imbecamiel | Entries tagged with craziness

Down to crunch time with my editing - nearly all of what I'm working on needs to be finished within the next few days. So, this is pretty much my mood at the moment:

more animals

Hehe. Okay, not really. More like: Aaahhh! Ican'tgetitalldoneintime! AAAAHHH! Ahem. No, I can. Really. I think. I hope. It is definitely times like these, however, that try my commitment not to work on Sundays. But if Eric Liddell could hold out when it came to the Olympics... ;)

Anyway. Don't feel like talking about editing anymore at the moment. So -

Very exciting news: Just found out yesterday that Nef has been chosen for "Best Side-kick of the Month" at karate! *is So Very Proud of her sis* For those who don't know, that'd refer to a particular kind of kick, not someone who hangs out with superheroes. ;)

Ah, and by the way, just in case you need any further proof of just how superior Minnesota is... Y'know the official Wisconsin state government website? Betcha can't guess what city's skyline was in the picture at the top of the page. Their state capital, Madison? Nope. Their biggest city, Milwaukee? Nope. Just so happens it was a picture of Minneapolis. *bg* Not even our state capitol, but the other half of our dear "Twin Cities." Yes, that does make me laugh very hard. ;D They eventually got it changed (just within the last couple days, I believe), but still. *pats poor Wisconsin, living in the shadow of our great state*

And I've been doing a bit of reading for breaks, lest my brain rebel utterly and refuse to participate any longer. Yes, I know, that is a somewhat odd choice for a change of pace. But... reading is how I relax. Especially when I have a really good book, which I did. Having finished The Thief and The Queen of Attolia, I have now completed The King of Attolia.

*is dead of utter awesomeness*

Seriously. Every time I'd think I was completely convinced that Eugenides was thoroughly awesome and I loved him, he'd come into the scene again and I'd realize... I adored him even more than I thought I did, and he's even cooler than I realized. Love, love, love, love, love. Want more. Very glad that I bought the books (except Thief, which wasn't as pressing since I'd finished it, but which I will be getting), because these are definitely ones to re-read. *sighs in the bliss of wonderful books*

Back to work!

Current Mood: rushed

Well, we've still had some crazy/stressful happenings of late. Nothing too catastrophic, though. Heh, between the birds and the cats alone we've had quite a bit of drama going on... No trouble actually between the various species, though, ironically enough. Our primary problem with them at the moment is that one of our cats decided to go absolutely insane, Sunday night, and still hasn't regained her senses.

( Kitties, Editing, and Karate - what a mix... )

Current Mood: cold

Between one thing and another, I've been hovering on the edge of being seriously stressed out, anxious, and depressed the last few days. Even though it's not quite accurate, really, I've been feeling like I've got far too much to do, and not nearly enough time or energy to do it.

And then today was our church's women's retreat, and it was... so very much what I needed. Good, encouraging teaching, fellowship, relaxing walking around in the woods in between things... and yes, lots of chocolate, too. :) And I got a neat little book by John Piper on joy, which I will definitely be reading with my devotions this week. Today has been so very peaceful, and I've been both surprised and thankful for how much I've been able to just step back from everything that's been going on. Yeah, I've still got a lot going on, but I think today's really helped in getting my mind and heart back on the right track again. God is so good!

And! In a rather random turn of subject, I meant to say how the karate tournament Thursday night went, but I've been rushing around so much I didn't get to it. So, now that I'm here -

( Karate Tournament! )

Current Mood: sleepy

( Reading Meme and musings on C.S. Lewis )

Current Mood: busy

Yes, I've been home from vacation for a while now. No, I haven't been too insanely busy. And yet I've dropped off the face of the earth. Why is that? BECAUSE OUR STUPID INTERNET HAS BEEN OUT FOR DAYS!

Seriously, this internet service seems to be getting worse by the week. Used to be it'd cut out briefly every once in a while, not really a big deal, and it'd be back in a few seconds or minutes. Then it started going out for hours at a time. More and more frequently, until it was doing so every couple of days. And now it's graduated to just stopping entirely for days at a time.

And yet they keep telling us they can't really find anything wrong, don't know what's happening, it should be working. We don't even bother trying to go through the company anymore - we've got the repairman's and his supervisor's direct numbers. By this point, it has gone so beyond, "Heh, bit addicted to the internet, maybe? Guess I'll find something else to do for a while..." to, "Give me internet, or give me death!" AUGH!

It's not just inconvenience, it's not just being cut off from friends for a while, we're trying to run two small businesses here, my mom's book/website and my editing, and they both rely almost entirely on the internet, and I have deadlines/time pressures on several things at the moment, and even the primarily non-internet things I'm working on require internet for a lot of fact checking, and even the dictionary on Word won't work without internet, and - *deep breath* This. Is. Not. Working. I think I really am going to cry if it doesn't get sorted out soon.

Heh. Can you tell I'm a tad upset at the moment? :P At any rate, we had three repairmen here for most of the day, and things seem to be working again for now, so... we'll see. If you don't hear from me again for a while... yeah.

*sighs* Gonna go get some work done while I can.

Current Mood: infuriated

Man, there have been so many things over the last week or so that I've wanted to post about, and others' posts I've wanted to comment on. There's been so much going on, however, that I haven't had the time to actually do so. Sorry for my scarce presence on the internets of late. I keep typing up part of a post, and then not having time to finish... So I guess this is gonna be a bit of a mixed collection of everything that's been going on.

Been working on the editing for TEACH a lot, of course. They weren't able to send me all the articles at the beginning, so I wound up getting a lot one at a time right toward the end. So kinda hectic, but manageable this time, since she didn't object to my extending the deadline a bit.
My grandma's also been here for the last week (well, step-grandma, technically, my grandpa re-married in his 70s), so when I haven't been editing I've pretty much been spending time with her.

( Miscellania and Stuff That's Been Going On. )

Current Mood: indescribable

First off, a bit of praise and celebration - Ashley's visit to the doctor went well. Apparently the baby weighs about four and a half pounds at the moment, and everything is looking good for a healthy birth. Praise God!

And yesterday was rather exciting... We're going to be gone during karate promotions night, so we were tested early - Nef, Eric, and I are now all green-with-purple belts! Yays! ;D

And then we had a big storm here last night, with us right in the path of the worst of it (bad enough that the weather radio actually mentioned our little town by name o.o). So we all had to rush around to secure everything before it hit, and then piled into our basement bathroom. Five people, two cats, a dog, and a bird are a bit of a tight squeeze in one bathroom. Heh, and even though it doesn't phase Strider in the slightest, the cats have recently demonstrated that thunderstorms make them nervous. Fortunately it tends more toward the clingy, cuddly, and hiding in the shower, rather than going berzerk. ;)

For some reason, having to take shelter during severe weather tends to make most of our family rather punchy and giggly. As when Neffie was giving the animals some water in her cupped hands, and then decided to wipe her hands off on my towel. When I protested and told her to use her own, she said, "But it's way over there!" *points two feet away* XP

Anywho, it turned out all right - storm passed over, and almost immediately the sky cleared up and we could see the moon. No damage to the house, and I don't think we even had anything to speak of to the trees. Less than the last big storm, when one of the trees down by the lake blew over. Fortunately it was a comparatively small one, and it even helpfully toppled right on top of our wood pile - guess it knew where it was going to wind up. ;P

And in just a few hours we'll be heading off to the cabin! So if you don't hear from me in the next week or so, it's not a sign that I don't care or that something drastic's happened - just a sign that I'm out in the middle of nowhere without internet. :D

Talk to y'all when I get back!

Current Mood: excited

... and I hate stupid internet connections even more!!! ARGH! *fumes*

Connection cut out the other day in the middle of downloading an update to Norton, and I could not get it to download properly after that, even waiting a couple days for the internet to be in a better mood and going to a part of the house with a better connection, so I e-mailed them about it... They've got great, really prompt tech support. Unfortunately, I had to talk with them on the phone. (Why, oh why, do I have to have such a weird phobia as one of talking on the telephone? Making phone calls, even with people I know and like, with the very rare exception = bizarre nervousness, heart speeding up, shaky, flustered, brain deserts me completely... Not as bad receiving calls, but even then... *sighs*)

Naturally, the guy's got a really thick Indian accent, which always makes things more complicated, but he was really nice and patient, so it was okay. So he was going to remote access the computer to fix it for me, which was really wonderful since I'm not all that great with computers, and they're not all that great with me, either... (Anyone remember my article about Chrysophylax? Even if Caudimordax is nicer... yeah.) And then, suddenly, the internet connection decides to go really bizarre.

It had been working great. But suddenly, no matter what I did or where I went to get a better connection, it didn't want to connect to their program, and when it did it would almost immediately disconnect. Then it decided to simultaneously tell me that my connection was "Excellent" and virtually non-existent. So I'm trying to work with this guy on the phone while my internet connection goes all funky... Finally he gave up, and he's going to e-mail me a solution so I can try fixing it myself. *bangs head on wall and cries*

And randomly switching topics, as long as I'm talking about my general computer hate/ignorance... Um, can someone tell me how one uses animated icons? Is the download/upload process the same as for regular ones, or are there more steps involved? *feels really, really stupid*

So yeah, I haven't accomplished very much writing done today. Gonna try to do some more now. Bleh, I don't wanna. I actually pretty much know what I'm gonna do for this next part, even down to phrasing in some places, but somehow I just can't seem to make myself do it. Yeah, this icon is very appropriate.

Current Mood: frustrated

My poor Strider-puppy has broken a tooth, way down by the roots, and now needs surgery. We also just found out he's got some kind of tick-borne disease, and needs antibiotics (and how that happens when he's on Frontline year-round...). I don't know yet how serious it is, but he needs to go back to the Vet on Thursday.

Also, the ground is white again. 'Cause it's snowing, again. I was hoping yesterday that the ice on our lake would be melted today. Apparently not.

And, despite managing to keep my head above water on my other work, I haven't managed any writing yet today. *sighs*

Wah.

End of whining. ;P

Current Mood: blah

I'm really not quite sure how the avatar I've used relates to this post. I just felt like using it. I'm feeling very random and hyper and exhausted. I believe as a result of a combination of too little sleep, too much caffeine, lots of mental work, and the relief of finally finishing a big project.

( Rant and assorted randomness here... )

Current Mood: indescribable

So, April in Minnesota... Heard a couple days ago we were supposed to have a bit of a storm here - they were saying 12 to 16 inches of snow in our area. It's been snowing since yesterday afternoon, turned into a snow/slushstorm with thunder and lightning for a bit last night, still snowing today, and we've got about a foot accumulated on the ground now. No signs of stopping yet, so it's looking more like 16 inches. Blah. Why couldn't we have gotten this back at the beginning of winter? I love snow and cold, but I'm really ready for spring here. *sighs* On the upside, maple syrup making's been going well - we've already got about three times what we got last year, and the guys are anticipating that we'll wind up with five or six times.

Been doing some general thinking about my book lately, things like my intended audience, how to define the book, pros and cons of bringing in the subject of fanfiction, how much I wanted it to be focused on fiction writing rather than writing in general... Mom needed me to write up a short description of it to send to someone for this upcoming online homeschool conference that it might be advertised at, which was... not easy. I'm so bad at summaries. (Which I always kinda hate to say, 'cause it gives me flashbacks to really bad fanfic stories with such eloquent and intriguing descriptions as, "I suk at summarys - just reed it! It's a gr8 story, I promise! Pls review!!!11!! btw, can ne1 think of a title for this, I know this one's lame but I couldn't think of anything else" ;P ) But I think it came out pretty well, and it's helped me think some things through more clearly. So I might post more about that later today. If I manage to get my act together.

Oh, and I'm still trying to come up with a title for It. Aw man, apparently I do resemble the above lame summary more than I thought. *cringes and considers printing out her writing just so she can burn it*

Speaking of the online conference, though... Have I mentioned that my mom is now a Famous and Popular Author, and has been asked to give two lectures for this conference? Very neat, particularly since there are some other really famous (at least in homeschooling circles) speakers there. So she's been doing some recording (they record the lectures over the internet, live with an audience, but ahead of time, and release them during the conference), and she's gotten some really positive responses so far... Cool. :D 'Course that means she's needed a bit of a crash course in certain slang and internet terms... One young mom said that she was "the bomb" and Mom didn't know whether she was supposed to be insulted or not. *bg*

And apparently my brain is not functioning today. Seems like every time anyone's talked to me I've misheard or misunderstood, or just done something stupid. Mom's remarked several times this morning that I'm really out of it today. *headdesk* And I've really got to get a whole lotta editing and writing done today. Should be interesting. :P

Gotta go!

Current Mood: rushed

So. Life has been... busy. Seems like I'm always tired lately. I almost fell asleep during our Bible study last night. Several times. While we were singing. I've also taken to drinking about twice as much Mountain Dew as usual. (I need caffeine. Very much. Heh heh, so yes, drinking Mountain Dew. No, despite the odd way that sentence sounded on re-reading, I haven't been driven to drink in that way. 'Sides, it's another nine days before I could do that legally anyway. :P I'm tired. And rambling. *headdesk*) Universal consensus is that we're way overbooked at the moment. Unfortunately, there is also nothing we can do about it for a couple weeks. I'm looking forward to April being over. (Not least because a certain week in May is going to be Totally. Awesome. :) ) But yeah, I'm too tired to even list it all right now. So on to happier subjects...

First off - Mom upgraded my LJ account to a paid one as an early BD present! Yays, I finally get more icons :D So I've grabbed some awesome ones from Niro and shall be looking for more. I need some LOTR ones. I also need one for when I'm feeling crazy and hyper. :)

And as of today I'm officially finished with my big editing/rewriting project for the trucking company! Yes, I was supposed to have it done nearly a month ago, and yes, I did get the work done and sent to them several days before the deadline. But the man who hired me has been in Washington DC for the last month, and the company's content expert has also been out of town for over a month, so it's been kinda crazy, and there've been additions and changes and more proofreading... And I've been nerve-wracked, waiting this long to find out what they think. BUT the content expert loves the way I re-worked the manual, and everyone seems to be happy, and I just got my check, and the man who hired me has officially "declared victory" - his words *g* - and I'm DONE! Unless they hire me for the next project. But they're in the middle of some reorganization, and it'll likely be a bit before I hear anything on that, so... :D

And the temperature got up into the 40s today, so I have worn short sleeves with no sweater in celebration! I'm ready for spring, but springs here tend to be... indecisive. On Monday we got six inches of snow. Normally I'd be delighted, and it was beautiful and fun, but I'm ready to be done now. :P

And... my karate teacher keeps reminding me that I'm neither a ballet dancer nor a singer, so I need to actually shout and look intense and mean. I'm not sure I have a mean and intense look. And it seems mildly annoyed just doesn't cut it. BUT apparently I'm improving, because today she was really, really happy and said she was impressed, and... she wants us to compete in some upcoming regional karate tournament. Like, seriously wants us to. O.o

On a not-so-happy note, I have IMed Nef to inform her that I hate her now. I was writing really, really well and actually being prolific for days in a row and then she distracted me. Good, fun distraction, but still. Now I have writer's block and Can. Not. Think. So yeah. I hate her now. Though considering we're still on speaking terms and I've been drawing lots of stuff for her book (the new one) and helping her and I didn't actually punch her during karate despite having plenty of opportunity... she doesn't seem to be taking that fact too seriously.

I need more Mountain Dew. *trudges off to try to pretend like she can write*

Current Mood: drained

I... am a green belt in karate. :D

We missed promotion testing last night, due to an all-day snowstorm and incredibly bad driving conditions, but we were able to schedule a private test today. Which was... both more and less intimidating than the regular promo night. On the one hand, it's much less hectic, and it's just us and the instructor, instead of about ten black belts and fifty other people either participating or watching. On the other, it's just us and the instructor, who's only watching us, and our Tuesday teacher is... not exactly mean so much as demanding, and rather inexperienced as an instructor (he's the owners' son, and has been doing karate practically since he was born, but he's still pretty young and new to teaching). He isn't quite sure what to do with beginners, so is always convinced that surely you can do it higher/longer/harder/better than that. Which is good, because it challenges us to do the best we can, but also... argh.

So anyways, I was pretty nervous about getting tested by him (he doesn't usually come to promotion nights). BUT all three of us passed, and we are now green belts. He, I'm so excited! We're now officially in the higher belt levels. Not that high, granted, but high enough to attend the advanced classes. :D

Unfortunately, it appears karate is the only area in which I am not a complete and hopeless klutz (even there... pretty close a lot of the time). I am rapidly becoming convinced that I am a menace, and should be locked in a padded room for the good of society. And probably my own as well. *sighs* In addition to an irritating habit of spilling full glasses of water at the dinner table... My computer mouse died recently (likely my fault. Don't ask.), so I bought a new one. I had it one day before I walked into a wall and destroyed it beyond even my brother's ability to repair. Wireless mice are expensive. Then I was shaking out a towel and knocked down a candle. Which broke. Unfortunately, battery-operated candles are also more expensive than regular ones. Considerably. And then today... I somehow managed to get my foot caught in the car door and tore a hole in my good boots. *headdesk* Just call me Murphy.

And in other news... The leader of our Creative Circle has asked me to take over as moderator for the next three months (possibly more, depending on how her schedule changes). Which is... O.o I'm kinda terrified, but it's also a real compliment. Especially considering I'm the second youngest person there (unless Eric comes along, Nef's the only one younger than me), and some of the other people who come are published authors and pretty much everyone's got more experience... I'd have thought I'd be more like her last choice, not her first. But I told her I'd do it, so... *gulps*

And... I was going to ramble on with some book-related ponderings, but I've decided I should go write the thing instead. Maybe tomorrow. Or the next day.

*marches off to work*

Current Mood: busy

Well, we got our Christmas tree today, which is much fun. And then the tree stand broke when the guys were trying to put it up, which is not so fun. They were trying to fix it, but we finally had to get a new one - it was that or have our tree standing undecorated in a beat-up five gallon bucket in the family room when our family comes over tomorrow :P But anyway, we got quite a bit of Christmas baking and other decorating done today regardless.

And since our van is now officially totaled, and insurance is going to quit paying for a rental in less than a week, we need to buy a new car within the next few days. Which was... not exactly planned for this year, much less the middle of December. And makes me very sad, because even though I maybe should be excited about getting a new van... our other one may have been getting old, but I liked it. And even though they're nice, I haven't really liked the new ones we've rented for trips or most of the ones we've looked at recently. But ah well, God's provided the means to get a new one, even on such short notice, and even though it was an "accident" nothing happens without His planning, so I'm sure He's got something good for us. So, all that means that we spent a lot of the afternoon/evening looking at cars today, but with no real decisions made yet... We shall see.

And randomly, a funny link my mom got sent this morning. Hilarious video. Anyone who's been homeschooled will definitely get a kick out of it. *g*

( And also randomly, I must now indulge my editing obsession with a rant... )

Seems I'm quite random today. But happily random. :) And now off to write some more comments on certain stories. Seems t'was a bit optimistic to hope to get something sizable done on it today, but ah well - I'm working on it, at any rate. And very, very happy to be back to it - I've been missing it very much. :)

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Off to write story comments

It seems that of late December is destined to be the month of craziness for my family.

Two years ago we had our Christmas tree fall over - twice - breaking a number of our glass ornaments. Then we found out our new house wasn't as well sealed as we'd thought and with the cold mice had come inside. Then Dad's truck slipped in the snow on an incline, rolled over on its side, and slid into the creek. And then our internet kept going out for days at a time. And then on Christmas morning, our sump pump broke, flooding our basement - where the bedroom Nef and I share just happens to be located.

Last year, Mom caught pneumonia, so Nef and I wound up handling a lot of Christmas preparations on our own. We've been doing more and more as we've gotten older, of course, but she was so wiped out we had to pretty much take care of everything, in addition to keeping the housework up and helping take care of Mom.

This last week, we've already had lots of overall stressful craziness going on. And every time we try to get together with our niece for Christmas baking something comes up and it has to be canceled. And then yesterday we were in a car accident. Aside from general soreness everyone's alright, but it looks like the van may be totaled, and at the very least is going to be in the repair shop for some time.

BUT God is good, regardless.

Two years ago: when Dad's truck rolled over, he wasn't hurt and damage was minimal; when our basement flooded, it was with clean water, not sewage, and we caught it before any major damage was done (Nef and I were still sleeping on the floor then, but our mattresses weren't wet, and there were boxes of books and such on the floor right in the water - but only the cardboard was wet, it hadn't soaked through enough to get anything inside them wet).

Last year: we actually did very well, kept things going, and Mom got better soon enough to at least enjoy the celebrations with us.

And this year: the craziness seems to be much easing off, and as I said, everyone's alright, and the accident was clearly the other woman's fault, so her insurance has to pay for everything, including a rental car for us in the meantime, and a new vehicle of equal value should we need to replace the van entirely.

So, all that to say - I'm very sorry for pretty much disappearing off the face of the earth for the last week here, and I hope to be back posting and responding to things (including your stories, Niro and Polly!) very soon. My absence hasn't been for lack of interest or desire to respond :)

Current Mood: drained

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imbecamiel

S.N.W.C.G.

July 2018

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Page Summary

Ack!
Trials, Praise, and Miscellania
I *needed* this.
Book Meme and C.S. Lewis
AAAARGH!
Yeah, lots going on.
And so farewell! (For now.)
I Hate Computers!
Yeah. Not so good.
Yays!
Brain = Ded.
Today I will be Productive... or not.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...
Lots going on - but life's looking up :)
December craziness

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Page generated Jul. 3rd, 2025 12:21 pm

Lost: A Sense of Proportion

Because the little things DO matter!

Entries tagged with craziness

Ack!

Trials, Praise, and Miscellania

I needed this.

Book Meme and C.S. Lewis

AAAARGH!

Yeah, lots going on.

And so farewell! (For now.)

I Hate Computers!

Yeah. Not so good.

Yays!

Brain = Ded.

Today I will be Productive... or not.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Lots going on - but life's looking up :)

December craziness