Onward

Whee! They’re all insane, over there on MM.org. And I’m one of them! It’s so cool, there are different places to hang out, from AD’s Castle to Rokan’s Tower to the Attic, and those smart-ass voices in my head are expected to have their own comments, I’ve even detailed them in the muse registry, and when I’m working they hang out with other muses plotting world domination…

Hey, trust me–you’d rather hear about this than my work. Let me put it this way: Many times today, I thought of my favorite movie quote of all time. “I say we take off, nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.” (Kudos if you know the movie!)

That’s in my siggy, over at MM.org. And I’ve gone beyond “expendable broodling,” I’m not a N00b anymore! Yay! Now I’m a “Hardworking SCV” whatever that means. It’s better than something “drone” which was the last step. (if you don’t log in, or don’t belong, then your posts are labeled “anonymous coward.” I really do love the sense of humor over there…)

Oh, and Schuldig set fire to General Purple of the Fruit Loop Army, and Eve got Nurse Green really flipping drunk and now she’s singing Marine songs trying to make all the other muses blush…and I got more reviews on my stories! And the visit counts are at 3809, 209, and 75, and I’m working on another. The ideas are cooking for my original fiction too, but in August I need all the de-stress I can take. I’ll write worthless fics and let my muses cause mayhem, and plan on working in September.

Yeah, that’s the plan.

I blogged Tuesday, honest. But somehow, even though the thingy said it was saved and published, and I saw it there once, when I logged in today, it wasn’t there. Hmm.

Anyway, it is there now. Or it was. I’m not sure what the gremlins are up to, but I will put a saucer of milk in front of the hard drive and hope for the best.

You laugh. Go ahead. I’ll be the one laughing when your system goes PHBBBTT!!! freezes, crashes, folds up and sinks into the mud. And then when it comes back, and you try to find that whatever it was you’ve been working on for the last three hours, it gives you that innocent look and pretends it doesn’t have a clue what you’re talking about…

Just be careful, if you try my method, not to kick over the saucer. It will make you very popular with the local pet life, making it very hard to get anything done. Not to mention, the gremlins will not be amused.

I’ve been reading the blog of C.J. Cherryh, an awesome writer I very much admire, though many of her books get too depressing for me. http://www.cherryh.com/www/progress.htm And I realized something I should have noticed a long time ago–no one, even good old can’t-help-but-be-upbeat me, wants to read about only the good times. So enough blather about the joys of the writing life. I will, of course, still talk about writing, and what I enjoy. But you’re going to hear about the rest, too. As the title says, time to get real.

And on that note–my car is once again off the road. My wonderful mobile mechanic tells me I need a new ignition module, and that would cost $150 new. Well, the absolute most I have is $200, and he would like to get paid too, so we’ll go for a used one. He was planning on spending his Saturday wandering junkyards anyway, I guess…

A note for you impatient drivers–in the middle of rush hour, no one puts on their hazards, jumps out and PUSHES, with the help of a five-year-old, unless there’s nothing else they can do! So don’t flipping glare and honk and refuse to let those poor people get their car out of the middle of the road!

It’s been a long time since I commented on the web rookie stuff, but I’ve just made a wonderful discovery I wanted to share. Now probably everyone will be laughing at me and wondering where I’ve been, but in case there’s someone out there who doesn’t know–Yahoo has a group called Freecycle, and there’s an “arm” in my area.

What is it? Only a quick and easy way to pass on that stuff you don’t want, but that’s too good to throw away. You join the group for your area, and post what you want to get rid of, and what you’d like to get. But it’s not for trading, it’s just for finding things new homes. I offered the rats today, I’m hoping to find them a new home before we have to find ourselves a new home. My husband is the one who wanted all the animals, and he isn’t here to take care of them!

Go to Freecycle.org if you can’t find a group in your area on Yahoo. What can it hurt? The lady who told me about it, got a piano for her daughter this way!

Yes, that was a piano. Free. Cool, huh?

Well, we’ve done it–we moved from that warm, safe, stifling cocoon of AOL to the wide open web. With a cable modem, no less. So far it’s not too bad. I like news, but found it too depressing having CNN as my home page, so I made it CNN’s Science page, and I like it.

Other choices in the house include Yahoo and Cartoon Network. I really like HAVING a choice. I miss my boards, though. I’d ‘met’ some fascinating, intelligent, caring people on AOL, and I will miss them. If you’re ever there, check out the Science Fiction/Steam board. Awesome people.

I haven’t figured out for sure if newsgroups are the same as AOL message boards. I suspect they are, but I haven’t made the leap yet. Outlook Express has such complicated instructions for joining newsgroups, I’ve just stayed away.

The upside is I’m getting more writing done. I’ve also been spurred by the realization that I finished my novel December 30, 1995. Can’t believe I haven’t sent it out once yet! That MUST change!

So. Back to work. I really think this is the last time through. Really. I have three reams of paper and a laser printer, I’m more prepared to send it than I’ve ever been. Now I need to DO IT!