The Power of the Internets

I ordinarily just look and laugh briefly along with the rest of the world when the newest internet sensation rears it's hilarious head. But this one caught my attention, and I am amazed (perhaps naively) at how quickly people can respond en mass with the most hilarious comebacks.

Okay, that probably sounded confusing. Lemme 'splain.

Hopefully, you've all, by now, seen the footage of the hilariously painful and confused answer of the Miss Teen USA contestant talking about maps. Well, our brethren in the ether have quickly responded with an entire website devoted to providing maps for every possible need.

Take a chunk out of your day and visit MapsForUs.org. If you haven't seen the video of the addlepated contestant, it's right at the top of the page.

I'd draw you a map, but I'm busy trying to find the South Africa and The Iraq.

Novel Update

Howdy, y'all.

This is just a quick update post regarding my other blog, my serial novel The Red Dragoon.

Although I haven't found much time to write lately, I have finally gotten around to posting two more chapters, Chapter 3 and Chapter 4.

If you're interested, I'd love some feedback on it. Just a warning, it's still pretty rough, and I can't figure out how to get the formatting right in blogger, but it's up and it's progressing . . . slowly.

Lolz

One of Lisa's posts just begged for a photoshoppin'.

So, following the lead of www.lolcat.com, I humbly give you the following:

Playing catch up

Well, apparently, I didn't get the memo on the whole post every day for a week thing. I guess I'm not any better at keeping up with reading other people's blogs than I am with updating my own.

I don't really have anything much to say today, but in the spirit of getting something up, I'll share a picture. A few weeks back, Michelle's brother got married. It was a beautiful wedding.

In fact, it was the kind of wedding that I had really wanted to give Michelle when we got married. And it was once again a display of how different most of the folks in this country grew up from the way I did. The bride and groom are simply wonderful together. I think they are both over 6 feet tall, both young and slim. Both doctors. And as much as the little green beast of jealousy wants to uncoil in the pit of my stomach and hate them, you just can't because they are two of the nicest people you will ever meet in your entire life.

And did I mention the bride's family has a house right on the banks of Lake Buchanan? And their best friends across the street have a mansion on the shores of Lake Buchanan? It was an absolutely perfect place for a reception, and we spent hours and hours eating and drinking and dancing. Almost all of Michelle's family was there, along with all of the bride and groom's family and friends from way back. There was this huge group of people listening to good music, and dancing and have beer and wine and spirits, and I realized what it must have been like to grow up around people who didn't think it was a mortal sin to have a brew and do a little two-steppin'.

One of my greatest regrets is that I will never be able to sit down and have a beer with my dad. Don't get me wrong, we have shared many, many happy times together, and I wouldn't trade any of them. But it struck me the other day as I was up at my parent's place in N.E. Texas. Dad and Grandpa and I had spent all day working in a sweltering shop, and having finished a days work we kicked back in the breezeway and let the cooling air carry away the heat of the day. And the only thing that could have made it more perfect was if we had been able to crack open an ice-cold brew and really shoot the shit. Aw well, maybe in the next go 'round.

Well, it seems that I had a little something to share after all. But getting back to my point, here is the picture. Nothing special, it's just that Michelle and I looked particularly grand on this occasion, and I'm proud to share. Check us out.

All the world's a game

As my good friend Randy said today, it seems that I have "fish frying in every pot I've got" right now. It seems that I have come back around to where I was my junior and senior year in college. Namely, I have lots of extracurricular activities suddenly crowding my plate.

Work is just work, as it's always been, but now I seem to have tons of other stuff that I've gotten involved in and not nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish it.

First, of course, there's the blog. Poor, sad, lonely blog that I certainly have not been paying enough attention to.

Then there's the novel. The Red Dragoon is progressing slowly, mostly because it keeps getting back-burnered in place of other things. Chapter three is done, and has been for some time, but I haven't gotten around to giving it a quick edit and posting it. And of course, chapter four is simmering in the back of my mind. The problem is--okay, it's not really a problem--the more I write the more ideas I have for other things to write about. I already want to start on three other novels, and now I think I'm going to try and write a children's book of fables. Of course, right now, it's all trapped inside my big noggin with no way to get out because I have to waste ten or twelve hours out of my day with this stupid thing call a 'job' that pays the bills, and then another six or eight hours doing nothing but lying in the bed completely unconscious. It's ridiculous.

Now of course, it's the time of year for the JDRF walk activities to start. We've got to start forming up a team, working on fund-raising events and motivating our walkers to start bringing in the cash. Thankfully, I have JoAnn as a co-captain again this year, and that girl has energy to spare. Frankly she's leaving me in the dust, and I've got to catch up before I start becoming dead weight. Don't worry, though, you'll all be receiving emails soon asking for cash. It's a good cause. So don't be stingy. *wink wink*

Now where were we? Oh yes. There's always Toastmasters. Never-ending Toastmasters. It's a great club, don't get me wrong, but how I got myself talked into being an officer again this year is beyond me. I'm way to susceptible to guilt. I'm looking at you JoAnn... But hey, at least the speech I wrote last night is the one that gave me the idea of writing a children's book. Uncle Matt's Fables. I'm trying to decide if that has a ring to it or not.

And finally, the thing that's really starting to go gangbusters, is the Untold Dimensions. Or Dimensions Untold, we haven't decided yet. You see, my friend George is a AD&D enthusiast from way back, and he has some brilliant ideas for creating a far more interesting and easy to play RPG gaming system. And I've been helping him develop it. Of course, he does all the really hard stuff, all I do is act as a sounding board for ideas, and I'm also helping write some of the backstory for the different gaming environments we're creating to test the system. But it's one of the more interesting things I've been involved with in quite a while. If you're interested, George has started a forum at www.untolddimensions.com. And we're adding more to it everyday. My particular baby is the backstory for Sundered Planet, our SciFi setting. Which of course is taking time away from writing on the Red Dragoon, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The real exciting thing about UD is that I'm hoping it has the potential to help me launch a new career in the game industry. In fact, George and I are attending the final day of the Austin Game Developers Conference in two weeks. It's a whole day devoted to Game Careers, and I'm really curious to see if there is actually anything I want to make a career out of. I mean, how cool would it be to be the voice of the next big game character? Or to write the storyline for the next mega blockbuster game? It is to dream...

So needless to say, I'm sorry if it seems like I'm ignoring some things. I've even had to set a new rule for myself. No more than one hour of TV a night. Just enough to watch one show, while I ride my exercise bike and eat dinner. So far it's working. Of course we'll see if I can break my addiction to the colorful electron flow. It hasn't even been a week yet. But in that time, I've written the first part of a game backstory, a successful speech, and this blog entry. Which is more than I've done in the last month.

I'm sorry for the longish entry this time, but I wanted to convince everyone that I'm not really a lazy bum. Okay, I' a bum. And I'm sorta lazy. Well, people change, right? Right?

Winds of change

Ah, can you hear the immortal strains of Scorpion wafting over the air?

Or perhaps you prefer Dillon? The times, they are a changin'.

Since she doesn't answer emails, and nobody that she would tell first will read this, I think I can safely break the news here that my lovely wife has finally submitted her resignation from the dank pit of despair she has toiled in for the last six years.

She's threatened to do this so many times, but things finally reached a point where she meant it. Unfortunately, she didn't take my advice and get out sooner rather than later, but effective Sept. 30th, she will be back on the job market.

She's relieved, I'm relieved, and in two months, the nightmare (for me) will finally end. Don't get me wrong, I've always been really proud of her, and what she does, but at some point she had to move on to bigger and better things. I think this is a really good thing for her.

Having said all that, it means that our happy household will turn into a one-income household for a little while. Now, we're in fine shape financially (knock on wood) so neither of us has a problem with this for a month or so. It does mean, though, that we're going to be watching our finances alot more closely for the next few months. We've got two months to build up a little more padding, and we won't have to to into total lockdown, but you will all have to forgive us if we forgo a few movie nights or happy hours or trips until we're sure that we've got extra cash to spread around. Not to mention building up vacation time.

On the whole, I think that nothing but good will come of this. But as with all change, the unknown can be hard to handle and so you'll have to be patient with us.

. . . listening to the wiiiiiiinndds of chaaaaaaannnngggeee...