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.

Open Doors, Last Days

I'm officially done Open Doors today, so it is now time to lie back and cool down until it's time to go to Revel Coffee for tonight's open mike. I'm reading a poem I wrote recently, and which I think is pretty good, maybe one of the best things I've ever written. I'm seriously considering on becoming a poet. At least if I don't write much poetry my prose can have a poeticness about it.

Open Doors was getting pretty depressing and tiresome towards the end. My family was nice enough to come over on Wednesday and we went out to dinner. We also went to Generation X, which is an independent video store much like the Giant Squid of memory. I got The Third Man, which I havn't seen since the Giant Squid closed, and Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, which is a pretty good movie. But the whole Open Doors thing was getting to be tiresome and stressful.

But it was only after supper when I began to feel alone. Ironically, I was with the other people when I felt most lonely. I was having supper on the last day with three other kids and I felt like I was on the outside of the conversation. It made me feel very sad, because I couldn't really connect with these people. I felt a bit sad and went back to Ron Eydt, where I called my parents to see if I could come home, which is what I did. It was good that I lasted as long as I did though, because four days was all I needed to stay for because I don't have any classes on Fridays.

Open Doors, Days Two & Three

It's been a busy three days and no mistake. I have just spent most of my time running across the campus figuring out where everything is and how the library works. Today I freaked out from all the stress I had to skip most of the day, which was basically a lecture and how to use computers. I'll figure out the whole computer thing later. Now I just have to wait her at Ron Eydt until Friday when I get all the preliminary stuff out of the way.

It was amazing how tired and frustrated I got in such a short time. It's a bit worrying, as I'll have to put up with this for September, when I'll basically not be doing much of anything except this kind of stuff. Also, I havn't written anything of importance except some blog posts since Sunday, which is worrying. I'll try writing later today, but I don't know if I'll be able to update the ol' word meter until later.

On another note, I got a book from the University Bookstore. It's The Metatemporal Detective, by Michael Moorcock. It's a book of pulp-adventure/detective stories based on an old Victorian era detective named Sexton Blake, but since it's by Michael Moorcock there's airships and mentions of other Michael Moorcock books and stuff like that. It's pretty good, and apparently there's a none-to-flattering parody of George Bush and Dick Cheney somewhere. I havn't read it yet, but it's a pretty nice little book I have here anyways.

Open Doors, Day One

Hey faithful readers. I'm currently typing this from Ron Eydt village at the University of Waterloo. Thanks to my status as a person of autism, I am now on a week long program to get me used to the idea of university. I'm living in a dorm, going to various places and learning the ins and outs of U of W. This program is called Open Doors because it's suppose to Open the Doors of University.

So far I have to say that this is a real cool place. They have swimming pool, and a seven floor library which I'm going to check for ancient alchemical texts, a used bookstore on campus and a pub called the Bomber that has open mike nights on Mondays. Unfortunately there aren't any open mike nights in summer, but they will start in September so I'll probably drop by and read some poetry or bits of a novel.
The only problem is that I am starting to feel a bit nervous. I'm spending the night with strange people in a strange place. The bed isn't that comfortable either. I got a lot of familiar stuff, Ralph, my Ipod, On the Road and The Name of the Rose, as well as some poetry by William Blake and Arthur Rimbaud. I picked up the complete works of Arthur Rimbaud at Chapters on Saturday, and will be reading it over the summer.
I'll be updating you on the whole Open Doors thing as I go. I'll post in tomorrow with how things are going. There is a chance that I'll be playing some Dungeons and Dragons while I'm here, but at the moment I'm just going to get my barrings.

Orlando Morningstar

Orlando Morningstar is a character who I've been going over in my mind for a long time. She sort of evolved out of an alter-ego for me in the 1960's story (she was a guy named Roland then). After that it sort of went, what if I was a girl? So that lead me to create Orlando Morningstar, a lesbian with Aspergers Syndrome in 1960's America. For some reason I decided she'd be an albino, because albinism is kind of cool and science fiction writer.

I've only just realized how much I've put poor Orlando up for. If you haven't gotten that I'll enunciate. She's a LESBIAN with ASPERGER'S SYNDROME in THE SIXTIES. Lesbianism isn't yet as socially acceptable as it is today, and Asperger's Syndrome hasn't even been identified yet. I've already decided she's spent time in an insane asylum, because it would impossible for her to not have. Eventually she will get out and write various cult science fiction novels that will be adopted by the hippies and gay liberation and feminism. Besides that she also has a secret life involving conspiracy theories, sorcerers and all kinds of other weird stuff, because she lives in my fictional world where this sort of thing is normal. Her father is more or less a rouge angel, her lover his a voodoo priestess and her friends are druids, beatnik prophets and circus freaks.

The other thing about Orlando is that I want to give her some credibility as a lesbian. I think I can do this, but I don't know what people will think of a straight male writing about a gay female, even if this character is more or less a female version of me. I suppose I really shouldn't care what people think, but I want to give her at least some credibility as a lesbian in her time and space, even if she lives in a world of magic and conspiracy theories and ancient wars.

Worst Movie Scenes Ever

I havn't posted a Youtube movie in awhile, so here's some of the worst movie scenes your likely to see. WARNING: There is some profanity so if your not comfortable with that don't watch.

Full Schedule

Yesterday I officially had my right-of-passage into young adulthood. My pastor was there and we did various rituals, some involving sweet-grass. For some reason I had the idea of something sort of Native-American, don't know why since I'm Irish-Mennonite. We had sweet grass anyways, which smelt nice and helped bring in positive energy. My sister says it smells like weed.
This whole right-of-passage thing was mainly designed to help me in my next step to adulthood, which is University. I'm a bit nervous, as I may or may not have told you, because it's new and new and unknownness isn't something that I enjoy much. Also, I've looked at the notes for orientation week at Conrad Grebel and they have something called Koopa training that is making me feel a bit nervous, since I know that Koopas are those turtles that Mario jumps on and I don't want to be jumped on by an Italian with a mushroom problem. That's probably not what it means, but the whole Mario theme is a bit worrying for me.
I'm sure University will be great once I get the handle of it. But other then that I don't know if I'll fit into Conrad Grebel. To be honest, the Mennonite Church does seem to have a sense of humour, but it seems to be on more or less the same plane as Veggie Tales. Not that there's anything wrong with Veggie Tales, it's a great show, but I don't really see it as one I enjoy that much.
Anyways, you may have noticed that the title of this post is "Full Schedule." That's basically because I am going to be a lot of places in the next week or so. Tomorrow, my Dungeons and Dragons buddies are getting married (the people, not there characters). Then I'm off to the Holden County Folk Festival to listen to folk music and eat some good food. After that I'm going to Open Doors, which is an orientation week for people with "learning disabilities" or whatever, which I qualify for. I don't think to much of the name, but I'll get to changing it to the socially transcendent later. Then I have a poetry reading at my favorite local coffee shop, so I need to figure out where I can find something to present, read it a couple times and then enjoy the night. Today however, I will relax as much as possible.
Finally, I'm at the Library and have picked up the following books to look over.

• Great Short Works of Mark Twain, by Mark Twain
• The Unabridged Jack London, by Jack London
• The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, by William Shakespeare. Hopefully I can figure out what all the fuss is about now.
• The Complete Illustrated Stories, Plays and Poems of Oscar Wilde, by Oscar Wilde
• Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, by Haruki Murakami
  

The Absurdity Factor of Going to University has Just Reached Noticeable Levels

I'm sitting in my room, minding my own buisness when in comes my Mom going on about a bathroom. She plans on having the wall knocked out so as to increase the bathroom's size. Meanwhile, I'm sitting on my bed thinking "Why are you going on about this while I'm in the room. I'm right here." At least she has the desencey to wait eight years until I get my own place.

Also, you may have noticed that I have added a word counter for my novel, and that I am currently at 29%. I'm very proud of that, and I hope to have the first draft done by the end of summer. Considering the word length and that I'll be doing 1'667 words a day I'll be doing some very good writing this summer.

Also, I am seriously considering sighning up for National Novel Writing Month. The problem is I don't see it as something I'll be able to do it next November, what with all the busy University work I'll be doing. I may do it some November after college, or I may just have to do it during the summer when it's unofficial. Anyways, there's still National Poetry Writing Month in April, I think it is. I could probubly manage that.

No Summer Job so I Start Writing Stupid

Because of my coming assent into the world of University and academia, I am not going to be searching for a summer job. This means I am still living off my parents money for books and Itunes. I used my Itunes money to by two albums of off Itunes. Blood on the Tracks, by Bob Dylan and Hunky Dory, by David Bowie. I enjoy both albums alot. If I was a musician, then I'd make albums like this, where all the songs are really good and you need to lisean to them all at the same time for it to be really good. Maybe I could do that for short stories and poems and things.
On the subject of writing, I am getting on the Last Dance Revolution train again. I decided that I need to write it from a different perspective. To do that I am going to write part of it as a biography of Naos and Helen. I got the ide from reading about this book called Lint by a guy called Steve Aylett. It's about a cult writer who never existed. I think that's a pretty interesting idea, since cult writers generally lead very interesting lives. I don't really know how I'll do this, maybe the biographer will be some version of myself or some really odd Gonzo Hyunter S. Thompson type person who's writing this from an insane asylum.
I've been wondering what I should do with this blog once I become a famous writer. I was thinking I'd get my own website or something and link to it. The website would basically give updates to when my next book will be out. I'd concentrate on my blog mostly, or start another blog. By that time I'd be using my actual name instead of my some-what unimaginative screen name.

The Wonderful Magazine Finder Dingus

Steph, who should be beatified by the Catholic Church (and would be if they where beatifying anyone of importance), has given me a handy little website called Duotrope's Digest that allows me to track down magazines that are weird and off-beat enough to hold my own brand of absurdist historical-mystery sci-fi-magic-realism-romance genre bending. Here's what I hope will be places you be able to see me in.

• Bust Down the Door and Eat All the Chickens, I found out about these fellas from my interest in the Bizarro genre. It features writing that is weird, surreal and dosn't make any sense. I like to think what I write makes some kind of sense, but I've got a story I could send here.
• The Capilano Review, This is a pretty well established Canadian magazine, so it's A) Established and B) Local. I'd like to be published in local areas, if only because it would allow my friends to buy a copy.
• Susurrus Press, My mom may have questions about this, but I think it may be something I should pay attention to. If it's legitimate I'll try writing things in there anthologies. They have anthologies now and I may have time to write in them.
• Ambit Magazine, These guys are British, so I don't know if they are likely to publish someone from across the pond. Thankfully, everyone I know says I'm a genius. If I am to try and get published here, then I'm probubly going to wait awhile until I have published a few things in other magazines on this continent.
• Storyteller Magazine, This is a local Canadian magazine that promotes short stories.

University Update

Yesterday my mom took me over to the University of Waterloo to get all my course information out. I'm going to be taking three courses, which is the bare minimum I can take while still staying there full time. I'm doing an English, Religious Studies and Film Studies Course. I'm also thinking of picking up a few language courses. Maybe Spanish or Russian. I don't know. Apparently I can't take French because Waterloo expects me to have taken at least Grade 9, which I havn't. The lady we saw said I should look at taking a French course at Waterloo. I might, know that I know what I can read in French.

I even got to go to a used bookstore. My mom said that we wouldn't be going to any used bookstores, but I've been meaning to find a copy of Mumbo Jumbo, by Ishmael Reed. I didn't find it at the place we went to, but I did get The Miracle of the Rose, bu Jean Genet, Nova by Samuel R. Delany and what appears to be a Michael Moorcock novel written about a fictional version of the band Hawkwind I never heard off. I also found a copy of the book You Can't Win, by Jack Black (not the comedian) which was a major influence on the thought of William S. Burroughs, but I didn't buy it. I look forward to frequenting this bookstore while I'm in University, as well as any other cool bookstores in Waterloo.

Bohemianism: How, Where and Why to Hang on to It

I got a book about the Beat Generation from the library today. You can see it in what I'm reading at the moment, but if your reading this in archives the book is called The Beat Hotel: Ginsberg, Burroughs and Corso in Paris, 1957-1963, by Barry Miles. It chronicles the Beat Hotel in Paris where a lot of important beat writers wrote some of there most important works. I'm also using this as the setting for most of the Jack Blackwright novels, since it seems like a better place, plus I can have Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs in them. I don't know if anyone has ever written a mystery novel that featured Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs. Someone may have done Burroughs, and I know he wrote a mystery novel with Jack Kerouac called "And the Hippos Where Boiled in there Tanks." But I don't know if they where in a mystery novel.

I've just read the first chapter, which explains the setting of the Beat Hotel and the area around it, Paris in the late fifties and I'm starting to feel very jealous. I'm sick of living in this small town. I want to move to the big city and be a real bohemian writer. Hanging out in coffee shops, going to hidden bookstores to find rare books on Rosicrucians and stuff, writing experimental novels and stuff like that. Alright, maybe I wouldn't write experimental novels, but I am thinking about toying around with multiple perspectives. I know that's been done but it's all I've got at the moment.

The thing that is bothering me is I don't have any idea where to find this kind of atmosphere or even how to hang on to it. I think I had that atmosphere for awhile, but not at the moment. Maybe it's just because it's summer and everything is so hectic. I'll have to check in on it later.

I don't even know if I could survive in a bohemian environment. According to the book I've got, the Beat Hotel was pretty run down, contained rats, the toliet was a hole in the floor and the only reason it was kept up was because the lady who ran it kept on good terms with the police. I'm probubly worrying to much. I'm sure I could find a place that had a toliet and insint infested withr rats and junkies. At least not so full of rats and junkies that they'll crawl into my bed.

Also, I'm hoping that living in an old apartement with a bunch of books will help unleash my productivity. My muse is no problem, but my productivity lags.

Tagging is for suckas

Well, Steph tagged me for some seven songs thing that I don't see the point off, but I'm going to do it anyways because summer is usually pretty boring for me. Here's the basic jist.

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they’re listening to.

Right, here goes.

• Walk on the Wild Side, by Lou Reed. Hopefully this won't affect my summer in any odvious way since the song is about kinky sex, transvetitism, use of hard drugs and gay prostitution. Still it's an excellent song.
• The Velvet Underground & Nico, by The Velvet Underground & Nico. Okay, this is an album, but it is a damn cool album and it sounds best when you lisean to it as a total album.
• Blonde on Blonde, by Bob Dylan, again an Album. I'd half to say my favorite tracks on this one are "Stuck inside a Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again," and "Aboslutely Sweet Marie." I've been puzzling over the line "But to live outside the law you must be honest," in the Sweet Marie for awhile trying to figure out what Dylan's suppose to mean by that.
• Look up the Sky, by The Pebbles, Japanese garage band I got on a compliation album of Itunes. This song makes me think of summer.
• Hotel Calfornia(Spanish Mix), by the Gipsy Kings. THE JESUUUUS!
• Highway 61 Revisited, by Bob Dylan. Again an album! Do I have any respect for the sanctity of tagging? No! Excellent album. Perfect from start to finish.
• Mother Mary, by the Foxboro Hot Tubs. Catchy song that will be on the soundtrack to my novel.

I will now tag George W. Bush, Quentin Tarantino, Charles Manson, George Eliot, His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Akihito of Japan, Michael J. Anderson and Alejandro Jodorowsky. Can't wait to see what they come up with.

Busted Computers make me angry

My home computer, the one I usually use, has a real bad virus. We aren't going to use it for awhile and this is a problem for me. Not only do I not like using the older and slower computer, but my Itunes information is on the other computer. I can't recharge my Ipod on the other computer either. I still got some good battery power on it, but I don't think it can last much beyond Wednesday, and that's only if I don't use it.
The job search still isn't doing well. I looked around in the newspaper and I found ads to start a home business and work at a cosmetics store. I don't know if I can work at as a cosmetics store, and I'm unsure if I can do a home business. I'm thinking I may start busking, reciting poetry for loose change. I don't know if that can work. When I get home I'll be calling my employment specialist.
On another note, I am trying on writing more often. I'm hoping on getting ten to twenty pages done per day, not including blog entries. I think this is a good way to start and as I get more time to write, and better endurance I'll work my way up to twenty. This will take awhile of course, and I am also reading three books at the moment. I also plan on reading some short stories, since I could probably make some money off of that. Not much, but it would get me noticed. So far I only have "Godot is Dead," but I'll pick up a few books of short stories while I'm at the library. I have The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe beside me now. That should be a start. Also I have a bunch of science fiction magazines at home I could read. I haven't read science fiction in awhile and with the Robert A. Heinlein novel "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress," I plan on returning to more. Specifically Heinlein, and Spider Robinson who is like a hippie-folk singer version of Robert A. Heinlein.
I'm starting to wonder what kind of mode my fiction will take. At first I thought I'd write science fiction, then I figured I'd write epic fantasy, now I seem to have abandoned my original concept of an epic fantasy realm. At the moment, the closest thing I have to an epic fantasy is the Hippie story(ies) and that hasn't event begun to be written yet. At the moment, I don't think I have any specific type, any specific genre. I'm just going to great works of literature that bend all genres. I might still write an epic fantasy, but I think it would be something like Stephen King's Dark Tower series. No elves or dwarves or hobbits or replicas of medieval Europe. I'm probably going to be more inspired by Islamic society of the Middle-East and India. But at the moment my two main concerns are The Last Dance Revolution and the really really big Hippie book that is going to be at least 500 pages. I'd go into more detail, but who knows what kind of dirty little plagiarists are trying to steal my ideas.
So, that's it for today I suppose. Below I have the Question of the Post. That is where I ask you your opinion about something. Read and reply.
Question of the Post: Do you enjoy reading about all the updates in my life? Do you find it helps give me a more personal setting? Do you think my life is boring?

Carnivale: It's Better Then Lost

Okay, it's the thirties. The Dust bowl has rendered the Mid-West a barren waste land. Why wouldn't make that the setting for the Apocalyptic battle between good and evil? That is basically Carnivale in a nut shell, but it is more complicated then that.

To elaborate on the plot, Carnivale tells the story of two different people on opposite ends of the spiritual line. The first plot deals with Ben Hawkins (the guy sitting behind the door of the truck in the picture) who's mother has died and his family farm stolen. Lucky for him, a carnivale has passed by and he gets work there. As we learn more about Ben, it's apparent that he has supernatural healing abilities, and receives various visions such as being chased in a corn field by a guy with a way freaky tree tattoo on his chest and World War One. As all this is going on, were told the story of Brother Justin (the priest to the right) who lives in California with his sister Iris. Brother Justin also has supernatural powers, such as making old ladies cough up coins and forcing people to commit suicide by showing them the worst thing they've ever done. He's what people who know this stuff call "The Usher." And Ben and Brother Justin have to fight it out for the destiny of the world. Oh, and Ben has to stop the first Atomic Bomb Explosion. If this doesn't sound like the coolest show ever to be seen on television, then I am not doing a good enough job of explaining it.

So naturally, this show having such an original concept, having such a good script and such a great cast, they had to shut it down right when it was getting real good. It only lasted two seasons out of it's six season run getting replaced with a show about Polygamists who weren't engaged in anything this vital or important. May whoever took this show from the air be damned to hell. I only wish Daniel Knauf, the guy who came up with this brilliant series comes up with a movie for the next part because I so want to see what happens next. Please Daniel Knauf, if your reading this by some miracle, MAKE THAT MOVIE! Or better yet, make a graphic novel and then a movie. I will help you in anyway I can.

So anyways, Carnivale. Get it, watch it, be amazed my it's amazingness and damn HBO

The Hippie Stories

As many of you may or may not know, I plan on writing a major series of books taking place in the 1960's. So far this is taking the form of one really big novel that's at least 1000 pages, or a series of four major novels. I think that the later is what I'll do because, A) It's less work and B) I don't want this to get to conveluted which four novels would lead too. This does not include the Jack Blackwright Stories, though both the Jack Blackwright books and the Hippie Novel will share characters. The Hippie novel could also be called a Jack Blackwright book, but Jack isn't going to be the main focus of this.

I've been wanting to write something about the Hippies for awhile now. There is something really mythic about them to my generation, and love it or hate it, the sixties had several major events in Western history. I was never a part of this generation, but I lisean to alot of the music from that time. Comparitivly, I'm really big on Beat Generation literature which was also an influence on the hippies, no matter how much Kerouac thought they where communists.

Lost my train of thought there, oh well. I don't want to give to much away. I should be consentrating on the Last Dance Revolution anyways.

My Sentence Is Up!

After five years I have completed my tenure of High School. For the next two months I am in limbo, preparing for University and hopefully getting some money.

The feeling of being cut of from School is kind of strange. There's a great emptiness in my life now that school isn't there. I don't know what it is I'll do with myself while I'm unemployed. I've been talking with my LEADS specialist and she's given me some ideas on next steps I should take. She says I should look through the newspaper and Job Bank of Canada to find work. I think I'll check out Job Bank and see what I can find.

Just found it, the only thing I could find is Taxi Driver. I can't drive and the environment is to faced passed for me. I guess I should check the newspaper next. I'll do that later today.

Since it's Summer, I should develop a summer reading list. At the moment I'm reading Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison and Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut. I figure that to create a summer reading list I'll need to find every book I have on my shelf that I havn't read and read it. Also I'm trading books with my Church pastor. She's going to give me books about Christianity and I'm going to give her books like On the Road, by Jack Kerouac and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, by Tom Robbins.

My mom says she'll take me to the University of Waterloo every week so we can map out routes and acclimatize me to the area. We'll find routes to my Aunt and Uncle's who live in Waterloo, the video store, used bookstores and anywhere else I might need to go.

The following are all the books I feel a pressing need to read.

1. Watership Down, by Richard Adams
2. Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
3. Dhalgren, by Samuel R. Delany
4. Tales of Neveryon, by Samuel R. Delany
5. The Fall of the Towers, by Samuel R. Delany
6. Tapping the Dream Tree, short stories by Charles de Lint
7. A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K. Dick
8. Notes from the Underground, by Fyodor Dostoyevesky
9. The Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes, by Arthur Conan Doyle. Short stories and The Hounds of Baskerville
10. The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
11. Deathbird Stories, short stories by Harlan Ellison
12. Neuromancer, by William Gibson
13. Riders of the Purple Sage, by Zane Grey
14. The Novels of Dashiell Hammett, by Dashiell Hammet. consists of Red Harvest, The Dain Curse, The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key and The Thin Man.
15. To Sail Beyond the Sunset, by Robert A. Heinlein
16. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
17. Revolt in 2100, by Robert A. Heinlein
18. The Cat Who Walks Thorugh Walls, by Robert A. Heinlien
19. Time Enough For Love, by Robert A. Heinlien
20. Friday, by Robert A. Heinlien
21. Expanded Universe, by Robert A. Heinlien
22. Variable Star, by Robert A. Heinlien and Spider Robinson
23. Conan the Adventurer, by Robert E. Howard
24. A Thief of Time, by Tony Hillerman
25. Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo
26. A Voyage to Arcturus, by David Linsey
27. Insomnia, by Stephen King
28. The Eyes of the Dragon, by Stephen King
29. The Shining, by Stephen King
30. Hearts in Atlantis, by Stephen King
31. The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux
32. The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Tales, short stories by H.P. Lovecraft
34. Remembrence of Things Past, by Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff. Volume One, consisting of Swann's Way, Within A Budding Grove and The Guermantes Way.
35. Midnight's Children, by Salman Rushdie
36. The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie

This list is by no means over. I just realized how many books I own that I havn't read yet. I need to really get to work on them. I hope that I can finish most of them by the end of summer.

Can Someone With Asperges Syndrome Be A Great Novelist?

I've been thinking about this recently. The thing is I don't want to be just a writer, I want to be a writer who is remembered centuries after I've died and is studied in universities. I want to be one of those great writers that people make reference in there books. The problem is I don't know how I can go about doing this as A) someone who is working withing genre fiction and B) an Aspie.

My Autism is one of the things that is making me worried. I don't know how I'm going to write about human interaction if I can't even understand it. Parody and Satire are probably going to be prevalent, and my books are probubly going to have some postmodern deconstruction of how humans interact. Also, Jane Austen has been diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome and from what little I know of her she writes alot about human interaction.

I also heard that James Joyce may have had Aspergers. Unlike Austen, I have read Joyce. It was a short story in an English class called "Araby." It was pretty good, and that Joyce is a writer I mean to check out, at least Ulysses. Finnegan's Wake I'll skip, most likely, because of how unreadable everyone says it is. Other writers who may have had Aspergers Syndrome are Emily Dickinson, Franz Kafka, Mark Twain and H.P. Lovecraft. I don't know about being compared to H.P. Lovecraft, since he was a racist New England bugger with a rather dense style and always ended his stories in italics to emphasise the creepiness of his stories.

The problem with this is that all these people are dead, so we can't make a proper diagnosis. Without actually sitting down with these people (which would have been a problem with Dickinson because she was a recluse) we'll never know if they had Autism or what.

So, the final question is, does my status as a person of Autism impare my skill as a writer or not. I don't know. There is alot of stuff that says it does. I'm on the outside of allmost every social group I'm in, so that makes me a good observer. Also, since I have absolutley no understanding of social norms, I am the perfect person to judge and critic them. Even if none of the people mentioned actually had Aspergers Syndrome, I hope to become the first universally acknowledged great Austistic writer.

I'd appreciate if someone could comment on this and give me suggestions. This is very important to me.

The Fall

I found this off because of my constant watching out for any information on Alejandro Jodorowsky. He had nothing to do with this, but it has a Jodorowsky sort of vibe about it, even if it has an actual plot and real dialouge and characters that arn't there just to represent metaphysical concepts. The guy who made this, who's called Tarsem, did another movie about going into the mind of a serial killer. That movie is called The Cell and I can get it in town.

I Wish I Wasn't Such A Nice Guy

So my sister calls me from School and says I need to run over some information on a court thing based on Othello. I'm really ticked off at this because I don't see how this is my responsibility. I'm angry at this and see no point of doing this for a person who has been more or less an annoying, judgemental and under appreciates me. But when she has forgotten something I'm the first person she calls. And what do I do? I run the paper over for her. Mind you, I'm still annoyed as hell at this, but I could have just left it there. It's her own fault for not remembering to bring it, I don't see how I'm supposed to help her escape from the forces of Karma.

I guess I'm just a nice guy. For most of my life that is what I have been, I have been a guy who does what he's told and helps people and stuff like that. Even if I where to become the head of an international crime syndicate I would probably still be a nice guy. I'd probably be overthrown in about a week, a month tops, but I would still be a nice guy even while I'm stroking my cat and telling my henchmen to go cut of some guys face and leave him over a bridge with bricks in his pocket.

It's not that I don't like being a nice guy, I just don't like my sister Delila, who is usually a major pain in my nether regions, taking advantage of that. I don't like it when anyone takes advantage of me. I just find this entire incident annoying.

Growing Dread in the Koi Pond of My Life

I'm starting in find my home not as homely anymore. I don't know whether it's the stress of summer coming or if I'm just growing to big for my current koi pond or if I'm just nervous that I need to actually work and stuff. All I know is that I've been feeling a sense of, I don't know, dread and nervousness. Everyone is so busy and I feel like I'm being forced out in the suffle. Also, in the middle of the night my bedroom dosn't feel like my own. I know that sounds crazy, but I just don't feel like right. Maybe I'm just on edge or something, but I feel really nervous recently.

I think it may have been my mom cleaning. I think I get the whole reason for cleaning, but I still don't like it. She pretty much came in and rearanged my entire closet and I really don't like that. I also still have a box full of old books I want to sell and I don't think I'm going to have a place to sell them in awhile since everyone is so busy.

I was hoping this could be longer, but I guess that's all I've got today. Maybe I'll have more later today. Maybe not.

Video from Steph's Blog

This was Steph's favorite entry in Eurovision. I like it to because it looks like something from a David Lynch movie.

I don't want to work, I just want to read all my books all day

School is going to be over soon. I want it over now. I feel tired and stetched out and I just want to sit down for a long time and read without worrying about homework. I have a killer book list this summer and with University just over the horizon I don't know if I'll have much chance for personal reading I'll get done.

What I need to do is get a big reading list and work on that. I just don't know if I can finish it in two months. There are some pretty long and so are some of the books. Also, the chances of me getting a job have increased for the summer. I don't want to go into to much detail, but it will affect my time to read.

I'm starting to wonder if the Last Dance Revolution may be dead or in need of a rest. I feel I need a distraction from it, or at least to give it a linear narrative. Maybe I'll do both. I'll come up with an idea to work on over the summer while redoing the Last Dance Revolution. I may need to completely overhall the plot.

In the meantime I may need to figure out what to write over the summer. Possibly I'll try writing the first Jack Blackwright novel. I'm thinking that for the first decade or so of my writing career I'm going to write stuff like that mostly. Stuff like Jack is going to be my meal ticket while I'm working on what I hope to be my important novels such as The Last Dance Revolution. So I may just write the first Jack Blackwright novel and then maybe a few stories. I'm still trying to get the hang of Jack's universe. Since I'm not using fully traditional fantasy subjects, or at least ones that are hidden or in roles that one would not usually expect them, it may be a hard sell. Also I'm going to have to do alot of reaserch on London during the 1960's. I guess a trip to the library will be needed. I figure that a few other stories will also be needed to get the world in any cohesive order. I'll probubly be working on the novel for awhile.