#56

56. Death's Excellent Vacation

Still working on the other two, but at least I've finished one out of three. I'm about half-way through both of the other two books I was reading last time. For the RPG manual, that's not really an improvement, but for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, it is.

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50-Book Challenge FINISHED (Still Reading Though)

So, I've finished my 50 books, but I'm currently in the middle of 3 books actually made of paper and one on audio (which I've listed as finished, because I will be finished with it in the next couple days). All six of the books listed below are by Ilona Andrews, a couple who goes by the same pen name. The books listed are part of two series, and I think they're both pretty interesting. Due to mis-labeling, I accidentally listened to the second series out of order (book 1, book 4, book 2, then book 3), but I'm going to list them in the correct order here.

50. On the Edge (Edge series, book 1)
51. Bayou Moon (Edge series, book 2)
52. Magic Bites (Kate Daniels, book 1)
53. Magic Burns (Kate Daniels, book 2)
54. Magic Strikes (Kate Daniels, book 3)
55. Magic Bleeds (Kate Daniels, book 4)

I'm also currently reading a collection of short stories that I found at Barnes & Noble while I was waiting for my eye doctor appointment time to get closer a couple weeks ago. I saw that it had a story in it by the author of the Sookie Stackhouse series (which is what the HBO show True Blood is based off of), so I bought the book. Ilona Andrews actually had a short story in the book too, which is why I looked up the series--the short was interesting, so I wanted to read more of their stuff. The book is called Death's Excellent Vacation, and I've only read 3 or 4 stories so far, but I'll get through it eventually.

Last month, I started reading the Changeling: The Lost RPG manual, and I'm on chapter 3 (there are 4 chapters, plus some appendices).

I haven't gotten much farther in Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrel than I was the last time I updated, but I'm determined to finish before New Year's, if at all possible.

A Helpful Tool for the Indecisive Gamer

I have often lamented my boredom while I am at home, but I'm not really bored in the sense of not having anything to do. Quite the contrary. I have many things I could--or even should--do at home, but I am, by nature, an indecisive person. By the time I decide what I want to do next, it is usually too late to actually do it, and I've just spent X number of hours listening to my iPod (or playing Solitaire, or doing Samurai Sudoku, etc.) while trying to decide what to do!

I've tried scheduling my various possible activities, but didn't ever keep to the agenda. I was talking about this with Carl earlier, and he came up with a solution that is so simple, I'm surprised I hadn't come up with it myself.

"You're a gamer," he said. "Randomize it. Make a list of activities and roll a die. If you don't really feel like doing whatever comes up, just re-roll." (Or something to that effect--I'm paraphrasing.)

The idea was so ingenious that, as soon as I got home and had a chance, I started typing up a list. I even made up some "rules" for it, so I wouldn't cheat and just re-roll everything. Then, I thought maybe other people might be as indecisive as I am--or just have trouble finding things to do--so I changed anything that was specifically for me, so that it could be used by a more generic group of people, and this is what I came up with:

Indecisive and bored, but don't feel like driving anywhere?
Got so many things you could do that you can't decide which one to do at any given moment?

Use this handy list of 33 (and counting) activities which can be chosen at random, and take place either at—or within walking distance of—your home!

Each possible activity is numbered.

To decide what to do, and for how long, roll a d30 for each free hour you have, minus one (so you'll have leeway to go over-time if necessary), or just re-roll the same d100 (or percentile dice) and write down what numbers you get. Match the number on each roll to the corresponding activity.

For each instance of that activity's number, do that activity for one hour, unless a different time-frame is specified in the activity's description. Any numbers above the highest number on this list with a valid activity (or any activities where any bolded qualifications are not met) should be re-rolled.

Number 24 can either be eliminated (for those who are either not musically inclined, or don't have any musical instruments of their own around the house), or modified to fit the situation. The four instruments listed are the instruments owned by the writer of this list. Obviously, the size of the die rolled to determine which instrument(s) to play should be adjusted according to the number of available instruments. If you desire, you can roll only one die, and play that instrument for a full hour, instead of two instruments for half-an-hour each.

1. Write a story/poem/play/song/whatever, or part of one—note-taking and written planning/plotting/character sketching/brainstorming counts too, as long as you actually write some of the story/poem/play/song/whatever itself the next time you do this activity. Editing/revising/rewriting a past story also counts. Once you've got a story as polished as you believe you can make it, if it's an original work (in other words, not fan fiction) you might try getting it published, or submitting it to a contest.

2. Write a journal or blog entry—probably ½ hour, but could take an hour for longer entries.

3. Read a book, fan fiction, a PDF, or some other text-based thing(s).

4. Listen to an audio book.

5. Play a card game.

6. Play a video game.

7. Play a computer game.

8. Write/type an essay about something you learned either by doing the encyclopedia thing (#27), or about something in a book you've read. If you wish, post it online (on your blog or on a related message board or something similar) and invite others to discuss the topic with you. This could be a way to not only learn different perspectives on the topic, but also a way to find people of a like mind. Plus, debate is fun, as long as constructive criticism doesn't turn into personal attack. If you've done this activity before, and posted some essays online, take a few minutes to look at and reply to any comments made to past essays before you start on a new one.

9. Tidy up/reorganize your bedroom.

10. Clean the bathroom, including tidying up and scrubbing/disinfecting surfaces.

11. Do laundry—doesn't necessarily have to be your own. If there's laundry in the dryer, fold it and put it away (or put it where its owner requests). If there's some in the washer, move it to the dryer and start another load washing.

12. Do dishes/clean the kitchen.

13. Vacuum all staircases, hallways, and the floors in all common areas of the house.

14. Plan a menu for the next week (breakfast, lunch and dinner), and write a shopping list to go with it based off of what is and is not currently in the kitchen/pantry.

15. Watch T.V. (DVR counts, and is a good way to be able to watch more shows, since you can skip over time-consuming commercial breaks! T.V. series on DVD do not count.)

16. Take a nap. It's probably best that, if this activity is chosen, you get it done first—that way, the napping hopefully will not interfere with your sleeping at night, and you won't be groggy during whatever you have to do in the morning.

17. Watch the first movie you think you would like to watch and can actually get your hands on within five minutes—no long choosing sessions! If you didn't get enough dice landing on movie watching to make up that movie's running time and you really want to watch that movie, subtract an activity for each hour of your chosen flick's playing time past the first. If you only got a single hour's roll for movie watching, and don't feel like watching a movie anyway, just re-do that particular d100 roll.

18. Call someone, just to talk and/or catch up.

19. Write a letter by hand to someone, put it in an envelope, address it, stamp it, and put it in the mail box to be delivered. Don't forget to be careful, and write legibly!
    

20. Play with the child(ren) and/or talk to the adults you live with, or make friends with some neighbors and talk to them.

21. Watch one episode of a T.V. series you have on DVD—two episodes if it's a ½-hour show.
    
    

22. Do a puzzle.
    

23. If you are musically inclined, practice singing, either a capella with some sheet music in front of you, or with someone to accompany you on an instrument of some sort. You might even try a karaoke machine, a tape/CD with only accompaniment, or the Sing Star Play Station games.

24. If you are musically inclined, learn to play one new song on each of two different instruments. It cannot be the same song for both! Roll 2d4 to decide which instruments to play—½ hour for each instrument.

    1. Trumpet

    2. Guitar

    3. Piano

    4. Recorder(s)

25. If the weather's nice, or you can reasonably compensate for mildly-bad weather (with an umbrella or a jacket or something), take a walk—½ hour.

26. If it's not too cold outside, clean out/wash your car. If you don't have a car, offer to wash a friend/neighbor/family member's car--for free.

27. If there is a complete set of encyclopedia in the house, close your eyes, point to the shelf on which the encyclopedia sit, open your eyes, and pull out the volume to which you've pointed. Then, open that volume somewhere in the middle, and read about the first topic you see. Once you have finished reading through the encyclopedia's blurb on that topic, go on the internet to research and learn more about it. Take notes.

28. If you're into tabletop RPG's, do some preparation for a campaign you'd like to run, or make up a character in any system, just so you'll have one if you find a game to play in that system.

29. If there is a playground nearby, walk there and play a game of some sort. If there's no one to play the game with you (like basketball, tennis, soccer, etc.) then just practice—shoot some hoops, hit a tennis ball against a handy wall, kick a soccer ball around, whatever. You'll need whatever equipment is necessary for the outdoor game you've chosen as well, of course.

30. If there is a playground nearby, walk there and swing on the swing set—½ to 1 hour, depending on how long it takes to walk to the playground (and back to the house), and how long you feel like swinging.

31. Cook a meal. Don't forget to ask anyone else in the house if they want some! Only include this if you are going to be hungry enough to eat the meal you cook.

32. Play a board game. Only include this if other people are available to play with you.

33. If too many of these don't work for you, make your own, customized list of possible activities!
    

I'm moving to Smithsburg!

We officially have a place to live again. Anna told me today that we got the house in Smithsburg. The land lord for that house is going to e-mail her the lease agreement, and they'll sign when we've got the security deposit paid. Don't know exactly when we can start moving in, but it'll be either the last week of August or the first week of September.

What Happend to July?

Goodness, it looks like I forgot to post for more than a month!

And I was so hoping to have at least one post on this blog for each month this year. Oh, well. It's not really important.

The Haven 4th of July party was great, and for my birthday on the 23rd, I borrowed the sjoelbak from Grandma S. I took it to the Haven, and taught anyone who wanted to learn (and wasn't too busy preparing for Pennsic) how to play. It was much of the fun.

For those of us who didn't go to Pennsic, there was the "Anti-Pennsic Pool Party" on the 31st, which Carl threw at his parents' house. That was great--it had been a long time since I got to talk to some of the people who were there, since I mostly end up in the private gaming room on Thursdays for Brian's neolithic D&D game.

The three of us found out either late in July or early this month that our land lord is raising our rent. We can't afford to pay the higher rent, so Anna's been looking for a new place for the four of us (me, Anna, Tim and Dylan) to live.

So far, I've seen one place that we all liked--in Knoxville--and Anna and Tim went to see a place in Smithsburg that they say I would probably like. We haven't heard anything from the people who own the Knoxville house, but the owners of the Smithsburg house are definitely looking over the rental application, because there have been phone calls made to at least Anna's work, and one other person.

We're definitely going to be out of this duplex before September 1st though, so I started packing this past Sunday. The way I pack for moving is last-in-first-out. First, I pack the most non-essential items I own, and then I work my way from those to the stuff in my bedroom, which is usually the stuff I use most often and/or need daily.

Once everything has been moved to the new house, the first things I unpack are the those daily/most-often-used things, and then I go backwards(-ish) to the first things I packed originally. On Sunday, I started by packing my books. As much as I love to read, I know that my books are the absolute least essential things I own.

Once I had all of my books packed, I packed up all of the movies in the basement (Anna's, Tim's and mine), and then I packed my music stuff.

All I have left to pack now is the stuff in the laundry room, the paperwork and office supplies in/on my desk, my extra bedding from the linen closet, my stuff from the bathroom, and the absolute essentials--my bedroom. When I get around to doing that packing, everything but the bathroom and the bedroom will be done at once, and will probably take less than an hour. The last bits will be done the day before I plan to sleep at the new place--wherever that will be--and will be unpacked as soon as it gets there.

Almost there . . . (50-Book Challenge Update)

21. Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
22. Mission of Honor by David Weber (Honor Harrington, book 12)
23. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

The next three are from David Weber's Dahak series, which I'm pretty sure isn't finished yet, but he just released a book from a different series this year so I don't think the Dahak series is going to be updated soon.

24. Mutineers' Moon
25. The Armageddon Inheritance
26. Heirs of Empire

The rest of these are all by either Anne McCaffrey, Todd McCaffrey, or both, and are all from the Dragonriders of Pern series, in story chronology order (or as close to it as I could get without stopping in the middle of an audio book or four), though when I actually read them, I got some of the second and third pass books mixed up and read them out of order.

That's the way I prefer to read the series myself, but when I recommend it to someone else, I usually recommend that they read it in publishing order.

The two short story collections, I read first and all at once, since I couldn't figure out in the recordings where each story began and ended.

27. The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall
28. A Gift of Dragons
29. Dragonsdawn
30. Dragonseye
31. Dragon's Kin
32. Dragon's Fire
33. Dragon Harper
34. Dragonsblood
35. Dragonheart
36. Dragongirl
37. Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern
38. Nerilka's Story
39. The Masterharper of Pern
40. Dragonflight
41. Dragonquest
42. Dragonsong
43. Dragonsinger
44. Dragondrums
45. The White Dragon
46. The Renegades of Pern
47. All the Weyrs of Pern
48. The Dolphins of Pern
49. The Skies of Pern

I also read Where's My Cow? by Terry Pratchett, but that doesn't count, because it's not a novel--just a children's picture book.

Only one more to go! Now, if I hadn't packed up all my books all ready in preparation for moving this month, I might actually pull one out and read it this week. Or if I had any idea what I wanted to read next, I'd download the audio book. But I don't.

Oh, wait. . . . I started reading a book the other night while I was at a club downtown where I am a member, but it was late and I couldn't get past the third chapter. Plus, it's a really long one (Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke and Neil Gaiman), and it's one of those I have to be in the mood to decipher (due to the very British-ness of the language), so it would probably take longer than the rest of the year to finish it, considering I don't have my own copy.

The Karate Kid--BEWARE SPOILERS

I'm not going to say much about the movie, because there are a few people I know who still want to see the movie but haven't yet. I will say three things though:

1. The movie would more accurately be titled The Kung-Fu Kid and billed as a spin-off of The Karate Kid, instead of using the same title, since Kung-Fu is the actual martial art which is taught/learned/used.
2. With only two major changes (setting and specific martial art) and a few minor ones (such as the age of the protagonist, and the name/nationality of the protagonist's teacher), the plot of the movie is pretty much a re-telling of the original Karate Kid movie.
3. Despite the predictability inherent in #2, the director did a great job in keeping the story interesting, and I will definitely want to buy it when the DVD comes out.
   

A Couple of Movies and a Book

Either last weekend or the one before, I managed to watch the SkyOne production of Going Postal, which is one of my favorite Discworld books. Those who don't wish to be spoiled, skip on down to the place where it says END OF SPOILERS.

The movie was great, as movies go--though since it was made for TV, it had to be split into two parts. However, lots of story elements got changed. The overarching plot was pretty much the same, but certain details from the book either didn't happen, happened differently, or got replaced with completely new plot points in the movie.

For instance, instead of just thinking critical things about other people to himself, Moist actually tells them to their faces how stupid he thinks they are--especially Tolliver Groat. (If I've misspelled that name, it's because I've never actually read the books, just listened to the audio versions, and therefore have never seen any of the characters' names spelled correctly.) He seems meaner in the movie than in the two books he's been the protagonist for so far. Not to mention, the actor who plays Moist is in his thirties, but in the book, the character is my age (26).

Charles Dance as Vetinari--I think maybe my favorite of all the main Discworld characters who have shown up in more than one or two of the sub-serieses (i.e. Vetinari, Death, Rincewind, etc.)--just didn't work very well--he was too amiable, showed too much emotion, and didn't really come off as silently menacing (or benevolently tyrannical) as Vetinari seems in the books. For one thing, he smiled too much. And for another, his hair was the wrong color entirely. The hair might've worked if he'd acted more silently intimidating, but he didn't, and that sort of spoiled his portrayal of the character, to me.

And while I'm on the subject of Lord Vetinari, I might as well mention Drumknot (again, the spelling thing) as well. I've always liked the voice that Stephen Briggs uses for him in the audio books. That voice just seems to fit the character's speech patterns to me, and I've always pictured a rather reedy body in a black robe and some sort of scholarly hat (not a mortarboard or anything, just a hat that looks like a scholar would wear it) to go with the voice for some reason; I don't know why. When I saw the movie, and Drumknot turned out to be a somewhat-chubby, short guy with no hat and wearing trousers, it was a bit of a shock. And he talked smoother than Briggs's vocal portrayal usually did. I'm not saying that was a bad thing--just unexpected.

Also, the movie portrays the relationship between Moist and Adora Belle Dearheart throughout the story completely different from the book. When Moist tells her about his past in the movie, Adora Belle goes off on him, and basically says she doesn't want to see him again. They don't make up until the end of the movie. But in the book, she is actually more understanding, and even kisses him before he goes into the burning post office to save Mr. Tiddles the cat (and Stanley).

Not to mention, the movie shows that the only reason she was such a heavy smoker was because she couldn't afford a chocolate habit after her father was swindled out of the Grand Trunk company and her brother was killed. She even quits smoking at the end of the movie. This is especially different from the story, because in Making Money, the sequel to Going Postal, she still smokes like a chimney. Nothing is ever mentioned in the books about why she started smoking in the first place.

But despite the changes made to the story, I still enjoyed the movie.

END OF SPOILERS.

The movie I've been looking forward to for almost a year now comes out on July 2nd! My absolute favorite animated TV series of all time--Avatar: The Last Airbender--has a live-action movie coming out! It's directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, who's had some duds for movies lately, so I think it's about time he had a really great one come out again. I hope he does Avatar justice--I'd be extremely disappointed if his slump continues through this movie.

It's looking like the plot will cover that from the first "book" of the animated series, when Aang meets Sokka and Katara, and they go to find a water bending teacher. I'm thinking that the conclusion of the movie will be about the same as the conclusion to that first book.

If the movie is anywhere near as good as the trailers promise it will be, then I'm hoping for two more films, one covering the second book, and the final covering the third book--and the end of the war with the Fire Nation. That would be totally awesome--getting the whole series both in animation and live-action.

The newest of David Weber's Honor Harrington novels, Mission of Honor, will be released on the 22nd of this month, and I'm eagerly looking forward to it. I'm also looking forward to book five of his Safehold series, but there's no telling when that will come out (or even what it's called) yet, since book four only just came out this past April.

20 down, 30 to go . . .

20. Dead in the Family by Charlaine Harris - Book 10 in the Sookie Stackhouse (a.k.a. TruBlood) series.

And that's a wrap!

I started watching my MacGyver DVD's in March of 2008. It is now May 31, 2010, and I just finished watching the very last episode. I'm done! I'm going to hold off on watching any other shows on DVD for now. I haven't decided what I'll watch next, but I had an idea for Scrubs a few weeks ago. Not sure if I'll go with it or not though.

Now, I'm going to cut down my most ragged pair of jeans into shorts, put on my bathing suit with the shorts, and wash and clean out the Bug.

Another 50-Book Challenge Update

I'm back, with more books!

14. Opening Atlantis: A Novel of Alternate History by Harry Turtledove
15. The United States of Atlantis: A Novel of Alternate History by Harry Turtledove

The two books above weren't all that great, in my opinion. I picked them up while I was browsing through the library's audio book section last month.

All Turtledove really does is retell the discovery (in Opening) and independence (in United States) of America, only he sets it in Atlantis, which in this series is somewhere between what we call America (Terra Nova to the characters in the books) and England.

Turtledove could've made it so much more interesting than just having some weird species of flora and fauna unique to Atlantis, but he didn't.

I'm not even going to try and get my hands on the third book of the trilogy, which will probably cover an alternate version of the Civil War, because the first two books were so boring.

16. Off Armageddon Reef by David Weber
17. By Schism Rent Asunder by David Weber
18. By Heresies Distressed by David Weber
19. A Mighty Fortress by David Weber

Technically, I haven't even finished #18, but I'm going to within the next couple days, and then I'll be going straight through #19, so I figured I'd put them on now, in case I forget later.

I also picked up Off Armageddon Reef when I was on my browsing trip in the library's audio section, and saved it for last when I listened to the audio books I'd checked out. Considering the disappointment of Harry Turtledove's Atlantis series, I'm glad I did.

Of course, I already loved the Honor Harrington series (I'm still eagerly awaiting the release of Mission of Honor in June), so I had some good expectations for Safehold, and I haven't been disappointed yet.

Pictures!

I'm not going to tell the story about what happened when Dylan was born, because it's not my story to tell. I will, however, post the three pictures that Tim pix messaged to my e-mail when I went to visit on Thursday afternoon. Those of you reading this post on Facebook, you'll need to go to my actual blog to see the pics.

I'm an Aunt!

Dylan Elliot T.
Born: April 15, 2010, 12:13 a.m.
Length: 21 inches
Weight: 8 lbs. 2½ oz.

Strangely Rested, Considering

Last night, I was feeling really blah. I had muscle aches/cramps from my rib cage to the middle of my shins.

Around 9-ish, I took some meds, but for the couple of hours it took for those to kick in, I was pretty much miserable. I decided to listen to one of my favorite Discworld novels (Going Postal), to keep my mind off of it, but I couldn't sleep.

Once the meds kicked in, I thought I'd get to actually sleep, but I couldn't find a comfortable position to lay in. Every time I'd find a position that seemed comfortable, there was either an aspect of it that was uncomfortable (due to residual mini-aches that the meds couldn't take care of, or the stretching out of muscles I'd bunched up to try and stop the hurting), or I'd be completely fine for a few minutes before I needed to move again, thereby destroying the comfort.

I had my eyes closed pretty much the whole time, in hopes of getting to sleep. I was still sort of half-listening to Going Postal too, but that helped. I knew if I couldn't remember hearing long stretches of the plot (though I knew I'd heard them while they were playing) I was at least getting some rest, though I couldn't get to anything better than a light doze all night--it was brutal. I kept thinking to myself that it's a good thing I don't have work today.

When I finally got up around ten this morning, however, I felt surprisingly well-rested. That is definitely a good thing.

Whew! (50-Book Challenge Update)

Huh.

I thought I'd posted a list of this year's reading so far on this site already, but it turns out I hadn't.

Considering I have just finished an 11-book (so far) series which took weeks to do, I have decided to remedy that now. So far, the only book on this list I've actually read in book form is number 3. Books 4-14 are the first 11 books in David Weber's Honor Harrington series. Book 12 doesn't come out until this June.

1. Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett (book 37 in the Discworld series)
2. Dune by Frank Herbert
3. The Bourne Supremacy by Robert Ludlum
4. On Basilisk Station
5. The Honor of the Queen
6. The Short Victorious War
7. Field of Dishonor
8. Flag in Exile
9. Honor Among Enemies
10. In Enemy Hands
11. Echoes of Honor
12. Ashes of Victory
13. War of Honor
14. At All Costs

My next reading projects are more paper-based, since I had this idea for an RPG campaign based in the world of Temeraire: In the Service of the King, a series by Naomi Novik. The only problem with that idea is that the series is set during the Napoleonic War, of which I know next to nothing. So I have decided to remedy that by checking books out of the library on the subject and taking copious notes.

Considering how At All Costs ended, I can hardly wait until Mission of Honor comes out.

Inkwells Updates

I realize that my Inkwells posts haven't been as regular the last few weeks as usual. I've updated through last week's prompt response (which is actually as far as I've written stories for right now).

I will also be replacing the Personal Challenge prompt response with a different story--once I have written it, that is.

For those of you who don't know, I usually back-date my stories/poetry/whatever to January 1, 2007, so that regular journal entries don't get interrupted by fiction. With anything except Inkwells stories, I usually post a notice that the story has been updated with the current date.

However, Inkwells are updated weekly, and I don't want to have that many update notices clogging up my regular journalling area. So, please feel free to bookmark the page of Inkwells stories, and check back regularly (or irregularly, if you wish) for updates. The URL for the Inkwells page is http://dsdragon.blogspot.com/2007/01/inkwells-stories.html.

I Miss Sev Trek

I just (and by "just," I mean about twenty minutes ago) found the Sev Trek site again. I actually forgot what it was called, and hadn't had a bookmark to the page in years, so finding it again was difficult. Unfortunately, the artist has stopped drawing his parody cartoons, and the archives cost money to view now, but here's a link to the website, at least! I'm thinking I might buy a tee in a few months (or maybe a poster or the book), just as a reminder of all the great laughs.

A Non-Lazy Saturday

Yup, I actually did stuff after I woke up at 11:00 this morning!

When I got up, Tim was organizing the basement, but I hadn't had breakfast yet, so I went to the kitchen to get something to eat. I ended up having a glass of Kool-Aid, because I didn't realize that there was cereal in the pantry again (as of 1:00 this morning). He mentioned the need to organize my music better, and that got me to thinking about the movies we have in the laundry room, which are duplicates to ones we have on the movie shelves already.

Tim also mentioned that I need to get my un-read books out of the shed. I was originally planning to wait until the weather got warmer, and then having a yard sale, but today I decided against waiting.

Instead, I got the boxes of books out of the shed and went through the books on my brown shelves. I put all of the books that I'm never going to read (or read again) in bins, and rearranged the books I'm keeping onto one of the small shelves. Somewhere in there, I ate a really great, homemade salad.

Then, I went to Wonder Book & Video to try and sell the books, but they stop buying books at 4:00 p.m, and it was already 4:10. I'll try again tomorrow, since I won't be able to make it to Wonder Book during the week.

I then stopped at Music & Arts Center to see if they bought used instruments. They don't, and the guy didn't know anywhere in town that would. He did recommend Craigslist though.

My last stop was to get gas at Get-Go.

When I got back, I took the empty shelf down to the basement, and organized my music onto it before putting as much of my loose sheet music as I could into sheet protectors and putting those into the binder I use for that. I also put my recorders, my music stand, and my trumpet on the shelf, and put the shelf between my keyboard and the basement door.

Finally, I went upstairs to place an ad on Craigslist to sell my clarinet.

After that, I decided I was done for the day, and after I fed the animals I watched Smallville while playing Scrabble on Facebook.

New Stories!

I've begun posting more stories here--this time originals. (Don't worry, those of you waiting for installments of my fanfiction; they'll get written eventually.) They're actually stories written in response to prompts from the Haven's writing group, the Inkwells. I've added these stories to their own section of the Original Fiction section here on my blog, and you can also just read the stories by visiting this link to the Inkwells Stories page. Enjoy, and please feel free to leave reviews in the comments section for each story page.

Updating While Snowed In

There's about two feet of snow on the ground outside, so I figured now would be a good time to update.

I've been working at my new job for exactly four weeks, and I find that I actually kind of like it better than any of the other jobs I've ever had. Over the years, I've figured out that I prefer jobs where I can be "behind the scenes," and don't have to deal with disgruntled customers.

At my new job, that's basically the idea. I'm in the stockroom, pulling parts for the various jobs everyone in the production area does, and management talks to any customers who actually come to the building.

The dress code is good too. I can wear jeans and sneakers, but I also have to wear a static jacket and heel straps to ground me so that electrostatic discharges don't damage the electronic components. So the clothes are comfortable, and the static jacket is actually warmer than it looks, so I can just wear a tee-shirt underneath it and be comfortable, temperature-wise.

My first paycheck was only half of what I'd usually be getting, since I came in at the middle of the pay period. I was really worried at the time, because that meant I'd still be about half-a-month behind on paying my bills. Luckily, around that time, all three of my W-2s from last year's jobs came in, and I was able to file my taxes in the last week of January. I got the state return back ($618) on Friday, January 30th, and my federal return ($655) came early this past week.

I got caught up on the bills that were overdue, and then held the rest for when I got my first full paycheck (plus 2½ hours of overtime, since they'd asked me to stay late last Friday to help finish a project) yesterday.

I wasn't able to completely pay off what's left of my car loan, but going off of the payoff amount posted online, I was able to get about half of what's left paid. I also helped with this month's rent (though I couldn't afford the whole rent, what with knowing I'd have to pay my whole portion in two weeks again), paid my portion of the utilities, and paid all the bills that are due before my next paycheck. I now have about $70 in the bank, and $15.16 in cash (for snacks while I'm at the Haven) until February 19th.

I'm only going to use what's in the bank to fill up my gas tank when I start to run out--I've got half-a-tank still--and then save the rest to go toward bills with my next paycheck. It'll also be used for emergencies, if there are any between now and then.

Tomorrow, Anna and Tim have been planning to have people over for a Superbowl party, but we're not sure if they're actually going to be able to get here, what with the snow and all. Whether they do come or not, it's all good to me. I'm not even going to watch the game (I don't like football), but the three of us are already starting to go a little stir crazy from being stuck inside, so it'll be nice to have some visitors.

I've joined another RPG at the Haven. It's a game called Nobilis. It's totally dice-less, and looks/sounds really interesting. I already created my character, who is completely different from any character I've ever played before.

I usually play characters who are a lot like me (female, relatively good, interested in a lot of the same things I am . . . makes it easier to stay in character that way), but since I know the GM-ing style of the person running the game (I'd been in his Vampire: The Masquerade game for a little while a couple years ago) I decided to try something different. For one thing, my Nobilis character is a guy. For another, he's not all goody-two-shoes at all, but rather devious. It'll be a challenge to play this character, and I'm looking forward to it.

The game itself will have about 30 or so players, but we're not all going to be playing at once. The way the GM is running it, there will be set gaming sessions, and there will also be random, "Okay, who's here from the Nobilis game? Anyone up for a one-off?" sessions. We players just have to participate in only one session every two months, at the least, to be allowed to stay in the game.

Not bad, considering that the weekly Serenity game is pretty much the most regular gaming I can handle. It cuts into my sleep time on Thursday nights, so Fridays are a bit rough, but it's worth it, since the game is so frickin' awesome.

I Got the Job!

I got a call a few minutes ago from the HR person at the company where I interviewed this past Monday--I got the job!

I start Monday at 8:30 to fill out paperwork and stuff, but my regular hours will be Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

Only one thing though: in my excitement to write my new schedule on the white-board calendar we have in our kitchen (and to cancel the interview I had at another company this coming Monday) I forgot to ask the HR lady what the dress code was for my new job! Oops.

Final Reading List for 2009

Here are all the books I read in 2009. I actually read 16 more than my 50-book goal last year! That's the first time I've made the goal since I started participating in this challenge in 2006.

1. Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game by Shelly Mezzanoble
2. The Colour of Magic
3. The Light Fantastic
4. Equal Rites
5. Mort
6. Sourcery
7. Wyrd Sisters
8. Pyramids
9. Guards! Guards!
10. Eric
11. Moving Pictures
12. Reaper Man
13. Witches Abroad
14. Small Gods
15. Lords and Ladies
16. Men at Arms
17. Soul Music
18. Interesting Times
19. Maskerade
20. Feet of Clay
21. Hogfather
22. Jingo
23. The Last Continent
24. Carpe Jugulum
25. The Fifth Elephant
26. The Truth
27. Thief of Time
28. The Last Hero
29. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
30. Night Watch
31. The Wee Free Men
32. Monstrous Regiment
33. A Hat Full of Sky
34. Going Postal
35. Thud!
36. Wintersmith
37. Strata
38. Making Money
39. Mind Meld (Star Trek: The Original Series #82) by John Vornholt
40. GURPS Discworld (RPG manual) by Phil Masters
41. The Ashes of Eden (another Star Trek novel) by William Shatner
42. Pawn of Prophecy
43. Queen of Sorcery
44. Magician's Gambit
45. Castle of Wizardry
46. Enchanter's Endgame
47. Dead Until Dark
48. Living Dead in Dallas
49. Club Dead
50. Dead to the World
51. Dead as a Doornail
52. Definitely Dead
53. All Together Dead
54. From Dead to Worse
55. Dead and Gone
56. Freedom's Landing
57. Freedom's Choice
58. Freedom's Challenge
59. Freedom's Ransom
60. Powers That Be
61. Power Lines
62. Power Play
63. Changelings
64. Maelstrom
65. Deluge
66. The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum
    

• Numbers 2-38 are Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.
• 42-46 are David Eddings's The Belgariad.
• 47-55 are Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries series. This is the series that the HBO T.V. show True Blood is based off of. After I finished reading the books, I got caught up on the show.
• 56-59 are Anne McCaffrey's Catteni cycle.
• 60-65 are Anne McCaffrey's Petaybee series.
• All others are authored as attributed.

I started The Bourne Supremacy before the year ended, but only got 112 pages in before that point. That book will be #1 on my list for 2010.

What an Awful Time to Be Sick

Yup, I'm sick. Which sucks, because that means I can't even go to the temporary manual labor agency right now. It started Monday night, when I kept sneezing and had a really stuffy nose that wouldn't go away. I also had trouble practicing my trumpet without getting dizzy (though I made it the full 30 minutes), so I've decided to amend my first New Year's resolution to include the words "health permitting."

Tuesday morning, I got a phone call from the temp place (I hadn't even gone in to say that I was available) asking if I wanted to drive for the company I drove for the first day I worked for the temp place. My head was so fuzzy, what with the stuffy nose, clogged and ringing ears, and overall blah-ness that I doubted I would be alert enough to drive my own car, much less someone else's expensive company car. So, I had to turn the job down.

Before I went to sleep the night before last, I took some NyQuil, because I wasn't getting any better--in fact, it seemed worse than the day before. I briefly woke up around 1:30 or 2:30 (can't remember which), took another dose, and then went back to sleep until 4:00.

I could've slept longer, but I wanted to actually do something besides sleeping that day, so I went downstairs and got some beef stew before coming back up here to read. Then a little later, when Anna came back from Mom and Dad's house, we watched the first episode of Birds of Prey (I'd NetFlixed the entire series, and the first disc came in the mail a few days ago). By that time, Tim was home, so we watched Good Eats and Unwrapped before they went to bed.

I was still pretty awake at the time, so I watched the rest of the disc, plus the little Gotham Girls cartoon that was on the disc as well. Then I came upstairs, read a little bit more, and went to sleep.

I woke up a little after 1:00 this afternoon, called Bryan to let him know I wasn't going to be playing in the regular Thursday-night Serenity game at the Haven, then called a different temp agency to find out what I'd have to do to be considered for a position they'd contacted me about a week or two ago. I took their online assessments, then called the lady back, and I've got an interview on Monday now.

Now, I just have to find some work tomorrow and Saturday--probably at the manual labor temp agency--to get some money in order to pay the bills that are due before next Monday. I'll take some more NyQuil before I go to sleep tonight, and hopefully that will help me to feel well enough to work.

The Patheticness of Me, and New Year's Resolutions

Man, you know what sucks? During the second semester of my senior year of high school, I was in both Jazz and Concert Band. Those classes were back-to-back, five days a week, from right after lunch until the end of the school day. That's a total of about fifteen hours a week, playing my trumpet.

This afternoon, after taking a shower, I decided to practice a bit on my trumpet. I knew I wasn't going to get anywhere near three hours, since I hadn't done any serious playing for almost ten years now, but I thought I'd at least crack half an hour, y'know?

I couldn't even make it fifteen minutes before my lips gave out.

Of course, it probably doesn't help that I was trying to play songs from my Disney Star Trek and theme books, which have a lot of notes on the top half of the staff. If I'd gone through and practiced some of the stuff in the books I used in middle school concert band, I'd probably have made it to half an hour, if not forty-five minutes or so.

But that stuff is boring, and I wanted to at least get half of the Star Trek: Voyager theme song played before my lip gave out. Only problem is, I'd played too many other Star Trek theme songs before I went for Voyager, so I only got a few bars in.

I think I want to start practicing every day again. Until I get a job, I'll probably go for early to mid-afternoon, for half an hour (using the boring books only), and then when I get a job, I'll re-evaluate my schedule and see what time is good for practicing then.

I've got an interview on Monday morning at an electronics manufacturing company for a stockroom associate position. The application, and the two little tests they had me take at the time, went pretty well, so I'm hoping the interview goes well too.

But enough of the depressing stuff--it's a new year! I've never really made--and kept--New Year's Resolutions before, but I think I might want to start. Here are three:

1. Practice trumpet for at least thirty minutes every day.
2. Practice guitar and/or piano at least twice a week, for at least thirty minutes each time.
   
3. Call at least two of my really good old friends (the ones I don't see all that often) at least once a month, just to catch up. Text messages, Facebook messages, and e-mails don't count--must be telephone calls.

I went to the Haven New Year's Eve party on Thursday night. It was fun. I talked to a few people I hadn't seen in a while, since the only time I'm really at the Haven nowadays is when I'm playing in Bryan's Serenity RPG, and we're sitting in the tiny gaming room where we can't see anyone else at the time.

I also creamed Steve at Warhammer--his ogres versus my Bretonnians. He literally had only three models (not units, just models) left on the table by the time we called the game at the top of turn five. He'd managed to take out my general and one entire unit though, so I only won by a little over 400 points--still a decided victory though.

I decided not to stay there for the night, since at home I had flannel sheets, but I was walking around the Haven for a while with my favorite blanket wrapped around my shoulders. It's the blanket that I got from the airport in Phoenix, on my way home from visiting Heather and Stephen back in October 2008.