Month: January 2013

Friday

A busy day at work, but luckily it’s the start of a three-day weekend. The office is closed on Monday, and I’m working from home on Tuesday, and honestly I’m looking forward to it mainly for an extra hour or two of sleep in the morning. I am indeed that dull.

I do plan to do some more writing over the weekend, as I’m fast approaching the deadline this short story was meant for. It’s not the end of the world if I miss that deadline, and I can easily rework the story. I just worry that, with that deadline gone, I’ll have an excuse to avoid the work. And I don’t want that. I want to finish this story.

Meanwhile, the stories in the most recent issue of Kaleidotrope — that quarterly online zine I edit and publish — were reviewed at Locus Magazine’s website. Reviewer Lois Tilton, who’s had mixed things to say about the zine in the past, calls these stories “almost all dark, to a greater or lesser degree. Several quite depressing.” But I think she means that in a good way.

And I finished reading John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, which may have made me tear up just a little. But I am a big softy like that. It’s not a perfect book, occasionally a little too clever for its own good, but it’s very touching, and it does that thing that all good books should do: make you miss the characters when they’re gone. I recently discovered Green through his YouTube channel, which I think I discovered mostly because I wanted to subscribe to a YouTube channel that didn’t then immediately vanish.

Anyway, it’s a good book, sweet without being maudlin, and I quite enjoyed it. That, as they say, is all.

Oh, and I (re-)finished playing Portal. On to Portal 2. (You think I’m kidding. I am not.)

Random 10 1-18-13

Last week. This week:

  1. “Her Majesty” by the Beatles, guessed by Clayton
    But I gotta get a belly full of wine
  2. “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele
    And it’s bringing me out the dark
  3. “Here She Comes Now” by the Velvet Underground
    Oh, it’s made out of wood
  4. “We Used to Be Friends” by the Dandy Warholds
    But I haven’t thought of you lately at all
  5. “The Bleeding Heart Show” by the New Pornographers
    Our golden handshake has been smashed into this shape
  6. “Lost & Defeated” by Sarah Blasko
    The emotional tide has turned and I see red
  7. “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” by Paul Simon, guessed by Betty
    Well that’s one way to lose these walking blues
  8. “Goodnight Saigon” by Billy Joel, guessed by Clayton
    Remember Charlie? Remember Baker?
  9. “Gravity” by the Dresden Dolls
    Forces go to work while we are sleeping
  10. “Feel Good Inc.” by Gorillaz
    And all I wanna hear is the message beep

Good luck!

Thursday, all day long

This evening, I had these vague plans to go to a local bar with co-workers after work that fell through, either because the plans themselves fell through and nobody was going, or because I just wasn’t interested enough to inquire if the invite from last week was still operational. I hung around until five, finishing the review analysis I was hoping I would finish yesterday, but as I watched one co-worker after another say goodnight and say nothing of the bar, I decided I would probably just go home. I could have checked, since the place is right around the corner, but I really didn’t want to stay out all evening drinking. Two for one happy hour appeals to my wallet, but less to the part of me the drank too much at the office holiday party. I’m not worried about embarrassing myself, just physically feeling like I don’t want to do a lot of drinking. Particularly on a Thursday.

Do you know it was Thursday all day today? There ought to be a law.

So instead of a couple of drinks with co-workers, I went home. And let me tell you, the difference between New York mass transit at 4:30 and 5 o’clock is the difference between purgatory and hell.

I came home and had some scrambled eggs for dinner, did some writing — with some real momentum, if not necessarily word count — and played Portal. Did I mention that I downloaded Portal 1 and 2 again recently? The game’s easier the second time around, but it’s still enough of a challenge — and very funny — that it’s still a lot of fun to play.

So that was my Thursday. I’m sure some other things happened along the way, but those are the highlights, such as they are. “Such as they are” is about the closest I come to highlights, I’m afraid.

Still, tomorrow’s Friday, and then it’s a three-day weekend. Which is very nice.

The cake, though, is still a lie.