JANUARY 2022: Trying To Get My Shit Together, As Per Usual

Wednesday, January 5, 2022. 10:35 am

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

And we're already at Day 5 into 2022...

I have the day off and I'm trying to get shit done. What else is new?

The New Year is always a mix of Great News and Miserable News.

For me, the Great News is that it's a (totally arbitrary) Brand New Start to life, goals, etc. It's arbitrary because I can start anew any day I want, but emotionally it makes sense because we organize time into various units and a year is one such fabulous unit. Also, "years" tend to take on a persona (rightly or wrongly) and the last couple years have been maligned with Covid, lockdowns, political fighting, social media antagonism, etc., etc., etc. Not that that has changed at all with the changing of a single day by going from December 31, 2021 into January 1, 2022, but there is also the social habit of wanting to change for the better when we go into a New Year, so I'm riding along with that tradition and universal hope.

Having said that, almost every single goddamn January I'm mostly just updating the previous year's resolutions by changing the year at the top of the list from the previous year to the current year and everything else pretty much remains the same. This year is pretty much no different.

Still, I remain hopeful.

Prior to the end of 2021, I started working on a comic book story with the anxious ambition of publishing a comic for the first time ever in 2022.

Unfortunately, I've tried to do this before in 2020 and 2021, working on a story for a quite a bit of time and then getting depressed at being unable to satisfactorily complete the plot or writing aspect to my amorphous, instinctive but inscrutable standards. But, dammit, I'm determined this time around!

But wasn't I also last time and the time before that and...? 

So... we'll see.

As of now, the story I'm working on is QUARANDREAMS, "The Plot Sickens."

I'm currently envisioning it to be part of a comic called, A FISTFUL OF THIS, An Impulsive Anthology #1: "Now What??" The QUARANDREAMS story is the main story but there may be additional pages to supplement it or break up the main story between (possible) chapters.

Right now, I have ideas for various comics titles. A FISTFUL OF THIS is my anthology/catch all title for miscellaneous story ideas that may not be part of a continuing title, like my ideas for: a funny animal series featuring a core group of cat characters plus additional members of an ensemble; a comic with stories of luchadors and luchadoras; and maybe others. but QUARANDREAMS itself a possible series of stories anchored in a dream setting, and that's the only consistent aspect from story to story, not necessarily having a single character anchoring the series.

A FISTFUL OF THIS is also my attempt to "expunge" my fascination with 60s/70s underground comics. Expunge or, perhaps, more accurately, tap into my fascination. We'll see.

Anyway, that's what I'm working on today, that and doing domestic chores, plus waiting for my car to be fixed/inspected...

More to come.

11:27 am

Oh!

I also need to really shore up my blogging efforts.

Not only write and publish more posts regularly (or at all, the hell!), I was at work and during lunch, I impulsively decided t check out one of my own blogs and I was reading one of my posts, and holy crap! Did it need editing! It was unbelievably redundant within the single post. I mean, I tend to be repetitive as it is from post to post because I never seem to progress forward but that's another problem!

Meanwhile: OMG! I just looked up some past posts on my comics/art blog to link to the above paragraph and holy hell, my posts are just a rambling mess. This idea of editing my blog posts is going to be a nightmare if I follow through on it. Well, I'll try to write more clearly at least with newer posts... I mean, one can hope..!

So, anyway, starting this month I hope to also address that blogging issue...

Ugh.

Too much crap to do.

Alright, I gotta eat breakfast and feed the birds, dammit.

Oh! And ALSO:

37 DAYS UNTIL I'M 62! (February 11)

CRIPES.

Oh, considering it's January of a New Year,I suppose I should talk a bit about my actual 2022 Resolutions.

Well, let's see what I intended to work on in 2021, shall we?:

Color legend: 2021 / January 2022 commentary

Blogging:

1. 50,000 words and/or 6 posts per blog for the year.

Okay, I "achieved" the latter part of this goal - 6 posts per blog - but not really. Oh, no... in fact it's a TOTAL LIE.

On the last day of 2021, I pretty much fudged enough posts per each of my three main blogs to SAY I had at least 6 posts each in 2021. Some posts didn't even have content, just a temporary title, like "Post 3", "Post 4," etc.

So, I'm trying to at least flesh out these bogus posts this month. If I manage to do that, I'll actually have done more blogging this month than I did all last year. And even this post is one for the new year, so... yay!

Meanwhile, the cumulative 50,000 word goal is a shout-out to NaNoWriMo. I figure I'd try to make word goal in a year, because I know I won't make it in a month. I've still yet to do that.

Health:

1. Don't eat after midnight.

Uh, I forgot I made this an actual goal. I can't really say I stuck to it, although, I don't think I really broke this simple "Gremlins" rule... well, not a lot... well, not... oh, never mind.

2. Try to sleep 5 hours a night.

My sleeping habits blow. They totally, TOTALLY suck. But, I think I've slept a little better since Covid has happened. Partly because I worked less hours sometimes, so I slept in more on my days off, but in the last quarter of the year, I started getting more shifts where I started work at 9:30 am, so by default, i slept a little longer on days i worked. Comparatively longer to what i was doing before when I was starting a lot of shifts at 7:00 or 7:30 am. Having said that, i still need to improve my sleep routine: make it more consistent and not go to bed as late.

3. Try to reach my daily step goal.

I wasn't able to consistently reach my step goal daily, specifically on days I wasn't working. But I usually killed it on those days I did work. So, according to my Vivofit watch and Garmin, my highest daily goal was like 15,500, but my average actual steps daily for the year was over 24,000 steps, from that perspective, I did okay. Having said that, I'm going to try and reach my daily step goal on those days I'm off.

4. Lumosity every day.

I really didn't play Lumosity that much for long stretches of the year, so I was very inconsistent. But I think I've done much better in the last quarter of the year.

Self-improvement:

1. Read a book a month.

God, I don't think I read ANY books in 2021. I read a couple books in 2020 (seriously, just 2-3), but I guess the "habit" didn't take...

2. Try to learn Spanish.

That's a big NO.

3. Learn more American history.

Also, a big NO.

4. Try to volunteer for something.

No. I really suck. Okay, in December I helped a friend ONE day who's been spending her year emptying the crap from the house of her mom - who was a serious hoarder - and I hope to help her again soon.

5. Try my hand at writing essays.

NO on that, too.

Maintenance:

1. Try to get down to 100 e-mails in my inbox by the end of January 2022.

So, in February 2021, I had 54,000+ e-mails. Yeah, I know, I know! I'm just bad news all the way around. For about a month, I was deleting 1000 e-mails a week, and I got to under 50,000 but that habit did not last and as of 1/6/22, I'm back up to: 53,751 e-mails. Also, I set my deadline for the end of January 2022 because I think I was figuring a goal of deleting 1000 e-mails a week and the math took me to the end of Jan. '22.

Creative goals:

1. Start my website.

NO, but I really plan to do it this year.

2. Earn $100/month through my art.

NO, and by my own accounting, expenses vs, earning money doing art, and there really weren't many transactions either way, I wound up at ($ -16.26) for the year

Be better about keeping in touch with people.

NO. I should be doing MUCH better at this. This is a permanent NYResolution. I did see a couple high school classmates in October. Haven't seen them since 2018. Occasionally e-mailed one of them, but really need to be more regular about this in general. Anyway, that was the GOOD news.

Thursday, January 6, 3:01 pm

NOTE: Man, everything takes forever!

I've been slowly editing and updating this post after I decided to add my 2021 New year's Resolutions to it and that turned out to be more work than I expected. I'm still not done, but I have other crap I really need to get to, so, I guess i'm working on my new habit of working on projects and chipping away at them every day until they're finally done.

ADDITIONAL 2021 GOALS/RESOLUTIONS:

Yeah! I was wondering where all my CREATIVE goals, etc. were! Not that I actually DID any of them..! Anyway, there's some repetition here, so I'll delete what we've covered already.

1. JANUARY 2022:

        A. By JANUARY 31, 2022, reduce my e-mail inbox to under a 100.

NOTE: (2/7/21) Well, like THIS is going to happen. As of today, I'm at 54,000+ e-mails in my inbox.

2. HEALTHY CRAP:

        A. Drink a bottle of water a day.

Not really.

3. BRAIN CRAP:

        A. Learn the word a day from dictionary.com:

                i. Write a flash short story using the words (once a week?) (50-100 words).

BIG NO.

4. WRITING GOALS:

        A. Write a public blog post every week.

"Public" because I also have a private blog that sort of acts as my diary. I actually manage to keep up with that pretty well. The public blog, not so much.

        B. Publish 50,000 words total (at least).

I think I did pretty well in 2020, and even then, I only managed 20,746 words. In 2018, I think I fared the best, over 29,000 words. But, I think i'm going to drop this resolution for 2022 and focus on 6 posts per blog, because that seems to be more practical and I'm still having trouble accomplishing that one.

        C. Write the first draft to a screenplay (short or feature).

NO.

        D. Write a feature screenplay.

HELL, NO.

5. FREELANCE ART GOALS:

        A. Start a website.

        B. Overhaul my portfolio.

                i. Online version.

                ii. Physical version.

        C. Start TABLE SCRAPS as a webcomic.

        D. Start and Finish my ACC story.

        E. Self-publish a 24 page (at least) comic.

        F. Learn how to add half-tones to my artwork.

        G. Learn how to add color to my line art.

        H. Assemble my drawing table.

NOTE: (2/7/21) H should probably be A, you think?

Cutting to the chase, I did NONE OF THESE. They're still excellent goals, though, so I'll move them over to 2022.

---------------------------------------------------------

Thursday, January 7, 1:57 am

That's right, I started this post back in November - before Thanksgiving, even! - initially just to write down some ideas for my New Year's Resolutions.

I've updated the list anew in a separate post in my writing blog:

2021 RESOLUTION FODDER:

Blogs:

    - 50,000 words total over from the three main blogs.

    - 6 new posts per blog.

    - Write a really short story a week using at least 5 new words.

Comics:

    - Make an 8 page mini-comic.

    - 8-page comic remake of "Karen's Dilemma!"

    - Do THE CAT'S MEOW.

    - ACC comic story (at least 12 pages).

    - SWAMP SQUAD OF THE DEAD comic adaptation

    - Self-publish a comic book (24 page minimum)

    - Start doing a web-comic (TABLE SCRAPS, anything) for my new website.

    - Work on a story at least 30 minutes a day. Just keep whacking away at it.

    - Do at least a new comics page per month.

Art:

    - Do Pete G's painting (this project and THE CAT'S MEOW outdate even my ACC comic story goal: both are from the 80s)

    - Draw Every Day:

        a. At least 15 minutes! 

        b. Even a stick figure! 

        c. Continue working on a WIP. Just do SOMETHING!

    - Portfolio/"Fan art" posters/etc.:

        a. A CHRISTMAS MONSTROSITY (color version)

        b. SNOW SHARK

        c. 2 other Sam Qualiana movies/DVD posters/covers

        d. 1 Beaver Alley Studios poster.

    - "Interior artwork": JOURNEY OF THE AVENGER - 3 pieces.

NOTE: (2/7/21) Thought about this yesterday, but I really should start keeping a regular sketchbook. So, add that to the list.

Filmmaking:  

    - Write a feature length screenplay.

    - Write first draft for PM screenplay.

    - Finish editing BLIND DATE WITH THE BEAST

    - Director's Cut of I CAME TO BURY DADDY

    - Director's Cut of THE CASE OF THE MISPLACED HERRING  

    - Make a movie, short or feature.

Self-employment goals:

    - Set up my website.

    - Start posting art on my instagram account (at least monthly)

    - Try to earn $100/month via my art, etc. (ie. create product, etc.)

        a. Create a T-shirt design, etc./month at Society6

        b. Self-publish some comics to sell online or in person at local comic shops

Reading:

    - Read a book a month.

    - Read a graphic novel/TPB a week.

Self-improvement/Better health:

    - Hit my daily steps goal.

    - Drink a bottle of water a day.

    - Don't eat after midnight.

    - Sleep 5 or more hours a night.

    - Play Lumosity every day.

Monday, January 24, 12:56 pm

Also, found this in my private diary, from July 25, 2021, while finally getting around to proofreading my July posts:

Meanwhile, idle thoughts: 

Habits to get into:

1. Post a new drawing on Deviant Art account weekly.

2. Fan Art Fridays, Instagram.

3. Work on THE CAT'S MEOW.

    A. Layout page 1 and 2. 

    B. Pencil those two pages before seeing Steve?

    C. Rough layout of whole story before seeing Steve?

4. Read and review/give feedback on:

    A. TOMB OF DRACULA

    B. SAVAGE DRAGON

    C. FEARLESS DAWN

    D. Warren magazines.

    E. Skywald magazines.

    F. Warrant magazines.

Comics I want to create - 1 or more issues:

1. SUPER SHLUMP

2. TABLOID TOWN:

    A. Jheena the Jungle Fury

    B. El Masko

    C. Rumble at the Day Care

3. STELLARA ULTRANOVA

4. (COUNTESSA) DEMONIKA

5. ULKRYNN, PREHISTORIC CYBORG

6. TABLE SCRAPS

7. A FISTFUL OF THIS

8. ACCC COMIC

9. (DARK) DIMENSIONS ANTHOLOGY (inc. THE CAT'S MEOW)

Trying to get something accomplished today… Part 1 (75/48)

Well, it’s Wednesday and I have the day off.
Days off always seem to be a mind-f**k for me, to put it bluntly. I always think I have much more time available to me than I actually do. So, I always start off with grandiose plans of accomplishing all this crap and ultimately, I do very little or nothing. My brain seems to freak out at the amount of things I have to do when I get around to debating what I’m actually going to do, or what I’m going to do first of the things I want to do, and being by nature, indecisive and impulsive, I usually don’t prioritize what I need to do and impulsively start something I eventually don’t finish, so I wind up with arguably nothing done.
Boy, doesn’t that sound pathetic?
Well, it does because it is.

My wife once called me “pathologically disorganized,” unfairly, I thought, at the time.
However, even though I felt that the circumstances that triggered her outburst didn’t justify her assessment of those circumstances, the phrase now haunts me because I think it was something she’s articulated to herself about me prior to that incident, and it just spilled out prematurely, so to speak. As a description in general about myself, it actually hits the nail right on the head.

I also have this idea of the Devil sometimes… that he isn’t just a figure who tempts people into doing wrong, but is also quite content in amusing himself by watching people waste their entire lives through their ineffectual efforts at living. Particularly amusing are the individuals who have all these plans for what they’re going to do, yet somehow, years pass by and nothing happens.
That’s me, too, I think.

Alright, I’m whining.

I’m WHINING OUT LOUD!

So, in an effort to kill perhaps more than one bird with one stone, I’m going to do a multiple part post today to chronicle(ish) my efforts to accomplish something today.
I have a handful of domestic chores, some personal projects I’d like to work on, and also an Apple Corps meeting late this afternoon (one of my personal projects was to work on/finish up this drawing I started last week).
One casualty of trying to prioritize: I was hoping to see a movie at the theater today, one of the 8 FILMS 2 DIE 4 horror festival. I’m going to have to can those plans for today. NUTS!
Maybe tomorrow, but I don’t think any of the films I was planning to see are playing tomorrow. NUTS AND CRAP!
Grrrr…

Well, one more reason to check out another of LAST year’s 8 FILMS etc. on DVD, since I’ve only seen one, GRAVEDANCERS, and just recently, at that.
Crud, I have to get a review out on that, too.
Grrrr!

I’ll be back.

75/48
Project 365: first entry / previous entry

Dear Diary... (44/110)

Dear Diary:

Apparently I can’t write worth a damn.
I don’t know how well I write when I am able to put up with my wordsmithing efforts, but it was a VERY frustrating bunch of hours at the keyboard last night.
My work schedule right now is such that I have a small window and opportunity to try and catch up on my blogging (my current raison de’tre) and EVERYTHING I threw up on the screen WAS absolutely pukey.
I have like 5 different subjects started and I just gave up on each topic last night. Hopefully, over the next few days I’ll be able to wrap up some of these topics with some degree of competence and post them.
Nuts.

Let’s see: 321 more posts to go this year in order to complete Project 365???
Fuh!
Let’s see when I get to Post 50!

On a related writing note…
When I was on vacation, I was thinking that two ways I could improve my writing was to read more and also deliberately attempt to expand my vocabulary.
I’ve started reading Scott (A Simple Plan) Smith’s The Ruins, based on CRwM’s recommendation. I’m currently on page 47.

I go now.

And man, Kody refuses to take "no" (ie. a shove off my lap) for an answer! This is a cat that demands to be petted... he said, trying to type with a wet feline nose insistently pressed into one typing hand, four furry feet on his lap, and a cat butt resting in the crook of his other typing arm...


44/110
Project 365 : first / previous / next

THINKING OUT LOUD: 150 DAYS LEFT UNTIL 2008 (33/150)

Hi-ho.
Well, less than five full months are left in this fine friggin’ year.
Of the many projects and enterprises I’ve either initiated or gotten involved in this year, a number of them have been sort of stuck in idle recently.
One of those is the bloggy Project 365, inspired by Beedow’s blog who in turn was inspired by something more theatrical. But my take was a quasi-attempt at posting a blog entry every day this year, although I kind of bent the rules a bit (gee, how uncharacteristic of me!) and said I’d have 365 posts by the end of the year, although not necessarily daily. Oh, definitely not daily.
I’m currently at about 30-ish posts, I think. So, only 335 to go!
Actually, it’s not that impossible, if I consistently do two posts a day from now on.
If I make posts as short as the one I did yesterday, then I actually have a chance at doing this.
Anyways, that’s my rough game plan for stratemegizing on Project 365, although, there are bound to be lapses, because I have some distractions coming up on the calendar, so, for instance, I may be unable to post daily during that instance.
But, still…

Also, there are a few posts that I’ve been meaning to do that I never got around to. Like my daily diary of working on Emil Novak’s BANSHEE movie. I still plan on following up on that idea. But when I do, I think I’m going to post-date them, so that the entries fall more accurately on the calendar dates when I did that stuff (for example, the first week of shooting began May 7). But, I’ll still number the entries themselves in order of when I actually write/post them – you know, those goofy numbers in parentheses, the ridiculous Project 365 crap? So, I’m covering my ass both ways for those nitpicky, detail-obsessive readers/historians out there.

Um, I’ll pause for the laughter to die down… or wait for the confused staring or bored eye-rolling to get out of your system… or…

Meanwhile…
Well, I thought it was supposed to get up to 95 yesterday. It hit 90 Thursday. I didn’t check the weather report but someone at work told me it only hit 88.
Hot enough, hot enough, I say…

I’ve been thinking of this lately.
Five daily things to do:

1. Pray.
2. Wash the dishes.
3. Check/do the laundry.
4. Clean the cat litter.
5. Clean a little of my room.
6. Shave.
7. Shower.
8. Do at least one blog post.
9. Write (screenplay/story/comic script) or draw.
7. Read a chapter or two of my wife’s story/stories on-line. Comment.
8. Watch a Netflix movie once a week.

Did I say five? Now that I try to make an actual list, of course, I can’t keep it to a short number.

Hmmm.
I was debating whether or not to… dammit! I have this whiskery orange fur-face hovering over my left hand as I type here… I’m working on the laptop on the dining room table and our “first-born,” El Zorro, likes to keep me company when I’m working here. His fat-ass, prolate spheroid shape is buzzing next to me on the table, sitting sphinx-like but with his front legs curled under and his head directly over the TAB key. Occasionally, he tries to chew on my pinky finger every time I hit the shift key or type on the left side, meaning I briefly stick my pinky in his puss (ha!) and it’s interpreted as an invitation to munch.
But, as I was saying: I was debating whether or not to include this list of daily things to do, because some are personal or just embarrassing. However, even though in reality it’s dull, on paper those personal things are the stuff of good blogs, I think.

1. Pray. Even if it’s just the Lord’s Prayer. I say “just” because I guess I treat the Lord’s Prayer as sort of a generic prayer, because it’s something short and memorized. So, in the sense that something that’s repeated often eventually becomes taken for granted, in that way I mean generic. Although, having said that, there are little phrases that still have some meaning to me because they’re short and easy to remember, like “one day at a time.” Those are perfect reminders (and mantras): concise, to the point and easy to repeat over and over again, uh, mantra-like.
I remember my friend Steve told me years ago how he thought the Lord’s Prayer was, well, okay, I can’t remember exactly what he said, but the gist was, he was impressed by how it covered everything in a prayer, and in a short prayer at that.
Personally, I put this on the list to sort of get me in the door to another place that I rarely visit, the realm of spirituality. In a weird comparison, I guess this would be similar to hiking in the woods or in a park with my wife.
My wife is the acknowledged nature person, I am not. If I had not met her and fallen in love with her and married her, I could quite conceivably never go into the woods at all. I have no aversion to nature, I just don’t naturally go there.
But it’s always a positive experience for me to visit the outdoors and see different landscapes, trees, foliage, bugs, animals, various kinds of weather, and actually experience them firsthand. It beats a little humility into me, I think, makes me consider the place of mankind on earth, of Nature at work and how we may fit in. Rather than the idea of Man is always Number One and everybody better just accept it, but in reality, maybe we are Number One, but even that has its limitations.
So, perhaps a single minute of prayer may “beat a little God into me.”
Or, at least, make me consider some things beyond my nearsighted self and situation.

2. Wash the dishes.
3. Check/do the laundry.
4. Clean the cat litter. These are probably the closest I come to specific duties I do around the house, and I don’t even do those sometimes as regularly as I should. ‘Nuff said.

5. Clean a little of my room. My room is currently just an impregnable fortress of disorganization. My life has been an example of disorganization, with a few moments of real accomplishment in total disorganization. My room is in the latter category of achievement. But, I need to get in the room occasionally. And I can’t, that how stupid bad it’s gotten. So, ‘nuff said about that. What did I say about “one day at a time”?

6. Shave.
7. Shower. Actually, I consider all three things (including cleaning my room) as personal maintenance items. The last two just happen to be more hygiene related, obviously. Yeah, the showering thing is embarrassing. I won’t go into any more detail about that.
The shaving is more a concession to my wife. I like not shaving. I don’t want a beard because I look stupid with a beard* but if I shaved once a week versus daily, well, that would be quite fine with me. But from a smooching point of view, there are some complaints from my lovely, shapely partner, something along the lines of “Aagh, I’m getting stabbed!”, and her opinion certainly does matter to me in such areas, although I’m sure it doesn’t seem that way to her at times.
I’m just an inert, f***ing, lazy ass when it comes to showering. I don’t dislike showering. But when I get into the shower, I take forever because I become an obsessive time-consuming raccoon (and I don’t mean I like to handle my parts under water)(well… wait a minute...). Yes, water turns me into different creatures.
At the sink, I’m a duck.
In the shower, I’m a raccoon.
In the water, for brief moments I’m an otter (floating on my back wrapped in kelp eating shellfish as I use my stomach as a table. Okay, sans kelp and shellfish or any food.) or dog (my swimming prowess) or some creature that seems bent on drowning and flailing about a lot on his way to the bottom. Maybe that rubber octopus that Bela Lugosi/Martin Landau wrestles in ED WOOD.

8. Do at least one blog post.
9. Write (screenplay/story/comic script) or draw. Well, something’s better than nothing. In the case of the screenplay, for instance, some days I didn’t think I really had enough time or energy to create anything substantial, maybe only 100-500 words. But, then 3-4 days pass with nothing happening because of that reasoning. Following Akira Kurosawa’s advice from his autobiography, he says if you write even only a page a day, after a year, you have 360 pages of script. Perhaps three days of “insubstantial writing” would have given me at least another 1000 words, or another 20th towards my word count. So, there, Kimmel, ya procrastinating f***ing f***. Just do it. (Hey, another one of those mantra things!) (Meaning, the Nike thing… the self abuse comes naturally, and often, on its own.)

10. Read a chapter or two of my wife’s story/stories on-line. Comment.
11. Watch a Netflix movie once a week. More maintenance crap. Maintenance in the sense of there’s all these things I want to do, but I don’t seem to do any of them, so I need to consciously put them on a schedule now in an effort to remember to do them, which just seems stupid, but look who’s writing this in the first place so there you go, dammit.
That’s the eternal f***ing conflict, man! Wanting to do everything, having time to do only so much. It totally sucks. Totally.
But, I guess that’s how we ultimately make ourselves the type of person we become: what we prioritize in our lives. We then do what we really want to do, and we see what we’re really made of by the choices we’ve made in those priorities. Hmmm, that in itself is scary shit if you start thinking in terms of one’s eulogy. You know, which is spoken by someone else.
Um… nervous pause…

Crap. It’s 7:00 am already. I woke up at like 5:45.
Okay, I go now.

*When I let my beard grow, at a certain point, it gets long enough to, well, point. It points to the side. It looks like I have a perpetual wind blowing my chin hair to one direction, or if someone took a picture, one could wonder if my head were rotating as betrayed by my beard dragging off by the speed of rotation, but the picture happened to be snapped just as my head aligned itself with my neck in mid-turn. So, my head attached to my neck is actually an illusion.
Yeah. So: an actual beard for me? Heck, no.
Although… okay, I have a VERY fond memory of a picture taken of me from years ago with a goatee and mustache and a mullet and my sunglasses on. No, I’m not being ironic.


33/150
Project 365 : first / previous / next

Both cool AND weird: check out Neil Gaiman's blog! (22/190)

Hi.
Well, I have one week left to finish up the first draft of my screenplay for SCRIPT FRENZY.
If I do somehow accomplish it, most definitely it'll need another draft because the first draft will be CRAVING improvements left and right.
But...
that's not why I'm posting right now.

In this crazy world of blogs and bloggers, it's a strange phenomenon, I think, to be able to anonymously rub elbows with famous people and the such through their blogs.
One of those celebrities whose blog I occasionally I take a peek at is Neil Gaiman's.
Besides the fact that it's NEIL GAIMAN'S blog (he is the legendary writer behind the Sandman comic book from Vertigo/DC and author of several fantasy books including Stardust and American Gods ), it's also cool to check it out because of his curious intineraries and people he calls pals that appear in the blog.
Like, one day I was checking out the thing and he was talking about this wedding he was attending.
There was a picture of the groom. He looked like a friendly enough sort, almost like a big leprechaun, whether he was Irish or not. Well, it turned out this large red-faced "pixie" was ... freaking ALAN MOORE!

ALAN MOORE!

The only image I have in my head of freaking ALAN MOORE is of him looking very serious/dour/sinister, with long, LONG hair hanging down from his head, unglamourously, almost like a cape about his face.
He looked seriously dangerous or seriously humorless.
And that's always the image I have of him in my head.

And then... this Lucky Charms thing!
Anyways, he married his long-time girlfriend, Melinda, the artist for the self-described pornographic comic, LOST GIRLS, which Moore also wrote.

But, that's ALSO NOT why I write about Senor Gaiman's blog.
Why is this: for two weeks, Gaiman has a guest blogger taking over posting duties, and this guest blogger is his daughter, Maddy Gaiman.

I just find the whole business of reading this stuff a bit screwy. And charming. And just so cool and weird.
So, thought I'd share.
Here's her first post.


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8 THINGS MEME: Part One, Items 1-3 (20/209)

Okay, I took up the challenge to do this meme from Sylvanwitch.
And boy, I am reminded yet again how indulgently long-winded I am. Therefore, Part One of this supposedly quick, disposable meme.
But, that means I get another blog post out of it! Yes!

The rules are as follows (courtesy SW):

1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names. (I'll tag you, but don't feel obligated.)
4. Don't forget to leave them a comment telling them they're tagged, and to read your blog.


8 BRIEF FACTS ABOUT ME:

1. T, MY NAME IS NOT ALICE
If I remember correctly, I’m named after a character from a book my mom was reading (or had read), and he was a knight: Sir Terence. (And that’s how I spell it: one “r”, no “a’s”). I mention this in case there’s any confusion as to why a guy who’s Dutch-Chinese-German-Indonesian has an Irish first name.
…and that’s wrong.

Terence is NOT Irish. Crap. All these years I was mistaken. I googled to double-check ethnic origins of my first name and apparently Terence is Latin in origin, from Terentius. D’oh! Also, according to this little chart, it’s a popular first name (top 1000), peaking in 1950-60, in the top 300. So, I’m part of the popularity herd (I was born in ’60). Or a bunch of moms really dug this mysterious book.
Ut-everway.*

*Okay, this was a confusing attempt at Pig-Latin (get it? Yeah, I’m lame). The problem of course, was trying to make it readable to get the right pronunciation, because to just drop the “w” would leave you with “hateverway”, which LOOKS like it reads as, “HAT-everway,” doesn’t it? So, I attempted to spell it semi-phonetically. Mixed results ensued. Curses!, he cursed.


2. I, NUDIUS
For several minutes, I walked about in public in the nude in broad daylight. It was on the nude section of a beach in the Netherlands when I was 18. It took a while to walk to that section of the beach, too, from the regular public area where my mom and relatives were situated. But, determined to find it, I kept trucking. I realized I was getting closer when I’d see occasional “foxholes” in the sand where I briefly spied very undressed couples lying in them. Finally, I arrived: there was a large sign erected, written in several languages, explaining that this was the nude section of the beach.
A lot of the flesh-baring sun-lovers there were mostly middle-aged or older. Although, chasing after each other in the waves, playing, were a couple naked young men. I took a deep breath, yanked off my swim trunks, and pseudo-calmly walked on au naturel.
Other then the two young men, there weren’t any real leering memories I have of the experience, no feverish memories of hot naked young Dutch maidens bronzing in the altogether on the sand, perhaps wearing only wooden flip-flops.
The public beach did allow topless bathing, so I was able to get my eyeful that day, oh, don’t you worry, troubled readers.
Back at the El Nudo Sands, I saw a very old guy, all dressed up in a black suit, stooped over considerably, making his way with a cane as he went across the sand. But, as I said, mostly older, flabby people were displaying their sensual wares.
Another guy (in his 30s, 40s?) walked along starkly and as he reached the multi-lingual sign, almost without breaking stride, simply bent over and put on his trunks and continued walking into the non-nude section of the beach.
Finally, when I saw a couple unattended German Shepherds roaming the beach and water, their tongues hanging out hungrily, I nervously threw on my trunks to protect my modest but unprotected dangling meat.


3. THE SUMMER I STARTED THERAPY
I skydived once from 3,000 feet.
Ah! I remember it well!

I jumped out of a small airplane, and it was only at that point, when I left the safety of the plane, that I discovered that Lady Luck had decided to stiff me that day and, instead, she had taken this one inopportune opportunity to attend a sale at the mall, because my chute refused to open.
After my initial panic, I calmly assessed my situation, and then decided on my best course of action, which was… to start flapping my arms like a delirious, desperate bastard while simultaneously praying (although, it sounded more like hysterical girlish screaming. At best, it was hysterical girlish screaming in tongues.) Somehow, though, through sheer will, adrenaline - whatever - I actually defied physical logic enough to slow my whistling descent to the degree that my dark-green jumpsuit was no longer in danger of bursting into flames from friction.
My featherless, flapping, gibberish-screaming body crashed into a conveniently placed old barn, leaving a hole in the wooden roof that was distinctly in the shape of my body, just like a cartoon (it’s not just a funny bit, it’s physics!). Although my one eye was skewered upon entry by a sliver the size of a chopstick, the other eye that was more adept at winking and signaling morse code was still operational, and for a fraction of a split second, I saw a soft bed of hay beneath me.
Perhaps God had a miracle up his sleeve yet.
I reflexively cried, “Yes!” in optimistic jubilation. Unfortunately, bad luck trumped the Almighty (damn you, damn mall sale!), because there was a pitchfork in the hay as well. While still screaming “Yes!”, I was impaled on the business end of said fork, which had been left standing pointy-side up against a hay bale (uh, one word: “fucking unsafe you fucking farmer fucks!” ). Because of the speed of my descent, my body did not stop at all at the point of four-tined quadruple-puncture impact, and instead, my body quickly ran the length of the handle and rammed to an abrupt, dusty stop into the dirt floor, forcing another body shaped imprint, this time several inches deep into the earth. Since I hadn’t the time to finish screaming “Yes!” like a deluded idiot, the ground crammed immediately into my screaming maw, where it then exited by squirting out of both my ears like I was some Charles Addams themed Play-Doh Factory. The pitch fork’s tines had struck me squarely in the chest, and surreally, tore out both my lungs, which hung grotesquely like a bloody, spongy mop over my flattened carcass.

And that’s how I died that summer day in the 80s.

At my funeral, that irresponsible clothes-whore, Ms. Luck, was appropriately apologetic looking, while still looking stunning in the new floral print dress and wide brimmed hat she bought at the mall…

Okay, seriously, I actually DID skydive from 3,000 feet.
And after twenty-plus years, I remember it, um, okay.

If you want to read my recollection of that day, go here. I originally had it here, but it runs roughly 2700 words, and for the simple concept of an "8 Things meme", it seemed overwhelming. So, I've decided to break it off and post it as a separate entry.
Meanwhile, I WILL finish this meme, just not right now, because, um, I'm a bonehead.

NOTE: I’ll tag my people after I finish the 8 items in Part Two, coming soon…
Later!

Oh, and P.S.: I would include a link to Sylvanwitch's original post, except it's a locked blog entry, so no "general public readers" can read it. Sorry. And hence.

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Some sad, terrible news... and beyond (7/312)

A day that I’ve been dreading for the past several years (but doing very little in terms of preparation for) occurred on February 7, 2007.

My mom unexpectedly passed away.

The dread I speak of wasn’t because she was severely or terminally ill for a prolonged period of time. Although, my mom’s health did take a sudden turn for the worse more or less out of the blue on December 7, 2006 and for her it was all downhill from that day on. But my secret anxiety at the inevitable passing of one of my parents came simply from a few facts:
I’m an only child;
aside from my parents, all my blood kin live outside of North America;
and we all succumb to death at some point.

For the last several days I’ve been thinking of various posts I wanted to do relating to my mom in some way, but the most important, initial information of her dying was a stumbling block for me. So, I’m just blurting it out here and I apologize for that.
Understandably, this event has made an impact on me, and in true blogger fashion, I hope to share-- well, process is a better word-- that impact with the “world” via my puny posts.
Yeah.
Anyways, more to come.

Love and kisses,
Elly’s kid


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Welcome, welcome!

Well, this poor, lonely site has been lying unfulfilled a little too long. So, let the champagne bottle smashing commence!

Actually, I have no idea what I want to do with this site. but, I think that's part of the vague purpose I have for it, as an outlet for some thinking, an opportunity to contemplate subjects I normally don't allow myself time to .

I have two other blogs, one on Myspace (comic books) and one at Livejournal (movies).
I'd like to consider myself an artist, but I think I haven't produced enough art to have legitimately achieved that status. So, instead, I'm currently a creative individual with alot of unexplored potential.
That is a large part of myself, this creative aspect. I'm forever coming up with ideas for projects, but I never seem to properly apply myself to the execution of those projects.
Unfortunately, I'm now of an age where that fact is becoming a large, and perhaps growing, amount of psychological baggage. I guess the good thing going for me is that we are of a generation that's seeing a longer life expectancy (hell, my dad's survived eight decades so far, and he's not really taking care of himself... he's just freaking durable! So, perhaps I, too, have those, "in spite of myself" extended mortality genes), so I may still salvage some sort of artistic career before I leave this mortal coil, by God!

Actually, there is another aspect of myself that is not creative, that is, I used to think there was, and that is spirituality. I used to consider myself a spiritual person. I'm not sure if I am now. Or perhaps, like my artistic talents, I have spiritual talents, but they, too, are going unrealized.

The hope is that this blog may prove to be a small toehold into a way back into expressing that spirituality again, or living it more in my life. Whatever that means.

Alright, that's it for now. Not quite the dramatic cannon shot across the bow, but something, the heck!