soc_puppet | Same old song and dance (Reply)

♫ Updates: So sweet and tasty!
Updates: Don't be too hasty!
Updates: Updates, updates, updates!♪

Now that I've infuriated those of you familiar with Pinkie Pie's singing (and alienated those who aren't), it's time for actual content 8D

1) It was only allergies [warning for eye-related grossness]

I don't remember if I've ever talked about it here or not, but a year or two ago, a strange bump showed up on the surface of my eye.

Let me repeat that: A strange bump showed up On. The. Surface. Of. My. Eye.

It was relatively tiny, to the point where I thought it was but another stray eyelash (a common problem I face) - except when I went looking for it veeeeery closely in the mirror, I didn't see one. And then when I got eeeeeven closer what I saw was a tiny uneven spot on the white of my eye.

Yeah.

Anyway, careful research and googling of "eye lumps/bumps" only yielded styes (and similar), which are exclusive to the eyelid, so that was out. It also came and went with no discernible pattern (to me), but also with no lasting damage. While I was fairly certain it wasn't serious, I still had that faint paranoia that it was Something Terrible. Like eye cancer. Or a parasite with the world's weirdest life/breeding cycle.

All this lead up to me mentioning it to my eye doctor the last time I went in for an exam - about a month or two ago? - and him telling me to call in if it came back, and he'd fit me in somewhere. And last Wednesday, that is exactly what I did.

I'm assuming you already read the title of this section, which will tell you the results, but to recap/just in case: Yeah. Allergies. Weirdest fucking manifestation I've heard of - certainly the weirdest to happen to me personally. Basically, it's all allergy-related swelling that's concentrated on that ONE SPOT on my eye. My other eye? Swelling normally, kthx. Trouble eye? Not so much.

Anyway, he gave me a free sample of an allergy drug in eyedrops form (!!!), which I think actually works fairly well. He also recommended eyedrops to me again, particularly a certain name brand, which I may have to try sometime. Store Brand does a fairly decent job, IMO, but I wouldn't mind knowing the difference (if I can sense any) firsthand.

And that's my allergy story.

2) What the ever loving fuck

Random guy stopped me to talk while I was walking to work. Just to say "hi" and "how are you".

And then "you're beautiful" and kiss my hand.

I'm debating whether I should be more weirded out or more creeped out. As time passes, I'm leaning more and more towards the latter :(

3)#$@#$%#$ WIPs!

In case any of you are interested, my "excuse" for not updating recently is as follows: I've been spending most of my updating energy with the daily check-in posts at

writethisfanfic.

I am actually getting words written! Not as many as I'd like, but with the amount of free time I have now as compared to, say, two months ago, I'm willing to accept that. However, all this writing (again, not actually a whole lot) has lead me to do some thinking.

I'm pretty sure I'm the threshold of a dramatic evolution in my writing style.

See, for at least a year now, when it comes to writing longer things my writing style has been more explanatory than demonstrative. When considering the writerly mantra of "Show, don't tell", this is not exactly a good thing! And what I've come to understand recently (read: earlier tonight) is that there's more to it than is on the surface. I have choices here.

I can leave my writing style more-or-less as it is, and decide whether or not I want to continue to be dismayed by it. I can take my projects more slowly and teach myself the excruciating way how to show rather than tell.

Or I can learn to treat my current stylistic quirk as an exceptionally wordy outlining tool. That will be what happened through the entire, and I am left to decide what to share directly with any potential reader and go into detail on, what to gloss over or allude to, and what to cut entirely.

It's certainly more thorough than my current "thinking it out (and that's about it)" method, and probably will yield at least a third as many words as any story that results from it, but it has the potential to make my writing ...more effective. I don't know whether it will be "better" stylistically - or at least whether individual sentences and such will be. But my planning and execution could well take a step up.

There's a lot of potential here, and a lot of ways it could go down, and I'm really not entirely sure I have the time and energy to devote to it that it needs. (There's about a dozen crochet projects I've promised myself/others, for one thing...) I guess the best course of action is to give it some serious thought, and decide what, if anything, I might be willing to cut out of my life as a sacrifice to writing.

4) Wait, aren't you allowed to crochet again now?

Well yes, yes I am. But again, I've been distracted by writing and the job having and the being very busy with aforementioned jobs. I did manage to make one thing, though. Or, well, two things. Sorta.

Er. At least they're adorable? (They're the two in the foreground, in case you can't tell.)

Pattern coming... eventually. When I have energy again. Or maybe when I'm in Texas and have little else to do at the time.

(First time I've used plastic eyes. I am conflicted! On the one hand, they look great. On the other, the tiny squiddles are so much less squishable this way :( Not that the magnets were helping with that anyway, but still!)

....

*clicks "update" button*