Haven’t done much on the writing front this week. Things are getting interesting at work and I find myself obsessing about the little problems there instead of on the keyboard on my lap. Or on the addictive little programs I use to create PDF and HTML files.
Like many projects, I start with a rough idea then completely tear it down and rewrite it once I figure out what I really wanted. In mfgames-writing, I had a few rough spots in the code and restructuring it really made it run much smoother. And require just hoop jumping.
I finished the first draft of chapter 9 in time for the submission at the Noble Pen. I tried to get chapter 10, but it hasn’t come very nicely. I’ll figure it out but I tried too hard to get it done before tonight. If I did, I would be heading to Illinois on Friday, but since I’m sitting at page 3 with a ton to go, I need to not travel this weekend.
In unrelated events, a week or so ago, I hurt myself working out. Relatively minor, but it hurts to walk too much so I’m trying to keep off said feet until they heal.
Amazingly, with that week of non-activity, I also lost 1 kg which brings me almost down to the lowest weight I’ve been in six months. Now, if I can just keep going in this direction, I’ll be a lot happier. And maybe not hurt myself quite as much.
I also found out my father is retiring in a few months. Not unexpected, but a surprise nonetheless.
Been a roller coaster the last week or so. The most significant chain of events starts with me getting VPN working on my laptop. I got so excited I twittered about it. Five minutes later, the hard drive was dead. Oh, the joys I felt that evening. I hemmed and hawed over getting a new hard drive verses a new laptop, but went with the new financially responsible answer of replacing the broken part. A week of waiting and I got it, right in the middle of being sick. So, it had to wait until I felt better. When I finally got it installed in the laptop and started to really install stuff, a burp: a corruption.
Apparently, while the original drive was corrupted, I also have bad hardware somewhere else. I need to get at least 80 hours out of this drive (< $1/hour) so it will be a “writing only” laptop. No games, no programming, just writing. That way, I can write upstairs where it is much, much warmer.
I did get my SD adapter kit for my n810. That went in like a dream and I started using my Nokia as a glorified MP3 player. That, I love. Even banged out a program that takes Amarok’s database, pulls out all the 4+ rating songs and puts them on a SD card for me. With that, I’ll be be able to filter through my 40 GB collection and come up with a trimmed 7 GB selection I can listen to at work.
The laptop is mostly behaving right now, so I think I’ll get my 80. And the Nokia is working beautifully.
Oh yeah, and after three weeks of not going, I lost 0.9 kg at Weight Watchers for my weigh-in.
Roller coaster is going up!
It seems like a lot of things went wrong this week. The water heater stopped working, cats did terrible things too early in the morning, I lost a TV set and replaced a DirecTV receiver. I struggled to replace the headlight on my Tribeca again and failed; I just haven’t figured out how many parts I need to remove to actually do that.
I also wrote a bit. Not as much as I wanted. For some reason, MFB is giving me a lot of trouble, probably because it is non-fiction instead of my usual desire for fiction. As such, spent way too much time to get to the second chapter because I kept re-writing it.
I’ll figure it out eventually.
Trying to also be good with Weight Watchers since my weight is starting to creep up. Counted my points for most of the weekend, but ended up slacking off in the last day or so. Fluffy wanted attention, so I didn’t retreat to my “man cave” until this afternoon.
I don’t know why, but I don’t write very well on the couch. Too many distractions, I guess, and a hard position. But, the basement is chilly and Fluffy isn’t there, so I get pressure to remain upstairs with her.
I need to budget writing time, I think. Just not sure where and when.
Well, beginning of the year and I’m not planning on making any serious goals for 2010. I didn’t feel that I really succeeded in my goals last year, but looking at them, I might have done better than I thought.
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Today, I learned that Inigo really, really likes frogs. I went to Weight Watchers (lost 0.3 kg which negates half of the last two weeks) and managed to only stick my foot in my mouth once. Then, getting home an hour later than normal, I decided that as much as I wanted to play on the computer, I’d go on a walk.
One and a half hours later, I’m tired, Inigo is tired and staring hopefully at every. single. dark. spot. on the trail hoping it is a frog. I managed to walk just under four miles, which isn’t too bad. I wasn’t in a hurry or anything.
I also enjoyed thinking about My Father’s Bike, which is the novel-like thing I’m working on. I finally sat down and got a chapter outline set up for the thing and I’m a bit happier about it.
Didn’t do much beyond thinking about it though, I’m planning that for tomorrow. Tonight, I only had an hour or so, so I decided to mess around with a Emacs major mode for ASH, the scripting language used by KoLmafia. Kind of fun, but still a challenge. And it gave me some new insights on how to improve csharp-mode, which is one of those things I really need to polish up a bit more.