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captainsblogJust various things I never got around to saying or uploading here during the week, along with some very warmed-over fiction I'm just getting back to after a long time away....
I've mentioned that the Toronto Blue Jays have taken up nest in downtown Buffalo for the second straight summer of closed border, this year with actual fans allowed. I passed on the first series of "home" games they made available, because the opponents meant nothing to me and the prices for them were ridik. But on Thursday morning, they opened the general-public door to games into the second half of July, including a series against the Red Sox. They are by far my favorite AL team; I've never seen them at Fenway, but did catch them on the road against the Mets a few years back. These games had many more available tickets than the first bunches did, since stadium capacity is now near-full in the vaccinated sections that make up most of the ballpark, so while Eleanor was on her scenic drive to or from our doctor's that morning, I secured two seats for the Monday night game for something less than an arm and a leg. I've been hinting to my college roommate that he might want to pick that time for a visit, and if he does, I'll have a seatmate. Otherwise, I'm sure it won't go begging.
More about the Red Sox to fictionally follow....
----
Jim has also been on my mind because this weekend is our 40th college reunion, and for the first time in eight quinquennial tries,* I actually signed up!
Mainly because it didn't cost anything and doesn't require going anywhere. Whole thing's on Zoom. I've yet to log into anything, and I may not, between Saturdays being generally busy and me already having virtual plans for early this afternoon. Also, I decided to plunge back into the wonderful world of continuing ed: my biennial attorney registration period ends in November, and despite COVID, they fully expect that I will have procured my 24 hours of credits by then. In most reporting periods, I get away with showing up much less because I usually teach once or twice a year, and those get triple credit for presentation time plus comped credit for listening to other people. But with everything virtual and nationwide, I haven't had the chance.
So a formerly all-day bankruptcy seminar which, in the Before Times, met halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, will take place Zoomy over two afternoons week after next. This will knock off about half my required biennial courseload, including those pesky mandatory credits for ethics and diversity, in two straight five hour sessions of sitting on my ass.
It's also kinda weird that the reunion is virtual, despite the Cornell campus being a leader in mass vaccination and distancing, when I've actually been noodling a plan to head back there for the first time in forevers. My sister and one of her friends have talked about making a daytrip to Ithaca if I could make it in that direction. This past week was too full of court and other diversions, but next week looks relatively open as of now. Or, I might head past there, and through Bingo, to see my first ticketed concert in a year and half the weekend after that. Stay tuned.
----
At least I don't have any fear of driving from my little incident the other day. It could have been much worse, as I was reminded on a similar journey yesterday. Going back to my office, I saw cop lights down the road, and discovered he was there to help clean up an accident; the car pointing my way was hit so hard, its front axle blew off. I can live with a bump on my bumper, I think;)
I also got to see this in my travels yesterday-
- and, moments after posting that on Facebook, a friend made another sighting:
Don't worry, it's his sister!**
----
Anyway, back to the Red Sox. Who, by the way, should really be the home team in Buffalo, as chronicled in this retrospective from a writer now based here whose stuff I really enjoy.
When I joined the writing group withdauntless_heart, I didn't have any new fiction in process, so I went with a non-fiction piece I'd just written and have never posted anywhere but there, which got a good reaction. Then, a friend made mention of a seemingly random death in the world of baseball: Del Crandall passed away in early May, and he was the last surviving player of the longtime NL Braves franchise from when they played in Boston back in the early 1950s. My friend also mentioned that their onetime Boston ballpark still exists, sort of, transformed into the BU football stadium.
That brought back a memory: in 2012, my NaNo novel used Braves Field as a minor plot point: it was one of the many places the Red Sox were forced to play in after an arsonist novelist burned down their ballpark on the first page of the book- and then, for good measure, did the same to Chicago's equally historic Wrigley Field a page later.
This was the NaNo I was prouder of: I began it late in November, built up a head of steam and got it under the wires of December 1 and 50,000 words with a bit to spare. I'd shopped it a bit, and was told it was too implausible. Over the years, a number of things happened in real life which were, not exactly what I'd predicted, but close enough for a called strike. And after the 2016 election and the ensuing four-plus years of shitshow, I don't want anybody telling me something isn't plausible.
So it's been fun, revisiting the story, two chapters at a time. I presented the first two in May, chapter 3 and most of 4 last Saturday to a smaller group. The rest of that last chapter, along with 5 and 6, just got posted to the group site (and yes, I hit send this time:P). One of the oddities is the choices I made for character names. I have most of my experience in this area with the fanfic site I was involved with way back when: don't name characters after real people who will find out, complain, and possibly sue you. Baby name book for first names, phone book for last, throw darts at each. Well, I did that. Mostly. Some of the names I can tell to be cleverly disguised riffs on people I know of from similar events in real life, mostly from the legal end. Oddly, a character we meet in Chapter 5 has the same name as someone from my high school who's related to one of my favorite teachers- but it's not his last name, and I didn't know her, or even of her, when I wrote this in 2012.
So we'll see how this goes.
ETA. It went. Enjoyable and productive time. I only got through my fifth chapter, and I think I will start editing the old draft before submitting the sixth and possibly seventh to take some of the comments into account.
----
* That's the word for it, which I never knew. I guessed "quintennial." I was wrong.
** The plates, and final punch line, and the icon, are all Schitt's Creek references. Go watch it.
I've mentioned that the Toronto Blue Jays have taken up nest in downtown Buffalo for the second straight summer of closed border, this year with actual fans allowed. I passed on the first series of "home" games they made available, because the opponents meant nothing to me and the prices for them were ridik. But on Thursday morning, they opened the general-public door to games into the second half of July, including a series against the Red Sox. They are by far my favorite AL team; I've never seen them at Fenway, but did catch them on the road against the Mets a few years back. These games had many more available tickets than the first bunches did, since stadium capacity is now near-full in the vaccinated sections that make up most of the ballpark, so while Eleanor was on her scenic drive to or from our doctor's that morning, I secured two seats for the Monday night game for something less than an arm and a leg. I've been hinting to my college roommate that he might want to pick that time for a visit, and if he does, I'll have a seatmate. Otherwise, I'm sure it won't go begging.
More about the Red Sox to fictionally follow....
----
Jim has also been on my mind because this weekend is our 40th college reunion, and for the first time in eight quinquennial tries,* I actually signed up!
Mainly because it didn't cost anything and doesn't require going anywhere. Whole thing's on Zoom. I've yet to log into anything, and I may not, between Saturdays being generally busy and me already having virtual plans for early this afternoon. Also, I decided to plunge back into the wonderful world of continuing ed: my biennial attorney registration period ends in November, and despite COVID, they fully expect that I will have procured my 24 hours of credits by then. In most reporting periods, I get away with showing up much less because I usually teach once or twice a year, and those get triple credit for presentation time plus comped credit for listening to other people. But with everything virtual and nationwide, I haven't had the chance.
So a formerly all-day bankruptcy seminar which, in the Before Times, met halfway between Buffalo and Rochester, will take place Zoomy over two afternoons week after next. This will knock off about half my required biennial courseload, including those pesky mandatory credits for ethics and diversity, in two straight five hour sessions of sitting on my ass.
It's also kinda weird that the reunion is virtual, despite the Cornell campus being a leader in mass vaccination and distancing, when I've actually been noodling a plan to head back there for the first time in forevers. My sister and one of her friends have talked about making a daytrip to Ithaca if I could make it in that direction. This past week was too full of court and other diversions, but next week looks relatively open as of now. Or, I might head past there, and through Bingo, to see my first ticketed concert in a year and half the weekend after that. Stay tuned.
----
At least I don't have any fear of driving from my little incident the other day. It could have been much worse, as I was reminded on a similar journey yesterday. Going back to my office, I saw cop lights down the road, and discovered he was there to help clean up an accident; the car pointing my way was hit so hard, its front axle blew off. I can live with a bump on my bumper, I think;)
I also got to see this in my travels yesterday-
- and, moments after posting that on Facebook, a friend made another sighting:
Don't worry, it's his sister!**
----
Anyway, back to the Red Sox. Who, by the way, should really be the home team in Buffalo, as chronicled in this retrospective from a writer now based here whose stuff I really enjoy.
When I joined the writing group with
dauntless_heart, I didn't have any new fiction in process, so I went with a non-fiction piece I'd just written and have never posted anywhere but there, which got a good reaction. Then, a friend made mention of a seemingly random death in the world of baseball: Del Crandall passed away in early May, and he was the last surviving player of the longtime NL Braves franchise from when they played in Boston back in the early 1950s. My friend also mentioned that their onetime Boston ballpark still exists, sort of, transformed into the BU football stadium.That brought back a memory: in 2012, my NaNo novel used Braves Field as a minor plot point: it was one of the many places the Red Sox were forced to play in after an arsonist novelist burned down their ballpark on the first page of the book- and then, for good measure, did the same to Chicago's equally historic Wrigley Field a page later.
This was the NaNo I was prouder of: I began it late in November, built up a head of steam and got it under the wires of December 1 and 50,000 words with a bit to spare. I'd shopped it a bit, and was told it was too implausible. Over the years, a number of things happened in real life which were, not exactly what I'd predicted, but close enough for a called strike. And after the 2016 election and the ensuing four-plus years of shitshow, I don't want anybody telling me something isn't plausible.
So it's been fun, revisiting the story, two chapters at a time. I presented the first two in May, chapter 3 and most of 4 last Saturday to a smaller group. The rest of that last chapter, along with 5 and 6, just got posted to the group site (and yes, I hit send this time:P). One of the oddities is the choices I made for character names. I have most of my experience in this area with the fanfic site I was involved with way back when: don't name characters after real people who will find out, complain, and possibly sue you. Baby name book for first names, phone book for last, throw darts at each. Well, I did that. Mostly. Some of the names I can tell to be cleverly disguised riffs on people I know of from similar events in real life, mostly from the legal end. Oddly, a character we meet in Chapter 5 has the same name as someone from my high school who's related to one of my favorite teachers- but it's not his last name, and I didn't know her, or even of her, when I wrote this in 2012.
So we'll see how this goes.
ETA. It went. Enjoyable and productive time. I only got through my fifth chapter, and I think I will start editing the old draft before submitting the sixth and possibly seventh to take some of the comments into account.
----
* That's the word for it, which I never knew. I guessed "quintennial." I was wrong.
** The plates, and final punch line, and the icon, are all Schitt's Creek references. Go watch it.
no subject
Date: 2021-06-12 06:49 pm (UTC)