Rat Creature's Journal

5500 / 50000 words. 11% done!

Behind, but I'm hoping to catch up by the end of the weekend. Pretty sure I can do it.

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::stares at fic::

Why the effing hell does Rodney turn mean as a rabid rattlesnake every time I try to write this sex scene?

What is wrong with him?

What is wrong with me?

::headdesk::

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/226758.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

( Criminal Minds spoilers )

( Friday Night Lights spoilers )

( Supernatural spoilers )

xposted to IJ and LJ

• Wrote 229 words on what I hope will grow up into an SGA story.
  
  
• Claude Lévi-Strauss passed away. Just hearing his name brings back so many memories from college, like sitting in an enormous lecture hall listening to my favorite prof.
  
  
• Does the San Francisco Panorama not look brilliant? Look at that list of contributors -- I can't wait!
  
  
• Here is another blog I really love: High Country New.
  
  
• Sorry to repeat myself, but higher education is my life, and I spend a lot of time worrying about it. The LA Times has an excellent article on the demise of higher education in California. Economists found that for every dollar the state invests in a CSU student, it receives $4.41 in return.
  
  
• Tomorrow night I'll be at my Mother's. I already miss my dear husband and my own comfortable bed.

OMG, Mystery Fangirl is all paid back and I'm so weebly that I just can't deal. Yes, weebly.

So, in thanks for all that you -- and you, and you, and also *you*! -- have done, I'm offering snippets. I'm actually working on four different stories right now and so won't be able to do them immediately, but I promise to try.

Rules: DC or Malazan Book of the Fallen. I might be able to manage a Buffyish thing here or a Marvelish thing there, but odds are waaaaay low on that. You can pick one of my icons, or give me a three- or four-word prompt, or two or three character names, or whatever you'd like. Note: I'm about to add a Roy icon to the mix, so keep that in mind. :D

No, you don't have to have contributed to ask for a snippet, but if you *did* contribute, I really hope you *will* ask, even if it turns out I can't manage it.

*hugs you ALL*

From Mystery Fangirl:

"I only hope that you all feel like incredibly, wonderfully, extraordinarily kind and virtuous people because that's what you are. None of you had a reason to help me but you did. I will always be grateful."

Currently ahemming the pilot of White Collar. If this turns out to be my next fandom, I predict the local Starbucks will get used to me showing up to use their faster wifi.

Contemplating the Yuletide sign ups. I can do a thousand words in a day. Of course, not a thousand words that finish a story, but we'll ignore that niggling little inconvenience. few has written me a how to sign up post here; if you're a newbie like me, take a gander.

I think I'll have the first draft of the sga secret santa story done by the weekend. I broke 10,000 words last night and have thrown out all the parts that aren't from John's pov, so it's on the down hill slide. No more action to speak of, just two emotional denouements and the sex scene. Hope no one thinks I'm bashing Mitchell or Keller in this, because I most certainly don't mean to do that. I see it as a no fault situation, with no one meaning to hurt anyone ele.

Circling back to Yuletide, I mean to take my time making my decisions before I officially sign up. No use piling on in the first few hours and breaking it, after all.

...

Poking around the internets, I found the kind of diabetic socks my dad likes and ordered him some. Gah. 70+ bucks for socks! For that they ought to do their own laundry. But they'll make Dad and his feet happy and more comfortable.


***

Huh. Do not like the Starbucks on the other side of town, but this one is pretty handy and much quieter. And the brownies are tasty.

Hell and damnation, I've succumbed!

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/226308.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

They now all come up onto my hand when I put it in the cage, and climb onto me and sit on my shoulder. They now also let me pet them. They are not yet comfortable to be grabbed and picked up, and they haven't yet learned to come when I call either, so I won't let them run outside yet. But they are definitely interested in exploring outside the cage, so I have to be watchful now.

In preparation for future playtime I have made a simple enclosure from wooden panels connected with cable binders that I can put up to let them play outside while they are very little without guarding every tiny opening between, beneath or into my furniture, so that may happen soon. Previously I just let tiny ones play in the whole room like adults, but it is just extremely stressful to keep track of them when they are tiny. My last ones squeezed themselves beneath my mattress for example and in all sorts of places, even with me doing my best to block all gaps between walls and furniture and make the room safe. Obviously it's more interesting for them if they can explore the whole room, but they will have to make do for the sake of my nerves.

I mean, the size of the enclosure will be all of the center of the room so they can run further than in the cage if they like, and obviously I will put in something for them to climb, and hide, and such for entertainment. I have a large branch now, but I'm looking into whether there are maybe cat scratching tree combos that would maybe work for rats as a more varied playground. I've also seen a kind of ferret play tree in a pet store that looked real nice and good for rats (probably because they are closer in size than cats), but it was quite expensive unfortunately (the ones for cats were too). So I'm still looking for something like that.

Finally, I have decided to go with Linus and Leo for the new names I wasn't decided on yet.

xposted to IJ and LJ

Today I wrote:

210 words of what I hope will be a short Daniel Jackson story.

558 words of the story I've been working on, the one I've been dreaming of for months.

Currently, my favorite blog is The Iceland Weather Report.

Whenever I think I might possibly someday subject my brain cells to SGU, I run across something that snaps me back to sanity.

( annoying show is annoying )

SGA secret santa story is cooking along. I'm averaging something like 2300 words a day on it. Half way done. It's invigorating to work on things I'll be able to post. Once it is done, I'll go back to part four of GT&T and try to finish it before the end of the year, maybe fit in something from the Green Sea 'verse and then the Criminal Minds apocafic. And then get back to the original novel I started last January.

Hi, I'm Auburn and I'm a deadline addict. But it has to be outside deadlines. The ones I set for myself -- like finishing the novel? -- have no force. It takes anxiety to motivate me.

Only ten or so days until SGA Big Bang goes live. Apparently there was a sign up to pick a day to post a teaser, but I must have been out of town (or just out of my mind) because I missed it at the time. I'm really, really looking forward to the artwork for my story, anyway. ::cross fingers:: 

This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/226071.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

Tonight I wrote 694 words. I sure hope this turns into a story.

Tonight I also bought my mother a Kindle DX. I heard from my sister and she really likes the idea. Mother is so miserable; she's trying to read using a magnifying glass, a word at a time. It's taken her two weeks to read 240 pages.

She has also decided to give up driving. My sister and I are very grateful for that. Thank god she moved into her assistive living place about six years ago -- they have all kinds of services to help people get around, and there's even a little grocery store right on the premises.

The Kindle should be there by Wednesday, and I fly in on Thursday, so I hope I can figure it out, get it configured, and have Mother reading before I leave. I think Amazon gives you a month to make up your mind so we can always return it. But I hope she likes it. I really, really hope she likes it.

Changing the subject wildly: A show I really enjoyed was canceled: Defying Gravity. It wasn't a very good show, but I loved the premise and was really curious where it was going to go. I googled around looking for news of the show and discovered an interview with the show's creator about where it would have gone. Reading that made me even sorrier it was canceled.

More than a year ago, my computer was hit with several thousand virus files at once. I still don't know how that happened, but the upshot was that, even after reformatting my computer, nothing worked. It forgot it had a sound card and would crash every couple of hours no matter what I did or didn't do. The sheer number of times I lost parts of stories... well, that's enough of that. I salvaged what I could from the machine and went begging. And one particular fan stepped up and helped me out. I can't share her name -- she really wants to stay private -- but she went out of her way to find me a new computer. One that *works*.

Now she -- we -- need your help. I have the computer and I'm using the ever-loving *hell* out of it, but the fangirl in question is out over four hundred dollars. I'm asking for your help. Even if you can only afford a few dollars, it would be vastly appreciated. I don't know how to thank her for what she did for me, and I don't know how to thank all of you who choose to participate in this. But I'm damned well gonna try and *keep* trying.

Thank you.

OMG THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

( first rat impressions with some pictures )

1813 / 50000 words. 4% done!

I have apparently forgotten everything I ever knew about writing. Nothing but dialogue and then long descriptions of the character's state of mind. Still, that's a step up from nothing at all, so I'm not complaining.

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xposted to IJ and LJ

Happy November 1! It's el día de los muertos, my favorite holiday. I went into town and saw people placing flowers at little shrines along the road, where their friends and family have died, and we have candles burning. I made cupcakes but I don't have any sugar skulls, which makes me sad. I love crunching on them.

November 1 is also the first day of NaNoWriMo, in which I do not participate, but I do think it's time for me to do some writing. I am watching the community Mini NaNoWriMo, and have committed myself to writing at least 100 words/day this month. I didn't join the community because I will be AFK for several days -- next week is my mother's 87th birthday, so I'm flying back to spend the weekend with her. I still don't have a gift for her, though I'm seriously considering buying her a Kindle DX.

I'm using Write or Die again; I really like that little app. I don't think I'll buy the desktop version, though, because I like the online so much. Today I've written just over 600 words, so I'm happy. I'm not sure it will actually become a story, but it's something I've thought about writing for months now. We'll see if anything comes of it.

For Halloween, I saw Paranormal Activity, which scared me to death. I seriously have been leaving lights on when I sleep. Laugh at me if you will, but I'm not turning them off.

( Other things in my life )

Did you move your clock back? I mean, if you live someplace where you have to?

( The AU sequel to ending #2 of A way so familiar )

( The one with Roy in the middle. )

I make no promises that I'll finish either of these before I dash back over to orig. fic land -- I really am just *that* scattered, these days -- but I thought I'd just give y'all an update.

Happy hauntings!

One Shots
[x] alisanne: About Mr. Right [PG]
[x] anonymous: Battle Born [PG-13]
[x] atypicalsnowman: A Dark and Stormy Night Never Seemed So Scary [PG]
[x] atypicalsnowman: The Ones In Between [PG]
[x] lemondropseven: Defeated in Victory [PG-13]
[x] torina_archelda: Once Earned [PG]
[x] torina_archelda: Where No One Was Looking [G]
[x] torina_archelda: Home [PG]

Works In Progress
[x] atypicalsnowman: Pains and Contradictions has been posted up to Chapter 27 [R- NC-17]
[x] kibatsu: Nights of Gethsemane has been posted up to Chapter 54 [NC-17]
[x] the_con_cept: It Sucks to be Severus Snape has been posted up to Chapter 8 [NC-17]

Drabbles And Ficlets
[x] Kyrie: Some Rescue [PG]
[x] alisanne: A Good Review [PG]
[x] alisanne: Breakfast of Champions [PG-13]
[x] alisanne: Doing His Duty [G]
[x] alisanne: Fruity Flavour [R]
[x] alisanne: In The Spirit [PG]
[x] alisanne: Lion in a Den of Snakes [PG]
[x] alisanne: Living On [G]
[x] atypicalsnowman: Sometimes Warnings Are Silly [PG-13]
[x] fancypantsdylan: What They Don't Tell You [PG-13]
[x] joanwilder: Building Beauty [PG]
[x] kibatsu: Halloween Drabble [Unrated]
[x] lilyseyes: Protective Heart [PG]
[x] lilyseyes: Samhain Distrust [R] chan
[x] naturegirlrocks: End of an Era [PG]
[x] quixe: Foiled Again [PG]
[x] shadowess: Family [G]
[x] sillypowers: Growing Up [PG]
[x] sillypowers: Sleeping Arrangements [PG]
[x] snarry_ldws: Week 6 Drabbles [PG - R]
[x] torina_archelda: Harry's Halloween by Torina Archelda [G]
[x] torina_archelda: Loss [G]
[x] torina_archelda: With You [PG]
[x] torino10154: Heat [NC-17]
[x] torino10154: One More Time [PG-13]
[x] torino10154: Seaworthy [PG-13]
[x] vividzephyr: Living in the Past [PG-13]
[x] weasleybits: End of An Era [G]

Art And Icons
[x] Yuki-Almasy: The Magic of Autumn [Unrated]
[x] tessisamess: Snarry Art [Unrated] NSFW
[x] veridian_dair : Undivided Attention (WS) [PG]
[x] weasleybits: Halloween Suckfest [G]

Miscellaneous
[x] potionssnitches: Weekend Update for October 25th

This Newsletter
[x] Send your Snape/Harry news to sshp.prophet@gmail.com!

I've just come back from getting my three baby rats, who are tiny and adorable. They are still a bit shy, mostly hiding in one of their tubes, but they've already found the food and water and are coming out to grab bits of food only to hide again to eat it. So they are not easy to photograph yet, but starting to settle in.

Ten thousand word minimum, any fandom, not due until February, apocafic! 

Apocabigbang

Also, all you great writers reading this (why are you reading this and not writing me fic?) should check it out.

I wanna sign up so much. I love apocafic, pro and fan, like a burning, burning, burning thing.

But would anyone want to read a Criminal Minds apocafic? I have a genuinely cool idea that isn't supernatural, isn't zombies, and isn't nuclear war (though it might escalate) for the collapse of civilization.

Peoples! Talk me down from signing up for this! (Or egg me on, because you realize now that there is no way for your life to be complete without a Criminal Minds apocafic.)

BTW - home, internets, I missed you. Though I really wish my dad had been feeling better before I had to leave.
This entry was originally posted at http://auburn.dreamwidth.org/225987.html. where there are comments. Comments are enabled on all cross posted journals.

In case anyone is interested, here are the answers to who my favorites are in fandoms I listed:
( if you don't want to guess )

xposted to IJ and LJ

My mother is blind in one eye, due to macular degeneration, and has very low vision in the other. Fortunately, the macular degeneration has been halted in her good eye, due to new meds, but damage was done.

She is a great reader; nothing makes her happier than to settle down with a pile of books by her side. She has a favorite armchair that I call her "nest," and she settles in with coffee, a bright light, and her books. For the last few years, those books have been enormous large print ones, so heavy that she finds them difficult to hold due to her arthritis.

Now her remaining eye's vision has deteriorated to the point that even large print isn't large enough. She went to see a low vision specialist, who charged her $185 for ten minutes and sold her an $85 magnifying glass that 1) doesn't work well, and 2) is too heavy for her arthritic hand to hold.

I spoke to my own optometrist, who has followed her history (and checks me carefully for any signs of macular degeneration each year), but he tells me there's nothing for it but assistive devices. No magic treatment to restore her vision, or even improve it a bit. Right now, we don't believe she'll go completely blind, but she can't do very much, including read.

I've been investigating assistive devices, but they all seem to be magnifying glasses of one sort or another (like a flat fresnel lense you lay over the page, except the page has to be perfectly flat and what book is perfectly flat?) or would make her sit at a special table and read from a monitor. I want her in her comfortable nest.

To me, the obvious solution is books on CDs, which I love and listen to all the time. Alas, Mother doesn't care for them. I've bought her any number of them, but I don't think she's ever opened one; they just sit on her shelf.

I've been looking at the Kindle DX, the Sony e-Reader, and the new Barnes and Noble Nook. Sony's device is simply too small for Mother's vision, but both the Kindle DX and the Nook look like real possibilities. I found this comparison of the two (you'll have to click on it to enlarge the jpg). The Kindle is about an inch longer than the Nook, plus part of the Nook's landscape is taken up by some odd screen I haven't figured out yet (I've never seen a Nook in RL).

Of course, both have stupidly small navigation buttons, but we can paint them or something so Mother can identify which button is for what.

My question to my flist: does anyone own either of these devices? For someone very nearly blind, would they do? I've googled "low vision" and their names and found lots of very promising articles about them. They both cost a fair bit, but that doesn't matter to me -- it's my Mom, you know? Plus my sister is going to kick in. But I want to get something she can actually use. Bonus problem: she loathes computers with a white hot passion; they totally freak her out.

Advice or suggestions gratefully received.

( Other stuff, less urgent and interesting )