Tag Archives: LiveJournal

[Excerpt] Adam’s Name

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Oh, man, when this block broke, it was like a shattering dam. The words are just flowing, and it feels DAMN good. (That was a pun! Hee!)

The game/discussion between Seth and Susan has taken a strange turn. Seth isn’t sure if she’s playing head games with him, or really trying to get him to start an organized crime ring. And because I did so well at getting a ton out on paper, you guys get an extra-long excerpt! :)

Why not? Your honesty throws everyone, and makes them love you.

Seth sighed deeply and leaned back in the booth, making the vinyl creak. She was pulling out all of her trump cards for this round. HIs fanatical devotion to honesty had been what had earned him such a strange group of friends, and nearly every one of them would put themselves in harm’s way for him.

Love me as a Caesar would be loved, eh? I’m not denying the possibility. There have always been similar situations that have formed around me. The only reason that it would be crime that we got into is because the thugs would get the thrill from breaking rules. I wouldn’t survive because of the love, though. Either I wouldn’t return it, or someone else would want it.

Seth took a gulp of his terrible, cold coffee. He was sure that he didn’t have the temperament to lead anything like an organized crime ring. Gangs were too vicious and tribal, and ethnic mobs followed familial lines. What they were talking about was artificially creating those ties, with a goal in mind from the beginning. That was deception on a massive scale.

Or someone would return it. You would be brought down by someone else, the Boss always is, but Sol would be there to watch your back. Even while John was calling you stupid to your face. And your anger, and the power, would make you scary. The first time you got truly angry at someone and laid them out, your position would be solidified.

Seth smiled. He was sure that she was just playing the game, now. He was one of the least violent, least angry people that he knew of. Sure, he’d get frustrated every once in a while, but hitting people?

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
8,373 / 110,000
(7.6%)

There’s no place like 127.0.0.1.

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When you’re falling asleep, and on the border of sleep dep, the best thing to do is to ride an electric scooter back to the other data center while it’s 54 degrees out, with a cold wind from the north west at 8 MPH.

That’s brisk, baby!

My eyes were watering, and it felt like the tears were going to freeze to my face.

If it were possible to warm up in this data center, I might go and do it again! :)

As for the old TV, it’s either going to for creative destruction involving firearms or to Lansing’s Computer & Electronics Recycling Day on the 30th. Either way, there will be room for a functioning one in my office.

Tomorrow pre-work involves a trip to CompUSA and more writing. Friday will be laundry day. Watch out, world, I’m planning again!

[Excerpt] Adam’s Name

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I wrote this yesterday, after finally getting over a block about the kids involved in the Little City Mafia. I couldn’t get them from Lansing to Detroit properly, and thought it would be really contrived and jarring, as once again, geography ends up playing an important part in the story. So, lo and behold, they’re now the Motor City Mafia.

I always hated geography. :) Everyone, meet Seth and Susan. They’re going to be terrible for each other, I can just tell. To set the scene, Seth and Susan are passing a notebook back and forth to each other across a table.

DETROIT, MI – CONEY ISLAND RESTAURANT

True. Or maybe they wish they were, and are only a group of guys who think they’re waiting for their day when they’re only waiting for death.

Seth looked up at her, concerned at this morbid turn. She sipped her pop, trying to hide the same smile that had set him off in the first place. Maybe if he could get her mind working, thinking of possibilities, she would let go of whatever it was that was getting under her skin.

Either way, with a middle-man like John, a desire to be who they’re trying to be, and an advisor like Sol, it could be done.

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
7,334 / 110,000
(6.7%)

Horosocope

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): “Dear StarMan: I want to be a famous actress like Scarlett Johansson. I know my natural talent is as good as hers, but I’m not especially beautiful. On one of those ‘am I hot or not?’ websites, I was rated 3.2 out of 10. Can you look into my future and see if I’ll ever make it big in Hollywood? And would it help if I got cosmetic surgery? – Taurus Dreamer.” Dear Taurus: It’s a favorable time for you Tauruses to explore ways you might be kidding yourselves about your destiny. So let me ask you this: Does the dream you articulated express the primal truth about your purpose here on earth? Or is it a fantasy your ego has fabricated out of a deluded longing to pursue inappropriate ambitions that won’t satisfy you in the long run? Instead of saying, “I want to be a famous actress,” try this desire on for size: “I want to be a good actress.”

FreeCycle didn’t work, so maybe one of you wants it.

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So, I’ve got this TV that -almost- works. It’s pretty old tech, so I thought someone here might be interested. ? Anyway, this is what I posted in the local FreeCycle group:

I’ve got a Sanyo 91C82 20″ television that I’d like to get rid of.

I’m fairly certain that this was the first color television that my parents ever owned. It’s got rabbit ears, and places for both UHF and VHF antennas. It has an adapter that my brother added, which makes it cable-ready. It does not have any RCA inputs.

The sound works perfectly. The picture, after the TV warms up, seems to have a few issues. There are horizontal sections (not small enough to be lines, really) that are pulled to the right, and this happens 2/3 of the time. When this happens, the color goes way off, but returns to normal when the screen returns to normal.

There was a remote control with it (literally, a “clicker”, I remember the loud click sound the remote would make when you pressed one of the buttons), but neither I nor my parents have any idea where it is. So, no remote control with the television.

I am no TV repairman, but I thought that someone here might be interested in taking this off of my hands. First come, first serve. Please contact me via email only.

Edit: There’s even a service manual listed on eBay. Heh.

Letting you in on it all.

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Yesterday:
In the last two days, I’ve written some pretty good stuff. Sure, it’s gaming related, about a character that exists in a White Wolf universe, but it felt really good to get it out. If you’re interested, you can see my Toreador character John wrestle to keep his humanity here:

It’s felt really good to write again. Like missing a favorite food for so long that you forgot that you missed it, until you had it again. I know that it hasn’t been that long since I’ve written, but it feels like it’s been that long since I’ve written.

I’m going to be hanging out with some seriously good people tonight. Lots of alcohol will be involved. After much food, which is probably a good idea for everyone involved. Did I mention I’m not paying for any of it? No? How about that work is picking up the tab? Morale boost, away!

I want to put down some words about and ‘s wedding, but I haven’t gotten them out yet. Fear not, when I do, they’ll be here. :)

Today:

I think that I am sick. About an hour before we were supposed to meet up for the LiquidWeb bar crawl, I felt all strange and was entertaining the idea of not going. Very strongly entertaining, though I hadn’t decided. convinced me to go, as did a call from . I had only eaten once, so when I got to Old Chicago, I was starving. We were early, so I ended up drinking a Smirnoff Ice pretty quickly while waiting for the others to arrive. When it came time to eat, I had a few appetizers, and only one piece of pizza. My stomach felt off. Kind of the same strange that I had felt earlier in the day.

I shrugged it off to drinking the Smirnoff Ice so quickly and not having eaten much before that, and went along with everyone else. The pub crawl was a great time. I really liked hanging with everyone, and it was a great time. I drank quite a bit, and was drunk when we left the exchange. It did feel like everyone else was more drunk, and that was odd to me, because I have nearly zero alcohol tolerance. We had gone from Old Chicago to the Exchange, and then off to Harper’s in East Lansing. There was literally no room to move in there. It sucked ass, and our boss had really pulled some strings to get us past the line and into the club. A group of five or six of us left there and headed toward the Peanut Barrel. Oh, yes, it was pouring rain by this point.

The walk was fun, and the rain was bordering on cold, which was exactly what I needed after being in the hot and crowded Harper’s. By the time we got to the Peanut Barrel, we were soaked to the bone. And…. it was full. Yay for East Lansing bars on a Friday night. We waited for a while, and by this time it was 12:30. and I decided to bail on the crawl at that point so that I would at least be human at work today. Oh, yes. My shift was supposed to start at 8 AM. We waited outside for fifteen minutes for to pick us up. We’d left our car up at Old Chicago, and taken the Hummer Limo with everyone else out to the bars.

The rain had stopped, but there was a strong wind at this point. A very chilly wind. I had been completely sober since the walk in the cold rain, and Benny was frozen. We got back to our car, and I drove us home. I got into bed, and couldn’t get warm. Me, the human space heater. I felt okay, but Benny kept saying how my skin felt cold and waxy.

We got to sleep, and I ended up waking up several times during the night needing to visit the bathroom, or take a Tums for acid issues. I tried to get up to go to work, and had a massive internal guilt argument about it, but I just couldn’t do it. I called in sick, and Sam stayed late to help Severin out.

I owe Sam a few beers, that’s for certain.

I slept past noon. I still feel cold. My stomach still feels strange, and I’m still making runs to the bathroom. The time in between has spread, so I have hope. I’m going to try to make it to tonight.

Wish me luck. :)

Horoscope

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TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Very few raindrops are actually raindrop-shaped. A far greater number take the form of doughnuts. These doughnutty raindrops are your power objects, Taurus–your magical symbols. I hope they inspire you to look for the wide-open spaces in the middle of every stormy downpour. I trust they will alert you to the possibility that there’ll be windows of opportunities at the heart of the drizzle.