Rish Performs "An Infinite Number of Idiots" on StarShipSofa

Rish here.

If you don't follow my personal blog, you wouldn't know that I recently got an assignment to narrate a story for StarShipSofa, and then (somehow) screwed up and sent the producer of StarShipSofa my unedited recording instead of the finished one.  They sent it back to me with a "Hey kid, this needs to be edited" memo, and I therefore made a dread prediction that that would be the last time I was asked to do a story for them.

Well, the episode featuring that story has already dropped, with zero fanfare from me (or anyone else), so I guess I better mention it before it's gone.

"An Infinite Number of Idiots" by Robert Jeschonek is told from the point of view of an alien civilization that gets visited by a (pretty recognizable) group of interstellar travelers.  The visitors barge into their lives, make value judgments on their society, interfere with their customs and observances, and their captain relentlessly attempts to seduce the narrator's wife.  It's also a surprisingly dark story, despite how I'm presenting it.

So, HERE'S THE LINK, if you're interested.  If not . . . well, maybe they will ask me again.  I won't bet on it, though.

February Sweeps, The Final Week

We've made it to the end. February is over, and, amazingly, both of us managed to write every single day of the month. Pretty cool.

So, after day twenty-nine...wait, twenty-nine, that can't be right. Hold on...oh, well, the calendar says that there are twenty-nine days in February. I always thought there were less. I guess that's my public school education at work for you. Anyway, here's what it looks like:

Rish: 47,952
Big: 33,603

Not much of a contest, but it never was a contest to begin with. The goal was to write every day. We bot achieved it. My personal goal was to write 1,000 words every day, and I achieved that. If you want to look at our daily count, it looks like this.

Rish 1st: 1458 Big 1st: 1078
Rish 2nd: 1018 Big 2nd: 1160
Rish 3rd: 1335 Big 3rd: 1119
Rish 4th: 1531 Big 4th: 1137
Rish 5th: 301 Big 5th: 1088
Rish 6th: 1536 Big 6th: 1609
Rish 7th: 2063 Big 7th: 1007
Rish 8th: 1120 Big 8th: 1025
Rish 9th: 1245 Big 9th: 1189
Rish 10th: 1625 Big 10th: 1191
Rish 11th: 1452 Big 11th: 1067
Rish 12th: 2877 Big 12th: 1176
Rish 13th: 844 Big 13th: 1049
Rish 14th: 1702 Big 14th: 1416
Rish 15th: 1336 Big 15th: 1015
Rish 16th: 678 Big 16th: 1062
Rish 17th: 1381 Big 17th: 1026
Rish 18th: 2303 Big 18th: 1161
Rish 19th: 3166 Big 19th: 1014
Rish 20th: 1438 Big 20th: 1375
Rish 21st: 2308 Big 21st: 1145
Rish 22nd: 2001 Big 22nd: 1143
Rish 23rd: 884 Big 23rd: 1307
Rish 24th: 3154 Big 24th: 1122
Rish 25th: 1077 Big 25th: 1057
Rish 26th: 2440 Big 26th: 1312
Rish 27th: 1605 Big 27th: 1077
Rish 28th: 2424 Big 28th: 1248

BONUS ROUND!

Rish 29th: 1650 Big 29th: 1233

Rish had a lot of high numbers. Those were the days when he really pushed himself. When he was feeling bad or depressed, he told himself that he had to work extra hard to combat that, and it tended to work. He had big days, finished many stories, and felt more worthy because of it. Sadly, for me it didn't work that way. When I had hard days like that, I just cheated on my diet, and left my writing until 2:30 AM before finally forcing myself to write so I could go to bed. Then I woke up feeling more tired and crappy the next day, and more likely to cheat on my diet and leave my writing till even later.

But we both made it, and are pretty proud of ourselves for doing so. Rish says that this past month was his most productive month as a writer ever in his entire life. He wrote eight stories in February (or at least finished eight stories, I think some of them had been started before February). He almost wrote a whole NaNoWriMo worth of words.

I wrote another 30,000 words toward my goal for this year of 300,000. It's coming along well. I'm above the 90,000 word mark now, and I really think I'm going to make it. When I get to the end, it's going to be doubly glorious compared to that time I made the goal to run 500 miles in a year. I don't know how I'll celebrate at the end of the year, but I'll have to think of something. Most likely, when I get there, I'll want to celebrate by taking a day off from writing finally.

Going forward, we're still both going to be writing frequently. Rish has a goal to publish a story a week in March, which is very admirable, because putting out the writing that he does is Rish's biggest stumbling block. So, forcing himself to do that will be another stretch for him. He's going to grow so much as a person that he'll need bigger clothes to fit into.

My goal is to just keep on writing. That's my focus this whole year. A writer writes every day. Somebody once said that. So, I'm going to be a writer.

Keep an eye out, because there'll be a TGMG wrap up show as well soon.

The Amontillado!

Rish and I had a great time the other night narrating Edgar Allen Poe's famous story "The Cask of Amontillado". It's relatively short, only about 2,000 words, so it's a quick pleasant listen...aside from the fact that it's Poe, so there's some nice nastiness going on. Head over to Journey Into... Podcast, and give it a listen. Hope you love it.

February Sweeps, Three Weeks In

It's been three weeks of this writing every day thing, and so far, Rish and I have both managed to succeed 100% of the time. Neither one of us has failed to write a single day this month.

So, after day twenty-one, here's what it looks like:

Rish: 32,717
Big: 24,104

At the end of last week, things were starting to separate out a little bit. Rish has a lot of big days. Sometimes he has low count days, but more frequently he has the high number days. We were close after last week, but this week, there's starting to be some big separation. If you look at our daily count, you'll see why. Our daily counts look like this.

Rish 1st: 1458 Big 1st: 1078
Rish 2nd: 1018 Big 2nd: 1160
Rish 3rd: 1335 Big 3rd: 1119
Rish 4th: 1531 Big 4th: 1137
Rish 5th: 301 Big 5th: 1088
Rish 6th: 1536 Big 6th: 1609
Rish 7th: 2063 Big 7th: 1007
Rish 8th: 1120 Big 8th: 1025
Rish 9th: 1245 Big 9th: 1189
Rish 10th: 1625 Big 10th: 1191
Rish 11th: 1452 Big 11th: 1067
Rish 12th: 2877 Big 12th: 1176
Rish 13th: 844 Big 13th: 1049
Rish 14th: 1702 Big 14th: 1416
Rish 15th: 1336 Big 15th: 1015
Rish 16th: 678 Big 16th: 1062
Rish 17th: 1381 Big 17th: 1026
Rish 18th: 2303 Big 18th: 1161
Rish 19th: 3166 Big 19th: 1014
Rish 20th: 1438 Big 20th: 1375
Rish 21st: 2308 Big 21st: 1145

Yeah, Rish had more than 2,000 words three different days this week, one of those times being more than 3,000. The guy's a nut, a machine. It surprises me to see him go all out for this. He has a tendency to complain about how much time it takes to write every day, but here he is putting in hours worth of his time each day to get in 3,000 words. My plan has been to write pretty much every day for a whole year, but that wasn't Rish's plan. He just likes to turn each February into a write-every-day month, and usually is sick of it by the time the month is coming to an end. This time around, he seems to be building in excitement and drive. I wonder how long he'll keep writing every day after February ends. We can only guess, place our bets, and wait to see, I suppose. I'm going to let it ride on red. All in.

February Sweeps, Two Weeks In

Whoops, I forgot to do this update back on the 14th when I was supposed to. I was posting podcast episodes and pictures of my toys. I can't do it all, you know. Okay, time for some more comparison.

So, after day fourteen, here's what it looks like:

Rish: 16,386
Big: 16,306

I find it really interesting how extremely similar our word counts are after two full weeks. We're within 80 words of each other. How can that be? Especially when Rish has had several days that are above, and sometimes well above, 2,000 words in one day. I've never even come close to getting that many words. Actually, I'm starting to wonder if I can trust his total word count. Did he forget to add one of his days in? Let me list out the daily word count for each of us, both the first week, and then this past week:

Rish 1st: 1458 Big 1st: 1078
Rish 2nd: 1018 Big 2nd: 1160
Rish 3rd: 1335 Big 3rd: 1119
Rish 4th: 1531 Big 4th: 1137
Rish 5th: 301 Big 5th: 1088
Rish 6th: 1536 Big 6th: 1609
Rish 7th: 2063 Big 7th: 1007
Rish 8th: 1120 Big 8th: 1025
Rish 9th: 1245 Big 9th: 1189
Rish 10th: 1625 Big 10th: 1191
Rish 11th: 1452 Big 11th: 1067
Rish 12th: 2877 Big 12th: 1176
Rish 13th: 844 Big 13th: 1049
Rish 14th: 1702 Big 14th: 1416

Okay, something's definitely got to be wrong. I've only written more than Rish on four out of fourteen days. Most days he beats me by hundreds of words, a couple times by more than a thousand. He has to have missed a day when adding up his word count or something. I'm going to add it up to, to see if I can confirm it.

Okay, I added them up, and found that Rish's total is in fact 20,107. We're not actually that close at all. Somehow, on his post for the 14th, Rish drops his total from 18,000 down to 16,000. Probably just to make me feel better, because he was stomping all over me so hard in this (non) contest. Very nice of you Rish.

So, he's better with writing, but I'm better at math, at least. So, I'm winning in some way. Here's the actual totals after day fourteen:

Rish: 20,107
Big: 16,306

That makes a little more sense to me now. I was starting to think that maybe it was like the moral to that tortoise and the hare fable. You know, "slow and steady wins the race." Me keeping at it, hitting my goal every day will add up in the end, and equal up to Rish's gaudy totals. But Rish isn't like the hare, who would take long naps to make up for the times when he was running super fast. Instead, he's just a racing turtle, or a racing snail.

He follows the motto "fast and steady wins the race even more." He has big days and regular days, but has only fallen under a thousand words twice in the entire month, despite one thousand words a day being my goal and not his.

So, there you go. That's how things are going after two weeks of this writing event. We're both doing pretty well (though one maybe a little better than the other), and no one has fallen on their face yet. That's pretty great if you ask me. A success.

February Sweeps, One Week In

Last week, Rish and I pledged to write every day during the month of February. Hey, it's the shortest month after all, so if we can't do it in February, then when can we do it, right? We didn't realize that it was a leap year this year though. That might change everything...

Anyway, Rish wanted to do a weekly update for the two of us where we show off our stats and measure...uh, things.

So, after day seven, here's what it looks like:

Rish: 9242
Big: 8198

Both of us have managed to write every single day of the month. Here's the daily totals.

Rish 1st: 1458 Big 1st: 1078
Rish 2nd: 1018 Big 2nd: 1160
Rish 3rd: 1335 Big 3rd: 1119
Rish 4th: 1531 Big 4th: 1137
Rish 5th: 301 Big 5th: 1088
Rish 6th: 1536 Big 6th: 1609
Rish 7th: 2063 Big 7th: 1007

Rish's goal is just to write every day, no particular word count. So, he can have a day like he had on the 5th and not have ruined everything. I swore to write one thousand words at least each day, so my totals are more consistent, if meager.

Rish has the edge on words. He's like the hare, running so fast he can barely see me back there plodding along, so then he feels okay to take a nap on the 5th. Although, that's not really fair. He would have written way more if things hadn't conspired against him. He's more like fast and steady wins the race. So, he's really like a tortoise-hare (like that old cartoon "The Wuzzles." Remember that? All the characters were two animals combined into one).



The good part is that it isn't a race. We're not trying to beat each other. We're supporting each other.

We talk to each other on a daily basis, reminding each other to write. We text each other our word count as we go. Giving updates. 316. 712. Made it, 1078! It's a lot of fun, and I think we'll both manage to keep it up the whole month through.

That Gets My Goat 233: February Sweeps Challenge (Part I)

So, Big has been writing like his life depends on it, and in the month of February, Rish is going to accept the challenge to write every single day. In this episode, they put it in writing.

Well, not in writing, exactly, since it's a podcast. They make their announcement official.

Well, not official, exactly, since I don't know that a notary was present, but hey, wish Big 'n Rish luck anyway.

Download the episode by right-clicking HERE and choosing save link or target as.