(no subject)

Scott only just got to bed about half an hour ago. He worked 3:00 to 7:00 this morning and then did the grocery shopping on his way home (he likes that better than doing it later when it's crowded). He got home, put away groceries, showered, and climbed into bed, but he didn't go to sleep right away. He did some stuff on his computer for a while.

I woke up while he was doing that and finally decided that I was ready to get up for the day. I have clothes in the living room, so that I won't freeze in my nightgown while Scott sleeps. I just haven't gotten my act together to change yet even though my toes are getting pretty cold.

It's kind of astonishing to go into Cordelia's room now. It's so empty, and everything is accessible. She seems glad enough to have done the cleaning now. Most of the debris was stuff she was never going to use. The rest was stuff she wanted but couldn't find.

We have a small box full of books to donate to the school library. I don't expect most of them will make it to the shelves (they're mostly paperbacks in middling condition, but the librarian said she might have a use for other books, too. She was thinking of giving books to some kids. There are a few books I think she will want to add to the collection. The Mother Goose collection, for example, is quite nice, and I don't think the library has that particular version.

The only known casualty of the clean up is Cordelia's 2015 calendar. Only the cover of that remains. The inside is somewhere in one of the bags of stuff to get rid of. Cordelia says she doesn't care, that she'll be fine without a calendar, but it's a nice calendar (WWF pandas) that we bought for her for Christmas. We need to go through the trash bags anyway to separate out the recycling, so we'll probably find it. I hope.

Scott and I do still have to go into Cordelia's room to retrieve one more item she wants to dispose of-- Her old robo-panda is wedged in the corner between her bookshelf and the wall, and she can't pry it out. I suspect I won't be able to either, but I hold out hope that Scott might. The robo-panda was a cool idea, but Cordelia was really too old for it when we got it, and the thing didn't do as much as we all hoped it would. I wonder if we've still got the instruction booklet for that? If we can find it, we ought to tape it to the toy before we donate it.

I may have to return The Grand Budapest Hotel (recommended by my sister so I'm iffy about whether or not I will enjoy it. Our tastes differ considerably) to the library unwatched. I was counting on watching it Thursday or Friday, and I simply didn't get the chance what with all the kids around. I think the TV was in use for the WiiU all day. I couldn't play it on my laptop because it's a blu-ray disk. Perhaps I can fit it in today when Cordelia's busy or maybe Scott will be willing to watch it with me tonight, assuming we can pry Cordelia loose from the TV. I'm kind of hoping that The Hunger Games, which we picked up for her at the library yesterday, will capture her attention.

I would be looking for books recs for Cordelia, but experience shows that anything I suggest never gets read. She just assumes it's old and dull automatically (she won't even browse our bookshelves for that reason) even if it's new and I haven't read it. I actually recently suggested a new book that I'd heard about that sounded like something she'd enjoy, and she rejected it before she'd even seen an image of the cover (Stranger by Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith). Maybe if I could get her to browse at the library... At least she has been reading new to her books the last couple of months. I haven't had to make good on my threat to force her to check out a new to her book each time we visit the library. Yet. I know she'd find a lot of good stuff if she was only willing to look.

(no subject)

Remaining questions from silverr:

The most useful piece of writing advice you've ever received (or puzzled out for yourself)?

I don't usually seek out writing advice because it tends to confuse me. I mostly write by instinct rather than by plan (which comes back to bite me from time to time). The things I've picked up that have stuck with me are basic technical things like picking a point of view character for a scene and sticking with them the whole time or not being afraid to use the word 'said' or the characters' names. I used fangirl Japanese in the first couple of things I posted. I'm unlikely to do that now. Though I do still often use honorifics when writing anime/manga fandoms. I think they're important bits of characterization. I'm always afraid of not doing them right, but I think they're necessary in a lot of cases.

I think, though, that the most useful thing I've learned is to tell the story that speaks to me. Even if I'm writing a story for a specific other person and trying to match their tastes, I need to find something in the story that works for me in order to be able to write well. Even if I'm writing a character or trope that never appealed to me before, I have to find something about it that works for me or the story will be hollow. I have learned that pretty much any character can fascinate me if I dig far enough. There are still some I'm not comfortable writing because I'm not sure I can write them well, but there's always something I can latch on to, some place I can start.


Things that aggravate you the most?

That's pretty simple-- People saying they'll do something and then not doing it and not telling me that they won't be doing it. I understand that circumstances change and that things come up. Sometimes we all promise things we can't deliver on. I just-- It frustrates me to no end to be relying on someone for something and have them not come through and not tell me that they can't or won't do it. There are usually alternative avenues I can pursue if I know. When I don't know, I wait and wait and whatever it is ends up not done at all because the time when it could be done is past.


Favorite food or type of cuisine?

This is hard. Most cuisines tend to use ingredients I can't handle-- Peppers, tomatoes, peanuts, eggs, and various troublesome spices turn up all over the place, often with no warning. Usually, there are only a few things on the menu that I can safely eat, and half of those are things I'm pretty sure I won't enjoy. I haven't found any particular cuisine that reliably has a lot of options I can eat without getting sick.

I suppose my current favorite would be Ethiopian food as served at Blue Nile (I don't know about Ethiopian food elsewhere. I haven't tried it). I know very clearly there which things I can safely eat and which I can't, and it's all very, very tasty. But we went in once and discovered they'd temporarily changed their menu. That was difficult because, once again, I had no idea what I could safely eat. The menu descriptions either didn't help or told me that I definitely couldn't eat what was offered.


Favorite fictional critter (striped or not)?

I didn't try to dig into my library in the basement to find candidates (though I'm sure I'm forgetting some I really love). I just skimmed over our DVDs and the books upstairs and drew a bit on my own memories. Honorable mentions go to Ein (Cowboy Bebop), Stitch (Lilo and Stitch), Mogget (Garth Nix's Old Kingdom series), the fire lizards in general (Anne McCaffrey's Pern books), Gromit (Wallace and Gromit), Perry the Platypus (Phineas and Ferb), and Totoro and the Cat Bus (My Neighbor Totoro).

I settled, however, on Gonzo the Great. I've known him since childhood and have always loved his willingness to try new and unexpected things. He's never put off by failure, even spectacular failure. A lot of his ideas are things no sane person would follow through on, and he does anyway. He never seems to get discouraged.