Hurdle… Passed

I finally turned in the manuscript I had been editing for the last few weeks this afternoon, and boy it felt like a load had been taken off my shoulders. There’s still the journal of course, as well as the rewrites that need to be done for Fiction Techniques, but I really do feel like I’ve passed a major hurdle.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I feel I need to celebrate by sleeping early for a change.  That, or maybe some Fallout: New Vegas.

Embers

Try as I might, I can’t seem to summon the urge to finish my exegetic essay today, despite the fact that the final submission of the manuscript edit is less than two days away.  It might have something to do with the detour I had to do after work, but after that I was so tired all I could do was lie down.  Sheesh.  Anyway, it’s imperative that I finish everything tomorrow, or else I’ll really be in trouble.

So, after work, absolutely no distractions!  Meaning no games, net browsing, and what not.  Zettai!

Making Arrangements

The much-dreaded deadlines are quickly approaching, but for some reason I’m not worried.  At least not as worried as I’d normally be with such an important submission coming soon.  While not much, I already have an idea of what I want to write down on my exegetic essay, and I’ll get on that as soon as I get home from work tomorrow.  It’s still going to take a bit of word-wrangling, as I’m going to have to say what amounts to five pages of commentary on a manuscript that was so well-crafted in the first place that I barely had anything to change in it.  That’s… incredible, really.

I wish I could say the same for my other subject, but given the fact that I’ll have to do massive rewrites on the stories I’ve submitted for my Fiction Techniques class means most of my time at home will be spent, well, not resting.  It should be an interesting few days before the Christmas season rolls in.

Once Again

I’m debating whether or not I should stay up late tonight and add more pages to my nascent exegetic essay on the manuscript I’m handling, or just go to sleep so I can wake up like a normal human being for a change.  I’m leaning towards sleep, and while the essay does take top priority I’m not in the right mindset right now to start on it.  And that’s not an excuse for a change.

Still, I’ve managed to drink some coca-cola, so I guess sleep is out of the question, at least for an hour or two while the caffeine passes through my system.  So how will I make the most out of the extra waking hours I inadvertently gained, but not on anything academic-related, hmm?

Although it’s not really advisable, I suppose I could squeeze in a fifteen to twenty-minute exercise session.  Haruhi knows that I’ve really been letting myself go these past few weeks (anxiety, depression, and frustration make for a chubby Myssa), as my increased weight and waistline can attest, so I think some cardio will do me good.

And then afterward?  Hopefully I’ll be tired enough to just jump straight into bed.

P.S. Already finished both the second Ciaphas Cain Omnibus (Defender of the Imperium) and A.D.B.’s book Helsreach.  I enjoyed both, but then again I’m not the most discriminating reader out there so don’t take my word for it, ahaha.

Non-Meetings

I just got home from a few hours of karaoke with my office mates.  The funny thing is… it wasn’t supposed to become a night out in the town; it was supposed to be part informal meeting with our team leader to talk about stuff like planning for our Christmas Party and airing our issues concerning stuff like, oh, why our payslip never seems to match what we were expecting.

Of course, since our team lead didn’t show up, that had to be scratched rather quickly.

Slight Adjustments

My off days for this week have been changed temporarily because of the fact that, for some odd reason, the company had decided that it would be best if almost all of the part-timers were on the floor for Thanksgiving.  Yes, I don’t quite understand why either, as in my experience Thanksgiving Day in the US is pretty much a non-working holiday (except for the folk selling turkey that is, ahaha).  And yet we’re supposed to be expecting a flood of calls?  Huh?

As a result, my first ‘off’ day was moved temporarily a day early, meaning I have no work tomorrow instead of on Friday.  Although I’m pretty sure that I don’t really have a lot of schoolwork to do that requires me to cram like no tomorrow, it does mean that I have a work day sandwiched in between my rest days.  It’s a little awkward, but nothing too serious.  I hope.

Incidentally it’s payday for me tomorrow.  More money for the bank, but I am worried that it won’t be as much as I’d like, since I’ve been ‘volunteered’ to attend a team night-out that I unfortunately could not say ‘no’ to (since our Team Lead required everyone to come).  It won’t hurt, but I fear the consequences of drinking alcoholic beverages late into the evening when there’s work to be done the very next morning.

P.S. Huh, WordPress is acting weird again.  This time it’s not allowing me to enter a picture correctly;  instead of the usual helpful pop-up window, it keeps on asking me whether or not I want to leave the page (which would accomplish nothing, and leave the pic in the library instead of inserting it into this post).  Hmph.  I’ll give it a few hours before trying again.  I LIKED that picture, after all.

Relief

I have to thank my friends Alain Gravel and Douglass Weeks for helping me out in one of my projects by contributing some of their old compositions as ‘dummy’ articles.  It takes a load off my mind, really.  Now all I have to really worry about is the manuscript edit and the five-page exegetic that comes with it.  Oh, and a revised publisher’s blurb.  At this rate, everything should be ready by the 28th of November, which means I’ll still have time to review the material before the actual final submission on the 30th.

That said, I still have to submit a progress report.  I’ll drop mine off at DLSU tomorrow after work.

While it’s still not going to be easy (aside from the journal, there’s still the Rewritten Fiction Portfolio and Story Ideas for Fiction Techniques), things are looking up somehow for me.

Digging Up Old Contacts

One of the projects that I’ll have to give my attention to soon is the faux-journal that needs to be submitted for the Professional Editing class I’ve enrolled in this term.  As the end result is supposedly an 80-page compilation, it means that each of the five members of the group I’m part of will have to submit at least sixteen pages each for the project, but given my lack of inspiration and general scatter-brained default nature I’m not sure I’m up to even writing something for it.

And so I’ve been forced to ask help from some of my old friends in the fanfiction community.  Since it’s a faux-journal, the actual quality of the articles that are going to be part of the compilation isn’t an issue.  That said, it’s still shaping up to be difficult finding stuff to ‘fill in’ the required pages, but hopefully I’ll have enough articles by Wednesday, which is the day where the group collates all of the submissions for the project.

Meh.  The so-called busy week begins a day early, it seems.

Delicious Diversion

There are times that I’d be understandably frustrated that I’m literally surrounded by things that can divert my attention from important schoolwork, but there are also times where I think it’s acceptable to allow myself to be distracted.  Last night was definitely one of those times, but on the bright side I feel understandably better now for it.  The fact that the book I read was the second Ciaphas Cain omnibus did help a bit though, as the brave yet cowardly commissar’s brand of black humor really eased my spirits a bit.

Still, it’s a temporary balm at most for my anxieties, as this coming week is shaping up to be one of the busiest yet.  Part-time work aside, I have to help finalize both the submissions and the designs of the journal that’s supposed to be published for my Professional Editing subject, on top of the already stress-inducing manuscript edit.  I foresee a lot of sleepless nights, for sure.

Hmph.  I better start digging for contacts to farm journal submissions from.

Setting Goals: November 19

I’ve always found the ARIA OSTs soothing, so today I’m starting up my play list of all the ARIA music I’ve managed to save in my hard drives over the years and just let the soundtrack play in the background while I work on the manuscript. Hopefully it’ll help me concentrate on the task at hand, and not serve as an additional distraction.

Maybe in a few hours I’ll actually be able to accomplish something. We’ll see.

And speaking of distractions, that means no browsers up, or any other window for that matter. So after this post, everything barring MS Word and the Media player will be closed.

P.S. Formatting of any type doesn’t seem to be working for some reason. Tsk, the blue-colored font s the only way to differentiate my posts from my cousin’s too…

Update: Urgh.  Okay, I’ve been able to do less than I’d hoped, but I think that’s largely due to the fact that one of our neighbors just happened to decide that today would be a good day to be singing karaoke, out loud, for most of the afternoon (and it’s still ongoing!).  So much for well-thought of plans.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go read the books I ordered from Amazon a few weeks ago.  I think I’ll pass on Helsreach for now (sorry ADB), and jump into the second Ciaphas Cain omnibus Defender of the Imperium.  Anything to take my mind of the failure today.