August 27, 2009

Over here again

Blogging about part of my recent post conference trip with the 2007 GH girls. So come on over.

August 26, 2009

Not too far off

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Still buggy. Sadly my cats cannot say "bless you", so I sneeze in silence (and possibly endanger my soul or whatever it is that saying bless you is meant to protect you from). Normal blogging shall resume when I no longer need shares in Kleenex.

August 23, 2009

Grrr. And possibly argh.

I have returned from my travels, which were lovely and relaxing. However have also returned with a touch of a cold. Hopefully it won't be much more than a touch as I have been downing echinacea and various vitamins all through the conference and travelling in an attempt to avoid exactly this.

Any way, being slightly coldish, I decided that a lazy Sunday might be in order but that I also needed some groceries. So toddled off to the shopping centre to achieve groceries. Given said shopping centre has several electronics type stores, I decided to look into acquiring a new cheapass TV to replace my currently on its last legs dvd playing bedroom TV. Turns out this is not so simple. The net effect of all this plasma and LCD craze in TVs seems to be that TVs are more now expensive, even the little ones. And I don't want to pay "you-want-how-much" for a TV just to play dvds in my bedroom. But I eventually found a cheap smallish CRT TV at Dick Smith and carted it home. Then there was a suitable pause while I did the "I think I need to sit down now as I am sick and just did a bit too much" thing on the couch. Then I had the cunning plan to set up the new TV so I could maybe have a really lazy Sunday afternoon reading and watching DVDs and napping in bed.

So I lug the thing into the bedroom, disconnect and lug the old one out, connect the new one up, apply power and um, nothing happened. Zip. Good old electrickery does not seem to do much for this TV at all. (I will add as a side bar that the darn thing has no buttons on the TV, you have to use the remote!!!) Not even a little standby light anywhere. I'm half wondering if the battery for the remote is dead (and of course it's some fancy little round lithium thing so hardly have one on hand) but the lack of any sort of standby light is leaning me towards "this is an ex-TV". And the power point is working cos the old TV worked fine and the DVD works fine.So now it looks like I have to lug it back to the store. Where words will be had if they don't produce another one tout suite.

Only I really can't be fagged doing that today so I think for now I shall just apply my head to the desk and then lie on the couch instead.

August 18, 2009

Content

I'm declaring myself an official fan of Byron Bay. It's pretty, it's sunny, it's warm, the beach is beautiful and I had a lovely lovely massage this afternoon plus they sell very good organic brie at the health food store. I'm sure it's less fun when inundated with tourists in the summer but as a little winter getaway, it's got definite appeal. Plus the place we're staying has free wi-fi and the little blue acer connected fine, hence blogging capabilities.

Between beach walking and pampering, there has also been some brainstorming going on and I have a good idea for the wip that might just give it the push it needs. Hopefully I can start playing with it over the next few days but right now, it's time for pre-dinner bubbles and then dinner itself...you can't rush things in a place like Byron after all!

I did remember to take some pictures today. Sadly, despite the approximately 3000 times I have said to myself since going to San Francisco last year that I need a USB card reader, I have not yet remembered to buy one. So pics will have to stay on the little camera until I get back.

August 17, 2009

Still MIA

The conference portion of the proceedings is over and a wonderful time was had by all. Why do conferences always go so fast?

Anne Gracie demonstrated that apparently the secret to winning a RBY is to kill a puppy (at least fictionally, that is). Mary Jo Putney was great at the Friday workshop and in her other two sessions and I survived my first panel experience at the Blogs and Blogging session (so hello to anyone checking out my blog post conference and sorry it's a bit boring right now!). And I am now immortalised in the minds of many as Anne Gracie's flunky. Given I was already a Valerie Parv minion I'm thinking something isn't quite right...I need some slaves of my own...preferably of the cute cabana boy variety. Though I don't actually have a pool. Maybe he can be a cute butler?

I demonstrated a spectacular lack of ability to remember that I had brought my camera with me and so far have managed to take no photos at all, not even the traditional Keri and I at conference, so you'll just have to imagine us looking glamourous. I'll try and do better during the scenic part of the trip!

August 12, 2009

Off again

Tomorrow I'm off to the Romance Writers of Australia conference in Brisbane (lovely warmer-than-Melbourne Brisbane) then hanging out with a pal afterwards, so blogging may be scarce. I'm taking the little blue Acer but will see how much internet time I get.

Tweeting from la iPhone is more likely, methinks. Nothing else to report, have been in holiday mode of much reading, sleeping, the odd movie (Harry Potter and The Ugly Truth, both of which were a bit meh, though Harry better than the other one), seeing friends, shopping and now packing. Oh, and my dvd watching TV in the bedroom is dying...this is manifesting as the picture doing weird things that makes everyone look like they're standing in front of one of those funhouse mirrors. Normal top halves and teeny tiny little bottom halves. Which is often unintentionally hilarious.

Still puzzling over the wip, which makes for slow going. I think I must've taken a wrong turn somewhere but haven't yet figured out where. Oh well, maybe being around a couple of hundred writers for the next four days will help. If not, my pal will be dragged into brainstorming duty. Wiktory shall be mine!