A man's wealth

A man’s wealth cannot be measured in gold or jewels, nor can they be measured in any other kind of currency.

All wealth falls.

All possessions crumble to dust.

The weight of a man can be found in the people he stands by, in the family that he chooses, and the world he shapes with them.

These are treasures, worth more per ounce, inch, or denomination.

Because when they are gone, they are missed the most.

No body cries for a dollar spent, yet it’s gone just the same.

A man builds this wealth and he takes pride in watching it grow.

Love matures better than any interest.

May you always be wealthy, in this life and the next.

Dedicated to:

Mike Barrett
April 1, 1971 - August 11, 2012

Summer bug

Once the Olympics are over I’ll be able to sleep! I keep finding myself staying up all hours of the night to watch live events. Thank goodness this only comes once every 2 years; I think I’d die from a lack of sleep if this continued.  Not that I sleep much anyway, but I need what little I get.

Besides living on caffeine, I believe that these Olympics have been very successful, even with few black marks that I’ve read about.

The criticism I’ve heard the most is that NBC’s only showing online content to those spending more than $100 on their cable/satellite subscriptions. I do, so I didn’t think much about it till I talked with many of my friend’s that don’t even have a TV setup. So those in the US are left blacked-out while the rest of the world has access to free, easy to use, streams.

I don’t think that anyone should have to pay to watch the Olympics, sure if you go see it in person you should pay to have a seat in the arena.  But having to pay for the televised coverage? No. It’s  so monetized with ads already it’s almost painful.  Every time the ads change it kills my video for a few seconds, which sucks when trying to watch basketball.

Articles about the issue:

http://lifehacker.com/5930437/how-an-american-can-stream-the-bbcs-official-olympics-coverage-and-overcome-nbcfail

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/30/nbc-fail-buggy-whip-olympics

Project Subaru 25b

I’m getting the bug again. It’s an evil and expensive bug when I catch it and my immune system is ill fit to handle it.

It’s time for another Subaru project!

So I’m going to take my heavily modified Subaru RS and make it a different heavily modified Subaru.
I want something that looks a little different and is easier to use on the street than the current configuration.
I’m looking at a company in the UK that makes 22b body kit, my current plans are to import it and then have it repainted in the traditional 22b blue.  Then I want to update the engine to a 2.5 STi Spec engine and tranny and set the wider stance on the tires. I will label this the first 25b.
My first plan is to find a 05 -07 STi donor car for the base parts I’m going to need for the mechanical work.

Birthday!
I’m 35 now! It’s been hard days of drinking and having a good time. Part of the celebration was enjoying a cabin with friends.  Of course none of this helped with how far behind I am with my writing. I’m going to buckle down this whole weekend and get another chapter or two done before Monday.

Online classes

I’ve been taking an online Sci-Fi and Fantasy class, but the format revolves around peer grading. It’s a free class, so my peers are just what you’d think. I’ve talked with others that have been taking the class locally and we all agree we aren’t getting  what we want out of it. Sounds like we are going to drop and never look back.

Things I'm reading:
I Have a lot of books that I’m reading right now that I’ve talked about before, but because of the class I’m in I’ve not completed them yet.  But here is the new one.

Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb – The first book was good enough that I needed to start up the second right away. I’ll get right into the third book next for sure.

 

That’s it for now, just some quick points into my summer.

I’m off to get a little more drinking in before my weekend. J

Robert

Let the Games Begin!

Olympics, Olympics, OLYMPICS!

Man I have been waiting a long time for them and now they are here! Ten full days of international sport at some of the best and strangest games that the world has to offer! I have to give big props to NBC and all the work they are doing to make sure that viewers get to see every minute of it. I'm guilty of using all my laptops and my TV to make sure I have as many games on at once as I possibly can. Saturday alone, I had Men's Doubles Badminton, Archery, and Woman's Handball all at the same time.

A second issue that I'm having; I don't think that I'm going to be seeing much sleep. This next week, games start at 1am and go ALL NIGHT LONG. I've already stayed up to 3:30am opening night to watch the first sports and Sunday at 6am the US Men's Basketball played.

Of all the sports that are currently being played, I think that they should make the TV show "Wipeout" as one of the sports they run. They could do use three different obstacles as "heats" for elimination into the metal round (AKA: the Wipeout Zone). They also have to keep the hosts of the show. I believe that it would make Japan and the US as the favored countries going into the Olympics.

Other games I believe should be Olympics sports:

Indoor Soccer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZITAM8p73M

Note: I'd like to see it with turf though.

Skateboarding - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7gAGfDWV9s

Yo-Yo - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvG3IK-hzRs

Note: The Flog also has a part on Yo-Yo tricks.

Human Tetris - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBaWuNDQeQg

What better way to get some editing done than to go to the beach!

Sunday we took a trip out to Ocean Shores, the weather was amazing and I had some of the best company ever. 

I'm not going to say I got a lot of editing done, but...a little. :)

Pulp fiction:

Checkout this article from the UK.

Pulp fiction - http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/may/29/new-pulp-fictioneers-fiction

Chuck Wendig is quickly becoming one of my indecent, independent, writing heroes and is mentioned in the article.

http://terribleminds.com/ramble/2012/07/17/amongst-the-new-pulpeteers-or-what-the-good-goddamn-is-new-pulp-anyway/

Pulp Fiction is something that I've been pushing myself to do for just over 3 years. The Dinatech series is pulp fiction, I started book one wanting it to be set of novellas, and when I write book three I'll be keeping to the same format I envisioned.

When I saw this article I wanted to say something about it, maybe even something profound. But what can you say? He's right, the pulp of the past is gone, everything has changed and it will keep changing. You either get on the damn bus or you sit on the porch of your house and yell at the kids. "Get the hell off my literary lawn!" Don't need a book to tell a story or even words. You don't even have to be the one telling the whole story either, video games tell stories and let the reader (for lack of a better word, I thought about experience-er) find their own path. There are even other ideas that this article doesn't talk about, there are so many YouTube famous people out there now. Everyone of them has a passion they want to fulfill and everyone of them is a creative artist. Blog, Vlog, Flog, so many people sharing so many ways.

The other point I think the Guardian's article tries to talk about is how e-book writers are want to become the next pulp authors. The writer suggests that the idea of what makes great authors is still very much still up for debate. I think about it and say; you've got legends of the past and then current literary icons like JK Rowling (that are now even celebrated in the opening of the Olympics). Then you have writers like E L James, and others that are first getting noticed through fanfic. They are putting twists on stories like Cinderella, and adding zombies to Pride and Prejudice, vampires to Abraham Lincoln's days. Even stories where all they do is add the word "f*ck" to every other sentence. But people keep saying that they like these things and who am I to say they can't have what they want? Who am I to say it's not good when they obviously enjoy it.

My point is, it's always going to be in debate

What I'm reading:

Household Stories by Brother Grimm - This is for a class that I'm taking online that debates Fantasy and Sci-Fi, you're going to see a lot of strange books here over the next 10 weeks. Sorry. So far, I'm the only one that I know that's enjoyed reading these.

Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong - I'm not really reading this yet...but it's just sitting in the middle of my table watching me, asking me to read it. It's the last book on the Otherworld Series. Has it really been over ten years now? I almost don't want to read it, if I don't, it will never end.

Movies:

Nothing this week, and nothing next as the Olympics and edits are to be obeyed at all times. Lame I know.

Music:

The Delgados - An older band that broke up, but I found them in my iPod and every time that I do I always find myself putting their collection of work. 

See ya next week!

Robert 

Working with a flat wheel

I'll get to my blog in a moment; I just wanted to give sympathy's to family and friends of those hurt in the Colorado Springs shootings. Everyone should be safe to enjoy art, stories, movies, and life without the worry that someone being so selfish as to take it from them maliciously. This is to the people who lost their life following their passion, and to those whom had one of their favorite stories darkly tainted.

Don’t' forget what Batman is about, regular people standing up against the atrocities of the wicked.

My title this week is because I dislocated my left pinky playing soccer and is in a splint. I play keeper, so yes I'm the only man in the WORLD that can hurt their hands while playing a foot sport. Go me. I'm letting the swelling go down, but I might be taking a trip the finger doctor guy. If it still feels like this in a few weeks I don’t see how I can avoid going under the knife. It's going to be awesome time, really, I not even lying that much right now. I took a picture then thought better of posting it, you're welcome.

The weather around my house has been hard to follow, while I read about the rest of the US living in an heat wave, Seattle finds its self unclear. The weather moves between 80 and sunny, to 50 and downpour. I'm used to Seattle having wet winters and dry summers. But the last two years this has been the case. It was kind of fun to watch Seattle be the only place in the contiguous United States that wasn't suffering from some kind of heat wave. This year I wonder; is world weather shifting?

http://geekandsundry.com/

Ok I’m kind of an addict right now trying to catch up on it all. I really didn’t think that much of Felicia Day other works, but this has been fun. It’s less formatted and more just about what they want to do and I’m the first person to tell you I’m behind that kind of internet play, 101% If they can keep it up and rolling I’m looking forward to seeing what they can do.

If this is your kind of place you should also check out:

http://www.screwattack.com/ - I place that I have loved following for years, I still miss Dustan.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation - Del and I never miss a week (mostly because I won’t let her)

http://cinemassacre.com/ - Angry Video Game Nerd (when not making his movie) and interesting looks and movies.

LUNAR!

I'm not really that big of a gamer; when I was younger I always thought that I was. I did play a lot of games, and I owned even more. But, I think, of all the traits that make you a gamer; you have to finish games you start. The easy ones, the hard ones (so hard they make you toss controllers about the room. Maybe they should make controllers out of super-ball rubber?), I found that I rarely finished a game and when I did, it was an RPG. I didn't really think about it at the time (just I believed I was a crock of a gamer that needed to keep his horrible deeds under wraps), but I think what kept me playing RPG games was the story, not the action of Contra or the castle crushing antics of Super Mario Brothers.

I've said this a few times my favorite game series was Lunar, I did a blog article a while back when I guest appeared on Amber's blog. I enjoyed doing that so much that I pulled out my collection and looked it over. It was good, but it wasn't...perfect.

TO THE WORLD OF EBAY!

I had the first Sega CD Lunar with the original cover and the two complete remakes for the PlayStation, also I had some of the strategy guides wrapped. But I was missing the Lunar 2 hardback strat and I didn't even own Lunar 2 for the Sega CD. From the day after that blog, till now I've spent time looking for and putting together the rest of what was released. In both US and Japan.  I give to you…the list!

Houston, we have Lunar.

Japan:

Mega Drive:

Lunar, Lunar 2.

Game Gear:

Lunar Walking School.

Sega Saturn:

Lunar, Lunar 2, Lunar Walking School

US:

Sega CD:

Lunar (First ED cover), Lunar (Embossed cover), Lunar 2

Manuals: Lunar, Lunar 2

PlayStation:

Lunar, Lunar 2

Manuals: Lunar, Lunar 2

1 Ghaleon punching puppet. (Not pictured)

Game Boy:

Lunar Legends

DS:

Lunar: Dragon Song

PSP:

Lunar: Silver Star Harmony Collectors ED

Manual: Lunar

http://www.lunar-net.com/ has about the best website ever for the game and It has stuck around for a long time now. I hope it's always there.

Books:

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - It was an interesting read, it falls into more of the darker YA I have been seeing where Amy’s father dies and she’s left behind while feeling that everything that happens is her fault. The story is a very interesting trip across America going against the rules her mother placed on her. I didn’t feel they completed enough plot threads to make me happy.

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb - Keeping with my theme of only reading books that start with A in the title, I've added Robin's book to my pile of "too much stuff to get through". After spending a whole weekend around her and my wife spending a sometime with her at Comic-Con, I thought I should get the know her writing better than not at all.  Just started, but well written. I'm already given the impression that this isn't your typically authored book.

Movies:

Ted – It was cute and it was fun, but I don’t see myself buying it till it’s in the Wal-Mart discount bin. It was fun to watch, but it was basically like watching a live action family guy episode

Cars 2 - Okay people, what was the problem with Cars 2? Was it juts not funny enough? Was something missing? I mean I felt it had all the points I'd expect from a Pixar movie. I think if people liked Brave they should have liked this one. Note: I've never seen all of Cars 1, just parts while it played in the corner at home. I liked it, so there.

Music:

Pedro the Lion - Next up on my tour of collecting the completed works of tour; Pedro. I've owned Control and Winners Never Quit. I've followed up buyin: It's Hard to Find a Friend, Achilles Heel, Whole EP, The Only Reason I Feel Secure, Progress, and Tour ED '04.  Thank you Amazon MP3.  When I create my next sublime character, you'll know why. Still the music is amazing.

Beach House, Bloom - I picked up their newest CD Bloom for 5 bucks, I was told about it by my brother. It's very dream pop, something I'd say I first really liked when I heard...

Summer Twins - http://summertwinsmusic.com/ They opened for Mathew Sweet when he came to town and after listening to Beach House I needed to some dreaming surf funk sounds, they fit the bill nicely. But I needed something harder so I listen to...

Helmet - Some hard-core surf punk, I could do this all day

But I won’t I’m massively behind on my editing, so much I’m not even blogging about it!

Good day!

Robert

I want to scream!

Edvard Munch “The Scream” made in 1893, let it be known kiddies, if you paint on cardboard you too might be able to sell it for 120 MILLON dollars! 

Yup, that's it, really

You think Edvard ever thought that this work would sell for that? “Hey, hon. Check this out! It’s worth 120 million. Don’t toss out those pizza boxes!”

Picked up a few books on Grammar, by reading this you might be able to tell I haven’t read them yet! Actually I started to look at one and I’ve read about linking verbs now. Then I tossed the book aside and did a few pages of edits for my book. I’m not sure if it’s helping or making it worse. I need my editor to come back from Comic-Con so that I can hear how bad I messed things up.

To this end; I think that my idea of broken grammar should be "art" that people should mail me 120 million dollars for the privilege of owning the rites all my first draft manuscripts. For that price I'll even throw in the movie rights, go ahead, you can have them, now give me the hat made of money.

Speaking of second, third, and fourth drafts (and on and on), I'd like to say that I'm super deep into my next draft of my book. But that wouldn't be a true statement. After collecting feedback from a few places, there are a few overhauls that need to be done on the start of the book. One of the ongoing themes every published author told me; I need to make sure that every book can stand alone. I'm doing some work that should help this, but I'm not looking for a complete reboot of the book. Some of the changes that I'm doing will require a few fixes to the first book too. I'm not sure how that will look to the people have already bought my first book, but I promise that you aren’t missing anything. In fact, I can say that you have more with your current edition than the updated one.

Something that keeps picking at the back of my mind is that I watched other well published authors do all things that I'm currently doing. Such as; large info dumps, and making books that can't stand alone. I guess I'm not allowed to break these rules till I'm well established.

Dern it.

Once I'm famous I'm going to turn in a dog turd and say "Publish it, I'm the Dufalo bitch!"

AHHH the soft and fluffy dreams of authors...

Okay that was a way off subject rant! Long story short (too late), I've got a new draft of the start of how Corporate Policy and I'm about toss the first two chapters over the wall to my editor to take a look through. I have to have all these pages on my copy editor's desk by August first. (Love ya Amie!)

For all those that went to Comic-Con international it sounded like it was an epic showing, I didn't go, not my thing. The wife went, so it's just been the boys around the house over the week, we watched GUY movies, GUY pizza in, and GUY eating out! So guy hygene, lets just say the boy needed a bath by Friday :)

If they did an "All-the-Hawt-Chicks-From-All-the-Sci-Fi-Shows-That-You-Love-Con" I would be there, I'd help put it on, I'm sure I'd be arrested by the end of the first day of panels. But till they do that con, I'm going to stick to the conventions that have something to do with learning from or talking with authors in smaller settings. Orycon is this November and I'm going to go. Rusty-Con is in Tacoma Washington sometime this summer/fall? I'm going to have to see if that one is worth going to.

Books I’m currently reading:

This area is slow while I get heavy into edit mode. I have a lot of paper all around me trying to make heads or tails out of my story. Here take a look:

Ahh, my heart tries to stop just looking at it.
Wait, what am I doing with that can of air...

Ok back to books now.

Amy and Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson - I'm only like 1/3 through the book, maybe a bit more. It's good so far, but we haven't reached the "other shoe drops" moment in the book so I'm holding out for that.

Apathy and Other Small Victories by Paul Neilan - I'm only 5% into this book, but O.M.G. (Yeah that's right, I put periods in there, what you going to do about it?) funny as hell. I can't wait to have a little more time on my hands to take this novel of hilarity in larger helpings. It was on Max Berry's reading list, so I had hope. With the limited sampling I've had, it has lived up to billing.

Movies:

2001 - That right suckers! I bought it on Blue Ray and watched it! The transfer was AMAZINGBALLS (This is the new hip word I hear. You have to follow these conversations at your coffee shop so you too can stay cool.) My brother thought that 2001 was MUCH better than 2010, now that I have watched them back to back, I think that he's totally right. My opinion has flipped someone call the papers.

Bringing up Baby - An 1938 movie that I heard about in the back of Dean Koontz's Tick Tock (PS if you haven't read this book, just put the blog down now and go read it...then come back) It's labeled by Dean as a "Screwball comedy" and I believe it was one of the inspirations for Tick Tock. (There is some other author, James Patterson that made a book called Tick Tock, don't read that one. You're reading the wrong book!) I watched the movie after ordering it on Netflix, and then turned around and bought a copy to keep for my very own! It was best movie of 1938!* (Note: This is a blanket statement with no true facts or research to back it up. I didn't even know the movie was release in 1938 till I looked it up, right now.)

Music:

Mirrored by Battles - IN LOVE! I'm trying to think of what they are like...Maybe Spiritualized? I hear a live recording of Atlas and I was hooked at once!

The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do by Fiona Apple - So, Fiona, that whole thing is the title? Wow this the best CD since "When the Pawn Hits the Conflicts He Thinks Like a King What He Knows Throws the Blows When He Goes to the Fight and He'll Win the Whole Thing 'Fore He Enters the Ring There's No Body to Batter When Your Mind Is Your Might So When You Go Solo, You Hold Your Own Hand and Remember That Depth Is the Greatest of Heights and If You Know Where You Stand, Then You Know Where to Land and If You Fall It Won't Matter, Cuz You'll Know That You're Right" (bolded for your pleasure) No, now that I think about it... Wait I forgot what I was saying while typing that title.

Oh right, When the pawn... was better, but I wanted to take this moment to show people this isn't her longest title, she's cut back. I love how she use "Cuz", great way to keep that letter count down. Hell it doesn't matter what she releases, I'll buy it all, her voice is like ear crack to me.

That is enough for this week!

I'll chat with you soon!

Robert