Mortaine’s Blog

Just as in October, when I was gearing up for NaNoWriMo, this week has been full of Great Ideas.

I really wish my brain would be creative when I actually have time to follow up on it.

In unrelated news:
My iPod was supposed to be delivered today, but UPS is requiring a signature for it, which is a good thing, except that nobody is home to receive it during the day, they won’t re-deliver on a Saturday, and the UPS center is closed on weekends. Also, the center is only open from 9 to 5:30, hours during which I am, typically, at work.

Just got off the phone with UPS; I had them redirect it to John’s office, so it’ll get there tomorrow and I can play with my new shiny iPod all weekend long.

added:

{Sparing my friends list more spam….} I just got my DunDraCon schedule. Sunday morning at 8:00 for my Dragon game (8 hours long), and Monday morning at 8 AM for my Og game. Whew! I wonder if I can hit a midnight game on Saturday and just not sleep….? Ah, at least I’ll have Friday night and all day Saturday free!

For those of you with decent-sized MP3 song collections (legal or otherwise– I’m just data-gathering), how big is your average MP3 file? If you ripped the MP3s yourself, what quality did you use to create it?

Just wondering– my MP3 collection is 16 GB in size right now, and I’m wondering if that’s strictly necessary.

I made a user picture icon for cross-stitch related posts today, but I need permission from the person whose pattern it is before I’ll use it.

I wrote a 2000-word memoire to submit to Doing Good for Goodness’ Sake. The piece needs revision. Actually, the piece needs divine salvation; there’s something missing. Dramatic tension, perhaps, which is ironic, since it’s the most dramatic/daring thing I’ve ever done. And yet, I wrote the memoire (the first draft, any way), as dry as a technical manual. Eep. It also needs an edit for length– it’s 2K, and the guidelines are for 1200 words.

Had lunch with today. That was very pleasant; we spent way too much time chit-chatting about various things, especially our pets (anyone want a kitten? Molly has a couple extras!) Also delivered her eBay wins to her (yay!)

I discovered on my way back to the car after lunch that the draft of the memoire had fallen out of my coat pocket, where I’d put it before leaving for lunch. So now I’m left with the burning question– did it fall out at work? In the parking lot at work? In the parking lot at the restaurant? In the restaurant? I don’t care too much if some stranger picks it up and reads it, but what if someone at work read it? I feel vulnerable, exposed– I suspect this is how most writers feel about their work all the time (writers who just don’t have the overweening egotism that I’ve got). Anyway, it is not a nice sensation, I can definitively state.

I also wonder if Boulevard is going to reject “Sprawl” or not. I submitted it as a regular, non-contest piece (didn’t feel like paying contest entry fees), and their contest just ended, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

I’m very tired today. I’m supposed to give blood this evening after work, but I kind of want to skip it. I don’t have good luck when I give blood while tired. And yet, I know the blood supply is critically low (when isn’t it?), especially in the weeks after the holidays and associated car crashes.

Sold another book on half.com yesterday. Brings my next payment (Jan 15) to $48.98. I like getting money every two weeks.