Considering it aired over a decade ago, some find it amazing that I have never seen Band of Brothers. That is, of course, until the last few weeks.

I won’t get into the specifics of the show; that’s what Wikipedia is for, after all. The long and short of it, it’s based on the book of the same name by Stephen Ambrose. 10 parts. 11 hours. It tells the fictionalized history of Easy Company from the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division during World War II. The title (of the book and, therefore, the series) comes from the St. Crispin’s Day Speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V. “We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.” (more…)

Rolling back the clocks an hour brings me two things I’ve been missing the last few months: driving into the rising sun in the morning and the setting sun at night.

On my drive, I pass over the Chattahoochee River. I know I’ve mentioned that fact before, and before you ask, it’s the same one that Alan Jackson sang about in 1993. Anyway, here are three shots from this morning’s drive.

I like how in the first one you can see the light from the rising sun above the fog, and how in the last one you can see the fog breaking. Just peeking through there.

This next one was on the drive home a few days ago, shortly before a storm rolled on in.

In other news, I made some progress yesterday for NaNo, and did just over 2K for the day. Still about 10K behind, but here I go.

Have a great weekend everyone. If you’re NaNoing, I hope you make great strides. If you’re not, get some fun in. Hell, even if you’re NaNoing, go have some fun.

Just a quick post today to tell you all that I won’t be around today. Or much of the weekend, either. And the way my work calendar looks for Monday thru Wednesday, it’s going to be July before things slow down again. Or pick up even worse than they are now.

Today’s post title has a strange sort of significance, and I’ll illustrate them with these two letters.

A decade is a long time. You drive me completely nuts sometimes, but I can’t imagine a better way or a better person to spend my life with. I love you. Happy 10th Anniversary.

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In all truth, the hardest part about today is over. I made it out of bed and into work on time. Seriously, though, I walked into a shit storm upon my arrival, and three hours to do it all. I beat the deadline by 22 minutes. Hence the lateness of this post.

It was an . . . interesting weekend, to say the least. Busy, busy, busy, but mostly in the good way. Pool time with friends, family movie night to introduce the kids to Hook, and swim lessons. Not to mention cleaning the house. Then there were the Tony Awards last night. (more…)

“My tunes and numbers are here. They have filled my years, the years when I refused to die. And in order to do that I wrote, I wrote, I wrote, at noon or 3:00 A.M. So as not to be dead.”
―Ray Bradbury, The Illustrated Man

You had 91 excellent years, sir. Rest in Peace.

I talked yesterday about lacking focus and wondered how to jump back into a WIP when you’re nearing the climax and ending after you’ve been away for a few months. There were some truly great suggestions including character development, eavesdropping on conversations, listening to music, re-read the whole thing, re-read the last chapter or two, and just diving right back in. (more…)

It’s the strangest thing, listening to the radio in the morning. Depending on when I leave for work—meaning if I’m leaving “on time” or not—I either hear about 20 minutes of morning show, or I get a ton of commercials. This morning was a commercial listening day. When this happens, I turn on whatever CD is in the player. Turns out, I still had the Les Miserables soundtrack in (well, the first of three discs), so I listened to a couple songs to finish out the drive. Which reminds me, have you see the first trailer for the upcoming film version? In case you haven’t, here it is.

Now, a few things. I’m crossing my fingers that this will turn out all right. From what you can see in the trailer, it should be visually stunning. Hugh Jackman can play Valjean; this much is true. I still hesitate at the casting of Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Russell Crowe as Javert. (more…)

I haven’t talked about books in a while, I think. Or, at the very least, not enough. Thus, today’s list will be about the books I’d want with me on a deserted island. Not the island from LOST, though. I’d want to read these rather than abandon them being chased by a smoke monster.

The Premise

I had a friend in high school who was, dare I say, obsessed with David Letterman’s “Top Ten” lists. So much so that he would share his own top ten lists over lunch periods. The subject matter of those lists is not retained in my long-term memory, no matter how good it is. However, I’m sure I could ask him since I still know how to contact him. Thank you, Blogger and Facebook. (more…)

Time is getting away from me today. Busy, busy, busy. The life of a worker bee. So, today I thought I would paste a short story I wrote in grad school. I won’t say anything else here.

~~~~~

Patchwork

I sat tucked away in my usual corner of the college’s cafeteria, hoodie pulled low, face shoved in a book. Which one it was, I don’t remember, and it’s not important. The cafeteria was nearly deserted already, and I could hear the staff preparing for the next morning’s breakfast. Standing, I noted the page number in my book before making it disappear into the sweatshirt’s massive pocket, and picked up the tray. Only when I turned to walk the length of the table did I finally notice the girl. (more…)

First, my apologies. I’ve been a bit negligent on responding to comments these last few days. That’s what a 5-day break makes happen. If I’d been home alone, that would be a different story. But I wasn’t, so comment responding and blog reading time was at a minimum. Regardless, today marks the end of this 5-day min-vacation, and I’m going to attempt to catch up throughout the day if possible because once I return to work tomorrow, it’ll be a non-stop deadline fest until the last deadline for projects of February 6.

There’s always reading over lunch, I suppose. Ha, lunch. Like I have ever had time to take that before, and now it really won’t happen.

Okay, short story for today that I was reminded of last night. There needs to be a setup concerning yesterday that leads up to me remembering this story. (more…)

Thank you, all. Your concern in the comments yesterday about my mental stability to deal with the day was much appreciated. And thanks to Breann, I watched part of Dazed and Confused on my phone over lunch, which was just the pick-me-up that I needed to make it through the rest of the day. Although, I was sad again when I had to stop it half way through, but that just means I can watch the rest today over lunch, so as Michael Scott would say, “Win/Win/Win.”

The only thing that really knocked it out of me in the afternoon was that someone complained to our facilities department that it was cold, and they turned the heat on. Now, I can deal with the brief smell of burning dust, but I just have to laugh when the heat is on and people are walking around with their coats pulled tightly around themselves, and I’m in a short sleeve polo shirt and a fan blowing on me. Honestly, I felt like a uterus short of menopause. (more…)