The Best Laid Plans of Bats and Men

Well,

I did have a plan this morning. Get up, shower, buy milk and soda, some breakfast, get a haircut that is woefully overdue.

Everything was going great until I get to the car this morning. Put in the key, crank... and nothing. Now I bought this beast from a co-worker a couple of years ago. I don't blame her, my Honey on the other hand had thought she sold me a lemon. This really isn't the case.

The timeline on this vehicle and my problems with it have stemmed from when I did buy it, however.

The lack of holding a charge is constant with the thing. I brought it into the mechanic's shop, they tested the battery, the alternator and various and sundry other things that I'm not a) concerned about remembering and b) not qualified to fix.

Then they found a short in the system. Another week without the car proved that the light bulb in the trunk was not turning off. Ok, whew, I thought we were done.

Nope.

So, late one night after work, I pull into the all-night taco shop drive through. I lean back to get my wallet out to pay for my midnight mexican munchies, and the driver's seat slaps back into the rear part of the cabin. Blam, and I'm on my back. I've rigged it so that the car is drivable again.

Now, the damned car won't start. I swear when I do get a payday out of any WIP that I may be working on, I am getting a freakin new car with a repair warranty.

Damnit.

WIP Update

Up to 42,073. A little less than a thousand today.

But, I'm hopeful, I've got a good sequence set up for tomorrow in one space and I still have to bridge another in a timeframe prior to that.

All is well so far.

"Do or do not, there is no try." Right?

My New Phone

So, got the new phone.



I wanted something different. I guess I got it. Who knows? New phone every 2 years.

Wo0t!

I find it odd that they've put a comparison pic to a Blue from American Express card.

Hurm...

Anyway, going to try to put more words into the WIP until Battlestar Galactica comes on.

In the Deep Darkness

Day job, bleh.

Other job, wheh!

Up to 41,103 for the WIP. This is a great milestone for me. After starting this damned writing nearly two years ago, I thought that hitting that mark would be so far down the road that it was nigh impossible to see. Good thing is, I've just been filling in the backstory that's been missing and I'm pretty sure on how the novel ends. Yay me!

Have to pick out new phones on the morrow. Glee.

On Saturday, we have my brother-in-law's B-Day. He's the oldest of that crew, I don't quite remember the age. Does that make me a bad person? I don't even see age anymore, not even quite sure that I feel age anymore -- not that I'm immortal or anything, it's just that age doesn't seem to matter to me anymore. I'm comfortable in my skin, doesn't matter what age I am.

I did find a cool thing online though. Find it here. I'll have to remember it when I can't find the inspiration to write. This random generator just rocks!

1. Why won't his advice stick a super technique?
2. On top of a constitutional boils a right railway.
3. The bell shines the intensive deadline.

The thing does words, complex words by defined perameters, phrases, sentences and paragraphs. PARAGRAPHS!

In the laughter flowers the lifetime. Near Storyline rages Author. How can a proven truth fail inside a principal? Our adult discriminates! Underneath the enemy buffer orbits the alphabetical syndrome. The rising paperback warns Storyline on top of the anarchy.

If that's not prophetic, I don't know what is. The Internet Gods smile on me, I think.

The WIP Update

Okay.

Have to get ready for the day job now. Up to 39,771. This latest installation of the WIP is taking on a new life of its own. Still working on a bridge between a couple of other installations of the WIP as well.

I feel like a bit of a TimeLord in this respect. Seeing all that happened before and in the future while existing in the present.

I'm sure that there's a character sketch in there somewhere, but I need to divert that thought.

The WIP

More ideas keep infiltrating my brain for the WIP. I did a recount yesterday, it was around 37k words with many more to go. I'm trying not to focus on the word count so much but actually finishing.

I showed the WIP to a colleague at work. He likes the style of writing and is vested in the characters. I feel a bit validated and it is giving me new energy to put into the project. I did this for a couple of reasons. 1) I'm tired of living on that mystical place called Someday Isle, where your hopes and dreams come true -- eventually. 2) I needed some feedback from someone who had no knowledge of the project up until then. I feel good about that.

Many say that any work is not about the end result, it's the work that's important, and in many aspects, I do agree. However the journey is only half the thing here. This monkey has been on my back for quite some time and I'd like to prove to myself (more than anyone else) that I can finish this thing.

Reaching Into The Void

So, woke up way too early (after about 3-4 hours of sleep). Did a few words to increase the word count on the WIP project that at this time is nameless. I think I'm up to about 40k all together, but I'm trying to focus on actually finishing the damned thing that had a spark in my brain nearly 20 years ago. After which, I promptly went back to bed.

I had a vivid dream that I had overslept. I woke up in a place that wasn't my house and the family there wasn't my family. Sure, in the context of the dream all was fine and dandy, but there was just the tiniest bit of lucidity that screamed into my head for a fraction of a second. Tried to keep calling my boss, but couldn't contact him.

One of the girls (I don't have girls, and there were like 4 of them) always had the damned phone and it was often busy. Finally I got through to my boss' voicemail.

"Thank you for calling,

Mantle, I couldn't wait any longer for you to call. You've earned points against your attendance and you'll have to have perfect attendance for the next 60 days regardless if your sick, have a personal issue, or whatever.

[click]"

Which is disturbing. How did he know I'd be calling?

In this dream, the house was a wreck. There was some sort of concoction being made in the kitchen with tomatoes and cabbage, there were male relatives (not my children, must have been cousins or something) making the stuff. I passed by the bathroom and found the toilet ripped out and the tomato/cabbage mixture all over the floor where the toilet used to be. Not a pleasant image, mind you.

[FLASH] as dreams do.

Now I'm in a mall of some sort. I have a baby. I'm still trying to call my boss to get a message to him about my being late for work. The problem is that the baby is the cell phone. Literally.

The keypad for the cell phone was organically grown (?) into the baby's chest. When I pressed the buttons, I'd get the familiar clicking and sensation of the regular cell phone or keyboard, but it was his (?) skin. Don't ask me where the speaker or microphone was, because I just don't know.

Everytime I tried to call my boss, the baby would end up helping me dial. Several times I got through to a country music station. Sometimes I got static. Sometimes I just got nothing.

Gods, what a strange dream.

Kicking the Tires

Six years is a long time to have this particular blog inactive. Time to kick the tires on it and see if it still runs.

The day job just let a bombshell out. Of course, with the fiscal situation that is going on in the country, much of the monetary incentive that I used to get is now being pulled. The positive thing here is that I'm still employed.

I'm trying to be noble about this. It's just difficult right now. My (all but married) wife is also suffering from the economy. Her county job is being disbanded as of April 1. I wish it were a joke, but that's the day that was set. She's now working nearly 70 hours a week between the county and what was her part time job in the retail sector. We're both floating off alone on the same path. We see each other sleeping in bed.