8,000 words written in a week. What may not sound like much is an achievement in context. I recently suffered a major health setback meaning I'm unlikely to be back at work until the new academic year. In the month since then, concentration has been a nightmare, sleep at a premium. I've been climbing walls in frustration, but writing has kept me sane. 15 minutes at a time, take a break, plan the next section, write another 15 minutes. 8,000 words in a week represents a huge amount of progress on a big project (roughly 5-7% in the week). Now to branch out into other projects. I know the advice (and advice I give) is to stick to one project at a time, but in context another project will help me to put my current situation into context, while my current project provides an escape. The third project is just a silliness.
Been about 4 weeks and I finally have some seedlings in my pot! Was sure the free seeds I got were duds after week 3. Hoping to see some flowers before summer ends. *crosses fingers*
Silly project complete. It ended up being a more serious investigation of mental health and neurodivergence (via the medium of huge snooker balls) than originally intended. But a complete project! Complete!
This trip has turned into something of a disaster. Yesterday, I lost my phone. Left it in a taxi somewhere in Tokyo, and I suddenly found out how much I relied on it, at least when abroad. Couldn't log into any bank accounts, couldn't use maps, couldn't even tell the time when I was out and about! Used Google to send a message to the phone with my hotel and phone number, and reported it lost to the police. Told reception that if the police or someone called about it, to please handle it for me, but wasn't really holding out much hope. About 20 minutes ago, the taxi company rang the hotel, and they have it at their office! So I arranged to go get it tomorrow. Thank goodness for a nation of mostly honest people. Happy! And I did it all in Japanese too, go me! This would not have worked inn London.
YES! I'm sorry your trip is turning out so badly, Naomasa. But I'm glad at least something worked out for you. And yep -- you did it all in a foreign language. Go, you! Nicely done. This comic made me smile ...
I think I have a couple story ideas that might just be better than the one I was planning. It's kind of a bummer because I made a really good poem for the first idea and I even made a few posts asking for help regarding it and I don't like abandoning ideas, but it just wasn't quite resonating like I thought it would. Like no matter how hard I tried, something about it just felt wrong. One story idea is a trilogy about these super powered teens who are brought to this "school" where they're basically trained to be weapons for world domination. The basic premise is pretty similar to the TV show called Tower Prep but aside from the premise and a few similar concepts, they're pretty different. I'll need to make sure that the idea is as separate from the show as possible which shouldn't be too hard. It was cancelled after one season. The other story idea is a little longer, encompassing seven books. The books combine knights with the elements of fire, Earth, water, metal, and wood/plants (still trying to decide which one to use). Still trying to develop the world beyond the basic concept. I'll be taking a break from writing so that I can flesh everything out. I might revisit the other idea at some point but for now I'll just lay it to rest.
There is nothing wrong with setting an idea that isn't working to the side for a while. Just be sure to come back to the idea at some point with fresh eyes.
This sort of belongs here. A new channel on my cable service has been showing Perry Mason episodes from 14:00 to 21:00 every weekday and I've been enjoying them (mostly). Yesterday, one had the murderer's gunshots - which is rare - and the shots were loud. My huge dog napping peacefully near the dining room abruptly jumped up and barked. Quite amusing.
Best recovery day yet. I've written 2,100 words. I've baked my youngest daughter's birthday cake. I've read 60-odd pages of a good book. And for the first time in 3 years I've achieved two running targets: firstly, getting up what is euphemistically termed 'that bloody hill', a mile-long incline of fiendish difficulty; secondly, running 10k in significantly under 50 minutes. I haven't run 10k at all since January 2021. To do it today was a happy accident.
On Monday, I'm travelling to Greece at last! I've been longing for this all year and my being-away-from-greece batteries are nearly depleted. I want to explore more of Crete this summer. And I want to do more writing, too. But probably not as much as last summer. I've had a really hard, mind-changing year and I can use a break and some much needed happiness. I'm probably going to finish the novel I started and maybe participate in a contest or two but I'm not likely to do more than that. I think this should suffice, anyway! Must the weekend be so long? Let it end already!
I reached a point today where I'd completed approximately a third of the first draft of my WIP novel. It's taken me about three weeks to produce 23,000 words. With it has come a realisation: I'm going to do this. Quite an empowering thought.
I unboxed and installed the new air conditioner yesterday as the high reached 31C. I am pleased to say that it kicks ass. It easily kept up with yesterday's heat and into today's 32C high. I've had to actually turn it down a few notches as it's gotten too cold in here. It even does a fair job of extending the coolness to the rest of the apartment. I went out into the hall and downstairs to pick up a parcel earlier, and it was simply stifling compared to my place. It's always nice when semi-major purchases (and on sale!) work out as good as, or better, than one expects. A bonus feature is that my kitty seems to really enjoy sleeping inches away from it. Guess it sounds like a giant purring cat or something.
Canada too, huh? It happened suddenly here in Crete. One day, the weather was cool and mild at 23 degrees. The next day, I opened the front door and a wall of super hot hair slapped my whole body. It was a bit like opening the oven door. The summer is here for sure. Even the cicadas are out now, singing way too loud and stuff. It's going to be peaking at around 35c soon. And I don't have an AC! I love summer. Now if I can just finish my stupid coursework, I can finally go outside a little bit.
Lol, they sure are loud, aren't they? You gotta watch those little guys, they're sneaky. There's a commerical here on a St. Louis radio station from a company that installs and services air conditioners. The guy who owns the company and does all their commercials said on a recent job two of them ran a number on him. One flew right into his mouth, and as he hacked and coughed it out the other one launched itself as hard as it could against the back of his head. He was sure it was premeditated.
Last summer, there was a cicada clung into the door's bug net, which is rather unusual. I flicked it gently so it could leave my house alone and it flew away. But literally one second later, a huge bird launched from inside a tree, caught the cicada mid-air, and left. I felt really bad because it all made sense. It just used my house as shelter from its predator. The birds here know to never go too close to human homes. Probably because Cretans have a history of hunting and eating a lot of things. Not even the pigeons get close to you here. The other time, my sister's cat had caught a cicada in its mouth. It wasn't munching on it though. It just sort of held it there for some reason. Now that cat has a sensitive stomach and she tends to respond really badly to most things except some expensive cat food, and since I didn't feel like cleaning a really nasty litter box, I gently forced her mouth open and the cicada flew out. But that darned cat caught it a second time when the cicada was panicking and circling the whole balcony. I had to repeat the same thing two other times before the cicada finally escaped. Thank God it wasn't a cockroach. I genuinely cannot stand those things. Another time way back, I went to an enormous olive tree field. I was there with my brother and he, being young and energetic, ran past the entry point and went straight for a path among the trees. Soon as he did that, tens of thousands of cicadas swarmed out of the leaves. Most flew away, but a small number of them decided to go for my brother. They just circled him and flew away in seconds. I've genuinely never seen more cicadas in my entire life. But it makes sense. No people lived there, so it was actually a really safe environment.
It seems I was wrong about that. It's not going to be peaking at 35c, it's going to be peaking at 43c. It's going to be floating around those high's all week. The local government even issued warnings. This is rather unexpected. It can get pretty hot but not that hot. I'm so glad that I'm expected to finish all of my coursework tomorrow! At least I won't have to spend my days in the heat writing reports, so that's a big plus. How should I spend my time on the heatwave? I have some ideas... But either way, I'm glad that the endless coursework saga is coming to an end. I'll be able to have some real free time at last!
Agreed. Those things are creepy. When I was a kid and went out to the local park once, one of them decided to land on the lapel of my shirt. ..................... 15 seconds of screaming and flailing later ................... *shudder* Wow. That sounded like it was going to be a horror film, but then it became really cool, like something from a fantasy film ... or Skyrim. May I recommend ... *thinks* Lemon, Lime and Bitters (on ice)? Or maybe, for after meals - Crème de menthe (on ice). Just wondering: is it a dry heat, or is there lots of humidity? I don't have a problem with dry heat, even at those temperatures, but if I have to go out in the sun, I put on a shirt, a hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen. You know -- like any reasonable person would. But if it's hot and humid ... ugh. Either go to the beach (and don't forget your sunshade etc.), or stay home, close the blinds, grab a cold drink, and put on the electric fan. Yeesh!
The forecast picture I posted says that it'll be 13% relative humidity... which is super low. It makes sense though. When the sun's out all day searing the earth with its rays, everything dries out really quickly. Even the dirt does. It develops a beige-like colour and cracks, which means no annoying weeds grow! Big plus. (Don't worry, rivers don't dry out. We have plenty of water here in Crete.) The heat's already coming. It's night time now and I'm sweating quite a bit. This isn't even the beginning of it, so I'm sure it'll be very fun. Uh... I don't do any of that. Well, I have a short-sleeved shirt of course, but I always have that! I guess I'm unreasonable. Or I'm just a Cretan who's used to these kind of weather conditions. Who knows Sunscreen is something I put on when I'm at the beach for more than an hour. But I hate sunscreen! The sea is infested with it. I go for a swim and the water has that stenchy chemical smell sunscreen has, which is absolutely horrible! And the idea that I'm swimming around sunscreen remnants from a huge mixture of bodies isn't particularly comforting. Yuck. I mean, c'mon! The sea should smell salty. Those are mostly the main Chania beaches though where the tourists are. The beaches farther down Crete where my village is have crystal clear waters that are absolutely stunning. They've got that lovely blue hue to them. I don't swim much anymore but I love oceans and beaches. I find them really romantic.
I don’t know if i’ve ever experienced it that low; when i was growing up it would usually be something like 20-25%. I moved to a semi arid part of the state so I guess the weather will be bone dry…but too hot. And it is suburban hell so not much shade.
