11-30

I went to the storage unit the other day and as I was leaving, I noticed a unit that had two padlocks on it, rather than the usual one (or zero, for empty ones).  And immediately, I wondered about it.  What was inside that's so valuable there are two locks instead of only one?  It made me think that, if I were a thief, out of all the lockers to break into . . . that would be my first pick.  And I can't be the only one curious about what might be inside.  In other words, putting on a redundancy on their unit, they actually made the treasures inside less safe than they would otherwise be.

So, it's the end of the month, and that means I should look at how I did with my writing.  I set a November goal for ten thousand words, and did what I could to not only achieve that goal, but keep track of my numbers each day.

11-10 567

11-11 413

11-12 369

11-13 Zero

11-14 1284

11-15 1331

11-16 1062

11-17 964

11-18 213 (I just couldn't bring myself to write, even though I had a full hour to do it in)

11-19 1349

11-20 266

11-21 597

11-22 565

11-23 789 plus 105

11-25 69

11-26 1088

11-27 Niente

11-28 485 plus 90

11-29 1410

11-30 459

That's a total of 13,475 words.

13,475 /10000 words. All done!

In December, I think I'll set the goal of throwing out my brown and orange button-up shirt, which has gotten so small on me I look like I will Lou Ferrigno out on it every time I put it on.  That's right, the problem's the shirt, not the ever-expanding dude under it.

11-26

Every day or two, when I log into Facebook, it will remind me of a post I made on that day, whether it was just last year, or as long ago as a decade ago.  Today's was a reminder of a bit of story I had been writing this day, back in 2015.  It was the scene from my tale "Rest Stop" where the woman/ghost/witch shows up: 

But here we are, years later, and I've just been writing about her again.  Kind of fun, really.

I've not written every single day, but I have tried.  Also, I've not exercised every day either, but I have managed to most of the time, despite it being cold out (and there's nothing better than running at night when it's below freezing, when my hands and ears and very lungs are trumpeting, "You should not be doing this!").  So, here's where we stand today:

11-10 567

11-11 413

11-12 369

11-13 Zero

11-14 1284

11-15 1331

11-16 1062

11-17 964

11-18 213 (I just couldn't bring myself to write, even though I had a full hour to do it in)

11-19 1349

11-20 266

11-21 597

11-22 565

11-23 789 plus 105

11-25 69

11-26 1088

11031 / 10000 words. 110% done!

Podcast That Dares 38: The Scarlet Citadel 1

Rish presents the first half of Robert E. Howard's Conan story, "The Scarlet Citadel."  

Enjoy . . . or to Hell with you!

To download the episode directly, Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, by Crom, click HERE.

Logo by Gino "The Brown Citadel" Moretto.

I Find Your Lack of Holiday Spirit Disturbing

I took my nephew to the mall today, and as we were passing the section where kids can line up to meet Santa Claus (or in 2020, could line up to stand in front of the glass partition that housed Santa Claus), I noticed this sign, advertising exciting things to come.

Now, I may be a grown-ass man, with a high school diploma and an IQ of 117, but I kinda want to go to the mall and see kids get pictures with Santa Claus and Darth Vader.  

Heck, I'll go so far as to say I kind of want to go and get pictures of myself with Santa Claus and Darth Vader.  

That's normal, right?

11-19

Something in the past that has helped me has been to "compete" with Big Anklevich when I go to the library to write, sending him my word count every few minutes, while he does the same.  Tonight was a good one because I started out way ahead of him, but he started to close in around the time the library made its announcement to kick us out.  Big passed me by, but the moment I got home, I hopped on the computer and wrote another 477 words I surely wouldn't have bothered with had he not been racing with me.*

11-10 567
11-11 413
11-12 369
11-13 Zero
11-14 1284
11-15 1331
11-16 1062
11-17 964
11-18 213 (I just couldn't bring myself to write, even though I had a full hour to do it in)
11-19 1349

7552 / 10000 words. 76% done!

*Big's final score was 1192, so there.

11-16

Been going for a week, not accomplishing much, but getting some writing done almost every day (Big has been kicking my butt on it, but that's fine).  My goal for the month is ten thousand words.

11-10 567

11-11 413

11-12 369

11-13 Zero

11-14 1284

11-15 1331

11-16 1062

5026 / 10000 words. 50% done!

11-13

So, I've been home for a number of days, and my body has not yet recovered from the time change.  Two nights ago, we went to see WAKANDA FOREVER, and due to that, I didn't get to sleep until around three, and that was fine . . . but it caught up to me last night, when I was super sleepy at eight or so, ended up falling asleep until nearly four in the morning, and couldn't go back to sleep after that, so I podcasted for three hours, ate breakfast, and am now blogging, even though my morning alarm won't go off for another hour.

But there has been a positive to this weird sleep schedule: I've used it to podcast in the pre-dawn hours of the morning.  Unfortunately for my listeners, that's gonna mean a lot of episodes about my trip to Europe (the first one will just be for the Patreon supporters).  And unfortunately for me, that's hours and hours of editing, somewhere other than the cabin, where my brother informed me there are three or four feet of snow, making it inaccessible to anybody not on a snowmobile.

One of these days, I will man up and take my laptop to the library, put on headphones, and edit for an hour or two straight, with no distractions.  As it stands, I edit with my laptop on the bed, and if I get distracted, I stop editing, or if I get bored, I fall asleep.  I can do better.

Anyway, I had set a mini-goal for myself to get 10,000 words written in the month of November, despite having zero words written during my vacation.  I have gone to the library three days in a row, but only managed a few hundred words in that time, so unless I become really inspired (or really dedicated), I doubt I will achieve my goal.  But it's good to try things, even if you fail.

This is my progress so far:

11-10 567

11-11 413

11-12 369

11-13 Zero

1349 / 10000 words. 13% done!

My Voice on "Door Approach" on the Anklecast

Big Anklevich is still going strong with his solo podcast (or should I say "solo" podcast, since every one of them has had a guest star with him), and this month's, he's running a story he wrote called "Door Approach," about two Mormon missionaries who are not what they seem.

I think I voiced Elder Jensen, but I can't really remember.  Regardless, he is joined by Marshal Latham, because I was too busy getting ready to leave the country to help a brutha out.  Now I kind of regret that decision, since they talked about vampires and werewolves and horror movies, and I have a bit of experience with those three things.  Check it out HERE.

11-9

Day 17

Jeff got me up a little bit early (3:45am), but that was probably for the best--I'm slow-moving at the best of times, and in the morning, fugettaboudit.  Virtually every day since this started, I've been worried about forgetting something, leaving an item behind that I need to bring, and today being the last day in Europe, if I forgot something (like I did my mask yesterday), I can't just go back and get it.

We took a cab, because the trains don't run this early, and once again, I was floored by how expensive it was to ride just fifteen minutes (or less) to the airport.  Before I left, my mom told me I should take a taxi or shuttle to the airport at home, and I was too cheap to do even that, preferring to buy my cousin a meal for taking me there and picking me up.

Sunrise at Amsterdam airport.

Well, I tried to record, but there were too many people around, and I tried to blog, but started falling asleep.  Guess I'll give in to it for a few minutes more.

Eventually, my flight came, and I was on my way.  I watched a few television episodes, watched CYRANO, tried to watch Spielberg's WEST SIDE STORY (I tried, man, but didn't make it through), and before long, we were in U.S. airspace again, and I could turn on my phone's dataplan again (I had made exactly zero calls and used it for internet not once since leaving the States).  Everyone around me was speaking English again, and we were back in the Land of Pepsi.

It turned out that my cousin's wife got sick, so he had to take his daughter to a field trip only a few miles from the airport, so even that wasn't particularly inconvenient.  He waited for me to go through Customs, get my suitcase, and I met him at the curbside, and I was back on my way home.  It was cold here, and bright, because I had gained eight hours on the flight.  That would plague me for the days after the trip, with me waking up before dawn almost every single day (regardless of what time I had gone to sleep the night before), but that seems like a small price to pay for a European vacation.

A few days later, my uncle's daughter found out I had been overseas and asked, "Why would YOU get to go to Europe?"  It was a question I had difficulty answering, because I did nothing to deserve such an excellent trip, with so much attention and money showered on me, but just like sometimes bad things happen to good people . . .

Anyway, I leave you with this, a montage of warning signs I saw around Europe (I had a friend, years ago, who was always entertained by them, pretty inexplicably).  Enjoy?

11-8

Day 16

There was nothing on the agenda for today, so we mostly sat around and watched TV.  Emily commented on that, and Jeff told her that this was what it was all for, to just relax and enjoy some television.  I'm not sure if he's right or not, but we watched the rest of "Detectorists," and I did really enjoy that, despite how cruel and sad it was.

Well, here we are: my last night in Europe.  Jeff has gone to sleep (and rightly so, since he's getting me up at 3:55am to make my flight), and I'm typing this, waiting for the NyQuil I just took to kick in.

As the man said, I'm not even supposed to be here today.  My initial flight home was two days ago, but it got delayed, and ultimately canceled, and they booked me on the next soonest flight back to Amsterdam and on to the U.S., which is tomorrow morning at six-something.  So I had an extra day and a half here, where we didn't do much but watch "Detectorists" and HOT FUZZ, though we did go into town for lunch and walked a bit through the city (though Jeff hadn't brought his cane, and was suffering greatly after a little while, something I didn't pick up on until he mentioned it later).  

Downtown Stuttgart.

We'd walked to the train station when I realized I didn't have a mask with me, so we walked back to get it, and I grabbed a coat and a mask.  When we got to the bus terminal, Emily said that only two-thirds of the people even wear their masks on the trains anymore, which made me wonder why we'd gone all the way back.  But I am a foreigner, and it's best not to stand out, right?

We went to Five Guys downtown, and the cashier spoke to me in English, which was such a relief, I exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, your English is excellent!"  Her sweetish face soured and she said, "I am from Nigeria," like I had asked her when her baby was due, or how her gender reassignment surgery was going.  I had meant no offense . . . it had just been refreshing to hear*.  But hey, I'll probably forever associate Five Guys Burgers with my trip to Europe (we went to three of them, more than any other restaurant),

Well, the cold medicine is kicking in faster than I thought it would.  So, light out, and pleasant journeys.

*There was a German man in the seat next to me on the train from Paris to Stuttgart, who did business in France speaking English, and we had a bit of a conversation.  He had a lot of trouble understanding me, until I up-shifted into a British accent, after which, he exclaimed, "Ah, now you are speaking English!"  True dat.

Rish Outcast 233: Yet Another Christmas Movie

Due to no popular demand, Rish talks about being on extra on yet another holiday movie.

To download the episode, just Right-Click HERE.

To support me on Patreon, Left-Click HERE.

Logo by Gino "Yet Another Anzac Day Movie" Moretto.