A bed of roses

Husband and I went into town and made a start on Christmas shopping. We got something for everyone, so that was good.

After dinner, I tried again with the bit in Stray Blade I was stuck on - still couldn't jump the gap. I began to wonder if I was doing the right thing, so I found a YT video that covered this part and then remembered that there's a sprint function... Sprint at the gap, jump across, easy as pie... Frustrated Rosa is frustrated.

Last night when I finished watching S3 of The Lincoln Lawyer, I realised that I hadn't watched S2. I didn't even remember that I'd watched all of S1 - the only reason I knew I did was an old DW entry saying I'd finished it! Which, when I realised there was a S3, I assumed included S2. Anyway... now I'm watching S2. Winston is the best doggy <3

I also managed to get another chapter done. It took a while - not because the words wouldn't come, but because I was trying to work out the logic and logistics while I was writing. But I got there, eventually.

And that was today.

I got into town as early as possible last week and it was already heaving.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea as me!  But I got some presents bought, then moved on to the 'normal' shop, which I had zero enthusiasm for.  More present buying today, but my 'normal' list is much shorter this week, so it shouldn't be so exhausting.

I'm going to put the Christmas decorations up tomorrow.  I was going to wait for next weekend but that would have felt like decorating JUST for the visitors, and I want us three to get into the Xmas Atmos.

My body is playing 'shall-I-shan't-I?' with periods again.  It FEELS like I'm about to get hit with the mother of all bleeds, but it just isn't arriving.  It's more annoying than the actual period would be.  I think...

I'm re-reading Little Women and enjoying it more than I remember.  It may be worth looking out the sequels, which I've never read.

Work was another battle of getting more senior people to do their jobs so I don't look like I'm not doing mine *sigh*  But I do love the VC, who has given us the days before Christmas off!  This means I have 3 whole weeks of doing nothing.  Well, not REALLY nothing, but you know what I mean.

And I'm feeling very noble for NOT investigating Playstation Access' '19 things we know about FF16'.  I don't need to be persuaded to buy it - I KNOW I'm going to buy it - all I need is the release date!  Oh, and another DA game is coming.  That, I think, I will probably investigate more, and get it when the price drops.

Right, the Asda shop is arriving early this week, so I need to be ready.  Bye, DW!

 So, I finished Nano #10 (current count is 10 complete of 12 attempts). I have written half a million Nano-words! Go me.

This year, I tried something different. Rather than a prose narrative type thing, I wrote 50 separate documents of about 1k each that form a dossier of evidence. Humans have found a planet that might be suitable for colonisation. There doesn't seem to be any of the activity we would associate with 'intelligence' going on. So an uber diverse group of 600 set off on a 10 year journey. The system is actually one star with two planets on the same orbital path, with one slightly closer to the star. When they pass, they switch. This means that one planet is receiving too much radiation to be safe for humans for half the year.

They have two androids with them who get sent to the 'inner' planet whilst the humans explore the other one. The androids encounter a large, intelligent species of insect but they don't recognise them as intelligent. They follow Asimov's three laws - if a human tells them to collect samples, they collect samples. It's up to the humans to work out the morality and give appropriate instructions. When the humans realise what the androids have done - by following their instructions - there is some hand wringing and soul searching but the captain decides to go down and attempt peace.

The insects are - remarkably! - open to the idea of welcoming creatures that might be seen as their enemy. In the meantime, orders come from Earth to deactivate the androids, the captain to stand down, and the crew to return. The crew agree to reboot the androids and leave them to collect data on the non-insect planet. They also won't allow the captain to stand down. But they do return to Earth where, eventually, they are vindicated.

The way I've written it, mostly as descriptions of audio visual files - almost like a script! - I think it might make an interesting graphic novel.

But first, I need to get Mannerley published!

I'm off work for a couple of days. Yesterday, I finished Nano. Today, I break the back of the Christmas shopping. I also want to do some cleaning but that might just have to wait for the weekend. I'm also hoping to get some FFXV done.