Tete-a-Tete-a-Tete

I thought for today I would take a shot at getting all three of my quad-weekly/weekly/whenenver the mood strikes me blogs involved with today's post.

Why?

Because I can.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!

Anyways, over at Shooting Suburbia is part one of my latest series entitled "Fun, Diversion, Family, Familia".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over at Partially Yours is an op-ed piece about the non-repeal of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And at center stage, is a update on Line 21.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two weeks ago, I finished writing the first draft to my synopsis, which in and of itself was a good thing. A very small problem cropped up in the process, which so far has caused me one big fat headache.

Grammar, typos and sentence structure issues.

Yep, was time for yet another round of editing.

Normally when I do editing, I like to do it with as little distraction as possible, which usually means I need zippo for background noise. This works out quite well when I'm editing a short story, a blog post or a longer short story. However, because I was editing this manuscript for a fourth (yes, I said fourth) time, I felt that this time around, I needed something to help me keep focused while I was editing something that I was slowly starting to loathe looking at.

Yes, I said loathe. I'm sure some of you out there have reached that particular point with whatever it is that you're creating at one time or another, where if you look at it one more time, it gets trashed.

Anyways, I decided to dig out about a dozen or so c.d.'s to listen to while I was slowly driving myself batty doing a line-by-line edit of all 149 pages of my manuscript, which ultimately led to a list of 64 pages that I will need to reprint, which if you do the math, calculates out to 43% of my manuscript being tweaked.

So, in no order of importance, here's what I listened to while I was editing my manuscript. Please note that list is subjective and reflects what I like to listen to in the privacy of my den, as opposed to what I listen to out in the general public. Please also note, that air guitar, air drum, air bass, as well as the unfortunate talent of keeping the beat (something I learned while playing the clarinet from 3rd grade thru junior year of high school) was actively engaged in the process. Please also note that I was able to turn the tables on my daughter, as I got bad comments and strange looks from her due to my singing, which I consider justifiable payback for her tap dancing and French horn playing that went on directly above me. And finally, please also note that I went off on YouTube excursions as a result of playing a few of these c.d.s

1} What's Your Name by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Reissue c.d. I picked up some six years ago. Love Southern rock, no matter when it was created.

2} Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty. Best singalong c.d. I own in my collection.

3, 4, 5} The Long Road, All The Right Reasons, Silver Side Up by Nickelback. Great stuff and  apparently in the music industry the word "drugs" is a naughty word, because for their video "Rock Star" the word "drugs" was bleeped out. Funny video just the same with great cameos but the censorship really screws up the pacing.

6} The Sound of Madness by Shinedown. I went partially deaf listening to this as I buried the volume to about 9 for my headphones.

7} What's The Story Morning Glory? by Oasis. Another one of my favorite singalong c.d.s, this one also garnered a few pointed words thrown at me by my 9 year old daughter.

8} Throwing Copper by Live. I actually picked this one up about four days prior to this post at a fundraiser for one dollar. Best investment I made, because even though the c.d. was a monster hit for Live (and kind of their Waterloo, so to speak), I got it for one song called "White Discussion".

9} White Trash Girl by Candye Cane. This c.d. was a perfect fit for this book as Kandy Cane in her previous life prior to becoming a jump blues singer, was an adult movie actress and model for smut magazines. Less you think that this c.d. is simply someone's idea of a vanity project, this is disc #7 from her catalogue. Great stuff if you can find it. Oh, and one of my favorite tracks is called "The Masturbation Blues".

10} Gordon by The Barenaked Ladies. This was one of four c.d.'s from them that I picked up during the same fundraiser, and it does not disappoint. I'm always in the habit of picking up cheap c.d.'s of artists I only hear on the radio, because lets face it, wouldn't you rather spend a couple bucks on a c.d. from an artist that you might have not heard of or dismiss out of hand due to the type of music that artist plays, than spend fifteen or more on the same artist that you might not like afterwards.

11} Bachman-Turner Overdrive 2 by B.T.O. I liked the Guess Who and I like B.T.O. Need I say more?

So in the end, all eleven of these c.d.s helped keep me focused on the task at hand, which was editing my manuscript. It's not something I want to make a habit of in the future, but sometimes, you really need some background noise in order to keep your mind from wandering away when you least want it to.