Category Archives: Daily Update
Daily Update: Yesterday was a Good Day
Yes, I said it. Yesterday was a good day. Not just good, but awesome!
Knowing that we were going to pick up Sputtery Truck made me happy. Driving it home made me even happier. Writing made me elated.
Sputtry Truck:
It runs quieter than it had, but it was already warmed up because they were ready to close and were moving it .Regardless it felt smoother on the road. The wife and my favorite daughter followed me home. I did have to pull over and stop at one point. I had looked at the engine after pulling out and I didn’t secure the hood all the way. I got a call “Oh no! What’s wrong?” Fortunately I just had to re-open and slam the hood closed.
I did hit a bumpy patch on the road that made the whole truck shimmy and shake and I thought for just a moment that something may be wrong. I took my foot off the accelerator and all was fine once again. So SPuttry Truck, as it will no and forever be known as, is back home. The person who replaced it for me said he’s replaced this engine in other vehicles before which made me feel better about doing the entire engine vs the head gasket(s). I asked him about the Tahoe and he said those engines were beasts and I shouldn’t have any trouble with it at all. The transmission, on the other hand. I may be seeing him again, just hopefully not any time soon.
Writing:
I put out a couple of blog posts yesterday. I’m having fun writing some of these and the memories that come up while I write. It’s a great way to purge some information. All in all yesterday was a 3000 word day. Today should be similar. Or so I hope. It is Friday after all.
While lying in bed last night I decided to not play angry birds or read while I went to sleep and instead decided that I’m going to write a little on a story before I go to bed. I didn’t want to work on any of my WIPs and I had an idea for a new story. It’ll mostly likely be around 15,000 words when done. It’ll be more YA/Middle Grade. Just putting down the first 100 words before I couldn’t keep my eyes open was fun. I’ll be working on this a little each night and we’ll see where it goes.
Other WIPs are also progressing. Now that Sputtery Truck is home I feel much more relaxed. Words just seem to flow now. This makes me happy on several levels. The end of last month was a bad one for trying to write and looking at my word count, it’s reflected there.
I still need to get Kance Encounter out and begin work on Second Kance. I’m excited for the sequel. This one will be a little longer than the first. These stories are helping fuel my brain to get back into the Of Gnomes and Dwarves universe that I created so long ago. I can’t wait to begin the re-write (and by re-write I mean starting over from word one, not editing what I had before). I’d written four books and I will be self publishing them. I hope to start putting them out next year.
I have so many projects I’m working on now and many all at the same time. It’s difficult NOT to be excited about sitting and writing. If I feel stuck on one and need to think about a resolution I can hop to another and put words down to get it moving along. I wasn’t a fan of working on multiple projects at one time, but I’m seeing the allure. Now that my brain is mostly stress free, words should flow!
Holy Carp, this post is getting long. I’ll save some words for tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Waiting Sucks!
So if you haven’t seen it yet, I have a free short story on Smashwords. I really like this story as it gives a briefest glimpse into the life of a person that would otherwise be ignored. It’s not genre fiction, it’s just fiction. It has a slight Christian slant, just to forewarn you. It’s not heavy handed at all, just a story. I had submitted it to a contest a few years ago and although I didn’t win, I got some great feedback from the judges. The picture for the cover came from PayPhoneNews.com and was used with permission. The cover was done by Dan Dan the Art Man. He does great work! Wait until you see the cover for Kance Encounter. 🙂
Yesterday I told you to look for a Tweet telling you that Sputtery Truck had returned home in fine, working order. I reminded the wife that we needed to pick it up. I called her at 3PM to remind her. I forgot to mention that the place closes at 5PM and it’s about a 30 minute drive from our house. So when she got home at 4:45PM and said “Let’s go get the truck!” I was already deflated. My favorite daughter had said about an hour before, “Why don’t we just drive down and get it? Why do we have to wait for mommy? Oh, wait. Nevermind.” I love my kid. It’s a good thing she’s cute. 🙂
So still I wait for my truck to return to me. It’ll be a little more than estimated because another part on the engine needed to be replaced, but I had been expecting that. It’ll still be less than replacing the truck. So the wife will return early today so we can go and pick it up. From what I’m told, all looks good.
More waiting, as I mentioned already I’m still waiting to hear back on books and short stories. I’m going to stop stressing about them and get my butt in the chair and write. While waiting for the wife last night I could have been writing, but instead found other things to distract myself like calling and sending texts to the wife not realizing she didn’t have her phone with her. Not hearing back only got me more worked up and I couldn’t concentrate. Ah well. Today is another day, right?
I’ve spent the last couple days at work writing documentation and building mock-ups. This, at times, can be a tedious process, but it’s something I enjoy. I like thinking through each step and what it would take to build out a larger project. The one we’re looking at isn’t nearly as large as a project I had last year and it’s more modular so a few of us can work on it at one time. It’s neat to see all those parts come together. Again, I’ll be waiting until the client signs off and we can begin the work in earnest. More waiting. LOL
Are you seeing a theme here? It’s a good thing I’m usually patient or I’d go insane. Speaking of going insane…
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Month in Review
Total words for Jan 2012 – 36176
Blog words – 18149
Fiction words – 18027
Did I write as much as I had hoped? No.
Did I walk as much as I had hoped? No.
I know I’m capable of more and I’m capable of better. I did get a couple good shorts off and submitted. I hope to get another submission off this month. I also published a couple free short stories. Kance Encounter has a minor issue that one I get fixed I will post. That will be later this week. If you’re looking for free fiction, check out Don’t Use the Phone to tide you over until Kance Encounter is out. Don’t Use the Phone does have a slight Christian tone, but don’t be afraid. It’s not heavy handed in any way.
As for walking, I’d chronicled that pretty well. My shins are feeling better, but I don’t think I’ll be running any time soon. If I do it’ll be on the track at my favorite daughter’s school. It’s one of those rubberized tracks and is real nice on the legs. I will, however, begin other cardio training as the complex we live in does have a gym on site. I’ve been doing light weight training in the interim.
As you noticed I have managed to blog daily. I’ll be keeping that up as it is helping when I do sit and write. I love to type so this is always good exercise. It also helps me keep everything clear in my head from day to day. I do need to start making note of when I have ideas for a given blog post. I’ve had some ideas, but they slip by and I don’t post them. February will see some more stories vs day-to-day issues.
The chronicle of Sputtery Truck is still on going. I hope to have it back today. It was supposed to be done yesterday, but replacing an engine isn’t a quick or easy process. I’m not surprised. What will surprise me? Getting my truck back in running order. This has had me very stressed in not having my vehicle and worrying about the money I’m putting into it. I know it’ll all work out, but I can’t help but worry. Look for a happy tweet later this afternoon.
I’m still waiting and waiting really sucks. It’s also got me on pins and needles. I have 6 books with a publisher. Hopefully something catches his eye. I know I need to be patient and publishers are busy, busy people. So I wait.
I’ve also got a couple of short stories out there. Anxious to hear about those as well. While I wait I think I’ll work on another short story and get back into my longer works. I need to write Second Kance for the end of this month. It’ll be a new story, but continue the threads built in Kance Encounter. Each will be self contained with an over arcing thread. Can’t wait to dig into the next story. It’s been in my head for years.
I also need to record my Action Pack story and get that ready for production as well as write the next 4000-5000 words. I also need to come up with a better title. I like Gold Rush, but the date of the story is after the Gold Rush so the title doesn’t make sense. Either way, it’s a fun story so far and I hope it continues to be.
There are a lot of things in the works. I need to get going on them so I don’t let myself get behind. If you set goals for January, how did you do? Are you on track? Are you falling behind? Do you need some motivation? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Climbing Poles
Yesterday I went to a training class. I had a wonderful time. I had attended this particular class three years ago. It’s all about safety. We learned about hard hats, gloves, safety belts and straps, ladders, and poles.
The course is supposed to be about climbing poles. I’ll get to that in a moment.
We did a lot of how to inspect each piece of gear. We discussed how to inspect telephone poles by hitting them with hammers, poking them with screw drivers, looking at the markings and the like. We inspected ladders and strapped ourselves in at the ground level.
Last time I took this course we climbed the ladders and secured ourselves to a strand. We also climbed a ladder against a pole. Finally we climbed a pole without a ladder. Apparently last time this training was done, a couple of people were lost. I feel bad about this, but at no time did our instructor force anyone to perform any task they did not want to. He asked each person “Do you feel safe? Are you prepared? If you run into any trouble, grab on and I’ll come and get you.” One person did require assistance. Three people opted out from performing the climbing. I’m not there to judge. They all had their reasons.
Now, I grew up in Minnesota. I’ve hung from the top of a tree by one hand just to see if I could. I’ve jumped from tree to tree like a freaking monkey. Heights excite me, but I’m not terrified of them. I know, for the most part, what I’m capable of now and then and I don’t mistake the two. I’m not 12 anymore. I have an appreciation for what can happen if I’m not paying attention.
Yesterday only one person bowed out from climbing the ladder against the pole. We only went up 10 feet over a sawdust bed. It was a safe environment to work in.We all had a good time, but I was really looking forward to climbing a pole. We were not permitted for our own safety. I understand why, but I was still disappointed.
I still had fun at the class. I’m crazy like that.
On to other news. I should be getting Sputtery Truck back this afternoon. I’ll be calling shortly to see how it’s going. It’ll be nice to return the rental and get back my own vehicle. I like my big truck. I think this will also help clear a small mental block I’ve had in my head and help me get a good night’s sleep. Or so I hope. We’ll see.
I don’t think I’ve ever said this, but let me state this now as I’ve seen this happen on other blogs.
There are some things I will NOT talk about on this blog because of the volatile and personal nature of the topics. This list is subject to addition, but not exclusion.
Taxes, Religion, Politics, Doctors, Lawyers, Candle Stick Makers.
Okay, maybe some day I’ll talk about Candle Stick Makers, but not in the foreseeable future. If you’d like to discuss one of these topics, I’d be more than happy to, just not on this blog. I’m here to entertain and on a rare occasion, educate (though this will more than likely be due to some mistake on my part rather than actual intent). I love the comments I get on a particular post, so please, keep them coming. I do read them all and will likely respond on the next Daily Update.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Onsite Training
I had intended to get two short stories assembled and up yesterday. Well, that didn’t happen. Sorry about that. They’ll be coming very soon. Spell checker got me and that was my fault. I hope to have the stories up later today.
We got our rental car last night. It’s pretty nice. My favorite daughter loves the back-up camera. I found it distracting, but hey, I’m old school and use my mirrors. I’ll be driving that to my training class in my steel-toed boots. I feel like I’ve got 2 ton weights on my feet. I’m a flip-flop kind of guy. I’ll be bringing those along with me to change after the class.
My training class today is pole climbing, ladders, wires, etc. I’ve been through it once before. We’ll get to look at the trucks we’ll be working in, but not actually use them. It’ll mostly consist of how to climb a pole, how to secure a ladder to a pole or wire to perform work and how to keep yourself secure while doing these tasks. I’m actually a little excited to be heading out. I sit behind a desk all day and though I love my job, it’s always nice to do something different once in a while.
Why am I doing this training? I can’t actually discuss that here. Internal company business and all that. I will be going to another onsite training in the middle of March. I’ll actually have to travel to that one for a few days.
Tomorrow I should have Sputtery Truck back. I haven’t heard anything from the person working on it which I hope is a good thing. He said he’d call if they found anything else that needed replacing. I’m hopeful that means all is going well and Sputtery Truck will be happy to see me tomorrow afternoon.
I started watching a show (it’s a 2010 show, but I just found it) called Ancient Aliens. Tomorrow I’ll see if I can find the link to the show. It’s pretty interesting. I can easily spot where they’re making a huge leap of faith, but there are some very interesting aspects to the show. I watched one last night about underwater cities that pretty much blew my mind. Aliens or not, those cities were built long before man was supposed to have built cities. I’ll ramble more on that tomorrow. Suffice to say, the show is great fodder for stories if you believe what’s said in the shows or not.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Mini Pies.
Last night the wife, my favorite daughter, and one of her friends made mini cherry pies. This morning we made mini breakfast pies. I had gotten the pie maker during Christmas and I’ve only used it twice. I really need to use it more. This little thing is quick and rawks 🙂
Pies are cool.
Update on music on my Xoom. I downloaded the MixZing player. This allowed me to select where my music folder is and only plays music from that folder. It also let’s me choose songs by album or artist, build playlists, all the things the other player did, but were having a problem with. I deleted all the stray music and the Google music player still doesn’t know where my music is and winamp wants to put up to 5 versions of each song in the master playlist. So my music problem, for the time being, has Ben corrected.
Mike Plested and I have started plotting Jack Kane II and it’s going great so far. Once we get this plotting done I’ll begin the edits on the first novel in earnest so we can get it ready for beta readers and submission.
Went to my favorite daughter’s volleyball practice earlier today. They looked good. They have practice again tomorrow. Even though they lost all their games yesterday they were all in good spirits. The coach had them doing some interesting drills and exercises. Some made them laugh as they were doing them so it was a good thing.
I normally do these posts in one sitting. Today has been an up and down day. I’ve managed to get about a paragraph out and I’m called off to do something else. Sometimes life is like that.
Our latest was off to get a rental car because sputtery truck won’t be ready until Tuesday. Now that we have the rental car, we’re off to Sees Candies to get a gift for someone. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Tomorrow I’ll be at an onsite training. I’ll post about that later. Once we get back from Sees, it’s writing time.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Sputtery Truck
Today I’m off to drop off Sputtery Truck with someone who will replace the engine. When I say off I mean I actually took the day off to take care of this. I’m about to head outside and remove all the ‘stuff’ from inside the truck. Call it paranoia, call it caution. I just don’t want anything I have in there to disappear.
I haven’t been sleeping well. I think it’s stress, but it’s hard to know for sure.
My major project at work has gone through testing. I’m now working on requirements for another project while the previous goes through User Acceptance Testing. The truck is about to get a new engine which means I’ll have a vehicle soon. It’s been tough without one. The money we’re spending will be difficult in the short term, but in the long term I think we’re making the right choice.
I was talking with my friend last night. It’s kind of funny. I’ve only ever bought two new cars. The first was when I was in the Navy. I got ripped off and didn’t fully understand that until after I had signed the contract. That one eventually died. The second the wife and I got when my favorite daughter was born. That one ran great, but we eventually needed something bigger and sold it to buy the Tahoe.
All in all I’ve had good luck with vehicles. It’s easy to allow a bad event such as what I’m going through now overshadow all the repair-free years. I haven’t had a car payment in a very long time so it’s not like I’ve been putting money into the vehicle(s) year after year other than standard maintenance. My hope is this repair will get me over the next year without anything else. As far as I know, I’ve done everything else that would cost a large sum of money.
Once I have the truck back I think I’ll sleep better knowing that when I need it, it’ll be there. I just need to relax. Yeah, that’s it. relax. 🙂
Had another decent writing day yesterday. I was going to post weekly updates as to my progress. What I’ll do on my February 1st Daily Update is post my word count for January and show where I am and where I should be in relationship to my yearly goal. I’ll also break down fiction and blog posts. Obviously these daily blog posts have helped my word count. Next month I’m going to try and write far more fiction.
Well, the tow truck driver will be here soon. I need to go get things packed up.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Pumpkin Pie and Words
So I was hungry and old Father Hubbard went to the Cupboard and lo and behold the cupboard was bare. I did, however, find a frozen pumpkin pie in the freezer and it looked like something good to cook. I also found some noodles and some cheese and made some mac & cheese as well as a box of stove top stuffing.
*note: I did go to the store after the wife got home from work
So I cooked a mish-mash of different things. It was pretty cool having pumpkin pie even if it wasn’t fresh or all that good.I love me some pumpkin pie but we didn’t have whipped cream which I should have thought about getting when I went to the store. Perhaps later today.
So I wrote nearly 2000 words yesterday. I feel pretty good about that. I’m hoping for another 2000 word day again today. Tomorrow will be stressful as I need to drop off sputtery truck to get his guts replaced. Nervous about not only having to get it towed, but the process and the money. I’ll get over it.
Saturday my favorite daughter has another volleyball tournament but this one is in Temecula. That’s only an hour away so we won’t be sleeping over this time. That’s a good thing as Friday night they have practice from 7pm-9pm. I’d hate to drive up to LA after practice getting there super late and having to get up early to go to the tourney.
Speaking of my favorite daughter, I’ve been helping her at night practice her volleyball moves out in the parking lot. This hasn’t done good things for the pain in my lower legs. Although the pain is lessening during the day, when I have to chase after the ball it only takes about 30 minutes before I’m in pain and limping back into the house. Next week I’m going to start going up to the gym in the place where we’re renting and start working out again. I now know I cannot do any impact exercises until I strengthen my legs more and maybe not even then. <sigh>
So the picture I posted is of a small, pewter griffin. Yes, yes I know they’re mythical beasts. I bought this a long time ago and it always reminded me of my father. It reminds me of him because the logo for his company, Murdock Laboratory, is a griffin. It’s changed over the years and is more stylized now, but it’s still a griffin. I keep this little figure next to me when I write because it inspires me to write and it inspires me to think about the business of writing. My father always taught me you can never have too much on your plate when it comes to work. You’d rather have too much, than go hungry.
What does all this have to do with angry birds? Oh, wait. I didn’t mention angry birds yet. Anyway. I solved all the Angry Birds latest seasons levels in one sitting. I was sad, but I did. It got me to thinking of my dad in a weird sort of way. As I played the levels I thought they should build an angry birds level builder so people could make their own. I thought this would be so awesome. There would still be the official Angry Birds levels, but people who want to play more could find other people’s levels and those who want to join in the fun could build their own.
Awesome idea, right? Well, there was a game I love way back when called Lode Runner. The idea was to avoid the bad guys, collect the treasure, and a hidden ladder would appear that you’d need to take to the top. Simple 2D graphics. You could burn bricks (but not solid areas). There were hidden bricks that were really traps.
Anyway, the guys of Lode Runner built in a ‘build your own level’ area of the game. I solved all the Lode Runner levels in all versions of the game and played them over and over. I even got my dad addicted to the game. It was great fun. We’d have contests to see who could progress further in say 15 minutes. Things like that. When I discovered that I could build my own levels, it was game on! I’d build a level, my dad would solve it. I’d build a harder level. He’d solve it. I’d build a level with one solution. He’d solve it. I’d build a level with a trap, he’d get angry and say, “Hey! That’s not fair. Not traps on the next one.” I built somewhere around 70 levels and my dad solved them all.
It things like this that run through my head when I send those little birds screaming along to knock stuff over. It’s little things like the griffin that keep my dad in my memory. It’s inspiration like this that have me taking on as much as I can handle…and then asking for more.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: I was annoyed, but now I’m happy
I spent too much time last night trying to figure out why I couldn’t play music like I should be able to. I use my Xoom tablet for almost everything and I had Winamp installed and the latest Xoom update made the generic music player become the Google Music player. Ok, that’s fine.
However when I went to play a song, I noticed that winamp skipped a couple before it played a song. I didn’t think anything of it for the first couple of days until I opened the Music player and it wouldn’t play anything.
See, I like winamp, but the Music Player would allow me to select an album an play only that album in order. I wanted to listen to Pink Floyd – The Wall. For some reason winamp doesn’t think I should be able to do this without creating a playlist.
So I tried to figure out why the Google music player wasn’t playing, got really frustrated, and went back to winamp to play Weird Al – Hardware Store (love this song) and as I’m scrolling through the songs in winamp I noticed that there were three, four, and in some cases FIVE copies of each and every song. Huh?
I have (or had) all my music on the micro SD card. That’s the only place I’ve ever put songs. At some point all the songs got copied over onto the Xoom’s main memory. Ok, fine. That’d account for two, but all the rest? They were pretty much dead songs and I had no way to remove them except to navigate one by one in winamp and remove the offending songs. I uninstalled winamp and reinstalled it thinking that would cure the problem. Well, no. It didn’t
I installed MixZing. At first, yes, it also had the same issue. All songs were listed multiple times even after deleting the duplicate music folder. Color me confused, but MixZing has an awesome feature that allowed me to say “HERE’S MY MUSIC! RIGHT THERE! ONLY THERE!” and I selected only the SD card music folder and magically I have only one of each song again. Color me a happy boy.
I still need to play with it and discover if I can play an album instead of just shuffling the songs, but at this point I think it’s pretty cool. It also downloads and displays cover art which I also think is pretty cool. I’ll keep you updated if I ever figure out what happened. I think Winamp or Google Music created the duplicate folder and/or some bizarre playlist that goofed things up. I’ll have to look deeper into it, but for now I’m a happy music listener.
In other news, Mike Plested and I have begun the plotting of Jack Kane book 2 (title pending) and we had a conversation last night. We had each other laughing which is a good sign. Hopefully we can make others laugh as well. We’re currently doing our plotting in google docs and ‘tagging’ each other as we add a line/paragraph for a given scene and we’ll keep going back and forth until we have an outline. To help with continuity we’ll be doing one chapter at a time and, again, play tag. It’ll be an interesting experience.
I’ve got to run. I’ll ramble more tomorrow.
Until Tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
Daily Update: Oscliations
So I’ve gone back and forth on a number of issues, but first.
I want to welcome all the new readers to the blog. I know you’re out there. I’ve seen the increase in traffic and thank you for the comments. I think you’re all awesome and I love each and every one of you. I mean, really, you’re great.
First issue that’s gone back and forth in my head is regarding sputtery truck. It’s pretty much dead at this point. Well, it’ll start, but only under duress. I’ve not turned it on for over a week and a half. The choice isn’t an easy one. Replace the head gasket and hope that nothing else has gone wrong that I’ll be replacing at a later time or replace the engine. Obviously one is more expensive than the other. After weighing all the options the wife and I decided that it’d be best to go ahead and spend the extra money to get a new engine. Head Gasket jobs cost around $1500. A good friend of mine found a person willing to do the entire engine job for $1900 (that includes the engine). With over 110,000 miles on the vehicle and overheating problems, it just seems like the best option at this time. It’ll hurt, but it’s needed.
The other thing I’ve been going back and forth with is getting back to walking. The pain in my lower legs has gone from annoying to excruciating. I’ve felt good one day, can’t walk down the stairs the next. It’s highly distracting. Suffice to say, I’ve not walked and the good thing is it’s bothering me not to walk. I know once this pain is gone (likely with the rain) I’ll be back out there, just slower. I’ve been doing weight workouts, but I know I need to do some cardio as well.
Writing has been going well. I’m still ahead of schedule with my word count for the year. That makes me happy. I should be ready to toss out the first short story in the Of Gnomes and Dwarves universe by the end of the week. I’m really excited about that. Dan Dan sent me the cover image. I’m SUPER excited about that, but you’ll have to wait a few more days before you get to see it. It’s awesome!
I keep listening to my music for the Action Pack podcast. I still love it. It’ll fit perfectly with the tone of the story.
Speaking of story, I’ve been going back and forth writing on To Fall From the Sky and Gold Rush (still a tentative title). I’m having a blast writing each.
Speaking of writing, tonight I meet with Mike Plested (and maybe Scott Roche) to talk Jack Kane (edits and sequel) and the Action Pack. Life is busy, exciting, and awesome! It takes a lot to get me down. I’ve been a little down, but watch out once I get this sputtery truck issue behind me.
Until tomorrow!
WOO WOO!
J.R. Murdock 