Memory Association

The brain is a funny thing. Sometimes, it will associate a smell, a sound, an image, with a memory. And whenever one of these triggers are met, it summons up the rest of that memory. This comes up because as I was driving around on my route, I drove over some freshly repaved asphalt. For me, the stench of burnt oil and fresh asphalt will always be associated with my youth. When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, they repaved the playground at the school directly behind our house and all summer we had to deal with that smell. Another memory that is tied to sensory input is the first time that I read through the Lord of the Rings. While I was reading those books, I was listening to the Newsboys. #RandomMusings

The SweatBox

This goes out to all my UPSer friends.

"They shuffle from their concrete cell.

The air is hot and thick.

Their eyes are empty, their bodies are tired and their souls beaten.

And tomorrow they'll come back and do it again."

One Month Later

So about a month ago, the wife said to me "You need to lose some weight."

Well after the initial shock of having my wife tell that I was fat, I thought about it. I weighed myself and didn't really like the number that I saw.

Now, I don't have a lot of time to work out or go to the gym, so I decided to start with things that I could control.

So I've cut out all soda, started eating less and where I can I eat a healthy alternative.

And 1 Month later I'm down 20 pounds. I haven't really noticed a difference but the other day the gas station attendant said that I was looking thinner so I guess it's had some effect.

The Things That Creep In

So I had sat down a couple of weeks ago to plot out the long term plan for my new world (tentatively named Zaria) and how I would bring along the first of the two major arcs that I have laid the very basic ground work for.

I had decided to take one of the major arcs and model it after a major historical scenario. The pieces fit in a generic form, and it should be easy enough to follow a generic form while still injecting my own creative twists and turns.

While I was thinking about this, however, I started to think about how I was going to plot out the other major arc. I put all of the peices on teh table and realized that I already had a good historical scenario to which I could mold this 2nd arc.

So it's just interesting to me that despite the fact that I hadn't really thought about it but I had subliminally molded one of my arcs onto a historical scenario.

The Worlds In My Head

So, I don't remember when I started writing, or really why. I think it was a way to kill time when my family moved over an hour away from where we did everything.

I do remember that the first books that I wrote were terrible. The ideas in them were taken from movies, tv shows, books and games and adapted to the worlds that I created almost literally on the fly. No preparation, no thought.

Slowly, my work began to improve.

As I worked and grew, my worlds started to take their own shapes, developing from a small idea here or there. And as I started to grow as an author, I realized that my stories had to have a strong base before they could be really good. So now, my world's may start from a short blurb that floats through my mind (and trust me I have many of them), I have gotten into the habit of taking that small blurb and building a world for it before I start doing most of the work. Not only does a strong base help keep the world on track, it keeps me from

Once in a great while, I'll get a spark from an outside source and try to develop that into a working world. My most recent experience with this was an idea my younger brother had. He gave me a very rough skeleton and a built a working blurb for it. It still needs heavy work, but he was amazed at what I had done with just a little thought. One thing that continues to surprise me, is the way that some world's will take what I give them and run with it. I have a world I'm developing now that started out pretty tame but has morphed into an elf-having, Griffin riding fantasy. On the other hand, some world's will take my skeleton form and build on it exactly as I had intended/expected. Hopefully one day I'll get published and other people will enjoy my worlds. But until then, I'll continue working on them. If only to keep them from crowding my brain...

The Mobile Lifestyle

I made the realization the other day that my age-group and my next younger brother's age-group are the last generation to grow up without mobile technology being a permeating reality of life.

I was 17 when my family picked up our first real mobile phone. We'd had a pre-paid phone about 2 years earlier but we hadn't really used it much. Even that first cell-phone wasn't very useful. We bought it from a kiosk vendor who swore that our area would have service inside of 6months and that we'd be able to use it whenever we wanted (funny enough, over 10 years later and they still don't have service where my parents still live).

We went ahead and got the phone because I was started college shortly and the town that the college was in had enough signal for their company that I could use it about half way through the 30 mile drive.

I didn't really use the phone that much except to ask my parents if they needed anything while I was in town, or let them know when my shift at work got extended.

About 6 months into my first year at the community college, I wanted a phone that actually worked wherever I went, so I picked up a phone from another carrier (one of the 2 that had signal out in our area) and let my parents use the old one whenever they went into town.

I've pretty much had a cell-phone ever since and as the usefulness of them became apparent, all of my family members followed suit in getting their own cellphones.

Now we all have smartphones, even my 12 year old sister. We use them to varying degrees, myself probably the most, my dad definitely the least. But there are functions of them that we all use quite regularly.

I've noticed that I spend a significantly lower amount of time at a real computer than I used to. Before I got a smartphone, all of my computing needs were handled with a desktop or a laptop. Now, there's very little that I can't do on my phone or tablet. Really the only thing that is left to use my desktop for is gaming and writing a lot (I just like the feel of a full sized keyboard when I'm writing a long story or post).

There's a joke around my family that my son's first word is going to be cellphone related. I don't think so, but it does highlight the fact that my son is probably going to have a cellphone at a very early age and is probably going to know how to use it to its fullest extent. How soon, and how smart the phone is, will be a topic of discussion between my wife and I, but I know that by his teenage years, he's going to be just like daddy and want the best.

I wonder sometimes if he'll ever even use a computer outside of school. Or even there, if the tablet scene continues to explode like it seems to be doing.

Another facet of the Mobile Lifestyle is that nearly everyone has a phone and a large, and growing, majority have smartphones. I've turned it into a sort of a game when I'm out and about and see someone on their phone. Which carrier, which manufacturer, which model. Some phones are easier to spot than others. The iPhone is very recognizable and easy to spot. Android phones are a little harder, especially non-Verizon Android phones. I was sitting in the movie theater the other day, getting ready to watch a movie, when someone in the row ahead pulled out a phone and started playing on it. It took me about two glances to pick out what kind of phone it was, only because it was a Droid X and I just got a new phone like 2 months ago switching from the X.

The increasing number of options for people to get into the smartphone market is just going to further the situation.

So what effect has our increasing mobile lifestyle had on you?

We've Moved!

So its been a while since I've posted, I would in fact have to go back and read previous posts to even know where I left off. So, instead, I'll just recap the last couple of months before I continue with my post.

In my new position at work (OneStop), Inventory and Purchasing Manager, I've been busy working with Vendors on getting new accessories into our stores and working with the store managers on getting all of our store inventories fixed.

At UPS, I'm going through the process to get promoted to Full-Time. Right now, I'm waiting for the results of my last test, the Inbox, and then for my panel interview in Chicago.

Personal life stuff, our son Jay is doing well, over ten pounds and growing like a weed.

So now, the point of my post:

Both at home and at work, I've moved.

We looked for a couple of weeks for a house and had a short list of houses that looked acceptable (most of the houses that were in our price range were in terrible shape) and went back through for a second looks.

There ended up being two houses that we were really interested in, but one of them was on the high end of our price range with an unfinished basement. The other was in the right price range and nearly move in ready.

After we were unable to get the first house price lowered down, we put in an offer to the second house.

After some back and forth, we finally got the price we wanted and started on the closing paperwork.

Despite the fact that the closing ended up costing almost $1500 more than we had expected, we closed on the house on Apr 5th. We started moving in immediately, moving our tv and router in on Thursday, the washer, dryer and refridgerator were delivered and Comcast was turned on Friday.
Friday evening, we started moving in boxes using the In-Laws' Jeep. Then we moved in Saturday with the furniture and cleaned up the rest of the boxes.

At work, we moved one of our Rockford locations to a much larger facility, one with more room in the back. So over the course of the last two weeks I've been packing up our inventory and then moving it to the new warehouse.

I had to buy and assemble new shelving units and change the locks on the doors.

So, We've Moved!