| Time-Shifting A Day |
[Mar. 10th, 2010|09:27 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | my life | ] |
| [ | music |
| | BRMC - The Toll | ] |
Haven't seen the new LOST yet, so I'll have to post my thoughts about it tomorrow. Sorry about the delay!
Everything's fine here...and thanks to everyone for the good thoughts about the weekend. We're still kind of recuperating and stuff, and I'll try and post some of the great pictures Emma took (and some of the not-so-great ones I took).
We got up there late Friday night (managed to hit rush hour on our way out), bought a sled and found some snow the next morning, and went out sledding at a little park literally no one else was out. Came home for lunch and went out sledding again in the afternoon and it started snowing. I don't think Claire's ever really seen it snow before, not like that, at least, and she loved it. I'd forgotten how beautiful snow looks when it's coming down on top of pine trees and cabins. And Emma said it was the best birthday weekend she's ever had.
So, I'd say it worked out pretty well!
Now I'm back, and there's a ton of stuff to do, but I'm spectacularly okay with that - in fact, kind of looking forward to it. LOST, PodCastle, writing, reading. These are pressures I can deal with happily! |
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| Progress in dribbles and bits |
[Mar. 10th, 2010|11:07 am] |
Yesterday I had about four hours of steady time. The day before that, three. The day before that, eight. Today, none, but still: this is the second time I've had three days in a row with some steady time in them. And I thought I should say, because it's a good thing. The previous time wasn't last week. But still, progress, definitely progress.
(Please do not congratulate me on three steady days or three days' steady time. That is another milestone, and one I am nowhere near yet; I haven't gotten a full 24 hours without getting dizzy yet, much less 72.)
So what did I do with yesterday's bonus steady time? Power tools. I ran the circular saw. We are getting close to done with the floors in the basement, and then we can do the trim and clean up and start moving ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) timprov's stuff into his new room. So very close, and yet so much still to do. |
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| I am an idiot |
[Mar. 10th, 2010|11:24 am] |
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I've mentioned before that if I've struggled with something for three days, I know I'm in the wrong place or wrong POV. Lately, it takes less time to figure that out. This time, it took longer.
I wasn't happy with last week's writing. It was progress, but it didn't feel great. I chalked it up to my daughter's illness and her coming home impeding a bit on my time and brainpower. Silly me. I fooled myself sufficiently enough to press on for another two days. It had nothing to do with anything other than me trying to twist a mistake into something that made sense.
I won't go into the whole thing. Suffice it to say that I had one small but significant detail mucking things up. The further I tried to force that wrong detail right, the more convoluted things became. It changed motivations. It rambled. I tried to fix said ramblings. D'uh! How about just fix the detail?
It took until yesterday to acknowledge what I already knew. And the sad thing is, the detail was RIGHT in my plot summary. I don't know what possessed me to switch it up. I'd blame my muse if I hadn't demystified the use of it last week. :)
I caught it yesterday, as I was closing up for the day, once again dissatisfied with how the story was going. I knew about where things were going wrong, so I read a few paragraphs over. Two-by-four to head moment. There was the detail. I wrote myself a couple of notes and closed out. Today, I started in on the fixing. Shazam.
Yes, I am an idiot sometimes. And there you have it.
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| Funky, funky Broadway |
[Mar. 10th, 2010|07:42 am] |
Another day at the downtown Starbucks, on Broadway. Not loving this place. It's too small, I'm too close to the door, etc. Nevertheless, a bit over 600 words on the Degas story, mostly essay-type exposition, but that's something.
--xxx--
I had training all day yesterday. Scrivener worked pretty well as a tool for taking notes and organizing the PDFs and image files the course organizers gave us. I think I'm about a week into my trial of it, and it's looking pretty likely that I'll keep it.
I also have been having a strong urge to buy a netbook and make it into a Snow Leopard Hackintosh. (Bad Avocado! How many new toys can you play with at once?)
--xxx--
I've been trying to get back into the habit of going for a walk in the evenings, for 30 minutes to an hour. Two days in a row, now. Possibly trying to establish (or re-establish) too many good habits at once, but we'll see how it goes. |
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| slight delay in New Shinies possible |
[Mar. 9th, 2010|11:40 pm] |
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We'll be double-checking some shipping stuff tomorrow, so New Shinies might be delayed. I want to make sure that we're getting all this stuff fixed, with the new way we're doing it. |
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| huh! weird. but really cool! |
[Mar. 9th, 2010|11:38 pm] |
OK, I suspected this last night, but I am pretty convinced of it today.
Something is working better in my hip.
Have no idea what it is, or if it will keep working better, or even if it's just my wishful thinking after all, but like I said, I'm pretty convinced at the moment. We'll see what the morrow brings. |
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| ArtLog: there was an art frenzy waiting for me at home... |
[Mar. 9th, 2010|05:14 pm] |
... and it's jumped on me good and proper. There are necklaces happening. Some of these have been in the bead-gathering stage for a long time.
Also, when I get more coherent about it, I hope to tell you about another aspect of the art frenzy that hit me last night. It's partly about fiercely desiring to get better at a bunch of current techniques and to add a few new ones I've been eyeing for a long time. I have had the materials for doing some resin casting for a little while now, and seeing inaurolillium's recent work (including the excellent necklace she made for me, which is so cool and so Shadow Unit) has gotten me even more excited about it. I also might be playing with a little precious metal clay, because there are some charms I cannot find, so I may have to mold my own. We Shall See About This.
That'll have to wait, though, because there's this necklace called "The Beautiful Ones," which is about the Unseelie Court, which is partway done, after being a collection of beads in one of my composing boxes for nigh unto ten years now. It's pretty insistent right now, so I will go back in there and try to figure out how to wrap gold-filled wire around some rusted screws and vintage crystal.
New Shinies tomorrow if all goes well... and a sale on Friday. (Oooh, advance warning!) |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 9th, 2010|07:43 am] |
A little over 200 words on the space station story, and almost 300 on the Degas story. I'm downtown for training today, so I'm writing at the downtown Starbucks. I might have been here once or twice, but it's usually not convenient. If I'm going to be downtown otherwise, there's usually coffee to be had at the River Market.
Yesterday, I mentioned that I thought that putting my laptop away at night would make it easier to get up. Last night I put it away, and sure enough, it was easier to get up. I'm still not getting up as early as I'd like, but I did better today.
--xxx--
Almost through reading Brust's The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars (here's Jo Walton's review). Have I mentioned how much I'd like Steve Brust's ability to use interesting structures in his fiction? They are artificial but feel -- well, not exactly natural, but almost inevitable. Very well integrated with the content of the work. I'd like to be able to do that.
--xxx--
Now to find my parking garage and my training class. |
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| home! also, good things, and looking forward. |
[Mar. 9th, 2010|12:45 am] |
Yep, I'm home safe and sound. Well, I've been home safe and sound for a few hours already, but I was getting reacquainted with the Juan and then chilling out a bit and prepping a few things for tomorrow. Home! Home, yay!
That said, there were some very good things about Seattle in general and Potlatch time in specific.
1. Classes were great! All my students were awesome in various ways, and I really enjoyed teaching you guys. You made it a wonderful trip, and you make me want to do more teaching. Please do send me photographs of what you make, because you're a creative, inventive, and talented bunch.
2. Despite not making it to any programming (which I was sad about), I did have some excellent conversations and hanging-out time with people. (All too short, some of it, but that's the nature of conventions, no?) It was particularly good talking with Debbie in the dealers' room, with Nisi in the lovely consuite, catching up for a smidgen with Suzy Charnas, telling Kate and Lise (not at the same time) about the Steampunk World's Fair coming up, and a bunch more time with a bunch more good folks, in between teaching and working behind my table. (Also, got to talk about a non-jewelry project with somebody who might be part of it, which was fun; I'll tell you all more when I am at liberty to do so.)
3. Some of the conversations were combined with yummy food, which was even more fun. Brad, thank you for a much-needed and very tasty sushi expedition, and a nice break from the busyness of the convention. Catherynne, that was the most fun reading I've been to in a long time, and I loved the chance to have dinner with you -- and what a dinner! (inaurolillium, whose LJ name I can too pronounce, has a temple of nom nom nom, the Night Kitchen, and all you folks in or near or passing through Seattle should ought to go there. I need to go back. Need need need to go back. Seriously.) Heather, who may or may not be checking LJ these days, I am so glad that you and Blue were able to have dinner with me last night on short notice. Love ya to pieces, woman. There were more good yummy notes as well, but I'm sleepy and don't remember them all.
I'm a very tired Lioness right now, but something good has happened tonight, and I think there are some very good things going to happen in the near future, because I'm determined to make them happen. See you all soon.
Onward!
P.S. Almost forgot: Klages, you wild woman, thank you for being a fun roommate even under occasionally bizarre or trying circumstances, and for the Sensible Talk on Wednesday night, which definitely bore fruit. |
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| How cool is this?? |
[Mar. 8th, 2010|03:23 pm] |
I got a package today. In it, I found this:
After chatting about treasures and how we loves them, tracy_74 went traipsing about in the dirt with a friend one day, searching out one of these darlings for me. It's not this exact one, but you get the idea. It's SO COOL!!!
From an 'official' site:
Oklahoma designated rose rock (barite rose) as the official state rock in 1968. These rocks were formed by barite rock crystals during the Permian Age and resemble blooming roses. They are found in only a few rare places around the globe. Barite Rose Rocks can be found in clusters with only two roses to as many as hundreds of roses (some clusters weigh hundreds of pounds).
In Oklahoma, the distinctive red soil colors them in hues ranging from reddish brown to cinnamon - rose rocks are sought after and prized worldwide. An old Cherokee legend says the rocks represent the blood of the braves and the tears of the maidens who made the devastating "Trail of Tears" journey in the 1800's to Oklahoma.
From Wikipedia:
Oklahoma rose stone was formed during the Permian era, 250 million years ago, when western and central Oklahoma was covered by a shallow sea. As the sea retreated, barite precipitated out of the water and crystallized around grains of quartz sand. This left behind large formation of reddish sandstone, locally called Garber sandstone, containing deposits of rose rock.[1]
I am so excited. What a great gift! Thanks again, Trace!!! |
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| There is no punctuation in that phrase. |
[Mar. 8th, 2010|11:47 am] |
Minnesota Public Radio is asking listeners to consider the station in their estate planning. They've been running little spots all day from elderly listeners saying how happy they are to have included MPR in their wills and how easy it was to do.
The spots end with an instruction to go to the appropriate page on MPR's website and click on "Will Kit."
I have been mishearing that phrase all morning.
This entry was originally posted at http://ellen-fremedon.dreamwidth.org/717956.html. Please comment there using OpenID. |
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| Stand back |
[Mar. 8th, 2010|07:53 am] |
A little over 300 words today in the hospital cafeteria. Nothing special, but I'm happy with the way I pushed through the first paragraph or so of throat-clearing.
I think I'll do better if I pack up my laptop at night, before going to bed, so no checking e-mail, reading the news, etc. in the morning before getting out of bed. Most of the time I'm waking up in plenty of time, but I'm either snoozing or reading.
Oh, and for future reference, shredded mozzarella is a passable substitute for cheddar in an omelet, other than the obvious stringiness. Still, it feels good to go back to my old habit of microwaving a one- or two-egg omelet for breakfast, and eating it with the normal cold cereal. When I was getting up later, it was usually a matter of not having time, but the three to five minutes is not a big deal now, especially if I can get rid of that reading time.
--xxx--
Peter Gabriel's "Steam" came up in the shuffle this morning on my MP3 player. That was just the song I needed on the drive into town. I don't feel anything like the same affection for anything else PG has recorded (at least what I've heard), even though "Sledgehammer" and "Big Time" seem to follow a similar formula. Why is that, I wonder?
--xxx--
Okay, so besides krylyr and me, who's up for the April book club discussion of The Apocalypse Door by James D. Macdonald? The link has chapter one, so you can take a look and decide if it looks like your kind of thing. I expect that I'll post something on the first Monday of April (so you know this is not an April Fools' Day joke), discuss it in comments here, and link to the posts of others who let me know they want to post their longer thoughts on their blogs. Any other suggestions? Who's up for it?
(Aside to the author(s): if you throw me a bn.com or powells.com affiliate link for the book, I'll be glad to point people to it. I can't tell if the sff.net page for the book includes an affiliate link, or just regular linkage.) |
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| Seattle, farewell! |
[Mar. 7th, 2010|10:55 pm] |
Tomorrow I fly home, sometime in the mid-afternoon.
If anybody's around in the late morning or midday, and you want to have a cuppa, send me e-mail, OK? (elise at NO SPAM lioness NO SPAM dawt net, yaknow?)
signed,
tired Lioness filled with amiability |
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| Too Fantastic to Pass Up |
[Mar. 7th, 2010|08:42 pm] |
If you do nothing else with the rest of your evening, watch this very short video. I say 'the rest of your evening' because if you watch it once, you will watch it again, and possibly again. I've watched it five or six times now. It never gets old!
I present to you: Trailer for Every Oscar Winning Movie Ever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbhrz1-4hN4
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ravenous