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[mare]

I'm sorry to hear that about your mom, Steph. Sadly, I do think it's hereditary. Hopefully the CT scan will come up negative. I'm sending positive vibes your way. Enjoy your well-deserved break! I hope the week goes really slowly for you! I'm glad you're getting to spend time with your loved ones.

Christmas is going to be weird here this year. I was done shopping pretty early which means my mom's presents are all under the tree already. Something I had bought her arrived a few days ago so that was weird too, but the weirdest thing was when she arrived in the mail. She wasn't coming up here for Christmas, but I guess she is now. We haven't opened the box containing her remains because it just feels too odd. We don't have anything to put her in, but because of all the lovely donations people sent we might be able to afford an urn now.

Have a Merry Christmas everyone! And a very healthy and happy new year! I'm dreading 2025 and the next four years. How bad can it be? 

[RokofAges75]

Merry Christmas to both of you and anyone else(?) who may pop in and see this!  Sorry I haven't been around much lately.  Between the usual holiday busy-ness and trying to reach my word count goal for this year, I've popped in a few times to check on the board but haven't taken the time to post.

Steph, I'm sorry to hear that your mom is showing signs of dementia.  Like Mare said, I do think it can be hereditary, but that doesn't mean it's a given.  My great-grandmother died of Alzheimer's, but none of her three children developed it.  I hope you get some answers soon.  Enjoy your time off work!

Mare, I hope you're doing okay under the circumstances.  The first holidays after losing a loved one are so strange and so hard.  I'm sure that was weird to receive her remains in the mail like just another package.  Hopefully you will be able to afford a nice urn to put her in at some point.  When each of my maternal grandparents passed, my mom sent in some of their ashes to be put into glass for each of their children and grandchildren.  I have a beautiful, blue glass orb/ornament for my grandpa and a pretty purple bud vase for my grandma.  It's a nice memento of each of them.

It looks like you've had a lot more Kieran content lately with all of his award nominations and wins, so hopefully that will give you some joy heading into the new year.  I am also dreading the next four years.  I'm currently still avoiding the news for the most part, other than that I see on social media, and that may be how I get through it - by comfort-watching shows, writing, reading, and staying in my little bubble as much as I can.  Probably not the healthiest coping strategy, but it sounds better than the alternative right now.

[Carter-Orange]

Mare that must've been weird to receive her ashes in the mail like that.  And I hope you are doing OK.  When Tim's mum died her ashes were scattered in a rose bush garden and Tim's dad was scattered on he beach and in the sea as they were the places they loved.  I hope you get a nice urn for her.

I also feel bad that you both have Orange Hitler to look forward to very soon I hope he isn't too unbearable for the next 4 years.  I think escaping the real world as much as possible is a good idea.  I try as much as possible to avoid the news as it's never anything but doom and gloom here too.

I'm hoping for positive news regarding my mum, but preparing myself for the worst.  She's not really bad, but she does repeat herself a bit and sometimes forgets what she's just been told, so that's not normal.

Anyway, have a very Merry Christmas doing whatever you love with the people you love

[mare]

I'm not sure if anyone else comes in and lurks but doesn't post. That's why I said everyone lol

That sounds like a lovely keepsake you have of your grandparents, Julie. We were thinking of making necklaces with a little bit of mom's ashes for some of the people she was close to. I think I'd prefer some of those other alternatives to an urn. We had also thought of scattering her ashes like Tim did, Steph but mom wasn't particularly fond of any one place. I told my sister what we should do is turn her into a pack of cigarettes since she was a chain smoker.

I have been trying to stay away from the news for the most part as well. It is hard though. I usually put on world news tonight with Lester, just to see what's been going on in the world but the second they start talking about Trump I turn it off.  I'm still hoping for some kind of Hail Mary before inauguration. Bad eating habits catching up to him. A bear accidentally roams into Mar a Lago. Anything.

I'm glad you're keeping up with your writing. I haven't really been great with it. I'm writing about a paragraph a day and then stop. It's a combo of things, but I know you guys can relate that it's really hard to write your character all emo when there's so many good things happening in their real lives. Even though Roman is fictional, Kieran isn't so it's been harder than usually for me to separate them. He's really been the only thing keeping me sane. I don't know what I'm going to do after awards season and his Broadway run is over. He's going to disappear into his hidey hole and lord knows when he'll come back out. The last time it took him about 10 years between Scott Pilgrim and Succession. For now, I'm just going to bask in the fact that he's been everywhere and hopefully he'll get an Oscar nom which will mean he'll be out even more.  I've never followed a movie awards run before. I had NO idea there were so many steps leading up to the Oscars. I mean I knew about the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice awards but there are SO many others and supposedly that's how you get yourself nominated for the Oscars. I've been trying to watch some of the most talked about movies, but not being a movie person, it's been hard. A Real Pain will be streaming starting on New Years Eve so yay to that! I never did get to see it in the theater, but at least I'll get to watch it over and over again at home. You guys should check it out. It's really quite good.

Have a Merry Christmas. My sister and I are being more low key than usual. We're going to order from an Italian place tonight and then i'm making some appetizer type things for tomorrow.

[RokofAges75]

I hope you both had a nice Christmas!  Mine was good.  My family keeps it pretty low-key these days, too - casual dinner on Christmas Eve, breakfast and appetizers on Christmas Day.

I'm now in hibernation mode, which has been lovely.  I've done a few productive things, like getting my car's oil changed and organizing my linen closet, but for the most part, I've just been watching TV and writing.  I finished Squid Game 2 and a chapter of my story.  I'm about 7,000 words shy of my word count goal for this year, which is annoyingly close but just far enough that I'm probably not going to make it unless I really get on a roll with the next chapter.  I used to be able to knock out 2,000+ words in a day with no problem, but I write a lot slower these days.  I could spend all day in front of my computer and still not hit 2,000 words unless I'm laser-focused and the words are flowing.

I'm sorry your writing has slowed down, Mare.  Hopefully it will pick back up after awards season ends.  I totally get the difficulty of writing emo characters when things are going so well with their real-life counterparts, especially when they're appearing all over the place.  It's a good problem to have because, of course, we want the real people to be happy, even while torturing the fictional versions of them.  I've dealt with this a lot less since I (temporarily) stopped writing so much about Nick, though LOL.  Kevin is easier because he rarely posts on social media, let alone makes public appearances outside of BSB stuff.  Plus, my current story is actually pretty light-hearted and fluffy by my usual standards, so I don't get that writer's guilt as much as I used to.

I hope Kieran gets his Oscar nomination!  What platform will A Real Pain be streaming on?  I usually haven't seen many, if any, of the nominated films either.  I did finally see Wicked last weekend - so good!

[RokofAges75]

Random writing question because we haven't done one of those in a long time and I just thought of one:  How often do you put pets/animals in your stories?

I ask because, although I'm an animal lover myself and can't imagine life without a pet, I rarely give my characters pets because I have a hard time remembering to include them in scenes.  One of my current OCs, Natalie, has an orange cat named Colby Jack because I thought the name was cute, but I keep having to go back and add mentions of him into my scenes because I forgot he existed when I first wrote them.  I would love to give Kevin a service dog because he has two dogs in real life, but that would just be one more animal to keep track of and accidentally overlook.  I've never really written much about Nick's ever-changing zoo for the same reason (and also because it's hard to keep track of his pets - they seem to come and go.)

Are there any other things you often find yourself forgetting to include in your writing?

[mare]

Sounds like a nice, peaceful Christmas. We did pretty much the same thing. We had planned to order out for Christmas Eve via door dash and then do breakfast and appetizers on Christmas Day, but when I went to check on my order that I placed in the morning of the 24th, the restaurant said it was closed. Would've been nice to get that info before they accepted the order and took it out of my bank account. So, we ended up stretching our appetizer eating for two days. Other than that little hiccup, everything else was fine.

Do you have this entire week off as well, Julie? I know in PA because New Year's Day falls on Wednesday they'll still make the kids come in for Thursday and Friday. I used to hate that! I'm glad you're getting some down time. Both of you! Steph, I'm sure you needed it as well. I can't believe it's New Year's Eve. I have the worst sense of dread. I wish I didn't. Just ick!

How was Squid Games? Better than the first season? I thought it was so weird that it was nominated for a Golden Globe for best drama without even airing! How can you vote for something you haven't even seen? lol make it make sense!

I hope you make your goal, even though it sounds like you probably won't. That's okay too! I think it's amazing you've kept your writing streak going. Even if it's a few words or a paragraph a day. I have been trying to write every day but nothing like I normally do. I could easy push out an entire chapter in two or three days. I've been working on this chapter for going on two weeks now. We'll see what happens. Maybe I'll just get writer's adrenaline and start flowing again. Stupid happy Kieran and impending new year doom!

The Golden Globes are this Sunday, so we'll see how he does. Last year, I was pretty confident he was going to win all those awards, but this year as a movie guy, I'm not as confident. He's up against Denzel Washington for one, but also Edward Norton and Guy Pierce as well as Jeremy Strong. How awesome the Roy boys are still up for awards a year later. On the slim chance he wins, that should secure him getting an Oscar nomination. If not, then not as certain. A Real Pain is streaming on Apple and Amazon as a VOD so you'd have to pay for it. I'm not sure when it's going to be available for free. My guess is, when it does stream, it'll end up on Hulu or Disney+ because that seems to be where most Searchlight pictures end up. Who knows? I bought it at midnight and as soon as I'm done here, I'm going to go watch it. Wicked is also available to stream today so we'll probably rent that for tonight. I'm pretty sure my sister will not want to sit through A Real Pain again. lol

Keep your fingers crossed for Kieran! Nothing will make me happier than hearing him make another ridiculous acceptance speech on Sunday

[mare]

Random writing question because we haven't done one of those in a long time and I just thought of one:  How often do you put pets/animals in your stories?

I ask because, although I'm an animal lover myself and can't imagine life without a pet, I rarely give my characters pets because I have a hard time remembering to include them in scenes.  One of my current OCs, Natalie, has an orange cat named Colby Jack because I thought the name was cute, but I keep having to go back and add mentions of him into my scenes because I forgot he existed when I first wrote them.  I would love to give Kevin a service dog because he has two dogs in real life, but that would just be one more animal to keep track of and accidentally overlook.  I've never really written much about Nick's ever-changing zoo for the same reason (and also because it's hard to keep track of his pets - they seem to come and go.)

Are there any other things you often find yourself forgetting to include in your writing?

That's a good question! I don't think I've ever written a pet in any of my stories. Not that I can remember at least. I know whenever I read about a dog or a cat, I feel this unease and usually it's merited. I have rarely read a story where the animal makes it through to the end. It would be cute to include Colby Jack in there. It is an adorable name. Not a fan of the cheese though. lol

The one thing I ALWAYS forget to do, without fail, is describe what my characters look like. I take for granted that the people reading know what BSB or the Succession people look like, but when I write an original character, even though I picture them clearly in my head, I don't think about describing them to the reader. I end up having to go back and write in those details. Thankfully, I always realize it before I post the chapter. Because I know for me, if there isn't a description until later, I've already pictured the character to look a certain way and once I see them that way, I can't unsee it.

[RokofAges75]

Happy New Year!  I'm not a big fan of New Year's Eve anyway, but I had that same sense of dread heading into this year.  I hate to wish my life away, but I hope the next four years to go fast.

That is annoying that there's not something to prevent DoorDash orders from going through if the restaurant is closed.  I hope you at least got a refund!

I do have this whole week off, which has been wonderful.  We always get two weeks off, but it works out better when New Year's Day is in the middle of the week like this because then we don't have to go back until later.  There have been years when we were back on like January 3, but this year it's the 6th.   And the kids don't come back until the 7th, which is even better.  The teachers have professional development in the morning and then work time in our classrooms in the afternoon to get things ready.

I loved Squid Game!  From what I've read online, there have been mixed reviews about Season 2, but it was better than I expected it to be.  I wasn't sure it would even come close to topping the first season, but I thought the writers did a good job continuing the story of the characters who survived the first season, while introducing new characters that I liked even more than the characters from Season 1.  The only bad thing is that it ended abruptly on a cliffhanger.  But apparently the next season is coming out later this year, so hopefully we won't have long to wait.  Have you watched the first season?  I really enjoyed it the first time I watched it, and I re-watched it a few weeks ago in preparation for the second season and loved it the second time around, too.  It's one of those shows where you pick up on things you didn't notice the first time around when you go back and re-watch, knowing how it ends.  Highly recommend!

It is weird that it got nominated for a Golden Globe before the season was officially released, but I'm assuming the people who vote on these things had early access to watch it.  At least now more of the general public will have seen it.  I'm looking forward to watching the Globes on Sunday.  Nice way to end my break.  Good luck to Kieran!  I don't even know who or what else is nominated, but I'll root for him!

I did not make my word count goal, but I actually came a lot closer than I thought I would.  My final count before midnight was only about 2000 words away.  My other goal was to finish the chapter I was writing so I would be able to start this year with a brand new one.  I didn't manage to do that before midnight either, but I did finish it today.  The most important thing for me was keeping my resolution to write every day and making progress on my story, which is the same goal I'm setting again this year.  On January 22, I will have written every day for 3 years straight!  It's actually been a lot easier to keep the streak going than I thought it would.  After a certain point, it just becomes a routine part of my day.  Even on the bad, busy, uninspired days, I can still force myself to add a word or two.  I figure that's better than neglecting it for weeks at a time because I don't feel like writing, but I've definitely been there before.  It's okay to slow down.  Some chapters just take longer than others.  Quality over quantity!  I hope you get your mojo back and finish the chapter you're on soon!

As for the pet question, you were more into writing groundhogs than traditional pets LOL.  I'm not sure I could kill an animal in one of my stories.  People, no problem.  Animals, no.  I always get way more upset over animal deaths in books and movies than human deaths.  Nothing bad will happen to Colby Jack!  I'm not a big fan of the cheese either; I'm more of a sharp cheddar girl.

I bet a lot of fanfic writers have that problem of forgetting to describe the characters in their stories.  Like you said, it's not really important to describe the canon characters, but it's nice to have some idea of what original characters look like.  It can be jarring when the description is completely different from the mental image you've already formed as a reader.

[Carter-Orange]

Happy New Year everyone

I didn't even stay up until midnight as I was too tired (we'd been to the neighbours house for drinks the night before and it caught up with me lol).

Christmas was pretty quiet here too.  I cooked for just the three of us and then we went to visit my mum and stepdad and my son came over to visit.  My week off work went too quickly though, as always.

I loved Squid Game 2, I binge watched it the day it came out.  I didn't know what to expect after series 1, but I loved it just as much and loved the characters more I think.  Just wish they hadn't left it on a cliffhanger.  But at least it'll be out later this year.

As for the pet question.  I don't think I ever wrote one in, probably because I didn't have pets myself.  Now I'd be tempted to give the character an orange cat like the one who has adopted us lol

[mare]

Happy New year to you both! I can't even recall the last time I actually stayed awake for the new year. Probably that one time I went to see BSB when they did their New Year's Eve show in Bethlehem.  Aj's oldest daughter was just born so it's been a long time! This year we watched about 90 minutes of Wicked and then I went to bed around 10:30.

I haven't watched Squid Game at all. It just seemed ultra-violent and gory which turns me off shows but then on top of that it's also using subtitles, those two things combined made me stay away. But maybe I will try it out. Is it super gory? That's why I stayed away from The Walking Dead as well.

Good job getting as close to your goal as you did! And I know you'll manage to make your next milestone in January. I did finally finish my chapter yesterday. For some reason I get stuck in my head when it comes to wordcounts and this entire story most of my chapters have been 4,000 words or more. For most stories it's 3,500 or so. This last chapter is about 3,800 so I felt compelled to keep going until I read it and realized there was no real reason to. I'm starting my next chapter today but only writing a little bit. At least I'll be ahead of myself again. I post on Mondays so by then I will hopefully be at least a half chapter ahead of myself.

I definitely had a thing with groundhogs. lol I feel like in novels, whenever they introduce a pet, especially in suspense or horror, it seems the sole purpose is to kill it at a later date!

Steph, I LOVE that cat who has just kind of adopted you guys and made himself at home. That's how I got Bella. One day she literally knocked on my back door and when I opened it she came in, went under the kitchen cabinets and found a toy mouse. lol That's when I figured maybe the people that lived in the apartment before me abandoned her there.

[RokofAges75]

LOL I think I stayed up till 5 a.m. on New Year's Eve/Day.  I was trying to finish my chapter before I went to bed, which still did not happen.  The only time it's hard for me to make it to midnight is on a Friday after a full week of work.  I usually go to bed earlier on Fridays than any other day because, by then, I'm exhausted and looking forward to sleeping in the next morning.

You should give Squid Game a try and see what you think.  The first episode will give you an idea of what to expect, but I think it takes three episodes to really get into the story.  It is pretty brutal in terms of blood and violence, but it's not as gory as The Walking Dead.  Since you know that going in, you'll at least be somewhat prepared for that aspect of it.  If you can get past that, there are some interesting characters and a good story.  You will probably dislike the main character, Gi-Hun, at first, but give him time.  He grows on you!  You can watch it dubbed in English or in the original Korean with subtitles.  I watched it in English the first time around, and I found the dubbing cheesy and distracting for the first episode or two... but after that, I got used to it, and it didn't bother me anymore.  The second time around, I actually watched a lot of it in Korean with subtitles because I wanted to hear what the actors' real voices sounded like.  Again, after a while, I got used to it and didn't even realize I was just reading subtitles and listening to a different language.  Even if you watch it in English, I found that the subtitles helped me keep track of characters' names better, since they're mostly all Korean.

I just finished another great Netflix show last night, A Good Deed.  It was similar to Dead to Me if either of you watched that show a few years ago.  (Same writer, I think!)  It has Lisa Kudrow and Ray Romano in dramatic roles, which was interesting.  They both did a great job.  It's more of a dramedy/mystery than a straightforwar d drama, but it did make me tear up a couple of times.

Congrats on finishing your chapter!  I totally get the thing with word counts and trying to stay consistent.  3,800 is close enough to 4,000 though!  I've been able to let some of that go and just let chapters be as long or short as they need to be.  I usually have the opposite problem, where they go on too long without a natural stopping point, but since there are already so many of them, I've resisted the urge to split the really long ones up into multiple chapters.  I hope your next chapter is easier to write!

That's the cat distribution system at work!  I got my late cat Luci the same way.  When I was still living with my parents the year I student taught, she just showed up in their backyard as a stray kitten and never left.  I purposely adopted my current two, but sometimes the cats adopt you LOL.

[Carter-Orange]

Well done to both of you for managing all that writing.

Yes, I agree about the Squid Game main character.  At first you really don't like Gi-Hun, there's just nothing to like about him until the games get going and then he really does grow on you with the way he is towards others.  I watched it in Korean with subtitles as I also like the hear the actors actual voices, although I also watched the first one dubbed too.  The subtitles really don't bother me anymore and I've watched quite a few foreign language TV shows now.  Mare, it is violent but it's nothing compared to The Walking Dead, which I'd say is pretty gory at times.

It seems cats pick who they want to be with lol.  Chase has made himself right at home here

[mare]

Okay, I'll give it a try. Maybe I'll watch the first episode today. I managed to watch Shogun with all the subtitles. It didn't bother me too much. The only bad thing about it, is it just takes 100 percent of your attention. I don't know about you guys, but I am terrible when I watch something. I also spend most of the time scrolling on my phone. I tried watching that show Dark dubbed, but it bothered me too much and I never went back to it.

A Real Pain is going to start streaming for free on Hulu on January 16th. If you don't have Hulu you're more than welcome to use my info. That pretty much goes for all streaming things for both of you.

I started watching Fly Me to the Moon last night. It's a movie on Apple with Scarlett Johanson and Channing Tatum. It's good so far but just like all movies, I got about halfway and had to stop. LOL

i did get some more writing done today. Yay!

[RokofAges75]

That is true about foreign shows with subtitles taking 100 percent of your attention.  I'm pretty good at not scrolling on my phone when I'm watching something I've never seen before, so that's not a problem, but I could not watch the subtitled version of Squid Game while I was eating because I looked away from the screen too much.  So I did a lot of switching back and forth between Korean and English, depending on whether or not I had snacks LOL.

I do have Hulu, so I can watch A Real Pain when it comes out!

Congrats on getting more writing done!  I haven't written much yet in the new year.  Since I spent the last few days of 2024 trying to write as much as I could, I've taken it easy the last few days.  This is my last weekend before I go back to work, though, so I'm gonna try to get further into the chapter I'm writing.  I did get some outlining done the other day, so I have a better idea of what will happen in the next few chapters.