Back last week, on the 22nd, I busted my shin on a brass horse here in the house as I was cleaning up around the fireplace and hurrying to go somewhere. (You can read that disaster in the post I made when I busted my shin.)

Anyway, here I am a full week after I busted it on that brass horse, and my shin still hurts. No, I mean HURTS. I am hobbling around, had to call nephew over to help my dad a bit, am totally useless and would KILL for coffee, but don’t want to call my nephew back to get me some - really don’t want to walk into the kitchen to get it. So, I am lashed to the desk because of the busted shin and should, one would hope, put my focus into work rather than fiddling about playing computer games… hmm.. have not played Bejewled Twist or SIMs in months… hmmm… No, I won’t revert to playing games, I will work on the novel that really does need more of a name than “co-written novel”. We’re making decent progress on that, not going to stop now.

So, what have I been up to? A lot. Most of it mundane things that really are not worth mentioning or I will realize I am not getting them done as I write this. The past week I have barely had time to think and that has resulted in a few various health issues such as busting my shin on something so that I have a nasty bone bruise now that still, almost a week later, hurts. Then last night one of my teeth started to act up and I thought it was going to get a nasty infection I would have to go to a clinic for. Thankfully that has backed off, but I can still feel it a bit today.

In writing I have been working diligently with a friend on a novel that we’re working on. We finally got the working outline fully fleshed out, which is good since we have written well over 100,000 words of the novel already. The current project I have set for myself is to work out the language for a part of the story where we are dealing with what is not quite an alien style culture.

So, since I got informed that I have not been doing my job right, I hereby turn in the expected report on my work for today.

Today’s earnings: $35.00

And, as for those white-sand beaches? Karisma Resorts would like to invite you to take a look at them for yourself. Check out the link below for information on the family all inclusive vacations offered by Karisma Resorts and what amenities you can expect at their family friendly Azul Beach and Azul Blue resorts.

Be warned, you want to make sure what resort you are looking at, because in addition to their two family friendly resorts, Karisma Resorts also has two adult only resorts and a secluded naturalist resort.

You can find out more about all of their resorts and the amenities they offer their guests at the link above.

My first bossy order was to start reporting in on my work each day, so, here is my first report for the new boss.

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TODAY’S WORK

Nameless Novel: I did not get a Word Count for today, but we got a bunch done on that.  Added almost another whole scene to it.

Heir to Magic: Did not get the chance to work on Heir today.

Advertising: So far today’s earnings are just $5.00, not very productive on paid work today I am afraid.

Updated Blogs:
At Blogger

• Phantascene.com’s Journal
• A Writer’s Life
• Diet Tracker
• Family C.A.R.E.
• Work at Home Newsletter

Website Blogs

• Freelancer’s Office (This post)

Today’s Earnings:

Writing Sales: $0.00
Advertising: $5.00
Misc: $0.00
Other: $0.00

Total Earnings Today: $5.00

I am currently at near completion of the rough draft of a novel I started last week (Go me!) and have more importantly figured out from that why it is that I am having so much difficulty finishing some I have worked myself into a corner on.

I had thought, going into the novels, that I knew exactly what was happening in them. Then I got to writing them and it went off in unexpected directions and I wrote myself to a complete standstill. My current project (one of them at least) has flowed smoother than anything has in a very long time and I have found myself enjoying the process of creating a story.

It’s nice to enjoy writing so much once again that I can not wait for a few minutes to sit down and work. I’ve always had an addiction to writing, but there are times when it is work to feed that addiction. When each word was a struggle to get onto the page/screen. I much prefer to have the words flow smoothly and to be able to go back and make minor corrections, flesh things out some, and have a good first draft from a reasonably good rough draft.

A few days ago I went hunting and found Custom Buttons, or rather Custom Buttons ².  After some trial and error (that included uninstalling it, installing the older version, then reinstalling 2, I have finally got myself a custom work browser that has only got the buttons I need for working on the toolbar.

No more extrenuous buttons and no more spending a long time sorting out how to locate the sites and programs I need to use, I can merely tap a single button on the browser’s toolbar.  No more distractions and no more wasted time searching for the site or application I need when I am trying to get work done.

Funny Creatures, or, as I prefer to unofficially dub it, Hairless Hamsters.

Funny Creatures is a puzzle solving game with two levels of difficulty to it, easy and hard.   The goal of the game is to move the little critters (a circular creature with large eyes and small hamster-like feet poking out from it in four directions) around until you get it to stop in the round ‘base’ plate of the same color.

Some levels have arrows that will redirect the Creatures into the direction the arrow indicates, making it a bit harder to move them where you want them.  In all levels the same basic rules of movement apply.  Creatures move in a straight line until they meet an obstacle - either a wall or another creature.  You can not move say one square at a time, when they move they move as far as the open floor allows.

A nice “I’m asleep and wanna distract myself from going to bed” game, but not something to rush out and buy in my opinion.

Good points:

• Solve any puzzle you feel like working on, you do not have to solve puzzles in sequence.
• No timer, just a count of how many moves were needed to complete the puzzle
• East enough for small kids to play, but not so easy it would put adults to sleep
• Music is pleasant to listen to and not distracting - set volume in options
• Floor grid can be turned off/on in the options
• Full screen toggle in the options

Strikes against the game:

• Complaints have been made by other users at the giveaway site that it is not Windows 7 or Vista compatible.
• Simplistic no frills game with a too easy to reach ‘booooring’ margin

All in all it is worth a try if you like to veg and do not have something to do such as write a novel, get an article started, post to blogs, watch Netflix online or play Sims3 …. I have all of those other things, so I’ll head off and attack one or more of them and let you check out the Funny Creatures game some more yourself if you feel inclined.

Wish me luck on that working.