job search, writing woes, and a ficlet

Well. Have applied for a federal job with the United States Postal Service. They're sending me a packet of information and instructions for an exam you have to take before they'll even interview you. This sounds very complicated and time-consuming.

On the other hand, their pay scale starts around $13 an hour and only goes up from there. With full federal benefits, whatever those are. (Hmm. I didn't ask about health insurance. Must remember to do so, though I'd assume it comes under the benefits.)

I think I'll still hit the temp agencies on Monday, since the process of getting employed at the post office can, apparently, take up to 3 months. And I need income before then!

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Piddled away at "Secrets" some more, and got the dream scenes done. Yes, scenes, plural -- it just worked out better that way. I don't really like them, but I've only liked two of the dream scenes I've written so far, and I think I've written something like 6 or 8 of them. There's some good alliteration and rhythm in these, but they're too abrupt, I think. Ah well. That can be fixed later.

I now have to get to the breakfast bit, and then... the first true possession/blackout! Dun dun dun! I'm still peeved about that whole OotP revelation about the mechanics of Ginny's possession, since I think it's unutterably dumb, but I am a canon whore, so needs must.

I also need to work some canonical Ginny-Tom dialogue into here, stuff that Tom quotes at Harry while he's engaging in his Talking Killer idiocy down in the Chamber.

I love my fanfiction novel to pieces, but I swear to god, there are times it drives me up the wall.

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Wrote a really short Ginny-centric thing for anneu53714's first-line drabble challenge, which you can read here.

job search, writing woes, and a ficlet

Well. Have applied for a federal job with the United States Postal Service. They're sending me a packet of information and instructions for an exam you have to take before they'll even interview you. This sounds very complicated and time-consuming.

On the other hand, their pay scale starts around $13 an hour and only goes up from there. With full federal benefits, whatever those are. (Hmm. I didn't ask about health insurance. Must remember to do so, though I'd assume it comes under the benefits.)

I think I'll still hit the temp agencies on Monday, since the process of getting employed at the post office can, apparently, take up to 3 months. And I need income before then!

---------------------------------------

Piddled away at "Secrets" some more, and got the dream scenes done. Yes, scenes, plural -- it just worked out better that way. I don't really like them, but I've only liked two of the dream scenes I've written so far, and I think I've written something like 6 or 8 of them. There's some good alliteration and rhythm in these, but they're too abrupt, I think. Ah well. That can be fixed later.

I now have to get to the breakfast bit, and then... the first true possession/blackout! Dun dun dun! I'm still peeved about that whole OotP revelation about the mechanics of Ginny's possession, since I think it's unutterably dumb, but I am a canon whore, so needs must.

I also need to work some canonical Ginny-Tom dialogue into here, stuff that Tom quotes at Harry while he's engaging in his Talking Killer idiocy down in the Chamber.

I love my fanfiction novel to pieces, but I swear to god, there are times it drives me up the wall.

---------------------------------------

Wrote a really short Ginny-centric thing for anneu53714's first-line drabble challenge, which you can read here.

reading

I got my copy of Going Postal today! And read it. All of it.

I love Terry Pratchett. He is god. Or a god, anyway.

It's not as good as Night Watch or Soul Music, my two personal Discworld favorites, but those are damn hard to live up to, and basically everything Pterry writes is at least better than good anyway. What I think, mostly, is that it's a little unfocussed, as if he was trying to fit five ideas into a story when really four would have worked better.

This should tell you something -- with a lot of authors, you're lucky if they get ONE interesting idea in a book.

Right. Am off to fight my computer some more. I think either my mouse is dying, or the internal thingy that interfaces with the mouse is going insane; in any case, it keeps moving oddly and freezing at inopportune moments. And there are limits to what I can do with keystroke commands alone.

I really need to get the blasted thing examined. But then I tell myself, I'm planning to get a laptop for Christmas (yes, I'm mooching off my relatives' goodwill), so what's the point of fixing up this monster for another three months?

I may actually break down and get a new mouse, though. That's not too hideously expensive.

reading

I got my copy of Going Postal today! And read it. All of it.

I love Terry Pratchett. He is god. Or a god, anyway.

It's not as good as Night Watch or Soul Music, my two personal Discworld favorites, but those are damn hard to live up to, and basically everything Pterry writes is at least better than good anyway. What I think, mostly, is that it's a little unfocussed, as if he was trying to fit five ideas into a story when really four would have worked better.

This should tell you something -- with a lot of authors, you're lucky if they get ONE interesting idea in a book.

Right. Am off to fight my computer some more. I think either my mouse is dying, or the internal thingy that interfaces with the mouse is going insane; in any case, it keeps moving oddly and freezing at inopportune moments. And there are limits to what I can do with keystroke commands alone.

I really need to get the blasted thing examined. But then I tell myself, I'm planning to get a laptop for Christmas (yes, I'm mooching off my relatives' goodwill), so what's the point of fixing up this monster for another three months?

I may actually break down and get a new mouse, though. That's not too hideously expensive.