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Sometimes it's easy to get lost in the shuffle around here ... |
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Best quote to describe me (Anonymous): "Do not think you are on the right road, simply because it is a well-beaten path." I am what I am. Learn to live with it. And realize that comment is as much directed to myself as any reader who ventures here. Tempest arrived 31 March 2009 - changing everything, but she's pretty awesome. Dogbert arrived 13 January 2012 and is working on making the rules change again. I have two writing personas, Ransom Noble and Sheta Storm. Each has goals, and I work on them slowly. Both are published, and will continue to strive toward bigger and better things. I finally figured out how to describe myself in three words: Creative, Determined, Ambitious. It doesn't have anything to do with how I relate to others, but I do use all of those in my many relationships as well as my career goals. I know others use words sometimes like "kind" or "caring" but I think that list is the most accurate if only using three words. Cast... Sesheta: Me Dilbert: My Husband Tempest: My Darling Daughter Dogbert: My Hungry Son Sheer, Nemo, EyeKandy(K), Diego: Friends/Brothers Sugar, Wolvenwings, Mrs. Light, Jori, Trillium (others will be added): Friends It's a start, anyway. Off-Site Blogs: http://ransomnoble.wordpress.com/ http://sheta-storm.blogspot.com/ Upcoming Events: Beaverdale Books signing for Art of Science - TBD Other Items about Me: "Invalid Item"  "Invalid Item" "Failing is a part of success. To make goals effective, you have to fail at them 50 percent of the time, or they didn't stretch you far enough." Chip Wilson, courtesy of an article by Ella Lawrence called Set Your Course from Yoga Journal |
| Despite Dilbert's alarm at 5:30 and Tempest knocking on her door asking for "Ronald" (her toy ronald Mcdonald). Dilbert got up with her - only enough to set up her up with Shrek on the iPad and go back to bed. Then Dogbert roused hungry, and Dilb thought I should get up, but I nursed the boy in bed with my eyes shut. It isn't enough, since the same cute Dogbert kept me up until 11 last night AND nursed through half the night. I'm more rested than yesterday, somehow, not sure how that worked out. Yoga has been completely neglected this week. Wrote two articles so far, both on ants. Up on my 750. Called about a Y membership for me and the kids - not what i want to hear yet, but oh well. Returned a few books to the library, including Naamah's Blessing. Paged through part of Wordpress for Dummies. Mom was around part of yesterday, not seeing her again until Sunday. She helped me get the tablecloth off the table (which apparently Dilbert wanted ON the table) and to clean up the toys for Tempest. Which was really nice, since having everything all over the place was even getting to me yesterday. Took out trash and diapers (which had both piled up). Cheating - Yesterday I friended a whole bunch of Brandiwynš¶  's fake account's friends. Most of them have friended me back already and a few asked me to join their official pages. Figure I'll give it a few days, then ask every one of my friends to join my official SS page. Plus a few who are on my Noble page that haven't yet. No harm in asking. And I got one request yesterday just from doing that - maybe more over the night. [A whole bunch = until FB told me I might not be using the friend tool as intended. Muahahaha. That depends on the intent, stupid!] Next step: Google+. I know where to find the writers, because RN is friends with some of them, so I'm going to find a new entry point. Dilb is going to figure out soon if our moving dates (24/25) are going to fly with when the bank can unreasonably get their paperwork together. I hope they don't drag their feet too much. And I need to make a plan for Mother's Day. And all this Shrek makes me want to write a fairy tale that isn't - much like Shrek. Except maybe not a happy ever after. Sometimes I also wonder if it would be better to just stop having kids. They take a lot of time and energy and steal sleep - and eventually these two will be big enough to take care of themselves. Having more kids means starting over. I think I also need to do something else other than the writer group. They don't inspire me to write or edit- they make me feel like I'm not good or worthy of any attention. Part of it might be what the one guy said - that they're like crabs with a hard shell and soft insides. But I'm not so sure I want to hang around to crack 'em open. |
| It's the rule I'm attempting to implement. Not going that well with Tempest, but it hurts my head more than it does already. She gets me up early (just after 6 she makes noise) and Dogbert keeps me up late - 10:30 when I get to bed. Plus he sleeps better touching my skin and wakes me at random times and somehow my neck and back are all screwed up from this. Somehow? No, that makes sense. It just hurts, though. And Dilbert's asleep in there and he doesn't get I resent him for it. Writing articles about some ant stuff and I am fascinated. But otherwise I am really dragging. I can't get in gear to do other things. I just try to keep up with the stuff going on. Not well, but I have a lot of effort. And then I talk to my mother and I get exasperated. Tempest just fell in love with Shrek and she requests it OFTEN. I tried to explain about Shrek Forever After (since Mom hasn't seen it) and I said the princess saved herself, and my mother instantly launches into what a great "message" it is. It isn't a message. Unless it means by saving herself the princess doesn't believe in love anymore. How great is that? Yeah, I want my kid to get a 'message' that by saving herself she becomes bitter and won't have friends.  Yet her true love came to save her again. FORGET THE FUCKING MESSAGE! Or perhaps I'm just cranky because I can't sleep and two kids are always bugging me for crap and Dilbert was in his laptop almost until Tempest went to bed last night. And he doesn't help with Dogbert, either, though he did put Tempest to bed. Because I was nursing Dogbert. *sigh* |
| Kids, that is. Yesterday: Yoga  Technical Blackout Meditation Article Social Media {e:notreally} Photo  750words - which marked day 300. [Applaud here.]Today: Yoga Technical Blackout {e:sorta} Meditation {e:notyet} Article but all my pending ones have been accepted. Social Media Photo 750words Dilbert has played two different Shrek movies for Tempest. She seems to have fallen in love with them. Yay! But on the other hand, he has been short tempered (especially today) and it has not been a pleasant day. I understand the frustration sometimes, like when she just decides to THROW things - ipad, full glass of milk, or whatever else comes to hand - and makes a mess and/or breaks things. It gets on my nerves, too, but I think part of it is for attention. And I'm trying to give her as much positive attention as possible, but I don't think Dilbert is registering that at all. I left my iPad in my backpack all day after I got home from the writer's group. But sometimes I still had to feed Dogbert and there's not much I can do about that. Dilbert couldn't feed Dogbert the breastmilk, and tomorrow I'm going to have to throw out approximately 45 minutes worth of pumping. And that makes me pissed off for no good reason. It also annoys me that he was in bed until 8 am and complained that I couldn't keep the kids quiet. Yeah, because he does SO much better. And again when he was watching a plastic planet documentary. No one else was interested. I can't wait to get the house. More space. Plenty of room for all of us to coexist and not be on top of each other and the TV can be FAR AWAY. Plus other wonderful benefits like not worrying about Tempest leaving the apartment while I try to get groceries inside or missing my books or guitars or whatever. Started reading Naamah's Blessing during naptime. Pushed my 750 until later but that is okay. I just need a break for my brain. |
| Yoga Technical Blackout Meditation Article Social Media 1/2 Photo 750words Actually have written 7 articles in 4 days at TB. 4 accepted so far, and of course they're the little ones. At least I might be getting somewhere. Also increased my profile from 24% to 41% complete, but it's totally annoying me for the last bits. In the Social Media category - I blogged for Storm again. Appears tonight. Using help from Brandiwynš¶ to improve a few things. Otherwise just trying to keep things together. Also wrote a query letter. It's specific to an agent, and I had a dream about it the other day, but it isn't bad at the moment. Now I just need to focus on getting the rest of it done. Focus is not my strong point. The dang substitute librarian was there again. The one who only sings three songs (without the nice stereo system hooked up in that room) and wants the 1-3 year olds to SIT DOWN AND NOT MOVE FOR HALF AN HOUR. Yeah, that's helpful. She told Tempest and her friend, "Ladies, sit down please." And the two girls were playing without talking, just holding each other's hands and walking in a circle. They weren't even being disrupted when she said that, only when Tempest walked over a little boy who was trying to listen. (oops) So my friend and I took our kids and left in the middle in protest. I find it terribly annoying that she plays the music very softly after her storytime is over. She chooses books that have a LOT of writing in them and doesn't want the kids to get up and dance or anything. She doesn't complain if it is while people are singing, but her expectations feel unrealistic for the rest of them. All the kids are fidgety and restless. So we colored outside the room for a time, and a few other moms had not good things to say when leaving storytime, and then we went to the park outside the library so the girls could do some energy stuff and my friend was helping because Tempest was giving me trouble. Tempest also decided to yell and play in her room and tear apart her bed for an hour and a half at naptime. Dogbert was in and out. And sometime in the evening, Dilbert had said he'd had it with Tempest. Seriously? Try having her all day, dude!! But good thing he doesn't, because he has no patience. |
| Need to be in front of me to work well. Yoga Technical Blackout Meditation Article Social Media is too complicated to just be one category, but give 1/2 Photo 750words Weighed Dogbert @ breastfeeding group. 19.8 lbs. Added with Tempest's 28.2 and I carry 48 lbs of children here and there. No wonder I'm tired. That doesn't count any incidentals like diaper bag or sling or whatever. Starting to notice when Tempest has nonsense words. Not sure what to do about that. Went to sleep last night wondering if I was boring. But I think maybe I just haven't tried to engage very well with Storm. |
| Managed a lot... still tweaking the process though. Haven't updated my template yet. Whee. Yesterday: Yoga? Meditation? Wrote an article? Social Media? [To the tune of 4 FB pages, 3 G+, 2 Twitter and 1 LinkedIn - not to mention updating 3 blogs (though one comes out this morning) and commenting on three blogs that were not my own.] 750words? Took a photo? Technical blackout? But only because I kinda forgot this was one of my 12for12. But Tempest did get a timeout when we got home from gymnastics for whining and only yelling for the iPad. And we will continue to work on this. Also Tempest's well-child appointment: 36" and 28 lbs! She jumped up a line on weight, so she's no longer 3%! I think the cutting down on milk and pushing some different foods helped. She's also had a growth spurt and a lot of her 2T pants are too short. Sweet. Explained the comprehension issue thing to Dr Sheer and she had some suggestions, too. Gymnastics was fun, but Tempest threw a fit to leave. Carried both kids to the car. Realized later I carried both kids in from the car - there were big puddles Tempest wanted to splash in and I didn't want her completely soaked. I'm such a spoilsport. Dilbert worked a 12 hour day with commute, and I wasn't pleased with the Tempest meltdown and he hadn't left work yet. He was surprised when he got home and I hadn't eaten dinner yet - but I'd fed Tempest and Dogbert and hadn't had much time otherwise. The good news on Tempest is people around us are noticing how much more she's speaking lately.  I must be doing something right. And from the list above - I'm doing a lot of stuff. It doesn't even count that I did both laundry and dishes, too! |
| Because it's just too hard to get through them. Dilbert forgot to pay my car registration, which expired yesterday, so I had to do that, but I also had to wait for the cleaners. It was a Monday AND the end of the month - so I was worried I'd be there forever. I was second in line when I got there after the cleaning people left, and five more came in behind me. Got lucky. Though Dilbert didn't put it on my car, so I have to do that, too. I was just happy to get them inside when they were so hungry for lunch, and then I didn't want to mess with it when they were out there. But I forgot about it until very late. *sigh* He did say "I noticed you cleaned." It's something. It's more than he usually says. Must be catching up on sleep because I'm just waking up without the terrible need to go back to sleep - and with the baby, and Tempest has been sleeping in. Poor girl has a cold and allergies. It's tough. Dogbert is definitely scooting around! He cracks me up. |
| Vulcans and time travel. But not star trek, though we did go to space in a weird craft. I had a husband named Michael, and a daughter younger than Tempest who had been bitten all over her face and in her mouth (wide open and smiling) by bugs she was. Mildly allergic to. The time/space travel needed a moderator like a game. And we passed out during time change stuff. Michael had left something, a business and a lot of money to a woman other than me, and I prepared to fight (not physically) for it. Maybe they weren't even vulcans, because they had no pointy ears and were smaller, but their blood ran the wrong color. And when Michael was gone, everyone boiled out of the house that was not just a single family dwelling but seemed to hold about ten families. But before Michael disappeared, he left the woman he left everything to in our guest bedroom. Tunie, I think her name was. Odd. Can't remember any more. This is what happens when dilb gets up and leaves and the kids let me sleep til 7. Dogbert stays awake trying to scoot around, and making it in a circle. Tempest slept in til quarter past. And I need to get everything picked up by the time the cleaners arrive. Saw a couple houses on the parade of homes, but dilb was unwilling to drive around the area where so many were located. If they did not plug I to the gps, we were sol. So annoying. He changed one diaper all day and it was dry, and that was his token of helping to get ready to go. And I was trying to do my 750, and he was telling me to go do addresses. Right, because nothing I do could possibly have value? I was nursing dogberry, too. Not like it made it easy to move around. So then I wrote down the one he had on screen and took care of getting Robert ready to go. I hate autocorrect. Gotta turn that crap off. It doesn't like dogbert. |
| http://excessica.com/about-ebooks This one has a price list with word count. I like that. Might even be an acceptable alternative for some publishing. In other news, I would love to wake up without a headache. |
| Okay... it helped me to do research. I rethought my idea and revised the initial project. I'm too fond of the idea of one, though it is too short, so I'm going to have to brainstorm ways to add to it or provide more in the way of nerd love for it to work. Not that it is on hold, just that it needs more. Which puts a secondary idea up ahead of it. It is within the length requirement to reach the bestseller list. A couple of the stories are a little strange and most of them need some editing. (Only one has been previously published.) I think to set myself up to do everything right, the number is $916 to do it all. [That includes a 5% loss to whatever company, though a few of them take less than Kickstarter.] I could get it lower. Does that mean I'm selling myself short if I want to get to the bottom number possible? Somehow I just think it'd be difficult to raise that much. Should I instead drop it to $650 and see if I can do the rest myself or at a later date? Sheesh. It's really not a lot of  . I just think if I start this one out at a break-even, I will be much closer to my goals as it can sell while I work on the 2nd and 3rd to come out. And maybe 4th. I'm working on the plan. I cataloged all my short stories, whether they were WIP and attached word counts. Does it even seem plausible? I haven't added up what that does to my proposed incentives. Damn. |
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