A Twist of Things to Come

Writing and doing stuff for the website, I mean. Even with my computer desk adjusted properly and the fantastic Aeron chair a colleague of my Beloved's gave me, I still finish the day achy and beaten. If only I could get this stuff done while riding my bike, walking, swimming... something. I need to move. This is starting to get to me.

But, enough of my whining! Today, I am grateful for GeekaChicas because soloreader's article Inkheart:One for the Readers has inspired me to at least hit the video store. A fun adventure for the whole family, with the added bonus of a buff and shirtless Paul Bettany.

***

I'm inches away from posting the next bit of HMOWK to the MA list, which is good. I'm also quite, quite close to the end, which is even better. I'd forgotten how much I love finishing things! The novel is coming along well, too, only I've written a bit at the pool (in notebooks because taking the laptop seemed a phenomenally bad idea), which means transcribing. I hate transcribing. The work is actually improved by it because I edit as I transcribe, but I still loathe it.

I promised the boys some time at the pool today, too, so I'd best get to work.

Sorry for the spam, but I forgot to promote the two latest awesome posts at GeekaChicas.

First, there was Beatrice Blythe/narniadear's A first look into Tim Burton's 'Alice in Wonderland', which looks both freaky and deserving of SQUEE.

Then this morning we have A Nonny Mouse/jedi_diplomat's Passwords, Fiber and the City Of Bozeman, which makes glorious use of our new WTF? tag.

And I got my comeuppance for getting all full of myself last night, because, despite checking things more than once in the preview window, I still missed a typo in one of the tags that farked the whole post up. What can I say? It was late and my house was being attacked little boy shaped zombies. *shrug*

So if you're interested in an intelligible version, take a look at I believe the technical term is OMFG.

I was feeling guilty, being eyebrow-deep in pre-moving work, neglecting the website a bit. (We've produced 12-15 bags of garbage, so far, not including what fit in the bin they pick up weekly, plus about seven large boxes and bags of stuff to donate to charity, plus stacks of books to list on Half.com, etc. So it has been an intensive effort, I tell you.)

So I go over to GeekaChicas, planning to finally put in a plug for the excellent Geek Girl's Guide to Travel by our own jedi_diplomat, posting as A Nonny Mouse.

What did I find? The visitor counter was up over 150, which for a Saturday is kind of phenomenal, especially one after a week of webmistress promotional neglect. *shame*

Usually when there's a spike in hits, I can attribute it the self-promotional efforts of of someone on the team. They usually tell me, "I posted a link to [blank] on such-and-such community/forum/bulletin board." I suspect this may be due to the recent coverage of Comic Con and the uproar amongst our target demographic brought on by the clueless and insulting LA Times article The Girl's Guide to Comic Con .

But still. WOW. In the time it's taken me to write this, the "guests" counter has gone up well over 200!

I have work to do, and I'd better get to it, but I'm going to be puzzling over this one. :) Wow.

It seems the resolution to the bugs caused by the software update has caused some new problems(in this case, deleting my one little ad), but I suppose that is the way of things, and we must soldier on. ;)

Recent things over at GeekaChicas have included narniadear's Share the Blog Love in which she touts a cool blog called Shakespeare and Film, which I have thoroughly enjoyed delving into in spare moments.

I also pimped my son's Zombie Movie, but you have already seen that in this space, I imagine. ;)

Today we have jedi_diplomat's Sneak Peek into Widows 7.

Next, I'll have a new offering by Hawkin, explaining her methods for successful Internet dating, and some more movie and TV reviews, as the schedule permits.

With all the headaches that have come along with this thing, I'm pleased and surprised that I'm still having so much fun. Hee!

You may recall some time ago my son hosted a zombie party in order to make his video book report on The Zombie Survival Guide. Well, this is what came of it.

It's amazing how much the kids got into it!

I was stressing a bit over the social aspects of the whole company picnic/crawfish boil thing. (I like crawfish -- who knew big nasty mud bugs could taste so yummy?) Of course, being the boss's wife means no one is likely to be terribly honest about their first impressions, but...

A couple of people accused my Beloved of robbing the cradle. O_O I'm a little more than a year older than he is, but the consensus put me at about nine years younger than I am. They thought I'd started birthin' them babies right out of high school, I guess.

So when the sales lady teased my darling about robbing the cradle, he confessed that I am a tad older than he is. She started quizzing him on my beauty regimen. *snerfle*

So I may not have made a good impression on a personal level (and will likely never know, either way), but they thought I was younger. I'll take it. ;)

***

Spent yesterday putting together Big Boy's Zombie Movie. It's all done except for the credits sequence, which I'll be working on today. I know I've done that section in the book, but I'm a little fuzzy on the exact procedure. I'm sure I'll manage. If I get it completed as quickly as I hope to, maybe I'll post it here. :) He was so excited to work with me on it yesterday! I really need to give him a tutorial on the software.

I spent most of the day doing stuff related to the end of school -- volunteering, doing the Field Day thing. Also, I shoveled out Wee Boy's room and it is now clean. He understands that the upkeep is his responsibility now, so I'm hoping he's going to stick with it. Big Boy has ever since about that age, but you never know.

Then, I helped the kids with homework (plus finishing touches on a project for one of them) and fed them. I had to rush out to get the hubby at the airport about ten minutes before my friend who was to sit with them arrived, leaving Big Boy in charge. It went fine, evidently.

I must've had a following wind, because I made it to the airport on time, and his flight was on time. We were a few minutes late to dinner with a lovely HP saleswoman and some other print industry customers.

You know, it's been a loooong time since salespeople have taken us to a swanky meal, so it felt odd, even though it was once commonplace. The food was tasty, and everyone was nice.

Today I have to pay bills and pack, pick the boys up from school early, pick up our friends and then drive down and get the hubby at HP. From there we drive to New Orleans (I hope to be able to edit Big Boy's zombie movie on the way). The company crawfish boil is Saturday, and we hope to maybe take a ghost tour in the evening. Sunday will be consumed by the drive back.

The website is going to be a tad neglected this weekend, but it's just as well since the Azrul folks will be trying to debug the new software update for me.

So, what are you guys doing this weekend?

So... I figured out how to easily convert just the scenes I needed in order to edit them together with digital video, so the long-awaited poll winner's video should be up on GeekaChicas sometime next week. Whee!

(I really barely know what I'm doing, but as one of my favorite poems says, "I learn by going where I have to go." It may be craptacular, but I'll be like Gir. "I made it myself!")

Speaking of website stuff, I'm going to revert to the old version until they work the bugs out. I found out today that if I edited something someone else posted (as I sometimes do if there is a formatting problem or what have you) it changed their article attribution to me. *sigh* This is some shite up with which I will not put.

Really didn't spend much brainsweat on the site today. jedi_diplomat sent in a cool article on Ubuntu 9.04, which I unoriginally titled "Ubuntu 9.04", and Pearce (aka yourprecious) has started a Trek RPG.

I just want to say again how much these women ROCK, and how blessed I feel to get to show them off.

***

Took the boys clothes shopping. Big Boy's voice is changing, and he's getting some puberty on him. Wow. He needed a new swimsuit and some shorts because he's grown so much. He also got a shirt that said, "Awesome ends with me." He's been very, very helpful to me around the house, held doors for me and generally been an ideal son (except for torturing his little brother).

He asked me to stay in my room while he made me something for Mother's Day. I'm looking forward to seeing what it is.

***

I wrote more on my completely awesome re-write of the shapeshifter story. I say "completely awesome" because it has finally taken shape in my mind, effectively negating all the wibbling I've done about it to you all. I know just how it needs to go, or close enough that I can sweat the small stuff later.

It felt great to write like that-- it really flowed. When I finish the new opening bit, I think I will post it here for you guys to see. :)

Today I really did feel like I could do it all.

Whatever the doc gave me sure was potent. My throat and nasal passages are back to normal size (lots of the soft parts inside my head had begun to look like alarmingly over-inflated balloon animals). I no longer feel like I'm swallowing needles.YAY! That was also pretty much true yesterday, but I was still muzzy in the brains.

You know how when you've got a fever you do things that seem reasonable at the time only to go back later and think, "What the heck was doing?" It's kind of like having a split personality. "But I don't remember putting canned goods in the freezer!" Yeah, I know.

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The software I use for uploading stuff to the website just got an upgrade! That is awesome, and I hope the new interface will be easier. Except the "Write New Entry" button has vanished from the front-end dashboard. I've got a call in about that. Oh, and the feed has been automatically reset to show only the first 300 characters, so that needs to be fixed again. *sigh* It will be fixed soon, I hope. I can always go back to the old version.

***

Counting today's little blessings:

1). On the MA list, someone responded to my post in the "Remember the Love!" thread like this:

Just to add - I think you are one of the most talented writers in the whole group. I hope you keep posting.

*sniffle* I really needed that today.

2). Also, I really needed help wrestling the ginormous dog food bag into my cart at BJ's. And you know what? A little old lady stopped to help. She couldn't help me with the bag, but she held my cart still so I didn't have to chase it all over. She said, "I've been in that position before, and men just walk right by you." LOL!

3). Went for my long overdue eye exam, in which the doctor once again held forth on how amazing it is that I am able to see so well now. Before my cataract surgery four years ago, my prescription was -17 which he said he'd seen maybe ten otherwise healthy patients with eyesight that bad in his 30 years of practice. That didn't make a big impression on me, because my sister's pre-op vision was even worse than that, in her better eye.

He told me about a colleague of his who started Optometry Giving Sight who met a boy in Africa, who was in a school for the blind, with vision like mine. Glasses made a huge difference in his life. He got an education and earned a full scholarship to University in England, where he is now studying to be an eye surgeon.

I didn't think about it. I didn't realize just how blessed I am simply to be able to see, to drive my car, to have gotten a regular education.

I did not earn any of these blessings, but today I was able to take a moment and appreciate them.

The drugs must be working, because I'm not in pain anymore. Still not quite right in the head and feeling off, but anything is better than yesterday.

Today was Twilight day over at GeekaChicas. We started off with soloreader18's take on The Twilight Series and topped it off with hominysnark's send-up of the Twilight movie.

I do not yet know what is in store for the next few days, but I am hopeful that I will have the brains working enough to manage.

Thank you guys for all your kind wishes and moral support. I truly appreciate it.