Non-Writing Day

The Daily Journal, Saturday, February 2

Hey Folks, First, Welcome Aboard to my newest subscriber, whom I know (at the moment) only as Super Primitive. (grin) In today’s Journal ▪ Ramblings about setting up Hal 2 ▪ On the challenge ▪ The daily diary (more ramblings) ▪ Of Interest ▪ The numbers Well, I got my new 11″ computer in yesterday. It’s a refurbished, solid-state drive HP (so no noise or overheating) and it cost me a cool $109.00. (That isn’t a typo and the decimal is in the right place.) So instead of casting about for the next novel idea I spent most of the … Read more

The Journal, Wednesday, November 15

Hey Folks, I started the day (and this Journal) with a brief write-up about an interview with Andy Weir, best-selling author of The Martian and now Artemis. Some of his responses in the interview put me in mind of the film Idiocracy. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly recommend it. More of the world that’s conveyed in it becomes real every day. But the write-up sounded curmudgeonly even to me, so I replaced it with this. Frankly, I thought the guy sounded like a moron, and I decided I probably don’t want to risk buying his books. But you … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, November 14

Hey Folks, Well, again today I’m not going to publish my upcoming challenge. Frankly, I’m not certain yet what form it will take. For the new folks who’ve recently joined us here on the Journal, welcome. To bring you up to speed, I’ve been a very prolific writer (by most standards) but have experienced something of a slump off and on for the past few months. This morning, like a jolt of electricity, I realized the reason for the slump. More on that in a bit. The last story I finished was a novel titled Loose Ends. That was in … Read more

The Journal, Monday, November 13

Hey Folks, Well, this should be an interesting week. This is a convergence week for me, when several different events, sequences, and changes are coming together to consume blocks of time. I went to Benson this morning to renew my driver’s license and combined that with a shopping trip to settle our cupboard and refrigerator accounts after this past weekend. By the time that and a couple other necessary chores were done, that was the morning. It’s now approaching noon. On Wednesday morning, I have to head for Sierra Vista (Fort Huachuca) to renew my military ID card, and while … Read more

The Journal, Sunday, November 12

Hey Folks, Well, the last day of the visit of two of my sons, their wives, and five grandchildren (3 knights-in-training, 2 warrior princesses). It’s been something akin to exhausting, but also great fun watching the cousins run and romp and play together. On the adult side, we’ve all shared good visits, mixing and matching and drifting among each other. Today will be a day of final visits and hasta-la-laters, then laundry etc. to move back toward a semblance of normalcy. For what’s left of the day, I’ll watch Casablanca for the billionth time (and enjoy it). Tomorrow, my life … Read more

The Journal, Saturday, November 11

Hey Folks, To all the veterans out there and the spouses who support them, I hope you have an enjoyable and thoughtful Veterans Day. Or as we in the Marine Corps call it, Hangover Day. (grin) I’ll be back with regular, longer posts beginning on Monday, so thanks for hanging in there with me. It’s been something around 3 years since I started this, and most of you have been here from the beginning. Then I broke the streak (not sure how long it even was) and started again almost two years ago. In 16 more days, this blog will … Read more

The Journal, Friday, November 10

Hey Folks, This is mostly a placeholder post, but with some good stuff in “Of Interest.” It’s early morning and cold (well, chilly at 40°). Let the ladies outside for awhile since they’ll spend most of my sons’ visit hiding under the bed. Anyway, posts for today, tomorrow and Sunday probably will be pretty sparse. Thanks for hanging in there. Back tomorrow. Of Interest I’ve been remiss recently in posting items of interest from James Scott Bell. See “Be Productive, Persistent, and Professional” at https://killzoneblog.com/2017/11/be-productive-persistent-and-professional.html. I also recommend “What is Originality?” at https://killzoneblog.com/2017/10/what-is-originality.html. See “Adventures Around The Web November 4-10, … Read more

The Journal, Thursday, November 9

Hey Folks, Tomorrow marks the 242nd birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Happy Birthday and Semper Fi to any Marines out there. Sometime tomorrow, I’ll get off by myself and drink a toast (probably a shot of Beam Devil’s Cut) to those brothers and sisters who are no longer with us. To those who are still around, May your days be vibrant, your evenings calm, your heart safe and warm at home. Semper Fi *** The air is damp and chilly this morning. Probably around 40-some degrees, but damp so it feels colder. We got 3/10ths of an inch … Read more

The Journal, Tuesday, November 7

Hey Folks, A mild morning for a change, at the cusp of 50°. If I took a photo straight up at the moon in the high mist, it would make a great horror or romance cover. Funny how those two genres can be so closley related in the images they invoke. Or maybe it isn’t. *** Well, self-publishing platform and distributor Pronoun is shutting down. See “Epilogue” at https://pronoun.com/. I never got around to using them because of the extremely condescending language on their interface. However, in other news, my preferred distributor, Draft2Digital, now distributes to Amazon. I am in … Read more

The Journal, Monday, November 6

Hey Folks, I am annoyed to no end when some machine or program thinks it knows better than I what I want. Of course, the machine can’t be held to fault. Nor, these days, can the humans behind the machines because there’s no way to contact or, ahem, engage the humans directly. Of course, if I were regularly screwing up people’s lives that much just as if it were a pleasurable past time, I wouldn’t want anyone to be able to get hold of me either. Increasingly, “updates” (ostensibly “improvements”) are foisted upon us whether or not we want them. … Read more