Tag Archives: squash

Morning Pages Entry – July 27, 2014

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Well, yesterday was a bunch of fun. Came home from the boat, because we were having a get together with a bunch of our college class friends that we haven’t seen for like 12 years or so, at least not altogether at once. There was like 14 of us there, which considering we only graduated a class of 30 people is not too bad. It was at Mike and Sue Barrys place, and Lisa Widdup (Middleton) was there with here husband Rick, as well as Karen and I, and Glenn and Patty, John Kempe, Pat and Jane, Bill Shilson, Terry Conway, and Sandy Brush. Scotty (Piggy) couldn’t make it since he had some farm stuff to do, (apparently the wheat came in) which was kind of too bad, as he would have been fun to see. Mike and Sue have a really nice place almost next door to the riding club. Mike, is apparently on the board there now, and his kids have worked there as well. We walked down, to check out the sunset and the beach. There wasn’t much of a sunset unfortunately, but the beach was there. And we spent some time hanging around a bit. They were having a hawaiian luau when we were there. It was a pretty nice place. It even had squash courts as well … 2 of them. I didn’t know there were other squash courts in Sarnia. We stay, till about 11:30 or midnight, and headed home … was pretty cool seeing everyone there again. So, I’m a bit behind on the writing gig these days. I’ll need to prioritize the word count for the next few weeks. I need to do some planning up front, I think for the next novel. I was hoping to have the third one out my now. It’s pretty close, but not quite there yet. I do need to get words cranked out. I would really like to get to do my 25k per week for the next couple of weeks, so Emily has words to work with. Put scrivener, ywriter, and Google Drive and it and I’d be off to the races. It would be faster, and makes me a little more portable. I could truly work from a bunch of different places, including the picnic table up on the hill if I wanted to. That may not be such a bad thing. We’ll see how that goes. At least, you wouldn’t be stuck in the boat all the time doing your writing. And, up on the hill would get you away from the internet mostly, unless of course you just tethered up your phone. I kind of like the idea of working from up on the hill. There would be some nice breezes, and, maybe it would be a good change for you. Change always seems to work out pretty well in the writing gig. It changes your perspective a bit, and puts you in a better frame of mind. So, what the heck, maybe I will do that. I wonder how long the battery would last. It would likely, last at least 4 hours I would hope. Oh yea, and one more thing. I actually weighed my self yesterday for the first time in at least a week, thinking that I might have gained a bit with all the fruit and lara bars I’ve been eating lately, but I was pleasently surprised to see that I hadn’t. I was at 170 still, and I had already had breakfast. So no change really at all. Cool.

TIGERBLOOD: sure DAILYMOOD: pretty happy LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: 50 PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: write, go to boat, order laptop? TV: none BOOK: none GAME: galaga EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs & tomatoe LUNCH: none DINNER: hamburgers, fancy salad, veggies SNACKS: apple, almonds, grapes ALCOHOL: 2 beers BEDTIME: 2:00 am AWAKE: 8:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – June 14, 2014

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I am certainly running out of things to say in here it seems. Well, we’ll have to make things up as we go along. I do like the idea of writing some short stories in here. Maybe you should do some erotica stuff. That might be kind of fun … and wierd, but why the hell not. Those are definitely short money little money makers. You could crank out a couple of thousand words per day in this style, and then make a few extra bucks. You could still do the really serious stuff outside of here, but why not crank out a few dirty words while your writing in here. If you did a thousand per day, or two, then you really would get a couple of books out per month. And sure, why not? Probably 50 pages each is enough, and that’s only about 12K words. You could do that in a week in here. The more you typed, the faster you would get, and I bet, you’d get up to 2K in an hour of just focused typing. Something to think about. Maybe, something to do in Google docs instead. You could write to it from anywhere, even on your phone. Don’t take it too seriously, but put some good covers and blurbs with it, and be prolific. Make it fun. That’s definitely a genre you don’t want to be too serious with. So, whatever to do today? The kids keep stealing all the cars on Saturday morning for their friggin swimming pracitce and coaching. I need a damn motorcycle to get to the boat. That would be a good idea I think. So, whenever I feel like going to squash or the boat, I can just jump on the bike and go. Being tied to everybodies else’s demands is getting a bit too much. I need to start doing pushups again. I miss doing those, with this stupid bad shoulder. Even, if I didn’t do a full range of motion, that would be ok I think. I could likely crank out half pushups, and not bother the shoulder all that much. Then, I could alternate between plank, pushups, and wall sits for my 2 morning workout every day. That would be a good thing. I was able to play squash the other day, and still manage with the shoulder. It was bad the day after, but not too bad, the following days. Still not a hundred percent, that’s for sure. Maybe, paddle boarding every day would be good for it. That’s what I should focus on. Don’t worry about the squash, get out and do some boarding. Work on that core, and maybe a bit of upper body doing that for an hour every day. See, if you can get any good at it. You certainly weren’t that good at it last year, when you tried it out west. And, be sure to write for love. That’s going to be my new mantra when and where ever I go. Write for love. Not for any other stupid reasons. Certainly not because you have to, and certainly not because for money. I liked looking through the outline for the next novel I was setting up in Scrivener. I’m actually using a proper sturcture from the beginning, and then looking for major plot points to place into that structure. And then I’ll start filling in the scenes, with an eye to subplots, and character arcs and major plot arcs. If felt pretty good, to be laying it out like that. It gave me a sense of confidence, that this next novel will be much better then the first. Just looking at the possible plot points, and how they will fit into the structure seemed much more exciting. And, the idea of using scene/sequels from the Dwight V. Swain method should be more natural as well. If I can incorporate the MRU’s (motivational reaction units) as I go along, that would be even more awesome. Those are sort of the key elements to good writing. At the very least, it will give you a heck of a set of tools to build your craft upon. If I can write a few stories, with good structure, and pacing, and scenes/sequels with MRUs, then there should be no end to what I can do. This can only get better and faster, and more fun for me. Remember … do it for love. You really wanted to get to the point, where the stories just flow from you. Then, I think it becomes so much easier to love.

TIGERBLOOD: sure DAILYMOOD: a little annoyed LOCATION: living room WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: go to boat, write, outline TV: that 70s show, prophets of science fiction, the gospel according to Phillip K Dick BOOK: It Starts With Food, Bird By Bird, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep GAME: none EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: pork roast, brussel sprouts, asparagas SNACKS: orange, grapes, apple, macadamia nuts, 1 chicken finger ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:00 AWAKE: 7:30

Morning Pages Entry – June 10, 2014

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So, time to be practical, and get some real work done for the next little while, since your novel is off to the editors, and there’s not really much you can do with it at the moment. Although, you could write more for it. What you really want to do, is get a cover together and a blurb, and the admin stuff done. Went, and played squash last night, which probably wasn’t the best idea for my body, which is kind of sore this morning. At least my ankle is, and so is of course my shoulder. There wasn’t really anyone there last night that I could have played left handed, even if I had wanted to. But, at least I did get some running in. I do, need to do some shopping today, as we’re really out of groceries, and I have nothing at the moment to make for dinner. That’s not a good thing. I should also make that ranch dress stuff again. This time, not a double batch though. It doesn’t seem to last that long in the fridge. It keeps seperating now … the oil I mean. Turns into a slimy mess. I really can’t keep playing squash this way, with the aches and pains it’s causing me. Or maybe I can. I do need to do something active. Maybe swimming would be the thing to do. I could just swim for an hour, likely without wrecking myself for extended periods of time. I really don’t feel like doing the physio, although, I may have to. Feel like I have a bit of allergies this morning. So the theme for today is, get some real shit done. Make a cover, and apply for the tax thing for the US government for Amazon. And, of course, the shopping thing. It would be nice, to plot out another set of books … in the serial genre. Something else, that you can work on beside the main novel length books. I know, you were thinking of the romance one, which everyone else is doing, but there’s really no need to do that. You could, just do something in the sci-fi realm, that’s totally different from what your doing now. You know, something with space ships and whatever that might be kind of fun. Maybe, something that’s inspired by one of your favorite novels like Dune, or something. Need a little more inspiration in that realm. But, it would be something, that your existing readership might enjoy. Or, it could be something else that was dystopian as well. Or maybe not. Need to give that one a bit f thought. What other sort of story would you like to tell? Sailing perhaps, down in the tropics with palm trees, and maybe spaceships thrown in. Spaceships and sailboats, is not something you read about every day, but maybe you should. Sailing across the stars is not all that different from sailing over the ocean … the scale is just a little different. And, I also think, it’s about time to start doing more writing exercises in your journal here, instead of just rambling along, and filling up space. Not that there’s really anything wrong with filling up space, I just need to start being more productive. You could, just start doing the novel in here … right? If you had an outline to deal with every morning, there’s no reason, why you couldn’t write 750+ words for the serial or something. I’m sure, actually, you could do 1000+ words. Do it with the same amount of thought you put into the journal … just write, like noone will ever read it. That’s what makes this so freeing. Then, you can just copy it directly into scrivener or whatever and edit it later. That’s not a bad idea. You were actually writing that many words, when you were doing your 5K days a while ago, and you had all that work done by noon everyday. That would truly be the way to go. You can still add a little personal reflections and observations after the fact, if you really wanted, but that’s optional. The key thing, is to get the words out, and then move on to something else. 1K per day, definitely gets you one serial episode out per month. You can even up that to 2K pretty easy, I would bet, with another half hour session later in the day, before you edit the stuff up. I should really get on that.

TIGERBLOOD: yea sure DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: write, groceries, TV: that 70s show BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: squash WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: meatloaf SNACKS: none ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:15 AWAKE: 6:15

 

Morning Pages Entry – May 28, 2014

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So, I actually tried and played a bit of squash last night, hoping, that maybe it wouldn’t hurt much, but it really did. I should have tried playing with my left hand, is what I should have done. Although, I know that would have been pretty ugly. There would have been no power whatsoever. I really should do it though. I wonder, how long it would take to become a left handed player. That’s really what you should be doing. Find a bunch of very beginner players, and play with your left hand. I bet, you could get pretty decent within a month. Think of it this way. You know what the right technique would be, and you don’t have any bad habits yet with your left hand, so you should really learn to be good with it much faster then you would with your right. Your foot work remains pretty much the same, except perhaps for your backhand swing, which means you just have to hit off your left foot more often then your right. You could I suppose, practice just with the racquet in your hand in the backyard an swinging at whatever like ghosting. That would at least give you a sense of what it feels like. Then, you could get back on court and play for as long as you like over the summer. It would be an interesting expirement, to see, how long it takes you to learn it. It may even be interesting to see what kind of effect it would have on your regular right handed game. It could, perhaps make you a better, more rounded player. Maybe, you could become one of those guys that switches back and forth a lot. I wonder if anyone else has really made a concious decision to switch from injury. I would bet, that you could make the switch. I really, should have signed up for Dereks house league in a lower level, but left handed. That would have been so cool to try. You could have kept getting a workout, and would probably be down in the pounds department. I bet, you could still do it. It would likely be good to do, during this whole30 thing. That’s, another thing I need to get going on. I need to get a menu planned out, at least for tomorrow. I’ll go shopping this afternoon, and get a bunch of stuff in the works. I’ll need breakfast for everyone and lunches. Karen has some away lunch that she has to deal with, so I’ll just have to respond to her email, and let her know what she can eat. Worse comes to worse, she could start a day later. I will have to start reading the book, “It Starts With Food” today. It may have some good recipe ideas. And, I need to finish the character sketches today. I got Chaz’s finished yesterday, and just started on Christa’s and Alex’s by picking out pictures for them. I should be able to go through those in a fairly short period of time. You just need, to think about the characters and what went on in their lives to start. I do think, I need to organize the character sketch outline template a bit better to start with. I think, it should progress chronologically from childhood to adulthood, with questions something like major childhood experience, major teenage experience, major young adult experience. How they did at school? What were their parents like. There are a few questions like that in the outline, but maybe a few more would be helpful. I should look, at some psychological outlines or outlines, perhaps some other character sketches for ideas of your characters. Don’t be afraid to include darker sides to your hero characters, and lighter sides to your villians. It’s all about having well rounded and complex characters. That’s what make a story truly interesting. I think, you did some of that with Chaz, when you had him run with the bikers and kill an innocent as part of his initiation. Alex and Christa should have something as well. Everyone has secrets. Everyone has thoughts they only keep to themselves. Look around a bit for complex character sketches. Try not to be too cliched. People should always have a past they’re trying to run away from or improve upon. It’s the struggle that readers want to see and want to experience. That’s what makes for a truly interesting story. Think, of all the bad things that could happen in the past to shape your characters.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: happy LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: 2000 character sketches PUSHUPS: 4:00 wall sit TODO: more character sketches, menu plan for tomorrow TV: Prophets of Science Fiction, Californication BOOK: It Starts With Food GAME: 2048 EXERCISE: squash WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: big ass salad DINNER: meatloaf, carrots, squash SNACKS: orange, grapes ALCOHOL: 1 glass wine BEDTIME: 1:00 am AWAKE: 7:30

 

Morning Pages Entry – May 01, 2014

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So, today, the first of May, and where do we sit in the grand scheme of things. Hmmm, well Jennifer has moved home, which is sort of cool I think. Haven’t seen here a whole lot yet, but we’ve certainly seen a lot of her stuff. It’s been plunked in the living room cluttering up the whole place ever since she moved in. I’m sitting at around 171 pounds, and a bit annoyed with my weight loss. But, of course, yesterday, I took steps to remedy that. I did some intermetent fasting, by only eating about 600 calories. I’m thinking, that I will do that once a week. It’s that diet idea I watched the documentary about, where the guy fasted twice a week and restricted his diet to only 600 calories (500 if your a women), and lost a bunch of weight. It’s not just the weight loss that is important here though, it’s the other stuff your body can do, while it’s not digesting food all the time. Which is stuff like repairing cells and building new healthy cells. I tried it a bit myself, but actually did the 0 calories day approach. That drove me nuts, as I was constantly obsessing about food, and I ridiculously over ate on my non fasting days. I think that may have started me down a binge period with chocolate. So, we’ll do it the way they recommend, and just do the 600 calorie thing. I might be a little over, but yesterday all I ate was my regular breakfast of bacon and eggs and an orange. It’s actually my favorite meal of the day, so I don’t mind it really. It didn’t feel like a major difficulty yesterday. We’ll see how it goes. If the one day a week works, maybe at some point, we’ll bump it to two. We’ll see how I feel after a month or maybe even a few weeks. Twice a week would be better for sure, and would increase the weight loss, but I don’t want to make myself crazy with it. Maybe I’ll do next Monday, and see how it feels. I used to do Mon and Thursday. That would likely work again. I was playing squash on those days, as it took my mind off the food thing. I think, maybe I’ll just have to find something else to preoccupy my mind. Like maybe get some more writing done. Or, perhaps finish your taxes. Or, do something for the boat. That would be nice. Anyway, speaking of writing, the novel or more specifically, the editing of the novel, continues to move at a glacial pace in terms of completion. Although, I did get my first critique yesterday from the CritiqueCirlce website. It was a good one I thought. Some stuff, I had a feeling I’d get nailed on like too much narrative, but he also presented some other ideas, like the Colonel needed more motivation for deserting his troops. The critiquer thought he was a bit of a bastard for leaving his troops, and I must admit he would have to be. The question is, do I want him to be seen as a baster or not. I’m not opposed to the idea, but I’d rather it be a concious decision on my part, as opposed to leaving it to chance. Whichever, I do need to get this whole editing thing moving along much quicker. I’m still working my way through the story, and still have about 60000+ words to make a first good edit pass through. That’s quite a few words. I could get it done in 3 days I think at 20K per day, if I really focus. I really need to focus on that. I so want this done. even an initial pass, doesn’t make the thing perfect. Dave seems too busy to get through it at any pace, and the Critique Circle would also take forever using it as a free member. I would be fine paying for a membership, if I had a few partners to go through my novel in a private queue. Alternatively, I may just end up paying for a proofreader or line editor. I’m not sure the difference between the two, but that may be the approach I need. I really want to move quicker through this edit phase. An initial pass on my own would be good. I can certainly see, where you want to have an editor you can queue up ahead of time. Plus, if you can do the first good pass of editing after you write the chapter, then you can definitely send that chapter on to like Mark or Dave and have them review it while your writing the rest. That would be so much quicker.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: pretty good LOCATION: living room WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: 2:00 plank TODO: editing TV: supernatural BOOK: none GAME: Batman Arkham City EXERCISE: none WEIGHT: 171 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: none DINNER: none SNACKS: orange ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 11:45 AWAKE: 6:30