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April 1999
Hello and welcome to my journal!
My stats are here: Stats.
Please visit the archives for past journals and more!
Also, visit the NAW homepage for other web journals!
Stories in Training: The Sandman (SS)
Stories awaiting assignment: A Devil of a Night (SS), Murders, Miracles, and Morality(Formerly Untitled SF) (SS), The Guardians (SS)
Stories awaiting re-hab: Jeriath's Quest (SS), Erin Glen I (N)
Stories in re-hab: NONE
Progress:
Story Dare: 6 weeks is up and I completed 2 1/2 stories. ::sigh::
EG I edit: 3 pages (on hold now)
TS: 3650 words
FR: 0 words (on hold)
April 23, 1999:
Make that today I have the pictures up, I hope. I've been having terrible troubles with my FTP still. I'm connected now and sending the huge pictures now. I hope I can get them all up.
I had decided just to move back to Geocities, but the moment I logged on to my file manager it was up to it's old tricks again, big time! You see there is a page that I get stuck on. I'm not even
trying to go to that page, it will just come up sometimes. And I mean I get stuck on it. Any page I try to go to after that, 5 seconds later it will reappear. The MOST frustrating thing about both
these problems is that neither Xoom or Geocities has any complaint department. I can find no way to contact them via e-mail or any other way for that matter. I decided to check out some of the other
popular free web sites and all of them use FTP's as well. I wish there was another one like Geocities with their EZ upload. Until the problem with the page stuck thing, I never had a problem with Geocities.
If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. :)
Writing news: I got a great idea for an S&S short! I've been trying to think of one and finally got it. I just hope I can write it, get it critiqued by a few readers and edit it in time.
BTW- notice the links in the entry below for Z's pictures! :) TTFN!
April 17, 1999:
I've finally got the pictures up. I went Thursday all the way to Meridian just to get them and Wal-mart didn't have them in. Not only were they late coming in, but
they also tried to charge me $2 more for them. That's the second time we've had the free 20 exp. rolls developed and they tried to charge us too much for them.
Anyway, here they are: Pictures. They will take forever to load. If you don't want to wait, you can check out the best of
the pictures. I just hope my FTP will now work once this is all ready to transfer. I'd better shut down my 'puter first too. Those pictures have really slowed down my 32 mg
'puter. It can't even keep up as I type this.
In writing news, I recieved a helpful rejection from XX(10 days). I'm going to work on this story before I send it again.
I'm hoping to get busy and at least finish Sandman this week. Although I have many things requiring my time. My sister asked me about starting up the e-zine idea I'd had a year ago.
She and I are going to edit it together. It's a non-paying e-zine for Christian women. I'll put more info up at a later time including a link. I'm doing all the web design for it, so
that will keep me pretty busy. Also, Drazil is becoming increasingly less tame and I haven't taken the time with him that I should. I'm going to start trying to spend about an hour a day with him.
Also, Z requires training and play time every day. He is a natural on the leash. I try to praise him more often when he's doing well and scold him when he won't do as I ask. Some days I have to pop
him on the nose when he won't obey. I didn't have to tonight and we went MUCH farther than usual, a mile and a half! Also, speaking of things taking up time, I also haven't read fully the most
recent issue of Speculations(which is a great magazine) and many of the Dark Matter Chronicles. I got way behind on reading them because I didn't have a pdf reader. Well, let me try to ftp all those pictures and such.
I hope the FTP is working tonight. TTFN.
April 11, 1999:
Quick note today, my FTP is working at the moment. This page will probably be moving back to Geocities again. ::sigh:: Xoom needs to get it together.
Z went to the vet today, he still has worms and we are to give him another pill in 10 days. And, our scale was wrong, he weighs 5 1/2 lbs! :) I guess that's all for today.
April 10, 1999:
Update on yesterdays news: After talking more fully with the truck driver (the previous info was gathered from bits and peices from
telephone conversations) I discovered what really happened. The car had been traveling in front of the truck with several vehicles in between.
The car had been traveling on the highway (in a 55 mph zone) at 35 mph or less and really ticking off the other drivers. The truck driver finally
found a place to pass where the other vehicles couldn't see because they were so low. The semi was just about to pass the lead car when the said car
decided to make a left turn and pull into the other lane to do so. In the process they hit the semi (which is not a good thing to do when you're in a
itty bitty car). The car's front fender hit the trucks front fender and wheel. Then the car was knocked away and the back end hit the wheels on the
trailer. What's really sad is the driver of the car was a student driver and the instructor told them to make the turn. The police officers at the scene
gave citations to the student driver and the instructor.
Someone from a nearby body shop came to look at the truck(which ended up in the front yard of the church building next door). At first everyone thought that
just the two front tires had been slashed in the braking and ditching process. When the body shop/wrecker came, it was discovered that the axel or spring had
busted as well and the truck was undrivable to make it to Mobile. Also, the body shop people had no way to tow the big thing, nor the tires to put on it, so someone
from Meridian, MS had to be called to come and tow it. The trailer would remain in the church parking lot until someone from the company could come and retrieve
it. Well, when the truck driver moved the truck about 20 or so feet and unhitched the trailer, another catatrophe happened. It sunk into the gravely parking lot about
a foot and a half. So, when the wreaker got here, the first thing he did was hoist it up and put it on blocks. It was neat to watch him lift the huge thing. The
driver told us that it had 79,000 lbs. of paper to be recylced in the trailer. First he put a hydrolic lift under the trailer, but then when he tried to lift it,
the front end of the wrecker was being lifted off the ground (I forgot to mention the lift was on the back of the truck). So then he had to put these 'things' into the
ground to add support for the truck. The best way I can describe it, was that they looked like huge snow shovels that dug deep into the ground, one on each side of the
lift on the back of the truck. Then once it was lifted high enough, the lift then went horizontally backwards and blocks were placed under the 'legs' of the trailer.
The trailer was picked up sometime this afternoon while we were out of town.
Today's news: We were planning on catching a matinee this afternoon of 'The Matrix'. I had planned on leaving around 11:30 or 12. I was sleeping in this morning (oh did
it feel good not to have to be up at 5), and at 9:30 I got up to use the bathroom. While I was trying to decide whether or not to go back to bed for a bit, the phone rang.
Now you need just a bit of background history on this subject that I've never discussed here. We used to have a BUNCH of cats and we ended up giving one away, one got hit by
a car and the rest had ran away. One returned and stayed about 3 months until around December or January, he ran away again or died (who knows?). Well the first time he ran
away, we thought 'Maybe now we'll get a puppy and maybe he won't run away.' Well, the cat returned. He was such a sweet cat that I didn't want to give him away, nor did I
really want him to run away, but we were getting our hearts set on getting a puppy. That was last summer and of course he had returned. But now that he'd been gone for about 4
months, we really started to warm up to the idea. Plus the fact that I was asking James about puppy names to help out Diana also had us wanting one. Well, about two weeks ago,
we tried to locate the local pound. We had heard rumors there was one, but with such a small town many thought it had closed down. Finally our search ended up at the dispatcher's
office. We'd been there before, you have to go there to get keys to the tennis courts. But anyway, I asked if there was a pound, or at the very least, a dog catcher. She said
that there was a dog catcher for the county and she tried to get a hold of him that day to see if he had any puppies at the moment. She thought he had two half-grown pups. Also,
her and another man there started laughing about a dog that recently had been arrested. Appearantly, this dog had been causing trouble in a neighborhood, knocking over trash cans and such.
Well, the owners were notified about keeping the beast on a chain, but they refused. So they issued a 'warrant' for the 'arrest' of this dog. I thought they were joking, but, even
though they were laughing about it, it evidently happened. Anyway, so this morning I was trying to decide whether or not to go back to bed, when the phone rang. It was the dispatcher
and she said that the dog catcher had picked up 4 puppies that morning. She gave me his number and by 10:00 (it took me awhile to get James out of bed, he'd been up till 4) we were at his
house. There was two girl puppies and two boy puppies. The two girls looked alike, they both reminded me of dobermans, black with tan markings. Both the dog catcher and James
called them black labs though. The two boy puppies looked similar, both black and white. One looked sorta like spuds mackenzie dog and the other, well, he's just a rolly polly black
and white 'thing'. You can tell he's part lab, but so much of a mix that it's hard to tell what he is. We decided to pick the latter. James thought he looked alot like a dog he
had as a kid, and I just thought he was cute. I liked the others too, but since James liked this one, I didn't want to argue. We took him home, gave him a bath, looked up puppy names
on the net for the next two hours. We finally ran across one that reminded me of the sun god Ra, and I said, why don't we name him something about egypt. We kicked around Ramesses,
pharoah, Tut, and a few others. We almost went with pharoah, but decided to go with Zatenaph. It's Vizier Joseph's name in Egypt. Joseph has always been my favorite of the Old
Testament Bible characters. We're calling him 'Z' for short.
Well, by the time we had his name picked out, it was about 1:00. We got to talking about how the time flew by and I said, 'Well, what do you expect, we've been in puppy love all morning!" :)
We needed puppy food and toys, so we decided to catch our matinee anyway and pick up the stuff in Meridian. He'd just eaten food at the dog catchers and we left plenty of food out for him. Also,
we'd already bought worming tablets at the Co-op on the way home from getting him and he was supposed to take them on an empty stomach, 12 hours after his last meal. We ended up feeding him when
we got home anyway. We bought one sqeaky chew toy, about 4 pig skin chews, a box of treats, and some Iams puppy food. They were out of Science Diet Puppy, so we chose Iams. He really likes it,
He chowed down a bunch when we got home. I don't blame the little guy, we stayed much too long. Then, to make matters worse for the little guy, we took him for a walk on a full tummy. I know,
we are mean owners. I thought he was going to be sick about three times. We finally picked him up and carried him. He seemed to love following us around though. He did wonderfully on a leash
too. I was worried, since after I read Diana's entry about Zeus not doing well at that. I worked with him a bit, calling him to come to me and praising him when he did. I also scolded him
when he didn't come. He was doing very well until James came out to meet us for the walk, then he wanted to go see James too. Then during the walk, either he would get right under my feet, or right
under James' feet. So, James walked just a bit in front of me and to the side and Z liked to just follow him.
Actually, about the name Zaphenat (the ph and t are reversed in some writings, but I think this form is correct), I was just now looking in my book 'Pharaohs and Kings', actually means: 'he who is
called'. Joseph's Egyptian name in the bible was really two parts: Zaphenat-Pa'aneah. First of all, we must remember that translations from Egypt to Hebrew to English are not perfect, by any means
(Even if it is the Bible). The second half, believed by a certain man named Kitchen, is a form of life, the word 'ankh' (from the aneah). This could be because Joseph was a 'life-giver' to the Egyptians
by prophesying about the 7 good years and the 7 years of famine. By knowing ahead of time, Joseph was able to store up the excess grain from the good years to feed the people during the famine (side note:
this made that particular pharoah (I think it was Ramesses, but no one knows for sure) very powerful and weathy because the people gave him their farming land as payment for the food, he then forced them
to farm it during the years following the famine). Anyway, so maybe Zaphenat isn't a good name for him, but he seems to already be taken to 'Z'. Maybe we should just add the Pa'aneah part too? What do
you think?
Well, I guess that should be all for today, I've given ya'll some hefty reading today. A lot has happened these last two days. Oh, and by the way, expect to see some pictures by the end of this week.
We took an entire 20 exposure roll of film, mostly on Z, and a few on Drazil. The film is dropped off at the developing place and we should pick it up on Wednesday or maybe Thursday if we can't make it there on
Wed. He is soooo cute. He has a white stripe up his nose and the rest of his head is black except his cheek/jaw area has a tan spot on both sides, the rest of him is white with black spots. His little
pink tummy is speckled with little black spots, but his back has large ones. I really must get some pics up. Oh, and we thought he was about 8 weeks old, but the bag of puppy food talks about teething after
three months. It looks like he has most of his teeth, so he could be older. Also, we thought he was about 5 pounds, but we weighed him tonight and he's more between 3 and 4 pounds. We'll know more about
those things on Monday after he sees a vet. We think he might have worms because his tummy is so bloated. I haven't seen any crawling in his stool though, so I'm not sure. We are also going to get his
shots up to date and get some heartworm stuff, if the vet thinks he needs it, I don't know, maybe pups his age don't. :::yawn::: It has been a very long day. TTFN
April 9, 1999:
Well, I finally got this page loaded. I've been having trouble with it for about 3 or 4 days. I updated it
and tried to upload it, but my ftp couldn't connect to Xoom. Or if it could connect, it couldn't do anything, which,
it might as well have been not connected at all. I'm connected now, so let me hurry and finish this entry before I lose the
connection. Every now and then I'll send a file that's already updated to keep the connection going.
I didn't write today, I had to be at the people's house that I babysit for at 5 AM. Their two year old had surgery today, his
adenoids were removed and tubes put in his ears. He was a real trooper about it too. :)
Yesterday I did write about 150 words. I got up on time, got on the bike, got a shower and sat at the computer, staring. I figured
after about 20 min. of that, it was hopeless, and went back to bed for an hour.
Speaking of excersizing, the other day, I made the mistake of getting on the scales. I'd gained ten pounds. Now, I'm not really dieting,
just trying to ride the bike or play tennis or something at least 5 days a week. I had taken my measurements about three weeks ago, and
to make myself feel better, I measured again. I lost size everywhere except my hips, they stayed the same. What I was really happy about
was that I lost three whole inches in my waist. Yeah! I did notice that a pair of shorts fit snugly for the first time in a very long time.
Before I could not even get them on! I think I'll keep it up. ;) I'll report in another 2 or 3 weeks when I measure again. So you can cheer me on.
I need it. :)
Also, Erin, I don't have any current picture of Drazil. We just had film developed that I thought had several of him on it, but there was only one that
was taken through the cage and didn't turn out well. I'll see what I can do.
Well, there was an accident near our house and someone needs to use the phone. I'll give more details about that later. TTFN!
Later: Well, from talking to the truck driver, I discovered what happened. He was minding his own business coming down our Highway, when a car full
of student drivers made a left turn onto the road right in front of him. He turned aside at about a 45 degree angle, right between two telephone poles
on the left side of the road to him. No one was hurt and the instructor as well as the student driving recieved citations for their actions. It's a good thing
that the truck was only moving, according to the police, 25mph in a 55 mph zone. The side of the car was scraped up and the front of the truck was banged up. The
trailer on the semi was not damaged, nor was his load. But the truck's axel spring or something was damaged so bad it was undrivable, not to mention both front tires was
slashed.
The REALLY neat thing about all this, was that it turns out that he owns three green iguanas! He saw Drazil through the front door window when he rang the doorbell
to use the phone. We talked for a few minutes about what I'm doing wrong and what I'm not doing. It was the first time that I've spoken to another green iguana owner that
wasn't a pet store owner. The good news is he said that Drazil's color was beautiful, but that his size is not near where it should be. This man said that he has a 6 month old
that is about three times as big as Drazil is. I was afraid of that. Also, there is some swelling at the base of his tail that shouldn't be there. I was worried about that, but
the iguana book I have says that males do have some swelling in that area, so I thought it was that. I think the man thinks that it's constipation. He told me to give him a bath
at least three times a week. Honestly, I haven't been taking very good of Drazil until this last month or so. Since then I've tried to give him a bath at least once a week, but
for not nearly as long as this man said I should. He also told me a couple of things that I want to talk to some other iguana owners about. He also told me to feed him Tofu, it
helps them really bulk up. In this little bitty town I don't think that there's any tofu for sale. At the grocery store that I USED to work at we sold some kind of tofu alternative,
but I don't think we had tofu, at least on a regular basis. He also said squash, acorn and yellow. The one thing I'm wondering about, that I want to get opinons on is about UVB light.
I got the impression that his don't get any UVB, except from basking in windows. His iguanas roam around the house, one thing I'm not willing to do, at least at this point. Drazil is so small,
and fast! He can hide anywhere. Recently I bought some Solar Drops, these are drops that you give one drop per week per iguana and it is supposed to provide them with UVB that is needed for
digestion. I couldn't afford the expensive fixture and florescent light bulbs needed and when I saw the drops on the shelf for $9.99 with a recommendation from the pet store owner (who uses them
for their iguanas that looked good), it seemed too good to be true. Drazil has had one drop and Sunday will get another. I haven't noticed any difference so far. I'll want some opinons before I change what I do.
Well, sorry for this long spill, it just felt so good to actually talk to someone about it. I've tried to find internet contacts and found a couple. I e-mailed one, but he made me feel bad for not
taking care of him. Ok, so it was deserved, but he wouldn't help me either when I asked for help to take care of Drazil better. He eventually took down his whole web site and said it was due
to the fact that too many people were abusing their iguanas and he couldn't stomach it anymore. He ought to be helping people more instead of gripping about it.
April 6, 1999:
Today I spent my hour of writing working on an add on story that a friend of mine and I are working on.
I'm not keeping track of the words written on it, right now it's just for fun, but maybe when it's finished
we'll decide to edit it and try to get it published. At the moment, it has just less than 5000 words.
This morning I also sent out 'TG' to XX magazine. I expect a reply within the next week, but I'm not sure
how many submissions the editor has. She may have a truckload by now.
One of the things that spurred me on to begin working again was the webpage of
Dan Perez . He has excellent writing advice and advice for forming writing groups. He had a quote in his writing advice by Ray Bradbury,
"Don't Think! Write!" I love this advice. I've also begun to use it when I jog, because when I jog I start thinking,
'It's so far, I can't make it' or 'My muscles ache, I'm pushing to hard'. That's when I forget to breathe or take shorter breaths,
and everything goes downhill from there. Also, when I write I start thinking, 'It's so far to the end, how will I ever get the characters
to that point?' or 'I'm writing lousy today, and that means more dreaded editing later.' So in this case, not thinking is a good thing.
It's good advice. Maybe I should read of his stuff, learn some from him. I cringe to say it, but I don't think I've ever read anything he wrote.
Um, maybe I shouldn't advertise that. :)
April 5, 1999:
1150 more words added to TS. Not sure how far to the ending. This is the way
I like to write. Each day is a discovery to me when I sit down to write. I have no
idea where the story is going to go that day. Some say it's not good to write that way,
but I think it's the best way I write. :)
April 4, 1999:
I feel so good today! I'm glad that I'm back writing again. I decided to get up earlier in the morning and have time to write
before work. I now get up just a bit before five o'clock. I don't mind. :)
Added 1300 more words in one hour this morning! I used to be able to write 1000/hour, but I think 1300 is a record for me in one hour. :)
I'm also surprised at what I wrote. At first I didn't think the creative juices would flow at all, but once I got going I really got going.
Sometimes I wonder where I come up with this stuff. :)
April 3, 1999:
I'm finally getting this April journal posted. I had wanted to get it done on the first, but I didn't.
Things have been really crazy around here. I started a new job last Monday. I really LOVE it, but it takes a lot of my time! I'm baby sitting for an
eight week old. He is a precious little boy!
Right now things are so crazy with me switching from a night job to a very early morning job that I can't seem to focus on writing. I get up and on the excercise bike at 6-6:30. I get
my shower and breakfast and grab ten or fifteen minutes to relax, read or watch the news. I arrive at their house by 7:40 so she can leave at 7:45. I spend my day feeding, burping, napping and playing
with the little guy. Two days a week I stay till 5, two days till 4 and one day at 2. Sometimes in the afternoon I'm sleepy so I take a nap. Sometimes I'm so hyper from being up all day that I can't
sit still and I clean or cook all afternoon only to poop out by 9 or 10. I'm hoping things will settle down so that I can write in the afternoons. The best thing about this is I'm getting so much excersice!
Not only am I getting the 30 min bike ride in the morning (which helps me be wide awake), I also take him out in his stroller for a walk. The neighborhood they live in is quite hilly too.
Well, I'm sure you don't want to read about me rambling on about life and not writing, so I'll stop. :)
Writerly news: On March 26, I recieved a quick return from OUTSIDE. A 15 day return (snail mail even) with a handwritten note on my cover letter. Even though it is a rejection, I feel really good about the remarks made.
It must be really difficult to be an editor and write something negative in such a positive way. I could never be an editor, my hats off to those that can and are good at it (like this editor). I can't read his name in the signature,
but I'm going to make a point to find out and work with him more. :)
 
 
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