And Another One Gone... Another One Bites The Dust

Goodness, it's been a little while, huh? Sorry about missing last week. Working two jobs has left me a bit winded and scatter-brained. I even had to ask a co-worker one day what the date was. It kept me a good ten minutes after she told me for it to register that it was also my mother's birthday! I was going to say something in last week's post, but... well... there wasn't one...

So here's a belated for my mom:

And Mother's Day is this upcoming Sunday, so here's a preemptive for that:

And for good measure, May 3rd happens to be Teacher Appreciation Day:

Mom teaches toddlers, so I think she should get some extra kudos...

I could keep going because today also marks me and Hubby being a couple for 13yrs! Married for 5 in October, but still... TOGETHER for 13yrs! Woah.

Hacker Girl Facebook Sticker
by Birdman Inc

Alright, back on topic here.....

So, yeah, the days sort of folded in onto each other until I completely lost track. Also, as I think I mentioned before, Thursdays aren't going to work for me anymore for updating. I'll be in at work by 9:30 in the morning, and stay there until 8 at night.

HOWEVER, there is a silver lining. Unlike my old/current job where I GENERALLY got the same days off, but it wasn't guaranteed, at my new/current job I will ALWAYS have at least Tuesdays off - except for situations in which someone calls out or requests a Tuesday off.....

The second day a week that I'll have off is sort of randomized, but at least I'll ALWAYS have Tuesdays off - barring the above exception. So, guess what day will now be my normal update days!

Granted, I'm wicked late today - almost didn't make it - and I did say I'd give you a heads up before the official switch, but I did have to work the old/current job today, and deal with some other things that were sort of thrown along the wayside over the chaos-week. Everything should be settling down after Saturday, though, when I'll ONLY be working the new job.

In the meantime, last Monday I was in a minor-panic because I didn't have anything new to read at Writing Group. Phfylburt had given me a challenge that I had until the 1st to work on, but I was desperate for inspiration, and so I ran with it.

The challenge was to write "the next" paragraph for the last story I read. In other words, extend the book by one more paragraph. It was odd to complete something that the author already said was at the perfect stopping point, and so I'm not entirely sure how well I did with this. Not many at the writing group have read any of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," much less the fourth installment: "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish." Because of that, no one - not even Phfyl who also never read the series - could really critique what I wrote. I did get some feedback along the lines of "this sounds really good" and "I love the imagery" and "it seems like a great stopping point." So there's that.

Also, me being me, I couldn't conclude my continuation in just one paragraph; not neatly anyway. Which means I went on for a couple of brief paragraphs. I also read the last two or three paragraphs of the actual book to create a good lead-in. My group couldn't quite tell where Douglas Adams stopped and where I picked up, so I guess that's saying something too, right?

As can be expected, given the nature of the challenge, the prompt is very brief and contains spoilers. However, if you already know how SL&TFATF ends - or the previous book "Life, the Universe, and Everything" - or don't care about spoilers, feel free to read my continuation here:

"So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish: Extended Edition"

On DeviantArt          On FictionPress

Chaos ensued this week as I struggled to work two jobs for the first time in my life. Thank God it's only for two weeks; I have no clue how people do this for a living! Without the added panicky push of needing something to read during writing group, I didn't bother with writing. I just wanted to curl up on the couch with Hubby when we had our few precious hours together.

Not only did this result in me not writing much more than six short paragraphs for the above prompt, but I didn't bother with the Hey Arnold script with ChibiSunnie, nor did I read anything.

It was closing in on the last day of April, and I never even picked out a book for the reading challenge. Eventually, Hubby sensed my stress on the subject and ran into our library for a book. At this point I was pretty much just left with "Can read in one day" and so I picked "Coraline."

I LOVED the movie when it came out in 2009. I never heard of the book it was based on; I just saw a teaser trailer, loved the animation, already was a fan of both Focus Features and Laika Entertainment, and was excited that the director of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" Henry Selick was directing his adaptation of the book. So, I was following it before it was released, and obsessively sat on its website playing the games and bonus features. I was even a member of GaiaOnline at the time, and loved the special games they created on the site to promote the movie.

So, YA novel be damned, I wanted to eventually read this book. I've actually owned it for so long that I don't recall where I got it from. I think it was a hand-me-down from celestialTyrant.... Seems like a book he'd be interested in too. Well, Hubby thought it was about time I finally made good on my self-promise. I sat myself down on Saturday, and made sure I had that darn book read before midnight!

It seemed an easy enough read. About 160 pages, thirteen chapters, one full-page illustration each chapter, large font, 1.5 line spacing, and simple language intended for children as young as eight. Didn't help, though, that Cyhyr and Ronoxym had their baby shower the same day, and I also had to work, and Ron came by to hang a bit after the shower..... Still, I was determined. So, as much as I would have loved to hang out with Ron, or seen his and Cyhyr's place for the first time to help her put all her new goodies away, I locked myself in my room and read.

I have to say, this is one of those rare times where I believe the movie improved upon the source material. The novel was good, and I agree with the reviews that it can be super creepy for kids. Heck, the illustrations by Dave McKean are the stuff of nightmares even as an adult. I found myself flipping past them as fast as I could.

However, maybe due to more allotted length to spend with Coraline in the movie, I felt her character - and the other characters, for that matter - were underdeveloped in the book. Plus, I missed the characters Wybie and his grandma, who were both apparently written for the movie. I think those added characters really added a nice depth to the story. On top of that, you could really sense Coraline's temptation to stay in the Other World when you watched the movie. In the book, on the other hand, she didn't seem all that impressed or tempted right from the get-go. The Other Mother cooked dinners Coraline actually enjoyed. That was pretty much it for the book version.

I liked what the Beldam did to the Others in the movie; it fit fairly well. However, I do say that the creatures at the end of the book did seem a lot creepier. Part of me is glad that the movie versions were still creepy, but tamer. Another part of me is sort of curious about how they would have looked in a visual media, that wasn't McKean's drawings. *Shudder*

The Exploration Game seemed better developed in the movie, but I liked what Coraline was searching for better from the book. The ending in the movie felt more intense, suspenseful, and dangerous. A fairly similar ending in the book, on the other hand, seemed a bit lack-luster and anti-climactic.

Now, all this said, I still very-much enjoyed the book. It is a good read that I would recommend to anyone who wanted a creepy tale to flip through. I just feel that the movie was a touch more skillful at telling the story, especially when it keeps fairly close to the book, and the parts where it deviates are - in my opinion - improvements. Each page I read just made me want to the watch the movie all the more. In the end, that's exactly what I did: snuggled up with some tea and watched me some Coraline in a blackened house.

Alright, so let's see my progress in this reading challenge, shall we?

Challenge created by Modern Mrs. Darcy

Now, let's remember that all of those books are flexible.

"Life, the Universe, and Everything" is currently checked off as "read at least once before" but could also be shifted to "published before born" if I end up re-reading something else, and don't have another book for the latter category.

Same can be said about "So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish" which is currently marked as the "abandoned" book.

"Coraline" is currently in the "Read in one day" slot, which takes out the self-help 15pg mini-ebook I read in January. However, I could, if I so chose, shift it to "Meaning to read" or even "Owned but never read."

My May book is going to be "Speaker for the Dead" by Orson Scott Card. It's a continuation of the "Ender's Game" series, and also my book - in theory - for the "picked by spouse" category. Hubby loves Orson Scott Card and the Ender Saga. Technically, if I wanted to shift SL&TFATF, I did once read the first chapter of "Speaker for the Dead" and got bored. This could be another "abandoned" book, however, I'm older and more mature now. My tastes have broadened, and so I'm hoping to enjoy this book as much as Hubby does. I'll have to let you know at the end of the month.

Can We Fast Forward to Next Week?

This has been a very fast week, and a massive productivity crapshoot.

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"

On DeviantArt          On FanFiction

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.