Last night I caught up on the first episode of Big Brother 10. An interesting mix of people, as always. It turns out that three of the contestants are from this area, one from the village where I live, one from the outskirts, and one from a rural community fairly close: the old guy, the gay rodeo guy and the mother of biracial twins (I don’t have their names down yet). I wonder if they’ll band together as the “greater Houston trio.” I hope the hairdresser from New Orleans is the first to go. Annoying much?
I also watched Sunday night’s Criminal Intent, which had some interesting twists. Shades of Gary Glitter, except turned upside down. I did not recognize Joan Jett until the credits. She comported herself very well in the role of a V-Jay, though granted she spent most of the episode dead.
I finished The Fifth Floor this weekend, though by the end I was just leafing through the pages to get the gist of the story. What started with an interesting premise ended up being marred by really poor execution. Way over the top plot developments. I mean, seriously, what police department would release the prime suspect in the murder of one of the mayor’s top assistants and make the evidence disappear? And when the first person narrator started hiding valuable information from the reader, I knew the jig was up. The story had a ton of potential, too, more the shame.
I picked up The Last Patriot by Brad Thor (doesn’t that name just ooze testosterone?). It’s the current #1 NY Times hardcover fiction bestseller, and I saw a very positive review of it in the Times last week. Then the publisher graciously sent me a copy all at around the same time, so I thought I’d give it a try. So far, so good. A by-the-numbers thriller, though the review alluded to “transcendence of the genre” (without actually saying so in so many words). So far there’s been an assassination near the Lincoln memorial and a car bomb in Paris, and that’s just a few chapters in. The book seems to be about the discovery of the earliest known manuscript of the Koran and a prophecy contained therein.
I almost goofed and submitted a story this morning before the reading period starts. I jotted the date down on my to-do list, but this morning, while reviewing the guidelines, I realized that it said “midnight, July 15,” so that means I won’t send it out until tomorrow. I read through it twice more this morning and still found things to tweak. At this point, none of the changes I make are likely to change the minds of an editor about whether or not to accept the piece, but it’s very important to me to get the mood and the voice right, and these changes (to my mind at least) are a step closer to what I’m aiming for.
I spent part of the evening last night setting up a used laptop we bought on eBay for $250. It’s the cutest little thing, a Dell Latitude. It really is the size of a notebook and just as light, too. It doesn’t have a CD drive, so I hooked up the external one I use for writing DVDs on my desktop machine and that did the trick. Once I configured the wireless network I had to install service pack 3 of XP, which took well over an hour. Since it’s only going to be used for data collection during a research program, I decided to try out the free AVG anti-virus program, which I’ve heard people complimenting in the past.
Down to the wire for NECON—just two more days! It’ll be a little different this year since they had to move the con to a convention center. Still, it’s about the people and not the location, so I’m sure it will be fine. Kiss those brain cells goodbye.
