No post today.  Sorry all.

About a year ago – I heard of a sci-fi show called “Continuum“. I liked the premise (time travel and crime drama are beloved genres) and I scoured iTunes, Amazon Prime and other sources, but came up empty. I figured that at some point it would hit some Internet site, so I could be patient. Now, I don’t have to be patient. Sci-Fi (don’t correct me) has the show in their lineup and I like it. I have finished watching the first episode. Except for the music at the end (a disturbing trend), this is a great series so far. Yes – I have a slight bias for time travel and against Sci-Fi. Thankfully, they are not producing the show – that would be our friends in the Great North. Maybe this will be the time for the channel to turn itself around. Wait – they’re owned by Universal. Well, there is always hope.

Speaking of hope – I am going to get back to finishing the re-writes for the first novel. Last night, I had a headache all day and I just wanted to go to bed. What’s unusual is that I went to bed right when I got home from work… and that today is the release day for the last of the Borderlands DLC (which doesn’t raise the level cap from 50 – boo). So, I went right to bed, had some weird dreams and woke up this morning after ignoring my alarms. Hopefully, there will be no more headaches and I can get back to it after work today. I’m still trying to work on some plots for erotic novels (play for pay, as it were), but so far I have nothing to show for it so far. Maybe today I can get some inspiration… or a nap. It’s still chilly out here, so it’s good hibernation weather as far as I am concerned.

From hibernation to rushing – I gotta shower and get ready for work. Sorry this is so shirt.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy

OK – I am now a fan of Death Wish coffee. Well… maybe fan is not the exact word. Maybe… addicted is a better word. I can see why they have a subscription service. I can also see myself clicking on the ‘order now’ button and asking why it’s not materializing on my doorstep. However – I’ll order the five pound bag and see how long that will last me. Maybe a couple of weeks or more… or so I hope. I have my Art Bell (broadcast from December 28^th, 2002 – talking about the invasion of Iraq) and I have my coffee. I am content for now.

I am going through the final steps of re-writing the first novel and hope to get a little more done this weekend after the writer’s meeting. Once that’s done, I have a couple of people who are willing to read it (pray for their immortal souls). When I get their feedback, I’ll start to get the cover art together and hopefully, I can get it out there by the end of March along with I/O Error. All in all – I want to have something done by the end of the first quarter. That’s going to be my yardstick – something done every quarter-year and moving forward. After I/O Error I am going to work on Valentina’s Feast to change up things. After that one, I will start to work on Spooksayer and get the tent pole series up and running. This is going to be the year I get off the ground. I may be flapping furiously, but I will not touch the ground for a while – and hopefully not at all.

I watched the movie Dredd Saturday (my reward for re-writing) and I have to say that it’s a good popcorn movie. I wouldn’t go into this movie anticipating any weighty questions about existence or the human condition (unless your question is: ‘how many bullets will it take to obliterate a floor of slum-like apartments?’ The answer: a lot). Karl Urban is the best choice for Dredd – he looks like the comic book character and from what I have read, he is the perfect fit. I hope there will be a sequel at some point. Sure – it was a violent movie, but it was a well put together violent flick. Now I am watching one of my favorite episodes of the new Dr. Who series (the recent series): “The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit”. I love the Lovecraftian references and to be honest – Billie Piper is not all that hard to look at during this period. ;D Art Bell, Dr. Who and Lovecraft – could this little humble shack get any geekier? Only if I wasn’t allergic to cats, then I could claim that this is the geekiest house in Kentucky.

Well – I am off to get more coffee, watch this episode and stay awake. Even now, I can feel the caffeine from my coffee starting to work its way out of my system. Oh, dear. Time for cup number two.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Good Morning, all! While I am not paid to shill products or people (fingers crossed!), I will recommend two things to you:

One – I am a fan of the old Art Bell show (not Coast to Coast – Gawd that show is a far cry from what it was) and I was lucky enough to find some old shows on .mp3 when WinMX was working. I was able to get a streaming audio player (pro version of xiialive for free from Amazon!) and I was just poking about. For a lark, I typed in ‘Art Bell’ and I figured I would get a stream cast of Coast to Coast. Imagine my joy when Fine Art: The Essential Art Bell came up on the list. It jumps about during Art Bell’s tenure on his show. Today, I caught the last part of his show on September 11, 2001 and now I am listening to the show from April 2, 2005 – it does jump around, but hey – it’s Art Bell. If you’re a fan of EVPs, conspiracies and what would be called ‘fringe news’, this is the site to go to and bookmark to burn away the hours at work… y’know… instead of working. Did I mention how much I love my Kindle Fire? I really do love this little thing. I’ll also recommend the Xiia Live Pro for your Android device. It’s very easy to use and set up – come with a timer and even an alarm to wake up to you favorite stream. Note: since I cannot determine what particular episode will play, I don’t want to run the risk of an early morning heart attack because they decided to play one of Art Bell EVP episodes.

Now – on to books. I am currently reading Rule 34
by Charles Stross and this is one of the better cyberpunk books I’ve read so far. This one takes the current mercenary model of the Internet and extrapolates it about one hundred years into the future with some brilliantly funny lines. While I like cyberpunk, I am in love with this particular book. You should have a little bit of knowledge of Internet memes – particularly what Rule 34 is, but you can pick up what’s what by reading in context. This is also in interesting read as it’s written in second person (you
instead of I or he/she/it), so it is a little more immersive than the usual novel. The various characters are well thought out and very dissimilar in their voice. I am about a third of the way through the novel (Thank God for slow hours) and it is very enjoyable. I am going to search out more of Charles Stross and definitely put into my favorite cyberpunk authors (which now numbers 2) list.

If anyone interested – I have had no dream to report of today. Hopefully, this means no more being chased by weird robots, or silly string horrors and spooky women… at least in my sleeping hours. I will not make any such guarantees as to my waking life.

Have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – the dreams are getting weirder and weirder… this one now has me eating tubes that look like hard plastic models of intestines and being concerned what I’m eating. I don’t know what to make of this particular one, but I’m hoping that it’s just another phase of sleeping. I’ll have some intense dreams and they’ll peter off for a few months and I can go back to having just a normal sleep cycle. I also woke up this morning to a headache which was easily taken care of with a couple of aspirin. On the brighter side – I had biscuits and gravy! The best breakfast in the morning is Hawaiian Rolls and sausage gravy – especially in the cold Louisville mornings. Wait – did I just complain about the cold? I must be getting old.

I/O Error has entered into the ‘dribbles and drabs’ phase of the writing relationship, so if I get a thousand words today, it will be a miracle. I used to get frustrated over this part. Now, I just let it go and keep on going. As long as I am putting words on the page, I am moving forward and getting the book done. That’s all that matters in the end. Well – that and getting the Hugo… and the Nebula… and a Stoker and a Poe while we’re thinking about it. As long as I keep my expectations realistic, I should do fine. J

I just watched the premiere of Deception. The deception is that this is a show worth watching. So far, everything in it is predictable: rich, corrupt family, poor little rich girls, and the return of the prodigal friend. Broadcast TV (in my humble opinion) is producing good shows few and far, far between that don’t seem to keep up the quality for very long (Fox – I’m looking at you). I can understand that they are having problems in getting good writers to commit when cable TV (especially the premium channels) can come along and make a more substantial offer. Now, am I saying that cable TV is an oasis of entertainment? Heck, no – SyFy and the other Universal channels continue to take the Aldi’s approach to TV regardless of what the fans say. So far, FX has some of the best shows so far: Sons of Anarchy, American Horror Story: Asylum and the upcoming The Americans. If you want to low brow it – there’s Wilfred and Anger Management. What do the big studios need to do in order to get eyes back on them? Short answer? Attract the talent. Longer answer: wave the money under the nose of the writer (… and fellas, I am competitively cheap) and be willing to take some risks. Yes – there are people who are going to have their feathers ruffled, so screw them. There is no such thing as bad publicity. If you get a good product out there, the money will come. Ask HBO and FX.

Well, I am off to scrub off the funk of the night before.
Have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Like a lot of the dreams I have, I can only remember bits and pieces I have, but what I can remember is kind of scary to me:

I was on a college campus (a specific college, but one I will not name for it deserves no attention) in a small town in the Carolinas and things were going along nicely. I was getting good grades in the classes, I had friends and everything was going along swimmingly… until it didn’t. Friends acted alien towards me, classes were beginning to slip and I noticed a small robot – the best way to describe it is to take Johnny 5, reduce him to an upper torso and give him a three foot long extension 45 degrees off his long axis. No matter where I went, this robot was always close by, trying to crawl towards me and I didn’t seem to like the idea. Whenever I told people about this robot, I would get the standard reply: ‘it’s not a problem to us. Why are you letting it be a problem to you?’ or even a downright denial of its existence. I ask my friends for help or advise and all I get is: ‘let it touch you and see what happens’. So I decide to take matters into my own hands and try to video it moving towards me. I take a flimsy laptop (I have no idea why I wouldn’t have my phone, or… I don’t know… a real camera with me at this point) and I wait for it to find me. While I’m waiting, I am getting everything set up on the laptop. Apparently, the camera function on this laptop needs to be registered.

The robot arrives with a new little skill: it can thrust itself into the air and drop down a few yards closer. Of course, as it demonstrates this new talent, I am still trying to get set up on the camera and it’s asking the most inane questions (“What sort of photography will you be taking? Please choose one of the offered styles: 1) business 2) pleasure 3) surreal 4) erotic 5) family”). As I say that this is a flimsy laptop, I mean that I have to use two hands to operate this thing: one to type in the answers (“In order to secure your password, you will need to create a key phrase. A key phrase is one that only you would know. Please submit a phrase that is no less than three words and no more than seven.”) and another to keep the screen and the keyboard from coming apart (a note of historical accuracy: my very first laptop – also my first computer – was like this: in order to see the screen, I had to lean it against something to keep it from breaking off). As I am trying to get this camera working on this crumbling laptop (“What you entered is an impolite phrase. Please re-type a phrase that is more family friendly.”), the robot is getting closer and looking a lot more menacing at me.

Then I wake up – an hour before my alarm goes off. I roll over on my bed and go back to sleep.

Well, time to go to work (speaking of menacing robots). Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Seriously, just waking up and there was nothing interesting going on last night, no weird dreams, no sit upright in bed and shout ‘Eureka!’ moment for me. Just a humdrum evening followed by a (hopefully) another humdrum day. Since I finally got paid, I got the program for my Fire so I can do a little word processing when things get slow. Now, having done this – it is never going to get slow at work. I know – that’s a hard thing to think of, but that’s how my luck runs sometimes. That reminds me: I need to get my hands on Halo 4 on my next paycheck and possibly pre-order Bioshock: Infinite – assuming that they’re going to stick to a release date, and then try to get that release date and the following day off to play it almost non-stop. If you’re looking for a game that transcends the idea of being an amusement and delves into story-telling – the Bioshock series is the way to go. Where else can you learn about Objectivism and shoot bees out of your hand?

I/O Error – speaking of stories – is plodding along. I did do a little bit last night and ended up cutting down a wall of text or two. I am getting ready to work on the next major scene with Nate and Gail coming to polite, robotic blows over Gail’s perceived insanity (or should I say ‘unquiet’?). I’m hoping to get more done on the weekend and maybe even close out a chapter or two. I am still committed to the idea of finishing the whole novel by the end of March. If I can afford the editor at that point (and I do have one in mind) I would like to get that done first and save back some more cash for a suitable artist. If all goes well, I will have it out on Amazon and other platforms by the middle of the year. My goal is to finish the rough draft of a novel every quarter, and put out two finished products a year. Ambitious? Yes, but it will get me out of my current situation. Going back to the whole word processor in my Fire thing, I am going to start serializing After
Ever next month. I’ll work on the outline late Saturdays and get started on the first two episodes since they are waiting to be put down in my head. I’m still going to script them out for fun, but I should really start to get things out there to get paid.

Football is winding down – four wild card games to be played and I am rooting for… none of them really. My team won their last three games but it was way too little way too late. At least they’ll get a good view of the play-offs from their couch. Must be nice.

Well, I am off to get some lunch and a shower. Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I am in somewhat of a better mood today – and by better, I mean I am not looking to throw myself off a rooftop. I can deal with the slight soreness in my shoulders and the itching of a growing beard (which I should shave off soon) as long as I have my special drink. I am going to get a new coffee-maker so I can have something warm to drink without having to use up my Starbucks card… which I need to refill soon anyway. Yes, I am an addict and I feel fine, thank you.

I am going to get back into I/O Error today (maybe after lunch if I have time, if not then at work after I get the Office app for my Kindle – which I will get as soon as my work deigns to pay me) and work to the goal of getting the rough draft finished by the end of March. After that, it’s going to be a novel a business quarter. I am also going to start shoving aside money to pay for editors and artists. My big goal is to have at least one finished, edited and arted-up book by the end of the year. Obviously, I am going to shoot for more than that, but one will suffice. I’m still trying to come up with an idea for an erotic novel – this is turning into something a little harder than what I had anticipated. The end and the middle of the novel would be no problem: ‘… and they have sex’ and ‘… and they have hot, kinky sex’ respectively. I guess I’m trying to wedge sex into a plot like trying to hammer in a square peg into a round hole. I should be doing the opposite – have a regular plot and look for opportunities to have sex (much like real life, but have a higher success rate). I am going to just throwing out something into the notebook and see what grows. Maybe I can recycle an old ff plot – if I do that, then I know what I should use.

Right now, as far as reading goes – I’ve finished The Last Mythal series by Richard Baker. If you’re a fan of the old Forgotten Realms books from the Hallowed Era of TSR, then you’ll like this. Personally, I like the older books, but they are getting hard to find. I’m guessing that Wizards is trying their damnest to sweep the legacy of TSR under the rug. I am also in the middle of the book Tears in Rain, which is pretty much the spiritual successor to Blade Runner and a darn good read. After this, I am going to read a book that I got for free called Drowning
Ophelia. Did I mention that I love my Kindle? It’s nice to be able to pick up free books – gives me the chance to read genres that I normally wouldn’t get into.

Well, I need to shower and shout at my bank for a few minutes. I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

If you will allow me, I am going to give you a little glimpse into what I expect for today. As you know, yesterday was New Year’s Day and a holiday for most people – not me, however. I still had to go into work. I took ten calls in 8 hours. I normally take ten calls in two hours on a busy day. I expect today to be very busy because now we’re getting people who wanted to call in yesterday and the people who would call in today. Yeah. Today is going to be a big day. Bleh. I just don’t feel right today. I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel like I could crawl back into bed and sleep for another two weeks.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ll do much else today. Not even on this blog. Sorry, all – I am just feeling bleh.

More tomorrow, I promise.

… and it’s twenty minutes. Good luck for all of you playing at home.

Now that 2013 has come and 2012 has gone with nary a Zombie Apocalypse to be seen, we can all buckle down and concentrate on what’s important… which I have no idea what that is anymore. The news tells me that we’re going over the financial cliff, but so far no one has run by the house and yelled that the banks are out of money. So, I will remain cautiously optimistic for this year… well, for at least the next hour.

The holiday season is pretty much over (I don’t include Valentine’s Day), I can get back to the blog and back to I/O Error. My goal (not a resolution – resolutions get dropped) is to get the novel finished by the end of March and get back to trying to finish a novel a quarter – which means I am now going to start writing every day at least 2,000 words. So, I’ll have to sandwich in some writing time in between the playoffs – something that Mr. Martin and I might have in common (it certainly isn’t football teams). Good news for me – my team didn’t make it, so it’s probably going to be a little easier to ignore the commentary until the Super Bowl in February (or is it going to be in March? Is it just me, or does it seem to happen later and later every year?). As far as what’s going on in I/O Error, we’ve met the Spooky Sisters and they’ve made their demands. All that I need to do now is show them making good on their threats – which is going to be fun for me. After this is finished, I am going to get onto the next project of Valentina’s Feast – I want to get all the one-shots done before I start working on long term series. Which means it’s going to be Valentina’s Feast followed by Bestial, Zeno’s Calendar and Graphic Love which should take me into next year and hopefully out of here before then.

There is really little else to report here. I had the Horror Movie marathon and out of the three new films, Drag Me to Hell was the scariest and 1408 was the most underwhelming. Population: 436 gets the ‘most wanted to have a twist ending’ award. I think next year is going to be an all J-Horror movie festival. I was kinda disappointed in the movies this year, but I’m sure that there will be better movies coming down the road for next year. As far as movies in the theatre go – I’m going to go see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Skyfall Saturday. Did I mention that I finally got a Blu-Ray player? Yep – and got the Lord of the Rings trilogy, so my Easter tradition is going to get a glorious new re-vamping.

Well, I need to get out of here and get back to I/O Error. I hope that everyone has a great New Year’s Day and a prosperous New Year.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy