Snowflake Challenge 2020 - Day 1

I've done Snowflake Challenge in previous years, but never very successfully since January is a massively busy month for me. But, I'm willing to try once more, so here we go. 

I'm a young hippie in an old body who refuses to settle down. I've always bucked the system and I doubt that's going to change. I'm trying to get retired after more than 30 years in retail, and I'd like to spend my final 20 or so years on this earth creating beautiful things in various media, as I've wanted to for a very long time. 

I do write - not just my daily blog, but also original fiction and fan fiction. For fan fiction, I tend to stay in the Tolkien playground, not always within his timeframes, however. Still, he created a magnificent and huge world in which I love to wander. 

Since I have another busy day ahead of me tomorrow, I'll call this my intro - short, and to the point. I'm Erulisse (one L) and I'm going to try and enjoy some snowflakes. 

Day Off Thoughts

It's my day off today and it's a heat wave - instead of -12 F, it's -5 F and it's supposed to actually get above zero today. Whoo hoo! It's hard to comprehend a day above zero these days, which tells me that I'm really meant to be a hermit in the wintertime. But I need to run some errands, and I need groceries, so I'll have to venture out for a while today.

I enjoyed participating in the Snowflake Challenge and got enough
positive feedback that I will try and be brave once more. I may regret
this, but I'm willing to try putting my fiction out in a more open way again.

I promised people in the Snowflake Challenge that I would become braver and put more of my stories out there in my personal journal instead of just in selected community postings as well as post them more often to the archives. That's one of my goals today since I have two completed drabble series that need to be uploaded as well as one story. So I plan to work on that, beta for Iris, and scan some project articles I found as I was throwing away extra copies of some of the magazines the store carries. I might even bring the portable heater down to the computer room and warm it up a bit more. It might be a rollicking -5 F, but it's still darned cold.

The Toho Design Challenge provided the beads you see above. These were
the only beads that could be used in the project. I'm 70% finished with mine, and
I love the way it's turning out, but then life got in the way. 

A bit less than a year ago I accepted a beading challenge project and I got fairly far with it, really enjoying the feel of a needle and thread again. But then my father-by-marriage died and my scheduled free time disappeared. So I have an unfinished project that I had promised to turn in. I've been feeling guilty about that and would like to pick it up again. I'm almost caught up with writing projects (except for my o-fic, of course) so I may try to carve a bit of time out to continue working on this.

I'm looking at about six different text reading software programs. I want
to find one that is versatile and that can run on both Win XP and Win 7.

Speaking of o-fic, a wise friend suggested that I read my book aloud to discover where I feel I started moving away from the original plot path to figure out the best way to get things back into the direction I want. I thought that was a marvelous idea, but really didn't want to sit down and read 100,000+ words aloud. HOWEVER, within a couple of weeks, an author whose blog I follow was talking about the very same thing. She used a computer program that reads the files aloud for you in a variety of voices that you can choose. Now this sounded interesting. I've started doing the research on programs that I think may work best for my application and my type of computer system (she uses Apple, I use a PC) and will choose a software program soon. Then I can begin to listen to my book and see whether it is worthwhile or not, where I might have gone wrong, and what I might be able to do to fix it. Lots of work there, but I feel good about it.

This particular picture is from Manitoba, Canada where their normal temp at
this time of the year is -11 F. I guess -5 F suddenly sounds better to me ...

So, as I bundle up and make plans to be at my computer doing various things for most of the day (along with errands, laundry, and other miscellaneous stuff) I will wish each of you a fabulous Hump Day! Be safe, be warm, be happy!

Two to Go

Yesterday was spent being lazy - well, not as lazy as some, but I didn't do any real housework, played LOTR On-Line with DH for a few hours, and watched football before going out to check that my father-by-marriage's home had been properly locked up after the latest real estate showing. The football games were WONDERFUL and best of all, my Broncos WON! So, next week they are hosting New England in the Mile High City for the Divisional Playoffs and, if they can win that game, two weeks afterward they will be one of the two teams in the Superbowl.

I agree with this in many respects. Although I'll turn something in,
I know I could do better and keep turning it over and over in my head,
sometimes going back to rewrite and edit again and again to fine-tune.
That's the mark of a perfectionist. 

Now, I fully realize that many of you could care less about American football, and that of those who love the sport, even fewer of you will be Broncos fans, but my BFF Sharon and I bleed orange and blue and both of us are jumping up and down for joy this morning while looking at the upcoming game with a bit of trepidation. But, I have high hopes that Peyton Manning and the rest of the team can pull this off and take my Broncos to the Superbowl. The game itself will be in East Rutherford, New Jersey so weather may also play a factor. I'll be watching, no matter who gets in. I love Superbowl Sunday.

MetLife Stadium, the home of the Giants, is where the Superbowl will be
held on February 2nd. Every seat will be filled and millions more will be
watching on TV, including my DH and I . 

I have writing projects to start out my week, which always makes me happy. I got my assignment request confirmation for B2MeM 2014 and will be starting work on that, as well as my prompt for the next Tolkien Weekly drabble. It's always a nice challenge to continue a theme through the drabbles, and I'm hoping I can make this one work within the structure of the past three. No guarantees, but it's always fun to try and get it just right.

I saw this wonderful watercolor of Gandalf entering the Shire and just had to share it.

I've also been enjoying the Snowflake Challenge prompts. I have a few to catch up on from the weekend, but those will be done and probably posted on LJ today or tomorrow. I love waking up on a Monday with writing challenges waiting for me that are shorter than my novel. It doesn't change the fact that I still write on the longer book, but it's really fun to have something completed in under 20,000 words.

The Snowflake Challenge has been fun and I've been sharing it with a lot
of my friends in LJ and DW. I wasn't going to participate initially, but
I'm glad I changed my mind. 

So, nothing fascinating today. I'll try to give you something more interesting to read and great pics tomorrow just because... LOL.