Anyway, I’ll try and do better yadda yadda yadda…
With that out of the way, I thought I’d just give a general
update on my life:
Life is good.
There you have it.
Thanks for reading.
Okay, a real update:
Life is good, for real. 2012 has been a bit more eventful than
the past few years, which has been a very good thing. To wit:
- My professional life at Ancestry.com is still going well. I spent most of the past four months helping Ancestry put out the first complete index of the 1940 US Census, which was kind of a big deal for us. I work with an awesome group of people, and I’m quite content with my situation there.
- I have a personal life. I know, I know. Finally, right? It’s been a very nice change of pace.
- Even though I have but blogged very little this year, I have
actually been a bit more productive in terms of legitimate
writing, i.e. working on the rewrite of my novel. I just hit the fifty-page mark in my notebook today. I’m still not completely satisfied with
the amount I’ve written because that really isn’t very much when you consider
I’ve been going at it the past four months. I’ve been forcing myself to push forward as much as possible
and not dwell on certain sections or revise anything at this point. Subsequently, there are sections of the
text that I know I am going to rework extensively at some point, but that
revision will have to wait as the goal is to produce a rough draft, not a
perfect draft. Besides the
revision that awaits me in the future, there is still just a staggering amount
to write to even complete a first draft.
I estimate that I have completed sixty-percent of the first chapter this
past four months. Not a very
encouraging statistic.
I do have reason, however, to be pleased about my progress and optimistic for future progress: I’m actually following a routine. Weird how that might help boost my productivity. I started the routine nearly two weeks ago, and for eleven of the past twelve days I have written for at least thirty minutes a day. Even more astounding to me, this routine has involved waking up earlier than normal to make the time to write (a necessity because, as noted above, I now have a personal life). With this new routine, I have written twenty-four of my fifty pages in the past twelve days; that highlights just how ineffective my previous attempts at writing had been until recently, as I was frequently only making time once or twice a week to try and write. Not only has my total output increased significantly with the implementation of this routine, I’ve found that it’s getting easier and easier for me to just jump back into the writing (whereas before I needed to be in the right mood), and that I am more satisfied and content with myself as a writer and a human being. It's starting to look like I may actually finish this thing within the next ten years -- hopefully it’s more like the next year.
So yeah, life is good.
How about I close this blog with some recent additions to my favorite things:
- Krispy Kreme. Internet rapper. No one knows for sure if it’s an act or a sincere attempt at rapping – I lean toward the comic genius theory – but Krispy Kreme has become one of my favorite things of the year, possibly of all time. If you find this video humorous, I suggest that you watch the rest of his videos on youtube.
- Purity Ring. This Canadian duo is one of my favorite musical discoveries of the year, and “Obedear” is my most listened to track of the year. (I listened to it at least 100 times in the first three weeks after its release). Their debut album Shrines is very good and definitely worth repeated listens.
- There are so many other bands and songs worth sharing, but I’ll just post a link to my current jam: “Rose Quartz” by Toro Y Moi. This is actually a new and unreleased song, also the first song I ever heard by Toro Y Moi, but it has definitely motivated me to check out his discography. This is just too smooth to not enjoy.
That’s enough for now.
