Results

I started this blog to get me writing more. I failed to make more than a single blog in November however. I blamed this on NaNoWriMo, and at first that was a good reason. As the month continued though, it was my lack of progress on my novel that kept me from writing even here. I did manage some spits and starts to get about 6 chapters written so far. That is something of an accomplishment, though far less than I had set out for.

For the New Year, I am going to make dual resolutions. If you know me, you know I take these seriously. I quit tobacco cold turkey on a resolution. I went on atkins and lost over 100 pounds on a resolution, so I know I can do things if I truly set myself to them. I will do the following: Stick to a workout regimen, Continue my writing.

Those are pretty nebulous. I am going to see the fitness folks at work and sign up for the new incentive plan. That will give me concrete criteria to meet. In my writing, I will get 3000 words a week. That sounds pretty paltry, but I am not a full time writer, I have 8 hours of work, my new workouts, kids, etc. I think that sounds like a reasonable weekly goal. Ideally this will allow me to finish my novel, but a short story or two a month is cool too.

Awesome day today at work. Major tipping on the craps table, not to mention I got to sit box all day. On the other hand, I have definitely gained weight. My uniforms are getting tight and not so comfortable. After dinner tomorrow night, back on the diet for real.

No quotable rogues over that last few days... ttfn

Merry F-ing Christmas

Okay it's freakin christmas... You know, the time when people freak out because there is no more time or those lucky few who could care less and freak out about everyone freaking out. I am in the second group. I am glad to be sitting in my cozy chair with my supper and a beer. Now to be fair, I did very little of the Christmas prep. That fell to my wife. That of course puts her in the first group, setting up the ideal dynamic for Christmas eve histrionics. So instead of fueling the fire, I decided to blog :)

I am frankly sick to death of how commercial Christmas is. All that gets thought of is presents. People ask me what I want for Christmas and I have no good answer. I don't really want any 'things'. I want situations. I want to spend time with my wife and kids, much more time with my wife later, ho ho ho. I want people to not worry about having to get me anything. I especially want people to not get me stupid ass stuff - ideas like sweaters come to mind for this. Mostly though, I want less stress and less bullshit. If its gonna be a pain in the ass, then skip it, Christ! - no pun intended.

It was actually a good day at work for being a holiday day. Not too many people were in the casino and the ones that were there were in a generally generous mood. One dealer in particular really made my day. I had been complaining about the fact that I had few dealers that I preferred in my section, just her and one other. Well she said would it make my day better if she kept blowing me kisses. I laughed and she kept it up all day. Well it really did make a difference, so I came home in a fairly good mood.

So to anyone who might actually be reading this, have a happy christmas and I hope you have someone to blow kisses to you too!

postscript - another quotable rogue -

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
- Honore de Balzac

Ho Hum

Posting this before I forget. Get this book for Ian!

Little Brother (Hardcover)
by Cory Doctorow (Author)

Not the king of my own domain

I did it. I changed my credit card during the year this year. It was a simple process, but one that had terrible repercussions. I use GoDaddy as the registrar for my multiple domains and GoDaddy apparently does not believe in emailing you when your billing fails. Thus my spiritlurkers.com domain slipped into redemption. I called the nice people at GoDaddy and explained the situation. A very polite representative explained that for the paltry sum of 80 dollars I could redeem my domain name. I decided to wait the remainder of the 30 day period and then just re-register because foolishly I have children and Christmas and eighty dollars was just too much for Nov-Dec for me.

I was so wrong yet again. Mr. Jason Falk of Salt Lake City, UT now has my domain name. I have not yet written him to see if I can buy it back. Hopefully after the holidays we can come to some arrangement.

On a better note. Tulip has survived the chocolate poisoning. It has been a learning experience all around.

ttfn

Hell-o

So last night I stood deathwatch over our family dog. It seems that an entire batch of chocolate cookie batter was thrown out in the trash. I had taken the full trash out of the closet we keep it in as I had been doing some cleanup. Meanwhile, the children had failed to feed the dog last night. The combined result was the dog ingesting about double the lethal dose of chocolate.

6 rounds of dog puking (about the entire batch came up) and nearly a dozen trips outside insued. About 5 this morning I passed out in the chair. This morning the dog is better and we have not had loss of motor control or convulsions, so the prognosis is guarded. It takes up to 24 hours for the full spectrum to present, but normally less. She has been very tired, but did try to chase down squirrels this morning, so I am taking that as a good sign.

Thanks to Digg I saw this on YouTube and just had to give the link for it here. Yngwie has not aged well but still blisters! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpDblDia5TE if the link won't work for you)

Oh, saw a great quotable rogue, so I am going to include it here so I don't lose it -

The big thieves hang the little ones.

Czech Proverb

ttfn