Today...

[dreamflower]

...turned out OK after all!

I was in serious doubt when my internet was down this morning! But I called cable, and after we did all the usual over-the-phone voodoo, and none of it worked they said they'd send out a tech. He couldn't get here until mid-afternoon, so I worked on some sewing and some fic and some housework until then. I got a lot done, and will likely be posting another chapter of R2E tomorrow. I also got a call from danae_b, and she seemed to be feeling a bit better.

One thing disappointed me, I wanted to do some MEFA reviews, and couldn't do that today.

But I had a lot of flist to catch up on when he finally got me working again.

Comments

[shirebound]

Yay for working internetz!

I've been hoping that Dana is okay.

[dreamflower]

Yes! Working internet is awesome! Not-working internet is the pits!

She's still feeling a bit hermitish and skittish, but I think she sounds a lot better than she did a couple of months ago.

[claudia603.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you heard from Dana! I've been thinking about her! Thanks for the update.

I'm so happy for you that you've got your gateway to LJ...er...the WORLD back. :)) *Hugs*

[dreamflower]

Dana's not reading her LJ right now, because it makes her feel bad when she doesn't comment. But she'd probably love to get an email.

I know--I was so glad when the tech showed up! They had said he might not be able to come before 7, and I was going nuts without my LJ!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Yays on updating! Yesterday I managed to write a paragraph myself (w00t!). You know, when I still commuted, I used to have mefa stories printed so that I could read them while being on the train. We don't have a printer anymore, but I still keep on saving stories to my HD so that I can read those during quiet moments (or hopefully soon on my e-book reader). It's just a thought, this way you can still read during internet downtimes :)

[dreamflower]

That's a thought! I used to print stories out a lot with our old printer. But our new one uses ink up so much faster that I quit doing that. Saving to hard drive is not something I've ever done much of, but it might be a good idea!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

On that e-book reader thing - I've got the Sony Reader and it's extremely easy to put fic onto it for future reading. It'll read Word files, PDFs, text and .rtf files in addition to books off of Sony's online store. I love it, it's one of my favorite gadgets!

[dreamflower]

I've heard of those. I guess they are rather pricey though?

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

I think I paid around $300 for mine, and it came with 100 free downloads from the 'classics collection' on Sony's e-Bookstore. I've purchased a few books for it - they're the same price or a little less than what you'd pay in a bookstore. You can load music onto it, too. There's a slot on one side where you can put in extra memory - I've put a 4 gig memory stick in mine, and have around 150 combined books and fics (including LOTR as a text file) and I still have 3.7 gig free. The height and width are about the same size as a paperback - maybe a little larger - and it's thin and lightweight.

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

The Irex Iliad is around the same price I believe. Then there is also the Amazon Kindle. I think you'd remember that my hubby did kinda review articles on them (unpaid) when he borrowed an Iliad from a huge book importer here and Irex was so happy about those articles that they gifted hubby one. Hubby's college then purchased four more for it's library employees and students, so that's how we got our Iliad. In a nutshell, otherwise we couldn't afford it.

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

The Kindle unfortunately won't let you upload Word files and such to it - you can only get the files off of Amazon. The biggest advantages to the Kindle are more books are easily available for it and it's totally wireless. I have to plus my Reader into my laptop to put files on it, but with the Kindle you don't have to.

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

I have the Iliad, but I downloaded your novel (it's on my wishlist for so long, even outside the MEFA's). It's bliss, because long novels are a bit daunting to print at my husband's work :)

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

*blushes* Thanks so much! I never intended it to turn into a novel, you know, but as I kept exploring my characters' back-stories... well, it sort of got out of control. Once upon a time I had a Dell Axim (Pocket PC platform) and would put fanfic on that - but it had a software meltdown two years ago, and I could never get it to work properly again. But I do love being able to store favorite stories and to put longer stories on it so I can read in installments.

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

That sounds very familair, silly plotbunnies taking a run with a simple outline (points at icon). I usually follow a few novel length stories at the same time, but I wil admit (with a fierce blush), that I haven't kept track properly about novels archived at Stories of Arda. Usually the MEFA's works as a kind signal that novels are finished and I can read them in one run. I will try to keep better track. I think your Dell Axim had a fanfic overload ;) You know, I still have two big files (ordered on author name) of the past MEFA's and I still read old mefa stories when I am in the mood for it? A small MEFA library :)

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not on SoA any longer, LOL, so no worries about keeping up with me there! It was a bit of a scramble to get things up at The Last Ship, but now that I've at least got everything that used to be archived at SoA archived there, I've gotten a little bit lazier/slower paced. Even though the novel's finished, there's still plenty of gaps to go back and fill, which is fun.

MEFAs are a great place to find new stories, too, and read things that I otherwise might not. And so well-run, you'd think it was a professional contest!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

Oh, I followed Dreamflower's link to that a while ago (The Last Ship) and signed up. So if I finished reading The King's Surgeon (which I initially found at a personal space I think), I know where to find more *grin*. And yays for gapfillers!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Yep, I had it up on MSN spaces while I was trying to get it loaded to TLS. I'd copied/pasted from SOA before I took it down from there, so I just uploaded the file to MSN for a short period.

I've got a fic LJ, too, if you need even more! :D

And your icon? Hilarious!

[rhapsody11.livejournal.com]

See, and that's how quickly your novel ended up on my to wish list. I went like: ooooo she finished it, I want to read!

I participated in the nanowrimo last year and my outline for two chapters became a novel... yes, my muse/character had waaay to much fun.

[ansostuff.livejournal.com]

Sounds like you really got stuff done! Sometimes it's a good thing to not have internet access. But that is not the times when you have online stuff you want to do.

*hugs*

[dreamflower]

Yes, well, when you can't get at the 'net, you have to keep busy, LOL! But I really did want to do some MEFA reviews--I'll try to catch up today!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Yay for having the internet back!

Erm, should I mention I posted fic yesterday? Marital squabbling and make-up smut...

[dreamflower]

Ooh! How did I miss that?

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Wonderful chapter! *hugs* Loved seeing Gloin there!

[dreamflower]

Yes, I had planned that for a while. He really does need to apologize to Gimli and Legolas--especially if he wants out of the doghouse with his wife and daughter, LOL!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Y'know - Gimli obviously had to have had a mother, but the notion of him having a sister rather appeals to me. If Dwarf-women are really as rare as the Professor suggests, I'd imagine daughters would be especially treasured.

I may have to borrow that notion from you at some point. No, I have no idea what I'll do with it yet, but I may have to borrow it from you. :)

[dreamflower]

Y'know, it's quite funny--while I knew Gloin would be seeing his son for a while, Frigg was nowhere in my head until I actually started writing, and she just popped out and said *Hello!* *grin* She's came complete with a little bit of backstory as well, LOL, that may or may not find its way into the actual story. (Uppity OCs again!)

Feel free to borrow all you like!

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

Hee. I just may. I just remember as almost a throwaway bit that I included in one story that I included Gimli and Serinde sitting down and sketching out a design for more practical carts for transport of wounded off of the battlefield (design heavily influenced by Larrey, of course). And so I just sort of had this idea of Gimli taking it upon himself to have at least a couple of them built, and Gimli and Serinde gleefully presenting the bill to Aragorn - and now I can sort of see his mother and sister asking about the plans and being delighted to hear that the new king of Gondor is sensible enough to have a woman in charge of the healers.

Vague idea, as you see, but it could be fun.

And there's no reason why some of those Dwarvish craftsmen who came to help rebuild the gates couldn't have been craftswomen.

[dreamflower]

And there's no reason why some of those Dwarvish craftsmen who came to help rebuild the gates couldn't have been craftswomen.

I don't see why not! And finding that out might come as a surprise to some people, LOL! (Imagine one of them getting a minor injury, and the shock of a male healer's apprentice on making that discovery!)

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Oh, gracious, yes. And the female Dwarf being extremely pragmatic about the whole thing, the male apprentice sort of freaking about the unexpected female patient - and both patient and Chief Surgeon sort of going 'Yes, and?' about the patient's gender. That has good comic potential, actually.

I'll ponder that. :)

[dreamflower]

*grin*whistles innocently*looks at ceiling*

[surgicalsteel.livejournal.com]

It'd have to be an injury where gender became obvious - say a shoulder dislocation where said apprentice is pulling the joint back into place and notices that the patient has breasts...

*ponders*

I'll keep pondering.

[the-arc5.livejournal.com]

I wish somebody would take away my internet for a day! lol Maybe then, I could be as productive as you. Looks like Road to Edoras is shaping up nicely!

[dreamflower]

Well, I did get a lot done, but boyoboyoboy, did I *MISS* my internets!

I think it's coming along fairly well! ((hugs))

Did you ever get to make your mushroom pie?

[the-arc5.livejournal.com]

I'm actually eating it right now! It isn't an exact replica of yours, since I kind of made up the recipe as I went, but not bad, if I do say so myself! I had quite a bit of crust dough left over, so I'm trying experiment #2 after dinner: white chocolate strawberry pie. *shrugs* We'll see.

Then, I'm hoping to get fic done. I'm not sure how well it'll work, since I have vampires on the brain, but I'm going to give it a shot!