In which I had something for this

Luther M. Siler1 Comment

I’m on at least three post ideas for today so far, and by “post ideas” I mean I came up with something, thought “Okay, that’s today’s post,” and then promptly forgot what the hell it was before I had a chance to put it into writing. So that’s how my day is going so far.

I did manage to get my work tasks squared away early today, by not bothering with the instructional video (tomorrow’s material is the same as today’s, so rather than recording something myself I just linked to someone else’s) and getting the assignment written while working in the Meet and doing other things. Sometimes it’s kinda fun to yell “give me a number!” at a half-dozen kids and then write a math problem about it.

I’m also reaching that point in the week– and it’s alarming to realize that it’s only Tuesday– where my eyes could definitely benefit from doing less staring at screens for a little while.

Actually, there’s this, which I think was one of the things: I had to go to my local Ace Hardware to buy a flagpole earlier, because I’m finally getting around to putting the pride flag in front of my house that I have wanted to put up since last June. And, y’all, we need to protect our retail workers, okay? Because the item I bought ended up not being in their system for some reason, and it took all of five whole minutes before the manager finally shrugged and charged me for a slightly different flagpole (which, whatever; I hadn’t even looked for a price, I just grabbed the one I wanted and headed to the counter) and I think during that five minutes I was apologized to for my incredibly minor inconvenience at least a dozen times by at least three or four different people. And you could just tell that everybody was waiting for me to completely lose my shit about it, and it’s like … yeah, I have so many more important things to worry about right now than this that I don’t even have the energy to reach “this is not your fault but I’m annoyed anyway” level annoyed. Oh, darn, I had to wait five whole minutes.

And you just know that these folks have gotten the shit kicked out of them recently about something similar, right? Because motherfuckers have allowed themselves to get completely out of control lately, and while filming these fools and putting it on the Internet has gotten rather popular I think it might be time to start upgrading to actual intervention. Nobody should be this nervous about this minor of a thing, and it wasn’t just the cashier, it was everyone I encountered in the store.

The flag’s gonna look nice, by the way. We’ve taken it down already to get the folds pressed out, but I hung it up long enough to take a picture, which the wind promptly made twice as complicated as it needed to be. But nonetheless:

Crunch time, goddammit

Luther M. Siler13 Comments

So I went to the doctor today, to see if she could tell me why I keep hearing whooshing sounds all the time, and she diagnosed me with constantly missing self-imposed deadlines.  The sounds I’m hearing are my own goddamned deadlines flying past my head.

Enough of this.

Posting around here will be minimal– once daily, at most– until the damn book is done.

Send happy thoughts.

In which I whine. A lot.

Luther M. Siler5 Comments

imagesI am having a quiet brain day, and am about to go out and spend money I shouldn’t have on books I don’t need.

Also, this morning, I finally figured out my theme for the A to Z Challenge, which is in April, and I don’t know why I’m thinking about anything in April already except maybe that Gene’O has crawled into my skull.  And by “figured out my theme,” what I mean is “scheduled every post and figured out all the letters, and want to work on getting those done early today instead of FINISHING THE GODDAMN BENEVOLENCE ARCHIVES BOOK, which is what I ought to be doing.”

I’m so close.  I can taste the end.  I know every story beat between here and there.  Somebody else write it.  God, I hate writer’s block.

Daily Prompt: An Ounce of Home

Luther M. Siler13 Comments

(Doing the Daily Post today.  Why?  Because a part of my Writing Process that I didn’t talk about a couple of days ago is that occasionally I get blocked out of my damn mind and spend four hours staring at a computer screen like a jackass.  Which is what I’ve been doing this morning in between half-assed attempts to figure out a way to market my book/blog/Twitter feed/entire life.  Screw it; YOU tell ME what to write about.

Of course, now that I’ve typed that, I gotta go wander around my house until I can figure out what the answer is.  BAH.)

You’re embarking on a yearlong round-the-world adventure, and can take only one small object with you to remind you of home. What do you bring along for the trip?

(Seriously, walks around the house for ten minutes.)

…

Wait.

Going about this shit all wrong.  Small object?  Cool, I’m bringing a cell phone.  Loaded to the gills with pictures and videos and oh, wait, you can call people with that too?  Awesome.

Oh, that’s cheating?  Okay.

(There’s no rules!  It’s not cheating!  Shut up!)

Fine.  This:

photoThat?  Is my thinkin’ rock, and chances are I should have gone and gotten it out of my desk before now, because my brain’s all screwed up and useless today and I kinda need it.  It’s a rock, with a depression in it to rub your thumb on.  It is a singularly useless object.

Except.

Here’s what you’re really doing when you’re bringing something to “remind you of home.”  You’re bringing something with you to stimulate thinking.  The thinkin’ rock (I swear WordPress you correct thinkin’ to thinking’ one more time and I’ll kill you) is surprisingly calming, actually, for something that literally only exists to provide you a surface to rub your thumb on.  You’d think you could rub your thumb on just about anything, provided it wasn’t, like, sharp or something:  no!  The thinkin’ rock is literally specifically designed for thumb-rubbing.  It’s better!

(It’s also not as… wet?… as it looks in the picture, which makes it look kinda creepy.)

Thinkin’ rock reminds me to think.  Thinking, in this case, is the same as reminiscing, which a good way to kick back and think about your family.

Better, mind you, to bring them with you.  Or at least the damn phone.  But I’ll take the rock too.  I got big pockets.