Today the satellite company brought me my lovely local channels.  I know that the joy of being able to watch the local news is probably lost on some people, but I've really missed not being able to find out the news in my community by turning on the news.  Yeah, I have so much excitement in my life.

What I don't understand is why I need to had a HDTV hookup for local channels even though my TV only does Crappy Old Standard Definition.  Eventually, I'll have to get an HDTV, but honestly, I don't think it's worth the money.  Yes, it is better than standard TV.  No, it's not worth the money to rush out and buy a new TV when my old one is only 2 years old.  Furthermore, I inherited a huge screen TV from my parents that doesn't fit anywhere at the moment.  When I can splurge on a new entertainment center, I'll set it up.  But not until then.

One thing that has me bothered is that I'm pretty sure I was supposed to own my previous DVR, but they didn't see that.  It doesn't really matter, except there are shows I want to copy and save for later viewing.  So, because I'm the geek, I've been tasked to moving that data off the DVR.  As though I don't have enough to do.

Sigh.

I ended getting some seven or so articles done these past two days

Your Federal Government is about to hand over about 80 bison to multi-billionaire Ted Turner -- and no one is crying foul save the Native Americans.  These bison come from one of the last genetically pure stock left anywhere (most bison you see have cattle genetics mixed in).  Ted Turner, who owns Ted's Montana Grill and who has 50,000 head of bison already.  Who also charges $4000 for canned hunts.

Now, I've got nothing against someone making an honest living.  I'm not against canned hunts per se either.  But what I'm against is the Federal Government giving away part of our country's heritage, that being wildlife, and, in particular, the bison.  It's as if the Federal Government gave away Yellowstone to a private contractor.  Too big?  How about Old Faithful, then?  Or maybe Mount Rushmore? 

One of the differences between the United States and other countries is that the wildlife isn't owned by a single person.  It's owned by all the citizens of the United States.  So, when the Government gives away bison to a private individual, they've robbed us, pure and simple.  Those bison don't just below to Ted Turner -- they belong to you and me.  And within those bison are the genetic codes that may mean the survival or extinction of the bison.  What will happen to those bison is anyone's guess, because once they pass into private ownership, all the platitudes mean nothing.  Ted can do whatever the hell he likes with the bison -- offering canned hunts or serve them up for burger or use those genetics to strengthen his own herds.  They're worth more than the $4000 per animal he can get with them.  And even if they weren't, since when are we giving wildlife to individuals?

The tribes who live on Fort Belkap, the Gros Ventre and Assiniboine tribes, and the Wind River Reservation tribes, Northern Arapaho and Shoshone tribes, sought to take these bison to repopulate their reservations.  These bison, once found brucellosis free, should go to either public lands or tribal lands for repopulating the Western US.  But evidently, the people who are most deserving of these animals are denied once again. 

• 13:25 It's out!!!! Check out 'Howling Dead' by M. H. Bonham (Paperback - O... bit.ly/2RoAwA #

• 11:09 RT @USOlympic Cast your vote for the USOC October Female Athlete of the Month twtpoll.com/lm64jn #twtpoll Vote for Catherine Bouwcamp #

• 11:54 Survived yesterday. Whacked the passenger side mirror of my car on a tree. Not happy, but we'll fix it. #
• 12:42 Breakfast or lunch? Technically it's after 12 pm and I've actually done some work. #
• 13:31 Should I work or just sit and read and relax? #
• 14:38 Got a press release written. Not as painful as I thought. #
• 20:32 Finished my second article. So, now to either reading or working on editing the novel. Bronchitis sucks. #

• 10:45 Woke up to a downpour of rain this morning. Now sun. We're supposed to get rain and snow the next several days. #
• 10:57 Unemployment topped 10% according to new numbers. Who are we kidding? It's really been that way for a while #
• 14:15 Should get ready for physical therapy. Joy. #
• 16:08 Crap day. I think it's time to curl up in a hole. #

• 13:36 Slept in late. Have to go into town today. #
• 13:40 Timewasters or Would Somebody Feed My Friggin Hatchlings? networkedblogs.com/p16845402 #
• 23:21 How to spot a DUI in Montana networkedblogs.com/p16895308 #
• 00:19 Mmm, organic eggnog. Yes, it IS better than the swill in the grocery stores. #

Yeah, it's Missoula.  Sent to me by my Sensei.

Sure enough, I get on Facebook and I get one of those annoying messages.  You know the ones: the ones that tell you you haven't been to such and such application in a gazillion years and dammit, they're going to slaughter all your cows, take over the kingdom or give you bad karma all because you're too friggin busy to play and too poor to actually justify paying for the application so you can keep everything in stasis. 

I've blocked Farmtown and Mafia Wars, dumped Dragon Wars and decided my karma points were in the negatives anyway.  But then, there's Hatchlings.  And if they didn't have those gawd-damn dragons, I'd jettison it too. 

But I own dragons.  Not bad looking ones either.  But cool looking dragons and scaly cool carp and a Kitteh!  So, I have to go back to Hatchlings every few days and feed the damn things so they don't run away.  I mean, I get a note saying "one or more of my hatchlings is unhappy!  Feed it before it runs away."  Who wants unhappy, runaway dragons, I ask you?

So, every two or three days, I waste about an hour looking for eggs and feeding the little bastards.  They can be pretty ungrateful wretches too, saying "More Please." and whatnot.  I should just free them all.  But I can't.  I keep looking at them and feel an absurd sense of pride that I own 4 dragons.  How dumb is that?  So, this is my time waster, along with Spider Solitaire.  Maybe someday, I'll forget and they'll all run away and then I won't have any money to pay the pet catcher. 

That's ok, too.  In the meantime, somebody feed my friggin hatchlings!  I'm sure they're unhappy.

• 22:56 NaNoWriMo or Why November Sucks networkedblogs.com/p16776287 #

Every year NaNoWriMo comes around in November and every year I'm riddled in guilt because I really wouldn't mind participating in it.  NaNoWriMo, for those not in the know, is the National Novel Writing Month where you're supposed to put aside your life and write your hearts out and get a novel done in a morth.  But NaNoWriMo comes in November, which for various reasons, has always sucked for me.  Let me explain.

Inevitably, whether I worked a Real Job or whether I'm freelancing full time, somebody has some sort of deadline that needs to get done that requires monumental effort on my part.  It's the near end of the year crisis, you see, and if I don't get my work done, the planets will fail to align and the solar system will implode.  Ok, maybe not that dire, but every manager in a job I had tended to act like that.  Like any good skeptic, I told them this was just some stupid man-made crisis and in 100 years no one would give a crap, but it mattered to me to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas.  And you wonder why I never was promoted. 

The freelance thing I take seriously because it's actual money in my pocket.  Almost everyone wants something done by some time in the late part of the year which means I'm working towards getting money for Christmas presents.  Or buying a turkey.  Or something.

Then, there's World Fantasy and the CWA Conference.  I used to attend the CWA Conference regularly so that took out four to five days.  And then, there's the wild animal chasing season.  Then, there's Thanksgiving.  You get the idea.  Family health problems were also an issue in the past.

So, I'm looking at NaNoWriMo and sighing once again.  I have plenty of work and no time to sit and worry about starting another novel -- I've got to finish editing Samurai Son.  I've got a gazillion other things to get done.  And none of them have to do with sitting and pounding out a new novel on the keyboard.

Currently scheduled:

Finish tech review of dog college class section.
2 short articles a day (about 1000 words).
Siberian Husky Book.
Samurai Son edits.
Press release for Howling Dead.
Create press kit.
Set up constant contact.
Update website.
Application for PhD or second masters.

Yep, my life is very busy.  30 days isn't enough.  And that is why I'm not doing NaNoWriMo and why November sucks for it.

World Fantasy was, uh, eventful.  Mainly because Denver had a huge snow storm and the air trafffic was clogged because of all the cancellations and delays.  Trying to get out of Missoula on Thursday was impossible with all the  cancelled flights in Denver.  By Friday, I was dealing with the overflow from Thursday.  So, I got in late and headed up to the parties.  Then, I crashed.

Saturday was my only day, so I had to make the best of it.  I sold books at the Edge table.  I talked with editors.  I tried to help out friends.  And by the end of it all, I found myself in the bar with lots of friends wondering what the hell I had accomplished.

Howling Dead was a success -- we got the book in and sold at least 20 copies.
I was interviewed for a podcast.  Yay!
I spoke to several big editors I knew.  One is awaiting Samurai Son.  Keeping fingers crossed.
Helped Lizzy sell books.  Her books sold out.  Yay!
Shipped a bunch of freebie books home.

Tired today.  Picked up pizza on the way home and found husband had eaten my organic meals while I was gone because he couldn't find other food.  Ha!  Oh well.

Today I finished the page proofs for Howling Dead.  The book looks good and I'm going to be very glad to see that puppy in print. 

Found a whole bunch of receipts and scanned them in with the NeatReceipts.  The whole thing looks like it's tallied up.  I'm hoping to get all the receipts scanned before the first of the year.  It would be a positive thing to be ahead of the tax curve instead of rushing about and filing for stuff last minute.

Got two articles written for the Work For Hire (WFH) website.   I realize that the best I can do is about 2 articles a day and still get all my other writing stuff done.  Husband points out that's money I didn't have. It's not an incredible amount of cash, but it supplements the other writing gigs well.

I remember years ago another writer used to take WFH writers to task for doing what I'm doing.  I got in a huge argument with them where they decided that I was scum because I wanted to pay my mortgage and eat.  (I know, I'm so selfish).  Basically, I believe that writers do what they have to do because their life requires it.  Nobody wants to sell themselves cheap; I certainly don't.  But there's something to figuring out how much you're making per hour versus what they're paying you.  I mean, even if they're paying a paltry sum, the fact that you can get the work done in an hour or a half an hour makes all the difference.  If you can write little articles, you can make a fair amount of cash in no time.