Wish List

Indeed, the updates on both blogs have become only sporadic, and if you're a fan of the Draft Distro, it's been dry as of late. Even my Facebook and Twitter presence has been abbreviated, simply because... well, I'm busy! So, to try to shame myself into actually doing some of the projects I would like to undertake, I am going to publicly list them to see if that will kick in my “I should DO this” sense. I doubt it will help, but who knows?

Record an album- Ever since I got my Mac with Garage Band built in I have toyed with the idea of recording music. Sure, I'm thinking cover album, but it would be fun to interpret some songs. Periodically I write down music I want to play around with recording, after seeing if I can put a Dan-spin on it. Gnarles Barkley's “Crazy” is on that list, along with the old standard “Satisfied Mind.” The biggest roadblock (besides time, which is the main factor slowing progress on all of these things) is that I have NOT been playing enough guitar this last year, and may need to downright relearn the mandolin. Bad on me. Very bad.

Finish the Johnny Duncan novel- If you've been over to the DDO, you've seen my detective, Johnny Duncan, and even read his first chapter. The whole thing started as a story on the original Draft Distro, and those four short stories form the outline for the overall novel. I am about five chapters in, but damn it's not just time on that, but mindset. I am not always in the right mental place to channel my inner Raymond Chandler, and when I am, it's usually while I am driving somewhere. One day, Johnny, you and me...

Finish all the scratchbuilds I have started- Look, I'm a crappy model builder, but I love doing it, and I love cobbling together parts to make new things. I currently have two Star Trek models sitting there waiting to be finished: one is an original design incorporating the Vulcan style ring nacelle into a Starfleet saucer and linear nacelle configuration. The other is based on the images from Doug Drexler's blog, which upgrades the NX-01 from Star Trek: Enterprise to having a secondary hull. Additionally, I want to rebuild the 1:18th scale bridge I built for my Star Trek action figures, and hope to convert one of the new “Agent Helix” figures from the G.I. Joe line into a modern Lady Jaye. Time, time, time...

Write a comic book- several scripts lying around, need a good artist. Simple fact is though, then I FIND an artist who will deliver, I will fall behind on scripts, and then I'll be no better than Jim Lee or Grant Morrison. Some of these comics include “The Bulge,” which sets Battle of the Bulge-like tank warfare in outer space; “Paragon,” a superhero who is all back and white, no gray areas, and truly loves what he does; “S.T.E.L.L.A.R.,” which tells the story of two future rivals, one a space pirate in the wrong place at the wrong time, and the other an agent of a tyrannical Human empire who's job is to track down the pirate; “Anna and The Human Tank,” about two children turned into weapons of mass destruction who find each other, and decide to retire from all the killing...if they can escape. None of these are coming soon to a comic shop near you.

Start an anonymous Twitter/Blog- Can't tell you what it's about because then it wouldn't be anonymous. I am however all about making points through pseudonyms! Sometimes a message needs to be separated from the one who delivers it. Of course, with how rarely I update the named blogs, that one's a ways off.

Script and film a movie- if you look over on the DDO, you will find “Down With the Sickness” in the original stories, horror section. It's all in my head how that needs to be filmed into a 20 minute short film, with just a few actors and a single set. Quite an undertaking though. Time AND money on that one...

Make more G.I. Joe photo comics- done a few, they are lots of fun if you don't mind wandering around with a camera and a bag of toys to find the right place to shoot the pictures. And, I don't mind.

Read the complete Sherlock Holmes- read a few as a kid, and have the full collection. Recently saw the Guy Ritchie movie version and loved it. Think I now have the maturity to digest 19th Century writing and adventure, need to take these in like I did the ERB Tarzan a couple of years ago.

Train for a half marathon- should be easy right? I mean I already did the full one. The “Mount Lemmon” half-marathon is 13.1 miles uphill. That's going to take prep I am not sure I have the time (or lungs) to accomplish.

So, that's the short list of undone things lying in my head and on my work table and on my hard drive. There's a short gap between semesters coming up, so maybe I can get something done there. Otherwise, looks like I might have a pretty full retirement!

New Blog- The Running Dan

(This is actually the first post of a whole new blog. If this intrigues you, follow that link!)

This last week I turned 37, and left behind the halcyon days of “mid-thirties” for the far less entertaining days of “late-thirties.” Yeah, I know, me and some 15 billion people before me (though let's face it- for a lot of human history age 40 was considered “aged”), and it's going on all the time. I however cannot speak for them, I can only speak for me. I am not, I stress again NOT, having a mid-life crisis, but it has come to my attention that the days I can tell my body what it will do are coming to an end, and eventually, my body will tell me what to do. I am really only just recovering from an injury back in May where I tore a calf muscle. That injury put a halt to my fairly standard running schedule, and I am not the type of person who stays in shape if I am not trying. My firm has made me run for years, and I have always fought it. Even when my run got good, I didn't like it, I didn't want to, and therefore slipped back into lazyness. Excuse or no with this injury, I did all my physical therapy and have been running regularly again for about two months. In that two months I brought myself back from not being able to really run two miles (my last bit of therapy was to do three miles alternating between two minutes of running and two minutes of walking) to a 16:30 two mile on a PT test this week. Now, the week before that the weather was better and I did it in 15:50. Sure, I am not breaking any land speed records, but it's been nice to run again.

The lovely Jennifer, who has recently been on her own new fitness plan and taken off quite a few pounds, enrolled us to participate in the Bisbee 1000 Stair climb. See, for those who aren't familiar with Bisbee, it's my favorite Arizona town. It was a mining town built into a bunch of hills over a century ago, and is now a quirky little hippie town full of people who like to take life a little slower than most. In short, it's like a Washington town right here in the desert. Anyway, the whole town is built on various levels and riddle with an Escher-like system of stairs. Each year, the town puts on a 5K run/walk which involves climbing 1000 of these stairs. Jennifer and I had never done anything like this together before, and not only had a great time, but got a good workout. I started thinking about running it next year.

Then I started looking at myself. I'd never liked this kind of thing before, but I was feeling good doing it. And on my birthday, it hit me.

I was going to run a marathon.

Now, I don't know a damn thing about this stuff. I started doing internet research, and quizzing friends- turns out I have a remarkable number of friends who have done these. Some of them are even geeks like me (yes, you Jim. Well, you too Siddhartha). To help me along, the Lovely Jennifer bought me a book for my birthday called “Born to Run” about the psychology of endurance runners. The idea of embracing the fatigue and operating outside yourself. Making yourself like a child and just running with no thought of time or pain. Stepping out of yourself, while being acutely aware of yourself...

Hey, wait a minute. This was starting to sound a bit spiritual. And it is. If God's in all of us, an dwe have to dig deep inside to make 26.2 miles (though many people in the book are doing 100 miles races!) then what, or who, will be looking back when you dig?

So, I have a basic training plan, starting out this week. I cheated a little and went out to do four miles this morning like a preview... and you know what? I quit fighting it, and with a whole new attitude, I liked running this morning. I did an extra mile just for fun, and felt like I could have kept going. Endorphin euphoria or God-seeing trance, it felt good. I can't wait to do it again. I'm not even sore.

So begins a new Blog. As I go through this plan, I will share what I am thinking and feeling. I am sure it will not all be as nice as it was today, so I don't always promise to be so positive. I will keep you all appraised of my progress and plans. There's a marathon in February in Apache Junction, but that one seems too soon. I may do the half marathon then. The run I plan to do is in Prescott in May. Seven months away. No pressure, just what I want to do.

Welcome to The Running Dan.

Liberal Bloggers are dumb.

Ok folks, let me admit I was wrong. I always admit I might be, but it
is less usual that I have to admit I was. I was wrong about Sarah
Palin. She isn't a joke. She's far worse. She's attractive enough
to make people not listen to what she's really saying, and she has
enough problems around her for Liberal bloggers to blow out of
proportion to be dangerous.

See, here's the thing. The left is taking every little rumor about
Governor Palin and hitting it with Pym particles (google it if you
must) to make it much bigger than it should be. Case in point: a list
was floating in the blogosphere of books MAYOR Palin wanted banned.
The list was plainly false. It was a dirty lie. It was made up. The
fact was the Mayoral candidate Sarah Palin simply asked the local
Wasilla librarian if she would remove books if Palin deemed it
necessary, and then proposed this once again when she was elected as
mayor. No book ban. Just a...

Wait a freakin' minute.

She asked if the librarian would be willing to remove books from the
library? Are you serious? According to the NY Times, the Anchorage
Daily News, and Anne Kilkenny it happened.
Witnesses have come forward. In modern America this newly elected
mayor was looking into what it would take to censor books from her
community. This repugnant truth has been tied to an easily disproven
lie... and the lie drags the truth overboard with it when it is washed
away.

I am registered third party, but consider myself a
"Constituitonalist." The idea of a public servant considering
censorship is anathema to me. That alone would be reason enough not
to vote for her (and let's face facts- I hope John McCain passes
quietly in his bed well past his 120th birthday, but odds are a job
like president is not going to sit well with this man, so SHE is
likely who you are voting for).

So, Liberal Bloggers-- Stop being morons. Sarah Palin is raising her
own child, not her daughter's. Sarah Palin has not posed nude, or
even bikini clad holding a rifle (darn). Sarah Palin HAS made
prepatory actions toward censoring books, and MAY have asked a
librarian to resign for the sin of disagreeing with her. Sarah Palin
IS under investigation for possibly firing Alaska's top cop because he
did not fire her ex brother-in-law. The facts are bad enough.
Discrediting yourself by running the unsubstantiated rumors makes you
look like the people who claim Barack Obama is a secret Jihadist.
This election is too important to ignore facts. Play fair, or don't
play at all.

God- I'm asking politicos to play fair. Now I'M the moron!

Updates, updates, updates, shouted to an empty room.

Well, it doesn’t take long for several months to go by without updating your blog, now does it? Well, I guess it actually takes several months. Time flies when you are hellaciously busy. Lots going on in my firm as my little corner of it prepares for a return to Babylon. Oh yes, true believers, I am on the train back. The glimmer of hope that I got this last week though is that it seems various bits of leadership within my firm are beginning to realize the types of mistakes that have led to the current situation there. Little things like cultural knowledge and respect are beginning to matter! It only took four years… Now if only we could get that message across to the highest levels of Imperial management.

The British apparently have found a map made by Lawrence of Arabia in regard to how he proposed to establish boundaries and borders in that region; get this, it was based on religious and tribal locations. Hmm… I wonder if we can get a copy of that to our Imperial leadership?

In far less Earth-shattering, but much more entertaining matters, I just watched the digital re-mastering of the original Star Trek. The cleanliness of the picture was delightful, but I had actually expected more to be done with the special effects. I suppose they were a little gun-shy from Lucas and his molesting of his own intellectual property, but the problems I have there are more with changing story and character moments, and not making the original available. I think classic Trek would be well served by bringing some of its visuals in line with the newer series’. Seeing the 1701 do the stretchy warp and flash would make me drool. Of course, I am a big geek.

Speaking of being a big geek, I recently met Greg Rucka, book and comic author, and guy who got me reading comics again after a long absence with his work on the Batman character. As an aspiring (read that wanna be) comic book writer myself, it was very interesting to get his insights into writing and the industry in general, and get some scoopy gossip on other comic writers. His admiration for Grant Morrison is apparent, but then so is mine, and some of the comments made about “All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder” seemed to be along my thoughts on that incredibly lame book. Overall, Mr. Rucka was a very pleasant guy with a good sense of humor and a sharp wit. Glad he’s out there writing my comics for me.

And beyond that we approach ever closer to the best of all holidays- Halloween! I am likely to Batman again, as I have just purchased a rather pricey cape to fill out my outfit. My son, last year my World’s Finest companion of Superman, has instead purchased a man-sized chicken outfit. Yes indeed- a 6’2” chicken. Odd boy, that one. My daughter has moved beyond that Darth Vader fetish, and now will dress as herself as a Sith. Turning to the dark side, and likely never coming back. And the lovely lady Jennifer? As always, the lovely Lady Jennifer will be the lovely Lady Jennifer, and I wouldn’t have her any other way.

Well maybe with some pointed ears or a plaid skirt… Maybe.