Bookshelf:

Recently Read & Reviewed:

• Margery Allingham, Flowers For The Judge

Currently Reading:

• Kim Stanley Robinson, The Years of Rice and Salt

Next Up:

1. Ken MacLeod, Engine City
2. Julian May, The Many-Colored Land
3. Julian May, The Golden Torc
4. Daniel Keys Moran, The Long Run
5. Margery Allingham, The Case of the Late Pig

Waiting for Godad

Whoo, was today ever a day at work. Urgent projects, nasty little bug fixes, and I'm still in that weird limbo between finishing off (or polishing) things started long ago and getting into the next big things we're going to be working on. And I'm so ready to put my current crop of projects behind me.

Fortunately, I got everything done by the end of the day, and even left a little bit early. Which I needed, because I was pooped.

The temperature in my office also seems to have gone haywire, which made today even more stressful. It's always tended to be warm when I get in, and chilly when I leave, but it seems to have taken this to an extreme, as it was too cold all afternoon, and my hands were freezing! So I dropped an e-mail to my facilities representative, and hopefully it will get worked out soon, because it ain't any good the way it is.

Anyway. On the plus side, Apple stock has been spiking lately, so I've cashed in some of my shares. I generally try not to look at my stock as much more than "funny money", since I just don't have the inclination to put a lot of effort into managing it. So I generally just sit on it until I have some actual use for it. This time, I think I might spend it on upgrading the rest of my house to have double-paned windows, rather than the 25-year-old single-paned ones it has now. That would be a good investment, I think, and the screen doors in particular really need to be replaced. So hopefully I'll kick myself in the ass to do that this summer, so I can appreciate them next winter.

Despite my kvetching, I think partly I'm just ready for a vacation, and lo! I'm going to be taking one in about a week. My Dad's coming to visit! He visited me a year and a half ago, you may remember, so he's going to see the other side of our weather this time. Well, maybe not the weather (despite rain today, it's been warm and dry this month so far), but certainly the environment: Everything is green and blooming, as contrasted with the brown and dropping of September.

We have several plans for things to do and places to see, though we may also take it easier than last time, which was a lot of running around. That wasn't really a bad thing, but my recollection is that we may have pushed ourselves a little too hard.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to it. And I took the day he's heading back off from work, too, so I can have some time to myself and work on some projects - like final fantasy baseball draft preparation.

A week ago tonight I started writing my novelette, and it's officially a novelette and not a short story, as it's at about 8,300 words after tonight's effort. That's an average of 1,000 words a day, which, well, seems like a lot. (No, I don't think I'll keep it up. I think I've been unusually motivated.)

I'm in the endgame of the story, and I'm pretty happy with the first draft. I don't even think it'll be a "shitty first draft", though I certainly have a little list of things in mind which need editing. But at its core I'm pretty happy with it.

I gotta come up with a better title for it, though. The working title is too much about the nuts and bolts of the setting, and not enough about the character and themes which have developed. Which, y'know, is what I like about it.

Anyway. Must stop nattering about unfinished story.