Posts

Spent most of my day today reading Elf Life (a comic strip). It’s pretty fun. We went to dinner and tried to see a movie, but it was sold out until 2 hrs later and we didn’t want to see it with a huge crowd. So, we’re back home. I’m still not sure what to do about the writing, maybe while my outline is in flux I can make up by writing something else, but I have been tired all week and haven’t been motivated enough to do anything besides work. Luckily next week at work should be a lot better.

I’m a bit disappointed that I trashed my own outline yesterday by coming up with another reasonably OK idea. So, I will back up a day and see if there is another way to interpret the original events by changing the milleu. OK, what if the setting is not contemporary at all, but fantasy? I had tried to steer away from either historical or fantasy worlds on the assumption that it would either require lots of research or lots of other preparation to make the world believeable. However, if I don’t do *something* I will fail to start at all. At least fantasy can be generated by imagination rather than depending on research.

Lost a lot of time this weekend dealing with international nameserver issues. At least they didn’t call me this morning at 2AM like they did Saturday morning. Michelle called me from Texas on Friday and I couldn’t talk, as I was in a meeting (about international nameserver, woo). Anyway, Saturday morning I reset my cell phone and it forgot her number, so now I can’t call her back. I’m sad. ...

At first this was shaping up to be a Character story, tracking A’s development and secret and life changes. However, in writing this scenario, it becomes clear that the story here is really about C. Since we dropped A’s special ability or whatever, and thus his reason for unrest, it’s not about A any more. In other words, I went from not really knowing how C fits in the picture, to having way too much info on C and not enough on A. Going further down this rabbit hole… Okay, now that I have gutted my previous outline, and made my already-written 234 words useless, time to go to bed!

I am adding: A noble death I am numbering the events to try and decide how far apart the related events are

Some things I want in my story love, perhaps between apparent rivals, a and b a game, with high stakes, possibly illegal or secret psychic powers, or a gift, (martial arts? mysticism? mutation?) OR perhaps a magic item that slowly takes over the user An unlikely hero A, placed in a difficult situation and acting well Someone who falls from grace, or betrays himself, but hides his flaw: C Some events: First introduction of hero A When the audience discovers the game First experience of the rival B and possibly C ??When one person discovers his/her gift (or finds the magic item) When one person C starts down the wrong path When two lovers part ways (B and C) or perhaps they are friends or siblings and they just have an argument When two rivals discover they are in love (A and B) ??When someone else discovers the gift or item (possibly a lover) When two lovers are forced to compete (A and B) When one person (A) has to choose between the right deed and his career or station Fight between the hero and the betrayer (B and C)

(234 words today. Lame.)

If you didn’t already know, the correct time for the US is always displayed at time.gov and there are some links from there about how “standard time” and later “daylight time” developed. Before “standard time” there was no concept of time zones, and noon was periodically established in each particular city when the sun reached the high point in the sky. The various “city time” systems were synchronized in the early 1900’s by federal law, under pressure from the train companies, if I read it right. ...

An old friend who I worked with here at AV has died. I am not sure of the circumstances… more information should be coming to us soon. He was laid off in January and I had not talked to him since then. I am not affected by this personally as much as others around here, since we were not close outside of work, but this reminds me of my own mortality. I think he was very close to my age. I don’t know how or why he died, but… ...

We went to Kabul (our favorite Afghani restaurant) with Darren tonight. It is now 10 pm and I am full from dinner and sucking down a slurpee from 7-11. It is now 10:16. I like going out to eat but I won’t be able to do this every night unless I take a laptop with me or something. Today’s first random song from the jukebox is Cecilia. Making love in the afternoon with Cecilia, Up in my bedroom, making love I got up to wash my face When I come back to bed Someone’s taken my place ...