We have just returned from seeing the HHGTTG movie. Overall, I was really very happy with it. There's lots straight from the books, and plenty of laugh-out-loud bits, and despite Marvin looking and sounding all wrong, he was actually quite perfect (unlike Zaphod, whose heads and third arm they really did screw up. For ease of filming, yeah yeah yeah I see why they did it, but eh, I would not have done Zaphod the way they did in many aspects. Nonetheless, I can't say he wasn't pretty Zaphod-like.) Arthur was wonderful, Trillian was blue-eyed, which was wrong, but otherwise she was great, and I don't think they could've cast Ford better than they did. I really liked Mos Def in that role. So yeah. I went in expecting sheer disaster and came out really quite happy with it. It's not X-Men level rockfulness, but I was happy with it. :)
But I was the only one in the theatre with a towel. That was a little disappointing. I mean, I know you can't expect everyone to be a hoopy frood, but surely there must be one more person in Anchorage who is!
In other movie news, the Revenge of the Sith trailer rocked, and Ted grows ever-more hopeful about Batman Begins with each new trailer. I grow ever-more dubious, but hold out the small hope that I will be pleasantly surprised. :)
The high today was 71. In April. In Alaska. This is a record. The average high in Anchorage on April 29 is 49. Let's hear it for global warming, man. :)
Tomorrow, heart walk with Jai! And eight thousand other people!
miles to Rauros Falls: 184.5
Today I have read three books. This is not very much like writing, or playing outside, but my God it was satisfying. So there. :)
Except, argh. I re-read this book, LOOKING FOR THE MAHDI, which is really quite good, because the word "copacetic" is used twice in the book and I couldn't remember who'd used it the first time and there's sort of a reveal at the end when it's used again so I wanted to know who'd said it first, nor could I find it in the skimming re-read of the middle, where it's first used, so I've been meaning for years to re-read the book and find out who said it the first time. Only I just finished re-reading it and I missed the first instance. And I still can't find it on skimming the middle. Argh! I want to be able to grep a hardcopy, dammit!
In other news, it's 69 degrees out, which is just ridiculous.
I didn't mean to log on this morning, but I had to order food for wretched Zilli, so since I was here I thought I'd make a quick journal entry. :)
Yesterday was pretty much a wash, writing-wise. Got maybe 5 or 600 words done. Tired, tired me. Did too much EXERMACIZIN' on Wednesday. Although, y'know, really, going outside to play doesn't seem very much like exermacizin'. Gotta say, I have a great deal more sympathy for my Mom's "Go outside and play, it's a beautiful day!" when we were kids now. :) Although I still think if you're telling kids that, you oughta go outside and play yourself. I mean, if it's that important...
Anyway, biked 13 miles (piker! i didn't do the hill at the end of the trail!) and walked about 3.5 miles yesterday, and indeed I did get sunblock, so I haven't improved my sunburn any. Which is good, because what I've got ITCHES. Rassle frassle mumble mutter stupid sunburn who ever heard of getting sunburned in *April* for god'd sake mutter mumble rassle frassle
Oh, incidentally, the neighbor was arrested as "part of the wrap-up of an ongoing investigation", or at least I think it was part of the wrap-up, but we still don't know exactly what the investigation was about.
Uh. Oh! And I went to see Al Pacino's "The Merchant of Venice" last night. It was very good, although the sound quality was poor and I don't know if that's because the Bear Tooth has lousy sound or if it was the track on the film. I did spend a lot of time wondering if Joseph Fiennes' hair was period (I suspect so, but boy was it bad) and generally wishing he wasn't quite so soppy-seeming. (In the great "Shakespeare In Love" debate, I came down firmly on the side of Ned.) He's a reasonably good actor, just soppy-looking. So that was a bit distracting, but Al Pacino was scenery-chewing vengeful and Jeremy Irons, as the Merchant, was *really* *good*. Heartbreaking. *siiiiigh* So, yeah, overall, a win. Good stuff.
Ok, I should get some breakfast and get to work now. And, er, do more laundry.
miles to Rauros Falls: 182.5
miles to Hobbiton: 99.7
To yesterday's numbers add one sunburn. :) And then I forgot to buy sunblock at the store last night. *exasperated look* I'll dig around and see if I've got any left from last year, but I think I was Efficient in cleaning the kitchen a while ago and threw it all out. Dur.
V. tired today. (Go figure.) Haven't gotten myself downstairs to write yet. I'm only going for 1100 words today. I figure if I get more it's a miracle. :)
Yeah, okay. I was gonna post more, but I have no brain. Must take what little I've got and attempt to write some book with it.
Oh yeah. And do laundry.
An entry mostly made up of numbers:
40K reached on FIREBIRD DECEPTION
1 salwar-kameez opened (it's beautiful! it fits! it'll fit better soon!)
23 miles biked
2 3 miles walked
1 monitor on the fritz
1 pair of size 14 shorts falling off me
2 moose viewed
3 bald eagles sighted
3 "way rad!" comments by passers-by regarding the recumbent
1 half hour spent weight lifting
It is *way* too damned nice out to be indoors. I'm going to go play ball with the dog. :)
miles to Hobbiton: 86.7
miles to Rauros Falls: 178 179
ytd wordcount: 101,800
God I'm cool. :)
So there's this mean man who lives across the circle from us. He's got a southern accent so strong he sounds like he's not speaking English, and I've never heard him utter a sentence that didn't have at least one swear word in it. He's got a pit bull sort of dog that he yells at all the time, and he's constantly buying new toys: cars, ATVs, boats, stereo equipment, you name it. He's got security cameras all over the outside of his house, and he never smiles.
Yesterday I left for my walk and there were a *lot* of cars, including a police car, sitting around his house and across the street. Apparently while I was on my walk, I missed the FBI coming in with battering rams and shields and yellow-emblazoned FBI jackets and storming his house. When I came back around, there were even more cars, and a big white van had been pulled up to his garage and they were loading Stuff into it, and just after I walked by, three vehicles drove away, all with very clean-cut nice-looking men in them (some of the FBI agents, apparently). For the rest of the afternoon, the van was there, and there were people in and out and clearing stuff away.
We'd been talking about this guy just a few days before, and Ted said, "I think he's a drug dealer." We're pretty sure he was right, at this point. We're waiting to see the story in the paper. O.O
All right, I got 1100 words written this morning and I stopped for breakfast and I've been totally dorking around for the last hour, so I'm going to write a blog entry so I'm at least *typing*, and then perhaps I can get myself to write the other 1500 words I need to get done today. Sheesh.
Record-breaking temperatures here in Alaska this week. It was 65 the last couple days and is supposed to get as warm today. I get to go BIKING after my words are done, so you'd think I'd been inspired instead of dorking around, but nope. Dork dork dork, instead.
Mom brought me a perfectly fantastic brown tweed straight-line skirt with a kick pleat and a narrow row of buttons up the left front. She'd bought it in Ireland a few years ago because it was irresistable (it really is a fantastic skirt) and she's since undergrown it, so since I've lost weight she brought it to see if I'd fit, and I DO! Mom's four inches shorter than me. I never thought I'd fit in anything of hers. :) It'll fit even better in another 5 pounds, and I need to find some good shoes to wear with it, and an even better shirt, because it's just an awesome skirt. Very 40s. I luffs it.
We have reduced our books by another two boxes since last I posted, though we haven't yet brought 'em to Title Wave. We are long past the point where we thought we'd have to get divorced if we culled any more books. :) We've also removed all the shelves on the wall by the fireplace, and the wall looks very naked and empty now. Also like it needs to be washed, hole-filled and repainted. :)
Last night was my RWA meeting, which was probably more fun than any I've been to previously. There were new members (not all that new, really, but I hadn't been since sometime toward the end of last year, so) and it was much more organized than any meeting I've been to here previously, so that was really cool. Plus somebody complimented my cemurphy site and someone else observed that I had lost weight, so life was good. :)
Ted is DONE! with culinary school! And he is very glad to be done, and I gotta say, the meals he "just throws together" now are really quite astonishing. I mean, y'know, mostly we still just have ordinary food, but then when he makes something special, wowee. Culinary school *good*!
What else? Not much, I guess. :)
ytd wordcount: 100,000 (YAAAAAY!)
miles to Rauros Falls: 176
So Ted had his final for his ... I can't spell it. Class. Today. :) They made up about thirty different tiny dishes and invited all the culinary students' families and everyone to come visit and eat, and so we did. And it was very, *very* good. I tried many different things, although I wasn't *very* adventuresome, and I liked almost all of what I tried. MmmMMMmmm.
Then I came home and went on a 15 mile bike ride, which caused Marith to say I was virtuous, but I hadn't meant to be virtuous. I was just really looking forward to biking. :) Marith said that made me even MORE virtuous! But if I go do the lower-body workout that I'm supposed to do tonight, *that'll* be virtuous. I'm not at all sure I've got the muscle strength to do it, after my bike ride. Guess I'll find out. :)
Oh, and I got another 1100 words written. I'm thinking I'll probably sit down and write another hundred (or more) tonight so that I actually hit my 3K.
I love summertime. :)
(Update: worked out, finished my 1200 words, and packed up 2 boxes of books to bring to Title Wave. Yay!)
miles to Hobbiton: 63.7
ytd wordcount: 97,800
It's been a good morning. 1800 words so far, and I'm going to go get another 1200 done after lunch, I think. Walked a couple of miles with the puppy, and it is beeeeeooooooteeful out. Supposed to get up into the low 60s this week! Yay! Aaaand this afternoon one of Ted's classes is having a buffet banquet thing that we're going to, and life is good. :)
...except Zilli's great weight is tilting my monitor backward. *removes cat from monitor and fixes angle* Now Zilli's baleful stare is being directed at me. :)
Let's see. I just got the press release (at least that's what I think it is!) for URBAN SHAMAN, and it bears a resemblence to the book I wrote, which seems good. *laugh* Oh! And I just had it verified that US will hit the shelves on May 31. That is the most kick-ass birthday present EVER! EEEEEEEEEEEE!
Erica! Is it the May issue of RoF that the US ad is in? (I don't have your email address!)
miles to Rauros Falls: 174
ytd wordcount: 96,600
Oh my, I am the Kit of All Exercising today. And hoo boy did it feel weird to get on a mountain bike after riding a recumbent for the last two summers. The mountain bike's still faster for me, and I sure do like being able to stand on the pedals, but man, the numb/achy wrists and stiff upper back and the head angle are a big fat minus. I decided to take the mountain bike out 'cause I wanted to check out the trails, and the recumbent is just no good at all if there's snow. But now I know there's no snow for at least four and a half miles out toward Kincaid Park, and I'm pretty confident there's no for the other three miles, either. So I'll go on the 'bent tomorrow, and probably only use the mountain bike when I want to go out and ride the trails in the park.
And, since Emily was here this morning, we went out for a walk along the coastal trail, and when I came back from biking I lifted weights. ALL the exercise today! :)
Emily and I went to see "Ice Princess" yesterday, which was really cute. We enjoyed it lots. Then we went to meet Jai and Tori at the museum to look at the dinosaurs, but all unexpectedly, there were no dinosaurs at that museum. Apparently there's another museum now, and that's where the display is. Who knew? We didn't! So we'll do the dinosaurs another time, and instead we went and had an italian soda, hot chocolate, tea, and hot chocolate, respectively. :)
And then, because Emily was in town, Ted made a *ridiculously* good dinner. Baked halibut stuffed with spinach and feta cheese over mushroom risotto, with a very delicately flavored lemon white sauce over all of it. *falls over* And string beans, but that wasn't the impressive part. *falls over again* It was *really* *good*! What a guy I married! :)
Ok, off to do, er, something else now. :)
miles to Rauros Falls: 170.5
miles to Hobbiton: 48.2
On the off chance that you check my blog, Emily, I misremembered your room number and the hotel can't put me through to you because the room's in somebody else's name and I don't know the name. Call me!
From Erica this morning:
Guess what *I* saw last night?!?!?!?I was paging through my newest issue of /Realms of Fantasy/, when what should I see but . . .
A GORGEOUS, FULL-PAGE COLOR AD FOR URBAN SHAMAN!!!!!!
Yea, and verily, there was much ado, and squeeeing, and I almost called you to tell you except that I didn't have your phone number handy.
Yay, yay, yay. I cannot tell you how much that thrilled me. :)
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! MUST. GET. REALMS OF FANTASY. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! *falls over*
A good writing day today. I finished my first new chapter and launched into rewriting the intro of the next chapter, and ended up with six pages of new text. That's good. About 2900 words all told today, plus 1700 or so from dinking around the day before that. Enjoying it much more now, and I think I can use pretty much everything I've already got written, although I've *got* to get Alisha back Stateside for a couple-three chapters, and that might have to happen between what I'm doing now and, well, anyway, it seems to be going well. :)
Emily is in town! We don't know exactly what it is we're doing, but she's here and there will be hanging out! That'll be good! :)
All right. I have promised myself that today I'll start weight lifting, and I haven't done it yet, so I'm going to, uh, go read a comic book until dinner settles some more, and then lift some weights. Because I Said So, That's Why.
miles to Rauros Falls: 166
ytd wordcount: 94,800
Meme: Take lyrics to a song, paste them to Google Language Tools. Translate them from English to German, then from German to French, then from French back to English. Post the lyrics on your blog and ask people to guess what song it is.
I on planet on a wing and a prayer, steal my grubby halation purely shade sees, the corner of my waessernTraums the eye of A do not steal outside unthreatened the light of morning could this heart roast enough the roof of the night are a feeling aiming at there the comparison this one of shifted animation, a-Zustand of Bliss cannot my eyes of the dependent encircling to precisely hold and absurd skies earth-bound a piece of suitable, I
This morning's weigh-in puts me at 25 pounds lost since October 7th.
Um. Anything else? I decided my book was boring and I'm writing a new chapter or two to spice it up. Fundamental of storytelling: when in doubt, have things go wrong.
I got my salwar kameez set, but I don't get to open it until I hit 40K words, which is about 10K away. Rewards good. :)
And it looks like we'll be going to Oahu for our vacation! And I think that's all. Time to go back to work.
miles to Rauros Falls: 164
I just got into a completely fascinating discussion about Tennyson's "Ulysses" with Trent. It's probably my favorite poem of all time; if I had to choose one poem to be able to read for the rest of my life and no others, it would very likely be "Ulysses". (That would suck, but that's not the point.) Anyway, it's so wonderful I was stabbing myself in the heart over it, and Trent said, "You're reading that on purpose? It's so *depressing*!"
I don't think it's depressing at all. I think it's wildly uplifting. Like, it takes my breath away and makes me feel like I can fly. My God. I just can't breathe, reading that poem. But then Trent said, "I'm going to die, but *you* may yet do something cool," was his interpretation of it, and the idea came down on me like a load of bricks. And I can totally see where he gets that, now that he's said it, but *wow*, talk about *totally* not how I ever interpreted it.
I always took it as him recognizing that ruling a country wasn't his strength, that leaving it behind to "mine own Telemachus", who *is* a good ruler, and Ulysses striking out to do what he does best, which is battle the great monsters and be a great hero, even if he hasn't got the youthful strength he once had. "He works his work, I mine." This is a man who understands what he's good at, and what others are good at.
And sure, all of the language, and "to sail beyond the sunset, and all the baths of western stars, until I die," absolutely, sure, I can see the death interpretation very easily, now that somebody's said it.
But it's not at *all* how I see it. To me that's the inevitable end, of course, "It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew"; yes, he will die, in time, but
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in the old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal-temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
This is not a man who is dying. This is a man who is *living*! My *God*! To have such passion, such strength, and such self-awareness! "Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world." That new world that they seek isn't *death*, but *glory*, a life spent not fading away in the line of duty, but spent lived to its fullest.
I must try to find the paper I wrote on this poem in college. I did not know at the time that Tennyson was the prof's favorite poet (and this professor was known for grading tough anyway). I would not have had the nerve to write a paper on "Ulysses" had I known this. As it was, I got a high A on the paper, the highest grade in the class, so it's a good thing I didn't know. :)
*pantpantpant* :)
Zilli has no fear of me. He was on my chair and I came up and sat on him and he didn't even twitch. He had no fear at all that I was actually going to squish him. I had to pick him up and move him to get him off the chair. He will like me much less in a few hours when we've brought him (and the other animals) to the vet to get microchipped and vaccinated, though! I'll teach him! erm. or something.
Anyway, the purpose of this entry is mostly for the wordcount. I'm about 28K into FD and curious to see how this scene I'm writing is going to turn out. Chug chug chug.
ytd wordcount: 90,200
miles to Rauros Falls: 160
It's snowing. Bah. The weather forecast said it was going to, but it's been wrong for the last six weeks any time it's predicted any kind of change in the weather, so I was hoping it'd be wrong again today. No such luck. I walked anyway, so I feel *extremely* superior. I'm hoping it'll warm up some this afternoon so I can, or so I'll feel more like, walking again.
Shaun rescued me from having to do something extreme like go work out from boredom again last night. Actually, I don't think I would've anyway, because I was doing pretty well with sitting there staring vacantly at the books, but I didn't want to read and I didn't want to use a computer and watching a whole movie seemed like way too much commitment and there was no L&O on (I still think that should be illegal) and so I was sitting there and Shaun said, "Gargoyles?" And I admitted I'd considered watching Gargoyles, but I was too lazy to get up, unwrap the package, and put it in the DVD player. So Shaun did it for me. *laugh* But I DID turn on the television! Of course, I had the remote right next to my hand... :)
Anyway, that really is a pretty damned good show. I watched the first 4 episodes, which I'd never seen, and decided I was too sleepy to watch the 5th and final part of it, so I turned it off and then L&O *was* on, and Elliot's wife had left him, so I had to stay up another half hour to see if they'd tell me any more about that. They didn't. Fortunately for me, the next episode was an older one, not the next one sequentially, so I didn't have to stay up til midnight to find out more about Elliot's home life. :)
Gotten my quota in so far today. Gonna go write some more in a bit here. Somebody rejected Angles today, the fools, the fools. Perhaps this fall when I've finished writing everything I'm being paid for I'll give it another edit. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt.
I need to make new bread.
miles to Rauros Falls: 158
Last night Ted made grilled chicken sandwiches on foccacia bread with a garlic aeole and grilled sundried tomatoes and onions for dinner. And roasted potatoes and green beans. It was *insanely* good. InSANEly good! He was very disappointed he forgot to put the feta cheese on the sandwiches. We told him it'd be okay if he just made the meal again. It was *really* good.
It turns out I have one size 10 pair of jeans and one size 8 pair of jeans, because I can't read, or something. The tens fit just fine. I'm not dumb enough to try the 8s on and get depressed about them, though. I seem to be going down a jeans size about every 10 pounds, so with any luck in another couple months I'll be brave enough to try on the 8s and see if they fit. I would really, *really* like to buy 8s for summer shorts and stuff. That'd be cool.
It's windy out. That means going for a walk is going to be cold. *sulk*
Bizzy bizzy day, or at least it's seemed like it. Got up earlyish and wrote a little, then finished reading SLANT, the Greg Bear book I started yesterday. Then we zoomed to the banks, went shopping, shopped some more, came home, went out again to go to the bank again, went shopping, and then I walked the dog, who was very impatient by then.
That was Too Much Shopping. But I now have a couple pairs of size 10 jeans, which zip up with no problem at all, although unless I stand up Real Straight Indeed and suck it all in, there's quite a lot of flab hanging out over 'em. Oh well. They fit, and I will lose the flab.
And now I'm going to go take aspirin, because ow, headache.
miles to Rauros Falls: 154
I got the sari, although I very nearly didn't. I was going to be v. disappointed if I'd talked myself into bidding and then didn't get it. Silly Kit. :) Mom and I think it actually laces in back, so it ought to even /fit/. Yay. :)
Thinks to do today:
1. call vet
2. call chiro
bonus call: called dentist
3. walk
4. write
5. go to bonk
6. go to other bonk
7. buy jeans
I'm full of posty goodness today.
Soda bread recipe behind the cut tag, for Shannon and anybody else who wants it. (no! no! It's JUST for Shannon! ahahahahaha!)
ahem. o.o
ytd wordcount: 85,400
miles to Rauros Falls: 149
Brown Oatmeal Soda Bread
2 1/4 c white flour
2 c wheat flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 c oatmeal
2 c buttermilk
1 egg
Soak the oatmeal in the buttermilk while you mix the other ingredients together. Add the egg to it and beat it a bit.
Whisk the dry ingredients together. Pour in the wet ingredients and stir or knead until you have a sticky but manageable dough. Shape into 2 7" round loaves or 1 larger loaf and bake for 40 minutes at 350 degrees on a greased cookie sheet.
Then revel in its goodness. :)
I was talking to Mom a while ago, and she said they'd been looking at pictures from when Deirdre and Gavin and Breic visited two years ago when Breic was 6 months old, and she wondered how much weight I'd lost since then, because she and Dad were astounded at how different I looked. So because we were talking about it I went and got a picture from when I was at my fattest. I happen to know this because it was the bike ride that made it impossible for me to ignore my hurt back anymore, and I got weighed at the doctor's office a couple days after the picture was taken. I weighed 207 then. I weigh 164 now. The second picture is from a few minutes ago.
All right, I just can't STAND it anymore, I HAD to bid on that remarkably-colored sari. If I win it, I will see if it has seams that can be let out enough to make it fit me once I hit my weight goal (I did email and ask that, but got no answer), and if I do not win it, at least I'll have driven the price up some, because it's damned cheap and if I've gotten this much lust out of just gazing at pictures, it should cost more. -.-
I do not have irrational urges to own clothes. I can think of exactly one other outfit in my entire life that I've wanted as much as I want that outfit, and that's my grey pinstripe suit. There's stuff at J. Peterman that I want, but that stuff doesn't have a MUST HAVE NOW rider attached to it. The sari might not either, if the auction weren't ending, but it is and man. I want that outfit. Oh well, that's what allowances are for, right? Right.
And if it can't be made to fit me, perhaps Mom and I can figure out something cool to do with the awesome awesome fabric.
Good: I've already hit my word quota for the day.
Bad: I got my hair cut a couple of weeks ago (no one noticed) to get rid of some more of the dead ends in the shorter layer, and until today I was actually much happier with the haircut than I had been with the layer being there but longer. Today I found out that the shorter layer is too short to successfully wind my hair up and stick one of those claw thingies around it to make a sort of messy reversed french twist thing, and now I'm really crabby about it. :P I really liked putting my hair up in those claw things. :P
Indifferent: it's official weigh-in day. Scale says I'm down half a pound this week. I don't actually believe it; I think I'm down more than that, but I expect I'll see the difference next week (or tomorrow).
Neither here nor there: I did our tax extension paperwork last night. My rough estimates suggest we owe about $2K less than I expected, which is nice, and I wrote them a check for about two thirds of what I think we'll owe them. Need to make an appointment with the tax attorney person now and see if she can help us make it all come out more or less evenly.
Also: I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go buy new jeans this weekend. I put on my newly-washed 12s yesterday and they were too loose, and today, having worn 'em for a day, they're baggy and sloppy and I've discovered I *really hate* wearing clothes that are too big for me. So wish me luck in fitting into 10s. I'm almost sure I will...
miles to Hobbiton: 39.4
I wish the bike trails were all clear. Biking around the lake and around neighborhoods is okay, but it's not nearly as much fun as biking the coastal trail. But I'm not man enough to bike through long patches of slushy snow. Sulk.
I love the days when I get up early enough to be writing by 8am. I just feel so much more focused and capable. 3300 words in 3 hours this morning, and I'm going to go write some more in a few minutes here. Chanti and I went for a walk, and I think I'm going to go biking later this afternoon. I somehow suspect I may end up being obliged to do another weights work out this evening, too, just because I've already gotten so much done today and by this evening I may be bored again. :)
This Irish soda bread recipe is *so* *damned* *good*.
(update: 4500 words total for the day. that's purdy good. also, i have broken 20K on this book! i think i'll go biking now!)
ytd wordcount: 83,200
miles to Rauros Falls: 144.5
Booteeful day out. I was obliged to walk 4.5 miles, which was very nice, and to write 1400 words, which felt kind of like being a piker, but I got the next chapter started and ought to write the rest of it tomorrow. If I do 2 chapters every 3 days I'll be sassisfied. 3 every 3 would be better, but 2 is good.
That's about it. :)
ytd wordcount: 78,700
miles to Rauros Falls: 142.5
One of the problems with the days getting so long (compounded by stupid, *stupid* daylight savings) is that there's all this bright evening (it's 9:34 as I type this sentence, and the sky is twilighty but not dark yet) and I feel like I should be out *doing* things. But I'd already walked 3 miles and written 2300 words and it'd gotten pretty windy so I didn't really want to go biking, and besides I've got a crampy knot in my calf already so it seemed like biking would be overdoing it. I'm apparently in writer-head, because reading isn't an appealing prospect (which SUCKS), I don't feel like sitting in front of computer or tv screens to watch movies or read news, and the prospect of playing a computer game makes me curl my lip with distaste.
So I just spent nearly an hour working out in the garage, out of sheer boredom. This is an act of desperation, and I mean, come on. How lame is that? Reduced to working out just so I've got something to do? I need a life. o.O
ytd wordcount: 77,300
miles to Rauros Falls: 138
The best laid plans o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley.
So we are not going to Europe in May, because doing so was contingent on the retention bonus. Nor will I be going to any conferences this summer, for precisely the same reason. If anyone I know would like to go to Writer's Weekend, I've got a registration paid for and there are no refunds, so I'll either sell it to you (there's already a break in the price, as I'm a WW alumni) or if you can make a very fine argument, just give it to you as a scholarship fund.
However, since the closest thing we've had to a vacation alone together in the 8 years we've been married was a weekend in Vancouver 5 years ago, Ted and I are goddamned well going on vacation anyway. Tickets to Hawaii are very cheap right now, so we're going to Hawaii for 10 days, which will cost many thousands of dollars less than the Europe trip and should be plenty of fun. Neither of us have ever been, which is kind of amazing, because Ted's been to like 42 states, and I'm an Alaskan, so by rights I should've gone there like eight times by now. :)
The weather is improving by leaps and bounds, or at least by degrees and hours, but the trails are not yet clear enough to bike on. I know it's only the 11th of April, but I wanna get out on the trails! Snivel! Still, I managed to walk 4 miles yesterday and bike 10, so it can't be all that bad, really.
Mmm. And I have successfully made a new loaf of soda bread, and I think I've finally got the amount of time it really needs to cook so there aren't any squishy parts down. I've been increasing it by a couple minutes at a time, and it appears that 40 is the magic number. Although really, it ought to be 42.
1500 or so words so far today. I think I might go write some more and finish up this chapter. That'd be good. :) Also, Ted fixed the washer, so I think I'll go do some laundry. Real live wire, me. :)
miles to Hobbiton: 27.9
miles to Rauros Falls: 137
I want this. It isn't rational; for one, I have no idea where I'd ever wear it, and for two, it wouldn't fit. I don't even think it'd fit if I was 20 pounds lighter, because I've always had big boobs and while it'd probably (almost certainly) fit in waist and hip (it almost would now), the boobs, they get in the way. But *augh*, because it's *beautiful*! I *wants* it! O.O
I got my retention bonus check from Caremark today. This is a check that I expected to be around $3500 after taxes. It was slightly under $400. I expect I will be told that this is very specifically the retention part of the expected payout, and that the rest was essentially profit-sharing, which I expect I will be told that I am not eligible for because they laid me off.
I am contractually obliged to not say anything derogatory about Caremark in any public forums, so I'll just let you all imagine what I have to say on the matter.
What really pisses me off is I asked specifically about the retention bonus when they laid me off, but I did not have it spelled out in small words, and because they had referred to the entire package as the "retention bonus" but then broke it down into smaller bits, some of which were technically the retention bonus and some of which were not, I am dead certain that I am good and truly fucked with no recourse.
In other exciting news, some bit of tubing in the toilet came undone when I flushed it this evening, and there were a few interesting minutes where I stood there pinching it off and wondering if I was going to have to stay there until someone came home to rescue me in order to prevent the house from flooding. This was compounded by the fact that I had just stripped out of my biking gear, and was wearing panties and a sports bra, and I was quite sure Shaun would be home before Ted got home. It was actually pretty funny. And my, but water went everywhere.
And to wrap it all up, the washing machine broke. The agitator...thing. Tube. Cord. Thing what makes the agitator go. So the agitator does not go anymore. Band. Reel. There is a real word for that thing and I can't remember it. BELT. Agitator belt! That's it. It's broken. o.o And we can't get the piece to fix it til Monday, which is no real big deal, but :p
How's *your* day been? :/
miles to Hobbiton: 18.2
miles to Rauros Falls: 131
ytd wordcount: 75,000
Didn't go to gaming last night. I've been very very tired, so instead I stayed home, watched most of Divine Secrets of the YaYa Sisterhood on TNT, and went to bed before 10pm. That was actually pretty nice. My stupid shoulder still hurts, but the headache is gone. Yay. :)
More geekiness. Comic meme answers so far, behind the cut tag.
miles to Rauros Falls: 129
1. X-Men, overall:
Rogue. Duh. :) She's tough, she's got great hair, and she's got enough angst to sink the Titanic. She's also unstoppable. With her powers, particularly her inherent power (to absorb other people's powers and memories), you've got to be careful of how you write her, because it's really easy to make a character that powerful a twink. But mostly they don't. In fact, usually if they screw up it's in the other direction.
1a. Age of Apocalypse:
not Blink, although that was a good guess
1b. (New) X-Men:
Not Beast, although that's also a good guess.
1c. Uncanny X-Men:
Not Gambit. Try the other one that seems screamingly obvious, and put Gambit in another title. :)
1d. X-Treme X-Men:
Ted guessed Rogue on this one, because she had a really good storyline in X-Treme. Although I didn't mean to have a specific Rogue title since she's my overall favorite, I think he's right.
1e. Ultimate X-Men
Ted and Deen both guessed Colossus, which surprises me.
2. Spider-Man:
Aberdeen and Irysangel got it right with Spidey himself. I've had a crush on Spider-Man since I was 3 years old. He's cute, he's smart, and he's got a smart mouth. And who can resist a man in red tights?
3. ElfQuest:
Irys was not unreasonable in guessing Ember, as I played her for like seven years, but in fact she got it right with her second guess, and Deen got it: Strongbow. It's the skinny white boy thing, plus the strong and silent type, plus the nose (which got sadly re-shaped as the comic went on), plus he is god-awful stubborn, and I, y'know, like, relate to that.
(Bearclaw, which was Adam's guess, is a *damned fine* guess, particularly considering that Strongbow and Bearclaw were best friends.)
4. Strangers in Paradise
Ted guessed Katchoo, which is certainly right out of the main cast of characters, but I think there's one other character I like just a little more, overall.
5. Transmetropolitan
Adam guessed Spider, and Adam is utterly correct. Foul-mouthed, vicious, cruel, and desperately dedicated to the pursuit of truth, Spider is just ... wow. I said once I couldn't figure out if it was Spider Jerusalem's love kittens I wanted to have, or Warren Ellis's. Garrett assured me it was Spider's. :)
6. Birds of Prey
Not even Ted got this one. :)
7. Justice League
Adam got it with Batman. I mean, c'mon. He's *Batman*. Do I need to explain anything more?
8. Ultimates
Thor. I cannot stand the regular world Thor, but omigod do I love the Ultimate Thor. This is a dude who refuses to help save the world until the president triples the foreign aid budget. I love it. :) Plus he gets all the good lines. (Black Widow, to Tony Stark: "THAT'S your plan? You're going to get the madman who thinks he's a god to teleport the ship away? We're DOOMED." Thor: "Oh ye of little faith." Hee hee hee.)
9. Bone
Actually, it's not Fone Bone, although that's a good guess on Irys's part.
10. Ghost
And the morph of the tv show character meme: the comic book character meme. If you all don't know who my favorite X-Man is, I'm going to point and laugh at you. :)
1) Post a list of 10 comic books you read (current or cancelled!)
2) Have your friends guess your favorite character from each comic
3) When guessed, tell us why you like that character
1. X-Men. There is one screamingly obvious answer to this one, but the X-Men get subcategories. The answers are *different* for each subcategory, and reflect what I think is the best portrayal of the character in question for each title. :)
a. Age of Apocalypse
b. (New) X-Men
c. Uncanny X-Men
d. X-Treme X-Men
e. Ultimate X-Men
2. Spider-Man
3. ElfQuest
4. Strangers in Paradise
5. Transmetropolitan
6. Birds of Prey
7. Justice League
8. Ultimates
9. Bone
10. Ghost
Just spent the last few hours reading ebear's HAMMERED, which was good enough to make me feel inadequate. This is normally a reaction reserved for writers like Guy Gavriel Kay and C.S. Freidman, so that's some rather nice company. And it's silly, because I just don't *write* like they do, but clearly part of me would like to be able to. :) Anyway, good book, my favorite character survived through the end of the book, and the sequel will be out in July. Is good. :)
Sad. There were no tickets cheap enough to fly to Vancouver this weekend on, which means there is no going to The Yale and watching Jim Byrnes play. V. sad.
Really *really* tired.
miles to Rauros Falls: 127
I'm convinced that Nook knows when I'm supposed to be working. I can tell, because if I sit down and decide to play a little solitaire before starting to write, one of two things happens: either I play 3 games (my limit) and get not more than one or two moves per game, or I win the second game. I believe this is the computer's way of telling me to stop fucking around and get to work. I will not believe otherwise. :)
Sent THUNDERBIRD FALLS off this morning. That's two books and one novella delivered so far this year. One to go, although I'd like it just fine if that turned into "two to go" with another sale.
Also talked with some writer people and got my brain unstuck for what I needed to do in this next chapter of FIREBIRD DECEPTION, so I'm going to go ... take a walk, I think, then probably have some lunch and then write.
Wish this headache would go away.
miles to Rauros Falls: 124
My elbow hurts this morning. So does my shoulder. I should probably call up and make a chiro appointment as soon as they open. Any bets on whether I'll remember?
...ow. I just crunked my upper back while putting earrings in. I think I'll remember to call the chiro. Ow.
I gots new earrings! They match my other smaller hoops, which are just like those except they've only got two diamond-cut textured areas on them instead of 3. :) I loffs them!
Today's official weigh-in day. For the first time in a month, I have lost weight. 2 pounds! I'm down to 165, which is 2 pounds more than what I think of as my college weight, although really I'm about 10 pounds lighter already than I was through much of college. It's also just 10 pounds away from the thinnest I've been in my adult life. *waves a little flag*
Oop. Chiro's not open til 10, so I guess I better go write until then instead of dinking around.
THUNDERBIRD FALLS will be going out the door as soon as I find some rubber bands. Apparently I've used all mine. Sulk. Beyond that, there is no news tonight. I've spent pretty much the entire day futzing around with book details. The manuscript's 444 pages. Might be the biggest I've written.
Goal for tomorrow: write one chapter of FIREBIRD DECEPTION.
miles to Rauros Falls: 120.5
ytd wordcount: 74,000
Updated with more correct answers. :)
Aberdeen's comment on this meme for me: If there's a grey character, or a welsh nose, you've got the right pick. And if those two go together, well, that's all she wrote, and Janne's: Don't know all those shows, but I'd randomly guess 'the mystery-shrouded guy with the big nose' for most of them . *laugh* That's a pretty good rule of thumb, although perhaps not wholly accurate. :)
Meme correct responses so far behind the cut tag, so people can keep playing:
1. Alias
Deborah gets it correct with Marshall. Marshall is not a grey character at all, but he is so quintessentially himself, so hopelessly and perfectly geeky, and so utterly charming that I don't see how any girl could not completely adore him. (Also, he does not have an insubstantial nose. God, I'm *so* predictable.)
2. Angel
Aberdeen gets it right with Wesley (augh!). Spike, much as I adore him, wasn't on the show long enough to count, and Wes is an extremely good example of "grey with nose". He developed from a complete weenie into a total badass, capable of making the hard decisions--and often the wrong decisions, which is also irresistable--with confidence and brutal honesty. Yum.
3. Beauty and the Beast
Deen, Trent and Laura are correct with guessing Vincent. Not only do you have my favorite fairy tale going here, as well as the gentle monster thing, but Vincent as a character turned me on to poetry. And, perhaps most of all, Vincent's the one who made me like my name. Ron Perlman is the only person I'd ever introduce myself to as Catherine and hope he actually called me that.
4. Buffy
Nobody's gotten this one so far. Spike has my favorite story arc out of all the characters, but he's not actually my favorite character. It's a damned close call, though.
Update: Mony, Deen and Trent all got it with Jonathan. Jonathan's my favorite character for sort of metagaming reasons. I believe he plays the role of the audience in Buffy: he knows how the universe really works, but he's not one of the Scoobies, the in crowd. He's where we all are. Which is why I was so incredibly pissed off when they killed him.
5. Farscape
Deen's got a good guess with Chiana, because of the grey thing, but Mary Anne got it right with "the female lead", whose name is Aeryn. Chicks in black leather just kick ass, man. Also, check out her nose. (Look, at least I'm *consistent*.)
6. Highlander
If anybody I know doesn't know this one, I'm not doing my job. Yes, obviously, Methos. Aside from the fact that if I'd gone to God with design specifications for the perfect man, God would have given me back Peter Wingfield (except I wouldn't have thought of the changeable eyes, which just goes to show God must be just a smidge cooler than I am), *Methos* is the most deliciously grey character ever. There's nothing he hasn't seen or done and nobody he won't use to survive, and yet he's still somebody you can count on when the chips are down. *drool*
7. Invisible Man
Nobody's gotten this one yet. Yes, there was an I-Man tv series, on SciFi. It was fun. :)
Update: Deen gets it with "the partner", who is Bobby Hobbes and who is so neurotic I don't see how you can't love him. He's perfectly, exactly *himself*--much the same quality that appeals to me about Marshall. I can't speak to his nose, though, although I suspect it's not to be, uh, sneezed at. :)
8. Stargate
I'll give you a hint: it isn't one of the leads, because I don't think I could choose between the four of them if I had a gun to my head.
Update: Deen is both right and wrong with the McKay guess. McKay is my favorite SG character, but he's only in two episodes of SG-1, so there's someone else who counts more as my favorite because he's in more episodes. And 'he' is appropriate. :) (Er. And it's not Peter Wingfield's Goa'uld character. For the record.)
Huh. Just came across this meme and thought it sounded entertaining:
The TV Show Meme
1. Post a list of 10 TV shows you watch (current or cancelled!)
2. Have your friends list guess your favourite CHARACTER from each show
3. When guessed, tell us why you like that character
Only thing I'm not sure about is if I can come up with 10 shows. But I'll try. :)
1. Alias
2. Angel
3. Beauty and the Beast
4. Buffy
5. Farscape
6. Highlander
7. Invisible Man
8. Stargate
...Legion probably doesn't count. Um. Well, I'll add more if I can think of any.
I feel as if I have some brain to blog with today, so I'm grasping it with both hands and typing as fast as I can. :)
We didn't really game on Friday. We hung out and we got xp and we worked on our characters, but we didn't really game. That was okay, though, 'cause we had a pleasant evening. Socializing good. :)
Ted and I spent a couple hours this weekend going through the copious boxes of books in the garage. The ones that've been malingering there for two and a half years, you know? The sorts that apparently we can live without. Well, we could live without half of them, anyway. :) Brought them to Title Wave and got cash, about $175 worth, so that was pretty decent, and they were apparently happy with us for having the boxes nicely packed and having such good stuff. They're always happy with us for good stuff, though. We've got good stuff. :)
Then Saturday night I watched The Replacement Killers again. The funny thing about me and movies is that I don't think of myself as someone who watches a lot of movies, but nearly all the movies that we own are ones that *I*, in fact, *do* watch repeatedly. Ted and I aren't sure about how that works out, but there you have it anyway. Anyway, TRK is one of the movies that I'll watch again and again, because I think it's so wonderfully done. The heroes aren't really heroes, the girl's as tough as the guy, and the romantic tension in the film is handled *perfectly*, which never happens. :)
And Ted went to see Sin City, which I suspected (rightly, apparently) was too violent for me. I'm not entirely sure if he liked it, but there was a fair bit of half naked Jessica Alba, so you can't go all wrong. :)
Sunday was all screwy because of stupid stupid daylight savings. We spent what seemed like the entire day shopping. The whole week so far's been kind of like that, playing catch-up. Stupid, stupid daylight savings. Last night it was so bright and sunny out at 7pm that I *had* to go for a bike ride, because the prospect of spending the next two bright sunny hours inside (especially when it'd warmed all the way up to about 37 degrees). So I did, which was very nice. But man, it's a lot harder to get up at 7 when it's not light out yet. Stupid stupid daylight savings.
Gonna go for a walk now. Got a couple more scenelets to write for TB, and have to go through and take all my NOTES TO SELF out and fix that stuff, and then she's done and out the door. Yay!
(Also, size 12 jeans really are too big for me now. I'm pretty sure 10s won't fit yet, but 12s I can zip up and then pull away from my tummy without a problem. Cool!)
ytd wordcount: 73,500
miles to Hobbiton: 13.2
miles to Rauros Falls: 118.5
I really keep thinking I have things to talk about, but when I sit down to write a journal entry, they all go fleeing out my ear.
OTOH, at least I've walked the dog.
miles to Rauros Falls: 115.5
sorry about the triple posting on the friends list. hopefully it'll go away after this posting is picked up, 'cause the feed will find something different to propogate.
I love this meme, the interview meme. Ask me five questions and I'll answer them. I might even manage to ask you five of my own. :)
From Stella:
1. What was the first thing you did (after hanging up the phone of course) when you learned you'd sold a 3-book deal to Luna?
Shrieked and leapt around and hugged Ted and shrieked and shrieked and shrieked. Ted had to dial my parents to tell them because my hands were shaking so hard I couldn't operate a push-button phone. Then I shrieked at them. :)
2. You're on Too ALLA TIME. How do you find time to RP, with the writing and the walking and *everything*?!
I don't. :) I hang out on Too to socialize, and even then I idle a great deal. When I do RP, it sucks away my will to leave the desktop computer, which is dangerous.
3. How did you meet your husband, and what was your first impression of him?
I believe the first time I met actually *met* Ted was at my 20th birthday party (which was held exactly 6 months after my birthday. It was a surprise party. I was *very* surprised.), although I was somewhat aware of him previous to that. He was either dating my friend Mary Anne, or simply attending the party with her, at the time. I thought he seemed nice.
Later, he *was* dating Mary Anne, and I decided that made him a nice safe target for a crush after my boyfriend of 3 years graduated and left Alaska. My nice safe rebound crush was somewhat disarranged by them breaking up a few weeks later. :)
4. You've lived in the continental US and in Alaska. Where else have you travelled, and what is your favorite place?
England, Ireland and Norway. I think it sounds absurd to say that visiting Ireland felt very much like going home, but it did. I love the country. The stereotypes are all true--everyone is that friendly, it's that green, it rains that much, they drink that much... :)
My favorite place in the world is a bluff on the far side of Cook Inlet from Homer, in a little secluded area called Petersen Bay. It will be 19 years at the end of May since I've been there.
5. Romance novels: for good or ill? (I know the answer, but I want you to share the very good points you make with everybody else.)
*looks nervous* I have absolutely no idea what good points I make that you think I should share. But I'll do my best. :)
...and this has gotten *very* long, so I'm going to put the romance answer behind a cut tag. Click through if you're on LJ and want to read. :)
miles to Rauros Falls: 111.5
Once upon a time I was one of those obnoxious people who thought romances were easy to write and anybody could do it and obviously anybody did. Then I tried to write one and discovered it takes a great deal more skill than I thought it did, and I'd like to think I'm a bit less snotty now.
I think romance is like any other genre: it has good writing and it has bad writing. It certainly has a stigma attached to it, as does sf/f (I'm not so clear about mystery, although there's generally a clear disdain for genre or commercial fiction among the literatti, so probably mystery suffers from it too), but the truth is, good romance novels are just as much pure fun to read as any other kind of well-written book, and bad romance novels are no worse than reading badly written books of other genres.
Except:
There is a very particular style to romance that is considerably less present in mystery and sf/f writing. I believe it's largely a method of approach. Romance approaches the story from an emotional point of view. The most important aspect of the story is the emotional aspect. Mystery and sf/f tend to approach stories from an action point of view; emotional entanglements may be a big part of the overall story, but the focus isn't on those problems.
As someone who grew up reading mysteries and sf/f, I find the romantic approach to be difficult to deal with a lot of the time. So many problems appear to be fixable if only the hero and the heroine would actually talk to one another, but if they did that, the book would only be thirty pages long. For me, personally, as a reader, this is a big problem with romance novels. But it's a surmountable problem; most of the romance I read is recommended to me, and most of it doesn't have that kind of mistake in the writing. (See, for me, it's a mistake in the execution of the story. For a romance fan, it's a window into experiencing the characters' emotions and thoughts. Totally different mileage.)
Now: there's a critical difference between Romance Novels, The Genre, and romance as traditionally defined in literature. Modern romance novels have a core expectation of a happy ending. They're stories about hope and love and second chances, and I think that's probably their strength. They offer the possibility for joy in a world where I think people probably don't get enough of that.
Personally, I like my romances to be a little messier than that. Don't get me wrong: I like happy endings, too, and I'd rather my good guys took the day than all died horribly beneath the bad guys' guns. But take the Arthurian romances. Not at all modern-day romances, those stories. Those are *tragedies*. There is no happy ending. And man, nothing beats the sheer agonizing heart-wrenching awful goodness of knowing that no matter how the storyteller tells the story, it's just all going to turn out badly in the end. Me, I love a good Pyric victory. (And then if you can find some way to make it work out, after all hope is gone, now *that*, my friends, will have me weeping at your door for more. This is why I love Guy Gavriel Kay so much.) So probably if I had my way, Romance The Industry would have a little more uncertainty about those happy endings--but I'm not about to try to change the industry. :)
I think almost every story in the world is driven by romance, though not necessarily romance-industry style romance. People do amazingly stupid things for love, and you get stories out of that. You get stories out of relationships. If you pick up your latest big fat fantasy novel, odds are very good that your hero's going to be either doing something in the name of love or falling in love on the way to doing something. There are very, very few stories that don't involve romance; it's an eternal aspect of the human condition.
...I suspect I could go on, but it's getting late (I wrote this last night, but then it wouldn't post) and I'm quite tired, so I think I might leave it at that, and hope I hit at least a few of the wise things Stella thought I had to say on the subject. :)
Marithlizard blinks at Kit's lj. Kit *is* hallucinating, right?Kit is *not*!
Marithlizard says "You must be. *movie*? *john woo*? *sandra bullock*?"
Kit may, however, be pulling your leg a little bit. It's April 1st. :)
Marithlizard waves a hand helpfully in front of Kit. Oh *good*.
Kit laughs out loud.
Marithlizard er. Not that I don't think they WILL. :) Just, um, my reality was fragmenting there. :)
Kit beams. A lot.
Kit wins!
Actually, Garrett wins, because the earlier post was his idea. Chops to Garrett. :) :) :)
I was Bound And Determined to go biking today, and lo, I did! I was nicely bundled up, so only my hands, which had no proper fingered gloves on them, were cold. My, what a difference 25 or 30 pounds makes in how a snug warm biking shirt fits you. I'm pretty sure I hadn't put that shirt on since 2 summers ago, when I weighed 28 pounds more than I do. I look quite cute in it now, if I do say so myself, instead of looking like a sausage stuffed to bursting.
I also got a bit of writing done, and magically increased the length of THUNDERBIRD FALLS by 11 pages, simply by finding a chapter I hadn't pasted into the complete manuscript. :) Go me. *laugh*
If I was very very lazy I would spend the next 3 hours playing CoH, but I think I'll actually go work on the book some instead. :)
miles to Rauros Falls: 107.5
miles biked to Hobbiton from Minas Tirith: : 7.2 (out of 1625)
!
I never thought this would happen so fast, but New Line has picked up an option on URBAN SHAMAN. They're talking about John Woo to direct, with Sandra Bullock starring. I hope she'll cut her hair, and I'll need to add some doves to the story...