The New Floodgates of the Mind

With all honesty, I hope everyone reading this has an amazing Holiday with their friends and loved ones. Karine, Chantale and I had a wonderful time last night and we look forward to getting together again. GMarc, it was great seeing you last night. Chantale thinks you’ll make a wonderful dad based on how you were with Mathieu 🙂

I’m sitting here at work waiting for Chantale to come by so we can catch the 3:15 train and go home. My team is slowly dispersing, going home for the long Xmas weekend and I’m again feeling grateful for their loyalty and friendship. I braved the elements earlier to get the Comicopia covers taken care of which means that Comicopia 86 will be in the mail next week.

And now, to end off this post, I couldn’t help but include another Fast Fiction piece for the bah humbug folks out there 🙂 I call this My Eyes Burn: I Can See Your Revenge

I realize I haven’t been around in over a week now, so I figure it’s time for an update!

Thursday afternoon I went for a Gum Graft operation. Ouch. Really. I was so pumped full of novacaine and still it hurt. But, it was quite an interesting experiment as well. As I writer, it intrigues me to go through things like this. As I sat there in the chair and watched (what little I could) of the dentist as she sliced away at my gum and then at my palette, I was whisked away to my “office” and “wrote” in my head what I was experiencing, getting ready to include it in a story in some fashion 🙂 Afterwards, I got my painkillers but never actually needed any. The few times during the week that I was in pain was more like a headache than anything and my Migraine Advil’s worked great.

Friday morning, after a much-needed haircut, Chantale, Casey, and I took off for Lac St. Jean to spend a few days up at Grandma’s. Long drive, but so worth it! Spent all the time just lounging around relaxing (outside of one shopping spree). I managed to get through a number of graphic novels (even finishing off Essential Dracula #3 in one day! Yow!)

We drove back to town on Tuesday and I came in to work yesterday. I can’t say I’ve been feeling too well since then, though, as I’ve been constantly tasting blood. I do believe my palette is still bleeding at times. That, plus the itching of the stitches on my gums has been making me grumpy. Last night and this morning, every time I bent down, I feel like my left eyeball is just going to explode out of my head. Not fun at all. Especially when you add the fact that I ached all over this morning, as though I’m fighting something. In fact, after my management meeting this morning, I may end up going home. Hopefully some rest/ sleep will help. I have to call my dentist, however, as she has to remove my stitches and that compound that’s protecting it. If I can get that done without throwing up on her, I’ll be quite happy.

Also, unfortunately, although Comicopia is 98% complete, I’m not ready to send it out yet. I need to get the covers done and pick up some mailers (the “great white envelopes”) to send them off to members. As a Christmas tease, let me just tell those of you reading that all members will receive another gift this issue 🙂

I realized it’s been a while since I wrote any Fast Fiction. Thus, I put my hand to it again this morning and gave it another shot. Considering I’ve spent the last month+ writing fun goofy heroes, it was actually very difficult to get back into the mindframe of the MC from this series. Anyhow, for those easily disturbed, it is behind the cut.

My Eyes Burn: I Can See You Die

No news is good news? I guess sometimes it is. Other times it just means that there’s too much going on. 🙂 Final church newsletter done. Tonight, I ship it out to the masses (hey! a pun! :>). Comicopia, 3 sections in and ready to copy. Covers ready to copy. Still awaiting a few. Deadline is friday buuuuuut….

I’ve got a gum graft scheduled for tomorrow afternoon. ouch. That means that Comicopia takes a small back seat and will only be in the mail mid next week.

Chantale is now working at Optimal Payments and it’s wonderful being able to come to work together and to see that she’s appreciated and happy there. That job came in out of the blue and so far it’s been great.

This weekend, we’re heading up to Lac St. Jean to visit Chantale’s Grandparents since we won’t have a chance to go for Xmas or New Year’s. This makes it a very short week this week and next and the one after that! 🙂 I get the kids on the evening of December 26th all the way to the morning of January 3rd. I’m so happy about that 🙂 I can never get enough of my kids and it’s absolutely marvelous having them over. This past weekend, after James’ handball tournament, we got home and set up the lights and the tree. Fun, homey, warm… “nice” 🙂

Picked up some DVDs last night – xmas gifts to myself mainly 🙂 Finally, Clerks X is in my hands. On friday, I actually also got an advance copy of Quantum Leap Season 2!! Woo! A great price at Wal-Mart. By the way, Karine, Gargoyles 1st season is now on sale at Future Shop as well. I picked it up for $27.99 and look forward to seeing it, but am waiting for the kids since James is also a big fan 🙂 (have I mentioned I have a Gargoyles place mat? 🙂 )

Okay, enough rambling. Gotta get back to my battles. Here’s hoping the time away will actually help me to unwind because right now, I just can’t seem to do so. Work is constantly on my mind and I seem to constantly be on the go-Go-GO. It’s tiring. But, The Mysterious Minute-Men Year 1 is complete (20k), Year 2 is in progress (with some places to grow!), and Ready for the Future has begun serializing in Comicopia 86. I’ll be working on Y2, Y3, and the Specials during the weekend as I’m still aiming to have a complete Collector’s Edition book out in January.

January is also to bring something new which I can’t discuss yet until the deal is done 🙂

I finally had enough of all the Spam coming through my savageland account. it’s just way beyond ridiculous. Unfortunately, I don’t have the ability to simply allow one or multiple specific emails to be forwarded to another account (unless I pay for that) – it’s all or nothing.

And so, after logging into over 300 spam messages a day in the mailbox I use to collect all mails sent to savageland dot com, I have effectively de-activated the forwarding feature. Thus, anyone out there reading this who used to email me at whatever account name I gave you (at) savageland, stop using it. Ain’t gonna work no more.

Sadly, I will soon be forced to do the same with comicopia. Meaning, any mails sent to info at comicopia dot net will soon end up bouncing. dammit.

triply unfortunately, even my MAIN email account has now fallen into the wrong hands and I’m wiping out about 50 spam messages a day there. damn bloody frustrating.

i hate spammers. burn in hell you money hungry, money grubbing, useless excuse for humans, scum sucking wastes of breath. and lots more violently swearing words I’ve decided I don’t want to type to protect sensitive eyes.

I don’t know what happened this month, but everything seems to be both too big and too busy. I’m swamped, I’m lost, and I’m sometimes overwhelmed. And something’s got to give. There’s just too much to do and nowhere near enough time to do it in. Thus, I’ve had to make some decisions.

#1 – This will have to be my last year on Parents Council as the Secretary. I’ve begun feeling ambivalent over the whole thing and although I know that I’m very valuable, respected, and needed, I can’t keep giving up 2 nights a month to something where I don’t see the payoff.

#2 – This will have to be my last month as the Newsletter Editor/ Distributor for the Church. I have no time, desire, inclination, or energy to keep chasing folks for information to include in the newsletter. If they want me to help distribute it electronically, I will simply convert whatever Word file they send me. But to continue what I’ve been doing for over 3 years now, no. I’ve made my mark, I’ve built an incredible newsletter, but I’m wiped now.

#3 – Online. Just not happening. Too busy at work and time too precious. I’ve practically stopped all evening activities and my day has to be changed. To that effect, I’m going to cut out all those LJ communities I was reading, especially the more vocal ones which I can’t keep up on and the newsfeeds.

C’est la vie. I’m just taking it back.

I’m just busy. And when I’m not busy, I’m tired.

My Dad turned 69 yesterday! Woo! I called him on Wednesday, thinking it was Thursday, and wished him a happy birthday. He and my Mom laughed at me when they pointed out that date fact. I simply said, “I guess this means that something’s gonna happen and I won’t be able to call tomorrow!” Sure enough, that’s what happened. My day was a blur and ended up late. I worked through lunch and past 6pm twice this week. I don’t think I’ve done that here in YEARS. Can you tell all the holiday season / domestication/ new year end process support preparation work is going on? Oi.

And as for sleep… ye gads I don’t know what’s going on. I have had -on average- about 4 hours of sleep per night this week. PER NIGHT. Take last night for example. I only started getting sleepy at around 11:30pm. Of course, by the time lights out (or eyes shut) came for me, it was close to 1am. At 5:12am BOING! My eyes pop wide open. I toss and turn for another 90 minutes until I figure -screw this- and get up. Bah. Weird thing is I’m fully functional and awake and don’t even fall asleep in the train! Close to an hour and I’m not knocking nails.

I slept more when I was putting back 2 to 3 coffees a day. Now that I have one ever other morning… bah.

I would hazard a guess and state that I have a lot on my mind.

Hooo boy…

I’m starting to feel the effects from last night… Seeing as it was November 30th, Chantale and I decided to spend some time on our NaNo Novels after supper just to enjoy a bit of the last-minute mad dash. It was fun racing the clock and trying to update our word counts before the deadline, just as it was hysterical reading all the emails flowing through and the messages being posted on the Montreal NaNo forum.

I don’t think I got to sleep before 2am. Which made a 6:30am wakeup quite difficult. And yet, I didn’t even attempt to nap on the train or anything! I came into work and got cracking on the monthly stats. Now, as I’m closing off the last of the automated reports, I’m feeling my eyes start to weigh heavy and the thought of going to sleep is very alluring…

Final NaNo word count is 57,914. As a comparison, the stories which make up The Mysterious Minute-Men Year One rounds off at a little over 19k. However, as I’m working to revise that compilation (as well as the Year Two, Year Three, and Spotlight/ Specials) those numbers will grow with the format. It will be interesting to look back in a few months and tally the total Minute-Men word count (which doesn’t include the Newsletters, however). Wow.

I’m suddenly glad to have a laptop again. Now I only wish it were properly portable and didn’t have a battery that gave up the ghost after less than 2 minutes of juice…

“Well I won’t back down,
No I won’t back down,
You can stand me up at the gates of hell,
But I won’t back down

No I’ll stand my ground, won’t be turned around,
And I’ll keep this world from draggin me down,
gonna stand my ground,
… and I won’t back down

Chorus:
(I won’t back down…)
Hey baby, there ain’t no easy way out,
(and I won’t back down…)
hey I will stand my ground,
and I won’t back down”

-Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

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I remember George Harrison…

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I’ve made a decision to stay away from sweets until Xmas time. Lead me not into temptation, I can find my own way and even sell you a map. This is not to say I will refuse desserts at family suppers/ etc, but I will stay away from all the available sweets encroaching upon the workspace these days…

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Weird mood/ feeling today. Don’t know if it’s the dark, don’t know if it’s the bouts of insomnia, don’t know if it’s the desire to simply sit in front of my computer and WRITE and not being able to due to work responsibilities, don’t know if it’s the SAD (but glad to always be familiar enough with the blue funk to catch it before it overpowers me. Thankfully, Chantale is amazing as my full-time “Happy Pill” :-)), don’t know if it’s the encroaching end of NaNo for another year, or the full-out “stuff” I have to do…

I guess I’m just looking forward to going home and snuggling with my wife, and shutting out the rest of the world…

Well that’s it! I just put the final period in my last chapter of The Mysterious Minute-Men’s biggest adventure. Validated on the NaNo website and final count being 55,024 words! Magical, I tell ya. In fact, I have to STOP myself from adding to it, just so I can have a completed saga to show a few folks 🙂

My Winner certificate is signed and hanging outside my cubicle for all to see and worship, and I’m batting off requests from folks who want to read it. All in good time, my friends, all in good time 🙂

Now I’ve got a number of interesting questions to respond to in regards to my NaNo experience so I should get to those. Heck, the questions are so valid and ones I’ve asked myself during my experience that I’ll probably post my answers up here and the Montreal NaNo forum if not Comicopia.

Peace out, folks! I’m in a great mood! 🙂 And here’s a sneak peek at the cover. Click it for a larger view, or wait for the printout!