JeffHendricks.net

You know, there are days when I think writing is a waste of time.

No, really, bear with me here. I know some of the greatest minds of all time (of all time!) expressed their thoughts through writing. But the more I try to write, the harder it gets. More and more, our life is run by 30-second clips of images, music, flashes of light, and maybe a brand logo or three. But very little thought matters in the regular world anymore, and I’m becoming more aware of it as I get older.

Most of the guys I work with (I work in a large factory that builds agricultural equipment) have never read a novel. A good chunk of them barely passed high school. So what good does it do for me to pour my soul out in words, page upon page, chapter after chapter, when almost nobody I know will read it? How will this affect people around me? Well, the truth is, it probably won’t affect them much. But for the few people who read my work, I’m happy they enjoy it.

I just wish I could reach more people with my writing, otherwise, why do it? I certainly would like to make a living at it, but that’s not why I write. I want to be able to reach people, and engage their minds in ways otherwise impossible. You can’t carry a conversation about morality, world events, and spirituality over a rushed 30-minute lunch break. Most of the guys I work with spend that 30 minutes eating and showing each other crude pictures from Facebook on their smartphones.

I guess I need to revisit why I write. Is it for me? If so, I need to not worry so much about how and what I write. Is it for others? If so, then I need to make more of an effort to make that happen, instead of wasting time.

Ah, joy. Yet another day of self-doubt as a writer. Time for some more coffee.

So, you’ve decided to try your hand at writing something. More than a research paper, maybe even fiction. So, where do you start? Good question!

Writing, just like any other craft, goes easier and faster with proper tools. With that being said, there are as many ways to write as there are writers, and I can only give you information based on what I know and have used. If I’m writing a novel, or short story (i.e. something that requires plot) then I do my writing in two stages: Outlining, and the actual writing.

Outlining- Every good story needs organization. How can you organize? Characters, places, details, bits and clippings of inspiration, research notes, and the list goes on. Thankfully, there are some talented programmers who are also writers, and they’ve come up with some excellent solutions! Some of my favorites are:

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Found this little gem in the trash this morning. Probably will use it for the Rat Rod Bikes annual build-off!

Like the title says. Installing Adobe Air natively on Ubuntu 12.04. With 64-bits. Not 32.

If you like programs like Tweetdeck, Destroy Twitter, WriteOrDie, the Wikipedia Desktop app, etc. you will need the abomination known as Adobe Air. And if you use Ubuntu, especially a newer version, installing Adobe Air is not easy or simple. Adobe quit supplying a Linux version a while back, and there hasn’t been anything to replace it… we’ve been stuck trying to crutch along the older version. Thankfully, most Air apps don’t require newer versions of Air.

To pull this off, we’re going to need the last Linux version of Adobe Air, and a nifty little tool called “getlibs-all”. Oh yeah, and Ubuntu 12.04 installed on a computer.

First, go to Adobe’s archived Air files and grab Adobe AIR 2.6.0 Linux (15.4 MB). Next, grab the file getlibs-all.deb right here. The guy who wrote it doesn’t seem to be hosting it anymore, and it’s not a huge program, just extremely useful for finding 32-bit libraries for a 64-bit system. You can right-click “getlibs-all.deb” and open with Gdebi Package Manager, and click Install. So far, so good.

Next, you need to make sure to install libhal-storage1, lib32nss-mdns, and libgnome-keyring0 if it’s not installed. Open a terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install libhal-storage1 libgnome-keyring0 lib32nss-mdns

It should ask you to install (Y/n) if they’re not already there. Let them install, and rejoice. Now, we need to install all the missing 32-bit libraries that it will need. You can’t get these from apt-get unless you know what they all are. Simply use the following commands:

sudo getlibs -l libhal-storage.so.1
sudo getlibs -l libgnome-keyring.so.0.1.1

For each one, it will ask if you want to install (a lot of) libraries. Let them all download and install, and we’re almost done! Next, we link a couple of libraries (they’re there, but not where Air is looking for them). Run the following:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libgnome-keyring.so.0 /usr/lib/libgnome-keyring.so.0

And then run the actual Air installer. In a terminal, cd to the directory you stored “AdobeAIRInstaller.bin” in and run this:

chmod +x ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin
sudo ./AdobeAIRInstaller.bin

You should get the standard “Installing” messages, and Air should install with no problem! Enjoy!

I got most of the information here from Adobe’s help site, with a little poking prodding and research to put all the rest of the pieces together.

Today’s purge item: Clothes that don’t fit. Mostly jackets, because I live in Louisiana.

Do you think you can find which link on this page actually downloads the Wikipedia desktop app? Don’t feel bad if you can’t find it right away…

That’s right… if you said click on the tiny word “air” you’d be right. I don’t know what the two enormous “Download” buttons are for, and honestly, I don’t care.

If you design websites, please, please don’t ever do this. It’s evil.

I’ve been trying very hard to keep my writing momentum going, but being at home makes it very hard for me. There’s just too much going on, and people (kids and wife) that need my attention. This isn’t a bad thing, it just makes it hard to write without being interrupted.

The excerpt I posted recently is from the book I’m working on now. It’s basically a tech-thriller/drama/action/crime… well, heck, I don’t know exactly what you’d call it. All of the things I write are hard to nail down to one specific genre! I guess the most appropriate would be to class it by location or setting, which means it’s a modern action story. I’m finding more and more as I write that my ideas and stories really don’t fit narrow genres, and I guess that’s okay in that it appeals to a wide audience, but bad in that it makes the book hard to market!

Anyway, I’m up to around 51,000 words (before editing) so I’m definitely getting closer to my goal of around 75K or 80K. That seems to be a good length for the kind of story I’m doing, and I think it’ll come together nicely at the end.

The other side to it is I want to finish this book before I write the Prequel to Seeking The Heavens. That’s going to be an interesting book in and of itself, and I’ve got a couple chapters written already, but I need to outline it and work on key scenes before I can really say it’s a “work-in-progress.”

Okay, I guess that’s enough for now, back to work!

Today’s de-clutter: Plastic tubs. This one has miles of cables and wires in it. All good stuff, but not things I’d use on a regular basis. If it stays in the tub for a year, then it’s safe to say you don’t need it.

Today’s one-a-day purge item: magazines! I have tons and tons of old car mags. The only subscription I currently have is to Bicycle Times (which is an awesome publication) and they offer it in digital form. How to minimise? Convert your magazines to digital form!

Some of you may have heard of the popular multivitamin One-A-Day. The premise is that you need to take one every day for complete health.I’d like to take credit for it, but my wife gave me the idea of getting rid of “one thing a day” to make simplifying easier. It’s genius.

I’ve been working on simplifying my life, living frugally, and generally just enjoying life more. The concept of simplifying everything at once is daunting, and most people never make it past the first day or two. But one thing a day? Just get rid of one thing a day? Anybody can do that. Right?

So here we go. I’m going to try to post up something I’m getting rid of or simplifying every single day. More or less.

Today’s purge item: an old analog 4-port KVM Switch from my computer business days.

4-Port KVM Switch