couldn't connect even with a fresh out of the box install of XP. It couldn't find Windows updates. Third call's final solution: the modem has gone bad (even though I can access all the setup stuff for it) and I have to buy a new one.

Final straw for last night: I finally figured out a solution to make an area to stack piles in, moved the piles to it, and now I have to shift the piles again to reach my shelf of computer software I have to reinstall. *headdesk*

So no progress with Elizabethan sea dogs this weekend, my headspace has been too present-day. I'm going to ask Dad if he has a spare DSL modem before I go buy a new one, just in case that isn't the issue. I'm supposed to have a dial-up back up connection but I have to reinstall that too, and I'm not sure if that is worth the hassle.

Also shifting the set of bookshelves in front of the telephone jack has made me realize I need a better set of shelves there and on wheels if I don't want to cut a hole in the bottom shelf to access the phone jack.

Today's plans: finish the edits to "Covenant of the Restless" on paper at least. Reinstall what programs I can to the home computer.

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PHONE!

I have phone. I have DSL. I have happy thoughts.

Apparently demanding a credit for time of no service really does get them out faster.

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The BookWorm

Weekend ARGH!

I am without phone service and DSL until Bell South/AT&T decides to finally send out a technician and give me a dial tone without harsh static feedback. That will be between when I reported it on Saturday to 6pm Thursday.

I wish I could report that I got so much done with my enforced offline status, but I'd be lying. Basically I took last week off of everything but housework. The dust bunnies are in shock.

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November Already?

So NPI is over (I got longest run without using a reprieve and most reprieves left at the end WOOT!), Halloween is over, family drama is not over, and I need to have friends over before holiday crazies start. I do better when I actually have goals and deadlines, so what are my goals for November?

1. Submitting "Covenant of the Restless." *Pause to kick the reflexive anxiety away.* Needs to happen. Also mean I have writing left to do. I have a game plan after having a chat with the Fear Monger monster that was stirring up my anxiety. Now it's just a matter of ignoring that anxiety and follow the game plan. This is a finish-able goal since I need to submit before Nov. 18th.
2. Finishing Stellar Gift of Death's first draft by Dec. 31st. I have to write over 600 words a day now. EEP! This is a goal that will be plodding along in the background while I continue through my days.
3. Focus on finances. I've gotten no where fast on money issues this year. My head's barely above water, which I wish didn't feel as familiar as it does. I need to stay on budget and save up for a laptop and other equipment to apply for a virtual call center job. If I get the budget focusing down cold for November and December, I think I can start saving for the laptop goal in January.
4. Lose weight. My health demands it. Primal eating helps, but I cheated with too many carbs last month. And I don't exercise enough, so I have to do more of that.
5. Post all fanfiction I have written. This is just some housekeeping so I can start next year with fresh projects.
6. Keep a clean house and have a party. I haven't decided if this party is a glorified DVD and boardgame sleepover or extra help on remodeling the bathroom. Probbaly the first since I have no money for the second. Keeping the house clean is an ongoing goal. My schedule for when to do what is good; I just don't follow it. So I'm making an effort to cross off items on the to-do list.
7. I should have a number 7 just to make it even and powerful and holy (according to numerologists). Sewing! I still have the Tin Man!Adora uniform to finish and my coworkers got really excited over a Steampunk Batgirl from Project Rooftop. Regardless, I have to start on them soon.

Okay, let's go ahead and declare this is the goal list for the rest of the year. Some items are finish-able; other more continuous. It's a starting point at least.

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The BookWorm

Halloween 2010

So do you know who I am?






Seriously, how well did I cosplay this?

Of course, after I found this picture, all my coworkers voted that I should sew this for next Halloween.



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Trailer: The Tempest

Trailer: The Tempest

YUMMY! Gender-bending makes even more sense for Prospero's snit-fit attitude at the beginning of the play.

October's first week is done

October is moving along, faster than anyone probably likes. I realized it had been a while without an update, so here I am.

Progress with Primal lifestyle: I didn't lose any weight during the challenge, so I think I'm cheating somewhere and not realizing it. And I never managed to work the exercises in. But I'm feeling tons better, energy up, and no trouble with getting out of bed (and getting the lamp alarm to finally work has helped more than I expected it to). Keeping a food diary and opening up the routine to exercise are the next steps.

TV viewing has went way down. I'm taping Castle and watching Bones. What did they do to Bones' hair? For three episodes now, at random points during the show, I'll blurt out "I really don't like her hair." I laugh and concentrate on the mystery, so it really must be bothering me.

Creating threesomes for the sake of threesomes isn't me. So I was mildly surprised when my brain chimed in with Brennan/Booth/Hannah could work. Of course the one who will put up the most resistance will be Booth (oh Catholic guilt trips!) followed by Brennan (if I love people I lose them so let my brains keep me away from the rest of the human race). I still want to fix their confrontation in season five. Booth should have mentioned her baby want. Really, I didn't expect another outcome, including running away to Indonesia, but damn it the writers just left that alone like they forgot about it.

And Haven has gone bye-bye until second season (squee!). Frell, I did not see the twist they ended on coming at all, and I have been really good at picking the twist up by the thirty-minute mark. And what does it mean about Agent Howard, who also trained Mulder (*giggling*)? But how awesome is Vince, who knows so much more than he is telling but seems to have a strict hands-off policy to keep living in Haven. The tattoo appearing and disappearing on Julia and going back so far into Haven's history, delicious. It's not a separation between Troubled and the norms, so I'm intrigued with what else it could be a marker for. Poor Nathan and the Chief, but I was glad to see the Rev again. I thought they hadn't played enough with the fundamentalist wacko theory (the Troubled are Godless or cursed by God), so I'm looking forward to him shaking things up next season.

Mom and I went yesterday and saw Secretariat, and what an awesome bio pic it is. I'm still in awe at how they shot it to make you feel like you were riding the greatest racehorse that ever lived.

Novel Push Initiative: NPI has also been keeping me busy. I gave myself the goal of 250 daily words for the month of October in Zy's novel, which I finally named Stellar Gift of Death. So far I've kept ten days in a row.

I've also been working on editing "Covenant of the Restless," so it fits into the Piper of Shadows universe. Details are over in DUF.

Fun stuff: I found a new YouTube user whose fan trailers I adore. I really wish this one could happen for the small cameo at 0:30. *Sigh*



I would also love to sit through this movie:



And this one, the World's Finest moment makes me tear up:



Something Positive had a rift on witches that should amuse all the Oz fans I know.

And now I'm off to blog about NPI day 10, to finish folding laundry, and to edit "Covenant."

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The BookWorm

Don't Try This at Home, Kiddies

Rizzo finally has a clean bill of health. What stranded me on Sept. 3rd was overheating because my radiator fan broke and then the fan motor burned out. Monday, Sept. 13th, after that had been repaired, I drove into work and the M.I.L. came on. I did find my gas cap was loose, but the light stayed on. Mom took the car back in yesterday and the mechanic found a loose vacuum hose, which he fixed for free. HUZZAH!

So at home and I finally cleaned out the computer tower with the second bottle of compressed air. It was dirtier than it should be, but that's not where I spent the first bottle. I stopped at WalMart yesterday morning and bought the air and food for lunch. When I got to work, I only brought the food in with me. I came back to an empty can that had exploded some safety cracks and shot the nozzle head off. I'm extremely lucky it didn't bust any windows in my mother's SUV when I did what the warning message on the can tells you not to do. *headdesk* A second trip to WalMart on the way home was a small price to pay.

I moved the computer to the desktop and put the front cover back on it. Hopefully that'll cut down on the amount of dust that gets inside. Dad replaced the fan over the graphics accelerator, so all the fans are running now. But my monitor has gone green. Seriously, Cain's pants are now olive, all my blue bars are emerald, and I haven't opened up a blank white document to see what color it turns into. I think the monitor plug may be damaged, but I will borrow a monitor from Dad tonight to make sure it's not the video card. Right now, I'm letting the computer run to see if it turns off again. If it doesn't, I have to figure out where to keep the tower and replug everything. The cubby is a pain in ass to try to plug anything in and if I need to get inside the tower. On the desktop takes up valuable space. :p

As of leaving out at 6 a.m., the computer hadn't shut itself off or tried to reboot itself. *Crossing fingers.*

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I'm Back

Back home and had a great time. Rizzo is fixed, *crossing fingers.* Home computer is shutting itself off. *headdesk* Haven't figured out how to fix that. Bloglines is packing up shop, so I'm moving all my feeds to Google Reader.

And today was a bad day to not pack my lunch.

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I Meant to Do This Before Now

An updates blog post, that is. Had the idea on Friday and then Rizzo (my car) overheated to the setting alarms off on the dashboard degree. That killed Friday night.

Saturday morning, I had the intentions to do so much computer work including blog posts. But then the computer went wonky and by the time I had cleaned it, my desire to do more computer stuff had died.

Sunday and Monday: enjoyed the time off.

Tuesday: back to work.

So now it's Wednesday and since I'm taking a mini-vacation Thursday and Friday, it's update day!

Mom got some free hotel nights at a casino resort in Shreveport, so we're heading up there. There are some free exhibits in the area so I won't have to play the slots the whole time. WOOT! I'm hoping she wasn't exaggerating about a spa being available and hoping for a pool too because I suck at slot machines. Mom finds them relaxing and can spend hours playing off her winnings. Nothing against gambling, I'd be better at it if it was more like a video game. And that's saying a lot considering how bad my hand-eye coordination is.

I don't know how much writing I'm going to get done off grid. I have a week left to the "Phantom Highwayman" incorporate the brand-new zag (as in just thought of it and almost derailed this blog post) and submit.

Problems with Rizzo: her AC went out last Thursday. I didn't freak out about it, just planned on rolling down the windows until I got paid and then have some coolant put back in. Then Friday's afternoon commute, her temperature warning light went off in the middle of stop and go traffic. Luckily, I made it over to the next exit, parked at Chick-fil-A, and waited for my parents. Then they took it to the mechanics Tuesday since I had to go to work, but he can't look at it until today. So I still don't know what is wrong and how much to fix it.

Sept. 7th also marked the start of a 30 Day Primal Challenge and that couldn't come at a better time. My insurance decided I don't need Byetta anymore and there's a manufacture's shortage of my dosage of Glumetza. What I really need is to get off the drugs and control my blood sugar and lose weight. So time for a lifestyle overhaul. So if Blank starts looking like a food diary, this is why.

Second component of this will be thirty days of Primal Fitness. So far, I only missed this morning's workout but I'm planning to make it up when I get home as long as I get home three hours before bedtime. :p

Off to noodle now.

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The BookWorm