Blog Archives
Daily Update: A day off.
Yesterday I took the day off. Originally I had some personal business to attend to, but it became much less urgent. I’ll still need to deal with it, just not as soon as I have anticipated. I got up early and had to deal with a work email that I should have sent on Friday (okay, two emails). I also took a broken mirror to get fixed/replaced. Ok, two mirrors really. It’ll be nice when they’re fixed and back in place. The wife and I also got a few loads of laundry washed and put away. I watched three episodes of Ancient Aliens (love that show). My Favorite Daughter and I went to the work out room. I managed 3.4 miles on the elliptical in 30 minutes (even though it took us 45 minutes to go from the school, to the workout room, back home for a personal issue, and back to the workout room). I did my weights. I went to the grocery store and bought some fruit and made fruit salads for all of us.
I did something else yesterday…hmm…
Oh yeah! I wrote nearly 5000 words! Yesterday was a lot of up and down, but I wrote and wrote and wrote whenever I found a few minutes here or a few minutes there. I’m only 1200 words off my JuNoWriMo goal and I know I can get caught up and surpass that. Maus and Willie are a blast to write and now I’ve introduced Slick. Soon Maus and Willie will ‘encounter’ Slick and things will start to take off from there.
I’m having a lot of fun writing this story again. Not a lot has changed other than I’m including a lot of what I had in my mind and never wrote. I’ve introduced some characters that I only ever hinted at. There’s a lot more dialog and action and the pace still feels right. I’m sure much will change as I write, but already I’ve done some foreshadowing because I know what’s going to happen in the upcoming books.
I’ve got two characters left to introduce that will have bit roles in the book(s) but will play larger roles as time goes on. Those are the Black-Robed man that I will name later and the Gray-Bearded man that I will also name later. Their parts aren’t coming up just yet, but when they do, it’ll add a whole new layer to the story. I had included the two characters before, but never really fleshed out their personality or their purpose. They were just there. They did things. They moved on and did something else. I now have a better purpose for those two characters.
So if you ever wonder how do you fit writing in with all the other things you’re doing, you just need to look at where you have spare time and fit it in. It’s not always easy. It’s not always fun. But if you want to be a writer you need to sit down and actually write. If you’re not writing on a daily basis it’s that much harder to actually get started. If you’re writing daily it’s much easier to keep going.
By the end of the day (when I went to the store and made those fruit salads) my brain was pretty tired after the very long weekend and even though I wanted to write more, my body wanted to go to sleep. So that’s what I did. I will write more tonight. I will work out again. I will lift weights again. I’m also going to the Millicans house for dinner tonight. The wife made some yummy chicken that we’ll all partake of. But I will still write. I doubt I’ll knock out another 5000 words, but I’ll get as may done as I can.
My point here is, if you want to do it, do it. Writing doesn’t have to be work. I had to struggle through the first part of the year to get to this point. You will need to have your own struggle. Will it be as difficult as mine? Maybe. Might be harder. Might be easier. I can’t tell you that. That is something you’ll need to experience for yourself. It’s a journey that you and you alone must start. No one can start it for you.
With all that time off yesterday you’d think I’d have download more pictures of duck, wouldn’t you? Instead, here’s a link of how Donald Duck has affected the movies throughout the years. I laughed, I cried, I dreamt. www.cracked.com/article_19021_5-amazing-things-invented-by-donald-duck-seriously.html
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Organization
I’m not the most organized person in the world. I let my personal inbox overflow (I think I have over 2700 emails in there). Tools can be found in drawers, bowls, and boxes. My workspace is cluttered with things that I rarely use and somehow just never put away. My clothes rarely find the laundry basket and instead reside on my closet floor (the laundry basket is in my wife’s closet).
But not when it comes to my work files. I’m almost annoyingly organized. I have two hundred emails in my inbox, but only because I haven’t gone through them in a couple months. I could easily reduce this down to 50 in a matter of minutes, I just need to move emails into the proper folders for the given project. All of my programming files are organized into folders for different file types, related sites, and on and on.
I’ve taken some of this organization to my writing files as well and Scrivener has done wonders to help be be even more organized. Rather than have a folder with all my short stories, I have one scrivener file. Rather than have multiple books in a series in a folder. I have one Scrivener file. Rather than have one huge file with all my chapters in it, a separate file for notes, research, character sketches…Yes, I have one Scrivener file.
I’ve said before that Scrivener has changed how I write. I still type like a madman and let the story drag me along for the ride, but I know have an easier way to keep track of characters, places, events, personal items. I can set a word target for a chapter or scene and see if I get there. I’ve had a blast keeping track of all sorts of different things.
I’ve also got my spread sheet that I just love. I’ve organized my daily word counts broken down by blog posts and fiction. I can see at a glance how I’m doing. Where I’m at with my goal. How many days ahead or behind am I. How many words ahead or behind am I (for the record, I’m 20 days ahead of schedule for 2012). I’ve plotted out fiction word counts for JuNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo. I’ve plotted out how many words I need to write a day to hit my annual goal.
I had decided that at the beginning of the year I needed to treat my writing more as a part time job rather than just a “Hey, I think I should write something” and I’ve written nearly 200,000 words so far. I’ve done that by organizing my writing life rather than letting it just be like the clothes on my closet floor; something I’ll get to later. I’ve made myself accountable to more people than just myself. There are a lot more words to come out of me. Not because I want to be a writer or even want to be a published author. That’ll happen in its own time. But because I feel the need to create. And not just create stories. That’s the easy part. But to create stories that people want to read. Stories that keep people coming back. Told in a manner that people can appreciate.
Getting organized has helped me in getting a lot of words written not because I created a spreadsheet or started using scrivener. Rather because I could now see where I wanted to take my writing beyond the story.It’s made me open my eyes and see that I can write a lot more than I ever thought I could if I just got myself organized, sat down, and wrote.
Sure I get distracted by shiny things (like yesterday’s post about a new mouse I’ll be purchasing soon). That’s going to happen. The trick is to try and free yourself of the guilt and know that you have a job to do and you need to get yourself to sit down and actually do it. I also have a job, a kid in volleyball, a wife, friends. I do a lot of other things besides writing, but I make time to get the words out.
I’ve organized myself so that when I sit down to write, it’s as simple as opening scrivener and BAM! Start typing. I’ve got my notes, my character specs, my plot outline all in one, easy-to-reach place. No more looking through notebooks, folders, files, or even scrolling through the WIP trying to find that name, the color of the dress, or anything like that. I know where it all is and it’s drastically sped up the process.
Sure it took some getting used to. Everything does. But now that I’m five months into 2012, I’ve done a little house cleaning every day to get to where I am and now writing isn’t a chore that I do once in a while. It’s a joy I do every day. Yes, I said a joy not a job. I still treat it like a part-time job insofar as I need to sit every day possible ans write something, but it’s not a labor it once was.
Take a little time to get organized. I’ll go find some pictures of ducks to start posting. Then I’ll write about ducks.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Going strong
Yesterday was a good day to write with over 2500 words achieved. I’m still behind on my Lent goal, but I’m getting there. I’ve go two weeks to get caught up, I just need to stop dragging my feet. Felt good to get words down. If you couldn’t tell by yesterday’s post I’m super excited to get cracking on Of Gnomes and Dwarves.
But first must come the finishing of works in progress, right? RIGHT! I need to finish up To Fall From the Sky. I need to finish My Teacher is a Werewolf. Those are the most important writing tasks at hand. I also have a bunch of recording to do this week. I’ll be getting on that tonight and do some editing work tomorrow.
Speaking of editing I need to get back into Jack Kane and do the edits in there. This writing stuff isn’t easy and isn’t for the easily distracted. I’m usually easily distracted. Take last night as an example. My favorite daughter was working on a mask and bow and arrow for a project and she also had to write up a script. That for the most part she did on her own.
Once I stopped writing to read what she’d written (it was really good and very funny) I lost track of where my head was at. I had ended a sentence with “and Stanley went to” and I totally forgot where he was going, what he went to go do. I drew a total blank.
My favorite daughter is really coming along with her writing. Her piece was intended to be funny, and it was. It’s about Artemis and Apollo and Artemis’s affair with Orion. She made up ‘Laugh’, ‘Awww’, and ‘Applause’ cards to be held up at certain times during the skit she’ll be doing with a classmate. I so want to be there when she presents it. She read through it and I gave little advice on inflection and timing, but 99% of it was her. This is one of those parenting moments where you know your kid will turn out alright.
Today needs to see another word count boost. It won’t be easy. I’ve got the day job, then I’ll be home for a bit where there’s house stuff to do then I need to write like a madman until I need to take my favorite daughter to volleyball practice. That’ll be a two hour chunk that I won’t be getting any writing done, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens. The coach wasn’t too happy after the last tournament because a couple of girls just gave up on the court and lost a game they were easily winning. It’d be nice to see if they can change their attitude and actually show up to play instead of just showing up. That’s enough said about that.
Well, speaking of being busy, I’d better get busy. So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Today is a good day.
Initially I was Sneezy and Grumpy. I took my Doc’s advice and was Dopey and Sleepy. What I really want it to be Happy. Heck, I’d even been glad to be Bashful.
Today is a good day. My sinuses are feeling a little relief. It’s dark, it’s a little chilly (I’m still wearing shorts and a t-shirt) and it looks like rain is on the horizon once again.
My nose, on the other hand (or would it be other face, hmm) is red, raw, and sore. My ears hurt from all the nose blowing. The residual headache is a bother, but hey, I’ll get over that. At least I don’t have a leaky nose. Well, not as much as it was.
Yesterday I wanted to go see my best friend’s daughter run track. She’s really good at the hurdles even though she’s only just begun. She’s got those crazy long legs. Being that I used to run track, I miss watching all the events. I will make it to at least one of her meets this season.
I also missed my favorite daughter’s volleyball practice. Hearing her talk about it, I missed a good practice. I will be practicing with her later today and a little tomorrow. She’s got a tournament on Sunday and I want her to be prepared. From what she told me, she will be.
I’ve wanted to record. I think I’ll do that tonight or perhaps tomorrow. I need to record the latest episode of Golden West for the Action Pack Podcast. I need to record my story for Tee and Pip. I need to record the promo for the Action Pack. Unfortunately with my head as congested as it is (was) it just wasn’t going to happen. Even though I had an awesomely low voice because of all the snoring I’ve done the past couple of days, I couldn’t make it though more than a few words without coughing. That would have been an editing nightmare.
On the plus side, I knocked out 2500 words yesterday. Most of that in My Teacher is a Werewolf. This will be the next story in the Teacher series. I need to come up with a good title for the series. Something like Unnatural Teachings or something like that. I’ll give it more thought. I plan on doing more of these stories. Why? Because they’re fun to write and I can get into the story quickly. This one might be a little longer than the first, but hey, I’m good with longer. I already like where the story is going and I’m confident I’ll plow through the first draft quickly.
If I’m lucky, I’m past that little sticking point. I didn’t like struggling to write words. I still wrote every day and I know why some people might not write while sick or when they don’t feel well. But I’m happy I did it. I worked through a difficult time and I have more words. Even if some days it was only a slight amount, it was still words I didn’t have before.
Speaking of words, I’ll be doing NaNoWriMo. That should be no surprise. But I found something called JuNoWriMo. It’s basically NaNoWriMo in June. I’ll do both this year. My goal right now is to work on Of Gnomes and Dwarves book 1 in June, edit it in July, and work on Book 2 in November, and edit it in December. Then I’ll release those in 2013. Possibly sooner depending on how I feel about where the stories are at. Each book currently is at around 60,000 words. Both I wrote very quickly on the first draft so I’ll use those plot outlines as a guide, but I’m going to completely re-write them both.
These were the first two books I’d ever written and they’re rough. Very rough. But when I’d written them I had a vision of where I wanted to go and I did just that. I will revisit the universe and this time I’ll keep a character list as I go as those books have a lot of characters and I’m sure I’ll get lost if I don’t keep track. Even typing up this paragraph I’m remembering how much fun it was to write those stories. Maybe I won’t wait for June. J
There’s a lot of writing still to come this year. I’d better get on it. So…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Let’s get serious for a minute
There comes a time in every person’s life where they must begin to understand their limitations. A time for reflection and deeper understand of one’s self. A time when…
Wait, where was I?
Oh yeah, so I mentioned the other day I was helping my favorite daughter and her friends shoot a video. The video was for a project. I helped with the acting by dying twice, getting dipped in ketchup, and rolling in the wet grass more times than I would have liked. I was also the only one to do a ‘costume change’ because of the aforementioned ketchup dipping. Want to see what the final product looked like?
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
In happier news, Kance Encounter is available everywhere. You can name your own price over at smashwords (even if you want it for free). It’s .99 everywhere else. Same goes for My Teacher is a Zombie! That’s right, Dan Dan the Art man did an awesome cover for me and I’m all kinda excited about getting that one out there. Check either of them out, let me know what you think. Here’s the link to my author page where you can see all my smashwords titles.
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jrmurdock
You can also pick up the titles from Amazon or B&N.
If you hit the Amazon of B&N link look for me as some of the titles in the search aren’t me. It’s funny some of the titles that actually show up.
My Teacher is a Zombie is getting a lot of hits, very few sales. I’ll let you know if that picks up. I’m just excited to get that one out there. I’ll be doing more in the series so let me know what you think.
You’re still thinking about that video, aren’t you?
Work has been crazy busy. Taking lunch to type this up. Things won’t be slowing down any time soon either. Ah well.
Writing has been difficult. I’ve got a scratchy throat. Not sure where it came from but I hope it goes back there. It’s made breathing painful and swallowing unbearable. It’s an annoyance that I don’t need and it’s kept me from getting down as many words as I’d like. That combined with many personal things to deal with (shooting the video, the editing, special effects, sound, etc) and getting my favorite daughter registered early for her classes next year. There have been a lot of distractions. I’ve still managed to get a good number of words down, but far less than I’d hoped. I’m falling further and further behind on my Lent goal. I think I’m at 82% of my goal to date. I’ll have to work on getting that number back up.
Even with being down on my Lent goal, I’m still 10 days ahead of my annual goal. Perhaps I’ll get a big block of time to really knock some words out, now that I’ve got that video edited and all.
Ok, ok, you keep bringing up that video. Here it is.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: More Rain
I actually enjoy gray days and a good strong rain. Yesterday it was hail, today it’s just a steady drizzle. Last night we did have a couple blasts that work me up. My throat is killing me so I must’ve rolled onto my back and been the old man snoring. I’d say get off my lawn but there’s no one out and about (at least not walking) in this rain.
I’m not sure why, but the mood to write (fiction) hasn’t struck me. I did force myself to sit down and write and got out a good 800 words. It’s hard to write when you just aren’t feeling it and by golly last night I wasn’t feeling it. Those 800 words happened around 9:30PM and I was pretty much done by 10PM. I had intended to write much longer, but it just didn’t happen.
I did, however, go into twitter and clear out some people I was following. Most hadn’t posted in twitter for over a year (if at all) and quite a number weren’t following me back. Some were celebs who had millions of followers, but did very little posting. They just don’t get this social media thing so why follow them? It was pretty cool to look back through my list and I’m guessing it was listed in the order I began following people. I cleared out about 200 people and promptly found another 100 or so to follow. I’m nearly back up to my limit.
Going through all those followers/following in twitter reminded me that I’ve all but abandoned FaceBook. It still appears to be as busy as it ever was, just without me. I’ve missed it a little bit, but I’ve been crazy busy with writing. I haven’t even thought about FamrVille until I started writing about facebook. Kinda funny. Perhaps I’ll get back over there sooner or later.
Even though I’ve not been writing I’ve been busy with other things. I’ve gotten Kance Encounter up and available on Smashwords. Head on over there if you need a does of fantasy. I WILL be writing other stories in this same universe so be on the lookout for those.
Oh, speaking of works, Don’t Eat the Bread has a cover and will be available soon. I’m working on the edits for that and hopefully it’ll be out next week. Dan Dan the Art Man is also busy working on the cover for My Teacher is a Zombie. It’ll be fun to get that one out there as well. I have many more stories to tell and that I want to get out there. I’ve gotten some great reviews on the ones I’ve put up so far, so I don’t see myself stopping any time soon.
I’ve been having a blast using Scrivener. So much in fact that at first I was a writing fiend with it, now I’m a little distracted by it. It’s not that it’s a bad tool. Quite the opposite. I’m busy looking at all the bells and whistles and having a blast organizing all my works. Between spending a little time on learning Scrivener and a little time messing around with my word count spread sheet, I’ve gotten less writing done than I should. That all should change tonight. I just need to sit down and get cracking!
Speaking about getting cracking!
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: When it rains it pours
It’s a little damp in San Diego today. It rained while I was in San Fracisco, now it’s raining at home. Oddly it rained up North it hit me and hit me HARD. Back home I took the good medicine last night. Sorta wiped me out, made me a little groggy. My head wasn’t in the game. That happens. I’ll get over it.
Unfortunately it’s affected my word count a little bit. I’m falling behind on my Lent goal. Ah well. I will do what I can to catch up. I’m still 11 days ahead of my annual goal so I’m not overly concerned. I’m pounding out words and I will keep at it on a daily basis.
I got approval for my final script for my MoPO story. The next keyword from the Tee and Pip podcast was “Jungles of China”. Oh yeah, I’m a tease. Final approval means I get to record. Being that it’s raining (not just a little rain but HARD rain) means I won’t get that done today. I’d love to record, but the rain would provide way too much background noise. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I also need to record another Unorthodox Writing Tips for Mike Plested’s Get Published. We talked during the week and there is no hurry for it, but he’d like to have one handy just in case. I’ll keep writing them. Oh yes I will. Someone is getting benefit from them I’m sure. It’d be nice to hear from anyone, but I’ll keep writing them all the same.
My favorite daughter had a volleyball clinic today. This one was with the varisy coach from her school. Many girls showed up to this one unlike the last clinic. They walk through some very basic things which is good for the girls in my daughter’s group who’ve been playing for a while, but haven’t had those simple things explained.
Speaking of my favorite daughter, she convined a couple others in her class to read Astel. Maybe you heard about this book? I self-pubed it last year. It’s still out there and I sell a copy or twoa month. Not a lot, but hey, I’m happy.
Anyway, they had to do a project around the book and they decided to shoot a video. Today. In the rain. <sigh> So at two different points I had ketchup on me (simulated blood) and I got hit by lightning (I’ll have to edit that in) and fell onto the wet ground. So I smelled like a wet dog dipped in ketchup for a short time, but the video came out pretty good. I’ll post it to youtube at some point as they need it online to be able to show the class. We did each scene multiple times and there are some effects I’ll need to figure out how to add. If you’re a wiz with video editing and have a little time and would like to help, I’d love to hear from you 
I may do a segment soon where I review not books, but authors. I’ve had contact with many authors over the years and it’d be nice to put something like that out. Not just reviewing their works, but my overall impression of the person. I started a list and I’m not sure how long it would run, but it could be a fun thing to start. I just don’t want it to come off as me blowing smoke up people’s arses. I’ll have to let that idea stew for a while and see where it goes.
I’m about to head back into the rain. Wish me luck! It’s supposed to keep going into tomorrow and possibly Monday. We needed the rain so I don’t mind. I just don’t like going out into it. Ah well.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Going Home Today
One thing I have always known about myself. I’m a homebody. I like being in my house. Oh, don’t get me wrong. I love to travel, but I’m very content to be home. I miss my things, my daily regimen, being with my family. I miss my favorite daughter and I really miss the wife. It’ll be good to fly home later today.
Being away I did not get nearly as much writing done as I thought I might. I did have a great time being out and about though. Last night Mike took me to a Sri Lankan restaurant. I have Black Pork Curry. I’d never had anything with curry in the name so I figured, why not.
According to Mike it wasn’t much of a curry as curry is more of a stew. Even his chicken curry was more chicken and rice than curry. So I guess I’ll have to be trying it again at some point.
Oh, the food! Wow! Good stuff. It had a different kind of spice than what I’m used to. It wasn’t overly hot. It reminded me a lot of mole (moh-lay) sauce which is a spicy chocolate chicken dish. Not at all what I expected to have, but I enjoyed it all the same.
After dinner we went to a theater to watch John Carter. Upon arrival the kid tried to sell us tickets to the IMAX 3D version of the movie. The next 2D version didn’t start until 9:30PM which would have been too late as both of us needed to get up and be at training in the morning.
*note: I can’t see 3D effects in movies. Every time I’ve gone to see one people will jump, duck, bob and weave. Me, I’ll sit there trying to figure out what’s going on and wonder why the picture looks so grainy and awful. This has ruined more than one movie for me. Most notably Avatar. Had I seen the effects I might not have been so hard on the movies awful plot. Yes, I’m sorry, Avatar’s plot was really dumb and you won’t convince me otherwise.
So standing there looking at the kid, he did try to recommend other movies. I had my heart set on John Carter. I wanted something with good visuals, something of a plot or at least a story. On their list Mike spotted Chronicle. I saw the commercials. I did want to see this movie, so off we went.
Being the only two in the theater felt weird. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone to a theater to see something that wasn’t the main feature. I think in total six people showed up for the movie.
I really liked this movie. The only issue I had with it was the premise that it was a ‘chronicle’ shown through one of the main character’s camera(s). The first one got lost which doesn’t explain how the film was recovered. They also didn’t explain how the kids got their powers. Also toward the end of the movie with more action happening There were a lot of camera angles impossible with some of the alleged cameras filming the action.
Even though I had a small issue with that, it didn’t detract from the story. A kid abused all his life gets power that can change his situation and he does so, in the worst possible way. If you were on the fence about seeing this movie, go (or wait for the video rental). There were no BIG theatrical effects that require you to see this one in the theater. It’s got great characterization and a plot that paces well given the storytelling method.
Today I have a half-day of training, then it’ll be pizza, and a drive back to the airport. I should be able to get some writing in while I wait for my plane and on the flight back home. Like I said at the start, I can’t wait to be back home with the wife and my favorite daughter.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Two Days in One.
Yesterday. Holy cow.
So I had this training session yesterday. It’s for work. It’s dry material. The instructor knows it’s dry material. He does his best to keep in interesting. It’s still dry material, but we need to go through the lessons.
I met my friend Mike.The one who’s done all that music work and cover work for me in the past. You know, for V & A shipping, Billy Barbarian, Murdockian Tales. Yeah, that guy.
He’s a local to this area and we headed over the Bay Bridge. Saw Alatraz and the Golden Gate. Saw, as in, “Hey, see that over there.” We didn’t atually visit. What we did visit is China Town. That was so muh fun. A very touristy place and there were no tourists. Being a Monday night there was no one out and about. Oh, sure, there were a couple of people. It was nothing like what I expected. I had expeccted wall to wall people.
Being a local, Mike pointed out shops to buy touristsy things. I bought touristy things for the Wife, Mi Suerga, and My Favorite Daughter. I think they’ll like what I got and it was all so inexpensive. That caught my by surprise.
It was neat to see some things and I’ll mention that more in a later post and why it was so cool to see them.
Again, the local Mike piked out a place for us to eat. He’d been there before. A young boy followed us to our table. Sat at our table. Climbed up on our table. Giggled, laughed, had a great time. High-fived me. I took a picture with him. I took a picture of the menu on the white board writting in Chinese. I ate something with pork and noodles. A little sweet with a great spiy after taste. It was some good stuff.
Afterward I called up J.D. Sawyer. Mike and I drove over to hang with him. We had a beer, a great cigar, and a lot of conversation. Being both authors we discussed authorly topics. Suh as:
Works in progress
Works in print
upcoming works
legal rights
story concepts
story finances
how little writers make
We also talked about many other author friends and shared a lot about those authors. We talked about (in no certain order)
Scott Sigler
J. C. Huthins
Mur Lauferty
Gail Carriger
Scott Roche
Jake Bible
Paul E. Cooley
Mike Stackpole
Terry Bisson
Mike Plested
Lorna Suzuki
We talked about publishers
Dragon Moon Press
Hades Publiations (Edge)
Flying Island Press
Kindle / Amazon
Smashwords vs Paypal
It was hard, but I did allow Mike to talk as well. He and J.D. share a common interest in photography so they also did a lot of talk about photography. Before we knew it, it was late, the cigars were long cold, and the wind had picked up significantly. Mike and I called it a night.
Perhaps it wasn’t just two days in one, it was three. I did so muh that I woke up this morning and started packing for home. I sent a great deal of pictures home for the wife and my favorite daughter. I miss them. Even keeping myself busy didn’t keep my mind off of things. Even though I’m having a great time up here, I do miss them. It’ll be nice to go home and sleep in my own bed.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Yesterday was a LONG day.
Yesterday started at 5am. We got up, got ready, and were out the door around 6am. Then we picked up one of my favorite daughter’s friends and our good friend Martha and headed for Rancho Bernardo. A 40 minute drive later and we were at the volleyball center.
As we drove up there some odd things happened with the navigator on my phone. First it took a while to connect. That was just annoying, but it did finally connect when we were about 10 minutes out. Then it showed me being on the wrong side of the road going in the right direction. Then off in a ditch. Then in a field. Then about a quarter mile away. The driving the wrong direction. Then I lost the GPS signal. The only plus was the map kept showing me where I truly was.
Oh yeah, Solar Flare. I laughed. Thankfully it talked me in once I got off the freeway.
They were the second seed in their pool. That meant Ref, play, off, play, ref, play. We were going to be there for all the games.That was fine.
We watched the 1 and 3 seeds play. It went to three games and the #1 seed won the third game. Barely. Very tight match.
The girls played the #4 seed. It went to three and the girls barely won the third game. Very tight match.
#1 played #4. It went to three games and the #1 seed won the third game. Barely. Very tight match.
We played the #2 seed. It went to three and the girls barely won the third game. Very tight match.
Are you seeing where this is going? All the teams were great and every match went to three games. Each game was high scoring. I think the biggest score gap for our girls was a 25 – 20 game.
By the time it got to the final two games, everyone else had left. It was only our group still playing. The refs split us up onto two courts. Normally one of the teams not playing will ref a game, keep score, things like that. Well, splitting them up meant parents got to volunteer. I got to flip the score and cheer from the floor. More than once I almost got trampled as we played the #1 seed. Because parents were doing things there were some delays.
The #2 vs #3 went two games. I’m not even sure who won. I was watching an epic battle between our girls and the #1 seed.
First game went 25 – 22, we lost. It was tough. The girls played at a level I’ve known they were capable of playing at. So many volleys went on and on and on that when the ball finally feel there was a collective gasp from all parents. Each point was a battle. There were so few mistakes made that losing the first game was draining.
The second game went very much the same except the girls pulled out a win. Again more epic battles, so great spikes, digs, blocks. It was a joy to watch.
I’m not sure what happened on the third match. I think the girls just plain ran out of gas. They’d been playing all day, it was hot, but they still battled it out. At one point the score was 7 – 1. The girls rallied back and soon the score was 10-7. Again each point went on and on. The other two teams had left. You could hear every squeak of shoe, grunt as they jumped or hit a ball, stomping of feet as they ran across the court. In the end, the score was 15 – 10. The girls had lost, but put up a battle to be proud of.
How did my kid do? She played every game. At one point as I sat keeping score she pointed to her her and I could see tears in her eyes. I motioned to the coach and he looked at her and pulled her out. The girl that went in didn’t know the position well and got a little confused, but still played well. After 5 or 6 plays, some water, a little aspirin, my trooper tapped the coach and went back in. It’s one of those moments that brings a tear to your eye. I remember the coach talking to Kasie before the match and I didn’t know what was going on, but apparently she was crying before the match. The coach thought she was upset, but she was really in pain.
This is why I call my kid my favorite daughter. She can be a real trooper. It was tough to see them lose, but it wasn’t due to lack of effort. Over the entire day there were a couple of mistakes, but they’ve really stepped up. Watching my kid block, stuff, RUN! hustle, and make plays was just amazing. I can’t say it enough. I’m proud of her. She even kept playing after taking a ball to the face! I wish I had gotten a picture of that.
As a team, they’re coming together a a unit. I’ve been to nearly all of their practices. I’ve been to all the games. I’ve seen their evolution. Wow. That’s all I can say. Wow.
I did manage a post early in the morning while we waited for the games to start. I accidentally posted it on the Action Pack blog. Whoops. I then deleted it. Thought, oh dang! Managed to get onto the web based version, recover it, copy it, and post it over here. Whew. That was all the writing I got in.
After the games we went back to my best friend’s house to drop off his wife and kid. We stayed there for a bit and finally packed up and went to eat lunch/dinner at T.G.I. Fridays. After a filling meal we went back to his house. We all sat around talking, the girls came and went, came and went. Finally Curt and I decided to watch a movie. Hugo was supposed to be great so we started watching it.
I will say this, the start I LOVED. The mystery, the build up, the automaton. The emotion.
Everyone else nodded off at some point because it had been such a LONG day. I did not. I loved the movie, but was sad to see them include so much about the filmmaker. It was like watching a documentary, not a movie. Yes, and interesting documentary, but it went from movie to documentary and stayed there. Lost were the steampunk elements, in was the reality of the man’s life. Incredible reproductions of the sets, yes, but I wanted more story and less history.
I see why the movie won so many film awards. It was a documentary, disguised as a movie, about film and a famous filmmaker. To be honest, even though I enjoyed the movie, I felt slighted. I felt duped into seeing one thing, and getting another. I would still rate the movie high and a must-see movie, but I would warn viewers before going in what exactly they are getting so they don’t feel tricked by the switch-a-roo in the middle of the movie. #justsaying.
We got home it was about 9:45pm and felt like it was midnight. I watched to write. I tried to write. I nodded off at the keyboard and that was that. Today will be a little different. There will be a little house cleaning, I’ve written my post. Then I’ll pack and be on my way to the airport. Knowing I’ll be doing much waiting I’ll have my netbook with me and knock out as many words as I can. I’ll ignore the person or persons I sit next to and write as much as I can. I should be able to get caught up today if I write as much as I’m able. I’m only a couple thousand words behind. I will let you know tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
