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Cooking With Code Gaming Toiling In The Pixel Mines Write, Write, You Bloody Well Write

Cyan Saturday

read!I’m declaring it Cyan Saturday. Not sure why, but it flows off the tongue way better than Black Friday, doesn’t it?

First off, I want to introduce a new tradition, wherein I point you toward books written by several of my closest friends. Somewhere between common interests and all of us being writers at heart, an awful lot of us have written and published books in the past few years. A fair few of the books fall into the same wheelhouse, subject-matter-wise…but not all of them! Anyway, peruse this fascinating list of Books My Friends Wrote and add their works to your bookshelf or the bookshelf of someone who needs a gift this holiday season. You really can’t go wrong – I vouch for all of them as writers and as people.

And my own books? They’re now available through a nice new digital delivery gateway right here at theLogBook.com, a long-needed improvement that finally happened thanks to a little bit of digital drudgery undertaken by my oldest. The new system is really neat, and unlike the old one…it just works. And to celebrate the “grand re-opening” of that component of theLogBook.com Store, I’ve added a couple of crazy bundle deals (they’re the ones with green buttons) that’ll save you…well…a bundle.

Books. They’re what’s for dinner. Go getcha some.… Read more

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...And Little E Makes 3 Home Base

Conversations with E, day 3667

Oompa LoompasE: Hey dad, you want to hear me recite the Preamble to the Constitution?
ME: Sure.
E: [recites the Preamble word-for-word, only a little bit haltingly]
ME: Wow.
E: Did I get it right?
ME: Yeah you did. I’m gonna cast a write-in vote for you to be president in a few years.
E: Whaaaat?
ME: I can already tell you’ve read more of the Constitution than the guy who’s there now.… Read more

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Home Base

Changes in fortune

2 min read

A lot’s been happening in between me catching stomach viruses and sinus infections. I’ve renegotiated my home loan to something that’s survivable on my present income level. That’s a good thing. I hadn’t said much about it on the internet, but my continued occupancy of the house in question had been a question mark for the better part of a year. The negotiating process was stressful, maddening, and s-l-o-w. But I’m waiting for one piece of paperwork I have to sign, and then it’s done, allowing me to calm my beef min and concentrate on other things.

A while back, I learned that Avid was releasing a freeware version of its Media Composer software. Those of you who have been with me for a while know that I used to edit video with Avid Media Composer practically in my sleep, whether at work or at home…except that the Avid system I had at home was, unknown to me, a limited time offer. Sheer bad luck intervened, and the insurance company with whom I had homeowners’ insurance at the time conveniently decided that this was business equipment, not something one would find in a home, and therefore they wouldn’t cover its loss. I enlisted some help to try to restore the machine to working order, to no avail – it wouldn’t be a video editing system ever again. But where the new Media Composer Free is concerned? Any PC with the space and RAM required will do. A decent video card is best, but again, not required.

I socked back a little bit of money toward a new (well, refurb) PC with the required specs, and have begun setting it up as a new Avid. It’s slow going acquiring the necessary hard drives for this venture, and it might be Christmas before I’m editing again, but it will happen. I’m excited about it. It’s probably my most marketable job skill and I haven’t been able to practice it for seven years and change. Video editing is just what I do. Some people can whittle intricate shapes out of wood…I do that with pictures and sound. Or at least I can with the right tools. Budget and circumstance have not been my friends of late, but in this case, things worked out almost too well.

And speaking of that… … Read more

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...And Little C Makes 4 ...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Home Base

The Little Green Men on closeness

Too closeFrom time to time when he was younger, and occasionally still now, E has struggled with the concept of personal space – you couldn’t violate his, but he could get all over anyone else. So the following interaction as all three of us sat on the sofa watching something on TV amused me greatly.

  • E [watches intently]
  • C [cuddles up to E]: Hiiiiii!
  • E [ignores little brother]
  • C [getting in his big brother’s face]: HIIIIIIIII!
  • ME: Hey, C. Back off. Personal space.
  • C [still in big brother’s face]: PERSONAL SPAAAAAAAAAACE!

At this point I just kind of had to try to hide how hard I was laughing at it all.… Read more

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...And Little C Makes 4 ...And Little E Makes 3 Funny Stuff Home Base

The Little Green Men on hippo feasts

Fiona says helloWe’re big fans of Fiona the Hippo, the adorable superstar of the Cincinnati Zoo, at my house. Little C knows her as “the baby hippo”; E just likes to watch watermelons tossed into the hippo cove, where Fiona’s full-sized parents devour them whole. As we watched a Youtube playlist of the Cincinnati Zoo’s hippos – including Fiona – the boys provided the following narration:

E: Watermelons! OM NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

C: Deeeeeeeelicious, hippos!

😆 It’s doesn’t get better than when they team up and tag-team something like this, each with their own sense of humor.

Read more

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...And Little C Makes 4 Funny Stuff Home Base

Conversations with Little C, day 990

Little C is learning to recognize letters – he’s on the verge of reading! As we pull up in the store parking lot:

C: “W…A…L…M…A…R…T…fingernails!”

ME: “What? Fingernails!?

C: “They’re fingernails, daddy.”

He’s pointing to the “flower” design in the Wal-Mart logo.

Walmart + Fingernails

Fingernails. Now I can’t unsee it. And neither can you. 😆… Read more