MadSquirrel's Nano Journal

Exposing myself

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:03:25 GMT

Well... it's been funny exposing my music to the world. Apparently, somebody out there hates my piece with a burning passion. This guy is running around the competition leaving nasty comments for all sorts of people. It's kind of pathetic. He never fails to mention how experienced and competent he is himself and yet.... why does he feel the need to run down rank amateurs like me? Does he feel threatened?

Pathetic isn't it?

The sad thing is that his piece has been rated very very low. I wonder why? Could it be that recipients of his bile are tracking his piece down via Google-fu and giving him crappy ratings? Who knows?

My thing

His thing

Yes, his piece is better music. With 45 years of experience a professional studio and whatnot, it had bloody well better be.

On the other hand, enraging older obnoxious snobs is precisely the purpose and goal of real rock music. It may be nothing but three chords and a blues scale, but it works for a reason. It must really burn this guy's ass that my 20 minutes from idea to mixdown piece is getting better ratings than his slick refugee from a 70s porn flick.

I now consider myself amused.

Scary Stuff

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:10:35 GMT

Well, I guess my song is up for the public. I'm spreading the link far and wide. This is actually very very scary for a rank amateur like me....

http://anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/mediadetail/226117

Kind votes, links, spreadings and whatnot are appreciated. It's funny. I was just recording the base track as something to jam over and a contractor started 'airguitaring' along with it. One of my kids genuinely adores the song. Heck, I love it.

I'm just not so sure I should have exposed my sheer lack of musical talent to the universe.

Hope springs wackily

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:42:36 GMT

Well, I got some exciting news today. It looks like I have a big lead on finally getting my first novel published. Nothing's firm yet, but this is as good a shot as I can see for quite some time.

Second, I fully intend to enter my trashy garage guitar anthem into CBCs hunt for a replacement hockey theme. My next post will have instructions on how to vote for me.... because you WILL Yes, you will.

The song was recorded weeks ago and I thought it sounded like a TV show theme. Next thing I know an iconic show is looking for a theme. I think it could work as an anthemic sports theme. Go figure.

New Toy!

Fri, 16 May 2008 02:11:01 GMT

I just bought my first ever multitrack recorder today. Now, I get the chance to find out just how bad a guitarist I really am! Whee!

Anonymous

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 23:46:35 GMT

I've been following this Anonymous vs. Scientology for quite some time. I can't afford to get mixed up in it unfortunately. It might just be the most fascinating thing I have seen in my life. A collective of people from every walk of life standing up to something horrible.... without any leadership or mass corporate/government back whatsoever.

The oddity of it is that it all started with a bunch of kids who hang out on 4chan. If you don't know what 4chan is, then you probably don't want to know. Not the nicest kids in the world. They're semi-professional trolls and skiddies who love nothing more than eating sacred cow with BBQ sauce.

It's grown into so much more than that. Hell, if I could get involved, I would. The notion of taking down a cult that preys on its critics through harrassment, bullying, nuisance suits and worse appeals to me. The child slavery, the suppression of dissent, the financial rape of its memebership, the pseudo-gnostic satanic doctrine for a massive price.... Take it all down.... (xenu.net people)

I can't afford to act, I can't afford to be 'fair gamed' (google 'Operation Freakout'). That's the point of these guys, whoever they are, remaining anonymous. Personally, I think it's God at work, this odd group of miscreants, activists and who knows what else.... A leaderless unstoppable mob determined to set the captives free.

Of course, I have nothing to do with it. On March 15th, when the masses gather in front of every single Cult of Scientology buliding, I will not be among them. They're damn well in my prayers though.

Go Anonymous Go.

On Childhood Heroes

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 17:41:55 GMT

So, the world lost Gary Gygax a couple days ago. I'm a big geek, a big roleplaying DnD loving geek. For those of you who don't know, Gary co-invented Dungeons and Dragons and spawned a massive hobby that had a huge impact on pop culture beyond its pen and paper roots. Someone commented the other day that if life were fair, then Gygax would live in an ivory mansion attended by willing servants.

Fair or not, weird or not, I can't help but feel a little sad at the passing of someone I truly admired. When I was a kid, I dreamed of meeting him and growing up to work for him in the magical kingdom that made adventures where you could do anything. I know thousands of others felt the same way. I fully intend to kill several PCs on Sunday in his honour.

Ironically, he was attacked as a crypto-satanist in the prime of life, but he wanted to leave the world with this bit:

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 5:16

Thank you Gary, for making my life better. Thank you God, for giving us Gary Gygax.

I did it

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 20:49:01 GMT

She decided she wanted my apology by email. I sent it. I feel kind of sick.... beer me.

Lenten Wackiness

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 03:42:04 GMT

It's gotta be a Lent thing. Tuesday morning, I woke up with a profound need to make an apology for something I did 23 or 24 years ago. I haven't seen the offended party since 1987. Intuition can be such a strange thing. It took some effort to track her down, but she's supposed to call me early next week. She probably doesn't know what I'm going to say.

If I make a fool of myself, then it won't be the first time.

In book news, I have now been rejected by five publishers and 12 literary agents. That's it for Sandwalkers right now. I've put the manuscript into the hands of a highly critical friend. I need to believe in this book again.

On the upside, here's a nice picture of Murphy the awesome AIredale.

http://img337.imageshack.us/img337/5417/im000538kc7.jpg

Ick

Sat, 03 Nov 2007 03:26:41 GMT

So, the babysitter phoned in sick again. Poor woman is really quite ill. I wasted most of my writing time today. I just didn't feel like writing, so I polished off a 600 page book instead. So, NOW, I feel like writing. I'm also tired and not sure I can get myself back on track. I'm only 1300 words or so behind right now, but I suppose I can get my groove going sooner or later....

Here we go again

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:47:28 GMT

Had a busy day with the kids and really only got a tiny bit of writing time in. Our babysitter had to call in sick too. I'm sitting a good thousand words shy of quota, but here's hoping.....

NanONaYes!

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:29:05 GMT

I'm in once more. I have some idea of what to write, but I'm not sure whether or not to write it. I got an email today semi-requesting a sequel to Sandwalkers. So, I guess I'll write that.

On deranged fits of optimism

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 02:57:15 GMT

Well, I'm on the verge of yanking my novel from consideration. I spent most of the day emailing literary agents and trying to meet their guidelines. With any luck, I'll be able to land an agent and maybe I won't be wasting my time with people who don't exactly seem to know what they're doing.

Even if all of them tell me to take a flying leap, there may be a few left that I haven't approached yet.

I believe in this book and dammit, I'm not selling it cheaply.

Somebody will pick it up.

Still waiting...

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:14:58 GMT

Two to three more months they told me.....

HAH!

Sorry, I'm miffed. Surely, it can't take this long to make up your mind if you want to work with someone or not?

So, I've done another submission. Hopefully, these ones don't take quite so long.

On another note, I've resumed work on the deranged Malcolm Quigley chronicles. I'm not so sure that an anthology is on the way as I've gotten only partial seeds of ideas from other people and I have no real desire to work up third and fourth stories at the moment. My life is crazy enough.

I'm not even sure that I'm going to NaNo this year.....

Still waiting.....

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 16:15:03 GMT

The whole waiting to hear back from publishers thing is getting interested. I just got told that no final decision had been made.... and to resubmit my marketing plan ASAP.

Is this good? Bad? I'm not sure..... I guess I'll find out shortly. There were a couple things I did not like hearing from them though. I may just be ready to pull the plug on them and try to get myself an agent to sell this thing.

Now, it's time to pick up the guitar and RAAAAWWWWK!

Waiting sucks.....

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:10:25 GMT

I was supposed to hear back in April.... I waited until June... then they said it would be early August.... I hate this. It is slowly driving me mad.... and the publisher is reopening themselves to new subs as of tomorrow.

The funny thing is that I know damn well this is a good novel. It just needs to get into the right hands at the right time. I can hardly bring myself to type little blog posts while I wait. I distract myself with other people's books and music while I wait.....

In any event, i've picked up the guitar again.... I bought some new gadgets, a bass and an amp, so I've been noodling around. I can't wait to get my old guitars back from the shop.

Some guys get all the luck

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:08:38 GMT

I may be far from home, but 14 years ago today I married the most amazing woman in the world.

Travelling

Sun, 08 Jul 2007 14:12:34 GMT

Never buy a Jayco trailer.... never... never ever ever....

Being stranded in Thunder Bay with a trailer that won't go down along with four kids and a dog is not fun at all. Oh well, with good weather and God's blessing we should make Winterpeg by day's end.

PuppY!!

Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:59:44 GMT

So, we picked up Lord Murphy of Knollwood yesterday.

Here's Murphy in all his Airedale puppy glory.

He seems to be pretty clever so far. He's mostly housebroken and seems to read moods pretty well. He's eating well and starting to get used to his new surroundings.

One other thing, he's got big feet, which can be a sign that he'll turn out to be a massive dog.

Meanderings

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:21:55 GMT

Well, I think my head is slowly returning to shape after a heavy mental and emotional bludgeoning a few months ago. New glasses always help. Apparently, after seeing a podiatrist, I have severely fallen arches. In any event, the gooey plaster casting for the orthotic felt really nice and I can hardly wait to get my new custom made insoles.

I should be picking up a new dog soon too. He's not ready yet, but once the pup is old enough, he'll be coming home.

I also started writing again today. I think I found the last piece of the puzzle to make a character that's been haunting me for years. With any luck, I can get something done before starting out on the long holiday.

As for the anthology, I haven't gotten any submissions, so I'm going to take the self-publishing route and maybe add a second story with some of the same characters. I guess we'll see how it works out.

It's done

Sat, 19 May 2007 19:12:41 GMT

The first draft of the infamoose zombie novella is DONE. Obviously, there's editing to be done, but it's DONE.

In any case, these last few days have given me the inspiration for another London based story.

The Case of the Maple Porter Faerie.

Here's hoping for some more submissions for the anthology before I have to just print this stupid thing by itself.

So, with this thing done, I think I'll relax for a couple hours, check out of the hotel and head home.

Hopefully, this vacation has done me enough good to make a difference. It's been hard to sleep alone.

A strange vacation

Sat, 19 May 2007 01:50:00 GMT

I suppose I should be feeling a tad guilty by now, but I don't. I have to be honest; my home life was burning me out as it stood. We've had to make some changes and some things have certainly changed. In a moment of inspired kindness, my wife ordered me to take a vacation. So, I packed a few things and headed away for a few days.

I'm still away as I write this, but I should return home late tomorrow or early Sunday. I'm not really sure yet.

In any event, I found the time to nearly finish the little zombie story and found inspiration for a sequel or sorts. Maybe there might even be more to that one. It's hard to say.

In any event, I hope to finish the story before retiring this evening.

Deadlines

Sun, 29 Apr 2007 18:27:29 GMT

'Horrors of London' deadline has been set for May 31st.... if anyone is submitting. I just hope I can shake this cold.

Geekery

Sun, 22 Apr 2007 19:59:46 GMT

I spent a good chunk of the day so far assembling, basing and clipping little plastic and pewter 'soliders'..... I can hardly wait to start clipping, filing, sculpting and painting. Soon, my soldiers will become Blood Bowl players. I have six teams at the ready: Humans, Orcs, Goblins, Snotlings, Skaven and Chaos Dwarves. Well, I need a couple more trolls for the Snotling squad, but whatever....

I am such a dedicated geek.

I wasted quite a lot of money recently via ebay on games both new and old. Some I always wanted to play and at least one was a spur of the moment purchase. I almost squealed when a long OOP book I got for a meagre $2.25 USD turned out to be unused, in perfect shape and SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR!

The nice thing is that this is a game I could play with my oldest two sons.... once they decide to coexist in the same room for more than two minutes at a time.

Now, I just need to finish that story of mine. It's just a few pages from completion. It's just a matter of sitting down and doing it for a couple of hours.

Proof of Progress

Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:33:10 GMT

As our hero marches to the uncertain climax of Malcolm Quigley: Zombie Killer.

“I should have expected a werewolf,” I quipped.

Amy gave me a cold confused stare and I sang a little Warren Zevon in a pathetic off key warble. She shook her head in disgust and I pumped a shell into the shotgun chamber. I smiled and half danced up the stairs half-humming and half-singing the newly mangled famous chorus:

“UUUHHHUUUUHH, Zombies of London!”

BLAM!

“UUUHHHUUUUHH, Zombies of London!”

BLAM!

Things are drawing to a close.... I should just go to bed.

Gettin' on widdit

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 17:46:49 GMT

After a pretty significant hiatus. I starting writing again today. We're having somebody come in a couple times a week to look after the boys and give us some time to pursue what we need and want to pursue.

That means we now have 20000 words of undead goopiness. It could all be done by the END OF THE WEEK!