Nethermore

My brother noted that I hadn’t posted anything about yurts for quite a while. So I went digging through the archives to find one of the more-historic moments of yurtdom.

Yurts are so awesome that the astronauts of the moon missions lived in them for days during their stuff. I hear that the circular design helps conserve oxygen. (Notice the circular design of the space helmet, modeled after the yurt.)

The Tumbleweed Tiny House Company is trying to make the yurt obsolete. They’re also trying to get people into smaller houses than are presently the norm.

Started out when Jay Shafer wanted to have a 100 sq ft house. It would include all the amenities that one needed to live comfortably. However, the building codes where Jay lived wouldn’t allow a house so small. So he researched the regulations for what could be put on a trailer, built his house, and put it on wheels.

Check the houses on the products page and you’ll see what I’m talking about.

I think it’s admirable that in a culture of ever-expanding houses, there is a movement toward functionality over materialism.

However, at thirty to eighty thousand dollars a pop, less really isn’t more in my book. For the craftsman-minded, he does sell the plans on his site (for the same price as plans for houses much larger), and I think one could put one of these houses together for a fraction of the cost.

If I had more time on my hands, I’d design a few of my own and give this guy a run for his money.

But that would detract me from my focus—writing the book.

Saw the first of the summer blockbusters on Friday.

It suffered from a surprising lack of yurts. Not as good as the first two movies in the Yurtmen franchise, but definitely worth watching.

Best part of the movie was when Phoenix lights the yurt encampment on fire and Magneto saves the yurtmen from a crispy demise by pulling them to safety by the metal fillings in their teeth! Man . . . who thinks this stuff up! Guess that’s why these guys are working for the big studios in Hollywood and I’m not.

In other news, still working on the book (haven’t been able to update the progress bar, but I will tomorrow). I may even get some writing done today, if I can ignore the crazy south-of-the-border music blasting from the apartment next door. When did Rascal Flatts start singing in Spanish?

I think I saw this one a few years ago when I couldn’t find anything else to rent.

In other news, I’m back on track for the book after taking two days off to evaluate where I’m at. It was a great idea to spend the time looking at the characters and plot. I’m revitalized on the story and characters and ready to go for another 50k before I’ll evaluate things again.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Don’t have a lot of time today, folks. But here’s more evidence that yurts are cool. Enjoy!

Now I’ve got to get one.

I didn’t want to write last night. I didn’t want to do anything. I was four chapters into the book and already hating everything about it. Most novelists don’t feel this way about their books until three quarters of the way through. I felt like I must be doing something wrong.

And maybe I am. But I won’t know until the book is done. If I don’t finish it, there’s no way to know if how I’m writing it will work, and if I don’t finish it I won’t be able to go back and fix anything. If I don’t finish it, I won’t learn anything, and I won’t ever be able to make a living as a writer.

I wrestled with my mind, trying to pull myself together enough to stick it out and finish the book. Or at least give it a go for one more night. If I had written the book five years ago, I wouldn’t be in the situation I’m in right now. There’s a good possibility that I would be published by now and possibly even doing well enough to support myself.

Then I told myself that I can’t begrudge the lost time. It’s not coming back, but I can learn from it. I can start now and stay steady now as if today were that day five years ago when I wished that I’d started.

Now is the time.

If I don’t push through today and stay consistent and true to my writing goals, then tomorrow will have exactly the same problems as today.

I won’t have grown. I won’t have moved on. I won’t have accomplished my goals. I still won’t have a yurt.

And I’ll be five years older, looking back on a day much like today when I could have pulled myself together and continued forward.

I refuse to have to look back on today with the words, “I wish I had” running like a digital marquee through my head.

Now is the time.

I have this strange fascination with yurts. It all started at the end of last year when I was thinking about helping my dad build a mother-in-law apartment at my parents’ house in Idaho. I looked into building plans and the costs of such a project and decided that a yurt would be the way to go.

Dad wasn’t thrilled with the idea. But he didn’t have to be. The seed had been planted, and now I’m a yurt man. I like the idea of having some place where I can retreat away from the world. I want a yurt, even if it’s a yurt in the back yard.

I would outfit it with solar panels to power my laptop, and I could live off the grid and write novels in my yurt. I could even get a ChillSack and have all the comforts of home and all the comforts of a yurt.

Or maybe I’ll just open a restaurant.