Month: December 2009

bookmark_borderHouse Projects: Wash and Ramp

Posted on by PaulaO

We’ve had several projects going on here lately. So far, they’ve gone fairly normal for us. As in lots of errors and time.

First, we got a washer and dryer. Yay! Then we had to prep the kitchen for them. Not so yay. The kitchen is the worst room in the house because of the idiot that added to it a long time ago. The walls are covered first in drywall but on top of that they glued linoleum. In some places, a contact paper kind of stuff was put up. The wood underneath varies. One wall, the wood goes sideways for some reason. Another wall, it is green. We moved the sink several years ago (oy, what a trip that was) and put in a new hook up for the washer/dryer we had. That was a stacked set so had only one plug. This new set is separate so I had to put in a new plug.

Things that went wrong: got wrong box and breaker, took them back, got wrong breaker again but better box; box was better but a PITA to get everything to fit; dryer came with wrong cord, went to exchange it, realized that the cord was right but the outlet was wrong, got a new outlet for that; got a kit for the dryer exhaust but not all the parts were in the box. Finally got to spend most of two days catching up on laundry.

(click on images for larger versions)


Washer in place. I’d not yet figured out the cord and outlet didn’t match for the dryer. Check out the glue mess under the window.


Lorna’s putting a clamp on the dryer vent. It keeps coming lose on the other end and I’m going to have to pay her to lay on the floor and use sheet metal screws to keep it in place. Or duct tape.


Clothes almost all done! Yay!

Now we are working on another project. The dog lot extends around the house to include most of the back porch. We’ve had a dog ramp of sorts in place for the dogs to use to get in and out. We’ve never done it right, just kinda faked one. But we decided that with Joella’s hips and PopCorn’s age, we ought to get it done right. That and I don’t think our patches can be patched again. Friday we got all the wood (well, most of it). Today we took the old thing down and began laying out the pieces to do the new one. We did go back and get more joists but we knew we’d have to get more stuff anyway. We have some obstacles to work around. Like the back porch is not level in the least. I’ll get a pic of the ledger board we put up. It looked so crooked that we dug up a 2nd level just to make sure the first one wasn’t broken. Then there’s the mud. Lots of mud. And the dogs who don’t understand where the ramp went. We put up a barrier of sorts because they were in the way. I was afraid we’d swing a joist around and crack someone’s skull. Or break the joist, which ever broke first. Hopefully, we will get it done tomorrow. The biggest obstacle for that is to get the first section (5’x10′) level and straight. Then it will turn at a right angle and will slope downward for 16′, twice the length it has always been.


current top section


current bottom section


Joella not being happy


PopCorn wondering where she is supposed to lay in the sun


Our attempt to keep the dogs away while we worked/argued
Oh, and check out the limb that fell down a few weeks ago. It is still attached to the tree. We don’t know how we’re going to cut it down.

I’ll let y’all know how tomorrow goes. Lorna has to be back at work on Tuesday so we have to get it done tomorrow. Or at least the main framing. I can use Tuesday to put the planks down.

bookmark_borderBlogging

Posted on by PaulaO

I was just scanning down the front page, looking at the sidebar to see if everything was still valid and all that stuff. I get to the archive listing and realized something.

I’ve been blogging for SIX years. Yes, six years. I first started in December 2003. I wanted to be a writer and had discovered this place called Forward Motion. There I found like-minded folk and was having fun. I started hearing people talking about this ‘blog’ stuff. LiveJournal was rather new I think so it was a hot topic.

I knew html and already had a website so I started a ‘blog’ there. Later, I moved it to the current format, WordPress because html tables are not easy to make accessible. My first blogging efforts was a true ‘blog’: it was an online diary, a web log.

I can’t remember exactly why I started doing one. Probably because everyone else had one. On the one hand, I wanted to be like everyone else. On the other hand, I disliked not knowing exactly who would “own” my words if I used LiveJournal or Blogger. I did eventually create accounts with both but all they do is tell you to come here.

Six years. Wow. Back then, I was working on Wayback, a wonderful cool huge novel with about a million (okay, 14) main characters. I still love that book. In January 2004, I started working on what is now The Trilogy That Will Never Survive Editing (aka Simple Sarah). In November 2004, I did my first NaNoWriMo, writing a book with a long title: Butch Girls Can Fix Anything. Sound familiar?

bookmark_borderMusic To Write By

Posted on by PaulaO

Writing Music

I have a writing playlist and recently expanded it on my iPod Touch (57 songs). It is very eclectic. None of the songs are ones I want to stop and listen to the words (like Pink’s Glitter in the Air) or force me to stop and sing along (like Sweet Honey In the Rock’s Would You Harbor Me). It has Bonnie Raitt, Pink Floyd, Sheryl Crow, Pink, Paul Simon, Barbara Streisand, Billy Joel, ZZ Top, Reba McEntire, Sweet Honey in the Rock, Eric Clapton, and Tracy Chapman. I’m not finished putting it together yet. I didn’t put any Jeff Healey in there but, like Clapton, I have to be careful which ones I use or I find myself doing the air guitar thing.

Does anyone else listen to music while writing?

bookmark_borderHow To Be A Writer

Posted on by PaulaO

During NaNoWriMo, I followed a comic strip written/drawn by the cool and groovy Debbie Ohi. In addition to the comics, she’s also a writer. Or perhaps she is a writer who also draws comics. Pick one.

Anyway, she signed off on the NaNo comic and said that her other one, Will Write For Chocolate, will restart soon. I went to check it out since it has been a looooong time since I last read it. WWFC is part comic strip, part advice column. I found the archive listing and am going through them in order. Yeah, procrastination from editing/rewrites has already begun.

Freelance writers typically write magazine articles and since the pay for them is low, to survive as one you need to write a lot of articles. Writing a novel is a long process but magazine articles are short, to the point, and you move on to the next one immediately. As I am going through the archives, I came across a post about avoiding distractions. The first suggestion is from someone who says she has a business plan. And that stopped me in my tracks. At first glance, it is a great idea.

A business plan, for those who don’t know, is a formal document (or set of documents) that lay out how you are going to do your business. It contains long and short range goals, financial plans, possible alternatives, methods to follow, etc. It can be either hugely complicated or it can be simplistic. Typically, a business plan is required any time a business wants to acquire funding such as a grant or business loan. When I was a potter, I had one. I had to come up with one for the business class I was taking as part of the Production Craft program at Haywood Community College. (Excellent program, by the way. Clay, wood, metal (jewelry), and cloth) We had to write it then present it to a funding source. I never made it that far due to various stuff*. The business plan I had to figure out a budget, supplies, prices for wares, where I hoped to be in 5 – 10 yrs, etc. It was the hardest thing I had to do (and that includes the drawing classes!).

Should I do one for my writing? Probably. If I were truly needing the income, I don’t see how I could earn without one. A business plan for a writer would have to be much more than “will write two novels a year”. It would have to include marketing plans (what, where, cost), projected income/outgo (outside editor, software, royalties, shipping), goals (write free articles to get name out vs do freelance while writing Big Novel), and so much more.

But since I write novels and the occasional article, I don’t think I will do a formal business plan. The variables of my physical and mental health would make it nearly impossible to come up with one that wouldn’t require constant adjusting or to have one so vague it would feel it was a joke.

If you, however, are a serious writer with a family (human or canine) to support, you may want to do some research into writing one. You may find out some harsh realities or you may find out your goals are quite reachable.

Linkages:
Write Your Own Reality
Building a Writer’s Business Plan
Plan Your Writing Success With a Business Plan


* With only a few months left to go in the Production Crafts program and during the time I was buying equipment and setting up a studio at home, I was in an accident. I was rear ended on my way to class one morning. My body was already not right but my teacher and I had come up with ways that I could still be productive while not hurting myself further. For example, I worked the wheel standing up. Anyway, the accident screwed up my neck, shoulder, and back really bad. The many doctors I saw never officially documented (although I thought they were since they were saying it aloud to me) that I could not do pottery nor work until I healed. By the time I realized this, it was too late. I lost many months of classes, lost my job, lost my truck. The other insurance company got away with only paying for my medical bills and the truck (a beat up ’72 Toyota). My future as a potter was gone because some idiot wasn’t watching where he was going.

bookmark_borderAnother NaNo Ends

Posted on by PaulaO

And this year I won.

I won not just by writing 50K words, but I won it because I found I could write again. I didn’t know if I could. I thought perhaps I had lost the ability. My jokes of “one book wonder” was becoming not a joke.

I wrote over 4385 words today to end with 50,210 words. I didn’t write much the past few days because I realized I didn’t know where the end was. I didn’t have a clue what was to happen on the last page. Finally, at some point yesterday, it came to me. I didn’t have a chance to sit down and to it until today. And I did it. I wrote the ending.

The story’s not a bad one. It has great potential. But it is missing a lot. And it has so much dialogue it’s sad. It is a very emotional story but still feels flat. At least to me it does. Lorna likes it and wants me to hurry up and finish it. I will poke around on it a few more days, maybe fill in between where I left off the other day and to where I started today. Then in January, I’ll do the rewrite (or 2).

I cannot express how I feel about being able to write again. It feels good. Solid. Real.

I didn’t do a daily word count. I had a small section in a spreadsheet that had the global goals but no daily stuff. I don’t want to turn into a Word Count Queen again.