That gadget was a pain the ass, so I removed it. Full disclosure, though, I've missed three days this month. I'm up to 23513 words as of this moment. That makes 18949 added so far this month. It's not NaNo numbers, but I'm not kicking myself over any of it.
With that, I'm calling it a night. I'll be back in the morning to do my reading wrap-up.
I just saw a hilarious meme on FB. It was an old-timey, book cover like picture of a guy holding off a tiger with the butt of his rifle and the caption had the guy saying something like 'I don't want any frosted flakes!' and the tiger saying 'but they're great!' Well, I laughed. In comments there was a guy spouting off about how horrible frosted flakes are for you. Dude needs to grow a funny bone. He must be a riot at parties. ROFL
Ricky Gervais - who I sometimes agree with and sometimes I think he's a butt- said something along the lines of 'You found it offensive. I found it funny. That's why I'm happier than you.' Bingo.
People really need to chill out. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff to be unchill about. That's why you need your sense of humor more than ever now.
I keep seeing this idea running around social media about how despite having differing ideas, we can all still be friends. (I just this second saw another meme about it.) Umm... not really. Hey, I'm all for everyone having opinions of their own. I'm also all for not having to give one more second of my time to opinions that wildly diverge from my own. :shrug: You do you. Just do it in another room. Or from behind my block list. And yes, I realize this is not a popular attitude to have when you're someone who wants people to buy, read, and review your books. But I gotta be me.
An armadillo wandered through our yard a couple of days ago. It's been a while since we saw one of those in the yard. They're kinda destructive little buggers, but a guy's gotta make a living somehow. The next day we saw where he'd been digging. It's kinda trashed over there. On the upside, he uncovered a large rock that I can dig out and move.
We also saw a little fox. Yay.
Last night, when I was supposed to be falling asleep, my brain decided it was time for a slideshow of everything I've ever done, followed by a discussion period, with the jukebox set to autoplay every song I'd ever heard. Fun times. I eventually fell asleep, but man, sometimes my brain is annoying.
Okay, it's about that time, so I'm off for my morning call to Mom. Have a great day, folks.
If you haven't been following along on Facebook, or don't actually use Facebook, I'm currently having issues with Brightspeed - the phone company in these here parts. It's reaching 'epic saga' proportions at this point. (Okay, maybe that's an exaggeration, but hey, I'm a writer. We exaggerate stuff.)
Let's see... a week ago yesterday, we woke up to no dial tone. Nothing. But we still had internet - which travels along the same lines as the phone, so go figger. I was not in the mood to call the phone company, and I assumed someone else would do it. It's never just us when these things happen. I called in the afternoon and learned NO ONE had called. :shrug: I was unsurprised. They gave me an appointment time of Thursday between 8am and 5pm. Woohoo.
Wednesday afternoon, I picked up the phone to see if it miraculously healed itself and the phone read-out said 1 missed call. Well, if we're missing calls, then we have phone. Yep, dial tone. But we couldn't figure out how we could've missed a call because we didn't hear it ring. Shrugging, we figured we must've been out in the smoking room at the time and went merrily on with our day. That night, we're watching TV and see the phone light up like it's getting a call, but it's not ringing. Okay, well sometimes it does that when the satellite is reaching out for data. Except the answering machine picks up and starts giving the standard greeting. So it WAS a phone call. It happened two more times that night. Hubs and I used our cell phones to call the landline, and it's not ringing.
Thursday morning, I reach out to the Brightspeed technician - cuz I was smart enough to take down his number from one of the many other times we've needed service. I tell him that we have phone but that it's not ringing, so we still need a service call. He comes out. He works on it off and on Thursday. He works on it off and on Friday. Late Friday afternoon, he tells me that he can't finish fixing it that day, but they'll be out on Monday. If time allows. He also kinda hints that his supervisor is telling him he's already spent too much time on this issue, so it seems like anyone getting out here is iffy.
Monday... I get a notice that a technician will be here between 1:45 and 5:45. A totally different tech than before shows up at 1:45 and he's out messing with the box on the outside of our house. He's got his supervisor on the phone with him and they're bouncing ideas, I guess. Then I get a call from the supervisor telling me that the tech's butt-set is ringing outside, so the problem has to be inside the house. (Inside the house problems are the responsibility of the customer, and cost like $99.) Whatever. The tech comes in and starts messing around with our jacks and wiring inside the house. Still, no ringy-dingy. Then he decides that it has to be the other jack in the house that's causing a problem with the jack our phone is plugged into, so he's in the office now messing with that jack and wiring. Still no ringy-dingy. He leaves to go check the big box at the beginning of our neighborhood. When he returns, he lets us know that the problem ISN'T just us after all. Several other houses in our neighborhood have the same problem. Which he can't fix that day. His supervisor will be out personally on Tuesday to fix this.
Today... As I was typing this, I got an email and a text message that they are very sorry but a technician cannot come out today. The appointment has been rescheduled for tomorrow.
We have some of the oldest equipment on the Brightspeed lines and they're having a tough time finding parts to fix it. Seems to me the answer would be to replace the old equipment - which might be pricey at the start, but it wouldn't certainly cost less in the long run when compared with the amount they're paying in labor. Short-sighted turds.
Anyway, if you've read this far, thanks for letting me vent. There's really nothing we can do but ride it out and continue to demand the service we're paying for. Unfortunately, crappy service seems to be the norm rather than the exception these days - across the board and not specific just to Brightspeed. They're just a symptom of the larger disease. =o\
ETA: Final Update... fingers crossed... I got a call and the phone rang. It was the tech letting me know it was fixed. When I sat down at my computer, I had an email that the tech was working on it and another one sent two minutes later that it was fixed. I guess whatever it was, it was quick fix. Thank you, Brightspeed techs for working the problem until you resolved it. Now, if only you can fix the internet so it's not so damn slow.
This morning, I saw a meme on FB that went something like 'for all the twenty-somethings who think older women are jealous of them, enjoy your next 240 periods.'
Jealousy is an odd little monster. So, yeah, I guess there could be younger women thinking older women are jealous of them. It's a silly thought. First off, who cares? Second, it would be perfectly natural if we were. For starters, they still have long lives ahead of them - and they're closer to the beginning than the end. They probably don't have to put their glasses on to read labels at the grocery store. Hell, they probably don't care what's on the labels at the grocery store because they don't need to watch their salt intake or their cholesterol. They can stay up late and go to work the next morning without looking like an extra in Jackson's Thriller video. (And they might not even know what I'm talking about there.) So, yeah, older women might, in fact, be jealous of them.
The whole 'enjoy your next 240 periods' thing does indicate a bit of jealousy. They have what you want, so you wish them ill. :shrug:
Personally, I'd love to be younger... Scratch that. I don't actually want to BE younger. Rather, I'd love to have my body still work as well as it did when I was younger. I'd like to be able to eat whatever I want and not gain weight. Or if I did gain weight, just start increasing my activity and have the weight melt off. I'd like perky boobs again. I'd like to not have to put my glasses on to read a label or write a check or see my freakin' computer screen. I want my joints to not ache. I want my intestinal track to work with efficiency again.
The rest of being younger? They can keep that. I don't mind my gray hairs. I earned those. And I don't really have any wrinkles to speak of, but if I did, I would've earned those, too.
Still, I don't think I'm actually jealous of younger women. Like I said, there are things I miss about being younger. But to me, that doesn't rise to the level of jealousy. I don't begrudge them their youth. Have at it. Enjoy it as much as you can because it doesn't last forever.
If you're older, what do you miss about being young? What can you live without? If you're young, is there anything you think you'll miss when you get this old?
Welcome to the Sunday Update with B.E. Sanderson...
Writing: I wrote six out of the last 7 days for 235 minutes and a total of 5595 new words. I added a new high of 1198 words last night. Unfortunately, I'm paying for those words this morning with ouchie hands. Eh, it's the price one pays. Total word count for the book: 19693.
Reading: Finished reading two books, DNF'd two books. All in all, a pretty good week.
No baking. I had thought about making a sour cream coffee cake, but it needs two sticks of butter and that's all I have in the house at the moment, so nope.
Activity: Well... I overdid it yesterday. So, in addition to the ouchie hands from writing, I have ouchie other things from gardening - which I attacked with a vengeance right after walking for 3/4 of a mile. In all, I was active 6 out of 7 days. Loads of that was cleaning. My stamina is slowly creeping up, but not enough that yesterday wasn't a 'you're gonna pay for this' day. I haven't weighed myself since last Sunday - 168.4. I'm up to 28.65 miles walked this year. Yay.
Gardening: On the upside, the retaining wall for the cedar bed looks amazing. The bed itself looks like crap, but the wall is awesome. I had plans to clean the bed today, but it's raining. Yeah, yeah, that's the reason I'm taking today off. Derp. In other gardening news, my lilac bush took a shit for the most part. I need to hack all the dead trunks off and hope what's still alive can struggle its way back. To that end, I ordered a hand-held limb saw which should get between the dead stuff and the live stuff with ease. We'll see. Not today.
And that's about it. I'm gonna go slather myself with Aspercreme. Getting old blows, but the atrophy part of this I did to myself. Suck it up, buttercup.
How was your week?
I keep forgetting this...
Ju-Lo-Wri-Mo Day 20
Starting word count: 18495
Ending word count: 19693
New Words: 1198
Books Read:
13) Mystery of the Haunted Pool by Phyllis A. Whitney (7/19/24) - YA mystery - 5 stars. I'd never read this before, but I love the writer, so I wouldn't exactly call this new to me or underappreciated. Found this at a thrift store on sale 2 for 25c.
Review: "What a fun story. Well-written, interesting, with sympathetic characters. Then again, I love Phyllis A. Whitney. I wish I'd known this existed when I was 12."
12) The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (7/15/24) - mystery* - 4 stars. I hadn't read this before, but it's Christie, so not new to me or underappreciated. Found this at a thrift store for $1.
Review: "Not your usual Agatha Christie novel. It started out weird, but it was all resolved quite well by the end. I still prefer Poirot, though."
DNFs:
7/17/24 - cozy mystery - free. Oh, great Godfrey Daniels. Not every single thing needs to be described ad nauseum. If they open a door, I assume they closed it. I don't care about the backstory of every character. Or if it really is necessary, make it interesting. Mary's cat died last year and they were all sad about it and wondering if she would ever get another cat because she must be so lonely, so she gets a cat. :yawn: Unless Mary's new cat killed the victim and is now using Mary's place as a hideout, I don't care.
7/15/24 - romance - free. I swear to everlovin' pete, if one more writer describes their character as wearing Manolo Blahnik* shoes, I will explode. It's like it's the only brand of shoe these people know. And by the way, I don't give a hoot what brand shoe someone is wearing. *proof of that: had to google the spelling of the dude's name. *further proof: didn't know it was a dude until just now
Currently Reading... Cinder by Marissa Meyer. I'm on pg 136 (at the time I wrote this post) and it's really good so far. Fingers crossed it stays that way. And this book is totally not what I thought it would be. Surprising and good. Score.
What have you been reading lately?
Yeah, yeah... this is way later in the year than I would've started one of these lists, but I was working and not reading up until recently, which meant I didn't actually finish many books before now, so I didn't see the point. However, I'm reading again, so I thought I'd make a reading goals thing on Goodreads. And this post. If you've been here before you know the drill...
15) The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie (7/24/24) - mystery
14) Cinder by Marissa Meyer (7/21/24) - SF dystopian
13) Mystery of the Haunted Pool by Phyllis A. Whitney (7/19/24) - YA mystery
12) The Pale Horse by Agatha Christie (7/15/24) - mystery
11) Sweet Smell of Revenge by Pam Clifford (7/10/24) - mystery*
10) The Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brook (7/8/24) - fantasy
9) Midnight Clear by Silver James (7/1/24) - SF holiday romance*
8) Hercule Poirot's Casebook by Agatha Christie (6/30/24) - mystery
7) Perfect Pending by Lucia Ashta (6/25/24) - paranormal romance*
6) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/14/24) - mystery
5) The Case of the Mythical Monkeys / The Case of the Angry Mourner by Erle Stanley Gardner - mystery
4) The Goggle-Eyed Pirates by Lee Falk - adventure/mystery
3) The Case of the Green-Eyes Sister / The Case of the Spurious Spinster by Erle Stanley Gardner - mystery
2) The Case of the Darling Divorcee / The Case of the Runaway Corpse by Erle Stanley Gardner - mystery
1) Award Science Fiction by Various - science fiction
0) Rumor Has It (Duke Noble, Private Investigator #1) by B.E. Sanderson - hard-boiled crime
