Making more work...

Lately, I have been thinking about submissions. I thought I'd send out a few of my finished works while I continue works in progress.
I started venturing through my stories. After several computer crashes I've had stories saved in various places, one main place in particular. I checked there and all my stuff was still as I had left it. Unfortunately, there were a few stories that I had made edits to, after receiving feedback from my writing group. It looks like I didn't resave the files on my back-up after my edits. So more work is lost.
I either need to set up a schedule to save my items on back-up or remember to start saving them once I'm done with them.
The good news is that, when it comes to my writing, I'm a pack rat. I never throw away notes or drafts. So I still have all the notes and input from writing group. It's just a bummer to have to do the work over again.
Sometimes I feel like I'm spinning in circles.

Currently reading: Memoirs of a Geisha
Currently watching: Biggest Loser
Just watched: Star Trek

Finally, something to write about

Okay, I'm back to work. I've spent this week writing an article about resale shops. Of course, I've been through a few computers lately, and I'm typing on a new one (well new to me) right now. And because I forgot to e-mail it to myself, that article is now saved on a computer that is not hooked up. So I would have to unhook this monitor, mouse and keyboard, hook them back up to the other computer and then undo all of that just to get the article. How's that for complicated?
I finished typing in part three of my short story Worth Something. I have writing group tomorrow right after work so I need to get my other group members' work read and make some comments. Eventually, I'll have to finish the end of the story and type it up for next month. After that I'll need to have started a new piece of fiction or else I'll have nothing to take.
It feels good to be writing again. I didn't realize how much I missed the release and the feeling of accomplishment. I don't know how I ever stopped.

Starting again

Thank you to everyone for all their kindness these last months. I know I haven't been a very good blog friend lately but it's nice to know that a few of you are still with me.

I thought I'd give a little update on things in my life that I haven't posted about the last few months.
First off, I had another computer melt down. My computer stopped working. I'm working on getting it repaired and working on a borrowed computer right now. We'll see how that works out.
Last week I met with writing group. We usually meet the first Sunday of the month but I had to postpone due to everything going and my group members were awesome enough to reschedule. I have been taking parts of my short story, Worth Something, which is my story about the value of money and what it means to different people.
Jenni and I went to see RENT again. She got me tickets for Christmas and it was a nice chance to get away from the chaos. I got to see Jenni and my favorite musical. It's a great message of measuring your life in love and living like every moment is your last. It was what I needed.
Work has been madness. I'm really unhappy there. Combine that with a recent viewing of RENT and I can say that all I've wanted to do is quit my job and write. I haven't yet but I am looking into options. I'm not sure how much longer my employment will last, whether it's by my choice or someone else's.
That's about it. I've listed some books, watched some movies, read some books, even wrote some stuff (most of it journal entries). So I have a lot to post about. And I will. If I ever want to get out of this mess and doing what makes me happy, I have to start working hard.

It seems like nothing but updates

Sorry it's been so long. I didn't mean to neglect my blog. I miss it dearly and really wish I had the chance to write and read blogs more often. I know it seems like all I do lately is give updates. That's mostly because by the time I get back around to writing it's time for another update. So here's the news.

First off, my roommate is lending me a computer that she was going to recycle after getting a new Mac. So providing that it's willing and able, I might have regular Internet access by next paycheck. *fingers crossed*

Second, writing group met again and I got a chance to give them the last half of Christmas Bells. I'm pretty sure that if I do anything with that story, I'm going to need to lengthen it. It goes too fast and really has a lot of room for more.
Anyway, now I'm left wondering what story I should take when we meet next month. My writing group thinks I'm notorious for unhappy endings and they're right. I haven't shared one story with a happy ending. I think someone dies in almost every story I've given them. So I promised a happy story this time.
I have a few old short stories written, but they're nothing I really wanted to fuss with. I'm almost finished with my short story about the money and whether stealing is wrong if money has no value, which I've tentatively titled Worth Something. No one dies but it is a bit pessimistic. I could always write something new but I think I might attempt to turn a script into a prose. I have on in mind that's a fun parody of sorts. If not, I might take the first part of my super long short story/novella. Once again, it's a bit pessimistic but no one dies.

Unsorted and unnamed

Last year my computer crashed, thankfully I had everything on a flash drive. The flash drive that eventually erased itself somehow. Then I was left with nothing. All my work gone, except for anything I had hand written or had sent to someone.
It wasn't the first time I had lost work but it was the most work I had ever lost. Someone was able to recover big chunks, but not everything. The minute the recovery happened, I spent my day saving everything to an e-mail account. I figured I'd always be able to access my work from anywhere.
Don't worry I'm not about to say that something devastating happened to said e-mail account. Everything is fine *Knock on wood*.
What did happen was that I quickly saved everything not bothering to label any of it. So now that I'm considering showing some of my work to others, I wanted to find some of my really early stuff, or at least stuff that I'm not currently submitting. That means that I had to open every single e-mail I sent to myself and figure out what the heck was in it. Thank goodness it's been slow here at work.
It's really sad to realize how much I lost. The thought of retyping everything that I have printed or handwritten makes my head hurt. Not to mention my recent computer malfunction that did take a few une-mailed documents with it. Whether or not I'll get those back remains to be seen.

Not again...

Okay, I have a really good excuse for not having posted. My computer is down and out. It’s not recognizing its software. I don’t know when I’ll ever have money to get it fixed so it could be a while.
Isn’t it funny how I always seem to have major computer problems in the summer? Of course, maybe it’s better this way. I always notice that less people visit my blog in the summer and people seem to post less often during the summer. Probably because they’re out in the nice weather, where as in the winter there’s nothing but cold outside so what better to waste away time than being on the Internet.
My computer being down is just as well. I don’t usually get much typed in the summer months when I’m not in air condition. And my house is not air conditioned.
Besides I actually seem to get more written when I don’t have the Internet to get caught up on. Sure, I have to write by hand and type it in later but I actually prefer that. I feel more connected to my work when writing by hand. Plus, typing it in later is a chance to edit.
And aside from getting more written, I’ve actually spent time walking Kreeg, cleaning, organizing, riding my bike, working out and other kinds of productive stuff. I will make it. I think.
On the bright side, there is always the library and I can use the computer at work when I get a few spare minutes. So I will try to keep posting and checking everyone’s blogs. How often I’ll get to it, I’m not sure. Just know I miss you.

Well NaBloPoMo is a bust but the speech thing might work out

I can’t believe it either. Only three days left and I blew it.
I didn’t get out of work until nine and I by the time I got home and settled in there were only a few hours left to post. I started checking my e-mails and other blogs. I got to my blog, read through the awesome comments, which I’ll get to in a minute, and then I got kicked off.
I went through all the checks and reboots to try to get back on. Nothing. The orange light that means no connection remained. So I called and spent my last hours of the day on the phone trying to sort it out until I some how got disconnected and decided I would just try again tomorrow when I wasn’t about to fall asleep.
If you’re reading this now, it obviously got straightened out.
Apparently, I accepted an update to my online protection sometime when I was online. It set all my settings to the highest possible, which reset some passwords for my DSL and made it impossible to go to any site. Or something. I'm still confused about it really. At least I'm online now.

So I didn’t end up completing NaBloPoMo but oh well. The site had problems and seriously confused me so really I was just participating as a challenge to myself. I’m still a winner. I posted almost everyday and sometimes the posts were actually good.

I’ve been working on the speech all day. Thanks to everyone for their help in the comments. After posting about the leadership speech and Green Christmas, I’m starting to think that I should just post about an idea and let everyone else write it in the comments. I got so much great advice from the comments that this speech is writing it self.

I started with an outline that consisted of elements such as an opening joke, then a famous quote, followed by a little bit of life story. After that are some statistics. Then it talks about what it takes to be a leader, such as people to follow. Concluding with how each of us can be a leader.
It’s all coming together. I’ll be sure to post it when I’m done. Thank you to Melissa, Jenni and D.B. Echo for all the help.

Backing up

I know how could I possible get a new computer, and after so long of not being on the Internet, not update my blog a hundred times by now. Well, I’ve been getting all my software back on to my computer. And thanks to Sharon’s husband, I’ve been backing up, and putting back onto my computer, most of my work that was on my flash drive! Woohoo!

This week is going to be crazy hectic. I’ll be at the hospital for about 14 hours on Thursday. It’s a lot of waiting so hopefully I’ll have time to get a lot of work done. I think Going It Alone is at the point where I can print it out and read through it. I usually save that for about the third or fourth time I’ve been through something since the first few times of reading it I make about a hundred changes.
I thought about taking my laptop but I’m not sure there will be a place to plug it in and I’ll have way too much stuff to lug around.
If I get sick of writing, maybe I’ll finally break into the Tolkien books I’ve been meaning to get to.

And as I mentioned before most of work came off the flash drive but not all. That includes a few pieces of what I had started of Human Decency. Plus, since I’ve taken such a long break from it I think it might be a good idea to just start over and what better time than for NaNoWriMo. So that’s the plan.

Guess where I'm writing from?

If you said my desk at home you would be so correct! That's right I got a new computer. Well not new, new but that's not important. I'm so very excited yet I keep thinking I'm going to be driving to work tomorrow, the car door will fly open and the computer will fly under the wheel of a Hummer (they're quite popular where I work).

Now I just have to work on getting back my lost work but right now I need to just be happy. And I have nothing else to say since I spent all my new computer time catching up. I'll write a much better post soon. And by that I mean longer, not more entertaining

Err: My brain has not been formatted

When my computer had a horrible virus I made sure to back everything up. Then the computer died but that’s okay I had everything backed up. Then another computer died but that’s okay because I still had everything backed up.
I had put everything on my flash drive. Well, when you don’t have a computer your flash drive becomes the only thing with your work on it and it would seem reasonable that you should back everything up somewhere else, right? Too bad this occurred to me after I went to open the files on my flash drive only to have it say “this disk has not been formatted” and a ‘properties’ check showed there is, indeed, nothing on it.
How did it happen? The last time I plugged it in at the library I made sure the red light was off before removing it but I hadn’t ended up using it so whether or not it had been erased then, I don’t know.

I know that some of my stuff is saved in e-mails, most of it, at least the finished stuff, has been printed out or was hand-written originally, but the sad truth is that some of it is lost forever.

Once again, just like not having a computer has given me more time to write and less time to waste on the Internet, I think good can come of this. Maybe the stuff that was lost wasn’t all that good. I still have the ideas in my head or maybe even written down in some giant stack of notes. Sometimes you have to start from scratch in order to let go of the bad stuff that you felt loyal to.

For instance, most of what I had written for Human Decency is gone. I still have notes and character outlines but the actual first pages are gone. Maybe it's not all bad. I could now start over on Human Decency for NaNoWriMo. I had taken so much time away from it anyway, maybe starting over is best.

And right now I’m reading The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. It’s a memoir book and she writes about how her family would never stay in one place very long. Her mother was an artist and a writer. Whenever they would leave somewhere they would only take what they could fit in their car and a lot of times her mother would leave behind almost all of her work. I keep thinking about that whenever I get upset about my disk that has gone blank.

What fills the time when you don't have a computer?

My computer is still nonexistent but I did discover that the library computers have a USB port on the front so I can use my flash drive without having to climb over/around the computer like a weirdo. I already feel awkward enough with the loud clicky keyboards. Anyway, that means that I can write blog posts and long e-mails at work then post or send them once I get to the library.

I have been working on writing but not as much as I thought I would be now that the computer has been down. Of course, it doesn’t help that it’s the new fall season on TV. I know that’s absolutely no excuse not to get any writing done. However, I only have Mondays and Thursdays as must see TV. I watched that new show Chuck which wasn’t too bad and Heroes of course. Then Thursday I watched the Office. 30 Rock and Scrubs will be on soon too.
Although, I think I'm done with CSI. I was disappointed that the season finale was nearly identical to the season finale when Nick(Sara this time around) got kidnapped by someone who felt like CSI had wronged a loved one. Then CSI races to find Nick/Sara just before they die.
Other than too much TV, I have been reading. One of my livejournal friends who’s a writer that I don’t actually know, was talking about a series of books by Megan McCafferty. I checked out the first one, Sloppy First, while I was at the library.
Even though they’re young adult books I still liked it. The main character’s best friend moves away and she feels like she has no one to talk to. They keep in touch through e-mails that have funny endings. Like instead of ‘sincerely’ they say weird stuff. I wish I hadn’t returned the book already because now I can’t remember any of them. Anyway, this reminded me so much of Jenni and I. She moved away and I miss her. We still keep in touch with e-mails that we end in ways that usually involve a shoe something and something else like, hugs and heel grips. Sure we’re weird but apparently so are these fictional teenage characters so that must mean we’re not that odd. Right?
Also for a Christmas present this girl makes her friend a mix tape. We all know how I feel about those. And she loves Captain Crunch, which could be the awesomest cereal of all time.
The book also had a good point about perspective. How people who have experienced bad things in their lives don’t worry about the small things being bad because they realize that it could be much worse. And the main character wanted to get the huge bad things out of the way so she could enjoy the small bad things for the rest of her life.
I'll probably read the next one eventually.

And thanks for voting in the poll to name my novel. I know Going It Alone won but now I feel bad that I can't name it what everyone voted for. Couldn't people just all vote for the same one? Well, no matter what you voted for, thanks for voting. Getting more than one vote made me feel very honored.

Here's the deal

The thing about a free computer is it's too good to be true. In fact it's a blank screen that needs an expensive diagnostics test and then of course repairs, which would probably total close to a new computer knowing my luck. So now I'm on the library computer.
It's weird but I talk to nearly all my friends through the Internet. I do my submissions online, research publishers and books online. I do banking online, shopping and even need my computer for school when I'm actually attending. You never realize these things until it's gone but I'm thinking it's not all bad.
I spent way too much time online not getting anything done. Now I go to the library where I only get 30 to 60 minutes Internet time depending on if I have an appointment and how many people need to use the computer. Of course, I've been going to the library in the wealthy part of town by my work rather than the poor side where I live. On the rich side everyone has a computer so there's hardly ever any wait where as on the poor side you will be waiting for hours, but I digress, I think.
Anyway, the Internet in the library is super fast so that's a plus. The only thing I don't like are the super clicky keyboards that make me feel noisy and that everyone's looking at me while I type.
I can now spend all my time at home, that I would have spent on-line goofing off, working on my writing and then I can type it up at work.
Will I miss my computer? Of course and I am trying to remedy my situation but until then I have to think of the bright side. Right?

Just an update but with lots of links!

Guess what? The awesome Jenni has posted a brand new nauga note over at Behind the Naugahyde! So stop by and check it out and if you haven't already signed the guest book make sure you do. And in case you didn't know, yesterday was the one year anniversary of BehindtheNaugahyde.com

In other news I have been obsessing over my computer issues and in the middle of it I realized I had a Microsoft Word disk. So now I have Word back and yes I'll have that horrible spell check back but I will have word counts!

Also I didn't think I was in the mood to read fantasy books so I didn't start reading the J.R.R. Tolkien books that are stacked up. Then someone at work suggested a young adult book series called The Songs of the Lioness and I ended up reading all four of those over the weekend. They were pretty short and the print was huge so it didn't take long. I liked them but I felt like time went too fast.

And please stop by my live journal or A Positive Blog in Lansing to help out with the AIDS Walk.

Issues, not problems, with my computer and my writing

Well I thought my computer issues were over but I'm still dealing. I have yet to install my printer software, digital camera software and I need adobe reader to open stuff such as my insurance documents. When I tried to download these things my computer says I don't have enough MB, so that's no good. I think what might be causing this problem is that this computer, when given to me, had Windows 2000 on it. I put on XP and it didn't replace 2000 instead both systems are still on there. I have no idea how to get rid of 2000 and I can't use it because it keeps giving me error messages saying that part of it has been erased. I have no clue.

Then I figured out that Windows XP doesn't come with Microsoft Word and that's why I don't have it anymore. Someone must of put it on my computer before and I never realized it. It would be nice to have it again but right now I can't even get everything else on my computer. Oh well, maybe it's for the best. I was a bit too addicted to spell check, which wasn't really all that useful. Although, I'll seriously miss word count, especially when doing submissions and NaNoWriMo rolls around.

I'm trying not to become too obsessed and spend too much time working on my computer issues. I have been working on my Christmas story even though I think the opportunity of getting it published for this season is gone.
I'm having a hard time writing it because I keep getting stuck. I have amazing dialogue between the two characters but I never feel the need to have narrative paragraphs so right now it's nearly all dialogue. Maybe when I type it up (I'm writing it in long hand currently) I'll think of some narrative to put in.
It did cross my mind that I could write a story that's all dialogue but I'm not sure if that would be experimental, annoying, a combination of both or something else entirely.

Yet another computer update

Someone gave me an old laptop that is in much better condition than mine so that's super exciting. I'm trying to get all my files and software on it right now. Hopefully, I'll be getting back to IMing, blogging, e-mailing and all that other fun stuff on a normal basis.

I forgot to mention another fun part of my chaotic week where an employee left the store unlocked and I had four phone calls from the police to let me know that someone had walked in and set off the store alarm. Now we have to do inventory on the entire store to make sure nothing was stolen. So the few hours that I've managed to be there this week I haven't had anytime to work on my writing.

I did manage to write a post during a quick break at work but I can't open it because it doesn't seem that Word is on my computer despite having put on Windows XP so I'll have to figure that out.
So I thought I'd write a quick update and maybe things will be up and running soon.

A quick update on the chaos that has consumed my week

Okay well this week has been insane. The short version goes that my parents won't talk to me because of a biscuit, I yelled at my boss calling him some pretty not nice things, I missed my best friends wedding reception and I've got about two minutes of sleep since I've been in the hospital with a family member. And did I mention when I finally got home and got a second to write about all this, I'm going to guess that I didn't catch the computer virus on time because my computer got incredibly hot, smelled like it was burning and stopped working. I am now functioning on the old laptop with the missing keys that has been mentioned in previous post that I don't dare look up at this time.

Anyway, amongst all this madness, mostly the hospital part, I have found the occasional few minutes to write. I didn't really have all my novel gear so I haven't been working on any of those. For some reason I felt inspired to write a Christmas story. Maybe I'll have it done in time to submit for the holiday issues of a few literary magazines.

One good thing it's been high in the 70's and raining all week. I'm sorry for those who don't care for it but I'm totally loving it.

And since I'm not sure when my next substantial post will come around, I suggest everyone stop by and read this blog .I really like the current post and the rest of the blog is great as well.

My bleepin' computer problems!

I’m back and no I wasn’t gone because I didn’t pay my electricity and/or Internet bill. The pop-up virus on my computer got so bad that I couldn’t even function. So I managed to find someone to fix it for a decent rate, which was still more than I should have spent.

Anyway, they had to erase a lot of my stuff so I’m trying to adjust. I had most of it backed up so I’m not too worried about that. All my word documents are backed up but they need to be put back on my computer. And I had most of my pictures backed up or in e-mails but I did lose a few. It’s my own fault for not making more time to back things up before having someone fix my computer.

A few weeks ago one of the writers I had met with had some computer problems and didn’t back stuff up. He lost three years worth of work on his novel. I couldn’t even imagine what that would be like. Fortunately, for me I have extreme paranoia. I often hand write my work so I usually have a paper back up. And I usually print things out to edit. Sure I have to type things in again but better that than losing it completely. I also save stuff in my e-mail in case of a fire. It was either that or try to fit everything in the freezer.

My DSL software was also deleted and it took me forever to get it back on since my CD drive is 1% functional. But if this is posted I obviously got it working. (I’m writing this at work. It’s around 2pm Tuesday, Aug. 14).

The computer fixer came to my house instead of me having to take it some place and never knowing when I would get it back so that was cool. And I was worried that in the chaos of all the pop-ups I might have accidentally ended up with some crazy stuff on my computer. Especially, since I kept getting these messages saying my adult material that I had downloaded was being tracked and I could end up losing my job and ruining my marriage if I didn’t by the software to delete it. But if there was any embarrassing material found on my computer he didn’t mention it.

So hopefully this works. Then I can get my computer set up, get back online and everything will be back to normal.

Boring!

I haven't gotten a lot of work done lately. I feel like class work has taken over my spare time.
Last week our homework for creative writing was to read three short stories and answer a series of questions, read three poems and write observations, write a story using a metaphor about how I feel about writing, write four poems where every line of the poem ends in a word that can be spelled using the letters in the one word title, read two fellow students works and make comments, and read 48 pages of the intro to our text. I did all of this and I guess I should have taken in to account what the professor had said last week. That the text and assignments didn't matter, the class is about writing and getting feedback. We didn't discuss any of the work and we didn't have to turn any of it in.
Once again I find myself in the situation where I will be required to participate in class. I have been holding back and then regretting not speaking up because I had the right answer. Yesterday I asserted myself and answered the question. Guess who was completely wrong? ME! Err.. No wonder I never say anything.
I have to have a rough draft of a short story posted on line for my class by 5:00 p.m. Friday. I have an idea. Once again I'm not sure my untraditional, sci-fi/fantasy style will be appreciated by these deep, thoughtful writers that search for the inner meaning of everything.
Aside from class my time this week was consumed by a consequence of my stupidity. I wrote a story a while back and saved it only in e-mail and on disk. My disk drive is shot. Then I saved my e-mail to my computer. When I erased AOL from my computer, my e-mail was saved into a file that has crazy symbols and I can't find a program anywhere in the world to open it in English. So I had to scan in a rough draft of the story. With all the marks and highlighting on the pages it didn't scan too well. The margins were off, nothing was spelt right and so many other problems. With all the editing I had to do I might as well have just retyped it.
I started another sonnet but have yet to finish and am still reading novels for research on the new novel. So far though nothing important has been accomplished.
Wasn't this the most interesting and entertaining post you have ever read?