Mortaine’s Blog

I am, all of a sudden, very tired today. I think I will go take a nap for a couple of hours. I have my presentation tonight, and I want to be conscious for it.

I have a cold/flu thing again, with “productive cough” (mmm… crunchy!) and general feeling of cruddiness. I came down with this yesterday morning, and had a pleasant flight home, approximately 7 hours in an airplane with a 100 degree fever.

The fever broke last night, and I’m doing better today. Still feel like crud, though.

Just thought I’d update you all.

I’m in Massachusetts right now, and returning home tomorrow, which is why I haven’t done the whole “come see me!” thing this trip. No internet access till today.

And then this afternoon, my cell phone broke. So if you try to reach me between now and tomorrow night, you pretty much need to know my home number, cause I have no way to get in touch before I get home. Sad, really– I’m all disconnected!

I’m visiting my friend Ken, who has an 18-month old son and a beautiful wife. His son is a total geek. He turned off my computer for me (thanks, kid), and determinedly went to put a CD on– and today he’s been the cranky kid!

I’ve enjoyed this trip, but I’ve been unusually tired and dirty (like, I need 2 showers a day), and yesterday I didn’t do any writing. Not today, either (so far). I should be hitting 10K words tonight, but it’s not gonna happen. It would be easier if my novel didn’t suck hot monkey balls.

Also, John wants to run away with me. I think I concur. Now we just have to teach the cat to drive….

I have a couple of events coming up, and I hope you all will join me at some of them.

First, I’m speaking at the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Society for Technical Communication next week, on Thursday, October 26, starting at 6:00 PM. The topic is “Web 2.0: Making the Bandwagon an Effective Vehicle for Technical Communication.” There is a fee to attend the meeting– $35 if you’re not a member of the STC, $25 if you are, but dinner’s included. The meeting is at TechMart in Sunnyvale, California: .

Then, I’m doing a re-play of the talk I gave last month, this time at the STC in San Luis Obispo. It’s on Monday, October 30, starting at 6:00 PM. The topic is Introduction to Videoblogging, and it’s a FREE event and open to the public. The meeting is at Where: KCBXnet Computer Training Center, 4100 Vachell Lane, in San Luis Obispo.

And then, gentle readers, there’s something extra-special coming up. The weekend of November 4th brings us a double-whammy in San Francisco! First, the Dummies Unconference, which features panels on topics ranging from health and fitness to computer programming, and where I’ll hopefully be able to squeeze myself onto a panel or two to talk up my favorite subject! The conference has a registration fee and the public is welcome at the Ask an Expert panels and the book signings (so I don’t know what the public registration costs are).

Then, we have the Vloggies, an awards show for videoblogging excellence. The event is November 4th at the Swedish American Music Hall in San Francisco, and is sponsored by PodTech. I can’t remember if it’s a paid event, but it’s definitely open to the public.

I saw my eye doctor today. No sign of eye diseases, but I do have conjunctivitis in both eyes, probably a result of allergies to contact lens solution. *sigh* This explains my difficulty wearing contacts for the last 4 days. I now get to switch to Yet Another Contact Cleansing Regimen.

Ugh.

Anyway, I started my novel. I’m 677 words into The Haunted Novelist. I am set to finish on November 15th, 30 days from today, with 3 days to spare before our trip. I do not have a NaNoWriMo journal set up yet, and haven’t decided how to blog this particular exercise.