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May 25th, 2009

04:08 pm - my broken head So I don't like to write personal stuff- which means I don't post, uh, at all. But I'm in self pity mode, so what the hell? The thing is, I've had a complete physical breakdown this weekend, and it's really fucking annoying. And depressing. I've been in and out of chiropractic care for about five years and I just had a relapse. The reason I started seeing a chiropractor is because I had tension headaches and my shoulders would tense up so much that they'd pull my ribs out of their sockets. And now I have my tension headaches back. And I'm going to be seeing my chiropractor twice a week for a while, instead of our usual every two weeks. And I know I should have realized what was happening earlier, but I've been having migraines recently, too, and they feel the same. And I feel stupid, because once again, I've put my stupid job (which I like, but whatever) ahead of my health. I did a hideous project in two weeks and somehow pushed aside the thing where my health was fundamentally breaking down? The good news is that the hideous project is 99% done, so I don't have anything to stress about at work. The bad news is I've had a killer headache for three days straight. And counting. But my chiropractor complimented me on my cheerful disposition, which is, well- dudes, honestly, having a headache for me is like rain in Seattle. If I didn't do anything when I had a headache, I'd never do anything. And then I started wondering if it was really a good thing that I can act normal under the most appalling pain. And said he also hoped my headache wouldn't spoil my weekend, which I also... it occurred to me that I've probably had more fun this weekend because of my headache- since if my head wasn't splitting, I'd probably be on the computer trying to catch up with the comic, instead of spending all my time doing the two things that let me forget how much my head hurts; watching movies and playing video games. Anyway, it all goes to show that it is way, way past time that I got back into a yoga class. Current Mood: ow! Current Music: The Decemberists - California One/ Youth and Beauty Brigade Tags: ouch

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March 21st, 2009

05:51 pm - So, yeah, I only post pictures of the cat I found the most bad tempered bunny in the world! And here it is: Current Mood: cheerful Tags: bunny, cat

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February 22nd, 2009

06:28 pm - Eeevil! ...and this is what pictures taken by my phone look like. Current Music: Cats on Mars - Cowboy Beebop Tags: silliness

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February 10th, 2009

08:06 pm - in the pink you know how I'm always like, I have this webcomic, but don't bother to look at it? Well, forget that! My comic is made of win! hee! This is going to be AWESOME! Current Mood: :D Current Music: GLB - The Hook Tags: ts

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January 4th, 2009

10:24 am - resolutions I'm not going to bore you with all of my resolutions, which seem to be all "get out more but somehow, also get more work done" but here's the one I really want to stick with (besides, uh, getting the comic back in gear): My handstitching is awful, but maybe by the time I get through with this... (she says, having stitched up half a block out of, I don't know, three thousand?) my stitches will actually look like something. Current Mood: :-P Current Music: Paul Westerberg "Let the Bad Times Roll" Tags: new years

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November 23rd, 2008

09:22 pm - closing in I've got a toe over 48K and this is where I need to be, seeing as I'm probably not going to get much of a chance to write this week. But the thing is, I feel, like I feel every year, that I ought to admit that I'm a fraud. The only novel I 'finished' was the first one I wrote, seven years ago, where I skipped 2/3s of the third act and actually slapped an ending on it. Ever since, I have written novel after novel that crash and burn somewhere in the second act (no, wait, I think I managed to end my second book, too- but that still leaves five). Last year's was a total dud in that regard, although I actually wrote more to it than I had on any previous book, ending up with 57K (I think) of absolutely nothing. This year isn't an exception... in that the nearer I get to 50K the less idea I have of where I am going with it- and the more frustrating it becomes; there are far too many questions that I never resolved, and everything I do figure out seems to require that I make changes to all the proceeding scenes to fit it in. But on the other hand... I can't remember the last time I worked on something that seemed... almost... worthwhile. And what's really odd is that this is the idea I picked because it was so unworkable I just wanted to see if I could make it work anyway. I might just have to pull together a second draft just to try to make some damn sense of my first draft. But, you know, not until I get a few other things under control. Like the REST OF MY LIFE. Current Mood: blank Current Music: R.E.M. - What's the Frequency Kenneth? Tags: nano, write

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November 21st, 2008

01:35 pm - the lost week I guess I know now why one of the favorite tips for finishing NaNoWriMo is "don't get sick" because if I hadn't been so far ahead last week, I would have lost so much ground that it would seem an insurmountable obstacle to regain. I had an amazing weekend (in more ways than one- it wasn't just awesome word-count-wise) and ended up with 7K (which pushed me into the high 30s); and then everything fell apart: ( a chart ) As for the writing- I am far enough ahead that I don't need to worry about making the goal, but not far enough ahead that I'm not going to- especially because a) I want to be done before or on the 25th and b) I have made plans for the 24th which mean I won't have time to write, or I won't have a lot of time to write on that day. Which means I'm looking at a 3K a day (long) weekend. Starting now. Current Location: from the sickbed Current Mood: on the mend Current Music: Grant Lee Buffalo - Grace Tags: nano, sick

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November 11th, 2008

09:26 pm - 24K and a little bit of trouble Oh, I want to reach 25 tonight, but my plot is kind of... winding down? I've reached as far as I've outlined. But my problem right now is that one of my second leads wants to get out of town- and legitimately so, as he's worried about being killed and wants to run off with his girlfriend and go to ground while the going's good. But I want to keep him around! Erg. Also, now's about the time when I really, really need to know what the villain is/was up to. Seriously! Current Mood: ARGH! Current Music: Catherine Wheel - Goodbye Tags: nano

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November 10th, 2008

06:23 pm - Let me tell you about my good intentions Why does the devil keep showing up in my novel? I don't know why he wants to get involved in this mess. (oh, and he's not the real devil, he's just some guy who claims he's the devil) Anyway this is the state of my novel: I am at 22K now and hoping to get to 25K tomorrow, unless I get hung up on the comic tonight. But who cares about that? The real issue with my novel is my main character, who I knew was secretly, well, Machiavellian, has blossomed into epic levels of duplicity and is not even trying to hide it anymore. She is about to break my villain in half, and now I'm trying to work out how to write a novel where it's the *villain* who needs to regroup to a spirited training montage. Or how to write at all with this violently friendly cat clinging to me. But the comic comes first tonight! Um, after a round of Rock Band, anyway. Current Mood: amused Current Music: TV on the Radio - Red Dress Tags: nano

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November 4th, 2008

09:27 am - inevitably, totally random thoughts I guess I have to post about my day- I have voted and, at 7 am, there weren't a lot of people around. And I voted in someone's garage? Like a block from my house? It was a little odd. Reading this and thinking, all my titles are totally placeholders. Sometimes they are even placeholders for placeholders. I am always ready to replace my titles. Although, generally, I am too lazy to. Nanowrimo- Right now I'm at 10550. Thinking of trying for 13K tonight (after I get the comic done- today! I swear! (has to be, because there are write-in Weds & Thurs)) It's not that I am an overacheiver- uh, not only that, anyway- but I seriously need to be done early (and I'm toying with the idea of aiming for 75K, though usually I hit 50K and fall over so who knows?) Otherwise- If you ever heard me say anything bad about "for a few dollars more", I totally take it back. The third or fourth time though the movie and I'm all, yeah, I always knew it was a work of genius, but I'm really starting to get it now... :-) Also, I have three Morricone soundtracks I am listening to all the time now, so I go to bed with the showdown from "few dollars more" in my head and wake up with "the esctasy of gold" Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Ennio Morricone - Saint Anthony Mission Tags: movies, nano, write

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October 23rd, 2008

11:37 pm - The Good the Bad & the Ugly I was thinking - last week or so, before I even knew about the big screen showing, when I was just watching the movie on my medium-sized tv, that the "war is stupid" theme was overtaking the graveyard scene music as my favorite... but now, having seen the movie I came away thinking; if I ever find someone foolhardy enough to marry me, I'd have the final showdown music as my wedding march. Dude, you guys, if GB&U isn't my favorite movie, I don't remember what is. I freely admit that "Once Upon a Time in the West" is the better movie of the two, but there's something about GB&U that... I don't know, the buddy/enemy set-up, the grim humor, the way they skirt around the war- the war is all around them, but only touching them as to inconvenience them. Something that makes it more infinitely replayable. (These two are my favorite movies for laptop-flight viewing - both of them are so strongly visual, it doesn't matter if the headphone sound is for crap - also, seen them enough to always know what's going on. And I think I totally freaked out my seatmate one time with OUTW, so there's that.) And I totally have to admit that the eye-scene-- the close-ups at the final showdown totally makes sense now. Even though I've seen GB&U as often as I've probably seen any movie, and more often than most, it was so worth it to see it on the big screen. Even if the print wasn't that great. And I have mixed feelings about the new-(ish-2003)-english-extended version. I mean, the footage is great! the sound just seemed a little weird. Like a bit louder than the rest of the movie. Now I just have to figure out if I can sleep for five and a half hours or if I should just stay up all night :P Current Mood: bouncy Current Music: The Graveyard Scene - which is the only mp3 of GB&U I have... for now! Tags: movie

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October 20th, 2008

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07:10 pm - ZOMG! an actual entry (largely parenthetical) Yeah, I admit, I've become one of those people who have migrated over to twitter and keep their lj account mostly as a handy way to scope out other people's ljs (aka friends locked baby pictures) But NaNo's around the corner and... this is what my lj's for! Complaining about NaNo! The novel I haven't even started yet - which features at least two earthquakes, apparently? - has changed. Several times. My lead keeps picking new love interests and then abandoning them. And now she wants to get back with the fiance that I thought I was going to have to kill... and now I have to figure out how I'm supposed to save him? Actually, I'm mostly happy with it as it stands now (fingers crossed that it's not going to morph into something else in the next two weeks), although my villain is still(!!!) MIA. Well, he's around - it's his nefarious plot that's missing. My problem - one of them - beside the flea-infested cat in my lap (sigh)- is that I am one of those people who can't plan too far ahead for fear of getting too bored to go on with the novel - which is part of the reason I'm planning to start mid-action, because I've thought over the beginning too much already (also, because after 6 NaNos, I am so done with my first 10K being entirely dull. (although actually, last year's novel, despite the explosions and the monsters and the mad scientists, was *phenomenally* dull - and has become something of a family joke now (I'm serious!) as the horror novel where the only bad thing that happens is someone misplaces her purse))... so I am worried about overthinking the novel and having nothing I want to write when November actually comes... and I'm worried that this is going to be yet another year where my villain leaves me in the lurch. Anyway, for my own sanity, here's the rundown - (I'm afraid to write things down now, my notes all contradict (as it said in something I was transcribing at work) each another (it's almost charming, isn't it?)) ( don't even bother - I'm sure it'll change tomorrow ) Well, in theory, anyway. Personally, I'm thinking it's a little too Maltese Falcon "Everyone's lying about everything!!!" but then I always like my novels to be as complicated/ ridiculous as possible. Current Mood: if only my head didn't hurt... Current Music: Kenickie - Robot Song Tags: nano

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October 4th, 2008

03:51 pm - I can't believe I just spent 7 hours on this crap! This is exactly why I've been putting off the big push. And this was just the front page! But the archive template is ready to go, and tedious as that is going to be, it won't be anywhere near this frustrating. And when that's done, I'm going to tackle all the extras, but I'm trying not to think about that. The problem was that I wanted to embed a blog into my comic without having to add database stuff to it which is apparently impossible. But the thing is, I don't want to run a real blog on my comic- the only advantage I could see to that is that people could follow the blog maybe easier than following the actual content. But I'm not savvy enough for WordPress, LiveJournal does stupid formatting stuff when I try to port it, and Blogger worked, but only if I was looking at it on Firefox, not on IE. And looked dumb. All I want was a text box so I could say stuff like when I'm going out of town or whatever! So... I've made myself a fancy text box fake blog. :P It's a giant leap backwards! But here's the grand unveiling of my new, infinitely more cluttered main page. Yeah, I wanted to wait until I had the whole site together for the relaunch, but with nano coming, I wanted my twitter on the top of the page more than I wanted, er, cohesiveness. Current Mood: annoyed Current Music: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Howl Tags: redesign, ts

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September 29th, 2008

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September 3rd, 2008

06:56 pm - buttons? buttons! So there is someone who makes buttons but now I've totally forgotten what I was going to do if I found a button maker. Current Mood: contemplative Current Music: 8mm - Nothing Left to Lose Tags: hmm

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August 31st, 2008

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August 25th, 2008

10:11 pm - The trip was good though. I am home, I am feeling awful and very, very glad I decided to take tomorrow off work. Also, I did one piece of art over the last, uh, four days... which I'll scan tomorrow. And, um, also... I don't know where I get this idea that I ever get anything done when I'm away from home. Seriously, when I wasn't talking to people, I was playing Animal Crossing on my DS. So, I have no idea if there is going to be a comic this week. I may put together a few more ctzs though. Or, instead, I guess. Current Mood: sick Current Music: Morrissey - Life is a Pigsty Tags: ctz, sick, trip, ts

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August 20th, 2008

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August 19th, 2008

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