I Am the Great American Author

So I recently discovered and bought into something that I feel will be beneficial to what I need to be doing, at least it will get me on track. I have signed up for and plan to participate in the 2006 NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writer's Month. Its basically an event designed to get all the would be novelists off their lazy asses and get them writing the novel they've been putting off forever. Basically, the challenge is to write a 50,000 word novel in one month's time. 50,000 words is about 175 pages-- a mass of which I have never even begun to tackle. This amounts to about 6 full pages a day. I can handle that, I think. To prepare, I am going to begin finding interseting characters and locations I would like to see. I am hopefully going to find out what kind of genre it will be. I am going to stray from SciFi, but I can't promise it won't have SciFi elements in it. I imagine it will be rather humourous and rather dark, as is my style. Hopefully, I will be able to love whatever story I tell, no matter how trite or mundane it may be. This is a challenge just to see if I can do it, and who knows what the results will be. Personally, I am very excited to have the desire and drive to get this going, and it could very well lead to something very beautiful in the long run. You don't know until you try, write?

Community Bike

The site is live, and I suggest you freaking make it a bookmark, or better yet, your homepage!

Here you go, Chumley!

www.communitybike.com

A Type 1 Survival Curve

Please.

In the figuring out of it all, I have not made the steps I said I going to make to get what I want. There have been too many excuses and snags, but every day I really do feel older and yet farther away from who and where I want to be. I have a decent job, I have a wonderful gal, I have super friends, I am not starving, and I am for the most part healthy. However, there is so much more that I want from myself, just because I know I am capable of it. I want to find my calling, and how to utilize the things that I do well. My Level 3L class started last night, and I felt so confident and wonderful about what I was doing and telling my students. It was almost if a different part of me took over. It felt so effortless, despite my lack of preparation. One kid in there, who was inexperienced but driven, told me after the class: "You have a great way of 'yes-and-ing' people in what you say." I asked for more clarification, but he simply was praising me for making him feel comfortable and right in what he was doing. That felt amazing to me, it was basically him telling me "You teach me well." That in itself felt so powerful and satisfying that it put me in a wonderful mood. Also, my roommate told me recently that I am a great "idea" guy. Which I took to mean that I have great ideas and notions. I agree with him, but I also sense that it might be one of my biggest problems. I am wonderful with coming up with ideas and beginnings, and hell, even adding to things that are already established--manipulation, expansion, that sort of thing. But the execution and follow through are the moments that I get lost. I chose to concentrate my life in a creative field, and now is the time to deliver. There is more I can be doing, more I want to do before I can be complacent. So, forces that be, I hope that you'll grant me the sanity and patience it will take to get involved with my life and my career.

Please.

Tomorrow, Eat Something Healthy

For those of you not in my immediate vicinity of Carrboro and surrounding areas, you might be wondering where Ihave been the past few days and what has been going on with me. Well, I'll be glad to tell you. Keep in mind that this is the abridged version of my story, and I plan to write a more in depth version at some point but for now, this is what you're going to get.

Saturday night I had a bit of a stomach ache, but I dismissed it as gas as I have been having recently and I fought through it. By midnight, I was doubled over in pain. I took some pepto and gas-x and hit the sack, hoping to feel better the next day. Unfortunately, better is far from what I felt. I skipped rehearsal because of the pain and my sweet girlfriend came by to bring me soup and crackers. When I couldn't even finish the soup, I knew it was time to do something. Callie took me to the clinic, but they couldn't do anything for me because of the severity of my pain--so they sent me to the Duke ER. By the time I got there, I think Imay have been in more pain than I have ever been in. It felt as though I had been kicked in the balls several times and kneed in the stomach to boot. I explained my problems to the nurse and docs, and no one quite knew what seemed to be going on. Needless to say, I had lots of uncomfortable tests run on me, the details of which I will spare you. After a CT scan and a few more hours of waiting in anguish, the doctors finally decided to admit me to the hospital. What had been decided was that I had developed something called Diverticulitis. Basically I have bubbles on my intestines that have become inflamed and infected. Strangely, this sort of thing doesn't happen to people my age. So, because of my heredity, lucky me. What followed were 3 of the most grueling, awful, painful days of my entire life. I was prodded, poked, pressed, and pumped full of fluid. I had no rest or knowledge of how to get better. I was finally allowed to come home yesterday, but on strict restrictions. I have not eaten anything for the past 4 days, and I won't be eating anything for the next 5. I had been hoping to lose a little weight, but this is not quite what I had imagined. So, I am ecstatic to be home, but I am still going to be medicsated and in a lot of pain for quite some time. Hopefully, after I improve my diet and get in great shape, this is something I won't have happen again. It has definitely been an eye opening experience for me and will force me to make some positive lifestyle changes. I urge you to do the same, readers, and eat healthy whole foods as to not ruin your fragile intestines.

Names from my Spambox of people whom I wish were actually my friends (and what their jobs might be)

Miles Coldiron – small claims attorney
Balthasar Duryea – sculptor
Razvan Boan – wedding planner
Dunstan Krouse – best boy grip
Zarita Hagood – bric-a-brac store owner
Jesus Mason – general contractor
Ned Merritt – sales
Mai Hand – masseuse
Tacito Boll - bandit
Polly Diaz – folk musician
Darnell Sparks – bouncer
Wolfram Donegan – sous chef
Jozy Anderson – stand-up comedian
Flip Dunkin – short order cook
Fifi Villanueva – spy
Ridiculousness J. Boat - chocolatier
Rich Insane Guy – rich insane guy