camloae | Recent Entries

Here it is day . . . (I have no idea feel to insert a big number here) of the pandemic. It feels never ending. For me time has both sped up and slowed down, which is very confusing. I still work outside the home and commute to work; have since January 2020. I first worked as a barista at coffee kiosk in a grocery store. I wanted to learn how to be a barista and see if I liked it enough to move to a artisan or third wave coffee shop instead of the chain one at the grocery store.

There were parts I liked and parts i hated and parts I tolerated when I shouldn’t have. I was desperate to stay and ignored things that sent up red flags. . . yeah. Poor decision on my part, lesson learned. I enjoyed making the drinks and mostly enjoyed the co-workers. . . mostly.

I hated talking to customers once the pandemic started and we wore masks and plexiglass was put up I could barely hear the customers and they couldn’t hear me at all. I had to shout at them to be heard. I hate shouting.

Since I was the main closer. . . . I washed all the dishes and my arms got irritated to the point that my arms were red and swollen and felt like they were on fire. I couldn’t bend my wrists. Learned from the doctor it was contact dermatitis which is an allergic reaction to the chemicals in the commercial cleaners we use at work. The assistant manager tried to convince me it wasn’t the cleaners, but the manager knew it was and the doctor knew it was. So she can go fuck herself.

I quit that job and was hired by the same company my husband works for so now I’m a warehouse worker on the night shift. Upside my husband and I work the same shift so we commute together. I actually see him more now than I did in my previous jobs. So that’s a plus. During the fires they closed the warehouse down, which is unheard of. They never close, except for inventory day and on a couple of the holidays. Since it’s a warehouse, smoke filled the building. Offices and breakrooms were closed off with HEPA filters everywhere.

Since it’s warehouse work (I toss product into boxes that goes out to stores) fall season (aka peak season): October through early January is super busy and has mandatory overtime. Being new to the work and to peak season I stressed out a lot. It did get to us towards December. We went from planning our meals to picking up prepared meals at the store. Yeah. I had no brain left by the end of the week. They been super busy since the pandemic started and it hasn’t really slowed down. Except in my department.

The only writing I managed was a flash fiction story for a Halloween podcast. The story was accepted without any changes necessary. So, yay! Progress! You can listen to it at Alone In A Room With Invisible People 3rd Halloween Special. My story is towards the end of episode one under the name Eliza K. Gillham titled The Last Dance. Unfortunately they had to stop doing the podcast (it was mother/daughter who both right not together) and it was cutting into their writing time. I'm sad the podcast had to go, but I'm glad their focusing on their writing. (Which is something I need to do.)

I did write another story earlier in the year that needs edited. It’s a non-linear mess since I can’t write linearly. (I’ve tried it always fails and it’s not fun.) Once I put the scenes in order I can see what scenes are missing and needed, fix the rushed ending and see if it has a beginning. But, yay?

Currently working on another story, but so far have only managed to write on weekends. Plus just realized that the only projects I finish are those that have a deadline. So, I need to set deadlines for my projects so I will finish them. Yeah. Sounds arbitrary, but my brain does things backwards and is contrary.

Hubby and I went on keto, a high fat low carb diet because he wanted to lose weight, get it off his bad foot and I just wanted to lose a few pounds myself. It’s temporary, but we plan on sticking to a low carb diet after we reach our weight goals. We’ve discovered we can’t sustain keto long term, but short term as a way to lose weight and change our eating habits we can manage it. I really miss pie. I did discover a lovely food blog focused on the keto lifestyle with tons of recipes and, most importantly, keto-friendly desserts. Yay!

If you’re curious it’s called All Day I Dream About Food. I hate the ads on it, but I hate the ads on all the food blogs. So, eh, it is what is.

Still need to finish the website. . . . It’s not going to be perfect right off the bat and I keep freezing up because it’s not going to be perfect. ::sigh:: I can’t win sometimes. I’m just going to push through the fear and perfectionistic part of my personality and just do it.

Current Mood: cold
Current Location: office
Current Music: lo-fi on youtube

Not necessarily in that order. . . <.<

This post is link heavy so, feel free to ignore.

So, I’ve been listening to podcasts and have slowly added youtube videos (not the crazy dumb stuff) but other stuff like Numberphile (which involves numbers and patterns and such, it’s interesting) or Linus Tech Tips or tips for Cities: Skylines. So here I have a list of podcasts and youtube (as the title states ~_~ ) that I find fun and interesting.

Several of the podcasts can be found in various places, I personally use googleplay and am not entirely sure what other apps or places they’re available. Also they’re free, which is good as I can’t afford to pay for subscriptions to these things.

Anyway, without further ado, these are the podcasts I’m listening to:

Alone in a Room With Invisible People - - It’s co-hosted by Holly Lisle and her daughter Rebecca Galardo, both are writers. Holly has been writing since the early 90s and is still writing and publishing stories, she also has some writing courses. Rebecca’s new to the writing and has recently The podcasts cover everything to do with writing and you get the perspective of a newcomer and an experienced pro. I enjoy listening when I’m playing Cities:Skylines or any game that doesn’t require a lot of thought or when driving.

Another writer's podcast I enjoy is The Writer's Journey with author Michael LaRonn. They're short podcasts.

Hello Internet is cohosted by CGP Gray and Brady Haran, they’re smart guys who talk about random things. I enjoy listening to them.They both have YouTube channels. Gray has a lot of short educational videos he has made and Brady has a lot of youtube channels for his own stuff. One of Brady Haran’s YouTube channels is Numberphile.

Crit Academy is a podcast for tips, tricks and such for DMs and players alike. They focus on Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. (I know, kind of random). My youngest sister wanted to put together a D&D campaign this year and so I wanted to educate myself.

Another D&D YouTube channel I’ve also been watching is Dungeon Dudes. I've been enjoying their campagin: The Dungeons of Drakenheim. They also have tips for playing and DMing.

Also found some yoga videos on YouTube, I’ve been focusing on the YogaTX channel and really like how yogi Cole Chance teaches. She has a really calm presence and reminds viewers to be kind to themselves.

I've been learning a lot about coffee and coffee related appliances from Seattle Coffee Gear.

Current Mood: cold

An exciting thing. The flash fiction piece I submitted for the anthology put out by Holly Lisle for her writing class was accepted and the book was published last week. My story is under the pen name Eliza K. Gillham. It’s available on Amazon as a free ebook for kindle and a $6.99 paperback. It’s also available on iTunes, B&N, Draft2Digital and a few other places. It Happened In A Flash, a collection of flash fiction written by 64 different writers. Check it out!

Sorry for the long absence, life and um. . . yeah. And now I have brief post promoting a favorite author's new mailing list. <.< Well, it's hard being indy and I've learned a lot from her courses. So feel free to check out her new scifi mailing list. Or ignore this post entirely, up to.

https://hollylisle.com//sff-reader-list/?ref=a0d3

Hopefully that works. . .
I'll actual post up soonish (hopefully this week).

Later

Current Mood: busy

A friend showed me this site: thehungryjpeg.com. It has fonts and backgrounds, clipart and other stuff. There is a freebie section, a $1 section and they have bundles for sale. I think once month. A lot of the work has commercial license so you can use it on items you plan to sell or even your blog.
I remember when buying fonts or fonts was expensive running up to $60 or more just for one set. I’ve been browsing through the site and it lots of nifty options for scrapbooking, websites, blogs, etc. Anyway take a look.

For those of you interested in the eclipse this youtube video has a lot useful info.
I’m not looking forward to the traffic on Monday and plan to leave extra early, even though I don’t live far and can take the backroads. A lot of locals will be taking backroads. They’re expecting a million people to arrive in Oregon for the eclipse. Salem is right in the total eclipse area (yes, I’m aware that is not the right term, close enough).

New job is going well. My brain is mush from training, so much information. It does have benefits, so yay!

Current Mood: sleepy

So, I really do enjoy the pixel style art of some games. Nostalgia for games from the 90s and early 2000s. (Why, yes, I am that old.). Anyway. For the Steam summer sale picked up some games on my wish list that I wasn’t sure about until a sale came along. Haven’t played a lot of them, but then I have games I haven’t finished either.
First up is Kathy Rain. Set in 1995, Kathy returns home at the death of her grandfather. She’s a lively character. So far I’ve reached day three and have enjoyed the puzzles. I over-thought a couple of them. <.<
Also picked up games one through four of the Blackwell Series by Wadget Eye Games. They came in a nice bundle. I’ve played the first one years ago, but haven’t played the others. Dead Secret (I’m sensing a theme here.) is another mystery game. Played through one ending - ending D. Haven’t figured out who did it. Dead Secret isn’t a pixel style game. It’s a 3-D type and the movement is a little awkward. It’s not bad, but it feels limited and it took me a little bit of time figuring it out. I'm used being able to move more freely in an environment. Plus it has a VR option for play and you can see that in game. Eventually I’ll figure out where to go next. I keep running into dead ends (literally).
One game I’ve wanted for awhile is Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers (not the original).It was on sale so I picked it up. Have yet to play it, but I’m looking forward to it. I remember when the original one was on sale. I didn’t have any money at the time as I wasn’t working. I don’t know if the computer my family had would have run it either. Mute point now. I also picked up Still Life 1 and 2 which came in a bundle that included Post Mortem. I have played a little of Still Life, using my sister’s account.

My favorite go to-game this year has been Cities:Skylines by Paradox Interactive (they do a lot of strategy games). I didn’t pick it up at the sale my boyfriend gifted it to me. It’s a lot of fun if you enjoy building roads and such. I’ll admit I miss one of the early Sims City games. (Not the most recent one.)
You start with a freeway exit onto empty um plot of land and you have to connect a road to it. Then design your city, starting with roads and hosing (don’t forget the plumbing <.<). You add industrial and commercial zones which allow the city to bring in money that you can spend on roads and such. Parks and public transit bring up housing values (they grow). I love watching the buildings grow from a 1 bed 1 bath cottage to these huge houses. It does have a learning curve, but it also has a lot of mods you can download from the Steam Workshop. In the latest patch/update they added more options for controlling traffic. You can even click on the inhabitants (they’re called cims [yes, I spelled that correctly]) and follow them on their daily travels.
I admit I enjoy tearing up roads (to widen them, of course <.< ) and rezoning areas. I spend as much time on Cities:Skylines as I used to with Sims 2. The most recent DLC is City Transit and even if you don't have the DLC, they updated the game with street controls. Now I can click on a street and see how the traffic flows and what type of traffic it has, add stop signs or traffic lights. It’s fun.

Other games I’ve played a lot this year are The Secret World. It’s no longer available because Funcom decided to revamp it and market it as an ARPG instead of an MMO. The servers are still up so if you owned the game you can still play it. Otherwise you can download Secret World Legends, which is free to play. There are a lot micro transitions. I have mixed feelings about this, but that’s another post.

The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is another one I enjoy. I was close to finishing (I think) when my SSD stopped working. Since I didn’t save the game properly all was lost so I'm working on a second play through. I really like the story and the puzzles. You play an detective who takes on the odd and supernatural cases (not sure I’m explaining that well). He has the ability to see what happened.

All this doesn’t include the games I haven’t finished playing yet. I’m really bad at finishing games it seems.

Current Mood: geeky
Current Location: balcony

So, I haven’t quite figured out what I want to put here other than the usual ramboling about life and such. May add some art and writing stuff. I was toying with writing up some back story or whatnot for my DnD character. . . Could be fun.

Anyway. . .
I want to play about with the look and colors of the blog, but I”m not sure when. At the very least I’ll put up a better header. I’m not sure how to move the text from the far side. . It bugs me a little bit. But I like the general layout and the colors (wouldn’t have picked them out otherwise.
Not sure where time went, work, I guess. It’s nearly July. This year has gone zoom. Ah well.
Have been watching British Castles and Irish Castles on Netflix. It’s been a fun way of viewing history. Plus they go into castle design and why it worked why they were built. They go over high points in the castle’s life. But I think it makes a good starting point if you wanted to delve deeper into the history. Okay. . Feeling geeky here.

At some point I’ll get this place a little more settled, in time. Probably won’t copy posts from livejournal, mainly because I have them saved on the laptop. I’m tend to hit the wrong (or right) keys and close down nothing the page I’m typing in but also the browser. And thus lose all the typing. Yeah. Not fun. So, for a couple of years or so I’ve typing posts in Notepad or Scrivenor and then posting them.
So. . Um, yeah, that’s pretty much it for t moment.