In The Flow
Mood:  surprised
Now Playing: The Jones Girls - "Nights Over Egypt"
Topic: Writing
I must really be in the flow if I forego watching ths Superbowl (or any football) to write! Either that or I am not interested in this year's matchup. Probably a bit of both. Plus I have new incentive to complete "...Ampersand..." by April 1, then perhaps have the edit, re-edit and re-re-edits out of the way by Autumn. I remembered today that I wish to participate in the 2006 NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month. Since I am always looking for a new creative challenge, that is one I shall rise to. I have a serious backlog of ideas that are just waiting for the chance to be put into some kind of finalized form and this will be a good chance to finally put words to those ideas. For those interested in knowing what it's all about, go here for mo'info: NaNoWriMo My loins are already burning at the thought.

State of Affairs
Mood:  not sure
Now Playing: Basia - Cruising For Brusing
Topic: The World
"...Ampersand..." is flowing smoothly now. I am pounding out pages at a time now. I will have to set a tentative date for the completion of the first draft. I work better when I set goals for myself. So.... Let's say we have the first draft finished by April 1, 2006?? Sound good? Good! Yet I am troubled by the state of affairs in the world today. I will have to investigate whether I have simply grown too sensitive to things in my rapidly advancing age or is the world heading in the wrong direction. I say "wrong direction" because we have climatic shifts occurring (probably caused by human activity, yet the main contributors are thumbing their noses at the repercussions), illegitimate wars being waged for illegitimate reasons, mass killings, oppression, devastation, etc, etc etc, and I would think that we, as a people (Humans) should really be beyond this stuff by now. In IOV, Adrianna says: "All you hear is: terrorism, recession, depression, oppression, famine, plague, death. Things are just a mess. You’d think there’d be more to life than that, but hey! That’s the way it is!" She was young and pragmatic though. I am getting old and idealistic and certainly would like to leave this world having it in better shape than when I came into it. I hope that that is a long time from now, but for now, it doesn't look as though things will improve much by then.

Back in Action
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: Shabba Ranks "Mr. Loverman"
Topic: Writing
Well, I am back in action. After the long holiday season (T-G through MLK), not to mention NFL playoffs and the NCAAF Bowl Bonanza, I can finally sit down and work on "...Ampersand..." again! I managed to re-edit "IOV" during that time, hammering out a few wrinkles in the text that I thought I would be able to live with but couldn't. Now that that is finally complete, my focus is 100% "...Ampersand..." At least until the next distraction. Or set thereof.

Of slow computers and writing blogs
Mood:  irritated
Now Playing: Planet P Project "A Letter From the Shelter"
Topic: Writing
Nothing is more frustrating than paying mint for DSL and then having to wait for a page to load so that you can update a blog. That said, I have resumed work on .. Curves of Ampersand at long last. I haven't done a damned thing with it since June. No, I wasn't experiencing writer's block. Laziness, maybe, but not writer's block. I have never experienced writer's block. I don't think it exists. Sometimes I may not like what I have written, but, like diarrhea, the words flow anyway, even if it is sh*t. It is good to be working again. Moreover, it is good to be working on something SF again. Sweet Lil'one, while a great experiment and a good experience, left me wanting. I learned a great deal about a great many things, including the level of my resolve, but the level of creativity that I require to satisfy me wasn't there. I created wonderful characters and situations, but I was restrained by the mundane. I could not reach beyond the normal realm of human experience, vast as those experiences can be, but now that I am working in the SF again, there are no bounds. No more shackles for now. For now, we write.

Capitalist Pig
Mood:  chillin'
Now Playing: "Bring on the Rain" by Jo Dee Messina and Tim McGraw
Topic: Web Page Update
I just never get tired of saying that phrase: "Capitalist Pig."

In any case, I am updating the entries to my poetry page. They were pretty bland and after so many years, I think they needed a facelift. Courier font has its place, but it is pretty ho-hum in the wide-world of fonts. I also added a few new entries, although I would be lying to call them new poems. It would be truthful to call them more recent than the ones that I chose to place on the site when I first created it. It's a grim reminder to myself that I have neglected my poetry. So far, in 2005, I have not written (completed) a single poem. 2004 wasn't exactly a banner year in poem productivity either. I must endeavor not to repeat the Bleak Era of 1992-1994 when not a single poem leaked from my pen. As a matter of fact, in looking back at what I accomplished over the past 2 years, I have to admit that I haven't done very much. I did manage to finish Sweet Lil'one in early 2004 and I did manage to resume some work on What Do the Curves of Ampersand Mean?, but even that has stalled inexplicably. Well, I am sure I could explain it, but I am too lazy to do so now. Could that be the reason for the drop-off in productivity? Hmmm... Lemme sit on the couch, watch some football with a jug of Coke at my left hand a bowl of chip at my right hand and ponder that...

Advertising: Nothing Happens Without It
Mood:  d'oh
Now Playing: Leviathan by Impelliteri
Topic: Web Page Update
Today, I finally got around to updating my website. Overall, it is the same, except I have added a splash page for the index html. With angelfire, any updates to the index html apparently renders the old meta searches obsolete, so you can no longer search for the website through the keywords listed in the meta name keyword contents. In the old layout, the index html contained things that I wished to change occasionally, so each time I changed them, I'd have to relist the site to make it searchable. It would take a few weeks to become searchable again. With an unchanging splash page, I won't have to worry about that again.

However!!! The new concern is that I think I will have to pay to have my site listed and made searchable on the gang of search engines out there, which is totally uncool. I definitely need to investigate this a little more. My advertising budget (if one can call it that) is rather limited and forking over an additional $50 a month is out of the question right now. That'd blow my annual royalties haul in three weeks! Well, it's more of a yank than a haul, okay?

Welcome to blogging
Mood:  celebratory
Now Playing: nothing
Topic: Blogging.. in general
This is my first attempt at blogging. So, in usual fashion, I will say "Testing, testing...1, 2, 3"