Sherri Cornelius

Up late. Used to have this trouble sleeping about every other night, but this is the first time in a long time I've been up past eleven. It's raining. I'm typing this on the stupid slow computer instead of my laptop so I don't wake anybody up fumbling around in the dark. I dislike this desktop very much. I've done all the clean-up utilities I can think to do, and still it took me ten minutes to get a browser going. I don't know what to do. :-/ I think it's the stupid Kodak Easyshare software, which starts up and updates as soon as you boot the computer, yet there's no option in the preferences to keep it from opening on startup. It sucks all the resources from all other programs until it's finished with its lumbering update. Guess I'll just remove it, since we don't use the camera very much anymore.

Here's a tip for you: Super Metroid is not conducive to sleepy times. Usually when I can't sleep I'll get online and play some Dynomite or something, but since I'd acquired the thermal visor earlier today, I thought I'd explore a little, no biggie. Except that there are big, bad monsters to kill and much jumping from platform to platform. I'm tense. And I keep thinking monsters are going to jump out of the dark kitchen and start shooting at me. (Oh man, I just got the pee scared out of me. Just as I was typing that, a kid got up to go to the bathroom and knocked something over. Geez!)

Well, I could go on for a long time like this but it won't make me any sleepier. Guess I'll go play some soothing Dynomite after all, and hopefully get in bed before one. Night all, or if you're reading this on Friday, Good morning!

This day has an adversarial feel. I don't mind arguing with people, but I'd rather not. Unfortunately, if my hunch is right, I won't have any choice about it. It might just be the lingering feeling of a dream I had. Can't remember exactly what it was about.

My dreams the past few days have included a lot of elements from this game I'm playing--Metroid Prime. Super Metroid was my favorite a long, long time ago, back before I had babies and still had time to play video games. I love how it has action, but it's not all action, you also have to figure out puzzles with clues from made-up lore in the ruins of a civilization. Right up my alley. In Super Metroid all those years ago, I remember playing the whole game with this character in a space suit, then after I won, Samus took off the helmet and...Samus was a girl. What? A girl? AWESOME! That's right, girls play games, too. Girls like to kick butt. But at the time it really shook things up. Now, of course, it's no secret Samus is a girl. The game is awesome, even if Samus were a boy, but it's even awesomer to have a girl character to identify with. It makes me think I could walk through lava if I only had Varia suit. I could blast strange creatures on another planet, if I just had an arm cannon.

I'm actually playing the game too much. My eyes can't take that 1st person, 3D view for very long. Especially since most of my work is done on computer, so there's another 8 hours a day of looking at a screen. When I first took this editing job, I wasn't sure how it would affect my own writing. I figured it would be a good distraction, as well as teaching me more about the business side of publishing. I worried that I might edit instead of writing my own stuff, but then I found it beneficial to have some other things to rotate through. But true to form, I've let the editing completely take over my own writing, and my good-eye time. I'm a serial obsesser, but I am learning how to calm the obsession. The editing job has been good for me.

Yesterday was the Little Bubba's birthday, so we had the family over for a party. It rained literally all weekend, in fact is still raining, but it didn't affect the party at all. One nice surprise was my step-son coming for the party. His birthday was on Saturday (20 years old, yikes!), but he rarely visits even for birthdays, so it was nice having him. I hope he starts visiting more often.