I totally thought today was Thursday. This is just a continuation of the insane amounts of confusion I've had all week about time and day of the week. I woke up Monday firmly convinced it was Sunday. I think I'd woken up Sunday firmly convinced it was Monday, so turn about is clearly fair play. I took a nap after work on Tuesday, and woke up at 7:55, fully dressed, sleeping on my comforter, and still panicked about being late for work. I only got over that panic when the fact that it was PM, not AM sank in, and *that* was only after a fair bit of anxiety about why my cellphone said PM when it was so obviously AM. yeah, so, days are a little confused in my head right now.

Work: Still sucks.

I posted the latest of my cross-stitch pictures, and between the monitor at home and this monitor something is SO not right. I wouldn't think this can be related to the bad windows install, but could it? (I know this (work) monitor is crap, but others have told me the pictures were wrong before too, so it's not just this monitor.)

I am thinking about the watertown gap outlet. I was thinking tomorrow, but it is supposed to be 80s tomorrow, and now it is not. so perhaps I will! (oh, except it's a bus trip, and yeah, those don't work so well with me. Scratch that, i'll just go to harvard.)

Current Music: Podcast:Music - Avett Brothers: Bella Donna

Now, I should note that these are just what an ideal world would give me. And actually, many of the markets I deal with *do* everything or nearly everything on the list already. (it may help that I have a small list.)

1) clear guidelines, with an indicator of a) submission requirements and formats, b) rights wanted, c) expected response times, and d) instructions on how to follow up if the response time is exceeded (I know it's silly, but the various *pods, for example (Pseudo and Escape) only say to use a different address for queries on the contact page, not the guideline page that says two months.)

2) Clear, honest, timely communication. Correct way to find out about a sale: email/real mail. Wrong way to find out about a sale: Google Alerts/LJ friends list/friend emailing you about their friends list. Correct way to find out when your story is going to be published: email/some sort of notification from the editor or publisher. Wrong way to find out a story has been published: Google alerts. The other bit about communication is that no news does not equal good news, so if I email you with a problem the correct way to deal with it if it's going to take some time is email me back and say, "This is going to take some time, I'll get back to you." If I hear nothing, I'm going to assume you didn't get it or are ignoring me. Also, if I ask a question it is okay to say "I don't know, I'll get back to you." It is NOT okay to lie to me (incidentally, it is never okay to lie to me, who ever you are.).

3) Editing. I'll expand this to include galleys, as I know different places have different tendencies to edit and I don't want to dictate that, but at the least, I think it's reasonable to expect to see the story before it is printed/live. We checked stories at the FB with the authors, and likewise I've seen the Ideo stories circulate at least the editors before going live. On the other hand, the Fantasy story I wrote went live with a bio that I didn't write for that story, but for a story that was published three years prior in a different market. In an ideal world, I think I'd get editorial comments first (even if they're just stuff like, "this sentence seems to be missing a word' and 'I think you meant to use a different word here.") to clean up my story, then galleys to look over quickly, and then all my work with the story would be done.

4) Adherence to stated time lines. This starts with the response times, and holds straight on through to the publication dates. If you say 2-4 months to reply to a story, and your times start slipping past 5 months, change the guidelines page. (I know, if you're so busy that you can't slush, surely you're too busy to change a web page. Except, if you change that web page, you'll get fewer queries at the 4 month mark, thus saving you time.) If you say "Payment on publication," then pay on publication. If you say the story will go up on June 1, it should go up on June 1. If, for whatever reason you can't do some part of this (Everyone has problems now and then) SAY SO.

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Hmm. I think that's my list, really. I mean, obviously there's things that I'd really like, such as markets paying $.20 a word again, but i think this covers most of the things I find really important in markets. What do the rest of you think? Am I missing anything obvious? Or putting too much importance on a minor issue?

Current Music: Podcast:Music - Avett Brothers: Bella Donna

So, I realized a few months ago that the reason my computer won't handle video correctly probably traces back to the bad windows install that it's running. (which is why it took over two weeks of daily emails with tech support to get my Zune to communicate with it as well.) Specifically, it appears that when it installed the WMP stuff, it totally messed them up, to the point that I can't run DVDs on the computer except through other programs (no auto play, basically, I have to start up VLC to watch them. Which is fine, but I shouldn't have to.). And I suspect this may also be why I CANNOT get the video conversion programs to work at all. I really don't want to reinstall windows (particularly since I've temporarily misplaced my backup drive--I suspect I was trying to reanimate the laptop again.) So once I'm back on the webs, I may see about completely uninstalling WMP, right down to all the hidden/shared files, and see if the reinstall cleans up some things. Eventually I'll probably just give up and reinstall windows.

I may have fallen in love with the new dell ultramobile, which isn't even out for at least a few weeks, possibly ages and ages. Do I need it? No. Has that argument ever worked with me? Also no. It's so tiny and cute and most importantly, cheap. Since I've killed my last two laptops in less than 2 years each, cheap is important. And Tiny! My brother's MSI Wind is apparently 2.3 pounds, and this is even smaller. It's not just an ultramobile, it's very nearly a pocketbook! It is alas, linux. But better that than vista. I would cope. (I would prefer XP, but needs must.)

Ooh, new CD from the Avett Brothers out. I will now need to walk to Borders today.

so, there's a really bad line of erotica novels out there, involving animal-human hybrids. We all know what the most distinctive feature of cat penises is, right? Here, have a wikipedia link for reference. Who, upon reading that, thought, 'man, that's hot'? In a related note, Andrea has decided that maybe she wouldn't be able to proofread romance novels, and definitely not animal-hybrid dominance porn. I don't know why. She's such a wimp. (There is in fact a wait list at paperbackswap, which is probably the scariest thing about the book. Well, after the blowjob scene, anyway. )

Second round of transitional employees leave the company next Thursday. This means many of the editors. So sad. I hate this company right now. Everything's falling apart, and no one's telling us anything.

Tags: happiness is a new cd, i suffer so you don't have to
Current Music: Podcast:Music - Avett Brothers: Bella Donna

I went bowling *and* played pool last night. This was probably the 4th time I've gone bowling, so I should probably stop being hard on myself for not yet knowing how to repeat things that have the right result. Pool, on the other hand, I totally rocked at! I mean, I haven't played it much more, but my brain clicked over into knowing how to handle the angles a few times ago, and so now I can figure out some of the shots other than the simple straight shots. And! Yesterday I looked at two balls clumped together and thought if I hit the cue ball *here* it will bump ball 1 here, and that will bump ball 2 right into the pocket. And it totally worked! It even bumped ball 1 in there as well, which I was hoping for, but not counting on. yay! And then the second game my first time up I sank three balls in a row. And then nothing ever again. but neither did anyone else for about 4 tries, even the boys who had been good before. And anyways, 3! I believe I should play pool more often.

Plus, it was with people I didn't know at all, or only sort of--the group was put together by a former housemate who only overlapped with me for a week. And I've gotten to know him better since then, obviously, but this was the first time I actually managed to go do something with him, and it was fun! Even though i didn't know anyone, they were all fun, and I wasn't scared to meet them, as I usually am with strangers. I may be growing up! (Or just had faith in his friends being friendly. hard to say which.)

Current Music: Podcast:Music - Avett Brothers: Bella Donna

I keep feeling like there's something at the house I haven't done. Seriously, this is the second or third day I've had this nagging feeling about something --that I've left a mess or that I didn't take care of--but the specifics won't ever come close enough to be identified.

Hmm. Maybe it's the internet. The boys upstairs aren't sticking to their side of the bargain (okay, it wasn't so much a bargain as blatant piracy of their internet.), so we've been discussing just sucking it up and forking over the cash. (and incidentally, I hate the amount of cash they want.)

But I don't think that is it. That's a planning and some worrying feeling, but this feeling is more like...guilt. Perhaps it's projected from Somerville by a dog to make me feel bad that the poor thing doesn't get to sleep on sheepskin while I'm at work.

I didn't read the zombie paranormal romance, alas. I kept putting it off and now, it has to go back to the library.

There is a boy on my commute who I am stalking. I doubt he knows I'm stalking him, since I get off the T before him, but I am. (Though, it would have worked better if I'd asked leah to keep an eye on him for me after I got off the T.) The whole stalking thing was suspended for a bit, though, since I was being lazy and coming in to work later than optimal.

I think my face is slightly sunburned (I ended up with probably about 20, 25 minutes of walking on Saturday, and got probably 10-15 minutes of no-shade, so this is not surprising, just annoying.), and it's doing weird things with heat regulation in my body (In retrospect, this may explain why I COULD NOT fall asleep yesterday. Everyone else went to sleep at normal times. I went to sleep at like, 2.)

I have a little bit of allergy-induced congestion, which also wasn't helping me fall asleep--I sometimes feel slightly as though I'm falling when I'm congested, and so last night when I would close my eyes I would get a modified falling feeling--I felt like I was walking down stairs. And down and down and down.

I forgot to put on antiperspirant before I left the house today. This is probably fine (particularly as I have deodorant in my work desk) because really, it's 80 with 71% humidity out there--at this point it would be kinda unfair if one part of my body *wasn't* sweating.

Readercon stuff:

• I didn't see rudi (next year at monkeycon!), as he came down on friday, and I only made it out on Saturday.
• I saw everyone I went out to see, if not for long enough. WoE!
• I met new people (most notably Paolo who-wrote-Pump-Six (You know, I'd be able to spell his name if I'd ever heard it, but trying to remember it from print is so not working for me.), and one of my dinner companions who is kayselkiemoon), I was snubbed by Tempest as always, and managed to avoid running into yendi and shadesong, so they didn't have to publicly snub me. (I do what I can to make life easier for others, really.)
• I didn't buy anything specifically for my mother, but I figured out what books I will send to my mother (The spare copy of Bittersweet Creek and one copy of Magic for Beginners). My mother is complaining about all of the books I send her having less than excellent endings (as in China "I couldn't remember the ending, so I thought I hadn't finished reading it, but no, it just didn't end." Mieville ), so if you read SF with really good endings, feel free to suggest them to me.

And I think that's most of everything I was going to say.

My favorite things about plums is that they have insanely sour skins.

drinking tonight! So I keep thinking it's Friday. It's not. This makes me sad.

I would just like to remind everyone that I HATE readercon simply for being in the least accessible place possible. Which is to say, I haven't a clue when I'll be out there and when I won't. Expect me when you see me. Call me if you're bored. (Readercon is also known as the con that hates me: the last time I actually managed to make it out there (2 years ago?), I developed allergic conjunctivitis which eventually led to me no longer wearing contacts anymore.)

(also, any time I go somewhere involving a bus, I end up a) not in the right place and b) with bus drivers who have never even heard of the places I am trying to go--even though I have exact directions printed out from the T site.)

A pharmacology place wants to interview me to be a project manager. I freaking hate interviews, have I mentioned that? No word from the last one, and I've hit the point where I assume they've called back those people they want to call back.

So, in conclusion I hate EVERYTHING.

Current Music: Jimmy Eat World - Here It Goes

Ha! Totally figured out one of the twists of Flora's Dare before the story brought it up. However, I really do love that it wasn't telegraphed at all in the first book, at least through the behavior of any of the characters.

Also, it too made me sniffle. There are apparently no books safe from my tears this weekend. I had better not watch TV--a dog food ad would have me sobbing in a heap.

Books from my weekend, but mostly yesterday:
Undead and Unworthy
Lost Truth (made me weep. Such a good ending for the series.)
Dancing with Werewolves (Praise be, it missed out on sucking in so many places.)
The Snow Queen (possibly a little sniffling)
A regency romance (a little sniffling)
Flora Segunda (some tears)
Flora's Dare (a little sniffling)(technically just finished, but I started it last night)

I also watched
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory--strangely beautiful, like a good Tim Burton should be
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry--Much less awful than you'd think.
the pilot episode of Psych--I am so in love with this show. I may end up buying it.

our internet was a little cranky yesterday, I'm hoping it shapes up tonight. They're also possibly painting my bedroom wall right now, but we don't actually know since the landlord hasn't said anything. Poor Yellowdog is locked in his bedroom.