Mortaine’s Blog

So, my friend Brian and I are the most antagonistic towards each other, but we’re also great friends. Brian’s the guy I’d call if I needed bail and couldn’t reach my husband. We’re very close, very good friends.

But if you’re ever playing a competitive game with us (and, trust me, every game is competitive if we’re in it), you really only have to wait for the two of us to destroy each other, and just walk in to wipe up whatever’s left. We antagonize each other, debate, argue, etc. etc. etc.– even when we completely agree. The wrangling is truly a thing of beauty– something along the lines of an old married couple and a pair of siblings, except we’re not related and have never been romantically interested.

So, last night, we were talking about writing, and Brian (who reads about 90% science fiction, including that dreck R. Jordan writes) said that he felt science fiction was a crutch to writing real characters. Which kind of blew my mind, because science fiction is one way to tell a story, one way to isolate something you want to talk about. There are very few interesting science fiction stories that really need to be sci fi, but when you have a limited number of stories in the universe, you tend to find other ways of telling them.

We had, I kid not, about an hour’s long debate over this.

About 26 hours before I start writing my sci fi novel for NaNoWriMo.

Hmmm…. yeah, usually Brian and I debate to spark new ideas and bend our minds in different directions. But last night, I just wanted to strangle him because, all I really needed was for him to say “Sounds great, Steph– have a lot of fun with it!”

In any case, it’s just over 12 hours to the start of NaNoWriMo, and Australians and NZers have already started. I’m very excited, but also feeling tremendously underprepared– not for NaNoWriMo, but for tonight’s Halloween party. Perhaps I should just admit that NaNoWriMo preparation interferes with my ability to prepare for Halloween, and figure out a better schedule for getting them both done next year.

New userpic. This is my day-time Halloween costume this year (the one I can wear to work).

Everyone say “ooo!” Thank you.

NaNoWriMo starts in 14 hours and 15 minutes.

I mailed a priority mail package to Orting, Washington two days ago, to return an MP3 adapter. Just checked the delivery confirmation info:

We attempted to deliver your item at 5:49 am on October 30, 2003 in ORTING, WA 98360 and a notice was left. It can be redelivered or picked up at the Post Office. If the item is unclaimed, it will be returned to the sender. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.

It was a fricking P.O. Box– and they couldn’t deliver it? I mean, I realize it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to pick up a package at 5:49 AM, but still.

*grumble grumble*

I gorged myself on pizza– 1/2 of a small Papa Murphy’s pizza. And beer– 2 beers.

I am sooooo happy. I know it’s bad for me, but I’m so glad I did it. I *needed* that. I need to be drunk. I need to be bad. I need to eat like a teenager again, even for a night.

I went over my points– by a lot.

I want to give some belated shout-outs: to tonight– congrats on both the baby-gender and on being the new gunk admin! And to : congrats on being made the new syn admin! And to and — congrats on adminning a new cat; let me know if there’s anything I can do to make your job easier, guys!

I want to have another beer and get even drunker…..

I wish I had the metabolism to be a real alcoholic.

I just spent over an hour trying to understand an engineer who didn’t mind the fact I don’t have a PhD in semiconductor technology (or, specifically, semi tech that hasn’t actually been invented outside of our lab yet).

And then, after we were done, my co-worker mentioned that this technology won’t even be available in the software release I’m writing the manual for.

Why? WHY?

As evidenced by the fact you cannot post a comment, that is a rhetorical question. Look it up.