I apologize in advance, this post will be kind of scattered, that's just how my brain is making connections this morning :-)

I think I need to either re-make / re-design my website (CrushedMuffin.com), or remove it from my work resume. Or both.

At ALA I failed to get my resume reviewed, perhaps I should do that via the e-mail review service.

I need to / want to figure out what consists of a book review. Self edification. I know where to start too, as I've been neglecting to really pay attention to my friends lists (especially on my writing journal) and there have been reviews posted there.

I have not been in contact with my niece lately regarding our writing project. I have created my character (Meribel) and a bit of her back story. I don't know if Tessa did the character worksheet I sent to Marina, but last week I did get an e-mail with a complete two-page story about her character Lucy. I need to talk with her and see if she is willing to look at events in Lucy's life a little more closely (the story goes from her birth, and subsequent "adoption"  through to the point where she is grown up and living happily, having faced her big life-choice dilemma.  I have not written anything else on Meribel's story, as I've been waiting to talk with Tessa, to decide "what next".

Not that there should be surprise. I haven't written much of anything lately. I did finish the scene of Divine Madness I was editing. The problem is  thus: the next scene will be a brand-new scene, an effort to get one of the "bad guys" introduced earlier in the book. But I don't know him very well. I sat down yesterday to start the 100 question interview for him, but I got his name, and then took a wild guess at age, and got frustrated and gave up. I don't know the character so badly that I am timid to make any speculations about him.

We had a barbeque on Friday. Toby took control over the grill that we borrowed from Anne and Nicki. There was a great flash of fire that caught our attention at one point, where he was trying to get the charcoal to be ready to re-light by adding lighter fluid. Apparently there was still a coal on fire from the time before and Woosh! flames. Much later we noticed that Anne had a bit of light tips on some of the hair on one side (she was wearing it brushed up), apparently she was very near the grill when the fire went Woosh, and she got a little singed on the ends of her hair. She's okay, but it was a startling after-the-fact realization.

Yesterday we went to see Wall-E. Much fun. I enjoyed the move.

Yesterday was very much a tv kind of day. I watched parts of several on-tv movies, we watched some of season 3 of Avatar the Last Airbender (we are excited the rest of the season will be aired from July 14- 19th) I also watched the first 3 episodes of season 1 of InuYasha, and when Alison came over, a few episodes of season one of Fushigi Yuugi.

I haven't really done my stretches or my morning pages this weekend. I have slept in (as much as my cats will let me).

At ALA, I got to see Leah and Ronnie and Jeremy, hurray. We met up at downtown Disney. I also went to some really neat sessions - the orientations sessions (where our speaker on the exhibitors talked over time, both sessions), a session on the future of Face-to-Face reference, a session where sci-fi and fantasy authors discussed intellectual property, and a session on binding. At the one with the authors, I was early enough to get a bag with books by each of the authors to have autographed after (the first 150 people got the bag). I was really stoked because Brandon Sanderson one of the authors who does the podcast writing excuses was there. I told him I liked his podcast, and got him to sign the first book of his Mistborn Trilogy. I was told by one of the other people waiting in line for autographs that one of the vendors had the third book in the trilogy as an advance reader's copy. I managed to get one of those, as well. I read Mistborn: The Final Empire on the airplane on the return flight on Monday (which was delayed. I left LA at 11:50 am, instead of 10 am, and arrived in Gainesville at 11pm, instead of 8:15 pm.) I finished it on Wednesday night, but I had already gone with Alison to buy the second book in the trilogy. Now I have all three *celebration hands*

When i checked my e-mail upon returning to work on Wednesday, I found an e-mail from the Tower Road branch of the public library. Where I had applied for a librarian position. They sent all applicants information about what they are looking for at the interview, and an assessment to be proctored by you current supervisor. The e-mail asked candidates to prepare a 10 minute preschool program, a young adult book talk, and a short info session on using the catalog. It mentioned it was looking for people with strong young adult background / interest. I decided I would go ahead and complete the assessment, and then think about things, since the assessment was due by the end of the same day. I opened the assessment, with the set hour to complete it. After about 8 minutes, I came to terms with the fact that this wasn't the job for me, and I didn't complete the assessment.

As for the job at Santa Fe College (formerly Santa Fe Community College), well, there was an article in the Gainesville Sun a few weeks ago that might explain why I haven't heard anything back. Due to budget constraints, all vacant faculty positions are frozen.

So, I am where I am for now.

I did talk with a few librarians who are in their first years at ALA, and I'm still trying to evaluate my own skills, my desires and education, and try to figure out where I best belong.

I haven't yet e-mailed the librarians and library school students I met at ALA, but that is on my list for this weekend. As is finishing laundry. Toby and I may even finally finish the transition of decor in our living room from faeries to travel items. We took down a lot of our pictures and prints earlier, but haven't gotten around to replacing them yet.

At our Thursday night gaming session I got to introduce my newest character, Georgiana. She is a first level rogue, first level sorcerer, who has an interesting backstory. I just have to decide how long it has been since the magic incident that reverted her from a middle age woman to a nine-year-old, and how well she is taking it in stride vs. being bitter.

Hurm, what else. I think I'm done rambling for now. This has been a (very) hodge podge look at what I'm up to lately, and what I'm not up to.  Oh, yeah, last night I went through and re-alphabetized my netflix queue. Great fun, ne?

I went with Anne and Alison and Toby to Home Depot a few weeks ago. Alison and Anne were looking around for plants, and I ended up eyeing the violets. I used to have violets in my room growing up, and they made me sort of nostalgic. I decided that at $3 I could afford to indulge in one.

There were two that had a color flower that I wanted (A rich purple), but the leaves were in really beat-up shape. Those with good leaves had this funky pinky/purple color that I didn't like. I aganoized over it for several minutes, then finally decided on one. I picked one that had very healthy looking leaves, but no flowers. It is now budding, and I am looking forward to see what color the flowers will be.

On another note, we corrupted our dog-loving friend. I went with Alison last week to the Humane Society, and she adopted a kitten. As she is out of town for Father's Day, I am on kitten playing duty. Nana is an adorable calico kitten, and she loves to play. I'm excited to spend time with her.

Yay kittens!


I have not heard back from the SFCC job yet, except that it is still under review. I will also be applying for some public librarian positions that were recently posted for the Tower road location.

I send happy Father's Day wishes to my dad who is en route to Alaska.

And for those of you who read Anne's webcomic, Jack and Jill, she now updates on Mondays. It has worked well so far, and look forward to more gallery pics this upcoming Monday.

Well, brief update, but my fingers are hurting today, and it is now the weekend. Yay weekend!

Date:	2008-06-04 21:50
Subject:	meme
Security:	Public
Mood:	bored

Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They must be real places, names, things.

You can NOT use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name - Christy
Girl's Name - Cindy
Boy's Name - Charles
Type of Car - Corvette
City - Charleston
Vegetable - cauliflower
Fruit – Cherry
Color - Cream
Body Part - canine
Something You Can Wear - clothes! (urm, chaps)
Cartoon Character - Cardcaptor Sakura
Reason for being late – car accident
Animal - cat
Occupation - clerk
Celebrity – Charlie Sheen
Something Found in Your Bathroom - Clarinex
Word to Describe You – creative

So, let's see. Been a long time since I posted.

I still haven't heard anything about the job at Santa Fe Community College. At the interview I was told they hoped to make an offer by the end of the following week. The week after that I called the HR office at SFCC, and the gentleman there told me the process was still with the search committee, under review. That was last week, and I didn't hear anything this week either.

As it is, if I don't hear anything, or even if I do, I'm planning on buying the hosteling card and j-rail ticket I need for the Japan trip the middle of this month (buying the tickets this month, trip is in October). Plus, I've got to get on the ball and pick what programs and events I'll be attending at ALA this year, since I fly out to California for that on the 26th.

I just spent most of my free time this week re-reading Boys Over Flowers - well, the 29 volumes that are out so far. I need to sell some of my other manga, ones that I won't be re-reading again, and want to post them on E-Bay first, since they are complete series, but that seems like such a bother, I might just post them all on half.com and be done with it.

I'm thinking I'm also going to get rid of most of my theater books. I've kept a lot of them (I'm a keeper of books, who would have guessed) without reading them, and it seems less and less likely that I will read them. I'm more of manga, sci-fi, fantasy and occasional fiction reader.

We have a new roommate, Lila, the girlfriend of a friend of ours (though she is also a not-so-recent addition to our gaming group). Her last roommate was leaving the country, and May is a really hard time to find a place and a roommate in a college town. So we offered to let her stay with us, in Alison's old room. The rent we collect from her will go to help pay off the loan we took out to have the windows replaced. Right now the state of our house is interesting - most of the common living area (the living room, dining room and kitchen) are tidier than they were before Lila moved in - still in that semi-hostess mode, making a good impression and all that. My study area (inside the garage door), our bedroom, and the library are very cluttered -we had to find places for all the stuff that had been in that room and closet. I want to go through that stuff, but haven't yet. I bet I could get rid of / consolidate a lot of it. But as I said, I spent most of the week reading.

I'm also still writing. I've been putting off working on editing Divine Madness, but the deal I have with bookshelf_elf is that at our write-in tonight I will resume the re-writing part of my editing process, just as she is beginning hers. I did write a story for the May genre_challenge, Child Fiction. I posted it (friends-locked) over in my writing journal: nanoweylyn. I think it turned out pretty good. I got good feedback from Alison and Anne so far, and several of the people on the genre challenge community were saying nice things about it (which is a little intimidating, because I know it is one of my better pieces, and it was the first thing I posted on the community, so I feel a little pressure to continue to be that good....). I've also put it up for critique for today's Gainesville Fiction Writer's meeting, so we'll see what kind of feedback I get there. Depending on what they think, I may try to see if I can find a market for it. It would be the first story I've written that I've then tried to find a market for (the other two times I've made submissions, I found out about the market (anthologies in this case) and wrote the story for them. In the very least, the Genre challenge people do an annual anthology, so I may have them use the story there.

I've been working on changing the look of the front page for my sister's webcomic: Jack and Jill. I still have to do the PHP for the page, but it functions as it is, so we'll probably go live with the new look (navigation bar on the side, instead of the bottom) with the update for tomorrow. (Anne has decided to update once a week, instead of when a chapter is finished. Yay for her!) Thanks to Ron and Lila for helping figure out the DIVs on the page, and to Ron for his promised help with the upcoming PHP.

At work, I am tired of the database stuff I've been doing. Everything is pretty much built (I had to relearn Microsoft Access the hard way - I think I did more stuff with it than I actually learned in the classes I took years ago with Housing) , but I'm currently documenting the hell out of the various steps, trying to make it as simple as possible, since I will not be the only one working with the database, and especially in case I get a new job, since there are steps in the project that involve building new queries and importing tables and such. Even if I'm the one doing it, the imports and new queries only happen once a year, so it'll be good to have documentation laid out step-by-step to follow.

Hum, I think that is pretty much it - well, everything I can think of to update at the time, anyway. My parents have just left on their next trip - to Alaska, and a friend of mine recently had a daughter (congratulations Chris!) Over the summer I'll be working with my sister-in-law on a writing project with Tessa and Zachary. Toby is doing well, and a group of us are taking Tai Chi.

Yep, that's about it. So I'll end this long rambling post here.

Date:	2008-05-05 20:16
Subject:	Interview
Security:	Public
Mood:	optimistic

I think that went really well. Let's hope they did, too. :-)

Date:	2008-05-04 08:26
Subject:	To do list
Security:	Public
Mood:	in pain

Tomorrow is my interview for the librarian position at Santa Fe Community College. I've had my friends grill me with sample questions I've found, I've done a trial run of my presentation with some colleges at UF, and I've gone shopping for an awesome interview outfit and shoes (which Alison insisted are a must, since my last interview shoes are the heels I still own from high school).

I still have many things to do today, some regular weekend stuff, some in preparation of the interview. I'm hoping to space them out, to give me some down time between interview things so I'm not constantly thinking of it, and hopefully lessening the chance to get worried or anxious.

Laundry - wash my interview shirt
Revise Handouts for the presentation
Review SFCC library site one last time, play with the database search features
Get copies of handouts made
Review interview questions some more
Find accessories and makeup for tomorrow
Break in new shoes by wearing them around the house
Grocery shop - regular task plus find something good for breakfast tomorrow
Gainesville Fiction Writers meet 1:30-3:30 (plus, re-read the stories for today so I can talk intelligently about them)
Go see Forbidden Kingdom *possibly - depending on how much I get done this morning


But I had soreness in my shoulder yesterday, and today I've woken up to nigh excruciating pain - I've taken some ibuprofen and am laying on an ice pack, hoping it clears up enough to let me take on these tasks without tears, as some my early attempts to move have caused. I'm thirsty now, but in too much pain to get up and get a glass of water :-( !

I'm sure I had more on the list - but it is in the other room, and I don't know I can / should get up right now, so I'll just sit here on the ice pack and hope the pain reduces soon!

Argh.

Date:	2008-04-13 09:05
Subject:	Shopping, Preperations, and lists
Security:	Public
Mood:	excited

Yesterday Alison, Anne and Nicki were generous enough to accompany me shopping. I hate shopping. We ended up spending most of the trip in JCPenny's. I was looking for replacement for two pairs of jeans, one pair of causal work pants, and shoes. I need new sneakers and new nice shoes / heels - either that or inserts to help with arch support. Alison suggested that the pain I feel in my knee could be due to poor shoes, and the more I think about it, the relation of the problems I've been having with my knee and when I last went shoe shopping, I think she's on to something.

I managed to find jeans and pants no problem (well, it did take some trying on) but then they were on sale. (I laugh, because it was JCPenny's, where they always seem to have a sale :-)  - good for me, and for fodder for comedy) I did not find a non-white, collared dress shirt - but we weren't looking too hard there. I looked at suit jackets and pants, but nothing really stood out in that department either. The shoes, well, they didn't have the size and color combination I liked, and didn't even have an 8 1/2 wide for me to try to see if my toes wouldn't be squished, as they felt in the medium. I didn't have them order me the size I think I needed because I was worried about what if they didn't fit.

So we went to Pay-less. I found some possible sneakers there, but didn't buy them - keeping options open. We swung by Sears, no luck with shoes or suits, then I found this really awesome suit at The Limited, and though the pants would need to be hemmed up (or I"d have to wear 4" heels - can you imagine?) it was, with jacket and pants, $250 before tax. YIKES!

(For those curious, I'll explain the suit in just a minute.)

By this time we were all tired of being at the mall, so we went home. Toby, Alison and I went back out later, swinging by Target - which didn't have most of the sneakers they own in my size, Old Navy, Rack Room Shoes and Best Buy. I got nothing, except a plant stand and the surprise revelation that last week when I bought the $3 pen holder for my desk, it rang up as $19.95 storage unit, and since they took it off a gift card, I didn't notice. I ended up having to pay for the plant-stand, which I thought would be covered by the rest of the money on the card. I was very frustrated with that, and with the whole shopping experience by that point, so we got dinner at Ashley's. Food helped, though my tacos fell apart, but the Oreo Fried Ice Cream was yummy.

The reason I am looking for a suit, or a colored, collared shirt and nicer shoes (well, I guess I just need to replace my heels anyway, they are getting old, as Alison points out) is that Anne and Alison suggested I spruce up my interview outfit. I have an interview with Santa Fe Community College for a Librarian position at the Lawrence W. Tyree library. It is an Assistant Professor position, tenure track, and the process calls for a day-long interview. I have been working towards a reference position (which this is), by volunteering at UF's Info Point and  Ask-a-Librarian services. Heck, I even shadowed for a little while, watching some reference desk work so I could see how the face-to-face reference interactions took place. So I am simultaneously excited and nervous about this.

One aspect of the interview really brings out both emotions - the presentation. I have to give a presentation to the interviewers (I presume the search committee and perhaps others that may want to sit in?), teaching them about the library resources as though they are incoming freshmen. It is exciting, and my mind is already racing with ideas for how to teach the material, how to present it, how to make it interactive, whether or not I want to make hand-outs, etc. But I'm also nervous about this since my past interview experience was at housing, and then for the library staff position I am in currently. So this will be different, to say the least.

And finally, I have a lot to do around the house, well, things that I feel I've been putting off. I discussed it with Anne, and we came up with an action plan. Shopping yesterday was part of it (but due to now looking for better clothes for the interview, I have to go out again), but also finishing some of the touch-up painting, organizing my notes, reorganizing my bookshelf, and perhaps even *gasp* purging some books? (I may post more of my manga for sale, in the very least). Also, my pantry has gotten disheveled, literally, and though it would only take about half an hour to fix, I have been putting it off, and it has been getting worse and worse, and getting to me when I go to look for things in it.

Naturally the plans will have to be changed a bit to give me time to work on my presentation (I got the details of my interview after we'd set the plan), but I feel better for having a manageable list of things that I can check off as I get them done, and Anne has even volunteered to help with some of them (like touching up paint).

Other things I need to do that aren't on the list - make a birthday present for my niece (I'm making a book for her to write her stories in) - find writing prompts that are suitable for a 9 year old (Tessa, Marina and I will be doing these together, online, over the summer break for Tessa), and scan and send my mom images of the ATCs Anne and I made last week. (Artist Trading Cards - a lot of fun), post pictures to Flickr, once I figure out how my account works, finish making shirts and business cards for Gainesville Fiction writers, in time for the Open House we are holding next week.

Well, I am up early this morning, so I think I may sneak in some time to reorganize my pantry before people come over for gaming.

Happy Birthday shlafe! Warm wishes and all that jazz.

Date:	2008-03-30 08:41
Subject:	Goals
Security:	Public
Mood:	productive

Well, I've set myself some goals, mostly writing stuff, but some of it is general "get organized" stuff. I just hope that I'm not working at cross purposes, putting too much on my plate.

This morning I sat down and wrote up a list of all the writing projects that I am in the middle of, or that I may have set aside to languish for a while, but that I think still have merit. Then I tried to jot down what I think I need to do with these pieces before I have them to the next viable stage (for some of them it is to finish writing them, others, they are on their final edit and just need some polishing to be "anthology ready").  -- wow that was a lot of punctuation with which to end a sentence. I wonder if I got it in the correct order?

I have also determined that I am a bit to lax in my writing habit - that is I only write a little, and only when I've got time set aside with bookshelf_elf. I've been a bit better about editing Divine Madness, but a lot of what I am doing is plotting out the history of the world in which the story is set, so the background is settled in my mind, and the theology and politics of it all are settled before I begin the actual re-write of the story. I think it will really help, and it is something (the plotting) that I can easily do with multi-tasking. I may look like I'm really focused on my work, or going to sleep, or walking between point A and point B,  but really I am plotting until I can get to a piece of paper and jot down my newest thoughts.

I would like to be better about working on something writing related every day, even if just for fifteen minutes. Well, something other than my "Morning Pages" from The Artist's Way, because I have been writing those pretty regularly since before I even began reading the book (which, to my shame, I still haven't finished the 12-week "course" after about seven months).

I also want to peruse more writing websites, and look for writing exercises to do to strengthen my handle of the craft.

But, I also want to organize and name my photos. Post the promised ones on my brand new flickr account - which is so new that I haven't yet figured out how to upload a picture!

I want to type in all the information, notes, and thoughts that I have jotted down on various pieces of paper, in notebooks, and on napkins, so that they are organized, and the originals can be recycled. I have addresses that are years and years old (and probably wrong) that I never added to my address books. I have great story prompts and ideas scribbled everywhere, which if I could only get into one place would surely give me at least a year's worth of daily prompts. I've got who-knows-what other treasures in these notes. I want to find out. I also want to take my other attempts (usually copying all notes from one place into a random document on my computer, or a locked LJ entry) and put them in these newly created, organized and labeled documents (I have one for addresses, one for prompts, one for books to read, etc, etc).

I've been working on getting my paper files organized, but my computer files are a mess, so I hope to work to clean those up, purge duplicates, and then make a back-up of my profile on the server, so my organized, and complete files will be safe in case of disaster. I'll probably burn it to CD too, just in case.

And don't get me started on my closet and the things I want to do around the house (though, admittedly, it is not all THAT bad, since my previous month's worth of cleaning and purging - most of my rooms it is a matter of re-finding the order I created last year. Two rooms, however, still are awaiting their first purge *shudder*). But I work on that by degrees.

I think the biggest thing is to set aside time each day to write, or edit, or something writing related. I just hope I can manage to juggle all this in a manner that is relaxed and doesn't make me want to pull my hair out and give up.

Date:	2008-03-29 16:18
Subject:	Saturday
Security:	Public
Mood:	indecisive

Happy Birthday to Alison!

This morning wasn't quite as productive as I wanted to be, but I managed to get most of my errands run in the early afternoon. Now my sister is over for a Saturday "work day." She is working on her comic, and Toby will be working on homework as soon as he is done putting the finishing touches on the new bay window (painting the window frames). I am at a loss, though. I don't know whether I should do work on my house, cleaning my newish office / guest room, or if I should do actual writing / editing stuff. I want to do both and neither at the same time. So to put off making a decision, I came to post here for just a little bit.

*sigh* - back to decision making, I guess.

*edit* - I ended up making a new icon on the candybar doll maker 3, then I cleaned the room which is now my workspace, and though I didn't purge much, I got a lot put away into the proper files, and I know what I want to do to redecorate the space - when I can afford to get the poster and pictures I have framed. It is so amazing to see the floor in here. I'm happy I did this, because tomorrow I'll have a nice clean room where I can go to write. :-)

Date:	2008-03-23 10:39
Subject:	too tired to be embarassed
Security:	Public
Mood:	sleppy

Well, I am just back from the usual meet-up spot for my writer's group. I only waited 20 minutes working on editing my novel and wondering where the other members where before I realized that it was an off-week, and that the next meet-up is on the 30th, not today.

In other news, yesterday I went to visit my brother and sister-in-law. I love my niece and nephews, but when they vie for your attention, the way they do so is to try to be louder than the next. And when I show up I feel like a prize to be won, a toy to not be shared, because when I was playing with one, the other two would try to get me engaged into some other activity with only them.

I don't think I'll make 50 hours on my novel this month (Editing Divine Madness, my 2005 nano novel), but so far I'm at 14+ hours, and I did put 9 hours in during February, so that is something. I really need to work out the history and political structure to provide a better background for the story (to make it more like a "real" fantasy novel, where there is a complete world) though now I wonder if that is just a clever stalling tactic on my part, like doing the 100 question interview for each of my 5 main characters.

Work front: Starting Monday I am working full time downstairs in Preservation - a real full-time library job where I'm not filling two part-time positions on one full-time job line. I'm glad for the move, and can only hope that with the upcoming and current budget process that I am able to stay in this job.

No word yet on the librarian position I applied for at Santa Fe.

I've painted the interior of the bay window, and Toby put up blinds, so the inside is complete. We're using half the storage area underneath for my sewing machine and accessories. The other side is still empty, but I've got a lot of stuff, a lot of ideas of what I can put there. Plus, I'm trying to purge things that I've horded due to my pack-rat tendencies, so maybe there will be less to put there.

My parents are stopping by later this week to visit on their way back home (They were in Tampa for a woodworking show, and I saw them yesterday at my brother's house). Last week was Anne's Birthday, Toby's birthday and this week is Alison's birthday, so we are going to dinner for them on Thursday. I keep thinking I have some commitment on Tuesday - oh yes, I recall, my parents are going to be in town. Duh.

Sigh.

I feel out of whack in my life lately.

I wonder where I can find more whack.

Date:	2008-01-19 11:20
Subject:	Week in review
Security:	Public
Mood:	determined

Happy Birthday to my brother, David, my writing buddy bookshelf_elf, and my co-worker Jay.

This week was week 9 of Artist Way project- after having a 2+ month break in my progress due to NaNo WriMo, Holidays and laziness. I still haven't completed the big task this week (re-reading the Morning Pages to look for and mark insights and actions) - the thing about putting this on hold for 2+ months is that I was still doing the morning pages about 95% of the time, so I have many, many days of 3-page ramblings to get through. And I have a hard time to try to sit down and do it. Week 9 may be 2 weeks long, but I WILL start week 10 on Jan. 27th at the latest.

Reading: this week I've read a little of the Artist Way book, much time reading Requiem for the Sun by Elizabeth Haydon, and only a little bit of Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy and my morning pages.

At work,  I found out that I've been missing a step for something I've been doing for 4 months, now. And I never knew. I think it got mentioned once, earlier, but for some reason it didn't stick, or it wasn't explained to me that it was a step for many of the updates I've been doing in the database. In any case I've not been doing it. Sigh. I'm still having a hard time getting along with my supervisor upstairs, so I try to make my meetings with her as efficient as possible, so I can go back to work. We also did some work on the mini-grant project. Trying to find an appropriate undergraduate class to take the survey is hard, so it looks like we'll have to use this one honors history class where most of the students aren't history majors, and have most likely not heard of the resources we are asking about in the survey.

For work I am also going to ALA Annual in June/July in Anaheim, CA. I am doing committee work, so I get more money to go. I need to register, start pricing airline tickets, and try to find a roommate(s).

This week the people putting our windows in finished - we have all new windows, and in the front of our house, a new bay window complete with window seat and storage under the seat. We bought the foam, fabric (a nice rich red) and zipper for the cushion, and the construction guy's mom will make that for us. For now we have a few of the sitting pillows my mom made me on the bench. We will need to paint the window- interior to match the current walls - exterior -well, we'll probably end up painting the entire house. We're still working on color choices. For now the outside is all white (primed and ready to go) and it is a great contrast to the coral color of the rest of our house.

Date:	2008-01-13 12:39
Subject:	Music Meme
Security:	Public
Mood:	hungry

Teh music meme

Gankged from bookshelf_elf

Directions:
1. Put your iTunes, Windows Media Player, iPod etc. on shuffle.
2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer.
3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS

Date:	2008-01-05 12:11
Subject:	Birthday!
Security:	Public
Mood:	chipper

Happy Birthday Shaughn and warmest wishes for the new year!

Date:	2008-01-02 10:34
Subject:	New Years
Security:	Public
Mood:	okay

Well, I had this great idea for New Year's cards, and I bought all the materials, but didn't get around to making them. Maybe I'll make them in advance for next year - or send them late this year. We'll see.

Other than that my New Year has started off on the right foot. Yesterday was pretty productive, and full of family and friends. My house isn't a clean as I would like, but I made a start, and that is progress :-)

This year I hope to be in better contact with my friends (i.e. utilize e-mail, myspace and facebook, etc to open contact with some I've not spoken to in a while). I also hope to keep a cleaner house.

My "resolutions”, as proclaimed just after midnight, and watching the ball drop, are to edit a NaNo WriMo novel (though not this past year’s), and make my new gym membership worth it (i.e. utilize it).

Other than that, I have goals. Steps, some of them, larger picture for others. I want to learn how to edit my work – it is the next step in my writing progress. I can write, I’ve proven it with short stories and 5 novels; Editing, however, has generally eluded me. Now is the time to confront my fear, unease and general inexperience in editing by tackling it. I am editing one of my NaNo novels (most likely Divine Madness, but maybe Charlie’s Place). I will be participating in NaNo EdMo (National Novel Editing Month) in March, where I put in 50 hours of editing. I hope to include other time – if I do Divine Madness, it needs a lot of work, and probably a full re-write – maybe that is cheating in “editing” world – or maybe it is a step to ease me into it. Hum.

My time in 2008 will be work, reading, writing and staying fit (by help of my brand new, piping hot gym membership to Gainesville Health and Fitness, as well as continued persistence on my stretches given to me by my physical therapist). I have, over the past year or so, cut a lot of time that was spent away – improv class, martial arts, school, other endeavors – I hope to simplify my time, to make room for more time with family and friends, and what I have chosen to dedicate my free time to – writing.

I will still meet my writer buddy regularly, to try to keep writing at least 3 times a week. In trying to improve my writing, and get new ideas, I also plan to read books on writing, culling from them what I find useful and not taking any one book on writing as the end-all, be-all authority on the written word. I know better than that ;-)

I have just signed up for a writing project, the Moleskin project, and hopefully I’ll get to be one of the 192 writers for it. It sounds like a fun challenge. I’ll be looking for other writing challenges this year, too, to help me work outside my comfort zone, and to stretch my boundaries.

I will be going to Japan in October with Alison, and thus I am also striving to spend less money this year (to pay for plane tickets, rail tickets, accommodations, etc). To aid this my hubby, my sister and I are packing lunches 3 out of 5 days a week to eat together. This will also, I hope, lend to healthier eating. 

Well, this is pretty much a summary of how I expect 2008 to go. But you know that the best plans never come to fruition exactly how we planned, and I look forward to seeing how this year turns out.

Date:	2007-11-30 08:08
Subject:	Final Writing
Security:	Public
Mood:	drained

I didn't manage to finish my novel last night as I had hoped (I was scatterbrained in more ways than one). The "Final Push" write-in event went well, though, with 23 people in and out, including a member of the community who came to hear the authors speak.

But I forgot i was supposed to meet my writing buddy (Sorry Allie) and so was 45 minutes late, and got wrapped up in conversation with many people (including said member of community) so I didn't get a lot of good writing time in.

At 20 min until 1 I stopped writing, mid scene (a first for me this month), just when I hit my groove and was getting ready to finish. Haven't even posted the stuff yet - haven't gotten an accurate word count on it yet, even.

So, I write again tonight. (http://www.crushedmuffin.com/writings/ThreepennyNovel.html)

7pm - until I finish.

Then, I sleep.

And these times should get us through the end of the story? I really hope so!


# Sun. Nov. 25: 10:00 am - 11:30 am
# Mon. Nov. 26: 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
# Tues. Nov. 27: 9:15 pm - 10:30 pm
# Wed. Nov. 28: 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm
# Thurs. Nov. 29: 5:15 pm - 12:30 am (Nov. 30) -This is the final write-in: I'll be writing off and on during the entire event, until I (hopfully) finish the story.


I'm at 60550 words, and stuck again. :-\

This is my tentative schedule for this week. It may change depending on how the holidays pan out.

# Tues. Nov. 20: 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm
# Wed. Nov. 21: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
# Thurs. Nov. 23: 9:00 am - 10:00 am
# Fri. Nov. 24: 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
# Sat. Nov. 25: 10:00 am - 11:30 am
# Sun. Nov. 26: 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm


Allie, I'm still game for Tuesday - but I'll be working on Fallen, not Threepenny Novel during that time - I have a write in that afternoon. I'll e-mail you, but I wanted to mention it here in case you saw this first.

Here is a new list of time's I'm writing. I pushed today's writing session back so I can go see one of the former NaNo WriMo's do a reading at a local bookstore.


* Fri. Nov. 16: 9:00 pm - 10:30 pm
* Sat. Nov. 17: 9:30 am - 11 am
* Sun. Nov. 18: TBD - either morning or early afternoon
* Mon. Nov. 19: 7:30 pm - 9 pm
* Tues. Nov. 19: 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm


And I saw the cast list yesterday. I was no cast. No big surprise, but I had fun at the audition, and that's what was important to me. :-)

These are the times the next week I plan to write online: http://www.crushedmuffin.com/writings/ThreepennyNovel.html



Tues. Nov. 13: 9:15 pm - 10:30 pm
Wed. Nov. 14: 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Thurs. Nov. 15: 9:15 pm - 10:30 pm
Fri. Nov. 16: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Sat. Nov. 17: 9:30 am - 11 am



Oh, and I have a call-back tonight for my last-night's audition to GCP's production of Blythe Spirit.