A strange day...
It's been a strange day. A sad one, but strange too. Here's a quick overview of what happened:
1:26 p.m.--am awakened by Mom, who has just come home from the doctor AND the therapist. Informs me that she has had a second stroke, and that is why her left side is partially numb. Then informs me that therapist says brother and I need to straighten up our acts, or we get therapy too. Oh, joy. So I'm not allowed to say anything that could constitute as "mean" to my mom or else.
1:40 p.m.--my book, "In Sickness and in Health" arrives from lulu.com. My mom says "Now you've published a book. I'm proud." But I didn't do it for the publishing purpose; I did it so I wouldn't waste her ink and paper on printing 212 pages (and I wanted it bound anyway, so it worked out). I skimmed through it, amazed that I'd written something like that. I hadn't seen the story since Nov. 27th, and it was like reading somebody else's work. I went to some parts that I'd liked before, and I actually cried when one of my characters committed suicide. I didn't do that when I wrote it, and it was kind of weird. But I realized that what I believed was utter crap at the time was actually brilliant wordcrafting on my part. The plot makes sense the entire way through, and it is letter-perfect (no, I don't use spellcheck; I'm known as the "human spellchecker" at school. If you see me misspell anything, it's because I'm tired and my Inner Editor failed to notice my error.) I did pull out the red pens, something I swore not to do until EdMo, but there were certain things in there that bugged me (like a missing quotation mark. Wow.) so I couldn't help myself. The cover is pretty; it's got like a wintery scene (I felt it suited the time of year for WriMo) on both the front and back. It's very blue. If you ever want to show off your WriMo, WriYe, WriWe, or even WriDays, publish it through Lulu.com. Then, if your friends want it, they can buy a copy for themselves or you can give copies as gifts. Note: Use a font bigger than 12pt; it's okay to read, but it does come out a little small since lulu reduces the content on an 8.5"x11" page to fit on a 6"x9" and everything gets smaller. It will be longer, and it may cost more, but trust me: it's worth it. I left mine 12pt, bold, double-spaced, TNR, and it works, but it can be hard on the eyes after a point. And if you want chapter headings at the top of pages, PUT them at the top of the pages in your document. Mine are really random, which I actually prefer, but my mom saw that and was like "Why is chapter 37 all the way down here?"
Around 3p.m.--playing on the PC. My mom wanted me to backup some DVDs, so I was scouring the 'net and KaZaA for programs to do so.
4:46p.m.--Got a virus on the PC from one of the download files from KaZaA. Norton Antivirus couldn't delete it.
Around 5p.m.--Went next door to help our elderly neighbor clean up the outside of her house before her daughter came for Christmas. Washed car, swept outer driveway, washed inner driveway, swept sidewalks, looked at her injured cat, took out the trash and recycling, etc. Earned $15 dollars out of the deal.
6:32 p.m.-- Came home, deleted virus manually (three reboots later) finally found a good DVD backup program and started on that. Burned 'em to disc, checked 'em in the living room, was satisfied with the results.
Later--made dinner, went online while eating, worked in the kitchen a little, watched TV, read parts of my book, annoyed brother, went back online around 10 and haven't been off since (it's 4:22 am right now). Christmas tree's still lit up, courtesy of my stupid brother. Oh, and DVD player's still on.
So, all in all, it was a strange day. No arguments between me and my mom whatsoever. It's a rare occurrence...
1:26 p.m.--am awakened by Mom, who has just come home from the doctor AND the therapist. Informs me that she has had a second stroke, and that is why her left side is partially numb. Then informs me that therapist says brother and I need to straighten up our acts, or we get therapy too. Oh, joy. So I'm not allowed to say anything that could constitute as "mean" to my mom or else.
1:40 p.m.--my book, "In Sickness and in Health" arrives from lulu.com. My mom says "Now you've published a book. I'm proud." But I didn't do it for the publishing purpose; I did it so I wouldn't waste her ink and paper on printing 212 pages (and I wanted it bound anyway, so it worked out). I skimmed through it, amazed that I'd written something like that. I hadn't seen the story since Nov. 27th, and it was like reading somebody else's work. I went to some parts that I'd liked before, and I actually cried when one of my characters committed suicide. I didn't do that when I wrote it, and it was kind of weird. But I realized that what I believed was utter crap at the time was actually brilliant wordcrafting on my part. The plot makes sense the entire way through, and it is letter-perfect (no, I don't use spellcheck; I'm known as the "human spellchecker" at school. If you see me misspell anything, it's because I'm tired and my Inner Editor failed to notice my error.) I did pull out the red pens, something I swore not to do until EdMo, but there were certain things in there that bugged me (like a missing quotation mark. Wow.) so I couldn't help myself. The cover is pretty; it's got like a wintery scene (I felt it suited the time of year for WriMo) on both the front and back. It's very blue. If you ever want to show off your WriMo, WriYe, WriWe, or even WriDays, publish it through Lulu.com. Then, if your friends want it, they can buy a copy for themselves or you can give copies as gifts. Note: Use a font bigger than 12pt; it's okay to read, but it does come out a little small since lulu reduces the content on an 8.5"x11" page to fit on a 6"x9" and everything gets smaller. It will be longer, and it may cost more, but trust me: it's worth it. I left mine 12pt, bold, double-spaced, TNR, and it works, but it can be hard on the eyes after a point. And if you want chapter headings at the top of pages, PUT them at the top of the pages in your document. Mine are really random, which I actually prefer, but my mom saw that and was like "Why is chapter 37 all the way down here?"
Around 3p.m.--playing on the PC. My mom wanted me to backup some DVDs, so I was scouring the 'net and KaZaA for programs to do so.
4:46p.m.--Got a virus on the PC from one of the download files from KaZaA. Norton Antivirus couldn't delete it.
Around 5p.m.--Went next door to help our elderly neighbor clean up the outside of her house before her daughter came for Christmas. Washed car, swept outer driveway, washed inner driveway, swept sidewalks, looked at her injured cat, took out the trash and recycling, etc. Earned $15 dollars out of the deal.
6:32 p.m.-- Came home, deleted virus manually (three reboots later) finally found a good DVD backup program and started on that. Burned 'em to disc, checked 'em in the living room, was satisfied with the results.
Later--made dinner, went online while eating, worked in the kitchen a little, watched TV, read parts of my book, annoyed brother, went back online around 10 and haven't been off since (it's 4:22 am right now). Christmas tree's still lit up, courtesy of my stupid brother. Oh, and DVD player's still on.
So, all in all, it was a strange day. No arguments between me and my mom whatsoever. It's a rare occurrence...