Welcome to August

I thought you deserved an August update. So here it is. I wish it and it comes true.

1. Riff

Yes, I finally finished draft 2! I'm getting it edited by members of the general public including peers and people who actually know what they're doing. I currently have 19 people on the list of readers. If you would like to be added to the list and give me feedback by mid-Dec., drop me a line at no1getzs0da@yahoo.com. For more information, check out my writing blog at:
http://j-leigh-nelson.livejournal.com/

2. Online Portfolio

For my summer course, I now have a super-duper online portfolio, which gives samples of my writing to prospective employers. It's password protected, so I'm afraid you can't view it without my permission. I was going to post a screencap for you, but Blogger.com is having "internal errors." I tell ya, blogging websites are frequent let-downs. Haven't had any trouble with Live Journal yet, though. Sorry Blogger.com. It's not MY fault you can't upload pictures.

3. Drawings

Well, I was going to upload some drawings for you too, but. You know the rest. I will tell you that I busted out the paints and made a circus scene. I'm not very good with paint, but it amused me for about an hour. I did make some good digital art for Riff that you can now view on my website. www.simple-assault.com

4. Website

Speaking of my website, did you notice the tinypic pictures? I think it's great that there are services like tinypic to provide free image hosting. On the other hand, I may have gotten carried away. The pictures, especially on the film page, make it look very cluttered. What do you think?

5. Purchases

I bought some things that are fun a while ago. I got both seasons of Life on Mars on DVD and the first season of Ashes to Ashes. I now have a used universal DVD player, so I am able to play these things on my TV here in America. I also got the Time Machine Tour (Darren Hayes) DVD, which oddly is very zoomed in on my television set, but works on larger screens. I also bought some books. The only one I've read so far is Mr. Emerson's Wife, which is quite good, especially being a genre I'd never read if Thoreau wasn't in it. I started looking at the Discworld Graphic Novel, which is massive. I also have From Where You Dream, The Pilo Family Circus, and The Secret History of Moscow, all of which I plan to read soon. But I've got more important things to read for now, including stuff for writers group and Bob's novel, which I have been reading on the bus to and from work. Oh and I bought Jonathan Rundman's Sound Theology CD too because a lot of the songs in the samples on Amazon sounded too good to pass up.

6. Audio Book

I recorded a sample chapter of Riff with my webcam as an audio book. It pretty much failed. While the image quality is decent, sometimes it echoes. I don't mean reverberation. I mean ECHO Echo echo echo. But it was fun to do all the different accents.