Weekly Update – Friday Sept. 09/11

by tag Posted on September 9, 2011

And… it’s Friday again!

Well, it’s been a long week, despite the fact that Labour Day was on Monday (thus no work). I must admit that I’m rather glad it’s Friday, and not just because I got paid this morning (;)). During this week, I have discovered that I am (again) low-iron anemic (which may explain part of why I’ve ended up so tired the last week and a half or so), and Imber has gotten braver at following me out of my room.

Work has gone well. I’m finding that despite my tiredness, I’m enjoying the training – in large part because our trainer, Heather, is very enthusiastic and tries to make things interesting for us. (Glitter. Glitter everywhere. *snrks*) We’ve been learning this week about phone manufacturers (if you want a durable cellular phone, Samsung, Apple, or Nokia are your best bets), and about phones themselves. We’ve started learning about other products as well, and some of the service plans Rogers offers.

Hm. Other than that… my niece was here until Tuesday afternoon. We had a reasonably good weekend, though the weather has gotten a bit more towards “St. John’s normal” (i.e. colder and greyer) this week – though today ended up warm (to me) and sunny…. Note that the temperatures in St. John’s do feel a bit cooler than the same temperatures in Toronto, probably because of the difference in humidity and how it reacts. Not that I mind! (No, the only thing I mind is the fact that the training room’s air conditioner has to be broken – Heather insists it’s 21°C and we’re all freezing, or nearly so!)

I’ve lost some weight since I got here, which is good. The everyday walking I’m doing is helping with that, definitely.

What else? Nothing much, really. I’ve been busy with work and with dealing with my exhaustion, and cooking the occasional dinner. I’m really hoping that I’ll get some writing done this coming week, because I haven’t written a word in weeks, and it’s beginning to really get to me.

The good news is that my sister-in-law has been dragged into NaNoWriMo, and we’re going to meet up Sunday so she can pick my brain about it. Ought to be fun – window-shopping followed by coffee/tea!

Oh… and I’ve gotten into Twitter. Not going to use it much, but if any friends of mine out there are also on and want to follow me… there’s a link over to the side!

Hope you’ve all had a good week as well!

‘Later,
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Weekly Update – Friday Sept. 02/11

by tag Posted on September 2, 2011

Okay, weekly update time. Like I said, I’m going to try to do this every week.

This one’s not a long one; just… it’s been a long, exhausting week, mostly because of the training (the first two and a half days, we were sitting listening to and watching speeches and PowerPoints, and doing paperwork; it’s only in the last couple of days that we’ve started doing things, like training on the systems we’ll be using).

Imber continues to get a bit bolder, and we’re now finding her semi-frequently in the “main room” of my “suite”, or in the laundry room, rather than just in my bedroom. This is a good thing. Now we need to get her up to the level of the den, the basement bathroom, and the food and litter box that are around the bathroom (food inside, to dissuade Quixote, the cocker, from getting at it; litter box(es) outside so that the bathroom can be used). So that’s the project for the next two weeks, I think.

Hm. Not really all that much else to say, save that my younger niece has been staying with us since Wednesday evening, and will be here until/including Monday, since my brother and sister-in-law are camping. And I don’t have to go into work on Monday because it’s Labour Day (though I don’t get paid for it either). Yay, sleep-in time!

*shrugs* If I think of anything else, I’ll add another entry.

See you next week!

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General Update – August

by tag Posted on August 29, 2011

Well. It has been quite the busy month.

In the middle of the month I moved from Toronto, Ontario, to St. John’s, Newfoundland. From a basement apartment to my mom and dad’s house (where my bedroom is in the basement ;), though I’ve got a huge window). With my cat (you can see Imber on my new bed in the next post’s userpic). I’ve just started a new job (well, the training, but that’s the start of the job, effectively) that’s only about a 10-minute walk from the house, which is nice. (Though lunch is only half an hour, so I don’t get to go home for that.) I also had to get rid of the vast, vast majority of my books and DVDs, because we flew here (renting a truck would have cost thousands of dollars, a good portion of that for the ferry from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland). That was painful.

Altogether, things are going well, and it’s likely this move was the best thing for me to do. It gets me out of the Toronto weather (boiling heat in summer, which I’m allergic to, and freezing cold in winter – St. John’s might get a lot of snow, but the weather is generally milder than in Toronto). St. John’s, despite its status as the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador, still is very much a small town in mentality, and the pace of life in Atlantic Canada is slower and more relaxed than in Ontario (part of the reason my brother chose to stay in St. John’s, and my middle sister chose to stay in/around Halifax). Plus, the vast majority of my mom’s family lives here, so I have a ready-made support system if I need them. (And I can still participate in NaNoWriMo here…. ;))

I’m determined not to lose track of my friends in Toronto though, nor any friends I’ve made through LJ and my fanfic, so expect more updates than usual as I settle in. (I’m going to try to update my LJ every Friday, now that things are a bit more settled here.)

The next post (which will follow shortly) will detail Imber’s “Great Adventure” in the two days before the move. (*shudders*) I was so terrified throughout….

‘Later, all!

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NaNoWriMo 2010 Update #8

by tag Posted on November 30, 2010

Well, this is the final NaNo update for 2010, although I may add an entry after the TGIO (“Thank God It’s Over”) party tomorrow night.

Didn’t get anything written yesterday due to a sinus migraine. I hate the fact that I’ve inherited my dad’s sinuses, much as I love him, because when the weather is as changeable as weather in Toronto can be, it knocks me for a loop. It’s been worse this year, I think because I’ve had so many other stresses playing a role.

Anyway, enough of the misery, here’s the good news.

It’s not yet midnight, and I have accomplished my goal of getting more than 100,000 words for NaNo 2010! Admittedly not much more (only 53), but the goal was 100K, not how much over that I would go.

Of course, Lost and Found isn’t finished; I’m going to still be writing it into December. But it’s at least half done, so I’m fairly satisfied with that accomplishment. And I’m going to have people bugging me to finish it as quickly as possible, I know, because they want to get the next “ready for beta” chapter of Search and Rescue to read, and that’s not getting done until I finish this first draft of Lost and Found.

Anyway, here’s hoping I feel better tomorrow!

Happy November, all!

‘Later,

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NaNoWriMo 2010 Update #6

by tag Posted on November 27, 2010

Yes, it’s true! Another update the day after I did the last one! Stunning, isn’t it!

However, as I’m posting my milestones when it comes to NaNoWriMo, I needed to post today. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I’m aiming to get 100K words by Monday night. I finished last night with 77,663 words. My goal for today, as I wanted it to be manageable, was for 85K.

But as I was hyped up from the effects of the write-in session (this seems to happen often…), I ended up writing some more just after midnight. When I went to bed, I had managed to get 81,016 words total. (Yes, I wrote over 3K words before going to bed “last night”.)

So I modified my goals for today somewhat. I still wanted to get 85K by midnight tonight – which meant writing another 4K words, and finishing off Chapter 10 – but I decided to do a “hopeful” goal: 90,000 words by midnight tonight, which would finish off Chapter 11 (the chapters seem to be between 8,000 and 8,550 words each).

Guess what?

It’s only 22:30 hours – there’s still another hour and a half, and I can get between 800 and 1,000 words written in a half hour – and my current total word count is: 90,649 words. I did it – which means that there’s less than 10,000 words left to reach my 100K goal, and I can (if I work it) get that done by tomorrow night, rather than Monday. (Which is good, because I suspect Lost and Found is going to be at least 150K words, and the more I get written this month, the less I have to write in December.)

It has also led to beating my previous highest words per day count of 12,861 words; at present, I have 12,986 words written, and I intend to write more. I’ll probably post an edit here just before going to bed stating how many I ended up writing.

So as you can probably guess, I’m practically bouncing, I’m so hyped up and happy….

[EDIT 23:57 hrs.: Okay, finished the typing for midnight. And boy, have I done a lot! My current word count total is now 92,830 words – meaning less than 7,200 words to 100K – and my word count for today? Is 15,167. Count me stunned.]

‘Later, all!

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NaNoWriMo 2010 Update #5

by tag Posted on November 26, 2010

Okay, here’s the latest on NaNoWriMo.

Unfortunately, for the first part of the week I was effectively taken out of the game with sinus migraines – or sinus headaches of migraine intensity. So I didn’t update my story from Monday to Wednesday. *sighs*

Got some written yesterday, and am currently at the Friday write-in session, and have reached just over 75,000 words. (*waits for cheers*) Now I’m trying to get to 100,000 words by Monday evening. Luckily, the next two days are the weekend….

The write-in has been fun so far, and I’m enjoying it again this week. So far we’ve had two people in the session reach the NaNo goal of 50,000 words, so we’re doing well. And we’ve got quite the crowd here, probably since it’s the last Friday write-in session for the month of November.

Anyway, I’ve got to go get another cup of tea, then concentrate more on my writing (25K words in 3 days is a lot!).

‘Later, all!

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NaNoWriMo 2010 Update #4

by tag Posted on November 21, 2010

(#3 having been the report of the Overnight Writing Session I put out this morning.)

Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have made my partway goal. I was determined to have 70,000 by midnight tonight, and guess what? I got it just before the clock hit the half hour. My word count now stands at a very respectable 70,015 words. Along with the fact that I have written more words in the past 25 hours than I thought possible.

Since about 2230 hours last night (aka 10:30 pm), I have written a whopping 15,800 words; 12,870 of those words since midnight. I have never written that many words in a period of less than two days before (and that’s been only in the rush up to the end of NaNo).

And what is in my opinion even more amazing, is that I barely touched the story from the time I got home from brunch (at approximately 12:30) and an hour ago. (Not that I was sleeping, unfortunately; I really should have been, but something else occupied my attention.)

So anyway, for those interested in the actual story I’m writing (*grins*), I’m almost at the end of the first half of the story, with some of the bad guys getting caught. But Brendan and Ryuu are still going to have to deal with not only Ryuu’s family (some of whom are not quite as pleasant as Ryuu remembers them), but also the Big Bad coming their way. *smirks evilly at Brendan, then ducks away from Ryuu’s knives*

So… unless I really put my nose to the grindstone this week and crank out 5,000-10,000 words a day (which is not terribly likely), I don’t think Lost and Found will be finished by the end of November. I’m going to try, but I’ve learned not to guarantee things. It only leads to unreasonable expectations and disappointment.

Of course, there’s still just over a week – 9 days – left, and you never know what could happen. I’m getting into scheduling my time better these days (for a whole bunch of reasons), so I’m planning to work on NaNo from the late afternoon all the way to bedtime every day. We’ll see what happens.

Going to go bask in my achievement of 70K….

‘Later, all!

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