10 Minute Rule

So I came around to recognizing that I don’t know what to write about. I can tell you that there are a dozen stories that I want to tell, and worlds I want to write about. Should I be writing about them? Yes. Definitely. However, nothing in the fantasy is at the level where I can tell a story. The eventual space faring drama is at the stage of: yeah, I ought to do one of those eventually, so also no. It feels like I have stories queuing up but since I am still on these 3 right now, I cannot think past, around, through, or beyond them. I am completely focused. Turns out the span of said focus is 3 with the backburners chugging heartily away on at least one if not more of the next three. I suppose I could use this space to chart backstory for characters in the modern day story I am writing. I could spend ten minutes a week telling stories about the people who will be in that story, moving the back burner action forward and actually getting me feeling that work.

Yeah. That’s the ticket. So, now we have a plan for future freewrites that will include fiction. When I write the book on writing I’ll rewrite this part to reflect a calm and nuanced approach to developing fictional characters that starts with building a new person each week (or each day even) and seeing how those lives eventually come to intersect.

First time on a road trip with the new deck. It feels good. responsive. I like the way the keyboard moves and sounds when I am working. These things definetely matter to me when it comes to my writing device. I’m taking a day away from the city to enjoy Valentines. Of course part of that enjoyment means giving the lady her spa time. She spas and I write. Win-Win.

So I find myself in a hotel sitting area writing while bad country yowls in the background. I could go back to the room, or anywhere else for that matter, but I think I will stay here and watch the world pass by. As the world does pass by I am noticing more and more the way that people look at me. Maybe it is the unkempt hair, or perhaps just the dark skin, but I get eyes everywhere. I must juts frequent places I don’t belong. Which begs the question: Where do I belong? Iv have been giving that concept a lot of thought as of late. It pertains to what comes next in life, where I spend vacation time with the lady, etc. I don’t have an answer beyond: Not where I am at. Heck, even that remains inconclusive.

But this is not a day about that. This is a day about the words. I best be getting to them.

Some Thoughts:

1. Been really diving deep on the tiny houses. It feels like I could just set one up in the backyard and really be happy with that result. We have a small strip of space which would, IMHO be perfect.
2. Pokemon play over the past few days has been minimal.

I am trying not to be too disgruntled with the cavalcade of swifties who’ve added to the KC Bandwagon. I will say the lingering shots of their leader at the trophy presentation was a bit much. This dude wasn’t popping the question right then. In fact he was too busy singing badly to care about anything else in that moment. All good though, the Chiefs earned that moment. Again. It is nuts that they did it with the same play they used last year. You can bet High School coaches are running that goaline vs. man for the rest of eternity. It is going to work every single time so long as you’ve set it up right.

But this is a valentine post where we talk about love and not love. What I love is that no matter what happens, my guy Barkley is going to be in good shape for the rest of his career. Either he stays a Giant and gets paid and is happy or he leaves as a free agent, probably gets paid more and is happy and much more productive. I have no faith in the Giants. I hope they’re just biding time till another Manning comes along. I think they aren’t though. I think they are locked in on Daniel Jones, and that is not a winning formula. It was that one time, but there were a ton of things that fell into place. The truth is, the Giants are a bad team that are not presently getting better, and should be courting a slew of new young talent while letting the older players (Like Saquon) hit the pavement.

Now is the time to rebuild.

Today has been one of the toughest workdays of the past two years. It is rare I’m so engaged that I spend the better part of 10 hours working on a multitude of things that are not my priority in life. I usually get to exercise some balance. I get a break now and again, and I am able to reset mentally between tasks. I think what made today (and possibly half of tomorrow) so difficult is that I was working with difficult personalities for most of the morning. It made coming home to work with the lady less like pleasure and a little more like work. I walked into the experience already drained and the mental demands just used me up. Now I am here trying to decompress through the blog and that is going molasses slow because I don’t have anything left in me. All I want to do is play a video game and chillax.

I’m going to go do that now. I got ten in.

There’s an easy joke in all of this about how a black man who falls in love with a white woman ends up doing crafts. Very easy joke. I’m not making the joke. I’m just saying it is out there… in reach.

I spent what I would argue is an obscene amount of money at the dollar store and even more obscene amounts filling the above receptacles in order to create out first (and last?) ever snack stadium. It felt like one of those things you reach for, execute, and later say, “remember that time when?” I will long remember that time when, because we had a really good time doing this together. Moreover, it looked really cool IMHO.

The construction ended up being a different style than planned. We used metal risers and placed pans over them and walled them in with foam board in order to create a second level effect. The stadium corners were a mystery we needed to solve as well. We went for clear plastic containers set on a riser with a 3rd container (where possible) forming a triangle that both filled the space and offered a colorful option once filled with chips.

We used 9 different types of chips (I told you the grocery end was obscene) along with cookies, the cake field, m&m’s and a wire basket filled with candy boxes. Another dollar store container filled with Madelines rounded out the uncoooked goods portion of the snack stadium. From that point it was all about appetizers including two different styles of chicken filling the end zone seats, southwestern egg rolls and more.

Lady Talis came up with the plan to to fill the sidelines with leafy green lettuce to give it that rich and natural feel. In front of each endzone is a dip–one is a salsa and the other a variation of french onion. And yes, we dropped in a screen in a homage to the screenshot model I used below:

Yep, ours actually worked and played stuff during the game. It felt pretty cool to have all of that working and build something that epic to say we did that one time. I don’t know I have the desire to do it again, but I definitely feel these projects. It is cool and fun to work with the Lady Talis to create something we both can enjoy and the family can enjoy as well.

Blogging now during the overtime session of the big show and I have a lot to say about everything going on. To start, I feel like the commercials have faded over the years, becoming worse and worse, but part of the issue is the environment I am in–lots of hater consumers here who don’t like most of what comes out. That energy only intensifies in situations like the playoffs and especially the big show. It is a problem for me as I am impacted by my environment greatly.

Still, the energy of the big game is infectious.

Here we are in overtime, and we started with a near pick. Things are sliding backwards for the Niners, and that seems to be the magic of the KC Chiefs. They always find a way. They found a way two weeks ago against a much better team. They are doing the same right now. Folks might turn on Purdy if the Niners use this one. Still, everyone becomes an expert when the game is on the line for the team they are invested in. It’s nuts and fun and still toxic and still engaging.

Sports are an amazing fountain of energy. People get hugely excited about the game and we invest so much in the outcome. This is tribalism at its peak.

Tomorrow is the big game. That means today is the big build. We are borrowing from work across the internet landscape here to develop our first ever snack stadium. I am new to the concept. In truth, I saw it on a random Digg feed post and said, “Baby, we gotta…” Next thing you know we are sliding through internet feeds trying to figure out how such things are built from the ground up. Sometimes people use 3d printers. There are woodwork versions there are Soda can carton versions that look surprisingly high tier. This is one example pulled from cyberspace:

Note the use of soda can cartons and upside down tins to create the levels. So, when I saw this I decided we would do a version out of foam board. I expected to cut out every single piece of foam board to assemble into a perfect stadium. Then we went to the store and the Lady Talis saw perfect “stands” just sitting there in the Walmart shelves. They were the boxes that held products.

She took the boxes.

I still cannot believe she did that. She and I just emptied the merchandise out of the holder cartons and took the cartons. That, my readers, is wild behaviors. I didn’t grow up in a world where things like that could even be considered. I mean it isn’t illegal or anything, it is just unheard of. Yet, here we are now with all the materials to build something closer to this:

I plan to photo the results, so stay tuned to see how it all turns out.

Yeah, I am not ready yet. I have ideas coalescing but I am not at the point of writing freely. I have so much structured work taking place (3 projects and an additional 2 novels floating around in my head with an entire fantasy series rattling the bars from deep in the mental dungeon) and on deadline that it is hard to step back and just create freely. In fact it is difficult to suss out anything beyond the worlds I am invested in presently.

Today I walked into a work meeting where I was asked to present my favorite book. I’d forgotten (or more likely never even knew) this was required for the meeting. Placed in the spotlight all I could think to say was On Writing by Stephen King. I could’ve called up any of his works, really, but I referred to that particular one as his gospel. I went on to speak of writing as my own gospel and got very preachy about it. So much so that later in the meeting I was chided about it. Hell, at least they remembered what I said. I think it is important to be remembered at the very least. Being a footnote in the universe means your note remains. That kind of stuff matters to me. I suppose it is why I write in a sense–to be read.

I’m adjusting to some tech discomfort, shuttling back and forth between an M1 macbook and a model only a few weeks older than that one. The world apparently changed once we hit M1. I cannot expand my monitors the way I used to. I am sure there are other tech issues that materialized with M1 and onwards, but so far that is the one that stuck in my craw. Moving tech was a huge deal to me. I wanted to be able to upgrade my personal unit to the standards where I can use the software I need to and not feel like the device is going to fall apart on me. My work deck is solid, but it isn’t mine and that means it shouldn’t go everywhere I go–especially for as much as I leave the country.

So, that meant an upgrade. An upgrade means a new visual profile for the deck. I don’t know what I am doing for the interior yet, but the sticker and thus the name is going to be reflective of the S.A. Corey series The Expanse. I choose to pay homage to good fiction. In truth, it may be the best fiction I have consumed in some time–my own work included. So, I am going to have a sticker that either reflects one of the (fictional) companies in the show or something reflective of the term Legitimate Salvage. After all, what is a used computer but a legitimate salvage.

Some Thoughts:

1. Without knowing the insider process going on at Colorado, I know that Sanders stated he was down to a few candidates for his DC position. Now that everything has shaken out, we can speculate those three are locked in at various locations now. We know that he hired Robert Livingston, the much respected secondary coach from the Bengals. We also know that Mike Zimmer, Sanders’ long time friend, is expected to sign as the Cowboys new DC. We also know that Sanders was looking at Anthony Weaver, who took a DC gig with the Dolphins. Coach Prime promised an NFL caliber guy and the three name we can openly connect with the program are all that. Livingston, last man standing, should do well. Now we wait and see if Ed Reed shows up to coach the secondary.

So, the Giants found their guy…. sort of. I thought it was going to be someone stronger in name or scheme but this late in the game it became abundantly clear that the Giants are not a premier destination. That being said, Shane Bowen is an experienced dude. He is known for disguise odd front schemes. Here is the thing about that: so is Wink. Except Wink’s front is not so much of a 3-4 and he is a blitz happy son of a bitch. I like that about him. I am still hopeful that he winds up in Colorado. All signs are pointing towards Wink landing in Michigan and bringing that ferocity to college football. Man, that would be crazy. It is why I wanted him in Colo. He has the dogs there and he can send em.

Meanwhile on the home front, the boy officially signed his NLI with Drake this morning. He’s a Bulldog. He’ll have away games all across the country, which will be a wonderful experience for him. He’s excited. I’m excited. Now I need to figure out when (and how) to get to Iowa to watch at least one of these games.

Some Thoughts:

1. Well, missed on the publishing yesterday. I wrote it, but it sat there unpublished. This hasn’t happened in a while and is reflective of how frazzled I was yesterday. I need to spend that other ten minutes I have scheduled for meditation actually meditating.