Monday, August 13, 2007
Procrastination! Get yer Red Hot Procrastination Right Here!
So, um. I've been reading a lot. I read
Sherrilyn Kenyon's Devil May Cry and enjoyed it. There was a lot of her gods-inhabited world in it and it was interesting to see how that worked. I keep hearing that she's going to write Ash's story. Awesome if true.
Yesterday I read (in one sitting) Marcus Lutrell's
Lone Survivor, and boy, oh boy. (I'd give a link to him directly, but he doesn't seem to have a website.) I really, really loved this book. It's the account of his SEAL team's mission in Afghanistan. If you're curious about what it's like there, this book is full of details you have to look hard to find elsewhere. I do have to quibble with his propensity to blame liberals and/or the liberal media for perceived slights, but he's entitled to his interpretation, wrong though I think it is. I have a bleeding heart, and I don't blame the military for their actions in combat and frankly, I don't believe much of the US does either. If a trained soldier has to make a me-or-them decision in battle, then let's not 2nd guess the instincts our tax dollars helped give them. I do think there's something wrong when it's reported that soldiers planned and carried out the rape and murder of an Iraqi family. I'm not stupid or naive enough to believe everything I read, but reports like that need to be investigated. Personally, to the extent I have any sort of an informed opinion, I think a military and Commander in Chief who allow an environment in which soldiers take the blame for the political undesirability of deaths in war might be a better target. At least a shared target.
And really, that's a minor aside from an absorbing, amazing and inspiring story. It's just that every time he went off on liberals, I couldn't help thinking,
I'm a liberal, and I don't feel that way. Not to mention that there were times when he simply failed to account for the complexity of the world and the way it works. Liberals make a convenient scape goat for him. I suppose it's ironic that as he goes off about how it's the fault of liberals that he has to worry about getting charged with murder so he can't do the needful, as it were, it's his religion that keeps him from casting his vote in a militarily correct way. Um, so maybe the big-bad liberals are right? All right, I have to say I think there's some intellectual dishonesty going on there. But, heck, he's been brainwashed by Neo-Cons and the fascist Right, so can we blame him? (Right. That was Carolyn's patented sarcasm. Move along. I'm just evening the score in an equally dishonest manner.)
As I read I kept thinking the author's name sounded familiar, and then when I read the thank yous at the very end, I realized why. I also read Dick Couch's The Making of SEAL class 228, and Marcus Lutrell was a member of that class and is mentioned in that book. I picked up Lutrell's book because it's been getting some good reviews and is selling quite well. Way worth it. As I said, this liberal bleeding heart read the book in one afternoon. He and his fellow soldiers are tremendously brave and I'm glad there are men like him in the military.
I also read
A Taste of Honey by
Jami Alden. This was three novellas about three brothers finding love and hot sex. Grin. I very much liked the first two stories and I loved the last one. I cried at the end, and I hardly ever cry over books.
Then I re-read my previous two historicals, just to see how I did it way back then in prehistoric times, but I probably shouldn't have. All I wanted to do was go back and fix crap. I'm a different writer now, writing a different sort of book. (Gee, that was what, three years ago?)
The Darling Child had a soccer tournament this weekend, so I was off being soccer mom most of Saturday and Sunday. They did not win the tournament this year because they had to play two under-14 teams and I am here to tell you that the difference between U-13 boys and U-14 boys is spelled T E S T O S T E R O N E. My son is very tall for his age and most of those boys were much, much taller and they had muscles. So, his team got their butts kicked. They won their game against the U-13 boys, and that was good for them.
I think I opened Word Perfect a few times and stared at the blank screen. What else? Played on MySpace. Friended people. Commented. Important stuff you know. Checked my spam catcher. I have so many friends who want to send me ecards! Worshippers, too. Just wait til I whip myself back into shape, then we can talk worship. Until then, I'm afraid you and your malware just have to go ka-blooie!
Oh, yeah. I did driveway torture today after a week of pretending I wasn't getting sick and then 3 days of actually being sick. I missed a lot of gym days. I was slower by a minutes or so, which meant I only had to do 1.5 minutes of sprints to make 45 minutes total torture time. But I didn't have to stop. All four miles well done. I hope to add another up-and-down in the next couple of weeks. Plus, seeing as how it was 4:30 am and in the boonies when I was running (slogging?), I did see the tail end of the Perseid Meteor Showers. Wow. Breathtaking. I think I'm up for 3 days of DWT, 2 days of resistance training and a couple days of rowing. I'll do weights tomorrow and see how I am Wednesday for DWT. I might do a regular run.
Also, during the DWT this morning, I figured out at last what to do in the next scene for Scandal, so I guess I really have no choice but to go write that. Now.
Last thing: you
know I am the master of procrastination because I did not have to resort to housework or other chores. It's advanced procrastination. Don't try it at home unless you're trained or have supervision.
Oh, and
Patti O'Shea? If I had the money, I'd get a Mac. I grilled
Marjorie Liu about her Mac experience and that decided me. If I had the bucks, I'd get a Power Book.
Labels: exercise, procrastination, reading, Scandal
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Sunday, June 17, 2007
Driveway Torture
Rats. It's Sunday and I need it to be Saturday or for Monday to be a holiday. Nice father's day. Yesterday I told myself that if I got through the rest of the manuscript read through, I could take the evening off to read. Which I did. I finished off Chuck
Pfarrer's Warrior Soul which is a memoir of a Navy SEAL. Good book. I really enjoyed it. Apparently, nobody in D.C. has learned anything since Beirut in the 80's or Iran-Contra. That was kind of depressing.
Worked today. One of my brothers came over and played poker with my son. I think one of them is rich now. Then I had to go shopping and today, shopping included shoes and shirts. My sandals are falling apart and one pair of my work shoes is worn through. Also, I needed new running shoes. The sole of my current pair is now separating from the shoe. I also needed summer shirts. I believe I've mentioned I despise shopping. Yuck. But mission accomplished. Then grocery shopping. Then had to make cookies for lunches tomorrow. Not mine. I am on a cookie free diet. (Rats!)
I've changed up my work out on account of a couple weeks ago as I was heading back to the house after taking down the garbage I was dying jogging up the driveway. The driveway is roughly a quarter mile uphill (depending on your point of view, I guess, it was uphill for me at the time.) I should have been able to jog up the freaking driveway without dying. I was wearing my sandals, at the time, but still. So, now 2 days a week instead of going to the gym I run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes. Torture. Horrors. Sweat. Then one day I cycle for 45 because I'm not able to add a third day of driveway torture yet and the other two I do free weights and resistance training. I added in 10
push ups between every set, and am happy to report I'm up to 12 push ups between sets. The good news is my arms are getting some cuts and by the third morning of running I was still dying but at a slightly faster speed. Really slightly. Next weekend I start the rowing so that should help, too. All of which is my way of explaining that I really did need new running shoes. And, lucky me! The Nike outlet carries Men's size 6, which is the size of running shoe that fits me best. Before grad school, I could do 100 push-ups and run a mile in 7:30, which I thought was pretty sad since in college I ran 5:30's. Now I'm in the double digits for roughly a mile. Of course, 45 minutes of driveway torture is something like 3 or 3.5 miles. Maybe grad school wasn't all good for me.
I figure if
SEALs can do what they so, I can run up and down the driveway for 45 minutes and do a few
measly push ups. I hope to swap out the cycling day for more driveway torture but right now I need that for recovery so I don't get (too) sore. See, reading is good for you!
In comparison, writing is --- well, a completely different kind of torture. Which I've been doing all weekend. And will be doing more shortly.
Tomorrow morning, driveway torture.
Yay.
Not.Labels: editing, exercise, Magellan's Witch
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Saturday, February 03, 2007
Casting Fate to the Winds
Today has been a low key day for me. Mostly because I think I'm coming down with whatever my son had. Uh-oh. I started off the morning by going for a run because I am not in the shape I want to be in. The good news is I went three miles. The bad news is how long it took me to run that far. The other bad news is I all ready feel it in my legs. Tomorrow should be interesting. Legs and arms. Oh my. Read on for why.
My son and I went to
Sweeney's Sports in Napa for a fly fishing lesson. Every Saturday between 10 and 12, they give free casting lessons. My son desperately wants to go fishing and someone I work with fly fishes and offered to take him. But lessons first he said. So, there's arm action involved in the casting and tomorrow my back and arms will be sore, too. Good sore and all, but sore. All of which reminds me of a really great book:
David James Duncan's
The River Why. A former boss told me about the book and, I confess when he said it was about fly fishing, I thought to myself I had no interest at all in the subject. But, he insisted it was a great book, so I went ahead and got it. Well, he was right. And, in the nature of great books, it's about a whole lot more than fly fishing. This belongs on the shelf of any serious reader. Highly recommended. I should mention that this is a highly amusing book. You won't even feel the pain of lit-traw-chure cuz it's just a great story, well told.
What else? After we got back from Napa, I fell asleep for 3 hours. Hard asleep, too. Anyway, I have Magellan's Witch open and I need to go back to work on it.
Labels: exercise, Fly Fishing, Magellan's Witch
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