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With coffee and writing implements at hand, I can determine the shape of today. |
| I tend to write in the morning. After morning coffee and writing comes whatever the day holds...work, more writing, family time, reading, maybe even some gaming. It just depends...but writing first, always. And once I start writing, I get an idea not only of what I'm writing about, but how the rest of my day will go. Hence, the shape of today. |
| So here is Monday, the most dreaded day of the week. On the itinerary are Dad's eye treatment and various other errands. However, compared with what some are facing today you won't find me grumping about it. ArenaNet, the company that brings Guild Wars 2 to the world, is apparently about to have some serious layoffs. This news broke late last week when someone privy to the info went running to a popular gaming website with the information. The result was a lot of Anet employees learning of this through panicked tweets and other third-party sources. Awkward, to say the least, because management was forced to 'fess up and confirm this is indeed the case. Looks like the decision is coming from NCSoft, Anet's parent company. Since then there have been a number of troubling signs from Seattle, such as the Friday livestream that never came off (it was three hours before it was even officially cancelled, much to the annoyance of the people waiting for it). I'm not going to speculate on how this will affect the game's future, though I can't see how it won't. I had already decided a year ago that GW2 is going to be my last game, period. Gaming is great fun, but it's expensive and time-consuming...and for me, that time is better spent reading and writing. especially writing. I'll remain in my pixelated playground as long as I can, but after that I'll be busy making worlds of my own. In the meantime...the day calls. |
| Oh, stop giggling. Not like that. This has been a rough week, thus far. We've been getting clobbered by round after round of heavy rain, with thunderstorms thrown in just for fun. One of these apparently took out Dad's desk phone and the cordless yesterday, I came home from work to find them both dead. I'll need to try and remedy things since the kitchen phone is the only operating phone at this time. The cordless phone is kind of a necessity now for Dad. Firstly, though, another technological issue of sorts: my SERVICE ENGINE SOON light popped on as I was driving through one of the monsoons Tuesday evening, about a mile from home. As I'd just had an oil change last week, service shouldn't actually be necessary. I tried re-seating the gas cap, but that didn't help so I spent my driving time yesterday with this automotive Eye of Sauron glaring at me, which coupled with the horrid weather did not improve my mood. I'll have to make a call or two (with my cellphone) and see if I can get this checked today or tomorrow. Gotta take Dad down to Georgia Retina Monday; I don't want to do it with potential trouble under the hood. I'm pretty certain it's just something that needs to be reset because I don't see, feel, hear, or otherwise sense anything wrong...but I still want a professional to look into it. And I'll need to visit the grocery store as well, several key items have run out or are about to. And dodge more raindrops in between, because this stuff is gonna continue until at least Sunday. Yikes. Yup, I've had enough of this "adulting" jazz... |
| "Update your blog," WDC support reminds me. Well, okay; the catch is that my upgraded membership had expired a few weeks ago and I couldn't update it because I couldn't access it for some time. Fortunately, WDC has its own sub-community dedicated to giving members some help with their memberships, and they came to my rescue this weekend. So here I am. So this morning, my post will be twofold: I'm practicing embedding videos, and I am also sharing a favorite video of mine. I found the link to this one on the Scrivener forums, and I watch it just about every morning to give myself some encouragement. Its name is "Writers Block: A Supercut" and it's self-explanatory. I tend to think of it as my "daily devotional": |
| Haven't been blogging much lately. Work and caring for Dad made their usual demands on my time, and this past weekend was dominated by NiaD (Novel in a Day), which I am proud to say I was able to take part in. I didn't find it easy and don't consider my contribution to be among my best work, but I was still able to submit my entry before the "soft" deadline Saturday afternoon. The weekend and yesterday was dominated by hype over an approaching winter storm that was supposed to have paralyzed us today. As is often the case, things haven't quite worked out. The NWS had gone so far as to issue a Winter Storm Warning for us and after all the schools and government offices opted to close today, the library followed suit. Then as I woke up in the predawn dark this morning I could hear traffic moving on the highway. Not very much traffic because everything is shut down, but traffic nonetheless. So yeah, another case of some weather nerd getting his boxers in a bunch. Some very cold air is supposed to move in today; I'm hoping they'll be wrong about that as well. In the meantime, I've got a free day off and the fixings for Fiesta Lime Chicken all ready to go into the slow cooker. Then maybe I'll get ambitious and clean off my desk or something. Time to make the best of this day. |
| Over the weekend I tried, with mixed results, to track down a book or two on writing...specifically, writing villains. There are not many books out there that deal with villains overall, which is surprising to me. I've been toying with the idea of writing a book of my own on villains simply because this rather vital aspect of a story gets neglected time and again by authors, TV and film producers, and game developers. The never-seen Sauron of LOTR, the heavily breathing Darth Vader, and Jack Nicholson's gleefully malevolent Joker in the first "Batman" film all drive the point home: if you don't have a good villain, you don't have a good story. I want my own villains to seem as menacing to the reader as they would be to my characters, so I want to sharpen my skills in that department. So far I've found surprisingly few books on the matter, but I did find one in the library's main catalog called Bullies, Bitches and Bastards. That one should generate some comment when it comes in the courier. But I'm also hoping it will generate some ideas that haven't occurred to me yet. In the meantime, it's a chilly morning, and a busy workweek is in the offing. It's time I got to it... |
| One early casualty this winter has been my slow cooker. It has a selector button for its cooking times rather than a knob that one twists, and this is no longer working correctly. It just sits there and blinks and won't let me set a time period. I've done some checking online and this appears to be a fairly widespread problem with that particular model of Crock-pot. I could hold forth a bit about the perils of relying too heavily on tech, but I think I'll just swing by the Palace of Earthly Delights tomorrow and pick up a new one for about $20--one with a knob, mind you. Then I'll have the amusing task of what to do with the old crock...still perfectly serviceable as a serving dish even if it won't heat any longer. Or perhaps a planter. Or... |
| On this first day of new year, I wish to report that things are looking clearer. Explain? Certainly. Yesterday, New Years' Eve, I took Dad down to the eye clinic for his monthly injections. It was a very unpleasant day...foggy, with the kind of fine misty rain that necessitates windshield wipers on their lowest setting...and all the while, they're making an irritating scraping noise. But what interested me was the fog...though forecast to be gone by mid-morning, it never went away at all. All the way to Forsyth County, and all the way back home, and all the rest of the day the fog remained, caressing everything in its drippy grasp. I rather like fog as long as I don't have to be out in it, especially driving at night. I always find myself thinking of classic weird fiction on foggy days...and yesterday was one for the books. I can't recall the last time I've seen it hang around all day like that. Today is at least starting out a little differently...the fog has cleared, and I can see a gold-peach tint to the clouds as the sun rises. More rain is forecast for today so I'm not sure how much sunshine we'll get. What I do know is this is my last day off before returning to work, and I should make the most of it. The clarification in the weather should be a clarification for my mind as well. There are many stories, at leas one non-fiction project, and at least one WDC writing contest waiting for me. I'm going to try to start by clearing this desk of mine. It seems a good way to start off the new year! |
| This is day four of a lengthy break from work for me...the way my schedule and the library closings synced, I don't have to return until next Wednesday. As I was more than ready for such a break, I didn't argue. Yesterday meant a lot of cooking, and I was pleased with the way my meal turned out. It also featured an annoying throat pain that spooked me, so I took some cold meds last night that have left me feeling woozy this morning. I need to shake that off, though...it looks like this is going to be the only good weather day this side of the weekend, and I have several tasks that need doing. Overdue cleaning and the like. So while I'm enjoying my morning coffee, I'm also planning what I need to do first. At least the sore throat is gone. On the writing front, I still have this week's guild announcement plus an idea for an article that surfaced yesterday morning. I will need to do some research before starting on it, but I plan to use Scrivener for it so I can practice with its interface. I can always convert it to a Word document if I decide the finished product can be sent on to the boys. So much to do...time to get busy! |
| Well, it's the last day of work before Christmas. And it's a day when I can drive home in daylight which makes me happy. Generally at the library we relax on the last day before Christmas break...we're even allowed to read, or noodle around on the web in between helping the patrons that do come in. Both the break room and the workroom/office area are stuffed with goodies...cookies, muffins, fudge, candy, chips, even some leftover pizza from a party on Thursday. These are provided by patrons who clearly think we don't eat enough. Some of it is also left over from last weekend's gingerbread house workshop. Whatever else happens at that library, we won't starve for a while. I'm looking forward to a more relaxed pace today. This may or may not be our last Christmas in the old building, provided they can stick to their plan and have the new library ready by next fall. That makes it rather special. Then again, for me a bad day at the library is still better than a good day at the Palace of Earthly Delights...so every day is special for me. |
| After several days off from work, I'm headed back for one last busy stretch before Christmas. I'd normally have my tree up and everything ready by now, but this year I'm lagging behind. I'll have to work the tree in between work and other concerns. Part of it is I'm trying to be mindful of Dad's needs...the tree's gonna create some extra clutter in an already cluttered living room. The other part is that my heart is just not in it this year. Truth be told, if it were not for Mom's ornaments, I wouldn't even bother with the project. Years of retail work ruined Christmas for me, and it's taking a while to shake off that cynicism and remember why the holiday is such a joy. But even when Mom passed in '86 I made a point of putting the tree up (something I feel confident she would have approved of), and have done so every single year since. They are old, some are faded, but to me her ornaments are more valuable than the Crown Jewels. So yes, though it will be tight, I will get that tree up. And to paraphrase C. S. Lewis...I won't let the memory of bad Christmas profiteering spoil the joy of good Christmas memories. |
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