The past few days have been busy ones. Work has been a nightmare the last few days. Some poorly tested code made it into production, which caused no end of problems. Luckily the bug was found and eliminated today. This is the first night I’ve been able to relax since Friday.

Now I can finish catching up on other work this week, and devote some time this weekend to my edits on the current work in progress, Temperament. I’m hoping to have it ready for group in a week and a half.

We have driven by this house several times over the years and I finally decided to stop and take some pictures last weekend.

This Pyramid House is quite the site to see in person. I would love to find out the story behind this house sometime. Someone has put in alot of work to build this. The main building, the pyramid, is fairly large. The various statues and decorations around the grounds of the compound are also nicely done. There is a second building on the right side of the yard that has a Gift Shop sign above its door. I hope this means that the house will eventually be opened for public tours.

After more than a decade of being on dialup, I finally have broadband! It wasn’t an easy road. I had several close calls and near misses in the past. Sprint’s Wireless DSL came out and tested for service at our old townhouse, but the tree’s blocked line-of-sight. At the new house, we’re more than 30,000 feet from the central office, ruining any chances for normal DSL service. AT&T doesn’t offer Internet Cable service here, and I gave up on them after the second year where they would tell me it was coming ‘next quarter’.

West Waves rode to the rescue upon a silver steed of aluminum mesh. They’re a local wireless provider. I’ve been talking with them on and off for a few months.
When they originally came out and tested the signal, it was clear. I spent a few weeks to check on restrictions for the mesh dish they would need to install on the roof, and by the time they came back to check, some trees between our house and their tower had grown and blocked the signal. Back to the drawing board.

They were trying to get their equipment up on a water tower within a mile of the house, and were hoping to be in place in December. I called to check on their status, and it seemed like they were stuck in the red tape within the local political structure. Hope was waning.

Cut to two nights ago. I was sitting and working on edits for my current Work In Process before writers group when my phone rang. It was Dena. West Waves had called with wonderful news. They were up on a new (different) tower closer to the house. I called them back immediately, and they were out at 9am the next day to test the signal.

It was excellent. Perfect line-of-sight from my roof to their antenna. The installer returned at 5pm with all of the necessary equipment. After a few hours of working on the roof and attic, we moved to the basement and began to set things up. We had to do a bit of tinkering. I had to reconfigure my network and they had to adjust the bridge used to, well, bridge the wireless signal to an ethernet cable.

I’m now online with a solid, reliable connection. The speeds are good (512/128) and there’s very little latency. I’m happy with that.

The new year has arrived, bringing with it new challenges and opportunities. I’ve reset the yearly story stats (which were rather pathetic). I have already had my rant on resolutions. I do have goals for the new year – small, manageable ones. Spend more quality time with Dena. Improve my writing, and by extension, maintain a consistent writing schedule and submit stories when they’re done.

Christmas last week, and new years this week. This weekend would have been a nice resting period, but we had one emergency come up and family came into town.

Saturday afternoon was spent driving around looking for an optometrist. Dena was cleaning her glasses friday night when the frames split down the center. It wasn’t her fault. Upon closer inspection, I suspect there was a flaw in the frames. The break was completely even. It had been a few years since her last eye exam, plus her normal doctor wasn’t open. We finally found a Pearl Vision Center open that had a doctor available. After a thorough exam, we trecked to the mall (the on-site lab was closed for the day) and luckily found another Pearl Vision Center. After a few hours of walking around the mall, the lab finished up with Dena’s glasses and we went home for some much-needed rest.

Today was spent with Dena’s family. Her uncle and his new wife took the train in from Vermont and are visiting for a week. We had lots of fun. We played a domino game called ‘chicken foot’. I won resoundingly, and I didn’t even cheat.

Throughout the weekend I’ve been dealing with work-related problems. So much for so-called ‘managed services’. We have two companies that we outsource some services to. One or both of them are having issues this weekend, and neither of their ’24/7′ helpdesks seem to be manned.

Now, the weekend is almost over. I’m utterly exhausted. I did managed to sneak in a little writing, but otherwise I don’t feel like I accomplished much this weekend. At the very least, my nights over the next few weeks will be busy with catching up on contract work that slipped behind with the holidays. My lunchtime writing sessions are paying off, and I’m almost ready to hand over a draft to Dena. I should probably stumble to bed soon. My mind is kind of rambling, sort of like this entry.

The time for making resolutions for the new year is almost at hand. I’ve been giving the act of making resolutions a lot of thought lately. It seems to me that people tend to make grandiose and unattainable goals for themselves, only to suffer disappointment at their failure to meet their objective. That’s not the way I want to live.

In my mind, making a new years resolution is a good thing, if done in the proper context. Short-term goals (as I consider these) should be realistic. Saying that you will lose fifty pounds is unrealistic. Saying that you will drastically change your life is unrealistic. They can be accomplished, but not in the short-term.

I’m all about setting goals for myself. I do it all the time. I don’t always succeed in them, but I never give up on them. I try to make them as realistic as possible. For example, the goal I set for myself in the middle of last year was to have two short stories in circulation. I managed to submit one story, and I have a second that is close, but not quite ready. I partially achieved my goal, and I’m satisfied with that, because I made a consistent effort.

This next year will be more of the same. Writing is at the top of my list. On January first I will reset my yearly story statistics, and begin anew. With that fresh start, I will keep writing and submitting stories, not looking back at the previous year’s successes and failures. Life is about looking forward, not backward.

We’re back from a long day of celebrating the holiday with family. A good time was had by all. Dena made me the coolest flannel quilt and got me a DVD writer for my computer. Don’t forget lots of books from friends and family (see my current reading list), tools, DVDs, etc. It was a good year.

Hopefully everyone else has had a good holiday with their friends and family. The best thing about the holidays is spending time with those close to you.

…or a funny thing happened to the appliance store on the way to my house. We bought a nice Sony 65″ widescreen last week as a christmas present to ourselves (and to replace our dying television). Delivery was scheduled for Sunday December 22nd (yesterday). They were supposed to call between 6 and 7am to give us a delivery window. Six became seven, seven became eight, eight became nine. The store opened at nine, so I called to find out what was going on. I was told to call a different store (where the warehouse was located). I called, was put on hold, then told to call back the original store where I purchased the tv and and talk to the saleman. I knew the salesman wasn’t there (sundays being one of his days off), so they put me on hold again. Minutes later, they tell me that the store manager will call me back in 10 minutes. Fine, I say. I wait. Ten minutes pass, and no call. By this time, I’m understandably concerned, so I call back, not wanting to wait any longer. I ask for the manager, and the person who picks up the phone tells me that I was told that I was told they would call me back in 10 to 15 minutes, and then silence. I hung up, and waited. I was pissed off.

Twenty minutes later, the phone rings. It’s the manager (different than the one I had previously spoken to). He says, “By now you probably know there’s a problem with your t.v.”. Yeah. He continues and explains what went wrong.

They had three 55″ Sony TV’s and one 65″ Sony TV in stock. They sold all four. Someone mistakenly delivered the only 65″ Sony TV to someone who had bought a 55″ Sony TV (all delivered on the same day). Apparently no one called to tell them they received the wrong TV, so they didn’t have my TV any more.

By this time, I’m smoking mad. I’m ready to cancel my check and tell all my friends about it. Then the manager does something that that makes me take back all of the bad things I had thought about his company. He doesn’t want to ruin anyones Christmas, so he makes me an offer. To replace my now out of stock TV, they will give me a massively upgraded Hitachi 65XWX20B. Same size as the Sony we had picked out, but with much more advanced features. When I did my shopping, Hitachi was recommended hands-down as the best widescreen projection system available, and this is their top of the line. HDTV receiver built-in, lots of expandability, and lots of other cool yet-to-be-understood features. I accepted their offer, and he had it on the next truck leaving the warehouse. They arrived that afternoon. Now, coupled with a new stereo receiver, we have achieved multimedia bliss.

I’m trying really hard to stay motivated at work today, but it’s just not working. A little less than two hours left in the day and my eyes are glued to the clock. I’ve got writers group tonight, and I’ll have a little bit of free time beforehand to do some christmas shopping.

Time flies when you’re busy. Only 10 minutes left at work. I helped setup another MoveableType install for Annie over at LEAF. It’s her first time using MT, but I think she’ll get the hang of it quickly.

Off to shop and meet with the group. Hopefully the crowds aren’t bad.

Well, the work week is half way over and what a good week it’s been so far.

Tuesday I finished the first draft of “Temperament”, a fantasy short story. Tomorrow I’ll start doing cleanup and edits. Hopefully I’ll have a solid draft ready for group in a few weeks.

This morning we went to see the 12:01am showing of The Two Towers. I try to go into movies, especially ones of this magnitude, with few expectations. I accept that the director can and will take some dramatic license and I want to still try and enjoy the story being told. That said, Peter Jackson did an excellent job (again). It was completely enjoyable. I found myself sitting in a dark theatre at 3:15am and saying “again, again!”.

Work was nice enough to give me the day off. I managed to sleep in a whole two hours. We went out this afternoon and did some shopping. We’ve been wanting to get a new television, and the picture tube in ours is starting to go. We spent several weeks shopping around, and finally bought one today. A 65″ widescreen made by Sony. It will be delivered Sunday. It’s going to be a moment of multimedia bilss. I can’t wait.