Well, today wasn't too bad. I got stuck on express lane all day long, which sucked of course, but my sick friend was back today, and not sick anymore. :) I missed him. He looks tired but otherwise is all right, which makes me happy. We talked about books a lot and he got to leave work before I did, the little punk. *grin* Got to see a couple of my other friends too, and pass on some of the gifts I won as prizes for raising money for the MDA, (I got 3rd place for raising $447 dollars) which was nice. I like spoiling my friends and giving them things.

I was pretty exhausted when I got home but after some good dinner and time loafing on the couch, I decided to go out for a walk in the rain. (That's my twisted logic for you. Feel tired? Go for an hour long walk! Uphill!) It was fabulous. Unfortunately I think I must have pulled something in my right leg because it REALLY started hurting about mid-walk, and I had to cut things a little short, but I still had a good time. I probably looked like a crazy person with my hoodie on, splashing through puddles rescuing earthworms, listening to my iPod and not appearing to care that I was getting absolutely soaked, (I looked as though I'd had a nice long shower by the time I got home) but I don't care. It was perfect, and I felt a lot better/less depressed afterwards.

Sometimes I tell people at work (customers and employees both) that I like to walk in the rain, and they fritter about it and think I'm nuts, but I don't care about that, either. Sure, it's unusual, and sometimes a little dangerous, but that's what makes it worth doing. If you can't appreciate that, it's your loss, not mine. I'll do as I please and get away with it, just like I always have. ^_~ (It's one of the perks of being made entirely of Awesome.) Besides. Every now and then, you meet someone of a like mind, and that can be a lot of fun.

And with that, I now have to drag my tired, achy self to bed so I can prepare for my massive eight hour shift tomorrow. Let's all give a quick w00t for money and seeing friends for more than thirty minutes.

I got some more goodies today. =D Simple Things and When it Falls by Zero 7 arrived from Amazon today, along with the Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack for dad. I'm very excited since I absolutely love Zero 7, and this is the first step towards making my music collection a little more legitimate. As for work, I had a good day. Despite forgetting my glasses this morning plus a long shift, I ended the day on a high note and had fun. Having friends rocks, and so does running into interesting customers. The next two days I have off, which is going to be awesome. Lots of cooking and playing of video games is going to occur. =D Oh, and did I mention the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS today? The temperature was easily in the 70's. I actually spent my last break napping outside in the sunshine. Awesome. I can't believe it's actually December!

You know, it's really beginning to annoy me how few of my favorite podcasts have promos available for download on their websites. It's the easiest, most obvious way to advertise your podcast and ensure it's popularity, and yet so many of them totally skip out on it. I'm baffled. Not to mention it's making MY job as a podcaster harder, because we need promos to run during episodes The Dead Robots' Society and I'm coming up empty. Equally frustrating is the fact that some podcasts won't run our promos until we've been around for awhile. On the one hand I understand where they're coming from since pod-death is so prevalent these days, but on the other...not having any fans is the primary reason for pod-death. You'd be pretty hard pressed not to keep going if you had fans banging down your door every day demanding more, y'know? It's sort of like a self fulfilling prophecy, or one of those weird snake things that eats itself. I've always thought those were really cool. I know, I know, but it's true...

I did absolutely nothing useful today. There, I admit it. I got wrapped up in BG2 and just never left. I feel kind of bad about that, but I'm still stuck on String Shift. (Though cursing that little twit Ellesime out during that dream sequence was fun--I don't usually get many opportunities to swear loudly at my computer, it's very therapeutic) I know what I need to do--revamp my protagonist's character and put some of what I cut out back in and tweak a few major plot points and probably delete the last four chapters I've written--but the enormity of it all is scaring me off. I do have a few notes about the protagonist that I scribbled during the quieter parts of my game, but other than that I haven't touched it for a few days. My end of August deadline looms large in my mind, and while I've decided I'm OK with showing my First Readers an incomplete manuscript, it still gnaws at me. I know what I'm doing. I've done it ever since I was a kid. I'm hiding myself in a video game while I gather myself and recover from burn out, but the question now is which comes first: The end of August, or the end of the game? And when am I going to be able to face up to the fact that writing takes actual work?

It's too hot outside. Today it was up to 95 and the humidity was probably somewhere in the 40-50% range. It's been like that all week. Our plants are surviving, but barely. I used up a couple of basil plants tonight for pesto, and dad's tomato plants are walking a thin line between being OK and wilting to death. The scary thing about that is tomato plants LOVE the heat and the sun, but the weather we've been having for the past couple of months has been so oppressive that we have to watch them like hawks to make sure they don't die on us. On the bright side, my Japanese eggplants are doing splendidly, as is our second batch of cucumbers. They're HUGE and starting to bloom, so we'll probably be getting some lovely cukes from them soon. The cantaloupes are going nuts. Five fat little spheres of yumminess so far, with more on the way I'm sure. I probably need to take pictures. F-list, bug me until I do that. Our rose has bloomed four times since we got it, though I feel bad it's usually too hot outside to go take proper photos of it. Our other miscellaneous plants are doing well too, such as the catnip and sunflowers. Unfortunately our squash plants bit the dust a few weeks ago due to some kind of fungus that got into their stems and hollowed out the fruits, plus a few bunny attacks. So we didn't get much squash this year, but what we did get was very tasty and I look forward to next year. Maybe it'll be cooler. My kingdom for a 70 degree day with an actual BREEZE!

Got more writing done today. The short story is almost finished, and my initial predictions of it ending around 10,000 look like they're coming true. I don't know what it is about me that insists on being such a bloody windbag, but I'll go along with it and just do a lot of editing. I've already got in mind some things I want to change, and after reading Nancy Kress's Dynamic Characters I'm so very, very excited to make those changes because I finally feel like I know what I'm doing. I have a very clear picture in my head of where I want the protagonist to start and where I want her to end up. And now I feel like I can actually accomplish that in a succinct, believable way. I'm still not sure if I should be doing this story in third or first person, though. I've been working in third because that's kind of my default mode when it comes to writing, but it occurs to me that writing in first person might actually help keep my word count down. So I'll read through it when it's finished and see what I think about that. In the meantime I'm just happy that I got some really good writing done today. :) I'd continue, but it's getting cold, my eyes are starting to blur, my shoulder is starting to ache and it's only two hours now until the Writer's Workshop starts at the library, so now would be a good time to eat some food and rest up. I'm very excited to be attending another workshop and I can't wait to see what the professor's got in store for us. He mentioned something about critiquing work on the second class, which promises to be interesting. I'm not bringing anything in but I've never critiqued someone else's work before. At least, not publicly. I usually do it in my head but I don't always say anything.

Wow. I'm rambling. Definitely need to stop doing that.

Someone asked me how I was doing over at the ISBW forums. It brightened my day. :) I love those guys.

I wish the weather were better. This week has been nothing but an endless string of cold, gloomy gray days. I'm sick of it. SICK, I SAY! Either get it over with and start snowing or just go back to spring like you should have done by now. I'M LOOKING AT YOU, WEATHER GODS. DON'T MAKE ME COME UP THERE. I WILL BRING LEAH WITH ME AND SHE KNOWS TAEKWONDO.

Also, I love Diane Duane. I don't know why precisely, but I just do. Could be because she's a fellow dragon. Could be because her books are addictive and delightful. Could be because we're long lost sisters of a long lived alien species from the dawn of space-time. ...Probably not that last one.

*ninja-poof*

Wow. This is quite possibly the worst bit of November weather I've ever seen. Ick! It's completely gray outside, all the trees are half naked because they've lost their leaves, it's cold, windy, and now to top it all off it's raining/sleeting heavily. So now everything's dripping wet, cold, gray, and utterly depressing. So depressing, in fact, that it's been influencing my NaNoing. Not only do I want to give up, go upstairs, and take a three hour long nap, but I also seem to be writing a lot about cold winds, snow, and gray skies. *grin* Makes you wonder how many people's NaNo novels have bad weather in them because it's November and for most of the world, that means the weather sucks?

My interview is still totally up at http://teampodcasts.net/nanomonkeys/! XD

Yup. It's fall/winter again.



Sigh.

Tavin's profile is completely finished, and Anise's will be done probably in the next 30 to 40 minutes. As I expected, my skills are improving and I've been able to come up with some really awesome stuff for Anise. Creating the people she works with at her retail job was especially fun. They just sort of popped into my head, and that doesn't usually happen with me. :) Usually I have to sit down and ponder out some kind of boring backstory for each of them, but this time I just sat there and thought up the craziest stuff I could and put it to paper. And I liked it! As I suspected, though, having Anise be from my own place and time makes it much easier to write stuff out for her. It's not quite as easy as I expected it would be, but it's still a bit smoother and I don't spend so much time staring at my screen trying to puzzle out whether or not my elven city has different cultures in it. (I suppose it must do, since big cities like New York and London definitely have sub-cultures, I just don't know what they are. Though funnily enough, thanks to Doctor Who I'm now probably better acquainted with London sub-cultures than I am with New York ones. Ha.) After Anise's profile is finished, I think I'll treat myself to a Doctor Who break...or maybe not. I dunno, depends on how much momentum I've built up by then. =D The weather has cooled down enough so that we can finally have the windows open again, which is fantastic and invigorating. Amazing how much a swift, fresh-smelling breeze can lift your spirits or sharpen your concentration. On the downside, my eyes seem particularly bleary today for some reason. Very annoying. I don't think that's got anything to do with the weather, though.

I had a pretty random thought just a minute ago...a typo in Anise's profile caused me to think about the phrase: "What's this in aid of?" which gets used a lot in my Doctor Who audios. (Usually Sixth Doctor) It took me a little bit to understand the meaning behind this phrase, because absolutely nobody I've ever met in America has used it. We usually say "What's all this about?" or "What's this for?" or "What's the commotion/where's the fire/etc." But I finally did figure out what it means, even though I probably couldn't explain it to someone else. Anyway, I thought about this phrase and it was one of those moments where I had a quick grin to myself about the differences between Queen's English and American English, English-American anglicisms, (yes, Hel, I'm being posh) and such. And then I thought to myself: "I wonder if they say 'in aid of' in Africa?" Which made me wonder if there are other subtle differences like this in other languages that we don't know about because they're too foreign. For example, if somebody said "What's this in aid of?" in Japanese I probably wouldn't understand it, and even if I did understand it, I still wouldn't recognize the importance of the phrase or know that there was a different one somewhere else in a nearby country because I would be entirely new to the Japanese culture. But it would still be there...lurking. And eventually you might start to notice things like that if your learned enough languages, and be able to pin down the patterns. (Linguists must have so much fun)

Yes, children. That is what qualifies as a random thought in my brain. Yes, children, I am made of awesome. :) /inflating own ego

Back to work!

Operation: Fun Saturday has been successful! =D

Got up at 8am this morning after a fun night staying up and listening to Dragon Page: Wingin' It. Hilarious as always. I think I might send them a couple of voicemails for their next show. Woke up to the Ballad of the Serenity, which was pleasant. XD I ♥ my iPod. Had a hearty breakfast of mac & cheese shells (homemade, of course), eggs, homemade oatmeal, strawberries. Joked around with Dad, which was nice since I don't usually see him on Saturday mornings because he and mom leave pretty early to get him to dialysis on time. We talked about the news, snakes on a plane, (I told him he should shout "Easter is totally snakes on a plane!" at anyone who bugged him about this insipid holiday) and he gave me a book on Dianetics (Scientology) to read and examine, as well as Brave New World and my very own copy of Atlas Shrugged. ^_^ All his books are mine anyway when he finally shuffles off, so we're pretty free about sharing them. XD (Just kidding, dad...♥) Then we left. Morning weather here in Tennessee is just as gorgeous as it's afternoon and evening weather! Heehee. It was so much fun. And the azalea bushes are so pretty, though it is a little hazardous having to walk through the Bumblebee zone every time we step out of our door. I'm not particularly afraid of Bumblebees, but they are a little startling since they're so loud. (And my family usually wears very bright clothing, so it's only a matter of time before one of us gets landed on... XD)

Dropped dad off at dialysis. Hugged him and wished him well. Then mom and I sped off into the sunset!! Er, sunrise. Well not really, the sun was already up but HEY, I am using poetic license here. We headed over to her workplace (I finally got to see it! I poked around everyone's cubicles... XD) and got some directions so we could go see the lawyer with which we would discuss financial stuff that I don't really understand nor wish to. I sat out in the comfortable waiting area and read my book. Which kinda started to make my head hurt after a few pages. (Damn wordy philosophy books. XP) I also watched the Weather Channel and from the overly perky newspeople I ascertained that it was going to be a beautiful sunny day both here and in Georgia. Which, interestingly enough, is literally a straight shot downwards from where I live. I think there's even a highway here that just goes right down into Atlanta. How cool is that?

After the lawyer place mom and I went straight to Turkey Creek to scope out the terrain. That place has really grown a lot in the last six months! I was very impressed. I remember when we first got here in June last year the place was pretty barren. Basically just a Wal-Mart and an Earthfare. But now it's got loads of clothing shops (including Rue 21! ♥) and restaurants, and Cook's Corner (they play Food Network on their TV 24/7! =D), and a theater, and a Borders is coming soon, and of course there's the Target and the Goody's, to which we went first. That place is awesome! Deals everywhere. Mom and I bought loads of clothing and only spent about $150 dollars. And I finally found a broomstick skirt for myself! Yay! I've wanted one for ages! The one at that nasty mall shop was $70, but I got this one for only $16. ^_^ I'm wearing it now. It's so comfy and swishy! Dad said I looked good in it. And I do. I also got a Happy Bunny shirt ("You're pretty! ...ugly") and a really gaudy ice blue Hawaiian shirt to clash along with the one dad likes to wear to the clinic. It's hideous. I love it. I kind of *ahem* outbusted my old red one...you have not known irritation until you have worn a shirt that's too small for your boobs. XP

After we finished out clothes shopping we lunched at Mimi's Cafe, which was really enjoyable. It was such a relaxed place, and it had a lot class too, without being snooty and over the top. We sat at the bar, which was very pretty. We got to watch the bartender lady make coffee and drinks and stuff, which was fun. I like watching bartenders work, what they do is very interesting. And I had the best salmon dish I think I've ever had in my life. It was certainly the best piece of fish I've ever eaten. It was a salmon filet set on a bed of stir fried vegetables and jasmine rice and bathed in a sweet honey teriyaki sauce. It was so good! The vegetables were amazingly fresh, and the salmon was cooked to perfection. Somehow they actually managed to make the outside of the filet crispy and delightful without overcooking it or burning it. Mom got a quiche dish that came with fresh fruit and a salad, which also looked good. And they also brought out this bread basket that had this most amazing fruit bread. It was SO good. Their butter was also fresh and creamy...mm. I cheated a little on my diet here and there, (wheat, honey, butter) but overall I did very well and I enjoyed myself immensely. It was an entirely refreshing experience, and there was so much variety on the menu I would have no trouble going back and ordering something entirely new but just as tasty. I can't wait to dine there again. :)

During lunch mom and I decided that we needed some good flip-flops to go along with our new clothes, and since Goody's didn't have any good ones, we decided to go to Target and check out the selection there. Cost us about $50 bucks, but we found some really great ones. I actually bought a pair of shoes specifically to match an outfit! O_O I never do that. But I did. I got brown flip-flops and black flip-flops. They're so comfy. It's literally like being barefoot. XD Which I would be all the time if I could be. I find wearing regular shoes, even sandals, to be extremely cumbersome and heavy, and I trip over them a lot. But with flip-flops I don't have that problem, because they're so thin and light. ^_^ I'm really happy about them.

We didn't get to visit the World Market or the Rack shoes place, because we had to go pick up dad, but we still had a lot of fun and hunted down a lot of great deals. I really enjoyed myself today. The weather was beautiful, I got new clothes, and I had a great lunch. And, above all, I got to spend some fun quality time with my mom and dad. ^_^

I was remarking to mom in the car as we drove to pick up dad how relaxed I feel here, in this state. Back in Missouri I just felt so tense all the time, and I didn't even realize it until we got here. Ever since our first day in Tennessee, I've felt like I could finally let go and relax. In fact, I've been really looking forward to the warmer weather for just that reason. I have pleasant visions in my head about lounging around with flip flops and bathing suits on and soaking up the sun, or sprawling out on my bed with my fan next to me and just hanging out and not doing much. I feel like now that I'm here, with the weather the way it is, I can just totally unwind and relax. It's really strange. Enjoyable, but strange. I guess I was always wound pretty tight back in MO, and there's no mistaking that the climate here is much nicer then it was in my old home state. Everything's just better here. Even the people are friendlier. Stupid, perhaps, but overall they're quite a nice bunch of folk. I actually have random people come up to me and say "Hello", or "Good Morning", or sometimes just random nice things! It was pretty shocking at first. Sure, I could do without the whole Baptist thing, but I suppose it's not so much worse then Mormons. Back in Missouri everyone was always so mean. Hateful, angry, depressed...very mean. They were stupid, they were fat, ugly, and their philosophies were horribly corrupted, and it's like they knew it and they were just out to make everyone else as miserable as they were. It was really disturbing. I'm amazed how different things are here in the South. I don't think I'll ever leave, to be honest. (Not counting when I travel) In fact I'm still seriously contemplating actually going deeper in. Tennessee doesn't actually qualify as deep South, even though it is a Southern state. It's sort of like the kiddy pool of America. XD You can get your feet wet and experience some of the climate and cultural differences before diving all the way in. I really love living here. I don't miss Missouri at all. Not even a little bit. In fact, the only thing I do miss about my old place of residence is Whole Foods and Half Price Books...both of which were in Overland Park, Kansas. XP So really, Missouri? Not much to miss.

I think that's pretty much everything about today. ^_^ I hope all of you guys on my F-list had good days as well! I noticed it was kinda rainy and cold up where you are Leah, hopefully that wasn't too much of a downer. I'd make some equally prophetical comment about the weather for you Hel, but they don't show international weather stats on The Weather Channel. =P Lamers.

Snakes on a plane!