Here I Am

Life has been super busy recently and work's been charging along as well. Which is good, I guess, because I do enjoy job stability, but a few minutes of rest is always something I enjoy. I've just had a lot of HR-related seminars and workshops recently, so then I'm out of the office and when I'm back in, I've got to play catch up.

I had a few things I wanted to post about, but now that I'm writing the entry, I've got nothing much to report.

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A Story Rec:

For Fandom Trumps Hate, I did some bidding with the plan to make donations no matter what, but I won a few things.

And I got this amazing story set in the Cal Leandros world - Brothers Before Souls  by yopumpkinhead  - It's set during Blackout, but it's from Niko's perspective on dealing with Cal going missing, to finding him, and to making the choices that he does for his brother.  I loved everything about this story and I highly recommend it.  One can never go wrong with Niko POV.  If you know the books, I definitely recommend you check it out.

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So author reveals occurred for chocolateboxcomm and I meant to share the story I wrote, but again...time gets away from me. 

I wrote The In Between Moments - Walking Dead, Rick/Daryl - it's set over the course of seasons four to winter finale of current season (7) - Somehow Daryl and Rick have managed to carve something out for themselves despite the constant loss and destruction around them. At least they always find their ways back to each other. A series of moments (missing scenes) between Daryl and Rick set from the end of season four through to the winter finale of season seven.

After the initial panic I always experience before starting a project for a challenge, I had a lot of fun with this one.  It took me some time to figure out what I wanted to write and how I wanted to bring canon into it.  And I had one scene written, but I was feeling like I wanted to do more...so it slowly expanded and I'm happy with the final product.  Gotta thank my betas for keeping me on target and pointing out when things that are in my head didn't translate onto the page.  And, it was nice to sort of give Daryl and Rick a few happy moments.

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I made up my deficit from January on my word count and pulled ahead during February.  A lot of it was nonfannish writing and a few WIPs I've been tossing around in my brain (I long ago stopped posting WIPs because when/if I lose interest, I didn't want people wondering how something ends)

Currently on my fannish writing to-do list:

-my piece for picfor1000 - I've got this cool picture.  Now the challenge is to keep my wordy butt limited to exactly 1000 words.
-Ante-Up Losers story - I love any excuse to rewatch/read Losers.
-Just got my fandom5K assignment the other day and I'm super excited.  And this one I need to come up with something good and something that will lead to at least 5000 words of a story. 

I've also got to continue with my regular writing. 

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Not much else to report.  I joined Planet Fitness by my house because it was 10.00 a month and I figured it would help me break up my routine.  Though I do most of my working out at home or my Saturday bootcamp class...I do a lot of Jillian Michaels with her dvds or app.  But thought, this might be good for me.  Change it up.  I met with the trainer to set up a personal fitness plan...

This woman was crazy.  Like I just wasted an hour of my time.  First, she told me that I should have a heart rate of 114 when I'm working out to be in the "fat burn zone" like it's still the 80's/early 90's.  And then she just proceeds to give me a sheetful of machines to use and never showed me how to actually use the machines.  And learning the machines is the whole reason I signed up for the personal fitness plan.  It was just insane and has me rethinking this gym.  It's super cheap, but I don't know.  As part of my gastric sleeve surgery I got to use the gym's fitness center for a three month program and work with a trainer.  And maybe I got spoiled because she showed me how to do a move and then made me do it a few times to perfect my form and we moved on.   That's what I need and like.    For  now though, I think I'll just google some of the machines and go from there...or just use the gym for cardio and stick with home for strength training with free weights/body weight.

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Alright, I'm off.  I'm going to head to bed and do some reading.  I'm trying to finish up the first book in the Mistborn trilogy.  I'm really enjoying it.  It started a bit slow and it took me a little bit to catch on about the journal entries at the start of each chapter, but I find this world fascinating.  Even if the book is 600 pages long.

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Latest Musical Obsession: Duffy. The girl, not the guy. She's awesome. Itunes had her one song "Mercy" as the song of the week...and it was actually good (which surprised me as lately the Itunes songs of the week have been crap). And it got stuck in my head. And on amazon it showed she had a CD, but it wasn't available on Itunes, so I had to go about *other* methods of obtaining it. Highly recommend.

Also, I had an idea for a fic challenge based on a Regina Spektor song that I want to do. It would be low pressure, but there is already so many challenges going on that I think I might sit on it for a bit. Mostly, I'd feel horrible if I couldn't finish a story for my own challenge. Wouldn't that be grand?

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I picked up the new Rob Thurman book! More Cal and Niko! My love for brothers fighting the supernatural knows no bounds and these books are wonderful. And I just love Cal. I never fail to adore the smartasses. I'll be interested to see how the characters further develop, but mostly I just want my brothers fighting supernatural and always having each other's backs. Because that is my great love. It goes back to discovering The Outsiders by SE Hinton when I was ten. Darry, Soda, and Pony broke me forever.