I have a habit of picking up hobbies when they're going out of style. Take professional basketball, for example: earlier this year I took a keen interest in the sport, fueled primarily by DS's enthusiasm. I got to know the players, downloaded some playoff games to see what all of the fuss is about, and even started to understand the rules. My son and I now go to a local court and shoot hoops when weather permits (alas, not all that often in Washington), and we just watched with some heartbreak as our WNBA team, the Storm, got knocked out of the Playoffs by the down-and-dirty Los Angeles Sparks.
Now, with the NBA season right around the corner...oh, wait. No basketball team here. Bummer.
No worries: the Seattle Sonics/Oklahoma City Thunder are at the bottom of my watch list for this season, though I must admit it would have been fun having a local team to root for. CURSE YOU, CLAY BENNETT! MAY YOUR PROSTATE ENLARGE TO UNFATHOMABLE PROPORTIONS!
I'm not sure what fostered this recent interest...growing up, I was about as far removed from interest in sports as one could possibly get. I ran track, briefly, in the 7th grade, where I also participated in lunchtime games of football and soccer, but there's where my sports involvement/interest ended. Now, for reasons i can't completely understand or condone, I've turned into a veritable NBA fiend. I can tell you all about a 3-second defensive violation or sprout off the shooting averages for a good 2-dozen players from last season. I play NBA 2K with my invented Seattle Sonics team every night (just started the season, actually...we had lots of pre-season games to practice...). I grab snippets of highlights from last season on my breaks at work, and I just joined a fantasy league.
What the Hell?
Oh, well, no sense in fighting it, even if my behaviors as I get old(er) do just tend to confuse me.
So, here I sit, anxiously awaiting a sports season to begin with no local team to cheer for, but with no small amount of enthusiasm nevertheless. Go Spurs/Suns/Clippers/Blazers (west) Celtics/Pistons/Cavs/Bulls/Bobcats (east)!
(It's easier to enjoy the games, i find, if you have lots of different teams to support. ;)
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Monday, September 15, 2008
So, It's Only Been A Month Since My Last Blog Post...
...What the heck is up with that?
I'll summarize:
Work has been H-E-L-L. It began with the auditors annual colonoscopy in August, followed by a number of "emergency" re-orgs, training sessions, and it just never stopped. Having just done someone else's work for a week, I'm now back to another upcoming SOX deadline, several new duties I'm expected to perform starting a few days ago, and a search for an elusive payment on freelance work done 1300 months ago.
We took a vacation, which was awesome, but it feels like we've been sort of "behind" ever since then. Or maybe I'm just behind...not sure. In any case, the kids have started school, DW is starting a side business selling dyed yarn, DDs B-day has come and gone, and my mom's BD is coming up. Plus we now have cable (NBA!), and I've been absorbed into my XBox NBA2K7 game. Again.
We're acquiring 2 more dogs. I'll elaborate more on them once they've visited again, but suffice to say a) they're adorable, and b) they're...REALLY adorable. They'll be visiting this weekend. To prepare for their coming, we've been putting up a fence...which is a lot more fun than it sounds. That's more or less been my activity of choice for the past two weekends.
All in all, it's been a whirlwind, and we haven't even gotten to the "busy" time of year yet....wheeeeeee!
I'll summarize:
Work has been H-E-L-L. It began with the auditors annual colonoscopy in August, followed by a number of "emergency" re-orgs, training sessions, and it just never stopped. Having just done someone else's work for a week, I'm now back to another upcoming SOX deadline, several new duties I'm expected to perform starting a few days ago, and a search for an elusive payment on freelance work done 1300 months ago.
We took a vacation, which was awesome, but it feels like we've been sort of "behind" ever since then. Or maybe I'm just behind...not sure. In any case, the kids have started school, DW is starting a side business selling dyed yarn, DDs B-day has come and gone, and my mom's BD is coming up. Plus we now have cable (NBA!), and I've been absorbed into my XBox NBA2K7 game. Again.
We're acquiring 2 more dogs. I'll elaborate more on them once they've visited again, but suffice to say a) they're adorable, and b) they're...REALLY adorable. They'll be visiting this weekend. To prepare for their coming, we've been putting up a fence...which is a lot more fun than it sounds. That's more or less been my activity of choice for the past two weekends.
All in all, it's been a whirlwind, and we haven't even gotten to the "busy" time of year yet....wheeeeeee!
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Summer Is Already Coming to a Close...
Unfortunately, it feels like it just began, so I'm a bit bummed. One tends to look back at their summer breaks (especially when they're young) and take stock of everything they did. Part of the reasoning behind this is our naturally competitive nature, of course: when you get back together with your junior high friends, it's important to have done more cool stuff with your summer than they did. (Come to think of it, we do the same as adults, comparing exotic vacation spots visited and personal sporting equipment utilized...). It was very important to DW and I that we keep the kids busy this summer *without* breaking the bank, and I think we've done just that.
* Zoo visits x2 (and more to come, since we bought an annual pass)
* Trip to Michigan to visit DWs family (which itself included a trip to an amusement park, rafting, swimming, and other assorted activities)
* Enough crafts and projects done at home to open our own shop
* DS and I have hit the basketball court on several occasions
* Hikes/walks aplenty
* Northwest Trek (an awesome little photo safari where you view local wildlife)
* Trips to the movie theater (7 for me, 3 for my DD, 2 for each DW and DS)
* Barbecues aplenty
Of course, the quantity of these activities is in long run fairly meaningless; what's important is the question of whether or not we had fun, and I think I have to answer with a resounding "Yes". In fact, this is the most enjoyable summer I can remember in a looooong time, and the only bad thing about *that* is that DW and I have set the bar high for next summer. :)
Enjoy the rest of August, everyone!
* Zoo visits x2 (and more to come, since we bought an annual pass)
* Trip to Michigan to visit DWs family (which itself included a trip to an amusement park, rafting, swimming, and other assorted activities)
* Enough crafts and projects done at home to open our own shop
* DS and I have hit the basketball court on several occasions
* Hikes/walks aplenty
* Northwest Trek (an awesome little photo safari where you view local wildlife)
* Trips to the movie theater (7 for me, 3 for my DD, 2 for each DW and DS)
* Barbecues aplenty
Of course, the quantity of these activities is in long run fairly meaningless; what's important is the question of whether or not we had fun, and I think I have to answer with a resounding "Yes". In fact, this is the most enjoyable summer I can remember in a looooong time, and the only bad thing about *that* is that DW and I have set the bar high for next summer. :)
Enjoy the rest of August, everyone!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Daezarkian Is Writing Again
No. Way.
It's been way, way, WAAAAAAAY too long since I did some productive writing, so I'm stoked.
While "Darker Sunset" has received its third official rejection, I've been quietly revising the first two books of my so-called horror trilogy, "Razor". That revision is still a work in progress, but that didn't stop me from starting up the long-avoided third installment yesterday during a "break"*. I'm happy to say that I've pumped out 15 pages since yesterday, which is exactly 15 pages more than anything else I've written all year long.
The "Razor" series is sort of hard to describe...it's not quite horror, not quite action, not quite fantasy, but it works awfully hard to incorporate elements of all three while still striving to be as relentlessly gory, offensive and sex-filled as it possibly can be.
"Razor: Angel" is a fairly traditional horror story that follows a pair of professional hit men as they track a vampire from Colorado to Washington and attempt to put an end to her feasting days, only to learn that she is the least of their worries...indeed, as the local sheriff of the lonely northwest town of Ravenwood has come to discover, this vampire may be humanity's only hope.
"Razor: Hell" is two interconnected stories. The first involves an investigative reporter and a government agent who embark on a mission of revenge and find themselves in the middle of a massive supernatural conspiracy that spans across the globe. The alternating story involves an epic journey through a world known as Hell.
"Razor: Serpent" is intended as the climax of the series, and it involves a brutal war between opposing forces that have long vied for control over a source of immense source of mystical power. Where the first book takes place entirely in "the real world" and the second novel spends time both on Earth and in Hell, this third book is a more fantasy-style story set entirely in a dark, fictional world.
So there you go. You may never get to read them, but this series has for the past couple of years greatly revitalized my writing habits. Because of that, the least I owe to the story and these characters is to finish their tale.
* Break = Any moment or moments spent avoiding real work, while still typing furiously and looking furtively at the screen so as to deceive one's supervisor into thinking they are doing an outstanding job.
It's been way, way, WAAAAAAAY too long since I did some productive writing, so I'm stoked.
While "Darker Sunset" has received its third official rejection, I've been quietly revising the first two books of my so-called horror trilogy, "Razor". That revision is still a work in progress, but that didn't stop me from starting up the long-avoided third installment yesterday during a "break"*. I'm happy to say that I've pumped out 15 pages since yesterday, which is exactly 15 pages more than anything else I've written all year long.
The "Razor" series is sort of hard to describe...it's not quite horror, not quite action, not quite fantasy, but it works awfully hard to incorporate elements of all three while still striving to be as relentlessly gory, offensive and sex-filled as it possibly can be.
"Razor: Angel" is a fairly traditional horror story that follows a pair of professional hit men as they track a vampire from Colorado to Washington and attempt to put an end to her feasting days, only to learn that she is the least of their worries...indeed, as the local sheriff of the lonely northwest town of Ravenwood has come to discover, this vampire may be humanity's only hope.
"Razor: Hell" is two interconnected stories. The first involves an investigative reporter and a government agent who embark on a mission of revenge and find themselves in the middle of a massive supernatural conspiracy that spans across the globe. The alternating story involves an epic journey through a world known as Hell.
"Razor: Serpent" is intended as the climax of the series, and it involves a brutal war between opposing forces that have long vied for control over a source of immense source of mystical power. Where the first book takes place entirely in "the real world" and the second novel spends time both on Earth and in Hell, this third book is a more fantasy-style story set entirely in a dark, fictional world.
So there you go. You may never get to read them, but this series has for the past couple of years greatly revitalized my writing habits. Because of that, the least I owe to the story and these characters is to finish their tale.
* Break = Any moment or moments spent avoiding real work, while still typing furiously and looking furtively at the screen so as to deceive one's supervisor into thinking they are doing an outstanding job.
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Random Music Video of the Week
Rob Dougan's "Clubbed to Death". This is a fun video with some nice visuals and vintage 1930s era fashion, and it's all fun to watch even if it doesn't make a tremendous amount of sense. Oh, and don't wait for the lyrics to kick in...there aren't any.
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