The Not Happy Thread

Go take her tooth brush and wipe the inside of the toilet with it...then wait a week before telling her.

 

Yeah, and my dad would kick my ass too.

 

Ran across an interesting call for submissions to an anthology the other day. Started coming up with ideas, then glanced at the due date.....the 1st of last month. Been in a motivation slump had a idea spark...and nope. I suppose I could still use the idea but meh.

Since you hate the other two so much, you look into Linux at all? Ubuntu is considered the most user freindly mostly but there`s lots of optoins out there if you look into it.

 

Or you could get a Dell. My laptop is a Dell. Works pretty well.

 

While I'm happy to start working, the hours are atrocious. It's from 3am to 10am.

 

So an old friend (not a close one, but from way back) has gotten engaged. We mostly interact through Facebook, and his fiancė friended me. Find and dandy, she seems good for him.

Thing is, she's Very Passionate About Causes. Not causes that I disagree with, but she's not very passionate about fact-checking, which happens to be a fetish of mine. I snopes quotes from speeches allegedly given the night before, dammit, and if it doesn't come up true....

Yeah, I'm one of Them.

But as long as the theme of the quote is valid, or is consistent with someone's past views, or the children, won't somebody think of the children, she's cool with it.

Anyway, just had to put her on "unfollow" and "restricted" (but still friends!) to avoid ending up starting a FB civil war...

 

Been in a pissy mood every since this morning. Nothing is going right today. I hate feeling like this and this pissy mood happens a lot with me.

 

From the sounds of her issues was more with Microsoft Windows as a OS, which while I like Dell`s as computers most of them come preset with windows. Dell`s are still good computers.

 

Dammit dammit dammit! I've been working, on and off, on what I thought was a pretty clever idea for a story where a guy accidentally manages to get conjured up by a teenage goth girl who thinks he's a demon. She Binds and Compels him to get her an iPhone, the magick works but he's on his own, has to spend his own cash to get it and I swear I came up with this all on my own.

Last week I borrowed a whole bunch of Discworld books from a coworker. Pulled one out at random, which I know I've never read before, and discovered that Terry Pratchett already had the idea, called it "Eric", and not only would anything I wrote be derivative at best, it wouldn't be nearly as good.

That's a whole story, one that I was just getting stuck into, that I can figuratively set on fire in the notional backyard.

Dammit.

 

As long as you do it differently enough, I'm sure you can do it. Originality is most important in the details. Different character with a different plot and different setting and potentially different themes can make a big difference.

 

Well, my employer wanted to read my story (he knew I was a writer) so I showed him my fantasy-mystery.

Anxiety on overload. Why did I agree to show him? SOMEONE LOOKED AT MY STORY!!!!!!

Also, I messed up on a test so I have to redo the testing, putting me behind a day. Why? I didn't write down the initial info like I should've.

Can I just crawl under a bed and stay there??

 

I have to be at work at 3am and since I have to rely on public transportation and live miles away from my job I have to leave at midnight just to get there. So any meaningful sleep for today is out the window for me.

 

Not unhappy, but a day to reflect. 47 years ago today I lost my mum. I have dedicated my first novel to her (and dad, who we lost 8 years ago). Mum taught my to read and write before I started school. I remember I could never spell occasional, my picture spelling book didn't have a coffee table it had an occasional table. I always wondered what else it was when it wasn't being a table

Looking back, it was a decent challenge for a 5 year old, maybe she thought I had potential.

Would have loved to have published my book today in remembrance of mum, but timescales did not quite work out. Looking like September more realistic, so not much longer.

 

Oh @Brindy...my daddy died 4 years ago, day before yesterday. I used to play fool for him constantly, think I was exhausting.

But you were so young when your mum died, that's very shocking. And I'm sorry for saying 'daddy,' overcome a moment, back to normal now :/

 

My PC died. I had to totally restore my operating system. It is now behaving like it did when it just came out of the box. Lost all my less-important data. Fortunately, my business files are on my email account and my external backup drive, along with my stories (which are also on Dropbox). I didn't lose anything critical, but this isn't fun or convenient.

 

Yeah, but this is beyond the "similar plots" thing so far. I'm not writing "Avatar" to his "Dances with Wolves", I'm seriously questioning whether I actually read "Eric" before. I know the idea of a teenage witch getting hold of something, or of someone who isn't actually a demon getting conjured, isn't totally out of the blue original, but some points of their meeting scene are just too similar.

And did it have to be Terry frickin' Pratchett? Couldn't be someone less well-known, or less skilled? I'm going to have to put this one away for a looong time and think on whether it can be saved or not.

 

Working on a handful of works, to send to anthologies just to get my gears spinning becuse I thought some pet projects might get me out of my slump. That`s not the unhappy, among two fiction pieces I`m working on, I also have a creative nonfiction memoirish piece of sorts I'm doing for an anthology about a subject close to my heart. This is the deadline...it`s tight...end of this month tight..and I just recently found out and started on this. Most time`s I would pass because tight deadlines are more stress than I need and I hate the idea rushing my work I feel like it`ll make me sloppy especially in the editing stage. However since this is close to my heart as mentioned and I deem this as important I've decided to give it a stab to get my voice out on something that I believe matters. The unhappy aspect isn`t so much an unhappy as a large amount of stress and paranoia that something so important to me is gonna be ruined and typo filled, with clumsy wordings, and etc because I rushed. I just hope I don`t screw this up.

 

I told dad my hours and my rate of pay and he said I should just quit the job because the hours suck. I sort of agree, but look how long it took me to find a job (3 years). I don’t feel like job searching online, passing out resumes, going to job fairs, sitting in interviews, and traveling all over the city all over again.

 

If you want me to look it over for typos and grammar I'd be happy to help out.

 

Just a minor Not-Happy from me:

I, in my infinite wisdom, decided to look up the Amityville murder photos online for some macabre, morbid reason and saw things I'll never unsee. And now I'm worried about having nightmares about it.

In the words of Obi-Wan:

 

I'm in!

 

Ok, I see what you mean. That wallpaper is hideous, and I know it was the seventies, but somebody went waaay crazy with the paneling.

Ugh.

 

You can actually go visit the house if you want. Doubt it`d help the nightmares.

Oh ya you are the local horror writer. The house could be inspiration, if you ever go.

 

Googleworld

I've applied for a job, so have had to restrict my 'rocket tits in space' type creations for a day or two, no on-line publishing from me. Deleted the two most revolting posts. Still, according to Twitter image I am a communist to my thirty-one followers. They'll see this, surely, the bosses? I'll never be farm manager. Wish I was a pseudonym, or a woman, somebody else entirely, real problems from me.

 

That's very hard to do, but can be necessary. I know, because I had to do it with my mother. (I'm lucky in that my sister is a fantastic person and a great friend, and my dad was lovely too.) The only thing I regret is not doing it sooner.

You can break up with them via a confrontation, which might be very distressing to you, and give them a chance to shout you down or be abusive. You can also do it via a letter, which I would recommend. That way you can say exactly what you mean, tell them exactly what you plan to do and why. Obviously if you write this letter, let it sit on your computer for a while ...a week or so at least ...until you are sure you've said it well and said it all. Then send it, and dust off your hands and get on with your life.

Of course you can also do the slow withdrawal as well. Refuse to attend family events. Change your phone number and your email address, etc. Even move house and don't tell them where you're going. But I believe the letter is the best way to go, because you've said it in a way they can't argue back with—as long as you stick with what you told them you would do, no matter what they throw at you in retaliation. It worked for me.