04-08-04 @ 10:54 am EDT

This thing is getting more hits on private than it did on public. That's very weird.

I got a fourth merit badge yesterday. I'll thank the person who sent it, though I can't do that this morning. I've been trying (for the hundredth time) to be more reliable in replying to reviews. So far I think she is the only one I have not replied to yet (not counting my regulars, who know what to expect from me--at least, I hope they do), and mainly because she sent along so many reviews, it would take me longer than I have today to type up a response. (I just spent like a half hour on a review. I hope I don't regret that. *sigh*)

So I really hope I can do that tomorrow, because I know if I put it off much longer I'll never get it done.

I was going to post the next two or even three parts of RTMI this morning, but I need to pace myself. That story is one of the very few things which gains me attention, without me resorting to whining (ugh), so posting everything at once means all attention at once, then no attention until I write the next part. I should wait a bit longer before posting any more of it. I just started Part 48, I think, this morning.

I changed my writing schedule as with the way it was I was just not getting anything done. I used to alternate reading and transcribing from around 6-8 AM, then go online from 9-11 AM, then log off and try writing from 11-bedtime PM. (Supposed to be around one, but with the way I drag myself to bed, usually around two...*sigh*) While the reading and transcribing moved along nicely (except for me always dozing off in the middle of transcribing...doesn't matter WHAT time I do it), my writing was just glacial or nonexistent. I find that when I log off (usually AFTER eleven), there's this little period of time in which I waste time checking the snail mail, wandering the house, finding something to eat or drink, bugging the cat, looking at my numerous writing files in frustration, and just in general not getting anything done. And by the time I settle down to write, IF I even feel like writing (which I usually don't), it's just too late. My stories got nowhere. And I would always go to bed feeling very guilty. :/

Oddly, I found that I always seemed to WANT to write...when I was too busy transcribing!

So now, I go to transcribe from around 6-6:30, then go out and write from around 6:30-8 AM, when I have to wake Ma up. (She's a very heavy sleeper...I have to stay in there and maintain her wakefulness until it's time for her to leave. Oh, and keep her company, too.) Go online from 9-11, as always. Log off and IF I still feel like writing, do so until whenever. And I try to fit some of my transcribing in during the evening along with reading. (I'm trying very hard to learn how to read with background noises all around me, like I used to be able to do. Some limited success, which is more than nothing.)

Results, I have gotten a LOT more writing done...as proven by the latest chapters of RTMI, which would not even be there, or at least would be MUCH slower, if I were still trying to write after eleven. I'm glad I listened to what my imagination was telling me whenever I was in there trying to transcribe while scenes were flitting through my head. At the moment RTMI and TAC are warring with each other for my attention; RTMI keeps winning out since it gets attention, but TAC is REALLY harping at me. Rather annoying that I can't just work on both every day.

As for the transcription, I'm currently on Tape 34/64, in late January 1997. Based on an illustration in my sketchbooks there might be one of my earliest examples of a "darkness falling" dream coming up on the 26th...*cross fingers* If I really push it I can finish one tape every four days. Going at this rate it should take me another four months before I am done, and that's just the paper transcription...not the typing, titling, and proofing. -_- *sigh*

Sometimes I like doing it, but other times I feel like climbing up a wall and screaming and tearing my hair out. Sometimes I feel like doing that just because, you know. Like sitting at the computer doing the normal thing, I'll just feel like rolling off the chair and rolling around and yelling in frustration. No particular reason either. I think it's an ADD thing, I'm not sure. But one can take only so many "I was at the store with Ma" or "I was in a class at school" dreams before one starts to seriously lose it.

I keep getting buttloads of viruses in my bulk e-mail. I want to murder someone.

I just ran out of things to say. o_o

Tar...