Jobs, iPhones, and Novels

Did you know that my life is, in general, not all that interesting?  Yes, it's true.  I know it's shocking.  Thus, nearly five months between blog posts.  I might end up doing something in the near future, where I use an online random blog topic generator to come up with ideas for posts.  (I am, of course, always accepting questions for Ask Cooper Anything, for this blog or for Don't Feed the Hypocrite.)

Here is a quick recap, however, of a couple of the interesting less boring things from the last few months.  First, in July, I transitioned from contract worker to full time employee at Rust Consulting in Minneapolis, doing database programming.  It's nice not to wonder whether my contract will be extended every few months.  I also finally joined the twenty-first century, trading in my old dumbphone for an iPhone 5S, and I've been quite happy with it.  It's nice to do all the smartphone related things, but especially nice to have a GPS device, and once again to be able to read my Kindle books on the bus.

In writing news, earlier this year I started work on a science fiction-esque book, presently titled Override.  It's quite different than anything else I've written, and allows me to write from a first-person point of view, and lets me write quite sarcastically.  I also set out to write a different book for NaNoWriMo, which challenges you to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November.  While I am not going to come anywhere close to that goal, I do have a decent start on that story, which also has some science fiction elements and is presently titled Sensur.

I've been having an interesting thought run through my head concerning these two stories: with a little tweaking, they could become compatible.  So now I'm considering combining those two stories into one, which may end up as a book with dual timelines, where everything comes together nicely (in theory) at the end.  I'm still considering whether or not to do this, but I like the idea of it, I just need to work through some things and determine whether it makes sense to do it that way.  That would certainly be unlike anything else I've ever written.

So we'll see.

Ask Cooper Anything 5: Where to Live

"If you could live anywhere, where would it be and why? Assume for the purposes of this question that the people you want to live close to would also be there, and that you would be able to find a job."
- Erik C.

To come up with this answer, I had to start be eliminating the places I wouldn't live, coming at this from a practical point of view.

For starters, and this may seem incredibly lame to some people, I'm going to go ahead and disqualify a massive percentage of the world.  I actually wouldn't really have any desire to live outside of this country.  There are places around the world I think would be neat to visit (New Zealand, England, Egypt), but this country is my home and I don't ever see myself living away from it.

Next, however much I love the ocean, I don't want to live next to it.  Especially in Florida, or any place where hurricanes are a real possibility.  That's just something I would never want to deal with.  While places like California eliminate themselves due to the ocean, I also wouldn't want to live anywhere that has a good chance for earthquakes.

I don't want to be too far south, as I'm not a fan of scorching heat, and I really do enjoy being able to experience all four seasons.  Geographically, Alaska is my favorite state, because of the mountains and the ocean.  I'd be more likely to live near the ocean in Alaska than in Florida, but the high temperature in southern Alaska is maybe 60 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer, so the window for enjoying the outside during that time is fairly small, and I want to be able to play softball and do other such outdoor activities for a good amount of the year.  So no to Alaska.

Oddly enough, my current state of Minnesota fits everything pretty well so far.  The one thing that it is missing is my favorite geographical feature: mountains.  So, I would probably choose somewhere with a similar climate to Minnesota, but more mountainous.  This puts me a little farther west or southwest, ending up in western Montana, or perhaps somewhere in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, or Colorado.  I do like having access to the big city, and yet I'd be just as happy being in the middle of nowhere, though preferably with some kind of city within reasonable driving distance.  I'd love a large amount of (low maintenance) land, where I can't see any neighbors.  As long as I can have access to high speed Internet.

I'd probably end up picking somewhere in western Montana.  That probably is quite a pathetic answer to some people, but it seems pretty nice to me.

Ask Cooper Anything 3: Color and Sadness

"Well Erik and Tim asked complicated questions. So I'll ask - what is your favorite color?  and what makes you sad? You are always happy."
- Gina C.

My favorite color is green.  Specifically, forest green - a nice dark color.  After we recently had water coming in through the egress window in my office in the basement, the wall needed to be repainted.  I could have painted the whole office, but instead I opted to paint just that one wall.  So now my office has a dark green accent wall.  Which is pretty neat.

I do sometimes consider switching my favorite color to black.  It's an exceptionally close second.  Green has held on thus far to retain the crown.  The color I would choose for different things depends on the circumstance, though.  For instance, I think black, dark grey, or silver cars look the best.

Oddly enough, my favorite color used to be blue.  Back a long time ago.  I think I switched it some time in my early teens, maybe.

Concerning sadness: I don't particularly enjoy being sad.  Not that anyone does, of course, but when I become sad, I tend to maneuver my mind to focus on something else instead.  Sitting around focusing on whatever is making you sad doesn't really help much.

That being said, one of the main things that makes me sad is something I've written about a few times on these blogs: my own shortcomings and failures.  I hate it when I'm working on something, or playing something, and make a silly mistake that I shouldn't make, or I am unable to do something I think I should be able to do.  Things that happen that cause me to doubt my own abilities, my own competence, or my own intelligence.  Especially when other people see me do it, and then I start to assume that they're now also doubting my abilities, competence, and intelligence.  It makes me sad when I fail.

Other saddening things include all the suffering in the world.  I know that I have been incredibly blessed in my life, more so than I could ever deserve, but there are many people who have been born into situations that I can't even fathom.  I find it sad when people endure terrible hardships that were not of their own making.  Mostly, I find it saddest that there are so many people completely oblivious that there is a God that loves them, or they simply reject God.  Either way, they are living their lives without a savior, whether or not they know they need one.

Ask Cooper Anything

As part of my desire to keep an active blogging life (and to counter the fact that I often have trouble coming up with topics), I've decided to see if there is anything my wide reader base (sarcasm) has any thoughts on what I should write about.  So here is your opportunity to send me questions concerning any topic you have on your mind.  I am posting this on both my personal blog, Chromiden's Chronicles, and my more serious-natured blog about life, Don't Feed the Hypocrite.  The type of question it is will determine which blog the response gets posted to.

So ask me anything - about the goings on in my life, my opinions on certain issues, general advice, my views on certain aspects of the Christian life.  Or whatever.  I'll answer pretty much anything, openly and honestly.  Feel free to post these questions as blog comments, Facebook comments, or send me a Facebook message or an email [ cooper [dot] joel [at] gmail [dot] com ].

It's quite possible that I won't get a response from this, and that's more than alright, I just thought I'd give it a try.  :)

So, It's Been Eight Months

Hi, this blog is actually not dead.  It may not be interesting, but it's not dead. 

Sadly, I don't have a major list of exciting things that have happened since my last post, but here's a little bit of a recap. 

After being laid off from Helgeson Enterprises (which has since been sold and renamed) last April, I went three and a half months being unemployed, which was absolutely fantastic.  I was able to do some house projects (previously covered in this blog), and just enjoy not having to go to work.  But, life costs money, so eventually I had to get a job.  After several interviews over the summer, I started a six month contract at Rust Consulting in Minneapolis, doing SQL database programming and development.  It's been a good job, and the people are great to work with.  I had been hoping I would be hired on full time when my contract ended in February, but instead, my contract was extended by three months.  So, it won't be too long and this contract will near an end as well.  Rust could hire me on then, or extend the contract again.  I'm also keeping my eyes open for other opportunities, especially any that are closer to home, as Rust is in downtown Minneapolis, and I have a 45 minute bus ride to work every day.  But, it's a good job, so no real complaints.

I have done a bit of work on my Reclamation card game.  It's no longer a customizable card game, but is now a card-based board game.  A lot has changed, and I'm excited to test it out, which I should be doing soon.  The game has changed enough where a different name may be needed, and I'm considering Parable of the Talents, or something to that effect.

While I failed miserably at doing this during NaNoWriMo, I am now ramping up my work on my next novel, presently titled Override.  It is different from my first two, as it is more science fiction and written in the first person.  It also may be a bit darker.  I still have a bit of outlining to do, including considering whether to write it as a standalone book or perhaps the first of a trilogy.  I am excited to keep working on it.

I submitted my fantasy novel Queen of Men to literary agents a few months ago, but got no response.  I am going to try and improve my query letter, and then send out another round of queries, including a bunch of snail mailing.  So we'll see.

I'm sure other things have happened since last July, but, that's all for now. :)