A Professional Dilettante

When you're not really sick enough to go to the doctor, you just don't feel good?

Ran a fever Monday night of over 100, was gone by morning, hasn't recurred.

Random mild stomach and bowel upsets off and on all week.

A runny nose on Wednesday, which hasn't recurred.

And I fell asleep for over an hour. In the wing chair. This afternoon. In the middle of the day. I don't do that. And I'm still feeling lethargic. It's not like I haven't been getting enough sleep at night this week, either.

Whatever this is, I just wish it would go away.

1038 words. Which is a very good day for me indeed.

7551 in total so far. If I was writing another book of True Gold's length, I'd be about 8% done. This one is going to be somewhat longer, I think. More like Repeating History's length, probably. Which means I have about 6% of a book. At least that's what the meter says. Snort. All predictions along this line are subject to change without notice.

I like James. I like him a lot. He reacts so entertainingly when I throw things at him. And he's been exceedingly patient for the last ten years for someone who is now doing a convincing imitation of a verbal fire hose.

As for the requested excerpts, I suspect I'd end up spoiling the book for someone (I left the last one at something of a cliffhanger), so, reluctantly, I'm going to have to decline.

I haven't posted a photo of Ivan and Teddy for three weeks. In that time they've both hit five pounds, so they've grown a lot.

So here for your viewing pleasure, Ivan and Teddy!


A sleepy Teddy on my lap.


The older Teddy gets, the more the ticking is creeping up his back. He looks positively tweed, doesn't he?


Ivan's got a very strange look on his face in this one, like he's eyeing me for some sort of mob crime. I love how his fur gleams, though. It's just gorgeous.

And the obligatory wrestling shots:




The first one's better quality, but I like the second one better.

So. In the last week or so:

1) The LJ kafoffle (solved, thanks to sraun).

2) My (practically brand new) cell phone died again. To quote Mick Jagger, I got no satisfaction, so I gave Net10 the heave-ho (with great difficulty, and I'm going to be watching my VISA bill like a hawk) and now have another phone (and number) with the help of a very good local friend.

3) Wordpress.com suddenly quit working today with the version of IE I can't upgrade from until kk1raven finishes (she's working as fast as she can -- this is most decidedly not complaining about her because I'm just grateful to be able to barter her services for some quilted placemats) figuring out how to make Thunderbird do what I need it to do.

4) I downloaded Firefox so I can keep posting to my Wordpress blog. It works abysmally slowly, and I can't figure out how to make the default font readable (size and typeface), but at least I can post to Wordpress with it, and keep using IE for everything else.

I think that's it for now. [crosses fingers]

No, it isn't. Something's wrong with the LJ/DW crosspost thing. So I'm manually crossposting. Sigh.

Oh, and I'm up to Chapter 3 in the New Thing, and up to Anchorage in the Megaera's Adventures in Alaska When I was Fourteen blog post series.

Total strangers contacting me to tell me how much they enjoyed my books and to ask me when the next one is coming and where they can go to find out when it is (next spring, I hope -- so far all I have written is one chapter, but I'm working on it -- and my blog: http://mmjustus.wordpress.com, respectively).

Never in a gazillion years.

The embed doesn't work, but here's the link, at any rate.

http://www.bing.com/videos/browse?mkt=en-us&vid=86545090-96ac-415b-9114-ca6459c1cc9f&from=sharepermalink&src=v5:share:sharepermalink:&from=dest_en-us

I love this stuff...

Would anyone be willing to help me by complaining to LJ that LJ's been blacklisted by Spamhaus?

It turns out that's why I'm all but blocked from using LJ (I can comment anonymously on other people's journals if they allow it, but I can't do anything else even when I'm logged into my own account).

I figure the bigger the fuss the more likely they are to do something about it. They've never responded to anything I've ever posted directly to them, so just me complaining isn't going to do any good.

Pretty please? Is that possible?

Apparently there's a problem between LJ and my ISP, and my email notifications from LJ aren't getting through to my email inbox, so LJ has decided that I can't post on LJ anymore.

Neither my ISP nor LJ is willing/able to do anything about it, so apparently the only choices I have are changing my ISP of over ten years, or giving up LJ. Or I suppose I could go through the rigmarole of setting up a web-based email account and remembering to check it, but I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO DO THAT.

Anyway, I can't even post on LJ to say why I've dropped off the face of the earth.

So if anybody asks, please tell them.

And if anyone has an idea of how to force LJ and iinet to play nice together, I'd appreciate it.

I'm leaving this as cross-posting on LJ just to see what happens. What I suspect will happen is a failed cross-posting, but hey...

ETA: Yes, I got a failed cross-posting.

So what can I say?

Teddy, who now weighs slightly over four pounds, on the left, and Ivan, who weighs slightly under four pounds, on the right. Ivan's eyes aren't quite as green as they used to be. He's old for them to still be changing, but they're migrating over closer to gold than green.

Why do some people insist that other people's gut feelings are wrong? Not different, but wrong?

Esp. after having it explained that while the brain understands why the intention of the subject in question may not have been what it feels like, the gut just -- doesn't?

It's like telling someone their opinion is wrong. Facts are one thing, and can be right or wrong. But opinions are just different from each other, even if they're radically unacceptable to the other side.

Oh, Bujold list, sometimes I'd like to squeeze your little throat until something pops loose.