Three Ring GeekCircus!

Well, they’re here. I’m watching the opening ceremonies right now, and remarking to Bear about how every time they do one of these, it’s the most bizarre show of weird stuff that means very little to anyone outside the home country. However, looks like they’ve got Sarah Brightman, so it’s not all bad.

I think everyone must have events that they go out of their way to watch. Over here, I like the equestrian fine, the swimming fine, weight lifting’s generally entertaining, gymnastics, of course, is interesting, fencing’s pretty neat… But my favorite?

Rowing.

Yes. I love rowing. Anyone who knows me won’t need to ask the reason. Those of you who don’t should probably ponder the concept of young, strong, muscular men with rippling torsos.

Hey, I’m not the only one watching sports for gratuitous reasons. My husband has asked me to TiVo women’s beach volleyball.

What’s everyone watching?

The Cruxshadows have eaten my soul.

And I added some pictures to the photo collection. At last, you can see pictures of the guinea pigs.

Many flavors of blog, all in one post!

Summertime’s so weird. Random thunderstorms, kids home all the time, some days where I get 4k words written in one day and others where I fight for 1k. Quiet mornings are a thing of the past, and I learn again to work with interruptions. And in the afternoons, I have to put up with rowdy kids on a beanbag, playing the XBox while I try to top off my word count for the day.

I thought I had to put up with the kids ’til the end of this month. On Monday, I got a nice letter from my son’s new teacher, introducing herself and whatnot. It noted that school starts August 7 at 8:00 AM.

Oh. My. That’s…unexpected.

We’re not ready, in a practical sense. No shopping done. No time to back their schedules around from summer’s late nights to school’s early mornings. In another sense, though, I am so ready for them to go back to school.

They’ve been great this summer. For the most part, they let me write. I got a whole book done in a month. I got another short story done. Two stories got edited and prepared for publication (one’s out August 22, the other, October 3). I got another chunk of another book done, I got a lot of notes written. For two kids home for a couple months, this isn’t bad at all.

But good heavens, am I ready for some quiet. And some uninterrupted time to really knuckle down and crank stuff out before they’re home in the afternoon. School days get hectic toward the end, but that span of time in the morning when I can string my thoughts together without hearing, “Mom! Can I play the XBox?” is invaluable.

I might have liked a little more warning all the same.

As I said, I’ve got a release this month. It was also a little unexpected. That 60k story I wrote in June? This is its prequel coming out. Originally, I’d heard it’d be next year, but it got pushed up.

I’m actually going to look for an agent. I’m back to working on my fantasy novel, as well as plotting out an urban fantasy series. I’d like to take my career to the next step. It’s scary as all hell, but it’s the right thing to do.

September’s going to be a big month. Two books I’ve been dying for are coming out. Rock Band 2 has been shoved back to November, it looks like, but that’ll give me time to read. Maybe I should have just said that the end of the year is going to be big. There’s a bunch of movies coming out between now and 2009 that we want to see, too.

My kids are going to be 8 and 10 this month and next. I’m a little floored. I can’t say that the time has passed in a blink, like every other parent seems to say, but there is definitely a point where you’ve been just living your life, and you stop for a moment and say, “Wow. Is that how many years it’s been?”

My Sims just had twins. That had never happened before. I really must do another Sims post, because honestly, the weird, depressing, and wry parellels between the game and life just keep hitting me. Only this time, at least, it isn’t dragging me into being depressed. Just mildly weirded out. Why do I play? I dunno. But I do. Religiously.

Maybe I can get the twins into a private school. Their brother was a real slacker. He didn’t even have a teen job. (Mostly because I forgot to make him get one.) He had a girlfriend, though. That’s unusual for my Sims. Unfortunately for him, she doesn’t seem to be in one of the families that live in the neighborhood, so I can’t grow her up for him to pursue as an adult. Sorry, dude.

With the kids gone, I may actually have time to get this blog caught up! Hahahaha…

Ryan came to Arizona this weekend to spend a few days with the folks he’s talked to for about five years, but had never met before. This was, quite frankly, awesome. We met him in Dark Age of Camelot, and we’ve been friends ever since. It was terrific to actually see the person I’ve yammered at for all this time.

The highlight of the weekend was supposed to be going to see The Dark Knight. And that sure was a highlight. It’s an amazing movie. After the debacle that Joel Schumacher created, Christopher Nolan has totally redeemed the franchise. And Heath Ledger put in a performace as The Joker that makes his death all the more tragic.

But instead, Rock Band stole the show.

I hadn’t had a chance to play it. Ryan and I picked it up on Thursday and Bear set it up, but we didn’t get to it until Friday morning. I happened to be sitting in the bean bag with the guitar at the time, and we had agreed, by popular opinion, that Bear would take the drums because he’s as close to Animal as we can get. Which meant our poor guest got the microphone.

This turned out to be a good thing, but more on that later.

We played until we had to leave for the movie. The kids watched in a kind of stunned awe, then became groupies. We had cheers and encouragement from the peanut gallery. And we did rock, make no mistake. Bear pounded on the drums like a pro, I jammed out on the guitar, and Ryan belted out melodies with a sound better than most modern groups.

That night, though, Ryan’s voice got tired. And since letting Bear hold a microphone’s a variety of tragedy, they handed it to me. Which may have been more or less tragic. We’re not sure.

I can sing. I’m very musical. I have a great sense of pitch and rhythm. I play a ton of instruments, even if I’m out of practice. But our TV has really bad sound, I’d never heard most of the songs on the list, and the sound of Bear’s drumming drowned out quite a lot of the tune. And that makes for a bad, bad combination.

I do not say these things to make excuses. I’m just setting you up to understand exactly what happened.

“Mississippi Queen” happened.

The lyrics are fast. They are semi-screamed. If you haven’t played Rock Band before, a kind of tune graph scrolls across the top to let you see how long notes go on, and what pitch they ought to be, while the lyrics scroll underneath the graph. When you don’t know the words, and the lyrics don’t make a lot of sense, this results in a lot of mush coming out of your face, as well as many stumbles, and you making up words while you miss the rest of them. Generally, while you belt something out off-key. Especially if you’re half deaf already. Like I am.

Generously, they didn’t take the microphone away at this point. They gave me a lot of crap, though. I did better on Bon Jovi’s “Dead or Alive”, which I’ve been singing since the 80s. I didn’t do great on Weezer’s “Say It Ain’t So”, but I managed. The Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” wasn’t tremendous.

And then. Oh, and then. “Train Kept A-Rollin’” by Aerosmith. Which was bad. It wouldn’t have helped me much to hear it beforehand.

They still didn’t take the microphone away. I think they wanted to keep watching the train wreck. But at this point, what happened next was their own damn faults.

On the random list, up popped “Sabotage“. This is by the Beastie Boys. This is scream rap. And it makes no damn sense. I do not know anyone outside the Beasties themselves who can sing this right. Certainly not me, with all my classical piano training and sense of melody and harmony. We barely made it through the song, because I had resulted to making up lyrics when I lost the thread of the real ones, Bear was doubled over his drum set laughing, and Ryan could barely strum.

It took ten minutes for us to stop laughing. Bear had rolled onto the floor and had tears rolling down his cheeks. None of us could breathe. It was fail. It was tragedy. And it was so freaking funny that they let me keep singing.

Until Faith No More’s “Epic” came up. And then they put me out of my misery. Or maybe that’s out of their misery.

I got a little of my own back on Saturday, when we made Ryan sing a falsetto set of “Still Alive“, the Portal Song, “Roxanne” by The Police, and “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones. Still, I easily took the award for “Most Painful Rock Band Performance” for the weekend.

We went out on several highs. “Creep” by Radiohead. A rendition of “Say It Ain’t So” wherein we all sang the chorus, and sounded like a pack of upset basset hounds. And then we gave Bear the microphone for a round of “Sabotage”, which may or may not have vindicated me. And the band’s slogan, “WTF DOES THIS MEAN?” held its deep resonance with us all.

Now that Ryan’s gone back home, we’re sad. We miss him. And Muffy the Guitarist, and Spaz the Drummer, miss Ed the Lead Singer. It’s just not going to be the same without him around.

However…Rock Band 2 comes out in September. And it features an Online World Tour mode.

I think the band’s getting back together.

Well, I didn’t need a couple days, apparently.

I actually finished the thing on Monday. It came in at about 62k words, and that was because I throttled it some. If I hadn’t, it might have run over to about 75k, which I wouldn’t have minded, but I’m aware of my current market on this one. I’d actually hoped for about 40k, but the story had too much in it.

I could have cut some out, I guess, but I think it would have suffered. So I’ll happily take my 62k.

I have since Photoshopped a picture to represent the series on my website, which I may work into a banner when my eyes uncross. Photoshop work eventually melts my brain, but it’s fun! I’m trying to take a little break from writing, just a few days to recharge, but it makes me a little crazy. This one didn’t leave me tired. It left me charged up to do more. Even better.

I’ve found a way to pass the time, though. Stupid Sims.

Yeah, yeah. Radio silence again. It’s for a good reason, I promise.

I am within a couple days of finishing this book, so I haven’t taken the time to write anything that wasn’t the book. Including this blog. This book’s kind of a big deal to me because it’s the longest thing I’ve ever written. I’m such a short writer usually, but with the first in this series, I hit about 40k words and was like, “Wow.”

With this one, I’ll be lucky to come in under 65k. It would probably be closer to 70k-75k if I let it, but I’m shooting for a specific niche. I’ve never done anything “book length” before, and this is exciting for a few reasons, the most important of which is that now, I know I can do it. I always worried that I wouldn’t be able to break out of the 30k barrier, and now, I have.

I’ll come up for air again when I’ve got “The End” written. I can talk about my latest foray into Sims 2. Oh boy.

Anyone I know going to ComicCon?

I can’t make it. Which is bad, because I really really really really really OMG really want the Penny Arcade exclusive poster for ComicCon. So…hey, folks, anyone going? I want that poster to frame and put up in my living room.

Let me know if you’re going. I’ll send money. Cookies. My firstborn. Whatever you want.

There are few people in the world to whom I wish terminal crotch rot.

There are the people at Comcast, who, apart from a rare few intelligent souls, are complete incompetents, and who are, by and large, out to give you the worst service they can get away with for the most money they can charge. I wish I had another option where I live, because I’d take it, but Comcast is the only game on this side of town.

And then there are the people who killed my favorite MMO of all time. Star Wars Galaxies was as close to gaming perfection as I can imagine getting. This was my game. This was a piece of computer heaven to me.

I take this solemn moment to wish this man a healthy dose.

So my husband and I are standing in the kitchen discussing his work schedule tonight.

And he mentions that he’s told his bosses that he wants a day off in July. I say, What day? Because our 15th wedding anniversary is on the 17th of July.

He says to me, “The 18th! The Dark Knight is out that day!”

Batman…anniversary. Batman…anniversary.

He chose wisely.

We don’t cook out as often as we did when we had a gas grill on the back porch. There’s varied opinions on this. By and large, I’m much more fond of charcoal grilling. There’s not much difference between cooking on the stove and cooking on a gas grill, in my mind. Sure, you do get some charred taste, but it’s just not the same as when you’ve got little burning chunks to cook over.

Or, as my husband put it, “So for you, grilling is a prolonged fire experience and not cooking meat.”

It’s that guy thing. Cooked over any fire is superior to cooked on a stove. And yeah, there is a difference, I admit. But I like charcoal grilling a whole lot better. (Let’s face it: he’s right. Grilling is an event, not meal preparation, at least to me.)

Tonight, we availed ourselves of one of the complex’s grills to have a prolonged fire experience. That was after we realized that we had nothing to start a fire with. I had to go get matches. Once we had that handled, though, we went out, lit the coals (yay for charcoal that starts just by you lighting the bag on fire) and got the whole shebang underway.

And we had a hell of a spread. Hot dogs, hamburgers, bison burgers, grilled salmon, and corn. Add a can of Bush’s Maple Baked Beans, and you’ve got yourself a mighty fine supper. It tasted awesome. The fish was just gorgeous (I’d marinated it for a couple hours in cheap Italian dressing), the bison burgers were really good, the hamburgers were juicy and the hot dogs were very hot-doggy.

Highlights included shifting winds, Bear dancing to avoid the flames, and chasing the kids around with a charred fish skin. None of this should surprise any of you.