I Know, I'm Still Up. Sue Me.

Sometime in mid-June, I found out that one of my former high school teachers was going to be having an art show in February. I had no intention of being anywhere near here by then (now), so, other than being disappointed that I wasn't going to be able to make it, I didn't give it a lot of thought.

One of the first things that occured to me after I got back was that I was now going to be able to see this show. I'd been looking forward to it since December, and last night (technically the night before last, since it's now Sunday) I went with Spoy to see it.

Bloody Amazing. Anyone in the area (especially anyone who's grown up in our fair city) needs to see this. Go to the Arts Block sometime within the next month and enjoy. There's more info here.

OK, Yes, I Should Be in Bed, But...

I've been working on the story with the rock in, just on the notes (if I can hold off writing actual content, I may work on 200 Pages until November and use this as my NaNo). So far, I've managed to come up with:

• A detailed plot for probably the first 8th of the book and a very rough plot for the entire first half.
• The names and descriptions of six characters who I didn't even know were in the book until this evening.
• A name for the overall series (because this book is already convoluted enough that it's going to end up as a series).
• A rough explanation for why the evil thing acts the way it does (other than that it's just evil)

I think that's it. Still, that's pretty good for one evening's work.

In other news, my Gran had her grand opening today for her tea shop. Everything went very well; the place was jam-packed for the entire four hours of the event. Lincoln and I worked on her website in between serving tea (I'm still uber sick, btw). It was a good day.

Afterwards, the family went out for dinner, and after that, I went to Wal Mart with my mum, Vicky and her boyfriend and bought myself some very snazzy children's shoes, because my feet are abnormally small and it's cheaper for me to buy kids shoes (also, because they don't make ones with rainbow stars that sparkle for adults).

We watched Surrogates tonight, which I think I'm going to have to add to the long list of books and movies that I need to review. I might get to some of those tomorrow; I plan on making it a *very* lazy day.

Blargh?

I'm really sick, so this may not be entirely coherent. My temperature has been rising steadily all day, which, oddly enough, puts it at the high end of average (I guess I was cold this morning?) and for some reason, that makes it hard to think. Also, I have the worst sore throat of forever, so I called in sick to work. Telemarketing with no voice isn't exactly a walk in the park.

Sometime when I feel less like ass, I'm going to review a couple of things. To Catch A Thief being one, The Bridges of Madison County being another and Safe House being yet another. I also have some Pratchett in there I want to talk about and a book I want to add to my 2009 reading list, but I can't recall the name of either right now.

Today, if I wasn't sick, would be like a dream day of laziness. I slept in until 1:00, watched a movie, called in sick to work, went back to bed until 8:00, sent my brother to the store for treats and then watched another movie. Unfortunately, my head hurts and I feel like I'm going to pass out.

There we go, an update in the life of Athena McCormick, for your reading pleasure... or at least your mild, fleeting interest ;p

Food then Work then Movie then Bed

Tends to be how my life goes. Probably I should bathe somewhere in there. Some day in the near future, I'm going to have to write and impressively long blog post about something, but since I have to go get dressed for work and I'm spending tomorrow designing another website, that will probably have to wait until Wednesday or Thursday (I actually have plans this weekend. The mind reels). This post should serve as a reminder to me to review To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant and Grace Kelly, which I saw last night and which was quite good. For now, food.

MY WEBSITE HAS FINALLY BEEN LAUNCHED!

After a lot of years of agonizing over various things pertaining to my website (design, content, etc.), it's finally all finished, and, if I say so myself, it looks AMAZING. Lincoln did an amazing job helping me improve my designs then converting them into working code I am very, very pleased.

Now, of course, it's on to other things: getting A/G out there to the public, designing other websites, sitting down and writing 200 Pages and the other one. For right now, though, I'm seriously tempted just to kick my feet up and declare all done and refuse to do anything productive for the next month at least. Alas, that's not quite how it works. I'm going to do some quick PR, then it's back to the grindstone for me.

Some News(ish) in No Particular Order

Sninpo. Sounds like an evil clown.

I'm currently reading Terry Pratchett's The Truth, which is about news and is very good, and I'll be posting a review of as soon as I've finished it.

I took my dog (who is now lying behind me, looking sad) for an extra-long walk last night, and it was cold so my back was tensed and it still hurts.

I'm working on two new(ish) stories, 200 Pages and one which has yet to be named (currently known as: The one with the rock in). I think they both have major potential.

I need some money so I can order a new proof copy of Aigaion Girl with the new revisions, but I won't get paid until next week, which means I'm probably looking at well over a month before A/G is available for sale :(

I effing hate my job. I'm going to have to find a new one soon, I think. Basically, I get paid to bother people in the middle of dinner and try to sell them things they don't want. At the moment, I'm consolling myself by taking people off the list when they say they're absolutely not interested (we're supposed to put them on a list to be called back next year) and simply saying "thanks for your time" when people tell me they're too busy to talk to me. As a result, I'm not doing anywhere near as well as my co-workers, but then, I can look at myself in the mirror every day without wanting to throw up, so there you go. Apparently, next month, we're going to start working 6 days a week. Yeah, I think not.

I'm starving, but since the wonderful spontaneous lactose intolerance began, I've had the number of things that I can eat radically cut back, and there's pretty close to nothing in the house that I can actually eat right now without getting sick (Did anyone know that KD uses real cheese? I certainly didn't). Well, I think there might be some beef broth, but I'm not sure if that counts.

I think that wraps up this post. I've got some stuff to type out for the notes on the story with the rock in, and then I'm going to go to the store and see if I can't find something edible.

Also, I need to check if I still have an English Grammar and Usage Book. I know mine went missing, but I can't remember if I replaced it...

Ugh.

So I have a twitter account now. I got it because my sister thought it would be good to get some people following me before the launch of my website, because that way, every time I post something, I can tweet, and people will come and read my site. I agree with her, obviously, or I wouldn't have the account. Generally, I'm against twitter and everything it stands for. I can't imagine who would care what I'm doing every minute of every day. I mean, people should be living their lives, not following mine.

That being said, I am following Neil Gaiman, John Cleese and Stephen Fry, and that's pretty cool... I don't know. I guess as long as I faithfully post once or twice a day, people will eventually start following me, which is eerie, but I guess good.

Blah.

Losing My Faith

I've lost my faith in Happily Ever After.

This is partly because people are total morons, and partly because I think I've been damaged beyond the capacity for happiness. I'd love to blame it all on the fact that men are idiots, but I can't, in good conscience, do that.

Men are idiots, true. I mean, I'm sure there are men who aren't, but there can't be many and those that are out there tend to get snatched up at the first chance some woman (luckier than me) gets. Out of the men I've been really close to (excluding family members), I've been treated well by... lets say four and a half of them (the jury's still out on the half). Of those, one is an ex, one is married, one is madly in love with his girlfriend and one is married and has a son who's older than I am (I should mention that I'm talking about all men that I've been close to, not just ones I've had some sort of romantic interest in or involvement with). The half is... I don't know. Part of me knows he's being a dick, and a big part of me is trying to convince myself otherwise - because I don't want to think that I fell for another asshole. I don't want to think I was stupid enough to be duped. On the other hand, I was never as emotionally invested in him as I used to get, there weren't any promises made, and no expectations, so other than not figuring out that it's generally considered good form to reply when someone asks you a direct question, he hasn't done anything wrong. He wasn't using me, or if he was, it wasn't any more than I was using him. We had a wonderful time together, and that's what I try to remember.

I really wish I could have a good cry and get him out of my system, but unfortunately (possibly fortunately - the jury's out on that, too), I don't think I can cry over a guy any more. I think that the guy I spent most of my teenage years and my earliest twenties pining over has drained me dry, and if there are any strong emotions left in me, they're buried so deep that it'll be a long time before they surface.

So, that's that. Maybe I should just try to hold out until some Gary Oldman clone wanders out of the woodwork and swoops me off my feet... yep, someone British, gorgeous and pro-cross-dressing. Sounds good to me.

So there's my rant about men. I really do think it's time for me to get the hell out of dodge, as they say, and head... I don't know. Anywhere.

Your Rates

So I'm in a bit better of a mood tonight. I called in sick to work, cleaned my kitchen, and for the first time in three or four nights, didn't cook dinner. After dinner we played Trivial Pursuit 6, which I came second in, which was pretty good, considering I was losing for most of the game.

Also, I've been going nuts lately, because I keep seeing signs for the real estate company Royal LePage, and I haven't been able to work out where I've seen the name before (I thought maybe it was a character in one of my stories)... it turns out that I titled a post Royal LePage because I saw one of their business cards or something on the desk where I was typing the post.

And the point of this post... I think it's time to go walk about. I really can't imagine where I'll go that I'll be happy (after the Rockies didn't do it, it's hard to think of somewhere that would), but I really think I should keep trying. Actually, I'm considering taking a two-three week vacation back to B.C. in the summer... I could bus out and bus back; I'd really just like to climb Burgess while the weather's warm... but I still have my dream of just loading up my backpack, wandering off, and hoping I end up somewhere cool... I think a lot of my problem is that I really dislike people, and most places have those.

Oh, also, I'm not going to school in the fall. The deadline for equal consideration was Feb 1st, and I didn't have (and still don't have) the $95 to pay for the application. Oh well. Can't be helped. I was already getting squirrelly at the idea of having to hang around the same place for a two year program, so maybe it's for the best.

I think that's everything for tonight. I kind of wish I could express exactly what I'm feeling, but I don't know that it's possible, and anyway, it's twenty to two in the am and I need to go to bed.

At Risk of Sounding Like a 5 Year Old

I hate my job. I hate everything about my job (by the way, I got a new job). I am a telemarketer selling lawn care, which means my profession is annoying people during their dinner. At the end of every day, I get a stern look from my boss which suggests that whatever I've done, it's not good enough. I'm dreading going back tomorrow.

Also, today has pretty much sucked. The reason I'm working my awful job is that I can't get anything else. My entire family is broke. As a result, what I've eaten today is 1 pancake (bad idea, because I shouldn't have dairy), 1 potatoe, 1/4 of a can of salmon and one chocolate bar. I'm stuck at my mother's office, because I was stupid enough to come in here today (I spent ALL DAY yesterday working for free for my gran, which I don't mind doing, 'cause she deserves it), figuring I could get some of my own stuff done. I did get a lot of my own stuff done, but over the course of the day, my office has been disassembled, because, apparently, my dividers don't need to be held up by anything; we're just going to wedge them between my desk and the filing cabinet on the other side. Yeah, that won't look stupid at all.

Then, around 7:00pm, my mum had to run to take my dad to see my grandma, because my grandma isn't well and was convinced she lived somewhere other than where she does. My mum was gone a couple of hours (I should mention that this office is pretty much in the middle of nowhere) and now that she's back, they're probably going to be another two hours rearranging the office furniture.

I call this the game of How retarded can we make our office look? We're going for a new record, I think.

Okay, I think I'm done whining.

In other news, I've finished my edits to Aigaion Girl a second time, but I need to change the cover art slightly (I adjusted the margins at the suggestion of my family and ended up with an extra 8-10 pages), which I'll have to do from the computer at home... which means I have to download Inkscape, but that's not a huge deal.

Also, I posted an article on Devereaux Court and worked out the content for my website.

The Books I Read in '09 - in No Particular Order

Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

Nation - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

Soul Music - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

Jingo - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

Night Watch - Terry Pratchett ★★★★★

A Painted House - John Grisham★★★★★

My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult ★★★★★

Out of the Night That Covers Me - Pat Cunningham Devoto ★★★★★

Mansfield Park - Jane Austen ★★★★★

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen ★★★★★

The Memory Keeper's Daughter - Kim Edwards ★★★★★

Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden ★★★★★

Dead Until Dark - Charlaine Harris ★★★★★