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(01/08/12 - 10:18 AM)
Another week, another cluster of lifetime well wasted. I've written more in the past ten days than I have in years. And I'm loving every minute of it. The flow and ease that the writing is arriving with gives me hope that I won't be a one-book-wonder but can be, in fact, a genuine novelist. And, while the book is raw at best, the story is taking shape and promises to be engaging - so long as I can deliver the goods in the final form.Spent a number of hours working on a computer this week in an attempt to give it a colonic and make it faster. I did what I could but - at nine years old, running Windows XP on 256MB of ram - even Jesus himself would have had a hard time with that one.
On another note: I appreciate my wife every day - always have. Yet, these past few days I've realized anew just how in love I am with this smart and amazing woman. I find myself going all squashy inside even just looking at her. And the thought of being able to see her everyday just makes me swoon. Just thought I'd throw that out there to all of you unsure about your relationships because if, after fourteen years, you don't still feel this way, then one of you is doing it wrong.
I've been passively updating my Pinterest profile this week as well. I still don't get it, but folks seem to like it, and are connecting to me, so I can't dismiss it. It's another way to get my message out, and to market myself - two things that are important to me right at the moment.
This week also marks a new first for me: I now come equipped with a smart phone. I've avoided the things like the plague, because I didn't NEED one, and I couldn't really justify the expense. When Wanda's went to a better place this week, though, I finally aquiesced as we re-upped our contract and got a new pair of phones. So far, I find that it does a lot of amazing things, and I'm sure I'll love it. BUT: it's hard for me to use with my giant hands, and it's like a foreign country in there.
I'll figure it out... in my spare time.
Today I have another PC patient to see: a laptop that won't boot. I want to fix it for the guy, if I can, but a part of me is hoping (after hearing a synopsis of the bizarre and myriad symptons plaguing the thing) that it will be something I'll need to hand off to my friend, Gary, for his professional repair. I'm not much for hardware swaps in laptops - he is. I also don't have the diagnostic tools at my disposal that he does. And - most importantly - he charges for his time, while I accept a smile and a thank you.
Maybe it'll be easy, though... but I doubt it.
Work went insane this week, and I put in a near-fifty hour week for the first time in a while. I still remember years on end when that would seem like a vacation. I guess it's a testament to streamlining the processes, and the advancement of ability in the employees surrounding me. Still, the money is nice.
I watched, "Shutter Island" this week and was disappointed. It felt like, "The Others" from a different perspective, plot-line-wise. I have the book, which I haven't read and, now, I don't know that I will. It just wasn't for me.
I've done a ton of work on the media library this week, as I've been writing and have the ability to babysit the conversions. It's getting to be a bit ungainly, so I'm hoping that 3Tb hard drives come down in price soon. The good news? I've still got some time - and space - left for the time being.
Wanda's brother and sister-in-law officially announced the name of upcoming child #4 this week: Isiah Joseph. Wanda now has a whole new nephew to look forward to spoiling.
As the date of our cruise approaches, I still feel stress about the unknowns. I haven't flown since i was thirteen, so I have no idea what the etiquitte is, nor do I relish being in a series of foreign countries where I will be at the whim of the populace with regard to returning in time to the ship that will happily sail away without me. I'm sure the fears are unfounded, but I could be spot on for all I know. My hope is that there are clear, concise, and helpful instructions along the way. There have to be because one doesn't hear too often of morons left behind.
On today's agenda? Writing. Prolific amounts of it. I appreciate all of your continued readership during these chaotic weeks and I can only promise that, when things settle out, the blog will be a lot more funny, interesting, and packed with stuff. Tentatively, this will be about the first week of March - so bear with me, and thank you!
(01/02/12 - 11:44 AM)
It has been a wacky few weeks, at Chateau HeathNWanda.I've been remiss in writing this blog - and others - in an effort to get an insane amount of work done on my current novel in progress. And, while these two fronts have suffered, I have made progress beyond my wildest expectations on the novel, putting in to place more than a dozen chapters to be crafted and honed at a later time.
My writing style is, typically, to type as fast as I can when an idea stream hits. Later, I go back and re-read the entire work, then move section by section as I craft the story format, and also re-work the vocabulary. At times, it takes me nearly an hour to flesh out a few good paragraphs. It sounds nuts, but it works for me and - in my mind - yields a better product than stunting the growth of the over-arching storyline by over thinking the small stuff while trying to write a flowing narrative.
I have formally put together a meeting place on FaceBook for invitees and volunteers who have agreed to be critique readers of the latest novel. I did so, even though it's nowhere near ready, so as to force myself to keep on top of it. The more I write it, the more excited I get about seeing it completed. And I didn't think I would be anywhere near that point at this juncture.
Two major caveats now staring me square in the face are the upcoming cruise in February, which will sap a lot of my time, and the desire to publish a non-fiction book on Marketing in the first quarter of 2012. I'm still not sure how I'm going to pull that one off, but we'll see where life takes me. So long as I'm still alive, I should be fine.
I watched another decent (not great) movie this week, called, "Apocalypto". I had no idea what to expect, but found it to be interesting. Essentially, it dramatizes the beginning of the end of the Mayan Empire in Central America. There's not a word of English in the film (which, in the end, worked to it's advantage and authenticity, I felt), and it's brutal at times. But the authenticity isn't sacrificed by having left the brutality in, so while it was disturbing, it was also engrossing and engaging on a very deep and meaningful level.
I'm still working my way through the book I'm reading. It's been almost four months, but I'm inching my way closer to the end (it's almost 1,000 pages). Normally, I'd have it wrapped up inside of a week, but I've been so busy this past quarter.
Speaking of the last quarter: We managed to bill out far more than we imagined possible in our first quarter in business. Which is exciting. The downside is that we four partners need to get our collective shit together if we ever plan on making more in the coming year. I'm working on that angle, and hope it comes out well. Time will tell.
I've worked ceaselessly on the media library as I've been glued to the computer working on the novel. Which has been good, as an occasional distraction.
The Christmas Season this year was one of the strangest, and saddest, ever. We didn't put up a tree, didn't have the now fractured family over, and ended up staying home for all of it. We usually hold Christmas with my wife's side but, due to developments in the fall with strange accusations, and folks accepting them at face value and turning on my wife (which hurt her more than I've ever seen her hurt), a lot of the family has villified us in one way or another for supposedly 'ignoring' all of the 'problems' that Wanda's Grandmother was having with technology, of all things - all without asking for anything more than a list of false accusations from an Aunt. This made me very sad (and made my wife something beyond distraught), but in the end, it was out of my control to reasonably discuss it with them. In fact, withing 24 hours of the incident, we were informed that we were persona non grata in the life of her Aunt, and her Daughter. Again - all over accusations of neglest stemming from technology: Crazy, huh?
On the opposing side, my Father had other plans, and my Mother - who hosts for my side of the family - was stricken with an insanely potent flu bug, forcing her to cancel the event.
So, it was quiet here. We didn't even put a tree up this year, and it scarcely felt like a warm, fun, Christmas at all.
I did receive a nice bonus at work, which was very much appreciated. We rounded out the year there on a high note, on the whole. While we had massive outlays of cash throughout the course of the year, we also made some major overhauls and did some rebuilds to a TON of our critical equipment. This, effectively, gives them a new lease on life for another five years or so, and increases our ability to be productive. So, while expensive, we should see the returns - coupled with the new equipment and the additional staff added late in the year - in the next year. Personally, I'm pretty excited about the whole thing.
Now the spectre of 2012's sun storms and climate change sits first and foremost on the horizon. There have been pundits, proponents, and naysayers all along, but we daily draw closer to the time specified as 'D-Day'. It will be interesting and, if any of the speculation about planetary alignment proves true, scary as hell.
Yeah: I'm a little worried about the sun storm angle. We, as a society, live in technology's grasp. And if the sun assassinates it, it effectively kills a goodly portion of us all in the process. It will be Dark Ages II and a rollback of 1,000 years of progress.
I don't care what you think, but I do know this: If you aren't worried, then you don't know enough about it yet. And you might want to get on that: Soon.
One of the arguments that I've heard of late is, "God will save us, if we have faith." And, while not a bad notion, God also says that he has, "...sprinkled us liberally with wisdom." Loosely translated: "I made you smart and cunning, so you could rely on yourselves, as well as me."
So: If you're not using the wisdom He gave you, then you're already not accepting his help. He has helped you - so make use of the assistance.
And, on that note, I plan on spending this final day off of work writing another pile of chapters. I'm trying to cram in all I may with regard to story flow, so I can pick it apart in smaller fragments of time in the weeks to come.
Until next time!
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