Category: Uncategorized

But here’s a quick post, anyway.

Got a smidgen further with my lamps today. Floor lamp is glued together and ready for final touches before finishing. Table lamps have two coats of finish, which should be enough. The second coat was done going on at around 9:30PM tonight, so they should be “safe to touch” … well, according to the label it’ll be 9:30PM tomorrow night. But I’ll probably move them before then. I’m a real risk-taker. All they need now is nipples, electric and fixtures, shades (already purchased, just waiting) and they’re ready for sale. I should have photos online this weekend. I’ll start finishing the floor lamp tomorrow (I hope) and should also finish it this weekend. Again, photos will be online as soon as it’s done.

In case you don’t look at Modern Evil‘s main page, I’ve started transcribing the short stories and poetry I found recently, which dates back about 8 to 12 years, depending on the piece. I’ve decided to put it all online in its original form, word-for-word, and to call it my “Vintage” collection. I will very likely re-write much of it for quality and clarity and accuracy at a later date, but right now you get to enjoy it all exactly as I produced it when I was in high school (or thereabouts). I’m asking a few cents for each piece, about a dime per short story and one to five cents (or so) each for poetry, or you can buy access to the entire collection for $1.50. People who buy the entire collection will get a few “exclusive” items, as well, that won’t be available for individual purchase. There are over ten short stories and over forty poems in the collection. I’m going to try to get it updated regularly; I’d like the entire collection online within two or three weeks at most. I hope you at least take a look at it; there’s a lot of good stuff in there.

In addition, take a look at this stick figure comic trying to sell my novel. See, CafePress allows merchants to get a “bulk discount” on their own items when they buy 15 or more of a single item. On my novel, the “bulk discount” is about $5 a copy. The idea presented in the comic there, in case you were too lazy/disinterested to click, is that if I can get at least ten of you to order the book for $15 (+$2.50 S/H to cover me re-shipping it to you), that’s just it; I can offer you the book for $15. Heck, that’s what new trade paperbacks from major publishers, available through major chains cost! You can afford that! And if you also want to read the “Vintage” collection, you can buy both at once for only $18, (that’s $15 for the book, $2.50 for the Shipping, and only $0.50 for the entire “Vintage” collection!). So, yeah.

If you’re interested, follow the link to the comic and order it. Or if you have feedback regarding it, comment here (or there). And if you haven’t read them yet, take a look at the Excerpts from Lost and Not Found – they tell you more about the novel than I usually seem to be able to when I summarize, and give you a good idea of the writing style, while introducing you to some of the characters. Yeah. It’s good.

Did I mention that anyone who orders the book through this promotion has the option of having their copy signed/personalized by the author? Or not, if you prefer. I’m just that nice.

I’ve also started using my Bowflex again, finally. So I’m sore all over. My brother is also using it, so hopefully we’ll both be able to encourage each other to keep it up, and we’ll still be doing it in a month and in three months and when you see us at the Comicon this summer we’ll have amazing muscles. Or maybe just be really, really sore. It’s hard to say. I’m thinking of posting the resistances I’m able to do on each of the exercizes I do, perhaps on the side over there, maybe under Fuck 50lbs To Hell. It’s not impressive right now (and some of the numbers may never be) but perhaps it will be part of a motivator for me, a reminder that I ought to be working out, in case I stop.

I think I’ll try to sleep now.

And if that doesn’t work after … 30 or 40 minutes … I’ll probably transcribe “Don’t Squeeze The Charmin” and make it an exclusive story for people who buy the entire “Vintage” collection.

Or not. We’ll see.

Just looking…

That doesn’t feel good.

Due to a combination of factors, some of them related to my father, and some of them related to my own not over-compensating for my father’s not being careful or helpful enough, one of the pair of table lamps I have been working on for a month or more just fell from about 5 feet to the floor and the base broke in two. When I was designing the lamp I didn’t do it with dropping it onto a hard floor in mind.

Seriously, next time I’m doing something more sturdy, with less electrical work, like a table. I’ve got some sketches together for a nice little side table, the most difficult part of which should be the drawer I want to put in it.

But seriously; how hard can a drawer be?

SO… I’m taking a little break right now, eating the last of my chocolate ice cream, trying to relax. Filling out endless, slow questions at okcupid.com… Listening to my ‘beautiful’ playlist in iTunes… realizing there may be a few too many love-related songs in that list… anyway.

How’s things with you?

Yeah? I’m, a little stressed.

I mean, last night when I was drilling all manner of holes in the body of my floor lamp, trying to make an inconspicuous series of links for the electrical cord to follow from the base to the top, and I kept missing the angle by a little and created half a dozen big holes right in the side/face of the wood instead of in the pre-existing knots and other features that would hide them well, I didn’t get too stressed out. I knew (from experience on the table lamps) that I could work with my mistakes and create something that normal people wouldn’t consider a flaw. It’s natural form, it’s rustic, it’s not supposed to be perfect.

But broken in half?

Broken in half isn’t rustic, it’s … well, it’s broken.

My dad thinks he can glue it back together and no one will be able to tell the difference. If so, great. I just need to calm down before I deal with anything right now. I know for a fact than when I’m stressed out like this or upset or the like, I am more likely to make mistakes. Like I lose what little fine motor control I have when I’m upset. You might not believe how many silly typos I’ve been making as I type this. But now I’m trying to decide; do I turn on the Journey to Wild Divine (my biofeedback software, which has relaxation ‘challenges’), or do I go work out?

Quick, respond. I’ll probably be online for another little bit, and your feedback is appreciated.

So, I’ve just spent the last … looks like two hours … signing up at and filling out the long, long questionnaire at eHarmony.com. Of course, since they won’t even let you respond to someone unless you buy a membership ($50 for one month, sliding scale to $250/year), it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to take advantage of their “miraculous” matching system until I have some “spare” money to do it with. Based on the questions they ask just to get you set up, it looks like they have a lot of data to work from, and may actually be able to find good matches for most people. Actually, because of what some of their questions allowed (for instance: I am able to say I am strongly liberal and strongly conservative at the same time), they might even be able to do something for me, should I be able to come up with the money.

Of course, I did say that the region to search in was “The Entire World” instead of a smaller, more rational area. With my luck, it’ll match me to someone literally on the other side of the world; somewhere out in the phillipines, I guess. As of right now, it actually says there are “No Matches”, but that it’ll notify me by email if it finds anything. We’ll see. You know, if I can find 250 “spare” dollars.

THe following is some information about me, from the automatically generated ‘personality profile’:

Continue reading eHarmony

Okay, so I tried to go to sleep and found my mind was too active.

Actually, I was programming new features for Modern Evil in my mind, for fun.

For instance, there are now, on the main page of Modern Evil, little dots next to all the “Most Recent” links you haven’t yet followed. So if there’s a dot there, you haven’t read that thing (or haven’t read it in this browser since you last cleared your cache…) – let me know what you think of that new feature.

Also, I wrote a little function that creates a dynamic Hex color code based on the timestamp of a thing (ie: a blog entry’s creation date, or the last time someone updated their weight for Fuck 50lbs To Hell) and a specified range, and I applied it to my “Recent Entries” list on the right, to Fuck 50lbs To Hell, and to my Archive List. Right now I’ve specified the period for things to “go grey” for all three as 30 days (which is a little silly for the archive list) – tell me where else you’d like to see some sort of visual representation of things’ age.

Anyway, I’m going to go try sleeping again now. Good luck to me! Hopefully I won’t have dreams about coding…