Archive for ◊ October, 2005 ◊
• Monday, October 31st, 2005
Mel the Klutz (or Auntie Klutz, as I’m comign to be known in some BU circles…) lived up to the namesake on Saturday. Stupid me went up to put on stupid socks because I was getting cold, and then walked down the wooden stairs and went FWOOOM… bouncing down about a half-dozen or so before I landed at the bottom, stopped by the wall.
I’m sore, but nothing’s broken. I’ve got some oh-so-beautiful bruises on my ass cheeks, though. And the only reason I think nothing is broken is because I have all of this padding. The ONE thing that’s good about being fat is the padding when I fall.
As I talked about it with Erich yesterday, I seriously think the only reason I managed to keep ON my butt was due to dance training as a kid. From age 12 to 18, I was doing drop rolls as part of dance routines. Instictively, I just landed correctly on the stair, and managed to literally bounce my ass down them. Granted, a bit too quickly for my liking, but considering the alternative…
*shudder*
So I’m sore. I’m walking a bit stiff. And I’ll deal with cold feet all winter, because FUCK repeating THAT again.
Ow.
And I still don’t know what I’m writing about for NaNo. I’m so fucking doomed.
Category: Misc. Musings
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• Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
It’s now less than a week to NaNoWriMo, and I’m still not quite sure that I have a solid place to start writing. I fully expect to be staring at the blinking cursor line for a while before anything gets on the page screen.
Monday morning’s timesheet entering doldrums sparked one idea that I’ve played with a bit in my mind– a woman is brought into a psych hospital (for an unknown reason, to be developed over the course of the book), and the story goes through the layers of self-discovery to figure out why she’s there, and how she needs to change.
It works– but can I get 50K out of it? Eh, not sure.
Then Miss Marya (of two other NaNo years) came knocking on my brain, asking if maybe I was up to explore her character a bit more. I told her yes, but not for NaNo. I want to work on developing her stories on a long-term basis and possibly develop them into something publishable. Her stories are moving into a someday, I’m going to publish this… realm, and I don’t want to screw around with it for NaNo.
Yesterday afternoon, one of my coworkers and I were talking about NaNo. I mentioned how I just needed to flesh out a couple characters to get myself going. If I put a somewhat fleshed out character in a room (or a park, or whatever) and just write about how they interact with the environment, it will get me started. I’m an environmental writer– I want to connect to how a character interacts. I’m fascinated by textures and shadows and being so pissed off that a person’s vision is blurry. So give me a good character, and I’ll make up a story about them…
Anyway, my coworker just stares at me and says (along these lines- not verbatim), “Mel… you really need to write yourself. Do you realize how different your life is compared to most of the stuff that’s out there on the market? Everything is about mothers and daughters and someone having some freaky incest trauma in their background. You’re a member of a subsect of a subculture that few people know much about (referring to being a female gamer geek, I suppose) and are involved in so many things that most people wouldn’t think twice about considering for themselves, but would find just fascinating. It’s so different than anything else out there right now. I give you two models for your characters– yourself and Erich. Discuss.”
And I blink.
And then I retort, “but I’m weird and abnormal.” (and thinking and boring)
“Exactly! Well, not really abnormal… different,” she says.
I ponder.
And ponder some more.
And have a small discussion about this weekend’s Forgotten Realms game with Erich.
And forget all about it until tonight.
Would I really want to write about myself? And honestly, would it really be that interesting? (or would it come out like entries in my blog usually do… boring as shit?)
*sigh*
There has to be ONE topic I can write about come next Tuesday…
Divine Intervention, please?
Category: Geeky Stuff, NaNoWriMo, Writing
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• Monday, October 24th, 2005
This past weekend was JournalCon, and despite initially being on the committee (and hosting the webpage), I was unable to go for a variety of financial reasons. This weekend, those reasons became even deeper, and I’m honestly glad I was unable to go– I would have been washing dishes at the hotel to pay my room fees.
*sigh*
In any case, I’m a bit bummed I couldn’t attend. I’ll live vicariously through the recap postings, and hope that maybe next year, I’ll manage to get there.
Maybe.
In any case, I hope that those who went had a blast, and that the rest of the planning committee saw the fruits of their labors in throwing this big bash. And hopefully a great bunch of bloggers and diarists were introduced to the ongoing JournalCon group at large. 
****
On the homefront, it was a fairly uneventful weekend. Erich played D&D all Saturday, and I went to pick up the cheese that we were unable to purchase the previous Sunday. The mustard-seed gouda and I have a date tonight after work. Other than running the dishwasher through a couple loads of pots and dishes (now more prevalent due to cat food requirements), my Saturday was low key– exactly what I needed.
It rained a good portion of Saturday, but cleared up for Sunday. We took advantage of the dryer skies to clean out both of our cars. We still had things from our trip down to New Jersey at the beginning of October in the Jeep. Now both are completely cleaned out. Vaccuuming will take place sometime next spring, after the winter’s grime has ended.
The cats are all fine. Noby and Elly are insistent on nursing on whatever is available at the moment before going to bed. Apparently we’re in that toddler thumb-sucking phase. When up on the bed, one’s usually on Erich’s stomach or my fleece robe (which Gus also wants to bite and knead).
We have very strange cats.
And I wish I could post photos, but my mom STILL has my digital camera.
*sigh*
Category: Life, Work, and all the Rest
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• Thursday, October 20th, 2005
Before I get to the stitching update– why the heck hasn’t anyone told me that my layout completely sucks ass? I’ve now looked at my site on two PC computers, and the tables are completely effed up in IE. Had I never looked at it in IE on a PC (it’s fine on a Mac in all browsers), I’d never have known.
So I’ll add template completion to my list of stuff to do this weekend… because this is just so, so icky.
Anyway…
I’m behind on Stitcher’s Blogging Questions due to weddings and computer stupidity… so here we go…
9/28/05: Have you ever just quit a project while in the midst of it? (We’re not
referring to UFOs here, rather projects that you know that you’ll never work on again.) Why? What did you do with it – throw it out, give it away, put it away?
I’ve quit a couple, but I’m usually too stubborn. The ones that I have quit usually just find their way to the back of my stash pile and just rot there. 
10/06/05: When you have almost finished a pattern and start thinking about the next one to stitch, how do you select it? (a list, most recent purchase, etc.)
A lot of it depends on my mood, honestly. I do have a list of unstarted projects, and several of them are nearly kitted, so I could start them at any time. But if I find a project that I absolutely MUST start right away, I’ll probably find a way to squeeze it in sooner. And that gets me in trouble since projects keep getting pushed back.
10/12/05: How do you `non-hoopists’ who use a rotation system handle it (as it seems to be lot easier if you are in good terms with hoop)? Do you have several scroll frames? Do you use Q-snaps or maybe something completely different? Or do you just have one or two big projects and others are small enough to be kept in hand while stitching?
I have only one project on a scroll frame at this time. The rest of my projects, I generally hoop. I loosen the one that’s on the scroll frame during its “resting” slots in rotation. My other pieces are taken off the hoop and roll up loosely to put in a drawer for storage. If I did have multiple projects of scroll-frame size, I’d probably buy another frame. Getting pieces on and off scroll frames is such a pain in the ass– I really don’t want to try to mess with it all the time.
10/19/05: Do you mark or hi-lite your patterns or can you follow them without any markings? Do you make copies to mark up, or do you mark originals?
I always make working copies, and copy them at about 150% size so the symbols are easier to read. It tends to make my working copies really large– usually they’re on 11×17 paper. But that’s okay, because at least they’re easy to follow. I highlight sections as I go- usually highlighting at the end of a stitching session or at the end of a specific in-project area goal.
—–
And not an SBQ, but a question from a fellow diarist, which I figured I’d answer in the blog-at-large, rather than in the cramped guestbook…
Kim asked in my haloscan guestbook: You do your stitching in a rotation, no? How does it work? Do you work on only one piece for a week at a time? Or on whichever piece strikes your fancy at the moment? I’m curious about how people handle multiple projects, while giving each its due.
Everyone’s rotation varies. Some people are very strict about spending a specific number of hours on each project, and then moving onto the next one once those allotted hours are up. Other people work week-to-week. Others work what’s called a “screaming” rotation, which means they pick up whatever piece is “screaming” the loudest to be worked.
I have an ordered list for my rotation, and do try to stick to it, giving each piece a minimum of 10 hours. After those ten hours are up, though, I switch to a bit of a screaming rotation on a piece. If I’m feeling in a good groove with the piece, I’ll keep going, allowing myself another week or two. If I’m not, then I move to the next piece.
After I’ve completed a full rotation of every piece, I re-evaluate the rotation. Do I need to flip projects around? If something is finished, what am I replacing it with? Is an important deadline coming up? I fix my rotation, and start again.
Right now, my *official* rotation looks like this. But because I’ve been so busy, and since NaNoWriMo will get in the way next month, I’m doing a lot of skipping around, and probably will only work a couple of these pieces until the end of November.
1) Elemental Dragons- Fire (finished in one rotation)
2) Egyptian Sampler – completed rotation round
3) Cats on a Staircase – skipped for this round
4) Astrology Sampler – skipped for this round
5) The Castle – working currently. Have done 10 hrs, now doing excess
6) Smoky Mountain Cats — skipping this round
7) Home is Where the Cat Is– will bring on commuter train since it’s small
New Start: Apache Wedding Blessing – will get to work on this in November.
If you’re looking to start one (for stitching, knitting, hell… scrapbooking?), check over here: Shakespeare’s Peddler. This site is usually referred to anyone who’s looking to get into rotation stitching. After that, go over to the Rotation Stitchers board, and get help in the “How to I start…” forum.
Anyway… I need to get to bed. It’s 11:30, and I’m very sleepy.
‘night.
~ Mel.
Category: Stitching
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• Sunday, October 16th, 2005
Sun? I do not know of this sun of which the weatherman speaks.
All of a sudden, we have sun… Erich responded this morning as he got up by hissing and pretending to pull a cape over his head.
Vampire, or gamer geek– I really can’t tell what brought that on. 
Let me recap the last several days of New England Weather… rain. Nine effing days of it. And Friday night, which was the last full night of it, was the worst of all. It poured all night. We received over 4 inches from Friday night to Saturday night alone. We’ve received over a FOOT of rain already this month.
Even our basement, a declared dry basement, has a small amount of standing water in it. Thankfully under the oil tank, where nothing else is sitting. We’re lucky because only a few short blocks away from our place across the city line in Cranston, we saw this in person on Saturday. These are all on US Route 1. (these photos were taken by others):
Some areas of Rhode Island are even worse, depending on their elevation and proximity to a river. Amazing how something that seems annoying, yet harmless while happening causes so much destruction, isn’t it?
This morning, the sun came out, revealing a bright blue sky free of clouds, beckoning everyone to come outside.
And we did go out, despite the blustery winds that threatened us instead. Erich and I headed up to Concord, Mass. for our annual cheese shop trek– only to find it closed on Sunday (le sigh). We made up for it with a nice lunch across the street and a lengthy wander through an antique store (leading to the purchase of three old books, including a first printing of Bambi and an 1840′s printing of Paradise Lost).
We headed back south toward the farm stands in southern Mass. Erich and his dad always talk about The Big Apple in Wrentham, Mass., so we stopped by there to get… apples (duh) and a hot (!!) pumpkin pie. It was a madhouse, so we didn’t stay long. I’ll want to go back there again at some point when it’s a bit calmer (if that is possible).
We also stopped at another stand closer to home, where I bought my obligatory autumn mums to decorate the front step, two mini pumpkins, and wicked cheap, but wonderful looking bell peppers (for 75 cents a pound!!).
And then we came home to wince as the Patriots lost again. (sigh)
Now Erich is curled up on the bed, working on his gaming campaign in a couple weeks. The kittens have been in a serious thumb-sucking mode this weekend and keep trying to suckle on whatever they can find (necks, stomachs, furry blankets, Colley). Last I knew, Elly was going for Erich’s stomach again.
It’s cute, but a little freaky, too.
Erich’s chasing me to get dinner, given that it’s nearly 11 p.m. I guess I should stop.
Category: New England, News & Politics
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• Friday, October 14th, 2005
Lots of things have been swirling lately, so I’m doing a rundown on what’s happening right now to clear my thoughts. Hopefully over the course of the weekend, I can actually come up with some writing on a particular topic. This will be a pretty long entry, I think.
WORK: I had a meeting on Wednesday with my boss (Linda) and my cross-site manager to discuss my job. Apparently my cross-site manager was convinced I was missing deadlines and not doing anything. Linda asked me to type up a list of everything I do, both on a regular and special project basis, and bring it with me so our cross-site manager could see how much I’m actually responsible for at the moment.
Two pages, single spaced. Approximately 80-90 things. Nah, I’m not busy. *rolls eyes*
Anyway, that meeting seemed to go well, despite the accusations that had been flying. Apparently I’m FINALLY going to have a backup admin. who will take half of the work– namely for the Art and Photo people, leaving me to really only have to focus on design. 45 people down to 21. My job will quite honestly start feeling like a cakewalk with this.
There’s also going to be a redistribution of duties and some fine-tuning on what systems are outdated now, so I can streamline my job for the rest of the time I’m here. Our cross-site manager agreed, once she saw the list, that there’s no way I can keep up, and that something needs to be done to help me get back on track. It’s partially my fault, but not completely– and she’s realizing that.
Good. Moving forward…
On Thursday afternoon, I met with the departmental head of Editorial Services, which focuses on copyediting and proofreading. I wanted her input on what avenues I should explore to get into editing so I can put this $100K+ Boston University journalism degree to some actual use. She gave me some very good leads– several, in fact, although she strongly recommended taking at least a couple of courses to brush up and get the updates on current grammar and editing rules and tighten up my skills. It was an extremely helpful meeting. And while it’s going to take some time to position myself in an editing job, I now have the direction to investigate. This is good.
So all in all, a tiring, emotionally draining, but fruitful week– especially after how last week ended.
CATS: The kittens are doing quite well. They’ve had a relapse of the eye gunk and sneezing. Poor Elly’s cheeks are a bit swollen. It’s been two weeks since they were off the antibiotics now, and it’s probable that they’ll need to return to them. We have them going in for their check-up and second deworming tomorrow afternoon. Med discussions will be done. Thankfully, despite the gunk relapse, they’re both running and playing like healthy kittens. So I’m not too concerned.
Oh, and both kittens sleep all night in bed with us, curled up and purring. We have a serious case of snuggle cats already.
HOUSE: The unstoppable rain this week has revealed a couple things to us. We do have some leaks in the garage roof, leaving us with a thin depth of standing water on the garage floor slab. There’s nothing out there to really get damaged at the moment (and we don’t park in the garage), so for the moment, we’re not doing anything. But roof repair, at least for the garage, is moving up a bit on our timetable, I think.
After three days of shivering because of the wet, Erich and I finally figured out our furnace. Engineers we are not. But the furnace is working (now), and we’re using occasional heat just to take the bite off of the chill from the dampness. Once it’s warm, the house holds the heat really well, despite having no insulation.
WRITING: I still don’t have a topic for NaNo this year. *sigh* Hopefully something will come to me in the next few days.
COMPUTER: Mine’s still sick. I’ve taken over Erich’s.
STITCHING: I have some SBQ’s to update this weekend. Still working on the Castle, although after last week, I just haven’t had the attention span to really do too much. I’m hoping to make a good push this weekend during the Pat’s game.
Thus is my life at the moment.
• Thursday, October 13th, 2005
Congrats to Melbernai and her husband on the birth of their first child last week, a beautiful girl. If you’re in need of some adorable baby pictures to brighten your day– pop by her journal!
Best wishes and virtual foot rubs to Minarae as she participates in San Diego’s 3-day walk for a cure this weekend.
Entry tomorrow…
Category: Family & Friends
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