Yes I'm still alive

06.26.2013

I've not posted anything in a while, at first because nothing was going on. Then I didn't post anything because between email, Facebook, text messaging, and phone calls, everyone was caught up with anything interesting. At some point my loop between those methods of disseminating information became disjointed, and as such I don't know who I've updated with what.

Now I'm taking a moment to organize my thoughts. A flurry of posts will follow.

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Fun Is Reading

06.07.2013

Last night I wrapped up John Scalzi's The Last Colony after about a week of off-an-on reading, although I probably read the first third in a day and the last third in a day. Being a slow reader, any time I read a book in a week I either enjoy it or it's a short book. Or maybe both. This time it was a little of both - just over 300 pages and I enjoyed the story.

This book wraps up a trilogy (Old Man's War and The Ghost Brigades being the first two) with a couple of characters, but the sci-fi universe Scalzi created continues in his latest book (The Human Division, which I'll probably start this weekend).

It's nice to just relax with a good book to enjoy. I've felt like I've had so much stuff going on around the house between my Spring cleaning surge and wrapping up the little details of Zombie Mall that just sitting back and reading feels good. I'm not productive at all. I almost feel bad, but I don't know why (I'm the only one that's making me do all of this other stuff, so I'm not letting anyone down).

I'm hoping my reading break will give my creative juices a jump start. I've got some graphics stuff to whip up for Zombie Mall that's not exactly exciting, so I've been putting it off. Maybe after 1 more book, the aforementioned Human Division, I'll be ready to wrap that up.

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10:49 PM

06.03.2013

I can tell I'm going to be awake for a while. Normally I go to bed around 10:00. Last night I was tired and zonked out probably before 10:00, and then I didn't want to get up when the alarm went off at 6:30, so I snoozed until around 8:00.

This evening I was out in the front yard digging up dead bushes that had the most determined root system I could have imagined. Then I filled the holes with decorative rocks from the back patio (once a nice place, now overgrown with weeds and some type of guard-cactus).

After that, I took a shower and read for a little while. I decided I was done reading when I wasn't really focusing on what I read and thought I would try and go to sleep.

After a half hour, I could tell that's not going to work. So instead of laying there and getting peeved I'm not sleepy, I'm going to do something else and see if I can get sleepy, since I really don't want to stay awake until 3:00 in the morning (which happened the last time I felt like this).

I just have no idea what that something is.

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Nesting

06.01.2013

I'm nesting. I've been nesting for a couple of weeks, but I'm just now admitting it. Granted, I'm not pregnant, but in roughly 2 months I should have gastric sleeve surgery to, god willing, help me get rid of this extra person worth of weight I'm lugging around. Knowing that I'll be home for (more than likely) 2 weeks, I like having everything in it's place more than normal.

Today I broke, or actually am breaking, in the new washer and dryer. After returning from the last beach trip with Gina, the 14 year old washer decided to flip the breaker. I don't know why, but I don't like it when things act broken. I had originally hoped the washer and dryer would last about 10 years, so I've been paranoid the last couple of years just waiting for one of them to break at the most inopportune time. Although the washer may have flipped the breaker due to a power surge that wasn't due to the washer at all, I was now paranoid and on the lookout for replacement(s). Plural, because the dryer is just as old and due to die any minute, too.

I was keeping an eye out for Memorial Day sales and Gina picked out the right washer and dryer for me. I'm used to a washer and dryer with one button each, which of course they don't make any more. Gina told me I didn't want a front load washer because of mold/smell problems if you keep the front door closed. There were certain brands I didn't want because of past experience with Indian customer service phone calls. Once everything was narrowed down, I wanted a pair from Maytag available at Lowes. The Memorial Day sale knocked 10% off, and using a Lowes credit card at the time saved another 5%. Wednesday everything was delivered and hooked up. This morning I went through the instruction manual and found the pages on what settings to use to wash and dry sheets, jeans, and everything else. Right now, the sheets are in the washer for an alleged 65 minutes. I've never used a fancy washer with digital read outs and lots of lights. I wonder if I can get 10 years out of this pair before something goes wonky? Let's hope so!

My main nesting activity has been cleaning up. I suddenly got tired of all the crap that's been sitting on shelves unused for years. If I haven't used something for 3, 5, or maybe even 10 years then why am I holding on to it? Time to purge. I started out in my storage building. 12'x16' that had gotten to the point where I could take a step in, but to move any farther I had to start shuffling stuff around. I began loading up the back of the car and then going to one of Gina's many useful jobs and transferring my crap to their dumpster. Over the course of 2 weeks I did this roughly 5 times. What really helped is that when the Lowe's delivery guys came to install the washer and dryer, I pawned off on them my old couch that's been sitting in the storage building for over a year - I warned them that there was no telling what was living in the couch now. Between the 5 trips to the trash and the couch getting hauled off, I could walk inside the storage building again!

This has also flowed over into getting rid of stuff that's been sitting around in both the house and the garage. The garage is still a work in progress, but I'm hoping that in the next week or so I'll have it cleaned up enough to call it done. At that point I've got some hobby (board game models, mainly) stuff to set up a work area for out there.

Yesterday /this morning I dug out the power washer I bought 2 (maybe 3) years ago and finally got around to cleaning the driveway and sidewalk. It was really just Round 1, because the slope of the driveway is just right so that everything pools near the sidewalk and whatever was power washed up will end up settling at least a little bit. Plus, there's no telling how much I actually missed on the first pass. Once everything dries I'll see how much those missed sections jump out to me.

So, I'm nesting. At least nesting leads to some productive cleaning.

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Printing

05.19.2013

Saturday I got the proof copies of the Zombie Mall rules that I made through CreateSpace. One of the reasons you order proofs is to check the lightness/darkness of images. I had always heard that you want to adjust when making graphics for printing, as looking at things on a (lit) monitor will make images lighter than they will appear in print.

On the back cover of my rule books, I've got a faded/semi-transparent image on the top for decoration/to take up what would otherwise be white space. I set the transparency to 35% when making it.

What I received is pretty close, but when actually printed out on a glossy cover it looks more like the printer was just running out of ink. Now I've gone back and changed the transparency to 75%, which should offest it enough from the pseudo-wrap-around picture that's on the front and back covers.

While I was at it, I noticed I entered the wrong web address on both back covers. My lesson there is to not go surfing to similar web addresses when typing things up!

I haven't committed the changes yet, as I think there are a couple of little things I might tweak. Change a little spacing here and there.

If I read everything right, these should be showing up on Amazon by the end of the week - unless my tweaking with the covers starts the process over.

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