The Latest and Loudest

Latest word from NaNoWriMo is that they are going to hit 90,000 participants this year. That’s a lot of people walking around feeling like they’ve got a novel in them.  For some of us, it’s like a gentle tug on the sleeve. For others, it’s like a bone in the throat.

Which are you?

Still not too late for you to join in the fun.

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A few weeks ago a friend hipped me to NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Every November, people from around the world try to write 50,000 words in 30 days. Works out to 1,667 words per day. I’d never heard of it before, but it is huge, with thousands of participants (nearly 70,000 in 2006), some of whom go on to be published, and even successful, fiction writers.

I’m excited about it because it suits my style–I tend to do better in bursts or sprints and worse in marathons. It’s one of the reasons why I try to create systems and processes for everything.

I’ve wanted to write a novel for a while (10 years) but could never quite get it together. So every year it nags at me. This year, I’m writing one or admitting that I’m NOT writing one–at least not this decade.

In an attempt to protect my fragile ego, I won’t be discussing the plot or posting excerpts. But I can tell you that it is a mystery/suspense novel set in Chicago and largely on the south side. Mostly in the Roseland and Pullman neighborhoods.

And that people get killed.

I may ask some of you for local stories or flavor to spice up the  book.

I’ll also be posting daily word counts on this blog, so you’ll know if I’m a doer or a talker. I’ve pretty much accepted that if I get more than a day or so behind in my daily average that this won’t happen.

We’ll see.

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So I just came back from the wedding of one of my wife’s best friends.  I loved the venue and the ceremony was beautiful.

My wife has been giddy with anticipation all week.  Gabrielle’s wedding has caused her to do a lot of reflecting on *our* wedding that was around this time last year.  Apparently, I’ve done okay as a husband.  And Tamika gets a grade of at least a “B” as a wife.

Just joking.

She is definitely a low “A”.  She’d get an A+, but last week she tried to sneak vegetables into the spaghetti sauce–broccoli in the marinara? Girl, I’m not 4 years old!.

Our best wishes to Anton and Gabrielle!

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Popular Mechanics has a list of 25 Things Every Man Should Know, and I basically know none of them. The only cool thing on that list that I *know* I can do is fix a dead outlet. And that’s only after deciding to fix a dead light switch at the house while Tamika was out visiting friends. (more…)

I’m a big fan of the book, Freakonomics. And I love the blog of the same name. Today they looked at a study that basically suggested that disadvantaged kids with religious parents were less affected by their circumstances than similar kids whose parents did not, faring better in “education, income, and (more…)

It’s not that I don’t understand Megabus when they say they sell tickets, say from Minneapolis to Chicago for $1.00. And yes, I know that the price can go up to about $20-30 depending on how soon in advance that you book. It’s just that it seems they would have the profit margin of that lady that used to sell you penny candy out of her house on your way to school–if that lady had to pay taxes and hire employees and maintain a license and have insurance and maintain a website and pay for gas and maintain a fleet.

I know that’s it’s already been a success in Scotland and that they are doing fine here. I just don’t see how. It reminds me of this Saturday Night Live skit:

Hello. Since the fact that I like talking about pretty much anything is well-documented, my friends and family will wonder what took me so long to finally put up a blog of my own. And my reason is pretty simple. I didn’t want to have a blog where I couldn’t speak my mind, but was concerned that speaking my mind might cause me trouble with my clients and partners. Look, I spend my days negotiating with buyers, sellers, and business partners that are, as a group, good, salt-of-the-earth people. And I am a respected real estate professional. People trust me with their money, their property, and their secrets. And I need that trust, that respect, to make my business run.

You see, in their minds, I am a smart, funny, straight-shooting, tragically good-looking, real estate prestidigitator, magically pulling profits out of run-down, poorly-managed, over-leveraged properties like some crazed technomage.

No, really. That’s how they think of me.

Will I lose some of that respect and trust (and let’s face it, awe) if they find out that I also sometimes play poker? Cuss a little? Drink a little?

I sure as hell hope not.

We’ll see.