Daily Update, March 23, 2024

    On Saturday, I stayed home, and checked the critiques site after breakfast. I found three new critiques! I read them all -- some before lunch, some after lunch -- and made a few changes to my story... it's beginning to look like it needs a lot more change than I thought. {bite lips} I'm trying not to get discouraged about that. Thankfully, Dark reminded me of Dad's caution: don't write expecting to make money beyond a hobby that pays for itself, at best. {odd smile}

   I did a critique to thank the first critique writer for theirs and found two more of the 6 total have stories up. I'll have to critique theirs before it goes down... I guess late Tuesday. Next time, I should start returning critiques sooner. {Smile}

   I ate dinner with Mom and read to her before that. Mom was awake when I got there. She looked at the pictures, but even more at me. She did respond a couple of times later in the session. First, I began with scripture and thoughts about it. Next, I continued her niece's long family Christmas letter from 2023. After that, I continued _Cats Galore: A Compendium of Cultured Cats_. Then I read "Chicken Little" in _Five-Minute Stories: Over 50 Tales and Fables_. I ended with the 23rd of March's story from _366 Stories for Bedtime_, "Billy's Trick." {Smile}

   I did my arm resistance exercises and my arm swinging exercises between reading to Mom and dinner. Then I did 14 3/4ers minutes of salsa dancing in two sets after teaming for the evening. After a break, I did my head exercises, too, before it got too late. I was a bit tired, but that's one more exercise than I managed Friday. {Smile}

   I played Cross Stitch World while thinking what to do with my writing, when I wasn't working more directly with the critique site or the story itself. I wrote Friday's daily update before lunch and checked out some new comics. Then I cleaned myself up after I read all the critiques. Only after that did I hop into City of Heroes: Homecoming. I was late again, but in time for a little paperwork before I joined the later long, large-group event while they were still gathering. Pierogies was in it, too. So was the friend who build my computer for me several years ago. I chatted with both of them after the event. Pierogies mainly said goodnight before leaving for bed. My other friend stayed to tell me about the past couple of years. Then it was time to read to Mom.

   After dinner, I started writing this daily update. Then I hopped into City of Heroes: Homecoming and found that Dark was on. We said hi and chatted, and I shared a few game-goodies I found on hand. Then we teamed up. We ran a story arc on the low-level characters we ran Thursday. I also talked with Nox on the chat server, and I talked with Dark a fair bit between missions. After our last mission, Dark and I did a bit of badge hunting together, and said goodnight, too. After they left, I did my exercises, watched a video, read a few comics, and wrote some of this, making notes to finish writing this the next day. {Smile}