Hi to all,
Well, I'm back, in more ways than one. (AND I CAN'T USE THE SMILIES, WTF???) -I'll try this: :-)
Since I didn't want to be a constant bearer of distressing newsbits, I'd been kind of avoiding bringing it up here (too often, anyway), but my "situation," dating back to March of '08, has finally resolved itself. Mostly. The house/property is being sold *knock wood* and a short-sale being worked out with the Bank, but I vacated the premises a couple of weeks ago and have moved back to California. Ever since finishing the final drafts of the novel I'd been missing my family and friends, whom I'd moved away from in 2001 in order to get my work done in peace and solitude. Now that my Mission is complete, I can finally resume my relationships in and with the area where I was meant to be. Except that I've once again landed in an city where I have no job, and where unemployment is over 15%. And rated one of the worst areas in the country to live :-O
Oh well, what can ya do except roll with the punches? I was fortunate in being offered this space to stay by the brother of one of my highschool buddies, otherwise I'd still be up in the Northwest trying to avoid the poorhouse. So cramped in there, donchaknow! But given my minimum-pay job with diminishing hours, finding an affordable place was not going to be in the cards; I tried. Constantly. Looking at the Big Picture I decided to take him up on his offer and return to everyone and everything, and it's nice to be back. True, it's ninety miles away and practically oven-like in comparison to San Francisco (103 degrees today!) but it's a nice enough neighborhood, quiet, and I still have a nice canopy of stars to gaze at at night. So, I'm (relatively) content, and very grateful :-D
I really shouldn't go into the details as they're pretty depressing, and I need to move past that; ever since last year it's been a constant grind of one thing or another. Time to move on! I really do keep the faith that I'm on The Right Path and that what I need will be provided for me, as it has ever since I began writing the novel in earnest. So this game still needs to be played out ;-)
Getting Unbound published is still my Number One priority, but I do need to make sure I can pay my bills, eat, provide for Pennie, and all that beforehand so that I am able to. Otherwise... well, let's not go there LOL
So in the meantime I dropped out from pretty much all Forum activities across the board, except for an anime forum that's been particularly supportive (not that this one hasn't by any means!). Really, anime has been the only form of escape and/or entertainment sufficient enough to distract me from my troubles, and has also given me much in the way of very rewarding stories to involve myself with. I consider it the second-most important discovery in my life, behind Kate. But realizing that it's generally a hard sell to those unused to it, or assume that it's "all kiddie stuff," I'll leave it at that. There are a few clips in my profile though for the curious ;-)
I've been somewhat more dilligent in keeping my Blog (Alastor's Reflection) up-to-date, but not by much. Some days I just didn't feel like writing, especially as nothing was changing or of good enough general interest. So weeks went by where I wouldn't post anything at all. Like I said, "somewhat". It's hard to keep it novel-centric when nothing is going on with its progress toward publication, but I do use it to keep both Unbound and Lily in the public's eye, and the Lily-doll has ensured that those eyes do keep popping in, and from all over the world, quite literally! You wouldn't believe where some of the hits are coming from LOL But publicity is good ;-)
One stroke of good fortune was that I met a young woman, an ex (ball-jointed) doll-forum member who remembered me and who one day saw my Blog post about eventually upgrading my website (unbound.org) to make it more professional and agent/publisher friendly. Being a web-designer, she offered to redesign the novel-related pages of the site, and split it off from the remainder of it in order to make it solely for promoting the book toward the Industry and Readers, leaving the remainder for my hobbies, personal pages, and so on, as a separate sub-domain. She also offered me free web-hosting to facilitate this, which, given my precarious financial picture, is of great help, since she gave me 2 gigs of storage/usage space, as opposed to my former 200 megabytes. Now, that's some difference! So, she's working on that now. Angels come in all shapes and sizes, and I believe that nearly everyone we meet, we meet for a Purpose... angel or not!
Oh, and her middle name is... (wait for it!) "Ariel"! :-O (Aside from the Kate semi-reference, Ariel is a character in Unbound.)
Signposts on The Road, for this Fool's Journey down the mountain ;-)
A more recent interesting and enjoyable little incident: Just before I got in the moving truck to move myself back, I got a call from Ron Nevison, producer and/or engineer for such musical milestones as Quadrophenia and many more gems (and yes, I am truly quadrophenic LOL). Weeks before I'd left an email at his site expressing thanks for his Work and also regret that we'd not gotten a chance to get together to chat. I realize that I'm telling this story backwards but I don't want to make this overly-long (LOLYEAHRIGHT).
I've told the story here before about meeting as a teenager a French girl named Cathy who'd introduced me to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Burdon, Buddy Miles and others; well, her daughter, whom I stroked while she was still in her mother's womb, got in touch with me after I encountered Cathy's brother out of the blue while living up North, and who told her we'd been searching for her ("we" meaning other highschool friends, including the guy I'm currently living with). Michelle, now known as "J.T." was anxious to get together and reminisce about her mom and those exciting times, as I was, and when discovering my musical interests had invited me over to her house, where she was living with Ron (he also designed Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio, and Ronnie is one of my biggest faves). Unfortunately due to all the stress and drama in my life (hmm, "sturm und drang" anyone?), we never got the chance to meet up. And after weeks had passed after leaving that email, I was very happy to hear from him since I'd thought that he'd just ignored it. I don't handle a lack-of-response/reply very well. So he said to give him a call after I get settled so that we can chat, and also gave me J.T.'s number as well, which I'd misplaced. So that set me off on the road back to civilization on a very positive note, although it was one moving away from them...
Well. That wasn't so short after all, was it? SORRY!
So, I won't tell you what a gawdawful move it was (damn, I'm really missing my smilies :-( ) (Hopefully these text-typed ones will work!) Imagine if you will having to load your own rental truck, a 24-foot diesel-fueled monster, with a 3-bedroom house full of Stuff, and driving it over the mountains separating Oregon and California (and only able to muster 35mph over them), to an unknown destination 902 miles away. Man... Worst. Move. Ever.
You might notice that I've replaced my avatar; my old one of the satellite dish (or AERIAL) was stored on my former ISP who I've severed ties with, along with my saved photos there. Oops. There goes my hideous self-photo which I've always hated. Looks like I owe you a new one! Interestingly enough, I'd signed the papers for the house I've just moved from in mid-August of '05, and the dish was one of the little oddities that had caught my fancy. Upon my return home I came to the Homeground Forum's chatroom to discover at least 15 people there all excited about a pending Kate-announcement. I remember that morning clearly; it was at 7:30AM or so. I wonder how many of you were in there? :-D Turns out it was the annunciation of Kate's next album, entitled... "Aerial"! Ooo-oo, tinglies!
So, I've replaced it with a picture of a lily; hopefully I'll have an announcement of my own to make in coming days/weeks/months :-D
I've also retired my sig from Kate's "The Coral Room"; I'd gotten quite attached to it but with this move I felt it was time for a change... because It Is!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you all are well. Given the Times and the Situation, it's best if we can try to keep positive, and hope for a change for the better ;-)
Be seeing you :-D
Love, Peace, and Happiness to you and to yours,
~Rob
Well, I'm back, in more ways than one. (AND I CAN'T USE THE SMILIES, WTF???) -I'll try this: :-)
Since I didn't want to be a constant bearer of distressing newsbits, I'd been kind of avoiding bringing it up here (too often, anyway), but my "situation," dating back to March of '08, has finally resolved itself. Mostly. The house/property is being sold *knock wood* and a short-sale being worked out with the Bank, but I vacated the premises a couple of weeks ago and have moved back to California. Ever since finishing the final drafts of the novel I'd been missing my family and friends, whom I'd moved away from in 2001 in order to get my work done in peace and solitude. Now that my Mission is complete, I can finally resume my relationships in and with the area where I was meant to be. Except that I've once again landed in an city where I have no job, and where unemployment is over 15%. And rated one of the worst areas in the country to live :-O
Oh well, what can ya do except roll with the punches? I was fortunate in being offered this space to stay by the brother of one of my highschool buddies, otherwise I'd still be up in the Northwest trying to avoid the poorhouse. So cramped in there, donchaknow! But given my minimum-pay job with diminishing hours, finding an affordable place was not going to be in the cards; I tried. Constantly. Looking at the Big Picture I decided to take him up on his offer and return to everyone and everything, and it's nice to be back. True, it's ninety miles away and practically oven-like in comparison to San Francisco (103 degrees today!) but it's a nice enough neighborhood, quiet, and I still have a nice canopy of stars to gaze at at night. So, I'm (relatively) content, and very grateful :-D
I really shouldn't go into the details as they're pretty depressing, and I need to move past that; ever since last year it's been a constant grind of one thing or another. Time to move on! I really do keep the faith that I'm on The Right Path and that what I need will be provided for me, as it has ever since I began writing the novel in earnest. So this game still needs to be played out ;-)
Getting Unbound published is still my Number One priority, but I do need to make sure I can pay my bills, eat, provide for Pennie, and all that beforehand so that I am able to. Otherwise... well, let's not go there LOL
So in the meantime I dropped out from pretty much all Forum activities across the board, except for an anime forum that's been particularly supportive (not that this one hasn't by any means!). Really, anime has been the only form of escape and/or entertainment sufficient enough to distract me from my troubles, and has also given me much in the way of very rewarding stories to involve myself with. I consider it the second-most important discovery in my life, behind Kate. But realizing that it's generally a hard sell to those unused to it, or assume that it's "all kiddie stuff," I'll leave it at that. There are a few clips in my profile though for the curious ;-)
I've been somewhat more dilligent in keeping my Blog (Alastor's Reflection) up-to-date, but not by much. Some days I just didn't feel like writing, especially as nothing was changing or of good enough general interest. So weeks went by where I wouldn't post anything at all. Like I said, "somewhat". It's hard to keep it novel-centric when nothing is going on with its progress toward publication, but I do use it to keep both Unbound and Lily in the public's eye, and the Lily-doll has ensured that those eyes do keep popping in, and from all over the world, quite literally! You wouldn't believe where some of the hits are coming from LOL But publicity is good ;-)
One stroke of good fortune was that I met a young woman, an ex (ball-jointed) doll-forum member who remembered me and who one day saw my Blog post about eventually upgrading my website (unbound.org) to make it more professional and agent/publisher friendly. Being a web-designer, she offered to redesign the novel-related pages of the site, and split it off from the remainder of it in order to make it solely for promoting the book toward the Industry and Readers, leaving the remainder for my hobbies, personal pages, and so on, as a separate sub-domain. She also offered me free web-hosting to facilitate this, which, given my precarious financial picture, is of great help, since she gave me 2 gigs of storage/usage space, as opposed to my former 200 megabytes. Now, that's some difference! So, she's working on that now. Angels come in all shapes and sizes, and I believe that nearly everyone we meet, we meet for a Purpose... angel or not!
Oh, and her middle name is... (wait for it!) "Ariel"! :-O (Aside from the Kate semi-reference, Ariel is a character in Unbound.)
Signposts on The Road, for this Fool's Journey down the mountain ;-)
A more recent interesting and enjoyable little incident: Just before I got in the moving truck to move myself back, I got a call from Ron Nevison, producer and/or engineer for such musical milestones as Quadrophenia and many more gems (and yes, I am truly quadrophenic LOL). Weeks before I'd left an email at his site expressing thanks for his Work and also regret that we'd not gotten a chance to get together to chat. I realize that I'm telling this story backwards but I don't want to make this overly-long (LOLYEAHRIGHT).
I've told the story here before about meeting as a teenager a French girl named Cathy who'd introduced me to Jimi Hendrix, Eric Burdon, Buddy Miles and others; well, her daughter, whom I stroked while she was still in her mother's womb, got in touch with me after I encountered Cathy's brother out of the blue while living up North, and who told her we'd been searching for her ("we" meaning other highschool friends, including the guy I'm currently living with). Michelle, now known as "J.T." was anxious to get together and reminisce about her mom and those exciting times, as I was, and when discovering my musical interests had invited me over to her house, where she was living with Ron (he also designed Ronnie Lane's Mobile Studio, and Ronnie is one of my biggest faves). Unfortunately due to all the stress and drama in my life (hmm, "sturm und drang" anyone?), we never got the chance to meet up. And after weeks had passed after leaving that email, I was very happy to hear from him since I'd thought that he'd just ignored it. I don't handle a lack-of-response/reply very well. So he said to give him a call after I get settled so that we can chat, and also gave me J.T.'s number as well, which I'd misplaced. So that set me off on the road back to civilization on a very positive note, although it was one moving away from them...
Well. That wasn't so short after all, was it? SORRY!
So, I won't tell you what a gawdawful move it was (damn, I'm really missing my smilies :-( ) (Hopefully these text-typed ones will work!) Imagine if you will having to load your own rental truck, a 24-foot diesel-fueled monster, with a 3-bedroom house full of Stuff, and driving it over the mountains separating Oregon and California (and only able to muster 35mph over them), to an unknown destination 902 miles away. Man... Worst. Move. Ever.
You might notice that I've replaced my avatar; my old one of the satellite dish (or AERIAL) was stored on my former ISP who I've severed ties with, along with my saved photos there. Oops. There goes my hideous self-photo which I've always hated. Looks like I owe you a new one! Interestingly enough, I'd signed the papers for the house I've just moved from in mid-August of '05, and the dish was one of the little oddities that had caught my fancy. Upon my return home I came to the Homeground Forum's chatroom to discover at least 15 people there all excited about a pending Kate-announcement. I remember that morning clearly; it was at 7:30AM or so. I wonder how many of you were in there? :-D Turns out it was the annunciation of Kate's next album, entitled... "Aerial"! Ooo-oo, tinglies!
So, I've replaced it with a picture of a lily; hopefully I'll have an announcement of my own to make in coming days/weeks/months :-D
I've also retired my sig from Kate's "The Coral Room"; I'd gotten quite attached to it but with this move I felt it was time for a change... because It Is!
Thanks for reading, and I hope you all are well. Given the Times and the Situation, it's best if we can try to keep positive, and hope for a change for the better ;-)
Be seeing you :-D
Love, Peace, and Happiness to you and to yours,
~Rob
. Now I can't highlight text with any accuracy, sometimes it will,
sometimes not but never what I'm trying to highlight!
(What happened was that another guy hired at work around the same time I was, who was a
Mormon, sent a couple of his associates around. They didn't move me, or convert me, but they did give me a Book Of Mormon, which in fact I did read, and
still have. (I'll say this: It was much more interesting than 