A TIme of Peace
This 10-day break between classes is a time of peace. Days are too hot to go outside so Irina and the boys and I hit the pool later, at 8 or 9 or so. My stopwatch is set for ten minutes, but don't expect me to be as prolific as I was yesterday. Partly because I actually typed a few minutes before starting the timer, and also because I don't anticipate having much to say today. But that's not the point, is it? The point is to type and not worry about editing until I'm done and ready to publish the post. And to "warm up" for tonight's revision.
I read a few posts in the blog of a guy I used to play Halo 2 with on Xbox Live. It seems his life is moving in a good, positive direction. He seems to be very physically active with his hobby of ultimate Frisbee, has gotten what seems to be a promotion and is relocating to the Bay Area (much nicer than Sacramento), and is expecting his first child soon. I, on the other hand, am still taking classes on the Montgomery G.I. Bill and trying to stave off my inevitable re-entry into the work world, and as of late February of 2009 am entering my FOURTH year of working on my novel. It's paycheck to paycheck for us (and oftentimes hand to mouth near the end of the month), and I can't very well sell a novel that I can't stop modifying and christen "completed." So Godspeed to me over these 10 days. No booze, no procrastination, no bullshit. I need to haul ass and complete this bastard so that I can worry about getting an agent and becoming published. That is the dream, and it is the reason I accept this rather Spartan lifestyle for the time being. When I have to start working on a resume and going to interviews, my morale's going to plummet. Having a novel on bookstore shelves (even one that doesn't earn out its paltry advance) would help me maintain a degree of sanity when I re-enter the hellish life of cubicle separation and inter-office sniping.
I'm depressing myself.
It's past midnight now, and I swore I'd work on my book when I first woke up. Naturally, and as always, it didn't happen. That's okay; I'm a night worker mostly anyway. I'm starting final revision on scene 22 of 84 tonight, which is a dream flashback of Robbie's trip to the San Francisco Zoo with his parents for his tenth birthday in 1996. Papa's cruel, Mama doesn't protect her boy much, and Robbie wakes up wondering why his mind is filled with bad memories of Mama following her death.
My God, Alex is so whiny tonight he's driving me insane! I'd put my iPod on a high volume right now, but it's in the pawn shop for the moment. Ugh, that shames me. If I'm ever able to live on writing income I'm going to rent an office; Irina and I agree on this point. Anyway, so I'll just plug my the headphones into my new laptop here and go to a Launchcast/Yahoo! music station and turn the volume up high. Actually my new laptop is a "netbook," some kind of relatively new term meaning a stripped-down laptop with limited memory, functions, and features -- including no CD-rom drive! Even it's screen is tiny: 9.5"! But it only cost $300 from the Circuit City website during it's "Going Out of Business" sale, and it serves my purpose. My faithful ($1800) HP laptop that I bought in 2003 finally flamed out so I had to replace it. Call it a business expense, of which I can afford damn few. This one's an HP, too.
Speaking of Launchcast, I heard an amazing piece of music yesterday when I clicked on the "Opera" station as a joke. It was called "Mi Mancherai" and it was performed by two prodigies. One is Josh Groban, who has an awesome voice and who was only 22 when he performed in this clip in 2004. He's a little off on some of the notes, but just a hair, and I didn't even notice until multiple listens. Very talented guy. The other prodigy is an Asian or Pacific Islander-looking woman who looks just as young and plays the violin beautifully. Cut and paste the link below and try it yourself (sorry I don't know how to make a clickable link because I'm lame):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqYxlDKnBa0
DING! Time's up! Thanks for your patience with my rambling.
- Nate
P.S. EDIT: You sure hear some interesting new stuff on Launchcast. This one was under category "Classical Crossover." (I can't listen to music with lyrics when writing; I sing along. Alternately, all music must have foreign language lyrics, thus my occasional experimentation with the "Opera" channel). Listen to this clip at least to the point where Robert Plant would normally begin singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiTlYJfr6DA
I read a few posts in the blog of a guy I used to play Halo 2 with on Xbox Live. It seems his life is moving in a good, positive direction. He seems to be very physically active with his hobby of ultimate Frisbee, has gotten what seems to be a promotion and is relocating to the Bay Area (much nicer than Sacramento), and is expecting his first child soon. I, on the other hand, am still taking classes on the Montgomery G.I. Bill and trying to stave off my inevitable re-entry into the work world, and as of late February of 2009 am entering my FOURTH year of working on my novel. It's paycheck to paycheck for us (and oftentimes hand to mouth near the end of the month), and I can't very well sell a novel that I can't stop modifying and christen "completed." So Godspeed to me over these 10 days. No booze, no procrastination, no bullshit. I need to haul ass and complete this bastard so that I can worry about getting an agent and becoming published. That is the dream, and it is the reason I accept this rather Spartan lifestyle for the time being. When I have to start working on a resume and going to interviews, my morale's going to plummet. Having a novel on bookstore shelves (even one that doesn't earn out its paltry advance) would help me maintain a degree of sanity when I re-enter the hellish life of cubicle separation and inter-office sniping.
I'm depressing myself.
It's past midnight now, and I swore I'd work on my book when I first woke up. Naturally, and as always, it didn't happen. That's okay; I'm a night worker mostly anyway. I'm starting final revision on scene 22 of 84 tonight, which is a dream flashback of Robbie's trip to the San Francisco Zoo with his parents for his tenth birthday in 1996. Papa's cruel, Mama doesn't protect her boy much, and Robbie wakes up wondering why his mind is filled with bad memories of Mama following her death.
My God, Alex is so whiny tonight he's driving me insane! I'd put my iPod on a high volume right now, but it's in the pawn shop for the moment. Ugh, that shames me. If I'm ever able to live on writing income I'm going to rent an office; Irina and I agree on this point. Anyway, so I'll just plug my the headphones into my new laptop here and go to a Launchcast/Yahoo! music station and turn the volume up high. Actually my new laptop is a "netbook," some kind of relatively new term meaning a stripped-down laptop with limited memory, functions, and features -- including no CD-rom drive! Even it's screen is tiny: 9.5"! But it only cost $300 from the Circuit City website during it's "Going Out of Business" sale, and it serves my purpose. My faithful ($1800) HP laptop that I bought in 2003 finally flamed out so I had to replace it. Call it a business expense, of which I can afford damn few. This one's an HP, too.
Speaking of Launchcast, I heard an amazing piece of music yesterday when I clicked on the "Opera" station as a joke. It was called "Mi Mancherai" and it was performed by two prodigies. One is Josh Groban, who has an awesome voice and who was only 22 when he performed in this clip in 2004. He's a little off on some of the notes, but just a hair, and I didn't even notice until multiple listens. Very talented guy. The other prodigy is an Asian or Pacific Islander-looking woman who looks just as young and plays the violin beautifully. Cut and paste the link below and try it yourself (sorry I don't know how to make a clickable link because I'm lame):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqYxlDKnBa0
DING! Time's up! Thanks for your patience with my rambling.
- Nate
P.S. EDIT: You sure hear some interesting new stuff on Launchcast. This one was under category "Classical Crossover." (I can't listen to music with lyrics when writing; I sing along. Alternately, all music must have foreign language lyrics, thus my occasional experimentation with the "Opera" channel). Listen to this clip at least to the point where Robert Plant would normally begin singing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiTlYJfr6DA
posted by Nate at 12:25 AM
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