Some Quick Things

1). Yes, another layout change. No, I don't have to explain myself to anybody.

Layout Credit: Layout made by midenianscholar at scholarslayouts (here)

2). I think I finally have my world building set after spending 5 hours looking at close-ups of Chicago streets on Google Map, checking and re-checking the neighborhood boundaries, printing out said maps, buying markers so I could outline the neighborhoods in different colors (What, Mom? There's nothing strange about a 24 year old buying coloring markers!), and yelling at myself when I outlined a wrong boundary because nobody can agree on what the boundaries are! What I'm saying, I nearly lost my eyesight (no lie, I couldn't see out my periphery and my vision blurred from staring at the computer screen for so long); but in return I've figured out how the world works, so I can stop stressing about that.

I still need to do many things in lines of engineering/machinery components. My engineering capabilities begin and end with fixing up my TV so I can record my shows on my VCR (old school VHS, FTW!). (Not that that skill will get me far anymore, since our cable provider switched all their channels to digital, so I can't even record on the VCR anymore.) However, I have some basic knowledge that will at least carry me through a first draft. All the tiny details I fix/integrate during edits.

I've also set a RIDICULOUS! deadline to get a first draft done. It's so RIDICULOUS! that there's no way I could complete it in the time frame, while maintaining my sanity. But--and I think this is where my problem has been--I haven't been as strict with myself as I was four years ago. Four years ago, I was so disciplined: I was at the computer by 10/10:30 am and I worked non-stop until about 5/6 pm. Back then, I had no problem writing a chapter or two a day. Now, I'm lucky if I get 1K. So, with this RIDICULOUS! deadline, I'd be forcing myself to just. go. and get it done. And though it's a RIDICULOUS! deadline I want to meet it because I hate to lose.

And finally 3). Guess who a). finally learned how to screencap automatically and b). because of said new skill stayed up until 3 in the morning screencapping all her Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter trailers and featurettes? ME! For no other purpose than because I COULD and I DID and now I have, like, twenty shots of the Washington Monument; but I DON'T CARE because I can finally screencap things automatically when manually it's a bitch (although, manually I'd [usually] get the shot I really wanted) and I didn't blow-up my computer in the process!

(Oh, god, I'm so screwed when AL:VH comes out on DVD.)

(Send help!)

(No, not really. I'm fine.)

(I think.)