Category Archives: misc

Back to Work

The holidays are over, and life must get back to normal. My “holidays” are over now that Marnie is back at work. Holidays in quotes simply because I’m always at work, that’s the life of a stay-at-home parent. It was nice to share some of that over Marnie’s holidays, and we both got some extra work done because of it.

We got a cat shortly after Christmas. A brown and black tabby that looks exactly like the cat used in the opening scene of the first Harry Potter movie. We named her Minerva. (The reference isn’t that weak, so I know you cn figure it out!) I grew up with cats, and both boys have played with cats extensively. I knew Marnie was allergic, but she didn’t tell me how badly! As it turns out, everyone in the family is allergic. I’m starting to feel better as time passes, as are Jared and Ryan. Marnie on the other hand is battling a cold, so no one knows how much of her plugged up nose is due to the cat.

Why a cat? Well… At some point over the last 3 weeks, a mouse or two got into our house. Don’t ask me how, if I knew that I would solve the problem at the source. We caught 3 mice, and thought that was the end of it. No mice in the traps, no sign of mice anywhere. Everything was nice. One night last week, I woke up to a noise on my nightstand. I looked and saw two beady eyes looking back at me. The beady eyes formed into a baby mouse that jumped from the nightstand onto the bed. I screamed like a girl, and Marnie yelled something about buying a cat. I did.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas (and for those that don’t celebrate Christmas, a wonderful Holiday Season), and brought in the New Year in an entirely excellent way.

Writing
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Reading
The Ruby Knight by David Eddings

This is the second book of the series, and I’m truly finding it a grind. The protagonists never really seem to have any serious difficulties. There are set backs, and since the premise of the novel is time based/constrained, it certainly adds a level of tension, but it doesn’t really work for me. Everything just seems to be lining up too nicely in The Quest, and I find myself quite bored at times. I’ll finish the trilogy, but it’ll be tough.

Christmas 2006

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.

I'm Still Alive

Well, here we are, in December already. Life has been hectic and the writing has been almost nil. I really want to get this project finished so I can get onto the next one that is pounding in my head.

On the good side, I’m pretty much finished my Christmas shopping. I really only buy for the wife and kids, but I help with the other gifts as well. I’m hoping to get the inside of the house decorated this week, and the tree should be going up about a week before Christmas.

The boys have been… interesting… lately. It seems that the basic rules that we’ve had in the house since they could walk have all been forgotten. They run, they talk with their mouth full of food, they fight and roughhouse way too much. I thought Christmas would make them behave, with the threat of Santa so close. Ha! Santa used as a threat. Cool!

Anyway, with that, I’ll sign off.

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.

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

And the world shifts

I’m not sure what is going on here. It’s as though my entire world has gone topsy turvy, and I’ve lost what level of control I had.

Last week was the boys birthday, and I think that’s where it all started. We had birthday party after birthday party, family over for dinner, etc. And I haven’t recovered yet. I still (yes, still) have dishes left from the Sunday dinner. It’s not much, just a couple of glasses really, but still. The house is a horrible mess. And I’ve written about 1000 words this week.

And that’s just not enough. To meet my deadline, I now have to write 1200 words a day, which can feel like a lot. What I seem to have done is slip back into full research mode. And it’s a waste of time. I really haven’t learned anything new.

I wish I knew what happened to me this week.

Plod plod plod

Well, we got snow. Not a lot, and it most likely won’t be sticking around, but snow none the less. I don’t think our temperature went above 0 (Celcius) today, even though our normals should be up around 12. Brrrrr. Cold.

I’ve got Jared into the lunch program at school tomorrow, so I don’t have to be home for most of the day. I have a few longer errands to run, and it’ll be nice not having to look at the clock. I’m still hoping to get some writing done in the afternoon.

As for writing, not a bad afternoon for me, about 1200 new words on the WIP. I was hoping for a tad more, but the wife will be out of town for the next couple of days, so I’m going to spend the evening with her. I’m hoping to standardize the times I write, but we’ll see if the kids let that happen.
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It's sometimes too much

I’ve been feeling pretty stressed out lately. It seems that I always have more work to do in a day than I actually have time for, and that includes the writing I want/need to get done. Sadly, the stress is being taken out on not only myself, but on those around me as well. I’m pretty short tempered on an average day, and when I’m as stressed as I feel now — look out!

So, with that in mind, I’ve decided to change some stuff around here. I will always be driven by the clock, since I have to get Jared to and from school on time. It’s how I deal with the clock that will change. And how I handle interruptions (for example, right now I have to read Jared a book. I promised, and now I have to squeeze it in before he leaves for school. So be it, I’ll be back).

Okay, it’s now almost an hour later. I have to leave to pick Jared up for lunch in 2 hours and 15 minutes. No too bad this morning. I’ll finish up my thoughts, and then head out for some grocery shopping.

I certainly need to be more flexible with with my time. Since ‘my time’ is essentially set by ‘kid time’ I have to be flexible. I think my priorities will look something like this.

  1. kids
  2. writing
  3. housework
  4. other stuff

Television used to be a big thief for me, but I now have that down to less than 2 hours a week (Survivor and Criminal Minds). When Battlestar Galactica gets started it’ll be slightly less than 3 hours a week. I think that’s pretty good.

As long as I can keep in mind that I need to be flexible, I think things will be better. I hope.

Writing
I’ve brought my WIP counter in house…
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