Had an hour-long phone conversation with my new boss this morning. He laid out considerably more of a plan than I'd heard previously, which was heartening. Very heartening, in fact. He said, among other things, that it is genuinely the plan to convert all the stuff we've currently got over to the new platform, which seems very positive for future site developments, to me. So I'm pleased with that, and it sounds like their intention is to get a handful of the news feeds switched over to a format the new company can use, then to convert the 2000+ CHI-authored articles, and then begin converting the actual modules and platform. And he said he was concerned that business management would have a timetable that wasn't realistic, so at least he's, well, realistic. So. So, that's somewhat better than having no information at all.
I think I'm getting a canker sore. :P
miles to Lothlorien: 71.5
Well, I just spent the last hour and a half gossiping with the other HTMLers about what's going on with CHI, and of course, we still don't know anything. I'm supposed to talk with my new immediate boss (at 8am tomorrow, guh) and I sort of imagine I won't know anything after that, either.
Not that I have any particular deep emotional attachment to this job, but the whole thing is making me feel very cynical. Probably mostly because I'd rather it just got over with, rather than malingering, but I'm just very blah about it all.
Perhaps I'll take a break and go for a little walk. That'll probably lift my spirits some.
Scared the snot out of myself by being unable to find my memory stick and realizing it was the only thing I had the final version of URBAN SHAMAN on. Fwssht. Found it, obviously, or this would be hysterical (not really; I could have, in the most embarrassing-case-scenario, emailed my editor and asked her to send it to me, but JEEZ), and have made backups all over the place now. And the dumb memory stick was right where I left it, although it was not where I *thought* I'd left it. *pantpantpant*
And that's really about all the news I've got this morning. :)
And that's that. Ted turned in his resignation at his job today. His manager isn't particularly good at managing, and yesterday failed to schedule a cook from 11am to 2pm. Ted, being a responsible sort, felt like he should maybe stay and work, except 1. he wasn't scheduled, 2. it only covered his manager's ass, didn't do *him* any good, particularly since he had afternoon plans, and 3. it made him feel taken advantage of, with good reason. So he set his teeth together, closed the kitchen, and came home. This kind of thing has happened before at his job, and he was frustrated enough with it that it had him doubting having spent the last year working towards his culinary arts degree, and I agreed without hesitation that it was a whole lot better to quit the job than to let the situation destroy his enjoyment of cooking.
The general manager at the hotel was *very* dismayed to hear he was leaving. His last day will be Thursday, and then he's FREE! FREEEEE! And that will be Good.
What Would Buffy Do? proved to be pretty entertaining. I don't really consider myself in desperate need of spiritual guidance, but it was still a fun read, and I'd think a person could do worse than that book if they actually were in need of some spiritual guidance. :)
I like this being an author thing. Particularly when I check the mail and discover there's the second half of my advance check in it. :) :) :)
Gosh, I'm feeling *all* inspired to get the proposal for THUNDERBIRD FALLS out now! Go figure! *zum*!
Over in Neil Gaiman's blog today, where 'today' actually means 'I read it today', not 'he wrote it today', he says this:
I've learned over the years that everything is more or less the same amount of work, so you may as well set your sights high and try and do something really cool.
I think this is an incredibly sensible piece of advice. This is why I want to write fantasy and mysteries and romance and comics. And this is why, when it comes to LEGION, Sarah and I would rather see it not done than to let somebody else do it.
V. nice weekend. 3 days off was really good for me, although I didn't *do* a whole lot. Read 5 books, went to see Farenheit 9/11, walked a bit, sat around outside in the sunshine some, biked a bit, played a bit of CoH. It was very pleasant. And it's back down into the 50s now, so I don't feel like it's quite such a horrible waste to be at the computer working instead of outside playing.
ytd miles biked: 117
miles to Lothlorien: 67
We had a bookstore accident last night. A real one; somehow we came home with $130 worth of new books. It wasn't my *fault*: the new C.S. Friedman book was out, and I thought I didn't have enough cash to buy it (I later discovered I'd missed the $10 folded into the $20, so in fact I /did/ have enough cash to buy it, but, well, I didn't know that then), and then I felt a bookstore accident coming on, and I got the four (FOUR!) Anne Perry books that I hadn't gotten yet (frankly, I feel as if I quite deserved those, as two of the books are from the series I like so well that I'll buy it in hardback!), a couple of Rhys Bowen books that I'd been wanting (I've been wanting to buy mysteries, but I'd been holding back because I've been trying not to have bookstore accidents!), and just to throw some stuff into the mix, a Greg Bear book and some random YA fantasy I picked up. Oh, and then I saw and simply couldn't resist What Would Buffy Do? which is some sort of spiritual guide using the Buffy universe as its backbone. The idea amused me so much that I had to buy it. :) I'll lend it to Aberdeen as soon as I'm done reading it. :) And Ted got, let's see. 2 or 3 Honor Harrington books, 3 Simon Green books, and ... I think at least one other book. Can't remember. So it was a proper bookstore accident!
I also had a little clothing store accident on Wednesday. V. little, comparatively, but we went over to get me some new spandex shorts, and then they had some really nice solid color v-neck t-shirts, which I like a lot, so I accidentally bought three, and then while I was at it, I got a couple of skinny girl tank tops (which are the sort with built-in bras and which are snug fitting (probably slightly *too* snug fitting, but I'm wearing one right now and don't feel too horribly pudgy, so that's nice)).
Accidents galore. :)
I am attempting to take today off. However, Barb isn't answering her IM, so I donno when, exactly, I'll be able to start the taking the day off part of the day. Hrnf.
Stayed up far too late last night playing CoH. Which is not why I'm taking the day off: I'm taking the day off because it's been an amazingly, stunningly gorgeous week and I flat-out don't want to spend another day of it inside. Q2's been released, the bugs I can fix are fixed, and dammit, I need a day off. So *there*.
miles to Lothlorien: 67
Now I'm sunburned and sweaty. Is that moving up in the world, or down?
A few weeks ago Ted and I bought (and Shaun planted) six rose bushes, one lilac bush, and a stick. The stick is supposed to be a lilac bush, but it is merely a stick. We planted it anyway. It continues to be a stick, but now down at the root there is a 1 inch high lilac bush with 3 leaves on it. Yay! The stick may be dead, but the roots were still wick!
The second lilac bush is merrily sprouting leaves and growing like anything. It was a sturdier bush than the first, apparently. Also it had leaves, and not just a stick, when we bought it.
Four of the rosebushes are leaving away merrily, and one even has a *bud* on it! It shall have a rose soon! A teeny tiny red rose. *beam* The other two rosebushes are not leaving away merrily, but they do have healthy-looking greenness at the bottom, so perhaps next year they'll leaf.
Overall I'm quite pleased with the state of the flairs. :)
Sunburned and sleepy this morning. Sunburned mostly on my calves; Sarah said, "I'd think that you'd have to lay down to sunburn your calves," but I merely have to go walking in the sunshine without sunblock to sunburn my calves. Sarah said, "I forget that you are of the 'the sun is out, I shall burn by osmosis' persuasion, yes." *giggle*
Sleepy. I slept too long. Lazy, lazy Kit. And I need some breakfast, 'cause I know how to have fun. :)
Favorite thing I've heard said in quite a while: "Just because it's a bad haircut, doesn't mean you have to set it on fire." *giggle*
I didn't actually go to the gym today, but I did bike 7.8 or something like that miles, and walked 5 miles, and did some basic weights with the 10 pound dumbbells I've got at home. So I feel pretty superior, and all. I'd probably be more superior if I hadn't finished all that up with a small root beer float, but the root beer would've gone flat otherwise!
Ok. Time to shower and then go to bed. All covered in sunblock and bug dope and sweat, ick. Nini.
miles to Lothlorien: 62 (I might just make 77 by the end of the month, after all!)
ytd miles biked: 108.4
Well, I still don't give a fig about the bugs, but otherwise I feel much better. Apparently grumpiness can't stand up to a turkey sandwich on still-warm homemade bread, a bunch of grapes and a glass of milk, and a 2.5 mile walk on a beautiful day. And my miles are getting faster: about 17 minutes a mile, instead of 19 or 20. Yay! My goal is still 15 minute miles, but I'm closer than I was!
Sweaty now. Okay, back to stupid work.
I'm not in a good mood today. I don't want to be at work, I don't care about these bugs, and I haven't been doing any writing worth mentioning. Grumpy me. I'm trying to degrump, but every time I start to regain equalibrium they report another damned bug, and I just don't give a flying fuck.
*sigh* I'll get something to eat, and go for a walk during lunch hour. Maybe that'll help.
I made an agreement with Ellen, who runs Ellen Million Graphics, which is going well, that I'd quit my job at the end of 2005 if she'd quit her job at the end of 2005. Since she'd just been wondering when she was going to be able to pull off doing EMG as a day job instead of doing the day job, she agreed readily, even knowing that it's my *intention* to quit the day job at the end of 2005. So now we have a Pact! *laugh*
*looks vaguely at Ellen* Y'know, maybe if I ever get Chance going as a comic, I'll talk you into turning EMG into an independent comic book production company, too. :)
thinks to do today:
1. expense report!
2. call allison
I actually ended up biking around Lake Hood some last night after all, 'cause there was a Great Big Moose on the trail when I tried to bike it, and I couldn't wait for him to get out of the trail because I wasn't wearing bug dope and there were jillions and jillions of horrible mosquitoes. So I biked partway around Lake Hood, which was very, very nice. P'raps I'll do it again tonight, although today is a gym day, so I might not bike.
Not much else going on here. Oop, the bread has beeped.
miles to Lothlorien: 57
ytd miles biked: 100.6
Does it count as cleaning my desk if all the stuff that was formerly piled on it is now piled on Shaun's computer chair?
...yeah, I didn't think so.
Wow. Lisa Murkowski's got machines calling people up to ask if they're registered voters and whether they're Republicans or Democrats. *Machines*. Jeez. How lame is that.
Not a very interesting update, this morning, just stuff I need to do today. Dad and I went for a walk over next to Lake Hood last night, which was reaaaaallly beautiful. I think I'll go biking over there tonight. Maybe. It's all flat, so the coastal trail's a better workout. *So* *impatient* with not being able to go do things all-out. :(
thinks to do today:
1. laundry
2. erm. there were other things. i'm sure of it.
3. oh yeah. make banana bread. yum!
4. call alison about plane tickets
5. email HR
6. make haircut appointments
7. clean desk, put CDs in nifty new CD holder
8. EXPENSE REPORT!!!
miles to Lothlorien: 52.5
Absolutely, completely *not* interested in work today. Also very much in need of *doing* it, because QA wants to push the launch two days early, which means tomorrow, not Thursday. Apparently a couple of our clients wanted us to push something with the quarterly release, and they had things they were supposed to do on their end, and our stuff is done and theirs isn't and it's all too entangled to unwind it from the quarterly release, but pushing early will somehow clear up some of the problems. As one of my coworkers said, "Evidently they weren't anticipating how timely we are," which is both true and somewhat bewildering, because if there's one thing CHI does, it's deliver product on time. We never miss launch dates. Our clients should know that by now.
Oop, gotta go move the sprinkler.
My Google Fu is failing me. Perhaps one of you can help.
My mom is looking for a poem which contains the lines:
I have dishes to do and beds to make
I should not sit and watch the red sun set......And yet, supposing that I go at duty's call
To make the beds, what then?
These things have no great value after all.
Tomorrow they must all be done again.
She's looking for the author and the rest of the poem. Anybody with Mighty Fu want to try scaring it up?
It is *way* too nice out to be inside. Stupid mean nasty work, making me have to be inside when I'd rather be outside playing. The whole weekend was absolutely gorgeous. I walked a lot and I actually rode my bike and I gymmed on Saturday and Emily came over and we watched some Angel, and I stayed up until 2am re-reading Rose Daughter, which was a somewhat odd choice, because it's not like I didn't know how it ended. I was thinking about just staying up all night, at that point, since there were only 2 hours and 20 minutes of night left, but I decided I should probably go to bed after all.
Friday my boss told us, unofficially, that he's leaving CHI because there's nowhere in the new merged company that he belongs and that he and the parent company came to a mutal decision. His last day is the end of July. This was *really* demoralizing. Then Veronica mentioned that another coworker was leaving, too, to go get his MBA (that, if you're counting, makes 6 out of 40 or so people who have left/been laid off/whatever since May 17), and I remembered that if my job went away, my fallback plan was to go back to school.
So I'm going to go up to the university this week and talk to them about the MFA in Creative Writing and see if 1. I could get in, and 2. if I'd want to. I don't know if I'd be a good fit with an MFA program, or if it'd just piss me off beyond words. :) In fact, I need to call them to set up an appointment.
If it turns out I'm not a good fit with an MFA program, I'll go back and get my BA in Art. And possibly in Anth at the same time. I *know* I can get an Anth degree in one year, assuming the right classes are provided (let's hear it for having a degree within the university system already!), which they ususally are. Art would probably take a little longer, just because of the nature of the projects involved. But anyway, so that's my plan, if the job goes poof.
I am now *extremely* impatient to find out if the job goes poof. While it's probably a bit impractical, given that the job *not* going poof means I'm still making a steady paycheck and paying off loans instead of getting more, I gotta say, going back to school sounds like a whole lot more fun than working. :)
...*snort* Just called UAA. The CWLA office is closed from today through July 19. *snort* What timing I have! Oh well. I'll have to call in July, and maybe by then I'll have more of an idea of what's actually going *on* with the job. Maybe.
I really like Rice Krispies.
ytd miles biked: 92.8
miles to Lothlorien: 50
ytd words written: dunno, 1200 more than last time?
It's a good thing I went to the gym today, because I sure as hell didn't get any walking done. Sad, because it was a very beautiful day, but it was good despite not getting any walking (or much writing to speak of) done anyway. So it's okay. And now I'm bloody well tired and going to bed. Night.
There we go. 3042 words for the day. A lot of them are pure drivel and I suspect when I get to rewrite stage a bunch of this won't be important, but it's good for now. *cha cha cha* And I managed to walk 4 miles today, too. Go me!
ytd wordcount: 202,750
miles to Lothlorien: 47.5
Hah! I've managed to completely exhaust the dog by taking her on 3 miles worth of walks today. Just wait til she finds out I plan on going on another one! muahahah! ahem. :)
I just about roasted myself on that walk, too. It's hot out! So I came home and tried to find a pair of shorts to put on, but the one pair must be in the laundry downstairs or something, 'cause I could't find them, so with great trepedation I got out what I call my Skinny Girl Shorts. They're not really skinny girl shorts; I can't even remember what size they are. 14s, maybe, but they could be 16s. Anyway, they're Skinny Girl Shorts because they're not ugly and they don't have stupid elastic in the waistband and they're, if not daisy-maes, pretty short. They didn't, to tell the truth, fit me all that well when I bought them (last summer, I think), but I was going to be *damned* if I was buying a pair of ugly fat girl shorts.
So, carrying all that baggage, I put the Skinny Girl Shorts on.
And they fit me *way* the hell better than they ever have before. Yaaaaay! They are, in fact, loose! Yaaaaaaay! *dances around gleefully* Yaaaaay!
It's amazing how much fur a cat can deposit in a water cup, just by walking by it. o.O
Two hundred thousand words! 12 days ahead of schedule, too! Got 1400 words written this morning, I'm liking what I'm doing even if I'm not sure it's right for what I'm aiming for, plan to finish the chapter this afternoon. I am, at the moment, on a crusade to write 3K a day, from now through the end of the month, anyway.
Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2-3 miles, eat some damned froots, which I haven't been doing. Fnrt.
ytd wordcount: 201,100
300 words short of 200K, for heaven's sake.
I wrote some more this evening, clearly. A whole 'nother chapter, and I'm pretty pleased with myself. :) I switched over to third person and it's working all right; we'll see if I can continue it in the morning.
Gymmed this evening, although I took it pretty easy because I was all wheezy. Stupid, stupid allergies and stupid muggy wet air. But still, I went and I worked out, which is what counts.
ytd wordcount: 199,700
miles to Lothlorien: 43.5
Sudden! Horrible! SLEEEEEPIES! And I can't shake them off by going for a walk because I have a meeting in 15 minutes, which isn't *quite* long enough to do the neighborhood circuit. Well, it probably is, but not if I take the dog. :)
Which reminds me: things I'll do today that're good for me: walk 2 miles, go to the gym, eat 1 froot. (I have to. I already ate my sugar dessert for the day, 2 cookies. If I want anything else sweet it has to be froot.)
It's stopped raining and now it's blowing like crazy. I may have to go for an extra walk tonight after gymming, just because there's no mosquitos when the wind is blowing. Whoosh! Whoosh!
Would you read a triology about shapeshifters titled Blinded by Moonlight, 24 Hour Midnight and One Wild Night?
I really don't want to be at work today. I want to be doing other things, mostly writing. I want to get the revisions on TB done so I can send the proposal to Matrice. I want to edit the short story I wrote for an anthology and send it to the editor. I want to get several thousand words into this new thing so that I've got a real feel for it. I want to finish my rewrite on HoS and send it back to Jennifer. I want *Tor* to buy *Angles*, *dammit*. Although that's not writing, strictly speaking.
I also want to go to the gym and for it to stop raining long enough for me to walk a couple of miles, but mostly, I want to not have to fix thirty bugs today but rather to write. I need more hours in the day, or more discipline, or something. Yargh. Yargh, yargh, yargh. :P
Goodness grace-ee-ous! I actually wrote this morning! I woke up at a very sensible (okay, HOW DID THIS BECOME SENSIBLE?) 5:35 or so, lazed around in bed for twenty minutes, then rolled out, showered, and wrote. 1200 words, which is rather a lot shy of the 3K I had vague goals of hitting, but rather a lot more than I've written recently. I'm writing this thing in first person and I'm practically certain I'm going to need to convert it to third, but I'll worry about that later. For the moment, I have achieved a chapter one, and that pleases me. :)
And now I'm very hungry, so off I go to get some food.
ytd wordcount: 197,300
I walked *4.5* miles today. Go me! It was really nice, actually, and now it's really dumping rain, so I'm glad I went out walking earlier. Then I read the last book in the Second Sons trilogy, and it too was very, very good, so overall I'm quite satisfied. And now, having read a lot in the last few days, I must get back to writing. Must get up in the morning to write, even if the bed is all comfy. If my wordcount is not updated with my morning post, scold me. :)
Things I did today that were good for me: walked 4.5 miles, ate 1.5 froots.
miles to Lothlorien: 41.5
Just got off the phone for a meeting for our upcoming quarterly features, trying to decide what we'd do in Q3. There were only 3 of us in the meeting, but my, how doomed it sounded. People are just *not* optimistic about our future. Perhaps it's more gloomy being in the office, but jeez. There's a lot of this, "Is there any point in trying to figure out what to do?" feeling going on, coupled with Eyore-like, "Might as well treat it as business as usual" commentary. There's *one* project that we discussed that to me *does* seem like reinventing the wheel, in light of not knowing what's going to happen with the company and our development platform, so I spoke out against it, but mostly I don't see much point in flailing around miserably about the whole thing.
Ow. Hiccups.
Anyway, it's a little weird, that's all, working for a company that doesn't know what its future will be. Actually, I'm pretty confident the company will continue on. It'll mostly be a question of whether we continue on with it or not. As one of my coworkers said, "The apathy is killing me," and while I don't feel that way, really, I can see why people do. It's all pretty strange.
But back to bugs, because the job hasn't gone away yet. :)
Still no writing. I stayed up entirely too late last night reading the next Fallon book, which was just as good as the first, and I hold no illusions about whether I'll do the same thing tonight with the third. Them are some good books! However, there will be no Alias or any other tomfoolry until I've gotten my 1100 words for the day. There. I Have Spoken.
Gymming last night was really good. I'm getting stronger, even if I haven't miraculously lost thirty pounds. In fact, I'm getting sufficiently stronger that I'm reaching the point of impatience--want to do MORE weights, want to try HARDER. I'm trying very, *very* hard to not overdo it and to not move up in weights more than incrementally or more often than once a week. It's *particularly* frustrating with the leg press, because I can press hundreds upon hundreds of pounds, yet I'm working out at a very lame 140. At 140, I can *just* start to feel it when I hit the 15th and final rep. But I'm trying to strengthen the muscles in my lower back, and the leg press uses those muscles for stabilization, if nothing else, and if I throw my stupid, stupid back out again, I'll lose all my forward momentum while I recover. It's *insanely* frustrating. I'm starting to want to do barre exercises, and ... *grght*. Stupid, stupid back. It's really, really *hard* to go slowly. :(
Alias continues to be completely inexplicable. We still have no idea what's going on. This is quite a feat. :) I wonder how long they can keep it up. :)
*sigh* To work, now. I have approximately 24353530987 bugs to fix. Whee.
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: walked 2 miles, ate 2 (TWO!) froots, gymmed. Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2-3 miles, eat 1-2 froots.
miles to Lothlorien: 37
If anybody I know has been thinking about attending this year's Writer's Weekend but hasn't yet signed up, let me urge you to hasten to do so. We've got 5 spots left and I've gotten several registrations this week already. :)
I hate this part of starting to exercise. The part where I've been FAITHFULLY going to the gym for WEEKS (okay, two weeks), MULTIPLE TIMES A WEEK (ok, 2-3 times a week) and yet I am not suddenly a svelt 136 pounds, despite ALL MY EFFORTS.
Stupid exercise. :)
I also hate the part where a bill got lost and nobody picked up the garbage today. :P
I am being Stared At by Zilli, who is sitting atop my computer monitor in a very upright and regal way and looking down his bumpy nose at me. :)
Not much exciting to say this morning. Got up later than I should have, but it's the 15th of June, which means my writing slacking time is well and truly over, so despite having gotten up late, I'm going to have to sit down and do some writing today. No CoH for ME.
Is there anyone in the whole world who doesn't have lousy posture when sitting at the computer? How do you manage it, if so? I'm trying to work on my posture and I'm really tired of the hunch-shouldered computer user stance. Or sit, I suppose.
I almost had a bookstore accident last night, but I got away practically scot-free. 3 books does not a bookstore accident make. Then I made cookies and we watched 2 more episodes of Alias and we *still* don't know what's going on, except something awful happened to somebody and now somebody else has got nothing left to lose, so that's going to be bad. V. bad.
I need to pay bills today.
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: walked 2 miles, at 1 froots, um. Guess that was it. Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, eat 1-2 froots, gym.
miles to Lothlorien: 35
(Ah. Zilli was Staring At Me because he wanted the milk in my cereal bowl. Now he's got it. Wretched kitty.)
It was not a very walkful weekend, but other than that, it was good. We went to Chronicles of Riddick Saturday, and while I felt it was a little slow, overall I enjoyed it. I can't help it: I'm a sucker for Vin Diesel. I'm also a sucker for the character archetype he plays, which, in all the movies I've seen him in, has been The Reluctant Hero (I haven't seen Pitch Black, but I get the impression that's basically what he's playing there, too, and I haven't seen, uh, Fast and the Furious, and I donno about it, but still). I certainly hope they make more, because the story didn't so much end as stop, and I wanna see what happens.
Let's see. I still haven't vacuumed the upstairs and I haven't worked on my shelves, but the bathroom is sparkly clean and I made bread yesterday, so those are good things. And the laundry's done except for the last load, which I'll do, and now that it's off the floor where it'd been sorted to, I *can* vacuum. :)
I gymmed yesterday! Yay me! V. pleased with myself for that. :) And Ted and I rented Knockaround Guys and Timeline, the former of which was not at all what I expected it to be, but which turned out to be pretty good, and the latter of which was quite a lot better than I expected. Plus the trebuchets were really awesome.
I have not done Any Writing At All. Must remedy that. :)
Oh! I did, however, finish reading Australian author Jennifer Fallon's Lion of Senet last night, and it is hands down the best 'random buy in the bookstore' that I've picked up in *ages*. I liked it as much as Carol Berg's books, which I did not pick up randomly; I think the last thing I picked up randomly that I liked this much was Mark Anthony's Beyond the Pale (name of the series is escaping me). In other words, I recommend this book. The books are all out in Australia and I'm hoping they've just been put out here lickity-split so I can go get the rest of them. Tor's putting out another series of hers in hardback, too.
Thinks I'll do today that're good for me: eat 1-2 froots, walk 2-3 miles.
miles to Lothlorien: 33
| How to make a mizkit |
| Ingredients: 3 parts pride 3 parts silliness 1 part beauty |
| Method: Combine in a tall glass half filled with crushed ice. Add wisdom to taste! Do not overindulge! |
I have apparently been replaced by Folger's Crystals, or something. I couldn't stand the horrible creeping *mess* that was taking over the counter (again) and cleaned it up this morning. Then the fact that the rest of the kitchen wasn't clean pissed me off, so I cleaned it despite knowing that Shaun would clean it when he got up. I even went so far as to collect all the dishes that had come to live upstairs. Then this evening, having made brownies earlier, I cleaned the kitchen again, then scooped the kitty litter, emptied the bathroom garbage, and vacuumed the downstairs with a vengeful eye for detail. Ted, upon seeing the counter when he came home from work, said, "It's a Christmas miracle!" When I got done vacuuming a couple minutes ago, he wanted to know who I was and what I'd done with his wife.
Tomorrow I am going to clean our bathroom and vacuum the damned upstairs. Ted says he'll do the stairs themselves (I can't; it really throws my back out) when he comes home from work. I will hold him to that, most ferociously if necessary.
*stares grimly around the office desks* And don't think you're getting away without a cleansing, either, you little bastards.
And I'm going to work on my shelves and do laundry. *scowl* Don't try to talk me out of it.
Things I did today that were good for me: gymmed, walked 1 mile, worked up a sweat housecleaning.
miles to Lothlorien: 31
Brain Lateralization Test Results |
| Right Brain (52%) The right hemisphere is the visual, figurative, artistic, and intuitive side of the brain. Left Brain (48%) The left hemisphere is the logical, articulate, assertive, and practical side of the brain |
personality tests by similarminds.com
I think that might be pretty accurate.
Well, the talk with the new boss went just fine. He did clarify the one concrete question I had (there's not much point, in my opinion, about asking things like, "What's going on, what's happening, when's it going to happen," because any answer he'd have would be relegated to what he was *allowed* to tell me, which may have very little to do with what he knew), which was whether he was thinking in terms of hundreds of actual, individual client sites, or hundreds of cobrands. He seemed surprised to hear that most people had been interpreting 'hundreds of sites' as 'hundreds of cobrands', and said no, he was thinking in terms of hundreds of individually contracted client sites. Which seems promising, to me.
I suspect we are going to have to shift our perceptions of what CHI does, perhaps fairly significantly. Which is too bad, because I like what CHI does. On the other hand, as long as they keep paying me, I'm not sure it matters *that* much to me. This is a good job; in some respects, it's a great job. But it's not something I wake up excited about every morning, and if the parent company thinks we need to change our approach to become a money-making venture, hey, so long as they keep me on as part of that money-making venture, I'm good with it. And for the moment I don't think our jobs are going anywhere, so hey, let's just hang out and see what happens. What've I got to lose? :)
Please forgive any early morning typos. I have a cat flopped over my left arm, and he's doing his best to push the keyboard away. There. I've stopped him from doing that. God knows why flopped over my left arm is the Best Place To Be today, but--ah, there he goes, and now circulation returns. He wandered around my feet, and then my lap, meowing loudly and headbutting me, before flopping over my arm. Cats is weird.
Flailing at the front end of this book. Don't know how to get into it. V. annoying. Should probably continue to work on TB instead and not worry about it; inspiration will strike at some unlikely moment, no doubt.
Got a phone call at 7:30 this morning from my new boss's assistant, who is in Chicago, where it was 10:30 and a reasonable hour to call someone, confirming that I have an appointment to talk to my new boss this afternoon, except moving the time. She had no idea I was in Alaska. She doesn't know if the new boss knows I'm in Alaska. I said, "I'd assumed it was a phone interview," and she said, "Wow. Gosh," and things like that. So I guess we'll see if he calls me.
I got online banking set up with our bank. Now, in order to do online banking with our bank, you have to go into the bank and fill out paperwork and wait for them to send you account activation information via snailmail, which is the first sign that they Don't Get The Whole Online Thing. That's followed up by it being the absolute worst banking interface I've ever seen, once the paperwork's been sent and the account activated. Go, FNBA.
Now Zilli's in one of the bathrooms, meowing about how he is the most lonely, pathetic, unloved, sad, hungry kitty in the *whole world*. It echoes.
Can't go see Chronicles of Riddick tonight because Shaun's stupid job decided he needed to work Friday nights. Stupid job. We'll go tomorrow night. Emily, you wanna come?
I had something else I was going to say, but it's slipped my mind. I'm sure it'll come back later. :)
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: walked 3 miles, ate 1 froots. Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, gym, eat 1-2 froots.
miles to Lothlorien: 30
It's *beautiful* out this morning. Don't wanna be at work! Wanna go outside and play!
Let's see, what do I know new? Not very much. I should make a loaf of bread this morning, which isn't so much new as a reminder to myself. Um, um. Let's see.
Nope. I don't know anything today. :)
Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, eat 1-2 froots.
Isn't it annoying how if you draaaag yourself to the gym and you reaaaaallly don't want to go but you gooooo anyway, how when you're done you're much more perky and feel better and are really glad you went?
Well, maybe not exactly annoying, but you know what I mean. :) And I worked out hard enough that I'm kind of wibbly now, so that's good too. :)
Things I did today that were good for me: walked 2 miles, ate 1 froots, gymmed.
Oh! And I wrote a little bit. Took another stab at this new voice and think I hit it much better this time. I'll do some more tomorrow morning. Yay!
Heavens to Mercatroid! Deirdre updated Breic's site!
miles to Lothlorien: 27
ytd wordcount: 196,100
I was just very sharply reminded of a book in which there is a unicorn caught in a stained glass window. I can't remember anything else about the book except it was perhaps one of the 'children from our world go to another world' stories.
Anybody know what it is?
Edit: Actually, I do remember one other thing about it. I believe the children broke the glass in question, and part of the plot was that they had to re-capture the unicorn. Whether this was a good or a bad thing, I don't remember.
V. nice evening for Shaun's birthday. Mom and Dad came over and Ted made burgers and homemade mac&cheese and corn on the cob and I made a lemon cake and it was all v. yummy. Then we played CoH until my mapserver crashed and I had a temper tantrum and went to bed grumpy. :)
It's been really quiet around here lately. Not that my life is usually all that exciting, but it's been particularly quiet. I haven't been doing much writing, but it's summertime and I don't feel very guilty about it. I do need to get back on the bandwagon, but I can't bring myself to feel too badly. :)
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: walked 1 mile, ate 1 froot. Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, eat 1-2 froots, go to the gym.
miles to Lothlorien: 25
After all the fuss about the timing of the Venus Transit, it was cloudy here and we couldn't watch it anyway. Hmph. So we watched 3 episodes of Alias, instead, which is hardly the same thing at all, but which was fun. :)
The amazingly horrible bruise on my knuckle is healing very quickly. It's kind of cool to watch, because it's changing colors from hour to hour.
And today is *drumroll please* SHAUNDAY! Happy birthday, Shaun! in a while here, I'll go get a Shaunday cake started. Yum!
I've rediscovered the joys of Rice Krispies. :)
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: walked 2 miles. Things I'll do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, eat 1-2 froots.
miles to Lothlorien: 24
So if the Venus transit is supposed to be visible from 05:13 to 05:33 Universal Time in Anchorage, am I correct in reading that as "subtract 9 hours to get the usual Universal time, then one more because we're in Daylight Savings," so the transit, if visible, should be visible from approximately 7:15 to 7:30 this evening (June 7th) my time?
Edit: Trip and Merlin have introduced me to time.gov, and have explained that it's +1, not -1, for DST, so the transit is at *9* fifteenish tonight. I wonder if Kincaid Park would be a good place to be likely to see it from. :)
Sometime this morning I smacked my knuckle on something sharp. I remember doing it, but I can't remember what I hit it on. While I was making lunch, I discovered that my knuckle was a really astonishing array of dark purples and blacks. It's sort of squishy, too; I must've busted a blood vessel in there, 'cause the *whole* knuckle is all gooshy and dark. With that much dramatic bruising, I really feel as if I should be able to remember *what* I hit myself on!
Hate hate hate! We hate the bugbites! Hate hate hate! Itch itch itch! I've gotten more bites in less time this year...
Wow, I feel completely horrible. Coughing and wheezing and my ears and throat itch and this sucks. :P Stupid, stupid allergies. :( I took drugs but they haven't kicked in yet and I'm going insane with the itching and coughing. Blah. :( Maybe the astringentness of an orange would help some. Wah. :(
I spent most of yesterday working on THUNDERBIRD FALLS, which would have been slightly easier if I had not failed to put in chapters 13 and 25 to my rough draft printout. I only have another few chapters to read, and then I have to read it again (this time with the two missing chapters, I hope) and then I think I'll be ready to start doing real edits on it.
It turns out that the thing at work was a file I needed to update, so I suck. *sigh* :(
Things I'll do today that are good for me: eat 1-2 pieces of fruit, gym, walk 2 miles.
miles to Lothlorien: 22
Arrrgh.
I took most of yesterday off because Barb was working on the same files I needed to work on, and I said, "How about if I just work on them over the weekend, that way we won't get in each other's way," and she thought that sounded like a great idea. And it *was* a good idea, and this morning I got the first site all put together and it looked great.
So tonight after watching 2 more episodes of Alias, I thought, "Hey, I'll do a couple sites tongiht, then there'll be only 5 left tomorrow, it'll be great." And I came upstairs and started the first of the next sites.
Which is when I realized that the content I need in order to see what I'm doing had only been generated on the very first of the development sites, and that on the other 7 or 8 sites it wasn't there. This development is persnikity enough that there's absolutely no point in trying to do it blind; it requires far too much fine-tuning and I'd only be frustrated by being uncertain about what I was doing. *Argh*. It was a *good* idea! *sigh*
Things I've done today that were good for me: ate 1 froots, walked 1 mile, gymmed.
miles to Lothlorien: 20
Harry Potter was entertaining. Ted was particularly pleased with the hippogryph (which was *awfully* cool) and the Patr.. pa.. you know. The shielding spell. After the movie we went for ice cream and went to the comic shop and deposited paychecks and detaily stuff like that, and then we came home and I brought Chanti on a walk in which we got too many bug bites and scurried away from the coastal trail to walk through the much less buggy neighborhood. Stupid, stupid bugs.
Now I'm up doing laundry, because I'm entirely out of underwear. I've known this was encroaching for days, yet did I do laundry? NooOOOOooo. Foolish Kit. :)
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: ate an orange, walked 2 miles. Things I will do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, gym, eat 1-2 pieces of froot.
miles to Lothlorien: 19
Oops, overslept this morning. Ah well, such is the danger of the high life I lead. :) No writing this morning, in other words. P'raps this afternoon.
My pecs and biceps are sore from gymming yesterday. *laugh* Nothing else seems to be, which probably means I didn't work anything else hard enough, but at least SOMETHING is sore. Not crippling sore, just stiff.
Boy, I've really got nothing to report this morning. Going to the chiro in a few minutes, and must try to smash through the remains of my quarterly code after that, since code freeze was, er, yesterday. Amazingly, since I have been offline (and when I say that, I mean 'not logged into Too', rather than actually away from a computer/the internet), I have become more interested in my job again. Okay, maybe it's not so amazing at all. It's still not the most exciting job in the world, but I'm more involved with it than I'd been for a long time, and that's really nice. I miss talking to people, but there is email and there are blogs and I get enough interaction that way that I don't feel completely disconnected. And a huge plus of not being logged in is that at 4pm when I'm done with the work day, I don't have the social thing keeping me at the computer for hours and hours after I'm off work. Big, *big* improvement; getting away from the computer is *so* good for me. And speaking of which...
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: walked 3 miles, gymmed. Things I will do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, eat 1-2 pieces of fruit, see Harry Potter. :) (Okay, maybe that last isn't exactly *good* for me, but it'll be fun!)
Walked THREE miles AND went to the gym AND er ate five cookies and no froot. Well, oh well. :) Tomorrow there will be froot! Oh, and I wrote 1200 words, and I'm very hrm about it. It's a first person thing and I don't want it to sound like Jo. I'm going to keep writing it through the weekend and then maybe I'll think about trying to write it again in limited 3rd and see if that works for me. Hrm, hrm, hrm.
Ted and I just finished watching The Shadow, which wasn't quite as entertaining as I remembered it being, but which I still like pretty well. I'm just a sucker for the pulp fiction 1930s comics converted to movies, I guess. And it's a beautiful clear evening and the sun'll be up for another couple hours and I must convince *myself* to not be up that long. So, g'night! :)
miles to Lothlorien: 17
ytd wordcount: 195,500
I must remember to watch the Belmont on Saturday. If I can figure out what *time* the damned race is.
What do I know today? Not terribly much. We managed to pick Emily up yesterday despite not having her phone number or knowing her apartment number, and so we all went to see The Day After Tomorrow, which we generally enjoyed. As Liralen (I think it was Liralen) said, the science wasn't nearly as bad as it could've been, and the special effects were terrific. As Shaun said, "I wanted more disasters," and as Emily said, "Yes, but what happened *next*?" But it was pretty enjoyable.
We went out to dinner, and I came home with the vague idea of logging on for a while, but was thwarted by a phone call from Angie, who was calling to wish me a happy birthday, so we talked for quite a long time and laughed a lot and it was really nice to hear from her. :) And then it was late, so I went to bed instead of doing anything else. :) Also failed to get up and write this morning, but I'll try to make up for it tonight, and if not... well, then not. :)
Things I did yesterday that were good for me: ate an orange, walked 2 miles. Things I will do today that are good for me: walk 2 miles, go to the gym, eat 2 pieces of froot.
miles to Lothlorien: 14
Well, I had a very fine birthday. Mom and Dad came over for dinner, which was deep fried halibut and homemade french fries and corn on the cob (yum!) and cake and ice cream, and everybody brought me good l00t. Mostly completely unexpected l00t, too! The only thing I expected was the latest Luna book, SILVER'S EDGE. Ted also got me a really cool history book about the history of the queen piece in chess (I forget the exact title, I'll get it when I go back downstairs) (ah, it's BIRTH OF THE CHESS QUEEN), the next several Ultimate X-Men graphic novels that I hadn't had, and a GREAT BIG SWORD! *laugh* A quite terrific 2-handed wooden practice sword, which I'd been staring at for *ages* at Bosco's but never bought myself. Now we'll have to get him one. :) Mom and Dad brought me a gorgeous flower bouquet and some gold hoop earrings that are *really* lovely, and Shaun got me a really cool wild berry cookbook because Dad and I go berry picking every summer and he thought that'd be neat (and he was RIGHT!) and a copy of the CBC Anne of Green Gables, which is another one of those things I've been wanting forever but never quite got around to getting, and a Blaine's gift certificate, and I think that was everything. It was quite enough! I thought I cleaned right up. :)
Then we stayed up way too late playing City of Heroes. *sheepish look*
It was a really nice day. Did I mention--no, I didn't. I had a semi-cleaning-frenzy and we decided to remove the papasan, because we got new furniture (which I didn't know we'd been going to do, when I Santa brought the papasan!) and I put a little bookshelf where it had been, and moved all the (gaming and manuscript) stuff off the hearth and onto the bookshelf, and moved the cat tree from over by the back door to by the big bookshelves, and now the back half of the living room looks much, much prettier and more open. Of course, you still can't sit there, but nothing's perfect. :) I'm in a good mood. :)
Today I will do the following things that are good for me: walk 2 miles, eat 1 or 2 pieces of fruit.
My hair has reached That Length again. That Length is the one where it's suddenly too long and too thick to tuck behind my ears without it just falling loose again right away. That Length is where the only thing I can stand to do is put it in a ponytail or a headband or back in some fashion, which inevitably causes me to say, "Well, if all I'm doing with it is putting it in a ponytail, why shouldn't I just cut it off? That'd be a lot easier." That Length is several inches before it'll stay behind my shoulders, assuming it'll even do that, which I donno because I haven't had long straight hair since I was 11 years old. (20 years ago!) The last time I had long hair, ten years ago, it was permed, and I don't particularly remember it staying behind my shoulders then, although it probably did.
On the other hand, if I cut it now, I will never have satisfactorily long Rogue hair when X3 comes out. I know, I know. I'm such a geek. It is the thought of proper Rogue hair at X3 which has prevented me from cutting it *this* far. Let's see how long that lasts.
'course, you know, if I hadn't cut it several times, it'd all be the length of the anime flips (as Flit calls the longer stripey bits) and it probably *would* stay behind my shoulders. Bitter dredges, I tell you. Bitter!
I've been having a little fit of book-arranging. The TBR shelves are much tidier and more organized now, and the As and Bs on the other shelves are, if not alphabetized, at least in their proper locations at the beginning of the shelves. It is possible that for my next trick I'll go put the Cs in place. It's equally possible that I'll read one more book (17 since last Sunday) and go for another little walk with the dorgy.
miles to Lothlorien: 12
Happy birthday to me! And to Janis! And to Lynette! And to Marilyn Monroe and Superman! And, no doubt, to many other fine people!
And thank you, everybody, who sent me birthday email. *beam*
I wrote 1400 words this morning! On Thunderbird Falls rewrites, which isn't really what I'd intended to start working on, but hey, the muse moved me, I guess, so who'm I to argue? Perhaps later today I'll fix the rest of the chapter. Or perhaps I won't! We'll see! ahahaha. Ahem. *laugh* I'm in a good mood today. :)
Soon I shall make myself a birthday cake. MmmMMMMmmmm.
ytd wordcount: 194,300