Drunken Owls and Other Delights

For those playing along, I've been in Massachusetts for the last five days and just came back home to SF late last night. I am physically and emotionally exhausted and I called out from the Day Job today to recharge.

My father's calling hours were very well attended by at least 50-60 people -- relatives, friends, neighbors, coffee buddies, even an Elvis impersonator he knew -- and it was great to see so many of them. Quite a few I had to ask their name as I'd known of them but had never met them in person. It was also great to see a bunch of the old neighborhood gang paying respects. Most of the trip itself was just visiting my family, who are holding up well. And when I was back at my hotel, I mainly spent most of the time getting caught up on novel revision.

How do I feel? Well, as said, I'm exhausted. Not in a bad way, just drained from having to go through that as well as having to deal with several hours of crappy New England winter weather that I haven't dealt with for almost two decades. It took a lot of will power to get through it all. There's also the fact that I've been surrounded by several people in a short amount of time so I really should take a Covid test at some point today.

I should be better today if I take it slowly today. I have nothing planned other than laundry.

So one of my resolutions this year was to avoid falling into the easy traps of cynicism and negativity. I found myself doing so more often than I'd like over the past few years and as I've said before: if I'm getting sick of my own kvetching, I'm sure you've been sick of it for much longer. I might be testy with a coworker or complain about how one of them has been irritating, but I'm choosing not to let it ruin my day. I spent far too much time in the past dwelling on that kind of thinking and it gets me nowhere.

Other than that, I've been doing pretty well. Not being down on myself for wasting a work break reading Discord, because I'd like to be better at connecting with my friends again. And speaking of work, now that the weather has finally improved, I plan to walk to and from work more often and not rely on the car or bus as much as I have. Yes, even when I've had a busy day! 

Added to that, I'm off to see a doctor on Friday about my right ear and possible hearing issues. I doubt it's infected but lately it's felt like whenever things are noisy my hearing in that ear becomes a bit of white noise mush with a slight ring. I'm not worried but I am concerned enough that I'd like to make sure it's nothing bad. And to prepare myself it it is. (Hell, if I need a hearing aid, so be it. I'm just expecting to keep listening to tunage for decades to come is all.) 

Hope everyone has a good week!

So for the first time in a number of years, I've chosen not to do a year-end mixtape or best-of list. I went into this a bit over at Walk in Silence, but the tl;dr is that it had nothing to do with the music and all to do with my own lack of connection with the new releases. Don't get me wrong, there were a LOT of really great albums and singles that dropped...but I'd just been too distracted to let any of it stick with me for any length of time. I'm a bit bothered by that to tell the truth, because that's not my normal state of musical obsession. The distraction was that in itself: I was too obsessed with the acquisition and not enough with the enjoyment, and I want that to change.

The interesting thing is that I came to that realization when I was making the mixtape soundtrack for Queen Ophelia's War. My aim for that mix was to recreate the moods I'd find myself in when I'd listen to bands like Cocteau Twins back in the day; something that would take me on an aural journey and spark my imagination and creativity. And in the process, I'd realized that I'd been so focused on picking up new things that I'd lost that drive to find music like that. Quite some time ago, actually. 

So that's one resolution for the new year: to appreciate what interests, inspires and influences me for more than a few dopamine-fueled moments. I want to go back to that, not just because it's pleasurable but because it's what drives me as a creative person. 

Speaking of dopamine-fueled moments, tonight is when I'm finally putting my Twitter into cold storage. Short of deleting it all and someone possibly yoinking my handle, I'm just putting it on complete lockdown and posting maybe once in a while to remind others where I can be found. I'll skip on describing how much interest I've lost in it over the last couple of years and just say that I have no real use for the site anymore. Most of my writer and IRL friends can be found elsewhere these days, anyway. One less thing to distract me, really.

So. Any other resolutions?

I'd like to walk to/from work more often. I stopped only because we'd had a long stretch of crappy weather followed by the exhaustion of Christmas Retail. And maybe head to the gym again? It's been far too long. I'm in pretty good shape these days considering how much walking I do at work (I can log 3-4 miles just in one eight hour shift some days), but there's always room for improvement. I still want to be more flexible, however. I know I'm getting older and my joints are getting a bit creaky, but that's no reason not to try to work on keeping in shape, yeah?

I'd like to continue working on having a healthier emotional outlook. I've been doing pretty good lately but I do still slide into bouts of complaining about stupid things (work, annoying people, Republicans, etc.) and when I'm sick of my own complaining, that's a good sign that others are probably sick of it as well. Not that I'm aiming to be insufferably chipper or being the peacemaker all the time, far from it. Just working on knowing the difference between when it's warranted and when to Let It Go and Move On.

I'd like to work on rekindling my love for other creative outlets, namely music and art. I've been focusing so much on my writing for so long that the other two have fallen by the wayside. I have art supplies gathering dust here in Spare Oom. I have guitars here that are dusty and out of tune. I have a keyboard here that's currently used as a storage shelf. I was thinking it's time to relearn how to play piano -- I know the basics thanks to lessons when I was a kid, but I'd like to be able to walk up to a keyboard (or a piano in the park when they have them) and play something impressive instead of just a passing line or two. Will I find the time? Well, I have to make time for it, won't I? Otherwise they'll never get started!

There's more I'd like to do, but I'll get into them at a later date here.

In the meantime, wishing all of you a hopeful, creative and peaceful 2024!

WOO! Newest PC is up and running now! I've been spending the afternoon reinstalling various apps and whatnot, and I am VERY happy to say that all of the externals are readable! I may have lost some of my older browser bookmarks, but then again they're probably in need of a very thorough cleaning anyway, so I'm not too worried. The fan on the PC is running a bit loudly, but I believe that's due to the Plex server rescanning all the libraries, considering the drive letters have been reassigned.

It looks like they basically said 'yeah, let's just replace the motherboard and any problematic USB hubs' instead of fiddling with what was in there. And hey, it's at no cost to me, so I'm not bothered by that! :)

I have just heard from Lenovo's repair shop and they have (hopefully) fixed my PC and have sent it on its merry way back to me, with an expected arrival of 12/21. Yay, Christmas is saved! Year-end mixtape creation is saved! Plex server is saved! Huzzah!

For the record, I would not be surprised if it was a Microsoft update that got all wonky and crashed it. I'm not sure if they switched out the motherboard or managed to get it running again, but I'm thankful that the turnaround was quick and it wasn't anything too major. [If this crash happens in the future I will make one last attempt at opening it up in safe mode if it will let me. While I might not have the biggest PC knowledge out there, I at least know enough not to do anything stupid like deleting an extremely important bit of software.]

As for writing, I think I'm going to do another soft restart of Queen Ophelia's War. I say 'soft restart' because it won't be a complete revision but just starting over and replacing everything that I still have issues with with my original ideas that I think in retrospect work a lot better. I'm going to focus more on it in the new year. Also in 2024 I think I'll finally get started on my new project Sheila Take a Bow. I wrote an outtake this morning on 750Words just to see how it would work, and work it did! More on that one in the future...

And as for health, Something had me congested over the last couple of days and I think it's probably something at or near work. My store is right at the edge of a golf course, which means there's a good chance I get a pollen allergy every time they cut the grass or do any tree trimming up there. It goes away temporarily when I head into the break room (which is enclosed with no direct outside connection) and when I get home. It's just when I'm working the front end. A Sudafed last night seems to have helped a bit, and I'm hoping it won't return.


Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!

Quite annoyed right now as my PC blue-screened itself at some point between yesterday and today, and I have no idea how it happened. This is my new PC, by the way, the one I bought this past July and have had zero problems with. Originally the issue was that it suddenly stopped reading my externals, and after trying to fix that with no result, I turned the PC off overnight in hopes that it would clear things up. Apparently that was a bad decision, as it won't boot up at all now!! :(

Which means I haven't been able to write the last two days, and that to be honest is what's annoying me the most. The good news is that I've tested all the externals on my laptop and they're just fine, so no problems there. The bad news is that the USB hub no longer works (I've just ordered a new one) so I can't really access much of anything write now.

In the meantime I've pulled the old PC out of hibernation -- it still works fine, thankfully -- and hoping that Lenovo can fix the new one for me. I'm still under warranty so if I end up getting a replacement or have to send this one in, so be it. I'll just be working lo-fi and not having my Plex server available until further notice.

Here's to hoping... 

I was a bit annoyed that I had to work this past Sunday considering A and I had made vague plans to do a bit of Christmas shopping before the whole rush started but alas, it was not to be. I'm hoping I'll have next Sunday off so we can make up for it! On the other hand, I can't really complain because two good things came out of it: I'm not working on Thanksgiving (we close early at 6pm on that day anyway) and all my shifts are morning shifts. Yay no middays!

(Which reminds me, I still need to let the boss know to keep Sunday 12/17 open as that's when A and I are going to the Nutcracker this year.)

Mind you, our Christmas shopping these days isn't so much about bulk buying all sorts of huge gifts but to pick up fun things for either our own enjoyment or to send to friends as care packages: snacks, silly cards and toys, things like that. And we've pretty much given up on the tree this year considering that A Certain Cat (yes, it's Cali) thinks it's hers and thus climbable. One can only wonder what chaos would ensue if we'd had a real six-footer tree set up on the floor...

And speaking of Christmas, I am very curious as to what the first holiday song I hear will be. I can't really count the pumped-in music at work considering I hear it all day long and thus playing Whamageddon would put me out of the running within hours. Amusingly I thought I'd heard a Christmas song at the cafe across the street from the store the other day, only to belatedly realize that it wasn't "What Child Is This" but merely Ralph Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Greensleeves', heh.

And lastly, I got my Covid and flu shots yesterday and thankfully I am feeling just fine, other than waking up multiple times pre-dawn due to having one hell of a migraine for some reason. So I'm just going to enjoy the day by doing laundry, listening to music and doing some writing.


Hope everyone has a good week!

...the usual, I guess? This time out we walked up to Hamburger Haven, a literal greasy spoon up the way on Clement (it's been around since 1968 and very much looks it, decor-wise, even though there had been reno done during the pandemic) for a tasty and messy brunch. On the way back we walked through Mountain Lake Park, a tiny little triangle within the Presidio where we often see very happy dogs being walked, then after a quick stop at one of the corner stores we headed home.

Speaking of said store, this one, on the corner of California and 22nd, very much seems to be in its death throes and just selling off its remaining stock at this point. It's very empty and sad-looking, and I do hope that it gets a new owner at some point because it's been a great place otherwise. There's two coffee shops on the block that are thriving really well (and that one laundromat I go to because it's the best one in the hood), so I'd be shocked if it doesn't turn over sometime in the new year. I certainly hope it does, because I'd always zip over there for a soda and a snack whenever I was at the laundromat.

In other news, the huge APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) convention is in the city this coming week, so of course all sorts of nonsense will be happening with several streets closed off and busses rerouted. And apparently something is happening up the street on the 16th at the Legion of Honor Museum and the street my store is on may be closed off to traffic for the day. I'm working that morning, so I'm still not entirely sure what the setup is or if we'll be closing down the parking lot or what, but we shall see. Thankfully it's a short day for me so as soon as I'm off the clock I'm heading home!

Hope everyone has a good week ahead!

...I still need to focus on Queen Ophelia's War for a bit longer. For the most part I've just been sentence-level rewriting (the idea is just fine, but the execution is terrible) or inserting a few this-will-be-mentioned-later bits and pieces (important plot stuff I came up with after I wrote what needs revision). There's a lot going on in this story -- not nearly as much as the Mendaihu Universe, but enough that it needs to be properly worked out -- so I'd like to keep going with this work for maybe a bit longer.

Maybe in December? I'm not sure? We shall see.

A and I are back from our trip back from the east coast and all is well as can be, considering that our flight back landed at 9:30pm, we got home by 10:30 and asleep by 11...just in time for me to wake up at 5am for a 6-2.30 shift. Oooof yeah, I was a bit loopy through most of it. I pretty much passed out at 9pm last night and caught up on sleep, though now I have that sleep headache, heh. Thankfully I have today off so I can relax. I only need to do the laundry and the food shopping and I plan on doing those this morning, leaving me with the rest of the day to relax and write.

And yes, I did in fact get a lot done on Queen Ophelia's War during our trip! This is one of the reasons I like flying: it gives me an extended writing session. I spent the flight out reading all 35 pages so far of the current draft, and for the most part it's sounding really great. Just a few tiny fixes here and there, but otherwise it's going exactly how I want it. Which means that I shouldn't be having too much problem with the other edits coming up, as I've made it past the 'terrible opening' stage, heh.

Hope everyone has a good week!