In the aftermath of this insane shooting down in Tucson, I have some thoughts.

1. It's amazing to see that some of the people jumped right to it, tackled the gunman, and immobilized him. One guy even ran over from a neighboring business after hearing the shots and helped take down the guy. There are still heroes.

2. Gun laws. I see now that they're really talking about how the legal availability of guns allowed this guy to shoot the victims. Of course this is true, but In the United States, criminals can always get their hands on guns, no matter where they live, no matter if guns are banned in a city. Chicago is a great example. Guns have been banned there for years, but gun-related violent crimes abound. So my point is, criminals can get guns if they want them.

3. The 9mm. Sometimes you hear people saying the 9mm round isn't deadly enough. Well, tell that to the people this guy killed. He might have killed the 2 wounded people if he had used a .45, although he would have had fewer rounds available to him. I am not saying the psycho should have used something bigger (he should have just fucking shot himself if he wanted to kill somebody), just that 9mm is obviously a nasty round and a viable option for self defense. Maybe he would have been killed (or stopped faster) if someone around there had been carrying a Browning Hi Power.
 

 
So this is our first video--the script for the second one is finished and has been vetted, so once I get back from the World Fantasy Convention next week, we'll shoot it. Benjamin Moore is basing the success of our videos on how many people watch the whole video on youtube. So please, if you come across this, even if you don't end up watching the whole thing, just let the video run until it's done and help us accumulate the views. Thanks!

 Wow, these last few months have been busy. It seems that I am always torn away from this blog by the world as it jumps in and makes me work every damn minute (especially in busy summers). At this point, in the last 2 months, we have worked every day of the week with only 2 days and a couple half days off. *long sigh* At least within about the next month, things should slow down a little bit and I can jump into finishing the Eddie Black novel.

As for writing, I have managed to finally work on a couple short stories this week and even finished a flash fiction piece that may become part of something bigger at some point. 2 weeks from now, I will be in Columbus, Ohio attending the World Fantasy Convention. I'm looking forward to it--hopefully I will be able to make a bunch more contacts in the fantasy publishing business and get more people to take a look at The Child of the Myriad. That book is good and needs to be published (really, I need to get off my butt and actually push the stupid thing!).

This slides right into the paint videos, which are a big time drain. So far we have managed to sell 2 videos and hope to sell more. I believe we will do quite a few more videos, but only time will tell, I guess.

The fetal baby is doing well at this point--it just hit 22 weeks on Friday and is developing fingernails this week. It was slippery and tricky and wouldn't show us its gender a few weeks ago, so the day before I leave for WFC, we are going to try again. The little bugger better fall into line soon, damn thing. I bet its actually a harbinger of things to come with this kid . . .

So Mark Twain was a revolutionary. I don't think anyone would dispute that, but I just saw today that he wrote (well, dictated, actually) his autobiography, then decided it was only to be published on the 100th anniversary of his death. Well, that anniversary has just arrived and the book is coming out. I, for one, will definitely read it.

 Yes, oh yes--mark your calendars, folks. Apparently Melissa and I have become idiots and lost our minds completely; she is now pregnant with a little creature which will become a human one of these days (February). Jesus Christ, I need to re-read that. Pregnant. Pregnant. Starts with a "P." Hmmmm . . .  I am going to be some kid's dad? Holy shit!

Over the last few months, we have discussed our advancing age and whether we truly want to continue going forward without kids. She said I either had to get a vasectomy (which she has been after for years) or that we needed to find some new method of birth control. She is tired of taking the pill--she has been taking it for almost 17 years, and just didn't want to deal with the hormones anymore. I agreed 100%, although I have never been all that excited about getting snipped. I figured that as soon as I went to that extreme, she would change her mind and suddenly want kids.

So. After a couple conversations, we decided to say "Fuck it!" and just get pregnant. True to form and as happens with just about everything else in our life, as soon as we decided to go forward with it, it happened: we made the decision, she got her period, ovulated, then bingo! Pregnant.

The little creature is exceedingly tiny right now and honestly we shouldn't have announced it to the world at large just yet, but what the hell? If we miscarry and the little thing dies, I guess that's life. If it takes solid root and flourishes, so much the better.

Now is where I talk about one of my least favorite segments of society--parents.

As a few people may know, I am judgmental. I like to analyze people and group them together , making gross assumptions and harsh statements about them. When you take any of these groups and break them out into individuals, they are generally fine. I like some high school kids, I like some parents, I like some "grandma's babies," etc, but in general, when gathered together as a whole, these groups really irritate me.

I don't like misbehaving, screechy  kids. I don't like parents who think their kid is the center of everyone's universe (newsflash, they aren't!!). I don't like parents who let their kids do anything they want and train them to be little monsters. I don't like "mommy talk," which is where moms try to outdo each other in demonstrating their knowledge of kids (another newsflash--I don't give a damn how much you know about kids!).

I am more into the George Carlin philosophy on kids (you will have to look into that if you want to know what that wise man said about kids and their parents).

Lastly, I am making the public pledge here and now to not become one of these stupid parent types who does all the crap I listed above. And I hereby give you all the permission to bring it to my attention when I do and set me back on the right path. The last thing I want to become is an annoying parent. Well, I would really hate to be a "grandma's baby" even worse, but I am safe there, I suppose.

Life will apparently be interesting between here and early February.

So MisCon is now upon us. I have most everything completed for it (barring the things I must do on site) and am looking forward to it.  I have been spending so damn much time getting all the time space theme stuff together that I am glad the event is here. We have to do a little more work today, then I will head out to the hotel and start delivering my stuff. The real work for me starts tomorrow when I have to cart all the rest of my stuff across town to the hotel and start putting up stuff. I think it will turn out pretty well. I hope so, anyway. 

Been busy lately, what with MisCon coming up in less than 2 weeks. I have been involved in creating portals into other places and times and am just about done with them. I never knew I was a wizard of that magnitude, actually (of course this seems unclear, but if you want to know what I am talking about, you'll have to come to MisCon). Off to work now before it gets into the 80's

We went to Spokane this last weekend so Melissa could run Bloomsday again. I haven't been running, so I didn't run. Instead, I opted to babysit Hana, the 4-month-old daughter of our friends who were also running. A while back, Melissa wanted wanted to get rooms in the Davenport Hotel, Spokane's nicest hotel (it has a medieval theme throughout, and was first built in 1914, so it's a very cool place). We have stayed there twice before and really enjoyed it, so I was all for it.

Well, the first time I looked at booking rooms, they had them. I waited until the next day to make sure our friends were okay with the price--it turned out they were, but when I went back the next night to book them, the hotel was full. So I got on a waiting list--after a few days they contacted me and said they had some rooms open up, but they were more expensive rooms ($300/each), which I thought was too expensive. Even though I didn't think we would spend that much on hotel rooms, I chose to book them with the idea that we could cancel them with at least 24 hours notice. So as I expected, nobody else wanted to spend that much on hotel rooms either, and we booked a couple rooms at another hotel way out in Spokane Valley instead.

And I promptly forgot about the Davenport . . .

Until the morning we were set to leave for Spokane, when it occurred to me that I had forgotten all about it and never did cancel the damn rooms. I called to try and cancel, but they said I couldn't cancel so late (well, they said I could, but they would charge me anyway). So needless to say, we ended up staying at the Davenport for about a million bucks per room. This was the first stupid thing, although it turned out just fine and we stayed in a nicer hotel for way too much money.

So the next morning, a few hours before the race on a Sunday morning when everything in Spokane is closed, Melissa realized she forgot her running shoes at home in Missoula. Instead, she brought a pair of flip flops and high heels and nothing remotely possible to run 7.5 miles in. In a last minute effort to run, we jumped in the car and hurried out to WalMart where she bought a $20 pair of white Danskin shoes. Needless to say, they were no good for running, but she ran in them anyway and ended up with blisters and sore feet, but she did finish. At least it wasn't a marathon or anything, or else she wouldn't have been able to run at all, crappy shoes or not.

Next time, I suspect she will remember her shoes.

The good news was that the baby was great for me, and didn't even cry once or need a diaper change. Nice.


 

 I managed to be civil with the builder today, although I awoke feeling angry again. Apparently I dreamed about vengeance (at least I think I must have, since I woke up ready to fight). Still, I got control of myself and went about my day. I will admit that I did some bitching about him to my brother, but when it came down to it, I was calm. I just let on that everything was fine and observed him. He is such a transparent trickster that I finally had to agree with my brother that it just isn't worth confronting him about his lies (at least at this point, anyway).

Maybe I am a millimeter closer to the fig tree . . . I hope so.

 You know, it's easy to just get mad. I do it all the time. Sometimes I describe myself as dominant/aggressive, which is pretty accurate, at least when compared with people who are passive/aggressive.

Today I am faced with an interesting situation wherein someone has talked some smack about my brother and I (it's this pathetic so-called builder we are dealing with who has been lying to and stealing from our customers as he oversees the construction of their new house). This guy is a known liar and thief (at least according to my customers, anyway, and I have personally seen his lies in action, both to us and to our customers). So bottom line is, I know this guy is a double-dealing, no good bum. He will do anything to complete this project and make some money, including attack us when we expose some of his bullshit lies.

I am furious! Nobody likes being attacked (he claims that he doesn't trust some of the things we say and is trying to cast doubt about us in an effort to free himself from his web of lies). Being attacked is nothing new to me, but still, when I heard his crap, my chest burst into flame and I instantly wanted to just rip him apart. I still do, although I recognize that I would be better to just leave well enough alone and calm myself. But finding stillness is so damn hard sometimes!

I left this post sitting in limbo for a while and cooled down. I no longer plan to destroy this bastard tomorrow. Instead, I am going to wait until he approaches me while obviously drunk. Then I'll say some "funny" stuff.  I realize that this is an opportunity for me to ignore the violent, furious monster that lives in my guts and loves to rip people apart verbally. Hmmm. Interesting. Maybe some day i will get a chance to sit beneath a fig tree and think about things after all. Although since I just said that, now I won't!

Facebook has just about killed my blog! I find that as time goes by, with only so much time in the day to allocate for blabbing, I tend to get on Facebook and forget about my blog. This is not necessarily all that great, if you ask me. Facebook is a great way to remain connected with people you know, people you used to know, or people you don't really know at all.

In an effort to streamline my time throughout the coming summer, I plan to blog here more often and to Facebook less. It certainly becomes addictive to sit there checking Facebook status every few minutes (usually while doing something else, although not always, sadly enough).

After hitting Norwescon I have been writing pretty well again. I am working on the Eddie Black story and making headway.

So after hitting 260 pounds on my bench press last fall, we went on a regimen of low weight-high reps. In my opinion, while this was smart to do for our bodies to get used to the increased stress of pushing our limits, it also resulted in losing pretty much everything we gained. So back to the drawing board. Now I am up to 3 reps at 215, so i am getting there. This time I am going to stabilize around 250-260 and just build up a good base. Nowadays I am a wimp!

Back to writing for the morning, then off to do some outside work for Melissa, then D&D at 4:00pm.