“Sunday, 9am

I saw fire in the sky

I felt my heart pound in my chest” – Sammy Hagar, Eagles Fly

Well… my parakeet was noisy, anyway…

Quiet morning here – except, maybe, for the parakeet.  The wife is (back) in bed.  She’s had a cold for the past few days and didn’t sleep well last night. My mom and sister couldn’t make their planned visit.  That might be for the best, though, with my wife being sick.  Hope my sister’s doing better.  My daughter left to back to college this morning after a nice spring break visit.  When my wife starts getting better, I guess life will return to “normal”.

So, I start my 46th year on this planet on a nice quiet Sunday morning.  I’d be remiss if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed for having things work out this way on my birthday, BUT it would be a bold faced lie if I told you that I’m not enjoying it.  Let’s put it this way, my “disappointment” is next to nothing versus my enjoyment of being able to sit here, listen to some music, hear the prattle of my bird and type this post.  The sunrise is coming through my window lighting up the room in a pleasant morning glow.  It’s gonna be a nice day.

I think it’s time for a little bike ride… later.

Marek Concept

So, in my attempt to… rework??? Mind the Shadows, I’ve been doing a little brainstorming.  During one of those sessions, I went out to Hero Machine and attempted to come up with a likeness of Marek.  What appears below is the result and what I see as a possible “future” Marek if/when he embraces what he could be.  I know that’s very vague, but I don’t even know just yet how Marek is going to deal with all that is about to be thrown at him or how he will evolve.  Keep in mind that this Hero Machine is meant to be cartoon/comic like, but I was fairly pleased with this result.  The fact that I’m no artist puts me in a situation where I have to make use of the tools I can find or beg others for their time and talents.

I do think this gives a good base concept of who Marek can be.  Capable of magick, but not adverse to making use of more “mundane” means of self-defense.

Let me know what you think.

 

Number 50

No content… just cool that I made it to 50 posts.  Just chillin’ and listening to some good stuff.  Enjoy 😉

What an inspiration…

I guess it’s a Sammy kind of night…

And one more… kick it up a notch…

Thoughts and feelings… in SOUND.  ‘Night, y’all.

Something Else… can’t leave it be.

A new page on Mindracing 9…

I did a little editing the other night on a fantasy scene I had rattling around in my head.  I posted the first crack at it in my blog sometime back.  I decided to read it over again and made a couple of small adjustments.  It’s incomplete, but I think it has the potential to grow into something bigger.  With that in mind, I decided to give it a page here on Mindracing 9.  I don’t know if this will be a novel or a short story…  or a whatever.  I am just going to put stuff out there related to this.  I’ll try to “track” things so folks know when I’ve made edits, additions, etc.

Once again, I’d appreciate it if y’all gave it a read and let me know your thoughts.  Also, again, I don’t mind negative feedback.  If it sucks, please tell me why you think so.  If it’s good, please tell me why you think so.  If you have an idea about where you’d like to see the story go, by all means, speak up. 🙂

Getting feedback is a huge motivation for me to make an effort to do more.  It would be a very cool thing to get published “for real” some day, but I would be happy to know that I’ve entertained some folks with what I’m doing right here.  It’s the gamer in me that drives this.  It’s not about wanting an audience for a show or to make money (that would be nice, though) so much as a desire to provide something that somebody will have fun reading.  I used to DM/GM (that s dungeon master/game master for the “layman”) tabletop role-playing games a lot.  The most enjoyment I got out of it was when I knew my players were getting into their characters and the adventure/story I was laying out before them.  It had nothing to do with being “in charge” or the leader or looking for some ego trip.  I just loved being able to rile up the players’ imaginations and see them get hooked on the adventure.  When I knew they were into it, my motivation between game nights to get them more was through the roof.  If they weren’t into it, I encouraged them to let me know and give me ideas to work with.  That ‘s what made me a good DM/GM.  I’m hoping to be the same way as a writer, I suppose.  So, help me out, huh?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.  Thanks in advance for letting me know what you think.

Catch ya again soon.

Rework or Rebuild?

As you may have noticed, I took down Mind the Shadows.  I felt compelled to pull it and… well… decide, I guess, what to do with it.

The truth is that I think it kind of got away from me.  I was more concerned about cranking out words and “action” than with understanding what I wanted for my characters – not to mention, among other things, what my characters wanted for themselves.

It started feeling like doing a job versus just being a story I wanted to tell and being something fun to do.  So, as you ALSO may have noticed, I got sloppy when I did produce words, AND I started producing less often.

I’m at a crossroads for either reworking (my term for doing some editing) the existing story or rebuilding it.  I’ll likely keep the general story line that I started, but I’m not sure if I’ll pare it down to being part of Marek’s background, or if I’ll rework and streamline it, then continue on from there.

I would like to get a bit more “future history” in there for a better description of the setting.  I felt like that was lacking.

I’m still learning how to do all this, so I don’t know what you should expect.

I wouldn’t mind some advice.

I did get one great piece of advice. It was part of what prompted me to start down this path for Mind the Shadows.  Dirty SciFi Buddha posted one of his musings that really got my attention.  Here is the link to the post.  He’s right, too.  I was cranking out “stuff”, but I wasn’t paying attention to my characters.  I wasn’t letting them become the living breathing people they need to be.

Anyway, let me know your thoughts about Mind the Shadows.  Let me know your thoughts about anything.  As always thanks for your comments and feedback.

Bloggity, Blog, Blog

I am determined not to let this blog sit too idle.  Sorry to those that might actually be interested in reading this for not posting more often.

Let’s just say that I’ve been “cruising” through life since my last post.  It’s a habit of mine to just coast for a bit after the holidays.  I don’t know that it’s a good habit, but…  I don’t know that it’s a bad habit, either.  I’m not always “productive”. And while a feel some guilt – sometimes – for not being productive (outside of going to work daily), I don’t feel that guilty.  Yes, time flies and all that, but I don’t consider it a bad thing to just exist now and then.

I guess I haven’t been too idle, though.  My sim racing hobby has been a bit more in my focus since the holidays.  I joined the Pacific Majors league again this year.  It’s a pretty cool league.  It’s not without its drama and bullsh!t, but I enjoy it.  We get to run in different types of races with different types of cars, so it is quite interesting having to learn the different race disciplines.

This next Sunday (2/26/17) I get to race in the Pacific Majors’ version of the Daytona 500.  I’m looking forward to it.  For some reason, I really like the restrictor plate racing, especially since I’ve had the opportunity to participate in it rather than just watching it on TV.  It’s very intense trying to keep the car under control in a group of cars going ~200mph and only being inches apart.  So much concentration is required… very intense 😀

I’ve been on “TV”, too… well YouTube.  The Pac Majors league has the top 2 splits of these races streamed/broadcasted live by professional streamers.  It’s kind of cool being able to go back and watch the race you were just in, and possibly seeing yourself (well, your car) and having your name mentioned.  I just wish my name was mentioned more often for being fast and making it to the front versus getting into wrecks 😳  That’s something I need to work on a bit  Come watch a stream anyway, especially if you like auto racing.  I’ll try to post the different YouTube channels where the streams will be.

Other than that… well… like I said, I’ve just been moseying through life since the first of the year.  I think I’ll be getting more active on here again, though.  It might be more about my sim racing stuff, but it will be something.

As always, let me know what you think.  Ask me questions.  Ask me to write about something.  This blog does not have to be a one-way thing.  I would very much enjoy hearing back from readers.

Later 😉

Moving into ’17

The holidays were good to me.  I got to visit family and hang out with my best friend.  I had a lot of fun.  And again, there was minimal drama like at Thanksgiving.  I can say that I am as grateful for that as the rest.  It was a very enjoyable break.

I’ve gotten some laughs from the many 2016 memes citing how fu€kt up 2016 was.  I mean what can you do but laugh… or go stark raving mad like much of society does over some of the stupidest shit.  I find myself shaking my head more and more often…

Don’t get me wrong.  2016 had some negative events like the deaths of some well-known folks.  I guess I’m at the age where the ones dying are people with whom I have some sort of connection.  These were people that were known and popular in my time.  I suppose that will be the case more and more as I get older.  Still, even though it was a shame to lose some of these folks (pretty good artists and actors), I will accept that it was their time.  Maybe their passing will incite some positive changes in our world.

Then there was the election here in the U.S. of A.  What a freakin’ circus.  And I am still trying to comprehend the level of shitheadedness (I made this one up <grin>) that people have shown over this fiasco.  I’m not here to get political.  I just want to point out the complete lack of maturity and abundance of stupidity that surfaced during the campaign and election.

My only thoughts on Trump being president are: 1. I expect some changes. 2. I hope some of those changes are for the better.  Putting that guy in office is definitely a curve-ball.  I am considering this another one of those 2016 winds of change.

So, 2017 is here.  It sure ain’t like the Back to the Future movies described (that was 2015, by the way).  We don’t have hover cars and controlled weather.  I haven’t seen a Mr. Fusion on a shelf at Target.  I do sometimes think, though, if the world was less focused on money and beating each other over the head for our differences, and more focused on advancing technology and solving problems like pollution, hunger and diseases, we might actually have stuff like that by now – or, at least, be much closer.  Maybe all the 2016 craziness will be a catalyst for bigger better things in ’17.

Happy New Year?