Only 6 months until NaNoWriMo 2016! What am I going to write this time? Another part of The Yucatan Job? The Big Honkin’ Space Gun Episode?
Or something completely different?
I’ve got 2 chapters of the current part to finish, and then that side story (from NaNoWriMo 2015) to clean up and post.
So, it’s now April. And I haven’t finished posting last year’s epic from NaNoWriMo or started editing the next one. Hopefully I’ll have both done before NaNoWriMo 2016 but I’m not too confident. Real Life is getting complicated, and not just work.
Also, I need to keep this blog up to date. I’m paying for it, need to use it. Or cancel it.
And I’m thinking of posting my 2011 NaNo fic The Dragon Hunters Daughter to AO3. I wanted to turn it into a real story but that might never happen. And the other story I’m using it with (exerpts) is stalled because it required too much rewriting to make sense in that way.
Made it through NaNoWriMo 2015. Though it looked close there for a couple days. Managed to hit the minimum ten minutes before the end.
Can’t say it’s very readable. Gonna take months to turn it into a “real” story. But it’s done, and I’ll be busy with real life things for the next month or two first.
So, today we’re at Day 18 – 60 percent of the way. Unfortunately, I’m only at 30 percent myself. Not looking good. Ugh.
That’s the most I’ve been behind in the last five years. Don’t know if I’ll catch up.
Yes, it is that time of year again. November – National Novel Writing Month.
This year, I’m writing (attempting) a spin off/side story to my in-progress Space Opera – The Yucatan Job. And then NEXT year I’ll finish things off with the action adventure/massive space battle conclusion. Just needed to do something different this year.
But things are off to a slow start… 4 days in and I’m already behind. Not insurmountable but not where I should be. But moving forward.
Just a quick one – The hosting provider I use (Yahoo) is spinning off their web hosting services starting this month. Not sure how that is going to affect this blog other than who bills me. If they increase the $$ by more than I’m willing to pay (I’m already overpaying considering all I really use it for.) I’ll be shutting this blog down and moving it elsewhere (Keeping it WordPress probably since I can export the whole site easily and move it). Not sure about keeping the domain name in that case. Probably should move that elsewhere also.
We’ll see. Too soon to tell.
Still here. Can’t believe we’re half way thru October already. NaNoWriMo is only a few weeks away. I wonder what I’ll write. Haven’t finished editing/posting last years story. 5 more chapters of that to go.
I’m not a huge Windows user, except at work. 85% of my work days are spent using Visual Studio doing something with C#. Coding, fixing bugs (usually other peoples in some legacy app), enterprise back end stuff. Rarely UI/UX unless it’s a bug in something.
(I’m actually working on my first new coding project of the year. Heavily UI based, though I’m following a design by someone else. Fun stuff. CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, etc. things I don’t get to do very often for work projects except when bug fixing.)
The rest of my time is spent in Outlook or other office tools. With the occasional foray into things like Balsamiq or LinqPad.
At home? I’m heavily invested in the Apple ecosphere. I’ve been a Mac use for over 2 decades. OS X user since 10.0. And an iOS user since it became available.
I’m not looking forward to Windows 10. I don’t have any issues with Windows 8.1 (at home) and Windows 7 ( at work). After all… Visual Studio works just fine on them. I can just ignore the minor nits in 8.1. Why change now?
Ugh! Office politics!
Ever have one of those days where you do your job as requested, but someone else above you or in a different department thinks you shouldn’t have done it that way? Maybe you inadvertently stepped on some toes you didn’t know were there? Because this job ‘task’ intersected with their ‘spear of influence’ ?
And now, you wonder if you’ll have a job the next day? And should you be polishing your resume, after 20 years working for the same company (in assorted roles) ?
That as me when I got home from work yesterday. Feeling the unemployment avalanche headed my way.
Not a good feeling. Maybe I’ll win the lottery and it won’t matter? I’ve got enough in the bank right now that I could spend 6 months job hunting. Not that I want to. I like what I do, just not the politics than I’m suddenly running into (The tech lead in my group left a couple months ago, with no replacement in sight, and now I’m getting hit with their stuff in addition to mine. Maybe this was why they really left? Office politics making it impossible to do their job? Just a wild guess.)
Beginning of July. 2015 is half over. Yeah?
Going to be busy work wise this summer. Not going to be able to take vacation time in August like I normally do. Too many things due this and next month. Maybe in September/October? We’ll see.
But still writing. Trying to get something done for the 2015 IDF.
I’ve started posting the next installment of my pseudo-space opera, The Yucatan Job – written for NaNoWriMo 2014, to both AO3 and Ff.Net. Posting frequency? Approximately 1 chapter per month, as I revise it (It was a bit incoherent/messy towards the end.).
Ff.net (entire series in 1 fic) : The Yucatan Job Book III
At this point it’s looking like there will be a side story between Book III and Book IV (tentative title: The Battle for Earth ) though it may not be written any time soon. Or it might be my NaNoWriMo 2015 novella. Not sure yet.)
Yes. Still here.
Just a simple short update.
January and a large portion of February was spent dealing with RL (aka work) issues and a server meltdown/move over at TtH. But that’s done and we’re moving forward.
I’ve started writing more, though I have so many unfinished fics that it’s hard to pick one to focus on. But I’m getting there.
I haven’t started fixing up my NaNoWriMo 2014 story yet to make it postable, at all the usual places. Although I made the word count quota in time, the actual story? Maybe 2/3 done. So getting it ready to share will take some time. Hopefully by the end of March.
Back for another year. 2015? Not sure how it’s going to turn out. One day old it’s too soon to tell.
But I expect it to be interest and maybe even exciting.
Yup. Managed to hack out 50,360 words in 28 days. Wrote some after that but was unable to update the official count before the official end. No matter. I made it. 4th year in a row.
Unfortunately, the story itself? Approx. 2/3 done. So, not only will I start revising it in January to post to ff.net and AO3, I need to actually finish it. Oops. And I might end up deleting the last chapter or two. I inserted another fandom, turning it into a true crossover but the crossover characters are stealing the show, and I’m not thrilled with that. So they might have to go or be toned down a bit, back to supporting players. We’ll see what happens.
But first a break to decompress before I do that.
For those who wonder, and can’t be bothered to click on my Flikr link, I drive a 2001 BMW 325i sedan. Very basic model. Manual transmission, almost no electronics. It’s like a large go cart. It came with almost no options. Except the sports package (slightly better suspension. Large/wide tires. Smaller steering wheel.)
(I bought it used. I believe I’m the 3rd owner. 1st owner was military (hence the serious lack of options. Been there, done that) who took it to Hawaii. Eventually it ended up here, where I bought it, and spent some $$ to bring it up to spec (or at least as close as it could get at 89K miles). The doors leak when it rains. The inside of the front doors? Needs to be reupholstered or something.
Its been my daily/only driver since (replaced a 94 530i that was eating my wallet alive) with 167K on it now.
We won’t talk about the airbag recall (I’m 200th on the local dealer waiting list. Might get it replaced before next summer.). That’s a hassle of another sort. (I usually give the T a ride to visit the folks at Thanksgiving. This year, now that we know about the airbag issue (BMW says – don’t let anyone sit in the front passenger seat until it’s fixed. The airbag is off unless someone sits there. The dealer says – safety feature, can’t turn it off.), she gets to sit in the back for her part of the trip. Of course, she usually sleeps most of the way so it isn’t a big deal. Just gonna be strange.
So, Let’s talk about tires. My tire buying habit is not recommended for anyone low on cash. But it works for me. Remember that sports package part? That means there’s only a limited selection for tires. The 530i had a similar issue.( I just think BMW likes picking odd sized tires!)
I buy Kuhmos. Cheap, for that size, but tread life? Not the best. They are decent in wet weather/snow for the first 5K miles so I buy them right before Thanksgiving . Takes me thru winter and a trip up north with decent tread. But by late April, they are basically summer tires. Still good in warm weather. By October? Still some tread on them (10K -12K miles on them at that point. Still decent but then the cold weather hits and… they turn into large hockey pucks. Rocks have better traction than these things on cold roads after 15K miles.
If if I didn’t travel up north into the snow belt at least once a year, I could safely get another 5K out of them. But I do, so, November = another new set of tires.
That gives me good rubber on the road for the parts of winter when I need it.
Sure, I could spend twice as much on better tires and get two years on them but this works for me budget wise. Spreads the tire buying pain out. And I’d have to deal with less traction on 2 year old tires. Back when I lived up north I had snow tires but that is a wasted expense around here, even on bad years.
(My mechanic thinks I’m crazy for doing it this way, but he doesn’t argue, just throws the new ones on my car every fall and gives away the old ones to someone who needs something better than the bald tires they have now.)
Now, if you looked up the tires I buy, they don’t get great reviews… From people who expect them to last 30 – 40K miles like the limited warranty says, but those first 15K miles? They get the job done. I couldn’t imagine trying to get 30K from them unless you lived in Florida, or Texas.
Did I mention they’re cheap for that size?