Sloan Parker's Blog

If you’ve followed me on Twitter or Facebook you might’ve seen that I occasionally like to poke fun at my parents. I adore them immensely, but they just say and do the funniest stuff. It’s hard to resist. Plus, my family is known for teasing those we love. Not sure I’ve ever shared some of their funnier moments here on the blog. I figured it was time to remedy that.

My dad’s incredibly smart, especially when it comes to repairing things and working out problems, which is what makes this story even funnier. He also has this little problem of not listening after he asks a question.

So, he got a Kindle for Christmas. He’s been wanting to try out reading e-books and this past year libraries started offering e-book loans for the Kindle. He doesn’t have the 3G version or wireless at home, so I gave him the instructions for loading a library book onto his Kindle via USB. In an effort not to confuse him, I read the instructions right off the website while he followed along with the first book.

It went great. He was reading on his Kindle in no time.

Then…

He tried to load his second book.

He ran into a few problems and gave me a call. Here’s how the conversation went.

Dad: When I click to get the book, it says Save or Find. Do I click to save it?

Me: Yes, then drag it to the Documents folder on the Kindle.

Dad: Okay, I’ll try it and call you back if it doesn’t work.

A few minutes later…

Ring…

Dad: So I drag it to the Kindle?

Me: Yes. Into the Documents folder.

Dad: Okay. I did that. Let me unhook the Kindle and see if it’s there. I’ll call you back.

Ring…

Dad: When I plug in my Kindle the book is there, but when I look at the Kindle it’s not.

Me: When you plug it into the computer, you see the file on the Kindle?

Dad: Yes, it’s there on my Kindle’s homepage.

Me: What homepage?

Dad: The one I see when I UBS the Kindle.

Me: (trying desperately not to laugh at “U B S”) Did you put it in the Documents folder?

Dad: Yes.

Me: In the actual Documents folder on the Kindle?

Dad: Yes.

Me: Okay, when the Kindle window opens on your computer, what do you see?

Dad: Let me plug it in and I’ll call you back.

Ring…

Dad: Okay, I have the Kindle with the UBS to the computer. It says… (reads from the screen the list of directories on the Kindle then below those the name of the book he’s trying to load)

Me: Okay, that means it’s not in the Documents folder.

Dad: Oh, okay. So I put it in the Documents folder?

Me: Yes, just drag it to the Documents folder.

Dad: Okay, let me try that and then check the Kindle again. I’ll call you back if it doesn’t work.

Ring…

Dad: It worked! I guess you have to put it in the Documents folder. The Kindle didn’t load it unless it was in that folder.

Me: Ah, that must be it!

Isn’t that a priceless conversation? I couldn’t stop laughing after I hung up.

It reminded me of this video

An adorable performance at a halftime show for a student vs. staff basketball game. This took some time and commitment to put together. Congrats to the students who worked so hard on it!

Back in December I did an interview at author Julie Hayes’s blog and one of the questions was: Take these three words and give me a 100 word or less scenario using them: concert, documented, broadcast

Below is what I came up with. Maybe the idea to a new story, I don’t know. I thought it might be fun to post these 3 word scenarios from time to time as a creative exercise. A way for me to play around with new ideas that don’t have to become anything more than an idea (or maybe they will).

My friend Harry used to work as a producer for broadcast TV. But he told me when he finally accepted he was in love with his best friend, he gave up the career he’d always hated, moved to New York, and started a band. See, I’m his best friend. A guitarist. I think Harry would do anything for me. He’s even landed us some sweet concert gigs, and he’s documented our journey as a rising band for our website. I watched the footage last night. There’s a lot of me in it. Maybe he really does love me this time around.

What do you think?

Click the image for larger view.

I was working on a new scene for my serial novel today and was getting frustrated after the first 300 words. I went out to the living room, lay down on the couch, and put my head on my sweetie’s lap. Here’s how the conversation went.

Her: “How’s it going?

Me: “Like crap.”

“Why?”

“Everything I write sucks.”

“Is it a first draft?”

“Yes.”

“Well then, it’s just important to get the ideas down. You can fix the writing later. So you say, ‘See Dick run into Dick’s dick.’ You can rewrite it later. Although I’m not sure why you’d want two characters named Dick.”

That got me laughing. I went back into the office to write some more.

Gotta love these little motivational talks with my sweetie. Thanks, hon!

This one is somewhat “not safe for work.”

Thanks to my fabulous and wickedly smart uncle (Hey T!) I learned how to play Pandemic a few months back. It was my first time playing a cooperative board game where players work together rather than compete against each other. We just got our own copy of Pandemic and have been playing the two player version. I have to say, I love cooperative games like this!

Maybe it’s the romantic in me that prefers the non-competitive nature of the game. I really hate seeing my sweetie get frustrated when I’m kicking her ass in a game. I mean, all we have to do is mention the game Clue and I can see her get all serious like she might actually be able to beat me this time, then her expression falls as she thinks, Nope. She ALWAYS wins that game.

Then there’s the other night when we decided to play Monopoly, something we haven’t played in years. I think I ended up in jail 42 times. My mood was pretty good the first 40 times, but I hit the 41st and it was no longer funny. It was just sad.

At least with Pandemic if we go down, we do it as a couple and have some laughs at ourselves at the same time.

Now if we could just figure out how to always get us a happy ending in Pandemic, all would be right with the world. (I do love my happy, all-is-right-with-the-world endings.)

What’s your favorite board game? I’m a game geek and would love to try out some new ones.

I was writing the other day and got stuck with how to describe a fight scene. I needed some strong sensory descriptions. But how do you describe a fist slamming against someone’s body? I started lightly punching my fist into my hand, just pondering the fight scene, thinking about what it would sound like and feel like, really getting into the moment with my characters.

But I was punching my hand. That’s not right. So I proceeded to move my punches (albeit they were light punches) up my arm. Several slaps of fist to skin, I realized what I was doing. Yep, I was punching myself for my art.

I imagined someone seeing bruises all along my arms and asking, “How did you get these?”

“Writing.”

Duh. How else?

Seriously, who thought that was a good name for a burger? And that sign? I couldn’t resist snapping a pic.

For those of you who mentioned Sawyer as your Lost fave when I had Jack up for my first “Picture This,” well now it’s Sawyer’s turn.

Here’s my pick for Josh Holloway: James Marsden

And speaking of Lost and Sawyer, I thought I’d share my favorite Sawyer moments:

• When he’s reading to Aaron.
• Whenever he reads, for that matter. There’s nothing sexier than the sight of a man reading.
• When he jumps from the helicopter when it’s too heavy to make it to the boat.
• When Juliet dies.
• When he and Juliet “remember” each other, and he says, “I got you, babe.”

What are your favorite Sawyer moments? And who would you put together with Josh?