October Sweeps - Day 614

Holy pee, we're a whole week into October!

Driving up the dirt road to the cabin yesterday.

I didn't wake up during the night at all, so when I woke up in the morning, and it was already light outside, I figured I had slept right up to when my alarm was going to go off, as I sometimes do when I've been out late.  I turned on the laptop to try to get some blogging done, and as I did so, the sun started to rise beyond the trees outside . . . so it wasn't nearly as late as I'd imagined.  That pleases me, because I'll have a couple of extra hours here today to make up for having to leave well before it gets dark.*

I wish I felt inspired with this story and could put my head down and just barrel into it.  I might give it a break and see if I can't get back into last year's Will Choner story instead.

Sit-ups Today: 111
Sit-ups In October: 773

So, I listened to Marshal's Patreon address last night, as is a tradition for me when I'm cooking or making a fire up here, and he made a goal to go on walks to get some exercise, and hopes to do it every single day for the rest of the year.  I wish him luck, but that sort of thing seems extremely difficult (he also set a goal to drink no more soda for the rest of the year, and I ought to sit him down and ask him if he loves soda as much as I do**), but he had the idea that he could record little podcasts for his fans while he went on his walks, as a bonus (sort of like multi-tasking).

So I thought I would send him a couple of topics, ask him a question and let him speak about it, in case he needed inspiration.  I don't know why I do stuff like this, but once I sat down, I couldn't stop talking, and each thirty second prompt ended up being about five minutes long.  Sigh.  And it was just so I could make fun of his love for Kelly Clarkson.  Sigh again.

Push-ups Today: 166
Push-ups In October: 956

I spent the morning before my alarm went off editing audio for "Underdecorated," and I am starting to worry about how unlikeable Katy is (as I mentioned yesterday).  I personally find her pretty delightfully acerbic, and am reminded of how Emma Stone was in EASY A, who remained likeable despite thinking she was better than everyone around her.***  I guess it takes a certain level of actress to never lose you, even when being less than respectful.  It's a thin line to walk upon, but I guess I'm writing a character that basically chooses to die of a plague just to own the Libs.

Anyhow, the text version had a blank in it when the county sheriff says, "Hello, I'm Sheriff ____," and in my recording session, I spent two minutes trying to think of a name that Katy could find amusing.  Finally, I decided to call him Sheriff Spoonauer, and the nosy neighbor lady Sandra, and went ahead with the recording.  But in editing it today, I discovered the sheriff already had a name in an earlier scene (Sheriff Cantrell) and the neighbor lady was given the rather musical name of Melody Abegg.  So, now I'll have to go back and re-record the bit with "Cantrell," though I much prefer Melody to Sandra.  These are things that are interesting to me, and cannot in any way be interesting to you.

But, if I haven't lost you YET, let me seal the deal with this: Katy's little brother's name is, ugh, Tevin.  And it never occurred to me that the family's last name was the Smiths, so when the sheriff (Spoonauer!) asks for the boy's name, he says Tevin Smith, and it sounds so much like the stoner filmmaker Kevin Smith, that I considered changing the family's last name, despite having five whole chapters already recorded with "Smith" in it.

What?  You're still here?  Even after that?

Okay, let me seal the deal.  I discovered I had used the word "affronted" twice in the story, and it's eating me up inside.  Since I have to go back and re-record anyway, I'm trying to find a word (other than "offended") that I can substitute for the second one.  And I condemn Walt Disney for being an unreasonable perfectionist.

After that, I did jot down a page or two on my Christmas tale (which I'm calling "There'll Be Scary Ghost Stories") and half a page or so on a Lara & the Witch bit where she's taking her driver's test (there's a good chance it'll never be used, but it still counts as words).

Words Today: 1499
Words In October: 5384

*You know this already, but I am extremely paranoid about deer on the road, ever since there was that horse-sized elk standing in the highway last year.  And it's not really paranoia, is it, if I see deer run across the road literally every other time I drive home from here, and actually ruined my last car running over one, right?

**Again, you've heard this already, but soda used to be one of my three FAVORITE things in the world.  This was in 2018 or 2019 that I realized this, and I tried to think of what the other two would be, and decided that talking about movies with my friends had to be right up there with Pepsi.  And then I had my mid-life thing, I met that girl, and my priorities changed, and started drinking sugar-free soda (to the point where, on the rare occasion, maybe once a month or less often, that I taste a regular Pepsi or Pibb Extra, it tastes too sweet and overpoweringly cloying to my buds.  So sad).  But now that she's gone, I decided yesterday that I now love donuts slightly more than I do her, and soda's not even up there anymore.  Don't get me wrong, I still NEED to drink soda, but I don't really want to, kind of like blowing my nose or wearing a facemask.

***I remember a friend of mine (cue thunderclap) using the term "slut-shaming" a few years ago, a concept I'd never heard before.  I didn't ask her what it meant, but in my mind, I thought of a puritanical village, where stockade had been built to put amorous young women in so they could be threatened with hellfire and overripe vegetables.  It wasn't until I saw how Amanda what's-her-name was in EASY A that I understood what Abbie was talking about.