Jay Cantrell: Blog

I have a few little truisms I try to follow.

Here's one:

"The best way to ensure success is to do things you already know you're good at."

Let's talk about things I'm bad at.

* We've discussed about the math thing. There is no use belaboring a point but it plays a role in this posting so I'll mention it again.

* Several readers have taken it upon themselves to mention that it appears I have only a vague understanding of the rules of grammar, spelling and punctuation. Yeah, OK. I can see where I might leave that impression.

* Now it seems that I don't understand calendars either.

Since the start of Learning Curves, I've labored under the impression that it was 145 chapters or so and that it would conclude somewhere between Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Yeah, about that, not so much on either account.

Somewhere, somehow I began randomly skipping chapter numbers around 120. In Part IV I managed to skip five chapter numbers. I'd go straight from Chapter 123 to Chapter 125 with no 124 in between. We'll chalk this up to my arithmetic deficiencies. Three-digit numbers give me problems.

The upshot is that the story is 140 chapters (assuming I didn't decide to play around with long-established numerical sequences again).

The last two chapters will be posted Oct. 16.

For those who might not understand calendars any better than I do, that's well before Halloween and nowhere near Thanksgiving. Those five extra chapters wouldn't have made a difference. It still would have ended before Halloween.

Now, there is the slightest of possibilities that I knew all of this and simply confused this story with one in the past.

I have a lot of stuff bouncing around in my little pea brain and things I once knew (counting, how days and months work) no longer seem readily accessible.

So, the story is almost over - at least this section of it.

And I dropped this month's bonus chapter into the queue.

I still don't have the files formatted, renumbered and ready to start Part V of Learning Curves.

The weather was nice this weekend and I decided to enjoy outside activities.

I'll shoot for Friday.

Jay C.

Hey all,

This section of Learning Curves will be wrapping up Friday.

The final portion of this part of Phil and Hailey's journey will open next week.

I have to go through and look at chapter numbering and how it affects scheduling.

I am shooting for Monday to start but it might be Friday depending upon how badly I've screwed up.

To make up for the possible delay (and to close out Part IV with my normal two chapters), I've put up a bonus chapter today.

Take care,
Jay C.

Don't tell my sister (who was my high school geometry teacher) but it seems I can't count.

My carefully researched, intricately planned posting schedule has gone to crap and I find that the bonus chapter I planned for the upcoming Labor Day Weekend has arrived.

Now, I could be a jerk and skip Friday to just post one chapter on Saturday. That would get me back on schedule (probably).

Would I do that? Could I be so cruel?

Uh, yeah.

I'd do it in a heartbeat if I hadn't misnumbered a bunch of upcoming chapters. I completely skipped 124 in my numbering scheme (that counting thing again). I'm not sure if I missed more later on (it's happened before).

So since I no longer have a clue how the posting schedule works out I'll just toss up the bonus chapter today and we'll muddle through together.

Jay C.

Yep, it's there.

And I'm not going to have time this weekend to fix it.

Readers will just have to deal with it.

Jay C.