7 Quick Takes Friday vol. 2

Still insipired by Conversion Diary

1.       While I struggle to complete the rewrite of Lepus, I’ve also been doing preliminary work on another book, this one not set in the ‘Tomiverse’ (as I informally call the massive inter-connected world that most of my books take place in). This book is an epic tale of oppression and rebellion set in an alternate 1890s America. The working title is The Free American Army, but a more fitting name might be Teddy Roosevelt Beats Up Everybody. Other historical figures present include Thomas Edison, Nicolai Tesla, Annie Oakley, newspaper mogul William Randolph Hurst, ultra-badass Federal Marshall Bass Reeves, and the Jersey Devil (who’s one of the main villains). Yeah, I’m loving this.

2.       Ah, I just remembered that Jurassic Park is being rereleased in theaters today! I’ll have to go see it this weekend, probably post a review. Actually, I might make this ‘dinosaur weekend’ and thrown in a dinosaur-themed post for The Catholic Nerd I’ve been working on.

3.       I have a fairly addictive personality; when I find something I like, I want to keep on doing it until I finish. With that in mind, I probably shouldn’t have decided to try Minecraft last weekend. For those who don’t know, it’s a creative puzzle/adventure game aptly described by one reviewer as being less like Crack and more like having everything you need to make your own Crack. On the plus side, I’ve already decided to implement new rules to limit my time with it, so here’s a nice opportunity to practice self-control…yeah, that’s the ticket.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have go build some lava-spewing gargoyles made out of digital blocks…

4.       My parents are in Maine this week visiting my niece (and I suppose they might see my sister and brother-in-law while they’re there), which means I spent most of Easter and the following couple days at their house watching the dog. And I’m doing it again today! It’s not a problem, since I love our dog, but the drive is a rather long one and eats into my gas money pretty quick. And God help me if I forget to bring anything important (it has happened that I’ll get all the way to their house, then remember something I absolutely need and have to run back to my apartment immediately).

5.       As usual, I overindulged during Easter, with bad results (i.e. indigestion). One of the few times in the year where I can eat all the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I want, and it turns out badly! This is indeed a vale of tears.

6.       Speaking of which, I think I’ve fallen into the habit of not snacking. I bought a whole bunch of snacks to feast upon in celebration, but I’m just never hungry enough to indulge, apart from meal times. I guess that’s probably a good thing, but I haven’t even eaten my delicious-looking white-chocolate bunny yet! (I love white chocolate).

7.       Now I’m trying to memorize violin pieces and I think I might have an idea. You see, memorization generally involves translating the information you want to memorize into images or movement. Humans naturally have excellent ‘spacial’ memories; memories for places and objects. Translating a poem or a set of numbers is easy (I have my own code for numbers that has worked every time), but music…not so much. So then I thought “what if I used Minecraft to create a massive score which I could then walk along? That might work, and it’d give me an excuse to play Minecraft some more!”

Actually…that’s probably a bad idea. Never mind.  

7 Quck Takes Friday

1.       Inspired by the excellent Conversion Diary, I’m going to give this a try (because my attempts at regular series have been so successful that I feel perfectly comfortable adding another one).

2.       Last weekend I went down to the local gun-store to purchase my carry pistol (my CCW hasn’t come in yet, but I figured I might as well get ahead of things). Unfortunately, they didn’t have the gun I was looking for in stock. Somewhat on impulse, I compensated by purchasing my dream gun; a Mossberg 590 12-guage pump-action shotgun with an 8-shell magazine (depending on the shell size) and ghost-sights. A little pricey, but I’m planning to pass this thing on to my grandkids some day, so I think it’s a good investment. Since I haven’t had a chance to go out to the range and try it out yet, I’ve held off buying any ammunition, so it’s currently just sitting in its case in my closet being quietly awesome. I occasionally take it so that I can match up what’s in the manual to the gun itself (I’m reading the instructions very carefully so that it doesn’t blow up when I use it), and just to get something of a feel for it. So far I’m loving it, but I’m taking this relationship nice and slow, aware that we haven’t hit the really rough patch where it starts kicking me yet.

3.       On a related note, I have never received better customer service than when I was buying that gun. The guy who sold it to me was extremely helpful; he answered the questions I had about the gun, packed it up for me, then unpacked it so that he could measure it against the case I was buying to make sure it fit (it’s a tight squeeze, but it works), ran through a list of things I needed and steered me towards the best value items. At one point, looking at a cleaning kit, he picked one up, but then said that he thought there was one more or less the same for a lot cheaper…and found it! He didn’t pressure me to buy anything I didn’t need at the moment, and was friendly as could be the whole time. Really, I love that store!

4.       On Tuesday I was officially inducted into the Knights of Columbus. It was a very moving experience; it almost felt like a rite of passage and taking my place in the company of men. All the men there were very pleasant to be around, and I’m looking forward to joining in this community. I’ve already signed up for some charity work this weekend! (It also means that I don’t have to buy a new Rosary after all; my old one was falling apart a little too often. This new one seems to be made of sterner stuff).

5.       Wednesday afternoon I came down with a bout of bad stomach cramps. No idea where they came from, since I didn’t eat anything out of the ordinary that day, but they were an on-again-off-again torment most of the afternoon and evening. One minute I’d be thinking “Oh, I’m fine; I really should go to karate tonight…” then, a short while later it was “thank GOD I didn’t go to karate tonight!” Fortunately, they tapered off towards bedtime and they haven’t really returned since. Weird.

6.       I think I have a new item for my Bucket List: to be invited to speak at Comic Con, an NRA function, and a Catholic Men’s Conference (which reminds me: I need to start a new Bucket List. They keep getting edited out of existence).

7.       My diet for the last week or so has largely consisted of either eggs-and-bacon or pancakes (with or without bacon), occasionally supplemented by either sausages, canned soup, or take-out from the local Coney Island. I have some frozen pork-chops and kielbasa, but I keep forgetting to pull it out the night before so it can defrost. Plus, honestly, I just get lazy a lot. On the plus side, my snacking is now mostly either almonds or carrots-and-peanut-butter, so I’ve got a fairly healthy diet going on that front. I tried Vienna Sausages the other day; they were incredibly revolting and shall have no place in my bomb-shelter.

Day 10

"What do you like to do alone and why are these solitary activities?"

Bad question, since I'm usually alone, and so practically everything I do I do alone. This is partially due to a quiet, solitary temperment, and partially due to the fact that I don't have a whole lot of friends (at least not nearby). So, sad as it is, I'm alone most of the time.

Most things I'm more comfortable doing alone, but don't mind doing in a group. A few things I much prefer to do with someone, and a few others I much prefer to do alone.

Reading is an obvious one. When I'm with someone, I like to talk or actually do something to emphasize that "hey, I'm with someone now! Better make the most of it." Reading, therefore, is a pretty much solitary activity for me, since it seems rude or at least odd to be with someone and have your nose buried in a book.

Exercise I much prefer to take alone. I don't want to be comparing myself to someone else while I'm working (though, admittedly, I can think of some exceptions).

Writing I definitely prefer to do alone, since I'm easily distracted and it takes a good deal of focus to get in "the zone."

Practicing my violin, though this is more a case where I think everyone else would like me to do it alone, since it gets pretty ugly sometimes.

Praying. This may make me a bad Catholic, but I much prefer to pray alone in private, or at least not specifically with someone. That is, I've never really enjoyed it when someone says "come on, let's pray together." I prefer to "wrestle with God" privately, rather than in a group, and I tend to experience His presence better that way. This doesn't apply to Mass, obviously.

Finally, when I'm stressed or upset I typically prefer just to retreat from everyone else and let it 'drain out' of me. Sometimes, particularly for really major problems, I like talking it out with friends, but more often I just prefer to back out and let it run it's course in private.

Evolution of a Gun-Nut

I am in the process of mutating into a gun-nut.

The transformation has had subtle beginnings: I used to just be an ordinary guy who thought a gun would be useful for self-defense and a little fun down at the range, but I swallowed the standard line about "no one needs X gun, because that's just nuts."

But then I started reading up on guns in preparation for getting my CCW permit. I found 'gun-culture' blogs. I began hearing about the new gun control measures being proposed. And slowly, subtly, I began to change.

It first came when I learned that 'assault weapons' were a. not really assault rifles, b. extremely useful since they're effective and easy to shoot, and c. exactly the sort of things the 2nd Amendment was written to protect.

Once I accepted 'assualt weapons' as good and just, the blinders fell off and I saw the light. I realized that it's kind of odd that the one item that citizens are explicitly permitted to own has become so difficult to purchase.

The transformation had become inevitable; I would become a gun-nut at the rising of the full moon.

Why have I embraced this change?

First of all, because the gun-nuts I've read and encountered have a much higher rate of knowing what the heck they're talking about than the other side (don't believe me? Look up 'Joe Biden on self-defense' and shed a little tear for our country).

Second, because the more I read the news the more I adapt a 'survivalist' mentality and feel that the soundest financial investment at the moment is "to put everything I have into canned food and shotguns" (I love that line: Gremlins 2, in case you're wondering).

Finally, let's face it; guns are a lot of fun. I can't wait to try out that 12-gauge I've got my eye on (though I can't buy it until the weather clears up and I can go practice with it).

Molon Labe!

Rush Hour

    Last night, after a long, tiring day at work (not the worst I've had over the past week, but annoying. Why does our Xerox guy only buy supplies for one of our three machines?), I decided to just go to Adoration instead of going all the way to my parents' house for karate. Had a good session with Jesus, then got back in my car, thinking about how relaxing it would be to be able to go home and not have to think about overdue invoices for another twelve hours at least.
    Then, a little distracted, I realized I had missed the turn onto the expressway.
    You see, the chapel where I usually go to adoration is attached to the complex where one of my friends works, whom I occassionally meet there for lunch. So, I've gotten in the habit of taking the far entrance ramp leading south to my office, rather than the nearer one leading north to my apartment. Keep in mind that it is about 5:00 PM at this point, and that both routes will get me home in a reasonable amount of time.
    So, naturally, I decided to try to turn around.
    Again; 5:00 PM. In a business-friendly area.
    A traffic light, two parking lots, and another missed on-ramp later, I realize that in order to turn around I'm going to have to go back into the place I just came from (the complex with the adoration chapel) and essentially start from scratch.
    Now, this was maybe ten minutes after I had left it the first time. At that point there had been a line of two-or-three cars waiting to turn. As I pulled into the complex for a second time, I saw a line of cars stretching as far as the eye could see and even around a corner with a stop sign.
   It was about now that it occurredd to me that I really should have just taken the longer route home instead of trying to turn around in the middle of rush hour.
 

New Year's Resolutions:

1. Blog more often!

Self explanatory.

2. Read the Entire Bible:

I tried this once before and got bogged down in Sirach. So, this year I'm taking another crack at it!

3. Spend less time on the Computer

Slightly at odds with number 1, but I honestly waste far too much time on the computer and I'd like to change that: read, write, exercise, draw, play violin, and just do all the many non-computer-required things there are to do.

4. Develop a Writing Routine

I've made some progress with this, but there's definite room for improvement.

5. Become Conversational in Italian

Yeah, I need to step up the language studies a lot.

6. [REDACTED]

A private one; I'll let you know if I actually accomplish it.

On my New Blog

So far I am having an absolute blast with my new blog, The Catholic Nerd. For one thing, it feels like this is the kind of writing I've always wanted to do, but haven't had the opportunity to (been too wrapped up in trying to sound professional and serious). For another, I get to do things like equate the atheistic version of God to a cross between Superman and Jason Voorhees, complete with picture.

Speaking of pictures, the only real problem I've run into so far is the fact that I keep having to delay posts until I can find and/or make the right illustrations. This has necessitated my re-installing Photoshop on my old laptop and spending a little too much time messing around in Garry's Mod. It also means that I generally have to wait until I get home to publish them, since I can't make the pictures at work. Like I could have posted my recent piece on atheism today, but I decided that I really needed a Time's Square ad from an uptight spinster to illustrate my point properly, and so I must delay.

I've got big plans for this blog. I'm hoping to make something really unique and wonderful out of it. Stay tuned!

Work Complaints

I've come to the conclusion that I don't much like my job. The pay's good, and all (though I confess I have an irrational dislike for benefits packages brought on by three years of dying a little inside everytime I hear the word 'healthcare'), and the environment is generally pretty quiet, and as long as I get my work done no one minds if I write or blog at work.

Okay, put like that, I have pretty much nothing to complain about, job-wise. Except for the insane uselessness of the accounts payable people. I mean, do they ever even read my e-mails? Cause if they do, they certainly don't act like it. One day I'm going to test them by writing the most incredibly insulting e-mail my twisted mind can create, and then when they complain I'll just say "Oh, so you do read my e-mails! So why do you never pay the phone bill like I ask you to, you..."

But I digress.

I suppose my real problem with my job is that I honestly don't care about it much. I have no interest in cars except as a means of transportation, and even less in car parts like wipers and lighting. I have even less in...whatever it is I actually work with. Numbers, and papers and that bloody SAP program and vendors who somehow keep managing to lose the numbers off of the purchase orders that they'd like to get paid for now. Then they start furiously complaining that they aren't getting paid soon enough when I tell them the PO is marked for payment next month and they yell at me for that, then I have to inform them that the company only pays twice a month, so it'll be another week and then the payment date falls on a weekend so...

There I go again.

It's not the fact of the problems; I know there'll be problems everywhere I work. It's the fact that these are such ridiculous and dull problems. They're the kind of problems that makes one think "what am I doing with my life?!" and then return to that fantasy of going down south and opening up a rattlesnake sanctuary (yes, I have seriously considered that. Rattlesnakes need protection too, you know!).

In any case, I am now firmly convinced that my future does not lie in the corporate world (or at least, not in administration). I will probably work here for at least another year or two, but I'll be looking for a way out. In the meantime, I thank God I have a good, steady job that isn't actively odious and that gives me time to write things like this.

Disappointing Halloween

There are a number of families in my apartment complex, so I naturally assumed there woudl be trick-or-treaters.

I was fairly excited about it; I boought a bunch of large candy bars to overflow my largest bowl, then I went out and bought a few more just to be safe. I bought a pumpkin, threw together a quick 'Death' costume, and even came up with a few macabre jokes to play on the kids ("Your fate involves eating too much candy"). Switched on the light, settled in, and waited.

Turns out I may have overestimated the number of children in my apartment complex.

No trick-or-treaters: not one. I was disappointed, even a little sad. I had been looking forward to handing out candy to the cute little ghoulies and ghosties and pop-culture beasties. Now I'm stuck with a large bowl of candy-bars that I have to finish myself.

At least I got some writing done. And my costume was pretty cool for all it's simplicity.

Random Updates

After months of no reviews, I went ahead and posted five in a row at 'Catholicity of Taste.' They were old ones from last year's 'Halloween Movies' project, which I'm attempting to repeat this year. The only trouble is that I've been sick for the past few days and whether it's from that or the medicine I'm taking (sweet nyquil! No one understands me like you do...) my mind feels sluggish and uncreative and my writing is coming out lame and rambling. Hopefully I'll have this year's first Halloween film posted around the middle of this week so that the second one will go up over the weekend (what are my picks this year? Wait and see...).

I also feel bad about not posting Day 6 sooner. The problem with that one is that it required a good deal of thought and my thoughts kept getting interrupted. Let's comit to posting it sometime this week.

I discovered that I like canned chicken-noodle soup last weekend. Or at least, I like it until it runs out of chicken and all that's left are soggy noodles (which takes a disturbingly short amount of time). As a bonus, I finally have some cans to collect my bacon grease (yes, I'm fairly excited about that). I'm also a little disturbed that I now can track the phases of my bi-annual illnesses fairly closely now.

Unplugging

I'm making a conscious effort to slow down and limit my time on the computer. Right now it eats up way too much of my time and there are far too many half-finished projects lying around, waiting for me to return to them. For instance, I'm finally trying to finish Ronald Reagan's autobiography, which I started...wow, I think even before I moved into my apartment! (about five-hundred-plus pages in: lot's of talk about relations with the Soviet Union).

I'm returning to guitar after yet another week-plus hiatus, and once my new (used-good condition) Italian phrasebook comes in, I'll be able to step up my sadly neglected language studies. I'm rediscovering my love for books, which has been rather forgotten in my love for sitting at the computer pretending to write while I actually read political and fitness blogs.

Another thing I'm doing is trying to make time for silent meditation and prayer. In particular, I like to sit/kneel silently in front of my crucifx for five minutes or so, taking it in and letting my thoughts dwell on the inconceivable sacrifice of Christ. It's a good way to fortify myself for the day and clear my head for the night.

Work Thoughts

Today is my first full day sitting out in the lobby.

See, we've done some re-arranging where I work, and as part of that process my desk got moved out to the lobby. This means that I'm rather isolated from the rest of the building, but also that I get a door, a lot of space, and big windows to look of (it also means that people are less likely to notice if I'm updating my blog at work).

Thoughts:

8:15 AM You know, the constantly-looping TV isn't as annoying as I thought it would be; I can pretty much tune it out whenever I want.

9:30 AM  My boss seems to worry about whether I mind being out here.

10:49 AM Receiving a few calls, dealing with invoices, doodling a few cartoons...feel like a genuine receptionist!

11:30 AM Someone just received a 60-lbs package and he's not at his desk!

11:40 AM Lunch time!

12:40 PM Back from lunch!

1:12 PM Always so tired after lunch: why can't the day end with lunch?

2:16 PM I really like Alfred Edward Housman!

2:40 PM An interesting effect: there's a hallway that runs pretty much the length of the building which begins right outside the frosted-glass door to the lobby. That means I can see someone's shadow on the glass as they walk all the way down the hall. The effect is kind of creepy: like they're just walking and walking, but not going anywhere.

3:08 PM Writing pithy political jokes...

3:48 PM Time to start packing up...

Momento Mori

Every so often, I will remember the fact that every day could be my last and that I need to seize the moment and get busy living.

The trouble with these moments is that there seem to be a lot of things on my "try to do before you die" list. The result tends to be a rather overwhelming set of tasks that I suddenly remember I need to get to work on (write another chapter, no a blog post, no say a Rosary, no try to meet up with a friend, no write another e-mail to *redacted*, no practice Italian, no...).

I tend to over think things, especially 'hypothetical' or theoretical (or whatever '-etical' you would call it) propositions. If someone says "imagine this is your last day on Earth..." it doesn't really motivate me because I think of what I would do if I literally knew this was my last day on Earth, and those things definitely wouldn't include going to work or writing another chapter of a book I'd never finish.

More useful is the simple awareness that there is no gaurantee of tomorrow...or, heck, even another hour. Though, again, this tends to put me into panic mode where I try to think of all the things I want to do and it's like they get stuck trying to get through the door of my mind ("The three-stooges syndrome").

Momento Mori is like the nuclear option of motivation: the tricky part is channelling the energy productively, rather than letting it just spread out in confusion and eventually dissipate.

On my lack of blogging

I tend to blog in fits and starts. When I'm feeling good or energetic, I blog more. When I'm depressed or unhappy, I blog less.

That conclusion you're drawing about the last week or so? Probably correct.

The thing is, blogging and writing in general is therapeutic, but it requires a good deal of effort. When I'm depressed, I don't feel like making any kind of effort, even when I know it'll help.

Why, no, now that you mention it, that isn't a very sensible attitude.

So why don't I make the bloody effort and start blogging again if I know it'll perk me up? Well, honestly gentle reader, what do you think the point of this post is?

To conclude, here are some quotes currently floating around in my head (because I love quotes!)

"Sadness is just another word for 'not enough coffee'"
-Wally, Dilbert

"Had I such a wife, I would not willingly bring a tear to her beautiful eye!"
-Andrew Jackson, after seeing Lewis Robards yelling at Robards then-wife, Rachel, later Jackson's wife.

"A page of history is worth a volume of logic."
-Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

Calvin's Mom (on the phone): "WHAT DO YOU MEAN CALVIN LEFT HIS CLOTHES AT SUSIE'S!?"
-Calvin and Hobbes

Thoughts at Work

9:37 AM
Oh, good! Another company has split one purchase order between two invoices, requiring me to create two distinct receipt numbers! I'm going to go read some politics to cheer me up...yep, Obama's still incompetant and possibly evil. Still, at least he makes more sense than SAP.

10:05 AM
Italian Wikipedia doesn't have an article on Solanus Casey...though it does have a fairly elaborate one on Padre Pio. 'E Stato' apparently means 'was:' it shows up all the time in wikipedia articles...

10:25 AM
Most people are in meetings, and since I need their information that means I can't do any work right now...

10:43 AM
Work, work, listen to co-workers chatting, work...

10:55 AM
Morrison Industrial! "I am the lizard king!"

11:36 AM
As a side note, you can tell the Democrats are feeling confident about this election since it's not like they're doing anything really childish like comparing Romney to a Batman villain or anything pathetic like that...oh, wait.

11:41 AM
I think I'm gonna go to lunch...

12:45 PM
Mmm, good lunch!

12:50 PM
Blogging about the whole 'Bain=Bane' thing...

1:51 PM
Just went and got the mail. Reading about the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest on Wikipedia. Two more hours...

2:10 PM
Did Pyrrhus do anything right?

2:39 PM
Starting to get to the 'I think I drank too much coffee' phase of the day.

3:50 PM
My car is ready to be picked up from the service center, so I'm leaving.

On what I don't write about

I just got back from a delightful visit to my sister in Maine and her adorable daughter (who just turned one this last week! *party-favor-noise*!). While I was there we had a little while to talk about writing and blogging and the like. She mentioned that she likes reading about day-to-day life, random thoughts, and personal reflections and that sort of thing.

I don't really blog much about day-to-day life, because frankly I think my day-to-day life is pretty boring: I go to work and sit rather numbly in an office all day, doing dull administrative jobs, writing, reading politics, and occasionally chatting with my co-workers. At home I read or sit on the computer, occasionally exercising or trying to learn guitar. Not a whole lot of gist to write about.

The interesting points in my life, the things that occupy most of my non-writing-related thoughts meanwhile, tend to be too private to post online. They're things I want to keep closer to chest (so to speak) until I have a better grasp on them. I hope, in the future, to be able to write about them, but for the moment I am being delicate and cautious. Plus, I think I'm naturally a rather private person; partially from bad past experiences and partially because of a rather pathological desire not to bother anyone with my own petty grievances :).

In any case, certain topics of my concern are, for the time being, off-limits blogwise. If any become suddenly available (which, in case you are confused on the subject, would be a very good thing), I'll be sure to alert you that this is one of those 'Forbidden' subjects before launching into it.

Day 3: Imagine You Are a Baby

Imagine you are a baby. Look around the room - see everything for the first time! Describe.

There’s a space…a space outside me! I wonder if there’s anything outside of it? There’s definitely an end to the space though: white borders all around. There are big blocks in front of all the borders too: some of them are very flat, others kind of stick out a little. Most of them have different colors on them, especially the ones that stick out. One of the flat ones is kind of odd; it glows a little it’s nice to look at. Then in front of that there’s a weird black thing; it doesn’t really have a shape. I don’t think I like that one very much, it's a little scary. Whatever I’m sitting on sure is comfortable, but it keeps moving whenever I move. I’m not sure I like that. There’s some grey stuff beneath me, that must be another border. And on it there’s a group of lumpy little objects; they don’t look very interesting. There’s also a curvy black thing. Maybe it’s the same sort of thing as that other black thing, the one I didn’t like? This one is much nicer looking. There’s also a curvy brown thing a little ways away from it. That looks like the most interesting thing in the place: I’d like to roll it around a little and see what happens. Oh, and there’s a green thing in front of the flat glowing block. It’s moving a little, but it looks interesting. Actually, it looks kind of tasty. I'd like to try out that curvy brown thing now...

New Goal

I'm announcing a new goal (which I actually set last week, but anyway) of giving myself sixty days to finish the first draft of my next book: The Chronicles of Hendricks. This is a rather daunting task, since not only is Hendricks envisioned as a lot longer than Lepus, but I'm still working on some basic details. There's certainly a lot that I know will be going on, but the story's anchor, its theme so to speak, still eludes me at the moment. Nevertheless, I'm plugging away at it as best I can, and hopefully I'll come up with a good solid truth to wrap the story around before I get too much farther.

The goal is to finish the first draft by July 23rd. Wish me luck!

On Cemeteries

                Yesterday I attended Mass at the local cemetery and then took a while to wander the graves, reading the headstones. It was very moving, reading the names of people long dead, seeing the dates of their lives marked out. Some lived well into their seventies or eighties, others barely lasted a few days, but each was laid to rest here in this peaceful piece of property. Some were marked with identifications like “U.S. Army” or “SSRGT U.S. Marine Corps,” together with the war they served in, if any. Most of them had small flags stuck into the ground next to them. Many were double markers for husbands and wives, complete with the date of their marriage.

                The overwhelming idea that struck me again and again was not the fact of death, but of life. Here were people who had lived, bled, loved, and died, who had run the race and fought the fight. Here their lives were summarized in a few names and dates, and yet I could imagine or picture them as clearly as if I had read their biographies, if not quite in the details then at least in the feeling, the impression of their lives. Life in all its complexities, struggles, joys, and pains was made manifest to me in a way it seldom has. There are few places where the reality of life is made more tangible than in a cemetery. It felt to me like I could endure all the pain and suffering that is to come better for knowing that these resting souls had done so before me.   

                As I walked along, I was remembering something that Abraham Lincoln said once. He and his wife were driving through a cemetery, and he was so struck by the tranquility and beauty of the place that he had the driver pause for a while. “Mary,” he said. “You are younger than I, and you will outlast me. When I die, lay my remains in a place like this.”

On Epigraphs

Lepus is essentially complete, or at least ready to be sent out for its first test in the real world with unsuspecting minds. I'm eager (and a little nervous) to see how it's received, since, like most of my stories, it's kind of an odd little duck. Not to mention that this is the very first feeler of the massive 'Tomiverse' to be reached out into the world at large. Success means that more will follow. Failure...well, I'm not really sure what will happen in the event of failure, to be honest.

The only thing that's really left to do is to finish adding the epigraphs. See, I've decided that every book, chapter, and short-story that I write will be preceded by a short quotation, and right now I'm struggling to find the right ones for the two chapters of Lepus that still lack them.

I really enjoy the process of collecting epigraphs. In the first place it gives me an incentive to read more classic literature (I've read two new Shakespeare plays over the past couple weeks) and collect tons and tons of quotations. Also, I love the symbolism, the play of subtlties involved in finding just the right quotation for each chapter. I try to pick quotes that don't just allude to what will happen, but which actually lend deeper meaning to the events, or foreshadow future developments, or hint at an unexpected interpretation. When I find the perfect quote, it's like finding the right piece of a jiggsaw puzzle or the solution to some brain-teaser: a combination of delight at my own cleverness and gratitude that such a quote exists and fits my story so well.

Though it's not just classic literature: I've made it a rule that nothing is out-of-bounds or unworthy to be a source for a quote, only provided that it fits. In Lepus, for instance, I've got quotes from Confucius, Dante, Iron Man, I Was a Teenage Werewolf (seriously) and, of course, Watership Down among others. I'm going by the same rule that applies to "Catholicity of Taste:" whatever tells the truth and tells it well is acceptable.

The delay has also given me a chance to make some last minute edits and adjustments before sending it out. I'm hoping to settle on the final two quotes this weekend and send it out for critiquing either Sunday or Monday. Exciting!