housing and pets

I did forget to say I hope petaling with Pete(or something along those lines) went well for ishte with the heat advisory for most of OH I hope no one got sick on the charity ride.

If people have wondered why I don't just move from here and rent something else, you have to be here to understand (evil_little_dog can attest to this). This is the beginnings of the Appalachian Mts and hillbilly life. There are almost NO rentals here. My place is new only 6 years old and it's actually nicer than anything I've seen. There was one place to rent in Gallipolis that wasn't HUD but it's a huge meth site. Jackson has only one place that's not HUD, ditto springvalley.

Rental houses are like hens teeth. My school routinuely puts new profs up in the dorms since there is simply no housing. Many profs end up in rental trailers and I'm not talking nice double wides. i'm talking 1970's tin cans.

I could buy a house. There are plenty for sale since this whole area is dying. OH was one of the hardest hit areas in the recession right behind Michigan. In fact I just saw today the house I want in Jackson (if i want city (ha) living) has been reduce to 52K. I could buy that. Except a) I want to leave here b) my tenure is coming due this fall and if I DON'T get it I'm out of here (and this is a possbility, almost no new scientists joined the ranks of the freshman) c) my student loans make it impossible for me to get it in my own name.

SIgh.

And then there is the issue of no pets in most rentals. Speaking of which Kanda is now walking normal and is back to being evil. However, he did something last night he's never done before. As I was watching kekeshi he insisted on being held. He climbed up my arm and refused to let me write. He was like LOVE ME. NOW DAMN YOU.

( Open letter to Kanda )

I also remembered the other happy thing I forgot yesterday. I feel like making jewelry again. I've pinpointed part of the problem. I used to have the stuff in a little tacklebox which made it easy to work. Now it's just in a sack. it's hard to get excited when you don't even know what you have. I hate that muchly. I don't like the big three drawer things walmart sells. Anyone know where i could get an organizer.

not a great start to the new week

Grandma fell today. She says she's not hurt but mom and dad made her go to the hospital anyhow.

though in some ways, and I hate to say it, this might not be entirely bad. She honestly belongs in assisted living. She can not live alone. I know Mom is hoping they'll put her in one if even temporarily. I'll probably know more tonight

Writerly Ways

Being offline a little this week (I’m now officially over my limit for Verizon) you’d think I would have had more time to write. Sadly, thanks to the shortened summer semester I had no time. I did get a little writing done but more on that later.
I’ve started the 21 days of meditation as I mentioned earlier. So what does that have to do with writing? Day two was something I think has a lot of applications to writing. It was about putting one thought, one word into your mind and letting your brain twist it about and make connections (the word was strawberry in the case of the meditation). It’s the old word association game.

Think about how successful most prompt communities are, ditto open calls for anthologies. You’re given a word or a line of song/poetry/text and whole stories bloom. I think this is a neat way of poking the muse. I’ve been something for years, a rather unsuccessful attempt at directed dreaming. I take where I’m snagged in a story and think about that as I try to go to sleep, hoping for inspiration. The downside of that is my mind gets worked up and I can’t fall to sleep.

So with this adapted meditation, the writer would try out something like this. Get comfortable (yes, no sitting in a cramped lotus for us. Hell stretch out on the bed if you want), either opt for silence or put on some music you think would fit the story you’re trying to inspire. Take several deep breaths and allow yourself to relax. Fix the sore spot of the story in your mind and just let it flow. You might be surprised where it takes you.
Granted the more I do this, the more I realize I really do need to shift these to my pro writing journal. I’d have to MAKE one (not the erotica one but one for my non-erotica pen name which I need to settle on). I might even make this journal here and beg a dreamwidth invite so I can just mirror it in two spots. If I have to market all my own stuff anymore under the guise of an ‘author’s platform’ I might as well do it right.

In spite of my work load this week, I did get 1400 words written of original fiction.

Machiavellian Moon – well I printed out ch 11, that’s a start

Total for the year –

56246 / 175000 words. 32% done!

Riding with strangers –

36560 / 60000 words. 61% done!

Beneath the Torn Sky –

58410 / 85000 words. 69% done!

Splinters of Silver and Cold Iron -

79127 / 85000 words. 93% done! (might have to up the word count on this one)

Saiyuki bigbang -

1008 / 15000 words. 7% done!

FMA Bigbang – I have 7400K that’s been printed. Yes I’m completely redoing this, a rewrite from page one on up but I guess I’ll need about 22000 to use this one. I think that’s more than doable. I may or may not slip one of the fire and ice ed/winry stories into this (not counting it toward that 22K). it was meant to be part of it but it may just remain outside of it as a side story.

just a whee bit more spam. Granny's okay

and pissed at everyone trying to help her (typical) and is back home. Actually I'm not sure anyone but her is thrilled by this. Just wait until tomorrow and those bruises set in...