Friday, September 30, 2005
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Whatever
My book went to press yesterday. I hope it turns out okay. Amazon finally updated the information on the book, but only AFTER I found out that I needed to raise the price by $4 and that the page count was going to be different because it is NOT being printed in standard Mass Market Paperback size. Oh, well.
There is a ton of school stuff I need to get done, but I just haven't had the time what with trying to get this drummer ready for a gig on the 8th. I have to teach him 106 cover songs and 14 original songs before then, and, well, to say that it is going slow is an understatement. He is NOT getting... yet. I half-assed threatened him with being fired and it seemed to wake him up. Hopefully, he'll get his shit together and figure out that he needs to know this material by the 8th. Or we're screwed.
There is a ton of school stuff I need to get done, but I just haven't had the time what with trying to get this drummer ready for a gig on the 8th. I have to teach him 106 cover songs and 14 original songs before then, and, well, to say that it is going slow is an understatement. He is NOT getting... yet. I half-assed threatened him with being fired and it seemed to wake him up. Hopefully, he'll get his shit together and figure out that he needs to know this material by the 8th. Or we're screwed.
Sunday, September 25, 2005
It Happens...
My book is FINALLY listed on Amazon. After weeks and weeks of waiting, I finally found it. Although the book is not to be released until October 1, it's already listed there. You would think, however, that you'd be able to pre-order it. NOPE! There's no price (even though one was supplied to them, I am told), and no pre-order button, so I cannot promote it at all. I've e-mailed them, but we all know what good THAT will do: NONE.
In other news, my instructor (who is also my advisor) ticked me off so bad that I have posted all my notes to the class I took from him last year. I warn you: you might not get much out of them except that maybe I should have been paying more attention. I still got a good grade, though.
The band is not practicing, and we still haven't recorded the album. Supposedly, this is going to happen in a week, but I am not holding my hand over my ass waiting. Assuredly, someone will find a way to screw it up. AGAIN.
Today, I went shopping with my Mom. While there, I started chewing a piece of gum. While at the checkout stand, I bit down on the piece of gum, and suddenly, this horrendous pain hit my lower right-hand second-to-the-back molar. It was a pain unlike anything I have ever felt before. I blacked out (but I did not fall down or go to my knees or anything) and my ears started ringing like nobody's business. The pain lasted for hours and hours. I have taken 12 painkillers and half a tube of OraGel, and it still hurts from time to time.
Which brings me to another rant: Why are dentists so expensive? I do not have insurance, and cannot get it through my state, so paying for medical or dental practices is out of my reach. But my teeth are killing me. But does anyone care? Can I get a "Hell, NO!" from the audience? Nobody gives a crap whether your teeth are falling out of your head. Nobody cares that you are in so much pain that you can't even lift your head without crying hardly. Grr.
Which brings me to another rant: Why won't anybody pay for web design services? Everybody I know wants a professionally-designed web site, and, yet, no one wants to pay me to do my job. Why on EARTH would they think that I should do something for the for free? Would a DENTIST do it for free? Can I get a "Hell, NO!" from the audience? Then I am not going to either. I charge a lot less than other web designers. So, freaking PAY ME already.
In other news, my instructor (who is also my advisor) ticked me off so bad that I have posted all my notes to the class I took from him last year. I warn you: you might not get much out of them except that maybe I should have been paying more attention. I still got a good grade, though.
The band is not practicing, and we still haven't recorded the album. Supposedly, this is going to happen in a week, but I am not holding my hand over my ass waiting. Assuredly, someone will find a way to screw it up. AGAIN.
Today, I went shopping with my Mom. While there, I started chewing a piece of gum. While at the checkout stand, I bit down on the piece of gum, and suddenly, this horrendous pain hit my lower right-hand second-to-the-back molar. It was a pain unlike anything I have ever felt before. I blacked out (but I did not fall down or go to my knees or anything) and my ears started ringing like nobody's business. The pain lasted for hours and hours. I have taken 12 painkillers and half a tube of OraGel, and it still hurts from time to time.
Which brings me to another rant: Why are dentists so expensive? I do not have insurance, and cannot get it through my state, so paying for medical or dental practices is out of my reach. But my teeth are killing me. But does anyone care? Can I get a "Hell, NO!" from the audience? Nobody gives a crap whether your teeth are falling out of your head. Nobody cares that you are in so much pain that you can't even lift your head without crying hardly. Grr.
Which brings me to another rant: Why won't anybody pay for web design services? Everybody I know wants a professionally-designed web site, and, yet, no one wants to pay me to do my job. Why on EARTH would they think that I should do something for the for free? Would a DENTIST do it for free? Can I get a "Hell, NO!" from the audience? Then I am not going to either. I charge a lot less than other web designers. So, freaking PAY ME already.
Tuesday, September 20, 2005
My, Oh, My... What A Day!
Actually, the last few days have been a little harrowing. It started Friday night when the drummer's wife pissed my Mom off. So, I had to have the drummer take his wife back to Spokane. And my house still stinks like the drummer's wife's body odor. In the meantime, I'd been talking to Cactus about coming back and, at least, filling in while we finished training this other drummer. Well, he said "yes," but then, tonight, there was an e-mail from him stating that, while he was looking forward to playing with us again, he couldn't do it because he got drunk at a party, fell down some stairs, and twisted his ankle, sprained his wrist, and broke his thumb. So, we're back to having to try to train this new drummer in three weeks to play 106 cover songs and 12 original songs.
In the meantime, I've been having an argument with my college advisor (who is also the instructor for one of the courses I am taking this semester). We'd set up a practicum for me to do working with a non-profit organization in Coeur d'Alene. Actually, this was set up between my old advisor (a sweet woman who is no longer working with my college on a full-time basis) and a gentleman from London who is a humanitarian who recently got back from some work in East Timor. At any rate, the whole thing fell to pieces when the guy from London resigned the position and moved back to London, and my advisor moved on to work more steadily with another college. Now, my new advisor, who I cannot stand (for reasons I will explain in a minute), signs me up for the practicum without me actually having the position set in stone anymore. Well, I tried to contact everyone involved with the NPO, but to no avail. No one returns calls, no one answers e-mail. I am so mad. So, I write to my advisor and he doesn't write back. I call him and he does not return my call. I write him again, and finally get a response, but only after he's told me everything he's written in the e-mail (minus one disparaging comment toward me) after class tonight. Now, during class, he ignores me the whole time: everytime I raise my hand to ask a question, he ignores me. Everytime I try to answer a question he ignores me. When he directs a question at me, and I answer, he vociferously tells me that I am wrong, and then proceeds to reword exactly what I said. Either he is not paying attention to what I am saying or he is just being an ass. Only two reasons for his behavior, you know? Anyway, last semester, when I was taking another class from him, he told me that he would have liked to fail me, but he couldn't because my work was too good. Arg! Anyway, so I finally confront him, and ask him, "Do you have a problem with me?" He acts all innocent and almost offended and says that if he had a problem with me I would know it, and I'm thinking... I do know it!
So, then, on the way home tonight, I am driving along at about 60 MPH and I see a deer in my headlights, so I let my foot off the accelerator and start slowing down. There is a car coming at me (with bright lights on... typical), so I put my lights on low beam. Now, I can't see as far, so I didn't see the other deer that started across the road. I stood on the binders. Tires squealed. Car went almost sideways. And I hit the deer anyway. The deer hits the front driver's side of the bumper, and his head hit the hood of my car. His antlers left dents in the hood. He left hair all over the headlights, bent my bumper, broke a piece of plastic that goes between the bumper and the frame of the car, and turned the high beam headlight in by about an inch and half. The deer bounced off the car and landed in the other lane in front of the oncoming car I dimmed my lights for. The other driver honks at me like I did something wrong, but he did not stop. I pulled a little bit off the road and put on my emergency flashers. I'm shaking and watching the deer in the road, and the darned thing gets up and walks away. More cars pass by me, all honking and none stopping, and I drive about a half mile up the road and pull into a driveway. I'm still shaking. I get out and look at the damage to my car. The driver's side fender is pushed in about an eighth of an inch, plus all the other damage I mentioned earlier. I check my cell phone. No service. I drive on. I call Kenny. He is only concerned about the car. I call my Mom. She didn't even ask if I was all right. In fact, she didn't even ask about the car. So, you know, I matter to people. (Incidentally, I did bleed because of the accident: I bit my lip when I hit the deer and it bled all over the place.) The only person who was concerned about me was David. And he lives 3,000 miles away. ARG!!!!
So, that's pretty much it. My minor annoyances of the day: I forgot to bring a pack of cigarettes with me so I had to buy another pack; I am out of CD-Rs; there is road construction EVERYWHERE; and Moo-Lattes at Dairy Queen are forty cents more expensive than they were in May.
In the meantime, I've been having an argument with my college advisor (who is also the instructor for one of the courses I am taking this semester). We'd set up a practicum for me to do working with a non-profit organization in Coeur d'Alene. Actually, this was set up between my old advisor (a sweet woman who is no longer working with my college on a full-time basis) and a gentleman from London who is a humanitarian who recently got back from some work in East Timor. At any rate, the whole thing fell to pieces when the guy from London resigned the position and moved back to London, and my advisor moved on to work more steadily with another college. Now, my new advisor, who I cannot stand (for reasons I will explain in a minute), signs me up for the practicum without me actually having the position set in stone anymore. Well, I tried to contact everyone involved with the NPO, but to no avail. No one returns calls, no one answers e-mail. I am so mad. So, I write to my advisor and he doesn't write back. I call him and he does not return my call. I write him again, and finally get a response, but only after he's told me everything he's written in the e-mail (minus one disparaging comment toward me) after class tonight. Now, during class, he ignores me the whole time: everytime I raise my hand to ask a question, he ignores me. Everytime I try to answer a question he ignores me. When he directs a question at me, and I answer, he vociferously tells me that I am wrong, and then proceeds to reword exactly what I said. Either he is not paying attention to what I am saying or he is just being an ass. Only two reasons for his behavior, you know? Anyway, last semester, when I was taking another class from him, he told me that he would have liked to fail me, but he couldn't because my work was too good. Arg! Anyway, so I finally confront him, and ask him, "Do you have a problem with me?" He acts all innocent and almost offended and says that if he had a problem with me I would know it, and I'm thinking... I do know it!
So, then, on the way home tonight, I am driving along at about 60 MPH and I see a deer in my headlights, so I let my foot off the accelerator and start slowing down. There is a car coming at me (with bright lights on... typical), so I put my lights on low beam. Now, I can't see as far, so I didn't see the other deer that started across the road. I stood on the binders. Tires squealed. Car went almost sideways. And I hit the deer anyway. The deer hits the front driver's side of the bumper, and his head hit the hood of my car. His antlers left dents in the hood. He left hair all over the headlights, bent my bumper, broke a piece of plastic that goes between the bumper and the frame of the car, and turned the high beam headlight in by about an inch and half. The deer bounced off the car and landed in the other lane in front of the oncoming car I dimmed my lights for. The other driver honks at me like I did something wrong, but he did not stop. I pulled a little bit off the road and put on my emergency flashers. I'm shaking and watching the deer in the road, and the darned thing gets up and walks away. More cars pass by me, all honking and none stopping, and I drive about a half mile up the road and pull into a driveway. I'm still shaking. I get out and look at the damage to my car. The driver's side fender is pushed in about an eighth of an inch, plus all the other damage I mentioned earlier. I check my cell phone. No service. I drive on. I call Kenny. He is only concerned about the car. I call my Mom. She didn't even ask if I was all right. In fact, she didn't even ask about the car. So, you know, I matter to people. (Incidentally, I did bleed because of the accident: I bit my lip when I hit the deer and it bled all over the place.) The only person who was concerned about me was David. And he lives 3,000 miles away. ARG!!!!
So, that's pretty much it. My minor annoyances of the day: I forgot to bring a pack of cigarettes with me so I had to buy another pack; I am out of CD-Rs; there is road construction EVERYWHERE; and Moo-Lattes at Dairy Queen are forty cents more expensive than they were in May.
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
What I've Been Doing
Things have been really strange and busy around here. Our drummer left the band. Why? I do not know. After our last gig, we simply haven't heard from him, and it's been a month now. Well, he did post twice on the band's message board two days ago, but that was all, and, even at that, he didn't bother to give us an explanation. Just that he was "sorry." We're working with this kid, now, but I don't think he's going to work out. He likes metal, and we don't play metal. Besides, we've been working with him for almost a week and a half, and he can't even get down twelve originals. I shudder to think what it will be like when we throw 106 covers at him. I'm shaking my head here, because I don't think I can take it.
So, we're in talks with Cactus to return to the band. If he says no, we'll keep working with this kid. But I am not holding my hand over my ass.
In other news, I am pretty well jobless. I have looked and looked and looked for work and can only find shitty little jobs that are from people who don't want to pay for what they want. For instance, this one guy (I'll call him "Bronco") wanted a site where he and his office buddies could run an office football pool... for $50. I listen to what he wants, and say, well, okay. At least it's a little money, and I can save it, I guess, for other projects. Well, I do exactly what he tells me, and send him the link. I hear NOTHING for a week and a half. Then, two days before the season starts, he begins barraging me with telephone calls and e-mails. He wants changes. LOTS of changes. The first list of things he wanted went something like this:
-a main page to make selections of activities from
-a page where all the weeks of the season were laid out in numerical format for people to click on
-a page for each person to make his or her picks and then send it to him
-a forum board
-and a sports newswire
Fine. Done in a day. But then, he wants:
-the main page to change daily. I would be doing the updating.
-the pages for making the picks had to be built as a "confidence pool" where the people picking could place values on the picks they made. The range of numbers needed to be from 16 down to 5, with five games being able to use the number 5 and the rest of the numbers only being able to be used once. These pages also needed to include a place for the pickers to make "suicide picks" weekly, and a place for name and e-mail.
-all picks were to be compiled by ME and sent to HIM
-all picking had to be "locked" at the start of the first game
-all picks made had to be posted on the web site at the start of the first game
-after the games, all results (including his point awards) had to be posted on the site immediately following the Monday night game
-no forum
-no newswire
-the entire site had to be password locked
-each person had to have his or her own, unique username and password, picked by him
-each person had to be able to change his or her password, but not his or her username
-I had to be available to him 24/7 for technical support, training, and updating.
ALL FOR $50!!!!!!!!!!
Now, you see the downside to my job. The upside is people like this one client I have, who lets me do whatever I want as far as design and implementation, and, if he is short on funds, lets me know to stop working, pays me what he owes me so far, and lets me know when to start up again. And he pays WELL. But your average client is just a putz.
After dealing with Bronco for so long, I took the weekend off. I retreated to my Mom's for the weekend, and basically just slept. I did take a shower, and I learned to drive stick shift. I also got started replacing the lost copy of A Night Borrowed, the sequel to Night Cries. And I did that on my laptop, which I used for the first time in three months. My bassist repaired it for me, but I was gun shy of it. So, I used it. At least it runs. The thing is three and a half years old, and I need to replace it, but I can't afford to. I wrote the bulk of Night Cries on an HP laptop that was built sometime around 1997. It ran Windows 95, and worked fine until one of my nephews stepped on it. Then the screen wouldn't work. So I got my files off of it, and finished Night Cries up on my new laptop, which, as I said, is about three and a half years old. So, I guess I can start writing this new book on my three and half year old laptop. (Incidentally, my old laptop now works fine again. I gave it to my bassist as payment for fixing my newer laptop, and he replaced the screen for $9 (got the part from Germany, I hear) and put Windows 98 on it. I guess he really likes it.)
So, now, the band is practicing with the hope of being the in the studio to re-record the album by Saturday. Oh, yeah. We have to completely re-record the album.
Nothing else of import is going on. Just a bunch of random stuff.
So, we're in talks with Cactus to return to the band. If he says no, we'll keep working with this kid. But I am not holding my hand over my ass.
In other news, I am pretty well jobless. I have looked and looked and looked for work and can only find shitty little jobs that are from people who don't want to pay for what they want. For instance, this one guy (I'll call him "Bronco") wanted a site where he and his office buddies could run an office football pool... for $50. I listen to what he wants, and say, well, okay. At least it's a little money, and I can save it, I guess, for other projects. Well, I do exactly what he tells me, and send him the link. I hear NOTHING for a week and a half. Then, two days before the season starts, he begins barraging me with telephone calls and e-mails. He wants changes. LOTS of changes. The first list of things he wanted went something like this:
-a main page to make selections of activities from
-a page where all the weeks of the season were laid out in numerical format for people to click on
-a page for each person to make his or her picks and then send it to him
-a forum board
-and a sports newswire
Fine. Done in a day. But then, he wants:
-the main page to change daily. I would be doing the updating.
-the pages for making the picks had to be built as a "confidence pool" where the people picking could place values on the picks they made. The range of numbers needed to be from 16 down to 5, with five games being able to use the number 5 and the rest of the numbers only being able to be used once. These pages also needed to include a place for the pickers to make "suicide picks" weekly, and a place for name and e-mail.
-all picks were to be compiled by ME and sent to HIM
-all picking had to be "locked" at the start of the first game
-all picks made had to be posted on the web site at the start of the first game
-after the games, all results (including his point awards) had to be posted on the site immediately following the Monday night game
-no forum
-no newswire
-the entire site had to be password locked
-each person had to have his or her own, unique username and password, picked by him
-each person had to be able to change his or her password, but not his or her username
-I had to be available to him 24/7 for technical support, training, and updating.
ALL FOR $50!!!!!!!!!!
Now, you see the downside to my job. The upside is people like this one client I have, who lets me do whatever I want as far as design and implementation, and, if he is short on funds, lets me know to stop working, pays me what he owes me so far, and lets me know when to start up again. And he pays WELL. But your average client is just a putz.
After dealing with Bronco for so long, I took the weekend off. I retreated to my Mom's for the weekend, and basically just slept. I did take a shower, and I learned to drive stick shift. I also got started replacing the lost copy of A Night Borrowed, the sequel to Night Cries. And I did that on my laptop, which I used for the first time in three months. My bassist repaired it for me, but I was gun shy of it. So, I used it. At least it runs. The thing is three and a half years old, and I need to replace it, but I can't afford to. I wrote the bulk of Night Cries on an HP laptop that was built sometime around 1997. It ran Windows 95, and worked fine until one of my nephews stepped on it. Then the screen wouldn't work. So I got my files off of it, and finished Night Cries up on my new laptop, which, as I said, is about three and a half years old. So, I guess I can start writing this new book on my three and half year old laptop. (Incidentally, my old laptop now works fine again. I gave it to my bassist as payment for fixing my newer laptop, and he replaced the screen for $9 (got the part from Germany, I hear) and put Windows 98 on it. I guess he really likes it.)
So, now, the band is practicing with the hope of being the in the studio to re-record the album by Saturday. Oh, yeah. We have to completely re-record the album.
Nothing else of import is going on. Just a bunch of random stuff.
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