cornerofmadness

The students have suddenly sensed their doom. OMG SAVE ME! I had people running around all over for HOURS (my office hour is only ONE hour but I was there for nearly four), register me for classes! help me study! what can I do to pass!?!

By the time I got out of there my plans for eating out before going to the nano night of writing dangerously went from Jackie O's (since I'm not entirely sure it's open) to Arch and Eddie's to omg I have no time, inhale a hot dog as you drive (and Sonic's gave me the WRONG hot dog. Ugh, the american dog with relish. heart burn city).

Once again I couldn't park on freaking Union Street but once there it was a good night. I didn't even leave until 10:30 (yes silvrethorn, it was raining on me). I am SO competitive. This is not news to anyone who knows me well. Tonight's word war equated to over two thousand words. I need to write in a community more often!

I didn't buy that much on cyber monday. Hmmm. Well my book clubs didn't really have their usual good deals

Last Nano snippet Shyroth climbed out of the pool, a brilliantly red swimsuit clinging to him in a way that made Kaleo feel like someone had turned on whatever doodads the Toymakers had put in him to make him horny on command. He couldn't quite make out the man's dick under that cloth but the rest of him was ridiculously perfect. Shyroth wasn't cut like a muscle builder but he was trim and toned. So much for him being paunchy under his clothes. He wanted to touch Shyroth and hated the Toymakers all over again for making him so quick to go.

"You're thinking awfully hard on something," Shyroth said.

"I was hating the Toymakers for making me think of how I want to please you," Kaleo growled. "And I was wondering if all this money buys perfect people."

Kaleo didn't know why he kept taking out his fear and frustration on the one man who could make sure he was ruined for good. The hurt in Shyroth's cobalt blue eyes did nothing to make him feel any better. Kaleo sucked his bottom lip in then turned away. "I shouldn't have said that."

"Probably not but just so you know, we still don't know how intelligence is coded. I came by that naturally," Shyroth replied, cold as space.

It topped off at 54K. It's literally only about half way done but once again I did it.I believe this means I've done this 11 years running.

Nano snippet - “Your Toy doesn't carry himself correctly, too proud,” the redhead said.

Aneurin felt Kaleo press closer. “I'm sorry, do I know you?”

“I'm Verlio. I head up Toy development,” he replied. “they should never have let a Toy out who walks so proudly.”

“I like him this way. He suits me well. What would I want with someone broken?” Aneurin snarled and the man rolled his eyes at him.

“Let me take him back and have him reconditioned,” Verlio said, reaching out for Kaleo.

Aneurin heard the young man's distressed mumbled. “there is no need. I'm very content with him as is.”

“Still, it pains me to see an inferior Toy walking around.”

Aneurin pushed passed him, Kaleo in tow. “Live in pain then.”

When they had crossed half the room, Kaleo said, “You might have made a good slum mutt.”

Aneurin glanced over at him. “I'm not sure if that's a compliment or not.”

For some reason. It was a beautiful day with a very good dinner. The only real sour part was at the end when Dad INSISTS on bringing up politics when literally no one wants to talk about it and refuses to change the topic. (and later when we were alone and he insists on arguing with everything I say. Always. I am ALWAYS wrong).

The only people at the dinner were him mom and I and Lucky Uncle and his wife. We made everything because my aunt broke her back a few weeks ago and can't really do much. SHe did find the energy to make a turkey out of salami pepperoni and cheese. It was really cute.

The infra red cooker was used on the turkey (which was brined ala Alton Brown's recipe). It came out fantastic. Mom and I had made rolls, two kinds of stuffing (one bread, one apple/cranberry/sausage), candied sweet potatoes, sweet potato/bourbon souffle, brussel sprouts in browned butter with onions and bacon, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus and cauliflower, gravy, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, stuffed celery, pumpkin roll and pumpkin pie.

For FIVE people.

Damn Italian genes.

Using really neat ceramic bowls found in grandma's garage and better than anything she had ever used in the house.

Also things got a little weird last night and tonight with dad insisting I take a vacation. A REAL vacation, not something combined with work. Like abroad. This is the man who never wanted me to waste money. I think he's suddenly realizing what I told HIM for years. Go now. When you're old and you can't do it any more you'll have regrets.

Also there was wine. I had too much and felt nothing, like I had drank water. Strange that.

There was something on Destination America's channel Railroad Alaska where they had a FIVE hour live broadcast of a trip to Heely. Basically an unnarrated trip with a camera tied to the front end of a train. A whole lot of pine and birch for five hours. Then they repeated it and it brought up the thought was this so people could be home with their families? Put on ten hours of nonsense that needs little work? I literally have NO idea in what goes into a station bringing me my TV.

The Macy's Parade was a bit of a let down, especially the first hour which was basically one long Broadway ad and interviews no one gave a shit about. Finally they started showing some floats. We actually flipped over to Chicago's instead. At least it was noise to write to.

BBL since I did do some writing.



Nano snippet - This is the same chapter after Kaleo has left and started comparing the brothers mentally, not yet realizing the level to which his sex drive has been artificially ramped up to be a toy. He caught a glimpse of his reflection. Kaleo curled his lip at the man in the mirror. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” he muttered. His reflection had no answers. “Fucking freak.” He went out to his room, snagging his clothes off the floor. There should have been no need for him to get naked and fiddle with himself in the first damn place. Back in the slums, he had never been embarrassed to masturbate, well except for the one time he forgot to lock the bathroom door and his mom walked in on him. Now, the act – or maybe it was the sheer lack of control he showed – made his face burn with embarrassment.

“I hate you.”

Kaleo didn’t know if that was for himself, for Shyroth or the Toymakers. He dragged on his clothing and headed for the entertainment room. Maybe there was enough holos there to forget this humiliation.

Pray for my hip. it needs it. I could barely hold Kanda in my lap today because of the pain.

Stupid ass insurance okayed my back MRI but are fighting the hip even though the hip has been thru TWO rounds of PT and has arthritis on x-ray. Go figure.

And I spoke to my insurance. It was my knee they were trying to weasel out of paying for. Are you SURE it wasn't an accident. No, it's arthritis. Live with it. I also screamed at the automated system because it was asking questions about the incident without telling me what it was. When it finally sent me to a live person they said 'well we can't put it in the letter because of HIPPA. ' Fair enough says I but don't you think that means you should have a LIVE person answer the phone when we call in because how the hell can I answer the questions if I don't know what doctor visit you're asking about? I signed up for the survey to say the same but every time I gave it a bad rating it 'didn't understand my response' and then told me I couldn't take the survey. Figures.

And for something less whiney and a lot more fun, I took Chuck Wendig's challenge to post 1000 words for my nano AND I also have link to ch 1 of the nano here. Enjoy. Let me know what you think. I DO want to know (keeping in mind this is nano rough). You can find it here

This is neat. Alice in Wonderland meets Albert Einstein

I forgot to talk about that horrible piece of crap Dr. Who. Okay the Raven one wasn't as ridiculously stupid as the eye booger one but still there were problems. And I have questions ( The problem with Clara is she won't stay dead sadly )

For some reason I am nauseated. Bah.

BBL with word count. It wasn't good today. Will be worse tomorrow. But I'm ALMOST there.



Nano Snippet - for reference it's the day after the last snippet and Aneurin has introduced Kaleo to his older brother, Rhisart. “I don’t know. I hope he keeps his words and doesn’t send me back for reconditioning. I expect that he will decide to use me as a Toy, even if he says he won’t.” Kaleo twisted in the chair so he could study Aneurin. “Maybe he won’t. I don’t know him well yet, but I do know people aren’t as good as they pretend. That can’t just be in the slums, can it?”

Rhisart frowned. “I wish I could say yes.”

“Thought so,” Kaleo huffed, a little too satisfied by that for Aneurin’s comfort. “If you’re asking what I’d like from your brother, I’d like for him to find me something I could do and let me stay. I’d be lying if I said I’d ever lived anywhere better. I’m not dumb. I know a good thing when I see it. Even if I had to be a Toy to stay, I know I could have had worse but like I said, I don’t know him well yet. I might regret saying that.” He shot another look Aneurin’s way as if judging him secretly violent.

“I don’t know exactly what he gets up to in the bed room, but I’m fairly sure my brother isn’t a sadist,” Rhisart said.

“Guess I’ll eventually see.” Kaleo shrugged. Aneurin didn’t know what he could say to convince the young man he wasn’t going to be forced into sex. “I don’t know what he’s going to do with me, but he can’t just let me sit around watching his holos all day and eating his food. It’s not like I’m a dog or something that’s gonna die in a few years. I don’t know what happens to Toys when their masters get bored.” He hunched his shoulders, his face pinching. “I don’t want to know.”

They never work out for me. I was crushed this morning when I saw that Indiana University of Pennsylvania hadn't even bothered to interview me. In fact they emailed me that fact twice to be sure I got their utter rejection of me. Just like Gettysburg. I called mom to tell her that news and I could hear how disappointed she was. I'm sure they had hundreds of applications, she said (true most likely) I had students in the room studying so I couldn't them see how upset I was.

I wasn't even worth interviewing to see if I might be good enough for them.

I had to go teach thinking that and of course today is the day the dean evaluated my teaching.

Once I got out of class I saw a notice from the Dean of Nursing and IUP that her letter of recommendation finally got there. I wanted that one because a) we're friends b) she's a DEAN c) it shows interdepartmental teaching and cooperation which is big (in fact was one of the demands of IUP). She was gone for two weeks then last week had lost the URL and spoke to IUP to get it...and then never did it. Without that recommendation I couldn't be considered for the position. She sent it too late almost a month after it was due in.

Now I feel not better because it wasn't me they rejected per se but in fact I feel worse because now they think I couldn't even find three people to vouch for me. And that I never even GOT my shot because she dragged her heels. I know deans are super busy but a month? (and I will remember this whenever a student asks me for a letter). I can't SAY anything to her because I know it wasn't done on purpose and I might need her help.

That doesn't make me feel less devestated. This was a perfect job, close to home, human cadavers, grad school. And because of that missing letter, I never got my chance to even try and impress them. I'm under no illusions that they'll read the dean's letter and change their minds about giving me an interview.

I cried all the way home. I wasn't going to my write in then decided I needed out of my head. I ordered The Skeletonwitch (Our Venetian Thin Crust, topped with our Secret Marinara Sauce, a Half pound of our our Mozzarella/Provolone blend and Asiago cheese, Genoa Salami, Classically spiced Pepperoni, Dollops of creamy Ricotta Cheese, sweet Pineapple chunks and finished with swirls of our Spicy Ninja sauce) from Avalanche Pizza to insure I'd drive out there.

I got a 6 pack of beer from the Kroger's (not to drink tonight and how could I resist a chocolate peanut butter porter called Dear Sweet Jesus?) and sat in the Tim Horton's parking lot eating that pizza which might be even more damn delicious than it sounds. I could have eaten the whole thing if I tried. Also at Avalanche a young African American girl was so excited by my FMA shirt and I was excited by her hair which was in braids and in an ombre from her natural color to snow white.

When I went into the Tim Horton's katimac8 and Laurel took one look at me and said 'what's wrong? you look awful!'

Yeah because yesterday they tell me I might need a cane and hip surgery and today my dream job passes me by without even giving me a chance. I feel fucking fantastic.

At least I could write tonight (Word wars work so well for me) I got @2500 words tonight

Nano Snippet “Wait? I'm a birthday present?” Kaleo winced hearing the disgust and fury in his tone. He had to remember his fate was bound up in this man. He couldn't afford to lose Shyroth's patience with him.

The pain in those blue eyes deepened. “I'm afraid so. I just turned thirty.”

“And is that bad in your perfect society?” There went his mouth again, ahead of his fucking brain.

Shyroth laughed, not seeming overly offended. “Not really. No, you see Pherick has been worried some time about me being alone. It's been nearly two years since I threw my lover out. He was jealous of everything, especially of my time and my friends. I work a lot, maybe too much. Leseron hated that. Personally, I was content.” He stopped, his brow beetling. “No, I wasn't totally content, but I would much rather have chosen a man myself.”

“Is that why you don't want me? I'm all wrong for you.” Kaleo wondered if he'd be given to the servants to play with. He had taken an instant dislike to Grimoald, and would hate to have to go to his knees for that man.

Ooops. He's still very put out about it. I spent the late afternoon on a treasure hunt in an abandoned lab on campus bending over but I'm not really able to bend over. The valve between my stomach and esophagus can't close (congenital) and bending makes it worse (one of the things I'm trying to get surgery on but scares me because then you can't throw up and I throw up all the damn time). Kanda wanted pets so I leaned over and boom, burped up water and goo on him. His eyes got SO big. It barely touched him. (this by the way is how I keep getting pneumonia. Half the time it ends up in my lungs).

But we got SO MUCH from the lab. It was part of the community college's medical lab technology degree but we discontinued it years ago. The first time we got all the gram staining stuff but then they tried to bring the program back. There just isn't that many jobs in the market any more so now it's gone for good and they're like do you want this stuff?

Kids have easter egg and scavenger hunts. Geeky adults have treasure forays into abandoned labs. It was so much fun today. Oooo look a centrifuge! These microscopes are MINE. Back off or I'll cut you with a broke slide. A SHAKER TRAY. Micro pipets! bacteria innoculation loops, shudders from the Oxytocin hit. Four science professors and you'd have thought we were kids in a candy store.

And since I keep forgetting Music Monday here's the playlist for Behind Blue Eyes, my nano





And happy birthday to helliongoddess. Hope it was a great day.

Kanda needs this. Oh right, he's too fat. Lord of the Rings litter box

I fell over playing

screw it, I'll just take a nap like this.




( borderline NSFW snippet )

Today parts of the nano group came out to meet the Jackson writers (all two of us) at The Tea Caddy. I have loved this store since I first moved here. I still think in many ways I loved its first home (that I knew it in) the Victorian house by the library but I have to confess, I didn't know just how nice its new home on main street was. I've been in it many times but only on the first floor where you'll find the unique gifts, some tables for casual drinkers and in the back fancy tables for tea parties. Until Halloween I never knew there even was an upstairs (I assumed it was storage or something).

Until today I had never been up there. It was amazing. Two really nice sized rooms filled with comfortable tables and chairs and at the other end a full kitchen, small studio (for yoga these days) and an ancient elevator. I saw there was a tub in the bathroom and realized this was once an apartment. (talked to the owner and yes when this was a Bible store the owners lived up there). Nice space to live, crappy view of roof tops. It was a good writing day.

And a bad Dr. Who day. That one with the sandmen was just dumb.

Speaking of Sandman, Gaiman on Sandman

And on the topic of things geeky. D&D playing celebs I want to sit down and play with Vin Diesel, The Rock and Judi Densch!



Nano snippet (for context, Kaleo is talking to Aneurin's office manager) Tell me, does everyone know what I am? The scientists were staring but that could have been because I'm new.”

“We know. It's not as if Dr. Shyroth trumpeted it around the lab but he’s a public figure. It got out somehow,” Kim said apologetically.

“Yeah, I figured but I was sort of hoping.” why he didn't know? What was hope to someone like him? He had grown up devoid of hope. Why should now be any different?

It dang well better be if you're calling me before the sun woke up. I got woke up just after 7 AM by the orthopedic clinic. Turns out my back doc is sick and I had to reschedule. Also got to the dentist and HE was sick to (is there a plague in Jackson I need to know about?) but at least the hygienist was there to do what needed doing.

After the dentist I had to go bleed into tubes for the endocrinologist appt also next week. Me and this old lady with a walker are called back together. She's made up of skin and dust and they get her blood in 30 second. She's gone and the phlebs tag team me, running from arm to arm desperately trying to prove I AM alive. Finally they find one vein. Get one and a half tubes and hope it's enough. SIgh.

Since it's now too early for lunch (in spite the fact I'm fasting) I decide to go off the reservation and go down a road I haven't in 10 years of living here just to see where it goes. This is always a risky proposition here in Appalachia. I didn't find much other than a day care and right next door one of those non-denominational churchs with a sign that read for this week's message 'let the fire fall.' Oh my god. Someone has totally missed Jesus's message of peace. I turned around and went to do laundry.

Forgot my quarters. Bought more. There was a freaking Canadian quarter in them. Then the wash machine ate my money. Luckily just as I was leaving after I was done the owner walked in and I got my money back.

Pissed away the rest of the afternoon, wrote lots, working on a test now.



Nano prompt (okay i'm cheating a little today. this is for blood red.) It also fulfills my self blame prompt He was an idiot but if anything happened to Amelia or Arrigo he would be his fault for not acting faster. Luc followed Sykes down the hall at a slow crawl. Arrigo had been right about them being in the kitchen but they weren't in there to talk. A man in a greasy apron lay on the floor. Luc couldn't tell for sure if the man was dead but he felt fairly sure he was. Amelia huddled in the corner near a tray of spilled food with a young man Luc didn't know but whoever he was he had said Arrigo's name just as Luc had crept close to the door.

I hadn't been to that in Jackson in years. I heard about it on the radio yesterday just as I was about to go to Jackson to the library. I decided to go today instead. Now I remember why I don't go. Someone needs to tell Jackson that there are other crafts other than country. That's all that was there mostly country and food. I had cashed my royalty check, pathetic as it was, to go to this. Luckily I walked away with 80% of it. I got a chocolate bar chunky with espresso beans and a necklace. There was one actual painter there with really nice art. You can find their work at Art Ecko on FB and here's what I got, Except I got it as a pendant I'm fond of it.

There were a few other things I considered but the cheap, cute snowman painted on a wooden spoon had chipped paint. Hell I could do that so eh. There was one woman with SO much stuff it was impossible to see it all. She had old turn of the century photos with earrings jammed into them. It was interesting but they were so large it felt off. Too many people had bought crap like this was a flea market for chinese crap.

Oh well, it was good to at least support the town's attempts at art. I've yet to get to the newly restored theater (mostly because they keep booking music I don't want to pay 15$ to hear).

Other than that I spent the whole day on the couch on a heating pad watching an Archer marathon and writing because my back was killing me. The heating pad helped. I didn't get as much written as I wanted to. I want to do more. SPeaking of Archer, this is the show that makes me think I'm going to hell for enjoying it since it is rude in so many ways.

I'll be back with that thought later and a word count. ETA here it is. Didn't write as much as I had hoped.

Here's some snippets I have that go toward my bingo prompt card.

Prompt - Enjoy Nature - (Kaleo is at a lake at one of Aneurin's many properties) It was so beautiful here and quiet. Kaleo breathed in deep in spite of the vague stab of pain in his chest from the cold. The spicy scent of those still-green tress filled his senses.

It almost made his eyes water with a burst of pure joy. His friends would be amazed that he was someplace as glorious as this. Places like this existed only in fiction as far as slum dwellers were concerned. Even the snow didn't take away the joy he felt, nor the ache in his fingers from the chill. At least his toes were toasty in the boots he had borrowed.

Soft winds of wind and birds played out like music over the water. Some small fuzzy creature he didn't know sat in a branch above him, scolding him in a high pitched chittering.

Prompt - Caught in Bed Together - (Kaleo and Aneurin are having fun on the living room lounger) “There's a woman watching us,” Kaleo whispered. “I think it's your mom.”

“Mom isn't due...”

Kaleo put his hand over Aneurin's mouth. “It's Mom.”

Aneurin squirmed out from under Kaleo, hiking himself up on his elbow. He peered over the back of the lounger. A sheepish expression flashed over his face as Aneurin gave a little wave. “Hi, Mom. You're early.”

“I'm regretting that now.”


Prompt Nurture Self-Worth : (Arrigo and Luc are coming off a fight with Eleni where Luc went on the offensive for once) it’s like hunting gators. You put the bait out there then you got to be faster than a top predator who's been around since the dawn of time.” Luc smiled.

“I can't argue that. Get some sleep. You still have a lot of healing to do.”

“Yeah.” Luc spooned up with Arrigo. Disappointed, sore, there was one thing he took away from tonight: he could stand up to Eleni. Knowing that changed things for him. There would be another time and while he didn't look forward to it, Luc felt better about it than ever before. It was a happy thought to fall asleep to.


And happy birthday aaronlisa

Since I did nothing else today other than get my oven fixed. (He's STILL not worried about the damn ants. I hope the door falls off) let me just dive into the books and single movie. Even the books are less this time thanks for Butcher's book being So. Freaking. Big! Books with * are my favorites of the month. I love talking books so if any of them catch your eye....

Books: Book: Wicked Plants science non-fiction

Graphic Novel: Pact Arcanum #1 LGBT SF

Book: Trail of Secrets YA mystery

Book: Blood Vines mystery

Manga: The Ancient Magus' Bride vol 1 fantasy *

Book: Blue Smoke and Murder mystery

manga: Attack on Titan #16 fantasy

Book: Beeline to Murder mystery *

Book: The Aeronaut's Windlass steampunk *

manga: Noragami: Stray God Vol 2 urban fantasy *

manga: Itsuwaribito Vol 1 fantasy

Book: Kahless SF/ TV tie in

DVD:
Young Detective Dee: Rise of the Sea Dragon fantasy

I got just over 3000 today. WOW.

Actually most of that is kinda cheaty since technically it's on Blood Red which is almost done!!

But here have a little more of my actual nano.. There was one thing he and Masozi differed on strongly. Well more than one thing. Masozi was an advocate for the Toy parties and full out orgies that had become part of their class’s favorite ways of blowing off steam. Aneurin’s late father had been trying to get the Toys outlawed. If Pherick and Masozi had set up a date profile for him or bought him some weird sex toy, it would hardly be expensive. But there was one thing that was in that category, and it was something Pherick could easily be talked into doing. “You didn’t.”

“I know you’ve been a little down on the idea, but that’s a lot of your father talking,” Masozi said. “You just need to relax a little.”

“This will definitely help you do that.” Pherick beamed.

The feeling of dread spread. He knew what his gift was. He didn't want it. How foolish could Pherick be?