Category Archives: Blog Post
Daily Update: Vacation Day 2
Might be day three, I am losing track and that’s a good thing.
Today we took the tram up to the top of Palm Canyon. Always 30-40 degrees cooler up there. Lots of wildlife to see. There are some great hiking trails to walk. The views for the top are incredible.
We stopped with the kids to have a snack. There was a picnic table and we moved it from the sun to the shade. I was backing up and thought the way was clear, but didn’t see one of the many stray branch parts and slipped, rolled, and feel. I landed on my hip, blacked it slightly, tried to get up, fell again, got up, sat down and kept my head between my knees. The kids didn’t see me fall and I’m glad. It hurt something awful.
My Favorite Daughter saw me fall and I didn’t like the lock on her face. She didn’t like hot white I’d become.
I still went on the hike with the family. We had a great time. I took some motrin. Didn’t help much. Took some flannex when we got back to the room along with a hot shower. Still didn’t help much. My hip is killing me and hopefully it’s not stiff and sore tomorrow. Tomorrow is a pool day so I will have time to relax.
I’m off to heal and see if I can get some pictures of the ducks in the lake outside my hotel room window.
Until Tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily Update: Vacation day 1
What do you do when you’re on vacation? You swim, play, stay off the internet.
Well, I mostly stayed off the internet.
I spent a few hours slathered in sunscreen playing with nieces and nephews and my favorite daughter in the pool. Drank a couple of beers. Read a good chunk of Jeckyl and Hyde. Ate some awesome fish tacos made by the wife. Made a couple small Facebook posts and a couple of tweets.
So far this has been a very relaxing vacation and tomorrow should see more of the same. Oh how I needed this week off.
Until tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily Update: R&R
This week was brutal. With trips to the beach, the Del Mar fair and getting a ton of work done before my birthday, packing, cleaning…I am so ready for a vacation.
This is our first vacation of the year. We traveled to palm desert with many of the wife’s family and one of my favorite daughter’s friends. We got a total of 6 studio rooms and one two bedroom suite.
It is about a two and a half hour drive from san diego and about 20 degrees hotter. It was 104 when we got here but the breeze made it feel a little cooler.
I am sure there will be much eating, drinking, and time spent by the pool. More mobile updates to follow as the week goes on.
I even saw some ducks in the golf course water trap that I need to get a picture of!
Until Tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
New Story Available
You went to the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences to listen to my latest tale, didn’t you? You say you’re not a fan of audio and you’d rather read the story I wrote in Tee and Pip’s world? Well wait no more!
Head on over to Amazon today and pick up your own copy. What are you waiting for? It’s only 99 cents for some steampunk goodness! GO GO GO!
If you’d prefer you can also pick up a collection with my story and three others for only $2.99! Head on over to B&N and pick up a copy of that.
Leave a review, leave a comment, pick up Tee and Pip’s books, read, enjoy!
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: 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: It feels good.
It feels good to know that My Favorite Daughter is done with volleyball for a little while. This means I’ll have a few more hours of my week back which I will be dedicating to taking her out running each day, push-ups and sit-ups to work on her core strength, and jumping rope to work on her leg strength. I will be doing these things with her so we’ll both be getting in shape. Obviously she’s in far better shape than I am. We just need to work on getting her mile down below 8 minutes for the varsity tryouts. It’s going to be a long summer, but it’ll be fun and worth it.
Yesterday I had intended to sit and actually write some words. That didn’t happen. I sat at the keyboard and typed five words and fell asleep at the keyboard. Rather than fight it, I was to bed very early (around 8) and got up at 5:30. Been doing some work related items even though I’m off today. Now that I’ve got those done, the wife and I are going to get ready to do some errands that need doing. Tonight I will get in my writing time and work on getting caught up for JuNoWriMo. Even though I’m not officially participating, I’m still going to write as many words as possible in Of Gnomes and Dwarves during the month. I have a vacation planned for the end of the month that will shave off 7 days, but I’ll still do my best.
I’m still tired from this weekend. I’m sure that’ll wear off as the day goes on and I get the old blood flowing through the veins. There is much to do today and I have a day off to get it done. I may even get some more pictures of ducks and get that duck post written. We’ll have to see how it goes.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: …and boy are my arms tired
This was a very long weekend. Today was the last day for club volleyball. The girls did awesome! It was a long, tiring weekend and they did outstanding. It was frustrating in the end, but I’m sure they were all exhausted and quite ready to go home. Yesterday was the qualifier for regionals and they made it to the 1st/2nd place qualifiers. They made it again to the 1st/2nd place qualifiers for that group. They got to the finals, but didn’t make it to the final game. So close. But like I said, they played so well I’m not at all disappointed with how well they performed.
So this weekend (starting Friday) saw a lot of driving, a lot of games, an evening at the beach, more driving, and now I am just plumb wore out. Tomorrow won’t be quite as busy.
I’m going to spend a little time writing and then I’m going to veg out in front of the TV. Something I haven’t done in a while. I think I have a few episodes of Mythbusters and That Metal Show to watch. Probably a couple other shows as well.
I’ll post a longer post tomorrow.
I didn’t get a picture of a duck this weekend, but I have a grainy picture of two baby owls in a palm tree. I showed them to my favorite daughter and the wife last night when we got home fro mthe beach (and stopped for gas). It was so cute to see them up there in their nest. I’ve seen baby owls before, but not in a palm tree.
I’m tired. I need to write and go to bed.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update:a Beach and Volleyball
Just not at the same time.
Today we got up super early to get my favorite daughter to her volleyball tournament. We states up in Huntington Beach where the tournament was. The team did great. They were the 4th seed and beat the 2nd and 3rd seeds in two games and pushed the number 1 seed in both games but lost to them. They got second place and it is more volleyball tomorrow. It will be closer to home though so we’ll not have to drive as far.
On the way home we got word that the family was at the beach so after a quick pit stop at home we headed to the beach. We are currently making smores and enjoying the fire on the beach.
It’ll be time to head home soon and get to bed. I took Monday off and I will need it. This weekend is going to wipe me out.
I’m going to go back to enjoying the fire. I got pictures of seagulls but didn’t see any ducks.
Until tomorrow!
Woo Woo!
Daily Update: I have new toys!
I hit my 225,000 word goal ahead of schedule. Not just ahead of schedule, but a whole month ahead of schedule. I’m super excited about that. Of Gnomes and Dwarves is coming along so nicely. I’m very happy with not only how fast I’m getting it written, but how well I feel I’m writing it. I’m sure I’ve got errors and mistakes, and probably a continuity error or two, but using Scrivener I know it’ll be easy editing. If I need to move something around, it’ll be a piece of cake.
So having hit my goal yesterday, I allowed myself to open up the package that arrived and dig into its contents. When I say it took all my willpower not to open them, I’m not kidding. I wasn’t even going to open the amazon box until I had hit my word count. I couldn’t hold back and I had to tear into the box just to see them. I left them sitting there, taunting me, challenging me to hit my word count.
To compound my frustration I had to work, go to my favorite daughter’s volleyball practice after school, do some house work, take my favorite daughter to her regularly scheduled volleyball practice, book a hotel for tonight (she has her last away game this weekend) and still get my writing done.
I hit my word goal, plugged in the devices, and I’ve been happy ever since. OMFG! How did I live without these before? I spent an hour this morning programming the mouse buttons. Now all the tasks that I normally do with multiple keystrokes of key combinations I can do with a movement of my thumb or a click of a button. I made a macro that opens up all the applications that I need open at the start of the day. One click. I have a button that will auto fill forms for me with specific information. Programming either of these is a breeze! The only complaint I have so far is once I set up a macro, I cannot add something in the middle or reorder the items in the list. I must delete and rerecord. But hey, that’s a minor thing.
So you’ve looked at the picture, here’s what I got as my half-way goal prizes!
1) The Cyborg M.M.O. 7 gaming mouse
3) The Steelseries 4D mouse surface.
I could not be happier at this point with my purchases. I’ve only scratched the surface with what these tools can do for me. I know as time goes on I’ll be doing more and more with them. I just need to give me hands time to adjust to them. But seriously, I could NOT be happier with my purchases. That was the main reason for getting them. To give me a moment of happiness. Heck, this moment will last a LONG time.
I bought these to use mainly with work. Obviously when I’m writing, I’m doing just that; writing. I don’t need anything else other than the keyboard and (now) Scrivener. I don’t know how I got by with Scrivener before either. But when it comes to work, I’m a programmer. I use my mouse all day every day. I wanted something that did more than just point and click and I found that mouse. This one is larger than I’m used to, but I’m quickly adapting. The gamepad, on the other hand (literally) is currently being used for multi-key commands that I used infrequently. I’m sure as I get used to having it, I’ll discover more and more that I can do with it. I can attach ‘run’ command and execute .BAT files to execute really complex commands, open programs, launch web pages, heck, basically anything I need to do. I’ll keep you posted as to how I set these up.
Am I excited about my new toys? You betcha. Will I get full use out of them? Time will tell but I’m guessing not because I’m not a gamer. At some point in my life I might pick up gaming again and I’ll be happy I have these devices.
Welcome to June! I hope you have an awesome day. Some ducks flapped by my window this morning, but I didn’t get a picture of them. Perhaps tomorrow!
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 