The End of Year is Nigh!

End of year is always a bit nuts.  For the past three years, I've been working on either final edits or final writing touches on an upcoming novel. This year is no different, with Destiny's War getting close to completion (after many, many wrong turns on my part).  I also have the Chasing Boudicca show on January 20, and it requires lots of preparation.  Any story where you bring in another performer, such as a musician, demands a lot more prep time since they're relying on certain cues.  In this case, there will be another storyteller, a poet AND a musician.  It's going to be awesome, but only if the right prep time goes into it.

Plus it's the holidays.  I managed to keep my party commitments to three meals spanning two days, only two of which I'm helping to cook, so that's not too bad.  BUT, then two of my BFFs are coming down from Windsor for a week after Christmas, so I'll be running around like a mad woman.  We're going to see the Diefenbunker this year.  Very much looking forward to that.

Combine all of those items with a recent promotion and a much busier work schedule, and suddenly I have almost no time to watch Doctor Who.  Almost.

At first glance, I was terrified of my upcoming schedule (okay, I still am).  But when I look at what I'm doing, and how energized I'll be by the writing, storytelling and merrymaking with friends, I know I'll get more done for being super busy.  Except the gift shopping, apparently.  Really should get going on that...

Ooh, but I did get Utnois his first gift!  It's a willow grove.  He snuggles in it. 

Warm snuggly groves for little MacBook Airs who travel in cold Canadian winters.

Just to clarify, I make most of my gifts, and those are almost all done.  I buy a few of them, which I've not yet done.  But I'm not just thinking about what my fateful laptop needs.  I'm mostly thinking about that, but not fully.  I've also spared a thought or two for what my friends and family would like.  They're just harder to shop for as they have tastes and opinions.  Go fig.

Anyway, I'm going to keep updating this blog on Tuesdays and Fridays, but I'm going to cheat for the remainder of the year.  Mwa ha.  You will become acquainted with many strange and wondrous things over the next few weeks, to add magic to your holidays, so keep an eye out!

Best of luck to all of you with your own end of year craziness!

Utnapishtim 3 (Trois)

A long, long time ago I bought an IBM ThinkPad on eBay and named it Utnapishtim (Utni, for short).  Utnapishtim is the guy who survived the flood in the Mesopotamian flood myth, and the gods offered him the gift of immortality.  (His wife, too.  She bakes him bread.  Sounds thrilling.)

I figured the laptop would last forever, since he'd obviously take on his namesake's mythical traits.  Surprisingly enough, it didn't work.  No bread, either.  Well, I should mention that Utni's still alive.  But his battery is dead, his bios battery is also gone, and he can't remember his own name.  Very sad and geriatric of him.  (Makes you wonder how the real Utnapishtim is doing.) 

So forth I went and purchased Utnapishtim II.  Utnu, for short.  He was a cute little iBook G4, and I loved him oh so very much.  I wore out the letters on his keyboard. Once, he got sick and I panicked.  This is the conversation I had with the tech guy (TG):

Me (calm) : "Yes, he hasn't been booting since yesterday."

TG (confused) : "He?"

Me (embarrassed) : "Um, yes.  I have a strong affinity with him."

TG (redefining reality) : "Ok.  So it, um, he doesn't boot?"

Me (worried) : "No.  He screams."

TG (polite but difficulty adapting) : "Screams?"

Me (wishing didn't feel Utnu was own person) : "Um, yes.  Well, he beeps three times.  Yes.  And he has kernel panics."

TG (back in realm of comfortable language) : "Those aren't good."

Me (too much information?) : "No, because when he panics, I panic.  It's really not a good scene."

TG (good old scout try) : "Oh.  Yes.  I can see that.  Well, ok, well, ship um, him in, and um, he'll see a, um, doctor.  Yes.  A laptop doctor."

I also sent him flowers while he was at the laptop hospital.  To Utnu, not the tech guy, though I hope he enjoyed them, too.  

Utnu at his favourite Second Cup.

When Utnu was geriatric, we went on a date to a Genius Bar at the Apple Store, and were informed that he was a good geriatric computer, but dying nonetheless.  He soon after clunkered out, after 3.5 years of fateful service.  I cried, I'll admit it.  To be fair, the unfinished Sorceress of Shadows was also trapped on him.  My brother, bless his patient technical soul, recovered all my information, but Utnu had some terrible issues and became Zombie Utnu (mostly because my brother wrote that on him).  Utnu was mentioned in the acknowledgements of Destiny's Blood.  He worked countless hours on it, too.

I needed a replacement quick - my manuscript was due soon!  So I ran out and bought a cheap netbook.  I named him Thoth.  He was cute, but he wasn't part of my Utnapishtim lineage.  I was convinced Thoth would die the day after his one-year warranty ended.  I was wrong.  He died three weeks after it ended.  Very sad.  Mostly because, once again, I was on a tight writing deadline.

But, possessing wicked laptop death powers of prediction, I had already started saving for Utnapishtim Trois (which is three in French.  Being bilingual gets me more options for cute nicknames!)  Utnapishtim Three, you see, would make Utni, which already existed.  Utnapishtim Trois, however, makes for a cute Utnois.   Not only had I started saving for him, but I'd gone to meet him a few weeks beforehand.  It's couth to meet your laptops at least once before bringing them home.

Utnois is a cute MacBook Air, 11 inches.  I always hesitate with first generation beasts, but he was so cute I simply couldn't resist.  He's extremely light, I enjoy the keyboard, he has wicked battery life and did I mention he was cute?  I signed up for the best warranty I could find, which covers replacement batteries, a necessity since it's one of those annoying integrated ones.  And, if this first generation clunkers out within four years, I get a whole new one!  Not that I want Utnois to die.  Oh no.  Not for 3.99 years, anyway!

So welcome to the family, Utnois!

That was just a photo op.  Utnois does not sleep with kittens.  Utnois is not pro-fuzz.