Bumpy Start to ’18

The holidays went pretty well; had some good visits with friends and family; enjoyed the gifts from Christmas.  Then December 26th happened.  Type A flu struck a big chunk of the family.  That sucked.  We were laid up for most of the holiday vacation.  We’re still recovering from it.

Then I’ve decided to change careers.  I’m getting into project management.  It was a tough decision when the choice was presented to me.  So, after giving notice to my current employer, I’m anxiously awaiting the set time to start my new career.  It’s a little scary, but I’m hopeful and looking forward to it.  Needless to say, it’s been on my mind quite a bit.

On top of that stuff, I’ve been mentally prodding myself to get back into my hobby that is iRacing.  I have been on-and-off with it for about 2 years now.  It’s not that I haven’t jumped in my rig and raced periodically.  I have even been running in the Majors League during this time, too, but I have not been heavily involved like I used to be.  I do miss the way it used to be, but I am also a little apprehensive about jumping back into it with both feet.  I guess those waters will be tested tomorrow night with the first Lone Star Sports Car Series race in around 2 years.  Gonna knock the dust off the McLaren MP4-12c.

I’m going to have to get better at time management, too.  I want to put time in to my online racing, but I also want to keep in touch with my best friend, AND I want to keep writing.  These things have to be squeezed in around work and time with my family (the most important piece of this puzzle I call my life).  Wish me luck…

Advertisements

My Muse… Fickle Bastard

 

So, how the hell do you train your muse?  I’ve been suffering from writer’s block, lack of motivation, no inspiration… call it whatever.  It sucks.

Can you train your muse?  I’m not sure.  I thought it might have been possible.  But now I just don’t know.

My desire to write seems to be in my daily batch of wants and needs, but the fuel I need to do it, lately, is lacking at best – even non-existent at times.

I can’t deny having some recent distractions, but I don’t think they are the cause any kind of major block.  It’s like my muse just took a giant dump and bailed 

Trying to figure it out…

Net Neutrality…

Is everybody aware of this upcoming vote about the Net Neutrality laws?  I hope so.  This is some scary stuff.  Do you know what Net Neutrality is?  In a nutshell, it means that the internet service provider (ISP) that you pay to have internet access is required by law to let you use the bandwidth you pay for in any way you see fit.  If you have 50-megabit bandwidth, with the current laws in place, you can use that 50 megabits to access whatever content you want – YouTube, Netflix, Facebook… porn… whatever.

If these laws get repealed, your ISP will now get to decide how much, if any, of that bandwidth you’re paying for you get to use for certain things.  Again, in a nutshell, it means that your ISP can limit access to certain content as they see fit.  For example, the ISP could decide not to allow enough bandwidth to stream HD Netflix, or not stream it at all.  Then it’s likely that they will be happy to start charging you more to get better access to certain content, AND they will be legal to do this.  No more unrestricted access.

Watch the video I’ve linked below. It’s got a ton of good information.  It’s worth watching for good information.  Finally, voice your opinion.  I hope you’re for keeping Net Neutrality.  I want to be able to use my internet bandwidth in any way I see fit, especially being able to blog here on WordPress.  I bet you do, too.

Net Neutrality Video Link

Mind the Shadows… again

So, I’ve decided to put the beginning of Mind the Shadows back out here.  I’ve gotten a few more followers that I hope will give it a read and tell me what they think (hint, hint) 🙂  I just got done reading what I put on the page, and I liked it.  That said, I might be a little biased, heh, since it IS my idea.  So, please, tell me what you think.  Do you want to read more?  Does my writing suck or kick ass?

I’m undecided about putting more on the page in the future.  At one point, I thought about just adding to it until I was done and just calling it a freebie.  Instead, I have this crazy notion about letting that be a teaser for the rest of the story that I’d like to maybe publish.  I seriously doubt I’d sell it for much, but it would be very cool to me to actually sell my story.  Again, let me know what you think.  I need a little help/advice.

Mind the Shadows page.

Thanks, folks…

BTW, meet Marek and Jammer… well, concepts anyway 😉

A Response to DSFB, but I Liked its… Magic :-)

So, I was reading through a post by Dirty Sci-Fi Buddha (he posts good stuff).  He posited that science and magic are both equally wondrous and mysterious.  I completely agree, but a took it a bit further in a comment I posted to his thread.  When I got done reading it, I decided it was worth making my own post.  Yay, me? 😉

Science? Magic? A difference? When all in Reality that can be discovered, tested and verified is such, only the mind and will is left to affect Reality. Then it becomes a renewed matter of discovery, testing and verification, but now it’s on how the mind and will affects Reality. So, magic? Science? A difference?

Go back and read his post to help make sense of this.  Give DSFB a follow, too.  Thanks for the inspiration, ‘Buddha.

I’ll just leave this here…

A fair question, don’t you think? o_0

The Epic Retur… Who Am I Kidding?!?!?

A walk in the woods…

The wife and I decided to go hiking this morning – a good decision.  With the sweltering heat of Texas summers seemingly on the decline, we decided it was time for some outdoor activity.  We went to Rowlett Creek Preserve over near Garland.  It turned out to be a couple of hours of good fun.

I’ve ridden RCP a lot over the years.  It’s a great all-around mountain biking trail that has a little of everything for the off-road riding enthusiast.  It’s been a source of exercise and a ton of fun over the years since I started riding.  I didn’t realize, though, how different it is to walk the trail out there.  It’s a very different perspective.  We got to see things that you just don’t see when negotiating the twists and turns and various obstacles the trail offers when on a bike.  Seeing wildlife – mostly toads, frogs and birds – much more often and in a much closer proximity was interesting and fun.  Her and I used to love hiking the state parks of Missouri, and seeing the wildlife was one of the big reasons.

We’ll have to do this more often, especially now that the air temperature is more tolerable for a “northern” boy like me 😉

A pleasant surprise…

I’ve expressed my appreciation – probably not enough – for those that have chosen to follow my written ramblings on this page.  But today I got a follow that was kind of a surprise.  Since I haven’t been very active on here lately, I have no expectations of getting follows and/or seeing comments and the like when I’m not posting.  But Mr and Mrs NW saw fit to give me a follow today.  It was a surprise.  It was a very pleasant surprise.  It was kind of cool realizing that my page gets visits even when I’m not regularly updating it.  It was very cool that one of those visitors decided it was worth their time to follow my page.  Thanks.  You might have given me a bit of a boost in my motivation to start banging on the keyboard again.  I write for myself, but it sure is nice having an audience to entertain, too.  I’m a dungeon master at my core of creativity, so having “players” to present to is a good thing for me.  Again… thanks.

More to come.