I have moved my blog to my own domain. Check it out by clicking here and remember to change your bookmarks, please. There will be a link back to this free website on the new website shortly.
Yesterday morning I saw my podiatrist he said my foot looks fine now but suggested I start using KERA-42 Cream on my feet, he said it is over the counter medication and his office has it for $21.80 nevertheless he submitted to Express Scripts. If they reject it, I will buy at either his place or someplace else if I can find it cheaper online, Might as well be Frugal about it.
After I saw the doctor I took a joy ride to Marlin Texas which is about 35 miles from here as I was thinking about using it as the starting point for the book I am writing. I liked the area but I think it was a bit too big for what I had in mind. I am looking for someplace with a population of 6000 where some people still use propane and have their own wells within 30 miles of Waco. I will find it somewhere.
I am trying to link my HubPages.com account with KKK Big Country, the author who referred me to the website in the first place. I don’t want to start writing articles until I am linked up with her as she will earn something from them as well. In order to monetize my articles, I will need to set up a few things first: 1) A PayPal merchant account where I can get paid 2) A Google Adsense account as that is where the money is generated. 3) An Amazon Affiliation account which allows me to sell Amazon products on this site if I think you might be interested. I already refer you to many Amazon products so I might as well get a “kickback” is you actually buy what I recommend.
Unfortunately, WordPress won’t let me monetize this site because it is a free site so I bought the domain name of RamblingsFromAnOldMan.com and will have to build/setup a new webpage. That will take more than just a few days to do but it will be worth it. I will continue to use this site until I get the new one set up then I will make one final entry on this site that will direct people to the new site.
While all this was going on last night my Internet provider, Grande Communications, had intermittent problems that were just driving me nuts. It would take FOREVER to get to any site or would start to load and then give me a message that said I wasn’t connected to the Internet, which I was, so I finally call them and was told by a recorded that they were having problems in my area which they hoped to have fixed by 4:30 this morning. I did the only rational thing I could do and chose not to be frustrated by things I have no control over and went to sleep.
Life is good when you are patient.
Last night was a fantastic Monday night IMHO because I learned lots of stuff. First of I stopped by Ace Hardware before I went to my “Writing Novels That Sell” class at MCC to buy a ten-foot three-prong extension cord. I only had a 20-foot three-prong extension cord that people kept tripping over in class, besides the female end didn’t make a good connection to my laptop at times. My computer one time turned itself off because I wasn’t paying attention to the charging light. Well in my defense, the light was out so how could have known to watch for something that wasn’t there?. Now I am a 3-bag person with a laptop as I need a third bag just to carry the extension cord and power strip. The other two bags have stuff that I absolutely need (LOL) because I am a bit of a hoarder.
After tonight’s class, I decided to put the novel that I have been working on for twenty or so years on the back burner and start a new one from scratch. That might sound like a disaster but I think of it as more of an epiphany because I now know what the hell is wrong with it – no conflict and was boring because of it. I think it is going to be easier to start from scratch from an than try to fix something that I wrote by the seat of my pants. I will still start with the same premise as my old novel but I am going to add some more conflicts and disaster. I know it sounds like formula writing and it is but you don’t have to write The Great American Novel to make money. The only people who fail at McDonald’s are franchise owners with an MBA. In other words, don’t over think it – just do it.
I also learned that one of my fellow students has be writing articles for www.HubPages.com in the last ten years she has made $10,000 which is not great, and one couldn’t solely live on a thousand dollar a year, but hell she is getting paid which is more than I am getting for all the dribble I spread on the Internet. She told me not to join right away until she sends me a referral code because evidently, she will make money on the stuff I write and sell. I guess, it is sort of like a multilevel marketing plan. I am not sure how I will make money on articles I write but the subject intrigues me and “besides I am blessed with three sources of retirement income, so if I fail, I won’t starve to death. Besides, it sounds like a hell of a lot of fun. She also suggested that I change my business card to it reads “Writer” under my name and then to “Published Writer” after I make my first sale. It the “Fake It – Until You Make It” philosophy.
I passed out my Waco New Writers fliers out to my classmates and learned of another writers group that meets monthly at a coffee house right after a Toastmasters meeting. I used to be in Toastmasters International so I think I will join both groups. They are both daytime meetings so that is great for me. Their next meetings are on Saturday morning August 4, at a local coffee house. I am looking forward to it.
I connected my laptop to the Internet with my iPhone, I think. Just to make sure I wasn’t inadvertently connected to MCC’s WiFi, I went to The Game Closet which I know doesn’t have public Internet service and it worked just fine. On the way to the Game Closet, I was thinking I need to post an ad on the bulletin board requesting to meet with a Dungeon Master to help me set up some D & D character sheets because I am not sure what I did Monday morning fits the bill. As luck would have it there was a level 5 D & D game in progress. I got to talk to the DM and he graciously gave me his email address and told me to send him my character sheets and he would give me constructive criticism and suggestions. WOW!, Don’t you just love The Law of Attraction.
Like I said it was a fantastic Monday night. Life is good if you can master your circumstance and not let your circumstances master you.
Yesterday I worked on a new website and Google Group for New Writers in the area. I am the only member of that group so far but I have my MCC class this evening at six and I will pass out fliers to my fellow students. They may or may not join but I think it is a good idea. The flier is also posted on this site on the Links page. I read the Sunday comics, bits and pieces of the news, copied all of the puzzles and went to The Game Closet shortly after the opened at eleven.
The owner let me borrow his D & D players handbook as the one I am going to buy won’t be in until Wednesday. He also let me borrow his copy of “Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide” That is a background book that describes the land, cities, inhabitants, gods, and history of the realm which D & D is set. I liked it so much I bought my own copy as it will help to write a bio of the characters, I create. That is a good writing exercise anyways.
I tried creating a character by rolling random dice. I found the process to be a bit cumbersome and not at all like the way I remember it in the past when I was a lot younger. Now that I am older the learning curve seems a lot steeper, it seems more complex but I will prevail. First of all, I didn’t have enough dice with me so I found an app for my smartphone called “Dice and Dragons” that roll D & D dice based on a random number generator. You start off by rolling four six-sided dices six times to generate your basic stats. The six numbers I rolled (were 14, 17, 11, 9, 16, and 15 once I figured out the app.) You then assign these numbers to your character’s basic abilities, commonly called stats, and enter them on your character sheet. Depending on your chosen race and professing there are modifiers to these basic (random) stats that you get from the table in the handbook. This obviously was getting very complicated so I went down another rabbit hole and started searching the web on my iPhone for programs that would randomly and efficiently generate a D & D character. I think I found one called OrcPub. I didn’t have my laptop with me because The Game Closet doesn’t viable Internet service as yet although they tell me they are planning on it. I have to figure out how to make my iPhone a mobile hotspot. I know it can be done, I just haven’t figured it out as yet.
Anyway, I had lunch there consisting of a pseudo-Hot Pocket and a cup of black tea. I brought these with me and used their microwave. I worked on other things like my newspaper puzzles and read my book. I left shortly before three, came home and took a nap. I woke up about nine and worked on my new website for the Waco New Writers website and its fliers.
I went to sleep before midnight and woke up this morning at five. Did the first two steps of my S.A.V.E.R.S program. I am having some difficulty with the visualization part so I went back to sleep until eight getting my eight hours of sleep. First thing I did was figure out how to use my iPhone as a mobile hotspot so now I can take my laptop with me anywhere. The trick is to connect it my laptop with a USB cable that way I can charge my iPhone and use it as a hot spot at the same time.
I next played around with OrcPub and found out they only have nine races to choose from because of some legal bullshit but that is plenty. I decided to start with nine level 4 characters, one for each race. Now some of these races, I know nothing about so I will have to do some research. I will make them whatever their highest stat calls for. I then chose appropriate random names for their race.
It took me most of the afternoon to do Ernan but I have enough for an initial character sheet and spell cards and I probably have a lot more to do him, like write a background story. It’s a start,I have to be careful not to make this into a rabbit hole. The next character I will work on is some sort of fighter as they are probably easier to create and play. Ernan is going to be a work in progress for a while.
I checked my solutions for Friday’s newspaper’s puzzles and I only completed 39.5% of the Sudoku as the gold level is difficult for me. I solved the Jumble but I had to use a computer program designed for that puzzle so what is the fun in that? At least I know how to use the program and that it works. Didn’t have time for the crossword puzzle, no did I work on any of the puzzles in the Sunday paper.
I create a lot of rabbit holes, perhaps I should seek fulfillment in by concentrating on a single project.
I spent of a good part of the day sleeping because of the hours I have been keeping. I am going to reset my circadian rhythm to take full advantage of S.A.V.E.R.S. But when you are setting a new website there are a lot of rabbit holes. I am making progress both on my website and new lifestyle choice. I posted and a couple of new links for me but you might find them interesting, or not, so check them out. I also cleaned up and organized the website files that I keep in my Dropbox account.
I went to The Game Closet a little after seven this evening and stayed until they closed a little after ten. I went there specifically to buy the hardback version of the Dungeon’s & Dragons 5th edition Player’s Handbook, unfortunately, Reg, the owner, sold his last copy this morning so I will have to wait until Tuesday to buy it. I could possibly buy it cheaper online, but I believe in supporting local businesses and I am using their store as my office. I need this book to roll (create) my D & D players. Reg, told me that he would try to bring his copy in tomorrow to borrow there. He also told me if I was looking either to start a new D & D group or join an existing group to type up a half page flier and he would post it. I will do that right after I post this entry and try to get there by eleven in the morning when they open.
I had a lengthy conversation with a D & D Dungeon Master who just recently disbanded his group because of the lack of dedicated players. He gave me a load of advice and suggestion which I truly appreciated but to learn the game you got to play the game and make mistakes.
They have a small microwave oven for 700 watts which is less than half the power of the one I use at home. I took a couple of bags of microwavable popcorn and took a scientific wild ass guess of three minutes and was right on my first try as it didn’t burn anything only left 12 kernels untouched. Now when I go to The Game Closet and can bring with my tiny igloo ice chest with a couple of bottle of flavored water, microwave popcorn, and some Hot Pockets® and I will be set for the day.
I spent the rest of my time there solving the puzzles in today’s paper. I wasn’t very successful but there is always tomorrow.
I had a wonderful day on Friday. I woke about 10 o’clock so much for my S.A.V.E.R.S project. The reason I woke up late is I stayed up most of the night working on my website. It is so easy to go down that rabbit hole so I will write another affirmation,
The first affirmation, I wrote for S.A.V.E.R.S was,
All my affirmations are listed on my LINKS page. Eventually, when I have 20 of them, and I will print them out on business cards to carry with me. Anyways, I copied the crossword, Sudoku, and jumble puzzle from the daily newspaper and some D & D character sheets from the web. I also created some blank character sheets for my novel then I took a 3′ three-ring binder and my hole punch to The Game Closet, which I am now using as my office. While drive there I thought it might be a good idea to write an algorithm for my Open Office spreadsheet for two reasons: 1) My mind doesn’t seem to be wired to solve anagrams and 2) It would be an interesting exercise and would keep my mind active, getting me back to programming somewhat.
Arriving at my destination, I first went to Dollar General, next door, to buy some document protectors, three-ring wide rule paper, and dividers. I also bought some trail mix before entering my “office.” I was surprised to find Pete there as he doesn’t work on the weekends and the place was practically empty. I thought it was Saturday (lack of sleep) and set up a table with my hole punch, binder, and Dollar General supplies to set up the binder.
I started working on the Sudoku puzzle, silver level and completed 49% of it. I searched the web and found an app that would solve anagrams but it didn’t quite help me with the Jumble puzzle although I did solve the anagrams of the four hint words. I didn’t realize until this morning that the composite answer was also an anagram
Later on, I met Chris Strange who patiently taught me the basics of Magic the Gathering. He let me win but now I am in a position to at least ask an intelligent question about the game I am going to be slow for a while until I master all the nuances of the game.
Coming home, I updated the links on my website (another rabbit hole) and went to sleep around 3 am. Today I am going back to The Game Closet, to see how busy it is on the weekends. If they have it, I will buy the Player’s Handbook 5ed for D & D so I can roll a character and perhaps join a group to play the game
I haven’t posted anything for almost two years so I cleaned up this site and will start posting regularly and sort of an open journal. I put a link to the novel I am writing on the LINKS page. Please read it as I want and need your constructive criticism. If you find any errors and I assure you that there are many please let me know by page number and draft date. Same goes true for this site itself if you find any errors let me know and I will correct them as soon as possible. I try to write 2000 words a day on my novel and with be updating the draft often.
The reason I am using this website as an open journal is that it is part of my S.A.V.E.R.S process, part of The Miracle Morning, that I am trying to make it a good habit in life. Maybe my therapist, and I do have one, might want to check on the dribble that I am posting.
I started reading Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan which is the book we will discuss on 8/21/18 at Book Talk at the West Waco Library. It is kind of a combination book club and free MCC class that meets the third Tuesday of every month. I missed the meeting this month because I wrote it down wrong in my electronic calendar I depend on. Somehow I thought the meeting was scheduled for the 19th but it was on the 17th, a Tuesday, of course.
I discovered The Game Closet at the corner of Bosque Blvd and New Road here in Waco. I am looking forward to playing Dungeon and Dragons 5th edition, as well as Magic, the card game. I think it has been nearly 30 years since I played D & D and if I recall it was the 2nd edition, so I have got a lot to learn.
Ramblings From An Old Man 