only way to be
So things that have happened over the past ... two months? Or so.
*** The wordcount for Calling Pomegranate has crossed the 100K mark. Yeah, I should post. It's currently at 108K and a big plot point is just about to happen. I'm a little uncertain about whether I've hit the right emotional marks hence the hesitation. But tomorrow we'll see. I may have a bash at it then. But yeah, on the whole I'm really happy with it --- aside from the everpresent worry about too much sex too much death too much unrealism which I try to ignore and wrestle into making sure it doesn't actually happen --- and I can definitely see the final act coming into view. Rather a good feeling, that. Knowing that I'm much closer to the end than Arushka is.
*** I actually put all my notebooks on She, Synphony away. And trying not to worry about the fact that I have no desire to go back to Arushka. Mostly because I still have no idea how to write the Nell phase of her education. *sigh* Can't be helped. Deal with that after I finish Sean and Cary and when there's nothing else to write.
*** Transcribing is going really well. I've been put onto a few dailies, the first of which was an absolute nightmare cos of way too much medical jargon, and the second of which was dreamily easy. I wasn't happy with my speed and time but got told I did really well. Hrm. Yeah, not good enough for me. Having said that, I'll prolly be in court this week cos we've got a new guy on so I'll have to train him for a few days.
*** I suppose the good thing about that will be I'll get to do some reading. That's really the only downside to the whole transcribing thing. All the reading I used to do in court I now have no time to do at work cos, you know, gotta actually work. What's with that? *lol* And yeah, I've been taken over enough by the Facebook games that when I come home, that's pretty much how my whole evening goes. Not that I mind too much because I've put enough time and effort into the games that now they're really paying off in terms of silent satisfaction and damned gorgeous effects.
*** Which, oh yes, relates to the biggest development so far and omg what a revolution! Less than a month ago I got a text message (of all things) from Unwired offering a trial of the new 4G wireless broadband through vividwireless. Fuck yes, I thought! Went to check it out and ohmyfuckinggod yes. So I immediately signed up and my modem arrived the next day and I hooked it up and oh my god it's been pretty much bliss ever since. Feels like fucking paradise, I swear. I'm watching classic movies on YouTube, downloading 300MB games and watching my Facebook games zip through so deliciously fast. It's like a dream I don't want to wake up from. There have been a few blips but that's understandable and yeah, I'm pretty patient when it comes to these things.
*** So yeah, now that I have blissfully fast intarwebz, I was thinking of taking up the 365 days of song project again. Always bugged me that I had to abandon it, and yesterday I read back through all of my entries which was such a private delight it reminded me how much I love to read and talk about music. The last entry was on the 24th of July 2009 so I thought I might start posting again from the 25th of July and go through to the end of the year. My musical tastes have shifted enough, I think, to make for some new stuff and anyway, it was a damned interesting endeavour even if it had me quite exposed and felt quite often like I was talking into a vacuum but that's okay, that goes with the whole LJ thing anyway. :p
*** Oh, music wise? This has already been a pretty momentous year. In April I saw Joseph Arthur perform. Yes, really. Yes, here in Sydney. At the Vanguard, to be precise. It was ... unexpected. And I haven't actually written about it anywhere, only a few fragments on Facebook. I'm actually saving it for the novel cos it might work in quite well, actually. But yeah, I couldn't believe it was happening. I still can't quite believe it happened. Like I momentarily daydreamed it.
*** The other huge musical event was just a few weeks ago seeing Spiritualized at the Opera House as part of Vivid, performing Ladies And Gentlemen We're Floating In Space in its entirety, plus an encore of one of my favourite tracks from Let It Come Down. That was ridiculously fantastic, pure fucking bliss and so overwhelming so intimate. I will be eternally grateful for that experience. Not like there was any question about me going and getting the best seat possible. We were in the fifth row. Jason was right there, still painfully thin but god so lovely and his voice was in beautiful form and omg the lights, the horns, the choir, the guitars, the roar of sound. I have never seen such a long sustained use of strobes. It was brilliant and fit the songs perfectly. If I ever meet Stephen Pavlovic, I will take him fervently by the hand and thank him even more fervently for bringing that to Sydney.
*** In other news, the Aunt is currently in Paris and will be until the first week of July. I was a little uncertain about how I'd cope with her away even though I was the one to suggest it a few years ago and have been reminding her of it ever since, pretty much giving my blessing to her going away and living overseas for a while. It was supposed to be six months, it's ended up being seven weeks cos she's that necessary to the company's budget. Heh. And the day after she left, the waterspouts hit the Sydney coast. My godmother, uncle and cousin in Kuwait watched all the carnage and my uncle-in-law was like "You better call dri, the Aunt's not there, she's alone! You better call and make sure dri's all right."
My phone rang twice with a private number which I didn't answer because it didn't even occur to me my godmother would be trying to contact me. Finally she left a voicemail and I sent her a Facebook message in reply, thinking she was just checking how I was without the Aunt and telling her there was no need to call, all good. She called anyway and said "How's the tornado?!" My response, genuine bafflement: "What tornado?"
I hadn't been out in two days, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was too fucking funny.
I do suspect I alarmed the Aunt a bit a few days ago when I posted that I may be coming down with the flu that's currently hit our office like a tidal wave. Just in the amount of comments she was making and the tone of them. I think she felt a bit guilty that she wasn't here to look after me. Well, yeah, that's why I didn't allow myself to get sick. "I can't afford to get sick, there's nobody to look after me!" *lol* Yeah, never going to be an adult, me. When she dies, I really will have to kill myself because it'd be too much of a nuisance otherwise.
As it is, I stayed home that one day when I felt like I was about to succumb and that seems to have done the trick. As well as the fact that I've been popping two echinacea forte three times a day and drinking lots of warm water with honey. I can feel a slight congestion but "no sir, we're keeping it at bay, sir." (Kiss Me Kate, heh.)
*** What else? kandielei and I went to see Scream 4 which I fucking loved to bits and then we went to see Pirates 4: On Stranger Tides which took me a while to grasp tonally and then I found it pretty damned intriguing and interesting. I really want to see it again to fully make up my mind. *nods* Oh, and speaking of Depp, I think I may be slightly obsessed with The Tourist. I've already rented it out twice and god, I just love everything about it, from the costumes to the clever dynamics to the sweetness of it. The Leo at the video store nailed it for me, she said it was like Charade, that sort of classic mystery love story. Yes! She was so right. Aside from Wait Until Dark, Charade is one of the only two Audrey Hepburn films I'm quite fond of. Never forgotten that twist, how could you? :p
*** Finally, I just --- as of two hours ago --- hacked off my hair myself. So fucking empowering but of course it was nowhere as spontaneous as it sounds. Please, this is me. I never do anything momentous without discussing it with everyone closest to me. There was a long involved discussion on Facebook and my godmother finally put forward such a simple suggestion that immediately made it seem ridiculously easy. I had unofficially set myself a deadline of "by Monday morning, I should look like a scarecrow" and this morning, I woke up and thought, "I bet that scissors of mine doesn't even cut hair." So I got out of bed and went and got it, tried to cut off just a little snippet.
That, I think, was the worst part of it. The crunch and seeing the curl come off in my hand. I stared at it with some horror and then registered the relief of "Hey, that was pretty easy. Okay, do I feel bad about it? Is this a mistake? No ... no, I'm feeling pretty okay about it. Okay, shut off the brain now and see what happens."
So I did it. Without allowing myself to think about it. Of course my hair in a matted tangled ponytail right on top of my head was so thick I had to literally saw my way through it. Which, when I took off the elastic and shook it out, left it fabulously jagged and quite medieval. I really loved that and tried to take a few pix. Eventually I figured it would look better after I'd washed it.
And ha, not true. Now, all washed and shampooed and conditioned, it's curling very sweetly and primly. Doesn't look anywhere as blunt as it did at first but I do like how there are these long wispy bits at the side. And I still spent about forty minutes in the shower working out the tangles. But then it was in pretty bad shape.
So yeah, momentous but not quite. Cut my own hair for the first time ever. Gone from almost down to my bottom right up to just above my shoulders. I may go even shorter. I was thinking a curly sort of steampunk shortness close around my face and I may yet take myself into the local hairdresser and say so. I'm just a little wary of how fat my face might have gotten since the last time my hair was short. That's the brilliant thing about long hair, no? Slims a fat face down. And I do like how this length sets off my jawline. So we'll see.
And that seems to be about it. To borrow the_grynne's very useful format:
Reading: Rupert Thomson's The Five Gates Of Hell (finally!) as well as Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs as well as my usual Pratchett re-read, this one being The Wee Free Men.
Listening: almost all of Tim, Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Saucerful Of Secrets and The Division Bell, a lot of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie and a bit of Lindsey from a mix I made kandielei plus Stevie's new album which I'm still trying to work out, a smattering of Tears For Fears including Everybody Loves A Happy Ending which I am finally getting into, Midnight Juggernauts' The Crystal Axis, that Ladyhawke (Pip Brown, not the movie) album which I dug out of storage, the one Android Lust track I could find, and a whole lot of Michael.
Eating: about to warm up the rest of the basmati rice with pau bhaji from last night.
Wearing: pajamas, thick sockies and a clip to hold my abruptly shortened hair out of my face.
Planning: to watch Desk Set on YouTube cos I haven't seen it for aaaaaages. ♥
*** The wordcount for Calling Pomegranate has crossed the 100K mark. Yeah, I should post. It's currently at 108K and a big plot point is just about to happen. I'm a little uncertain about whether I've hit the right emotional marks hence the hesitation. But tomorrow we'll see. I may have a bash at it then. But yeah, on the whole I'm really happy with it --- aside from the everpresent worry about too much sex too much death too much unrealism which I try to ignore and wrestle into making sure it doesn't actually happen --- and I can definitely see the final act coming into view. Rather a good feeling, that. Knowing that I'm much closer to the end than Arushka is.
*** I actually put all my notebooks on She, Synphony away. And trying not to worry about the fact that I have no desire to go back to Arushka. Mostly because I still have no idea how to write the Nell phase of her education. *sigh* Can't be helped. Deal with that after I finish Sean and Cary and when there's nothing else to write.
*** Transcribing is going really well. I've been put onto a few dailies, the first of which was an absolute nightmare cos of way too much medical jargon, and the second of which was dreamily easy. I wasn't happy with my speed and time but got told I did really well. Hrm. Yeah, not good enough for me. Having said that, I'll prolly be in court this week cos we've got a new guy on so I'll have to train him for a few days.
*** I suppose the good thing about that will be I'll get to do some reading. That's really the only downside to the whole transcribing thing. All the reading I used to do in court I now have no time to do at work cos, you know, gotta actually work. What's with that? *lol* And yeah, I've been taken over enough by the Facebook games that when I come home, that's pretty much how my whole evening goes. Not that I mind too much because I've put enough time and effort into the games that now they're really paying off in terms of silent satisfaction and damned gorgeous effects.
*** Which, oh yes, relates to the biggest development so far and omg what a revolution! Less than a month ago I got a text message (of all things) from Unwired offering a trial of the new 4G wireless broadband through vividwireless. Fuck yes, I thought! Went to check it out and ohmyfuckinggod yes. So I immediately signed up and my modem arrived the next day and I hooked it up and oh my god it's been pretty much bliss ever since. Feels like fucking paradise, I swear. I'm watching classic movies on YouTube, downloading 300MB games and watching my Facebook games zip through so deliciously fast. It's like a dream I don't want to wake up from. There have been a few blips but that's understandable and yeah, I'm pretty patient when it comes to these things.
*** So yeah, now that I have blissfully fast intarwebz, I was thinking of taking up the 365 days of song project again. Always bugged me that I had to abandon it, and yesterday I read back through all of my entries which was such a private delight it reminded me how much I love to read and talk about music. The last entry was on the 24th of July 2009 so I thought I might start posting again from the 25th of July and go through to the end of the year. My musical tastes have shifted enough, I think, to make for some new stuff and anyway, it was a damned interesting endeavour even if it had me quite exposed and felt quite often like I was talking into a vacuum but that's okay, that goes with the whole LJ thing anyway. :p
*** Oh, music wise? This has already been a pretty momentous year. In April I saw Joseph Arthur perform. Yes, really. Yes, here in Sydney. At the Vanguard, to be precise. It was ... unexpected. And I haven't actually written about it anywhere, only a few fragments on Facebook. I'm actually saving it for the novel cos it might work in quite well, actually. But yeah, I couldn't believe it was happening. I still can't quite believe it happened. Like I momentarily daydreamed it.
*** The other huge musical event was just a few weeks ago seeing Spiritualized at the Opera House as part of Vivid, performing Ladies And Gentlemen We're Floating In Space in its entirety, plus an encore of one of my favourite tracks from Let It Come Down. That was ridiculously fantastic, pure fucking bliss and so overwhelming so intimate. I will be eternally grateful for that experience. Not like there was any question about me going and getting the best seat possible. We were in the fifth row. Jason was right there, still painfully thin but god so lovely and his voice was in beautiful form and omg the lights, the horns, the choir, the guitars, the roar of sound. I have never seen such a long sustained use of strobes. It was brilliant and fit the songs perfectly. If I ever meet Stephen Pavlovic, I will take him fervently by the hand and thank him even more fervently for bringing that to Sydney.
*** In other news, the Aunt is currently in Paris and will be until the first week of July. I was a little uncertain about how I'd cope with her away even though I was the one to suggest it a few years ago and have been reminding her of it ever since, pretty much giving my blessing to her going away and living overseas for a while. It was supposed to be six months, it's ended up being seven weeks cos she's that necessary to the company's budget. Heh. And the day after she left, the waterspouts hit the Sydney coast. My godmother, uncle and cousin in Kuwait watched all the carnage and my uncle-in-law was like "You better call dri, the Aunt's not there, she's alone! You better call and make sure dri's all right."
My phone rang twice with a private number which I didn't answer because it didn't even occur to me my godmother would be trying to contact me. Finally she left a voicemail and I sent her a Facebook message in reply, thinking she was just checking how I was without the Aunt and telling her there was no need to call, all good. She called anyway and said "How's the tornado?!" My response, genuine bafflement: "What tornado?"
I hadn't been out in two days, I had absolutely no idea what was going on. It was too fucking funny.
I do suspect I alarmed the Aunt a bit a few days ago when I posted that I may be coming down with the flu that's currently hit our office like a tidal wave. Just in the amount of comments she was making and the tone of them. I think she felt a bit guilty that she wasn't here to look after me. Well, yeah, that's why I didn't allow myself to get sick. "I can't afford to get sick, there's nobody to look after me!" *lol* Yeah, never going to be an adult, me. When she dies, I really will have to kill myself because it'd be too much of a nuisance otherwise.
As it is, I stayed home that one day when I felt like I was about to succumb and that seems to have done the trick. As well as the fact that I've been popping two echinacea forte three times a day and drinking lots of warm water with honey. I can feel a slight congestion but "no sir, we're keeping it at bay, sir." (Kiss Me Kate, heh.)
*** What else? kandielei and I went to see Scream 4 which I fucking loved to bits and then we went to see Pirates 4: On Stranger Tides which took me a while to grasp tonally and then I found it pretty damned intriguing and interesting. I really want to see it again to fully make up my mind. *nods* Oh, and speaking of Depp, I think I may be slightly obsessed with The Tourist. I've already rented it out twice and god, I just love everything about it, from the costumes to the clever dynamics to the sweetness of it. The Leo at the video store nailed it for me, she said it was like Charade, that sort of classic mystery love story. Yes! She was so right. Aside from Wait Until Dark, Charade is one of the only two Audrey Hepburn films I'm quite fond of. Never forgotten that twist, how could you? :p
*** Finally, I just --- as of two hours ago --- hacked off my hair myself. So fucking empowering but of course it was nowhere as spontaneous as it sounds. Please, this is me. I never do anything momentous without discussing it with everyone closest to me. There was a long involved discussion on Facebook and my godmother finally put forward such a simple suggestion that immediately made it seem ridiculously easy. I had unofficially set myself a deadline of "by Monday morning, I should look like a scarecrow" and this morning, I woke up and thought, "I bet that scissors of mine doesn't even cut hair." So I got out of bed and went and got it, tried to cut off just a little snippet.
That, I think, was the worst part of it. The crunch and seeing the curl come off in my hand. I stared at it with some horror and then registered the relief of "Hey, that was pretty easy. Okay, do I feel bad about it? Is this a mistake? No ... no, I'm feeling pretty okay about it. Okay, shut off the brain now and see what happens."
So I did it. Without allowing myself to think about it. Of course my hair in a matted tangled ponytail right on top of my head was so thick I had to literally saw my way through it. Which, when I took off the elastic and shook it out, left it fabulously jagged and quite medieval. I really loved that and tried to take a few pix. Eventually I figured it would look better after I'd washed it.
And ha, not true. Now, all washed and shampooed and conditioned, it's curling very sweetly and primly. Doesn't look anywhere as blunt as it did at first but I do like how there are these long wispy bits at the side. And I still spent about forty minutes in the shower working out the tangles. But then it was in pretty bad shape.
So yeah, momentous but not quite. Cut my own hair for the first time ever. Gone from almost down to my bottom right up to just above my shoulders. I may go even shorter. I was thinking a curly sort of steampunk shortness close around my face and I may yet take myself into the local hairdresser and say so. I'm just a little wary of how fat my face might have gotten since the last time my hair was short. That's the brilliant thing about long hair, no? Slims a fat face down. And I do like how this length sets off my jawline. So we'll see.
And that seems to be about it. To borrow the_grynne's very useful format:
Reading: Rupert Thomson's The Five Gates Of Hell (finally!) as well as Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs as well as my usual Pratchett re-read, this one being The Wee Free Men.
Listening: almost all of Tim, Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and Saucerful Of Secrets and The Division Bell, a lot of Fleetwood Mac and Stevie and a bit of Lindsey from a mix I made kandielei plus Stevie's new album which I'm still trying to work out, a smattering of Tears For Fears including Everybody Loves A Happy Ending which I am finally getting into, Midnight Juggernauts' The Crystal Axis, that Ladyhawke (Pip Brown, not the movie) album which I dug out of storage, the one Android Lust track I could find, and a whole lot of Michael.
Eating: about to warm up the rest of the basmati rice with pau bhaji from last night.
Wearing: pajamas, thick sockies and a clip to hold my abruptly shortened hair out of my face.
Planning: to watch Desk Set on YouTube cos I haven't seen it for aaaaaages. ♥