shocked

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So, like, I used a sink hand plunger and in less than ten seconds, the clog was gone, and I had the rest of my day back.

I was so confused; things never go that easy.

I was prepared to hacksaw off the stripped P-Trap and replace it, and all this good crazy shit; I thought my whole day was shot.

Naturally, I couldn’t believe my luck – things never work out like that for me.

There had to be another shoe, waiting, hanging.

And there was. Sofi was up all night, going outside and straining, unable to poop. I slept a grand total of one and a half hours.

Nice one, universe. Fuck you.

Target: 1000 words
Written: 2258 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Swiss Family Robinson, Johann David Wyss
Comics: The Boys 9-12
Music: Use Your Fingers, Bloodhound Gang

fighting back against the sewer

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I am armed now with my hexes (sink plungers) and my salt circles (auger) and if need be, I will call upon the seventh circle of hell to release a demon of greater standing to devour my foe. A Beelzebub of epic proportions with which to suck the very soul of this foul block.

(a wet-dry vac and a new P-trap)

Such is my life now. No wonder plumbers make the good money.

Target: 1000 words
Written: 1960 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Swiss Family Robinson, Johann David Wyss
Comics: The Boys 5-8
Music: New Values, Iggy Pop

given up

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I guess we’re just abandoning the bathroom sink.

Moving out probably.

Whatever’s stuck down there is stronger than me. Possibly primordial. Almost definitely of the Seventh Circle, or some ancient mystical Lovecraftian shit.

Crap.

Is the Mungk in my pipes?

No, that bastard would never be so goddamned silent.

Target: 900 words
Written: 410 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Swiss Family Robinson, Johann David Wyss
Comics: The Boys 1-4
Music: Us Against The Crown, State Radio (me against the plug, really)

still stuck

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I’m blowing this thing up like a goddamn volcano at an elementary school science fair and it still won’t budge.

What the fuck is down there?

Fucking pipes existing as real goddamned life metaphors.

What the fuck is stuck, so deep down inside?

Target: 900 words
Written: 1193 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Comics: Angelus 4-6
Music: Urban Hymns, The Verve (one of my all-time favourite albums... simply one of the best)

stuck plug

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My bathroom sink is suddenly completely plugged. Like, no drainage whatsoever.

Tried Drano, tried boiling water, snake, plunger, nothing but silt and shit coming up.

I’m not sure how; all that ever goes down there is toothpaste, and the occasional whiskers (and long blonde hair that I try to clean out of the trap.)

And yet, suddenly, today, like the rest of my day. Totally fucked.

Totally stuck.

Like me, seemingly forever.

Target: 900 words
Written: 1065 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Comics: Angelus: Pilot Season 1, Angelus 1-3
Music: Uptown Special, Mark Ronson (my attempt to find something upbeat - it didn't work)

midweek

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Granted, it’s a short week because of Remembrance Day, but still.

Halfway.

I feel for veterans; having been through the war to end all wars, they must be devastated to think they went through so much to end up just having it come back around in their own country.

Sickening.

I’m heartbroken for many reasons, but that’s a big one this week.

To have fought so hard and with such cost, only to have some fucking draft-dodgin’ rich fuck come around and hand your own country right into the hands of those who would have it destroyed?

Anger isn’t a strong enough word for what I would feel.

Target: 900 words
Written: 1308 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe
Comics: 100 Bullets: Lono 5-8
Music: Uptown Avondale, Afghan Whigs

100 bullets

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Why isn’t this a show on HBO yet?

Other than maybe Y: The Last Man, I’ve never read anything that doesn’t so perfectly beg to be made into something onscreen.

Of course, they fucked up Y: The Last Man apparently, because it was cancelled after one season, but hey, gender identity politics do kind of make that a tough sell in the current climate. Dichotomy was sort of the thing before; spectrum doesn’t really play to the story as well.

But still.

100 Bullets.

Are you fucking kidding me?

GET IT DONE.

Target: 900 words
Written: 983 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories, NOFX
Comics: 100 Bullets 97-100
Music: Uprising, Muse (what we need right now)

serial

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So, I’ve been writing for a long time. I’ve published a couple of things, written many that I’ve never sent anywhere, but I’ve never run into a piece that I wrote, but of which, I have absolutely no recollection.

Like none.

And here’s the thing. It’s fucking tight. It’s polished. It’s not revelatory or mindbending or anything, but it’s very good, for what it is.

And I remember absolutely nothing about it.

Even the topic isn’t one I’d usually write on – a serial dater who falls madly in love, then loses love, goes into a Young Werther style depression, then meets the next one and does the same thing.

It’s not long, but the characters are well fleshed out, the story has solid details and telling moments. The whole thing comes a nice full circle.

And as far as I can tell, I went into a fugue state to write it, printed it off, gave it to my wife to read and then wiped it from my memory so completely, I might as well be one of those walking, tired tropes from a Hallmark movie, that gets bonked on the head and loses the ability to remember anything except the skills they had and how to speak English.

Fucking. Weird.

And yet. Still somehow good enough to be published?

What. The. Fuck.

Target: 900 words
Written: 921 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories, NOFX
Comics: 100 Bullets 93-96 (so close, I'm practically giddy)
Music: The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, Red Hot Chili Peppers

maybe i’ll just focus on enlightenment

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Like, let the world burn.

I’m just going to write and read and figure out how to be happy.

Maybe I’ll get it by the time I die of old age.

Maybe I’ll die before then and never know, but then, at least it will be over.

Target: 900 words
Written: 832 words, novella: The Mungk

Read: The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories, NOFX
Comics: 100 Bullets 89-92
Music: Up To Here, The Tragically Hip (fucking seminal, man - if Gord Downie is ever outed as a rapist or racist or whatever, I will lose all faith in humanity.)