Freelancer's Office » procrastination http://www.freelancersoffice.com freelancersoffice.com Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:38:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Midlife Crisis of a Writer http://www.freelancersoffice.com/2010/06/13/midlife-crisis-of-a-writer/ http://www.freelancersoffice.com/2010/06/13/midlife-crisis-of-a-writer/#comments Mon, 14 Jun 2010 04:09:37 +0000 FreelancersOffice.com http://blog.freelancersoffice.com/?p=346 So, midlife crisis strikes and most people will go out and buy a sports car, or quit their job, or maybe get divorced. Me? I’m three days shy of the big four-oh and have come to the determination that I have to stop letting external influences sidetrack my dreams of being an author.

My mom [...]]]> So, midlife crisis strikes and most people will go out and buy a sports car, or quit their job, or maybe get divorced. Me? I’m three days shy of the big four-oh and have come to the determination that I have to stop letting external influences sidetrack my dreams of being an author.

My mom never faltered in her belief that I would be a published author. She believed strongly in my writing, encouraged me to follow my dreams. There were more than a few months over the past six years when the only way that we got from month to month was by the margin I added to the month’s income from my writing work. And this came to be enough for me. My mom felt that I had made it as a writer when my writing earned enough money to pay the bills.

Still, I wanted to be a published novelist and she encouraged me to reach for that star.

After she passed away, in late 2008, I let my dreams slowly get snuffed out under the pressure of others and other needs. I worked at writing, kept working to pay the bills, but the dream to be a published novelist was a lost dream for well over a year now.

I am no longer going to be afraid to pursue my dream, my mother’s dream. I am going back to the How to Think Sideways course that I was a part of when my mom passed away. The course that she encouraged me to take, and take it over from the beginning. As I work my way through that course I will use this website to track my progress and share my thoughts on writing.

I would like to offer the most heartfelt of thank yous to Holly Lisle, the course creator, for creating the course and for giving me a chance to return to it all these months later to work my way back through it and move toward my and my mother’s dream of me being a published writer.

]]> http://www.freelancersoffice.com/2010/06/13/midlife-crisis-of-a-writer/feed/ 0 Funny Creatures http://www.freelancersoffice.com/2009/07/04/funny-creatures/ http://www.freelancersoffice.com/2009/07/04/funny-creatures/#comments Sat, 04 Jul 2009 09:48:33 +0000 FreelancersOffice.com http://blog.freelancersoffice.com/?p=192 The folks over at the Game Giveaway of the Day err, weekend, errr… occasional weekend… yeah, The folks at Game Giveaway of the occasional weekend, have a new offering up for players that want some semi-mindless puzzle solving.

Funny Creatures, or, as I prefer to unofficially dub it, Hairless Hamsters.

Funny Creatures is a puzzle solving game with two levels of difficulty to it, easy and hard.   The goal of the game is to move the little critters (a circular creature with large eyes and small hamster-like feet poking out from it in four directions) around until you get it to stop in the round ‘base’ plate of the same color.

Some levels have arrows that will redirect the Creatures into the direction the arrow indicates, making it a bit harder to move them where you want them.  In all levels the same basic rules of movement apply.  Creatures move in a straight line until they meet an obstacle – either a wall or another creature.  You can not move say one square at a time, when they move they move as far as the open floor allows.

A nice “I’m asleep and wanna distract myself from going to bed” game, but not something to rush out and buy in my opinion.

Good points:

  • Solve any puzzle you feel like working on, you do not have to solve puzzles in sequence.
  • No timer, just a count of how many moves were needed to complete the puzzle
  • East enough for small kids to play, but not so easy it would put adults to sleep
  • Music is pleasant to listen to and not distracting – set volume in options
  • Floor grid can be turned off/on in the options
  • Full screen toggle in the options

Strikes against the game:

  • Complaints have been made by other users at the giveaway site that it is not Windows 7 or Vista compatible.
  • Simplistic no frills game with a too easy to reach ‘booooring’ margin

All in all it is worth a try if you like to veg and do not have something to do such as write a novel, get an article started, post to blogs, watch Netflix online or play Sims3 …. I have all of those other things, so I’ll head off and attack one or more of them and let you check out the Funny Creatures game some more yourself if you feel inclined.

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