Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past week. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count. This week’s word count: 3,337.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: June 21,” 788 words
• “Flamingo,” short story, 402 words
• “Street of Hope,” short story, 1246 words
• “Anticipation,” short story, 941 words

So yeah…a good week, lots of creativity. Lots of encouragement and support from my writer’s group as well!

I intend to keep publishing stories here, but I may not always put them on the front page. However, I always appreciate feedback and suggestions on what to present, and how to present it. (And if anyone would like to comment on the fiction, by all means do!)

Potpourri

2010 FIFA World Cup™

The United States made a good run, winning our group without a loss, and coming back once again after surrendering an early goal in our second-round match against Ghana. But the African team looked more fit, overall, through the entire 120 minutes of the match. Unfortunately, the officiating throughout the competition, while generally good, has been horrible when it’s been bad. As my youngest son quipped on Twitter, we had to score three goals to get one that actually counted.

While I believe Germany thoroughly outplayed England on Saturday, the apparent goal by England, which would have leveled the score at two goals each, was not seen by the assistant referee (although television cameras showed it clearly), and therefore not allowed. It would have been the second English score within less than half a minute, and unquestionably would have changed the entire flavor of the match, including strategy on both sides. Who can say what the result might have been?¹

Yet FIFA still resists the use of goal-line technology in its most important tournaments. All other major (and many minor) sports in the world use technological means to back up human officials. Why not the most popular sport in the world?² I don’t want to see more officials on the pitch. I suppose there would have to be one in the press box to alert the field referee to check a replay. And I’m not advocating extensive use of replay; for example, I can’t see using it on offside calls (although perhaps to determine whether an offside attacker scored). But a ball that drops more than the diameter of the ball behind the goal line, and is not called a goal? That needs to be fixed.

Back to the World Cup itself, Netherlands beat Slovakia today to advance. The Dutch are my sleeper pick to win the Cup, but Argentina looked strong in beating Mexico last night, and the Germans clearly looked overpowering in their victory over England. Brazil plays later tonight against Chile. I truly believe the champion will come from among Argentina, Brazil, Germany, or Netherlands. Obviously, Spain is also a contender, but they really haven’t shown me anything yet. Perhaps they’re saving it for the later rounds. There are still two exciting weeks left in the competition, and I can’t wait to see how matters develop.

College World Series

UCLA and USC to play for National Championship! Well, maybe not the USC that is UCLA’s crosstown rival. In this case, it’s the University of South Carolina Gamecocks who will battle the Bruins of UCLA in a best-of-three series that begins tonight in Omaha’s famed Rosenblatt Stadium. UCLA has 106 NCAA championships—more than any other university or college. Yet not one of those is in baseball. Here’s hoping we get our first this week!

Not About Sports

The power went out this morning about 8:30 or so…just as I hit the power switch on the iMac to boot it up. Well, crap. But, since I’d decided to go for a walk at some point today, decided earlier in the morning, before it got above 80F, would be a good time. So I invited Mrs. Kestrel to join me, and we stepped out into full sunshine and about 75 degrees. We took our (well, my) normal path (the path she takes with a neighbor and neighbor’s dog is different from mine), but as we got to the bottom of the hill, Mrs. K suggested we take the newly-constructed walking path that circles down through some oaks and along a bit of Rapid Creek. Neither of us had taken that path before (it’s only been completed a few weeks), and we really enjoyed it.

The path is crushed rock, well-compacted, and the grove of oaks provides lots of shade. The creek is up quite a bit, and flowing well—not something you want to send the dog off into, that’s for sure! It added maybe ten minutes to the walk, and will probably become a permanent part of my forays.

Earlier this morning, my wife surprised me with freshly made cinnamon rolls! YUM! (Another reason why the walk needed to happen. *grin*) A former coworker had given her some sourdough starter (which isn’t especially sour, but makes great bread!) after her return from Italy, so we’ve been enjoying the bread made from that. Last week saw a combination of wheat and white flours, which made a delicious wheat bread, and this morning brought out the cinnamon rolls. The dough is not quite as sweet, perhaps, as the dough we usually use for the rolls, but one of my observations on the bread is that it’s a lot more sweet than sour. So I, at least, proclaimed the rolls a hit!

Since we had no power when I ate breakfast, I missed my coffee. However, on the return from our walk, I had a second roll, accompanied this time by herbal iced tea (raspberry zinger, I believe). Power had returned, but I was a bit too warm to want to brew coffee. Instead, we closed up the house and turned on the air conditioner in anticipation of highs in the mid- to upper-90s from Tuesday through Saturday, at least. And while it is only supposed to reach mid-80s today, we reasoned that it would be easier to keep the house cool by starting the A/C now, rather than trying to cool it off later (and believe me, our upper floor gets a lot hotter in the late afternoon and evening).

And now, it’s just about time for Brazil–Chile to kick off, so I think I’ll grab a bit of lunch (crab and pasta salad) and settle in for the game. Have a great week, everyone!

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 28 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past week. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count. This week’s word count: 3,039.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: June 14,” 807 words
• Blog Post: “Eight Chrome Extensions I Can’t Live Without,” 1,280 words
• Short Story: “The People,” 952 words. This story will probably be posted here on Tuesday or Wednesday.

Writing Group

Last week, I lamented about the creativity flame flickering. It got rekindled in a pretty big way when some friends and I (kick-started by Breana FullOfAwesome) (yes, that really is her name!) started a Google Wave where we talked about writing, among other things. That has ballooned into at least three Waves now, with writing prompts, short stories, critiquing, and wishful thinking. We start a new Wave each day, and it’s actually a pretty effective chat room, as well. But I think we’re also starting to realize some of the benefits Wave can offer to collaborators. Since we’re constantly egging each other on, it’s hard not to want to write more!

Potpourri

World of Warcraft

With the advent of the Midsummer Fire Festival in-game, I will be working on the last achievement I need to get my first 310-speed mount, the Violet Proto-Drake. With luck, I’ll have it tonight. Otherwise, tomorrow or Thursday.

Sports

FIFA World Cup

Even if you aren’t a sports fan, you’d have to be a real hermit (in which case, you wouldn’t be here!) not to be aware of the World Cup, which began on June 11 and will end on July 11. If nothing else, you’ve surely heard of the vuvuzelas—the plastic horns that are a fixture at South African sporting events. (I remember them, in fact, from my college days, but they weren’t very popular, and were simply called “plastic horns.”)

I’ve been watching as many games as possible, recording the morning matches on my DVR for watching at a more reasonable hour…like, after breakfast. And of course I was glued to the (live) broadcast of the USA–Slovenia game on Friday, which ended in a 2–2 draw after the referee disallowed what would have been the winning goal for the USA side. However, we can still move into the knockout round with a victory over Algeria Wednesday morning, which we should be able to do. However, as Spain found out when they were defeated 1-0 by Switzerland last week, just because you’re a better side doesn’t mean you’ll win.

U.S. Open at Pebble Beach

Of course I watched the Open over the weekend, and enjoyed it immensely. I was really surprised to not see one of the big names—Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els—not assert himself on Sunday (especially after Tiger’s charge on Saturday). Instead, 30-year old Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland, the 36-hole leader and in second place at the start of the final round, hung tough to win his first major championship. It was hard not to root for such a likeable, self-effacing young man, and indeed, between him and the Frenchman, Gregory Havret, who finished second, there was a lot to be happy about.

Men’s College World Series

My alma mater, UCLA, is in the CWS for the first time since…well, practically forever. After beating arch-nemesis Cal State–Fullerton earlier in the month to advance, the Bruins recorded their first-ever victory in a CWS game, trouncing Florida 11-3. They play again tonight, and I just hope they can keep the magic flowing!

Happy Anniversary!

To me! And to my bride of 36 years (on Tuesday the 22nd)! To celebrate, I went to our local chocolatier and picked up 36 handmade truffles. That should keep me out of the doghouse until at least, oh, I dunno…Thursday?

To any of you wondering what the secret is to a marriage as long as ours…learn how to say “Yes, dear” and sound like you mean it! *grin*

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 21 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past week. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count. This week’s word count: 1,258.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: June 7,” 1,258 words

Yeah, that’s it. I’m not really proud of that (especially with respect to the blog: it seems my blogging flame is barely flickering of late), but I’m not especially ashamed. I’m currently evaluating my outlook on writing of all kinds. I am still thoroughly enjoying each opportunity to do copyediting, but I seem to much more easily enjoy and thrive on the writing of others than of my own. I’ve lost the passion for writing at the moment, but I think a good part of the reason is I’m not sure where my passions lay. Some introspection is in order.

Potpourri

World Cup 2010

Much of the rest of my week was taken up by watching (and tweeting about) the 2010 World Cup, being staged in the Republic of South Africa from June 11 – July 11. I am a true fan, having been a referee for many years, until a pulled hamstring a dozen or more years ago put an end to my career in short pants and long socks.

I know many of you are not sports fans, and certainly not soccer fans. For Americans especially, it’s difficult to understand the appeal of a game where a tie can often be considered a huge victory (such as the USA’s 1–1 draw with England on Saturday), and scoring is rare (notwithstanding Germany’s 4–0 thrashing of Australia on Sunday).

One observation for those of you who are fans, though: I’ve thought the refereeing so far in this World Cup deserves at least a B+ grade, if not perhaps an A-. I recall one decision in the USA-England match with which I disagreed (and that was probably colored by by pro-USA bias), and an ejection of an Australian player yesterday (a yellow card caution was certainly warranted, but the red card was a bit extreme, I thought).

In any event, I’m hopeful the US side continues its excellent play, and I foresee a distinct possibility of qualifying for the semifinals if we stay aggressive and use our superior conditioning to our advantage. However, my realistic pick for the championship is Spain, with the Netherlands and Germany both challenging. I haven’t seen Brazil play yet, but they are always dangerous, and Argentina appears to be poised for a deep run as well. Italy, the reigning World Cup champions, can’t be totally discounted, but I think France, runners-up in 2006, can be (especially considering they really shouldn’t even be in South Africa).

SongGenie 2

I plan to do a more in-depth review on this Mac-only software soon, but I wanted to mention what an excellent tool it is for cataloguing your music library on your computer. I’ve used many different programs to try to collect song and album information, including album artwork, and believe me, none are perfect. Neither is SongGenie, but it does a better job, by far, than anything else I’ve used. One of the best features is that it will attempt (often successfully) to pull in song lyrics and attach those to the song’s information file. In tandem with the separate CoverScout, it also does a superb job of finding album art, although there are some idiosyncrasies with attaching the same piece of art to all songs on an album.

UCLA Softball and Baseball

Finally a note about my alma mater.

Congratulations to the UCLA women’s softball team on winning its 12th NCAA Division I championship over arch-nemesis, the University of Arizona. The championship is the 106th overall NCAA Championship for UCLA, more than any other school.

And congratulations to the Bruins’ men’s baseball team on moving on to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, after taking two of three from California State University – Fullerton in this weekend’s Super Regional at Jackie Robinson Stadium at UCLA.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 14 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past week. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count. This week’s word count: 1,359. Fail x2 x3. Okay, I promise to do better this week.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: May 31,” 991 words
• Copyediting: Feather Path, Chapter 12 (twice) @ 10 percent: 256 words

Thank goodness for Iris! Just in case you haven’t visited her blog, I heartily recommend you do so, posthaste, if you enjoy speculative fiction in any form. Her novel, Feather Path, is an excellent work that tells the story of a demon huntress chasing an angel, to kill him for an underworld boss. And no, I don’t mean La Cosa Nostra. Let me make a slight correction: a boss from the Underworld; i.e., Hell. Except, someone else wants the angel dead, too—someone Kaiyu, the demon, dare not cross. Unfortunately, that may have already happened. One of the chapters of Feather Path is an accounting of The Fall, and presents those events in a much different light than, say, Paradise Lost. And I daresay (because I have, a couple times already), Chapter 12, “The Offering,” is the best and most dramatic chapter to date. I enthusiastically recommend this story (and don’t forget to let Iris know how much you enjoy it, when you do visit!).

Potpourri

They Call Him “Coach” — John R. Wooden, 1910–2010

Friday evening came word that the legendary former basketball coach at UCLA (my alma mater), John Wooden, was hospitalized in very serious condition. Since he turned 99 on October 14, this news wasn’t shocking, but of course it was unexpected. He passed at 6:45 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on Saturday. To say I was saddened would be a huge understatement. More than any other person, Coach was my hero. But not just my hero: He was the hero, mentor, teacher, friend to millions—and that is no exaggeration.

John Wooden was a three-time All-America basketball player at Purdue University, leading the Boilermakers to a national championship in his junior year. He was an English teacher as well as high school and college basketball coach. English was his first love, and up to his dying day, he could quote poetry or Shakespeare without missing a beat. As a basketball coach, he had one losing season: his first, as a high school coach. At UCLA, where he coached from 1948–1975, his teams won an unmatched ten national championships over a twelve-year span, and an unbelievable seven in a row. I was there for four of them. In a stretch from 1972 to 1974, UCLA won 88 consecutive games. Those are records that, due to the changes of the past 35 years or so, will never be equaled, much less surpassed. He is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. He was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, our nation’s highest civilian award.

But Coach Wooden’s influence was even greater off the court. His most famous players, Lewis Alcindor (who later changed his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton—both members of the collegiate and NBA Halls of Fame—almost left the team because of their disagreements with Coach Wooden’s style. Years later, both came to be very, very close to Coach Wooden, and in fact last night, they offered a tribute to the coach before the tip-off of the second game of the NBA Championship Finals.¹ At the start of his junior season, Walton came to practice with a beard, in violation of Coach’s strict hair-length policy. Walton argued, fairly eloquently, that it was his right to grow his hair and beard however he liked. Coach didn’t disagree; he merely said, “We’ll miss you around here, Bill.” The beard was gone the next day.

I could go on and on about Coach Wooden, but if you’re interested, I suggest you read the LA Times articles by Bill Dwyre, T.J. Simers, Bill Plaschke, and others. However, I would be terribly remiss if I didn’t mention the most important thing in the Coach’s life: his beloved wife, Nellie. She was the only girl he kissed, the only girl he dated, and his only love in life. He said many, many times that he only spent the years since her death in 1985, preparing to meet her in “the Yonder.” On the 21st of every month (the day of her passing), he wrote her a love letter, which he placed in a bundle on their bed. When UCLA wanted to name the basketball court at Pauley Pavilion after him, Coach agreed on the condition that her name not only be included, but precede his. Hence, the Nell and John Wooden Court at Pauley Pavilion.

Wooden wrote five books, and his Pyramid of Success is used worldwide as a model for businesses and other organizations to reach their potential. His latest book was released on his 99th birthday, last October. I have one personal memory of a meeting with Coach: It was a late spring evening in 1970, I believe. My girlfriend and I were in the UCLA student center, playing pool. We were the only people in the poolroom, when Coach Wooden and his assistant, Denny Crum, walked in for a game of eight-ball. I was awestruck, and we watched them play. I honestly don’t remember who won, which makes me suspect it was Coach Crum (who would, of course, go on to the University of Louisville, leading them to a national championship). One thing I do know: The word “basketball” was never uttered during that game.

Finally, some words of wisdom for all of us, from the man they call “Coach.”

Adversity is the state in which man mostly easily becomes acquainted with himself, being especially free of admirers then.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

Be quick, but don’t hurry.

Don’t let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Coach Wooden

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 7 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

What Is This?

Every Monday (yeah, whatever!), I document the happenings of the past week. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.
This week’s word count: 1,540. Fail x2.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: May 24,” 1412 words
• Copyediting @ 10 percent: 128 words

I thought about simply copying the comments from last week into this space, but that’s a cop-out. So I’ll just say that there have been circumstances that mitigated against my being more productive. Some of that has been resolved with the completion of the front deck (see below); the rest, I hope, will resolve itself when Mrs. Kestrel returns from her Italy trip next week.

Potpourri

Reading

I’ve been maintaining that activity, at least! Last week, I finished Anne McCaffrey’s The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall, a collection of short stories from the Dragonriders of Pern universe when Thread first threatens the colony. I am so glad I got back into reading (and re-reading) this series!

I also downloaded the second of Jim C. Hines’s Princess novels to my iPod Touch, using Kindle for iPod. I must say, other than having to tap to change pages fairly frequently, the Touch is a pretty good e-reader. For the time being, at least, I’m over my desire for a Kindle or other e-reader.¹ This particular novel is “The Mermaid’s Madness” and involves the little mermaid. Trust me, we’re not talking Andersen’s (or Disney’s) Ariel here! In fact, her name is Leira, and she is Not Nice. However, she has an excuse: An enchanted knife.) I’m only up to Chapter 6, so I don’t know how the situation resolves itself, but once again, Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty (Danielle, Snow, and Talia) are once again up to their tiaras in danger and excitement.

I have not abandoned The Dragonbone Chair: I’ve read enough to have my curiosity whetted, and really need to give the book a chance to really grab me. Thus far, the protagonist isn’t exactly a real sympathetic character, but I’m hopeful that will change—sooner rather than later, I trust!

The Deck

One word: FINISHED! A marathon session on Saturday saw the steps and stoop completed, following some painting late Friday afternoon (there is a step off the front of the deck, and a couple off the left side that are redwood, painted to match the house color). Here are some shots of the finished project:

A friend suggested we need something to break up the huge blank space that is the garage wall. I agree; now to see if I can convince Mrs. Kestrel we need some tasteful artwork up there. Perhaps a huge Hawaiian sea turtle? Also, on the left side of the house, the jungle towards the back are actually raspberry bushes. We should be picking in another three or four weeks, I think. Mmmm…

Tech Stuff

Over the past few weeks, I’ve started watching This Week in Google (TWiG), with Leo Laporte, Gina Trapani and Jeff Jarvis. TWiG is part of the “This Week in Tech” (TWiT) network, and is must-see TV if you’re a tech geek. One of the best features of TWiT is the Google Calendar you can embed into your own calendar (and it automagically adapts itself to your own timezone, assuming you have correctly configured that in your Google profile). I confess that I’m lost sometimes with some of the discussions, but it’s fascinating anyway. And I DO learn stuff. If you have any interest at all in timely tech topics and discussion of just about anything tech related, check out TWiT.

Of course you can watch the shows live, but most are also recorded for later viewing/listening. While I don’t always agree with every position Leo advocates, there are few people who can talk tech more intelligently and more on a level that the average person can understand. Highly recommended.

Finally, thank you to the anonymous reader who purchased the developer version of Thesis Premium WordPress theme using one of the links on this site. Late this month, I should receive my very first affiliate premium for that purchase. Obviously, I’m not going to get rich (neither quickly, nor in the long term!), but it’s a nice little bit of unexpected cash. (I can argue that it paid for one of the new tools I got in the last month or so—or at least, part of one!) So again, thank you!

Weekly Wrap-Up: May 31 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

This week’s word count: 1,564. Fail.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: May 17,” 958 words
• Copyediting @ 10 percent: 606

Meh. Although I must say, the copyediting job I did for a fellow blogger was a delight. It was World of Warcraft fanfic, but the perspective was new and refreshing (at least to me!), and the story itself was a lot of fun. In fact, I laughed out loud in a couple places (I certainly hope that was the point *grin*). As soon as the story is published somewhere, I promise to link it here and tweet about it as well.

What can I say? I just haven’t been motivated to write lately. I think part of that is from working on the deck, and being tired and achy after a few hours of that kind of work. But I also haven’t had a story I wanted to tell recently. Time to give the ol’ imagination a kick in the butt.

Potpourri

Reading

I did a little, but actually watched more television this week (caught a lot of Dodgers games, to be honest, as well as knocking stuff off the DVR). I started reading The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams, which I’ve had for over 20 years. Maybe because it was fairly late in the evening when I started reading (10:30—I probably should have gone to bed, instead!), I had a hard time really getting into the story. For me, at least, it started slowly, and the backstory wasn’t the backstory I wanted to know about. Of course, given the POV, the backstory I wanted wasn’t really available. I’m sure I’ll get back to it before too long.

The cats were restless the other night, so I around 11 I grabbed a paperback Pern book and took it to bed. I read for an hour or an hour and a half, and was totally absorbed in that.

The Deck

If there’s one thing this project is teaching me, it’s that I’m not nearly as young as I was when I first built the deck, some 18 years ago or so. There is a lot of bending and kneeling, and this morning (after a horrid night of thunderstorms and plain old insomnia—from which I suffer extremely rarely) I have an achy knee and back. However, all the boards are in place. They only need to be trimmed evenly on one end and have a bunch of screws driven. (They’re all secured, but I haven’t secured every board to every stud yet. And hearing the thunder starting again, it won’t be happening today, either.)

Once that’s done, it’s on to the front steps: Remove the old, paint the risers and ledgers gray to match the house siding and deck, then cut and secure the new steps. Unfortunately, I think that job might take at least a couple days, so there’ll be quite a drop from the doorway to the walkway in the interim.

Temporary Bachelorhood

I’m surviving. The cats are too, for the most part. The first couple days, we had a bit of fighting (including Thursday night just before bed, when there was a real catfight). For several months, Mocha has been getting pissy when Merlin surprises him. And by “surprise” I mean “comes into the room.” It’s gotten to the point where Mocha is afraid to go downstairs. Originally, Merlin was acting territorial (realize these two are brothers and are 8 years old!), but now I think Mocha’s just overly touchy. So we have the growling and spitting and hissing. And when I try to calm them down, they hiss at me. (For the record, I am not a cat person. Or a dog person, for that matter.)

Otherwise, things are going well. I’m not starving (we actually had quite a bit of good leftovers, which, along with a trip to KFC to satisfy a sudden craving, got me through the weekend), although I think I may have to actually start cooking on Tuesday. Hopefully the rains will pass and I can fire up the grill.

I also finally made some sun tea on Sunday, for the first time all season. I couldn’t find the regular tea, but I did find some Celestial Seasonings Wild Berry Zest herbal tea, which steeped nicely on the front steps, and was quite tasty. I think I may add another teabag next time, though, for a somewhat deeper flavor.

Generally, I shave every other day, mostly because I hate shaving. However, until this morning, I hadn’t shaved since last Monday (the wife being away and all…). I was toying with the idea of growing back my beard. Over the past fifteen years, I’ve vacillated among a full beard, no beard, and goatee. For the past year or more, I’ve been clean-shaven (mostly). As I said, though, I’d thought about growing the beard out while the missus was in Italy. Last night, though, during one of the relatively short periods in which I was actually asleep, I had a dream about seeing a picture of myself with my beard. I don’t need to look any older than I already do, so I put the electric razor through its paces this morning. I do wish I hadn’t gone gray as early as I did.

World of Warcraft

Yes, I’m still playing. No, I’m not addicted. Much. I did screw up and let my account renew for another six months over the weekend…

Raiding is rather meh currently, although we did manage to put together a 25-person raid on both Tuesday and Wednesday last week. We haven’t been able to do that in a while. We wiped on Rotface all night Tuesday, and much of Wednesday, before heading over to one-shot Festergut. People can’t seem to avoid the slime spray on Rotface.

A couple weeks ago, I was in a 10-person guild raid that downed Putricide (second time for the guild, first time for me) and Dreamwalker (guild first). Once we figured out Dreamwalker (on the third attempt), it was pretty easy. We don’t have enough (good) healers to do it on 25-person though. And if people think Rotface is a challenge, 25-person Putricide is going to be one massive [expletive deleted].

But I’m having the most fun leveling up my Draenei shaman. With my friend Leslie, we started our shammies around Easter. When we hit the Plaguelands, we were joined by our friend Kat, who’s had a shaman for a long time, but hadn’t played her a lot. On Friday, we hit 68 and Northrend. Last night, we hit 70. We are pretty unstoppable, when we get 12 totems, 4 spirit wolves, and various and sundry explosive devices (Leslie and I are engineers) all going at once.

I’ve leveled my shaman as Enhancement from level 10 on, and I can’t believe how much fun it is! In fact, I think an enhancement shaman just might be more fun than a rogue. The thought has crossed my mind to make the shaman my main in Cataclysm (and no, I will not dual-spec into Resto!).

Speaking of Cataclysm, while haven’t striven very actively to avoid learning about the upcoming changes in that revision, I also haven’t paid much attention. Sure, I know there are going to be some changes to stats, but I’m never one to join the Little Red Hen’s “Sky is Falling” guild. I expect I’ll buy the expansion, but I’ve grown weary of being a raid healer. So we’ll see what happens…when and as it happens.

Weekly Wrap-Up: May 24 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

This week’s word count: 2,435.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: May 11,” 1,088 words
• Blog Post: “Saucy Wenches Prompt: Towel and Weed,” 1,105 words
• Blog Post: “Putting the Chips on the Table,” 242 words

If you’re thinking the “creative writing” juices didn’t flow last week, realize the Saucy Wenches prompt counts. *grin*

Potpourri

Reading

I mentioned last week I picked up The Stepsister Scheme, by Jim C. Hines. I read that during the early part of the week, and enjoyed it enough to want to read the successors in the series. I felt it was a bit slow getting started, and dragged a bit in places, but eventually the characters will filled out to my satisfaction. I discovered some very interesting details about Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, that you won’t find in anything by Disney! Especially enlightening were the actual identities of the “seven dwarves,” as well as some of the true heartache Talia (Sleeping Beauty) endured. I think I’d have liked to have known some of that information a bit earlier in the book, though: It makes Talia a much more sympathetic character.

I also started reading The Dragonbone Chair, some twenty-two years after originally buying the book. Better late than never, eh? This is another book that is slow-going at first (or perhaps I was just tired when I started it Friday night). If it gets too daunting, I have four Pern books to fall back on, as well as a few other s-f titles I’ve had laying around for quite some time. So I doubt I’ll lack for reading material anytime soon.

One reason my writing is on a bit of a hiatus is due to the reading, to be honest. I’ve done embarrassingly little in the past several years, and I truly believe that in order to write well, I need to read more. I’m learning about character and plot development, and I’m certainly gaining an appreciation of how to build a fictional (not to mention fantasy) world.

The Deck

This project is actually underway. Decking material was delivered Friday morning, and I actually removed a couple of the old boards. However, work stopped when I ran into screws I couldn’t remove (which I knew would happen). So on Saturday, I headed to Lowe’s to get a reciprocating saw—something I’ve wanted to add to my toolbox (speaking figuratively here: the saw is a bit large for a toolbox!) for quite some time. I settled on a 12-amp model from Bosch: just the right combination of power, performance, and price (not to mention being a bit lighter in weight than some others) for the amount of use I expect to give it.¹

Unfortunately, I also realized that my self-diagnosed basal joint arthritis in my left hand² is going to make maneuvering the recip saw difficult, and probably painful. In fact, it’s to the point where I’ll be making an appointment with my doctor this week to see what kind of treatment options I have.³ In the meantime, absent an effective strategy to reverse the aging process, I will keep working on reducing my weight, getting enough sleep,⁴ and being careful in how I use that hand.

In any event, given the beautiful weather we’re enjoying today (remember, it snowed here last week!), I’m going to go out and remove as many screws as I can this afternoon. Then I’ll see about sawing through the recalcitrant ones.

Temporary Bachelorhood

On Wednesday, my wife leaves for Italy for three weeks. She’ll be joined on a tour of the Amalfi coat, including Pompeii and Capri, by her best friend of 51 years. The pair had originally planned this trip for last spring, buy my mother-in-law’s illness and passing caused them to postpone until this year. The two met in kindergarten, originally lived across the street from each other in Palo Alto, and have remained very close ever since.

So while Mrs. Kestrel is living la dolce vita, I’ll be tending to the cats, mowing the lawn, and trying desperately to eat healthy. (Although I have to admit, I’ve had a huge craving for chocolate cake lately…) So if anyone wants to visit South Dakota for a bit, I’ll put you to work helping me with the deck, but I can also supply plenty of beer and wine, as well as a trip to Mount Rushmore and the Badlands.

Weekly Wrap-Up: May 17 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Monday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

This week’s word count: 2,289.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: May 4,” 541 words
• Blog Post: “MarsEdit 3.0: Blogging Software for the Mac,” 632 words
• Creative Writing: World-building for The Obsidian Throne, 514 words
• Blog Post: “World-Building with Skitch and Scrivener,” 602 words

World-Building

The world-building exercise was actually done in two phases. The first was described (and in fact related) in the world-building article last Thursday. I debated taking credit for an extra thousand words, based on the drawing of Throne’s world political geography. *grins* (Tami said I should!)

The second phase I wrote on Friday, when I started to describe the main characters with more specifics. Well, okay, maybe more generalities. For instance, I haven’t gotten round to physical descriptions yet. Those will be pretty easy, as I already have a fairly good idea of what Cato, Celeste and Wil look like. For example, Wil has jet-black hair, but that’s a plot device (cue dramatic musical chord). I also realized a fourth character, Sharia, will appear relatively early in the tale, and may (or may not) become Cato’s love interest. She’s a healer, by the way (fortuitously, it seems).

Finally, I started working on the prophecy that starts the three on their quest. (Wait…this is high fantasy; thus, “…the Prophecy that starts the Three on their Quest.” Right?) The challenge here is to keep it ambiguous enough that I have plenty of wiggle room for the climax to reveal a surprise twist. In other words, “The Crown Prince shall venture forth with his blood twin and the twin of his heart to fight and slay the evil Monster, else the Land shall be plunged into eternal Darkness” just isn’t going to cut it. And of course, it needs to be in the form of a poem, right? Except…guess what? Bingo: Robert Frost, I’m not.

And somehow, I just don’t believe a Prophecy (note the capital “P”) should sound like it was written by Dr. Seuss, either. Unfortunately, right now it’s more Seuss than Frost. (Any good prophecy-writers out there? *looks hopeful*)

Potpourri

Reading

The reading bug—I haz it! It’s been much too long since I’ve done a lot of reading, but thanks in part to my commitment to myself to read at least one book a month this year, and in part to having plenty of time to read when we were in California in late January – early February, I’ve regained my enthusiasm for reading, and my excitement in enjoying well-told tales.

In the past couple weeks, I read Todd McCafferey’s Dragonheart, a continuation of the Dragonriders of Pern series his mother, Anne, started writing back in the ‘70s. My sister gave me the book for Christmas two years ago. One reason I’d resisted opening it (even though I’d asked for the book!) was my fear that Todd’s writing wouldn’t measure up to his mother’s (even though I’ve read at least one collaboration of theirs). My fears were ungrounded: His writing about Pern is every bit as spellbinding as his mother’s. The emotions in the first chapter actually had me a bit choked up (perhaps I was overcome by being transported back to one of my favorite science fiction worlds, too).

In fact, I was so enthralled by the book that I promptly ordered three more paperbacks by Todd that I’d somehow missed, and pre-ordered the next hardbound book in the series, Dragongirl.

More significantly, I spent a few evenings last week re-reading the original Dragonriders of Pern trilogy, which I’d purchased in a single volume as part of a Science Fiction Book Club introductory special many, many years ago. So, so much I’d forgotten about these wonderful books! (And I simply don’t reread many books; the only other ones I can remember rereading were some Zane Grey westerns I read many, many times throughout junior high school.)

Another series I’m looking forward to reading is Jim C. Hines’s Princess Novels. These books are the (rather darker) retellings of the stories of some of the most famous fairy-tale princess—Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty—from a considerably different perspective than that portrayed by Disney artists. In other words, these aren’t my granddaughter’s princesses!

I picked up the (last copy of) the first book in the series, The Stepsister Scheme, at Borders on Saturday. I added the upcoming third book in the series to my Amazon preorder of Dragongirl, so I’m assured of some good reading come August. Incidentally, the first chapter of many of Jim’s novels are available at his website, linked above.

The Deck Project

In addition to going to Borders on Saturday (see preceding paragraph), we stopped at Lowe’s, where we ordered decking to replace the front deck boards. We decided on ChoiceDek gray composite decking in 12-foot lengths. I could have had it delivered this afternoon, but I’m glad I demurred until Thursday, given the continuous rain we’ve had since the wee hours of this morning, and which will continue through tomorrow.

Maybe it’s just as well the weather is still cool: I’m definitely not looking forward to unscrewing the old boards, not one teeny-tiny bit. On the other hand, installing the new boards won’t be a lot of fun either. Since we’re getting composite decking, every single screw hole needs to be pre-drilled. Ugh. UGH!

On the plus side of the ledger, Lowe’s extends a ten percent discount to all military members, both active duty and retired, on all purchases. I appreciate that.

Weekly Wrap-Up: May 10 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Friday Monday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words.I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

This week’s word count: 2,574.

• Blog Post: “Weekly Wrap-Up: April 23” – 1,040 words
• The Obsidian Throne, story development – 403 words
• Blog Post: “How to Redirect Blogger to WordPress” – 1,131 words

NaNoWriMo Preparation

Last week I started rereading Tami’s articles on getting ready for NaNoWriMo and actually doing the exercises. That prompted me to write a character-development scene (it won’t be included in the story as-is, of course), just to flesh out some of the personalities.

Tami’s exercises are simple (usually) and easy to do (generally), but more significantly, they’re fun. They also are really helpful in getting me to really think about the characters, the world, and that little ol’ thing we like to call “plot.”

I’m definitely looking forward to doing more of that this week, including “prophecy development.” The nagging in the back of my mind keeps telling me everything I think of for this project is so cliché, though. Ah, well…my thinking is, since I recognize that, I can combat it. Right? Right?

Bad News and Good

First, the Not-So-Good…

Last week, I shared that youngest son Bryan had made an offer on a 600-sq-ft condo in Brooklyn. The offer was accepted, but before a contract could be signed, the sellers got cold feet, thinking they needed more money, and went back up to their original asking price. Unfortunately, the price agreed upon was the absolute maximum Bryan could afford, so he’s back in the market. Hopefully as spring moves into summer, the market will open up, and loosen up. The concern is, though, that the buyers’ market of the past eighteen to twenty-four months is turning into a sellers’ market. We’re keeping our fingers crossed.

…And the Better

On the positive side, daughter-in-law Diane phoned us Thursday evening with the news that their home in Illinois was sold! They’ll be moving back to Tampa once Alie finishes kindergarten and has her ballet recital in the second half of June. I’m looking forward to seeing a Tampa Bay Rays baseball game before the end of the season. (I should look to see if there’s any chance I can get to a game to root against the Yankees….)

Christmas in Florida sounds good, no?

Weekly Wrap-Up: May 4 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie

Every Friday, I document the happenings of the past seven days. The original (and still primary) intent is to track my progress in meeting my writing goals. Increasingly, I’ve been discussing more than just writing. For example, I’m a sports nut, so occasionally I’ll throw in a sports tidbit. I may talk about World of Warcraft, do-it-yourself projects, travel, food, or beer and wine. I think potpourri fits very well. *grins*

Writing

Weekly Word Count

My weekly goal is 2,000 words. I use an Excel spreadsheet to track all my work by category (blog post, copyediting work, creative writing) and item. So all I need to do is add up the “words” column and I’m good to go. Blog posts and creative writing count full credit. Copyediting for other writers is counted at ten percent of the starting word count for the document; style sheets for that copyediting will count twenty-five percent. Editing my own work, if and when I get to that point, will count fifty percent of the starting word count.

This week’s word count: 2,048.

• Blog post, “Weekly Wrap-Up: April 16″ – 641 words
• Blog post, “The Obsidian Throne” (TOT) – 969 words
• Background and notes for TOT – 488 words¹

Writing Exercise

I took part in the 50-word-edit exercise at Miss Snark’s First Victim. Obviously, I didn’t learn very well from the 25-word exercise last month. However, I realized when I woke up on Thursday that my entry wasn’t very good; in fact, I correctly and accurately predicted the tenor of the critiques. I tried to include way more information than is necessary for an opening “hook.” I’ve since rewritten that little bit (and will doubtless rewrite it again, once I actually start…you know…writing TOT. *snicker*

One thing I noted this time around: Generally, I thought the quality of the submissions was substantially below that of last month’s exercise. In fact, there were only two or three that really hooked me, and I have to admit, the best I saw out of the fifty submissions was Iris Harper’s. It had me totally hooked; the next best only had me “mostly hooked.” I think I may not have been the only person who was trying too hard. (To be fair, many of the submissions are in genres I don’t have any interest in; but still, I think I can recognize something that should grab a reader.)

At any rate, I’m definitely looking forward to the next opportunity to throw something up!

Potpourri

Home Office

Ekornes Stressless recliner, Senator model (sand and teak)

I abandoned the idea of building a new computer desk after doing some rearranging this week. *groan* First, I moved the computer desk portion of my desk to the left of the writing desk/hutch. That was relatively easy, as far as the moving furniture went. What took a lot more time was taking everything out of both desks, so I could move the large desk flush to the right wall. Then I put everything back. On Tuesday, my new chair arrived, which is what spurred the rearranging. I quickly realized that having my desk chair backing up into the new recliner was not going to work. So on Wednesday, I repeated Monday’s furniture move, only this time, I moved the computer desk flush right, and positioned the large desk and hutch to the immediate left.

This was almost a disaster: I tried to move the desk with hutch still mounted on top, and managed to pull off the right leg panel. Not completely (thank heaven!), but enough that it gave me quite a scare. Suffice to say, I will probably never move that desk again. I figured out how to single-handedly get the hutch down, then moved each piece independently. Even “magic sliders” weren’t a lot of help: That desk is damned heavy! The other mistake I made was not taking a couple Advil before bed Wednesday night. *groan again* Rectified that Thursday morning – almost instant relief from the aches and soreness.

One of the reasons I had intended to build a new desk is that the top of the iMac is a few inches above my eye level. This isn’t very ergonomic, and I find myself getting a stiff neck after extended computer sessions. So I was going to make the entire desktop at a height of about twenty-five inches (keyboard height). Instead, what I intend to do is remove the iMac’s sexy aluminum stand, and support the computer with some sort of jig (cooling vents are on the bottom, and it’s not balanced well enough to simply sit on the desk – especially when our cats tend to jump up on the desk). Conveniently, the chair came with three pieces of foam packaging that may serve extremely well to hold the computer, at least until I can create something better. Now all I need to do is clear enough space on one of the desks to be able to lay the computer face-down so I can remove the stand.

Signs I’m Growing Older

Growing older, but not up! We spent a couple hours on the phone with our youngest son Wednesday night, discussing the offer he was about to make on a one-bedroom condominium in Brooklyn. Our oldest son has been a home-owner since he left the Army and moved to Tampa with his wife and daughter about five years ago. Our middle son bought a house here in Rapid City shortly before his wedding. And now the youngest is about to become a “former renter.” His less-than-600-square-foot condo will cost more than both of the houses we’ve bought, combined. Ouch? Nevertheless, we’re glad to be able to help him out a bit with the down payment, and proud of him for taking this huge step in his life.

TTFN

Now that I have my office set up the way I really want it, I should be able to be more focused on “other stuff” – like this blog and my writing. We’ll see what the week brings!

Weekly Wrap-Up: April 23 is a post from: Kestrel's Aerie