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Category: Personal Life

Ramblings about me & my family.

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Published on 2 Comments on Bringing the E-Revolution Home

My oldest son is 19 and threatening to turn 20, but I'm not sure I'll allow that.  I'd like to send both my kids backwards towards infancy if I could. Anyway, he thinks he'll be 20 in March, but I'm rooting for him to turn 18 again... then 17 then 16, then 15 then...  Anyway, Zack was the poster child for someone who'd be the ideal ereader owner. 

Zack is a sophomore at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando.  However, his home is in Myrtle Beach, SC.  During the school year he travels a lot - sometimes by Amtrak and sometimes by plane.  By plane he'll have layovers between connecting flights and by train he's riding the rails for about 9 hours.  And he's a reader from way back.  So on those long trips, books are how he passes the time.

Like I said, he's a reader, so books are also one of the ways (besides his computer generally, World of Warcraft, specifically and hopefully studying - at least occasionally) that he passes his time at home and in his dorm.  He has 3 full bookcases in his room at home and boxes more in his apartment/dorm at UCF.  Amongst the most important book to him are the bulkiest - the Twilight series, all of 'em.  Those are 4 of the biggest, bulkiest books on the planet - and Zack adores them.  He wants them with him at home, at his dorm, and traveling between the two.

Like I said, he was the poster child for someone who needed an ereader. That would've been true even if his Mom wasn't an indie author who likes her ereader - although it's only a beginner's model.  I wanted better for my son.  The ebook revolution has advanced and my son, the National Merit Scholar studying engineering on a full scholarship, well, he should have the best - or at least, the best for him out of the variety of full-fledged "real" ereaders.  Which one would that be?

...continue reading "Bringing the E-Revolution Home"

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AOFM Elf
This elf is dangerous. Do not approach. Call appropriate authorities.

WANTED

This elf is wanted in connection to several incidents of the following:

  • Aggravated holiday shopping
  • Silliness in the first degree
  • Random acts of smiling and Christmas cheer

 

This elf has been most recently observed in Wal-Mart, though he has been spotted in other retail establishments around Myrtle Beach as well. He is armed. He has two of them in fact, and has been seen carrying presents in both of them.  He has recently begun to victimize small children by grinning at them with malicious happiness and terrorizing store clerks with loud proclamations of "Merry Christmas".

 

 

DO NOT ATTEMPT TO APPREHEND HIM YOURSELF! ALERT THE PROPER AUTHORITIES!

Burgermeister Meisterburger
The Grinch
Ebenezer Scrooge

Published on

Hi folks, AOFM pinch-hitting for the crazy duck lady. She's busy on the laptop looking for Black Friday-Saturday-Sunday deals. Me? I just wait until Christmas Eve and buy jewelry. Or at least I used to when we had disposable income. Now I buy cheap plastic trinkets from China and hand those out with drunken ass-whippings, like all good daddies do.

It's not all bad this year, though. We were told the first Christmas after Oprah showed off the Kindle that it was THE YEAR OF THE E-READER-R-R-R. That was 2009 or so. At "under" $400 (did you ever notice that when retailers say something is "under" a certain price, that's the actual price?), it was AVAILABLE TO EVERYONE!

Until we get to $400 for a gallon of gas, (which is an entirely separate blog post) something at that price is not really available to everyone. Something has to pretty much be a household necessity to be priced at $400 or more, especially after the economic downturn of early 2009. And an e-reader is not a household necessity (unless you happen to be married to an insane duck lady with sharp metal implements within her easy reach).

So when Amazon et al tried to talk up 2009 as THE YEAR OF THE E-READER-R-R-R, they were full of it.

...continue reading "The True Year of the E-Reader"

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Angry Old Fat Man, being more angry than usual. Probably more fat too, but to hell with it, like that makes a damn anymore.

I'm a computer guy, just trying to make heads or tails of the world as I plod along. I'm trying to build a business, so I worked practically the entire evening for free on a computer running Microsoft Vista.

If you don't know because you're an Apple sycophant, a Linux basement-dweller, Amish, or been living under a rock for the past 5 years, the Microsoft Vista operating system (like every second or third version of their software) sucks ass. It took entirely too long for Microsoft to realize they had a huge stinker on their hands, and after working on getting it somewhat stable they ended up having to rename it (Windows 7) for users to even look at it.

This machine I've been working on has an infamous Black Screen of Death, where you only see a black screen and a tantalizing mouse pointer that moves OK but has nothing to point at or click on. I've tried every free remedy under the sun and it still sits there, its dark face mocking me.

Did they even test this son of a bitch before they shipped it out the door? This is what Microsoft gets for hiring potheads and cheap overseas programmers. This is also why they're getting their lunch eaten by smartphones.

...continue reading "AOFM-MWU – S#@! I Have To Deal With"

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Unless you serve in our heroic armed forces, being an American is generally more about privilege than price. Today is different. Today is the day we do our job as citizens of the best country in the history of the world.

Today we decide our country's direction by choosing to re-hire the politicians who've been working for us or by letting them go and hiring someone new.

Today is NOT ABOUT your political persuasion. Today is about being an American. GET OUT AND VOTE!!!

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Published on 1 Comment on I Have Not Been Assimilated

I haven't joined the Borg.  I have not been assimilated.  Heck, I'm not even a Star Trek fan - though I live with three (3) men who are.  That's why I know about the Borg. Their bloody phrase seeps into dialogue at the Casa de Graham.   I know the phrase.  I know the meaning, but it doesn't fit.  I have NOT been assimilated.  What I've been is the victim of a marketing plan crafted by Mr. Quack, my resident diabolical genius.    

Quacking Alone Romances has had a Facebook page for a few weeks.  It existed and I left it alone.  I operated under the theory that if it didn't bother me and I didn't bother it then we'd both be okay.  Then I started trying to keep this blog refreshed with daily new content - which I thought would be a good thing - by going in each morning and posting a thought for the day.  

Mr. Quack sat me down and told me that I was getting it wrong.  I didn't want to update the blog content everyday, I wanted to put the new stuff on the Facebook page.  He said short thoughts don't belong on the blog, to put that stuff on Facebook.  So, I moved the thought for the day over to the QA Facebook page.  And, I've been trying to keep the page updated with new content by going in and posting my thoughts about books, TV shows, the universe and everything. 

Then Mr. Quack sat me down and said I'd gotten it wrong again.  He said that the Facebook page for QA Romances should stay static and only get updated by blog posts.  He said I needed to work on the Facebook page he'd started for me by reaching out to "friend" folks in my network of family and friends and by posting my thoughts there.  He says that social marketing is a necessary evil. 

Well, I've gone out to FB and put in some of my favorites there and I've started reaching out to "friend" old friends, college and law school buddies and family members. It'll be nice to have a way to stay in touch with them, I suppose.  But I wonder if my youngest son isn't right about Facebook.  Sam says that the number of friends you have on FB isn't about friendship or connecting.  He says it's just a modern day status symbol. 

...continue reading "I Have Not Been Assimilated"

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Today will be a brief post.  Blame it on the day job.  You know, the one that pays the bills?  I exist for the day when I can write full time, but this ain't that day (yet).  My boss - the trial lawyer at the firm where I do research and legal writing - is trying a big case next week.  I also have a brief due to the Court of Appeals next Friday so next week promises to be a real ole' humdinger.

Thought I'd post a brief mention about my great experiment on Amazon.  I'm playing with book blurbs or product descriptions again.  Or maybe I should say that I'm playing with book descriptions still.  It's sort of an ongoing battle.   See, my contemporaries - Griffin's Law and E-mail Enticement - haven't yet found their audience.  And I'm convinced that if I describe 'em just right people will check out the sample and then buy the ebooks for their Kindles. 

Oh, I know, everyone says that nobody reads contemporaries.  Everybody says that contemporary romances don't bloomin' sell as well as historicals unless Oprah picks 'em for her book club or Shonda Rhimes, Ron Howard, or Stephen King or Spielberg (or whoever) buys the movie rights.  I'm still waiting for the call from Oprah or a film mogul.  But despite that, I'm convinced that readers would enjoy the books if they gave 'em a shot.

I've been changing the descriptions of E-mail and Griffin's on sort of an ongoing and manic basis.  (I've been waiting for the guys at Amazon's DTP to call the rubber room police to come get me.)  First, I changed both to add the blog posts describing my process of writing each book.  Nada.  Just, nada.  Then I went back and wrote a pithy, catchy 3 or 4 paragraph description of each. 

You know what happened?  Yep, more Nada. 

...continue reading "Is Less Really More?"

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To paraphrase Rev. Wright, some of my roosters have come home to roost. And we all know that there are good roosters and bad roosters.

The good rooster is my eldest, Zack. He's home for the weekend from UCF in Orlando, Florida where he's studying to be an engineer. He flew home on the rails, thanks to Amtrak and the Student Advantage program that gives travel discounts. We're looking into flying him home next time because Spirit Air has some good discounted rates and because I dearly love Amtrak, but their train schedules aren't what you'd call convenient. I had to get up at 3 a.m Thursday night/Friday morning to pick up the returning rooster from a train station a couple of hours away. I don't mind the trip - just the hour.

HOLLA at the Fall Rally Harley bikers and weekend visitors who were travelling to Myrtle Beach in the wee early hours on Friday morning. No, the woman whose car lurched randomly at one point wasn't coming home from a really good party. She was just sleepy. The kidlets (the newly retrieved oldest and my youngest, Sam) jolted from their comfy sleep to wide-awake and terrified consciousness and insisted that Mom visit the nearest convenience store for a good dose of caffeine.

I'm not so sure about the Spirit thing though. Their air fares look reasonable ($50.00 to fly from Orlando to Myrtle Beach) is a damned good looking rate. But sometimes the good looking ones don't turn out to be so good when you look at 'em close. The eldest pointed out that the fine-print on the Spirit site talks about fees and other charges not being included in the $50.00 fare. Those fees could up the cost considerably, making what looks like a good deal, not be such a good deal after all.

The one thing I can say about Amtrak after a lot of experience financing my son's trips home is that what you see is what you get. The round trip on the rails costs about $85.00 and the fare they quote is the full fare. There are no extra costs or charges (unless, possibly, you take a heck of a lot of luggage or something, but that's not a college kid problem). If Spirit offers a fare where what looks like a bargain turns out to be an actual bargain then we might give 'em a shot next time. Flying him right into Myrtle would be nice, but in my present economic circumstances, it'll only work if its nice and cheap.

My eldest is a rooster who's welcome to return home to roost any time. The sky is brighter, the air smells sweeter and life is better when all three of my resident roosters are roosting in their home coop.

The other rooster is a dose of cosmic karma, and it's a bad, bad, evil and downright nasty kind of rooster. It slapped me in the face this morning when I was boogling around my customized Google News page. A couple of years ago Mr. Quack and I were looking for an economical and LEGAL way to download some music to burn some CDs. For me, that means mostly songs of the 70s and 80s. Has any good music been written since the 80s? I think not. (Or mostly not. Charlie Daniels has a new one out called What This World Needs Is A Few More Rednecks.  I'm not too much on country, save for a few tunes and everything by Charlie Daniels).

...continue reading "Roosting Roosters"

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Published on 1 Comment on Season 7: The Aftermath of Grey’s 9/11

Last season the halls of Seattle Grace Hospital got too crowded.  The merger with Mercy West brought in a herd of new folks.  All of the Mercy Westers seemed to be in a continual hunt for patients - and for screen time.  The fans of Grey's didn't know or care about the new faces.  They were invaders stealing screen time from the cast that now seems like family.   A bunch of 'em needed to go.

The problem with that was that Derek was running SG and in typical McDreamy fashion he didn't want to hurt anyone.  He'd been trying his best to integrate them into the hospital and had even taken one on (April) as his assistant.  Besides, in the economic tsunami of the current economy, most viewers had a downsized somebody right in their household and we wouldn't view any administrator who downsized a bunch of workers as McDreamy.  (Not even the Mercy Westers who by and large aren't liked much). 

There were also some story lines that needed to be turned upside down to move characters to another emotional place.  And now that the writers were gonna have time to coddle and confound our favorite characters again, the writers needed them to be ready to make some big changes.  I guess what I'm saying is that SG and its team had driven into a rut and couldn't get out even though they were headed in the wrong direction. 

One event, one man with a gun, solved the overcrowded staffing and the rut entrenched storylines.  I think of it as Grey's 9/11.  It blasted away the old SG and forces the staff to start over and build something new.  Just as 9/11 did, the explosion made heroes of folks who didn't set out to do anything extraordinary.  It made some of them make choices and sacrifices at the point of a gun that they'd never have made after cool reflection.  We'll watch our heroes who endured so much and lost so much do the most heroic thing of all - get up, start over and move on.

But they're moving on from a different place.  They're moving on from the place they picked in the heat of battle.  It's like I tell my kids all the time - and I had to tell myself very recently - you have to pick the hill you want to die on.  A bunch of the doctors at SG had to pick that hill at the point of a gun.  This season is about dealing with the consequences of those choices.

...continue reading "Season 7: The Aftermath of Grey’s 9/11"

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After a fairly lengthy absence, I'm finally on the road to recovery. 

No, I haven't had the flu or been diagnosed with some dread disease. It wasn't really me who was MIA.  I could deal with little ole' me being down and out.  This was much, much worse.  This was every writer's worst nightmare.  Yeah, that's right - my Muse bolted. 

Too much stress at work, too much stress at home and WAY too much of a very bad reality everywhere sent Muse on the lam.  Reality kidnapped my Muse.  As days stretched into weeks and the long Labor Day weekend passed without my fingers touching a keyboard, I started fearing the worst.  Maybe Muse wasn't just on vacation.  Maybe she'd taken up residence elsewhere.  She might even be ... dead. 

It took several things to bring her back, and that's what this blog post is about.  There's more than one way to lure your muse to return.  

...continue reading "All Day, All Night With Zombies & Old Dogs"