Cranky. Old. Man?

Wow, so yesterday was massive writing day due to having a very slow day (I ended up with a sad rated R Veld story, a semi-philosophical FFX femmeslash, and a silly Vin/Veld based on getting locked out of my house). After writing that sad story yesterday (man, I'd forgotten how emotionally draining in a good way just sitting down and writing until something feels done is) I feel the need to do something cute or graphical. Or both. But today's been busy, so needle therapy will likely be the only thing I have time for. XD Icons should be up sometime, a strange mix. Because I'm weird.

OH AND THE FABULOUS MRS. G HAD LUNCH WITH ME TODAY.

We went to some little bitty house-turned-restaurant that was strangely good, and really cute. We sat out on the porch and chatted for a bit. I ended up talking about costuming and writing, because after the "well, this is what's going on at work" talk, I don't have much of a personal life. XD It's true, but it's not something I regret much, I mean, shit's transitional right now. In this day and age it shouldn't be that shocking to admit that most of my friends I can only keep in contact with by being online. Especially since I'm not in school and one of the youngest people at my company. But it was nice to tell her about costuming, how I'm going to a con, and then this somehow got related to fandom and I told her about phoenixmonthly. She's one of those seriously awesome people that she was kind of fascinated a bit as I told her about some fandom things. I have a tendency to ramble if I'm not careful, but then again, so does she. Which is good, because I still want to be her when I grow up. She's been traveling and basically being fabulous. I cannot describe how much this woman just exudes fabulousity. I felt smart because she hadn't heard of creative commons and as some of ya'll know, I'm kind of an open source crusader, so um. Yeah.

Mrs. G is fabulous because she's passionate about life, and makes me feel passionate about things. I nearly cried when I got back from lunch because I nearly lost that vivaciousness but I realize now it's back. And I'm so thankful to be able to feel again, to really be into something. I mean, that's why I sound so, I don't know, obsessive sometimes. I can't help it. I just... there is always a part of me in what I do, no matter what. I can't distance myself from it, and you know what, it's better that I don't. And I think I can still be like Mrs. G when I grow up. XD

I also have an intern. We have no place to put him so he sits on the floor, but that's ok. While the Minions get paid and have projects of their own and more experience than me, the Intern is in high school, doesn't get paid, and pretty much only answers to me and the bosses. I am so stoked. He's going to help me get a kick start in the higher level game stuff, and I get to do some teaching-ish stuff. I love explaining things! I get to gesture wildly and send him off to copy textbooks for me. SCORE.

Have decided to definitely write more in the vein of On The Maintenance Of Friendships because I like being cheeky. And Mrs. G approves of this type of writing (yeah, she read it. seriously, this woman is awesome). Besides, I haven't gotten to them meeting Barry and Tain, and the deal with kids powering country machines and Percival's wings. It's also practice in the type of worldbuilding I like--subtle, not very full of exposition. Why are connected short stories so much more fun than writing chapters? I'll never know.

~Cendri

P.S. My sidekick and my girlfriend are basically awesome.

P.P.S. Do I lose my nerd license admitting I love articles like this?

Finished reading my second of three books (and possibly more, but I only have to read three) for the herding cats reading challenge this weekend, mostly because I had no electricity to distract me. A thoroughly steampunk alternate history novel, which basically links several of my great loves in one tight package. Recced by wallwalker.

( Behold the Difference Engine which Lord Babbage hath wrought )

~Cendri

Read my first of three (and possibly more, but I only have to read three) for the herding cats reading challenge this weekend, mainly because it was a nice quick read and nonfiction. I love nonfiction. Particularly history/science/sociology. This falls into the last category, so be aware. No nice science rants here. XD But I really liked the book and it made me think! Recced by Callista.

( as someone that enjoy dressing up oddly, this was just a lateral move in subject matter )

Ah, the synergy, it is intense. Minions are cool, we've taken over the game room for our plottings and awesome. Soon we will have real desks, and in a few months when we've purchased the room across the hall and the programmers have been shuffled over there (they likes their quiet, precious) we will get the awesome large desks again. I'm also getting a new minion on Monday, and a couple of high school kids are going to be sub-minions for us all. New minion is an instructional designer type, we'll see how that goes. Hopefully it'll turn out synergistically like with the current minions (I am the bridge between all modes, it's an awesome position to be in). Am a little hung up on writing teacher guides (why is it harder to write for teachers than for students?) but overall it's been a good day. Already have new problem ideas just from whiteboarding, may be doing some scribbling on my own. Tomorrow is the staff meeting so hopefully I'll be able to learn the names of the people I don't recognize around here (mostly programming minions, from what I see).

When the parents are back in town I intend on taking pictures of our game room takeover. And my crazy book stacking that will likely freak my parents out. Mwhahahaha. They should know better than to leave me alone, I get the urge to declutter. I also owe Sev some fashionista pics.

Speaking of declutter, I finally got the majority of my library on LibraryThing (as I use GoodReads for books I am currently reading/want to read/review). Most of it is derived from this ancient excel file of ancient that I started back in junior high to keep my sister from stealing my books and not giving them back (because I'd cataloged them). I'm doing some serious soul-searching and deciding which ones I really want to keep and if some are just kept because some relative got it for me and I barely skimmed it. Some books are also packed away (I have a couple of shelves in my basement room, atm, but they don't fit all my books) and a whole stack hasn't even been entered (mainly gorgeous illustrated fairytales and folklore... yes I totally have more) and a few that I've taken to work (MY GOD MY SPACE BOOKS ARE AWESOME).

Um, yeah I've collected a few books over the years. Prolly got about 50+ that haven't been looked through yet. My sister's got about the same, though with a less nonfiction and folklore and sciencey bent and more towards Literature with a capital L (she has given me permission to borrow some as long as I put them back in their alphabetically labeled box... for serious). Our parents used books as a means to bribe us a lot, and there are some fabulous little indie bookstores around. XD

I'm thinking in particular I may lose some of my pocket-sized books and see if I can find similar ebooks for those subjects instead. It'll still fit in my pocket, as I have a Palm Pilot. XD I have a real thing for anthologies, and I'm definitely keeping those. Who knows. Crazy crazy upheaval time.

~Cendri