Oh the rambly rant.

Yesterday (that is, Sunday) I had a moment of thinking that it was unwise to go into the week with nothing built up in the way of story-padding when I'd announced a chapter for Monday. I've already demonstrated that under normal circumstances I can produce a chapter in a single work day, but what about unusual circumstances? What about days when I'm in pain or tired, or when something's on my mind, or when there are external disruptions?

In the end I decided not to work ahead on Sunday, because my goal here is to get a regular five day work week and I didn't want to set the precedent of violating that. And after I've done this schedule for a while, I should be able to get ahead and stay ahead by working more days than I post. Some people will bellyache about this, but I've learned that trying to do specific things to stop the chronic complainers only changes what they complain about. But I digress. The point is that the only reason I didn't have a cushion for this week is that I haven't been doing the schedule long enough to build one up that lasts more than a week.

And of course, what happens today? There's a big brain-eating blow-up in the comment section. And yet, I push through with the chapter. I'm not 100% happy with it. It's not the chapter I would have had under other circumstances. But it's there, it advances things a bit. It provides a framework for events. It gives people something to read. I'll look at the response to it. If it's better than I would expect then I'll shrug and move on. If people are underwhelmed, then if the situation comes up again I'll hold off on posting for a few more hours even though it's technically not "Monday" any more by the time I'm finished, and I'll point to this chapter and its reception as the reason why when (when, not if) people complain that I'm not keeping to the schedule.

But again, if I'm keeping the work schedule then this shouldn't come up again, because I'll have the backlog.

But then people will complain that I could be posting more than I am.

But... and here's the big but... I can't write for the complainers. I can't run things for the complainers. I can maybe stop them from using my space to complain where I have to hear it... maybe, though ultimately trying to block people on the internet can be a time-consuming arms race which is why I've taken to just asking them to stop.

Nobody read too much into this post, please. I'm just letting these chains of thought run their course, getting them out of my head so I can move on.

Oh, and note to self: get writing done tomorrow before checking reception of today's chapter. Or just don't check the reception. Yeah, that's probably the better idea. I enjoy reading most of the comments I get. But the other ones... they make the whole experience of direct feedback so not worth it.

Tuesday: Garbage Day Is A Very Dangerous Day

News For Today

So, today's garbage day, which means that last night we had to get the trash out to the curb. I was all set to walk carefully on the icy ground, only to get outside and discover that the ground was no longer icy. The driveway looked completely clear all the way down to the sidewalk.

And it was. It was the sidewalk that was icy, in one patch just before where we put the trash cans. The ice was sort of in shadow, so I missed it with my eyes. Don't worry, gentle readers... I found it with my feet. It was a controlled fall, and I managed to mostly land on the grass instead of the pavement, but it didn't do my knees and back any favors.

My mother, who deals with the same issues in her knees, is taking me shopping for shoes today, so that should help.

Also, in news that might seem sort of bitterly hilarious to people who've been following my blog for two years or more, our bathtub has developed a leak. We have someone coming out to look at it today.

Finally, I've managed to misplace my phone. It might have been left in a friend's car, I'm waiting to hear back on that.

Personal Assessment

Knees. Ow.

Positive side: Still sleeping unaided. The sheer volume of blankets is possible to sleep under in the depths of winter is definitely aiding my streak there. I believe I'm up to eight.

Dreams From Last Night

Indistinct, but they involved cooking.

Random Link

Show Of Hands are an acoustic folk duo from England whose music was first brought to the shores of my ears by s00j. You should check them out. Here they are performing their song, "The Napoli":

Plans For Today

• Write a MU chapter for tomorrow.
  
• Make a post explaining the volume shift/relaunch plans in more detail, what to expect and what not to expect (e.g., the Spanish Inquisition.)
  
• Do a page of character tag descriptions.
  

Knee'd, I remind you.

I'm back from a shoe-shopping expedition with my mother, and I've got my feet up, and I'm feeling better. Not only did my mother fix me up with some balance-correcting shoes that have worked well for managing "the family knees", but she's given me some advice on how to handle the whole situation. Cold weather is not good for joint pain (or, from another point of view, it's exceptionally good for joint pain) and this is my first winter with noticeably arthritic knees. I'm still learning how to do things in ways that don't aggravate them (or to put it another way, I keep doing things in ways that do aggravate them) and there's a subsidiary effect on my back because of all the compensation I do in terms of how I'm walking and bending.

So this is all to say that I'm coping with actual physical pain and pain-related stress right now, which probably has a lot to do with my emotional state over the past couple of days. I'm dealing with that now, so hopefully I'll be a little bit more moderate in my responses to things.

Update

I took an extended nap after my last post... pain and cold and walking in unfamiliar gaits are among the things that wear me down like nothing else, and while I've been sleeping easily and well, I didn't sleep long last night. My mother went out of her way on a very hectic day to help me get acclimated to my new reality, so I was out from under the blankets a few hours earlier than I would have been. My day, for all intents and purposes (except for the purposes of shopping for posture-correcting shoes and receiving sage advice) is actually beginning now.

I just wanted to note that while I'm making a lot of posts mentioning the pain (now more like discomfort), I still feel pretty good about things in general. Yesterday was not something I'd rate a good day, but it happened in the midst of what I consider to be a good period of a life that I enjoy and am rather fond of.

Just to follow up: the issue with our bathtub turned out to be incredibly minor, and now not only is the drip gone but we have more pressure in the jets. This is good, because not only are baths among one of my favorite pleasures and a great tool for dealing with aches and pains and muscle cramps, but the tub is our sole means of bathing here. If it were put out of commission for a while, we'd be pretty miserable.

I think the first thing I'm going to start in on from my task list is the Livejournal post. It's actually going to be something of a draft for an announcement that I'm going to put up on the MU website over the weekend, after I see the response to it here. I expect I'll get a variety of opinions on the whole thing, but I'm more likely to adjust the form of the message based on feedback than the contents of it. My plans are sufficiently advanced as to be indistinguishable from magic that they're not likely to change at this point, but communicating what's going to happen and doing so clearly is kind of a big deal. I want people to understand what is going to change, but also what's not.

Tales of MU Relaunch Information

Right now Tales of MU is in the midst of what I think of as "the collision course", which is my attempt to bring to a close the most pressing plotlines afflicting our protagonist. When that's finished, we'll be going into "the fast forward", during which things will be happening even quicker but will be dealt with at a glance. You might think of it as the "where are they now" for volume 1.

After that, we go into the start of volume 2, which is entitled Sophomore Effort. Yes, for those of you who've wondered how far ahead the time skip is going to go, the name is a big clue. We're skipping ahead to the second year.

The end of volume 1 is not going to explicitly resolve every single dangling plot line... that would be a bit of an information overload, as well as be anti-climactic in some cases. Some plotlines will still be ongoing in the second year, and some will be left up to reader inference or filled in later.

There is inevitably going to be some anti-climax in this, but much less so than if I allowed the story to just wither and die, as it has threatened to do.

( FAQ )

So, that's it, basically. If you have any questions I did not address, just formspring.me or comment below.