Today I plugged numbers into the equation, and determined that the limit > 0.

I forgot how fun private dance parties can be!!!!!!!!!!!!

edit: Wooo drunken stumble! I think it's srsly been years...

Life is strange... but game nights are AWESOME!

Viva Puerto Rico!

I went into a bookstore the other day and did something uncharacteristic: I bought a book that I hadn't researched before and which no one had recommended to me before. It was a staff recommendation, and the comparison to George R. Martin sold me, since the first Fire & Ice book is among my favorites (not quite as in love with the later books).

Unfortunately, I am really confounded by the beginning of this book. I skipped the Prologue and dove straight in and discovered, much to my chagrin, that this is one of those books where

Just when I figure out what a Chorae is, someone is called a Javreh Captain. After 50 pages of reading, I have no idea what all of these factions are... the Few, the Scarlet Sorcererers, etc. Sundry places are mentioned, but I have no idea what the weather is like wherever the heck I am. Call me crazy, but don't most books try to start you out small, and then slowly reveal the world to you? Fantasy or not, it's not a strategy that draws me in. I'd love to be interested in a character, for that matter.

But I'm worried that maybe I'm just not giving this book a fair chance because of writing nitpicking, and that I'd be missing out on something incredible. After all, I didn't love the first chapter or two of A Game of Thrones (..."but the writing was good, and the author didn't set out to deliberately confuse you" the nitpicky voice within whispers). I'll give it 100 pages (120, since I skipped the prologue) and if I can't take it, it will be one of the few books I actually RETURN to a bookstore.

Here, for example, is a positive review: http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2005/05/darkness-that-comes-before.html

Been distracted from RL for the past couple weeks due to family emergency, but things are fine so I think I can concentrate on my own stuff now. That means less Warcraft, although I hit 50 w/ my shaman so that's good. Wish I could get a priest up for Lich King but having something of a life might be great.

Spent the morning wishing I had more work to do, instead I read about Empress Wang and the Han dynasty; not an era I'm too familiar with but it might be a good read. Also read more about the life of Sulla--always a favorite in the evil dictator department. I'm re-reading Aristotle's Poetics, always useful for inspiration. Also bought a book on a whim, "The Prince of Nothing" (that's the series name, sadly the book name is kind of lame). Haven't been able to get into it but maybe I will with a clearer mind.

Own work not going so great. Two half-chapters done, feel pretty poor about both of them. Oh well, get done with them and revise--there's some shining moments coming up. I've been thinking more about the political elements lately. Everything is a weird mixture of Republican/Imperial Rome, Heian Japan, and some city states to boot. Hopefully it will all make sense in the end. I'm loving the "Shadow Court" idea a bunch, but that's a kernal to save for the future.

Why is it so cold and gloomy in San Francisco today? It's summer. SUMMER!

On the other hand, it's not 102 degrees every day for four months :)

Jenn's post reminded me about my dentist appointment tomorrow. For the first time in my life I've been flossing every day (okay, 5-6 times a week, which is pretty darn good for me) and brushing twice a day pretty much every day. I'm probably still too weak of a brusher but we'll see. Hopefully my adult-ness is paying off and my appointment will go nice and great?

:D

Update: Yay! I've been promoted back to the six month dentist plan!

Congratulations Andrea on getting your home...sometime soon...hopefully... :D

Maybe I'm more interested in becoming a homeowner than I thought. There is a sweet little 2BR Condo in North Oakland (around Telegraph, in the Rockridge area just near Berkeley) that is under 200k and offers below market rates for the Mortgage. Rockridge is a nice area but this is a few blocks west...not sure exactly how nice that area is, but it was the only Oakland home in the non-murdery part of town. But the place is kind of small, and I'm not sure that I would want to "own" something that essentially looks like an apartment.

My heart flutters a little when I actually see something I can afford. I'm really happy with my place, but it is really dirty, and sometimes I have a hard time focusing on my bigger goals in life. It's very much a collegey-type atmosphere, not that any of us are in college...

But the rent is so cheap, and I have the option to save and work on securing a bigger down payment, and the housing market is supposed to worsen even further over the next year, which will provide even more lucrative opportunities. So in other words, despite yummy deals, I have to remind myself of the bigger picture.

I've made a decision about the future that probably will result in me abandoning this journal over the coming months. It wasn't anything I expected, but the idea came to me while on the toilet (as great ideas so often do). More details soon!

This morning at 5 am Jodie thought it would be really fun to attack my face. Because she was awake and I was sleepy, I was unable to outwit her by covering my head with blanket or pillow, or turning my head to the opposite side. She seemed to have a really good time--I never realized that my nose was such a great cat toy. Once I finally realized I would never get back to sleep I tossed her out of the room, but other whiny, meowing cats ensured no sleep was to be had.

So now I'm at work, pretty much exhausted, with almost nothing to do. Yawn.

Thinking about writing (characters, plot, MURDER, setting, SEX, dialogue, MURDER) is fun.

Thinking about pre-publishing (synopsis, REVISION, agent queries, REJECTION, partial requests, REVISION, finding good agents, REJECTION) is not fun.

Thinking about publishing (choosing book covers, NEXT BOOK, attending book crowded signing events, NEXT BOOK, re-arranging book shelves so min eis prominently displayed, NEXT BOOK) is pretty fun, although I admit I hardly ever do it, since I'm pretty focused on the task at hand.

How about I skip that yucky middle part?

I guess like everyone else who writes with the intention to publish one day, I have a small fairytale dream that out of my first five submissions, I'll have two or three agents who slober over me. I'm too much of a realist to believe it, but just because a fantasy is impossible doesn't mean you don't have it somewhere in the back of your mind, lurking, preparing to be shattered by clashing face-first with reality.

Well okay, actually maybe the middle isn't so bad. Thinking about it:

Synopsis-I excell at these. I've already written a rough draft of one--now I need to finish the book. I mean, it's so easy to write and revise one page five times than write 500 pages and revise that until it's GOOD.

Query-Shouldn't be too bad to write one. I've been reading and practicing enough that I'm prepared and won't be totally clueless when I get to this stage.

Revision-I'm a revision nut. I already have a bunch of revisions for Part I, and only haven't made them because if I let myself I'll fuss foreverandeverand never finish anything.

Rejection-I got used to this when applying for college and grad school, and hopefully like publishing, I finally got in somewhere I was happy. Won't deny that they will sting some, especially as they pile up.

Finding Agents-Probably the toughest part, since I'm bad at this kind of research. Hopefully Andrea has some tips for me.

Anyways, can't get my mind off of MURDER. It's going to get written tonight. I haven't written a murder in almost a year. Oh sweet, delicious, silky smooth MURDER!!!!!!!!!

Yay! Jenine decided Mississippi didn't fit and came back to the Bay Area!

Yay! Andrea found a house to buy--and clearly the deciding factor is that it is slightly closer to me thereby shortening my travel time for weekend visits!

Yay! Heather will be visiting the exact week that I was planning on taking off to do some writing while house sitting for my mom! A whole uninterupted week with one of my favorite people on the planet who now lives in faraway Texas!

Yay! Bonnie, Angelo and I have made plans to go to Pride (my first time!) and the True Colors Tour on the same day!

Yay! Exclamations!!!!

(!!!!11)

It's really hot today, and I'm having allergies, and the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.

On second glance my mom's neighboring house doesn't seem like such a great deal. Craigslist shows a number of comparable houses ranging from $125k to $200k, and living so close to my parents might not give me the independence I now enjoy. I'm not sure whether I want a condo or a house yet, or what all I want to factor in, so any action now would be premature.

In addition, everything I've read points to the fact that we still haven't hit the peak of falling housing prices yet. It doesn't make much sense to me to invest in a property worth $175k when a year from now it might be valued 25k or even 50k dollars less. I'm very happy where I live and I don't NEED to move now.

Plus, the most irrational excuse: it's Vallejo--WHY would I want to move back? It's sort of a complex among people who grow up there, at least the people I knew.

The house next to my mom's is up for sale. The price is only $175,000.

I am VERY suspicious about it being so cheap, but I'm almost tempted to join the market.

Ah, the website is www.117sanmarino.com

And just now my boss saw me looking at it, and her jaw dropped at the price. I think for a minute she was considering it :D

Am I reading correctly? Hilary Clinton said Barack Obama can't win the general election? If that's the case, and she long-shots the nomination, I will not be voting for her.

Please say it ain't so!

Life is going well, with a number of minor changes. Here's the laundry list:

-It's still high immigration season for another week or so, so I'm pretty stressed out on the job end. I might be taking on some more responsibilities to keep myself interested in the job, which would result in a promotion. Not sure about if I *want* more responsibilities, though.

-I've been going to bed early, and then waking up and feeling like I didn't sleep at all. I'm pretty much tired all the time now, and it's rather awful. Nonetheless, I'm not taking any naps and following my normal sleep schedule. I'm okay most of the time, but afternoons are usually pretty bad before I get my second wind on the way home from work.

-We finally got a Wii at my house, so I've been Smashing it up every night. One of my roommates is insanely good with Ness and Ike, and another with Snake, so it's tough competition.

The Good News: lots of awesome new characters, and everyone moves a little slower, which opens up a number of characters for my play-style. I've been having a lot of success with Sheik, Wolf, Link, and to my utter shock, Fox. Yes, the character that I was WORST at in melee (aside from Ness/Mew) is probably my best character atm against my roommates.

The Bad News: Peach seems pretty bad now, so I'm hardly playing her. Her twirly dress smash has no bite now, and her neutral B spin move can't knock people out any more. Her Forward Smash (racket/frying pan) got incredibly better, but don't get me started on her Final Smash.... it's only good if someone is in the air and will fall asleep and die :( Also, Samus (my third favorite character) sucks pretty bad too now.

-I quit World of Warcraft, and will be selling my account to one of my roommates co-workers who said "ZOMG level 70 geared druid on a pvp server ME WANT!!!!!!!!!" An easy $200-$250 :) The reason I made this decision was to free up more time for writing/Smash Bros., and I was getting pretty bored with the game. It was about 90% "routine"/boring stuff, and 10% fun. I should have quit months ago, but it took me this long to realize how little fun I was still having. In the future, I need to be more conscious of this. My message to Blizzard: TIME SINKS ARE NOT THE SAME THING AS FUN!

-Books: I've started a couple good series this year: Mistborn and the Golden Compass. Need to read more of them.

-Writing: Been doing well about working every day, especially since quitting Warcraft. I've got about 130 pages (will probably be <100 once revised), but some of that is a year old and has some outdated names, so I'm working on getting everything all on the same page. I've worked out that I'm about 25% finished now. Pretty lame considering I've been working on it a year, but I expect the rest will be done MUCH faster.

I'm trying to write in the morning, since due to my bad sleeping I am not very brain-active in my usual peak writing hours (9pm+). Hopefully my sleeping will improve once work craziness gets better.

I'm really frustrated with life. We've had a Wii at my mansion for the past six months or so. I was at Andrea's place when she bought SMASH BROS. BRAWL and really enjoyed it, and was looking forward to playing it all week at my place.

It turns out that the Wii got taken back (apparantly Peter was just borrowing it from his brother). So now we have the game, but no Wii to play it on :/ And they're really hard to find, except as a pricey bundle at Fry's.

*cry*

I'm glad my biggest problem in life is revolving around a video game.

So someone I went to junior high and high school with, and performed in plays with, successfully murdered two people. Me and my friends were discussing this at Heather's wedding, and sadly, none of us were surprised. It would be almost funny, except that it is real.

I feel bad for the victims. Random killings make no sense to me.

http://www.sacbee.com/crime/story/664777.html

Life is going pretty well. This book is going well (if slow). I've been going to the bookstore recently and buying several books. I really enjoy reading on the ~15 minute BART ride, as it stretches out reading. I am the sort of person who often devours a book instantly, so it's nice to take 2-3 weeks to finish instead.

I've been seeing a lot of friends and family recently. I also am changing my cat's diet to what my sister is feeding Jodie's sister. I hope that this results in a sleeker coat and a slimmer build, but we'll see! Jodie is still super cute. I bought her some big cat toys from Ikea and she goes wild over them. She also is getting along famously with all of my roommates now—only took nine months for her to warm up to them!

I'm also saving money. For what remains undecided. The place where I live now has really cheap rent, which allows me to put a lot of my check into savings and stocks. If I live at the Mansion for a couple more years and keep steady employment, I may have enough saved for a modest piece of Bay Area property (or something a little bit bigger elsewhere). Saving 20% for something at Bay Area prices will take quite a while, though :D

I went to the Rosicrucian Egypt museum this weekend with family. I found myself strangely moved by all these 2-4,000 year old artifacts. It's always very strange to think that people very similar to us lived such different styles of lives in different eras. I like exploring this in my writing, the similarities and differences. But it also made me feel very sad looking at those artifacts. It felt like looking at ghosts.