Yacidka’s Neighborhood

I'm writing a novel.

For those of you long-suffering readers of mine, you're probably thinking, 'Mmmhmm, suuuure you are. AGAIN.'

For those of you (relatively) new, you're probably thinking, 'Cool!' (or, alternatively, 'So what?' :D)

But no, really, I actually am going to write a novel. I'm going to start it and I'm going to finish it.

I've sat down to write things before and have yet to really finish anything (except my short little fable). I haven't even finished my short story ('A Game of Thinking'), although it's close and still actively in progress.

But this one, I'm thinking it out, thinking it through. Preparing to write before I actually put (virtual) pen to paper. (Usually I have A Great General Idea(tm), and usually some Specific Great Ideas(tm) and then I make the rest up as I go... until I get stuck.)

This time, THIS TIME, I have notecards. I have copious notes (and I'm making more). I'm going to outline each chapter before its even written. I'm going to catch the plot holes before I even create them. I'm going to tie together loose ends before they even exist. I'm going to stop procrastinating and allowing myself to be distracted constantly.

I'm going to write a novel.

And you, dear reader, are going to hold me to it.

My new stories site is live and online. Some of you may not be able to access it yet (technical note: DNS might not have finished propagating completely).

But this is the new URL:

http://www.kevinjwangler.com

I made the new site because I finally wrote and posted chapter 17 of 'A Game of Thinking'. Hey, it only took six years.

Updated: URL changed to the new domain I'm using for my writing.

There's a terrible, terrible feeling you get when you realise you've lost something almost certainly forever.

I've heard it described as a feeling in the pit of your stomach. And that's true, that's there. But it's an all-over kind of bad feeling.

Part of me wants to cry and the other parts of me wants to scream in frustration and despair.

(I'm talking about losing something I wrote, something on the computer. But it's important to me -- irreplaceable. And it's my fault for having lost it.)

UPDATE (13 July 2008 @ 9:11pm): I FOUND IT/THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!! On a backup DVD of data files from 2005. I can't believe it. But you'd better believe that I'm backing them up tenfold now -- FTP'ing it up to my domain, Google Docs, sticking it on various hard drives here and there and everywhere, etc. And of course I have the backup DVD now, too. Whew.

Just signed up for NaNoWriMo 2008.

On Sunday, a really awesome deal on a wet/dry vac (AKA ShopVac, only it's Craftsman brand) popped up online. It was at Sears and you could buy it online and then pick it up in the store to save on shipping. It's normally $90, and in-store it was on sale for $80 but online it was only $18. No brainer, since we'd been wanting one for a long time now and had been waiting for a good deal.

I bought it and we drove into Louisville to pick it up. The first one we got, the box was all smashed up. I figured, eh, what is there that could really be broken? Tracey, however, was adamant that we open the box and check it before we left. We did that... but not until we'd already lugged it all the way back through Sears and out the parking lot to the car. We opened it up, and wouldn't you know it, but the filter for it was broken. (It has a plastic collar around the top and it was snapped in half.)  Grrrr. At least Tracey made me check it before we left, though, otherwise we'd have discovered it only after we'd driven back home 30 miles. Silver lining and all that.

Rather than haul it back through the store, we loaded it into the car anyway and drove around the back to the special merchandise pickup area. I parked at the curb like you're supposed to and turned my hazard lights (or flashers, whatever you want to call them) on. We took the vacuum into the store and explained what had happened. The guy checked his computer and said they had three more in stock, but he kept making excuses and crap, acting like it was almost a foregone conclusion that the computer was mistaken and that they didn't have anymore and that we'd be out of luck -- we'd have to return it for a refund, or take it as-is. (Um, what?)

Well, they checked, and they had did indeed have another one. We were getting ready to carry it out to the car when the same guy stopped us and told us to wait. I thought it was going to be more BS or some kind of stall tactic to get us to, for whatever reason, not take the new wet/dry vac. He said, 'I think... are you... I think... I think you car might be the one that got... scratched'.

Uh oh.

So we all went out to the car, and oh yes, there was a nice scratch. Turns out one of the employees tried to drive a forklift up the curb  by our car, and it tipped the forklift so that his load of compressed boxes fell onto my car. The scratch was from the metal band that had been holding all the boxes together which had snapped when the load tipped over. Well, once they moved all those boxes off of the car... we could see that not only was the car scratched, but the boxes had smashed in the rear door on the passenger side. It didn't even look like it would open, and when I did the automatic door locks, the lock on that door didn't open. Heh.

Then we had to fill out paperwork and crap, while loss prevention/security took pictures of the 'incident'.

This morning, I had to borrow my father-in-law's Avalon (again) so Tracey can take the car into the body shop for an estimate and then fax it to Sears.

Suck.

Books read so far this summer: 4
Books on-hold at the library to be picked up tomorrow: 4

Plus an additional book at the library for which I'm #8 on the waiting list.

I absolutely hate the term/phrase 'untimely death'.

Does no one here use Twitter?! I just searched for everyone I could think of and found only one person. (You weren't last, nor least, don't worry.)

I've been on there for awhile now but I admit I rarely update despite its extreme simplicity. I think I mostly ignore it because no one follows my status anyhow.

While I was watering the lawn last night (or, rather, watching the sprinkler water it for me), I was messing around in the driveway, shooting hoops. I didn't even have regular shoes on, just my pair of sandals. But man, I was hitting everything. At one point, I told Tracey that I thought I could hit any shot I took. I walked away from the basket, with my back to it, and flung the ball over my shoulder and it went in -- nothing but net. hahahaha

It was awesome.

(What do you mean this isn't the kind of life update you wanted?!)

Happy Birthday, Shesgot!!! Hope you have a great one!!