Quote by JamesPBear
In other words, I go ahead and just write whatever my pen (or keyboard) wants to let happen, and then circle back and start changing stuff

That's largely what I've been doing but I end up going back and tearing it all apart again when I actually think through what I have written.

My Internet picked today, a day when I working from home, to go hard down. All my provider can tell me is that it is a neighbourhood outage. I am using my phone's hotspot but that only get me so far for various reasons, though it is working better than the last time I had to use it.

Okay, so the ability to control which stories show and the order is cool. Just tried it out. Put the Tana Chronicles up in order for now. Once I have some new exciting material, I will probably change it up. Was my About here always that short or did it get truncated? I thought it was longer but maybe I am thinking of my profile on another site I am on.

Looks like mine is converted. Looks nice at first blush. New Year's comp badge is still broken but that's been an issue for a while so isn't related to this. Will take a closer look later.

It's morning! Well, here it is. It's probably afternoon somewhere else. And evening elsewhere. And night somewhere again. So good whatever it is where you are right now.

There's coffee to wake you up or keep you awake. And pots of Irish Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey teas if you're more into that source of caffeine. Kettle is ready if you need something else, like a camomile tea to put you to sleep or hot chocolate to warm up.

I'm stalling on my latest story. Questioning the scene I am on. Questioning the general direction of it. This is what killed this particular story idea last time I tried to write it. Conceptually, it's a great "Beauty and the Beast" story but getting it to gel on the page? Good luck.

Good morning!

There's some dark roast Costa Rican goodness in the coffee pot. Teas are English Breakfast and Sunday Tea. Kettle is ready for hot chocolate or other teas.

It is Sunday. What's up docs?

Quote by gillianleeza
I decided to smoke a pork shoulder so we can enjoy some pulled pork sandwiches

Yum. We had pulled pork last night but we use naan bread for the sandwiches so a bit of a different riff on it.

Doing some writing but if it keeps on current course, it is headed for another site. Too racy for here though part of me is inclined to try to re-edit it. We shall see.

Yardwork is done and I am just resting.

Good morning, folks!

Coffee is on. There's English Breakfast and Earl Grey in the teapots. Kettle is filled and ready for making hot chocolate or other teas.

It is Saturday and the weather is good so another round of raking leaves is due. Otherwise, no specific plans for the weekend. Maybe some writing.

Oh, and Dear Youtube: I DO NOT SPEAK FRENCH!!

For some dumbass reason, I am getting French-Canadian ads in my YouTube videos right now. I noted French was added to languages in my Google Account (probably from when my stories were being posted on a French website) so I removed that to see if it makes a difference.

Quote by JamesPBear
It might be, Medalla, that it's because we're not from the U S of A, but rather the True North…A copyright thing, perhaps.

Except it worked fine until this week. Never had a problem with videos on here before. And it is every video but the ones that I post, not the odd one here and there like happens with copyright issues. I will see if I can find them directly on Youtube. If I can view them there, then it is not a copyright block. Frankly, it looks like something is busted. Not sure what. That's the support team's problem.

Anyhoo, something that was done twenty years ago at work has come back to bite me hard on the a**. Could take hours or days to fix, still figuring out that using a development copy of the affected system. Nice way to ruin my day.

So I need my tea very strong and black today.

Later, alligators.

Good evening! Is anyone else having problems with embedded videos like the one verbs posted above me? Basically I just see a grey box and if I try to play it, I get an error. Videos that I post are okay, though. I've put in a ticket but wondering if it is just me, in which case I might try doing some troubleshooting on my end.

Quote by verbal
they keep licking the butter

Oh God, yours, too. One time in my youth when we had a kitty we went out and someone left the cover off the butter dish. Yeah, one look and we knew what happened. She also liked hot buttered popcorn that we made for watching Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday night.

And hello, Sara! Glad you found some time to drop by. I know that busy as a beaver feeling.

I am writing something at the moment but not sure where it will go. It is an old story idea that I decided to revisit. Bit of a Robinson Crusoe survival on a desert island thing but also some Les Miserables or maybe Count of Monte Cristo (the Robinson Crusoe figure is a fugitive, not a shipwreck survivor).

Bell - Ball

Ulaanbataar (formerly know as Ulan Bator in English), Mongolia

Quote by JamesPBear
yes, I also like it cool when I sleep, but hate waking up to a cold house!

Ditto. I have the temperature set to rise at 6:30 on mine since I am a morning person. We used to turn it down again from 8:30 to late afternoon when everyone was out of the house during the day but now that Mrs. M is retired and I work from home a couple days a week, we kind of backed off on that.

Sorry I missed doing setup. Was not feel well this morning. Better now, though. And did someone say "Assam tea"? 😊☕️

No idea. Mrs. Mendalla is looking after it and I'll find out when I get home from work.

Demons can often be seen

Roaming 'round during Halloween

Their faces are scary,

And people be wary,

For demons are often quite mean.

Quote by verbal
A happy saga of a girl and her cat-creature ridding the world of pernicious capitalism. Yeah, it’s a weird one.

It wouldn't be that weird if it wasn't for the "cat-creature" part. Which is probably the kind of weird I can appreciate.

I am feeling rather sleepy and rundown. If it was earlier, I could blame my flu shot but after three days, I shouldn't be dealing with side effects from that (and I don't normally have any). There's a cold front rolling in so maybe that?

Oh well, workday is coming to an end. I can go home, load up on dinner, and relax.

Great people can be famous.

Stockholm, Sweden (I supposed it could be either😉, but capital name)

Anthony - Yilin (Chinese friend of my son had this name)

Well, it is empty right now but some Tetley's Orange Pekoe will be in it before too long.

Deadly force is sometimes used.

Sorry, are we going alphabetical by country or alphabetical by capital name? I think some people are doing the former and some the latter.

Quito, Ecuador (going by capital name)

Ape wanders in and yawns. He puts on some coffee, then gets the kettle going. Soon, there is Irish Breakfast and Red Rose tea in the teapots. After checking the hot chocolate supply and the selection of sweeteners, mini-marshmallows, and other add-ons, he pours an Irish Breakfast and slumps in a chair near the fireplace. The End.

Hey, it's a writing site, so I am writing a story. A rather mundane one, but a story nonetheless.

Later, alligators.

Floor Jansen, perhaps my favorite singer at the moment, dropped a bit of a bombshell on her fans this morning. A recent mammogram found cancer. She's quite positive and says the prognosis is good but still, the big C is never good news. This song was written by Floor in her first band, After Forever, for her mother's health struggles but I think it'll work here, too. Performance is from her concert and live solo album, Live From AFAS Amsterdam.

Movie. I'm a terrible dancer.

Action movie or comedy?

Loving this duet between Dutch singer Charlotte Wessels (formerly of the band Delain) and Canadian Alissa White-Gluz (of Swedish band Arch-Enemy). Both come from the world of metal but this song is, well, I am not sure how to classify it. Whatever it is, it is beautiful. The song is from Charlotte's solo album Tales From Six Feet Under.

Alissa is the one with the colourful hair, one of her defining features.

Leftover spaghetti sauce from last night

Quote by etairay

Green tea🍵

Me, too!!

Quote by gillianleeza
My aunt was hit hard

My aunt (84, I think) got nailed good. Was still dealing with after effects when I saw her in late July and she had it in March. At least it seems to have finally convinced her that living on a poorly maintained private back road is not a great idea for someone with health issues and they are now living in a retirement home near one of their kids. Oddly, my uncle never had it and he's even older.

Dentist visit was pretty routine. Long, arduous cleaning (I am prone to tartar, esp. the front teeth on the bottom), quick exam by the dentist, discuss when to visit again, pay the bill, boom.

Nursing a headache today and discovered I no longer have Advil in my credenza at work (last bottle I had expired during the early part of the pandemic when I was working from home). Fortunately, I had to go to Walmart for something else so grabbed a small bottle.