Category Archives: Writing

Two Announcements

By lytspeed Posted in 100 Words A Day, Writing Leave a reply

Good day, everyone. I hope 2009 is treating you well so far. I have two announcements for today.

Announcement #1:

I have joined an elite group of bloggers on the www.100wordsaday.com website. The premise behind this site is that eight writers explore daily life in posts of exactly 100 words. Writers don’t have to post every day, but between the eight writers there should be at least one post of 100 words every day. All posts are non-fiction, but creativity is encouraged.

I saw the notice about the open blogger slot on Craigslist; I have no idea how many people sent samples to the site, but of all the submitters, I was chosen. I guess the site owner liked my samples.

I look at this as a great writing exercise. I’ve played with the 100 words concept before, but that was fiction-based. I’m looking forward to creating occasional 100 word posts that are not cryptic, but still tell a story or express an opinion by themselves.

Announcement #2:

Today, my stepson (Logan) will be competing in the Colorado Virtual Academy (COVA) spelling bee in Castle Rock at 2:00 PM MST. COVA is a publicly funded home-schooling organization that uses the K12.com curriculum, and since its students are home schooled, they are scattered throughout Colorado. Logan already competed in and won his regional COVA spelling bee last month, and today’s bee will bring all the regional winners from around Colorado to determine who will represent COVA in the Colorado State Scripps-Howard spelling bee in March. (In that sense, it’s like a district spelling bee in a traditional school setup.)

Last year, when Logan was going to the Pinnacle Charter School, he won that spelling bee and qualified to attend the Scripps-Howard bee. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it past the written round at state, and this is the last year he will be eligible to compete, so we’re hoping he will do well at the COVA-wide bee today.

I will be attempting to live blog Logan’s progress via my phone on my Facebook wall, if anyone is interested in following along. (Feel free to add me as a friend if you have a Facebook account. The same goes for Twitter.)

2008 Resolution Results

By lytspeed Posted in Music, Writing 1 Reply

Sporadically through the last year, I’ve followed up on how my numerous resolutions for 2008 were holding up. Here’s the final evaluation for 2008.

Creativity

1. Write more consistently, whether journaling, blogging, or creative writing.

Although I haven’t blogged much more than the prior couple of years, I have done a decent amount of writing and website design to support writing. I became the webmaster and a contributing editor for Rough Road Review, a poetry and opinion journal with a distinctly southwestern flavor. I also scored another regular writing gig (see below.)

I mentioned Ficlets.com in my last resolutions post back in May. Unfortunately, I just found out that Ficlets.com is shutting down as of January 15, 2009. That’s a bummer. It was really a neat little site. I didn’t wind up contributing more than one piece to it, but I read a lot of the pieces on there. I will repost my one Ficlet submission here soon.

2. Find another outlet for article writing (since ComputorEdge has gone virtual.)

Back in May, I said, “… I did hear back from another [computer magazine], which is in its startup phase. We’ll see how that one works out.” It actually worked out very well. I’m now writing for Rocky Mountain TechLine at pro rates, and have been given assignments for four straight issues. W00t! The Editor/Publisher, Eric Wolferman, is wonderful to work with, and very encouraging. Through his influence, I think my non-fiction writing has taken a step up.

3. Publish some fiction. (Didn’t I say this last year?)

Um … Yeah. 2009, here I come.

4. Play more musical gigs.

My band, Steel River 3, played numerous gigs this year, and I have a new favorite coffeehouse because of it: Forza Coffee Company. Although I rarely drink coffee, the atmosphere at this place is wonderful, and the owner clearly cares very much about making his shop the best it can be.

5. Start teaching my stepson how to play guitar (his request, my responsibility to follow up.)

In May, I said, “It’s clear that Logan needs a Logan-sized guitar with standard tuning, but I haven’t had the money to get him one.” I’m pleased to say we did get him a Fender Mini Strat and amp, but I haven’t kept up my responsibility to teach him. For Christmas, I got him a new set of tuners for the Mini; the ones it came with don’t hold tune well. After I install those tuners and a fresh set of strings, we will work on the lessons.

6. Transplant my Variax electronics into a Carvin Bolt kit or Warmoth guitar body.

Money wasn’t there for this project, but I’m hoping to do it in 2009.

Physical & Mental Health

1. Learn how to get up earlier, consistently.

I have become more consistent about when I get up, though I stopped trying to get up as early as I was before, so this one was only a 50/50 accomplishment.

2. Utilize my handheld BalanceLog software to track my eating and exercising habits.

In May: “I haven’t been using it, but I’m at my lowest weight in the last few years. Go figure.” It’s amazing what can happen in a few months. Starting in September, I started gaining weight, and I’m just now starting to turn the trend around. What do you want to bet that if I had been tracking calories I wouldn’t have gained at the end of the year?

3. Ride my bike or walk to work more often. (If I get up earlier, this is not a problem!)

I did a bit of riding, but not enough, this summer. Currently, my bike is disabled (damn goatheads!) and the load of stuff I carry to work has increased, so I need to get a backpack. Both fixes are cheap, though.

4. Schedule dental appointments to get my teeth taken care of.

I attended my dreaded dental appointment, and my suspicions were confirmed. I will need a two-stage deep cleaning, and then oral surgery to remove three wisdom teeth that came in crooked. (The fourth grew in sideways, and is technically impacted, but the dentist recommends leaving it there because there is no chance it will ever erupt.) Unfortunately, we ran out of flex plan money in September, so I had to postpone the above procedures until 2009.

Financial Health

1. Get the amp out of the pawn shop, and never put it in again.

2008 was a horrible year as far as music equipment goes. Add to this list a 1996 Takamine acoustic-electric, the Carvin Bolt guitar kit I built in honor of my Uncle Leslie (see pic below) and a Fender Cyber-Twin Ver. 2.1 amplifier. I hung on to my Variax modeling guitar because it was the most versatile for playing gigs. The year ended on a positive note, however. I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful new Epiphone acoustic guitar from my wife and sister-in-law for Christmas. Right now, my Variax is in the pawn shop, but I will be able to get it out by the end of January. One of next year’s goals will be to set up an emergency fund to prevent the need for pawn shop patronage.

Carvin Bolt Guitar (from kit): Leslie

2. Continue to provide quality computer consulting, but stop devaluing my services as much.

Consulting work continued to grow throughout the year, to the point where I had too many consulting jobs at one point and had to start turning them down. I think I did better regarding the value of my services, but there was one special circumstance in which I basically worked gratis. I don’t regret that, though. I did it for the right reasons, though I probably put it at a higher priority on my list than I should have.

3. Keep current on space rent, car payment, mortgage, and car insurance.

Things are looking up financially. We are current on our mortgage and space rent, car insurance will be paid this weekend, and we have eliminated the car payment altogether. We voluntarily returned our worthless van to the dealer, who then sold it at auction for $167.50. Yes, you read that right. We are stuck with a large balance on the loan, but that will be going away in the bankruptcy we decided to file in October. By the end of February, we should have paid off the bankruptcy attorney so we can remove that debt, as well as a number of other judgments (medical, etc.) that are threatening our livelihood.

It seems odd to say that things are looking up because we’re filing bankruptcy, but that’s becoming a sign of the times, I think.

4. Make a spending plan (a.k.a. budget) and stick to it.

I didn’t do too well with this, but I did what I could. I already have a more balanced spending plan in place for 2009.

5. Track finances better with Quicken on computer and handheld.

I utterly failed at this, because we lived paycheck-to-paycheck all year long. Hopefully 2009 will be better.

Home Improvements

1. Clean cat boxes daily.

This resolution started out well, and finished very poorly. I will definitely need to reaffirm this one.

2. Help more with household chores without having to be asked.

I think it’s safe to say that I improved overall in this area.

3. Reduce household clutter gradually (this will help mental health, too.)

As of late August 2008, this became impossible. Lannette’s father and sister moved out to Denver and lived with us (at our invitation, of course.) Her father has since found another place and moved into it, but her sister is not at a point where she can afford to live on her own yet. As long as we have an extra person living in the house, we will have to live with clutter, and I’m resigned to that.

4. Upgrade my computer (new mobo, RAM, and video.)

I actually accomplished this one in its entirety! Of course, it helped that my old motherboard completely died, so I was forced to upgrade.

5. Replace carpet with hardwood flooring throughout the house.

Money to do this was simply not there in 2008. Hopefully we can do this after the bankruptcy is finalized.

6. Landscape yard.

Well, my neighbor certainly did his part to help with this. He put a lot of work into building a partial low wall where we had discussed putting one. He used all the materials he had, but then I was unable to afford the materials we needed to finish the job.

7. Install carport/awning.

See #5 above.

Overall, I think I made some progress in all categories, which is not so bad. I still have room to improve, and I will need to recommit to some goals, but I’m ending the year knowing there’s hope, and that’s worth a lot to me.

About those resolutions …

By lytspeed Posted in Fiction, General, Music, Non-Fiction, Writing 5 Replies

Back in February, I followed up on how I was doing with my New Year’s Resolutions after only a month. I was surprised to find that I was doing pretty well. Let’s see how I’m doing now that we’re five months into the year.

Creativity

1. Write more consistently, whether journaling, blogging, or creative writing.

I haven’t been able to attend my writing group for the last month or so because the meeting day changed due to a scheduling conflict for Melanie, the group’s instructor. I don’t have to have a writing group to write; I could blog every day if I simply had the motivation, and that would count as writing. In other words, I just used the writing group as an excuse for not writing. Sorry, Melanie. I take that back and restate it thus: I have not met my goal of writing more consistently.

I did, however, finally check out Ficlets.com after reading about it a few times on Wil Wheaton’s blog in exile. More on that a little later in this post.

2. Find another outlet for article writing (since ComputorEdge has gone virtual.)

I never heard from one of the computer magazines to which I sent a query letter, but I did hear back from another one, which is in its startup phase. We’ll see how that one works out. In the meantime, I wrote a second pro bono feature article for ComputorEdge, officially my 25th article for them. (Link goes to a PDF of the online issue.)

3. Publish some fiction. (Didn’t I say this last year?)

Other than putting a little piece up on Ficlets, I haven’t done anything in this regard except think about it. I think I like Ficlets, though. I’m a fan of structured writing, and the 1K limit on posts forces me to write tightly.

4. Play more musical gigs.

SR3 has played a couple of gigs recently, and we have a few more lined up. We will probably play at Federal Heights Day on September 20, as well.

5. Start teaching my stepson how to play guitar (his request, my responsibility to follow up.)

We haven’t done much with this since our initial attempts. It’s clear that Logan needs a Logan-sized guitar with standard tuning, but I haven’t had the money to get him one.

6. Transplant my Variax electronics into a Carvin Bolt kit or Warmoth guitar body.

I’m still not in a position to do this yet. I have scaled back my grandiose plans, though, and will be simply transplanting the Variax electronics into a nice body and adding a tremolo. I’ll save the passive pickups for a future project.

Physical & Mental Health

1. Learn how to get up earlier, consistently.

Through March, I did very well with this. However, I’m back to having a hard time getting up on time in the morning. In an effort to make progress, I have stopped taking the medication that was making me bleary-eyed in the morning, with no apparent negative effects. The key is going to be consistency. I need to get to bed at the same time on most nights, and then I will be able to get up on time easier.

2. Utilize my handheld BalanceLog software to track my eating and exercising habits.

Again, I haven’t been using it, but I’m at my lowest weight in the last few years. Go figure.

3. Ride my bike or walk to work more often. (If I get up earlier, this is not a problem!)

I still have not ridden my bike to work as much as I would like. Now that spring is here, I really have no excuse.

4. Schedule dental appointments to get my teeth taken care of.

I have not done this yet, despite my wife’s repeated urgings to do so. I’ve definitely dropped the ball on this one.

Financial Health

1. Get the amp out of the pawn shop, and never put it in again.

I had planned to get the amp out in February, but then I got a major wage garnishment from the State of Colorado for back taxes. (This relates to the 401k disbursement I took to buy my house not long before Intermountain Color — now Signature Offset — fired me and two other managers with no severance pay.) With this garnishment almost behind me, I’m hoping to get the amp out soon, as well as the two guitars I had to pawn in order to make rent and mortgage payments. 🙁

2. Continue to provide quality computer consulting, but stop devaluing my services as much.

I’ve been doing well on consulting. In the last week alone, I have made over $200 on consulting. I also have decided to take on the web hosting and design for a liberal poetry and essay site. In the interest of no longer devaluing my services, I parted ways with Flying Pen Press in March. The amount of time I spent working on the site was not worth the return I received when compared with other consulting jobs, so I officially resigned as their webmaster. I wish no one in the company any ill will, and I still want the company to succeed. I simply won’t be part of it when they do.

3. Keep current on space rent, car payment, mortgage, and car insurance.

Because of the garnishment I mentioned earlier, we did get behind on mortgage and space rent again. With my next check, the garnishment will be over, and we have a payment plan in place to have both space rent and mortgage payments current as of May 31 (including the June mortgage payment!) After August, things will be easier, because our mortgage will go down by about $275 per month. Before then, I should be receiving a raise at work, as well. See that light at the end of the tunnel? It’s actually daylight, not a train this time.

4. Make a spending plan (a.k.a. budget) and stick to it.

The “Mad Money” budget that I made is working pretty well, although most of my Mad Money has either gone into the gas tank or to help pay bills. Again, after my (hopeful) raise and reduction in mortgage payment, it should be much easier to stick to the budget, as well as pay down other old debts.

5. Track finances better with Quicken on computer and handheld.

I have completely fallen off the wagon with Quicken since my last post about this. I need to take statements for the last three months and reconcile them with my Quicken account so I can get back on track.

Home Improvements

1. Clean cat boxes daily.

I started out the year well with this chore, but I’ve fallen back again. I’m not as bad about it as I once was, but I’m definitely not in the habit of cleaning the boxes daily. This is one of the simple things that I can control; I just need to do it.

2. Help more with household chores without having to be asked.

I still help out in the kitchen, though not as much as I was. Again, I’ve backslid on this, and again, it’s something I can control.

3. Reduce household clutter gradually (this will help mental health, too.)

This is a tough one. Lannette and I have too much stuff and not enough room, and although I consider myself to be fastidious, I get overwhelmed with clutter and give up. We have made some changes; the city had a trash amnesty day recently, in which we got rid of quite a bit of unused stuff, and we’ve re-arranged some of the storage cabinets inside the house to make them more useful. Lannette found a china hutch and buffet on Freecycle, which allowed us to free up one of our huge bookshelves that we had been using as a pantry. This means I can bring in the books that I still have in storage in our shed. 🙂

4. Upgrade my computer (new mobo, RAM, and video.)

Eventually, my old motherboard died forever. The culprit: bad capacitors. I have fixed other motherboards with similar problems, but this one had far too many capacitors leaking brown fluid to spend time replacing them all. So, I was forced to upgrade to a new board, and now I have a great base upon which to build. Unfortunately, I’m running onboard video because I couldn’t afford to get a new PCI-E video card to go with the new board. When I can, I will get a good video card and maybe get back into gaming a bit.

5. Replace carpet with hardwood flooring throughout the house.

No change here. I really hope we can do this this summer. It will take a good chunk of money and a lot of work, but it will get rid of the carpet that the cats ruined, will make the house easier to keep clean, and will increase the value of our home.

6. Landscape yard.

Things are moving on this front. The park where I live replaced some poorly made rampart walls with better ones, driving piles into the hillside to help support the walls. This left a lot of old rampart bricks available for resident use, so my neighbor collected a lot of them. His lot sits about four feet below mine, and we would both like to see a low wall placed along the property line, which I would backfill with the dirt I moved into our back yard when building our shed three years ago. I just found a $10 used wheelbarrow to help with this task. My neighbor doesn’t have enough bricks to run the length of the yard at the height we need, but I promised him that I would purchase the necessary bricks to bring the wall up level with my yard later this summer.

7. Install carport/awning.

Nothing has changed in this regard. I would love it if I could build one of these this year. I can envision it, but I don’t know if I can afford to do it, either in terms of money or time.

Overall, it feels like I’ve backslid since February, particularly in the areas of keeping up with the catboxes and the household chores. The garnishment didn’t help things any, and if I’m able to rescue my amp and guitars, I will be very surprised and happy. I just hope there’s not another garnishment waiting around the corner.

Powerful Post by Trey R. Barker

By lytspeed Posted in Friends, Writing Leave a reply

Trey R. Barker is a friend of mine. He’s a Renaissance Man of sorts, having put his fingers in everything from radio to live theatre to music to writing to law enforcement, which is how he currently makes his living. He’s a Deputy in Princeton, Illinois, but because of posts like this, he will always be a writer in my eyes.

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

I am not writer enough to put the stink of the cats and dogs and her own excreta and body stench and rotted food in your clothes and nose the way it was in mine for days. And you’ll never understand how the reek of booze was foundational to every odor in the place, as though it were the concrete slab upon which the house was built.

I simply can not write that well.

Yeah, right, Trey.

Here’s the post in Trey R. Barker’s Bullets and Whiskey blog

Resolutions follow-up #1

By lytspeed Posted in General, Music, Writing Leave a reply

Since it’s February, I figured I’d better check in and see how I’m doing with my 2008 resolutions. Without having looked back at the list, I think I’m doing pretty well, but we’ll see. Following is a list of the resolutions and how I’ve done on each.

Creativity

1. Write more consistently, whether journaling, blogging, or creative writing.

I have been blogging and journaling more, though not always publicly. I haven’t done any creative writing, though.

2. Find another outlet for article writing (since ComputorEdge has gone virtual.)

I sent a query letter to another computer magazine, but have received no response. I am considering writing for a website that gives ad revenue shares, but am still on the fence about that one. My experience with Associated Content leaves a lot to be desired, but much of that is probably on my shoulders for not marketing my writing there enough.

3. Publish some fiction. (Didn’t I say this last year?)

I’ve done nothing in this regard as yet.

4. Play more musical gigs.

Steel River Three has a gig scheduled on March 29th. That’s a start.

5. Start teaching my stepson how to play guitar (his request, my responsibility to follow up.)

We started on this, and he’s done a great job of learning the first position notes. It’s clear, though, that a full size guitar is not going to work for him right now. His left arm is not long enough to have proper hand position on the low frets, and that will lead to poor playing habits and frustration for him. This is what he needs, I think. Unlike some of the other mini guitars, it actually tunes to standard EADGBE tuning, which is important for playing along with other instruments.

6. Transplant my Variax electronics into a Carvin Bolt kit or Warmoth guitar body.

This takes money, and I’m not in a position to do it yet.

Physical & Mental Health

1. Learn how to get up earlier, consistently.

The first half of the month, I got up consistently at 6:00 AM. The second half of the month, though, I started taking new prescription meds (part of the mental health thing) and am still working out the adjustments to my sleep schedule.

2. Utilize my handheld BalanceLog software to track my eating and exercising habits.

I did this for about a week before I fell off the wagon. The odd thing is that I’m still losing weight.

3. Ride my bike or walk to work more often. (If I get up earlier, this is not a problem!)

I have ridden and walked a few times, but not as much as I’d hoped.

4. Schedule dental appointments to get my teeth taken care of.

I just added this one. It was already one of my goals, but I forgot to include it in the original Resolutions list. I’m certain I will need oral surgery; I have wisdom teeth that have come in vastly crooked over the years and are damaging the insides of my cheeks. I also have at least one extra tooth below the gum on the lower right that will probably need to come out. I’m not looking forward to this; I am very afraid of surgery, and the one surgery I’ve had didn’t go well. (It was outpatient surgery, and I had a panic attack in the middle of it.) Anyway, the dentist is lined up, I just need to make the appointment.

Financial Health

1. Get the amp out of the pawn shop, and never put it in again.

My plan is to get it out this month, then I’m going to learn how to play Fleetwood Mac’s “Never Goin’ Back Again” as a reinforcement to never take it back to the pawn shop.

2. Continue to provide quality computer consulting, but stop devaluing my services as much.

I’ve had several consulting gigs in the last month, and the small amount of extra money has helped. I haven’t raised my rates, but I also haven’t given away as much of my time (except to family, whom I don’t think I should charge.)

3. Keep current on space rent, car payment, mortgage, and car insurance.

The mortgage is current, the car payment is current, and the space rent will be current by next weekend, as will the car insurance. (The insurance is not in default, the payment is just late.) I’m considering talking to the mortgage company about changing our payment date, if possible.

4. Make a spending plan (a.k.a. budget) and stick to it.

I made the budget, but sticking to it has been hard. Part of the plan is to give both me and Lannette a specific amount of “mad money” per paycheck to spend as we wish, with the rest of my paycheck going to a household account for paying bills.

5. Track finances better with Quicken on computer and handheld.

After having some initial trouble getting Pocket Quicken to work with Quicken 2008 (and receiving very little helpful support from Landware, the developer of Pocket Quicken, who just dropped communication when they couldn’t solve the problem), I finally have my accounts syncing up correctly and am entering all transactions in the handheld. I know at any given time exactly how much money is available and when all bills clear.

Home Improvements

1. Clean cat boxes daily.

This may sound silly, but I’m very proud of this one. Although I love my cats, I hate cleaning cat boxes, and that has led to behavioral problems (i.e. peeing on the floor) before. Every day in January, I cleaned both cat boxes, and it now feels like a habit, which was my goal. I also realized part of the way through the month that since I was cleaning the cat boxes, I may as well clean the ferret’s litter box daily, too, which had been my wife’s chore (by her choice.) Makes sense; I have the scooper, so I may as well do it, right? My thanks go out to the ZenHabits.net forums for providing a place to check in daily to reinforce the habit formation.

2. Help more with household chores without having to be asked.

I’ve done well with this over the last couple of weeks. I’ve kept up with the dishes and the trash (for the most part) and I’m finding that when I get started on one chore, the others naturally follow. I hope I can continue this habit.

3. Reduce household clutter gradually (this will help mental health, too.)

In addition to moving my main dresser to a more convenient location in the bedroom, I also picked up a suitcase that had been laying on the floor and constricting access to the master bathroom for months. One final toe-stubbing was all it took. There is still a lot of clutter, but this is something that I expect to work on a little at a time over the year. Otherwise, it will seem insurmountable.

4. Upgrade my computer (new mobo, RAM, and video.)

This really needs to happen, but I don’t have the money right now. My motherboard is losing track of its USB ports and it has started taking 5 minutes to POST when booted. 🙁

5. Replace carpet with hardwood flooring throughout the house.

I really hope we can do this this summer. It will take a good chunk of money and a lot of work, but it will get rid of the carpet that the cats ruined, will make the house easier to keep clean, and will increase the value of our home.

6. Landscape yard.

This is something that will have to happen in spring, if it happens, and it will just take some significant shovel and back work. (And money, again.)

7. Install carport/awning.

I would love it if I could build one of these this year. I can envision it, but I don’t know if I can afford to do it, either in terms of money or time.

Well, not bad. Of the twenty-two resolutions I set forth, I have made at least some progress on twelve of them, and taken steps toward another three. I feel good about that.

How are you guys doing on your resolutions?