Daily Update: How easily I forget.
With all the TV viewing I did this weekend, I totally forgot that I was up way too Early on Saturday and worked nearly 8 hours. I then took a nap and promptly forgot all about that. We had a database migration and it was a lot of work, lots of testing, and all went as well as could be expected. I’m up this morning expecting something to fall out from the migration, but I’m also hopeful that all went well and we’re in good shape. Nothing so far, but the day is still young.
I didn’t write much this weekend. I took a fiction break and watched a lot of television. Well, not too many actual TV shows, but I did watch a couple movies, a few episodes of Mythbusters, and a few episodes of The Twilight Zone. I also watched the first couple episodes of Star Blazers. I started a few movies and just couldn’t get into any of them after about 10 minutes.
Why?
I was antsy to write. I wanted to just sit and bang out words all day long. Why didn’t I? I needed a break. I’ve been going hard and fast for a long time and even though I found myself twitch and eager to jump in and crank out some words, I need to step back for a couple of days and just take it easy. Recharge the batteries. Have some down time. Spend some time with the family.
I did all that and I’m ready to jump back in with both feet and get some more words knocked out this week. I’ve had two days to let a couple scenes germinate in my little brain and I’m ready to pump out those words like it’s nobody’s business. Pending no serious distractions this week, I’ll have another epic word count week. I’m primed and ready to go.
One of the things that have gotten my brain even more fired up: working out. My favorite daughter needs to do conditioning to get ready for volleyball tryouts. She also needs to get her mile run down under 8 minutes. We’ve been going and working out and it feels great. Time on the treadmill, elliptical, or stationary bike then some light weight training (well, like for her) and it feels really good. I never realized how quick my kid is. That makes me sad. I used to be fast. But I’m happy for her.
We’ll be doing workouts until it’s tryout time and hopefully I’ll continue on ever after she’s back to her Volleyball. It’s going to be another long year.
I was going to post about those NOTW stickers I see everywhere. I read them as NOT NOW! Which is more appropriate for some. I still don’t get the Not Of This World (Is Jesus an ancient alien?) but I decided I didn’t want to go on a rant about religion or how I feel that most non-denominational ‘churches’ are really just businesses that bring you entertainment for money. Like I said, don’t want to get into religion or politics on this blog. Those are rants left elsewhere. 🙂
I will, however, eventually get to that post about ducks and start posting daily duck pics. You’d laugh if you saw the number of pictures I have.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Movie Review: Prometheus (contains LOTS spoilers)
I remember watching the first Alien movie and cringing in fear, being scared half to death, and wanting more and more and more. Aliens fueled that need for more in a different way. It was such a different movie, but I loved how it went in an entirely different direction. Still, it scared the pants off me with aliens that would stop at nothing to kill and reproduce. Aliens III I also enjoyed. Ripley’s sacrifice at the end almost had me in tears. Still this one scared me over and over. Aliens: Resurrection was a movie and that’s all I have to say about that.
There are also two Alien Versus Predator movies out there. I liked both just because of the monster match-ups like we used to see in days of old (King King versus Godzilla, Frankenstein meets the Wolfman, and the like). To me it never added anything to the original films but it didn’t take away from them either.
Now we have Prometheus. It’s almost a prequel to the Alien movie, but not quite. I’ll get to that later. Let’s review, shall we?
As a Viewer: I love a big movie. Big set, big space ships, big aliens. This movie had a good build up and showed us a little of where man came from. Well, according to the film. I’m not sure on the historical references to the stars they showed and I’ve watched a lot of Ancient Aliens lately and I don’t recall any of these drawings. I’m thinking it’s all made up. But hey, what do I know?
The movie jumps from discovery to a space ship traveling to a moon orbiting a gas giant. This struck me as odd. The planet was fine, but it would be cold a lot of the time hidden in the gas giants shadow and super hot when exposed directly to the sun. I got over that quickly and figured what the heck. Let’s go with it.
Our crew (who we’re only lightly introduced to through dreams our good android David watches while they sleep) wake up when they’re near the planet. The effects were great! Loved the tiny little ship next to this massive planet. Put things into perspective. They cruise around a little (very little) and find a settlement. Well, some straight lines. I’m going to speed up here as I don’t want to explain the entire movie. Inside some massive domes they discover the ancient people who we’ll recognize from the first Alien movie with the weird trunks and massive rib cages. Turns out they were building a biological weapon to kill off the entire human race they created.
Wait, what?
This struck me as stupid. Tens of thousands of year ago they created humans and then created these ‘aliens’ to wipe out the human race? The only reason they didn’t is because what they created killed off the people on the planet.
Oh, this is when they discover that even though there was this ‘map to the stars’ from the old cave paintings didn’t point to the creators’ home planet, it pointed to a place that thousands of years later they created this ‘alien’ to wipe out humanity? Am I the only one that caught this? This was the point as a viewer they lost me a little. Okay, more than a little. This pissed me off and I could go on an Avatar type rant about plot holes, but let’s continue.
Mr. Weyland had been hiding on the ship the whole time and wanted to meet the creator and live longer. David was his lackey and that was no surprise. There is one ‘creator’ left and when they wake him up, he starts to kill everyone and prepares to launch the ship and take it to Earth and kill off all of humanity. Our fearless crew launches their ship into that ship and stops the end of our race.
*sigh*
As a Writer: This thing had plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. It bothered me to no end. I was so hopeful that something, anything, might be explained in a logical sequence, but this one really stretched what could have been a great script. For me, stretched to the breaking point. The characterization was so light that all but one character was a cardboard cut out. Could have been anyone and you knew they were all fodder to be killed off. The one character they bothered to develop you know will survive just as Ripley survived as the end of Alien.
There were a lot of inconsistent character traits on those one dimensional people and the actors didn’t seem like they wanted to be bothered to take it further. The aliens weren’t the same ones we came to love in Alien. There was no explanation of anything they found. We’re left to assume how it all worked. Or guess. And the ending isn’t where most expect it as you know they’re leaving this open for a sequel.
Weak characters. Weak plot. Great special effects. Pretty much what Hollywood produces now days. As a writer nothing caught me by surprise. Noting built up any suspense. And I cared nothing for any of the characters. At least with Friday the 13th style movies you know everyone is going to die in an entertaining way. This one didn’t even bring that to the table.
Recommendation: Alien was shot with a small budget and relied more on lighting and camera angles and you almost never saw the alien. This brought fear into your heart wondering what was going to happen next and you’d catch the slightest glimpse and HOLY CRAP! Prometheus brings in a lot of CGI effects, bigger monsters that don’t seem to relate to the original movie at all. The first movie made me jump, this one had me wondering why? Why did they make this movie so poorly? Why did they spend so much on special effects and so little on a cohesive plot that would bring the universe of Alien together? Why did they make a movie that works out as a throw away movie in a universe that needed some great answers to big questions?
If you like Alien, Aliens and the other two, you need to see this movie, just don’t go in expecting to be scared. Yes there are a couple ‘stressful’ situations, but they felt forced. Almost like they needed some suspense and artificially created it. I was disappointed with the characters and the plot, but if you’ve got $10 burning a hole in your pocket, you can do a lot worse (like 2012). It’s not all bad, but it left me more frustrated than entertained. I wanted so much more from this movie that it just didn’t deliver.
Daily Update: I relaxed and went to the movies
Yesterday was one of those days that I just could not motivate myself to do anything. I watched a couple TV shows with the Wife, dropped off my Favorite Daughter at a friend’s house for a party, and watched a few of my TV shows.
I made it through the last couple episodes of Ancient Aliens. I really like the episodes where they go into the archeology over the ones where they cover religious texts. A building is something you can see, a text is something that’s translated from one language to another and a lot is lot in age and translation. Massive, unexplained megalithic structures are frickin awesome! Words written down ages ago that are now (for the most part) considered mythology, not so much.
I also watched a National Geographic special on pyramids in China. Being that I wrote a short story for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences that relates to the burial mound of the First Emperor of China I though it would be good to rewatch that and make sure I had my facts correct. I did. 🙂
Then there was some dinner eaten and I went and saw this little movie called Prometheus. I went with the Millican, his boy, and his older daughter’s boyfriend. There will be a review later today on that one. Might contain spoilers, might not. We’ll see.
Today will be another lazy day. I will work out. I will write some. I will watch a few more TV shows. There’s a lot of writing to do, and I will get to it. Fear not. I’ve got a lot of day left, so I think I’ll get to it.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Color me sleepy.
My intention this morning was to get up very early and spend some time writing. Why? I have a database migration to monitor and it started in the wee hours. Yes, I was up very early. At least my body was up quite early. My brain did not engage until a couple hours later. Even then I thought I’d get a little writing time in. Silly me.
It’s been a moderately busy morning and I really haven’t had time to sit and actually write anything. I’m typing this up in between instant messages from individuals and from a group room. It’s highly distracting and of course requires much of my attention. Soon we’ll begin testing and once that’s done perhaps I’ll get some writing done.
I intended to hit the hay early last night. I’d forgotten that my favorite daughter would be at the One Direction concert. We picked up her and her friend from the arena around 11:30PM and got into bed around 12:30 (traffic after a concert *shudder*). This was the first time they had gone to something by themselves like this. It was a scary dad moment, but there is a LOT of security for these events and the girls are smart and for the most part pay attention to their surroundings.
They had a great time and continued their screamfest in Sputtery Truck as we got them something to eat and made the trek back home. Apparently they had really good seats. From the picture it’s difficult to tell, but I’ve been to that arena before and know where they sat. They would be good seats. 🙂
Not much writing happened yesterday. I do hope I’ll have time later today. This afternoon I plan on taking a nap and at some point go and see Prometheus. I’ve seen mixed reviews. I know it’ll be good eye candy. I’m just hoping that the story will hold up. I’ve been cynical lately and the Avengers too my movie expectations to a whole new level. I’m still hopeful and I will write a review after I see it.
If my day has anything to say about it, I’ll be productive as possible. Though I’m not sure my day is going to cooperate. At the moment it’s a wait and see game.
I need to get busy with this migration. The Millican has a duck picture for me. I’ll make sure to post it here.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Unorthodox Writing Tips 32 – Distractions By-Pass
It’s going to happen to you sooner or later. I can tell you with 100% certainty that if you start to write that you will put your hands on the keyboard and BAM! Lightning will strike. You’ll be amazed. It’ll almost be like magic. You’ll be almost as surprised as I am each and every time it happens. It’s like clockwork for me. I put my hands on the keyboard to type some words and…
“Honey…”
Yes, that’s right. People don’t take writing seriously. You’re not actually working, after all, you’re just doing something that’s a hobby and you can be distracted at anyone’s whim. What you’re doing isn’t important to them because they don’t see anything you’re producing at that very moment. The person interrupting you might not even understand the creative process or how critical it is for you to just have some quiet time to sit and type without any interference.
It might not even be a person that will do it. You might get a text message on your phone from a person that doesn’t even know you’re writing. Or a tweet. Or an e-mail. Or a facebook notification. Or any number of other places that can bounce you straight from your realm back into the real world. It’ll happen more times to me in a day than I can count. In fact, I’m just getting started on this post and I’ve been interrupted six times by four different people. None of them know I’m writing so they don’t even know they’re bothering me.
What should I do? Well, I’m on my lunch and still sitting at my desk. I should have gotten up and walked away with my netbook and typed this up somewhere else. Totally my fault, but I’m on back to back calls and I’m squeezing in lunch where I can. Yes, I work fro home. I’ve also gotten calls from a listing that expired and other people want to know more about the listing. People from work have questions and I’m trying to type as fast as I can and keep my thoughts together and
Message tone stops me once again
Then a reminder for another meeting.
Then a call from my wife.
Then I need to attend a call.
It never stops. I’m trying to eat while I type this as well. Be glad you cannot see my keyboard.
My point in all of this is that you will be distracted. You need to do one of two things. First you can isolate yourself from any distractions. Go to park, leave your cell phone at home, be disconnected from the internet and be as free from distractions as you can be. You’ll never be 100% free from distractions, but this will limit it to things beyond your control. It’ll just be you versus the keyboard. A contest of how many words you can type in a given session.
My only issue with this is when I’m ready to write I don’t want to pack everything up and head for the hills just so I can be away from everything. If that were the case I’d rent a cabin in the mountains for a couple weeks and write each and every day all day. Or closed resort in the mountains. Or be kidnapped by my number one fan.
No, I like to sit where I am and write from there. As best I can I disconnect from the internet, I inform the wife and my favorite daughter that I’m writing, and put on some headphones. Yes, I still get interrupted, but like I said. That’s going to happen. Being that I’ve been writing every day since the start of the year (2012 if you’re reading this in the future) means that I can isolate myself quickly and, usually, get right back where I left off after a given distraction. I’ll do everything I can to avoid them, but life will step in and say hello from time to time so you need to do whatever you can to manage them.
Yes, I understand you cannot write unless you have a 4 hour block of time laid out, but you need to consider if this is realistic or not. Granted 10 minute chunks are difficult to get anything done in, but it is possible. What you need to do is figure out a schedule, or plan your time, or find some quiet time, and just start bashing out words. It is up to you to do your best to avoid distractions, or manage them, or accept that they will happen, address them, and move on. You will never be 100% free of distraction even if you do manage to isolate yourself in the wilderness. You will still need to eat, drink, sleep, find out where they woodpecker is, avoid bears, well…you get the point. Distractions will occur and it’s more of how you manage them than how you avoid them.
This post is a distraction. Is it a distraction for you or me? The world may never know.
Until Next Time!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Over 50,000
Yesterday was a happy writing day. I accomplished two things. First, I got caught up with my JuNoWriMo target. I had thought that was going to be difficult because I had a few days with light fiction counts. A couple where I only got my daily update done and I’m not counting those toward my overall goal.
JuNoWriMo is similar to NaNoWriMo where you attempt to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. I’m not trying to write a 50,000 word novel, but I am trying to write 50,000 words of fiction. That should get me nearly to the end of Of Gnomes and Dwarves and get it that much closer to completion. I am not counting these daily blog posts toward those word counts meaning I need to produce 1667 words of fiction a day in June (on average). Being that I was a couple day behind right out of the gate, I didn’t think it’d be an easy thing to accomplish. Well, it wasn’t.
If I were counting my blog posts in my JuNoWriMo goal I’d be at just over 22,000 words so far for June (some posts have been scheduled for future release). So I really needed to push myself the past couple of days to get caught up with my fiction. Over the past four days here are my word count breakdowns: Blog Posts: 332, 1642, 2450, 3600 and Fiction 4227, 0, 3510, 3159.
I’ve really be pumping out the words and it feels great. It feels like a dam in my head burst and I can’t write the words fast enough and there are only so many hours in the day that I can write. It’s a little frustrating, but the day job needs to be done and once I call the day done only then can I sit and write. I have my goal in mind and I have my targets set out in front of me. That makes it far easier to look at where I am, where I need to be, and go for it.
I know there will be naysayers out there who claim that they can sit and write whenever they want and they don’t need to track their progress or sit down daily. I’m sure there are people out there like that. All I can state with any certainty is that I used to be like that and I got books written and words out. Ever since I shifted to tracking my progress and keeping myself on track with writing daily I’ve written more words than ever before. In a give year I might have been able to produce 200,000 words of fiction and that would be all I would write. We’re not even halfway through this year and I’ve already produced nearly 250,000 words. I can’t explain how good that feels.
I would never say you absolutely need to change your writing habits. What I will say is that if you’re not writing on a regular schedule, give it a shot. I’ve seen so much progress in my writing both in quality and quantity that I’m happier than ever and it’s a joy to sit and write even if I really don’t feel like writing. I can go from a foul mood to a happy mood in 100 words and then I’m off and rolling away and words start to flow. Sure it might be difficult to start at times, but I’m getting words written.
Oh, speaking of the title of this post, that’s my second accomplishment. Over 50,000. What did I mean by that? I set my annual goal for 450,000 words. My target goal is 196047. That means that I should be at roughly 196000 words but I’m actually at 246849. I’m over 50,000 words ahead of my goal. I’m currently 41 days ahead of schedule for the year. I know that unless something catastrophic happens, I’ll hit that goal and more. For me, that’s HUGE! I’m super excited about it .So excited that I feel the need to write. I’m not going to modify my goal at this point, but I will be upping my goals for next year. Based on where I finish, I’ll be setting a blogging goal and a fiction goal for next year as well as a combined goal.
This year is looking to be a great and productive year. If all goes well, next year will be more of the same.
I’ve got pictures of ducks to down load.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: A rough day.
I had intended to get caught up with my fiction writing yesterday. Instead I wrote a post about Mr. Bradbury, read a couple of his short stories, and watched several interview/discussions/talks with Mr. Bradbury. I even watched the Dead Alewives Ray Bradbury skit. It’s funny, but insulting. And funny. I love Bradbury, but it’s still funny.
Anyway, so I also went to the Millican’s son’s Lacrosse banquet. That was great fun. My favorite daughter had many practices in the gym where the ceremonies were held. The best comment of the night was about his son: “He shocked us at tryouts”. He was one of two freshmen that made the varsity team. He’s a freakin BEAST on the field.
Even with all that going on yesterday I still got my daily update done along with the post on Mr. Bradbury. There were a lot of great posts yesterday including on from Mark Evanier and Neil Gaiman. If you have time, I don’t have the links. But I’m sure if you do a google search on their name + Ray Bradbury you’ll find them quickly enough.
I got sidetracked. What I mean to say was that even with all that going on and getting my regular job work done, I also managed to squeeze out a few words. Yesterday’s word total was nearly 6000 words. I was a typing fool before the banquet and after the banquet. I’m on a roll right now. I’m about to write a chapter that will turn out more like a short story involving Slick and a job he needs to perform. The good thing is it’ll cause Slick to cross paths with Maus and Willie. Soon the three of them will wind up together, though no because any of them want to be together. It’ll all make sense when you read it 🙂 honest.
It’s nice when I’m writing Maus and Willie. They’re interactions at this point are adversarial which makes for great dialog. Once I introduce Slick to the equation it’ll be even more fun. When we used to play D&D Sean and Cam played Willie and Slick (respectively) and I played Maus. Needless to say I had the gnome, the cart, I hauled around out ‘loot’ and they would do everything they could to make my life a living nightmare. They would often pass notes back and forth to ensure I stayed sufficiently paranoid about what they were plotting and planning. Even though most of those notes consisted of “hi” “Hey” “Think he’s going to go off about this note?” “No, I think we should keep writing notes until he gets upset” “hahaha” they still made me paranoid. Looking back it was a lot of fun gaming with them and Pat, our DM tolerated their antics much to my dismay.
I did not and will not include a lot of things like this in he story. That was part of our D&D gaming and will forever stay there. Instead I will build on the character traits we developed during the game. This is a story using those characters, not a retelling of their adventures. I will not include stats, none of the encounters will be random no matter how they initially come across, and I will never use D&D terms when referring to the characters other than to specify their race. I won’t call Willie and Maus fighters, I won’t call Slick a thief (even though he’s a member of the thieves guild). I won’t call Reeg a paladin. You get the point.
What I’m trying to say is that I’m doing everything I can to make this story my own and not an extension of D&D adventures. I’m having fun with it and will continue to have fun with it. My hope is someday people will read it and also have fun with it. At some point I’ll record and podcast this story as well as release it as an ebook. It’s the first in a series and at this point I’m not sure how long the series will be. I just know Maus and Willie have a lot of story to tell and I hope to tell it all.
At this point my plan is to write the next installment of V&A Shipping after the first book for Of Gnomes and Dwarves. If all goes well, I’ll write the next Astel book after that. There’s still a lot of year left and a lot of words to write. There are also a lot of pictures of ducks I need to download so I can post a daily duck photo. I will get that dock post done one day soon.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
R.I.P. Ray Bradbury
The internet has been abuzz all morning about the death of another Sci-Fi Giant. Ray Bradbury passed away. I saw it in my news feed and felt instantly sad. The last time I felt this kind of sadness was when Arthur C. Clarke passed away. I knew he was quite old and it was only a matter of time, but it still doesn’t take away from the impact of losing another great.
Today I’ve read many memories people have had with Mr. Bradbury over the years. There is much talk about not only what a great writer he was, but also what a great person.
I never had the opportunity to meet Bradbury or to see him at an event. My life took a different path and ours just never seemed to have crossed or I was too interested in something else at the time. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have an impact on my life and my writing.
The book Zen and the Art of Writing has little to do with Zen and a lot to do with writing. Bradbury has such quotes as “Quantity produces Quality”. In his book he recommends writing a short story every day for a year. I tried that and failed miserably writing only 100 (or so) short stories and almost everything I wrote was terrible and got trashed. I did submit a great many of those stories and got 10 published that year (the most I ever have). So I take this quote to heart that the only way to produce great writing is to produce a lot of writing. Eventually something you write will work and once you can figure that out, your writing will only get better. As I’ve said before, it’s harder to get worse at something you do every day.
I’ve read some stories today about how people were “forced” to read Fahrenheit 451 in high school and that was their first experience with Bradbury. For me it was The Illustrated Man. The Veldt always stuck with me and I never forgot the Bradbury name. I could explain the plot of many Bradbury tales and that’s what stuck with me. It wasn’t the science or the deep thinking involved in his stories, it was how people reacted to the given situation they found themselves in and how they got out of the situation if they got out at all.
He wasn’t an alarmist, but Bradbury did try to point out that the future wasn’t going to be as bright as people always hoped it would be. Technology didn’t always win the day in his stories, but more often than not, escaping from technology did. He saw technology as something that would build up more walls between people than it would tear down. Even though I don’t share this view, I can see where he could see that as a possibility. It’s always something that I try to balance in my life (spending time with family and friends vs spending time on the computer writing) and it’s something that everyone should strive for. I know a couple people that I’ve lost for a year or more at a time when they become immersed in video games only to poke their heads up to let people in the real world know they’re still alive.
He leaves behind a legacy of 30 novels (not many for such a career) and over 600 short stories (HOLY CARP!) That’s 600 published short stories. That’s an incredible number to write let alone have published. I doubt I’ll ever have time in my life to read them all, but I’ll certainly take some time to read a few now that they’re on the top of my mind.
Today the world lost a great story teller. There will never be another like him.
Thank you for all you words, Mr. Bradbury. You will be missed.
Daily Update: Mom’s Birthday
Today is my mom’s birthday. I know a lot of people talk about their mothers and how great they are. I would do the same, but I hear how great my mom is from a lot of different people. Every time I go back to her bar in the backwoods of Minnesota where I grew up, I hear stories. When I call someone in the bar always yells to thank me for calling my mother and what a great person she is.
My mom is straight up. She’ll tell you exactly what’s on her mind and if you don’t like it, get the hell out of her bar and take your business elsewhere. For some people this is a big turn off and has driven those people away for a time, but 99% of the time they come back. Her bar is the second oldest bar run by the same management in McGregor. If you talk to anyone in McGregor about Rae Ann or the Cajun Queen, they’ll know exactly who you’re talking about. She’s been running that bar since 1983 and has done a fantastic job because of her honest, straightforward attitude.
Growing up she never put the fear of ‘God’ into me. I was never afraid of my mother. Oh sure I got my share of spankings and scoldings, but never anything I didn’t deserve. She was firm, but caring. She gave my brother and I very long leash, but she always knew where we were and what we were doing. I wouldn’t think twice about coming home after dark without calling and normally that was for her to come pick me up because I rode my bike to a friend’s house that was 10-15 miles away.
Today she celebrates the 30th anniversary of her 40th birthday. She may be slowing down, but she’s still not a lady you want to tangle with. When she was around 60 I saw he walk a man about 6’6” out of her bar after she told him repeatedly to watch his mouth. He lipped off to her face saying “I’d like to see you kick me out of here” and she came over the bar, grabbed him firmly by his tingly bit and did just that. You’d think his friends would have been laughing, but when she came back and said “Any of you got a problem with that?” They all said “No ma’am” and ordered another pitcher of beer. The person in question returned the next day to apologize for his behavior the night before and became a regular at her bar…as long as he watched his mouth. All she had to do was say his name, and he knew exactly what she meant.
I’ve posted here before that my mom has made sailors blush. My brother brought some Navy buddies home saying you have to meet my mom and it took her all of 10 or 15 minutes and they were either laughing of turning bright red.
In the history of McGregor every bar has been broken into. All save one. You might be able to guess which one. There are two reasons. 1) My mom lives in the back. 2) She’s armed. She’s feisty and has never kept it a secret that if you come into her bar when she’s closed she’ll shoot first and figure out what happened later. She’s got a shotgun by her bed and a handgun on her headboard. Her late husband also collected guns and they would go shooting often. Yes, my mom can shoot a gun and she’s not afraid to do so.
I’ve had my mom all my life. Something I appreciate more now that I’ve lost my father. She’s a spectacular woman with an interesting past. She’s done a lot and hasn’t left McGregor much over that past 30 years. I know of at least 10 different kids I grew up with that all call her mom, send her mother’s day cards, birthday cards and calls. Many who have come to respect my mother for who she is and would do anything to protect her. It warms my heart to know that so many have come to know and love my mom.
If you’re ever around the McGregor area, stop in, see my mom, tell her that her sons told you to stop by. The Cajun Queen is a great place to sit, have a beer, and enjoy some conversation.
Happy Birthday, Ma!
I need to go find more picture of ducks. I read an article that you can find on your own (I like to keep my site PG) about duck mating habits. I was surprised. I won’t post pictures of THAT!
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
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!
J.R. Murdock 