Category: relationships

tight schedule

Posted on by admin

Weird, because I planned the day on making chili early, so I’d have more free time in the evening.

Unfortunately, I forgot we have my father-in-law for a standing dinner on Sundays, and while we appreciate having him, I’m not sure how much he appreciates it anymore.

Certainly the manner in which he somehow manages to spray everything except the toilet would suggest that maybe he’s taking things a little bit for granted.

He’s not a bad guy, just no social awareness. No concept of etiquette.

Ironic, from a young punk, who glorified the flouting of convention.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2021 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Pebble In The Sky, Isaac Asimov
Comics: WildCats Adventures Sourcebook 1, Warblade: Endangered Species 1-2, WildCats Adventures 5
Music: February 1, 1992, Melbourne, Nirvana

horoscope

Posted on by admin

My horoscope told me I might have difficulty with a woman in my life today.

Apparently, that was a typo.

I think they might have meant all the women in my life.

Jesus, what a day.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 711 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Liza Of Lambeth, W. Somerset Maugham (well, that got way better toward the end, but I'm still confused, if he punches her in the gut before they did it the first time, why was she in love with him?)
Comics: WildC.A.T.S. 5-6, WildC.A.T.S. Sourcebook 2, WildC.A.T.S. Trilogy 3
Music: November 23, 2007, The 9:30 Club, Washington, DC, They Might Be Giants

welp, botched the fuck out of that

Posted on by admin

Yeah, a pivotal scene and I wrote it like a ninth grader, or a cop show writer.

Grabbing someone by the lapels and screaming, “Where is he?”, like my main character is fucking Mel Gibson or Clint Eastwood, when he’s more like Buster in Arrested Development.

Jesus, I’ve let my family make me watch too many episodes of Tracker – my writing is now devolving as a result.

(For the record, Tracker is shit. The only time I was even remotely interested was the UFO episode, because I thought they might be pivoting and turning it into something good, like the X-Files. Sadly, they’ve never mentioned it again.)

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2666 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig (like, I see good points, but his pro-corporate copyright stance is distasteful, and his insistence on interjecting the government into everything is as well.  He claims to have made a point or taken a stance in there somewhere, but other than saying, hey, this is an issue - and it was, back then, I don't really see much of a stance on anything, other than we need more government or the magical mystery market will solve the problem, like some kind of divine hand.)
Comics: Gen 13 v2 65-67, GenActive 6
Music: 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of..., Arrested Development

building a path

Posted on by admin

I mean, I’m a bit off today because yesterday was St. Patrick’s and I have to get right in there and get back to work, but I’m starting to think of possibilities that might help me move forward.

I’m thinking of possibilities that might break me free of this dreary life.

This bland and weary work.

This modern malaise.

I am planning.

Picking a way forward.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2163 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig
Comics: Superman/Gen 13 2-3, Gen 13 v2 54, GenActive 2
Music: 21 Guns Live, Green Day

happy st. birthday

Posted on by admin

My wife was born on St. Patrick’s Day, which is a blessing and a curse.

On the plus side, it means you’ll always have people to celebrate with; on the downside, they probably aren’t celebrating you.

It’s like being born on Christmas or New Year’s Eve, but with more green, more booze and more pretending you’re Irish (I am, fuck you), when you’re actually Dutch.

Anyway, happy birthday, darling. I shudder to think what life would be without you.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2187 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Comics: GenActive 1, Gen v2 52-53, Superman/Gen 13 1
Music: 21 Guns, Green Day

it just occurred to me

Posted on by admin

Is Jonathan Franzen going to someday read this, and call every publisher out there to blackball me?

I’m sorry, Mr. Franzen.

I take it back. It was wonderful and not at all poorly structured and written with underdeveloped characters, meaningless storylines and a deeply unsatisfying ending that inspired apathy instead of thought or emotion.

Of course, this is what apathy looks like. He might even call it a win for provoking a reaction, but I’ll tell you – this is the same reaction I had after my old roommate dragged me to both Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the first Fast & Furious movie.

I was livid with him.

We have such short lives – why waste it on bad art?

Target: 1500 words
Written: 1549 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison
Comics: Gen 13 v2 48-51
Music: 20th Century Masters - The Millenium Collection: The Best of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

options

Posted on by admin

I know it’s pop or whatever, but I feel Cameron Whitcomb’s Options in my gut. I never think of myself as an alcoholic, though my sister-in-law loves to imply it, though her husband actually drinks harder liquor than I do, more often.

He’s prone to get a right buzz on; I just like a couple of beers at the pool or a glass of wine with dinner.

And that, only two to three times a week, if I’m lucky.

Of course, there’s more of that when we’re on vacation, but fuck, you’re on vacation.

If you can’t let your hair down a little on vacation, what kind of vacation is it?

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2139 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Twenty-Seventh City, Jonathan Franzen
Comics: Gen 12 5, Gen 13 v2 31-32, Gen 13 Bootleg 20
Music: 20/20, The Beach Boys

i miss my nieces

Posted on by admin

They’re both off at college now and we no longer have our weekly dinners. I know we weren’t as tight as we used to be when they were younger, but the younger one has a superb connection with her aunt, and the elder was more like me.

Quiet, enjoyed music and books, into weird shit, but cool with it.

I’m not sure what happened.

We don’t even talk when we do see each other.

I miss them, an awful lot, but it’s not really about me. It’s about them living their lives.

Few people have meant so much to me in my days, and it’s a shame we have to drift apart.

Still, their lives await. All I ever want for anyone is for them to be happy, so go be happy.

I’ll be here if you feel like shooting the shit.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2570 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Twenty-Seventh City, Jonathan Franzen
Comics: Gen 13 v2 27, Gen 13/Generation X: Harvest Of Evil 1, Gen 13 Bootleg 17, Gen 12 2
Music: 20 Years Of Hell, Vol II, Anti-Flag/All Dinosaurs

cinco de marcho

Posted on by admin

I’m thinking about kindness today. It’s because I’m writing a book where it’s a large part of it, and while I need kindness to play a large role in my life and my person, I find I’m having difficulty tapping into it.

I think the past two-plus years of wallowing and anger have dulled my sense of compassion. I am an empathic being; I feel everything intensely. I am highly affected by other people’s moods.

But that makes me want to withdraw, not connect.

And what I need is connect.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 324 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: The Twenty-Seventh City, Jonathan Franzen
Comics: Gen 13 v2 26, Gen 13 Bootleg 16, Gen 12 1, Gen 13 Bootleg Annual 1
Music: 20 Years Of Hell, Vol I, Anti-Flag/World's Scariest Police Chases (they call him ROBOCOP)

yesterday’s point

Posted on by admin

Yesterday’s post was identifying where I’d examined previously. I cover lots of little things in my smaller works, but the big themes of my life, I try to save for the canon.

The Mungk was trauma/fatalism.

The Conflagration Of Boor And Aghast is about tribalism and the pointlessness of dualism with substance, subtlety and consequence.

Father Lightning? It’s not going to be a tale of woe; or rather, it is, but there is, as there should be in all great novels of fear, a sense of humanity.

Of kindness.

Compassion.

I spent nearly a year wallowing over the hopelessness of it all with The Mungk. I spent over a year mired in the politics of mutual hate with Boor & Aghast.

It’s time for some higher focus.

It’s time to focus on a little kindness. A little compassion.

it’s time to make the world a little better place. Rather than navelgazing and moaning into the void, or raging against everyone who doesn’t agree with my side in mutually assured destruction, I’m going to learn how to be nice.

It may take more effort than I’ve got.

Target: 1500 words
Written: 2506 words, novel: Father Lightning

Read: A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft
Comics: Gen 13 v2 22-23, Gen 13 Bootleg 11-12
Music: February 22, 1994, Palaghiaccio, Rome, Nirvana (and thus ends, for now, my collection of Nirvana bootlegs)