I figured it appropriate to title this post after the Caisson Song seeing as it has been running through my mind, off and on, since my "American Originals" post. I have continued to dutifully march my way through the writing process. This week was another good week with 5240 words to show for my efforts.
It's the second week in a row with over 5000 words. I have considered the possibility of upping my weekly word goal to 5000 words. Seeing as I no longer have to concern myself with betting on sports it would seem appropriate that I increase my writing efforts to make up for the difference, though a 25% increase may be a bit much. I'll use this week as another test period.
I fear so much writing makes me even more boring than usual. I have had little else to talk about the past two weeks. So I may as well give a complete update here and perhaps that'll get everythng out in the open and I can forgo mentioning it for a while.
The second novel is already at 19000 words. Assuming it is of comparable length to the first one, I am about 18% finished. However, I suspect this one may be a bit longer. One can never tell until it is done. The first book in the second novel was a bit on the long side.
I have been writing a total of 15 weeks, though only 13 have had the 4000 words goal attached. (Recall my two weeks vacation after the finishing the first novel.) The first week I hit 3800 words and called it a tie. I forgot why, someone should go back and read that section to remind me. Of the remaining 12 weeks, I have hit the 4000 word goal 6 times and missed it 6 times.
This is in itself a meaningless statistic, seeing as I could have written 10 words a week for 6 weeks followed by 4010 words for 6 weeks, but we can all rest easy knowing that for the 13 weeks, I averaged 3846 words per week. I'll take it and call myself pleased with the result: 47730 words total since my Vegas arrival.
It would certainly be grand to maintain this pace. If possible, I should be awfully close to finishing the second novel sometime in November. I imagine I'll get burned out eventually and need to take some time off, but this is the stuff dreams are made of, a desire to continually improve one's situation.
There! Now that I have all the writing crap out of the way, I'll have to come up with something more clever to speak of next time.
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
What the Flock?
I did indeed manage to hit my 4000 words last night. I finished chapter 5, which also completes the first book of the second novel. Technically, I suppose I could take the next three days off, but I don't seem to feel as though I need to go through my short rest period that I generally need to go through after finishing a book. The best part was that I very quickly came up with a rough idea for the second book. I need to hammer some stuff out, but with any luck that'll only take a few hours to a couple days. So far, I'm a touch over 18000 words into the second novel. Not a bad start...
It's been a while since I've discussed any new technologies or software, so I figured I'd relay to those who haven't yet updated, Firefox has now come out with version 3.0. I just upgraded last night, which is about a week or so after it came out. I always like to give new versions at least that much time, just in case there's a problem. The upgrade was painless and most of my extensions upgraded just fine. I also chose a new theme, one with a darker background.
Cullen, you may be interested in hearing that version 3.0 supposedly has a smaller memory footprint. I have found that it uses about 8-12% less memory, but I also never found it to be a memory hog to begin with, so take that for what it is worth.
Most people are too lazy to download and install a new browser and that is fine. I'm not offended. Most people learn to do things one archaic way and they never bother to seek out anything better, despite the fact that they know software goes through constant revisions. I figured I'd mention another free browser that is built off Firefox 3.0. Yup, people are already building off the new version. It is called "Flock" and it is also a free download available at flock.com.
Why did I not download this version if I am going to pimp it here? Well, I figured it was time I pimped something I had no use for, but know that other friends of mine may have a use for it. Call it charity work.
So what's the special special gimick of Flock? It is being advertised as a "social web browser". It was designed with special support compatibilities to certain sites, in particular, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, most news feeds, and more. Essentially, the browser automatically keeps track of your social networks and notifies you of germane information without you having to log into the various sites all the time to see if anything has updated.
I imagine I may eventually check this browser out, if only because it'll make checking my Gmail and posting my blog posts easier. I'm not really into the "social networks" like Facebook and Twitter, but I know a lot of my friends at the Knickerbocker are into that sort of thing and for the more progressive among them, (I think that subset may only include Cullen) this may be what they (he?) is looking for.
It's been a while since I've discussed any new technologies or software, so I figured I'd relay to those who haven't yet updated, Firefox has now come out with version 3.0. I just upgraded last night, which is about a week or so after it came out. I always like to give new versions at least that much time, just in case there's a problem. The upgrade was painless and most of my extensions upgraded just fine. I also chose a new theme, one with a darker background.
Cullen, you may be interested in hearing that version 3.0 supposedly has a smaller memory footprint. I have found that it uses about 8-12% less memory, but I also never found it to be a memory hog to begin with, so take that for what it is worth.
Most people are too lazy to download and install a new browser and that is fine. I'm not offended. Most people learn to do things one archaic way and they never bother to seek out anything better, despite the fact that they know software goes through constant revisions. I figured I'd mention another free browser that is built off Firefox 3.0. Yup, people are already building off the new version. It is called "Flock" and it is also a free download available at flock.com.
Why did I not download this version if I am going to pimp it here? Well, I figured it was time I pimped something I had no use for, but know that other friends of mine may have a use for it. Call it charity work.
So what's the special special gimick of Flock? It is being advertised as a "social web browser". It was designed with special support compatibilities to certain sites, in particular, Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Blogger, most news feeds, and more. Essentially, the browser automatically keeps track of your social networks and notifies you of germane information without you having to log into the various sites all the time to see if anything has updated.
I imagine I may eventually check this browser out, if only because it'll make checking my Gmail and posting my blog posts easier. I'm not really into the "social networks" like Facebook and Twitter, but I know a lot of my friends at the Knickerbocker are into that sort of thing and for the more progressive among them, (I think that subset may only include Cullen) this may be what they (he?) is looking for.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Enh,...
I must say, the past few days I have been pretty unmotivated to write a blog entry. Not much has changed over the last few days, and thus, nothing to write. Though I haven't been motivated to write here, at least, I have been maintaining progress on my more important writings. Today is Thursday and already I am breathing down the neck of my 4000 word goal for the week. I haven't tallied in today's results but I imagine I am in the 3700-3800 word range. I may even go back for a second writing session later tonight.
It has been strikingly hot for the last 8-9 days with the daily high being no less than 105 degrees. In fact, I had come up with my own "rule of nines". If you try to google that phrase, you will mostly get pages on how to calculate the burned area on a burn victim, but there are many rules of nine.
The one I am personally most familiar with is the accounting rule of nines. In accounting, if your tabulated results differ with the actual results is evenly divisible by nine, then it is likely you transposed a pair of digits somewhere. It is a mathematical fact that if you take a number and transpose two digits and take the difference of the two numbers the result is divisible by nine.
I wish more people knew this rule. Every time I see people wowed by some sort of mathematical trickery, nine times out of ten, it is either basic algebra obfuscated by words, or an application of the accounting rule of nines. It is all very banal, but it impresses people for some reason.
Anyway, the rule of nines I came up with, was 90 degrees by 9am. That's been the benchmark temperature for more than a week, until today.... Today it didn't get to 90 degrees until 10am and the high was a mere 102. Whew! The days are getting shorter and you can already see the difference! I wish...
Anyway, that's enough about the heat. I finally made my way to the closest Chinese restaurant. It turns out the name of the place is D&B Chinese Food. The D & B apparently stands for delicious and best. I cannot comment on that. Being a Brown, I am unfortunately a nontaster and all Chinese food tastes the same to me. Hooray for genetics. I ordered two large dishes, hopefully enough for 3-4 meals, and thus far it is fine.
Since they deliver and I am no longer placing bets, I guess I never have any reason to leave my apartment again. Except to jump in the pool when it gets too hot; which is basically, all the time. Well, I guess that's not totally true. You'd be surprised how refreshing the 82 degrees feels at 4am.
As a last comment on this meaningless post, I figured I'd warn everybody that July may be a bit of a dry month for posts on my blog. The Tour de France stats the first week of July and goes for 23 days. This is the one sporting event that I absolutely love to watch every minute of it that I can and OLN has 4-6 hours of coverage a day. If they get the channel and I can watch it in the clubhouse, I will be watching it with great relish. If they do not, I'll find it online and download it so I can watch it that way. Of course, this is a great daily time commitment and if I want to keep up with my normal writing, my blog posts may suffer.
It has been strikingly hot for the last 8-9 days with the daily high being no less than 105 degrees. In fact, I had come up with my own "rule of nines". If you try to google that phrase, you will mostly get pages on how to calculate the burned area on a burn victim, but there are many rules of nine.
The one I am personally most familiar with is the accounting rule of nines. In accounting, if your tabulated results differ with the actual results is evenly divisible by nine, then it is likely you transposed a pair of digits somewhere. It is a mathematical fact that if you take a number and transpose two digits and take the difference of the two numbers the result is divisible by nine.
I wish more people knew this rule. Every time I see people wowed by some sort of mathematical trickery, nine times out of ten, it is either basic algebra obfuscated by words, or an application of the accounting rule of nines. It is all very banal, but it impresses people for some reason.
Anyway, the rule of nines I came up with, was 90 degrees by 9am. That's been the benchmark temperature for more than a week, until today.... Today it didn't get to 90 degrees until 10am and the high was a mere 102. Whew! The days are getting shorter and you can already see the difference! I wish...
Anyway, that's enough about the heat. I finally made my way to the closest Chinese restaurant. It turns out the name of the place is D&B Chinese Food. The D & B apparently stands for delicious and best. I cannot comment on that. Being a Brown, I am unfortunately a nontaster and all Chinese food tastes the same to me. Hooray for genetics. I ordered two large dishes, hopefully enough for 3-4 meals, and thus far it is fine.
Since they deliver and I am no longer placing bets, I guess I never have any reason to leave my apartment again. Except to jump in the pool when it gets too hot; which is basically, all the time. Well, I guess that's not totally true. You'd be surprised how refreshing the 82 degrees feels at 4am.
As a last comment on this meaningless post, I figured I'd warn everybody that July may be a bit of a dry month for posts on my blog. The Tour de France stats the first week of July and goes for 23 days. This is the one sporting event that I absolutely love to watch every minute of it that I can and OLN has 4-6 hours of coverage a day. If they get the channel and I can watch it in the clubhouse, I will be watching it with great relish. If they do not, I'll find it online and download it so I can watch it that way. Of course, this is a great daily time commitment and if I want to keep up with my normal writing, my blog posts may suffer.
Monday, June 23, 2008
American Originals
I spent a fair portion of the weekend watching old M*A*S*H episodes. I haven't watched this show with any gusto since my early teens. It hasn't lost much in twenty years. I still think it was the best overall show that's ever been on television. The humor is simple, but the depth of the show goes as far as you wish to delve.
I think I like the show because it is filled with extreme idealistic characters that one can only aspire to mimic, yet they are very real, very human, and of course, very likable. I don't think I've cried this much in years. It's such an intense show that watching one episode right after the next builds up lot of conflicting emotions and intense thoughts.
I love the patriotism of the show while proselytizing the flaws of our country. I watched this show endlessly as a kid, perhaps that is where I developed the habit. Being able to be outspoken against the mistakes of our government is one of the tenets that this country was based upon. It scares me that it has become so casual an exercise to label such critics as "unamerican", despite this knowledge. To me, the egregious unamerican acts include not allowing people to speak their minds.
I have always considered myself to be hyper-patriotic. I really do believe we live in the best country in the world, but I simply don't like the way it has been changing in my lifetime; even before my lifetime. I have always been fond of John Philip Sousa's marches from the beginning of the last century. They're very inspirational and are by definition American Originals. (For my swing dance friends: They are also the precursor to swing music. Don't believe me? Listen to one of them while listening to the earliest swing. They have the same baseline. It took a number of years for swing mature from sweeter to hotter.)
These marches were also hyper-patriotic. They inspired American citizens to enlist in WWI & WWII by the millions. Of course, we were dragged into those wars under false pretenses, like every war from last century. But at least people were proud of their country and what they were doing.
Our government no longer seeks to inspire the population into doing what it wants, and I think that is a shame. It's no less deceptive than the beat down they are doing now, but at least people could hold their heads up high. These days the government seeks to terrorize its own citizenry into doing what it wants. It's grinding people into submission through a constant barrage of home grown terrorism, and when people get jaded just enough they take it the next step further.
When was the last time our government sought to inspire the citizens? When was the last time they set a humanistic goal? A goal that was not just for us, but for the good of all mankind? I can think of none in my lifetime. Setting aside my distaste JFK's personal life, the only one I can think of is his goal of putting a man on the moon. Admittedly, the goal was inspired to show the world communism was inferior, but that misses the point of setting a goal and achieving it. It was something the American people could be proud of.
What goals does our government have set for us now? The end of terrorism? Please, they are the primary perpetrators of terrorism in the world. We currently have two generations growing up in this country, a third on the way, and not once have they seen their government do anything altruistic. We're supposed to be the best, wealthiest, strongest, etc. country in the world, but we haven't set a world goal with even the slightest nobility in over 45 years.
If there is one repetitive sentiment in the episodes of M*A*S*H, it is a constant battle of morale. Probably one-third (or more) of all the episodes involve some form of attempt to boost the camp's morale. It's no small wonder that people lack direction and goals of their own, when their own government can't instill a positive direction for its own actions, how can the people be expected to contribute positively to society? If our government is going to perpetually dupe us, the least they could do is try to raise morale throughout the country.
Anyway, these are the things I think about when I watch M*A*S*H.
I think I like the show because it is filled with extreme idealistic characters that one can only aspire to mimic, yet they are very real, very human, and of course, very likable. I don't think I've cried this much in years. It's such an intense show that watching one episode right after the next builds up lot of conflicting emotions and intense thoughts.
I love the patriotism of the show while proselytizing the flaws of our country. I watched this show endlessly as a kid, perhaps that is where I developed the habit. Being able to be outspoken against the mistakes of our government is one of the tenets that this country was based upon. It scares me that it has become so casual an exercise to label such critics as "unamerican", despite this knowledge. To me, the egregious unamerican acts include not allowing people to speak their minds.
I have always considered myself to be hyper-patriotic. I really do believe we live in the best country in the world, but I simply don't like the way it has been changing in my lifetime; even before my lifetime. I have always been fond of John Philip Sousa's marches from the beginning of the last century. They're very inspirational and are by definition American Originals. (For my swing dance friends: They are also the precursor to swing music. Don't believe me? Listen to one of them while listening to the earliest swing. They have the same baseline. It took a number of years for swing mature from sweeter to hotter.)
These marches were also hyper-patriotic. They inspired American citizens to enlist in WWI & WWII by the millions. Of course, we were dragged into those wars under false pretenses, like every war from last century. But at least people were proud of their country and what they were doing.
Our government no longer seeks to inspire the population into doing what it wants, and I think that is a shame. It's no less deceptive than the beat down they are doing now, but at least people could hold their heads up high. These days the government seeks to terrorize its own citizenry into doing what it wants. It's grinding people into submission through a constant barrage of home grown terrorism, and when people get jaded just enough they take it the next step further.
When was the last time our government sought to inspire the citizens? When was the last time they set a humanistic goal? A goal that was not just for us, but for the good of all mankind? I can think of none in my lifetime. Setting aside my distaste JFK's personal life, the only one I can think of is his goal of putting a man on the moon. Admittedly, the goal was inspired to show the world communism was inferior, but that misses the point of setting a goal and achieving it. It was something the American people could be proud of.
What goals does our government have set for us now? The end of terrorism? Please, they are the primary perpetrators of terrorism in the world. We currently have two generations growing up in this country, a third on the way, and not once have they seen their government do anything altruistic. We're supposed to be the best, wealthiest, strongest, etc. country in the world, but we haven't set a world goal with even the slightest nobility in over 45 years.
If there is one repetitive sentiment in the episodes of M*A*S*H, it is a constant battle of morale. Probably one-third (or more) of all the episodes involve some form of attempt to boost the camp's morale. It's no small wonder that people lack direction and goals of their own, when their own government can't instill a positive direction for its own actions, how can the people be expected to contribute positively to society? If our government is going to perpetually dupe us, the least they could do is try to raise morale throughout the country.
Anyway, these are the things I think about when I watch M*A*S*H.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Pusillanimity
After thinking about the gambling aspect of my Las Veags stay, I always knew it had a low probability of success, and I think I am going to call it quits. In coming out here I had a pretty measly bankroll of $2500 and was prepared to supplement that with another $1500 out of my savings. I have said many times that if I were to expect any reasonable chance of success I would need at least $100,000.
Hopefully, the math of that is obvious. If I were to cover my $1200 a month living expenses, I have to double my initial $2500 bankroll every two months. If it were easy to make a fifty percent profit per month at anything, the dopes on Wallstreet would have sucked that tit dry long ago. With a $100,000 I would only need to increase my bankroll about 1% a month. Better yet, I wouldn't have to bet every month. I could stick to betting the sports I like to bet.
As I have been blogging all week, I have had a losing streak (7 bets in a row!) in my least favorite sport, for betting anyway, namely baseball. After squandering far too much I decided I should reevaluate my plans considering baseball is essentially the only sport I can bet on for the better part of the next three months. I felt my choices were to start chasing after money with bets I don't like making, or settle in and focus on other things.
I have enough money to make it to the end of the year, maybe November, but then I will have to start amassing debt. I'm not sure that bothers me so much. I've been through that before and it's a whole lot more bark than it is bite. I suppose with my credit, I could easily live on my credit cards for a couple of years. After that, what's another bankruptcy?
Getting back to focusing on other things, the obvious question is what would those other things be? At some point, I am going to need to make a teaching portfolio, that is, if I want to get a job teaching anywhere. I suspect that will be a one or two month project I can do in my spare time. Wait, I guess technically, all my time is spare time.
On my way to the bank, I pass a temp agency. I am half tempted to drop by some afternoon and see what kind of work they can get a PhD in Mathematics. Probably nothing better than data entry. I have always wondered how I would fare at a job like that. I don't imagine it would be much of a challenge. I suppose I could get a job as one of the casino front desk clerks, or whatever they're called these days. Probably something like "Hotel Inhabitant Facilitator" or something equally stupid. Of course, that's a lot of people interaction for a job that is likely to be under $10 an hour.
Since I'm not going to be gambling, I guess I'd better think of something else to do with my time. The teaching portfolio looks like a solid option.
My apologies to those that were enjoying the romanticism of coming out here and gambling. I certainly enjoyed it. It's too bad I was too poor to give it a real go, but the old adage is true. It takes money to make money.
I told Kim last week that I was a bit of a coward to have run out here, in search of avoiding the more mundane aspects of life. She seemed to disagree with my assessment of the situation. It's all about interpretation. I suppose I am a bit of a coward now for not simply taking the last of my money and betting it all, but at least I'll be a coward with a roof over my head for a few months more.
Hopefully, the math of that is obvious. If I were to cover my $1200 a month living expenses, I have to double my initial $2500 bankroll every two months. If it were easy to make a fifty percent profit per month at anything, the dopes on Wallstreet would have sucked that tit dry long ago. With a $100,000 I would only need to increase my bankroll about 1% a month. Better yet, I wouldn't have to bet every month. I could stick to betting the sports I like to bet.
As I have been blogging all week, I have had a losing streak (7 bets in a row!) in my least favorite sport, for betting anyway, namely baseball. After squandering far too much I decided I should reevaluate my plans considering baseball is essentially the only sport I can bet on for the better part of the next three months. I felt my choices were to start chasing after money with bets I don't like making, or settle in and focus on other things.
I have enough money to make it to the end of the year, maybe November, but then I will have to start amassing debt. I'm not sure that bothers me so much. I've been through that before and it's a whole lot more bark than it is bite. I suppose with my credit, I could easily live on my credit cards for a couple of years. After that, what's another bankruptcy?
Getting back to focusing on other things, the obvious question is what would those other things be? At some point, I am going to need to make a teaching portfolio, that is, if I want to get a job teaching anywhere. I suspect that will be a one or two month project I can do in my spare time. Wait, I guess technically, all my time is spare time.
On my way to the bank, I pass a temp agency. I am half tempted to drop by some afternoon and see what kind of work they can get a PhD in Mathematics. Probably nothing better than data entry. I have always wondered how I would fare at a job like that. I don't imagine it would be much of a challenge. I suppose I could get a job as one of the casino front desk clerks, or whatever they're called these days. Probably something like "Hotel Inhabitant Facilitator" or something equally stupid. Of course, that's a lot of people interaction for a job that is likely to be under $10 an hour.
Since I'm not going to be gambling, I guess I'd better think of something else to do with my time. The teaching portfolio looks like a solid option.
My apologies to those that were enjoying the romanticism of coming out here and gambling. I certainly enjoyed it. It's too bad I was too poor to give it a real go, but the old adage is true. It takes money to make money.
I told Kim last week that I was a bit of a coward to have run out here, in search of avoiding the more mundane aspects of life. She seemed to disagree with my assessment of the situation. It's all about interpretation. I suppose I am a bit of a coward now for not simply taking the last of my money and betting it all, but at least I'll be a coward with a roof over my head for a few months more.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Long Distance Conversation
I didn't bother posting yesterday (Really, a day and a half ago as I intended on posting this last night before going to bed, but I was too tired so I am posting it this morning) because it was a repeat of the previous day. Yet another great day of writing (1172 words) and off to the Hilton to post a losing bet.
Yesterday makes the third day in a row. The writing was only average at 571 words, but my bet at the Hilton still lost. It's turning into a very bad month in that regard, but I said warned myself that there would be days like this. After writing 5500 words this week already, I decided to take the weekend off. It's obvious I could use a couple days down time.
I was complaining on a message board about Turkey's soccer team in the Euro 2008 tournament. They played Croatia and battled them to a 0-0 tie after 90 minutes. They were playing that annoying style that I was complaining about last week, the "I'm too much of a coward to play to win, so I'll play to not lose" style.
The following is a conversation I had with a women from Turkey. Though it is not included in this part of the dialog, she said a great number of her countrymen were complaining about the style of play as well. I was just annoyed that I had to endure 90 minutes of 11 chickens (Turkies?) running around playing so cautious they only managed 7 shots during regulation, only one of which was on goal. That's right. Ninety minutes and they only managed one shot that was actually heading towards the goal. It was pathetic.
Mostly, I am posting the conversation for my Grandmother to show her how the world is a bit smaller these days since the internet has started finding itself a larger and larger cornerstone of our culture. I have had many conversations with her before and I know she is pretty smart, so it shows how we're all pretty much alike. I'm going to shorten her screen name to "K" and I leave in all typos. Unlike me, most people are in too big of a hurry to fix them.
K: I still believe that it is much more exciting than your "football" which is not played by feet :D ha ha!!! But only when it is a good match. TUrkish team always had fault, and the reason is inferiority complex. THey believe that they will lose anyway, so they try at least not to lose that badly haha!!!! so sorry for them..
Me: I enjoy both sports, but the most common time that I find American football to be boring is when one team is blowing out another.
That never happens in soccer.
My favorite sport to watch is probably NBA basketball.
K: same here :) It is shorter, faster
Me: I like the flow of the game. Waves of action flow back and forth between teams. I find it has nice balance for a sport.
K: everything is neat.. well, yes, like a nice wave that carries you off shore and then back that's what I meant.. faster... It occupies your brain, your soul... meets your need of adrenalin... forms a nice bond with the fellow audience, It's not too long to ruin the relations :) :)
Me: LOL! I was refering to the back and forth between teams. But you're right, the game's do seem to be just long enough without droning on too long and games that go into overtime (or double and triple overtime!) are almost always exciting enough to make up for the extra time wasted. ;)
The conversation was invaded by a teen age boy from England. Even online I like to mock little kids. This is the good part. The adults carry on with their adult conversation and the little boy runs along. I'll call the young man "D".
D: i cant stand football unless england are playing myself lol.
Me: You get to play against the entire English team? That's pretty cool. :P
K: me I'd like to see that:) ha ha ha!!!!!!
D: hell yeah... and i always win :D
Me: That's what they get for playing to not lose against you. ;)
K: we are not Europeans, you see, they don't even want us in the EU.... 90% of the country is in Asia. Yet 30% of the population is in Europe... and more than that live in EU countries. :D so solve the puzzle. noone could so far ha ha ha!!!
Me: It's not much of a puzzle seeing as it is all moot anyway. Over the next thirty years the international bankers that control 98% of the world's wealth will finally achieve the goal they've been working on for the last 60 years, namely, a unified world economy.
Then the next day the world will run out of oil.
It'll be a Friday.
Come Monday, the survivors will be back to throwing stones and living in mud and grass huts.
K: :D Yeah... Tell Sam about that... THey mostly habit over there... not that they are US Citizens... you know, bin Ladin family is a good friend of the Bush for ex. (bush against bush :D ladin is bush)
Me: Sam's busy. He's too bogged down with trying to figure out how to get us all implanted with the RFID chips.
Good thing I am an urban hermit and will never have children. I would pity my children, grandchildren, and the world they will be enslaved in.
K: I think people like us should have children.. one or two... But I am 34, not married, no children.. who am I to give advice :D
Me: The meek shall inherit the Earth, alas, the bible conveniently forgets to mention that it is the mentally weak, which means our children would be the first go.
I stopped giving advice a long time ago. That is, once I realized that people actually seek to take more offense from the words than understanding.
Most of the time anyway....
K: :)
____________________
This was her response to her team eventually winning the game in extra time:
K: Oh no! non, non non!!! we won... I'd better keep away from windows. All these black sea people and Kurds worship their guns and shoot them whenever they are emotional. Bunch of ignorant idiots...
____________________
And there you have it Grandma. That's how two intelligent people from different countries talk to each other whilst online. The conversations are a little disjointed, sarcastic (that just may be me at the table), but they are honest enough that you can see everyone is pretty much the same. Hopefully, the meek won't inherit her part of the earth tonight.
Yesterday makes the third day in a row. The writing was only average at 571 words, but my bet at the Hilton still lost. It's turning into a very bad month in that regard, but I said warned myself that there would be days like this. After writing 5500 words this week already, I decided to take the weekend off. It's obvious I could use a couple days down time.
I was complaining on a message board about Turkey's soccer team in the Euro 2008 tournament. They played Croatia and battled them to a 0-0 tie after 90 minutes. They were playing that annoying style that I was complaining about last week, the "I'm too much of a coward to play to win, so I'll play to not lose" style.
The following is a conversation I had with a women from Turkey. Though it is not included in this part of the dialog, she said a great number of her countrymen were complaining about the style of play as well. I was just annoyed that I had to endure 90 minutes of 11 chickens (Turkies?) running around playing so cautious they only managed 7 shots during regulation, only one of which was on goal. That's right. Ninety minutes and they only managed one shot that was actually heading towards the goal. It was pathetic.
Mostly, I am posting the conversation for my Grandmother to show her how the world is a bit smaller these days since the internet has started finding itself a larger and larger cornerstone of our culture. I have had many conversations with her before and I know she is pretty smart, so it shows how we're all pretty much alike. I'm going to shorten her screen name to "K" and I leave in all typos. Unlike me, most people are in too big of a hurry to fix them.
K: I still believe that it is much more exciting than your "football" which is not played by feet :D ha ha!!! But only when it is a good match. TUrkish team always had fault, and the reason is inferiority complex. THey believe that they will lose anyway, so they try at least not to lose that badly haha!!!! so sorry for them..
Me: I enjoy both sports, but the most common time that I find American football to be boring is when one team is blowing out another.
That never happens in soccer.
My favorite sport to watch is probably NBA basketball.
K: same here :) It is shorter, faster
Me: I like the flow of the game. Waves of action flow back and forth between teams. I find it has nice balance for a sport.
K: everything is neat.. well, yes, like a nice wave that carries you off shore and then back that's what I meant.. faster... It occupies your brain, your soul... meets your need of adrenalin... forms a nice bond with the fellow audience, It's not too long to ruin the relations :) :)
Me: LOL! I was refering to the back and forth between teams. But you're right, the game's do seem to be just long enough without droning on too long and games that go into overtime (or double and triple overtime!) are almost always exciting enough to make up for the extra time wasted. ;)
The conversation was invaded by a teen age boy from England. Even online I like to mock little kids. This is the good part. The adults carry on with their adult conversation and the little boy runs along. I'll call the young man "D".
D: i cant stand football unless england are playing myself lol.
Me: You get to play against the entire English team? That's pretty cool. :P
K: me I'd like to see that:) ha ha ha!!!!!!
D: hell yeah... and i always win :D
Me: That's what they get for playing to not lose against you. ;)
K: we are not Europeans, you see, they don't even want us in the EU.... 90% of the country is in Asia. Yet 30% of the population is in Europe... and more than that live in EU countries. :D so solve the puzzle. noone could so far ha ha ha!!!
Me: It's not much of a puzzle seeing as it is all moot anyway. Over the next thirty years the international bankers that control 98% of the world's wealth will finally achieve the goal they've been working on for the last 60 years, namely, a unified world economy.
Then the next day the world will run out of oil.
It'll be a Friday.
Come Monday, the survivors will be back to throwing stones and living in mud and grass huts.
K: :D Yeah... Tell Sam about that... THey mostly habit over there... not that they are US Citizens... you know, bin Ladin family is a good friend of the Bush for ex. (bush against bush :D ladin is bush)
Me: Sam's busy. He's too bogged down with trying to figure out how to get us all implanted with the RFID chips.
Good thing I am an urban hermit and will never have children. I would pity my children, grandchildren, and the world they will be enslaved in.
K: I think people like us should have children.. one or two... But I am 34, not married, no children.. who am I to give advice :D
Me: The meek shall inherit the Earth, alas, the bible conveniently forgets to mention that it is the mentally weak, which means our children would be the first go.
I stopped giving advice a long time ago. That is, once I realized that people actually seek to take more offense from the words than understanding.
Most of the time anyway....
K: :)
____________________
This was her response to her team eventually winning the game in extra time:
K: Oh no! non, non non!!! we won... I'd better keep away from windows. All these black sea people and Kurds worship their guns and shoot them whenever they are emotional. Bunch of ignorant idiots...
____________________
And there you have it Grandma. That's how two intelligent people from different countries talk to each other whilst online. The conversations are a little disjointed, sarcastic (that just may be me at the table), but they are honest enough that you can see everyone is pretty much the same. Hopefully, the meek won't inherit her part of the earth tonight.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Early to Bed, Early to Rise,...
Makes a man finish his day awfully early!
I slept from 10pm to 6am last night. I'm enjoying the night sleeping. I seem to get my best work done first thing in the morning after a night's rest. For whatever reason, I don't seem to write as well when I'm on other schedules. Maybe that's all in my head because I've been writing so well the past two days.
This morning I wrote another 1700 words. It was a pretty good morning. Hope I can manage another 300 over the next four days so I can declare this a successful week. I called Moose and told him I had a couple of new chapters for him to download. We talked for a bit, then I called Kim and talked to her for an hour. After that, I listened to the last of my backlog of podcasts and found I nothing left to do for the day and it was only 2pm.
I ate lunch and then went to the Hilton to place a losing bet. (Damn baseball, anyway!)
It's going to be a tough month. I am now a couple hundred in the hole for the month and I suppose I should look to break even. We'll see. It's not much more than half over, so I guess there's plenty of time. I am thinking of picking a nice soccer game and putting some big bucks on it. Lately, I feel better about those matches than the baseball.
I'll randomly jump back to the beginning of the post. I'm jealous. Moose told me he has started taking Karate lessons again. I was never a big fan of karate, and definitely preferred Tae Kwon Do as it suited my mentality and physicality better, but at this point, I'd take any martial art over doing nothing. Alas, I have seen neither a school within walking distance, nor have I seen the pile of money that would pay for lessons should one magically sprout up. (Okay, they don't really sprout up magically.)
This, of course, leads me to a natural segue to a comment I made in my phone call to Kim. I miss my Chinese food. (What? Karate is Japanese, Tae Kwon Do is Korean, and now I'm discussing Chinese food. How much more natural can you get?) Having a Chinese restaurant right around the corner from my apartment for eight years in Albany was pretty great. I'm a sucker for the old reliables like chicken with broccoli, pork lo mien, or the bucket o' meat. I forget what that's called in Chinese, boneless pork spare ribs I think, but I'm not sure if that's a direct translation.
The closest chinese place around here is half way to the grocery store. That's much too far. It's got to be about a half mile. I'm much too old and fat to be traveling that far for food. Maybe when I was young and filled with hate I'd have made the trip, but I don't have that kind of energy anymore. Kim suggested that they might deliver if I order a lard pack size order. It's a thought.
Getting back to my post, after placing my losing bet I had to figure out what I was going to do with myself. I opted for starting Season 5 of M*A*S*H. (Yes, that's actually the way the title is supposed to be spelled.) After several hours of viewing, I finally decided it was time to bore everyone with the goings on of my day. Sorry, once again I am a bore. What can I do?
I slept from 10pm to 6am last night. I'm enjoying the night sleeping. I seem to get my best work done first thing in the morning after a night's rest. For whatever reason, I don't seem to write as well when I'm on other schedules. Maybe that's all in my head because I've been writing so well the past two days.
This morning I wrote another 1700 words. It was a pretty good morning. Hope I can manage another 300 over the next four days so I can declare this a successful week. I called Moose and told him I had a couple of new chapters for him to download. We talked for a bit, then I called Kim and talked to her for an hour. After that, I listened to the last of my backlog of podcasts and found I nothing left to do for the day and it was only 2pm.
I ate lunch and then went to the Hilton to place a losing bet. (Damn baseball, anyway!)
It's going to be a tough month. I am now a couple hundred in the hole for the month and I suppose I should look to break even. We'll see. It's not much more than half over, so I guess there's plenty of time. I am thinking of picking a nice soccer game and putting some big bucks on it. Lately, I feel better about those matches than the baseball.
I'll randomly jump back to the beginning of the post. I'm jealous. Moose told me he has started taking Karate lessons again. I was never a big fan of karate, and definitely preferred Tae Kwon Do as it suited my mentality and physicality better, but at this point, I'd take any martial art over doing nothing. Alas, I have seen neither a school within walking distance, nor have I seen the pile of money that would pay for lessons should one magically sprout up. (Okay, they don't really sprout up magically.)
This, of course, leads me to a natural segue to a comment I made in my phone call to Kim. I miss my Chinese food. (What? Karate is Japanese, Tae Kwon Do is Korean, and now I'm discussing Chinese food. How much more natural can you get?) Having a Chinese restaurant right around the corner from my apartment for eight years in Albany was pretty great. I'm a sucker for the old reliables like chicken with broccoli, pork lo mien, or the bucket o' meat. I forget what that's called in Chinese, boneless pork spare ribs I think, but I'm not sure if that's a direct translation.
The closest chinese place around here is half way to the grocery store. That's much too far. It's got to be about a half mile. I'm much too old and fat to be traveling that far for food. Maybe when I was young and filled with hate I'd have made the trip, but I don't have that kind of energy anymore. Kim suggested that they might deliver if I order a lard pack size order. It's a thought.
Getting back to my post, after placing my losing bet I had to figure out what I was going to do with myself. I opted for starting Season 5 of M*A*S*H. (Yes, that's actually the way the title is supposed to be spelled.) After several hours of viewing, I finally decided it was time to bore everyone with the goings on of my day. Sorry, once again I am a bore. What can I do?
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Illin' and Chillin'
I had actually intended on making a second post on Sunday evening, but never got around to it. After taking a nap Sunday morning in hopes of gaining enough enthusiasm to write my 650 words, I decided to walk to the grocery store. It was mid 80s at that time of the day and I wanted to get the shopping done before it got hot out.
Once I got home, I gave Dad a call. (It was Father's Day after all.)
After that, I was still uninspired with writing and so I watched "Stranger Things". A videocast that can be downloaded at StrangerThings.tv. I mention the show before as it has gotten so popular that it is going to be appearing on cable TV at some point, though I am not sure how that is going to work. Each show is of a different length (12 to 30 minutes) and the episodes aren't done on a regular schedule like a normal TV show. Don't forget, these guys are putting these together for fun and aren't doing this for any sort of profit. Anyway, I finally watched it. Basically, it is a modern day "Twilight Zone", so if you enjoy that sort of thing, you would likely enjoy this show. I found it entertaining. My only complaint is that the download is in the Quicktime format, i.e. the files are .m4v's and for technical reasons that I won't go into here, it's just a lousy format to deal with.
A couple of hours later, I came down with a migraine headache which laid me out for the rest of the day. Feel free to make the fallacious "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" conclusion that watching "Stranger Things" makes one sick. It was annoying, because it kept me from going to the Hilton to watch game 5 of the NBA finals. Instead I listened to it on my computer and slept through half of it.
The migraine never went away and so all day Monday, I did nothing but watch season 4 of M*A*S*H. Again, thanks go out to Cullen and Matt for that little treat. I didn't like losing the whole day, but my head was pounding too hard for me to do much else. I'm still not sure what the trigger was but by Monday evening it had subsided. Maybe my body just needed a day where it didn't have to think.
I slept last night from 9:30pm to 5:30am. Maybe it was my subconscious putting me back on a night sleeping schedule once again. Regardless, I woke up with the ideas I needed to write what I had wanted to write on Sunday. I ripped off 1172 words before eating breakfast and then I gave Moose a call. I told him about the idea I used to continue the story. Basically, I ripped off Charles Dickens' patented technique of having a mysterious stranger that appeared earlier in the story, come back and fix things in the precise way I needed things to be fixed. I suppose that is one of the benefits of having a character driven story with a whole lot of ancillary characters running around. I had always written this character with the intention of him having a deeper connection to the rest of the story, I just didn't know what that was until this morning.
Anyway, after Moose and I talked things out for a couple of hours, I was so inspired by the ideas we came up with, that I wrote another 831 words. It's the first time I've written over 2000 words in a day since last summer. It's funny, I have only written seven days out of the last twelve, but I have managed 8900 words on those seven days. It's a great pace. I'd love for it to continue for the entirety of the second novel. I'll keep at it.
Once I got home, I gave Dad a call. (It was Father's Day after all.)
After that, I was still uninspired with writing and so I watched "Stranger Things". A videocast that can be downloaded at StrangerThings.tv. I mention the show before as it has gotten so popular that it is going to be appearing on cable TV at some point, though I am not sure how that is going to work. Each show is of a different length (12 to 30 minutes) and the episodes aren't done on a regular schedule like a normal TV show. Don't forget, these guys are putting these together for fun and aren't doing this for any sort of profit. Anyway, I finally watched it. Basically, it is a modern day "Twilight Zone", so if you enjoy that sort of thing, you would likely enjoy this show. I found it entertaining. My only complaint is that the download is in the Quicktime format, i.e. the files are .m4v's and for technical reasons that I won't go into here, it's just a lousy format to deal with.
A couple of hours later, I came down with a migraine headache which laid me out for the rest of the day. Feel free to make the fallacious "post hoc, ergo propter hoc" conclusion that watching "Stranger Things" makes one sick. It was annoying, because it kept me from going to the Hilton to watch game 5 of the NBA finals. Instead I listened to it on my computer and slept through half of it.
The migraine never went away and so all day Monday, I did nothing but watch season 4 of M*A*S*H. Again, thanks go out to Cullen and Matt for that little treat. I didn't like losing the whole day, but my head was pounding too hard for me to do much else. I'm still not sure what the trigger was but by Monday evening it had subsided. Maybe my body just needed a day where it didn't have to think.
I slept last night from 9:30pm to 5:30am. Maybe it was my subconscious putting me back on a night sleeping schedule once again. Regardless, I woke up with the ideas I needed to write what I had wanted to write on Sunday. I ripped off 1172 words before eating breakfast and then I gave Moose a call. I told him about the idea I used to continue the story. Basically, I ripped off Charles Dickens' patented technique of having a mysterious stranger that appeared earlier in the story, come back and fix things in the precise way I needed things to be fixed. I suppose that is one of the benefits of having a character driven story with a whole lot of ancillary characters running around. I had always written this character with the intention of him having a deeper connection to the rest of the story, I just didn't know what that was until this morning.
Anyway, after Moose and I talked things out for a couple of hours, I was so inspired by the ideas we came up with, that I wrote another 831 words. It's the first time I've written over 2000 words in a day since last summer. It's funny, I have only written seven days out of the last twelve, but I have managed 8900 words on those seven days. It's a great pace. I'd love for it to continue for the entirety of the second novel. I'll keep at it.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I Got Nothin'...
For most of this past week, I have been going to bed at 2pm and sleeping until about 10pm. This is atypical even for me as I usually sleep in the mornings through to the early afternoon, that is, when I let my body choose the sleep schedule. Yesterday, I just couldn't sleep, at least, not for long as woke up after three hours at 5pm. It was really hot yesterday. I even turned on the AC, so I wasn't too hot and since I set the AC for 80 degrees, I wasn't too cold!
Perhaps it was the lack of caffeine yesterday. Maybe the drug didn't get the chance to wear me out to put me to sleep properly. It's inexplicable, anytime I start a normal routine, even letting my body choose the time slot, my sleep will quickly go bonkers. I watched the latest Futurama movie, which wasn't as good as the last one, and I eventually went back to bed at 8pm and slept to 3am.
Perhaps it was finally finishing the lard pack. I told you it'd take me all week to eat it and yesterday, after 149 hours, I ate the last couple of slices for breakfast. It sounds a lot longer than it is. I ordered it Saturday night and finished it Saturday morning, but then we all know a week has 168 hours in it, so subtracting the remaining hours wasn't too hard...
Perhaps, I was thinking too much about what I should write today. Even though I wasn't thinking about it openly, perhaps my subconscious was consumed with it. If so, my subconscious is pathetic! I didn't come up with anything. And my tiredness doesn't make me feel like writing. I'm cranky.
It's currently 5:30am and the temp is at it's overnight low, 84 degrees. Looks like it's going to be another hot one. Too bad, I was rather enjoying sleeping through the hottest part of the day. Of course, even though numerically speaking I should have gotten plenty of rest, I feel quite tired. I suppose I could try a dose of caffeine, but it doesn't seem to work that way with me. If I am tired, caffeine and these hyped up energy drinks just put me to sleep faster. It seems to even me out for an hour or so, but then I just crash and pass out. But then, since I am so tired, maybe I could use a little more sleep.
Bleh!
I hope this post sounds as uninspired as I feel.
I suppose at some point, I could update my character sheets. I also started a new set of sheets that I cannot name for it will spoil some of the surprise for those that have not read any of the book. Anyway, I consider this a part of the writing process, so maybe I'll do the technical busy work today to get myself over my word limit for the week. What I really need to do is rewrite the character sheets to incorporate the information of the new sheets. Maybe I'll just rewrite the whole thing.
Capital idea!
I also need to do several chores. I haven't cleaned in a couple of weeks and I never did make it to the grocery store this week, so my cupboards are bare. Well, I have a half a loaf of multi-grain bread and a big jar of peanut butter, so I could easily live a couple of days without going hungry. I could also have another big order of food delivered. I found a new flier on my door yesterday for another local restaurant I could try.
Is it really that obvious that I don't want to walk to the grocery store in this heat feeling as tired as I do now?
Hey! We all knew I was a fat lazy bastard when I moved out here. I make no excuses.
Maybe I'll take a nap and everything will be better in an hour or two...
Perhaps it was the lack of caffeine yesterday. Maybe the drug didn't get the chance to wear me out to put me to sleep properly. It's inexplicable, anytime I start a normal routine, even letting my body choose the time slot, my sleep will quickly go bonkers. I watched the latest Futurama movie, which wasn't as good as the last one, and I eventually went back to bed at 8pm and slept to 3am.
Perhaps it was finally finishing the lard pack. I told you it'd take me all week to eat it and yesterday, after 149 hours, I ate the last couple of slices for breakfast. It sounds a lot longer than it is. I ordered it Saturday night and finished it Saturday morning, but then we all know a week has 168 hours in it, so subtracting the remaining hours wasn't too hard...
Perhaps, I was thinking too much about what I should write today. Even though I wasn't thinking about it openly, perhaps my subconscious was consumed with it. If so, my subconscious is pathetic! I didn't come up with anything. And my tiredness doesn't make me feel like writing. I'm cranky.
It's currently 5:30am and the temp is at it's overnight low, 84 degrees. Looks like it's going to be another hot one. Too bad, I was rather enjoying sleeping through the hottest part of the day. Of course, even though numerically speaking I should have gotten plenty of rest, I feel quite tired. I suppose I could try a dose of caffeine, but it doesn't seem to work that way with me. If I am tired, caffeine and these hyped up energy drinks just put me to sleep faster. It seems to even me out for an hour or so, but then I just crash and pass out. But then, since I am so tired, maybe I could use a little more sleep.
Bleh!
I hope this post sounds as uninspired as I feel.
I suppose at some point, I could update my character sheets. I also started a new set of sheets that I cannot name for it will spoil some of the surprise for those that have not read any of the book. Anyway, I consider this a part of the writing process, so maybe I'll do the technical busy work today to get myself over my word limit for the week. What I really need to do is rewrite the character sheets to incorporate the information of the new sheets. Maybe I'll just rewrite the whole thing.
Capital idea!
I also need to do several chores. I haven't cleaned in a couple of weeks and I never did make it to the grocery store this week, so my cupboards are bare. Well, I have a half a loaf of multi-grain bread and a big jar of peanut butter, so I could easily live a couple of days without going hungry. I could also have another big order of food delivered. I found a new flier on my door yesterday for another local restaurant I could try.
Is it really that obvious that I don't want to walk to the grocery store in this heat feeling as tired as I do now?
Hey! We all knew I was a fat lazy bastard when I moved out here. I make no excuses.
Maybe I'll take a nap and everything will be better in an hour or two...
Saturday, June 14, 2008
102
Nope, 102 is not the temperature. Today's high is expected to be 105. I realized last night that today is my 102nd day in Vegas. Which means I missed my 100th day. Oh well. Times are tough all over.
I had another successful night of writing, about 1300 words. I need a mere 650 words to hit my 4000 word goal for the week. This may be tough. I have been merrily writing the last two days after my supposed bout of two day writer's block, but I am once again at an impasse. I need to write a scene and I don't know what it should be. It's truly a shame because I know exactly what's going to happen in the scene after that!
I know your first thought. Just write the next scene and come back and finish the current scene later. It sounds good in theory, but I just can't write like that. Now my success for the week depends on whether or not I can finish off my current scene or not.
Stay tuned!
I stayed at the Hilton for a while this morning to watch a soccer match between Spain and Sweden. I was planning on parlaying the spread with the over, but they wouldn't let me for some reason. I won't get into any explanations as to why I liked the bet. I have bigger gripes, but I'll get to that in a moment. I really liked the over, but when I wasn't allowed to play the parlay, I just didn't bet. I should have played my instincts because the Spaniards won 2-1. My over would have hit and the spread would have been a push. Regardless, I placed no bets and sat down to enjoy the game.
Unfortunately, the game was a perfect example of why this sport will never be overly popular in North America. The two worst things about soccer happened in this game:
1) Sweden ties the game 1-1 in the 34th minute and then proceeds to play to "not lose". Rather than try to carry some momentum to a possible win, they set themselves to play defense the rest of the game. There was almost 60 minutes left for crying out loud! I'm glad they were unsuccessful and Spain won. They did nothing to even deserve a tie after the they scored. It was an absolute snooze fest after an excellent start to the game.
2) The complete unwillingness of the referees to call a foul in the box. For those that don't remember their gym classes, any defensive fouls in the goalie box is an automatic penalty kick. At the end of the first half, a Swedish player OBVIOUSLY fouled a Spanish player in the box and there was no call. The guy didn't even make a play for the ball, in fact, his back was to the ball. He just threw himself into the guy and laid him out.
What has to happen to get a foul in there? Decapitation?
It was a ridiculous game and painful to watch. There are other reasons that Americans won't embrace the sport, like how all the players are a bunch of flopping pansies. Women's soccer is far more interesting to watch because they play tough. The men play like wimps. And of course, there is the fact that a game can, and often does, end in a tie. Americans hate the idea of a tie so much they've long since forced the NHL to decide games by penalty shots. They may as well flip a coin.
I had another successful night of writing, about 1300 words. I need a mere 650 words to hit my 4000 word goal for the week. This may be tough. I have been merrily writing the last two days after my supposed bout of two day writer's block, but I am once again at an impasse. I need to write a scene and I don't know what it should be. It's truly a shame because I know exactly what's going to happen in the scene after that!
I know your first thought. Just write the next scene and come back and finish the current scene later. It sounds good in theory, but I just can't write like that. Now my success for the week depends on whether or not I can finish off my current scene or not.
Stay tuned!
I stayed at the Hilton for a while this morning to watch a soccer match between Spain and Sweden. I was planning on parlaying the spread with the over, but they wouldn't let me for some reason. I won't get into any explanations as to why I liked the bet. I have bigger gripes, but I'll get to that in a moment. I really liked the over, but when I wasn't allowed to play the parlay, I just didn't bet. I should have played my instincts because the Spaniards won 2-1. My over would have hit and the spread would have been a push. Regardless, I placed no bets and sat down to enjoy the game.
Unfortunately, the game was a perfect example of why this sport will never be overly popular in North America. The two worst things about soccer happened in this game:
1) Sweden ties the game 1-1 in the 34th minute and then proceeds to play to "not lose". Rather than try to carry some momentum to a possible win, they set themselves to play defense the rest of the game. There was almost 60 minutes left for crying out loud! I'm glad they were unsuccessful and Spain won. They did nothing to even deserve a tie after the they scored. It was an absolute snooze fest after an excellent start to the game.
2) The complete unwillingness of the referees to call a foul in the box. For those that don't remember their gym classes, any defensive fouls in the goalie box is an automatic penalty kick. At the end of the first half, a Swedish player OBVIOUSLY fouled a Spanish player in the box and there was no call. The guy didn't even make a play for the ball, in fact, his back was to the ball. He just threw himself into the guy and laid him out.
What has to happen to get a foul in there? Decapitation?
It was a ridiculous game and painful to watch. There are other reasons that Americans won't embrace the sport, like how all the players are a bunch of flopping pansies. Women's soccer is far more interesting to watch because they play tough. The men play like wimps. And of course, there is the fact that a game can, and often does, end in a tie. Americans hate the idea of a tie so much they've long since forced the NHL to decide games by penalty shots. They may as well flip a coin.
Friday, June 13, 2008
The Perfect Day
I slept pretty well last night. Unfortunately, I slept through the fourth game in the NBA finals just like I did the third, but I am oddly at peace with the situation. Since I don't like to bet on the finals, there is nothing at stake so it is less interesting, but then I don't usually like to watch games I bet on, so it is a bit catch 22-ish. The strangest thing of all, the whole series has been a complete mystery to me. Everything I have expected to happen in the series has been completely off base. What can I say? I can't get'em all correct and if I am going to be wrong, all the better that I am not betting it.
So around midnight I have breakfast, which consists of a shot of 5 hour energy chased by an energy drink. It had been a while since I had had either and since I wanted to get in some serious writing, I figured now was the time. It worked; two and a half hours later I had written 1500 words and it was time for a real breakfast. That is, if one considers Ramen noodles a breakfast.
The next step in my overnight involved listening to Mike and Mike in the morning while I burned some CDs and DVDs. I also looked over the soccer and baseball matches. Nothing tripped my trigger in soccer, but I did like a couple of baseball bets.
By the time eight of the clock rolled around, I had warn out all of my energy. The task of walking down to the Hilton for a third straight day seemed pretty daunting. I mean it is about a half mile one way you know. The only reason I made it out the door was because it was Friday and I wanted to hit the post office so I could send out the DVD sets I had burned. Four mailings altogether! Enjoy them you ingrates.
So I dragged my fat gut to the Hilton. What? My ass is actually kind of boney. Anyway, I placed my bets; went to the post office; mailed out the packages, and on the way home I decided to go the more inconvenient way back. I'm not sure why. I was tired and I guess I just wanted to see how the construction was coming along. Much to my delight they had fenced off a pedestrian pathway and I no longer had to go all the way around.
Hallelujah! This cuts off about 30% of the walking time to the post office. Of course, I won't have any reason to go for another month, but whatever. Never before had simply going to the post office been such a daunting task. (Unless it was my last couple hours in Albany, right Cullen?) It is still the farthest away of all the basic conveniences of daily life, but it is not quite so bad anymore.
Once home, dripping with sweat, I decided it was time to check out the full joy of the pool, and coolness prevailed. Fortunately, a small corner of the pool was shaded by a tree, so I leaned up against the walls of that corner and closed my eyes. Blissfully enjoying the cooling process. Not surprisingly, I could only sit there for about 20 minutes before my muscles started to spasm. The water was probably mid 70's and although that sounds perfect, since I wasn't moving and keeping my muscles warm, hypothermia will set in eventually.
It's not quite noon and now that I am done writing my daily entry, I have a few hours before bedtime and nothing to do. Guess I'll look for an audacity tutorial. Maybe I can improve the sound quality of my voice recordings. Just in case I decide to record another call to a podcast.
So around midnight I have breakfast, which consists of a shot of 5 hour energy chased by an energy drink. It had been a while since I had had either and since I wanted to get in some serious writing, I figured now was the time. It worked; two and a half hours later I had written 1500 words and it was time for a real breakfast. That is, if one considers Ramen noodles a breakfast.
The next step in my overnight involved listening to Mike and Mike in the morning while I burned some CDs and DVDs. I also looked over the soccer and baseball matches. Nothing tripped my trigger in soccer, but I did like a couple of baseball bets.
By the time eight of the clock rolled around, I had warn out all of my energy. The task of walking down to the Hilton for a third straight day seemed pretty daunting. I mean it is about a half mile one way you know. The only reason I made it out the door was because it was Friday and I wanted to hit the post office so I could send out the DVD sets I had burned. Four mailings altogether! Enjoy them you ingrates.
So I dragged my fat gut to the Hilton. What? My ass is actually kind of boney. Anyway, I placed my bets; went to the post office; mailed out the packages, and on the way home I decided to go the more inconvenient way back. I'm not sure why. I was tired and I guess I just wanted to see how the construction was coming along. Much to my delight they had fenced off a pedestrian pathway and I no longer had to go all the way around.
Hallelujah! This cuts off about 30% of the walking time to the post office. Of course, I won't have any reason to go for another month, but whatever. Never before had simply going to the post office been such a daunting task. (Unless it was my last couple hours in Albany, right Cullen?) It is still the farthest away of all the basic conveniences of daily life, but it is not quite so bad anymore.
Once home, dripping with sweat, I decided it was time to check out the full joy of the pool, and coolness prevailed. Fortunately, a small corner of the pool was shaded by a tree, so I leaned up against the walls of that corner and closed my eyes. Blissfully enjoying the cooling process. Not surprisingly, I could only sit there for about 20 minutes before my muscles started to spasm. The water was probably mid 70's and although that sounds perfect, since I wasn't moving and keeping my muscles warm, hypothermia will set in eventually.
It's not quite noon and now that I am done writing my daily entry, I have a few hours before bedtime and nothing to do. Guess I'll look for an audacity tutorial. Maybe I can improve the sound quality of my voice recordings. Just in case I decide to record another call to a podcast.
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Back in Black
Man is AC/DC just old an tired...
Anyway, I figured I'd update people as to my gamblin's. The past few days I made three bets that all won, so I am back in the black for the month, though only by $105. One of the bets was on a European soccer match in the Euro 2008 tournament. Yup, I'll bet soccer too. Anytime I feel I can get a good bet, I'll make it.
I toyed with the idea of betting on Germany this morning, and had been planning on making a bet on them for the past couple of days, but just couldn't bring myself to do it this morning. I even called Kim from the sportsbook at the Hilton to find out the weather in Klagenfurt, Austria. Unfortunately, she's been ducking my calls and emails since I sent her the stuff from the Tea Expo. Guess, I was just her friend until she didn't need me anymore. So I called my sister and she told me that it was raining or on the verge of and I used it as an excuse to not make the bet. A rainy game is played much tighter and often ends in ties. In soccer, I would lose my bet on a tie. It's not a push.
When I went back into the sportsbook, I saw on the TV that it wasn't really raining, but I just didn't feel good about the bet. I know I had been looking forward to placing it for two days, but when the time came I just didn't get a positive vibe. It was good I did not make the bet. Croatia dominated the ball in the game and easily dismissed Germany 2-1.
This weekend marks the beginning of two or three weeks of interleague play in baseball. As much as I hate betting baseball, I hate betting the interleague games even more. Since the teams from the opposite leagues play against each other so rarely, it gets really hard to predict games. Oh well, as I said before, I'll have to figure it out. I still need to make another $500 this month to cover the rent again. Crawling out of a $350 hole to start the month off didn't help. It still pisses me off that I screwed up those bets.
I slept very little last night. I couldn't seem to get to sleep until 5:30 or 6pm. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 10pm and Moose called minutes later. He and I talked for close to three hours and by then I was too awake to go back to bed. We also spent a lot of time discussing the direction of the second novel and such. He did say he wished he was able to contribute more to the project, but having him as a sounding board helps a ton. It also helps that he likes the way I am writing the book, or at least, the way I intend to write the final version. Right now, I am writing the highlights of the characters and making sure the plot is moving along. In the end, I plan to make it very character driven with the plot coming along for the ride. I have characters in the first novel that are only mentioned by name, but are fully fleshed out characters that will have sections featuring their own point of view in the rewrites. They just weren't important to write about right now.
I kind of zoned out most of the night and didn't get any real writing done, but I did think about a number of ideas that Moose and I bantered about, so it wasn't exactly unproductive. I look forward to getting some sleep this afternoon and getting a good shot of writing done tonight. After that, I'll have to decide if any of the interleague games are worth considering this weekend. Perhaps, I should just figure out if the Netherlands are really going to beat France tomorrow. I think they might. What do you think?
Anyway, I figured I'd update people as to my gamblin's. The past few days I made three bets that all won, so I am back in the black for the month, though only by $105. One of the bets was on a European soccer match in the Euro 2008 tournament. Yup, I'll bet soccer too. Anytime I feel I can get a good bet, I'll make it.
I toyed with the idea of betting on Germany this morning, and had been planning on making a bet on them for the past couple of days, but just couldn't bring myself to do it this morning. I even called Kim from the sportsbook at the Hilton to find out the weather in Klagenfurt, Austria. Unfortunately, she's been ducking my calls and emails since I sent her the stuff from the Tea Expo. Guess, I was just her friend until she didn't need me anymore. So I called my sister and she told me that it was raining or on the verge of and I used it as an excuse to not make the bet. A rainy game is played much tighter and often ends in ties. In soccer, I would lose my bet on a tie. It's not a push.
When I went back into the sportsbook, I saw on the TV that it wasn't really raining, but I just didn't feel good about the bet. I know I had been looking forward to placing it for two days, but when the time came I just didn't get a positive vibe. It was good I did not make the bet. Croatia dominated the ball in the game and easily dismissed Germany 2-1.
This weekend marks the beginning of two or three weeks of interleague play in baseball. As much as I hate betting baseball, I hate betting the interleague games even more. Since the teams from the opposite leagues play against each other so rarely, it gets really hard to predict games. Oh well, as I said before, I'll have to figure it out. I still need to make another $500 this month to cover the rent again. Crawling out of a $350 hole to start the month off didn't help. It still pisses me off that I screwed up those bets.
I slept very little last night. I couldn't seem to get to sleep until 5:30 or 6pm. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 10pm and Moose called minutes later. He and I talked for close to three hours and by then I was too awake to go back to bed. We also spent a lot of time discussing the direction of the second novel and such. He did say he wished he was able to contribute more to the project, but having him as a sounding board helps a ton. It also helps that he likes the way I am writing the book, or at least, the way I intend to write the final version. Right now, I am writing the highlights of the characters and making sure the plot is moving along. In the end, I plan to make it very character driven with the plot coming along for the ride. I have characters in the first novel that are only mentioned by name, but are fully fleshed out characters that will have sections featuring their own point of view in the rewrites. They just weren't important to write about right now.
I kind of zoned out most of the night and didn't get any real writing done, but I did think about a number of ideas that Moose and I bantered about, so it wasn't exactly unproductive. I look forward to getting some sleep this afternoon and getting a good shot of writing done tonight. After that, I'll have to decide if any of the interleague games are worth considering this weekend. Perhaps, I should just figure out if the Netherlands are really going to beat France tomorrow. I think they might. What do you think?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
I Wanna Dip My...
Ah, good old Louie from MTV's, The State. I'm not sure anyone, aside from John, will get that reference. The title of this post is only the first half of Louie's catchphrase, if you don't know it, I'll leave the rest to your imagination. Of course, I've given you enough information that you could always look it up online. I'm sure it's out there somewhere.
I felt this title was appropriate because I almost went swimming tonight. I woke up around 10pm and by midnight felt that I could use a good cooling off. The past few days around here the overnight low has gotten to about 75 and that's not until about 5am. At midnight, it was probably low to mid 80's. Unfortuantely, it was quite breezy this evening and so by the time I got out there, the pool was filled with all kinds of leaves and twigs and crud that swimming was quite unappetizing. I'll wait until the pool crew cleans it out in the morning. Of course, swimming late at night in the dark would be much preferable. By 9am it will be upper 80's and I probably won't want to go outside. Not to mention exposing my delicate pasty white skin to the sunlight is never a good option. We'll see. I'm sure I'll be cooling away in the pool eventually.
I did put my feet in to let them soak as I lay back on the concrete looking up at the sky with no stars. All the light pollution, as everyone is aware, tends to overpower the starlight. I thought about how funny it is that no one gives light pollution a second thought. Including me, I simply moved on and started focusing on why I'd come out in the first place. I was out there thinking because I hadn't come up with my next scene in the book.
I know you're all thinking: writer's block! I cursed myself in talking about it yesterday. But as I said, I don't think like that. After about ten minutes I figured out the next scene and came in and wrote it; 522 words. It wasn't a long scene, but it flows into what's supposed to happen next, so when I start writing again, either later tonight or tomorrow, I know what I want to write to follow it up. So the block appears to be lifted.
Staying up all night has killed my project of getting more exercise. I don't care for walking around at night. It never bothered me in Albany, even the beggars cleared out early, but here, there are too many desperate people around and the beggars are out even more at night; because it's cooler no doubt. Anyway, I know it's a lame excuse, but I really hate fending off people begging for money. Probably because I know that I could be in their shoes in a matter of months. No one likes to face the worst of themselves.
I'm going to try taking a walk this morning around 5am. I could use some stuff at the grocery store and since this is about the time the sun starts to rise, it should be light enough to keep the vampires away and cool enough that I won't burst into flame.
I felt this title was appropriate because I almost went swimming tonight. I woke up around 10pm and by midnight felt that I could use a good cooling off. The past few days around here the overnight low has gotten to about 75 and that's not until about 5am. At midnight, it was probably low to mid 80's. Unfortuantely, it was quite breezy this evening and so by the time I got out there, the pool was filled with all kinds of leaves and twigs and crud that swimming was quite unappetizing. I'll wait until the pool crew cleans it out in the morning. Of course, swimming late at night in the dark would be much preferable. By 9am it will be upper 80's and I probably won't want to go outside. Not to mention exposing my delicate pasty white skin to the sunlight is never a good option. We'll see. I'm sure I'll be cooling away in the pool eventually.
I did put my feet in to let them soak as I lay back on the concrete looking up at the sky with no stars. All the light pollution, as everyone is aware, tends to overpower the starlight. I thought about how funny it is that no one gives light pollution a second thought. Including me, I simply moved on and started focusing on why I'd come out in the first place. I was out there thinking because I hadn't come up with my next scene in the book.
I know you're all thinking: writer's block! I cursed myself in talking about it yesterday. But as I said, I don't think like that. After about ten minutes I figured out the next scene and came in and wrote it; 522 words. It wasn't a long scene, but it flows into what's supposed to happen next, so when I start writing again, either later tonight or tomorrow, I know what I want to write to follow it up. So the block appears to be lifted.
Staying up all night has killed my project of getting more exercise. I don't care for walking around at night. It never bothered me in Albany, even the beggars cleared out early, but here, there are too many desperate people around and the beggars are out even more at night; because it's cooler no doubt. Anyway, I know it's a lame excuse, but I really hate fending off people begging for money. Probably because I know that I could be in their shoes in a matter of months. No one likes to face the worst of themselves.
I'm going to try taking a walk this morning around 5am. I could use some stuff at the grocery store and since this is about the time the sun starts to rise, it should be light enough to keep the vampires away and cool enough that I won't burst into flame.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Doc vs. Doc
I changed my posting name on the blog from Doctor Augur to Doc Brown. An augur was a Roman soothsayer and I can't say as I achieved that status here on the blog, so I decided to just stick with my name. It would take too much of my time and creative energy to try to post something researched and profound every day, and since no one has complained about the hack work I've been posting thus far, I may as well keep it hack work.
No one reads this stuff anyway. That's why I have to mail copies to my mom and grandmother to get anyone to read it. Not that that was a whine or complaint. Don't get me wrong. I have said before and say again now that I write this for myself to keep me honest. The longer I go without making an entry the more guilty I feel. I'm not sure why, but I have grown accustomed to posting my small daily victories here. Thus, if I miss a post, I am either really really tired or I have not accomplished enough that day and am too embarrassed with myself to talk about it. Usually, the latter.
I did not get any writing done last night, but I did get a number of small things out of the way. Useless stuff mostly, but obviously I'm not so embarrassed by the work to miss my post. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was finally using Audacity (that freeware sound recording program I mentioned a long time ago) to make a 90 second contribution to one of the podcasts I listen to. Basically, I thanked them for their hard work and great content and then said a few words about the passing of Robert Asprin. It was through their podcast that I first heard of his passing, so it seemed appropriate that I air my opinion on their show.
As for my writing, I am in one of those, "I don't know what I'm going to write next" phases. I wouldn't go so far as to call it writer's block. I'm not sure I've ever experienced such an event. Excuse me while I knock the underside of my command center. I have always taken writer's block to be something that is a persistent problem that prevents someone for writing for weeks. It just saps all creativity and writing drive.
If I don't write for weeks, it is more typically laziness or simply being burned out from writing. When burned out, I can still force myself to write, but it takes a couple hours to squeeze out two or three hundred words. I usually write two to three times that speed, but I appear to be a sprinter. I can't write more than two to three hours a day in most cases.
Days like today I don't consider writer's block because if I had something to write, I feel I could write it. It's just that at the moment, I haven't figured out what happens next in the story. I mean literally, what should happen in the next scene escapes me. I just need to let the creative juices simmer a bit and then I'll know what goes next. Once I decide what the next scene will be, I don't feel as though I'll have any trouble writing it.
If this is writer's block, then I guess I have it all the time, but it only lasts a day, maybe two tops. I'll let you come up with your own definition and allow you to apply it to determine whether or not I am undergoing a fit of writer's block.
No one reads this stuff anyway. That's why I have to mail copies to my mom and grandmother to get anyone to read it. Not that that was a whine or complaint. Don't get me wrong. I have said before and say again now that I write this for myself to keep me honest. The longer I go without making an entry the more guilty I feel. I'm not sure why, but I have grown accustomed to posting my small daily victories here. Thus, if I miss a post, I am either really really tired or I have not accomplished enough that day and am too embarrassed with myself to talk about it. Usually, the latter.
I did not get any writing done last night, but I did get a number of small things out of the way. Useless stuff mostly, but obviously I'm not so embarrassed by the work to miss my post. Perhaps the biggest accomplishment was finally using Audacity (that freeware sound recording program I mentioned a long time ago) to make a 90 second contribution to one of the podcasts I listen to. Basically, I thanked them for their hard work and great content and then said a few words about the passing of Robert Asprin. It was through their podcast that I first heard of his passing, so it seemed appropriate that I air my opinion on their show.
As for my writing, I am in one of those, "I don't know what I'm going to write next" phases. I wouldn't go so far as to call it writer's block. I'm not sure I've ever experienced such an event. Excuse me while I knock the underside of my command center. I have always taken writer's block to be something that is a persistent problem that prevents someone for writing for weeks. It just saps all creativity and writing drive.
If I don't write for weeks, it is more typically laziness or simply being burned out from writing. When burned out, I can still force myself to write, but it takes a couple hours to squeeze out two or three hundred words. I usually write two to three times that speed, but I appear to be a sprinter. I can't write more than two to three hours a day in most cases.
Days like today I don't consider writer's block because if I had something to write, I feel I could write it. It's just that at the moment, I haven't figured out what happens next in the story. I mean literally, what should happen in the next scene escapes me. I just need to let the creative juices simmer a bit and then I'll know what goes next. Once I decide what the next scene will be, I don't feel as though I'll have any trouble writing it.
If this is writer's block, then I guess I have it all the time, but it only lasts a day, maybe two tops. I'll let you come up with your own definition and allow you to apply it to determine whether or not I am undergoing a fit of writer's block.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Grrr! I blew it!
I had a series of baseball bets that I planned on making this weekend and had I made them I would be up $400, but I only made the first one on Friday and it happened to lose so I am $350 in the hole for the month. And just to finish off the kick in the nuts, the French Open was this weekend (that's a tennis event for those who aren't sure what I'm talking about). I was planning on betting on at least the Men's final, but gave some thought to the women's final as well. I predicted both winners and didn't bet either one. So as far as my gambling goes, I really blew it this weekend.
I did accomplish much in my writing; 4200 words and counting this week. I am debating on whether I will stay home and do some more writing or take a break and head down to the Hilton to watch game two of the NBA finals. I like the Lakers to win this game, but am not so confident enough to bet them. The above bets I was confident, but sleeping all day makes weekend betting tough because the games are late morning out here. The French open started at 6am. The betting windows don't even open until 8am. I wasn't thinking in advance. Too distracted by the writing no doubt.
I'll have to work something out. I have a lot of ground to cover now.
I did accomplish much in my writing; 4200 words and counting this week. I am debating on whether I will stay home and do some more writing or take a break and head down to the Hilton to watch game two of the NBA finals. I like the Lakers to win this game, but am not so confident enough to bet them. The above bets I was confident, but sleeping all day makes weekend betting tough because the games are late morning out here. The French open started at 6am. The betting windows don't even open until 8am. I wasn't thinking in advance. Too distracted by the writing no doubt.
I'll have to work something out. I have a lot of ground to cover now.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
The Lard Pack
Ah, high school... I remember it well. I remember it fondly. In fact, I remember it so well and so fondly, I am glad I won't have to deal with those cliquey bastards ever again. There are but three people that I would choose to keep in touch with from that era and I already keep in touch with two of them. That would be John and Scott. The third, well, I am sure Mark is still a good guy, but we have gone our separate ways. We exchanged emails about six or seven years ago, but that is probably the last I'll ever hear from him.
Anyway, after high school, John, Larry and myself used to order food from Pudgies Pizza a special I think was called a Max Pack. It consisted of a sheet pizza, two dozen wings, and 2 liters of soda. The football players used to refer to this as a Lard Pack and we took the name from them. The three of us had little trouble consuming this mass quantity of food. What can I say? We could eat back then. I probably can't eat a third of a Lard Pack now.
I only mention this because I think I just ordered the equivalent of a Lard Pack. A local pizzeria has a family special for three extra large pizzas with two toppings and a 2 liter bottle of soda. Not a bad price at $29 after tax.
I suppose this is the poor man's Saturday night feast instead of the coke and whores. I am sure you are wondering why I would confess such gluttony, but the truth is, I'll probably only have a few slices and then wrap the rest up and eat it throughout the week. It's more of a lazy thing than a gluttony thing.
I am fully stocked with an array of caffeinated products and in the past 30 hours or so, I have written about 2300 words, making 3200 for the week. I'll get a little bit more writing done tonight and there is always tomorrow. If I don't hit my 4000 word goal this week, I'll be quite disappointed. It will be good to hit my word goal the first week of writing the second novel.
Actually, attaining a good strong start on the second novel is the main reason for sacrificing my nutrition over the next few days. I plan to "enjoy" a marathon session of writing.
As a completely off topic aside, I just found out that Robert Asprin passed away. He was the author of my favorite fantasy series, the Myth series, as a teenager. They were typically the books I'd request at Christmas time while I was in school because they were light and could be read in an afternoon or two. A nice change of pace from my math texts.
These books were also the inspiration for my first book writing attempt, "Dimensionally Speaking". I have never finished that story despite having 27 of 32 chapters written. I started it when I was 17 and eventually stopped because I was not satisfied with its quality. I knew I'd have to pick it up again at some point after I was thirty. Originally, it was the book I was going to write before I decided to write the space opera I'm currently working on.
I imagine the Myth series will continue. The last few books were written as collaborations, but they don't have the same charm that the early books had.
Anyway, after high school, John, Larry and myself used to order food from Pudgies Pizza a special I think was called a Max Pack. It consisted of a sheet pizza, two dozen wings, and 2 liters of soda. The football players used to refer to this as a Lard Pack and we took the name from them. The three of us had little trouble consuming this mass quantity of food. What can I say? We could eat back then. I probably can't eat a third of a Lard Pack now.
I only mention this because I think I just ordered the equivalent of a Lard Pack. A local pizzeria has a family special for three extra large pizzas with two toppings and a 2 liter bottle of soda. Not a bad price at $29 after tax.
I suppose this is the poor man's Saturday night feast instead of the coke and whores. I am sure you are wondering why I would confess such gluttony, but the truth is, I'll probably only have a few slices and then wrap the rest up and eat it throughout the week. It's more of a lazy thing than a gluttony thing.
I am fully stocked with an array of caffeinated products and in the past 30 hours or so, I have written about 2300 words, making 3200 for the week. I'll get a little bit more writing done tonight and there is always tomorrow. If I don't hit my 4000 word goal this week, I'll be quite disappointed. It will be good to hit my word goal the first week of writing the second novel.
Actually, attaining a good strong start on the second novel is the main reason for sacrificing my nutrition over the next few days. I plan to "enjoy" a marathon session of writing.
As a completely off topic aside, I just found out that Robert Asprin passed away. He was the author of my favorite fantasy series, the Myth series, as a teenager. They were typically the books I'd request at Christmas time while I was in school because they were light and could be read in an afternoon or two. A nice change of pace from my math texts.
These books were also the inspiration for my first book writing attempt, "Dimensionally Speaking". I have never finished that story despite having 27 of 32 chapters written. I started it when I was 17 and eventually stopped because I was not satisfied with its quality. I knew I'd have to pick it up again at some point after I was thirty. Originally, it was the book I was going to write before I decided to write the space opera I'm currently working on.
I imagine the Myth series will continue. The last few books were written as collaborations, but they don't have the same charm that the early books had.
Friday, June 6, 2008
The New Media
I have previously mentioned podcasts and it has been a while since I have really talked about the new media formats that the World Wide Web has started to bring to the forefront as new media. I still only listen to about five podcasts, but I have been looking to increase that number. If anyone has found a recommendation or two, I'd love to hear it, but I fear most of you, my dear dear friends are not computer savvy enough to just randomly search around for the content and those of you that are savvy are unlikely to be interested. That's life, but I am ever hopeful that I can drag one of you kicking and screaming into the new millennium.
Anyway, I downloaded my first podiobook today. A podiobook is basically a book or serial that an author reads and releases as .mp3 files. Basically, it is an audiobook, but without the cassette tapes and CDs involved. Not that it couldn't be converted to a CD easy enough. I cannot testify to how professionally done these things are since they are most likely to be read by the author on whatever equipment they have available, but I suspect the better ones are fine in that regard. I will let everyone know what my experiences are.
I also downloaded my first videocast. It was a video show that apparently has done so well that it is going to appear on a real TV channel in the near future. For this reason, I figured it was likely to be of reasonably high quality, or at least one of the best choices for checking out the new video media. For those that are interested, it is called "Stranger Things" and can be found on the web at http://strangerthings.tv. As with the podiobook, I will let everyone know what my experiences are with them. Hopefully, I'll get to them this weekend.
The nice thing about these works is that they are truly artistic endeavors. They are created because everyone wants to work on them for sake of making an interesting show. The worst thing about Hollywood, television, and the music recording industry is that they are businesses. In a way, it is also the best thing. Obviously, they apply the best effects and equipment resulting in a finely crafted and sharp looking or sounding product. Alas, much of the artistic pizzazz is lacking in terms of originality. Because they approach their art as a business, they often have to sacrifice originality in an effort to make their work more marketable.
Thus, in the music industry we are forced to listen to stylized clones singing music that has been boiled down to its lowest common denominator. Music that's fast-fooded through the airwaves for us to ingest without regard for it's lack of nutritional, i.e. creative value. Similarly, the movie industry provides us with the same rehashed content. Everything that could be deemed "edgy" is smoothed over into a more pleasant PG-13 package. Watching movies is now something people do to waste time rather than to create a sense of enjoyment or wonder.
Having not seen any videocasts, I know they cannot promise me a wonderfully polished viewing experience with glamorous computerized special effects, but I can at the very least, be assured that I am getting an original creative experience unencumbered with the desire to appeal to a mass audience for the sole purpose of turning a quick buck. I am looking forward to the novel experience.
Anyway, I downloaded my first podiobook today. A podiobook is basically a book or serial that an author reads and releases as .mp3 files. Basically, it is an audiobook, but without the cassette tapes and CDs involved. Not that it couldn't be converted to a CD easy enough. I cannot testify to how professionally done these things are since they are most likely to be read by the author on whatever equipment they have available, but I suspect the better ones are fine in that regard. I will let everyone know what my experiences are.
I also downloaded my first videocast. It was a video show that apparently has done so well that it is going to appear on a real TV channel in the near future. For this reason, I figured it was likely to be of reasonably high quality, or at least one of the best choices for checking out the new video media. For those that are interested, it is called "Stranger Things" and can be found on the web at http://strangerthings.tv. As with the podiobook, I will let everyone know what my experiences are with them. Hopefully, I'll get to them this weekend.
The nice thing about these works is that they are truly artistic endeavors. They are created because everyone wants to work on them for sake of making an interesting show. The worst thing about Hollywood, television, and the music recording industry is that they are businesses. In a way, it is also the best thing. Obviously, they apply the best effects and equipment resulting in a finely crafted and sharp looking or sounding product. Alas, much of the artistic pizzazz is lacking in terms of originality. Because they approach their art as a business, they often have to sacrifice originality in an effort to make their work more marketable.
Thus, in the music industry we are forced to listen to stylized clones singing music that has been boiled down to its lowest common denominator. Music that's fast-fooded through the airwaves for us to ingest without regard for it's lack of nutritional, i.e. creative value. Similarly, the movie industry provides us with the same rehashed content. Everything that could be deemed "edgy" is smoothed over into a more pleasant PG-13 package. Watching movies is now something people do to waste time rather than to create a sense of enjoyment or wonder.
Having not seen any videocasts, I know they cannot promise me a wonderfully polished viewing experience with glamorous computerized special effects, but I can at the very least, be assured that I am getting an original creative experience unencumbered with the desire to appeal to a mass audience for the sole purpose of turning a quick buck. I am looking forward to the novel experience.
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Soy un Perdedor
I decided to be a quitter.
If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is someone who gives up at the drop of a hat. Probably an attitude I developed from playing games with my brother when we were young. He was forever pestering me to play games with him and he would quit at the first signs of losing or even falling behind. It was really annoying.
I recall one time, he was begging for me to play basketball with him and I didn't want to, because I knew he'd just quit. I eventually agreed to play on the condition that he wouldn't quit and if he did, I wouldn't play any games with him again, ever. Of course, within minutes he quit, and though I was not true to my word to not play any games with him again ever, it was several months before I'd even consider it. In fact, I barely talked to him for a good portion of that time.
Of course, I am not such an extremist that I don't think people should never give up. There are times when it is better to cut your losses to save your resources for another day. I understand that, but I guess I feel that when a person decides they are going to do something, there is no point in trying if you're going to quit at the first sign of adversity. My ex-friend Larry was another person I knew who was famous for quitting, basically, everything except that which didn't matter. He claimed a number of times I did not afford him the same respect that I gave John, and though I knew he was right, I didn't recognize why at the time. It was some years after we stopped being friends that I made the connection between my distaste for quitters and my lack of proper respect towards him.
On to the point of my post, and for those who need the translation, "Soy un Perdedor" is Spanish for "I am a loser." They are the mystery words that Beck sings in his song, "Loser". Anyway, I have decided to quit trying to stay on a daytime schedule. I am wasting far too much of my energy fighting my own metabolism. I have written several times this week, but each time I have been too tired and uninspired to mount much of an effort. It is time to focus on the writing rather than my sleeping. Once I get into a groove with the writing I'll try to get back on a proper schedule.
As for my quest to be more active, I have maintained that in a minimal fashion. I was up yesterday for 23 hours. In my shifting to an active nighttime, I have lost a half day, so I guess in some sense I missed a day. I'm not too worried about it. I have walked 2-3 miles on each of my waking sessions, so that is what is most important.
Several people have asked me why I continue to fight my vampirism and as I've said here, the most important reason is to place my bets. This little branch of quitting is definitely going to make my bets a bit annoying, but it'll have to get done. I have been keeping track of baseball for a while now and it is time to start my bets. This is the one sport I am truly worried about betting into, but it needs to be done.
If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is someone who gives up at the drop of a hat. Probably an attitude I developed from playing games with my brother when we were young. He was forever pestering me to play games with him and he would quit at the first signs of losing or even falling behind. It was really annoying.
I recall one time, he was begging for me to play basketball with him and I didn't want to, because I knew he'd just quit. I eventually agreed to play on the condition that he wouldn't quit and if he did, I wouldn't play any games with him again, ever. Of course, within minutes he quit, and though I was not true to my word to not play any games with him again ever, it was several months before I'd even consider it. In fact, I barely talked to him for a good portion of that time.
Of course, I am not such an extremist that I don't think people should never give up. There are times when it is better to cut your losses to save your resources for another day. I understand that, but I guess I feel that when a person decides they are going to do something, there is no point in trying if you're going to quit at the first sign of adversity. My ex-friend Larry was another person I knew who was famous for quitting, basically, everything except that which didn't matter. He claimed a number of times I did not afford him the same respect that I gave John, and though I knew he was right, I didn't recognize why at the time. It was some years after we stopped being friends that I made the connection between my distaste for quitters and my lack of proper respect towards him.
On to the point of my post, and for those who need the translation, "Soy un Perdedor" is Spanish for "I am a loser." They are the mystery words that Beck sings in his song, "Loser". Anyway, I have decided to quit trying to stay on a daytime schedule. I am wasting far too much of my energy fighting my own metabolism. I have written several times this week, but each time I have been too tired and uninspired to mount much of an effort. It is time to focus on the writing rather than my sleeping. Once I get into a groove with the writing I'll try to get back on a proper schedule.
As for my quest to be more active, I have maintained that in a minimal fashion. I was up yesterday for 23 hours. In my shifting to an active nighttime, I have lost a half day, so I guess in some sense I missed a day. I'm not too worried about it. I have walked 2-3 miles on each of my waking sessions, so that is what is most important.
Several people have asked me why I continue to fight my vampirism and as I've said here, the most important reason is to place my bets. This little branch of quitting is definitely going to make my bets a bit annoying, but it'll have to get done. I have been keeping track of baseball for a while now and it is time to start my bets. This is the one sport I am truly worried about betting into, but it needs to be done.
Monday, June 2, 2008
I've Got a New Attitudinarianism
I have had three writing sessions totaling just over 1500 words the past two weeks. My vacation is over and it is time to start some new projects. Obviously, the most important of which is starting the second novel. I slept rather poorly last night, but managed to get a little sleep. I woke up unrefreshed and uninspired, nonetheless, I sat down and forced myself to write over 500 words. Not a great day, but passable.
Now that I have been here three months, I feel it is time to get out of my apartment. If I am not going to bother to find any slugs to socialize with, I am at least not going to be a slug myself. My next secondary project is to get a little exercise. I am going to start small and insist upon myself that I do something outside of the apartment every day (or most days at least).
In honor of this project, I went out for a nice walk from 1pm to 3pm. Well, nice is relative. It was at least 95 degrees at the time, but I had to get to the post office today for two purposes. The first, I sent out copies of the last six weeks of my blog to my mother and grandmother.
The second, I sent Kim all the goodies I picked up at the Tea Expo on Saturday.
There has to be a closer post office that I don't know about. Perhaps a convenience store doubling up its purposes. The walk to the closest official post office is at least two miles, probably closer to two and a half. The worst part is the construction I am forced to go around to get to it. If you think construction is bad in your major city. Trust me, you're starting at number two on the list. Anyway, it took me the better part of two hours to walk there, stand in line for twenty minutes and come back home.
Tomorrow, I need to go to the bank to deposit my federal refund check and federal stimulus check. This walk is much more convenient and is maybe a mile at the most. Of course, I won't be able to do this until I finish my writing session, but also, I have an appointment with Cox Communications anywhere from 10am to noon. Last week when they turned off my internet for being two days late with the payment, it was never turned back on. I called on Saturday to get the service started once again, but it seems they screwed up the line somehow and couldn't get things going again and now have to make a service call.
So I lose connection for a week for being two days late with the payment. It's a bit punitive don't you think? What are the odds that I'll get those five days refunded or an extension on my bill next month? Yeah, I'm not holding my breath. Perhaps, I should play their game and send them a bill for a $15 administration fee for having to contact them about their insufficient service.
I have long contemplated having a lawyer draw me up an agreement whereby I have each service provider, whether it is internet, phone, cable, etc. sign a contract with me so they can provide me their services. These businesses charge all kinds of administration fees when I make a mistake and inconvenience them, I should be able to charge them when they inconvenience me.
I do not believe they are going to charge me a late payment fee or any kind of reconnection fee. If that is the case, I'll likely let the week of inconvenience go seeing as it was brought on by my own laziness. But if I get some sort of late payment fee next month, I will get my five days back, one way or another.
Now that I have been here three months, I feel it is time to get out of my apartment. If I am not going to bother to find any slugs to socialize with, I am at least not going to be a slug myself. My next secondary project is to get a little exercise. I am going to start small and insist upon myself that I do something outside of the apartment every day (or most days at least).
In honor of this project, I went out for a nice walk from 1pm to 3pm. Well, nice is relative. It was at least 95 degrees at the time, but I had to get to the post office today for two purposes. The first, I sent out copies of the last six weeks of my blog to my mother and grandmother.
The second, I sent Kim all the goodies I picked up at the Tea Expo on Saturday.
There has to be a closer post office that I don't know about. Perhaps a convenience store doubling up its purposes. The walk to the closest official post office is at least two miles, probably closer to two and a half. The worst part is the construction I am forced to go around to get to it. If you think construction is bad in your major city. Trust me, you're starting at number two on the list. Anyway, it took me the better part of two hours to walk there, stand in line for twenty minutes and come back home.
Tomorrow, I need to go to the bank to deposit my federal refund check and federal stimulus check. This walk is much more convenient and is maybe a mile at the most. Of course, I won't be able to do this until I finish my writing session, but also, I have an appointment with Cox Communications anywhere from 10am to noon. Last week when they turned off my internet for being two days late with the payment, it was never turned back on. I called on Saturday to get the service started once again, but it seems they screwed up the line somehow and couldn't get things going again and now have to make a service call.
So I lose connection for a week for being two days late with the payment. It's a bit punitive don't you think? What are the odds that I'll get those five days refunded or an extension on my bill next month? Yeah, I'm not holding my breath. Perhaps, I should play their game and send them a bill for a $15 administration fee for having to contact them about their insufficient service.
I have long contemplated having a lawyer draw me up an agreement whereby I have each service provider, whether it is internet, phone, cable, etc. sign a contract with me so they can provide me their services. These businesses charge all kinds of administration fees when I make a mistake and inconvenience them, I should be able to charge them when they inconvenience me.
I do not believe they are going to charge me a late payment fee or any kind of reconnection fee. If that is the case, I'll likely let the week of inconvenience go seeing as it was brought on by my own laziness. But if I get some sort of late payment fee next month, I will get my five days back, one way or another.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Groggy
Yesterday was a bit of a tough day, even if it was quite productive. In my attempts to get back onto a day time life, I managed to bifurcate my sleep cycle. I was sleeping from 9pm to 1am and then again from 10am to 2pm. I couldn't seem to get more than hours of sleep and I couldn't stay up longer than 8 or 9 hours. This has happened to me before, but only a couple of times. It is rather unpleasant.
I slept Friday night from 9pm to 12:30am and stayed up the rest of the night. I had agreed to go to Mandalay Bay for the World Tea Expo on her behalf. Those who know me well, know that I cannot stand drinking hot teas. (I'm not a big fan of ice tea either.) As far as I am concerned, they taste like twigs and weeds dissolved in water because, well, I guess that's what they are.
Nevertheless, Kim was not able to attend, so I went to go pick up the literature of a number of vendors she was interested in. The convention was just like any other wholesale convention I've been to, but the ones I went to for my restaurant were still the best. MMMM! Yummy food and drink everywhere for those, but here, every vendor had a set of bowls laid out, each laced with dried up weeds. No thanks.
I arrived around 10am and it seemed as though I was the only one there. I found out an hour later that the exhibitor displays weren't supposed to be open until 11:30. One guy asked how I managed to get in, I said, "I walked in." Funny thing is, the guard at the door looked right at my attendee's badge as I marched in 90 minutes too early. I guess there's something to be said for walking around with a bit too much confidence all the time. No one ever asks me if I know what I am doing until I do something incredibly stupid.
All things considered it was pretty fun. It was a nice change to be around so many people looking to help me, even if it was while they were trying to sell me non-hallucinogenic weeds. I told Kim that, while in Vegas, I have managed at times, to go days without saying a word. This should come as no surprise since I have blogged about not bothering to leave my apartment for a couple of days here and there. Who am I going to talk to? She said that this was unhealthy, though I would submit that most would consider it far more unhealthy if I had been talking to someone while alone in my apartment.
Anyway, I didn't start to feel tired until about 1pm. I walked to the monorail (a whole other story I won't get into today) and took it home. I then forced myself to stay up until 8pm. It was quite the trial, but I managed to do it while pacing in my apartment watching a handful of CSI: NY episodes. I am getting so sick of these CSI shows. Sadly, they are the "smartest" shows on TV, but they have so much obviously incorrect BS, it is getting on my nerves. I finally had to quit watching once they managed to lift a fingerprint off a dinner napkin. So much for being one of the smarter shows on TV.
I slept from 8:30pm to 7am. I am hoping this puts me back on a daytime cycle. I feel like a train hit me after walking around so much yesterday and forcing myself to stay up the extra 10 hours in the process. I'll try to take it easy today. But no naps!
Hope everyone had a good month of May.
I slept Friday night from 9pm to 12:30am and stayed up the rest of the night. I had agreed to go to Mandalay Bay for the World Tea Expo on her behalf. Those who know me well, know that I cannot stand drinking hot teas. (I'm not a big fan of ice tea either.) As far as I am concerned, they taste like twigs and weeds dissolved in water because, well, I guess that's what they are.
Nevertheless, Kim was not able to attend, so I went to go pick up the literature of a number of vendors she was interested in. The convention was just like any other wholesale convention I've been to, but the ones I went to for my restaurant were still the best. MMMM! Yummy food and drink everywhere for those, but here, every vendor had a set of bowls laid out, each laced with dried up weeds. No thanks.
I arrived around 10am and it seemed as though I was the only one there. I found out an hour later that the exhibitor displays weren't supposed to be open until 11:30. One guy asked how I managed to get in, I said, "I walked in." Funny thing is, the guard at the door looked right at my attendee's badge as I marched in 90 minutes too early. I guess there's something to be said for walking around with a bit too much confidence all the time. No one ever asks me if I know what I am doing until I do something incredibly stupid.
All things considered it was pretty fun. It was a nice change to be around so many people looking to help me, even if it was while they were trying to sell me non-hallucinogenic weeds. I told Kim that, while in Vegas, I have managed at times, to go days without saying a word. This should come as no surprise since I have blogged about not bothering to leave my apartment for a couple of days here and there. Who am I going to talk to? She said that this was unhealthy, though I would submit that most would consider it far more unhealthy if I had been talking to someone while alone in my apartment.
Anyway, I didn't start to feel tired until about 1pm. I walked to the monorail (a whole other story I won't get into today) and took it home. I then forced myself to stay up until 8pm. It was quite the trial, but I managed to do it while pacing in my apartment watching a handful of CSI: NY episodes. I am getting so sick of these CSI shows. Sadly, they are the "smartest" shows on TV, but they have so much obviously incorrect BS, it is getting on my nerves. I finally had to quit watching once they managed to lift a fingerprint off a dinner napkin. So much for being one of the smarter shows on TV.
I slept from 8:30pm to 7am. I am hoping this puts me back on a daytime cycle. I feel like a train hit me after walking around so much yesterday and forcing myself to stay up the extra 10 hours in the process. I'll try to take it easy today. But no naps!
Hope everyone had a good month of May.
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