Drunken Owls and Other Delights

Things completed over the last few days:
--Flu shot received
--4th Covid booster received (side effects minimal, maybe a few aches and that's it)
--Food shopping done
--New releases listened to/downloaded
--Fee/donation to adoption agency for two (!!) cats (more on this in a few) paid
--Cat toys, litter box, food dishes, and other fun things purchased
--Cat tree purchased and built
--New cat carriers bought and original purchase returned
--VOTED! Will mail the ballots tomorrow before work!


Things fallen by the wayside:
--Writing. WELP, I figured it would happen anyway considering I just had ALL THE THINGS to do and I'm a bit distracted by the preparation of the arrival of not one but two kitties. Yes, two! After having the face-to-face-online interview with the agency, we both thought that considering the original cat we wanted (Jules) was from a litter of four, we'd be fine with taking on one of her sisters (temporarily named California). But anyway...yeah, I've had a few distractions lately so I'm fine with that. I kind of needed it as I'm feeling a little worried about where I am in Theadia. I don't think it's bad, but I'm having one of those "I'm too close to it and probably need to back away before I fuck it up" waves and should probably take a mental break from it for a tiny bit. And amusingly enough, Althea has mentioned in the book itself how a cat is the perfect distraction. Heh.
--750Words and Inktober. Again, same distraction, but I'm not letting it bother me. For the former, I'm not taking it too seriously and just working on a sort-of-new story idea and playing with the outline. For the latter, I've already done it twice already and caught up quickly. I'm not doing ginormous detailed art here, of course, but doodles. Essentially my outlook for both has been "it doesn't have to be consistent, as long as I get back to it." A few days off in between is fine.


Things to come:
--Awaiting word from the agency as to when said kitties will arrive or be brought home.
--Dropping car off at a garage after work tomorrow to have some work done on it.
--One of A's friends is coming to visit next weekend and there may be some transportation hiccups, but we shall see.
--Getting back to writing work.

Eep! Been awhile since I last updated here. Let's do a recap:

--Been a crazy busy year for me, personally and otherwise. I have wanted to work on side projects, but many of them have stalled for no other reason than I've been focusing mostly on the Trilogy revision during the week and the Blogging the Beatles posts on the weekends. I haven't really been able to work on anything during downtime at work (such as the 750 Words or uploading pictures/poetry), simply because there hasn't been any downtime lately. Things are finally quieting down, however, so perhaps it's time for me to jump back in.

--Speaking of pictures...I've been having a hell of a time trying to upload pictures to not just Tumblr but my WordPress blog, but I'm beginning to think it's an IE quirk. The uploads work just fine on some days, but stall others. I was able to upload just fine on Chrome, so perhaps I should utilize that browser for visuals from now on. For the record, I'm not an IE hater...it has its issues, but 98% of the time it works just fine for me, so I see no reason to abandon it. The only issue that remains is figuring out how to tweak the pictures I've taken with my phone--about half the pictures I take are showing up as upside-down or sideways when I try to upload them to Tumblr or elsewhere, and it's a pain in the butt to tweak them. Lastly...I may have been looking at low-end cameras that are a step up from my current one. I'm not actively looking to buy one at the moment, but I am window shopping. I do get some neat shots from my current camera, but I'd really like to take some more professional-looking pictures as well.

--With other side-projects, I'm hoping to get into the music thing again right soon. I finally broke down and bought the newest version of the NCH software at Fry's [the famous computer/appliance store down in Palo Alto where all the original Silicon Valley computer nerds have always gone to--it's a lovely ride and takes you past the Stanford campus too]. I plan on installing the software in the next day or so and working on that project on the weekends. As mentioned much earlier, the current iteration of my solo music work is going under the name of Drunken Owl...I just need to start working on the songs in my head now!

--As you might have noticed, I'm in the home stretch on the Blogging the Beatles posts. I've got two albums and a small handful of singles left to go before I'm done with the series. So what will I do from there? Well, since I had such a fun time working on it, I'm thinking I'd like to go over a few albums and discographies of other bands in a similar fashion. I did a few previously (like the Love and Rockets 5 Albums review), and would like to cover the some other classic alternative albums. I think the next non-Beatles post may be about the reissues of We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It!!'s two albums that came out earlier this year--they're an interesting duo of albums worth checking out.

--The Great Trilogy Revision Project is moving ever forward. I'm a little over halfway through Book II, which means I'm right about at the halfway point for the trilogy itself. That's saying something, considering I started this major revision late last year. I'll go into detail on that in another post later on, but for now I'll just say that I'm quite happy with the outcome. I'm also looking forward to finishing it up so I can truly start working on a new main project--something I haven't done in a few years, come to think of it! Not sure what it'll be, but I have a few contenders. As for the trilogy...I have sent out a few queries to agents and may send to a few publishing houses as well, and have yet to hear anything back as of yet, but I'm fine with that. I'm also keeping the avenue of self-publishing open as well (and yes, I've done my homework in that direction)--more on that in a later post too.

--Art! Geez, I've been so busy on the weekends that I've let that one slide again. I need to jump back onto the schedule of working on that as well. Plug in the ol' Wacom and work on the drawing. I would like to try a bit of blue-penciling when I have the chance, but that might be a little further down the road, maybe in the new year. For now it's working out the drawing kinks and relearning how to draw.


So yeah...it's been a busy year, but it's also been quite the creative and productive one, and I'm happy about that. We're on the last quarter of the year, often the most productive time for me, as well as the time of year when all the great new music releases come out (coincidence? I think not!). It's the home stretch, and I'm not going to let it slide.

Things done today:
--Lunch at Rogue (mmm, Chocolate Stout... :) )
--shopping at store for random stuff
--laundry
--dry-clean my brown coat
--run various cleaners on my computer
--recharge my Dana
--check personal inbox on work laptop (98 emails, for those keeping count)

Things still to do:
--possible RTS post
--charge up Zune/put more tunage on it
--backup writing files on thumb drive as well as on J drive
--go to bed early :(