Everything stays the same

So, okay, I took a few moments out of this busy Saturday to check up with CPAC and Rush Limbaugh's keynote address. Yeah, so much for all the "Rush isn't one of our leaders" talk. Anyway, I was afraid that conservatives would get a clue, change to the modern political era, and actually become relevant going forward. You know, they would actually believe their line about being a big tent and wanting to hear from dissenting voices and becoming an party of new ideas.

I didn't need to worry.

Nope, seems the party has decided to go the route of the Ugly American Tourist. When confronted by someone who doesn't seem to understand how wonderful they are, they'll speak a little slower and louder until the foreigner finally understands English. Because, you know, conservatism is a set of core values, and those values don't change.

Way to go Republicans. And thanks for making our job easier. Oh, and keep calling us, you know, the people you think are too dumb to understand that you all fart rainbows and sunshine, keep calling us the enemy. It does the same thing as the conservative religious people who think there's a war against Christianity/Christmas. Normally it's called sympathetic magic or the "result of positive thinking." Or by believing it's reality, you bring it into existence. In other words, you brought it on yourselves.

Mixing metaphors like a fox

Well, research can be your friend, a friend that likes to drink and tell lewd stories. Turns out I guessed right in wanting to write "Bladesman" in a harboiled/noir detective style. It has all the traits of one. So I have some of the books on CD, and I'm looking for more. I hear Elmore Leonard is supposed to be good, so if anybody has any recommendations I'm listening.

I'm getting books by Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane (having trouble finding those) and Dashiell Hammett (if there are books I "just gotta read" by these or anybody else, let me know). From what I can gather, Raymond Chandler is the guy to study. Much of my research says his writing achieved the pinnacle. I have some of the "original source" material done. As a young man I read my Conan Doyle and Christie, my Poe and much of the rest. Sure, I wasn't reading and dissecting the words and structure, and I've forgotten much, but I think enough lingers like stale cigarette smoke in my mind.

A murder does start the book, however there's really no mystery of who dunnit. The "mystery" part revolves around the "why" they dunnit. There's also the reverse detective story, the "how are they going to catch the murderer" type. And while police are still an option, it's not one that our main character and his cohorts will ever take seriously. So without really meaning to, I've been wrapped in a rug and stuffed in the trunk of the hardboiled detective genre. To be sure, this is also an urban fantasy novel, can't get around that. What else would you call a novel that's near future, dystopian, west coast after the earthquake and a Chinese Invasion, economic collapse and it's aftermath, all with swords and magic anyway. There's a decidedly low-tech grunginess brought about by economics alongside the high tech geegaws and work flow. And there is magic, very limited in who can use it, but very powerful.

So now it remains to be seen if I can keep all these voices separate in my head straight to write the three novels (neo-noir, high fantasy, and contemporary satire). Or there's going to be some weird mix ups.

Updatery Duece

Getting closer to normal at the day thing. Spent time reinstalling software and regaining functionality. Since I have to go through this I am setting up some things to work better than before (lack of legacy can be freeing).

For a short meeting tonight it went on entirely too long. And I also have an extra meeting this week. Joy.

Wrote about 1000+ words tonight in emails. Will probably spend the rest of the week's word output putting in reports and more emails.

There's plenty of things write about. Hopefully I'll get to some of them soon. As it is I'm falling behind with getting quotes, writing a business letter, finishing my business cards, and getting my own freelance business back in order. Not to mention checking up with people I haven't heard from in a long time. And probably twenty other things I'm forgetting. Hope your weeks are going better.

Updatery

Okay, first off, for those of you with my cell number, I upgraded my phone and I now get signal most everywhere so it's on most of the time (except work hours, because, you know, we have a memo against that).

Next, I know I haven't been on IM in days. Something about having your hard drive go all smacky can lead to that. Hopefully soon. Many of you helped me get through years of working by myself, and I want to get back on line to repay on that. Plus, you know, I miss both the humorous, insightful, and brain expanding conversations. Not to mention the great technical support and general cultural help.

The Apple tech was out to our site today, the hard drive was toasty. Guy was good to us by actually trying to get it to work. Thanks, dude. However that means a starting from scratch with all the passwords, emails, connections, shortcuts, and wicked functionality to get my work done faster. And getting away from Outlook Web App. OMG, I'll be so happy.

It's going to be a few days (or more) until I can get it all rocking the Casbah again. The one thing I am going to miss from this experience is that I was working in a half cube on Friday and Monday. I had two walls and a corner. Pretty spiffy.

An earful of hurt like a colorful metaphor

So yesterday's wordage output was around 500 new words. Most of which were suckalicious and will have to be tossed in the can during rewrites. Somedays you get the bear, most days the bear gets you.

Also I want to sing the praises of libraries with online catalogs and customer services. Geauga County Library is one such. Not only do they have a great genre fiction collection, they have a somewhat limited online catalog (pokey, slow, not much in the way of navigation), but one that has a great function. That function is adding books to a hold list.

Tonight I went through and put on hold audio books by Raymond Chandler, Mickey Spillane, and Dashiell Hammett. Five books in total. I know that hard copy books would be better to learn the language usage, but I'm doing it as an experiment. This is like finding out that I can proof on screen, which I'm getting better at. Plus Elliott Gould reads raymond Chandler. How cool is that.

Workshop Announcement

Got novel? Looking to have it critiqued and sharing your insight by critiquing other beginning novelists? Well, there's a new workshop in town. Actually, it's in Western Michigan to be correct.

It's the inaugural year for the Hastings Point Writer's Workshop.Deadlines are coming up fast. February 28th to be precise, which means you'll need to have what you want critiqued mostly in hand. The event is May 14-17.

I know most of the people involved and they're hoopy froods, every single one of them. This is run by the same people who do the Feral Writer's Group, which I've been involved with for the past two years. I wish we could have such an event every quarter (more than that and I think I'd collapse from exhaustion).

The accommodations are top notch, the other writers excellent, intelligent, insightful and witty. The model they're using has been highly successful for some other authors you may have heard of. If you're in the area, have a novel ready for workshopping, and have the time I think you'd be a fool for not trying. If any one of the pieces I was working on was ready I would be trying my hardest to go. In fact, I would need to take an unpaid day off work and I would do it as well.

Yes I wanted to go to this. Mer has been planning this for years and it's going to be fabulous. I wish I had a novel close enough to finished to apply.

Randomness

The snow came on and off today. Is it a good sign when the Weather Channel's "Local on the 8's" has no reports for any of the weather stations around you? Probably not. Last night we drove back from the niece's musical (South Pacific, and it was pretty darn good for a high school presentation) in about two inches of slush. It wasn't all that bad except for the people who wanted to drive on twenty miles per hour. Yeah, notice that long line of cars behind you, it means you're going too damn slow. I think we need to pass a state law that if you're followed closely by three or more vehicles you need to pull over and let them pass.

Some Republican Governors are preparing to "Just Say No" to stimulus money. Back in November we had a pretty bad snowstorm, and our area of the state was declared a disaster area. Which means we qualified for FEMA money (which we were approached to apply for). Now, that money could only cover our costs, manpower and materials, that we used to clear snow or help people out. But that amounted to a few thousand dollars. Some local mayors and councils refused the money (very few). So, I think the term I used for these "principlists" back then is apropos for these governors. That word was "Idiot." Say, can we have some of their money? We could use it here. Heck, the governor of Washington was just quoted saying that a 10% drop in revenue was equal to "the sky falling." I'll just say I wish our tax revenue only dropped 10%. Right now it's north of 18% and accelerating.

Avoiding doing work today. Well, trying to. However I have sent many emails. This week is full of meetings, including my committee (which may have to be broken into two meetings) and appropriations. That last one is going to be a fun one. I expect much haggling and maybe a few recriminations. Of course, it could also go very smoothly. However with the cuts needed to fit within our revenues it could be very emotionally draining. With the freelance, there might be some quick work coming up this week. That might help a little. However, I owe the client some quid pro quo, so it might be more of a bonus to the vendors. But maybe it'll lead to some more work from people who actually still have money.

Did I mention that my work computer died on Friday. Hopefully the tech will come tomorrow and it's just be a loose internal cable. If not it's going to be a rough week of recreating a working machine. In the mean time work will be difficult. A lot of what I do requires email. And I think I said how much of a brain killing application the Outlook Web App is. My guess is that the Microsoft severance pay problems are linked to their software.

On the plus side of the economic downturn (see, I told you I was trying to be lighter) is if you have money, there are great deals to be had now. I expect in two years our retail landscape will be much different than today's.

There is some writing news, or potential news. Once things are solidified I can say something. So speaking of writing, I guess I've procrastinated enough and should get back to it.

Cat Blogging Sunday

Well, I've promised more pictures of the kitties, so here I am making good. It was nappy time the other day. Both cats are getting used to our presence, so they're laying all about us. Up on the back of the couch was Cleo.


As you can see she's sleeping hard there. Cleo was people shy when we got her, with the broken leg who can blame her. But today she became a lapcat, sleeping in Bette's lap while she read the paper.

Here is Vivian sleeping at our feet.

You can see her ear tufts a little better in this photo. While she was the most acclimated to people, she's now the more stand offish. Although a few days ago she slept next to us on the couch with her belly up (which of course we rubbed lightly while she slept, you have to reward these things). I wish I could have gotten a photo of her face then, you could see her real coloring.

Both of them are a bit more orange than appears in these photos. As we approach summer the orange is coming out in their coats. Vivian is still begging for a lot of food, even though she's developing a belly. We're hoping this is just "shut-in frustration" eating and when summer comes and we can let them out more she'll work it off (she is a very good hunter, just watching her play you can tell). I guess one day she was out she did climb a tree. Hopefully we won't have to call out the fire department to rescue her.

Ni hao

First chapter of the brain-space intrusion book, Bladesman, is done. It came in at 2685 words.

So just how does a swordsman work in the age of gun toting baddies? Very well. Okay, he nearly gets killed and is rescued by a few vans of people, but up until that point he was doing well. Until he met the magician.

First line? "The emergency call came on my cellphone as a narrowcast, fortunately I had my sword with me." Not good, but sufficient I think. It's a good place holder for now anyway. It's a little rough. And I think I need to go read some noir detective novels to get the voice right. But it's out. I think I know where the story is going. There were a few partial short story ideas that are from this world that will fit in.

Now let's see if this keeps coming out or the other books start flowing again. Joy, joy, joy. Why can't I be like other writers? Yeah, I know, that's rhetorical anyway.

Looking on the bright side of rejection

The editors over at The Town Drunk send word that "Prince Wanted" just didn't work for them. Fair Cop. This is my first experience with them so I can't tell if the letter is a form or not.

So back to the drawing board and it looks like Andromeda Spaceways is open for submissions so we're off to the land down under across the international dateline. Good luck little story.

The Weekend Awaits!

Which is good, because this week went down the tubes. Yeah, I'm trying to be positive, but let me give you an example of how the week went.

The computer I use at work died. Consensus is that the hard drive is either 1) disconnected or 2) toast. Since it's an iMac, I don't feel comfortable cracking the case. It's still under warrantee, so we'll have a tech out on Monday. I really hope it's #1, because there's lots of customization and data that helps make my day go so much easier.

And along with that I've had to use MS Outlook web app today. How is this company still is business with writing crap software like this? I mean, really, Entourage is bad enough. The web app actually causes brain cells to die.

The night thing continues to yawn up and swallow all personal time. You know, last year I was glad to get away from the thought of, "I have to do this for the money." The last two months of last year were actually somewhat good. The first two months of this year have me back to thinking, "I really need the money. With the day job down 20%, I need to keep doing this." Not exactly the motivation you want from your public servants.

On the plus side, tomorrow I get to go see the niece sing. That should be a fun time. I'll need to put all this week behind me out of necessity. I'll get to have dinner with my sister-in-law which is usually good for my mood.

There's a lot of work to be done. I hope you all have a good weekend and that your lives are going better.

Just one of those things

Today I had a nearly catastrophic run in at work as I went to get tea. I mean a real run in. As in almost knocked me down the stairs. So, of course you know I'm a math freak, and I started making calculations while I poured on the hot water. And here's what I came up with, and yeah, it stopped me for a minute.

I should also mention that my Social Security statement came yesterday.

If I had an accident right then and was permanently disabled, I would receive more from Social Security in a month than I'm getting now in take-home pay with our 20% pay cut (four day weeks, remember).

So, you know, there was a moment there when I kinda thought it might have been good to have been knocked down the stairs.

Yes, I know, that's gross pay and I'm comparing it to take-home, and 20% less take-home than I normally would get (with a forty-hour week). With my luck I wouldn't be permanently disabled, but would just shatter some other bone. Going through that with my fibula wasn't any fun (but then I also went back to work in two weeks when most people, and my doctor advised me to, stay home for months with that injury, as it was I used up my sick time and more than half my vacation - I had sucky benefits then). It was just a momentary thought.