elanya

I meant to go to bed around one yesterday. I wond up going to bed around two, and I didn't get to sleep for at least another hour after that.

I sort of woke up around 7, because children, but fell back asleep for a bit. I then woke up more around 9, still really tired, but managed to pull myself out of bed half an hour-ish later to go take the dogs out.... only to find they'd already been out. So I started to go back to bed, only to remember that I *did* still need to feed the kitty. By the time I actually got back to bed, it was a little after 10:30.

And then I slept until 1:30.

So that was most of my day! Maze was out and about, so I had some snuggle time with him, did some kitchen tidying, and then worked on some story edits. Then I baked some lime squares, then it was dinner. Wooh!

I realized I never said, but this is the anthology I'm working on a submission for: Ride the Star Wind: Cthulhu, Space Opera, and the Cosmic Weird. I need to do some kind of cover letter as well, and I'm not totally sure how to handle that. "This is a story about Lesbian space cultists. It is inspired by Clark Ashton Smith's "The Door to Saturn". I hope you like it enough to buy it, cheers!" I think my story meets the criteria but I'm a terrible judge. Maybe it isn't weird enough. Maybe it isn't cosmic enough. Maybe being in space isn't space opera enough (I mean it is still in our galaxy, is that spacey enough?). Maybe the world lacks scope or interest. I dooooon't know! And these things never give you much feedback, so hey. But I've written a good story, I think, and the worst they can say is 'no thanks'.

I would say it is original work but.... Mythos stuff is also kind of fanfic. There is more of a market for it these days, true. But it's still basically fanfic. I'm a fan. I'm playing in this world and with these concepts that other authors originated. In this case, others have always been welcome to add their own (and especially so since it all became public domain). I am really enjoying the diversification that's been happening in Mythos work lately though, with the explicit inclusion of more women, queer people, and PoC because lbr the original is *terrible* for that stuff. This story has some of that diversity (space lesbians!), but my writing could certainly use more. I just have to find ways to do so that I am comfortable with. It is easier when dealing with fantasy/speculative contexts. In horror I feel like I need to tread a lot more carefully, because the genre has a lot of baggage. Anyway, I started this paragraph talking about fanfoc, how did that get away from me? It's basically fanfic. I could have written this for my YT assignment last year. Ahh well.

Anyway. Now it is midnight and I'm not particularly tired, which could be a Problem as I need to get up early on Thursday. I guess I'll aim to get out of bed by 10 tomorrow and see how that goes. More of problem is that I'm hungry, but I'm already kind of heart-burny, and if I want to go to bed in the next hour or so, food is not the best plan. maybe I'll have a banana. Excite!

Also - ugh, I remember why I wasn't using Semagic - I managed to do something that hides the tag input and I can't figure out for the life of me how to get it back :p I guess I'll try reinstalling -_- ETA: reinstall fixed, let's not do that again!

I am very very close to finishing knitting Martinmas. After putting it in time out for almost two weeks, I finished the first section on the weekend and am halfway through the second, which I started on Monday.

My life has been mostly Gaming, Gaming and More Gaming. I am enjoying thins as it is one of my favoured creative outlets, but I also realize that I have done almost no writing since Jukebox fest, other than some drabbles (I may have some outstanding ones, I should check) and one story for Fan Flashworks. I should have a little bit more writing town soon, as I think I have made almost all of the characters I am going to need. As long as I decide I don't need to write another elaborate background for a secondary character I should be good. Then it is on to fic about gaming :V I have two wsip, both game related -_- And yuletide is approaching! Submissions open for a female author Mythos-related volume in November and I feel like I should try and come up with something for that, too. I really wanted to send them Cursed Wreck, but it is far too long. I could try and cull it, but I might need someone else with a red pen to give me a hand. I'm sure it would be *better* if it were tightened up, so there is that. I have some ideas where I can cut, but I don't think it will be enough. We'll see!

I can't comment on livejournal posts from my Chrome at home, which means, for the most part that I haven't been commenting on lj posts, even though there are several I have intended to! I do read regularly at least. *Hugs* offered to all in the journaling world, whether you are doing well or poorly or somewhere in between.

I finished up the glass at work, and in theory am moving on to the paintings. In practice this has also meant finally (!!!!) moving into the gallery's very own collections space. It is nice and quiet and very isolated from everyone else's offices. My gallery's office is up two floors and down the hall, the other gallery is up one flight and down a longer hall. Since its kitchen is more convenient for me at lunch, I've been leaving my stuff there in the mornings, but I took all my tea and snack supplies upstairs. Also I am near the cafeteria kitchens and the grease trap and there is an occasional linger smell of old bacon grease or a Denny's breakfast that has sat out too long. Blegh.

I haven't actually started working on the paintings. I'm working on getting a form ready for it, and I have been going over records in the database and fixing up missing information, typos, etc. I'm going to try and go through a certain amount of them each day. I am going to start actually working on paintings today though - my form is almost ready! But I am going to do a lot of the record data entry before I do the condition reporting anyway, so it is all good. I will probably go up there in a bit and get the files I need to get myself started.

I have slowly started applying for a few jobs here and there, but I am not going to make a concerted effort to do so until later this winter I think. For now I'll cherry pick what looks good and worry about throwing myself everywhere in desperation as my contract end date gets closer. That said, one of my co-workers here quit yesterday and I am considering whether I want that position. It is an Education Curator position - honestly I'll have to see how they are going to handle filling it with the hiring freeze, such as it is, still on. The grip has loosened slightly, as not everything has to get approval at the presidential level. Honestly it is less of a 'hiring freeze' and more of an increase in the bureaucratization of the hiring process, with stronger emphasis on demonstrating necessity for positions to make us try and be more efficient. It still sucks, especially for ppl I know who are looking for jobs locally. This digression (and honestly most of the impetus this post) was brought to you by an awesome looking job that turned up in my inbox this morning working for a US Navy museum that sadly requires US Citizenship. Much woe!

I don't think I have too much else going on at the moment. It is nice to have ore regular social gatherings locally though. One of my games is a weekly in-person one where we have dinner together and then play, which is very nice. I also had people over on Saturday for tea and cake, which turned into tea and cake and watching the Batman Animated Series :3 This might become more regular, or semi regular. What else - I've been watching and enjoying In The Flesh, the British post-zombie rising drama, which explores various issues surrounding re-integrating post-death syndrome sufferers into their community. It is good but the series (two so far) are very short and some of the plotlines feel very rushed accordingly. Still quite fun, and exceptionally British. I also have a new Raksura book to read, but I haven't quite cracked it open yet as I've been using my limited reading time for knitting... See above!

I remember to bring my nice scissors to work to cut twill tape to sew labels into object cases. I did not remember to bring needles.

Bring needles to work tomorrow!

I did remember to bring my copy of Emilie and the Sky World though, and to bring my eldersign pattern so I can finish that washcloth for my facebook 'make stuff for people' meme, so that's good.

I did not send my RSVP for my friends' wedding reception yet, though I did draw a Pusheen on the back of it. I also did not send my book review contract yet, though I did sign it. I managed to misplace the envelope that came with it, d'oh! I am going to email the review editor *right now* and ask where I should send it (done!). I also opened a file for said book review, and put in all the header information. So that's waiting for me tonight, I suppose!

In hunting around for the review editor's address, I got an update on the pirate book I submitted an article for (based on my Sheffield research, actually, heh). It is out to reviewers now, and hopefully can move along nicely from there. :D

Now if I would only hear back from Shroud >.> I could poke them maybe? Last I heard they were hoping to have news for me in 'a week or so', but that was back in May >.>

In other writing news, the All-Female Author Mythos book that I backed on IndieGoGo has announced its open submission period will be from November-December. They limit is 4000 words. I *really* *really* wanted to send them Cursed Wreck, but it is just over 7000 in its current form. I need to cut it down if I want to do that, but I'm not sure I have the perspective to do so. I'll try looking at it again, but I might need to see if I can find someone else to help me with serious edits. Or I could write something entirely new, I suppose... I'll think about that. But damnit I want to sell Cursed Wreck ;_; It's a good story at heart. Possibly needs some chopping anyway :p

I wandered away from where I started in this post, but that's okay, because I was clever and thought to call upstairs to my old boss/the collections manager for the other gallery and *she* has needles, so I should be set :D

I mostly only post things like this to facebook these days, but this short film is so awesome, I figured it needed more exposure :D It is probably best described as "Lovecraft writes Sex Ed". It is mostly safe for work but possibly not completely. But watch it!

So, the DDoS attacks on LJ, though I understand their reasoning and really don't hold anything against the service, have made me decide to try an actually start using my dreamwidth account as well. I've had one for a while and have used it to keep up with some friends who have fully migrated, read some communities (when I remember) etc. I'm not giving up on LJ, though, partly because I feel like I have real roots there (my journal there is almost 10 years old!), and partly because knowing that it is a meaningful world community makes me feel strangely.... Internets Patriotic? I dunno. But feeling like I have any kind of connection to people who are doing Good Things (like being a voice for democracy) makes me feel a vicarious pride :p While that is somewhat selfish, I feel like running away from mild inconvenience is also selfish. Anyway - there are people in both places I want to be in (better) touch with, so welcome to crossposting city. If anyone has any good suggestions about posting clients that crosspost well, I would be interested in recs! Right now I'm doin' it from the main dreamwidth page, because that seems easy, but I generally prefer to post from a client.

Anyway, hello possibly for reals DW people - I don't post much anyway, but my journal import seems to be complete, and now you can expect more real posts from moi, where more = maybe 1 or 2 a month, and 'posts' may quite often be tedious to-do lists. Lj folks - carry on, nothing to see here @_@ My username is the same in both places.... much like the content :P

Oh yes, hello facebook too, let's see if I can cascade post to two platforms :D

So, onto my Spartacus/Mythos-ish dream from last night... Okay not I have to figure out the code for cuts in dw @_@ ( okay, so that was easy ;) )

As an added welcome bonus, have a link to badass video from the French Mozart Rock Opera that I also watched with Julie this weekend. So much win! This is a song about how (hot emo) Salieri feels when he first hears (hot gothy) Mozart's music ;) Stupid disabled embedding.... go watch :D It is in French, but potential language barriers in no real way impede its awesomeness, I promise!

More pics at facebox.

Having just made a video post, I can now say thins without looking like I am ragging on anyone else, but look like a hypocrite instead,. yay!

Does anyone else sometimes feel like posting links to funny videos is the more modern version of mass-mailing 'funny' stories to everyone in your address book?

Sometimes I feel that way.

HELLO THE INTERNETS DO YOU NOT THINK THIS IS FUNNY TOO HAHA!

In an unrelated observation, it always amuses me to watch what people do on rainy days when they have umbrellas and are passing under the pedestrian underpass. Mostly the will not actually retract their umbrellas, but will make sure they are pointed ahead of them so that.... I don't know why! So that people will realize they know it isn't needed? It is amusing!

...I thought I posted this ages ago. Well, apparently not.

Have some tentacles.

For some reason I can no longer see individual images on flicker, and therefore can't hotlink to them. well screw you then :p

Here is a facebook link. jerks.

So, yeah, dyed my costume, looks great! And now I need to redo my mask -_- I closed it in the closet door, so it is cracked, and also there is a bit of black paint that came off one of the snaes on the nose. So, if anyone has any suggestions on that front I'm open - same style? More pale gold? Less? different colours? No yellow sign on the forehead? Your input, give it to me :V

Right, back to actual work -_-

ETA: made some slides, and back to costuming :p I gt the black paint off the nose with some nail polish remover, and taped the crack. I might still try and redo it, but if I don't have time, I'll survive :x I also did some snake painting touch-ups, and I may mess with them tomorrow am or pm.

Now to finish off Tonga!