Category: Anything but writing

I Worked Hard and NOTHING got done.

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

I’m in the midst of writing the Next Historical and it seems like this book is going to be a time management challenge. I sat down at the computer with full knowledge that I had several tasks to take care of before I opened up the book.

Every single one of those tasks turned out to have several subtasks. Like, someone ordered a signed copy of a book, easy enough to deal with. But I offer a free digital copy to purchasers of a signed book (because they have to spend almost 3x the cost of the digital version for the print version) and this order came with a request for a copy. Which was fabulous! But it did mean I had to confirm I had the right file version (omitting some key facts here, just roll with me on this) so to be safe I had to generate a new file and then email it to her.

And then I remembered I owed a reader who designed the world’s most awesome Cat Woman T-shirt and sent one to me. (I have the ONLY one in the US of A! And she has the only one in Australia) and I said, well, in return I will send you books! And I waited on that until I had print copies of My Darkest Passion so I could send her 5 books instead of just 4, and I had to get that ready to be mailed.

And then I had to book my flight to Orange County because I’m speaking at the Orange County RWA the weekend before RWA, and I didn’t know which airport to fly into and I thought they’d told me, but after looking at all the emails, I couldn’t find that info, so I had to email them. They got back to me quickly so I booked the flight which entails a lot of staring at departure and arrival times and trying to figure out the whole, get up early or stay up late thing, and how long do I want to sit around at the airport.

I’ve come to realize that I am incapable of dealing with uncertainty and would actually rather sit an hour at the gate than freak out over the possibility of being late or lost or both. So, yeah.

And then I had to organize some important emails (seriously, if I don’t file away the important emails the day they land in my in-box, it’s hopeless.) AND I had to log income in the spreadsheet — because I live in fear of under-reporting income during the year and having my accountant calculate the wrong estimated tax (I paid the June taxes and now my bank account is gasping…) because if you end up owing more taxes than you thought, it’s just not pretty. So income gets logged the minute the deposit notices hit.

Then I had to email a woman in Hong Kong about the PO returning the books I mailed her back in OCTOBER. I am not kidding. The Post Office returned the books by mule, I guess.

Then I had to post here.

And now it’s 9:37 pm and my bedtime.

Thank goodness I wrote on my lunch hour. If I get cracking I might make word count before it’s too late….

Also, the dog, bless her little black heart, CHEWED UP MY COPY OF Epicure’s Almanack that cost me $50. It used to be in pristine shape and though I think it’s still kind of readable, I’m not sure if a book with the binding chewed off is going to last very long after I open it. I don’t think she ate any pages, but I’m too depressed to check.

::sob::

Do you ever have days like this?

Posted in Anything but writing, Former Riskies | Tagged chewed up books, work and no work done | 7 Replies

The Old Days and The Past

Updated on November 17, 2022 by carolyn

Did everybody bookmark Diane’s list of fantastic books? Good.

I was going to bring you more of nutty Ephraim, but instead I bring you an epic whine. Possibly a rant.

1830

Early Victorian Geezer: In my day we read by candlelight and it was FINE! ::looks at the ashes of his son-in-law’s house and thinks how they’re all going to fit in his house.:: We didn’t have this fancy gas. Houses didn’t explode unless you shot a cannon at them.

There. That should set the scene.

2013

1. I bought LED lights for the house that can be connected to the wireless network and turned on and off remotely, put on a schedule, alarm, or timer and turned on or off etc even when you’re not home. You can also change the colors to pretty much anything. You can take a photo, or use one on your camera or tablet. I had a photo of macaroons I used so the lights in my room could be pink, yellow and cream when I was in bed, and then they would slowly turn off. I bought a strip for the hallway where the lighting was designed by an idiot so it’s always too damn dark and the switch that’s supposed to turn on/off the lights is either non-functional or at the other end of the hallway. Now we have a purple strip that comes on at 5:45PM and turns off at 7:00 AM. I love this. I will be replacing bulbs as money permits.

2. Where we live, we don’t have real internet. For some time, the best we could do is 3G connected to a router that works with a wireless dongle. The router also has ports for wired connections, which, it turns out, the fancy lights require. The “starter pack” comes with a physical bridge that you connect to your router via an ethernet cable, and then it’s just like magic! Wireless lights! One bridge can control up to 50 lights, and you can put the lights in groups and assign any variations of light, color, and intensity you like. This turns out to be fun, entertaining, a fantastic prank engine, and useful. Also, since this will be relevant in a bit, if your bridge isn’t working, you can still physically turn the lights on and off. Except the strips.

2.5 I had lights set up like this: On the days I work from home, the lights in my room fade on beginning at 5:20AM and turn off at 5:50 AM, after experimentation revealed I always need something I forgot in my room until about 5:50AM. The lights in the living room turn on at 5:25AM. I can also remotely annoy people in other rooms my playing with their lights.

3. Then our carrier for our 3G dongle had some kind of kerfluffle with Sprint and I came home to discover we had no internet. I happen to know AT&T 4G exists where we live since we get 4G on the iThings. So I went to the AT&T store and bought two wireless MyFi devices that were supposed to connect to our router. The wireless devices indeed gave us 4G speeds (YAY!!!) but they did not work with the router. So I got a 3rd device that was a dongle and … [imagine Carolyn’s life is hell] three days and two defective AT&T devices later, the Virgin Wireless dongle arrives. [Imagine some more hellishness] I get it activated over the phone. It works, but only 3G, which is OK since I really only want it for the lights at this point.

3.5 Because I was in light withdrawal. What do you mean I have turn the switch to get the lights on? Why can’t I have pretty colors? I want my macaroon lights!! Why can’t the lights come on when I’m still in bed? Where’s the pretty purple strip of lights for the hallway?

4. I connected the 3G dongle to the wireless router [imagine yet another level of hell, but shorter lasting than all the rest] but the router tech support people gave me the info I needed and 10 minutes later I turned my sister’s room purple.

The moral

Things are way more complicated now.

The future

Our grandkids will roll their eyes when we shake a finger at them and tell them, why in our day, we had to turn on the lights. And then turn them off. And if the internet went out, you went out for pizza.

Posted in Anything but writing, Former Riskies | Tagged The future is now | 2 Replies