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real life

A 3822-post collection

Turn, you damnéd gears!

I know, Shakespeare never wrote any such line. But he should have.

I did a wall-of-text bitch session to my beloved and they have now vowed to assist in the whole "this part of the process needs you" deal. Y'know. When they finally stir themselves from a nice, comfy bed and a good ebook on their kindle.

Of course my efforts to find an agent via LinkedIn require me to pay them money just to attempt contact. As in, LinkedIn wants money from me so I can contact people. Not the agents.

If I could afford to pay these guys, I wouldn't need to be looking for an agent in order to earn enough money to pay these guys. The system is rigged against the noob, I swear.

Goin through the free channels, I have to read profiles (where available) to see who would read what. And I absolutely, positively have to pick an agent who likes the ballpark of the things I write, because my preferred number of agents is one.

It's hours of work. And much of it is disheartening because some like one niche part of my style, but not the rest of it. Some will only plug one gender, I am sure. That's bound to come into it, somewhere.

You'll have agents who won't touch anything written about brown people. Agents who won't touch anything with a female protagonist. Agents who won't touch sc-fi and only handle fantasy.

I'm aiming for the stars, I know... but right now it feels like I gotta tunnel my way up from 20 000 feet below sea level, and get through an entire mountain.

Pass me the frelling teaspoon. I've got this.

Deep sigh...

I'm having a hump day. Very much aware of all the things I really should get done but also depend on the actions of others.

I need to get Adapting out to my beta readers. Or that writing group who could allegedly help if they didn't hate science fiction. BUT - I need Beloved to get it reader-ready because nobody but your own, strange and humble martian actually uses Pages for the Mac. [And even then, not for much longer. I'm now

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Fan-frothing Commence...

Anyone who follows this blog knows that the best band in the world, Steam Powered Giraffe is bringing out another album, Quintessential, around Septemberish.

Part of the hype includes little sneak peeks that the members release just to hear us make interesting squeaking noises. I'm sure that's their motivation.

And I now have permanent tabs open to listen to said sneak peeks whenever I'm feeling particularly unmotivated. Look:

[Shown here: Screen shot of a window on my compy featuring three tabs. One

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Up and down, up and down...

Once again, it's another trip to Maroochydore for Chaos' greater mental health. Good thing I got the paperwork done for that as soon as I could.

I have until August to chase down the paperwork for the paediatrician, and thereby gain Chaos some special schooling. All in-between de-mucking the house, teaching Chaos and Mayhem some good habits, and attempting to keep myself fit.

And writing a novel.

And building earrings and a small business in a niche market.

And getting samples ready

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Oof

My mornings are rather busy, thanks to back-to-school shenanigans. And since Beloved is busy a lot, too, the cuddle time I thought I'd be getting is still lacking. Boo.

Most of my morning spoons are spent arguing with my little darlings. Getting them to do the things they should be doing anyway. Mayhem provided the most opposition, this morning. Refusing to do a sink wash and thereby fill the drainer so I could empty it.

The final argument was that I could

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My pokemon, let me show you it

Yes, I have joined the bandwagon. I have pokemon go on my phone. I haven't joined a team yet, and I only have one critter in my collection. And no pokestops in sight.

It's a bulbasaur and I have zero idea what to do with it because my last pokemon adventure went thus:

  1. Play the game for two hours on an emulator on my old PC
  2. Get stuck with no idea what to do next
  3. Google strategy guides
  4. PC flatlines forever

This

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Herding ducks

Almost, but not quite as bad as herding cats. But I have to line up all the ducks for Chaos again because...

  • The free paediatrician managing all of the ASD nonse has moved to Cape York or somewhere that's an embuggerance to get to.
  • Leaving myself to break in a new paediatrician
  • AND I have to round up all the paperwork that will see Chaos in a special school for her higher education
  • Which might also mean that I'll also have to
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Slow progress

Solar drying is going to save us on the electricity bill. Rounding up the rubbish is going to improve my ability to breathe, by and by. Eventually. And putting the clean things away is going to help us keep track of the filthy things. Of which there are lots.

As with always when I attempt to clean up, my lungs do protest too much.

And I still have yet to scatter the house with insect baits. Sigh.

But I can see that

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Home again, home again

I took off from Tullagawoopwoop a little after eight AM, and thanks to Molasses Traffic [it was thicker than a traffic jam] it took me nigh on to twelve hours to finally reach my favoured domicile.

And upon my arrival, Beloved just had to take me to dinner and a movie. The Warcraft movie, of course. Because we're all old-school nerds who used to play it when it was a top-down RTS. Before it became an enormous MMORPG that we just can't

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OMWH

It's go or woe time, dear readers. Home or bust.

I yearn to hold my little darlings again and I will even let them whinge for a bit before I tell them to clam up.

And dinner will probably be the best box that Maccas can offer. Because HJ's stopped doing family dinner deal. The buggers.

And with all good luck, I can snuggle up to Beloved and get a good, long inhale :3

I will not unpack all my earring nonse

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Fingers crossed for tomorrow

With all good fortune, the roads should be clear for my return. I have no doubt that my little darlings are getting anxious. Tonight, I shall do all the packing I can so that there isn't a mad scrum tomorrow.

Because snow is due and we all have to pray that escape is possible. Fortunately, I have access to experienced folks who can take me over the dangerous bits if it comes to that. I really hope that it doesn't come to

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It's Raining

And in the middle of winter, when I have to go over mountain passes, that means black ice. Possibly the deadliest thing to happen on roads shy of drunk drivers.

Which means the roads of my egress are closed.

Which means my scheduled scarperfication is delayed until the roads are cleared.

And since it's raining, the only other path for buggering off is flooded because gully country. And I realize that will only make sense to Australians so: gully country is where

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Last day here

I have to pack, but at least I won't be packing as obsessively as I did in the days leading up to my trip out.

All I need to do is make sure I come back with all the stuff I intend to bring back.

And figure out how I'm going to haul all my shit home and the little darlings. Footwells will be my saviour, I am sure.

Also, I have to extract a prodigious amount of rubbish out of the

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It's a day of rest

So of course I woke up in the wee small with heebie-jeebie nightmares. I actually dreamed that Mayhem got so good at calligraphy, that he was being investigated for forging money(!).

And our dollarydoos aren't that easy to forge. Seriously. They're plastic. You can't just fake it with the right kind of paper. And the era of hand-forging is... like... in the 1870's ffs.

Then I got upset about a Fandom thing [Steam Powered Giraffe are moving on with their Malfunction video,

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Things I have to figure out

Since it is a bit of a haul to my friend's place in Tullagawoopwoop, and there is a little bit of a dire situation with some supplies...

I really need to figure out how to mail someone a meat tray.

My first thoughts are: Freeze it solid, wrap in foil, place in cold bag, and overnight that sucker to my friend. If they and I work out a really good system, the empty cold bags would also come back by much slower

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