Trying a new site - 750words.com -- the idea is that if you want to do well in writing you need to write every day, like three pages, which is about 750 words. So I tried that tonight. Here's the stats.
I don't know if the words are visible, still trying to figure out exactly how it works. But, I copied it out anyhow and here it is:
So here's the thing. I don't want to appear dumb as I ponder how to begin. The last thing I want to do is the whole "look at me" thing as I monologue on and on about monologuing. Is that what I'm doing? Is that even how you spell it? Or would spell it if you were to verbize it? Huh. I guess so. In fact, maybe it is a real word because Firefox didn't have a problem with it, the way it did with verbizing. Oh well. Anyhow, yeah, so, where to begin. Because that's what this is. 99 words (except that "99" is actually word 100) on day one. At the top of the page, it's happy to tell me that I have zero points. Not sure what points are yet, but I don't have any of them. Seems to suggest that I should want some.
We're about to start a movie called "I Love You, Man" Lori's made popcorn. It smells really good, but I'm proud of myself for not having any. I'm trying to lose weight (and have been since 2006). That was the year I lost 27 pounds, stopped (my goal was 30) and then gained 27 or so pounds back. Where I've stayed for... forever.
So far, an R-rated preview. You rarely see that. And I'm bored. And Lori's skipping it. In case you were curious, it was Road Trip Beer Pong. Next, Star Trek. But we've seen it, so we skipped it. And then a dance movie skipped so quickly I couldn't figure out which one it was.
I'm hoping this movie will be good. Since it's got the guy from "How I Met Your Mother" and the chick from "Parks and Recreation" I'm hoping it's good. Because if it sucks, I may be a little less excited for either of those shows, both of which I like. Over 300 words already. That's cool. I wonder when I'll get to the point where I can write without commenting on how many words I've written. Or if I will keep at this. It's not necessarily easy.
I like how sparse this layout is. Just a white screen, a simple cursor and nice big text. Well, it's funny so far. And it's making me miss Los Angeles. The cool Los Angeles where it's dark but the air is warm and humid and the views are spectacular. But that was another place and time. That kind of went away after the kids and stuff. It might be cool to live there again. But I'm not sure it's the kind of magic you could recapture.
Yeah, now it's daylight in the movie. Traffic, clutter, crime. I guess I'll just remember the memories.
Hey, I kinda hit a wall there. Guessing I just got into the movie or something. I guess it's kinda funny, but it's also a bit crude. Not a big fan of stuff so crude. Hey... it's the guy from "Parks and Recreation" - that's funny. I hated him in Scrubs but I like him in "Parks and Recreation."
Today was a good day. I don't feel like I got as much done as I would have liked, but it was still quite the productive day. I had Rachel doing laundry which was cool. Other than loading in the soap, she can do all of it by herself, which is pretty cool. We were looking at the washer and dryer - thought it was kinda funny -- they have play/pause buttons to start/stop them. I also got to go to Home Depot by myself. That doesn't happen enough. We just got our tax refund and some of it's going towards working on our front yard, so I didn't really have to pay attention to what the amount was going to be when I got to the register. That what was pretty cool. That rarely happens. I guess maybe once a year. But yeah, got to buy stuff for the yard. And tomorrow, digging up the front yard, laying down 15-year weed block and dropping in lots of bark. Lori had wanted to rocks, but then she couldn't find any she liked. So, we'll try bark again. But the most important part is we get it done before April when the Homeowner's Association comes around with their little clipboard. I liked it much better when they were making other people clean up their act but they weren't messing with us because ours was fine.
Woo. Done.
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Odd and Ends 13
-EXTRA-
-1-
LIFEHACKER.COM -- Emerald and Onxy Balcony Office - if you have to an enclose a deck, this is the way to go.
-2-
INFOSTHETICS.COM -- The human body as a subway system - interesting
-3-
HULU.COM -- Not a fan - click on the tags to see what people are saying. NSFW
-4-
ENGADGET.COM -- Microsoft Courier's looking pretty cool
-5-
MENTALFLOSS.COM -- 10 Secret Menu Items
-6-
CROSSCUT.COM -- Chihuly exhibit: smashing Center open space hopes? - Do we need another Chihuly exhibit? I get it and I agree - he makes beautiful work and he's a northwest treasure. You can go to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and the adjoining Overpass of Glass to see his work. You can go to PLU and see his reimagined Rose Windows. You can go to the Bellagio and see his work. Do we need to turn a big part of Seattle Center into another museum for him, part of it paid? I'm bummed that they're removing the fun fair. I know that was a paid area, but it was accessible and family friendly. This will not appeal to children.
-7-
KANSASCITY.COM -- Lighten up, NBC — at least you have 'Community' and '30 Rock' - Wow... The Office is NBC's best rated show for the coveted 18-49 crowd, and yet it's bested in that category by 8 shows on CBS (or twelve of CBS' shows if you look beyond just that core demo).
-8-
SEATTLETRANSITBLOG.COM -- Vehicle License Fee Back from the Dead - after being killed in the state assembly, it's being snuck back into some other bill. That's almost as rich as the "Optional State Parks Fee" that's tacked onto my renewal. It's optional, but the total due includes it. If I don't want to pay it, I'm supposed to remit $5 less than what's listed. How many people will miss that, or be afraid to deduct it? Shady, shady. (Yes, parks are important, but our governor ran the state into the ground and then got elected again for a second term. I think Washington State likes being a miserable second-run despite all its potential. There's no savvy here.)
-9- VIDEO
Heh. Mark Z. calls The Suze Orman Show because he wants advice on whether he should buy a website.
-10- VIDEO
Funny or Die brings all the Presidents to counsel President Obama
"True Spirituality is you, a human person, filled with God’s Spirit, in partnership with Heaven, now living your ordinary, day-by-day life extraordinarily, influentially." -- http://jimmydeeslifelets.blogspot.com/
-1-
LIFEHACKER.COM -- Emerald and Onxy Balcony Office - if you have to an enclose a deck, this is the way to go.
-2-
INFOSTHETICS.COM -- The human body as a subway system - interesting
-3-
HULU.COM -- Not a fan - click on the tags to see what people are saying. NSFW
-4-
ENGADGET.COM -- Microsoft Courier's looking pretty cool
-5-
MENTALFLOSS.COM -- 10 Secret Menu Items
-6-
CROSSCUT.COM -- Chihuly exhibit: smashing Center open space hopes? - Do we need another Chihuly exhibit? I get it and I agree - he makes beautiful work and he's a northwest treasure. You can go to the Museum of Glass in Tacoma and the adjoining Overpass of Glass to see his work. You can go to PLU and see his reimagined Rose Windows. You can go to the Bellagio and see his work. Do we need to turn a big part of Seattle Center into another museum for him, part of it paid? I'm bummed that they're removing the fun fair. I know that was a paid area, but it was accessible and family friendly. This will not appeal to children.
-7-
KANSASCITY.COM -- Lighten up, NBC — at least you have 'Community' and '30 Rock' - Wow... The Office is NBC's best rated show for the coveted 18-49 crowd, and yet it's bested in that category by 8 shows on CBS (or twelve of CBS' shows if you look beyond just that core demo).
-8-
SEATTLETRANSITBLOG.COM -- Vehicle License Fee Back from the Dead - after being killed in the state assembly, it's being snuck back into some other bill. That's almost as rich as the "Optional State Parks Fee" that's tacked onto my renewal. It's optional, but the total due includes it. If I don't want to pay it, I'm supposed to remit $5 less than what's listed. How many people will miss that, or be afraid to deduct it? Shady, shady. (Yes, parks are important, but our governor ran the state into the ground and then got elected again for a second term. I think Washington State likes being a miserable second-run despite all its potential. There's no savvy here.)
-9- VIDEO
Heh. Mark Z. calls The Suze Orman Show because he wants advice on whether he should buy a website.
-10- VIDEO
Funny or Die brings all the Presidents to counsel President Obama
Book Review: Fresh Disaster by Stuart Woods
First off, I'm pretty certain the author hates women and has sadomasachistic tendencies, even if he doesn't act upon them personally, instead using his books to live out his fantasies. The book was a really disappointing read and I will definitely not be picking up another one of this author's books. I think I got the recommendation after reading a blurb in Entertainment Weekly. I should have stopped reading, but I kept hoping it would get better.
One of the dumbest books I've read all the way through. I'm not sure who the audience is for books like this, but I certainly hated it and can't believe this author has published as many books as he has.
So, let me break it down for you.
Stone Barrington is a lawyer-type guy. Former NYPD detective, he knows guys who can break bones if he asks them to. He eats out constantly in the same places. And he's surrounded by women. He owns more than one residence, a private jet and a bulletproof car. He's rich except that he's not.
Story A - he's forced to take on a case where of a loser who wants to sue a mob boss whose goons beat him up after he failed to pay is 24k gambling dept to one of the boss' bookies. In the process of serving the guy, Stone gets thrown through a door himself.
Story B - he hires a masseuse because of his injuries. Ends up sleeping with her and seeming to have a relationship with her. Turns out she has an abusive ex-boyfriend. Stone is run down as a result, but the ex has a solid alibi. As a result, he ends up in the hospital. Where he meets a doctor who treats him and he gives her his buisness card.
Story C - the mafia boss' lawyer is a jerk, so Stone humiliates him by publishing photos of the lawyer with his girlfriend performing sex acts on the balcony of their love nest. (Which he learns about from the masseuse who knows the lawyer's girlfriend-on-the-side.) and has an apartment near the lovenest. And so the lawyer's wife hires Stone for the divorce proceedings.
So he knows that things are getting more dangerous for the masseuse because he pushed the ex. So he stashes her out of the area in his house. When he gets a call from a police officer in the town where he's stashed her, he knows that it's not good. The doctor-lady insists on tagging along, so you the reader know that the masseuse must be dead, that the author is done writing about her body and the sexual acts she performs for Stone. Yep. Decapitated and the head's missing.
They go back home and don't sleep together. But eventually do. Well, except they don't sleep. Anyhow... he also sleeps with the assistant district attorney that he's working with on the mafia story. Once or twice. He's her booty call.
Oh, and then to entrap the ex, they introduce a new character near the end of the book, a tall blonde detective. Within two pages, she's raped by the ex while Stone's at dinner with the lady doctor, her friend (who it turns out was also raped by the ex but never said anything) and another detective.
In the end, the guy who wanted to sue the mafia boss kills the mafia boss himself, the ex goes to jail, the ex turns out to have a psychopathic brother who tried to run down Stone and who decapped the masseuse and the lawyer's wife reconciles with the lawyer and then discovers he's not just sold the love nest, but bought a new one, unreconciles and Stone walks away with 3 million in contingencies fees as a result of the divorce proceedings. Oh, and Stone had (actually, make that "received") a lot of sex and a lot of people died.
Horrible book.
One of the dumbest books I've read all the way through. I'm not sure who the audience is for books like this, but I certainly hated it and can't believe this author has published as many books as he has.
So, let me break it down for you.
Stone Barrington is a lawyer-type guy. Former NYPD detective, he knows guys who can break bones if he asks them to. He eats out constantly in the same places. And he's surrounded by women. He owns more than one residence, a private jet and a bulletproof car. He's rich except that he's not.
Story A - he's forced to take on a case where of a loser who wants to sue a mob boss whose goons beat him up after he failed to pay is 24k gambling dept to one of the boss' bookies. In the process of serving the guy, Stone gets thrown through a door himself.
Story B - he hires a masseuse because of his injuries. Ends up sleeping with her and seeming to have a relationship with her. Turns out she has an abusive ex-boyfriend. Stone is run down as a result, but the ex has a solid alibi. As a result, he ends up in the hospital. Where he meets a doctor who treats him and he gives her his buisness card.
Story C - the mafia boss' lawyer is a jerk, so Stone humiliates him by publishing photos of the lawyer with his girlfriend performing sex acts on the balcony of their love nest. (Which he learns about from the masseuse who knows the lawyer's girlfriend-on-the-side.) and has an apartment near the lovenest. And so the lawyer's wife hires Stone for the divorce proceedings.
So he knows that things are getting more dangerous for the masseuse because he pushed the ex. So he stashes her out of the area in his house. When he gets a call from a police officer in the town where he's stashed her, he knows that it's not good. The doctor-lady insists on tagging along, so you the reader know that the masseuse must be dead, that the author is done writing about her body and the sexual acts she performs for Stone. Yep. Decapitated and the head's missing.
They go back home and don't sleep together. But eventually do. Well, except they don't sleep. Anyhow... he also sleeps with the assistant district attorney that he's working with on the mafia story. Once or twice. He's her booty call.
Oh, and then to entrap the ex, they introduce a new character near the end of the book, a tall blonde detective. Within two pages, she's raped by the ex while Stone's at dinner with the lady doctor, her friend (who it turns out was also raped by the ex but never said anything) and another detective.
In the end, the guy who wanted to sue the mafia boss kills the mafia boss himself, the ex goes to jail, the ex turns out to have a psychopathic brother who tried to run down Stone and who decapped the masseuse and the lawyer's wife reconciles with the lawyer and then discovers he's not just sold the love nest, but bought a new one, unreconciles and Stone walks away with 3 million in contingencies fees as a result of the divorce proceedings. Oh, and Stone had (actually, make that "received") a lot of sex and a lot of people died.
Horrible book.
Feeling Creative
 |
| Rachel's Lunch |
I find preparing and plating the childrens' food a good chance to be creative. The shapes are simple and it turns the task into something fun. And because my creativity is limited (I am too much into symmetry), this still allows it to be interesting.
Friday, March 05, 2010
Stealing All My Photographs And Laughing At Them All
8:00 am - great drive in. "Call it Poison" and "Leave the Motor Running" by Escape Club and Sting's "Brand New Day"
8:45 am - Interesting devo - "It is all about you." - the contrast to Purpose Driven's "It's not about you." And yet both work.
9:00 am - Feeling pretty awesome today. No meetings, so a good chance to get more of the backlog cleared out. Created a new station on Pandora and have seeded it with Michael Bublé and Norah Jones. So far it's played Bublé (Haven't Met You Yet), Harry Connick Jr. (It Had to Be You), Nat King Cole (L-O-V-E) and now Sinatra (Come Fly with Me). Pandora rules. If it were warmer, this would be perfect day to take the laptop to a park with the wireless card and work out in nature. I may go to the cafeteria where I can work at one of the counters that face out towards the ponds and wooded areas behind the building.
9:35 am - Music took a turn for the worse. John Mayer. Thumbs down. Ok, Ray Charles (Georgia On My Mind). Much better.
12:44 pm - I really want to go out to eat. Maybe some nice Panera or Jack-n-the-Box (how do you write that? whatever). I have some money from my birthday. But... I have food here. If I eat here, it'll be healthier. And I can walk and watch a TED Talk or read a magazine and get some exercise. And going some place means driving and driving in Federal Way is a real bummer. And I can save the money for something else. Ok. I'm convinced. Staying here is the wise thing to do. If I still in SoCal, I'd probably drive somewhere. Unless I was in Pasadena. Driving in Pasadena is worse than driving in Federal Way. Ok. Stop. Must eat.
12:59 pm - ugh. Ok, I really really need to get to lunch. Good thing is that my inbox is down under 100 total messages. I've made some excellent progress this week. Very encouraging.
3:00 pm - Two people were talking on the floor and the one guy said "You know, you could ask James. He would probably know more about this than me." And she replied "I hate bothering James, he's always working really hard." The first guy didn't appreciate that too much. She did come over and we had a nice chat about what's possible. I do like this open collaborative floorplan.
5:20 pm - Quitting time. Awesome. Going home with only 66 emails left in my inbox. I found myself reading and forwarding 6 month old emails. Yikes. I feel like it's been a productive day.
8:45 am - Interesting devo - "It is all about you." - the contrast to Purpose Driven's "It's not about you." And yet both work.
9:00 am - Feeling pretty awesome today. No meetings, so a good chance to get more of the backlog cleared out. Created a new station on Pandora and have seeded it with Michael Bublé and Norah Jones. So far it's played Bublé (Haven't Met You Yet), Harry Connick Jr. (It Had to Be You), Nat King Cole (L-O-V-E) and now Sinatra (Come Fly with Me). Pandora rules. If it were warmer, this would be perfect day to take the laptop to a park with the wireless card and work out in nature. I may go to the cafeteria where I can work at one of the counters that face out towards the ponds and wooded areas behind the building.
9:35 am - Music took a turn for the worse. John Mayer. Thumbs down. Ok, Ray Charles (Georgia On My Mind). Much better.
12:44 pm - I really want to go out to eat. Maybe some nice Panera or Jack-n-the-Box (how do you write that? whatever). I have some money from my birthday. But... I have food here. If I eat here, it'll be healthier. And I can walk and watch a TED Talk or read a magazine and get some exercise. And going some place means driving and driving in Federal Way is a real bummer. And I can save the money for something else. Ok. I'm convinced. Staying here is the wise thing to do. If I still in SoCal, I'd probably drive somewhere. Unless I was in Pasadena. Driving in Pasadena is worse than driving in Federal Way. Ok. Stop. Must eat.
12:59 pm - ugh. Ok, I really really need to get to lunch. Good thing is that my inbox is down under 100 total messages. I've made some excellent progress this week. Very encouraging.
3:00 pm - Two people were talking on the floor and the one guy said "You know, you could ask James. He would probably know more about this than me." And she replied "I hate bothering James, he's always working really hard." The first guy didn't appreciate that too much. She did come over and we had a nice chat about what's possible. I do like this open collaborative floorplan.
5:20 pm - Quitting time. Awesome. Going home with only 66 emails left in my inbox. I found myself reading and forwarding 6 month old emails. Yikes. I feel like it's been a productive day.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Odds and Ends 12
-1-
UNCLUTTERER.COM -- Cleaning and the Chinese New Year
-2-
SEATTLETRANSITBLOG.COM -- Tacoma looking to expand link
-3-
CROSSCUT.COM -- Cascadia, where moral hand-wringing is an Olympic sport - to regionalize or not to regionalize. Though I think Vancouver, BC to San Francisco is too large a region.
-4-
MNBC.COM -- JFK tower allowed a child to direct air traffic - it sounds like none of them were in the air at the time. Maybe they should come up with a formal training program to get kids interested in ATC from an early age.
-5-
NEWS.COM -- Infected computers should be quarantined by the ISPs, says Microsoft - bravo. I've thought for a long time if an ISP could spot an infected computer and didn't do anything about it that they should be consider complicit. They are in the perfect place to quickly stop a virus outbreak and force more of their customers to engage in safe computing.
-6-
SETHGODIN.COM -- The doormat, the jerk and the lizard brain
-7-
LIFEHACKER.COM -- It's national procrastination - I feel like we should do something, but I'm kind of busy right now.
-8-
WHATDOYOUSUGGEST.COM -- Check out this fun site - type in a word and it tells you the most common next words that people typed in google (so for instance type in "lyrics" and it comes back with ".com, to, mania, search" connected by lines of varying thickness to represent popularity. Click on "to" and you get "songs, bad, tik, party, fireflies, bedrock, empire, replay and whatcha" - if you hit the end of a trail, you get a window on the side that gives you the top Google results. Typing about it here doesn't do it justice compared to how nice it looks visually.
-9-
WORDCOUNTER.NET -- Counts your characters and words - a nofrills giant textbox. As you type, it counts characters and words. Kind of cool if you're doing a minimum-word writing assignment and can't get your signup for 750 Words to be accepted.
-10- VIDEO
Very cool. But did they have to call it "Skinput"? Ugh.
UNCLUTTERER.COM -- Cleaning and the Chinese New Year
-2-
SEATTLETRANSITBLOG.COM -- Tacoma looking to expand link
-3-
CROSSCUT.COM -- Cascadia, where moral hand-wringing is an Olympic sport - to regionalize or not to regionalize. Though I think Vancouver, BC to San Francisco is too large a region.
-4-
MNBC.COM -- JFK tower allowed a child to direct air traffic - it sounds like none of them were in the air at the time. Maybe they should come up with a formal training program to get kids interested in ATC from an early age.
-5-
NEWS.COM -- Infected computers should be quarantined by the ISPs, says Microsoft - bravo. I've thought for a long time if an ISP could spot an infected computer and didn't do anything about it that they should be consider complicit. They are in the perfect place to quickly stop a virus outbreak and force more of their customers to engage in safe computing.
-6-
SETHGODIN.COM -- The doormat, the jerk and the lizard brain
-7-
LIFEHACKER.COM -- It's national procrastination - I feel like we should do something, but I'm kind of busy right now.
-8-
WHATDOYOUSUGGEST.COM -- Check out this fun site - type in a word and it tells you the most common next words that people typed in google (so for instance type in "lyrics" and it comes back with ".com, to, mania, search" connected by lines of varying thickness to represent popularity. Click on "to" and you get "songs, bad, tik, party, fireflies, bedrock, empire, replay and whatcha" - if you hit the end of a trail, you get a window on the side that gives you the top Google results. Typing about it here doesn't do it justice compared to how nice it looks visually.
-9-
WORDCOUNTER.NET -- Counts your characters and words - a nofrills giant textbox. As you type, it counts characters and words. Kind of cool if you're doing a minimum-word writing assignment and can't get your signup for 750 Words to be accepted.
-10- VIDEO
Very cool. But did they have to call it "Skinput"? Ugh.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Public Service Announcement
No, no, no. You do not call someone and leave a voicemail more than 60 seconds long to let them know you sent them a meeting invite and who else they invited and would I please accept the invite. You do not do that. That is only slightly less bad than calling to ask if I got your email. If I'm free, I will accept your invite, or I'll ask you to give me more detail about the meeting request. (Your voicemail did not give me more detail, it gave me slightly less.)
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