So I had a pretty long post up yesterday that I took down this morning, after reflection.
This blogging thing is really a great way to think things out, aloud as it were, and just get them off my chest.
But damn, people CAN read them (even if they aren't right now), and the things I said last night... if certain people had read them, it would have made my life pretty difficult.
To note, I didn't say anything bad about other people, quite the contrary in fact. But sometimes the only thing you can do is keep your mouth shut and deal with a situation as best you can.
And 'nuff said about that.
So one other thing I mentioned in that prior post was that I have always had a secret dream to be a published writer. I even made a brief go at it a few years back, submitting a short story to a bunch of genre magazines. Obviously all I got back were a bunch of rejection letters, but it was still progress of a sort.
And I will mention that the letters were well-deserved. The story was utter shite, and I cringe now when I look at it.
So yeah, after the rejections, I kinda let the whole thing drop and focused on a more practical career, which is what got me, eventually, in a massively roundabout way, to the great job I have today.
And now that that job has settled-in pretty nicely, I have some time. Recent events and the prompting of a great friend of mine (who pushes me to try new things and open myself up) has made me decide to try to plunge back into the writing thing a bit again.
So now I need to figure out what to write... and it's not so easy as one might think.
I have a few options:
1) The story that saved my life. There's a backstory there that I won't go into, but I promised myself awhile back that I would write this story, and I do want to do it sometime.
2) A story set in Ardenia. Ardenia is a fantasy-based world that I've been developing via story notes for, oh, probably 10 years now on and off. I have an incredible amount of background for it, but always seem to get side-tracked when I try to actually write a story set there.
3) Unnamed space universe. I've been toying with a new story setting in my head for a few months now (I've always done this, whether I'm actively writing or not). It's a sci-fi setting that starts with the conquest of earth by unknown aliens and the escape of a small but determined band of humans focused on reclaiming their homeworld.
Those are the three main ones I could do. Oh, I could also dip into one of several other settings, or a few one-offs I've toyed with (such as the Ring story I started writing with Patricia many years ago). Heck, I could even dust off ye olde crappy magazine submission and try to make it readable.
Hey, that's not a bad idea... it could be a good exercise for me, as editing is something I've never really done (or done well). Hrmmm...
Maybe that's what I'll do.
Heck, I'd ask my "readers" for input, but since you don't actually exist... well, I'll just have to think about it. But the re-write of the old story is actually starting to appeal to me.
We'll see.
Figured I'd post something, since it's been like, awhile since I've done the posting of the writing thing.
And apparently, I have actual readers!
Dear god help thems that is so lost...
Gonna wrap-up a few loose ends from prior posts:
Got back from the trip to Wondrous Ohio unscathed (this was rarer than one would expect, since practically everyone I knew out there came down with some weird viral infection, including one of my roommates). The car is in good shape, but not nearly so clean anymore, and several thousand miles older. But at least it costs a metric assload of cash to keep it gassed-up now, so I'm all good.
The SORBS situation sorted itself out while I was out of town on the trip. Took nearly two weeks, but they finally removed the block after one of my co-workers posted to a major Sysadmin list basically calling them morons (nicely, if such is possible).
The whole thing was pretty avoidable if they'd either done a modicum of due-diligence (say, emailing us about our net-blocks before just blocking them all for little cause, or, I dunno, maybe answering their support mail?!).
So yeah, blocks be gone. My first (and thus-far only) commenter questioned whether the block was called-for in a comment to my SORBS Sucks! post. Check my comment back there for details on why he is wrong (I'm not repeating myself).
And hey, welcome to my corner of the world, Randolf!
What else, what else...
Job continues to go well. My baby nephew prospers. He's just the most adorable thing in the world, and has this really cute smile. I look forward to subtly warping his mind as he grows up, to make my sister and bro-in-laws live's a living hell ;)
Dating continues unabated and with glee. Talking to this great girl right now via the joys of online dating. Hoping to meet soon (she's a cutie, let me tell ya). And if you're reading, I mean YOU, Hoodie Girl!
Still playing poker and following politics and not posting about either one (despite several promises).
I will say this much, at my last monthly poker game, I got my first real beat-down since I first hunkered down and learned the game. Still stings a bit.
I'm still up lifetime for the poker nights, but not by much anymore. I know where I went wrong, and it was in letting the limits stay at the VERY low levels we started the night out with. It made bluffing virtually impossible, and since I wasn't getting many hands...
I made my buy-in back in the no-limit hold 'em tournament we played to end the night (as always), mostly off a really good bluff against a guy with pocket aces.
Since I really started learning poker (about 6-8 months ago), I've never done worse than getting my buy-in back in the hold 'em tourneys, which I am pretty proud of. No-Limit Hold 'Em is definitely my game of choice, and the one I focus most of my learnin' efforts on.
Okay, I lied. We had one HUGE NL Hold'Em tourney back a few months ago (huge for us, about 25 players) where I missed the final table of 8 by about two slots. I was the chip leader at one point, but got sucked-out badly and started spiraling down after that.
I'm still learning, I'm still learning...
Anyway, that's it for the night. And to all my (one, likely soon to be leaving) readers... have a pleasant night.