Today I saw a white motor home being carried on a flat bed with "White's Only" spray painted over the door in green.

Yes, with an apostrophe.

I saw a clinic person here at the school on Wednesday and was given a prescription for antibiotics which I am taking. Yes, I know. Take the full course even if I feel better before they're gone. The reason I took so long to get to this point was just that I kept feeling like I was already better and relapses seemed to be getting further between and less severe. Stupid overconfidence. I'm getting too old to just leave my health to chance, I guess.

"A young kid growing up in an oppressive family situation suddenly learns that he is one of a special class of children with special abilities, who are to be educated in a remote training facility where student life is dominated by an intense game played by teams flying in midair, at which this kid turns out to be exceptionally talented and a natural leader."

( Does this storyline sound familiar? )

My karmic reward for finding a wallet in the rest room and wasting most of my lunch hour to track down its owner and return it personally?

I discovered my credit card missing when I finally did get to lunch and try to pay for it. I found it when I got home three hours later, but it was still ... interesting timing.

In better news, I got to go to the ballet with Jurie. It was the Spring Ensemble that Ballet West does every year, and my favorite piece was a Hamlet and Ophelia pas de deux. A few days later, I filled three bags at the down town library sale. Some old-friend type books, and a few I'm looking forward to getting to know very well.

It has taken me exactly three and a half weeks to become a total Stargate SG1 nerd. It is so VERY beautiful. I guess I've always known it was out there, but I've never had the stations that showed it. My Mom has always really liked it, and my new roommate is a fan and has most of it on DVD. I've not yet been tempted to look up the rest of the fandom on the magical internet, but I suppose it's only a matter of time. I've just started Season Nine.

"Everyone has talent. What is rare is the courage to follow the talent to the dark place where it leads." - Erica Jong

One of my favorite aunts passed away on Tuesday. She wasn't feeling well, but couldn't get in to see her doctor. I assume if she had been feeling worse, she would have gone to an instacare or emergency room, but she did live in a very small town and must have just figured that it would resolve itself. She went to bed and didn't wake up. Pneumonia and complications from diabetes was the final autopsy verdict.

Things I remember about Irene Thatcher Allen:

Irene was observant and intelligent, but still loved everyone. Much like my good friend Susan Hurst whom I also lost to pneumonia a couple of years ago.

Irene was resourceful and talented. She was especially good at sewing.

Irene was funny. I always loved talking to her and I wish very much that I had gotten more chances to do so.

Irene was very natural. She was clean and well-dressed, but she never wore much makeup or worried much about her appearance. She always looked very comfortable and very at ease with herself and at home in any situation. Some people may not think of this as a compliment, but I loved that about her. It never seemed to prevent her from being surrounded by friends.

I think she would be very happy that ten of her siblings managed to come to her funeral. Only my Uncle Jim couldn't make it down from Seattle since he's sending his oldest son on a two-year Mormon mission to France in a couple of weeks. Mormons don't have wakes, but if we did, it would be a lot like what's happening right now in my parents' house. My grandmother and most of her children and many of their children are eating, visiting, and laughing. That, too, would have made Irene very happy.

It seems as if every time I get a deli sandwich from the cafeteria, I end up injuring myself on the huge toothpicks they put through them. Now, it's not difficult to take out a huge toothpick with a funny plastic hat, and yet time after time I eat them without removing the toothpick first. It seems that even hard experience can not teach sometimes.


This is very funny considering I've never had an alcoholic drink of any kind in my life:



88%DRUNKARD

Dinner at my parents' house for my brother Daniel's birthday last night. Daniel gave me Guitar Hero II and III which he says are for my birthday and for Christmas. They are cool beyond words.

We played for four or so hours and both of my brothers, my sister-in-law and my brother-in-law got the hang of it. Grant, I believe, has played before. Two of the kids even managed to pass a few songs in co-op mode with an adult's help and the third kid did well enough that I'm sure she'll be able to pass some by Christmas when I'm over there again. I've only played at parties before. You know, just enough that I would drool over it every time I saw it at a game store.

Daniel has insisted that I unlock all the bonus songs by Christmas so that he can play "Trogdor." Something like that. Shouldn't be a problem. :D

Coutesy of deannakay1 It's The Shakespearean Insulter!

Also, yes, I'm really nervous about the new project coming up at work. JAWS, the program they're asking me to teach, is notoriously huge and unwieldy, and every computer we own is not suitable for running it well. I've been studying it for weeks, and I still am not really sure what the best way to help blind students to understand it is. That said, the fact that I'm nervous does not mean that I'll do a bad job, and it REALLY doesn't mean that I haven't worked hard to prepare. When I expressed concern, I got 'every time I see you, you're not working on it.' I'm tempted to ask what it would look like if I were working on it. It would look a lot like NOT working on it. It would look a lot like looking up random accessible pages on the internet, but while wearing headphones.

*sigh*

"51,574 words so far"

I actually managed to officially limp across the finish line yesterday afternoon, but there's a lot more story in there. ^_^

It was a tough year and I didn't know if I'd really get it done this time with everything else that was going on, and it happened that about half of my word count came from five non-consecutive days, but there it is.

And now I will sleep for a week.

This story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7117287.stm

Reminds me of THIS story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6229649.stm

which, (aside from making me think that the BBC (understandably) has it in for CNN) reminds me of my own personal experience with a CNN caption screw up.

It was 2003 and I was watching the CNN coverage of the Columbia disaster when, and I kid you not, the captions insisted that the shuttle entered the atmosphere "At ten times the speed of light." I had to re-read it to make sure I had read it correctly. I had.

There was a time when captions were used only for breaking news or emergencies. Now they're going all the time, and by their nature they are impromptu and prone to errors. They're also highly distracting. With two stories to focus on at the same time, most humans end up not getting a clear picture of EITHER story.

Do we really need the constant captions?

I had the weirdest sensation last night. It was like the shivers, but focused in my stomach. I got up around four because I thought I might throw up and wanted to be in the bathroom. So odd. I'm still a little queasy.

There is no way to describe how nice it is to be in a quiet place for ten hours at a time. Hello, quiet. Yes, I've missed you too.

Beggars can't be choosers, I know.

This moment brought to you by katsudon and dalac who have let me come stay with them in their home in Denver for a few days. A most needed vacation and I feel a thousand times better because of the time and the attention and the good company. Yes, you too, kanara.

( And now an excerpt which is basically Noah talking some more: )

"For me, writing has become like breathing---a necessary exchange with my environment. If I get too much air, hold my breath, I’ll pass out. If I take too many breaths, I hyperventilate. Writing is how I sort the world. I allow it its mess. I don’t make sense of it. I witness and rummage until I feel better. The more I write, the more I need to write? Maybe. Maybe so."

-- Julianna Baggott in a NaNo pep talk.

And now, 40,000 words!

whew.

Finally reached 30,000 words last night. That means that I'm ALMOST up to suggested word count.

I am very grateful to Brian and Anne Marie for giving me a place to stay while I'm looking for an apartment. More grateful than I can say. That said, I do sometimes feel like I'm a guest at House o' Distraction. :p

Oh! And I've finally found a place to live! I have a new room mate whose name is also Anne Marie, which I think is a good sign, and she's a phlebotomist who works at a local hospital. It's a quiet complex in a quiet area and the bus routes are really good there. I'll be moving in next week starting on Wednesday. That's my main worry taken care of.

This sentence is only here because you should never end an lj entry with a preposition.

Okay, Flist, I really need your help.

This is the opener for my new novel and the introduction of Utnapishtim as the narrator. Yes, that's right, this novel is partly based on Utukki. The problem is this:

Utnapishtim is, according to the tale of Gilgamesh, THE most boring story teller in history. Gilgamesh, on a heroic journey for the good of his people, stops to ask Utnapishtim for advice. Utnapishtim promises to tell him everything he needs to know to complete his quest, but while Utnapishtim is explaining the details, Gilgamesh gets bored and falls asleep. THAT is the character I'm working with, and the one I've chosen to narrate my story. That is why I'm totally insane.

Worse, as it stands now, the narrator introduction is the very first thing a reader will see. So I would like to ask all of you to read the excerpt behind the J-cut and tell me what you think. Did Gilgamesh fall asleep because he'd been walking for however many days without rest, or would this particular Utnapishtim have bored him to sleep even on his best day? Because no matter what, he has to be long winded. What he can NOT afford to be is boring. Most particularly, not on the first page.



( Noah's opening narration )

PLEASE let me know what you think. I know this is "Don't look back, it's NaNo" time, but I want some idea of how Noah's voice is coming through so that I know how to approach things from his perspective in the weeks to come.

Thanks in advance for any input!

Also, I'm willing to live post this one to some extent. I'm putting together a mailing list, and anyone who wants updates every few days of everything I've written so far will get them. Just post your email address in your replies or send me a private message at barelyevil at g mail and I'll put you in my NaNo prereader group.

Happy noveling, everyone!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/25/science/25jacobson.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

I think I love this guy.

And in other news, I committed the most horrible of sins yesterday.

People -- and I use the term loosely -- have always thought that the most clever thing to do upon meeting a person named Michelle is to sing to her the Beatles song of the same name. Every once in a while I still meet someone who actually asks me if I know the song, and THEN starts singing it to me. Mostly, though, they just start singing and then give me that "Aren't I the cleverest person in the universe?" look.

Yesterday, I met a man named Jude.

I was good. I didn't say anything about what a cool name it was and I didn't start singing but minutes later it just burst out! Anyone who's ever driven more than 20 minutes with me knows that whatever song is in there (and there's always one) just HAS to come out sooner or later. He was in the next room at the time and I don't think he heard me before I realized I was doing it, but considering how strong my "Michelle" senses are, he may have. I felt very dumb. And hypocritical.