respawn87's Xanga

NaNoWriMo Day 6 and other things

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 22:15:15 GMT

Words written: 2693
Total word count: 11,049/50,000

Well I passed 1/5th of the goal word count! I am just as surprised as anyone. It's coming along nicely, I must say. One of my characters is taking a while to develop, but it will all get ironed out soon enough. I'm surprised at the story progression that I'm making, that's for sure. It's a great feeling to have made it this far at least.

Normal stuff:

I talked to my friend Neil for the first time in 4 months today. He's with the Marines, and has been deployed to Afghanistan, and is back here on leave until after Christmas (I think). It was good to hear his voice over the phone, and I'm glad that the prayers have been answered. I'll get to hang out with him sometime this week hopefully. Please keep praying for him, however. Being a Marine has changed him somewhat. He isn't psycho or anything like that, but his attitude has changed from being that of a Christian, to that of an alcoholic (See edit below). He said the only things he's done since he got back were sleep, eat, and drink. He used to not be like this, I remember when he balked at even the hint of drinking or smoking a cigarette. Since he joined the Marines he hasn't had many positive influences, so I'm pretty sure it has only made things worse for him. I'm hoping to make a good impression on him while he's back, so that he can see the changes I've made in my life in the past couple of years.

EDIT:

I want to say, for the sake of his reputation and all that (even though you may not know him), Neil is not an alcoholic, his mindset has just seemed to have changed to include a lot more drinking than he used to. Even though most of you probably don't know him, I don't think it's right to say something that could cause someone to think of him in an untrue way. I just couldn't find any better way to put how he sounded to me over the phone, so I said that it sounded more like an alcoholic than a Christian. Anyway, just thought I'd clear that up.

NaNoWriMo Day 3

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:32:18 GMT

Words written: 1,967
Total word count: 5,410/50,000

I passed the 1/10th mark of the goal word count for my NaNoWriMo novel! Words are starting to flow a lot more easily now that I have background out of the way. I want to be able to bang out a few more chapters, but I've got to rest sometime, and I think that if you put too much effort into it at one time, the ideas you thought were great end up sounding pretty stupid after a good night's rest. For now a satisfying mini-goal has been reached. In college I would have cringed at the thought of writing a 5,000 word paper. Now I've written 5,400 words in 3 days and didn't blink an eye. I am impressed with myself so far, we'll see how long this keeps up. I'm posting all of this stuff because it will motivate me to keep going, if anything because I don't want to look like an idiot for starting something and not being able to finish.

NaNoWriMo Day 2

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 03:16:00 GMT

Words written: 1,569
Total word count: 3,443/50,000

They mentioned this in an email we got, that we would probably stop and take a look at what we had written and start to rethink what we are writing. Then they said not to give up, but to press on. That is exactly what I did today. I woke up with the feeling that I was going in the wrong direction with what I had written, but I gave that notion up and kept writing. It's a good thing I did. I finished a second chapter and introduced my second main character. The two characters are going to have interweaving stories, but will not know each other for a good amount of time in the plot. I know I'm crazy for attempting to keep up with two different stories at once, with this being my first novel and all, but I feel that with the overall story I've developed, two main characters with different stories are necessary to achieve my goals.

A personal note. I've seen the others on the NaNo site who have word counts of already 9,000+ in only 2 days. I know it's not a competition, but I feel like a midget among giants with the stats I've seen from some of these people. I need to try to relax and just remember that it's for fun and enjoyment that we do this, not for competition. You are considered a winner of the event if you reach 50,000 words. I just try to think too hard, and having that daily 1,667 word goal is such a pain to overcome. It becomes more like a deadline. I'm great at handling deadlines, but I don't know how well I'll handle a month of straight deadlines. I think sometime this week I need to head to a coffee shop and sit down to give myself a good word-count buffer. Maybe if I reach 10,000 words soon I will start to feel more comfortable and less uptight about the whole thing.

NaNoWriMo Day 1

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:43:53 GMT

I did decide after all to participate in NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, for those of you who have never heard of it. I spent last week catching up on putting the finishing touches on some characters and plot scenarios I had in my head. I may reveal a little more about my characters later on, but for now I will keep it quiet, in case some, less creative, writers come to my site and take advantage of the free inspiration. I will let it go at least a week, hopefully by then people will have their own characters and story developed. I need to write at least 1,667 words a day to meet the 50,000 word deadline at the end of the month. I decided I would keep a little journal here. I may not post every day, but when I do, I will try to keep up with my daily count, and the total word count. If I lack creative posts other than the "this is how my week went" posts, please forgive me, it is because I am pouring all of my creative juices into writing this novel. So here goes:

Day 1

Words written: 1,874
Total word count: 1,874 / 50,000

I had a strong first day. I wrote in the car on the way home from my grandparent's house, and finished up my writing after church. The first chapter is coming along nicely. I'm developing the back story to my first main character. Nothing drastic yet. The way it's going now, I may shoot way past 50,000 words in my novel. 1,800+ of those are just in the beginning, and I have so many other plans. I think I get the wordiness from reading so many Tom Clancy novels as a boy. Oh well. This seems like it will be a lot of fun, so let's hope I don't give up easily after the 2 week mark is met and the stress starts coming in.

If anyone else is participating, my name on the NaNoWriMo site is also respawn87, so add me as a writing buddy and we can keep each other encouraged.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:22:12 GMT

Trust me, I have stuff to write about, I just don't have time to formulate a good post for all of it. I need to get some of this out so I can think it through, but every time I sit down at my computer it is for another purpose other than Xanga. Fixing so many computers leads to a lack of ambition to be on a computer in my leisure time.... so usually when I sit down at my computer on my own time, I just check emails and see what's up on Facebook.... you know, thoughtless stuff that doesn't require a lot of time or effort. I'm also hopelessly addicted to Bejeweled. My evenings are spent with my family usually talking or watching TV.... and I'm playing Bejeweled on my laptop while talking or watching. I promise sometime there will be a post with something good to say about a subject.... soon.

I want to mention that I went to the North Carolina State Fair with my parents on Friday. None of my friends wanted to go, so I tagged along with my folks. It was fun, I haven't been to the fair since I was a little kid.... over 10 years ago. We saw all the usual agricultural stuff like cows and pigs and stuff, went to a BMX stunt show, and ate fried stuff. My parents had fried pecan pie.... haha. I didn't ride any rides because it was anywhere from $3-$6 to ride one ride! In the evening they had a Jeremy Camp concert, but we went to the demolition derby instead. (It was cheaper and more my style.) Apparently as a 2 year old, I used to love demolition derbys, because my dad took me to them on weekends when we lived in Washington. I haven't been to one since we moved here though. I could write a ton about how much fun they are. Taking a machine that we ordinarily would not want to harm and slamming it into another machine, it's totally contrary to everything we're taught, but it has a beauty all its own when it's done in the right context. Anyway.... fun Friday for me and my parents.

Last thing before I go to bed. I am thinking of trying out NaNoWriMo this November. I have no clue where to start, but I've always wanted to write a novel, so maybe this will jump start me in the right direction. I don't know if I'll get 50,000 words in by November 30th, but it will push me to just throw some of my ideas out on the table. Writing a novel is on my life's to-do list, so why not cross it off early? We'll see. It's a little under a week away, so I need to come up with a plan. Any suggestions for what type of novel I should write, or characters, or anything related would be awesome from you guys!

Ebay Issues

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 01:38:38 GMT

Oh joy, now I'm going to tell you about my least favorite eBay transaction to date....

At the beginning of this month, I bought a broken Xbox 360 off of eBay, and fixed it up. I've done this a few times in the past, and it has proven to be a nice little income maker. A broken Xbox sells for around $45 and can be sold for at least $80-$100 when fixed. This particular Xbox had a problem called the "red ring of death," a common issue with 360's because of a crappy design. After fixing and testing it, I listed it on eBay as a refurbished item, and offered a 7 day money back refund if the Xbox should break or have experienced damage from shipping. I'm not a big power seller or anything like that, so it's not like I can give 1 year or even 30 day warranties with stuff I sell, I'm just using my account to sell used stuff and the occasional PC that I build. The 7 day money back offer is pretty generous to begin with for the type of seller I am.

A bidding war started, and the Xbox ended up selling for $129 on the 5th, which took me by surprise because I was expecting only around $100 for it. I shipped off the Xbox, and the buyer replied with positive feedback that she was happy with the Xbox. I put it away as another successful sale on eBay. Then on the 20th, I got a message from the buyer asking me to refund her money, because something had happened, and the Xbox 360 was experiencing problems.

Here is where it all begins. If the lady had asked me within the 7 day return period, I would have been perfectly fine giving a full refund. However, 15 days later is when she notified me that she wanted a refund. The problem is that she told me her son only used it 3 times. If he had bothered to use it more than 3 times in 7 days, he would have found the problem with the Xbox, and I would have kept my word and given a full refund. Thus I did not believe that a refund was entitled because of the length of time that had passed, and the fact that it was not my fault that her son did not play it more often.

After informing her of this, I received a message from PayPal telling me they were withholding the money which I had been given over two weeks before, until the dispute was settled. This was a minor annoyance, so I told the lady my reasons again for why she was not going to get a full refund from me. I felt that I had upheld my part of the sale, I was not responsible for how many times her son had used the Xbox. If he had played it more he would have found the problem within 7 days and I would have given the refund. That afternoon, she escalated the dispute to a full claim, and PayPal informed me they were investigating the issue. I felt confident, because the listing was clear that the item was "as is" and used, and refunds would only be given in 7 days if a problem was found.

Meanwhile, correspondence between the lady and I continued, because apparently she thought that insulting me and trying to include personal stories would persuade me to give up and give her a refund. The insults were not bad, mostly things like "you should be ashamed of yourself" and little remarks about my character. I tried to explain that I had no intentions to sell her an item that would break within a certain amount of time, and that it was unfortunate, but she was given plenty of time to test it out, and based on the principal of the issue, I would just rather let PayPal settle it. Remember, I felt confident because there were plenty of guidelines in the listing stating what the agreement was between buyer and seller. As for the personal remarks, I kept my cool and not send her back some remarks that would have been unprofessional. I kept all my emails professional with no personal remarks.

Thursday I received the exact opposite of what I was expecting. For some reason PayPal ignored my listing, and did not even consider my side of the story. The comments that show up on the PayPal dispute page only showed one of my replies, and all of hers, and not even the most important of my comments, the one I replied to when they asked me to state my side of the issue. PayPal ruled in her favor, and once she sends me the Xbox back, the money will be refunded to her.

My real problem with this ordeal is that she told PayPal that if they did not refund her money, she would stop using them and spread bad publicity about them. She also talked about how she would not be able to afford a new Xbox for her son, but a look at her recent purchases shows she had plenty of money to buy $91 used Ugg boots a day after filing the claim with eBay. She blamed me for selling her an item that was rigged to break, and used all sorts of lies and attacks on my character to get her way and her money. It also disturbs me that PayPal would not take my side of the story into account or look at the cold facts, that she was clearly out of the contract, no matter how few times her son played it to test it.

I'm just glad to get it all over with. I now have a broken Xbox and am $129 short on money. Thank you for praying for me, I hope I was a good witness through the whole thing.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:17:35 GMT

Not going to mention much yet, but I am asking for prayers. It's nothing serious at all really. It is an eBay dispute that has annoyed me to no end. All I'm asking for right now is prayers from you guys for my attitude in dealing with this person, no matter the outcome. Pray that I keep a professional attitude while I respond to emails and messages, and that I do not make any of it personal toward the other person. The other person has taken to making personal remarks during the process, and I am trying my best not to come back with a stinging remark here and there that would be satisfying, but unprofessional (not to mention un-Christlike). God wants us to shine His light in all situations and have a Christlike attitude, so pray that I can follow through and not lose my cool. Thanks guys.

More info to come on the situation.....

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:50:38 GMT

Oh man, finally got some good computer business coming in. I'm setting up a computer lab for a private school run by my church. That's going to keep me busy for a while. I have to figure out how to get 300 or so feet of cable run through the ceiling to the room where they want the computers set up. After that I am setting them up with a network, and a wireless router for their laptops. On top of that I have to figure out how in the world to set up one of those huge office printers on the wireless network so the kids can print. I may have to call the printer people for that one, I can work my way in and out of a PC network, but printers are a whole different issue, especially the office printers. They are a small private school right now, so they don't have a lot of money for a computer lab budget, so it's not like I have a lot of cash to play with. They ordered some nice refurbished IBM Thinkpad T42's, which are only one model version under my own Thinkpad T60. They also have a couple of desktops that were donated. I have to set them all up for the whole computer lab situation, so I'm in the process of cleaning the desktops off, but the laptops came with fresh installs of XP Pro. I wish I had more ability to do imaging on the computers so that it would be easy to fix if they got screwed up, but they didn't want any of that, just a quick and dirty setup of a lab with a wireless network. I have a feeling that I will be in there often to do repairs and upgrades.... which is fine because that means they are a client, and that is job stability.

I also have been up to my ears in PCs jobs that people keep calling me about, so my name is apparently spreading through the community. I want to be able to run a good honest business, the way God intends, so I try to offer the best pricing for my work, and I don't overcharge people for parts, they pay only what I was charged. It is so easy to take advantage of these people, because what do they know about what I'm doing for their computers? To them I am performing major surgery, when it's something that maybe just needs a little tweaking or upgrading. I could easily charge triple what I do per hour, but I can't consciously do that. At the same time though, I know nothing about cars, so to me fixing my vehicle is as foreign as performing surgery. (Fortunately my dad knows a good bit, so I'm learning from him because it's a lot cheaper to fix it yourself.)

I'm also looking at getting my eBay business running stronger. I'm looking at wholesalers, and researching products, trying to find a little niche market. I want to try dropshipping, but it makes me nervous to think that someone else is in charge of my product. I like being able to control it all myself. Dropshipping is the cheapest option for someone starting out right now though because there is no storage cost for wholesale lots, and I pay one fee for the items, and shipping is done by someone else. It's like having a warehouse and shipping department for my business, just one that I have little control over. I still think I want to try it, but right now I need to come up with at least 40 wholesalers who will do dropshipping. If anyone has any good input on dropshipping or a good niche market that is profitable, please please please let me know. I need this to start taking off so that I can start paying off those student loans.... haha.

Huge Airsoft Picture Post!

Mon, 12 Oct 2009 13:02:00 GMT

So this post is going to end up being huge, because there are so many good pictures I have of our group of airsoft players.

For a little background, I play a game called airsoft with a group of guys (and a few girls every once in a while) that I know. Airsoft is like paintball, except we use 6mm plastic BBs, and the guns are replicas of real weapons, not like those dumb looking paintball guns. We use real camouflage battle dress and try to make the experience as authentic as possible. We also use real battle tactics, squads, communication systems, and (BB) grenades to achieve the goals. Each time we play, we have several "games" with different objectives such as taking a fort, or capturing a flag, and sometimes it is just about eliminating the opposing team. Airsoft is sometimes referred to as "Milsim" because it is mainly military simulation, meaning we try to imitate real military situations and make it as if we were really involved in battles. We also try to make it as fun as possible, so there are rules in place to weed out cheaters and keep everyone safe. Our players range in age from 12 to 22, with mostly guys, but as I mentioned before, a few girls will join us every once in a while. I'll start out with a few pics of some of the players.

This is me.
Loadout:
M14 Spec Ops assault rifle (semi or full auto, electric)
Beretta M9 sidearm (semi auto, gas blowback)

Joel
Loadout:
M4 assault rifle (semi or full auto, electric)
Sniper rifle (type unkown)
CO2 pistol from Wal-Mart (semi auto, CO2 gas)

Karl.
Loadout:
M16 assault rifle (semi auto, electric)
Pump shotgun (spring powered)

Josiah.
Loadout:
AWP sniper rifle (spring powered)
I want to add here, this gun is every bit as awesome in real life as it is in the game Counterstrike Source.

Seth.
Loadout:
Some freakish variation of a sniper rifle (it's been modified and hurts like mess)
MP5 submachine gun (semi or full auto, electric)
He is our resident airsoft gun expert. He's only 15, but he knows a good deal about repair and upgrade of weapons.

Alex.
Loadout:
AWP sniper rifle (spring powered)
His gun is the AWP, but with a really good cammo paint job that he did.

These are all the "profile" pictures I have for players. We have several other players, as you will see in the next set. Those above are our main players, with good weapons and experience.

Josiah and Seth, along with some of our younger players, Micah and Jace.

Jordan and his AK47.

Gegory using my pistol after I had "died."

Alex during an epic sniper battle with Josiah.

Jace in action... moving for a better position.

One of our elusive girl players..... Jessie in action.

Now for a view of some of the places we play. We play in the woods mostly, but as you've seen, we also play in some urban settings as well.

D-Day hill:

Seth's sniper post

Airsoft campsite... only played here once, because it was a special camping trip.

Some injuries are light

While some are more serious (OUCH!)

Airsoft is not all seriousness, we have a lot of fun playing around as well.

So I hope you've enjoyed this little glimpse into our airsoft world. We certainly aren't the most serious players out there, but it is an enjoyable hobby, and I always look forward to the Saturday's that we play on. If you want to know more, ask! I'm always interested to learn more and share my knowledge, so please feel free to comment. If you are a North Carolina airsoft player, let me know, we are looking for good places to play, and more players to play with around the state.

I also have video, but that is going to take me a while to edit, so be patient.

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:42:08 GMT

Any week in which I make money is a good week. This one has been full of computer repairs and such, and of course that is my business, so that makes me money, and when I'm not worried about my financial issues, it takes a lot off my mind. Of course I need to be giving those problems to God I guess, and stop worrying so much. Money is about the only thing I really worry about I think. I hate that, but it's true.

The weekend looks to be another promising one. Last weekend Sean McDowell was great. He is a great speaker, I'm really glad we got to bring him to our church. This weekend I'm hoping to go see the Toy Story movies in 3D with some people on Friday... I'm hoping that works out. The girl and her brother that are supposed to go with me are the youth pastor's kids, and sometimes making plans with them is hard because plans change in their lives so much. I would really like to see the movies though, I can't tell you how long it's been since I've watched any of them.

Saturday I'm going to a Tim Hawkins concert (use the link if you don't know who he is). I've only seen YouTube videos of his stuff, so it will be cool to see him live. My friends and I are going to that show in the afternoon in South Carolina somewhere. In the morning on Saturday I'm playing roller hockey again. I'm glad we're doing that again nowadays, because I was really starting to miss it. Hockey in any format is the most awesome sport to play.

Let's see, what else.... yeah nothing really out of the ordinary. I'm working out more these days, promising myself that next Summer I will be a ripped muscly beast. We'll see how far that gets. I'm waiting on a reply about a weight bench from a guy on Craigslist though. I would much rather work out at home than have to bug the youth pastor to use his equipment every day. If you guys know anyone selling any weights, benches, or other related equipment, let me know.

Airsoft post coming soon, it's about time I let you guys see some of the pics I have from us playing. A video is in the works, I just need to find more time to edit the hour or so of footage I have into 5 minutes of good video.