Nature of the Beast

    At the moment, I’m feeling pretty good! I kind of want to do a little dance and I’ve got a stupid grin plastered to my face while I giggle like a little kid. I’m not even feeling great for any particularly spectacular reason either. It’s just that a few minutes ago I finished writing the rough draft for the thirty-second chapter in my novel and I looked outside to find that, by the gods, it was still light out! That never happens! I mean, I’m usually happy as a dog with a stick when I finish a chapter, but I also usually finish some time between midnight and 2 AM. By then I’m too tired to do the happy dance. Right now the only thing keeping me from turning on Fall Out Boy or N’SYNC and then barreling ahead to write the next chapter is that I remembered that it’s Friday and that this blog thingy-ma-bobber still needed to be done.
    I’ve only written rough drafts so far and I still have holes in the plot’s outline that I need to fill, yet that doesn’t stop this sort of thing from feeling good. Maybe that’s the mark of finding something that you love: Spending hours on a project with no promise of reward and then being suddenly and irrationally happy once you finish part of it. It’s either that or the simple fact that you can get lost in something for hours on end without really noticing, aside from the sporadic elation when you start work on your favorite parts of the process. Perhaps it’s both. Perhaps it’s different for everyone. I don’t know. Actually, for any of you people out there with something you’re passionate about, I’d like to know how you feel when you’re involved with whatever it is, or at least how you know that you’re passionate about it. Mike Bliss, I’m looking at you. The robot in me still finds emotions a bit confusing and I’m trying to figure some of them out.
    On another note, I NEED something to be happy about because I found out that
A) My university tuition now needs to be payed (over $20,000 a year for a STATE school?!),
B) Over these past few months, when I haven’t been able to work out too much, I’ve lost about seven pounds of muscle, and
C) I’m apparently being referred to a trauma surgeon for my leg injury.
    A freakin’ trauma surgeon?! Come on! That’s a bit excessive, isn’t it? I mean, yeah, my leg still hurts some after six months and I hesitate to do anything with it, but this guy’s used to dealing with people sporting open chest wounds! The simple fact that I’ll be walking into his office is embarrassing! I can’t tell whether that or the inevitable price of the visit is worse. Having universal healthcare like every other developed nation in the world would be mighty nice right now! Bloody insurance company lobbyists. That’s one of the first things I’m going to fix when I become Supreme God-King of the World.
    Other than that, I haven’t too much to report. Treating writing a book like a regular job means that I don’t get out much and little happens to me aside from what goes on in my own head. While that can be pretty bizarre and exciting for me, it’s not something you tend to talk about. Then again, this is a nowhere town near Cape Cod. Even when I had my usual summer job nothing happened. Nature of the beast I guess.
    Anyhow, I’m going back to thinking about elves and fairies and medieval amputations! Have a good week everybody!

Song of the Week: I’m going to pretend that this song can apply to something, rather than just someone. Okay, it’s actually just been going through my head all day, you happy now?

Strike The Battle Flag!

    I love freedom of speech. I can get really irritated with the concept sometimes when I listen to the poisonous propaganda that oozes out of FOX News, yet as a whole I adore it. Aside from the moral implications of allowing a population to speak its mind and say whatever it pleases, whether the government likes it or not, wonderful things arise from the practice. I don’t know about you guys, but I rather like having comedians, novelists, singers, and artists who can express their souls and opinions without worrying about someone calling “Off with their head!” We get some fantastic stuff aside from Saturday Night Live and The Daily Show, like what happened today when South Carolina took down their Confederate Battle Flag from in front of their state capital building.
    I’ve attached a video of the event below and it is beautiful. Rather than the ravenous boos and “Southern rights” tripe that I expected, the spectators were cheering for the entire time, chanting “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” and waving the stars and stripes. Around 3:50 in the clip, you can even hear everyone singing “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye!” It sounded like the crowd at a football game, which I suppose is a bit demeaning to the hardcore southerners there and I am just fine with that. Perhaps it was a bit petty and perhaps it will galvanize some extremists against the north or rational people in general, but it was not overtly vicious or terribly gloating.
    The beautiful thing about free speech is that, when people have the chance to say whatever they please, they will do so. Sometimes that means that vile words will be spoken. However, I have found that people as a whole recognize and revile truly harmful public agendas. The more that a corrosive message circulates, the more people it could potentially recruit. More importantly, it also reaches moderate and rational ears. Word then spreads from their lips, explaining why the message is harmful and disgusting. What tends to happen I’ve noticed is that the message holds sway for a while, longer if the bias and bigotry that it is founded on is deeply ingrained and widespread, and then it looses clout because its adherents friends and descendants notice how poisonous it is and shy away from it. In short, the more public a harmful message is, the less harm it tends to do in the long run as opposed to the ones that are whispered behind closed doors in only sympathetic ears. Of course there are exceptions like the Nazi party where a poisonous public message takes serious root. Luckily those are few and far between
    For those of you that know me, you know that I’m not a terribly optimistic guy. I opt for realism in every situation and realism can look pretty bleak and similar to pessimism. However, instances like this one in South Carolina make even realism look good.

Song of the Week: You could call the spectators’ singing the song of the week, but here’s my own little contribution.

Failure to Launch

    Okay, I’m sorry everyone, but I’ve been raking my brain for an hour trying to figure out a topic for this week and nothing’s coming to mind. All I can seem to think about are the books I’ve been reading (The Dresden Files and The Wheel of Time series) and my own writing, which I intend to resume presently. I don’t know if my brain is misfiring or if there’s just nothing for me to say this week. Sorry for that!


Song of the Week(?): This is one I was jamming to when I finished “Small Favor” by Jim Butcher today and I can’t get it out of my head. It’s a good one, though, so I don’t mind and hopefully you won’t either. Just, for the love of God, skip the first 15 seconds or so. They're horrible and will ruin the whole song for you if you do not heed my warning. Actually, you can skip the whole first minute.