Boom de yadda

I do the the whole wide world. I just work better when I get enough
sleep. The meds will only do so much, but getting sufficient sleep
helps a lot! Helps me stay awake, and much less cranky. I can't say
that it's Rini's fault, because we put her down to be around 9pm, and
then I can head off to bed within an hour from then. Not a lot of
time to ourselves, but it is something. Hence I have the idea that it
would be better to get up earlier in the morning to do writing. But
then I would have to get up earlier, and I don't do well with that!

NaNotime cometh

I had a bit of a disagreement with my inlaws this weekend. Kind of
silly that I could call it an agruement, it was more of a difference
of opinion, and I did not back down. The disagreement was about
Daylight Savings Time. When does it start, and when does it end? End
doesn't really matter, because that's in the spring. In the fall,
that had changed in recent years.

It used to be the last weekend in October, and then the first weekend
in April. I remember that it would be announced in General Priesthood
session in April Conference, but that is not to be anymore. Or who
knows... Maybe the next president will think that we need to change it
back to the way it was. You never know.

But when Caitlin and I dropped off her rings at Jedco, we took a look
at their calendar, and it said that next weekend, Nov 2, is when the
clock change occurs. I was quite sure of this, because it is
mentioned in the NaNoWriMo schedule of events. That is why I was so
sure that it was no longer in October.

And I was right. I got to work on time today because I didn't change
the clocks. Mind, Fall isn't the difficult one to work with, because
you gain an hour. The one day of the year where you can actually live
your life over again, for an hour. The one time of the year when you
can tell someone, "I just ate twenty minutes from now." Ah yes. Good
times.

The things you think of when you are tired.

Just barely four days until the fingers start to fly.

Now that all the hard work, work is done

It was a bit of a hustle to get things done at work today. I stayed a little bit later, but I didn't mind. First of all, the bank was open until 5pm today, so I didn't miss the deposit deadline. I made another batch today, and that was the fourth deposit batch I had done this week! Craziness! Today, I put in three of those four, because the past two days I had missed the 4pm deadline. I would have made it yesterday, but I figured I had loads of time, and I should open some mail before I left. I should have just left a little early and made the drop! Silly!

It was also a push to get some remittances wrapped up. Little did I know, we need to submit numbers every week, on Friday, and those numbers are based on the invoiced remittances. The remittances get invoiced after I reconcile them. Oops. Mercifully, I'm getting better at my job, so I was able to plow through the dozen or so I had left before I retired for the weekend. I felt very satisfied with how much work I had done today! I certainly hope that I'm going to be worth a raise when employee evaluation comes around in December.

Sometimes I wonder how I'm going to manage writing a novel next month, but then I remember that I just have to cut out all TV viewing, and I should be fine. I'm also going to have to find some time to write when Rini is off in snoozeville, because I can't concentrate very well when there is a screeching child in the background. Hard to concentrate to say the least. I was thinking that writing in the early morning would work best, but that would mean getting out of bed early in the morning! Woof. I could do it, maybe. I have a hard enough time getting out of bed by 6:30am, so getting up at 5am? That would be a bit much. Artist have to be willing to starve for their art though, and it's a matter of how bad do you want it.

My story is really awesome, and I would really like to be able to finish 50k this year. We will have to see. And attend a lot of write ins. The 17 hour write in would be a rush to participate in, but I don't know how long I would be able to stay awake! Plus, we have Rini, so if Caitlin and I went, we would have to leave Rini with someone else, and... it just wouldn't work logistically. We might be able to do participate via the chat room, and we might be able to stop by the library for a time, but we would be able to be there for the entirety from midnight o'clock to seventeen o'clock. That would be fun, but no. Maybe when Rini is thirteen, but then we might have other children to worry about. CRUMBLEBEES!

Maybe I just have to accept that I'm not as young as I used to be.

Exhaust of life

Normally I don't like eating out, but food does cheer me up if I'm in a grumpy mood, according to my wife, and she is usually right! This time around, I was not cheering up after food, and I haven't got much sleep in the past few days. Caitlin deduced, in her infinite wifely and womanly wisdom, that I am in need of some rest.

It's recommended that you stock up on thngs in preparation for NaNoWriMo, and I would think that sleep would be one of the biggest things. I was thinking that I would get up at about 5am in order to get my writing time before I go to work. These days, I'm getting up at 6:30am, and that's a bit of a struggle. I was getting out of bed at 6am before, but then I started driving to work, and I didn't need that much time to commute. I could ride my bike, which would work for doing deposits as well, but driving is good for the winter.

Yesterday, I talked with Morgan for a bit in order to figure out the story behind the Mark of Cain. Turns out that it was more of a blessing - the mark - so that people would know not to kill Cain, lest the curse of fields, which was placed upon him for punishment for killing his brother Abel, would come upon the person who kills him. That being said, the curse would come seven fold upon whoever slew Cain. Suffice it to say, I learned a lot, including the fact that it is not the best idea to use Mormon Doctrine First Edition for study, and the Pearl of Great Price has a much better explanation as to why Cain slew Abel. In the Bible, it seems like they went out to the field and "I keel you!" Next thing we read, he's denying the fact that he knows he committed fratricide. Still have a lot to learn about this.

It's all coming together

Last night was the plot-planning party for NaNoWriMo, which was held as early as it was since the kick-off party is more of a fun fest rather than a serious 'Let's think about writing' get-together. But in any case, Rini was running around like a little hellion, and distracting people high and low. The interesting comment that Rini received was "She's not so 'femto' anymore!" Rini is not exactly the 'FemtoWriMo' anymore, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that she has graduated to the rank of 'PicoWriMo' until she can write her name.

But I have developed an insane amount of plot, and I have a really strong story now. I was struggling to piece together the Time-travelling element, so I had to write out a time line, and then draw arrows all over the place. I'm not sure that I would be able to revamp everything should I lose those pieces of paper that have the notes from my dreams and the time line, because I know some people are able to hold everything inside of their head. Yeeeehaeh. Not me. One of the reasons that I wasn't able to finish last year was because I didn't know where I was going with the book. The story was just... going... somewhere. I had no idea where, and it was somewhat annoying. If I have a skeleton that I can fashion the story to conform to, I'm quite sure that I'll be able to work better, stronger, and faster. Then again, another thing that went haywire with the story last time was that the original idea wasn't that clear, and once I started writing, I wasn't sure what I was writing, but I knew that it wasn't was I originally had in mind. And I had to force myself to keep it PG-13. Although I would have enjoyed writing some truly horrid scenes, I couldn't bring myself to do it. I wanted to write something that I wouldn't be afraid of someone finding out that I wrote it, and I would like to read it sometime later in my life with my children. I know a novel is not exactly a bedtime story, but you get the idea. If not, I'm surprised you are reading this blog.

I'm not really keen on divulging details about what I have, but to summarize it quickly, it's a time travel bittersweet romance story. And I'm not sure about the bittersweet part, I just thought it would be a cool word to boost my word count.

It is starting already, and in ten days, the real fun begins, and blog entries will probably get shorter!

Does this mean we have to move again?

I just got news today that a friend of mine is moving out of the ward,
and out of the stake! He and his family are moving to Riverbend, to a
bigger home, which they do need. I'm really sad to see him go,
because it was such a blessing to not only have him in the ward, but
to have him as our hometeacher.

I've heard that the only thing constant in life is change, but the
other thing to keep in mind is the need to accept change. I'm sure if
we wanted to we could move out to Riverbend to be in the same ward,
but Caitlin would prefer to get a home in this end of the city, if not
in Millwoods.

Plus, we heard word about a new program from the government in which
you could have you mortgage paid for by renting out your basement to
mentally and/or physically challenged people. The government is
getting rid of group homes, and in their place they are setting up a
subsidization program for those who rent out a suite to
mentally/physically challenged people. I'm sure that there is a
certain amount of screening that you have to go through, and then
there's also the issue of OWNING A HOUSE. Small details, I'm sure.
Still, if we can save up enough for a down payment, I would think that
would be half the battle.

It was also interesting putting everything together for chruch today.
Usually, I just pop iPaq into my pocket, and away we go. However,
iPaq's battery was a little low, so we went with ye olde books. I
thought we were fine, I had a triple combination, my Kaine Diatheke,
and my priesthood manual. Good thing I checked that, because I
discovered that the manual was not this years 'Joseph Smith' manual,
but rather last years 'Spencer W. Kimbal.' Oops. Fortunately, I was
able to get a manual at church, and I hung onto it. You know, in case
I need it for next time.

Uses for the rig

I must say that our desktop computer is really starting to irritate
me. It was bad enough when we had dial up, but now we have a virus on
our computer. The worst is when you are trying to play a video, and
the virus keeps inturupting the stream. It worked great for
conference, but any other video, it is like watching really bad
stop-motion.

Today, I tried to load a video onto Facebook. Big mistake. I would
have had better luck filling a sieve with sand. After I decided to
give up on that, I figured I would send a message to someone, with an
attached website address. Putting the address in the message attaches
a preview of the website, and hence bogs down the bandwidth. Or just
makes the comptuer think really hard. Either way, it was going slower
than molasses going uphill in January on crutches.

Eventually, I just shut down the rig and pulled out Dory. I had the
message sent in five minutes. I didn't try posting the video, but
I'll give that a try some other time.

I also did a training exercise for NaNoWriMo this morning. I sat down
with iPaq and pounded out a continuation of last years NaNoWriMo
story. I was rather impressed that I was able to get out 1488 words
in an hour, even with all the distractions I had to deal with.

Part way through the hour that I had decided to write, Rini woke up,
and in order to cut down on the amount of time I would be getting away
from the keyboard, I opened her door a crack. She has yet to master
opening doors with doorknobs, but she can pull on them just fine. She
can get out of bed by herself now, so if she can get out of her
bedroom by herself, all the better. She tried climbing onto my lap,
but I invited her to get up on the chair beside me instead.
Remarkably, she actually did it! Then she got bored about three
minutes later, or sooner since I wasn't really keeping track of the
time, and went about the family room making a mess and trying to
entertain herself. I did get up when she pulled Zeus the moose onto
her head. I'm not sure why I decided to put that Juniper Moose on top
of her toy box, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I would wonder if i have the dedication to do this, since I focus on
my writing to the point that I put my child in danger. True artists
are willing to suffer for their work, but making others suffer? Mind,
I did get up and hold her after Zeus pinned her. I'm not entirely
heartless to the point that I just get the moose off her, scold her
for doing something so dangerous, and then get back to writing.

Besides, you save more time by taking time to comfort her. If I had
done the idiot thing and just do the minimal work needed to make sure
she wasn't dead, that would be bad parenting.

Elene is not dead yet

Actually, Elene is far from dead, but I was a little worried about the
steering, hence she went into Speedy yesterday. I took Bikey to work,
and was able to get to Speedy in time to pick her up before close.
Turns out that the steering is fine, the wheel alignment is good, and
the radio just had a burnt fuse. So, all that work cost $80. If I
went to Crappy Tire, I'm sure they would have wanted at least three
times that, and they would have tried to do the alignment anyway.
That, and the guys at Speedy have been working on cars for longer than
Elene has been around, so I trust them to take good care of her.

Still, in the end, it sounds like an awful lot of money to fix a fuse!
But the amount of work that it took to figure out that it was the
fuse? I think it was worth it.

I was also educated about how the wheel positioning works. Since I
have front wheel drive, the axels are different lenghts. Nothing to
do about that, it's part of the design. However, that will get a bit
of a pull to the left. The pull to the right can be due to road
grade, which is supposed to be 7%, but with the roads that we have
right now, it can be 15% or so. Also the steering wheel may be a
little off center. Happens. Another thing that Eric mentioned was
that it could also be due to unequal tire pressure. I'm going to get
Elene's tires done on Monday. I wanted to get them done on Thursday,
but things got a little busy, and I had to rush off. Bleh.

The irony is that driving home, although I just paid $80 to fix the
radio, I didn't turn it on. Too used to the silence, and I didn't
know how to turn it on.

What can the matter be

I just dropped off Elene at Speedy today to see if there is anything
the matter with her wheel alignment, and from what the guys at Speedy
said, there is probably something loose. I thought the steering was
out of alignment, because I have to hold the wheel over to the left in
order for her to go straight. I haven't noticed any uneven wear on
the tires, so I didn't think much of it. But some of my coworkers say
otherwise, and I figured I could also figure out what's wrong with the
power connection to the radio. How much is this going to cost?
Hopefully not much. I did just get paid, but I would like to save
some money.

And the beat goes on

Although there was a lot of things that happened today, I can't help
but feel it was not an extra-ordinary day.

Mind, we all went to Wal-Mart for the first time in about a year, in
order to use the gift certificates from Jess and Chris. We got a
couple of movies that we've been meaning to pick up. I was trying to
see if there was a PS2 game that caught my eye, but nothing drew me
in. Most of the movies at Wal-Mart didn't jump out at me either, but
there were a few that caught my eye. The Black Cauldron, The
Aristocats, and we also got a Christmas present for Erik as well.
Yes, we are actually doing some advance shopping this time around!

I picked up Caitlin's workout bra yesterday, and today she went and
got a one month membership at Millwoods Rec Center. She immediately
put both to use, and has plans to continue attending for the next 30
days. Probably three times a week, if not more. Bonus if she can go
everyday, but we'll see how that works. How it is right now, Rini and
I will have some daddy-daughter time while Caitlin goes to work out.
I wonder how this is going to work next month, with NaNoWriMo going
on. I guess we'll see!

The Vote is Cast

Really tired tonight. Tired to the point that I was falling asleep at
work today. Not good.

By the time I went to vote I was plenty awake, and I had to be, since
I was chasing around Rini for a good part of the time that we were at
the polling station! I'm not sure if she fully understood why we were
there, but she enjoyed the time outside!

Meeting with my folks

It was weird to think that I hadn't seen my parents in close to a year when we went to visit today, but the last time we visited was back in January for Ukrainian Chirstmas! We really don't have any excuse, because we have Elene now, and we visit the Tolleys at least twice a month, if not more! Plus, gas is dropping in price.

We were talking with our sister-in-law and got her excited for NaNoWriMo. She's going to sign up as soon as she can, and she's got an idea that she is going to be running with. She also lives quite close to the Strathcona library, so she might be heading over there for some events, when she's not buried in homework! Studies do come first. Still, it's awesome that we have someone else on board for the writing frenzy!

The story of Dory and iPaq

For the first time in my life, I bought a new computer. That is really weird to say that, because I just realized that it's true. All the computers that I have owned previously have either been purchased second hand, or refurbished models, or received as gifts. The rig that we have now, I could say that I received it as a gift, because I did help with the construction of it, but I didn't buy any of the pieces to it, expect for the DVD-R drive. I've bought pieces of computers, but never an entire unit.

Weird.

Nevertheless, the computer that I did purchase, wasn't even for me. I bought it for Caitlin, and some would disagree that it's a computer. It's classified as a 'Netbook' by Future Shop and a 'Mobile Internet Device' by The Source by Circuit City. It's full name proper is the Acer Aspire One.

We call it 'Dory' or 'Little Blue' because it's... well, small... and blue.

Wonderful little device with a 9" screen, 120 GB Hard Drive, wifi b/g, and runs on 512 MB RAM with the Intel Atom processor. Truth be known, the RAM sounds a little low, but the OS is Linux, which doesn't need much in the way of operating memory. The Battery life could have something to be desired, it's only good for two hours, but the fact that Caitlin can but it in her purse, and it works with the mini-mouse that I've hung onto for about three years. I picked it up when I went to the press conference announcing the name change of the Edmonton Space and Science Center, which had already been changed to Oddysium, to Telus World of Science Edmonton. The mouse is super small, like size of your thumb small, but it works well with a small computer. It's really cute, and functional. Caitlin just needed something to write with, play games, check email, internet browsing, and play Pogo.com. That last one, I need to do some fixing with that one. I just need to get a Java client for Linux, which is super easy, and away we go!

iPaq is taking a back seat next to Dory, but that was bound to happen. I'm still going to use iPaq, it's really great for what I need right now. It does what I need for portable computing, and the big things, like burning picture CDs for my parents, can be done using the rig. I didn't need to got a $2000 pack of cards for Caitlin!

Does this mean I'm old now?

Late Post - should have been posted yesterday, but I was too tired to move it from iPaq.
********************************************
It's sort of odd that I'm thirty years old now, but only when I think about it. At the same time, it's odd to think about it! When you're a teenager, you think 30 is old, then when you approach that age, you don't think about it, sometimes to the point that you pick an age and stick with it. Women merely 'gain experience' after they turn 29, while men tend to have twelve years experience of being 18 once they hit the big 3-0.

So what's my secret? Meh. There's no secret, just gotta take it a day at a time, and focus on the important things. Mind you, that's changed over the years too. Ten years ago, well, I was on my mission, so the thing I wanted most was mail from home. Twenty years ago, it was Nintendo for sure. Some kind of game and lots of time to play it. Alright, somethings haven't changed because we got a PS2 game, but it's a karaoke High School Musical game. I'm kind of past the whole Mario phase, although I wouldn't mind playing Mario Kart Wii. Truthfully, I wanted to get it so that Caitlin and I would be able to play together. Funny thing is she sings better than me. According to the game at least. I just need practise, and it's a game that she doesn't mind me playing with Rini around. Rock Band would be fun, but 'Enter Sandman' isn't exactly the most kid friendly song out there. We'll just have to visit the Brooks more, and see how they react to HSM:Sing It!

The Wheel of Time turns

Tonight will be the last night that I will be under 30. As of
tomorrow, I will have circled the sun thirty times, and to think I
used to think that I'd be old by now.

Ok, so I'm losing my hair, but aside from that I'm happily married,
the father of a beautiful daughter, and I have a steady job that's
keeping my family fed.

Still, three decades is a long time. I'm not the same person I was
ten years ago. I could say thank goodness for that! I'm not sure if
Caitlin would have still married me if I was the arrogant twat I was
before my mission. Hmmm... maybe I haven't changed that much.

I mentioned that my birthday is tomorrow, and my boss got an odd smile
on his face. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, but I
trust it should be something... good. I hope.

Little upgrade

Once upon a while ago, I saw a crazy deal at Honour Computers, and I
went in and bought a 1GB stick of DDR2 RAM. Whee! What a deal! Then
I get home, and the blasted thing wouldn't fit. I tried pushing,
rearranging, cleaning, lining up slots perfectly, but it was after
about ten minutes I finally realized that the computer was compatible
with DDR RAM, not DDR2. I couldn't just throw it out. It was still
good, I just couldn't use it for my computer.

Good thing I hung onto it, because I just traded it for 1GB of DDR
RAM. I thought that I could use these two 512MB sticks in tandem with
my other 512MB stick to give the computer 1.5GB of RAM. That didn't
work. Although there are three RAM slots, the computer would only
read two, and I couldn't figure out which two! So the 'puter has 1GB
now, which is a bit of a step up from the 768MB which it had
previously. But I know the computer would run faster if I could
figure out how to get rid of the virus on there! Maybe I should just
get a Mac. That, or I'll be using iPaq more than I am already! And
that's saying something.

Get ready to Write and Roll!

I finally took a look at the notes I made on some dreams I had back in
June. I'm very glad that I wrote down as much as I would think of,
because I realized that I forgot a lot of details: the calendar wall,
who said what, character descriptions, teleportation, the
'Koble-Bjoti' switch, and the radio equipment. This is shaping up to
be an excellent story.

Plus, I found some notes I took on another one of Cailtin's dreams,
and she thought it was one of mine, because she didn't remember
telling me about this dream. I'm glad I dated when it was I wrote all
those details down!

Speaking of crazy stories, Caitlin and I sat down to watch some
'Heroes' tonight. I know that there is another episode on right now,
but that's what VCRs are for. Yes, VHS is an ancient concept, but it
still works! Plus, I figured I could afford to plunk down $20 for a
few cassettes rather than $500+ for a PVR. Not as nice, not as
convenient, but within our price range. I suppose the fact that we
got the recorder for free adds another level of frugality to it.

But I am certainly intrigued by some of the story twists that have
occured so far. I'm not sure how Season 2 went, but I heard that it
was pretty bad. What do you expect? It was right before the Writer's
strike! Of course you're going to get cream of the crap! I'm
thinking of renting it from Roger's a disc at a time, or just save $5
a week, and then go and buy it. Torn am I. Do I want to use my
finances to procure something that I'm quite sure I'll enjoy, but may
be not worth my investment? I did buy "Bring It On," but I got it
used, and it is slated for resell, as soon as I get that box off to EB
Games or something.

Plans and Projects

While Caitlin is pounding away at her sewing project, I busied myself
with setting up our computer to receive conference today. It worked
very well, and we will probably so it again in April. Fun times!

I worked on my novel for NaNoWriMo. You can't do any writing, but you
can do planning in November. I was using a quiz that I found on
facebook. Someone had filled it out because they were bored, and I'm
assuming that someone wrote it because they were bored. It was enough
to get my mind rolling and thinking about what I wanted in my Main
Character. It also made me think about character and plot dynamics.
I know there are still a lot of things to work out, but if I can get
the story in my head, and most importantly a destination, then I can
see myself pounding out much more than 50k next month.

I just need to find a story that needs to be told. Or at least one
that I want to tell.

I met a facinating person today. I believe his name was Peter Jarvis,
and I believe he works for the U of A. Industrial designer by trade,
he had quite a few stories about how the trade came to be, and how U
of A got the faculty. In the days of Henry Ford, where you could get
your box on wheels in any colour, so long as it was black, the
automotive industry had hit a standstill. So they went to the
cartoonists and asked them to draw them a car. This drawing was then
taken to the shop, and now we have parking lots filled with different
models of boxes with wheels. And they come in black along with a
variety of all the other colours of the rainbow. He also knows Steve
Drake. THE Steve Drake. Rather amazing that Steve was given the keys
to one of the most powerful computers in the country at the time, and
three months to figure out how the thing works so that he and two
other collegues could start teaching about it. No pressure! Mr.
Jarvis also told me about the MLM known as Discovery Toys. Litlte did
I know, that Mom tolley has a bunch of discovery toys games. I'll
have to remind her to dig them out for us tomorrow.

It's the most wonderful time of the year

I always like to think that fall is the most wonderful time of the year, and that may be entirely of the fact that my birthday lands during that time.  This time around I'm going to be celebrating the end of my third decade upon this planet, and when I think about it, it seems a little weird.  Thirty years old!  Does that mean I'm old now?  Older, that's for sure, but I can see how some people think that life beings at 40, or so they hope. 

 

Another wonderful time of the year is General Conference.  This year I'll actually be able to attend all sessions, and I hope to take full advantage of it.  Knowing me, the biggest challenge will be staying awake, but I do hope to take away some good experience, and something to work on. 

 

I can't help but think of what November will bring though.  NaNoWriMo was quite the experience, and although I haven't taken much of a look at the 42,000 words that I managed to pound out during those harried 30 days, I really want to do it again.  This time with a bit more of a plan.  I know that the biggest part of NaNo is to have fun.  At the same time, I actually would like to write a coherent story this time around.  The biggest help to that would be having a good outline.  I was reading about an interesting way to make an outline using something called a "Phase outlne."  Really helps to have the plot and character development in place and then you can just concentrate on word output.  Right now, all I have is a title, an idea, and a few notes about a dream I had.  If I can work that into an outline, then I'll have some hope. 

 

Then again, I might get another great idea, and run with that!  Yeah, I don't think so either.