For those who were aware of it, I did have a website called “Scanner Whores.”  I recently closed down the site and let the domain expire.  The domain name and website are from an old joke.

I closed it down mostly because I didn’t use it at all, never updated it, and it never received above minimal traffic.  I did however have a couple of useful pieces of information on the site.  These I have moved to pages here on Olorinpc.com

ND-10 Codes

Stutsman County Frequencies

Beyond that, I never really used the site much.  So it really wasn’t worth the $8 a year to keep the domain.  This also goes along with my consolidation effort.  My new personal rule was, if I pick up a new domain name, I need to drop an unused one.  So with starting Epic Plains – something had to go.  Seeing as I did this two weeks ago and haven’t received a single note on it, it looks like it was a good call to just kill the site.

Any scanner/public safety related posts will appear here on Olorinpc.com in the future.

Thanks!

As I mentioned in my Goals for 2010 post, I have some goals for writing this next year.  On that note, I would like to introduce a project I have been working on related to that:

Epic Plains – An epic place with epic stories – welcome to Epic Plains.

The site is going to serve a few purposes for me.  First, it is a portal to my other websites that I work on occasionally.  (This one, Model Train Rookie, etc.) This blog and Epic Plains are going to be my main online works in the next year.  Second, it is going to focus on just writing related posts.  Whether it is my own work or the works of others, it is a literary blog.

The first main post I have there is my 2010 writing goals.  Stop by and check it out.  If you find it of interest, please subscribe to the RSS feed.  I will sometimes cross-link with this site, but as it is an independent site with a specific focus, safest bet is to subscribe over there as well.

Thanks and have the best luck in accomplishing your own goals this next year.

I wrote this a week ago and I am finally getting around to posting it. Every year I look at what I plan to accomplish in the next year. Usually I manage about half of it. So this year I am going to set bigger goals in hopes that I accomplish more things.  I like the idea of calling them goals for the next year as opposed to resolutions.  Gives me the idea that I can track progress better – even if it really is the same day.
My goals can be split into 4 things and they are in no particular order.

1) Get some of the house projects finished. (Trim pieces in the entry way, stairway needs to be redone, etc.) They have a tendency to get started and never quite finished.
2) Do more stuff for my wife. (Even if it is just not leaving socks in random places or the dishes once in a while.)  I think this is something that always can be improved on.  (Working on #1 could accomplish this as well.)
3) Writing. (Write a lot more. A **lot** more.) Blog, finish editing my first novel, work on other writing project, etc. I have a plan to submit a few short stories as well this year. I have one already in the works.
4) Quit Smoking. (I have kind of sort of tried to quit from time to time, but I plan on quitting this year and stay quit. More time to write and do stuff around the house, along with the funds saved to pay for it!)

Some of those things above are going to be challenging, but easy goals aren’t really goals. The writing goals are probably the biggest and most challenging of the year. As I mentioned in my NaNoWriMo post, I learned a few things from participating this year. The biggest being how much I just enjoyed writing. Well in order to continue to progress, and hopefully sell some works, I need to be doing a lot more of it.
Any other good 2010 goals out there?

Wow.  November was a crazy month.  A lot of things made it busy, but for anyone who has been following my posts or facebook status updates, NaNoWriMo sent it into overdrive.  (Ede has a great post on his experience as well.)

First off, once again, NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month.  It is a non-profit group which has the primary goal of inspiring people to actually write.  Apparently 90% of people who ever set out to write their own novel never even finish.  Enter NaNoWriMo.  See: “What is NaNoWriMo?” and “How it Works”

30 days – 50,000 words.  That simple. 

 Ok, so its not *thaaaat* simple.  The concept being it is a lot easier to finish a book if you have a body of work to edit.  Hard to edit a blank page.  Sounds easy right?

 Not really.  I tried nano in 2008, got behind and discouraged right away, busy, and dropped out.  Tried to pick it up again a couple of months later, but never got far.  I just kept rewriting the first chapter or so.  That is where commitment comes in.  NaNoWriMo *is* a commitment.  Yet, the commitment is to yourself.  By committing to reaching 50,000 words, I was able to force myself past the spots I would normally start fixing, and just keep going.  I actually ended up slightly ahead and finishing 3 days early.

 I liked Ede’s “what I learned list,” for November, so I have put together my own:

1) Your story and characters will surprise you
2) A lot of crap gets written, but polishing is for later
3) Having a job, wife, etc AND trying to write a novel in a month is insane, but fun
4) I never knew it was possible for me to write almost 6000 words in a single day.
5) I hit the end of my outline and wasn’t finished with the story.  The last 3rd of the book was the most fun to write when I had no idea where scenes or dialog were going to take me.

Three questions I have heard during the month (besides “What is NaNoWriMo):

1) Why are you writing a novel?
          This is the easiest one to answer – because I have a story to tell and I love to write.

2) What are you going to do with it once you are done?
          A few things really.  First, revise, edit, and loop through that a few more times.  Revisions and whatnot should get it somewhere in the 80,000 word range. Which also seems more in line with what publishers like to see.  Then start looking for an agent and go through the process of Query Letters, Manuscripts, etc.  Second, start another novel.  There are plenty of more stories in the word I envisioned, or perhaps something totally different.

3) What is your novel about?
          Haven’t gotten too much into the specifics.  It is called “The Kingdom of Dragmar,” and is a fantasy/adventure novel.  I wrote in my favorite genre to read about.  I do have a synopsis and a brief (from a draft) excerpt on my NaNoWriMo profile page.

So if any agents or publishers happen to come across this post, (or friends reading said post know agents or folks in publishing) and are looking for a fantasy novel or two, I happen to know of a couple in the process of being polished up! ☺

Here is the link again to [my profile], and [Shane’s profile].

So I won.  Finished NaNoWriMo.  What did I win?  A little certificate that I can print out, a website graphic, and the knowledge that I can really write something novel length.  The last one being the real victory for me.  All in all – an awesome experience and look forward to it again next year.

Now to invest in paper and red pens.  (ie – time to start editing!)

Anyone else interested in writing your own novel, I recommend checking out yWriter.  Free software that really helped me organize my stuff.  Any questions, please feel free to use the Contact Form on OlorinPC.com

Wow, only 14 days left of NaNoWriMo.  For those who have been following my Facebook status updates, I am actually on track to meet goal.  Personally, I think I am the one who is most shocked by it.  Last year was my first year making the attempt, and I barely made it 3 days and 1000 words before getting discouraged by how far behind I was and not finishing anymore.

Well not this year.  Started with a nice cushion.  Now going into the 3^rd week, that cushion wore away a little, but still managing to make goal and keep on track for hitting that 50k.  It’s been a bit tiring at times, doing that last crunch to midnight to hit the goal for the day, but it has also been a ton of fun.  I have had the story idea for a while, but never really gotten it out. NaNo has helped force it out of me.  The fun part of the process has been, it’s gone in directions I never expected

The periodic emails “pep talks” are generally fun and help inspire one to keep on.  Even though there are a million other things one could (and debatably should) be doing, one keeps pushing through.  Having a friendly contest with ThatEdeGuy (who is also a writing buddy), has been great too.  The whole writing till I am just slightly ahead of him in wordcount, also means a higher than needed wordcount, so keeps me ahead a little bit.

Start of week 3 – slightly ahead of goal and over 50% done at this point.  14 days remaining, so it is a trudge to the finish.

NaNoWriMo 2009 has started.  We are now 2 hours in for those folks in the Central Time zone.  I decided to really make a go of it this year, so wanted to get a start right out of the gate.  I have managed to already go past the daily word goal of 1667 words hitting 1815 before calling it a night.

For those who don’t know what NaNoWriMo is, check out the site.  Brief version is it stands for National Novel Writing Month with the goal being to right a 50,000 word novel in 30 days.  It is crazy, fun, and something that I haven’t actually managed to finish the last couple of years.  (Get busy, etc.)  Well, day 1 this year I have already topped what I wrote all of last years NaNoWriMo – so I would say that things are looking good!  Still pumped and excited.

If interested, you can follow my progress to that 50k goal line on my user page.  (Click here.)  Otherwise I do plan on having the wordcount widget on this site as well.

DSC_0317

Originally uploaded by Olorinpc

I now have all of the pictures from LaMoure’s Red Hot Fire Days posted to flickr. Stop by and check them out!

Flickr set

Jennie and I went down to Lamoure, ND to partake in their “Red Hot Fire Days” even down there.  A couple of friends from the Jamestown Fire Department invited me down with them to be on a team.  (There was a Firefighters Rodeo in the evening.)

We had a blast participating in the events.  Managed to get a lot of pictures that I will be uploading to Flickr and deviantArt sometime soon, though I do have one ready to share now.  Jennie got a great shot of us going through the victim rescue event.

I am the 3rd firefighter in from the left.

Technorati Tags: Jake Barnard, Fire Dept, Firefighters, JFD, JRFD, Lamoure

The Jamestown Sun | Jamestown, North Dakota

Fire we responded to last night.  It sounds like it wasn’t a controlled burn but a suspicious fire in an abandoned home.

Posted using ShareThis

Technorati Tags: JRFD, Fire Department, Jake Barnard, olorinpc

A piece I had in mind this week after processing the larger image.  Hope you guys enjoy it!  (It is from a picture of our Godchild Maddie.)

World through a childs eye by =olorinpc on deviantART

Technorati Tags: deviantArt, Jake Barnard, ThatEdeGuy, Olorinpc