The Patent Dragon's Zone of Soul Retraction

In Today's Episode... Pandemonicum Symphony: Third Movement continues, as Darkhawk sends help to Rhagaan, and lays out the welcome mat for The Pandemonicum. Two worlds may now hang in the balance... possibly threatened by those who would stand in their defence.

Release Notes... Eight chapters to go...

Bonus...



Task 50 = *SCORE*

Sometimes, you have just got to just dive in...

Mission News... Believe it or not, dear reader - I have finally made a start on the art-based Task double-header of

47 - Refresh my art skills
50 - Create "proper" pieces of art, fit to hang, or give as gifts

The water-colour boards take acrylics quite well, a Ferrero Rocher gift-box from Christmas has become a perfect artist's palette - the tray inside makes perfect receptacles for paint, and it even has a lid - and there were absolutely no mishaps. Yaaaaaay!

I'm feeling rather inspired at the moment, but I'm going to see how things go before I forge ahead with something BIG(ger). What I'm working on right now should be quite "hangable" with an extra coat and the final colour applied - it's a simplified version of something I may just come back to, in the future, but for now, all is going well. Think I can count Task 47 as a *SCORE*, and just in time, too...

Concerning The Oscars... So, Geoffrey Rush got nothing, except a share of the four-Oscar glory earned by The King's Speech, which is a pretty good haul - the same haul as netted by Inception (albeit in the "non-glamour" categories). All well-deserved.

Development News... Chapter 2 of TDD-611 ...Final Movement is moving along quite nicely, thank you for asking. I'm still aiming for... oh hold on - ooops, missed a posting slot...!

Back later...

Development News... Lunchtime saw significant progress made on TDD-610 ...Third Movement, Chapter 5 - and I would be saying that I'm expecting to have this particular Episode done tomorrow... but the main PC is being a right bitch. I think it knows it may be getting replaced before too long.

A wonderful way to spend the latter half of one's evening... think I'll call it quits shortly, shortly being once the netbook is fully charged. Maybe I can use a bit of that time on Mission 101 matters, such as the art Tasks I just bought more supplies for...

47 Refresh my art skills
50 Create hangable art

- that is, if I feel up to it...

At least I was able to get two more of the notebooks I've fallen in love with for the price of one at the same time (and a damn sight cheaper than recently-inflated Moleskine) - thanks again, Rymans!

After a couple of days of general "meh", it's actually good to be back at work - I'm thinking that maybe this has been a side-effect of my first ever official break from employment. Not much work to do, but that's going to change as soon as the Post Office will allow, and meanwhile, Yours Truly and Writing Progress have been getting reacquainted, via The Secret Adventures of Mane-of-Night - Flight 102 Is Overdue. I have been having problems converting lunch-time writing effort into equivalent home-time production, but this evening I changed all that, and pushed onward a little more. The start of something beautiful? I'm really hoping so - Reignfall is, after all, scheduled for May.

Meanwhile... At last I've laid some foundations for a Mission 101 Task I thought would've been much easier to kick off, namely

47 - Refresh my art skills

and its cousin

50 - Create "proper" pieces of art, fit to hang, or give as gifts

- I have some materials for "road testing" (hopefully the right ones) and a weekend coming up...

Think I'll be giving the Mission a good deal of attention as the year picks up pace. Motivation is a MUST right now.

Development News... I really need to limit the length of my chapters somehow. The final chapter of TDD-605 "She Returns" now totals 11 "screens" - and the event the whole story has been building to hasn't happened yet. I have had to "make room" for something that will be important fairly soon, which has added at least three screens to the whole thing - but this will lead to the answer to one of the biggest questions in Season 6: "why are The Unified Response and The Confederacy NOT on the same side?"

I am still aiming to have this chapter, and this story, "in the can" by Sunday's end. I want a "clean slate" (of sorts) for Monday, so that I can focus on Work, and get to grips with it on the first day. However long this lasts, I want to do it right, and this isn't work that'll allow for extended writing breaks. I may have been paid for Work Slot 1, but the income is ALWAYS welcome.

And then there's the whole "Mum's broken shoulder" thing. That has gotten in the way of creativity this week, but helping her deal with the injury is REALLY important. She's had WAY too much stress this last year, and this is another kick up the arse that she DOES NOT DESERVE. If the universe has been trying to tell her to take it easy, this is NOT the way. Bad universe - BAD!

Mission 101... Hmmm, got a small problem. I could be about to score my first failed task...

28 - Watch one "classic" film a month (1/33+1)

'cause I haven't been able to catch a proper classic, one I haven't seen, this month. A couple of times, there have been suitable movies on, but I miss them, either entirely or in part - I could count Brighton Rock as an official movie for this task, rather than a "bonus". I'd prefer not to squib-kick a task just two months in...

Meanwhile, I could be about to officially kick off another task (or two)

47 - Refresh my art skills
50 - Create "proper" pieces of art, fit to hang, or give as gifts

as I very much have something in mind, amply helped by getting the printer/scanner operational again. With the aid of that piece of equipment, I can take a work in progress that never progressed, and turn into a real hangable painting!

Oh, and now I've been paid, I can seriously consider getting hosting for thepatentdragon.com...

Development News... Okay, I'm back to writing, trying to press onward with TDD-605 "She Returns". In trying to move Chapter 6 forward, in the hope of posting another chapter at the weekend, I have, however, stumbled on what could be a key factor in tying up the current story arc - namely, the whole Pandemonicum thing. The scene where all this is set in motion needs to be put down on paper/screen before the inspiration fades, so I won't be taking too much longer in writing this post.

And when I'm done writing, I need to put together a list of the DVDs and CDs I haven't seen or listened to yet - I have quite a few. Actually getting the opportunity to do all that depends on whether on not I'm allowed the time to even write...

I'd like to get some more photos up on deviantART, too, but... well, see above. My "featured deviation" may develop into a finished piece of art somewhen along the line, too - that'd move two more Mission 101 tasks onto the "In Progress" list...

47 - Refresh my art skills
50 - Create "proper" pieces of art, fit to hang, or give as gifts

Kinda wishing there was an easier way to cross-post entries, 'cause I may have a HUGE update to post come the end of the month.