19 February 2015

What? It's only been six days.

I know I said I was going to come right back to this, but clearly I didn't. That's okay. We all need hard to attain goals or we won't strive hard enough. (wow, really spun the narrative on that one to make me look good) After missing two years, six days is almost great. (said no one ever who has been waiting 5 extra days for something that was supposed to happen in 1 day)

That's not even the full depth of the crappiness of this post. I'm writing on this thing instead of starting my new book. I have a fully formed outline and direction and everything I need to go ahead and write my first novel, but instead, I am procrastinating by writing this. It makes my ridiculous justification of not writing earlier that much worse, huh?

Anyway, I was in the middle of letting you all (all? who are we kidding, nobody is reading this) know what I have been doing over the last two years.

There's really not much more to tell. I got a freelance job covering sports for a small newspaper in Niwot, Colorado. It is called the Left Hand Valley Courier and is a free weekly. I get paid per word to go to Niwot High School sporting events around the state and write about them. I probably get paid less than a dollar an hour based on how much time it requires to get a small article done. It is so little, I have flirted with just not even billing them because it is an annoyance. Of course, then I think about how ridiculous that is and send them a bill anyway.

I guess it is time to get to wrapping this thing up. I need to go pick the boys up from school soon. The biggest thing I've got going (if you can call it "going" after all this procrastination) is that I am writing a novel. It's not "Gatsby," but I'm really not going for that. I'm writing a tween novel about kids battling the classic horror monsters like vampires, swamp creatures, werewolves, zombies etc. I think I have finally cracked the code on how to get it started. It will be a series of books and if all goes well, I will sell it to a movie studio so they can hack the thing to pieces. As a freelance/technical writing background person, I'm not into it for the art. I just want to get paid. Look for my stories to hit the theaters in 2030, haha. Hopefully I'll write another blog post before then.

13 February 2015

What? It's only been two years.

Yeah, it's ridiculous, I know. Almost two whole years between posts on this blog. Maybe I'll do better than that now.

Since I've been gone, I have been doing some writing. I wrote for a website called DMV.org for a little over a year. I was basically translating government websites into functional text so that normal people could understand what they are supposed to do when going to the DMV. It was a good gig while it lasted.

Unfortunately, the company changed directions in how they wanted to do the job three different times over the one year. I was the only off-site writer/editor that made it through all three changes. Of course, I knew that once the others had been canned, I was living on borrowed time regardless of how well I wrote. I worked directly for the boss, then I got moved to the second-in-command, and finally to some sort of underling who spent his time blowing sugar up my ass instead of giving me good feedback on my writing. To be fair, the first two people were good to work for, but you know what "They" say, "Third time's a charm." haha.

I spent a rough year not doing much writing in 2014. I did start teaching kids some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then I took over an exercise class at the gym too. Then, changes started. A new instructor took over the kids jiu jitsu classes and I don't mesh well with him. I'm sure he's a fine instructor, but I don't like his style, so I'm not doing that anymore. I'm still running the exercise class, which is good.

I tried to publish my children's book, "Santa's Gift" on Amazon. They made it seem so easy to do. It wasn't. Maybe if I didn't have pictures in the book, it would be easy, but that isn't the case. I failed miserably at that endeavor. I'm hoping to get it taken care of properly this year, so be on the lookout for Santa's Gift this coming holiday season.

I got some podcast equipment for Christmas this year. I have recently been working on learning how to record things. I'm hoping to have some sort of podcast going soon, but there is a bunch of stuff I have to learn first. Also, I don't know what I want to talk about. The Bears, Northern Exposure, or just Newsy stuff. I'd like to do them all, but I think I need to hold off and get one thing down at a time.

I also spent a couple weeks in Peru with www.v4peru.com (Voices4Peru), meeting the child I sponsored there and hanging out with Dan Klopp, the president. It was an eye opening experience. I wish I could do more, but I feel so disconnected here in Colorado.

Dan did get some traction in Pennsylvania this year at Westchester University. I met him there and we sold the idea of Criminal Justice major people going to Peru to study the area where our school and futbol team is located.

Both trips were great. I felt so much more connected to the experience by working with others. I think that is one of my major obstacles right now. I really want to work with other people, but I'm trapped in my home, alone, most of the time. I can write here, but not having human interaction is rough.

Okay, I'll ramble more tomorrow about what has been going on in the last couple years. Right now, I have to go get sweaty with some ladies.