Putting the Shill in Shilling

Sorry about all the assorted links and unintended shilling and outright shilling lately. Part of it is that I'm not playing much poker, so I'm a bit lacking in any poker content to blog. Another equal part is that the day job is deteriorating rapidly in the happy-fun department of late, so I've been ramping up the affiliate marketing efforts outside o' work, and once I put on that hat it's hard to take off.

I've been surprised to find out that I actually like wearing a wedding ring. I've never worn jewelry at all, not even a watch (ignoring my Dukes of Hazzard watch when I was six, which I wouldn't even take off when bathing), and was prepared for it to bug the holy hell out me, even though it is just a plain white gold band. I'm finding I like it, though, especially as far as a tool to keep my hands busy. I'm one of those people who never know what to do with their hands, especially when sitting down and talking to someone. But now, voila, it's instant occupying fun, what with the unending spinning and turning of the ring. Plus I like driving my fellow cubicle monkeys mad by clicking it against my mouse. Shiny and noisy. Caw.

I'm writing a cheesy detective novel. With swords and dragons and assorted other mythical crap. Except written in a noirish, Dashiell Hammett-esque style. Really. It's something I've been rolling around in my head for awhile but never got around to. Despite the MFA and too many damn pretentious fiction and poetry workshops and the fact my absolute favorite book in the world is Cormac McCarthy's Suttree, I've always liked cheesy, schlocky detective novels, as well as fantasy stuff. And I thought it'd be interesting to sort of mash together the assorted worlds. Which is probably a doomed exercise, as it'd just piss off devotees of either genre, but hey, tilting at windmills is fun.

Staying busy though, which is good. This weekend I need to get serious with assorted trees hanging on the roof and mow the dang ol' yard again, hopefully/possibly for the last time this fall. Naw, who am I kidding, this is Austin. I'll probably be mowing the damn thing on Christmas.