I have an ongoing game that I play with my sister and some friends – You probably do it a lot – where you start a quote, from a movie, song, tv show etc, and the other person has to either identify the quote or do the next part of it.. I love doing it with songs – there’s so many great lines in so many songs – they stimulate my creativity when I hear them.
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Two entries! Dear Lord, what is happening.. Well, with all of my ups and downs, (OK, downs and downs) There’s been a lot of happenings, travellings, workings and machinations going on in my life, And I’ve been mostly trying to keep myself together, and not fly apart at the seams. My lovely wife has been a godsend in this regard, but long story short, I haven’t written anything in nearly a month. My Nano project, which I was steaming ahead with now stands with about 42000 words needed by midnight, so I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that it’s not going to be done. Regardless, I’m not giving up on it, I’m going to keep plugging away and hopefully get it done eventually.
I also wanted to talk about a movie that I saw last night – National Treasure. It was hyped and I wanted to see it, and it was actually pretty good. I was kind of expecting it to be more… epic I guess. That’s what I get for having preconceived notions about stuff. I also read the first book of ‘A Series Of Unfortunate Events’ and, well, it was horrible. I don’t mean badly written, it was interesting and whimsical, just like I enjoy, but the content was horrific! I can’t imagine reading it to my daughter until she’s much, much, much older, 10-12 at least. I haven’t gotten to the second book yet (Only finished the first Sunday night) but I’m hoping it gets better. Count Olaf and his crew of freaks really truly are frightening. I’m wondering how they will candy coat it in the movies to make it palatable for kids.
I’ve been fighting comment spam too, just like everyone else, and I also got a ticket for parking in front of my house, because my car was pointed the wrong way. These two events make me very sad, because it makes me realize that there is a fundamental lack of basic respect for people, by people. Someone had to call and complain about my car, and people don’t care enough about other people’s feelings to not post ads for Viagra on my blog entry about my Dad dying.
On yet another note, I’ve been working on a project in my spare time (I know, what spare time ?) and it has been to Tech edit and write some bits for an upcoming book by Syngress Press, entitled ‘Configuring NetScreen Firewalls) – I think it is going to come out this month (December, I mean) – and it’s kind of cool to get some real stuff published.
And on a final note, I’m done another project that I was working on for the last couple months, involving a cell phone app that a friend of mine dreamed up. He called me and told me that he had scheduled a presentation with a ‘real’ cell app development company and they turned him down after the 2nd slide, Citing the fact that they already had a similar idea ‘in development’. So he came to me, and for a cut of the company I churned it out for him. Now it’s done and we’re working on marketing and release schedule. I know the bubble is long gone, but who knows where a good idea can take us? Wish us luck ?
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I can’t wait for this year to be over. My Grandmother passed away yesterday morning. She went in to the hospital to have minor surgery, then had a massive stroke. I’m sick and depressed and feeling overall shitt-ah. I’m holding out for no deaths in 2005!
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I wrote this down in my notebook yesterday on the way home (on the light rail) b/c I didn’t want it to get away.
I got on the light rail going home and around the metro stop a man got on and I thought a few things about him.. he was about 60, gaunt, had a longish beard and was wearing gloves, even though it was in the 60’s outside. After he sat down he reached into his bag and held out a pamphlet to me, entitled “The Laws Of God’. I shook my head at him and said “No Thanks – I’m Christian” – indicating that I was already Christian. He replied something that I didn’t hear, because I had my iPod on. I took my headphones off and glanced back questioningly, as if to ask ‘What was that?’ and I heard him say ‘Why do you think this is only for Christians?’ – which was a good point. He then asked ‘Do you recognize the cover?’ – to which I said something to the effect of ‘I don’t recognize that specific one, but I will likely recognize the message.’.
I put my headphones back on and watched him a little more when he wasn’t looking at me.. He offered more people the pamphlet, and almost everyone took it.. one man gave him a fresh tomato in return – that was nice I thought.. I also thought he looked similar to my dad, when I saw him in the hospital, that same kind of drawn gauntness.. sunken eyes, hollow cheeks.
I also thought about one of the things that I’m not good at – evangelism.. I can have an intellectual discussion on religion easily, but when it comes to actually sharing faith with someone… I falter. I don’t know why.
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