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I hadn’t realized so much time had passed between my last post and today. As the old idiom goes, “Time’s sure fun when you’re having flies.” Well, it’s something like that.

Part of what has aided my failure to notice the rapid passing of time has been a renewed interest in reading and writing. whup! Hold your tongues, smart alecs! There’ll be time for illiteracy jokes at a later point. The big monkey is talking.

Yes, it hasn’t really been ground shaking or life altering in it’s implications as of yet, but I’ve realized I’m wasting away my life in a job that I will resent (despite the fact that it probably IS a decent job) because I’m not doing what I would love to be doing. I’m not crafting with words. I’m not out there building stories, instead letting them rattle through my mind on their way to oblivion, all because I’m afraid of taking a chance – or what is much more likely…too lazy to take a chance. It’s a lot of work figuring out the many kinks and convolutions in the world of publishing. But, if I don’t do it soon, I’ll never realize my dreams. And that is something I think I will really end up regretting. Extensively. So fuck it, man…let’s do this thing up right.

I started with a book I’ve been meaning to read for about 4 years now – Stephen King’s On Writing. LampLover saw me with the book a day after I started and commented it was a good, insightful read. I said, “shhhh…I’m reading.” She hit me. It all works out for the best, I guess. Anyway, she was spot-on in her assessment of the book. Stevie has a way of cutting through all of the excess and getting right at what is important, whether it be in a story or just an interview. He provided some good pointers and allowed the reader to see how he works and the processes he follows. I think it will be a pretty helpful weapon in my arsenal when I sit down to do this. The key thing I took away from the book was something I’ve always believed, to an extent. In order to be a good writer, you have to be a good reader. I really need to step up the volume of books I’m reading. The last month or so has been good – I’ve packed the latest Harry Potter book and the Stephen King book under my belt. I’ve finally picked up Neuromancer by William Gibson once more. I haven’t picked it up in about 4 years, and this time I’m giving it a good go. My goal is to try and get up to 52 books a year again – a very attainable goal if I read every day, which I’m doing.

So, after a few months of heavy reading, I am going to start tackling the task of sitting down and working on my fiction again. Short stories, scenarios…anything to get the juices flowing. Maybe just more blog entries as long as it’s descriptive and in a prose style. My goal will be 1000+ words a day to start and ramping up from there until I’m writing at about 2000 words a day. That, along with my job and tiny social life, should keep me quite busy.

Wish me luck folks – hope you’ll enjoy the increased (and hopefully improved) writing that is to come.

Oh, yeah…and we’re in the house now. W00t!!

Best. Site. Ever.

P.S. Go Stars!!!

LampLover and I enjoyed our first NHL hockey game in over a year on Wednesday. My dentist, a season ticket holder who just happens to be the coolest dentist around, called me up at work and offered me his tickets for the evening, as he wasn’t going. It was a great night for it – the hottest day of the year, culminating in an evening temperature in the 100′s, made the prospect of a game on ice sound very tantalizing indeed. And, hey, it’s the Stars! What’s not to love, pre-season or not? I’m pretty happy with what the rule changes in the NHL have produced: the games are much faster and exciting. The Stars played a rather sloppy game against the St. Louis Blues, but managed to pull out the winner in overtime, 5-4.

Work has been keeping me busy with lots of jobs that aren’t necessarily under my list of job duties. This makes for a stressed-out and annoyed monkey. LL hasn’t enjoyed my mood because of it either, I’m sure. I’ll be thankful when the large project I’m working on currently is finished this upcoming week, and I can let loose with a large sigh of relief. Things have been going well though, and today I was even rewarded with a small praise pellet from my boss. He came by and told me I had made myself quite the asset to the company and we would have to rearrange my schedule soon to be more in line with the corporate timeline (9-5, I guess). Regardless of the daunting prospect of earlier mornings, it made me smile.

Oh. And my asshole dog bit me again last week. I say that half in jest…anyone who knows me knows I love my dog…it’s just that this biting issue is getting really old. It’s about the 4th or 5th time he’s bit me now. It’s a good thing I love him, or he would have made the final trip to the vet years ago. LL suggested we get a training collar that he wears all the time now. It has made him a much better behaved job and he is starting to understand what is expected of him.

Gas has gone up once again. This time, presumably, under the pretense that the devastating Hurricane Katrina that has pummeled the southeastern United States has crippled our domestic oil production and therefore is deserving of a .25/gallon raise in price. The oil companies are telling the gas stations and convenience stores that in order to get their new loads of gas, they must raise their prices. So, they are forced to do so in order to even have gas. I’m sorry, but there is no way that the price of gas has been effected so quickly that it has necessitated a quarter per gallon raise in one day. Everyone seems to have their theory as to why this is happening now. Today, on a local radio talk show, I heard one person espouse their theory that gas prices are rising because of the automotive makers latest “employee discount” sales strategy. There are somehow “more cars” now on the road so we need more gas and that supports an upturn in gas prices. At least that theory was good for a laugh. It’s about the only laugh I’ve had regarding the entire issue.

President Bush has stated his interest in exploring the idea of tapping the U.S. oil reserves to take some of the pressure off the American pocketbooks. This is precisely why we have built these reserves in the first place, to my understanding. When an event occurs to disrupt oil production, we have resources to lean upon until the situation can be repaired. To quote the above article, “the reserve was established to cushion oil markets during energy disruptions.” Sounds exactly like this is the case. So, why is this even a topic to ponder? We have to think and decide if this is a “natural disaster”? I believe the folks of Louisiana and Mississipi will tell you it certainly is, and would be supported by the rest of the nation. The article also aims to correct the misguided notion that gas prices even should be effected by Hurricane Katrina. Again quoting the article: “The expected move would be designed to give refineries in the area a temporary supply of crude oil to take the place of interrupted shipments from tankers or offshore oil platforms affected by the storm. It would not be intended to keep a lid on soaring gasoline prices.” I guarantee if this happened last year at this time, being an election year, we’d be paying just over $2.00 a gallon now, and not closer to $3.00 as a nation, because this is about as “hot-button” of a topic as the war here in America right now.

Anyway, I really dislike being political…but this whole subject has me really agitated right now. I miss living in the northeast where I could make a tank of gas last a week very easily. Living in a big city that is so spread out like the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, I use 4-5 gallons a week easily, and I don’t even travel that much right now. *sigh* I guess I can cling to the hope that my favorite fillup station, QuikTrip, will keep the prices low. They’re always the lowest price, plus, they have the yummy drinks. Love me some QT drinks! Mmmmmmmm….Orange Cream-Vanilla slushes.

{inhale}

…wait for it….

{exhale}

Ahhhhhh….oh yes, the pleasant aroma of a new blog. Or something. Well, I guess just picking out a new layout would be more like Fabreze-ing a used car, but you get the picture.

I felt a good change was needed, and hopefully this will be embraced as such. New fonts, new design – definitely more modern in feel, and that keeps in line with the spirit of my posts. Feel free to leave comments on what you think of the changes (good/bad/indifferent) if you have seen the old one.