Death to dreams

I don't dream like most people do.

My dreams are detailed, and extremely vivid.  Often, I've passed out after a night of partying, only to dream that my night continued.  Then I awake the nest morning (or afternoon), attempting to recall how much of the previous night's events actually took place.

Sometimes, I'm aware that I'm asleep.  When this happens, I'm able to do anything my mind can think of.  I can shoot fire (or ice), from my hands.  I can float, hover, melt into water, or even become invisible.

Unlike most people, I remember my dreams vividly after waking.  I experience physical pain, and often great wells of sadness in my dreams that sometimes cause me to awake in tears.

Sometimes I even die in my dreams.  When that happens, I simply wake up.  As absurd as it may sound, I sometimes wonder if that's what will happen when I actually die.  Maybe I won't go to Heaven or Hell.  Maybe there's no limbo or eternal lingering until the Second Coming.  Maybe I won't be reincarnated, or reborn.  Mayhap, one day, I'll just die and wake up in another world, as if awaking from a long and vivid dream.

Poles

My heart goes out to the victims (and in this case, survivors), of those lost in the Philippines typhoon, Hurricane Katrina, and the Christmas Indonesia monsoons.  Al Gore and Green-Peace-pundits would have you believe that global warming is the culprit of such natural travesties.  Yes, it's true that temblors, tidal waves, famines, and plagues of vast darkness are ravaging mankind like never before.  But something much more nefarious, and yet, miraculous is happening behind the scenes.

Every five-thousand years, or so, the Earth's magnetic poles shift. The Mayans knew this, and based their calendars on five-thousand-year-cycles.  That's why all those dumb-asses thought the world would end on 12/21/12.  Because that's where the Mayans ended that calendar-cycle.

Currently, our sun is undergoing it's magnetic-shift.  Scientists used to say the sun's poles switch every eleven-years.  Periodical evidence now suggests seven-years.  In any event, a few months back when damn-near everyone reported those holes in the sun (more commonly known as, sun-spots), clamored the sky was collapsing, I guffawed.  Those "holes" were created when particles that are usually forced back toward the sun by its gravitational pull, are jettisoned into space because as the sun switches magnetic-polarity, gravity (at a molecular level, mind you), becomes more of a theory than a categorical fact.

Our sun has been undergoing such magnetic shifts every 11 (or 7), years since who-knows-when.  Most people didn't know this because they just don't bother to look up.  Seriously, if you want to conceal something, hide it well-above eye-level.  Anyhow, this particular polar shift was only glamorized because of today's main-stream-media-fodder and everyone's sick obsession with the apocalypse.  To paraphrase, no the sun was not about to collapse.

The Earth, itself, is right-due for a polar shift.  The Mayans knew this.  So do I.

My girlfriend keeps asking me when this shift will occur.  I think it already has.  Think about it, if the sun's polar shifting can fling radioactive flares into space that alter weather and lunar tides, what consequences might such a solar-disturbance have on Earth?  I don't know, but un-charted earthquakes, tornados, hurricanes, and just all-out-bizarre-ass-weather might be a good indicator.

Let's just hypothesize that all natural disasters within the past few years are attributed to our planet's poles playing metaphorical musical chairs every millennia or so; how long can we expect things to continue/exacerbate before the proverbial dust settles?  I don't know.  No one does.  According to the Mayans, the last time this happened was five-thousand years ago.

Hobbits

I don't know about you, but, I for one, am not looking forward to the new Hobbit movie.  I don't understand why they changed it so much.  Furthermore, I don't understand why people were raving about the first flick.  It was too long and egregiously dragged out.  Many scenes in the movie weren't in the book.  I'm sorry, was J.R.R. Tolkien on the writing team?  It was my understanding that he died whilst writing The Silmarillion, then his son tragically tried to finish it.

I remember when it wasn't cool to like Tolkien, comic-books, or reading of any kind.

What happened?

Has main-stream-media and Hollywood-hokum really canted our views of "hip" that much just by adapting things that weren't previously considered socially-acceptable into three-hour-special-effects-filled-marvels?

The reason The Lord of the Rings trilogy worked so well on film is because the material was taken damn-near word-for-word, sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph from the books.  Go back and read the series.  Some people do it every year.  The texts aren't that impressively written.  Yet, why do we keep reading them?  Why do we watch the continuously syndicated endless-loops on TV?  It's because the story is f****** awesome.  I defy you to write a better trilogy.  Now-a-days (no names mentioned here), series are dragged out into a septuplet of volumes, which is only cool if the story engaging and the author actually has something to say.  Summarize people.  Tighten.  Polish.  Don't use five words when three will do.  Eliminate repetitive words, had been, it was -- sorry, skewing off tangent.

The Lord of the Rings series worked as a trilogy because it was a trilogy.  The Hobbit was only 287 pages, well within the margin of unifying it into one feature film.  John Grisham's The Runaway Jury (adapted on screen simply as, Runaway Jury), climaxed at an epic 550 pages.  I'm sorry, please remind me, 'cause I have the attention-span of a gold-fish, but was that developed into a multi-million-dollar trilogy?  No really.  I can't remember.

The point is, Hollywood didn't need to chop The Hobbit into three mediocre slices when one hearty serving would have slaked our appetites.

To be honest, I don't even care to see the next two installments.

I'd rather re-read the book.
Which I've done, and trust me, the book is better than the movies.

 

Character

They say you can tell a lot about a person by the shoes they wear.  More to the point, volumes speak of the choices they make.  Most people pick their own kicks, ergo much is revealed about the choices of a particular individual by their footwear.

Choices are what make characters interesting, particularly, bad ones.  Having things forcibly thrust open a character is trite and derivative.  They need to be faced with decisions.  They need to take matters into their own hands.  But better yet, more often than not, they need to take the wrong path so they can walk away from it (hopefully), a little bit wiser.

People need to be tossed outside their comfort-zone.  Only then do we see the world (and thusly, ourselves), for what it truly is -- undeniably imperfect.  Forever flawed.  And then we strive to do better, if only for a short while.  Some stick with it.  Achieving new goals everyday.  Others seem content lethargically complacent (is that redundant?).  Inevitably, we all return to ash.  So, to each his/her own.

Psychology teaches we're all products of both genetics and up-bringing (nature/nurture).  Perhaps we should add a new category:  advertisement. 

The other day, my girlfriend started a rant about "Wouldn't it be great if there weren't any commercials?"  A brief and poetic enough statement if one there ever was.  I said nothing.  'Cause when truth is truth, there ain't nothing to be said.  But she probably felt abashed by my silence and then proceeded to defend her statement which rotated back to how we do, in fact, need advertisements.

That's how they trap us, with circular logic.

So now we're back to needing, wanting, coveting, buying, disposing of...and on and on it goes.

It's so hard to recycle when the city waste-removal-workers can regulate what you can and can't put in the recycling bin.  Everything's recyclable.  Now, they've got these large, grandiose containers.  Do they still studiously scrutinize every bit of food-waste, soiled toiletry, stained effeminate hygiene products and other assorted...wait, that's trash, not recyclables.  Oh, that's right, even trash can be used as a source of bio-diesel-fuel.  Just my personal opinion, but I regard burning our waste as power-sources (in regulated doses, mind you), as a fairer alternative to burying it or jettisoning it into space.

Sure, there's no way either of those two alternatives could come back and take a royal bite out of our collective asses.

They say you can tell a lot about a consumer by the brands they purchase.  But I say, much more is learned by observing what they don't buy.  People who don't buy useless crap usually don't get baited into corporal entrapments -- usually.

There was a time when we didn't need to purchase goods or services.  We built our homes to our liking, not to socialized regulatory commissioned standards.  There was a time when we didn't have to shop for garb and produce.  Believe it or not, once upon a time, we did things for ourselves, and had no need for outsiders telling us how to run our affairs.

I say, wouldn't it be grand if we reverted back to when we didn't need to buy anything?

I think that would instill much character within us all.

Breaking Good

Sure, people have heard of breaking bad.  No, I'm not talking about the critically acclaimed show.  Although I, myself am a fan.  The definition of "breaking bad", is basically, to become bad.  Not to break the habit of being bad.  Which, believe it or not, some people I've talked to thought it meant.  But has anyone ever heard of breaking good?  A quick Catholic-death-bed-rites-confession, the ol' flick of the switch, and presto, boom-o, bang-o!  All your sins are forgiven.

A merry-right-bit-of tripe that is.

That might be your angle, but that ain't God's angle.  At least, that's what the Jehovah's witnesses pounding on my door proclaim.

First off, you can't be forgiven by no preacher-man.  Only you can allow yourself to be forgiven by God, and then humbly beg the pardon of those you've trespassed.  Quite often, our olive branches are swatted to the ground in disgust ('though easily understandable).  And we hate ourselves.  For a long time.  Even if we're forgiven by those we've wronged, somehow, we still can't let go.  But that's not bad.  In order to better ourselves we must learn from our mistakes.

Yeah, yeah, Walter White's a right-cool-mo-fo.  His pictures and head-lines swamp the news, diverting our attention from real issues.  But is that really what we should be focused on?  Entertainment is meant as a form of escape, yet how we drown ourselves in its drivel.

This imitable character, this sharpened foe, this reverse Robin of the Hood, who steals from the rich and stock-piles spoils to his spawn.

I personally believe that stealing bread is justified if it's to feed your starving family.  But should murder, deception, and peddling upon the ineptitude of the disenfranchised be tolerated in similar circumstances?

I don't know.  I suppose that depends on your particular predicament.

Where'm I going with this?  I don't know.  Maybe putting on glasses, shaving our heads, and pruning our goatees looks cool.  And phony-funerals are always fun.  But do we really want to emulate a fictional drug-dealing-mass-murderer?

To Write Well Pt. 3

I go through five phases when writing a book.

1.) THINKING - You gotta think about your story, mull it over, jot down notes.  Basically, you want to be able to watch your story in your head at any time; just like watching a movie.

2.)  WRITING  -  Only when you not only know what you want to say, but how you want to say it, I write a book in its entirety.  I know it's tough.  Just do it.  You're gonna edit it later.  This stage combines a bit of reading, thinking, and editing, but bear in mind, this is still writing.  When finished with your masterfully crafted piece-of-wordsmenship, sigh and take a break, though we're not done yet.  Far from it, in fact.

3.)  READING  -  I can go about two weeks (tops), before my fingers start twitching, and I long to scrawl a short, poem, song, or even a scene from an up-coming novel.  During that time, I read about three to six novels, depending on their length.  Fiction.  Non-Fiction.  Poetry.  Prose.  News articles.  Doesn't matter.  Point is, I love to read nearly as much as I long to write.  Whilst reading, I keep a notebook and pen handy.  Anytime I come across a word that I don't know, I scribble it down.  But, not just words I don't know, I also jot down words I think I know,  words I know but don't use that often, and even quotes.  I also study the way other authors write.  I note appealing phrases, and though I don't use them verbatim, I'm greatly inspired by other authors.  But, that's the point.

4.)  ERUDITION  -  In case you didn't know, erudition means a period of deep (sometimes theological) learning; studying.  After I have my vocab sheets from the books I just read, I alphabetize my words, go through the dictionary, and write down the definition.  I find this method far-more effect than simply trying to memorize a myrmidon of words.  I also use this time to research things.  Let's face it folks, if you wanna be a writer, ya gotta know what you're talking about.  And that means research.

5.)  EDITING  -  This is by-far the most tedious and pain-staking tasks of all.  You have to sit down, and read through your novel paragraph-by-paragraph, line-by-line, sentence-by-sentence, word-by-word.  If you followed these instructions properly, this should be more than a few times you've read your own book.  And let's face it, how many times do you really read a book?  If it's simply amazing, at most, twice, or once a year as some eccentrics do.  You can pay for fancy-shmansy editors, and I suggest you do (just for professional feed-back).  In the end, as exasperating as it may sound, you'll want to make the final edit yourself.  Why?  Because it's your book, damnit!  Don't you want it to be the way you always pictured it in your mind?

That's enough free advice for now.

P.S.  I've noticed some of you eAuthors have been trying to get a hold of me (not literally of course).  Somehow, readers can send me emails directly (or filtered to), my personal email account.  But I don't know who these savvy, young folken are.  I simply receive a message and am proffered the opportunity to reply.  Please send links to your sites.  I love reading (and reviewing).  By-the-by, as I've stated in a previous blog, if I review your work, and it's not sterling, don't get all huffy.  This is free advice (which I paid a hefty sum for), and am doling out to you.

Take it or leave it.  

Curse Words

It's true.  It's finalized.  It's legit.
Cursive is no longer being taught in public schools.  As for private institutions, time will tell.

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  At first I thought, "That's ludicrous.  Yet, another fine example of our tax dollars at work that seem to dissipate into thin air."

But, what-with modern publishing relying on technology, and Luddites fearing learning that cursed script; do people need to know cursive?  The short answer -- yes.  How else are you going to sign your name?  With an X?  I shudder at the very thought of the repercussions of such lethargic penmanship.

Does anyone still write in cursive?  Hell yeah.  I do.  All the time.  In fact, I, like most writers, have notebooks chock-full of scribbled and scrawled glyphs only discernible to me.

Think about this, if you had a diary (the contents of which you wanted to remain private), then wouldn't it benefit you more if the only one who could read it was you?

Instead, most people hurl their most intimate cerebrations into hyper-world-wide-main-stream fodder, and should be so lucky as to have their peers pass over their posts, pix, and selfies in ennui.

Leonardo DiVinci wrote backwards, up-side-down, in loops, broken pieces scattered among notebooks, and encoded.

And yet, we think we know all of his works?

...sorry.  Was I rambling again?

Anyway, what do I think of schools no longer teaching cursive?

I predict in ten years, handwriting will be nerdy.  But not in the cool way.  In fifty, only the elderly shall posses such skills (if their arthritic hands manage).  Something the Neo-punks poke fun at.  I bet they'll even have some slang term that associates the decrepit with cursive.  Something like, "Look at the ol' scribbler, (scrawler, or scripter).

All I can say for those poor souls no longer receiving their right-due-proper education we all were granted as youths, (unless your parents step in), "I know something you don't know.  Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nahh."

Seriously people, is handwriting something we really want to become a dead language.  What if our beloved grid goes down?