The most exciting thing that's happened in my life is the arrival of my own 4-port USB hub shaped like the TARDIS from England (part of that questioned order I mentioned a while back; with luck the rest will trickle in eventually, too). Now, while any ol' hub would be fine, this one has a glowing light on top and makes the TARDIS engine noises when you plug things in. What's not to love?

And so goes my exciting life. I has a TARDIS, and I've been keeping up with most of my friends' journals. This is an accomplishment!

I went (or am going through) another crisis of "why the hell do I even bother?" in regard to my writing, but I dutifully have hunkered down and critiqued the others in my writers' groups (or at least, I got many of them done, I have a few more to go) and will post more. At least beta readers are readers! One of them helpfully informed me that he worked with a friend on a self-published release, and even with all their friends spreading the word they still only managed to sell 500 copies. And I thought, "Well, that's 500 more people reading than I have currently." I really don't want (or expect, really) to make money as an author. I know I'd have to be John Grisham or Stephen King to do that. I just would like people to read my work and say, "I enjoyed that." (Without the added "you need to fix X, X, and Y." I like criticism, I do, but...) I think that's why I hung around RSI as long as I did, despite the lack of real money and the real lack of any respect (or gratitude) from my employers.

Dang, Bo Diddley passed away. :'( Now, I understand why he (and other great black artists of the 50's) get a little uptight about Elvis being mistakenly credited with the "invention" of rock-n-roll. But Elvis himself never said that, and I believe never would have; what Elvis DID was allow black music to be played in white households, which was absolutely unheard of in those days, and he broke the black/white barrier in music. It's a shame Elvis gets painted with a negative brush that wide when all he wanted to do was bring music he loved to everyone... There isn't anyone who wouldn't admit that Bo Diddley's beat was/is the backbone of rock music.

My arm is really hurting again (or still); I was doing a lot of reading about rotator cuff injuries and it doesn't seem like it's severe, despite my pain, because I have full range of motion and it doesn't hurt when I stretch it up (in fact, that feels really good). What DOES hurt is lifting, pushing, pulling, and twisting. So anyway, I downloaded some exercises, and I've gone back to low weights, etc.

A brief moment to meme, snicked from canarynoir:

( Here )

Non-PC thought of the day: Obama is winning because, even these days, America is still more likely to vote for a guy than a gal, even a black guy.

Best thing about the TV season ending: I'm finally watching some of the DVDs I bought.

Today I sent out another query, utilizing some advice I'd gotten on my rather stiffly formal query letter to make it a little less stiff but still professional. I'm down, but not out. I actually have a good feeling about this one (knocking wood, all that superstitious stuff)... of course, I've said that before. I can but hope.

Busy day, which means it went by fast.

I read the other day that Arizona is gaining degrees faster than the rest of the American southwest, which in turn in heating up faster than the rest of the world (Arizona averages now 2 full degrees warmer, with Utah and Colorado up at 1.5 or so, and the rest of the southwest above a degree, and then the rest of the world). It doesn't surprise me, even though we actually had a little bit of winter this year, and there was a good heavy snowfall in the high country.

After Earth Hour they were talking on the radio about how to go about doing one's part - I would love to actually ride my bike to work, if only Phoenix had a safe bike route from Phoenix to Tempe. There is really no safe way to cross the river if you're not in a car - there is a lane laughingly called a "bike lane" on 24th Street, which would take me about three miles out of my way, but nothing else. And having had a near-miss with a bicyclist crossing over the highway at Broadway (near-miss with a heart attack, as well), I don't want to be the one on two wheels in that situation. I used to ride everywhere, back in college, but Tucson is set up for bikes, while Phoenix is not. The new light rail system will not help me at all, since the routes are no where near either home nor work.

And the Phoenix buses recently raised their rates, and did away with transfers, so it's no longer even as not-too-convenient to take those as it was before (adding about three hours to my commute, anyway). I try to be green, really, I do.

( A Brief Political Moment )

I found my passport. I also found a missing bag of yarn I bought at the local Jo Ann's, which is having a store closing sale (sort of annoying, since now the nearest Jo Ann's is way up in Paradise Valley, I think - at least north of the Dreamy Draw). So at least I have made some accomplishments in the last few days, even if they are minor accomplishments.

As usual, I've forgotten other things I wanted to post for posterity. Ah, well.

More of the garden:

Still a little sick. Getting over it, though. I want to do something, but it's late Sunday afternoon and I really don't have anything TO do.

We played a little Morrowind this weekend, but the movement engine is difficult and fatiguing.

I did take advantage of double-points day at My Coke Rewards (thanks to nutmeg3 for reminding me); not that there's anything there I want at the moment, though. I'll still keep adding points until there's something good. Maybe I'll accidentally end up with enough for one of the giant plasma screen TVs. Ho ho ho. (I really wonder that those go so fast, considering how many points one needs for them.)

I got my first hate mail for a review, ever:

Your an idiot! For the life of me I don't know how people like you manage to get writing jobs as a music critic. What's your credentials. How many instruments do you play,how many hit song have "You" written? My guess is you were born about the time "The Long Run' was released. People like you are just who Henley spouts off about and for good reason.Potshot at their former glory? WHO the fuck do you think you are? I haven't seen your name on any Hall of Fame!!!!!! You haven't even listened to this album have you? I wrote to about.com asking how you got this job,still haven't heard back so I'll say to both of you, FUCK YOU!

For the record, I didn't get his first note, or if I did, I don't remember just ignoring it. I didn't even pan the record, really, I just said it sounded like an Eagles album... which it does. Which is fine, for Eagles fans. Nothing wrong with that. I answered with a polite, "Thank you for reading/commenting" and said nothing further. Mostly I get nice commentary from readers about reviews, so this was something new. Just got a post from someone who said they only read About's "country" site because of my reviews and recommendations. Whoot. At least I'm making a difference for someone.

Starting the year off sick, I hope, means I won't have to deal with it for the rest of the year. I'd like to be healthy for a while, since it seems like I'm sick so often. I have made no resolutions for the year, but there are things I would like to accomplish, the most notable of them being finding someone who is willing to read/sell my book for me. Losing that last 30 pounds is a big one, too. It's six years since I started the Big Weight Loss (2002, I started at about 230 pounds); this is the time to finish it up. I know I can maintain it once I get there.

Political:

87% Chris Dodd
84% Barack Obama
81% Joe Biden
81% Dennis Kucinich
81% Hillary Clinton
80% John Edwards
80% Bill Richardson
76% Mike Gravel
43% Rudy Giuliani
36% John McCain
27% Mike Huckabee
27% Mitt Romney
21% Ron Paul
18% Tom Tancredo
17% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz

Funny, I knew just about nothing about Chris Dodd, and he's pulled out already. Still, I think this is as good a way as any to make my selection, considering I've been waffling for months now. "Mmmm, Edwards? No, Obama. Nah, Hillary. No, wait, Edwards. No, I like Obama. Nah, wait..." "Gonna be here a while?" *sigh* Huckabee scares the bejeebus outta me because he's just exactly got the same "ah shucks good-old-boy" thing going for him that won Bush the White House, only he's EVEN MORE EVIL. And I'd even like him if he weren't so evil.

It's going to be a long year.

And so I have done:




Final Word Count: 50,657

If I wasn't so tired, I'd put in more words tonight, because the story isn't done, but I have accomplished the 50K required, and now I can go back to writing as it strikes me, rather than every second I'm awake and not busy around the house.

I actually got over 50,000 this morning, before I went to work, and felt much better about my purple "Winner!" bar and was able to relax (yes, I stress about foolish things). I came home this afternoon in the driving rain (the rain was the only thing in Phoenix that was "driving." People on the streets were doing other things, I'm not sure what), to find that our idiot dog had pushed open the back door. This was all right, since no one ELSE had come in, so I just put him in his crate, and THEN I noticed he'd helped himself to the candy dish, and eaten ALL of the chocolate shortbread cookies from Trader Joe's and a goodly number of chocolate liquor bottles... still in their shiny metal wrappings. Not unsurprisingly, dog was later quite sick... one thing about it, though, the dog barf smelled like chocolate and alcohol rather than, well, dog barf. He probably had what he thought was the Best Day Ever.

Better still, the cats were still inside, because they, too, didn't want to be out in the rain. (Well, Silhouette was on the front porch in one of the chairs, waiting for me to get home and let him in.)

Now I have to study for the next insurance exam, and I have to get back to the gym, and I can start actually reading the paper and my Flist again (I was backed up almost a whole month on the NY Times; I tried to read my usual frothing-at-the-mouth liberal commentators, but I couldn't focus, so I've missed a lot of Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd.

On the other hand, I can also start reading at home again; just reading in my lunch hour, I've managed to finish Pilate's Wife and most of In Cold Blood, making headway on my "I need to read this" pile of books.

And now I'm going to bed.

To get everything unpacked and in place so I can get my NEW TIVO hooked up!!! A week or so ago Big Lots got in some older model Tivos for $70, so I got the machine--I have put in the subscription yet, since everything's still a mess here, and I haven't even had Cox download all my stations properly (there are about 100 stations--including BBC America--I still can't get on the digital converter, but I don't want to have them fix it until I'm sure the power is going to be turned off again, and the cable and TV are finally set in their new homes).

As I type, the cabinets are being set in. Oh, they ARE PRETTY!!!!!! Yesterday we selected our new appliances, doorknobs, general hardware, and paint colors (or, at least, got some idea of color).

In computer news, the activation codes I got (thank you, miertam! - and everyone else who helped!) worked, and I got my desktop up and working, and I got to my Eudora mailboxes, and I updated my iPod, and everything was fine... until the next morning, when it started switching itself off again. Dang. Still something in there not happy. But at least this time once I got it up again, I made sure everything got closed properly and I shut down, and I just haven't turned it back on. When I get my new computer set up, then I can move everything over without trauma, including deactivating old computer on iTunes before activating new computer.

When I have space again, too, I can change the battery in my iPod, which is now only holding a charge about five hours or so, if I'm lucky. I bought a kit to do it myself rather than shipping it off to Apple - it looks complicated, but doable.

Then one of these days, when there is money again, I need to get a Classic 80-Gig iPod. The Touch is lovely, but I want a classic, with the touch wheel rather than the screen.

In preparation for NaNoWriMo, I've been doing character sheets for my little gang. Some of the folks at the NaNo boards like Sean Patrick, which pleases me.

And I'm also very pleased Dumbledore is gay. The purple suit should have been a dead giveaway. *g*

( Some articles I wanted to keep )

And in closing, a tribute to mustangsally, one of my favorite LOL cats: