April Sweeps - Day 443

This is the first time I've been to the library in a while.  I told you about Saturday, and how I came so-very-close to not writing at all that day, breaking this cycle once and for all.  All it would take would be one day, and I think I'd tear up my goal sheet (it's in my laptop bag at all times) and proclaim a writing-free life from now on.  I don't know if I would actually give up writing, but Saturday night, I'd have gladly paid YOU to do my writing for me.*

If I had failed, and my obligation to write was no longer upon me, would I be here today, writing this blog?  No, I don't think I would.  Except I'd still feel obligated to do my exercise, and it would be hard not to write down my number of sit-ups and push-ups anymore.  Well, we'll find out soon, surely.

So, I got a great deal of work done today, but when the mailman came, it was a substitute, and the way I know is that he scanned all my mailed packages as "Delivered" instead of "Received."  I don't know that it's the same substitute that keeps doing this, but it happens so often that I have a saved reply I can paste into emails when people ask why I shipped their package to the wrong address.

Today, I got no less than five of those emails (and the day ain't over yet).  One of them was particularly nasty about it, accusing me of shipping something they paid for last night to the wrong address and demanding their money back.  Every other upset buyer I said the same thing to, but this asshole issued a dispute with eBay over it, and if the package doesn't arrive by Thursday, they'll get their money back without my being able to stop them.**

Sit-ups Today: 200
Sit-ups In April: 1933

I only got eight hundred words in at the library.  I could've done better, but I finished a short scene (just the main character, Layla, talking to a classmate), and I just didn't want to write more after that.  I guess that's what separates me from the real writers out there.

Push-ups Today: 70
Push-ups In April: 2036

Are you familiar with a Marvel Comics character known as "Werewolf By Night?"  

He's a werewolf character who occasionally shows up in superhero books and tussles with everybody from Spider-woman to Doctor Strange (and the C-list Marvel character, soon to become a B-list character, Moon Knight, first appeared in his book).  The reason I bring him up is because Werewolf By Night's alter-ego is Jack Russell.

That is all.***

Words Today: 805
Words In April: 12,991

*Indeed, if you had said, "You can either write or do two hundred push-ups," I'd have arms so sore today, I couldn't put on socks.

**I really ought to do a "Tales of eBay Horror" about this one.  After the third irate email from the outraged buyer, I put them on my Blocked list, so they could never buy from me again (it's really the only recourse I have available, since eBay already put the funds on hold because of the dispute), and then, when she tried to send a fourth email, it told her she was barred from communicating with me from now on.  I hadn't realized that blocking somebody also prevents them from sending messages . . . except that I still got the "Why would you block me from communicating with you if you were not a scammer?" email, so she's clearly able to send messages back and forth.  Sigh.

***There were two more emails I got by the end of the night from people telling me I'd mailed their package to the wrong state.  One even said, "You fucked up, so Ima want a refund."  He used Ima.

April Sweeps - Day 442

After the misery of last night, I was wise enough to write as SOON as I got up this morning (granted, only wrote a little bit, but hey, I was gonna be grateful by the end of the night), so I didn't have to worry about it for the rest of the day.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 1733

I was at Walmart, and a young woman pushed her cart past me and said, "You're awesome."  Now, that seemed strange, so I made eye contact with her, trying to figure out if she was talking to me, or on the phone or what.  "What?" I said.

She said, "You're awesome.  And handsome too."*  Well, I had a mask on, so hey, maybe I did look pretty handsome there, but I still said, "Me?  Thanks, but, uh, why would you say that?"  And the woman said, "I have autism, so I say things like this.  But you are awesome."  Well, I had no idea how to respond to that, so I thanked her again, and went on my way.

At the end of the night, my allergies started to go haywire, with red, puffy eyes, an itchy nose, sneezing, and lots and lots of blowing of the nose.  Finally, I grabbed some allergy medicine, and even though I knew it would knock me out, I was fine with it as long as I stopped sniffling and watering from my eyes.

Push-ups Today: 160
Push-ups In April: 1966

Two or three days ago, I heard the word "diffident" in an audio book, and realized I didn't know what it meant.  So, I looked it up (it means hesitant or underconfident, but you knew that already, because you're smart), and put it out of my mind . . . except that, in the library book I've been reading, I saw the word "diffident" again.  I had to call my friend Jeff in Germany to tell him about it.

And he told me I was experiencing what is known as Klinefelter Syndrome, where a man develops lactating breasts.

No, no, my mistake.  He said what I was experiencing was Baader-Meinhoff Phenomenon, where you notice something once, and then it seems to turn up over and over again.  He said it's caused by not making it to the bathroom in time, especially on a long roadtrip.

It's apparently also known as Frequency Illusion, where your brain notices repetition of something that it otherwise would simply gloss over.  HOWEVER, on Friday, I heard (heard, not read, mind you) the word "diffident" again, and that makes three times in a week. 

Me, I blame Satan.

Words Today: Darn few. 374
Words In April: 12,186

*I know this sounds like bullshit.  Nobody knows that better than me, but this happened, and I was talking to Big on the phone at the time, so hopefully he'll back me up on this.

April Sweeps - Day 441

While you can't make awful, insensitive jokes like this anymore, I just gotta say, that Old Navy commercial with the fudgin' kids on the stairs is slightly worse than the Rape of Nanking.

Only SLIGHTLY, mind you.  I'm not a monster.  Like the makers of that commercial.

I didn't make it to the library at all today.  My Uncle Len was visiting from Vegas and we borrowed a truck and drove around town, with the plans to buy bikes.  But the cheap one I was looking at was sold, and Len ended up buying a nice one with gargantuan (ie cholo) tires.  I rode on it for a bit, and it seemed like it was made for a much bigger person, which is lucky because my uncle is a much bigger person.

My Aunt Blanca asked me if I would get her a DVD a week or so back, because she ordered one off of Amazon, and they sent her a Region 2 version (turns out, the movie she was after is out of print in the U.S., because . . .  well, because nobody buys DVDs anymore, Grandpa).  Then, she asked if it was too much trouble for me to buy her a list of six more movies.  I think it ended up being eight in total, and I ordered them all for her off eBay, and they were really, really cheap, but she wanted to give me ten or fifteen dollars each for them.

I told her she had given me plenty and I hadn't spent all her money yet, but she gave my mom a stack of bills to give to me to cover them.  I wouldn't take it, but she took me aside today and acted hurt that I hadn't taken the money.  That's weird, isn't it?  She said that I was providing her entertainment after her divorce, and she insisted on giving me more, for my time.  I don't really understand that--it took me about half an hour to order the eight movies, and my time ain't worth that.  

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 1633

I watch the clips from Seth Meyers "Late Night" show that are uploaded to YouTube every single day, and I just noticed, more than a year after starting that, that he says, "Uh" many, many, many times in each show, except for when he's reading the cue cards.  It's something that I have done for thirteen years in my podcasting, I cut out a great many of the "ums" and "uhs," both my own, and those of Big Anklevich, Marshal Latham, and whoever else is nearby.

But if I never noticed Seth Meyers doing it, after all this time, I wonder if I might not have been a bit overzealous with my own editing, since it might have been only annoying to me (and noticeable to me).  Hmmm. 

Push-ups Today: 60
Push-ups In April: 1806

One day, about six months ago, I came the closest I ever have to not writing in an entire day.  I can't remember the circumstances--if only I had kept some unnecessary, detailed record--but I went through the whole day, doing other things, and when night came and I was finally free, I just couldn't get myself motivated to write.  Of course, in the end, I did write a little bit, if only because I had to (I'm sure Big Ankylosaur was also writing every day, and often far exceeding my productivity, and that helped).

Today* was very similar.  It's not that I was tremendously busy, but I was working, and then we had a family get-together in honor of my uncle and aunt visiting from Las Vegas, and Uncle Len showed me such attention (which doesn't usually happen with anybody other than Len or my cousin) that I skipped out on the library so we could go places together.  When he moved to Vegas, he had left a couple of bicycles in my mom's storage unit, so we went over there to get them (one was missing the seat, and I have to wonder what became of it--not much fun riding a bike without a seat, unless that's your thing, baby, I ain't judging), went to a couple of stores (I dropped off a package at Fed Ex, but waited so long, their last pickup had passed), then my aunt Virginia offered to buy us frozen yogurt if I could find a place called Yogurtland.**

You do, uh, plan to have yogurt in your Yogurtland cups, right?

I went to that yogurt place when it first opened, but I could never justify the prices, and I still feel weird about it, but since I got way less yogurt than my uncle and aunt did, I guess I can pretend that makes it alright.  Still, when I die, I'm not going to say, "I wish I ate way less frozen yogurt."

Though it's likely I'll say, "I wish I hadn't compared that godawful Old Navy commercial to one of history's greatest atrocities."

Night came quickly.  I sat down to write, and while I can't remember now why, I looked up the causes of conjoined twins, and read an entire article about the various types of conjoined twins (and yes, I also looked up where the term Siamese Twins came from, and why we don't use it anymore), and then I fell asleep, in front of my laptop, only having written a handful of words.

I also hadn't done my push-ups yet, so I went out into the living room and managed a few, then laid there on the floor, and came to the realization that I was falling asleep on the floor, still having unwritten.  I had to ask myself how important it was to me.  And maybe I could catch a quick nap, just half an hour or so, then wake up refreshed, and ready to write.

I dragged myself to my feet, stumbled into my room, where I had set up the microphone to finish my recording of "Dying Is Easy," and thought I could record that, and just use whatever words that totaled, and call it a day.  But I only have eleven minutes' worth of space to record on the device, left over from the night before, and I couldn't get over that.

Have I mentioned I was almost cartoonishly tired?  Well, I was, and I ended up jotting down a few words, then closing my eyes, then trying it again--getting fewer words this time--and closing my eyes again.  I did it three or four times, and then, when I opened my eyes again, it was three-something am, and all I could do was get up, turn out the lights, and say I had done the best I could.

Words Today: 224
Words In April: 11,812

*Okay, cards on the table, I'm writing this bit the next day.

**Do you have a chain called Yogurtland in your city?  Or is it a local thing?

April Sweeps - Day 440

Nothin' for you today neither.  Like you deserve.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 1633

So, I never came up with a title for the Lara and the Witch Valentine's Day story I just finished.  If you know any insurance company slogans that might apply, feel free.  I looked it over, and it's just over ten thousand words long, which probably means--

Oh, wait.  There are no boob references in the story.  So much for my integrity, huh?

Push-ups Today: 159 (whoops, I was on 160)
Push-ups In April: 1746

I finally sat down and recorded tonight.  I realized, in posting the most recent Rish Outcast episode, that my 200th episode is right around the corner, and that I had nothing special (or "special," if you want to be mean about it) planned.  So I thought and thought and thought (alright, alright, I only thought once) about a story that means something to me, that maybe I hadn't shared yet* on either my podcast or the Dunesteef.

And I remember, years ago, Big and I talking about, having done a final episode of our podcast (for use if one of us died, or we had a big falling out, or he moved to Arkansas or Texas or something), which of our stories would we want to run in the last story episode.  I don't remember what he said--maybe he hadn't written enough of them yet--but I said, "Oh, that's easy.  I'd run my story 'Dying Is Easy.'"  That's a little semi-funny/semi-serious story I wrote a decade or so back (no way to know now--it would've been the same year I wrote "Overtaken") that seemed to sum up who I am in a unique and hopefully entertaining way.

So, that's what I'll pick for my 200th show.  I sat down and tried to record it tonight, but eventually, my voice started to give way (I stupidly gave a character a sort of Cobra Commander voice--in the cartoon, he had a screamy way of speaking that sounded like a rusty iron gate--and that shredded my vocal chords) and I ran out of memory.  But I'd edited a couple of chapters on my story "Caller I.D.,"** and I deleted those, then had enough to get through 3/4ths of the story.  I considered recording until the space ran out again, but then looked at the clock.

It was past three.  So, I shut off the microphone and decided to finish the rest when I'm fresh.  The recordings go faster if I'm more awake, and when recording time is at a premium, it's best to try again tomorrow.  Perhaps.

Words Today: 742
Words In April: 11,588

*I could also ask my listeners for questions to answer on the 200th show, but I doubt I'd get any questions beyond, "Why?"

**This is a story I've mentioned, where every chapter takes place in a different year.  So, thinking I'd impress Big Anklevich, I had a comment about who won the Super Bowl every year in, like, four chapters.  But I edited a part where the Baltimore Ravens win two Super Bowls in a row, and became suspicious--could that team really have been that good?  So I looked it up, and discovered that either my research had gotten screwed up during editing (originally, the story started in 2010, and later, I bumped it to 2008), or I had never done research at all (although really, why would I have mentioned the Ravens at all, had I been making up football stats?  The Baltimore Ravens sounds like a team invented in a Sci-Fi story where the NFL was cool enough to name a team after Edgar Allan Poe, not . . . well, whatever the NFL is in reality).  So, I had to replace the Ravens with the Packers.  Sad.

April Sweeps - Day 439

Look, you're not gonna get a blog post from me today, since I have nothing interesting to say.

I know, I know, it hasn't stopped me for more than a year.  Ha, ha, hell-arious.

I didn't go the library--I had to get my car registered, and that necessitated an emissions test.  So I went ahead and got the oil changed at the same time, and it took over an hour.  It's probably the ninth or tenth time I've gone there and gotten the oil changed or the car inspected at that location, and "Judge Judy" is ALWAYS playing in their little waiting room.  I turned my back to it this time, so I wouldn't be tempted to watch any of it (I swear, more of my soul dies when I watch "Judge Judy" than the time I watched Eli Roth's HOSTEL and thought, "Wow, I'd really like to own this movie.") . . . but I could still hear it, jabbering in my ear, while I was trying my best to write.

I started on the darn twin story (which I am highly unlikely to finish), and after that, I had a couple of errands to run, and didn't bother hitting the library, since my car still wasn't registered, and I wanted to get it done as soon as I possibly could.*

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 1533

I had another experience--heck, I think I mentioned it yesterday--that's a good basis for a Tale of eBay Horror.  The weird thing is, it ended up working out just fine today (in a highly illogical way).  So, it makes me wonder if I should even bother recording the experience.  Do people enjoy those?  Now that I don't hate looking at myself QUITE as much as I used to, it might be less torturous to edit.  Hmmm.

Push-ups Today: 66
Push-ups In April: 1587

Okay, one more thing.  I read an announcement that Warner Bros. has hired a team to make a movie of the DC Comics character Zatanna.  And I got it in my head yesterday to look up her first appearance (Hawkman, issue 4, from 1964) to see if I could afford to buy the comic, since when and if that movie ever comes out (or indeed, if she ever shows up in anything, from "Justice League Dark" to "Shazam 2"), that the value of that comic will skyrocket.  So I looked it up . . . and I'm already unable to afford to buy one.

No big deal--I didn't really want or need that comic (I don't even know the character, really--she was just somebody my buddy Matthew used to talk about...and everybody loves fishnet stockings).  It was just an idea I had.

But it reminded me: when I was a kid and picked up my first issue of X-men, I fell in love with the character Rogue.  I just loved everything about her.  And a year or so later, I found out that she was introduced as an Avengers villain before she became an X-man, so I sought out that first appearance.  Because it was in a worthless Avengers book (about a worthless team nobody liked), it cost me three dollars (the sticker's still on the book).

A few years ago, when I started buying comics again, I found another copy of Avengers Annual 10 for sale, and I was bummed that they only wanted seven dollars for it.  It had doubled in cost, sure, but Amazing Fantasy 15, which was $1100 when I started seriously collecting, had now sold for over a million dollars.**  So, I didn't buy it.  I already had Rogue's first appearance anyway.

But today, I remembered that, and thought I would scoop up another one, just in case they follow my advice and introduce Rogue as a villain in CAPTAIN MARVEL 2.  So, I thought I'd check, maybe buy two or three, if they're still in the ten dollar range.

They aren't.  Sadly, I can no longer afford an Avengers Annual 10 (which is considered by some to also be the first appearance of Madelyne Pryor, another character I loved in that same issue that introduced me to Rogue.  Not considered by me, though***), but I certainly should have scooped up a few (hundred) copies, for love of my favorite X-woman.

Although . . . when I was cleaning out my closet in January, I stumbled upon a comic book I had won in a 2006 or 2007 convention, and thought I'd check out its value.  To my surprise, it was worth quite a bit--more than it cost me to register my car today!  I intended to sell it, and maybe I should list it today, and use whatever it sells for to buy another Avengers Annual 10, maybe a CCG one (graded, with a certificate of its condition).

On a lark, instead of writing or blogging, I decided to see if I could afford a copy of The Demon issue 7, the first appearance of Klarion the Witch Boy.  Turns out I can . . . but I don't know if I should.

Well, you still got a blog post.  Not much of one, but hey, sometimes we DO get what we deserve.

Words Today: 787
Words In April: 10,846

*I complain about this a lot, but they always bring me a laundry list of stuff that I ought to get replaced or fixed on my car.  This year was no exception, as they wanted to replace the air filter, one of the daytime running lights, the engine filter, two of the tires, the brake fluid (oh my, 1% of it was water!), and both of the windshield wipers.  Oh, and for an extra ten dollars, they could send my paperwork in to the state and give me my registration sticker right there, instead of me doing it myself and having to wait a few days.
I had learned a lesson the last couple of times I've done this, so I said, "Look, just put a note in my file, and we'll get that done next time."  And the mechanic said, "There was already a note in your file from last time."  And I let him replace one of the filters, just for pretending to be interested in the audiobook that I had in the car.  Sigh.

**The record for that comic is still $1.1 million, back in 2011, but when I was a kid, I could've bought a low-grade one for a hundred or two hundred dollars, and that would've been quite an investment.

***It's a long story, but essentially, Chris Claremont was a fan of a band whose lead singer was Maddy Prior, so he named a child in that book after her (Maddy, not Madelyne).  Later, he named an X-men character who was an adult doppleganger of Jean Grey Madelyne Pryor too.  But it's not the same character.  Unless you say it is, in which case, fine, I don't want to fight about it.

Podcast That Dares 27: 20 Words I Use Too Much

Rish talks about Orson Scott Card, Harlan Coben, and things he does too much in his own writing.

If you want to download the file, Right-Click HERE.

If you want to support me on Patreon, go to THIS LINK.

Gino "Suddenly" Moretto by Logo.

April Sweeps - Day 438

I'm at the library, it's 6:37pm, and I'm going to finish my story now.  It's kind of disgusting that I came up with it in February as a project for Valentine's Day, and here we are, exactly two months after that cursed day, and I'm going to be writing "the end" on it.*

Sit-ups Today: 122
Sit-ups In April: 1433

So, the other day, I mentioned being proud (PROUD, IF YOU CAN BELIEVE IT) that my character of Lara Demming is so darn dumb.  It really is a point of pride with me, that I'm acting as a sort of anti-Orson Scott Card here.  In other words, my characters are as dumb as I am, and I also believe homosexuals should be allowed to marry each other, as though they were human beings or something.

BUT HAVING SAID THAT . . . I stumbled upon a passage from the second book the other day while trying--Emma--to remember the name of Lara's older sister.  And in that section, it clearly stated that Lara was smart and always got As and Bs in school, but Emma was dumb as a rock, but was the preferred sister because she was so pretty.

So, there's really no way I can justify my earlier statement, or, the fact that I've written Lara as slightly below-average in intelligence in everything I've written about her this year and last.

Can you be both things?  

Is it possible that, once her family was all dead and she was dealing with the fallout of that, she reverted to a more childlike state, perhaps being less able to focus on pointless things like spelling tests and being able to name Carson City as the capital of New Mexico and Cincinnati as the capital of Ohio?  

Or, is it possible that once she started relying on magic instead of her intellect to solve problems, both her IQ and her grades started to plummet?

Or maybe she's smart about some thing and dumb about other things, just like most people.  Present company excluded, of course--you are very clever, you know.

Push-ups Today: 159
Push-ups In April: 1521

My stomach is making a weird gurgling/growling sound.  It's so quiet here in the library that I'm sure the people around me can hear it, and wonder if I'm smuggled a Golden Retriever in here with me.  Guess I should type faster and then get the hell out of here.

I finished the story (it's now 8:16), which always feels good (I was at 1200 words for the day, but "the end" add two to the total), and maybe tomorrow I'll start on the one about the twins.  Just no more Lara Demming stories for a while.  Although the twin one is about a high school girl too.  Maybe I should give teenage girls a break, though.  

There's no way THOSE words could come back to haunt me, is there?

Words Today: 1203
Words In April: 10,059

*By the way, I never capitalize "the end."  It's sort of a superstition with me, kind of like how you don't step on cracks in the sidewalk, wouldn't dream of giving a toast with a glass of water, and have never murdered your brother-in-law.

Marshal and Rish Review METEOR (1979)

In honour of your friend and mine, Sean Connery, Marshal Latham and I sat down and talked about the 1979 Disaster movie METEOR on his show "Outfield Excursions."  Also, you can watch the damn thing--the movie, not the podcast--free at this link.  

April Sweeps - Day 437

"All I have is myself at the end of the day,

And all I want is for that to be okay."

Olivia Rodrigo

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 1311

Kayla, that girl I know (I don't dare call her "that friend of mine," though you and I are friends, so she and I might as well be) who has a semi-identical twin, had her baby this past weekend.  I was speaking to Rosie, who works with her, and she told me that, even though her due date isn't until next week, her twin sister had her baby on Friday . . . so Kayla immediately went into early labor and had hers the next day.  I CANNOT be the only person that is creeped out by this, no?

Anyway, last week, I mentioned to Rosie that I was a writer, and today, she asked me what I was working on, so I told her about the idea for the story I wanted to write about Kayla and her twin sister, where the sister comes back from a field trip and isn't identical anymore.  To my surprise, Rosie was WAY more enthusiastic about this idea than Kayla ever was,* asking me how it ends, and when I told her, she said, "I want to read it, when does this come out?"

I told her that a) I'm not a real writer, and that b) I hadn't even started on it, it was just an idea I had.  And she seemed really disappointed by this (both the a and the b).  It made me feel pretty self-conscious, and ask myself why I hadn't written the story, when I have the beginning, part of the middle, and end in my head (and maybe the rest would fill in itself as I wrote it).

I guess every writer (except for Sanderson, of course) has a bunch of book and story ideas in their mind that they'll never get to, so I'm in good company (except for Sanderson, of course).  But still, maybe I should set that as a goal for next month or something.

Man, I wish the cabin were available--someplace I could go, focus solely on my various arts**, and not have to hear those screaming children on the trampoline outside my window (although I'm at the library now, in almost total silence, and I'm blogging instead of writing, so I have little excuse).

Push-ups Today: 70
Push-ups In April: 1362

I haven't put up another Storage Unit Serenade in a while.  I started editing another one, and got to the end of the song (I think it's from August), and then I started it up again, trying to do harmony with myself from the first take.  I don't know what I was thinking: I can't edit the two together.  Heck, the only way I could even edit the two audio tracks together would be if I recorded the sound separately and could lay it on top of the video track.  

It's possible I spoke to Big around that time and he said that he could splice the two of them together, but I don't remember that conversation.  It's weird, and so it, like the one from last month where I missed an entire verse (but managed to record the first verse three times), is just in-progress, slowing up putting anything new out for a while.

Words Today: 986
Words In April: 8856

*This hasn't happened to me for years, not since Austin was so blown away by my then in-progress "Balms & Sears," but Big Anklevich used to always talk about this overnight stocking job he had, where there was a coworker who always wanted Big to tell him about the stories he had thought up, like he was a huge fan or something, and how good that felt.

**I considered sitting down and recording another "Tales of eBay Horror" today, since I'm having a fairly interesting experience right now, but probably won't do it because my phone never has enough recording space on it (my guess is, those videos are incredibly space-consuming, regardless of how crappy they look to you), at least not for more than a song's worth.

April Sweeps - Day 436

I'm at the library now, and only half the people have masks on.  Our statewide mask mandate just ended, but you're still supposed to wear masks in public places, at the discretion of the location.  I wore my mask and sat down, hardly noticing it, really, but when I saw people walking around without them, I pulled mine down . . .

And it was such a difference, as far as breathing goes.  Reminds me of how you'll wake up in the non-winter months, sometimes in the middle of the night, and you're hot and sweaty because you put on a shirt that now feels stifling, so you take it off and go back to sleep?  Maybe that's just me, but most of the people I hang out with hate the heat way more than I ever could, so I'm sure they relate.

Anyway, I keep feeling like I need to put the mask back over my mouth and nose, like I'm doing something I could get in trouble for, like when I used to drive around at night listening to Christina Aguilera's "Genie in a Bottle" with my pants around my ankles.

I really ought to be writing, though, instead of sharing all this.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In April: 1211

This may amuse you, if you're a schadenfreude kind of guy.

You know how I sell toys on eBay, from time to time?  Well, also from time to time, people will tell me, "Wow, selling on eBay must be a lot of fun, huh?" usually followed by, "Hey, stop looking at my daughter, will you?"

And yeah, it can be fun, especially when people get in bidding wars and you watch the total go up and up (or when you discover that something you forgot you owned has now skyrocketed in value).  But here's a cautionary tale for you:

I tend to put things up on Sunday nights.  Statistics say that, just like watching television used to be, the time the most eyes are on eBay are Sunday evenings, and experts have suggested (at least a decade ago they did) that if you list something for auction on a Sunday night, it will get more bids than if you list it on a Monday through Friday (or during the morning or late at night).  So, nearly every Sunday night is when I sit down and list items for sale.

Last week, I was really ambitious.  I had a box of figures in the basement I hadn't touched in a couple of years (most were from 2015 and 2017), so I got them out, sorted them, took pictures of them, put the pictures on the computer, cropped them, labeled them, and listed them for auction, one at a time, until I'd gotten thirty-three done.  It took about three hours, maybe a bit more,* but that's the way it is.

So, imagine my chagrin** when the week went by and none of the items were getting bids.  And soon, it was Sunday night again, I hadn't done my run yet, but there was stuff to list, if I wanted to make my money.  So, I started putting up dinosaurs and Star Wars figures, and at the end of the night, I checked my thirty-something items . . .

. . . and not a single one had gotten any bids.

Kind of puts life in perspective, you know?

Push-ups Today: 158
Push-ups In April: 1292

I'm finally writing the scene in my Lara and the Witch story where Lara speaks to the boy from the very first story that she cast a love spell on.  I've spoken about it a bunch of times over the past two or three years, but I've never found a place to put it in my stories.  But now that I'm writing, like, the fifth or sixth Lara Demming story, I finally found a moment for it.***

I always wanted the scene to be a bit of a wake-up call for Lara, that her actions have consequences, or at least that it's really sad, but 

***I couldn't remember her sister's name, so I wasted about ten minutes' of writing time trying to find it in my old manuscripts, but I'm here in the library, and the ones I have on my laptop only call her ___ or Lara's sister.  Then I tried opening audio files of "You're In Good Hands" to see if I could find the chapter where Lara levitates (that might be the segment I selected for my sample, come to think of it--although it's more likely I used the bit with the fairy from the prologue), but this is the Quiet Floor, and my headphones don't seem to work anymore, for some reason.  Finally, I searched on my blog for "Lara's sister," and found a reference to the scene I'm writing right now on the April 14th post from last year.  It's great that I finally get to write the scene . . . but sadly, I'm blogging instead.
By the way, her sister's name is Emma.  Emma Demming.  What was I thinking?

Words Today: 1185
Words In April: 7870

*Maybe a bit less too, the thing is, the vast majority of the time is creating the first listing, and then you can just copy and paste or hit Sell Similar and change one or two details (as well as the picture), and list it.

**I keep using that word.  I do not think it means what I think it means.

April Sweeps - Day 435

I have people order stuff and cancel all the time--a distressing number of times, actually--and today was no exception.  EXCEPT that the buyer immediately emailed and apologized, explaining their mistake.  And as far as I could tell, they weren't even lying.  That's pretty refreshing.

My Uncle John came over to my mom's for Sunday dinner, and he kept saying the name of the guy from One Direction over and over and over ag--  No, not that one, the one with the ridiculous name.

Nials Horan.

He also said something I ought to write about (if I remember) because it was really odd (in a different way).  We'll see if I remember.

If I had a dollar for every time John said "Niles Horan," I could pay off all my credit cards.  But the strange thing is, the first five or six times he said it, it was funny.  But the next dozen or so, it was no longer funny.  But once he reached about fifteen times, it became funny again.  Say it with me, Niles Horan.  See?  

Am I right, or what?

Oh shoot, I just looked him up.  It's Niall Horan, singular.  Niles Horan was funnier (and what my uncle kept saying).  Darn.

Sit-ups Today: 111 (yay!)
Sit-ups In April: 1111 (wow)

I fell asleep again today, and it was almost exactly as long as I did yesterday.  I had started editing the next "Delusions of Grandeur" episode, and made it to about one minute-thirty before losing consciousness, which really bodes well for how entertaining it will be for our three listeners.  I got up and forced myself to go over to the park (which is so close to where I live you could start a song in the driveway and finish it in front of the stream that goes alongside the park.*

I sat down in almost exactly the same place as yesterday and wrote about as much as I did then, but it's fifteen degrees colder today, and my hands started getting too cold to type, and I had to stop (I'm now in the car, where it's warmer, my hands still not quite defrosted, thinking I ought to run by Target before I head home, or I could hurry and get my sweats on and do my run while the sun is still out for a change).  

There were still a lot of people hanging around the park, mostly families, but one solitary guy in a winter jacket reading a book under a tree.  While I was sitting there, only managing four hundred mediocre words, I heard a little girl exclaim, "Oh, that's so sad!" and point at something in the stream.  I couldn't see what it was, but I assumed it was a dead animal in the water.  

When it was time to go, I took a look (and you can too), and it wasn't a dead cat or squirrel, but something less sad . . . yet somehow more disturbing.

I dunno if that was worth recording, but hey, I gotta blog about something.

Push-ups Today: 77
Push-ups In April: 1134

I thought I'd end the evening recording something, so I deleted two files from my recorder (two episodes' worth of lines from the audio drama I was cast in), but then never got around to recording anything (not that I know what it would've been--I need to find a story that I've never run on the Outcast and record it so I can do an episode for it).  Maybe tomorrow night, Niles Horan.

Words Today: 463
Words In April: 6685

*I call it a stream because it's so little, but it's actually part of a river, and is large enough after snow melt that a child drowned in it in 2018 or so.