This is where I bitch.

InDesign User group meeting went well, I think. I won a seat in an all day InDesign seminar that is in Madison in April. It should be fun, and I might learn something.

I also talked with some of the instructors at the Madison Media Institute (where the meeting was), they showed some interest in having me teach there. Which would be cool. And one of the instructors was Josh, aka DJ White Rabbit, my favorite DJ from the Inferno. We chatted for a bit, he apparently was the one who started up the Web program there.

Good evening, for sure.

Today got even better, man I hope this doesn't lead to badness.

One of the book blogs I follow, JoJo's Book Corner, had a Dean Day contest. Which is something she did last year on valentine's day. Instead of celebrating V-day, she celebrates the hottness of Dean WInchester. I won John Winchester's Journal by commenting. I like her reviews and she has good contests. I've kinda wanted that book for a while now. Can't wait for it to arrive.

I read a lot of blogs every day, around 90. Or at least I have them on my RSS reader. A few are book review sites, which I follow mostly to enter their contests for free books. I read the reviews too, but mostly watch them for the free stuff. I've won quite a few books now, Paul keeps saying I need to focus on the lottery, but I think the odds are a bit different. None of those contests require anything from me, except to fill out a form. Easy-peasy.

But I just won a book from a D&D gaming blog for writing up a description of a magic item. I'm kinda proud of that. That something I wrote up, that came from my mind, won. I don't think there were a lot of entries, like 9. But still, I won. Go me. It's the little things these days I focus on.

Here is the contest:

Come up with a description for “The Left Hand of God” to be used in an RPG setting. If it impresses our judges enough, you win a copy of the novel! You can make it a plot hook, crunch it out as a 4E item, or even make it an NPC (perhaps it can hang out with the Atropal). Just leave your entry in a comment (or a link to your entry in a comment) to enter. Full article with the book review here.

This was my entry:

Left Hand of God, wondrous magic item

The Left Hand of God is part of a set of simple looking gloves, with the holy symbol of the god (DM’s choice, can be and alignment, though Chaotic is best) stitched along the cuff.

Once a day the wearer can activate the glove, and an exact duplicate of the wearer is created. The only difference between the two beings is the original is wearing the right hand glove, and the duplicate is wearing the left. The two beings can now split up and be twice as effective. There is no mental communication between them. If the duplicate tries to tell the original what he/she has been up too, the original immediately forgets the knowledge (a third party can fill him or her in). The two will join up, the memories of the duplicated being lost, when the sun next sets or rises (which ever is first). The effect can also be ended early if the two beings clasp their gloved hands together.

The other day I came home to a nice surprise. I've been entering book contests still, and there was a pack of 5 yaoi manga in our mail box. I didn't even know I'd won the contest from Suvudu.com! The guy who runs the contest has been traveling, so he hasn't been posting the winners (he gives away a few manga every day), but it seems they've still been picking. Some of the art looks good, some is more rough, which I'm not as much a fan of, but I'll give them a try.

Here's the puppy and me with the stack:



The list:
Because I'm a Boy!
Gakuen Heaven
Poison Cherry Drive
Lies & Kisses
Love Me Sinfully

Thanks Jason and Suvudu.com!

Another book that I won in an online drawing has arrived. I'm super excited, it's The Fallen by Sniegoski and it's sequel, Leviathan. I loved the TV mini series that aired in 2006. The cover is super hot too.

I won it from The Electrical Book Cafe (http://theelectricalbookcafe.blogspot.com/)

I'm also super grumpy today. Not sure why, just in a pissy mood. I don't really want to deal with work right now. I'd like to go have a nice sleep in with Paul.

Shawn, the awesome guy he is, is swinging by tonight before gaming to look at Paul's laptop again. It doesn't work anymore, except to BSOD.

I'm getting a bit nervous about Jack staying with us. He's so... small and dependent.

So Wednesday night, about 6 pm, I sent our Indian partners in Chenni 150 pages to work on. Thirteen and a half hours later (1.5 hours after their deadline), they returned 75 of the pages done. To make the noon deadline me and two coworkers got the rest of the 75 pages done in four hours, and made corrections on some of India's pages. We were total rock stars, but the point is, is sending stuff to India really worth it? Since we got the same amount done in less than a third of the time. They did do much better last night (and that is their day shift, so I know they have more than 3 operators working on it), but still, not a good thing.

I'm hoping I don't have to work too much this weekend. The house is a mess, I have art to do for Abbie, I'm very far behind on my Hulu episodes and I'd like to sleep in, to at least 8am. These 14-15 hour days are just too much. Yesterday around 4:00 I stopped caring, and haven't really started again. Just focusing on my job, but not being emotionally affected by the outcome.

Healthy? I don't know.

Oh, I won another book in an online contest, this time from Suvudu . A signed copy of The Conqueror’s Shadow, which looks pretty cool.

Contest promotion!

It's the Valentine's Day Book Massacre Giveaway at Dartk Faerie Tales book blog.

Mostly to get more entries, but also to answer the question posed.

The question was: Tell us your Top 3 romantic couples or What’s your favorite love story? Why?

I'm picking the second option. My favorite is love story is of Vanyel and Stefen from Mercedes Lackey's Last Herald Mage trilogy. It's my favorite for two reasons, 1) it shows that gay romance has a place in main stream fantasy writing, and that this romance can be second to actual plot (it's not a "coming" out story, the gay story line is just part of the story, like hetro romances usually are) and 2) it also shows that even after loosing one's first love (even if they are magically linked for life), that person can find love and caring again.

Which reminds me I should read that again soon.

Another holiday book give away. More Gothic-horror romance, mostly. I'm quite happy I found these, hopefully I'll end up with new books/authors for the new year.

http://www.theneverendingshelf.com/2009/12/12-blogs-of-christmas-contest.html