This is a quick, on the fly update. This is mostly because I’m having entirely too much (feline) assistance in trying to type.

Cacöethes Publishing has a description up for Amaranth. There is also a release date: December 15, 2008. Eyes on the prize.

Many thanks to Danny for jerry-rigging the iBook G4 back into working for now. I’m doubt it’ll keep working forever, but it does seem to be working for now. I still want to start putting money back for a MacBook (not a Pro or Air) though. Just to be safe.

D. Marie and I are actually just coming back from seeing The Happening, the newest M. Night Shyamalan film. Personally, I’d give it about an 8 out of 10. Tomorrow, the two of us and our friend Christopher are going to go see The Incredible Hulk. Now that’s one we’re all really excited about.

I’m less than 200 words from being caught back from last weekend. This will be a relief. Maybe then I can have a few nights that end before 1 or 2 a.m.

And now to watch The Sixth Sense and maybe even Signs, before we both settle back in to write some.

In continuation of the iBook saga, I finally heard back from the seller – and he grows more and more belligerent and hostile with each communication; he flat-out refuses to help and gets ruder and ruder about my inquiries. (I’m waiting for him to invoke Godwin’s Law or something of the like. He’s already gone with me being the bane of used sellers on eBay everywhere.) Finally I had to file an eBay dispute and filed an ICCC report. Oh, what fun times it has been lately.

In the meantime, Danny is looking into getting the thing fixed, if it can be. We’re cautiously hopeful.

I will be heading out shortly to drive up to Georgia. I borrowed the old laptop back from D. Marie, so I’ll be trying to keep up with my totals. I’m currently up about 30 words.

So I hope everyone has a good weekend and a good Father’s Day. I’ll be back with the (ir)regularly scheduled blog after that! Ciao!

Something out there hates me. No, seriously, it hates me, whatever it is.

Just under 2 months ago, I splurged and got myself a new iBook, a G4 this time. 4 days short of my SquareTrade warranty going into effect (yes, read the fine print: if it breaks in 60 days, they won’t do a thing to help you!), the logic board went kaput.

As stated above, SquareTrade won’t do anything because I called it in today, registering it as breaking 4 days short of the warranty kicking in (because their website wouldn’t accept my password). It’s been over the 45 days that PayPal allows for disputes. So, pretty much, either the seller takes pity on me and replaces/refunds/fixes it or I have a worthless iBook and I’m out over $600 for the iBook and $70 for the warranty. Why money the way it is, ain’t that just a kick in the pants?

To top it all off, I’m behind on writing thanks to all of this. And now I have nothing to write on when I’m away, like I will be this weekend.

And if I were a worse person, I would so start begging for donations towards a new writing computer.

Working towards my goal mentioned in the last post, it’s now early in the morning on Day 05 and I’m sitting pretty at 4,272 words. Yes, I’m running just a tiny bit over my intended goal — and that’s quite fine by me! The more I go over, the more leeway I’ll have if I have a non-writing day.

For instance, in two weekends it will be Father’s Day here in the U.S. Now, granted, I forgot about that until my Mom mentioned it on the phone yesterday, and I had already made plans to go visit my grandparents up in Georgia. I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to get much in the way of writing done whilst I’m up there, even if I am going to take the new iBook with me. (It finally has a name now, more or less: Bakura.)

I’ve been pestering my editor at Seven Seas Entertainment, trying to find out what’s up with my check for “Dance in the Vampire Bund” 2. What’s a bummer is that I keep having to do this — and that I turned the volume in on the last day of February. Oh well. It’ll get here sooner or later.

And dude, another hit here from a search for Thomas Raith fanfic! That is so awesome! Consider my socks officially rocked.

And now it’s time to be off to work. Ciao!

Currently feeling:// Not awake
Currently hearing:// D. Marie making lunches
Currently reading:// Still too busy to be reading

So I’m blogging from the new iBook, he who still has no name. (It’s between Bombay, Bakura, and Wraith. Yeah, I managed to drop one from the list.)

I’m still getting used to the keyboard, but overall, I’m absolutely in love with this new baby of mine.

Depending on what we do for food tonight, I might take him around and try to get some work done on Verdant tonight. Of course, after we get a bit of our cleaning done that we desperate need to get done.

And I’m still trying to remember to breathe.

I can’t say too much because this is very up in the air, but I may have gotten a tentative green light.

I can say that I have a kitty in my lap that is determined to kick arse and take names on everything plastic in her general vicinity. There is another kitty in the recliner next to my desk who wants to do the same.

My iBook with no name (though maybe Bakura or Bombay… hmm, or Wraith or Eastwood) arrived in town today, but I wasn’t at home to get it. So first thing tomorrow I’m going up to the post office to retrieve my new baby. Name help, anyone?

In the meantime, though, I’m might take Heero out on a last run and perhaps work on Verdant during dinner at Samrat. I feel re-inspired.

So, after my big babble yesterday about The Dresden Files and my newly redyed hair… the day was actually a bit hellish. Not as bad as the day before, but still not any fun. Well, D. Marie and I did actually end up going out and grabbing One Fresh Stir-fry and Dairy Queen for dinner last night. That was good.

I also splurged and bought myself something I had been wanting for a long time, to make up for my week of hard days: an iBook G4. Yes, the MacBook, MacBook Pro, and Air have come out since this one, to say nothing of the upgrades of the Powerbooks, but it was an iBook G4 that I wanted and that’s what I got myself… at least till I can afford to be rid of my home desktop PC and replace it with a 20″ iMac. Anyone want to donate that kind of funds to me?

It’s strange: the first two computers I ever used were Apples. One was at my childhood friend’s house — and that was a fair indication she was a money kind of friend, since that was the mid-1980′s and she had a computer in her house. The other one was in my sixth grade classroom — and it was shared between the 9 students in my grade and the three grades below mine. Both were old school Apples, but I have fond memories of them.

After that, in high school and onward, there was no option other than PCs, so that was what I used. I bought myself a used iBook G3 in very early 2007, as a birthday present to myself. I call that computer Heero.* Now that my new iBook G4 is on its way in, I’m worrying on what to call it. I’m debating on Wing, Zero, Duo, Deathscythe, Bakura, Omi, or Bombay.

Now that my work computer is updated to Office 2007, I’ve also updated my home computer to the same. I’m really digging it. It reminds me a lot of Office for Mac in a way, especially with the word count at the bottom of the screen. I do dig the custom colors. Yes, both of mine are a black background. They’re awesome that way.

Also, I added some new icons to my group. They’re all pretty spiffy. Most of them are, like my old ones, writing-centric, but one is reading and one is an anime-style girl. Somehow the latter seems most appropriate here.

And now to wait for my new baby… whatever his/her name may be…

* All my computers** have names. The eMachines laptop my father bought me in 2004 is Ultra Sephy. My iBook G3 is Heero. I have a small Strawberry iMac I picked up used called Ichigo. My home PC is Kaichan, with a 2nd hard drive called Setsuna and an external hard drive called TARDIS. My flash drive (with all my stories) is Ryou. If I ever replace Kaichan/Setsuna with a new iMac, it would be Kaiba.

** Not just my computers. My cars have also had names. My first car, a 1991 Geo Prism, was KITT. My second car, a 1993 Geo Prism, was Shinigami. My third/current car, a 2003 Oldsmobile Alero, is Shinigami Hell. If I ever get the car I want, a Honda Civic Hybrid, it will be Shinigami Hell Custom.