Drunken Owls and Other Delights

 I'm not sure if this should be sorted under 'now I finally have time to think about such things' or 'now I really have TOO much time to think about such things', but I'm debating whether or not to move my PC from the floor to the desk. It's something ridiculous and frivolous, but let's be honest: it actually feels really good and positive that I can actually think about such things without feeling like I'm wasting time or procrastinating.

Ever since my Belfry Days back in the late 90s, it was all about utilizing every single bit of time that I could for writing or creativity or whatever. Any small amount of time goofing off with a solitaire game or updating my music catalog was similar to what I see as 'scheduled fun time' -- you know, like the after-school things like games or sports or the like. I gave myself permission to goof off for a specific amount of time, so to speak.

I imagine this is why over the last handful of years, I'd leaned heavy on the procrastination, much to my own annoyance. Maybe I wasn't giving myself enough down time because it was too structured. Maybe that's why blogging and other lighter creative outlets started feeling less enjoyable and more like a chore.

So am I going to move this PC? I may...not sure when. There's really no strong reason for it other than changing things up. I have the room for it now (it'll go in the right corner, where my Former Day Job laptop used to sit) and I'll have less reason to be nervous about accidentally kicking it. It'll also give me reason to straighten up the spaghetti mess of the wires down there. And less dust.

But yeah. It does feel great to be able to think at a calmer level again.

Goodness, what did I do before I signed up for Dropbox, anyway?  It seems that every time my PC started acting up for whatever reason, I'd save my files to an external drive. And over the course of more than a decade, everything has started piling up. Instead of updating those backups, I'd just create a new master folder and put a timestamp on it. The upside is that I've saved pretty much everything I could possibly save from 1994 to the present, with very little loss. I've got pretty much every single version of my writing project that I saved digitally. This also means that I can shred most of my printouts without worry.

The downside? I have a bazillion copies of the same files spread over the course of a decade's worth of master folders.

Over the last month or so, when I have time, I've been sorting through the multiple backups and thinning out all the duplicates. Thankfully this has been easy due to looking at the file's timestamps, and the fact that I haven't worked with most of these project files in years. But MAN, is it a slog! I'm going through a few master folders every now and again, just like I did with the KonMari Writing Cleanup, so there's no deadline.  But I'll be happy once this is done.

Once everything's been sorted and cleaned up and sorted into its correct folders and duplicates, and then I'll file them away in my Dropbox folder. And the KonMari Digital Cleanup will be done!

And also on the upside, I'll have opened up a huge amount of space on this particular external drive, which is currently holding the backup of my music library. And we all know how huge THAT particular library is...

I'm finally on the back end of the first part of the Great KonMari Tidying Up of Spare Oom...I've made my way through so many manila folders of documents related to my writing, sorting them out, getting them in some semblance of order (or barring that, getting them in one place in plastic pocket folders), and putting them in binders. Early writing and trunked projects are now on the bottom shelf of the Formerly Forgotten Bookshelf, with the journals and poetry notebooks on the top shelf. The Mendaihu Universe documents are getting their own shelf on the Big Black Bookshelf (there's a ton of it, considering it dates back to the early 90s!), as does the artwork. 

All that's left is two piles of manila folders of the rest of the Mendaihu Universe stuff to sort through. Revision printouts, notes, maps, reference material, outtakes, and everything in between. If I'm going to be a packrat with one element of my writing, it'll be that!  They're currently sitting on the ottoman, waiting to be sorted and bound.  

I've also emptied out my desk drawers and the two upper filing cabinet drawers, and have everything divvied out in three separate Ikea boxes: electronics (plugs, headphones, patch cords, etc), Extraneous writing-related things (index card outlines from finished projects, etc), and Other Crap That I'm Probably Going to Toss Eventually.

After that?  Well, good question. I think it's going to be the Big Honking Boxes in the back closet here. I've tons of CDs that I can get rid of. I've got more Other Crap that I could toss, or at least get into one smaller box. I also have all those cassette tapes!  I know I should probably go through those eventually and get those ripped to mp3 if they're still listenable.

What's the endgame here, you ask?  Well, part of it is to get a cleaner Spare Oom, but it's also to achieve that KonMari goal of Having My Shit Under Control. You can laugh, sure, but her housecleaning ideas make a hell of a lot of sense and I've opened up a lot of space back here in the last few months!  Anyhoo...it also keeps me busy and away from wasting time faffing about on social media for too long.

ALSO FINISHED: The Read-Through Revision of Diwa & Kaffi!  Woohoo!  Not nearly as much major work to do this time out, not like the issues I had with In My Blue World... just some grammar and pacing issues to iron out, and that one chapter to write. And once that's done, then I'll do yet another reread, and decide where it's going to go next. Next month I'll start doing some serious research on agents and publishers to submit to.

It's actually kind of a weird feeling to be this close to a finished project and not have anything on deck...it's oddly comforting, which I'm not used to. Not having anything coming up like that used to freak me out, now it's like 'ah, a nice mental vacation for a bit...' heh.

Not too much to report here, other than that I've gotten to a few Very Important Plot Points in Diwa and Kaffi and I'm having a lot of fun making sure they work as well as I need them to work. I'm having a lot of fun editing and revising this one...it feels great to put this much dedication and emotion into a story I feel so strongly about. Did I already mention I'm looking forward to submitting this one to an agent and/or a publisher?  Because yeah, I think it has that much potential. I think I might actually have a chance with this one.

Anyway! The Grand Project of Tidying Up Spare Oom continues slowly but consistently. I made a stop at Office Depot today to buy a new shredder as our old one predates our moving into this present apartment (which is coming up on ten years this October...!) and is no longer working properly. I also bought some more of the cardstock report binders and other things to help me with the sorting and filing away. My plan is to start going through a few piles at a time and creating binders that I can build as necessary. (You know, instead of pulling it all out and creating several piles of crap that I'll shuffle around and then put back without organization.) But yeah, it's moving in the right direction and I'm quite happy about that.

OH! At this point next week I will be in Los Angeles! (queenoftheskies , if you happen to be in the area between 5/18 and 5/22 (or in an area I can drive to), let me know, we can meet up!)  I can't wait, as this is going to be my first solo vacation without A, and my schedule is pretty much wide open for me to get in trouble at various museums, record stores and book stores. And maybe a stroll on one or two beaches...? We shall see. Still, I'm looking forward to it, should be fun!

And after that, literally the day after i return, will be a four-day run at BayCon down in San Mateo. I'm looking forward to that as well, as I'm running three panels that should be quite a lot of fun. More on that soon!

Okay! Back to the email inboxes...I'm days behind on clearing that thing out and lord knows I hate a cluttered inbox... :)

Yes, I have totally jumped on board with this KonMari style of cleaning.  This past weekend I cleaned up my tee shirt drawers for the first time in who knows how long. Between getting rid of old shirts to donate and learning to fold and store the shirts for maximum space, I can now finally see what's in those drawers. Which means no longer wearing the same four or five shirts and completely forgetting about the rest! Heh.

I'm still looking forward to cleaning up the writing shelf. I need to give myself a good amount of time for it, as there's a lot of it. Not sure if I'll do it over the course of a few evenings, or if I'll do it on a weekend. I want to drill down this time; instead of large piles of "trilogy stuff and related" and "extraneous stuff" and "other", I want to be more organized to make it easier to find and browse. This also means buying a large amount of those cardboard binders, but that shouldn't be a problem...I can get them in bulk at the local OfficeMax.

I'm also thinking of donating a lot of the writing books I have. They're currently of better use as dust collectors than reference for me at the moment. I haven't cracked any of them open in AGES, so I think it's time I gave them to someone who will better use them. This will of course open up that particular shelf for my meager Hey Look I Self-Published These Novels collection. Heh.

Meanwhile, we got our replacement couch cushions from Home Reserve the other day. The box is pretty big, but I'm greatly amused that this box actually contains four cushions that should actually be twice the size of this box.  They vacuum-pack it all so when you take it out and (gently!) cut the plastic, it'll just FOOOP! out to its normal size. It's kind of fun to watch. :)

So probably this coming Sunday I'll take the covers off the couch, bring them over to the laundrette to get them washed, and switch out the cushions.  I'm thinking I'll just get rid of the old ones alongside the love seat when its replacement comes in. I'll have to Google and find the best way to dispose of them (I'm thinking just call Recology or 1-800-Got-Junk and they'll come and pick it all up). Either way, I'm looking forward to getting rid of it and getting my new chair!