Emergency funds....and schooling

Ok, so what exactly constitutes an emergency...?

So I have a little bit of cash set aside, not much, and certainly not the 6 months I'm supposed to have set aside, but how many people do, really? 

And I've been trying to get my kids more active in things, as they are not as physically fit as I'd like them to be. I mean, they are both in dance, and my younger one is in karate, but because of the nature of food today, most kids are not as healthy as they could be.

That being said, I was in Blockbuster of all places when I spotted it. A Wii Fit.  I've been keeping an eye out for months for one. They are very hard to find you know. I actually managed to walk away from it. I drove home. I talked with the wife. 

"It's not in the budget", we agreed.

"We shouldn't do it.", we agreed.

"We have an emergency fund", we agreed.

"There are impossible to find.", we agreed.

"We really want it.", we agreed.

"The kids need the exercise", we agreed.

I bought it.

It's a blast! That thing is SOO much fun! All four of us have our Mii's doing Yoga poses, and hula-hoops, and tightrope walking, and all kinds of things. 

Regrets? None now...I may have one if the car breaks down in the coming months, but right now we're doing good. :)

(P.s. The reason for delays in posts? School! Argh! It's kicking my butt. Last week I had one week to research and write a 3,000 word paper. Now this week I have to research and write ANOTHER one....Argh!  The end is near....March, I think. I'm waiting on the school to give me the exact class schedule.)

1500!

Ok, so "The Nephew" is not quite at 3,000...but I'm at 1500 and its time to send the story out to a few friends to see what they think and what parts need more description. Hopefully I get good feedback! :)

Goals....

So it's been about a week plus since I've posted, and I'm not completely up to par with my goal...but then, who is? We set a goal to shoot for the stars, and when we get the moon, we can still be quite happy with what we've accomplished.

Of course, I'm shooting for the whole dang milky way. ;)

Last week was our international convention at work, so I was occupied every single day with that, and when I wasn't there I was doing school-work. Tedious stuff, but kept be busy none-the-less.

the story progresses! Word count is 1446 and continuing...my goal is to get at least 3,000 before I submit it (hopefully by Oct 1st)

--Steven

"An author is a fool who, not content with boring those he lives with, insists on boring future generations." - Charles de Montesquieu

Creativity Ideas

Well, I didn't post yesterday, but I did write about three pages, so I can't feel too bad. Today, though, I've not written a darn thing. I wanted to stay up and write something tonite, but I'm simply too tired, and I know I have a long week ahead of me.

So, here is a creative idea that's been kicking around in the back of my head. When you're lookig for an idea for a story, try switching some familiar words around and see what you get.

Some examples:

a "Sprite Can", or a can of soda, could become a "Can Sprite", or a little fairly that lives in a bottle.

A "teddy bear", your favorite stuffed animal, becomes a "bear teddy", a frilly nightgown with paw prints all over it.

a "cell phone", your communication device, becomes a "phone cell", a jailhouse somehow centered around phones.

Just some ideas to help spark creativity.

New Dedication

Well, let's see if this blog still works. I've gotten back into writing in my "spare" time...ha ha ha ha...excuse me, 2008 here, ROTFLMA...and I figure the best way to get into it is to write every day, which means the days you don't see a post here, is a day I'm actually working on one of my writings. WOW, was that a run-on sentence, or WHAT?
Anyways, my first piece that I'm putting out there is going to be a submission for MorriganBooks, which is currently accepting applications for their new anthology. I've got a pretty decent story lined up so far, so I look forward to finishing it.
TTFN!

PS3 takes PS2 to a new level

So I'd given up on my PS2 games. I mean, I have a 42" plasma TV, I have to be honest here...when I plugged in myPS2 and started playing God of War, it just looked like crap. The game was meant for a regular TV, that simple.

But when using my PS3 with the HDMI cable, the system converts the signal to highdef, and so the images come out crystal clear even on the 42" tv. It looks *awesome*. The game is as beautiful as the day I first bought it more than a year ago...it's good enough that I'm willing to start it over from scratch to play again.

My only beef with it is that the screen has a reverse letterbox. There are two black stripes, one on the left, one on the right...but other than that, it's great.

Ps3 Movies

Ok, so the PS3 must be fairly user freindly. We picked up a blu-ray movie last night at blockbuster (yes, they were open on Xmas day), to test out the features of the ps3.

The wife called me at work today and I was able to walk her through how to turn on the ps3 and eject the game, insert the movie, and play the movie....so chalk one up for user-freindliness!

p.s. the movie itself, surfs-up, just seems like a normal movie so far. As I mentioned earlier, looking forward to getting that HDMI cable!