Calendars anyone?

Almost all of my schedule has been rescheduled.  I have a calendar on my wall that I use and now it has a lot of scribbles on a number of days.  Three weeks ago, while under the influence of pain reduction meds, I rescheduled some doings for September for this month which then had to be put back in the proper place.  On that Wednesday, I received a call regarding an unscheduled trip for Sunday which was the start of several days of driving.

A friend stayed over unexpectedly last Saturday which involved two trips in one, yay.  On Sunday I took a two day vacation, then beat it back to the rez Tuesday morning.  My father was to be interviewed as a Veteran for Native Report, show to be aired sometime January or February 2013.  On Wednesday, I had neglected to add a trip on my calendar and thus had to sorely disappoint my father who asked me the day before.  Due to not marking down the other trip, I was in a quandry for a couple hours.  Then, I made arrangements for my nephew to drive for my father while I did the original trip.  Ahhh.  So far so good.

Then on Thursday, I had to make 30 pieces of fry bread by 1130 hrs. I awoke bright and early on said morning.  I commenced to cleaning the kitchen as there was a number of dishes that needed clearing, cleaning and putting back, some of which were needed for my venture.  Eventually, I got to making the bread dough.  Unfortunately, I made the pieces too big resulting in a frantic effort to get another batch ready in order to have the required pieces of bread.  Ahhh, mission accomplished when I delivered the bread.  Yesterday, we drove to town again to make it 12 trips in 13 days.  No wonder my sister calls me "Miss Drive."

Methinks those gremlins who found their way home from the annual tournament sure brought a lot of goods back with them. Rooms in our house have been taken over by boxes and boxes and boxes.  As soon as I've tossed a couple, five more sprout.  Been able to keep the counters fairly clear, so they must be involved in finding storage for their various belongings.  On the other hand, maybe they invited friends for the upcoming holidays seeing as how I haven't been home much to keep up with their doings.   And I think the brownies have gone on vacation as a number of things are disappearing, only to be found in a totally different spot from where they had been.  Which reminds me, is that the charger for my camera that's been missing for sooooo long? Drats, not.

Laundry soap, fabric softener sheets...?  Where oh where have those items gone?  Need to find a calendar to hang on my wall with things properly marked since ricing started today. I am so totally unprepared for some of these events seeing as how my calendar is slightly illegible.  Was I supposed to go somewhere else today?  Or was that for later in the month?  Scribbles are....

Musings from the writer within

Getting up this morning was a bit hard. I've got some more of my stories ready. Thinking about doing an anthology with 4 short stories. Managing time to blog is getting better for me, along with editing, revising those drafts. I'm gad I had that many drafts. Those novels were written during Nanowrimo, 7 of them, 4 were started at various times and never saw the light of revising and one is the one I started as the challenge with my son.

I giggle at some of the paragraphs. Thought I'd have a hard time with revising. The actual story is not a problem. It's the notes I stuck here and there. One or two words just doesn't make sense with this much time gone. So much for the advice of writing everything down. I still have the pictures in my head for each one of them. Yay.

At this stage, all the characters are patiently waiting their turn. It's like a family reunion, the way they're crowding around. I used to read some of the other writer's posts about this very thing. I didn't see how that could happen. Now, I do know. It's fun now because each one of them are their own person and I'm getting advice from some of them on how to rework a scene.

Such scenes in my head means that I'd better get those short stories out there or it's gonna be reunion gone haywire. Hah. I'm sure some are picturing a clash/bash or two that they'd really rather not have attended.

There was this short in a folder with no title on it. I thought it was more notes, web addresses. Not. I'm glad I found this one. It might be the first one I'll publish. It's based on an idea that my mom gave me a few years ago. It's taken on a life of its own and I got the willies just reading it. I thought, 'I wrote this?"

Enough of my musings for this day. Happens to be one of the days I have little time between shifts. That story? It's supposed to be fantasy. I think it's more horror. Maybe dark fantasy?

Transitions [or check your emails.]

Once again the day is filled with sunshine.  Today is much more relaxed from yesterday.  I was in the middle of checking out blogs to follow again.  Lo and behold.  A screen telling me a company had taken over my blog.  


What?  


Tried to get into my website.  Nothing doing.  Password wasn't working.  Tried to get into my email.  Then went to my domain host.  Yep.  My domains are still mine.  Then, spent a frantic few minutes trying to find my sign in page again.  Password reset or not?  Maybe I just read the screen wrong.


Now, I couldn't  get into the password reset email because I wasn't able to get into that either.  Time to ponder the situation.  Not much time for this though.  Sometimes It's a race against time to regain control of your accounts.  


After a couple minutes thought, I checked my domain's settings.  I had kept a copy of the mumbo jumbo that sets up the records.  Yay, those checked.  Went back to the signin page.  Couldn't sign in.  What the heck is going on?  


Had to do some searching to try find my sign in page again. {it's bookmarked now.}  More frantic moments.  "This domain for sale" sent me back to my domain registrar.  Upon signing in, I find out that if you have your heart set on a certain domain, the registrar will broker for you and try to get the domain.  For a price of course.  Well.  Now what?


A few minutes calm deliberation provided success.  Remembered I had bookmarked the page. Sigh of relief, then a deep breath again.  I got into the website.  It is somewhat different.  


Checked my email for the latest news.  A warning at 10 ((or thereabouts) that site was being transitioned in a few hours time.  Then, just a few seconds before my account went nutty, an email "Site is being transitioned now.  Please advise your users...."  


A search of the site's help center showed me everything that I had been warned to do a month ago.  I  didn't understand what they meant at the time.  Now, of course, I do know.  From frantic, breathholding, click, click what? click click drats.  


Spent the next couple hours resetting everything, going about fulfilling the instructions that are now helpfully provided.  So, now I have a blog set apart from my website because my own company had taken over my own website's blog.

Another day surfing

Still trying to find out why some of my posts are not publishing.  I wonder if it has something to do with clearing my cache.  I have to do that in order to play my games on my usual haunt.  Otherwise, I wait for 2 or 3 minutes for games to load..


Isn't it amazing how long 2 minutes can be?  In football, those 2 minutes can take up to one and a half hours.  On cafeworld, it can be long enough to spoil your dishes right before your eyes.  On FV, it's long enough to wish you hadn't bought so much stuff.  The game site developers now want me to give up more space on my computer to store some of the stuff so it doesn't take so long to load. No can do.  


I need that valuable space for the updated versions of programs needed to be able to play the games.  The number of programs now on my computer take up 40% of available memory. Good thing I have external drives to store pictures and such.  


I need space to store all the necessary items for my chosen craft of writing.  Those novels can take up a lot of space when revising.  Have to save a copy in case I delete something I might need.  Did that once.  Changed something in a scene, then decided the original was better.  Lo and behold, it wasn't to be found.  Tried to write it from memory.  Nothing doing.


The other valuable space is taken up by antivirus, security type programs to keep my computer running.  I reset the automated tasks in order to be able to play.  Ho, that can be frustrating when I only have a few minutes to get something done.  A lot of the tasks take place in the background and this causes moments of intense emotions resulting in shouted words that remind me of my father.  He was quite vocal at certain times of the year, particularly In January, when the Pack was playing.  


The last week has been full of such moments for me.  Most irksome and what has caused a few calls to the tech support for DSL is the inexplicable down times for the internet connection.  It was hard to be courteous when I was right in the middle of serving dishes that had only a few seconds before they spoiled.  Now, we need to get a new filter or add another phone jack just for the DSL line.  It's always one thing or another with this fascination of mine.  


Then, today, I was checking out some background info for one of my books.  That was at 0700 or thereabouts.  Next thing I know, it's 1700 and time to eat.  I had seven tabs open on one browser.  Tried to use another browser and realized that I was trying to do too many things once again.  Time for a break.  Good thing supper was ready.


Some time during the day, I had come across many books that I had read many years ago.  Bookmarked them and then remembered I have a Kindle app.  Now, I'm learning how to use that.  I need to learn cause now my mother and sister want to get one.  Joy of joys.  Now, we need to figure out what to do with some of the books that we have.   Which brings me back full circle to the burning questions of why posts aren't publishing and links aren't working.  Think I'm ready to deal with that now.  

Only take what you can eat

Being at home during the day is nice.  There seems to be more hours in which to get things done. So...What have I done?  Added even more things to my plate.  I need to remember "Only take what you can eat."  Good advice.  

Whenever we have a feast for ceremonies, one mandate is to finish everything on your plate. You mustn't drop any food, mustn't give anything to someone else to finish for you and  wait til everyone has been served before getting seconds, if there is any more food.  99.5% of the time, there is more.  Everyone watches how much is left because there shouldn't be anything left when the ceremony is done.  I've noticed that most times, just the right amount of food is contributed by community members.  Rarely does someone leave hungry.  

I need to remember this when I am planning my day.  I finally figured out what was missing the day before.  I paid for it yesterday.  Trying to catch up with things I had neglected to leave enough time for caused that incomplete feeling.   Monday's unfinished business was the direct result of taking too much.  I couldn't finish my plate, couldn't pass it to someone else and tried to take seconds when my plate was already full.  

Efficient use of time

Here is the end of the month. The last two weeks have passed quickly. The election was on the 12th, and I have been working on the belt and yoke for my cousin's granddaughter. My sister was home for a week. The swearing ceremony was on the 25th and school board filing started on the 26th. All the latest gadgets are available for me to make more efficient use of my time. Hah! I need to narrow my interests is what I need to do. Doing Beadwork and reading are the most important parts of my life. Althooough, I did spend a good part of the last week surfing the Web. I haven't done that for quite a while. I spent a good deal of time in the craft store looking at projects that I might do in the future. Like three or four years from now. This winter I will be working on traditional clothes for my sons. They are in the 3XL size and over 6 feet tall. Oh joy of joys. Contemplating the ribbon shirts is what is daunting. I make a lot of traditional items and they are all hand sewn. I am learning to use a machine. When I bought my Brother machine, all I cared about at the time was that it sewed a straight line. I was making cloaks for my son and neice. I made one for one son's friend and it still needs to be hemmed. He says he's here and will stand still to be measured. Like yeah. Sewing ribbons on by hand isn't my idea of fun. I have a hard enough time with bias edging. My mom looks at me when I am struggling with something, then says she is going to lay down for awhile. Maybe I should use patterns. My mother doesn't have to use patterns. She looks at the cloth, cuts it and then sews. It works out fine. Maybe she has to fit it to the person once in a while. That's all she does. The boys are not picky about what they wear, as long as the clothes fit. I'm going through several designs in my head now and hoping the vests will work out. I asked my youngest for one of his shirts and he almost refused to let me use it. He thought I was going to cut it up. Children. My oldest is happy with most items as long as they are not outlandish; lime green and pink comes to mind. My dad suggested I put a big G on the back when I told him that I was going to get green velvet. He is a Packer fan. I laughed. Using patterns doesn't always work for me either. I used a dress pattern for my jingle dress. I couldn't find one with the style of sleeves I wanted. My mom (the look, cut, sew person) said to make the sleeves the way I wanted and use the pattern. Okay, I did just that. Then I tried it on. I forgot to adjust for the different sleeve and that part of the dress didn't fit. I had to take that part of it out and make do. It's almost enough to make everything using leather. Then it's too hot to dance in. But using a machine will make things go a little faster for me. I must learn. I think about how long it took to get my beads on right and console myself with the knowledge that one day soon, I will conquer the sewing machine.