Merry Christmas

So this year, I got Beats by Dre, about 4 bottles of wine, a rather large Coca Cola tin with a six-pack of Coke in bottles, a Coke straw dispenser, and Coke stuff wrapped together, I got an Amazon gift card, a harmonica, Hickory Farm candies, Italian candies, Italian Christmas ornaments, $150 bucks, but alas I got nothing from my wife cuz she's waiting for a check.  So I'm hoping to get some nice toys later.  Today my 7 year old daughter said I was favorite person in the whole wide world.  So clearly, I win Christmas this year.

In-Drive Movie

I live in Orange County, and work near Los Angeles.  It's about 70 miles up, and 70 miles down.  Because of excessive traffic, I spend anywhere an hour and a half to possibly 3 or 4 hours going one direction.  That's typically 4 to 6 hours for me of driving a day.  I take my iPod with me.  Usually it's to listen to music, or an audiobook, though recently I've started playing a movies and listening to the audio.  It's kind of interesting, you can't see anything, but if you're familiar enough with the movie, you "see" what's happening anyway.  Of course when you're driving your eyes are supposed to be focused on the road, your mind's "vision" isn't supposed to be seeing a movie in your brain.  Though I heard there's some kind of scientific term, or something, for people who daydream during doing something, and find they have no recollection of finishing whatever it was they were doing, the only memory is what they were dreaming about.  Somehow your mind chriscrosses what your mind wants to see and what you actually are seeing.  Crazy ain't it?

The End Is Coming!

So after deciding I wasn't going to rush finishing writing projects, I suddenly find I'm closer to finishing a couple of them sooner than I thought.  I've made it so far on one of them writing completely in the present tense, and not in the past tense, as most stories are told.  At least as far as I can tell.  When I get them edited I'm going to make sure the editor looks and makes sure that that is the case.  It's nice to see this coming together.  This what I've wanted to do since I was wee tyke, and it's something of a relief to finish, and something that will be hopefully the first in a line of books I'm working on.  I suppose once you start writing, you never stop.

My Saturday

Last night I got buzzed on Coronas and slept in till about 11:30 this morning.  Today I'm getting gas for 2 cars which means 2 trips to the gas station, I went to the bank, have to go to Home Depot, Total Wine & More, Target, and the comic book store.  Naturally, I should be agitated by all this, but its more likely I'll be stuck in traffic longer than I will be inside all of those stores put together.  People are Christmas shopping, I can't do mine because I'm still waiting on a bonus to go do all that, but I'm getting some of the lighter holiday shopping done today.  I'm also remarkable calm for a guy who came pretty close to getting hit by a car too.  If I thought I should've flipped this guy the bird, as it was, I was walking a decent pace across the parking lot to get into my bank.  This yahoo speeds across the lot from several hundred feet and really only hit the brakes about ten feet from me.  I suppose I was playing chicken a little too, but it seems like "the right of way" for pedestrians is out the freakin' window.  Wouldn't surprise me if some shopper gets hit by a car because of some lunatic.

My Book

I think I've settled on a book format.  I've been trying to see if I can get another story or two done to put in it, but I decided not to rush it, and go with the three I'm working now.  Then I can take my time and get a few things done in a way thats thorough.  I've got three stories for this first book, and at least two books waiting in the wings.  One's a novel, and the other is just some silly nonsense on manhood I'm having some fun with.  There's much less of a panic now knowing I don't have to rush through a bunch of things to make it all work.  More books mean more bragging rights too.  Instead of say, writing one or two books that are short stories or novels, suddenly its "I've written three books, and I'm a social commentator."  Nice huh?

Birthday

Today I turned 34.  I got some cash and a gift card to the bookstore.  I also dropped my wife's cell phone on my small dog's head on accident when it flew out of my hand.  Poor little thing is smaller than some cats, and after her trip to the animal hospital a couple weeks ago, she shakes horribly if she's scared, and can't stand being left without human company.  Very sad.  She's my little pal.  I felt like crap.  I've got a three day weekend, but today kinda sucked.  Just another day.  I should be able to get some writing in I guess, but who knows?  I've got quite a bit of writing that has to be done, but I never seem to get as much done as I should.  Its hard to write at home, the dogs want to sit in my lap, or there's some nonsense going on around here to distract me.  I'm too lazy to drive to a Starbucks.  Though I found my pair of noise cancelling headphones, it can't hurt to drive out the world for an hour or two.

Politicizing Comics

Its odd that a medium like comic books which is read by children and adults is made into a propaganda movement.  Many of the individuals writing for comics these days are easily some of the best storytellers I've ever come across.  These visual writers are able to convey things, ideas, and concepts we might not see anywhere else.  My contention is that while in the past comics were an apolitical entertainment medium, these days the reverse is true.  The writers these are writing for themselves, much like the rest of entertainment media.  Issues like gay marriage, and "social justice," and even outright anti-religion bias seep into storylines, that quite honestly, didn't even need to be in those stories to begin with.

It would make perfect sense to maintain the usual, non-political stance that comics have taken throughout their history, simply because you're not agitating half your fanbase.  It seems to me the market is shrinking already, why add to it?  I was hearing about the comic industry shrinking 10-15 years ago, but hey, if these guys want to lose some money promoting propaganda, have at it, I guess.  It seems to me that you have heroes for a reason.  Writers, tend to sit and write, some have actually done things with their lives, as most people do, working back breaking 9 to 5 jobs, but most do not, because they cannot.  Especially these days.  We live in an era of sissies.  I too, am trying to be a writer, I work on a few projects when I can fit the time in, because I bust my hump at a strenuous manual labor job.  Our culture today, and really the people trying to steer our culture, wouldn't know hard work from a hole in the ground.  And so you get writers who are divas, who can't handle the slightest disagreement from fans about politics, or you get writers who say God was behind an alien invasion as was written in Marvel's Secret Invasion, or that "science lost out to religion" as was the case in DC story called Rock of Ages.  Its sad.  These stories were good enough they could've been done without injecting some anti-faith nonsense.  Even now we're seeing anti-cop and political propaganda even apart from anti-religous sentiment in mainstream comics, and little kids read this stuff.  Its silly to me.

What it comes down to is fiction writers are people to fantasize.  Few have really lived any sort of heroism that they put into characters.  That is, they want to be heroic, but they've no stomach for doing anything like that in real life.  It could be why many people aren't writers, or actors, or artists.  They're out there doing something themselves, they don't have to dream up what they wish they could be like.  Much like the media that is majority liberal, and more specifically like sports media, where commentators may even more liberal than standard media, as one conservative commentator points outs, they offer nonsense, or scathing rebukes of athletes who don't win a game, its the former athletes themselves who offer better analysis because they've lived through the careers that have success and failures.  Comics would do well to return to its apolitical stories.  Notice I said, "apolitical."  Stories should be neither conservative nor liberal.  Instead you have whiny, though talented storytellers, shrinking the market because they're telling stories for themselves, instead of for the readers.

Puzzlement

Probably the only thing harder to solve a mystery, or at least guess at the solution to one, is to write your own.  I've got nothing.  I've got one mystery story in the works for a small anthology I'm working on, but I also wanted a stand alone mystery too.  So far all I've really done is write down old sayings I like and sometimes still use, to see if I can fit them into a story.  I'm really behind on all my projects and starting another one isn't probably the best idea, but hey, why not?  Its been such a weird year, I figure why not be as wacky, as I can be do things I might not normally.  It makes sense to try and see how to solve mysteries, and probably do a little research on police procedures and the like.  Story ideas seem to be fewer these days, but I've been getting better at writing them down before I forget them.  I don't know even know how many genius ideas I've had but didn't remember them later.

Lucy

My dog Lucy is back from the hospital.  She likes to eat or tear up what she can find.  We've found nails, paper clips, stuffing from toy animals, and string in her mouth.  She ate something, probably some kind of fabric, and spent a couple of days vomiting and from both ends.  We took to the vet and left her at the hospital there.  They rehydrated her and she passed whatever was in her system.  Its a little crazy how much time you spend crying over a 10lb chihuahua mix, wondering if she's going to be ok.  We just got Lucy back about 3 hours ago, and she's got a couple of medications to fight off infection and some pain, but she's back to her old jumping off the walls self.  I've had pets before but for some reason, my gut was ripped out over a tiny little dog who dances around in excitement when I get home from work.

Dogs

My sister-in-law had one of her dogs die last week.  It was pretty sad.  He was a happy little pup.  I wasn't there when he "went."  He died in an animal hospital and sister was in the same kennel with him, so he didn't die alone.  But my sister-in-law didn't get to see him befrore he died.  It wasn't even my dog and it me pretty hard.  I guess I'm all soft and squishy because I've got all daughters and they cry over everything, and I've got two dogs who are needy little chihuahuas, or at least half chihuahua, cuz I won't have full blooded ones, and they get excited over everyon who comes in the door, and they're sleeping on the bed, while I blog, and tweet, and write down notes for story ideas, and watch TV, and read.  I guess what I'm saying is, I love my dogs.

Birthday

The little woman's birthday is on Thursday.  I'm pretending I forgot, but I got a gift card for shoes, and I'm trying to see about getting her dinner from one of her favorite restaurant and bring it home.  The plan is to take the day off and pretend I went off to work for the day, till she goes to work, then I sneak back in and nap for a while, and get things ready.  I'm so clever.

So...

There's been something wrong with my brakes, my tires, my transmissions, an oxygen sensor, and I had to get my car smoged for stupid California car registration.  Its stupid I'm spending something like $2,000 on car repairs.  Christmas is coming and the wife's birthday is this month too.  I'm gonna pretend I've forgotten it and surprise her with dinner and a gift.  She doesn't read this Pulitzer Prize worthy blog, so I'm sure I'm not spoiling the surprise.  I'm working my tail off not even to get ahead, but to just break even these days.  I did manage to fit in some writing this week, and turn an important corner.  For a while this story I'm working on was just progessing along, but now its starting to turn sinister.  The evil part of my villian is sort of known already in earlier parts of the story, but while his intentions or feelings have been sort of partially revealed, the actions he's going to take get what he wants are really starting to take off.  He's going to be violent, destructive, and schemeing, and hopefully realistic.  Villians are tougher in movies, TV, and books these days, it makes them more realistic and more believable, and that's what I'm going for.  This guy is an amalgamation of things, and people I've come across.  In many ways this story is me fighting my demons, my past, and myself, and I think, its evident how serious you take a fictional battle, when you personalize that battle.

Agents of SHIELD vs. Gotham

This week I saw Gotham and the Season 3 premiere of Agents of Shield.  I'd like to think I'm unbiased in this, but everyone has a bias when they write their opinion.  I'm a huge Batman fan, I've got comics, and collected stories, and I even have a Batman Christmas ornament, an action figure, and a Batman blanket I got from the kid section at Walmart for my recliner at home.  It seems to me though that Marvel takes their properties far more seriously, than DC Comics does.  The Whedons keep things connected and realistic.  Casting is excellent, and with some very small mentionins of politics involved, its relatively apolitical which is a good thing, because they don't anger one side of the other, and can keep a larger fan base.  Agents of Shield seems quick paced because its getting a lot of action, whereas Gotham seems quick because they're trying to cram so many things into one episode.  Gotham while clearly not the campy Batman show, actually reminded me of that old show for some reason.  There's too many psychotics.  It got confusing, and frankly after seeing one police commissioner get killed in The Dark Knight, seeing another one get killed in Gotham, was redundant.
Agents of Shield seemed more cohesive.  The Whedons have a solid grip on good storytelling and can mingle TV and movies into one fluid story.  I think DC has had a lot of problems, though The Dark Knight trilogy was a tremendous step in the right direction, it seems to be a backtracking with Zach Synder casting Ben Affleck as Batman and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.  Its bad when fans cringe at a movie they still won't be able to see till next year.  It seems to me that success of Agents of Shield is great storytelling and the feel that you're watching an hour long movie each week, not an hour long TV show.  You feel like you're witnessing real events, with Agents of Shield, like I'm participating in events by watching them, but wth Gotham I knew I was watching a story so to speak.  I didn't get lost in it.  I was just watching it.  Agents of Shield has the capacity for making you forget reality, Gotham just reminds you you're still living in reality.  Though I will say this, the kid playing Bruce Wayne on Gotham is likelier a better Bruce than Ben Affleck will be.

Early Christmas Shopping

On Friday I saw Walmart had put out Christmas stuff already, so I bought a couple of boxes of lights. On Saturday, I saw Hobby Lobby had stuff out already so I bought some ornaments and a stocking.  This is the earliest, I've ever started buying stuff for Christmas.  Its still September!  I'm hoping to get a 3 or 4 foot nutcracker, and a train set.  I wanted those last year, but didn't have the money but I'm hoping to get those things.  I also need to get another 10-20 boxes of lights.  We live in an apartment, but if you can't see the it from space, than what's the point?

Batman Day

Its Batman Day.  The local comic book store offered 20% off Batman comics and toys.  So naturally I went twice.  I found a bunch of back issues from the 90s I used to have, and I found somewhat old issues of Batman from the 70s and 80s.  They even had a raffle for a Batman statue.  You got a ticket for every 10 bucks you spend, and I spend a little over 20, so I got two tickets, and my nephew got two tickets.  Nice.  I better win that statue.

What Was Maybe Four Or Five...

...is now one.  If you're going to self-publish you tend to have to come up with money to publish on your own.  And trying to publish five books is more than I'm going to be able to come up with money for, so I'm going to have to get it all in one.  At least for the fiction stuff this will work.  A couple of other projects are political and really wouldn't fit together so I'll have to save up for these later on.  Self-publishing seems an easily route for me, and there's no messy rejection letters if you're just going to do it yourself.

Its been quite crazy the few weeks, as I've burned through about 900 dollars either on car repairs or groceries, but I'm we're trying to get ahead on some bills, so I can take the wife on a little getaway to Arizona.  She'll be going to see her best friend, I'm going to work on writing and get away from any sort of responsibility for a weekend.  I need a chance to rest.  Everything is wound up either mentally or physically.  I drive a lot for work, and on occasion don't get home till late at night, after working 9 or 10 hour days doing manual labor, and I ain't as young as I used to be.  And it'd be nice to get away from all that nonsense for a while.  Hopefully the wife can make it a weekend to smooze it up with her friend, and I can get a shot at a little writer's weekend.

Myself

Apparently if you write yourself into your stories you suddenly care about your characters and projects more.  I'm writing about someone who outsmarts the people after him, which is something I wish I'd done in the past.  I'm working on something more heroic and dangerous, bcause I wish I was that way sometimes.  Another project is on time travel, because I wish I could change the past, and a couple of other projects are on politics and social issues, because there's things I care about.  You'll find there's plenty to write about when you want to change yourself.  Or the world.

Got A New Bed

We finally got a new bed.  No more sleeping in a recliner!  I might actually be able to wake up now without being in pain all the time.  When I'm done writing for the night, I would just recline in my chair and sleep there, now I can actually sleep without having to put my "bed" back in place.  Its tough to focus, tough to stay awake, and tough to want to do anything.  I'm trying to drink more coffee to stay awake to make up for all the exhaustion, though I usually do anyway.  There's a lot to do these days, and it seems like time goes by a lot faster than it used to.  I've been hoping to finish reading a bunch of books for my research on a couple of political projects, but I've been awful lazy these days.  I work 50 hours a week and commute 20 hours a week.  Me no have time for no fancy book learnin'.  Incidentially I do seem to get story ideas when I let my beard grow, so I think I might have to unleash my inner Viking or inner Duck Dynasty.  Its crazy, I haven't trimmed the ol' beard in a month and now I'm a literary Samson or something.  And to top it off I asked to borrow, BORROW 80 bucks from my mom and she gave me 1,200.  The question is, who is this person claiming to be my mother, and what did she do with her?

Feeling Better

I finally got over my cold.  And I picked another idea for a novel.  Nice, eh?

Stupid Cold

I've got a heavy cold, if not the flu the last few days.  I got sick Friday for the first time in a couple of years actually.  I'm dizzy, have a heap of sinus pressure that makes it hard to breathe, and hard to do anything else either.  I was dumb enough to go into work yesterday and my head felt like it was going to explode most of the day.  I was surprised I made it home because my headache was so bad.  Naturally I've been sleeping a lot and now I'm supposed to work on the weekend, and this doesn't bode well for all the reading I've been wanting to get done.  Its not easy to try and read when your eyeball feels like it wants to explode.  Too graphic?  I'm staying home tomorrow one more day to get better, and maybe finish off this book on the history of prisons, for some research reading I'm doing my book.  Ironically, I can't seem to get away from this book and move onto something else.

Darker

Seems like this novel is taking a grim and more realistic turn.  There's something to say for making things more complex.  Life is complicated, and stories should be too.  Complex but not complicated.  You distract with one hand, so that no one's paying attention to the other.  Otherwise, where's the interest, where's the intrigue, where's the desire to see the solution to the problem?  I tend to think that life gets more realistic, as you go along in life, and this story is getting more realistic too.  I'm sure I'm wrong about how things take place in the reality as far as this story is concerned, but I made it work for this story.  Its kinda nutty when you start tapping into your own pain and experiences how much you try to resolve those old problems into a fictional world.  It helps with the realism, helps progress the story, and even helps you deal with some things too.

Writing is Good, Reading...Not So Much

I've been writing less, so I can research more.  I think the page count is up around 5,000 pages or so, at this point.  Its pretty boring stuff.  Most of this junk is gender studies type nonsense, nobody cares to read, but if you need to refute some idiot's arguments you have to know what he said and all that.  I  had to go out of town for a few days, so now I'm really behind.  I did manage to have this weird dream where it was 1980 and I was telling Reagan about his future as president, I told Barbara Bush to have a talk with her sons George and Jeb, and I was talking to Donald Trump about his future as president.  I think this had something to do with some sci-fi stuff I've been working on, either that, or it has something to do with the four Aleve I took before bed that night...

Traffic

I work typically anywhere between 40 to 60 hours a week, and have on occasion worked 70 or 80.  I also spend about 20-25 hours a week driving to work and driving home.  See, I live in Orange County, and my job in L.A. County is 70 miles away from home.  I'm usually in traffic 2 hours one way, and 2 hours back.  Its like a part time job just to go to work and come home.  Yesterday I did a job in Santa Cruz, and to get back home it was 399 miles of driving.  I've seen plenty of people who are distracted drivers, the guy who drops something he's eating, to the woman putting on mascara in the rearview mirror, its all so very annoying.  Lately I've been the victim of rubbernecking and frightened drivers who can't put on their big boy pants and drive a little faster.  Rush hour is obnoxious as people drive slow not because there's an accident, but because there's more than 10 or 15 cars on the road as the same time.  I regularly take the 5 freeway, and it is full of stupid people who can't drive fast from Burbank all the way to the Orange County line because there's other people driving.  The best though, would have to be people who rubberneck to watch other people getting traffic tickets who are clearly pulled off to the side of the road and not blocking any lanes.  California used to be a nice place to live.  Nice weather, fairly nice people.  But there's always some stretch of highway that's under construction constantly, and instead of finishing one project at a time there's 50 million going on simultaneously.  There's stupid people here now, stupid people running things, and drivers.  I want to leave California now.  Between traffic and how expensive it is to be here, its a bit much.

Back to Researching

So it seems, I'm back to reading heavily for a few projects.  I'm researching prisons for my novel, a book on manhood, and a book on abortion.  I'm going to cut down the number of things I'm reading, but not when I'm reading.  I'm trying to pretend I'm still in college, so I can get into a quicker reading habit, but I'm reading 5 books now.  The plan is be finished writing two books by the end of the year. So I'm trying to work a bit more feverishly.  Yay.

Page 21

I've finished the first 20 pages of writing on this book!  Huzzah!  Now its just another 20 or 30 and I think I'm done.  This novella thing is going well, and I think I'm feeling comfortable and happy about writing again.  I've been stuck a lot recently, but I accidentially fell into something cool that helped my story, and its helping making the story more interesting.  Its Indenpendence Day weekend, and I took an extra day off, so now I've an extra day to write, and to celebrate America.  I think it might be time to have some BBQ, fireworks, and work on page 21.

Villainy

I'm trying to write in 3 villians into my novel.  I suppose I should say novella, because its likely this story is going to be shorter than a standard novel.  I'm trying to keep my projects shorter because the attention span of people these days, myself included, is shorter.  We'll stay focused on things we care about, but trying something new, sometimes require some effort, so I'm trying to keep things shorter.  But back to the villians.  3 is a little overkill especially in a shorter project, and especially since most books, only have really 1 antagonist.  It seems realistic to me that you may have more than just one enemy in life, and so having a couple more, maybe because they're evil, and maybe because they can be bought, would seem to fit.  I'm not worried about 3 bad guys, as I am making sure I can tie up all the loose ends in thr story nicely.

Anger

There's plenty to write about if you've got the right motivation.  Especially if you've got people who've done everything they can to bury, humiliate, and destroy you.  There are times when we've hit some tremendously difficult winter times, and in those time you find out who you're friends really are.  Occasionally things happen because we make bad decisions, and sometimes we face difficulty because of other people's idiotic choices.  I could tell you stories, but no doubt you've seem some of your own, because that's part of the human experience, or whatever.  We live an in age where people are thin skinned liars and cheats.  Everyone gets a trophy, and people sweep their own failures under the rug, but don't mind watching people's lives implode on national television.  There is always someone out to get you.  Not everyone is like that, and not everyone wants to expend the energy it takes to want to control, dictate, or ruin other people's lives.

Of course our natural reaction is to be angry at such things, and rightly so.  Anger is never the problem, what we do with that anger is.  We can be angry with ourselves, with circumstances, or with others, but if we do it right, anger can be motivation.  I won't get into specifics, but I've seen people lie about me, even wish me dead, and there would be a time, when such things overwhelmed.  Often the process is long to deal, but once you figure out what to do with your anger, its a great thing.  Eventually it sort of disappears into something else.  Motivation.  Now I want to get rich and not look back.  It would make a ton of things easier, and I can do some things like pay off bills, and...well...lounge all day like the rich do.  And of course if the writing thing is successful, if anyone is successful at anything, you stick it to people who doubted, belittled, or tried to ruin for their own wacky ends.  Motivation.  Its whats for dinner.

Sigh Fi

I'm working on this science fiction thing, which is probably going to be a book, is dragging a little.  I'm actually making some progress on it, and I'm thinking about including images into it, to give it a certain pop, that words alone might not be able to convey.  I'm struggling to find an ending, even though this thing is writing itself.  It might even be the first real project I get to finish though, if I can finish it.  It seem pretty likely that I can finish it maybe by the end of the summer, or at the latest the end of the year.  The only slightly difficulty will be coming up with illustrations and images.  I can't draw.  And I'm not in the mood to try and track somebody to do them for me either.  I might be able to do some basic illustrations with a computer, since these don't have to be too great, just enough to get my point across.  But who knows?

Got more writing done at lunch today too.  Its wasn't a huge amount, but it was enough to get around a couple of roadblocks I was stuck in the last couple of weeks.  I'm going to try and make a conscious effort to do some writing on my lunch break even if its a sentence.  Its helpful to be the mindset to write, and the mindset to think about my work more than just when I've got "time" for it.

Sunday

So far I've watched Mr. Deeds and most of Bridesmaids today.  I managed to squeeze in a couple of sentences of writing, and I think I'm going to put my headphones on and block the family.  Everybody's got something to say today, and I need some quiet to write.  I haven't been writing much this week because I worked about 60 hours this week. For some reason the dexterity in my hands bothers me if I'm not writing, so I'm kind of edgy in some wierd way in my hands.  Its not exactly arthritis but it bothers me.  The three day weekend is nice.  I slept about 12 hours yesterday, and 8 today.  And its nice to sleep more than 5 hours a night for a change.  I'm trying to cram in some writing before the weekend is over, and we all have to go back to work.  I'm having to look back on my notes for some of the more technical sci-fi stuff, but for the most part the writing is connecting nicely, even with most of the week off.  I'm starting to consider putting a few images into a couple of projects too.  I'm not sure if I can draw something, or if I'm going to have to find somebody to make something up for me yet.  One of these things is in a textbook type format, so pictures would help me a bit, and help the reader visualize better too.  Who knows this writing thing might pay off after all.

Anniversary

Me and the little woman are celebrating our anniversary Wednesday but we have no money this week to get each other gifts, so we're going to celebrate next month, or stretch out the celebrating for two months.  Don't feel bad for us.  We're the ones who got three needy daughters from early 20s down to 7 years old who require our money.  I bought myself some comics books, superhero mugs, and an Incredible Hulk t-shirt.  This was sort of an anniversary gift to myself.  I'm allowed to do that right?  Having college age girls as daughters is a nightmare.  Don't have them.  Its a bad idea.  You want some peace and quiet and a quick makeout session with the Mrs. and in comes a daughter with another apocalyptic scenario.  Just kidding.  Kids are great.  (eyeroll)  This is my second marriage.  This wife is way hotter, way nicer, and did I mention way hotter?  We've have 12 years seperating us, but she's so hot, she still gets confused for someone in her 20s.  She's also a former model, so how's that at winning life?  You get all depressy after divorce, then you start realizing you got a shot at scoring someone who's way better.  Guess God was nice to me, huh?

Why Marvel Comics Will Do Better Than DC Comics At The Movies

Both Marvel and DC Comics have a long great history of excellent characters and excellent talent writing and drawing them.  The transition to the small screen and the movies is something else.  Though not the first superhero, certainly the biggest at the time, Batman starring Michael Keaton in the late 80's was everything a comics nut would love.  There was a realism to it.  Even non-superhero movies need realism, and what made it so cool was that realism.  It wasn't so much the acting, though that helped, it was the setting.  Actually trying to provide some semblance of a city, made it believeable.  The franchise later tanked horribly, when they started putting nipples on costumes that were supposed to be body armor, and resorted to crappy puns, but the stage had already been set, the right actors, the right direction, and the superhero movie could shine

Of course now its 2015, and the excellent Dark Knight Trilogy is behind opening the doors for an expanded DC Comics movie universe, as well Marvel pumping out movies that aren't just well written, or based on some of their more interesting stories, but they're putting tremendous effort into putting out a high standard product for the fans.  Movie budgets are obviously way higher, and special effects are far superior to even movies made 10 years ago.  But things are different between the DC movie franchise and the Marvel one than just production and characters.  Marvel has the upper hand in characters that have better name recognition than DC, though DC has more history, at least comic book history.

It seems to be that Marvel hasn't made a single bad casting move yet.  Which is just crazy to me.  Even with the Marvel Cinematic Universe breaking into TV with shows like Daredevil and Agents of SHIELD, the effort even in making TV shows is evident.  Yes, you can't produce the same effects in TV as with a movie, but even the storytelling comes off extremely well.  The thing is, its about effort, and its shows in the Marvel movies and shows.  Casting Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is horrible, casting Ben Affleck is also horrible.  Affleck already had a shot in a Daredevil movie, which tanked, and Eisenberg was in that dopey Facebook movie.  First thought that comes to my mind is, "Why is Mark Zuckerberg trying to kill Superman?"  Both DC and Marvel have has some stinkers, but DC just seems to making casting blunders, when they've got the money, the time, and the opportunity to do something great.  They really couldn't just offer Christian Bale more money to keep playing Batman?  He was great in The Dark Knight Trilogy, and look at what Marvel has done with Robert Downey Jr.  He's got 3 Iron Man movies, 2 Avengers movies, and plenty more to follow.  DC should be milking the cow as long as they have it around, but now Bale is gone, and I guess Batman will be Ben Affleck's comeback or improvement project or something.

I want to see comic movies because I love the characters, and love the concepts, I don't want to go and be sort of held hostage by watching because this is the only Batman, or whatever, that's here at the moment, so that's what we have to go with.  You want to go and be able to enjoy the movie, and if the actor is good enough you won't even "see" them, so to speak, but you'll see that beloved character right in front of you.  That's all.  No amount of special effects, or story, will hide bad acting, or likely alter pre-movies bias.  Comic moviegoers don't like crappy casting, storytellers and writers, don't like it, and neither will the general public.

At Least I'm Busy Now

I managed to come up with the beginnings of ideas for 2 more book projects, and a couple of comic scripts.  I still need to cut down on my video game time so I can write more, but I've been getting a lot of writing done this year.  Its nice to be doing something, and have some sense that I'm accomplishing something.  My new worry is figuring out where to come up with money for editing and publishing, and the things related to that.  If I crank out enough this year, I might be able to get several things done this year and the next.  I'm hoping to have all my initial work for maybe 3 or 4 of those projects done this year, and early 2016.  Smaller projects mean you get more done, a lot quicker.  And getting things done gives a sense of accomplishment even if its something small, its a good stepping stone to finishing other things.

Writing Heroes

Its obvious that writers imput a bit of themselves into the characters they write.  You sort of create a world, where you can do things you can't in the real one, where in some kind of way there's a piece of you, or an alternate you succeeding where the real one didn't.  I intended to do this very thing for a novella, but have found there's always something of yourself you leave on the page.  There's always some kind of autobiographical tidbit sort of lurking in the pages.  I've been finding I'm writing about past experiences and things that interest me, and I'm getting more done than I ever have before.  I keep looking at what my interests are, or who I am, or things that happen to me, and I find I have more to write about.  Maybe in some wierd way its similar to how people can never stop talking about themselves, I'm writing instead.

Mandatory Writing Session...Or Not

I got food poisoning on Saturday, so I'm staying home on Monday, just to make sure I'm ok.  It was just a mild case, but its tough to get up and do things without feeling dizzy or nauseous.  I'm ok as long as I stay in my recliner and don't exert myself too much.  I started another writing project, so I guess I'll just be crashing all day and working on various writing projects.  Well at least that was the idea.  So far I've ended up sitting around all day contemplating if I'm going to watch another show on TV Land, take another nap, or actually do something of value.  I ate a bowl of soup, and had about 3 glasses of orange juice, and now one of the dogs has come over to lick my feet.  And now she's playing tug of war with a dog toy.  I'm holding one end between my toes so I can continue typing, while she pulls on the other end.  Its all very captivating I'm sure.  I think I'm going to have start taking my cell into the bathroom again.  I keep getting ideas for things when I'm in the shower.  Its kinda weird.  Speaking of which, I better jot some down now.

Why Do People Bullshit So Much?

The title says it all.  Just be honest.  Stay out of trouble.  Less headache.

Its Helps If You Put Effort Into It

So far my reading plan of trying to read about 10 pages a day seems to be working pretty good.  I figure I can get a couple of books read in a month or two, and not have to spend a great deal of time trying to research for various things.  I spend about 8-10 hours working everyday and that's not including the 4 hours or more of driving I do everyday to get to work either.  Sometimes you just need to relax when you get home.  10 pages isn't all that bad, but it's tough to read things written by so-called scholars, that really aren't all that smart, and try to sound more knowledgable than they really are.  I dusted off an old idea I had too for a comic book story, and I'm attempting to tune it up a bit, as I'm starting to see similar concepts being put into print now, and I don't want to copy anybody. Its such a cool idea but I'm not sure if its going to work yet.  Its basically the best idea you could ever see in comics, I need to do a few things, like catch up on back issues, and comics history, but its another dream project in the works

I managed to get another page done of my signature project.  I actually just sat there and cranked out a few primo paragraphs that set me up for the next phase of the book.  I've been trying to work it, so the reader's imagination will write part of my story for me.  I didn't write down certain details, because I want the reader to fill in the blanks.  I think...I hope, I left enough story there to actually tell the story, but I want different perspectives so I'm trying to balance all of that.  I'm trying to leave extremely subtle clues about things too, its sort of a puzzle, and sort of something the reader will see come together at the end if they can't figure it out.  There's usually 2 types of mystery stories, at least, from my point of view.  There's one where the story is laid out for you, and you can't figure it out, its up to th author to lay it out the solution for you, or there's the one that lays out clues and you try to figure it out before the last page.  I'm trying to find some middle ground.  You should be able to figure it out, but also not figure it out completely.  I like try to and figure things out myself, but I think I'm just trying to get a good story out, and not so much what kind of story that is.

Got Stuck

I'm a little stalled.  This one story is completely written in the present tense, and I'm a little jammed up about what to write next.  This is the only project I'm doing this on, but its tough because every so often I have to stop for a while and come back to it.  I managed to get a little reading done this Easter weekend, but most of the week was a bust.  Its tough to stay focused when you've got to read tons of crap from wacky points of view for different things.  I guess I needed a break, plus I've been playing a lot of games on the ol' iPad.  I even managed to make a little progress writing this weekend too.  I got my daughter a bike for her birthday and she said it was the best she got.  She's 7 now, so she's totally a fiesty little lady.  Good week I think.

Researching Feminism and Writing the Novel

I had to print out some of the most bizarre nonsense from the feminists camp this weekend.  I have to look at this stuff for my little project on manhood, and it boggles the mind that people write things like intercourse is rape, or that all men are rapists or something.  Some of this stuff is dated material, and some of it is fairly recent and it just seems like feminist theories get wilder and wilder as time goes on.  I thought feminism was supposed to be about equality, not trying to accuse a whole gender of being rapists.  Its sad because these writers have no clue about gender issues, and no clue what most of the male population actually think about women.  Of course to distract myself from some this absurdity, I have to hop into other projects.  I'm still working on my novella, and I think its going ok. I'm about 17 or 18 pages in now, but since books are printed in smaller page sizes, I might be into page 25 or something when it makes it to actual print.  So far its not to bad, I get annoyed at how long writing takes sometimes, but if you really care about something you'll stick it out, and I hope that's what I'm doing.  So far the whole "process" isn't too bad, and even my wife thinks something good will come of it all.

Likud Or Not Netanyahu Has Won

This is my first political post.  I usually don't get too crazy about politics just because people resort to lying, propaganda, and a bunch of distasteful stuff just because people are nuts.  Today, however, Benjamin Netanyahu and his political party, Likud, have seemingly won big in the elections in Israel, and by extention Netanyahu has another term as Prime Minister of Israel.  I like this guy.  In a region of terrorism, and uncertainly, Netanyahu has an iron will about Israel's security.  As somebody who has some very small Jewish heritage, and a Christian, its nice to not worry about Israel.  Its encouraging to see something go right for a change.  I expect Israel's enemies won't like his victory, but too bad.  The attitude from some liberals in America, and the enemies of Israel, is that "how dare Israel, stand up for itself and fight off people who want to genocide them right off the face of the planet?  Those pesky Jews!  How dare they think they've got a right to land they had a stake on for thousands of years."  Its absurd for Jews or Gentiles to not want to defend themselves from extinction.  Sadly many liberals in America are trying to community organize the world into some kind of hippie parade, but you can't organize evil people like that.  Somewhere, somebody is going to lie to the organizers, or use it for their own ends, and in this case, we need to just let Israel have the ability to protect itself, and not allow ourselves to aid, or comfort Israel's enemies or undermine Israel's efforts to defend itself.  Granted, there's a story in the media about liberals trying to influence the elections in Israel, yet Netanyahu won anyway.  Its a great day for Israel, and as a result a great for Jews, and a great victory for the cause of freedom around the world, as Netanyahu is for a strong Israel, and a strong Israel fights terrorism, and fights evil.

Monday is a Boring Day

I'm reading stuff on feminism, and gender issues, and other crap like that, and it is boring.  Part of it certainly is the fact, I have to read to begin with, it takes time to read books, and articles, and that gets  

old quickly.  Another part of it is all these types of things are written by "intellectuals" who have no life experience, or have any concept people think of complicated and complex issues, they just don't use the fanciful language these supposed scholars use.  I only got about 20 pages of reading done today, but I also found a few articles I'm going to reference, and I got a better look at some other things I have to look at.  It is encouraging to make progress though.  I've been listening to music all day, and getting a bunch of things done today.  And since I had the day off from my day job, its now only 4 days till the weekend.  I'm always trying to find some solace that the more I think of some of my projects, I see the endings coming together for them.  I'm getting more and more optimistic I'll be able to finish 2 books this year, and not just the one.  

What Am I Supposed to Title This Post...

I'm pretty glad its Friday, I need the weekend to rest. The 70 mile commute to work, and then the 70 miles back home take their toll, especially after the 8-10 hour workday.   Between housework, and loud family members, its easy to get distracted and not find time to write, or to finish reading the 100 books or so for research purposes.  Its sort of a non-stop life, and time is going by so much faster than it used to.  I'm entering my mid-30s soon, and its tough for focus my mind for writing, when I'm tired from the manual labor I do during the day.  I eat candy and listen to music and audiobooks during commutes to stay awake and alert, because otherwise I'm cussing out drivers who drive to slow when there's no accidents or anything wrong on the freeways, and I try to fight off fatigue.  I am trying to take advantage of feeling like myself once again.  I've been getting very agitated and annoyed, and have had too many things blow up at work and at home for me to settle my mind and focus on writing.

Recently, however, I been trying to push myself more mentally, and I've been learning not to panic when I stall at some point in a story.  I take my time, think about it for a while, and then come back to it.  I've got 6 projects, but some of those are on hold till I can figure out how to get all my ideas in a good structure.  You think of one thing, and then another, but they're so far apart in terms of chronology, you have to develop the first idea before you can make it to the second, and that takes time.  Still its nice to have ideas and projects to do.  Makes you feel like you're actually do something of value.  And that's a good feeling.

Weekend Part Deux

I have to buy a bike for the youngest.  She's turning 7 in April, so like a good father I have to buy an expensive to make sure my kid still love me.  I also have undertaken the reading of The Feminine Mystique.  Clearly, I must love writing so punish myself by reading this.  I have 2 separate projects that require me reading this, one is a political project I started nearly a year ago, and another is for a manifesto of sorts.  Don't worry its a good manifesto.  I have 6 different book projecs going, but I think this manifesto thingy is something I can crank out in a month or less.  Its just going to be short, and it something I sort of have bottled up inside me, so I don't have to formulate ideas too much, or research for it.  So that's nice.  I'm trying to figure out how to squeeze in writing so I don't have to talk to my wife's family, who's over for dinner and schoomzing.  I'm blogging and tweeting to kill time.  Ha.

My Weekend

This past weekend I accomplished one of the dreams I've had since I was a kid.  I got a mini fridge for my bedroom.  So cool.  Its full of booze and sweet tea now.  Me and the Mrs. can now grab a cold beverage from the bedroom instead of walking the 20 feet to the kitchen.  I also managed to get some writing in, and organize a little more the 5 or 6 projects I have going.  Time seems to be going by faster, and I've been finding I have more things calling for my attention, which is strange because I don't get excited or motivated for too much.  I think I've got an ending for my first book, and I'm closer to getting all the materials I need for some non-fiction projects too.  I got a tweet read on Foxnews too!  My wife and I saw it on TV but I didn't get a picture of it in time, and I've no idea how to find now.  But at least we saw it.  I'm really tired because of all these things I'm doing now, and my day job.  Between 40-50 hour work week, and the 20 plus hours I'm on the road a week now, I'm much more tired than they I used to be.  Still, its nice to make some kind of progress on things.

Reading

I managed to pull out the eight boxes of books I had in storage last week.  About half of that are books I've gotta read of research on different historical and political topics.  I still have to track down another 8 or so, as well as some articles that are about 100 years old.  Its tough to read dozens of books when you're not in school anymore, because there are more distractions being a married guy who has a day job, and writing is sort of the non-paying night job.  Its also tougher because married me has more things to worry about than single me.  I have to impose some form of deadline or something on myself so I can get things finished.  Fictional projects are much easier because you don't have to do anything except write, but non-fiction projects take some much longer.  There are quotes to write down, indexing, referencing, its a bother.  Guess I gotta start taking books everywhere again.  I did manage to get some good starts on my non-fiction projects though.  I got the first few paragraphs down that are just perfect, now I just have to come up with another few hundred pages of writing.  No biggie, right?

The Little Woman

I'm 33, and my wife is 45.  This works well as I lean a bit towards the cougars.  Cougars are great.  You don't get mixed signals, and they tend to have settled down a lot emotionally, so you end up dating or married to someone who's more stable professionally, and emotionally.  You want to get older but not old.  My wife's name's Elena, but I call her Ellie.  She does a lot of different things in regards to real estate, most of which I don't understand, which is fine by me.  She also happens to be a former model, so naturally thats bragging rights for me.  She passes for someone in 30s and even 20s on a regular basis.  Because of our age difference, which is no big deal at all, she gets to relive her 30s, and I get to live my 40s twice.  She's pretty and has a good desk job, I'm rather gruff and have a manual labor job, so things like my back and knees feel like they're in their 50s or something.  I've got the best wife.  She kisses my head out of nowhere when I'm working at home, and encourages me all the time about my pursuing my dream of being a writer.  A dream I've been chasing on and off again since I was a kid.  I've got a daughter from a previous marriage, and my wife has got a couple of daughters, both in their 20s.  No sons.  I'm completely outnumbered here.  Even our 2 dogs are girls.  All these girls...that would probably explain why I've got a lot more gray hair now.

But back to the wife.  She sometimes talks to me about writing more than I talk about it.   We got married not even 2 years ago, and I've already gotten more ideas for writing projects, and gotten more writing done being married, than I have in my entire life.  I guess I'm just bragging, but I've got the perfect little encourager, motivator, and spouse a guy can ask for.  She helps me a great deal even more than she knows.  No, you can't have her.  She's mine. 

Historical Fiction

I recently revisited an idea that I had for a historical fiction book.  And I guess I'm back to being drawn into about 6 or 7 or too many different writing things now.  The good thing about this is that if I write this historical thing, I don't have to research for it too hard, but I still have a colossal load of reasearch for a couple of political books I wanted to write.  Its nice to have an idea, but its horribly time consuming if you have to do any sort of preparation for anything you write.  Its tough to say you're "working" on a project when you've gotta read 50 books on the Middle East for something. Though I suppose that goes with the territory.  You can say you're a "writer" even when you're researching I guess.  But back to this novel thing, I think this is the 6th idea I've had for a book.  I guess I can impress the wife and tell her how busy I am.

Branching Out

I've been thinking about doing more writing than I thought I was going to do.  Originally I wanted to write a bunch of books, but finally settled on just doing one novel, but I'm seriously considering writing three more books, two on politics, and one children's book.  Part of the reason I shelved these other other projects was because of time.  We're sort of in this perpetual move phase, where half of our stuff is still in storage.  My wife and I are living with her parent for at least a year to help them move back to California, and most of the books I wanted to use for research are in a storage unit because we don't have the book shelves I need yet.  I've just been focusing on the novel for now, because it made sense and I didn't really need to research for it too much.  But I've always had these other ideas in the back of my mind, so I think I'm going to try and give it another go.  Could be fun.  I just finished another page of my novel today too, and I really needed that today.  I ended up taking a few days off from writing this week, and its nice to have something sort of tangible goal done today.

Pretty Dumb Weekend

As part of my paying job, I'm on my feet a lot.  So I went to ice said feet in a large container of ice an water the other night.  I moved my little tray with laptop, and various other electronics away from said bucket with the idea of not dropping anything into it.  Of course I get tangled into a cord and my ipod which my wife spent a lot of money on, the big one with 160 gb, that they don't make anymore, takes a nosedive into said bucket of water.  So I've been sulking for a few days now, trying to find the best ipod Apple made, but they don't make anymore.  Needless to say, I turned into Job or something the last few days, and its understandable considering how often I'm on it.  I play music off it to sleep, listen to audiobooks in traffic, watch things on it, and listen to music when I'm working on writing.  So essentially this thing is on all the time, and I rely on it all the time.  So I'm either being a giant baby, or a giant reasonable person, who has to find some money so I can have my expensive toy again.  You decide.  Also I may have finished another page of writing, and gotten some more cool ideas for my story.

These Cellular Telephone Things Are Fantastic

Today, well, today and yesterday, I was traveling and didn't have access to a pen and paper, these are still the things I use for writing down my ideas.  But I didn't have access to them, at that point, so I sent myself a few text messages, and viola!  I had my ideas written down before I could get them to paper.  I can't tell you how many times I 've forgotten something I'm sure was gonna land me a Nobel Prize or something.  Isn't technology great?  On the other hand, I was texting my wife at lunch, and some joker in a suit, who was doing lunges at the bottom of a staircase, started yelling into his phone, about his lunch, like he was important.  Isn't technology stupid?

American Sniper

Tonight I saw American Sniper with my wife.  I was only partially aware of the story of Chris Kyle, mostly because I find out about him some time after his death.  I knew more of the better known details, namely that he was the best sniper in American history, and his tragic death, later after his heroic service in Iraq.  I started making my way through the book, and though I haven't finished it yet, there's a lot of great details that can't be included in the movie, I would think because of time constraints, though you can certainly see the spirit of the book in the movie.  How's that for a run-on sentence?

There have been several in my family that've had the distinct honor of serving this country, and while I did not serve, this movie is one that will leave you wishing you had.  We live our comfy little lives, while strangers go off and die for us, and I think this comes out in the movie.  This movie left me feeling more patriotic, and more like I've done so little compared to strangers who go off and fight for us.  Its probably the first that shows how soldiers deal with returning back to the States, and really the first that dealt with confronting the moral decisions of doing impossible things, we'd never have considered, because we've never been to a war zone.

Two of his military accomplishments really take the forefront in this movie, which the actors, and director Clint Eastwood managed to tie into Kyle's story really well.  One was his being the deadliest sniper in U.S. military history, and his longest shot, at 2,100 yards, well over a mile away.  These two things really stood out to me, and reminded me of another movie Lone Survivor, a movie about another Navy Seal, Marcus Lattrell.  While both movies chronicle extraordinary events in the lives of Navy Seals, and while both will choke you up, even the toughest of men, American Sniper, just made Chris Kyle seem like a self-made superman.  His attitude, his grit, are just...great, and really things that are lacking in our all too sissified culture.  You come out of that movie seeing his devotion to his fellow soldiers, and to his fellow Americans, in general.

It just...sucks, that he ends up dying serving others, well after the dangers of Iraq have passed.  That for me might be the biggest gutwrencher of Chris's story.  But even then, he died trying to help someone.  I left with a large lump in my throat, and watery eyes, because of a stranger willing to put himself in danger for people he'd never meet simply because they were American.  That is the thing to take away from this movie, and really the sacrifice of Chris Kyle in general.  His was, and is, a story of sacrifce, and service to others, at the highest level he knew.

The Bad Guy

I suppose most people write themselves into the hero when they're making up a story, but you're not likely to do that when you're making up a villain.  But you are maybe likely to write people you know into a villain.  Its kind of fun.  You can write all the nasty traits of people who bother you, and then write put them all into one nasty dude.  The problem I'm having is not so much the nastiness of my villian, but his cleverness.  I'm trying to figure out how to make him go step for step, and move for move with the main character.  Making him evil is interesting, and making him clever is something that takes some thought.  Most of the people I'm modeling my villian are frankly nasty people, but very stupid.  I have to give him some intelligence.  So naturally I have to put part of myself into the villain too. Ha.

Slow Week

I've managed to get a few more paragraphs done in between my online gaming.  It seems I'm pretty good at taking breaks this week.  I'm hoping I can finish another page or two this weekend.  I'm sort of fighting an uphill battle in my story, as I'm trying to fit all the right pieces together, and make sure I can fit all this into a pretty little package by the end of the story.  The more I write about the villain the more I put things into him about people I know that I didn't get along with, or people that I know that are jerks, or folks that did me wrong.  Because of all that its a little difficult to construct an ending that isn't based solely on overcoming the villain, but is done in way that makes sense, and isn't just me having my hero just come out winning with his fists.  I want to use his intellect, even more than his body.  There's something especially satisfying in having heroes that aren't just all cerebral, or isn't all based physical in beatdowns, though thats exciting enough.  I think you've got to have both, though as a guy, and a manly guy, I wanna see more beatdowns.  There's something especially satisfying in writing a mystery, or intrigue story.  You're not just trying to solve a mystery, or make characters solve a mystery, as a writer you're trying to solve it while you build it.  Its fun.

A Little Reality For the Fiction

Today I picked up a nameplate I had made for the character in my novel.  It looks very professional, and it was cheap to make.  I wanted to have something I could see, and direct make my story more real for me.  I won't give away too much, but its a tangible bridge I can look and direct, focus, and create emotions with.  A lot of this traits stem from people I've had the misfortune of knowing, or of my own conventions about what this villain should be.  Much like hearing a song, or smelling a smell, will remind of us something, I think this thing I can see, and touch, will spark the right frequencies of emotions and ideas that I can use for my writing.  So I guess we'll see how it goes.

Novel

I'm finally found the right project for me.  After about, oh, probably 15 years, of trying to find the perfect thing to write, I finally stumbled on something I'm excited about.  I had all these ideas for different things, and just sort of pulled them together into one cool thing.  So far, I've been going on this thing for a couple of a months, and its been going really well.  Finally.  Its been actually fun to write, for a change, and I'm working at a faster pace.  Its finally good to be a writer.