Gerald Brandt

I'm off the grid for 7 to 14 days (depending on how much fun I'm having).  The blog will have some automatic posts, so y'all can come and check from time to time.

It's official, we're a two wheeled family.  This weekend, my youngest (4 years old) learned how to ride a two wheel bike.  His training wheels are in the garbage!

The entire lesson took about 1/2 hour on Saturday, and on Sunday we went for a ride with the entire family.  Jared got a bit upset, since it wasn't the fastest ride (he's 6), and he kept having to stop and wait for Ryan.  Still, it was fun.  We'll be taking the bike when we go camping for sure!

On another note, the blog seems to be slowing down a bit during the summer holidays.  I'll see what I can do about that. 

(July 17th update: The whole family went for an 8 km bike ride in Birdshill Park.  Both boys did exceptionally well!  Fantastic!) 

Just thought I'd throw that out.  Did I accomplish everything I wanted to during the last year?  Nope.  But I'm closer than I was.

(This post is also my first attempt at writing something well before it's publish date.  WordPress should make it available on the 15th!)

The WordPress conversion is complete, now that I've upgraded from version 2.0.10 to version 2.2.

I spent a few hours this morning changing the website to 100% hosted on WordPress.  I no longer use or need CityDesk for the site, which is good since it's essentially a dead product.

I still have a static start page, simply because I didn't want Google and other search engines to lose all their links to me.  I'll think about it over the next week or so and see if I really care about it though.  Maybe I'll look into using Apache redirection to send anybody going to my start page to make things easier.

edit: The Apache 2 redirect was easy, and it's all done. 

I didn't realize until today ('cause no one told me) that posting a message was REAL slow.  Well, I fixed that.  Post away with all speed!

Yes, I have been lazy… with the blog at any rate. I’m working on an article and should have some new content up in the next few days. Of course, we are going to be warm, warm, warm tomorrow, so I may just spend the entire day outside.

Oh, and by the way, I did 3,344 words on The Anshi Legacy today!

Spam has become an issue with the blog. This morning alone, I’ve gotten 20 spam, and that’s 20 too many.

I’ve made some changes to limit what can be added into comments. I hope it works. If you know how to get hold of me personally, please try to leave a comment and if it fails, send me an email.

Thanks.

Some of you may have noticed that the blog is slowing down a bit (and yes, by some of you I truly mean my one or two (gasp!) readers. It’s not that I’ve lost interest… it’s more like I’m not sure where I want this blog to go. A lot of the entries have been personal in nature, with the occasional entry pertaining to writing or computers, etc. I’m not sure if I want to turn this into a personal blog as much as I want to turn this into a Writers Blog. If I become a published writer, I’d assume that a few of my readers would come here. What would they want to see? Would they want to see details about my private life and kids, or would they want to see information on my writing and the Science Fiction/Fantasy world at large? Heres a small writeup about the dilemma.

How about some examples for y’all (an * is beside the blogs I read):

Writers Blogs

• * JA Konrath
  
• Neil Gaimen (somewhat mixed)
• * Heather Brewer
  

Writers Personal Blogs

• Piers Anthony
• * Wil Wheaton
  
• Stephanie Klein

So, that’s the state of the blog. My question to you is what would you like to see here? Leave a comment and let me know, please.

Writing

The Anshi Legacy

words: 20,196 / 90,000 (22%)

Reading
The Ruby Knight by David Eddings

Christmas has come and gone. The Boxing Day madness is still here, and since most stores extend the ‘day’ into a week, it will continue. I think I’ll just sit at home and watch the kids play with their new toys. I got to do all the cooking and cleaning this holiday, which is fine by me. I watched as Marnie slowly went insane assembling various small pieces of Lego into ships and catapults and what not.

We spent Christmas Even with family. There were only about 13 of us this year, what with various members of the family having babies or traveling around the world. It was nice. Christmas Day I cooked a turkey. It was bigger than I thought, and we’ll be eating turkey for quite a while. I ended up falling asleep on the couch while everyone else played. Life is good.

Today, Marnie sent me down to the office to do some writing. I did a bit, and then felt guilty about the languishing Blog. Such is life.

I hope everyone had a wonderful time this Holiday.