Yep.

Still undone.

Maybe tonight.

Well, probably not.

Despite being tired last night, I couldn’t get to sleep.

Which means I’m even more tired today.

Which in turn means I probably won’t be working on Chapter 11 tonight.

Plus, I have to get up early tomorrow for an early meeting.

Oh joy.

I didn’t touch Chapter 11 at all last night.

Had planned on it.

Thought about it.

But, in the end, I was just too tired yesterday to work on it, so I didn’t.

Maybe tonight.

In the meantime, I got hit with a trackback today on a post I had long forgotten.

Apparently Mike Goad is busy recovering some of his old blog posts and just re-posted one he initially posted four years ago, in which he linked to one of my then-recent posts: “Choices - Attitude - Planning” (Thanks again for the link, Mike!)

The post of mine he linked to was this one: “The Inner Map to Paradise Found”

And, it’s still worth a read if I do say so myself, which is okay for me to do, I think, because I didn’t even remember it until now.

That was from back in the days when I still posted some good stuff, instead of a lot of the nonsense I post now. Oddly enough, I get more traffic from the nonsense than I did from the good stuff. Go figure.

I finished Chapter 10 last night.

Of 33 total chapters.

Which means 23 chapters to go.

Chapter 10 will no doubt need a rewrite later. Well, several chapters will need a rewrite, but first I am focusing on finishing the whole thing. Then, I will go back and rewrite where needed.

Of course, if I get an idea in the meantime, I may go back and change a chapter, as I have been doing already. No major rewriting thus far; just making little tweaks here and there.

So far, the tenth chapter is the only one that feels a bit out of place. The gravity of the situation hasn’t (so far) leant itself to falling into the same amount of levity the earlier chapters had.

Not sure what to do about that. Maybe I’ll try to add some levity later.

Or keep it serious.

We’ll see.

Until then, on to Chapter 11!

I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned it recently or not, and I don’t feel like going to check, but I am making some progress on my novel.

It’s one I started many moons ago, back in the early 90s. Got through several drafts and gave up in frustration. At some point, I had outlined the whole novel from beginning to end, but never went back to finish it. Wound up getting stuck on things and not figuring out how to move it forward and whatnot.

Anyway, I picked it up again a few weeks ago and started working on it again. I began by entering all I had into the computer. I had some hand-written pages but most was on printouts from an old Apple IIe computer. I probably have it on disk, but don’t have a go-between to get it from the Apple IIe to a modern computer.

So, I re-typed it all in, following my notes as to what parts of what versions to use and editing as I went. Sometimes, I did some rewriting as well.

Last night, or rather way early this morning, I finished the ninth chapter. Well, technically, I finished chapter five, as chapters six through nine were already done.

So, now I will be moving on to chapter ten. Of thirty-three. Unless I find I need more as I write.

This is now the section of the novel where I have nothing written except for a synopsis of what happens in each chapter. Before, I had several chapters already written in multiple versions. I had done several rewrites as I struggled with POV and other issues.

Not sure if that’s going to make things easier or not, since I am essentially starting from scratch on each new chapter.

The light is on, but the answer remains unilluminated.

Yes. Indeed.

It is time for yet another lame post.

Don’t worry, though. It won’t be for much longer.

About twenty more days.

Until then, hmmm, what shall I say…

Okay. I got nothing. This post ends now.

I went to an outside event tonight.

It was a home show. Went through two homes, got bored and left.

The first home sold for $850,000. If I had $850,000, I would have bought a different house.

The second house was still for sale for about the same price. Again, I would have bought a different house.

At any rate, walking in, I overheard someone talking on their cell phone. They were telling their friend to bring a coat because “it’s cold outside.”

It was probably around 75° out.

I was out in a short sleeved shirt.

It was nice.

It certainly wasn’t cold.

We’ve probably all heard that Nero fiddled while Rome burned.

We use it as an analogy for political and business leaders.

While their business (or country) is falling apart, they do little or nothing about it.

It’s as if they don’t care. Like they want to see everything in ruin.

So, we say they are like Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

We think they are stupid or careless or incompetent.

While their business crashes, they do nothing. They play golf.

They fiddle while Rome burns.

But, few people remember (or know) why Nero was fiddling while Rome burned.

It wasn’t because he was incompetent.

It wasn’t because he was stupid.

It wasn’t because he was just nuts.

Okay, he might have been crazy, but that’s not why he was apparently fiddling while Rome burned.

You see, he had a plan.

He wanted Rome to burn.

He had a new Rome in mind that he wanted to build.

So, the old Rome had to be destroyed so the new Rome could be built.

So, Nero wanted Rome to burn.

Burn, baby, burn! is possibly the chorus to the song he was fiddling.

So, yes, Nero may have been crazy, but at least he had a plan.

He wasn’t fiddling because he was crazy. He was fiddling because he was seeing his plan begin to come to fruition.

So, ponder that the next time you want to compare someone to Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Are they really just thoughtless, or do they have an ulterior plan?

Also, there weren’t fiddles in Nero’s age. If anything, he played a lyre. Think on that too.

These were from a week and a half ago. I took it because there was an interesting cloud, which didn’t seem to appear in the final photo.

Oh, do you remember how last year I did a tongue-in-cheek blog post about how the TSA wants to search you and your car before you go to work in the morning?

You don’t?

Okay, here is the link for you:
“Government Announces New TSA-on-Call Service”

Well, that day may not be as far off as you might think (or hope).

Seriously.

Check out this article:
“Surprise! TSA Is Searching Your Car, Subway, Ferry, Bus, AND Plane”

The way things are going, one day public nudity may be a legal requirement rather than a misdemeanor. It’ll prevent your body from being bombarded by x-rays everywhere while making sure you’re unarmed.