I am very happy with how much I accomplished on Saturday.

I set up enough of our new web site, Multiverser.org, that people will be able to find it and still find M. J. Young Net without too much inconvenience. There a few apologetic placeholder pages, a few dead links, and a few existing pages that need attention, but there is something there on which to build.

I also organized my notes for today’s directors meeting–a task which turned out to be of less importance than anticipated. One of our directors had informed me over a week ago that he was going to be out of town this weekend; one had a death in the family midweek and between the funeral and the visiting relatives anticipated being otherwise occupied; one did not make it for reasons that are as yet unclear to me. Two directors is not sufficient for a quorum, so our meeting notes were more a mental exercise for me to work through what I needed to remember.

I made an appearance at the funeral Saturday morning before church, and connected with the couple who were interested in the audiobook version of What Does God Expect? at the fellowship meal following Sabbath school to deliver the two-disk set for their perusal.

The meeting was not a loss, however, as the two directors present happened to be the vice president for development–me–responsible for product and product support, and the vice president for public relations–not me–responsible for publicity and promotions. As you probably can deduce, between us we split responsibility for website design and content, and this gave us an opportunity to talk about what steps to take next.

I also managed to pick up the 7dB equipment. I still have to decide where it will live for the present now that it’s here, but at least it’s not there anymore. Late in the evening I remembered to send the other four Quick Word radio show recordings, and even managed to listen this week, to hear the show myself.

Of course, not everyone was happy with what I accomplished on Saturday, and I got reprimanded for failing to do a few important errands, which I did this afternoon instead, so I’m not too terribly unhappy. I also remembered to update the autoresponder letter on the e-mail account for the radio show, so that people who write for information will get information immediately, and I can answer their letters leisurely.

So I’m headed into the week with a good feeling about the accomplishments of the weekend, despite the amount on my plate in the days ahead.

–M. J. Young

I’ve been sitting on this for a while. I think it is now time to say something. As of this morning, Valdron Inc has (finally) registered a new domain name, with hosting. I suspect it will take a few days for it to propagate through the system, but we now have space at Multiverser.org, and will be building our web site there.

I did the deed this morning, having been instructed to do so a week ago by our president but needing to make sure the financial ducks were aligned before proceeding. It actually cost less than expected, in part because the service we already have for MJYoung.net has been upgraded so much that it will support multiple domains without any problem.

However, before I took this step, I took some advice and visited with our vice president for public relations. That was a new position this fiscal year, but it seemed important for me to touch base with him, since the web site will serve at least the dual function of promoting the game and providing support–the latter fully within my sphere as vice president for development, but the former obviously his territory. I had previously given him a complete copy of our old websites; in the past, the site has been a cooperative effort between me and our art director, so I did a lot of the promotional work that now falls to him.

Unfortunately, his schedule has him up all night, working but not so busy that he can’t chat; and the advice I received suggested that we should communicate in person rather than by electronic means, so that meant a drive to Delaware departing around one in the morning.

I lay down after four; I had to get up around seven to drive a houseguest to school. I then ordered the domain name while getting dressed for bed, and around nine was actually getting some real sleep. This explains why it was after one thirty that I was actually functional, and since we’re still a one-car family and that houseguest had found her way back to us and needed a ride to the bus stop, I had less than an hour to get dressed and out of the house.

Then I had to take my mother-in-law to the bank. As I’ve mentioned before, that’s an hour to get to her and an hour to get back, plus however long it takes for her to do what she needs to do. I did some quick errands on the way up, which made it take longer, and it was seven by the time I was home, trying to organize a few last things before heading out to church for seven-thirty. I got dinner in the oven around nine, and finally did my morning study. Thanks to the assistance of a houseguest who took over finishing dinner, I got some of the e-mail done before my last errand of the night. I’ve not yet had dinner, and still have some work to finish here.

I did manage to get the audiobook done, and took it with me. It runs about two and a half hours, and between errands and my mother-in-law I had enough time in the car to hear the entire thing. I’ve made a copy for a friend at church, who had wanted to read it but never had time, and already she’s eager to hear it so I’ll give it to her tomorrow.

I feel like this is a terribly disjointed blog entry; probably it’s more my brain that’s disjointed, but hopefully it will serve for the rest of the night.

–M. J. Young

I am like way behind today, and it’s really my own fault.

I knew quite well that on Thursday I was going to have to launch the new book, About the Fruit, and that having launched it I would have to update my own website to announce this. I also knew that once I was certain of its availability I would have to send a special program to the radio station for my Quick Word radio show to announce the book, followed by the new programs that have been sitting on my drive for the past couple of weeks. I knew this would all be a frustrating process of jumping through hoops. Even so, for some insane reason on Tuesday night I decided to start recording an audiobook version of What Does God Expect?, which I continued to do on Wednesday night, giving me a nearly finished project this morning.

Then I got a request to drive someone to work unexpectedly; then by the time I’d finished my morning study I was being asked to go on a couple of quick errands which turned into a three hour tour, making dinner (still not served) rather late, and later because no one did the dishes as instructed.

However, About the Fruit is now available, and in fact is for a limited time on special at a twenty-five percent discount from my intended price. The paperback does not yet bear the ISBN, which is being processed, but you can get copies without it if you’re interested.

I have uploaded the new pages to the web site; I hope I caught all the incomplete bits. I’ve also sent the announcement program to the radio station, but still have to send the four new shows to follow it.

I also have a rather important major undertaking that I should be doing tonight, as instructed by our company president; but I’ve been advised to discuss it with our vice president for public relations before I proceed, which makes sense, since it’s as much his area as mine (development). It just means that in addition to getting everyone fed, I’ve got to make a visit to Delaware tonight to catch him at his day–er, night–job. It should be good to get together with him outside of meetings and pressures, but I’m going to be beat tomorrow.

This is not to mention that my mother-in-law needs to get her social security check to the bank; my sympathy for her is low, because she insists that she needs the assurance of actually taking the check to the bank herself, but doesn’t understand the inconveniece to me of two hours of driving just for that purpose. I also promised my pastor’s wife that I’d have the remaining 7dB audio equipment out of their basement this week so they can get the rugs cleaned, and it has just been a crazy week for transportation anyway. The engine of the new car is currently disassembled to fix a broken rocker arm and a bad engine mount, and one of those parts won’t be in until maybe Monday, so I’m still dealing with the one car problem.

I’ve also had to delete a few comments whose sole purpose for their vapid remarks was to add a link to a commercial interest that has nothing to do with our purpose.  That’s not a problem, really, except that the upload of the radio program files was tying up my bandwidth and making the process run like molasses, which increases the frustration level a bit.

You didn’t come here to read me complaining, though, so let me let you go while I find out what else I have to do tonight.

–M. J. Young

It is not my birthday today, but it is close; the birthday girl is out at the moment, and her birthday dinner is getting cold, but she is probably having dinner with friends anyway so there’s no point stressing.

After hours last night I started a new project. It was not quite an impulse, but it was rather sudden. I had previously considered whether to record my books as audiobooks–obviously not the Multiverser rules or world books, since audio reference books are not terribly practical, but the novel has been considered several times. This weekend the editor of the tiny paper for which I have occasionally written apologized that she has not had time in over a year to read my incredibly short book What Does God Expect?; as mother of two small children, the only reading she ever does is usually about silly animals. Then as I was visiting the Lutheran forum yesterday evening, there was a thread about listening to audiobooks, and I asked whether people would actually buy my book recorded for more than the same book in paperback. A couple of affirmative answers put me onto the idea, and then late last night I recorded about half the book, each chapter as a separate track. Once I have the other half finished, I’ll burn a copy (it will probably take two disks, but we’ll see) and listen to it, and then see whether it’s worth putting it up for sale.

I’ve still got some of the old radio voice, but the long stretches are challenging, and one is not certain just how much one is allowed to fumble before re-recording. However, progress has been made.

–M. J. Young