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Toast, Tea, and Groggy posts
Tuesday, October 31, 2006I took Friday off of work, and expected that today I would feel fantastic, but I woke an hour before I had to, hot and icky and secretly worried that the downstairs clock that chimed an hour ahead was actually telling the right time, and that I would therefore be a very sorry person if I didn't get up. This has left me headachy and groggy all day...I should have gotten up and read, but I drowsed and day dreamed instead. But the day off was nice. I slept way late, then went outside and did repair work...mostly the blacksmith shop roof. I have officially given up on ever cutting grass again and feel slightly guilty about my lack of home owner skills, all while being grateful that I live in the country. I do still have to cut my roses back, and cover them when the ground freezes. Two very late buds formed on the newest rose, and have died, eternally perfect, eternally unfulfilled. I should bring them in. Also, since I took the day off it was slightly hectic. Not hectic enough to keep me from taking another day off, of course, it just seemed harder than it should have been. I did notice, though, that in less than a month I get a four day weekend thanks to Thanksgiving. What I would like to do if I could ever manage it (I need a few years under my best, I think, both for stability and getting-the-days sake) I would like to take a day off every month. Every month, a three day weekend. That would be nice. I found this article rather interesting: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6395236 It's a link to an except from Bonny Wolf's Talking With My Mouth Full. It is a wonderful essay on toast and what it means to us. In the spirit of this article, what do you find comforting? Do you have something that when you are down or sick you go right for? For me it's tea. Tea in very large amounts. Last weekend alone I drank around ten cups...white teas, green teas, black teas. I like a lot of Lipton's new pyramid bag selections, except for the red tea with strawberries in...it tastes moldy. ( http://www.liptonpyramidteas.com/home.asp ) The Green Tea tastes wonderfully clean. I love Black Pearl, because it tastes just slightly better than the regular, and because I get to imitate Captain Jack Sparrow when I drink it. The others are delightful for after dinner/dessert. I also like the fact that...I put way, way too much sugar in my tea, but for some reason I use a lot less with these. Though, exploring the sight link a little more...who would, seriously, use a wall paper that features a box of tea and a pyramid shaped tea bag? Two shows I've been watching: Netflix has been sending me the Scarlet Pimpernel with Richard E. Grant. he's wonderful, and never once did I think of Withnail rather than Percy Blakeney. I really enjoy the movies, fairly well done, pretty clothes, interesting locales. Jamie Bamber was in the first, and was absolutely adorable. I am eager to see the last one. For the second one, Masterpiece Theater is showing To the Ends of the Earth. ( http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/totheends/ ) It's based on a book by William "Lord of the Flies" Golding, and is...hm. I like it. I do. I love The First Lt. (big shocker, eh? is it the jacket, or what? http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/totheends/images/whoswho_02.jpg ) and the ships, the costumes are all awesome. you feel like you are on a ship. I don't really like the main character, Edmond Talbot, much, and that makes it hard for me. I want to like him because the actor himself seems likable, but that might be because he looks like a combination of James D'Arcy and Paul Bettany, except a little meaner looking. Now I will stop rambling in my head ache ridden way. Only a couple of days until NANOWRIMO! :D And only two weeks until one of the busiest times of the semester...student registration. Why can't nanowrimo be, like, the summer or something? When people stereotypically have more free time? Eh? Eh? Permalink Cindy scribed this at 3:29 PM 0 comments |
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I am now prepared for anything
Wednesday, October 25, 2006Well, alrighty then! As part of one of the people who helped organize a Civil War Roundtable I was invited to lunch with the reinactors, speakers and the President of the University today. I happened to see the President, at the end, kind of by himself so I seized this extraordinarily rare moment to make myself known to him, because I've never really gotten to speak to him. So he asked me a lot about my life, and I told him things, like I;'d graduated from this same uni as an English/creative writing major, etc. He mentioned that it was possible to get published online now adays, which lead me to confessing I had a publisher for my two books. When he heard they were full sized books, two of him, he was amazed. Of course, then, he had to know what the first one was about. OMGWTFTHIS IS THE PRESIDENT OF AN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION AND MY BOSS OF BOSSES WHAT THE HECK WAS I THINKING? So, I, ah told him. The truth. I gave him a synopsis of Blue Moon, and he accepted it well. Of course, I told one of the faculty about it in the elevator returning to the office, and he gave me a wake up call on how bad I felt about it. So, today, despite the comedic morning I had, was filled with good experiences. I got to watch some reinactors fire their rifles, I got to eat lunch with some people (one of which, who used to be a faculty member of my department and is now in administration I'd wanted to get to know better, because he's a really interesting person.) and I got a reality check from someone who I respect that will help me when I'm trying to sell my book. Most of all, I have this: if I can tell the President of my University about my book, then I can sit there and tell anyone about it. There is no one more mortifying to speak to on the subject. So, yeah. Good day. Really good day. And right now I'm alone in my office, and there are no emails and only three things to do on my list. Extremely good day. Permalink Cindy scribed this at 2:32 PM 0 comments |
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NaNoWriMo
Tuesday, October 24, 2006As I said, I will be officially doing NaNoWriMo this year. I'll be there under Tselmende. :D Please feel free to friend me there. I may or may not be posting bits of it as I go along...just in case you get curious about my writing, lol. I will be honest. Criticism at this stage is not welcome. Is it right or fair to say, praise is welcome, but criticism is not? Yes and no. I never ask for compliments because compliments asked for are worthless. But criticism, at this point, is as well. If someone says something like, "Oh, so and so's hair color was different last week." or "Your structure there is a little weak, try..." it will stop me. Dead. I will then have to go back and fix it, and then I will have to try and go on from there. There are times for this -- often very helpful -- critiquing. The first draft is never, at any time, one of them. Even if you have a friend ask to tell you what you think, you should remember that the first draft is when the writer just puts things down, gets the words into an order...until you get to the very end you won't know everything that you're going to need for the story, the whole idea is just get there. At this point a friend of a writer is more like...the people who stand along side the road during a marathon and hand off water to the runners. You certainly don't want to give them false encouragement, lying to a friend is never good, but you don't want to stick your foot out and trip them, either. Ooh, got preachy there, sorry. ;) I've not been role-playing much because a) no one really seems to be replying much in any of the communities I belong to and b) the time that I used to rp I now write. I can get at least 500 words written in this time, though it usually gets closer to 1,000. It's caused me to re-think rping. Maybe it would be better to concentrate on writing more? Especially because now I have to think more on...urk...marketing my book. Today it's freezing in the office. Since 8:00 I've had coca and a cup of Bentley's Orange Spice tea, and am now considering some English Breakfast. It is not working. I'm all caught up on my work, so I am going to a) clean up more in the back room and b) write until something new comes up, which it will shortly. I love this...when you are ahead of things so you can complete tasks immediately. It makes me a good secretary, which I enjoy, and then you have the freedom of your own head. I do have a niggling, scared little part of me that is afraid of having forgotten something, of failure, because my job is important to me, but I look over my lists yet again, and think, no, I am alright. And if I did mess up, well, at least I have time to fix it. ;) Permalink Cindy scribed this at 11:57 AM 0 comments |