Spent today in bed. Sick. It started with a scratchy throat yesterday around noon and progressed steadily to a full blown cold. I slept until 2:30 this afternoon, got up long enough to take a phone call and write a blog post. I’m sure it’s not the flu. The symptoms are all wrong. This is just a cold. Congestion, congestion, and more congestion. I’m off to bed. Later.
Archive for October, 2009
Long Weekend, the Wrong Way
Friday, October 30th, 2009Light, Write, Play
Thursday, October 29th, 2009I spent far too much time working on the exterior lighting at one of my branches today. What I thought was going to be maybe an hour ended up taking all day; and I get to go back with parts tomorrow. Such fun. Kinda screwed my plan for the day and subsequently my plan for the rest of the month. Now I’m going to have to scramble around tomorrow to get everything done.
NaNoWriMo is right around the corner. Sunday will be the first day of actually writing the novel. I feel pretty good about the notes I’ve got and the outline I’ve put together. There are holes. Holes in character. Holes in the story. But they’re good holes. The kind of holes that I expect to be able to fill easily as I write and get a better handle on the story, characters, and relationships within the novel. Like I said, I feel good about what I’ve got and I think this is going to be a good story.
Jay and I have the bye in our Madden league. Denis played the Rams tonight and lost. They beat me a couple weeks back. They played like superstars in both games, which is great for a team that is 0-7 in the real world. Between both our games the Rams grabbed a total of 8 interceptions. I think the AI online is being handled by a supercomputer. It’s maddening because I’ve been tweaking my settings to duplicate the AI performance online and I can’t seem to do it. Makes practicing a little difficult. Okay Kevin, play your game so we can roll the week and go face-to-face, Packers vs. Lions.
Standing Desk, Maybe, We'll See
Monday, October 26th, 2009I lost my fantasy football game. **SIGH** That leaves me with a 1-6 record and a sinking feeling about the rest of the season. Damn you, Roy Williams. Damn you, Calvin Johnson. And a big FU to all my runningbacks.
I started piecing together my ’standing desk’ tonight. I picked up a two drawer cabinet as the base. Then I used some galvanized pipe to create a monitor stand. I found a bracket to use for a tilting keyboard tray and screwed a board to it. It’s very rough right now, but I don’t want to put a ton of effort into making it pretty until I determine if it’s going to work for me. So far I’ve put about $60 into it between the cabinet itself and the pipe and fittings, so even if I hate it, I’m not out much. I’ve already got the monitor and I should have a keyboard around here somewhere. I think it’ll be a grand experiment. Tasha thinks it’s dumb. Tasha thinks I’m not going to like it. Tasha thinks it’s a waste of time, effort, and money. I hope Tasha is wrong. 
I should be working on my novel. Gotta get the Josh Hale character sketch up. Later.
West Bound and Up
Sunday, October 25th, 2009Dinner on Saturday was not my sort of shindig. But it was what it was. I had fish. We sat at the bar.
Seeing Joyce and Wayne was pretty cool. Better than I expected. Wayne and I actually had a conversation. Kinda weird actually.
There was a birthday party for Tasha’s mom today at a friend of hers. There were a lot of people there that I didn’t know. But I saw Karin and she seemed none the worse for wear. Sounds like she’s going to try and get a job at the Noodle Company. As I didn’t know any of Jan’s (mom) friends, I watched the football game. Those Vikings look awful good for being led by an old man. Unfortunately, the Steelers came out on top.
We had Chinese when we got home. Hunan Chicken is the bomb.
East Bound and Down
Saturday, October 24th, 2009Heading to the east side to go to dinner with Tasha’s mom and sister. It’s mom’s birthday, or rather it was earlier this week, so it’s kinda a celebration.
Afterward, we’re going to try and hook up with Joyce and Wayne. Friends from back before we left Rochester. I’m a touch nervous as I haven’t seen these people in years. Tasha talks to them all the time. Me, not so much.
Games I'm Not Playing
Friday, October 23rd, 2009I picked up Champions Online a couple weeks ago. I enjoyed City of Heroes while I was playing it so I thought I’d give this new super-powered MMORPG by the same studio a chance. Strangely, I wasn’t particularly geeked about the purchase. I actually left the damn thing in the truck for 3-days before I even brought it in the house to install it, which is very unusual for me. My excitement didn’t increase after the install either, I downloaded the patch and started using the character creator…. but I shut it down before I’d even finished making a character. I didn’t pick it up again for a week. Then, I did make it through the character builder, but shut it off two minutes into the tutorial. I just don’t care. I don’t like the graphic style of the game, I found the character builder to be clunky and not very intuitive, it’s just not doing it for me. I’m not willing to invest myself in this game.
My City of Heroes account expires next month and I have no interest in renewing it. I’m not going to pay for anymore time for Champions. I tried the free/pirate version of WoW and found it lame. Really, the only MMO that I’m playing is Dungeons & Dragons Online and that’s only because it’s free and I have a few friends playing it. Friends make these games worth it, otherwise… I’ve learned that I don’t care much about them. I guess I’m not a MMORPG kind of guy.
Football isn’t going much better. I lost again in my fantasy football league giving me a 1-5-0 record and one of the lowest point totals in the league. Sadly, I don’t care. I’ve managed to get my QuickHit team to level 13, but haven’t put much time into that either. And as for Madden 10 on the PS3, I beat Denis in overtime, 48-42, but it’s been more than a week and Jay and Kevin haven’t played their league game. I don’t think either of them is having any fun with it, which means this won’t last. And my Lions are doing not-so-well. At least they won one game.
Forza 3 comes out next week for the 360 and I’m looking forward to that, but with NaNoWriMo I won’t have much time to play it. Maybe I’ll hold off and hope I get it for Christmas.
New Books
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009I went on a little book buying spree today while waiting around the mall. There is a new Barnes & Noble book store right next to the mall office, where I was trying to get roof access. It was more temptation than I could handle. So I wandered in and walked out with three new reference books. Two of them are writing books; Howdunit – Police Procedure & Investigation: A Guide for Writers by Lee Lofland and Elements of Fiction Writing – Conflict, Action & Suspense by William Noble. The third is more of a career reference for folks getting into the P.I. field, but I think it’ll be useful as I work through this novel; The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating by Steven Kerry Brown. I haven’t cracked the cover on any of them yet, but I’m looking to digging into each of them.
I didn’t get on the roof. Win some, lose some.
CDC: Boat, Home, Car
Sunday, October 18th, 2009
38' Chris-Craft Commander
Coconut Attitude
During his divorce, Josh, was looking for an apartment when a family friend allowed him to stay on his boat as a sort of liveaboard caretaker. The boat was in need of some TLC and the owner was only visiting it two or three times a year. It was a good arrangement for both of them. Josh got a place to live and the owner had someone to maintain the boat while he was away. Josh, found that the liveaboard lifestyle fit him and when 3-years later the owner wanted to sell the boat, Josh bought it. He has lived aboard ever since. The boat has switched marina’s a few times but is currently docked on the Trout River just outside of downtown Jacksonville.
The Coconut Attitude, the boats original name, Josh hasn’t bothered to change it, is a 1972 Chris-Craft 38-ft. Commander of the flybridge variety. She’s 13-feet wide and 41-feet long due to a bow pulpit and a swim platform. The engines are counter-rotating 454’s. The boat is equipped with all the comforts of home; stove, refrigerator, microwave, and even has a 16500 btu air conditioner and electric heat. For being nearly 40-years old, she’s in pretty good shape. If the work continues she’ll be good for another fourty.
2009 Dodge Challenger R/T
Josh’s Ride
When it comes to work and being undetected, Josh, drives the 2005 silver Toyota Camry that stays parked in the lot at the office. When it comes to anything else, Josh, uses his own car. A brand spanking new (thanks to a rather well paying job for a Fortune 500 company) 2009 Dodge Challenger R/T. It’s HEMI Orange with black stripes on the hood. Powered by a 5.7-liter HEMI V8, rated at 376 hp and 410 lb.-ft. of torque with the optional Tremec 6060 six-speed manual. The HEMI sports variable valve timing on the camshaft and a 10.5:1 compression ratio. Tires are P245/45ZR-20 Goodyear Eagle RSAs. Dodge says the R/T version will do the 0 to 60 hustle in a mere 5.5 seconds, and will get 16 mpg city and 23 mpg highway.
Fish, the Best Friend
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Newfoundland Dog
If you visit Coconut Attitude you’re sure to encounter Josh’s dog, Fish. He’s a very large, very black Newfoundland Dog. Around the marina Fish is famous for his giant size, deep bark, sweet disposition, and his swimming; everyone knows Fish.
Fish is huge. He’s 28-inches tall at the shoulder, more than 5-1/2 feet from nose to tail, weighs 180 pounds, and is covered in shaggy black fur. It is not uncommon for people to mention his resemblance to a bear when first seeing him. His head is the size of a pumpkin; a black, droopy lipped, hang jowl, slobbering pumpkin. To look at his soft, drooling expression you might think him a bit slow, but he carries himself with a benevolent and dignified temperament.
Despite his huge size and intimidating appearance, Fish, is a well trained, loving, and patient dog. His gentleness, kindness, and alertness have kept more than one child out of the marina’s depths. Fish does not typically bark or growl when visitors come to the boat, instead he simply places himself in such a way as to protect Josh and block the strangers path onto the boat. Despite this protectiveness of his boat, Fish, has taken to swimming amongst the other boats throughout the marina, in his slightly odd and comical breaststroke, begging for handouts and checking up on everyone.
Fish loves to swim and be in the water. He can often be found swimming in circles behind the Coconut Attitude. But Fish does not like to dry himself on the deck of the boat or on the dock. If there was one source of contention between Fish and Josh, this would be it.
CDC Wallpapers
Friday, October 16th, 2009So I was supposed to be writing the 500 word character study of Josh Hale for you tonight. But instead I did these two inspirational/motivational wallpapers to help me focus on the story. Ha. They’re both 1920 x 1200 resolution, because that’s what I use. I didn’t make any lesser resolution wallpapers because, well, who the hell would want them. This is the first time I’ve done this with photos, check them out. And I make no claim to any part of these pictures, all I did is put them together in a manner conclusive to my needs. Peace out.
This was the first one I did.
And then I did this one, just because.
Enjoy.
