Ill Conceived? Or Pure Evil???

I saw Spiderman 3 last night. Ah, movies. I love movies.

In this film (in case you didn't know) Peter Parker deals with the alien symbiont that changes him into a dark version of himself, and which eventually spawns the entity known as Venom. I love Sam Raimi and trust him - but when he tried to show Parker as the "dark" version of his psyche - why did he have to base him on Chris Gaines??? We may never know. Still a brilliant load of fun, but Garth's alter ego should never be used to template popular comics-based heroes in film. That's my 2 cents worth.

Before the Navy...

I found this picture again. It was taken before I joined the Navy - which would make it some time in 1990 - perhaps September or October? These were my friends then - and I'm still in touch with most of them. Surprisingly, everyone in this picture looks healthier, younger and happier now! (hahaha!) I'm just amazed how many of the guys in this picture are now "follicle-challenged."

Success - and just in time for the rain storm

Well, there is still some landscaping to do - but the plants are in. And they sky has clouded up and looks like it is going to rain. Whew! Just in time.



Now I just need to put some mid-sized pea-gravel down on the bottom and do some herbs around the edge of the drain hole itself (on the upper part). But the plants are planted, and nature will do its thing now. (Which probably means that the dang rabbits will eat all my plants down to the little plastic ID tag by tomorrow morning.)

Closer to the Happy Ending

I got the dirt in now - and it is possible that I could have my plants in place as early as tomorrow night. Woo-hoo!

Seperated at Birth - by another time machine?

I've been doing research on John C. Calhoun for my novel. I kept thinking he looked familiar - and not just because I'd seen him in history books. Then it hit me. He looks a lot like Don Imus. Don't you think?

It's not exact - and I have no idea what is up with JCC's hands. I just suggest you don't stare at them, for they may gesture you into madness.

Fiasco or World Wonder?

I'm still working on a project I conceived more than a year ago. A drain hole exists in my backyard that lets water from the neighborhood pour down a long subterranean tunnel into a retention pond at the far end of my 'hood. When I had no kids this was no problem, but after my first was born I got to thinking that if a kid got in the hole it would be bad... so I covered it with a steel grid to keep people out, but let water in.

The hole itself was surrounded by an impenetrable wall of blackberry bushes - which made it less subject to kids, but more dangerous if a ball went over this hedge and needed to be retrieved. To shorten this tale, I conceived of a way to convert the weed and thorn filled hole into a tiered vegetable garden.

At long last I'm making progress. Here are some shots of "before" and current work on the project.

I intend to re-do this in stone at some point, but doing it with lumber is about $300 cheaper than the dry-stack masonry I prefer.

This is a BEFORE view of the project after a neighbor kindly used a bobcat and took down the blackberry bushes for me. I installed the silt fence and began to contemplate what I could do with this. You can get a more detailed picture by clicking on these. My plan was to setup two tiers of garden rows, and then setup some stairs opposite the drain hole. This crude drawing is what I've been working from.
Here you can see the wooden structure. Those walls are 8 foot long 2x4's which gives you some idea of the scale of this earthwork project.
Here's a view of the before state, facing the drain hole. When I'm done, this photo would be taken from the top of the stairs.

Here's the "current" view of progress. I should be able to get plants in within a week barring unforeseen circumstances.
The steps themselves may be the hardest part - but if the Egyptians could do it so can I. Because I've seen dozens of documentaries and I know that when I'm ready, UFOs will appear and beam the steps into place - then give me secret knowledge. And tomatoes. Just in case they don't show up, I'll keep working using shovels, picks, and gloves. (But I just know they will. Aliens love tomatoes.)

MoneyPenny

My son ate a penny. Here is the hilarious picture.
In theory, he understands not to do this again.

Procrastinatus is my Roman Name

It's sad that when I had all the time in the world to write, I hadn't the skill to do it as well as I can now. Yet now when I have the skill, and even when I make the time, I find the world full of distractions - a carnival of minutiae that makes the most banal entertainment seem infinitely more interesting than working on my own book.

I'm certain this is the kind of self-destructive, auto-sabotage that makes most people stay wannabes. The skilled craftsman who never builds, the talented singer whose audience is only the empty car seats on the way to work, and me - a union of wasted potential if we keep up to our old tricks...

I want to finish my book. I'm going to finish my book.

Seperated at Birth - by a Time Machine!?

They favor. The similarity ends there.

No, I ain't dead...

Been working on my book and at the same time trying to do a bunch of corporate work, freelance work, and selling off CONSIGNMENT stuff. Sadly I wasted a lot of time (in an enjoyable fashion) playing a video game.

But let's be honest. I don't want my tombstone to say, "He played some video games."

Wrote a new "Movies for Gamers who like movies" review. As always, I hope you enjoy it.

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Updated 3-21 to point out that despite my perceptions, a Consignment Sale is not a Yard Sale. Even though you get rid of junk... (But there is no haggling at a consignment sale, AFAICT.)

NPR Pod-casts

Well, it had been a while since I'd checked, but three of my favorite NPR programs are now doing podcast editions:

1) The Writer's Almanac - Garrison Keillor talks about writers and reads a poem.
That doesn't do justice to this inspiring and informational 5 minutes of daily support. It's like an artistic devotional, a sermon on the accomplishments of others with the unspoken but repeated message, "You too can contribute to the collective works of man."

2) This American Life - a collection of radio essays, usually bound to a theme, introduced with wit by Ira Glass. To create your own T.A.L., turn on some jazz instrumentals and speak aloud about the time you did something interesting. Can't think of anything? Listen to this show.

3) Fresh Air - host Terry Gross interviews people. There was a naive time when I believed that a person had really "arrived" when they got to be on Fresh Air. This was before I'd heard of press junkets and book tours. I thought, "Man - what a rush it must be when Terry calls you up and says, 'come be on my show!'." But she doesn't do that.

Anyway, of these shows, Fresh Air has a huge archive of previous episodes in either Real or Windows Media format. So the podcast isn't so important on that one, but Writers Almanac - that's like waking up to biscuits and fresh made coffee with a little homemade peach jelly and soft butter.

The magic of B-flat.

Have you heard about b-flat?

This is an NPR story that is sung,
so best listened to instead of read.
But then it's National Public Radio,
not National Public Book.

Make sure your speakers are working and then click the listen button on the NPR page.

Sixty bucks. Hmmmm.

I had no idea.

Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

Well, I had a good time playing City of Villains last weekend. But I have to put that on hold until April. This is amusing. If I finish my novel in the appointed two months (Feb/Mar) I'll be done on April 1st.

That seems apropos.

I'm leaving my team-speak server up for my friends to use in my absence. Have fun. I sure hope Robyn Graeves will wait for Dead Wreckoner to come back and play...

Need to find a Death Certificate?

The Center for Disease Control has a great resource for every state.

Georgia
Event: Birth or death
Cost of copy: $10.00

Address:
Georgia Department of Human Resources
Vital Records
2600 Skyland Drive, NE
Atlanta, GA 30319-3640

Remarks: State office has records since January 1919. For earlier records in Atlanta or Savannah or other cities or counties, write to the Vital Records Office in county where event occurred. Additional copies of same record ordered at same time are $5.00 each.

Money order should be made payable to Vital Records. Personal checks are not accepted. To verify current fees, the telephone number is (404) 679-4701. This is a recorded message. Information on how to obtain certified copies is also available via the Internet at http://health.state.ga.us/programs/vitalrecords.

The requestor must provide a photocopy of a valid photo ID.

I had forgotten about this.

Sometimes when I'm surfing I crash into rocks that I really ought to have remembered.



This is an ad from the game Dai Katana. (That means "The Katana".)

Why I've Moved My Deadline

For those of you interested in my progress on my Southern Knights project, here is an update. In November after NaNoWriMo, I decided that I should work on a project that I felt had real fiscal viability. I love writing, but I'm all my dreams and goals in writing involve me making money. I had anticipated taking the month of December to work on all the necessary background work so that I could start writing in January and push on through February and be done without having to spend any time stopping to do research.
But it turned out that December was a month of sickness and biblical plagues around here, and since I forgot to put blood on my doorway we got nailed by the Angel of Flu. I am stubborn, and decided that even though I didn't have time to do all the prep work I'd wanted that I would press on, but when I started work in January I found about 70% of my time was being spent going back to my research material because I didn't have the notes I needed.
Also, my book's one important female character wasn't important - and that needs to be fixed. She either needs to have some reason to be in the book, or she needs to pick up her stuff and leave. (And she really ought to have some reason...)
But I'm not giving up on this. There is a fish at stake.
Instead, I've decided to move my start date out to Feb. 1st, 2007. My new "finish" date for the first draft will be March 31, 2007. I will spend the rest of January getting my notes & research in order, and feel better already about the viability of the project.

The End of 2006

I spent a few hours yesterday running through some gaming tests with my friends to figure out what system I want to use for the upcoming 1200AD campaign I'm starting. The tests were interesting, comparing the "A Game of Thrones d20" with "D&D 3.5" in producing the same battle.

Tomorrow is January 1st - and I'm going to start working on my "real" novel in the morning. I've done a lot of pre-work, defining characters & plot elements. Today will be a real slogger for me as I have to finalize some of the work.

The most important thing is that I don't get bogged down on some of the details, but just keep going. I think momentum will be very important to me for the first draft, which I want to have completed by Feb 28th. When I get my chapters all done I hope to have a word count around 90,000.

I spent about two weeks trying to get my story, "The Angle of Incidence" ready to become a novel - but in the end realized it just didn't have enough material in it. I hope to turn it into a long "short story" and submit it in the future. I really like the story it tells, but to make it into a novel would require troweling on a lot of stuff that might not stick, and might look artificial.

So instead, I'm working on a non-supernatural Thriller. My working title is Southern Knights - and it is the Red-Neck DaVinci Code.

My first chiken tikka masala

This is a photo of my first ever effort at cooking my own Chicken Tika Masala. It turned out pretty darn good. I wish I'd used more yogurt so there'd been more sauce for the rice.

Now I just need to figure out how to cook my own Naan bread, and I'll be able to make one of my favorite meals at home.

Look out General Tso, you're next!

Merry Christmas

I was working on a special geek-christmas card, but due to family illness didn't get it finished in time for the date. Perhaps next year, or perhaps I'll just post it out of holiday sequence. That'll teach 'em.