student Loan Blues

I got the Student Loan Blues
That Ol' Department of Education
they did me wrong, now it's got me singing dis song
they "randomly" selected me so they could give my debt
to my old lender who lied to me and...
I got the blues.

Ah, Hell, the short of it is apparently the government is so overloaded with managing student loan debt that they are "randomly" selecting loans and farming them out to other vendors to manage the repayment for them.
Reasons why I don't buy that is was random:
1. The reason I was with Direct Loans is because EdFinanacial lied to me about being able to consolidate through them and then wouldn't do it.
2. would even discuss a repayment plan with me 3 years ago when I was wanting to start paying my loans back. They wanted more than I was making as a "income sensitive" repayment plan as they stated
3. they are local to Tennessee
4. the DOE is famous for passing the buck and un-assuming responsibility  for just about everything. Don't believe me? ask them about no child left behind some time.

it's no wonder that student loan forgiveness is a mostly magical and thus mythical being that is often hunted for, seldom discovered and never tastes as good as it looked on the spit.

That's it.
Lucky for me that EdFinancial appears to be more reasonable 3 years since the last time I talked to them.

Sunday and a Funeral

Talk about opposites. Today is Sunday services with the  promises of Hope and the Memories of the departed to follow. Working for a church can change a person. So much  of what we regularly take for granted happens  here in stark contrast day to day. There are always calls for food, shelter, safety. There is almost without fail someone here looking for something he or she is  claiming to be without. We  have to  take them  at their word if we are to be what we say we are.
At the  same time we must also be a paragon of virtue, honesty. kindness and compassion.  A church is more than a building and more than a beacon in a world that  is constantly filled with darkness and  hopelessness. Even  if  you are an  Atheist or one in  doubt, a church must continue to be all  this even if you cannot accept  it as anything but a lie. A church is  the best bet. It should always be a person's best hope  for safety, mercy, compassion and peace.
The mission of a church  is to be a geologic center in an otherwise unsure  world and a rock that provides  stability to the community.
Many churches fail to do this, only  because they forget why they are  there in  the first place. Like most of  life, the rule of thumb is: It is almost always the few that stand out from the many.  The very nature of our collective humanity is to look to the few or the one rather than the many or the masses to determine our collective fates.
We hand  off inevitably to the singular entities of Government led usually by an individual or small group  of people that we have laid our trust with- undeserved  or not. Whether  it is a democracy or monarchy- the  rule of the  few or one continues  to be the way the  collective masses prefer.
It is thus up to  the few or one to be responsible to the many that becomes Paramount.  As a  church this is equally  important. As a Christian Church, my church, it is crucial to remember that it was the one who sacrificed himself  so  the masses may find forgiveness  and new life in  this world and the  next (should there be  one).
So here  I am on  Sunday with birth and  death  around me reminding myself that even if it is  just my job, it is my responsibility and duty to remember where  I am and what I am doing as the day progresses towards evening.

It helps  that I believe in what I do.
It helps that I believe even if you do not.
It helps me to  help you.

Saturday and a Wedding

I plan to have Sushi for Lunch and then shoot a Wedding and then go buy a Pizza from Fresh Market (three meat and buy Summer Squash, Zucchini and Cheese to top it, maybe some sausage as well. Life in the not so fast lane for old Mike.
Worked on blogs today instead of mowing the lawn or cleaning out the barn.
got to get back on track with Inklings and the Write a book or two blog. Will have to see what I can come up with after I prep for the wedding and wait for it to start.
Tonight I will be watching the Doc Martin Movie and Midnight in Paris.

It is strange, not really having "days off," when you are mostly self-employed there is seldom time to take off especially when you job primarily starts on Sunday Mornings. Saturdays are usually my only day off, but not for the next few months since we have a pretty hectic wedding schedule. I don't mind, I got bills to pay. Money to save.
It does seem like a distant memory when I had my last real day off or my last vacation. It isn't but the time seldom comes around and when it does I seldom do anything useful with the time anyway- probably why I take so few days off or vacations for that matter. My few vacations have been mostly to visit my dad which in of itself is another how kind of work. In short, I have to grab relaxation in between everything and everyone.

Then its back to work, like I am about to do now.

I seem to hear that beautiful food calling out to me. Sushi has to be one of the most beautiful foods (visually) that I have ever seen.

Quote of the Day: "If all my friends were to jump off a bridge, I wouldn't jump with them, I'd be at the bottom to catch them."
                                                                       (I don't know who said it.)
only in the figurative sense since literally that could be painful given the current state of physics

Friday and it's alright

Spent much of yesterday cleaning out the Red Shed- the hub of MV2 Enterprises. As I was stripping down computers to resell parts and hopefully recycle/sell of the cases and listening to the same 5 cassette tapes over and over again on the cassette deck I never managed to sell, I got to thinking about what is any of this stuff worth in the long run?
We accumulate all of this stuff in our lives, especially Americans, I suspect as you find less developed countries and I mean "developed"- I suppose the average person acquires less stuff/possessions. It's hard to imagine being able to pack up your entire life in a suitcase or cardboard box. But there are so many more people in the world who do just that. You would think that people in places like India, China and Japan where population density high and space a premium that they would have very few possessions, and while many do- I have seen that they also have a lot of stuff. But it is still nothing in comparison to the piles and piles of junk that many Americans have.
I know from my own accumulation of things that I still have too much stuff, and I live in a 16x16 foot 2 story house and only use a fraction of our barn for my own things (this is not including my stock in the Red Shed or the tools/power equipment in the Barn- my next major overhaul there). But in my house, if I were going to start listing all the stuff I have acquired in my 42 years- it would astound many many people.
I will summarize a few items to give you an idea.
1. 300 plus comic books
2. 25 plus video games for Xbox & Xbox 360
3. 4 computers (2 desktops, 1 laptop & 1 netbook)
4. 30 or so fiction books
5. 15 CDs (down from my last purge of 100CDs)
6. 40plus DVDs and Blu-rays
7. a lot of clothes by my standards (nothing compared to my relatives standards- I might as well be nude by their standards if you looked at what they have by comparison)
8. furniture for all that stuff.

It is not as much as I did have- thankfully for my enterprising nature, over the last 13 or so years I have sold off a lot of my stuff. (actually I started selling off my stuff when I sold off most of my stars wars toys via flea markets back in the early 90's).

The question of the day is: How much stuff does a person really need?


Quote of the day: "I'm tapped out, American Express has got a hitman looking for me."
                                                                                 Bud Fox (Wallstreet [movie])

Trying to Ping and why I hate passwords

I am trying to unify my twitter/facebook/other social media under a service called ping.fm and who has have a hissy bitch fit but twitter - first it won't accept the password I thought I had then it goes into this overly complex verification process including about the least legible captcha process- and I love this part instead of like every other one I have EVER USED- this one wants the words separated by a space- all the others you just put in the words and off you go, so I finally get that right and then it wants my cell phone number and then won't accept it and then just to add insult to injury it locks me out for at least an hour thereby killing my integration exercise.
How did this come about, you ask (which you didn't but I am pretending here) Frelling (not familiar with that word- go watch Farscape) Passwords. Frelling Passwords I repeat.
One day my life was fine, then everything went to hell, now I spend more time trying to remember all my usernames and passwords until I get that squint in my right eye and I want to strangle as many geeks and nerds I can find who are responsible for this mess.
Yes, I have too many passwords/password variations and usernames for all the sites that want them.
Twitter is just one of the many that drive me to distraction.

Now I am going to go kill something on my Xbox- hopefully a web security specialist nerd.

Mike

Quote on this parsec: "I need a whiskey, a shotglass, two bullets and a gun."
                                                                              Captain Sheridan.

One Day in the Life of.

Am writing this blog pretty late since everything just kept getting in the way today.

One thing I have resolved to do is read my horoscope (yes that Astrology stuff actually does provide some insight for my day) No I don't actually believe for a moment that Stars could get along with each other long enough to tell us mere mortals a thing or two. But, sometime the coincidences are surprising.

It's like this thing I have with street lights, not all of them but a few that tend to go out when I drive past them. Is it my imagination, not completely, the light does goes out and like a good reader, I always take note of them when they do.
Sometimes the stars don't lie
sometimes the women I knew didn't try
quite as hard as it was when I could have gone
for crying later.

Quote for the day (from the Black Book of Quotes:

"You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it come true:
                                          You may have to work for it, however."
                                                                                     Richard Bach.


Good Night Folks!

Shouting Out on Earth Day

Yes, if you blinked you missed it.
TODAY WAS EARTH DAY


In other news, I had to smile my big goofy smile. Mac Users (the smug ones who are the first to tell you with big stupid grins why Macs are so superior to PCs) are not smiling anymore since the Mac is now victim to one of the most Lethal, invasive and contagious virus/worms of the last few years. Say hello to my little friend the Flashback Virus. Finally, someone who has a grudge against Macs had time enough to figure out some code! No, probably wasn't that guy. Still the reason for the spread of the virus amongst Mac Users is due primarily to all of those who took the Mac salesman at his word that the computers were in fact virus proof and did not install any antivirus software on their Macs. I wonder if that Salesman has left the western hemisphere by now?

Here's a shout out to all my "Words with Friends" friends or like I choose to call it "the game that got Baldwin banned from the Plane Game" You Know who you are (Kelli Danger) I am surprised that they will play with little old awesome me. (yep ego trip on my scores so far- I am going to enjoy it while it lasts). Then I guess I will have to send chocolates and flowers again to get them to play another round with me otherwise I will have to see what Alec is doing this week.

Speaking of friends like Kelli Danger (that's my fave name for her) I would like to that Manufactured Ganesh for passing along some very useful tips about spreading the word of what I am doing through Twitter and hopefully getting some real feedback on my writing attempts.


Write on, Tru Believers.

Tonight I will crack open the Black book of Quotes and share it's wisdom with all of you:

"Advice to young writers who want to get ahead without annoying delays: don't write about Man- write about man."
                                              E. B. White.

As it turns out...

Yes, as you might have suspected by now, I did not, in fact, go out for lunch but I did just use 3 commas and break a few grammatical clauses in there somewhere.

Thought for the Day:
"If life is like a bowl of Cherries, then why is it that I would rather have a bowl of Strawberries instead?"

We often make our lives more complex than they should be, we often fill them up with needless complications and baggage and garbage. We often worry ourselves with things we cannot solve, make right, or even maintain much less fix. We often run ourselves ragged and done to a frazzle so that no one will notice we did anything anyway.

Life is too short (they say) and things happen to fast to spend each day moving so fast that you cannot enjoy the moment as it presents itself to you.

Writing makes me stop and smell the roses, look at the clear skies and admire the birds in flight.

Another thought:

"We should have the patience of cats." (Terry Brooks in part for that one)

All good things come to those who wait:

"Festina lente" ["More haste, less speed"]--Augustus Caesar (1);

"If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come around to him"--Emerson (2).

"Everything comes if a man will only wait"--Disraeli (3).

"All things come round to him, who will but wait"--Longfellow (4).

  Serene, I fold my hands and wait,
  Nor care for wind, nor tide, nor sea;
  I rave no more 'gainst time or fate,
  For lo! my own shall come to me--Burroughs (5).


(yahoo answers)

A few good thoughts from more famous men than me.

So we should read a little more, live a little more and take long measured moments to consider before acting upon things.

My mother says that if this country would stop reacting and take action we would do better with the world around us.

I agree.

Living on a Schedule

How does anyone manage 6 blogs, an eBay business that is also a PC repair/service business (offline), work for a church 20 plus hours a week, volunteer at the KC Museum of Education, publish a book and find time to do the rest (admittedly less since I am single) which is housework/yardwork/feeding birds/caring for pets/helping my family?
I have no idea and am working to find a happy balance since time management seldom gets much attection and I tend to scramble from one to another activity.
Last night I found out that
A. My IBR had expired in February. IBR is Income Based Repayment on my $146,000 plus student loans (I am very educated and I borrowed much of what it cost to accomplish this. No, I would not recommend this course of college to anyone unless you are going to be wildly rich.). So this morning, 1 phone call to Direct Loans (Government) to sort that one out.
B. will have to wait up to 2 more weeks to sort out that citation I got, although upon the advice of a cousin (in law field) and a KPD policeman. I may go to court and plead no contest and ask for probation since I have no traffic record to speak of. ( 1 traffic cam ticket in what has since proved to be very doubtful that where was a violation in the first place).
C. Maybe I need to turn off my business PC at a given time at night. Imagine that?

Today I am taking myself out to lunch since I need to give myself a break before I tackle stripping 10 plus computers for parts or weed eating the yard. Probably I should get a goat....

Later.

How I write

I always wanted to say that. How I write?
Well, I mostly don't write as much as I should, finding time to shut off everything going on around me and find time to go away from all distractions and write is a lot harder than it seems when I think about it. I try to write as much as I can. If I can get up in the early morning I write then, or like tonight, I have the bug to write and write and now I will have to make my Superhero wait until I have eaten and finished the New York Times Crossword. If you are looking for an entry, it will come later tonight unless I wait for the morning. The next entry is a doosey (spelling?) since our intrepid hero must confront his new found "girlfriend" with the awful truth. Oh the Humanity!
Though I guess it would actually be- Oh the Superhumanity!
But I digress.
As to the rest- once the writing tap is turned it just pours out until its time to go read a book.
My mentor who helped me realize that this was what I was meant to do, would say: "Michael, writing is like breathing- you have to inhale to exhale, thus you must read to write. Reading is inhaling and writing is exhaling."

I miss that man. John Manchip White.

Now I got to go do some inhaling.

Later.

Last Night on My way Home...

Last night....
Was memorable to say the least. First, for some strange reason I took the Interstate from downtown Knoxville out towards East Town (misnomer-ed as Knox Center). Bad decision.
Let me say that I am a drive almost 99% by the book citizen. 99% of the time I am under or at the speed limit (I am seldom in a hurry anymore), use lights all the time, wear my seat belt, got my license and insurance and registration, etc. 1% I do go over the speed limit or (gasp) fail to use my indicator signal (blinker).
So naturally when I saw the flashing lights in front of me, I took notice. In my mind (I believe in real life) I changed to the middle lane, barely glanced at the police and drove on by, once past I shifted back into the right lane and continued. The next thing I realize is the flashing lights are right behind me. I know that I wasn't speeding or going too slow.
So I pull over get my wallet out and lay it on the passenger seat. I then place both of my hands on the steering wheel where I believe the officer can see them- and I wait. and wait.
I finally see the officer come walking up to the driver side door.
He speaks: "you will be able to better hear me if your window was rolled down."
without moving my hands I replied. "Officer, the window doesn't work, I will have to open the door."
(third car I have owned that the driver side window either stopped working or never worked).

I open the door.
The officer looks in and asks for my drivers license, proof of insurance and registration. My mind goes blank at the mention of registration.
(I haven't been pulled over since 2000, and I haven't been asked in my memory for registration before).
Anyway, I think where is the registration? Then I think in the glove compartment/cubby hole. I open the cubby hole and its full of invoices and brochures for mom's museum. I look at the mess and silently curse because I cannot remember where I put the registration.
(I have bad short term memory and not much better long term memory for things like this. I usually put the tag on the moment I get it in the mail and put the registration in the glove compartment).
I tell the officer that I am not sure that I can locate the registration (forgetting momentarily that I will probably get cited for it) He then asks if I know why I was pulled over.
He doesn't wait for an answer. He tells me that I failed to give way for a stopped emergency vehicle. This is a Knoxville City Ordinance- 1 of 180+ ordinances that until the last few years ago you had to physically go down to the courthouse to see- no they were not posted online or anywhere else (at least that has changed)
I tell the officer that I remember giving way and going into the center lane.
He informs me that I am wrong and that he was watching me.
I disagree but tell the officer I won't argue.
He asks me who the car is registered to and I tell him my mother's name. He departs and I sit there and wonder how I would get pulled for breaking an ordinance that I could swear (at that moment) I had instinctively obeyed.
(two things to note: It's 8:30pm and twilight leading to darkness. there is rapidly moving but fairly dense traffic on the Interstate.)
I sit there a moment, then drag out all the papers out of my glove compartment and start going through them. I find the registration right where it should have been if I had not dumped all the service invoices and brochures on top of it. I hold them up to indicate I have found them- but either the officer can't see them (which given the bright spotlight shining into my rear window I doubt that very much) or he is otherwise distracted.
Time passes and I replay my actions leading up to this.
( A thing to note: I have been pulled over by the police 4 times in my life before this outside of getting pulled by a police blockade doing spotchecks:
1: North Carolina 1989, I am driving to church one evening and my favorite hat falls off the passenger seat and I grab for it with one hand and the car goes with me. As luck would have it, there is a police officer right behind me. He comes up and asks me if I am okay and what happened. I tell him in embarrassment of my foolish reaction. He thanks me for my honesty and tells me to be more careful/alert in the future. He never asks for my license or anything else.
2. Knoxville, Kingston Pike outside Knox Plaza- Krogers. I have just left the store and a police officer pulls me over because I "had tossed a cigarette out my driver's side window. I take note that he is currently transporting a man in the back of his car. He insists on inspecting my entire car for contraband, cigarettes or anything else despite the fact that I inform him I don't even smoke- it is night time. He does not find anything and leaves me to drive somewhere and put my car back together. I have no memory of him asking for my DL or anything else.
3. Knox County, Roberts Road, 1998. A Officer who I believe was a State Trooper follows me for 2 miles at least until he pulls me over at 7:00 am in the morning (dawn) and informs me that I was driving with no lights on. I show him that the lights are on- on my dashboard and he checks my headlights. He scratches his head and informs me that my tail lights are out. He tells me to get them fixed that day. Bids me good morning and drives away. (the tail lights not my brake lights are not working- turns out I blew a fuse on the way home)
4. Knox County, Tazewell Pike, 2000. I am coming off graveyard shift and am very drowsy. I am trying to get to an open gas station to get some caffeine and food in hopes it will wake me up enough to get home. all the stations are closed out to Maloneyville Road. For some reason, pulling over and trying to sleep doesn't get through my brain muddle and finally I drift across the middle line (I had been weaving before this but not bad enough apparently for the Knox County Sheriff who was behind me to pull me over. I am in uniform of the UT Police Security when I roll down the window. I tell him that it was my mistake and a stupid thing for me to do. He nods and check my badge number and DL and then escorts me to the Weigels up the road.
and
No speeding tickets, nada).

After an Eternity of waiting (15 minutes go by) the officer returns with the citation and explains to me what I am to do with it- summons to court at 5:30 in a little over a months time, or I can go online and pay the fine. I tell him again as I hand him my registration, that I do not believe that I was where he says I was. He does not concede any ground but informs me that the City Police are "running a public awareness special" and people are being pulled (not warned, no but cited for this violation). I tell him I am sorry that I didn't locate the registration - he crosses out the citation for not having it. I tell him that I understand he has a hard job but, he stops me and tells me I can "subpoena the video of the traffic stop"- he is not clear how I am going to do that. I ask him how much the citation will be. He says he doesn't know, he doesn't have time for giving out that information while on a traffic stop.
We discuss briefly what the ordinance says for clearance. He points out that I am supposed to be one car lane over, I ask pointedly how soon before I reach the traffic stop am I supposed to  move over this lane. He responds at least one car length. I ask him how long after I pass the stop should I wait before pulling back over. He responds that I could pull back over immediately passed the stop. I pause and look at him, he doesn't get or want to get what I am suggesting.  I apologize again and he tells me to be careful pulling out since there are cars passing us in the right hand lane!

Irony.
While I sat there, in shock at being accused of doing something I could have sworn I didn't do. 14 cars passed us in the right hand lane, during and following the traffic stop. I took note as I pulled out there were no flashing lights for any of them- four of which were right in front of me, nor did the Officer move from where he had stopped me.

Now I must decide whether I am paying the $146.00 or so fine (not an exact amount) or going to court.
again, Irony- my violation has the same fine as speeding more than 25 miles above the speed limit.

to make matters worse.
I have two guys (I am assuming they were guys) cross the double line on the way home to speed around me. One on Corryton Rd. just past the stop sign at Emory and then again on Corryton-Luttrell rd.
I also manage to kill a possum that I could have probably stopped in time for if guy number one had not been so up on my bumper.

I know it is going to be a long time before I travel on the interstate again, comfortably.

Keeping it all straight

No it's not a sexual reference. Rather It's me struggling to find/produce new material for all these blogs. I mean I should be able to keep what poems I have published straight. Published. that has a very nice ring to it. Me happy, not particularly famous, but happier wise fool am I. It's funny (to me anyway) but I like a month that celebrates a day for fools. I say that because there are two types of fools in my book anyway. The Fools who know they are fools and the fools who have no clue that they are in fact fools.
"I pity the Fool."
thanks Mr. T.
The fool I mostly commonly reference is actually more like a jester, court wit or otherwise known as the "truthsayer." Reference the fool in King Lear if you don't get it. There is a great book called Fool by Christopher Moore (Foolish review) that pretty much sums up it for me.
I would rather be the fool then another brick in the wall and I will if only I can keep this all straight in my head and world.
Now I must go off and annoy a king some where else.

Belief and Factual believing

My brother (who is world famous) once posted that scientists have learned that fact and belief come from the same place in our brain. Thus one could argue that fact and belief are (in fact) the same thing. In my experience (which is not as vast as many who argue one way or another) We all have to belief in something (individually, groups, religions, scientific communities, etc) before we can agree that it is "real" or a "Fact" (which ironically is supposed to be something that is proven) [through a series of tests that that particular group has agreed will qualify the belief in question as real/factual.] 
The most important thing/feature/idea to recognize is that everything that we experience as life and surroundings is (in fact) interpreted through most of our five senses, albeit sight, hearing and touch tend to be used by most. Our brains then interpret what we see and hear (and the other senses too) and decides on what that input means to us and how much it matters to us. I believe that there is a chair in the middle of my bedroom. I can utilize all of my senses to determine that it is there and that it is what the dictionary defines as a chair. I can go out and get 13 (I like that number) other people and bring them into my bedroom and ask them to check the definition of chair and then test prove its existence via the 5 senses we all share (hopefully for the sake of this argument). If we all agree that the object is (in fact) a chair by the definition in the dictionary. the 14 of us can logically declare that the object is in fact a chair. Then we can play a rather ridiculous game of musical chair with a spot of tea (assuming everyone likes tea).
this is how the human race largely determines the things around us and in us and so on and so forth. People either forget that or never think much about it. I would daresay (and I try not to generalize) that most people take it for granted since their parents and teachers and friends and whoever else came up the street because they said so and that is always easier than arguing. Leave the arguing for more important things like coke or pepsi, chevy or ford, tastes great or less filling, god or no god, democrat or republican


chicken or the egg. Ironically it really only matters to the individual, When your child asks- you can go with the flow or you can gently tell them the truth as you know it or believe it (its semantics mostly) "it is up to you, Mikey." We all at some point want to let someone else tell us what is real, what to believe, where/what/how/why to shop/goto church/school (the list goes on). You could say it is in our human nature to do so. (Otherwise the term Masses would be meaningless I suspect). The only constant I CHOOSE to accept is that it is up to me to decide what to believe in, who to believe in, and what I am going to do about it. It would be a perfect world (more perfect) if everyone would do this. and then the birds would sing, generalization would cease to exist as would much of the human condition would to and the world would stop dead and we might all float out into space (assuming what kind of definition of gravity you choose to believe in/accept).


to sum up: Words, words, words, that is the matter upon which we discuss.




Quote for the day: Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Read more athttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/martinluth101472.html#CLYVwXEr1Iw6lzP8.99

Easter. Yes Easter Sunday

You ever been at church and the fire alarm goes off and off and off and off and off because the thurifer dropped a little too much frankincense in the thurible  and by the Gospel there is a sheen of smoke covering most of the Cathedral?
The Thurifer doesn't seem to understand Why I would be upset. He thinks he's the one with the smoking pot on a chain (sounds suspicious) and I am not. No, I am the lucky guy who sits up above the masses in the sound booth right next to- (wait for it) the fire alarm. Yes, Virginia this Mike has a ringing in my right ear.
These are the many joys of being in a traditional Episcopal church on Easter Sunday.
Can we get a amen here and tell the sexton to watch for the firetrucks. No one wants them to try putting out our "fire" and take out any one of several hundred Lillies in the Church.
Did I mention I have allergies and sinus problems.
No?
Imagine thousands of Lillies and add Frankincense smog to the mix.
Now add a priest with good timing and a sense of humor that defies the obvious and can make most of it go away.
Thank God for Thom.

today is a Neil Diamond Dog Day

I reorganized the writing studio so I could look out of the window as I write this blog and think about all the stories I am trying to tell (mostly to myself). Am I spread to thin? Probably.
Am I going to quit. No.
I am dedicated to this course of action even if I write alone and no one but the spammers and scammers ever read my stuff. At least one day I can take all this and force and agent and a publishing minion to have to read it.
I know it might seem egotistic of me but I know I am a damn good writer and I have stories and words that no one has put together in this kind of way before.
The Beast and and his steward continue to make their ways back into my life. I have a lot of a book there- when ever I do get the time to transcribe and rewrite it. Then there is Nemesis and his satire of being a superhero, never mind, Natalie and Dan's love story, Vanessa and Quest, and even the University Smurfs that all want a piece of me each day.
So I rededicate myself to my art and writing. I will write and post and as long as someone does eventually discover my small corner of the Internet then perhaps I will find some company as my characters go on to find voices for their stories.

how my life could be a song from Tangled

I know I am one of those strange guys you never meet on the subway or L train or E-train. Mostly since I don't live where there are any of those trains. I get up in the morning and the first thought that goes through my head is "boy I would like to sing." (I can barely sing by most standards) and Tangled comes to mind immediately. Rapunzel sings about her daily chores while waiting for her life to begin. Mine has already begun. I might even be near the middle of it. It's a refreshing feeling, especially since if and almost decidely when I do burst into song, the only complains I get are from the Squirrels busy stuffing their cute little faces with my bird seed.
I live in the country.
Me, my mother, my cat and my dog and a bunch of birds and squirrels -which as you know are voracious eaters and pretty grumpy otherwise. But hang around and I will introduce you to Huey, Louey and Dewey- the raccoons and their wide eyed "not me" eating routine.
Now what makes me different than good ol' "long and blondie" is that I usually feel like singing when I get awesome tech like this morning. This morning I got my Logitech K360 keyboards with unifying receiver.
I immediately burst into mental song and "danced" up stairs to install it on this very computer. Note: I said mental song- I can really jam when I sing inside my head. and the dog doesn't howl quite as much. She does look confused when I insist on dancing though.
So there you have it.
Life according to Mike.
see you tomorrow.

Don't forget to check out my other blogs to see what everyone else is doing today.

Mike

April 1st reflections in a dirty mirror

Well today was epic failure day.  For the first  time in 8 years of recording,  we are short half of the  Sunday service, since the  capture stalled for some reason 30 seconds in and I did not relaize it until the middle  of the gospel. So I have  hlaf of the Palm Sunday service and- it  gets better neither the Guild leader who sets up  the CG and  (starts the recordings)  nor the Director of the Video Crew nor lil' old me remembered  to start the back up  recording. So we're  screwed.
I am embarassed.
I am shegrinned
yes I  feel like a fool so today will  have special meaning across the board for me!
Yay me. and the fancy footwork I will have to pull  off to get out of this one.