Redbeard's Journal

Almost There.....

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:42:53 GMT

This is one of those weeks that can't end quickly enough.

Another Snippet

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:29:41 GMT

"Myths are about what a culture values."

"Yes. Courage, honor, sacrifice."

He grimaced. "Yes, but more than just that. Physical prowess over mental. Or hadn't you noticed where the sly and clever Loki stands in the pantheon of Norse gods?"

"I'd not say that any of the Greek gods had a monopoly on cleverness."

"True enough, but look at who we value as a society: the footballer, the baseball player, the athlete. We laud them and place them at the top of the pecking order as youths, and the egghead, the nerd, is placed at the bottom."

I shifted from foot to foot. "So?"

"You are fighting a battle of mythic proportions. People distrust those smarter than them. Your opponent, the jock, is someone they all want to be. They don't want to be you, no matter how successful you are."

Obviously, this one doesn't come from anything vaguely SFF related, although I suppose I could weave that into a story.

Snippet of Sorts

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 15:02:38 GMT

I woke up with these lines running through my head:

I snorted. "The fey don't care about us, whether we live or die."

"Much better than the dead caring about us, if you ask me."

"I...." My mouth opened and closed. How could I tell them that the fey were dead without giving something away?

He was looking at me with that face that said you know something but you're being a real bastard and keeping it to yourself. Well, of course I was. After all, bastard was my middle name.

"I sure hope so," I said at last.

He poked me in the chest. "You'd better not get us killed, you understand me?"

I have no idea where they came from, but I think there's something there.

Something Not Seen in this Part of the Country in Months

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 13:32:31 GMT

There's a big orange globe up in the sky.

I'm not sure what it is, but I think it's friendly. At least it hasn't burned us yet. ;-)

You Just Crack Open a Book and....

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:26:16 GMT

...read!

It feels like it's been ages, but I'm actually reading fiction again. I've been reading A Turn of Light by Julie Czerneda, and I might actually finish the damn thing before the online book club that difrancis has organized meets next.

Oh, and it's quite a read. It sure doesn't feel as weighty as a traditional 800 page opus, but it's not flighty either. It just reads a lot quicker than I expected, and that's a good thing.

I Can Haz Skillz

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 02:17:50 GMT

The whole thing began with me deciding to replace the towel rack in the kids bathroom.

Well, I have to admit that the towel rack really did need it: the thing was made of wood, had cracked in a couple of places, and was loose on one end that defied even my replacement of the screw holding it with a good anchor. My mom had given me a couple of towel racks --still in packaging-- that she'd bought and ended up never using, so I thought I could use one of them.

When I got upstairs and compared sizes, I realized that the racks my mom had given me were 18", not a true replacement size of 24". It began to look like I'd have to go buy one myself from Home Depot.

I turned my attention to anything else in the bathroom that needed fixing. Hell, if I was going to fix this, I might as well fix a few other things and save myself a trip later.

Like the toilet.

It has been flushing poorly for a while, and I'd replaced everything else except the flush valve. The flush valve was one of those pains in the neck that was centered on the exit itself --no flapper valve this-- so I would have to take off the fill tank to remove the valve.

In retrospect, I'm glad I did that rather than simply go out and buy the replacement fill valve, because one of the bolts in the rear of the fill tank was rusted shut.

Did I mention the toilet is 29 years old?

At that point, I decided the best thing to do --and the thing that would take the least amount of time-- was to simply replace the whole damn thing.

Then I discovered one of the two bolts holding the toilet to the floor was frozen and wouldn't budge.

After beating the thing all to hell with a Dremel tool, I finally got that bolt out and removed the toilet. That thing was heavy, so heavy my back protested. I managed to get it into the tub so that any water leaking out of the bottom would have a place to go, popped some ibuprofen, and rounded up the kids to go to Home Depot.

Surely, I thought, the newer toilet wouldn't weigh as much; the old one was a 3.3 gallon flusher, and the new ones are 1.28 gallon models.

Boy was I surprised.

I tried to lift the box holding the model we'd selected and couldn't do it. I then called a friend, who met me and the kids at Home Depot and who helped me get the thing onto a cart, into the van, and then up the stairs. We then moved the old toilet down the stairs and into the garage, where I assume my wife will be shocked to find it when she gets home tonight from work. A couple of hours later and after some fussing over just what the hell "do not over tighten" actually meant, and the toilet is installed.

Oh, and the towel rack, the thing that started it all? I replaced it with a double towel rack, which should do the job for a house with five people in it.

If you'll excuse me, I think the ibuprofen is wearing off. Time for another dose.

Dear Arctic

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 11:57:50 GMT

Nice of you to come and visit. I really appreciated the flurries, as they added to the beauty of the stark landscape. I'd offer you more hot chocolate, but it seems I've run out.

Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something. Weren't you supposed to go back home a few weeks ago? Did something change in that job you said you had lined up? "It is a slam dunk," you said. "I'll wow them in the interview, and I'll be living the high life before you know it."

But the thing is, it's late March and you're still here. Is there something you want to tell me that you haven't gotten around to yet?

Yes, I know all about the climate change problem, and how it's causing you to swing to extremes. Have you been seeing that psychologist I suggested? Or better yet, those NOAA and NASA scientists?

Look, if you're planning to stay longer, you're going to have to understand a few ground rules. You'll need to pitch in and clean the sheets on the couch you've been sleeping on, and you'll have to help cooking the meals. I know you don't have money for gas --yes, I know it's expensive-- but I expect you to drive the kids around to their after school activities when I can't do it.

And for pete's sake, get a haircut!

A Short Update Before Bed

Sat, 16 Mar 2013 02:30:36 GMT

It's been a looong couple of weeks.

Work and the kids' school have combined to suck most of my free time since March began, and while one major item finished today (middle school musical) we've got two more ahead of us (district band festival and the elementary school choral presentation).

I'll be happier when my life recovers.

Urp

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 03:24:07 GMT

Whomever decided that on the gloomiest week of Winter I'd get a stomach virus, I want to kick in the pants.

Needless to say, this is the most alert I've been all day.

Oscars

Mon, 25 Feb 2013 02:24:12 GMT

Well, what did they expect when they had Seth McFarlane do the Oscars? Lightning in a bottle, perhaps?

So much for it being a family oriented event.

"We saw your boobs!" indeed.

You Know...

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:57:43 GMT

...you're having one of those days when you talk to your computer screen and start sounding like Lewis Black.

"Did you have your jowls moving too?" a co-worker asked when I related this little note to him.

"No, but I had the finger pointing down."

On the Mend

Sun, 17 Feb 2013 15:09:14 GMT

Well, the fever broke last night.

Thank goodness.

At least I've got some part of a weekend left, but even then I need to take it slow and rehydrate.

Thanks to those who wished me well!

Blarg

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 22:54:22 GMT

I hate winter colds.

Okay, I hate colds, period. But I hate winter colds because you can never be quite sure that the chill is due to the weather or due to your illness.

And right now, I'd much rather swig a dose of Nyquil and fall asleep.

Well, It'll Do

Tue, 05 Feb 2013 00:48:08 GMT

Yeah, it has been a while.

Work has gotten in the way of real life, and that sucks. However, I have been able to get the downstairs game room into a semblance of order.

My original design for that room was to fix the cracks in the basement walls, seal the walls with Drylok (or the Home Depot equivalent), and then put up insulation and framing. However, when I got to the insulation/framing, I realized I had a problem. If I put up any insulation and framing on the walls, the usable space on the landing at the bottom of the steps was less than 3ft. x 3ft. According to code, that was the minimum allowed. In order to restore that size, I'd have to rebuild the stairs leading to the basement. The stairs are completely open so that could be done, but I lacked the time and (most importantly) the skill to get it done. Paying someone to build the stairs was an option, but I don't have the cash.

Therefore, I decided to abandon the insulating-the-walls idea and work with what I had. I'll eventually frame up the rest of the areas behind the bookshelves so that it looks like a separate room, but I've put enough together so that we can use it as a real game room. (Thank goodness for those 30"x72" banquet tables being on sale at Target; I put two of those together to create a 60"x72" tablespace.)

Yes, it'd be nice to put up a drop down ceiling, but that's going to have to wait for another time. For now, the kids can use it to play boardgames and RPGs, and during the summer it'll be cooler than being up on the first floor on Saturday game nights.

Now, if I've only the time to actually finish that wall framing. And read some novels. And work on the deck this spring. And...

On LJ Slowness

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:47:51 GMT

When LJ has those really slow days or cyber attacks, I wonder why they've never bothered to isolate the Russian LJ from the rest of their environment. It would seem the simplest thing to create a separate gateway and IP entry into their environment for Russian LJ entries, but it does require enough duplicate equipment that they may not decide it's financially worth it. However, all of the people I know who are moving to Dreamwidth --or left LJ entirely-- are demonstrating that maybe it's a better idea to separate the IP paths sooner rather than later.

A Pox on Both Their Houses

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:41:11 GMT

I have no interest in watching tonight's BCS Championship game between Notre Dame and Alabama.

As a Dayton alum from the early 90's, Notre Dame was our biggest rival in basketball. Notre Dame students were arrogant and dismissive toward all Dayton students, christening them "Notre Dame wannabees". (They were that way toward other university students in general --particularly other Catholic universities-- but I digress.) Notre Dame's current head coach, the former University of Cincinnati head coach Brian Kelly, informed people via Twitter he was leaving for ND prior to the UC football banquet. He then informed the tea after he banquet was over, and after the news swept through the banquet itself. He didn't have the class to inform his team first, and even denied he was going to ND when asked by a reporter just before the banquet.

Alabama has a similarly arrogant reputation, and when you throw in the obscene amounts of money that they spend on athletics, it's a wonder they have any academic reputation left to show for it. Combine that with the general arrogance of the SEC, and there's no way in hell I'd root for an SEC school, either.

Me? I'd prefer to do something else tonight.

A Request for Fellow Booklovers

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:25:10 GMT

This pic has been making the rounds as part of a meme out there, and I tracked down the original of it to Synnimaru on DeviantArt. The quality of the work is impressive, and just confirms my belief that there's a lot of good art out there that might go unnoticed if not for sites like DeviantArt (such as the art I highlighted on the MMO blog I share with Deftig concerning Breast Cancer Awareness Month).

(Click on the pic for the original size; it's worth it.)

Anyhoo, I can pick out some of the stuff there --Harry Potter, Pooh, Matthias (from Redwall), The Last Unicorn, a spider web from Charlotte's Web, Dorothy from the Oz books, Sephira (from Eregon)-- but I don't know all of the references. I suspect that the gold mini dragon is a fire lizard from the Pern novels, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, if people can pick stuff out and post them in the comments, I'd appreciate it!

Wait, Wasn't There a Writing Thing Going On?

Fri, 21 Dec 2012 15:16:40 GMT

As you can probably guess by my radio silence, my attempt at NaNo fell utterly short.

With two days left and ~40000 words to go, I was forced to throw in the towel. The funny thing is that I wrote about 2k worth of words each time I actually found time to write, so I think that the overall goal was achievable, but just finding the time to write was the problem.

My writing time used to be spent in the early morning before anyone else woke up, or in the late evening after everyone went to bed. However, starting in late October my work crept into those periods, leaving me scrambling to find other time to write. I quickly discovered that late afternoon didn't work, because the kids' noise and after school activities kept me from writing for more than five minutes at a time. Maybe if there were slow periods actuall a work I could swing it, but that isn't the case right now.

Even so, I discovered a few things about myself and my writing.

I started with the same basic plot and characters that I'd attempted to write about in the past, but this time I changed the starting point. Once I did that, everything went off the rails. What was supposed to be the main point of the plot was resolved about 20 pages in, leaving a mystery behind. I took that and ran with it, not knowing where it was going, but I figured it was going to be fun finding out.

Writing off the cuff like that, I probably sounded like someone completely insane because I kept muttering "Don't stop!" and "Shut up and let me write!" There's nothing that will draw attention to yourself out in public quite like telling your inner critic to pipe down.

When I write without any form of editing, the influences behind my voice start to shine through. Surprisingly enough, Tolkien isn't one of them. I may admire his work, but my writing is definitely not in his style. Likewise, I may dislike David Eddings' heavy reliance on "all nobles all the time" in the world of The Belgariad, but his dialogue is definitely an influence. (Not so blatant as it was in Christopher Paolini's Eregon, but it is there if you look hard.) One unexpected influence to my writing is Salinger's Catcher in the Rye, but I suspect that's due to one of the main character's sense of alienation. He's not Holden Caufield by a long shot, but he definitely views the society he's forced to work with as full of hypocrites.

Well, with the holidays upon us, I don't think I'm going to get much of a chance to write in the very near future. Still, NaNo was a good thing to try. I'm definitely going to do it in the future, and one of these years I'll actuall finis the damn thing.

Another Short NaNo Update

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:43:11 GMT

I'm getting tired of this.

No, not NaNo, but having things interfere with NaNo. It's not like I'm getting overwhelmed, but when things are spaced out "just enough" that you can't really sit down and write, that drives me crazy.

Hell, I can't even write the documentation I need to finish for work.

But I have been able to put down a few more thousand worth of words. At this rate I'll finish NaNo sometime in 2013, I fear.....

Election Day

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 20:50:13 GMT

Today was the first day in MONTHS that we haven't had a political ad in our mail.

I'm sure the US Postal Service is crying, but I'm personally VERY happy that the campaign is coming to a close.

Now, it's time to send in the lawyers and watch them pull us out of recession just by their legal fees.

NaNo Update (Well, a Short One)

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 00:37:21 GMT

Well, NaNo has started with a whimper.

Just as it hit, I got hit with work, sucking up most of my free time except for parts of the weekend. And then, since my work station is right next to the family computer, I had to deal with a lot of "discussion" from the kids over whatever it was they were playing.

Not exactly conducive to writing fiction. I ended up bagging it until I can start getting some time in the early morning like I used to. Hopefully that'll be Monday.

That said, I think I like some of the way it's going. I have to keep telling myself to just write, and not think too much, but unlike some of my previous writing I've gone off in a different direction. I'm not sure where it'll end up, but I like it so far.

Halloween Time

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 21:27:33 GMT

Costumes are being put on now. Thirty minutes to show time.

Let's see: one Ahsoka Tano (from Star Wars: The Clone Wars), one Doctor (Tom Baker version), one Clone Trooper.

Yep, we've got the geek angle covered.

Now, if the rain will hold off for a while....

Insanity Strikes Again

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 02:20:12 GMT

When asked a few weeks ago whether I would try NaNoWriMo, I hadn't given it much thought.

I've got a busy family, a job that can (and will) get me up at all hours of the day and night, a couple of blogs that I write for (including this one), and an overall lack of copious free time. Sure, I'm not as busy as some families --I wonder how some parents keep sane with all of the extracurricular activities they have going-- but I kind of do like to sleep when I can.

But the more I've thought about it, the more I think I'd like to give it a try.

I've got this problem with my inner critic, you see, that stems from a bad habit I developed in college. Back in the pre-word processor days, I used to compose at the typewriter. Rather than type out a rough draft and edit it, I preferred figuring everything out as I went along and avoiding a rewrite altogether. I could get away with that in college and on the occasional blog post, but as time as gone on what ends up happening is that I spend too much time analyzing what I should write rather than simply writing.

If there's anything that might shock me out of this self-destructive navel gazing, it's going to be something like NaNoWriMo.

So, the Magic 8-Ball is now saying "Signs point to Yes."

Why Doesn't Life Follow an Outline?

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 01:14:20 GMT

Blech. Colds are like vampires: they suck the life out of you, leaving you pale and weak.

This particular variety of cold took about a week to leave; I only started feeling like myself after about Thursday. Even then, the siren song of the couch for a nap was very strong throughout the work day. Were I at work at the office, I'd have been tempted to get into my car, lean the seat back, and nap during lunchtime.

Of course, the possibility of being woken up by security checking to see if I was alive wasn't what I had in mind.

I've begun some outlining (!) of a story, basically a reworking of something I'd begun and abandoned some time ago. If you know me, you know that as far as fiction goes I really never outline things. I really dislike the sort of story where the author seems to be writing to an outline. When it feels like an author is hitting points presented on a PowerPoint stack, I tune out. But at the same time I really do understand the utility of having an outline, because it keeps the meandering to a minimum.

The great temptation when outlining, at least for me, is the temptation to cut to an absolute minimum. Yes, cutting is necessary, but gutting something? If I cut too much, the story becomes a cookie cutter, and really that's when I say "What's the point?" In more traditional SFF, things that you can conveniently skip over in, say, a contemporary novel (or even Urban Fantasy) you have to explain more fully. Stuff like scenery, setting, customs, and even clothing can't be taken for granted in traditional SFF. But when I outline things, I'm tempted to jettison them just because.

What I've found to fix this problem is to break up the big bad outline and insert world building elements into normal scenes. A lot of older SFF that I'd read as a teen and my early 20s did most of this world building in a massive info dump at the beginning of a story*, and those that didn't relied heavily upon the Glossary in the back. (::cough:: Dune ::cough::) But working the details into the first third of a story is just as good as an info dump without upsetting the story's flow.

But doing that also means you have to rework part of the story. Start off in familiar territory, then build in more and more details. When I outline that, I put in a little side entry such as "Introduce conflict between two factions indirectly" for one scene. Then, a bit farther down, I add in "Add Mage here, use reactions to link back to conflict." That way, I don't stop the flow of action, have a Mage walk on stage, and have the Mage (or another person) provide an info dump.**

Okay, enough pet peeves aside. I've been working on this outline, and having been away from the story for over a year, I can see spots where the story needs tightening. Questions that I had no good answer to have now come up with their own solutions, and maybe I can actually get back to writing some time soon.

Of course, for me that "soon" may be 2013, but who knows?

*I saw this even in the first of Sharon Shinn's Twelve Houses books, when the second chapter was filled with a dump about the political structure of the Twelve Houses and what was going on about Mystics. Why not the first chapter? Because Shinn uses the first chapter in her Twelve Houses books as a vignette to introduce the main characters; think of James Bond's intro scenes and you get the idea.

**When I see this, I think of a Shakespearean play. Only he could have pulled that sort of thing off, and I sure ain't Will.

Getting in Touch With My Inner Romantic and Other Musings

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 01:41:38 GMT

What was that about sticking to a deadline?

Oh yeah, right.

I did have a deadline this week, but it was one from work which kept me burning the midnight oil multiple nights. Thankfully that part is over --except for the documentation-- but now I've got to catch up on other stuff around the house.

Like sleep.

And getting rid of this cold that my wife so thoughtfully shared with me.

Well, I'm not quite sure how to handle this, so I might as well come out and say it. I read a Jennifer Crusie novel. (Anyone But You, if you're wondering.) Considering that the story wasn't that deep, it didn't take me long to finish; more like a couple of hours worth of reading, to be honest. So, what did I think? It was... okay. The whole point was the build up to the sex scenes at the end, and when we got there I kind of raised an eyebrow. For a minute, I thought that the sex scenes might have been written from what a guy would think was a woman's point of view, but I know that's not the case. It just seemed so...canned, I guess.

I was more interested in the characters themselves, but it seemed that the story ended without enough closure. I realize that wasn't the point of the story, but I just felt there was something missing. Although I did laugh at the dog, because I've seen dogs behave like Fred a lot.

In other news, I've been putting the cart ahead of the horse and have been drawing sketches of a gaming table, when I should be focusing on sealing/waterproofing that part of the basement first. Some things never change I guess. I know what I need to do to seal/waterproof that section of the basement --get one of those sealer injection kits and then fill in the cracks-- but I need the spare cash to spring for the kit. Once that's done I can put up the wall sealer and then I can get framing, but I'm still a ways away. It might be Spring before I get a chance to actually work on the table, but we'll see.