Warhead On Legs

( Русский язык )

Never. Ever. Stay. At an EconoLodge. Ever.

So, I went to check my books this morning, and discovered that my checking account could be measured in cents. Which is WAY UNDER what it should be. Turns out? When I went to check back on my statements from back in MAY, the motel I stayed at for my friend's wedding in May of last year had never actually charged me for the damn stay. Until a few days ago. WHAT THE HELL, PEOPLE. Fortunately I'm not racking up overdraft fees because that's what my slush fund savings account is for but christ. There may be screaming in a few hours. I'm not entirely sure how much because it's not like services weren't rendered. But. ARGH. WTF.

Oh well. Getting ready for work. We've got stuff coming in for orders to go out, no clue how many orders will be going out, but. And at least it didn't snow last night. We lost power for some unknown reason, but it didn't snow. Barely even rained.

Oof. Tired. But less achy. Doing half exercises all this week, but my back seems better for it. I can live with a little achy and twingy as long as it starts going away now. Ugh, why has this past week been just so randomly shitty.

( Русский язык )

FUCKING LAWNMOWERS.

So, Japanese last night was not with the happening. Which was purely a discipline problem on my part. Still, German did happen, and it might not get typed up for a little while since it doesn't seem to be helping and/or I don't have anyone correcting it online, so as long as I get the practice, that's what's important.

Writing continues, and while I'm nowhere near where I should be on Nano yet I'm slowly getting back into the grove of working on it daily, which is also important. Especially considering my usual writing speed. It's the beginning that killed me. I haven't yet figured out how to write a beginning that didn't bog me down in oh god what am I doing feelings. Whether it's did I put enough physical description in (which I actually remembered to do this time!) or am I taking too long describing the setting, is there enough action, oh god, I shouldn't be freaking out this much, beginnings are to set the scene and you know this... I hate beginnings. And endings. Things just sort of keep going on and they never reach a natural stopping point. Give me a nice, solid middle I can sink my teeth into, I can write that. Everything else is hard.

Okay, writing in general is hard. But we all know this. You've heard me whine about it often enough.

( Read more... )

Dear lord that was a giant wall of Russian typed up in a very short time. And the caterpillars are out in force, argh.

Also, what the hell random muses ambushing other muses with interlinked backstories and not even giving a heads up? Or a 'feel free to ignore'? What is this, a sudden streak of lack of OOC communication here? Messages and PMs and things are good, people! They are your friends! Warning of incoming potential plot or character-traumatizing stuff would be nice! Argh!

On the plus side, I did actually manage to make progress on my Nano novel yesterday. Writing happened, both Nano prep and actual Nano. I think part of my problem is it eventually feels like I'm rambling on to no purpose, and I need to remember that I'm also laying out a setting here in, hopefully, vivid and interesting terms. And I need to focus on that rather than on whether or not the action is happening. It's been so long since I've done anything outside of a modern setting, I've forgotten that some things need to be described. Possibly described vividly. Also, editing is for December. Writing is for November, dammit.

(It doesn't help that another original character of mine is loud and muttering things about retiring from the spy life and what is it she has about assassins and men who are bad for her and so on and so forth. Argh, shut up, Eve!)

And a busy busy day at work today. Here we go, I guess.

( Русский язык )

Okay, that was less productive than I wanted, but some of it got done. Despite the best efforts of my brain to keep me up last night and the muses to keep me distracted this morning. Argh.

Writing, writing. It needs to go faster. Or more. Something.

I got nothing. A loverly bunch of coconuts, perhaps.

( Read more... )

Okay, no, I'm not going to get that last dialogue translated in time. Oh well. Three dialogues done, and questions answered tomorrow.

Folkmoot was pretty awesome, but, seriously, they should not have led with the Russian troupe. High energy, high flash, leaving the next three acts to try and follow that. Which they couldn't. Not on your traditional sedate and decidedly neither high energy nor high flash performances. Especially not since these were probably amateur, two or three hours a week groups. And... I have no idea on the Russians but I'm fairly sure you don't do handsprings like that on two or three hours a week, unless you're doing something else outside of that. Though the last two, the Irish troupe was skilled and well choreographed, that was a good follow up, and the Jordanian group wasn't very technically difficult but damn they had some very good energy and an awesome singer.

Oof. Two days of work, then an hour or so of excruciating discomfort and coming home to fall over. Then two more days of work. I don't even know what I'm going to do with this week.

I did manage to get in a shitton of walking this morning, despite it being ridiculously humid. And then my situps and pushups, and so on. I'm not sure what to do about my own body image, but probably being a little more rigorous about my diet (not, specific diet, for the newcomers, just watching what I eat and not being so indulgent in general) and such will help. Also, more yoga/dance for tone. And more meditation for confidence, because, seriously. A lot of it is confidence. And right now that's not too good. But, goddammit. I am Silk Spectre. Or I will be as soon as I put on the damn costume. This is non-negotiable.

I'm also kind of tempted to practice a drop spindle, take a drop spindle to Dragon Con and just randomly make yarn. Steampunk and handcrafts. Maybe I can make a drop spindle out of something metal, that would be awesome. Okay, now I need some kind of a wheel. Steampunk drop spindle! Ahem. I didn't manage to get the skirt cut out last weekend on account of AUGH BUSY, but this coming weekend I will. And then figure out the rest of it. Cheetarah, I need to get the leotard and unitard for. Or maybe just a leotard and tights. Thoughts, anyone?

( Russian )

I'm still not entirely sure of all that, but it works at least as a first go.

I keep forgetting to put up this recipe for orange chicken stir fry. And since it's basically a stir fry, mix together the sauce and, well. Stir fry with your favorite veggies.

1 cup orange juice
1/2 cup sweet chili sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp mustard
1/2 tsp garlic or 1 clove minced garlic
2 tbsp corn starch
2 tbsp cold water

It's actually supposed to be a baking sauce, but I tried it as a stir fry sauce and it worked just as well. As long as you don't leave it on the stove too long at too high a temperature and then it scorches to the bottom of the pan. Ahem. Not that I've ever done that.

I'd kind of forgotten that sometimes when I try to get more organized, I wind up continuing the trend of being organized just out of habit. Or something. It's like with dreams, when you start trying to remember them, you remember them more easily? And it seems like my brain's rewiring itself to be more organized and so on. Not so much so because now I can't remember why I think that, but oh well. As long as it keeps up, I don't really mind. Okay, now I'm just rambling.

Game tomorrow. Which means some cleaning tonight. I should make another list of crap I have to do at some point. And revise my writing schedule. Oogh, and it's raining out. Bleh. On the plus side? Progress is so being made on mindset, on, well. Everything. It's good.

( Russian! )

And I have my Watch books in both English and Russian! Now I can struggle my way through some enjoyable Russian science fiction. This makes me happy. :)

Ugh. So much crap to do today, well, and in general, in terms of writing. Still debating on that whole Holmes Big Bang thing, debating on a lot of things. Mostly that. The other three Big Bangs are either one that I have massive plotbunnies for and would be mad fun crack, or are original stuff I was meaning to work on anyway, so hey.

Right. Today, I will get the damn episode meme done and the damn prep-work for the stupid Western story and at least something for the last two Pam drabble requests. And hopefully it won't be ... something. I'm not sure if I want it to be busy or dead again.

( Russian )

No, brain, we will not go off on a tangent about how language construction reflects cultural and geographic influences. We will not. I don't care if it's more fun than what's going on in the real world right now.

The shortest version possible is that yesterday already started out on a squirrelly note when I had a dream the night before about reading a news article about Andrew Koenig's death (specifically involving a gunshot wound and I'm still waiting for that) and as of the morning, he was still missing. And then, of course, later yesterday, the news articles started hitting. If I wanted to have prophetic powers, I would have asked for them. The other thing is that I found out yesterday that my grandfather is, indeed, in the early stages of Alzheimer's. And even with that, it already doesn't sound good. Mom is apparently looking into assisted living for him with Aunt B.

In short, I'm done being a responsible adult now, can I have someone take care of me and tell me I don't have to worry about anything again? Or at least for a few days?

On the semi-plus side, I got all my writing done for the week before yesterday, so the fact that I got crap done doesn't really mean much. I got home and spent an obsessive few hours organizing my My Documents folder and my music, deleting the craptons of Hallelujah, half the random unlabeled shit I don't even know what it was, discovering my old mp3s of Anthony Stewart Head singing Rocky Horror, and adding on albums and album art to a bunch of other songs. Also finally inputting my playlist from one of my BigBang fics. Which automatically populated the Album title with the playlist title and the cover art with the cover art the person had made, I love them.

And then, too, kikibug13 wrote me an absolutely wonderful hilarious little fic that comes illustrated, even! Which brightened up my morning.

Today I get to focus on just getting through the day, and writing if I manage to get home and we're not going out. Fictional people with fictional problems I can actually solve. Yay. House cleaning at work if I don't have huge orders to pack like happened yesterday. And if nothing else, maybe I'll have Shutter Island tonight.

A new section! Section NINE. I'm on fucking section NINE. Holy crap.

( Wall o Cyrillic, dialogues and vocab )

I still can't believe I'm on chapter fucking nine already. I ordered the second book because it was the lowest I'd seen it in a while (for a used copy, natch), and it seems I may be doing this at least relatively sooner than I thought. Or at least... something. Holy HELL. A year and a half at about thirty minutes a day and I may have learned enough of a foreign language... no, two foreign languages... to be pretty well... whatever the stage between conversant and fluent is. Better than stumbling through on a tourist book, not good enough yet to be fluent? And, really, the only reason I'm better than stumbling through on a tourist book is because I'm using actual texts with actual grammar building blocks and so on.

Holy fuck. I'm on chapter nine.

Ahem. Still coughing. Still feeling tightness around my lungs, but hopefully getting some extra sleep last night means I won't be so woozy today. Other than the cough I pretty much feel fine, so. Yeah. We'll see what happens?

Russian! Two more dialogues today. Amid much flailing about sixteen year old actors kissing twenty five year old actors. Whereupon I realized I couldn't actually throw stones since when I was sixteen, I did go around kissing a fair few number of guys in their twenties. Ahem. Oops.

2. В магазине: Покажите, пожалуйста...
-- Девушка! Покажите, пожалуйста, вот этот платок.
Young miss! Would you please show me that kerchief?

-- Вот этот, зелёный?
This one here, the green?

-- Нет, тот, синий. Сколько он стоит?
No, this, the blue one. How much does it cost?

-- Двести семьдесят.
Two-hundred seventy.

-- А вы принимаете кредитные карточки?
And do you accept credit cards?

-- Принимаем. Платите в кассу.
We do [accept]. Pay at the register.

3. Дома: Где можн купить туфли?
-- Мила, где у вас можно купить туфли?
Mila, where might you [in the general 'you'?] buy shoes?

-- Да везде, практически в любом магазине, например в универмаге.
Anywhere, practically at any store, at a department store for example.

-- А, может быть, мы пойдём вместе? Мне надо купить новые туфли.
Then, maybe we can go together? I need to buy new shoes.

-- А размер ты знаешь?
Do you know the size?

-- Да, знаю. А ещё мне надо купить носки и перчатки.
Yes, I know. Also I should buy socks and gloves.

-- Хорошо. Можно пойти в «Гостиный двор». Но там всё довольно дорого стоит. А рядом «Апраксии двор». Там всё дёшево. Конечно, и качество другое.
Excellent. Maybe go to [bzuhname.] But they are all very expensive there. And next door [is] [bzuhname. Apraxy? Something] [They, in the American idiom] are inexpensive. Certainly, and quality another (??)