I'm pretty sure everyone here knows about this, but I wanted to note in the family timeline that I'm planning to donate a kidney. I've been planning to do this for a long time now, but I wrote about it here, in case you haven't seen that yet.
Perhaps Kels or even a guest blogger will be interested in sharing more about what that looks like to Team GW. Perhaps they will be interested in writing for my hypothetical book of short stories about kidney donation. If finding a job takes too long, that's going to be what I work on to keep myself busy. More on that later.
Things are good here- we are planning a camping trip to the Olympics for Thanksgiving, and STILL get to eat stuffing with the family this Sunday. Work is winding down, but I feel like this is a nice time of year for some free time.
Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Thursday, September 13, 2012
Choose Your Own Adventure
This is TERRIBLE, and I promise I will do everything in my power to be
sure that Tyler doesn't miss out on this important cultural and
imaginative experience. Or a few things at least.
I was looking for a metaphor for a non-linear presentation (for work- so to use with imaginary high school students), and I thought "Obvs, Choose Your Own Adventure Books." Because this is such a touchstone for me I use the phrase regularly in conversation, I am not even going to bother to explain the glory of navigating your own way through a book, I'll just assume you know how stellar that is. And then I thought, I wonder if kids these days have even heard of that? I was really thinking, "I bet my parents were more in-tuned to kid lit than most parents, I wonder if these were widely distributed?" I was not even entertaining the possibility that these books might be out of print.
Google affirms that this series went out of print in 1990! So anyone under the age of 22 (probably older) actually has no idea what I am talking about when I say Choose Your Own Adventure. The horror!
--UPDATE-- STOP PANICKING---
I misread that article, and the books have been wildly popular through the late 90s, and as far as I can tell are still in sporadic print. All is right with the World.
I was looking for a metaphor for a non-linear presentation (for work- so to use with imaginary high school students), and I thought "Obvs, Choose Your Own Adventure Books." Because this is such a touchstone for me I use the phrase regularly in conversation, I am not even going to bother to explain the glory of navigating your own way through a book, I'll just assume you know how stellar that is. And then I thought, I wonder if kids these days have even heard of that? I was really thinking, "I bet my parents were more in-tuned to kid lit than most parents, I wonder if these were widely distributed?" I was not even entertaining the possibility that these books might be out of print.
Google affirms that this series went out of print in 1990! So anyone under the age of 22 (probably older) actually has no idea what I am talking about when I say Choose Your Own Adventure. The horror!
--UPDATE-- STOP PANICKING---
I misread that article, and the books have been wildly popular through the late 90s, and as far as I can tell are still in sporadic print. All is right with the World.
Friday, May 4, 2012
Blah-blah-blog
I have two main excuse for intermittent blogging- 1- working and job hunting keeps me crazy busy, 2- I see my primary audience quite often. I tend to think of my core readership as, well... Nana. And I see her about as often as I might blog, so it seems less pressing to get a post together. But I blog for my MOMMY, so here is a little effort.
Real quick, no updates on the job front. Although I sometimes wonder if I'll ever miss semi-regular coffee meetings with strangers and unending follow-up/scheduling meetings. Ahahaha...
I'm taking this class at the community college which is proving to be interesting. Introduction to Project Management- it's a good add-on skill to the many skills I have (on the other blog, I am using my job hunt as a case study for project management). I am thinking about taking the next class,or possible the Intro to Technical Writing Class, or possibly... studying for the patent agent bar- because having a B.Sc. in Biochemistry allows me to skip Law School for this purpose. Basically, I'm bored with not knowing where my career is going so I am scrambling to make up more viable paths for myself. Would anyone like to weigh in on which of these things seem most in-line with my interests in skills?
Mom and Dad were down for one scant day over the weekend, but it was enough to showcase the great digs Nana has set up in Bothell and catch up a little. I don't mind if they come for short visits so long as they come often. On a related note, the campaign to have the first "Post-Retirement Vacay" at my house has already started. Noel, I think we could easily rope together a couple legs of this journey, as a "Make Dad jealous of Mom's travel schedule and want to retire, too" trip. We can discuss more later.
Matt's CDL class is moving along. They've been driving on the streets, and will probably be on the highway this weekend. I'm glad he is making progress, but I can't wait for it to be over. To adjust to his new hectic schedule, we are trying (trying) to go for some short runs in the evening. I don't mind jogging at night, but it seems silly to do after some of the beautiful days we've had here. Matt is just about down to a 6 minute mile (what?!), and whatever his whole warm-up/cool down cycle is is how long it takes me to run a mile as well. Oh, and another favor dear readers: I am re-reading a Terry Pratchett book (Feet of Clay, I forgot how much I like that one), which is a sign that I am both over-extended, and out of good reading material. Suggestions?
Real quick, no updates on the job front. Although I sometimes wonder if I'll ever miss semi-regular coffee meetings with strangers and unending follow-up/scheduling meetings. Ahahaha...
I'm taking this class at the community college which is proving to be interesting. Introduction to Project Management- it's a good add-on skill to the many skills I have (on the other blog, I am using my job hunt as a case study for project management). I am thinking about taking the next class,or possible the Intro to Technical Writing Class, or possibly... studying for the patent agent bar- because having a B.Sc. in Biochemistry allows me to skip Law School for this purpose. Basically, I'm bored with not knowing where my career is going so I am scrambling to make up more viable paths for myself. Would anyone like to weigh in on which of these things seem most in-line with my interests in skills?
Mom and Dad were down for one scant day over the weekend, but it was enough to showcase the great digs Nana has set up in Bothell and catch up a little. I don't mind if they come for short visits so long as they come often. On a related note, the campaign to have the first "Post-Retirement Vacay" at my house has already started. Noel, I think we could easily rope together a couple legs of this journey, as a "Make Dad jealous of Mom's travel schedule and want to retire, too" trip. We can discuss more later.
Matt's CDL class is moving along. They've been driving on the streets, and will probably be on the highway this weekend. I'm glad he is making progress, but I can't wait for it to be over. To adjust to his new hectic schedule, we are trying (trying) to go for some short runs in the evening. I don't mind jogging at night, but it seems silly to do after some of the beautiful days we've had here. Matt is just about down to a 6 minute mile (what?!), and whatever his whole warm-up/cool down cycle is is how long it takes me to run a mile as well. Oh, and another favor dear readers: I am re-reading a Terry Pratchett book (Feet of Clay, I forgot how much I like that one), which is a sign that I am both over-extended, and out of good reading material. Suggestions?
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Closer, Ever Closer
I think the strangest thing, for me, are those moments when I realize that any moment, it could start. Let’s be honest, most of the time we just sort of pass through our lives, making tiny decisions, but mostly just cruising through ruts worn by decisions we’ve made in the past. Not like that’s bad, really, it’s certainly less stressful. But at any moment, it could be Time. Capital T. At any moment Jess could give me a call or yell from upstairs (she’s napping) that it’s time for us to start the next chapter, and all of a sudden it’s Time. Life pops into stark relief and you are torn between trying to get past something so tough and taxing, and at the same time wanting to remember every moment, because this is one of those big ones.
Except for the pain, though. And that really bugs me, actually. I read somewhere that, according to the W.H.O., once you get an epidural, your birth can no longer be considered ‘normal.’ Why? The pain is not productive, it’s just painful. And even more obnoxious, in a way, is how we are forced to talk about it. It can be 'tough' or there can be 'pressure' or some other platitude. It hurts! It's horrible pain! Let's not kid ourselves!
There’s no reason at all to get all excited about how much hurting you have to go through. The pain is a symptom of progress, it is a sign that things are happening, but we are intelligent animals, we don’t need horrible, repeating pain to let us know that something big is going down. Let’s be honest with ourselves: if there was a switch we could throw to turn off labor pains, childbirth would be *better*. It’s frustrating, is all.
Mom Swanson is here, for an undetermined amount of time. We got her a 1-way ticket and, lucky us, Tyler decided not to show up early. We are 1 week away from the official due date, too. Everything still normal, but we are closer and closer at every moment. It’s very exciting, though there’s every chance he’ll just be two weeks late and I’ll run out of excitement-juice.
In more mundane news, we’ve ordered a freezer, which will be nice, because our current one is bursting at the seams. We went to the farmers market and the library today. The market was cool especially because we got to get some basics, and for not too much more than normal. We got some milk (I’m excited to compare), eggs, and some staple produce for only a touch more than it would cost at the supermarket. That’s exciting, to me, the idea that a farmers market could pass from a simple diversion to something really utilitarian and useful.
I also bought myself a book. The bread baker’s apprentice. You should look it up on amazon. It’s for serious bread people. The instructions are very, very explicit and there’s whole chapters dedicated to just explaining the process. I plan to make a loaf or two this weekend, it could be really nice.
King cake party went off without a hitch. I’ll put some pictures up later, Dragon Age 2 came out and I am excited, though if Tyler shows up I may not have any time to play it. We got a second bid for the termites that was 1400 more than our first bid. And my weight is creeping up so I’m trying to cut back on food, again. Which is why I just ate a whole bunch of graham crackers and frosting. Curse you, self-control!
-N
Except for the pain, though. And that really bugs me, actually. I read somewhere that, according to the W.H.O., once you get an epidural, your birth can no longer be considered ‘normal.’ Why? The pain is not productive, it’s just painful. And even more obnoxious, in a way, is how we are forced to talk about it. It can be 'tough' or there can be 'pressure' or some other platitude. It hurts! It's horrible pain! Let's not kid ourselves!
There’s no reason at all to get all excited about how much hurting you have to go through. The pain is a symptom of progress, it is a sign that things are happening, but we are intelligent animals, we don’t need horrible, repeating pain to let us know that something big is going down. Let’s be honest with ourselves: if there was a switch we could throw to turn off labor pains, childbirth would be *better*. It’s frustrating, is all.
Mom Swanson is here, for an undetermined amount of time. We got her a 1-way ticket and, lucky us, Tyler decided not to show up early. We are 1 week away from the official due date, too. Everything still normal, but we are closer and closer at every moment. It’s very exciting, though there’s every chance he’ll just be two weeks late and I’ll run out of excitement-juice.
In more mundane news, we’ve ordered a freezer, which will be nice, because our current one is bursting at the seams. We went to the farmers market and the library today. The market was cool especially because we got to get some basics, and for not too much more than normal. We got some milk (I’m excited to compare), eggs, and some staple produce for only a touch more than it would cost at the supermarket. That’s exciting, to me, the idea that a farmers market could pass from a simple diversion to something really utilitarian and useful.
I also bought myself a book. The bread baker’s apprentice. You should look it up on amazon. It’s for serious bread people. The instructions are very, very explicit and there’s whole chapters dedicated to just explaining the process. I plan to make a loaf or two this weekend, it could be really nice.
King cake party went off without a hitch. I’ll put some pictures up later, Dragon Age 2 came out and I am excited, though if Tyler shows up I may not have any time to play it. We got a second bid for the termites that was 1400 more than our first bid. And my weight is creeping up so I’m trying to cut back on food, again. Which is why I just ate a whole bunch of graham crackers and frosting. Curse you, self-control!
-N
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Barely Coherent Blogging: Stuff just happens
My feet hurt, but I will endeavor to blog anyway.
Jess and I just got back from a pretty long run/rollerblade, a good 5 miles or so, which is pretty long for me, especially when running barefoot. I’ll probably have to get some better barefoot shoes soon, I’m starting to wear out the old ones, and there isn’t a whole lot of them to wear. Jess was on wheels, and was kind enough to slow down for me, I got pretty slow near the end.
We had a pretty relaxing week, overall. We spent a few days at home watching movies and cuddling on the couch, which is always nice. I started to feel bad about not going to Judo right up until the point where Jess grabbed my arm, cuddled my shoulder, and made a contented noise. Then I didn’t feel so bad about anything, really.
There’s a decided lull in new video game releases during the summer, or at least ones I care about, which has the nice effect of making me do other stuff for a while. I’ve been working on music and reading a LOT of books. I’ve gone through a significant percentage of our previous book splurge, and so I got to buy some of the sequels to the books I’ve already worked through. Books like:
Hyperion: A Hugo Award-winning book. Really good, very atmospheric and interesting. I got the sequel today.
Mistborn: Written by Brandon Sanderson, an author I’d been hearing a lot about (he’s writing the last books in the wheel of time series). Quite good, he writes books with really interesting magic systems, totally different than anything you’re used to and quite intriguing.
The Cobra Trilogy: Written by Timothy Zahn, and pretty much anything by him, I will read. Not a bad series, either, full of interesting ideas and good twists that you usually don’t see coming. I always like when a book does that successfully.
Tomorrow I get to go eat lunch with an old friend from Juneau who lives here in Austin now. So exciting! And then next week I get to head up to Dallas to get a polygraph taken. Significantly less exciting!
-N
Jess and I just got back from a pretty long run/rollerblade, a good 5 miles or so, which is pretty long for me, especially when running barefoot. I’ll probably have to get some better barefoot shoes soon, I’m starting to wear out the old ones, and there isn’t a whole lot of them to wear. Jess was on wheels, and was kind enough to slow down for me, I got pretty slow near the end.
We had a pretty relaxing week, overall. We spent a few days at home watching movies and cuddling on the couch, which is always nice. I started to feel bad about not going to Judo right up until the point where Jess grabbed my arm, cuddled my shoulder, and made a contented noise. Then I didn’t feel so bad about anything, really.
There’s a decided lull in new video game releases during the summer, or at least ones I care about, which has the nice effect of making me do other stuff for a while. I’ve been working on music and reading a LOT of books. I’ve gone through a significant percentage of our previous book splurge, and so I got to buy some of the sequels to the books I’ve already worked through. Books like:
Hyperion: A Hugo Award-winning book. Really good, very atmospheric and interesting. I got the sequel today.
Mistborn: Written by Brandon Sanderson, an author I’d been hearing a lot about (he’s writing the last books in the wheel of time series). Quite good, he writes books with really interesting magic systems, totally different than anything you’re used to and quite intriguing.
The Cobra Trilogy: Written by Timothy Zahn, and pretty much anything by him, I will read. Not a bad series, either, full of interesting ideas and good twists that you usually don’t see coming. I always like when a book does that successfully.
Tomorrow I get to go eat lunch with an old friend from Juneau who lives here in Austin now. So exciting! And then next week I get to head up to Dallas to get a polygraph taken. Significantly less exciting!
-N
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Sleeping off the Sunburn
Yesterday a bunch of us played hookey from work and went out tubing, again. We did this last year and had a pretty great time. The theory is that you rent a few tubes and float slowly down one of the rivers, usually keeping a cooler of beer in one of your tubes.
We decided to try something a little different, we brought a keg. Not a full one, mind, a pony keg, only 5 gallons, and there were 14 of us on the river. Jess and I brought some food, too. I was proud of myself for bringing some individually-wrapped little snack cake things. They float! :)
We went down once and it only took us about 2.5 hours, and since we weren't quite done for the day, we went back and did it again. It was alternately relaxing and exciting, as there are a couple of places where the river gets funneled down a pretty exciting chute at relatively high speeds. One of our cargo-tubes ended up flipping, and we discovered that our cooler floats. Neat. :)
I managed to keep myself unburnt by reapplying 30 to 50 spf sunscreen on myself with almost ocd-like intensity. I escaped unscathed, but Jess got some pretty bad sun-scorches on her knees and shins. She's napping next to me now, and is already healing up, but the drive home was no fun at all. We do have some good aloe beach-burn stuff, though, and we layered that on for some pretty impressive relief. We also put on some white wine vinegar, which is supposed to help out. Anyone else ever heard of that?
Later today, we may go try and buy a car. Wish us luck!
Oh, and THANKS to everyone who has offered feedback on my book. I know everyone's being extra nice, but it does feel good to know that people like it. It also feels good to have that second draft finally done.
With love,
-N
We decided to try something a little different, we brought a keg. Not a full one, mind, a pony keg, only 5 gallons, and there were 14 of us on the river. Jess and I brought some food, too. I was proud of myself for bringing some individually-wrapped little snack cake things. They float! :)
We went down once and it only took us about 2.5 hours, and since we weren't quite done for the day, we went back and did it again. It was alternately relaxing and exciting, as there are a couple of places where the river gets funneled down a pretty exciting chute at relatively high speeds. One of our cargo-tubes ended up flipping, and we discovered that our cooler floats. Neat. :)
I managed to keep myself unburnt by reapplying 30 to 50 spf sunscreen on myself with almost ocd-like intensity. I escaped unscathed, but Jess got some pretty bad sun-scorches on her knees and shins. She's napping next to me now, and is already healing up, but the drive home was no fun at all. We do have some good aloe beach-burn stuff, though, and we layered that on for some pretty impressive relief. We also put on some white wine vinegar, which is supposed to help out. Anyone else ever heard of that?
Later today, we may go try and buy a car. Wish us luck!
Oh, and THANKS to everyone who has offered feedback on my book. I know everyone's being extra nice, but it does feel good to know that people like it. It also feels good to have that second draft finally done.
With love,
-N
Monday, July 6, 2009
BOOK
Finally done! I made myself stop playing video games and have been writing instead. The fruits of my sacrifice have been plucked for you now. I've finished my second draft of my novel! Hurrah!
Theoretically, if you're reading this, it should already be in your e-mail inbox. Give it a read and let me know what you think. Now I get to go back to playing video games and *planning out my audio studio mua ha ha haaaaaa*.
-N
Theoretically, if you're reading this, it should already be in your e-mail inbox. Give it a read and let me know what you think. Now I get to go back to playing video games and *planning out my audio studio mua ha ha haaaaaa*.
-N
Friday, January 9, 2009
ChristmasTime, ba da da baaa da da.
Behold, I have created a movie!
I don't know if you can tell, but this movie is in *WIDE SCREEN* mode. Tell me what you think of it. Unnecessary? I experimented a little bit on this one to see how it would look. It's also possible to do 'high def'-ier video on youtube, but I'm not sure how yet.
Next up will be the Jesta Menace Highlight reel. Probably sometime this weekend.
Also, my new years resolution is to start composing music this year. Which means I have to finish my book. So far I've put in at least an hour on my book every day. So progress is being made. Yay!
EDIT: Hey, check this out. Click on *THIS LINK* and you should be able to watch the video in HIGH(er) DEFINITION. Looks nice.
-N
I don't know if you can tell, but this movie is in *WIDE SCREEN* mode. Tell me what you think of it. Unnecessary? I experimented a little bit on this one to see how it would look. It's also possible to do 'high def'-ier video on youtube, but I'm not sure how yet.
Next up will be the Jesta Menace Highlight reel. Probably sometime this weekend.
Also, my new years resolution is to start composing music this year. Which means I have to finish my book. So far I've put in at least an hour on my book every day. So progress is being made. Yay!
EDIT: Hey, check this out. Click on *THIS LINK* and you should be able to watch the video in HIGH(er) DEFINITION. Looks nice.
-N
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Jumping the gun?
It may be a little early for me to be worrying about it, but I've been giving some thought to what it is I would want to do with my book. I've been listening to a podcast about writing in an attempt to jump-start my efforts, and one of the things they talked about was submitting to an editor. I've always rather planned to self publish, but I ran across an article saying that when you self-publish, you really don't get much in the way of sales, usually. It made me consider submitting to publishers again.
But really, it all comes down to what I want to *ultimately* accomplish with my book. I don't want to become a writer, so there's no need for me to go at this from a business direction, where I would want to sell a lot and make a lot of money. From that perspective, there's no real reason for me to try and get published if I don't care about making money. I can just self-publish and make a really simple go at it, get my book out there and be done with it. But having such small circulation is a little bit disheartening.
Still, should I care about circulation? If I want to just get the story out there, I could throw it up all over the internet. I wouldn't make any money, but at least I'd get some circulation. But then again, it would be nice to have a physical book in my hand, even if I didn't get the 'presige' (and go through the *enormous* process) of getting a book sold to a publishing house. Etc. Etc.
Well, what do you all think? Should I just self publish, sell to some friends and family and call it good? Is there some compelling reason to get a traditional publishing deal? Ideas, anyone?
-N
But really, it all comes down to what I want to *ultimately* accomplish with my book. I don't want to become a writer, so there's no need for me to go at this from a business direction, where I would want to sell a lot and make a lot of money. From that perspective, there's no real reason for me to try and get published if I don't care about making money. I can just self-publish and make a really simple go at it, get my book out there and be done with it. But having such small circulation is a little bit disheartening.
Still, should I care about circulation? If I want to just get the story out there, I could throw it up all over the internet. I wouldn't make any money, but at least I'd get some circulation. But then again, it would be nice to have a physical book in my hand, even if I didn't get the 'presige' (and go through the *enormous* process) of getting a book sold to a publishing house. Etc. Etc.
Well, what do you all think? Should I just self publish, sell to some friends and family and call it good? Is there some compelling reason to get a traditional publishing deal? Ideas, anyone?
-N
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