Category: systems

possible

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So, I guess it’s possible to get published after all. Not that I had any doubts of my sister-in-law’s ability to do so, we’ve definitely gone about it in different ways. She’s networked her way to support for her book, and that’s the smart way to do it.

I’ve apparently opted for the struggling artist in silence, waiting for discovery somehow from the confines of my attic.

These two things are not particularly compatible. It is unlikely that I will ever be discovered, sending out screeds from my basement; it is a matter of personal disgust to whore myself out.

I know it’s about making a genuine connection with people, with those that may be into the things you’re creating. I know that.

Humanity hasn’t exactly been showing its best side lately and I wouldn’t even know where to look to find a tribe or like-minded folks without running into the kind of awful people I seek endlessly to avoid. I can’t do anymore myopic right-wingers or self-important snoots. I want genuine; I don’t want people who look down their nose at others, or those who want to drag everyone into the muck.

I can’t do it.

The time and energy commitment, when I have so little of either, is a real bummer; how could I possibly have less and survive?

I don’t know.

I am my own worst enemy.

I am my only protector.

Shit.

Target: 500 words
Written: 194 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Pride And Prejudice And Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith
Comics: East Of West 36-39
Music: Vans Presents: The General Strike EP, Anti-Flag, Popcorn, Muse, The Vegas Years, Everclear

flower is a flower

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A flower is nothing but stem, leaves, roots and seed. But the variations are endless and can range from medicinal to delicious to fatal.

When we talk about a flower, we all know what mean. It’s simple.

But when we think of the multitude of different types, their functions and forms, how they interact with the ecosystem around them, from feeding bees to eating flies, their symbiosis with the soil, air and water in the world around them… it’s grandiose in its complexity.

Simple to complex. These are the things that make me happy.

Target: 100 words
Written: 844 words, short story: The Ineffable Hat

Read: Ice Cream & Sadness by Cyanide & Happiness
Comics: Pretty Deadly 1-4
Music: XO by Elliott Smith

simple/complex

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I’m a bit obsessed with systems, I’ll confess.

There’s a profound beauty in a well-designed system. The base is always a simple concept; in the variations and expansions, there comes complexity.

But it all boils down to a simple flow.

Systems based on complexity break easily. It’s like building a building without understanding the concepts of squares and triangles, circles and arches. Like saying the best way to describe a circle is to start with a Moebius strip.

I think that’s why I have such a difficult time getting into things that bow too hard to pretense and cleverness; people doing weird to seem smarter or cooler or whatever; it’s all such a show and a pathetic one at that. Like complex for complexity’s sake, it’s a thin premise that collapses easily.

Target: 100 words
Written: 211 words, short story: The Ineffable Hat

Read: Hot Sex by Jamye Waxman, Emily Morse (nice visuals, appreciated the inclusivity, but yeah - still read like a bad Cosmopolitan article, as though they'd Googled the answers, instead of living them).
Comic: Wytches 5-6, Wytches: Bad Egg (such a terrific series with very personal themes on parenting; I wish the makers had more time for it).
Linkin Park - Xero (early LP, pre-Chester.  Very similar to later LP, post-Chester).