Football, Hockey, NCAA, NFL, Sports

Michigan!!!

Michigan beat Michigan State, 7-3.
So, what you doing for the Super Bowl tomorrow?
I’ll be at my mom and dad’s. I feel like I’m looking forward to the halftime show more than the game. It’ll be the first time in history that deaf performers are part of the Super Bowl halftime show.
I dig that. I dig that a lot.
Misc

The Deep

Had some trouble opening the door. I shoveled the porch and sidewalk. Was about to shovel the driveway, but a neighbor rolled up on an ATV that has a plow on it. He offered to plow the driveway for me.

Misc, On Writing, Writing

The Great Candy Bar Dump of the 1980’s

I wonder if my friends from Lynch remember a time when all the students and teachers were assembled in the gym, where, like always, we sat on the floor and looked dumbfoundedly up at the adult staffers as they talked.

I think it was after Mrs. Robinson retired and Mr. Whitlock replaced her as principal. It might have been Whitlock’s first year as principal.

I don’t know what the assembly was about. I couldn’t really hear anything they were saying. But I remember when it was over, students were handed black garbage bags that were full of candy bars.

I did not understand that we were supposed to sell these candy bars. I thought God had tipped his hat in our direction and these candy bars were ours to happily stuff our faces with.

Now that I think about it, that whole thing was poorly executed. We were kids. I was probably seven or eight at the time, and someone had just handed me a garbage bag full of candy bars. I can’t be the only one who didn’t understand what we were supposed to do with these candy bars.

Then we were trudging across the school, awkwardly hauling these massive bags. The bags were actually kind of heavy. I don’t know how many bars were in my bag, but I think it was at least a hundred. Maybe more.

We carried these bags onto the buses to take home, where we were expected to sell to our neighbors. A lot of us lived in the same subdivisions. Meaning individual neighbors could be approached multiple times by different kids.

I didn’t see anyone doing the door-to-door thing, so I don’t know how it played out. I remember my dad was mad about me eating the candy bars, because he had to pay for them. I ate a few.

My dad took them away. I was under the impression that he had sold them to guys at work. But now, I think he probably just gave them back to the school. He did give me one bar that he bought out of the rest.

Novel 6
Words Added: 559
Total Wordcount: 78,107
Total Pagecount: 386

Story 42
Words Added: 655
Total Wordcount: 2,287
Total Pagecount: 12

Basketball, G-League, Misc, NBA, NCAA, On Writing, Series Talk, Sports, Writing

Trudging

I considered ordering food for supper, but I’ve been spending too much on DoorDash lately. Need to give it a rest.

Besides, it’s been snowing, I didn’t feel like shoveling the driveway and sidewalk today. I think it’d be rude of me to expect a DoorDasher to trudge through knee-deep snow to bring my order to the door.

So, I cooked ribs.

While looking for a game to watch, I discovered the NBA G-League. Can’t say I heard of the G-League before. I guess it’s like a minor league to the NBA. I’m not up to speed on what the NBA calls their lower-level affiliates, but I know every professional sport has them.

This game was the Grand Rapids Gold and the Motor City Cruise. Going by the look of their uniform, I’d say the Motor City Cruise is a direct affliliate to the Detroit Pistons. But what do I know?

I decided to sit through the game. I enjoyed it. Most of the players did not appear to be as tall as the usual NBA player, but they played just as skillfully.

Grand Rapids won, 122-111.

So many college basketball games I find on my TV, but it’s rare that I ever find a Michigan basketball game. Unless they’re in the March Madness.

Now I’m watching Episode 2 of Archive 81.

Novel 6
Words Added: 211
Total Wordcount: 77,548
Total Pagecount: 382

Story 42
Words Added: 187
Total Wordcount: 1,632
Total Pagecount: 9

Football, NFL, On Writing, Sports, Writing

Football & Production

It was a good weekend of football. All four games were quite thrilling, and close. All of them had ties broken in the end. The victors were the Bengals, 49ers. Rams and Chiefs.

I’ve been getting in writing almost every day, but not as much as I aim for. Which is fine, but I have a lot of stories and novels I want to write, so I aim for very big numbers.

You know how I said I like to get ten pages every day, five into a novel and five into a story. The truth is, I try not to settle for less than ten pages, but I aim for way more than that.

I’m a little self-conscious about revealing exactly what number of pages I aim for. In the past, when I mentioned such goals, people would discourage me. But I know it’s possible to hit these marks. Jay Lake, Mike Resnick, Jonathan Maberry are a few writers who come to mind when I think of massive production.

I remember a time when I wrote over 7,000 words in a day, which would be about 35 pages. So, I know I can do it, I just got to stay focused and try not to burn out.

Today, I got four pages, two each.

Some years ago, I would share my daily progress stats in the format you see at the bottom of this post. A lot of writers, pros and amateurs, were sharing their stats. I thought it was fun and inspiring. It showed me what was possible, for one thing.

Then there were other writers who complained about us sharing our progress stats. I guess our stats made them feel incompetent or pressured, or something. I started feeling self-conscious about sharing my stats. Maybe other writers did too, because they don’t share theirs anymore either.

I wonder if I should’ve just kept doing my thing and told the snobs to go to hell.

Novel
Words Added: 437
Total Wordcount: 77,337
Total Pagecount: 382

Story
Words Added: 454
Total Wordcount: 1,445
Total Pagecount: 8