Yes, that’s what the last week and a half have felt like at the new job. It’s manufacturing (which is all I’ll say to protect my privacy), AND I have to be up at 3:30 AM to be there on time. New trainees also have to go through 3 weeks of hour long workouts before work.
So yeah… When I got home each day, I didn’t even have enough energy to check email, LOL. It’s slowly been getting easier each day though.
I can’t guarantee how much I’ll write the next two weeks as training finishes up, but I’ll do what I can to make an appearance here when possible.
Never let it be said that I’ve lost my flair for the dramatic, LOL.
Side Note: Film Symphony Orchestra is AWESOME. Check them out on YouTube
OK, so let’s get down to what’s REALLY been going on.
Much of my free time the last couple of weeks has been spent indirectly on the new WordPress.org site. A bit of behind the scenes tweaks, tuning and editing for starters. Most of my work has been spent storyboarding my planned reboot of my Witchfire story series. I was far from happy with the original attempt and I want to knock it out of the park this time.
To give you an idea the amount of work that’s gone into this, I have a 7 page spreadsheet of data comprised of 8,326 filled cells on character info, mapped out locations, etc… I’m determined to maintain consistency, keep the characters unique and weave an entertaining plot.
A small part of me wonders why I’m bothering using Danger Babe Central’s universe as a backdrop. Recently, I almost gave up on the idea.
I know why I’m doing it though. I have something to prove to myself. I’ve doubted my writing and so many other areas of my life… let others tear me down too easily. If I can take this setting and these characters; turn them into a real story and fix the inconsistencies and barely existing canon… I’ll know I can handle anything the world of writing can throw at me.
In Other News…
Yeah, this will be one of the greatest examples of burying the lead in history…
I FINALLY got a new job!
Only those who have been truly following me for a long time know the story here. I’ve had a bad back and neck that kept me out of action for over a decade. Before leaving California, I had a job as a Realtor, but lack of support from my office / broker and lack of money really made that a job in name only.
After getting treatment for my back and neck almost 2 years ago, I had hoped to be back on my feet sooner. My road of self-rehab was a LONG one though. I hurt my back again a couple of times along the way and had to learn to take it slower.
Truth? I’m scared to death I’m still not ready for this, but we’ve had a brutal couple of years and really need this to work out. I’m determined to make it work no matter what.
Along those lines, I’ve stepped up my training / rehab trying to build back up my endurance and strength. Hard to believe I used to be somebody that trained 3 1/2 hours a day. I’m being careful not to overdue it while still trying to push myself. Beginning the first of next month, we’ll see if I’m up to the task.
FINALLY… I got the new Silk Cords website launched this morning! It still needs some fleshing out and polishing in a few spots. I got several posts transferred over and re-written in some cases though. I even managed to set up an age gate and get a plug-in that allows me to stay compliant with all the Euro cookie rules.
As promised in an earlier post, I’ve kept the adult content completely segregated from the normal content, and intend to make sure any blog posts and notifications stay completely PG rated.
THAT was actually what caused the delay in launching. All these bright new features for WordPress are completely geared around everything on your blog being a post. The only way around that is a pretty solid knowledge of CSS code. The site will evolve as I learn there. Right now, it’s still pretty freaking awesome. How awesome?
It’ll hit you like Mjolnir:
I’m still trying to figure out how much WordPress.org ties into WordPress.com. Thus far, it seems awkward at best. All stuff to work out.
No, I didn’t bury the lead either. I’m just building anticipation. 😀
OK, so I did a little digging into this whole gravatar thing. Turns out the hack happened almost 2 years ago.
F’ing AV pop-up. This is the kind of distortion that’s usually reserved for the media.
I don’t recall hearing anything from Gravatar or WP at the time though. If you haven’t changed your password in the last year, it’s still probably a good idea just to be safe.
To the tune of 167 Million accounts. This per the warning I just got from my internet security software:
At the very least be wary of new spam and scam emails coming from people claiming to be with Gravitar, or anyone else. Fake blackmail schemes claiming to have more data on you than what was breached, or to have put malware on your PC are also common scams.
This is a slightly modified copy of the post I just made at my other blog. I announced there my intention to continue blogging, but that I wanted a different format. I’m switching to self-hosting and using WordPress.org. I’m also going to be narrowing my focus on my blog posts. I’ve been hard at work on the new WordPress.org self hosted site. It’s getting close to finished at this point, but there are still some behind the scenes things that need to be polished and tweaked. Things like making sure all my pictures have proper names for searching my media library, and descriptions to help search engines. Soon though…
Thinking over the site, and past experience here, I’ve decided that the new blog is going to focus entirely on writing. Absolutely no more social issues, political talk, personal drama (nobody cares), product reviews or even cooking posts. Just everything writing:
Vanilla Creative Writing; nothing over PG-13
Reviews of “How To” products on writing (books, videos, websites, etc..)
Critiques of movies and TV shows from a writer’s perspective; what works and what doesn’t
Erotica
Part of my creative writing is going to be going back and finishing or continuing stories that I left hanging, such as my alternate Star Wars version based on the meme where Luke killed himself with his new lightsaber:
Hell, I *may* even rewrite the prequels and sequels just to show how I believe they SHOULD have been done.
Erotica and anything “Adult” related will be in a separate section of the blog, and will be behind an age verification pop-up. I’m going to do a better job than I did with this blog in terms of keeping anything NSFW behind that age check. That means NO racy pictures or backgrounds in the primary section of the blog.
Creative writing of all flavors will have separate pages, and the blog posts announcing new stories will only have links to those pages with a note regarding whether it’s NSFW or not.
Realizations
Part of the process with the new blog has been moving some of my more relevant past posts and existing stories from the two old blogs to the new. I want to rewrite damned near everything also, and already have in a couple of cases. I noticed something though as I went back through my lists of pages and posts.
I jumped around WAY too much on the focus of each blog. With the actual creative writing, it was self doubt and too much real life drama killing my mojo. The stuff I tried to do as filler too often took over though. Not only that, I jumped from idea to idea as I tried to keep things fresh and attract new readers. Even when I tried to have a structured theme for daily posts I flopped. I just need to focus on the writing and stay consistent. THAT is my pledge with the new blog.
AND that I’ll also be upping my game across the board. No more holding back on my writing.
In Other News:
This isn’t the new blog, so I can sneak in one or two QUICK personal updates here.
First, the house that we got defrauded on is back on the market, at $50,000 higher than we bought it for. All the mortgage company or listing agents did was the most basic of house flipper cosmetic repairs to hide the defects (patching the cracked mortar, fresh paint, clean the carpets, etc…). It pisses me off that somebody else is going to be put in a likely world of financial trouble as well living in a toxic house. I have precious little idea what I can do to correct the situation though. The laws in Georgia are completely corrupt and promote screwing the buyer. I could get sued for tortious interference with a contract with most options or charged with trespassing if I put up signs, try to talk to people during open houses, etc…
Most people nowadays would sadly be content to sit back and let things unfold, especially if it meant the house would sell for enough money to put them in the clear. This level of injustice literally makes my skin crawl though. Likewise, it’s not right to be made whole at the expense of an innocent party.
And lastly, I *MAY* have a new job; a real one for the first time in a decade. I had the realtor job for a while during that time, but between my health and lack of money, I was never able to really make a run of it. I’m in the final phase of the hiring process. All that remains to be seen is if they will accept the fact that I’m a virtual blank. No social media presence, no credit history now thanks to following the Dave Ramsey plan, and really no recent job history as well.
I’m just glad that the spinal decompression and physical therapy got me to the point I can work again. The prospect of being a contributing member of society has been a huge morale boost.
Silk Chatters 