Category: Writing

It’s the stupid things that make me happy

For example: this new blog layout. Be glad I didn’t leave it in the original green text. Although there’s also the option for amber, and I did love me some amber displays back in the day.

I can’t promise this is going to stick around a while. I’m still not happy with the layout. I want something very minimal and almost completely text focused, but so far my problems with this layout is it’s not indicating when comments exist on a post unless you view each post as an individual, and that’s not fun. Who wants to click on everything to see if there’s a conversation going on?

Ok, it’s entirely possible that the problem is there aren’t any comments, or comments are still broken and you can’t leave one (A friend of mine is having that issue right now — 503 every time I try to comment)

Anyhow, if you’re out there and want to take the time to try commenting and let me know what happens … (This is the good thing about having so many nerdy friends. Someone somewhere will look and know what’s happening).

Additional things that make me happy: still writing.

I’ll tell you a little bit about it, but not much. There’s these two guys, see? Both Gen-X, both have terrible relationships with their families. Basically raised themselves from about the ages of 10 because I did mention they’re Gen-X? Anyhow, they’re both sarcastic, weird, low-level con artists, snarky best friends, and after a run of bad luck (one guy lost his job, got divorced, and inherited a house in the space of like 10 months) they’re roommates.

Oh look. The best friends odd couple situation. How unlike me. And it turns out the house is haunted? You don’t say. Who ever would’ve imagined I’d come up with something like that? Wow.

SO OF COURSE I MADE THE CHARACTERS IN THE SIMS (my mom is probably rolling her eyes and silently telling me to get on with it, because absolutely zero of this is a surprise to her. But to be fair, she’s known me a really long time and I’m actually pretty predictable).

Anyhow… no names yet. One’s tentatively Nate/Nathan, but I dunno. The other is just a question mark, although we’re all getting pretty tired of “dudeman”.

Right. So getting back to it…

two male sims sitting on a sofa in a haunted house

Dudeman on the left, “Nate” on the right. The year is roughly 2001. Nate’s got massive gauge holes in his ears, a tattoo on his left forearm and the nape of his neck. He does have an outfit that’s jeans, boots, t-shirt, and flannel shirt tied around his waist, but I haven’t gotten a good screenshot of it yet. Hang on to those last days of Grunge, baby! You can also see that dudeman has sleeves that end in fingerless gloves.

And finally… Dudeman

(Dudeman does have a last name. It’s Brekman. So that’s something at least)

Anyhow… kinda getting to a point where I might need to talk to someone about the writing? I used to have esso to bounce ideas around with, and sometimes just complaining out loud to someone helps get through blocks, and boy am I blocked. Like

I have maybe a 4th of a thing written, but it’s spread out over acts 1 and 2 and there’s huge gaping holes where there’s supposed to be story. This is me indirectly asking if anyone might be interested. Except you, mom. I can’t swear in front of you.

After the nuclear war we had to turn to the zoologists.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt was indirectly responsible for force fields?

Today I remembered the name of my favorite Random Generator site. I’d forgotten just how awesome some of them are.

The writing prompt one is my favorite. The title of this post is one of the random prompts. A few others are….

  • It was time to murder some dark gods, but that’s no longer true.
  • My life is basically the legend of the Flying Dutchman, only I am more witty than you’d expect.
  • If you want to know what happened, imagine the legend of the Golem, only funnier.
  • We survived the severe weather by hiding in a stargate, and that’s when everything went wrong. (ok, that’s literally every third episode of Atlantis)
  • Five cyborg rebellions – I’m going to kill her.

The envisioner is also good. It’s all “what if X but … IN SPACE” stuff. Look.

  • A fusion of the legend of the Phantom Hitchiker and the legend of Johnny Appleseed.
  • The story of Oliver Twist envisioned as a surrealistic cyberpunk tale.
  • The story of Jesus envisioned as a metaphorical comedy of manners tale.
  • A fusion of the legend of Oedipus and the legend of Hercules envisioned as a party comedy tale.
  • The legend of Sparticus set on a reality television show (“Will the real Sparticus please stand up!”)

If a Cyberpunk Oliver Twist exists, hook me up.

The what-if-inator!

What if…
…the rise of Rome involved occult arts?
…HG Wells had access to interstellar travel?
…the advent of Christianity had never happened? (<3 <3 <3)
…the first transatlantic flight involved druids?
…the American Revolution involved thaumaturgy? (would read)

See, remember in the previous post where I said I lied and I was writing again? I think I jinxed myself. Or possibly I’ve just hit the point where I can’t keep writing around the plot and actually need to have a plot. If anyone needs me I’ll be over there hitting “refresh” like a zombie until something clicks.

A Tight Five

Correction from previous post: I am still writing. About 10k words so far. I don’t think anyone will ever read it, but I’m having fun and that’s the important thing.

So every night before I go to bed I put the dog in her crate and then I do a little monologue about the day we had and how good she was and what the plan for the next day will be. It always ends with me telling her goodnight and that I love her. It’s always ridiculous and sometimes I feel a little self-conscious summarizing the day out loud to a dog (and two cats, who are usually in the kitchen having snacks about this time of day), but over the past five years it’s been about the only daily habit I have (I cannot be depended on to remember to take my meds, brush my teeth, or eat).

I think it really started because after esso died, with the lockdown and weirdness and working from home it was hard to keep track of what day of the week it was, so telling her what happened during the day an what was on track for the next was useful for me.

I still have about a dozen reminders that pop up on my phone and remind me when it’s time to take out the trash or the recycling, or pay bills, or other important things.