The Future in Writing, Music and My Budget

My eye is still bothering me. It looks really awful, but there's not a lot I can do about that. I'm using hot compresses and that's helping (maybe only psychologically, but that's at least a small help), and I'm trying to set up an appointment with my eye doctor for Wednesday. In the meanwhile, I just get to look more like a stereotypical witch, (which given that Halloween is in just a few weeks, isn't out of character). I really would like this cleared up by then, though.

I'm not at 100% and that's not a good thing right now. 

I have several writing assignments on my desk, but no energy to write. I'll get to them, but I'm not happy that I'm this far behind. I have a writing app on my smartphone, so at least in theory could get shorter works started and stored for additional editing via that method. Unfortunately, I'm really a keyboard person and we've been so busy at the shop (which is a really GOOD THING) that I haven't had much chance to write at all. NaNo is coming up quickly and that will have to change - dramatically and drastically.

I need to create my NaNo calendar and schedule my daily word counts. As
usual, my schedule for my blog will be changing to accommodate writing in the
morning. I'll clue you in as November gets closer. 

The reset of the NaNoWriMo website is complete and I checked in today to make sure my information was still correct. I have several of you as NaNo friends but if you want to be added, just let me know who you are in the NaNo universe and I'll be happy to add another friend onto my list. I need to transfer the first half of my novel over to Scrivner so that I have all of my text in a single location, and then I'm ready to go. I really want to finish this novel, although who knows. What's the old saying? "You can't hurry art?" My novel isn't art by any stretch, but it's going to take whatever time is necessary.

Yes, the fat girl is singing. It's finally going to be OVER! Call me happy! 

DH will finally get to sign the final tax return for his father's estate on Friday morning. Then he'll be able to close down the bank account and we can look at each other and breathe. After more than a year, we may finally be finished with this thing. It's ridiculous, the amount of time this took to get handled, but it will be a total relief to have it over and done.

I may have to cancel some things. I hate having to
live under a budget, but I have new car payments that
have to be made. 

I'm going to have to put myself on a very strict budget starting in January, and that's going to be very hard for me to do. I tend to buy a lot of e-books for my Nook and a lot of music for my iPod. Now I've got a new phone and Sirius Radio to add to the mix. I'm becoming an expensive date! I'll have to take a very careful look at my expenses.

The PonoPlayer has a unique profile - triangular in shape.
I'm hearing a lot of good things about this equipment, so
I'll keep an eye on it. 

I'm looking with interest at PONO music. I'm an audiophile and have always regretted the compromises I've had to make to live in the digital music age. I love listening to music, indeed I have music playing all day, but digital sound downloads in MP3 or iTunes format compress high-quality recordings to compress the data and allow more songs in less digital space. Some of this can be offset by a great pair of speakers, but not all of it. So there are various Hi-Def digital players out there which work on the FLAC download protocol, allowing for greater depth of sound. Most of these, however, are freakishly expensive. PONO comes in at the price of an iPhone - about $400. It's a bit bulky, but it has a good amount of internal memory (64 GB) and also accepts Micro SD cards that can double or triple the storage. Yeah. I want one. But, I'm going to wait. I think there's a market for a hi-definition digital sound device, but I'm not 100% sure this is the one yet. I'll keep my eye on PonoPlay, but I won't be buying one yet.

Have a wonderful Tuesday. I'm off to put on another hot compress *sigh*

80% Should be Good - Right?

Eighty percent accomplished should be a positive thing, right? But 80% accomplished on my day off means some things just didn't happen and that's actually a problem. I had a long list of things that I had to get done on my day off - lots of fiction to write, a diary entry to fill in and post, and some beta work for a friend. I got the fiction written, edited, edited again and finally fine tuned and posted. So "Yeah Me!", one thing went well. But those two items - a drabble and a 550 word smippet, ended up taking most of the day. I didn't get to the monthly diary entry, and I didn't get to my beta work for my friend. I guess I'm a poor friend after all!

Perhaps I should have shifted my schedule around and done the
beta work first. But then the two fics wouldn't have happened. I have
to grab the writing muse by the tail as she whips past me. 

Tonight I'm determined to get that beta work done. The diary can wait until this weekend - it's already late anyway. But I hate to let a friend down and I know that I won't be able to get another chapter done for her until after I've returned from Milwaukee next month. So I owe her some of my time. "Tonight, tonight." as Maria sings in "West Side Story".

West Wide Story is NOT my favorite musical play of all time. It doesn't
even crack my top ten. But the song seemed appropriate here...

On the home front, the sale of my FIL's house is scheduled for tomorrow morning. I'm thrilled that we'll finally be rid of it. I brought the cleaning supplies and a card table home from there yesterday late, and that's the end of it. We'll take meter readings of the gas and electric as we go home from work tonight, and sign a bunch of papers tomorrow (actually, DH will be signing, I will only be the chauffeur and witness to all of the hoopla). Then our lives will be our own once more and I'll never have to see the inside of that house again! Happy, happy me!

Not only our house sold, but my sister-in-law's home directly across
the street has also been sold within the past two weeks. The family
is leaving their long-time neighborhood. 

I'm telling all of you this because I'm not sure how much of a blog post I'll be able to do tomorrow. I'll do something, but it may very well be stressed out animals or something similar because I'll have too many things to think about and a very tight time schedule.

The Mayo Clinic is now a huge complex of hospitals, labs and testing
centers. Quite the step up for two doctors who started their practice in
a small Midwestern town out of a house. 

So, today Chickie is at Mayo Clinic for her annual checkout. She's got this chronic, rare disease thing that gets her entered into the hallowed halls of the Clinic and affords her the opportunity to see lots of Department Heads who look at her records and try to look wise. Since she's been suffering more than usual distress with her sinuses and has had a lot of balance issues as a result, I'm sure that will be one more thing they will "Hmmmm" about as they look at her this year.

Chickie is gallivanting around the Mayo Clinic today. She usually treats
herself and Chickiemama to a steak for lunch at a nearby cafe. Good
luck with all of the tests, etc and I'll see you on Friday, Chickie! 

So while Chickie and Chickiemama are gallivanting through the clinics and labs of Mayo, I'll be holding down the fort with my Manager at the shop. That means I'll be working my tail off today since he usually is more effective working in the back on purchase orders or in the warehouse checking stock. I only call him out to the sales floor if I get flooded with too many customers and can't keep up easily. Days spent working with him always wear me out.

Have a totally fabulous Thursday!

Steady Progress

I received the contracts for selling the contents of my father-by-marriage's house yesterday. I'll print them out at the shop (I have a functional printer there - still haven't bought a new one for home yet), read them over, sign them and send them off. I know we might not get a lot of money for the merchandise, but it will be more than we will get if we just donate everything, and we don't have to put the time into taking things here and there. It will be a total blessing and I'm very happy to have this opportunity.

I joined a "photo of the week" group on LJ. I figured I'm always taking photos anyway, so having a weekly theme to meet for a single photo would be rather fun. I'll find out how it works into my schedule, but I've already thought about what I want to photo for this week's theme - nothing very complex but easy for me to get to and working within their parameters. I don't have the greatest camera, but that's not a requirement.

I'm still writing drabbles again (100 word stories composed to meet a weekly prompt) and it's nice to be producing them again. I'm not always the greatest at composing them, but I have often thought them to be a valuable exercise in writing control and word choices. It's rather like a music student being asked to write a composition that emulates a specific composer or that fits within a certain number of measures or a particular time signature. Pushing the brain to meet specific criteria is good brain exercise and I'm happy to have the opportunity.

I had stopped working on drabbles for several months - it may have been almost a year. I know it was while I was still posting works at the writing board "Lizard Council". LC was an amazing, talented, and giving group of people who regularly offered constructive criticism on writing efforts when asked. I learned so much at the feet of these people and gained so much respect for their skills. Unfortunately personalities got in the way of the criticism, mud was slinging wildly, and things imploded with a push from an outside event.

I hear from friends that LC is almost dead now. I know I haven't visited it in many months. I miss that kind of wonderful crit. There were a lot of members who belonged and they visited regularly. Because there were so many members dropping by every day, almost anything that got posted had a good chance of getting feedback and input quickly and from multiple voices. It was an invaluable aid for my desire to hone my own writing skills and I really miss the people who haunted its virtual pages. I may have to look at it again - it may just be somnolent, not deceased.