Hey, sorry about missing yesterday. I just wanted to let everyone know I’m switching to an evening update schedule, for two reasons:
1) Even with the occasional distractions, home is a much better environment for writing than work, so the stuff I write at home tends to be better.
2) Sometimes my blog triggers a flood of ideas. At home, I can actually chase those ideas down and do things with them.

Yesterday was kind of a fluke because I was… well, not in the best frame of mind. I got as far as “The Afflicted, part 9″, though, so that’s one less thing to do tonight.

As you can see (unless you’re using RSS), the new theme is now live. Sweet. Let me know if you see any problems anywhere… even though my job is to test software, it’s possible that I missed something.

The wife is going to whip me up a header, once the dog is back to full strength. In the meantime…meh, good enough. I’ll see what it looks like on a computer other than my laptop and make any necessary adjustments.

Yes, I mostly just tweaked the one I was using before… it was a good layout! Anyway, take it easy.

UPDATE:: New header image! Isn’t it awesome? The wife does great work.

The nice lady who interviewed me said I’d hear back by the end of the week. I think the intervew went well.

Rather than taking two days off of work, I agreed to work one day and take the other off for driving home. That was idiotic. Another mini-vacay would have been the way to go.

I’ve been screwing around with the site layout, so hopefully by the time I hear about the job, you’ll see a marginally improved stanmanx.com. Everyone wins!

I just wanted to post an updated so you can know what’s going on.

Mikenna got really sick yesterday and scared us half to death. She seems to be ok now, though.

Today I feel like absolute crap. No particular reason. I’ve been struggling just to stay awake. I started an Aery story this morning when I was still 95% here, but I’ve been feeling progressively worse as the day has dragged on.

In the future, I’ll try to have posts queued up to avoid this sort of thing.

(Peeks from behind the curtain and into the audience)

Um, uh, hello. I don’t know if Stan’s going to post something today or not, but I wrote a little “Aery” story of my own, and with Stan being somewhat “out of it” with caffeine withdrawal, I thought I’d share it.

—

“I’m sorry, Aery” the giant said softly as he scooped up Aery from the spot on her bed. The indoor suns had gone dim. She knew exactly where she was going. This was the price for her lack of diligence. She began to flail her legs desperately, trying to sink her claws into the giant’s arms and escape. Normally, Aery wouldn’t dream of hurting the male giant, but this was different. This was the box. With a gentle shove on her bum, Aery was in the box. She turned around quickly and looked through the bars, pleading with her eyes. Please, don’t leave me here.

“Alright, Aery, I need you to stay in here for a little while.” The female giant said. It was bright out, and male giant had left for the bright part of the day. Aery peered up at the female giant. She had only been there a few weeks, but never had she seen the female giant with anything like the big green cylinder she now held. She heard the giant telling White Devil that this cylinder would destroy the creatures – smaller than Aery – who were making White Devil itch so uncontrollably that she had gnawed the hair off of her back legs. Indeed, this must be a powerful weapon. A noise like several angry cats came roaring from the cylinder with a white mist. Female giant aimed the hissing cylinder at the fuzzy terrain, covering it in the smelly mist. She took the hissing cylinder away into the other rooms. The mist began to settle in the terrain, leaving a strong odor. Aery’s lungs began to tighten, her eyes watering. Poison! She let out a frantic mew, hoping that her tiny cries would reach the female giant in time. She began to paw at the bars, hoping to reach the latch that held her in. Her paws went through the bars, but were too short to reach the lever. Help me…

The door opened. It was the dim light of early day. The female giant looked down at Aery and smiled. She reached down and unlatched the door. Aery scurried out and brushed against the female giant’s leg. It had been many many moons since the female giant saved her from the poison. She had taken Aery and White Devil into the world beyond the picture window for only the second time in Aery’s life, where they remained until the male giant returned. The female giant scooped Aery some food and patted her on the head. Aery gave a grateful meow and hopped into the picture window. It was a beautiful day.