I got to watch it today since it just hit the big theaters here. (Yes, the price I pay for living in Japan…!)

Quantum of Solace is a fantastic Bond flick. I loved it. I know some people complained about Bond being too dark and/or the character development relying too much on what happened in Casino Royale. But I always thought the lack of continuity and Bond's development were weaknesses rather than strengths of the franchise; there's something very callous about him not caring about all those dead Bond girls, etc. So I didn't mind that Vesper's death played a significant role in Bond's character in Quantum of Solace. As a matter of fact, I thought it deepened the movie and Bond as a character. Besides, the kind of work he does is dirty and not supposed to be light and fun. Read Fleming's novels; Bond might be a playboy, but there are other, dark sides to him too.

BTW — the theater had some technical difficulties, and the movie had to be stopped in the middle for about three minutes. For the inconvenience (for which they apologized in person four times), they gave everyone a voucher for a free movie ticket valid until April 30. We can choose any film we want. W00t! :) I think I'll save it for a reward day.

mood: neutral (that's the only way to describe it)
Shiro's current weight: 25g
why Kuro's bad: he bit Peanut's scent gland so hard it bled
why I'm hopeful about Shiro's recovery: Shiro fought Buttercup (51g) and was able to hold her own
why my hamsters fight: I have no idea
how much I spent on stationary today: $20

Sorry I'm been terribly remiss with my blog. I've been very blue about Shiro's weight loss and just didn't want to blog about anything.

I've been continuing to work on All the King's Women. The 1st draft is rough, but it has all the main points. :) I also came up with more ideas for the setting that I like.

Also I got the Devil Falls galley. I can't believe it's coming out in print in August. It seems so soon! :)

mood: very worried
Shiro's current state: barely visible

Hero Material weighed Shiro today. Since Friday, she lost two more grams. I held her very gently and felt her tiny bone moving against my hand. She's incredibly thin now; I'm afraid she's wasting away.

I bought some of her favorite nuts — cashews and pistachios — and put them in a bowl with all her other treats (bits of walnuts, whole-grain European bread, sunflower seeds, hard biscuits, some nutri-blocks). She had little yogurt, but that's about it. She totally ignored the stuff in her bowl, and I almost cried since I have no idea what to do. I'm hoping she gets up later tonight and eats all those high calorie food.

P.S. I'm keeping her away from other hamsters so they don't steal all the nuts! Peanut's quite chubby (and incredibly active) and I know he'll eat all the treats from Shiro's food bowl if he can reach it.

mood: feeling uber-sad
what just happened: Hero Material came back from the vet

Around Wednesday or so, I noticed that Shiro looked noticeably thinner and less energetic. I was worried, although Hero Material thought maybe it was all right.

It is not all right.

According to the vet, Shiro lost 25% of her body weight in one week. (The vet weighed her last week, in case anyone's wondering how he knew.) I'm so anxious and sad. Shiro is my first real pet, so it's really heartbreaking to see her look so thin. I'm so afraid that she may not make it, yet I don't know what to do. She doesn't seem to want to eat anything she used to love. *cry*

mood: upbeat
just read: Does Anything Eat Wasps?: And 101 Other Unsettling, Witty Answers to Questions You Never Thought You Wanted to Ask by New Scientist
currently reading: Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky

Sorry I didn't update on January 17. Saturday's progress was subpar. I was tired from getting way too little sleep, and I didn't write much even though my butt was firmly planted in front of my laptop. Jan 17 progress:

Today I wrote the final scene. It was a bit surreal since I'm done with the draft sooner than I expected. It also came out a bit short, but that's okay since I usually go back and add layers, etc. so the final version ends up being much longer. I have nine more working days this month to go through the draft and make the changes I already know I must work on. Once that's done, I can print out the entire manuscript for a pre-revision read-through.

Today's progress:

Today I broke an ATM. In Japan we use bank booklets to keep track of debit / credit on our accounts, and I decided to deposit some money into my account since my Japanese credit cards take money out of it regularly. Everything went fine, up to my inserting several bills into the machine. Then all of a sudden, it died and told me to use the intercom. It was sooo embarrassing because the second I pressed the intercom button, a bunch of people started rushing inside to use ATMs, and the intercom speaker said, “Dear honorable customer, are you there? Please pick up the receiver.”

And of course, in order to make the intercom age-friendly, the bank technicians made it super loud. I think everyone in the building heard it, not just me. I had no idea where this mysterious receiver was, so I fumbled around and pressed the intercom button again and said, “Hello?”

Well, I did that wrong because the woman kept saying, “Dear honorable customer, please pick up the receiver. Are you there?”

She repeated the same line for about five times before I saw the “receiver” and picked it up. Then she asked me the most difficult question of all: “What were you doing when you received the error message?”

It's not that I didn't understand her. I can actually understand a lot more than I can speak. The problem was I had no idea how to say, “I was trying to deposit some money into my regular bank account.”

After a long moment of consideration (mostly me going “How should I answer this nice lady?”), I just said, “I'm sorry, but I can't speak Japanese very well.”

After a short pause, she assured me that everything was fine and that she'd send someone immediately to help me. So I waited. And waited. While I waited, the intercom played very loud music the entire time. More people came in to use the ATMs around me. I almost died from embarrassment and pretended that I was just doing a little karaoke.

Finally, two clean-cut Japanese bank workers in uniform came to me and asked me very simple questions, ones I can actually answer, such as “What is your name?” Once they decided that everything was in order (ATM fraud is a huge problem in Japan right now), they told me to wait so they could figure out what was going on.

A little bit later, they came out and told me that my bankbook had a small receipt inside. And it jammed the machine. All I could think at this point was “OMG! I broke their ATM!” But they told me it was no problem, and that I must be “honorably tired from having to wait to use the ATM” and told me to use another machine to make the deposit. They gave me the receipt, my bankbook and the money and hovered around me to make sure I did everything right. I'm sure they thought I was a stupid American who didn't know how to use ATMs correctly. As I was leaving, they bowed and told me that they appreciated my business. While they were telling me this, another person put an “Out of Order” sign on the ATM I had been using before. Oi…

mood: upbeat; well-rested and happy
currently thrilled about: All the King's Women 1st draft
signed up for: another workshop; this time, Holly Lisle's How to Think Sideways

Yesterday went pretty well. I figured out exactly how to end the story, so I'm feeling quite pleased. :)

So here's yesterday's progress:

I want to address one of the points brought up re: Pre-Published v. Unpublished because I got quite a few comments / messages on MySpace.

I'm not against being positive or wanting to reaffirm one's dedication to one's dream. If your goal is to become published, good for you. But…!

If you want to be published, you need to understand how publishing works and present yourself professionally. Misusing terms and misrepresenting yourself do not help your cause.

There are many people who want to feel good, feel validated, feel warm and fuzzy, etc. etc. But it's all about feel, feel, feel.

Forget feel for a moment. Put on your thinking cap and think. Imagine you're an industry professional. Let's say…an agent. And someone misrepresent their publishing credit / status. Even if it was born out of ignorance or desire to feel good, wouldn't you be annoyed that you wasted your time googling the writer's name to see what that person has published?

IMHO, most professionals want to work with someone who understands how business works. Someone who's done their homework. And when you're putting yourself out there as a professional, it's not the time to feel, but to think.