text:
tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59368012017-06-24T11:50:04.946-05:00Intentionally Left BlankStress therapy to improve my bill-paying job and my writing. *Shrug* Some times whining leads to profound ideas. Also known online as KLCtheBookWorm.KLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-81273959066769153952017-06-24T11:48:00.000-05:002017-06-24T11:50:05.089-05:00Mustard has congestive heart failure
So here it is, the end of June and for the year I was going to pay off my debts and finish the house improvements, I'm not doing to well on that score. In May, I had a termite swarm inside my house so now I have a three-year contract with Orkin. Mustard had his annual check up, lost weight since he had stopped eating. I thought it maybe due to needed a Senior formula food. He's 13 years old now, which according to the chart in the vet's office means he's the equivalent of 68. I started him in Iams Active Senior and he woofed it down.

By June, Rizzo the car has a suspicious rattle that sounds like I lost a another strut. Thanks to boneheaded financial decisions on my part, I have to push it getting repaired until July.

June 14th, I came home with steaks. Mustard has stopped being interested in his food again but is all over me to get some beef. Yell at Mustard for trying to trip me. Heard and felt sound in my teeth. Thought "Oh shit, I've chipped one" and ran to the bathroom. The bridge on my right side fell out. The back anchor tooth is broken off at the gum line. Most of what's left of my canine that is its front anchor point comes out of the crown. I've lost count how many of these bridges have destroyed my underlying teeth and fallen out. I knew they wouldn't be able to glue back on and I was completely leery of losing my virgin front tooth like I lost the one on the left and one of my back molars in just a few years (if that long). Thursday, the first words the dentist tells me after looking at the X-rays, "I think implants are the way to fix this."

What I would use a time machine for: Go back to when we started the bridges in my mouth and suggest just three implants for the missing teeth we wanted to hide. Give undergraduate college me the knowledge about Primal and Paleo eating and how mashed potatoes and white bread and sodas were what will pack on the pounds. Fly on an airplane before deregulation of the airline industry happened. Go to the future when everyone is aghast over how stupid Americans in the 2016 - 2017 election cycles and petition to live there.

So by July 21, I have everything worked out for the dental implants surgery-wise and financial-wise. My check-in with my endocrinologist could have been better, but that was my fault for not eating properly or exercising. We came up with some solutions and I'm incentivized to work on them because I'll heal faster if my blood sugar is under control.

July 23: came home to Mustard having labored breathing and alternating between hiding from me and just laying down in the room I was in and not moving. He refused to eat the canned cat food, which has never happened before. I mixed together dry and canned Thursday night and he ate that. Saturday morning, we're at the vet's office at 8am. Mustard can't be bothered my the usual fit he shows them.

So the diagnosis ended up being fluid in his lungs from congestive heart failure. He's home now with two prescriptions to take that don't cost a fortune and an appointment next week to see if the prescriptions need to be tweaked. He ate, peed, and drank water once I got him home and now he's hiding from me again. I have no idea what his life expectancy is at this point, so I have to remember to ask that with the follow up visit.

Right after that I'm scheduled for a well woman's check up and probably my first mammogram. Then the week after that, dental implants. Then I should be able to perform bill catch-up on the next payday.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-12427500352496301172017-01-09T10:07:00.000-06:002017-02-09T10:11:46.341-06:002017 Resolutions
How best to sum up 2016?

It will be a while before this image gets old.

Since I fell off the keep people informed of what's going on in my life goal, I'm going to go through 2016 in personal events for an overview to figure out my 2017 resolutions and plans.

Back Bedroom Remodel:

Started in December 2015 after my new roof was installed. I figured it would be finished in a few months. Now it's January 2017 and I still don't have a back bedroom or a living room. 2017 Plans: Finish this project.

March 2016 Flood:

This event has been overshadowed by the August flooding. Personally, I found my back porch still leaked with the new roof and raked out the ditch in front of my house to help the drainage, which was then attributed to the hard workers who maintain our parish roads. (Thanks, Mom.)

Mustard's eye:

In May, Mustard's eye got scratched and then infected. There was only a thin bit of membrane holding it together by the time I got him to the veterinary ophthalmologist, but he saved his eye. By the end of June, the cone was off and his eye is fine.

Front and Back Porches Refresh:

So this spring I discovered the carpenter bees drilling nests into my new back porch rafters. They had also drilled into my front porch ceiling and rafters. I got the back porch rafters painted by May 30th, but painting the front porch got delayed due to summer monsoons and smaller projects to make the spaces pretty and functional multiplied every weekend. In October, it finally dried enough for me to finish the major painting (front porch ceiling and the columns on both porches). Poisoned the carpenter bees and then spray foamed the holes. Finished trimming the spray foam snot and painted over that in November. Then I moved onto refinishing rocking chairs. 2017 Plans: Finish this project.

August 2016 Flood:

I watched the waters rise and finished insulating the back bedroom. Luckily, my family and I were not affected. However, my mother's friend Irene was flooded and was then put on hospice. My parents took her in and we rallied to work on her house in spurts.

Irene's House:

We cleaned everything in the house, but not before Irene died on November 19th. The clean-out officially ended December 4th when All Hands Volunteers showed up and gutted the house. 2017 Plans: I'll be roped into dealing with the contents of the out buildings, but I don't forsee having to take off work again.

Money Annoyances:

So Mustard's eyes surgery and two unexpected car issues pretty much tapped out my savings and left me in debt to my father (buying building supplies didn't help either). So this weekend found me very disconcerted about my finances. The money I earn means I shouldn't be in a mad, penny-pinching scramble every payday. The next step will be to analyze my spending habits to see where I can cut back. 2017 Plans: Stick to my budget, pay off my debts, reward myself when goals are met.

Basically my 2017 plans are to finish the outstanding projects I have started. Of course once I wrap something, a new project will take its place. For example, when I move the back bedroom stuff into the finished back bedroom, I have a new TV to mount on my wall and must replace the entertainment center to do that. By the end of the month, we'll see how much progress I've made on them.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-24543283174261290262017-01-09T10:00:00.000-06:002017-02-09T10:06:22.496-06:002016 My Year In Fic
2016 My Year in Fic

2016 Fiction Word Count

Progress Bar from Writertopia

This year was a dumpster fire. I had started and put aside a blog post titled "What the Hell Did We Do to You, 2016?" and just awful stuff kept happening after that point, so I never finished writing it--much less posting it. So the less said about it, the better.

So I did maintain a writing tracking calendar all year. That is a positive. It took me until March to realize that I needed to add what project the words were generated for. *Wince* I took the entire month of May off and have no idea why or how that happened. June started the Star Wars focus that has lasted all the way into 2017. I didn't finish anything on my business plan, but I improved my tracking. But I did discover an addition mistake back in January that threw off my total of words written for the year, so next year I need to check my spreadsheet on a monthly basis.

Stories I Finished:

I didn't finish ANYTHING! I didn't even post Part of the Night: The One Rule or Part of the Night: The Wayne Legacy at FanFiction.Net like I said I would. FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR!

Stories I Didn't Finish:

I'm still stuck on that I wrote a novel's worth of words and didn't finish anything between four stories and their outlines.

Okay, I finished the outline beat sheets, but people can't read those. Strix: Forget the Sun's writing bit lasted from January through February. March and April were spent editing Zy's Universe only to be dropped along with everything writing related in May.

Why did all writing stop in May? Was it painting the porches? Mustard's eye surgery? Alas, I can't find any notes I left myself about it.

June saw my writing resume with handwritten pages of the Star Wars AU I had plotted out in January: a rewrite of the original trilogy I've given the series title Rescue the Farmboy. These rough draft pages were slow going because of rewatching movie scenes. Paying job cut off access to YouTube where I was watching the scenes and progress halted as soon as I got the Falcon to the Death Star.

September gave me a writing challenge from Tomi Adeyemi to write 600 words a day for two weeks. Instead of working on Strix: Forget the Sun or Rescue the Farmboy, I wrote the beat sheet for another Star Wars project, a rewrite of the Dark Empire storyline. By the time I finished it and beat the challenge, I was writing the narrative. I've been working on it and typing up Rescue the Farmboy into Scrivener. I had to rewrite Rescue the Farmboy beat sheet from Bespin through Endor, but I haven't touched that narrative since.

My favorite story this year: I'm torn between my Star Wars fanfics, but both of them have the same reason: Luke Skywalker is just as big a smart ass as Han Solo and it's been fun giving him dialogue that reflects that. The EU Legends got far too caught up in solemn Jedi Knight.

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Strix: Forget the Sun because I keep forgetting to write it!

Most fun story:  Rescue the Farmboy. Luke and Biggs go to the Imperial Academy, and Luke ends up with both Vader and the Emperor wanting him alive and dead respectively. They hitch a ride back to Tatooine with the Senator of Alderaan, but Vader ends up with Luke despite their best efforts. The Emperor's Hand also fails to kill Luke thanks to a pillow. I need to get back on this story.

Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write: Star Wars fanfic. After an awful fix-it fic I wrote back in high school when Kevin J. Anderson ruined Yavin 4 and a missed chance to write for the Star Wars Adventure Journal, I figured I was content to just read, watch, and cosplay. Episode VII awakened more than just the Force.

And I reread that filed high school fix-it fic, it is awful. The only believable part is the petulant teenager because I was a petulant teenager writing it.

Hardest story to write: Strix: Forget the Sun because I keep setting it aside.

Biggest disappointment:  That I forgot about Zy's Universe. Again.

Biggest surprise:  Scrivener! I've heard raves about it for years, but always mentally filed it away as a program I couldn't afford to buy. Microsoft Word's custom dictionary broke on me and they wanted to sell a subscription for updated Office programs. Nope. Polaris works on my smartphone and desktop, but I have to spend money to add it to the laptop. Nope. Scrivener was cheaper and its license is good on multiple devices. So in September I began giving it an honest trial and now I'm hooked.

What's your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year? This was a hard choice. From Rescue the Farmboy's version of A New Hope (I haven't decided if I should keep the movie titles or not):
 "The Academy locked me up and then stormtroopers came after me." Luke snapped his mouth shut. His indignation over the treatment blazed in the Force.
 "And you turned to the Senator of Alderaan for assistance."
 "She wasn't appointed by the Hutts."
I hope you're all quivering in anticipation for Vader's response to that declaration.

What's your favorite piece of description or narration you wrote this year? Easier choice. From Star Wars: My Home Is You:
 Luke smiled as he followed Tarask to the second door on the left. And the smile strangled on his face as soon as he entered the room. A floor-to-ceiling mural of Tatooine covered the wall shared with the office showing Beggar's Canyon and the Stone Needle with a glimpse of the desert plains and Tatoo I and II shining in the bright blue sky. And underneath them positioned in the center of the wall was a baby bed with high-slated sides to keep the infant safe inside and a mobile of starfighters dangling over it.
 They were all wrong, all the theories were wrong. His father bought the building and closed off this apartment because it was HERS. It was his mother's. The Force sang out the truth and it sounded like a sandstorm howling in his ears. This was their secret home and this room they had prepared for their baby.
One of the many tragedies of Revenge of the Sith is we never get to see Padmé making this nursery.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? I reached about 74% of my goal which is better than what I managed in 2015. Too bad none of the words added up to one completed novel.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I participated in the writing challenge and learned I can fit 600 words a day into my schedule. Also I got better at carving writing time out of my free time at the paying job. However, I found myself less able to concentrate on writing at home. It's not a case of having used up all my willpower/creative juice at work, because it happens during the weekends and my vacation time.

Did you meet last year's goals?

That's a no, and boy, how is it a no.

Reach 130,000 words in the stories in Zy's Universe. -- I touched Zy's universe back in February, but I have no idea what I did and it wasn't enough to knock any of these to-do's off the list. I might as well say I never touched any of this.

Finish rough draft of Strix: Forget the Sun -- Still not finished.

Establish a dedicated writing hour -- I'm declaring this a win. While it's not a truly dedicated time frame, I'm spending 45 minute chunks on the laptop during the day twice a day and sometimes three times a day.

Post 12 updates on Facebook. -- Nope, I'm accepting the fact that I hate the damn thing and save the posts for the next time I have to tell people I survived the next natural disaster.

Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank -- This fell to the wayside too. Will try to do better next year.

Redevelop FanFiction Garret -- Didn't work on at all.

Do you have any goals for the coming year?  The goals from my 2017 one-page business plan are:

Reach 130,000 words in the stories in Zy's Universe.

Edit Stellar Gift of Death to a draft ready for beta reading

Edit "Words of Parting" according to the feedback I got

Edit "Blue Man on the Porch" to a draft ready for beta reading

Write a short story on Xeryl's background

Write the Ail 12 on vacation case that ended in a shootout (new take on the "Case of the Hideous Medallion")

Plot two sequels to Stellar Gift of Death

Begin writing the next novel in the series

Move story projects into Scrivener

Pay for more Dropbox storage
 -- Already started doing this.

Finish rough draft of Strix: Forget the Sun

Move what is already done into Scrivener

Finish rough draft according to beat sheet

Finish rough drafts of Star Wars AUs

Write Star Wars: My Home Is You (Dark Empire AU)

Write Star Wars: Rescue the Farmboy (Original Trilogy AU)

Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank

Redevelop FanFiction Garret -- This remains lowest on the list of priorities here.

Set up a professional website -- This is in the research stage.

BookWorm's Library maintenance

Add the Part of the Night series to FF.net

Add more fanfics to AO3

Work on home concentration. -- Namely I need one day of the weekend with a solid chunk of writing in it. I'm thinking of trying a day off a week to forestall my taking a whole month off instead around May.

My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:

Write 600 daily words. Can be split among the projects.

Schedule a day off during the week; maybe why I fade out by May is because I don't.

Spend 45/15 after I get home editing Stellar by Ali Luke's Two-Year-Novel Plan.

Work in meditation time with Brain FM.

Do more chores in the morning so I have evening time for writing.

Reward myself when goals are reached.

Here's to 2017. We'll get through it together.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-65570864762466819792016-03-11T21:21:00.000-06:002016-03-11T21:21:26.368-06:00Not Time to Build an Ark Yet
This was not supposed to be my next free weekend.

Why do I bother making plans some times? I was supposed to go to Lafayette this weekend, but that was planned before Mother Nature unleashed severe weather to cause flash flooding and regular flooding on us. The paying job sent us home early Thursday and told us not to come in Friday, I canceled my plans for the weekend and treated myself to a normal bedtime. Meaning I set up Brain.fm on my cell phone and tried to go to sleep.

Only for the flash flood warnings from the National Weather Service to keep interrupting the program. Don't get me wrong, overall I like the warnings and think they are an excellent idea, but not when I'm trying to sleep. Not only did the emergency signal wake me up most of the time, it also just stopped the Brain.fm music. When my regular Friday alarms went off, I still had half of the eight-hour session to go.

Most of the major rain happened overnight and the system didn't stall over us like it did Texas and north Louisiana. The bad news is all the rain that north Louisiana got has to come down through us. Places that usually don't flood flooded this time and the rivers have just gotten started.

Unfortunately, I found leaks in my new roof. I called my roofers, but they're all flooded in too. They'll probably reach me Monday or Tuesday.

The rain eased up and I hit the yard to see how bad the water is around me. These two pictures show how high the creek and Natalbany River are behind the house. It's hard to see through the undergrowth, but the water is right there.

I had to rake out the ditch before I hiked down to see how bad the bridge was. It counted as my workout today. The black mounds are the leaves and pine straw that I pulled out of the water's way.

After that was done, I hiked down to the high water blocking the bridge and chatted with my neighbors down there and the DOTD worker and State Trooper that also swung by to check on us. The neighbors had used their vehicles to block their driveways because stupid motorists keep driving until it's obvious they can't go any further and then they peel out trying to turn around. That's bad enough, but they always fly down Pumpkin Center Road like it's the Interstate. Even with weather like this, even with knowing everything is flooding.

The water wraps around the back of the yellow house until it ends up across the street from my house.

My parents kept their weekend plans so now I have to take care of Mom's chickens. My dryer died last weekend, so that's going to make doing laundry interesting if it keeps raining. I need to pick up a few supplies and I hope I can reach a store tomorrow. And then I get to concentrate on Zy's Universe and the computer upgrades I need to do all day.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-16974573604474304182016-03-04T20:15:00.000-06:002016-03-11T20:21:48.325-06:00Skinny Little Book Got Me Thinking
So it's been a weird time at my house. Writing went kaput about mid-February. I sunk a lot of energy into the back bedroom demolition project, so I figured I just needed to recuperate from that. I learned from the 21 Day Primal Challenge in January that I wasn't getting enough sleep, so I figured writing energy would come back once I got that back under control. The low level stress from testing computer changes/updates at the paying job is having more of an effect than I thought but that can't last much longer, please deity over computer stuff. Between Mardi Gras and my birthday, I made poor food choices and that's why I feel like sluggish crap and don't want to write.

Of course NOT-writing leads to all the crappy feelings too. I did get one day of rough draft writing this past Wednesday. And it's possible that I've piled too many changes on myself all at once. Any ways, I came across some writing advice to churn out a smaller project when you're feeling stuck on the big one and that seemed like an excellent idea for this weekend. So I started a few blog posts to update on life things.

The shipments from my Amazon shopping spree have almost all trickled in (I'm still waiting for the most expensive book to come in next week). My new full spectrum sun lamp came in right before the box of a lot of new books and I switched it out for my regular lamp on the timer February 22nd. The idea behind it is to get 15 minutes of full spectrum light within two hours of getting up so you reset your circadian rhythms, which people who don't arrive at their paying jobs before dawn can get from the sun. I think it's helping me be sleepy at 8:30 p.m. I also started Brain FM to help me get a deeper sleep through the night and hopefully be able to use the Focus tunes to help me concentrate on writing. Only I lost the time to turn that on, lost the time to do chores, and have confirmed that I only have one pair of earbuds that do not fall out of my head when I sleep but still hurt after so many nights using them consistently. This weekend includes a trip away from home and without the stress of housework I'm hoping to rest and relax away whatever that has led to me yawning my head off all week. At this point, I don't know what it is but I'm yawning now so as soon as the focus music ends I'm going to bed.

Moving on, since I couldn't find any time to write and the paying job went through a deadline so I had more to do and couldn't use it to catch up, I pulled out one of the books I had bought on the Amazon shopping spree to read when I had some free time that wasn't getting spent on the manuscript: The Pursuit of Perfection and How It Harms Writers. I don't have a Kindle and just got the Kobo app for the new actual smartphone, so I bought the print book and was perplexed by the end product. "Ten bucks for a fifty page book, really?" It had been raved about on the Creative Penn podcast and my issues with perfectionism are plentiful, but I thought I got cheated.

I was wrong.

I ended up highlighting so much in this book, and I'm planning on prettying up some of the quotes with graphics for some motivational posters. But what I highlighted on page thirteen gave me a new spotlight on my writing issues.
Many writers don't believe what I just wrote, and that's fine. You need to define it four yourself. Set a limit on revision, set a limit on drafts, set a time limit. (My book must be done in August, no matter what.) Then release your book on the unsuspecting public. … At some point, you must simply let go of that book or story or play and move to the next. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch page 15
If you're following along on Discipline Under Fire you know I'm still working on the first draft of Strix: Forget the Sun. Stellar Gift of Death is waiting for edits, which it needs. So why did this piece speak to me so strongly that I needed to post about it? It brought into sharp focus the issue between my original fiction and my fanfiction.

Unleashing what I've written onto the unsuspecting public, I've gotten that down cold with fanfiction. When it comes to original fiction, I freeze up and go let it sit until it can become perfect and I move onto something else and just forget about it and all the anxiety buttons taking the next step hits. I've got plans and know the next steps I need to take, but I haven't forced myself into the stairwell yet.

The biochemical causes strengthening the Jerkbrain and how it relates to writing I identified already, but I didn't make any headway on my publication goals last year despite learning this information. So what else is under all this? Kristine Kathryn Rusch had this to say about my degrees:
So if we're not training writers to be professionals who make a living at their chosen career, what are we training them to be?
Critics.
We're training critics and editors (kinda, but there are actual degree programs in editing/publishing) and professors. – page 26
After I became the ask-first-on-computer-issues-before-going-to-I.T. girl at the paying job, I made a joke of the situation. "If I had a time machine, I'd go back to tell myself to go major in computers and be making a whole lot more money now." Too bad Rusch published this analysis after I went back for my M.A. because not only would it have me consider a different major and keep writing on the side without Jerkbrain strengthened with critical tools, there's a few classes I may have performed better in knowing that they wanted a critic not a writer.

*Snort* I came to the same conclusion as Rusch back when I was in the thick of the classes. But I thought I would shake off that training because it didn't help me write. Well, it's obvious how well I did that by how much publishing success I've had since I earned my M.A. Don't get me wrong, I don't regret my education but I will have to work harder to overcome the mental blocks I have to releasing my words on the unsuspecting public.

It's not just the training of critics that is a problem. Rusch identifies two levels of harm done to writers; personal is "a God-given right [talent] versus a craft that can be learned [skill]" (page 39) and professional is concentrating so much on producing perfect work that a career in writing isn't possible due to a lack of stories. "Writers with this attitude never try to have a career because they believe a career is impossible. Therefore, the writer will do stupid things they would never do in their real life." (page 40)

The silver lining to my stalled writing output (measured by novels and stories out there to read) is that I haven't signed horrible publishing contracts or gotten scammed by a con artist posing as an agent or publisher.

So how does this change my plans for the year? Double checking my business plan on a page, I found that writing Strix: Forget the Sun was set as a secondary priority. First priority was establishing a dedicated writing hour, which has fallen apart and it's just now March, and establishing Zy's Universe as a series with new stories and editing what I already have written. I've ran across a new strategy for managing my writing time (fortunately because the paying job decided to get really strict on what we're doing in our cubicles so I can't count on making up time during their time), so I'm going to start implementing it next week. Next free weekend I have, I'm dedicating a day to Zy's Universe.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-16169848115282572132016-02-21T20:08:00.000-06:002016-03-11T20:15:02.556-06:00Back Bedroom Rehab Project Progress 3
I took a long break before I got back to the back bedroom rehab this weekend. In between posts, my new actual smartphone arrived so I took pictures with it. These were taken after cleaning everything off the ceiling and vacuuming the debris off the floor but before taking off the wall sheet rock. So you can see why I put the paneling up in the first place.

Here's some shots of the termite damage I found on the ceiling.

Started ripping sheet rock off at the door and found a few surprises. Surprise number one, the boards lifting the sheet rock off the flat pine boards. Surprise number two, was there a door into the kitchen? This piece of wood doesn't match the pine boards surrounding it and at the floor the 2"x2" that the sheet rock rested on is missing just at the spot. I questioned the parental units and neither one of them remembered a door or heard about a door. Surprise number three, an old termite nest in the corner.

Moved onto the back wall and that's where the termites had a subdivision. According to my parents, my great-grandmother had an issue with termites when she lived in my house that was treated and never had another issue. She died when I was eleven, so this damage is decades old. Luckily, the termites didn't want to eat the pine boards so yeah, I don't have to rebuild stuff holding up the roof. But they did eat off the paper-backing of the sheet rock, so the only thing holding this stuff together was the paint. It crumbles as soon as I pull it down.

 I yanked out the spray foam repair I had made because a squirrel was pulling out all the insulation and found they had a back door into the room. I blocked it with cardboard for now until I can buy some wood to patch it properly.

Once I cleaned the back wall of sheet rock and termite dirt, I realized that I had planned to put my sewing machine against this one when I move back in. There's no electricity there. The only outlets in the room are the one under the window and one someone put in the light fixture. If you can tell from the photo, it looks like the fixture should hold three bulbs but only has two. The third prong ends in an outlet; never seen that before. I'd rather not have multiple extension cords, so I need to add more outlets. The sheet rock had been put flat on the back wall without any spacers and had been given a funky angle where the ceiling met the wall. New idea: put up a new wall in front of the outer back wall to get rid of that angle and to give me room for the electric. Plus I can add insulation against the back wall that nothing will want to build a nest in.

The last wall proved interesting. The window trim had been installed properly on top of the sheet rock, which surprised the hell out of me. I managed to get off without damaging it. The spacers behind the sheet rock turned out to be 2"x4"s. And there was this lizard creature that wasn't having any luck running away and hiding from my destruction of its hiding places. But I got it off before full dark. At this point the lack of interior insulation wasn't surprising me; the back bedroom and kitchen were never constructed with the same care as the rest of the house. See the visible gold between the pine boards?

That is the back of the aluminum siding that covers my house. The exterior of a house is supposed to be wrapped in a vapor barrier or some kind of moisture protection. I was thinking tar paper, given how long the siding has been up. No such luck.

So insulation of some type all around the room is now added to the rehab project. Since I have a lot of weekends already planned with things that are not the rehab project, I'm guesstimating my finish time for the end of April. Depending on how much supplies cost.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-73411860632517130042016-02-09T12:35:00.000-06:002016-02-09T12:35:34.432-06:00Happy Mardi Gras 2016
This was the parade I got today when I left the house around noon.

Our flock of wild turkeys! They nest in the creek bottom behind my house and have been coming up in our yards to eat grass or bugs in the grass. For those not familiar with these birds when they're alive, the tall lean ones are the hens and the tom is the one with the spreading tail feathers. And my cat Mustard stalking forward, the idiot. And then standoff in the third picture, which soon had four of the hens watching my cat. I finally got him away from them before bloodshed.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-45798102397770503862016-01-10T20:01:00.000-06:002016-03-11T20:03:14.444-06:00Back Bedroom Rehab Project Progress 2
I didn't keep great notes or photos for the work I did in January. I do remember doing an Internet search to learn that once paneling warps there is no way to flatten it back out. All of it was covered in mildew, so yanking out was the way to go. I started with the sheet rock on the ceiling and got what was left up there down.

And then the camera started being a butt again, so I didn't take any pictures of tearing off the paneling. But I found old termite damage on the ceiling, so the scope of the project expanded. The rest of the sheet rock need to come down so I can see if there is any structural damage to the wood holding up the roof.

Plenty of nasty stuff hit the floor, so I borrowed my parents' shop vac for the duration. Oh boy, I'm going to be so spoiled going back to the regular vacuum cleaner. I'm so tempted to clean the whole house with the shop vac.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-31183060488535895462016-01-05T12:47:00.000-06:002016-01-05T13:13:03.232-06:00The Force Awakens
Once, a few decades ago, here in this galaxy… my father took me to see Return of the Jedi in the theater. So when the Force Awakens was given a December 2015 release date, it was inevitable as a Sith apprentice killing his master that I was taking him to it for Christmas. We went Saturday Dec. 19th and it has taken me this long to blog about it. :p

And here's the obligatory warning for spoilers and relentless gushing of my first fandom. Turn back at the Death Star and proceed back to hyperspace.

So I stayed away from all the speculation and film news rumor mill other than the broad stroke stuff. The sale of the franchise to Disney was a relief after cringing through the prequels and proclaiming I would have wrote better material for free because of my love for Star Wars. Nothing could be worse than them. I knew J.J. Abrams was a Star Wars fan first and when they pulled together veterans like Kathleen Kennedy and Lawrence Kasdan, so I trusted the Force would guide them.

And guide them it did. Not only is it good Star Wars, it's a good movie that blockbusters so rarely have been. Maybe the tide is finally changing? And DIVERSITY! Women and POC men sprinkled everywhere along with old alien friends, and some of them were even X-Wing pilots! Nien Nunb, I squealed when I confirmed that was you in the credits. Excuse me while I flail a bit because I've been thinking about making an X-Wing pilot costume for close to a year. Now we have a canon female pilot character, Jessika Pava!

The following is randomly generated by what I think, not in order of what was shown on the screen, so I'll try to be coherent about the stream of consciousness but make no promises.

Blue lightsaber = Anakin's lightsaber that Luke lost when he lost his hand in Cloud City, Bespin. This was a point I picked up in the trailer with the shots of Finn igniting it and a lightsaber was shown being passed around. "Luke gave Finn his lightsaber," was the commentary. I don't remember seeing anyone point out that the blue one that Ben Kenobi gave him was lost in the Cloud City duel along with his hand. So vindication when Maz Kanata confirmed that it was the same one and there was no time for the story of why she was keeping it for Rey. Why I think this is significant? Besides the fact that it called out to Rey through the Force, in the Legends Extended Universe, the Empire got a hold of the lightsaber and Luke's hand and built a clone from the DNA. The First Order guys said they had cloning for stormtroopers instead of the steal them as babies and raise them. And all the Internets to the commentor on Tor.com that recognized that's exactly what the Jedi did before their fall in the prequels.

FINN! All the woobies for Finn, all the love for Finn, "we've got the Force" Finn! I adore Finn, in case you missed that. I'm not sure what the monomyth term is for a protagonist realizing he is on the wrong side (TVTropes gave me Heel Realization but I doubt that is the academic term for it), but his story arc beginning struck that monomyth chord. Then he meets Poe and Rey and BB-8 and he's all in for his friends. He's pretty handy with the lightsaber. I'll be happy with either it's just stormtrooper training or he's Force Sensitive too.

Rey is an awesome badass and will kick even more ass once she's a full on Jedi Knight. And if any wankers call her a Mary Sue in my presence, I won't bother with arguing how she is the hero of the monomyth including the refusal of the call to adventure, I will just cut you with the Disney licensed SHIELD branded pocket lightsaber. (Come on Disney, you own Star Wars and it was in Captain America: Winter Soldier. Put some money into R&D; it's got two franchise selling feature!)

If Rey isn't a Skywalker, I'll eat my new Star Wars shirt. We can safely infer that she was a baby apprentice that survived the destruction of Luke's Jedi School from her abilities and the memories the lightsaber unlocked for her. And she built a fighting staff that resembles a lightsaber. But I'm on the side of we got more clues than that. Her piloting skills; both Anakin and Luke were renowned for their piloting. My mouth fell open when I realized what I had assumed was Han and Chewie flying the Falcon in the trailer was Rey. Han offered her a place on the Falcon, which as far as I know he has only done for Luke before. The blue lightsaber called out for her. Artoo woke up when she arrived at the Resistance base. Kylo Ren pulled her dreams of an island in the ocean (where she found Luke) out of her head, which is a pretty weird dream for a kid raised on a desert world.

Why did you abandon Rey, Luke? If the above is true, I hope Luke has a damn good reason for leaving her behind. I will accept: "What happened to Guardian 1 and Guardian 2? They left you on Jakku! But I left the trail starting with Lor San Tekka and he was supposed to keep an eye on you and the lightsaber for you guys to find me." Or "You were supposed to live in Tuanul with Lor San Tekka. Okay, you got bored there and then got stuck with the scavengers. Never did earn enough to get back to Tuanul." Or "Look, our family history sucks. Your grandfather fell to the Dark Side, but he turned back before he died! But he didn't raise me and Leia and we turned out okay. Leia, Han, and I all tried to reach your cousin Ben and he fell to the Dark Side and helped kill your mother. So maybe we Skywalkers shouldn't raise the next generation. And I did pick awful guardians for you, I'm sorry but that kinda proves my point."

I blame Obi-Wan and Yoda for Luke's exile. Obviously, the lesson Luke picked up via example is when you have a disastrous set-back, you go hide yourself as penance. I hope the next movie gives us some more detail of just how bad the massacre and destruction of Luke's school was. My headcanon is Luke was concentrating on teaching children—remembering Yoda's pointed statements of how Luke at Empire Strikes Back was too old—but not cradle-robbing like the old Jedi Order did. I want Luke to find a different way, a third way, so badly. But the point being is no other adults around but him and Artoo. Ben Solo born right after the Battle of Endor may have been one of the older students and once he teamed up with the Knights of Ren, it was the Youngling Massacre all over again because the children weren't ready to fight. Oh double points if Supreme Leader Snoke told Ben about the Youngling Massacre and Ben decided this was another way to prove he's just as bad as Darth Vader.

The kids can speak Droid, except for Finn. I don't know why I get such a big kick out of that.

Poe is an awesome, strutting X-Wing pilot and I can't wait to see more of him with Finn and Rey.

Kylo Ren has all of Anakin Skywalker's worst traits. The temper-tantrums destroying equipment make Vader look restrained in comparison. He keeps feeling a pull to the Light Side, and for giggles I really hope it's redeemed Anakin trying to tell him to stop talking to the mask. Really, it's creepy and the Empire is wrong and murdering your loved ones is bad.

My theory is Ben Solo was a compromise name suggested by Luke. I've seen some stories/theories that say Han picked it, which I can see. But my first thought was Leia and Han bickering over baby names, each wanting one the other couldn't stand. And then Luke points out if it hadn't been for Ben, none of them would have met (and he suggested it before they decided to name the kid after him!).

"There's always a way to blow these things up." Yeah, another superweapon, the Empire really doesn't have any new ideas, so I really appreciated Han the smartass pointing it out.

General Leia! *Fist pump* I hate that her and Han didn't work out, but without getting into the new Extended Universe I don't know what their marriage faced. Other people have made good points that Leia's duties to the Alliance and then the New Republic and whatever Han had to do after going AWOL to free Kashyyk probably made them bad parents to Ben, not maliciously but they just couldn't give him the time he needed. Their kid died by falling to the Dark Side and they buried themselves in what they knew best to deal with it. Sad but believable, and I got the feeling that they still love each other.

Death of Han Solo Actually, I got spoiled to this despite my care in not looking for any spoilers. As part of the Christmas present, I took Dad out to eat before the showing. The father at the table behind me said loud enough to carry, "When they killed Han Solo—" That's as far as he got because I started flailing in my seat to twist around and yelped, "Spoilers! We haven't seen it yet!" Luckily, my father missed hearing what he said, but I went in knowing Han was going to fall. Damn, that was still brutal. And Chewie's reaction was gut-wrenching. I have to applaud the film makers at how well the scene and the sequel were put together. Chewie had spent the whole movie so clearly not-putting up with Han's shit and actively calling him out on it, but we all know that with both the life-debt and the Han's bond to the Wookie that Chewie would never leave Han. So Han falls, Chewie goes berserk but manages to shoot Kylo Ren and then sets off the bombs they had been setting up to destroy the exhaust port (I think that's what they were in). The kids who had been watching the scene, escape the blast and then the camera stays with them. I'm left reeling with "OMG, Chewie blew himself up because Han died. Oh Chewie, oh Chewie." But then Chewie arrived in the Falcon and saved the kids! Oh thank God, more Chewie!

The complaints that the Force Awakens negates Return of the Jedi's happy ending. Wait? What? Okay, I can kinda see where people with this complaint are coming from if I squint really hard. And I'm tempted to say it's due to me being a fanfic writer ("And then what happened" is the curse of our kind), but I really don't think it is. Just because our heroes of the original trilogy had some heartbreaking personal set-back does not change Jedi. THEY WON! Vader was redeemed and died before he had to worry about that pesky atonement for everything evil he had done. The Emperor died. They established a new government and pushed the Empire to the backwater and most of the Empire got over that except for the die-hard fanatics of the First Order. Strike up "Yub Nub" and dance people! And in the universe, Finn and Rey's reactions when Han tells them all the stories are true. A guy raised and indoctrinated from birth to be a stormtrooper and a desert feral child KNOW these stories. Leia, Han, and Luke are fucking LEGENDS in their own lifetimes. Because of Jedi's happy ending. So yeah, that. And I'm going to close this with cheering Ewoks because my heroes became legends and because I love those cannibalistic teddy bears.

Other People's Thoughts That Made Me Nod
Sci's spoiler free reaction to SW: TFA
One Fan's Blow-By-Blow Reaction to Star Wars: The Force Awakens
This is Why Obi-Wan Lied to Luke Skywalker About His Father
PVP: The Force Awakens – No Spoilers
Padme Didn't Die of a Broken Heart
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-51915871377481081792016-01-04T09:37:00.000-06:002017-02-09T10:18:54.647-06:002015 My Year In Fic
2015 My Year in Fic

2015 Fiction Word Count

Progress Bar from Writertopia

This year was interesting. It seems like I forgot my plans halfway through the year and then lost that time. And I did this while having the plans plastered eye-level at my desk right where I couldn't miss them.

It also explains why after I wrapped up edits around November, I got that restless antsy feeling. Luckily, a conversation with a friend made me remember that Strix: Forget the Sun was outlined and ready to write, so I dived into its rough draft to make the antsy go away. But it was only this week as I pulled my trackers and metrics together that I realized I hadn't wrote anything since May!

Yeah, I'm lucky I didn't go bonkers on people way earlier than that. Other changes to this year: working on the laptop. In all honesty, I can't point to more words written as proof of improvement and there was a time period where I didn't pull it out while at the paying job (crossing fingers that the layoff merry-go-round is finished for the next four years at least). But overall, I think it helps not having my progress ground to a screeching halt whenever I travel. We'll say 2015 was my learning year and see what my results are in 2016.

Stories I Finished:

Signs and Portents: Trinity was finished and published at the Library, AO3, and FF.net.

Part of the Night: The One Rule is posted at the Library. My edits are done for it to go up at FF.net and new copy is ready to go up at AO3.

Part of the Night: The Wayne Legacy is posted at the Library. My edits are done for it to go up at FF.net and new copy is ready to go up at AO3.

Stories I Didn't Finish:

Strix: Forget the Sun counts here because I picked it up again. The Zy's Universe counts here because I dropped it so utterly.

My favorite story this year: Signs and Portents: Trinity. It's a Man of Steel fix-it fic, but I love the little things in it so much. And the flash mob reenacting "Welcome Christmas."

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion:  Signs and Portents: Trinity hasn't gotten the reviews that other stories in the series had, but the reader I dedicated it to saw it so it's all good.

Most fun story:  The Wayne Legacy, I had so much fun Nolan-izing the Batman canon.

Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write:  Signs and Portents: Trinity took me way too long to come up with a framework for the story.

Hardest story to write:

Biggest disappointment:  That I forgot about Zy's Universe.

Biggest surprise:  Having gone from May to December without writing anything.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? WAY less.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I learned how to best use my laptop.

Did you meet last year's goals?

Reach 130,000 words in the stories in Zy's Universe. -- I never finished my read-throughs and didn't get to edits.

Submit a horror short story to an anthology. -- I must have missed all the deadlines for this.

Finish The Wayne Legacy -- Done, except for posting at FF.net

Finish the last story in the Signs and Portents series -- Done

Post 12 updates to Facebook -- I set this one up to get over my dislike of using Facebook. Yeah, that didn't work.

Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank -- That just didn't work but I'm not sure why.

Make changes to the BookWorm's Library -- Okay, I did do these.

Do you have any goals for the coming year?  The goals from my 2016 one-page business plan are:

Reach 130,000 words in the stories in Zy's Universe.

Edit Stellar Gift of Death to a draft ready for beta reading

Edit "Words of Parting" according to the feedback I got

Edit "Blue Man on the Porch" to a draft ready for beta reading

Write a short story on Xeryl's background

Write the Ail 12 on vacation case that ended in a shootout (new take on the "Case of the Hideous Medallion")

Plot two sequels to Stellar Gift of Death

Begin writing the next novel in the series

Finish rough draft of Strix: Forget the Sun

Establish a dedicated writing hour

Post 12 updates on Facebook. Proving I am a glutton for punishment, this is back on the list. But I did give myself an out by just cross posting stuff I wrote in the blog.

Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank

Redevelop FanFiction Garret -- Basically it died because I couldn't keep the back end updated. I've got new tools now, and it's also lowest on the list of priorities here.

Here's to 2016. It can only get better.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-74376063699692927192015-12-29T14:26:00.001-06:002015-12-29T14:42:17.897-06:00Decision Fatigue, this is a thing?
Create a Decision-Free Closet to Reduce Decision Fatigue

Decision fatigue, this is a thing? As in there is a real reason why I can't face paying bills or writing or figuring out food for supper beyond crashing blood sugar and it's not just a manifestation of how worthless and unproductive I am as a human being on this planet? It's not laziness or worthlessness or any other derogatory term the Jerkbrain wants to come up with to experience contemptuousness over the rest of me? My brain is just TIRED, that's all, and that's not a fatal character flaw.

Luckily, my closet isn't the source of my decision fatigue since I've been using the Project 333 technique for a couple of years now. But this has implications for my 2016 schedule so I needed to put it down where I'll remember it.
 Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-55145104187330796212015-12-27T19:29:00.000-06:002016-03-11T19:38:04.847-06:00Back Bedroom Rehab Project Progress 1
I finally went down the aisles in Lowe's. Sheet rock is my cheapest option compared to everything else. So the plan currently is sheet rock on the walls, Styrofoam ceiling tiles, press-and-stick tiles on the floor, and paint what needs painting.

Everything that usually lives in the back bedroom has been stacked into the living room and the hall. Luckily my house was originally built as a double-shotgun, so the four original rooms have multiple doors to the other rooms. I left myself a path through the living room to my bedroom door. Actually, the living room photos are missing one element. I first hung up the clothes I'm not wearing on the shower curtain pipe, but that lasted until I needed to shower. I borrowed a closet-on-wheels from Mom and squeezed it into the living room. The only things I left in the back bedroom was the extra mattress and box springs, which blocked the closet doorway.

The furniture I didn't want to drag too far ended up in the hallway blocking my bedroom door there, but the path is clear to the bathroom and back bedroom.

Once everything was out of the way, I took the Closetmaid shelving system down after taking plenty of pictures and measurements so I can put it back up in the same configuration. It works well in the room. The plastic-coated wire shelves went to the back porch so I can scrub the mildew off when the weather warms up enough for the job.

Remember when I said the mattress and box springs were blocking the closet doorway? The doorway is taller and Mustard climbed up them and got stuck in the closet last night. The only other way out of that closet is over the wall between it and the bathroom's closet that doesn't reach the ceiling. While there's nothing in the back bedroom closet for Mustard to hurt—I'm tearing it out to enlarge the bathroom so I never got used to using it as storage—I do store lots in the bathroom closet.

Mustard decided that my hands, the towel, and the broom were all evil enemies that must die while he had the high ground. I got him down without major blood loss and remembered I have an extra door, currently stored in one of the sheds. Went to bed planning to pull it out and use it to plug the closet doorway.

The next morning I figured out how to get everybody to leave me alone while I'm working on this project: get up early in the morning, find the door at the rear of the shed, and pull it out without taking out anything else all by myself. Trust me, I didn't want the help and the aura I put out compelled everyone to leave me alone.

The door needed scrubbing once I got it out in the sunlight. It was warm enough to not turn my hands into bleached-icicles and the mildew died. While the door dried, I trimmed the spray foam snot off the siding wall. I still need to clean off spots where it dribbled with some acetone, but that can wait for later.

I thought I'd have to hang the door but it didn't fit well enough to hang by the hinges. Propping it in the doorway blocked the top above the mattresses. WIN!

Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-51061902878544017602015-12-23T11:32:00.000-06:002015-12-23T11:32:31.203-06:00This Tortoise Could Save a Life

KLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-13171313013343885872015-12-21T17:17:00.000-06:002016-03-11T20:00:41.260-06:00Usable Space vs. the Dream Plan
Date: 12/13/15

New roof has already improved the temperature in my house (yeah for more insulation!), so today is trying to get everything inside the back bedroom out for a while, scrub the back bedroom, and reorganize everything I keep in there. The leak encouraged mildew to grow so scrubbing. The leak also encouraged me to toss things away from getting wet so reorganizing.

Mom peeked in while I moved things and suggested laminate flooring to put on the ceiling once I finished tearing off the sheetrock. I gave a despairing look at the paneling I put on the walls to cover the nasty sheetrock (a job finished back in 2006 when I tore out the built-in closet). It has all warped under the leak's humidity and as I move more things out of the way, the warping goes all the way around the room. It all needs wiping off with bleach and nailing down and securing parts of the Closetmaid system again. "I haven't made plans yet," I tell my mother just so I can keep working without her in my hair.

But the having no plans isn't exactly true. I have made plans. This plan in fact:

This plan calls for the horribly constructed back bedroom and kitchen to be torn off and rebuilt, better, stronger, faster (cue the Six Million Dollar Man's theme song). This plan is also somewhen five, ten, maybe twenty years away.

Since I know this plan is so far away, my unthinking response is to keep the back bedroom shut off so I don't have the constant desire to go get a wrecking ball right now. Out of sight, out of mind.

And right now as I move things out of the way to clean the room, I recognize that is dumb, wasteful idea. I'm already using it as a giant closet. That is storage I must have. I have sewing I'd love to have a more dedicated space for. Ignoring the room is more wasteful than spending a little money now to spruce it up.

Ideas

A real file cabinet for sewing patterns about 48-inches tall.

Move all the Acadiana Faire stuff to the C-can. More floor space after that.

The butcher block table I put the sewing machine on in the living room will fit under the bottom shelf on the west wall next to the fourth stud.

Fix mission chair and move to the living room.

Dresser holds keepsakes, garb props, and magic gear and is doing a great job.

Need to rip out paneling but replace it with what?

Like doubling up the pine shelves for deeper shelves.

Use the big storage totes that were under all the Closetmaid shelves to keep the mattress and box spring propped against the wall.

Will the hats and wigs fit on the shelf above the long closet rod?

Put medieval bed together again. Medieval bed needs sanding so the pegs will come out easier. Add medieval bed to the C-can.

I really like the Styrofoam ceiling tiles that look like pressed tin that Epbot used for their ceiling. I need to take better measurements of the back bedroom for ceiling, floor, and walls.

Small boxes and craft projects go on the Closetmaid shelves.

The tub I was keeping weight plates in glued itself to the floor with mold. Buy a plate rack.

Chalkboard paint on Gram's old slate so it's functional again.

Date: 12/21/15

So what's the progress a week later? Not much. Truth is, I don't want to do heavy demo after coming home from work and the weekends have been booked with other things before the holidays.

I still don't know what to put on the walls and ceiling. I haven't been on that aisle in a home improvement store for over a decade and there are a lot more products available. The websites would be helpful if I had a clue what I want to put up and what will let me install my Closetmaid system without destroying it. So I have to make time to go look in person.

What I do know is I want to work in purple in the room and the walls are what I have to work with. So what I buy needs to be paintable and cheap because I don't mind spending money to make the room usable, I don't want to go over $500 in total. That's including flooring and ceiling rehab too.

Mom's first suggestion: laminate flooring. The con she stated a week ago: "You'll be looking at more wood."

Like my house really needs more wood on the walls. In fact, the back bedroom has a focal wall that was the back siding of the house. Okay, the mattress and box springs covers half of it, but it is there! Yeah, there are some cheap options in laminate flooring, but the colors I like are more expensive. And then drilling screws through it will be difficult and painting won't happen, so next choice. Oh right, I need to see other choices in person.

So before Dad and I left for his Christmas present, I mentioned how my house doesn't need more wood and I need to find cost effective solution because the paneling must go.

Mom's next suggestion: "Pallets! You can go to the local paper and get them for free and people on TV do beautiful walls."

"I just said the last thing my house needs is more wood. Let's go to Star Wars now."

Half the things destined for the C-can are inside it. I ran out of daylight Sunday before getting the rest and I have another box to pack. At least I hope I can fit it all in one box. Heavy storage totes had to go back into the back bedroom to hold up the mattress and box springs. I hadn't wanted to put stuff in until after I got to do some demo. :p Not that it's made a difference in how upside down my house looks with the stuff that's still out.

Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-24956698013444818442015-12-10T16:01:00.000-06:002016-01-04T20:40:17.576-06:00New Roof!
I started the year with plans to blog about other things besides when I spend a lotta money and what I bought.

Well, that didn't go as planned because this post is all about how I took out a loan, and then dropped almost all of the loan money onto a new roof!

But first, pictures of the old roof.

Lighting isn't the best; the sun wasn't even fully up yet. And my trusty camera is showing its age by saying I have no power when brand-new batteries are in it. So this in-progress shot is from my uncle's cell phone camera.

Anybody in my neck of the woods who needs a roof, I can't recommend Roof Crafters enough. Professional job, was upfront about my costs and what they couldn't do. I was upfront that I needed a new back porch because of decades of carpenter bee action had made it unsafe.

Boy, was that proved when they hit the porch rafters and the wood splintered. The whole job was finished by 3:30 and here's my new roof!

Sunday's weather forecast is 100% thunderstorms so yeah for a quick test of it, but boo because I wanted to catch up on my DVR watching and the satellite may mess up.

But new roof, no leaks! SQUEE!

Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-59145406958567528542015-01-31T12:49:00.000-06:002015-02-01T12:53:12.454-06:00FINALLY!!!

It nearly took a whole year but I finally bought the laptop I promised myself I could have after I paid my car off back in March 2014. I haven't had it long enough to see a difference in my productivity yet. But I have learned that my hands and trackpads don't mix. Takes too long to move the pointer, the pointer hovers over something and the computer guesses I want the program open or closed without my input or my too late input, and moving the cursor while I'm typing. Went back to a mouse happily, even if it's something else to pack. It's a Dell Inspiron 15, which I got a deal on because Dell was getting rid of Windows 7 merchandise and I'm still a state employee. It has a DVD burner, an USB 3.0 port, the rest are USB 2.0, and 500 GB. I'm saving the files to an external hard drive so to not bog the laptop down with anything that's not running the programs I need.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-20606453863739631262015-01-15T15:52:00.000-06:002015-02-01T15:53:24.743-06:00Hot Bod Third Try Fifth Month Update
So I figured I maintained through the holiday season. I ate too many sweets and didn't exercise, but I also stuck to my dietary changes and took my medicine and supplements. My weight reached 174 pounds at Thanksgiving and then bumped back up to 178 by January 8th.

But human nature being what it is, all I could concentrate on was what bad I had done. My bloodwork was done on January 2nd and I kept my expectations so low.

A1C = 5.5
Fasting blood glucose = 91

My endocrinologist was ecstatic. "Your A1C hasn't been that low since 2007." He didn't change any medication and I decided to bring that up when my A1C hits 4.x.

I'm not out of the woods yet. My cholesterol numbers show a high amount of inflammation in my body, so my next appointment with Dr. Jessica will start working on that. And my goal for this three-day weekend is to clean and set up yoga so I can do it easily when I get home.

Another side effect is my Jerkbrain/Fear Monger seem to have taken a permanent vacation. On January 1st I finished The Wayne Legacy's rough draft and looked around my office for what to tackle next. "Stellar Gift of Death's edits" and then I cringed waiting for the jerkbrain to start attacking me for letting that project go for so long.

All was blissfully silent in my head.

And I was absolutely flabbergasted. Don't get me wrong, I've been worried over the ferocity of the attacks to myself, the anxiety over submissions to the point where not working on original fiction was easier, and the growing thin-skinned-ness I've had over fandom wonk that used to roll off my back. I poked again. "Edit to a second draft and hire an editor for ebook publication." Nothing from the jerkbrain amid the excitement to be back in that universe again. Now it is possible to combat one's jerkbrain, but I haven't done any of that work. I just wrote fanfiction and started dietary changes that I detailed in Intentionally Left Blank: Hot Bod Third Try. The last time I remembered a jerkbrain outbreak was around September 4, 2014, when I was only fourteen days into the program.

The other piece of the puzzle was stumbling onto Epbot and reading her archive. This part from her A is for Agoraphobia post jostled back to the surface when I thought about how weird it was for my brain NOT to be screaming obscenities at me.
Next, I went to my doctor for a check-up. (Ergo that Halloween blood draw.) Since this next step will undoubtedly cause me more anxiety, I need the peace of mind that comes from a current clean bill of health. Not only that, there are several deficiencies that can cause increased anxiety: deficiencies of magnesium, potassium (both of which were critically low for me in the past), B vitamins, and even calcium.
Some of the same deficiencies I got worried about after reading Drug Muggers. Was my jerkbrain and the submission anxiety 95% biochemical?

I wish that was my only test, but last Friday I learned that my job may or may not be in jeopardy from the mid-year budget cuts that will force the Department of Insurance to layoff people. I don't feel like panicking nor is my back in knots. Boy, that was a case of not knowing how bad it was until it was over.

On a purely aesthetic note that I'm not using as a measure of anything, I bought new pants with Christmas gift cards and the three I bought are all 14s. I don't remember when I was last fit into a 14 anything. Now I just have to hem the suckers so I can wear them.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-46782910236850332622014-10-31T12:20:00.000-05:002014-10-31T12:20:49.893-05:00Hapy Halloween 2014!
I looked through my tags/labels and realize I missed a few years of post costumes or forgot to tag/label them properly. Add fixing that to my list of things to eventually do.

Halloween at the paying job was yesterday and multiple coworkers said I had to wear the sewing project that I've been talking about since July, the Victorian dress that I'm sewing for the Dickens on the Strand trip. The pattern is based on the 1880s, which is later than Charles Dickens, but it's what I wanted to sew when the sewing bug bit again. But since I have never done Victorian era before I had to start from the skin out and sew foundation garments first.

"I can be a Victorian underwear model, that's all done." That was voted down, so I started last weekend sewing at an even more frantic pace. By Sunday I thought I had to buy interfacing, but then I found the interface I bought shortly after posting the planning post in the Garb Closet. I had already had shopped for all the trim and really didn't want to go back to any fabric store, so I was so glad to see it. Unfortunately I didn't unfold it or the navy fabric for the apron, bustle poof, and bodice lining when I cut out all the pattern pieces needed for the striped fabric Sunday night. My working plan was to get the bodice and skirt done and put the trim on later. Then my sister's mother-in-law died and the week got upended to go to the funeral. Monday I went to work and warned everyone that I may show up in what I had done and call myself a work in progress.

Well, the pattern instructions have you put on trim as you assemble, so as I started putting together the bodice I saw myself possible wearing it over my petticoat Thursday. Then I reached the step of assembling the interface and lining pieces and had to cut them out. The interfacing I bought was too narrow to fit the bodice center pattern piece.

Okay, new plan needed. I remembered I had a modern Victorian-ish blouse that I couldn't bear to get rid even though it was too small. Since I've shrunk recently, it now fits.

New plan: jump ahead to skirt and wear it with the blouse, decorate the hat I bought to turn it into a Victorian flowerpot hat, and the gloves I bought. The funeral was Tuesday, my parents and I would stop Tuesday night and sleep at a hotel and then making it to their doctor's appointments Wednesday with Dr. Jessica. My plan was to start sewing like crazy Wednesday when we finally got home. I managed to get one seam done before we left Tuesday, but I felt good about getting the skirt done. We got back home around 3 p.m. Wednesday and I started sewing. I put the skirt together and put the front trim on and then read ahead. The apron is sewn in the skirt waistband, so I couldn't leave it off like I had first thought. So I skipped the rest of the skirt trim and unfolded the navy. There was something white every so many inches that needed to be washed off. It was 11 p.m. already.

I cut off just enough for the apron off the bolt and washed that. While it was washing, I made a ruffle from the striped fabric because I never could find a four-inch wide lace that I liked and ended up buying navy cotton to make a ruffle for the bottom of the skirt. Navy on navy wouldn't work for the apron. I had enough interfacing for the apron with the too-narrow yardage I had and found the typo on the pattern envelope back that made me bought the wrong size. I got the waistband cut out while waiting, and typed some on the chapter that won't get post this week. Finally, got the clean navy out and cut out the apron. I can't remember now if I sewed then or later because when the clock reached 2:45 a.m., I laid down so I'd have some rest before the alarm goes off at 3:30 a.m. That's only 45 minutes when I normally get seven on top of disrupted sleep from the trip and late for me nights sewing earlier in the month.

So I got up and resumed sewing at 3:30 a.m. The apron trim had to go on because putting it on after the waistband was attached would be that much harder. Then the apron was basted onto the skirt except for two end pieces that would go around the back and close with a hook and eye. Those ends didn't go under the waistband and avoiding them (along with how little sleep) messed up the seams on the waistband, but they held. No time to sew on hooks and eyes, but I found a big safety pin to hold the skirt together. The ends of the apron do not reach around the back so it could be hooked together.

Just now typing this, I remember I had to upscale the waistband pattern for the petticoat. I used that pattern for the skirt waistband but I didn't add any fabric to the apron so that's why it doesn't fit. No matter, I already decided to take the waistband off and stick those ends under it. The gloves fit beautifully. The underwear fits beautifully. The skirt stayed on all day even though I'm tweaking it. The hat wouldn't let me stick pins in it, so I had to tape the blue ribbon on it to head out the door. I have a hat pattern, but that's an after I pay bills shopping trip. And I discovered I could drive wearing the bustle pillow!

So ultimately, I consider it a successful trial run for Dickens on the Strand. And I'm not sewing this weekend because I need to not look at fabric for a while. I'll probably start ripping off the waistband Sunday night.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-87594647152390838482014-10-07T09:10:00.000-05:002014-10-07T10:37:10.401-05:00Been a few weeks
It's been a few weeks, but I'm trying not to fall back into bad habits. That's easier said than done, but using the Kanban Flow checklists helps so much. I've been trying to actually honor the UfYH principle of actually taking a break instead of using the break time on another task until I reach burnout and ignore checklists and chores alike this go-round, but hit a snag over the weekend. I calculated I should be able to spend nine hours Saturday and Sunday on sewing broken into 45/15s. Same amount of time I spend at work minus the commute. That still left plenty of time for food, sleep, and other chores. Except it didn't work out that way Saturday. Precious little of the chores got finished, I only got four hours of the sewing time in, and basically felt like a complete failure for wasting my time in such a way by taking breaks. So Sunday I decided that the 15 minute break must be spent on one of my other Big Rocks for the weekend, followed by a 20 minutes on a housekeeping chore and a 10 minute break playing a computer game. Boom this scenario gave me much more progress and I didn't feel burnout at the end of the day. I'm going to keep it next weekend and see if it really works or if it was just a better day than Saturday fluke.

In health news, I've been diagnosed with mild diabetic retinopathy. The real fear of losing my already wonky eye-sight took some time to deal with, but I'm better with the news now processed. I also got a detox foot bath on my last visit to the chiropractor to flush the aspartame out of my system. But it also showed my chronic dehydration (been drinking three quarts daily for a month, how long does it take to clear up?) and chlorine, which we figured must be coming from the increased tap water I've been drinking. I finally got a ZeroWater pitcher this past payday. My home water registered 112 on their provided meter, which is about the normal range for most US households, and the filtered water does taste better. My next visit to Dr. Jessica is tomorrow, so we'll see what's changed since the last one. I also enrolled in a prescription benefit plan offered by my insurance, but I probably won't see any savings on the refills I have to pick up today. :p Oh and I found a PDF file for a Don't Break the Chain formatted calender, so I printed one off for tracking exercise. Sixteen days straight of the Fifteen Minute Results Yoga routine. :D

Television: the Fall season watching has started. So far I'm up-to-date on Gotham and Marvel's Agents of SHIELD, watched the premier for Haven and haven't been home to see an episode since, and have fallen asleep before Castle comes on. I'll save my thoughts on the shows for a slow blog day.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-42942110563188910572014-09-18T11:58:00.000-05:002014-09-18T11:58:43.096-05:00Hot Bod Third Try
Okay I REALLY suck at keeping an updated blog when I'm writing. Yeah all the words are going to a story! Boo, anybody knowing what's going on right now. :p Hopefully the summary helped catch everyone up. This post is pretty much dealing with my diabetes, because I'm on a new regimen and I need to make notes of what's happening. Curses ahoy, don't read this one out loud.

My 2014 goal of more exercise and overhauling my food choices slacked off in February when I stopped measuring myself to see what my body was telling me about my health. So I got less strict about what I was eating and never developed a good exercise routine to follow. The time period wasn't just me completely ignoring my health. I ponied up the money for monthly massages—namely because there was no way exercise was happening as tight as my muscles were—and they have helped immensely.

So I trucked along in this subpar fashion and then signed up for the Reversing Diabetes World Summit 2014 on May 5. Initially I just followed Mark Sisson there, but I ended up listen to everybody and taking notes. Suzy Cohen, RPh. talked about how a lot of the side effects of medicine were caused because the medicine steals vital nutrients from you and the over-the-counter supplements are not pharmaceutical or medical grade so you wouldn't be replacing what your body is missing with those. Well crap, how long have I been on metformin? Dr. Josh Axe gave me goal numbers to be aware of.

Diabetic

A1C level = 6.5 or above

Fasting morning glucose is greater than 125 – 130

Reversed Diabetes

A1C level = 5.5 or lower

Fasting morning glucose = 100

Looking back, I think I picked up my mother's defeatist attitude when it comes to living with diabetes. She watched aunts follow the strict doctor's orders, kept themselves skinny, and still lose legs and eyesight. Her mother lived a lot longer (albeit in horrible shape by eating whatever she wanted. I thought I was doing better by at least being aware that I function best on a Primal diet, taking the medicine prescribed to me, exercising until I fell off the wagon, but I never sought out any additional research until the Summit dropped itself in my lap.

I checked out Drug Muggers by Suzy Cohen and Wheat Belly by Dr. William Davis, since so many presenters at the Summit said his work was their starting point. I got my bloodwork done at the end of May for my June appointment with my doctor.

May 28, 2014 – June 4, 2014

Fasting morning glucose = 183

A1C = 7.8

 He added a new prescription for Farxiga. I read my books, watched my food slightly better, and waited until I ran out of bad supplements.

I took my list of supplements modified with the information found in Drug Muggers (but not by much) to my chiropractor, who I had bought multi-vitamins from before. The office manager confirmed they sourced pharmaceutical grade and she'd price my list for me, but she recommended that I go see Dr. Jessica, a Traditional Naturopathic Doctor, for a check over. "Honey, you probably don't need all of these."

That sounded reasonable, and was even more reasonable when I saw the price tag on my list of supplements. I got an appointment to see Dr. Jessica on August 21st and filled out her health assessment before I went. My weight on August 13th had ballooned up to 194 lbs. and I had my worse week of sleep ever that week. So I answered the "list you current health concerns you would like changed" with "put my body in balance to fight the diabetes, better quality sleep, knowledge of what foods I should eat. Losing weight and getting off my medication are long-term goals." And by long-term I meant I never see it happening but I'm okay with it as long as I don't have to take insulin shots ever.

The two issues that alarmed Dr. Jessica the most about my assessment was how much aspartame I was consuming and how little water I was really drinking. Yes, I had heard many times how aspartame is evil but I didn't want to deal with caffeine withdrawal headaches and I ALWAYS figured sugar was my real enemy. "If my blood sugar ever gets to normal then I can switch back to normal drinks" was my thinking on the issues. Dr. Jessica said it was better to switch to a sugared drink for caffeine and deal with the sugar than use aspartame. And guess what, Nature just published an article on "Artificial sweeteners induce glucose intolerance by altering the gut microbiota." Thanks a whole FUCKING lot food industry!

The not enough water thing, I counted all the fluids I drank but never considered the diuretic properties of caffeine. So right away my 24 oz. of Diet Dr. Pepper put me in a deficit. Add to that Farxiga's side effect of making you pee more and how we all need to drink half our body weight in ounces of water, my body was retaining fluid like it was a dam just to function. At 194 lbs. I should be drinking a little over three quarts of water.

Dr. Jessica recommend I change my diet to gluten and dairy free, switch to sea salt, and eat more salads for lunch. Dairy-free surprised me, but she suspected it was the reason behind my always annoyed sinuses. She only prescribed three supplements to help support digestion and pancreatic function and recommended a cinnamon-based drink mix that uses mâte for caffeine called CinnaMâte. I took a sample of that to see if I liked the taste, but expected to switch the regular Coca-cola, since regular Dr. Pepper tasted off to me after so many years drinking Diet Dr. Pepper.

When I went grocery shopping that weekend, it was another thanks a whole FUCKING lot food industry! moment. I cut out high fructose corn syrup as much as I can because human bodies do not process it like sugar (you lying TV bastards!) it is addictive and they have put it into everything they can put it in. The lying TV commercials just cemented my hate of this product. Guess what 90% of all commercial, readily available not-diet sodas are sweetened with in America? Double fuck you food industry! I did find Virgil's Sodas and OMG! Not advertising hype the cream soda and Dr. Better flavors I had gave my taste buds a Great Gatsby party. Unfortunately, they are caffeine free. :p

Turns out I did like the taste of CinnaMâte and it kept the caffeine-withdrawal headache away. But I had to wait until I got paid again before I could buy a month's supply. So I foolishly decided to just have one Diet Dr. Pepper to get me to work without a headache.

The pain that hit my spine with that drink was worse than any whiplash I have gotten. So Tuesday, August 26th was when I drank my last Diet Dr. Pepper. I brewed iced tea when I got home for the commute until I got the CinnaMâte on Sept. 8th or found bottled tea made with real sugar.

I started the new supplements on August 26th too and tried to start a new Yoga routine of fifteen minutes daily. So far the exercise has been a miss. I can squeeze it in during the evenings, but not if I wake up late and leave all my chores for the end of the day. This week has been me rediscovering how I've ignored my personal checklists and getting back on them.

So this my third week into the changes and I already have some improved numbers.

Sept. 8, 2014

A1C = 6.4

Fasting morning glucose = 117

Sept. 18, 2014

Fasting morning glucose = 111

Weight = 186.5 lbs.

Like I said above, weight loss is not my goal but if I lose weight while getting my numbers in a much healthier spot, I'll take it. The fasting glucose isn't at a steady sweet spot quite yet either; I have had some days of higher than 130. Dairy-free has been less strict than gluten-free, because dairy sneaks in ways I don't think of. And every time I have some, I wake up to a half-clogged nose. Issues I have to bring up to Dr. Jessica: going back on MSM, still taking an hour to fall asleep, and sporadic leg cramps.

But overall I think everything is looking better than it has for most of the year.
Read Free!
The BookWorm KLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-36819896744623477372014-09-16T11:23:00.000-05:002014-09-17T11:46:33.044-05:00Summary of What I Didn't Blog About
So it's been a while, huh? Thing is, I didn't really notice since I was posting at least two days a week at Discipline Under Fire. So I dug into those posts to figure what I've been doing in the meantime that wasn't writing.

April 14: I accomplished it yesterday actually, but I finally sprayed down my house for termites and carpenter ants and bees.

April 21: Saw Captain America 2 after watching the "spoiler" episode of Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I thought the movie was excellent and Bucky needs so many hugs (as soon as you stop being a homicidal maniac, dear.) I am still adoring the Marvel Cinematic Universe tying everything together and I'm crossing everything I can cross that we will get a Black Widow and Captain Marvel (especially before Katee Sackhoff is too old to play Carol Danvers).

May 5: I signed up for Reversing Diabetes World Summit 2014. It's an online free starting today and running for twelve days. Lots of info and luckily, it's been a quiet day to let me listen. This lasted for two weeks and gave me lots of things to consider about my health, but that's an upcoming post.

May 12: Shopping for medicine and food. Found out my insurance company wants to go crazy over the copay for my glucose testing strips. Confused the deli counter lady because I needed a slab of turkey to cut into cubes.

May 13: Last episode of Agents of SHIELD season one. *SNIFF*

 Saw Godzilla in May didn't take note of when. It opened May 16th. Can't wait to get in on BluRay. "Oh no, there goes Tokoyo. Go go Godzilla!"

May 26: Since I had the day off thanks to Memorial Day, I cleaned house and got a lot done on other computer projects. Sadly, I have found a bug with XMarks that is eating links I need for this story. So there's a new computer project that I wasn't anticipating. What I'm looking forward to: Laptop purchase on the third paycheck this month. What I'm not looking forward to: Paying bills with third check that may not let me buy laptop. GRRRR. Once I get XMarks saved bookmarks correct I have to have a massive save page as party and completely change how I archive my research for everything now because I can't trust the paying job computer not to screw with it somehow.

May 28: Bloodwork and thyroid ultrasound successfully completed. Made it to the paying job despite the weather. The rain finally stopped for a while.

May 29: I bandaged Mustard. And he's grounded. A couple of weeks ago, he got some lacerations on his neck that didn't look like the results of a regular cat fight. I doctored them, and they scabbed over well. I let him go outside and thought the rain drove him back in. Hours later, one of the scabs is gone along with a chunk of skin. Luckily, my parents had some cohesive gauze because all I have is human-won't-scratch-off-the-bandage variety in my first aid kit. So now I have to leave orders that he doesn't get to go outside while I'm gone the whole weekend.

May 30: Did not get to buy a laptop with my third paycheck like I had been hoping for since February. I also took Mom to IP for the weekend and we saw Joan Rivers show. I know I'm typing this up after she has died but I really didn't like her routine. Every F-bomb her television shows prevented her from saying, she saved for the stage show. I admired her energy considering her age. I hope I move that well when I reach my 80s

June 1: I came home from the casino with just about the same amount of money that I brought.

June 9: Bought some food, but didn't get the stuff to clean the moldy leather. And I didn't start my sewing project either. I forget when I found that the lack of AC in the back bedroom let mold grow all over my leather garb I had stored back there, but it took me a while to finally buy tack cleaning soap and conditioner and deal with it.

June 10: Whelp, I thought I'd at least buying the corset busk online today, even if I didn't get to sew when I get home. What the back of the pattern envelope asks for: one corset busk. What the online shop offers: this simple type ranging from 7 inches to 14 inches long, spoon busks in two different sizes, heavy duty busks for curvy people 12 inches to 14 inches long.

What I'm looking forward to: Laptop purchase that I don't know when I'll get to make now. :( The bills ate up the money I thought I would have for it. Maybe next month if I'm good with the money. A bonus to my paycheck this week! *Checks paystub* That's enough to buy my laptop—I'm ordering the laptop!

June 17: Mom's cleaning out the shed project: my items in the shed are too cumbersome for her to deal with and I forgot about it last weekend. So I got my great-grandmother's bedframe and my extra door (I knocked out the wall it was in years ago) to the front porch. Next up the heaters that were replaced by a modern one and I don't want to get rid of them for sentimental reasons. Tugged the one on the shed floor towards the door and lots of paper debris (the rodents chewed up a whole Monopoly game that had been stored out there) came out as it moved. I tilted it to lift it up and the mice living in it ran for their lives, circling around the heater and me as they crossed my path to get back to the safety of the still covered with stuff wall. I know I saw at least two, heads were mousy not rat-like, but of the two one was as big as a rat so it may have been three or more all moving as one while shrieked and jumped out of the shed.

Okay, I'm a country girl and I accept wildlife outnumbers me at my home. But what flashed in my head while I reenacted every cartoon mouse encounter I have ever watched was the episode of Medical Investigations with Hantavirus and OMG how fast those soldiers DIED! After my brain rebooted, I realized Mom would be dead from it last week if those rodents were carriers, but I was done for the night. What I'm looking forward to: Laptop purchase that I don't know when I'll get to make now. :( The bills ate up the money I thought I would have for it. Maybe next month if I'm good with the money. A bonus to my paycheck this week! *Checks paystub* That's enough to buy my laptop—I'm ordering the laptop! I'm not going to talk about how the laptop purchase didn't happen AGAIN. I've paid shit off, I'm not supposed to be broke every paycheck any more.

 Weekend plans still look good, and my baby sister is coming down next week. What I'm not looking forward to: New issue: I have to get those heaters out before I leave on Friday for the weekend. So I'm going to see if Mustard will actually hunt in there before I move anything. I'm hoping for something like this, I think.

June 18: Got my stuff from the shed to my porches. I didn't have to throw Mustard in because Mom wrestled with the rodents while I was at the paying job. I got about 80% of stuff I needed to do before the weekend finished.

June 23: Well, I tested our new time keeping system for the paying job, by taking Tuesday and Wednesday off and putting in while at home. My baby sister came home and I got roped into taking her and Mom to IP Biloxi for nice break for Krista, she hasn't had a vacation in years. Now I REALLY need the laptop.

June 27: It's assessment season at the paying job, so I'm pleased I got as many words done as I did. Oh and I got the library errand out of the way. What I'm looking forward to: I am actually going to sew this weekend no matter what happens.

June 28: Laundry, saved my leather bodice from the evil mildew, have the first pattern traced and nearly ready to pin to fabric, and found way more things I need to buy after I pay the bills. What I'm looking forward to: I am sewing and starting to inventory the material stash. That needs to happen because we found more fabric when we cleaned out the shed.

June 30: Paying job assessments are done to be mailed out tomorrow. I meant to type yesterday, but got caught in alternating sewing with bill paying and other budget chores. I also need to sit down during my breaks so my feet don't ache so much I can't fall asleep.

July 4: Sewing! I'm determined to finish my Victorian underwear this weekend. And catch up on my rough draft. And inventory the fabric stash. And clean house. I finally settled on 45/15s. Sew for 45 minutes, inventory fabric stash for 15. Write rough draft sitting down for 45 minutes, edit the One Rule which became type Chapter Twenty for 15 when I finished the first task.

July 5: Patterns traced out. New chemise cut out. I have no idea if I have enough material for the drawers. Nothing is actually wearable yet.

July 7: My chemise is up to the last stage of hand sewing and hemming, and I just could not face it today. So when I wasn't typing and writing on the rough draft, I worked on inventorying the fabric stash. I'm down to eleven fabric pieces to put into the notebook, but I'm running out of stuff to store the fabrics on (wooden hangers and cardboard pieces to wrap bolts around (I found out that cutting a cardboard presentation board is perfect for this and gives me four pieces)).

July 9: I'm researching corsets. I think the pattern I have is pretty decent for my figure and I just need to get the sizing right and buy supplies. But my sewing friend may need a different style based on her shape.

July 14: I'm a bit surprised I managed to get over the personal daily goal with the amount of mail we had to get through at the paying job. Assessment season has kicked into gear now. What I'm looking forward to: Getting the two books I want out of the State Library. I went Friday, but they are closed now. Today had to work overtime and they were closed by the time I left paying job. Hopefully tomorrow.

July 15: Library and only came home with three books!

July 16: I am done shopping for sewing supplies. But I didn't get a chance to clean the living room at all.

July 21: Almost finished the hand sewing part on the chemise while in the waiting room with my uncle's appointment. Didn't get the cleaning done that I wanted to, but finished the worst area in the kitchen over the weekend. Everything that's left is more spot-checking cleaning. What I'm looking forward to: New mattress, July 30th I hope. I had to use my mother's credit to order it online after Sam's Club did not have the size my bed is. But this way they will deliver it to my house.

July 22: My corset supplies came in today! I really wasn't expecting to see them until August. What I'm looking forward to: New mattress, July 30th I hope. What I'm not looking forward to: Rearranged the sewing disarrayed living room so the new mattress can get inside my house.

August 3: My weekend writing time has been eaten up by sewing and I still haven't figured out how to accomplish both at the same time.

August 6: Budgeted the paycheck before I got it! Really hate the numbers I came up with because they leave out the tires. I really need tires. What I'm looking forward to: Everybody getting off my back about how's the new mattress? It's new, I sleep on it, my Chiroflow pillow needs some adjustments so I'm not pinching the nerve that makes my hand go numb. Second thing: seeing Guardians of the Galaxy this week when I get paid.

August 8: Bought my movie ticket and fretted over the sticker shock. But it was worth it. Guardians of the Galaxy was such a fun ride from "pelvic sorcery" to "We ARE Groot."

August 11: Tires for Rizzo are on order. And I was typing up a storm when the news broke about Robin Williams. "O Captain! My Captain!"

August 12: I had hoped to do more typing when I got home, but the computer decided to be petulant and update needy. So no typing, but I did get a book I'm not done with renewed from the library.

August 13: I just realized I forgot to pack another pack on loose-leaf in my black bag. I'm in no danger of running out today, but I should have replaced it already.

August 16: Finally bought new tires using Dad's credit card so I can have four at the same time instead of two.

August 19: What I Accomplished in the Narrative Today: I'm still writing Chapter Twenty-Five's rough draft and now I've started typing it. Never again will I publish a WIP. NEVER. Fave line: That simple declaration brought Bruce onto his feet with the fewest repetitions of push-ups that Alfred had ever witnessed him perform. – It is sad how much I like the obsessive amount of push-ups. What Else I Accomplished Today: I didn't finish the rough draft so blah. What I'm looking forward to: Payday! What I'm not looking forward to: Take the bras back to the store that didn't fit. I'm not crazy about underwires. I have a petite torso and they constantly poke me in the arms. But I am of the boob size where the only bras you can get are underwire. These that I'm taking back gave me under-boob. I didn't think that was possible with underwire bras but hey, time to prove me wrong about that too.

August 20: I lost thirty minutes coming into work (Stupid traffic made me 15 minutes late and we have to take time in 30-minute intervals). Then I ended up staying late for thirty minutes. But I got the bras returned! What I'm not looking forward to:

Remember the whole XMarks situation I've been not dealing with waiting for the eventually I'll do it? Yeah, more fun on the paying job computer and I synced to not lose my open tabs and discovered XMarks ate all the bookmarks saved on the server.

I didn't lose my data; I've been backing up my bookmarks at home so I could do a flush and clean install. But since reading over reviews for this year and talking with a coworker, I'm leaning towards using Dropbox to keep things in sync instead. The only con I can see is it is not cross-platform like XMarks, but I never used that feature of XMarks. So yes, all that has to happen this week. Probably Friday or Saturday since I have a doctor's appointment Thursday after work.

August 21: Doctor visit: I'm dehydrated and need to wean myself off aspartame like ASAP. Food-wise: shift the diet to gluten and dairy free for a while. I'll be covering this more in a future post. What I'm not looking forward to: First thing: Don't plan on going anywhere because I need to up my water intake to where it should be. BUT I have to finish grocery shopping on Saturday.

Second thing: XMarks freaked out when I got home and freaked out again at work. Good news: everything matches up to the home computer's saved set now. Bad news: I don't trust XMarks to keep the safe, especially the stuff I reference for story writing.

So my weekend plans, such as they are and scheduled to change everything permitting:

Drink more water and pee every five seconds (probably).

Grocery shopping.

Scour the computer for stuff I'm not using, delete what I don't need, archive what I want to save, and backup.

Clean out the mass of bookmarks.

Set up Dropbox account to sync bookmarks.

Sew my corset.

Write Chapter Twenty-Six.

Regularly schedule chores.

Hopefully the weekend won't turn into this:

August 22: Shopping, too much shopping, so I didn't have as much shopping on Saturday.

August 25: Visited parents who made it in from their trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Over-scheduled the weekend as usual, so I've got to spread things out throughout the week. Decided to start cleaning my hard drive with the game demos from Big Fish Games since I have the bad habit of not deleting something I'm sure I won't buy. I reached the M's. XMarks did not go cuckoo today. What I'm looking forward to: Three-day weekend! What I'm not looking forward to: My weekend week plans:

Drink more water and pee every five seconds (probably). I think I've got this under control now and I am feeling better.

Add in new 15 minute yoga routine.

Scour the computer for stuff I'm not using, delete what I don't need, archive what I want to save, and backup.

Clean out the mass of bookmarks.

Set up Dropbox account to sync bookmarks.

Sew my corset.

Regularly schedule chores.

Made it through Monday, bring on the rest of the week.

 August 26: Everyone decided to call me while I was trying to do the yoga routine, so the fifteen minute program took thirty. :p

August 27: XMarks did not go cuckoo today. I shifted my chiropractic appointment to today instead of Thursday, so I have lots of spare time in Baton Rouge today. Unfortunately I need the time at home to get ready for weekend trip. :p

September 8: XMarks did not go cuckoo today. At the paying job, I've been switched over to a virtual machine. So far the only difference I've noticed is how much room there is for my feet without the desktop tower under my desk. What I'm looking forward to: Finish copying the patterns so I can take the book back to the library.

September 9: XMarks did not go cuckoo today. Paying job moved everyone in my office to the virtual desktops. It went as well as anything concerning technology does. I also finally finished all the scanning. I have no idea if I will ever make any of those outfits, but now I have source material if I move to a new time period. What I'm looking forward to: Finding a dairy-free eggplant recipe.

September 10: Library book returned and no new ones checked out. Tried out a new recipe.

 September 11: The bitching from my coworkers over switching to a new system has commenced. Today has been a headphone with music playing day.

September 12: Covered already.

September 13: XMarks did not go cuckoo today. Mom asked me to test her old washing machine that has been sitting next to mine on my back porch for months. So I hooked it up only for my outlet to spark when I plugged it in. Turns out my outlet broke. By the time we got a new outlet inside the box, it was four hours after I had gone out to start laundry.

September 14: I'm still working on laundry and cooking meals for the week, which got interrupted by eating out with the parents. At this point, I don't know if I'll get any sewing done at all. And I didn't, the whole weekend was a bust on the sewing front. But I did managed to working in twenty minutes on Tuesday night!

Up next, I probably over share on health news, but hey it's good news.
Read Free!
The BookWorm

KLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-76079253744964837492014-09-12T22:49:00.000-05:002014-09-16T19:21:44.484-05:00I had planned a different post
I thought the post breaking my hiatus of blogging would be on my health news instead of this, but Friday night has been just full of surprises. I also thought I would finish typing the chapter I still have to post, but plans got derailed.

Around eight o'clock while I was eating supper and playing a computer game, I heard squealing tires and a whump. It wasn't a tree crash and it's sad to know the difference just by sound alone. I went out the front door and heard kids crying. I was committed then, and spent the next two hours helping and witnessing. The SUV skidded off the road for reasons unknown right now, broadsided the neighbor's retaining wall he built on his driveway, and plowed sideways into the ditch that runs across his yard to the creek.

Luckily there were only minor injuries and the three kids about ten and under were more freaked out and in shock. I brought them to my front porch until the first responders arrived to get them out of the way and to check if they needed more first aid. The youngest was freaked out the most and wanted his daddy then his mommy and after I explained that his mommy had to wait until the cops came to deal with the car, he calmed a little. Then the fire truck arrived on scene. They always reach a car crash first. He freaked out again. "Firefighters! We don't need firefighters! What are they doing here?"

They actually managed to pull the SUV out without destroying the neighbor's driveway further and everything wrapped up and we got back inside by ten. So I've been working on this to calm down enough to go to bed.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-85719166916307382512014-04-08T21:15:00.000-05:002014-04-08T21:15:41.553-05:00Faith Rewarded
Tonight's episode was WHY I've stuck with Marvel's Agents of SHIELD. And here's an obligatory SPOILERS alert!

I still haven't seen Captain America 2, but yes, I caught the spoiler for the movie, but I really don't think it was anything anyone would be surprised over. Cap won his fight, duh. Fury's dead; I'll believe that when I can check his pulse. And I'm still predicting Robert Redford's character is a Hydra agent. That one they actually didn't give away in show. I've just believed it since the first trailer aired. Oh and I suppose that Hydra are the bad guys is a give away, but really a little Marvel knowledge gets you that close. It's either them or the A.I.M. guys, and they have to recuperate from Iron Man 3.

Okay, I adore how they are tying the Marvel movie universe into a systematic whole. I have loved how the characters from the Marvel Shorts have dropped in on Agents of SHIELD. Spoilerific on the actual episode: Sitwell is a Hydra agent? Or was the Clairvoyant just name dropping so we suspect him too? I continue to wish Mike had just been Joss Whedon-ed; being Deathlok is worse than getting shot through your heart when you just made up with Willow. I still love Melinda May and Fury isn't dead so he can clear her name. I'm mildly shocked that we have made it this far without figuring out what Skye as a 108 can do, and I'm perfectly happy leaving that mystery for season 2. Hand is dead? No, nope, nope, I'm on the nope rocket for that one. Show all the running blood you wan; we brought Phil back from the dead. If Fury's dead, Hill or Hand must start running SHIELD. I'm not sure how I feel about Ward's final actions. Hydra agent or triple agent both look equally plausible. Not a Ward/Skye shipper though, oh the conventionally pretty people hook up. :p Fitz is TONS more awesome than Ward. "You will pay for what you've done and I will play a part in that."

Okay, I'm done gushing on the show. If you skipped all that, have some pictures of my new office layout.

Ignore the date, I have to fix that on my camera. No more half-wall of shelves.

Standing desk.

Sitting desk.

The corner bookshelves I made with shelves I already had and a floor lamp. I'm tickled how this corner came out actually.

So now I think I've calmed down enough to go to bed. Nighty-night.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://email@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-28856896108818978402014-03-11T10:17:00.000-05:002014-03-11T10:17:51.184-05:00New computer desk
I spent last week in Texas, visiting the family over there and leaving my mother behind to man that fort when my sister has to go back to Dallas for more training on her new job. But it reinforced something writers with kids have probably already learned: it's nigh impossible to write smut with pre-teens running around. So no writing it while they're up and about and needing a referee (really my nephew's sport balls collection has no idea how lucky it was that I left my sword at home). No writing after they went to bed because I was exhausted and went to bed thirty minutes later. No writing in the morning because Mom had a list of things to do that I had to drive her to get done. I was counting on writing two chapters and I barely managed two paragraphs.

Luckily, since I drove home alone, I was able to finish the smutty portions of the scene when I stopped for meal breaks. And that's all I want to talk about that twelve-hour drive. No, Austin isn't that far away from home and I don't know what happened to my progress between Houston and Lafayette. I do know what happened between Lafayette and Baton Rouge, and why can't we have a dedicated radio station for traffic like other states manage to have?

Really not talking about it now. On to good stuff. I paid my car off with last paycheck in February.

Alas, Rizzo is not Lola and I don't work for the un-secret spy organization. As a treat, I planned an Ikea shopping trip on my first paycheck in March and bought a new dresser and a new computer desk.

I don't have any pictures of it assembled in my house because I just finished putting it and the computer back together last night and I still don't know what to do with the rest of the office. I had two short bookcases making a wall and supporting the old desk and I'm liking how the room flows without the half-wall. But the shelves and the books have to go somewhere.

And because this is me and I can find a complaint about anything, why design the desk that you have to screw the shelves to brackets upside down? I decided against putting on the SIGNUM cable trunking attachment because it meant more screwing upside-down. And also because I discovered I still haven't bought a replacement battery for the computer and will have to rearrange all the wires again. Next issue is my computer system. To save money, I reused my monitor and discovered that the data cord gives the screen a lovely green tint. All I had to do to fix it was shift the cord on my old set-up. Now the cord is stretched so tight, no shifting is available. So buy a new backup battery and a new monitor cord to finish off the computer shuffle.

So far, all the computer equipment fits on the new desk including the LaserJet printer. That gives me full table space to use as my writing desk. I would have tried it out last night, but Mustard hurt his foot and claimed my office chair as his bed and I couldn't be mean to my sick cat.
Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com:blogger.com,1999:blog-5936801.post-19323759862180864162014-02-14T10:34:00.000-06:002014-02-14T10:35:30.669-06:00Early Birthday Present to ME!!!
GARGOYLES SEASON 2 VOLUME 2 ON DVD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Only available online at the Disney Store for the United States. Yes, I already gave them my money. Yes, that fucking sucks for the rest of the planet. have a hard time caring because my Gargoyles collection will be complete! (as soon as the package arrives)

Read Free!
The BookWormKLCtheBookWormhttp://firstname.lastname@example.com