Just wandered over the Hillbilly Sophisticate, and saw that S is going to be participating in NaNo this year. So head on over and give her some support! Of course, if she’s going to write 50k words in November, she might not have much time to read or respond to comments and e-mails.
Me, I’m going to do what I tried a couple years ago: I am going to try again to write every day. I’m going to pick up the story I dropped when my last bout of depression started (that’d be ~Jan 2006 for those keeping track) look at what needs revised, and then take it from there. I’d like to finish the story by the end of the year, but that’s a moving target rather than a hard goal.

After I finish that, I have a possible idea basis for the start of another story, from a very strange dream involving Victorian morals and dress, and rock concerts with electric guitars. (Kind of a twist on steampunk I suppose. But who can tell what my brain comes up with.)

So I’ll give you occasional updates, just to keep me honest. And feel free to heckle me if I don’t post any updates, because that probably means I’m slacking off.

(FWIW, I did some revisions on my story on the way to Florida. Gutted about half of the prologue, and started rewriting things that didn’t make as much sense as the could, in retrospect. Once the characters start living in my head again, I think I’ll be okay.)

A man has been placed on the sex offenders’ register after being caught trying to have sex with a bicycle.

The best part is there is a large full color picture of the man (NOT NEKKID) in the story, so it’s not just that his name is out there, now we know exactly what he looks like.

But really, I mean… HOW?!

Any Steven Brust fans out there will want to check out this rendition of The Cycle.

I think I’d be either a Tsalmoth or a Lyron. But I want to be an Issola. Too bad I can’t achieve the grace required for the courtliness.

Let’s see… here’s a tentative classification of people I know (I’m not going only by the chart, but also from characters in the books):

erin: Tiassa
My brother: Orca
S: Hawk
Michael: Vallista
C at War on Folly: Hawk or Chreotha
jedijawa: Iorich
Andy: Dzur or Dragon
Daniel: Yendi or Jhereg Lyorn (I think he has a good bit of Jhereg though)

Hmm… maybe I’ll play some more with this later….

According to this fun and exciting quiz, I don’t have asperger’s or autism. Yippee!

(more…)

I’ve raved about Jungle Jim’s before (though most of my raving occurs in person), and how when we’re in Cincinnati visiting friends we HAVE to go to Jungle Jim’s because it is THE most amazing store ever.

Well, you don’t have to take just my word for it, Neil Gaiman likes Jungle Jim’s too!

Whenever I drive across America — which isn’t often — I try and stop in at Jungle Jim’s on the way back. And not just for the UK food, but for the amazing variety of world food. It’s an amazing place. Would that all supermarkets could have that magic.

See! If Neil Gaiman thinks it’s cool, then it MUST be cool!

I’m listening to the post game show (this game sounded so much better than last weeks game) and I have to say that the more time passes, the more I like Pat White. During the post game interview not only did he sound polite and modest, but he also complimented his teammates.

Everyone else may want Steve Slaton for the Heisman, and don’t get me wrong, he’s really good, but me, I really like Pat White. So here it is: Dear Pat White, please keep being a nice guy.

I’m very glad that the end of the month is turning out to be nothing at all like the start of the month.

For further good news, my Dad’s PSA was 0.0, which it never was, even following his surgery. So it looks like the radiation therapy was effective. Which is a huge relief.

So, here’s another post that isn’t cranky or whiny! Yippee! Meanwhile, I’m just going to enjoy things going well, one day at a time.

(settles down in front of computer)

Okay Internet! Let’s go! Entertain me! Michael’s working all weekend long and as long days scheduled Monday and Tuesday, so I’m ready to be entertained! Let’s go!

(waits)

Rats.

(wanders off to read four or five books)

Welcome Hannah Rose!

Congratulations Kim & Mike! At a month early, 7 lbs 3 oz is pretty good!

I can’t wait to see pictures!

What’s that boy? Timmy’s stuck in the well?

Perfect.

Michelle: (muttering to self while working on database) Books. Books. Books. Books…
Michael: You sound like a zombie.
Michelle: (adding sepulcher tone to muttering) Boooooks! Boooooooks! Boooooooks!
Michael: Great. You’ve turned into a book zombie.

I was just thinking that it’s probably just as important to write about the good days as it is the bad, so here’s the update on my depression: The vacation did wonders for me. I’ve been in a great mood for two weeks now. I’m relaxed and calm and the little niggling details that were pushing me over the edge a month ago are being taken in stride.

Of course my grandmother is still visiting my aunt, so in addition to being relaxed, I’m also not worried about her right now, which is helping to keep my stress levels low. I’m hoping that by the time she comes back from her visit to fawn over the new cousins I’ll have stabilized my mood even further, and be better able to deal with the day to day stresses.

And I have also finally admitted that her living with us does cause me some stress. Pretending that the addition of a third person into our small house was not stressful was stupid and foolish on my part, because if I am unwilling to admit to the stress, then there’s not way in the hell I can actually DEAL with the stress. So there it is. Being stressed doesn’t mean I mean I love her less or want her to move out. It just means I’m stressed and need to find healthy ways to cope.
Additionally, I’ve finally given up on the Rec Center, and we went today to join HealthWorks. If I can’t get out of bed to go to the Rec in the morning, then I won’t got to the gym that day, because it’s not worth going to the Rec in the afternoon. But we can go the HealthWorks immediately after work, so I can start exercising again, which should also positively influence my mood.

So there is plenty that’s good in my life. My OCD still sometimes feels like it wants to slip out of control, but my anxiety and depression are very low right, which is a very good thing. And recognizing that this is a pretty important thing to note.

So work on the database is going well. Today I got the database to insert new books (this is harder than it sounds, because it involves three tables, and inserting multiple records into the same field of one of those tables.

If anyone wants to see, lemme know and I’ll send you the link.

Next step, creating a registration page, so I don’t have someone dump crap into my database or delete everything, thus ruining my hard work. (Not a problem right now, because once I’m done designing I’m going to purge the database and re-import my data before I, like, actually start using it.)

Okay, I have to admit that I love reading cute overload, even though sometimes it’s just way too twee, and I usually am annoyed by the titles and comments.

But THIS! This is amazing!

I warned Michael, but he looked and immediately said, “Oh My Gosh! That is SO CUTE!”

So you have been warned.

I just sat down to check my mail, and then two hours are gone?!

I am NEVER going to finish my book at this rate.

There’s a new Sony Bravia Ad. (If you don’t know why this should make you happy, go watch the high bounce ball ad and the paint ad.

AND I found another Bravia ad I’d never seen before (thread).

There are also new videos up at EepyBird (otherwise known as the Mentos and Diet Coke guys).
But as if that wasn’t enough, today I found Lego Abominations. (Make sure you read on to see the Headless Horseman lit up.)

AND a site with color photos from World War I. (That’s not fun like the other things, but pretty amazing nevertheless.)

And if that isn’t enough to make your Monday better, I don’t think anything will help.

The search function for my database is done for now. Yay me!

Next up: how to add more books to the database, which means updating multiple records from a single form. Then I want to start linking the database to the book portion of my website. Unless I can figure something out, that may be a whole lot of drudge work.

We’ll see.

But for now, it is totally past my bedtime. If I want to keep my depression under control, I need at least 7 hours of sleep a night. I often feel like a toddler, going to bed so early, but it’s better than the alternative.

The database now has better search functions, and the search results are linked to a more complete listing for a selected book.

Woot!

Read PHP/MySQL Book.
Type Code.
Read PHP/MySQL Book.
Type Code.
View Code.
Curse Code.
Fix Code.
View Code.
Curse Code.
Read PHP/MySQL Book.
Turn Page.
Curse Self.
Type Code.
View Code.
Sigh.

I may have mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I’ve been trying to learn php & mysql.

I decided that my project would be a book database, to go with my book website. Because I’m learning this on my own, all I’ve managed so far is to create the database, and create two different searches. Doesn’t seem like much for two weeks of work, but trust me, it was plenty of work!

I’m working on figuring out how to display multiple authors and genres, as opposed to what I’ve got right now, and I’ve got some ideas, but it looks like this is going to be a long term project.

My ultimate goal is to create better searches and have links to pages and reviews. But as I’ve got almost 2000 books in the database right now, it could be slow going.

On the other hand, I’m pretty excited about what I was able to do, and figure out on my own, with only four massive tomes, and brief assistance from one coworker and one husband.

I’ve decided that I needed to have taken a vacation about a year ago.

Despite all the crap of the previous week, there is something to be said for being somewhere nothing is expected and having absolutely no plans. Sure, I’ve taken vacations, but they often involve trying to do things while I’m at whatever location. It is a completely different feeling to have a schedule that reads for the entire day, “Meet for dinner at six.”

No cooking. No cleaning. No plans at all.

Apparently, I have to be forced to have absolutely no plans and no ability to sneak in work before I can actually relax.

And it was well worth it. I came back to work feeling better than I have in ages, having slept well for an entire week, and allowed myself to actually relax without feeling guilty, as if I should be doing something else more important. It’s also done wonders for my depression and anxiety. The only time my mood was off at all last week was when I got headaches from too much sun, and the one time I got busy and forgot to eat lunch. (Trust me. This is a bad thing. A very bad thing.) Even things being crazy at work today didn’t faze me in the slightest. I just grinned and dealt with it, and continued being relaxed and happy.

Now I just have to create the ability to do this without going to a foofy expensive resort.

Got back today from Orlando. Michael had two conferences there, and so I decided to take a week off to do absolutely nothing, where I couldn’t be tempted to actually, you know, do something around the house.

Discovered a couple things.

First, there is far more alcohol at a Disney resort than I would have imagined.

Two, Orlando and its environs have some very interesting flora and fauna. I particularly liked the little lizards.

c) Even living and growing up in a college town, I was still shocked by the amount of drinking and (although I didn’t see the end result so I can’t be certain) casual sex. I went to several events with Michael, and at some, alcohol was easier to get than soda or water. (The first conference only had drinking, the second conference had drinking and a surprising number of people looking like they were trying to hook up, regardless of whether they were married or not.) However, living and growing up in a college town, I wasn’t bothered by those things, just surprised to see grown-ups acting like teenagers.

4th, I decided that I really don’t like golf. The second conference was at a resort on a golf course. I went walking in the mornings, before things got hot, and was stunned by the amount of water and fertilizer and manpower used to maintain the courses.

Fifth, places that cater to the rich nickel and dime you like nobody’s business. The Disney resort didn’t have free wireless (WAH!), and the golf resort… jeesh. No fridge in the room (just the wet bar), anything you wanted had to be purchased from the hotel–water was $3 to $5 a bottle, in addition to the room charges, there were also charges for “supplies” that included internet, towels for the pool, etc. Thank goodness all this was covered as part of the conference fee. Unfortunately, meals for me were not, and there was nothing really within walking distances of the hotel (certainly not at noon when temperatures are in the 90s) and so meals were…. not cheap. But at least a the second resort the food was good.

F. I really do have problems with bright light. Most every afternoon I got a headache. And the same thing happened seventeen years ago when I visited my family in Hawaii. So the purchase of high end sunglasses was not a waste of money, and I really now have no desire to go to the beach, since being in the sun for any length of time during the day makes me sick.

Lastly, I had my first massage (being at a resort is good for something). By Jove that my certainly will not be my last massage. That was fantastic.

But for now, I am tired and really glad we’re not going to work tomorrow.

ADDENDUM the First:
Book reviews will go up later. Whenever I feel up to it. Because you know I read plenty while on vacation.

Well, despite the relative unpleasantness of the past week (and believe it or not, there were things I didn’t bother to write about) things seemed to have settled down to a relative calm.
We replaced the light on Monday–took about an hour and a half, and we didn’t have to rerun the wire (if we’d had to do that, the project might not have been done until spring.

Michael called the insurance company immediately after we discovered the windshield was broken, and the insurance company took his information, and immediately helped him get set up with an appointment to repair the window–even though it was 9:30 in the evening. We received a message the next day that our deductible was $200, and this morning we got the windshield replaced. The only problem was the the window collapsed on the way there, so there was a mess of broken class in the back of the car (luckily on the sheet we had put down when the glass first cracked.

And the frustrating week at work (mostly due to the fact that we are understaffed, and look to remain understaffed for some time to come) will be a faint memory as I take the next week off to travel with Michael to a conference. He goes to seminars and talks, I’m going to sit in the shade and read, and try to eat seafood for every meal but breakfasts.

Hopefully we won’t get any calls while we’re gone, telling us something else has happened to the house, or any other type of bad news.

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed the synchronicity of this post at Stuff on my Cat and the latest comic at XKCD.

This is apparently the week of really weird and destructive shit happening to us.

We were sitting both on our computers when we heard a very strange noise. Looked around the basement, didn’t see anything. Went upstairs, didn’t see anything. I went out the kitchen door and saw the yard beside the house was full of smoke. I called Michael to get a flashlight and come out to see if he could figure out what the hell was going on and whether it was dangerous.

I go back outside and try and figure out where the smoke is coming from. The answer was nowhere that I could see. Then I see Michael on the other side of the house looking at the car. The rear windshield was completely shattered.

Mind you, we back into the driveway, so it’s not like a rock from the road accidentally got thrown onto the car.

This is really weird.

ADDENDUM the First:
For all the good it’ll do us, we know what happened.

One of the students in the house across the street spun his wheels and kicked gravel across the length of the house and into the driveway where the car was sitting. The smoke was a combination of burned rubber and gravel dust.

When we went to the two houses across the alley to find out what happened, it was completely obvious that the guy who answered the door was lying, and was very uncomfortable about doing so. And we got independent but anonymous verification of this. So, although a police report was filed, I don’t think there’s anything we can do about it. I’m hoping it won’t be too expensive. Unfortunately, since it’s the rear windshield, it almost certainly will be expensive.  But I suppose that’s why we have insurance.

Ya know, I’m starting to think the world is doing it’s best to convince me that people suck.