I know, I'm supposed to do a Girl Talk Thursday blog today, but I haven't blogged about me in over a week so I might as well.  I've been busy, I have a lot to say.  Like - how I need to really keep my camera on me.  I really should take more pictures.  I'm bummed because we had a baby shower on Saturday - and did I think to take any pictures?  Nope.  I really would have liked to.

So, my sort of goal now is to take more pictures.  More memories.  I want new pictures to hang on my walls at home and fill those gaping places.  I should get the chance this weekend; I'm going to my best friends, little sisters wedding - in Oklahoma.  It's love to go to Oklahoma, let me tell you.

And what have I been up to the last two weeks since I haven't really been blogging?  I've been catching up with my friends.  Doing things.  Watching movies mostly.  Knitting.  Ooooh!  I knitted a book cozy.  It's going to go with my first Book-Addicts.com giveaway and it's super nifty.  I need to make one for me so that I protect the books I thoughtlessly toss into my purse all the time.  I also need to take a picture and update my Ravelry and just show it off.  The next one I make will have a few changes, like a ribbed edge instead of just a k&p every other row kind of plan. 

I've been knitting a lot more.  I think it has something to do with that whole wanting to make Christmas presents thing going on in the back of my brain.  I'm working on an adorable pink and blue stripped scarf.  It rolls in on its self, so it would be a really good accessory, but not very functional.  I'm thinking I'll give it to one of my younger nieces and do scarves for the whole brood.  That's five kids.  Just so you know.  That's a lot of knitting - but I wanna do it!

The writing and revising has been going very slowly.  I'm up to the third chapter on the new WIP called My Personal God.  I've cut about 7K from Sing Softly - and that hurts.  Like OUCH!  My goal with Sing Softly is to just get the plot in place and the manuscript readable and get someone to just read through it; probably the #writersdatenight girls because they're all bugging me about it.  After that I'm thinking I'll shelf it and n-e-v-e-r work on it again. 

I wound up dancing at Stratos for the oil spill fund raiser last week.  It was random and happened at like 4pm - and silly me - I thought there would be more than just one other person and myself doing it.  I'm so silly!  Over all dance has gotten much more challenging.  Myself and three others were bumped up to the intermediate class, which is also intro to zills.  Uh, I can't even move my body in all the ways they're telling me to, and now I'm supposed to zill?  For me it's the body moving that's harder.  Zilling?  Pft - I was in marching band, yeah my right hand is a little dysfunctional; I played French Horn.  But zills and moving and playing doesn't bother me.  Yes, I do get off rhythm easily, but I've always had issues with my internal metronome not functioning properly.

Oh, and I had my first ever experience at a gaming place with a friend for her hubby's birthday.  Yeah, I so don't have a nerd/geek card.  Race?  Class?  What?  *plays with Killer Bunnies*  Yeah, I have never felt so normal in my whole life.

What else?  This weekend is the wedding and the kick off for Book-Addicts.com - so go enter my friggen contest Saturday!  Fer serials people.  I'm going to be giving away a copy of Feed.  You don't know just how awesome this book is.  It's very much a rock-your-socks-off book.

And while we're talking about books, my awesome, funny, talented, mommy-amazing friend Erinn is celebrating her blogging success with a mystery box giveaway of books! G-o E-n-t-e-r N-o-w !-!-!-!

Right.  So that's all the interesting stuff I've been doing for now. 

I don't have a lot to say but i feel bad about neglecting this blog, my other blog, and reading hardly any blogs.  I gave up reading blogs about a month ago to get myself to be more productive ~ and had the most productive month evah as far as writing goes.  which means there's not a lot else that I've really been doing.

And I get to finish season 3 of Dexter tonight, which is awesome.  I haven't watched much tv or many movies.  In fact, I think the last movie I went to see was How to Train Your Dragon...  And that was a while ago.

Some friends and I are working on an uber seekrit book related project we can't talk about ~ but really excited about what's in store.

My parents are doing well.  Mom's cycling, dad's hanging out, so nothing big or life changing there.

Dance class is going awesome.  I have a recital at the end of the month ~ yes, that means I'm performing. Dancing.  In front of people.  It's fun and something interesting to throw into my week.

Oh, and I've decided I should grow my hair out longer, something niceish looking.

I'm also going to own up to the harsh reality that I hate housework.  I need to take a whole day and just clean.  My bedroom.  The kitchen.  Floors.  Carpets.  The whole nine yards.  But have I?  No.  Do I plan to anytime soon?  Not really.  But do I need to?  Yes.

Okay, that's me rambling about nothing at all to ease my conscience about my lack of blogging.  There.

Okay, I simply must figure out a reason to make these, if only for the fun bit about popping the balloons!!!!

In other news.... um..... I'm writing. A lot.  Did I mention I was going to do the Story a Day challenge for the month of May?  Well I am.  So far it's spawned two chapters of a middle-grade fantasy and a big chunk of a longish short story named after the main character, Pele.  I'm actually posting these rough drafts as I go in the spirit of the challenge, so if you decide to read them, please understand they're very uber rough.  I'm also still writing on my novel and I've sort of picked up writing a little fan-fic.

This boils down to: Cid is writing a lot.

It also means Cid isn't all that interesting, so she talks about herself in 3rd person and imagines her life being narrated by Jessica Stiles.

Okay, not really, that was a book reference to Going in Circles where the character deals with some circumstances by imagining her life is narrated by John Goodman.  The book is fantastic and I review it here.

So what's on the slow-cooker for me?  Well... this week I think not a lot.  I'm watching a lot of Dexter, the tv show with the serial killer, in preparation for another novel I want to write.  I'm subjecting my temporary roommate to it, and I'm sure she wants to clobber me by now  ~__^  She gets the patience award in my book.  The Red Pyramid comes out today; it's written by Rick Roiden, the same guy who wrote The Lightning Thief.  I'm thinking I'll camp out at BnN and read it tonight but buy it next week when he's doing a book signing in Southlake.  I make perfect sense in my head!

Last night was the book club meeting I completely forgot about.  I'm sort of glad I didn't read the book.  I'm also sort of planning on not reading the next book: Diary of a Wimpy Kid.  Sorry, just... not interested.  And now I believe I will eat lunch; it's cooled down enough I can eat it and not burn my tongue off!

Ps - yes, my dad is doing great - thanks all for your well wishes and all!!!

[EDIT]

I had to add this because it was just too good to pass up! 

So I'm considering buying my own domain and branching out from just a blog - however, I know me and the whole website would become a hobby and I wouldn't be happy until I understood how to do all sorts of nifty stuff - and I don't know if I should undertake that.  I mean I like the idea of having a simple address to hand out, but is it really necessary?  Do I need it?  I don't think I do - yet.  I might reconsider this closer to the Writer's Conference in April, so there might be a whole rant where I berate myself for not buying and tinkering with a website now.  Oh well. Never mind me - I'm just crazy today.

I think I'm on a fairy tale kick after reading Rose Daughter the last Tuesday and Wednesday.  I picked up Ella Enchanted to follow next, however, I just read the review of The Lost Legion over at The Book Book Blog and that book is sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read it.  I was going to read Lackey's Foundation after Ella Enchanted, but maybe I should read The Lost Legion instead..... Hmmm, The Lost Legion takes up twice as much space as the hardback Foundation....  And the only reason I bought that hardback was because it was like $5 and it wasn't out in paperback yet.

Yesterday, when I started this blog, I was really hung on wanting to get my hair cut or just trimming my bangs.  I have since mastered my indecision and after loving this picture with the girl in the blue shirt and her mop of brown and blonde hair, I decided I wanted something short and artistic.  Now mine's different, but inspired by this.  I basically walked in, handed him the paper, he pulled out one of those hair razors and sprayed my hair liberally, grabbed handfuls which were twisted around and then started hacking with the razor.  He said I completely dulled his razor and by the end of it he might as well have been pulling hair out because yeah - I have a lot of hair and if that's not enough the individual strands of hair are thick as well.  I'm not complaining!

So this recent onset of snow, snow and OMG MORE SNOW?!?!?!  left me with little to blog about because my face has been pressed against the glass watching these mysterious fluffy fat flakes of white stuff drift down from the sky.  This is Texas; we get anorexic pieces of hail and dare call it snow maybe once a year.  The last twenty-four-hours have provided a rare glimpse into what a real winter-wonderland is and the change on the landscape has been mystical - though it hasn't been without it's problems.  Had to cancel plans for the theater last night, wound up using my broom to literally sweep a foot of snow off my Jeep, and just getting out of the apartment complex was tricky simply because no one had been attempting it.  A silly person on the way into work decided to drive in all the turn lanes and then swerve in front of me several times; one time I was sliding because I was driving on snow and couldn't get traction to stop.  Idiot.  Oh well.  I drive a nice, big Jeep.  He would have been squashed had the light not turned green!

Okay, so Valentine's Day is coming up this weekend. I belatedly realized that I'm already planning on spending it with some of the most wonderful people I know; my parents.  We'll probably while away the afternoon just being in the same room, have dinner and then I'll go home, but it's what we do.  We aren't really an exciting family-time type of family, but they're my family and I love them.

I think that Valentine's Day doesn't really bother me - it's the people who feel that a day pledged to celebrating love is an excuse and a right to bemoan their singleness.  I think that's silly.  I think that people should really take advantage of V-Day and take the opportunity to tell people in their lives that you love them and that they're special.  Those are my thoughts.  There are more than a few people I'd like to tell them to stop being so selfish but I know it won't do any good.

I recently subscribed to John Scalzi's blog, Whatever.  I stumbled across his first chapter of his new book, God Engines. I read it. I need to read all of it. Why didn't I see this yesterday when I would have been at Borders? Boo! And here I am pleading to not buy any more books until I read a good chunk (5-10!!!! I promise!).  I'm grumbling about this decision but I'll stick to it for a little while longer.  I'm so intrigued by the idea behind the book that the first chapter reveals!  But I can wait.  I read Zeus yesterday, finished the Glass Castle last night, so now I want to read McKinley's Sherwood book and I'll probably go ahead and read Touch of Evil .... and then I have a whole shelf of stuff to pick from!

Ug. Blogger lost the last bit of my post.  So lets see.... I plan on writing some this weekend.  Surprise, surprise.  Get my bangs trimmed most likely.  Hopefully see The Lightning Thief and Wolfman.  And that's all I'm saying.

First up - the Write Your @ss Off Round Up!

I know a lot of people wanted to come and couldn't make it so we all pretty much stayed connected via twitter for most of the day, but two lovely ladies did come to my place and hang out for a stretch of a bunch of hours and write - and also entertained me by listening to me whenever I just had to talk.  I might need to warn people that I randomly interrupt people with tangents, weird thoughts or whatever.  I like talking to people!

My word-count total for Saturday was 3,501.  I had a lot of problems to work through so there was a lot of sitting there and staring off into space as I puzzled things out.  I continued through Sunday and wrote 5,688 on Sunday while everyone else was watching the Superbowl, for a weekend Write Your @ss Off total of 9,189.  I'm really happy with that number! I'm even happier with the ratio of where I'm writing what if you look at the numbers across the board.  I should probably include a snapshot of the excel sheet I'm tracking everything in so you can see exactly how crazy and micro-managing I'm being about this!  I only do it because I know I need to see something to help me change.

Okay, well, I'm not really sure I have much else to say other than writing stuff....  I didn't do much else this weekend.  Gee this isn't a very eventful blog.  Sorry!

The weekends make me sad because hardly anyone blogs - and then Monday there are a billion things to read.  I thought that Cornell DeVille's blog this morning on his continuation of Show vs Tell was great; I really need to read this over again later!!!  There's even a little contest going on that I think I might enter for the fun of it and the exercise!  Jane Friedman does a weekly Best Tweets for Writers and I tend to start following some people just because of what she's included in this weekly blog edition.  I just recently started following Janice Hardy's blog, and I'm so glad I am!  Today she did a bit called Ready, Set...Where's the Action?  Something I'm trying to do more of she underlines really well.  And lastly, it's Monday so that means Writing Excuses!!!! Their latest blog is on Roleplaying Games as Tools for Storytelling.

Yes, more book talk.  So almost right after I posted my last blog where I bemoan my writing - I read Janice Hardy's weekly Re-Write Wednesday blog entitled, The Frankendraft.  Now, this actually helped me to see that my story isn't buried, it's still plainly obvious - to me of course - and I don't see it as having some of the other bits she talks about - so maybe there's hope for me yet!  It's a little encouraging at least!  However, yesterday was all about indulging in a semi melt-down/pity-party about how terrible I was doing and woe is me, I should be doing something else!  I laid down around 11 on Wednesday night, got comfortable - and then - EUREKA! I had a brilliant idea I should have had ages ago when writing the first draft. I even twittered about it! And then I promptly cuddled up to my pillows to go to sleep.  Except then I was too consumed by the idea to do anything else.  In short, I got up and wrote until 2am.  I was very tired, please excuse the randomness as I tend to keep a blog in edit until I feel like posting it. This one happens to cover three days.

On another topic... I need to get my bangs trimmed, but the idea of sitting down in a chair while someone waves scissors around my head gives me nightmares of what happened last time.  They're just bangs - right?  I'm not ready to trust someone with the rest of my hair; I just want my bangs trimmed. Oh - well then I think I might need an eyebrow wax too.... Blarg - being a girl is expensive!!!

So I'm still reading through The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and I keep wanting to scream at it.  I find myself not caring about the MMC and really only about the bits on the FMC - unfortunately 3/4's of what I've read are about the character I don't particularly care about. Grrrrr!  At least last night she came into a more prominent role.  I'll save my other thoughts for my book review.  [edit] Finished last night. I want to burn the book.

I'm currently sitting at my desk wondering what reason I could have to try making Bakerella's new Oscar Cookies. OMG they look so YUMMY!

And yet more book drama - Macmillan takes a shot at Amazon in an add for a new book with the bottom text saying Available Everywhere Except Amazon!  Other book publishers are joining in on the whole mess and a friend and I have started a GoogleWave to keep a semi organized chronicle of all the stuff that's going on because - well - I'm a drama whore.

OMGOMGOMG - This just made my Friday! Robin McKinley shared the new cover of her upcoming book, Pegasus.  I'm super excited!!!!

Today did not start out well.  I woke up at 7:28 and freaked out. I usually leave my apartment between 7:30 and 7:35.  Today is also the start of a new class.  Today was not a good day to be late.  On top of this my clothes were either damp and still in the dryer or still in the washer because silly me didn't get home in time last night to do anything but catch some evening news and read some stuff and go to bed.  Also, weirdly, I wore my socks to bed and the elastic on the ankle/calf part was so tight I think it bruised me.  Oh - and I'm wearing a dress and forgot to shave my legs - but thank goodness it's one of those maxi-almost-floor-length dresses so if someone wants to stare at my ankles they'll see I didn't shave.  Sorry. I was sort of running late this morning.  *sigh*

Okay, so I don't remember whose blog I read it on but it is vastly true that the recent mess with Amazon and Macmillan is really hurting the authors that fall under the M-Umbrella.  There are a number of people who discuss that at length and much better than insignificant me will, however, I can tell you about what I'm going to do!  I went through their website today, more specifically the new releases and I've picked out - oh - seven book - I want.  Now I can't possibly buy seven new releases, I'm scraping the bucket this week, but I can buy two or three to do what I can to help out.  The ones I really want are Zeus: King of the Gods, a graphic novel by George O'Connor to feed my current Greek mythology addiction.  It's not really a brand new release; it was released in January, but I figure the guy still needs sales.  I used to read a lot of historical fiction; not so much anymore unfortunately.  The Forgotten Legion by Ben Kane looked interesting and promising, so it has a big star by it's name.  And, to feed another guilty pleasure - a vampire novel; not just a vampire novel, but a vampire and werewolf novel!  Touch of Evil by T. Adams and Cathy Clamp.  Hey - it's research to see if I really want to keep shelving my vampire story idea!!

The stupid thing torments me.  Yesterday I had some great ideas for it that I wrote down on my little notepad and filed away to type up later when I have time.  I also had some good ideas for some other stuff, but none that irritate me like a story I don't think I want to write because everyone is writing vampire stories!  At least this morning while driving to work I came up with a really neat twist to another idea I've had, but started out as a fanfic idea I couldn't write because the author expressly says on their website: do not write fanfics!  So I'm really happy to have worked it so it's new and original but with the same overarching issues and problems.  The new ideas I had for it are super nifty to me at least and I like them so I'll scribble them down and file them away for later.

I am seriously considering starting on another project that maybe a short story or a short novella length work.  It's romancy in nature, which is strange for me, but is very Christian in nature and is derived from a huge game of "What if....?" that I played once with someone I used to know.  I have struggled with how similar the FMC is to me and how to make her less like me - but I don't know that I can and not completely change aspects of the story.  Then again I have to accept that the idea came from my own personal, on the fly decisions about what I think I would choose to do if certain things happened to me.  Going to snag a few people for brainstorming help on this one and see where it takes me.

Is it just me, or am I slowly starting to just talk about books and writing ideas and stuff?  I really do other things.... Like tonight I'm going to church!  I just stand at a computer and check kids in and hand them an adhesive name-tag and smile and say something witty (if I'm lucky) but more often than not I'm just hopelessly silly.

Oh hey! I just realized today that the Super Bowl is sometime this weekend.  Wow....

And yet MORE drama! Well, it was coming eventually.  So far I've only seen one tweet about it and two articles from Cult of Mac, nothing that puts things in concrete terms to me - yet.

Annnddd now I've typed my lunch away.  Today is getting better!!!

Okay, so as relaxed as my weekend was - this was not so in the rest of the world.  I'll touch on that in the end.  :)

Friday - hockey game - we won!!! Spent this with my friend Amanda.

Saturday was like... make up for all of the time I haven't made the edits my critique group suggested.  I spent the day at Barnes and Noble critiquing and rewriting stuff.  I wrote about 4K, added some really nifty stuff and am still very excited about my writing process. Oh - and I bought books.  Yes, I know I said I shouldn't - but I did!  I bought Becky Levin's book The Writing & Critique Group Survival Guide (this time I smartly copied and pasted that, because even though I try, I keep getting the title wrong!  I'm sorry!!!!)  I also got Sunshine and I think Rose Daughter... Crud. I can't remember!!!!!!  Oh well, both Robin McKinley books!  Other than that, I didn't do anything really useful Saturday; just reading and writing - but I loved it!

Sunday was mostly a useless day. I took out the trash! And did dishes! Watched 500 Days of Summer and went to a hockey game - again - only we lost this one  :(

Today I need to be very useful.  I need to do laundry, change the Chinchilla cage, clean, clean and clean, and hopefully revise and pretty much rewrite the next scene because I had some great ideas for it.

I have also decided I dislike my planner. I want a small monthly view calendar and I want to be done with this almost useless one I have now.  I think I saw one at BnN that fits what I want that if I get everything done as I need to this week, I just may treat myself to.  Ug - and have I mentioned that buying into the BnN membership thing has made me want to go and use it more? Because I really do need to make sure I get my money's worth!!!!

This week should be the normal type of busy.  Tonight being domestic, with some knitting time thrown in, tomorrow Critique Group, Wednesday church Thursday the Book Club - where I give my unfavorable review of the book everyone else loved and I - ah - didn't, and Friday I hope to hang out with people, go to movies and clean like crazy for Friday - because Saturday is Write Your @ss Off Day!!!!!

And on to the DrAmA!!!!!!!

I think I've become a real-life-drama-nut.  Like, I really like reading about crazy stuff that really happens, except this news isn't really the giddy type, it makes me sit back and grimace and think.  The thing this weekend is the whole Amazon vs Macmillan debacle, which can reasonably be said to happen as a result of Apple debuting the iPad.  Everyone has an opinion, everyone thinks this way or that; I'm erring on the side that neither are really right, but I agree far more with Macmillan than Amazon.  Now, you can read the full release from Macmillan here on the free edition of Publishers Lunch.  And then there was Amazon's rebuttal and subsequent removal of all Macmillan titles.  Nathan Bransford posted a blog this morning explaining the whole mess; he always has a lot of really good stuff to say and plays connect the dots with stuff.  I thought Scott Westerfeld posted a really interesting and insightful blog about the whole mess, and I think I agree with him on most points.  However, over at Fiction Matters, they posted an article that is more favorable to Amazon.  I'm sorry, but I just have a hard time with the seller dictating the price of what the publisher can sell their product for.  All in all, I'm reading everything and it's fascinating! If it also makes me sad.

Anyways, lunch is over!  Still plugging away at Girl w the Dragon Tattoo!

I realize that unless I start my week out rather organized, the rest of it won't go well.  You see, most Mondays have some activity and then Tuesdays and Wednesdays are a blur of activity so nothing around my apartment gets done.  The trash won't get taken out.  The dishes won't get done.  If I leave laundry in the dryer it won't move.  Sunday night I had better get the rest of my life in order!  LoL.  I did pretty well this week, however there are still dishes from Sunday and the trash is close to overflowing and well... the laundry was in there before Sunday so that's my own fault!

Today I am slightly frustrated with myself for completely controllable reasons.  I've been going to church, but not really attending it.  My responsibilities keep me there and my dedication to not miss out on those hold on to me - but sometimes I wonder if I'm really paying attention?  I'm not doing enough - and sometimes I'm not doing any - personal devotion time.  However when I do go to church I see right where the message is going and I have the uncanny habit to pick out how it's going to get there; I get the mentality I guess.  It's not a bad thing, but I like to be surprised, I like to be challenged intellectually - and I don't.  And it's not the church's fault - it's my own.  I should do more for pushing myself to learn more.  I have the idea to write some spiritual things in the future, and I'm wondering if I shouldn't start on the research, because giving my research the purpose could force me to develop the habit of researching.  Hope that makes sense, LoL.  I need a Saturday to go back to SAGU and spend in the library ferreting out the most useful books and making book lists or notes.

I don't know. I have a general frustrated feeling today.  I feel like today will be a good day, I'm just frusterated for the time being.  And I'm frustrated that I can't spell frusterated.  LoL.  I want to put an 'e' in there!!!!!!  I think I bring this on myself by having expectations for myself that are either high, or impossible.  No one can be perfect.  On author Don Miller's blog, he talked about how Denmark was one of the happiest countries in the world - because they have low expectations.  Now, I'm not saying I need to put aside all aspirations, but maybe I need to reevaluate some of them.  I know I went into college with the idea I would change the world, that I would make a difference, lead a revolution - and I can't do any of that it seems.  It's depressing, but it's also unrealistic.  I think I have this idea in my head that there's a job I was put on earth to do and I have to throw myself at everything until I figure it out - but what I might not have realized was that I was put on earth to be.  Just to Be.  Sure, in being here there are things that come with it, and I'm talking spiritually within the context of my own beliefs, and then the additional load of what I have to do because of the way we have developed in this world.

I'm not satisfied with this answer; I'm a Do'er.  I need to Do things.  I need to Be something.  But maybe I also need to slow down and realize there's more to life than Being or Doing something.  I'm not sure what I'm saying, but I'm saying I'm unhappy sometimes and I'm trying to muddle through the why's.  I feel like in saying all of this I'm failing someone; my parents? Society? They all tell us to go do something with our lives when we're younger.  If I pick out a path that makes me happier in my life, but also doesn't change the world, will that be okay? Am I failing myself? The world? I don't know!  I'm getting more frustrated writing this, but only with myself.  For some reason I can't seem to be happy with the idea of just doing stuff.  I'm dissatisfied and I don't know what to do about it.

So what do you do when you feel dissatisfied with yourself? Or life?

---

So I rarely finish a blog and publish it - mostly for this very reason.  I like blogs. I know I'll read a blog if it's in my blogroll because I only keep what I like there, and I like reading stuff.  I stumbled across this blog/website and while it's a simple scripture and paragraph - I think it's what I need to hear; keep it simple stupid.

The One Thing.

I swear stuff costs more than it did two years ago when I moved out on my own for the first time.  A dollar doesn't buy what it used to - which sucks considering no one is making more than they used to.  I probably need to sit down and evaluate where I spend what and reign in some of my spending and redirect it better, or something.  It's frustrating and I have to do better.  I'm not broke, but neither am I saving as much as I wanted to.  I'm probably also my own worst enemy when it comes to spending and impulse buying.  I don't know if I know how to say no to me sometimes... This is probably a very dangerous thing.

Today was a really successful writing day.  I totally plowed through chapter 2 and came up with some stuff I really liked.  The critique group really helped me see an opening I missed for inserting more world info.  Tomorrow I'll work on editing that and get the whole bit over to my friend who is doing beta reading for me.  It's really exciting.  I just hope I can keep this up. 

So Paperback Writer suggested this interesting site today that makes up words. This could be very useful for when I need to make stuff up in writing and just need a quick word!

Now, I think I've mentioned this but I'm going to the DFW Writer's Conference.  Well, Inky Girl tweeted today this blog entry about Conference Tips from Jane Makuch.  I really need to finish my manuscript and work on a short this-is-what-my-book-is-about.

Anyways, short blogging day!

See, after last week I knew this weekend would be a lot of fun - and I was right!! I love it when that happens.  ^__^

Friday I went with a friend to see Legion.  Now I wanted this movie to be good.  I know, I know - it was doomed from the moment you put an angel on it and expected me to take it seriously.  However, the first 3/4's of the movie I thought were done really well and though not exactly believable, were good and entertaining and drew you into the story.  That last 1/4 with the angel-car-chase and weird moment-on-the-mountain were.... like from a completely different, cheesy movie.  I liked the characters, even if they were a bit predictable.  Jeep gets my favorite character award for simply being named Jeep!  I liked his character, even if I thought he was foolish at times.  For the most part, I really liked and thought the characters and setting worked.  The plot wasn't even that bad - the dialogue during the last bit, however, killed it.  When an audience laughs during what should be the most poignant moment of the film - well - you know something wasn't done well.  My biggest beef with the movie - the name.  Legion was the name of a demon and I was totally ready for some demon interaction - which I didn't get.  Hollywood should have done a little more research and given it a better, more fitting name.

Saturday I made cake-pops (I have pictures... I will probably do a follow-up cake-pop blog because I have 20 more pops to dip that we didn't do Sunday. I should have been more like, hey lets all do an activity! CAKE-POP TIME!) and cleaned and did shopping stuff.  I also went out with some friends to Trinity Hall, which is always an awesome experience! And I saw my first karaoke!  I remember vagely having really bad karaoke at SAGU, but I never hung around or participated in it.  This was an interesting experience though.  Small room, lined with couches, and a big tv that played random Korean tv with the lyrics to whatever songs they pulled up.  It was fun!!  (even if I was a wallflower....)

Sunday was mostly cleaning and reading Recorded Attacks until people came over around 2:30 and we started knitting and crocheting and watching movies.  I think we watched Dr Horible's Sing-a-Long Blog, Star Trek (the new one), Connie and Carla, and Howel's Moving Castle.  I did a big chunk on the scarf I've been working on, which is good since I'm getting bored of it!!  I don't know that I want to do another circularly knitted scarf again.

So I'm getting head aches, and I think it's due to my eyes.  I need new glasses/contacts and I haven't done anything about this issue yet. I have one more set of contacts to go through and then I'll get my eyes checked.... I'd better switch contacts soon and make my appointment.  This whole hard-to-focus-on-stuff is a pain.

I look back at the last week and I failed doing some things I had hoped to get done.  So this week I will be more proactive!  First, I'm sort of excited about this one, I'm going to try my hand at embroidering cards.  I got the idea from the What Katie Does blog, which if you're a fan of tshirt surgery, you probably know her website, Oh My Stars.  I went through a phase in college where all the shirts I wore were taken apart and put back together in interesting ways.  Some better than others!  Anyways, I must refrain from saying more on this project until it's reached the recipient since I think there's a slim chance that person might read this.... *waves*  I will, however, update with pictures later!

[edit] I'm actually going to see about making a get-well card tonight after writing if I can grab the materials.  My boss had an emergency surgery this weekend so I'll make a card. I printed off one design and punched it out during lunch and then looked at the pattern... and realized I couldn't make heads or tails of it! Need a simpler something I think!

This week I want to eat at home more.  Except for Tuesday because it's impossible.  I have more than enough food to feed myself this week and I don't need to go out and spend money on food that is more fattening and less healthy than what I have at my apartment.  And I bought blueberries! YUMMY! I have a tub of that plain, vanilla yogurt.  Vanilla yogurt + blueberries = YUMMIER!!!!

I also failed last week on editing on my 2nd chapter of The Barking Dog.  Granted it's a huge undertaking because the chapter was ginormous but it still needs to be done and I totally dropped the ball in favor of other things, so this week I will redouble my efforts to not only edit that but write some more and do some more chapters in the Writing Magic book.  Most of my writing numbers have been either in my blog or rp related things this week, which is not what I wanted, but it was a really stressful week so I will forgive myself a little.

Also, I didn't do anything this last week.  I stayed up too late and struggled to get out of bed and just get to work last week. I want to try to get in bed reasonably this week and get up in the morning and do the whole Wii thing.  It makes me feel more productive about my day, even if it is only a little bit of exercise.  I should do it!

Alright, I have successfully rambled through my lunch of leftover lasagna from yesterday and will now proceed to muddle through the red items in my email in-box....

Okay, so I read the first chapter of Practical Demonkeeping and I'm not hooked and I'm eying other things on my shelf....  I bought more books Tuesday night before the critique group.  I bought a book by Alan Moore on writing for GN's and comics and two McKinley books - which fit in with two goals so I might be putting aside the Christopher Moore book.  This is bad since I keep doing the same thing to his other book, Fluke.  I really, really, really liked Lamb and You Suck was good - but I could never get beyond the first chapter of Fluke and the Practical Demonkeeping first chapter just kinda... didn't get me.  Struggling with the idea of pressing on or grabbing up Chalice or Dragonsbane by McKinley....

[edit] Okay, I'm cheating on my writing. Today I will be brain-dead and not mind.  I took Chalice with me to work today and managed to get through the first section of the first chapter and OMG I'm hooked already! Have I mentioned I really like Robin McKinley's books? I want to know more about the elemental fire Priest, the Master and what the heck the Chalice does!!!![/edit]

I was super excited with the comments I got back from the critique group; I got some great opinions and review and I'm actually looking forward to tackling the issues addressed.  I really feel like it's all coming alive.  I might need to rethink some of the names... I know why people are named like they are - but the reader won't for quite a while - if at all in this book.  I think that's a thing to tackle much, much later once I know where the book actually ends.

I had another one of my super weird, crazy dreams last night.  This time I think I can blame Avatar for a little of it, but not the dragons bit.  There were these floating islands or maybe they were really tall plateaus that looked like islands that were covered by jungles.  Anyways!  My dream followed a character who did some interesting things and dragons were involved in a non-stereotypical rawr-I-will-eat-you way.  I was able to jot down what I remembered of the dream and do a reasonable amount of brain storming on it.  I don't have a climax for it - which is the main problem I see.  I could, however, make it a very curious short story with the material I have right now for the quarterly Glimmer Train contest on writing a 12,000 or less word story.  There's a regular contest schedule set up there too!  I'm getting interested...  Jane Friedman clued me into that on her blog, There Are No Rules.  She has some really good stuff on there.  Like this blog she wrote about a book she wrote with someone else [BIG edit] the someone else is Becky Levine.[/BIG edit] called The Writing and Critique Group Survival Guide - and I want it. I've bought more books in the last week than I really should have, so I'm sticking this on the To-Buy-Eventually list - like, in a month or something when it looks like I'll read it sooner rather than later.  I'm really big on revision right now so I need stuff like this for tips and whatnot! ... Hmm, maybe I do really need this book now...

I'm watching the minutes tick by as I loose my lunch break.  *sigh*  Yesterday was crazy and today is worse; my job is not normally like this so I'm more surprised about all of this crazy stuff and more or less frustrated with myself for the inability to do everything perfectly the first time.  I don't talk about my work here much - I realize - mostly because I'm following my company's blogs and I don't see myself as a spokes-person or anywhere near equipped to talk about my company or what we do so I keep my trap shut.  I would never want to jeopardize my job here because I like it. I like the people I work with.  I don't always understand what we do, but I can do the job, I'm reasonably happy with it and in this economy and time those are things not everyone has.  I'm thankful for my job - but I'd be really happy if the last few days did not repeat themselves in the level of crazy that's been going on.  I think this afternoon, should everything not blow up, I'm going to tackle the mess that has become my desk!

Okay, so after the critique group I'm accepting that I really can't just fudge around some of the words to make it all work out - I need to actually rewrite most of it.  Keep the text open in one window and rewrite in another, like new yWriter project.  It's depressing - because it's a lot of work - but at least I know that now and I can prod myself into working on it more and more studious.  I had other people make up my mind for me!  Well, they didn't say anything about just needing to start over, that's not how the group is, but based on some of the feedback I think it would be more beneficial to revise the manuscript that way.  Follow the lead of what I originally wrote and write it all fresh, sparkly and new.  However, this will mean entire chunks of time I must disappear and rewrite the blasted thing.  I'm also struggling again with whether or not Suspicion has enough meat to stand on it's own frail little legs or if I need to cut out some fluff and smash all three back together and plow through it all.  I'm back to squirming over this and complaining to myself and I'm probably going to agonize over the whole mess a lot so please feel free to ignore all of this ramble because I still haven't eaten breakfast or taken anything.  (This was written Wednesday morning....)

Now, this bit is written Thursday afternoon....  I'm still nowhere near certain about what I should do about this problem.  I rewrote the bit I took to the critique group but I'm at a point where I'd like someone or someones to bounce ideas and worry off of but I don't know if I want to take it out on my poor critique group who has several of us who are agonizing over stuff as it is.  *sigh*  I need my own personal editor I can bemoan the what-if's to and force to read three different versions of the same scene. I will take applications after this blog.....

For some reason I thought that I could get up Wednesday morning and do a measly 20 minute exercise - nope.  Woke up and my pounding head said No Moving.  I'm not going to church tonight; my head is rebelling enough I wish I hadn't worn my contacts at all.  I think I will spend tonight shuffling around my apartment cleaning. Yes, cleaning.  The whole place is a dump and in need of serious cleaning, like scrubbing and cleaning.  I also need to do something about the dear little rabbit; I call it the dear little rabbit because I'm tempted to call it other not quite so nice things.  Thursday morning was a bit kinder to me so I'm hoping that Friday will be very nice to me indeed and let me do some exercise since I seem to be doing well.

I've managed to clean up my kitchen and fix my vacuum cleaner the best I know how.  It's still spitting out some stuff but it's by far much better than it was.  I apparently accidentally sucked up some of the rabbit bedding which did nothing more than clog up the hose and I had to unscrew all the little plates so I could get to this clog of recycled, puffy stuff.  Not sure what I'm going to do about this problem; it's rather perplexing.  Not sure if people plan on coming over tonight, but I do plan on cleaning more and actually cooking dinner.  I may have the weekend free after all, which would be super, as I want to clean, clean, clean and finish this scarf and work on some more revision. Did I mention I'm taking applications to be the confessor of all my revision nightmares??  At this point I'm really not kidding.

Some people are ridiculous and I want to start rambling about true Christianity but I think that Don Miller really does say it all best when he addresses what Pat Robertson said about Hati suffering it's just desserts.  You read that right.  Plus, I've just about decided that Don Miller has to be one sexy man if only for how he thinks about things because often times I feel the same way.  Would it be weird if I twittered at him and asked him on a date?  Yes, yes it would and I'll stop letting revision drive me crazy - in like a month or two.

Blogs, Books, Stuff.... Rick Rioden - you know the guy I've been talking about for a bit? Well the cover for his new series is up here.  I will be hungrily awaiting the paperback!  I think we all know that I have developed a taste for real-life drama, and I have to say I feel sorry for Moonrat after this blog where she recounts a conversation with one of her authors.

I think I'm done for the day on this blog. I'm sure I could talk about other things, like my twitter obsession, how much I've been reading or how the cold weather has given me nosebleeds, but it all comes back to trying to figure out my revision and how to tackle it....  *sigh*

I think it's pure stubbornness I'm wearing my dress today.  I bought it before Christmas but it was just too cold and pointless for me to wear anything other than jeans to work.  It's a brown dress, which is even more pure novelty considering I don't particularily like brown or wearing it - but this one has a design of blue colored teardrop and semi-nike-swish things that go absurdly well with my blue cashmere sweater that - well - I kinda felt super compelled to buy it.  And thankfully the weather is copaerating and it's warm enough to wear it so today is a good day.  I'm also feeling much better!  I think that tomorrow I will push myself to get up and exercise.  I put it off on the weekend and yesterday for not feeling well at all, but I think tomorrow morning I will be pretty well off.

Last night I lay awake in bed and contemplated a new prologue for Suspicion and I penned out a few paragraphs I think I will have the critique group read.  I'm rather thrilled with the idea as well as expanding the novel to include various bits from other characters perspective other than the female main characters.  I think it will help the reader fully understand the complex plot that was just lost on the first draft.  Lots of nothing happened and then in a few thousand words everything happened and left even my head spinning for how in hades it all came to a point besides the fact that green is a very suitable color.

I was reading Brandon Sanderson's blog, oh my, yes - blogs, and the whole thing about his books being made into movies intreigued me.  I've sort of been forcing myself to ignore that he writes anything other than Wheel of Time but I do believe I will have to read his books, and at the current rate I am devouring printed pages of stuff I should easily be able to do that - later this year.  Heck, I started Robin McKinley's book The Hero and the Crown last night; I probably haven't read it since Jr High.  I can't believe I haven't read it between then and now - it's such a crime!  I will probably also finish it tonight or today or something impossible like that because I just could not sleep despite how exhausted I was so why not read?  (and of course between the time I wrote that line this morning and now after work, I finished the book.)

Perhapse I need to be interested in thicker books.  Then I would spend more than three days reading it.  It's a little exciting to move on from a book so quickly, but it's also a bit of a let down.  I wish they lasted me longer, but I am glad to have read them.  I'm going to force myself to hold off reading The Blue Sword until tomorrow.  I believe my current plan is very much to not go to church tomorrow because my fever has yet to leave me and the headache is still permanently wrapped around my head so that even after ingesting drugs to dull it - it's still just there outside of sight and hearing like.

So I leave work very soon and I'm going to go on to the Borders where we have critique group at instead and probably eat some soup at McAllisters and piddle around on the next scene of Suspicion and force myself to be yet more productive today.  Ug, and I must also get food for that little varmet the rabbit - and it needs fresh bedding.  I ached and hurt so bad last night I almost didn't clean the Chin cage, but I did.  I don't have the right bedding for the rabbit.  The rabbit gets expensive, absorbant stuff.  That's what happens when the animal actually sits in their bedding; they get the better stuff.  My Chins, who have a tray that slides out of the bottom of their cage, can have cheapy crushed corn stuff that absorbs and whatnot and so long as I am mindful of changing it every few days works rather well.  However, I'm starting to feel that their cage isn't getting really clean and I'd like nothing more than a chance to hose it down and scrub it - but where do I put the Chins while I do this?  I'm pondering over this question and browsing CraigsList.  People are bound to have cages they don't need anymore, what with small children learning the responsibility of an animal isn't all that glamerous.

Woohoo! Third morning in a row I've managed to get my arse up and out of bed and do a 20 minute work out!  I'm proud of myself. And I'm actually startled that I'm feeling it in my legs; it's a really light work out, I have no illusions about getting an awesome, toned body.  I do hope to drop a bit of the weight I gained ....wait, I almost said this... last year.  Yikes. Last year.  I still sort of forget the magnitude of an entire year passing; I'm sure it'll hit me later.  According to the Wii I've lost a little over half a pound in the last three days.  I don't believe it.  If in a week I'm still decreasing, well then I'll own up to loosing half a pound, but I seriously find any results this quick to be suspect.

Last night I started a master plot matrix for Suspicion and .... dare I say it? I'm getting excited about revision.  Excited - yes! I can't wait to rewrite that first scene because I know I can do it better; I know a better way to incorporate more details than I did last time, to introduce the reader to the world better, earlier on besides the first blunt detail...

I probably won't get to that until Saturday, if not Sunday - and perhaps not even until next week.  Tonight I'm going to get off work, run home and get my nice, warm hoody and go to BandN and read the Olympian book, and buy Redeeming Love, our book club book I thought I bought off of Amazon.  I've been waiting for it to be delivered and went online to go complain and found that as I had purchased the book, the seller was updating that they were out of them - so my purchase was refunded and supposedly I should have gotten an email.  I didn't. I now need to go buy the book and get to reading.  Ug!  Anyways, if all goes well I will also see some late movie with Amanda tonight.  Saturday I want to finish the Olympian book if I don't Friday.  Then there's a church meeting at 4pm for the youth group, my friend's going to church with me, and I know I'll be too distracted to get anything done if it doesn't happen before the meeting.

And OMG there are a lot of movies out that I want to see!  Alvin and the Chipmunks, Leap Year, The Princess and the Frog, Did You Hear About The Morgans, Nine, Invictus, and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus which is strangely not playing in very many locations.  I think tonight it will be either Leap Year or Nine.

Plus I will need to start baking cake on Saturday night - because I want to have cake-pops ready for Home Group on Sunday!!  I'll need to decorate on Sunday morning/afternoon before Home Group.  And maybe I'll make another batch Sunday night if I don't go to my other friend's house.  Yes, busy weekends ahead.  Next week I will be taking advantage of every opportunity to relax because next weekend I'm volunteering my whole weekend to the church media team.  It's a good opportunity, but it's also a whole weekend when I'm starting to really try to get writing done.  I believe I will be selfishly taking Monday, Thursday and Friday to myself for writing, lounging and knitting purposes!  ....oh but I need to read....

Right - so I am still working my way through On Writing and loving it! Will read the Olympian book tonight and tomorrow at BandN, buy at least Redeeming Love for the book club and if I think I can read Isabel Allende's House of Spirit's before 2/1 when EA will be hosting the discussion on it, I'll pick that up.  Lastly, I believe I will be acting on my friend's suggestion and buy Maggie Stiefvater's book, Lament.  Not that I don't already have a hefty list of things to read already, LoL!

An update on my 1K a day.  I decided to go ahead and bite the bullet and created a spread sheet with all the stuff on it I need to track my progress.  I started on the 4th and have written as of the end of my lunch break, 6,007 words on various writing projects.  I expect this number to go up this afternoon, but I can honestly say I'm happy I'm doing this.  It's encouraging me to just write and go, go, go!

Blogs, blogs, blogs - have been a bit dry recently. Lots of recaps on last year or stuff about this year, whatever.  However, I just about keeled over when I read this entry from Rick Riordan's blog, Myth and Mystery talking about the new companion guide to the Percy Jackson series and - There Will Be More Camp Half Blood Books!!!!  Meaning he's not done with Percy Jackson's world! I'm very excited, in case you can't tell...

OMG - stop the presses - I just found out that Brandon Sanderson, the person who is completing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series will be at Dragon*Con this coming year.  My friends have been trying to coerce me into going but I think this just won me over. Go to Dragon*Con, hear him speak, maybe see the other Writing Excuses guys?  HECK YES!  *strangles inner fan-girl*

I'm adding two more things to my 2010 Goals.  I can't recall if I blogged about this already and I'm too lazy to go back and look. I'm joining in the blogging adventure, Project 52.  The idea is that you write 52 blogs a year, once a week.  Now I know I can do this; I wrote close to 80 to close out 2009 and only started in like...September.  However, I think it's a good goal and I'm doing it.  The other goal is a bit more daunting; it means I have to be a bit more disciplined.  Inky Girl is challenging people to write 1000 Words a Day in 2010.  This means I'm already behind, having written a whopping 1500 words last night on Premonition.  Gee, I need to get something cranked out today. I'm hoping this motivates me some more this year to continue with my writing.  I'm even biting my teeth, really wanting to go to the DFW Writer's Conference in April, but I don't have the cash just quite yet.  I emailed my mother, thinking she'd talk me out of it because that much money right after Christmas is hard to come by - but instead she was very excited and is encouraging me to go.  *sigh*  We'll see what I can come up with in the next few weeks.

Okay, so I haven't blogged much because New Years sort of tirededed me out.....

I spent New Years at my friends place; we played some cards, some other odd games and then did a champagne toast at midnight where I discovered - I don't like champagne.  No big surprise, honestly.  Then someone had the great idea to go out on the balcony and light up sparklers and stand in a circle facing each other. Yeah - doesn't that sound like a great idea to you too? Not to me. I stood outside of the circle and was the only person to not get burned.  I was the first to leave, but I also had the furthest to drive and went home and I think I went to bed fairly early.

New Years Day my brother came over around noon and we hung out for a bit.  I introduced him to The Lightning Thief and I believe he's currently hooked.  We also went down to Chance Webb's Tattoo Emporium and got our tattoo finished - finally!  We're both really happy with how it turned out.  I'm entering that painfully itchy stage of healing that makes me want to go cross-eyed all the time, but soon enough it'll all be over!  I think I cooked us dinner and we watched some Four Star and then went to go see Avatar in 3D which wasn't all that much different from the normal one; I thought it looked a lot more unfocused and that it would have been just fine to see it without the 3D nonsense.

The next day my brother and I went to a Stars game.  It was super fun and I got a Dallas Stars SNUGGIE!  Don't be fooled by their strange looks, they rock. I really like mine, even if it's all covered in rabbit hair now; silly rabbit.  Brother left not long after the game to go back to Wyoming and I had a few hours to myself.   (Note - I waylaid the Ice Girls and informed him he was getting his picture with them.  He didn't protest.)

My friend Micah came over late (I'm talking either 9 or 10pm) that night.  It's probably the last time I'll see him for several years.  His parents are taking up a church in Vietnam and they'll probably stay over there for most of the next three years and he lives in Virginia Beach now doing his doctoral so though we talk on Skype a lot (during his classes sometimes - oopse!) we probably won't get to hang out.  I was super impressed when he gave me a bottle of home-made vanilla extract.  Like REAL vanilla extract! He MADE it.  Really - like it's real stuff and wow.  I'm just blown away by that. I think I'm going to try to make some myself.  How cool is that???

Eventually Micah had to scoot out and that left me going to bed a bit late - but because I made Sunday my Selfish-Day, well, it was okay.  Really I stayed home by myself and read The Titan's Curse and watched a movie and did some cleaning and played with my Chins and the rabbit and did laundry and went grocery shopping and had a great, stress-free day.  I think I'm going to start requiring more of these in my life; like once a week or something.  I knew going into this week that we were having a writing night Monday, Critique Group was Tuesday, The Mix where I volunteer with the youth is on Wednesday, people come over to my place on Thursday - the only other time I'd have to just veg would be FRIDAY!  So I didn't feel bad about taking Sunday to myself.

A little update on my challenge to write 1000 words a day.... I wrote a little over 1000 on Monday, and like 700 on Tuesday.  I'm a bit frusterated with those numbers, I'd like them to be higher, but oh well.  Now if I'm really going to this Writer's Conference I need to have a finished something to take with me.  This means I'm going to be putting a lot of effort into Premonition now and hopefully will finish it in January and start editing Suspicion in February and get the second draft done and start getting critiques and reads in March.  WHEW!

Bah! I checked my Amazon order and it's STILL not here! I ordered my bookclub book before Christmas and it's yet to show up.  I'm getting impatient. I think I shall read Gail Carson Levine's Writing Magic the rest of the week and camp out at BandN and read the last Olympian book because I just don't want to buy brand new hardcover.

[edit] After skimming through the first two chapters of Writing Magic, I realize I need to do as the book suggests and sit down and do the writing exercises.  I'll be doing this, but I think I might take it slower - maybe do one chapter a day or something and compile all of the writing exercises into a yWriter project.....

And one last interesting bit. I joined Ravelry this morning at the urging of another knitting friend.

And with that, lunch is over and I must go back to work....

I've discovered the three places I get hit by the inspiration train. 

• In Bed. Either from the thoughts just before I go to sleep, my dreams, or whatever I'm thinking about when I wake up, these thoughts have often lead to a creative gold mine.
• While Driving. I do a lot of thinking, playing music and mussing through stuff here.  It used to be more pronounced but even now I get a lot of good ideas while driving and thinking and listening to music.
• In the Shower.  This has been the place to go for the last few weeks.  Don't ask me why, I don't understand it, but I get in the shower, washing my hair, and I'm slammed by ideas.

So yes, maybe I'm strange, but these are where I get a lot of my ideas.  Yesterday I was in the shower thinking about this vampire short story I was writing - and just had this awesome idea.  Okay, I think it's awesome.  Anywyas, I realize that using it will completely take it out of the short story realm and plop it into novel length, but it has potential and could go somewhere, so I'm going to put it on the back burner and plot it out a bit better and go back to working on Premonition in the hopes that I can finish it in January and start editing Suspicion.  I'd really like to get both in some semblance of neatness in the next few months, truth be told!

Last night I went to go see Sherlock Holmes, I think I'll make a semi detailed blog about it that critiques bits of it - overall I thought it was good but I was not in love with it like so many seem to be.

Finished V for Vendetta, will write up a review of it later - I highly suggest reading it!  [edit] Review done!

I'm not sure what to read next; if the book club book came in today I should really start on that, if not the next book in the Olympian series after The Lightning Thief might tempt me to read it.  It's actually not as thick as the first book, so it will probably hold me through the weekend - even with my brother in town!  We'll see what I pick out tonight I guess.

I keep forgetting I have a rabbit at my place now; she makes noises around her cage that my Chins do not and it keeps startling me.  It could be that she's on the opposite side of my apartment's living-room from the chins for temporary quarantine purposes; Chinchillas are rather delicate creatures.  I'm going to run to the store tonight to pick some stuff up for Lady Gray - the rabbit - since she came to me with a cup for water, not a water-bottle, and has special bedding that I don't use considering there's a tray in the bottom of my Chin's cage.

I finished the green scarf I was working on for a belated birthday present for my boss and have since started another homespun one in red for a friend's birthday - which will also be a late present considering she just told me when her birthday was....Ug! Maybe I'll get a lot done tomorrow on it....I can hope, right?

This morning I was late to work - I've been cutting it really close, but this morning I was straight up late.  This is not good. I think I'm going to start forcing myself to go to bed earlier and kick people out of my apartment at 9pm.  I have noticed that I cannot go from having people over to being in bed; I need an unwinding period where I sit down and veg for a bit to get myself to a point where I can actually get in bed; problematic I think.  The only solution I can see is creating a buffer time where people are gone and I'm alone to get stuff done or whatever.  It won't be fun, I know people are going to not be happy about it, but I need to be better on top of things for work; it is what pays my bills after all!

In completely random news: men's razors are by far more awesome than women's.  I heard it said, I doubted it, I tried it, and omg was I wrong! I was paying about $10 for a package of three of those silky razors which did a pretty good job but $10? It hurt me to buy them.  I paid $4 and got six razors and the results are by far much, much better.

Nathan B posts a blog about how even in the book industry - where authors used to be drunken, druged up loons, it's not tolerted anymore - go read No More A-Holes. Plot to Punctuatin wraps up it's 2009 with a list of the Top Character Development Ideas of 2009. Are you a moralist? What do you think about stealing?  Go hit up the Fuse blog about To Borrow or To Steal.

You ever have those days that you get up and get ready and it's effortless and you just look awesome? That's me today. Unfortunately I'll be in the office by myself all day today, and I only plan on being home tonight doing housey things after grocery shopping.

I had a very strange dream last night and I will blame a good portion of it on a conversation we had over dinner last night about my friends cousin dating an Asian girl and his parents trying to learn how to say her Korean name instead of calling her by the American name she picked for herself.  So last night I dreamed I went to an English boot camp and had an Asian boyfriend who was very tall.  It was rather weird, because in the dream I wasn't there for the boot camp but met all the people in it - the Asian guy was one of them.  Through a conversation it was decided I needed to quit my job and do the boot-camp and in semi seriousness the Asian guy asked me to be his girlfriend.  I started the boot-camp late and got poked at for not really knowing if me and the guy were dating or not but we both said yes ... and the rest of the dream was a montage of me studying note cards.  I don't even want to know what this dream means!

I'm working really hard on finishing the green, angel hair scarf I started in October. I utterly failed at getting it done in time, but if I'm lucky I'll have it done soon enough and can move on to finishing the navy and gray scarf I'm knitting in the round and after that I have another scarf request or two...loosing count here! I'd also like to attempt something else....for my own sake.

So my friend Jessica asked me to babysit her bunny for two weeks; looks like Molly and Polly are getting a neighbor!!!!

I'm getting back into reading my blogs religiously.  If you have some time, and love reading other real life, outrageous drama, read Robin McKinly's blog about what another author posted on Amazon; read the blog!  Writing Excuses has a new podcast/blog up on Tragedy.  Paperback Writer has some great tips on places looking for novel submissions.  When I first got turned onto the Guide to Literary Agents blog I was really into reading it and I've slowly gotten bored with it - but it's the things they publish like this article on an Authors Platform that make me keep following them; not amazing news, but interesting and useful.

Oh my - I throw a good party apparently. I got up yesterday very early to bake four sheets of cookies and stick the brisket in the oven so it could cook for eight whole hours.  Yes, you heard me right, eight hours.  My beer battered brisket consisted of one can of bud light, half a cup brown sugar, half a cup chili powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and one red onion.  My ten pound slab of meat cooked for eight hours at 250F, in hindsight I think it should have been done on 225, but oh well - what can you do now?  I spent all day cleaning and doing piddly things, even when Kyle arrived and we made a quick store run.  People got to my place around 5 and I think that's when everyone's sanity went out the window.  Kyle and I seemed to stick to the kitchen where at 5;30 we pulled the meat out of the oven and started cutting it into thick pieces; should I cook brisket again I will invest in an electric knife.  In the process of getting food out we broke Amanda's moms' crock pot in half, yes - in half. Something about putting it on a hot burner didn't go so well - so now I need to replace that.  Oopse!  Courtney broke a wine bottle - and I believe that's all the super drama for the night.

The food was good; the brisket only a tad bit more tough than I would have preferred, but oh well - it was far better than some I've eaten before!

As soon as the food things were cleared away - out came the cards.  I think we played Uno for hours; we had one game that simply would not end and we were yelling at eachother, threatening and generally being so loud I just knew my neighbors were going to show up any second to yell at us.  That never happened and the party lasted until 11:30 when everyone finally went home.

I really do have some awesome friends; I was amazed by the generosity of my friends - I got a set of Stars tickets, a B&N gift card, a yummie smelling candle, this super fun story telling card game, an awesome jump drive and I know I'm missing something, but it was all so awesome and I am touched by how thoughtful everyone is.  Hopefully we can do something similar again, but first I need to recover from THIS party. 

Really I wish I would have gone right to sleep last night, but I laid awake for most of it, tossing and turning, unsuccessfully sleeping so I'm very much tired today, but hopefully tonight I can really crash.  My parents are coming to take me out to eat tonight, so I'm looking forward to that - and giving them some brisket to take home because there's a lot left over.  Next time I'll cut it in half and save myself some trouble.  I'm sure I'll do a great deal of cleaning and taking out the trash tonight. My apartment needs it!

Right - blogs...in quick, no particular order....

Writing Excuses has a new episode up on gender roles; listened to it once, going to go through again this afternoon. Love listening to these guys!  Paperback Writer has a whole list of Christmas themed stuff on her blog; I wanna go back later and click through it!!  Fuel Your Writing is interesting - they have an article up on various Self Editing methods.  I'm such a girl; I don't care really about the whole Harlequin debacle, but it makes for great drama to read about and the Writer Beware Blog keeps delivering on the latest news!  I really adore The Inkwell Bookstore, but they blog about twice as much as I do so I'm limiting myself to one of their posts; this one is about Amazon opening a physical store!  I recently discovered Plot to Punctuation and their fourth installment of the NaNoWriMo series is up; honestly it's too soon for me to think about revising my NaNoWriMo as I still have yet to finish Premonition.  Doesn't mean I'm not itching to edit up Suspicion, but one project at a time, please and thank you!  Lastly, Nathan Bransford has a new blog layout that includes a forum section that I find awesome - check it out!

Right - back to work - lunch is over!