Am I Memorex? - Week 2 up

Parts 7-12 of "Am I Memorex?" have been collected and posted in the weekly round up.

In other news, I no longer have cable tv in my room. Not a big deal since I rarely, less that once a week, watch it. Due to circumstances that would take too long to explain right now, because I gave up cable tv, I now have a bigger tv.

More tomorrow when it's not two hours past my bedtime.

Bloging on writing daily.

Part Eleven of "Am I Memorex?" is up.


The following is me talking a little about the story and how I write. There is a mild spoiler for Part Ten but it's nothing you shouldn't already know if you were paying attention.

Tonight is the first time the narrator refers to herself as a woman. The narrator/main character has always been a woman but before this part there was no way to bring this up. I mentioned her name in the short blurb I posted when part two went up but it hasn't come up in story until tonight's part. I was beginning to worry that there wouldn't be a good place to insert this info for at least another week.

This is of course a side effect of writing to a hundred word quota. The story advances slowly but not, I think, slower than if I was drawing it as a daily webcomic. It's an interesting thought. A daily three to four panel comic would have roughly the same or less story advancement as my daily hundred word posts.

I am considering doubling my daily word quota. This would depend on me getting far enough ahead that I would have a buffer to prevent dead days. Currently I'm writing about two days ahead of what I'm posting. I've been writing each part in turn, not just tearing off the next hundred words from what I've written. If I over write a part I either trim it down or move the last sentence to the next part if I feel the line needs to be saved. Typically I edit each post twice, once right after I've written it and then the next day before I create a new scheduled post for it on the blog.

I am writing in a very linear A B C fashion. I have a vague idea of where the story is going but for the most part I'm letting the characters pull me along. Already a couple of characters have shown me things I didn't know about them. I won't say what these things are cause they would be more than a lot spoilery.

Well that's all for this night. See you cats later.

Tonight I am drinking wine, read to find out why

This is going to be short. Today I was the manager on duty. The only manager. I think this is the first time I've ever worked open to close on a Sunday as a manager. I was a little bit scared but felt confident that I could handle it. And the day went pretty smooth.

I opened the store with two employees. They set up the store while I decorated the mornings cakes. I had a bit of a fright when a few hundred people walked into the mall all at once. I found out by asking one that they were a group from Georgia. Thinking that if even a fourth of them decided to buy a cookie I would be in danger of running out of cookies, I started baking more cookies. I don't know what happened to those people, I never saw them leave so I guess they left through another exit.

Luckily for us a group of dancers was putting on a show right near the cookie shop so we still got a boost in sales. We never ran out of cookies, costumers were served in a timely manner, all cookie cakes were decorated and picked up on time, I made the cheesecake brownies for tomorrow, and rolled out enough cakes for tomorrow. I counted the drawers and they were a few cents over.

Everything was perfect. (Let me stop here for a second and say that is the day was perfect it was because the people(most still in high school) I worked with made it that way. If my crew were not great employees today could have sucked but it didn't because they are some of the best workers I have known.) Then I counted the deposit and came up ten dollars short.

I recounted the drawers. I checked the safe. I recounted the deposit. I counted the drawers. I counted the deposit again. I added everything up on the calculator to check the excel spreadsheet we use add up everything. I asked an employee to watch me as I recounted everything again to make sure I wasn't just making the same mistake over and over again.

After about twenty minutes I figured out the cash in the deposit was correct. The missing ten dollars was in the coinage. This makes no sense. There is no way for ten dollars in coins to be missing from the deposit. There is never more than two or three dollars in coins in the deposit. I called my manager told him about the shortage and left the deposit for him to check in the morning. I left work about forty-five minutes later than I should have. Forty-five minutes of trying to find impossible ten dollars in coins.

This has left me a little frazzled. It isn't the shortage that has me frazzled. I've been short before. It the way we're short that has me upset. It's just not possible for the deposit to be short ten dollars in coins. I don't normally drink alcohol. But tonight I'm stressed out about those ten dollars so I'm drinking some wine, not a lot, just enough to relax me. I'm going to cue up the first season of Torchwood and drink a little more and probably fall asleep early, which is why I'm writing this now instead of later.

Hmm that wasn't nearly as short as I thought it would be. Oh well, Captain Jack Harkness awaits.

Oh yeah Part 9 of "Am I Memorex?" will be up later on Gillian's Fiction at it's normal 1 AM time slot.

Promotion news

Well today my boss filled me in on what is going on with my promotion. The cookie store is going to be remodeled and a pretzel shop, which is run by the same parent company, put in next door. The pretzel shop will be a separate business but be managed by my manager. I've been told that when this comes to pass I will be promoted to assistant manager and possibly be placed in charge of the pretzel shop or the other assistant manager will be put over the pretzel shop and I'll be kept at the cookie store.

So seems that I'll have to wait a little while before I get officially promoted, unofficially I'm already an assistant manager. I will be getting a change in title from team leader to shift supervisor. This change is partly for show and partly to keep me a symbolic level above the other team leaders he wants to install in the hierarchy.

I've started reading Palimpsest. In a word this book is intoxicating. I feel drawn into the world of Palimpsest. I'm still discovering this world but when I'm done I'll have a review until then trust me when I say this book is good.

Weekly Repost of "Am I Memorex?" Up

Today marks the end of the first week of "Am I Memorex?" on Gillian's Fiction. I know I've barely even started the story but I feel good about how it's coming along. On Fridays I will be reposting the week's parts in one post. This is for those that would prefer larger story posts and to make it easier to go back and reread the story, which I'm sure everyone will be doing, right;).

So here is the first weekly repost of "Am I Memorex?"

Out of Sorts/Rambling Post now with poetry

I'm feeling kind of out of sorts. I don't quite know how to describe it. I don't feel depressed, I think, but I not exactly happy or mellow. I feel empty. Hollow. I am feeling a little disconnected from things. This feeling started today I think. I can remember laughing at a comic earlier. I canremember laughing and what was funny but now I can't laugh. I feel tired. I may just need sleep.

---

Head full of cotton
Empty heart
Smile for them

Strained voice
Red eyes
Laugh for them

Tired body
hollow mind
Be happy for them

---

Yeah, I get to feeling like this and I write bad angst ridden poetry.

I was going to go the movies today but I woke up late and then I got caught up in rereading through the archives of A Softer World. I read all 418 strips. Hmm you know, A Softer World isn't exactly a light fluffy happy comic. A lot of the strips are actually kind of depressing. Maybe I should avoid four hour binges of semi-depressing comics.

Tomorrow I'll be going to the mall early to pick up a book I ordered after like five unrelated people recommened it. The book is Palimpsest by Cat Valente. I've heard very good things about this book and will report back on how it stacks up to the hype.

Oh yeah, part 6 of "Am I Memorex?" went up last night and the first weekly compilation will be up later. You know what, hold on a sec.. there, it's up now here. Part seven will post Sat morning.

Thats all I got right now.

Am I Memorex? - Part 5 up and some ramblings

"Am I Memorex?" Part 5 is up on Gillian's Fiction.

I really got nothing else to say tonight. I spent my day off at home doing a little writing and reading. I cleaned up my room a little but got sidetracked by watching Firefly. I just got the set of the series. Yeah I should have bought it a long time ago but I rarely by TV show DVD sets because they seem to cost so much and it's rare that I'll sit down and watch them so it's this whole "how much I paid for it" vs "how much I'll really use it." But I'm more secure financially so I'm letting my self buy a high cost($50-$100) item once a pay period. I of course spend more than that on other things combined during the same period but on smaller cheaper things. It's just the way my mind thinks spending of money. Buying twenty $5 items over a few days is fine but buying one $80 item feels like spending a lot of money.

What was I talking about? Oh yes, not cleaning my room. Well I did clean a little. I just didn't finish.

And here's a cake I decorated for a customer. This was one of those rare ocassions where a guy just wanted a cookie cake with chocolate and white icing but didn't care what it looked like. So I did this:



I liked the way it came out so I thought I'd share.

Ok, it's 3am as I write this so I'm going to clear off my bed, cue up the latest episode of Castle(I'm feeling the need for more Nathan Fillion tonight) and then go to sleep. See ya tomorrow.