May He Give You the Desire of Your Heart, and Make All Your Plans Succeed. (Psalm 20:4)

I'm currently editing an interview that Joe Polish did with the creator of the P90X workout phenomenon, Tony Horton. Of course, it is quite fascinating to me... I think I'm definitely going to give it a whirl, and do the 90-day thing, with the "before/after" pics and all that nonsense. I doubt I'll post them anywhere, for obvious reasons - it's embarrassing! Although I doubt there would be anything more motivating to complete the 90-day thing than knowing my "before" picture, in all its embarrassing glory, was up here for everyone to cringe at... I would feel desperate to hurry up and get a nice, ripped "after" picture up... but really, how narcissistic is that? "Look at my muscles!"

Still, it's inspiring to see and hear the stories of people that were overweight, out-of-shape schlubs like I am, and in a couple months time were able to make some radical physical transformations, and generally feel better about themselves. My challenge first is to try and separate the substance from the hype, so I don't fall for the latest fad and fail miserably once I see how much hard work it really is... I need to psyche myself up to kicking my own butt for a couple months. If it works, awesome... I'm sure the benefits will be many. The only way it won't work is if I quit... but even as flighty as I am, I can usually muster enough interest in something for a couple months before getting distracted by something else...

no caption is necessary here, eh?

I tell ya, my interest in Gardens of the Moon, by Steven Erikson, has basically died out, at about the 200-page mark. There are sooo many characters, I can't remember them all. I have to read several paragraphs and try to remember who the characters were, and what their previous storylines were about... then once I have the "aha" moment, I have to go back and re-read the paragraphs again.... it makes for tedious, un-fun reading. He's certainly not a bad writer, but really, it has sort of devolved for me into yet another gloomy end-of-the-world fantasy story, saturated with a buttload of characters, again, all with weird names that tend to blend into each other. If the series is 10 books long (or so), what's the rush? Why cram so many characters into it straight away? Focus on a few at a time, get them nice and solidified in the reader's mind, and then add a couple more, etc.

I'm trying to do that with my fantasy story. Though I have a similar problem, in that the world I'm building has a Council of six Wizards that rule, and each of them has a Steward that serves him. So when I introduce the Council to the reader, BOOM, right there is a group of 12 new characters. I've taken steps to try and simplify  things and make it easier for the reader to let these characters all settle in, but still, I think it is confusing as it stands. In fact, I have submitted the first couple Council chapters to the Writer's Group, along with my conundrum, for this coming-up Tuesday's meeting. We'll see if they have any advice on how to handle it.

Other Random Bits:
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- Our head pastor is due to be back at church Sunday morning. Some of you might recall that he fell back in October and broke his leg. He's been a long time recovering - I haven't seen him since then. But we got the word last week that he intends to return Sunday. I went to the church today to fix the track lighting (I had moved all the lights for the Christmas play, and hadn't re-set them yet), so they'll be good to go for his return to the pulpit. I noticed that they have a tall chair for him to sit at now, rather than having him stand for the whole hour.

- I don't watch American Idol, but the Wagner Women do. I heard a lot of complaints from them when Paula Abdul left and Ellen Degeneres took her place. But they still watch it. I doubt they'll keep watching if the rumors are true about Howard Stern taking Simon Cowell's place next year... yikes.

- Logan posted the first trailer for the next Fallout game, which will be out this year, called Fallout: New Vegas. The trailer is artsy, in a sort of post-apocalyptic way, but it features no in-game footage, so I won't embed it here. Chances are, I will snap that game up the day it comes out. Fallout 3 was one of my favorite games last year.

- I haven't really been playing much lately, as far as computer games. A little Left 4 Dead, a little Torchlight, *yawn*. The most fun I've had gaming lately has been with Facebook Scrabble, but most of my opponents are silent the last couple days.

- Watched a couple movies recently, from Netflix. I watched Moon, which is an indy sci-fi flick starring Sam Rockwell, that was recommended to me by Kristopher. I'm not much for sci-fi, but it was a good flick. Some plot holes and leaps in logic, but that's to be expected with the genre. The other film I watched was In Bruges, with Colin Farrell. I'd seen it before, and wanted to watch it again. It's a bit too heavy on the profanity for my taste, but I liked the story and the acting, and it was just quirky and witty and fun. And the leading lady reminds me of someone from my past...

- Not sure the right way to ween myself off of caffeine. I've given up energy drinks completely, but I'm still getting me some Starbucks regularly. If I go a day or so without caffeine, I get a killer headache that starts in my neck and reaches up to rhythmically squeeze my brain into submission, in a uniquely merciless fashion. Ibuprofen's don't even help. It really is miserable. I had one of those headache today while I was going up and down the ladder at church, fixing the lighting. Not a good place to be when you feel like you're going to pass out. Anyway, I bought a macchiatto and took an ibuprofen, and about a half-hour later, I was golden again... but I don't know how long the headaches will last if I try and stop the coffee altogether.

Awesome product design, I think... 

That's enough bits and pieces for now. I'll let you know how the P90X thing goes...

Dave