Annoyances

There's some sort of buzzing insect trapped in the wall.  I don't know what it is or how it got there, but the buzzing is getting on my nerves.  There's nothing I can do about it without tearing a hole in the wall.  Poison would probably work, but that's not an option.  The last time I handled any sort of poison, I ended up with a food allergy soon after.  I don't mess with poisons anymore.

This isn't the first time it's happened.  There have been buzzing insects trapped in the wall before.  Eventually, they leave or die, and that's what will happen this time, too.  In the interim, though, I have to live with that nagging noise.

I know... first-world problems.

In other news, I've got over 58,000 words done in the current work-in-progress.  I'm on page ten of my twelve-page outline.  The end is near.  Well, the end of the first draft, anyway.

Fireworks already?

My neighbors have already started shooting off fireworks.  The Fourth is still two weeks away.  lol

Murica!  :D

In all seriousness, though, good for them.  I remember when fireworks were illegal here.  Now that the law has changed, let the folks have their fun.

I've been getting the urge

...to dig the sax out and start playing again.

It's been a long time, and my embouchure is shot.  The instrument would sound horrible until my mouth re-learned how to play.  It might even sound horrible after that, because it's an old horn with lots of mileage and I have no idea if the pads are still good or not.

But I still get the urge to try.  I was listening to some Glenn Miller tunes today, and I wanted to play along.

If money was no object, I'd probably buy a new horn.  A tenor sax this time, not an alto.  And after I got my playing chops back, I'd look into finding a group of some kind and doing public performances.  Rock, swing, whatever.  It's the fun of performing that matters, not the musical genre.

But money is an object, and so is time, so I can't indulge my flights of fancy just yet.  Maybe some day.

Progress report

I've got over 50k words down in the first draft of book 4 of Wheel of Fire.  Around 52k, I think.

This one is going to need some work.  I've been giving a lot of thought to what sort of book I want this one to be, and I'm not sure my outline quite hits those beats, so I might have to scrap some of the outline.  The good news is that I'm getting a more crystallized idea of what the book should be, so hopefully the writing will be easier as I near the end.

Cover is done, and I've decided on a title, so those things are out of the way.  Also, I've been working on the book 5 cover, and it might be done, too.

I've been very slowly making some notes for a new trilogy.  Once Wheel of Fire is done, I'd like to hit the ground running with the next series.

Amazon seems to be phasing out the also-boughts, and I've seen a decline in the rate of free downloads of Clouds of Venus as a result.  It sucks, but there's nothing I can do about it short of trying to get Amazon's CPC ads to work for me, and that's just not something I've been interested in investing the time and money in.  I'll probably have to do it anyway, but I'm really not looking forward to it.

Four months after the Featured Deal, I'm still picking up new followers and recommendations of Clouds of Venus on Bookbub.  Feels good.  Thanks, Bookbub members, and long live Free Space!  :D

A clear night brings success!

I went outside with the binoculars again tonight.  This time, the air was clearer and less humid.  I looked at Jupiter, and lo and behold, I saw four moons!  Two to the left, two to the right, making a straight line that slanted down from left to right.  Freakin' awesome.

For the record, the binoculars only magnify up to fifteen times, so anything with that power or greater should be sufficient.

I feel like Galileo or somebody.  Pretty exciting stuff.  :D

Jupiter is in opposition

Our solar system's largest planet is currently close to Earth and big in the sky.  Apparently, one should able to see some of its moons with just a pair of binoculars.  I tried, but no dice.  It's a hazy, humid night, so that might be the reason.  Also, whenever I tried to look at Jupiter, I simply couldn't hold the binoculars steady.  The planet danced all over my field of view like a lightning bug on cocaine.  I'll try again tomorrow night.  Maybe the air will be clearer.

A telescope would be a better tool for stargazing than binoculars, but I don't have a telescope.

Anyway, if you've got clear air where you live, see if you can find Jupiter's moons.

Also, for a cool and free astronomy program, download Stellarium.

A new milestone

I made my first ever money from Scribd last month.  Just got the sales report from D2D today.

Thanks, Scribd readers!  I hope you enjoy the books.  :)

Browsing for cameras

Technology advances at a rapid pace, particularly in the realm of consumer electronics.  If something you want is too expensive, just a couple of years.  The new latest cutting-edge thing will be out, and the thing you actually want will be marked down considerably.

Unfortunately, this trend doesn't seem to be holding with respect to camcorders.

One would think that 4k camcorders with optical zoom would be plentiful and affordable.  Browsing Amazon gives a different impression.  Lots of digital zoom; not so much optical zoom.  Lots of no-name brands I've never heard of.

My theory: smart phones are to blame.  People use their phones now for everything photo- or video-related, which means the market for dedicated cameras and camcorders has stagnated.  I think this is unfortunate for several reasons.  One, you're putting your stuff on the cloud instead of on a memory card, which means Big Brother sees your pics and vids before you do.  Two, in addition to Big Brother, there's the matter of hackers.  Three, you can only pack so much into a smart phone's case, so the technology will always be inferior to that of a dedicated camera.

On the other hand, thinking about WiFi and smart phones and the cloud and all this other stuff has given me some story ideas.  Silver lining, right?

I found a childhood friend tonight

On a whim, I decided to google an old friend.  I haven't seen or talked to him decades.  We lived in the same neighborhood as kids, but he lived a couple of streets over, so he wasn't one of my closer neighborhood friends.  He moved away after our freshman year in high school, and that was the last I heard of him.

He apparently joined the military after high school and had even become a grandfather.  I've never even had kids--something I still hold out a slim hope of doing--and this guy who's the same age as me already produced the next two generations of his family.  I'm envious and full of bitter regret for the years I've wasted.

I don't remember if he ever told me he was moving away or not.  I also don't know the circumstances involved.  Did his parents divorce?  Did one of them get relocated due to work?  No idea.  Whatever the case, he simply disappeared from my life.

It wasn't hard to find him on the internet, though.  His obituary was on the very first page.  He died last year at the age of forty-three.

I found a childhood friend tonight.

Sometimes I get stuck

Like now.  I'm trying to write this fight scene, but it just doesn't want to come together.  If I can just power through it, then it should be clear sailing for the next few scenes.

I'm tempted to seriously wound the protagonist just out of spite.  In fact, after a moment's thought, it might actually serve the story.  I think I'll do it.

But I still have to get him from point A to point B, and that's the hard part.