My palm pilot died

My palm pilot died on me last week. It was a horrible crash. It just went into an endless cycle of fatal exceptions, even after doing a hard reset. I've had this device for, I don't know, maybe three years. I wrote most of the scenes for Mission: Dawn using this little machine. I would carry it with me everywhere I went, and I feel unorganized without it. What if I get a killer idea when I'm in the washroom and I have nowhere to write it down? I have to rely on my own memory now to keep track of my appointments. This is no good. I have been without a functioning palm pilot for over a week now and this just won't do. It has got to stop.

Palm has a new device called a LifeDrive. It's not a PDA (personal digital assistant), it's a mobile manager. What does that mean? I think it means it costs more and is slightly bigger than a PDA. It has a feature I want though, a built in voice memo recorder. That's for taking voice notes when I get my killer ideas while I'm driving in my car. I've been to Grand & Toy and I've been to The Source but have not yet seen a demo model. I went to Best Buy - they said their demo model was stolen. Stolen? I thought they had those things tied down with a steel cable and bolted to the display desk!

Planning my Great Escape

I've given some thought to what I want to do next with my song, The Great Escape. J has suggested that I post a version in which I've re-recorded the vocals. I've decided not to do that, and instead to stay with my original plan which was to post an instrumental version.

By posting an instrumental version to GarageBand.com, I am asking for the listeners to review my song on its merits as a composition. If I were to post a version with new vocals, it would like I'm asking to be reviewed on the basis of how much have my vocals improved, and that is not what I want to do at this time.

I've listened to an instrumental mix that I had recorded several years ago to get an idea for its suitability for posting to GarageBand.com. Overall I think it's pretty good, but there are a few areas where I think it needs some fills - some percussion, and maybe an additional guitar layer to bring out the melody.

What my next steps would be - set aside a budget for studio fees and schedule a session or two.

What's next?

The stresses ofthe past couple of weeks that led to the closing of the sale of my house have caught up with me. This week I have been feeling totally exhausted and, I'm sure, unbearable to be around.

Now that the sale of my house is out of the way, I've been asking myself what is my next big challenge?

I think it is time to get back to what I was doing with GarageBand.com and post another song for review. As I wrote in October, I'd like to post a song I wrote called The Great Escape. (See GarageBand.com - next step) Lyrically, this song is about exchanging a life of dreariness, duties, responsibilities and empty materialism for a life with adventure, creativity, exploration and passion.

I've been considering posting an instrumental version of this song. J, on the other hand, thinks I should just re-record the vocals - she says my singing voice has improved since I made the original recording.

I'll have to think about that and decide which way I want to go.

Closing

I finally closed on the sale of my house this week. The buyers took possession of the house and I took possession of their money. I was in there several times this week doing some last minute clean up. I felt sad as I prepared to leave the house for the last time - it was the first house I'd bought and I'd lived in it for eight of the nine years that I owned it, so there were a lot of memories, good and bad, associated with it. However, this is an opportunity for me to leave behind the ghosts of my past and to get ready for the next phase of my life.

Jump starting Mission: Dawn Chapter 2

It's been bothering me that I haven't posted any new scenes to my Mission: Dawn blog since September. I've been working on a scene called Celebration and I've made some headway in the past couple of weeks, although it still isn't where I want it to be. In order to keep my momentum and motivation going, I've decided to split the scene into two parts. I've posted what I have so far as Celebration - Part 1.

I have some notes that I've made during one of my writing blitz exercises about what is going to happen next in the story. I'll be using those notes as the basis for Celebration - Part 2.

I had been hoping that I'd be able to write Chapter 2 in 2 to 3 months. It's now been about 6 months since I've started it. Grrrrr.

Tony Robbins and duct tape

I've been listening to a Tony Robbins CD about driving forces. Tony Robbins defines six forces that are supposed to drive human behaviour.

Two of his six forces are those that TR calls uncertainty and uncertainty. According to TR, it is a paradox of human behaviour that people are motivated by certainty as well as uncertainty. His claim is that people want a degree of certainty (they're going to eat, have a roof over their head, be able to pay the bills) but if they are saturated with certainty it leads to boredom - hence they create uncertainty.

What TR calls uncertainty is what I call security and what he calls uncertainty is what I call variety.

I find that being involved in real estate creates a lot of variety. One day it's roll up your sleeves and get dirty, physical work, get on your hands and knees and poke your head into a dark and dusty hole in the basement because you're trying to fix something. The next day it's city hall, going through bureaucracy to get a licence or permit for something, or to make a property tax payment.

One day you're dealing with duct tape; the next day you're dealing with red tape.

Writing the next paragraph

My novel-in-progress, Mission: Dawn, has once again stalled. It is now six months since I started Chapter 2. I had a good roll in the summer when I completed several scenes, but work and real estate seem to be in the way of regular writing.

I've been working on a scene called Celebration. I actually got stuck for a while with this scene. I had a general idea for this scene but the details just weren't coming to me.

One technique I use when I am stuck but want to keep moving forward is what I call the next paragraph. What I do is quickly review the last scene I've written and then tell myself to write the next paragraph. If I'm really stuck then I tell myself to just write the next sentence, or line of dialog. If I can discipline myself to do this process once a day and actually write it, then after about three days I'll get back into a flow and the story just starts coming to me.

Months are flying by

The months are flying by at an incredible pace these days.

My house is sold and the buyer has waived all conditions. I need to get the rest of my belongings out of there before closing date, which is less than three weeks away. I also need to send some documents to the lawyer I am using for this transaction, and I need to look for some documents to send to my agent.

There are some issues that have come up that I need to deal with in regards to another rental property - I had let certain things slide there and as a result I have a bit of a mess to clean up.

On top of all this, I started a new work assignment last week. It is with the same client I worked for in the spring. One of the upsides of being at this client site is that I have started doing the stairs again.