Got a Bus Pass

So, I went out and got myself a new bus pass. I’ve not had one yet, but I figured it’d save me some money and I’d go more places. The bus can be pretty expensive in cities. Anyway, I went and saw the great cathedral in St Paul yesterday. It has some beautiful architecture. I’m thinking next time I go out, I’ll bring a camera so I can take some pictures to share with you all. There are many interesting sites that I’d like to share with my friends and family back home. If other people enjoy them too, well the more the merrier!

Going out and seeing the sites has inspired me with some new ideas for a pet project I’m working on. I’m working on a science fiction piece, and I’ve been stuck for months. Anyway, I’ve thought of an idea for an engine for the star ships. I’m calling it a “star drive”. Yeah, I know it’s not very original, but it does describe what the drive is pretty accurately. It’s essentially a star in a can. How it works is you feed the engine with hydrogen, and it then proceeds to utilize thermonuclear fusion on the fuel material producing heavier and heavier elements. This of course will all be contained within a tokomak, or similar magnetic containment field. A device I call a ferrometer will monitor the wavelengths of light emitted by the ongoing reaction, measuring the iron content of the fusing materials. When the Iron levels get to a certain point, the reactor will begin to shut down via some cooling process. I need to do a bit more research to determine the best method for cooling down a fusion reactor without causing catastrophic consequences. I’m definitely going to have to make up some things and just not describe them very well.

Well, I guess that’s enough spoilers. I’m going to see what I can do about getting some pictures for my future posts. Hope you come back to read them!

Working on a New Story Project

Currently working on a new story that I’m titling as “Space Station Six”. I don’t have too many of the details worked out just yet, but the basic setting is as follows:

Our story takes place on a military space station that is set on the dark side of the moon. The purpose of the station is for top secret R&D on space weaponization and colonization. Picture Area 51, only in space, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what goes on there.

The station will be well established by the time our story starts, and will come from the viewpoint of the military. On the Earth below, there will be political unrest due to a failing economy, and political oppression. By the end of the story, a lot of this stuff should be just starting to sort itself out due to first contact by an alien race with plans to harvest the Earth for it’s mineral resources.

That’s all I have so far. I’ll continue to work on the project to see if it goes anywhere. I’ll do my best to keep you all updated with it’s general direction and development, but I’ll try my best not to reveal too much so that people will actually have a reason to read it.

Right now I’m still researching current technology, which I will then embellish on to help give the story some realism. I’m not going to reveal anything here about the character development itself because that’s integral to the story itself. I am also working on a counter-story that will tell the other side of the situations and events that take place in this one.

Wish me luck, and thank you for stopping by my blog!

Wasted time

I spent all day today just wasting away. I played with my webcam a bit, watched some old TV shows, and essentially got nothing at all done. Seriously, I need to put my brain back into work mode again. I so much time getting everything set up, and yet, something is still off. I know I should dwell, but I can’t help myself sometimes. Procrastination is one foul devil indeed.

The good news is that I have a whole bunch of free time do to schedule re-arrangements. The bad news is that I’m too lazy to make use of it in a manner that is meaningful. Every time that I know that I should be working on my literature I come up with lamer and lamer excuses not too. I want too, but yeah, here comes another excuse. So I forced myself to write this entry in hopes that it will get my creative juices flowing once again. I’ve heard that sometimes just expressing your thoughts or writing down a bunch of stuff you wouldn’t even share with your mother can help you get back into the mode of things. I think the real problem with me is that I’ve put the pen down for too long and picked up some bad habits.

Because of my transgressions, I’m making some new goals for myself to get back into my groove. I’m going to make myself post at least one new blog post a week. I did this before, and it worked, until I got the new job and got overwhelmed anyway. Hopefully it will work again. I’ve also set aside some time to work on my writing each day. Nobody ever said I had to put everything out in one sitting did they? I’ll start working on my posts on Sunday, and I’ll publish them on Friday.

Here’s the schedule that I’m setting for myself. Sunday – Tuesday: Research. I’ll use these days to look up topics and get a rough going. Wednesday – Friday: Clean up. I’ll these days all research is done, I’ll work with what I have and clean it up into a nice document. Saturday: Final editing and post. Hopefully this schedule will keep the posts coming. I feel that trying to put out a full post when I sit down is putting too much pressure on me, and is setting me up for failure. Well, wish me luck.

Finally a Day Off

After a ten day stretch, I have one day off. I had to pull in some overtime because I’ve been sick a lot lately and needed to make up on some bills. I should be all caught up after this I think, so no more overtime for me. I like my job and all, but I like my play too. Because of work, I haven’t been going out as much, so I did get a lot of coding things done. Now that I have a laptop that actually functions worth a damn, I will probably get a lot more done anyway.

Now that I’ve got time to go places again, the only thing I can think about is what am I going to write about next in my blog. I started the blog as a way to get my writing back on track. I’ve been going through a huge slump where I can’t write anything at all. With the blog, I am forcing myself to write about anything. The more I do it, the easier it becomes. eventually I think I’ll be able to put some serious work into my book projects again. Well, I do put serious work into them, but hopefully this will help me to be more of an active writer. As my English professor always told me, “an active writer is a productive writer.”

I’ve learned that when it comes to writing, it’s not so much about what you write, but rather how much you right. Even if all you write is utter garbage, the mere act of writing itself makes concentrating on it easier. With that in mind, I’ve set a hard goal of at least one short blog post a day, with at least one long blog post a week. Right now I’m not too terribly concerned with sticking to a particular topic, as you might have noticed in this entry. This summer, I want to write at least 30,000 words. In fall I want to write 50,000. Come spring, I’ll re-evaluate where I’m at, and make a goal from there.

Finally a Day Off

After a ten day stretch, I have one day off. I had to pull in some overtime because I’ve been sick a lot lately and needed to make up on some bills. I should be all caught up after this I think, so no more overtime for me. I like my job and all, but I like my play too. Because of work, I haven’t been going out as much, so I did get a lot of coding things done. Now that I have a laptop that actually functions worth a damn, I will probably get a lot more done anyway.