I’ve Decided Something
The Black Doll still needs work. It’s missing… Something. I guess what they say is true, stories arenever really finished just abandoned.
I have a couple of ideas for expanding the characters and adding in some new scenes but I will leave the current version up for now. I’m still taking suggestions for improvements. All comments welcome.
Do They Still Make That Stuff?
I recieved my first homework asignment for Grad School via e-mail last night. It’s been a while but I think I still remember how it works…
I know, I’m going on about Grad school al ot and not mentioning books very much but bear with me. Soon, the book talk will resume. I should have a stirring comment or two concerning the first chapter of The orgonization of Information sometime next week.
I just finished Lulluby and will have something to say about that very soon.
Old Dogs and All That
I�ve made a few revisions on the Black Doll. Nothing major (yet). Just a few grammar and spelling errors that I missed the first time around.
I�m still pondering the fate of this story. Should I put up on blocks in the yard for some extensive reworking or just leave it as is? If I rewrite it, what needs work? I�d like to maybe expand Vivian Thelema�s character a bit, perhaps connect her more directly to the Knights Templar, possibly in a historical context with the Doll, which would require showing more of the Doll�s history. That could be fun. Also, I�m thinking of getting a little more into Uncle Rudolph�s dubious past, make his unacceptable predilections a lot stronger (and thus, creepier).
Any thoughts?
In Case You Were wondering…
No, there’s nothing wrong with your computer. I chose a new template for the Invisible Library. Something a bit more simple, a little less green and jarring. There might be a little more remodelling going on here but this is the most drastic. So don’t worry, everything will be OK.
I’m tired and rambling but just thought you should know…
So orientation for Grad School was Saturday. I feel all oriented. Now if only I could find a way to not spend 300 bucks on textbooks! No, I didn’t think there was either. There’s just no hope, I’m afraid.
I have classes with sexy names like Information Access (oh yeah!) Information Use (Use me! Oh, Use!) and Information Technology (Oh!) And Information something else, but I forget what at the moment. They should be fun and interesting in a book geeky, geeisn’t that swell sort of way.
Yesterday I met some of Elvira’s friends and had a blast driving all over Baltimore. We went to the American Visionary Museum, which houses an extensive colection of folk, outsider and just plain batshit crazy art. Lots of fun.
I spent today runing around getting my student ID, finding out that they don’t sell the MLS books at the cheepo book store off campass oly at the really expensive store on campus and getting a parking tag so my car won’t be towed away and I won’t be stuck inside the beltway that close to DC all alone and in the cold cold dark.
I’m having second thoughts about The Black Doll. I’m thinking I should not have been so eager to post it. I’m thinking it needs a lot fo work. Thanks to the American Viusionary Museum though, I have plenty of ideas for ways to improve the story. It calls for some considerable expansion but I think it will ultimately make it a better story and really, isn’t that whaty it’s all about?
If anyone has any thoughts on the matter, drop me an e-mail and let me know.
I�m off to Grad School!
So I won�t be posting for about a week, what with the driving twelve hours from Georgia to Maryland, and the family visiting and moving and settling and flaven.
Despair not!
I�ve been teasing you for the last two weeks with hints and innuendo concerning my latest story, The Black Doll. So here it is, the complete and unabridged tale of a young girl�s touching relationship with a demonic doll of ancient origin. Read. Savor. Enjoy. Send comments and critiques and let me know what you think.
See you in September!
Today�s Rant
Brought to you by the American Medical Association
I have Chronic Sinusitis. This sounds horrible, I know, conjuring up pictures of your author, hunchbacked and drooling snot from his eyeballs. But really, it isn�t too bad. Mostly, I get a mild headache whenever it�s about to rain and the once a year, on average, a Sinus Infection.
I�ve been lucky the last four years and haven�t had one. But my sinuses are making up for it this year� currently, I�m in day four of a righteous headache and pressure so bad, my teeth hurt.
In the last ten years I�ve had about a dozen such infections, all of them quickly cured within three days by antibiotics. This is not my gripe. My gripe is the Sisyphean challenge involved in getting the antibiotics.
Were I to reside in Canada, or any one of the European Union (or heck, even Mexico) I could take a leisurely stroll down to the corner druggist�s and purchase the necessary antibiotics over the counter for about the price of aspirin. And were I to live in Mexico, the same amount of money would get me the family size bottle and I�d still have enough pesos left over for a taco. But I don�t live in any of these backward countries. I live here in the land of the free market, home of the brave entrepreneur, America!
Here in America, first among the first world nations, if I want to acquire antibiotics I have t go see a doctor and get a prescription. The fact that I haven�t had health insurance in over a year makes this chore even more difficult. The fact that I�ve been only moderately employed during that year makes getting insurance impossible. I prefer to eat, thank you.
So I go to the county free clinic, thinking I might be able to save myself some money. They tell me it�ll be $45, minimum (�Depending on what the Doctor says�) and schedule an appointment for ten o clock the next morning.
So wait, I have to wait 24 hours before seeing a doctor, just so I can tell him the diagnosis and ask for a prescription, pretty please? Fuck that.
I call my wife at work and tell her about my appointment and she suggests, since it�ll cost nearly $50 bucks anyway, that I just go to the local Doc-in-a-box, where I can just walk in and they�ll see me, no appointment. The one nearby even fills your prescription on premises. So I do.
Three hours and $80 bucks later…
I finally have the antibiotics*. And my headache is worse because I haven�t had anything to eat, because I�ve spent all morning trying to find a Doctor. See, America is apparently in short supply of Doctors because they have to consult on everything from heart transplants for Death Row Inmates to splinters. Because we don�t dare let the citizens take their health into their own hands or self medicate for fear of even more ridiculous lawsuits, like the fatso who is suing Mc Donald’s for making him fat.
And don�t even think about Nationalized Health Care. That�s a dirty conspiracy concocted by a triumvirate of French, German and Canadian pot smoking Socialists. Why, if we were to have Universal Health Care we might lower ourselves to the level of those darn Canadians and who wants that? With their lack of crime, higher educational standards, tolerance of homosexual unions, lenient and rational drug laws, a working two party democratic system and functional separation of Church and State, why, they�re about as Un-American as you can get!
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*Despite the fact that I told the Dr. I am allergic to Penicillin, that�s what they handed me at first. Luckily I checked the label or my wife would have been rushing me to the Emergency room later that night. The staff at this particular place seemed rather harried and apologized profusely when I pointed out to them that they nearly poisoned me. The moral here: Caveat Emptor, folks. Especially when dealing with the American Medical Establishment.
Update: One of the little known side effects of a Sinus Infection is that it impares grammar and spelling. Antibiotics fixes it, though.
I just checked my mail and found to me delight and surprise, my very first fan letter from someone not related to me:
I just wanted to say that I love reading your blog. You mentioned that only a few people read it, and now you can add me to that number. I’ve shared it with some of my friends. We’re all English majors on the East Coast.
Thanks. Keep blogging!
Kim
Thanks to Kim and all those English majors on the East Coast. And keep reading, they’re are some surprises coming soon, just you wait and see… Bwah ha ha ha ha ha! Cough. Ahem.
Fair and Balanced: the Fox News Legacy
(Trademark)(Copyright)(4 ever)
I�ve never watched Fox News. Ever. I don�t even have cable. Heck, I only watch Fox to see The Simpsons and Futurama and they�ve canceled Futurama. However, this will not prevent me from offering my own Fair and Balanced review of Fox News, that pinnacle of Fairness and Balancedness. If anything, my unfamiliarity with the News Channel over qualifies me for the Job; I�m the very model of journalistic integrity: I�m so objective it�s silly.
As everyone knows, Fox News was not so much started as summoned into being by the need of the American People for a Fair and Balanced source of Infotainment.
Now let me say something about Infotainment. It�s the wave of the future. No longer do we need to partition our �tainment from our info. No sir. That�s so 20th century! Information over yonder and entertainment delivered from the gaping holes of those Liberal schlock hockers in Hollywood (or as I like to refer to it, Sodomizemeontheconstitutionville). Now we can blend them together like a giant media swirlycone, getting our Info all mixed up in our �tainment, just like God intended. And it�s a little known fact, Fox News was the first to do this. In fact, I think they have a copyright on the word �Infotainment.� So watch your back.
And so what if a few measly details like facts get left on the cutting room floor? The important part is that we have manageable sound bites for the folks in Peoria and Poteet. These are hard working people, barely keeping it together, what with the way those nasty Liberals keep refusing to raise the minimum wage and all. They shouldn�t be bothered with too much info, especially during the �tainment hour.
And whom does Fox News have to deliver these pearls of bite sized wisdom? Only the hardest working gang of talking heads on Television! Bill O�Reily, Sean Hannity, the Ghost of Edward R, Murrow, who regularly drops through the roof of the studio to spin in circles every time their guest pundit says the magic word of the day (usually some variation of �Fuck me with your Texas Man Steak, George W. Bush!�) They are also graced with the amusing antics of Anne �The Man� Caulter, who I think is a trained spider monkey who does the weather. Oh wait? She�s not a monkey? My editor has just informed me that Anne Caulter is not in fact a deformed Spider Monkey as I previously believed. I was obviously misled by some Unfair and wholly unbalanced and utterly fiendish Liberal Plot. Well, fool me once, Michael Moore, but Fool me twice and I�ll sue!
Now I have to give the man his due: Mr. Bill O�Reily. It�s a bold move on the part of Rupert Murdoch to hire an openly avowed Metrosexual. That�s Fair and Balanced! Just look at those immaculately manicured nails, that twinkle in his eye (do I detect a hint of eyeshadow, Bill? You Manly Dog, You!) and that expertly quaffed hair. The thing is, he�s not some simpering homo trying to pass as a strait guy and failing like those �Queers� on Will and Grace. He�s the real thing. A Man�s Man (wink). So what if he likes to look nice for the ladies? And he�s quite the Intellectual giant as well. When he cuts the microphone of some hippy about to trump his Infobites with obviously manufactured �Facts� well, it�s simply breath taking. You wouldn�t see that sham, Donahue doing that. It�s pure Bill and it�s pure genius!
Oh and Anne Caulter! I love it when they let her jump around the studio like a mawkish monkey that fell in a taffy-pulling machine! And her books are top notch. The detail involved in all those footnotes; they make my head spin, just like that time in Tijuana when Poncho gave me that punch he said was made with a special cactus…
Now, I�m sure you�ve heard the rumors that she is assisted by a hundred monkeys at a hundred typewriters but I want you to know it�s all Liberal Slander! She wrote every damn word herself! So let her have her glory won�t you, Bill Mahr?
All in all, these Special Folk at Fox News do an amazing job presenting a Fair and Balanced view of world events, in light of all the backhanded shenanigans form the Liberal Media Giants like ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, CNN, CSPAN, the Cartoon Network, Bravo, and that Uber Media conglomerate personified by John Stewart, Comedy Central. Damn you John Stewart! Damn! You! All! To! Hell! Oh how that man makes me laugh! With rage.
Busy, Busy, Busy�
Getting ready for Grad School is time consuming so posting will be light for the next to or three weeks.
Currently, I�m reading Cages by Dave McKean which is probably the single best Graphic novel I�ve ever read.
Now, I�m a big champion of the comics medium (my undergrad degree is in comic books, seriously) but even I will admit that most graphic novels tend to be lightweights compared to prose novels. But not Cages. The subtlety, the mystery, the structure and subtext is all on par with the best prose novels I�ve read and far surpasses a lot of the work by other certain authors, who will remain unnamed.
I�ll have an in depth review up in September as well as an excerpt from the Black Doll. Now I have to go decide which books to take with me and which ones to leave. My wife needs something to read while I�m gone, after all.
