Vio’s ARWZ Blog

There’s not terribly much new in the past few days. It’s been a particularly slow week at work because the boss is on vacation. Otherwise I’ve been mostly occupied with working on my Halloween costume. I’m pretty excited; this is the first year since I got too old for Trick-or-Treating that I’ve actually had Halloween parties to go to. Geoff is taking me to one this weekend, and we have Sabina’s party next weekend.

I was planning to go with a school-girl outfit, mostly because I have all the items required already and didn’t need to buy anything extra. Geoff thought that would be a little boring and came up with a creative alternative, to be a specific vampire school-girl character from one of his favorite video games. Take a gander:

https://bestgamewallpapers.com/files/vampire-bloodlines/jeanette.jpg

I’m guessing I may be a little chilly. Though, it all turns out for the best because I also already own all of the pieces required for this outfit, too. I just had to go get some make-up last night so that I’ll look appropriately vampiric. Geoff has apparently also found me some fake fangs that attach (somehow!) directly to my canines. I can only wonder whether this fake teeth thing will be anything like fake fingernails, i.e. they’ll either keep falling off, or I’ll end up wearing them for a week before they fall off naturally.

Anyway, here’s some ARWZ:

ARWZ Topic of the day:

Do you buy books new or used?

Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

The expenses of being a writer

ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day:

Can you pass an 8th grade science quiz?

As I’m getting ready to leave my apartment this morning, I realize (by virtue of the sun having just come up) that it’s raining outside. I search my apartment, but there is no umbrella. It’s not that I don’t own an umbrella, it’s just that there’s a constant stream of items between my apartment and my parents house, and for whatever reason all of my umbrellas had ended up over there.

The realization I came to as a result of this incident is that this is the first time it’s been raining in the morning when I left for work since starting the new job. Now, it’s certainly rained since the new job, but not the all day type of rain like today that starts in the morning. Could it be that Pittsburgh’s not as rainy as we thought?

Probably it was just dumb luck. I’m officially staking claim to one of my umbrellas and taking it home.

Here’s the day’s ARWZ:

A review of The Spiral Labyrinth by our very own Roger Redmond:

https://www.arwz.com/zinereviewROR1.php

The ARWZ Topic of the day:

Length v. quality in a book

The Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

Becoming a better writer

The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day:

What’s Your Thanksgiving Horoscope

My time management skills have improved since deciding to use my bus ride time for doing various types of work, usually writing blogs and reviews or working on my freelancing. While my schedule remains crazy for a variety of reasons, I have found that working on the bus gives me a bit more wiggle room.

One interesting phenomenon I have noticed on the bus is the presence of wireless internet networks along my way. Usually, the bus doesn’t stay in one place long enough to allow me to take advantage of a wireless network. In general, though, when I do get connected, I manage to make much more headway when the bus is stopped, rather than in motion. Even when it’s still connected in motion, the pages won’t load. What is it about being in motion that foils internet connection? And is it motion in relation to the network? Could the Port Authority install wireless on each of its buses and it would work within the bus, or not?

Another interesting thing I’ve observed in terms of wireless and riding the bus is how soon I can connect to the Downtown WiFi when riding into town. Amazingly, I have the best luck connecting to the Downtown WiFi when riding the 81B through the Hill District. I can get on the Downtown WiFi several blocks up Centre Avenue before reaching town, whereas when I’m on the 91A, it won’t even detect the Downtown WiFi a block up Liberty from the Amtrak station. It’s crazy. Does wireless have a tendancy to drift upward? Hence the good reception in the Hill?

Mysterious…

Here’s a bunch of ARWZ for you:

My newest SKS blog about wireless internet at Au Bon Pain:

https://www.arwz.com/sks/index.html/235

My newest review on ARWZ of Orson Scott Card’s Shadow of the Hegemon:

https://www.arwz.com/zinereviewVIO62.php

In this week’s ARWZ Approved! we’re voting on whether to recommend Neuromancer by William Gibson:

https://www.arwz.com/arwz/viewtopic.php?t=1467

ARWZ topic of the day:

Faking Expertise

Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

How closely should your narrators’ stories be linked?

ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day:

What kind of gift-giver are you?

The big news of my last 24 hours is that I have officially got my Nintendo working. When I was over at my parents’ house on Tuesday for Star Trek night, my mother mentioned that she hardly ever uses the small TV in her bedroom. It’s small but it has both a coax cable hookup and a/v hookups.

I started last night by hooking up my N64 (actually, it technically belongs to Saundra), and got Ocarina of Time to come up pretty easily. Then I hooked up the old NES system. I tried the original Mario… tried Mario 3… and just got the blank grey, flashing screen. Now, as most Nintendo aficionados know, a game can sometimes be got to work by blowing on the cartridge. No one really knows why it works, but it does.

Though, not for Mario. I had a lot of trouble getting Mario to work, but after a couple tries… there it was, Zelda. It’s ready and waiting…

The impetus of all this Nintendo business is that Geoff wants to do a shots and Zelda night, which will consist of a team effort to beat the game in one night whilst taking a shot every time one beats a dungeon. We’ll see how this goes, I suppose, but I figure our abilities to tackle the tougher dungeons will somewhat inevitably diminish as we progress.

Here’s some ARWZ for today:

The ARWZ Topic of the day is:

Best Women Warriors

The Writers’ Zone topic of the day is:

Changing Scenes

The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day is:

What are the chances you’ve been abducted by aliens?

For the last two days I’ve had the same experience. I wake up at 6 am to a chilly bedroom. I run a hot bath and then get dressed in an outfit that usually involves three shirts. I shiver through my morning juice, wishing it were hot coffee. I button up my coat, stand at the bus stop trying to keep my mind off the cold while staring down the street, willing the bus to come.

Come 1:00 pm, I get out of work and… it’s warm. Suddenly I’m sweating in my coat and three shirts. Today I went swimming and only put one shirt back on, carried my coat and felt fine.

Pittsburgh, what is wrong with you? Make a decision, already. Be warm or be cold. Not both!

Here’s some ARWZ for you:

Our newest article on the magazine is the transcript from our Q&A with fantasy author Jennifer Fallon:

https://www.arwz.com/zineauthorQAfallon.php

The ARWZ Topic of the day is:

What would you recommend for people new to fantasy?

The Writers’ Zone Topic of the day is:

Talent v. Craft

The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day is:

How does your interpersonal intelligence rate?

After another crazy week where I felt like I just couldn’t get a moment’s rest, I have resolved to get my life into better order. There are a bunch of important goals that have been falling by the way-side and I’ve implemented a plan to resolve them.

In large part it involves computing on the bus.

Goal number 1 is to make sure to get a hour of work done on my freelance website every weekday. Doing all 10 hours on the weekends is just too exhausting. So far, I have managed to fit in a half-hour most weekday mornings before leaving my house, but that extra half hour had previously eluded me. Then I discovered that I can fit in another half hour immediately following that one by opening the ol’ laptop and working on the 91A, my first bus ride of the morning. Subsequent bus rides (I have four of them all told on the average day) then allow for me to work on writing blogs and reviews. The only thing that suffers is my audiobook reading time. But I still get some of that in, too, when the bus is just too crowded for computing.

Second goal is to write fiction more regularly. With all this extra work getting done on the bus (and a little discipline to resist popping in a DVD), I actually managed to write today. And to finish a chapter, no less.

Now I just have to make sure to exercise more often. Saundra and I have plans for the pool tomorrow, but I’d like to do some more aerobic dance (sounds more hardcore than it is; I just mean putting on some tunes and dancing in my livingroom) and since my evening’s social plans got cancelled, I’m hoping to get some of that in tonight.

Now, if only I can keep that social life from eating up all my evenings while staying in touch with more friends… sigh.


Here’s a whole bunch of ARWZ:


My newest SKS Blog about a recent night of dancing at Privilege Ultralounge:

https://arwz.com/sks/index.html/232


My newest review of All Together Dead by Charlaine Harris:

https://www.arwz.com/zinereviewVIO61.php


This week on ARWZ Approved! we’re voting on whether to recommend the TV Show Heroes:

https://www.arwz.com/arwz/viewtopic.php?t=1428


The ARWZ Topic of the day:

SFF from Mainstream Authors


The Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

Copyright worries


The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day:

What city do you belong in?

Today was another crazy day at work. It didn’t seem so exhausting at the time, just busy, but after I came home and had dinner I ended up falling asleep while watching a DVD. I allowed myself an hour nap and then went down to the Parlour for internetting. I’m a day behind in publishing on ARWZ, which means, of course, that I have to write the reviews, because I won’t shaft another writer by publishing his/her review late. I realize that my social life is partly to blame, and I’m trying to cut back, but a gal’s got to have a little fun after she works all day, right.

Sigh. Fun doesn’t help with the tired.

Oh well, here’s the day’s ARWZ-ing:

The ARWZ Topic of the day:

What would you ask your favorite author?

The Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

Your sources of Inspiration

The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day:

How perfect is your life?

I was actually busy the whole day today at work. Things have been a little slow lately, with the exception of payroll every other Monday, but today I was on the phone practically all day. It’s good to know I’m earning my keep, I guess. Makes me glad I only work four hours. I’m making kind of an elaborate dinner tonight for a friend’s birthday, and if I’d been at work any longer, I might be too exhausted.

In other recent news, I have embarked upon the task of trying to figure out how to set up my old Nintendo system at my apartment. I was psyched to unearth all the necessary cables yesterday at my parents’ house, and they were psyched to get all my old Nintendo stuff out of their house. The problem is that I only have my really old TV and my 19″ widescreen monitor with laptop. The TV is older than me, so old in fact that it doesn’t have audio-video jacks. It was, after all, made before VCR’s were invented. I tried hooking it up to my computer via an audio-video to s-video converter cable, but nothing happened. I think I may need some sort of TV software to make it work that way. My last hope is to see if the old TV has a cable hook-up. I’m going to try again tonight to figure it out with the help of my above mentioned friend and fellow video game aficionado.

Finally, an update on an earlier blog. At long last I have figured out what the mysterious pop song is… you know, the one I couldn’t remember a lyric or even how it went? After listening to many 30-second samples on Yahoo Music, I finally discovered that it’s a Faith Evans song. Didn’t she used to date Biggie Smalls?

Here’s the latest ARWZ:

My review of His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik:

https://www.arwz.com/zinereviewSKS55.php

The ARWZ Topic of the day:

Favorite Sub-genres

The Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

Should you take a writing vacation?

The ARWZ Cafe Quiz of the day:

Do you have a Type A Personality?

Being too poor for a car, I rely on the bus system for my daily commute. Luckily I have a Pitt ID that’s good until 2009. Still, I’ve been testing the waters… wondering just how long I can get away with using this Pitt ID. The placement of the expiration date in the bottom right corner makes it ripe for accidental finger coverage, so lately I’ve been holding my ID out with my pinky finger conveniently sitting over the expiration date. The vast majority of the bus drivers just glance at my ID and wave me along.

Well, today for the second time in the last month, a bus driver has questioned my ID… not because of my finger over the expiration date, but because of my hair color. You see, my Pitt ID picture was taken back in 2003 when I had brown hair. Right now, I’m about two shades blonder than my main Myspace picture. Today the lady looked at my ID skeptically and said, “I that you?” I offered to show additional ID and explained my hair coloring situation, and she waved me begrudgingly off the bus.

Not such a major brush with the law, but I walked into work feeling like a criminal… a hair coloring criminal. Sigh… at least nobody seems to care about the expiration date.

Here’s the day’s ARWZ-ing:

Check out Part II of my blog about Jennifer’s wedding:

https://arwz.com/sks/index.html/226

The Writers’ Zone topic of the day:

Gender exclusivity

The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day:

What animal were you in a past life?

At long last, I got to the pool today for the first time in weeks. While I’m soooo much happier to be doing what I’m doing now, rather than continuing in grad school, it’s a lot harder to make time for the pool. We got there a little late because of a debacle at the pharmacy where I ended up having to pay full price for my perscription because it was three weeks expired, but it ended up good for swimming because there were a bunch of lanes free. It will likely end up being a tad on the redundant side, though, because I have plans to go dancing tonight. They tell you to exercise three times a week. Does it still count if you exercise twice in one day?

Here’s the daily ARWZ:

This week on ARWZ Approved! we’re voting on whether to recommend Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin:

https://www.arwz.com/arwz/viewtopic.php?t=1383

The Writers’ Zone topic of the day is:

Networking

The ARWZ Cafe quiz of the day is:

Have you changed much in 10 years?