kageotogi

Lots of cuts in this entry, just so it won't be a million years long. Because I care.

I took my car into the shop this past weekend because it's been making a weird sound (which I was pretty sure was the brake pad), while I was visiting with my parents, and I just got the damage report. The front wheels of my car are misaligned (and have been for a while), which locked up the caliber on the front right wheel, which destroyed my brake pad for that side. The calibers on my back wheels are fine, but rusted (so they might be noisy, but there's nothing really wrong with them, so whatever). And my windshield wiper blades are shot (which I knew; I had every intention of replacing them, but never got around to it). It'll accrue about seven-hundred to fix, but at least I won't crash and die because of the ruined brake pad or the crap wiper blades.

...and at least I was right about the brake pad. *facepalm* And maybe once they re-align my front wheels (which I asked them to do, oh, a year ago? But they said it'd work itself out. Yeah right. Thanks so much), the drive will be better, too.

I won't like paying for the repairs, but it'll be nice to have my car back and in reasonable working condition. If I get it back by this weekend, maybe I'll take advantage of being at my parents' house again (I'll be cat-sitting) and give it a wash. If the weather doesn't completely suck. ~~If nothing else, I should clean the inside. It could use a vacuum and a scrub.~~

My goal for May is to put together a feasible business plan for my coffee shop (which is still as yet unnamed). I have several websites to reference and am still working it out in my head, so hopefully by the time this month ends, I'll be ready to go. Chomping at the bit and what have you.

...still, if anyone has suggestions? I'd be happy to listen.

Script Frenzy is going all right for me thus far. I'm not nearly as far ahead as I would be in NaNoWriMo by now, but I'm keeping up. I hit fifty-six (barely) last night, which put me with an average of four pages a day. I can live with that.

The story itself sort of sucks. I'm not going to lie about that. Essentially, I have my main character (Nathan) who is like everybody else in the world in that he has no idea what he's doing. He's recently single, jobless, and aimless, and his ex-girlfriend Susan is continually calling him so she can get her stuff back. They agree to meet at a coffee shop somewhere, and he watches as someone basically falls down maybe-dead. Blah blah blah, he worries about the futility of life, blah blah he meets with some homeless musician who lets him blather on about whatever, etcetera and so forth his old college roommate shows up to leech off him for a while. All the real action happens in Nathan's head, and I don't feel like I'm expressing that all too well.

I just re-introduced one of the characters, though, so maybe that'll stir things up. And I have plans on how to progress. So maybe once I knock out this first draft, I can take a break, come back, and re-edit to make it somewhat decent. From there... Well, it's all fair game.

I don't remember if I said, but I'm writing a comic script. Because why not? I've at least attempted those before, so I have a better idea of what I'm doing (although you wouldn't tell from my pacing... Yikes), and if I ever decide it's workable I have a better chance of seeing it come to fruition than I would a screenplay or TV pilot or what have you. All I'd need is an artist as masochistic as I am.

Regarding the rest of my writing, I'm kind of sad to say that it's been pretty much on hold for a while. I keep having ideas for fic (what the hell, me? I said I was going to stop doing that...) that I can never make work on paper. My original work falls flat. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong.

The only thing that comes to mind is that maybe I've been spending too much time with the computer, video games, and television, and thus killing all my creative brain cells. I do need to read more -- I know that, and have been working on it. I wonder if I should take an internet sabbatical? It's worth a shot. Given what I know of myself, though, I'll wind up spending the entire weekend in front of the tube (which isn't such a bad thing; I used to use the TV as background noise in college, and I got plenty of writing done then).

We'll see. It would be really, really nice if I could get around to finishing Aristeia relatively soon. It's nearly done -- I just have to work my way through a few battles, a confrontation, and an ending that ties up any loose ends I haven't dealt with already, and that's it. I already wrote out the last part of my last chapter, and selections from the parts I'm planning to write, so it shouldn't be too difficult. I've just got to sit down and plow through a hundred pages or so.

And then go back, edit it, and take out anything I can. (Vonnegut's rule: Every sentence must do one of two things -- reveal character or advance the action.)

Jebus. What did I get myself into?

...in other news on the writing front, I did post another drabble for

the_sandsea (the new one is "Between Time"). That made me ridiculously happy.

I made a chocolate pudding pie yesterday, as promised~ I brought it to work today, so we'll see how well it goes over later. I still want to make a blueberry pie (and my own pie crust; I think that'd work better than the frozen shells I keep buying from the store), and I have a recipe for an apple maple pie I want to try (it's too bad apples aren't in season yet). I think I promised

thstlenshmrock chocolate chip cookies, too, so that's something.

At least I won't have to go around looking for recipes the next time I'm stressed out of my head. I can just go down my list and go "Okay, I owe so-and-so this, and I already bought things for this..." and be set. Rock.

Right, that's all from me. I promise to stop posting about nothing for now. Maybe I'll do some thinking and post a writing meme or something in my next entry (because that worked so well last time...).