Happy October!

By the time you all read this, it most likely will be October, my favorite months of the year. In celebration of the month of Halloween, I’m going to pin my little flash fiction story Frank to the top of the blog for the month.

Frank was a little story I wrote in 2006, and has probably been the most popular post ever on this here blog. Those that are new here, and there are quite a few of you, really should check it out. I think you will enjoy it.

The coolest thing about Frank has been the emails I’ve gotten from it. More than one elementary school teacher has told me they have read Frank to their classes for Halloween and even analyzed the story. How cool is that? Anyhow, check it out and let me know what you think.

Top 8 Facebook User Types

I have been a user for a year or so, and in that time I’ve noticed there are certain types of users there. So I figured I’d make a list of them, because who doesn’t like lists, right? Here are the top 8 Facebook user types.

1. The Activist

The Activist is going to change the world, one Facebook news link at a time all the while annoying the 50% of their friends on the other side.

2. The Gamer

You know the type. There isn’t a quiz or meme or Mafia Wars type game this person hasn’t played and posted about. This is where you’ll find the addictive personality types.

3. The Curious

The Curious most likely created an account because they heard everybody talking about this “Facebook thingie” but haven’t added anything to their profile yet because they are too scared.

4. People wearing not much clothes

I see less of this since most of my friends are in the 30+ age group (I like to call this group Internet old), but I can see this one being more common in the High School/College set.

5. The Proud Mommy/Daddy

Photos of the kids. Status updates about the kid’s bowel movements. I may or may not be this type 🙂

6. The Quipper

Always quick with a funny status update or vague 1980s movie or song reference that nobody else gets but is HILARIOUS. This one also may or not be me.

7. The Marketer

Using Facebook to get ahead. One thing is for certain, you always know when the Marketer’s next gig will be because you are hit with it a month in advance and every day after.

8. The Traveler

Photos from their trip to France. Photos of them at the Super Bowl. Photos of them at the Parthenon. The Traveler has gone places you have only dreamed, and you have no hope at being as cool as them. Not even with pictures of you at the Sloth cages at the Erie Zoo.

I’m sure there are other types of Facebook users. Feel free to add them in the comments of this post.

Pulse Smartpen

The crew and I were in Target the other day. While my wife took the daughter in the dressing room to try on tutus for her ballet class, I took the big guy T-Mike with me to the automotive section. They didn’t have what we were looking for so we swung by the electronics since it was right there. It was unavoidable really. I’m like a moth to a light when it comes to that stuff.

On our way to the huge televisions, we came across an interesting device called the Pulse Smartpen. It is an interesting device for sure. It’s a pen, but when you write with it it captures an image of what you write so you can later upload the text to your computer. It also has a built-in microphone in case you have any audio notes you would like to capture. The pen is $120 or so, so it isn’t cheap. You also have to use special paper for it to work.

Anyhow, click on the link and check it out.

My question for you would be, do you think a pen that captures your written notes would be handy, and do you think it is worth $120? I’m on the fence, really.

PS I hope this post is understandable. I’m writing it at 12:16, having just rocked the aforementioned T-Mike to sleep.

Many Thanks

T-Mike wanted me to tell everybody thanks for all the kind comments. He also wanted me to tell everybody thanks for commenting on his writing skills, but he wants to pursue something more attainable as a career than writing, such as Astronaut or Daytime Talk Show Host.

Had a good weekend. Went to dinner with my family on Saturday, which is always fun. Also, I played in two hockey games and didn’t feel like I was gonna die this time. That was a nice change. I even had the game winning goal on Saturday morning. It’s always nice to get that first game of the season out of the way.

I’m back to Java class this coming week, so I’ll be posting at night rather than during the day. No worries.

Guest Post

Hey everybody. My daddy told me when I turned seven months he was going to put me to work. Well, it turns our he wasn’t kidding. So today, I’ll be filling in for Daddy. I hope you enjoy my post.

First, I guess I should tell you a little about myself. My name is Tristan Michael, but you can call me Tristan, or T-Mike, or Mr. T. It doesn’t really matter to me. Daddy calls me all those names. Very confusing.

Some of my likes:

• Mommy
• Things that spin around, such as ceiling fans
• Peeing on Daddy during my baths (man he hates that)
• Screaming with my big sister
• Crawling towards things I’m not supposed to, such as electrical outlets
• Mommy

Some of my dislikes:

• Sleep
• Sitting still while being changed
• Car rides longer than 20 minutes
• Car seats

Anyhow, life is pretty good. I’ve decided to talk recently. I would’ve before, but I didn’t really have anything to say, you know? I mostly just say “Mamma” even though Daddy swears I’ve said “Dadda” once or twice. I like to do that when they aren’t paying attention to me, just to throw them off.

I’m also big into crawling right now. The house isn’t very big, but there are a lot of interesting nooks and crannies for me to explore. They always give me these soft toys to play with, but I much prefer drawers and sharp cornered object. I like to live on the edge, know what I’m sayin’?

I’ll tell you what, though. You really should meet this Mommy lady. She’s awesome. She feeds me, takes me and my sister to all kinds of cool places, and pretty much doesn’t rest until we’re all asleep. She’s very pretty too. I hope I look like her when I grow up and not that Daddy guy. He’s funny, but other than that…

Well, thanks for reading my first post. Maybe I’ll write again sometime. I hope you guys leave me some great comments. I love comments. Oh, before I go my Daddy wanted me to tell you all thanks for reading his blog.

–T. Mike

Epic Thursday

I feel like I just ran the gauntlet. Seriously. I had three hours of meetings in the Morning followed by two hours of meetings in the afternoon. It was rough, but I did get a really nice compliment from my manager for the way I handled things, so that’s nice. I’m amazed I handle things well, as I have found my internal editor is not as quick lately in these sleepy days of having a six seven month old.

Had a pretty good writing day yesterday. I’ve been struggling to come up with a good opening paragraph for my latest attempt at a novel, and got one early yesterday morning. I wrote it up during lunch yesterday and sent it over to one of my critique group members. She wrote back right away and told me that the paragraph was good but the second one was even better. She was right, of course. Have I mentioned you really should join a critique group?

Unrelated, but still awesome, the first 70+ pages of Terry Pratchett’s soon to be published new novel are available for free to read at Harper Collins’ website. This one is “football” on the Discworld: Unseen Academicals.

The Times Aren’t So Bad

I get a bit annoyed when I hear people say what a challenging time we live in. They cite the economy, and terror threats, and people doing bad things to each other. I have a news flash, about this. There are always going to be problems. Humans will always do bad things to each other (though I think they are more likely to do good). Every time period has its issues and everything will always seem on the brink of destruction. People look back on the 50’s as some type of utopia, but it surely was not a utopia for everybody. That’s not really my point here.

My point here is that we actually live in extraordinary times. Never before has so much information been at the fingertips of the common person. Without leaving our chairs we have history, and music, and images, and information. There has never been anything close to this in human history.

Consider yesterday. I came across a link via Boing Boing to a new website called Public Radio Exchange (prx.org), which is really a massive library of public radio content, all available for free. I listened to an awesome hour long program yesterday titled A Spin Down Abbey Road about the Beetle’s Abbey Road.

It was mentioned in the program that John Lennon was inspired by Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata while creating the song Because. Off to wikipedia I went. Not only is there an entry on wikipedia for the Moonlight Sonata, but they even have full recordings of it (I especially recommend the 3rd Movement).

You see what I’m getting at. It would have taken me days to gather all the information I gathered in that hour on the web, and probably cost me some money too. Maybe I could’ve gotten it all from the library, but maybe not. What exciting times we live in.

Sure there’s bad stuff on the Internet, and sure it is the bane of my writing life. As with anything in life, you take the good with the bad. It’s all how you look at it, really.

Eoin Colfer on New Hitchhiker’s Guide Book

For those of you who are on the fence about the new Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy book, I found this video on Eoin Colfer’s (Artemis Fowl) website in which he talks about his approach to writing the new book. He also hints that Douglas Adams wife and daughter were happy with the choice of him as author.

In Colfer’s own words, he’s not trying to be Douglas Adams. Rather the book simply is “presenting you with a possible ending in a possible universe which you may find amusing”.

I think the book is worth a look for Hitchhiker’s Guide fans. It will not be Douglas Adams, of course, but it just might be an escape for six hours.

I DID Survive

Well, I had my first ice hockey game last night and I am proud to report I am still alive this morning. I didn’t play all that particularly well, and we lost by “more than five”, but it was still a good time. In a torturous sort of way.

Actually, I didn’t play bad really. It’s just I had almost no energy. The puck would be there an I just couldn’t do anything about it. I was expecting this, though, so I’m not overly troubled by it. I just haven’t had any time to work out with the baby around. Plus, I’ll be back to my old self after a few games, I’m sure.

I found an old sketch book in my basement yesterday as I was rummaging through some things. It was a pretty good time, looking at some of my drawings from when I was in Junior High. I may even scan in a few of the more amusing drawings here, for laughs.

It’s funny though. Some of the drawings were better than I thought, though. I had some pretty cool Robin and Spawn drawings. Maybe I could’ve been a decent artist had I kept with it a little. Oh well, I don’t need another hobby 🙂

So, that’s me. My goal for the day is to not be so sore that I can’t lift my arms. I can feel the old creeping in, though.

Procrastination

My office had an out of office retreat today and one of the speakers we had showed us a quick video about procrastination. This perfectly illustrates why I don’t get much writing done. Enjoy!