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CarlHoliday

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  1. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 16

    By CarlHoliday,

    Once again things didn’t turn out as planned. I wanted Chapter 16 to deal with the marriage of two characters but that was thwarted by bureaucratic rigamarole. Then, where to go from there?
     
    So, my original plan was to add a new character to the current core group in Chapter 17. Well, the way it worked out was that the protagonist from Chapter 1 is the addition. This character brings a whole new set of problems—what would a story be without problems—and as it worked out, he fit perfectly into the mix.
     
    The result is 17 becomes 16. Do I go back to the original 16? No, as much as I would like to, those two characters are secondary to the overall aim of the story as a whole. I now have two characters that can lead the story towards its inevitable end. Chapter 17 deals with tragedy and recovery. I’m also thinking of adding in a bit of love, nothing wrong with that is there?
     
    What have I learned from all of this? Well, for me, don’t set plans in concrete. Don’t even set them into freshly poured concrete. Go with the flow of the story. Bring protagonist 1 into a relationship with protagonist 2 and let the secondary characters all around support them until no more words can be thrown into the mix.
     
    And, the word counts? Chapter 16 comes in at 7,413 bringing the total to 104,767, pending revisions.
     
    How many more chapters, well at least one, maybe two, depends on how many words I can squeeze out of the old gray matter and whether the additions can add anything rather than just word counts.
  2. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 15

    By CarlHoliday,

    Finished Chapter 15 last night. Good thing I have a great selection of music to listen to because on Tuesday and Wednesday this chapter was difficult to write. Two suicide episodes were just a bit tragic and tough to put down. Then, there was the end to write, which ultimately turned into a surprise, happy event. Nothing like death and sex to get things bubbly.
     
    Did a bit of Excel boo-boos on reporting the results of the last chapter. The total word count now equals 97,354 and the projected 20 chapter word count stands at 129,805.
     
    I think I’ll do a wedding in Chapter 16, Chapter 17 will deal with a new resident, Chapter 18 another wedding, Chapter 19 another new resident, and Chapter 20 will bring the story to a close with children arriving at the core group’s residences. Yes, adopted children in straight, gay, and lesbian households. Should be a fun, happy ending.
     
    Of course, maybe that will all change. Sometimes I just can’t quite control what happens in a story, Chapter 15 being a prime example. One tragedy almost hit too close to home.
     
    Saw at great quote on Facebook this afternoon:
     
    I began to realize how important it was to be an enthusiatist in life. If you are interested in something, no matter what it is, go at it full speed. Embrace it with both arms, hug it, love it and above all become passionate about it. Lukewarm is no good.
     
    Roald Dahl
  3. CarlHoliday
    Okay!
     
    Need a new character?
     
    Well, create one. Give him a trade, a living situation, a tragic event, rejection, and finally, the chance for love.
     
    Chapter 14 came in at almost 7,000 words, on track to exceed 100,000 words in 20 chapters. But, maybe, I’ll just stop when I hit 100,000.
     
    At this point, there is only one, maybe, two characters that are coming to the commune. Definitely one. Haven’t decided on the other.
     
    Chapter 15 will deal with suicide and possibly a wedding (or, maybe it won’t, just depends on the suicide situation). Suicides a fun topic I’ve dealt with before and having been there myself, it’s always nice to reflect on the maybes. The last time came very close to being the last time, just couldn’t do it, though. No matter how down I get, just can’t get rid of those optimistic thoughts, which, so far, have kept me alive. But, there’s always that moment when the time is wrong and no matter how much you really don’t want to do it, you do, and don’t have to worry about it anymore. That’s the problem with jumping, it takes too long, you have those few moments to think, “Oh, shit! This is really going to hurt,” but it really doesn’t because the hurt is momentary and there’s no memory of it. The end is the end, no matter how you do it.
     
    Chapter 16 will be probably deal with another wedding and an undisclosed possible tragedy that I’ve researched, but just have to work it into the story.
     
    That leaves 17, 18, 19, and 20. As I see it there’s the possibility of another wedding, the one or two characters coming to the commune, and, and, and? There is the possibility of bringing that second character into the commune in Chapter 19 and then that will leave Chapter 20 as either a wrap up or an abrupt end.
     
    There is always the possibility of bringing in children, they’re fun, and they could extend the story indefinitely.
     
    Been a kid myself. Funny thing about growing up in a dysfunctional home, you just don’t know you’re in the shits. Well, after a while you know your family is different, but you just think it’s just a different kind of normal. Then later in adulthood you find out, no you were in the shits and had it rougher than most kids because your parents were crazier than you.
     
    Now, having lived with my son for over four years (it’s five years since I last spoke to my wife, but that’s another story for another time), come to find out he was living in the shits, too. Of course, I was crazier than hell and didn’t know it. Then, come to find out, the wife was crazier than me and she still won’t admit it. Now, he’s got his own problems: four Prozac a day to control his anger, Gabapentin to relieve his anxiety, and Trazodone to help him sleep. Sheesh! I thought I was bad with a mood stabilizer, an antidepressant, and an antipsychotic, well, crazy is crazy, no matter how you spell it.
     
    Life! Hard to live with sometimes, but fun to write about all the time.
     
    Take a handful of characters, throw them into a mud puddle, stir them around, pick one up and throw it against a brick wall to see if it splatters or just falls to the ground landing in a limp pile. Pick up another, throw it into the air, and wait to see if it floats up there or falls flat on its face. Pick up two, squish them together and see if they scream. Watch out though, those two over there doing the Esther Williams backstroke; see them leaning over and kissing between a few strokes; are they boy-boy, boy-girl, or girl-girl, the choice is yours.
  4. CarlHoliday
    As has oft' been said, “The best laid plans of mice and men . . .”
     
    Well, I had plans for Chapters 11, 12, and 13, but things went awry. As often happens with my writing, the characters generally lead the story. So, in this case, Chapters 11, 12, and 13 cover the same characters over a four day period and, since they totaled over 20,000 words, there was only one thing to do, break it into three pieces.
     
    As I had it planned two protagonists meet on the first day at a university when they were moving into their dorm. Friendship blossoms, but from that point forward everything went south. This university is unlike any place I’ve ever heard about. And, one of the protagonists has a troubled, dark past that carries its own nightmares. The other is only looking for love and quite unremarkably finds it. Another mishmash of a sexual/psychological drama, but this time around it progresses from sexual horror to where two straight kids are thrown into a gay living situation. Unfortunately, for one of them past horrors rise up and nearly destroy him.
     
    Where the book goes from here I really have no idea. There is an unresolved issue with the protagonist from the first chapter whose life has changed dramatically and will change further. The two protagonists from Chapter 10 have a major life event coming up, but the protagonists from 11, 12, 13 may eclipsed them. Even though they are younger, they have an age advantage due to the way laws work on Hercules III.
     
    That’s one of the problems with this story. Characters move through time in such large spans that I have to keep track of who’s how old now and how old they’ll be when the I start a new chapter. That’s the problem with the protagonist in Chapter 1, he is now 16, but his dramatic event cannot occur until he’s 18, and that won’t occur for another 126 years, but in the meantime the protagonists in 11, 12, 13 will have their major event in 52 years and, to make matters worse, one of the protagonists in 11, 12, 13 is a close friend of the one from Chapter 1, their event will come in an earlier chapter. Sometimes it takes me a couple hours to sort out all the characters and their ages when they appear in a new chapter, mainly because not all characters from one chapter move forward to another. Check, confused, check, confused, check, confused.
     
    So, all of that works out to at least four chapters. I could still add a new protagonist, but I just might end the story at 17 chapters. I just don’t know right now. I’ll have to think it over and see what comes up.
     
    Life is kind of crappy right now. My son’s Expedition is on the fritz with the chronic problem with the 5.4L engines. Now, he’s using the car he gave me to use and I have to go back to using my old broken car. Monday I go in for my annual visit with my PC provider and was hoping to be able to go over to Guitar Center and get my electric fixed, but my son threw that out the window because he has to get to work. Now, I have to wait until the 28th when he’s off work and I have a dental appointment in South Seattle. The only problem I foresee is my dental appt is at 0730 and Guitar Center doesn’t open until 1000. On top of everything else, it’s raining and where I live we have severe down slope winds off the Cascades whenever a low in coming onshore from the Pacific. And, since I stopped drinking, I can’t go to the bottle for solace. Want some crackers with all that whine?
     
    Sometimes life can just be a pile of shit.
  5. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 10

    By CarlHoliday,

    Chapter 10 is in the bag with 6,902 words. Two days, 6,902 words, just a bit too much. I watched an interview quite a while ago of an author who only wrote no more than 1,500 words a day. I’m definitely exceeding that rule, but as I’ve said before, this is a good story with a good set of characters who work well together, sometimes. Chapter 10 is one of those heartwarming stories. This book has a lot of those.
     
    Coming up, Chapter 11 will concern a young girl who leaves her boyfriend and goes off to university. There she’ll meet a new boy. They’ll become friends. They’ll become good friends. They’ll become girlfriend/boyfriend. Then love will blossom. And, then she’ll go home for the holidays. Old story to be rehashed again.
     
    Chapter 12 looks like husband/husband trouble.
     
    Chapter 13 is looking like woman on woman rape and the consequences.
     
    Chapter 14 will have an important decision occurring for protagonist in Chapter 11.
     
    Chapter 15 will have two young women moving into their own residence, two men getting married, and a woman and a man getting married.
     
    And then it all becomes fuzzy, again. Though I do know a future chapter will have two new residents moving to the commune.
     
    I’m still thinking I need to create a new character though and put him/her into a living situation that has not been covered so far in the book.
     
    On the home front, got my new glasses yesterday. I’d told the optometrist I thought I could do without bifocals because I did all my computer work on a laptop. So, although I can now see significantly better long distance, I think I should’ve gotten those bifocals. I can see fairly well without glasses up close to read and use the laptop, but it’s the middle difference that’s the problem. It’s a bummer being on the shady side of life.
  6. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 9

    By CarlHoliday,

    Chapter 9 is in the can at nearly 6,500 words. As luck would have it, Chapter 8 and Chapter 9 are now connected as Part 1 and 2 of the same story with a set of antagonists that in many ways are worse than the established antagonists on the ship. They are a group that is so evil they will go to any possible extent to eliminate those who they consider defective or a threat to their existence. Yes, I play the hate card, again.
     
    If this book goes to twenty chapters it’s on course to come in at over 120,000 words, not to say I’m verbose, I’m just trying to tell a story about a set of good characters who will flock to a good place on Hercules III.
     
    Earlier in the week, I took two days to proof and revise Chapters 1 through 8. Plus, I worked on the database I’ve established for the book. One of the major parts is a plan of each chapter detailing the characters and their ages. Also, I’ve added a new feature, a ship clock of years dating back to a revised zero after a dramatic event that occurred on the ship. This will help readers keep track of the characters as they progress to a final point somewhere in the future.
     
    As far as the characters go, I see I’ll have to come up with some more. Right now, I have 28 characters in 3 relationship groups. I think they’re not enough to carry to story to its end and, therefore, I’ll have to come up with more. There are a wealth of living situations on the ship that can provide possible characters, it’ll just be a matter of development of the character and its storyline that logically leads to the book’s end point.
     
    Right now, though, it’s back to Chapter 4 to pick up two characters who are having a developing storyline that needs to be moved forward in time. The only problem with the book is my original development of ages under the new order. The number of years between each physical age increases so the characters age slower and slower as they get older. Then there are the acceleration periods where the year separation increases significantly, but luckily goes back to a normal progression once acceleration ends.
     
    Anyway, I’ve created a monster that keeps growing to the point where I need to rein it in every now and then.
     

  7. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 8

    By CarlHoliday,

    Well, Chapter 8 is now in the folder. It needs a few revisions and proofs, but it’s fairly well established as it is. Unfortunately, it came in at over 7,000 words. But, I can’t see any way to stretch it out to 10,000 so I could split it in two. So, I guess I’ll just have to live with a long chapter.
     
    One thing about this chapter, though, there is a storyline that can be established for a future chapter. I could’ve done it now, but it would be better to do it later because of the nature of an antagonistic group that has developed. They will have a significant impact on the future of the commune and whether or not it turns out bad there are currently a lot of characters that will be seriously impacted.
     
    Yes, another nice set of characters that are easy to write about. Plus, I did add two new characters to the mix that will give good performances in the future.
     
    Most of Sunday and today was spent working on tracking material to sort out which characters belong in which chapter. The other thing is the length of lifetimes in this society. I have to jump forward a lot and establish points in time that can be used for each set of characters. As an example, Chapter 8 jumped 76 years from the original timeframe at the beginning of the book. Mostly, this was done so that one of my favorite characters could age from 16 to 17. I know, confusing, but that’s the way I’ve designed this society.
     
    Chapter 9 will go back to the original time and jump forward about 20 years so two girls can go from 11 to 12. Slower than Chapter 8, but puberty is involved and have to keep to medical realities. Can you imagine taking over 40 years to go thru puberty?
     
    More fun and games to come.
  8. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 7

    By CarlHoliday,

    Well, must have been feeling real good today. Wrote and finished the first draft of Chapter 7 all in one day, just over 6,000 words. Of course, it had the protagonist from Chapter 1, so it went rather well. He’s a good character that just has a little trouble with life at the present time. Though, he’s young right now and has a long way to adulthood. Can you imagine being 12, while actually being 173 years-old? This guy has 257 years to live until he’ll be 18 and an adult. My only problem with him right now is that I can’t really see anything happening to him until he is 18. Of course, there will be some minor events in his life, but I don’t think they’ll add up to a full chapter.
     
    Now, I have to come up with what to do in Chapter 8. Do I go back to the earlier chapters and pick up one of those protagonists, or do I create a whole new character and story line? Either option is a possibility, but I really think I need a new one. There is the protagonist from Chapter 6 I could use, but it’s a little early for him. I think he’ll have to wait for a few more chapters. There is also the time issue. The first six chapters occurred in the same timeframe, while Chapter 7 jumps 33 years into the future. Chapter 6’s protagonist has a major event coming up, but that won’t occur for at least another 100 years or so. The protagonists from Chapter 3 have a major event coming up and that might fit in with the 33 year timeframe, but I think it’ll be much later. Right now, I just don’t quite know how all of this is going to work out.
     
    Of course, the more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to come up with a new character who might just fit into the 33 year present. But, then you have to come up with a life and a series of one or more antagonists affecting that protagonist in his or her future. There is the default antagonist in the whole book, but sometimes I just want to have something special. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll come up with something. I could always use the good gay/bad jock thing, but that’s kind of stale right now. Besides, I’ve got something similar to that coming up for one or more of the other characters. I just need to think about all of this.
     
    On the home front, nothing much happening, which is good; though we did have a horrific wind and rain storm up here a couple days ago. Other than a few dropped branches and the flooding creek, nothing happened right where we live. We didn’t even lose our power, which is good. The puppy is having a bit of intestinal distress, but heck, he’s a dog. Dogs pick up the damnedest crap, put it in their mouths, and then swallow it. Sometimes it’s the same crap as the time before. If he wasn’t so smart, you’d think he was dumb as a lab. Look in his eyes and you can almost see the gears turning, look into a lab’s eyes and all you get is the silly dog staring back at you. No, not to say that labs aren’t totally stupid, there was one on the tube the other night that has been trained to smell electronics, like hard drives and flash drives. The state internet child porn bureau looks forward to using him.
  9. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 6B

    By CarlHoliday,

    Finally finished Chapter 6 today. It’s a long one, over 6,700 words, but I think that was the only way to completely tell the story of a new character who goes from a horrific life to one peace, but full of questions. Sorry about being so vague, but, you know, that’s just the way it goes.
     
    The next set of chapters will move up in time allowing each character to come to terms with their existence on Hercules III. The future still looks a bit vague, though. I know where I want to go, but I’m not certain the story will necessarily end there; this is mostly due to the fact that people live so many years between age levels. The protagonist in Chapter 6 starts at age 15, but it takes him 11 years to reach age 16; and, it’ll take another 65 years until he’s 17. It’s already come up that the teenagers feel like they’re really old, when in reality they just stay at their current physical age so long.
     
    At least the primary antagonist has been set, though sometimes secondary antagonists will be introduced to keep the story going. Sometimes I find it difficult to introduce people who are what one might call evil and watch how they interact with the protagonist(s). I think it was Martin Scorsese who said (tried to Google it, but failed), ‘A good story isn’t good without an antagonist.’ (or something like that) So, this story does have a bit of evil and meanness in it. Plus, I’ve tossed in a few bits of fun. Actually, there is one in Chapter 6.
  10. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 6A

    By CarlHoliday,

    Chapter 6 is going a bit slower than the first 5 chapters, but I took Wednesday off. Hey, I’m a vet, disabled vet, too; not bragging, just saying. Frankly, I was drunk for most of the 7 years I was in the Air Force. That kind of thing tends to happen when you’re the child of alcoholics; not bragging, just saying. Also, the lack of sleep finally caught up with me. I’ve been averaging 6 hours of sleep and, now, in the last three days have had to take an hour nap in the afternoon (prime writing time).
     
    The interesting thing about Chapter 6 is it’s the first chapter to invade my dreams. Last night, I had two different dreams about where the chapter might go and what might happen in a subsequent chapter. I guess the ol’ subconscious decided it wanted in on the action, too.
     
    Here’s a bit of dialogue from Chapter 6 that doesn’t give away hardly anything of what is going on:
     
    “You’re fifteen?” Gerry said. “So am I, but I’m three years younger than you, but at least we’re fifteen. David is sixteen.”
     
    “Just turned,” David said. “Two hundred and ninety-one years-old, I feel like an old man, but I’m still just a kid. Now, from what you say, Abe, more than likely I’ll never see seventeen.”
     
    “Sorry, but that’s how it works here,” Abe said.
     
    That shows how aging now works on Hercules III. Plus, this chapter gives about the clearest idea of how the bots treat humans on the ship. Earlier chapters give a hint, but this chapter comes right out and defines the bots as about as evil as machines can get.
     
    On the home front, my son and I have decided to rename Rambo to Rambo the Poo. Maybe it’s just that he’s a dog, but I’ve never seen a dog do what he’s doing. He eats his poo. We think he picked it up from his mother who ate puppy poo and since Rambo the Poo has never been around other dogs to pick up good doggy habits, he continues to have a between meal snack now and then. I’ve gotten in the habit of being close enough to give the command ‘Inside’ when he’s finished. He’s very good about leaving the poo and running to the backdoor. In he goes and off I go to pick it up and dispose of it in the prescribed manner.
     
    What does one do with doggy poo? When my son takes Rambo the Poo for a walk at night and Rambo the Poo gives a pile, N____ picks it up in a little poo bag and drops it in the garbage can; big can, nobody notices, except the smell in there is definitely poo-ish. Of course, there is the problem that the can is for general recycling (i.e., paper, plastic, glass, etc.), but not for poo. I suppose the sorters at the station get a kick out of those little blue bags full of poo.
  11. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 5B

    By CarlHoliday,

    Well, finished Chapter 5 tonight. Another quick one. Two days, 5,621 words. At this rate, the book looks like it’ll come in at over 100,000 words; good size for an amateur writer.
     
    Tomorrow, I’ll start Chapter 6, introduce a new character, and move from an agricultural scene to another urban story. Chapter 4 was sort of an urban story, but there was no clear indication where exactly it lay. I suppose it could have been in a small town, but that never came into play.
     
    As I see the book progressing, it becomes clearer that the story will move forward in time until most of the major characters end up in the same locale. There is always the chance that one or two won’t want to go where the others are going, but I think I can work it around so that each will have a happy ending.
     
    On the home front, last night I got eight and a half hours of sleep, though this afternoon I had to lie down for a nap; or, maybe it was just to rest my eyes from all this writing and reading I’m doing. Anyway, big storm coming in tonight, windows are already rattling and a gust about a half an hour ago actually shook the house (Mobile home, manufactured one year before they started calling these things manufactured homes. As far as I’m concerned, if it comes to the site on wheels it’s a mobile home. Comes on a trailer, it’s a modular home. Same principal, different delivery.)
  12. CarlHoliday
    Revision day on the book. Chapters 1 through 4 received major proofreading, correctioning, and a bit of revising. Major revision was the title of the book. It started out to be GMMOs because at the time I came up with it there was real meaning to the letters, but now I can't remember what the second M is supposed to be, so the book is now titled The GMOs. I'm sure everyone knows what that means.
     
    I admit it, I have a problem with tenses. Went through Chapters 1, 2, and 3 looking for 'ings' that needed to be changed in the 'eds'. Hope I got them all, but I'm sure Sharon will be able to find more. She's good at that and probably says "Oh, god, not another one" every time she proofs one of my chapters. I also have a problem where to put asked, before or after the name. I'm sure she, again, says "Oh, god, not another one, I wish he'd learn where to put these things." Chapter 4 was done yesterday with it's initial proof.
     
    Last night I posted excerpts of Chapter 1 on Sneak Peeks. I took out all references to what's actually going on, but left in a lot of how life is on the new Hercules III. Also, left out the gory parts that are there only to show what bots are capable of in their treament of human criminals. They'll be in the final; I hope. Of course, I'm always coming up with gory bits to throw into stories and have to ask permission to put them in and I do understand why that is so.
     
    Tomorrow, Chapter 5.
     
    I do have a problem though. In Chapter 3 there is a part where two women come to realize they want to move their relationship from boss/employee to something more than good friends. Reading through it today, I realized that it might help if a Lesbian read through the section and see if I gave it a realiable representation of real life or if I'm an old queer who has the temerity to write something he knows nothing about. If anyone knows of someone let me know; or, maybe I just need to talk to the beta people and see if they can help.
     
    Life is moving along. Sleep is crap and doesn't seem to be getting any better. I know, I'm just obsessing again. Had to take a short nap to catch up today. Though, I did sleep rather soundly through the night, just couldn't get to sleep and woke up too early.
  13. CarlHoliday
    I’ve decided to end Chapter 4 at 4,064 words. I’m sure there will be more with revision, but there just doesn’t seem to be anywhere to go further than when two 11 year-old girls admit not to have feelings toward each other. You just can’t go any further. It’s an important point in life. You have to stop a chapter somewhere and those two came to an end. Well, not totally. They have a full life ahead of them, if the bots or the hazards of living don’t get them first. They will be back in future chapters and maybe they might have feelings for each other or maybe they’ll just be the kind of good friends that hold on to the very end. It’s hard to say where they will go. Both are good characters, though. One is a mutant and the other a convicted criminal, what more could you ask of two characters.
     
    The next chapter is full of 11 year-old love, at least from one side, anyway. Two characters from Chapter 1 come back and one admits a deep secret to the other. The protagonist from Chapter 1, Gene (Eugenus) and his friend, Moli, have a romp in the broccoli and just might become very good friends, or will they? After all, Gene is only second year 11 and Moli is first year, what could they have in common. Gene’s stepparents raise vegetables and grain, Moli’s stepparents raise fruit. Gene will be studying molecular biology in university; while Moli has her heart set on ancient languages, mainly computer and operating systems, which may help get her a job with the bots, if she can show enough aptitude to pick up on their languages, systems, and pass rigorous physical, mental, and security tests and investigations (bots don’t allow just anyone to mess with their internal software structures).
     
    Anyway, Chapter 5 sounds like fun and might end sometime further in the future when the children do go off to university. (Moli hopes they go to the same one so she can be close to “her (Sally Brown) sweet baboo (Linus)”). Remember to Google, so not to confuse some who might think I was talking about the Sweet Baboo from Wales.
     
    By the way, I hate Microsoft Word’s grammar checker. As in: “what more could you ask of two characters”, Green Line!, suggests “asks” instead, as in: “what more could you asks of two characters.” Tell me, who talks or writes like that. It sounds like my redneck in-laws from Arkansas. Asks, sheesh!
  14. CarlHoliday
    What a day!
     
    The neighbor’s Weimaraner got out of its run, again, and was terrorizing the neighborhood. It’s basically a very nice dog, but just a little timid and, of course, dumb as a door nail, but it’ll crap in the most inconvenient place, like our front yard.
     
    Rambo was having a total fit whenever he caught sight of the other dog. For two long hours, Rambo ran from one window to the next trying to see where the dog had gotten to, twice knocking over his water bowl. He got so foamy at the mouth from his constant barking you could’ve sworn he was rabid.
     
    The Book?
     
    Well, we out on a limb today. Wrote nearly 2,100 words in Chapter 4 about an 11 year-old girl who hits puberty a little early. Now, on Hercules III that is strange because there puberty doesn’t start until age 12 at the earliest, most times later. So an 11 year-old in the 5th year between age 11 and 12 (there are 20 years in total), puberty is definitely not supposed to start. So, she’s sent to a medical center to find out what’s wrong. Well, something is wrong.
     
    But, it was a stretch trying to get the wording right to fit someone that age. Plus, a little bit of research on how puberty works for girls helped a lot, too. Then there was a bit of research on intersex conditions. I thought of using some existing condition, but decided it would serve the story better if I came up with something different. After all, with the new birthing methods used on Hercules III, new diseases and syndromes are inevitable.
     
    Nothing’s perfect in a bot perfect world.
  15. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 3

    By CarlHoliday,

    Two days, 5,313 words, and Chapter 3 is over. Ended with new found love and a marriage. Oooh, so mushy-mushy.
     
    Total word count thru 3 chapters is 16,110.
     
    As I’ve said before, this is going just swimmingly.
     
    If I could get some sleep this could go even better.
     
    Chapter 4 starts out with Sister Angelina of the chromed rod and wooden ruler. Sounds absolutely peachy! Though, there will be a happy surprise.
     
    Originally thought to use Sister Angelica as the evil nun, but I Googled that name and lo and behold, she's in wiki. Damn!
     
    Have remember that when I want to use something unique I need to Google it to see if it already exists. I suppose you wouldn't be surprised at the number of Carl Holidays in the world. Luckily, Carl's last name might have been Peterson, but that isn't how it worked out. Besides, my real last name isn't Peterson, either.
  16. CarlHoliday

    The New Book, Part 2

    By CarlHoliday,

    Well, actually, it’s going swimmingly.
     
    Yesterday I worked on Chapter 3, section 2, and it went better than expected. It just didn’t seem to want to end. It’s mostly dialogue. It’s a party, a barbecue, steaks. There’s a problem on the commune that needs to be solved and the initial six partiers are trying to come to terms with their new situation. Then four new characters show up, which causes just a bit of consternation for the first six.
     
    In the end, there were over 1,800 words. Just when I’d get to a place where the story was at a logical end point, another character or event would take place and off it’d go further down the page. I wish I could tell you the characters’ names, but that would spoil it for everybody. Let’s just say they’re famous. In many ways, you wouldn’t expect the ten of them to be named the way they are, considering the naming convention for the first two chapters.
     
    No, this chapter is very different from the first two, but could be just as dark. There is a lot of humor. In fact, in many ways this is turning out to be a very darkly humorous book. Just the kind I’ve been trying to come up with.
     
    Section 3 has the potential to be a little dull, but I have a feeling there will be a bit of humor, too. With my current mental state, humor seems to be the best medicine.
     
    Last night I was in bed for ten and a half hours, but only got four and a quarter hours of total sleep. Yes, humor is definitely needed.
     
    My son says I’m getting too OCD and I do obsess over the silliest shit, but I’ve been that way for most of my life. Yes, humor does help; though, it doesn’t do much good for the attention deficit problem. The VA keeps sending me forms to ask whether I’ve worked in the past year. I can’t pay enough attention to somebody talking to me to learn how to do a job. My son and I will be talking and I’ll get distracted by the dog or the tube, and I end up saying ‘Huh?’ But, I’ve been that way for most of my life, too. That’s why I ended up being very close to a total failure in high school and an absolute failure in college. Try as I might I could never get enough concentration going on long enough to get anything done.
     
    No, writing keeps me on an even keel and I suppose I’ll keep doing it until the upstairs turns to mush and the VA sends me to a nursing home to die.
  17. CarlHoliday

    The Book And Life

    By CarlHoliday,

    This morning I finished Chapter 2 of the new book. Remarkably, it has an ending slightly similar to Chapter 1, though without the mushy-mushy part.
     
    Right now, the plan is to have a number of characters solo in their first chapter; then come together and separate (or stay together) in subsequent chapters. The bot situation on Hercules III is a little different than the previous book, which has a lot to do with how they have an impact on human life.
     
    One aspect of the new order is the difference between the human chronological/cognitive age and physical/emotional age. As it stands the new possible final physical age of death for humans is 200, but in chronological years that is 26,000,000. Why so much, you ask? Well, the bots finally figured out Hercules III is basically a cargo ship with humans being the cargo. Sure, they’re possibly going to new planets in the galaxy and maybe further into the universe, but they figured out it would be better if the humans lived chronologically longer so they would be able to populate new planets with sufficient older adults to run things from the outset.
     
    Only, there is a small problem. While humans think they are free to pursue whatever vocation they want, there are limits to what the bots will actually allow. As the story moves forward those limits become more and more evident.
     
    Chapter 3 is pretty well set. I know the protagonist, the place, and a lot of the other characters. Interestingly, six of the minor characters have rather interesting names that may or may not have a bearing on the chapter. Though, as I see it now, they will, in fact, be the main carriers of the narrative.
     
    This is becoming a fun book, at least for me. Unfortunately, it definitely isn’t doing me any good in the sleeping department. Sure, writing gets the ol’ neurons to start connecting, again, but they don’t know when to turn off or they turn on at the most inopportune time, like four in the morning. Two and a half hours of sleep does not make a happy camper. Thankfully, I was able to get in seven and a half last night, but it was a restless night filled with dreams I’d rather not experience again; that may have been due to getting a nose full of Lysol disinfectant spray when I was trying to kill yesterday’s load of foot fungus.
     
    I keep telling my son he needs to take me down to Monroe so I can get new shoes, but he keeps coming up with things to do on weekends. As I see it now, the earliest I’ll be able to toss out the old shoes is Saturday after next. This weekend we’re supposing getting the new front porch and ramp built.
     
    My son has decided I’m too old for steps, since I did fall flat on my face on the 28th of September coming up to the front porch. I had too jugs of distilled water and do to the ol’ bipolar wasn’t paying the least bit of attention, falling on my face was the least of my problem. Just now, my wrists and hands are finally getting usable. I still have to use the braces when I go to the store and can’t do the dishes, but I am getting better.
     
    Other news, life seems to be getting more and more boring. Not being able to drive anywhere decent (that bipolar thing, again) is definitely a downer. So I sit at the laptop typing and proofreading my stories and blog entries, read the few magazines we get and the books I order from Amazon (A Death in the Family now), and watch the tube when there’s something worth watching. I know I should be going outside and getting more exercise, but I just don’t seem to find the time and, now, with winter coming on, the rains will be even more discouraging. I can only hope for another warm, dry winter like last year.
  18. CarlHoliday
    I’m still riding the high wave of mania. That’s okay if one can channel the extra energy into some purposeful task. I finished the first draft of Chapter 1 of the new book yesterday morning. I’ll need a week or so to give it a number good reads looking for those errors that hide from your eyes. Having had a number of different keyboarding jobs in the past (word processing and typesetting), it’s not surprising that their are always a number of works that come out rong. Primarily this will be sort of a children’s book, rated mature; some what like Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade. I’d like to make it rated teen, but Chapter 1 has graphic violence experienced by the protagonist when forced to witness a number of executions as punishment for the crime he committed. The executions are quite gory. Why, well you’ll have to read the chapter. (Which I am contemplating posting on the Sneak Peeks forum; when, I’m not certain.) As I see it now, this chapter will be the worst, but you never know, maybe I'll throw in a murder or a little off-camera sex. Interestingly, there is a homosexual in Chapter 1.
     
    Chapter 2 (started yesterday afternoon) on the other hand is more mental, maybe PG. It deals with a method of esoteric meditation that I practiced when I worked at the University of Puget Sound and took a couple classes from a PhD who was well versed in esoteric practices and studies. To this day, I remember when he taught a class about alpha and omega; I suppose most people have no idea where that came from. He was also an ordained United Methodist minister, a sort of a requirement to work in the religion department of a college that is or was loosely aligned with the United Methodists, who originally founded the school.
     
    I kind of know where this book is going, but the way I tell stories is more of a spur of the moment kind of thing. It’s that mania thing again. I do know I’m going to structure it in much the same way William Faulkner wrote A Fable. Each chapter will center on a different character, characters, or events that will lead to the final END. The biggest problem right now is I'm dealing with 11 year-olds. That's there physical age, not their mental because, like between 11 and 12 it takes 20 years to achieve a physical age of 12, while their brains continue to evolve as more and more information is injested. That's what I like about sci-fi, you can come up with the silliest shit and in the end it all makes sense.
     
    I do know I will write the as much of the book while I’m still high. Maybe, I’ll be able to finish it before the end of the year. Highs do last that long. I just don’t want to get halfway and have to stop because I fell into a never ending funk.
  19. CarlHoliday
    I went to the shrink last week. I wanted to discuss the problems I was having with getting and staying asleep. It seems the VA hospital in Seattle came up an instruction booklet for older adults to acquire proper sleep habits. Starting off with going to be at the same time every night then getting up at the same time the following morning.
     
    Since my son turns the TV off at 1:30 a.m., that is my scheduled bedtime; 9:30 is the time I’m supposed to get up. The TV is distracting so it delays the time I’m able to get to sleep, but that really isn’t the problem. My mind doesn’t turn off.
     
    Then there’s the problem with sugar. My intake of the wonderful substance is too much, which probably contributes to the problem. The bowl of ice cream with sugary strawberries or chocolate topping an hour before bedtime doesn’t help either. So, now I stop eating chocolate before 8:00 p.m. Have my ice cream before nine o’clock and coast to midnight when I take my night pills, eating a little something without sugar, and do my dental work. Then I can try to relax before it’s time to go to bed.
     
    Then there’s the problem with my defective mental state. Being Type I Bipolar doesn’t help with a lot of things around the house, but I think it has a lot to do with not getting a good night’s sleep. Like Saturday and Sunday when in the morning I was totally in a funk in the morning; then bounced back up passing the middle mood the Depakote is supposed to maintain; and landing at total mania. Yesterday, I was working on my new book, the new age schema on Hercules III, and reading the news at The Atlantic online site. Today, the mania started this morning as soon as I awoke at 10:45, resulting in this blog entry. Plus, editing what I typed on the book yesterday. I have a whole new section or two to work on today; plus, working some more on the data for the age schema.
     
    Age iterations were introduced in my first Hercules III novella, but now they’re more complex. Basically a person’s physical age at any given point is related to what iteration they’re on. Iterations are the number of years it takes a person to go from one age to the next. From birth to age 1 takes 2 years, resulting in a physical age on Hercules III of 1, but the Earth equivalent age is 2. But, things get more complicated as a person slowly ages. There are 23 iterations between age 9 and 10. At the age of 10 on Hercules III a child looks like a normal everyday ten-year-old on Earth, but the Earth equivalent age is now 116. Then there are the periodic accelerations that occur between the ages of 21 to 31, 53 to 75, 85 to some as yet undetermined age; resulting in an Earth equivalent age of 746,081 at the Hercules III age of 100, but that is now barely middle-age. The bots have manipulated human physiology to the point that people age very slowly. They do die from accidents, disease, and other natural causes, but there are some who will possibly live to where life becomes so boring that they may take their own lives. Can you imagine what it would feel like to live a million years? What would you do to keep busy?
     
    Mania is fun and productive if you can channel it correctly. When I finish the book, I think I’ll get the shrink to up my dosage of the Depakote so I can remain moodless for a while. It’s not as much fun, but it is dangerous as hell bouncing off the walls and not paying attention to what’s going on around you, like driving to the grocery store. Was that a stop sign?
  20. CarlHoliday

    Favorite Songs

    By CarlHoliday,

    I’ve been thinking of writing a blog entry on a few of the songs I find interesting, so I think it’s time (now that I’m feeling somewhat manic/mostly depressed) to discuss these songs. (Research from Wikipedia)
     
    Let’s do them alphabetical (by artist) just to make it easy.
     
    First off is Alanis Morissette’s, “You Oughta Know.” It’s a rather troubling song about a failed relationship that seemingly went terribly wrong. Now, the jilted girl is asking her former lover if his new love will measure up as in: Is she perverted like me, Will she go down on you in a theatre . . . and, Are you thinking of me when you fuck (bleeped in the official video and on nearly every radio station) her?
     
    Do I like it because the song comes right out and says how the woman feels or is it something about the words “down” and “fuck” that intrigue me? For a long time this was the first song I came across on iTunes that actually slapped me in the face with its lyrics. A person raised in the 50’s and 60’s isn’t used to hearing songs with fuck in them, which leads us to our next artist.
     
    The song “You’re Breaking My Heart” is attributed to songwriters Sunny Skylar and Pat Genaro, but theirs is only a version of the Italian song “Mattinata” by Ruggero Leoncavallo written in the early 20th century.
     
    Harry Nilsson wrote a song with the same title, reportedly concerning his ongoing divorce. In it, beside the line You stepped on my ass, the phrase fuck you occurs four times. As a saving grace, the song ends with I love you.
     
    Do I like it because it has four fucks? That’s three more than Alanis Morrisette, but does it have to be reduced to that foul simplicity? No, it’s Harry Nilsson. He’s from my teens and early adulthood. It’s old shit. I’m old and I like old shit. Not that you can add up four fucks to make one shit. When I first heard it, I was a bit shocked that a song from 1972’s Son of Schmilsson could have a song with that many fucks, but what was I to do, it was Nilsson?
     
    The early video is just a bit amateurish; no, a whole lot amateurish. It does have a baritone saxophone though.
     
    (I played a baritone sax before I gave up playing saxophone, clarinet, piano, and bassoon when I realized I really wasn’t as good at any of those as everyone said. Although, I think I was getting pretty good a boogie-woogie on the piano, but if I wanted to stop my parents were going to stop paying for all the lessons. Luckily, I had other interests. I was a teenager with raging hormones surrounded by a ton of cute boys, who were so straight I shut myself in a closet that stayed shut until it was for all intents and purposes too late. Damn it! No, with my low self-esteem, AIDS would’ve erased me from this planet in the second wave.)
     
    Next up, The Raspberries with their ever famous million seller song “Go All the Way.” Banned by the BBC for being too risqué for that era, though it did receive considerable play elsewhere. I find it interesting that the BBC banned it while at practically the same time broadcasting the television program “Are You Being Served?” that is about as risqué as you can get without being clipped apart in the editing room floor in America. I suppose, though, watching television is much different than having your raging hormonal teenager listening to the radio with a song that has a girl wanting to “go all the way.”
     
    When I listen to the song, I find myself not listening to the words. The guitar work is totally fantastic. I wish I’ll be able to play that good when I get my hands back. (Don’t tell my son, but I’m typing without my braces. Take an aspirin and every finger does its job, mostly.)
     
    Finally, we come to The Tremeloes with “Suddenly You Love Me.” When you look up the lyrics online, there’s a problem. At the end the second, third and fourth verses there is the line Suddenly you love me and I know I’ve gotta stay.
     
    However when I listen to the song I hear at the end of those verses Suddenly you love me and I know I’ve gotta say/die-die-die/die-die-die/die-die-die/die-die-die. The online lyric sites completely ignore the die-die-die parts as if they do not exist, they do not know what is being said, or can’t imagine such a line occurring in a popular song.
     
    Unfortunately, when you listen to the whole song you can’t tell whether they’re sing die-die-die or quite possibly bye-bye-bye.
     
    Die or bye, whatever it is it is there and is completely ignored by the lyrics transcribers. Whatever is being said, it is being said by a frustrated lover whose girlfriend is running around on him. She’s worthless, but every time he tries to breakup with her, she “open her arms and suddenly loves only him.” Die or bye they both work in the context of the song.
  21. CarlHoliday

    Local News

    By CarlHoliday,

    Rambo, my son’s GSD (as distinguished from an original German shepherd; you know, the dude or dudette (Mary, Mary, quite contrary . . .) with a long stick with a crook on the end, maybe a large long-haired white dog who thinks it’s a sheep, and a flock of medium sized white or black woolies), has a very faint whine that I cannot hear even when it’s close, but my son can when the dog is across the room! N____ has super-sensitive hearing; so bad that I’m on the other side of the living room at the computer and he can hear the music coming out of my ear buds when they are lying on the desk. I’m close and I can’t hear them, but he can. I only took them off because he was staring at me. You know that kind of stare. Well, anyway, N____ has this talent, he claims, from not toasting his hearing apparatus when a teenager. He listened to soft music on the radio; soft so as to not bother his mother who sent him to his room because as he has told me, she was a mean bitch when he was growing up, especially when I was at work. Nice!
     
    I wish he’d get some glasses because his vision is atrocious; he simply can’t see. He couldn’t see as a child, but we were so poor and, therefore, didn’t have vision care until he was in second grade. We wouldn't have then, but his teacher sent a note home. He wore glasses until he found out only wussies wore those things. Now, he has very good vision care, but refuses to get glasses even though he admits to not being able to see worth a shit. It is strange, though, that he has extraordinary night vision. He takes Rambo out for walks at night and generally doesn’t take anything to aid his poor vision. He does have a small LCD lantern that he will use sometimes, but Rambo (who we swear thinks he’s a cat, for reasons to be explained sometime later) likes to chase the light beams and tugs at the leash. N____ says we should make Rambo a backyard dog, but he keeps taking him out at night when he gets home from work, as he did before we decided to start keeping him in the backyard. Nearly 39 years old and still acts like the kid he used to be. Or am I just getting to old to care?
     
    I’d like to walk Rambo when we’re alone while N_____ is at work, but Rambo is too strong for me and has pulled me to my knees on more than one occasion. I take him out to the backyard to do his business, but he stills wants to go out the front door, which we (at least me and the dog) can’t use because the front deck is gone.
     
    As a result of my fall on September 28, my son decided it was time to install a ramp that he says I will need in my old age (he’s like that). So I trip over my own feet, that certainly isn’t a federal crime (or, is it?). (Did you hear about the strange Medicare law that says if there isn’t a COLA increase in Social Security the premium for Medicare goes up? Nice ol’ federal government treating old people with such niceties.) Anyways, he’s removed the front deck to be replaced by my son’s childhood friends R_____ and B_____. It’ll be smaller because it’s just going to be a front porch with the ramp attached. My son wants room to park his Crown Vic (police interceptor), but if he does that, I showed him the ramp will go over the septic tank. He said, “No, no, no, there’s plenty of room.” I informed him that the ramp needs to be wide in case I’m forced to use a walker (or, heaven forbid a scooter). I haven’t told him yet he should go down to city hall and check with the building department about handicap ramps. If he doesn’t, he’ll run the risk of a stop work order. Plus, having read instructions on a number of sites and watched a YouTube vid of how to build a ramp, he needs to check with the building department for local specs, anyway.
     
    So much for news from the home front (door). . . .
  22. CarlHoliday
    Started to read a new book, sample sentence follows.
     
    They were like the faces of sleepwalkers looking backward across nightmares, recognizing no one and no familiar things, glaring down across the fleeing irrevocable instant as if they were being hurried to execution itself, flashing on, rapid and successive and curiously identical, not despite the fact that each had an individuality and a name, but because of it; identical not because of an identical doom, but because each carried into that mutual doom a name and an individuality, and that most complete privacy of all: the capacity for that solitude in which every man has to die,—flashing on as if they had no part nor interest in, and were not even aware of, the violence and speed with which or in which they rigidly moved, like phantoms or apparitions or perhaps figures cut without depth from tin or cardboard and snatched in violent repetition across a stage set for a pantomime of anguish and fatality.
     
    Yes, William Faulkner; this time offering A Fable, winner of the 1955 Pulitzer for Fiction. Actually, Faulkner is one of my favorite authors, since being introduced by Oprah’s Book Club: Summer of Faulkner: As I Lay Dying (very, very good)/The Sound and the Fury (have read twice)/Light in August (need to read again) in 2005.
     
    For the past year or so I’ve been reading as many of the Pulitzer prize winners as I could find, beginning with the very first, His Family, by Ernest Poole, winning in 1918 (good read) (interesting last chapter). For the prizes 1980 and later, I’ll try to read the listed almost winners, too. Oh wait, don't they call those the short list? Just being nice I guess in this age when everybody gets a trophy.
     
    On a side note, I broke the D string on my electric guitar when trying to tune it. It got horribly out of tune from not being played for over a month. Bipolar is such a drag, it gets into unwanted places in your life at the worst times.
     
    My son says he’s going to restring and tune it. Says he saw guitar players on the band he worked as a roadie for tune their guitars, so he can tune mine, too. In so many ways I fail to believe him, but he’s taking 40 mg of Prozac to control his anger and says that will help.
     
    Good thing I have a service contract on the guitar, might have to use it if he breaks the neck, which I’m lucky I didn’t. You know, I could just use my acoustic until he gets the electric fixed. Nah, that would mean having to switch things around in my room, which the bipolar might get in the way of. It certainly feels that way just thinking about it.
  23. CarlHoliday

    Oh, Crap!

    By CarlHoliday,

    Went to see the psychiatrist today. It was going like a normal appointment until I brought up the hallucinations I’ve been having. We’ve (and my previous shrink) discussed them in times past, but recently they’re manifesting themselves more frequently. We discussed if I felt this was due to one of the many meds I take. After we talked for a good while she asked if I ever had a Parkinsonism examine, which I haven’t. On the paper test I scored 21 out of 26, not good, but at least not too bad either. The physical part was okay, I guess.
     
    She’s giving me a new antipsychotic which should help with the memory problems and the hallucinations. Of course, being only 66 I shouldn’t be having issues like this, but sometimes it’s good to start checking mental issues considering I am Type I Bipolar which requires a host of meds that may cause either Parkinsonism or other mental issues. It might just be related to the med I take for Essential tremor in my hands; but she’s taking me off that because of the mental issues it causes.
     
    I’ve started working on the next chapter in the lives of Carlos and Stefan. It takes place somewhere in their future.
     
    Oh, there is one change in my life. I’ve jumped on the wagon. Going through two bottles of Tequila in 5 or 6 days is not good. At least the shrink thought it was a good thing. The deal is, my son said he’d give up the ale he was drinking (sometimes a whole six-pack in one sitting), if I’d cut out the booze. Good idea, but he’s still smoking marijuana and electronic cigarettes. Seems like cheating to me, after all his doc put him on Prozac to manage his anger. Oh well, can’t have everything.
     
    Oh, yeah, two more changes around here. I’ve taken up the guitar. I was taking lessons, but I can’t drive anymore due to a worsening of the bipolar situation. I can’t drive on the hi-way anymore because of a worsening short attention span. Scared my son so, so, so bad; scared me, too.
  24. CarlHoliday
    Well, it's like this. In the beginning of Hercules III I said the story is for "everyone". I've tried to keep to that commitment, but now in the start I'm faced with this sentence: There was a holographic image slowly rotating in front of them showing two naked young men in a close, slow dance barely mimicking sexual intimacy.
    Okay! Okay. . .
    Yes, there is implied sex, but is it too much sex, considering "everyone" might say visual sex is still sex. Does futuristic pornography meet the requirements of no sex? After all, porn does titilate the grungier side of the mind, possibly to the point of no return when orgasmic relief needs to be satisfied.
    I have watered down the sentence to the point where any further cleaning will erase the sentence and, most likely, the whole paragraph where it resides.
    Frankly, I'm going to run with it unless someone confronts me on the street in the steamier part of town (you know where) and says porn titilates the mind too much. So much, in fact, that certain parts of the body are stimulated into compromising situations.
    *******
    Chapter 8 of Hercules III is progressing at a slow rate. I'm not awakened at night needing relief from the story bouncing around in my mind. Those nights are long past. Mostly, it's the anti-pyschosis medicine that's doing most of the dirty work. My attention span is so bad sometimes I lose the end of a sentence I'm creating. I'll remember I'm supposed to take my afternoon anti-depressant, but after a few minutes I'll forget it, sometimes until after dinner. I have trouble conversing with anyone because I lose interest and return to a program on the television. My son helps alot (whether he knows it or not) by earnestly carrying a conversation that interests me, but still it only takes a moment and I'm off on some other track, totally forgetting what he asks or says.
    Driving is a hazard because I lose concentration on the car ahead and catch myself getting too close. At least I haven't gotten to the point where I can't drive at all. That scares me because we're so far out, it's nearly twenty miles to a town that has everything (three grocery stores, three BECU ATMs, a Rite Aid, a Lowes, and a hospital). There is a bus, but I have to walk a mile and a half to catch it; sunny days are okay, but raining days are not.
  25. CarlHoliday

    Pizazz

    By CarlHoliday,

    I have this thing with Pizazz Mini Fruit Slices from Cavalier Candies Ltd, Winnipeg, MB R3B 0R4 (Product of Canada, obviously). Yesterday I received a 24 oz. package of these delicious candies. I ate most of them yesterday and finished them off this morning (no, I did not eat them for breakfast, but it was close).
     
    Then this afternoon I put together a new playlist on iTunes containing some of the songs I like best. It a couple hours, but I’m fairly satisfied with the results. There is a lot of old (and not so old) stuff, like: Aker Bilk, The Beach Boys, The Beatles (of course), Billie Holiday (no relation), Dave Edmunds, Duke Ellington, Elvis Presley, Etta James, Lionel Hampton, Marty Robbins, Pete Seeger, Roy Orbison, The Sons of the Pioneers, and Vic Damone. There’s some new stuff, like: Scotty McCreery, Lyle Lovett (he’s a bit old to be new), James Blunt, and Diego Garcia. Then there’s the Spanish language stuff, like: Conjunto Primavera, El Tigrillo Palma, Gipsy Kings, and Mocedades. I am working on learning the language. Luckily, I found out I’m learning Castilian Spanish now, which will help with the last two. Once that’s out of the way, I’ll have to go back and learn Latin American Spanish, which will help with the last two and others.
     
    I am working on Hercules III, but it’s slow going. Some days, like today, I’ll do everything I can not to work on the latest chapter. It’s the everyday challenge of dealing with the depression. Oh, that I could have a sunny day more than once in a while.
     
    Oh, by the way, my son bought a puppy in January. Last Sunday was his 6 month birthday. He weighed in at 65 pounds. He’s a German Shepherd dog (for some reason you have to specify that it’s a dog and not just a shepherd). Interestingly, his mother was impregnated in Germany and flown here to give birth to four bundles of joy and weirdness. My son named him “Rambo”. Since he will be neutered we didn’t have to go through the AKC registry and name him Lorenz von Waldberg. If it had worked out, I chose the name Lorenz after Lorenz Hart (of Rogers and Hart fame). The kennel deals almost exclusively with Shützhund dogs, but Rambo won’t be doing that either. He’s a skittish with vehicles driving by and he doesn’t do well in crowds. Some days, he just doesn’t like women, period.
     
    I get to buy my dog sometime next year. She’ll end up being spayed (no puppies for us). We simply don’t have the room for two BIG dogs and a bunch of puppies.
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