It's time for Chapters 7 and 8 (in the extended entry).

Enjoy and leave feedback, especially your suggestions for a title. On the first of February I'll pick some of the best and we'll have a contest to name the story.

And for those playing catch up:

Chapters 1 and 2.
Chapters 3 and 4.
Chapters 5 and 6. more...

Posted by: Ted at 11:35 AM | category: Zombies of Autumn
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So, where the hell have I been? I can hear you asking, or maybe it's just the voices. It's partly complicated, and partly work-related, and partly none of your business (which I realize goes completely contrary to my blogging style, but oh well).

Work related part: If you've gotten your W2's or 1099's already, then find the person responsibile for it in your universe and hug them or buy them lunch, for they probably worked their asses off to get it done. Trust me on this one.

Complicated part: I have claimed the small bedroom upstairs as my own. It was originally my son's bedroom, and then became the sewing room when he left home. When the girls flew the coop left the next, Mom took the big bedroom as her sewing room and the small room became the guest room. Screw that. Guests can sleep on the floor.

The room has been renamed the "North Den" and I'm in the process of moving in. So far it contains an ultra-comfortable couch/hideabed, a large television with DVD and VCR, bookshelves, and my entire collection of cinematic masterpieces.

What it does not contain is a PC, although I tried this weekend to remedy that, but the *#^@&!!! wireless refuses to detect our network. One possible solution is to move the PC into a corner of the sewing room where there is a wired connection to our network. Less than optimal, but not terrible.

I've also been experiencing some wrist pain, ala early warning signs of the dreaded carpal tunnel. I've cut back on my computer time, which means surf time at home because my profession means mucho working with at the office. I have a new wrist brace, which is working well. I'm considering dying it black and adding chrome studs. Or maybe I'll just claim excessive masturbation due to a viagra addiction. Either has to be better than the truth.

None of your business part: self-explanatory, except that it has nothing to do with viagra addiction.

So I'm around, just not as much. Been really, truly, insanely busy. I had some cool movies lined up to watch and then review, but got wonderfully distracted by the Mummy Legacy Collection (watched six Mummy movies since Thursday night).

Not enough hours in a day, not enough years in a lifetime. I've got to get hold of some of those tannah leaves.

Posted by: Ted at 05:23 PM | category: Square Pegs
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Meme of Fours. It finally found me, via Cat (who is one of three Virginia bloggers that I know using that name (he said, to explain the apparent confusion)).

Four Jobs That I've Had:
1. Games Barker at an amusement park
2. Security Police guarding nuclear weapons
3. Bartender
4. Tupperware Lady

Four Movies I can watch over and over again:
1. Father Goose
2. King Ralph
3. The Incredibles
4. Guarding Tess, Airheads, The Mummy (original or remake), Twister...

Four T.V. Shows I love to watch: (I'm not a TV fan)
1. Hockey
2. Football
3. History Channel
4. LOST

Four Website's I read Daily (I'll keep it to blogs):
1. QandO
2. Two Nervous Dogs
3. Dustbury
4. Dawn's Place (and much of the rest of the blogroll)

Four Places I've Been on Vacation:
1. Brussels, Belgium
2. Luxembourg, Luxembourg
3. Winnepeg, Canada
4. Good Thunder, Minnesota

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Cheese
2. Pork
3. Mexican anything
4. Soup

Four places IÂ’d rather be:
1. Anyplace but the DC metro area

No tags, if you wanna run with it, go for it

Posted by: Ted at 11:43 AM | category: About Ted
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For those who may be curious, here's an update on the girls.

Our oldest daughter Robyn is quietly putting the finishing touches on her college education. She's working two jobs, getting good grades, and is looking forward to graduating, after which she'll prosper. I have no doubt about that.

Rachael (Mookie), on the other hand, does nothing quietly. She made the Dean's List in her first semester and is preparing for a three week-long school trip to London this Spring. As exciting as that sounds, she may be even more hyped over a possible summer job. She's been offered a chance to be Wardrobe Mistress at an opera house near Montecello in central Virginia. Besides pay, the job comes with an apartment. A lot of it will be the typical scut work that all newbies have to endure at the start of a career, but all experience is valuable.

Proud Papa, signing off.

Posted by: Ted at 12:02 PM | category: Square Pegs
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1 Congrats, Dad, and best regards to the kids.

While it's not as spectacular an achievement as your girls, Brian has been training new people at his Starbucks and is in line for a supervisor job when he turns 18. I'm just as proud of him as I would be if he was a nuclear scientist. Besides, I get a family discount on my mood-altering beverages. What could be better?

Posted by: Doug Pratt at January 26, 2006 08:55 PM (ia2zV)

2 I know a bit about Brian's background, and it's easy to imagine him becoming a regional manager for Starbucks in Japan. He's got his act together.

Posted by: Ted at January 27, 2006 12:11 PM (blNMI)

3 Honestly, Ted, which do you prefer: Embarrasing your kids, or bragging about them? ;~)

Posted by: Victor at January 27, 2006 10:23 PM (l+W8Z)

4 Actually Dad, It's officially mine. It was agreed yesterday, so I'm all good to go with the job. I'll be working for Ash Lawn Opera as Top Hand and Costume Mistress.

Not as much scut work as you'd think, though still a lot.

Posted by: Rachael at January 28, 2006 09:59 AM (lhDGd)

5 Victor, if I really wanted to embarrass the kids, I'd have mentioned that Rachael was conceived in Luxembourg.

Posted by: Ted at January 28, 2006 10:54 AM (+OVgL)

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My latest PDA review has been posted at Mozongo, and this time it's hardware. Head on over and check out this nifty little gizmo that Santa brought me.

Posted by: Ted at 05:30 AM | category: PDA Reviews
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Chapters 5 and 6 are posted in the extended entry. Rachael pointed out that these chapters seem to be getting shorter as we go along. Not too much further along we're going to get to a stretch where I really don't like where the chapters break. I may rearrange some before we get there, I'm not sure yet.

Chapters 1 and 2 are here.
Chapters 3 and 4 are here.

And we still be contestin'!

Suggest a title in the comments.

On the first of February, I'll pick a few of the best suggestions and we'll have a contest. The person who suggests the winning title will win a prize, and not just some California-style self-esteem-building touchy-feely crap either. I'm talking about a real hold-it-in-your-hand American icon of conspicuous commercialism.

The comments and email have been great. Thanks muchly! more...

Posted by: Ted at 08:37 PM | category: Zombies of Autumn
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What would happen if a serial killer who preys on hitchhikers picks up a hitcher who slays any individual that stops to offer him a ride?

I'm looking forward to finding out next weekend during the latest episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series.

Blue wrote up a nice preview, and then started to review each episode one by one. 'Cept he and I have both been insanely busy lately, so go enjoy what he's got there, and if you ask nicely in the comments he might do more.

Posted by: Ted at 08:26 PM | category: Cult Flicks
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Mookie sent a link to me, with the following note:

I think these are so awesome and would make a great coffee table... especially the child ones.

Here's what she's talking about.

Posted by: Ted at 10:02 AM | category: Links
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Recently, at my wife's work:

Lady: Those are beautiful earrings.

Wife: Thank you. They were a Christmas present from my husband.

Lady: He's either very nice or he was very naughty.

Wife: He's very nice.

Lady: Then *you* must have been very naughty.

LOL

Posted by: Ted at 09:53 AM | category: Square Pegs
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...skewered onto the pointy nose of the Concorde. It's been insanely busy and hectic around the ol' homestead lately, hence the relative quiet around Rocket Jones. Count your blessings, people.

I have been doing *some* visiting, but at the end of the day I'm usually so burnt out that I just fire up the aggregator and skim sites that way.

What Ahnold said.

Posted by: Ted at 09:46 AM | category: Square Pegs
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Chapters 3 and 4 are posted in the extended entry.

Follow this link for Chapters 1 and 2, and don't forget the contest:

Suggest a title in the comments.

On the first of February, I'll pick a few of the best suggestions and we'll have a contest. The person who suggests the winning title will win a prize, and not just some California-style self-esteem-building touchy-feely crap either. I'm talking about a real hold-it-in-your-hand American icon of conspicuous commercialism.

Thanks to those who've provided feedback, good and bad. Every bit of criticism is helpful. more...

Posted by: Ted at 11:57 AM | category: Zombies of Autumn
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Our power just came back on a little bit ago. It went out early yesterday afternoon. In almost 16 years living here, that 22 hour stretch sans electricity exceeded the old record by about 16 hours.

The culprit is the wind. It's been relentless for the last couple of days, and trees and power lines are down all over the area. Throw in intermittent rain, some blowing snow and bone-chilling wind chill temps, and it's been fun fun fun.

We couldn't get an estimate on how long before power would be restored, so I took matters into my own hands and this morning headed to the grocery store for bags of ice. Not two hours later the lights flickered on. It always happens that way, you just have to use it to your advantage, eh?

In the meantime, our monthly club rocket launch was scrubbed. We can deal with rain and snow and most everything else Mother Nature can fling, but we can't launch in high winds. And of course, today is bright and sunny and the wind is still whipping ass, so no rockets for Ted this weekend.

On the plus side, it's amazing how much stuff you can get done when you're not parked in front of the computer.

Posted by: Ted at 03:47 PM | category: Square Pegs
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I've been reading Blogeline for a couple of years now, and I'm proud to announce that on Thursday she became a US citizen!

Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Go on over and leave her a message. And for the locals who're going to be at February 4th's get-together, she's planning on attending as well! It's shaping up to be a great party.

Posted by: Ted at 10:25 PM | category: Links
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I talked about Freedom Park in Rosslyn, Virginia, and how one of the exhibits is an actual segment of the Berlin wall (nine complete sections) and an East German guard tower.

For the last couple of days, they've had the street blocked off so that they could remove those pieces of the wall and relocate them to the new home of the Newseum in downtown DC. Not that anyone asked me for my opinion, but I personally think those historic barriers belong in Freedom Park, not in a museum dedicated to news.

Posted by: Ted at 05:19 AM | category: Square Pegs
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You know what they say about the road to hell being paved with good intentions.

In November I was going great guns on my National Novel Writing Month work, until I hit a speedbump and lost several thousand words worth of work. You can see by the meter on the right sidebar that I'd almost "officially" reached 60%, and what I lost had put me over that milestone.

In December I announced that I was going to finish the story, yet I never wrote another word.

So once again, in an effort to kick-start myself, I'm going to start posting what I already have, and it seems to me to be the perfect opportunity to have a contest too.

The first two chapters are posted in the extended entry. Read them, and then suggest a title in the comments. I have a "working" title in my mind, but I really don't like it much, so I'm open to any and all suggestions. If you're shy, then send me an email with your title, that works too.

On the first of February, I'll pick a few of the best suggestions and we'll have a contest. The person who suggests the winning title will win a prize, and not just some California-style self-esteem-building touchy-feely crap either. I'm talking about a real hold-it-in-your-hand American icon of conspicuous commercialism.

So read. Be a critic. Be an editor. Come up with a title. Comment. Feedback.

Inspire me, dammit. more...

Posted by: Ted at 12:03 PM | category: Zombies of Autumn
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Except for that one notable exception, that is.

Over at Hold the Mayo, Stephen links to the Whitbread Round the World sailboat race, renamed this year for corporate sponsorship like everything else these days. He's got a bunch of great links and a cool map of the course, which takes months to complete. Here's his description of one leg of the race:

Southern Ocean Here we come again! Iceberg dodging, gale riding, wave surfing, freezing cold, scary, knackering, frightening but FUN. (Yes for some the idea of surfing down a wave in a 70 foot boat in gale force winds while on the lookout for icebergs is considered fun.)

I crewed on a sailboat once. In calm weather. For fun. I have absolutely no idea what it would be like to do what these adventurers do. So I can visit their sites and read, because some of them are posting their daily logs and even video of the race.

Meanwhile, over on the other side of the country, PJ Swenson of Sharkspage gives the heads up on the 2006 Mavericks Surf Contest.

The Mavericks Surf Contest brings together 24 of the world's best big-wave surfers on just 24 hours' notice – between January 1 and March 31, 2006.

When the big waves arrive, the notice goes out and the surfers have to be there and ready to compete 24 hours later. These are serious surfers.

When Mavericks roared through Half Moon Bay last March, 30,000 spectators and two million television viewers in 70 countries watched the best big-wave riders on the planet conquer waves that crested at nearly 50 feet in frigid waters with dangerous currents, jagged rocks and the ever-present threat of the Great White Shark.

That ain't hype either. Check out PJ's page for more links and info.

Like Steve Miller said, "Everything's better when wet".

Posted by: Ted at 08:56 AM | category: Links
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Lou Rawls, dead of cancer at age 72.

Posted by: Ted at 06:39 PM | category: Links
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My buddy Russ sent this link:

Everything you see really happened in real time, exactly as you see it. The film required 606 takes. On the first 605 takes, something, usually very minor, didn't work. They would then have to set the whole thing up again.

Really, go see for yourself. It's absolutely amazing. Two minutes of pure genius.

Honda Accord Commercial.

(in the extended entry is the full text that Russ included, but seriously, follow that link first) more...

Posted by: Ted at 06:32 PM | category: Links
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My wife calls me on her way to work every morning. From the other day:

Wife: My battery's dead.

Me: How did that happen?

Wife: I don't know.

Me: Did you leave your lights on?

Wife: My cell phone battery, not my car.

Me: Oh.

Wife: You think like a guy.

To be precise, I think like a guy who doesn't own a cell phone.

Posted by: Ted at 04:36 PM | category: Square Pegs
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(in the extended entry) more...

Posted by: Ted at 06:54 PM | category: Square Pegs
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