The Thessaliad Redux

...my sign reads I ATEN'T DED.

That out of the way, I have been productive today. I've been poking at the City of Complications website, among other things, and I managed to get a few things sorted. Things like FTP, a RSS feed, stuff like that there. Yeah, I've actually got this stuff up, after hours of poking, prodding and grumbling at the various programmes needed to do all this sort of thing. In short, HIPPIE's gone public. Yay?

Not that there's not more to do. Because there is. A lot of it. I need to work on some images so I'm not just using shots of Random London on the Cast of Characters site, I need to code an Attribution page in the Miscellany so I can use the pictures and such that I managed to ferret out over the weekend. At least get it looking about how I want it to. Of course, there's actually writing and doing some more recording for next week's drabbles, but that might not be tonight. This is freakin' tiring.

I'm only really doing this because I am determined to be at least a little productive, as I seem to be good for little else right now. Besides, the sooner I get started, the sooner it goes somewhere. That would be a good thing. For now, though, it's three chunks of drabble and a whole lot of virtual scaffolding. Huzzah.

Also, still not king. I want my neuro referral, damnit!

Okay, I may be having a bit of a Confidence-Free Zone over here, but I have one line that I've prodded out of (or perhaps into) my NaNo that makes me smile. In response to Mike asking "What's the worst that could happen?":

Emma’s eyes widened at that before she slapped a palm over them and groaned, "Mike, we live in a world where the powers that be have a sense of humour and Comedic Narrative is alive, well, and drinks at Stringfellow’s every Wednesday. And you had to say that."

And I think I know what's going to happen next. At least it's something to do...

I know it's 4am. Humour me. There is NaNo snippet. It involves Annette taking Carl to the Teddy Bear Workshop. It's worth it.

( It wants to be your FRIEND! )

I blame the Noctisites.

Migraine or no migraine, we have reached Day 4 and I'm on 9151 words. And so, to celebrate, a tiny excerpt from a bit of the novel I know is going to have to be revised come December but what the hell, it is word count and that is the important thing, right?

( A Game of Telephone )

Enjoy!

I have no concrete solutions yet, but at least I'm being more or less productive while fretting.

The backlog that built up while I was flat with migraine is finally being more or less tamed. I'm working like a dog while watching my colleagues work at leisurely paces, take extended lunch breaks and leave early, but at least it's all getting done. Even if I don't get the kind of help and support that would be expected of me (and offered even if it wasn't expected) if our situations were reversed. Personally, I'm beyond stressing over it. As long as the work gets done and I don't have to beat myself into the ground over it anymore, and so long as they don't hound me too much, they can be LazyMoos all they like. Bah.

Meanwhile, I am formulating a game plan for CoC. My web design-fu is a wee bit rusty, but tonight's a night I'm going to spend tweaking code and working out what I'm going to do with this space now that I have it. I mean in specific, by the way, as the 'in general' is more or less covered. Thankfully, it isn't that I don't have anything to put on it; there's drabble and one short story that I think may not entirely suck, and more to come. And of course, there's NaNo this year, which grew a plot while I wasn't looking. Still, mainly what I intend to do tonight is design a sort of a placeholder page - a 'watch this space' sort of thing, potentially with a different bit of drabble on it every week so they know why they're watching. After that ... well, we'll see.

And for another distraction, of course anyone who cares has more or less heard that David Tennant is stepping down from the role of Doctor Who in 2010, and all the fanboys are talking about who's going to take up the role next. Rumours and suggestions have so far gone as follows:

- Paterson Joseph (sure, he's already been in it. So?)
- Idris Elba
- Jack Davenport (in light of the previous name, I say, "Damn, they're taking a lot of their casting suggestions out of Ultraviolet", though everyone else is likely saying, "NORRINGTON!")
- Richard O'Brien (Please no...)
- Alexis Denisof (........*squee*)
- Warren Ellis (dodgyhoodoo's brainfart, but ... hey, we could do worse...

Dear LazyMoo,

Thank you for taking a message for me while I was away yesterday. It's a terrible shame that the GP's query was delayed because you couldn't be arsed to take five minutes and look up a fucking letter. But of course, such things are not your job and you should not be expected to do any such thing as being remotely helpful.

That said, the things that are your job should be done by you, and while I have been nice and quiet about a lot of the stuff you've stuck me with, that is where I draw the line. This is why you found a pile of letters on your desk this afternoon - they have your initials as the typist, therefore it is your job to put them in envelopes and post them. I am not giving up bits of my day to stuff envelopes full of your letters just because they found their way to my desk while I was on lunch.

Get stuffed (along with the envelopes),

Your annoyed temp co-worker.

Seriously, why does she even have this job?

Beyond that, I'm actually not doing too badly, as these things go. I took a mental health day yesterday and feel rather the better for it - my shoulders will still not completely unhunch but at least they're not up around the level of my ears anymore. Plus I have the weekend to recover from Week o' Hell - that'll be good. Though admittedly, I have plans in that area already so it's not like a total relax-fest exactly.

First of all, must get to the post office. I've got a few books that I have to send out for BookMooch. Given that I've already received Stephen King's Insomnia and have got A Feast for Crows coming in from Japan of all places, it's about time to start reciprocating. I would have started last week but my paycheque was teeny. Now it's not so teeny so I will send bits and bobs out. Huzzah for the post office? (I'll have to nick some big envelopes from the office before I leave tonight.)

Then there's my FFXI content IDs, which cry out for renewal. It's about time I started levelling again, really. Besides, my linkshell probably thinks I'm dead or something. I hadn't logged on in awhile because I hadn't been feeling well and then the IDs expired when I was on low paycheque rations so... Anyway, it'll be therapeutic, and something to do.

I also want to get back into doing DDR more regularly. It might help alleviate the stress - I just haven't had the heart or the energy to go bouncing around on the dance mat the last week or so.

Finally, the writing. I'm sort of in a state of perennial waiting for NaNo. It's like Waiting for Godot, only marginally less pointless. The NaNo forums are interesting this year - they've got a forum section specifically for MMO players. Vana'diel gets very little love but it's nice to know I'm not alone anyway. Oddly, because it's a 'virtual world' forums section, a lot of the conversation turns towards Sims 2. Turns out I'm far and away from the only person who uses Sims 2 as a character/setting design tool. Good to know.

I suppose I really should get back to work now but I'm taking my time, frankly. I have no intention of reaching the state I was in on Wednesday ever again, if I can avoid it.

Okay, for those of you who haven't asked to be put on the drabble filter on my LJ and have been wondering what I've been babbling about in the entries that haven't been filtered, I've made a decision - any of the drabble bits that got voted on in the various polls are being unlocked for general consumption, a little at a time. The first two sort of go hand in hand, so here goes.

The Uncommon Market, Part 1

The Uncommon Market, Part 2

More will be forthcoming, but I'll start small. There's a fair bit of ground to cover.

Those of you who've read them already, sorry for the repeats, but feel free to encourage readership, if you like.

Also, just to say: NaNo, one month and counting. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick...

It occurs to me that I've been appalling at updating this thing of late, particularly given the amount of drabble I owe. I've been working on it, I swear, but other stuff has, I grant, been getting in the way. So here's all the news that's fit to print about what's been going on of late:

Firstly, I've been rediscovering FFXI slowly. Hey, soon enough I might have the nerve to ask my new linkshell people for help in getting my limit break quests and rank missions done! I swear, every time I log on as WHM to PL somebody or just check my garden or whatever, I get someone pinging me with a party invite, but there's no point if I can't level! ...Well, I suppose there's capping my magic abilities, but ... eh. I'd rather get my limit breaks done. Bloody farming.

Meantime, I've been working on levelling other jobs. I had a pretty good party on ... I guess it was Sunday, which was me as lvl 14 Dancer/Monk (MOOOOONK!), dodgyhoodoo as lvl 15 THF and a pretty good selection of other jobs. I seem to do quite well as party lead compared to the short-lived party I had earlier last week with no WHM, a RDM who kept going AFK as main healer, and an Elvaan PLD and my Drain Samba as the only thing keeping us from getting immensely squished. I got one level out of that earlier party but technically four out of Sunday's extravaganza. Though I still stand at lvl 17 because of a particularly piss-poor incident involving my trek back to the Secret Beach after attempting to Raise somebody only to get smacked down by Goblin Muggers. TWICE. I hate the Dunes...

Still working on the drabbles and short stories. Drabble will be forthcoming in a bit (I have had ideas for both 'ace of spades' and 'Mummy's Brave Photocopier Repairman', so glee and fear in equal measure) and the short stories are ... well, going. When I'm a little more ahead on the cash front I'll see what I can do about getting some webspace and doing things up properly, but for the time being I ought to at least get the damn things written. So far we've got the deity-hosted Imbolc ball, the man-eating refrigerator, the trip to Market and Lovecraftian horrors at South Bank Uni. Work is being done.

The job thing sucks arse. Not that the job I have at the minute is bad per se, but the commute is abysmal. I'm at Whipps Cross at the minute, which is miles from anywhere, and I'm going to start having to shell out for a proper Travelcard instead of going pay as you go on my Oyster card like I usually do. I've let other agencies know I'm still looking because I cannot take this commute from hell anymore. Why can't they assign me to Barnet or the Royal Free? It's nuts.

Beyond that, it's mainly money stress and other aggravations. But I'm healthy apart from the killer migraine I had last week - it hasn't entirely gone away but is definitely bearable, which is better than the miserable Friday of nausea, visual disturbances and photophobia that is the mark of a really bloody awful migraine. And besides, I haven't had one that bad in a very long time, so I count myself lucky.

Anyway, that's what's new. Drabble in a day or so.

This was just hysterical, in my head.

( You're just a big old softie, really, aren't you? )

Trying something a little different with this drabble. Enjoy!

( Happy Yule, n'all. )