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Writing, Busyness, and Chasing a Dream

First, I’d like to apologize (to all 5 of my readers) for not posting anything yesterday. I know it didn’t affect you in any way, shape or form that I didn’t, but you know, I promised myself I would write every weekday, and I have, for several weeks. But you’re about to find out why.

For a long time, I’ve dreamed about living a creative life, and spending my days working on writing novels and music. I say “dream” because I didn’t think it was something I could do while I was awake. But every day that I go to work and get micromanaged, or work on things I’m not passionate about, I get more and more frustrated.

You see, deep down, I know I can write books for a living. I don’t think so, I know so. But the problem is  that it takes time to write and edit books. And with working, being a dad/husband/scoutmaster/supervillain and everything else I have going on, writing a book just doesn’t seem like something I can fit into my schedule.

But I need to make this happen. I don’t need to “fit” in time to write: I need to make it my singular goal if I’m going to ever break free of working for a corporation. Can I actually write enough to quit my day job? Is it even possible? Continue reading “Writing, Busyness, and Chasing a Dream”

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Retro Game Spotlight: Whiplash

Sometimes, old games are just more fun to play than fancy graphics make up for. Whiplash (also know in the UK as Fatal Racing) from 1995 is one of those games.

It featured a CD soundtrack (Redbook audio, remember that?), split-screen multiplayer, and networked multiplayer, which was pretty big for any game in 1995, much less a racing game.

It’s made to run in DOS… that’s right, MS-DOS, i.e. before Windows. Thankfully, through the awesomeness that is DOSBox, one can still play games like this on modern computers. Continue reading “Retro Game Spotlight: Whiplash”

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Creativity Brain Hacks

A few days ago, I wrote about my reasoning and motivation for diving into deep projects. I didn’t really get into how those things happen, though, and so I figured I’d give you a glimpse into what my creative process looks like.

I developed a few things I’ve begun doing to make it easier to dive into big projects. Some of these aren’t exactly revelatory. Some of them I got from Cal Newport’s “Deep Habits” study hacks blog, some of them I just figured out.

So, here’s my suggestions for Creativity Brain Hacks: Continue reading “Creativity Brain Hacks”

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Storytelling 101: Sintel

Yesterday I wrote about diving deep into projects, but after thinking through the problem and finding my motivations, I didn’t really post much on how to go about making that happen. While I’m working on putting that list together, here’s an awesome video I discovered a while back. Fantastic animation and storytelling. It’s basically a 15-minute master class on how to tell a story.

 

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Diving Deep, Coming Up For Air

I enjoyed having a day off yesterday (it was Labor Day here in the States). I ended up doing yard work, fixing things around the house, and getting a bad sinus headache. Thankfully, my awesome wife knows all about headaches and how to get rid of them!

But there will be more work to do when I get to work, and even more to do when I get back home. The pile of work never seems to end, even though I’m plowing through it at record pace.

I bemoan the fact that I don’t have time to write more, or make music, or whatever. The truth is, I just don’t have time to do everything. This is a recurring theme in my life, and I write about it often because I’m still struggling with it.

Deep down, I know what I have time to do. But I want to do more. But why?

Is it because I want to impress people? That’s not really it.
Is it because I’m looking for acceptance? Part of me does.
Is it because I’m trying to prove I can do it to doubters? Sometimes.
Is it because I have amazing ideas and I’m the only one who will bring them to life? This happens frequently.
Is it because I feel useful when I’m doing things, and useless when I’m not? Yeah, that’s definitely part of it.
Is it because most of my crazy ideas would be ridiculously fun? Yup. Definitely part of it.

So what happens when your own drive to do things short-circuits your ability to do simple, necessary things, like study, play with your family, and mentor your children? Continue reading “Diving Deep, Coming Up For Air”

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Down The Rabbit Hole

Looking at my blog traffic stats, I’ve discovered that almost 50% of my traffic was due to Google linking to a single article I had written (about installing Adobe Air in Ubuntu, strangely enough). I know this, because the very day they removed it from search results (due to a wrongly submitted DMCA takedown, I might add), my traffic dropped that much and has remained there.

For me to provide interesting and useful information here, I need to write what people want to read. But I also need to write about what I know. Are there really avant-guard ADD’ers out there who think like me? Are there people interested in what I know, and what I’ve experienced? Does anybody really know what time it is?

I guess I’ll just keep writing about what’s engaging to me, and hope that somebody, somewhere, is getting something out of it. I’ve got some interesting thoughts on this to share for “Outside The Box” tomorrow. Hope you like them.

If you have something you’d like for me to write more on, let me know in the comments section.

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Saturday Shennanigans

First off, sorry for not posting this Friday. This is the first time I haven’t posted on a weekday in about four weeks.

This morning, I went for a nice, long ride with some friends at the local university. The team coach (also an English professor) invited me to come ride with the college students, to help teach them about group riding, and just general cycling form and etiquette.

It was really fun, though a bunch of people showed up, and I ended up pushing myself pretty hard. My Surly Long Haul Trucker weighs somewhere around 32 pounds, maybe more. All the other riders were rocking sub-twenty-pound bikes. I had to turn up the power to just keep up with them, much less do anything else. I pulled for a while, but as I expected, I ended up dropping off the back (that’s cycle-ese for “I couldn’t keep up and got left behind”). Even so, I made a personal best record for a ten-mile stretch. At one point, I was averaging 22 MPH, which for me, is huge. I normally can only maintain a 15MPH average, maybe 18 for short bursts.

It was both discouraging, and encouraging. I knew I was going to get dropped, because my bike is just so heavy and bulky. But on the other hand, I didn’t expect to last as long as I did. It was kind of cool, and I ended up going back to the group, riding hard for a while, and getting dropped again- a few times, in fact. But once I rested my legs, I was able to crank it up to 20MPH again for a mile or two at a time.

This ride has basically got me thinking about 2 things:

  1. I really need to practice pulling harder efforts, and
  2. I could really use a faster bike when I ride with groups!

Screenshot - 09052015 - 08:28:52 PM

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Ulnar Nerve Pain and Cubital Tunnel Syndrome

Over the last year or so, I’ve been fighting a particular problem with my elbows. Mostly my right one.

There are two main nerves that go through your arm: the Radial nerve, and the Ulnar nerve. Your Ulnar nerve is the one that passes across the outside of your elbow and down the outside of your forearm, ending in the hand next to the two smallest fingers. This nerve controls your sense of touch in your pinky and half of your ring finger. It also controls part of the wrist function, and so on.

I first started noticing it when I’d wake up in the middle of the night, and my two smaller fingers were numb. I figured it was just asleep, like when you sleep on your hand and your whole arm goes numb from lack of circulation. But that wasn’t it.

I finally connected the dots while attending a Hand Safety class at work, and the presenter mentioned Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, and then said the first symptoms were when your two smallest fingers go numb. I talked with him after the class, and he recommended using elbow braces, put on backwards, to keep me from flexing my elbows in my sleep and putting stress on that nerve. Continue reading “Ulnar Nerve Pain and Cubital Tunnel Syndrome”

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I’m A Lousy Supervillain

I’m a really lousy supervillain.

No really, I am. I haven’t taken over a single country. Not even a city. I haven’t robbed any banks, and I haven’t defeated any self-righteous heroes with orphan complexes. My minions are more interested in Korean soap operas and Barbies than doing my dark bidding. I still don’t have any orbiting laser satellites or nuclear bombs.

So what’s a supervillain to do? My grandiose plans for World Domination just aren’t coming to fruition. Every day that I don’t achieve some new feat, I feel like a failure.

But I’ve come to realize, these are lies I tell myself.

The truth is, I’ve accomplished quite a bit, according to anybody’s standards. Nothing that would make the ten-o’clock news, but still, I’d like to think I’m more than just a regular guy with no ambition. I’ve actually got some things to show for my work. But the danger comes when I tie my self-worth into what I’ve done, and not who I am.

What makes me valuable as a person? Continue reading “I’m A Lousy Supervillain”

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Creativity, and NaNoWriMo

Fall is coming. That means November, a.k.a. National Novel Writing Month is also rapidly approaching.

For the last few years, I’ve been trying to work on drafting another novel- a couple of them, in fact- and I haven’t been able to put enough time into it to really make a dent in it. I’ve discussed it before, in fact.

My friend(s) who are single are writing up a storm, and then asking me “when are you going to have time to edit my book?” to which I have to laugh. (I love you, man, I really do.) I don’t even have time to work on mine, much less edit other people’s. I don’t have time to work on my bikes, fix my car, work on my music projects. I certainly don’t have time to work on other people’s. But they still ask, and I still want to help, because I’m just that kind of guy.

In fact, I’ve gotten so busy, I’ve had to slow down my creative freight train (thank you, ADD brain) just in order to get simple things done. Like cooking dinner, showering, sleeping, and other semi-important stuff.

I’ve been working on outlining my novel plots, which is new territory for me. I generally enjoy writing off the cuff without an outline, but this poses problems for me when I’m trying to bring the story to a close.

I have to be satisfied to just keep thinking about it, taking notes, and when the opportunity presents itself, I’ll pull the 100+ hours it takes to actually write the book (not to mention editing it).

We’ll see how it goes. I have nine weeks to decide whether or not I want to try to “win” NaNoWriMo again this year.