First Blog Ever

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:37 PM

Well, I've been inspired by my sister to start keeping a blog, so here it is.

After hours of messing around with Mambo, I've finally got a setup I think I can use to create a blog-like system on the main page. I'm calling it What's Going On With Kodi, since I think that makes sense as a theme for what I plan to write about. I've always had a hard time keeping up with a journal, but maybe this will be different, since it's on the computer, and I'm usually on at least once a day (all day, if I'm researching/writing).

I'll try to keep my entries short, but I'm a bard, so I can't make any promises.

Wrestling With Mambo

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 12:18 PM

So, I've spent another two days wrestling with Mambo. The trouble is that it's so non-intuitive as to be practically anti-intuitive. The only reason I haven't given up on it by now is that when it does work, it's incredible.

On the upside, I am learning a lot about CSS, since it's basically how you control stuff in Mambo... Well, the look of stuff, anyway. Actually controlling stuff is what involves the wrestling.

Just for my own future reference, I'm going to note a few tidbits I've learned, forgotten, and recently struggled to figure out again.

• The copyright text is in the version.php file in includes, but the setup of how the copyright and Powered By lines display is in the footer.php file in includes.

• The short date used for the chapter listing table is in the content.php file in components/com_content, but is defined in english.php.

• The blog date is in the mambo.php file in includes, but is defined in english.php.

• I can't remember what file the main page current date is in, but it's defined in english.php.

At least I got the Terms of Service page done.

Shopping Spree

Monday, January 22, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:40 PM

Yesterday, I went on a shopping spree with my wife, Corene. It wasn't really planned. I just wanted to try on some clothes and see if dress pants might be a good new style for me, since they look nice and are kind of upscale, but cost half as much as a pair of Levi's jeans, which is my usual attire. I was also wanting a few nice dress shirts for when Corene and I have romantic dinners with our new china we got over the holidays.

Anyway, I found the dress pants (plain/flat fronts; the pleated ones made me look fat), and I figured out the best waist size and length (34/30). I really liked them, and they were only $10, so I didn't feel too bad about spending the money, even though we're kind of on a budget in order to save up for a vacation with my family this summer, among other things.

Then I saw a nice dress shirt in a deep red, which is one of my favorite colors and it had been marked down to $11, so that ended up in the cart. Then I saw some cargo pants. Tried those on, they fit and were only $11, so I grabbed a tan pair and a dark green pair. Corene liked them so much, she got a tan pair for herself. Corene also talked me into getting a long-sleeve plum-colored corduroy button-up shirt, which was only $10, and then got a dark taupe one for herself.

By this time, Corene was ready to go, so we went off to finish the rest of our shopping, but on the way back towards the cash registers, I saw some cool sueded dress shirts in neat patterns in dark purple, dark navy, burgundy, black, and tan that had been marked down. I just had to try them on, so off to the fitting rooms we went again. Since I already had chosen a red dress shirt, and I had a black silk one at home, I decided on just the purple ($7) and blue ($10). Of course, while I was messing with the dress shirts, Corene was at the next kiosk over finding a new winter jacket for herself, since she'd been needing one for a while. It was only $29, which was a hell of a deal for the kind of jacket (down-filled lining, two layers that zip apart to wear the bits separately or together), and she'd only gotten the pants and shirt so far, so I figured what the hell.

Then I saw some suit jackets and tried them on. I figured out I'm somewhere in between a 38 and 40 short. The glazed look on Corene's face when she saw me in it almost made me get it, but it was $60 and it really was a frivolous buy, so I left it on the rack. However, Corene now says she wants to take me to a real suit store and get me one.

The total damage came to just under $130 with tax. Not bad for 4 pairs of pants, 5 shirts, and a winter jacket.

Anyway, before all that, I did actually work on the site and came up with a few more Mambo tips.

• To add a menu to a page, go to Site Modules, choose the menu (sub-tip: menus are Type mod_mainmenu, in case I want to create more by copying a current menu), then choose the page I want to have it appear on by selecting the page in the box on the right side of the page.

• To add an item to a menu, if I'm in a Content, Category, or Section Item, I can use the Link to Menu box on the right side of the page, or I can go directly to the menu and add the item by going through the New steps.

Mission Statement

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 12:58 PM

Last week, I was cleaning up my bookmarks and somehow ran across a Web site that had an automated mission statement builder thing. I've been working on coming up with a mission statement, both for me personally and for my various work projects (writing, Web design, photo restoration, jewelry-making), for several years now and have never been able to quite hit it. Nothing I ever wrote felt right.

Well, one of the questions on the automated thing was: "Imagine your life as an epic journey, with you as the heroine of the story. What do you imagine your journey to be about? Describe what you are doing, who it is for, why you are doing it, and what it results in."

For whatever reason, that question just seemed to inspire the right response in me because I came up with what I think is a pretty good mission statement:

"My mission is love; giving it, accepting it, understanding it, explaining it, encouraging it in others. I write lesbian romance stories to show people what love can be like if they've never had it, to refresh their memories of what it may have been like for them in the past, and to remind them to be grateful if they have it in the present. Most of all, I hope my stories give readers a feeling of enjoyment in what it is to be a lesbian in a loving, sexual relationship, a sense of belonging in the GLBT community as a whole, and a feeling of gratitude for the love they have, or have had in the past, along with hope for the love they might yet have in the future."

Now, I just have to figure out what I want to do with it.

More Mambo Tips

Friday, January 26, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 7:26 PM

Still working on the site. I cleaned up my code and made it a lot more cross- browser compatible, which is one of my top priorities. Unfortunately, I've run into a couple problems (can't make modules appear on the right side of any page other than the home page, and the right column gets squished in browsers other than IE on pages other than the home page), so I'm still hashing it out.

However, I have learned a few more things along the way:

• To change the order of Content Items listed on a Category page, go to Menu and select the menu that has the link to the Category page. Then select the link from the Menu Item list. Then set Order By in the Parameters box on the right side of the page.

• The title "What's Going On With Kodi" is found by going to Menu, mainmenu, then selecting Kodi's Blog (Home) in the Menu Item list. It's under Page Title in the Parameters box on the right side of the page. You can also change how many entries appear and how, as well as the window title for the home page.

• The polls graphic in the title on the Polls Results page is in poll.html.php in components/com_poll.

Documentary Inspiration

Monday, January 29, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:37 AM

So, I've been watching all these documentaries on the Discovery Channel about the technology of the future, as well as current cutting edge technology, and they've really gotten me thinking about some of my stories.

For The Trine (working title), it's helped me figure out the hovercar technology I want to use in the story without having to resort to fantastical anti-gravity tech, which felt really wrong to me for that story (I think it works great in P.O.W.). By using permanent magnets (which means no maintenance and no power usage) buried in the streets, with low enough magnetic fields that they wouldn't affect pacemakers, etc., vehicles with shielded electrically-powered repulsor magnets could be used to make the cars hover, with rotating magnets working for propulsion (or turbines would be cool, too). They'd probably still need retractable wheels for travelling on surfaces that didn't have the embedded magnets, but it would still be effective. It also fits right in with the backstory of an earthquake demolishing L.A. because the new tech would be added in during the rebuilding.

For New Gaia, it's got me wanting to completely rewrite the entire technical side of the story to introduce "green" tech: wind power, water power, solar power, hydrogen fuel cells, etc. It's what I would have put in the story if I'd known about it from the beginning. Of course, there's a ton of other stuff I need to fix with that story, but most of it is technical; the relationship/emotional stuff is pretty much exactly how I want it.

Anyway, here's another Mambo tip for myself:

• To create an in-site link, start from 'content/' and leave off the base URL.

Kidney Stone

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 11:51 AM

I have a kidney stone. Isn't that fun?

Actually, I have two, but only one of them is making its way down the ureter (the tube from the kidney to the bladder), so that's the one that's causing me all the pain. I just can't wait until it gets to my urethra and I get to pee it out. According to the urologist my doctor sent me to, it should only take about a week. My doctor put me on Cipro (antibiotic), but the stuff is making me nauseous, upsetting my stomach, and giving me diarrhea, so I'm hoping he'll switch me to something more tolerable. The urologist also gave me this little mesh filter thing to pee into to make sure I catch the damn thing.

Well, I'm pretty much wasted, since all this messed up my already eratic sleep schedule. I woke up around 4pm Monday after only 6 hours of sleep. I had two bad bouts of pain at around 7pm and 11pm, then another at 8am Tuesday, just before I was going to go to bed, so I'd already been up for 16 hours when I ended up having to spend the rest of the day running around to doctors. Then I had the bad reaction to the antibiotic, so I didn't get to sleep until midnight last night. I took a few naps in the car and after I got home, but I effectively was up for 32 hours.

You know, I'm turning 31 in a couple weeks (11 days), and I just don't think my body is up for this kind of shit anymore. :) So, I'm going to go be a couch potato and see if I can't get a little more sleep.

Kidney Stone Update

Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 1:23 PM

Still haven't passed either of the stones (as far as I know, anyway), but if the pain is any indication, the left one has stopped moving and the right one has started. I've also apparently developed a urinary tract infection, though I thankfully haven't felt any symptoms yet (the urologist found the infection in my urine). He was going to put me on antibiotics, but then I told him my regular doctor had already prescribed me some as a precaution (he switched me over to Macrobid, by the way, which I'm tolerating much better than the Cipro), so he's decided to wait and see if the infection is on its way out. They've done a culture of the infection and that will tell them whether I need another round of antibiotics or not. I get to call tomorrow morning and find out.

In other news, I've been working on The Vampire Hunter series the past few days. I think I've figured out how to rewrite the first chapters so they'll read fast and hopefully be interesting, but still convey all the information I want.

When I first posted the story, I was basically on the first draft and just posting the story as it came to me. In hindsight, and based on some of the feedback I've received, I've realized that the story starts too abruptly and not enough details are given to let the reader know some fairly vital information about the world I've created. It mostly has to do with the vampire mythos and the fact that I'm straying wildly from it, so the preconceptions that a lot of readers seemed to bring to the story were completely wrong and ended up causing problems down the line. The changes should also make things easier for other parts of the story, since I won't have to explain as much.

Antibiotics Update

Thursday, February 8, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 12:56 PM

Well, the culture didn't grow anything, so I don't have to take any more antibiotics, for the time being anyway.

Well, back to writing (still working on TVH).

Happy Birthday To Me

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 5:11 PM

I'm 31 today.

Sometimes, it's still hard for me to believe I've lived this long. Not that I'm ancient or anything, but it's just that when I was a kid, I honestly never thought I'd make it out of my teens. To think that I've actually made it past thirty is sort of remarkable to me. The fact that I'm also happily married, own really incredible bedroom furniture, and get to write my very own stories... As much as my life has sucked in the past and is sometimes annoying in the present, I'm really happy with my life.

Happy birthday to me. :)

Kidney Stone Update (The Last, I Hope)

Friday, February 23, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 10:56 AM

According to my latest CT scan, I've apparently passed the left kidney stone, though I never noticed it, thankfully. I still have the one in my right kidney, but the urologist said it's pretty tiny, so it shouldn't cause me any problems for the time being.

In other news, I've been working on The Vampire Hunter a lot the past couple weeks. I've rewritten the beginning again, but I think I finally have it the way I want it now, so I've moved on to the next set of chapters.

Unfortunately, I'm feeling a little stuck. I realized with one of the new chapters that I basically introduce eight new characters in the space of three pages, which is a lot to expect a reader to keep track of and with very little detail (it's mostly conversation). So, I think I need to expand the scene by adding several precursor scenes, so that I can introduce a few characters at a time in smaller chunks before I get to the main scene.

Of course, there's always the option of cutting the scene entirely and letting the characters be introduced when they were in the earlier draft, but I think the new scene makes Blake a lot less two-dimensional (originally, he's bad because I say he's bad, rather than showing why Gabrielle has decided to move against him and the others). It also brings Michelle, Shiri, and David into the story sooner, which I like. I'm thinking whatever I do, I want it to show the dynamics of the group: who hangs with who, that sort of thing. Now, if I could just figure out how to write it and make it pertinent to the story...

Anxiety and Insomnia

Friday, March 2, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 10:24 PM

I hate anxiety and insomnia. The one makes it difficult for me to focus when I'm awake and the other makes it hard for me to fall asleep when I'm tired. I'm used to dealing with a general level of both pretty much every day, but when there's extra stuff that raises those levels above normal, I have problems coping.

Corene is having knee surgery on the 15th. It's not as major as it sounds. She's just having some old torn cartilage scraped out that's leftover from a car accident she was in more than twenty years ago. With doing the renovations on the house, the physical activity has caused fluid to build up in a cyst on the back of her knee, which is painful. The doctor said he could drain the cyst to relieve the pain, but it would come back in a year if they didn't take care of the underlying cause, which is the old torn cartilage. Hence, the surgery.

She'll only be under for about half an hour, and she should be sent home a couple hours after the surgery, and assuming everything goes well, she should be back to work on Monday the 19th, though she'll probably be on crutches for a while. But my little brain can't help thinking of all the things that could go wrong. I've only had Corene for seven years and the thought of losing her over something so trivial... I think I would go insane.

So, I've been trying to focus on other things. I tend to clean when my anxiety is up, so the house is in pretty good shape. I've been trying to write, but my focus is off, so I've only managed a few snippets here and there. Mostly, I've been playing Age of Empires II: The Conqueror's Expansion. It's a fantasy realm where I'm in control, which helps counter some of the anxiety about all the things I'm not in control of. I think it's pretty good therapy, but I still wish I could stop having anxiety attacks all the time. I just want the surgery to be over and done with and everything to be okay, so I can go back to my more normal semi-insane state.

At least Corene understands. She says she loves me, too. :)

Knee Surgery Update

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 4:48 AM

Corene has had her knee surgery and is doing fine. She's walking around almost normally and is off the pain meds (she's just taking one ibuprofen every now and then to try to help the swelling go down). The two wound sites are still draining a little (just enough to stain a band-aid), but they're closing over nicely. The doctor said she shouldn't even have any scars. The only bad thing so far is that the front of her knee is kind of numb and tingly, but I'm hoping that will go away, as opposed to it being some kind of nerve damage. All in all, I think she's doing really well, especially for it being only five days since her surgery.

Then there's me. I'm still trying to calm down from the stress of all this over the past few weeks, not to mention my own stuff that's been coming up regarding my childhood. I've begun working on my stories again, so I think I'm starting to get back to normal.

Maybe I'll even get back to work on this website.

Another Mambo tip:

• To create an in-domain link, do '../../../../FolderName/' and leave off the base URL.

Fibromyalgia

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 3:31 PM

I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia when I was about 10 or 12. Back then, I was told it was a brand new diagnosis. A lot of doctors didn't even think it was real (some still don't). The main thing I remember about being diagnosed back then was that I'd been seeing a ton of different doctors within my mom's HMO and none of them seemed to know what was wrong with me. The last doctor finally handed me a pamphlet and said, "Here, read this and see if this is what you have." I remember thinking, "But aren't you the doctor? Aren't you supposed to diagnose me?" When I went back to my regular doctor, they told me I had arthritis. When I asked, "What kind? Rheumatoid? Juvenile?" They said, "We don't know. You just have arthritis." This was less than helpful, since no one ever told me what I should or shouldn't do about it. I was left with the feeling that everyone thought I was making it up to get attention and so there was nothing anyone could do for me because I was crazy.

However, I still usually put down arthritis and fibromyalgia whenever I have to fill out one of those medical history forms when I see a new doctor, but I've never really had much faith in the diagnosis or even really read up on it. I just knew it was associated with chronic fatigue syndrome and probably involved being tired most of the time.

Well, yesterday, I went to see a physical therapist to help me deal with some intense back pain I've been having. I noticed on the referral sheet that my doctor had put down fibromyalgia as the reason for the referral, but I wasn't sure why, since he hadn't mentioned to me that he thought my pain had something to do with that particular diagnosis. Anyway, the physical therapist sat me down and poked me in different places where I was tender and then told me that I do have fibromyalgia and so I need to take it easy and be gentle with my body. She gave me some stretching techniques and suggested I check out some books from the library on fibromyalgia.

Well, guess what? Some of the main symptoms of fibromyalgia are fatigue, dysfunctional sleep (insomnia), joint pain, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), depression, sensitivity to weather and temperature changes, headaches (tension headaches from tight neck muscles), anxiety, and stiffness. When Corene read the symptoms in one of the books I checked out, she said, "This sounds exactly like you."

So, maybe I'm not crazy after all.

More Medical Drama

Monday, April 23, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 8:30 PM

Back in November, Corene's dad was diagnosed with cancer (Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, Stage 4, Aggressive). He and Corene's mom decided to do chemo, even though he's like 80, diabetic, and couldn't even remember how to start his name when he was supposed to sign the consent forms. The chemo seemed to get his cancer under control, but it also basically wiped out his immune system, so of course he ended up with a staph infection from a pimple on his elbow. That was the beginning of March. At one point, they didn't know if they were going to have to amputate his arm because they thought it might have gone down to his bone, but they did finally get it under control after putting him in a medically-induced coma for two weeks.

Then they found out his cancer had returned. He's way too weak for more chemo, so the doctor basically sent him home to die, though the doc did set him up with "palliative" (pain management) care and worked out a deal with a hospice center for when the time came.

Corene's mom has been in total denial, trying herbal remedies that are supposed to boost his immune system and "cure" him, but he's basically stopped eating, which is never a good sign.

Today, Corene got the call that they had to take her dad back to the hospital because he's just too weak. They're moving him to hospice today. I think everything is happening faster than anybody thought it would.

On top of that, I seem to have hit the crying stage of my emotional recovery. My abandonment issues are in full swing. Corene has gone in late to work twice in the past two weeks because I was just a wreck. I calm down pretty quickly (an hour or two), but it's exhausting (I'm not sleeping much either, but that's nothing new) and I feel really bad about adding more stress to Corene's load, what with her father dying and everything. But she told me it's okay. She loves me and she'd rather I cry than hold it in. I know she's right, but I still feel shitty about the timing. As if there could ever be a "good time" to have a nervous breakdown... Well, it's not that bad, but it still sucks.

Obituary

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 2:33 PM

Corene's father died this morning at 9:55am EST. None of the family was there, since we didn't get the call until a few minutes before and it took almost an hour to drive to the hospice. The nurses said it happened quickly and he went peacefully. Corene is doing okay; sad, but okay.

Living Room Renovations

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 9:32 AM

So, I've finally finished painting the living room. Painting paneling really sucks, but at least it's done. Well, that room, anyway.

We decided to get new furniture and electronics, too, since most of the stuff we had was either old or worn out and there were some good credit deals going on (3 years with no interest on one and 5 years with no interest on the other; it's my favorite way to use credit). We've gotten some of the stuff, but we're waiting for delivery on the rest.

But then it'll be on to the kitchen and painting the cabinets and laying down the tile, etc. All that'll be left after that is the office, but at least with that room, there shouldn't be anything major to buy. As great as the deals have been that we've gotten, I'm getting a little tired of going into debt each time we update a room.

For now though, I'm taking a break to write, since I don't want to tear apart the kitchen until the living room is settled. But you know, as much as I love making the house look better, I really hate it when real life gets in the way of my writing. Jotting down notes here and there isn't enough. I like being immersed in my worlds.

Nail Caps, Wonderful Invention

Monday, June 25, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 6:11 PM

We've gotten the new furniture. Glass coffee table and matching end tables, with black leather recliner sofa and matching rocker recliner. The living room smells like leather. It's great. :)

Of course, this has precipitated us putting nail caps on the cats, since they enjoyed using the previous couch as an additional scratching post to their kitty tower, and we weren't about to watch our new leather sofa get the same treatment. Felix has chewed several of the caps off, but we've just put them back on (it's a two-person job, but the cats have actually been very good about it, way better than I thought they'd be). She seems to be getting used to them, though. Akasha doesn't seem to have noticed she has them on. On top of that, neither of them has even hinted at scratching the leather. I don't think they like the material, but Corene says give them time. :)

We're not taking the caps off either way, though. We like not getting scratched when they get startled and scramble off our laps all of a sudden or when we're playing with them or being paranoid about the furniture.

Right now, they're wearing the clear ones, since that's all the stores seem to carry around here, but online, they have them in all kinds of colors, so we're thinking about getting red for Kash and purple and/or black for Felix.

Another Mambo Tip

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 6:16 PM

I got the Privacy Policy finished and uploaded, and after struggling for an hour to get an image to show up in the Description area of a Category page, I finally found a solution. It's not elegant, and it's basically a cheat, but here it is:

• Set up an image folder parallel to the Mambo installed directory and then use the in-domain link format: do '../../../../FolderName/' and leave off the base URL.

Site Transfer/Renovations

Monday, July 2, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 6:58 AM

The site transfer is progressing. Of my stories, I only have New Gaia and The Vampire Hunter series left to move. I've gotten the Help/FAQ transferred and updated to reflect some of the changes on the new site. And after hours of troubleshooting, I finally got the Polls to work on pages other than the homepage. I've also created polls for all the story pages. I need to come up with more, so I can switch them out.

My list of things to do includes transferring the old What's New? archives and figuring out how I'm going to set up a similar system on the new site. I also still need to finish up the Links page. I don't know if I want to do it the way I initially set it up with linked categories or have it all on one page like I did for the Help/FAQ page. I think I'd prefer it all on one page. That way I'm not spending so much time waiting for pages to load, if I'm clicking on a link that just takes me down the page.

Well, now I'm supposed to start prepping for the renovations on the kitchen. We've gotten most of the cabinets emptied and the doors removed and cleaned, but I still have to clean the cabinets themselves and tape off, and there's still the few cabinets we didn't get to and the drawers, which all need to have their hardware removed... Oh, joy.

Site Transfer/Renovations, Part 2

Friday, November 30, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 1:15 PM

The renovations are finally drawing to a close for this year. You'd think after four months I'd be done with the kitchen by now, but I'm not. Between having a guest for three weeks and being sick that entire time, and then taking a two-and-a-half-week vacation to visit my sisters up north, and my sleep schedule reversing (it's harder to paint at night), and the weather not cooperating (it's harder to paint when it's raining and windy), and my fibromyalgia making me crash way faster and be more tired after working on the house than I'd like, I'm just now today getting the trim painted. After that, I need to switch out all the plugs and switches with the new stuff and hang the doors on the bottom set of cabinets (the upper doors haven't been painted yet and won't be until next spring/summer) and caulk between the backsplash and the walls, and then I'm done for the year.

Which means I'll be able to get back to work on the website and my writing, hopefully. It's a goal, anyway.

What Do I Want To Do?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 2:51 AM

I'm trying to decide what I want to do with my website. I started out with the idea of making my site a subscription site in order to get a little protection under the law for my original stories (which was prompted by my work being plagiarized). Then I realized I've been paying this whole time for people to read my stories for free and I decided I'd like to actually make a little money to cover my expenses. Then I got caught up in how to make the site a subscription site (learning the new Mambo CMS, designing a business model, researching costs of services like PayPal, etc.) and got a little overwhelmed about turning my writing into a business (I'd love to get paid for what I love to do, but what if I can't deliver?).

Now, I'm feeling the crunch of my self-imposed deadline to have the site up and running by February 29th, 2008 (Leap Day to commemorate when I first opened my site on Leap Day in 2000). It might seem like a ways off, but time seems to move faster when I have a deadline. For example, a few days after my last post, I came down with a really bad sinus infection, and between being sick and the drugs I'm having to take to feel better, I've basically been comatose for the past week (the antibiotics made me nauseous, so I had to take Phenergan, which knocks me out). I'm still pretty wiped and I have two more days of the antibiotics before I'll be done, but all I can think is, "There's another week and a half wasted."

So anyway, I'm still trying to decide if I really want to offer my stories online or pull them down and focus my efforts on finishing them, so I can publish the damn things. My ultimate goal is to publish my stories in paperback format, but I also know there's a market for selling my stories online, whether as part of a website subscription format or as e-books (or both). I really just want to write and I feel like it's been forever since I've really just written. I jot notes down all the time, I write snippets of scenes and dialogue, and I'm constantly researching various subjects for my stories, but it's been months since I sat at the computer and actually wrote full-length scenes and completed chapters over the course of several days.

You know what? Fuck it. I'm just not going to think about this right now. I'm going to work on a story and deal with everything else later. I just want to do what I love.

Transferred New Gaia

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 6:16 PM

Well, I finally got New Gaia transferred into Mambo. I forgot how long that story was. I was able to read snippets here and there while I was putting in the new code and I really like what I have. I do want to put in more "green" tech, but the dialogue and scenes are pretty much how I want them.

Next up is The Vampire Hunter.

Winter Solstice

Friday, December 28, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 3:46 AM

Solstice was good. I got to spend four whole days with Corene. We watched the DVDs we got for Solstice and cuddled on the couch. It was great. :)

Now, I get another four days for New Year, though we'll probably be doing some early spring cleaning instead of loafing on the couch, since the house is still a wreck from the renovations. It's not my favorite way to spend vacation time with my wife, but we're both a lot happier when the house is organized, and I need help to do it, so Corene's time off is the best time for it.

Anyway, here's another Mambo tip so I don't forget it:

• Formatting of text for User Menu stuff is in components/com_user/user.html.php, while the text itself is in language/english.php. The same goes for login.html.php and all the rest, though some formatting is also done in english.php when the way the echo text is called requires it.

Felix Has A Lump

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Written by Kodi Wolf at 9:55 AM

We had to take my cat Felix to the vet last night because I found a lump on her throat. The vet shaved the area and poked it with a syringe to get some cells to test. She wasn't able to do a full biopsy, but she told us that she couldn't see any mass cells (I think I have that right), which means at the very least, if it is cancerous, it isn't the most aggressive kind. She prescribed an antibiotic and hot compresses. If it gets smaller, but doesn't go away completely, she'll do another round of antibiotics, but if it doesn't go down or gets bigger, then she said we should have it removed. Then they can send it for testing to see what it is and what else we might need to do or just be aware of.

Felix is my familiar. For those who don't know what that is, she's basically my best friend in animal form, my spiritual and emotional guide and mentor. She's taught me to feel, to love, and to hope in a way that no human ever could have because I never would have trusted those lessons from a human.

Animals don't really lie. When Felix wants to be held, she comes to me or she lets me pick her up. When she doesn't, she leaves or tries to get out of my arms. When a human does that, it can feel too needy or like a rejection, but when Felix does it, she's just telling me what she wants and I can respect that and accept it. And if I'm the one who needs to leave, I know I'm not going to have to explain anything or feel guilty (well, as long as we're only talking about a few hours; vacations are kind of hard because I know she misses me when I'm gone by how she leaps into my arms when I return and refuses to be put down; of course, I miss her just as much).

Anyway, I'm trying not to freak out about the possibility of her having something terminal. As Corene has told me, she's dreading the day Felix dies. She knows I'll probably be the definition of inconsolable, and she's probably right. I will not handle that day well. I just hope it isn't coming anytime soon.