Verbally Speaking

I just got home from the first full-team meeting for TEC 71, and it went just fine. I am rather looking forward to the next meeting and the weekend itself, but today's meeting reminded me of one of my major weaknesses that I deal with on almost a daily basis.

I am incredibly bad at talking. It's amazing that I can still get rather nervous over simple conversation. While meeting as a Wheat team, the youth leadership would ask questions, and despite the fact that I usually think of perfectly good and interesting things to say, my shyness and nervousness kicks in, and I have a hard time transferring that from my brain to my mouth. I often end up dismissing my thoughts and instead saying something stupidly sarcastic (see my old blog entry - written two years ago today, oddly enough - The Shell, for more insight on that).

It's really rather obnoxious. I'm actually pretty good with words. I rather enjoy them. I am writing a novel that currently has nearly 50,000 words. I've been writing stories and poetry for nearly 15 years. And yet, a simple verbal sentence is often difficult, depending on the situation. If I'm with people I don't know very well, or in a situation I am otherwise uncomfortable with, I clam up and can barely spout anything meaningful. It's silly, but most of my deeper and more serious conversations have occurred online over email or chat. On a similar note, in high school and college, I would always rather write a five page paper than give a very short speech. Goofy.

The thing that bothers me the most is that I know this little issue of mine keeps me from getting as close to people as I'd like to, since it's hard for me to have real discussions with people. I know my mind is full of good things to share, but getting them from point A to point B in a verbal form is the trick. That being said, I am better at it than I used to be (sounds crazy), and this is one of the (many) reasons I'm looking forward to the rest of the TEC 71 experience. I think it will be good for me as I continue to grow as a person, into the man that God made me to be.

I may have another semi-serious entry in another few days, about that whole losing-my-job thing.

A Few Unrelated Tidbits

At some point, I'm considering posting to the Lords of Sargoff page a list of the issues I'm currently dealing with when it comes to plot holes, to see if anyone has thoughts on how a certain thing should happen. I may throw that together over the next couple weeks.

I have purchased plane tickets for going to Ohio in May. I will be there from approximately the 17th - 22nd. It should be good fun. Sadly, my wife is not able to join me, as she doesn't have enough vacation days. But alas.

I am rather looking forward to this weekend - card and computer day on Saturday, and the first full team TEC meeting on Sunday. It'll be pretty much wonderful.

LotD: Life in 2008. An article written in 1968, predicting what life will be like in 2008. A few things I thought were interesting - though it predicts technologies and other changes that are nowhere near being in place (cities encapsulated in domes for climate control, automatically controlled cars that safely drive up to 250 MPH, no physical money, average work day of 4 hours, rocket rides to a hotel in space, the "intelligence pill"), it still refers to the concept of the "housewife" being responsible for cooking, and that "not every family has its private computer." Granted, I wouldn't do any better predicting what life will be like in 2048.

Publishing

I'm rather enjoying the continuing work on Lords of Sargoff. Right in the middle of a few bigger plothole-fixing changes right now. Then I'll put together the notes I've received from those who have read through it and fix any errors they pointed out. Then its time for a thorough read-through and edit session, adding detail and further description.

I would absolutely love it if I could publish the book (or anything else I've written or will write). It'll be interesting when I get to the point where I may actually be submitting in places. I've done some basic research, and have this understanding of my options. I have considered Tate Publishing, a company that (if they accept your manuscript) will do everything in-house (editing, illustrations, selling, and will market it). Would cost a good $4000 to get started, but after that investment, everything is covered. And if the book sells a certain amount of copies, you get your investment back.

One of the cool things about Tate, I think, is that they accept unsolicited manuscripts. A lot of the big traditional publishing houses (Random House, Tyndale, for example) only accept manuscripts that are solicited by literary agents (and that costs an extra chunk of change). So who knows. There is also self publishing, but that may be a little crazy, not sure. Tate is also a Christian-based company, which is good.

Still a lot of work to do on the story, of course, before I get to that point (though Tate does allow you to submit unfinished manuscripts, so they can get an idea of your story and your writing style).

LotD: Fear the Gnome. Just read it.

Happy Pi Day

Yes, today is March 14th: Pi Day. I wish I could celebrate this day by partaking in a large piece of pie, but alas. Whatever you do today, make sure to do it 3.14159265358979323846 times. I seem to remember my sister (unless it was a brother) having to memorize the first 100 digits of pi in high school. My two thoughts from that are: Wow, that's impressive; and, Why in the world would a teacher make you do that? :)

Megan's cousin will be up for the weekend, which is always fun. I have my first TEC meeting on Sunday - the initial leadership meeting. Thus begins the TEC 71 experience, and my induction into the Wheatie fraternity. Well, maybe not quite like that, but it'll be good fun.

LotD: Pi Day. Schedule your Pi Day celebration, and memorize pi to a trillion digits.

Slimer

I've had lots of excellent comments and suggestions from both Tim and my wife. As expected, there are definitely some storyline issues that need to be fixed. Some of them have been already, others will require more thinking on how to make things fit together. It's good fun.

We had a geekday on Saturday which was good fun. Lots of cards, computer games, and unhealthy food. It was wonderful. I did not get to test out Reclamation, but we may be having another such geekday in a couple weeks. Whooahh!

My 30 day trial at FLS is over, and I am now on board permanently. In another couple weeks to a month, I may be able to get a raise. Which would be neato.

LotD: Real-life Ghostbusters. Who you gonna call?

So Long, Cheesehead

I always find it a little sad when the great players in sports retire. Today, the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, Brett Favre, announced his retirement. He has been one of the best players in the league for many, many years, and I have always thought he was one of the more exciting and fun players to watch, even though I will never understand how a last name spelled "F-a-v-r-e" can result in the pronunciation of "Farve." Alas. It's been good fun, and next year, the Packers will have their first new starting quarterback in who-knows-how-long. Ah well.

Go Niners.

LotD: 122 Foot Tall Snowman. And in my native land of Maine, no less. :)

Whole Grain Goodness

First, some card-related things. Below are links to updated versions of the Reclamation rules (including blessings), and a PDF printout of the entire 359 card Genesis set. It doesn't include images - just text - but will suffice for playtesting purposes.

http://www.geocities.com/sdpsc/reclamation_ccg_rules.doc
http://www.geocities.com/sdpsc/genesisform.pdf

I have been accepted to work on the next TEC team! And now comes the funky part. This will be my seventh time on team, but my first as a non-Supportite. That's right, I will be a Wheatie. Which has me both rather excited and a little nervous, but I am sure that it will be all good. For those not in "the know," Support is a team that does a lot of the behind-the-scenes setup and cleaning for a TEC weekend. It has been a good fit for me. Wheat is a team whose main purpose is to pray for the weekend, and will include a lot more human interaction and discussion. And I am shy. :) But, I think it will go well. God must have me on that team for a purpose. And he's pretty smart.

LotD: Giant Swiss Army Knife. Thanks Dan. I don't think it'd be a wise choice to put on my keychain.