Here's another post. Not just my second post for the month of October, but my second post with in a week.
I've been working on a short story for the last few days. Tonight however, I thought I'd take a bit of a break and write a blog. I'm still averaging about 600 words a day, which I'm pretty happy with, but it's a struggle (like today for instance) to do it each day.
I won't bore you with the details of the short story, only to say that it's one I've had many false starts on over the years, and I'm finally feeling good about the direction it is taking.
I've wondered what to write about tonight.
Obama comes to mind, though I'm not in the mood to wax philosophic on Nobel Peace Prizes, and our President. There is much debate (the world over I believe) whether or not he deserves. I think we can make our own decisions about that.
I could write about the excitement I'm feeling for the up-coming movie season: Where the Wild Things Are. The Imagicarium of Dr. Parnarsuss. Hell, I'm just excited to see Zombieland next week.
I could write about my growing book collection that is at once exciting and horrifying to me.
I suppose I could write about the going-ons here:
Apparently my 15 year old nephew was taken to detention tonight because he and his friends were discussing rifles, hunting and bringing them to school. He lives in a particularly rural part of the
Uintah Basin. He attends a school of about 200 kids (from 6th to 12th grade) and most of the young men are hunters. Hell Most of the young men live on farms. Apparently a friend of his was discussing the idea of bringing his rifle to school and stashing beneath the seat of his truck so he could go hunting right after school let out for the day. My nephew offered the thought of the danger it posed (in a rough country way) and that it could go off and accidentally shoot somebody. Apparently a teacher heard the last bit and he was escorted by police tonight from his home to the juvenile detention center. Now I'm not advocating for any kid to bring their hunting rifle to school (or knives, or guns, or nun chucks). But my nephew, who has some learning disabilities and struggles in several classes, has had some frequent run-ins with a new principle. He also turns 16 next week and has explicitly told this principle that he is going to transfer to another school (a school for kids who have been in trouble, or have learning disabilities.) This will apparently cause his high school to lose out on several 1000 dollars of funding from the state, as it will take them down a bracket for funding. It seem this could be reactionary from the principle, to punish him and try and prevent him from transferring schools, though at sixteen he could just drop out. I’m not keen on seeing him do that. He struggles but he isn’t a dumb kid. With the right teacher and the right motivation he could likely excel. Unfortunately he hasn’t gotten that, and this experience can only sour him on school.
We’ll see what comes of it all. I hope my sister and brother-in-law can find a good lawyer. Chances are they may need it.
There is more to this story I’m sure, and I’ll post what I find out.
And with that.
Well. I'll bid you adieu.
Time does fly.
It doesn't seem like two months (a little over that really) has passed since my last post. But it has. I've meant to post several times.
I haven't. But I've meant too.
Things have changed, but overall they are pretty well the same.
My sister, her husband and two youngest kids (as well as an adult daughter going through a divorce) have been staying with us in a large camper/small trailer since April. They are moving.
Hallelujah!
Don't misunderstand, I love my sister. But having somebody else constantly in the house (and regularly waking me up, might I add) has been trying. I'm not a people person.
Well, that's not true; I am a people person. I'm not a live with somebody else person.
This is one of the reasons I am not married.
I can tolerate my mother, but honestly I don't like living with others. I love having people over (and did all the time in
Logan) but I like isolation as well.
I can't truly get that here.
But I cope. I've set up my bedroom to aide with this, but it only works if there are few than two people here (my mother and I.) If there is more than that... well... it fails.
My sister and her family will be moving to the nearby town of
Vernal. For those of you that don't know Vernal. It has between 10,000 and 15,000 people. It is, what I imagine,
Logan would be like if the University wasn't there. Her and her adult daughter work there at the local Wal-Mart. It's a 40 minute drive from my house, so the move is a very good (and advantageous) thing for them.
In other news, I have a promotion at work. I am now a floor manager at work. It means I have to work just as hard (harder) as before, but am now responsible to see others also work hard. There hasn't been mention of a raise yet, but it has only officially happened last week. So we'll see. There better be something. Not that I will quit, and not necessarily that I deserve it. Only that it would be nice to see the praise (of which I get quite a bit of) be rewarded with something other than more responsibility.
It is fall at last, and I am glad. Summer here is over bearing. Too much. Like the winters in
Logan are too much. The winters here are tolerable. The fall however can be nice. If we get one (sometimes the snow comes quickly.) There was a shading of white on the Uintahs this morning (well, early this afternoon) when I went to work. It is coming. I hope it holds off from giving us a serious storm till November. I'll feel like I got my "monies" worth of fall that way.
I Ran into some old high school folk at work tonight. I am surprised to find out he's read my blog a bit. It was good to see them. Both he and his wife graduated the same year I did. Put me in a cheerful mood, and I'm always surprised (for some reason) to run into people from my youth.
I've decided to participate this year in National Novel Writing Month. It's November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel from the 1st to the 30th of November. That being said: I haven't been writing as much as a should. There are two plays that are outlined. One being an expansion of a one act whose characters and thoughts I felt could be explored more (that one being called Palour Tricks.) the other being a re-write of my play Fitzlephisch. It's a play that I wrote in 2005, a full length, completely irreverent that has been plaguing me for 4 years. It needs rewritten, some what badly. But I had no idea how to go about doing that until a month ago. Now I know. The outline stays roughly the same, but the focus of the narrator changes, as well as several scenes. I'm rather excited about it. But I digress. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. In order to do that, I have to pump out 1666 words a day. That is a lot. Perhaps if I were unemployed no, but for a working man who is inherently lazy, that is a lot. I am going to be working up that. Now the goal is 500 a day. Next week 750. The week after that 1000. I'll get there if that's the last thing I do. Once November hits I'll be writing 1500 a day and will be able to focus on my novel.
I have no idea what it's going to be. But it'll be fun.
(For the record, this post was over 800 words... not bad. Not bad at all.)
