NaNoWriMo begins
Oh yes, it has begun. NaNoWriMo. I’m trying to write another novel this year, people. Wish me luck. This year’s NaNoWriMo will be especialy funtastic as I start while up in Boston on a biz trip and have at least one trip to San Diego in the middle of the month as well as one trip to a con. It’s also likely that I’ll be sent on another trip or two to San Francisco or elsewhere somewhere in the month. Disruptions! They are challenges as I write towards my goal of 50,000 words o

Adventures in Sourdough
I have childhood memories of my mom keeping Friendship bread around the house.  I remember stories in Jack London’s books about men who used sourdough to make their bread, up in Alaska during the gold rush. My much-loved Laura Ingalls Wilder books mentioned sourdough biscuits and how Ma used to keep the sourdough starter behind the big stove. I also love sourdough bread, rolls and biscuits. Very tasty, especially fresh from the oven with good butter all melty on top. My lil sis has been trying to get sourdough started for a while now too – to make the bread for her husband. She loves bread the way I do, probably knows more about bread than I do too. She’

People on Keys
Now this was just a fun way to get people to exert a little more effort: Nifty experiment. Gah, I should go back and practice on my piano more. I was for a while, then faded out and really should get back into the habit. Magsaysay actually asked me last time he was up if the piano was just for show. It really isn’t that, it’s just that when I’m not using it, I’m careful to close the cover so that pet hair doesn’t get all over the keys.

Call in the EcoGoats
I first saw a story about these guys on tv – sort of a little news spot while I was doing work in the hotel earlier this week. I then saw them featured on a photography blog as the photographer talked about photographing these goats as they worked. I figured it was a sign and I wanted to learn a little more about them. A lot of roadsides, streams and other areas get so overgrown with invasive vegetation that must be cleared every once in a while to prevent native trees and shrubs from being strangled right out of the area. Frequently the invasive growth is foreign in nature and has no natural limitation, so it grows rampantly uncontrolled. Native plant life doesn’t hav

What do you do at these things?
Occasionally, I hold a gaming weekend where friends descend on Friday night and stay to Sunday. Often, people who’ve never been a part of such a weekend ask, What do you do? Lots of stuff. Generally, we play games. Rock Band and DDR are popular fun times. MarioKart and various fighter games are played. Recently, we had no less than two PS3 systems, an XBox 360, two PS2 systems, a Wii and several DSi’s or DS Lights. Heck, board games come out too and there was a long Descent session held. Here’s an example of the general miscellan