Notes from the Cave

Thank you to everyone who responded to my last blog post. I didn't respond individually to anyone, but I read all your responses and appreciate them.

I've decided to keep the blog going. With 13 years of posts, some of which I am still pretty proud of, there's not really any good reason to delete the blog. Even if I wasn't going to update it anymore, I probably wouldn't delete the blog outright. 

But I think I probably will continue to post now and then. I think one of the main reasons why my production has waned so much is because I'm writing podcast scripts now on a regular basis and have very little time to do things like blogging. Also, my writing fix gets satisfied by the script writing, so I don't necessary "need" to blog. 

Anyway, speaking of podcast scripts, in my last Notes from the Cave in February, I promised to keep you abreast of what was going on with all that. I failed in that promise, although I still like saying the word "abreast."

I did start writing for the new podcast company in the early spring. They are called Parcast and they were actually bought by Spotify not long after I started writing for them. They have about 15 or 20 weekly scripted podcasts that they produce. I signed a contract with them and wrote two shows for them. The first was for a podcast called Assassinations and it was a 2-episode series on the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which set off World War I.

The second was another 2-episode series for a show called Kingpins. It was about a marijuana smuggling operation in the Miami in the 1970s.

After that, I signed a new contract with Parcast (for more money, yay!) to write 10 more episodes. I am currently working on the 5th episode in that contract. The first was a 2-episode series for the show Cults about a Satanic cult in Massachusetts in the late 70s that was implicated in a string of prostitute murders. (I wasn't allowed to actually use the word "prostitute" in these scripts where all the characters were pimps and prostitutes. "Prostitute" is not PC, apparently. You have to call them "sex workers." #Hollywood, amiright?)

Then I wrote two stand-alone episodes for a show called Historical Figures. Neither of these has come out yet, so I'll refrain from giving away the subject matter. Both were people I had never heard of before beginning my research.

I'm currently working on another stand-along episode for a show called Gone, which discusses people and objects that have disappeared. I'm going to be writing two stand-alone episodes for this show as well.

The remaining four scripts in the contract have not been assigned yet, so I don't know what they'll be about.

Switching gears, let's talk about music. I'm still practicing the piano on a regular basis, about 4-5 days per week. I'm currently working on 4 songs, 3 of which are ALMOST finished. (Finished, for me, means a relatively clean take recorded on video.)  Those three songs are the third movement of Beethoven's Pathetique Sonata (once learned, this will make 2 complete Beethoven sonatas that I have learned), a fantasia by Mozart, and my own arrangement of the Queen song Bohemian Rhapsody (you're REALLY gonna like that one). The fourth song that still needs some work is my own original classical-style composition called Rondo in A Minor: The Midnight Hour.

As for my composing, I have recently been putting a lot of time into arranging Christmas songs for solo piano. This is something I've been wanting to do since I first started playing again in 2016, but every year it gets to be Christmas time and I realize I've failed to do it. So this year, I started in September arranging Christmas songs. I'm about 75% done with the 19 songs that I've chosen to make arrangements for.

I'm not sure that I'll ever learn every single one of them, although that will remain to be seen. I wish I was good enough to be able to just sight-read all of them. Some of them are easy enough that I can almost do that. But regardless, the software I use will play back anything you write, with electronic versions of the instruments. And in this day and age, the software playback is pretty damn realistic. So after I'm done arranging this set of songs, I'm going to record the playback and then upload each song to YouTube. Then I'll put them all in a Christmas playlist that anyone can access if they want to turn on some solo piano music for Christmas this year. I'll post a link once it's done.

I should point out that the songs I've chosen are all traditional Christmas songs - I'm not a big fan of modern Christmas music, so don't expect any Mariah Carey or Amy Grant Christmas songs. Instead of Josh Groban, think Bing Crosby or Andy Williams.

If you are interested in listening to my compositions, both original compositions as well as numerous arrangements I've done, you can click here and hear them all. The one caveat is that you do have to create an account. But that's free to do. I have piano pieces as well as chamber music (small ensembles) and full orchestral works. I currently have about 70 public pieces. You can also buy some of my sheet music here.

Anyway, thanks as always for reading (and listening!). 

Notes from the Cave

I've had a few days off of work and it's a good thing because I've been sick with sinus crap. It started as primarily a fever and body aches over the weekend and now it's morphed into straight sinus issues. I'm pretty annoyed about the whole thing, honestly.

I was supposed to have breakfast with my parents and my aunt and uncle this morning, and I ended up sleeping right through my alarm because I was up really, really late because I couldn't fall back to sleep after waking up at 230 in the morning with a stomach ache.

On the plus side, I got my birthday presents this week. I only asked for Amazon gift cards for my birthday, so I was able to go on a big shopping spree and clear out some of my wish list, which consists largely of instruments and accessories. I got a banjo, a mandolin, and another harmonica, along with a tuner, some straps and extra strings, stands for the instruments, and a sheet music stand for my violin playing. Now I just have to learn how to play all this new stuff. I'm already planning my first song - a multi-track recording of Oh Susanna, with piano, guitar, banjo, mandolin, harmonica, and fiddle, alternating the melody line among the various instruments. We'll see how that goes.

In any case, Nile River Studios is really beginning to shape up. The only major thing I have left to get is a decent drum set. I have no plans currently to buy a bass guitar, although that might change in the future, just depending on how much recording I decide to do. I've got a MIDI controller I can use to play bass lines so it seems kind of silly to get a bass guitar that I'm otherwise not all that interested in playing for its own sake. All the other things I've bought are instruments I actually want to play as an end in themselves, whether or not I ever record anything with them.

I recently finished recording my latest piano piece which was actually a composition by Erik Satie, one of the French Impressionist musicians of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. I haven't traditionally played much music of this style, but this one is a particularly pretty piece.




I've cut back the number of new songs I'm learning at any given time on the piano, simply because I'm needing more time for playing my other instruments these days. I'm currently only working on 3 new songs, down from the 5 that I've traditionally done in the past. As I've been adding more and more songs to my permanent repertoire, I also need more time to play those songs during my practice sessions to keep them sharp.

Additionally, I MIGHT have a new writing opportunity coming. You all know I wrote a podcast series for Wondery last fall. That all turned out really well and was a great professional writing experience. A few weeks ago, I contacted another podcast company and asked if they were in need of any writers. I ended up talking to one of their producers and sent some writing samples. We're currently working out the details of me maybe writing for one of their shows. So that's all still up in the air, but it looks like a real possibility. So with the potential ahead for more writing work, I figured I should keep my piano practice time as short as possible - I just won't have 3 hours a day if I'm working on a writing project.

Obviously, I'll keep you all abreast (lol, I said "breast") of how that all goes.

Notes from the Cave

I'm not sure if my blog really has a point anymore. 2018 marks the 12th year I've been doing this and I'm feeling more and more like it's run its course. I mean, do people still blog? It's so 2008, right?

Whether I continue to maintain the blog or not, I've decided to end my annual reading list and Serene Musings Book of the Year. Does anyone really care what books I read last year? Or how many? Or which one was my favorite?

How about I just tell you I read 24 books last year, and if I'd chosen a book of the year, it would have been a competition between Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, the classic The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman about the start of World War One, and The Dome, by Stephen King. Sapiens probably would've won.

Last year, I also started an annual "Completed Piano Pieces," list, but again, I think I'll spare you and not make that a tradition. For what it's worth, I am continuing to play 2-3 hours per day, 4-5 days per week, and completed 18 pieces last year, including several of my own compositions (it's one thing to write them, but then you have to learn how to play the damn things).

One of my biggest accomplishments last year was re-learning (after 25 years) all three movements of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. I had learned this originally in high school, and used to play it in college as a way to impress women and scare up some tail (not really), and had always thought of it as my "signature song" - the one I was most proud of being able to play. I officially marked it completed in December, although I'm still working on making it cleaner. If you're interested, you can watch me play the third movement below. As usual, let me qualify the performance by telling you up front there are some wonky notes here and there. Also, near the end, my camera tipped over and I had to stop and fix it. Oops!  It's also important to remember that I'm playing on a 600-dollar digital keyboard that has a limited touch and dynamic range, so don't expect freaking Alfred Brendel.  (I know, I know, no one knows who the hell that is.  He's a famous concert pianist and especially well-known for his Beethoven recordings.)



I've still got it in my head to publish a book of my own piano arrangements of well-known old-time songs - things like Home on the Range, America the Beautiful, My Old Kentucky Home, etc. I've arranged 10 so far, but have a few more on my list. I'm not actually positive that I've got the software I'll need to effectively get the pieces into the self-publishing platform that I use at Amazon, so I may end up not being able to do it.

As you may have noticed in the video above, I'm wearing a brace on my right forearm. I've started having to wear it at work too. I've jokingly been telling people I've been training for my third triathlon.  (Did you realize "triathlon" had no second "A" in it?? It's not "tri-ath-a-lon" but "tri-ath-lon." I'll be damned).

Anyway, it's not really a triathlon injury - it's a repetitive motion injury from piano playing. For the first year after I started playing again, I was doing scale exercises (the so-called Hanon exercises) that involved playing continuous, high velocity scales and arpeggios for 30-40 minutes. It was fantastic for helping me to re-learn finger dexterity and whatnot, but whenever I would do them, I'd develop tension in my right forearm - almost like a shin splint, like a muscle tightening up. Stopping and resting for a minute, and stretching my arm out, would usually help ease the tension, and it would go away completely once I finished my warm-up and started practicing and playing my regular songs.

When I started to notice I was having pain in the same spot while lifting heavy digital x-ray cassettes at work, I decided maybe I should quit doing the Hanon exercises (I had gotten to the point by then where I was probably ready to retire from them anyway). So I quit doing the exercises in November, but I'm still having the pain in my forearm. It doesn't really hurt when I play, but when I'm done my arm feels tight around the elbow, particularly when I extend my arm. The brace helps with the pain, but I'm concerned that it hasn't gotten better yet. I mean, it's obviously tendinitis, but how long does that last? (Why do we spell it "tendon" when it's just a tendon, but "tendinitis" when it's tendinitis? Shouldn't it be "tendonitis"?)

I haven't posted on Twitter in almost 3 weeks and as far as I know, no one has noticed. That always makes you feel nice, especially considering I typically post multiple times per day. I decided I needed a break from social media, but I'm so pathetic and needy that I keep checking it to see if anyone has mentioned me being gone. No one has said a word. Guess I'll just kill myself.

(I'm just kidding, don't everyone start panicking. And yes, you're right, suicide is no laughing matter.)

(Why do we add a "K" to panic when writing it as a present participle, e.g. "panicking"? English is dumb.)

Have I carried on long enough yet?

I got a real live record player for Christmas. I've always been dismissive of those "purists" who only want to hear music on vinyl - could you be a little less pretentious please? But over the last few years as I've gotten more and more into old music (70s and earlier), I've started wanting to listen to some of my favorite stuff on vinyl. Also, there are some old albums (Christmas albums in particular) that are long, long out of print, and I'd like to have the songs on them, and the only way to get them is to buy old vinyl records. So I got a turntable.

The problem is, I don't actually have any records yet. Anybody got any vinyl they want to give/sell/loan me?

Okay, you're off the hook. I'll stop now.

Notes from the Cave - Current Events Edition

In this edition of Notes from the Cave, I'm going to be expressing strong opinions on current events. I'm also going to be using some cuss words and doing some name-calling. Read on at your own peril. 

The NFL:

I hate football. I particularly despise the NFL. I think it is a bloated, money-ruined organization that appeals to the lowest common denominator in humanity. That doesn't mean I think every NFL fan is a scumbag - my Mom is a huge NFL fan, after all, and I think my Mom is pretty awesome. But I still hate the NFL. 

I don't give a damn whether an NFL player kneels during the National Anthem. I don't give a damn what anyone does during the National Anthem, whether they stand, sit, kneel, or fall to the floor and convulse. I also don't care what their reason is for whatever they choose to do - whether they are sitting because they're too butt-ass lazy to get up, or because they hate America, or because they're deaf and don't realize the National Anthem is playing. I can't for the life of me understand why so many people DO, in fact, care what other people do during the National Anthem. 

A co-worker this week roped me into a conversation about this, expressing the opinion that if NFL players can't be bothered to stand, they should move to another country. I told her I thought that was a stupid opinion and she didn't like that very much. It's stupid because you're suggesting someone should literally immigrate to another country if they won't stand at attention in front of a colorful piece of cloth while a song is played. Honestly, that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

Whether you approve of kneeling during the anthem or not, and whether you agree that there is racial injustice in this country or not, these guys believe their IS racial injustice in this country, and they are using their platform in the NFL to highlight that injustice by not standing during the National Anthem. Maybe you think they should do it a different way. What way would be appropriate, I wonder? When they march in the streets, you call them thugs and gangs of hoodlums, after all. The reality is, you'd rather they just shut right up.  

History shows that mainstream society virtually never supports protests, regardless of subject or form. Majority opinion is always that protesters are basically in the wrong. In time, however, majority opinion frequently changes. A Gallup poll in 1966 showed that something like 63% of Americans had a negative view of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his protests. Today, that number is now 4%.  A majority of Americans in the '60s also disapproved of sit-ins and freedom riders. Now those people are regarded as heroes. 

I'm not saying Colin Kaepernick (sp?) or anyone else in the NFL is going to be regarded as a hero in the future. I'm just saying that protests are always unpopular ... until they aren't. And yes, BLACK protests are typically even more unpopular than most. White society doesn't like being reminded that black people don't have the same opportunities or advantages as white people.

The Pledge of Allegiance:

This isn't, specifically, in the news right now, but I did see a report that KISS recently stopped their concert to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance - which is clearly intended to be a political statement about patriotism and whatever. 

I think the Pledge of Allegiance is sinister in the extreme. It's straight out of some Orwellian nightmare: the sort of thing they'd do in North Korea. I realize most Americans don't think much of it and consider it no more than an act of benign patriotism. But if you actually think about what the Pledge of Allegiance is, and what it stands for, it's pretty disturbing. 

In the past, there has been controversy over the pledge because of the words "under God." I couldn't care less about that part of it - although it's worth noting that "under God" wasn't even IN the pledge until added by presidential proclamation in the 1950s, during the Red Scare over atheistic communism. 

In any case, I think standing at attention before a colorful piece of cloth, with your hand over your heart, chanting a pledge of allegiance to a government and a nation state, is positively ridiculous. Again, it's like something out of an Orwell novel. Whatever happened to rugged American individualism? I don't know about you, but I believe in being a good citizen of the world and of my country, being a good steward of the earth, and treating others with love and respect, but I don't pledge loyalty to anything but my family and myself. I certainly don't pledge loyalty to a broken country that does more things wrong than it does right. Even if it did EVERYTHING right, I wouldn't be comfortable standing and ritually chanting a pledge of allegiance to it. Most adults aren't often in situations where they are expected to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but anytime I do find myself in such a situation, I don't participate.

Idolatry: 

I believe that this whole controversy over the NFL and the National Anthem is an example of widespread American idolatry.

Idolatry is typically a term we expect to hear at church when reading the Old Testament. The Hebrews building a golden calf and worshipping it and all that crap. 

In this country, the way we treat the flag is nothing short of idolatry, in every sense of the Biblical term. The earliest generations of Christians, in fact, would be HORRIFIED at our traditions in regards to the flag. They literally went to their deaths rather than do the equivalent of pledging allegiance to the flag or standing with their hats off and hands over their heart during the National Anthem. 

In their society, it consisted of showing proper respect for the emperor, who, like the flag, was the embodiment of the state, its laws, and its ideals. They refused to do that and were subsequently persecuted, tortured, and sometimes executed. Why did they refuse to do it? Because it represented idolatry. To them, no one and nothing deserved that sort of obedience other than God. 

Today's equivalent is the flag and the National Anthem - representing the state, its laws, and its ideals. Standing at attention before the flag and chanting a pledge of allegiance to the state, or listening to the National Anthem, is literally like a religious ritual - a secular rite that everyone is expected to take part in. 

You may not agree that there is anything idolatrous in showing respect for the flag or chanting a pledge of allegiance to the state with your hand over your heart. But the earliest Christians would disagree with you. You, in fact, are on the side of the people who persecuted the early Christians for being "bad Romans." I'm sure those people also wondered aloud why Christians "didn't just leave if they hate it so much." 

Gun Control:

Every few years, the record for the largest mass shooting in U.S. history is broken. Previously, it was Virginia Tech, in 2007. Then it was Orlando, in 2016. Now it's Las Vegas, in 2017. The record has literally been broken 3 times in 10 years. 6 of the 10 largest mass shooting in U.S. history have occurred in that same time frame. 

If you think we don't need more laws to address this, you are an asshole. In fact, you're not just an asshole, you are a 10 out of 10 on the asshole range. Yes, I mean you. 

Las Vegas is not going to change anything. And the reason why is because so many people - assholes - are profoundly emotionally connected to their belief in the "right to bear arms." They have gulped down the NRA kool-aid and they have been suckered into believing the gun lobby's interpretation of the 2nd Amendment. And they've elected leaders who agree with them. 

I read a report saying that a country music guitarist, who performed shortly before the shooting in Las Vegas, has come out saying that while he used to be a big 2nd Amendment guy, Las Vegas has changed his mind. You know what? Glad you changed your mind, but you're still an asshole. Know why? Because if it takes experiencing a mass shooting in real life before you have enough empathy and basic human decency to support sensible gun control legislation, you might be an asshole! 

I'm glad he's changed his mind, and I'm glad he's using his platform to advertise his change of mind, but he's still an asshole. Instead of being a 10 on the asshole scale, he's maybe moved up to an 8. Short of becoming a full-fledged gun control advocate, however, he will remain an asshole in my book. 

As far as I'm concerned, you had a free pass on your views on gun control ... right up until Sandy Hook in 2012. That was the mass shooting where 20 school children were slaughtered at school by a previously law-abiding citizen with legally-obtained guns. If 20 dead school children didn't change your mind, guess what? You're a fucking asshole. 

Skyline Chili:

The black bean and rice 3-way at Skyline is significantly better than the original Skyline 3-way. The reason why is because the original Skyline 3-way is just spaghetti with cheese and a funny-tasting, cinnamon-flavored, diarrhea-colored and -textured meat sauce that Skyline mistakenly believes is "chili." 

Notes from the Cave

As I've reported before, I'm continuing to work on arranging "old-timey" songs for piano solo, with the intent to publish them in a collection later this year. I'm calling this my Opus 1.

My Opus 2 is a piano suite, in 6 movements, telling the story in music of the White Ship. The White Ship sank in the English Channel in the year 1120, drowning the heir to the throne of England and setting the stage for a 16-year civil war known as the Anarchy in British history.

I've recently finished learning a Mozart sonata (just the first movement) that I have been working on since December, as well as my second Joplin rag. I've also been learning the songs that I've been arranging, and recently posted a performance of my arrangement of Stephen Foster's "Camptown Races."



There are a few wonky notes in there, but I'm still in the phase of hitting wonky notes, particularly when the camera is rolling.  I'll probably always be in the phase of hitting wonky notes, for that matter.

I'm currently learning the prelude to Bach's fugue in G, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (which was one of my specialties in college), and a Stephen Foster piece for piano (one of his rare instrumental pieces) called Santa Anna's Retreat from Buena Vista, which was written in 1848, presumably in honor of Zachary Taylor's campaign for president. Taylor had been the victor over Santa Anna two years earlier during the Mexican War (which was, by the way, the most immoral and unjustifiable war in America's history). At the time, Taylor was a national hero and certifiable celebrity. He was also the only president before He Who Shall Not Be Named who had no political experience before winning the White House. His presidency was, of course, largely a disaster and he died after about 18 months in office. Just sayin'.

But this is a politics-free zone so lets talk about sex instead. Just kidding. Honestly, music, reading, and work is about all I do these days and I don't have much else to talk about.

I just wrote a paragraph about work and decided it sounded so jaded and cynical that I didn't want to put it out there for the world to read. So I deleted it.

Let's try reading instead. I'm currently reading a book called Foundation, which is an overview of British history from the ancient past up through the end of the 15th century. I wanted to learn more about the ancient history of Britain in particular, although the author really only spent a few chapters on that. The bulk of the book covers the Middle Ages, although I really enjoy reading about that too.

I'm also reading Under the Dome, by Stephen King. I am very picky about what King books I read, but I watched the CBS series that was based on the book and decided I wanted to read it. It's a monster - well over a thousand pages - but it's good.

I've got something like 59 books to be read on my Kindle, another 4 or 5 print books that I've had for years and haven't read yet, and an additional 85 books on my Kindle Wish List. I have a serious problem.

Remember when I used to have a trampoline? Some of you may. Well, we're getting another one! My 11-year-old has been campaigning for one all summer and she's finally broken me down. It'll be a good way for her to exercise and if I can stomach it, maybe it'll be a good way for me to get some additional cardio as well. I jumped on my sister-in-law's trampoline a few weeks ago and felt queasy afterward, but I'd just eaten a huge meal and had some beer in me too, so I'm hoping that wasn't a normal thing. Trampolining is a good cardio workout and also good for your abs, and God knows I need to do something about my abs. I hate crunches and won't do them, so maybe this will be a way to slim down a bit. I'm over the waist-to-belly ratio that is a marker for heart disease, so I need to lose some of my gut.

That's enough for now.

Notes from the Cave

I'm continuing to work on my songbook (which I mentioned in the last post), where I'm arranging a collection of "old timey" songs for piano solo. I'm doing "old timey" songs because anything more recent than 75 years ago is likely under copyright and thus can't be freely used.

I've recently finished an arrangement of America the Beautiful, and I'm currently about three-fourths of the way through My Old Kentucky Home. Up next is Massa's in de Cold Ground, my all-time favorite Stephen Foster song.

Here's one I did a few weeks back. It's an arrangement of an old hymn called Just As I Am.



I recently had an idea for a blog post related to Kentucky basketball, but I abandoned it because I discovered that my main thesis was basically false (this is what's called being "intellectually honest"). Like many UK fans, I felt that Kentucky got an insanely unfair road to the Final Four in this year's NCAA tournament - they were the first team in NCAA history to play three 30-win teams before the Final Four. Basically, 3 of the 4 teams they played had 30+ wins by the time they played them. They ended up losing by 2 points to the 3rd of those 3 teams. This is not the first time that an unfair bracket has been complained of by UK fans. So I decided to do a blog post comparing other major programs (Duke, UNC, Kansas, maybe a few others) to UK to demonstrate how Kentucky is more likely to get difficult paths to the Final Four.

In reviewing past tournament brackets, I discovered that it's basically bullshit. Yes, Kentucky got screwed this year, but while they may sometimes have tough roads in the tournament, they don't always have tough roads, and other teams could easily make similar arguments. I won't go into all the data now, but essentially any team that routinely gets a high seed could argue that they "often" get a tough road through the tournament. It's just the UK fans (myself included) tend to only pay attention to UK's seeding and UK's potential path.

I've really been enjoying the new show on NBC called Trial and Error.  It stars John Lithgow and it's a spoof of trial documentaries. It's silly, but I think it's hilarious and well-written. I highly recommend it.

Now that I am not on Facebook, the readership of my new blog posts has declined considerably. I guess I didn't realize how many people on Facebook actually clicked on the links I shared. Oh well, it's not enough to make me get back on Facebook.

Melanie and the girls are on Spring Break this week, but I'm unfortunately working a lot because I have a co-worker out on medical leave, requiring the rest of us on third shift to pick up extra hours. It's really amazing how, when you're used to working three 12-hour shifts, having to work extra days, even when some of those shifts are only 8 hours, really screws with your mojo. It makes you realize how much you value that time off!

After debating and discussing it for the last two years, we finally got a new dog on Sunday. We've wanted a playmate for Sophie for a long time, but hadn't ever pulled the trigger. I had actually sort of gotten over it, but Melanie and Sydney continued to look and follow adoption sites and they finally found one they wanted. We had to apply to adopt, but our application was chosen so we brought Maggie home on Sunday. Sophie is a full-bred Havanese, but Maggie is half Havanese, half Cocker Spaniel. We jokingly call her a Have-a-Cock. She's the runt of her litter and since she's only 9 weeks old anyway, she is tiny. The dogs are getting along well though and I think they're both going to do well. I fancy myself a dog whisperer, so I'm working hard on house breaking and training. She's doing well so far, although she's very timid and has awful separation anxiety - two things Sophie didn't have issues with.

I guess that's enough boring shit about my life for today. Peace.

Notes from the Cave

Thanks to everyone who has responded to my last couple of blog posts with thoughts and advice. It's appreciated. I've decided to go ahead and more or less disengage for the time being from politics. It's just too overwhelming and there is so little of real value that I can actually do. There's just no reason to feel guilty for being powerless to change anything. It's just reality.  I'll leave the hard work to those who are in better positions to fight than I am, and put my trust in their progress.

In other news...

I finally got a new desk chair at home. I had been without one for about a year since the last one broke down after years of abuse by my children, their friends, and my niece and nephews (not to mention my increasingly fatter ass sitting in it for untold hours). I'd had that chair since 2000. For the last year or so, I've been using a horribly uncomfortable metal folding chair. Thanks to a Christmas gift card, I've now got a Serta desk chair that is super comfortable. I could sit here and watch TV in it.

I also recently got a book of Elton John piano music. These are note-for-note transcripts of the recorded versions of the songs. I'd had one of these in college, but it was not with my other music books when I pulled them all back out last year after getting my piano. I have no idea what happened to it. It's been fun playing some of these old songs again. I only wish my friend Mike Houchens was still around to sing to them while I play. I've also got a Billy Joel book of the same type, although I think I like playing the Elton John songs better. Elton is a little more of a classical-type to Billy's jazz-inspired stuff.

I'm currently reading a book called Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, by Yuval Noah Harari, an Israeli historian. I highly recommend it. As the title suggests, it's an overview of literally all of human history, from our earliest human ancestors up through the 21st century. I'm still only on the "cave men" part, but the survey so far has been fascinating and informative.

Notes from the Cave

My computer hasn't actually been in "the Cave" since before Christmas.  I've had it parked in the dining room because it's just too damn cold in the basement during the winter.  If April hadn't dawned with continued cold temperatures, I'd have probably moved back to the Cave by now.

In any case...

The latest news is that I'm going to see Guns n' Roses in Cincinnati in July.  I grew up on GnR but never would have dreamed of seeing them in high school, for fear of getting a contact high and getting my ass kicked.  I knew a few people who DID go to see them in Dayton in early 1992 when I was in my junior year at Lakota, and my one memory of it is a guy showing up at school that following morning with eyes bloodshot as hell, telling us how they hadn't gone on stage until after midnight and it had been past 4 am when he got home.

25 years later, I'm finally going to see them.  After breaking up in the mid-1990s, and the members swearing for years a reunion would never happen - at least not between Axl Rose and Slash - they finally announced a reunion tour early this year.  They're playing all football stadiums, so it will undoubtedly be an enormous production.  I got tickets in the nosebleed section of Paul Brown Stadium, although they were still $82 bucks apiece.  Tickets in the floor section were $250 apiece.  What a crock.  But it's okay.  I figure the upper decks will be a little less crazy and the sound will in all likelihood be better.  By pure providence, they are playing in Cincinnati during a week I had already taken off from work.  God clearly wants me to see them.

After several weeks of delays, the house my parents are building in Hebron has finally been completed.  Syd and I did the walk-through with them on Monday.  They hope to close sometime next week.

We'd originally expected it to be done in mid-March, so the last few weeks have been frustrating as they kept pushing back the closing date.  Considering the mild winter we had, they really didn't have an excuse, but home builders know they have you by the balls when you put money down on a property, so what do they really care?  In any case, they're hoping to be moving in by next weekend.  I still can't quite get my mind wrapped around my parents living walking distance away from me.  They've been 1000 miles away for literally my entire adulthood - since the year I turned 18.

Back in February I went down to western Kentucky to spend a few days with my aunt and uncle while my parents were staying with them there.  We did some graveyard hopping and I was able to see the gravestones of all four of my grandparents as well as some of my great grandparents.  We didn't have time to go to all of the cemeteries, and one of my great grandparents - who died in a car accident in 1938 - doesn't even have a gravestone in the place where he's buried - but it was still neat to see the ones we had time to get to.  We even walked through an old family cemetery (the Lile family, which is my maternal grandmother's family) that is on private property and has burials going back to the mid-1800s.

My paternal grandmother's parents.  I discovered through ancestry.com that Ora Elizabeth, who died when I was 10, was actually a bastard.  Memaw never told us that!  Granison is the only member of my family, besides me, who had a heart attack.  He died in 1953. 

My paternal grandfather's parents.  Their picture is below.  Notice Mandy Christmas died on Christmas day.

Though you can't read anything on this tombstone, I know from a family genealogy page that this is the tombstone of my maternal great-great grandmother.  She died in 1953 and was the last person buried in the old Lile family cemetery.  She was born pre-Civil War in 1854.  Her son, my great grandfather, died at the age of 98 on my 3rd birthday.

I know all of you were just dying (no pun intended) to read all about my family history.

Anyway, I had some really great posts to make about politics last month, but I accidentally deleted the text message I had sent myself with my ideas about what to say.  So those thoughts have now moved off into the ether.  However, since energy cannot be created or destroyed, they're still out there somewhere.  If you breathe deeply enough, maybe you'll catch them.

I promise I'm not high.

To sum up: Donald Trump pretends to be a crazy right-winger.  Ted Cruz actually IS a crazy right-winger.  The Republicans have screwed themselves in this election.  Welcome to the White House President Clinton.

Spring Break is next week for my kids and wife, and they are going to the lake.  Unfortunately, next week is my "bad week" at work, and I have to work all week.  So I'll have to miss out on the lake.  However, we are going to Florida with Mel's family this summer, so we're all looking forward to that.  I also have a week off in May and that other week off in July during the GnR concert, so I'm not complaining.

I'm working on my next novel, which will be published in two parts.  It's called The Fourth Sign of the Falcon.  I'm almost done with the first major edit of part 1, so I hope to have it published in the next few months.  I'll keep you updated :)

Notes from the Cave: Dining Room Edition

It's been a bad year for blogging.  I'm not sure why my productivity in this regard has slacked off so much.  Perhaps it's because I've been working on novels again this year, and that's taken the place that used to be used by blogging.  If so, then it's not such a bad thing that I haven't blogged as much.

In any case, this edition of NFTC is coming to you from the dining room, where my computer has been camped out for the last month or so.  It's a little more cramped in here than normal, as we are storing some Pottery Barn furniture that my parents have bought for their new house (which won't be finished until March).  We wouldn't have Pottery Barn furniture in our house otherwise, that's for damn sure.  We prefer cheap and hand-me-down.  Okay, we don't actually prefer that, but she's a teacher and I'm an X-ray tech.

As you can see from this picture I just took of myself in the dining room, I'm doing No-Shave-November.  For me, that means also doing No-Shave-September-and-October.  I can grow facial hair, unlike my sad, pathetic friend Mike, but it grows very slowly.  So this year, I decided to start early on not shaving, so I could have a manbeard by November.  Some have described my beard as a dead muskrat, but I'm still proud of him.  My beard's name is James, I prefer for you to call him by his first name.  Thanks.

If you're wondering, he's named after my beard hero, James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States.

Maybe one day, I'll have a beard like this guy. Hopefully, I won't get shot by an assassin, like he did.

It wouldn't be Notes from the Cave if I didn't make a political statement, and I have to say that I am super bummed by Jack Conway's decisive loss in the Kentucky governor's election.  The polls had him leading throughout the entire campaign, including a 5% lead in the last poll before the election. This is actually the second election year in a row (last year's involved Mitch McConnell's re-election to the Senate) in which the Kentucky polls have been totally wrong.  I'm not sure who is in charge of conducting polls in Kentucky, but they aren't doing a very good job.  Matt Bevin, a tea party right winger who has vowed to undo everything his Democratic predecessor did, won by 9 percentage points.  That's a swing of 14 percentage points from what the polls said.  Bevin ended up with almost 53% of the total vote; the final poll had showed him earning 40%.  Unbelievable that a professional political poll could be that off the mark in the 21st century.

In any case, I hope his term as governor isn't as awful as I fear it will be.  The last Republican governor Kentucky had (we'd only had one since the early 70s prior to Bevin being elected) had a term plagued by minor scandals and he lost his re-election bid four years later (to the guy who just left office).  Of course, that guy (Ernie Fletcher was his name) wasn't a far right winger like Matt Bevin is.  I fear Kentucky is going to get exactly what it voted for.

Well, enough of that.  I'm really excited about the start of cold weather this year (amazing, I know) because all my favorite winter beers are starting to come out, particularly my beloved porters, which you can hardly find in the summer.  I'm drinking a Leinenkugel's Snowdrift Vanilla Porter as I type.  I recently had another called Diesel Punk that was pretty good (and nicely priced, for a craft beer, as well), and then there's my favorite, the porter made by my local Cincinnati brewery Rhinegeist, called Panther.  In a past life, I clearly worked as a porter (someone who carries stuff for people) in 18th century London (which is where this type of ale was invented; it was named after the porters working the London dockyards, who had a particular affinity for it).

I know I've been promising it all year, but I'm going to be publishing some novels pretty soon on Amazon.  One is a thriller set in modern day Australia, and the other is a historical thriller set in 1920s Europe.

Very glad that college basketball is finally under way again.  Kentucky has easily won its first two games against small programs.  The first big test will be this Tuesday against Duke, who is ranked 5th.  Kentucky is ranked 2nd to start the season.  Like other years, they have a bunch of highly-rated new players, but unlike some other years, they also have a fair amount of upperclassmen.  This could definitely be a championship-caliber team.  I have to qualify all this, however, by admitting that last March, after Kentucky's devastating and soul-crushing loss in the Final Four to ruin a perfect season, I swore I wasn't going to get as emotionally attached this year.  And I'm not.  I didn't even watch the first two games, although I have to admit that was only because I had to work.

What else?  I'm currently reading two very long books: a 600-page nonfiction book called The Fall of the Roman Empire, by a British historian named Peter Heather (which is partly for enjoyment and partly for research for a novel I plan to write in the future), and a 1200-page novel called Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons, about "mind vampires" - people who can occupy other people's minds and force them to kill.  I'm enjoying both immensely.

I currently have 40, yes 40, books on my Amazon wish list.  Just in case you want to get me a gift card.

Construction has finally gotten started on the house my parents are building in Hebron.  Pretty excited about them moving up here.  Dad already retired and Mom retires December 30.  They have to be out of their house down there at the end of November, so they'll be staying in a hotel through December.  They leave New Year's Eve for England, where they will stay for 3 weeks.  They then return to Houston, get in their car, and drive up here, where they will go between my aunt and uncle's house in western Kentucky, my aunt and uncle's house in Indianapolis, and us, until their house is finished in March.  Their stuff will be in storage in Houston until they move.

          
Hopefully they've delivered the wood by now and will be starting soon on the actual structure.  I know none of you really care about this, but it's my blog, so.

Okay, I guess that's enough for now.  Merry Christmas if I don't blog again before then.  And I probably won't.

Notes from the Cave

I really hate Facebook.  I've been wanting to get off of Facebook for a long time, but simply don't have the balls to do it.  I'd hate to lose that platform for getting in contact with people when I want to get in contact with them.    

However, I have recently removed the shortcut to the app on my phone and it has made a big difference.  Now, if I want to get on Facebook, I have to open my application manager and get to it. That's typically way more work than I'm willing to do in passing, so I end up hardly ever getting on Facebook.  

If you're like me, and want to get away from Facebook, but don't want to disconnect completely, I highly recommend this option. 

If you're like me, Facebook has caused you to change your opinion about way too many people that you otherwise like because you've found out they have political and/or religious beliefs that piss you off

I'm coming up on the end of a nice little run of days off at work, due to some scheduling switches I made with a coworker.  I switched to 3rd shift a few months back, working three 12-hour shifts each week.  Because of Labor Day and the switches I made, I've had a string of only working 3 shifts in 15 days.  Unfortunately it all comes to an end on Friday.  I go back to work Friday night and I've got 5 shifts in 6 days.  That's 60 hours in 6 days.  So I'll have to pay for all my time off, but I think it's still been worth it. 

As many of you know, I love listening to classic country music.  I despise modern country - pretty much anything since the year 2000, and I'm picky about 80s and 90s country, but anything prior to 1980 I pretty much love.  As a result, my favorite SiriusXM station in Willie's Roadhouse and over the last couple of years I've become pretty familiar with all the country classics. 

Some of my favorites.  From top to bottom, left to right: Tennessee Ernie Ford, Lefty Frizzell, Marty Robbins, Waylon Jennings, Ray Price, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., George Jones, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Willie Nelson

Anyway, one thing I've noticed about old country music lyrics is the way that the meaning of certain words has changed over time.  Take for instance the following sentence:

My daddy and I are swingers and we love to go out and get stoned.  

Here, in the 21st century, this sentence would be eye-opening at best, and cause for a phone call to the authorities at worst.  

But in the old days of country music, you would simply have been asserting that you and your boyfriend/husband like to party and drink.  

When I first started listening to classic country, I remember being surprised how often they talked about "getting stoned."  Then I came to the realization that they were referring to drinking, not doing drugs or smoking pot.  And "swinging" was a reference to partying.  A"daddy" was, obviously, a sugar daddy - a male romantic partner.  

A daddy's partner, by the way, is his baby, or, more creepily, his "little girl."  

For those of you who are curious, my novel Walkabout, which I spent the summer pitching to literary agents, is currently under consideration by two different agents who asked to see portions of the manuscript.  I am waiting to hear back from them.  If neither of these opportunities pans out, I will likely go ahead and self-publish the novel through Amazon.  If I do that, I intend to make the book available in both e-book and paperback formats. 

I'm currently working on another novel which, like Walkabout, is an old novel that I am cleaning up. I don't plan on pitching this one to agents; as soon as I'm finished with the overhaul, I'm going to self-publish it.  

Of course I'll let everyone know when these books are available.   

We just finished watching Under the Dome on Amazon Prime.  This was a CBS series that just ended last week after three seasons.  It was based on a Stephen King novel.  The first season was pretty good.  The second season was okay.  The third season got super weird and more or less jumped the shark, but we went ahead and finished it out anyway because each season was only 13 episodes and we knew it was probably going to be ending after this season anyway.  We're now starting a "new" old series called 4400 which originally aired on USA starting in 2004, but is now on Netflix.  We've watched the first episode and it seems decent.  We'll see how it pans out.

Of course, everything, by necessity, must always pale in comparison to Lost, the Greatest TV Show of All Time. 

For those of you who have been closely following my life for the past 25 years (so like, all of you, amiright?), you may be interested to know that my parents are retiring and moving back to Kentucky from Texas, where they've been living since the early 90s.  Dad has already retired, and Mom will be retiring at the end of the year.  They've already purchased a lot here in northern Kentucky and the builders should be breaking ground on the new house any day now.  It probably won't be finished until late winter/early spring, so it's still a few months before they move, but the plans are all in motion. 

For me, it's going to be very strange having my parents nearby (literally walking distance from us) for the first time in my entire adulthood.  I was 16 when Dad moved to Houston, and 18 when Mom joined him there after I finished high school.  So I have never had my parents close by in my adulthood.  I've actually lived more years since they left than I ever lived with them here.  It will be an adjustment having them so close, but I am looking forward to it.        

Notes from the Cave

I'm happy to report that the reason for my dearth of blog posts is not due to total uselessness on my part, but because I've been spending the last three or four months working on a novel. 

It's not a new novel, but is one that I wrote about ten years ago.  In preparation for a writer's conference that I attended in February, I decided to do a major update and reworking of the novel. This involved things as simple as changing my characters' cell phones from circa-2004 flip phones to modern smart phones, and things as complex as adding entirely new characters and rewriting whole chapters and sections.  

I've finally finished the rewrite, and now have only the final read-through/edit to complete.  That shouldn't take me long.  

I've already submitted the book to two agents who I met at the writer's conference, and I plan to submit it to numerous others once the final edit is complete.  If I am not able to get any attention from agents, I will self-publish it on Amazon, making it available in both print and e-book format.  

So one way or another, faithful reader, you will be able to buy this novel. Hopefully you won't think it sucks. 

I'm on vacation this week.  It's the girls' spring break, so I took the week off too.  We went to the lake for a few days and came back on Tuesday.  The boat's not in the water yet and the hot tub at the house is broken, so there wasn't a whole lot to do down there; however, we went primarily just to get away.  The weather was nice, at least, and I was able to walk every day, although I ate and drank like a total glutton.  I watched Kentucky's heart-attack-inducing Elite Eight win over Notre Dame down there.  I think I lost a few Twitter followers after the game, thanks to my profanity-laced tirades.  

If the Final Four game this weekend against Wisconsin is that bad, I'll probably have to turn it off.  I seriously think it's probably not good for my heart.  :| 

Anyway, how about them CATS?!?!?  

I actually bought my first ever UK apparel last week.  As much as I love Kentucky basketball, I've never been one to buy sports apparel.  I've had some baseball-related stuff bought for me in the past, and I do have a Reds cap and  UK toboggan, but I've never really been into advertising my favorite sports team on my body.  

But last week I caved and spent thirty dollars on a UK shirt, which I then wore all day Friday at work at my Cincinnati hospital. I walked into one patient's room and he groaned and said, "Aw, you are not gonna wear that shirt into this room!"  Clearly a sad, pathetic UC fan.  :)  After I got done taking his X-ray, I dunked on his ass.  

I felt like there was more for me to say, but I have the feeling it was probably mostly political opinions, and you don't really want to read those anyway.  

Peace out.  

Notes from the Cave: Christmas Week Edition

So in case you've been living under a rock, or otherwise pay very little attention to me, I recently published my 9th book on Amazon.com.  It's a history of American political parties.  Each chapter covers a different political party, and I generally go in chronological order, starting with the Federalists of the 1790s and going up through the modern day.  Each chapter ends with a summary of the vital statistics for the party in question.  In addition to readers interested in political history, it's also a good book for anyone interested in American history in general, because our political history is interwoven so closely with our national history.  It's also a great resource for students and teachers.

Buy it here and be sure to leave me a nice review :)



Also, remember that as an e-book, it would make a great last minute gift idea, since it gets delivered instantly.  

I don't remember if I've noted it in previous editions of NFTC, but now that I've finished my political parties book, I am working on a novel.  It's not a new novel, but an old one that I finished in 2004.  I'm attending a writer's conference in Louisville in February and have paid for a 10-minute, one-on-one interview with a literary agent where I will have the opportunity to pitch a novel.  Since there wasn't time to write something new, I decided to pick one of my old ones, re-write/re-work it, and use that.  The book in question is an adventure thriller set in Australia.  I'm under a time limit, so the pressure is on, and I've still got a lot of work to do.  I've pretty much been working on it every day, including weekends and holidays.  

Today is the Sunday before Christmas and we are celebrating with M's Indiana relatives at her parents' house.  Now that they have moved to our side of the river, it's only a short ten minute drive. That's really nice, because in the past we've always had to drive forty minutes to get to her parent's house.  I'm actually looking forward to sitting around all day eating, talking, and watching TV.

My parents were in town from Texas for Christmas last weekend and we had a good time.  It's weird to realize this will be the last Christmas they have to travel up here to see us.  By this time next year, they should be retired and living here.  Dad moved down there in 1991, and Mom joined him when I graduated from high school in 1993, so I've pretty much never had my parents close by in my adulthood.  It will be weird having them accessible.  Weird for them too, I'm sure.  

I recently finished Ken Follett's Century Trilogy - a series of three books about several families set against the history of the 20th century and its biggest events.  The books are all really long, but they were good and are certainly recommended for anyone interested in 20th century world history.  They did not have the magic of his historical epic Pillars of the Earth, which still remains my undisputed favorite novel of all time, but I gave them each 4 stars on Goodreads.  I'm currently reading a novel by Dan Simmons, a historical/horror novelist I just discovered this year.  I loved the first book of his I read - The Terror - and this one, which is called Summer of Night, looks like it's going to be really good (I've only read one chapter, but it was a good start).

For a brief UK basketball update, they absolutely demolished UCLA last night (the halftime score was an unbelievable 41-7), and if they can beat Louisville (at Louisville) next weekend, they have a very, very good chance of going undefeated this year.  Rhetoric aside, if they continue like they've played in their first 12 games, they could be among the greatest college basketball teams in history.  They have to win a national title first, of course, but unless something drastic happens, you'd be a fool to bet against them.  

In honor of Christmas, how about a list of Christmas favorites?

Favorite Christmas Movie: Scrooge, starring Albert Finney.  This is a British musical version of the classic Dickens tale, made in about 1970.  It's exactly what you'd expect a British musical from 1970 to be like, and I absolutely adore it. 

Favorite Classic Christmas Song: Here We Come a'Wassailing, as sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Ford's Christmas songs were a major part of the soundtrack to my childhood Christmases, and this one has always been my favorite.  His voice fairly screams "Christmas" to me, and I just love this particular tune.  

Favorite Modern Christmas Song: Christmas Canon Rock, by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.  This was a no-brainer.  I'm pretty much a traditional Christmas music guy...I don't like much Christmas music made after 1980 (Amy Grant being a major exception), but I love a lot of the Christmas music done by TSO.  What could be better than a fusion of three of my favorite music genres: Christmas, Classical, and Hard Rock?  

Best Christmas of All Time: 1988.  I still think of this as the last Christmas of my childhood, and also the best.  I was 13 and in 8th grade, and it was really the last year that I still maintained that spark of magical childhood excitement over the Christmas holiday.  We had just moved to Cincinnati from Louisville that summer, and my parents went a little crazy with the presents that year, I think probably because they felt guilty for uprooting me from my friends and comfort zone.  I definitely didn't transition well to the move, and looking back now, I suspect that Christmas was partly their attempt to assuage my pubescent angst.  I don't remember everything I got, but I know I got a TV for my room, and bunch of other crap that I wanted.  

I suppose that's enough for now.  As per the norm, I feel like I had more to say, but now I can't remember.  Merry Christmas!    

Notes from the Cave

I just don't know what's been wrong with me for the past six months or so in regards to blogging.  I just haven't been making the time for some reason.  I will say that part of the reason for the lack of blog posts is that I have been working on my political parties book and FINALLY, after two years, almost have it done.

I'm working on the Epilogue right now, and then will still have a short Afterword to write, but will then be finished.  Then it'll just be editing and formatting it for e-book publication, and designing a cover.  I might actually pay someone to do that for me this time.  In the past, I've designed and created my own covers using various photo editing services.

I might also make this one available in print format as well.  When you publish independently through Amazon, they have an option for print publishing as well as e-book publishing, but I've never done it before.  From what I know about it, it's free to do, just like the e-book publishing, and their publishing house simply prints the books on demand.  So when someone orders through the website, they print the book, then ship it.  So there are no up-front costs for stocking books in the warehouse.

Another thing that has been taking my time over the last six weeks in particular is that I have begun learning Spanish.  I started on Labor Day Weekend and have been steadily learning each day since then.  I've always been good at languages and picked up German very quickly in high school.  I ended up taking four years in high school, then several more semesters in college.  My college professor actually tried to talk me into minoring in German, simply because I was so good at it.

So anyway, I've never regretted taking German, but have always wanted to learn Spanish too because it would be so much more useful in day-to-day society.  Like it or not, there are a lot of Spanish-speaking people in the U.S., and they are here to stay, language and all.  I'd like to be able to communicate with them when necessary, especially since they are sometimes my patients at the hospital.

My goal is to get reasonably fluent in Spanish, then bone back up on my German, not because I ever have much opportunity to use German, but simply because I want to.  Heck, I might even tackle a third language (French?) after that.

Back when I was in Radiology school, I bought a book and learned some Spanish basics, but I never went beyond that.  The reason I finally started learning now is because I discovered Duolingo.  This is a website (Duolingo.com) that is totally free, and teaches you how to speak the language of your choice.  They also have a very useful app for phones and tablets.  I use the app on my phone for about 90% of my learning.  I have supplemented this app with several other Spanish-teaching websites and apps, as well as a Spanish-English dictionary and a Spanish verb conjugation dictionary, all on-line and by app.  Since Spanish is the widest taught and widest studied foreign language in the U.S., there are tons of free teaching resources online.  I had never realized this before now.  I always thought it was Rosetta Stone or a taking a class.  I didn't realize there were other options out there.  I'm only about 20% through Duolingo's lessons right now, and I am already as far in Spanish as I was in German by my third year of high school, or thereabouts.  That's the thing that's great about self-learning...you don't have to go at the classroom pace.  I'm already able to converse in Spanish, which is nice, since it's only been six weeks.

I've also been supplementing my learning by listening to Spanish stations on my satellite radio, and occasionally watching Spanish TV.  Of course I can't really follow any of it, but I can at least practice listening and picking out words and phrases.

The only drawback to self-learning online, versus taking a class, is that you miss out on that face-to-face interaction with a fluent speaker who can correct you and answer your questions.  This is one reason why I listen to the Spanish radio and watch Spanish TV...just to practice hearing the language spoken.  I also try to think in Spanish sometimes as a way of practicing speaking.  The Duolingo app certainly does have you do both those things - listen and speak - but it's not the same as actually conversing with someone in Spanish.  There is a nurse at work who speaks Spanish and I do talk to her a little bit, but not much more than a "Como estas?" "Muy bien, y tu" sort of thing.

Enough about that.  I am also in the process of revising and rewriting one of my old novels.  I haven't actually started the writing process yet...I want to finish my political parties book first.  But I have started reading through the old manuscript and making editorial plans.  I'm doing this because I have signed up for a writer's conference being held in Louisville next February.  It's an all-day workshop for learning how to get published.  Four literary agents will be there, and I have paid for a ten-minute one-on-one session with one of them, to pitch them a book.  I have also paid to have a professional editor - a guy who I actually follow on Twitter and who is the chief editor of Writer's Market, which is a major industry publication - to read and edit my query letter (which is the letter you send out to agents and publishers pitching your book).

So this is a really good opportunity for me, and it has given me the motivation I needed to pull out one of my old novels and get it ready to pitch to this agent in February.  I had to choose an old novel, rather than a new one, simply because I don't have enough time to finish any of the novels I currently have in progress (I have two in progress...I started one in 2004 and the other in about 2007, and both are only partially completed; I also have two or three others partially outlined but never started).  I would frankly rather use one of those in-progress novels, but I know it will be unrealistic to expect myself to finish one of them by February.  There's just not enough time.  So I'm taking one of my old novels - the last one I actually completed, in fact - and reworking/rewriting it to update it and try to make it the best it can possibly be.  It's a book I finished in 2003 called Walkabout.  It's a relatively short thriller about a fugitive hunt in Australia.  It needs a lot of work, but I think it has good potential to be sell-able.  It's certainly in line with some of the small-time thrillers I have read this year.

Amazon, in addition to offering independent publishing for authors, also has its own traditional publishing house for professional, published authors with agents.  Every month, they offer Amazon Prime customers a newly published book by one of these authors for free.  So I have read several thrillers this year published by "real" authors (not Indie authors) on Amazon's publishing imprint, and I can say for certain that Walkabout is as good as any of these books I've read. It certainly has that potential.

So there are two questions I face: can I draw the full potential out of the book in my rewrite; and can I pitch it well enough to an agent (whether the agent I meet in February, or some other agent), to get them on board with it?

Time will tell I guess.

It seems like there should be other things worthy of talking about, but I guess I've rambled on long enough.  Oh yeah...I did want to mention that I deactivated my Facebook account last week.  I've been sick of Facebook for a long time, and I finally just decided it was time for a break.  I'm sure I'll eventually go back...in fact I know I will, because I like to be able to stay in touch with certain people when I want...but for now it's kind of nice to just not be on there.  As a result, I can't share this post on Facebook, so a lot of my friends and normal readers will likely never see it.  Oh well.  If you're reading this, you must be a true fan, who either routinely visits my blog, or gets an email notification, so thanks :)

Notes from the Cave: Family Room Edition

What??  Two NFTCs in one week?  What's gotten in to me?

In any case, I'm working in the family room this morning because Sophie gets upset if she can't be up my ass 24/7, and she's not allowed in the Cave, so the laptop is performing its named duty and I'm sitting here typing while Sophie barks at the chair.

I read an article today about a 9-year-old girl who accidentally shot a gun instructor with an Uzi at a firing range in Nevada.  The poor man's death is tragic, undoubtedly.  Even more tragic is the fact that our society thinks it's okay for a 9-year-old to even look at, much less handle, an Uzi.

It's no secret that I don't like guns.  And it's no secret that I would like to see stricter gun laws in our country.  But I don't think there is any gun-related issue that I feel more strongly about than the utterly insane notion that it's okay for kids to own, handle, and fire deadly weapons.  Yes, I've heard all the arguments from the other side...how teaching children to respect guns and use them safely is how you create responsible gun-owners, yadda, yadda, yadda.

It's all horseshit.

By the same argument, children should be permitted to drive once they are tall enough to reach the pedals - which for most kids means about 13.  The truth is, children under 16 should not be permitted to handle or fire any kind of gun anywhere, ever, for any reason.  Period.

Okay, I'm off my political soap box.  Forgive me.

I had a very productive day off yesterday.  I finished the ghost-writing project I am doing for a friend, I mowed the lawn, I slaughtered a shit-ton of weeds around the fence and the edges of the house with some Weed B Gone, and I got the oil changed in my car.  I did all that and managed to take a nap too.  All in all, it was a good day.  I'm back to work this afternoon, but we're going to the lake for the holiday weekend coming up.  Hopefully the weather will hold up for us.

I'm waiting right now for UPS to arrive with a new umbrella for the deck outside.  A strut broke on our current umbrella, so one side of it is sagging and we look like proud white trash.  Until this heat wave of the last week, it's been a really nice summer for sitting in the shade on the deck.  I'm hoping to have some more nice outdoor weather once we get into September and October.

Check out that pink cummerbund!  This is me and M before Junior Prom at Princeton High School, 1992.  We'd been dating for a year and a half by this point.  I remember thinking I would have liked it better if she'd just done her hair like normal, instead of getting it all professionally gussied up.

Speaking of hair...this photograph proves that I once had it.

Notes from the Cave

It's been six weeks since I made a post on my blog.  That's problematic, and I apologize.

The good news is that at least part of the reason for my absence is because I've been getting some writing done.  I've made progress on my political parties book, which has been 90% complete for about a year now, and I've also been doing a significant ghost writing project for a friend, which is also almost complete.  

The biggest problem, as always, when it comes to writing is simply finding time.  Working 2nd shift, I leave the house around 1 pm every day.  I typically get up around 9 or 9:30, so that gives me 3 or 4 hours each morning.  That's plenty of time to write, but unfortunately I also have to take care of a 5-month old puppy who needs a lot of attention, exercise, eat lunch, and shower and get ready for work.  

By the time I've done all that, there's hardly any time left for writing.  I basically have to not exercise if I want to have a decent amount of time to write.  But that, of course, isn't something I need to give up.  I could, of course, get up earlier, or forego my beloved morning bath (yes, I'm gay), but working 2nd shift, it's really not feasible for me to get up much earlier without suffering for it on the back end of the day.  As for the bath, I do give that up a lot of days, but not always. 

Anyway, that's the problem I'm currently facing with writing.  The other thing to keep in mind is that, since my heart attack, my daily routine has become very important to me (that's where that morning bath comes in), and so that's another obstacle...figuring out a way to make writing part of my daily routine, rather than a disruption to it.

Sophie is entering the adolescent phase of puppy-hood, and although she's fully housebroken and well-trained, she is starting to test the waters a bit.  She's developed a habit of barking a lot to get attention, or nipping at feet/legs/pants.  I'm working to get that under control and am hoping it's just an adolescent phase.  She's been getting her adult teeth in...I think we've found four baby teeth to date.  She's almost six months, so she'll be having her womb torn out of her abdomen here pretty soon.  

I really do love that I'm able to walk her on a leash and actually take legitimate walks with her.  Our last dog, Finley, was basically never leash trained at all, and our first dog, Katie, would pull like crazy and also wouldn't let you get more than a few hundred yards from home before refusing to go farther.  With Sophie, we walk a mile or more at a time.  We did about a mile and a quarter yesterday.  

I've also recently added a new trick to her growing bag of tricks...the command is "Sphinx," or "Sit like a Sphinx," and she will do just that...lay down with paws outstretched in front and her head up.

I have to work this weekend, but next weekend (Labor Day) I am off until Monday night.  Unfortunately, I have to work third shift on Labor Day, but that will still allow us to go to the lake all weekend and come back Monday - which we would have done anyway even if I didn't work that night.  I'm then off again Tuesday and Wednesday too.  So with the exception of that one third shift, I'll essentially have five days off in a row without having to take a vacation day.  

As my faithful Twitter followers know, I have been watching Deadwood on Amazon Prime.  I have the Amazon TV box, so I can watch Prime videos on my TV as well as my Kindle.  I've waited 10 years to see Deadwood and it has not disappointed.  I just finished the first season and I loved it.  I'm already bummed that there are only two seasons left.  

I'm currently reading two books (one non-fiction, one fiction, as usual).  The non-fiction is a narrative history of the Norman conquest of England in 1066 called, aptly enough, the Norman Conquest.  For you history dummies, the Norman Conquest, by William the Conqueror, is what established the modern British monarchy and turned England into the country it is today - which is important since Britain would come to have such a profound influence on the entire world.  

The fiction book I'm reading is the first in a series by British writer Ken Follett called Fall of Giants.  It's historical fiction told against the background of World War I, and the second and third books in the series carry the story - and the families in it - up through the rest of the 20th century.  Like his other historical novels, it is absolutely wonderful.  Highly recommended it to anyone who likes historical fiction, and particularly 20th century history.  

  

Notes from the Cave

It's been a bad few months if you're a Serene Musings fan.  And since there are SO many of you, that makes for a lot of unhappy people.  Thankfully, here's a Notes from the Cave for you.

When I was a kid, I really loved the Smurfs.  The Smurfs were pretty much my #1 cartoon.  Being that I grew up before the days of Cartoon Network, Netflix, the proliferation of every show imaginable on DVD and Blu-Ray, etc., cartoons were available on Saturday morning and for an hour or two in the afternoon after school.  And that was it.  As for the Smurfs - they were only shown on Saturday morning.  For that reason, I spent pretty much every Saturday morning glued to the television, with the highlight of the morning being the Smurfs, which I seem to recall came on at 9:30 and were shown until 11:00.  

90 minutes of cartoon bliss for young Scott.

Anyway, throughout my childhood, there was one episode in particular that was sort of like Shangri-La or the Lost City of Atlantis for me.  This was because I had seen this particular episode one time when I was really young, and I had really loved it, but then I never saw it again.  It entailed a Rip Van Winkle theme, and involved the Smurfs dressing up like old men with white beards in order to teach Lazy Smurf a lesson when he woke up from his nap.  Like Rip Van Winkle, Lazy thought he'd been asleep for decades, and everyone had aged in his absence.  

Even though rerun episodes were shown every week (except for the fall, when the new season episodes ran), I never again saw this particular episode.  Practically every week, I would wonder if maybe this was the week they'd show it...but it never came to pass.  The Smurfs got canceled in 1990, and I was a 15-year-old high school student by that time anyway, and I never did get to see that episode again.  It became, as I said, a sort of Lost Episode that I often thought about over the years.  It even took on a sort of mythical quality for me.  Had I really ever seen this episode, or did I dream it up one day in my childhood?  

Fast forward to the first week of June, 2014.  My 8-year-old daughter is on a Smurfs kick right now for some reason and so we were on Amazon Prime looking for Smurfs episodes to download for her.  

And that's when it happened.  

I'm flipping through the available episodes when I see this title scroll by on the screen:

Smurf Van Winkle 

There it is!  The Lost Episode!  IT DOES EXIST!  

So I downloaded it for $1.99 and finally, after a 32-year wait, I got to watch this mythical episode once again.  

Reading about it online, I discovered that it was an episode that first aired in Season Two - specifically in November of 1982, which is when I would have been in 2nd grade. Presumably, that was the one time I saw it.  

So that's one thing I can mark off my bucket list. 

As some of you may know, we recently got a new dog.  Her name is Sophie and she is a pure-bred Havanese, which is a toy breed similar in size to a Maltese or Westie.  

They were originally bred as circus dogs in Cuba (hence the name, which references Havana), and they are very good at doing tricks and learning commands.  We've had Sophie for about a month now, she's 14 weeks old, and I have already taught her to sit, stay, come, heel, beg, fetch, and ring bells on command.  We're continuing to work on those commands and also on leash walking.  We've had two previous dogs, and neither of them ever walked very well on a leash.  So I have been determined to leash train Sophie, and although it has been a battle at times, she is picking it up.  It's really important to me to be able to take my dog on a walk and not have her pulling and yanking on the leash the whole time.  

I planned for this dog much better than the previous dogs we bought.  I even read a book, before we got her, about raising puppies, written by Cesar Millan, the Dog Whisperer.  His techniques really do work.  Like he recommends, I have established myself as Sophie's pack leader, and it really does make a difference.  I can see now how we made numerous mistakes with our previous dogs, Katie (who died a few years back) and Finley, who was so bad we had to give him away after a year and a half.  

We went to Disney World in April and that was really fun.  It was my first time back since I was 15 years old, and it was the first time for my kids.  We went with my sister-in-law's family, so they kids got to experience it with their cousins.  

We had a really good time, and my 12-year-old actually acted like her old self for a week.  It was so nice to have a daughter who wasn't sullen and hostile every waking moment of the day!  Naturally, she went right back to normal when we got home.  Oh well. 

In July, we are going to see my parents in Texas.  It will be the first time we've gone there since 2008, and likely the last time we go, since my parents intend to retire next year and move up here to be closer to us.  That trip in 2008 is the only time I've been in the last decade, and the 6 years that have elapsed since that trip is the longest I've gone without a visit down there.  

Seems like there should be more to talk about, but I'll spare you.