It's been around for a while, but I'm feeling newly inspired to start posting again. I think it might just be beginning-of-semester excitement, because I like my classes and am feeling better about the whole program. Could also be that I've been doing other writing a bit more often as well.

Whatever it is, I'm here. I'm not making any commitments, but I've got some stuff that I've wanted to write about, so I'll give it a go.

If anyone's interested, this blog is running on Blosxom, a simple perl-based blogging system. I chose it because it was simple, but it took a bit of tweaking to get to work. I decided against Wordpress because (besides using it at work and getting sick of it) I don't need all those features that I'm never going to use. I like writing my posts in Ulysses (which holy crap is on Version 2 now and I need to see if I can upgrade!) because it's also simple. I hate using the rich text editor in Wordpress, but I also don't want to have to wrap stuff in html. Markdown takes care of formatting problems, and Ulysses lets me write in nice simple plain text, with all kinds of spiffy features.

But I was talking about Blosxom. It's really basic before adding plugins, but now that I've done that, it does what I need. I don't have comments set up, because I don't know that anyone will want to read my rambling and comment anyway.

We'll see how it goes.

Ok, here we are again. It's my first day of a new semester, and it's going to be a busy one. I've been wanting to start blogging again, and I can't let my perennial "I don't know what to write" problem keep me from it. So here we go.

I'm taking three classes this semester. I might be crazy. But I think it was the right choice. I've reduced my hours at work so that I have Fridays off, and that will give me a day to help stay caught up with schoolwork, as well as with chores and errands that I won't have time for because I have to spend two of my evenings in class. Also, next semester I'll only have to take two classes and I'll be able to graduate. If I stuck with two classes this time, I'd have to either take three next semester or one next summer. The summer course offering is limited, so I don't want to roll the dice, and this semester there were actually three classes I am interested in, so I think it'll be a good semester.

Digital Libraries and Virtual Reference Environments are the two classes I'm most looking forward to. They're both areas I'm interested in working in once I graduate, especially virtual reference. My other class is a research methods class, which is less exciting, but I think it'll still be interesting and useful, especially if I get into a Ph.D program one day.

I still need to get everything for the semester into Things. The more organized I can be, the more I'll be able to relax, because I'll know that I'm keeping up with my work. I want to still have time for playing World of Warcraft, reading, or just doing nothing much at all.

Lately I've been getting up early most mornings to write. This has been really nice. I'm only writing between 3-400 words a day, but it's a lot more than none. My focus is on my gaming setting. I had been writing mostly background info about the world. I've also started writing a short story about an NPC, but that's at a standstill because I can't figure out who the antagonist is, or whether the conflict I came up with makes sense. My main focus right now is on an adventure, and that's been really fun to work on.

I also submitted a query to a magazine for an article I want to write. I've got my fingers crossed about that.

I don't want to ramble, and I don't want to use up everything in my head. I'm not going to try to post every day, but I've got a few things that I've been wanting to write about, and I've also started writing about the books I've read recently.

So we'll see how it goes.

Today was fun. I played World of Warcraft.

I could end this post here, really. Because that does sum up my day. But there was some other good stuff too. Ron and I had yummy bagels for a late breakfast. I played my Draenei hunter from level 5 to level 11 today, and got my pet. We had quinoa-stuffed zucchini and red peppers for dinner. Now the kettle is on for some mint tea before bed.

And I could end this post here, too, but I feel like putting my "resolutions" on "paper" before my life gets hectic again tomorrow.

In previous years, I didn't make resolutions because I am not very good at keeping up with things, and then I just feel silly or guilty for breaking them. But this year, I feel differently. First of all, a lot of things are changing this year. I'm moving in with my boyfriend, and I know that for a year I'll be living in the same place, and I'll have my own kitchen and my own living room and that will help me be more peaceful.

Also, I've been through a whole semester of working 40 hours a week and taking two classes, and not only did I get through it just fine, I got really good grades in both my classes: I think I only missed about 3 points total between the two. And while I didn't like my management class, I learned a lot in my indexing class and really felt like a student. So I'm actually really looking forward to this semester, because I know now that I can handle two classes and a full-time job, and they're going to be cool classes too. I think I'll finally be learning libraryish stuff. And see the previous paragraph: I won't have to choose between being with Ron but without my stuff, or having my stuff but no Ron around. Even though a lot of the time (like all day today), I'm sitting in his living room doing my thing while he's in his room doing his, it's awfully nice to know that he's just right over there.

So now I get to both eat and have my cake. Mmm, cake.

But I haven't resolved to change anything so far, have I? Okay, I'll be standard and write a list.

I will always be reading two books, one nonfiction and one fiction. It doesn't matter how long it takes me to finish them, but as soon as I do I will start another. I will use bookpedia to keep track of my reading, and hopefully I'll eventually have a reading list on my website as well.

I will start exercising again. This is of course the typical new years resolution. I am being typical.

Here's the big one: a GTD Weekly Review. I successfully used Things to keep track of all my schoolwork last semester, but by the end of the semester my inbox was full and my other projects were neglected. I spent some time reorganizing my system, so hopefully it'll be easier to keep up with and I'll be able to actually Get Things Done. This is probably another typical resolution. Oh well.

There's some other stuff, but it's all more along the lines of "I will continue doing what I have been doing, only more so."

And now my tea is ready for me to drink and I am ready to turn the computer off for the evening.

It's morning and I'm sitting in Ron's chair, with the laptop balanced on the arm of the chair and my body turned towards it and my arms in a quite uncomfortable typing position, especially my left one which is resting on the chair arm with my wrist at a horrible angle. This is because there is a cat on my lap.

I am looking forward very much to moving. Ron is feeling more and more cramped and uncomfortable here, and I still miss my stuff when I'm at his place.

Hopefully we can find a nice bed and get rid of Ron's old one. And if the TV fits on my old desk, that would be handy, because then we'd have one bedside table at least.

I think I need to go make a cup of tea. Ideally I would like it sweetened but we're out of sugar, so unsweetened earl grey it is.

Gaming yesterday was fun. Besides it just being forever since we'd gamed, we had a fun group of low-level characters. All of our rogues were not your standard rogue: we had a detective and a rogue/sorcerer, and a scout. Then we had a cleric and a fighter and a very very shy bard. I played a druid, who hadn't memorized very useful spells for our situation, and so couldn't be of much help. I hope we get to play this group again, because they're fun and I think my druid will be awesome once he's got more spells and his animal companion and wild shape.

It's going to be hard to work a full week next week. All the time off has been nice.

Okay. Off to make that cup of tea.

It is finally the end of the semester. I turned my final paper in at 1:25 this morning and went to bed. I spent today relaxing.

Ron and I watched an awful movie called "Time Barbarians." Yes. It was about Barbarians who travel through time. It was a really low-budget, crappy movie, and we almost stopped watching 22% in (I know what the percentage was because we actually turned it off and the Xbox showed that it was 22% complete). But we kept watching, and shortly the wizard showed up, and she was wonderfully over-dramatic, and then the hero went into the future and ran around LA and killed the bad guy. So even though it looked like it was just going to be a bad movie, and not a so-bad-it's-good movie, it turned out to be kinda fun to watch after all.

It's odd having no schoolwork for a month. I'm sure it's going to go way too quickly. I hope I have the chance to get a lot done, including working on my story more.

So I might be getting a cold. I hope not, because the last thing I need on top of all the schoolwork I have to do is to be sick.

I think I'll be able to finish everything, though. I'm finally starting to understand the strategic plan assignment for my management class, so hopefully I'll be able to make a lot of progress on that this week.

My writing is going a lot slower than I would like. Mainly because of a lack of time, but also because I'm having a hard time fitting the two ideas I had together. They don't quite fit, so I'm having to spend some time really considering what story I want to tell, and whether I need to get rid of some of the stuff I wanted to have, and what I need to add, to get everything to work together and not feel contrived.

I'm going to spend some time today working on that, but I think first I'll try to get some schoolwork done so that I'm not worrying about that while I'm trying to write. Definitely better to get the responsibilities out of the way first. And the more schoolwork I can get done early, the more time I'll have to work on my writing before the trip, too. I want to have a detailed enough outline that I can start writing the actual story pieces.

I'm enjoying working with Scrivener. It's nice to be able to look at the pieces and say "This structure isn't working, let me try something different." The index cards and outline mode are great.

And with that, I'm off to do schoolwork.

So, Obama won. This is good.

I have no motivation to work on this school project. I am not cut out for strategic planning, apparently. Maybe if I had more time, I could have fun with it. But as it is, with working full-time, having another class with plenty of work to do, and wanting to spend some time doing the things that I find meaningful and just fun, I don't have the energy left to care about developing action plans for a fictional company.

There are only two weeks and two days before we leave for North Carolina. This is ridiculous. Time is flying. In these two weeks, I need to pretty much finish all of my schoolwork for the semester. I guess I have Sunday and Monday when we get back to wrap everything up, but I should have everything done by then so that I don't get back from my nice relaxing vacation and enter panic mode.

Two weeks. Wow.

I guess I won't be playing World of [Goo || Warcraft] until December.

It's a good thing I wrote this, it puts it all in perspective. Time to start getting things done.