9 months? I'm even worse at this than I thought I would be...

OK its been forever since I even thought about this page let alone done anything with it but I have a completely legit and very very cute excuse...

This lovely young lady is Lillian Bethany and she's 6 months old. If you have children you know where the last 7 months of my life just went, if you don't you will when you have one of your own. Add to that we're buying a house (more on that later) and completely reordering our lives and since we've seemed to reach a lull in the chaos that has been the Life of Brian for the past few months this seemed like a good point to begin reflecting on some of the major events.

Here's a shot of Double Trouble. They get along pretty well now. Dharma tried to ignore her for about the first month in the hopes that she might go away but that didn't work out so now Lilly's her pal. Want to bet that this won't last?

On to the blogging...

This is the story of the Almost House.

I call it the Almost House because the sale has taken almost Lilly's entire lifetime. I was fortunate enough to be able to take a month off from work when the baby was born and part of that time was meant to be for getting my finances in order to find a house for my growing family. Needless to say I procrastinated. My wife and I found ourselves together for the longest stretch of time in nearly ten years. It was great. I got to enjoy being with Lilly and Dharma and that month just kind of vanished. Towards the end when I was facing the reality of going back to work I got off my ass and made some phone calls and found that while I qualified for a mortgage the days of no money down loans were over so I was SOL. My father steped in and gave Sheri and I the money for our down payment and closing costs and Sheri found the house she wanted. This was very important because she was going to be giving up a career to spend most of her time in said house so

"I'd better damn well love it."

The fly in the ointment? The house is a short sale. In short this means that it's owners and the bank have an agreement to sell the house off for whatever they can get. This translates to a very nice deal for my wife and I pricewise but this is offset by the sheer pain-in-the-assedness

of awaiting the bank's approval for our offer. For instance, we signed the paperwork on our offer on SEPTEMBER 17th! We were supposed to close on March 5th but yesterday we learned that the bank screwed up our contracts and we have to wait at least another two weeks. We have to close before the end of April to be eligible for the $8000 credit and since we had to pay more than our origional offer we're going to need that money for repairs and furiture. I cant wait to put up the before and after pics. That is assuming that we ever get to actually move in.

The wife and I are definately doing some hiking this summer so I hope to have some pics and drop about 20 pounds.

Thanks for reading...

bjoly

So, so lazy...

This video sums me up pretty well. Our due date is in 10 weeks so I've been a little preoccupied. I've written a little bit but not much worth keeping lately. I have, however, been giving my Novel in Progress a lot of thought lately and I think I've found a way to finish the part that I've been having trouble with and might actually be able to move on with it. Been reading a lot lately, Mario Acevedo's vampire detective books. Total popcorn for your brain. Quick reads and (excepting the first) are really funny and all of them are well written. But I've finally managed to get my hands on a copy of Glen Cook's Glittering Stone books. I found a decent hardcover omnibus at abebooks.com for more than I wanted to pay but less than I've seen anywhere else. It arrived today but I have to back and read the six books that came before it so the whole story is fresh in my mind.

bjoly

Things I Hate (#1)

In an attempt to breath life into this blog (and stop bugging my wife because anytime I complain to her all I get is "At least you're not pregnant" or a variation of it) I am going to rant to you, my reader(s?) (I'm looking at you Cheap Ass Film Critic!).


>ahem<


Things I Hate #1


The MBTA. For those of you who do not live in or around Boston this is the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, or simply 'The T'. I live a ways south of the city so I take the Commuter rail into the city daily for work as I hate driving and parking at the Hospital I work at costs more than keeping my SUV gassed up. Another 'advantage' is that work covers half of the cost of my monthly pass so getting to and from my job costs me relatively little in terms of cash. Having said that, let me tell you that the MBTA blows. It is run by hacks who who don't ride it and don't give half a shit abut the people who do. We are a captive audience.


For example: my train is scheduled to depart South Station at 4:40pm and typically begins boarding between 4:25 and 4:30. How do you think me and the several hundred other people waiting to board feel at 4:50 pm when some dork comes on the PA and informs us that "There will be a slight delay in the boarding of the 4:40 train."? No shit? The train was supposed to leave ten minutes ago and just now they're telling us about a 'slight delay.' Now while I don't usually expect people to be as smart (or as modest (-; ) as I am I think we've got that figured out. Why not give us an ETA or at least be honest and tell us that we're screwed and should try to cram onto the one that leaves at 5:15? No, we get the dork every five minutes repeating that 'slight delay' crap. So when the train boards at 5:05, and departs at 5:10, gets out of the station and sits on the tracks for half an hour while the 5:15 leaves on time and all the other trains pass us by. File this under poor planning, shit happens. Intellectually I can accept this as whenever you have a hundred people and a million moving parts there are 100,000,000 things that can go wrong, this does not change the fact that my 5 year old daughter is sitting in a darkened daycare with an increasingly irritated provider who was supposed to be getting on with her day nearly an hour ago. Long story short: I didn't get home til almost 8pm, my wife had to leave work early to pick up Dharma and I was supremely pissed. (That's angry, not drunk, to my readers across the pond)


Then there's the subway. On the way in I catch the Red Line from South Station to Park Street. This is usually quick and painless. It's at Park Street where the fun begins. The Green Line has 4 branches B, C, D, and the one that I take E. Park Street is where they begin to diverge. Hence after getting the E train door slammed in my face because people have no concept staying out of the way I get to watch two or three trains from EACH OTHER BRANCH leave the station empty. Meanwhile, every three minutes or so the Red Line dumps another twenty or thirty other people off who will join you at the platform waiting for the E train. When that train finally comes it's already full. No kidding either. Nobody gets off the E train at Park Street. Now I grew up playing ice hockey and my high school years saw some football so I usually manage to get onto the train, much to the irritation of many others waiting on the platform. I frankly no longer give a shit, I figure that they're mad because I did what they wanted to do, only I did it better.


So that's my rant for today, I will try to have someting better in the future. I've been thinking about putting up some of my short fiction and hoping for some feedback. Anybody interested?


bjoly

Still not dead yet...

Life is pretty good on top of a big rock, isn't it?

It has occured to me that I'm to busy living my life to write about it. I'm working on a short story for another horror anthology, work is crazy and I've been ill. That one sentance sums up the past two months, that and we're having a baby this summer so busy busy busy. My poor wife is lamenting all the cool camping/hiking stuff that we got for christmas that she won't get to use this summer. However my best friend's wife is also expecting and is due about two weeks after us so Ryan and I WILL be using some of that gear once or twice this summer for a little peace and quiet.

Not dead yet...

Been a busy few weeks, haven't written anything worth keeping. Dharma turned 5 on Halloween so we've been busy with her birthday. I waited almost an hour to vote today which is novel to me as the local polling place is usually quite dead whenever I show up.

Being in Massachusetts has really ruined this election for me. I just have not been able to get excited about it. Frankly I don't like Obama. I'm not one of those wing-nut assholes who thinks he's the Antichrist I just don't think he's got what it takes to do this right. In essence I am of the opinion that he is simply the Dumbocrat version of he whose name will be left unspoken. (you know who I'm talking about, the current monkey Resident of 1600 PA. Ave.) And beyond being the first black president I do not see what he has to offer the country. I mean, he couldn't even be bothered to finish his FIRST TERM in the Senate, is he going to take a better offer from the private sector sometime in 2011? Add to that his supporters are very creepy and pushy and have done more to put me off him than any of the bullshit smears that have been played against him.

OK McCain, your turn. Eight years ago I would have been all over your campaign, buttons, rallies, you name it. The way the shrubbers treated you during and after the NH primary pretty much put me off the Repugnican party and the current Residency has buried any future desire to give your party anything but a big ole shit sandwich. I probably would have voted for you today if you hadn't played ball with those assholes. Seriously, all you got left is whimpering about how you're "not George Bush." Please, you've been his toady for the past six years. "In the best interests of this country" my pasty ass. The best interests of this country would have been better served if we had an actual monkey and his zookeepers running the show. If you were really a 'maverick' you would have done your level best to get that asshole impeached before October 2001.

Now you're riding off into the sunset and from the looks of things Obama is riding to the White House. I may not of voted for him but I do wish him the best of luck, he's gonna need it more than Sarah Palin needs a brain.

Reflection...

So as I last posted my short story was rejected. While I am obviously disappointed I'm not really all bent out of shape over it. First, I'm not a horror writer so I was working a little out of my element, trying something new. Second, this was my first actual submission for publication and it was in retrospect not as good as it looked when I finished the third draft. It was clunky and kind of all over the place, almost like 2.5 stories going on at once.

So I'm gonna write a better one and try to sell it to a magazine, wish me luck.

bjoly

Rejected...

My story didn't pass muster, back to the drawing board.

The waiting REALLY is the hardest part...

"84 TBR
37 Maybe
147 rejections"

I submitted a short story for a horror anthology and have been waiting to hear back. The editor of said anthology "The World is Dead" has been kind (cruel?) enough to post status reports, above you see his latest numbers. Professor Paffinroth has also said that he is reading them in order and he has reached 8-25 in the submissions. I sent mine on the 26th so I should know soon if I made the cut or not.

Loyalty...

For the most part I really like my job. About 75% of the time I'm doing OK with it. I particuarlly hate window duty, dealing with junkies and welfare cases and all manner of jerks. I was sick as a dog yesterday and barely got out of bed, I don't feel much better today. But I still got up and went into work to do inventory. I got there a bit before 2 and got right to it as did everybody else. We all then sat around waiting for an hour for the stupid company people to come in and do our counts. They come in do their thing and take the numbers downstairs for crunching. We then wait 2 hours for the numbers to come back... And their all wrong. Every single item had been entered wrong. They come back up redo the counts and spend another 2 hours doing God knows what while we wait.

Long story short I didn't get home til after 10pm. The people working in Central Pharmacy got snacks and sandwiches and we got to wait around. Since I still feel like shit and my baby girl has a fever and can't go to daycare I am not going in tomorrow, so look for more rants on the bailout tomorrow afternoon.

bjoly

The Man is Dead!?

Paul Newman passed away from cancer yesterday. He has long been one of my favorite actors of all time being awesome in everything he touched. I think I have to watch Slapshot now, to get over my depression.

bjoly

Since the Government is giving stuff away...

I would like to challenge both Obama and McCain to a contest for my vote. Whichever one of them or their staff can score me 3 tickets to AC/DC's Boston show will get my vote. As I don't think that either one of these jokers can do a damned thing to set this country right the least they can do is get me into a concert that I've been dying for.

bjoly

Blurbs 'bout me...

OK, not that I've had my daily outrage per the inital post on to the regular real life (kinda dull huh?) stuff:

Currently reading and enjoying 'The Serial Killers Club' by Jeff Povey. I haven't watched Dexter but my Dad loves that show and it sounds just like this book so I might have to check it out on DVD.

I was reading and mostly enjoying the anthology 'The Living Dead' but needed a break as per my comment on Professor Paffenroth's post even good zombie fiction can get tedious after a while but that's why I like anthologies, you can pick and choose. An added bonus to this is that nobody on the train will bother you if you are reading a book with zombies on the cover, except for maybe other horror fans who want to know if it's any good.

While I'm on books I confess to being a total fool for only recently discovering Glen Cook's Black Company series. These so far are some of the best fantasy books I have read, anybody got a copy of the Glittering Stone? All four books of that cycle are out of print. Tor has recently republished the first 6 books in two volumes, anybody know if and when they're gonna follow up?

Work is stupid some days. I can't give details due to all the privacy laws so I will just say that today was a very stupid day.

Having said that it is now tomorrow and I got to go to work in about 6 hours so good night.

bjoly

The Taxpayer as an ATM...

First, the article...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26871338/

This is about the stupidest idea yet. Lets take our tax dollars and give them to the very people who put us in this mess to begin with. It's only about a trillion dollars, what's that between cronies? The past 12 years have done nothing but pump money into these companies while Resident Bush cut the taxes that they were supposed to be putting back into the system, and now they want to act like an ATM machine and spit more money for mismanagement back into the same broken system? Am I the only one who thinks it might be better in the long run to see if Capitalism really works? Did we not fight the Cold War because we couldn't stand the very thought of Socialism? And that's what it really breaks down to, not Corporate Welfare, but Corporate Socialism. I say let 'em fall and let the market correct itself, like it's supposed to.


Maybe it would be in the best interest to bail these creeps out, if we weren't at war. You know that little thing? The 'Mission Accomplished' right? I think that deserves the money just a little bit more. I don't care how 'stable' Iraq is, it's moving back to where it started, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan a few months before I was born but I remember the withdrawal, and I seem to recall that it had something to do with their eventual demise.

Over the past seven years we have been asked to sacrifice a lot. I am not in the military and neither is anybody in my immediate family, but everybody knows somebody who is or has been over in the Middle East. Whether or not you agree with the war you must acknowledge the sacrifices of these men and women and salute their bravery and determination. We as citizens owe these people a debt of care and honor to say the least. How many of them are coming home to foreclosed homes? To broken marriages? How much you want to bet that their medical coverage is one of the first things that starts to suffer because we had to give a $700,000,000,000 (looks a lot different when you actually SEE the zeros doesn't it?) handout to a bunch of creeps who couldn't handle the last batch of billions they had? What have George W. Bush and his ilk sacrificed besides their approval ratings? Besides our Civil Liberties? Besides our greatness? I think it's time that We The People finally let them step up and sacrifice something.

Give the bastards nothing, they've taken enough.

bjoly