Well, hopefully. I've been working lots most of the Summer, and what time not at work I've been too tired to do anything even with friends... let alone write. Things are calming down, so I'm gonna try to pull things back out and finish the old and put out the new.
Most of my life, I was thin/skinny/beanpole etc. But just before I found Topshelf -- and maybe part of why I found my way here -- I got severely ill. It was in the late Spring or early Summer (depending on your definition of early June) 2006, and I was probably a size... 6 or 8 in US women's sizes, I forget. But I got deathly ill. There are other things that happened that day, but the practical upshot was I was completely bedridden for about 9 months, and could only make it 15-20 feet at a time for the next couple months after that.
So, I received a Private Message inquiring into a couple of my projects that have been left hanging, and my intentions as to those projects... I responded, and then thought that perhaps others would like to know as well. I mean, I may not be worth caring about, but some of my stories might be...
to anyone who may have liked Noircoleptic, another adventure of Peabody Aloysius Dirkenhammerwoodsteinovitch (the P.I. what knows what he knows) will be coming hopefully before the end of February.
I have not been around much as of late. Some few of you may have noticed and/or missed me, but I rather suspect that with the plethora of new talent and engaging stories, there're also a lot of new readers -- and the vast majority probably haven't a clue even who I am.
Don't Panic! I'm not leaving the site. But in just a few hours, I'm traveling to a nearby town to catch a train that will take me to another city where I'll wait for a couple of hours and then catch a train that will take me to meet up with my partner.
I will be moving and incommunicado from the time I finish this message until sometime Saturday night! I can be reached via my cell phone, and there are a few that know that number -- or at least have had that number given to them.
... back in early 2009, I was in pretty dire straits, and asked for help. Some of you responded wonderfully, with a loan through PayPal... and then PayPal and I had issues, and I ended up having to refund the help people sent! It is exceedingly hard to know that there is help, but it's just out of reach, you know?
First off... it's phenomenal. Way better than FaceBook. Combines the best of FaceBook, LiveJournal, Twitter, MySpace, and any other Social Network I can think of into one easy to use package. It's easy to learn, easy to use, and way more ways to limit and filter who sees what, better Privacy settings... In general, just better... PLUS!
You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn't black and white, good and bad, and you try to do the right thing. You might not like that. You might be very cynical about that. Well, fuck it, I don't care what you think. I'm trying to do the right thing. I'm tired of Republican-Democrat politics. They can take the job and shove it. I come from a blue-collar background. I'm trying to do the right thing, and that's where I'm going with this.
Many of you are aware that I severely broke my arm in November of 2009. Many of you are aware that before that time, I had the ability to type quite fast and efficiently -- in excess of 120 words per minute. And... most who are aware of both are also aware that when I was done with PT, I lamented the loss of over 65% of that speed.
I'm consistently confused by the habit of some folks to post a blog that starts a discussion, then the blog is deleted -- taking with it any of the comments that others have taken the time and effort to make on the blog.
There is a project I've been working on for some months now. It's going to be postponed. See, my entire life is pretty much a pile of GNORT, the Living Spleen -- and the reprieve I had for a short time seems to have ended. I have my lovely partner, but the rest of things... losing my job, being faced with the revelation that I really am as reprehensible a person as I always thought, the still-raw loss of my baby brother three and a half years ago, has resulted in my ability to write being pretty much admitted to the psych ward for awhile. Sure, I can write some...
Okay, there is a forum I belong to that has a thread called, "Unfunny Comics," which is essentially to try to laugh at misfortune a bit, but also so others there can commiserate with you.
This week has been especially rough on me (well, from the 4th to today, the 13th). The below were my contributions to the "Unfunny Comics" thread for Thursday, Friday, and Sunday, respectively.
In fact, it's kind of the opposite. I just scrolled down my "My Stories" page and near the bottom is a page that has suddenly over 50 daily hits. That's not bad for something a month old. But this is something 3 years, 4 months, 1 week, and 3 days old. Wow.
Apparently, there's been a recent interest in my poetry today. Thank you, folks!
At least, that’s what she said. I think it is more Pleasant News than Good News, personally, because it does bring up a lot of anguish from within me.
My baby brother died in September of 2007, on his way to school as a Freshman in High School (grade 9 for you non-North Americans). Home was between 100 and 110 meters from school. An old man (80+) was doing over 70mph (112kph) in the school speed zone during the time that most children are walking to school.
I just spent over an hour going through Arecee'sShow Me The Money! line by line, both in and out of the editor, trying to find what was causing it to be overly wide -- the problem that makes folks have to scroll their window left and right to read it instead of just scrolling down -- which was pointed out by one of the users.
After determining that it wasn't the story itself, I turned to the table Arecee had written/coded for the headers of the story.
I have signed up and won every year since 2004, including last year when I severely broke my arm on November 6th! I finished my novel on day 1 last year, so just had to wait for verification to open up. 50,000 words -- depending on how it's formatted, is anywhere from about 115 pages to 200 pages if you stretch it... but it really is much less than what it sounds like, folks! Don't be daunted by the wordcount. One screen of typed text is about 500 words. So, approximately 100 screens. That's really not a lot!
Checks can be made out & sent to:
Joyce Melton
1001 Third St.
Space 80
Calimesa, CA 92320
USA
Note: $6000 is the operating, maintenance and upgrade budget. Amounts received in excess of the $6000 will be applied to long term debt accrued over the last 19 years.
