All that is Gold Does Not Glitter

It isn't just the change of the calendar year that is getting me back to prioritizing writing. All the additional professional development activities I have taken on have settled down into a manageable day to day routine. It is good, and even fulfilling. Work life continues to frustrated, but in a way that is simply stressful not actually toxic.

So here I am writing nearly daily a lesbian sword fantasy pastiche of Sherlock Holmes. And for the past two weeks it is singing when I sit down to it. Most of my writing since I graduated has happened during Nano or Camps but this year my focus is setting and maintaining a reasonable pace. Writing at Nano pace I feel completely wrung out by the end of week two. I have no ideas and no words. 500-1000 words seems doable though.

In that spirit I pledged 200,000 words for Get Your Words Out.


[img: notebook and pen on wooden desktop with "GYWO 2019"
printed in large white letters with a black shadow. under that,
"writing decathlon" in handwritten white letters with a black shadow.]
GetYourWordsOut: Year Eleven!
Pledges & Requirements | GYWO.net

It was a good movie, but not necessarily a fun movie. I'm probably going to be in the minority on this one, and that is ok. I don't have a lot of emotional nostalgia for Wonder Woman. I remember reruns of the show playing in the same block with Battle Star Galactica. Battle Star Galactica won hands down on that front.

( Spoilers! )

That was a week. I haven't been to class or gone running or did any general training for my upcoming race. I did smooth things over with many departments, give two talks, attended a meeting for Sunday's parade, cleaned the house, cat sat, got a bit of reading done.

Last night was for collapsing, today is for picking up the pieces. I'm going to Kung Fu, but not Tai Chi. I'll go for a run and hit the gym after class. Then I'll pick up the usual weekly groceries, and give myself some freeish time. Reading though it sometimes feels like a project will count at free time.

Tomorrow most of the day will be devoted to the parade, and most of the remaining time after that to meal prep. I did ok with eating packed lunches, but my cooking was uninspired.

This weeks menu is a mushroom and white bean ragout, kale pecan and apple salad, and sheet pan chicken with squash and beets.

It was an easy going day in class. I stuck around for Sparring and Forms. Learned the next couple of moves for the next form. I think this one is called Five Wheel Fist.

Since most of us are doing outside strength training we worked an ab exercise called the dragon fly. And I did push ups.

At first I started this journal because I missed the fannish spaces of my youth. There is nothing relaxing or escapist about Tumblr these days. When I was younger I never got around to writing fic, and that is still a thing I would like to do. I miss having people post primarily on their own blogs because I really like learning something about the writer and the things they brought to their work. I was very much a lurker. I never got around to those things because I was busy going to school and working full time, working more than full time to go to school, than working at paid work, unpaid work, and going to school.

All of this to become an archivist, a professional lurker of sorts.

In the past couple of years I have struggled a bit to find what my projects will be for the next chapter in my life.

I've settled on three all of which tell me I have an aversion to making significant amounts of money. Outside of my job I practice martial arts, read about archaeology, and write a little fiction.

For the past year I've been saving up to go work on a dig in Mongolia. That happens in about two months. Mongolia, and I've never been farther than Canada.

Oh and I still do Fandom: I've been into Doctor Who for the majority of my life, and I found Stargate two years ago. One of these days I'll get around to writing in one of those universes.