Ridiculous Thoughts

It may seem a little bit strange

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Thu, 8 May 2008 10:31:00 -0500

I'm doing it. I'm taking the plunge, and shifting this blog to Wordpress. Things may be wonky for a while because I don't know how easy or hard this is going to be. Please bear with me.

I'm sorry Blogger. I will always love you, but I need more right now. It's not you, it's me, I promise. I hope we can stay friends?

Stormy goodness

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Wed, 7 May 2008 15:25:00 -0500

I love thunderstorms. Yesterday was clear, bright, sunny. Then when I left to go to the kidlet's last orchestra concert of the year the skies were wicked, bubbling, roiling and rather green. Thought I'd catch some vid of it since I carry the cam around for a reason but always forget I have it.

Ahhhhhh... I missed most of the storm though, by the time the concert was over it was mostly just raining and the lightshow had passed us. Ah well. It's early days yet. I'm sure there will be more to come :)

Fish oil and potential changes around here

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Sun, 4 May 2008 12:24:00 -0500

So I know very well that eating fish is totally good for you. Problem is, I can't eat fish. Well I can, but I hate it. Like, vehemently despise anything fishy. I've never been able to 'develop a taste' for it and I've tried everything from bacon-wrapped shrimp drenched in honey butter to smoked conger eel.

No matter what I try, there is a gagging, disgusting 'fishy' aftertaste that is the same no matter what the seafood is. And it makes me want to heave. So I've given up the though of ever liking seafood. But I want to take advantage of the health benefits of fish, the omega-3 oils and all that good stuff. Everything I've read says those are so great for you. So I bought some fish oil supplements.

Now, I've never braved buying them before because I fear that fishy aftertaste. But several people assured me you don't get that with the supplements. Well, I'm here to say that, uh, yes you do. At least I do. And it's making me ill. So no more fish oil thingies for me and I'll try to get those health benefits elsewhere. Right now, I think I'm going to go gargle garlic or something to kill this aftertaste.

In other news, I'm seriously considering giving up Blogger for Wordpress for this blog. And I feel guilty about it. I've been with Blogger since before Google bought them. And I love Blogger, I really do. It's a wonderful platform - especially for beginner bloggers. They make it so easy to get right into blogging which is helpful when trying to convince someone who's reluctant to blog because it seems too hard to set up.

But I've been using WP at work for a while now, and I really like it. I love the plugins and it just seems to have more features that I like compared to Blogger. It seems like Blogger is far behind in development. It should the ability to have categories by now and they've only just released the ability to set posts to publish in the future. Come on Google, give some more time and love to Blogger.

I haven't decided if I want to tackle porting all these posts to Wordpress, or if I just want to start from scratch and leave these archived. I'm still pondering. If you see a completely different layout one of these days you'll know I made up my mind. One of the cool things I discovered with WP is a podcast plugin that I think is used over on the Buffy Between the Lines site (which is powered by WP). I tested it out on my TV blog last night and it's fantastico. I've been thinking of doing a little podcast around here and this would make it so simple to do.

What else is up... I'm using a little stimulus check money to stimulate the economy to buy a new laptop. It's so not a high end one, but I don't need anything fancy. All I do at home is some photoshopping, some coding, some video/audio editing and writing so I don't really need a $2000 laptop. But I do need one of my own. I use my daughter's and she's going to be needing it herself soon. I can't be laptopless :) Plus hers is feckin' heavy as evidenced by the fantastically colourful bruises on two of my toes where it fell on them yesterday. I back and forthed on whether I should go to the ER last night because I thought they might be broken. But I don't think they are now. The swelling is gone and I can wiggle them now.

I'm still writing. I've sort of halted the CherryPop story on Ficlets while I concentrate on fleshing it out. I gave up on the idea of writing in a coffeeshop or something. 1. I would be forced to buy a mocha and I've given them up for the most part and 2. Nosey clerks bother me.

Anyway, that's me caught up for now. I'm picking up the new laptop tonight. I can't wait! Off to look for garlic now.

Making the rounds

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 21:08:00 -0500

Woah two posts in one day? What the..? :)

Something I'm kind of chuffed about at work. I know you should never blog about work, you would not want to get Dooced or whatever, but I love my job, so no need to mock coworkers or rant and rave about the work :)

Last week the paper had a big redesign that we launched on the readers and while it was supposed to be a fairly smooth switch, my experience with big server moves, file moves and complete layout changes means there will be glitches and problems. It's inevitable. So I thought maybe it would be a good idea to hold a live chat with readers so they can ask their questions and tell us what they think of the new site.

I'd been looking for an opportunity to try out some liveblogging software I found on wiredjournalists.com called Cover it Live. It's touted as a great way to enhance a readers experience at events like political debates, sports or conferences. So I was thinking we could use it for some sports chat we already do, and then I immediately thought it would b cool to use on 24addict.com when the show is back. I could liveblog it with the folks who hang out there with me. Thought it would be fun. But it had been a while since I found the software and thinking to use it for the redesign didn't hit me until the day before the launch and I gt aproval, and got it mentioned in the paper just in time.

Well it was successful. And it had the added bonus of having the readers come in and actually tell us about errors they were finding or problems with navigation etc. The immediate feedback benefited both sides. I could fix a dead link and make a reader happy and the reader could tell me they felt it was too hard to find something, so the team could fix that and make the reader happy.

All in all, it turned out to be a pretty cool idea. And to my surprise, our use of CiL got a bit of buzz. I was interviewed by a reporter for journalism.co.uk, and that piece seems to have gotten picked up by another news media blog. Good publicity for us, and this whole thing is helping me find another niche area that I love working with: social media. I'm loving finding ways to use applications like Twitter and CiL for the paper, as well as working with the online team to recruit and run grandislandblogs.com. Things are changing for us so rapidly and I'm loving being able to help it out and being a part of it. Neat eh? :)

Prince covers Radiohead's Creep

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:35:00 -0500

Amazing.

I hope he releases this. Or did he? I haven't kept up with Prince. Either way, guh.

Thanks a lot Mike

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:27:00 -0500

I've been haunted by this song for two days now.

I played it for Shannon who promptly bought it on iTunes and currently, I am downloading the damn game so I can play it. I can never resist a smartass computer.

And I can't get the song out of my head. I woke up yesterday and today with it in there. It's like a deliciously moist (sorry Tonya) cake.

No longer an audio drama virgin

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:46:00 -0500

I've listened to podcasts before. I've made podcasts before. They were so completely amature and bad (and btw, never ever type the word 'amature' into Google to see if you spelled it wrong) that I was reluctant to admit that.

I enjoy listening to "The Signal" which is Firefly-centric for those of you not into the Whedonverse, but since the iPod in the family belongs to the kidlet, I never really get to enjoy podcasts like I should. I could try listening to them at work with the laptop but the interruptions and noise make it impossibly to really get "into" them there, and when I'm at home, I just have other stuff to do.

But I made time for the Buffy Between the Lines podcast because 1. I miss Buffy and 2. I am in awe at the giganimous undertaking that podcast is. To me (and I say this with full knowledge that Buffy and this podcast will not be everyone's cuppa), this is the awesomest of the most awesome things and I'm genuinely excited to be even a small part of it.

Everyone I've met so far, every main cast member, every writer, editor, crew member right up to Tabz the brains behind the beauty of this project has been very nice to the noobs, very helpful and very patient. I can't say enough wonderful things about BBtL.

I got the chance to write a little promo for the show, and I got to use a couple other cast members in it and 1. It was haaaaard 2. Recording my line in it (which is the first recording I've done for the 2nd season) was nerve-wracking but extremely fun once I got into it and 3. I'm no longer a recording noob :)

Now this post may sound like a gushing fangirl but I don't care. I AM a gushing fangirl, because these folks deserve a lot of props for even thinking up the idea and carrying through with it. The second season cast is over 100 people from all over the place and it's a logistical nightmare that makes my head spin just thinking about keeping everything and everyone organized But they pull it off, and keep us all running smoothly. So big giantass kudos to them.

They have plans to do Angel Between the Lines and Firefly Between the Lines in the future too so woohoo!!

And now I'm off to bed. It's been a crazybusy day. Launch for the new website at the paper is tomorrow night and I'm expecting a lot of little fires to put out before then. But despite the craziness of the day I'm still a bit floaty after reading what one Ficleteer wrote about me :) *lovely sigh* Gnight!

Experiments and bad days

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 21:57:00 -0500

I had a bad day yesterday. It was one of those days where absolutely nothing goes right, computer "issues", dropping things left and right, noisy neighbours at 3am, pounding headache, forgetting routine things and oh yeah, getting hit by a car.

Oh don't worry. I'm being slightly dramatic on that last one. I was not hurt.

It began with the noisy neighbours. I suppose I should be thankful they weren't having sex. But still, 3am's a bit early (or late depending on your POV) to hold a normal, full-voice conversation on the other side of a wall you know to be thin from having to listen to 2 girls laughing loudly (but during normal hours) at the cat or funny Fark headlines.

So being woken up against my will is never a good thing for me. I get... grumpy. So after a groggy start to the day, I decide to stop by HyVee again after dropping the kidlet off to check if they have any of the Hint O'Mint tea I really love. I've stopped there in the hopes that they have it about 5 times in the past week and no joy. As I'm walking in from my car, a minivan parked illegally decides to back up just as I'm passing it. He hits me and knocks me off my balance a little. I smack his gas tank and give him a very loud, "OI!" He just looks at me like a slack-jawed idiot. No offer of apology or checking to see if I'm ok. Nope. Just a blank stare. Fucker.

And after that, HyVee STILL DID NOT HAVE MY TEA. Fuckers.

So I get to work, realize I've left my red Scheels sports bottle there the night before and so I have no lovely yummy Brita water to drink as is my habit. I grimace at the thought of going thirsty. I hate not having *something* to drink. I make plans to take the bottle home at lunch and fill it up. At lunch, I fill it and walk to the car, feeling better and carrying my water. Then I drop it. Now, it's a tough sucker. The bottle bounces, and if I had better reflexes I probably could have caught it and had a good chuckle at how weird that was. But I do not have good reflexes apparently and all I could do was watch it land, the lid fly off and all my lovely Brita water spill everywhere.

I'm now late for work and besides, if I went back to refill it, the water would be tepid at best. I sigh, pick up the nearly empty bottle and head back to work where a slowbuilding headache begins powering up.

My computer decides to pick this day to do wonky things and I spend most of the afternoon wrestling with it, cursing at it, sighing frustratedly, and finding myself weighing the probability of getting fired over how satisfying it would be to pick it up, walk outside and heave it at the nearest passing semitruck. 5pm cannot come fast enough.

It finally does, and the minute I get home, I sit down, and stay there nearly catatonic until bedtime. Everything bothered me. I growled at the kid over stupid things and promptly apologised and then felt bad for being such a nitpicky bitch and finally I just crawled into bed.

Thankfully today was fine. Nice even. I didn't drop a thing, no one ran me over, the computer behaved and I spilled no water. I even got to duck out of work 15 minutes early thanks to a surprise announcement from the kid that she had to work at 5pm and she had the car.

The cool thing I did this evening was venture out to Hastings (a bookstore along the lines of a Borders or Barnes & Noble) with the laptop with the purpose of getting started writing my book.

Other than being completely ignored by the staff there when I really would have liked to order a cup of tea (you apparently have to hunt down a clerk if you want to order stuff. I say screw that) and one screaming kid, I was quite productive in the hour and a half I was there. I was able to outline almost the entire story so that I have a base to work from. I needed that to help me focus. Otherwise I look at the blank Word doc and feel overwhelmed at not knowing where to begin.

I think I'll try someplace else though next time because Hastings is full of crappy clerks (I did decide to name an annoying character in the story after the crappy store though :) ) I'm just afraid if I go to Starbucks I will not be able to resist the siren call of the beautiful Mocha. God I miss my Mochas. Being good sucks sometimes.

Wow this is getting long. Sorry. Anyway, I made good progress on the book and I can't wait to get in there and really flesh it out. I was looking at self-publishing options this morning (I'm not getting ahead of myself, I was just talking to a columnist at the paper who wrote a book a couple of years ago and he was telling me how he did it.) It looks like I'm going to use Lulu.com to publish it. They don't require any dosh up front which is good because I don't have any :) I'd love to try and get the book published the old-fashioned way via a proper publisher but I don't see that happening.

Except you know, sometimes bloggers get noticed by publishers. It worked for Dooce and that chick who blogged about being a cabbie in NYC. Those guys are part of the reason I began blogging as CherryPop. That and I want to post as her as much as possible so I can inhabit her headspace and do a good job writing this book. It's going to be in first person so yeah, better get some practice. And if cherrypopmcgee.com happens to get some traffic along the way, then cool! Besides, it's kind of fun :) I also hooked her up with a MySpace page for the hell of it too. Why not!

Ok I've rambled far too much. I've got a Dresden book to finish up and then I think I'm off to bedfordshire. Gnighty!

I've been Ficletized

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:28:00 -0500

I about keeled over laughing when I read this. A little exposition for those of you who don't visit Ficlets - A writer put forth a challenge wherein other ficleteers have to describe a day in the life of a fellow ficleteer. Fun right? I entered but I took the easy route and did a day in the life of Wil Wheaton.

I was quite shocked to see my name as an entry in the challenge and after I read it I laughed my ass off. Dude pegged me perfectly!

In other Ficlet news, my CherryPop story has grown to 31 sequels now. Yikes! I'm taking a minibreak from it while I ponder where to take it next and also work on CherryPop's blog. I'm trying to think of ways to get more traffic to it. The more I write the story in Ficlets and in the blog the more motivated I get to turn it into my first novel. But it would be nice to get a bit of a following too :)

Anyway, bedfordshire early tonight, I'm knackered.

ACT time

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 07:14:00 -0500

Shannon is taking her ACTs this morning. It feels like a bigger deal these days than it was when I was in high school (For those outside this area, the ACTs are like the SATs.) Of course, when I was in high school I had no plans to go to college so I didn't really care about them. Oh I took the and everything but I didn't try very hard and my results reflected that. What can I say? I was an idiot back then. School wasn't important to me at all and I definitely paid for that line of thinking with years of struggle trying to find my footing.

All I cared about back then was hanging out with my friends. I wasn't a bad student or anything - a B average with the occasional C or a dreaded D once (Math you know. I still suck at it.) I did well in language and arts classes. Not so well in Maths and sciences. And I wasn't a "problem" student either. I only ever ditched once, got caught and learned my lesson.

But looking back, I realize I didn't really take the whole school thing seriously. It was all about getting there and seeing my friends and having fun. It didn't occur to me that you could take it seriously AND have fun. I dunno. I think I chafed a lot at restrictions my parents kept setting on me. Not that I blame them. I caused them a lot of grief. Was always grounded. At that time, my friends were more important to me than getting busted for sneaking out to hang with them.

Anyway, I didn't mean to analyze my high school issues here. But it is interesting to watch Shannon go through high school. I always had some idea that she'd have her fair share of troublesome moments throughout high school. Hell, I had enough people get their rocks off telling me to "just wait until she's a teenager" until I came to almost dread it. I think that sucks because at 16 - three years a teenager - she's still a level-headed, smart girl. Not a podperson in sight. I try to give her opportunities to go out with her friends, but she rarely does. Her friends don't seem to go out much either.

Not that there's much for them to do around here. But they could think of something. I just asked her why she never goes out even though I'd let her and she replied, "Because none of my friends like to go out." I don't know what to make of that. The concept is alien to me.

But I'm not going to complain :) And she takes high school a lot more seriously than I ever did. I'm probably a little to blame for that. I didn't want her making my mistakes and wasting her potential and all those other cliched parental arguments. Because I see now, that my parents were right. I'm not a stupid person and I wasn't stupid in high school either - but I did waste potential and I didn't "apply myself" like I should have. I feel like it took me several years *after* high school to figure out what to do with my life.

Whoa. What an analytical post eh? Anyway, the kidlet just left for the test, all bright-eyed (considering it's a Saturday and she's up earlier than she'd like) and ready. I hope she rocks it :)

I am Carmex's Bitch

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 15:13:00 -0500

Someone wrote a little ficlet talking about Carmex and how they didn't know much about it. So I left this comment:

Carmex is like crack. Goes on so smooth and warm. And then it tingles delightfully and smells so spicy. After a few moments of comforting warmth, a cool sensation spreads over your lips like a soothing mist that protects you from the evils of chapped skin and leaves you with a luscious, soft mouth just waiting to be kissed.

I love the stuff, in case I wasn't clear :)

Oh Hai. I iz stuck.

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 7 Apr 2008 18:31:00 -0500

So I'm leaving for work this morning and I hear a mewling kitty. I think nothing of it, assuming it's my neighbour's new kitten who likes to popup in their window all the time.

Fast forward to lunch and I come home only to hear the same mewling. "That's odd." I think to myself and I look around. I don't see a thing. And then, I looked up. Waaay the hell up in a tree behind my place is the kitty. It's stuck, it's scared, and a wave of guilt crashed into me as I realized that the poor thing had been up there all morning, hanging precariously from some thin branches, unsure of its footing, freezing (it's cold and wet here today) and I just La La La'd on my way to work and ignored it's tiny mewly cries for help. I will probably burn in hell.

I called the police (part of me just couldn't bring myself to call the fire department. I mean really, they only rescue movie cats, not real ones) who forwarded my request to the Humane Society who then called me back to let me know they weren't going to do a thing. Not going to come and see if they could help it down. Just going to leave it and hope Kitty figures it out on her own. How... Humane. They said they couldn't/wouldn't risk themselves just to get a cat out of a tree. Nice eh?

I spent my lunch hour trying to coax it down with some food. I took these pix because I was debating whether or not I should stay and try to keep helping it down and be late back to work. I wanted proof of what I was up to. But Kitty just meowed helplessly at me when I called to it. It tried valiantly to find its footing, but the branches were so thin where it was that it couldn't get a decent grip. I could tell it was frightened as well. Poor thing was trembling and crying and I never felt so helpless. The kitty wouldn't come down.

So, I went back to work reluctantly. But I thought maybe I could ask around up there and see if anyone had any ideas on what I could do to coax it down. Or if anyone had a spare ladder. I did call the fire department (after asking them not to laugh, and also asking if they really did rescue cats up trees or if that was only in the movies) who told me they couldn't come unless the Humane Society requested them. But the HS wouldn't come so basically, Kitty was screwed.

So I fretted and worried over the next couple of hours. I waited longingly for 3:30 to come so I could go get the kid and run home to check on the cat. Thankfully, by this time, the cat was down from the tree. I do not know how it got down - whether it found its way on its own, or whether a neighbour got it to come down, or whether my strongly worded email to the Humane Society's director did any good. All I know is the kitty is down, and there's no little broken body on the ground.

Oh and I was accosted by a duck as I was helping the kitty. :) For all I know that duck is the reason the cat was up there in the first place.

I got a part!

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Thu, 3 Apr 2008 22:28:00 -0500

Woot :)

Me :) Remember that audition I did a while back for Buffy Between the Lines? Guess I got a part :) W00t! I've no idea what the part entails or anything. It's probably just a little thing, but I'm stoked. (Eesh, I haven't used 'stoked' since about 1987.) I'll be in the 4th episode and I can't wait to find out more.

I'm reminded of high school though. Loved drama class/club. Always wanted the leads. Always ended up with a small part that usually required an accent. Ah well. I have nothing but excellent memories of those times. The whole vibe from rehearsals to closing night was amazing and I'm starting to feel that vibe again as I get engulfed on Skype where the cast and crew of BBtL meetup.

This is gonna be fun.

RickRolled

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Wed, 2 Apr 2008 22:05:00 -0500

I got Rickrolled three times yesterday. All three times were classic too :) I won't explain what Rickrolling is if you don't know what I'm talking about - just click the link :)

The three big sites I visit regularly - Fark, YouTube and even Blogger were the culprits and I laughed my ass off each time. And the beauty of it was each prank was a different kind of Rickroll which was teh awesome. Fark got a lot of people with this one, YouTube sent everyone to the classic Rickroll by changing almost every link on their main page to that video, and Blogger went totally karaoke by promising the Blogger faithful a spiffy new toy to play with, the bastards :)

Anyway, April Fools Day online was a lot of fun.

It's like Christmas!

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:40:00 -0500

Shannon's been out of it for a couple of days with an ear infection but not even that kept her from hunting down the elusive Wii. (For the record, the doc gave her some meds, and she's much better, so don't be thinking I let my sick kid wander around town looking for a game console:) )

As noted in my previous post, she and I have been frustrated and led around by our noses by disinterested and annoyed store clerks who must have had to field a lot of calls asking when they're getting a Wii in (and don't think for a second I haven't felt like an eejit calling around asking for a Wii. My time in England makes me feel like I'm asking to go to the loo.) We started by calling all the stores in town and the ones in surrounding towns multiple times a day in case some came in on their trucks or via UPS. We just missed getting one on Thursday from Best Buy.

When I called Walmart in Hastings yesterday, they said they have 9 of them but cannot sell them until midnight. Now, I was willing to drive to Hastings around then to grab one, but then the clerk told me people start lining up for them at around 7:30pm. I'm sorry but no power in the 'verse is going to make me hang around a Walmart for 5 hours. Not even for a Wii. I figured we'd just take our chances and go to Best Buy right when they open this morning. A friend from work said that was the best time to go.

But, I also thought it would be prudent to call both Walmarts here in town and see if they were doing a midnight sale of them as well. The South store said they had some, but wouldn't be selling them until 7am-ish because of some sort of policy or something. I don't know. Do you see how ridiculous this Wii-hunt has turned out to be? Anyway, Shannon asked me if I would let her get up at 4am and go to that Walmart and wait for it. Against my better judgement, and after repeatedly asking if her ears were up to it, I agreed she could go. I knew how badly she's wanted a Wii for over a year now.

Well the little widget couldn't even wait until 4am. She couldn't sleep at all and I bet anything she had that feeling I used to get on Christmas eve when I was younger. I anticipated my Christmas morning traditions so much I could never get to sleep then. Anyway, she left the house at 3am and went to he South store armed with a book and ready to wait it out.

But when she got there, they told her that the shipment of the consoles didn't come and they wouldn't have any. Can you say 'Crushed'? But then they told her that sometimes their shipments accidentally get sent to the North store. So she called and sure enough, the North store who had previously told us they wouldn't have any, had them all. They told her there were only three left. So she drove up there (carefully I hope, it was raining hard) and triumphantly got one of the last Wii's. She came home, woke me at 3:45am and said "We have a Wii." I had been dreaming about silk trousers being hung out to dry (no idea) so my memory of this morning was a little fuzzy but I do know I had a happy camper who could now get to sleep.

I woke up around 7am and shortly after that, she was up. I asked her why she wasn't sleeping in, and she said, "It's like Christmas!" :) I knew it.

So far, I enjoy the boxing. I like kicking ass. I still think the whole hunting down a Wii thing is silly and frustrating though.

Damn Nintendo

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:20:00 -0500

Why the feck is it so damn hard to buy a Wii? I understand the whole supply and demand thing, but I figured it's well past Christmas now, shouldn't the flow of Wii's produced be back to normal? Is it really THAT COOL of a machine that Nintendo can't keep up with demand?

None of the stores I called in this town seem to know when or if they're going to be getting any. Why is it so secret? What kind of store doesn't know what kind of inventory is coming in a shipment? Seems ridiculous to me.

Ignore me. I'm just frustrated that I can't find one within a 50 mile radius AND I can't find any of the bastards online either unless I want to pay WAY above retail and yeah, that's not going to happen. People who do that are stupid. (Hopefully none of my friends or relatives have done this otherwise I will feel bad for calling them stupid.) Yeah, the kid and I really want to buy one, and we have the funds to get it, but we feel like we're standing in a store waving our money around but no one will take it.

It's weird.

Yikes

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 10:51:00 -0500

So I'm walking along, pushing my cart, heading for the canned vegetable aisle. I turn the corner and run smack into an ex-boyfriend. Working as a stockboy. At Skagway.
Like a deer caught in headlights, we stared at each other for what seemed like a Very Long Time (but was most likely a split second.)

And then I bolted.

I made a mad dash for the dairy aisle and became extremely interested in yogurt flavours. WTF was he doing there? I thought he left town. Crap crap crap. All this running through my head while I figured out how I was going to pick up the diced tomatoes I needed and avoid him.

He and I dated for several months not long after I returned home from England. I didn't really know him, it was just sort of one of those things, how we met. I was out with a friend from work at a bar and well, he hit on me I thought he was cute and guys don't hit on me much so we started dating. That sort of thing. He was a roofer at the time.

But I had no idea I was dating a guy who, when he drank, did it to get completely falling-down pissing drunk, was a bit of a loser, and evidently fell "in love" at the drop of a hat. He became incredibly clingy. He would come to my job and hang all over me, trying to see how far he could ram his tongue down my throat until finally, I had to dump him. It was weird. I've never done the dumping before and I did it badly, as you can imagine. I mean, I'm all for PDAs and a little smoochiness, but there's a time and place for that, and on the job isn't it. Aside from that, he showed up at my house one night incoherent, drunker than any drunk I've ever seen and he crashed on my bed. And while he slept it off he peed all over the bed. I'd never been so disgusted in my life. Boy had to go.

He came to the steakhouse, where I was waitressing at the time, for dinner soon after the 'Stephanie bought a brand new bed and set fire to the old one' incident. Sat in my section, and I was kind of cold towards him. As I back and forthed between him and my other tables, I told him we should talk. He laughed and said jokingly, "What? You breaking up with me or something?"

I froze and stared at him until he copped on to my meaning. He dropped his fork and began to cry. Right there at the table, tears. Thing is, I didn't feel bad. Just embarrassed and relieved that he would soon be out of my life. If that makes me a bitch, as he came to call me later when the bitter drunk-dialing began, then yes, I am a bitch.

Eventually the calls died off and I never saw/heard from him again. I assumed he'd left town because this town isn't that big. Eventually you run into folk, you know? So that's why I was so gobsmacked to see him working in my favourite grocery store. I go there all the damn time. I'd never seen him there before. Argh. Now I'll have to shop at Walmart. Grrrr.

It's been a long time since I dumped him. I'm sure he got over it and who knows, maybe he's got his act together now (tho.. he's a little older than me. And working as a stockboy.) I don't know. I don't want to know. I just want to be avoidy.

I have never and will never date another guy I met in a bar. Ever. That was the first and last time. Lesson well learned.

NPR Jack Bauer Feature

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:21:00 -0500

Well NET radio let me down :(

The Jack Bauer thing was supposed to air at 7:50am, which was perfect because you know, I only told everyone and their uncle to tune in and that's right during drive time etc. Well, they began the piece, and then clunkily switched to a show about the stock market or something equally dull. Le sigh. It's *supposed* to air one more time at 9:50am CST, but everyone will be busy working by then.

*grumble grumble*

Ah well, the feature piece is online now (which doesn't do my luddite grandparents a lot of good, but there you go), so you can catch it there if you're so inclined and I should just quit bitching. But I woke up Shannon so she could hear it. Imagine her grumpiness to have to wake up and listen to a stock market report :)

And they've put up a blog about it as well an you can comment on how freaky it is that DHS honcho Michael Chertoff is a fan of the show :)

NPR Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:40:00 -0500

Just a quick note for now. I've been so busy! The NPR interview I did a few weeks ago for their "In Character" series on 24's Jack Bauer will air on Monday morning (on St. Patrick's Day! Go Irish!) I don't have an exact time but I got an email from Pam Fessler yesterday saying it's still scheduled for the 17th. If you happen to be listening to NPR Monday morning, feel free to point and laugh at how much I sound like a Kiefer Sutherland fangirl :)

UPDATE: Got another email from Pam on the times it will air:
"The Bauer In Character piece is scheduled to air Monday morning at 6:50, 8:50 and 10:50 Eastern time. That should probably be at 5:50, 7:50 and 9:50 CST (other time zones, you're on your own. I don't do math on Fridays.) If for some reason you miss it, it can be found on our website a few hours later at www.npr.org. Just click on Programs at the top and go to Morning Edition."

She says I'm in a little bit at the end and that it's a six minute piece.

I can't believe I did it

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Sun, 9 Mar 2008 21:26:00 -0500

First, the writing on the CherryPop story is going swimmingly, and I'm having fun writing her blog as well (thought it's harder to do than I imagined.) I have, for the first time in my life, the entire story from start to finish is imagined. I'm fleshing out my characters, and I'm using Ficlets (which just one the SXSW Web Award for CSS design. Woot!) to work out pieces of the story and gauge whether I'm on the right track with it. So far so good!

And for the hell of it, I created a Twitter account for CherryPop too :)

BUT, I did something this weekend that frankly, I'm astonished I did. There is a fan show/podcast for Buffy called "Between the Lines" where they write actual episodes and cast fans as the characters from the show. They put it all together into a podcast and frankly, it's pretty fucking cool. They've finished their first season and are holding open auditions for their second season.

So I auditioned. What the hell right? All you need is a mic and recording software, and you can use Audacity, which is free. I happen to have Audition so I used that. Anyway, I had to record myself using dialogue from the character I was trying out for. I'd love the part of Drusilla, the spacey, deadly English vampire because she's one of my favourites so I did her lines. But I also figured I'd audition for a few other parts too:

Drusilla - Crazy psychic vamp
Cordelia - Total Cali cheerleader type
Lilah Morgan - Vicious bitch lawyer at Wolfram & Heart
Gwen Raiden - Electro-girl/well-paid thief

The links go to the audition pieces I had to record.

I'm sure I sucked immensely but I had fun anyway. But that's not the kicker. The kicker is after I sent my audio and application in, they wrote me back and asked for a sample of me singing because I guess they're contemplating a musical episode. No power in the 'verse will make me post that audio sample so don't even ask. But I did it :) They wanted a snippet sung from any song in the Buffy musical episode, "Once More with Feeling." I sang the first verse of Anya and Xander's song, "I'll Never Tell." (Link goes to youtube, uhh a Sims version of the song. It's weird but all I could find.) My cheeks are blushing just thinking about it. I sound great in my car with a CD blasting (and overpowering my voice) but this was a capella, and I had to rely on my memory for the tune. Shan said it wasn't bad but that I was flat. Ah well :) I thought I could probably induce dogs to howl.

But, fun was had and I probably won't end up with a part, but at least I tried out :) And Mike - They're going to be producing a Firefly version of this :) You'd be great as Wash :)

A Kooky Idea

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Wed, 5 Mar 2008 17:44:00 -0600

Sorry dear readers, I'm still on my CherryPop kick. I had a rather odd idea for this whole thing the night before last. Just as I was turning off my bedside lamp to go to sleep, the idea that maybe I should buy a domain for the CherryPop character popped in my head. I discussed the merits of it with myself and decided I'd do it in the morning. I thought I would use the domain to maybe flesh out the character, keep a journal of my progress as I write this thing - all that good stuff.

But later that day, I thought, wouldn't it be fun to put a blog on the new site and post as the character? A sort of online extension of CherryPop (ohmygod Steph quit saying CherryPop) that potential readers of the book could come to and learn more about the character. It could become a viral marketing thing I could use when it's done. It could be a way for me to inhabit the character, much like an actor does, so I can make her and her weird world believable.

And it has the added bonus of being something that will motivate me if I find my inertia on this waning. BUT I don't see that happening this time. I'm too excited about this :)

Sooooo without further blather, here's CherryPop's blog. Just a post or two right now, remember I just started it yesterday :) But I'm planning to write as her quite frequently as well as continue to add to the ficlet series.

This is gonna be fun :)

For the first time ever

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Mon, 3 Mar 2008 17:57:00 -0600

I think I have a viable idea for a book-length story. Ok, I love writing but I've never been very good at thinking up story ideas. At least, none that would go longer than short-story length. I just couldn't find a way to sustain a long, novel-length story. I never felt like my ideas were good enough or interesting enough.

I've tried everything I can think of too to jump start my stupid brain. Writing exercises, I've started many many blogs aimed at giving me a place to bounce ideas around, NaNoWriMo... nothing was working for me. Then I met Ficlets. The place has been amazing and I can't say enough good things about it. I know I talk about them quite a bit here, and you can see my latest ficlets in the right rail over there --------->
but I think there are several things about the site that make it so perfect for me.

The very short format forces you to try and tell a whole story in a few paragraphs, which means you have to edit and re-edit and piece your idea together like a puzzle to make it work and still be cohesive and good. Sure, you can sequel your story if you need more room, or if you're creating a series. You can even prequel your story (or someone else's!). So you get good practice. The site offers many ways to get inspiration for a story - you can flip through thousands of Flickr images, or use a story starter, or sequel someone else's ficlet, or read the site owner's blog when he throws out quotes and ideas for ficlets. The community has also started incorporating writing challenges you can enter.

My friend used his space to create a nifty challenge called 18-1 where you have to tell a story but the first sentence must be 18 words long, the next 17 words, then 16 and so on until the last sentence is just a word. I've entered many challenges, but that one kicked my ass.

But probably the best part of ficlets is the feedback. I'll admit it straight up. I am a feedback whore. I'll write a ficlet and publish it, then refresh the page until I see someone's commented on it. And people aren't afraid to be honest either. If you suck, they'll tell you. They don't know you. It's not like asking your family or best friend to read your stuff an they'll probably try to be nice. I find I need that constructive feedback. I need to know what works and what doesn't. It's encouraging when they like your stuff because it's mildly thrilling and prompts you to keep it up.

So that's a helluva lot of blather on ficlets, I know. So what's the point? What's the big idea for a story that's got me so excited? Well it's thanks to Ficlets that I had this little epiphany. The other day I was in the mood to write a ficlet but I didn't have any ideas. So I searched for 'zombies' in the Flickr images (I'm in a supernatural frame of mind atm what with the vampire porn and Dresden Files floating around my head.) I found a picture of a handpainted sign that said 'Legalize Zombie Marriage' which I found amusing.

And with that picture, a little ficlet series happened. When I was trying to think up a name for the girl, for some reason calling her CherryPop seemed like a good idea. What a weird name, I know. But I like it. A lot. So my ficlet series is sort of about CherryPop's weird life where the supernatural stuff is slowly being accepted by society as 'real' - ie vampires and zombies and ghosties etc. are really real and CherryPop grew up amongst the "monsters" and now she spends her time helping the the normals to get used to the idea and fight for their rights etc.

Anyway, I'm obviously working on the details in my head, but the ficlet series is practically writing itself, it's so much fun, and I'm making each one up as I go which is probably a bad idea when you're creating a whole world etc. but I can't stop thinking about this idea. I feel so excited about it and I've never had this feeling about anything else I've ever written. So wish me luck and check in with me now and then to see how it's going (and to see if I'm still doing it.) I'm working up a storyline for it tonight and I might write another ficlet for it as well. I hope to get this written and then I'm going to try the self-publishing route at lulu.com because I don't have the first clue about how to approach a real publisher. Anyway, I'd better get to it :)

The day cannot begin

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:13:00 -0600

Without passing by this puppy. Well, he/she is probably more or less past the age of puppydom, but to us, he's the funnest puppy EVAR.

We pass him/her on our way to school/work every morning, and I wish we could just park and watch him. I'm going to assume he's a he because I'm tired of the slashies. He likes to chase cars. An honest-to-goodness dog who chases cars. I thought it was a myth. But this puppy is trapped in his yard, hampered by the fence. But that doesn't stop him. He'll stalk you if you're stopped, and completely WIG OUT if you drive by slowly. He'll spin and spin and spin to get himself revved up and then FOOM - he's off like a shot when you speed up.

I love watching him. I've even taken to changing my route home so I can see if he's out :)

I couldn't catch him doing his spinning thing, but trust me, it's hilarious :)

Holy Guacamole

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:43:00 -0600

I've had far too much guacamole tonight. It all started when my grandfather told me he forgot to send some fresh avocados home with the kid (he knows of my deep love of avos) and then he told me he was going to make guacamole out of them instead.

Damn if that idea didn't percolate in my head all afternoon. I love guacamole (not as much as I love plain old avos though) and my mother's recipe for it is the very definition of perfection. I haven't had it in ages either. Years probably. Every time I buy avos I end up just eating them.

So after work tonight, I made my mum's guacamole. Now I'm heading towards a guacamole coma. But it was so goooooood. There's plenty left of course, but I just think I ate one tostito too many and now I'm waiting for my pepcid to kick in.

Lovely eh? Let's talk about something else.

I've been meaning to mention a book series my friend Tonya has been loaning me. The Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter books by Laurell K. Hamilton. I think there's about 14 or 15 so far and I'm just on the last one before whatever's currently out there in hardback.

It took me a bit to get used to Hamilton's style of writing. It's first person and there's something else about the style I can't quite put my finger on that took some getting used to. But once I did I really enjoyed them - until the last two or three and I'll get into that in a minute.

Basically, Blake is a necromancer who raises the dead for a living. She lives in a world where vampires are legal citizens with rights, and shapeshifters, ghouls and zombies exist and aren't kept secret. Pretty neat and interesting really. As a side gig, Blake also works with the Preternatural Investigation Team and helps solve supernatural crimes. Blake is spunky, ass-kicky, hot, and has a Master Vampire and a werewolf king in love with her.

Most of the books deal with Blake solving crimes and dealing with the monsters. The latter books sort of deal with her issues with her growing powers, her bonds with the Master vamp and werewolf, and pretty much involve a lot of sex. I mean, the last few books are basically softcore porn with very little crime solving. I never thought I'd say this, but my god the sex scenes are actually annoying.

The wonderful werewolf who was strong and loves Blake and longs for a normal life turns into a whiny petulant loser whom I hope gets killed off soon and after 14 or 15 of these books I still don't have a character I can connect with. By the end of the novel, Blake will have 7-10 vamps and shapeshifters she must have sex with because she inherited some Incubus power from her master vampire. So she's constantly screwing instead of solving crime. Frankly, it gets old. Don't get me wrong - I'm no prude or anything and I'm not bothered by the scenes themselves. Just think they're overdone. I mean, the current book I'm on, Danse Macabre - I'm about 3/4th through it and so far Blake has met some new vampires, screwed a couple of them, then she fought with the werewolf, then she went to bed and shagged three more. And that's about it. I think there's supposed to be some big Vampire 'do she's helping to host but damned if we haven't gotten to it yet.

So I'm disappointed at the direction these books veered off into because they were pretty promising before all the sex stuff. I'm going to finish up the book I'm on because I feel like I have to see it through after sticking with them all this way, but I think I'm done with the series. I'm looking forward to my Dresden books next :)

Now I'm off to bed where I hope my over-indulgence in guacamole doesn't ummm, bother me :)

Let the Wizarding Commence

noreply@blogger.com (Melia) — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 13:44:00 -0600

I've just bought out Hasting's entire stock of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files books. For once in my life, in this nowhere little city where things I want are hard to come by, my local bookstore didn't let me down.

Last post I mentioned I'm listening to "Storm Front" which is read by James Marsters and I'll admit to being a total fangirl and James reading it is the hook that got me interested in the series. To my delight, it's really good! James is yum of course, but fuck me if the story isn't great as well. I love the pace, the humour, and the magical world Butcher creates.

So, premise: Harry Dresden is a detective in Chicago who also happens to be a wizard. "Storm Front" deals with him trying to solve some gruesome murders that were done by black magic and along the way he finds himself in trouble with the White Council, with the mob, and with a powerful but undisciplined pseudo-wizard who summons demons and can harness the power of a storm to kill you. Vampires, scorpions the size of French automobiles, and toad-like demons are no match for Harry :)

I love the way he weaves the magical into everyday life. Harry has a dry, cynical wit you often find in private detectives but he's also a good man with the proverbial heart of gold and all that.

So I'd totally recommend the series to anyone who likes this sort of genre. Just don't go to Hastings here in town looking for them :)