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Monthly archive July 2008

Getting Ready

Submitted by jlpowers on Thu, 07/24/2008 - 12:00am

I’m leaving Sunday morning to go to the RWA (Romance Writers of America) National Conference in San Francisco, which probably wouldn’t be nearly a big a deal if I was flying out… fly out, go to conference, fly back… but I’m taking the train, which means three days out, go to conference, three days back, and swear to god! I’m going to actually edit each way, which means I have to get everything ready for that.

So, my to-do list includes things like cleaning off my desk so I can find all my notes for the book’s revisions. Then typing in all those notes, so I have a firm basis to start things. Then typing in all my other notes and bits and scraps, so I can squeeze my reference notebook into a smaller notebook. Then doing something with the three marked-up copies of the manuscript, so I have the notes and don’t have to lug the three manuscripts with me. And so on, and so on. (Read more)

Job Interview Today

Submitted by jlpowers on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 12:00am

I’m kind of excited. Had my first job interview today, for this new round of the job hunt. I’m not sure how it went.

It looks like a really good place to work, but they wanted somebody with solid ASP experience and preferably ASP.NET, and I have only a smattering of ASP. I told them that I have solid programming background and I learn quick. We’ll see if they listen and understand the value of experience. Sure, they could get some young geek with ASP.NET experience, but the chances of them being able to write maintainable code are slim to none. To write maintainable code, you have to have some maintenance experience under your belt.

But it’s really good news that I have an interview. It took me much longer to get interviews last time around.

Blueberries & Shakespeare

Submitted by jlpowers on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 2:00am

Yesterday was my annual pilgrimage to Michigan to get blueberries. I brought back 180lbs… only 70lbs for my family, the rest were for other people. So, my chore for the weekend is freezing blueberries… boring, but it’s really good to have blueberries in the winter.

The weird/interesting thing was that I was listening to a book on CD on the way there and back… and on the way home I was fretting because of the traffic, which really wasn’t that bad, but fretting that maybe I could have gotten home quicker if I’d taken another way… But! the book ended the moment my wheels touched my driveway as I arrived home. Cool! Obviously, I did just as I should. :) (Read more)

Phone Message Snafu

Submitted by jlpowers on Fri, 07/18/2008 - 1:00am

People apparently have been leaving me telephone messages on my home phone, and I haven’t been getting them!!!

I’m seriously peeved!! :-/

The wonderful telephone system didn’t bother to let me know that I ANY messages… let alone I had a whole bunch of messages. **grumble, grumble** And now, to hopefully fix the problem I have to sit through all the messages, the whole length of all the messages, because the stupid system won’t let me skip to the end of the messages.

So if anybody has left me a message between now and the beginning of April then I’m seriously sorry… I just plain didn’t get it.

More Before and After

Submitted by jlpowers on Thu, 07/17/2008 - 12:00am

I had to dump the template I bought for my PowersWebDesigns site, because it was loading horribly slow… like it would take 5 minutes to bring up a page. So a few days ago, I wandered around the free templates on the web and finally found one I could work with. So I spent yesterday evening and the better part of this morning working on the template. And I like how it turned out.

Here is the before:


And here is the after:

Cool, huh? :)

Now that it looks pretty I need to get back to the less than thrilling chore of adding content. (Read more)

Kid-free Day

Submitted by jlpowers on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 12:00am

Today was my first kid-free day in six weeks, and I really think I could use about a dozen more before I start to feel sane.

I slept until 12:30, which I NEVER do… I was quite shocked when I looked at the clock. Ate some leftovers from the party. Watched two Jane Austin movies on PBS. Walked the dog. Watched some more TV. And in general had a great day not talking to a soul.

Kids should be home any minute now, and I’m actually dreading it, but I guess it’s part of my life. They’re all going to be gone pretty soon, so I guess I should appreciate them.

But some days it’s easier than others to appreciate them. **sigh** Tonight I just really wish for a few more kid-free days so I could find some sanity. Oh well.

Party Done

Submitted by jlpowers on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 2:00am

and I am dead. Everybody is gone, kids just left to go back to their father’s, windows are open and fan is on so the house is cooling down. I want to take a shower because after all the shopping, baking, cooking and cleaning I’m feeling very grody… but I don’t have the energy.

Maybe I’ll just sit for a bit in the quiet and dig up enough energy to shower.

But very glad that kid is all partied. He got sheets, towels, a floor lamp and desk lamp, and a bath mat… all of which are much appreciated.

Figured Out Plot

Submitted by jlpowers on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 1:00am

Slept like crap last night. House is too damn hot (no AC) and I couldn’t open the windows because of the rain, and can’t sleep any more because I have to get ready for #3-son’s congratulations party tonight (congratulations for getting into IMSA and excuse for family and friends to give kid presents to furnish his dorm room). I’ve got way too much cooking to do, plus shopping and cleaning, but…

The good news is that during all my sleeplessness last night, I figured out the plot that hooks the four books together and how all four heroines play into the downfall of the villain. On top of that, last night at dinner with a friend, we worked out the “why” of the villain’s motivations in this book. Another case of money being the root of all evil, which I didn’t know before yesterday. :-) (Read more)

Seriously Annoyed

Submitted by jlpowers on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 2:00am

During my dive into my to-be-read pile, I picked up a romance that I found out was the first in a trilogy. The first one was good, so I bought the other two. **sigh** Bad move. The second book was a complete waste of paper. And at the end of the third book… remember it’s a romance… the hero dies. **blinking eyes in shock** WHAT?!?! At the end of a “romance” the hero dies?!?! I don’t think so.

Definitely the last time I read that author, and it’ll make me think really hard about picking up anything by that publisher.

I totally quit reading TOR’s romances for this same reason… I couldn’t trust them to deliver a good story within the expectations of the genre. (Read more)

Web Projects

Submitted by jlpowers on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 1:00am

Spent the last couple days working on several web projects. I find it very interesting that the day I cut my final ties with my job I get this cool idea. I’ll leave it at that until I get some more questions answered, but it has the potential to be fun, in a very geeky sort of way. :-)

The good news is that I’ve finally began filling in my Powers Web Designs site. I’d sat down with my father while he was here and worked through some of the pages the site needed, but hadn’t figured out how to put the information into any semblance of order. Then last night it kinda all fell into place. So that’s underway.

But no writing… too many people in the house to write. Annoying, but the truth.

July 4th

Submitted by jlpowers on Sat, 07/05/2008 - 12:00am

We had a good evening, spent it with chosen-family, like we have for the last 14 years… a good tradition. Everybody was there and it felt good to be there. Food was good, fireworks were spectacular, and conversation afterwards was fun. And best of all, I left two kids there for the night. Cool! :D

Now if only the neighbors across the street would quit shooting off fireworks, maybe I could actually go to sleep.

And I got a bunch of stuff done that’s been needing to get done, so a good day all around.

Done Wallowing

Submitted by jlpowers on Fri, 07/04/2008 - 12:00am

I’m done wallowing… it gets old after a while. :-)

Laundry is in, breakfast is eaten (first time in a week), and now it’s time to get back to work.

The to-do list is so long that I’m not even close to sure where to get started, but I figure packing up the stuff to put in the mail back to the ex-boss is a good place to start, then clean off the desk, and we’ll see where things so from there.

Fireworks and dinner today with the chosen-family crowd, so that should be good. I’m just hoping that they aren’t in too much of a bitching mood, because my resolution to not wallow is feeling kind of fragile at the moment.

Unemployed & Unromantic

Submitted by jlpowers on Wed, 07/02/2008 - 12:00am

I’m officially unemployed, which isn’t a big surprise… when your boss doesn’t talk to you for three weeks, it’s kinda a clue. But I’m still moping, and have been for a while. I feel silly about feeling so much “poor me” angst, especially when life could be so much worse, but I figure I’ll give myself another day or so to feel sorry for myself, then I’ll get on with what needs to be done.

As part of my moping, I’m making a pretty good dent in my to-be-read stack. Unfortunately not as big a dent as the stack of books beside my bed would attest to, because a fair number of my to-be-read stack was first books of various series. Unfortunately, all the first books have been really good, so I go out and buy the rest of the series and read it. Bad for my budget, but I’m feeling better than I was a few days ago, so I guess it’s worth it. (Read more)