Slouching Towards Productivity

I has the monumental headstabby. This is never good. Nothing from the hospital about my neurology referral yet, so I wait. And wait. And fret. And get sick to fucking death of the symptoms et al.

But enough about that - you've got as much of the state of my health as you're getting, and now for something a little less AAAAAAAGH! 'Kay?

Some of you may know that awhile ago, I stated the ambition to podcast the HIPPIE stuff. Now, being as I am incredibly shy (literally - most people don't actually believe it when I say that, but I am; it's just that I also really like people), I've been sort of sneaking up on this slowly, by degrees. I got the headset in October. I took it out and looked at it in November. Did it again in December. Then a couple of weeks ago, it moved from the sitting room to the study. Today, I've actually taken it out of the packaging! (Ooooooooh.) I've even looked at the cables and am pretty sure I know what connects where. Sure, I hate dicking around with the wires at the back of Eshu, but I figure I might even get the thing tested by tonight! Now I just need to decide what to test it with.

Which brings me to another thing: the website is looking pretty bare at the moment, and I was thinking last week that it was time to shunt some of the drabble over there. So over the weekend, assuming my head doesn't explode, I'll be working to put a sort of 'featured drabble' on site, as well as a couple of other bits and pieces to give people the idea of what I'm doing with this. So far, as a suggestion for what needs to go up there, I've had 'black powder, cheap'. (Thank you, therealsherbs - seems that your drabble prompts come out with some of the best results.) Anyone else got favourites? I really ought to look back over the leftover drabble prompts and see what there is for the scavenging in there - I haven't been writing enough lately. (Okay, I have had a reason, but that somehow doesn't make me feel any better about it.)

Though I have been poking at chapter 17. I know where I want it to go, it's just not getting anywhere. I think it's reliant on Mike not hiding in his attic anymore. Which might be wildly out of character, given that most of the rest of the housemates are yelling at one another, but hey. Natural curiosity might just do it. That or, "I'm not dealing with this without my coffee". Anyway, maybe writing will distract me from the feeling like some little guy's inside my skull with a paring knife, jabbing at the tasty tasty headmeat behind my right eye.

Dear NHS,

I have served you well and faithfully for years. Please to be speeding up my neurology referral so I can continue to do so.

Regards,
A NHS-hospital-centric temp.

Wired

I have working headphones, a microphone that I presume works, and a Skype account.

ph34r m3.

Writer's Block: DIY

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When I was working at Barts, we had a really old fax machine - one that operated on sheets of inked paper on rollers instead of cartridges. Now, when I started, the thing broke down - one of the pins that was supposed to hold the roll of ink-paper-ribbon-whatever in place was just ... missing. And they simply were not going to get a new fax machine. So I did what any good secretary would do - I improvised.

The impromptu solution involved a pen and some Blu-Tak. Basically, insert pen into roller, secure with Blu-Tak, slot roller into place, continue on. I had to replace the pen a few times and make sure to re-secure the impromptu thing every time I had to change the ink ribbon or whatever it was, but it worked for nearly a year.

Drabblecast GO!

So, emboldened by being able to successfully operate Skype and the knowledge that my little headset microphone works, I have been poking at Audacity. More to the point, I have been recording HIPPIE-drabble.

Putting it bluntly: I hate the sound of my own voice. But I am reliably assured that I am doing well. This eases the "OMG WTF AM I DOING?!?!?" panic attacks a little.

So far, the only one that exists that I am happy with is the one that came from dodgyhoodoo's drabble prompt "lugubrious - pinhole - smock". I want to re-record "rambunctiously egalitarian" because I am informed that I could have stood to slow down a little, and ... well, I don't think Carl's letter to his father would read very well as a podcast sort of thing. It really is reliant on the strike-through look. After that ... well, beyond "lemonade power", "I guess that thing really likes Iron Maiden", "play" and "not a good sign" (which are all now parts of the novel "Chaos Magic", CoC book 2), the drabbles are my playground, really. So far I'm looking at the very first one I did - Daz and Ysh's little drabble prompt 'elasmogenic'. Good intro, I suppose. Plus Carl/Emma interaction is always fun.

So ... yeah. There is me reading stuff on mp3. If I find myself on utorrent next month, I'm going to scream. Just FYI.