News of the Week In Review
Dec. 24th, 2011 09:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mallorys_cameraMy revenue generating options took a huge swing for the better this past week, and though of course as a freelancer one can never be sure that they’ll stay this good, right now my financial outlook is better than it’s been in a long, looong time.
This has done wonders for my mood and general creativity. Yeah, yeah, no doubt I am clinically depressed but as I’ve written here often, I almost always wake up in an upbeat mood, which argues that a lot of that depression is situational. It’s very, very tough to be this poor. Throw social isolation on top of that and really, it’s been hard.
Having a plan, a plan that’s realistic and doable, has also made me feel better.
Other than that RTT and I have been palling around, having long, interesting talks about the future of North Korea and whether political power or cultural influence is more important in the long run, and it still hasn’t really snowed yet. I figure that’s entirely due to my magical powers of snow aversion. It’s exhausting, of course, to spend every waking second focused on, Don’t snow, don’t snow, don’t snow, but so far it's working. And hey! it’s the same thing I do every time I set foot in an airplane only then the mantra is, Don’t crash, don’t crash, don’t crash. Tough job, someone’s gotta do it.
RTT got me an unbreakable French press for Christmas, which I’ve been wanting for months but was way too parsimonious to spring for. The Tibetans got me clothes. Mostly I hate clothes that other people buy for me – I may dress like a bag lady, but I’m a bag lady who picks and chooses her rags. The Tibetans’ clothes were perfect, though – Tsering got me this awesome sweater in a kind of violet brown hue that’s hard to describe and Lobsang got me this incredible silk scarf. B got me a bottle of wine and this very bonnie little electric heater, and Max’s package is in the mail.
I got RTT a chair pillow since he spends so much time sitting upright in bed playing Beyond on his computer. I’m also gonna upgrade his phone. Got Max a copy of the Oliver Sacks book An Anthropologist On Mars and a data stick crammed with 20 of my favorite movies that I think he would like. Also shellacked a bird’s nest I found last summer and sent it to him. For B, I got a circus novel called Cat Man by the vastly underrated writer Edward Hoagland and a flowering white amaryllis. I gave the Tibetans each flowering red amaryllises. Also got little gag gifts for Susan and MaryBeth -- Retire-mints in a brightly painted tin.
The novel is exactly at the halfway point in terms of the elaborate treatment I wrote before I began the project. Fifty-five thousand words. I think at this point I’m gonna put it away for two weeks so I can lose that sense of personal ownership, and then reread it to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m thinking the supernatural elements need to be fortified since that’s the main marketing device, and also that the Joe Campbell/Carol Steinbeck romance needs to be sharpened. My sense is that the parts about John Steinbeck actually work quite well.
This has done wonders for my mood and general creativity. Yeah, yeah, no doubt I am clinically depressed but as I’ve written here often, I almost always wake up in an upbeat mood, which argues that a lot of that depression is situational. It’s very, very tough to be this poor. Throw social isolation on top of that and really, it’s been hard.
Having a plan, a plan that’s realistic and doable, has also made me feel better.
Other than that RTT and I have been palling around, having long, interesting talks about the future of North Korea and whether political power or cultural influence is more important in the long run, and it still hasn’t really snowed yet. I figure that’s entirely due to my magical powers of snow aversion. It’s exhausting, of course, to spend every waking second focused on, Don’t snow, don’t snow, don’t snow, but so far it's working. And hey! it’s the same thing I do every time I set foot in an airplane only then the mantra is, Don’t crash, don’t crash, don’t crash. Tough job, someone’s gotta do it.
RTT got me an unbreakable French press for Christmas, which I’ve been wanting for months but was way too parsimonious to spring for. The Tibetans got me clothes. Mostly I hate clothes that other people buy for me – I may dress like a bag lady, but I’m a bag lady who picks and chooses her rags. The Tibetans’ clothes were perfect, though – Tsering got me this awesome sweater in a kind of violet brown hue that’s hard to describe and Lobsang got me this incredible silk scarf. B got me a bottle of wine and this very bonnie little electric heater, and Max’s package is in the mail.
I got RTT a chair pillow since he spends so much time sitting upright in bed playing Beyond on his computer. I’m also gonna upgrade his phone. Got Max a copy of the Oliver Sacks book An Anthropologist On Mars and a data stick crammed with 20 of my favorite movies that I think he would like. Also shellacked a bird’s nest I found last summer and sent it to him. For B, I got a circus novel called Cat Man by the vastly underrated writer Edward Hoagland and a flowering white amaryllis. I gave the Tibetans each flowering red amaryllises. Also got little gag gifts for Susan and MaryBeth -- Retire-mints in a brightly painted tin.
The novel is exactly at the halfway point in terms of the elaborate treatment I wrote before I began the project. Fifty-five thousand words. I think at this point I’m gonna put it away for two weeks so I can lose that sense of personal ownership, and then reread it to see what works and what doesn’t. I’m thinking the supernatural elements need to be fortified since that’s the main marketing device, and also that the Joe Campbell/Carol Steinbeck romance needs to be sharpened. My sense is that the parts about John Steinbeck actually work quite well.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 03:28 pm (UTC)Congrats on the new gig.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-24 05:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-26 05:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 02:51 am (UTC)