Barely made it, didn’t I?
Targets are important, but they are that. Targets. One word over is a coincidence, not a target.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1701 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: How To Read Nature, Tristan Gooley
Comics: Cloak And Dagger 4, Cloak And Dagger v2 1-3
Music: Hang Time, Soul AsylumEpilogued? What’s the best way to say that?
The return of complexity; we are preaching kindness as logic, and logic as kindness, but there are those still too lost to see past their own suffering.
Where does kindness stop? Is someone’s refusal to accept someone else’s kindness the line to draw? Or do we just hold back a moment to let them catch their breath and think it through?
Can cruelty be kindness? (Not actual cruelty, but hard truths, spoken softly, things people don’t want to hear, but needed to.)
Where do we draw the line? Where does compassion end?
For example, Donald Trump. In an absolute application of kindness, we’d show it to him as well, even though, at this point, it’s pretty clear he’s unredeemable. At this point, he just needs to be removed from office, and exorcised from society. Locked up, whatever. Out of power, along with all the other Republicans.
There’s still kindness in that, however. Maybe not for the Republicans, although we’re technically saving them from themselves.
But the greater kindness, to the rest of the world, the people being affected by their monstrosity.
The needs of the many, and all that.
Thanks, Spock, you’ve helped me prove my point – kindness is logic, logic, kindness.
We miss you, Mr. Nimoy, but thanks for what you left behind.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1463 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Jagannath, Karen Tidbeck (minus the body horror short stories, I rather enjoyed this. Very accessible. Nice.)
Comics: Invincible Universe: Battle Beast 12, Capes 10
Music: Ham Fisted, Local H (do these guys even have a bad album? Same schtick, but it remains great. Maybe their debut was a little weak.)They’re kinda bullshit, aren’t they? I mean, all endings can be happy if they release the tension risen by the narrative, but still, complexity is better than 80s style TV wrap-ups.
I love it when a plan comes together, says Hannibal, chewing his cigar like cud. Yep, everything wrapped up nice, no real damage done. Lots of bullets fired and things blown up, cars flipping sideways over conveniently placed ramps, yet everyone walks away with nothing but a bump on the noggin and no concussion or post-injury brain bleeds or whatever.
Whatever.
People should end up scarred and broken. It gives them something to work on and overcome.
Like Scott Snyder wrote in American Vampire, scars on the skin aren’t bad things; they’re part of the story.
It’s a shame to filter them all away.
(Speaking of which, is that what’s behind this skincare craze, beyond corporate greed? People trying to make sure they have absolutely no blemishes, like an Instagram filter that scrapes away a person’s leathery skin, so when you see them and you think, yikes, what happened? Are you okay?)
Anyway, be proud of your aging skin. It got you where you are.
Nothing wrong with aging gracefully. Just me and Harrison Ford and Leonard Cohen. Looking like silver-haired gods.
(Them, not me. I’m but salt-and-pepper yet.)
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1597 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Jagannath, Karen Tidbeck
Comics: Invincible Universe: Battle Beast 10-11, Capes 8-9
Music: Hallowe'en, The MisfitsSometimes, I feel like I’m too repetitive.
In The Mungk, it was semi-intentional. The metaphor was for trauma causing hopelessness, paralysis, as the world fell apart around you, and you descended into mindless hell.
In The Conflagration of Boor and Aghast, it’s used for some dramatic effect; Walter’s interactions with the dog, for example, grew increasingly tense, until, well, I don’t want to say until the book is released. It would be a shame to spoil it, if anyone actually cared.
In this one though, it seems out of place, and I feel like I’ve done it a lot.
Like the story could go in a crazy direction, but it doesn’t. I doesn’t really need to, but it’s a paranormal horror novel; it should a little.
I don’t know.
Is it weak? Is it thin?
Fuck, it feels thin.
Perhaps I’m not the man I thought I was.
Perhaps in the next one, one must get truly, truly insane.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1873 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Armada, Ernest Cline
Comics: Capes 3-5, Invincible Universe: Battle Beast 7
Music: Hallelujah! I'm A Bum, Local H (I always wanted to be one of those, though the reality of it has ripped the romanticism away; I think it had more to do with the idea of being happy no matter the circumstance. A rejection of material things, an embrace of the present, no matter its conditions. In retrospect, a bit naive, if well intentioned.)Yeah, I’m cool with that, he thinks, as he finalizes the dying moments before the denouement (or the climax, the philosophical portion of the climax).
Yeah. I’m cool with that.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1183 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Armada, Ernest Cline
Comics: Invincible Universe: Battle Beast 5-6, Capes 1-2
Music: Halfway To Sanity, The Ramones (not me)So, so fucking tired.
How come the universe lets you have crazy dreams all night as a method of processing the sub/unconscious, but doesn’t let you have a goddamn night’s rest?
Huh, universe?
Am I sick of people or what?
Thanks, local mayoral and council candidates, for weeding yourselves out with your pro-AI data farm stance.
I was having trouble sifting through who’s what, and now I know.
There’s a few names off the list.
Fuck AI.
For the record, AI companies – none of you have any permission to use any of my work ever, for any reason, under any circumstances.
Or you can, but the cost is a billion dollars a word.
In other words, fuck you.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1832 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Armada, Ernest Cline
Comics: Invincible 141-144
Music: Half-Hour Of Power, Sum 41While walking today:
Beautiful people are nice, but good people are better than beautiful ones.
People who are both beautiful and good have it all.
Everybody hates them, all at once.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 1710 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Radical Compassion, Tara Brach (I love the idea, not sure Tara Brach isn't a bit Tony Robbins/Eckhart Tolle-ish in reality. That worries me a bit. I had to take advice from con artists.)
Comics: Invincible 137-140
Music: Half-Album EP, NOFXWhat a wholesome fuckin’ day.
Brunch and skipping stones on the beach, racing leaves through the rapids of a small stream, then picking ginger golds ripe from the tree.
Doesn’t get much better than that, kid.
Target: 1700 words
Written: 908 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Anyone, Charles Soule
Comics: Tech Jacket v2 6-8, Invincible 116
Music: Futures, Jimmy Eat WorldIt’s weird; for an agnostic who believes only in what is, I sure write a lot about what isn’t.
Because maybe it is somewhere. In enough universes, enough dimensions, who knows what the baselines might be?
That’s the fun of it. I actually loved the idea of imagination being a primary power source for dimensional travel in Black Science. It makes perfect sense.
And as I struggle to lay the basis of the lore of Nggoth, I can’t help but wonder…
What else is out there?
What else could possibly be?
There are no limits save those we place on ourselves, at least in the dimensional teleports of imagination.
Target: 1600 words
Written: 1683 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: The Stand, Stephen King
Comics: Invincible Universe 1-3, Invincible 102
Music: Full Swing: Act 1, Various, but mostly for the Big Rude JakeI’m not sure that’s entirely true, because sometimes, I would think publicity would be impossible to ignore. One isn’t always unseen, and kindness rarely limits itself to one-on-one interactions.
But do we do it solely for the glory? For the good feeling?
I think that’s the rub. It’s okay to feel good about doing good things; one should feel good about doing good things. But it shouldn’t be the motivator, the only reason.
Good deeds done selfishly, in order to feel good, can still do good, however. Of course, it should never be contingent on that.
If it is, it’s little better than running a charity for the social status; it may do some good, but it’s probably more about lining your pockets and getting you access than doing good for others.
In a case like that, the ‘others’ are bound to be neglected.
It becomes about the appearance of good, instead of actual good. I think that’s what a lot of my fellow lefties tend to forget. It’s not the optics that matter. It’s the results.
Hence, why I get pissed as social media liberals, more interested in cultivating a reputation for being on the right side of things than actually being on the right side. It’s why there’s so little rational evaluation of the outrage generated by ‘cancellation’.
(And don’t get me wrong – the right wing are the king of snowflake hysterics. They get their nuts all in a twist over trans athletes that don’t even exist, for pete’s sake, or the “war on Christmas”, which has yet to even become a skirmish anywhere except in their own minds.)
Anyways, my point is, whether people know it or not, it’s good to be good to people. We don’t do it for the glory; we do it because it’s the right thing to do.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds – Matthew 5:15-16.
Of course, that sounds like you need to let everyone know you’re doing good, but hey, that’s a discussion for another day.
Target: 1600 words
Written: 899 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: The Stand, Stephen King
Comics: Invincible 95-96, Guarding The Globe v2 2-3
Music: Fueling The Flames Of A Revolution: A-F Records, Anti-Flag