Mish-Mash

I haven’t written a journal entry in a while. This time, it’s not going to be any one thing because there isn’t just any one thing going on big enough for an entry all its own. So, I guess, we’ll what potpourri of inanity will ensue.

A DISCo Explosion

Last week I went over to Scarlet’s[[starto]] to see if I could rescue her from her DVD-burner woes. My suspicions as to the problem were immediately confirmed when I removed the drive and was greeted by a sound not unlike broken glass. Yup, the disc she’d last put in had exploded (not a myth…it does happen sometimes).

I spent over an hour trying to clean the drive of polycarbonate and dye-layer-foil shards. When I reinstalled the drive it refused to recognize the presence or non-presence of a disc. It would periodically open and then close the tray. Very annoying.

So, I cobbled together a temporary setup with a spare CD-burner I had. Scarlet is happy that she has disc access again. I’m waiting for the new drive I ordered to arrive to give her a more long-term DVD-based solution.

Poopy-head Sheeple

I’ve twice been told by two different people that they couldn’t imagine why I liked how my life was. After all, I had to work so hard to gather all of this information in order to be versed in a variety of issues so as to maybe come up with my own conclusion–which they considered (as often as not) to be wrong. They, being very devout people of faith (different religions), assured me that their way was better. Believe in the words of their blessed book, believe in what God has directed their religious leader to tell them was true, and not have to waste so much time trying to have to think for themselves.

Seriously. Said with straight faces. They actually embrace following a path unquestioningly, never seriously considering that their all-too-human shepherd might just be nothing more than (gasp) a fallible, temptable, corruptible human being.

So… when I saw the flocking toward the lesser Bush (aka Bush the Nutter), when I saw the evolution shoutfests, when I see the healthcare disruptions…well, it just makes my heart cry. And makes me angry. But mostly sad.

I don’t want to soapbox this until I can really articulate it in a way that isn’t libelous. Basically, I fear that we have reached a tipping point (if we haven’t already passed it). To what? Fascism. The symptoms have been manifesting and intensifying for decades. While it caught my attention enough in the past for it to be a concern, it’s only in the present that I am honestly starting to think that changing countries while the gettin’ is good might be the smartest thing I could do.

But… I want to think well of my country. I want to believe that it can step back from the precipice. I want to believe we can let the better angels of our nature take the reins. I desperately want to believe that. That belief gets tested more and more as my “fellow” American increasingly spew hate, a cable network is all but devoted to that message (yes, I’m talking to you, FoxNews), and much of a political party is increasingly goose-stepping to the rhetoric.

I need to think on this some more.

Lots o’ Writing

Obviously the thing taking much of my time has been my Terminator project. There has been a lot of rumor, hoopla, and stuff going on recently. I figure all I can really do is write what I write and let the rest take care of itself. Though, if something professional came out of it, I wouldn’t sneeze at it…well, maybe I would, but that’s pretty much because of these drat allergies.

I can’t remember the last time I had this much fun. Sure, coming up with a good hour-long teleplay every two weeks can be a bit of a PITA, but the results so far have been more than worth it. Much better than I was expecting. (I give thanks every day to the Muse(s) who elevate the work.) I’d always suspected that my niche would have been as a TV writer. Too bad I’ve been locationally challenged.

The Big Chile

It’s chile season again. Have got 1-1/2 sacks taken care of. About 2-1/2-to-4 more to go. Can’t wait ’til next year when the renewed genetic seeds bring back the flavor-rich chiles of old.

SocNet

I’ve been social networking…mostly on Facebook and Twitter. One of the cruel facts of being a writer is that it isn’t usually constant writing. It is also distraction from writing in order to foster new writing (yeah…unless you go through it, it’s hard to appreciate). The social nets are a couple of my time-wasters…but also important resources.

Databased

I finally decided to use OpenOffice Base as my database. I abandoned MS Access simply because the licensing and the upgrades and everything…too expensive for what I needed. ooBase is free, so the price is right.

Unfortunately, getting information from Access to Base isn’t the funnest thing in the world. While I could have simply linked to an Access file, I didn’t want to be beholden to a format that I could no longer access directly. I’ve lost too much data over the years to corruption to want to do that. I also didn’t want to be beholden to having access to a server, otherwise I would have just used a MySQL solution.

Once I got my data transferred (oh, that was annoyingly more difficult than it needed to be), ooBase has provided me with a nice stand-alone file that I can move from computer to computer, backup and restore easily, and make copies for testing. I still haven’t had the time to work out the programming issues, but for now I have the basic setup I need to do the work I want to do.

Wrapping Up

And that’s about it other than the usual boring ol’ life stuff. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a thing or two. If it’s important, I’ll journal it here (or blog it). Anyhoo…time to get to either databasing or writing–both are on today’s agenda.