Life Challenges (BTW, comments are open still)
Posted by mcummings
This year, as you may have noticed, I have undertaken a major challenge to my free time - I'm trying to write a novel. My first attempt at this failed miserably (entirely my own fault), but my second stab (declared here) at this appears to me to be going well. I should be narrowing in on 5o,000 words this weekend, with still plenty of fodder to carry it twice that to conclusion.
But that is only one of the ways I've tried adjusting my life for the better this year. (Yes, it counts as for the better - anything that lets you tap into your inner muse is a good thing.) One thing I've been doing is maintaining a standing bookshelf on my desk of books to read. Not classics or world literature, but still, reading is another Good Thing™.
As announced on twitter (and the facebook tie in feed), today, Kim and I made another choice that will be a major life challenge, with only positive results.
We've joined a gym.
Yeah, if that phrase doesn't sit right with you, your not alone, but it is definitely for the better. Buying equipment, and wii games, and self-help videos and books and memes doesn't seem to work. But shelling out hard earned cash each month for a membership? You better believe we're going to take advantage of all that it offers. So tomorrow, after seeing how fredlug is with Dan, we're going to head over for orientation so we can begin on the road to our new bodies. (I've got my eyes on a Greek prototype, but that's just day dreaming).
There, I've said. We joined a gym. With a built in daycare. And pool. And open 24/7. And...no, that's it really. And equipment and trainers, which you'd expect.
In my last post, the third picture is me as the hulk - that's probably going to be my new avatar, at least on twitter and facebook, while I work on defeating the bulging temple of Bachus I've acquired.
Night kids, off to spend some time watching tv with the wif and having dinner 
Photo Fun
Posted by mcummings
Was playing around with the netbook version of ubuntu today, took these with cheesy (linux app) - need to find a use for them
"Me Hulk!!"
A Hair Cuttery
Posted by mcummings
As Kim points out here, yesterday was the day to pay up on bets for which child would take scissors to hair first - and who's hair she'd cut.
The winner was...Anna! (can't say its a huge surprise, my folks got it on the first guess) What was suprising was that she chose to style her own hair, and not someone else's. All in all, it doesn't look bad - I mean, yes, we will have to get it straightened out, but its just her bangs and she didn't mangle them too badly. Well, look for yourself:
Debbie Gibson Returns
Posted by mcummings
I'm not sure what's more tantalyzing about this movie - the fact that it stars Debbie Gibson in what she admits is a fun roll, or the fact that it screams, SCREAMS, that it is perfect for a Saturday night B-movie watch with the misses.
Where Do I Stop Again?]
Posted by mcummings
Tonight I hit over 45K written so far in the rough rough draft, somewhat of a milestone. Further encouragement and inspiration is taken from the fact that not only do I have a lot more to flesh out from my outline, but my mind hasn’t slowed down on generating new ideas and plot insights.
Really, the only question I’m facing right now (aside from the obvious, like, when I finish it then what??), is when do I stop writing it? My original intent was to try and capture it all in a single book. That seemed fair – I’m hardly out to write some kind of epic tome covered in a dozen volumes. I have a simple story, and I’d like see it nicely wrapped in a single volume. But at 45K, I’m still not even halfway through part one of what should be a three part story (yeah, I’m old school like that). While 200-300K words in a single volume isn’t unheard of, that just seems huge to me.
Now, part of me thinks I should stop at the end of part one, maybe offer a hint of part two, but all in all stop new work on the book at that point. Make tons of notes, as many as I want, outlines, etc., but don't actually write anything for later books yet. Let it stew if I have to. Focus first (once part one is done) and edits and redrafts, then direct my energies on a new book. There's a valid argument there - why waste time and energy on multiple volumes if no one is ever going to read it? Instead focus on new projects, chalk this up to learning (along with the half a million other drafts over the years), and move on.
Bah. I wish anyone ever commented on this blog, because I could really use some feedback. In fact, in the interest of open communication (and to give the Russian spammers some fun), I'm going to open up commenting tonight so that its super easy to leave your comments. If it gets abused - well, I'll revisit the issue.