February 3, 2010

A New Low/High in Nerddom

So I’ve mentioned before that I picked up a motorola droid recently for my new job and have been playing with it relentlessly. One of the many things I like to do with a moment of downtime is browse the android marketplace- lots of interesting things in there (I browse just the free section currently). Anyways, in the marketplace is an app that looks like a star trek tricorder. When I first saw it, I downloaded it thinking it would be a neat little image display that I could taunt my friend The General with (he’s a big trek fan) when I see him later this year.

February 1, 2010

Dear Signature Consulting…

My resume says “does not wish to relocate.” 1) You’re calling me about a position in Iowa. I live in Michigan. It says Michigan on my resume. Right next to “does not wish to relocate.” You think I’m gonna bite? Even if (on the off chance) the job paid a small fortune… really? Iowa? IT’S WINTER! Michigan is cold, but at least there’s stuff to look at here. …Now, if it was in Tahiti you might get my attention.

January 16, 2010

Shit.

(03:42:42 PM) Jackie: do you know what your son did!? (03:46:06 PM) Jesse Morgan: ? (03:52:19 PM) Jackie: we made it to KFC, he was good. He fell asleep in the car and woke up slightly when we got here. He went back to bed oh so well. That was my first mistake (03:53:09 PM) Jackie: he says he has to go to the bathroom. Much to my dismay, he already had and had spent a few minutes painting his wall and window

January 16, 2010

Toys

For the new job, I had to go out and get my own cellphone.Â Since my last workphone had been Sprint (and that’s what Jackie has), I figured I’d stay with them. My last three phones had also been blackberries, and while they’d been fairly reliable, I couldn’t turn down the chance to get a new, shiny android phone. I did a bit of research and found out there were only two android phones that sprint carried- the Hero and the Moment.

January 1, 2010

Rough Draft complete! The Autobiography of Ziggy Swift: The Fall

The second half of Ziggy’s autobiography has finally reached the finished rough draft stage. I was just starting the 3rd draft of The Rise when November (NaNoWriMo) struck, and I dropped everything to begin The Fall. Now that the rough draft of The Fall is complete, I can go back to revising the The Rise. It’s been a wild journey tracking this story; my initial vision had been a single book, but it quickly grew into something larger than that.

December 23, 2009

New Job.

So I recently accepted a new job as many people have heard. While I gave 2 weeks notice, due to my access my manager was kind enough to walk me out that day (thanks mick). This means I’ll get paid for the next 2 weeks per my notice without actually having to work. I just want to be clear that this is *AWESOME*, not rude or lame. New job will be as a Linux/Tomcat administrator.

December 6, 2009

Anachronistic Idioms In Fantasy Writing

“The petrified dragon hit the ground like a freight train, sending ripples across the field and shards of stone in all directions.” It’s a simple enough saying, yet Ziggy can’t say it. Why? Because in his world, there are no freight trains. Now, while Ziggy’s brain has been shattered into a million pieces, and he often sees glimpses of other worlds, there are problems with him using the phrase. I’ve thought long and hard about the best course of action whenever I’m writing and this phrase comes to mind.

December 3, 2009

Burmat the Useful

One of the characters in my book is a wizard who is only allowed to stay in Willis because he knows no “battle” spells- i.e. fireballs, fire shield, etc. Now as many DnD players know, sometimes the best offensive spell is a simple utility spell- Grease, Floating Disk, Shatter, Spider Climb, Sepia Snake Sigil, illusions, flying, haste, teleport, etc. So, I have a 17th level mage who can only have utility spells, and he needs help a silver dragon defeat a much larger red dragon.

November 28, 2009

50k+ words

earlier this week I crossed the 50k line on Ziggy’s second book. As I ramp down on this and switch back to editing the first book, I’ve been thinking about the different categories of editing. There are several different groupings- Technical, Stylistic, etc… I’m sure there’s an official english language checklist somewhere, but until I find it, I’m gonna try and write them up. Why? Because when it comes time for other people to edit my books, it would be nice if they kept these changes in mind and maybe color coded them so I’d be able to tell what is what.

November 12, 2009

Outstanding

So a coworker just shared a fun story with me- His bank, we’ll call it Pursue Bank, had a nice little glitch in their payment system. when he tried to change how he paid his mortgage. Said bank then charged him not one, not two, but three mortgage payments against his checking account. Then charged him overdraft fees. It’s nice to see someone else suffer from the bad code issues that I see on a weekly basis.