clicky ink-sticks.

With all the fountain pen advocacy on this blog, some may be surprised to learn that <gasp> I don’t always use fountain pens for writing. In some situations, they’re not the best tools for the job. When I take the kids to the playground, for example, I don’t want to bring along a $100 pen with a screw cap–you need two hands to open it, and there’s always the possibility of a lost or stolen pen.

What, then, does the fountain pen guy use when he’s not using a fountain pen?

I’m a fan of these:

That’s the Pilot G2 gel ink pen. The two in front are the metal-barreled G2 Limited version in charcoal and champagne colors, and the one in the back is a standard plastic G2 in blue.

It’s not a fountain pen, but in all honesty, it writes almost as well as one. It also has the advantage of being cheap. The standard model is about $2 in most places, and even the much more expensive-looking Limited can be had for right around $10. The best thing about them is that the refills come in four point sizes and are available just about everywhere. Even my local pharmacy carries them. I like the standard “fine” 0.7mm point for my notebooks, and the “broad” 1.0mm for loose-leaf paper. On occasion, I also use the “ultra-fine” 0.38mm. The pens and refills come in a dozen or more different colors, and the gel ink is smooth and fairly durable.

Unlike a fountain pen, the G2 can be opened and closed with one hand, which is convenient when you do the kind of stop-and-go writing I practice during the day. If you can’t or don’t want to write with a fountain pen, the G2 gel pens are a pretty good alternative–not quite as good as a smooth fountain pen nib, but much better than any ballpoint pen, and less of a hassle to maintain than a fountain pen. They’re great little workhorses, and I always have a few of them on my desk.

sick sad world, part LXIV.

Of all the dumb and pointless shit that people can do to each other, beating someone into a coma for wearing the shirt of the wrong sports team has got to be one of the dumbest.

I’m beginning to suspect that a majority of the violent strife in the world is committed by males in the 16-40 age group who get a little too drunk on tribalism. Sports team allegiance is just one of many adapters for the widespread urge to go to war with The Others.

a hanoi jane for the 21st century.

Good to know that Cynthia McKinney is still a.) bugfuck nuts, and b.) totally against everything the United States does anywhere, at any time, for any reason.

I suppose I should also add c.) drawn to cameras like a fly to cow flops.

The scary part is that once upon a time she was considered the best choice by her constituents to represent them in the House of Representatives. If anyone still wonders why we’re being governed by successive generations of clueless assclowns, a long hard look in the mirror may be in order.

Disclaimer: I have my issues with our government lobbing expensive cruise missiles at some tinpot dictator’s troops in an internal civil war, but I damn sure wouldn’t voice those concerns in propaganda broadcasts designed to boost the tinpot dictator’s standing. You wash your dirty undies at home, not in someone else’s living room while cameras are rolling.

the great standing desk experiment.

I’m on Day Six of the Great Standing Desk Experiment. My back is holding up fine. My legs, particularly my calves, are a bit sore in the evenings, but I can already tell they’ve mostly adjusted to the new setup. I’m now at the point where I want something a little more professional-looking than a coffee table put on top of a regular desk, but everything I can find online is priced like distilled unicorn tears.

I’ve modified the layout a bit. Since I no longer have to be in the dead center of the desk to make my legs fit underneath, I shifted the computer all the way to the left. This frees up a bunch of contiguous space on the right for longhand writing, which is how I usually do my drafts.

Working on my feet all day has been an interesting change. I move around more, shift my weight from leg to leg, and frequently step away from the desk to pace a few steps. It feels more dynamic, for lack of a better word. I’m also more alert, because standing in front of the computer doesn’t lend itself to zoning out. No more Slouchy McSloucherson just mindlessly clicking on stuff because he’s planted and doesn’t have an excuse to get up and move a bit. From an energy and productivity level, it’s been a big gain–I feel less tired, and waste less time.

Now, I won’t lie: the first day or two were a bit rough. It’s not that my body couldn’t take it–it’s like my brain was rebelling at the sudden change in habits and wanting to force me back into the chair. After a few hours on my feet, the desire was strong to just say “screw it” and go back to the old, familiar sitting position. That’s what tripped me up the last time I tried this, but this time I was resolved to just stick with it, for the sake of my lower back.

Now I’m at the point where I want to make the change permanent, but I definitely need a more suitable setup than a $25 coffee table. Yeah, the Amish make some awesome standing desks, but I can’t afford to drop a grand or more on a piece of furniture right now, so something a little more economical will have to do. At least until I sell my SPACE KABLOOIE tetralogy for a hojilion dollar advance, anyway, at which point I’ll build myself a modular standing desk out of gold ingots, with wrist rests made of ermine fur.

sale: “ink and blood”.

I just sold my first piece of fiction. It’s a short story called “Ink and Blood”, and it went to a professional, SFWA-qualifying market.  (I’ll share the details as soon as I can.)

Of all the stories I have out on submission right now, I like this one the best, and I’m glad someone else likes it enough to put their money on it. It’s an alternate history fantasy story set in an odd version of late 19th century Germany. I’ll let you all know when and where you can read it, and I hope you will.

Hey, maybe I’ll get the hang of this writing business yet…

standing desk, attempt the second.

In a previous professional life, I was a help desk guy and then a systems administrator. With minor exceptions, that means I’ve had a desk job for the last sixteen years. I’ve probably spent six hours or more in a chair almost every day since 1996.

Well, it turns out that the body isn’t really made for sitting in a chair all day long, and my body has increasingly made it clear to me that I’m not treating it with the care it needs to get me through the next twenty or thirty years without regular applications of anti-inflammatory drugs and cortisone injections. If pain is nature’s way of saying “You’re Doing It Wrong”, then I’m doing it Very Wrong, Indeed. I’ve had recurring sciatica episodes since at least 1999, but they’ve increased in severity, so when the last (thankfully brief) episode tapered off last week, I figured it was high time to take firm measures, lest I find myself walking on a crutch by the time I hit 50. I can’t change what I do–writing and wrangling kids around the house–but I am certainly able to change the way I’m doing it.

At the follow-up visit with my doctor last week, I requested a referral to a Physical Therapist, discussed a bunch of options, and had her show me exercises and such. Then I went to modify my work space arrangement, to keep myself from sitting at a desk most of the day and relapsing back into the same issues every ten or twelve months.

I’ve tried the standing desk setup for a day, but took it down again because my feet were getting too tired–and, truth be told, because we do what’s comfortable and familiar, and go back to the old ways as soon as we have an excuse. This time, I wanted to make sure that cheating would be more difficult. They make lovely hydraulic desks that change from sitting to standing height at the press of a button, but knowing myself, I’d use it as a sitting desk 90% of the time if adjusting it is as easy as flicking a switch. So I moved the sitting chair out of the room altogether, put a cheap coffee table from the WalMarts on top of my regular desk, and put a bar stool in front of it, to have a place to perch my derriere when my feet start aching. I used a monitor riser to boost the screen to eye level, and a footstool underneath the desk to change leg positions as needed.

It’s not pretty, but it works for now:

Eventually, I want to get a dedicated, purpose-built standing desk that doesn’t look cobbled together, but until I fully get used to the arrangement, the coffee table trick will have to do.

I spent all day working in front of the standing desk yesterday, including the customary evening World of Warcraft session with the wife. When everyone went to bed, I kept on working some more. The key to the new setup is the little bar stool–it gives me a place to sit down for a moment to take the load off my feet occasionally, but it doesn’t invite slumping onto it and just vegging in front of the monitor. After thirty seconds or so on the stool, I find that I actually want to get up and move again.

So far, I’ve identified two major differences in the standing desk’s favor. One is the ability to move around in front of the desk. You shift the weight on your legs, you can take an easy step back from the desk, you can walk away easily altogether and pace as you think something through–the standing desk feels a lot more liberating from a movement perspective. The second difference is more of a mindset thing. When I sit down in a regular chair, there’s a certain inertia that makes me want to stay there, and getting out of the chair is a bit of a hassle. Also, sitting and looking at the screen is passive to the point of trance sometimes, to the point where you end up sitting and clicking on stuff just because you’re sitting down. With the standing desk, there’s no effort involved in stepping away from the screen, so you do it more often and with less inertia.

I’m going to give this setup a week or two and see how it goes. I’m on Day Two now, and the feet are like “WTF?” on occasion, but my back is holding up fine. I’m definitely moving around much more, and it doesn’t feel like I’m just sitting down to get sucked into the Intertubes for hours. If my body finds that it prefers the standing desk, I’ll look at buying a permanent solution that doesn’t look like, well, a WalMart coffee table on an old desk. Stay tuned for more exciting tales from the ergonomics front…

brief dispatch from castle frostbite.

This fellow has been loitering around the Castle in the wee hours of the morning lately. Today, he showed up in broad daylight for the first time, and I grabbed the camera for a quick shot in passing through the kitchen window. He’s big enough that I first mistook him for a coyote at a distance and in low light, but I’m pretty sure he’s a large-ish gray fox.

(Click for bigger pics.)

Everything’s fine here in Upper Cryogenica. My back issue resolved itself over the weekend, and I’ve been enjoying some extended time with the family, with the wife mostly home for the week. We’ve been doing stuff around the house, museum trips, and other stuff we never seem to get around to in a regular week. I haven’t done much online, and I’m almost a week behind on the writing work, but sometimes you just have to put on the brakes and slow things down a bit.

Tonight, we’re having friends over for dinner, and on Friday, we’re having a birthday party for Miss Lyra, who will be four years old on the 15th. On Monday, we’ll be back to the regular school/work/writing schedule, but until then, I’m letting things run in low gear for a bit longer around here. I’m just extremely glad not to be flat on my back on the bed in the office, like I was last year when my sciatica last made a visit.

stupid spinal column.

Yesterday, your dumbass correspondent bent over at the waist to pick up something on the bedroom floor, and promptly zapped his lower back again. Instead of going out for his Dadcation in the afternoon, he had to make an emergency appointment with the doctor for some Prednisone and pain meds.

This morning, things were sore, but relatively pain-free. I don’t know if that’s because of the early dose of anti-inflammatory drugs, or because I tried to stay on my feet instead of lying down when the back pain started, but I’m not walking with a crutch and howling like a timber wolf like I did on Day Two of the last sciatica episode. That one took me out of commission for the better part of the month, and it was a truly miserable time.

Back pain sucks, friends and neighbors. I advise you to have nothing to do with it whatsoever if you can help it at all.

Now we’re off to see some friends for steaks and drinks, which on the whole is a much better way to spend an afternoon than lying on one’s side while being doped up on Dilaudid…

on the road again, and (another) ode to the minivan.

Last Saturday, I drove for ten hours to deliver a dog down to southern Connecticut. Today, I get to do the drive again, to pick her up from her Week of Loooove.

Yes, I will have the kids with me.

Let’s just say that this week’s Dadcation (which will take place either Friday afternoon or Saturday morning) will be particularly well-deserved.

The Grand Marnier is now in its sixth year–we got in in December 2005. (Hey, I blogged about it back then…revered excrement, I’ve been doing this Interblogs thingie for a while, haven’t I?) In its five and a half years, it has been almost entirely trouble-free, which is undoubtedly attributable to the fact that we purchased the 70k miles extended warranty. Other than regular wear-and-tear items like brakes and such, it has needed no parts replaced other than a passenger side window motor (under warranty) and a tailgate latch pressure switch. Six months ago, it carried us all the way down to South Carolina in our Epic Family Vacation and Family Visit without a hiccup.

Now, a lot of guys knock minivans, but I wouldn’t want to make a trip of that length with anything but a Grand Caravan or similar vehicle. We had enough luggage for two adults and two kids, a ton of wedding and family presents, and provisions…and not only did everything fit into the cargo compartment behind the third row seat, but we still had the third row available for taking naps, changing diapers, and so on. We also had enough space to hang up the fancy wedding clothes in their garment bags so they’d arrive wrinkle-free. The sliding doors make it easy to load and unload little kids in crowded rest stop parking lots, and the seats are comfy and offer lots of leg space in every row, even for people who are six feet plus.

In everyday utility use, the folding seats are incredibly handy, because you can switch the seating configuration around as needed, turning the van from a seven-seat minibus into a two-seat cargo hauler “pickup with a roof” without ever having to take a seat out of the car. I’ve hauled bedroom furniture, bales of insulation, renovation debris, bookshelves, a dozen eight-foot 4x4s, and a hundred other items in that minivan without trouble. For sheer utility and flexibility, it’s handily the best vehicle I’ve ever owned.

The best part is that we made the last payment on it a few months ago. It’s still purring right along, and our intention is to drive it into the ground. At my current rate of mileage accumulation, I’ll probably have the Grand Caravan for another five years at least, by which time I probably won’t need a minivan anymore. But you know what? One of those Siennas with all-wheel drive would be a slick upgrade…and by that time, they’ll probably come with all kinds of Star Trek gadgets that will make the current models look like 1970s panel vans. With the way air travel is going, I foresee us driving everywhere we can, and the minivan is a long-range family cruiser without peer.

That doesn’t mean I don’t still want that Porsche 911, but there’s no law against having both…yet. <cue Rush’s “Red Barchetta”>

the intertubes, now faster and in widescreen!

Newegg rocks. The new LCD got here in a day, and that was with standard UPS three-day shipping. Ordered Sunday night, got the confirmation email on Monday, and had the truck coming up the driveway this morning at 10am. Capitalism rocks.

The new 22″ is functionally identical to the one Robin bought herself a month or two ago, but it has built-in speakers, which hers didn’t have. My audio requirements (window-rattling gunshots in Call of Duty, playing music while I’m folding laundry in the next room) are too high for those little built-in speakers, but Robin likes them better because they save desk space. So I did the Right Thing(tm), gave her the brand new one, and took hers instead. So this is what my desk looks like right now:

Did I get out the second video adapter dongle for the Mac mini and run two 22″ displays in dual display mode for a little while? Yes, I did.

Having DSL again makes all the difference in the world as far as feeling connected goes. I talked to my brother in Germany on Skype for an hour and a half without the slightest glitch. When we were finished, it dawned on me that we hadn’t had a face-to-face conversation in over five years. I know this Skype stuff is old hat to you folks on laser-beam cable or whatever it is you wired folks are using these days, but I haven’t been able to Skype worth a shit on the WISP or the satellite ISP. Video chatting beats calling on the phone by a mile, and it’s cheaper to boot. DSL is the shiznit, as the kids say these days. Our World of Warcraft connection is perfect, we never get kicked out anymore, and now we can actually run dungeons again. (I haven’t been doing those because I didn’t want to burden a group with random lag spike disconnects in the middle of the run, especially since I usually play a healer or tank.)

Anyway, all’s well at Castle Frostbite now, technologically speaking. I’ll just try to forget that the installer told Robin that the telco has fiber-optic cable strung all the way to the intersection with our road, two miles away, and that only the last stretch is copper cable. And there’s nothing to the rumor that I’ve already called them and offered to pay for the last two miles of FiOS line out of pocket…