Getting going with writing

I really must force myself to dedicate time and attention to writing. “Thinking about writing” doesn’t actually get things done. But the time has to come from //somewhere//.

Until now, I’ve also struggled with the mindset. The sort of fiction I want to write has dark, complex, nuanced themes, but doing this while small children brighten my life has proved challenging. But the real challenge here might lie more in preventing interruptions.

So I need to set up an environment lending itself to focus and concentration. That might mean someplace outside the house: a quiet coffee shop or restaurant, for example.

Ideally, I would do this in the morning, but realistically this won’t happen (at least not consistently). Lunch could work as well: will my current laptop do that, or should I get a netbook? Will the small keyboard present less inconvenience than carrying the weight and bulk of a widescreen notebook computer?

Either way, I really have to start at least trying things. Even if they don’t work exactly, they’ll provide additional insights to help me figure out what //will//.

Four Things

Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Math tutor
2. Construction laborer
3. Computer forensic investigator
4. Insurance file clerk

Four movies I’ve watched more than once:
1. The Princess Bride
2. Willow
3. Dune
4. Better Off Dead

Four places I have lived:
1. Dallas, TX
2. Richardson, TX
3. Garland, TX
4. Irving, TX

Four places I have been:
1. Caracas, Venezuela
2. Monterrey, Mexico
3. Monterey, CA
4. Marco Island, FL

Four Favorite drinks
1. Coffee (Ethiopian Yirgacheffe with heated milk and a dollop of honey)
2. Water
3. Dr Pepper
4. Tea

People who email me regularly:
1. Mary (my sister-in-law )
2. Ariel Preiss
3. Irving Police Dept
4. My boss

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Cold cereal
2. Tacos al carbon
3. Tostadas
4. Sweet potato pie

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Monterrey, Mexico
2. Monterey, CA
3. New York, NY
4. Chicago, IL

Four things I am looking forward to this year:
1. 10th wedding anniversary
2. Vacation (a real one, not just visiting family)
3. EVE Online winter expansion (hoping for “walking in stations”)
4. Finally getting to play with those toys “for 3 and up” with Kevin

Four TV shows that I watch:
1. Wow Wow Wubbzy
2. Oswald
3. Ni Hao, Kai-lan
4. Spongebob Squarepants (I only watch TV with my kids, oddly)

25 Random things about me

1. I have a degree in math (statistics). It was supposed to be applied math instead of stats, but I wanted to avoid topology. Now I actually enjoy topology.

2. I love “nerdcore hiphop”. MC Chris and MC Lars rule me.

3. At one point in time, I really thought I wanted to be a sportswriter. Then I grew up.

4. Pretty sure that I have read every bit of science fiction Arthur C. Clarke ever wrote.

5. My first words to both of my children were, “{NAME}, I am your father!” The OR nurses gave me odd looks.

6. One of my college professors went on to join the Mexican president’s cabinet.

7. In fourth grade, my dad had to give me $10 when I proved to him that I could find a mistake in my social studies textbook (something about tundra, that’s all I really remember).

8. For years, until I was like in my mid-20s, I thought Bon Jovi was singing, “you give love b-badly”.

9. When I was a kid, I didn’t want to be an astronaut, I wanted to work in Mission Control. They looked cooler.

10. My first business trip was to Mexico City. Had a blast.

11. I have a beautiful singing voice unappreciated by the masses. And everyone else who’s ever heard it.

12. One side of my family is descended from the Hatfields. Yeah, those Hatfields.

13. I’ve never touched tobacco in my entire life.

14. People who think, “if you don’t support my party, you must support the other one” frustrate me.

15. My kids’ favorite lullaby as babies was “Yellow Submarine”. Or was it my favorite lullaby to sing to them? Who can tell?

16. Mom and Dad didn’t let us wear camouflage clothing when we were little because it looked military. I still hate it when my kids wear it, but I can’t really articulate a good reason for it.

17. Unix > Windows.

18. I listened to 1310 The Ticket (Dallas sports station) on Day 1 and was a P1 for years, then drifted away and now listen almost exclusively to NPR.

19. As a child, my favorite lunch was a peanut butter & grape (sometimes strawberry) sandwich on wheat bread, nacho cheese-flavored Doritos, Dr Pepper, and chocolate chip cookies.

20. One of my high school nicknames was “Teen Wolf”. “Catfish” was another.

21. I taught myself Spanish and now speak it fluently. I did pick up some of my wife’s accent from Monterrey, however, and have occasionally been mistaken as a native by other people actually from that city.

22. Axl Rose has the greatest rock singing voice of the last quarter century, IMNSHO.

23. TOTALLY not an animal person.

24. If I could quit and start a new career without having to worry about providing for my wife and children, I’d go back and do a Ph.D. The qualifier I just added makes that really, really unlikely, though.

25. I tear off the edges of my fingernails when I’m momentarily bored or just need to do something with my hands. And I always need to do something with my hands.

Continuing health improvements

As an update to last month, I wanted to note that at this point I have lost fifteen (15!) pounds. I exercise regularly and have changed what I eat. My cholesterol is down to 182 (HDL 38, LDL 123), and my triglycerides are at 105.

I’m feeling better, wearing clothes I haven’t been able to wear in a while, and seeing myself differently. The death of a dear family friend at the age of 49 from a heart attack on New Year’s Eve has affected me in a number of ways, and this includes cementing my motivation to counteract the effect of my sedentary job by exercising regularly.

Weight loss kicked off

It started when I had my life insurance medical exam in November and came in eight pounds heavier than I expected (which was already heavier than I need).

Then, a few weeks ago, the 47-year-old father of a friend had a heart attack and ended up having a double bypass this week.

I need to lose weight, to get healthy. I don’t really care about looking good, but rather feeling good. I want to be around for my grandchildren someday, to set a good example for my kids so that they learn healthy habits, to feel like I should feel. So I joined a gym this week and started eating better several weeks ago. I’ve lost four pounds already; my short-term goal is 24 (to get back to 200 pounds), then to get down to 175. I probably should lose more from there but I don’t want to get ahead of myself.

Pirate girl

My five-year-old daughter has learned her lessons well:

“Daddy, if ya wanna be a pirate, ya gotta have pirattitude!”

Then I ask her a question, and her response:

“Yeah! I mean, uh, ARRR!”

I love this girl.

Hypocrisy in Christendom

When I first saw the tweet from @human3rror (whom I originally followed for WordPress conversations) regarding the post 10 Reasons I Don’t Like Most Christians, I thought it was something else. But then I read it and thought about it (and realized the author’s focus differed from what I originally envisioned).

The core point focuses around what I consider the hypocrisy of most people calling themselves “Christians.”

I certainly don’t believe that “Christians hate people with money,” though that’s mostly because it seems to me that many who claim to be Christian have a strong focus on money and materialism in this society. And the concept that Christians “worship their theology more than Jesus” also rubs me the wrong way: that doesn’t even parse to me. Does the author really believe that doctrine doesn’t matter? The fact that the statement itself states a core doctrinal disagreement in our theology points up the difference there.

The last point, really, reflects more about today’s pop culture than it does about Christianity. Sit down and listen to Bach’s Johannes Passion or Matthaeus Passion and tell me about mediocrity. Go spend some time contemplating the Pieta and tell me about mediocrity. So-called “Christian rock” has little artistic redeeming value, certainly. That likely stems, however, from trying to conform to a bland aesthetic that doesn’t actually challenge anyone’s status quo.

I do agree, though, that many in Christendom focus more on labels and groups than on following the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:44-47) and the rest of the Scriptures. That feeds into his first point that ‘most Christians are angry and bitter and worried,’ which (to me) further leads to the admonitions for Christians to ‘let our light shine’ in Matthew 5:14-16 and not to focus on judging others (Matthew 7:1-5). In fact, his core message is that most professed Christians stray pretty far from the way we should live, and that we should focus on both living an upright life and attracting others to serve God. On this, we do agree.

I don’t dislike Christians. I dislike the claim that one serves God through following Christ when in fact doing nothing of the sort. We should recognize the difference between struggling with our own imperfections, something every one of us do daily, and struggling with broken subcultures and the misguided focus on trying to help people to serve God without actually shaking things up.

Neither Jesus nor the apostles displayed a fear of reproving those needing it nor showing kindness, consideration, and affection to those needing those things. When we work towards following God’s requirements and follow the cramped, narrow road that leads to life, then we become the sort of Christians that inspire and motivate others to ‘take in knowledge of the only true God and of the one whom he sent forth’ (John 17:3).

Black Friday

Take thousands of sleep-deprived, usually overcaffeinated people. Squish them into small spaces to compete for poorly-manufactured consumer items for which the demand has been artificially inflated through clever (and often deceptive) marketing. Give them the tools to buy these things even though they can’t afford them. Tell them that the current economic crisis, largely created through the mismanagement of an oversupply of credit, requires unhinged buying sprees. Link all this to the social status that comes attached to acquiring and/or giving specific things due to fads and mob pressure.

Then call it a “fun tradition”.

Do the murder and assault rates go up on Black Friday? Because this sounds like the most poisonous stress cocktail I can reasonably imagine in our society.

Lifestreaming

The details of my life are quite inconsequential…

Okay, so I’m no Dr. Evil, but I do have this odd desire to share what’s happening in my life and what’s bouncing around in my head with people. Sometimes the ruminations have a focus, other times they just reflect current personal events and whatnot.

Even though I don’t update this blog very often, my Twitter feed does get a lot of activity. So when I do write something here, usually I prefer to make it something more than a quick blurb. And the folks that want to see what’s happening want more than just that; photos, videos, etc. all figure into the mess. In short, I want a lifestream (or the equivalent of my Facebook updates).

A few months ago, I thought FriendFeed might provide the answer, but now I’ve found a service I think I like better: Storytlr. The presentation looks a lot nicer and they have some advanced options like using a CNAME record (so your site looks like it really is your site) as well as backing up your data from other services.

For those interested, I still use Feedburner, so you can still just get the same URL no matter what. Then again, you might get inundated with my Twitter updates…

Via Anabubula

Real-time fiction

I’m laying in bed thinking about all sorts of things. That period just before sleep always provides great opportunities for guiltless free association. The melding of many topics led me to think about the possibilities of real-time fiction.

We’ve already seen things like the Fake Steve Jobs and lonelygirl15. What about real-time fiction using microblogging or even life-streaming? That is, using Twitter, maybe a blog or even a vlog, perhaps a social network like Facebook, all for a fictional character to tell a story.

One of the keys to good, interesting storytelling is immersion. When you’re reading a book or watching a movie and completely forget who and where you are, that sort of compelled immersion creates something new, and the essence of that ephemera binds itself to you in ways that potentially change you, the observer, as you interact with and integrate the text.

So if we then embed that story in the “real world” using the tools and media that permeate our lives, what sorts of stories can move us? What structures do we need to build into the narratives so that we move from that self-contained work to something much more natural and connected?