OK, I don't normally do this,

But I have to admit, it's cute:




Found at I Can Has Cheezburger

O.K., today wasn't the most exciting time to be had by your local friendly tech writer. No swinging from buildings, righting wrongs or even splitting the occasional infinitive. Nope, today was "let's write a software requirements document".

X 1: The system will . . .

X 2: The system will . . .

and then spend the rest of the day translating developerese into pseudo-English.

Can you say, "I want to pull my hair out"? Sure you can.

Once I get this darn document done, it'll be a breeze to maintain, but as the first full-time tech writer on this project, I've got a LOT of catch-up to do on basic documentation. I'm collating sources, trying to read notes on Excel spreadsheets and tracking down people who used to be on the project to make sure I know exactly what these darn requirements actually mean and did we/will we meet them.

Needless to say, even though the typing is not exciting, trying to put this to bed on time may become so.

Luckily for me, I think the conversation I was worrying about writing last night for Shadows went pretty well. I need to go back over it tomorrow and pump up Samantha's part, but I think I nailed the other character pretty well. *keeps fingers crossed* I added 1667 words to the chapter tonight and I think I brought it to a natural stopping point. It might be a little short though, so I'm going to try and add a little more conversation before we get to the "main event". A little more description might work well too, although sitting in a lean-to at night with no light source doesn't give me a lot to work with there. *grin*

Had a nice little conversation with Yasmine Galenorn on Twitter tonight. Along with being a pretty cool writer, she's got a gorgeous set of kitties; one that looks it could be my cat's twin sister. I wasn't exactly a "cat person" when I was growing up, but given our lifestyle and where we live, cats are definitely the better option than a dog right now. Now, when I can get that piece of property with about four or five acres for a dog to roam, then we'll talk.

I hit my writing goal early and I may actually get to bed on time for once. Go me!
____________________________________________________________________________________

Words for Today

1667 / 1000 words. 167%

Progress on Stargate SG-1: Shadows of the Heart

24075 / 100000 words. 24%


Words for 2009

16521 / 365000 words. 5%

Not quite phasers, but scary enough


moar funny pictures

Oh yeah, and some writing too.

I've recently finished a very interesting book called Hagakure - The Way of the Samurai and have just started The Lone Samurai - The Life of Miyamoto Musashi. Both have been very well written and both touch not only on the samurai as a warrior, but all the other things that go with the idea of the samurai as a retainer. The samurai had to subsume himself in order to serve his master well, being not only willing to fight and die for his master, but to honor his master in everything he did. Duty and honor were very powerful motivators, which drove the samurai to attempt to excel in everything, whether it was sword work or calligraphy or painting or whatever he set out to do.

Of course, not everyone lived up to this "ideal" and let's face it, after five hundred years, everything looks a little better than it probably did when it was actually happening. Still, they're good books to use when preparing to do a historical fantasy set in medieval Japan. And, with my interest in kendo, reading about one of the greatest swordsmen in Japanese history seems like a natural thing to do.

Besides, reading about someone wielding a sword and smiting his enemies is probably a lot more theraputic than actually taking a sword to my oppressors (aka, people I work with). Now, people at work are going nuts because we have some developmental testing coming up and everyone wants to be certain that everything goes smoothly. That's typical. However, they're getting in each other's way trying to ensure everything IS perfect, thereby ensuring nothing is. And as usual, the help desk is caught in the middle. Plus, we're doing everything we can do to avoid being caught in the crossfire in a spat between a couple of the higher ranking people in our office. Let's just say, things were tense on Tuesday, got really tense today and I think they're going to come to a head tomorrow and I really don't want to be there when it does happen.

One of our two little kittens got the house in an uproar when I got home. Apparently he'd snuck out of the house while wishweaver was bringing in the recycling bin and no one noticed he was gone until I got home about an hour and a half later. After searching everywhere in the house, we decided to look outside. Sure enough, right by the corner of the house, I spotted little kitty tracks leading toward our back yard. We carefully walked through the iced side yard and at the gate leading into the back yard, I heard some plaintive mewing, but it was coming from our neighbor's yard. We went into their back yard and lo and behold, there was Crookshanks, hiding underneath their porch, just yowling up a storm.

*sigh*

Luckily, we think he hadn't been out too long. He wasn't cold enough to have been outside all day since we'd left for work. He seemed sutibly chastised for about thirty minutes, but as soon as we opened the door to go out for dinner this evening, he was haunting around the door again. Seems he has selective memory when it comes to doing things he "thinks" he wants to do. Baka neko-chan.

I didn't get quite as much writing done tonight as I had hoped, but I got some done. Wish is taking a look at Redshift for me and hopes to have the edits done by the time Farpoint is over, if not sooner. I know Marco said he wanted the story by the 21st, but the contract calls for the story being done on the 28th. I may ask him for that extra week to give the story one more scrubbing after Wish's. We'll see how it looks after she gets done with it.

Looks like the Zokutou site is down and I have no clues for how long. *sigh* So, I'll be borrowing the plain Writertopia.com banners for now.

Words for Today



Progress on The Price of Conviction


Words for the Year

. . . they're actually plotting to take over the world!

If you read wishweaver's blog, you may have seen the pictures of our two newest additions to the family, Crookshanks and Marmalade, the two orange kittens.

However, there's something not natural about these two.

Marmalade has been playing with a plastic straw . . . but when she thinks no one is looking, she grasps it with both paws while she's sitting back on her haunches and then lifts it into the air, resembling nothing so much as me when I practice with my shinai.

Crookshanks has been spotted playing with a pencil, lifting it between his two paws while there's a piece of paper on the floor. I swear he's trying to write something.

And tonight, they had managed to get a bottle cap stuck under one of our throw rugs. Most cats would have either batted at it with one paw or just walked off to find something easier to play with. Not these two. Crookshanks reached under the rug with both paws to try and pull it out while Marmalade pulled the edge of the rug back so he could get to it easier.

I think I'll be sleeping with one eye open for a while. . . Just be glad they don't have opposable thumbs.

Be afraid . . . be very afraid.