Ted stood at the top of the well, stick in one hand, arms crossed over his chest. The well had been more than half grown over with weeds and vines, and they'd spent nearly an hour pulling it all back, revealing the rotten wood that still only half covered it. They'd broken off and pulled back as much of the wood as they could. The wood was sick with the slick, wet rot of having been submerged in stagnant water for too long - alternately hard and liquid, uneven in its decay. Their hands and shirts were covered with the stink of it, and JC had a streak of it across his forehead. Ted had taken up his position the first time they saw something stir under the water. He gripped the stick loosely in his fist. It was a good stick - it was solid pine and fit neatly in his fist. He had left it out in a chalk circle under the full moon for three nights, and had hidden it under his pillow for two more, whispering to it wicked fantasies of rage and violence. He hadn't hit an
Posts
"You care too much what other people think," Ted said, whipping the stick off into the woods. "You can't be so nice that no one hurts you, Jay. People don't 'get what they deserve' - they get what they get." JC hauled his bike upright and threw one leg over it. "I know." "Do you? Cuz you spent a lot of time trying to be nice to that Archon-loving jerk. Time that could've been spent getting closer to the King." JC looked down at his meaty 8-year old hands gripping the rubber of his bike-handles. "I'm not nice so they won't hurt me, Ted." "That's a load of poop." JC stared at his hand, tightening on the handle. "I care what people think because if I don't the whole thing unravels. If you don't care what other people think, the only thing that's left is what I think. If I don't care what other people think, they stop mattering. They stop being people and just becom
Ted leaned the BMX bike against the wall of the shed, seeing JC's bike laying splayed on the ground a few feet away. He took a moment to root around in the undergrowth of the spindly pine near-by, getting himself a stout branch about a foot and a half in length. He gave it an experimental swing. JC was too trusting with too much belief in a just universe that would preserve the well intentioned. Ted was under no such illusions. A hundred backyard brawls over the course of his six years of life had cured Ted of that dangerous optimism. He knew that behind every smiling child was a ravenous wolf looking for an excuse. He walked around the corner of the shed, and saw JC kneeling on the ground, looking at a small construction of sticks and twine. At a quick glance it looked like an attempt at making a Tee-pee for action figures, but as Ted got closer he could start to make out the knots and lashes. There was a disturbing pattern woven into the twine, and the knots evoked a gut-ch
Two Years.
So I start Grad School and for two years I don't update my blog? Coincidence? I think not. Looking at my old posts, I have come to the inevitiable conclusion that I like to update when something pisses me off, or when I'm hip deep in something I think is genuinely interesting. Or, when I'm bored and feel like I'm having deep thoughts. I'm wondering if I should have more focus here...to concentrate my Blog's content on one area or one phenomenon rather than a sort of random journal of the moments of my life I feel like documenting. So, I role-play. I LARP. I play video games. I'm a counselor and a student. The counselor and student stuff is interesting, but enmeshed with my professional ethics and confidentiality. How would a client feel if they stumbled upon my blog and saw some scattered detail about them on the internet? Even if I was very careful not to identify them, the detail, that moment of that story, belongs to them and has no place here.
Where I am and What I Think It Looks Like.
I read a lot of Warren Ellis's work. He does a piece called The Ministry that I enjoy reading, and in it he talked about "public intellectuals" and what that meant to him, and basicly concluded that they are writers who talk about the world in a public forum. People who anser the questions, "Where am I? What do I think the world looks like?" Which are good questions. Interesting to me, because I've struggled with a single over-arching problem for the entirety of my writing career: That I have nothing profound to say. I'll never write a Transmetropolitan or a V for Vendetta, or even a Preacher. I just don't have anything profound to say about the world I'm living in. Where I am right now is the cusp of, I dunno, adulthood I guess. Maybe middle age, but that's more depressing. I'm just starting to build a life where I'm responsible, thinking about things like buying a house and starting a family. I'm looking at work as
Comic Book Talk
I'm supposed to be giving a talk tomorrow at my school about comic-book characters. I'm a little excited, but in truth I'm concerned about being too much of a geek and not enough of a historian. But hey, hopefully I'll be able to ramble for twenty five minutes or so about comic books and make it work. Here's the pictures I'm going to try and use. Here.
My New Comic.
I've created a new masterpiece...or perhaps I just wasted a Sunday farting around with Paint. But, I like it. Check it out.
Nightwatch: The German Movie
My wife and I went down to Kendal Square in Cambridge to see Nightwatch: A German movie that I saw a preview for about two years ago, and thought looked neat. Turns out, it was neat. Visally, very cool. Story-wise it kinda felt like an abandoned White Wolf games project: but with a neat blend of dark powers and cop-like drama. Some of the twists and turns are interesting, while others are just kinda implausable. It also really had the feel of an introduction (which it was, it's suppossed to be a trilogy when all is said and done). Characters would have spectacular introduction scenes, and very small parts in the movie. They did some really neat shape-shifting stuff, and some very cool other-worldly dimension walking stuff. On another level, they did some really great things with the sub-titles. During hallucinations, the words would move around, be out of focus, and really became part of the picture rather than an add-on. When the vampires used their powers to "Call&
Top Five Bad Ass Women I Wouldn't Want To Piss Off
So, I've known for a long time that I've got this soft spot for strong women. Not just "I'm an independent adult" strong women, but the really strong women who come off as bitches half the time. I love 'em. I tend to have a moderating effect on them, mainly because I think even strength has to be displayed politely. Also, there's a strong difference between loosing your mind in public on someone (drama queen) and not putting up with crap (strong woman). But my "special" list is reserved for those who I've seen, in the privacy of their home, or in some special other forum, loose their shit on someone who totally deserved it. You know the sort of thing: She says something, and you're stuck between covering your mouth and saying, "I can't believe you just said that out loud..." and nodding and saying, "That's totally right." I just added someone to that list tonight. In a long-story-short sort of vein, this
Eli
When asked to write a letter of recommendation for Eli Friend-Grey, an initial problem immediately presented itself; where to start? I have known Eli for sixteen years, and that’s a lot of ground to cover in one brief letter. It makes for a series of difficult decisions. Should I cover how when I met Eli in the Boy Scouts he represented an ideal to me? How I’d wished nothing more than to be just like him? Should I cover how when he was running five minute miles in high-school that I envied him his dedication and discipline? Or should I talk about how he constantly tried to better himself though every available method, be it reading or simply through self-analysis? Should I point out that he is, perhaps, one of the most self-aware people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing? I think I should probably concentrate on those things that make Eli such a spectacular individual. First and foremost, he is creative. Aside from being a talented artist, Eli has repeatedly found cre