Gerald Brandt

Well, more blog changes. Although the original style (which can still be seen on the main page) works, I was finding it a bit plain. Along comes a beautiful theme for WordPress called Vistered Little. A little work in The Gimp, a few minor CSS and PHP changes, and voila. It only seems to have one problem: the original load of this site will not have a background. Simply clicking reload works. I dunno. I’m no CSS guru.

Writing
If I do too much more research, my brain is going to explode. I had wanted to start writing on September 1st, but I obviously haven’t made it there yet. Ugh.

Misc
This guitarist is simply amazing.

Several authors have written about How to Write a Novel (via sfsignal.com)
Justine Larbalestier
Jay Lake
Elizabeth Bear
Tim Pratt

Wow, it feels like it’s been forever since I posted. My laptop slowed down to the point where it was pretty much useless. So, I figured I’d put my money where my mouth is, and install Linux on it. No problem, I’ve had Linux installed on my various systems for years, even on my daily use ones. The problems started when I couldn’t fullfill my two greatest needs.

1. I had to be able to sync with my Dell Axim x51v (Windows Mobile 5)
2. I had to sync my calendar software with my calendar server.

For my writing stuff, I didn’t much care. I knew I could install Microsoft Word using Codeweavers Crossover Office, or I could just bite the bullet and switch to OpenOffice.

Now back to my problems. I found that there was really nothing out there in Linux land to replace ActiveSync. There are some up-and-comers, and some that work with older version of the OS, but nothing that worked for me. I could probably live with that, but I didn’t really want to. I found that Kontact could sync with eGroupware, but it only worked while on-line. Totally unacceptable. There was no ability to keep the calendar on the laptop, and have it sync. As soon as I was away from my local network, no calendar. Seriously, whomever thought up that grand plan wasn’t much of a thinker.

I switched from Gnome to KDE a long time ago, but at this point I figured what the hell. I installed Evolution and it’s required libraries, and found that it ran just fine under KDE. A little bit of a different look and feel, but not bad. Then I did some Web searching (can’t use google as a verb). That’s when I discovered that syncing Evolution to eGroupware was just a PITA. It worked for some, and failed miserably for others. Even to the point of losing calendar entries. There was no way I was going to try this at all.

In the end, I re-installed Windows onto a 50 GB partition, and left Linux (Gentoo 2006.1) on the other 50 GB. I’ll keep plating with it on the desktop for awhile, but not too much me thinks. I’m using Outlook under Windows (Office XP ’cause I can’t find my Office 2003 install CD… damn), and eGWOSync to sync Outlook calendar with eGroupware. Outlook mail doesn’t play elegantly with IMAP mail servers, but I can work around that. Three wasted days… ugh.
Jared and Ryan both started school this week. Jared is in grade 1 full days, and Ryan is in pre-school 3 afternoons a week. Getting back into a routine for our rushed mornings and even more rushed lunches has been interesting. We’ve managed it pretty good so far, and I’m sure we’ll all get better at it as the school year progresses. Both boys are thrilled to be going, and literaly run from home to school, forcing this old man to keep up. Ryan, after his first day, did not want to leave class, and got quite grumpy. Life is good.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- yes, it is taking a long time.

Reference Classics: China (Edward L. Shaughnessy General Editor)

Eastern Standard Tribe (Cory Doctorow)

Writing
A lot more research this week. I should be done shortly, and then I’ll integrate the research into the outline.

Misc
I’m playing with the site some more, so there will be some changes coming up.  Of course, I should really be spending my time writing.  Sometimes it feels like I’ll do just about anything else.

Another rushed weekend, and another busy week.  Spent the weekend with the in-laws in Saskatchewan, which included a total of 18 hours of driving.  I think we all had a good time.

Jared starts school tomorrow, and we still need some indoor shoes for him.  So, we are off to Walmart today, along with all the other stuff I need to get done.  We’ll see how Ryan handles not having Jared around all day tomorrow.
Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Reference Classics: China  (Edward L. Shaughnessy General Editor)

Eastern Standard Tribe (Cory Doctorow)

Writing
A good weekend, and all of it pure research for the current WIP.  I did a few weeks of research back in May, but I was really able to supplement it all this weekend.
Misc
How “Lord of The Rings” should have ended.

Here I go through all the effort of converting to WordPress, and then I never use it. Hmmm.

I left home yesterday for a dentist appointment for Jared at 9:30 AM, and we never got home until about 7:30 PM. I’d call that a full day.

After the dentist appointment, I took the boys to Marnie’s work, and we all had lunch (I had the best meatloaf, I’m going back!). After that was a trip to the zoo including a ride on a steam powered train, and then I dropped them off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house while Marnie and I went to Chapters. Bed time was okay, though Ryan had a tough time sleeping.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson) (link 2)

Writing
Yesterday was a research day. I definately need more background and ‘flavour’ in the outline, so I can put it in the novel. I’ve currently got so many minutae stuck in my head that I don’t know where to start.

Jonathan Sherwood has a good article on sex in fiction here.

Misc
This is a cool picture link

The WordPress blog is up and limping.  Most of the main pages look good, and display the infromation I want.

First, I tried to take a WordPress theme/template and convert it to look like the rest of my site.  Sadly, my CSS is not up to par, and I failed miserably.  I then attempted to take my CityDesk template and shoehorn it into WordPress.  It has worked, kind of.  I think I’ll still work on getting CSS working, since my nested tables are a bit of mess.

At any rate, I can get on with my life.  I’ll work on the remaining pages over the next few weeks.

The boys were wonderfull while I was doing all of this.  They played quietly and barely got into any fights.  I made sure to thank them personally throughout the day.  So often, we only give negative feedback.  I’m working on re-enforcing the positive as well.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson) (link 2)

This blog is being moved to WordPress. Please be patient as articles are transferred.

Comments work, but the formatting is way off. Working on it.

Actually, formatting on a lot of pages is messed up. Doh.

Back from the weekend! It was an… interesting time. The boys and I had some good times, and some bad times. I think the good times far outweighed the bad, and fun was had by all.

We arrived on Friday, and it looked like rain. So, I tried to put up a tarp. I ended up flat on my back, bruised and bloody, and mad as hell. That was when Jared open the van window (the boys were inside watching a DVD) and asked why the tent wasn’t up yet.

Not a good way to start a trip.

I finally got the tent up, without the tarp, and hoped it wouldn’t rain. The boys and I played and had supper, and then settled down with a bag of chips in front of the fire. By the time we were done, it was dark and we were all very tired. All of us slept until 9:00 AM.

Saturday dawned bright and sunny. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sun beat down on us pretty darn good. The boys had been wanting to do a hike, preferably one longer than their current record of 3.2 kms. I, naturally, obliged, and we were off on a 5 km jaunt over rocky knolls and brush filled valleys. In between were cold lakes and tall stands of pine and juniper, with the occasional Aspen trying to get some of the filtered sunlight. And boy was it hot. We were about 4 kms in when the thunder started. Continuous low rumbles, punctuated by sharper blasts. The sky still looked clear blue, but it didn’t take long for the clouds to show up. We had about 10 minutes of our hike left, when the clouds opened up and dumped their load on us. We were soaked to the bone in seconds, and cold. Ten minutes later, at the end of the trail, the rain stopped, the thunder moved off, and the sky was a brilliant blue. We dried off on the way back to camp, and enjoyed a day of swimming and sun tanning.

Sunday started the same way, bright and clear, and stayed that way. It took a couple of hours to clean up camp, followed by a quick swim in the lake and a 2 1/2 hour drive home. Glorious.

Changes
I plan on changing the blog from CityDesk (which, although it is working out quite nicely, is beginning to show some limitations for a blog). I’m looking at WordPress right now, and hopefully I can fit things into it nicely. I plan to keep Citydesk for the rest of the site, just not for the blog.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson) (link 2)

Writing
Only in my head, but I worked out some scenes in there

I met Scott Lynch at KeyCon this year, and now sffworld.com has interviewed him. Scott placed 40 pages of his first novel (ever) on his website/blog for his friends to read. An editor in England read it, sent and email to Scott, and a three book deal was signed. Some people are lucky!

Yikes! Jared is going for his first sleep over tomorrow. I’m worried, thrilled, scared… the regular parent stuff. I know he’ll have a good time though.

After he gets back on Friday, we’re off to camping at Rushing River again. They enjoyed it so much (as did I) that I figured we’d try for one more trip. This one will be a bit cooler than last time, with daytime highs predicted to be about 21 C, but I’m sure we’ll have fun. Also, it’s a boys only trip. Marnie will be staying home due to work functions that she must attend.

The boys had a new babysitter last night while Marnie and I went out for a Dinner Theatre. They both seemed to do well. In fact, Ryan is still sleeping. Hopefully he’ll last until 8 AM or so.

Life should slow down a bit next week.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson) (link 2

Writing
Not really, though I kicked myself a couple of times.

Not what you think, but I liked the pictures!
http://thenonist.com/index.php/thenonist/permalink/hot_library_smut/

Well, looks like its been a few days since I did a blog entry. I’m not sure if I’m interesting enough to keep this up to an entry a day!

The week so far has gone pretty good (it’s only Tuesday though). The boys are behaving and the house is clean, what more can a stay at home dad ask for?

I’m thinking of heading out camping for the weekend again… we’ll have to see. It can be expensive, about $120 for 5 days. It’s cheaper to be at home, but not as much fun.

We’ve got a dentist appointment for Jared today, and since I can’t dump off Ryan anywhere, this will be his first one without Marnie or I in with him. He’s looking forward to it. It’s only a cleaning, but still…

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson) (link 2)

Writing
Monday was shot for writing. I did manage to incorporate some of my character and setting sketches into the outline, but not enough to make me happy. With some luck, I’ll be able to get a couple hours of work in later today.

I found this on Digg, a nice detailed picture of Naboo.
http://www.dusso.com/pages/EP3/sac.html

A quiet day.  I spent the morning with the boys and Marnie, and the afternoon with Gav.  First we had coffee with the gang, and then Gav and I went to Earls for beer and girl watching.  A quiet day.

Reading
Soul of the Samurai (Thomas Cleary)
- If anyone can point me to an authors web site, I’d appreciate it.

Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erickson)

Writing
Not today.