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Page 1 of 757 pages 1 2 3 > Last »
May 2008
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Don’t You Hate It When That Happens?
by McGehee
70°F. and cloudy in Coweta County, GA
Last night I was using our laptop, getting it ready for some traveling we’re going to be doing, when it downloaded an update from Microsoft. I let it install and shut down, as per the usual.
When I tried to boot it up again, I got Fatal System Error c000021a. From what I’ve seen, the most common fix for the fix Microsoft’s fix has put me in, is to reinstall Windows, obliterating all user data on the machine. Thanks, Microsoft.
I found where one guy used a Linux boot disc (Knoppix, in case you’re wondering) to recover his Windows PC from this error, so I’m going to try that first. Since this is our laptop rather than one of our primary computers, we don’t think there’s anything on it we’re loath to lose, but if we do end up having to wipe the hard drive and reinstall, it won’t be with Windows.
Meanwhile, we have a weekend trip ahead so I’d be engaging in less than usual online activity even if the laptop weren’t sick.
[Me]
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8:25 pm Wednesday
May 14, 2008
No backtalk
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Play Rough, Fight Dirty
by McGehee
Wednesday evening: new content.
I enjoy writing fiction because I enjoy creating characters and developing the chemistry among them. The best part is knowing that as each character is true to what he is about, his relationship with other characters will be influenced by that as well as by them. And as a given character interacts with newer ones, the way he relates to previously introduced characters offers a guide to how he should interact with a new one. And it can be fun to make readers stop and wonder, when one character responds to another in a way you hadn’t led them to expect.
Which points to another aspect of writing characters: if they aren’t a work in progress, they’re not real. They’re not so much a character in a story as a plot device designed to move the actual character in your desired direction. I find a lot of walking, talking plot devices in passable but mediocre fiction, especially genre fiction. The best and worst of these, interestingly enough, generally influence the plot by responding to a character or situation in a way the reader has not been led to expect. So a writer has to be careful. It’s especially challenging when the line is so thin between a transparent plot device wearing the mask of a character, and an actual character in a character-driven story.
I enjoy creating characters. Which means my stories will at least try to be character-driven, even when perhaps that may not be my intention. And frustration for me comes when my characters derail the plot by behaving in a way I’ve found to be more true to themselves than to the story I’m trying to tell. Damned, willful characters.
I’ve tried before to write stories (example (I can give Wiley Calhoun’s father a different career without compromising his character.), reference) based on various versions of the characters I’m bringing out in this one. I like them. Their relationship has actually become strongly formed in my concepts of them beyond anything I ever actually wrote for any of them. Here, I try writing about that relationship, just to see what story they want to tell.
» Read more "Play Rough, Fight Dirty"
[Me] [Short Stories]
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On May 21, 2002, I posted the first entry in blogoSFERICS, which is the direct ancestor blog of The McGehee Zone. I was using Blogger at the time and posting on Blogspot. A lot of things have changed around here in six years.
Technically, May 21 isn’t really my “blogiversary.” Before blogoSFERICS I started up something I called Flyover Blogdom, which lasted less than a month—much of it at the same time as blogoSFERICS was getting started. But by the time I realized I had a blogiversary this month, May 3 had already come and gone, so…
Update: As you may have (but probably hadn’t) noticed, I do still add a bit to the fiction now and again—not every day, though.
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Is it just me, or does it seem that the mu.nu and mee.nu domains have been going down a lot lately?
What’s up with that, anyway?
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1:48 pm Thursday
May 8, 2008
No backtalk
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The Short Bus
by McGehee
So I’m driving along on a state highway here in Coweta County—one on which the posted limit is 55—and I come up on a parade.
About a half a dozen vehicles are stuck plodding along at 35 behind a short bus with the logo of a day-care chain that we have in the area. Apparently this has been going on for a while because eventually the two vehicles immediately behind the bus pull out and pass on a double-yellow.
The bus driver is riding his brakes and acts like he’s lost, or on something. A third vehicle—a pickup with a trailer—tries to follow the other two that escaped, but oncoming traffic robs him of his opportunity.
One location of this day-care chain is not very far from my home; I start to worry that if I don’t get out of this parade I’ll be behind this short-bus driver for most of the afternoon. There’s a traffic light coming up, and I consider my options:
I could make a left at the light and end up taking a long way home, the only advantage being that I don’t have to look at the bus’ slow-moving backside anymore. I could stay put and hope the short bus isn’t going my way. Or, I could duck down a short detour to the right, come back around to the light from a different direction and hope that between being able to go faster and the timing of that light I’m able to get there before the bus has gotten through the intersection.
I take Plan C. It works. It shouldn’t have worked; there were too many variables against it. I should have ended up taking that other, longer way home. But the bus was waiting at the light as I got there, and the intersection was clear so I could make a right turn and wind up ahead of the parade.
For all I know that bus is still leading those other drivers, only just now getting to the next major intersection on that stretch of highway.
I think that day-care chain needs to hire people whose short-bus experience is driving, not riding.
Afterthought: Maybe the driver thought he was a portable school zone…
[Me] [People] [Brain Donors] [Coweta County]
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Sticking with Stokely
by McGehee
56°F. and clear in Coweta County, GA
In a post three days ago I wrote about the state-court solicitor post that’s on the ballot this year:
Coweta County’s State Court Solicitor, Robert Stokely, finally has a challenger—and if this had happened four years ago that would have been enough to make the decision for me. However Stokely’s response to personal tragedy after his son’s death in Iraq, has made me reassess my opinion of him—which was itself character-related anyway. On balance I have more reason to support Stokely than not, but in fairness to his challenger Randy Coggin I’ll wait until I know more about him before deciding for sure.» Local Candidates
Tuesday’s Times-Herald covers the two candidates each in separate articles (Coggin, Stokely), and having read both I’ll be voting for Stokely in the upcoming Republican primary.
Coggin seems to be a dedicated and capable prosecutor—he works for the District Attorney serving Coweta and several neighboring counties—and had he run for this office in 2004 on many of the issues he’s raising I would certainly have supported him. The thing is, he could have run on a lot of these issues four years ago. Now, not so much.
And now that I’m able—unlike four years ago—to consider Stokely with an open mind, I think he deserves to be re-elected.
[People] [Coweta County] [Government] [Politics] [Elections] [Election 2008]
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The McGehee Zone isn’t “going dark.” I’m just taking a bit of a break, and enjoying meatspace a little bit. Like, for example, this, which we got at Home Depot a couple of months back, at a really good discount (our old Sears riding mower gave out one time too many last fall). Gets the job done in half the time.
Meanwhile, I’m working on another story.
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Local Candidates
by McGehee
66°F. and cloudy in Coweta County, GA
With all the hoopla about the presidential fracas, even in less nonsensical years the local elections are overshadowed. But qualifying has just concluded for those seeking the Democrat or Republican nominations for various local and state legislative offices in my area.
My incumbent county commissioner is not seeking a third term (I suspect this ridiculousness played a role in her decision), so I have to choose between Gary DeGeorge and Rodney Brooks, neither of whom I’ve ever heard of before, in time for the Republican primary this summer—no Democrat has qualified for that seat, so unless someone qualifies next month to run as an independent the winning Republican will be the new commissioner.
The only Republican candidates for either of the two legislative seats—House and Senate—are the incumbents (Billy Horne and Mitch Seabaugh, respectively), so they’re easy enough to decide, especially since I know and like both of them. Likewise for the congressional seat representing Coweta County, currently held by Lynn Westmoreland.
Coweta County’s State Court Solicitor, Robert Stokely, finally has a challenger—and if this had happened four years ago that would have been enough to make the decision for me. However Stokely’s response to personal tragedy after his son’s death in Iraq, has made me reassess my opinion of him—which was itself character-related anyway. On balance I have more reason to support Stokely than not, but in fairness to his challenger Randy Coggin I’ll wait until I know more about him before deciding for sure.
Four years ago I gave Sheriff Mike Yeager‘s then-challenger that same opportunity, and by Election Day I was thoroughly disgusted with Scott Smith. This time around Yeager is unopposed—so far. As noted above, there is a chance someone will qualify to run as an independent. At this point though, I’m quite satisfied with Yeager.
In 2004 Coweta County Coroner Wimp Pierce defeated Ray Yeager, Jr. for the Republican nomination. This year Pierce isn’t seeking re-election, and Yeager is up against Mike Hutson. I don’t know much about either, including what relationship, if any, this Yeager has to the sheriff (in 2004, at least, Ray Yeager was a sheriff’s deputy). The idea of a close relative of one important local officeholder being in another elective local office, bothers me—which might give Hutson an inside track for my vote.
In a marginally related note, there was an anonymous “Sound Off” in today’s Times-Herald about high gas prices:
OUST INCUMBENTS: If you are tired of high gasoline prices, do not vote for these old congressmen and senators. They are getting rich and fatter with our tax dollars. In July, vote for new representation. It may take a few years, but we will win in the long run.
The trouble with this idea is, to the extent members of Congress are responsible for high gas prices, the ones to blame would be those who put Democrats in the Speaker’s chair and the Majority Leader’s office. I’m pretty sure Saxby Chambliss, whose Senate seat is on the ballot this year, and Lynn Westmoreland—both Republicans—can’t be blamed for that.
I’ve submitted a response “Sound Off” pointing this out. After 2006, you just can’t be sure anymore who will get punished for things they had nothing to do with.
[People] [Coweta County] [Government] [Politics] [Elections] [Election 2008]
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