Quote of the Week

" . . . it's kind of a nerd dick size thing."

--from a Letterblade fanfic

Spring is sprung, the grass is riz--I know just where the dust mites is.

There is always a day when spring just arrives, in force, and everyone knows it. This isn't quite that (I'm running around in a t-shirt, but I saw quite a few people in coats), but it's the first fine day with sunshine instead of rain. It's nice enough, RH and I started to open windows to help air out the apartment. When we did, we discovered that half of them were painted shut, none of them are appropriate hung to stay open, and some of the screens aren't mounted right. Well, we're handy. RH sliced the paint bead on some of them, and we wedged a number open with cutting boards and cardboard boxes and wooden hangers until I can buy some appropriate dowels.

We also discovered dust like you wouldn't believe. And because we just discovered it, I didn't think to put on a dust mask, first. The window screen in the kitchen was so filthy you literally couldn't see through it. I wiped the inside with a paper towel, so now we have some light and some airflow, but it's that level of dirty which would fix faster by taking the whole screen out and hosing it off, I swear. And of course, the windowsills are filthy where stuff has gotten in around the storm windows.

Cleaning is not a project on today's list, but it'll have to come soon.

It's so late, it's early.

Some nights, I can't sleep because I'm too busy plotting how to have my characters do stupid things with a helicopter or escape a forest fire or even just get into somebody's pants. And some nights, I just can't sleep.

Writer, Insomniac, Insomniac, Psychic, Writer. Luck of the draw. Two pair beats nothing, I guess.

Goodnight.

Watchmen

Saw Watchmen. Oh. My gods.

This is a phenomenal movie. If you get it. If not, you're going to be very confused and wonder why it was 2 hours and 45 minutes long. So, rather than give you a review that might contain spoilers, I'm going to make recommendations regarding whether or not you should see it.

If you were a little old man or a little old lady at 16, whether or not you've since grown out of it, you will probably like this movie.

If you enjoy complex characters, you should see this movie.

If you want a high ratio of explosions to plot, this one isn't for you.

If you like black hats and white hats and riding off into the sunset with the girl, you're in the wrong place. From that point of view, this is kind of an anti-comic book movie.

I think you have to be a little in love with pain to understand certain things. If you're one of those people who wouldn't really trust the sweet if there weren't also some bitter, I think you're safe. If bittersweet stories just depress you, you won't really get it.


Let me say, further, that it's visually amazing, the cinematography is stunning, and the music selection is exquisite. It's also very graphically bloody--not gratuitously so, but if that bugs you, look away from the screen. You'll know when.

(As a side note for those of you who've met my character Joel, Meta-Joel says that Rorshack didn't experience failure early enough or often enough to be comfortable with it. And he seems to think that's the primary difference between the two of them).

Did you ever dream . . . ?

Did you ever dream that you weren't human?

Last night, I dreamed I was an android and I didn't know it. If I believed in dream interpretation, I could probably read some exciting things into that. But I don't, and it wasn't a true dream. (For more on this, see Journey's Surreality Check).

I learned reality TV hosts should not cryofreeze themselves. It's just creepy.

My inspiration from writing comes from all sorts of sources, and very seldom out of dreams. But this one . . . was almost complete. I have the whole story, from beginning through climatic scene. And I have the beginning of the wrap scene. But I don't have the end. I don't know how the arc is redeemed for the protagonist. I'll keep thinking about it.

Thought for the day:

"I need hand grenades."

--Riley, in If I Lay Here, by Sarah Payne

I really hate . . .

web pages telling me that my last name is invalid.

Taking care of business.

The appointment with the small business adviser was fruitful, if daunting. I have a very long list of steps to go through (some initial, some ongoing--most scary) and my head is crammed full of tax information. I'm a computer geek and an English major--I'm not an accountant. But let's face it, it's still a list and I know what to do with lists. So I have about a dozen things I'd like to accomplish tomorrow (if I get half of them done, I'll be ecstatic. Also surprised) and some for the day after that. I need to convince somebody to do a logo for me and I need to decide what domain name I want to use for a business web page. And I'm supposed to try and think of myself as an entrepreneur, not a screwdriver jockey, if I actually want to bring in customers.

And mostly, I need to not get depressed or scared off and just do the things on the list. But it'd be a hell of a lot easier if I was better with tax forms. Turbo Tax works great for annual taxes, but quarterly stuff and sales tax, I think I'm on my own for.

Adding insult to injury?

Or maybe hilarity, not insult. I cut my thumb prepping dinner last night. It doesn't hurt much, because we have really good knives. But for all that it's shallow, it just didn't want to stop bleeding. Because we have really good knives. Also because the cut's on the side of my thumb, so whenever I press the pad against something, the scabbing process is impaired.

I was mentioning this to a friend today, and she asked about stitches. I said no, it was shallow. She she asked, "Do you have any skin sealer?"

I thought about it, and remembered somebody'd told me superglue was invented to close wounds.

So yes, I'm wearing superglue on my thumb. (I had RH put it on for me--it's harder to do with one hand). I find this perversely amusing, since I spent a chunk of my high school years trying not to superglue my fingers together. Works like a charm, though.

Doing things right.

I have this problem, sometimes, of knowing how much I don't know, and so not getting anything done. We've been working on a very low level trying to put our affairs in order to buy a house, when real estate agents keep telling us just to go get pre-approved somewhere. I've also not taken any action on the starting-my-own business front because I can't tell where in the damn paper trail to start, and it seems to be scattered through at least two entities, so I don't know who to ask to advise me.

Knock wood, I think I've got a bead on both of these. I have an appointment with a housing councilor (the federal programs point you to these guys, and it's free) for two weeks from now (soonest they could get me in). And I have an appointment with the local small business development folks tomorrow to find out what I really need to do regarding the paperwork and making sure my little computer-repair sideline is all legal and above-board.

The other journal

Sorry, I'm running behind. For whoever asked, the Weird Stuff journal is hanging out behind the "Journey's Surreality Check" link at left. Way down in the column--I haven't fussed with this page enough to have figured out how to make all my blog months fold up into years, so the links have gotten kind of pushed to the bottom. Sowwy.

Quote of the Week

"Another day, another 33 cents. (Platitude has been adjusted for the economy)."

--R. K. Milholland