I got my new phone. I got it just in time for this to come out. No, I am not normally a new adopter of technology. I was surprised to get the Kindle Fire when I did. Honestly, I wouldn’t have gotten my current phone but I need to have a mobile phone that can use a mobile credit card program and that program won’t work on the old OS. I’m not mad – I like my new phone, but I don’t like being pushed into adopting something new. I sent my old phone back and got a modest credit (Seriously, just a couple of bucks) on my bill for it. I just need to personalize it with some ring tones and a better wallpaper. Also, the gas company had to come in and replace the meter – to my credit, I had no breakdown and the man was polite enough to come in, check on things and leave; nice of him to do that – even if I only got 4 hours of sleep last night, which means more coffee for me. Win-Win!

I checked the pages on my novel, and I only have 93 pages remaining out of 230. Didn’t really think I was that far ahead. I am definitely in the mind set of ‘going to get this done before I die’. I am still working on the outline of Out, Out Brief Candle. This one is going to be the first novel published under my real name (the current one will be under a pseudonym due to the subjects involved) and I am looking forward to starting it. As I have said earlier, it’s a straight up monomyth that’s rather heavy on the fundamentalists vs. everyone else argument. I’m having more fun crafting the world than anything else. For that, I’ll need to get a little research done from the History channel… y’know, from when they had programs of historical value. The series Life After People gave me an idea as to the look of the novel in my head. I’m working on the ‘casting’ – when I write, it’s like I am watching a movie in my head so I have various actors playing the roles. I don’t know if anyone else does that, but it works for me. I/O Error is vexing me still, so I might let it cool down a little bit longer and switch to another project that’s in the writing stage. As long as I stay busy, I’ll be fine.

I saw the movie Tucker and Dale vs. Evil and it was passable. I like the subversion of the “Psycho Hillbillies” trope, but I really had to make myself get to the half-way point before I got too tired to watch any more. I might sit back down over the weekend and watch it again from beginning to end. Alan Tudyk really shines in this movie, and the college kids are… well, almost forgettable with the exception of the ringleader, who really channels his inner seven-popped collars douchebag brilliantly. I’m sorry that this review is a little half-baked, but I didn’t finish the film. I’ll watch it this weekend and give you a more in depth review. In short: if you like Sean of the Dead and Cabin in the Woods, you will like this movie.

Well, off to nuke something and shower… and get rid of the beard. Y’all have fun now.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I love this artist. I love her voice even though I can’t understand a single thing she says sometimes. Why is such an odd confession? Because if you were to look though my music library, you’re going to find these guys, and these guys and almost everything that these
two have put out. I guess that I am starting to mellow out in my old age. Well, I did discover her while watching Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. So whatever I have lost in metal cred, I hope to gain in anime cred… or would that be yen?

Anyways, I am still plugging away at I/O Error and it is transitioning from plug to slog. While I am attracted to the main premise and how to make it work I am getting stuck in a minor scene to the point where I don’t really want to tackle it. So, I think I will just wrap it up as best I can and get on with the rest of it. Maybe something better will come to me in the meantime. I am still in the planning phase for Out, Out Brief Candle (working title), but it’s getting along a lot better than I/O Error is. I’ve got the route that the main character takes thanks to Google maps; I just need to get the outline of the story finished. It’s a simple monomyth – almost sounds like I’m mailing it in as it were. Hopefully this one will pan out a little quicker.

Well, there is little else to report on as far as the homefront goes. My paycheck is a little less now that I am officially working part time, but then again, I’m getting burned out at work. Since they’re not replacing the people that have left (especially the higher ups, which were the first to go when the company got bought out), I have a sneaking suspicion that the department is going to be moved to a brand new location… out of state. The company is only hiring for two positions: neither of them are technical related and this particular company has a history of moving departments around geographically. So you can see why I am a little anxious about getting a novel finished.

Since the dishes and the laundry refuse to do themselves – I guess I should take care of it. Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

So… yeah. Nothing really earth-shattering or even mildly trivial to report here. I’ve taken to walking to and from the library at night after work in an attempt to get some exercise and for some odd reason, the joint of my nose hurts when I press down on it. See? Absolute boredom.

Out, Out Brief Candle is getting scribbled down on my little graph notebook. I am going to get some things settled down in it before I whip out Scrivener to use on it. I just seem to focus on one project. So, I am going to try to follow some sort of schedule as far as getting one out of the planning phase (Out, Out, Brief Candle), one finished (I/O Error) and one re-written (The Quietest Heart – which is turning into a disaster). I am still trying to get something finished by the end of the month, so my weekend plan may be nothing more than sitting my butt down in front of my laptop and getting the last one done. The re-writes should come a little faster since it’s now just a matter of cutting down unneeded words and tightening the prose. I can do it if I apply myself. See? I said that with a straight face – that means I’m serious. Since today is Thursday, and I got hammered yesterday at work, I am hoping to be able to get a little more done on Out, Out Brief Candle… particularly the faction of ghosts I am calling the Riders for now. I used to call them the Fisher Kings – a name I think I am going back to later on given what the Fisher King is and what that concept represents. Also, I want to use the title the Rider on another project. I really hate using the same sort of title over two different projects, especially if they don’t have the same continuity. So, I might keep the title of Fisher Kings. I’ll need to put that in the notebook.

As for movies – I’ve seen Wreck-it Ralph and it is a funny movie. If you’re a gamer, you’re going to get a lot more out of it than the average person. I saw it with a non-gamer and they were impressed with it. If you have little ones, they’re going to like the animation. I’ll also let you know of this – there’s an unexpected voice actor in the movie. I am not going to say who it is, but when you see who it is when you see the cast list, you’ll flip. If you can’t wait, or can’t get to imdb, highlight the empty space after this sentence: Alan Tudyk is the voice of King Candy

I am also going to finally go see Evil Dead this weekend. I think I am going to bail on the writer’s group this Saturday. I should have enough for movie and lunch and I haven’t been to Clucker’s in a while.

Well, I should get to the notebook and to my other lunch. I hope you all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething with Apathy

Well, I finally finished the biggest part of the re-write for the novel – I finished re-writing the three chapters… well… I got through the most of it, but I am not happy with the ending of the chapter (which I threw together as my laptop said it was going to quit). I am just happy to have gotten through the meat of it and everything else should be fairly straightforward. Chopping sentences here, swapping words there and I should I be finished within the week… I swear. I am limping along to the end of this. Last Saturday I went to the Louisville Science Center to see the Vital Exhibit. $20.00 and you can play ‘Spot the Necrophile’ in about a space a little larger than my house. Not exactly a great value if you came for just that exhibit, but if you wandered about the rest of the center like I did, it was a good day. The Vital exhibit was a very visceral cautionary tale of eating right, exercise and not smoking. Fortunately for me, I had seen some of those things before in medical dictionaries I would read for fun when I was growing up. Yes, I had odd reading habits when I was little.

I’m linking this here, since it looks frightfully helpful. It’s a series of links for writers. I just found it on reddit and I thought that this would be worth passing along to everyone else. I’ve been working on more of another ghost story in my head called (for now) Out, Out Brief Candle. I don’t want to give out more details than that it takes a couple of my favorite things: ghosts and post-apocalypse. This is going to be the next thing after I/O Error and continuing the ghost universe (?) that works through Night of Life, I/O Error and Out, Out Brief Candle. Yeah, there are some things I am carry over from one to another – hopefully this will all work out. Stephen King did this with his Dark Tower series and actually there is a webpage that links all of his works together, unfortunately, I don’t have it handy. It’s something that you could sit down for a few hours to see some of the links between some works that you’d think would have nothing between them. Makes me wonder of he did this on purpose from the very beginning, or this came later on.

Wow, I need some caffeine. I stayed up last night after the game and watched a show called “Ultimate Soldier Challenge”. Yeah, as much as I don’t like reality shows – I do like ones about the military. I pass it off as research (and some of it is), but it’s interesting that I see some of the same people in different shows. Anyways – my love affair with Apple TV grows with every show. I am considering getting a Roku just to see if I can get some shows that I am missing from Apple (‘Person of Interest’, I’m looking at you).

OK – enough commercials. Caffeine time.

Hope you have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Well – how to sum up the events of the past month… this. Yeah – it’s been a hectic month with me quitting and coming back to fewer hours (my choice) and trying to finish the novel (more on that later). Wow. It’s been a time of trials for me – but I don’t have it as bad as some people. I’ve also been out tending to friends in the aforementioned ‘as bad as some people’ department. I’m not sure if what I did helped any, but it was in earnest and in the desire to help – so either I helped like a good friend or I helped like a drug addled baboon.

The novel – it continues along with me hoping finishing the final re-written chapter by Friday and work this Saturday to finish the rest of the proof-reading. Sure, I’m a wee bit over my deadline, but since I have a lot of I/O Error already done, I am hoping that the head start will help me get to the new deadline: end of June to finish the rough draft. I am also looking at various webhosting sites and I’ve seen this one. I’m hoping that it will stay up until I get the novel finished and put there for purchase (point price for a 70K word novel: $5.00 – a fair price, don’t you think?) if you don’t want it on Kindle. Yes, this will keep me from having Amazon doing all the heavy lifting as far as advertising, but I want to have my work out there for everyone – not just the people who have Kindles (yes, I know that’s the majority, but I want to have more than one income stream). Gradually, everything is coming together… gradually in a geologic sense of the world.

I did cut the cable and I have Apple TV. It is somewhat of a godsend. Yes, $100.00 does get me quite a bit (2 seasons and maybe a movie). The downside… there is so much stuff out there that $100.00 is a drop in the bucket. If I could find a way of posting my Apple TV wish list, then you will see what I am looking for as far as films and TV shows, only to realize that I am going to hit $5K easily. Another small downside is that for all the stuff there is out there, there are shows that aren’t appearing or I will be a season behind (‘Person of Interest’ is not there and ‘Game Of Thrones’ is a season behind. HBO – if you had just a web subscription service, I would jump on that in a heartbeat – same for you Showtime). All in all – Apple TV works for me as far keeping up with my favorite shows, but when it comes to finding new ones, it is a bit lacking.

I hope to hear from you soon, and I will do my best to get back to daily updates about things.

I hope your day is well.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy