Geez . . . This was a whirlwind week.  I think.  Might have just been the last few days that fostered some mayhem.  So, how did things go?

It was Holiday Break, which meant I didn’t have work.  At least the teaching job because I tried to put my author hat back on.  My goal was to get the first 5 chapters of Darwin & the Demon Game done.  It looks like I’m only going to get 4.25 done before I have to go back to work.  Not bad, especially since I might still be able to get the chapter count up to 6 next weekend.  That would complete 1/3 of the entire book as long as I don’t delete or add any chapters.  Not looking possible considering how much I combed over the outline and already do some merges, deletions, and additions.  Spent a whole weekend examining the outline, so I’m confident there.

I’m not entirely confident on some other things.  A subplot popped up out of nowhere within chapter 2 and 3.  I always intended for this character to slowly change and become more ‘human’.  It’s an affect that I established why back in Legends of Windemere when it came to demons.  This isn’t a spoiler.  The bizarre thing is that the change intended up happening almost immediately upon Darwin and this demon meeting up.  I thought it was iffy, but then the demon started questioning why he is actually stranger than usual.  I kind of want to see how this plays out because I know there’s a big scene that explains this even though I haven’t decided on the details yet.  My confidence is shaky here because I can’t tell if this is genius or it’s being caused by imagination rust.

With my friends being busy during Christmas, I didn’t do more than writing and re-watching ‘My Hero Academia’.  Didn’t even leave the house since it was freezing cold and stores weren’t really open.  Made sure to get some lunches to make at home and had a lot of hot chocolate to keep me warm.

Things were working pretty well until Wednesday when the insulation guys showed up and I had to leave my room.  They weren’t the issue really.  I still got some writing done before heading out to do errands.  One of my son’s Nintendo Switch controllers broke and I needed to get some heavy cream for vodka sauce.  Didn’t realize those two things would require a lot of driving.  The controller was sold out at Walmart and Target, so I had to go to a mall (return day) to get to a Gamestop.  I was lucky that they had a pre-owned.  The heavy cream was just as bad with nothing at Walmart, Target, Stop & Shop, and Lidl.  I finally found some at Stew Leonard’s and then grabbed Taco Bell to head home.  By the time I ate and rested, I was barely able to get more writing done.  I only got one more section done and that was it because my son was back Thursday morning.

I thought I could get some writing done if my son was doing other things, but it’s a big ‘father/son’ activity period.  We watched the first Raimi ‘Spider-Man’ and keep playing video games.  Got a bunch of Legos to build too.  We also went to something called Lumino City:

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That was a spontaneous thing that I managed to get tickets for.  I had around 140 pictures, which I put on Facebook.  It was cold, but a lot of fun.  Grabbed donuts on the way home and that was the end of day one of the ‘father/son’ part of the break.  Jammed a lot into it, which is why I’m tired.

There is much else planned for the break since it’s still cold out.  During the writing of this post, the speakers of my laptop are starting to crack really badly.  Part of me wondered if moving it to the downstairs to work might have caused an issue.  It’s been sitting on my computer acting like a desktop for years.  Good thing I can’t afford a new one.  I probably should have tried to get one during Black Friday, but this laptop worked fine beyond not being able to close without breaking the casing.  Writing time might be delayed more if this gets worse.  2022 is really trying to get a final blow in, huh?

Given that I go back to work on Tuesday, I’m not going to come up with much in the way of plans.  It’ll be the first full week of 2023.  I don’t expect there to be any major changes beyond getting back into the working habits for me and school habits for my son.  Let’s just allow everything to be a surprise.

Goals of the week:

1. Enjoy rest of the break with my son.
2. Get some writing done.
3. Get some blogging done.
4. Get back into work schedule.
5. Hopefully don’t have to get a new laptop.
6. Get a good amount of sleep.