Of Late

So what's on my plate lately, what's pending, and what's been on my mind?

Well, as the post below mentions, Leslie and I are doing well, and having fun shopping and otherwise enjoying one another's company.

I do have a batch of beer (a hazelnut porter) that I'm trying to get made... I've had the ingredients since May or so, but I recently grabbed a fresh batch of yeast and will be getting it into the fermenter sometime this week. I also still have the kit for a Pinot Noir I'm going to get into a fermenter within a small while.

I'll be visiting the Philadelphia contingent of my family for the last week of the month (12/24/2004 through 1/2/2005, to be precise), and I'm definitely looking forward to the time off, as well as the loved-ones time.

As for what's been on my mind...

Politics
As you might imagine, my buddy Dubya cleaned up in the election, and I'm very much looking forward to the advancement of the Evil Republican Agenda.

Technology
Wikis (see below) have been on my mind a fair amount, as has the using of Java servlets and JSP (Java Server Pages) for things I used to use ASP and Visual Basic for. I have a friend at work who's been doing lots of research into these subjects in his spare time, and I have to keep up, or I'll start to look bad. ;-)

...Other
The Incredibles was... well... incredible! I loved it, and would heartily recommend it to pretty much anyone who likes comics, movies, graphics, or in fact has a heartbeat and eyes to see a movie. Just loved it.

Since I do a fair amount of driving each day (on the order of 90 miles), I've begun listening to a lot (a lot) of audiobooks lately, and odd ones, at that: ones by Nora Roberts, Linda Howard; mainly romantic suspense novels. Why? I'm trying to get an ear for the writing of character, and I discovered that most of the "leisure" books I've read (and have in my library) tend to be idea- or action-based in nature: science fiction, historical fiction, political or military thrillers. Very seldom do the characters take center stage, and I hoped this would serve as a way to help with my "character ear." So far it seems to be helping. Yes, the plots can be formulaic (though Nora Roberts has surprised me), but I find that a predictable plot helps me "get" the characterization more easily.

Anyway, must dash!

-Rich