Monday ran away...

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

And just like that, it's no longer Monday... sorry, folks, but thems the breaks, right? Monday was pretty flat-out with work, and I was on dinner duty after that, and yesterday was no better! The great thing is that I finished one piece of complicated work yesterday - after having it on the go for well over a month (most of my work is 1-2 week jobs, and sometimes only a day)! You can see why I was thrilled to have it done AT LAST. I had begun to think it was never going to end! Anyway, today was supposed to be a nice bit of straight-forward work that I could finish in one day, but there was an unforeseen complication that I needed to get advice on... That has meant there is a bit of a work-around to be completed, which involves another area of my department, and I have to wait for them to do their bit before I can finish my bit, so that's dragging it out to tomorrow at least. Oh well, at least there's a solution that's doable!

And enough of my woes... how is YOUR week going? hopefully "work" (whatever it does or doesn't entail for you) has been productive, and you are getting WORDS in!

I have not done words yet again, though I did manage to make some icons a couple of weekends ago. They are lounging around, unposted, waiting for me to find time to do just that. BUT I will be counting them at least! And no, the count for April is not done yet *sigh*, but I will get to that, and another Original Fic post, soon! That, in case you missed it, is our current long challenge that runs to the end of May! Join us - we're all having fun thinking about original stories, if not actually writing any! ;-)

Big Buddies, you should be at the 22% mark of your monthly goal about now. How is that looking for you? Need any help or encouragement?

The Daily Count challengers need a mention - WOOHOO! You are all going great guns!

Your Flash Challenge for today is: "I could easily change my mind about you." courtesy of Carly Simon (10 points to anyone who can name the song!)

What else? Oh, prompts galore! Check back over the last week for ALL THE THINGS! You know by now what they are, right? All the daily words, the weekly challenges, the weekend challenge! Anything else I missed? Bound to be - so make free with our wonderful comm, and create from any and all of the prompts you like!

And that's me. I'm about to keel over, exhausted, so I think I'd better fall down before I fall down. *waves*

Comments

[thatwasjustadream (from livejournal.com)]

My week has been good so far. I finished up with the class I've been taking since January. I've been knitting, gardening, and getting in a lonnng walk every day.

Sadly, no words today - but I'll hope for some tomorrow. It has to rain one of these days, and that is when I'll probably get on the keyboard!

@simplyn2deep - hope your challenge day is a good one!

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

That's good to hear! Oh, that sounds so lovely! I hope you enjoyed the course!

You will get words in, I know it! ;-)

[shanachie-quill.livejournal.com]

How's my week been? Crazy!

I "ran away"/"was kidnapped" for the weekend. Had a fantastic time in Savannah with my friends, but got no words there. Then this is a) teacher appreciation week and b) end of year... so ALL sorts of activities going on at work. (Including our school singing at the baseball game last night, end of year meeting, and field day).

Which means I've been running hither and yon trying to wrap things up and dealing with children that are done DONE despite there being 13 more days of school. So I'm tired.

I have a love/hate relationship with the end of the year if you can't tell.

I've gotten nothing done on my original fic and was really hoping for a push, but we'll see. And I need to update my count for April. (Also in case you can't tell? I've gotten NO words at all so far in May after writing every day in April. I might be cutting down and trying to just hit my smaller goal.)

But we'll see. Oh, and I'm prepping for my presentation in June. And waiting to hear if I got into my doctoral program (I should know by next Friday, May 16.)

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Phew, that sounds like a LOT! I hope you survive year end - I find it so hard to imagine having it in May, since it's in December for the school year here (as summer arrives, naturally), and it can be CRAZY even without being a teacher!

Glad you enjoyed your 'kidnapped' weekend, anyway!

I'm sorry you haven't got to write any orig. fic, but I'm sure you'll get there when things quieten down some! Smaller goals do make sense when you're always busy!

Good luck with the doctoral program 🤞

[shanachie-quill.livejournal.com]

We're down to ten days, but I only have three days of classes. Mondays are my planning day anyway. Then I have a professional development on Friday so I won't have any classes (or even be in the building) that day.

A lot of our schools up North finish in June. Makes sense yours is in December if that's when summer starts. When do you go back then?

I greatly enjoyed my 'kidnapped' weekend. It was nice to get out of town and just be away.

I got about 100 words on my original fic! And asphaltcowgrrl looked at it and gave me some suggestions to improve it. It's a little weird for me because I'm rewriting (and pretty much ignoring the original) a story I wrote back in 1995.

Thank you. I should know by a week from today.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

School starts at the end of January/early Feb here, with university usually not starting till end of Feb/early March.

[shanachie-quill.livejournal.com]

That's wild. It runs through our summer, but that makes sense since it's your winter. Does your university have a shorter year than regular school?

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Yep! They sit exams around November, just like senior high school - senior here being the last three years of high school, and junior being the first two (also different from the US, obviously!) We don't use the words "freshman" and "sophomore" at high school, nor even really at uni, as we tend to just call them first year, second year and third year for bachelor's degree students. There's a lot of other differences with school too, no doubt, as Kindergarten here is pre-school (3-4 yrs old) and school goes from Year 0/1 (depending on whether the child starts before or after mid-year) all the way to Year 13. Typically 1-6 is "Primary" school, 7-8 is "Intermediate" and 9-13 is "Secondary" colloquially called "High School" or "College" depending on which is in the name of your school (my kids and I went to the same high school, while my husband attended a different high school, so we've always called Secondary school as high school, but friends who's school was called "---" College, call all Secondary school college! And uni is never called college here!

Always interesting to learn about other countries - we, of course, get so many movies & TV shows from the US, that we've pretty much learned all we need to guess at equivalents there, whereas you would hardly have been exposed to any NZ shows to show much about our schooling!

[shanachie-quill.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. Honestly, I wish we started in January and went through the summer because it would make things less confusing I think. Our school years normally emcompass two actual years. For example, this past year was August 2024 to May 2025 (I write on the last official day of this year.) Which means the trophy, my Robotics team won in December says 2024, even though their competitions were in December of 2024 and January/February of 2025. Makes people say "Oh, you won that last year..." which we did, but this school year.

Wow that's a lot. Love learning the differences. Huh Kindergarten at 3-4? Ours starts at age 5. I honestly wish they had more structure towards how the school system works country-wide. Because our schools are run at the state/county/city level, there can be a lot of differences.

College and University can be the same thing here. Colleges are normally smaller and less expensive, while Universities are large and cost more. (Except in Georgia, where all the universities are state run... but that doesn't mean that they are all the same.)

I'd love to see more movies/TV about other countries' schools. I will say one thing, please don't base all of your ideas on how US schools work on movies/tv. They are absolutely NOT that way! LOL I will watch and be like "nope. never happen." Although from what I understand Abbott Elementary is very close. I need to watch it (or try to) so see how correct it is.

[backrose-17.livejournal.com]

My week was going great so far until I remembered it was Mother's Day this weekend and I needed to get my mom a gift and figure out where to take her for her day, though she always likes it when we make a bigger deal for her birthday which is June 1st.

I am doing good on my big buddy goal, I am counting my law assignment as part of the word count because creating and defending your argument is a lot of writing. I also have a big bang to finish this month which is nearly finished so yay and with the summer hiatus coming for a lot of my favorite shows I will have more time to write. 911 alone has left me heartbroken.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Boom! I'm the same as my Mum's birthday is the last week of May - so it'll be low key for this weekend, but more happening on her b'day, I hope - I need to figure out what to do, as gifts are just not that easy when she's nearly 90! Good luck getting your activities/gifts sorted!

I would totally count the law assignment, too! Phew, I can't even think what it must be like to do one! Good luck too on the BBs. *hugs* for 911.

[agdhani.livejournal.com]

Finished the proofing/editing and am now working on all the minutia of getting the book into publication. Hoping I can get those things done by Saturday so that Sunday I can swap projects for the second draft of last year's NaNo project. I want to get the second draft done before focusing on November's project for this year.
Well, I guess it doesn't have to be November now, but I'm going to try to stick to that tradition.

So I'm basically chugging along, keeping a bit ahead of my count right now. Hoping it stays that way. I'd guess that all of the hours put into the publishing project will get me most of the way there.

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lot of work, but glad it is all coming together! You have done so much amazing work with your books!

I get where you're coming from on Nano - if November works for you, why not keep it going!

You are doing fabulously! YAY!!!

[asphaltcowgrrl.livejournal.com]

I've been struggling this week, so I feel you. Work, weirdly, has been productive, but we've also been slow AF, so...

Not quite at 22% but I am at 19%! This is the closest I've been to 'on track' in some time.

I haven't written anything for the current challenge, but I changed my mind (yet again) and have been rereading an old fic that I really want to finish. So, progress? IDK.

Hoping next week is better for you on the work front!

[haldoor.livejournal.com]

Yeah, some weeks are just like that. Glad you've been productive workwise!

19% is getting there! You can do this! Woot!

Rereading a WiP sounds like progress to me! You have to reread to know where it was at & to work out where you're taking it next, so it definitely counts.

Thanks! I did take a half day off yesterday to go op-shopping with my kids, and despite the rain and my daughter deciding to chase a stray dog (taking up op-shopping time!), and then having to give up and phone animal control because it wouldn't let her near, we had a great time snapping up a few bargains. I even found the missing book from the middle of a series that I collect, which was AWESOME! And it was only $1!!!

[asphaltcowgrrl.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I really hope so. :D

I think I've gotten through the first five chapters, with adding only minimal words, but it is progress.

Ugh on the rain, but I'm laughing at chasing the stray dog. Score on the book, that's a fantastic price. Sounds like you had a really fun day, which is always a bonus.