Arrant Nonsense

I have two stories formatted, printed, and in addressed envelopes, preparatory to being sent out tomorrow. The Abducted!Werewolf is going on its maiden voyage to F&SF, and the BeagleFic is heading out to Analog.

I have written absolutely nothing today, although I did format the BeagleFic properly with real headers rather than the ones I did by hand back when I didn't know how to do them. This...may be remedied after I finish this entry. After all, it's a Dare to Be Bad challenge, right?

Television tonight was awesome, and the previews for next week's Journeyman set off my MomDar like whoa. AUGH. Why you gotta do this to me, show? And I'm just loving Chuck. Ohyespleasegivememoreofthis. And if we could have Adam Baldwin handcuffed shirtless to the bed next time, that'd be peachy. *nods firmly*

There was a hell of an ugly wreck outside our backyard early this morning. From the looks of it, a Contour or something like it was turning left into the apartment complex, and a GMC SUV just plowed into him from the rear and shoved him up the street a good fifty feet or so. Da Boy woke me up for that (after four hours of sleep, yay)...and even though I went back to bed after the excitement was over, this may explain why I've been so very tired all day.

Da Boy was getting ready to put his bike back in the shed in the backyard this evening, when he glanced outside and said "There's a cougar in the yard!"

Now...we don't live in an area where we actually have cougars. They come down from the foothills and invade Sandy sometimes, but they don't get this far west. So, I looked, and it turned out that the neighbor's yellow Labrador Retriever had decided to jump over the five-foot-tall brick wall and play with our dog.

I don't actually have a problem with that. As long as they're happy and don't hurt each other, have at it, pups. Party on. Da Boy was kind of freaked though. He really thought a cougar was going to eat the PupperNutter.

Tomorrow I have to get ready to go to the last race of the season up in Boise, the Halloween Classic. Looking at the weather, this may be a disaster in the making, with showers forecast all week. Sunday is looking good, but...I guess we'll see. The entry fee is paid, and it's as much a social thing as anything else.

Getting ready entails packing, and buying my own Halloween costume for this shindig. I've decided to go with this one. Why, yes, that's a fake arm holding the basket, and the snake is a puppet. OF COURSE it is. This is, after all, me we're talking about here, right? Da Boy is going as a motocross driver, and the Hubby...isn't dressing. We didn't put a theme together this year, so he decided he didn't want to. Maybe next year...

Boy, that was random. Anyway, if you don't see me post for the rest of the week, it's because I'm in Boise at the race. Wish us luck. :)

Vincent Kartheiser talks about his role on Angel.

In other news, I picked up the BSG miniseries at the library today, along with discs 3 & 4 of S2 of Doctor Who. And the next books in the Miles Vorkosigan saga--which I was really happy to see the cover of, because it's just that cool that the wolf-girl is still around. *happyflails*

Here's what my TV viewing is looking like this fall:
Monday: 7pm--Chuck 8pm--Heroes
Tuesday: 7pm--Bones 8pm--House
Wednesday: 9pm--CSI:NY (I may check out the Bionic Woman as well)
Friday: 8pm--Moonlight 9pm--Numb3rs

"Chuck" has Adam Baldwin and an intriguing premise. "Moonlight" replaced "Close to Home" (which endeared it to me immediately; GAWD, I hated that show) and had Stephen S. DeKnight going for it before he had to leave for, I believe, health reasons, although it looks like a horrible mishmash of every bad vampire cliche in the book. It will be snerkable, if nothing else. Now, if only they'd replace "The Ghost Whisperer" with something actually good, I could die happy.

We just watched the VeggieTales version of the story of David and Bathsheba. OMG, the people at Big Idea are brilliant.

Writing? What is this writing of which you speak? I should post more pix from Kalispell, too, because my favorites are in the next batch...

*uses Schlock icon because, hey. Who doesn't love Schlock?*

Well, that was certainly...random.

Instead, I made an icon. Which has now replaced my D'Argo "Shut up includes you" icon.



Because, really. IT'S TRUE. And howardtayler rocks like a big rocking thing.

I've made a few others in the past couple of weeks as well:



The boobies were pulled off the internet; the deer I shot myself (with a camera!).

And of course, Neil Gaiman with a panda is completely irresistible:


I haven't written anything today except BBs posts and a few LJ comments. I got to boggle at the latest SFWA wank, watching it unfold yesterday in all its glory. I joined John Scalzi's new WhateverEsque board.

I shall go forth and stare at the story. I'm at the point where "chaos erupted." Which is a hackneyed, trite, and overused cliche that will (probably) be excised from the final draft of the thing. Because, seriously, all I have to do is SHOW the chaos erupting, and then I won't have to TELL the reader what's going on, because they can see it for themselves. *nods firmly*

I have a cold. I think. Yuck. I have been completely uninspired to write anything and I'm really tired. And my leg hurts. That place where I scraped it on the rock on Antelope Island? It's turned a lovely purple color, on the inside of the leg, from about an inch over my ankle up to the bottom part of the calf muscle. I've been using Bag Balm on the scraped parts, because that stuff is amazing. I'd take a picture, but I wouldn't want to put anyone off their food. *eyes it* Yeah, it's kind of scary-looking. But not in an OMG IT'S INFECTED way, so, yay.

You know, it sure would be nice if anonymous reviewers would leave an email address so I could point them at my profile when they say they hope I'm inspired to write more [insert your favorite crack here], and so I could tell them they'll have to be content with what's there now. *sigh* Well. They've got a link right there on the story they liked; hopefully they'll use it. Really should update that profile...

Remember the badfic author from awhile back? She's re-uploaded that horrid Angel fic. At least she changed the character's age (she's sixteen now, oh joy *eyeroll*) and got rid of the script format, but it still lacks basic punctuation or anything resembling a coherent plot. Seems like an excuse to get Angel and her Sue I'm sorry, her OC Slayer, into bed. I'm...just not even going there anymore, y'all. The story needs a beta in the worst way, and I'm SO not the one to do it.

F&SF will send you a free copy of the September issue if you promise to blog about it after reading it. I've sent for mine, because hey. Free SF. Never a bad.

Well. I shall stare at the Books Gone Bad story. Or possibly the Stuff That Thing story. Or maybe I'll just watch Dresden...

I did a before-and-after weigh-in yesterday. Before and after what, you ask? Mowing the lawn. I lost 6/10 of a pound. Pft, you say, water weight. Could be. Except this morning, not only was that weight still off, but another 2/10 was gone. After gaining a stupid amount of weight after hitting a weight I hadn't seen in ages, I think I'm heading in the right direction again. Yayness.

A very happy birthday to the lovely and effulgent appomattoxco and dettiot! May your day be filled with calorie-free cake and fun.

A lot of people on my flist seem to be going through a hard time today, and cuteoverload (which is crack on toast; everyone should have their feed friended, fer serious) had a pic of a couple of kitties, and so I made an icon.



I have a meeting tonight with my Writing Buddy. Hopefully he'll have gotten to the BeeFic, since that's the one that needs to go out next. And that will be seven stories in circulation. Other writing? Pft. The Muses have left the building. I have ideas for two stories, which is (as they say) half the battle. I even have an ending in mind for one of them. It's just a matter of banging them out. Maybe I'll take the puter with me today for my meeting and work on it after he leaves. Sitting there with no distractions and a nice cup of Caramel Macchiato has a tendency to shake stuff loose...

The etouffee was...okay. Pretty good, but not special. I gained a half pound yesterday.

HOWEVER. I found a site that mirrors Joe's Crab Shack's recipe, and it's far different from the one I made yesterday and sounds way better. THEREFORE, when (notice my adroit avoidance of the word "if," there), I reach the magic weight of 130, I will try that recipe.

In writing news, as soon as I figured out my hook for the A&tS story...I stopped writing. ARGH. I got nothing written yesterday. At all. Partly because I realized I've got too many characters to wrestle with in an under-5,000-word story. So, I've excised my student group from five to three. I may drop it farther, to two.

I've got Wednesday Write with snarking_boojum this afternoon. He's got the CatFeet fic for me, and I've got the WerewolfFic for him. He says he figured out what's wrong with the CatFeet fic, which is great, because I don't have a clue, other than that there's SOMETHING wrong with it. I just hope it's an easy fix. *wibbles*

I don't know if anyone remembers me squeeing about the baby Dronkeys in "Shrek 2" last year, but The Evil Empire WalMart has some little plushies to go with the Shrek 1&2 DVDs. Just in case, you know, anyone wants one. *eyeshift* Not that I bought one yesterday, or anything. *cough* Also? They had "A Knight's Tale" Special Edition in the $5.50 bin.

You know what wins? Using one of kenrand's business cards as a bookmark for "The Golems of Laramie County." *nods*

"LOST"... Dude. Just... Dude. o.O

Drive's been cancelled.

I guess people would rather watch TRASH like "The Wedding Crashers" or "The Littlest Groom" than something with interesting characters, an engaging plot, and pretty cars. *growls*

They've only filmed six episodes. We may, the word from On High says, get the last two eps sometime in May, on consecutive Fridays. What I want is a boxed set of "Drive" and "The Inside," together. Am I going to get it? Eh, probably not. I swear, Fox has the crappiest track record in the world when it comes to Tim's shows. "Wonderfalls" was cancelled after three episodes, IIRC. *snuggles my box set of that show leik whoa*

In other news, the Hubby set his pants on fire doing some welding repair work on his race car. He came in and told me that his ankle felt warm, he looked down, and AUGH! Fortunately, it didn't burn through his pants, let alone his sock, so he's all right. *shakes head*

On the weight-losing front, I've actually been succeeding in doing it. We bought a new scale (finally), and it measures in even tenths of a pound. Apparently I'm doing something right, because I've been losing a steady four-tenths of a pound a day for the last week and a half or so. I was 132.8 this morning, which I haven't seen since before Thanksgiving, and I've dropped all the weight I gained in Moab plus a smidge.

And I just got an email from Writers of the Future telling me that they got my entry for the second quarter. *crosses fingers*

I broke a thousand words yesterday on the CatFeet fic. I haven't broken my main (human) character yet, but that's coming. Oh, yes. *rubs hands together and laughs diabolically* Fear not, for he deserves it. Way more than Jayne did.

American Idol is still bringing the blah and the meh. I still don't know half their names, nor do I care. Last year, year before last, I was excited--hell, I was voting. This year? Can't be arsed to pick up the phone and dial. *punches fist halfheartedly in the air* Go, Melinda.

Of course, the fact that I like Melinda means she'll be voted out around the five-week mark. Then she can make her own career and not be under the thumbs of these people, who probably know what they're doing with someone like her, but have no idea what to do with a Taylor Hicks. Getting voted off when he did was probably the best thing to happen for Chris Daughtry. This is a bubble-gum competition, and he's a rocker.

Not that I'm bitter.

Those of you keeping up with the Heroes Graphic Novels? There's a new one today, so they're at least giving us those while the show is on hiatus. Yay!

Also, the Buffy S8 comic comes out tomorrow, as does Issue 5 of Angel: Auld Lang Syne. You know where I'm headed tomorrow, baby.

So, we're playing "Pass the Cold" in our family right now. Da Boy got it first, and the Hubby and I got it more or less simultaneously. Hubby's feeling somewhat better, but I've snorked down so much snot that it's given me a stomachache. ICK. And possibly probably definitely TMI. Sorry.

Writing news? I have no writing news. I've edited what I could. Unless anyone else has anything further to say about the GargoyleFic, I'm going to (possibly) start sending it out. I haven't decided yet if that one or the DragonFic should go to Writers of the Future yet, but I've got a month to figure it out. I'll probably post the DragonFic next for the Concrit Group.

TV plans tonight include more S3 of Lois and Clark, although when last we left them, they were merrily Evel Knievel-ing over shoals of sharks. I still love the show. This may mean that I'm in serious denial, but I don't care. *clings ferociously*

We forgot to get carrots when we went grocery shopping tonight. Woe. No carrot bread for me. However, I have honey-roasted peanuts.

I've also been reading Schlock Mercenary from the beginning. Dude. howardtayler is a comic genius. Also a nice guy. If you're not reading his webcomic, you should be.

It's snowing like hell again. Yayness. *loathes* Suppose this'll make the ski resorts happy...

So. There's a sci-fi Writer's Convention here in Utah, down at BYU, Feb 15-17. It's free. I'm going. snarking_boojum is going. I hope to see kenrand there. Who else? *ponders* I may be able to offer a spare bedroom...

Okay, so. This week's "House."
( Spoilers and ponderings and QUESTIONS, oh my... )

YAY! for meeting with my Writing Buddy tonight. Of course, it's not like I have anything to give him to actually read, although I suppose I could make the DragonFic a chaptered story and give him the first bit I've got. *evil laughter* Actually, since I have no idea how long the silly thing is going to be, I suppose I can do just that--because if I was writing a novel, I wouldn't be giving him the whole thing all at once.