May 21, 2010

More Meandering

This will be another post where I don't have much to say, but will end up saying quite a lot.

Big news to us is that Morgan is walking! Crawling is still his primary form of locomotion, but he's walking farther and steadier every day. It's so exciting and one of the purest joys in the world to see your little one learn new things. Plus he's so cute.
We haven't cut his hair yet, so he's getting a bit of a mullet, but I think he can pull it off. We plan to remove it before his first birthday (which is in ONE month!!!) and make him a bit more presentable. I'm just nervous to give him a haircut, since he wiggles and squirms so much when we try cleaning his ears or face. And that's with a Q-tip or a towel, not 2 daggers connected by a pivot. (scissors)
I love my little Moby so much and I have to say that the best part of me getting my knee and hip replaced has been the time I've gotten to spend with him and Tracie. (and NOT the pain, as some of you might think).

I'm still (sort of) working on submitting my writing to different literary journals and things. It's daunting and takes a lot of time, all I've done so far is crossed off which ones would be unlikely to accept my submissions and circled ones to submit to. There are still hundreds. I think what I'll end up doing is just choose like 5 at a time, and go from there. 5 a week is still better than none a week, which has been my average number of stories and poems submitted for nearly three decades.
Sigh.

Summer term of school starts in July, I'm making up one of the classes I missed, Digital Prepress (from the same teacher, I'm hoping/praying he'll let me turn in the same assignments from before) and... Creative Writing! Yipee! Not that I haven't written creatively for awhile, far from it, but I haven't been graded for writing in ages. I'm very good at being judged.

I feel so blessed to have a job I enjoy, and that's so fun to do. I'm learning a lot about what I do and why I do it. For example, for all you tech nerds out there who read my blog (Ammon), I now know WHY I'm running an nmap scan, or what all the commands mean when I type $ openssl s_client -host -port, -PN, sudo, nasl, >>, TRACE, TRACK, HEAD, grep and a whole bunch of other fun stuff. The only downside (if a downside you would call it) is it's just another fun thing to learn that I want to improve, and I already have a lot of my time filled with wife, baby, home, writing, submitting said writing, preparing for school, doctor, physical therapy, television, friends, and video games. Now I have to add learning about programming and networking too. I'VE GOT VIDEO GAMES TO PLAY, PEOPLE!

In sad news, our good friends Jacob and Wendy are moving to Hawaii. (Sad for us. Hawaii for them.) We'll miss them very much, and hope to keep in contact via Facebook and blogs and Skype and other things. All good ways to keep in touch, but still second fiddle to actual face to face interaction. We'll also miss watching their little (adorable, of course) boy Holden Ikaika (I apologize for spelling, if necessary) grow up. We've tried to hang out with them as much as possible, though for some reason, their families are taking them away from us for the rest of the time before they leave. But, I'm glad we had them as local friends while we did, especially since when I first met them I did NOT care for them at all. (And I'm sure it was mutual. :)) But, we wish you luck and all we have to wish you with as you move to the dismal wasteland called Oahu.

Though, that means we may have to visit them sometime, if for no other reason than to cheer them up.

I've decided to read the Old Testament, as it's the only Testament I haven't fully read (I've read the New and the Another) I've even read the book of Mormon from Moroni 10 to Nephi 1, just so I could say I know this book forwards and backwards. But I haven't read the Old Testament. Though I know the stories, I haven't heard them all from the authors, and I'd like to, instead of just Genesis, Exodus, Daniel and Job. I want the boring ones too. Just kidding! They're not boring! Get that storm cloud out of here! (I better be careful what I say. I'm a walking lightning rod, aren't I?)

Speaking of walking, Monday I'm going to the doctor again to get x-rays and wait for 3 hours to talk to the surgeon and his entourage for 3 seconds, hopefully in that 3 seconds they'll tell me I can put more weight on the leg and maybe start using a cane again(!)

... I never thought the day would come where I blog about being excited to use a cane.

O well.

And those are my own meandering thoughts for May 21.

6 comments:

Jacob I. McMillan said...

Ikaika, that's the correct spelling. For the record I liked you right away. Tracie took a little time to grow on me, though. But now I wouldn't trade any of you for anything. Except maybe a robot that burps my kid for me and makes popcorn constantly. I like popcorn.

Tracie said...

Don't worry, Jake. It took me awhile to warm up to you too. ;)

Where can I get that robot? I also like popcorn.

And Austin, I love you and you are wonderful. And I love your blog posts. And please submit your writing.

Heather Mae the DIY Gal said...

Sounds like life as usual for a young married college student. Sometimes reading yours or Tracie's posts remind me of the days it used to be going to school, working a job (sometimes two), and having a little baby is all hard work that leads to great things later.

Ammon said...

So, how does one go about submitting their writing to literary journals and publishers? What's the process like? I'd love to find out more about that.

Dude, definitely cut the mullet. You don't want Morgan to deal with the shame. Poor boy can't ask for a haircut--you gotta help the little guy out.

Mark Beckstrom said...

Good luck on the journal submissions.
And before you give Moby a haircut, take lots of pictures that you can make fun of later.

Austin said...

I feel I should clarify, it's not a REAL mullet, his hair is just long-ish, and it curls in the back a bit.

What makes it so mullet-like is that his sideburns area has such a small amount of hair that it makes the mullet effect more obvious.

But yes, embarrassment pictures for blackmail later. Mwahahahahaha! I have them of ALL of you! And when the timing is right, THE WORLD IS MINE!!!!1!!!!111