Getting Around My Other Site
(Where it all began)
About Me & Resume
Tales from The New Universe
(Free Fiction)
Find Me Socially
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/begin random thoughts
So. The bag has been tipped over and the cat is loose. John Anealio and I have been tapped to do a new podcast for sfsignal.com. On top of that, I’ll be writing for sfsignal.com a couple times a month.
I think it’s going to be a lot of fun and a really good fit for all of us.
There’s still one more secret project out there. It’ll for sure be live august 5th, but there should be something announced on twitter before then.
Cryptic much?
* * *
I forgot how gross Subway sandwiches has become. Eating there today and I am not impressed any more. They used to be my favorite, now they are easily my least favorite, but Tokyo Joe’s was packed floor to ceiling so…
* * *
The short story is coming along nicely, if I do say so myself. Been a while since I tried to write one. Usually, I have so much to say, so much story to tell, that I end up going full blown novel, but this one is very definitely a short story. It felt that way from the moment it popped into my brain.
It’s a space western. Cowboys in the stars. What more could you want from a story?!
* * *
It may be that I need a new mattress. I am just not sleeping well anymore. Granted, I’ve had that mattress nearly 10 years now, but it was a higher end mattress at the time, cost me a bit more, so I expected it to last a long time. Maybe 10 years in the life of a mattress is considered a long time. I don’t know.
Buying tires for mom’s car today to the tune of about $500 – $600 with labor and balancing and rotating and all sort of other things, I’m sure. I just hope that whoever is doing the work was at mechanics school for lug nut day.
(That’s funnier than it sounds. Google ‘lug nut day’ sometime and see what comes up…)
So if I do need a new mattress, it’ll have to wait a bit.
* * *
I have not had tons of guests to my new house. This is because me being me, I keep trying to get everything ‘perfect’. I know in my head that it’ll never BE perfect, but still I try.
Anyway, all of that goes out the window Friday when I’ll have most of my local family and some friends over for a BBQ. My older brother is coming into town Thursday, so the BBQ is in honor of that and a chance for everyone to see or meet him, have a burger and see the house..
Should be fun.
* * *
I think it’s the bread and the cheese. Subway’s bread is terrible now. I don’t know if they’ve changed the recipe or what. And the cheese is gritty – no, chalky – yeah, it’s chalky in your mouth. Bleh. No wonder Jared lost weight eating this crap – it’s terrible!
* * *
While the short story gets all the love, the novel languishes where I left it.
I need more time in a day.
/end random thoughts
~P
Shadow: “I’m telling you – we have to do something!”
Me: “About?”
“THE MONSTER IN THE HOUSE? Where the hell have you been?”
“I don’t think he’s the monster you think he is. Have you tried talking to him?”
“You don’t talk to monsters. You slay them.”
“Where did you hear that?”
“Those shows you watch with the girl who goes around killing monsters. DUH!”
“Right. Listen, you two need to get along so-” *picks him up*
“Hey! HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! PUT ME DOWN, FUCKER!*
“Calm down! This is for your own good!” *tosses him down on the comfy chair next to Dakota*
 Dakota: “Bwohaha. Han, ma bookie, keel-ee calleya ku kah.”
Shadow: “AIIIIIGGGHHHHH!”
Dakota: “Bwohahaha.”
Sigh.
/begin random thoughts
Ack!
* * *
I should totally get pie today…
* * *
That can’t be good… Look at the way it’s just hanging there… I should tell someone…
* * *
Notgonnasaysomethingstupid, notgonnasaysomethingstupid, notgonnasaysomethingstu- Ah, shit.
* * *
Wheeeeeeee….
* * *
44, 45, 46, huh. weird. How’d that get in there? *tosses it aside* 4-… uh… 4-… uh. 1, 2, 3, 4-
* * *
*radio announcer* Are you a woman entering menopause?
No.
*radio announcer* How many hot flashes do you have each day?
None.
*radio announcer* Do you feel fatigued in the late afternoon?
…well, yeah. Sometimes.
*radio announcer* Do you wish you had more energy and a stronger sex drive?
…sure, who doesn’t?
*radio announcer* Would you like to lose weight too?
…okay, okay – I’m listening!
*radio announcer* Try our new drug for menopausal women!
Wait -what? No. You tricked me.
*radio announcer* We didn’t trick you!
. . .
*radio announcer* it’s the new drug that solves all of your menopausal problems! Some side effects may occur.
Of course.
*radio announcer* But don’t worry about those – that’s why we say them really quickly at the end of the commercial.
I knew it! Lying sack of shit…
*radio announcer* So, order our new drug that cures all you menopausal symptoms AND gives you a better SEX LIFE AND more energy AND feeds starving children in Africa-
Why is it always Africa? Are there no starving children anywhere else?
*radio announcer* -and helps Angels to get their wings. *crowd goes awwwwww*
Right. Uh-huh.
*radio announcer* DoesNOTfeedstarvingchildreninAfrica, maynotgrantAngelstheirwings, maycausebleeding, eyeirritation, jointpain, lossofsexdrive-
WAIT! You just said-
*radio announcer* -headaches, drymouth, itching-
I am so turning the channel.
*new radio announcer* Do you have cats? Do they keep you from sleeping the night through?
*ears perk up*
/end random thoughts
~P
Today, I took the laptop to lunch to do some writing and didn’t realize that the battery was close to dead, so I wasn’t able to work on the project I’d planned to work on. When I mentioned this on Twitter, someone pointed out that I could’ve just written it by hand and transcribed it later. This actually doesn’t work well for me. Let me explain.
I kinda got screwed in the handwriting department.
Right when everyone was first learning how to draw the alphabet on that brown paper with the lines on it? I had a broken hand. That was the first set back for me.
We were living in Berwyn (suburb of Chicago) at the time, and my mom and aunt were sitting on the porch of our brownstone in the early evening (or at least, that’s how I remember it). I was sitting in a comfy chair just inside one of the storm windows over looking the porch. I was playing around, leaning into the window to talk to them, resting my arm on the sill, and I managed to kick loose the stick holding the storm window open.
Down it crashed. I remember seeing my hand swelling up and thinking that it just shouldn’t do that, your hand should not even be able to swell that way, and yet – there it was. Swelling up. Essentially, a mountain was forming on the back of my hand, growing and expanding.
My mom and aunt freaked out, of course. I was screaming my head off. They rushed me to the bathroom, filled the sink with water and ice and plunged my hand in. We ended up having to go to the doctor, I got a cast and, for a while there I was unable to hold a pencil or write in my right hand.
So I switched to my left. Smart, right? My dad didn’t think so. He forbid it – actually forbid it. He even went to the school and told the nuns they were not to let me even think about writing with my left hand. This meant that I was instantly behind everyone else when it came to writing.
Fast forward to cursive. Didn’t do so well there. Never really caught up, started doing weird things that had my teachers scratching their heads and calling my mom in for conferences. (“Um, Mrs. Hester – did YOU teach Patrick to make a capital H this way?” “No. This is how I do it. *puts a capital H on the paper*” “Strange. We didn’t teach him this either. So where did he learn it?” *all eyes turn to me* “Um… Magic?” Interesting side note – there aren’t a lot of nuns who appreciate my sense of humor…)
This resulted in my handwriting becoming a thing of legend amongst the adults. Aunts & Grandmothers would whisper in awe that I would most definitely be a doctor when I grew up because, well, look at the handwriting!
(I didn’t become a doctor. I let Blake Charlton have that. I’m cool that way.)
So, the idea of hand writing out stuff (which I admit that I have done in the past. I once turned in a massive paper to my sophomore year college prep English teacher that had been hand written, not in cursive, and at what would amount to about a 3 point font size today so it fit on just 1 page, double sided) and then transcribing it (something else I have ATTEMPTED to do and have come to HATE WITH A FIERY PASSION THAT BURNS DEEP WITHIN MY CHEST) – not particularly appealing to me.
Here – I offer you a page from my work notebook (the keeper of all things, that which is never out of my sight and contains all things I am to do on a day to day basis):
 Click for a larger view As you can see – pretty bad handwriting.
So, when you suggest that I could’ve handwritten stuff at lunch, you are correct. I could’ve. But I wouldn’t have enjoyed it and it never would’ve been transcribed so I might as well put it off til I have something electronic to type it on.
~P
/begin random thoughts
 I’m number 2!
As you can see in the photo, I am number 2. It’s taken me quite a long time to get here, I might add. Not all of it has been fun. But hey, what matters is that I’m here now, right? Number 2. That’s just one spot away from being the best!
…aw crap! Some girl in a black shirt just came and traded my Number 2 for a bowl of white chicken, rice, veggies and teriyaki sauce.
DAMMIT!
* * *
Spent the weekend mostly immobile. I still don’t know what I did to my back this time, but it was a doozy. I started to feel a little better Sunday and almost started doing my house chores like mowing the lawn and whatnotall, but then I thought about the possibility of reinjuring myself and decided to just stick it out on the couch.
Was actually fine most of this morning until I left for lunch. Felt a couple of twinges. Will continue to take it easy til this passes, me thinks.
* * *
Last week’s episode of the Functional Nerds has been really well received, which makes me smile. Mike Resnick & John DeNardo were on. Mike is such a force; so warm, engaging – I want to say larger than life. He could have a show of his own with a voice like his.
Actually, he does – he has those ‘When movies were movies’ over on mevio.com. Short reviews of movies pre 1970ish. Good stuff – you should check it out.
I’m not surprised that people are enjoying that particular episode. We were on our game, we had great guests and stuff to talk about – a combination for success.
* * *
The original ‘Ballroom Blitz’ is currently playing throughout Tokyo Joe’s.
* * *
I managed a whopping 1300 words on the short story this weekend. My back just would not let me sit up long enough to accomplish anything. I tried writing on the laptop but it was awkward what with the cats going “OMG YOU’RE ON THE COUCH CAN WE SIT THERE ON YOU?! I’LL TAKE THE HEAD YOU TAKE THE FEET!!”
* * *
…I really need to mow the lawn soon. I saw the beginnings of a civilization forming among the weeds the other night.
* * *
Someone told me that they’d heard that the word ‘gals’ was offensive to women. Really? Since when? Does that mean ‘guys’ is now offensive to men?
Is there anything offensive to men? I mean, we’re the half of the species who will fart just to get a reaction. We can be in bed with a woman, the possibility of sexual contact impressively high, and we will absolutely sabotage that just to play dutch oven.
Offensive? Really?
/end random thoughts
~P
/begin random thoughts
My mom accidentally locked the cats in the basement for a few hours. She went down there to look for something, didn’t realized she’d been followed, walked up the stairs, shut the door and then headed up to the second floor to clean her bathroom and bedroom. She kept hearing them meowing and called to them, telling them she was upstairs, trying to encourage them to come up there. When they kept crying, she finally decided to go see why there were being lazy and found that they were in the basement.
This resulted in two things: 1) Mom felt horrible; I told her they’re cats and they will survive the ‘trauma’ of being locked in the basement for a couple of hours. 2) The cats were very clingy and well behaved last night; essentially they were all, “First you take us to that man in the white coat who cut our Talons & poured goop in our ears, then you lock us in the basement!? WE’LL BE GOOD FROM NOW ON – WE SWEARS!!!”
* * *
The channel formerly known as SciFi used to have a web extension of itself known as SciFi Wire; this was the news service for SciFi and had, sprinkled in-between ads for Ghost Hunters and Warehouse 13, bits of news about the SciFi community. But, alas, they have chosen to give it a new, stupid name (Blastr) because they really don’t care one iota about the fan base that built them. So from now on, that site (if it ever gets mentioned again around here) shall be known as: the website formerly known as SciFi Wire.
* * *
I am no longer receiving email notifications when someone leaves a comment on the blog. I don’t know why. I’m supposed to get one. I’ve checked my spam / junk folder and they’re not ending up there, so it’s a real mystery as to why they aren’t showing up.
If you leave a comment and don’t see it after a few hours, shoot me an email so I can approve it. After you’ve been approved once, you’re all good. Still, I wish WP would tell me there’s a new comment (approved or otherwise) to be read.
* * *
I mentioned before that I’d written a short story; it came out of nowhere last Saturday. I don’t know what my muse had for dinner Friday night, but by Saturday, she wanted me to write a space Western, which I did. Well, half of one anyway. I’ve been itching to get back to it but other things have come up.
Monday at lunch, I went through and edited what I’d already written, fixing some stuff, adding stuff, deleting – that sort of thing. On paper. Then I took that home and Monday night, made all the changes in Scrivener.
Tuesday was podcast recording night. Wednesday was the first half of podcast editing and the morning when I woke up in pain in my right shoulder and back. No freaking clue what I did, but it persists today (Thursday) and kept me up late last night trying to fall asleep while not moving. Normally, it only takes Wednesday to edit the podcast, but I skipped a step when I exported it from the software I use to record Skype and had to do it again, which takes forever and set me way back. Tonight will be the second half of podcast editing because of that little step skip I did, and my weekly glance at Evermist to make sure I haven’t screwed anything up there.
That means it’ll be tomorrow night before I get back to my Space Western. Sigh.
/end random thoughts
~P
/begin random thoughts
I pitched an idea to someone and they liked it so I’ll probably start something new here shortly.
More on that later…
* * *
Networking is important no matter what you do for a living. Meeting new people, making connections – it can be the difference between something happening or not.
You are more likely to say yes to someone you’ve met face to face versus someone you’ve never even heard of before.
I was once offered a job simply beause I knew someone working for the company who said to The Boss, “Hey – you know who we need here? Patrick. He’d be a great fit.”
* * *
Skype really doesn’t like wireless connections. Learned that last night. We had Mike Resnick scheduled to be on the Functional Nerds podcast and I really didn’t want another evening full of Skype dropping calls – seriously, you one of the folks who complain about AT&T? Skype on wifi is 100 times worse.
I sent them an email a while ago about the issues I was having. Let me dig that out for you…
Ok – here’s what I sent to Skype Customer Support:
“Well, I went through your troubleshooting scenarios and it lead me here, where none of the choices for Topic or problem have anything to do with my problem, which is frustrating.
Once a week, I make a skype to skype call. Sometimes I have 3 people on and we do a conference call. The call lasts between one hour and an hour and a half max.
I either have: silence from call participants every five minutes for about 30 seconds – like clockwork-
or
At exactly 55 minutes into the call, whoever initiated the call has their sound distorted and cannot be understood – we call this ‘cyloning’ because the person starts to sound like an old Cylon from BSG. Sometimes, this causes the call to drop completely and the person initiating the call has to close Skype completely and restart it before they can be part of the call again.
I’ve started the calls and had this happen to me – I’m running a dual core iMac with Leopard. I’ve also had someone running Windows Vista initiate the call and have the exact same thing happen to her, so it doesn’t seem to be platform specific.
It’s very frustrating. I’ve been considering purchasing an online number and going on a month to month plan, but as near as I can tell – these issues we’re having are related to your service and not to our hardware or connections – not if we can predict it down to the second when the problems are going to occur.
Do you have any solutions for this?”
Here is the response I got back from Skype:
“We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing difficulties with Skype.
The primary reason for robotic sound, dropouts in sentences and sound delay is poor network performance. In the context of Skype this means networks that have a high rate of packet-loss and long packet round-trip-delay.
Below is a list of suggestions which should address the problem that you are experiencing.
These steps can be carried out separately and in any order, so if you are unable to complete any one of them, just move on to the next one.
1.First, please make sure that you are running the latest version of Skype. The latest version of Skype can be found here: http://www.skype.com/download/”
(Note: I am running the latest version for Mac.)
“2. Next, ensure that the following are up-to-date:
- Windows with the latest Service Packs and updates, available from http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
- DirectX – the main multimedia part of Windows. The newest version can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx”
(Note: I am running a MAC, not Windows.)
“3. Please follow the simple suggestions here that resolve many call quality issues: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/callquality/”
(Note: I ALREADY DID THAT – IT’S WHY I FREAKING SENT YOU AN EMAIL!)
“4. Please follow our visual sound setup guide to make sure your audio settings are correct: http://www.skype.com/help/guides/soundsetup.html”
(Note: What part of I’VE BEEN THROUGH YOUR TROUBLESHOOTING STEPS AND THEY LEAD ME TO EMAIL YOU do you have trouble understanding?)
“5. Now, check that your firewall is not interfering with Skype. You can find our firewall guides at http://www.skype.com/help/guides/firewalls/ Even if it can connect and you are able to use chat it is possible that your firewall is still blocking some connections that Skype needs for a reliable voice or video call. Please refer to your firewall manual if you are not able to find the required information on our website.”
(Note: Already done did it.)
“6. In the Skype top menu go to Tools > Options > Advanced > Connection please tick the option to ‘Use port 80 and 443 as alternatives for incoming connections’. In the ‘Incoming Connections’ box you can chose any port between 1024 and 65535. It is not necessary to change the port number though.”
(Note: That’s how you get there from Windows. I’m on a Mac, remember? Did you even read my email?)
“7. The problem that you are experiencing might also be related to the connection type that you are using or the connection speed availability. Please ensure that when making a call there are no additional programs running that can be taking a lot of bandwidth and also that the internet connection speed is fast enough to support a call. We cannot guarantee that Skype will be working at 100% when there are other programs running which might be interfering with Skype. Sometimes you might also experience this type of problem during a Skype2Skype call when calling a destination where there are known network problems or the connection speed on the other end is insufficient.”
(Note: Tried that. Closed every other internet accessing program on the machine – no difference.)
“8. If the above does not help, please try a clean installation of Skype. Please completely remove Skype via Add/Remove programs and then install again.”
(Note: That’s Friggin WINDOWS! Sigh. You are stupid, aren’t you? please don’t breed…)
“9. For this step showing hidden folders and files has to be turned on. Please navigate to My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > View. Once there, please make sure that the option ‘Show Hidden Files and Folders ‘ is enabled.”
(Note: See the note under #6 – same applies here and I’m tired of retyping it over and over…)
“* Close Skype with a right click on the systray icon (next to the Windows clock) and selecting ‘Quit’
* Locate the shared.xml file found in C:\Documents and Settings\your_windows_username\ApplicationData\Skype\
* Delete shared.xml
* Start Skype (shared.xml will be recreated)”
(Note: Mac! I’m on a Mac! I told you – hey, I’m on a Mac - and you didn’t friggin listen, did you?! No! because you’re stupid and you don’t have any trouble shooting guides for Mac, do you? Please, for the love of God and the good of the gene pool, tell me that you have been fixed! That you can never spread your seed on an unsuspecting world!!!)
“Last, if you are using a wireless connection, please try connecting your computer to your modem or router using a standard cable.”
(Note: Huh. Okay, might as well give that a shot.)
Which I did. I ran a 50ft cat 5 cable from the corner of my living room where Comcast installed the freaking thing, along the wall, passed the front door, up the stairs, around the corner and into my bedroom where my computer and desk are currently setup. I taped the wire down along the way so it wasn’t a trip hazard.
And we had the best Skype call in the history of the Functional Nerds podcast.
Sigh.
Guess I’m gonna have to make that a permanent thing.
/end random thoughts
~P
/begin random thoughts
I’ve been offline more lately than is usual. Well, I say offline but really I am still online, I’m just staying focused on the tasks at hand and not doing as much Twitter as people are accustomed to seeing from me. That’s because I’ve been writing.
A lot.
The whole point of this stuff is to write, get published, sell some books so I hope you’ll forgive my absence and silences as the muse takes me, roughs me up a little, and ties me to a keyboard.
* * *
I tend to be a planner when I write, but not a traditional planner – at least, not so far. I plan in my head. Sometimes, I will take months if not years to think about something before I put a single word down. Other times, I will think about something for a few hours, know what I want, where I want the story to go and then I sit down and write. Not particularly the best way to do things, but there it is.
This past weekend, for example, I just had this idea hit and there was no way it was going to stay in my head for any length of time. So I sat down Saturday morning and started typing. By end of day Sunday, I had 9800 words down and Cord Cahill, space cowboy, had been born.
More on that later. Promise.
* * *
I have turned the daily Functional Nerd News Roundups over to the extremely capable Scott Suehle aka @8bitdad (twitter.com/8bitdad or http://8bitdad.wordpress.com/). I offered and Scott volunteered.
You rock, dude.
Why turn that over to someone else? I admit, it was my baby. I started it back a while ago to help drive some traffic to the Functional Nerds site. But spotty accessibility at work (I put those together during lunch and the firewall sometimes blocks me/times out when I try to access the site) meant that the posts were becoming few and far between and when I get home from work, my priority is to churn out entertaining writing with an eye on publishing.
So, something had to give.
Luckily, Scott was there to pick up my slack and has been doing a great job. Thank you!
* * *
One icebreaker is enough. You don’t need to eat two at a time. Seriously. Stop it.
* * *
A lot of people get pocket dialed. I don’t know of many who get baby dialed. I get baby dialed, have for years.
Quinn has let both of his sons play with his cell phones and as such, I get baby dialed.
The other night, I got a call from him, answered it, and heard his youngest ‘la la la’ ing while Quinn, in the background, said things like, “Who’s a baby boy? Who’s a baby boy?” or some such.
It was funny. I should’ve recorded it…
* * *
My aunt and uncle sent me a stack of comic books out of the blue.
You hear those stories, ya know? About how people move into a new house, head up into the attic, into the crawlspace or the basement, and come across a dusty box shoved into a corner or nook. They dig the box out, blow the dust and dirt from it and wonder what sort of treasure they may have uncovered (or whose dead pet).
Upon opening the box, they find a mint condition 1st appearance of Superman, or a copy of Amazing Fantasy #16. Suddenly, they are rich. All because of the box of comics left behind by someone who is probably kicking themselves.
…these weren’t those comics. These were some Captain America’s from the early 90’s.
Sigh.
/end random thoughts
~P
So. The channel formerly known as SciFi hit the ground running once again with some summer programming. First we had Warehouse 13.
…spoilers abound. You have been warned.
The cliffhanger episode has become a staple of the genre show. It was once used by soap opera type shows like Dallas to pull viewers in and get them talking throughout the break about the show and keep that buzz going. Now, it’s a device that merely just pisses us off.
That’s because the wrap up of the cliffhanger more often than not happens as quickly as possible. If not in the first moments of the show, then in the first act of the show, which was the case with Warehouse 13. Last thing we saw was Artie get blowed up real good. He comes back, of course, and they explain it away really quickly and explain away most everything else really quickly too, which I hate.
The cliffhanger wrap up has become a terrible terrible thing. Almost always, the writers, producers or studio execs – whoever is passing the notes around, want to get on with it already, so I don’t think it has the impact that it used to.
As for Warehouse 13, it’s a fun show that you can turn your brain off for. In fact, I would recommend you turn your brain off when watching it or else you’ll drive yourself up a wall over some stuff. The opening episode for this season had the elements I’ve come to expect from the show; Artie running around thinking he knows everything only to learn, at the last possible moment, that it’s all upside down, Mica and Pete going off on one of their usual missions while Claudia gets in trouble.
The only surprising piece of entertainment was the addition of H.G. Wells as the big bad; and that H.G. is actually female.
Haven is based on some Stephen King story – The Colorado Kid. The pilot was entertaining. An FBI agent is sent to a small, coastal town in Maine to retrieve a fugitive only she finds that he’s been killed when she arrives. She gets caught up in the investigation of his death and soon realizes that there’s some weird things going on in Haven. Weird like fogs rolling in and blanketing the town in a matter of seconds, like tornadoes appearing out of nowhere and freak electrical storms.
All in all, it was pretty entertaining, but I don’t know if it has any lasting power. There’s some cool elements, like the detective who feels no pain, the picture in the town paper from twenty or thirty years past that seems to show the FBI agents mother (she’s an orphan, never knew her mother), stuff like that. Plus, there’s the fact that it is a Stephen King story, but they’ve tried to turn his stories into tv before with lackluster success.
Still, it was nice to see Nicole DeBoer (Dax from DS9, love interest from that other King show on USA network whose name escapes me) again.
As for Eureka – it’s still sitting in my TiVo waiting to be watched. That is one fun, smart show and I want to savor it and this weekend was dedicated to (mostly) writing. I’ll catch it one night this week before the next one airs.
~P
/begin random thoughts
I wish I could better streamline my day and time. Aren’t we all about that? Getting more done, having more time, etc and so on?
I find there are times when I wish my body wouldn’t betray my brain; I want to write, to work on this or that, but my body is all, ‘No! Too tired! Must sleep now!’ and my brain is still going. They need to make a pill for that.
“Cyzquarhoshilopozine! The new drug that makes it possible for you to work, without sleep! May cause drowsiness, mild depression, suicidal tendencies, rage, serial killer-ism, psychotic outbreaks, chicken pocks, muscle spasms, erectile dysfunction or loss of sex drive, bleeding from your eyes, demonic possession, delusions of grandeur, political aspirations, asthma, hearing loss, appendicitis, brain tumors, cancer of the uvula, swelling of the ears, tongue, fingers or toes, hair loss, rectal bleeding, death, zombie-ism and pimples.”
Also, I’d like to be better at using the time I do have to get stuff done. I keep looking at my lunch hour and thinking, ‘How can I squeeze some more productivity out of that bad boy?’ I already try to write these little blog posts during that time, what more can I manage, I wonder?
* * *
The other night, I went to B&N. I told myself that I was just going to go, hang out, have a piece of cheesecake and not spend a ton of money.
A ton of money later…
* * *
I’m getting a desk from a guy to go in my basement office / man cave / TARDIS area and he keeps putting off when he’ll be able to deliver it. I don’t have a vehicle that can haul the damned thing. I suppose I could borrow one but part of me doesn’t mind the wait because it allows me to procrastinate. See, when the desk arrives, I’ve committed myself to the whole ‘bookshelf, setup the office environment’ project, so putting that off is okay cuz it’s a daunting task for a non carpentry computer guy.
* * *
I bought a new dishwasher to replace the old dishwasher. The old dishwasher SOUNDED LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME – CAN YOU HEAR ME? I CAN’T HEAR YOU – LET’S GO OUTSIDE WHERE IT’S QUIET AND WE CAN CHAT, OK? The new dishwasher sounds no louder than a really quiet cat purring. The difference is absolutely astounding.
The dishwasher marks a milestone, or maybe just an as yet unprecedented incredible moment in my life wherein I didn’t have to get ‘what I could afford’ but rather ‘what I wanted’. I’ve always saved up for big purchases, which I think we all do. A lot of times, we set our targets on something and then save until we can afford it. I tend to compromise even on that – I’ll see what’s out there, see what I could save for and then talk myself out of the more expensive stuff and settle for something ‘I can afford’ sooner. Have done that for most of my adult life.
With this dishwasher, I had my tax credit from the purchase of my house fresh in the bank. There were lots of different dishwashers that I could afford, but I went for a couple bells & whistles that I wouldn’t normally have gone for (like I really, really wanted a quieter one) and I didn’t sweat the extra $100 or whatever to get it.
Of course, after that purchase, I am back on being miserly with my money on big purchases (and some little ones too). Still, it was fun to do once…
* * *
Tonight, Eureka! returns to the channel formerly known as SciFi. I’m excited! That is one very fun little show. My TiVo is set just in case something comes up and I can’t watch it live. Also setup to record Haven because I want to see what that’s all about.
/end random thoughts
~P
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