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This weekend marked Kaylee's third birthday. While she's enjoyed the parties of past years, this was clearly the first time she really understood the central concept.
"This is a special day for me, and everyone is here and eating cake and singing because of me. Also, I get to wear a crown all day. Bonus."
Another upgrade (considerably less significant in the grand scheme of things, but still nice) was that I got a new computer system (see picture, which is entirely accurate). This new Dell XPS comes in as a replacement for my five and a half year old workhorse (getting quite wheezy and easily overheated in its later years), which has served me very well (easily the best run of any of my previous machines).
I'll be completely honest -- this new comp is primarily a gaming rig -- it's got a lovely (and huge) video card, obscene amounts of storage space and memory, a quad processor setup, and runs all my current games and entertainment with a kind of flawless perfection that makes me waste fifteen minutes taking screenshots of the intricate stitching on my avatar's leather pauldrons.
So, clearly: gaming. Which is fine, since I'd rather do my writing on a laptop most of the time anyway, and I now have a fair number of options in the house for doing just that.
One other thing that makes writing on my laptop(s) preferable to writing on my PC: Office 2007. Specifically, my new desktop has Office 2007, my laptops don't, and I think Word 2007 should win some kind of not-award for discouraging the actual act of writing in what is (still) rumored to be a word-processing program. I'd honestly rather write a full novel in Notepad just to avoid the intensely intrusive tool bars at the top of the window - massive Publishing and Layout buttons that seem to scream 'WHAT YOUR NEW STORY REALLY NEEDS ARE SOME EYE CATCHING FONTS, DONCHA THINK?"
No. No, I really don't. For writing, I need a program that:
- Spellchecks with some degree of intelligence.
- Allows you to boldface and italicize type.
- Allows you to center the occasional line.
- Saves the file into a format that pretty much anyone on the planet can read.
And that's about it. Everything beyond that is probably a distraction.
For my money, Rough Draft (a free, 1.6 megabyte program with both American and British English dictionaries installed) is all I really need, For that matter, there are a couple good reasons for me to at least consider writing Little Things my next story using Google Docs.
How about you? What's your preferred sandbox?
I just realized that NaNoWriMo (during which I plan to be considerably more involved in the local writing groups), the release of The Wrath of the Lich King expansion (for WoW) and the release of The Mines of Moria expansion (for Lord of the Rings Online) are all going to happen at roughly the same time this year.
I need to find a wholesale supplier of robotic servants chocolate-covered espresso beans.
I cannot get the tunes from Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog out of my head.
At the moment, I'm singing snippets of "with my freeze ray I will..."
Also (and unrelated): How to make a fairly attractive tote bag out of duct tape. It's no freeze-ray (and is definitely no Penny), but it's pretty neat.
Sorry for the long silence the past few weeks. I've been busy blowing my nose.
Yes, the whole time.
Bar none, the worst summer I've had for this stuff that I can remember.
We got back from Cabo late last afternoon, mostly no worse for wear; Kate had a run in with a jellyfish (as did I to a much smaller degree) that left her less than a hundred percent, and I think we're both running a little low-energy, but otherwise, everything is good. The trip was a lot of fun, though it was more of, say, a "resort vacation" than a "Mexico vacation." In either case, it was a wonderful chunk of quality together time, interrupted at scheduled times with parasailing, snorkeling, and sunset sailing excursions.
While driving up the Pacific coastline in a rental car on Sunday, Kate and I discussed the different kinds of a vacation options a person really has. Those options we boiled down into a kind of grid on which "Things to Do" was one axis and "Things to See" was the other. Our Prague trip was very strongly on the "Things to See" end of things, which Cabo was definitely full of "Things to Do" (even when those things are "sit around the pool and read while people bring you margaritas").
Some vacations or vacation locations are more successful at blending the two basic types. Likewise, certain people might enjoy a mix, or at least can do one and then the other and enjoy both (we are two such people).
Trouble arises, however, when you try (for instance) to fill a day with Things to See in a locale that's entirely (and unapologetically) geared for Things to Do (or vice versa). Ironically, we were actually en route to make EXACTLY THAT MISTAKE on Sunday, while we were having this conversation. Lesson learned -- something to file away for the next grand adventure.
Right. We're home again, the little girl is wonderful, the dogs are exuberant, and Other Things are going on...
* The author of one of the games I'm editing is wilting in the face of unenthusiastic playtest reviews. I'm trying to shore up his resolve and enjoyment for the game he himself invented, but I don't know if I had much impact. It may be as he says -- that I am one of the game's biggest fans and truest member of its target audience. We'll see. For now, I'll work on other things.
* The little writing project I mentioned last week is ch-ch-chugging along. One person (of course) was told what it was, and was visibly nonplussed, but I'll keep at it at least for a little while, because I'm enjoying it, and I like it when I can entertain myself.
* Gregory Frost, best known and recognized for solid short story work, has turned that knack into a full length novel through the charming and engaging trick of making a storyteller his main character. That novel is Shadowbridge, the first in a two-part fantasy that I want to recommend. You'll find I don't recommend books nearly as much as I do movies or television, so take from that what you will. It's good. It's entertaining, and it often interrupted other good vacation activities (drinking, napping, sleeping) so that I could read a bit more. For those who don't like starting unfinished series, rest assured that the sequel is already out.
* My sister seems to think Kate and I should run a half-marathon. In the middle of summer. In South Dakota. She's absolutely, wall-bouncingly mad, but I love her. Family, you know...
In no particular order...
- Terry Pratchett is a funny, funny man. And wise; his commentary on change and how people react to it is worth a post all its own, at some point in the future when I'm not blogging via a ridiculously overpriced hotel connection.
- Ninjas -- successful ones, at any rate -- would never wear flip flops.
- I have a good book you should read, that I guarantee you've never read. More later.
- All sand is not created equal. The sand of Los Cabos, for example, reminds you rather constantly of its origin as pulverized, sharp rock; and that the pulverizing process itself was not particularly thorough.
- Respect riptides.
And finally, this bit of wisdom, as we walked along the fairly ironic Lover's Beach:
"They said they filmed part of Planet of the Apes here."
"Who did?"
"The people I was eavesdropping on."
"Huh. The first one, or the new one?"
"I don't know. There's only so much information you can get from eavesdropping."
See you all in a few days. In the meantime, expect radio silence -- my indulgences are reserved for somewhat more important things like local crafts, local food, and local beer.
Your friends are not playing the same game you are.
You friends are not reading the same book you are. (Hell, my friends aren't even reading the same book that I write.)
It's 1987, you're a child, and your family videotapes you dancing to a then-popular song.
What do you do, 20 years later?
You dance with your childself.
Watch all the way through. Guaranteed to make you smile, even if you're covered in bruises and lacerations from breaking up a dog fight a few days ago.
Last night, for no particular reason, I moved from 'folding laundry and putting things away' to 'cleaning out the closets' mode, and ended up putting four bags of (clean, entirely serviceable) clothes out by the front door to be donated to charity. We'll probably drop them off tomorrow, since we're also dropping off some old computers for specialized recycling, and donating the chairs from an dining room set that we replaced during the wedding (the old table is going to meet a circular saw and become a couple of bookshelves in the kitchen area). In addition, we're replacing our suddenly-non-functional dishwasher this weekend, and need to figure out a way to get the old washing machine and a (regrettably) broken elliptical machine out of the basement. It's a spring cleaning extravaganza, and has me eyeing the rest of the house with a hungry, contemplative expression.
Time to get rid of a little clutter...
Now, to be fair, neither I (nor Kate) are generally predisposed to clutter in the first place, so it's not as though the house is that bad. Large stacks of papers don't last very long. Counter tops stay relatively clear. Rooms themselves aren't usually burdened with too much furniture: I've lived here for over half a decade and the front living room has gone entirely unfurnished for that entire time - until it came into service as a play room for my daughter. The wide, empty space suited me just fine -- it was one less thing that needed straightening or organizing when people came over.
I like open space in a house, and Kate's lived in New York apartments most of her adult life, where a walk-in closet is worth more than a bedroom the size of a walk-in closet -- I think she's still getting used to the idea that our living space has square feet measurements with four digits. (You should see her in the local supermarket; it's like Robin Williams in Moscow on the Hudson.)
And yet... what few knick knack shelves I have brim to overflowing with current and not-so photos of friends and family, and I definitely have problems with keeping things that I will never, ever, EVER use or interact with again in my life, but which carry some nearly-forgotten sentimental importance; while the open space in my house is pretty clear, closets and drawers often brim to overflowing.
Every so often, I give such things a stern look and start tossing.
That's how the closet clearing came about. By rights, I shouldn't have any more old clothes left to throw out -- I've dropped 60 pounds in the last five years and kept it off, and have long since donated any and all clothing that old-me needed around; well over a dozen trash bags of L, XL, XXL, and even some XXXL stuff over the last half-decade -- what I'm taking to Goodwill tomorrow are bags of t-shirts with logos I no longer find funny, shirts I still like but will never wear because they're four sizes too big, gifts that I never wore and never will, and even a couple old suits and sports jackets that I kept around 'just in case', even though they make me look like a dressed up scarecrow in a fat man's field. It was all just junk I didn't really need but didn't have the guts to throw out at the time.
Weeks like this are freeing and a bit traumatic at the same time. I really, truly, LOVE clearing junk out of the house -- I love the feeling that there's more air to breathe, thanks to the open space created -- at the same time, everything we own has a memory and emotion attached to it; we like the person who gave us that shirt, even though we'll never wear a doubleknit maroon macramé tank top. If I could look at a pile of stuff and know which things I'll need and which I'll never use again, things would be simple, but it almost never is.
It helps (tremendously) not to think about the STUFF itself, and focus on what you want to accomplish, but it's still hard.
Hopefully, the pay off (a clean, shiny, junk-free -reduced living space next week) will be worth it.
Edit to add: Kate wanted me to mention a book that came in for me via Amazon this morning: It's All Too Much, by TLC Clean Sweep guru Peter Walsh. Its arrival is a nice bit of synchronicity, but I didn't mention it in the post because (a) I've only read the marginally schmaltzy introduction and (b) the book was actually purchased as research for a "working smarter" training project I'm developing at the new job.
