Thursday This n That

I read an interesting post yesterday over at the Mad Genius Club.  Not sure who the chick is that wrote the crap Sarah posted and filleted, but she should be hanging by her thumbs in a bell tower somewhere. Preferably at midnight, so she gets lots of loud noise in her ears and also bats in her hair.  Why?  Because some poor schmuck somewhere is probably going to listen to her  and believe what she says - on the basis of her assumed 'authority' and all - hate themselves and quit.  And she should be punished for murdering someone else's dreams. 

Then again, if your dreams can't stand the opinions of one or several numbnuts, maybe it wasn't your dream after all.  Only you can really kill your dreams.  Or they kill you.  One or the other.  

Yeah, I'm still not even kinda sorta Positive Polly these days.  Negative Nelly, maybe.  Piss-off Polly, most assuredly.  With a touch of Sarcastic Sue and Cynical Cindy.  But yeah, Polly is nowhere to be seen.  I killed her and then I ate her.

Heh, I used to say that when people would call asking for Miss Meissner (my maiden name).  I wouldn't say it to them.  I'm not crazy.  I'd just say it to myself.  'This is Mrs. Sanderson.  Miss Meissner no longer exists.  I killed her and then I ate her.'  I'm demented that way, but Hubs loves me exactly as I am - demented and all.

It's Wallyworld day.  This should be fun.  :eyeroll:

Blue Pepsi is kind of addictive.

I got kind of pissed yesterday when I saw, yet again, a news station post a reminder for people to check their backseats so they don't accidentally leave their kids in the car on these blistering hot days.  How stupid have people become?  Or maybe it should be 'how stupid do they think people have become?'  Maybe they're trying to make people stupid by doing all their thinking for them.  :shrug:  The nanny state is reducing the populace to morons.  Morons are easier to control, doncha know.

I still want a dog.

Adulting is hard.  If I wasn't such an adult, I'd already have a dog.  Damn responsibleness. 

Got anything for the this n that list today?

The Landslide

 I'm finding it increasingly hard to stay positive.  About anything.

Yesterday, I started out the day reading that the unvaccinated should be lined up in front of a pit and shot.  Followed that up with the suggestion that all self-published authors are SCABS and are taking food out of the mouths of the traditionally published.  Later came the news that studies show no one likes ebooks.  And then another zippy note that the unvaccinated should be tied to a hill and left in the sun along with a suggestion that eugenics is a good idea when it comes to the UV.

I keep hearing the refrain 'if only everyone would get vaccinated, we could return to normal'.  Umm... I don't think the people tweeting as if this was the late 1930s and the UV were Jews will let anything return to normal.  Ever.  But they're happy to let you believe that if everyone simply complies, we can have all our rights back.  (As if rights are trading cards they can give and take at their leisure.)  They like the new normal.  It gives them power.

As for the suggestion self-pubs are stealing from trad-pubs by their mere existence... Umm, yeah, right.  Here's the deal... traditional published authors have the weight of their publishers behind them with all the money, and therefore marketing, that comes along with that.  If people are choosing to read self-published books instead, perhaps the trad-pubs need to turn their lens inward.  Write better books.  Price them so they're more in line with what the common man can afford.  Be flawless in your editing.  Tada, you sell more books.  

And the other thing... It's a non-issue.  This isn't the first time there's been a study that 'shows' people don't like ebooks.  They're put out by the people who have hardcopies for sale that they can't sell at the price they want and they're trying to convince people to eschew the evil ebook so they can make up the money they've already invested plus a profit.  Look at the sales numbers for ebooks.  I haven't seen them in a while, but I assume ebooks are selling fine - especially for the self-published (whose numbers are never included in these studies.)

Not sure what's going to happen down the road.  I don't want to look down the road at this point.  Give me today.  I can deal with today.  I can maybe deal with next week.  Farther than that?  It's a crapshoot with loaded dice.  

Speaking of next week, it's Wish in One Hand's birthday, so I made it free for five days.  That's about all I can do to try and combat this negativity.  One little thing at a time.  One tiny pebble moved from beneath the landslide so I can breathe.

Sunday Update - Week Lost

I have no clue what week it is.  Hell, Michigan, I'm not sure if there even was a week.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  

I'm still plugging away on the edit notes for Untitled Fantasy.  I think I was at 29% last night.  Not sure how many pages of notes that makes.  Copious amounts, to be sure.  I was sure Hylani was the big, burly blonde, but early on, it was Frola.  Gotta fix that.  That whole scene where they're debating what kind of magic X has, well, it's got to go.  They know what she has.  There's a whole thing nearer the beginning where everyone knows what everyone else has - well, except for that one chick...  Anyway, it's a lot of work, but it's moving along.

Sorry I forgot to do a reading wrap-up yesterday.  There was nothing to report, but I know you like to read it and put your own books on there.  Here's hoping next week is better.

No baking last week until yesterday when I did granola bars and then made a pizza.  I added about a tablespoon of honey to the pizza dough this time.  It was pretty good, so I'll probably do that from now on.  Between stirring the bars and the kneading pizza dough, my arms are feeling it today.

On the activity front, I only did two things last week.  I biked one day and I walked another day.  It was my first walk in like 6 weeks and I could definitely tell.  Ugh.  I'm up to 40 miles walked and 46 miles biked.  Of course, I'm not counting taking care of the garden in my activity.  I did that every day.  So I got that going for me.  Weight: 184.4

Speaking of the garden, no flowers on the zucchinis now.  I do have buds.  I'm hoping to get a mix of male and female flowers this time.  One of my from-seed tomato plants has flowers.  On the store-bought tomato, the one tiny tomato is about golfball sized now and the other tiny tomato is about pea sized.  

The Olympics are over for all intents and purposes.  I think they're probably doing the closing ceremonies as I type this.  Anyway, we ended up with 113 medals - more than any other country - and as of last night, we also have the most gold medals.  Huge shout out to all the awesome athletes who went there to represent our country and did an amazing job at it.  Nerts to the others.  They don't matter in the scheme of things.  Super special shout-out to Molly Seidel who brought home a bronze in women's marathon - something we haven't had in decades.  And to Nevin Harrison who kicked ass in women's canoeing.  And to Richard Torres, Jr. who literally kicked a bunch of guy's asses to take silver in heavyweight boxing.  And to Alison Felix who said goodbye to her long Olympic career by leading the gals to gold in 4x400 relay.  And to the gal who was shouting about how much she loves America.  And to all of the others who are too numerous to mention by name.  You guys rocked it out this year!  USA! USA! USA!

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do with myself now that the Olympics are over.  Work harder at editing perhaps?  

On that note, I probably should go do something constructive.  How was your week?

Thursday This n That

Well, the shit that went down earlier in the week has derailed me.  Why blog if they're just going to kill it for no real reason (or for reasons I'd rather not contemplate)?  Anyway, here I am.  I have a job to do and I'm going to do it.  

And now, as I write this, it's in the back of my mind whether each thing I write is going to piss someone off.  People can get offended by anything and these days, they do.  :shrug:  I gotta be me.

We've been totally wrapped up in the Olympics.  Hell, the TV is already on and we NEVER turn the TV on this early.  But Tokyo is 14 hours ahead of us, so our morning is their night and things are popping over there - medal matches and whatnot.  Woohoo.  Not sure what I'm going to do with myself once they're over.  Sunday, I think, is the last day.  Bummer.

The Westcoast crud that's in the atmosphere has me all garbaged up.  It's supposed to be going away shortly.  Not shortly enough for me.  Seriously, I do not want their air.  Or their people.  Or their politics.  Okay, some of their people can come.  Refugees looking for a better life who don't want to turn middle-America into the places they left.  I'm okay with that.

All I want is to be left alone to live my life and do my thing.  I'm not over here bothering anyone.  But the more they crack down, the more they make me want to get all radical and in your face.  The Zucker wonders who radicalized us?  He, and people like him, did it.

:deep breath:

The deer are happily munching corn - mamas, babies, bucks... the whole shebang.  It's awesome.  Lumpy and Sonny and Shady.  Uno.  Whitelegs and her gang.  Spot and Stripes.  It a great day at Sanderson Acres.  (I was going to say beautiful, but it's all hazy again.  Smoke. Blerg.)

Something is killing my spiders.  We have two corpses hanging in the windows now, their abdomens deflated like spent balloons.  Creepy.  My little orb weaver got a big beetle this morning and now she's busy wrapping it up for later meals.  Yeah, spiders are gross, but they're also fascinating.

Okay, I probably should go do something constructive.  What?  I dunno.  Somethin'.

Anything on your this-n-that today?

It's Baa-aack

So, this morning, I got a nasty-gram from Blogger, telling me this blog violated their rules - on Phishing, no less - and that they'd killed it.  I went through their hoops and it was reinstated a little while ago.  Read all about it over at Outside the Box.  (Which they hadn't killed yet.)

If you ever can't find me here, go there.  If that's gone, too, try my gardening blog.  If that's gone, too, my old version of The Writing Spectacle still exists.  If all my blogs are gone, you can still find me on FB or MeWe.  

If those are gone (maybe with FB but MeWe is safe for now), try emailing me.  Although, my email is through the Big G like my blogs are, so they could knock me out in one fell swoop, if they felt the urge.  

I could shut my mouth and be a good little girl.  Stop swearing.  Stop posting things the current regime finds obnoxious.  Stop calling a spade a spade - as in shovel as opposed to a pick, for those fantastic freakin' morons who don't know the difference. :shrug:  But that just wouldn't be me.

It's still possible all of this was a glitch.  I'm not banking on it.  Why, yes, I do feeling a persecution complex coming on.  Why do you ask?

Just know.... I won't go gentle into that bad night.  Rage and burn against the dying of the light, my friends.  And stay radical out there.  You know, as radical as a 51 year old white chick who gardens and bakes, living in the boonies can get.  As the new saying goes, 'If you're coming for me, make it quick. I've got a pie in the oven.'  

Crankypants

It's morning and I'm feeling all crankypants, so rather than bore you with my bullshit attitude, here's a nice picture.

It looks tilted because my yard is slanted and he's standing on a slope.

How are you today?  Got anything good to share?  

Sunday Update - Week 31

It's morning.  Hubs got up at 5 and I was going to roll over to snatch some more Zzzs.  Then I heard thunder.  Then I remembered I'd moved my big tomato plants out to the middle of the deck.  Sat up, pulled on a pair of shorts and out I went.  Good thing, too, because about 5 minutes afterward, the sky opened up and it splooshed hard.

It took me about an hour to remember it was Sunday.  So here I am...

In writing news, I'm making slow progress on my edit notes.  I think I'm up to 14% of the book and about 11 pages worth of notes.  Hubs joked that I'm going to need another notebook soon.  I got it covered, man.  

The marketing of my sale for the Dennis Haggarty books was a bust.  I did sell two books, though.  Got me a buck twenty-nine.  Woohoo.  Hey, that's more than I made in the month of May. My recent Amazon deposit was $1.17.  Someday, I hope to be able to afford a cup of gas station coffee.

No reading last week.  It's a slump.  :shrug:

I made chocolate chip cookies last week, except by the time I was ready to start throwing batches into the oven, I was too hot to go through that whole process.  So I smushed all the dough into a 9x13 and made bar cookies.  They're awesome.

I was only active one day last week.  Gah, I was such a toad.  At least the weight is holding steady at 183.8.

The Olympics has been a thing here.  I turn them on around 8am and they're on all day for the most part.  Unless every channel is showing something boring - like basketball and volleyball.  (I'm so over volleyball now.)  

When I'm not editing or focused on the TV, I've taken to doing crossword puzzles.  I found an old book of them in my stuff when I cleaned and now I'm working through it.  They're semi-easy and I cheat, so not really brain-taxing.  

It's been super hit here.  Like 97 with a heat index of 105 hot.  Needless to say, I'm blaming the heat for my lack of gumption.  Hey, I'm still tending my plants - ungrateful wretches that they are.  This thunderstorm is supposed to bring a slight cool down.  Maybe that'll make my plants happy.  It'll certainly improve my attitude.  Well, maybe.

Nothing else of note to talk about here today.  What's up with you?