Sound: 17 Species of North American Mammals

Via Hearing Voices, I give you “17 Species of North American Mammals” (6:58 mp3) by Matmos. Half song, half natural soundscape, alternately soothing and hackle-raising.

Writing Log: Need to Get Better at Keeping Submissions Out

10/28/2009 - Wednesday
* Put the "Missing You In Pieces" submission and shortlisting information in my manuscript and submission tracking documents.
* Posted writing log.
* penthius freewriting inspired by "Back in Black."
* Submitted "Charity From a Thief" to Beneath Ceaseless Skies.
* Redmarked first 9 pgs of Vicesteed chapter 20, from 4:30 pm to 5:45 pm, 9:30 - 10:15.

Good Things

• Wearing shiny silver-and-black striped Halloween socks with jack o-lanterns on them. Festive!
• Thanks be to the rain for giving me a day without contractors around my house.
• Here's hoping it doesn't wash away the newly stuccoed wall.
• Must discourage Fu Manchu's tendency to show affection by purring, nuzzling--and then biting your face.
• Pandora is trying to feed me Britney Spears. It's ridiculously auto-tuned. I expect her to be discussing politics. She's not.
• Yay! Finally got ahold of boss, pay rate straightened out--sounds like it was boss/HR miscommunication.
• Husband gets to fly *business class* to *Singapore*. Is ded of envy.

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How Long Things Actually Take

As part of my quest to make my life not seem like a never-ending drudge through work and projects that will never truly be finished (that's the problem with being writer, photographer, and primary-house-caretaker--none of those come up with their own achievable "finished" markers), I've started picking a set of (achievable!) goals at the end of which I'll be realio trulio done for the day. After that I can do anything I like, including just reading pulpy sci-fi novels or baking brownies or making that lightbox or, hell, doing my filing. This isn't a to-do list, it's a to-be-done-after list. The difference is crucial. The goal is to accurately estimate how much I can realistically get done in a day and still have free time left over. Because the free time is the real goal: it's the recharge time, the reward, the reason to really dig into the to-be-done-after list. When faced with an endless task, it's easy to become unmotivated and to grind very, very slowly, with lots of procrastination.

I've been trying this on and off for the last couple of weeks. So far, I can tell the motivation part is working. I've got lots more done that I was before, and I feel less depressed and bogged down in, well, life.

This, despite my not yet having actually finished everything on the list. I haven't yet experienced this motivating free time. So yesterday I decided to approach this all scientific-like and write down my done-for-the-day goals (which I had been doing), how much time I thought they'd take, and then my actual day schedule and the time they really took.

Let's just say I'm not good at estimating how much I can get done.

( Today's numbers. Probably boring for anybody not me. )