Trying To CheerPepper Again

by Revis Edgewater

It’s been a few years since I’ve done the CheerPepper thing. Between life, work, and kids, something always demands more of my attention than this blog does. But, since I promised my dinosaur friend Rarasaur that I’d try to do it this year, that’s what I shall do. I shall endeavor to do it every day.

Because I’m probably not going to have time every day to do it, I’m starting early. For example, this post will publish on November 1st, but it was written about a week and a half in advance. That’s my plan for this month’s posts. I’m going to do as many of them as I can early. I’m also probably going to add quite a few entries into my 99 Words or Less stories category.

Is that cheating? Maybe. But, if I’m going to get through the month, that’s what I’m going to have to do.

On deck for tomorrow is a follow-up to this post.

Handwriting to Text

by Revis Edgewater

I had a little free time last night and was going to write another post or two to schedule for my upcoming NanoPoblano attempt. Normally when I do my writing, even if I’m doing it on my phone, I do it on the main floor of my house. Last night, however, I was laying in bed. The reason that little tidbit is important is because the shelf area, below the drawer on my nightstand, is where I keep the notebooks that I used to do all my writing in. You know, before everyone started carrying around a computer in their pocket.

For awhile now, I’ve wanted to turn those writings into text files, but something always stopped me. Either I didn’t feel like typing it up, or I didn’t have the software on my computer to be able to do it, or I just didn’t have the time for it. Well, last night I had some time. So, I looked on my phone for a handwriting to text app. There were a number of them. I picked the first one on the list and played around with it for a few minutes. After scanning the first few pages, I went to move the text to a word document. I couldn’t. That was part of the app’s “premium service” and I’d have to pay for the upgrade. It honestly wasn’t a lot of money, but I didn’t want to pay for something if I could get it for free.

It took me a few tries until I finally found one that wouldn’t charge me money to move what I scanned. I have to put up with ads for this privilege, but it’s doable.

The story I picked to test was one I started, but didn’t get very far into (for reasons I don’t remember anymore). It was only 10-12 handwritten pages. Once I scanned them into the app, it became apparent that the conversion from handwriting to text wasn’t perfect. Then again, my handwriting is far from perfect, which may have been at least part of the problem. Needless to say, there is some editing that needs to be done to it before it’s even remotely presentable. I thought about doing the edits to it, breaking it up into parts, and posting it during my post-a-day November thing, but I’m not sure if that would be a good idea.

First of all, it’s one of the earliest things I wrote, which means it’s probably bad. After all these years, I know I’m still nowhere close to being the best writer in the world, but I am better now than I was back then. And, the edits I would do before posting would only be to fix any mistakes that happened during the handwriting to text conversion. I wouldn’t do any story editing to it, because I may go back over it sometime later and add to it.

That last sentence highlights the second problem I’m having with the idea of posting it: it’s not finished. It’s not even close. When I first started writing it, I was planning on making it a full blown novel. What I have written already is only around a chapter and a half of material. On the off chance that some of you out there would like it, and want me to continue, there’s not going to be any more coming any time soon. That would probably be frustrating to those who want more.

What do you think I should do, dear readers? Should I go ahead and post it, or should I hold onto it?

Covers

by Revis Edgewater

Lately, I’ve been really into listening to covers. I’ve been focusing mostly on rock covers of non-rock songs. A few rock versions of pop and country songs have found their way into my regular playlists. The one I listen to the most is this song here: an acoustic guitar version of Prince’s When Doves Cry by the band Shaman’s Harvest.

There’s something about the way they play it that just strikes a chord in me. I love it.

The covers that get the most play in my house, however, are rock covers of Disney songs. The girls like some of them. They hate some of them. There’s a band called No Resolve that does a few of them that are pretty good. My favorite is this song here. The No Resolve covers are better than this one, but this Peyton Parrish cover annoys the crap out of Baby J and I find that amusing.

New Job Update

by Revis Edgewater

I got my 30 day review yesterday… about a week late. Something I need to remember for my reviewer’s review.

So far, it’s going well. During my review they said they’re pleased with my performance. I’ve made a few small mistakes here and there, which is to be expected from someone who hasn’t been working there very long. Thankfully, they’re patient enough not to go ballistic about it on the few occasions I messed up. They simply brought the mistakes to my attention and gave me pointers on how to avoid making the same mistakes again.

While they’re pleased with my performance, I am satisfied with the job too. It’s certainly not the worst job I’ve ever had. The work is mostly simple. There is enough work (usually) to keep me busy all day without feeling rushed, so the days go by fairly quickly. My new coworkers are nice and mostly cool.

I’m glad I finally made the change and went with this job. Just the schedule change alone was worth it, but the fact that I’m making more money doing something that isn’t running me ragged like my last job is icing on the cake.

RTOTD: 22276

by Revis Edgewater

For the most part, traffic signs that tell you where you are make sense. It’s usually a good thing to know when you enter a new state or new city. On my way home from work, however, I passed a sign that told me I was leaving one county and entering another…

…When was the last time you were driving around and thought to yourself, “Hmm, I wonder what county I’m in right now…”

The Dice Game

by Revis Edgewater

Last night, Mrs. Revis had some running around that she needed to do, so she took care of it while I watched the girls. For the most part, we all went to our respective corners and did our things. Baby J went up to her room and did what teenage girls do: she spent all night on her phone. Baby E played Minecraft on the Switch for a few minutes before deciding to watch Stranger Things on Netflix instead. I kept myself busy by finishing up the latest Dragonlance novel by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (for those of you wondering, it was OK, but it was kinda disappointing too).

Once my book was done, I went to check on Baby E. She was watching her show with great interest. It was at that moment when a few different things popped into my head. First was, while I’ve never seen the show, I have heard that the characters play D&D in it. Since I’d just finished reading a book set in a D&D realm, it made sense for it to be on my mind. The second thing was the series of posts Matticus has been writing about playing D&D with his boys. The last was that Baby E  already has her own set of dice. Actually, she has several.  She saw my sets a few years ago and asked me what they were for. I told her they were for a game I used to play. She, of course, wanted her own after that.  So, we got her some and she just makes up her own games with them.

After her episode ended, I asked her about the characters playing Dungeons and Dragons on the show. She said they did play it. “I used to play that game a lot,” I told her. “That’s what my big bag of dice were for.”

“Oh, so that’s the dice game?”

“Yeah. That’s the dice game.” I paused for a second. “You know, I still have a couple of the books, so we can play it… if you want to.”

She asked me how you played it. I gave her a quick, simple explanation of what you did during the game. She thought about it for a minute before saying she wanted to try it. There wasn’t enough time to start a campaign last night before I had to start cooking dinner, but there was enough time to create a character for her. I pulled the book out and showed her the different races. She chose a halfling. Then I went over the different classes she could be and gave brief descriptions of each. Fighters fight. Rogues are thieves. Clerics are healers, etc.

The last class on the list was barbarian. She asked me what they were. “They’re kinda like fighters,” I told her, “except they get really angry when they fight, like the Hulk.”

She thought about that for a second before putting on a wicked grin and laughing evilly. “I want to be a barbarian.”

… what have I done?

No Longer Home – Finale

by Revis Edgewater

“What…” John stammered. “What is he talking about?”

Even though John had directed the question at the wolf, Sharptooth, it was the grizzly bear that answered it. “Sharptooth and I have a deal,” it laughed. “He leads humans here so I can kill them in exchange for me not hurting any of his pack.”

“You said the animals here didn’t hurt each other.”

“Redclaw is the exception to that,” Sharptooth said with a snarl.

The bear, Redclaw, laughed again. “What can I say? Hurting things is fun.” Turning serious, it added, “Now, get out of my way, Sharptooth, so I can start the fun.”

Just when John thought his heart couldn’t drop any lower, it fell another fifty feet and hit rock bottom when Sharptooth complied with the order. The wolf looked back over its shoulder. He appeared to be saddened by his actions, but that didn’t comfort John too much. Redclaw was going to kill him regardless of how Sharptooth felt about it.

Redclaw!

John had been so caught up in the betrayal that he’d taken his eyes off the bear. He whipped hid head around and saw that Redclaw was only a few feet away. Moving purely on instinct, John thrust the torch out in front of him. The flames touched flesh and the bear roared out in pain. Redclaw swatted John in retaliation. Pain shot through John’s already injured shoulder from the bear’s attack. He was bleeding now, he knew. He could feel it. Redclaw had earned its name once again.

The smell of burnt hair assaulted his nostrils. He tried to shake his head to clear it out, but could only move his head to one side. That’s because he was on the ground and it was preventing him from doing it. John didn’t remember falling. Then again, he was hurting so much that not a lot was clear to him at that moment. He looked around to see what was happening.

The torch was laying on the ground too. It was still lit, but it lay out of reach. Redclaw had recovered from the burn and was once more within a few feet of him. This time, the bear looked angry. John smiled. He knew was about to die, but at least he hurt the bear a little before he was gone. His eyes closed and he waited for the end.

Instead, he was greeted with a roar. It wasn’t deep enough to be from Redclaw. He opened his eyes and saw Sharptooth behind the bear. Sharptooth bit down on Redclaw’s hind leg and began shaking his head back and forth. Redclaw growled, more in anger than in pain. The bear tried swatting at the wolf, but Sharptooth was too fast. “I’ll kill you for this,” Redclaw roared while swiping at the nimble canine again.

Sharptooth ignored the bear and cried out, “The black rock at the back!”

John remembered what the wolf told him about the rock. He said it could take him back home. Pushing up, through all the pain, he got to his feet. The black rock was just at the very edge of the torch’s light. He took a step toward it. Redclaw moved to intercept him, but Sharptooth bit him again. While the wolf had the bear distracted, he stepped forward again. Then again. And again.

He put one foot in front of the other, gaining speed each time he did it. Soon, he was running. His body protested his every movement. Still, he knew that to slow down was death. The black rock was almost within reach. In his peripheral vision, he saw Redclaw coming at him. It would be close. The bear might get to him before he got to the black rock. Using the last of his strength, John dove forward with his arm outstretched. Pain shot through his entire body and he was sure the bear had him.

His eyes shot open. John didn’t want to see himself being torn apart by a savage animal. He couldn’t help it. They opened on their own. There wasn’t an angry bear there, however. There wasn’t a wolf, a torch, or a cave either. It was morning, and he was back in his bedroom, laying on his bed.

John chuckled. It had all been a dream, he thought. That’s what he thought until he tried to move, that is. As soon as he did, pain filled his body. John screamed in agony. Blood covered his injured shoulder. He couldn’t move it anymore. Using his uninjured arm, he reached for his phone. his fingers pressed 911. The last thing that went through his mind before hitting ‘Send’ was asking himself how he was going to explain his injuries to people without sounding like a lunatic.