(no subject)

I'm preparing for the trip to Further Confusion. To fly out at 7:25, I have to get to the airport at 5:25 now, and it's about a 35-minute drive to the airport. Giving myself a half-hour to wake up and get ready to go, going over the 'do I have everything' list one more time, and I'll be getting up at 4:20.

I'm about ready to go to sleep right now.

Well, I got through the weekend at work. Today will be my ninth straight day at the office. I can only complain so much, of course; it'll be a co-worker's twenty-third straight day at the office, and she's not going on vacation tomorrow.

I've also finished the 'storyweaving' exercises in Dramatica. Not in the detail I probably should have, but, hey--I don't think I'm ready to actually write a complete story treatment in Dramatica. What have I gotten out of this? Over thirty pages of notes on character, plot and theme, hopefully all "dramatically sound." When I'm actually at the con I'm going to be going back to the draft I've been working on, and seeing if I can start arranging chapter/scenes in an outline. (Actually, I've already started on that, since I've started on a draft, but I haven't gotten too far in it.)

Granted, mostly what I'm going to be trying to do at the con is rejuvenate, hooking up with friends and creative types. My mini-vacation at the start of the month went a long way toward helping me relax, although not too surprisingly this last weekend strained things. It was a beautiful weekend, albeit ten degrees warmer than it should be, and I missed it--and now the weather's remaining warm but just being cloudy and humid. The weather in San Mateo this weekend is, on last checked, predicted to be cloudy as well. Here's hoping for inaccurate forecasts.

(no subject)

Off to Further Confusion. Nearly so, at least. Whether or not there are any updates between now and next Tuesday or so depend on whether or not the hotel has high-speed internet access in their rooms.

A pleasant unexpected gift arrived in the mail. Sometime last year, I learned that the songwriters behind a short-lived group I liked a great deal, October Project, were trying to put together a new album with new musicians. And, they were financing it through their own money and through contributions of sufficiently devoted fans. I ordered the demo CD they'd already done as "November Project" and sent them a donation above that.

Then, as one would predict, the new group broke up, too. They've hooked up with another group of people and are still trying to do a short new full studio CD. But, apparently, in the interim they'd co-written songs with a new musician named Sylvia Tosun--and they decided to send "angels" such as myself a copy of Ms. Tosun's CD.

It's quite impressive from what I've heard so far. Unfortunately it's making me unpack just enough to get Peroxide out and capture the CD in iTunes.

Anyway, I'm taking it as a good omen for the trip.