Sharing book notes

At work, I've been assigned books to read as part of my professional development and am going through them like crazy. Seriously, crazy.

That'll probably slow down once I start my MBA classes, but for now, I'm reading tons of books. And while I was reading this last one, I had the brilliant idea of making a place where I can share my notes with the people I work with (who also have books they're reading), since I'm not going to talk about some of these as much as others and the less-talked about ones may help someone else way more than they help me.

I've kicked around the idea of putting those notes here to share with more than just the people at work, but that would also subject them to reading my rants on other topics. Not that I necessarily mind that. They might, though. The more I think about it, though, the more I'm thinking I'll just post them here. That'll hopefully get me back in the habit of posting things here.

I could clearly be persuaded that another solution would be better. If you've got an idea, let me know in the comments.

Photo by Flickr user eclecticlibrarian.

I've created a monster

If you've read Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, you know that the monster is way cooler than the one Boris Karloff played in the movies. The monster I created is more like the slow, ugly kind that I would rather not have around.

I reached my goal with the NaNoWriMo novel, but as I was writing the climax of the novel, I realized that I hate it. It's not a good story. I've decided that I'll finish it up and print a proof copy for myself, but no one else is going to read it. It'll sit on my bookshelf as a monument to the work I did and a reminder of what not to do in a novel. In the end of the story, I didn't care about any of the characters, there was no growth, no emotion and no change.

It ended up as a sad story, not because some tragedy befalls the characters, but sad because it was weak. I'm counting it as my own personal Plan 9 from Outer Space. The next one will be better.

It's good to see old friends

Tonight, two of my good friends came over and we got caught up with what we've been doing since we last got together and chatted. Daniel gave me some great feedback about one of my greatest weaknesses and gave me a way of overcoming it.

There are a couple of great things about what happened there. First of all, it was nice to get an honest, loving assessment of one of the reasons I'm not as savvy as I could be. Daniel's a very nice guy and tends to be far more complimentary of me than I deserve, so it was great to get some criticism. The other great thing is that my weakness is one of Daniel's strong points, so it was like getting a master class.

I'm clearly a bit leery about telling you what my weakness is, partly because I'm hoping I can take make it more of a strength before too many other people realize I have it.

There are very few things more valuable than people who love you enough to let you know why you suck. You can tell they love you when they help you find ways to fix it.

I still need glasses

On the 23rd, my glasses randomly broke neatly in half. They were irreparable. So I grabbed them and my vision insurance card and headed out the door in search of a new pair. I went to my usual place, but they couldn't fit me in for an exam. They very helpfully got me an appointment first thing the next morning at the store nearest my house. In my haste to get satisfaction even quicker, I went to Target Optical, you know, the little corner right when you walk in that has the glasses. They had an opening for an eye exam in about 20 minutes, which was much better for me than the next morning.

They were helpful and friendly, so when they said, "They should be done before the new year and I'll put a rush on them, since you're wandering around with your sunglasses on," it didn't bother me much. After wearing my prescription sunglasses around the office for a week and a half and going through Christmas with my prescription sunglasses on, I'm so ready to have actual glasses.

I've been calling periodically to make sure they were paying attention to my glasses and when the day rolled around that they should be done, I went to the store to pick them up.

They weren't there.

Instead, there were two employees who told me they got two of the three shipments they were supposed to have gotten today and there was no way for them to know where my glasses were and why they weren't in the store. The only thing their database told them was that my glasses weren't at the lab anymore--no indication of whether they failed inspection or were stuck on the truck or misplaced or what happened.to them. So I have to wear my prescription sunglasses for another weekend because Target's optical production sucks.

The moral of the story is that I should have stuck with my regular place. If I had, I would have only had to wait until the next morning for my glasses to be done. Instead, I'm going to be waiting for nearly two full weeks for a pair of glasses because Target hasn't figured it out yet.

My handwriting sucks

I haven't posted much recently because I'm deep in the middle of National Novel Writing Month. That's coming along alright, I suppose, but that's not what I want to write about now.

This last week, we were watching the old Miracle on 34th Street and I watched Maureen O'Hara add her little note on the little girl's letter to Santa. That's when I had a realization--my handwriting totally sucks. It's not bad, it's just that her penmanship was so much more fluid and beautifully legible than mine.

I think this next year, I want to work on my penmanship. That's what I wanted to share.

In the trenches

Hey there, ladies and gents. It's the middle of National Novel Writing Month and I'm about in the middle of writing my newest novel. I've decided I hate most of the characters' names, but I'm pressing on with the ones I've got. Names can come later. If you're into robot fights and Abraham Lincoln, you may just like this book. I'm not particularly thrilled with it at the moment, but that's probably because I'm in the middle of grinding away on it. I seem to have no problem writing down enough words but I'm not excited about the story itself. Right now, I'm thinking that I'm most excited to just be done with it. I'll catch you up in a bit.

Help me figure this out

I'm getting ready to start NaNoWriMo in a few days and I've got an idea, but I'm having trouble figuring something out. It's a detail, really, but could end up being a good chunk of the novel. Help me answer this question.

Why would a woman get her breasts done that has nothing to do with being in an adult industry? And don't say "Because she wants to." There needs to be an actual reason for it.

Let me know what you think, all 1 of you reading this.