julian_griffith

 I swear, I didn't even eat that much. Well, maybe more malted milk balls than I ought. I do love them so.

I've been writing the untitled Advent calendar vignette, rather desultorily -- so I haven't been posting progress, but I do have 1178 words on it so far. I keep doing other things -- like catching up on my friendslists, and cooking/baking, and trying to finish The Age of Wonder, and hosting a special Halloween livestream of The Three Musketeers, because TheFirstChibi wondered if anyone in the group of Paul McGann fans on tumblr would, and, well, I like socializing over movies even if it's on the internet, and, of course, knitting.

Speaking of knitting:



I did two more repeats of the cable pattern since yesterday. I love cabling. Especially now that I'm using a dpn as the holder instead of a cable pin. Just slide the stitches to the other end!

I seem to have taken on more writing projects -- laylah pointed me at Riptide's open calls, and I think Julia-and-Mrs.-Campbell is now earmarked for them (which means it's up next, after the Advent story), and I mentioned the auction last post, and this means the Storm Moon Regency-lesbians thing will be Caroline and Julia in their Season, which is pretty much the only time frame I can have them still fooling around but past their magic 18th birthdays. Also, uh, I may have promised Chibi a brief fanfic, because in the Disney Three Musketeers, the Athos/D'Artagnan slash JUST WRITES ITSELF. Missing-scene between the tavern scene and the cannonball. Sex scenes are easy, and the Advent story hasn't got one.

My HEAD, you guys. Let me get outside of more of my coffee.

 

My Fourth Doctor scarf. Which I hop to finish this decade. That's the first 104-row "tan" stripe done. Why they call it "tan" when the yarn color says "ash" I have no idea.

And, yes, somehow I managed to knit about half a row in stockinette instead of garter stitch. I decided I didn't care enough to rip it out, as it'll probably be somewhere down by my shins when I wear it.

Things I ought to do today/this weekend: Go pick up a movie at the library (the "Mansfield Park" with Billie Piper in it). Go to the store and get Quorn grounds (which are not at my regular supermarket) and the few things I missed on yesterday's grocery run. Caramelize some onions. Make dinner (probably minestrone, although it's on the warm side for that). Run my laundry. Strip my bed. Run the sheets-and-towels laundry. Give the bathroom floor and the tub and sink a once-over. <em>Write my Advent Calendar story.</em>

Things I have done, recently: Finished that stripe. Did the dishes. Untangled a $19 skein of yarn for eternaleponine that she was ready to trash. Bought a pair of over-the-ear headphones so I can shut out distractions like the TV. Done the bulk of the week's grocery shopping. Cast on for the short and simple knitting project I've chosen for my Advent Calendar giveaway. Caught up on my LJ/DW lists. And settled on the dinner that's the center for the Advent story.

What's your weekend look like?

 That's what matociquala calls it.

I didn't start the Christmas story today, despite it being a tight deadline. Instead I was very very busy with other things, most of which were not writing-related.

One thing was. I sent a query to Storm Moon Press -- letter with <300-word blurb and a "marketing plan" -- which intimidated me until I got their clarification that it only needed to be a paragraph about what social media platforms I was on and whether I was willing to do things like blog tours and interviews (What? You want me to talk about my book? Go on, twist my arm!); a >500-word synopsis; and a partial manuscript. 30% only takes it through Alexander's return -- Caroline doesn't show up until about the halfway mark. While this makes sense to me -- the first half of the book is about Thorne and Rockingham, the second half of the book is about how Caroline changes that -- I'm hoping it's not a problem for someone reading a partial.

However, most of the day was spent testing out the combined capabilities of the Unfuck Your Habitat app and the new Reminders feature on my iPod Touch. In other words: housework.
( Musings on mental health and housework below )So much for the mental health aspects. Anyway, I've discovered that the principles in Unfuck Your Habitat work really well for me. If you have no idea where to start, you can tap the "Random Unfucking Challenge" and choose whether you want a five-, ten-, or 20-minute challenge. Or you can tell it which room you want to work in, and it'll suggest a task. But the best thing for me? You can make a master task list, and you tell the app what room it belongs to and assign a priority. Then you can sort the list by room or by priority. And when you start a task, it says "ready, set. unfuck!" and beeps at you after 20 minutes and tells you to take a break, and then it beeps again after ten minutes to tell you to get back to work. You can skip the break, but it asks you if you're sure.

And it claims that if you finish everything on your To-Unfuck List, you unlock an achievement.

I don't know if I'll ever get there, because I can see myself adding things to the bottom of the list as the top ones get knocked off. But it's a lot of fun to use. I made a big list Sunday night when I was stuck with insomnia. Since then, I've done about five loads of laundry, which gets me caught up, and I finally got on top of the dishes to the point where I CAN clean as I go. Today? Put my storage crates back under my bed instead of having them stacked next to it, made all my DVDs vertical because it was driving eternaleponine up a wall, cleared off the kitchen table, put all my plastic-sheet-protected recipes back in their zipper binder, and CLEANED THE KITCHEN FLOOR. 

And the Reminders feature? It's sort of a hybrid between a to-do list and a calendar. I didn't set any reminders for future days, but I made a list today, and it lets you put a time on it and it'll beep at you to do it. I didn't do the things in the order I'd put them down, because I had gotten my first good night's sleep in DAYS last night, and I was slow getting started this morning. But I made a necessary phone call, and sent the query, and did the initial test for the 100 Push-Ups Challenge (I'm trying again -- third time's the charm?); cleaned the kitchen floor, made an apple crisp, and made dinner; and I looked up how to make a functional rather than a chronological resume and bookmarked the page. The only things I'd put on today's list that I didn't get done? Sorting the clothes on my chair (the sort of stuff that doesn't necessarily get washed every time, so if you're a messy person like me you put it on a chair instead of hanging it up in the closet again) -- and STARTING THE CHRISTMAS STORY.

I'm probably not starting it tomorrow, either, because we're going to the Big E. My mother would make a disapproving face at me for that -- she deals with the fact that I'm never going to go to services on Yom Kippur again, but she'd probably think that eating my way through a multi-state fair was a bit much. 

Depends how long we stay there. I might take a crack at it when we get home. I won't have to cook or do dishes, after all.