Stephen Burckhardt's Blog: My Blog Ramblings, page 78

Day Two of My Healthier Routine

I used to be fairly disciplined before I got married. However, since moving in with P.R. I find I have let myself go a bit. It's not uncommon for people to do after marriage. I mean, come on, people spend years working out trying to look more attractive trying to catch the eye of a great mate and when you finally do you break down and eat a few pizzas that you spent years avoiding to look better. But now my time of complacency is over! I need to get myself back on track so I can be more productive and have a clearer mind to accomplish all the things I want to accomplish in my life. The first thing is to drop 20 pounds. I want to make sure I am well under the weight requirement to go hot air ballooning for my birthday next month. I have been planning to do this for five years and I do not want something like eating too many crescents to stop me.  Today was my second day of implementing my new healthier lifestyle. I was pretty good, not great but good. My plan was to get up, drink some water with lemon or lime and baking soda (to help alkalize my body), do 20 minutes of yoga or shadow boxing, have a protein shake for breakfast, then take Shaggy for a quick walk before I start teaching for the day. It happened but no in that order. I was lazy and had my water when I got up but then I went back to bed and read for a while. I got up, ate, and taught my classes. After my classes and prepping for tomorrow's classes, I took Shaggy for a walk then came home and did some yoga. I find I really like yoga. It is amazing for flexibility and it really helps clear my mind and lets me focus on what I want to do. After yoga I fixed dinner for Shaggy and I and now I'm here at my compuiter ready to spend the rest of the evening writing as I listen to iZombie playing in the background.  iZombie and The Big Bang Theory are my two go to shows to play to give me some noise in the background while I work. I chose these two because I have seen every episode so many times I do not have to really watch or pay attention to know what is going on. Heck, I probably recite these i my sleep, So, now that I have a decent length blog post written I'm off to work on Into the West: Sharon Springs. I'll say hi to the towns folk for you!

Some Days I Miss My Car!

Since P.R. and I moved to our current home we have not needed a car. The public transportation near our home is fantastic but you do have to walk to the stops and sit and wait for the bus or train to come. It is a cost effective way to travel and I get more exercise this way but some days, like today, I really would have liked to have my car so I could get my errands done a lot faster. I went to an appliance store to check on a new stove to replace the one I broke. It's going to cost me about $200 more than I had hoped. Good thing I have more and more students booking with me. I will most likely have to charge it and take two months to pay it off. Not too bad. Next, I went to the health food store to get some flax seeds and vegan protein powder. I wanted espresso powder too but they didn't have it there. For now, I'll just keep using cold coffee for my protein shakes.Last, I went to the grocery store to by a bunch of fruits and veggies. I was also going to go to another shop to see about buying a small coffee grinder to use for my seeds and nuts but I really didn't want to shop anymore. I just came home and used the big grinder we have for our coffee to grind everything up. I use coffee in my shakes so it won't hurt if my flax seeds taste like coffee. I hope P.R. won't mind if our coffee tastes a little like flax seed.I should also mention that I'm trying to get myself into a new healthy routine again. Since the classes I was taking are over with, I can get back to what I want to do. Today I got up and drank a glass of water with apple cider vinegar and baking soda. After P.R. left for work I worked out for 20 minutes, took Shaggy for a walk, and had a chocolate coffee protein shake. It was pretty darn good. Then I ran errands. I was going to eat a salad before I left the apartment but I forgot in my hurry to get out. Luckily, I was able to pick up a few vegetarian snacks while I was out and about. When I got home I made dinner and cleaned up a little around the house then prepped for the classes I'm going to teach tomorrow. Now I'm getting a blog written and after that I will work on part three of Into the West: Sharon Springs until it's time to go to bed, sadly that is not too far from now.Tomorrow, I have three students to teach and four classes to prep for Wednesday. Other than that, I have nothing to do but write! I'm looking forward to tomorrow!   

So Much Accomplished . . . Writing Not Included

I have been so productive the last two weeks. I have had more students this week than most weeks this summer. I have gotten a lot of paperwork filed with the right offices to get my dog registered here. I finally got all my paperwork from my classes I finished and have those all ready to turn in to the right offices to get partial reimbursement for my tuition. I've also been working with my new doctor to do my full I'm-an-old-person-now-so-we-need-to-test-everything-possible exams. So far, all things are coming up great. But now it's time to get some some serious writing done. I'm doing my best to stay off social media unless it's to talk to family or work on book things but it's not easy to ignore everything going on in the United States right now.  It shouldn't be ignored. It should be fought with tireless resolve. But sometimes you have to focus on the work at hand, and for me, that is writing. 

The World is a Distraction

It seems like people have just lost their minds in resent months. There has always, and sadly, will be hatred and oppression in the world but things seems to be building to a head again.The world seems to run in cycles. One group always seems to try to force themselves and their values to the forefront and it takes a collective effort to bring things back more into balance. Sometimes horrible atrocities occur before the majority finally stand up and say, "Enough!"How long will it go on this time? How long will it take before good people finally stand up to the tyrants and say this is wrong and we will not stand for this! I hope that time is near because the alternative is too heartbreaking. For me, it's time to retreat back into the world of my own making.

Making Progress . . .

I feel like I'm starting to get into a routine. I get up, do things around the house, teach a few classes, spend the rest of the day writing, if I do not have to run errands that is. Most days, this is the program. I have learned so much the last week. I think it is very beneficial to my career to be teaching English at the same time. There are so many grammar rules I learned when I was in school but have since long forgotten. Then there are those that I have at some point just chosen to ignore. But the last week has been illuminating. After having refreshed my knowledge of grammar rules, I was doing another read through of Into the West: The Orphan Train and Into the West: A New Home just to get reacquainted with all the characters and where the story left off. While rereading everything, I felt the need to reedit. When I upload the new cover art for both books, I will also be uploading the new edits. I knew this first series would be a learning experience (I'm sure they all will be but more so on the first one) and I would make mistakes seeing as how I do not have a publisher with editors to refine my work for me. I am very glad I decided to do this western series as serials. With each book divided into five to six novellas instead of just releasing it as one full novel, I knew I would keep improving as the serial moved along. At least if I am going to make mistakes, and as a human that is a given, I would not end up making a lot of mistakes throughout the entire serial, fingers crossed.No matter what, I'm loving the work and the process and with any luck one day I will even make some money at this. 

Round and Round We Go!

Things have been hectic.  Trying to file paperwork with the government, getting more paperwork finalized for my school I was attending, getting ready to teach my first TOFEL class this week, trying to read and write more, and if I remember, to sleep occasionally.  I have been spending a lot of time on getting better at writing, reading more about language rules, punctuation, and editing. I have been reviewing part one and two of Into the West to get the story line straight for part three, Into the West: Sharon Springs. I am diligently working to improve my craft while trying to hurry up and get part three out for those who have waited so patiently. Being back at the computer has been heaven to me and I have had so many ideas racing through my head for more story lines to come later. I wish I could type as fast as I think but that will never happen. I have been waiting for the people next door to finally finish with their renovations so we can get back to work on the audio versions of the books. They told P.R. weeks ago that they were going to be finished in a day or two with drilling on the walls and yet they still continue to do that almost every day. There is no way we will ever get a clear recording until they are finished with that. For now, Dianne just keeps practicing her accents in preparation for the day we can begin again.Now, it is time to get back to work, I hope to have more exciting news for you later this week. 

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Today was a busy day, unfortunately very little of my time has been spend on writing. I got up early today for an appointment with my new family doctor. Today was blood work and next Monday is my first physical, can you lose 50 pounds in a weekend? The good news is, I already like this practice better than the last one. The last doctor I saw was a nice lady but was more like a nurse practitioner. She basically doled out antibiotics and sent you to other doctors when you needed more than that. The entire year I was seeing her, she only took my blood pressure twice, never took my temperature, and never even asked me about my weight or height. When I went in with upper respiratory issues, she never checked to see if it was bacterial or viral, she just gave me antibiotics and told me to drink tea and rest. The practice is I going to now seems more like real full service doctors office. I think the first lady will be good if I get strep or something and cannot get in to see my new doctor but other than that, she just doesn't meet my needs.  After I left the doctors office, I ran a lot of errands. I did grocery shopping, picked up a gas bottle for the Soda Stream (funny thing, we only ever make carbonated water with ours, We do not like the soda syrups but we drink several bottles of soda water a day), mailed a birthday gift to my mom (Happy Birthday, Mom), and stopped by my school to see if my test results were in. While they do not have the certificates ready to be picked up, I was able to find out my score. The bad news is, I did not get the perfect score I was hoping for but the good news is I only missed it by one. I was so bummed when the secretary told me that. We both laughed. You only had to get 15 out of 33 right to pass the test and I got 32. I hate getting so close to a perfect score and missing out. Ah well, at least I do not have to take anymore classes . . .  though I might take more later just because I want to. As for the ugly, it's really not so much ugly as ineffective. I have had people comment the covers of my books make them think they are more history books and not fiction. So to try to help connect the book series to the website and give a more fiction book kind of feel, I'm working on new cover art to be launched when the third book, Into the West: Sharon Springs, is released.  If you follow me on Facebook, you may have already seen the covers I have been working on for the first installment, Into the West: The Orphan Train. Some people have expressed concern that people tend to repurchase books by mistake when people reissue the same book with a new cover. I plan to make a not of it in the print history that this is a reprint with new cover art. If you only purchase the ebooks, you should get update information when the new art is ready and you can just download the update. It should tell you that you have already purchased that book if you try to buy it again. So that pretty much covers my day. P.R. was at home working all day. When I finally got home and settled in to work on book stuff, I had such a headache from not eating all day as I couldn't eat before the doctors appointment, and only had enough cash with me to get a coffee and a muffin afterward. When I got home, P.R. was in the mood to go for a walk to de-stress after having meetings all day. After about 40 minutes, P.R. came back home and brought dinner, döners for two! Mine was vegetarian, of course. If you have never had a döner, I highly recommend them! Is it any wonder I call P.R. my better half?

A Learning Experience

As you may all know, my Into the West Saga Serial is my first real attempt at writing books. I had worked as a journalist and have full confidence when writing articles but books are something I am still learning how to do with actual skill. Since I have no real money to invest in hiring people to handle my social media, design the graphic for my products, edit everything from websites to my books, etc. I am doing it pretty much on my own. With this comes the certainty that I will make mistakes. I found two such mistakes this week. For those of you who have joined my Members Only page on my website and have already downloaded the free companion short, Sonya's Home, I apologize.  As I was updating everything this week, I realized I had previously linked the rough draft of Sonya's Home to the download page instead of the final draft. I can only imagine what you thought of it when you read it. The first draft was a bit of a jumbled mess if I do say so myself. If you would like to download the companion short again, it is linked to the correct version now. The other mistake I found was I wrote November in a book when I meant October. It makes the timeline in that part of the story a little strange. I plan to correct this when I reissue the books with the new cover art. For those who have the eBook, you should get a notice that you can download and update for free. For those of you who have print, I'm sorry for the mistake. However, this is part of the reason why I wanted to write these stories as serials. I knew there would be a learning curve to for me to figure out how to do all of this correctly.  I figured if I publish in smaller sections, I would making fewer and fewer mistakes as the stories progressed. So far this has proven to be true for the most part. I am getting better at all of this, and faster, but I am human and will always be prone to making the occasional mistakes. Luckily, I am not the kind of person who is afraid to step up and admit when they are wrong. I'm actually wrong quite often and have gotten used to admitting it. So, thank you for sticking with me through my sincere efforts to give you good heart wrenching stories. I may not be the best writer around but I will always do my best for you. Thank you!

Nose to the Grindstone . . .

Anyone who reads my blogs (that is assuming I'm not the only one) knows I have been teaching ESL online to try to earn some cash while I work to get my writing career going. Since I joined my online school back in October, things have gone well. I like the kids, I think they like me, I've made enough to cover my student loan payments and even cover a few other bills. Since taking this job I haven't had to pull any more money out of my 401K, which is nice. However, now that summer is here, the students have disappeared and I'm worried the next few months may be a bit lean. I even got certified with my school to teach TOEFL classes in hopes to increase my student numbers but it doesn't seemed to have helped. Last week was the first week of the summer break and I only had four students, this week I only have two, and I have yet to have a single student book for next week.Now, student's can book a class until 24 hours before the class begins, so these numbers can change. However, in the past, parents usually book their children's class first thing on Monday and my schedule usually stays the same as it is on Monday afternoon. One or two weeks of this will be a nice vacation where I can focus on my writing but anymore than that and my saving will start going down again.  I had hoped in the next few weeks to be able to book and pay for my birthday trip I want to take in September. It will be the big 50! I'm looking forward to it. I want P.R., Shaggy, and I to go on a hot air balloon trip. I've wanted to do this for years. I think the whole trip should cost about $2,000 for all three of us and that should include everything, even spending money. (I know, first world problems!) I guess this is when it's most beneficial to have good credit.  I know many people hate getting older but for me birthdays are milestones on a road I was told I would not be able to travel. Every year I earn is badge of sheer determination. I have lived longer and better than many doctors said was even possible and I think that is well worth celebrating even if I have to go into a little debt to do it!For now, I will not worry about what might or might not happen in the next few months. Instead, I'm going to go edit my companion short, Margret's Redemption and get it up on the website so you can all read it and let me know what you think. And guess I should say, the short comes with a major spoiler alert for book five and a seriously infuriating cliffhanger. You have been forewarned!  

Another Phase of Life

Too much time on social media lately brought up this blog today. I think I'm beginning to enter that crotchety old person phase of life. I find I have much less tolerance for BS and rude behavior. I find more and more that I would just rather not associate with some people than to spend the energy to put up with their attitude. When I was younger, I felt it was my job to try to make sure everyone in my life was happy and safe and felt like at least I cared about them and their lives. It was exhausting! The shocking thing was the variety of reactions I got from everyone. It went from gratitude (which was the minority), to distrust, to entitlement, and even hostility. Something that was even more shocking to me was how very few people returned the affection. Now, do not get me wrong, I have no ill feelings about any of this. My actions were of my own choosing. No one forced me to care about these other people and in life there are no guarantees that your efforts will ever be returned in kind or even appreciated for that matter, and if you expect those things you are just asking for disappointment. However, these past experiences are the basis for my recent attitude shift.I no longer feel the need to be present for anyone else. I have done my time and spent my energy. If they have a need and think I can help, friends and family are more than welcome to come to me but I will no longer seek out everyone to make sure their lives are in order. There are even a few people I have stopped communicating with altogether. I feel the loss and it is sad that where there was once a relationship now there is nothing but I find my life has become so much more peaceful and drama-free. I hope they find life is better too. While I do not want certain people in my life again, I will continue to wish for nothing but the best for them. Not talking to them does not mean I stopped caring, I just chose to care more about my own peace of mind. So now I'm just waiting for the day I start yelling at neighbor kids to get off my lawn. I guess it's a good thing we live on the second floor of an apartment building right now. It will stave off those crotchety episodes for a while longer.