Well, after some hemming and hawing, I have agreed to lead a LEAMIS team to Kenya — by myself, perhaps with an assistant team leader to be named later — next summer.
This is a scary thing. On paper, I was the co-leader of this year’s team, but for various reasons, [...]
I was too sick to concentrate on the novel on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, and by the time I started to feel better Friday night, I realized my chances of making the 50,000-word target by midnight Monday were waning fast, especially since if I recovered, I would want to [...]
It has been a delightful day.
I am the oldest of four siblings. I have two sisters-in-law, four nephews and three nieces, and love all of them. Fortunately, my sister and my youngest brother, and their families, live here in Middle Tennessee, and I get to see them pretty regularly. My [...]
Turner Classic Movies will air “Christmas In Connecticut,” about which I blog at least once every holiday season, at 11 a.m. Central time on Sunday, Dec. 6. Set those DVRs now, before you forget it.
Most classic movie fans know about this 1945 movie, but I’m always surprised at the [...]
I found out about this from the Mental_Floss blog:
Amazon is selling a Laptop Steering Wheel Desk. The actual, logical use of such a desk is for truckers or business people who live out of their vehicles and can use this desk when they’re parked.
But the [...]
I am still under the weather.
At my parents’ today for Thanksgiving we had my sister, my local brother, sister-in-law and the boys, plus my sister-in-law’s father, and my brother from North Carolina and his wife and two kids, whom I don’t get to see that often.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to [...]
Well, here’s the problem. I’m tired and I want to lie down. But when I lie down, eventually I get congested. I have to get up and move around again to be able to breathe.
And I can’t take some of the cold medicines you’re about to suggest because of blood [...]
Well, I’m back at work today — I don’t feel good, but I feel better than I did yesterday.
One thing I watched from my DVR yesterday was the previous night’s “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” which included what I thought was a brilliant segment: Jimmy’s dead-solid-perfect impression of Neil Young [...]
By the time I went to bed last night (late, but earlier than usual), I had a scratchy throat. When I woke up this morning, the throat was worse and I felt entirely wrung out. I let the office know I wouldn’t be coming in right away, and called later [...]
I am like a maple tree. It’s not that I am tall, or beautiful, or sturdy; apparently, looking at the novel, I’m full of sap.
Amazingly, the month ends one week from tonight.
[...]It was an unusually busy Sunday, and I wasn’t in much mood to write when I first got home. But the point of NaNoWriMo is discipline, and I was able to get things moving as the evening went on.
Actually, doing the math just now I am still ahead of pace [...]
Yesterday, I fell behind my overall pace for the first time during NaNoWriMo. I was in a foul mood — and still am, to a lesser extent. But I caught up to pace today, and while I think I’m done for the night, it’s still early and I may [...]
Well, I got home early from work and managed to get some work done before covering school board meeting tonight, and that left me just a little more to do when I got home.
My plot has moved too quickly. There are a couple of things that have willed themselves to [...]
Well, I didn’t do too well tonight. I’m still ahead of pace overall, but I fell far short of my daily quota.
I’m not sure what happened tonight — a cross between things I was watching on TV, being stuck at a plot point, grocery shopping, laundry, and just general laziness. [...]
Between county meetings and the finale of “The Prisoner,” I worried I might not be able to make quota today. But inspiration struck, as has happened on several occasions this month, and I glided on past quota. The next thing I knew, I was 20 words shy of 30,000 — [...]
I have clucked my tongue in condescension towards those fanboys who actually would have preferred a “Battlestar Galactica” sequel, with the goofy simplicity of the original, to Ron Moore’s dark reimagining. No doubt, they felt betrayed, as a show they considered fun and heroic was turned into a mysterious tale [...]
I have a co-worker, Sadie, whose father is dying of cancer. Sadie is also expecting her first child, due in January. We’ve all been hopeful that Daniel would get to meet little Dani Rae, but the father has taken a turn for the worse and Sadie is headed to [...]
For some reason last night, I guess because of all the PR hype over the animated Jim Carrey version this month, I pulled out the DVD of my favorite version of “A Christmas Carol,” with George C. Scott as Scrooge and David Warner as Bob Cratchit.
One of the best things [...]
I am testing a way of embedding Google Waves into blog posts. You’ll only be able to contribute if you have a Google Wave account (and no, I don’t have any invites yet).
[...]Not much to report. Work continues. I’m burning another perishable vacation day tomorrow, so I’d like to build back up to where I’m a day ahead of pace. It’s hard to believe I’m halfway there, but now some of the changes I had anticipated over the course of the book [...]
Hey, kids! Here’s a great way to celebrate that important milestone, like passing 25,000 words in your National Novel Writing Month project. Just be sure and follow all the directions carefully:
1) Empty remaining portion of bag of frozen raspberries into a microwave-safe bowl
2) Sprinkle with a little sugar
3) Have [...]
Peter Sagal, host of my beloved “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me,” was a guest on one of my favorite TV shows on Friday.
(The first embedded video below begins with “Dear Aquaman,” one of Ferguson’s regular comedy bits, but the Sagal interview starts right after that.)
[...]I was disappointed last year that I had to miss Allen and Marijo Bond’s annual hayride, which I’d attended for a number of years, so I was delighted to get to go to this year’s event.
I’ve known Allen and Marijo ever since I first got involved with Mountain T.O.P. in [...]
In case you’ve missed the news reports, Walmart has been in an online price war of sorts with Amazon and Barnes & Noble. It started with books: Walmart began offering deep, deep discounts on pre-orders for several highly-anticipated books, and Amazon and B&N had little choice but to try to [...]
I didn’t really do any writing last night — I had a sinus headache and just didn’t feel very good, and I knew I was ahead of pace and could afford to take the night off.
It was back to the grindstone tonight, though. I didn’t quite make my 1,667 words, [...]
Cruising along ….
I’m about a day and a half ahead of pace, which is good, because things happen, and it’s easy to fall behind. I’m not as far ahead of pace as my co-worker Mary Reeves, however.
I told Mary today that I’m not sure this novel is going [...]
Interesting day.
Today’s output was, in many ways, expository and self-indulgent, too much of a monologue and not enough of a dialogue. It was also sort of cathartic. It also pretty much sealed the deal that this book (if it ever turns out to be marketable) would have to be sold [...]
As much as I love the original, I remain cautiously optimistic, in large part because of the combination of the words “Ian” and “McKellen.”
[...]Well, my decision to take a break yesterday was validated. Today, with a day off work, I made up just about everything I had missed. I am once again more than a day ahead of pace, just as I was more than a day ahead of pace on Saturday.
When I [...]
A month ago, when I posted about Wayne Brady’s revival of “Let’s Make A Deal,” I joked about the trend of former “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” cast members getting game shows.
Well, my North Carolina brother — who, unlike me, is not particularly a game show fan — has [...]
Well, I had two events to cover for the newspaper yesterday, in addition to putting together the Sunday paper.
Today, I had two events to cover for the newspaper, plus Charge Conference at church, plus my nephew’s birthday tonight (we’re going to meet my brother and sister-in-law at an event [...]
This is getting to be a pattern: early in the evening I’m stuck, and I think, “well, I’m not going to make my goal tonight.” But then, at some point, I get a second wind or a burst of inspiration.
I was pretty sure for most of the evening that I [...]
The Discovery Channel has come up with an updated version of one of the greatest, most-watchable commercials ever made.
Adam Savage appears to be in some peril at the hand of his co-worker Jamie. I suspect it will all turn out OK, however.
[...]The mid-1980s revival of “The Twilight Zone” didn’t last long, but it had several quite good episodes. (Each episode was an hour long, but usually made up of several unrelated segments of varying lengths.) Not long ago, I was infuriated to catch just the last minute of “Shatterday,” a segment [...]
After a slow start, and breaks for “Community” and later “30 Rock,” the plot started moving again. I passed my quota for the day and then I was so close to 10,000 I decided to go ahead and cross that milepost as well.
For those of you who’ve never participated in [...]
I have four terrific nephews and three terrific nieces, and I am proud of all of them. On this particular occasion, I am writing about my oldest nephew, Jacob.
If you have a copy of this morning’s Tennessean handy, look at the “Scoreboard” page.
Jacob plays for Perry County High School, [...]
I wasn’t able to write until I got home from church tonight, and at first things were going very slowly and I thought I might have to miss quota. But I kept at it.
While I was in the bathtub, it struck me that I had two scenes in the manuscript [...]
The Coen brothers — the Coen brothers! — are going to do a new movie version of “True Grit,” although they say it will be a more faithful adaptation of the original novel rather than a remake of the John Wayne / Kim Darby / Glen Campbell movie. They say [...]
Well, I’m pleased with today’s output. I suppose I could have done more, having the whole day, but I’m almost a full day’s output ahead of schedule, and it didn’t interfere with me having a pleasant couple of days off.
Tomorrow, of course, I have to go back to work, and [...]
I posted a clip back when Craig Ferguson introduced a slick new credit sequence for “The Late Late Show,” including a new remix of his theme song (which Ferguson sings himself).
Here, with hat tip to Mark Evanier, is a YouTube of the complete song, the length of [...]
Yes, M*A*S*H fans, I made it to four-oh-double-seven today.
I didn’t do nearly as well as I hoped today. Despite not having to work, I really wrote only about the 1,667 words I will have to do each day of November. I’m still ahead of pace overall, because I was ahead [...]
My parents gave me a handful of homegrown peppers last week — a couple of enormous jalapenos and maybe 12 or 15 skinny little peppers. I love peppers, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I was going to do with all of them before they [...]
I loved this video from the NaNoWriMo web site with tips for the first week:
I am hoping to continue to build up the cushion described in tip #2 today and tomorrow. I am already on pace for the second day, so whatever I write between now and bedtime is [...]
I am trying to burn off some vacation days which I will lose if they are not taken by the end of the year. I’m taking two of them Monday and Tuesday.
I figured this would be a great chance to get a head start on my National Novel Writing [...]
Well, it’s been a fine day and a half.
The lay speaking class was excellent. The Rev. De Hennessy was a terrific teacher, and my only regret now is that I didn’t get to know him back when he was stationed in Bedford County. And our class was terrific, including [...]
