Blog entry August 2009

Bad planning on my part let the fact that #4-son started school on Wednesday catch me by surprise.  He had all his school supplies, but I hadn't adjusted my sleep schedule to get up at 6:30am instead of the 9am or 10am (with 1am or 2am bedtimes) that it's been most of the summer.

So I've been up at 6:30am the last two days, and spent both days basically incoherent.   Not good.

I'm hoping that if I get to bed at decent hours this weekend that next week will be easier.

A total of about 17 hours so far updating the Windy City website and I think I'm finally to the point that I can begin updating the content.

I put this project off because I knew it was going to be a headache... I just hadn't realized how big a headache.

But, now things are fixed and life will be easier from now on, so I'm hoping that  I don't leave the blasted thing for so long inbetween updates, because then I wouldn't have quite so much to do.

However, tomorrow is my day off, so I won't work on it more until Monday.

I'm down far enough on my to-do list to have hit all the stuff that I need to do for the WindyCityRWA website.

The biggest problem is that I can't do anything that I want/need to do because the site's template is such crap.  Which makes me very angry because I bought the blasted template.  Sure, it looks pretty... but behind the pretty is CRAP!! 

For instance... the person wanted to change one list stye, so instead of changing that one style, the person changed the BASIC list style to do what he/she wanted for that one specialized list, then spent the next 300 lines of code UNDOING that basic style change for all the other list styles.

So now, because the idiot that I am, I want the Basic list style to work the way it should... I have to go through and figure out everything the moron did and undo it. Read more

I hate it when I know I wrote something up and for the life of me, I can't find IT!!!!  I wrote it long-hand, in a spiral notebook; I know I did.  Now whether it actually got typed up is another matter, but there really aren't that many places for something like that to hide.  As much as I may complain about the disorganization, my office is remarkably organized.  Which is why it's so annoying that I can't find this paper.  Sure, I can reacreate it, but blast it! I did it once, I shouldn't have to do it again!  **grumble, grumble**

I worked, at least all the work there was to do.  But mostly I cleaned and organized today.  I had a paper-box full of papers that needed to be filed, or needed something else done with them, and I went through the box today.  I also took a large stack of papers of writing-related-stuff and organized it all so I can actually FIND stuff... novel concept.  I tagged a bunch of websites and recycled the paper copies.  And just a whole bunch of stuff like that.

And I actually made it to the same Panera as the gal who wanted to talk about plotting, so we did that for two hours.  I showed her the process I used with my manuscript with all the sticky notes and that seemed to fit what she needed, so it felt good to be able to help.

When meeting people at Panara to discuss plotting... make sure that both people are going to the SAME Panera.  **grin**

Last night, I couldn't figure out why she didn't show up, and she couldn't figure out where I was.  Well... come to find out she was sitting in one Panera and I was sitting in another.  :-) 

It wasn't a total loss; I had a quiet dinner away from the kids and got stuff done.  Both always good things.  :-)

We're trying again tonight.  This time, we both confirmed that we are talking about the same place AND we exchanged cell phone numbers.

Live and learn.  :-)

After spending the summer in Texas working for my brother, my #2-son is home.  He pulled in about 3am.  Right now he's unloading all his stuff out of the car and comparing his tan to the pasty-whitness of the rest of us.  :-)

And we just had our first fight... ahhh... the joy of children.

Good me.  I worked more hours today. 

I also got a few things done on my to-do list, including calling around to find a place that still had appointments for school physicals (bad me for letting it go this long), and critiquing a synopsis and 3 chapters. 

I also got more insight into Jane's characters... her guys are going to keep me on my toes.  Also pondered my other manuscript, but haven't made decision which file I will actually open first.

So, I'm tired but not sleepy... does that make sense?  I shall go up and ponder book more, that will certainly make me sleepy.  :-)

Blessings upon my boss for being understanding.

So, starting off with that, I worked today, because I really needed the money, unfortunately having to work didn't negate everything else that had to be done today, so I actually didn't even start working until 4pm today.  But I put in four hours on not-critical-but-useful stuff for work, so that's good. 

And before 4pm, I actually got a fair number of things checked off my to-do list for today.  Make note, that was only today's to-do list, not the overall to-do list, but I guess every little bit helps.

It also helped that today I realized I've been wallowing in victim-mode for the last few days.  When I recognize what's going on, I can deal with it, and as soon as I realized what was up, I knew why I was thinking that way, so I'm now working on thinking a more productive way.  It's not an immediate fix, but it's a start. Read more

At the end of last year, I got mad at the character sheet I had and made a new one (in this post).

But, of course, I couldn't leave it there.  I made new ones, but didn't post them.  In cleaning out stuff today, I found them, so I figure I might as well post them.

The advantage with this set has is that they bypass the character/cell limit, which is a huge problem in Excel2003 and older.  They also scroll more smoothly.  Before, if you filled up a cell with info, it scrolled that cell's height, so it was really hard to see info sometimes.

So, new sheets:

Character Sheet (Excel 2007)

Character Sheet (Excel 2003 & older)

With these sheets:

- layer #1 is for overall summary information Read more

The book is off, the next one (or next several possibilities) are all jelling in my brain, and I'm cleaning off my desk.

Well, more metaphorically cleaning, than actual cleaning, although my desk does have more open space on it... but I've been sorting through all the miscellaneous files that have collected in my "Books" folder on my computer.

The first of this year I put a webserver on my desktop and started buiding a new organizational system for all my writing information. And between then and now I've been sorting out how best to arrange stuff.  And I think I'm getting there.

So I spent most of the last two days taking all the tons of files of stuff I've collected for research, or technique info, or business info, or whatever, and putting them into the new system. Read more

The manuscript is done and finally off to the agent that I met at DucKon.

And now I wait.

While I wait, I start on the next book.

But first I finish cleaning off my desk so I have room to start on the next book.

(FWIW, this is my 500th blog entry.  Interesting timing.)

I spent all day (except for dentist appt.) organizing all the financial paperwork that's been left for too long.  I dread spending days like this... so of course I don't do it in little bits so I can avoid days like this.  **sigh**  I never claimed that I made sense.

Anyway, got some stuff done.  More to do tomorrow.  It'd be easier if there was enough money to pay the bills, but **shrug** that seems to be the way of life lately for a lot of us.

The good news is that my desk looks somewhat cleaner, the box of to-be-filed-stuff is lighter.

Plus I made a 4-page long list of paid chores for the boys... of which they have done some, and each thing they have done is a thing off my mental to-do list, so that's extra good.  It's off my list and I didn't have to do it.  :-)

My to-do list is still way to long, but it's shorter than it was this morning, and that feels good. Read more

The book is done, well the major work of the book is done for the moment... which is a good thing!!

But everything that's piled up around my house and my office no longer has an excuse for being put off.

Bills to be paid and organized, house to be cleaned, laundry to be done, yard work to be attended to, desk to be sorted through, websites to be updated, websites to be created, email to sort through, and so on, and so on... and that's only the non-writing stuff.  Read more