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Progress

I've been working steadily the past week on my three-project mess. It's kinda hard to show exactly how much each has progressed, but it's good to see something going on. At least, I think so.

Tales: 5,206 new words (that doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm pleased with it. I'm 25% through my goal for the month)

Press Start: I have 9,995 words in the project, a number of which I've culled from this blog. (Yes, just 5 words away from 10k! Of course, as I lamented in the last blog post, a lot of those words have to be thrown away. I don't have an overall goal for the month with this one. A large—probably overly-large—portion of this one isn't going to be written until I finish Baudrillard.)

Words: This is the revision one. It's going to float around 136,721 words (it's current count) pretty permanently. A better track: 3/44 chapters revised. That's not even 1% yet.

Books and Other Snippets

I'll probably post a little anecdote about the recent book signing I went to soon, but while there I picked up Brandon Sanderson's Warbreaker and Alcatraz versus the Evil Librarians. The former I've yet to crack open (as you'll see in a moment) while the second was a delightful romp in middle-grade fiction, a genre I haven't read much in years, though I spent years within it when I was younger.

Aside from that I'm pushing through a collection of zombie short stories in a book called (imaginatively) The Living Dead. I am also reading George R.R. Martin's A Storm of Swords, as well as Terminator and Philosophy. Both are good in different ways. Additionally, I am currently 3/5 of the way through the first part of Henry VI by Shakespeare. I finished the moving and beautiful Cyrano de Bergerac by Rostrand just the other day.

But perhaps most importantly, I'm reading a social theory book by Jean Baudrillard called Simulation and Simulacra. This book is crazy—in a lot of different ways. More than anything, it is revolutionary for the way that I'm approaching the Metal Gear Solid essays in Press Start. Because of this book, those essays in particular will be a little more theoretical, but much deeper, than some of the other writings. It's frustrating, though. Because Baudrillard writes so thickly, with such a condensed style, it's really difficult to read it. I bought it at the beginning of the month, and just broke 70 pages on it. I have to mine the whole book before I start in on my MGS essays (MGEssays?), because that's just the way I am, so I'm getting a little frustrated at the pace of the reading. I think it'll be worth it, though.

Something Random About Me

I can't write with cold feet, apparently. It's not too bad if my legs are cold, or my body is cold, but certain things have to be a certain way for me to want to write. I'm learning this slowly, as I've rarely had a chance to make my own writing habits, save for a frantic pounding away at the keyboard every Saturday during the school year.

Apparently, I can't be too uncomfortable. I type this (and all of my work) on my handy Compaq laptop, with a lap board, in my reclining armchair. I can't be hungry, need to go potty, or too anxious to get up and play video games (or, more rarely, go on a walk). I can't have Peter running around being cute because it distracts and I feel like a bad parent for not playing with him. Of course, I pretty much always feel like a bad parent, so I guess that one is moot. Anyway, it's also important for me to have music playing in the background. Because wife and son are out of the house today (one of the best parts of scrapbooking is that it provides Gayle with something to do outside of the house; she's with her mother today), I have the PS3 streaming my music through our new surround-sound system. It's very pleasant, and it's nice to listen to it without the tinny effect that my laptop's speakers provide it.

Also, I can't start with a blog (like I did today), because I get distracted. Apparently I suffer from ADHD.

Oh, well. At least my blog looks a lot cooler of late. I like the shiny PlayStation 3 in the background.

Pretty....

....now I'm distracted.
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