Good news and bad news. The good news is that the draft of the query letter is ready. All that's left is to choose the excerpt from the novel. So if there's anyone reading this who's had the pleasure of reading the novel too, I encourage you to send me an email and tell me what section you think I should choose.
The new commitment to my exercise regime is also going well. I've managed to get a run in two whole days in a row, which is still not that impressive given other years, but a positive step to build on for now.
And now the bad. First, the minor malignant: even though it's now -11, yesterday morning, it was about +7 out, and pouring rain. It's also the day of my cyberpunk course, which is at a different location from my other classes. More importantly, about 10-20 minutes further than my other classes. And, as Murphy's Law clearly dictates, this is the day my umbrella decides that the whole "prevent water from passing through" thing is really just optional. In the course of the walk, it developed three completely different terminal flaws: The shaft holding the umbrella snaps in two pieces, one of the tongs caves in under the force of the wind and also snaps, and another section develops a big ol' hole in the fabric.
Clearly, I need a new umbrella. I don't think I've ever had to to do this before. Where do you even get an umbrella? Are they available at the local drugstore? The local Superstore? I guess I'll have to make an expedition. Dollars to donuts that it'll start raining whatever day I pick, though.
But this isn't a big deal, as annoying as it was at the time. Despite some people's experience, it does not rain all the time. The Major Malignant at the moment is the perennial favorite, my bicy---nope! Not this time! My computer. Attempting to download a wmv convertor, I accidently downloaded a trojan virus instead--a very quickly self-replicating one, to boot. Through judicial application of the Safe Mode and AVG, I managed to reduce the symptoms to the point where the computer could still actually function, which is a plus, but there's still clearly something terribly wrong with the Internet access. I'm continually running AVG, but since it takes 3 hours at least to do a full scan, I'm not even sure it can keep up with the thing.
So I'm over at the university to do today's work. (Well, technically, to procrastinate on today's work, since I'm typing this right now.) What really bugs me is how guilty I feel over my computer's virus-addled state. I mean, yes, it is my fault, in that I should be more careful what I download and I would have been able to fix if I had set a proper system restore point, but surely I've got more useful things in my life to feel bad about. But no, all I've got is a lingering feeling that if I was a nicer person, my computer would work right now. There's zero logic behind such sentiment, but there it is.
Still, let's end on a positive. Novel's moving forward, and I'll send the first first queries out on Monday. I'm ahead on my classes, I've got my health, and I've got a good life.
..There, that wasn't so hard.
Later Days.
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