Grumpy Bulldog Does Nothing

The weather sucked today and I woke up at 8:30 with an acid reflux attack, which really didn't get things off to a great start.  If you've never had an acid reflux attack, you're lucky.  They can be pretty nasty.  This one was relatively mild, but it's still pretty shitty when you have all this acid in your throat.  It takes 20-30 minutes for it to go away most of the time and during that time each time you have to swallow or breathe you get that acidy feeling making it hard.  The shittiest thing was that it happened at 8:30.  Usually by 5-6am I figure I'm safe because that's the latest I've had one happen.  I guess now there is no safe time.  Damn it.

Anyway, yeah, the weather sucked too.  It was all cold and rainy and shit.  So it was a perfect day to sit inside and do some reading and writing.  I did go out around 1 in my pajamas to get lunch from McDonald's.  When you order a combo in Oregon do they not include fries?  Because I got back to the motel and there were no fries, just my salad wrap.  I had thrown away my receipt too, so I'm not sure what the fuck happened with that.  I did get a couple Monopoly pieces though I didn't think that started until the 30th.

After lunch I worked on a story.  Then after dinner I kept working on it until about 11:30, when it was finally finished.  That is the fourteenth and final volume in the first wave of my erotica series.  Like Marvel I guess I have a Phase 1 and Phase 2 and maybe eventually a Phase 3.  So after I edit this, Phase 1 will be done.  Mostly because I'm out of ideas for different categories.

After the fourteenth story releases, then I'll work on putting together the second omnibus that will include volumes 9-14.  Here's the prototype cover for it:

I don't like it as much as the first cover.

With the first cover though I was able to make all the backgrounds transparent, so just the people showed up.  I can't really do that with a couple for this one because they don't have solid white backgrounds.  If I put in enough effort I could cut out the backgrounds, but I don't feel like going to that much effort.  Nor do I feel like buying alternate pictures that would have white backgrounds.

Anyway, Phase 2 then is to start in on sequels of some of the more popular ones.  For some reason I don't really want to think about, the fastest selling one has been Transformed Into a Pregnant Girl.  I didn't really like that one personally, but people seem to be eating it up, so I guess I'll have to come up with a sequel.  The weird thing is the other most popular has been the first one, Transformed Into a Little Girl and they each only feature one real sex scene (not actually with a child or a pregnant girl), so maybe the sex isn't as important as I worried it might be.  Right now I have 4 1/2 sequels mapped out in my notebook.  The 1/2 is because I include 2 stories per book and one only has one idea right now.  Ideally I'd have 6 in Phase 2--Part 1.  Then maybe Phase 3 would be to do threequels.

Beyond that I just did some cleaning up so I can leave for California in the morning.  If I hadn't stayed the last week in Portland, I might have decided to spend more time in California, but as it is I'm kind of getting behind here.  And while it would be cool to see San Francisco, LA (especially Hollywood), and San Diego, all the traffic and stuff would probably be a huge pain in the ass.

Anyway, I'm supposed to stop in Yreka tomorrow.  I'm not sure what the hell kind of name Yreka is.  Is it to differentiate it from Eureka?  After that I'm supposed to I think head through Sacramento on the way to Reno, Elko, and eventually Salt Lake City.  From there I'd swing south to Vegas and Phoenix before heading east into New Mexico and then maybe Texas.  But the way things are going, who knows how much of that I'll get to do?

While I'm rambling about stupid shit, I watched most of this movie called Stakeland on Showtime 2 last night.  It's basically a zombie movie only the zombies are vampires.   Later I had a dream where I was locking myself in a Starbucks that was under attack from zombies.  I tried to kill one, but I wasn't making much progress on it.  I didn't wake up screaming or in a cold sweat--or with an acid attack (yet).  I just kind of woke up, rolled over, and went back to sleep--until the acid attack.  Anyway, that's what I get for watching horror movies before bed.  Though actually I fell asleep watching Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, but did not have dreams of salmon.  Mmmm...salmon.

Grumpy Bulldog vs. Portland: Smelling the Roses

It didn't start out like anything would happen today.  I didn't get out of bed until 11am.  Since I didn't have anything out for breakfast, I just heat up the last tomato soup I had.  Later I went out to get some groceries to last the next couple of days.  I really need to spend $3 more at the store so I can get $0.10/gallon off gas somewhere.

By the time I finished microwaving and eating lunch it was almost 3pm but the weather was clearing up.  So I decided I should actually go out and do something.

I went to the International Test Rose Garden or whatever it's called and also the Japanese Garden, which are all part of the same Washington Park complex.  Maybe since it was Saturday afternoon parking was atrocious.  I typically avoid parallel parking, but I couldn't in this case.  Fortunately it wasn't too crowded between the cars so I could get in pretty easily, though I had to get out a couple times to see how much space I had behind me.  Some old lady in a wheelchair complained to her daughter or whoever because I had parked near where the bus loads and boo hoo how is she going to get on the bus?  I'm not the one who designed the parking lot and bus loading zones so stupidly.  She must have got on the bus because she wasn't there later.

Anyway, here's the rose garden.  I might have enjoyed it more if I could smell.  Or maybe not, though roses are supposed to smell good, right?

Then I walked over to the Japanese Garden. Which the stupid guidebook didn't say (again!) that I'd have to walk a freaking quarter mile UPHILL.  I guess that was good later as I could go downhill then.

Anyway, there's the Japanese Garden.  Maybe if it weren't Saturday there would be less people so I could go meditate and go all Zen and stuff.

I decided I might as well go to Mt. Tabor Park, where I hoped to get some decent pics of the city.  To get there I had to go through most of the city it seemed like, so I got a lot of random pics of Portland.  I passed Powell's Books, which is one of the largest indie bookstores.  Too bad I didn't bring some of my books to ask them to sell.  Think they'd let me read some of my erotica books there?

There was a flea market or whatever I guess early in the day, but when I went by it was just a bunch of bums hanging out by the gates.  The cops should really go roust all those people.

I had to do more walking UPHILL to get to the top of the mountain.  Then it was really disappointing.  It's mostly trees!  There are a couple little glimpses of the city but the weather was too hazy to get decent pictures.  So mostly it was a waste of time.

But hey, you can't say I didn't do nothing in Portland.  Now I'll probably spend the next two days doing nothing except laundry.

BTW, I started this entry at about 7pm PST and it's 4:40am PST.  That's how freaking slow this motel wifi is.