Jay Lake: Writer

[personal|writing] In which both progress and regress are made

Yesterday’s weather here in Omaha was beastly. The kind of weather that makes me wonder why anyone not under the supervision of a court actually remains in this place. In fact, this morning, when faced with 10 degrees, wind and ice patches on sidewalks in the predawn darkness, I gave myself a very rare bye on my morning exercise.

Day Jobbery yesterday was productive if lengthy. At home, if I get tired (and fatigue is still very much an issue), I can go sit in my easy chair for 15 minutes and read work email from there. No such option in the office, where you’re pretty much full on the entire time you’re in. It’s the little things that are wearing. Still, I’m holding up and doing well.

On the home front, the_child did another high school visit yesterday. We are coming to grips with her choices for next year. And though some subjects are definitely harder than others for her, she remains diligent in her assignments, while playing hell for leather on the girls’ basketball squad. She makes me proud every day.

In my own world of assignments, I got another writing session in after work. 2,400 word in an hour on “You Will Attend Until Beauty Awakens”. Plus the plot sort of did this origami lurch and I now see what my subconscious was foreshadowing the other day. Fred, the little man inside my head, is way smarter than me. I’m sure glad he’s in there. Doubtful there will be writing today due to my work and social commitments, but there will be more tomorrow.

And a little bit of WIP… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Child, Omaha, Personal, stories, wip, work, Writing

Posted: 5:45 am Thu January 12 2012 | Comments(0) |

[travel|writing] Heading back to Omaha

Heading back to Omaha today for a week in the corporate office. This is my first trip to Omaha since last July (normally I go once every four to six weeks), and except for the November trip to San Jose, my first business trip since then. Part of a return to normalcy for me. Normalcy in 14 degree weather, of course.

This is a big step for me. A big piece of recovery from chemotherapy. A big piece of reclaiming my normal life.

And in terms of reclaiming, I’ll be taking a stab at first draft fiction during my downtime on this trip. I often use airplane and hotel time for writing, so we’ll see if the writing brain lights up this week. I’m a little fearful and lot optimistic. Wish me luck.

Tags: Cancer, health, Omaha, Travel, Writing

Posted: 4:42 am Mon January 09 2012 | Comments(2) |

[cancer] Living with the results of chemo

Yesterday was pretty brutal. I was profoundly exhausted, so other than some cooking for friends I took the day as downtime. (Exhaustion has really interfered with my writing goals this week.) But my lower GI was also shedding, hard. Which is disruptive, annoying and borderline painful.

Under cut for digestive TMI. You have been warned. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Cancer, Child, friends, health, Omaha

Posted: 7:28 am Sun July 10 2011 | Comments(0) |

[links] Link salad enjoys another slow day

Flying Jay — elusivem with a report on the recent flight of the Emerald City Express, including our flight track. For photos, see here: [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ].

Wrestling and Giant Monsters — Heh. (Via a mailing list I’m on.)

Bringing Past, Present and Future Into Focus — Some cool augmented reality apps. (Thanks to my Dad.)

One of the first aerial photographs ever taken

@neiltyson: The US bank bailout exceeded the half-century lifetime budget of NASA. — (Snuched from Steve Buchheit.)

There is Nothing to Fear But the TSA Itself — Why doesn’t the US mainstream media lead off every newscast by saying, “Today, 1,687 were killed by poor diet and a lack of exercise and 1,213 were killed from smoking cigarettes. And in other news, zero people died today from terrorism or marijuana”? The tone of this article is rather over the top, but the underlying point makes a lot of sense.

The Gay Hatin’ Gospel — Lengthy, fascinating piece from Slacktivist Fred Clark on American Christianists and homosexuality. American evangelicalism is largely based on the idea that certainty is not only possible, but necessary. Mandatory, even. Likewise American conservatism. Neither conservatives nor Christianists do nuance, as the first president Bush said. Unfortunately for them (and unfortunately for the rest of us, given the social and political power wielded by those vocal minorities), the world is made of nuance.

Rep. Ryan Tastes The Grapes Of Wrath — Ok, as much as I take conservatives to task for the hypocrisy and unfairness inherent in many of their worldviews and policy positions, why the heck is this a story? Who cares what Paul Ryan drinks on his own time? For that matter, why the heck has the name ‘Casey Anthony’ appeared in my news feeds approximately 12,376,054 times in the past few months? Get a grip, people.

Republican Senator Hatch says the poor need to share some of the responsibility — You, sir, are a moral leper. The attitude that someone making minimum wage should have sacrifice to preserve tax breaks on corporate jets is why I can never be a conservative.

?otD: What did you do yesterday?

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7/10/2011
Writing time yesterday: n/a (took the day off)
Body movement: 30 minute suburban walk
Hours slept: 7.75 hours (interrupted)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Redemption in Indigo by Karen Lord

Tags: Cool, Culture, Food, Funny, gay, Links, media, Omaha, Personal, Photos, Politics, Religion, Tech, Videos, weird

Posted: 7:12 am Sun July 10 2011 | Comments(0) |

[personal] Lazy day

Pretty much taking the day off with friends here in Omaha. Might make some of my cardiac killer potato salad later. Y’all take it easy, I will.

Tags: Food, friends, Omaha, Personal

Posted: 6:25 am Sat July 09 2011 | Comments(0) |

[photos] Flying with the Emerald City

As noted yesterday [ jlake.com | LiveJournal ], the_child and I went flying with elusivem in the good aerostat Emerald City. A good time was had by all, except possibly the balloon envelope.

Herewith are the photos… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Child, Cool, friends, nature, Omaha, Photos

Posted: 4:55 am Fri July 08 2011 | Comments(2) |

[travel] Flight of the Emerald City

Yesterday the_child and I finally managed a balloon flight, courtesy of elusivem, garyomaha, and the good aerostat Emerald City. Not to mention a group of willing volunteers on the ground crew.

We hauled out to Valley, NE after work yesterday, where the ground crew set the balloon up. Another balloon, Celebration, was launching close by. It’s a long, complex process with a lot of key steps. (Many of which I missed because I was resting in the van.) Once the balloon was set up, we were off quickly, rising over the Nebraska farmland to cruise across the Platte River. We mooed at cows, watched deer, rabbits and fox run from us, inspected crops and railroad tracks, waved at farmhouses, and generally had a grand time.

The sensation of being up in a balloon is fascinating. Except when you’re close to the ground, there’s almost no sense of motion. You’re moving with the wind, after all. The pilot lights hissed slightly, but we could hear all sorts of things from the ground, from cattle lowing to frogs peeping to someone’s peacock calling. I found that I experienced vertigo when we were close down, but not above a few hundred feet from the ground. elusivem explained that’s because the sense of motion disappears as you ascend. Still, I clung to the stays pretty tightly.

On landing, as we came in over the contour of a hill, we even flew through corn. (There’s a sentence I never thought I’d say.) Which is to say, the basket was cruising a foot or two off the ground through a cornfield, the plants hissing and snapping at the wicker as we flowed by.

The landing was clean and uneventful, though Emerald City‘s envelope got snagged on a barbed wire fence during takedown. Sadly, the good aerostat will be going in for repairs due to that mishap.

It may be a few days before I can post a good, solid photoblog of the event, but this might keep you happy for now:

Photo © 2011 Dr. C.

This work by Dr. C. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Child, friends, Omaha, Personal, Photos, Travel

Posted: 5:09 am Thu July 07 2011 | Comments(1) |

[cancer|personal] Energy and focus

So the new drug regime of Zyprexa+Lorazepam really does seem to do the trick of getting me through the chemo weekend largely intact. The nausea has been a complete non-issue twice now. My bounceback is much more robust as well. Given that my prescription schedule extends through Monday night, I am irked by the logeyness and slowed mental acuity going into the post-chemo week, but those aren’t too severe. Of course, part of my being a bit ‘off’ yesterday surely has as much to do with pushing myself to travel on Monday as anything.

Still, yesterday I put in a full day’s work at the office while the_child bombed around with elusivem. We all had dinner together as well. I even managed to patch together a good hour of writing and WRPA even through brain fog. No ballooning due to weather issues, but possibly better luck today.

As for writing, I’d like to get this story that I’ve started completed to first draft in the next day or two. I have to noodle with another concept piece I’ve agreed to participate in. Then, hopefully by the weekend, back to Sunspin. I really want to make some progress before surgery takes me out of the game for a while, in less than three weeks.

Wake up, brain, wake up!

Tags: Cancer, Child, friends, health, Omaha, Personal, stories, Travel, Writing

Posted: 5:16 am Wed July 06 2011 | Comments(0) |

[personal] In Omaha with the Child

I can’t in good conscience recommend a cross-country flight the day after finishing a chemotherapy course, but in fact things worked out okay. It would have been a much tougher trip without the_child wrangling me. We made it, however, and even in one piece.

She loved the clouds, got a funny photo of me sleeping after takeoff from PDX, and was impressed by the extensive flooding visible from the air around Omaha.

Jay eating Mt. Hood

elusivem met us at the airport in Omaha and ferried us to the hotel, where we also met up with garyomaha. Us travelers wolfed down a late meal, visited a while, then crashed off. I do seem to have survived.

Working Day Jobbery today through Friday, ballooning as weather permits. I’ll have to really manage my spoons this week, and if we do go up high, that may affect my online availability. (Ie, oversleeping to get over it.) the_child will be spending time with various friends here while I work, though I am taking her into the office Wednesday or Thursday morning, depending.

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Photo © 2011, B. Lake

This work by B. Lake is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Tags: Child, friends, Omaha, Personal, Photos, Travel

Posted: 5:33 am Tue July 05 2011 | Comments(0) |

[travel] And in the height of idiocy…

I am flying to Omaha today with the_child. Traveling the day after chemo ought to be an interesting experience, to put it mildly.

Happy Fourth, everyone.

Tags: Cancer, Child, heath, Omaha, Personal, Travel

Posted: 7:01 am Mon July 04 2011 | Comments(4) |