Concerning Michael Court

Sending my short fiction to my friend Michael is one of my favorite things, largelly because he always gives great reviews. I think I could easily count him among one of my few fans outside my family. I just sent him "Godot is Dead," and he went on about how much he loved it. It may just be because he always sends emails in huge font, but he did ask me "Are you SURE you're not copying these stories from someone else and making an absolute fool of me? It's not just that they are so intelligent, it's that they are so grown-up and witty." I can also back this up because whenever he talks about my stories he's practically as enthusiastic as me, probubly more because he's more openly emotional then I am.

Michael, as I call him, is an old guy I meet at the local coffee shop readings we used to have. He was writing poetry at the time, like most people who went and we would usually talk about things after at a bar. Once Seymour and I even managed to talk him into coming over to my place and we talked about writing and stuff. It was alot of fun, since I see Michael as a very important person in my life, an older wiser writer who has more experience in such things as poetry and the great writers and things that would involve wisdom. He's really a drastically different personality from mine, which is probubly a good thing because he is more upbeat then me and I can be a pretty dark and depressing person sometimes. Look at the last post to see what I mean, I found that funny and that was about an assassination attempt. A really lame ass assassination attempt, but still.

I can't really describe Michael's work that well. I've read a bit of a short story he wrote about a boy who was lost in the Amazon and alot of his poetry, which reminds me of Rumi, short and sparse and with a beauty of it's own that I don't appreciate as much as I should. We do have something of a minor compotition to see who will be the first one to publish a full length novel, so we'll probubly look over it at somepoint. I'd like to read over his novel since it sounds pretty interesting.

Job Search Update

Yesterday was a day of job searching, or at least dropping of resumes at various resturaunts. I think the main reasons I'm looking into resturaunts is that it was what my parents suggested. I'm a sucker for doing what my parents say. This is probubly a positive or negative trait depending on who you are. On the one hand, I could be living under my parents wings to much, but on the other end they do have good advise most of the time. Like "When your in a social situation, watch people and do what they do," or "Get out of my room, it's 2:30 in the morning."

Rowan, who is one of my older friends, gave me alot of ideas when we ran into each other. He's saying that since I'm so good at using words I should find a job with a newspaper or at City Hall or something like that. He also suggested that I hook up with one of those stores in town that sells bracelets and stuff and busk, which sounded cool but I think I'll try something else since I don't think it can get me to the kind of money I'd like. The paper ideas sound like a good idea. Rowan also said that I'm a really good wordsmith, which is nice because I was worrying about that.

Today, I am hanging out at Revel, not that I have anything I can buy food with or anyone to meet, but because this is the only place my laptop gets internet and I'm guying Itunes music. I'm trying to decide whether I should get a Tom Waits album or an Andrea Gibson album. On the one hand, I have alot of Tom Waits albums and nothing by Andrea Gibson, but on the other I really like this album, by Dad has it on vinyl and I like liseaning to it. But again, this album is available on vinyl, and I may be getting tired of it as it is. Also, I don't have alot of spoken word stuff, just two albums by Burroughs and an album of Kerouac that also features his bad singing. I could have bought both, but I also bought a Billy Childish album, since I have had my eye on that for a long time. I still don't know which one to choose, so I'm going to leave this blog and get back to that problem. See you folks latter.

Writing yer blaa-blaas out

I went to the cafe today, mainly since I may or may not be getting involved in Roger's exhibition. I sat there fiddling away on my laptop and didn't really get anything done, except look up stuff on how to write a murder mystery and an interesting story that could turn into a murder mystery at a later time. I never really got to talking about how I might get involved in this exhibition, since Roger suggested that I could do some poetry because of how he was impressed with my Manifesto. In the end we didn't talk that much. Roger's a pretty quite guy, and I don't think I can do a reading at his show anyways. I don't have anything prepared and I can't think of anything appropriate to read.

In the department of writing, my novella seems to be coming along. I'm going to have to edit it up on a different computer then my laptop though, because I simply don't have the ability to properly edit it on my laptop because the mouse won't let me cut and past on the word processor. Along with this, I also want to get started on another short story, and while I'm editing my novella I can write something shorter. I don't have an idea. I'm toying with writing a Jack Monsairty story, but I see the Monsairty stories as primarily mysteries. Maybe I should try writing something about Jack that isn't a mystery, just a straight up story. I can't have him detecting all the time.

I also talked to Rowan, and he suggested I just write little sketches of characters. I've written two I think are alright based on characters for WoD games I've toyed with making. He suggested I write about actual people, and I may do that at some point soon. At the moment I just feel a bit inadequate. Maybe it's because I woke up so late and I have been rained on. Anyways, I'm going to type this up therapeutically to see if I can't get something out of this.

As I spoke of last post, I want to write metaphysical mysteries. These will be most prevalent in two novels I have planned, which will both be mysteries of a sort, but before that I'd like to get a handle on the mystery-genre. I want to try my hand at writing a mystery or to before I get onto those novels. But now that I think about it, I don't really want to write a mystery at all. The mystery format tends alot towards plot, and I want to concentrate just on the character. The mystery seems to be a hollow puzzle (was it Ms. Scarlett in the Library with a pipe wrench?) where as the questions I want to ask are more metaphysical (Is Modernist Jesus real or is he just a prank of Gertrude Stein and a secret cabal of critics?). But also, the Big Novel is a murder mystery, but it's also a bit straight forward as the reader knows what happened before we even get to it. I might not even introduce the novel until page 150, where as in a traditional murder mystery you have the murder in the first 50 pages, and not know who the killer was unless it's Colombo or something. I'm also worried I might start relying to much on the mystery plot structure and I don't want to be seen as a mystery writer, I want to be scene as a writer of Great Literature who just so happens to write the odd mystery, but in a Borges-Eco sort of way.

Ah, this isn't helping. I'm going to shut this off and leave you here.

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.

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.

My First Posted MSN conversation (My name isn't really David)

David says:
If I could I'd bring you a big box full of books
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
:)
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
if you could, i'd be happy
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
but for now i'll be happy with the thought of it
David says:
If I am able, then what books would you want?
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
heh, i could spend the next three straight days listing books i want dylan
David says:
Well, get down to that and I'll send you whichever ones I find
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
nah, you don't have to send me any books... that'd be horrendously expensive
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
thanks for the thought though
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
hans and i are going to oslo next month, so i can pick up a few new books there, if all goes well
David says:
Okay, good luck
David says:
Maybe you could come over to Canada and we could go bookshopping here
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
that would be wonderful
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
maybe some day
David says:
Maybe when I have my own place
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
yep
David says:
You and Hans could come over and I could show you around whatever town I'm in, probubly Toronto
David says:
you and Hans can come over, buy a bunch of used books on the cheap, see the local sights and I'll make you pancakes and back-bacon,
David says:
We'll have a real canadian time
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
hahaha
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
i may have to use that line one of these days
David says:
We can all drink beer, wear tooks and call each other "hozers"
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
wooo!
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
then after we've drank all the beer, we can walk through the streets singing O Canada even though i don't know the words
David says:
There I draw the line
David says:
I have a thing against National Anthems, all national anthems
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
hehehe
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
don't blame you there
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
btw, i may have to post part of this convo on my blog... would you mind?
David says:
Oh, sure go ahead
David says:
Mind if I post this on my blog as well, I never posted a conversation before
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
nope, not at all
David says:
Great, I'm going to do it now
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
hehe
(Steph) "I'm going to wack you in the face with my very big stick!" says:
go for it

Canada Day, Aimless Wandering and Interactions with Friends and relatives

Well, Canada Day has come and gone and I think that I avoided it pretty well. I really don't like these kinds of celebrations, I just don't see the point in nationalism. It's not that I have any specific problem with Canada, I just find the entire thing somewhat annoying and disappointing in humanity. It's all part of my ultimate goal for us to join together into one happy family of men so we can create a Utopian society and thus live in a world I can understand.

On a happier note I went around town today, hoping to go to this coffee shop I went to awhile back. Unfortunately, it's been permanently closed and no one has bothered to take down the OPEN sign. Kind of annoying really. So I bought myself some fries and a coke and went to the Giant Squid instead, where I caught the last bit of a Japanese movie called Pitfall, and watched Desperado. I liked Desperado better because I didn't see that much of Pitfall, making it confusing. Desperado is a pretty cool movie, basically a sequel to El Mariachi which I saw awhile back. Steve Bushemi had a great monologue in it at the beginning. Really well written, great use of repetition.

Anyways, after that I ran into a friend I haven't seen in awhile. I'm not going to reveal her name because of my scrupples. She was Ruric's brother's ex-girlfriend, but she's engaged now to some other guy because Ruric's brother moved with Ruric. I hear there family is in ruff shape. On a more positive note I think I really bonded with them and we said something about getting together to play a game of D&D. I plan on getting my Mythania setting ironed out first though, so we can use that.

And on a final note, my sister Delila is on a Church thing in British Columbia. I don't know if she'll read my blog while she's there. She's kind of become a Church goer, baptized and everything. I think I'm slightly threatened by this. Either way, I feel the need to conrgagulate her on all the stuff he gets to do. Good on you girl.

That's all.

I'm so lonely

I've lost Loncrow's phonenumber. I don't now when I lost it, but it's lost and I've realized how lonely I actually am. I mean, both of my sisters have all these friends. Delila is going to some party today and Sprite has all kinds of friends who come over but I don't have anyone except for the people who read this blog. I mean, I really like you guys but I never meet you face to face and that bothers me alot.
I have some people in my hometown who could work as friends, but I have no idea how to actually go about making them friends. I want someone to hang out with, I want someone who I can go out and do stuff with. I want someone who I can talk too. It's driving me crazy. I mean, how hard can it be to actually make friends. I have so many likely candidates around it should be easy, but I just have no idea how to go about doing it. It's nuts.
Okay, talking about this makes me sad so I'm going to stop now.

Where the Aspies Roam

Just came from the Giant Squid. Didn't get any new movies, just needed to get out of the house. It's how I deal with my little sisters screaming. I can't take well, screaming. I need to get out of the house and take a walk. I took a walk downtown. I'm at the library at the moment. Not sure this is necessarily the best place for me to be, what with March Break ending and everything. What I need to do is hide in my room for the rest of the day. Sort of a meditation thing.
Incidentally, Steph, if your reading this I want to talk with you. Nothing really important I just want to run some stuff by you. I feel the need to do stuff like that because I respect you. I tried to reach you but your were preoccupied. If we can get together on MSN sometime that would be great.
Hm, I don't really have anything to talk about. That's sad because this was going to be one of those great big posts. Ah, well.
March Break is really what this was all about when I think of it. Did I have a good March Break? Well, I'm not sure. It was satisfactory, but to much actual nothing. What I want is more socialization. I need more friends to hang out with. Oh, Loncrow did come over and we had a good game of D20 Modern. I can't wait until he can come again. Still, there were some things I didn't get to do. I didn't get to go out to see any movies, and there was some social interaction with another Aspie we never got around to doing this week. Will probably meet him again at a latter date.
Anyway, I'm going to continue to fiddle around on this computer for awhile and then go home. I should probably work on adjusting my emotional level to calm and serene.

Loncrow and The Invisibles. Hm, that might make a good band name

I'm a little unsure about making a post right know, but I figure that I should post anyway because I don't want to loose concentration on the blog. I have to many friends on this to loose it now.

Speaking of friends, Loncrow is coming over today for D20 Modern, and possibly PlayStation 2 and a movie or two. I'm a little anxious because he said he'd be hear right now. I'm thinking I should call him. Mom and Dad say I should wait awhile though. Still nervous, Loncrow is my closest real friend and I don't get to see him much. I am really sure that Loncrow and me are part of some kind of ka-tet. A ka-tet, for those of you who are not familiar with The Dark Tower series, is a group of people tied together by the bonds of destiny (or ka, if you prefer). When I told this to Loncrow last time he was here, he didn't take it that seriously, but he did admit we are on the same wavelength more or less.

I picked up Volume One of Grant Morrison's The Invisibles yesterday. It was interesting and has given me a lot to think about. For one thing, I am pretty sure I have come up with the same thing. The basic premise to the Invisibles, is that a secret conspiracy of occultist-fashion conscious anarchists have been fighting a secret war against another secret conspiracy based on order and repression. That's basically my urban fantasy thing, only mine has a pantheon, which I admit is basically a mix of various Hindu, Gnostic and Pre-Islamic Arabian deities along with the various gods of H.P. Lovecraft's and William Blake's mythologies, all worked into some New Age weirdness. I'm thinking I should write a letter to Grant Morrison to see what he thinks of the universe I created that may or may not be the same one he made.

Anyway, more on the Invisibles. Not something to be read lightly, it's a social commentary more then anything. It has all the good weirdness of Doom Patrol and Animal Man, and seems to have this disconserting factor I've been piking up. When I read the Animal Man comics awhile back I felt kind of awkward reading them towards the end. I get that feeling from reading the Invisibles and this is only the first eight issues. It may have something to do with the allusions to the Marquis De Sade. For all it's weirdness, I have to admit that Grant Morrison does have a point when he says that society has brought alot of negativity to human beings. We are living in a really screwed up world, and we can probubly blame this on the people running the world, and us for being stupid enough to follow them. Also, the ultimate goal of the Invisibles is one I can sympathize with, creating a utopia where everyone is happy. Think about it, the utopia of a religious fundamentalist would be different then mine.

Okay, enough blabering, I'm going to finish this post now. There it's done.

After Exams

So yesterday I went to a local coffee place called Shenanigans. I have heard much of this place from some of my schoolmates, and since I have nothing better to do what with exams over I decided to go. Well, I went and happened to run into some guys I'm on freindly terms with. We played some pool and had a good time.

This was a big thing for me, because as many of you should know, I spend alot of my time being very lonely. My mom was very happy when I told her about this, and it is looking like Shenanigan's may be a good place for me to hang out. I get to play pool and they have good music. The only problem is that Shenanigan's is closing because of financial problems. I'm thinking of helping them out by doing a collage. I am confident in my abbility to make a collage, but I will need access to a digital camera. Maybe I can talk my sister into letting me borrow her camera If not, I'm sure mom can talk her into it, since she cares about my social life.

So, what with exams over I have spent most of my time walking around town. I picked up volume two of Transmetropolitan, which I must say is better then the first volume. Most of it is one issue stories dealing with the world of Spider Jerusalem. Oh, sorry, I apologize, many of you people may not be familiar with this, allow me to summarize.

Transmetropolitan is a comic book series about Spider Jerusalem, a gonzo journalist who lives (against his will) in the futuristic city, The City. Spider has been torn away from his hideout in the Mountains because of two books he owes his editor. Spider must now put up with his editor, his publisher, legions of fans, The Beast (President of the United States) and pretty much everyone else because, SPIDER HATES MOST EVERYBODY!

Well, Volume 2 is for the most part a bunch of issues dealing with various aspects of Spider's world. In these one issue stories we encounter various aspects of Spider's universe, such as Television, Religion, and cultural reservations located about the place. It finished of with a three-part series in which Spider has to deal with a bunch of people who want to kill him, including a vengeful bulldog who Spider had nudered, and his ex-wife who has become a brain in a jar to be recomishioned when Spider is dead.

I have to say, that this is one of the best graphic novels in my current collection. I'd place it on three, two being the first few issues of Hellblazer, which has some killer social commentary, and number one being V for Vendetta, which just rocks. Still, Transmetropolitan Volume 2, Lust for Life, is a great book for it's social satire, dark humour, and the really cool futuristic world.

Okay, that's all.

Am I a bad freind?

So I was chating with Steph and there were a few interuptions and such. During this time I waited for Steph to reply, usually by typing little messages. Then for some reason I went to Steph's blog and read this.

I'm not sure if I actually get this message. It makes me feel guilty. I feel like I'm not being a good enough freind to Steph. I enjoy having a conversation with Steph, and I'm sorry if I made it feel like I was tryin to intrude to much into her own life, which is basically what I was doing. I feel a need to talk to Steph because I like talking to her. I wasn't really thinking about Steph, or at least I was, just not in the right way. I also didn't mean to be rude or anything. I picked up that I may have sounded rude. I didn't mean to. I just have difficulty in conversation, face-to-face or internet apparently.

I'm really, really sorry if I made you feel bad Steph.