| Well, Crap |
[Nov. 19th, 2009|04:56 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  discontent | ] |
A vendor is here to switch out a router that's been misbehaving. We were supposed to do it at 4 PM and the whole deal would take about ten minutes.
Instead, he's been on the phone for nearly an hour trying to negotiate the manufacturer's bureaucracy so he can download the newest version of the router OS. I suspect I'm going to be here at the office a while longer. I got no writing done last night, and my usual 500 words or so today at lunch, but I'm getting seriously behind again, and this isn't helping. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|08:27 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
The server went offline at 4:15
It took us about fifteen minutes to figure out that the C drive was dead and decide to re-task the old Terminal Server that has been gathering dust for the past few months.
At 7:30, I walked out the door, having gotten the old server back on the domain, renamed it, promoted it to Domain Controller, and moved the data drive over from the dead server.
I won't deny there was some gnashing of teeth, if not actual wailing during those two hours, but that's a damned good turnaround in my book, and as much as I hate it when these things happen, they do serve to remind me that I'm damned good at my job. |
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| God-DAMMIT!!! |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|05:08 pm] |
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The Domain Controller at my office died at 4:15 this afternoon. I'm currently trying to configure the replacement. It's going to be a long evening. |
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| Puttin' On Mah Cowboy Hat |
[Nov. 18th, 2009|01:49 pm] |
(Note: I do not actually own a cowboy hat. Or boots for that matter.)
As part of keeping my inspiration going on the writing front, I've been listening to a lot of Alt-Country. It's my narrator's music of choice and it helps me stay in his headspace.
As a result, I've heard some pretty amazing and pretty damned weird stuff along the way and I figured some of it was worth sharing on a slow day.
( Read more... ) |
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| Sushi Or Wrestling Move? |
[Nov. 16th, 2009|07:41 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  putting off real writing | ] |
Our favorite sushi place changed their setup from counter service to sit-down with wait staff and used this as an opportunity to bump their prices up about 10%, and classed things up to the point that we didn't feel entirely comfortable bringing C-Monster in there, as he's often a bit loud and a little out of control by dinner time on a Friday night.
So, we went looking for a new place and found one that's actually closer to the house. And while they do sit-down service, they're also a lot less formal and the menu is about six times the size of the place we used to go. As a result, our excursions have been a bit more of an adventure as we get a feel for what we like.
Being that they have a couple of hundred different rolls, they have some pretty crazy names. Last Friday, I had something called a Flying Stevenson Roll. It was quite good, but it still sounds like something you'd hear on WWE Smackdown. |
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| Well, It Beats Working |
[Nov. 13th, 2009|04:36 pm] |
I was actually off today, as opposed to Wednesday when I was sick. It's been fairly low-key. I had a parent-teacher conference this morning, then drove into town for a brief shopping expedition (Supernatural RPG acquired), a #1 Plate at El Paraiso, and about 600 more words.
And that's pretty much it. The original plan (lunch with my Saturday gamers) got killed due to schedule failures (to the guy suggesting a late lunch, that meant 4 PM, to me it means 1), but I hope they enjoyed themselves without me.
Not as productive on the writing front today, as I'm stuck in a scene where I know what's happening but am struggling with the description. Tonight, the plan is sushi at Little Tokyo (or, as we call it, Lotsarolls) with Jane and/or The Boy (depending on whether or not he wants to spend the night at his grandmother's), then take another crack at writing, then the Dynamo-Galaxy game at 10 PM. |
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| Milestone |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|09:42 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
20,282 |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 12th, 2009|03:23 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  okay | ] |
As predicted, I felt well enough to return to work today. It's been a pretty low-key uneventful day, which is more or less exactly what I needed.
On the writing front, I'm within spitting distance of 20K and should hit it tonight. I've got tomorrow off, but between a parent/teacher conference and lunch plans with "The Guys," I don't know how much writing I'll get done. Fortunately, I'm on pace, and my weekends seem to be pretty productive. |
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| Boring Update of Boringness |
[Nov. 10th, 2009|08:34 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | blah | ] |
No gaming tonight. Jane's gotten back into Rotary and the local chapter has their new member induction tonight, so I'm watching C-Monster. It's just as well; I'm not feeling all that great and I'd hate to spread incipient plague to the gaming group.
In the meantime, I got my intended word count knocked out in record time tonight. I could probably push on, but I need to mull things over a bit, and if I still feel lousy tomorrow, I'm going to call in sick, which will afford me ample writing time.
Now, I'm off to play FIFA 10 until Jane gets home. |
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| More Blather About The Writing |
[Nov. 8th, 2009|09:43 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | accomplished | ] |
I got seriously behind around day three and it snowballed from there for a couple of days. I was hoping to get somewhat back on track this weekend, but yesterday felt kind of iffy. I wrote myself up to a point where I knew all hell was about to break loose (in fact that was the exact term I used) but I really wasn't sure what sort of hell or what was going to happen after. So, I decided to sleep on it, though I wasn't happy doing so.
This morning, I figured it out and things just sort of flowed naturally from there. Like crazy. Like about five thousand words since noon today crazy. That's more than I've ever written about anything. Either the book is getting worse, or this is getting easier.
The best part was reaching a point a few minutes ago where I said, "OK, that's enough for today. I'll finish this chapter and call it a night." I finished up the chapter and checked my word count to update the NaNoWriMo site. My goal to be completely back on track today was 13,330 words.
My word count at the end of that chapter? Thirteen thousand, three hundred thirty words.
In the immortal words of Smoove B, "Damn." |
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| Taking A Break From Writing To Write About Reading |
[Nov. 7th, 2009|03:57 pm] |
NaNo is taking over my soul. But the words are coming slowly, and a break is in order. So, here's the latest update to the reading list.
Having read one book by Caitlin Kittredge that was pretty good (Black and White) and one that was bog-standard Urban Fantasy with a heavy dose of romance (Night Life), I decided to take one more crack at a different series she's worked on.
Street Magic is the first of her "Black London" series, telling the story of a Scotland Yard inspector who had a weird brush with the supernatural when she was a teen. Someone died and she's spent the past dozen years trying to pretend it didn't happen. While investigating the disappearance of a child, that someone turns up, strung out on heroin and hating her guts.
This one had a lot more confidence going for it than Night Life. Of course, that was a first novel and the author has a couple more under her belt now. The tension between the two lead characters works very well without falling back on the tired "first they fight, then they fall for each other" trope. The magical bits are nice and evocative, and Black London is a far more interesting place (to me) than Simon Green's Nightside.
Really, my only complaint was with some of the euphemisms and turns of phrase, which read like an American author trying to insert British quirks into the narrative. Saying someone who'd been beaten up looked like he'd gone up against the starting lineup of Manchester United just sounds stilted (and wrong, since Man U are all bunch of feckin' ponces). If she'd said a bus of Man U supporters or Millwall fans, I'd believe it. But as minor gripes go, it's very minor, and she gets points back for the Anti-Nowhere League references. |
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| Late Breaking Questions |
[Nov. 6th, 2009|07:53 am] |
This batch from ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) anaka:
1) What's your favorite footie team and what do you like about them.
Liverpool FC, aka the Reds. As to what I like about them, its a combination of things. First off, when they're healthy, they play a truly breathtaking game. I love the sport when it's free-flowing and creative and they're among the best there is at that style of play. When they're healthy. This year, not so much. :-(
Second, they have Fernando Torres, a young Spaniard of incredible talent who is nonetheless apparently a big enough geek to have his name tattooed on his forearm in Sindarin.
Third, their heritage. Liverpool have won more championships at all levels than any team in England. Unfortunately, they haven't won the top English division in nearly twenty years, but to me, that gives them a certain mystique as well, the team that never quite makes it, no matter how good they are.
Finally, their fan base. They're rabid without being hooligans and are part of the team in their own way. A nigh-legendary moment came in 2005 in the Champions League final against AC Milan. Liverpool went in at the half down 2-0. As they came out of the tunnel to start the second, the Liverpool contingent belted out a massive rendition of the team anthem, the old song "You'll Never Walk Alone." To a man, the players said it inspired them beyond anything else that night. They went on to win 3-2.
Stuff like that is real magic to me, almost tangible. I love it.
2) Biggest Teenage Crush
A girl I knew in Theatre. She was a couple of years younger than me and a very gifted dancer. Of course, last I knew, she was over 40 and still going by Missy, so I may have dodged a bullet by missing out on that one.
3) Photo you've kept the longest (your baby pictures don't count).
Hmmm...I'm terrible about photos. I don't think I have any pictures of my parents, and most of the ones I have are either accidentally still around, or safely framed by other people concerned about their welfare. I do have a framed picture of Jane in her wedding dress at my office. I've got a picture from about a week before that when my job threw me a 30th birthday "funeral."
4) Photo you wish you could get rid of.
Oh, this one's easy. It's one my dad took of me in a really bad SCA costume when I was still living at home. It's a perfect storm of bad outfit plus shiny Lycra tights, plus bad hair. Unfortunately, it's framed with a collage of other pictures at my mom's house and there's no way to get to it. Yet.
5) Things you always have with you.
My keys. My glasses. An earring (because I never change it out). Something to read. My dice. |
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| The Hill Got Steeper |
[Nov. 5th, 2009|11:01 am] |
Well, I got off to a good start on NaNoWriMo. Then, Tuesday happened. Actually, since it was after midnight, Wednesday happened. For whatever reasons, I couldn't switch my brain off after the game and I ended up awake until about 3 AM. Then, my plans to write at my desk at lunch got kyboshed by a network outage I had to work. By the time I got home and ate, I was so tired, so frazzled, I managed all of 130 words. So, I'm going to have to churn out 3,000 if I'm going to get back on track.
Today, I'm going to find someplace without wireless, silence the inner critic, and crank up the netbook. Cross your fingers for me. |
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| Well That's Kind Of Cool |
[Nov. 3rd, 2009|10:01 am] |
Extremely Talented Game Designer And Generally Swell Guy, Greg Stolze won this year's Chicago Tribune Great Chicago Ghost Story contest.
Read it here, it's a good'un. |
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| Ootini! Of Death! |
[Oct. 31st, 2009|06:37 pm] |
C-Monster is going out tonight as the Grim Reaper. He's got a cool mask that covers his entire face with just these two red glowing eyes shining out.
Of course, at his height, he more closely resembles Pratchett's (theoretical) Death of Jawas. |
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| Non-Musicians Probably Won't Get This, But It's Beautiful |
[Oct. 30th, 2009|01:34 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  amused | ] |
"Let me see if I can remember this. Take your least-used guitar. Remove the middle two strings. Tune the low E down to a C. Tune the A down to a G. Tune the B string DOWN to an F, and the high E DOWN to a G#.
Now tell the bass player to go on break (unless he or she can make decent animal noises)."
-- From a set of guitar tabs for the B-52's "Rock Lobster" I found online.
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| THEY Didn't Want Me To Read This Book! |
[Oct. 29th, 2009|10:23 am] |
Or, given its subject matter, maybe THEY did.
I finished Monte Cook's The Skeptic's Guide to Conspiracies. I'm a firm believer in helping writers who got their starts in gaming find a larger audience, so when I saw a Kindle version of this came out, I grabbed a copy. All in all, it's a good bathroom read, but it's hardly a serious look at conspiracy theories, nor does it read like a serious effort at debunking. Overall, the tone seems to be one of preaching to the choir -- if you've bought it, you already think anyone who believes in this stuff is a nut, so here's a handy all in one sourcebook of conspiracies to mock. Which isn't to say many of the theories discussed within aren't worthy of monumental mockery; it's just that there's very little actual effort expended on refuting any of it, including some of the more plausible ones.
Still, it is full of neat little tidbits, many of which I'd not known before (for instance, the elder George Bush was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, but he claims he can't remember what he was doing that day, making him the only person in America alive at that time who doesn't know where he was when JFK was assassinated). If you don't mind the snarky tone and want an extensive, if superficial, overview of conspiracies, it's probably worth your time. |
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