More good and bad
The morning started well enough, trended bad, picked up again, went South again and now seems back to mediocrity, pending reactions.
The details are trivial and pointless. The reasons, as always, purely human ones.
While going about my morning routine of checking email and blog posts, a couple of friends kept questioning me about subjects I should probably know about but have not researched enough to satisfy their queries. It wasn't too bad, but I hadn't had breakfast or any caffeine yet.
One friend started talking about how the serialized stories on Alternia Comics were being posted as "chapters" and wondered about calling them "scenes" or another designation. I thought she was talking specifically about her stories and said I had no attachment to "chapters" and she was free to change them. I looked at the site and realized she had been talking about all the stories, not just hers, and had changed mine as well. The chapter designation is arbitrary, true, but I found I did have an attachment to it, for my stories at least. I think of Optinomicon and Colony Beta in terms of chapters. Granted, if and when they're printed the chapters there so far will likely not be more than a page or two in length, but I still want to call them chapters.
Her small action annoyed me enough that I closed my instant messenger and IRC clients and withdrew from human interaction.
That was the plan anyway.
Shortly after I signed off, another friend called to say she was going running and that I should go running as well. After hanging up with her, I grabbed a book from my to-be-read pile, having finished the book I was reading last night, and went upstairs for breakfast.
It was several trips up and down the stairs because I was not thinking clearly and forgot my tea bags were in my room, and my mug was upstairs.
One one of the trips back downstairs I decided to do my laundry after kicking my housemate's basket of clean clothes out of the middle of the laundry room where I'd been either walking around it or tripping over it.
Finally sitting down to breakfast and reading, the kitten decided it was time to play. He bit my foot and I overreacted, screaming "Ow!" very loudly. Louder than the bite actually warranted, but I was annoyed already and was in no mood to play. The kitten ran off and hid somewhere.
After breakfast and several chapters of the book, I went back down stairs, feeling better and more mellow. I moved my clothes in to the dryer and checked my email again.
A message from Elle was waiting for me. Saying she wanted to just be friends. I replied thanking her for her honesty and noted I was happier knowing than wondering.
I set my IM status to away again and went out to the garage to gather some implements of destruction: a hand axe, shovel, 10 pound sledge hammer and wheelbarrow.
I set to work removing a rotted stump and some saplings we don't want from a planter in the front yard. The planter too will eventually be gone, but for now the stump and saplings were in the way.
The sledge hammer, aside from being a decent workout, proved very effective and breaking up the rotting stump. I carted three wheelbarrow's worth of wood to a pile in the back yard, cut down one sapling, dug up another, and decided to call it good.
With today's mail arrived my monthly print comics shipment, containing several highly anticipated issues, including Mr. Stuffins #2 and #3 and Atomic Robo and the Shadow From Beyond Time #2. That lifted my spirits a great deal, and the kitten greeted me at the door on my way back inside.
Hopefully the housemates will not be dismayed at my stump removal efforts and the day will get better, or at least remain the same, this evening.
The details are trivial and pointless. The reasons, as always, purely human ones.
While going about my morning routine of checking email and blog posts, a couple of friends kept questioning me about subjects I should probably know about but have not researched enough to satisfy their queries. It wasn't too bad, but I hadn't had breakfast or any caffeine yet.
One friend started talking about how the serialized stories on Alternia Comics were being posted as "chapters" and wondered about calling them "scenes" or another designation. I thought she was talking specifically about her stories and said I had no attachment to "chapters" and she was free to change them. I looked at the site and realized she had been talking about all the stories, not just hers, and had changed mine as well. The chapter designation is arbitrary, true, but I found I did have an attachment to it, for my stories at least. I think of Optinomicon and Colony Beta in terms of chapters. Granted, if and when they're printed the chapters there so far will likely not be more than a page or two in length, but I still want to call them chapters.
Her small action annoyed me enough that I closed my instant messenger and IRC clients and withdrew from human interaction.
That was the plan anyway.
Shortly after I signed off, another friend called to say she was going running and that I should go running as well. After hanging up with her, I grabbed a book from my to-be-read pile, having finished the book I was reading last night, and went upstairs for breakfast.
It was several trips up and down the stairs because I was not thinking clearly and forgot my tea bags were in my room, and my mug was upstairs.
One one of the trips back downstairs I decided to do my laundry after kicking my housemate's basket of clean clothes out of the middle of the laundry room where I'd been either walking around it or tripping over it.
Finally sitting down to breakfast and reading, the kitten decided it was time to play. He bit my foot and I overreacted, screaming "Ow!" very loudly. Louder than the bite actually warranted, but I was annoyed already and was in no mood to play. The kitten ran off and hid somewhere.
After breakfast and several chapters of the book, I went back down stairs, feeling better and more mellow. I moved my clothes in to the dryer and checked my email again.
A message from Elle was waiting for me. Saying she wanted to just be friends. I replied thanking her for her honesty and noted I was happier knowing than wondering.
I set my IM status to away again and went out to the garage to gather some implements of destruction: a hand axe, shovel, 10 pound sledge hammer and wheelbarrow.
I set to work removing a rotted stump and some saplings we don't want from a planter in the front yard. The planter too will eventually be gone, but for now the stump and saplings were in the way.
The sledge hammer, aside from being a decent workout, proved very effective and breaking up the rotting stump. I carted three wheelbarrow's worth of wood to a pile in the back yard, cut down one sapling, dug up another, and decided to call it good.
With today's mail arrived my monthly print comics shipment, containing several highly anticipated issues, including Mr. Stuffins #2 and #3 and Atomic Robo and the Shadow From Beyond Time #2. That lifted my spirits a great deal, and the kitten greeted me at the door on my way back inside.
Hopefully the housemates will not be dismayed at my stump removal efforts and the day will get better, or at least remain the same, this evening.