Inaugural blog from my apartment
May. 6th, 2008 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maychorianI have FiOS at home now! Yippee! This is my first xanga blog entry from my apartment, not from my parents' house or work or the library. Pretty cool. I suspect I'll be posting a lot more from now on.
Oh, you want some news? You silly people. Anyway, it seems that I have a life now. I get together with different groups of friends at least twice a week, soon to be thrice. I tell ya, I just love D&D. It's so fun to play around with friends and make up stories and worlds.
Speaking of making up D&D worlds, the work on Wrath & Gunfire continues apace. I now have a bb board website to archive everything that we've been writing. So far I've written two stories for it that I think are good and stand alone--"Why the Hunter Hates the Rabbit" and "How the Prism Got Her Wish". I've sent the first one to strangehorizons.com, a very professional sf/f webzine that actually pays for the stories it publishes. It's been a month now since I've submitted it, so I expect to hear from them soon. If it's rejected, I'll send it to Realms of Fantasy, then Fantasy & Science Fiction, and then try some of the more obscure sf/f magazines and webzines. Yes, I have plans. If it's rejected from everywhere, I'll make the post on my LJ public--it's already posted there under f-lock. Then I'll go through the same process with "How the Prism". And then I'll do it again with whatever I write next, which probably be called "The Wager of Wolf and Tiger" or something like that. I'm still figuring out the optimum title, but it is about the Tiger and the Wolf and a wager they make to prove who is the most skilled at hunting.
I also might be writing more fanfic, if I find the time for it. I have several Obi-Wan fics are that need to be completed, and I'd love to write some SG-1.
My career continues to be good and interesting. I'm full-time now, did I mention? As of May 1, I'm eligible for insurance there. So now I'm covered for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, which the company is paying for itself, just to be nice. I gotta say, it's a relief to know that I have something to fall back on if something goes wrong with me. I haven't had insurance since I graduated college and my parents couldn't put me on theirs. Plus my parents don't even have regular insurance--they're doing one of those sharing things with a Mennonite company. I can't explain it better than that without going into way more detail than I want to here, and asking my mom a bunch of pointed questions. In any case, I looked into that, but couldn't afford even that on my part-time pay. But now that I have money to deal with, it seems like I have all sorts of options.
Oh, money. It's nice to have, of course, but as always, the more you have, the more you want. Even full-time, it's not like I'm making an incredible amount of money--I'm still a little under 25,000 a year. Yet now I have a little to play with, I'm discovering all sorts of things that I want and can't yet afford. Like an iPod. And an Xbox 360. And a Wii. And some nice clothes. And, you know, other stuff. Materialism is quite the curse. Of course I'm being careful and budgeting, and I know what I can afford and I'm staying within my limits, but still there's that wanting, you know?
Of course, I do have internet at home now, which is a plus that I would not have been able to afford without full-time pay. So you see? I'm very blessed.
I've been trying more seriously to exercise lately, like taking a walk every day after I get home from work. I know it would be better to exercise in the morning, but I'm just s'darn lazy, and the snooze button is easier. I'm also doing a little resistance training to tone a little bit, and man, it's hard work. I should talk to a doctor before starting all this stuff, I guess, but like I said, before now I couldn't afford it. Now that I have insurance, maybe I'll be able to talk to someone, and make a plan. Right now my plan is basically, "Eat a little less, move a little more." Which is a start.
Yeah, eating. I know that eating healthy requires produce, but that stuff is expensive. I'm trying to live on the cheap, so I can save that money for other things. So, not buying new clothes, even though I could use a few. Not eating Taco Bell as much as I used to. My typical diet each day is yogurt and apple for breakfast, one-dollar frozen meal for lunch (like those little budget Michelina's, mmm, boy) and ramen or a sandwich for supper. Pretty cheap, if I don say so myself. Maybe not that healthy, though. I don't know. It's confusing. I'm taking vitamins, just in case, though I know that with a balanced diet you shouldn't have to.
Oh well. What does it really matter? These are just the things that have been on my mind lately. And so I'm dumping them out in front you, my intarwebs.
Other things have been on my mind, too. Perhaps I'll write about them later.
Oh, you want some news? You silly people. Anyway, it seems that I have a life now. I get together with different groups of friends at least twice a week, soon to be thrice. I tell ya, I just love D&D. It's so fun to play around with friends and make up stories and worlds.
Speaking of making up D&D worlds, the work on Wrath & Gunfire continues apace. I now have a bb board website to archive everything that we've been writing. So far I've written two stories for it that I think are good and stand alone--"Why the Hunter Hates the Rabbit" and "How the Prism Got Her Wish". I've sent the first one to strangehorizons.com, a very professional sf/f webzine that actually pays for the stories it publishes. It's been a month now since I've submitted it, so I expect to hear from them soon. If it's rejected, I'll send it to Realms of Fantasy, then Fantasy & Science Fiction, and then try some of the more obscure sf/f magazines and webzines. Yes, I have plans. If it's rejected from everywhere, I'll make the post on my LJ public--it's already posted there under f-lock. Then I'll go through the same process with "How the Prism". And then I'll do it again with whatever I write next, which probably be called "The Wager of Wolf and Tiger" or something like that. I'm still figuring out the optimum title, but it is about the Tiger and the Wolf and a wager they make to prove who is the most skilled at hunting.
I also might be writing more fanfic, if I find the time for it. I have several Obi-Wan fics are that need to be completed, and I'd love to write some SG-1.
My career continues to be good and interesting. I'm full-time now, did I mention? As of May 1, I'm eligible for insurance there. So now I'm covered for medical, dental, vision, and life insurance, which the company is paying for itself, just to be nice. I gotta say, it's a relief to know that I have something to fall back on if something goes wrong with me. I haven't had insurance since I graduated college and my parents couldn't put me on theirs. Plus my parents don't even have regular insurance--they're doing one of those sharing things with a Mennonite company. I can't explain it better than that without going into way more detail than I want to here, and asking my mom a bunch of pointed questions. In any case, I looked into that, but couldn't afford even that on my part-time pay. But now that I have money to deal with, it seems like I have all sorts of options.
Oh, money. It's nice to have, of course, but as always, the more you have, the more you want. Even full-time, it's not like I'm making an incredible amount of money--I'm still a little under 25,000 a year. Yet now I have a little to play with, I'm discovering all sorts of things that I want and can't yet afford. Like an iPod. And an Xbox 360. And a Wii. And some nice clothes. And, you know, other stuff. Materialism is quite the curse. Of course I'm being careful and budgeting, and I know what I can afford and I'm staying within my limits, but still there's that wanting, you know?
Of course, I do have internet at home now, which is a plus that I would not have been able to afford without full-time pay. So you see? I'm very blessed.
I've been trying more seriously to exercise lately, like taking a walk every day after I get home from work. I know it would be better to exercise in the morning, but I'm just s'darn lazy, and the snooze button is easier. I'm also doing a little resistance training to tone a little bit, and man, it's hard work. I should talk to a doctor before starting all this stuff, I guess, but like I said, before now I couldn't afford it. Now that I have insurance, maybe I'll be able to talk to someone, and make a plan. Right now my plan is basically, "Eat a little less, move a little more." Which is a start.
Yeah, eating. I know that eating healthy requires produce, but that stuff is expensive. I'm trying to live on the cheap, so I can save that money for other things. So, not buying new clothes, even though I could use a few. Not eating Taco Bell as much as I used to. My typical diet each day is yogurt and apple for breakfast, one-dollar frozen meal for lunch (like those little budget Michelina's, mmm, boy) and ramen or a sandwich for supper. Pretty cheap, if I don say so myself. Maybe not that healthy, though. I don't know. It's confusing. I'm taking vitamins, just in case, though I know that with a balanced diet you shouldn't have to.
Oh well. What does it really matter? These are just the things that have been on my mind lately. And so I'm dumping them out in front you, my intarwebs.
Other things have been on my mind, too. Perhaps I'll write about them later.
