Home » 2006 » November

I need routine

So, my bro is gone. He hasn’t left the country yet, but will soon. For three months he’ll be traveling in the Philippines, Thailand, China, Taiwan,etc. He’ll have no laptop and very few Internet cafes. I miss him already. Doh! We don’t keep in touch as often as I like, but when all access is cut, I notice it.

Writing
I’ve been procrastinating a lot lately. A lot. Writing is really what I want to do. I even have dreams of supporting my family by it. Yeah, right. I can’t even sit down and write a word a day, for chrissakes. It always seems that something comes up and takes away my time. The kids, the house, the wife… whatever. I need to get back into a routine. I thrive on routine, pretty much like kids. I need it, and this stay-at-home dad thing really doesn’t want to give me one. Still, I’ll work on it. I’ll bring the wife in on it and see if we can’t finangle some sort of writing routine for me. Why the wife? Well, whatever time I take, it will take away from something else, like the kids, or her, or the house work. She deserves input into that.

I still want to finish the initial draft of the novel by the end of December, and I’m a long way off. I’ve also come to realize that I will be way short on my wordcount in that draft. I need to add more, so I can whittle it all down to something really good.

I may have said this before, and for the life of me, I can’t remember where I heard it last… Life is what happens as your making plans. Well, time to stop making plans and actually do.

Posted on 2006-11-24 by , 2 comments

Need a ‘pick me up’?

I was procrastinating… again, and I came upon this link. Just type in your name and click on the link provided.

Posted on 2006-11-23 by , Reply

Wow!

Hey, I have a blog! Who knew? I guess I should start using it more often (again).

You Should Be a Science Fiction Writer
Your ideas are very strange, and people often wonder what planet you’re from.
And while you may have some problems being “normal,” you’ll have no problems writing sci-fi.
Whether it’s epic films, important novels, or vivid comics…
Your own little universe could leave an important mark on the world!
Posted on 2006-11-20 by , Reply

Conversion Complete? Nope!

Well, it has been a long time, hasn’t it? I guess the reason I haven’t been writing (here or on my WIP) is a mixture of Life is what happens while you’re making plans and Computers have the magical ability to suck me in and spit me out.

Whatever the reason, both the blog and the WIP have suffered for it. And I’m done with that mess! Time to get back on schedule and finish all of this work!

So, what have I been doing? Well, it may make me sound slow, but it took a couple of days to get SpamAssassin to do bayes filtering on my email. Truly, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It’s fixed now, and 99% of my incoming spam is now caught and put off to the side. I had that before, using a client side app. Now it’s all done on the server.

I also decided to convert my laptop to Linux instead of Windows XP. What caused the switch? Well, I recently re-installed XP, since my boot times were atrocious, and I can’t stand slow computers. Before you know it, Windows was slow again. Aaaargh. I absolutely hate that.

It took me a couple of days to get Gentoo working on the laptop (why is it never easy). But now it all seems to be running smooth. I still need Windows to sync with my Dell Axim x51v, and Outlook syncs better with eGroupware than some Linux programs I’ve found. I kept my original Windows XP install, and I use VMware Workstation to boot into XP from Linux. I don’t know what changed, but XP boots about 4 times faster under VMware than by itself, and it’s the exact same install.

The Linux install is still not 100%, but I like it. Linux never makes it easy, especially for laptop owners. I think next time I’ll get a Mac. So, whats missing so far?

  1. hibernate to ram (sleep) works, but when restarting, starts the shutdown processes (Whhhaaa?)
  2. hibernate doesn’t work.
  3. I have a fan that stays on all the time.

That’s about it, I think. Now, back to work!

Posted on 2006-11-15 by , 2 comments

Nostalgia Reigns Supreme

A couple of weeks back, my bro came in from Calgary. One evening we sat down, had some beer, and went through some really old photos (I had hair!). Since then, I’ve been on a semi-depressive nostalgia kick. I’ve been thinking of all the missed opportunities, the times when if I put in a bit more effort the result would have been awesome. You know, that kind of stuff. I think it’s time to get my head out of my *ss and get back to real life.

One of the things this nostalgia kick has done: it made me want to look at all the old computers I used to own or use. It’s quite a list. So, I downloaded programs like mess and vice which emulate old hardware. Watching a Commodore 128 boot into CP/M 3 is still cool to watch. The Kaypro II boots and runs. I can’t do anything with them, since I have no apps, but it’s cool to watch.

As an offshoot of mess/vice, I’ve also been playing with mame and uae. Once again, it’s fun (although time consuming) to look at all of these old games.

Still, as I said earlier, time to get back on track. Time to look forward instead of backward.

Posted on 2006-11-07 by , 1 comment

Weekend Update

Hey, I actually wrote over 1600 words today. If I keep this up on a daily basis, I should have entered NaNoWriMo this year. Oh well, maybe next year. For those keeping track, I’m currently at:

The Anshi Legacy

words: 15,548 / 90,000 (17%)

Which is not too bad.

I have some friends that entered NaNoWriMo this year. If they read this and say ‘thanks for mentioning me on your blog’, I’ll know that they’re fooling around instead of writing. So, to save myself the hassle of harassing them, I’ll skip the names and just say Get back to work!.

Posted on 2006-11-04 by , Reply

5 Little known Facts

Hmmm. It seems that I’ve been tagged by Nichole, and I’m supposed to come up with 5 little known facts about myself. I’m then supposed to tag 5 other people so they can do the same. My only problem is that I don’t really know 5 other bloggers to tag, so the buck stops here (to use a worn out cliche, badly). Coming up with 5 things is somewhat tough.

  1. I’m scared of the dark.
  2. Only one person in my family knows I blog (Hi bro!).
  3. I’m scared of heights, and I started rock climbing to over come that. (And every spring, I have to reconquer the fear).
  4. I write. (Truly, not too many people know that. When I’m published, that will change).
  5. My sarcastic attitude hides a sensitive soul.

Well, there ya go.

Misc
Here’s another youtube link I enjoyed: YouTube Porky Pig.

I’ve read some of these and found them good. Hopefully the rest are as well.

Reading
Tales of the Otori – Brilliance of the Moon by Liam Hearn

Posted on 2006-11-02 by , 1 comment
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