Today I didn’t do much that was creative. I read some more of Word Work, and I played Literati online with my wife and sister-in-law. It’s nice having broadband at home now, but I hope I’ll be able to resist the temptation to waste all my time on it.
Today, I was not successful in that regard.
There used to be a different page here, but I haven’t the foggiest idea what the topic was, and the file is not on my backup tape. I hate that feeling. I guess it’s possible that I just missed a day, but I thought I had an August 29th file in here. Hmmm …
Ah! I remember! I was planning to go to an open mic poetry reading at Coffee on the Lowell this night, but when I got home I found out that my wife had bought me an early birthday present and she wanted me to open it. It was a new home stereo system, and I spent the next hour and a half playing around with it and setting it up. That was a very sweet gesture for her to make, especially since my birthday isn’t for another month!
Anyway, I didn’t make it to Coffee on the Lowell, but I did get inspired to write a silly little poem anyway. Maybe next month I can present it as a small bit of comedy at the open mic.
As I promised yesterday, I did write a review of Sophie’s World today. I was a little surprised that the review didn’t come out as positive as I expected; I genuinely enjoyed the book, but I’m afraid the review may not come across that way. Thanks to Michael Main for introducing me to Jostein Gaarder’s work. (By the way, Michael, I saw the picture of the neon computer on your site, and I’m suitably jealous.)
I also started reading Bruce Holland Rogers’ Word Work today. I’m definitely biased here, since I’ve studied writing with Bruce, but it felt like he was talking to my soul in the first fifty pages. I didn’t want to return to work after lunch; I wanted to read and write. The man certainly has an infectious passion for his chosen craft.
I also replaced all of the links to my old e-mail address on this website. All new mail should go to lytspeed_web@comcast.net now. If you see any other e-mail links that I missed, please let me know.
I took off work early today to meet the cable installer, also known as The Savior. The Savior arrived on time, and quickly installed the big pipe in my bedroom. (I’ll let you make up your own jokes there.)
Unfortunately, he couldn’t install a cable jack in the office down the hall; he said something about AT&T regulations regarding passageways in the home, and since my town home unit is is the middle of the structure, he couldn’t do much with outside walls. That means I have a CAT5 cable stretched from the bedroom, over the doors and down the hallway to the office. When I get time, I’ll run that up to the ceiling and secure it more properly.
Initial speed tests varied between 1.1 and 2.0 Mbps download, with 256 Kbps upload. I think I can live with that. My buddy Dave asked me when I was going to be hosting an online Unreal Tournament game now that I’ve got all this bandwidth. I might just have to do that.
I did finish Sophie’s World today, but I spent the evening reveling in the divine glow of fiber optics, so I didn’t get the review written. Maybe I can do that tomorrow.
I almost finished Sophie’s World today. It’s amazing to me how a book can have such high worldwide sales and be so little known in the U.S. That’s probably an indicator of just how egocentric we are as a nation. I should have the book finished by tomorrow, and I will write a review for this site shortly thereafter.
Other projects on the burner include redesigning the West Side Books website, reading and reviewing several different books, finishing the first draft of “Sphere of Success,” revising “Saint and Cynic” and trying to find a home for it, doing the homework for Melanie’s class next week and critiquing a long story for the Writer’s Circle group for the week after that. Oh yeah, painting, wainscoting, and wallpapering, too. Oy.
It’s probably not smart for me to rattle off a ton of things like that. It’s daunting. It’s like saying, “I need to lose 150 pounds in three months,” when a more realistic goal would be to lose 15 pounds in three months. That said, let me revise my project list.
This week, I need to write a review of Sophie’s World and complete a basic redesign of the West Side Books website.
The week after that, I need to work on “Sphere of Success” and “Saint and Cynic,” as well as doing the homework for Melanie’s class.
The week after that, I need to critique the long manuscript for The Writer’s Circle.
Home improvements can come on the weekends.
Well, I didn’t drop anything from the list, and I only slightly reworded it, but it does seem a little less daunting now that it’s broken up into weeks with specific goals.
Somewhere in there, after I get broadband tomorrow, I will need to work on the network at home, but that’s almost a relaxing activity for me.
