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Monthly archive September 2008

You've Got To Be Kidding

Submitted by jlpowers on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 12:00am

Reading the local newspaper this morning, glanced at the “Open Line” section (where people can call in their thoughts and opinions on stuff) and this is what I saw:

How to save money

If the United States needs money, I think they should stop spending money on space shuttles. It would also save us a lot of gas. Why spend money trying to find other places to live when we can’t even make it here on Earth?

J. W., Batavia

And all I could do was shake my head.

It would be more fascinating to know how old JW is.

But, no matter his/her age, I’m still stunned.

Class Over

Submitted by jlpowers on Sat, 09/27/2008 - 12:00am

Today was the class I was agonizing about in the last blog.

I was up until 1am Friday night (Sat morn) finishing off everything for the class, then up at 6:30 to get ready. So I’m running on fumes.

Got into the room at 8:30 to set up. Class ran from 9:00-3:00, and I talked through lunch (often with my mouth full) on off-topic subjects, then stayed until 4:30pm answering questions. So I was on my feet, and running on adrenaline from 8:30-4:30.

I was fading out of coherence on the drive home, and as I stepped out of the car I just about fell down because my feet hurt so bad… feet that I hadn’t even noticed were hurting until that moment.

But, even though I have my things I’d rather have gone more smoothly on my part as presenter, even I felt it was a great class. (Read more)

Basket Case

Submitted by jlpowers on Fri, 09/26/2008 - 12:00am

I took the beginnings of my class to my writers’ group on Wednesday and they had some really good suggestions. Basically I’d gone too deep and off-topic. But it was only the intro, so it wasn’t a huge deal to fix.

All day yesterday, I worked frantically on the presentation for the class. Choosing just the right visuals, just the right words, where do I want to go with this part of the topic… feeling like everything was going really well. The things I wanted to say were all falling together.

Then 10pm last night, I realized that I’d just spent the entire day, and the entire last three weeks, focusing on exactly the wrong thing for this talk… and basically, I need to scrap everything I’ve done up to this point.

It’s a 6-hour class. Tomorrow. That at least 10 people have paid quite a bit of money to attend. That’s an hour drive away. So today is it! No time tomorrow to do anything. (Read more)

Working on Class

Submitted by jlpowers on Tue, 09/23/2008 - 12:00am

I’m desperately working on the presentation for the characterization class I’m giving this Saturday, entitled “Create Characters: Heroes Who Stand Tall & Villains Who Cast Shadows” It’s an all-day class, 9am-3pm, so I have lots of time that needs to be filled.

The good news is that I LOVE the class description I was given, so I have plenty of good stuff to work with, actually probably too much to work with. I suspect like all my other presentations, by the time I say what I want to say, I’ll have to trim things by about 30%.

I’d hoped to have the presentation done last weekend so I could send the handouts off to be copied by the college, but, alas, it didn’t happen. The good news related to that, is that I was given a new-to-me laser printer, so I can print off handouts for basically the cost of paper. So, I suspect I’ll be printing off handouts at terrible hours Friday night. (Read more)

To-Do List

Submitted by jlpowers on Mon, 09/22/2008 - 12:00am

My to-do list is so long, so diverse, and all with deadlines of yesterday or people who have been waiting an unreasonably long time, that tonight I don’t have a clue where to start. So, I’m floundering… doing this, and doing that… all of which are little things on the list, but none of them are doing anything towards all of the huge things that need to be done.

Life would be easier if I didn’t have so much yelling going on in my head. “Do my project.” “Don’t forget the class you have to teach.” “Hey! What about my book? You promised you’d work on my book.” “Put me away.” “Clean me off.” “What are they going to think of you if you don’t get your butt moving on this project?” “Did you forget your kid’s eye doctor appointment, again?!” And so on, and so on. (Read more)

Appointment Miracle

Submitted by jlpowers on Fri, 09/19/2008 - 12:00am

I’m supposed to get Nick into the Endocrinologist because he’s growing so slowly, and I finally got around to getting the referral, and finally got around to actually calling. The receptionist warned be up front that the doctor isn’t taking new appointments until well into the new year, but I said check anyway. And…

There was a cancellation for Oct 7th!! The next available appointment was the end of March! So we snagged the Oct 7th date real quick and he’s set.

A miracle indeed. :)

Update: 09/23/08: I just discovered that the kid doesn’t have school that day. So, I don’t even have to go about getting him excused for the appointment. A miracle, indeed!

More Words

Submitted by jlpowers on Tue, 09/16/2008 - 12:00am

2,000 more words on the book last night… 1,000 or so were actually the new start to the book. They are very good words, and much truer to the character than the previous drafts… but I stayed up late writing them and I’m wasted today. My alarm went off and I fell back asleep, until #4-son bellowed at me that we were late for school. Some how I have to figure out how to balance work, home, kids, writing, and everything else that needs to be done.

Ah, the joys of living in the modern age. You can have it all… but that means you have to keep up with it all.

Night and Day

Submitted by jlpowers on Mon, 09/15/2008 - 12:00am

What’s the difference between Saturday and Sunday that my muse talked loud and clear on Sunday, and Saturday I couldn’t dig up two brain cells to rub together?

Both days I had various college kids home.
Both days I was running said kids hither and yon.
Both days I felt like I should be spending time with kids rather than trying to write.
Both days I ate about the same things.

Yet Saturday I sat at my computer for hours but couldn’t do anything more complicated than solitaire. And Sunday I wrote almost 5000 words of backstory that explained to me so much about the heroine’s frame of mind when the book begins.

**shaking head** I don’t get it. I’ve been trying to write this piece of backstory for probably months, and I couldn’t. Then yesterday, in between carting kids various places, there it was… fresh and clean and oh so very obvious. (Read more)

The End Of The World As I Know It

Submitted by jlpowers on Thu, 09/11/2008 - 12:00am

I was driving #4-son from school to his friend’s house, which is across the street from the Ex’s house. About a block from the friend’s house, the radio starts playing R.E.M.’s song “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It". So, song playing, driving along and we round the corner and…

88| O.M.G!!! It’s the end of the world as I know it!!! 88|

My Ex has hired a company to paint his house.

I’m sitting there in the friend’s driveway as the song continues to play and thinking: O.M.G!! The world has truly ended. (Read more)

The End Of The World As I Know It

Submitted by jlpowers on Sun, 09/07/2008 - 12:00am

Moved #1-son into the dorm yesterday, so summer has officially ended.

It’s a really cool dorm-suite/apartment. It has four individual bedrooms, very small, but serviceable. Two full bathrooms, two storage closets and a coat closet. An L-shaped living room/dining room/kitchen area that’s very large. And the kitchen comes with sink, stove, microwave, dishwasher, a full-sized fridge, and more counter space than my first apartment. The best thing is if you walk into his apartment and turn down the hall to go to his room, out the window is a gorgeous view of the lake.

Well, I’ll have to take that back… the best thing, as far as I concerned, is that his dorm is literally across the street from the main branch of the Chicago library. Cool!! :)

Beyond moving kid in, I’m tired. (Read more)