Off to Houston!

Well, this is weird. Last week I was on vacation and now this week I find myself at home alone. Literally. Yesterday I took Lisa and Jackson to the airport. They are visiting her friend Priscilla until Saturday, so I am at home until then.

The sucky part? I don't get paid until tomorrow and I have *ZERO* dollars.

Oh well!

Oh and you can see the guitar I'm getting (or one just like it) here:

Telecaster!

Back from vacation

I returned earlier this morning from a weeklong vacation. It wasn't really a “vacation” so much as it was “stay at home and avoid going to work” but it was definitely refreshing. I tried to do as little as possible in the way of blogging/facebook etc. All that stuff gets a bit much when coupled with everything else. I realize it's supposed to be a creative outlet but a lot of times it feels like time-wasting. But anyway it was fun - my little man had his 7th birthday this past Monday and I tried to fill the week with fun things to do. We had a good time and going back to work after that is always depressing. I maintain that working is a terrible way to make a living.

I still haven't written anything down for the novel and I am still planning to - but every time I try to do it I get bored with it, sadly. I often think that I enjoy coming up with new ideas more than I do actually carrying them out. That part always gets tedious and overlong and over-thought-out and I rarely have patience for it because there doesn't seem to be any real reward. The times I've finished projects I've more often than not thought "thank goodness I don't have to work on that any more" rather than any sense of fulfillment. Never really been able to put my finger on why. Perhaps I am not doing the right things!

Anyway, my wife and son are going to Houston on Wednesday and returning on Saturday, so perhaps I'll have a few seconds to get things in order creatively…at least I can plan to, haha. There is so much to do around the house that I fear the scant hours I have not at work will be taken up with making my supper and sleeping, but I will try.

Guitars and Writing

Hi all (heh),

Still writing and plotting. Well, not really writing, but I have the ideas all mapped out in my head, more or less; now to just put them on paper. I think that Charles Edward Cobb will finally meet the public in short bursts, but for the first time I am actually trying to plot out what happens in the story beforehand. I even know what the final line of the book is!

As for the Fender Telecaster, yes, I did put it on layaway and yes I am continuing to pay on it. I cannot WAIT until I have it at home. It's a great guitar and now all I need is a case and an amp and a strap and a cord and…

hehe.


Next? I want a real Gibson Les Paul. But those are THOUSANDS of dollars. So I'd best save up.

This whole “writing” lark…

I am going to try and make a go of it. I’ve gotten some recent strong encouragement and it has recharged the old creative batteries a bit. So I am really trying to write more and get the REAL career going.

Wish me luck. I will try and post some tidbits for people to read if anyone’s interested. The ultimate goal is to be a published author. Now I just have to focus on one thing at a time!

Oh, and that new guitar?

I'm still going to do it, although now I've changed utterly which one it will be. On June 1st Fender lowered the prices on a lot of their stuff so I'm immediately putting a Fender Highway One Telecaster on layaway this Friday. It's awesome and I can't wait!!

The best part is they ARE American-made, have a cool retro nitrocellulose finish and are only six hundred beans at the moment. Can't really pass it up.

I'm not very good at this, am I?

I keep meaning to refocus and rejigger this blog to be funnier, or be more creative, but I end up just talking. One thing I am constantly guilty of is trying to do too many things, and having too many interests. It ends up costing me in the end because I never seem to get anything done. I mean, I'm trying to write various novels, screenplays, draw, learn to play the guitar, catch up on my reading, plus fitting in work and the time at home. All this while going through the single worst financial crisis of my entire life.

What I really need to do is focus. Focus, focus, focus. It's long been my problem but at least I am aware of it. I just honestly seem to have no way to really force myself into one thing or another, and I end up just goofing off most of the time.

It's depressing, and irritating, and I'm working on it. Bear with me, or offer words of encouragement or whatnot. It's equally depressing because I also see my brother doing the things I want to do and always expected I *would* do but never got around to it.

I will do, then, what I always say I will do and so far have failed utterly, completely and miserably at; reversing the process and getting something done.

I will try and talk about it as I am going on. That at least seems to be therapeutic, and helpful (while simultaneously taking me off task!)

No, I won't!

Still haven't put the guitar on layaway yet. Utterly, utterly no money. Oh well.

At least the family tree website(s) I'm working on are coming along great!

Soon!

I am going to go pick out the guitar soon. Hopefully I will be able to take it home in a month or two!!

New guitar? Possibly…possibly

Well if you know much about me or have been reading this blog at all you’ll know that I won an Epiphone acoustic guitar last year and I’ve been fiddling around trying to learn it. Now that I am firmly entrenched in the awkward stage between beginning and Rock God, I have decided it is time to get another electric guitar. Since I am not going to sleep on a bed of cash every night, I can’t afford to get a nice Fender American Telecaster or Gibson Les Paul. So I’m going to go the cheaper route and get an Epiphone Les Paul Standard through my brother’s music store. I have had no problems with my acoustic, and they’re inspected in the USA by parent company Gibson, so I feel confident that I can at least buy something decent. Plus Patrick can help me pick out one that might be better than the rest, and with the money I save I can upgrade parts of it to the nicer Gibson equivalents and still pay less than one of their USA-made guitars. Don’t get me wrong - I would love to buy American, but in this case it is the difference of about $2000 and I simply don’t have that kind of cash right now.

Check it out and see what you think. It’s still expensive - just not four figures.

Oh and yes, the one I want is hopefully the one you see when you click the link (well, if you click the link which is the title of this post). Why do I want this, you ask, if I’m not really a very good player yet?

The answer, as always, is because. Just because.
:D

Besides, I already have a Japanese Stratocaster, and I want to have something that sounds different.

One Day, I Will Honestly Do This

In other words, I will actually refocus this blog. The problem is that my wife has now taken a full-time job, with hours of 6pm-2:30 a.m. - which means Daddy is working full-time, getting off work, going to pick up little man from his grandparents’ house, going home, cooking supper, helping with homework, making him take a shower or bath, reading book, getting him ready for bed and then finally collapsing into his own bed.

And…repeat.

So I have no time other than work, which I sadly use to actually work. However her job is only a temporary one so until I can get more than 30-45 seconds breathing time (meaning probably not until next month) I will have to put this blog change on hold.

That will probably give me more time to refocus on it; plus I’m still having problems focusing on just one thing at a time. I always have so many ideas or projects that I end up not finishing any of them, and that has plagued me my whole life. I need to finish one thing, and as a result of that I think everything will fall into line. Hopefully.

I normally get a small amount of time after he goes to sleep to do stuff, so I will try and fit this into there. Last night, for example, I was going to work on it. I sat down on the couch and started working on a few things on the laptop and suddenly found myself waking up on the couch…three hours later!

Aha! I have found it.

And what I mean by that is “I've found the means to change what this horrible template looks like and will be doing so later tonight."

With that comes the refocus I’ve been burbling about, or at least provides the (currently missing) foundation for it.


Oh, and thanks for the comments really - it means a lot. I know there’s not much point in my ramblings yet, but as I go along I’ll be talking about writing and other creative projects I have as well as giving excerpts, and hopefully doing funny things that people will laugh at and enjoy, and I’d love to have your input as to what’s working and what isn’t, and what you think of the redesign.

Oh, and this isn’t the redesign; it is just the result of me fooling around with the settings.

And yes, I took the picture. :)

Bits and Bobs

Some random bits of flotsam and jetsam floating about:


1. Is there an easy way - in fact, any way to make your own blog template on this thing, or put a photo up or anything? I like the ease of use, but the design is rather…lacking, to be kind. I will dig deeper; perhaps I have just not paid attention or read what I was supposed to.

2. I forget #2. I just had it a minute ago, but…oh yes! I am getting better at the guitar. One day I hope to be at least partly as good as my brother. I feel I've turned a corner though and that's saying something with as little time as I get to practice. I really need to make time for guitar and writing too. I think if I would work harder at both than something would come out of it that could change my life. Sounds corny, but why not try it? I mean…if I can take time to write in a blog then I should be able to write more on my novel(s) and short stories I’ve had for ages, right?

3. I feel like I also should go back to school but I don’t really want to write papers on things that I don’t care about and will probably never remember anyway. I do want a degree but I no longer know if I have the patience to get one. I feel ashamed of not having one, but until we get some more income at my house, it’s pretty much a dead issue.

4. If anyone, anyone at all is out there reading this, please feel free to leave a comment. If you like.

Still still refocusing.

Ah well. I am trying.

At least baseball has started again and that brings with it, for me and thousands of others the promise of springtime and renewal. Many claim that baseball is boring or takes too long but for me it's the leisurely pace that brings a sense of peace and calm. To me, everything in my life, including and especially work, is always rush rush rush. It is therefore a wonderful thing to sit in a place that smells of hotdogs and peanuts and cotton candy and fresh-cut grass in the warm sun and just soak it all in. To watch the strategy of a well-placed defense or the pure elation of a crushed home run is so much fun that just for a little bit I can forget about what bills are due or whether or not I got the files I was working on right or if I need to change the car's oil.

That I can also enjoy it with my son is an added bonus; I want him to always remember spending time with his Dad and all the fun times we had when he was a kid. To me that is why I love baseball.

Which is not, to say, quite what I was intending on posting; I am trying to develop a sense of place and a rhythm for this blog, but so far it eludes me. I suppose for the time being I will continue to ruminate on whatever strikes my fancy, and see what comes of that.


Or perhaps, as I just told a friend of mine, I just need a really good burger.

Still refocusing.

Yes, I know. It’s still the same and everything. I’m working on it. It’s Spring Break this week for us and Little Man is more important than this thing…

More soon though I promise.

Refocus for this blog.

I used to think it was going to be for whatever I felt like posting, but now it's probably going to be primarily humor based. I'm going to try out different funny things and see what people think.

It's been dormant for long enough that I think that'd probably be best.

Man, I am Super Excited!!!

Only 11 more weeks until COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS OVER.

What's the Big Deal with Holidays?

You know what I hate the most of all? People who are trying to cater to everyone out there and bend over backwards to make sure no one gets "offended" by NORMAL AMERICAN HOLIDAYS like Halloween and Christmas.

If you don't celebrate them, fine. Don't. I won't make fun of you, and I won't impede on your life or beliefs in any way. ALL I ASK IS THAT YOU RETURN THE FAVOR.

I *do* celebrate Halloween and Christmas and as long as he's able, my son will go trick-or-treating and dress up and get candy from people, and put up a stocking and write letters to Santa and come down to the wonder and magic of Christmas Day. I utterly utterly despise the fact that our society is so bogged down with kissing each other's butt and making sure that party a is not offended by practice b that everything is watered down and taken out of schools. I cannot stand political correctness and if you're offended by things like Christmas and Halloween then WHY DID YOU MOVE HERE WHERE WE CELEBRATE THEM?!

Man, I hate people sometimes.

I won! I won! I won!

Yay!

Last night I went to the Grand Re-Opening of the Sam Ash music store where my brother works, and as part of the celebration they were giving away several guitars, basses, and various other musical instruments.


Well…I WON one of them! I won a $900 Epiphone Acoustic Masterbilt DR-500R. It's made of solid Rosewood on the back and sides, and a solid Sitka Spruce top with a natural satin finish. It's easily the nicest thing I've ever won in my life and I'm thrilled to bits.


You can see the model I won here:

http://www.epiphone.com/default.asp?ProductID=219&CollectionID=15


So today I am just a little less pessimistic. I am dreadfully behind on reviews of things, though so please bear with me. (sound of crickets chirping)


UPDATE: The link to the photo of me! http://www.epiphone.com/news.asp?NewsID=1287
oh yeah. I forgot. No one’s reading this!

Yelp!

Well I have thoughts on the Lost finale and more of series 4 of Doctor Who I'll post shortly. First, the reason why I haven't done so yet is because I am actually still recovering from a horrible stomach virus last weekend (and now my little man has it too). I had to go to the ER and have six bags of IV fluid last Monday, and am still not up to 100%. I haven't been that sick in a long time, and let me tell you it was unexpected and very unpleasant. Still - better now and almost back to normal.

In other news, I joined Yelp! which is a site for reviews of things in your city - shops, restaurants, what have you - just for fun. I will try and contribute both places and see what happens. I think the URL is simply yelp.com, but I'll have to get back to you on the specific link for my site.

Lost Season 4 finale tonight!

I don't know about anyone else but I cannot wait to see this. I am really excited to see how the Oceanic Six get off that island - but what happens to Michael? Sawyer? Locke?? Ben? Keamy?? I want to know NOW!!!

Hopefully it will be brilliant. If nothing else it certainly will be a hell of a lot of fun to watch and provide lots of speculation until next year!