Reporting.

Well, I'm almost done with my Comic Con reports. I have a gaming-related report to do, and then a short blurb about some X-Men cartoons I inadvertently previewed, and then I'm free.

Ideally, I should be updating my website tomorrow, but since I haven't made anything and I don't have a place set up for photography, it's probably not going to happen. I really need to get back to beading. I'm starting to worry that I'm going to become one of those people who simply stops beading, and given all the time, money, and most importantly, love that I have invested into it, that's a pretty scary thought.

I guess I had no idea how much moving would throw me out of whack. It changed a lot of things about my life and my daily rituals, and I'm still trying to get settled in with the new routine. And of course, it doesn't help that I had the BFAC deadline and Comic Con this month, so that put a whole lot of chaos in my life. Enjoyable chaos, but chaos nonetheless.

Unless we take off for NY, I should be able to spend August getting my act together.

Getting things done

I decided to start with my writing yesterday, since it had a definite deadline. I wrote my convention report, but it's way too long, so today I need to pare it down and then work on my related articles. Everything will be posted at Collector Times on Friday, and I'll share those links then, in case any of you want to know what all I was up to while I was gone.

Although the whole Comic Con experience was exhausting, and I didn't get enough sleep, and I really abused my back, shoulders, and legs, I feel somewhat refreshed by it. I definitely needed a break from the hassle of getting settled into the house, and it's good to go and meet a bunch of people who share your interests and are just as enthusiastic to be there as you are.

I'm feeling pretty inspired, too. I want to make time to bead again, I want to keep working on my book, I want to dance, and after going to the steampunk panel, I really want to learn how to sew and get busy making Victorian-inspired clothes. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to get all this done, but I have a feeling it's going to involve less time on the internet and video games, and maybe less time watching DVDs, and just more discipline in general.

But the important thing right now is to get some articles written! Everything else has to wait until next month.

Where to start?

I am back from San Diego! Remember what I said about maybe blogging a bit while I was there? Yeah. I didn't really account for being exhausted every night! The convention was great, but really, really draining. That said, I'm already thinking about going back next year.

The funny thing was, I'd be sitting in an hour-long line for a panel that I wanted to get into, and I'd be thinking "This sucks! Why am I here? I can't wait to just go home!" and then I'd get into the panel, and my thoughts would switch to "This is so awesome! I'm so glad I waited in line! I can't wait to tell everyone about this!"

So, the title of this post isn't so much about where to start on the post, but where to start on everything that I need to do now that I'm home. Do I begin by writing my convention report, which is due on Thursday? Or should I turn my immediate attention to unpacking? How about some housework, to undo all the destruction my cats wrought while I was gone?

Decisions, decisions.

Whatever I'm going to do, I'd better get down to it. I've already spent about 3 hours on the computer, catching up on e-mail and web stuff. So much for spending less time on the Internet.

Internet, stop eating my time.

Last night I intended to write. It was around midnight. I figured I had 2 good hours to work on my book before going to sleep.

Instead, I spent the evening goofing off on Facebook and reading stuff on humor sites. Ugh!

Thinking about it, the most productive time I've had recently is on Saturday, when I unplugged the cable modem and router because of a thunderstorm, and sat here writing on my laptop. Without the internet to distract me, I was forced to work on my book instead of procrastinate.

Once I get back from Comic Con, it's time once again to try to put myself on a schedule to ensure that I actually get things done in a day. I could accomplish so much more than I do. I just need to strike a good balance between being on-line enough to stay in touch with my friends and make new friends, while still leaving myself enough time to bead, write, and do housework.

I just looked up the hotel we're staying at for Comic Con, and I'm pretty excited. It's practically right on the water! How cool is that? And it has a fridge, so we can stash some food and drinks in the room. And there's internet! Hooray! I'm leaving my laptop at home, but Chris plans to bring his, so I may blog a bit from San Diego.

Tomorrow I need to clean the pictures off of my camera. I intend to take a lot of photos at the convention. Anyone in a good faerie costume or dressed up like a bellydancer better be prepared to have me pester them for photographs. Of course, it looks like my wings are going to arrive in time, so I'm going to be getting pestered myself!

I might even make some time tomorrow to put together a quickly necklace to go with my official Collector Times shirt. I bought the cute little tanktop instead of a t-shirt, so there's room for a necklace.

Busy week ahead

So, I'm leaving for Comic Con on Wednesday. We'll spend most of Weds driving to CA, then spend Thurs-Sat and maybe a little of Sunday at the convention. Should be awesome. Too bad my faerie wings still haven't arrived. Well, I still have 2-3 days to get them, depending on if we leave before the mail comes on Weds. I swear, if we leave early on Weds and they arrive right after I leave, there will be no end to my griping.

There are a few things I need to do before the convention, such as find my dayplanner so I can keep track of all the panels, signings, and stuff that I want to go to; get together all the pieces for the costumes I'll wear; make a present for my editor to thank her for making this possible; get everything in order to make it easy for my Mom to take care of the cats and plants while I'm gone; get a sketchbook and notebook for for collecting sketches and taking notes; and lots of other things that I'm forgetting at the moment (kind of like how I forgot to buy a sketchbook at the bookstore today).

I don't know if it's showing in my writing or not, but I just realized from how I'm fidgeting that I am totally wired. I bought this cherry and pomegranate energy drink today, because I thought that the two fruits would taste good together (and they do). Chris was looking at it, and said "An energy drink, huh?" and I said "Yeah, but it's just a little guarana and some vitamins, I don't think it will make me too hyper." Oh, how wrong I was. I definitely have enough energy to go do my housework now.

Anyway, writing is going well, life is good, I really will try to blog more often now, and we had an awesome storm last night. It was pouring rain, and there was a bunch of lightning and thunder right overhead. I'm hoping for a repeat performance tonight. Come on clouds, you can do it!

Hello beading, I've missed you!

Last night I decided to take my beads to the game. My current project isn't super-portable, but I took it anyway. I knew I'd have some downtime while the guys goofed off, and I've really wanted to finish that rivoli project that I started before the move. I got a bit of work done on it -- finished the other half of the spiral rope. But then I reached the part where I need to fringe it, and I hit a problem.

You see, when I did the first half, I figured I'd be doing the second half soon thereafter. You know, maybe a few days between, a week at most if things got busy. I did not count on over a month! And I didn't write anything down. So I'm going to have to take a close look at the fringe and count how many beads I used. Definitely not something I want to do while half a dozen guys are talking and gaming around me. So I'll probably do that tonight or tomorrow.

I've been writing, too. I did some on Monday and Tuesday. I almost started writing last night after the game, but I felt like I'd probably be up until 5am if I did. I should really be rotating my sleep schedule to fall asleep earlier, since I'll need to get up in the mornings for Comic Con... but whenever I write, I start to stay up later and later. I'm going to go do some writing now, and see if I can get it out of my system early in the day and maybe fall asleep at a decent hour. I must be bright and chipper for the convention!

Anyway, writing is awesome. I'm really excited about how my book is shaping up. I feel like the characters and situations are much better developed than they were in any of my previous attempts to write this story. This might actually go somewhere.

Things and Stuff.

I had quite the busy weekend. We had my parents over for a BBQ Sunday night, so I spent the weekend cleaning, running errands, and arranging the house. The BBQ was a success, which made us both very happy. We've had friends drop by for visits to see the house, but this was our first time hosting something semi-official, and Chris's first time grilling.

Today I was feeling pretty run down, partially due to all those errands and cleaning, so I decided to be lazy. I got pretty much nothing done. Tomorrow I need to be much more productive. I'm hoping to maybe even get back to beading tomorrow. At some point this week, I want to put some more work into setting up my bead/sewing/craft room. Of course, I'll get it done just in time to leave for Comic Con... but at least I'll be all set to be productive when I get back!

I'm pretty excited about the convention. I've been getting lots of e-mails about different panels, previews, and demos, most of which I'm not very interested in. I know there will be things that interest me there, I'm just not getting e-mailed about them. I even got a CALL today about some presentation about two movies. The funny thing is that I know the book one of them is based on is very popular, and the movie is highly anticipated, but I just don't care. And the other movie is a stupid raunchy comedy, which overwhelms any curiosity about whether the first movie is all it's cracked up to be.

I just have to hope that my new faerie wings arrive in the mail before the convention! I can wear my costume without them, but it won't be as much fun.

Evil Steampunk Faeries!!!!!

Yes, I'm finally back to blogging, and what brought me back is the need to tell you about the awesomeness of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.

Did I mention the evil steampunk faeries? Oh yeah, that's right, it's the title of the post. Seriously. The movie needed more of 'em. Like non-stop nothing but evil steampunk faeries. They were pretty amazing, what with their weapons and weird facial scars and army of indestructible robots. Sure, I guess the good guys were cool, too, and they also had some rather steampunk gear at their disposal, but they weren't faeries. It's hard to compete with that.

I have to say, the movie's main weakpoint was the drama between the characters, which felt kind of cliche and predictable. Everything else was very well-done. Good acting, amazing effects, sweet action scenes. Lots of faeries, trolls, and goblins. Cool sets. Neato weapons. And a few laugh-out-loud moments. Also, faeries princesses have awesome fashion sense. How I want that blue dress!

If I had to make one actual complaint about Hellboy II, it's that the trailers (which I've seen repeatedly) show pretty much every single faerie and creature that's in the movie. Sure, you get to see more of them and learn about them in the film, but there were very few surprises, you know? How much cooler would they have been if I hadn't already seen them a dozen times? Granted, the trailers got me all fired up about the movie, but they could have done that without showing me everything.

In non evil steampunk faerie news, we're still settling into the house. It takes forever to unpack and figure out where we want everything! I'm enjoying life here, though there's certainly a lot more work involved than in apartment life. Much more cleaning, and a yard to maintain, in addition to all the work of settling in. The work is worth the reward, however. It's so much nicer and quieter here, and I definitely feel a lot of pride of ownership.

Not a lot of beading going on, and I'm clearly just not going to get around to updating this month. I have a lot of BFAC stuff going on, plus I'm going to Comic Con in less than 2 weeks. I haven't even been writing much lately. Or dancing. The lack of creative outlet is getting to me, though, so I'm going to try to set some time aside this weekend.

More tomorrow. I don't want to write a novel.