This and That July 2, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Music, Writing.add a comment
• I’ve been spending time the last couple of days ripping RealAudio files of liturgical music to MP3 format so iTunes can load theminto my library. I’ve got 125 of the rougly 550 files I downloaded done, and my library actually exceeds 4G of space, something I never thought would happen. I haven’t listened to any of the files, and I’m sure I’ll end up disabling some of them either because they’re repeats of songs I already have (I think I’m up to five versions of Amazing Grace so far) or because I don’t like them. I wasn’t listening as I downloaded, so I’m sure some are moldy oldies. I did get a nice version of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus,” so I’m psyched about that.
• Since I’m only on-call today, I’ve been trying to catch up on my writing. I got almost 1,300 words written at the coffee shop, but I need about 4,000 to get completely caught up. I’m still a little short. Fortunately I’m off tomorrow and don’t have choir. I’m also off Tuesday, but I’ll be scooping slush all afternoon and evening at the park. At least I’m experienced. 
At any rate, if I can manage 2,500 words each of the three days, I’ll be more than caught up. The good news is that River is coming well, and I’m getting quite a lot of it written.
• I got the Mac equivalent of FrontPage (iWeb) and have started redesigning my Web site. It won’t be done for several weeks, but I think it will much better, as well as easier to update. Mac programs just tend to be better at design-type stuff.
• Last weekend, I spent four days helping Aleta paint and do other projects at her house, and it looks really good! She picked perfect colors for both her and the space, and I can’t wait to see what it looks like once the new floors are in. (Hopefully before my next visit up!) I also learned how to use a power washer and refined my painting skills. Unlike when my parents had us help paint the outside of the house when I was a teenager, I manged to stay basically paint-free except for where I wiped my hands, and that was done knowing I didn’t care if the clothes got painty. One shirt was so old – my friend Jessa gave it to me for my 16th birthday – that it was falling apart at the seams and was going in the trash at the end of the weekend no matter how clean it stayed.
• The painting project has me considering colors for rooms when I buy a house (18 months to 2 years), so I stopped at Lowe’s yesterday and picked up all sorts of paint chips and suggested color combinations. They have different brands than Home Depot, so I got different ones than up at Aleta’s. On initial glance, I got about a dozen that are worth considering for various rooms. Once I have time to try my own combinations – hopefully tomorrow – I should have a few more possibilities.
A bit behind June 18, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Writing.add a comment
Well, my glorious hope of writing 500 words a day in each uni, plus my book, is not going well. I’m about 200 words behind where I need to be for the week so far, though I have managed to do some writing in each universe.
I’m going to finish up today’s IE segment while waiting for Sports Editor to get around to meeting with me, then head off to the ball game. I’ll probably take a notebook with me so I can write while the game progresses. Like any baseball game, there’s lots of dead time. With any luck, I’ll get enough done in the other three areas to meet the 500/4 challenge I gave myself for a day.
I’m also off tomorrow, so I’ll head up to choir early and do some writing. They took the three-hour meters out downtown, so I can hit the coffee shop before 2 p.m. without having to move my car.
So far:
MM: 565
TH: 507
IE: 748
Exeter: 0
I just can’t turn down a challenge June 14, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Arts and Crafts, Fanfiction, Personal Finance, Running, The Guys, Trixie, Trixie Friends.2 comments
This one’s a doozy, too. I just signed up to write at least 500 words a day for 30 days. They have to be fanfiction, which means any writing toward my book doesn’t count (nor does writing for work).
So now I have to find two hours each morning to run (slog), about 30 minutes each day to write fanfiction, at least that much time to write my book, plus find time to clean my apartment. Can somebody invent a 30-hour day?
In other news, I took a break from running over the weekend, which ends tomorrow. I had blisters on the bottoms of both feet from my old orthotics and while they weren’t painful and they weren’t getting worse, they also weren’t getting any better. Since I walk around in bare feet a lot, there was a decent chance I could step on something and pop one. With Mal coming in for the weekend and the associated walking in DC, I figured it was a good time to take a break. The good news is they seem to have finally healed, so I can start running again.
I started designing Christmas cards last night, and I’m going to figure out what I need for each and assemble a mock-up during the weekend. I know I need ribbon, but I’m not sure what else I need that I don’t already have.
For those who don’t read my other blog, my quest to kill my credit card debt by the end of the year is on track. That means come Jan. 1, I can start saving for a house and a new(er) car. The house is top priority, but I’m still going to be putting a decent amount away for the car in case mine starts falling apart. Fortunately, I’m putting so much to debt now that once it can go into savings, the money will start piling up pretty quickly.
As I mentioned before, Mal came to DC over the weekend and I got to meet her, plus see the Jix Chix. Aleta and Mary are the only ones I’d seen lately. We had a blast! My sister’s stuffed animals are now jealous because we got our picture taken with the Swedish Chef at the American History museum in their muppet exhibit.
Make more or spend less? April 22, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Personal Finance, Writing.3 comments
It’s amazing the number of PF books and sites that focus on spending less to either increase your savings or decrease your debt. Not that spending less is a bad idea, mind you. But there’s a limit to what you can cut and survive. I like the few that recommend making more money, like Mia at MSN’s Women in Red. (I suspect Aleta would agree with me, thanks to her online teaching experiences.)
In some ways, that’s not only more sustainable, it’s better long term because you have more money. Unlike Aleta, however, I don’t have the advanced degrees to make online teaching an option. Unlike people with normal jobs, I can’t really take a second job working weekends as a waitress or cashier. (That’s just asking for the news gods to start plotting!) While I can write, I’m somewhat limited in what I can freelance because I already work for a publication.
My best option so far is teaching color guard, which I’m hoping to do through county parks and rec. I e-mailed the coordinator this week to see how sign-ups were going because our calendar girl (woman, really) said somebody called to say several classes were canceled for lack of enrollment, though mine wasn’t one of them. That’s what happened to mine in the fall. Anyway, she hasn’t e-mailed me back, so I’m not sure what’s going on there.
The one other area I’m considering is book reviews, which are one of the few writing options available to me. (Other than writing a best-selling mystery series, which is still on my to-do list. ) I’m going to start next week with books I own, just to get in practice. Don’t be surprised if they start showing up here during the next few weeks.
And, of course, my biggest opportunity would be if another editor position opened up here that I was qualified for. *crosses fingers* There’s a slight, slight chance that might happen later this year. We’ll see…
The importance of goals April 20, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Healthy Living, Personal Finance, Writing.2 comments
As you’ve all figured out by now, I have credit card debt. (I also have student loan debt, but I’m not really worried about that right now.) My balance now is about three times what it was four years ago, but about two-thirds what it was this time last year. Four years ago, I was determined to pay it down. (Imagine how much money and stress I would have saved had I done it then.) It took hitting five figures before I finally said “OK, enough’s enough.” But then I had to figure how to pay it off. Once I switched to weekly payments, automatically sent from my checking account, I finally started making progress. Why? Partially because I had made it simple. But also because I had a goal that I always see progress toward, something a PF blogger talks about much better than I do in this post.
Now I’ve gotten in the habit of thinking “How can I increase that payment? How can I make a bonus payment (like the one I mentioned earlier today)?” And since every payment shows a noticeable decline in the balance, there’s incentive to continue that, as well as to find sources for one-time payments.
My next goal is to clean out my apartment, weeding out books I can sell back to the used book store and clothes and other items I can save for the next community yard sale. I can certainly do with less stuff, plus the extra money will be another chunk I can put towards my debt. And as I see the space getting freed up, it will make me that much more determined to continue the progress.
Now if I can just find some tangible way to show words piling up, maybe I can get back into writing regularly…
Protected: freewriting April 6, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Writing.Enter your password to view comments
Catch-up March 29, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Arts and Crafts, Basketblogging, Social Life, Work madness, Writing.4 comments
Sorry I’ve been rather silent lately – life’s been crazy. Since CE’s on vacation until April 5, it still is, actually. So this is kind of a news and notes-type post.
* WG’s still contemplating, so little is new there. *RME*
* Some of the training stuff I’m trying to get done at work is actually bearing fruit, which is encouraging.
* The crud that SE had last month is still running around the newsroom. The biggest issue is a fever that lasts four or five days, which has knocked out about a third of the staff at some point during the last six weeks. So far, I’ve avoided the illness, though not the side-effects on workload from people being sick.
* I wanted to try knitting with cotton yarn, so I’m making washcloths to coordinate with my bathroom. It’s different than acrylic and wool, that’s for sure, but I’m enjoying it.
* Writing for fun has been put on the backburner lately. I really need to at least spend 10-15 minutes free writing each day to get back in the habit, but with everything else that’s going on, I haven’t.
* Editing and revising my NaNo stories also is on my to-do list, but hasn’t gotten done. I think I need to start making an actual daily list like I do for work. It’s definitely helping there.
* There’s a new knitting club at the city library every other Saturday, but I have yet to make it. *sigh* This weekend it was because I needed to get my hair cut before the awards banquet, and the place I go has limited hours because it’s run by the local cosmetology school.
* Oh, and I’m in the doghouse with CE, so my task for the next few weeks is to get back in her good graces ASAP, then make sure I stay there so the item that ticked her off doesn’t take on undue importance in my annual review in late May. *sigh* (It happened last year, which is why I’m wary. I need to start ticking her off in the fall instead of the spring.)
* We had a church mission the last few nights, which was pretty cool. The speaker/liturgical composer – Grayson Warren Brown – had CDs, books and songbooks available, so I picked up two CDs and the accompanying songbooks. My liturgical collection in my iTunes is getting larger.
* As usual, I got skunked in SE’s March Madness pool. On the plus side, I was still in the running after the first weekend, which is unusual.
New story March 14, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Fanfiction.add a comment
Today’s my turn to add to the Jix Six celebration. I posted a new Irish Eyes story called “Summer Nights and Autumn Afternoons,” and the link is at the Sun.
Made it! February 27, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Exeter, Fanfiction, Writing.add a comment
I just polished my Jix anni story and sent it off to be edited. Then I added the word count into my running list. (Like Misty, I like spreadsheets. I know; it’s sick.) Anyway, I unofficially crossed the 20K mark. Now, all of these stories and story parts aren’t posted. But they’re all close enough to completion that they could be finished/polished in a pinch if my muses completely went on strike. And once my team’s group story is posted and my anni story goes up, I’ll have more than 15K posted for the year. Not bad, since my Jixaversary isn’t until Oct. 1.
No, that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop writing. In fact, I expect to do some in March while I’m on two training trips, since I generally have time to kill in the evening and morning. Tonight I’m going to transfer all my files to my desktop, print them, three-hole punch them and start rewriting, revising and finishing them. That includes Deadline, which has sat for far too long. Once I print everything out, I’m going to update my writing goals for 2006.
For now, here’s the list:
- Finish rewriting Deadline and start sending to publishers
- Finish River
- Add at least two stories in Tiger’s Heart
- Revise my NaNo IE stories and finish the first phase of the universe
- Start Silent Night
