I'll get it lined out one of these days.
It's ten pm and I find myself sitting here, not really even tired, again. Probably a weekend full of late-night excitement. Around here, we roll the sidewalks up at midnight, so there really isn't that much to do of a late evening.
So, I thought I'd drop a few lines in here thanking everyone who's come to take a peek at me since the weekend outpouring of linky-love. Kick up your feet, take a look around, have a drink. If you like what you see, come on back!
Maybe, if I entice enough of you, I can catch up to AD's sitemeter scores. I doubt it, but a girl can hope, can't she?
Come on, folks. You know you want to visit my site sixteen times a day, just so I can rub it in his face....
Kidding! Don't yell at me for whoring for hits. (That sounds sooo wrong...)
More seriously though, I hope that ya'll enjoy what you read, and keep coming back. It is, after all, for the ego boost, adoration, and gifts of cash and chocolate that I write this silly little thing in the first place.
By the by, I'm still waiting for the cash, chocolate, and adoration. Must be lost in the mail....
Off to put on a DVD and try to sleep. Chronicles of Riddick tonight, that way it increases my chances of having nice dreams of buff men with hawt voices, instead of nightmares about Borat in a mankini.
Don't ask.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Words
The discussions on writing this weekend got me thinking about the nature of words.
I like words. In fact, I love words. They are the glue that holds society together, and the hands that rip it apart....
Without words, we wouldn't have such concepts as love, romance, or honor. Or, we might have them, but giving a thing a name makes it real.
The versatility of words is amazing to me. I tend to use some of them more often than others, just like anyone else... We all have our verbal quirks, after all.
The way different words impact different people, and putting them together in different combinations to see which ones stick, so to speak.
I'll admit something right here... half the things that ya'll love in this blog, phrases, imagery, and such, are things that I've just thrown out there because I couldn't think of a better way to do it.
I don't do drafts. If I save something as a draft on my blog, it's never going to make it on the main page. I've got a bunch of those that I swear I'm going to finish and post someday... but if those tales ever see the light of day, they'll be completely re-written.
If I'm not satisfied with it in one sitting, for a blog post, it's stale the next time I look at it. We here at Tractor Tracks are dedicated to bringing you only the freshest words and phrases.
Jane is, of course, the exception to this rule, which is why it takes me so long to get a chapter up. When I started, I was just messing around, so it was ok for it to be mediocre and awkward in places... but now that people like it and are asking for more, I feel like I have to give them my best.
I am honestly envious of people who can save a draft, go back and tweak it, and then post. If I don't get it up before I walk away from the computer, the words are doomed to languish in Draft, with all the other neglected words, smoking cigarettes and asking each other "what are you in for?"
There is a zone that I find sometimes, when I'm writing something, where everything else just goes away and if you could peek into my head you'd see some really good CGI of words and phrases swirling around each other in an ether of creativity, some of them finding their way down my arms and into the post, the remainder floating gently to rest until the next time.
Let me tell you, it's a good thing I'm a fast typist, because otherwise, I'd never be able to hold on to an idea long enough to finish it.
But all any of my writing is, and I suspect in their own ways most writers feel like this, is an experiment. It's just a little kid taking blocks and building something. My blocks are words, and sometimes I build a graceful tower, magnificent to the eye and ear, but it's precarious, and will fall at the first harsh look.
Sometimes, I build a solid little house that you couldn't knock over with a brick, and when people like it, I go back and what I thought was a squat, ugly block of a thing turns out to have hidden grace that I didn't even recognize the first time around.
And that is the amazing thing about words, right there.
Ain't they fun?
I like words. In fact, I love words. They are the glue that holds society together, and the hands that rip it apart....
Without words, we wouldn't have such concepts as love, romance, or honor. Or, we might have them, but giving a thing a name makes it real.
The versatility of words is amazing to me. I tend to use some of them more often than others, just like anyone else... We all have our verbal quirks, after all.
The way different words impact different people, and putting them together in different combinations to see which ones stick, so to speak.
I'll admit something right here... half the things that ya'll love in this blog, phrases, imagery, and such, are things that I've just thrown out there because I couldn't think of a better way to do it.
I don't do drafts. If I save something as a draft on my blog, it's never going to make it on the main page. I've got a bunch of those that I swear I'm going to finish and post someday... but if those tales ever see the light of day, they'll be completely re-written.
If I'm not satisfied with it in one sitting, for a blog post, it's stale the next time I look at it. We here at Tractor Tracks are dedicated to bringing you only the freshest words and phrases.
Jane is, of course, the exception to this rule, which is why it takes me so long to get a chapter up. When I started, I was just messing around, so it was ok for it to be mediocre and awkward in places... but now that people like it and are asking for more, I feel like I have to give them my best.
I am honestly envious of people who can save a draft, go back and tweak it, and then post. If I don't get it up before I walk away from the computer, the words are doomed to languish in Draft, with all the other neglected words, smoking cigarettes and asking each other "what are you in for?"
There is a zone that I find sometimes, when I'm writing something, where everything else just goes away and if you could peek into my head you'd see some really good CGI of words and phrases swirling around each other in an ether of creativity, some of them finding their way down my arms and into the post, the remainder floating gently to rest until the next time.
Let me tell you, it's a good thing I'm a fast typist, because otherwise, I'd never be able to hold on to an idea long enough to finish it.
But all any of my writing is, and I suspect in their own ways most writers feel like this, is an experiment. It's just a little kid taking blocks and building something. My blocks are words, and sometimes I build a graceful tower, magnificent to the eye and ear, but it's precarious, and will fall at the first harsh look.
Sometimes, I build a solid little house that you couldn't knock over with a brick, and when people like it, I go back and what I thought was a squat, ugly block of a thing turns out to have hidden grace that I didn't even recognize the first time around.
And that is the amazing thing about words, right there.
Ain't they fun?
Monday, February 2, 2009
I KNEW It!
Just checked my sitemeter, and I was right. All of the linky-love bumped me from my standard hundred or so hits per week day and sixty or so on the weekends, to over two hundred Sunday and Today.
Thanks, guys!
Thanks, guys!
Home!
Made it back to the old homestead safe and sound, so here's the after-action report I promised.
Shooty Goodness:
Sunday, we all went out to the pasture and made a lot of loud bang noises. You know you're shooting with some talented folks when you hear:
Bang. Plink.
Bang. Plink.
Bang. Plink.
Bang.Plink.Bang.Plink.Bang.Plink.Bang.Plink.
There's also the fact that they were shooting at golf balls (that they couldn't really see) at a hundred yards with twenty two rifles.
Best quotes of the day:
"Oh my god, he wasn't just taking a leak, he was peeing in the bottle."
"Phlegmmy wins the Golden Shower Award, she got the pee bottle."
"Brass Hicky, that sticky Hicky." (To the tune of Brass Monkey)
And, my favorite, at the end of the shoot....
"Does anybody have any real rifle brass to throw out around here so that we don't look like a bunch of wusses?"
After the shoot we went to a little hole-in-the-wall steak house and had the quail appetizers (darned good quail... I was a little leery of restaraunt quail, but it was tasty) while AD took care of the dinner show, doing the entire dinner scene from the Nutty Professor. Perfectly.
I was rolling on the floor, couldn't get a breath, nearly peed myself laughing at him talking about relations. Meanwhile AEPilot Jim was telling the waitress "We can't take him anywhere."
The Drive:
There comes a point in any long drive when your mind starts doing weird things to you. I don't mind my eye getting caught by shapes in the clouds, that happens, but when I start seeing shapes in the cracks in the road, I get a little worried.
So that's when I stopped in Amarillo and got a coffee. And cussed cause MattG got the hands picture put up before me. Ya gotta watch them bigguns. They're sneaky buggers.
But, before I got to the book store, I was driving down the interstate, and suddenly the Farmdog started barking. I glanced back at the vehicle on my right and saw a big golden head stickin out a back window... she was protecting me from the dog in the other vehicle on the interstate. But, what really made me laugh was when the truck got a little ahead of me, I saw another little puppy head sticking out underneath the Golden Retriever's... it was some kind of terrier, and I was only sure it was a dog because there was a nose, and it moved. Everything else was obscured by its long hair blowing every which way like some kind of blonde Medusa.
AD asked me, via text message, if I'd made it home yet while I was sipping coffee and stretching.... When I told him I had stopped for a break and gotten a cup of coffee, he told me to finish my steak from the Japanese Steak House last night. I told him it was gone before noon, and he oinked at me.
"I think I might have gained a half pound while I was there... everyone wanted to feed me."
"Where did you gain a half a pound?????"
"I'm not sure, but I think it might have all gone to my Snark Muscles...."
Because indeed, the snark was strong this weekend. We embarrassed several waitstaff at various eaterys, and each other.
I had an absolute blast, and as glad as I am to be home, it has more to do with the drive than the weekend....
I wanna do it again!
Edit: at the bottom on the right is a new set of links. I'm following the crowd and keeping a running tally of bloggers I've come across outside the fantabulous land of the pixels. If I missed anybody, a real possibility since I was hard pressed to remember all the names at the end of the night, let alone their URL's, just drop me a line and I'll correct the situation.
Shooty Goodness:
Sunday, we all went out to the pasture and made a lot of loud bang noises. You know you're shooting with some talented folks when you hear:
Bang. Plink.
Bang. Plink.
Bang. Plink.
Bang.Plink.Bang.Plink.Bang.Plink.Bang.Plink.
There's also the fact that they were shooting at golf balls (that they couldn't really see) at a hundred yards with twenty two rifles.
Best quotes of the day:
"Oh my god, he wasn't just taking a leak, he was peeing in the bottle."
"Phlegmmy wins the Golden Shower Award, she got the pee bottle."
"Brass Hicky, that sticky Hicky." (To the tune of Brass Monkey)
And, my favorite, at the end of the shoot....
"Does anybody have any real rifle brass to throw out around here so that we don't look like a bunch of wusses?"
After the shoot we went to a little hole-in-the-wall steak house and had the quail appetizers (darned good quail... I was a little leery of restaraunt quail, but it was tasty) while AD took care of the dinner show, doing the entire dinner scene from the Nutty Professor. Perfectly.
I was rolling on the floor, couldn't get a breath, nearly peed myself laughing at him talking about relations. Meanwhile AEPilot Jim was telling the waitress "We can't take him anywhere."
The Drive:
There comes a point in any long drive when your mind starts doing weird things to you. I don't mind my eye getting caught by shapes in the clouds, that happens, but when I start seeing shapes in the cracks in the road, I get a little worried.
So that's when I stopped in Amarillo and got a coffee. And cussed cause MattG got the hands picture put up before me. Ya gotta watch them bigguns. They're sneaky buggers.
But, before I got to the book store, I was driving down the interstate, and suddenly the Farmdog started barking. I glanced back at the vehicle on my right and saw a big golden head stickin out a back window... she was protecting me from the dog in the other vehicle on the interstate. But, what really made me laugh was when the truck got a little ahead of me, I saw another little puppy head sticking out underneath the Golden Retriever's... it was some kind of terrier, and I was only sure it was a dog because there was a nose, and it moved. Everything else was obscured by its long hair blowing every which way like some kind of blonde Medusa.
AD asked me, via text message, if I'd made it home yet while I was sipping coffee and stretching.... When I told him I had stopped for a break and gotten a cup of coffee, he told me to finish my steak from the Japanese Steak House last night. I told him it was gone before noon, and he oinked at me.
"I think I might have gained a half pound while I was there... everyone wanted to feed me."
"Where did you gain a half a pound?????"
"I'm not sure, but I think it might have all gone to my Snark Muscles...."
Because indeed, the snark was strong this weekend. We embarrassed several waitstaff at various eaterys, and each other.
I had an absolute blast, and as glad as I am to be home, it has more to do with the drive than the weekend....
I wanna do it again!
Edit: at the bottom on the right is a new set of links. I'm following the crowd and keeping a running tally of bloggers I've come across outside the fantabulous land of the pixels. If I missed anybody, a real possibility since I was hard pressed to remember all the names at the end of the night, let alone their URL's, just drop me a line and I'll correct the situation.
Amarillo By Morning...
Well I made it to Amarillo, which is around halfway home.
Hit the city limits here and the eyelids were getting droopy, so I made it to Soncy and Heaven In A Store* and pulled in for a break. Got coffee, and since the internet was FUBAR at the hotel this morning, I logged on to the wifi hotspot to check all my... er... stuff.
After perusing things (and I haven't checked my sitemeter since everyone linked to me... I predict a spike in hits bigger than MattG) I'm just gonna go ahead and mention a couple of things... full after action report when I get home and recover from the drive a bit...
Yes, that picture is my hand. And, frankly, it's shocking even to me... Shaking hands with that man is like putting on a warm oven mitt. However, I did notice on that picture (and I have the same one, not stolen but gifted by OldNFO) that it tends to emphasize our respective... attributes, as MattG put it.
The ginormity of his hands makes mine look even smaller, and the bittyness of mine make his look even bigger.
Also, to everyone that was at the shoot, the Farmdog misses you. She's in the car right now looking at me through the window as if to ask me where the nice man who smells like bacon is. (Nope, AEPilot Jim, you're never going to live it down. It's entirely too much fun.)
Meanwhile, I'm going to go finish my coffee and get back on the road... that white line's just getting longer, and the saddle is starting to get cold.**
*Barnes and Noble Booksellers, with Starbucks.
** Double points to anyone who gets the song reference here, and why it's apropos after a drive this long.
Hit the city limits here and the eyelids were getting droopy, so I made it to Soncy and Heaven In A Store* and pulled in for a break. Got coffee, and since the internet was FUBAR at the hotel this morning, I logged on to the wifi hotspot to check all my... er... stuff.
After perusing things (and I haven't checked my sitemeter since everyone linked to me... I predict a spike in hits bigger than MattG) I'm just gonna go ahead and mention a couple of things... full after action report when I get home and recover from the drive a bit...
Yes, that picture is my hand. And, frankly, it's shocking even to me... Shaking hands with that man is like putting on a warm oven mitt. However, I did notice on that picture (and I have the same one, not stolen but gifted by OldNFO) that it tends to emphasize our respective... attributes, as MattG put it.
The ginormity of his hands makes mine look even smaller, and the bittyness of mine make his look even bigger.
Also, to everyone that was at the shoot, the Farmdog misses you. She's in the car right now looking at me through the window as if to ask me where the nice man who smells like bacon is. (Nope, AEPilot Jim, you're never going to live it down. It's entirely too much fun.)
Meanwhile, I'm going to go finish my coffee and get back on the road... that white line's just getting longer, and the saddle is starting to get cold.**
*Barnes and Noble Booksellers, with Starbucks.
** Double points to anyone who gets the song reference here, and why it's apropos after a drive this long.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
FUN!
Ok, humor me for a moment and close your eyes. Imagine a gathering of the most intelligent, entertaining people you've ever heard of, all in one place.
That's where I was yesterday.
I'm vaguely embarrassed to say that I didn't get a chance to really talk to everyone there, people were cycling through all afternoon and some of 'em, it seemed we were just circling each other around the party all afternoon.
I did, however, get a great opportunity to just sit around and listen to some of the most amazing war stories (some of them literal) and joke around with folks.
Right now I'm just gonna mention a few of the many, many people I got to meet yesterday, I'll try to get up links and snippets about everyone else, but I'm short on time at the moment... we have orders to meet folks for a shoot. A very, very big man looked me right in the eye and said "Ten thirty. Braums. Be there."
........ I don't intend to disappoint the nice giant*...
Phlegmmy is a gorgeous woman, with a grace and poise that just has to be the southern thing. I know I ain't got it, but she does in spades.
Bayou Renaissance Man is quiet spoken, and has that wonderful South African accent; I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with him.
Holly and JPG are fabulous people, and I'm so glad I got to meet them both in person.
OldNFO is an inveterate smartass. Gotta love it!
AEpilot Jim is... oddly attached to bacon. No, really. I think if you wrapped a cyanide pill in a strip of bacon, he'd probably plan his own funeral before he pounced on it...
MattG is... well, he's Ginormous. He's also very gracious, if only slightly put upon, when I requested a picture of my tiny hand next to one of his meathooks.
I was lucky enough to get to meet LawDog and even though I knew what his voice sounded like from his call in to my Blog Talk Radio interview, it was still a bit of a shock... for some reason in my head he's always got just a bit of a gravelly growl in his voice.
He said he liked my blog.... *buffs nails*.... On the way out the door he said "Love your blog, keep doing it."
"Thanks, I plan to keep going... I love your blog too!"
"Mine's ok... just don't you stop writing..."
I did manage to keep from squeeing like a little fan girl, which means I'm ahead of AEPilot Jim by just a little bit.
Everyone laid out their bring-along toys, which sat on Phlegmmy's kitchen counter (AD will post pics) for everyone to fondle. I got a little bit of crap over the new toy being re-blued, but since it was a gift everyone cut me a little slack.
Somehow, I think there's something wrong with the world when the biggest guy in the room picks up a gun, hefts it a moment, and proceeds to complain about how heavy the gun carried by the smallest girl there is.
It just seems...wrong.
*Sorry, Matt. I couldn't resist. We just don't grow em like you back home!
That's where I was yesterday.
I'm vaguely embarrassed to say that I didn't get a chance to really talk to everyone there, people were cycling through all afternoon and some of 'em, it seemed we were just circling each other around the party all afternoon.
I did, however, get a great opportunity to just sit around and listen to some of the most amazing war stories (some of them literal) and joke around with folks.
Right now I'm just gonna mention a few of the many, many people I got to meet yesterday, I'll try to get up links and snippets about everyone else, but I'm short on time at the moment... we have orders to meet folks for a shoot. A very, very big man looked me right in the eye and said "Ten thirty. Braums. Be there."
........ I don't intend to disappoint the nice giant*...
Phlegmmy is a gorgeous woman, with a grace and poise that just has to be the southern thing. I know I ain't got it, but she does in spades.
Bayou Renaissance Man is quiet spoken, and has that wonderful South African accent; I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with him.
Holly and JPG are fabulous people, and I'm so glad I got to meet them both in person.
OldNFO is an inveterate smartass. Gotta love it!
AEpilot Jim is... oddly attached to bacon. No, really. I think if you wrapped a cyanide pill in a strip of bacon, he'd probably plan his own funeral before he pounced on it...
MattG is... well, he's Ginormous. He's also very gracious, if only slightly put upon, when I requested a picture of my tiny hand next to one of his meathooks.
I was lucky enough to get to meet LawDog and even though I knew what his voice sounded like from his call in to my Blog Talk Radio interview, it was still a bit of a shock... for some reason in my head he's always got just a bit of a gravelly growl in his voice.
He said he liked my blog.... *buffs nails*.... On the way out the door he said "Love your blog, keep doing it."
"Thanks, I plan to keep going... I love your blog too!"
"Mine's ok... just don't you stop writing..."
I did manage to keep from squeeing like a little fan girl, which means I'm ahead of AEPilot Jim by just a little bit.
Everyone laid out their bring-along toys, which sat on Phlegmmy's kitchen counter (AD will post pics) for everyone to fondle. I got a little bit of crap over the new toy being re-blued, but since it was a gift everyone cut me a little slack.
Somehow, I think there's something wrong with the world when the biggest guy in the room picks up a gun, hefts it a moment, and proceeds to complain about how heavy the gun carried by the smallest girl there is.
It just seems...wrong.
*Sorry, Matt. I couldn't resist. We just don't grow em like you back home!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Dallas
Now that I've slept and am no longer in food nirvana (now I'm in coffee hell.. why is the in room coffee in hotels always naaasty? And why is there never enough creamer or sugar?) I'll post a little bit more.
I rolled into the Dallas area about five last night, and immediately got lost. Not my fault! Google maps was on crack and told me to get off the interstate and then right back on and I figured that couldn't be right... so I pulled into La Quinta and tried to get my bearings. Figured out they really DID mean for me to get off and back on, so I went back and got back on, took the immediate exit after the one I'd already gotten off of, and then battled my way over to the right hand lane because I was pretty much on top of my hotel.
Got my room key, got everything hauled up (with a hug in there somewhere) and started making phone calls to let everyone know that I had arrived, safe and sound.
Got three invites to dinner (damn, I'm popular) and had already accepted the first one.... Sorry guys!
I kind of wished I had taken a minute to change when we got to the restaurant (Hannibal Lecter was giving us directions... weird!) and saw that it was pretty fancy. Hey, they said steak house, not magic meat palace (no cracks about magic meat, please) so I went in my baggy, comfy sweater, and Carhart coat.
Kudos to the staff of the place, they neither looked down their noses at my clothes nor gaped in amazement at the amount I ate... although, I was on my best behavior and there was actually enough talk at the table to distract me from the food on occasion.
I did... *cough* sort of threaten to stab someone with my fork.......... but he was trying to steal my cake!
And he promptly offered me his pocket knife to use instead of my fork.
"But if you stab me with your fork, what are you going to use to eat your cake?"
"My fork."
"Wow... that's a whole level that I'm not even going to touch."
And from the other end of the table "You're really not squeamish, are you?"
Oh, and Farmdad? Your Valentines Day present to me is a hit.
"That's my kind of dad!"
See, you can't hide redneck, and for Valentines Day my loving father gave his two girls guns. Farmmom got a Judge, and I got a Walther PPK that he'd just gotten refinished.
I didn't show it off at the restaraunt, it's not home, after all, but they'll get to see it this afternoon.
The rest of the weekend:
Party, a shoot at which I may get the guts to actually fire a weapon in front of people who are far better than I, and a Japanese Steak House. I promise to stay away from the Sake, Farmmom!
I rolled into the Dallas area about five last night, and immediately got lost. Not my fault! Google maps was on crack and told me to get off the interstate and then right back on and I figured that couldn't be right... so I pulled into La Quinta and tried to get my bearings. Figured out they really DID mean for me to get off and back on, so I went back and got back on, took the immediate exit after the one I'd already gotten off of, and then battled my way over to the right hand lane because I was pretty much on top of my hotel.
Got my room key, got everything hauled up (with a hug in there somewhere) and started making phone calls to let everyone know that I had arrived, safe and sound.
Got three invites to dinner (damn, I'm popular) and had already accepted the first one.... Sorry guys!
I kind of wished I had taken a minute to change when we got to the restaurant (Hannibal Lecter was giving us directions... weird!) and saw that it was pretty fancy. Hey, they said steak house, not magic meat palace (no cracks about magic meat, please) so I went in my baggy, comfy sweater, and Carhart coat.
Kudos to the staff of the place, they neither looked down their noses at my clothes nor gaped in amazement at the amount I ate... although, I was on my best behavior and there was actually enough talk at the table to distract me from the food on occasion.
I did... *cough* sort of threaten to stab someone with my fork.......... but he was trying to steal my cake!
And he promptly offered me his pocket knife to use instead of my fork.
"But if you stab me with your fork, what are you going to use to eat your cake?"
"My fork."
"Wow... that's a whole level that I'm not even going to touch."
And from the other end of the table "You're really not squeamish, are you?"
Oh, and Farmdad? Your Valentines Day present to me is a hit.
"That's my kind of dad!"
See, you can't hide redneck, and for Valentines Day my loving father gave his two girls guns. Farmmom got a Judge, and I got a Walther PPK that he'd just gotten refinished.
I didn't show it off at the restaraunt, it's not home, after all, but they'll get to see it this afternoon.
The rest of the weekend:
Party, a shoot at which I may get the guts to actually fire a weapon in front of people who are far better than I, and a Japanese Steak House. I promise to stay away from the Sake, Farmmom!
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