I wasn't able to finish the X-Future: The Second Generation Begins chapter before the end of Sunday due to a whole bunch of chaos last week. So, I started this week attempting to finish the darn thing, edit it, and get it published. It was a difficult battle in doing so.
Mainly because at some point on Sunday I busted the charger cable for my netbook. Still don't know how or when. It was working fine earlier in the day, and then it just stopped working for me when I moved from the bedroom to the living room. Hubby was able to get it at JUUUUUUST the right angle for it to still work, but it had to be at exactly that angle. Then it was over to our friends' house for the Super Bowl, and once more Hubby had to set up the charger at the proper angle for it to work.
Then Monday came around. I made the mistake of shifting which outlet my laptop was plugged into after Hubby was at work. I couldn't get the charger to work any longer, but I had a full battery. However, between everything I needed to do, the battery drained faster than I anticipated. Before I knew it, I was done with the writing, but not the edits of the chapter. However, my laptop was blinking that it only had 10percent battery left. I struggled with the charger for a good half-hour or so. The laptop was now frantically beeping that it only had about 5percent battery life left, so I caved in and turned the dang thing off.
Between attempting to get the laptop to bring up a menu it's supposed to after hitting FN+ESC - which it refused to do - and scanning everywhere else on the computer, I finally gave up. I took the battery pack out - since it was turned off anyway - to finally find the model number so I could buy a new charger online. Problem was, the only one on Amazon that listed my laptop's specific model number also had a 1star review saying that it didn't work for said specific model - there were about a dozen listed that it was supposedly compatible with - even though it claimed it would. Nervous that I was buying something I wouldn't use, I bit the bullet and bought the cord anyway since there were no other options that I could find in my frantic panic.
I got the cable in the mail yesterday, it works fine - stupid 1star reviewer - but it's about half the length of my original cable, so now I'm stuck working on my laptop only about 2ft from an outlet. Thankfully, Hubby bought me that new battery a few months back, so I can unplug once it's fully charged so it's not as big of an issue. But if I want to finish up something when the laptop is dying, off to my little outlet corner I must go.
Anyway, so it's Monday, my laptop is dead, and I still have to finish with my writing hour and posting the chapter. I decide to go on to Hubby's laptop to do so; thanking myself for writing everything in Google Docs so that I don't need my specific laptop to finish.
Problem is, I didn't want to screw up Hubby's Chrome settings, so I logged in under Incognito Mode. Except, Google Docs won't work unless I log in. Thinking "I'm in incognito, it will be fine" I went ahead and logged in to Google Docs, which logged me in to Google+, which then reset all of Hubby's Chrome presets to mine. Weirdly enough, even though we never went onto my computer under Hubby's account, when I revived my laptop yesterday my Chrome had all of his presets. Weirdest part is that Hubby's laptop claims it's set up under his Google+ account, and my netbook says it's logged in under mine. So, why do I have Hubby's presets and bookmarks, and he has mine? We have yet to figure this out, and so we're slowly rebuilding all of our bookmarks and the like. It's quite frustrating. So much so that I didn't want to bother looking at my computer at all yesterday.
So, mark that as a Zero-Day for writing.
Back to Monday. So, I'm on Hubby's laptop. Logged in on Google Docs. Finished the chapter, edited it, and published on DeviantArt and FanFiction. I was even proud of the fact that I didn't even get my full hour of writing in, but I still managed about 1200 words!
If you'd like to check out the chapter. You can find it here:
"Could Be Twins"
I wanted to go straight into the next chapter. It should be significantly shorter since it's mostly written out via role play, there's not much I'll need to alter, and there isn't any new room I need to describe. I thought that maybe this would be the week where I could get the X-Future chapter done, as well as get another writing prompt set up for my meeting this upcoming Tuesday.
Instead, I have yet to even START the chapter. Stupid computer.
By the time I gave up attempting to revive my computer, and found a cable I could order to charge it again, I barely had any time left before Hubby was done with work. He came home, we celebrated the Lunar New Year - yeah, because wearing all that red was really bringing me good luck; thanks Year of the Monkey - and then he played some more Skyrim while I finished posted my chapter. I just didn't have the energy to get started on the next chapter after that whole headache. Especially since the actual chapters are in Google Docs, but the list of posts I was converting are all on my private laptop. I'd have to manually sift through all of the X-Future posts all over again to try to gather up what I needed. I wasn't ready to do that with everything else going on already.
Tuesday was a real bummer. I had to be in work an hour before my shift to drop Hubby off, and I had to stick around an hour after my shift for Hubby to clock out. I could have gotten so much writing done, but nope. Computer was out of commission. At least I got some reading done.
Same with yesterday. I had another three hours or so bookending my shift after dropping off Hubby and waiting for him to clock out. Once again, I didn't have my computer to write on, so I read. I guess that's a plus at least.
I had decided to start up "Life, The Universe, And Everything" by Douglas Adams. It's the third installment in the "Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" series. I wasn't sure what book category I wanted to read next, and so I figured I'd go back to Hitchhikers - it's a small enough book that I can easily carry it in my purse - for the challenge. I wanted to go with "A book you abandoned" but I couldn't recall which one that was. Part of me feels fairly certain that I finished "Life, the Universe, and Everything" and that I abandoned the next book "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." However, Hubby doesn't remember me finishing "Life..." and so, I don't want to start up "So Long..." if I never finished "Life..." But what if I did finish "Life..."? Is this a waste of reading time? I read too slowly for me to be able to get this and another book done within a short month, especially when I missed the first week of it!
Well, then I rationalized that even if I did finish "Life..." I can still mark it off as one of two books: "A book I've read at least once before" or "A book published before I was born". And if it turns out that I was right, and I didn't finish this book the first go, I can use it as I originally intended: the abandoned book.
I think it was the abandoned book, because it's already starting to annoy me. While the first two books were fantastic and hilarious - and I have chuckled at this one too - there's something about the situations Arthur finds himself in that seem a bit too over-the-top compared to the earlier novels. I'm pushing though it, though. I think another hiccup is that in the first two books, Arthur is out in the galaxy, experiencing new worlds and cultures. I'm just as new to these worlds as the protagonist. I'm learning with him. "Life..."? Well, there's a whole section dealing with cricket and general English culture that makes sense to those that live in Adams' native country, but for a foreigner like me, I'm confused as to what is going on. On top of that, since Adams' assumed most of his audience knows exactly what is going on, he felt he didn't need to explain anything. Which confuses me more. If it were an alien thing that he's pitching at the readers, he'd know we had no clue, and so he'd explain things. Cricket? Nah. People know what's up.
I mean, I did play a game or two of cricket in college - thank you, eccentric Communications professor - but I don't recall much of anything. So, my brain is about as fried as Arthur's at this point in the book.
I'm hoping to get past the overboard opening of this book and power on through it, and enjoy it enough to want to read the remaining three books in the series.
I'm just batting 1000 with these series books. First, the Kane Chronicles were sort of lackluster for me, and now Hitchhikers.... I need more Percy Jackson....
Alright, I know I've been sort of all over the place with this post, and honestly, I don't have the time to bother going back and editing it to be more linear. So, let's recap, shall we?
Monday: Tried writing. Laptop died. I had a freak out for about an hour. Finished writing, editing, and publishing the chapter via Hubby's laptop. Celebrated Lunar New Year.
Tuesday: Laptop still down due to no charger. Fat Tuesday/Doughnut Day/Faschnact Day/Mardi Gras. Ate a lot of doughnuts. Spent all morning, and the early part of the afternoon at work without access to a computer to write. Tried reading instead. Got home and frantically cleaned. Two co-workers showed up a few hours later in order to build their new X-Future characters. Had a grand-old-time, but didn't have the ability to steal Hubby's laptop for writing. Zero Day.
Wednesday: Another day where I spent the majority of it at work, but with no access to a computer in order to write. Read instead. Attempted to get home, only for the soft metal of my car key to bend in the lock. Had to have the in-laws drive us home in order to get the spare. Had a headache of a time to make more spare copies in case this happens again. Don't actually make it home until after 6pm. Ate dinner, got frustrated at life, read some more. Passed out at 8:45pm. Zero Day.
Thursday: Got up early to write this post. Something is up, though, and I've been having stomach issues all morning. Hopefully it won't cause me to go a third day in a row without writing something fictional. I have to do grocery shopping, and laundry today. I'm hoping to write while doing laundry at least. This week hasn't been going well for me.
And now I'm off to get ready for work. I'm really REALLY hoping for a turn-around today, and the rest of the week.... With any hope, I'll still have a new chapter for everyone next week. I'm just sorry for anyone who had been following my writing prompts anthology since I've been slacking on that.
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