Alrighty, back in the saddle after seven-ish months
Wednesday, 4. July 2007, 06:58:09
After my back healed, I gave up on this blog. Work got busy, the holidays hit, another re-org or two at work, my son hit a rough spot academically, and life returned to normal. However, I feel like blogging again, since I've returned writing more than a daily journal.
Work:
I still manage most of the same people I managed in November (one quit and was replaced, and I added two more people). However, I have a new boss, and I have changed departments twice, and my boss' boss has changed twice. In our current position, we might get the technical support we need to actually complete our daily, monthly, and quarterly tasks, after a year's worth of ad hoc bullshit. In most cases, I've just written some sort of tool to do the job, but then I have to maintain those tools and scripts, creating a lot more work for me that decreases significantly the time I have for strategic planning and the putting out of fires.
Family:
The Wife and I have been married for over two years. We've been together for over four years. It gets better every day.
The Kid is a teenager now. Holy shit! He has made some of the usual 13-year-old mistakes, but he's recovered well. He has some work to complete in some other areas, but I am confident he can do it. He is still adjusting to the newer social scenes that come with the close of middle school (this coming year is his last year), and he's had to deal with some circumstances beyond his control from outside the normal realms of middle school chaos.
Writing:
I've done very little writing beyond a daily journal or three (maybe four?). I write in a dated one daily, filled with random notes about the day. It's not meant to be anything significant other than "what did I do in 2007?" In another, I write about writing, as well as use it almost as a commonplace book. Another journal is filled with programming notes that make my daily life easier. The last journal is for my emotional health, though I write in this one the least (but it has the heaviest grade paper so I guess that's something).
As far as what I am writing, not much has changed, though it is more focused stylistically. I still think of an interesting character or two, then toss him or her in some screwy situation, and go from there. I know what I want to say, at least when I start, though my final thoughts are no where near what I had originally intended. That's fine though. It helps the writing, and reminds me that editing is a beautiful thing.
Novels. That's on what I am going to focus. I'll write some stories for fun and for another project of mine (see "Real Work" below). I might get truly daring and write some essays too, maybe a column, but well, a blog is close enough to that without the formality and with a quick edit button.
I'm bashing about some novel ideas as I blog this tonight. Nothing concrete enough to mention, but this medication I am on for a medical ailment gives me some great dreams and ideas for what to do with all of these great characters of whom I am thinking. I'll have much more detail about this in future blogs.
I'm still reading some of the same authors as before, but I've left the "Southern Gothic" train for now. I'm mixing Vonnegut with Steinbeck, PKD and Robert E. Howard, and finally breaking down and reading Infinite Jest because the Wife deserves it (she's listened to my literary and programming theories for four years now--she needs a chance to talk too, tee hee).
A few others I am reading: James M. Cain; Fritz Leiber; re-reading a lot of Greek drama and epic poetry (I've got several items lined up to read; I've not read some of these works in ten years, ack!); bits and pieces of Alice Munro, though not as much as I would like. I still have a mountain of at least 35-40 or more books to get through before I finish the front of my numerous book piles.
Computing:
Intel Macs irritate me more and more, so once this iBook dies, I'm all Linux from that point until I find something I like better, which won't be Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X (10.4 has really begun to chap my hide, and the next version is not something I want to try barring a few new features, most of which are already in various Linux toys already).
While I like GNOME a lot, I don't like Mono so much, so for a desktop I'll be using KDE or Xfce (once it has a few more features in it). I like simple things like fvwm too, but yeah, I would like to spend more time using my desktop than coding my desktop, so KDE is probably the winner here. KDE will break most of my Yahoo! widgets though, so I'll be using KDE's widget engine as well as some Opera widgets. I don't use gmail, and Yahoo! mail seems to be a mess on Thunderbird and Opera, which means I'm stuck with web-based email for a bit longer (I am too lazy to make it work; so be it). I'm still experimenting with web messenging systems. I really like the latest Opera, so I'll stick with that as well as Firefox. I'm still experimenting with OpenOffice.org, KOffice, and Abiword and GNUmeric (I really like Abiword--I don't know so much about GNUmeric yet). Finally, I have to decide on what music player I want because most of my current collection is iTunes based and I don't want to deal with transferring all of that over to something new, which might happen anyway, damnit. As far as for a programming environment, I'm fine with emacs, KDevelop, the other KDE text editors, even gedit in a pinch.
Now that I've blathered on about what system I want to have, here's what I'll be doing with it ... .
Real Work:
This last half of 2008 is going to be busy.
Check back often, because I will be updating this blog often (twice a week sounds about right--I have too much other work that must be finished each day, thereby precluding me from a daily update). Wait a few weeks though, so I can rid myself of some writing rustiness. I'll send updates, and figure out how to get an RSS feed up and working.
Work:
I still manage most of the same people I managed in November (one quit and was replaced, and I added two more people). However, I have a new boss, and I have changed departments twice, and my boss' boss has changed twice. In our current position, we might get the technical support we need to actually complete our daily, monthly, and quarterly tasks, after a year's worth of ad hoc bullshit. In most cases, I've just written some sort of tool to do the job, but then I have to maintain those tools and scripts, creating a lot more work for me that decreases significantly the time I have for strategic planning and the putting out of fires.
Family:
The Wife and I have been married for over two years. We've been together for over four years. It gets better every day.
The Kid is a teenager now. Holy shit! He has made some of the usual 13-year-old mistakes, but he's recovered well. He has some work to complete in some other areas, but I am confident he can do it. He is still adjusting to the newer social scenes that come with the close of middle school (this coming year is his last year), and he's had to deal with some circumstances beyond his control from outside the normal realms of middle school chaos.
Writing:
I've done very little writing beyond a daily journal or three (maybe four?). I write in a dated one daily, filled with random notes about the day. It's not meant to be anything significant other than "what did I do in 2007?" In another, I write about writing, as well as use it almost as a commonplace book. Another journal is filled with programming notes that make my daily life easier. The last journal is for my emotional health, though I write in this one the least (but it has the heaviest grade paper so I guess that's something).
As far as what I am writing, not much has changed, though it is more focused stylistically. I still think of an interesting character or two, then toss him or her in some screwy situation, and go from there. I know what I want to say, at least when I start, though my final thoughts are no where near what I had originally intended. That's fine though. It helps the writing, and reminds me that editing is a beautiful thing.
Novels. That's on what I am going to focus. I'll write some stories for fun and for another project of mine (see "Real Work" below). I might get truly daring and write some essays too, maybe a column, but well, a blog is close enough to that without the formality and with a quick edit button.
I'm bashing about some novel ideas as I blog this tonight. Nothing concrete enough to mention, but this medication I am on for a medical ailment gives me some great dreams and ideas for what to do with all of these great characters of whom I am thinking. I'll have much more detail about this in future blogs.
I'm still reading some of the same authors as before, but I've left the "Southern Gothic" train for now. I'm mixing Vonnegut with Steinbeck, PKD and Robert E. Howard, and finally breaking down and reading Infinite Jest because the Wife deserves it (she's listened to my literary and programming theories for four years now--she needs a chance to talk too, tee hee).
A few others I am reading: James M. Cain; Fritz Leiber; re-reading a lot of Greek drama and epic poetry (I've got several items lined up to read; I've not read some of these works in ten years, ack!); bits and pieces of Alice Munro, though not as much as I would like. I still have a mountain of at least 35-40 or more books to get through before I finish the front of my numerous book piles.
Computing:
Intel Macs irritate me more and more, so once this iBook dies, I'm all Linux from that point until I find something I like better, which won't be Microsoft Windows or Apple OS X (10.4 has really begun to chap my hide, and the next version is not something I want to try barring a few new features, most of which are already in various Linux toys already).
While I like GNOME a lot, I don't like Mono so much, so for a desktop I'll be using KDE or Xfce (once it has a few more features in it). I like simple things like fvwm too, but yeah, I would like to spend more time using my desktop than coding my desktop, so KDE is probably the winner here. KDE will break most of my Yahoo! widgets though, so I'll be using KDE's widget engine as well as some Opera widgets. I don't use gmail, and Yahoo! mail seems to be a mess on Thunderbird and Opera, which means I'm stuck with web-based email for a bit longer (I am too lazy to make it work; so be it). I'm still experimenting with web messenging systems. I really like the latest Opera, so I'll stick with that as well as Firefox. I'm still experimenting with OpenOffice.org, KOffice, and Abiword and GNUmeric (I really like Abiword--I don't know so much about GNUmeric yet). Finally, I have to decide on what music player I want because most of my current collection is iTunes based and I don't want to deal with transferring all of that over to something new, which might happen anyway, damnit. As far as for a programming environment, I'm fine with emacs, KDevelop, the other KDE text editors, even gedit in a pinch.
Now that I've blathered on about what system I want to have, here's what I'll be doing with it ... .
Real Work:
- Writing novels, stories, essays, and blogs. Mostly novels and blogs.
- Developing an online magazine. I get cheap Web hosting from work for a few years, so I might as well use it before it gets expensive. I have several writer pals who needs some exposure, and I want to have some fun with the Web design (I have creative design people too, and I'll certainly need their assistance--huh, this could become very pricey).
- I have several LAMP-like ideas I'd like to explore. Because it's on my time, I don't have the BS of deadlines so much. That's cool.
This last half of 2008 is going to be busy.
Check back often, because I will be updating this blog often (twice a week sounds about right--I have too much other work that must be finished each day, thereby precluding me from a daily update). Wait a few weeks though, so I can rid myself of some writing rustiness. I'll send updates, and figure out how to get an RSS feed up and working.
WIDGETIZE