The Solo Option

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I picked up a copy of Pop Cap Games’ Bookworm Heroes this weekend, and uninstalled it after less than five minutes.  I’m pretty sure that’s a record for me with any game; I at least try to play a couple of rounds before giving up on something.

So, what was the problem?

There’s no solo option.  None.  A player either has to play with Facebook friends (of which I have none, since I’m not on Facebook), or “random opponents”.  Yeeeeeah.  Look, if I want to play with other people, I’ll play with other people. I do play games with other people.  I have even played games with total strangers; once upon a time, @bhoneydew was just this stranger who also happened to be King of Chaos and I outsmarted him in the way a freight train can outsmart somebody who’s tied to the tracks and dragged his kingdom into a war, but he forgave me for it eventually…

…I think.  It’s also possible that the past eighteen years together have all been part of a clever revenge plot.  

But, yeah, as I was saying, if I want to play with other people, I’ll play with other people.  I don’t want to be forced into playing with other people, especially if all I want from a game is five-twenty minutes of entertainment while I’m waiting for the Monster’s bus to arrive.

On a semi-related topic, the amount of the internet I can no longer access because I’m not on Facebook is getting somewhat alarming. I can no longer even tell myself that I’m not missing anything important, either, because the Monster’s school has a Facebook page, as does his swim school, as do other organizations and individuals I care about, and there’s no way to be assured that things posted on Facebook get mirrored to the outside one hundred percent of the time … unless one joins Facebook.

And why don’t I want to join Facebook?  The same reason I don’t want to drive a mini-van or watch The Real Housewives of [Insert City Here].  I don’t wanna.  If I have to, I will, but if I don’t have to, I won’t.  Look, I finally joined LinkedIn, and I have the occasional mental struggle with that (My profile sucks … What?  You mean I also have to figure out what I want to do when I grow up?  And why are all these complete strangers wanting to link with me without at least saying hi first?  Good grief!  They should at least find out if I’m a terrible person to link to!).

 I’ll note that I don’t have a problem with Twitter.  I don’t have a problem with Google+. Goodreads … er, yeah, I’ve talked about my love/hate/self-loathing relationship I have with Goodreads in a previous post, so I won’t go into that here, though I will say that Pinterest will likely be an experience I’ll never be repeating.

I don’t know why I don’t have a problem with Twitter and Google+, when I do with other forms of social media. It might have something to do with the (likely false) perception of greater degree of control over the infospigot, but I’m not a psychologist, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night.

March 2013 Had Raisins In It

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A couple of weeks ago, I was indulging in a mental rant about motivation and goal setting, while @debela was indulging in a verbal rant about writing goals for a performance evaluation form.

I (jokingly) asked her to write a set of them for me while she was at it.

She obliged.

Penguin Management: Demonstrate sound people management skills. Drive results through organization and team: set clear expectations and priorities; structure and delegate work; provide ongoing feedback and coaching for performance and development.

1) Success = Improved focus survey results from penguins. Anarchic penguin derived surveys are inapplicable. A successful manager will channel her penguins into factory workmanlike despair.

2) Demonstration of core values in line with Shai, Inc.'s core values of CIAC: Creativity, Ingenuity, Anarchy and Charm.

3) Active support and prioritization of initiatives to improve penguin engagement. Accountability is not a factor in this goal. Good luck with that.

Alas, the penguins did not despair this past month. I didn’t meet any of my March writing goals.  Yep, not a single one.  I didn’t write any short pieces, didn’t  work on any other projects, didn’t blog and didn’t read any fiction. Nope. Nada.

I did pick up crafting again (other than making a few front door wreaths and flower arrangements, I haven’t done that in quite some time, either).  I’m crocheting what I think is going to be a table runner, though jury’s still out on whether that potential table runner is going to agree with my plans for its future.

I can’t put a finger on why March sucked, because while it was hectic at work and at home (unexpected snow days, Monster’s spring swim camp) it wasn’t any more hectic than usual.  I had a nasty cold over Easter weekend, but, as much as I wanted to just curl up in bed and sleep it off, I didn’t let it throw a wrench into things.  The best I can guess is that since  I didn’t have pressing deadlines and as a result, zero external accountability — I didn’t make it to any writing group meetings in March, either — things just fell off the edge of my plate.  I got so caught up in getting through the present that I didn’t pay attention to making progress toward the future.

Aggravating. But, it’s April now. I have those five short pieces to write (and four more, though those may have to be pushed out to May) and the re-writing to work on, and yes, crazy me, I’m in a Logic class right now and a Composition class1 starts the end of the month, but I want to get back on the fiction reading horse.

1I’ve never taken a formal logic class before. My sole exposure to it was a crash self-directed course before a mathematics competition my senior year of high school. When a logic class from a Stanford prof appeared on Coursera, I said, “ooh, shiny, let’s us see if we can learn how to do better what we’ve been doing informally for years, precious” and signed up. The composition class is under duress. I only have three credits of college-level English, thanks to my testing into Honors English Composition when I was at Mizzou. At the time, surviving Honors English Composition (which was only three classroom hours, but required four full blown research papers with attendant in-class presentations and a 25+ page autobiographical essay) got one out of having to take Composition I and Composition II. Yeah, I not only survived it, I kicked butt and took names … and decades later, I’m having to deal with “I’m sorry, but your transcript says you’ve only taken three credits of English comp”. I’d try to test out of it, but it’s been so long since I’ve had to construct a essay according to a formula2, I’m probably better off just taking the damn class.

2I generally write like I cook. Sometimes I have a list of specific ingredients, some of which I even wind up using. Other times, I just throw together whatever’s in the fridge. Yes, there have been times when @bhoneydew wonders if I’m secretly studying for the role of Jenny Meyer in a remake of Better off Dead.

Herring Axing February 2013

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HEAD KNIGHT: Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest … with … a herring!
KNIGHTS OF NI: A herring!
ARTHUR: We shall do no such thing!
HEAD KNIGHT: Oh, please!
ARTHUR: Cut down a tree with a herring? It can’t be done.

from Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975).

February was … well, it was February.  Most of the holidays this month (Monster Day, Valentine’s Day, Anniversary) wound up being rescheduled due to work or illness, but that’s a typical February around here.

Monster spent a week home recovering from scarlet fever.  Yep, in this day and age. That there was a recent news bubble about Mary-from-Little-House-On-The-Prairie’s bout with it was also OhYouBetcha not lost on me. I’m happy to report that the only threat to his eyesight during that week cycling from couch to bed came from his playing way too many video games.

I was expecting to be sitting here writing an end-of-month blog entry about how little progress I’ve made in the face of this month’s shenanigans.

But, yeah … screw that. I’m happy to report that things went pretty much as planned.  I wrote those five short pieces, sent them off, and got stuck in on the restructuring of Singing Down Sepia.

It’s almost an entirely different book now, except for the setting, the characters and the core story line. I gave up trying to have a single main character, and feel better for that. It suits the story that there are multiple main characters, and that they switch roles from driver to support back again depending on story needs. At least I think it does, and will continue to believe so until someone provides me incentive to believe otherwise.

I also found the missing body. I’m not sure what’s going to be done with it yet, but at least it’s found.

I’ll admit that I did have a freak out moment when I discovered that the name of one of my mains was very similar to one that turned up in this month’s fiction reading. Alright.  Not a ‘moment’.  More like ‘three solid hours’. I spent them silently sitting in my writers’ group meeting, with my brain flipped over and shook free from the cruft I’d accumulated on the subject of the guy’s original name, personal history, native culture, language, and associated yadda. Considering that the group conversation was loitering at the intersection of The Lizzie Bennet Diaries and Downton Abbey1, I suspect there was some unspoken concern that I might have been about to set something on fire with my mind … but no, it was just me changing three little words.  That’s all.

Look, did I suggest anywhere on this blog that I might be sane?

I intend to finish this restructuring next month, and get my butt onto the horse of writing the second draft.  As far as the other commitments go, the current calendar has me up for another nine pieces, all of which I’d like to get done by the end of April. Given nine weeks between now and then, I’ll shoot for getting five done in March.

There’s roughly a ton of work-related writing to be done between now and the end of April, too, but since I don’t talk about that, I won’t talk about that.

Oh, right!  Fiction Reading!  I didn’t get sidelined on that either this month!  Whoo hoo!

1I’ve not been following The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and all I know of the whatnottery going down at Downton comes from osmosis.   I have a vague idea that TLBD is based on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, which I also only know about via osmosis. Yes. I know. The shock. The horror. I should turn in my chick card. 

2‘A’r'twit’f'uh’, from “Another Random Twitter follower? Huh?”

3GM? Me?  So not happening again. It’s just safer for everyone that way.

Words That Begin With M

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What I Thought January 2013 Could Look Like:

  • Draft 3 Original Short Pieces
  • Restructure Singing Down Sepia

What January 2013 Actually Looked Like:

  • Drafted 5 Original Short Pieces
  • Got mired a quarter of the way through restructuring Singing Down Sepia
  • Blogged at least once a week to two different blogs
  • Journaled at least once a week

I didn’t include blogging and journaling in the list of January goals I shared with the writing group.  While I am working toward goals for both this year, I’m not used to thinking either is writing, in the same way I don’t consider “scribbling down random ideas for potential later exploration” writing.

Though if someone asks me what I’m doing when I’m scribbling down random ideas, I’ll likely say “writing” even though I don’t think it is.  It’s just easier to explain it that way.  Besides, answering that question any other way might lead to a “why” or  worse, “what’s your idea?”  People who know me know better than to ask me questions like that.

Well.  Let me rephrase that.  I don’t think of my efforts in that regard as writing, even when an entry is fiction or (heaven help the reader) poetry.  I typically mentally label blog or journal entries with one of many fine words that begin with the letter m.

For February, I’d like the magic m-word for my writing (and okay, my blogging and journaling) to be ‘momentum’.  Here are the goals I shared with the writing group for this month:

  • Draft 5 Original Short Pieces
  • Finish restructuring Singing Down Sepia (figuring out where the body of one of the leads has wandered off to would be a really good place to rekindle this effort)

January 2013: Mark All These As Read

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One of my subtasks for 2013 is “read books”.  I … okay, one of the not-great things that happened somewhen in my late New Jersey period is that I got burned out on reading books. It’s not one of those things I’ve wanted to mention to folks, because I’ve been embarrassed about how little I’ve been reading that wasn’t a magazine article, on a Web page, in a textbook assignment or one of the Monster’s books.

I tried signing up for Goodreads early last year. My two some hours as a member was an exercise in shame sweat and wanting to crawl under a couch and die.  I tried signing up again on Friday.  I lasted about three hours this time.  While I didn’t experience as much self-loathing, I was gobsmacked by the number of books I haven’t read, wanted to read, and should have read already, damn it. I think I might give it a try some time next year.  It’s possible I might make it up to four hours.

Our recent basement flood experience also helped me remember that I’ve moved a number of the books in my To-Be-Read collection from California to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Virginia, and a larger number of them from New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Virginia.  I’m happy to say that none of them were moved from Indiana to California to New Jersey to Pennsylvania to Virginia, but to be honest, if we hadn’t had that four day long U-Haul drive when we moved to California, I’m not sure I could be saying that.

So, yeah, I’ve been trying to read a little book every day.  I’ve worked it into my bedtime routine, included it in my weekend morning routine, and rediscovered the pleasure of distracting myself with a book while waiting for appointments.

I haven’t stopped just reading fashion magazines (and Martha Stewart Living and O) when I’m at the beauty salon, though.   Never been sure if doing so helps me feels more comfortable about taking the time to get my hair dealt with by a professional, or if reading one just makes for a pretty awesome duck blind — look, she’s a perfectly normal stereotypical American woman, there’s nothing alarming about her whatsoever, so please do not panic. 

On that subject, I do miss the stylist I had back in PA. I love what my current one does with my hair, but yeah, it was nice being able to geek in meatspace about video games (and EVE Online — my stylist was a Caldari miner). 

January

  • The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson.  
  • Red Plenty by Francis Spufford. I laughed, I shook my head a lot, and I often found myself wondering what the author would do with an examination of what was happening in the United States during the same time frame.
  • Pilates for Dummies by Ellie Herman.  My PT wrapped up in December, and I’m looking to keep exercising my wonky shoulder (which I keep re-injuring).  Also, I have a mat and home gear that I haven’t used in, well, ever.
  • Quarter Share by Nathan Lowell.
  • Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. I finished the last four chapters that I have been trying to get through to read for three years!  Not that I didn’t like the book.  I enjoy crunchy social science books.
  • Half Share by Nathan Lowell.
  • Full Share by Nathan Lowell. I hit the end of the Solar Clipper series — which @bhoneydew picked up and recommended to me quite a while ago, because I’m more than a wee bit fond of space opera, especially if an author invests some thought in its characters — and discovered that the rest of it’s being reworked. 
  • Temping is Hell by Cathy Yardley.  
  • 47 Echo by Shawn Kupfer.
  • The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby.

The Goalposts … They’re-They’re Moving!

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Have you ever had a productive week, and when you stop to pat yourself on the back, you realize you’re further away from achieving your goals than you were seven days prior?

No?

That’s just me?

It figures.

This past week was like that.

I finished one of the short pieces that I want to write this month…

…and, after some discussion (with involved parties, not my inner penguins), was convinced that it wasn’t a standalone piece, so I outlined two supporting pieces…

…which became three supporting pieces…

…all of which I’ll need to write before I move on to the other two supposed-to-be-standalone pieces I want to write this month.

I also made some progress on restructuring Singing Down Sepia.  Some.  I still don’t know who my lead character is, and the more I try to designate one of my three main characters as a lead, the less any of them look like one.  They all have independent goals, motivations and conflicts both internal and external (they’re all the very model of a modern fully realized character), but they all depend on each other to get to and through these goals and conflicts, and as a result, they all assume different roles at different points during the story. I want this to be straight-forward.  “X is the lead”.  “Y is the faithful sidekick”.  “Z is the opposition”.   Boom, boom, boom, over and done.   Yeah, that’s so not what’s happening here.

So, this week, I’m going to take a step back from the mains and focusing on fixing the mess I made of the supporting characters (one I inadvertently dropped before the middle of the book, another vanished a third of the way through, and there are others who are just sketches who shouldn’t be).   Maybe the problem with not having a clear lead will fix itself while I’m not looking.  More likely it won’t, but a girl can hope, can’t she?

Little Steps

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During this past NaNoWriMo, I stumbled upon a local writers’ group, and by ‘local’ I mean genuinely local, not a two-three hour drive one way. So, I made it one of my mini-goals to check the group out.

It was a good idea. Everyone was welcoming, but not too welcoming…

…when total strangers are absolutely thrilled to meet me and fuss over me, it sets off my OhGodIsThisACultOrAreTheyJustDesperatelyShortOfVolunteersWhere’sTheExit? instincts…

…and I got an astonishing amount of writing done while surrounded by similarly busy people. Lively chatting was happening, sure, but everybody was being productive, too.  I’d natter about positive supportive vibes and the absence of energy leeches, but I’m just not that big a freak.

Anyway, I’m going back.  I also signed on for the goal setting/accountability subgroup, which will be meeting separately. I’ve even posted my writing goals for January.

January 2013

  • Draft 3 Original Short Pieces
  • Restructure Singing Down Sepia