You Can Never Go Home

For most of what has been the Holiday Season, I have not felt in the holiday spirit. I have been, for the most part nervous and edgie. My socials skills have not been the best and a few times I have been rude. When this happens this usually means I'm uncomfortable. I discussed this with my parents and they said that technically I have no home at the moment. I'm on the verge of moving out, though I do come home on weekends, but either way when I stay to long I begin to miss the other place. I had the same problem during exams with serious homesickness, at one point I didn't even want to go back to University but I don't want to live at my old home either.

So anyways, as with all Christmas posts, I'm going to give a list of all the stuff I got. Since I had only two things that I praticularly wanted, and I got both of those I suppose it was a good year. I might not ask for anything next Christmas, but that dosn't seem likely. So here's the list

• The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky box set
• Carnivale Season 2
• The Penguin Book of Hebrew Verse
• Hiro Bobblehead
• A Confession, by Leo Tolstoy
• A book about books
• Two note books
• New Pencils
• The Traditional Terry's Chocolate Orange
• Three sweaters
• 25 dollars worth of Itunes I have yet to spend
• The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman

That's all I can remember, but I like lists and this is something that I do at Christmas and Birthdays or when I buy used books.

Christmas Eve '08

Well I had to blog about this eventually, it's Christmas Eve and tomorrow all the kiddies who have well-off parents are going to wake up to see Santa Claus has left them presents. It's a time or warmth and cheer, and as such I feel especially uncomfortable when family members argue loudly about really minor stupid things like cleaning rooms and stuff. Mind you, I would probubly find it annoying if they were overtly cheery on Christmas, but still we'res the Christmas cheer.

I'm starting to think that the entire idea of Merry Christmases are something that big buisness has sold us on. I hate to get all Marxist, but I'm probubly going to blame the Catholic Church on this one too, since they were the guys who organzied Christmas as Jesus' birthday, but they arn't as guilty as big buisness.

Besides that, I'm not really concerned with Christmas. The entire holiday just sort of snuck up on me. Now it's all in my face and I'm thinking shouldn't I be more excited. I don't really feel excited at the idea of getting swag tomorrow. Earlier this year I even considered not getting anything. You know, just not getting any actual presents. For myself mind you, but I caved because well, free stuff.

Well, that's all I have. It's the Christmas season, emotionally unsatisfied, getting presents.

A Psueodonym?

I've been thinking about adopting a pseudonym. As many of you may be aware now, my full name is Dylan C.G. Thomas, as seen through my as of yet undeveloped websight. I have always felt some difficulty with this name however, because there is already a writer named Dylan Thomas, who while being a couple things I'm not, such as national Welsh, a boozer and dead, still make me feel a bit uncomfortable. We both have the exact same name and as such I'm worried that we'll be mixed up, or I'll always be in the shadow of the other Dylan Thomas. As such, I've been thinking about starting using the pseudonym of Dylan Williams.

The name Dylan Williams is pretty good I think. Technically, it should be my last name because of some factors in my family tree I ended up with a different last name, but genetically I'm a Williams, whatever that means. Maybe one day I'll go to Ireland and track down my ancestors. But I really don't see much harm sighning my works Dylan Williams. I did find at least two other Dylan Williams out there, but ones a painter and the others in Sports. One of them even has a face book account, if not an unknown third, but I couldn't get to it. I would appreciate what you guys think of the pseudonym.

My First Short Story

Published this thing before I wrote anything by accsident. How's that for you.

Well, two big things happened tomorrow. First, I finished by first semester of University. When I go there next year it will be a whole new ball game. I'll be taking a philosophy class, a course on Eastern religion and the follow up to my English course. For the next two weeks I don't have to worry about papers or essays or anything.
Second, my first short story, Cattle Man's Folly, has been published at The Oddville Press. Go here to download Issue Two for your very own. It's free and has other stories you can read. I'd like to thank everyone who helped, which would by Steph for giving me the place to publish, everyone at Revel for being my test audience.

So it has finally happened, I'm a published author. This excites me alot, since it's actually like I'm a published author. I should be working on a bibliography. I know it's only one story, but I feel I should be working on that. I'm going to publish this before my screen blanks out again.

More Wold Newtonness

I've got a picture up because I feel my blog looks more interesting if I have a picture up. The problem is that I usually talk about personal stuff, and thus I don't have much else to talk about. Thankfully, I have my interest in Wold Newtonry, which is where this picture came from. It's also the cover for the Wold Newton book that I can actually sign out from the Library. I have it out now, and I wonder if I'm the only person to actually sign it out.

The good news is that I've got access to the two founding documents in Wold Newtonry, Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Granted, I don't have them on me, but I know where they are and have had access to them. They're in the rare book section of Dana Porter and as such I can't sign them out. However, they do offer a pretty handy in my Wold Newton family tree. I've been putting one together over the last few days, using mainly the internet, but it helps to have a print source. Since I have a major exam tomorrow, and will be leaving for home in a matter of days, I don't think I'll be able to get ahold of them for a few more days. I do plan on doing some extensive looks into them next year however.

Other then that things are good, I know where my exam is going to be tomorrow, which is good. It's not going to be in the Office for Persons with Disabilities, or OPD as it is called by most. It's in a building in the math room. I have a good feeling about this exam. I'll just be glad when all this is over and I can go home and relax.

Homesickness

I want to go home. I'm in the middle of Exam season and all I want to do is go home. I'm tired, frustrated and havn't been getting to sleep at a decent time and havn't written any of my fiction. I have the time know, I could easily do it in between studying for my English Exam but the well is dry. I have so many ideas and I don't know if I'll be able to write them all.

Mostly I just want to go home. I feel sick of University and need a long break, preferably one where I can write something. I had this idea for a story in which I have writer's block and have to fight this monster that lives in Conrad Grebel, comes out at night disguised as a janitor and plants it's progeny in the walls of the residence. It holds a special item that will give me back my abbility to write. Also I plan on getting back to writing "The Last Dance Revolution." I really hope that I can write that one, because I don't know if I have the neccisary experience. The book is a love story, and I've never been in love. I'm also worried that the novel won't be as good as it can be because I'm still a young author. Maybe I'll just work on it for most of University, clean it once I graduate and have it published. During that time I could aslo get the First Four all written up, make long details for the plots and characters and how the novel is going to be presented. I'd like to use different ways of presenting a story. I think multiple view-points is going to be a method, and I have at a false document as a novel.

Upcoming Events

This is an interview Alejandro Jodorowsky made for his upcoming movie King Shot, which looks like it will actually come about.

And this is a little taster of what is going to happen in the next season of Lost.

Christmas Card from Tom Waits

Hey everybody, it's Tom Waits!

Wait, I just got an idea...

Alright, I just wanted to run this by you
Dick Cheney on acid. Should this happen? Discuss.

UES

I'm in a melancholy mood. I think it's partially the game I'm playing with the guys at Watsfic. It's my introduction into the World of Darkness, and my characters is a vampire. I'm really not liking the idea because apparently the entire point of vampirism is your damned. I don't want to play a character that is literally cut of from humanity. Why are people into vampires anyways, it seems to me that if there are vampires they must lead a very miserable existence. They're basically parasites. I feel very sorry for my character. I think I'm going to have him mysteriously disappear and rewrite him into my mythos, where they're aren't any vampires per say, but I kind of like the idea of what vampires are so I'll rewrite it in some way. I'm converting Dean, that's my character's name, Dean Gettys, into something else though. Maybe I could reintroduce him as that thing but I'd have to take it up with the Storyteller (World of Darkness talk for Dungeon Master).

In other news, I am discovering a new kind of stress. University Exam Stress, or UES. This is like High School Exam Stress (HSES), except that it slowly builds up over several days. I believe that UES is much worse then HSES, especially when you have an essay due Friday. Everyone says that I'm in a good place for my essay however, since I'm working on it and have a good idea. My English proffessor, who I'm probubly not going to see for quite some time as I'm done my first courses, said that I just need to write what I have down and ideas will come to me to flesh it out. I already have a page and a half of writing done, which is more then I expected. She probubly has a point.

I'm actually feeling a bit better writing all this down, I don't know why. I don't know why bearing my soul to you people makes me feel better. Maybe it's because I know most of you. Maybe I'm just secretly an emotional exhibitionist at heart and like people to know what goes on in the dark recesses of my soul. I always thought I had some perverse desire to share my soul with others, but I like to do it on my blog. That way it's kind of like I'm not actually telling you anything, I'm just writing it down.

Various Ponderings of TV in Two Aspects

If I could make a TV series I would. I would love to create an ongoing serial like Lost or Twin Peaks or Carnivale, something with an ensemble caste and something really weird going on. If I could I'd make the Big Novel that TV series, since it already has a large cast. I could probably even get it around three seasons, sat twenty-three episodes each. That would come of to around sixty-nine episodes. I could do everything I want with that story and more. But I don't know if it would be picked up, and if so someone would want me to tune it down or something like that. Maybe I could run it past HBO and keep it cheaper then Carnivale, which seems to have been one of reason it was cut. I'm fine with not even having that many scenes, it will only help the synchronicity.

Anyways, I'm also looking into getting back into the Wold Newton game. I plan on taking a look into the background of Dale Cooper, of Twin Peaks' fame, as well as taking a look into the alleged marriage of Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler.

I think that Dale might be a descendant of Holmes and Adler, possibly through Archie Goodwin. I'm having trouble finding many fictional Cooper's, but I did find two. First, Jed Cooper from the western film Hang 'Em High, and Anthony Cooper, who's Locke's father in Lost. Is Dale Cooper the son of Anthony Cooper? I've done some calculations on when Dale was born, which is 1956, the same year as Locke. My guess is that Anthony was married, produced Dale in this marriage and that Locke is an illegitimate child. The fact that Locke is an illegitimate child goes with what is shown in the Lost episode Cabin Fever as well as Locke's back story. I'm probably going to avoid making any more guesses about this, since there is very little information about Dale's past available. I'm guessing that Dale was aware of what his father was doing, was ashamed and that helped lead to his joining the FBI. I will also bring forth that Anthony didn't spend much time raising Dale and their relationship was probably never very close.

Legacy

I don't know if most writers have as clear idea of there career as I do. I already have four ideas for novels with an idea of the order they will be written in. They have titles, a basic idea of the plot (some are more well defined then others) and what kind of book they will be (in length, format, things like that). I think I can write them in the next ten, fifteen maybe even twenty years. Along with this I'm going to write alot of short stories. I want to be remembered, in addition to being a good novelist as a good short story writer, though I am probubly going to be remembered as a novelist I want to be known for writing good short stories.

I have titles for all four of my novels. Some of these titles may change and the order in which I will write them may also change slightly. All books will be connected by recurring characters, texts and concepts (ex. The Rosicrucians). But I have this very well-planned out. This is the list I have them currently in.

1. The Last Dance Revolution
2. The Lost Gospel of Joshua Nazrewsky
3. The Beat Hotel: A Mystery Novel
4. The Alchemist's Game

The Last Dance Revolution and The Lost Gospel of Joshua Nazrewsky are alike in that they are looking to be between 300-400 pages and have no traditional narrative styles. The Beat Hotel is going to be more conventional and I'm hoping short, something I could do for NaNoWriMo maybe. This I'm not so sure about what it will be like, all I know that Jack Monsairty is the main character and it's set at the Beat Hotel. The Alchemist's Game is the Big Novel, it has a name know. That is going to be an epic, granted one which will take place only on a few days, but with flashbacks that will involve most of the legendary time period that was the 1960s.

Before I write all these novels, not to mention what I hope will be alot of good short stories, I plan on doing alot of indepth reading of the classics. Writers I plan on paying praticular attention to are Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy, Joyce and Pynchon. Other writers I plan on reading are Ernest Hemingway, Paul Bowles, G.K. Chesterton, Salman Rushdie, William S. Burroughs, Dashiell Hammett, Samuel Beckett, Raymond Chandler, D.H. Lawrence, Herman Hesse, and Hunter S. Thompson. I'm also going to look into surrealism and possibly magic realism, since I my writing style seems to be turning towards some mutant branch of magic realism. I also plan on looking into poetry, since I am toying with the idea of being a poet. A poet seems to be the least commercial thing one can possibly be and since I am against commercialism on principle so I plan on learning how to become a poet.

After I write my first four novels and lets say fifty short stories I am going to continue to write, but I am not concerning myself with that stage yet. I plan on writing after that, though what I will write is unknown. I may write another novel on the scale of Alchemists Game, the hypothetical Really Big Novel. I may start writing straight epic fantasy. I may become a religious mystic, write mystic poems and write short mystic novels that espouse retirement from the world. I may not have anything published for a decade or two, publish the long awaited Really Big Novel, die and then have various papers I have written published, such as the various Wold Newton articles I hope to write published. I may write novels that will be even greater then the First Four. I may not write anything at all, but I sincerly hope not. I may write a romans-al-clef like Kerouac, but not to the extent he did. I may writer mystery novels under a pseudonym. I might write something under a psuedonym some day, to mess with people and make them think "Did Dylan write this?" I don't know what I'll do.

Funny Smells

Something about my room at University smells funny. Whenever I come in I get this funny feeling in my nose that says this place smells funny. I don't know what it is, but it smells like the fungus that grows out of to much sterility. My room is a bit to sterile, my mom and her friend who is also my spiritual mentor are going to help me redecorate at some point.

What I really need is an apartement where I can burn things in. Like candles and insense. I miss being able to burn insense in my own room. I wonder how long it will be until I can have my own place.

Oprah

So I was pasing in the hall today and I noticed the picture of Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's coach. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. This got me to thinking about Oprah. I don't watch Oprah, but I know who Oprah is. This is strange to me, since I do not know what it is Oprah is supposed to do? As near as I can figure she's a symbolic high priestess of American culture. She has some experience as an actor, but not to the extent that we'd think of her as an actor. Oprah is simply Oprah.

How To Write a Dystopia

I tried to read Brave New World again today, which is something that would be a good idea to read again for English Literature. I got through the first paragraph and everything that I hated about the novel came rushing back. This is not to do with any thing on Huxley's part, since what I hated about the novel was the incredibly vapid society he created. This is leading to the problems I see with reading Huxley, which I will have in the following statement.

Dystopian novels, such as Brave New World and 1984 are by there vary nature upsetting. This makes them hard to read, but they are none the less necessary to read because of the upsetting nature of the subject matter.

This concerns me because The Last Dance Revolution is, at least partially, a dystopia novel. I don't know if the society I created is necessarily repulsive enough. If Last Dance Revolution is to work as a dystopia, then I'm going to have to create a society with no redeeming features. In short, I'm going to create my own nightmare of a society. What would that entail?

• No Freedom, This is probably a cliche, but the society I create will have to be devoid of free speech.
• Nationalism, I've never trusted nationalists or nations. Any society I consider a nightmare would put the nation as one of there chief virtues. This would lead to racism and xenophobia.
• Violence, Violence is a major theme in Last Dance Revolution at any point, but I mean a society where the threat of violent death hangs over everyone's head. In the world of Last Dance Revolution, America is the hub of terrorism and most people are armed. I don't think anyone should be armed personally, but I suppose I'll talk alot about violence in my works. I sense it could be a major theme.

That's basically all I can think off. So I should probubly work on more oppressive state sensorship. Or I could just toy with the idea that Naos and Helen are true anarchists and would find just about any government oppressive.

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa

The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is one of my favorite books I have never read, and the book I would have written if I was an exiled nobleman living in Napoleonic Europe. It has everything I that I'd like to write about at some point, conspiracy theories, eroticism and general weirdness and is all told in a frame narrative, like 1001 Nights. I'm not sure about the general plot, but I am going to be ordering a copy of this book pretty soon. This is what Penguin Classics says about the book.

The traveller, aristocratic adventurer, political activist, ethnographer and publisher Jan Potocki (1761-1815) is a legendary figure in Poland, not least for his literary masterpiece The Manuscript Found in Saragossa.
The novel's narrator Alphonse van Worden, a young Walloon officer journeying to join his regiment in Madrid in 1739, is diverted into the Sierra Morena and mysteriously detained in the company of thieves, cannibalists, noblemen and gypsies whose stories he records for us as he hears them, day by day over a period of sixty-six days.
The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, which has counted Alexander Pushkin among its many admirers, was published only in part in its author's lifetime, and thereafter has only been known fully through a Polish translation which appeared long after his death; controversy still rages over the original French text and the meaning to be attributed to it. A novel of stories-within-stories, it combines the picaresque with gothic horror and the supernatural, wit with erotic lyricism and inventiveness and, like the Decameron and the One Thousand and One Nights, it offers entertainment on an epic scale.

I am thinking about writing a frame narrative at some point. I'm even wondering if I should work all my works into one large frame narrative, but that could easily get far to complicated and experimental then I'm willing to go. I probubly could work it into a frame narrative, but I'm not sure how I should go about doing that. I have at least one novel that already has multiple plots and one that is going to be made up of various documents. If I where to combine all my works into one long frame narrative then I would have to have one pretty complicated book.

No, I don't think I can make all my books into one long frame narrative, though they are all interconnected I don't think they can be a single book. I might write a frame narrative one day, but it will be more of an expirement and it will be after I have the various novels and short stories I need to write first down. I was thinking that after I write The Big Novel, there will be another novel that will be The Really Big Novel, which will be the Brothers Karamazov to The Big Novel's Crime and Punishment. But that is not for today, or tomorrow, but for the distant future. I will have to actually read The Manuscript Found in Saragossa a couple times, and probubly the Arabian Nights too. But again this is not something that I plan on thinking about for a long time.

End of Semester One

Well, I'm almost done my first semester of University. It's a bit overwhelming that everything has gone so fast and now I'm going to be taking new courses in December. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, but everyone tells me that's how all first year students feel. Mostly I've just felt overwhelmed by work and the oncoming tests that should happen in December. To be honest, there is nothing much else that is happening. I have a paper on Paul and Bible Commentaries in Bible, and I have to get started on my final essay in English. That's about it. I also went to the Bomber and had a talk with a guy who's taking Biology and likes Basketball. He may be reading this since I gave him my address for my blog.

Soft Machine Dream

I had a dream last night where we were assighned to read "The Soft Machine" by William S. Burroughs in my English class. This was admittedly strange, since Burrough's didn't write anything of any real importance until the fifties. Maybe I was in a future English class, anyways, everyone had a copy of The Soft Machine but me and I was trying to get my teacher to give me one, but he (I think it was a he) only had the teacher's guide. I did have a magazine and somewhere in that magazine was supposed to be the complete text of The Soft Machine, but I couldn't find it. I wasn't in the same English room I had know, it was more, I don't know, Cambridge or something, like a big fancy room with wood paneling or something like that. Just thought I'd bring that up.

A Letter to Upset Republicans

Dear Republicans,

First off, I understand your pain. If McCain won I would be in the same mood you are, and I really understand that this praticular letter is addressed in a select group of Rebublicans.

It has come to my attention that some Republicans are thinking of moving to Canada since Obama one. Now, I don't know if this is true or not, but if this is and any of you are reading my blog. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING STUPID! If you are seriously thinking about moving to Canada to escape Obama then you are seriously messed up in the head. We have a conservative government, and are still more liberal then you are with Obama, and what's more Canadians don't want you. Sure, we'll be polite, but we'll do it in such a way that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable.

Second, your Republicans. You don't become expatriots. Your entire nature is that your government can do no wrong, why else would you realect Bush. Expatriots are created by people trying to get away from the oppressive laws that you inforce upon them. And do you know what kind of people become expatriots?

Homosexuals...

Drug addicts...

and Communist Sympathizers.

Heck, sometimes it's a combination of all those elements.

So in Conclusion, your stuck with Obama Republicans. Canada is not were you can go and you don't have the neccesary mahones to become expatriots. As conservatives, it's neccessary for you to be family-oriented, Church-goers who give us actual artists something to rebel against. You wouldn't enjoy becoming an expatriot either.

First Flu of the Golden Age

Well, Obama is going to be President, the golden age is upon us and I have a cold or the flu or something. My head hurts and my nose is red from all the time I've been blowing it since last night. I really can't wait to get back home, maybe have a large cup of neosytran and sleep on my Temperpedic Bed. I'm basically sleeping on a board over here.

University does not seem to mesh well with my writing. I have written very little since I got here and stopped working on my novel. I'm at a state where I have three books trying to get out of me at once, and various short stories and the occasional poem trying to slip through. I have a plan for the first four novels, first I want to publish Last Dance Revolution, then either one or two novels, then the Big Novel. I'm also thinking about trying out Burrough's routine style. Alot of my ideas consist of scenes, so I might try writing those scenes down. I'm going to go for more of a plot then Burroughs went for though, and also there are the short stories I plan to write. I plan on writing a good deal of short stories.

OBAMA!

I'm typing this in while watching the election in America. I'm feeling a few drugs short of being Hunter S. Thompson. They're predicting that Obama is being elected President of the United States. I'm pretty happy about this, people are screaming really loud. I don't want to say anything just yet, but it's really looking like Obama is going to win.

Wait, it's official. Barack Obama is the leader of America. It's happened. Barack Obama is President. It's a new and shiny dawn for Ameirca. I can't really say anything, what is there to say. Barack Hussein Obama, the first African-American President. Somewhere in Heaven, Martin Luther King, Jr is smiling. The Rosicrucians have found victory. If I ever have a son I think I'll name him Barack Obama. I could go on for hours, but what's the point. BARACK OBAMA IS PRESIDENT!

You Gotta See This

Democracy Night in America

I had to do a project on the Gospel of Mark, I'm not sure if I told you about that but I had to write about it. I can barely remember what it was about anymore, Bible has gotten a bit dull in my opinion. I've lost most of my interest in it, but I suppose it would be tiring to be ecstatic about all my courses. There still all good courses so it's not all bad.

Well, my Beat Generation fantasies of meeting like minded writers are beginning to blossom. I've been in contact with a writer friend of mine from 20th English literature, 20th century 1900-1945, where we have been trading books. He told me to read the first story in Salinger's Nine Stories, which blew me away and he has my copy of Naked Lunch. I'm thinking about getting him to the next get together at Revel, which may or may not happen this month. I'm not naming him just yet because I haven't this over with him and he may not want to be named on all the Internet for all the world to read.

Well, the American election results look to be happening tonight. As always, I am supporting Obama and wish him all the work. What with me coming out with my true identity, my parents have been warning me about politics and what I say, because I am liable to insult someone. So far my only real complaint I got was from the Anti-Mennonite Reactionaries that are the American Mustache Institute (who still haven't had the guts to reply to my email), but still I am not pretty keen on Sarah Palin, who scares me. Still, I have prepared the following statement which I believe will not offend as many people, but I have decided is appropriate enough.

If Sarah Palin is ever ELECTED President of the United States of America, and I want to emphasize elected, not McCain dying and her remaining in charge, I mean elected, then I am leaving the continent. I do not think I can physically live on the same landmass that has Sarah Palin as a national leader. America will have seriously fallen in my eyes. Thankfully, I see this as seriously unlikely, as there are hundreds of people more qualified to run for President then Sarah Palin and the way she's going she's going to say or do something really stupid that will alienate a lot of people or someone in power will stop her before she becomes a serious threat. I will miss her crazy shenanigans, but I feel I can better enjoy them from Europe, or maybe somewhere in the Caribbean. If I wasn't nervous about the government in Cuba I'd probably move there, but again I'm not supposed to upset Republicans on my blog, and I am a bit nervous about totalitarian government.

Coming Soon...

http://www.dylancgthomas.com/

Well, it's official. I am officially coming out. My name is Dylan and I'm telling you this because I am going to have my own official website. This may also be due to the fact that I am going to be published in Oddeville Press this December. Yes, I am an officially published writer, as of December. Let's hope that this will lead to a fruitful career where I will join the pantheon of great authors.

The website is still pretty bad, but pay attention because I'm probably moving my blog there at some point. If I can I'll be putting up pictures and videos and some of my writing, maybe even some downloads of my poetry in spoken form.

That is all.

Up late, my mind is acting overtime. I don't need to get my English essay in tomorrow, but it would be a good idea. I can feel my writing style being influenced by the short bits of writing from Burrough's biography I'm reading. Lack of sleep could also be a factor, but that's all part of the University experience isn't it?

I was thinking without any real reason or tracable pattern when I stumbled on my thoughts the way someone might stumble upon a word. When I should have been thinking Last Dance Revolution, I thought Last Dance Revelation. Is that really the title of the Naos and Helen novel? My thought patterns are beginning to change and I wonder if this should be brought into the novel.

Also, my note book is beginning to fall apart. The leather coverings are starting to peel away from the binding. I had another one, the leather one with the metal clasp Scout/Sprite gave me, but I lost it somewhere, probubly in St. Jerome's. I don't like this new journal as much because it dosn't have the same durability. I might try writing in it more so I can get through it fast. If I tried really hard I could probubly fill it out by December, but Schoolwork would probubly get in the way. I should try to sit down in the Atrium once a day and write down whatever comes to mind. Scenes from novels yet to be written, short stories and poems and maybe even a play or two. Do you think I could write a play?

Late now, should go to bed or work on essay.

The Week Beginning Oct. 20 and Ending Oct. 25

So, I'm staying at the University for the weekend. It's been a pretty eventful week, what with Mid-terms and papers and everything. I would have posted sooner, but I was distracted.

First, that Word Study in Bible is finished. I don't really think I did as good as I could have on it, but I really do not want to go through the pain of doing it again. There was shouting and stress levels at red. Seriously. I'm not sure why exactly, it could be that I don't really understand the concept of redemption, what it means to me and relating that to the Biblical Hebrew term.

Mid-terms also came up this week, so far I've only done mid-terms in Film, which was a twenty-minute test of multiple choice questions. I also missed the film that night, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which I got at Generation X last night to watch. It was pretty good, and I'm probubly going to walk all the way back to return it, unless I can find someone to give me a lift, which I doubt. The thing is that I saw it so I'm not behind.

Also, it's been a good day for books. I have gotten two new books, one Nova Express, by William S. Burroughs, the other The Bizarro Starter Kit. I read the first few strories in the Bizarro Starter Kit, which are written by a guy called D. Harlan Wilson, who apparently comes from the "bowels of Michigan."

Well, other then that and that it was Pride Week at University there's nothing much to tell you. Since I am getting involved in the Ally Program this affected me a bit, because I went to a training program. I'm thinking about joining, which basically means I'm the first step in a support group for any members of the Queer community that want to talk to someone about anything that is bothering them, like stress issues. I'm not really going to deal with this alot, but I will be telling them who to call, since GLOW would have to be really desperate to make me the front line in there support system. I also went to a bonfire last night, where I think I may have meet the anti-me. From what I was able to pick up his main interests where partying and he claimed to be physically disgusted by the library here, which gives me "Aspiegasms." There was general consensous that if we were to comeinto physical contact we would most likely cancel each other out.

Ga'al

My word study in Bible is chugging along at a slow and somewhat painful rate. Did I tell you guys I'm doing a word study? I'm learning all about the Hebrew word ga'al and it's role in understanding the Book of Ruth. It's due tomorrow, so I have to get it done today. This is one of those times I should really bang it into my head that procrastination dosn't pay, but only leads to frustration.

This entire weekend at home has been about homework. I've been writing my English essay, which is know four pages long, and I have to get my whole word study to hand in tomorrow at the start of class. I have to get it done tonight, so I'll be ready for Bible tomorrow. This has basically been my weekend, stress and homework.

Therefore I am ending my blog here because I have nothing much else to write about.

Conservative Blues

Well, it looks like the Conservative party is still in power over here in Canada. As a general leftist I am very disapointed, because Stephen Harper is a conservative weasel who said we were getting out of Afghanistan, and then said we'd stay if assistance is needed, which it will. Also he's cutting funds for arts, which to me says "I don't care about you." To be honest, I don't know much more then that he's a weasel and a conservative and a politician. So I'm a bit bugged about that.

Alright, I just don't trust Conservatives. I don't trust anyone who goes to traditional ideas in politics, because I think that old ideas in politics. I really wanted the NDP to win, because I like the NDP. I like Jack Layton, and I really think he'd make a good Prime Minister. Also, Harper basically wants to turn Canada into another America, and I consider looking down on America, at least there politics, as being something fundamentally Canadian. Why do Canadians make such a big deal about burning down the White House in the war of 1812? Because deep down, we don't like the Americans. We'll never go to war with you, because we'd loose. The only way for Canada to win against the Americans were to start a guerilla army, go up North, wait to the Americans follow us and then when winter comes slowly pick them off while they freeze in the snow, waiting for resources to get through the cold winter. Back on subject, I really hope that Harper dosn't win in the next election, and that Canada gets ride of this Goddamn first-past-the-post system we have.

Should I Go Public?

This is a conversation I had a few minutes or seconds ago with Steph, well a seletion of a conversation anyways. It's about an issue I've been wondering about. I thought it would be interesting and informative. I would appreciate the imput of you guys, as always.

David says:
So you think I'm going to half to reveal my true identity once I've been published?
(Steph) "We sing, we dance, we steal things." says:
not if you want to be published under a pseudonym
David says:
Hm, I don't know
David says:
Everyone thinks of me as (CENSORED FOR SECURITY REASONS) who know my work
David says:
I don't even know what my pseudonym should be
(Steph) "We sing, we dance, we steal things." says:
well, i don't think there's anything wrong with going public. i'd say it's about time actually
David says:
Yeah, maybe I should
David says:
But my parents will probubly freak
David says:
My grandparents too
David says:
Maybe I could tell grandpa not to tell grandma
(Steph) "We sing, we dance, we steal things." says:
is it really that big of an issue? i mean, stalkers don't generally track down random people for no other reason than that they like their name
David says:
You may be right

Upcoming Thanksgiving Weekend and Ralph's Health

Today I will be heading home for Thanksgiving Weekend. Besides eating loads of food that will make me full and sleepy, I'll also be doing my English essay on Dubliners. I've got a pretty good idea of where that will be going. I look forward to being in my old room, on my comfortable tempurpedic mattress. Even with the padding I on my bed now I miss my tempurpedic.

I'm worried about physical Ralph. I don't know if you know this, but I have a physical Ralph that I have with me, which is a hand puppet I've had since I was five. That's about thirteen years, pretty old for a hand puppet. He's not doing very well. Bits of his fur or felt are falling off and he's starting to smell funny. I'd put him through the wash, but I don't know if he'd survive. I highly doubt it. I wonder if there is a way to make him better, you know, strengthen his steams and get his eyes back in. I don't know enough about sewing or anything like that. I might even sew up his back since I don't really use him as a puppet anymore, dosn't fit my hand anymore anyways.

Physical Ralph was made by a company called Folkmanis Inc. I'm looking at there website and I can't seem to find Ralph's kind of puppet anywhere. I also can't seem to find any information regarding the Ralph design. I guess that means he's something of an antique. That dosn't comfort me much.

Is there such a place you can go to get your favorite stuffed animal checked up? I'm looking for one at the moment. I found one place, called Chasey's Teddy Bear Repair, but I'm not sure where it is. Maybe if I ask around downtown I can find someone, but I'm worried they'll be shifty. Maybe I can search around my hometown. One of my sisters went to a sewing group, so maybe I could find someone there.

Ralph is stable at the moment.

James Joyce vrs D.H. Lawrence

For English I was going to write an essay on Sons and Lovers. I am coming to the conclusion that to write a short essay on D.H. Lawrence is impossible.

I talked it over with my parents last night and all I got was confusion and strife on my part. I was stressed, crying and getting into a phase that would scare most people who didn't know me closely. The Sons and Lovers essay question was basically to look at an aspect of family dynamics in Sons and Lovers. This is a very complicated family, full of dysfunction, economic and social commentary and an insestous subtext. Bring in the sons attempts with there various lovers and we have on hell of some complicated social interactions here, and let me stress the fact that I am autistic and have little idea about basic social interaction.

So today after class I went over it with my teacher and she said I should be taking a look at something a little less complicated, like Joyce's Dubliners. To be honest, Dubliners was my first idea. I was going to look at the treatment of women in Dubliners and how Joyce showed how bad women where treated and how they had to deal with this. I think this could be easier, at least I could come up with an essay that is six pages.

I was wondering if there is a writer out there who just looks at basic human interaction. I think I could really use a writer like that. I don't think a neurotypical majority environment can support a writer like that. Reading D.H. Lawrence seems to make me realize how complicated human interaction and how stupid most of this can actually be. To be honest, the closest a writer or movement is to my outlook would have to be absurdism. I imagine if a neurotypical where to suddenly become autistic he would be overwhelmed by the absurdity. Incidently, I claim that as a story idea, since it's pretty good once you work it out. I imagine that my work will be considered at least partially absurd, and my stories are at the moment pretty out there. I really hope that I can get around to actually writing stuff I care about soon. I hope that once this essay is done it will get better.

Also, it turns out that my English professor is pretty cool with deadlines, so I may not have to get it done by Thursday, which is a comfort. Yeah, the essay's due date is this Thursday. But I'm going to be running this essay by my teacher. I'm going to read a few short stories from Dubliners tonight and trying to figure out what my essay should really be about.

The Finer Points of Tetris Frustration

Official Challenge to the American Mustache Institute

It appears that I have garnered my first controversy over my writing. It appears that a group called the American Mustache Institute have sent me the following email.

We were disgusted to read on your blog that you shaved your mustache. Clearly, you did not realize - as it is written in the Dead Sea Scrolls - that each time a mustache is shaved, an angel in heaven dies and falls to earth. Keep this in mind next time you commit a senseless act.
Carry on.
The American Mustache Institute

http://www.americanmustacheinstitute.org/

(877) STACHE-1

"...a mustache is a terrible thing to shave"
Disclaimer: AMI supports healthy, performance enhancing-free mustaches that contain no pesticides. Mustaches should be worn at the individual's own risk, and AMI is not responsible for mustaches that make men look like child molesters or Dave Navarro. Wearing a "Dictator" mustache may lead to repeated beatings. Mustaches should not be worn by women who hope to find employment outside of waste collection or who are looking for male companionship. If your mustache causes
you to have an erection for more than four hours, seek immediate attention from
a doctor, spouse, girlfriend, or Dave Navarro. In extremely rare cases, mustaches may cause significant decreases in sexual activity, friendships, and approval by society at large. Unibrows, commonly referred to as "forehead mustaches," are not recognized by AMI. AMI does not support chin coverage (i.e. beards, goatees) as they represent the "spousal compromise." The vast majority of mustache wearers have highly positive responses from friends, exotic dancers and grade school teachers. AMI strongly encourages consulting a physician before exploring your personal mustache capabilities, as premature mustache growth may lead to feelings of despair and depression. AMI cautions against trusting clean-shaven officers of the law. If a mustache-free constable attempts to stop your vehicle, dial 911 and proceed to the nearest police station, where a squadron of heavily mustached officers will greet you with open arms. Please consider the environment before shaving your mustache, and when considering your presidential choices in 2008, remember that Bob Barr is the first mustached American presidential candidate since Thomas E. Dewey in 1948.
*This was NOT sent from a Blackberry, as mustached Americans neither own, nor have the ability, to operate Blackberrys.

Apparently they have a website and everything. Since the American Mustache Institute is reading this blog, then I am going to say that I do not take you seriously and find your bias against the non-mustached as frankly anti-Mennonite. Not having a mustache is a symbol of my pride of coming from a mennonite background, and your accusations are insulting to my hertiage. I am calling you, Fuz lips. I thought that this may not be the look for me recently, but now that I realize that it has caused this much controversy, as well as generating this insulte of the honor of my mustache-less Mennonite ancestors who suffered years of persecution at the hands of (probubly mustachioed) Catholic and Protestant Churches. I will fight you with all I have, if not for me, but for the legions of mustache-less Amish and Mennonites who have probubly never heard of you. Bring it on, bitches!

Noah and the Whale - 5 Years Time

This is a nice , warm and fuzzy music video from Youtube. You are now all going to go to go out and by there album or at least consider it. I know I'm going to consider downloading it.

No Mustache

Well, I saw Birth of a Nation. I'm not going to go over it to much, except to say that while being technically brilliant and prety racist, it became pretty corn ball at the end all things considered and I felt like I needed to be clensed. I showered around the time I got home and today I shaved of my mustache, as my mennonite forebearers did before me. They did it in protest of the military who all hade mustaches. I don't really know if this is a good look for me as of yet, but we'll wait till my beard grows out.

Well, besides that University is going pretty good. I've got a handle on my English essay, did I tell you I have to write an English essay? Well, I got that under control and I have a test in Bible I feel pretty confident about. I'm feeling pretty fortunate to have such a light courseload and my own room. I'm pretty much the only person here who has his own room. Things don't seem to change much, occasionally something interesting happens. A guy I know had to dress up as a woman recently but I'm not going to get into much detail because he's didn't really enjoy the experience.

I've enjoyed Sons and Lovers alot, but now that I'm actually reading it for the sake of an essay it's kind of annoying. I'm not used to rereading a book so soon after reading it. It's an interesting experience and will probubly reread a few more at sometime just to see how it's going. A Condederacy of Dunces is also a good read. I havn't read alot of the Borges recently.

Grant Morrison's Shiny New Website

Grant Morrison has a new website and it doesn't hurt the eyes as much as his last one. It's still got his regular stuff, though his blog seems to have disappeared. He probably doesn't have much time to keep it up, since he's knocking off Batman and all. It's got news, a brief biography, bibliography, a photo section with pictures of Grant Morrison and glamour shots of some lady I presume is his girlfriend. You can even email him! I don't know is he'll reply, but I'm probably going to email him, so I'll tell you if I figure anything out.

If you want to see Grant Morrison's fancy website, you can click the link at www.grantmorrison.com, or you can click on Grant Morrison in my list of really cool writers on the side there.

Desperatly Missing Steph

Well, I'm at the University library and am seriously missing Steph for conversation. I got four books I'd love to tell her about, but I can't because she a) I can't talk to her on MSN from here for some reason and b) Blogger isn't working for her for some reason. So now I'm just going to have to talk about it on my own.

Well, the first thing I picked up was an omnibus edition of Jack Kerouac's Road Novels, which includes On the Road, which I've already read, but also contains The Dharma Bums, The Subterraneans, Tristessa, Lonesome Travelers and excerpts on his Journals from the time these novels take place. Along with that I have a copy of Teahouse of the Almight, a collection of poetry by a lady named Patricia Smith I heard about from Indeefeed: Performace Poetry, the collected Poems and Prose of Gerard Manly Hopkins and a collection of Surrealist fiction. I've been thinking about taking a long look into surrealism, and seeing if I can't pick anything up from surrealism, and this book has a list of various surrealist writers and there work which I can look at.

Other then being lonely, everything is looking nice since last post. I had a pretty good dinner, not what I was hoping for, but we'll have perogies tomorrow for lunch. I'm honestly looking forward to staying the weekend. It may be a bit of a problem next week, but if I stay mostly in my room then I don't think it will be a problem.

Weekend

This is a very special week in my university life. I am going to be staying the weekend at University.

Up till now I have always went home on weekends, but this week in a change of plans I am staying at the Bunker, and my family will come to me on Saturday. Were going to eat out somewhere and Dad and I are going to the local independent video store to see how that works.

This is a new thing for me, and while I like the idea I'm a little unsure about where this will all lead. I'm pretty sure I can stay here for a full two weeks, but it may also be to much of a push. I've already had my first outburst yesterday. Yes, I had a freak out at University. In my defense, the entire thing snuck up on me. Someone thought it would be funny to try and make a guy swallow a fish and I thought it was disgusting and started shouting "No. No," and "Your sick," until my throat was sore. The Chaplain had to take me outside. Everyone was surprisingly cool about the entire thing. One person even thanked me for having the outburst, which I thought was a bit surreal. I don't think that I'll have another outburst, but I am a bit nervous about this arrangement.

On the other hand I am starting to feel more comfortable at my University Dorm then at home. This is what really scares me, because I may never want to come back home except once a month for readings at the local coffeehouse. I just didn't find my blanket back home warm enough, the duvae cover I have here as spoiled me.

Well, I'll update you later on this sort of thing.

I just feel I need to keep you all informed

I was sincerely hoping to update my blog more regularly. I'm thinking that maybe if I where to change the format of my blog, like give it a new look and a new name I'd be better able to blog more. It may not but I'm beginning to get tired of "The Aspie Diaries," as a title. Few of my posts deal directly with Aspergers Syndrome and I'm thinking my parents may be right in that I don't want people to think of me as the guy with Aspergers Syndrome.

So, recent news. I finished my first University paper yesterday. It was about the Noah Account and Source Criticism and good luck trying to get me to explain that to you. It was more stress then I care to go through again and was necessary for me to have. I'm still getting on the idea that I have to do actual work.

Also on the weekend, we had a reading at my favorite coffee house. As these things ususally are, it was a small event. After that we all went to a local pub and hung out there to lisean to good Irish folk music. I had some pepsi. I also read a short story I wrote called "Cattle Man's Folly," which everyone thought was pretty funny.

Today I went to a meeting at the OPD and they talked about Exams and what I should do in the event of an Exam. I wasn't really liseaning and will have to look over my notes again sometime. I thought I'd just be able to ask them some questions, like when will I get a note taker? Apparently now I have more questions, like who is my academic adviser?

Also today, but later, I will half to sit through Birth of a Nation, which I would otherwise have never watched because it's racist. I don't know if I'll even be able to sit through it. I can't believe that I'm going to be missing Heroes for this.

Funny SNL clip, feat two women pretending to be Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton

Review of "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream," by Harlan Ellison

I've been meaning to read more Harlan Ellison, mostly since he writes most short stories and that feels like all I can read now for personal reasons now. Today I read his short story, "I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream." It's basically about the last five human beings on Earth who are eternally tortured by a computer for no good reason except that the computer hates humanity. I found it very disturbing and it's really set me off. I'm probubly going to half to read something else to balance it out. So now, I'm basically really nervous about technology and don't want any of it to have any power over me, which unfortunatly it has since I have no idea how it works and has wormed it's way into nearly every aspect of my life.

In the end it will only be the Amish fighting against the machines. When they rise up to enslave us will the Amish inturn rise up with there hoes and rakes and kick some robot ass, or will too fall under the sway of the machine overlords? It would make a great exploitation film.

Blurb on Postmodernism and what comes next

Postmodernism needs to die. I'm not saying that because I believe it has a negative impact on our society, I'm saying this because that is the way society has traverssed. Modernism was replaced by Postmodernism, and Postmoderinism must eventually be replaced with something new and exciting, now that Postmodernism is on the verge of becoming dull and boring. I feel that I should be one of the writers to accomplish this.

AUGH! I'm an Adult!

Home again for the weekend, and it turns out I have homework. I've got pages of my film text book to read, two short stories from Dubliners and an introduction, and the Joseph story from the Bible, the one based on the musical. That makes alot of reading for the summer, also I plan on checking in with my D&D buddies which reminds me that I forgot my character sheet at home. Damn.

So, anyways I am not used to the level of homework envolved here. Getting my reading for Film and Bible, as well as most of Dubliners, which thankfully is only The Boarding House and The Dead. I'm a bit scared and by all that is intellegent should be working on it now, but a) I'm a procrastinator and b) I havn't heard Little Steven's Underground for awhile which is what I'm doing now. My Mom said she'd help me through my homework, which is good.

Because of this homework, people have noted to me that I am now an adult. This has caused me some degree of panic because now I'm actually responsible for myself and getting my work done. This is truelly frightening, and I don't really feel that prepared. I can't even remember to get my D&D books and sheet, how can I be prepared for this. Alright, I've got to stop going on about this or I'll completely freak.

Close To Midnight Update

It has occured to me that I havn't blogged in four days. I've been hoping that University would give me more subject material to blog with, unfortunatly I'm still lazy.

The Socilization process at University has been very well. I've made a couple of friends on campus, and have bonded on various artistic levels. I've been to all three of my classes, which is the minimum I need to do to live on residence. Next year, or even next semester, I'll upgrade to four. I got it pretty cushy, I don't need to get up until 2:30, but I usually get up earlier if I want the hot breakfast or lunch. I've had a few problems with hygene, I forgot to brush my teeth. I'm also limited to one shower a day since the showers arn't really that good. I've got posters up, A Ralph Steidman poster from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (The one with the lizards), a Big Lebowski Poster, a picture of two tango dancers in silhoutte in some Paris highway and a photo of Bob Dylan during his Kate Blanchett period. I don't know if Bob Dylan looked this feminine or if Kate Blanchett has made it like that with her wicked cool performance. Anyways, The Bob Dylan photo has yet to go up, since I ran out of the stuff that the Residence likes and actually works. Since I got some pretty cool posters, I'll probubly keep these for my later years, so Steph if your reading, I may use that wall covered with posters idea of yours at some later point when I have enough to cover my walls. I also have a rug that unfortunatly dosn't tie the rug together, and I'm thinking that I should get ride of because it tends to come up. I don't know why but it annoys me greatly.

Well, my computer's being a jerk so I'm just going to publish this and see how things go.

Home Again, Home Again. Jiggity-Jig

Well, I completed my first four days at University. I am back in my hometown in my favorite coffee house writing on my new laptop. On Monday I'll be back at Conrad Grebel, ready to actually start learning things. I'm looking forward to that very much, as I am also excited about signing up for the science fiction club and getting myself some posters.

Everyone here is pretty happy to see me. I dropped of a short story for one of my old English teachers, and she was pretty happy to get it. My parents told me that I should wait until later, but I went anyways and everyone there seemed pretty happy to see me and didn't bug me about coming because I'm not a student anymore. My family is also happy to see me, and I'm glad to be sleeping in a bed that dosn't feel like laying on a sheet of cardboard laying on a hard floor. Sure, the blankets and sheets where nice, but that's only because I brought them with me.
My Mom and I where thinking that it would be a good idea to pick up some more things for my room. For one thing, I don't have any belts and because I am a very skinny person I need belts to hold up my pants. Were also thinking about getting a plant, most likely a cactus, to liven up the room. My mom and I agree that a cactus is a good autistic plant because it dosn't need much care and attention and will sit in it's pot and do it's own thing, whatever that thing is that cacti do. Also, I'm low on Blueberry-Pomegrante Juice, so I should make sure we pick up some of that. Also, I'm thinking maybe I should bring a cople other books with me, like On the Road and Walden. I've been meaning to read more philosophy anyways, so why not read Thoreau? Also, at least half the reason I took the books I did was to make me look cool and intellectual(hence to Dostoyevsky), so I might through in my first volume of A la recherche de temps perdu, or Remembrence of Things Past (See, I used the French name first and I don't even speak French). Course, I'll probubly be to busy doing my courses and reading the Human Comedy to even think of tackling Proust.

Now, let us talk about a spectre that has been hanging over our lives for awhile. I speak of course of...

Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska.

Since she walked out of the political north, she has captued my attention. At first I thought she was chosen as part of some Republican ploy to get women voters. For all I know that's what she is, but I still don't trust her. For one thing, she dosn't have much experience. I know that's what they say about Obama, and I'm going to say I'm an Obama supporter, but I'm pretty sure that Obama has at least some support of powerful wizards who want to heal America's soul and I think that is alot more important then most of the Republican's issues. Also, from what I here she dosn't even know what the Vice-President does. To be fair, so do I. All I know about the current Vice-President is that his theme song is the Imperial March from Star Wars and that he shot a guy in the face. Acording to Wikipedia, the responsibilities of the Vice-President of the United States are.

1. To complete the term of the President if he is unable to continue his duties. (Not to much of a bad idea because McCain isn't exactly a spring chicken)
2. To break ties in votes on the senate.
3. Pretty much anything the President needs the V.P. to do.

So Sarah Palin, if your reading this and havn't figured it out yet, that's your duties. Also, I am against most of her stances. She is Pro-Life, except when it envolves capitol punishment, and believes creationism should be taught in school. She's also against same-sex marriages and dosn't think that same-sex couples should have health benefits. She also believes in absitence only sex-education, so far I don't know if there is any connection with that and her pregent daughter. Again, and this I got from my Mom, I don't think she should be running because of problems with her family. As I mentioned, her daughter is pregent, and she also has a child with Down Syndrome. My Mom believes that she has to much on her plate at the moment to even think about being McCain's back-up. I think my Mom has a point here.

The Second and Thus Less Renowned University Post

One of the best things about Conrad Grebel is that it has a really cool atrium in which I can sit on big leather chairs. That is where I am as I write this. I don't think this will be a place where I will usually write stuff though, as I have to sort of lean forward alot. You will probubly be getting alot more information from the Bunker.

I didn't tell you this last time, but while I am at University I am going to read Balzac's Human Comedy in it's entirity. I found a copy of most of them at the Dana Porter Library and will be starting the first book sometime in the future I hope. This is a pretty hefty undertaking for me as the Human Comedy is a pretty long series. Hopefully I'll be done by the end of my tenure at University.

Also I've got some good news. I've found a club that I would be interested in. It's the Waterloo Science Fiction club, and also seems to be the local place for all your RPG needs on campus. It costs ten dollars per semester to sign up, and it has a library of science fiction books and RPG related thingies. I alraedy told the guys, who called me Shep for some reason, that I'll be working on a campaign setting for World of Darkness, which will be my first time outside of the d20 system. I'm working on my whole conspiracy-thoery thing, which I think could be easily compatible with the world, since the entire thing about the Organization is it's about various groups working more or less together in a syncretic pattern, but I'm going to have to make the theology in the game more accurate because it's really pop culture type stuff.

I'm a University Man

Yes faithful readers and stalkers, I am in University. I'm in a dorm. I have to share a bathroom with a bunch of other guys. Ralph is crushing beer cans with his forehead. I'm a group of assorted low-lifes and yet to be discovered talents to feeling like I'm a member of the Beat Generation during it's gestation at Columbia.

So, I have a new laptop, which I am currently writing this on. Yes, I have a computer with Internet access. I'd like to thank my technologically competent relatives for it, you know who you are. I also have my Itunes on it, which doesn't matter much for loading and recharging my Ipod as I have an Ipod Dock, which I can listen to my music on much like a radio. I also have a minifridge, which is more or less a glorified blueberry-pomegranate juice holder. I also have a shelf full of books and movies for personal use, including the various textbooks I have. I also picked up a rug while trading various items with the neighbours, which really ties the room together.
So, how's University going? Well, at the moment it's not going well. I'm at a period of time referred to as "Frosh Week" which was obviously designed by neurotypicals for neurotypicals. I've been avoiding this for the most part, unless it involves free stuff (like my rug) and food. But today there is a lot of stuff I'm not really interested in. For instance, a lot of people are getting ready for a Square Dance, which I don't really see the point in going to. Also, I have not gone at all for the Frosh Week activities of the Arts Faculty which I am in, mainly because it involved wearing an annoying arm band which I was not prepared to wear all night and cut off. That basically means I am not allowed to go to the Arts Faculty event, which may have been alright because it seems that the Arts Faculty seems to have gotten all Lord of the Flies from what I've seen while passing the library. By avoiding this entire event I have either offended the priesthood of the boar or they won't notice.

I've been mostly concentrating on my room and getting used to it. Unlike the Open Doors program, I have been allowed to customize my room with all kinds of stuff. I have my own sheets, a bookshelf and will be acquiring posters next week when they're on sale. I'm hoping that I can find a Big Lebowski movie, since it's basically the kind of college movie that I like. (I call the Big Lebowski a college movie because of the Dude's preference for jays, but it's also more intelligent humour then most people in University). If I can I'll get some pictures of my room when it's all done, I'll send you over but this is dependent on me figuring out how that camera my parents gave me for Christmas works and if I can get the pictures on this computer.

Well, that's my first message from The Bunker, as my room will be referred to from now on. Keep reading for updates.

Last Day

Well, this is it. I'm going to University.

Today is my last day living at my own home. Next week I will be sleeping in another bed in another city in a building filled with noisy Mennonites. I'm a bit nervous and frustrated because my mom has been getting on my back for getting all my stuff together. She says I can take an entire container full of books with me, so I have gathered some of my favorites and a few books I haven't read to keep me entertained. Most of these books are mystery novels, but I'm also bringing all my Dostoevsky, since I think I should read more of the greats and Dostoevsky is considered great. Also I've been really into short stories recently and have been reading lots of collections. At least more then I usually do.

In other news, I have a new laptop. It has internet access and is smaller then most of my text books. I have transferred my novel to it, which isn't finished as I hoped it would be. I do think I'm pretty close, but unfortunatly I don't think I have the energy to write it as I once did. I'm worried that this was more of a Bush era novel, and with Obama and everything I'm worried the cynicism that gave it birth will dry out. I'm starting to think I should start the Big Novel soon.

So, I suppose I'll inform you all tomorrow how things went at University the first day.

Parkour Videos

I haven't made any youtube posts for awhile, so I decided to remedy that with this. It's Parkour, which is basically a way of moving through one's environment in wicked cool ways. I have decided this is Helen's equivalent of taking a morning jog.

Eraserhead Press

In my internet wanderings, I have come across a genre called bizarro fiction. I'm trying to decide if I could fit into bizarro fiction.

From what I understand, Bizarro fiction is a kind of ultra-weird punkish genre with no taboos. The word scatological is used alot, and I know what that means. Now, I write some pretty weird stuff, but I don't think I write stuff that's scatological. Does this mean I am not a bizarro style writer. I don't know. Everyone says my writing is pretty weird, but I don't know if it would qualify as bizarro fiction.

Anyways, that's not why I'm blogging. I'm blogging because I think I may have found a publisher for my novels. It is Eraserhead Press, which is a publisher of bizzaro fiction. I am thinking that after I'm done University I may try getting published there. According to there website, there market is the weird, anti-mainstream types who like there reading material to be weird and crazy. They are looking for good authors they can grow and nurture and help find a fan base. Because of this, they have few writers and competition is pretty stiff. I think that Eraserhead Press could be a good home for my work, but I'd like to check it out more. I'm probubly going to buy a few books, see how they are and if I like a couple then I'll go through there interview and see what happens.

If you want to help me see if I could fit into bizarro literature, go to Bizarro Central or Eraserhead Press. This only applies to people who have actually read my work.

One Week To University

Well, it's a week away until I go to University. To actually go to University. It's frightening and exciting and I'm confused. It doesn't help that I just came back from my Church thing were all the people who went to Chicago and that kind of set me off.

On the Chicago thing, a bunch of people at the Church I feel the strongest connection with went to Chicago to help the disenfranchised. I didn't go because it was just after Open Doors and I was pretty out of it at that time. My sister Delila went though. So they were in Chicago and they all went around helping people and they never got to stop or do there own thing. They were fine with that, but I would have freaked. They did get the address of the oldest Black-owned bookstore in Chicago, which I thought was kind of cool. I don't have the address on me, but if I find out and I'm in Chicago it's probubly on my list of places to go.

Alright, back to University. I've been feeling a growing and unamable dread about University that I don't really understand. Everyone is telling me that this is all part of going to University, but I'm still pretty nervous about it. I really wish that I just get it over with and move in. It's freaking me out.

On the subject of this, I will be getting a new laptop with internet access, so I'll be blogging to you from my single room at Conrad Grebel University College in beautiful Waterloo. Yes, you will all know my location. So that means that all you crazy freaks out there with unhealthy fixations will be able to watch me from across the street with binoculars. And to help in your unhealthy fixations, the twenty-third one of you who hands themselves into the police for being a freak will be able to get one of my used t-shirts, personally sighned by me. Yes, it's true. Remember to bring enough proof that you've been tracking me, or else you won't get it.

Well, I'll hopefully be updating you on events. Tuesday I go to the Dons and explain how they can help me with my autism, and explain to them why I kissed there ring fingers. Have a nice night people.

For all your Beatnik Needs

Of course, tenants of the Beat Hotel didn't have everything they needed at the Beat Hotel. Madame Rachou did not offer all of the necisities they needed. To get food the Beatniks would need to go out and fend for themselves. God, know I have an image of nature documentaries following Allen Ginsberg around.
"Observe the Beatnik, forced out of America by legal difficulties concerning the obscenity of his work, he finds a safe home for himself in cheep French hotels."

"Hey Peter Orlovsky, my long-time partner, who are those British guys behind us with the cameras?".

"I don't know, Allen Ginsberg. Ignore them and maybe they'll leave us alone."

"I'm going to give them a copy of Jack's new novel On the Road. Hey, camera people!"

"Oh no, the Beatnik has seen us. Run away!"

"Hey, come back. I have free literature! It's really good!"

I am probably going to use this. I'll do something with William S. Burroughs to, but he'll probably just pull a gun on them.

Anywhere, here is a list of establishments not to far from the Beat Hotel where our heroes will attend without having to actually take part in French society to much.

• Ali Baba, a grocery store on the rue de la Huchette, where one could buy food up until 2 AM. Fruit was kept outside and protected by string netting.
  
• Café des Arts, a cheep restaurant frequented by arts students. The menu was a fixed three-course menu and red wine. The tables where bare and wooden and a flagon liter was on them, full of the aforementioned wine.
• Chez Jean, located in a passageway of the Blvd St. Germain, it was basically a Parisian dive-bar where the Parisian Bohemia and underworld lived in an uneasy alliance. The floors where saw dust. Since this is a mystery series this will probably be a common setting. Jack probably knows some weaselly-looking guy who knows everything that goes on in the crime world and is called "The Rat" or something like that. Sometimes a cellist or guitarist played there.
• Chez Raton, a small café that had to wind down the baskets of bread, which where hung from the room by rope to save room.
• Libraire Anglaise, also called the English Bookshop. Located at 42 rue de Seine, intersecting with the rue de l’Echaude. It owned by Gait Froge, a "beautiful, petite Frenchwoman."(Miles 21) She was a big fan of American and English writers and spoke with a cultured British accent. She specialized in Olypmia Press titles. The shop was almost triangular in an old building dating back to the 1500s. It was filled with self-published poetry and rare books, all piled up in the room. Parties for the launch of Olympia Press’ more literary books where held in her basement, which looked like a medieval dungeon lighted by wine bottles in candles.
• The Mistral, the only other really decent English bookstore, it was run by George Whitman. He came over to help with resettling war orphans and eventually settled into book selling. He bought the Mistral in 1951, which used to be an Arab grocery. It was larger then the English Bookstore, and had rooms for poets to stay at. Gait Froge believed that George Whitman worked for the CIA, and both had an intense rivalry. He didn't sell Olympia Press books.
  
• Olympia Press, Not actually a place, but it was a publishing house that would later print the first edition of Naked Lunch. It was most famous for printing banded books that the Americans and English thought where obscene, such as Nabakov’s Lolita, Jean Genet’s The Thieves Journal and pretty much anything by the Marquis de Sade. When they weren’t publishing books that where considered pornography, they where publishing pornography. I’m thinking that this may be an operation of the Pact of Lilith.
• Palette, an artist café "where one could meet a gallery owner to plan a show, hire a model, or buy drugs."(Miles 9)

That's all the real locations I could find in the book I got. I will probably be making up a few other places, such as the local Pact of Lilith safe-house, which should have a name like Our Lady of the Flowers, or something that sounds like a Catholic Church. Also, there will probably be some hidden away occult store somewhere.

Miles, Barry. The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso in Paris, 1957-1963. New York, Grove Press, 2000

Welcome to the Beat Hotel

The Beat Hotel was located at 9 rue Git-le-Coeur, which is in the famed Latin Quarter, not to far from the River Seine. It closed in 1963 because it was basically a death trap. The toilet was a hole in the floor that had to be shared with everyone on the floor. Some rooms had little light. It was infested with rats. Cleaning was irregular and it smelt terrible. One description said it was like something out of Naked Lunch.
The owner at the time to Beats moved in was Madame Rachou. Her husband, who owned the hotel with her, died before Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orvlovsky and Gregory Corso, the first really famous beats moved in. She ran a bistro on the first floor where she stood on an upturned casket because she was so short. The Beat Hotel was her kingdom, and she took great care in protecting them from the police. The only police that could get by where the immigration police, who would come once every three months, take whichever foreigner they wanted and make him or her pay a tax. This could be avoided by leaving the country every three months for Belgium or the Netherlands.
Despite the fact that the Beat Hotel was just about as dilapidated as you can get without it actually collapsing in around you, it had one advantage. Madame Rachou asked no questions about your personal life. In the book I have on the Beat Hotel, it said that one could bring anybody home "man, woman or group". They'd have to sign there name in the guest book if they where staying over, but nobody bothered much. Also, various eccentricities where excepted. One artist lined his walls with straw. One artist who was called Jesus Christ, painted on the walls and wore sandals even in winter. The Beat Hotel was also the early home of Chester Himes, an African-American most known for his series of Harlem detective fiction, in a time where other hotels greeted him with open racism and hostility for having a (younger) white girlfriend.
In the context of the series, the Beat Hotel is a sort of crossroads in time and space where artistic and magical activity is at it's highest. This is concentrated in the Beat Hotel, and it's inhabitants go on a creative voyage. This more or less happened with the Beats. Ginsberg wrote most of Kaddish, one of his most famous poems, and William S. Burroughs finished Naked Lunch and Nova Express here. Gregory Corso also wrote his very controversial Bomb. I'm attributing it to the fact the Beat Hotel from 1957-1963 was on an apex of space and time.
I'm not sure when Jack moved into the Beat Hotel. I know it was before most of the other characters. I know that he was stationed here to protect the Beat Hotel and because he was burned out from fighting oppressive secret societies and Lovecraftian monstrosities. He may have lived at the same there at the same time as Chester Himes, and worked on a few cases before. Jack also works on the security of the Organization in Paris in general. He is able to get a few residents of the Hotel to work with him, most notably Max Quincy, and most of his case work would involve his work within the Organization, trying to spread there ideals through various sources and keeping the balance between the Throne and the Tractate, as well as occasional cases taken by patrons to pay the rent.

University Angst

It just sort of kicked in today. I'm going to University. That is really scary.

It's not like I'm going back to school, because this is an entirelly new school in almost every concievable way. I'll be living there, I'll have more work and I'll, I'll, I have no frame of refrence for it. The entire thing is making me feel sad and alone.
What if I can't find any friends at University? I'm an odd guy and what if I can't find someone to be a real close friend who I can talk really deep stuff with. Come to think of it I don't think that I have any friends I can talk really deep to at the moment. Well, no I've talked deeply with people, but most of my friends havn't been envolved in that kind of talk. Which is good, sometimes it's okay to talk about non-deep stuff. But I suppose I have this fantasy that when I go to Univesity I will hook up with all kinds of other artsy people and start a scene. We'd watch avaunt garde movies read Surrealist manifestos and stuff like that. Could just be part of my fasination with the Beat Generation but this is generally what people like me do when they go to University right?

The Organization

One of the most important aspects of this world, which doesn't directly concern the creation of characters which you guys have a problem with is The Organization that Jack works for.
The Organization is a catch all term for a secret society that I have been working on. The Organization has many other names, but that doesn't matter much considering the fact it is more of several different secret societies, and in some cases supernatural beings, working in tangent with themselves. At anytime there could be hundreds of sub-organizations within the Organization, ranging from political movements, mystical secret societies, creatures of urban legends, paranoid newsletters and artists colonies, among various other things.
The goals of the Organization differ from organization to organization, but they ultimately come down to the same things.

1. be a sort of nationless Intellegence agency, protecting beauty, truth, love and all that stuff that makes life grand.
   
2. Keeping Heaven (The Soverign Throne) and Hell (the Shadow Tractate) in check.
3. Reconciliation between the two forces.
   

Throne has been under control of When I say Heaven and Hell, I don't mean in the traditional sense. The Yazan, who is a blind, obese, eunuch, protected by his three daughters. The Shadow Tractate is ruled by Ilsetan, who despite having sight, being very well-built and still having his genitals intact, is basically Stalin in a weird liquid metal insect suit. Both of them are insane and want to force there own order upon mankind. The difference would be somewhere between eternal torment under a harsh religious dictatorship and eternal torment under a secular dictatorship. It's hell either way.
As I have said, the Organization is separated into several different secret societies. Here is what I have at the moment.

• The Rosicrucians, based on the actual Rosicrucians, they are a highly secret society of Gnostic Alchemists who follow Sophia, who is sort of a goddess but not really, I'll explain her more later. The Rosicrucians are one of the major groups within the Organization.
  
• The Sciriptomancers, The Scriptomancers are wizards who gain there magic abilities primarily through the art of writing. This can be used as creation, or can be used as a form of prophecy, or other uses depending on how experimental said Scriptomancer is. There are also versions of this for painting, called Pictomancers. This is not an actual organization, but alot of famous Scriptomancers, such as William Blake, James Joyce and William S. Burroughs are with the Organization. I don't know yet if all writers are Scriptomancers, or if all are and only a few are actually any good at it.
  
• The Howller Family, The Howller Family is one of the primer groups working within America. The Howller Family appear on the surface as a family of African-American/Native Americans, but in reality are a supernatural race of beings that in there natural state look like giant owl-like birds with human faces. Along with being one of the major factions in America, they more or less have there hands in every aspect of the Organization in North America, they are also the protectors of a sort of Beatnik Narnia. The Howllers, however are bound to this world where they are given more freedom then in our own. If a Howller becomes to caught-up in the affairs of our world they loose there connection with said Beatnik Narnia. This can be accomplished by killing someone from our plain, or falling in love with a woman from this plane. A descendant of a fallen Howller can exhibit supernatural powers and become a true Howller, but this can become harder and harder with each generation.
  
• The Beautiful Ladies, AKA The Scarred Angels, AKA The Furies, AKA The Little Wrathful Ones, They appear as very beautiful women who hang out in cheap hotels, shoot pool near train stations, read Bukowski and Genet, drink large amounts of whisky that any normal human would pass out with the first bought, and look like they could take down men three times they're size. No one knows what there really called, and most of them are called the Beautiful Ladies or the Scarred Angels. They do a lot of direct fighting against the Soverign Throne and the Shadow Tractate, mainly by hunting down and eating "Transgressors." Most members of the Organization try to avoid them, since they purposefully make themselves look like hard-cases. They are all probably all pretty really nice girls at heart.
• The Pact of Lilith, Off-shoot of the various Christian heresies that came up in the Middle Ages, the Pact of Lilith appeared sometime before the Enlightenment. While not strictly a combatant, The Pact of Lilith specializes in putting safe-houses for other members of the Organization, and spreading information for other Organization members. These Safe-Houses tend to look like very well-hidden brothels that look kind of like the set of Jodorowsky's Holy Mountain.

Those are all the sub-groups within the Organization. As mentioned before, they're are probably several other groups, some of which may not even be active today.

Meet Jack Blackwright

Steph has informed me that August is National World-Building Month, when writers all over the world come up with worlds to put there stories in. I have just checked the blog, Word Building Month: Participants, where they have my name. I'd like to say hello to all the World Builders.

From what I can see of my fellow World-Builders, your all concentrating on fantasy worlds, such as Tolkein's Middle-Earth. This is all well and good, and I'm going to be doing a bit of that at some point, but that's not the world I'm going to be writing about.

Instead, I will be writing a series of mystery novels about an Irish sorcerer named Jack Blackwright (That name may change because it's to close to the name of comedian Jack Black, which isn't what I want with the character). It's set in Paris during the time of the Beat Hotel, which was home to such great writers as Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Jack lives in the Beat Hotel where he runs an off-beat private detective agency that utilizes a unique method of sorcery in his investigations. I have already written two short stories, but they are short and ignore most information on Paris.

The Jack Blackwright Stories are intended to be a mixture of historical mystery, occult mystery, conspiracy literature, absurdism and a tribute to the Beat Generation. It will be based on an actual historical period as well as various tributes to the work of Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs.

Now that I got that down, I'll get to introducing you to the main characters.

Jack Blackwright
Age: 39
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Ireland
Occupation: Sorcerer, Private Detective
Jack Blackwright is a man with a mysterious past. During his college years he was excepted into a mysterious secret society he refers to as "the Organization." For the last ten year or so, he has gone on several missions for the Organization that he defines as "Some of the weirdest shit that you’d ever think to see in your life." To recuperate, he has moved to the Beat Hotel where he spends most of his time seeing the sights of Paris and hiding in his apartment reading James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Despite this, Jack usually finds himself caught between the worlds of Paris’ crime, bohemia and occult circles.

Maxmillian Quincy
Age: 25
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: Canada
Occupation: Actor, Mime, Writer
Max Quincy is the Archie Goodwin to Jack Blackwright’s Nero Wolfe. A self-proclaimed Dandy, Max has come to Paris to write and study mine. He moves into the Beat Hotel because of the cheap housing and quickly becomes embroiled in Jack Blackwright’s twilight world. Max is largelly based on a friend of mine, who like Max is a dandy, actor and smokes tobacco from an opium pipe.

Allen Ginsberg
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: America
Occupation: Poet
Allen Ginsberg is one of the three main Beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. He is the author of "Howl" and "Kaddish." Allen Ginsberg saw American society as to conformist and materialistic, and spent a lot of time in Paris getting his friend’s published and seeing the sights of Paris, along with other Bohemian types of activities such as writing poetry (Kaddish was started when he was in Paris) and sex. Jack originally considers Allen Ginsberg, "that annoying little American man who won’t shut up about his friends," but warms up to him when he finds a copy of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl, on Apollinare’s Grave.

William S. Burroughs
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Nation of Birth: America
Occupation: Writer, Junkie
William S. Burroughs is considered one of the three main Beat writers, along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. He wrote "Naked Lunch," and "The Soft Machine," both of which where published while he lived at the Beat Hotel. William S. Burroughs was into all kinds of weird stuff, such as Mind Control, Scientology, Drugs, Destroying the Constraints of Language, Gazing into Crystal Balls and Cut-ups. I’m pretty sure that he was daemonically possessed, and that his writing is a way of exorcizing his demons. He may also be a member of Jack’s Organization, through his long years in Tangier.