BYBS: Luck

Most of the time, I don't consider myself to be very lucky, but compared to some people I'm familiar with I've hit the lottery, made it big, retired, etc. For all my bitching and moaning, I've been incredibly fortunate.

I have a friend who is a single mother. She's in her early twenties, has a crappy job, etc. She was recently injured and is in great deal of pain when she moves. The web is filled with blogs about people whose situations are similar.

It's when I read about stuff like that and meet the people behind them that the reality sets in for me. I'm living in a fantasy, they are living in reality. The reality where you are 4 flat tires away from bankruptcy. The reality where you'd better not loose your job or you could literally be on the street.

While I can take credit for some of my situation, the fact of the matter is that I got lucky. I got lucky in that I was born into a family who were doing well financially, and who cared about me. I got lucky in the opportunities of my life. I got incredibly lucky when I found my wife.

I don't believe that this is a result of having been good in a previous life and I don't believe that I'm chosen by some super natural being. There are simply too many examples of people suffering due to nature, circumstances, etc. for me to accept that.

I do believe that I've been lucky.

Runaway Story

I try to be short and to the point, I really do, but this story is getting away from me. Currently, I'm looking at 16 to 30 pages plus 8 to 16 more that I haven't edited and there's still a lot of stuff I need to write. My goal is to keep the story below 30 pages.

It's times like this that I look back fondly on the days when I had writer's block.

I would sit there, literally all night, write out a sentence, decided it sucked, throw it away, and start over again. If I was lucky, I managed to write one page, but usually I ended up with nothing.

These days I plop down in the chair and force myself to write about a page, and then reward myself with some quality time on World of Warcraft. I realize that it still probably stinks, but hey, I still get to play WoW. After about a month and a half of this I have 30 to 45 pages to work with.

Then the dreaded editing process starts.

The goal is to shrink the story down 30 pages or less. Cut out all the fluff and drivel (well most of it anyways), so that what's left is just the essentials.

At least that's the theory.

The reality is that I'm faced with 30 to 45 pages of drivel that I can try to splice together into something comprehensible. This prospect alone is enough to get me to shuffle off and spend lots of quality time with WoW in order to avoid it.

So, the good news is that I don't have anywhere near the problem with writer's block that I used to. The bad news is that now I have editor's block.

BYBS: Exercise

A device that bears a striking resemblance to a to torture rack.

This posting is about how much I love exercise!

Lies.

The fact is that I think exercise sucks. It's boring. It's difficult to get my lazy butt to do it. At times it can be painful. I pretty much hate exercise.

As the picture above shows, this is about that wonderful, exciting thing called "Cardio-Vascular" exercise. The stuff where you plod, plod, plod and sweat, sweat, sweat in order to get in 30min or whatever your goal is.

But wait – there's more! An extra blessing you can get is a heart rate monitor. This gadget will monitor your heart rate and inform you when you are cheating and not working hard enough.

That way you can work harder. Isn't that nice?

I do like the benefits though:

• Weight control – you burn calories while exercising and but also when not exercising. This is due to increased muscle mass. Honest. For Sure.
• Cardio – your heart is in much better shape than if you don't exercise. You'll live longer. In fact, all the extra time you'll live will be spent exercising.
• Overall health – exercise is associated with all kinds of other aspects of health, from a better immune system to improved mental outlook. I know I feel much better after I exercise...dammit.

On the last point I think that the improved mental outlook comes from realizing that any moment you spend not exercising is a good one. If you see someone smiling in a meeting, it's probably because they think "Yes, this meeting is a boring waste of time, but it could be worse…I could be exercising!"

BYBS: Thoughtspace

Stop for a moment and think.

Take a piece of paper and draw a triangle on it. Think about it for a sec – are the sides of equal length, does it form a right angle, etc.

Now crumple up, shred, etc. the paper.

Does the triangle still exist?

My answer is "yes." You can draw it again, you can describe it to another person – the notion of a triangle exists in my mind after destroying any artifact of its existence.

Now consider this: at some point you or I first became aware of this concept. What came before that?

In other words, you did not always know what a triangle was, so did it exist before that? Well yes, other people knew about it they could teach each other, etc. so it existed long before you or I knew about it.

Now consider this: did it exist before the first human being?

Regardless of your beliefs, there is some point of time before human beings existed. There could be no people teaching each other about triangles because there were no people. Did triangles exist?

My answer is yes. The notion of a closed polygon in 2D space with 3 segments does not need anyone thinking about it to exist – it is a concept.

I always thought that this was a cool idea – that there is a whole universe that touches ours. It has no concept of time in that all ideas that have ever been thought or ever will be thought exist there at the same time. There is no space in that it is everywhere and nowhere.

The only really analogous property is being aware of some concept or thought. You can tell someone about triangles or what have you that they didn't know about before. They can then go to that "place".

An idea like this of course requires a cool name. So I give you readers Thoughtspace.

Less is More

When it comes to writing, I think less really is more.

In the case of editing a story, I think trying to limit the length results in a better story. It forces me to cut out scenes, dialog, etc. that are superfluous in favor of those that are absolutely necessary. The scenes that are left end up getting picked over to make them more efficient.

The result is a story without a lot of filler. It gets to the point quickly and takes less time for my readers (both of them) to get through.

I've heard this sort of thing from a couple of my favorite authors. Roger Zelazny and Larry Niven both had several short stories that they turned into novellas or novels – in a couple of these cases I recall reading that they preferred the short story because it was "tighter" or that it tried to communicate fewer ideas.

I have to say that as a reader, I agree with them.

BYBS: W. Edwards Deming & SPC

Deming was an American statistician who is somewhat famous for teaching the Japanese statistical process control (SPC) after World War 2. The Japanese used tools such as this to great effect after WW2 in fields such as automobile manufacturing, electronics and semiconductors (computer chips).

The basic ideas that I associated with Deming are:

1. Statistical process control (SPC) can increase quality and reduce costs at the same time.
2. The tools of SPC are not a panacea.

The notion of higher quality/lower cost is illustrated by observing that a product you have to throw out because of defects costs the same to make as one that you can sell. If you make fewer defective products, then the cost of making them goes down because, for the same cost, you produce more.

SPC allows you to optimize production, but it does not tell you what to produce. For example, you can make the best, most inexpensive video tape player in the world and still go out of business because everyone now uses DVDs.

I always like it when "geek ideas" end up changing the world.

Hoity-Toity Features, part 2

Several months after switching over to the new and improved Blogger template scheme, approach, whatever - I've finally used something that I didn't have before! Behold! The amazing...poll...

OK, well, maybe it's not that amazing...but it is new.

In retrospect, I have not really used many of the new capabilities, but I do like it better. The layout manager is much more convenient than just hacking the raw, seething, slimy HTML. Instead, the raw, seething, slimy HTML is put in little blobs. This may not seem like much, because it certainly isn't noticeable by looking at the site, but it makes managing all that stuff a lot easier.

I also like the fact that I switched my hit counter to something that actually works. Blog explosion seemed determined to not work and stay that way. Stat counter, on the other hand, works but displays rather depressing statistics. I don't think that is the fault of the people at Statcounter, but I blame them nonetheless.

So avail yourself to the new poll! Let your voice be heard! Many exclamation points!!!

BYBS: Patience

I'm not always the best example of patience, but when I do manage to display it, I'm often times richly rewarded.

Take for example, my never-ending battle with … ummm "limiting my horizons," trying to stop taking up more space (as in flab, fat weight, etc.) In an usual display of self-control I've managed (on good days at least) to keep a running track of what's going on in that dept. Here's a sample:

Slow and yet not very fast progress

While it's too embarrassing to give exact numbers, this shows day to day weight over about 4 months, with the weight varying over 5 pounds. My day-to-day mode of operation is to despair of ever making any progress, but over the long term, my weight is going down…except for that bit where it went up during the holidays…but that doesn't count…well I guess it does…sigh.

At any rate, by being patient It's obvious that I am losing weight, albeit slowly.

There are a number of times when patience has paid off for me. The trick is to give it time.

Laziness

Alright, I'm putting off editing my short story, but it's for a good cause: laziness.

I strongly agree with Mark Twain's assertion that, while hard work pays off eventually, laziness pays off now. Having already done some hard work today, I figure I deserve some laziness :-)

Yesterday, I posted the first chapter/bit/whatever of my latest opus magnum, "Groupthink: the Lighter Side." (For those of you who want to be with the cool kids, you can find this and other stories on my other site, blather-n-stories.blogspot.com) This means that I had to do at least perfunctory editing on what I wrote. This is where the hard work part comes in.

Depending on who you believe, ye average page in a book contains about 250 words. My story is 10,000+ words – meaning that I have to edit over 40 pages of my own…er…creation. Left to my own pace, it would probably never get finished, but thanks to the magic of blog publishing I can pressure myself into posting it, 4 to 8 pages at a time.

4 to 8 pages at a time is something that even I, not-so-hard worker that I am, can feel is at least possible. Thinking that it's possible, I foolishly posted the first bit. Once posted I notice all kinds of problems – the paragraph that makes no sense, the clumsy sentence, the lack of structure, etc.. This makes me concerned enough to actually edit the thing.

I'm not sure if posting stories is a good idea. They make my warped, scary mind that much more apparent. Having a story out there opens me up to all kinds of abuse that, in the good ole days, was far too plentiful on the internet.

The good news is that, according to my hit counter, I don't have much to be concerned about.

So while I have not actually edited anything today, or at least not much, I did do some writing :-)

P.S. The other reason to post something is that the last thing I put up here seemed overly dark.

Black Monday

One thing I find disappointing about myself is that I created a site called "Blather n' Rants" and then I don't post any rants. More specifically, I don't post about the negative aspects of my life or the things around me. Personally, I think this is a shame.

The thing is I'm not a happy camper. I spend a lot of my time being not very happy™ and not writing about it seems dishonest to me – like I'm trying to put a façade over a grim situation.

There is a difference, however, between acknowledging the aspects of yourself that you aren't proud of and fostering them. Saying "OK, I'm not perfect" is one thing. Celebrating what you consider wrong and trying to show how you emblemize them is another.

I also feel inhibited by the venue. One problem is that I have a few friends online and offline who know that I am the author for this site. I'm afraid that if I post something they object to, I could lose their friendship.

And mind you, we are talking about both of my friends.

So here I am back at the start – can't post something negative. Or at least really negative.

At least I posted a rant.

BYBS: The Works of JRR Tolkien

I have spent many afternoons and evenings reading JRR's books over the years. One of the nice things about them is that they have "grown with me" in the sense that they could be entertaining when I was younger, and yet still be interesting when I grew older. For example, I thought Tom Bombadil was sort of entertaining when I was younger, but his significance as a sort of symbol that accepts no rules or laws kept him interesting as time has gone on.

A Quote Only

The war is going very badly for the Federation, Far worse than is generally known. Starfleet Command believes that defeat is inevitable. Within six months, we may have no choice but to surrender.

Yesterday's Enterprise, ST:TNG

Groupthink: the Lighter Side

Much to my surprise, I have a lot of material from another story that I worked on but never finished. If anything I need to pare it down. I don't remember why I never finished it, but my guess is that I balked at the task of editing it. Amongst my other problems is "editor's block."

The particular story that I wrote is about one outcome of telepathy sprouting up out of the blue. I called it "Groupthink: the Lighter Side" because it had a fairly nice outlook on the consequences of this. I was going to create another story called "Groupthink: the Darker Side" that concentrated on a negative outcome, but I never got started on it.

Anyhow, that will probably be my next story, though I may take a more leisurely attitude towards the process than I did with the other stories.

You can find my story site here (http://blather-n-stories.blogspot.com)

BYBS: Writing

Writing, particularly fiction writing, allows me to explore ideas and concepts that I'll never be able to realize in real life. Even relatively simple ones like RPGs where I've wanted to run a particular campaign and I'm just too lazy to get the people together for it.

Writing requires a lot less background work. There's no illustration, ideas don't have to be as fleshed out, etc. No "herd of cats" I have to corral in order to run the event.

Characters are a bit of a problem, and dialog can be problematic as well. But at least everything I need is right on hand. And finally getting my butt to actually sit down in the chair and write is one of the hardest parts.

What's really nice is that a lot of times, writing something out cracks me up. What can I say? I'm easily pleased. That anybody else enjoys what I write is a bonus :-)

BYBS: 2007

Here is a list of all my BYBS entries in 2007. I'm not posting this for BYB Sunday because I'm lazy - or rather I'm not posting this just because I'm lazy. I also think it's interesting to look at from the standpoint of where I've been the past year.

• Significant Others, January 14
• Healthcare, January 21
• BYBS :-), January 28
• Programming, February 3
• Those that Sacrifice, February 11
• Vitamin I, February 18
• Hindsight, February 25
• Cobalt Sky, March 11
• Reflection, March 18
• Ice Cream!, March 25
• Tinfoil Hats!, April 1
• Gallows Humor, April 8
• Reprieve, April 22
• 10 Things I Like About You, April 29
• Of Toa and MsDemmie, April 30
• Weekends, May 6
• Um...er...I'm Blogging..., May 13
• Planescape, May 20
• The One, June 3
• Babylon 5, June 10
• The Sun, June 24
• Second Chances, September 2
• Podcasts, October 28
• Really, Really Wrong, November 29
• Freedom, December 15
• Spelling Checkers, December 22
• e-Fronds, December 29

Sources

• Giving credit where credit is due, I snarfed the BYBS image off of MsDemmie's site.

The New Template and Blobs o' Code

One of the things that I have my own share of are leetle blobs of Javascript I need to put in my template for things like hit counters, Technorati, etc. The annoying thing about doing this (OK, one of the many annoying things) with blogger is that their template contains enormous amounts of weird code. This makes it very difficult to figure out where my stuff should go.

One of the features of the new scheme is being able to add arbitrary bits of HTML or JavaScript to the template. This is nice because I can avoid digging through the blogger template and just throw my stuff into a section of its own.

This doesn't solve all the problems I end up having. For example, to verify a site with Google, you have to put a meta tag in the template. Adding meta tags pretty much requires editing the HTML of the template, but at least some of the other stuff has been made easier to deal with.

Slowly but surely…

Close Enough for Now

Converted over to the new Hoity-Toity style. After trying to edit it I just have to wonder if blogger pays developers to be this obtuse with there HTML, or does it happen by accident? At any rate, things will be a little screwed up or at least different from whatever passes for normal on this site until I figure things out. Please stay tuned.

BYBS: e-Fronds

Actually, the title is supposed to be "e-Friends," but I liked this typo so much…

This one goes out to the peeps who have kindly visited my site…even during my hiatuses. Sandy, Blue Panther, Cybercelt, Paulie, MsDemmie, Shay, your thoughts are very much appreciated. There are some days when I don't feel like getting up, let alone blogging. On these days I really appreciate your dropping by.

Have a good BYBS, and thanks for dropping by.

Hoity Toity Features

Meh. According to Blogger, if I want to be able to create polls and surveys on my site, I have to upgrade my template. I'm a little worried about losing template changes I've made, since blogger is so easy to work with (see previous post). Nevertheless, I was reassured by the following note that is attached to the option to upgrade: YOU WILL LOSE ALL YOUR CHANGES AND PROBABLY BE FOREVER LOST IN OUR MAD, STRANGE, NEW TEMPLATE: MUHAHAHAHA! I'm not really thrilled with the idea. On the other hand, I would get new, hoity toity features like polls and whatnot. On still another hand, hardly anybody reads this blog, so why would I expect the polls to reveal anything new and interesting™? On yet another limb (onto feet now), it is a pretty kewl feature. Fortunately, I ran out of limbs to use for considering things. The bit with the "still another hand" was really a foot you see. It was then that I got a flash of insight: why not ask if anybody actually reads this blog? If anyone bothers to respond, then it may actually be worth upgrading my template so that I can add polls! On the other hand…argh…there I go again. So if you are actually reading this, please add a comment so I know that upgrading my template is not a complete and utter waste. In fact, you can create a comment that says "Hey, shut up!" And that will communicate basically the same thing.

Blogger Does this…Intentionally

So I decided to put all my stories on that other blog so that they wouldn't mess this one up. This means taking the text from this blog and pasting it into posts on the other blog.

Simple, right?

Not with Blogger.

You see, Blogger harkens back to a simpler age. A time when ASCII graphics were still cool. A time when men were men, women were women and sheep were nervous. In short, it was a time when creating a decently formatted text document was like passing a watermelon through one's colon.

What's more, I don't think this is an accident. I think that Blogger is aware. Like the Matrix.

And it's watching me.

And giggling.

Or at least I hope someone is getting a kick out of this, because trying to do something as simple as transferring a post from one blog to another is way too hard.

"God hates me."

"Hate him back, it works for me."

Lethal Weapon