I thought, since I haven’t been able to think of anything else to write about, that I would catalog some of the things that I enjoy doing. I’ve been lucky enough to spend most of my career doing something that I enjoy doing a lot. I program computers, I design software, I test software, I teach computer science, I repair computers, and I build computers from scratch. Since I have been doing it for over forty years, I have achieved a fairly high level of competency at these tasks.
Another thing that I have been working on mastering for the past seven years is writing fiction. There is a lot of aspects to master to become a good writer. I have participated in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) on four different occasions. I completed the challenge to write fifty thousand words in a month twice.
For the past seven years, I have written at least seven hundred and fifty words a day in an online journal. It has helped me to overcome my fear of the blank page and develop the ability to capture my thoughts on the page without having to think about typing each letter.
About a year ago, I increased my daily word count goal from seven hundred fifty words a day to a thousand words a day. On top of that, I renewed my commitment to blog by deciding to write a blog post of approximately five hundred words a day, bringing my daily word count to over fifteen hundred words.
In February of this year I started attending meetings of a club called the Downtown Writer’s Group sponsored by the Huntsville / Madison County Public Library. This has resulted in my writing short pieces of fiction to be critiqued by my fellow members. This has been educational and inspirational.
In addition to the critique sessions, the Group has sponsored programs aimed at helping a fledgling writer to prepare their work for publication. We have had presentations from an editor, a publicist, a self-published author, and a writer who shared her experience being published by a conventional publisher. We also had a presentation about cover design.
Another passion of mine that has been being ignored too much lately is playing music. I am primarily a guitarist but I also own two violins, a mandolin, and a Celtic harp. That is in addition to two acoustic guitars and two electric guitars. I also have an acoustic electric bass on order that should be delivered some time this month.
I want to learn how to record music on my computer. I have a copy of Garage Band on my computer but I’m thinking about purchasing a copy of Pro Tools when I can afford it.
The last thing that I’ll talk about here is I love to teach whether it is computer programming, writing, or music. It is perhaps akin to my love of performing whether it is acting or playing music.
Sweet dreams, don’t forget to tell the ones you love that you love them, and most important of all, be kind.