Life, the Universe, and ... More Interference From Life

I have no witty words of wisdom today. My wit has deserted me and taken my words and wisdom with it. ;-)

I had a lot going on last week and while it involved a lot of typing, there was nothing exactly creative about it. My current line of work is transcription, and right now I’m nearing the end of the first round of transcripts for a well known Ontario university. This project has been ongoing for a long time now -- too long, as a matter of fact, so I gave myself a deadline.

This is one of the problems of having your own business and working from home. Not only are you your own boss, responsible for setting your own goals and deadlines, you have a heck of a lot of distractions to deal with. It takes a lot of self-discipline to say no to that friendly coffee date, ignore the phone when it’s a personal call, or tell family members no when they ask for that favour, and frankly, I don’t have it. Which is part of what put me behind the project in the first place.

Wordage Report

Blog Posts (not counting this one)
1,853 words total
Down by a lot last week, which is only to be expected because I skimped on most of the blog posts and skipped the movie review altogether. I didn’t have time to watch a movie, let alone write up a review. And I probably won’t this week either.

Goodreads Reviews
0 words total
I have to admit I did get some reading in to unwind, but I didn’t take the time to review the books.

Editing
0 pages total
I didn’t exactly forget about An Elemental Earth, it’s just not high on my priority list right now.

New Words
2,272 words total
Ha! Fooled you. I bet you thought I didn’t get any new words in last week. To be honest though, I think I did most of them last Sunday before I got all focused on my transcription. And they were all on Wandering Wizards.

This Week’s Goals:
Make it through the week with my sanity intact.

My big transcription project is due at the end of this month, and I’m pretty much going to be focused on it until the 31st. Then I might even take a day or two for a breather before making up for lost time with my blogging and my other writing projects.

This week’s excerpt is once again from Wandering Wizards:

Ellen cursed under her breath as she took the stairs two at a time. It was just like her father to decide without warning to change her from working with the shinai, the split bamboo practice sword, to the bokken, the solid white oak wooden sword, for her kendo lessons. While she should be pleased that he'd finally decided she was making progress, it was less pleasing that he thought she should be a mind reader and have brought her bokken with her. Normally she left her practice weapons at the dojo, but she'd brought the bokken home to give it a good oiling.

If only Jessica could see her now! Jessica knew Ellen had been studying the art of kendo, the way of the sword, but she'd have no chance to tell her now she'd progressed to kenjutsu, the art of the sword. Her brothers, three of whom were also studying with their father, had taken to calling her their little samurai, while her youngest brother, who'd made the mistake of challenging her to a match, called her a blood thirsty little ninja.

She missed Jessica terribly. They were more than just friends, they were more like sisters. Even after all this time she still hated coming home to an empty apartment.

Jiggling the recalcitrant lock, she got the door open and grabbed for the envelope that had been wedged between the edge of the door and the frame. Taking it with her, she made a beeline for her room. Taking the bokken from its stand on her dresser, she slipped it into its carry case and slung it over her shoulder. As she started back out she looked at the envelope she was still holding and stopped with a frown.

It was a heavy, buff coloured paper and all it bore on it was her name. Still frowning, she slit it open with a long fingernail and read the note that was inside. She read the note a second time.

“What the hell?”

It was a note from Howard, giving her his power of attorney over the building they lived in. He said he’d be going away for a while and didn’t know when he’d be back. She really didn’t have time for this, but it sounded like he was going to go do something stupid - as stupid as when he accidentally sent Jessica into the magical realm.

She stood indecisively in the doorway for a minute, then decided her father could wait. This was more important. Not bothering to knock on Howard’s door, she tried the knob and it turned easily in her hand.

There was no sign of him in the main room of his apartment, and it was unnaturally neat and tidy. Cocking her head, she thought she heard noises coming from his work room. Good, he was still here. Crossing the room she pushed the door to the work room open and winced at the light emanating from the object Howard was holding in his hand.

Ellen had the hand holding the letter extended towards him but before she could say anything Howard caught sight of her. His eyes widened in horror and she faintly caught the sound of him saying, “Ellen, no!” before whatever it was he was holding seemed to explode into a million shards of light.

After the single, brilliant flash, everything went black.