Creating monsters

I am slowly, but surely ( I hope), working through the plot for the middle of my mini NaNoWriMo story. I've been flustering about what to do in the middle, like what I was going to call the creature that has just made it's presence known, but that has just fallen into place. I now have its name. I feel a bit disappointed now, because I know that this particular monster will not be part of the story for very long. Ho hum, maybe I'll try and find a different name and keep this monster for another story. Then again, maybe not.

Principessa is home today. Her nursery starts again tomorrow. So I will have to entice her to get some books out and we can do some reading. Okay, she may not be able to read yet (though I am sure she can. I was logging into facebook the other day and Principessa just happened to be sat on my knee. I've not mentioned facebook to her, or alerted her to the facebook logo, but as soon as she saw it she said, "Ooohh, facebook."), but she loves her books. And I need to drag her away from Tom and Jerry!

Still piddled off about the post. It is not back to normal yet, and I still haven't received some of the stuff I ordered just before the strike started and some things I ordered after it finished. Grrrrrr. If I had super powers....

Well, time for lunch.

Time to live on one level?

Today the occupational therapist came to see me. She had visited yesterday as we are exploring the option of having a through-floor lift installed as it's becoming decidedly dodgy for me to stand from the stair lift. Anyway, the engineer had a look around the house yesterday trying to site where the lift would go. A place was decided, but the next problem to arise was that the original problem of me standing from a seat had still not been addressed as the lift would include a seat. The engineer then had a look at the seat I have downstairs. The seat has a riser mechanism attached to it, that brings me to a standing position. That threw up further problems as both the OT and the engineer agreed that the lift may not be feasible. Poop.

So, the visit today included a surveyor. They came to look to see if the option of building an extension was a feasible one. It looks like it might be, and having a bedroom and bathroom built onto the back of the house. Well, I suppose it's better than what I have now.

On other news, I have now applied for my first course with the Open Uni. Kirst and I are on the list for the Feb 2008 start list for the introduction to Humanities course. Yay! I think I am quite looking forward to it!

Nobleism

Last night I went to the Empire to see Ross Noble. That man can't half make you laugh! The only thing is, even though I spent most of my time laughing my socks off, I felt like I'd been to see Derren Brown because I couldn't remember half of it when it finished! What I do remember is the show was being filmed and there were satellite link-ups to Vue cinemas across the country. I do remember a girl confessing to peeing in a bin because she was desperate and her mum was on the toilet. And I do remember the glass eye.... Yeah, it was a strange, but fun, night.



On other matters... I seemed to have stalled with my story. Again! I don't know what it is, beginnings and endings seem to be no problem. Getting from the beginning to the end, now, that's a different kettle of fish completely. I have no idea where my plotting takes a holiday, but middles are my mental block. I can't seem to get past it! I think I might need to put a nail in my head just to confine my train of thought. (And here is the bigger problem... I know what needs to go in the middle of this latest story, but I can't seem to put it down in a structured plot that would keep people interested in reading. Sucks, hey?)

Principessa is getting funnier by the day. She is her own stand up comedy show! Now, a few posts ago I mentioned about the 'Niamh, Destroyer of Worlds' quote. She has now expanded on the quote. The second part of the quote came into being after Nanny had told her off for playing with the stove. Nanny had told her that if she played with the stove and turned it on, the stove would get hot and blow up. To this I said:

"Well, you keep telling her she is destroyer of worlds. The addendum to that is 'One cooker at a time'."

So now, when you ask Principessa her name she says:

"Niamh, Destroyer of Worlds! One cooker at a time!"

She picks things up so quickly!

Things I hadn't thought about.

I was reading about what made children in fairy stories heroic yesterday, only to realise a hole in the plan of the story I am plotting out for the NaNo. Oh poo! I kept myeslf awake last night by thinking of how I was going to fill the gap in my story. I am still thinking. At least through that thinking I have worked out two new incidental characters and their introduction to the story, so that's good, at least. I shall work on the ideas more today if Grandand takes Principessa to the park.

Yay! The post is now being delivered. So far, I have received the DVDs of series one of 'Heroes'. Woohoo! Still waiting for my books and comics though. And the USB keyboard. I am hoping that I can use that on the old laptop to access files and folders that are, at present, locked into it.

Well, back to the plants and plot.

Change.

I hate it when TV programs change the film that it is filmed on. I can see the difference instantly, and a lot of the time it totally distracts me from the program. The sharpness of the picture completely throws me. I know it sounds silly, but it does.

I remember the first time it happened. Red Dwarf, series 7. The first episode. I never watched another episode after it. Okay, part of the reason was that I didn't think it worked well with only Doug Naylor writing it, but the change of film really put me off. I hated it.

More recently it has happened with Casualty. I only watch Casualty as it is Dad's favourite program, but this season introduced the new media it was being filmed on. It was the first time Dad also noted the change. I have to say, there was something about it that really grated on my nerves. Okay, so they had changed the set too, it was darker and it didn't suit the program (I've never seen a hospital painted in such dark and dreary colours), but the sharpness of the media also detracted from the atmosphere of the program. I finally worked out tonight what was griping me about it all. The old media leant to the 'grunginess', the feeling that a hospital has, and the backdrop was also much lighter and more reminiscent of a hospital. What griped were the mix of the new media and the use of the dark backdrop. The dark backdrop only made it seem more depressing and oppressing. It didn't add anything to the program, only detracted from it, taking the atmosphere that it had spent about 20 years building. It was just wrong.

Ah well, I was only saying a few posts ago that change happens and people should get on with it. Maybe I should take my own advice and not focus on it.

She is Principessa*, Destroyer of Worlds.

Well, that's what she told me when I asked Principessa what her name* was!

I took a break from the plotting yesterday, and it seems to be going that way today too. I might do some tonight after Principessa goes to bed. I think when I am writing the ideas fir the plot down I am writing 200 words per day. That's good seeing as that's the word count for the mini NaNoWriMo. I'm now looking forward to taking part in it.

Feeling rather peeved.

Yup. Very peeved off at the moment. I have bought things from Ebay and because of this stupid unofficial strike I am not receiving any of it. I am in a very hmph mood with the post. It's a good job I can phone the bank to get credit card balances and pull up catalogue bills online. Otherwise I would be having charges placed on my accounts. That would make me very angry.

I feel sorry for the people who depend on Royal Mail for work etc. Case and point; the CRB send out disclosures through Royal Mail. How are people who live in Liverpool feeling if they are depending on receiving a disclosure to secure their job? How many people are going to lose jobs because of it? Okay, so the RM workers are peeved about their hours changing, but hey, that's life. Other people have their hours changed too. It doesn't matter to them that other peoples lives are being disrupted and destroyed because of their pettiness. My life isn't dependent on RM, but I would be so mad if it were. I said to my Dad that I hoped they were having their pay suspended, but Dad pointed out that they would only earn it back in overtime that they will have to work to clear the backlog of mail. I don't think they should be paid overtime. After all, it is them causing the disruption in the first place.

Anyway, enough of my rant. I have been working hard on getting this story plot going. So far, so good. A few new characters have emerged, characters I hadn't been expecting. It feels strange plotting and not writing parts of the story as they come to me. Maybe it will help with training me to have a consistent train of thought while writing, instead of jumping from one scene to another and not writing linking bits in between.

Principessa is going back to nursery tomorrow. This nursery lark hasn't been all that successful as yet. I think she managed the stinted first week, then she was off ill for a week, then she went in the week after but only managed two half-half days and two full-half days, then she has been off for the last nine nursery days ill. I know I was bad with going to school and feigning illnesses, but I was at least in primary school by that time! Okay, Principessa has really been ill, but if it continues like this, week in, week off, then I might just think about keeping her home. We shall see.

Finding plots and programmes.

It's been a strange few days. Principessa went to the hospital again with Grandand on Saturday night after suffering with a fever for two and half days. Unfortuately, the doctor at the hospital was unable to examine her properly because she would launch into a tizzy when the doctor went near her. I think she might have an ear infection.

While Principessa was at the hospital I sat upstairs with Mum. She was online, looking at webcams in Canada. One of the cameras had been positioned on a bridge. Someone was in the middle of putting a banner onto the bridge with www.sanctuaryforall.com written across it. "Ooohh," we both said, "wonder what that is?" While we were waiting for the page to load the theories were mentioned. Mum thought it was probably for immigration, I thought it could be for an animal home. But no. We were both surprised when it led to a page relating to an online program called 'Sanctuary'. I've watched two episodes now, and it looks like it could turn into something good.

To further keep my mind off Principessa being at hospital, I started fleshing out characters and plot lines for my mini NaNoWriMo attempt. I still have no idea what the story is going to be called, but the preparations are starting to take the story somewhere I wasn't expecting. Just characters and ideas are making inventing the plot more interesting, if not more challenging. I'm not sure I am up to this challenge, but we shall see. Hopefully I shall have more of a concrete plan before November the 1st.

My Daemon

(Edited 20/10/07)
Okay, so it was a spider to begin with. Then the personality thing was changed and the demon changed with it. Ah well, a fox rather than a spider, that's okay by me.

Star Trek meets Cthulhu

Here I go, off on another geek speak.

So chuffed that Simon Pegg will be Scottie in the new Star Trek movie. What a great piece of casting. Just wondering now if he will go to speech lessons to find his inner Scotsman? Another great piece of casting is Zachary Quinto, otherwise known as Sylar in 'Heroes', as the young Spock. So far, I like the beginnings of this Star Trek film.

As for Cthulhu, I was giggling happily to myself when I found out that you could buy cuddly versions of the Great Old One. The one that tickled me the most was this one:

Santa Cthulhu

Now that is done with, normal news time.

Poor ikkle Principessa hasn't been well again. She came home from school yesterday and fell down with a temperature. She didn't get much sleep last night, though if she were in any pain she wouldn't tell me. She's still got a slight temperature today, but she's much better and bouncing about like a caged rubber ball. It's a good job that school was closed for a training day!

I have almost finished my Christmas Shopping! Woohoo! Just have to buy something for Mumbles and Nathaniel now. The only thing I have to worry about is buying birthday pressies for people whose birthdays are in the run up to Christmas.

Ah well, time to blubber with insanity as I have been perusing the Great Cthulhu's countenance for far too long now.... Blub, blub, blub!

I felt like such a heel.

Over the last four days, Principessa hasn't wanted to go to school. She cries continuously, demanding hugs, for half an hour before she leaves. Today she started as soon as she saw her clothes. I managed to calm her down enough to get her dressed but as soon as it was time to put her boots on she legged it upstairs to Nanny.

Uncle Gaz went upstairs to retrieve her, and took her boots up so that she could hug Nanny while he put them on her. She came downstairs with Gaz, but started her 'Oh woe is me' routine, dropping onto her knees and crying. Give her her due; she acted like a little trooper once her coat was on. She hugged Nanny and me, held onto Gaz's finger, and walked out of the door whimpering and sobbing. She didn't stop at all during the walk to school. When Gaz told me that, I felt so guilty. I felt like a bad Mum for sending her to nursery. I think if she carries on like this I might just stop her going. It's obviously causing her some trauma.

On the plus point for Principessa, she now has her own portable 7" DVD player. She doesn't know about it yet, as she is at nursery right now. I thought it was the best option as there isn't room for a DVD player on the downstairs TV and I am not letting her watch DVDs on the laptop any more. I hope it will be a nice surprise for her when she gets home.

I'm still feeling the loss of the old laptop. It had all the Japanese linguaphone discs copied onto it, so now I am unable to study Japanese until I am able to borrow the discs from J again. Grrr. I'll just have to sit down one night with my Kanji and Kana books and resume learning to read Japanese.

On the subject of Japanese, or Japanese culture, the fabulous Mr. Gaiman left a link to the Japanese art of Dorodango on his latest blog entry. I think I might want to try and make one. I think it's about time I went all Zen and reflective!

Well, it's time to start getting ready for the return of Principessa. TTFN!

The Legacy of the Mango Smoothie

It all began at 11.30am, Monday morning. I sat Principessa down to watch 'Charlie and Lola' while I sorted her lunch out. She followed me out to the kitchen, so I gave her a small beaker of mango smoothie. Happy, she goes back into the living room to resume her DVD watching.

Three minutes later I go into the living room with Principessa's lunch.

"No!" I said. "What have you done?"

"Oh no!" Principessa said. "I have to say sorry to Mummy."

There, on the table, my laptop sat. 'Charlie and Lola' still completely danced on the screen. The keyboard bathed silently in mango smoothie.

I have no idea how I kept my calm. I mopped up what I could from the surface of the keyboard. I had to dress Principessa for school, so I put the laptop down until she was dressed and off to school with her Uncle Gaz. Then I painstakingly removed each key to dry up as much of the smoothie as was humanly possible. Then I left it sitting upside down for 24 hours.

Tuesday afternoon, 1pm. I turn on the laptop. Woohoo I think, as the screen flicks on and the hard drive boots up. The password screen pops up. Tentatively I press the first key, hoping above hope that everything would be fine. Poop! No such luck.

Each time a key was depressed, three characters appeared in the password box. Each time the delete key was depressed one of two things happened. Either the cursor would jump over all of the characters already present and sit at the start of the password box or a new character would appear. Sugarplum fairies!

So I am typing this entry on my new pink laptop. It's good, sits better on my lap, but I miss my old laptop. I have lost all of my bookmarks, some programs I had downloaded online, and some photos of Principessa. Oh, and the kids story I had almost finished and other various bits and bobs of story ideas. So not happy about that. I can't believe that I would do that to myself, and not back them up on the pen drive. I have done with other my other story stuff.

So the morals of the story: Mango smoothie and laptops just don't mix.
Don't put your work on one hard drive. (Kinda like chickens, eggs and baskets, me thinks!)

Falling Seagulls

Not literally, though that does conjure up a fabulous image in my brain (I'm giggling at myself now).

I had a fall last night. God, I hate falling. Principessa had been playing with an empty Gravy Granules tin and had taken off the plastic lid and left it on the stair lift. I had knocked it off so that I could go downstairs, and it had ended up on the floor in the hall. Well, when it was time to go to bed, I walked to the stair lift, sorted it out so I could sit down, put my foot on the lid, it slid on the floor, and I went over hitting my face on the banister on the way down. I hit the floor so hard that my hips are still hurting today. I had to call Gaz over to help get the inflatichair out and to get me up off the inflatichair once it had fully inflated. Ho hum! Needless to say, I went to bed in a horrible mood.

Now, the seagulls. This morning laughing seagulls woke me up. It has been so long since I heard the cry (or laugh) of a seagull that I thought I had woken up in a horror movie sound effects studio! And my, were those seagulls noisy! Maybe they were falling!

Principessa was in over share mode this morning. She was sat in my bed watching 'Dora' when she turned to me (I was still snoozing), grabbed my face and said, "I need to go for a poop." It was all quite matter-of-fact, so she toddled out of the bedroom and to the toilet. I think she still feels quite proud of herself that she is a big girl and uses the toilet rather than the potty. She makes me laugh!

Kirst and I have decided that it is time we got a degree. I did try, years ago, only to be defeated by condemned halls and depression. Only three exams stopped me from getting a degree in Biomedical Science. Robbed, I was. Anyway, we have decided to sort out a degree in Humanities with English Language with the OU. It's going to take about 5 years, but at least I will finally have a degree.

The chains of consumerism.

So 'Heroes' is being released on DVD. Yay! I say to that. I really loved the show. It allowed me to feel very comic book ungeeky as it was something I hadn't read beforehand, so it was all new to me. Anyway, that's not the point.

I was looking around the sites, seeing where I could buy the complete season for the cheapest price (I have to shop for a bargain!), when I found that the online graphic novels attached to the show have been compiled into a book. I just happened to scroll down the page of one of the sites to find thhis question on the discussion board:

Why would anyone want to buy this? You can easily get the graphic novels online and read them for free, so why pay for it?

To which someone gave the best ever plain and simple reply:

I can't read a PC comic while I'm on the toilet. 'Nuff Said...

Love it!

On becoming ever so slightly obsessive and just a little compulsive.

I've always had my favourite authors. Being a big fan of reading, I think everyone who has an attachment to books will have at least one favourite author. The reading bug bit me when I was 13. I had found a paperback of James Herbert's 'Rats' and from then on all I wanted to do was devour anything he had written.

After my teenage crush on James Herbert, I found David Gemmell and Brian Lumley when I was about 18. Stephen Donaldson made a brief appearance with his 'Thomas Covenant' novels but David Gemmell's 'Druss' and 'Drenai' novels, and Brian Lumley's 'Necroscope' and all the following novels, really lodged themselves into my psyche. I don't know what caused my love of these characters and novels, but I couldn't resist them. I fell completely and fully into their stories.

In my twenties (late, I should add), I discovered Harry Potter - but only after all the kafuffle surrounding the release of the fourth book. I spent a week reading the books, then impatiently waited for the fifth book, which I was terribly disappointed by. Out of all the 'Harry Potter' stories this one was the worst. I stayed with the books until the end, and although there were some unanswered questions left at the conclusion, I very much enjoyed the last book. Enjoy it as I had, 'Prisoner of Azkaban' will remain my favourite, as I was not expecting the twist at the end.

And so we come to my new obsession. It started with 'Stardust'. Yes, you've guessed. My new author love affair is with the writings of Neil Gaiman. I know I've mentioned things in my blog lately regarding Mr. Gaiman, but I find it strange how the fascination with one person's writing can creep up on you.

Like I said, it started with 'Stardust'. I bought it out of interest after hearing about the release of the film. While I enjoyed it as I followed the story, I was unaware of how Mr. Gaiman's style was gently edging its way into my brain. Feeling suitable happy with 'Stardust', I picked up the more substantial 'Neverwhere'. I began reading and soon found myself unable to put the book down. I was champing at the bit (even though I do not slightly resemble a horse) to find out what happened to these characters, completely immersed in the word craft of Mr. Gaiman. Oh, how I felt the grime and slime of the mud and the stench of the ground as Richard fumbled about looking for the boar statuette. I was completely taken in with the inventive use of the names of London Underground stations, and how the characters themselves evolved. I think it is safe to say; I was simply and utterly in awe of the story.

The obsession has only grown of late after I purchased a copy of 'The Wolves In The Walls', even though it was intended for Principessa. The only new thing here was the introduction to the art of Dave McKean. At first I was not overly impressed. But then, as the book progressed, I found myself studying each picture. I can't put my finger on what changed in my perception of the artwork, but I began to see the texture and the depth of the work and now I need to buy anything I can find by these two artists (the word artist and the picture artist) to continue this magical feeling. I only hope I can learn from these masters of their crafts and produce anything half as worthy!

I hate being obsessed!

Where, oh where, has my sanity gone?

I think I must have enjoyed Wednesday to Friday las week a bit too much. Principessa came down with a temperature over the weekend so I have kept her at home for the past two days. How I miss those precious few hours that she spends at nursery! I sound really horrible there, but it is the only time I have for myself, and Principessa has progressed from the terrible twos to the totally demanding threes. It's just nice to let someone else deal with her for a few hours! As you can guess, she's better now.

Facebook has been eating up a lot of my time just recently. I will have to remove the wireless card from the laptop if I am to get down to doing some writing and learning some Japanese.


I received an email from a Japanese pen-pal yesterday telling me of her trip to Yakushima and visiting 'Jumonsugi', which is located at the top of a mountain and took her and her friends 12 hours to climb to reach. 'Jumonsugi' is the oldest tree in the world, estimated to be around 7000 years old. Wow! Just imagine what that tree must have seen! Imagine the stories it could tell. I'm going to have get to imagining! It takes my breath away that there are living things on this earth that have been around for that amount of time.

On that note, I shall go and imagine being such a grand tree, with its wealth of stories and memories.