141) New Year's Resolutions

2014 is all about positive energy!  Following is a small list of things I will accomplish throughout the next year:

• Complete my first 3 book series and making them available for download on Kindles and Nooks.  Of course I would like to make millions from it.  And I want it to be an HBO series starring Kate Winslet, Mila Kunis and Christina Ricci! 
• Help Cody complete his first sci-fi story.
• Fix the outdoor lights in our backyard.  This may take me as long as writing the 3 book series.
• Actually complete my work with Spartacus.
• Learn how to make Pad-Thai.
• See my dad more than 2 times a year, each time lasting about an hour or so.
• Help David get moved out of the house.
• Teach mom how to properly use FB.  Will probably be easier helping David get moved out.
• Find The Cure's Wish on vinyl.
• Learn how to successfully use social media to promote the books I write.  
• Go to Dirk's home town, which is really far away from Africa.
• Learn to use the vitamix without having to read a recipe.
• Use Beverly's christmas basket successfully!

I think that's it...

140) 2014 Year In Review

2013 was a strange year for me.  Many great moments.  Many bad moments.  Here is a year in review straight from memory, which is probably not the best way to do this, since I can't remember a damn thing without checking FB.  And I do not want this account being simply a recount of FB:

• Year of wine.  L. discovered that she actually likes wine, and now we are two of the snobbiest wine drinkers in Texas.  The bottle that did it was a 201 Proeza blend she found at Bolsa.  Caravan is currently her favorite, and may lead to her passed out on the doggie bed.
• Le Creuset has been introduced to our kitchen.  And now we rarely cook with anything else.  This means dishwashing has taken the place of weightlifting for my daily workouts.  Needless to say, our meals have become way more fancy.
• Year of concerts.  This year I saw 6 shows:
• Tame Impala (Feb, Granada) -Aussie band with a couple of good albums.  The venue sounded pinched and too bright.  Pierced my ears.
• BTE (Aug 30, House of Blues) - We see these guys each time they come to Dallas.  This particular show we went with The Barts and got a photo with the drummer afterward.  He was the best musician on the stage.  If you had gone, you would have heard me say it a dozen times or more.
• Mumford & Sons (Sept 18, Gexa) - L. and I found a great place to stand at Gexa if you show up 3 minutes after the music starts to a sold out show.  Lauren danced with us while we drank several big beers.  They did not play my two favorite songs, and I won't forget that!
• Alt-J (Sept 29, House of Blues) - The concert I looked forward to the most.  We were right on the stage and this is a band that has had a profound effect on L. and I.  Pearl Jam/Pink Floyd level effect.  I drank many shots and many beers in the parking lot before the show.  L. loves Alt-J above all others.   
• Franz Ferdinand (Oct 5, House of Blues) - Again, drank many shots and beers in the parking lot.  This was the best show of the year.  They are high energy, they have great music and their drummer is freakin amazing.  We bought Ume shirts, and an Ume vinyl.  The chick lead singer was right there, and she was sort of hot.  We couldn't resist.  The lead singer plays the exact same guitar that I do!
• Pearl Jam (Nov 15, AA Center) - Always great to be in the same room with one of the defining artists of my lifetime.  They sounded amazing.  It was one of their first shows on the Lightning Bolt tour.  They were energetic and youthful, and it was their first show in Dallas since 2003 when they were booed at Gexa.  I was at that show too, and was pissed they were being booed.  Vedder singing Indifference at the end of the night with the lights on was a moment I will never forget.  So beautiful.  
• 10 Year Reunion.  I have been married more than 10 years!  Truly amazing and the finest accomplishment of my life.  The crazy part is this: our marriage is better in year 10 than it was in year 1.  Or year 2.  Or year 3.  We continue to grow together and enjoy new adventures.  Looking forward to the next 10 years. 
• The Year of Cody.  Cody moved to Dallas and has been doing laundry at our house almost every week.  Its been great because I am developing a good relationship with him during a pivotal time in his life...the time when he must learn to grow up and live on his own.  I remember when I was having to grow up, and it would have been much better if I'd had a bossy older brother telling me what's what.  
• Vinyl.  Got the record player working and have become hooked!  I love making people listen to old Rush and Styx records.  So much fun and sounds SO GOOD!!!  I make L. listen and she does not mind NIN, Alt-J, The Cure and Margot & the Nuclear So and Sos.
• Vox Guitar.  I got a new guitar this year and have spent much time composing new music to impress my friends.  And I think they are really impressed because the music is way better than what I used to show them.  And all of it is really awesome!
• Thailand and Cambodia.  Too much to say about Thailand and Cambodia, so I will make this short and sweet:  Thai food, Baby Ha-Ha, Chompoo, Floating Villages, Charlie Chaplin's favorite hotel, Savage Fish Massage, Temple of the Dawn, Chang Mai Night Market, Regulator Rooster, Buddhas out my goat ass, overgrown jungle temples, headless statues, Angkor Wat, Reclining Buddha, wicker soccer game with the workers, Aussie travelers, tuk-tuk drivers, Sunday Market
• Savannah was born
• Sonder.  Made great original music with a close friend of mine.  Hope to continue this, as it is a great way to express beauty and emotion.
• Alanadale.  Made great cover music with other close friends of mine.  Hope to continue this, as it is a great way to express beauty and humor.  More beauty than humor, I think.
• Wine Country.  Went to Willamette Valley and Napa Valley.  The country and the weather was beautiful.  Great places to spend time.  So much so, that we considered moving. When we went to Napa, we saw The America's Cup.  First sailboat race I had ever seen, and it was a huge event.  Much bigger than I would have ever imagined.  
• Drank Chris's stout which tasted better than Guinness or St. Arnold's Stout.  I was no help racking the fermentor valve.  
• Won 2nd place in our FF league.  Dugat did most of the work, but it was a fun way to win a few extra dollars.  
• Wiener dog races.  Polly won her heat, then got second in the semis.  Was funny watching her sprint her happy little ass off!  This year we are going to train more vigorously.
• Katrina's wedding. They drank from huge beer mugs all night and danced with all the beautiful women of the family.  Feel lucky to have connected with Jason and his family. 

139) The Significance of 300

The number 300 is significant, indeed.  It is the total number of points in a perfect bowling game.  There are approximately 300 steps (more like 306) that lead to the top of The Temple of Dawn, an impressive structure that graces the banks of the Chao Phraya in Bangkok.  There were 300 Spartans who bravely defended the city against foreign invaders.   According to the crappy movie, all 300 died.  Supposedly 300 is the number of popes and antipopes that would gather throughout history, according to the Roman Catholic Church, before the second arrival of the Christ.

But more importantly, 300 is the milestone page I reached last night on my novel.  I have written 300+ pages on other projects in the past, but for some reason last night felt special.  Perhaps it is because these 300 pages were written by a writer, while the previous projects were written by an advertising guy in his spare time.

138) If you like writing, cats ain't for you...

Do you know how difficult it is to write when you live with cats?  If you do, then this post may be redundant for you.  If you do not, allow me to retort.

Writing is a gigantic pain in the ass when you live with cats!  Any time I sit at my computer, they sprint toward me and jump on the table I am writing at.  So I move to the couch.  They sprint to the couch and jump in my lap where I am writing.  So I move a desk in the spare bedroom and close the door.  They sprint down the hallway just outside the door and meow.  One of them sticks her furry little paws underneath the door and jiggles it non stop.  Seriously non stop.  I have to get up and run her off, which pisses the dog off.  The dog barks and chases the cat, which gives me enough time to write about a sentence and a half (if the sentence is already started in my head) before the cat jiggles the door again.

So to compensate I have been doing much of my writing at a local library or the nearest 1/2 priced books.  Both are good locations.  Both are free from cats.  When I finish this first novel I will have to acknowledge the local library and the 1/2 priced books simply because I have 2 annoying cats!

Did you know that Hemingway lived with like 30 cats?  He loved them.  Maybe my problem is that I have too few cats...

137) Cat and Mouse

A game of Cat & Mouse opened up in front of me as I wrote quietly at a library table.  A bum off the street took a bible from the bookshelf and sat next to me.  He dropped two large bags beneath the table, as far as I could see they were filled with plastic and aluminum garbage, no doubt collected so that he might exchange them for change.  His odor crept across the table like the mist in Stephen King's short story.

A man approached the table and said rather loudly, "Uh-uh!  Not today!"  The man collected the bible from the tabletop and bore his eyes so deeply into the bum that he could do nothing but slink away behind a row of shelves.  I remained seated, bathed in his lingering smell, wondering if the bum will return for his belongings.

The man noticed that I watched the situation with the curiosity of a small child.  It is likely that he thought I watched with a judging eye.  He bore his eyes in my direction, obviously irritated that any part of his job included running a bum out of the public library.  I did not judge.  I feel like I understand the situation perfectly.  One has no place to go, and when it is cold outside any shelter is good shelter.  The other has the integrity of the library to look after.  He is paid to keep this place running so that interested citizens have a place to study and read.

The mouse returned with a book on Christianity.  He read while standing up.  Easier to run away.  The mist closed in once again.  He read, but more accurately he watched.  He watched and waited for the cat who will be coming directly.

136) A New Adventure

Embarking on a new adventure in the form of a new novel project.  I've had a few ideas milling around my imagination for awhile now, but honed in on a specific one and have begun getting pages down.  I plan to share various tidbits from the writing of this new project and will begin by sharing a handful of the ideas that will not get explored.  They are:

• Genie in an Acura - a modern day wishing genie story.  Would be completely sarcastic and dark. The genie would have been an asshole driving around in an Acura, promising things to people and sometimes delivering.  
• Crazy Cat Woman story - a woman lives in a house surrounded by stray cats.  They meow and scurry about her house like she is opening cans of tuna at all hours of the day.  No one comes to visit because she is the crazy cat woman.  And then one day she leaves her house (probably to get more kitty litter) and there are no cats.  She does not know what happened to them.  She is sad.  She does not know what to do with herself.  Because of her new found silence and free time she devotes her life to finding a man and embarking on a new career.  For her, she learns that she has an eccentric and outgoing personality that had been stifled by the presence of too many cats.  She becomes a radio personality or something.  And she falls in love.  Not sure, but I think the ending was going to be something like the man breaks her heart and she slumps back into her house.  The next morning all the cats returned and she is once again the crazy cat lady.  (Sound like a fun read?)  
• Boxing novella - This would follow 3 young UFC fighters training in a small town gym.  To make money they also run hour long classes (like cross fit) where the smallest fighter is the town's favorite instructor.  He makes friends and he trains people to get stronger, but he wants to be a fighter.  Yet, every amateur fight he participates in ends with him getting beat badly.  He is simply too small.  There is more to this story, but i do not want to go into here, because I may one day write this one.  It has potential in ways the catwoman and genie stories do not!
• Union Murder project - When the unions first formed, there were epic struggles between the working class and big business.  This story takes place in a camp formed by thousands of on strike workers who refused to work, but also built camps surrounding the factory to make sure no one else could work either.  It was an extremely hostile environment.  A murder occurs and there is a separate investigation that leads the inspector through the various layers of early american society.  In the end, the murder was over a drunken quarrel involving things said about another man's wife.  

You will just have to wait and see what story trumped all those fabulous ideas!!! 

135) Why Whiskey Is Not Always Good

A friend of mine from college posted a video on FB of him jumping a fiery rope on the beach after drinking much whiskey.  I cannot find a link to share, as the video is definitely worth watching.  I will be looking and will eventually find it.  Until then, enjoy the two photos that still tell the story.