Friday, July 31, 2020
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Friday, July 17, 2020
It Finally Happened
Since January 1st, my writing goal has been 1,000 words a day. Siri says that is 198 days. That's how many times it took for this to happen:
That's right. Yesterday, I wrote exactly 1,000 words. Pretty damn unlikely. I had to stop right then and there. No way was I going to ruin that number.
I wonder how many more tries it will take before it happens again.
Geogramaphy
Also, while I was at Ikea with my wife, I saw this cute map of the world that I believe you are supposed to write your travel dreams on.
I noticed, that someone had written on the map already. Hard to see in the full world view, so here's a close-up:
Is it just me, or is the labeling of Texas on there just a little bit off? I know Texans love their state, and think of it as the only thing in the USA that matters, but it seems to me like they've gone ahead and claimed the whole of America there. If anything, they're labeling Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana or the Dakotas as Texas, instead of anything in the actual neighborhood of Texas. We'll just say this, whoever wrote that on there, geography is not their strong suit.
I noticed, that someone had written on the map already. Hard to see in the full world view, so here's a close-up:
Is it just me, or is the labeling of Texas on there just a little bit off? I know Texans love their state, and think of it as the only thing in the USA that matters, but it seems to me like they've gone ahead and claimed the whole of America there. If anything, they're labeling Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana or the Dakotas as Texas, instead of anything in the actual neighborhood of Texas. We'll just say this, whoever wrote that on there, geography is not their strong suit.
Wha?
My wife dragged me to Ikea this morning, and we came across these stuffed animals/pillows:
Ikea always has some of the more odd stuffed animals, but we couldn't for the life of us figure out what the green thing was. It went along with the mouth, but what was it? I had no idea, and neither did any one else in the family.
Now that I look at my picture of it, though. I think I've figured it out. What do you think it is?
Ikea always has some of the more odd stuffed animals, but we couldn't for the life of us figure out what the green thing was. It went along with the mouth, but what was it? I had no idea, and neither did any one else in the family.
Now that I look at my picture of it, though. I think I've figured it out. What do you think it is?
Tru Dat
I went to Aldi the other day, and I saw this on the post out in front of the store.
I had to stop and grab a picture of it.
I just thought it was pretty cool. I've seen dozens upon dozens of signs lauding the doctors in the hospitals who are coming into work every day, and caring for those of us who have contracted the Coronavirus and are in need of medical attention. They're pretty commonplace.
But I've never seen a sign made to thank any of the other everyday heroes that are out there, braving the conditions to make sure that all the rest of us can survive this crisis as well. It was a little frightening when all this started to realize that our society, which has hummed along with barely a hiccup my entire life, is actually pretty fragile.
The meat shortage that we had about a month ago demonstrates it pretty well. There's a chain of things that bring our food to the grocery stores, and if a link in the chain breaks, then we may well all go hungry.
I felt similar gratitude during the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, and this is an even more widespread disaster. So, I join in with Aldi in saying thanks to the grocery store workers who show up to work to provide us all with something to eat day after day. Also thanks to the truckers who drove the food to the store, so the grocery store workers had something to put on the shelves for us. And to the factory workers who packed that food up for us, and the farmers and ranchers that raised the food for us. And so on down the line. I don't know if I could even name all the links in the chain, but I want to say thanks to them all. You know who you are. I'm thanking you.
I had to stop and grab a picture of it.
I just thought it was pretty cool. I've seen dozens upon dozens of signs lauding the doctors in the hospitals who are coming into work every day, and caring for those of us who have contracted the Coronavirus and are in need of medical attention. They're pretty commonplace.
But I've never seen a sign made to thank any of the other everyday heroes that are out there, braving the conditions to make sure that all the rest of us can survive this crisis as well. It was a little frightening when all this started to realize that our society, which has hummed along with barely a hiccup my entire life, is actually pretty fragile.
The meat shortage that we had about a month ago demonstrates it pretty well. There's a chain of things that bring our food to the grocery stores, and if a link in the chain breaks, then we may well all go hungry.
I felt similar gratitude during the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, and this is an even more widespread disaster. So, I join in with Aldi in saying thanks to the grocery store workers who show up to work to provide us all with something to eat day after day. Also thanks to the truckers who drove the food to the store, so the grocery store workers had something to put on the shelves for us. And to the factory workers who packed that food up for us, and the farmers and ranchers that raised the food for us. And so on down the line. I don't know if I could even name all the links in the chain, but I want to say thanks to them all. You know who you are. I'm thanking you.
Monday, July 13, 2020
Better Than A Gardener
Several posts ago, I wrote about my saga of trying to feed the birds in our backyard, but only winding up feeding the squirrels. I thought I ought to share this addition to the story.
I have always enjoyed growing sunflowers in our yard. We used to do it a lot before we moved:
But since coming to Texas, I have been completely unsuccessful. My flowers die off before they even get to be a foot tall.
The messy squirrels, however, have more gardening skill than me, it seems, because the seeds they spread onto the ground around the bird feeder have sprouted, grown, and, now this week, flowered. I didn't water them or anything, yet they survived to full size. Makes a guy want to give up on everything when a complete accident turns out better than anything he tries to do on purpose. Behold:
I bet the proverbial infinite monkeys on typewriters would probably write better books than what I've been working on all this time as well.
I have always enjoyed growing sunflowers in our yard. We used to do it a lot before we moved:
But since coming to Texas, I have been completely unsuccessful. My flowers die off before they even get to be a foot tall.
The messy squirrels, however, have more gardening skill than me, it seems, because the seeds they spread onto the ground around the bird feeder have sprouted, grown, and, now this week, flowered. I didn't water them or anything, yet they survived to full size. Makes a guy want to give up on everything when a complete accident turns out better than anything he tries to do on purpose. Behold:
I bet the proverbial infinite monkeys on typewriters would probably write better books than what I've been working on all this time as well.
Butt(er)
I was getting out a stick of butter today for a recipe, and I couldn't remember how much butter was in each stick. Was it half a cup or a whole cup. I looked at the side, and noticed that the usual marks for each tablespoon were not in the right place. Not only that, but everything else was too. Apparently, we got the wrappers that were printed or cut wrong. Made for a humorous label though. That's not a stick that I cut with a knife to try to be funny. It is an unopened, untouched stick of butter.
G.I. Joe Toy Saga
The new G.I. Joe toys hit the stores this week. Here's the Instagram version of my attempts to acquire them.
Who knows how long I'll wait for the preordered figures that everybody is finding at the stores to finally arrive?
Who knows how long I'll wait for the preordered figures that everybody is finding at the stores to finally arrive?
Saturday, July 4, 2020
A Different Kind Of Fourth
It's the middle of the pandemic. The world is busy ending itself, and we are not allowed to even go outside to watch it anymore it seems. The Fourth of July has come, and this is the first year that we will be spending it in Texas since the very month that we moved here. In 2018, we were in California, and last year I was visiting Rish Outfield. Texas is supposed to be one of the most patriotic places in the country, so it might be neat to see just what they get up to on the most patriotic day of the year, but it was not to be.
There has been a spike in coronavirus cases here in Texas recently, and the government has decided to eliminate human interaction in response. So, this Fourth of July we were going to be sitting in our house crying softly to ourselves. They didn't cancel the fireworks (probably because at this late date, they were already contracted to pay for them and couldn't weasel out of it), instead they just closed all the places you could go to watch them. If you lived right downtown where the fireworks were launched, you could watch the show. If you didn't, however, they were providing a complimentary livestream that you could watch on your phone or laptop. That would be just as good as going to a real fireworks show. It's not like fireworks are something you have to see in person or anything.
So, stay home by ourselves while weeping quietly in a corner looked like our plans after all. At least, when the day began, it seemed like that would be the case. Instead, though, we got a call from some friends of ours. They were new to Texas, and they'd heard that all the fireworks that were illegal everywhere else were legal here in the Lone Star State. They went out and bought more fireworks than I had ever seen assembled in one place outside of an actual fireworks selling stand, and they invited us over for a barbecue and a fireworks show.
There were the usual things in there, like sparklers, and the kids enjoyed those. Mixed in with the average things, there were bigger things, like the fireworks that launched out of a mortar tube. And then there were the cake fireworks, where they pack a whole bunch of fireworks into a box that fire off sequentially after lighting just the single fuse. They had purchased a cake firework called "Say What?" I found a picture of it online:
This thing cost $60 all on its own, and it was going to be the big event of the night. We set off a few smaller cake fireworks before it, and they were so impressive that I made sure that my camera was rolling when we got around to lighting up the "Say What?" I thought it was pretty impressive, check it out:
There has been a spike in coronavirus cases here in Texas recently, and the government has decided to eliminate human interaction in response. So, this Fourth of July we were going to be sitting in our house crying softly to ourselves. They didn't cancel the fireworks (probably because at this late date, they were already contracted to pay for them and couldn't weasel out of it), instead they just closed all the places you could go to watch them. If you lived right downtown where the fireworks were launched, you could watch the show. If you didn't, however, they were providing a complimentary livestream that you could watch on your phone or laptop. That would be just as good as going to a real fireworks show. It's not like fireworks are something you have to see in person or anything.
So, stay home by ourselves while weeping quietly in a corner looked like our plans after all. At least, when the day began, it seemed like that would be the case. Instead, though, we got a call from some friends of ours. They were new to Texas, and they'd heard that all the fireworks that were illegal everywhere else were legal here in the Lone Star State. They went out and bought more fireworks than I had ever seen assembled in one place outside of an actual fireworks selling stand, and they invited us over for a barbecue and a fireworks show.
There were the usual things in there, like sparklers, and the kids enjoyed those. Mixed in with the average things, there were bigger things, like the fireworks that launched out of a mortar tube. And then there were the cake fireworks, where they pack a whole bunch of fireworks into a box that fire off sequentially after lighting just the single fuse. They had purchased a cake firework called "Say What?" I found a picture of it online:
This thing cost $60 all on its own, and it was going to be the big event of the night. We set off a few smaller cake fireworks before it, and they were so impressive that I made sure that my camera was rolling when we got around to lighting up the "Say What?" I thought it was pretty impressive, check it out:
The most interesting thing of the night, however was when a family drove up and rolled down their window. At first, I didn't understand what he was saying. I couldn't hear well from where I was. The guy said, "blah blah blah, kids, blah blah," and I thought he was asking us to put an end to the show because it was getting late, and his kids needed to get to sleep or something.
Turns out I couldn't have been more wrong. When I got closer, and was able to hear better, I found that he was actually asking if it was okay if he and his family could sit and watch our fireworks too. He had some kids, and he wanted them to have a fun Fourth of July.
We were happy to have them join us. They sat down, and we even ran inside to bring out some more slices of the pie everyone was eating for dessert to share with them. Their kids played with sparklers...well, at least the older one did. The little one was a little scared of them. We had fun, and made our way through all of the fireworks.
A particularly fun one that we enjoyed at the end were the snakes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, they are little black disks, and you light them, and they grow out in a black tubular shape that kind of looks like a snake (but really looks more like poop).
They had so many of these snakes, that we just piled them up, and lit them all at once. I thought they looked gross on their own, but when you have a whole mound of them, the growths that they made were absolutely frightening. Think Cthulhu's beard or something.
We had a great time before everyone went home, and the whole thing kind of restored my faith in America again. You see, the country has been tearing itself apart over the last month with protests and race riots. It seems like black and white people just can't get along anymore, and every day is worse than the last.
But we didn't have any problems like that. The family that came to join us was a black family, and they were good people and I'm pretty sure they thought we were good people too. We were all just people, having a good time together. They didn't judge us by our race, and we didn't judge them by their race either.
Maybe there is a future for us after all, if we just turn off the TV that is constantly encouraging us to hate each other, and just talk with our neighbors, friends, and co-workers instead. There could be something to this whole America thing after all, if we'd only open our eyes and see it.
Friday, July 3, 2020
June Roundup
What did I say for a goal for June at the end of last month? Nothing. Nothing at all. My goal this whole year has been 1,000 words a day. That's pretty much it. I have also been able to increase my monthly total each month, but I was pretty sure that could only go so far. Sooner or later, I would get a total that I couldn't surpass.
Sooner or later has finally arrived, sadly. Last month in May, I wrote 37,710. I knew I'd probably reached my limit, and I didn't try to push myself to overcome it. There are only so many hours in the day. I slip my writing in wherever I can during my day, and this month didn't lend itself to outdoing last month. This is my chart that shows how this month went:
So, I only got 33,458 words this month. That doesn't suck. It's only four thousand words less than last month, and I've continued to progress toward my ultimate goal of 300,000. I did miss my 1,000 words a day goal once. I had been struggling all week long with my motivation. I would find something else to do all day long, and then when I got home at night, I would be up until 2:00 or 3:00 AM before I finally managed to write my 1,000 words. On June 23rd, I was doing the same thing during the day. When I got home that night, my daughter was on the computer, and I just didn't feel like fighting with it anymore, so I didn't kick her off so that I could write. Instead, I just went to bed. It wasn't the end of the world. I'd do better the next day.
And I did. It was almost as if I needed that day of letting it go to recharge my battery or something. The next day, I made sure to hit it hard early. I didn't wait until 2:00 in the morning to get started. I still struggle with motivation, but I manage to overcome for the most part.
Things are going well, though. A few days ago, I posted an update about how I'd reached 225,000 words, putting me 3/4 of the way to my goal. Ooh, I ought to do one of those word count meters. I forgot about those things. Give me a second to create it. Here we go, this is a visual representation of how my progress toward my main goal has gone:
I'm 78% of the way there, but the good part, again, is that I am only 68% of the way through the year. Here's the charts for my writing so far:
Here and there I have bad days, but even on those days I still write, just a little less. I've written every single day now since January 19th. Let me ask Siri how many days that is. She says 163 days. I have written 163 days in a row...or maybe 162 days in a row...crap, I've got to check it now. Did Siri include January 19th in that count or not? Hold on...nope, she didn't count the 19th, so I am at 163 days in a row. That's pretty cool. I have to say.
I'm going to keep doing that. This month will be the same goal as every month. I want to get at least 1,000 words a day. On occasion I might miss it, but at the very least, I'm going to average 1,000 a day. I will likely be able to beat my June total, because July has 31 days where June only had 30.
I don't expect that I'll beat May, but you never know. It all depends on how the juices are flowing from day to day. I don't know if you noticed on my chart, but there were a couple of days in June where I barely made it past 1,000. On June 19th, I made it to 1,001 words. That was it. Just one word over my goal. On that day, I wasn't feeling it. When I saw that I'd eked over the line, I said, "I'll take it," and I quit for the day. Same thing happened a few days later on the 22nd. I got 1,006, and I said, "I'll take it."
So, there are good days and bad days. The most important thing is to keep plugging away.
I've spent a really long time on The Gauntlet now. It has reached 80,000 words, and is nearing completion (though, by nearing completion I mean it only has another 30,000 or so to go). I'm at a really heartbreaking part of the book right now, and I don't really want to write it. When you spend a lot of time with your characters, it can become difficult to make them go through the really hard times, but I have to do it. I may have low word counts for the next little while as I avoid writing the hard scenes. I guess we'll see.
Soon enough, I'll be done. Interested in reading it? I hope so. That's another hard part about writing. You spend so much time and effort on something, and when you're done there is most likely going to be nothing at the end. No reaction. No compliments. Bupkis.
If you want, let me know, and you can be one of my first readers. I think legit authors all have first readers to help them polish their work. I got a few people who volunteered to read my Christmas Collection for me, and hopefully in a few months, I'll be able to publish that.
Once I get to my birthday, and I've succeeded at my goal, it will be time to start working toward a new goal for next year. That one is going to be publishing. I am going to work as hard at publishing stuff as I did this year at writing stuff. That will include audiobooks, ebooks, physical books, and podcasts as well. I don't know if that excites you to hear, but I hope it does. It excites me. All that stuff I've put the effort into creating is going to be launched out into the world. What will happen with it? Who knows, probably bupkis, but at least I've shared it, and it's not hidden away anymore.
Thanks for reading this if you made it this far, and I'll see you back here next month with another update. Peace.
Sooner or later has finally arrived, sadly. Last month in May, I wrote 37,710. I knew I'd probably reached my limit, and I didn't try to push myself to overcome it. There are only so many hours in the day. I slip my writing in wherever I can during my day, and this month didn't lend itself to outdoing last month. This is my chart that shows how this month went:
So, I only got 33,458 words this month. That doesn't suck. It's only four thousand words less than last month, and I've continued to progress toward my ultimate goal of 300,000. I did miss my 1,000 words a day goal once. I had been struggling all week long with my motivation. I would find something else to do all day long, and then when I got home at night, I would be up until 2:00 or 3:00 AM before I finally managed to write my 1,000 words. On June 23rd, I was doing the same thing during the day. When I got home that night, my daughter was on the computer, and I just didn't feel like fighting with it anymore, so I didn't kick her off so that I could write. Instead, I just went to bed. It wasn't the end of the world. I'd do better the next day.
And I did. It was almost as if I needed that day of letting it go to recharge my battery or something. The next day, I made sure to hit it hard early. I didn't wait until 2:00 in the morning to get started. I still struggle with motivation, but I manage to overcome for the most part.
Things are going well, though. A few days ago, I posted an update about how I'd reached 225,000 words, putting me 3/4 of the way to my goal. Ooh, I ought to do one of those word count meters. I forgot about those things. Give me a second to create it. Here we go, this is a visual representation of how my progress toward my main goal has gone:
236218 / 300000 (78.74%)
I'm 78% of the way there, but the good part, again, is that I am only 68% of the way through the year. Here's the charts for my writing so far:
Here and there I have bad days, but even on those days I still write, just a little less. I've written every single day now since January 19th. Let me ask Siri how many days that is. She says 163 days. I have written 163 days in a row...or maybe 162 days in a row...crap, I've got to check it now. Did Siri include January 19th in that count or not? Hold on...nope, she didn't count the 19th, so I am at 163 days in a row. That's pretty cool. I have to say.
I'm going to keep doing that. This month will be the same goal as every month. I want to get at least 1,000 words a day. On occasion I might miss it, but at the very least, I'm going to average 1,000 a day. I will likely be able to beat my June total, because July has 31 days where June only had 30.
I don't expect that I'll beat May, but you never know. It all depends on how the juices are flowing from day to day. I don't know if you noticed on my chart, but there were a couple of days in June where I barely made it past 1,000. On June 19th, I made it to 1,001 words. That was it. Just one word over my goal. On that day, I wasn't feeling it. When I saw that I'd eked over the line, I said, "I'll take it," and I quit for the day. Same thing happened a few days later on the 22nd. I got 1,006, and I said, "I'll take it."
So, there are good days and bad days. The most important thing is to keep plugging away.
I've spent a really long time on The Gauntlet now. It has reached 80,000 words, and is nearing completion (though, by nearing completion I mean it only has another 30,000 or so to go). I'm at a really heartbreaking part of the book right now, and I don't really want to write it. When you spend a lot of time with your characters, it can become difficult to make them go through the really hard times, but I have to do it. I may have low word counts for the next little while as I avoid writing the hard scenes. I guess we'll see.
Soon enough, I'll be done. Interested in reading it? I hope so. That's another hard part about writing. You spend so much time and effort on something, and when you're done there is most likely going to be nothing at the end. No reaction. No compliments. Bupkis.
If you want, let me know, and you can be one of my first readers. I think legit authors all have first readers to help them polish their work. I got a few people who volunteered to read my Christmas Collection for me, and hopefully in a few months, I'll be able to publish that.
Once I get to my birthday, and I've succeeded at my goal, it will be time to start working toward a new goal for next year. That one is going to be publishing. I am going to work as hard at publishing stuff as I did this year at writing stuff. That will include audiobooks, ebooks, physical books, and podcasts as well. I don't know if that excites you to hear, but I hope it does. It excites me. All that stuff I've put the effort into creating is going to be launched out into the world. What will happen with it? Who knows, probably bupkis, but at least I've shared it, and it's not hidden away anymore.
Thanks for reading this if you made it this far, and I'll see you back here next month with another update. Peace.
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Fourth Decor
Okay, as I promised, here is the post about my full Fourth of July decorations. Last year, just after the Fourth of July passed, I managed to get a bunch of decorations on sale. It's the best way to do it, except you have to have the patience to wait for 364 days to be able to use them again. The time has finally come. Here's what I put up now that the time has come again.
That bunting at the top completely covers a lot of my toy displays, but I don't mind. They're okay back there for a month until I take them down and go back to my usual look.
I've never decorated once for the Fourth of July in my life, but I've seen a lot of people who put up bunting on their houses at this time of year.
I think it turned out well.
And as you can see, I put in all my patriotic toys that I mentioned in my last post throughout the display.
And I gave a lot of the toys little American flags to hold.
I got them at the day after sales last year as well.
More of them would be holding flags if it were possible, but more often than not, the figures only have fists for hands, and can't hold anything.
Some of them, like this Captain America, I think actually have hands that can hold things, but I haven't managed to track them down.
I'm sure I have them somewhere in the bottom of a box, but I haven't found them yet.
Maybe for next year.
I have a bunch of necklaces and hats that I got as well.
My plan was to make a video where each time that I appeared on camera, the decorations and my outfit got more and more over-the-top.
It would have been a cool video if I still did that kind of thing.
I guess that's all I've got to say. I'll leave you with a bunch more pics to check out if you'd like.
Enjoy.
That bunting at the top completely covers a lot of my toy displays, but I don't mind. They're okay back there for a month until I take them down and go back to my usual look.
I've never decorated once for the Fourth of July in my life, but I've seen a lot of people who put up bunting on their houses at this time of year.
I think it turned out well.
And as you can see, I put in all my patriotic toys that I mentioned in my last post throughout the display.
And I gave a lot of the toys little American flags to hold.
I got them at the day after sales last year as well.
More of them would be holding flags if it were possible, but more often than not, the figures only have fists for hands, and can't hold anything.
Some of them, like this Captain America, I think actually have hands that can hold things, but I haven't managed to track them down.
I'm sure I have them somewhere in the bottom of a box, but I haven't found them yet.
Maybe for next year.
I have a bunch of necklaces and hats that I got as well.
My plan was to make a video where each time that I appeared on camera, the decorations and my outfit got more and more over-the-top.
It would have been a cool video if I still did that kind of thing.
I guess that's all I've got to say. I'll leave you with a bunch more pics to check out if you'd like.
Enjoy.
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