Welcome to The City of Desire.

I've managed to put an end to a few things this week. I don't know if I'm the kind of person who feels better after finishing a project or starting a new one. I have a bad habit of dropping the ball on a lot of projects, so when I finish one I feel a sense of accomplishment. At the same time, I have such a hard time finding motivation sometimes that when I'm involved with something that really clicks with me when I finish I feel like something just died. That's kind of the way I feel right now.

Like dandelion fluff blowing in the breeze. XD

For starters, I finally finished writing the rough draft of Chapter Five of my novel a few days ago. Before any of you start thinking that I'm just a great big slacker, I have to point out that Chapter Five took up an entire composition notebook, minus a few pages for extra notes in the middle. It's going to be quite a task to revise all that work. Sometimes revising is fun, though--like fixing up a new house. At this point I don't think the writing is terrible...maybe it's okay. I've read a lot of books that were okay, but not terrible. You can still get a lot out of an "okay" book, but when you're writing it yourself you have a responsibility to yourself and your future readers to make the okay parts as good as the great parts. Sometimes it's tempting to rush it out, especially when you're looking for acceptance and validation. I've always found it to be a big mistake to let other people read my first draft. I won't even let Kristen read my first draft, and I rely on her imput to make Draft Two into Draft Three.

Or maybe not.

I guess I haven't posted in a while. It's been a whole three days! I don't really count picture posts as legitimate entries, so it really does feel like a long time. I wanted to post earlier this weekend, but it was so windy that all the windows on the east side of our house kept rattling like they were going to shatter. Miraculously we didn't lose power, unless I count the short blackout we suffered when I was in the freaking shower. We rely on an electric pump well for our water, so that really sucked.

On the bright side, if anyone dumps poison in the local reservoir, our water would still be safe to drink. Also, water main breaks don't affect us.

On the dark side, if we lose electricity we can't even flush our freaking toilets.

Lucas has been doing fine lately. I haven't posted about him because eventually everyone gets tired of hearing about the wacky adventures of somebody else's cat. We finally got him to jump in the cat stroller of his own accord. He enjoys it when I push him around inside the house, but I don't think it's good for my arms! That thing's about as big as a supermarket shopping cart. I wonder if I was wrong to choose the largest stroller I could find? Lucas is a big boy, but I could fit three of him in there!

On the book front, I've been reading Lilith's Brood by Octavia E. Butler. I got the recommendation somewhere as an example of a fantasy/sci-fi book written in "transparent" a.k.a "non-purple" prose. I'm about halfway through the second book in the anthology. I'll post my detailed opinions when I'm done with all three books. All I can say right now is that it's a fascinating book and very brutal, kind of like Saramago's Blindness except with tentacle monsters. And the prose is not purple, thank God. Anyone who's been following my blog for a while must know how much I hate purple prose! XD

I'm still not done with Chapter Five...but I'm getting there. My right hand is permanently stained with ink from my Space Pen, which I've decided I prefer to the Parker Jotter. I've been faithful to my doll-rooting ban. When I finally finish writing I'm going to bushwhack my Blue Bird's Song III Miu. Weep not for her! I have a very interesting hair color picked out for her that I've never used before.

They say our weather pattern is going to change over the next week. That means no more back-to-back snowstorms and warmer temperatures to induce melting! Most of the snow on our roof has melted already, but every day there are more reports of roofs collapsing under the weight. Every day I walk around the house and survey the outside for any sign of imminent failure. We look like we're in pretty good shape, probably because we have a steep pitch and our roof is only a few years old. Also, we have no insulation in our attic, so all the heat in our house has been escaping through our roof and melting the snow. :O Just the same, all these reports of roofs collapsing in town have rattled me. I can't wait until this crap is over for good.

I still haven't finished writing Chapter Five. Snow removal has been my top priority lately.

I've still been managing to play ToGf for about an hour and a half every night. That shows where my priorities really are.

Today's the first day in a long time that we've had a temperature above freezing. Water is running off the roof in torrents.

I've spent the past few days doing magical snow removal (I quit) and playing Tales of Graces F for the PS3. Considering how much I had been waffling about whether or not I wanted to risk being disappointed by another Tales game, I actually like ToGF quite a bit. I've clocked about eighteen hours now. I've heard the game is quite short. Not that I have a problem with that. I have more of a problem with supposedly epic games that drag you through mindless clusters of events for 100+ hours. XD