I was Thinking, or Not

Okay, this should have been under a different blog, so sue me. This is about poetry, more specifically the reading of poetry.  I haven't been to a reading in a while, but recently (as recently as today) I have checked out some clips of local and national readings of poetry, and I think to myself, what the fuck happened man. When I was reading poetry there was some of this active performance art going on, in fact I was part of it.  You think I wore weird clothes and outlandish jewelry in everyday life, well maybe back then I did, but not now.  I look back on my days as a poet, or should I say performance artist, and think wow I must have been drunk, if I at all sounded like the poets I hear now. On looking at the crap I used to try to pass off as poetry to the people who all seemed to think it was awesome, I wonder were they all drunk as well. I have re-read most of the classics now, or am reading some of them now, and think how can anyone compare to this.  T...

From: Letters to No One in Particular These friends that you speak of, yes I know them quite well… they are an illusion to me now. I still think of “friends” that were friends once upon a time, far far away.  I see their lives play out on the screen from the safety of my monitor, alive, but barely living.  Why haven’t we kept in touch, what has changed all that much, I can not say, but it was a long, long ways away. Ah, but I have reached out, here and there, the occasional call, a casual hello, maybe even a conversation sometimes, that will lead to an agreement to meet sometime, but it will never be arranged.  We are all too busy with our lives.  We have all changed, and grew away from that time, we remember, if we choose to, but most of us choose not to, it wasn't all that pretty even back then. The last time we met, I was too strung out to forget, or I was too sober to compete with anyone’s bet.  There were a couple of times I do not regret,...

Prologue For a good portion of my life I have worked to create a dream.  Initially the creation was quite different, with very much a strict code of control, very fascist in its design.  I would say that at the age of 14 or so I was looking at the world from quite a different perspective.  I had recently finished several works such as Mein Kampf, Karl Marx, Brave New World, and 1984, among others, and had at that time understood that people were not capable of making good decisions for themselves. Although for the most part, I understand that now the same may be true of people, on the individual level, we should still reserve the right to make our own bad decisions.  Perhaps I would like to see a greater degree of self responsibility, especially from the commercial industries, but still I do not expect as much from people as I might once have.  That being said, my dream has but transmuted rather than changed altogether. It certainly would be quite nos...

Occasionally I read a local paper, and wonder who writes for these things.  I am just old enough that I remember when newspapers and local rag sheets were still bigger than the internet.  Hell I wrote for a few local sheets myself back then, but those were different times.  Today I read a review and wonder, really does the reviewer get paid for this.  It is not that I find the online reviews much better, just that I feel I guess that printed ones should be better than the online ones. Now I should not say much, I have not written in quite some time, much more than my web logs and a few reviews on various sites like Amazon and the like, it is just really, food blogs are better, how did that happen.  I expected I guess that newspapers would still uphold a bit of decorum and not just produce a printed version of a blog. I remember saying back, oh way back, when computers were still mostly business machines and geek toys, that this will change the publishing...

Finally after 5 days of viewing reviews and looking at hundreds of options, I decided on a new pen.  Amazing I know, why should I agonize over something like a pen, when I have a computer.  Well I will get into that later. First I had pretty quickly narrowed it down to the Parker IM and the Lamy Safari as far as the pens went.  Both of them seem to be good pens for the money, really costing about the same.  They both require a converter to allow them to be used with an ink bottle, so that was not a consideration.  It really came down to, the Parker looks a little more classic, while the Lamy looks a little more modern.  I prefer the more classic look of the Parker, that is all that can be established right now.  My hope is that it will perform well enough that I will never have to make the comparison, but I might anyway someday. I agree with many people, these are decent pens for the money, I am not expecting above $100.00 feel or perfor...

I just want to forget, all that is behind me. I don't want to think, feel or care, but slide into the darkness. I am forced into this existence, this place where I must pretend to like my place. I have had my life dictated by children, and I am through with it. I just want to forget, and be forgotten.

This here is a small snippet from my current work, while it is in draft.  It may be quite some time before this one actually sees publication as it is a long work, and there is most likely many revisions yet to go even after I have completed the first or second draft.  This is just to see if there is any interest out there, well no not really, it is just because I wanted to, but I will most likely release a few other choice chunks as it develops, nothing to telling, but just enough to show the color of the canvas. Coincidentally at this point I don't even know if this will make it to the final copy, as it is very raw, and nothing is quite yet set in type so to speak.  So here it is, please comment if you find it at all interesting, as any interest will be met with my usual response, which often is none at all, but maybe, just maybe, if I feel giving, I might respond.  The most likely response will be the release of additional bits and pieces, which might happen an...

I got up at 7:00 this morning, because I wanted to have time to myself, because that is when I write the best.  It is now 7:50, and I am just now starting to write in this blog.  Most of the time has been spent catering to the dogs.  As much as I like the little dogs, and I do like them, they are consumers, consumers of time, consumers of food, consumers of needs. The computer is the same way, I turned it on at about 7:15 this morning, and it was at least a 1/2 hour before I was able to really use it, even if I could have.  Most of that is my fault, I run lots of scans at start up, virus scans, clean-up scans, and I also have lots of start-up programs, like networked drives and cloud services. In fact I do a lot of things that get in my own way.  I have yet to figure them all out, but they are there because I am for the most part my own worst enemy.  Just like this blog which is rambling and headed no where, I get in my own way.  I should be talki...

EW2: Diary of a Alchemist If I were a rich man, I would buy stupid things, like a  Bodum French Press, 12 oz. (Google Affiliate Ad) coffee maker, and a Bodum Bistro Black Burr Grinder (Google Affiliate Ad) .  I don’t like the grinders I have had in the past, always trying to grind the coffee too fast.  This generates heat, and burns the grind before it even touches the heat of the water.  Is this too much to ask.  If I were a wealthy man, like a sultan or a king, or better still like a priest, I would make coffee every morning for myself and anyone who stopped by, as long as they brought some sort of treat. I would buy my coffee in large sacks, 50 lbs at least, a 100 kilo or so most often, and in the green, and roast it myself, in a roasting house.  The smoky flavors would waft upon the wind, calling out to princes and peasants and bakers of all sorts.  I would blend my coffee as I pleased for the moment, although more often than not, it would be a ...

For those that wonder, what the hell am I up to, well here is a taste of what is being now rewritten to be released most likely in the early part of January.  This is just a snippet of a second draft, but I think it will give you a little feel for what is coming.  Don't mind the names, they are still up for debate, as are some other details, but the story is fully developed, has been for many years, it was just waiting for today to get out from the notebook into cyberspace. My News Years Gift to all of you, enjoy. Sleeping Dogs “Well it is about time we got to work, don’t you think?” John said to the crew of men who were working on the (Greek word for dog).  If they were not already working such long hours now, they would be, and he knew they were capable of much more. As a chorus rose in practiced harmony, “Dogs don’t work this hard on Mars” they all sang. John knew the refrain to that old song; he knew it from every point of view.  He had been where ...

I was working on a project, I had tentatively titled "Cooking With Arleta".  Arleta for anyone that does not already know is my wife, and she is a passionate and superb cook.  This was supposed to be a collaboration between us, incorporating some of my style with mostly her style, with me writing it, as I happen to write often. I was hoping this project would go quickly and I would have it done by this Spring, but while I feel that this should be easily accomplished, it most likely will not be this year.  Therefore I will be writing another book instead, one that also has been waiting in the wings, although I can not at this time provide any reasonable time table, as it is only in rough draft. I will provide more when more is known, thank you for your patients and attention. JD

Well the book "Another Fey Tail" has been downloaded 84 times so far, so I hope that will be good for later, when I release the next episode in the series.  Episode three should be out sometime in the first week of January, with episode 4 following about two weeks there after.  I am going to try to get them out every two weeks, as I also will be releasing two other works in serial format, as well as two books, sometime this spring.  I am hoping that everyone will like the serial format, as I like the way it works for me.  It allows me to get some of the work out there while I complete the rewrites on the rest of it. I have already started the second book in the series, and as it stands right now, it will only be two books, which once released fully in serial format, will be released in a collection of the two volumes in hard cover format, sometime around this time next year.  I really hope to release the hard cover format around the end of November of 2012, b...

Well I am not a drawer, this much is quite well documented.  I know they all say you can if you want to, blah, blah, blah, I apparently do not want to, 'cause I draw even on computer like crap.  However I need a cover for the book, and since I am not about to hire an artist, well it really comes down to economics, I can not afford an artist, and I do not have much time left to complete this, I have made a mad attempt at it.  This is the first draft so to speak of the cover art, I am still not certain I like it, but it may just come down to run what you brought type of thing. Well that's it I figure it isn't as bad as I might have thought initially, but I am uncertain, so I will have to see how I like it later.  And before anyone ask, no the symbols do not mean anything, they are just stylized graphics loosely based on the Sumerian cuneiform.

What do you mean another usual day, it is Solstice, don't you know what that means? Yea, another holiday, on top of all the other holidays, that have been pressed upon this season to distract a good hard working person from their assigned duties.  It meant something once, long ago, before, before it meant nothing, just like everything else does.  Now it is quietly observed properly by those that still believe they are in tune with something they have very little connection to. You can not buy a holiday.  You can not go out and purchase a season.  Your money is no good here, in this celebration.  It isn't about what you have, but what you share, what you give, what you do with what you have, not what you can get from what you don't have. That is not what has made this an unusual day.  The other day I did my annual friend list update on Facebook.  This is the day where I add people who seem to matter to me, for some reason, or I might think I...

The Facing Place  (The Story of a Store) What is a store, but a place to store things.  The basis that it has a retail aspect is but an effect of the fact that it stores things.  The goods that a store has is what is provided to it from the people who make things, or harvest things, or otherwise bring into reality, stuff that needs storage.  These are things that are over and above those things that each individual could have, or would have, in such quantities as that they had a surplus of things, such as that they would need additional storage for that surplus.  Being that they do not have the storage for the surplus, and short of building storage for the surplus, they have no place to place this surplus of things, so they need storage. They could purchase storage, but then they would need an ever increasing amount of storage for those things that do not perish, and would need to distribute or dispose of those things that do perish, creating the need for a...